"Maybe. Ask the Commandant, I think."

"In any case, in the way I'm used to doing things, all spiritual counseling is confidential, including the pre-execution sort – although the vast majority of it isn't that, it's just people wanting to talk about something. My order's standard confidentiality oath, which again may be different from Lastwall's in phrasing but I would hope not in the general effect, is this, which I will now quote without it constituting an oath: 'Anything you say to me for the next hour or until both of us agree we're done, I will not tell anyone about, nor to the best of my ability act on in any way, without your uncoerced permission, except for any parts of it I find out about from another source in a way that would have still happened without this conversation. I so swear on my Law and in Iomedae's name.'"

"There are other sorts of confidential conversations sometimes, like someone wanting to negotiate revealing a crime without revealing their participation in it – but the line between such things and spiritual counseling often ends up blurred, and it's the same oath for all of them."

"Without the contents of the conversation or without having met at all? Or meaning whichever comes first? What are the standards for agreeing to be done? What is the definition of uncoerced and the standard for checking for coercion?"

Oh he likes him. 

"When I met someone might have been hours ago doing some completely unrelated thing, so we can't count from that, but I cannot act on having been asked for confidentiality or on actions that directly implied it – otherwise I could theoretically just spy on everyone who came by my room, which would be a horrifying betrayal.  Though of course other people who aren't so sworn may happen to observe that someone came in, so it's not very often an important point in practice. I've... never encountered a case of it being unclear whether we've agreed to be done, and am not sure what kind of unclarity you might mean... but I usually just ask 'are we formally done with the confidentiality oath?', and either get a yes, or if someone, say, turns around and leaves without a word, then I'll just sit there alone for the rest of the hour in case they come back."

"I've also, believe it or not, never been asked about the standard for checking for coercion. I... think this is because Mendevians are straightforward people and know what a paladin is, and you make an excellent point about it being unclear as stated. I think in the Chelish context I should just drop that clause entirely, and if someone wants me to be able to act on something, they can simply tell me again after we're done. Do you agree with that?"

Blai nods along. "If some kind of emergency comes up during the meeting, such as a demon attack, what's the process? Don't Mendevians have to deal with bordering the Worldwound and the possibility that a succubus is Suggesting people into things - this would be an odd target but hardly impossible and would sound more reasonable than targeting the counselor to reveal -"

"The procedure for emergencies or any other unexpected interruptions is to use my judgment on what is still part of the conversation and what is part of the emergency – if they yell 'on your left!' when there's a demon sneaking up on me, I can act on that, because they almost certainly want me to, but if they yell 'and also I stabbed some guards during that thing last year!' I should assume that's part of the confidential conversation. Does that make sense? Oh, and the oath is 'anything you say to me', so if they're giving the demons tactical advice I can do what I want with it. But this is not something I've had thorough discussions about, and may be wrong on the details. More generally... it'll always be possible to land on some bizarre exception that requires me to use my judgment, I don't think any number of additional rules will stop that from happening."

"Suggesting people into what, telling me I can act on something when they don't really want me to? They could just as well Suggest them into telling me about it again when the oath is over, so it makes little difference in practice, but also you're of course right that we can't always tell if someone's coerced, and aren't required to be able to. You are however convincing me that we should all drop that clause as adding more problems than it's worth – may I write my order about it?"

"You may. ...did you need my permission to do that? You said you were only quoting."

"I didn't need it, I just wanted to ask out of normal prudence. In case you thought there was some confusing Chelish political problem that might be kicked off if someone reads my letters, say."

"Though if you would like to have a confidential conversation at any point, we can."

"Does it signify that I'm missing something about the concept if I can't imagine why I'd want to do that?"

"I think not – my impression is that you're being entirely open with me regardless, I'm just not sure if that's because it's how you always are or because we're both Iomedae's and you think it's what She wants of you.  But it's important to offer, in case I was wrong."

"Well, not being allowed to lie means I would be very conspicuous in doing otherwise. - I suppose you can tell me if I'm overgeneralizing about that."

"Even without lying you could just refuse to answer half my questions. A partially arbitrary half, if you wanted something to be inconspicuous."

"But my understanding of clerics is only that you cannot break your word and cannot lie while representing yourself as unable to.  Obviously you still generally shouldn't, but you're not under the paladin rules, you don't even have to be Lawful."

"I have been assuming I'm Lawful Neutral and so had better be Lawful."

"Right, that's true, but not clerics generally.  And I cannot imagine some minor lies losing you your Law, in any case. You don't act like someone anywhere close to the line. Though of course perhaps that's because you do well with strict rules and should stick with them."

"I do find that contemplating it now I do not know what would make a lie count as 'minor'."

"Lying instead of conspicuously refusing to answer when asked a question there was no good reason for in the first place, mostly, especially if it's about fairly unimportant things. Or if whoever's asking is not going about it in a Lawful way, I think.  But I'm not an expert on any of this, being forbidden even the minor cases."

"Not going about it in a Lawful way?"

"Most straightforwardly, if someone's asking you questions but themselves clearly lying to you. Or attempting perfidy or what have you. I suppose the most relevant part here is that you don't owe the demons true answers to most questions."

"...I think I don't voluntarily talk to demons in any situations where I wouldn't like them to have reason to believe me," says Blai after a moment's thought. "But I can bear in mind if I'm ever enchanted in such a way that I can bear things in mind, perhaps."

"That sounds about right," nod.

"Back to confidentiality for a moment – would that be something you're comfortable with me offering your people, once I've had at least a few days to orient, or would you expect it to lead to trouble in some way?"

"...you know your own stomach better than I. I don't know that you will get tremendous uptake but if you do that's the point of failure I'd guess."

"... Meaning that people will, unsurprisingly, tell me horrifying things in a genuine attempt at having a conversation about their lives, or that they will do so aiming specifically to upset me?"

"Both."

"Ah. My thanks for the warning. I should perhaps add a clause allowing myself to unilaterally end the conversation, for the second case."

"... There was one patrol on the way here that was, I think, doing that. I had to tell them I did not feel safe in keeping my powers if they continued, and in retrospect I was lucky they did not take that as encouragement. For whatever that tells you about my stomach."

"...in what way were you concerned about Falling?"

"In the way where I was blindingly angry enough not to trust myself that I wouldn't, if we were attacked, make some tactical decision partly out of not caring if they died."

"Also I don't know exactly at what point sharp words motivated by anger become an evil act in themselves. That at least has the solution of staying silent, but that's not always going to be the right choice either, and in particular when attempting spiritual counseling one is supposed to talk."