He represses the urge to sigh. "Of course."

"Somewhere private, I think, if you don't mind."  He holds out his hand for the teleport.

He takes it. "You know, you're the sixth person today."

They're in a comfortable drawing room. Walnut furniture, green silk drapes, a tasteful but still distinctly Galtan quantity of wainscotting. The only sign there's anything usual is the fine layer of frost on the deep bay windows, and the snow on the ground outside. 

"I'd apologize for taking up more of your very valuable time, but as time passes here at ten times the rate it does outside, I won't occupy very much of it." He waves a hand. "You can see I haven't gotten the seasons quite lined up yet."

"It's very nice, apart from that.

...I was not trying to start a civil war or tear the country apart. I just misjudged how much the tax exemption would do that."

He really does sigh. 

"...I'm very glad to hear that. 

You know, I had a whole speech ready. I was going to ask you if you wanted to be king, and explain in some detail why all of the other options were worse. It's resurrected 46th century monarchs, and they're pretty uniformly dreadful, or Cyprian, or a real Republic – which would please me, but, I'm afraid, nobody else."

"Judging by the past year and the past day I think I would not make a good king of Cheliax... Iomedae advised me to weaken her influence but not to try to overthrow her. I would not accept your offer, and I think it might be foolish of you to be willing to make it."

What an absurd, impracticable set of instructions. 

"I know you don't have any particular reason to believe me" – except for the fact that he's never lied to the man in his life, which doesn't count for anything – "but I was not happy about putting the immortal archmage who ate my friend's soul on the throne of Cheliax. You can blame me for that, if you like. I made the decision, more than anyone. I did it because I thought it was the best out of a set of very, very bad options. And if I'd known – well, I thought this morning, if I'd known that you were willing to cause a civil war to try to bring her down, it wouldn't have been the best option. I'm not sure that you would have been, but you might at least live with the consequences. 

If you'd just told us from the beginning that you couldn't live with her on the throne, we'd have figured something else out. I had imagined, before, that we were working towards the same goal. I would like to find a way for that to still be true." 

"I believe you. I can live with her on the throne. Like I said, I've been ordered to not try to remove her from it... That might change, if by a miracle we triumph over Geb. Or if he decides not to retaliate for whatever reason. But if it does I'll certainly tell you all before trying anything on my own.

...She offered to step down herself after Cheliax was put back in order, if I agreed not to cause her trouble until then. And to what amounted to letting her kill me after she did. Do you believe she'd keep to her end of that, even once I was gone?"

"I'm sure she'd step down, she doesn't have any particular interest in ruling Cheliax to begin with. .

...I don't think she wants to kill you? If anything, I think she rather likes you. If you're worried she wants revenge for your killing her as Myrabelle, you shouldn't be, she arranged all that for your benefit." 

'she rather likes you.' ?!?!?!?

"She offered to duel me in the ruins of Sarkoris, and I'm under no illusions about who would win. I would of course do it anyway if she really would abdicate and that was the most important thing I could be doing, but - it didn't seem like a negotiation as much as a way to get rid of me."

"...I am struggling to imagine the circumstances under which dueling Alfirin in the ruins of Sarkoris would be the most important thing you could be doing." 

"I was not going to accept that deal without a much better reason to think I should than I've yet been given, no. I was assuming it was the price of her abdicating but -

- I am unsure how to interpret the things you've told me about Myrabelle - Alfirin - in light of my orders from Iomedae, and I would like to spend some time thinking on that after I've slept. Would I be imposing on your hospitality too much if I asked to rest here for a couple hours?"

"I was hoping you would. 

Let's speak again after you've slept. Your orders from Iomedae and your understanding of your priorities here are both frankly very confusing to me, and I'd rather avoid more confusions like the one this morning."

"Good morning - or I suppose it's still mid-afternoon. You thought my instructions from Iomedae were confusing? Or just my response to them?"

"All of the above. I certainly don't believe that Alfirin's interests align with your goddess's in the long run, but I can't see that opposing her is the best use of your time for, oh, the next decade or so. And if it was – well, you know what I think of tax policy as a means of going about it." 

Again, Élie is using that name. He knew it was one of Myrabelle's former identities but he's starting to suspect now that it's her real identity, inasmuch as such a thing is meaningful.

"The tax policy was a mistake. I think - while we have different reasons for it, I think you agree with me that limiting the powers of the monarch is a good thing? If not, I am not sure why you're holding a convention at all. I agree it's fairly limited in how much it can actually restrict Alfirin, but it seems like something that might meaningfully limit her without provoking overt conflict."

"I support restricting the power of the monarchy in the general sense, but a weak central government with an all-powerful aristocracy is hardly better and probably worse. If you must weaken Alfirin, don't let it be at the expense of the people of Cheliax."

"I am not sure what is in the best interests of the Chelish people here, but - I think in the short term empowering the nobility - largely selected for being good people, especially at the top levels - against the queen - who is evil - doesn't seem likely worse. If you have suggestions for something better than that I will hear them gladly."

"I'd disagree even in the short term, but I don't think it matters – we're not making decisions for the short term. If this works, we're making laws not just for the nobles we chose but for their children and their children's children, and I'm afraid that they'll end up much like nobles always do." Right, Alex is a noble. "Present company excepted. It's not that I expect there to be anything particularly wrong with them. Aristocratic privilege by its nature encourages rapacity, indolence, petty tyranny, obsession with rank – you're from Molthune, you must have seen it. Much better to centralize power in the hands of an elected body." 

"I have not observed centralized elected bodies being generally more stable or better for the people under their rule. I'll grant you Andoran, but Galt? Rahadoum? The Shackles?"

"I don't think the Free Captains of the Shackle are elected by anyone except themselves. Rahadoum is no worse than anywhere else, except for the lack of healing. And Galt – " 

Galt did more to fight Cheliax at the height of the terror than the Glorious Reclamation did in all of its existence. He's not going to say that. 

"Galt tried to do too much, too fast, in the middle of a war. I'm not advocating abolishing the institution of the nobility" – Because Catherine and Naima and Alfirin and Shawil have all independently and on multiple occasions talked him down – "only reminding you that the vast majority of Chelish citizens have more to fear from their lords than a distant Queen in Westcrown, even if she is an archmage." 

"I don't mean to say that Galt did not accomplish a great deal of good. Only that the government also did a great deal of evil, to its own people, and that it wasn't stable. But I take your point about the aristocracy. I'm not eager to leave more power in the hands of the queen, but I'll try to make sure any reductions in her powers come at the benefit of less corruptible institutions." The churches, probably, except that Iomedae is busy, Sarenrae was never popular here and may not want to empower Alfirin and Élie's country, Erastil doesn't have an organized church, and Abadar is... not Good.

"Do you have any in mind?"

"Not yet."

"In which case reductions to her power will benefit the aristocracy, that being the institution that currently exists." 

"Yes, I know.

...why were some delegates chosen by lot?"

There is a very large inferential gap here and Élie's going to try to cross it the same way he does everything: with determination and with excessive attention to moral philosophy. 

"I knew we had to have elections. 

I've probably lost your sympathy already, but please be patient with me. I was born and raised in infernal Cheliax. And I've found that people who aren't usually mistake what's fundamentally wrong with the place. The first lesson they teach you in temple school isn't that you should be Evil or cruel or work to further the interests of Asmodeus on the material plane: it's that you are a slave. You're dirt. You're worse than dirt. You're going to go to Hell, not even because you particularly deserve it, but because Asmodeus wants you there and the whole world bends to the inevitable realization of his will. 

This is not a perspective which holds up to thirty seconds of sustained scrutiny, so the better part of Chelish education is making sure nobody ever decides think about anything for a whole thirty seconds. There is no such thing as truth. There is no such thing as choice. Tyranny is the arbitrary, unreasonable exercise of power – that is, the exercise of power without reason, in the absence of which everyone is a slave. 

You can't heal a nation like this by replacing the bad rulers with good ones." Though that hasn't stopped the Iomedeans from trying. "It doesn't work. Nobody is going to wake up and realize that they should love their children and deal fairly with their neighbors and pray for the redemption of all souls. They're going to hear that the new boss wants this incomprehensible set of observances and do that until the day they die. It's better to have wise and just nobility than not, on the whole, but it can't do the thing that matters most. The people of Cheliax cannot be good unless they are free. I know you think people can be free without representative government, and maybe that's true in Lastwall." It's not, but he doesn't need to argue the point. "It is not true here. Lastwallers know what it means to have rights and dignity. They aren't so terrified of doing the wrong thing that it would never occur to them to try to do the right one. In Cheliax – 

Chelish people aren't stupid. They know that their lords have the power of life and death over them, and that barring what might as well be an act of god nothing will stop them from exercising it. They know that how much of the harvest they have to give up and whether the bandits are kept off the road and most every other decision that actually matters will be decided by someone who probably thinks of them as a particularly intelligent species of cattle. If we're going to get anywhere trying to convince them that they are anything other than weak pathetic slaves with no more power over their own lives than an insect in the hands of a God, it has to actually be true. It has to be true in a way they can see. It has to be true in a way they can prove. It has to be true in a way they can test over and over again until they finally believe it. Hence, elections.

...We chose some delegates by lot because the elections won't work. Eventually, yes. But they have to be real to work at all, and the sort of person who's good at gaining power under the old regime is almost certainly not the sort of person we want. You've seen that lot, it's all barons and the richest merchant in whatever backwater county. We – I, really – thought it was important to have people in that room who knew Cheliax and weren't just there to amass power. I probably ruined a fair number of lives that way, and I don't know if it'll be worth it. It's ugly compromises, all of it. But it's better than anything else I could think of, and that will have to be enough." 

"It wasn't a criticism. I'm thinking about other institutions, besides the lords and the crown and the churches. The duchess of Chelam put me on the committee for forms of the monarchy that - if I understand correctly - is going to be drafting most of the actual constitution, or at least the parts of it that are most similar to the constitutions of other nations... I think she expected me to just restore all the old practices from before the death of Aroden, being such a close friend of the queen. I'm not doing that, as you might imagine and - I'm hardly an expert in constitutions, and I know that, but I do have a friend who is and I'd be a fool not to ask for his advice."

"...Who do you know who's an expert in constitutions?"

...

"Oh.  – I'm sorry. I thought you disapproved of me." 

"What? No, of course not! I think we disagree on some things but - you're a good man, and you identified the most important issue on the face of the planet and then did more than any other mortal alive to fix it. And succeeded, more than anyone else ever did. And then the same for the second most important issue, and then - I don't actually know what you and the rest of your companions were doing last Arodus, but Iomedae thought I'd support you with full information, and Ragathiel supported you, and three of the archfiends are dead... I am sure you can't say more, and I don't mean to press you for information about that. But I know it was good. Probably the third most important thing on the planet. How could I ever disapprove?"

Well. Time to reevaluate much of the past two years??

"Because I'm Chaotic, and I do things for incomprehensible archmage reasons, and I knowingly pushed my country into anarchy and mob rule not once but twice and as far as anyone else is concerned I'm trying to do the same to Cheliax. I'm used to people like you being very – Iomedean about these things. And you'd have more justification than anyon else, since my friends and I keep dragging you off on no notice to fight archdevils for reasons we can't explain while concealing the fact that we're working with your worst enemy."

"If she's my worst enemy that's only because you killed all the rest of them. It would be... maybe not even better, but more convenient for me if instead of doing things for incomprehensible archmage reasons you did them for comprehensible archmage reasons and explained what those reasons were, but - that's hardly cause to disapprove of the things being done. I think pushing Galt out of Hellish rule and into anarchy was a good thing, and - I can see the piece of heaven that you were trying to build, there. It is good that someone tried it. I don't agree, pragmatically, that it will work here on Golarion, but that's just - disagreement. There's very few people that I respect who I don't disagree with on some matters."

"I do try to be open about my motivations, except for the events of last Arodus, and I sincerely hope the circumstances which made that necessary will never happen again. Otherwise – well, I don't think I'm especially confusing. But you can always ask. Any of your people can. I'd certainly prefer it to whatever their orders are now."

"I didn't know you'd had much occasion to interact with my people. They don't have any orders about how to treat you, I imagine they're intimidated and don't want to waste your time."

"It came up a fair bit when we were deciding which of the old nobility to keep and which to kill. I wasn't trying to scare them. I'd assumed they were all doing the Lastwall thing – you know, where they've already decided that if they don't grovel before me I'll abandon the principles I've held for my entire life and hare off and stop helping." 

"...I'm afraid I don't know, exactly."

" – Huh. Well, it's possible I'm imagining it. I have been wrong before. In any case, whatever misapprehensions I have about paladins or them about me is hardly what matters here."

"It's not the most important thing, if it's not getting in the way of working together. It probably matters more than none. I think Lastwall - and I - try to call upon our archmage allies sparingly. We know you have a lot of other priorities besides helping us with our problems, when our problems aren't exactly the same as yours."

He wonders, briefly, this is a courtesy they only extend to archmagi. It certainly didn't stop them asking for bribes before. 

"It would have helped with our present problem if you'd told me you were here with the purpose of restricting Alfirin. We could have talked about alternatives to the monarchy, or had the convseration we're having now before anyone had cause to question your sanity. Or –

I could have told you that if the three of us – that's you and me and Naima – all agree that the nation is stable enough that she can step down, I'll make sure she does."

"Without creating a new mana wastes?"

"The mana wastes were thousands of years of work, and I dont' think any of us want to put in the effort." 

"If you're sure. I just - don't want you to push her to step down on my behalf if that would start a conflict that creates something even worse.

...I shouldn't say even worse. Just worse."

" – we're not Nex and Geb. I've seen what the could do, and the obsession it took to do it, and nothing on the face of Golarion today comes close. If the two of us – and it wouldn't just be the two of us – picked that fight, we'd win, but I really believe we won't have to."

She's fifteen times your combined age and has been an archmage for most of that. She probably has tricks you don't know. "I think you might be overconfident but - I hope you're not. And I hope you're right that it wouldn't come to that."

He'd just go to Drosselmeyer first, he's pretty sure that would work. 

"I am used to working with allies who prefer to keep their own counsel." Mild understatement. "We were able to take on the forces of Hell and win in large part because we chose to trust each other anyway. In the future, I would like it very much if you would trust me."

"I have not kept any secrets from you out of distrust. In the future I will be quicker to come to you with any concerns or mad plans I have.

...Now, while we're here where time is cheap, I really would like your advice on drafting a constitution."

It's easy to forget, but there was a time in Élie's life when he really liked talking about theories of governance. He hasn't had one good conversation about comparative constitutional law this whole convention. All the delegates are so scared of him; he can hardly open his mouth without it being taken for an order. Alexeara Cansellarion is incapable of fear. 

"Oh, certainly. Let me get my notes."