"I don't expect it to help much," she says, and then gives him a very abridged summary. "I just - don't like that I snapped at Cardona like that, I don't think someone else would have done better for him but it's still feels bad," 

(the hairpets have her squeezing herself against him, eyes closing as she calms down a bit more.)

"Seminary filters for Wisdom and Law as best they can but not for Evil. They can just make people worse. Our culture is very much oriented around making people worse. I don't know how much of it is that and how much of it is how people are on their own."

"I've met people this bad but - anywhere else, they're rare, and - usually I can just walk away. ...probably I should have just walked away from the third guy before getting mad." She sighs tiredly.

Solemn nod.

She really wants to fall asleep in his arms but this would be maybe the worst night ever to start sleeping in his room or otherwise have rumors flying around. She'll regretfully disentangle herself before too long and do her usual song and dance flavorings at dinnertime.

Blai takes dinner in the dungeons, re-doing Cardona's spiritual counseling over stew, and then can be seen going up the stairs.

In the morning, there's a Zone of Truth. Cecília gets a turn in it too, to compensate for some of them making their saves, but these are not very Wise men; only one of them does, and all the other men and Cecília point him out confidently.

There's not a preexisting setup for swiftly beheading people because most executions were supposed to be more drawn out than that, before, but there's a butcher block and it does not have to be in the kitchens twenty-four hours a day. Blai sends Farre y Puig into the kitchen wing to borrow it and the butcher's cleaver, and he recites the relevant prayers from the back of the book, seven times, as it comes down. Venn is obviously not obliged to supervise, though she might notice Farre y Puig Prestidigitating the borrowed items clean on the way back into the kitchen with them. The condemned are all too Chelish to holler about it.

Venn will sure not be suprivising! She going to see if Cecília needs anything from her.

Venn is not a man so she's allowed in the kitchen if she wants. Cecília is fussing with the fire under the porridge. She looks flatly at Venn when she comes in and goes back to what she's doing.

...yeah that seems like a no, which is extremely valid of her.

Venn invents some pretext to be talking to someone else in the kitchen and then leaves once she has satisfied her urge to look like she was here for something else.

Txell's not on dish duty till midafternoon but if she wants to come help her then she can sure, bye.

Bye! 

And then it's time for morning healing and a patrol out eastwards with Txell's squad.

"I'd sorta liked Estanislau. I knew he was an idiot but lots of people are idiots," says one of the martials on the squads.

Venn doesn't really know what to say to that, but she's much less talkative in the field, so maybe it will go unremarked that she doesn't respond.

"Yeah," says another, "Estanislau was all right."

And then they all fall quiet till a third guy starts singing.

...Venn will sing too, more quietly than usual, the lyrics not in a language anyone here (including her) speaks. 

Blai's patrol delay for the executions means that he's out till dinner, a few hours later than originally planned, but he is there in time to eat in the dining hall, catching up with Grec about what's gone down in his absence.

His bard is there, doing her usual evening mess hall routine!

(If she's slightly subdued from her usual sunny self, well, it's only slightly; Blai is probably one of only a few people at fort #11 who can reliably tell.)

Blai can cause him and Grec to be over at that table but he could not then do much of value with the proximity, so he permits Grec to pick a spot (Grec is the "closest unoccupied seats, regardless of who's around" type), and they eat, and if Venn wants a chess game (or anything) she can come up to his office after he's gone up to it.

She'll wait a while and then do that!

She mostly wants to be held. They can play a game of chess while hugging, though. 

Chess improves everything it has been found to be compatible with so far. This is also true of holding Venn.

Venn is playing less well today, presumably on account of the happenings. She's also a bit more clingy than he's used to.

"...usually there's something useful I can do, when the problem is... people stuff," she says quietly, halfway through the first game (her attempt to trade queens fails, costing her a knight for her troubles).

"You did something," he points out.

"...I suppose I did, didn't I." Venn sighs and leans into him. "I... still feel bad?" (She sounds vaguely confused about this, because she is.)

"What would you normally be experiencing instead?"

"...normally I would be sad, because sometimes you try your best and the outcome sucks anyways, but..." oh.

She clings a bit more tightly. "...when the problem is demons or the weather or the strained supply situation, we're all on the same side, even if most of the people here are... different from me, in ways that I'm careful not to forget. But... this..."