The convention is in intermission, supposedly. But Alonso goes hunting anyway, and manages to scrounge up as many members of the judiciary committee as he can find. He can't find Valia, but that's not much of a surprise; if the pamphlets are to be believed, she was murdered during the riots.

It makes his blood boil, the sense that it's all happening again, that nothing he feels even a hint of fondness towards is safe, and can be snatched away in a moment. But he did something then, and he can do something now, and maybe they can reach a world without burning homes and killers at large.

"I call this meeting to order," he says. "We won't be able to get a floor vote for the whole convention, but our queen has asked for advice, and I say we should give it to her, even with just our partial committee. We were attacked as much as Her Majesty's peaceable order was, and we should have a say in how to respond. Every moment we delay is a moment that these riots go unpunished, and if Her Majesty rules before we can advise her, we are failing as a convention."

Who has he found, for this ersatz meeting?