She doesn't recognize her but she's dressed like someone important. She bows slightly. "Yes, Delegate..."

"Duchess Arodea Carlota Guiomar de Chelam." Someone wasn't paying a lot of attention during the opening session. "I had an inquiry for your committee on excising diabolic influences from Cheliax."

She was paying a lot of attention! To who the man who acknowledged worshipping a power of Hell was talking to, and who seemed allied with him, and who seemed upset about the whole POWER OF HELL thing! The political manuevering among the nobility, she was admittedly paying a little less attention to that. "Of course, Duchess. How can I help you?"

"Have you contemplated already disbanding all Hellknight orders within Cheliax's and Isger's borders?"

She has heard only vague rumors of the Hellknights. The order nearest Pezzack kept to themselves in their forbidding citadel. She knows of course that they were Lawful Evil servants of Asmodeus and House Thrune, called in when the regular army couldn't cut it.  "...has that not already been done?"

"It has not! One of the orders was disbanded, but all of the others remain in place. I think that their leadership was replaced, but the Evil in those orders was not just in the leadership."

"Of course it's not," she says automatically. She's wishing she'd heard about the convention sooner and that the weather had been more accommodating, it would have been a good idea to arrive in Westcrown a month ago. She's to learn about the Acts of Iomedae, about Erecura, about the Galtan Revolution, about the Final Blades, about the Hellknights, about the situation with the wizarding academies... "So long as there is an organization called the Hellknights it will be the natural place for people who admire Hell and wish to serve it." What was the Queen thinking - it's not wise to say that. 

"I can only agree. So your committee will make recommendations on abolishing them?"

"I'll have to speak to the rest of the committee but I expect it'll be among our highest priorities." It fits with what the Inquisitor asked of her too - more narrow, more targeted, scoped at some of the worst lingering excesses of the old regime before she expands into fixing everything.

"May I make some more specific proposals, in consideration of how much your committee has on their plate?"

"Of course."

"Their possessions, weapons, and armor should be sold off to fund restitution for the families of those harmed by their evil deeds. They keep good records of their deeds, such that restitution may actually be possible in many cases. Where it is, the revenue should fund rebuilding of the cities - there's a citadel in Ostenso, Corentyn, Westcrown, and Egorian, and in all of them the need for rebuilding is very dire. The order of the Godclaw is rumored to possess Iomedae's own sword, Heart's Edge, but they have been declared heretical by the Church of Iomedae for their simultaneous worship of Asmodeus and the sword should be seized and given to Ser Cansellarion, Her most powerful servant. It may be that Iomedae withholds Her favor from this country because of our tolerance of this outrageous heresy."

"I don't think Iomedae would do that," says Valia, after a second's consideration.

The Duchess raises her eyebrow slightly. "No?"

"She's not the Goddess of - cleaning up after we've beat Evil. She's there to fight with us. She can't wait until we've stopped having heretics around because by then we'll have won, and not need her."

"Of course not, but when a god has powerful priesthoods in two different countries that don't see eye to eye about - important things about the god, like whether you can worship Her alongside Asmodeus - she risks those churches schisming, which is very costly. Better to only foster your priesthood in places where it will be well informed and not fall into heresy."

"I don't know why Iomedae's not here more but if we do our jobs right she'll be even less here, not more. If you want a god that'll be more here if things are more all right there's all the other Good ones." This was the topic of the first sermon Valia has ever heard on Iomedae, the one this morning before the convention, and it has affirmed her in her conviction that Iomedae is the best god of Good and that the war is not, in fact, done yet.

Carlota is pretty sure that Iomedae benefits from having functional non-heretical churches in places but it'd be unwise to further dispute this with the priestess. "I've never really been all that inspired by all the other Good ones, though I've been praying very widely these days as my home needs more priests. I think - whatever Iomedae's motives, and you're wise not to assume too much about them, it is a wrong to Her faithful and to the integrity of Her church for Her most important artifact to be with a Hellknight order, and while you're disbanding the orders you should say something specific about what you mean to do with it. And House Narikopolus also has a claim, but you probably don't want them pursuing it, so saying up front it's Cansellarion's will head that off at the pass."

"House Narikopolus also has a claim to it?" Valia doesn't like sounding like an idiot but there are just so many facts to know. 

That's in the Acts. It features pretty prominently. Carlota keeps her surprise off her face. "Heart's Edge was originally a holy avenger which was loaned by the Archduke Narikopolus in Iomedae's day to Iomedae, as a mortal. Originally he gave it to her so that she could fight Segruchen, the Iron Gargoyle, but in gratitude after she defeated the beast he invited her to keep it as long as she would employ it against great Evils. She kept it for the whole of the Shining Crusade, and it became a holy artifact during the Crusade. Some people assumed that since it was no longer just a holy avenger she'd return an ordinary holy avenger to Narikopolus - still a very powerful and expensive sword - but she returned the one she loaned him, never mind that it was now priceless."

Well, obviously. 

"It remained with House Narikopolus  - aside from one notable occasion when a dragon ate it - until the Chelish Civil War, when it went missing and House Narikopolus sided with the diabolists. Many people would say that by siding with the diabolists they lost their claim to it, and that's my own inclination. I assume they're now sufficiently ashamed of their diabolist ties that if you declare it's Cansellarion's they'll be unlikely to argue. You could also consider telling the Archduke your intentions and asking the Archduke if he'd rather instead donate it to the Church of Iomedae, but -"

"- he's still in power? The diabolist Archduke Narikopolus? That's the same Archduke Narikopolus who is attending this convention, not a - distant cousin, or -"

"He is still in power." She'd been going to finish that sentence with a polite way of saying 'that would take diplomatic acumen I do not think you have yet accumulated'.

"Duchess, do you have thoughts on why so many holdovers from the diabolists are still in positions of authority in the new Cheliax?"

"I would assume that Her Majesty had to make a great many compromises to assemble the coalition that allowed her to take power so quickly and so seamlessly. And those compromises were the right choice, at the time, but inasmuch as this constitution isn't bound by them we ought to reverse as many of them as we can without causing a war."

She scowls slightly. 

"I think a full-scale war would be unlikely to end in a better result for the forces of Good than the one we have right now. Those are dice you only roll when your current position is a poor one. Use your words, child. Much can be won that way."

"Well, we're not allowed to say that any delegate ought not to be here, even if they are a diabolist who served the Thrune regime and are still one of the most powerful people in the country."

"I am confident that within the existing rules it is possible to observe that the Archduke Narikopolus has reigned for a long time and served several different Queens of Cheliax. I think you could even argue that he ought not to be an Archduke, just not that he ought not to be at the convention. It's not necessarily wise, but far be it from me to pick your battles for you."

It's really not and she's tired of people trying it, but she should still listen when someone says her intended course is unwise. "Why do you think it would be unwise? Just because I'll anger an Archduke?"

"Because you'll anger someone who your Church can't afford as an enemy, and who with more grace you could drag into full-throatedly supporting you to prove how non-diabolist he is."

"But he'd still...be a diabolist with power over the lives of millions of people. I'm not trying to arrange for everyone to get along, here. For no war, sure. But I'd rather he be shamed into stepping down than be loudly praising Iomedae."

"Then you'd better be very sure you have enough to shame him into stepping down." Carlota has an illustrative example of why it's a bad idea to irritate and not disempower powerful nobles but she's not going to proffer it. 

"I do understand that, Duchess. Thank you."

"Goddess go with you for as long as you need her."

She hasn't heard that variant before. She rather likes it. "And with you."