"He has COLORS? My lion was ALL WHITE because that was the ONLY paint we had."

"He's got every single color there is and if he's missing one he will teach you to mix them! Your lion can be rainbow if you want!"

"RAINBOW LION!!!!"

"RAINBOW LION!" agrees Laia, and she opens the door. "Ma'am, do you need help affording a Prestidigitation housecall for your wall?"

"—Yes, that would be much appreciated."

"If you'll wait here about half an hour there's a wizard who comes by for evening services and to copy things for us, and I just bet I can convince her to go help you out."

"Of course, ma'am, I appreciate the help."

"That's my job!" And she steers the little one toward Gabriel.

"HI GABRIEL! I'm SARA!"

"Hi Sara! Let me guess: you want to paint!"

"YES! She said I could paint a RAINBOW LION!"

"Ooooh, I know exactly where one of those should go." This way!

Follow follow!

The next person who arrives for counseling appears to be a man in his early twenties. He stops in the sanctuary, closes his eyes briefly in prayer, and then heads for the meeting room.

(If anyone is checking, he's under a Disguise Self.)

She's not checking! "Oh hello there! Welcome to the temple of Shelyn!"

"Hello, ma'am. Are you the Songbird who does counseling?"

"This time of day yes I am!"

This is frankly terrifying but he isn't going to show it. It's not like she can do anything worse than damnation.

"I was wondering what Shelyn says about repenting of things that are — crimes."

"Hmmmmmm." She shuts the door. "Well. Shelyn's not Lawful, and not every law is about helping people be Good. Still... a lot of them are. One thing I worry about a lot is that Asmodeus used to pit Law against love and sometimes Law won, and sometimes it's still putting up a heck of a fight even now - people reporting their families and friends, that kind of thing. I don't know that there's ever a perfect answer. If you want to tell me more about it we can try to figure out together if there's an okay answer."

"Let's say there was someone who did something — Evil and Lawless — the sort of thing that takes a very long time to ever make up for. And if they turned themself in they'd hang for it and be damned. And they wanted to know what to do."

Nod nod. "So, this would have to be after the amnesty, but if it wasn't then there's your good news, the Queen amnestied all crimes before her accession. If it was after... well, if this person lives here in Westcrown, there's a Final Blade here. But of course I'd hope and Shelyn would hope they could do better than that if there's any way it could happen. There's so many wonderful places people can go if only they can be sure they're not going to one of the bad ones! And it's so hard to be sure, and it must be so terrifying, to choose hanging if you aren't totally sure..."

Nod. "The Pharasmins say it's wrong to use the Final Blade. Or sometimes that it doesn't make a difference, that all souls will end up at Judgment eventually."

"Forever's a long time. But if I thought I was bound for Hell I'd certainly rather spend a thousand years in a blade than in Hell! There's no need to give the devils a head start. I don't think it's Evil at all if you need it. Still - better not to need it. Better to spend those thousand years frolicking in Nirvana or wherever your heart's calling you."

Nod nod nod.

"There's a spell called Atonement, for people who've done something that pulled them too far from their purpose. If I went around doing evil things so Shelyn couldn't reach me any more, and then I found somebody who could cast Atonement for me, I'd get my magic back right away. But if I had a little time, to pray and think - you can do the same thing without the spell."