"I do not," he says. "When it has problems with rebellion they certainly don't come from anything legal. But I take your point. Molthune, Lastwall, Molthune, Galt, Hermea -" that last one's mostly a joke "- my chief worry about damages is... we don't have much of a court system yet. This will do to stop people from burning the city down. It won't do if every time a smith prints an advertisement for his shop's wares, his neighbor sues him for damaging his custom."

"I think damages have to be limited to an actual crime, lest we ban everything by accident. Not to the speech itself being criminal until we define that better, but to an unambiguous serious crime having resulted."

"Indeed..."

And they sit for dinner. Carlota had the mansion give them all a nice civilized multi-course dinner tonight, with some dishes from Axis where everything is for taste and none for nutrition. She is less self-conscious about coming from Axis, these days. 

Aniol's diet is certainly interesting today, with druid-created sorbet for breakfast and lunch skipped due to failure of appetite and weird Axis food for dinner. He sits down, nods politely to everyone, stares a bit at a random spot on the wall.

Ramirez is absolutely judging the resurrected nobility for their bizarre taste in food, but he's judging them quietly.

Some of the dishes are the normal kind!! It's a twelve course meal! Plenty of chance for both!

The food is bizarre, but it doesn't really matter. What is vitally important is the hospitality. 

"Before dinner we were discussing how to end the pamphlets," Carlota informs the Menadorans. "Jean Pau proposes that print shops be obliged to post a large bond against crimes that are committed as a result of their publications, and be fully llable for such, so that someone sober and responsible who has something to lose has to make the decision to go ahead with a print run."

"Well, that probably would have prevented the one claiming my servants denounced me. I don't think they even did."

"I want a law that would have prevented the denouncements, Wain's speech, and the coordinated appearance around the city of the Archduke Blanxart's geneology. Which looks the most like coordinated malicious action of the three, and which is I think technically legal even after the latest round of decrees."

"Does your proposal extend to those copying books? I think those are much less of a concern, or at least a different one, and different laws should be made to handle the publication of books as opposed to pamphlets or news-sheets, or the like -"

"How would you define the difference? Allowing anything above a certain number of pages seems that it allows anything at all."

"A hundred-page manuscript will at the very least take a hundred times as long to make each copy of than a one-page rant. And, frankly, require more patience and long-term planning from its readership."

"Only if they have to read the whole thing, instead of putting all the provocative bits on the first page... making it more expensive probably does a lot. It might suffice. But - I think I do not want to bring to the floor a proposal that maybe suffices. The country is too fragile for several more rounds of trial and error.... another takeaway from our earlier conversation was that the emergency measures should be temporary, so that our children are reminded to go ahead and surpass us once the emergency is past.

We could spell out that it is a material defense against a charge of having copied something that caused a riot if the material you copied is lengthy, requires patience, and would not make a good tavern speech."

"It's easy to imagine small books. Or books meant to come apart, no matter what anyone swears was their intent in making then. And it seems unwise to rely on cost, after what the archmage did to cloth."

"While we're imposing these laws I do also want to add some provision for -

- I was nervous yesterday evening, that Wain's speech might be circulating, and I asked a girl to keep a lookout, but she wasn't willing to pick a pamphlet up for me because that'd be illegal. I could've gotten word out to people sooner, if she had. Maybe one should also be able to post a bond to possess, but not distribute, outright prohibited material, or maybe we just want to build it in to the rights of the nobility, but I don't want the law to blind everyone who could do something about the various libels from seeing them in the first place."

Xavier does not know if the bond idea is one of Joan-Pau's crazy ideas that will work, or one of the ones that will fail dramatically. It's usually one or the other, with him.

"I speculate that the bond proposal would be better likely to appeal to the marginal elected and sortition delegates and so easier to pass..."

"- One thing I do want is to arrange a second convention to occur in forty years, or fifty - once Asmodeanism has been in its grave the whole life of the young. I don't want our grandchildren feeling as though they're bound to stick to our judgements." And he's worried that without Aroden...

"Yes, I agree wholeheartedly with that. This is..not a very good environment for laying long term foundations, even yesterday's catastrophe aside. And in forty or fifty years maybe Iomedae'll have more than one Chelish priest worthy of the title."

"As much as I would have preferred ten more experienced priests to be delegates, Valia Wain did not fall for her speech, or any of her actions."

"Well, she died trying to put down what she called up, or at least so the Crown would have people believe. I think that's about as clean a resolution to the matter as we can hope for."

Ah, if only. It really would have been the best way for it to work out.

- he feels disappointed and cheated about that, really, but it's probably a better outcome for the church.

"I suppose Pharasma's justice is something."

"- No, Feliu found her in the streets, stabilizing everyone she could find. She's in the palace cells, now, while Her Majesty works out what she's to be charged with." He's just going to pass over all the intervening stuff now.