"Duchess. What troubles you?"

"You're on forms of the monarchy. I wanted to give you some of my notes." She annotated the whole code in anticipation of the convention and re-annotated it last night with a different focus. Long-standing disputes between the monarch and the nobility, half of which have an obvious right answer that's best for Cheliax but half of which don't. She flips through it for him, briefly. "You don't want the granting of titles to nonhumans to require a special dispensation from the crown and if it must you don't want the requirement to follow when the title's inherited. If your committee is too stodgy for that get nonhumans to recommend it, they're a bunch of radicals and it'll be their most reasonable proposal. You also don't want any marriages and divorces to require a special dispensation, I suspect, it's all just currency for favor-trading. Levies automatic according to a rule of population instead of by negotiation, similarly, the Abadarans will like that.

This whole section on no role by appointment that places the appointed man above his rank was a thorn in the monarch's heel for three hundred years but it's also prideful and stupid. You could perhaps require local assent to appointments, or insist any non-inherited landed role be an open election, as Vyre... Kintargo probably wants everything Vyre has or at least will once it gets mentioned in their earshot that Vyre has it. 

I'd suggest borrowing some of this endless back-and-forth about consulting Aroden on matters of war and succession except it makes less sense without prophecy and anyway the Goddess is too busy. 

Yesterday I suggested that hiring foreign mercenaries require a special dispensation from the Queen but one could instead do 'requires insurance' in principle though I don't think anyone on Safe Villages will think to suggest it and it'd look strange if I were to do so, I'm the one that wrote the original proposal."

Does she have someone on the committee reporting to her - no, of course she does, she came in with the list of committees all laid out and probably had plans to get someone working with her on each one...

But he rather thought she was a monarchist, or at least - ah. A weak monarch means a powerful nobility. He can probably work with that.

"...Why?" he asks, in case she wants to tell him some other reason.

Raised eyebrow. "Confidentially?"

Oh no this is serious. He pauses to think it over, then - "Yes."

"Alfonso spoke to me last night. He believes that the Goddess advises us to limit the power of the Queen. He said that you knew of this already, that it was to you this was initially communicated, and if that's so I release you from any agreement of secrecy."

"I see. That's true, but I was not expecting him to be sharing that information widely."

"I do not believe he's told anyone else, and I know I haven't. I'm glad he told me. I -

- I was told, actually, during the Civil War, when I sought Iomedae's guidance, that She wanted us to make peace with Asgavan, never mind the rape of Belde, never mind the broken truce at Misarias, never mind they'd by then killed most of my family, and I - didn't listen, because - because I didn't want to hear it, mostly, though I had a hundred other reasons at the time. 

I would of course have done it if I'd suspected for a second it was them or the diabolists. But the diabolists didn't seem - like a real possibility - no one would ever really allow that -

It is a mistake it is important to me not to make again. I don't need more of an explanation. I didn't need it then, either, not really. It'd look strange if I abruptly changed positions from yesterday but I have plenty of notes on things no one got to yesterday."

"I understand. I appreciate your support. I'll try to look over this before the committee meets again." He's still not sure he trusts it to be his agenda and not her agenda, but...

"Goddess go with you. - speaking of which, the Archduke also said that he found the committee on rooting out diabolists frustrating and your Church's cleric on it needs more training in her faith and a history lesson."

Yes, obviously she does, he can talk to the other priests at the temple and make sure they're aware of the issue. He'd deal with it personally, apart from the need to read Carlota's annotations, chair the Forms committee, stop the army committee from staffing the army entirely with officers personally loyal to the queen, attend the regular convention sessions, build connections with the other nobility, put down the necromancer one county over from Lladó whose local lord isn't doing anything about, negotiate with the one druid he's managed to dig up for some plant growths so Lladó doesn't have a famine come the winter, talk to the holdout Reclamation officers who don't want to move to Cheliax to see if they have specific concerns he can address, meet with Lastwall's governing council on Geb preparations, sit in judgment for three matters of justice, and... that's it, he thinks, until tomorrow. Maybe he'll have time for a few words with Select Wain after all. Still, better to let the temple know in case either of the committees runs long.

And now they're both nearly late to the opening session, so she stands and gathers her own notes and a pastry to eat on the way in. "Coffee?" Paladins supposedly don't like coffee but he looks like he needs it. 

"I prefer tea - no, you're right, coffee would be lovely, thank you." He does not enjoy the bitter Sarenite gruel but it will at least help him feel more invigorated before the business of the day.