"Is there usefully transmissible advice on how to go about spiritual counseling that I should have?"

She thinks. "I'm not sure how transmissible it is - it's never fully obvious to me how much of what I do is... the general shape of the claims I'm making vs the exact words I choose in response to the things I'm seeing in their reactions, right, but..." she pauses to think, breath soft against him.

"I think the general shape of what I'll say is - they have not had a lot of opportunity to make meaningful choices in their lives, and that I think they've been lied to with the goal of limiting their choices further, making them more likely to end up in Hell. But their choices do matter, and they are going to to die, today, because of a very bad choice they made and could have made differently. But it is still possible for them to make a choice that might matter, because they don't have to end up in Hell, even now. And from there try to walk them through... thinking about the ways they've harmed people, I suppose." She doesn't sound like she expects this to really land. 

"I have not personally done a lot of reflection on ways I have myself harmed people, is that an important step I'm skipping -"

...awwww. "I think it can be important for some people but it's not, like, a mandatory part of the process and I don't expect it to help you." Squeeze. "But it is one of a very few actions available to someone waiting to be executed that might help them get into a mindset of 'I regret the Evils I did and if I were given more time would sincerely stop being Evil, I don't want to be Evil for reasons other than the immediately obvious one', and so it is what I was planning on recommending." 

"What kinds of reasons tend to pass muster?"

"So, the churches of Shelyn and Sarenrae have called Agathions who serve as representatives in afterlife trials, and - people wanting to not be Evil because they don't want to go to Evil afterlives generally does not count at all. People who sincerely decide, in their last moments, that if they could do it all again they really would do it differently, especially if they were not very Evil or if they had (or believed they had) very few opportunities not to be, can pass muster, but - it's rare. The Sarenrite I heard this from, Luminary Sunheart, said that they aren't allowed to say how rare, apparently, or give more details on how to do this right, because of treaties, but... I certainly don't expect it to work for any of these men, though that's no reason not to try."

"Oh, I suppose that would be a consequence of information being expensive, wouldn't it. - wouldn't expect it because of the nature of the offense or because of the baseline odds of success?"

"Both, really, but the latter moreso?" She doesn't sound super sure.

"It seems to have the virtue of being a particularly - unforced and discrete - act of Evil, that it might be relatively straightforward to imagine having done without, and I'd expect doing this with someone whose harm was more diffuse to be more difficult if they were aiming to cooperate with the counseling at all - though probably they do in fact also have more diffuse harms on their record that I don't know about to remark on so perhaps that's not helpful on the whole."

She thinks about that and then nods. "Hmmm. I never thought about it that way but it makes sense to me!"

"It'd really depend on whether they get enough credit for repenting of an unforced discrete act that it - covers - whatever else happens to have come up in their lives. I am not sure how overwhelming the numbers are on Chelish people going to Hell but if they were low I think we'd have seen - more, and more intense, pressure toward forcing that end. And I don't know any of the men well enough to have a good guess what their personal errors might have looked like besides this one on an apparently repeated basis."

Venn feels awkward not having anything useful to add to this but it remains the case that she does not have anything useful to add to this.

 "...Did they try to discourage people from aiming for Neutral Evil? I feel like... in that position I would obviously prefer Abbadon, becoming a devil would be... one of the worst things that could possibly happen to me, really, and that's in the better range of outcomes in Hell, as I understand it."

"I think intuitive opinions on the relative desirability differ, and anyway Law as a correlate of order and obedience is desirable in the general populace by practically any large institution even if they are not specifically trying to funnel them into Lawful afterlives, and - people are tolerated in latching onto various minor heresies, like that they might see anyone they happen to be attached to again in Hell, even though this is not to my knowledge actually something Hell enables, or that they will cope particularly well with the transformation into a devil, which I wouldn't even know how to predict."

She nods. (From what she's heard of Hell, she's pretty sure that a reunion would only really happen if it hurt everyone involved, but... there's no real point in saying that.)

Huuuuug.

Lots of hug. He is not sure how else she could be getting less distressed by this situation. ...it's possible she knows and would tell him if he asks! "Is there anything other than hugs that would help you, here?"

Awwwww. She smiles weakly up at him. "The hugging is helping a lot, thanks.  ...the hairpets were nice, too, if you're up for more of that." 

"Of course." Pet pet pet!

"mmmmmm." Happy-Venn noises are back! 

Oh good. Ideal state for a Venn to be in. He can contemplate his forthcoming spiritual counseling responsibilities less unpleasantly with an Ideal Venn to hold.

She's happy to help! (... and also happy to be held. And pet.)

Three of the seven guys go with Venn as their spiritual counselor (since Blai chooses to interpret a refusal to pick anyone as defaulting to him).

One of them is the one who was questioned first and tried to deny everything and, under it all, is really pretty upset about having been betrayed by the other six. He can be brought around to the understanding that it might have been relatively more unpleasant to be raped by seven people all together compared to their previous sequential activities, but doesn't really get why it was a big deal in the first place or why anything had to change, this sort of thing happens to everyone and otherwise the species would die out probably.

The second one is pretty scared of Hell! He did not realize that Cecília had the power to send him to Hell! That's really weird! If she could simply not send him to Hell by deciding it was okay for him to fuck her then it seems incumbent on her to do that, and he picked Venn over Blai as a counselor in case there is girl talk Venn could undertake which could bring this about.

The third one may have chosen Venn mostly so that he could spend some of his last hours staring at boobs, but he will keep her talking as long as he can on such topics as "the commander shouldn't have sent the whores away, and he tipped Cecília albeit not regularly so she was basically one anyway" and "does it count as regretting it if it turns out he does not really like having other dudes in the room" and "if he goes to Axis can he still get sent to Hell after that or is he free to fuck people in Axis" and "does it count as regretting it if he thinks it would have been better to have turned out to be gay" and "why should he have to be Iomedaean just because Artigas is, Asmodeus at least staffed the place with more than one cleric".

Yeah she doesn't believe that but isn't expecting to change his mind and doesn't argue the point for long. 

Cecília has the right to report crimes against her, the punishments for which were publicly posted and announced. Where he goes when he dies is not her responsibility. Venn will not be forwarding his request. (She doesn't rub it in, but she's very firm about this).

She notices what's going on pretty quickly with the third guy and seriously considers using Alter Self to look like a male dwarf, but decides instead to wrap her upper body in a blanket. Stabbing someone and giving them money after is still a crime. No. If he makes Axis he is not likely to go to Hell after. No. Asmodeus is currently staffing the place with zero clerics, actually, and she's pretty sure he would already be on his way to his afterlife if Iomedae hadn't stepped up because she and Txell dragged his wounded body into Artigas' second channel - 

Blai has more guys to go through than she does and at least one of them has even more to say than Venn's third one but when they've wrapped he can hold her, again.

"...I'm worse at that than I thought I would be," she says, slowly, face pressed into him. (This might be the first time Blai has seen an ashamed Venn?)

"Should I follow up with those three myself?" he asks dubiously, petting her hair.