"My favorite route was through Sirmium. After you hug the coast to get past the Whisperwood, there's just lots of long straight safe roads through miles and miles of farms. And Brastlewark, though I've only been through there once."

"With the— gnomes, right?"

"That's right! They're such funny little guys."

"I've never met one before! It's cool that you've been so many places."

"Yeah, I like my job. I hope this whole thing wraps up in a few weeks and I can get on the road again."

Nod. "I honestly have no idea how long it's likely to last!"

"Weeks, probably months. I really hope not years, half the delegates have farms to go back to even if I'd be fine."

"What would we even have to talk about for years?"

"Beats me! But there's a lot of people and a lot of them are never going to agree and if we have to sit their till we agree or the Queen's fed up, I'm not sure how long she'll take to get fed up."

"—they can't possibly expect all of us to agree on something, can they?"

"I don't know, do you?"

"I don't know either, but we'd be there forever if they did that!"

"Well, maybe they expect it and it'll take five years for them to stop expecting it."

She looks faintly horrified. "There's hundreds and hundreds of people here! I would hope it's pretty obvious that not everyone will agree on anything."

"I guess we'll see what it turns out they really want from us! Maybe they think if they keep us cooped up together long enough somebody'll give in on any disagreements."

"I mean, I'll give in if it turns out I'm wrong about something. But I'm not going to vote for something Evil just to go home sooner, even if they threaten to keep us here for the rest of our lives."

"I don't think they really will. But I'm not making any plans that require being out of Westcrown or having a day off just yet."

Nod nod. "Me neither."

And now it looks like people are actually quieting down. Raimon nods companionably at her and focuses on the Archmage-President.