Paula probably could have predicted this, if she'd been warned sooner of Tomàs's plans. But she's a failed signifer candidate, one step above a laundry wizard, effectively life-indentured to the Order of the Pike because of her school debts, so she wouldn't have told the Mistress of Blades that her plan was flawed unless asked.

So after a week's hard riding, she's been walking around the city with simple gray robes and the badge of the Pike on a brooch, asking for somewhere a Hellknight might stay for the convention.

A girl, dressed like one of the all too common street urchins, overhears some of this.  It seems like a possible tenant... the Abbess would prefer delegates, but the coin from other people wouldn't hurt, and it might cover some for deliberately collecting delegates if there are more ordinary tenants mixed in as well.  

And then she spots the badge... and she can't recognize it, but she does memorize it for identification later.  Maybe it's a sign it's a delegate, or someone important!  Being dressed in urchin clothes was already a point in favor of reporting back to the monastery before taking any action, the possibility it's a delegate definitely warrants returning first.

She lingers a bit longer, possibly noticeably if the woman is keenly aware of her surroundings, and overhears that the request is for a Hellknight!  Exciting!  She runs off to get back to the abbey quickly!

The badge is clearly that of the Hellknight Order of the Pike.  As Hellknights go, well, they focus on hunting beasts and monsters as opposed to heretics or criminals.  Considering Thea's own past, many people might prefer dealing with them over her.  And they are lawful, which is nice. Thea will be careful and thorough with explaining her limited and simple rules.  She rehearses these rules and conditions of tenancy one more time.  She's already discussed with Dia about what exceptions she might concede.

She approaches the woman.  She is dressed in monkish robes, with her holy symbol of Irori clearly visible.  "I hear you're looking for a place to stay?"

Paula looks over. A warrior, she'd guess, and Irori's symbol is obvious enough.

"Yes, I am. Two women, my superior in the Order of the Pike and myself. I don't need a separate room."

She recites a standard spiel.  "Tenancy is only available to women, girls, and boys under the age of 11 with a mother or other female adult custodian.  The rooms are in an underground monastery, it's well lit by continual flames.  The price for one person, one room is a silver piece per day.  Adding another person to sharing room is an additional 5 coppers.   This prices includes decent stew for dinner, tolerable porridge for breakfast, plenty of clean water, laundry once a week at a set time by our resident wizard, optional participation in morning and evening stretches and warm-up exercises.  Optional add-ons sold by the day include 3 additional coppers for a light lunch, 15 silvers for a cure light wounds given a day's notice, and with a 50 silver piece collateral value, access to our rather sparse library for a day for 1 copper piece.  I'll announce price or rules changes at least 5 days in advance.  And I might have to if things get crowded."

And she continues "Rules for tenancy are.. quiet hours are several hours after sun down to sunrise, we have an evening bell indicating quiet hours, don't damage anything, don't attack anyone, if you have an issue with other tenants, students,. or residents please inform my without escalating to violence first.  If I have any issues with rule violations, I'll communicate them clearly.  If the issue isn't resolved, I'll ask you to leave and refund you for that day."

She finally pauses, and then breaking from her pre-memorized script "You can come look at the monastery and rooms first before making up your mind?"

"We should, but I think Mistress Tomàs will approve. Can you give me directions to the monastery entrance?"

She gives a description of where it is relative to them, landmarks around it and "- and it is within the old crematorium.  I can have a student waiting by the crematorium entrance to guide you further in to the entrance of the monastery itself, if you indicate what time you expect to be by?"

"Soon; I expect at least an hour but less than three. I suspect Mistress Tomàs can find her own way in, though."

"The entrance within the crematorium was originally secret, but it's not that big of a building and we leave it open.  Very well, I'll see you then."

She's laid out her rules and conditions clearly, and she can check later that this woman explained them to her Mistress.

As promised, in a couple hours an armored Hellknight (helm off, revealing a severe black-haired woman approaching middle age) approaches the crematorium with Paula following behind. She's inspecting the floor for tracks to guess the way to the formerly-secret entrance when they're noticed.

They clean the floor reasonably often, and the crematorium itself is still in limited use, but for a good eye it is in fact discernable which way to the entrance.  And their greatest fear is their former Senior Sisters, who already know the main entrance (and two secret ones besides that).

Dia convinced Thea to let her take the lead on this.  She has put on the face of her Sisters: somewhat closed off, but overall naïve and open compared to a typical Chelish person.

She looks 14, maybe 15, short and much less muscular than Thea, but what little muscle she does have looks wiry and hard.

"Hello, would you like me to show you to the room you would have?  And would you like me to remind you of the rules and terms of tenancy here?"

Anna attempts a smile. "Please do, on both counts. What brought a monastery of Irori to nest inside a crematorium?"

Dia gives almost word for word the exact same spiel speech Thea did including both the terms and rules "-and if the issue isn't resolved, the Abbess will ask you to leave and refund you for that day."

"If you will follow me" and Dia begins to lead them through a long, downward sloping hall, lit by continual flames within sconces built (or stone-shaped) directly into the walls.

"This crematorium was once a temple and monastery dedicated to Eiseth, with the crematorium serving as a thin front and a way to dispose of bodies beyond any means short of True Resurrection.  Shortly after the Four Day War, all of the fully initiated Sisters abandoned it together.  They saw fit to neither slay us acolytes, or take us with them, or give us any clear instructions whatsoever.  Thea, who became our Abbess, had the initiative and will to seek out a new patron, and became an empowered cleric of Irori.  Since then she has reshaped our training to be closer in line with Irori's will and has sought out ways to support our continued training, such as taking on tenants like yourself."

She nods along at the rules, and has no objections.

"Interesting. I fought a monk-assassin once, many years ago. She wanted one of my recruits dead, a noble heir. She never revealed her training, but I think Sisters of Eiseth were suspected."

"That seems plausible.  The Senior Sisters destroyed or took all of the records, so we don't have a way of knowing what our predecessors did."  They could compare fighting styles and methods used, but Dia sees little benefit to reminding anyone of their past, so she is going to think carefully before pointing that out.

And they come to a more brightly lit area.

"And this is our main chamber: a common area, training ground, and largest open space."

The main chamber is a large well lit area that seemingly opens up to the sky.  A second glance shows the chamber isn't open to the sky, but rather, it's a permanent illusion showing a clear bright blue sky with source less sunlight.

Across the open floorspace, around a dozen student train.  Some of them are striking and practicing moves against hard wooden dummies with wooden posts sticking out of them.  Several pairs are sparing or grappling, most of the pairs doing body hits only and not striking at full force.

One of the oldest pairs, perhaps each 16 or 17 years of age, is sparring under Thea's personal attention, striking at full force and not avoiding any areas of their opponent.  Thea calls for a halt as one sets up the perfect blow to her opponent's head, and they stop immediately.  She says something to each of them then dismisses them.

"I can take over for you, Dia.  Has Dia reminded you of the terms and rules?"  Of course Dia has, but Thea wants to emphasize their importance.

"If it was one of your senior sisters, they were surely lawless, but I couldn't fault their discipline," Anna says, seeming vaguely approving.

"She listed them," she says to Thea, "and they matched what Scribe Paula relayed to me. I have no objections, though if time allows I might seek to join the sparring on some days."

Thea catches the end of the conversation, she can guess at the context.

“I’ve come to gradually realize, in hindsight, that the Sisterhood of Eiseth inoculated us with a warped sense of Law.”

She pauses for a moment to consider how much to reveal in her response to the question.

“I would like to get some sparring practice with someone new in.  We would need to go over what rules we would spar under carefully first… I’ve realized there is quite a gap between Irori’s teachings and Eiseth’s methods in sparring rules and I don’t know how your order operates.”

A careful observer could see there is some deeper issue bothering Thea.

Dia gives no outward hint at her thoughts but is deeply irritated.  She could tell Thea was trying to be careful, but she gave away far more than she needed to both in word and expression.  She can’t see an angle to intervene or distract either.

"Hell's discipline is harder to achieve than academic Law, in my experience. I am sure many lessons will be worth retaining, though I can't advise continuing to attempt assassinations with them."

"The Pike train frequently by bringing recruits on hunts with genuine threats, and of course against summoned devils, though we use blunted weapons for drill and sparring. A few priests, and signifers with infernal healing cover the whole order's needs for recovery. I would be willing to abide by your rules for sparring unarmed, if you prefer, or we can discuss proper use of training weapons if you want your students to fight an armed style."

She's actually trying to shed or at least rework as many of her old lessons as possible, but it seems impolitic to argue that point now.

At hearing the amounts of healing their training uses, Thea relaxes.  It seems her former Sisterhood was extreme even by the standards of Hellknights?  (At least this order?)

"Judging by the amount of healing you use, it sounds like you have sensible rules for sparring...  I don't have many spells to spare, and I prefer to have one available for emergencies before more intense sparring exercises.  And it isn't our primary focus, but we do have some training weapons we practice with.  Yes, it sounds like we should make time to spare soon, the convention is soon and I don't intend to let my skills get rusty."

She considers the other part of the Hellknight's comment.

"I suspect the Sisterhood of Eiseth lacked gainful opportunities for us to try ourselves against, their primary business of assassination had a high threshold for entry, so they attempted to compensate and strengthen us by using as brutal training and sparring as possible.  Of course, as a monastery of Irori now, we don't currently sell or deal in assassination and I don't plan for us to start.  I've put some very preliminary thoughts into sending the older sisters out (and possibly taking a sabbatical myself) as adventurers to apply our skills and gain practical experience, I figure I'll look more into after the convention."

"Should I show you to your room now?"

"By all means," she says to the suggestion of seeing the room, and continues as they walk. "We have significantly more students, even ignoring the smaller groups training from from our citadel. But one priest and one wizard for a group your size would be considered entirely enough for standard training. For more dangerous training, perhaps more, but I'm unsure what that would look like in a city. You might ask the other orders of Hellknights about their training methods; I understand they've all been offered seats at the Constitutional Convention."

More dangerous training looks like pushing the limit in sparring until someone kills someone with a single blow to the head faster than a cure light wounds can stabilize.  Thea does not say this, or even show more than a slight tension, because she has any self control despite what Dia thinks of her sometimes.  She moves on to less fraught topics.

"I'll probably have the chance to.  I'm not sure I made this clear earlier, I'm going to the convention myself as a delegate of the faith of Irori, so I've been finding other delegates and getting a very general feel for some of their thoughts."  She pauses, to see if the Hellknight has any thoughts or comments on the matter.

And she leads them through a side hallway.

"We are happy to trust Her Majesty Catherine de Litran, but if she requests our presence at her convention, then present I shall be. I expect it to be... messy."

They get to the room.  It is comfortably sized, and shows evidence of having once been richly furnished such as a few threads of silk left on a wall hanging that could have held a nice tapestry.  It is well lit by two continual flames in wall sconces, one shows scratch marks in the stone were it looks like someone tried to pry the continual flame itself out of the wall.  A formerly nice painting of a serpent with dark feathered wings and a raven clutching a Longbow has been scratched almost completely out, and a crude image of an open palm has been shallowly engraved over the center of it.

"We can bring over another bed" The room has more than enough space for it.

"And yes I have some concerns about the convention too... I've heard several interpretations of the Queen's intent for the convention.  I've heard the claim it is intended to openly set the highest laws and precedents like Andoran's Common Rule or Rahadoum's First Law* or Galt's constitution in whatever way the vote may fall.  From Galt's example, the Queen will need all of her skill and strength to manage the process if that is what she intends for the convention.  I've also heard that the convention is intended not so much for any arbitrary vote, but rather to feel out the common custom from many peoples and faiths and enshrine it in formal law.  This seems more manageable to me.  And of course, the obvious simple understanding is that she means to accept oaths of fealty (perhaps with a few arrangements and accommodations made) and the convention is merely a foreign way of describing such a practice."

This is forward, but the Hellknights are lawful and disciplined and might have some important insights.

*Thea does not realize the First Law is part of a title and the actual name of the highest laws are the Laws of Morality.

Anna looks thoughtfully at the scratched painting for a moment before she looks around the rest of the room and nods.

"I think it is unlikely to be the last; we swore loyalty to her already, and including the Hellknights does not seem necessary. Would anyone have remarked if we were left out, between the nobles and the priests? I would guess it is the second, and Her Majesty hopes it can also be the first. Certainly she has experience with the matter, as doomed as it seemed when I read the announcement."

Shit.  If the Hellknights actually think it might be the first, it might be straightforwardly true then.  She was starting to hope the lawyer's interpretation was true, it would be just enough to give her influence and not chaotic enough to risk a civil war.  Still, best to press forward either way.

"I believe her Majesty has the strength to carry out her will...  I have put some preliminary thought into what terms I think would be favorable to myself, Irori, Irori's church, and Cheliax as a whole.  And I'm sure, if your order considers this a request for input from the Queen, they have some terms they would like?"

"When Her Majesty won the Four-Day War, she made significant changes to the leadership and remit of most of the orders of Hellknights, including disbanding the Order of the Rack entirely. The Order of the Pike was left almost entirely intact, and in fact elevated from a minor order to a major one. And the Queen has given us no reason for doubt since. I am not prohibited from expressing opinions, should I develop some, nor from voting as I see fit, but my Lictor is content with the status quo and Her Majesty's wise leadership, and I do not disagree."

"Sensible and pragmatic.  For myself, I would like to secure some financial support for taking on new students and continuing to train students.  As to the actual language of what a constitutional term for that might be, to give a loose guess, perhaps something as broad as 'The Queen shall provide support to lawful churches and institutions and good churches and institutions for the benefit of the nation as her wisdom guides her' and trust the interpretation and implementation to the Queen.  But I suppose your Order has already gotten that, so this would just be putting words to the status quo for them."

There, imply she already basically agrees.

"Something like that. I suppose if we're asked to vote on something like that, I'd support it, but unless they go trying to outlaw us, I don't see much need to speak up."

"Sensible, should I show you around the rest of the monastery?"

She checks with Paula, who shrugs and slumps slightly.

"That seems amenable. May Paula wait here while we do? She is not as used to long rides as I am."

"That's fine.  You've already seen the main chamber.  Let's see... we have a very sparse library, mess hall, cistern with water distribution, several storage areas- but I don't think you need access to them... what else... I didn't ask if either of you are casters, we have a few rooms deeper and off to the side designed to be relatively more durable for moderate spell testing (no higher than 2nd circle I think, I have no documentation for them)"

"Paula is a first-circle wizard, but she is not a combatant. I am not a spellcaster. I would look in on the library."

She lead on, back through the main chamber, down another hall, and into a the library.

The library is a moderately sized room, with around a two dozen or so bookshelves, with only 6 separate shelves at least partly filled (all on different bookshelves).  A top shelf in the back of the room is filled, another closer shelf mostly filled at a middle height, a close bottom shelf completely filled.  Spread across three separate partly filled shelves are novels.  There are two tables with chairs, enough to seat a dozen people or so.  A child is sitting reading a novel, with the a new, cheaply made copy of Acts of Iomedae on the table next to her.

"The fully initiated sisters took everything of any value when they fled, including almost all the books.  I've since rebuilt the library book by book... it is still a work in progress."

"No order is complete without its store of knowledge, religious or otherwise. Rebuilding it is commendable. The collateral, would that cover myself and Paula, or separately?"

She thinks a moment.  "Together is fine, I expect it very unlikely to come up."

"As would I, but I would not presume. Likely I will take you up on that, more for her than myself." If you leave wizards with nothing to do but magic, they get strange. She's never seen this happen to first-circle wizards but she's pretty sure it's why all the powerful ones turn out crazy. A silver or two at most to keep the scribe sane is a bargain.

"Of course.  And as I said earlier, you can pay by the day.  If I get a lot more tenants and the library proves exceptionally popular with the tenants such as to crowd the library, I might raise the rate, but as I said before, I'll announce that at least 5 days in advance."

She looks across the room, as if waiting for a question. She's not as quite eager to explain all the books she has as she was with Nuria, but she likes her little collection and is still happy to explain it!

Anna... observes this. But she really isn't a big reader; she'll probably consult some of the divine texts, later, but she reads for practical purposes. What's the polite thing to say?

"I wish you luck in filling the other shelves."

Thea actually catches the hint!

"I should show you the mess hall then?"

"Please. Best to see that before we formally agree."

"I think our stew is a selling point but it's still two hours or so until dinner."

She leads them back across the main chamber, down another hallway.

They reach a large room with long tables, it could probably seat a hundred if they sat closely, fifty comfortably.  This room also has a permanent illusion on the ceiling, but it is a more ominous reddish glow instead of a pleasant sky.  The walls are painted with a tesseract of stylized ravens and serpents.  There is some painting over them in progress, only about a tenth of the way done, turning the serpents into snails and changing the wing shape and color of the ravens.  Towards the side of the mess hall there is a smell of slow cooking stew coming from a side room or hall (perhaps the kitchen?).

"It smells flavorful enough," she says politely, "I think that's everything I ought to check. We'll stay here for the duration, for the price you specified."

"I'm glad to hear that."

She thinks a moment.

"Would you like to get a light spar in before dinner?  I have a pair of cure light wounds prepared - " And she realizes how this may sound " - for emergencies or accidents, I don't expect we'll need them."

"Hmm. Tempting, but while I'm not as easily tired as my scribe, I confess I'd rather rest. Another day, though, certainly."

"Of course, I'll see you at dinner then?  We have a bell a half hour before dinner and another bell just prior to serving dinner.  It won't matter if you arrive a bit later, we have plenty of stew and won't put it away until an hour after the dinner bell.  Can you make your way back to your room okay, I don't find the halls confusing but I've lived here almost all my life?  And I'll have another bed moved to your room within a quarter hour."

She counts out twelve silver for the first week and hands them over.

"It's simple enough to trace, but it is polite of you to ask. I will see you at dinner."