"I'm at least the right woman for the job; they respect the opinion of the common people, particularly in my city of Kintargo, and there'd surely be rebellion already without my popularity there. But yes, it's exhausting to try to keep peace between two sides who ought to be my allies and who want, near as I can tell, the same things."

"Is there some symbolic concession on offer that'd satisfy them? Ravounel has a special status, Kintargo is a free city and elects all its mayors, the constitution guarantees some - I'm sorry, I don't know much about revolutionaries, you'd think the pamphlets would be informative but they really aren't -"

"I hope so, but I haven't found it yet. I'm hoping whatever the Queen approves for the constitution will be something that reassures them she isn't planning... some unspecified tyranny the moment they turn their backs. I'll certainly have to lobby against any sort of union or conquest with our eastern neighbors, even Isger, or they'll be insufferable."

"But surely the cause of freedom would be better served by Isger being elevated to an archduchy whose ruler sits among equals than a satellite state directly held by the Queen in her person!"

"Ah, but, you see, it would show she's conquering and trying to secure her power and enforce uniformity... Or some such argument, I think it is very much a matter of emotion and aesthetic, not logic or even solid principle. My last resort, if I think they cannot be dissuaded, is to beg Her Majesty to make Ravounel independent on much the same terms as Isger, with myself or another kept as an intermediate vassal. I am mostly confident they would accept that as enough independence, and it's much less symbolic than I'd like, even if the Queen approves."

"I don't think Cheliax can afford to be splintered even slightly, not now."

"It does seem a remarkably poor time for it. But no god ever promised us that we will only face challenges we are equal to."

"My intent for the convention is to propose a series of committees - on the rights of the churches, on neighborly relations, on rooting out diabolism, on taxation - so that we can get the thing written in a group that's small enough to be functional. It sounds like it'd be most useful to you to chair something on - the rights of the Queen's subjects? Andoran-style?"

"That sounds appropriate. I can negotiate with the few radicals I'm sure have slipped in one way or another, and the Asmodean tendencies, and write something sane and moderate."

Jilia sighs, and shrugs.

"But I've been monopolizing the topic, haven't I? Are there matters you've been preoccupied with?"

"I thought I had it bad before I heard how many more problems everyone else had!" And she'll pull in the Archduke of Sirmium to retell his mummy lord story, which is also a good opportunity to ask him which committee he wants to chair. 

The Archduke of Sirmium will tell his mummy lord story again! It's a good story. The mummy lord had apparently been there since halfway throught he war, apparently; he was an adventurer who'd spend his fortune building some tremendously garish buildings - ever been to Ostenso? Seen the Tower of God in Man? Exactly. - rose as undead when someone looted his tomb in the war and then discovered half his buildings had been torn down and nobody'd ever heard of them and devoted the rest of his unlife to assassinating and scheming and plotting everyone who stood between him and preserving the rest and building newer, ghastlier ones "dedicated to the memory of Jhandorage Vaulnder Alexayn". Undead.

Committee on Borders and Geography seems particularly important. He expects Her Majesty the Queen will appoint a closer acquaintance of hers to chair the committee on War*, but he hopes to have a seat.

(*: The euphemism "National defense" is anachronistic.)

Undead, indeed. Speaking of the Queen's close acquaintances, has anyone been properly introduced to the Inquisitor Shawil? Or the paladin Cansellarion? An acquaintance of the Queen who isn't an eccentric political radical seems like they might be of use in planning for the convention to be productive.

Xavier has a passing acquaintance with Cansellarion, but not well; they both have lands in the upper reach*, but his cousin Feliu knows him somewhat better; they served at the Worldwound together.

(*: Euphemism for Molthune, the northernmost province of Cheliax, referring to Molthune specifically as a province of Cheliax.)

"We've spoken; I spent some time at his new estate at Lladó, after I was turned back from stone. We didn't get much into politics, but he seems a sensible man, and devoted to the Goddess."

"Everything I've heard speaks very well of him. But manages not to include any political opinions. The Church when I knew it was pointedly disinterested in Chelish politics but they can't be pleased with how that turned out."

"One might suspect his political opinions are ones he doesn't care to express; perhaps he wants to avoid antagonizing the Archmage?"

"The alliance of the Archmagi is certainly worth a great deal to Cheliax even if substantial concessions must be made for it. But - many of us long to hear from the Church about how it sees the Goddess's greatest priorities in the present. ...do you suppose he'll actively take offense, if I have him chairing the committee for it? No one else'll take it for fear of insulting him."

"He obviously should chair it, and I don't imagine him to be the sort of man to take offense at anything true."

"I imagine a chair can be scrupulously neutral as well as a delegate, should he feel the need. And if he should choose not to attend, there will be no fear of insult. ...You might ask him first if he ought to chair War, if we are to have it, and you have the opportunity."

"I don't want to overstep... we're here in service of Her Majesty and there's no way a horde of six hundred people can do anything faintly useful, and there's too much important work we're leaving undone at home to let this drag out as a performance. But I don't want to appear to be weighing in on any appointment which she'd naturally have an interest in."

"That's fair enough. I rather suspect she won't permit us to render opinions on war at all; that seems the last thing you'd surrender willingly, if you intended to keep calling yourself a monarch."

"You could task the committee with, I don't know, the forms she ought to use when she calls us to war, whether to readopt the Imperial ones. ...possibly the wisest course, really, is to have all of the headline committees tasked with things like that and all of the working committees that actually need to get something done titled something like 'a report commissioned for the queen on strategic and diplomatic questions surrounding rapprochement with our northern neighbors'." She raises an eyebrow at her scribe to make sure he caught that.