"I caught her in the act carrying alchemist's fire, in the middle of a burning section of our camp. Lann and Seelah were both present. I suppose I could have also Dominated her into actually burning the camp down, to which I can only say that, firstly, I didn't, no ally of mine did either, and any method of verifying the truth of someone's words you can think of will show it, and secondly that if this was a concern of yours I wish you had sent someone to talk to her yourself. Which I gave you the opportunity to do; I could have executed her on the ordinary schedule, if I didn't want the matter looked into too closely."

"I trusted you then." She cannot particularly remember why she trusted him, which is a very bad sign vis-a-vis Suggestions. In retrospect it should have been a bad sign that he took over right when Terendelev and Hulrun both died. "Then the casualties mounted. Harmattan? Karsalis? Were Terendelev and Hulrun's deaths both coincidental?"

She has genuinely convinced herself of this and she's going to kill him and be convinced the whole time that she saved Mendev from yet another demon plot, and if he leaves or Alfirin grabs him she'll probably kill the men who trusted him. 

Anevia reviewed nearly all of these cases with him but if he says that he'll just get Anevia arrested too. Ember talked to condemned prisoners all the time and would certainly have raised it to his attention if any of them had been enchanted into it - it's moderately entertaining what a bad witness Ember would make in any kind of trial - he has transcripts from all the trials, which is a lot of work that was done by very busy people entirely so that there could be a record for the purposes of justice and which Galfrey will just cheerfully disbelieve.

Hundreds of people witnessed Terendelev's death. 

Hulrun can run around Kenabres executing anyone who blinks wrong at him and the Queen of Mendev has nothing to say about it- 

There is no point in being as frustrated as he is. It is actively counterproductive, really. 

"Terendelev was killed by Deskari, your Majesty. There were hundreds of witnesses, including Hulrun, who has been Raised and who you can ask about it. Karsalis was a second circle cleric of Baphomet! Harmattan sabotaged my boots to try to kill me. As an act of loyalty to you, I think. I -

- I thought he was mad, and you wouldn't want that. I wrote you for guidance on how to handle it. ...your Majesty, if I were working against you and needed to get rid of some people, I'd have arranged for them all to die by demons, as many hundreds of other men did who you're not blaming me for, presumably because our casualties are lower than anyone expected they'd be. Someone dead of demons does not leave an entire week in which the whole game is up if you or anyone else happens to Detect Magic. That would be a careless and stupid way to commit treason - ordinary Dominates would be obvious anyway to everyone who spoke with them, are you further hypothesizing I have the good Dominate?" To Marit's knowledge the only people to have the good Dominate are two specific vampires who died a long time ago but if it happened twice it's probably happened since then. 

The specific Dominate tactic she thought he was using was Dominates to enforce confessions, which she hasn't banned because practically nobody in Mendev can cast the spell, and so the legal status of 'Dominate is illegal in peacetime and legal in wartime' held. 

'I'm not an idiot' is a genuinely fascinating argument under the circumstances, but there's only one thing she's confused by - "The good Dominate?"

"There is a version of the spell that can get through a Protection from Evil and that, with finesse by the caster, does not make the target obviously act oddly. I have only known vampires to do it, but I don't know if only vampires can do it. It caused me and a lot of other people a lot of trouble, a couple decades back. If you were going to try to conceal that someone was Dominated during their trial, that's the spell you'd want. I think the scheme you have attributed to me wouldn't work without it, as someone would say 'hey, that person is obviously Dominated at their trial, seems pretty suspicious'."

Galfrey will add that to her list of horrors that might or might not exist, but, since she lives next to the Worldwound, probably do.

... She thought that they were obviously Dominated. She had, indeed, thought that what happened was that they were Dominated at their trials. She's going to need to recheck the documents herself, isn't she, instead of relying on summaries. Which of the interviews does she have time to carry out herself?

"Yes," she says, simply. "Can you tell the stories of how you discovered the alleged treasons of Karsalis and Harmattan?" She wants a story she can check against the documents.

"Do you want me to unseal my notes so you can read my contemporary account, or do you want me to try to give it from memory?"

"What do you mean by 'unseal your notes'?" This sounds like a trap.

"I take notes on Crusade events. They are typically only a few sentences long each - I'm very busy - but it'll have a date and then a description of what happened. I keep these notes in a notebook, which was on my person when I surrendered. Little black leather-bound book, faint abjuration. The notebook is enchanted and opens to a password; a Dispel Magic opens it too, but if it's opened with a Dispel it'll be empty."

(He keeps another notebook, which was also on his person, but which has no auras of magic around it and looks blank,)

(He doesn't write the important secrets in the second notebook, either.)

That sounds like it's the sort of thing that has six hundred Explosives Runes and three Sepia Snake Sigils and a Symbol of Death all on the front page. "Assume your notes will not be available."

"All right. Harmattan - I own boots of Teleport." He bought them to explain why he could Teleport. "Once a week I loaned them out to Regill, who was commanding the emergency response team, and on this occasion he returned them with a charge left, three hours later, as we'd agreed. I happened to be out at that time, we'd taken one of the unusually powerful demons alive and I was involved in determining whether we could safely hold it to try to study what was going on with them. He left them on the command floor in Drezen, to which ten people have access. When I returned and put them on - I sleep in them, I worry they'll be stolen - I noticed something off about them. I took them to Nenio and asked her if they'd been damaged. After an examination she determined that someone had, indeed, swapped them for nearly identical boots; they were getaway boots, which take you only to the place to which they've been attuned. We did not test the place to which they'd been attuned but the obvious guess was that this was an assassination attempt.

 I called in Arsinoe for truth spells and questioned Regill, everyone on his squad and everybody who had leave to enter that room. Harmattan refused to answer my questions. I had him arrested, had him Dominated, asked what he'd done. He said that I was an enemy of Mendev, and a traitor, and that he'd been part of a conspiracy to kill me. Out of loyalty to you. He'd given his co-conspirator - which was an incubus serving Mutasafen, we think, though it was long gone - a detailed description of the boots, and gotten the doctored pair, and swapped them when he had the opportunity. Which he'd known he would, because I loaned out the boots regularly. It was a decent plan. Both auras of conjuration, of the same strength." It would have worked if I hadn't been a wizard. "I had the Dominate removed," pointedly, "and gave him the opportunity to clarify anything he wanted under Arsinoe's truth spell. He wanted very badly to clarify that he was loyal, to Mendev, to the Crusade, that he'd done it for you. There's a trial transcript in Drezen.

Karsalis wore a minor Cloak of Resistance, which was not especially notable but - an abjuration aura was what you'd be covering if you did have an Undetectable Alignment up, so I asked an invisible air elemental in my service to keep an eye on him, just in case. I did this for everyone in the army who had any magic about them that I hadn't accounted for. The air elemental reported that he prayed for spells in the morning. I had his quarters searched and there was indeed a pentagram among his possessions, which could technically be legal since we're tolerating the Godclaw apparently but which was certainly troubling. I had him arrested, had the Undetectable Alignment he was under dispelled, and he was Chaotic Evil and a priest of Baphomet. I had someone - Henrys, I thnk - mindread him for any confederates, but we'd already arrested the only people we could get off his thoughts. He declined a truth spell at trial."

Galfrey wants to know how the demons can afford getaway boots and how Aspex can afford to summon invisible air elementals. 

Actually, she can just ask that.

"... How can you afford to have a staff of sufficient invisible air elementals sufficient to follow everyone in the army with unexplained magical abilities?"

"One of the first things I did when I was appointed Knight-Commander was go to Absalom to see if the Church of Abadar could be induced to pay more for the Crusade. I know Abadarans and I know how to persuade them to structure financial instruments, and it seemed to me that they were probably underpaying, given how close the collapse of the Wardstone line seemed. I gave them a number of prized personal possessions as collateral, and I took out a loan at three percent annual interest." He says that like some adventurers talk about killing ancient dragons.

How in Aroden's name - oh no, he's just lying. "You will forgive me if I am somewhat skeptical of this achievement," she says.

"Of this, of all the things I've said? You can confirm this! They have their copies of the paperwork!"

Oh no, she's suspicious of all of this. "Which, one presumes, only you have the legal right to access." She's wondering if he is just a dragon and offered his hoard as collateral? He's apparently not a dragon, but nonetheless...

"I can give you permission to read the contract. I had what I think is a very clever argument, which is that the likeliest circumstances under which I'd fail to pay and the purchased magic items would be irrecoverable is the complete collapse of the Worldwound line, and if they confidently knew that that was about to happen, they'd spend notably more on the Worldwound - perhaps even another four hundred thousand Absalom pounds on the Worldwound - and therefore we ought to do all the calculations around risks that didn't entail the collapse of the Wound and use a different form of actuarial accounting for the actual full loss scenario. 

- the last war I was involved in, there was a great deal of wrangling over financing." 

Aside from the first and last sentences this is gibberish to Galfrey but she is good at keeping a poker face.

"I will want that permission." She pauses. "The last war?"

He ignores the question. "Her Majesty Queen Galfrey has permission to review the loan agreement that exists between myself, aliased Aspex, and the Church of Abadar in Absalom, for a twenty-year loan of four hundred thousand Absalom pounds. I don't know if they'll want it in writing. I think if you weren't a paladin they would. If presented some paper I'll write it. They may Send me."

"You will have paper."

"- It would be considerably easier to believe anything you said if there was any evidence you existed prior to your arrival at Kenabres."

"....that makes perfect sense. But. A scenario that ended up featuring quite prominently in those actuarial tables was that I get soul-trapped, and this is considerably easier to do to someone whose name is known." If you were actually an Iomedean paladin instead of just a nice-brave-person paladin...there's no way to say that diplomatically. "And my name is not the only information that would be conveyed by giving my name, right.

It's possible I'm being very stupid about this but I'm not going to change my mind while I'm a prisoner and can't discuss the merits with anyone I trust. Or put a headband on. Or - I don't suppose you have the good paladin aura." The one Iomedae had up full time, that actually erased fear rather than taking the edge off it. 

"I have a number." Right now she is not within ten feet of him, and relatedly does not have her sword drawn.

"I am like other people who aren't paladins in that I think more sensibly and more carefully when I'm not afraid, but I'm really not sure whether this is a mutual interest or just an interest of mine. Maybe when we stop discussing my defense of my deeds and move on to Drezen security handoffs it becomes also an interest of yours."