"Duchess," Archduke Xavier says, coming out of it, with a small polite bow.

"Archduke. I hope the committee was not wholly unproductive?"

"Oh no," he says. "A great deal, for a single day."

He'll wait a moment to see if she has a response. He's obviously curious, and is still making about his mind about phrasing.

"I envy you! I found mine frustrating." Which is obviously an outrageous understatement since she rushed him a note proposing that he dismantle the Hellknights, but they're still among a crowd. She takes off in a direction with fewer people. He'll follow; he's curious.

"Oh no." He shakes his head sympathetically, continuing to walk with her. "What did they do?" 

"We were honored by the presence of a warlord-revolutionary who proposed that we dispense with the nobility entirely in favor of arming citizen-militias with the taxes instead. Which, well, I remind myself that if I were an archmage I'd probably do at least this much humiliating people for my own entertainment, and she only sidetracked the whole thing for about twenty minutes. But then she demanded a vote on the committee chair, on the grounds that being a noble I would be biased in entertaining her proposals, and the Hellknight sided with her."

He shakes his head sympathetically again.

"You know, I'd heard they were evil," he says after some reflection. "I suppose I wasn't aware they were mad."

"I will have to add a new entry to my list of reasons not to attempt simultaneous worship of Iomedae and Asmodeus. Anyway, I know they could have been convenient for the war effort but I don't think we can abide them a day longer, really." In a sense she is asking for a favor - help rid me of my new enemy - but the sheer outrageousness of the offense makes it not even that much of a favor. Anyone inclined to deal so with the resurrected nobility is a liability for the Molthuni nobility too.

"Indeed. I suppose we can try to salvage a few of the saner ones, but -"

- This isn't helping an ally when they attack someone, it's just the obvious thing to do when an ally is attacked, is defend your ally. "I expect the convention will be very pleased." To have something unambiguously Good to do.

It is reassuring that there exist normal reasonable people who behave in normal reasonable ways. The most upsetting thing about the madhouse of the committees was the sense there were none of them. She gives him an appreciative half-smile. "I expect there'll be something to salvage. There usually is."

"There usually is."