"If they had been bred to have 2 Int, I don't see any reason they would be excluded from Asmodeus vs Erastil undated. You're asking about the reverse: breeding animals to have higher Int, which means they're clearly not animals anymore under Erastil vs Aolar. But since they don't have any natural environment at all, Good might argue that they're also not covered by 'disabled person' law, which is much more strict, requiring such a person to be treated 'as a common person' by default, with all deviations justified."

"That's In re Williams 1905. I expect Good will try to carve out a narrower exception, relying on the decedent's certainty that the mice were not people, which is partially justified by the novelty of the situation because he didn't have a good reference class."

"Wizard familiars? Which are not slaves."

"True. Familiars are not slaves because they can leave, which the mice couldn't.

If a familiar is made from an ordinary animal, most of its mind is crafted artificially, and it's designed to be loyal to its wizard. By analogy, if the mice had been able to leave, but didn't because of being bred for affection, that would not be slavery."

"That sounds perfect. What's the citation for familiars not being slaves?"

Blink. "Abyss vs Liadon -5005. Wow, you've lost a lot, have you ever considered switching again to Axis?"

"No, and we're on a time limit."

"Obviously I'm not going to charge you for unrelated chatting!

For the second part of your question, I recommend The 614th Encyclopedia of Afterlife Case Law and the patch pamphlets for the 615th and 616th editions. 613th is okay if you're tighter on money than time - the 614th patch is several hundred pages. Disputes of the Gods by bowtie checkered-square trefoil and Judge Gloming. Calmly Facing Evil across the Bench from Salvation Press is useful whatever your alignment, assuming you're going to be training students, oh and also Pragmatic Persuasion: 16 Soul-Court Transcripts with Commentary."

"Marrenai don't have issues with emotional regulation."

"Cool! Neither do we!

Oh and From Leudorfell to Lily-Rose: Tracking Structure Like the Pros.

See you in court someday!"

Zoooooom poof

She gets the baby settled with the nearest Gofiere Marrenai and waits for her summon, skimming through Beyond the Boneyard Basics.

Maelstrom v. Ndaya, 0454. Actions still count when taken under Charm Person. Charm Person is considered to be a way of lying to someone, not changing who they are. Examples: Breaking a rule while charmed counts against Law. Helping an apparent "friend" is Good, but is considered to be helping a friend, not a hostile stranger, even if that's what they actually are. (See Abyss vs Guilliard -5041.) Killing the caster is self-defense, but is also still the murder of a friend.

Abyss vs Guilliard, -5041. Restricts Sarenrae vs Erastil, the principle that helping someone close to you is 'less Good' than helping a stranger or enemy. Amends 'less Good' to 'less indicative of Good'. The direct effects of the two actions on moral alignment, in result and in intent, are judged identically. However, the distinction may be factored into assessments of the decedent's character, such as used to evaluate hypotheticals.

Note: This ruling compares identical acts. It does not restrict the weighting of acts which differ in intent or result. For example, favoring a friend in expectation of reciprocity is different from aiding a stranger with no further expectations, and may be either more or less Good depending on the details. Feeding one's family is different from feeding a desperate starving stranger.

FUN fact: This case was actually about Evil acts, not Good ones, even though Evil acts are excluded from Sarenrae vs Erastil!

Elysium argued that a serial killer sparing his own family, whom he specifically wanted to kill, was an act of Good that more than cancelled out the smaller number of actual murders. Abaddon agreed that it was Good, but invoked Sarenrae vs Erastil to argue it was not sufficient Good to balance the actual killings. The judge initially rejected this argument.

Hell argued by analogy with Boneyard vs Ket; Elysium countered that the analogy was flawed: taking and then freeing a slave is closer to killing and then resurrecting someone than to wanting to kill someone and refraining. Abaddon proposed a thought-experiment where a person was forced to kill exactly one of a pair containing a friend and a stranger. The judge accepted the point as now restated, and used it to justify partially overruling Sarenrae vs Erastil instead of expanding it to cover Evil as well as Good.

Hell finally argued that the acts being compared were not the same, given strong social norms against harming one's family, which had influenced the decedent. Thus Sarenrae vs Erastil did not apply either before or after the modification, the decedent was Evil, and sparing his family was Lawful. Verdict: Hell.

See this is why the whole idea of 'friendship' is a mess!

And here's her summon. A summon. Not at any of her scheduled times so it's either the right one or someone is having a spiritual emergency.

What's the offering?

A piece of paper that says 'Maelstrom v. Malosloff, engrave peppermint orange circadian'.

What a good offering, just what she wanted.

And now she's in a small gorge dotted with twisted pine saplings. It's a cold winter night. A red wagon sits, with no horse.

The Catrina gives Kireh the paper offering and returns the wand to Judge Rectibius.

"No one is around but the mice."

Detect Anxieties.

There are creatures with anxieties.

There are about 120 creatures with anxieties. Most are shaken, some are frightened, and a few are cowering. Wisdom 13 on average, min 7, max 16.

They're worried that food is late, the Creature with the Big Warm Hands is missing, and they're cold. One of them dropped a puzzle piece.

Detect Desires.

There are creatures with desires.

There are about 120 creatures with desires. Splendor: average 4, min 2, max 6.

They want food, warmth, new toys (usually particular ones from neighboring cages), to explore the wagon, to get into the male/female cages (some of them want sex; some of them don't know what they want just that it's vitally important), to figure out this really hard puzzle, to go back to sleep. One wants to go looking for the Creature with the Big Warm Hands and drag it home like a pup. Another wants to find the Creature and eat it.

She reports all this to the judge.

He steps into the wagon for a minute.

"We're finished here."