Lucía bobs up and down, in a gesture towards a curtsey, and then gets off her cloud. "Condesa Lucía Velacruz i Montemayor de Halmyris-  how perfectly splendid to make your acquaintance!" She grins, and seems completely guileless in it. "Are you here for the Constitutional Convention with the Conde? Mequinenza? I haven't met them- I only became the heir a short while ago, and the Condesa even shorter! Isn't this an interesting city? Halmyris isn't a tenth the size!"

She thinks this is the thing where Asmodeans are really good liars? That's her best guess, anyway. "My grandfather is the Conde, but he's in poor health and can't travel. So I'm attending here for him, since I'm his heir."

Lucía nods, understanding. "Oh, but then you can't have long to wait!" she says, with excitement, and then pauses- "Or is he merely waiting for a priest to become available?" Lucía frowns. "I'm not used to there not being any available- we have a priest of Abadar in Halmyris that came over on the ships, but he charges what the market will bear. What kind of place is Mequinenza? In Sirmium, isn't it?

"In Sirmium. Poor and full of monsters" a large portion of whom are undead who work for her grandfather, which is how they're still there "and too near the Whisperwood." Aspexia-Isona is kind of creeped out that Lucia is excited by the thought that her grandfather will die. What sort of person would want their grandfather to die just so they could inherit? "We have a priest; the problem is just that he's a very old man, and, well, old age..."

If she gets for breath after trailing off "- what's Halmyris like?"

Lucía nods. "Oh, it is a port, and we have a little castle on the hill above! We had many wizards there, but many have gone over the sea now, and many who were rich likewise. Still, the shipping continues to increase, so perhaps there will be many rich merchants again." 

"Oh, old age!  My Uncle Rodrigo, the old Conde, was executed for being very Evil, and it was well deserved! What kind of Priest did you get? I still haven't decided on what god to pick. Do you have one?" 

"He's a priest of Irori," because it was the traveling priest of Irori who took being turned into a vampire by her grandfather so he could have someone to channel negative energy best. "I don't particularly have a god I worship." 

Lucía looks excited. "Oh, yes, Irori! I would like to be perfect, I think." She blinks. "And now you're here representing your grandfather. Is he a particular ally of yours, or are you aligning towards some other power? What are your goals for the Convention? I've been thinking about what kind of Constitution I want, and asked around some, but I certainly want to claim I know much about it."

WHAT

SERIOUSLY

WHAT

"He's my grandfather? Our goals are mostly just to make sure the worship of Asmodeus is outlawed" and I don't get burned at the stake for being an abomination unto Pharasma "and things aren't too much of a disaster, and taxes aren't raised too high and that sort of thing? What do you think about the Constitution?"

Lucía is beginning to suspect that Aspexia has a different relationship to her family than what she's used to. "Did you have much control over your Asmodean priests before the revolution? Ours- my Uncle's chaplain- was- uh- a problem." She touches the long scar on her skull absently, staring into the distance for a moment.

She looks back. "Not the worst I've heard of, but quite bad. We had him torn limb from limb!" Lucía grins as happily as Aspexia has seen her so far. "I got to give the order! I should certainly think we should make Asmodeanism illegal."

"Oh- we tax the ships that come into port. I think there's a rule not to tax too much, or you get fewer ships. The Abadarian does lectures. For the constitution I think I want a senate! That seems good for keeping our privileges!" 

"We were in hiding before the war, but my grandfather had them killed once he took over again." He and the other vampires ate them.

(Aspexia is now wondering if Lucia's scar is a sign of some mental damage that didn't heal? Chelish people can't all be like this.)

"Why not just put things back the way they were before the war? Cheliax was functional then."

"That's so exciting! I think you're the first person I've met, other than some sailors and merchants, who grew up without a priest around! What was it like? How ever did you hide from both church and state?"

Lucía bounces.

"Oh- since we're both delegates, we should be friends!"

"- Sure!" she says, she's not sure why. "Let's be friends -" she's supposed to make allies, right? "Um, we were hiding in my grandfather's old ruined castle, and he made people think that it was haunted, and we... were... the adventurers the Count called in whenever someone complained about problems there." He made people think it was haunted by having it be haunted.

"That sounds amazing! I wouldn't have expected that to work! Did you all have rings of sustenance? Are your family very strong adventurers?" 

She looks a bit embarrassed. "I'm just first circle- I'm a sorceress- but I'm definitely going to try to push that out a bit as soon as I have time! Oh, and I want a senate, because if we make a senate that Condesas and above can sit in- and I think mages above 5th circle should get a vote, they're so strong- and perhaps very rich people? Then we can advise the queen when she makes bad decisions! It's like an extra bit of power for us!"

"Well, my grandfather is very strong, and the rest of us have picked up enough for monster hunting."

"... I think if we're at Westcrown advising the queen all the time we won't be able to run our estates very well? Maybe the fifth-circle wizards will be able to, but not everyone else?"

Lucía looks briefly a little poleaxed, and she chews her lip for a moment. "I don't imagine the queen will need our help all the time. Maybe when she wants new taxes, or wars, or laws? I think they don't think the Senate is always in the capital, even abroad. And New Cheliax should be rich enough for for the people to live very far away to be teleported too."

"Teleportation spells are very expensive. You can bind a demon to serve you for years with that, or an angel to make the land fertile."

She nods. "I suppose! But isn't that because the government used all the good wizards for the worldwound? And I know many ran away- my sister's husband's mother ran away to Osiron, and she's a great wizard there."

"Maybe?" She thinks wizards were rare and expensive before the war, too. "But inviting all the counts to a Senate would take almost three hundred teleportation spells to bring them there and send them back."

She smiles. "I wouldn't need one. Halmyris is quite close. If we had our own ship, and you know, stopped the pirates, we could get to the capital in a few days. I think there's magic between teleportation and walking too- but I was never any good at magic in school. Do you have any spells?"

"I'm second circle," she says. It's really not very impressive to be second circle but it is somewhat to be second circle before it's really unambiguous that the Church of Sarenrae will let you marry. " - Adventurer."