Fine, Galfrey will do the thing which is exactly as honorable or dishonorable and has exactly the same consequences but is technically permitted under the wording of the treaty. "In that case, Knight-Commander Aspex is removed from command of the Crusade for refusal to follow a legal order." Meaningful look at the self-appointed treaty arbiter sent by Hell (Hell has the budget for this but not the budget to send devils to participate in the Crusade?) and at Lord Cansellarion.

Oh, she's just paying patient attention and not saying a word. She's not a treaty lawyer, she's a treaty observer. Whether this is legal or not will be someone else's job to figure out later.

Why would you do any of this in front of the Asmodeans who are specifically here to spy on what you are doing on the orders of Hell. "Her Majesty has every right to remove the Knight Commander of the Crusade, for any reason or none," he says.

"Aspex, I name you under arrest on suspicion of treason and heresy. Will you surrender peacefully?" She does not look like she thinks there's any possibility that he will.

"Technically, as you just removed him from his post, you don't have jurisdiction over his person, and the Fane is outside of Mendevian territory so you don't have territorial jurisdiction either. You can't legally arrest him until we're back in Drezen any more than Regill here can legally arrest you." She doesn't know if it's true or not but it sounds plausible enough and buys time.

"By the laws governing the defense of the Wound, I have the right to arrest him for crimes committed on Mendevian territory," she says. "To shelter him from justice itself violates the treaty." She doesn't remember which subsection but she is damn sure that when Cheliax demands she hand over some guy who wanted to be part of the Mendevian army instead of the Chelish army she has to hand him over, and it works the same way here.

"Section seven, clause twelve." says Regill, unhelpfully.

It's kind of funny, that he does take this as a very different matter than ordering his people off into the Abyss when out of spells and low on healing. Galfrey clearly doesn't see it as a different matter at all, which is informative about whether this trial will last any longer than, or take any form different from, the first one he witnessed on arriving in this time, Hulrun with the Desnans.

But she's not dragging his men into it. And she's not pretending it's something that it's not. That is different. 

Which isn't to say he feels obliged to cooperate. But - if he fights his way out he shows Hell his hand, and he would in fact rather die than do that. Alfirin's here. It won't be permanent. 

"My existing will and testament, which I hereby revise, leaves all my possessions and all my resources to the Fifth Mendevian Crusade. I think I'll instead leave them to Felandriel Morgethai. de Litran, if you want to do litigation on my behalf, get out of this Abyssal place and go argue in Absalom that my insurance should pay out. It usually doesn't, for treason, but treason charges are rarely so transparently pretextual."

He drops his sword. 

That was unexpected.

She'll turn to one of her bodyguards "- Search him." Eyes are on everyone... they'll need to haul him back to hold a trial, but the first priority is getting him shackled. She has a pair of mithral manacles in her Bag of Holding, which ought to help with spellcasting, and then they can worry about arresting Daeran, who is almost certainly not going to go quietly...

(Another of her bodyguards will pick up the sword with tongs and put it into a Bag of Holding.)

Indeed he's watching this whole proceeding with disgust and fury. "I hope, Aspex, that you were not deceived by the shiny armor into concluding that paladins conduct fair trials."

In the midst of the unexpected assassination attempt turned - by the intervention of Hell! which should be presumed to have none of their interests at heart! - show trial he forgot the urgent request from Liotr. Don't give Daeran reason to believe he's at risk. The Other will emerge, and we can't handle it. 

Shit. There is no credible way to communicate that to Galfrey now. 

(His Bags of Holding don't open. His armor is very expensive and all of his gear is very nice. He does not resist its removal.)

"I don't think I've ever heard of anyone being determined, at trial, not guilty," Daeran goes on consideringly. "Except paladins. Really, it's a damning enough fact about the rest of us, that we're not paladins. In a just country, all nonpaladins would be killed, and there'd be only virtue as far as the eye could see."

Now there's someone who should maybe be talked around to Asmodeanism. Tyranny but it's honest! 

Marit is blindingly angry with himself and Galfrey and Hell and - mostly himself - 

Telepathic Bond. He can make the spell still so he can cast it in handcuffs but he can't make it silent at the same time; he mutters the incantation angrily to himself and hopes the paladin searching him doesn't recognize it. He targets Catherine and Alfirin both, separately.

If the powerful entity possessing Daeran believes it's under threat it'll kill everybody in this room. Well. It'll try. There's a lot going on, in this room. But I don't want to bet on us. Catherine should take Daeran's arm and leave for Absalom - they'll figure it's boots - I know it's a leak with Hell watching and I'm sorry -

Galfrey does not have the energy to put up with Daeran right now. It's a shame his parents had such a rotten kid.

"The trial will be fair," she says flatly. "Count Arendae, you are also under arrest."

The what now?

Hell already knows. Probably. 

She puts a hand on Daeran's shoulder and says "Don't resist, it'll be ok, somehow - " as if she's talking about the arrest while she conspicuously hides the fact that she's tapping her heels together as they teleport.

"Yes, I'd have arrested the Galtan first," she says dryly.

"I don't believe treaty observers have any right to talk." Okay, who else do they need to arrest?

"It's dangerous to teleport under these planar conditions! I must ask them if they experienced any interesting mishaps."

"Chief, what do you want us to do -"

"I"m not in charge of the Crusade, and none of you are obligated to obey me. But if you are asking a friend for advice, go back to your people and tell them to keep holding the wall against the demons, that's not any less important than it was yesterday."

Sosiel is confused and upset but not in a way where there's an obvious person to beat up about it (he knows beating up the Queen would be bad.)

Seelah is also confused and upset and is blinking kind of miserably at the place where Catherine and Daeran vanished.