"Hello. I don't believe we've been introduced, are you here for the dinner? Am I late for that?"

"No, not at all, I'm early. Arodea Carlota Guiomar de Chelam." A rueful twist to her expression as she says the first name, but it's the fastest way to communicate that she is resurrected nobility, if he doesn't happen to have paid attention to appointments in Chelam. "I arrived early hoping to find you, actually, my Asmodean predecessor had, among his many less savory hobbies, a mapmaking hobby and has aerial maps of nearly the whole Heartlands. There are some maps of Lladó I've been meaning to pass along to you since I first ran across them but I've been abominably busy."

"Oh! I would be very grateful for that, I don't know if the old count had any maps but if so they burned with the rest of his records. I suppose we are nearly neighbors, now. How is Chelam, I've heard so much variety in how badly different regions have fared over the last century."

She'll smile back at him and pull the maps out of a bag of holding. Lladó and its neighbors for good measure, sketched from the sky by someone with Overland Flight and a good hand and some kind of distance-measuring solution. "I last ruled Chelam during the civil war, and I'd say this isn't quite as awful as that was. It's been difficult, though. I'd replace nearly everyone if I had anyone to replace them with - I don't really think 'please don't lie to my face about problems we are both trying to solve' is that outrageous a standard to hold even Evil people to - and I have no priests.... is the Goddess well? Far be it from me to quibble with Heaven about their priorities but -"

"She is as far as any of us know fine, though she spent much of her ability to act on Golarion during and after the war. So we'll have to do without as many new clerics from Her for a while. It's an inconveniently-timed state of affairs, but not unexpectedly so, and only temporary."

"I am relieved to hear it. I assume then we know almost nothing of Her will for this convention, beyond that it not dissolve into bloodshed? I will confess I have mostly been scheming to get it over with quickly." He looks tired and busy so the best way to be relatable is to also be tired and busy. It doesn't take pretending.

"No descending into bloodshed, no inviting Hell back in to run the country again. No taking the Rahadi path and banning all the gods. Probably there are other things She'd object to that I haven't thought of. I am not, in theory, here representing Her interests, but they will be represented, and while Her clerics do not have that many votes I suspect they will have disproportionate influence. Half the delegates by lot and election probably think Hers is the new state religion, judging by the people in my county."

"Is that false? I suppose we'll decide this month. ...I know we have neither the mandate nor the resources to make it an Iomedaen country but I am not sure that's the same thing. It could be Iomedae's as it used to be Aroden's. There are many many worse things for people to have as a first guess about how to live their life, and She's Chelish...I understand that as a theological point the Church doesn't like making much of that but to little girls it looms rather large." Sheepishly. It's been a long time since she was a little girl and it is not as if it worked out all that well.

"Perhaps this will be an Iomedan country, but not in the way that they are imagining, where they think that if they do not pray enough to Iomedae or defer to Her priests in all things they will be put to death."

He said that with some feeling. She grimaces sympathetically. "They'll inform on each other as insufficiently sincere Iomedaens, too. It is a spectacularly blasphemous kind of worship. Not that it would help at all to tell any of them that. How are you finding things, overall?"

"Many of the same problems as you report, if on a smaller scale. Fewer people determined to lie to my face about trivial matters. But I also have responsibilities to my order of paladins, who are dispersed across the country, and called upon somewhat frequently by the queen and her companions to advise some of the restored Iomedan nobility, and for many problems - some in Lladó, some in the rest of Cheliax, some at the Worldwound - there really is no substitute for a fourth-circle paladin. I expect a busy year."

"May we rise to it. Chelam has problems but thankfully none so severe they require a fourth circle paladin. But I hope you'll stop by once you're able. One thing that I think we are all neglecting in our busyness - and not incorrectly - is the alliances and familiarities without which the nobility is effectively undermined and arguably best understood as a bunch of imperial governors. Which I am sure isn't intentional, on the Queen's part, and which does not strike me as wise."

He is less sure it isn't intentional, at least in his particular case. "Of course. I expect that, having all the counts gathered in one place it will be possible to build some of those connections without neglecting any other duties. Of course, we only have that opportunity because of neglecting other duties in favor of the convention. But we may at least make the most of it."

She's not at all sure it isn't intentional but she's not a paladin and "the Queen did this thing I am critical of, surely unintentionally' is right up there with 'you look lovely in that' as white lies go. "Well, then, would you care to join me in solemnly executing those of our obligations we can while we're here, and go for a walk around the city before dinner? I've been wanting to explore, but it'd be imprudent."

"I suppose we have time to see the district, at least."