She casts Light on a page of notes, hands it to Jadon, and goes inside.

The woman in this house was not especially expecting anyone! She freezes in the middle of making lunch, and looks Victòria up and down a moment while trying to determine whether this person is in any way affiliated with the government or dangerous to kick out of her house.

"—I'm sorry, I can leave if you don't want me here — I heard you were looking for a Calistrian—"

"A Calistrian? I - what have you heard -"

"Just that Delegate Ventura's brother hurt you very badly, and that he might come back — I don't know what he actually did—" She has guesses, obviously, but Evil nobles keep coming up with new ways to be awful—

"The nobleman? I didn't - he killed my husband," she says, because that part is at least not complicated. "He asked to be let in, and it was raining, so I -"

That's — even worse than she was expecting, honestly—

Her chest is blazing with hot fire. Her head is pounding with urgency. She wants him dead, she wants to track him down and twist her dagger into him and watch him slowly bleed out — only he's a nobleman in Westcrown, which means he's almost certainly a delegate, which means the archmages will just bring him back unless they know why he deserves to die — and it would be worth dying to kill him if it worked, but not if he just comes back—

—she's pretty sure that's what petitioning the Queen is for, like Feliu said, if she can only figure out what to say? The Queen is Good, she won't want her nobles going around murdering innocent people — probably she needs to know more about what happened to write the letter properly—

"—it was wrong for him to do that," she says, in case it helps. "I — do you have somewhere safe to go — I can pay for you to stay at an inn until he's been dealt with, or see if one of the temples will let you sleep there—" She probably wouldn't have thought of that if not for Alicia but it's clearly a good idea.

She glances around; she hadn't considered leaving. "Do you think he'll come back?"

"I don't know. His brother thought he might, and — it's safer not to risk it, right—"

"Well, if anywhere else is safe either. The whole city is full of them."

"I know. My friend who's a priestess thought the temples'd be safe, even the Evil nobles don't want to walk into a temple and kill someone, but I don't know if she's right. I figure — even if they're not, at least he won't know where to find you — but it's up to you, I'm not going to make you."

...it's a decent point, but she doesn't trust this woman, either. But she can always leave and go somewhere else.

"I don't know, maybe. I don't need any money."

Nod. "—is there anything else you need right away? There doesn't have to be, if you want me to — leave you alone and just make sure he's dealt with — I can do that, but — if there's something you need, or even if you just want to tell someone what happened—"

"I don't want to get in any trouble." Although - if his brother is involved then she's already been noticed, everyone important must already know about what happened, there's no way to stay under their notice now. Now she's questioning her decision not to ask for money. No, still better not to make them angry. "I don't see what anyone would do. I - I did hear that they brought all the delegates back, after the riots. I don't - we're not important, but - I suppose if someone wanted to make it right, that would do it. Though he probably wouldn't even come back, I never got the chance to explain what happened -"

Nod. "—did you want to — want to explain, I mean—"

"I mean, I -" She doesn't remember it very clearly, actually, why she let him inside in the first place, or what she was thinking before he killed her husband. "I let him in because it was raining. And then he wanted to - my husband came in and, and found him in bed with me, and I don't - I honestly couldn't tell you if he was angry, because - he just - the nobleman, I mean, he just took his sword out and cut his head off, like it was nothing, like he didn't even have to think about it, he didn't even say anything -"

He needs to die die die—

"He — he shouldn't have done that to you either," she says, which is probably a stupid thing to say, only she doesn't know what wouldn't be. It would've helped when she was thirteen, probably, but it's not like anyone is asking this woman to pretend that it was right for him to do that. "I — was there anything else you wanted to tell me—"

She shrugs. It seems very unlikely that anything useful will happen. Maybe, at best, the brother will bribe her to do some sort of damage to the man. Or maybe he means to kill her to cover it up, and she should leave her home. She should almost definitely leave her home.

"Okay. I — he won't get away with this."

If the woman doesn't look inclined to say anything else, she's going to leave.

"Were you able to help?"

"I — am going to do my best. Who... is... your brother?"

"Juan Ventura, the duke of Gandia. He sits with the nobles in the convention and is usually drunk outside it - sometimes inside it too - and he's a worse person than almost anyone I know, probably not as evil as an Asmodean, but I don't know any of those."

Nod. "We should — hurry back, probably, lunch is going to be over soon — I'm glad you came to me about him."

"Yes, we should.

...Be careful. Juan is dangerous."

She is not actually planning to kill him personally, probably, but it's still good to be aware of that. She nods.