"—do you think they're going to let us go home now—"

"—and you wouldn't believe how much he offered me if I'd just go along with everything he said—"

"—all voted that we should have to keep paying taxes—"

"- still paying us for the gap?"

"- not done with the Great Work, but resuming it later; when it's concluded we should do our own -"

"- Can you believe the audacity of these animals, now that the archmage is enabling them -"

"- when it's over, yeah, I'll probably go back to doing mail, since they didn't want to let me have a temple -"

"- half a mind to quit the committee if it's still even meeting after -"

"I cannot imagine what inspired someone who lived through this in Galt to deliberately inflict it on others."

"- they're surprisingly observant, either he just brought the best ones or the reclamation soldiers actually are better than the Chelish army -"

"- lets me meet some really interesting and varied people!"

"No, I won't dictate you the whole letter, it's private, just tell me how you spell 'convention' -"

"—we're trying, but... it might be too much for us."

"- would have been so awkward if we'd been of two minds over something on the floor, wouldn't it -"

"- kidnappers, thieves, and only not murderers because if you're in charge you get to call it an execution -"

"- used to be an archon, and I'm not sure mortality agrees with him -"

"—of course they're not doing anything for us, they invite in a bunch of thieves and thugs and we're the ones who suffer for it—"

"- responsible to the Law and to Abadar in my conduct, but the circumstances are highly adverse -"

"- was really hoping for more shoulder-rubbing between classes, but -"

"- doesn't even have windows that open -"

"—no, there's not a discount for delegates, I don't care what the fucking Galt café is doing—"

"- some evidence that the powers that be are not all in agreement on who counts as a Chelish person, or citizen, or subject, or whatever the term in vogue might be -"

"- gives us not an inkling what it is we need to do to please our captors -"

" - and I don't know if it's selfish to ask You to protect Victoria and Alicia, when You are busy with more important things, but if there's anything at all that could save them, help me see it -"

"—No, that is Assuredly Nonsensical. Pay Heed to the Purpose of a Constitution—"

"- how long is it supposed to last? If there is any power that can hear my heartfelt prayers, not one week longer."

          "The overtime pay is nice."

"I am sick of hanging stupid men who made it twenty years just fine in a society that told them to not commit murder and arson and made it less than one week in a society that tells them, with great fervor, whatever anyone at all happens to think of saying."

"And what was your understanding of what a constitutional convention was, when you were first told you were responsible for hosting delegates for it?"

" - certainly didn't bring any of their servants back from the dead, nor give their orphans so much as a silver to bury them -"

" - no different than we should have expected, really. Thrice-damned southerners, and Galtans!"

" - all these people with no prior experience ruling, it would've taken a miracle to have any semblance of order or reason, and what god -"

" - all going to vote it down immediately if it sounds like we're asking for everyone to get five unicorns and a sustaining spoon -"

"I don't think they've executed anyone who hasn't even talked. I think if you don't ever talk you're safe."

" - I cannot promise to summon a feast each day after the convention reconvenes, I will not have enough hours in the day, between that and doing all I can to see the harvests succeed -"

" - thought the riots were over and we could have some peace, but no, let's drag every monster and madman here to come relive Galt -!"

“-and then I said, why don’t we send the tax collectors into the forest to see if the druids pay them in acorns and leaves, -“

“- at which point they revived me. At least the library didn’t get burned, and the downtime has given me time to start reading A Brief History of-“

“—Don’t care who’s a tiefling and who’s not, you don’t pull a knife on a child! No, I’m not sorry, you can—“

"I want to give goodberries to people and you're all people but if you keep telling me that squirrels aren't people I swear to Gozreh I'm this close to going back and giving them to the squirrels instead -"

" - great way to sort the wheat from the chaff, as I see it. Give people a stage to speak from and half of them will apparently confess to treason just because it gets cheers from the crowd."

" - see the necessity of protective tariffs? You are not a half-literate sailor or a teenage girl with pretensions, you're a respectable man of means, surely you - "

"- and I pray that you keep him safe in the Summerlands.

Please, let- let him not be in-"

"-Brought us here to needle the Evil nobles. The riots were a fucking disaster and Evil, obviously, no! -I'm just saying that if we all sit silently it'll just go right back to-"

"-suppose the Queen's promise of reforms doesn't bind them tight, they're half useless urban and not Lawful. We'll be fine-"

"-Queen stopped shipments out, some nonsense excuse, but it started with the rain. Maybe she's more decent than we thought, for tallfolk."

"—just want to get out of here until they get sick of playing Galt, but the ports are closed—"

"- helping get people out of the country but I won't help convention delegates, I don't want an archmage after me. Just look for an arcane mark, if they have one you tell 'em we're not messing with Cotonnet's personal property -"

Mind Blank (up at present even though her mother has to cast it for her every few days so that Riudare, newly inspired to wonder what she's up to, can't find out) blocks divinations. If Lilia's niece wants to know what Lilia thinks of the state of the city she'll have to come by and ask in person.

"- can't think of a better way to stop the mess they started by dragging illiterate peasants in to make speeches than drowning us all -"

"-no, I like the urchins. We never used to have urchins in the evil lair before the Constitutional Convention, and it definitely makes up for all the work-"

"- don't know what I'm going to do if she cracks down on the Freedom of the Pen, I've only gotten to interview a tiny fraction of the delegates so far -"

"- the price of paper has skyrocketed from all of these insane and illegal pamphlets! And all the wizards are off making copies of them instead of more reliable, honest work. Not a thought to preserving proper literature if this city goes up in flames, again -"

"—don't see why you're being so unreasonable about this, I had an insurance policy with your church, all I'm asking is to add on an arson policy—"

"—doesn't need to be difficult. Just hand over your stipend for the week and no one has to get hurt—"

"- easy to rip off the hicks when they have convention money in their pockets -"

"- swear the girl is like a beacon to every scoundrel for miles around and there are extras in town, delegates -"

"- can't quite tell if Delegate is polite or impolite or polite unless they're a noble and then you still have to know their title -"

"- wouldn't work for one of those out of town trouble magnets if they paid me twice the going rate -"

"-it's looking challenging to get something that will reassure Jackdaw. Though Ser Cansellarion is unexpectedly favorable on the structure of government, I should see if we can coordinate-"

"--Disappointed, honestly, I thought the point was to make the country Good, and some of the committtees I'm on seem to get the picture, but uch--"

“-the Archduke’s thinking right on this, no use in bringing up issues far in the future, he probably already has a plan for it and I can't figure out a way to say it that doesn't sound bad and I forgot to sign up for that committee so let him - wait, but what if their heir never inherits!  But that sounds even-"

"—delegates? I'm sick of delegates crowding every street, buying every house, burning the city all the time. Thousands of them—"

"Don't worry. We'll kill them all some day. We'll get them back for Mama. But right now, we need to focus on staying together- Remember the plan. You distract him, I'll grab the bread."

"-sortition seemed like a terrible idea, but if the two on Rights are any indication it was better than I thought. Three more like them that I haven't noticed and it's probably worth the whole nonsense." (He's talking to himself, which you can probably tell from his voice.)

“So I just had the laundry wizard cast the mark spell on my hand, most people can’t tell the difference. I get discounts, watch doesn’t mess with me, and I even got some noble to buy my vote!”

Ione is pretty unclear what some of these things have to do with the convention, but the earrings always did have their quirks. She switches to listening on the topic of delegates.

“—knows Galtans are mad, of course, but when you can’t even trust the archmage to want humans writing his bloody precious constitution—“

"- all very well to say we'd be represented when there are hundreds of delegates in there with no interest in listening who can outvote any coalition that actually converses -"

"- absolutely no standards of decorum or law -"

“—did execute the man, thank Chaldira—“

"- don't know where these people came by the impression we've got our own orphanage, talked to a delegate the other day who'd picked up a kid and thought we'd, what, have a portal to the Summerlands under our pillows -"

"—nobody makes me feel like you do- and if you voted with me to double the Delegate weekly stipend, you could afford me all the time—"

"—steal and murder from normal guys like us. It's like they're not even smart enough to know they're supposed to pretend."

"-druid is surprisingly reasonable, though the Ravounel one is a foolish child. Better than the Paralictor from the Chain, hopefully the new knight-"

"- let me sleep on his roof so I'd listen to his political opinions, but I'm crashing on a boat now to get out of the rain and I can't remember a one of the political opinions if I'm perfectly honest -"

"- scattered us to the winds, I haven't seen any of the others since then -"

"- rooming with another delegate, we get along just famously -"

"- surprisingly reasonable for a druid, I feel having her present as a delegate rather expanded my worldview; she said she'd look into it -"

"- the elected from Ostenso, would you believe it, has never set foot in the theater! -"

"- delegates get discounts at some of the coffeehouses but my favorite is -"

"- all kinds of monsters! A kobold, some beast with wings, more than one elf, I heard someone say something about a storm giant but thank A-a-Abadar that was just a rumor -"

"-Expect us to stand up to archdukes and monsters, well, they raised all the dead delegates after all so maybe it's true-"

"- got surprisingly used to being stuck in a room with all of the craziness but all the fluffy bunnies in Nirvana can know it that I'm worried it'll rub off on me -"

"—see the way he stood up to that Molthuni oathbreaker, isn't he so dreamy—"

" - three of them. It's a steady income, at least, though the night of the riots I was sure they'd come for us - "

"—know they won't all try to kill me, but I don't know how to tell which ones—"

"—heard one of them got hung for saying we shouldn't get rid of slavery, I think they're prosecuting it as diabolism — next month they'll be hanging the Fiducias as Mammonites—"

"-feel bad for him. Chelam isn't subtle, or wrong, that we ought to be starting some marriages and families, but I'm counting my blessings nobles are less ready to show me brothers and sons than a bachelor sisters and daughters-"

"- surprisingly reasonable, for civilization. I hadn't expected they'd actually raise her, so I suppose there is an iota of responsibility for we poor doomed fools known as 'delegates,' -"

"Mama, mama look, she has wings—"

Ione has to cut her listening short while she meets with her aunt. But afterwards, now more informed on the current state of affairs, she knows to start listening for what people have been saying about Valia Wain.

"-Hang her, yes, of course Iomedae just wants to burn everything we've built to the ground because we don't measure up to some stupid standard of perfection, got to show them-"

"—don't need to know if she'll be found innocent or not, you can just place money on innocent and money on the noose and you'll make a profit off all the people betting she'll be ripped apart by lions — normally you'd need to account for the Blade, but—"

"—heard she died storming the palace. If you ask me, they should bring her back so they can execute her properly."

"- thinks it's fine if we all die as long as some of us maybe don't go to Hell, so she's a fool as well as a bitch -"

"- glad someone who knew better stepped in before I had her on the steps reiterating the -"

"- not going to miss that committee when it dissolves, and it will -"

"- doesn't know anything about how the world outside her own little city works and didn't come prepared to learn -"

"- people probably misunderstood her, she didn't say anything about halflings at all but -"

"- I guess I could blame her for the rain but it'd be a stretch -"

"- rather hard to take people seriously when they talk about wanting to spare people the fires of Hell, you see -"

"Why would I know anything about Valia Wain? Just 'cause I'm a delegate? I've never spoken to her, and all these rumors are going-"

"—the Queen just arrested her because she's mad at her. She didn't do anything wrong."

"—still not sure what we're supposed to think — to be Good, I mean, not to survive—"

" - so full of fucking self-righteousness she can't be bothered to care about what she's doing to honest people just trying to make a living. At least she's finally gonna get what's coming to her."

“—proves they haven’t improved at all from before the diabolists, if they kill her—”

"—but if you cannot be Stirred to her Aid, great Iomedae, then perhaps Valia Wain is better off Mine than Yours—"

“—told us we could win. See how that went. She’s probably going to heaven soon, where’s that leave us—“

"-and that's all I can do for her, short of asking the Queen and I don't think that would help. I should give a promise I'll take care of Pezzack if she's gone-"

"—make her pay for the damages? Of course, they'd have to get the civil courts back up—"

"—a copper less if she gets freed, to celebrate—"

“—when she dies for the revolution, she dies a martyr! Even if it’s the Final Blade, she’ll be in good company, with all the greatest patriots of Galt and—“

Alright, none of that is too worrying. She can write up her impressions for Alfirin and switch to listening for murder. It's probably too broad but Mammon would probably be too narrow, so she'll have to refine it as she goes.

"...thieves, murderers, and vandals, just walking around on the streets and no one can do a thing..."

“Look, he’s an evil wizard worshiping the murder god. I can’t tell you whose son we were even looking for, but whoever it was he probably did murder the kid.”

"—murdering delegates—no, no, I mean delegates who go around murdering, throwing their fireballs from their misbegotten gryphons; I've got no problem if someone's murdering delegates but maybe plan it somewhere else—"

"Nope. Delegates belong to the archmage. I don't care how much money you have, I don't care how much of a sob story you have, I'm not stupid enough to rob an archmage. I'll take your family without you, if you want to pay for that."

"- can't justify the expense of raising the servants, though they were as surely murdered as Xavi -"

"- no idea where my friends wound up, they might've been chased down and murdered too for all I know -"

"- said it so many times I'm mixing up the prayer to soothe the murdered with the one for deaths from sickness and having to start over -"

"- with a little more work maybe we can get it so leaving a child in one of those places isn't the next thing to murder, only what if that makes it more popular -"

"- as I heard it the amnesty's mighty specific about times but not about crimes, you see, so it for sure includes murder -"

"-good thing they executed him, or someone might have called down Thamir. They still might, on the rest of the mob, but I think we're safe from a murder spree, at least here-"

"- pretty sure if I'm just at all choosy about what I write down I won't be brought up for incitement to murder, but -"

"What does murder mean, Mattis Bossman? We just go to house and kill and taketheirstuff in secret! Is great plan!"

"--the Final Blade, because he would not have liked the alternative--"

"-ask not that you forgive me for the murder of three babes, Holy Judge, nor do I make excuses, but I pray that they have found their appointed place in the afterlife, and that I can perhaps atone in some small way by helping now that I see-"

"No, I don't do that anymore--too high a risk of murder, if you ask me."

"They don't know what their laws are yet, that means they don't know what 'murder' is either. That's why the archmage had to forbid killing delegates, it wasn't illegal already -"

"- angry that I killed his father. And I did, so -"

"—certainly don't get bogged down in litigating purported murders if you can avoid it. Cut it off at the root—"