She's still wearing her handmade wooden holy symbol. (She could afford to buy herself a nicer one, in theory, but it sort of feels like it would defeat the point.)

"I wasn't either! Are you looking forward to the convention?"

"More than some are, I imagine, and less than others. Yourself?"

"I am!"

She touches her holy symbol. "I'm hoping we'll be able to — help things work out for the better." Glance towards the nobility section. "Not that it'll be easy, but."

"I'm not sure the convention's exactly structured for that, but it's at least structured so we can meet people, see what they need help with."

Nod. She's still not entirely sure how this is all supposed to work, exactly.

"Have you had the chance to meet many people yet?"

"A few before the convention. I talked to the druid for a while, she's - interesting. At it only you."

"I didn't realize there were druids here at all!"

And the fact that they are says... confusing... things about the Queen's intentions for this convention.

"Only one I'm sure of - I thought there was another one but she had a Gozreh holy symbol. Here as a sort of diplomat for forests broadly construed, I think."

How can there be a diplomat for a forest. Trees don't talk. —not important right now.

"Interesting! What sort of things do forest-diplomats care about?"

"Territory! They don't like it when people clear away forest, that moves the border."

"Huh! I guess that makes sense. Heard anything else interesting, so far?"

"There's some good pamphlets among the silly ones. I quite liked the one about abolishing travel permits, I have one good across the whole country but I thought on it and if I didn't need it any more it'd make a nice ring."

"Oh, I haven't seen that one! It's a good idea, though, nothing good can come of leaving that sort of thing to the nobility." 

She is not nearly brave enough to say she liked the one with all the denouncements where this many people could overhear and report her. "There were a few about land reform that I thought were interesting— I can't say that I know how best to manage it, but something's got to give." 

"That one I wouldn't say I know as much about as travel. What's there to reform about the land?"

"It's just like the travel passes, really— so much of it is in the hands of the nobility, people end up with no choice but to put up with whatever the nobles demand of them. Here, I've got a pamphlet—"

"Huh. I'm city-bred, wouldn't know if there was something silly about it, but it sounds all right."

"Huh, really? What were you travelling for?"

"Mail delivery! It's a lovely job, you get to travel around all over and meet lots of people."

...She is suddenly incredibly curious how a mail carrier ends up as a Calistrian priest, but that's not really the sort of thing you can just ask.

"Neat! This is my first time in the city, or really anywhere that's not where I grew up."

"I actually came up not half a mile from here. My mother still lives there, though I've had to find somewhere else to crash, it's not suited to guests."

Nod nod.

"How'd you get into the mail delivery business?"

"Bit of a sorcerer. Can't do laundry, can do Mount. I started out on the Westcrown to Westpool route, you can do that without sleeping if you've got enough fresh horses in your pocket and there's plenty of low-security mail on such a short leg, and everything I took got to its recipient and nobody complained about me, so I started being offered longer hauls and the permits to go with them till I was couriering from here to Isger, picking up and dropping off everywhere I stopped."

She's still a little confused about how Calistria wound up choosing him but she wouldn't have done it without a good reason, and besides he seems like a very decent fellow.

"Isger? What's that like?"

"I liked it there, they're a protectorate but they weren't quite so infested, lots of social nooks and crannies for people to hide in that there weren't in Cheliax proper. Bit more difficult to get laid there for some reason though. - mind, I have no idea if it'd be harder with girls."

"I imagine finding a girl'd be pretty different anywhere, really. I guess I don't know if it's harder in Isger than anywhere else."

She has the vague impression that as a Calistrian priestess she's supposed to be doing more of that sort of thing but she was absolutely not going to take up with anyone back home.

"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.