As much as Abaddon might wish otherwise, the River of Souls is diligently guarded and flows mostly uneventfully. Rabiah, like almost all souls, makes it to the Boneyard to stand trial.

So, this is our latest petitioner. Who wants to send a representative?

Nirvana is for everyone. This isn't going to be the easiest case, but they've won harder.

She did something slightly interesting while in Osirion. Someone will show up.

The Abyss sends someone, or more exactly someone sends themself from the Abyss. There's infinite demons, there's usually somebody who thinks a new person looks worth having.

The petitioner only acted Chaotic over an inciting incident which won't happen again. Getting her seems worth trying.

Rabiah has been having a difficult time and someone with some lawyer training feels pretty sympathetic to her.

And thus, it is into this situation that the petitioner appears: A courtroom with a four-winged masked crow in the judge's position, and eight desks, five of them with a representative. Specifically, there's a dignified-looking rodent, an arbiter inevitable, a constantly shifting mass of fire and water, a horned woman with glowing eyes, and a butterfly-winged squidlike entity.

Oh. Yeah. Probably that is a pretty normal experience to have if a guy just beat you to death for not being his dead wife. Aaaaaafuckthisisscary. She looks pleadingly at the inevitable.

The inevitable doesn't seem to really do facial expressions.

Hopefully it can at least read them. Oh no there's a demon that's bad. Or is it a devil? Also bad!

The masked crow speaks.

"This court is now in session, in the matter of In re Hadiqa. All advocates have been briefed on the decedent's lifetime of thoughts and actions and their context."

The crow turns to Rabiah. "Do you know your name?"

"Rabiah Hadiqa."

"Do you know where you are?"

"My afterlife trial. Right?"

"Yes. Specifically, you are in the Boneyard, which is Pharasma's domain. Do you perceive us as speaking in a language you understand, using words that you are familiar with, at a speaking speed you can follow?"

"Yes."

"Do you understand that you had, while alive, the capacity to take actions, and that those actions had effects on the world and on other people?"

"Yes."

And it sounds like the answer here is yes, but ey'll stick to the script. "Do you understand that the purpose of this court is to determine your alignment and which afterlife you are assigned to?"

"Yes."

The nosoi turns to the representatives. "Axis representative, would you like to make the first opening statement?"

"I would, your honor."

"I think the most contentious issue this trial is going to be the petitioner's systematic alignment, and thus I will speak to it first. This petitioner, like most Osirian people, lived an almost entirely Lawful life. The most serious illegal act this petitioner committed was to take custody of her own child, and only in response to deception. Even after this act, however, the petitioner did her best to continue acting lawfully – she turned to a legal occupation, continued her prayers to Abadar, and so on. Many people, after committing an illegal act, would give up on Law entirely. The fact that this petitioner did not speaks strongly to her character. Furthermore, cases like In re Gadadvara suggest that seeking to restore the order of the family is to some extent itself a Lawful motive. Given these factors, I believe the petitioner is Lawful. As for moral alignment, the petitioner did not commit significant Evil or Good acts, and thus I believe she is Neutral."

She's not sure she's supposed to talk at this point in the proceedings - nobody gave her instructions - so she just nods along enthusiastically.

"Maelstrom representative?"

"The petitioner was raised in an environment that went to extreme lengths to hide the wonder and value of Chaos from her, and she still followed her passion over law on key occasions anyway! Yes, she wasn't as interesting as she could have been, and yes, she mostly stuck to the habits Osirion pushed on her, but at the end of the day, when it really mattered to her, she did the Chaotic thing. As for moral alignment…"

The protean shrugs with two of its limbs, the interplay of fire and water in them losing some coherence and splashing the floor with water that subsequently disintegrates. "I'm not seeing a ton of interesting stuff there, Neutral seems plausible to me."

Aaah she may have made one or two remarks about going to the Maelstrom but she would Rather Not.

"Nirvana representative?"

"Thank you, your honor. While many questions have been raised regarding the petitioner's systemic alignment, everyone we've heard from thus far thinks her moral alignment is obviously Neutral. I disagree. In re Nysima suggests that separating a child from her mother is an Evil act, and In re Pratt suggests that moving children from caring family to institutional environments is Evil. The petitioner took action to prevent both of these, which I believe constitutes a Good act. Precedent suggesting that preventing harms to oneself is Neutral is not relevant here, because these acts were intended to prevent harms to a third party. In terms of systemic alignment, it's plausible to me that a lot of minor Lawful acts and a few major Chaotic ones add to Neutral."

"Yeah, they were going to make like she was an orphan and she wasn't! - I want Axis though -"

The agathion glances meaningfully at the azata.

The azata shifts in hue a bit.

"Abyss representative?"

"Anybody can obey a law that doesn't inconvenience them. So she never burgled a store or killed a man, so what? She also didn't set off Fireballs in city limits - it just didn't come up. When something did come up, she snuck off with a man against her society's better judgment, and kidnapped the baby from a temple that might have been able to raise her - say, to adulthood -"

"That wasn't my fault!"

"So, when the chips were down, she ditched what law she'd been given and did what she felt like instead. Didn't even go home to her family once the baby was no longer a going concern. And prostitution isn't illegal in Osirion, sure, but it's not normative either - and it's not harmless. If she didn't spread any diseases that's hardly to her credit, if she didn't ruin any marriages likewise - if she didn't get pregnant, again, and wind up getting the baby killed on top of herself by taking a violent customer, likewise -"

"Chaotic evil. We have plenty of room for selfish sluts who just want what's theirs and maybe some extra on top."

Is this allowed???? Why is this allowed?????

"A mother's love is all well and good but it was very much self-interest. The baby was fine. Temple-raised orphans grow up to be credits to their societies. Prostitutes' kids are just street urchins. If she loved that baby she'd have left her where she was placed by smarter more responsible relatives."

This demon is behaving amazingly well so far. She's paid any attention to the case and is trying to make a coherent argument and is not trying to take a nap or deafen her fellow representatives with screams or destroy the furniture. The nosoi has zero complaints.

"Elysium representative?"

"I believe this petitioner is likely of Neutral or Good moral alignment. In addition to cases like the Nirvana representative mentioned, In re Longroad establishes that using stealth to reunite families is both Chaotic and Good, even if you feel significant personal kinship with those families and they undergo some risks during that process they would not otherwise have undergone."

(This is a terrible cite for arguing that the petitioner is chaotic – Laria Longroad was a Bellflower who systematically worked to oppose Chelish law, while the petitioner did nothing of the sort. However, the petitioner outright says she wants Axis. And, well, she might be wrong about that in the long run, but she might not, and it's her place to decide, not his.)

"Longroad? Really?"

"Longroad felt significant personal kinship with the people she rescued! Still counts as Good."

Why is she conscious for the part where they are referring to things she's never heard of.

Fair Trial Act requires it and petitioners sometimes have useful insight.

"Longroad systematically and purposely acted to oppose the interests of her state and its god. This petitioner did not."

"Additionally, the test the Abyss representative proposes actually argues in favor of the petitioner's Law. The petitioner was aware of the existence of expensive treatments capable of mitigating or curing disease. In her work, she was often in the presence of customers who were distracted and not fully clothed, when their clothes may have contained coin. The petitioner at no point attempted to take advantage of this to illicitly acquire funds to purchase such treatments, and not because she didn't care about her child. Thus, in addition to the petitioner's lifetime of casual Lawful acts, we also see that she sometimes adheres to the law even in high-stakes situations where she might have benefited from breaking it."

She would have gotten SUPER FIRED and also probably sent sans baby to a convent if she'd ever tried it! She did try taking Khatijah to the Sarenrites once since she couldn't afford an Abadaran but the walk there seemed to make her worse so she only did it once and they were out of remove diseases when she got there.

"Furthermore, we generally hold that sincere regret for an act of passion mitigates that act's effects on alignment, especially if the petitioner takes steps to avoid repeating the action. This standard is established in the Atonement Convention."

The arbiter turns to Rabiah.

"Rabiah Hadiqa, please describe for the court how you feel about your interactions with Khatijah's father, and what actions you took after those interactions."

"- uh." Man she hopes the arbiter actually thinks she could make Axis and is trying to help, and isn't just here for some other reason. "It was stupid, my lovebird dumped me and I just kind of got stupider and stupider about it till I thought, maybe if I go make out with this foreign adventurer, it'll be just that, and then it wasn't and I hate him and when I got home I had Yahiya go look up whether it counted as rape and it didn't so I figured, well, if that's what happens when I'm stupid I should be less stupid, and I went and came on to half the girls on the block till one would give me a go and I wasn't alone with any boys after that besides like my brothers."

"So, the petitioner immediately regretted her action once it was complete and made a plan to avoid repeating it, which she successfully adhered to without further slips. If we look at cases like In re Smith, that's actually a lot better than many Lawful petitioners do."

"Your argument is that she regretted being alone with a man so much that... she became a prostitute nine months later? That she regretted transgressing against her society's norms so much that... she impersonated a cleric in order to kidnap a child?"

"My argument is that in the absence of risk to the integrity of her family, which Erastil has firmly established is a Lawful concern, the petitioner strongly values adherence to her society's norms. It's extremely common for Lawful petitioners to prioritize some Lawful concerns over others. In cases like In re Hainard, for instance, we see that petitioners can maintain a Lawful alignment while supporting interference with international trade."

"Hainard, unlike this petitioner, did things his country liked."

"Yes, that's a Law-oriented factor he prioritized over the unLawfulness of supporting piracy."

"Did this petitioner even have a personal code of conduct?"

"She did not, but that's irrelevant to my argument."

"Please elaborate."

"Your honor, I'm not arguing that every single act the petitioner committed was fully Lawful. I'm arguing that she broadly speaking led a Lawful life, even given indiscretions."

"Systemic and moral alignment are not equivalent! I don't think I need to cite precedent that, while saving many lives can make up for causing a death, keeping to a surrender many times cannot make up for perfidy."

"That's true, but the petitioner did not commit perfidy. Perfidy involves going back on one's word, and typically when one gives one's word one understands what it means."

"Osirion did not encourage the petitioner to develop the understanding that adherence to their law might require her to accept her children being taken from her in her sleep and placed in an orphanage. If Osirion had encouraged the petitioner to develop that understanding, she might have predicted that she'd be tempted to illegal actions if it came up, and taken preemptive action to avoid this."

"As it stands, the petitioner was instead presented with an unexpected variety of crisis in which time was plausibly of the essence. Handling scenarios like this ungracefully is the exact sort of incident that many mortals are prone to, which is why we look at broad life patterns."

"I hope you're not suggesting that anything many mortals are prone to can't be unLawful."

"I'm suggesting that we hold this mortal to the standards we typically hold mortals to when assessing their alignment, not the standards we typically hold paladins to when assessing their adherence to their duties."

"Most mortal choices, this mortal included, are insignificant. Maybe if she'd lived another forty years, she'd have lots and lots of little Good and tiny Lawful acts to put on the scales. But she didn't. The constants of her life were her completely neutral music hobby and indifferently performed household duties. The highlights of her life were illicit sex, petty theft, absence without leave, impersonation of the office of a priest, smalltime terrorism, kidnapping, and never at any point reconciling herself to any of the authorities she'd flouted."

"Music is not completely neutral. The creation of beauty is Good, especially when done for its own sake or for the sake of others without recompense: see for example In re Koshiba. Performing one's duties is also not completely Neutral, see for example In re Conseil. Doing what one believes to be the correct thing despite reluctance does not mitigate the alignment effect of those actions."

"As for your claim about major acts: Seeking out her child who was taken from her in her sleep is not by any moral definition kidnapping. 'Terrorism' is a very bold summary of leaving some paint around. The petitioner did not falsely advise people, take confessions, access church coffers, or so forth while impersonating a priest, which means she did substantially less harm than the typical reference case. And she did attempt to reconcile herself to Abadar through devout prayer."

"The paint was left around specifically in order to provoke an organizational startle reaction she could take advantage of. Sending in threats to Cloudkill a building isn't directly harmful either, assuming there's no call to follow through, but it's still terrorism."

"The petitioner was not trying to intimidate the Church of Abadar into doing what she wanted, but merely to momentarily startle them."

It's good that the capybara can read her history or whatever because Rabiah is increasingly unclear on her own motives after hearing them argued about like this.

"I agree with the Nirvana representative's recent claims."

"I don't think those claims go as far as you'd like. Sure, you can say that what she did was not morally kidnapping, whatever. It's still legally kidnapping, and we're discussing her Law at least as much as her Good! And I, personally, think it's likely that if someone had tried to confess to her while she was playing priest, she wouldn't have broken her cover. Nobody did, but that's luck, not virtue."

"It's not luck. The church of Abadar, especially in areas like urban Osirion, has procedures around confessions and makes its congregation aware of those procedures. Those procedures do not involve directing people to priests on-duty in childcare areas, which the petitioner knew when pretending to be a priest on-duty in a childcare area."

"And if the church had been worse-resourced or less orderly?"

"Then they wouldn't be accepting responsibility for infants with available parents so readily or they wouldn't be maintaining the kind of reputation it would be as damaging to one's Law to interfere with."

"That's their Law, not hers."

“Maelstrom, Axis, Abyss, let’s focus on the facts of the case.”

“You’re no fun.”

“The purpose of this hearing is to appropriately sort the petitioner, not to have fun.”

The purpose of this is to determine if she ever gets to have fun ever again or if she winds up in the Abyss! Apparently!!!!

"I apologize for my role in the digression, your honor."

The protean rolls their eyes at their neighbors.

…and does not get a response from the lyrakien, who is trying to behave.

The demon flips the protean off but in a desultory way.