Exactly one hour after dawn—which should leave him at least an hour or two before the second day's session of the Convention starts—the Archduke of the Heartlands turns up at the grandest temple to Iomedae that he can identify in Westcrown and asks to speak to the priest in charge at his or her earliest convenience.
"My lord. For whatever reasons, Iomedae has seen fit to empower two clerics in this country, no more - perhaps for lack of suitable candidates, but likely not, as those are the only two that I know Her to have selected across all of Avistan this year. That is not enough to replace those lost in the same period, even if the two new Select were not indefinitely detained here in this city. I am not privy to all of the staffing decisions made by Her church, but commune-capable and -trained clerics were scarce two years ago and I do not know any reasons that they would be less scarce today; Beyond the staffing issues, I imagine communes themselves are considered dear, considering whatever it is that constrains the Goddess' willingness to act on this plane. Given all of that, it seems unwise to attempt to make this country Hers as it was Aroden's. Perhaps She imagines Cheliax needs another god more, or perhaps She finds that having this country be Hers does not advance Her goals enough to be worth the costs, or perhaps She has simply given too much in the fight to make Cheliax not Asmodeus' so as to be unable to take it for herself. I am not myself privileged to know. If you would like, I can write to Vigil on your behalf and see if there is an explanation for you. My lord."
"I'm sorry if I was rude. I know a lot of this isn't in the Church's control, and none of it in yours specifically. I'm aware that the Goddess is limited in her ability to act on this plane, and that she's spent a great deal of hers recently. I still think that, unless she's specifically told you otherwise, acting to make the people of this country not damned should be a higher priority than the Church currently seems to be making it."
"We don't need priests to make water—well, we desperately do, but I understand why we're not getting any. What we need are people who know what it means to serve Iomedae, or even just to be Good, and can help the people of Cheliax that want to do that and don't know how. If Lastwall sent us a thousand random farmers, they'd still know more about Iomedae or Lawful Good than most of the people who are in there trying to write this country's highest law, including at least one of your Select and basically all the nobility that haven't just come back from the dead—to be clear, don't put that in your letter to Vigil. What I actually want, right now, are half a dozen decently qualified chaplains for the delegates at the Convention. Maybe you can get them to teach a class covering topics like 'why the Goddess opposes executing people for not worshipping her', because half my peasants think that and I bet half the people at the Convention do too."
"I get that Communes are expensive, with prophecy broken and all. But honestly, if you have two Commune-capable priests in your hierarchy, one of them should be here. I really don't think I'm being parochial when I say that what we're trying to do here is going to affect the fate of more souls than anything else that's currently happening on this planet. The Worldwound is closed, and if Tar-Baphon does get out I give him three rounds before Élie Cotonnet locks him up again."
"I'll write the letter to Vigil myself, unless you think you can predict what they'll say to any of that."
'I don't think I'm being parochial when I say that my country is the most important, the worldwound is closed, nevermind all the demons still there, and Tar-Baphon's no big deal, right, nor is Geb, what's a great archmage out of legend next to a great archmage of today'
"I believe there are Iomedan lay priests accompanying the noble contingent from Menador. Beyond that, convention delegates are of course welcome to attend the sermons here, though they tend to be crowded. Perhaps we can arrange a special time when we are open only to delegates. I do not know whether Lastwall has more to spare that have not already been sent to whichever parts of Cheliax where they were deemed to be needed most. I expect, due to the tight constraints on the Goddess' resources, that a greater deal of care is being taken with communes, and in particular some care is being taken to avoid duplicate communes, and a commune-capable cleric in Westcrown would make that much more difficult and not improve communications with Heaven by as much as you might expect." Also they would have to be constantly fending off requests from archdukes to consult Iomedae on trivial matters.
"I see. Thank you for your time."
He writes his letter to Vigil. It says all the same things he said to the priest at the temple, except more politely, and he drops the request for a specifically Commune-capable cleric in favor of one for 'an official liaison of the Church to the Crown of Cheliax', and they can decide themselves whether to send someone who can cast Communes. He also adds a request for an advisor who's specifically cleared on the secret matter of which he's aware. He doesn't complain about be temple priest at all.
He gets his Teleport wizard to deliver it; the man clearly has some clout in Lastwall. Maybe he can actually get it in front of someone who will listen.