"Ah. Did you answer?"

"I said I did not know if I could answer that, but that I could check if I could answer that. I think she made the obvious inference, from that - I don't know if there's anything I could've said that she wouldn't have -"

"As a matter of policy, you are not permitted to discuss things that, if true, would be secret. And on future such occasions, you should just say that. Likewise if the thing you're being asked about is in fact false, but would be a secret if true."

Blindingly obvious and elegant once he says it, plainly one of the things that being a paladin is for. Hard to think of on the spot when the person asking was tortured horribly and nearly damned because no one bothered to tell her, though. 

"- I don't want to discuss further right now because she's waiting, but if there are other policies like that I am evidently not competent to derive them fast enough on the spot, even though I can see how it's obvious. Is there a - book of them -"

"...Yes. I'm sorry, I've been negligent here - usually a new paladin would have learned all of this when they were in training - Oh you haven't had illegal orders training either - Finish your conversation. Then report back here and we'll sort this out, see if there's anything else I overlooked."

"Yes, sir."

"As a general rule I can't say anything because if it were true it'd be secret."

"As a general rule I try to do the right thing instead of the thing there's a general rule about," says Andira. 

"Yep, it's the underlying - actually, do you want to have this conversation, you look a bit tired already and possibly I should've interpreted that as you wanting to tell me off, which absolutely worked, and not as you wanting to have a conversation about law versus chaos -"

" - I am curious what you have to say in response."

"If you want me to give you money I very happily will. If you consider yourself wronged by me that seems very fair of you. But if we disagree about whether it can help, to draw a general rule and follow it when this is plainly not - fair - then I think probably that's because we've mostly seen people draw different lines. I have seen how rich free countries choose where to make their general rules, not as a way out of their obligation to think for themselves and not as a way to drag people down and make them Evil. 

...in the country I traveled in before I came here, which is - a free country, much more like Andoran than like any other place in this world they had managed to enforce a taboo on hitting children. It wasn't done. If anyone did it, they'd call special police who protect children from crimes committed against them by their parents. Because if you make it acceptable some parents will be vaguely reasonable and some parents will beat their children half to death and the children won't know when it's reasonable and when it's not, whether the thing that's being done to them isn't the same thing being done to all their friends. Whereas if you tell all the children at school ‘no one should ever hit you, no one should ever touch you in any way you don't like'.

And that's what they did, that's what they told them all …that's what I think of, when I think of general rules. That sometimes you want to weave your messy way through every detail saying ‘look, this case is clearly different from this case', and sometimes you want to draw a great black line down through the whole world and say ‘no special pleading'. The country I travelled through banned slavery except as a punishment for a crime and that still seemed to me to be a little too much like trying to weave our messy way through every detail, where there was the option to instead say ‘go fuck yourself, no, I'm not looking at the details'. 

And I am very sorry that you were taken prisoner in the operation to grab me but I'm not in fact sorry for having a general rule about secrets. I promise it is not sparing me any anguish, here. But I think there are some things you - hold to even when it hurts more than anything -"

"You can't."

"....hmmmm?"

"Have a rule you'll follow when it hurts more than anything in the world. You can't. I don't care what you think your principles are, you won't have them. When it hurts more than anything in the world."

"I believe you," says Iomedae. 

"I forgive you but only because I'm going to trounce Codwin in the election in two years."

"- all right."

"And I will take the money."

"Yeah, that's very fair."

She returns to Cansellarion.

"Here is a copy of the rules and regulations of the order. You are expected to know them, though you're not required to be able to cite them or quote them verbatim. You are also to attend illegal orders training tomorrow, and to be fitted for a uniform afterward. You're not usually required to wear your uniform. When it's required and when it's forbidden are both covered in the regulations."

She takes the copy of the rules, glances at them. One of them requires her to report if she breaks any of the others, quite sensibly.  "Thank you, sir. - I think on a straightforward reading I broke the secrecy rule today, I didn't give the same answer I'd have given if it'd been a surprise." 

"What exactly did you say?"

"I said, "I don't know if I can answer that. I'm sorry. If you'd like I can check whether I can answer that.' But I think if it'd been false I would've said ‘no', and I think she could and did infer that, because I - was paying attention to - the secret rather than the actual underlying policy."

"I see - in the future, of course, an answer like that might be the one you should give, if you are in fact uncertain as to whether the answer to a question would be secret or not. But it does seem like in this case that was an answer that gave away secret information. Thank you for telling me. There will be no disciplinary action. Do you have any other questions?"