"We know of no such plans. Now, as I am sure you will agree is only fair, we'd like to cast our truth magic on you, to verify the extent of Valdemar's complicity in kidnapping, enslaving and soul-robbing our people."

"- I'm not sure I would agree that that's fair, actually? For one, we didn't at the time - and still don't, in fact - have any kind of formal agreement with Cheliax about what's reasonable to do with foreign soldiers when their country is attacking our ally. I'm also...still honestly very confused about what 'soul-robbing' is even supposed to mean." 

"In Golarion," he says, with the exaggerated patience of someone teaching a five year old, "there is no crime more grave than to alter the fate of the immortal soul of someone in your custody against their will - forcibly condemning them to an afterlife they didn't choose, or coercing them into the sale of their soul, or, though it rarely comes up, simply claiming it outright as an exercise of force. It is an atrocity without comparison; if you told us you had repeatedly raped her because it was kind of fun, we would be considerably less upset. If you had tortured her to death we would be slightly frustrated. If you had killed her on the spot, we would have no particular objections; sometimes such tragedies happen in wartime. But the infinite robbery of denying someone an afterlife is never strategically necessary. It is always premeditated. It cannot be survived, endured, or undone.

You have committed the greatest evil imaginable, against a random soldier, because she happened to be nearby while you went after a prisoner you wanted, and you managed to maintain what I can only conclude is willful ignorance about the idea that it was objectionable. I cannot imagine you capable of even basic levels of moral competence, thoughtfulness, perspective-taking, or Law, or this could never have happened."

Savil has been clinging as hard as she can to the fact that Vanyel will be here in two or three minutes and then she can stall further by catching him up and then he can handle this and he's - so much more patient and kind and good at understanding other peoples' pain even when it seems utterly stupid to her - 

- but she is out of patience now. 

"- All right. Look. You - seem to be expecting us to play some sort of stupid diplomatic game with you, where both of us say some nice-sounding lies that fit nicely into this stupid story about how everyone's trying their best to follow the Law here. But - all right, for one, this isn't your world and you don't seem to be trying even at all to understand that we have our own laws and traditions here. And you keep expecting us to, to - to think we can order our gods around, or something? It's - Starwind said it best, it's none of our business what the Star-Eyed does with souls?" 

:SAVIL: 

Kellan isn't wrong that she's failing utterly at playing their game according to their rules, but Savil is so sick of their game and it's not like Kellan understands what half of the rules are either. 

"- Also the thing we're talking around right now is that Asmodeus is evil and run an evil country that tortures people and then He tortures them more in Hell. So I'm not sure why anyone who gives a shit about people would want to hand a prisoner back to - that." 

"Ah, of course," he says thoughtfully. "You have concluded that arbitrary crimes against us are entirely warranted and do not matter, because it seems to you that we are evil. And it sure seems to us like you are stunningly evil, but one of the lessons of diplomacy is that, with little information to work from, societies will tend to conclude that the practices of strangers are evil and barbaric, and one of the great accomplishments of civilization is to set aside these assumptions and work towards mutual understanding even with those who seem, to us, to be capable of atrocities we scarcely knew humans could sink to.

Like enslaving people and stealing their souls because you heard some bad things about their religion.

I think, actually, in what you have just said there is a spark of common ground. It sounds like you would find it objectionable if we kidnapped your soldiers and sent their souls to Hell? So you are, in fact, capable of understanding why someone might be distressed at strangers from another world stealing the souls of our people?"

"- Would we find that objectionable? Sure. Would we expect telling you that we thought that to make any difference at all? No. Obviously. It just seems a lot faster if we could stop playing that game where we pretend that saying what we find objectionable matters at all." 

At this he looks more genuinely baffled than he has through this entire conversation.

"There are," he says after a moment of thought, "two possible equilibria, here - does that translate? In one, Cheliax steals the souls of your people and condemns them to Hell, and you steal the souls of our people and condemn them to whatever your lawless gods do with souls, and no one's god really ends up with more souls, but everyone has to divert resources to guarding against this, and fewer people get the afterlife they prefer.

In the other, we agree that you don't steal our souls, and we don't steal your souls, and then no effort need be expended guarding against that, and everyone gets what they want. If our powers are not equally matched and the balance of souls flowing between afterlives not equal, the agreement can incorporate other concessions, to balance it.

That's what Law is. It's what envoys are for. It is the entire core of our faith, the entire reason for diplomacy. Not only does it matter, it is the only thing that does.

But you are too stupid to understand it. So I guess it's the first equilibrium. Are we free to leave?"

(Vanyel arrives, at a run and too out of breath to speak, a few seconds into the Chelish envoy's response.)

Savil blinks and makes faces. She's finding this entire speech very hard to follow. 

"I - er - what does that mean - the core of some individual person's faith has nothing to do with international diplomacy -?" 

Ack. 

Vanyel shuts the door behind him (and discreetly adds several layers of shields.)

He crosses the room. Rests a hand on Savil's shoulder, and meets the Chelish diplomats' eyes. 

"- I'm very sorry. I think we've been introduced, but - I'm Herald-Mage Vanyel Ashkevron–" 

:Who they call Demonsbane, and Hero of Stony Tor: Yfandes prompts. 

Vanyel doesn't even snap at her about it. Not this time. 

"- who they call Demonsbane, and Hero of Stony Tor," he repeats, and manages to let it only be a little flat and monotone. "And I'm very sorry - Herald-Mage Savil is needed for other duties, so I'm here to take over this discussion. Could you catch me up on what you've just been going over?"

(Savil has already opened her shields and granted Vanyel access to her surface mind and her memories of the last five minutes, but she knows that isn't really the question he's asking.) 

"We spoke yesterday," the diplomat says. He sounds extremely unimpressed. "You didn't mention that the activities that necessarily constrained our conversation to a short one were enslaving our people and laying illegitimate claims on their souls. We consented to your Truth Spell to confirm that, despite our outrage over these crimes, we played no role in freeing her; we request, reciprocally, that you permit us to use our truth magic to understand the extent of Valdemar's complicity in this crime."

"- Of course. I understand that." 

Vanyel gives Savil a little shove. :- Go on: 

This is such a goddamned disaster and she's so angry with– 

....she doesn't even know who to be angry with. 

Savil leaves. 

"Thank you," the man says. "Our Truth Spell is not difficult for a powerful mage to resist, but we would ask that you not do that; it is apparent to us if the spell is being altered."

"Of course. I will do my best not to resist. I...apologize if I do so by accident - that is not how our Truth Spell works." 

:And I quite recently fought on our border to save Valdemar from annihilation: Yfandes prompts.

"And I quite recently fought on our border to save Valdemar from annihilation," Vanyel repeats, tonelessly. He looks so embarrassed. 

He knows where Yfandes is going with this, though. "So I, er - I'm a bit jumpy and paranoid - if I accidentally resist, it's not - personal. Our magic tends to get very instinctive, here in Velgarth." 

The man nods. "I will try not to alarm you," he says dryly. And he casts the spell. It feels weird - it's apparent enough how you'd flick it off, or shield it out -

Vanyel relaxes into it, rather than flick it off. 

(Lying isn't even a good idea, he thinks. Valdemar won't be good at diplomatic negotiations that involve consistently maintaining a lie. It's not...how anything has been done -)

(....And, besides, it doesn't matter right now. He's the one who was sent for this, and he's going to do his best, but - in the way he knows and understands.) 

"Was it known to you, when the Tayledras asked consent to travel through your territory to capture Leareth, that the Star-Eyed Goddess intended to make a claim to rightful possession of anyone captured in the operation?"