Ilda present the letter from the Condesa to him.

“My Lord, I have this letter from your daughter introducing me.  I am Ilda, and I am here on behalf of my Abbess, Thea Iroria, cleric of Irori, and delegate of his faith to the constitutional convention.  Abbess Thea is considering moving to this city at the invitation of Condesa Lucia along with her students such as myself.  As a cleric, Abbess Thea’s spells should prove valuable to the city, and as students of the martial arts us members of her abbey may prove useful allies to the Condesa in time.  I would like to familiarize myself with this city and anyone you would recommend me meeting, in addition to inspecting the Old Fort as mentioned in the letter of introduction.”

Ilda delivers this statement with rehearsed steadiness.

"The old fort- that was going to be for the expansion of the guard-"

He glances at her, briefly, before putting it together. "I suppose we must do what the Condesa commands! Another cleric would certainly be welcome- what circle?" 

“Our Abbess is still first circle, but she will be looking for opportunities to grow stronger.  Likewise, several of us older members will want for combat experience to grow stronger within the next few years, we have some relatively unique combat skills.”  

Her voice shows some pride at the last part.  Ilda wants to show off deflecting arrows.

”As to how the Condesa allocates a place for us… the abbey is open to considering options, the old fort was simply the first suggestion the Condesa had.  We would need a place to house 19 people, more if we are to expand our numbers.  If you have other locations to suggest I can of course view them and report back.”

Ilda is slightly nervous at the way he replied… is there some tension at the fact his daughter and not him has the title?

"Of course, of course! I would imagine that a cleric of Irori must have been born into their faith very recently, very recently indeed!"

"We can put you up, I would imagine. Núria- why don't you put her up somewhere on the lower floors, and find some maid to give her the Grand Tour?"

It's clearly a dismissal.

A dismissal is fine.  Less chance for her to mess things  up.  She’ll follow along with whoever she is directed to.

Núria nods, not very humbly.

"Come with me, young lady. I'll see to it that you're taken care of." 

Núria ushers Ilda backwards, and out the door. "If you wouldn't mind getting settled first, I can give you the tour myself. I would love to hear about what's happening in Westcrown. One hears such rumors."

“Thank you.  Yes, that will work for me.”

Ilda will follow along as instructed.

As Nuria guides her, Ilda is looking for several things which she will report back: are the servants overly fearful or deferent, are there any signs of wealthy or of poverty, and how other important people speak of the Condesa.

Ilda thinks for a moment about how to answer Nuria’s question.

“With the announcement of the convention pamphlets commenting on all sorts of religious and political and social matters become popular in the city.  Abbess Thea read one which messed up basic details about Iomedae you can learn in her holy text, so she didn’t want us reading them.  Maybe with actual clerics arriving in the city the religious pamphlets will die off in popularity in favor of sermons?  The price of orisons was starting to finally drop with clerics arriving for the convention.  Good for the common people, bad for our monastery’s finances, but our Abbess was frugal even when orison prices were out of control, so we should be fine until the convention ends even if it takes a few months.”

Núria is listening, and keeping an eye out for maids. 

As soon as she spots one, she excuses herself with a smile.

"You. No, I don't care what you were doing. This is Ilda. Tell the cook to get us a light meal, with iced drinks. We'll be on the terrace. Then, prep the little green room on the south side for her, and put her on the meals list."

Núria leads Ilda out on the terrace. Long graceful pillars hold up a pristine white awning. A tiny rivulet of water runs down across the terrace, and cascades off the edge.  It's cooler than one might expect, with the water, and the sea breeze. 

She points to a nearby escarpment, and the square sandstone tower sitting there. Some of the fort has has fallen, at some point, but the remaining tower seems strong. "The Old Fort."

It needs some repair work… Thea could probably handle most of it in a few years, there’s a greater mending spell at second circle, but if they are moving in soon, they’ll need to make sure the Condesa plans to repair it.  She eyes its size.

“How many can it hold?  Can you give two guesses one for sleeping barracks style and one for sleeping individually. Or maybe 4 guesses, adding in guess for as it is and  with repairs?”

Ilda will want to see it up close and make her own estimate, but Nuria’s guess might reveal some insight into how she is thinking about it.

"It has nine bedrooms on the bottom floor, which used to be the Conde's harem, before the house moved here. Each hold from one to six, in varying degrees of intimacy. The rooms are set around a large central chamber. I wouldn't know how many it could hold, but many. There are stairs, five floors up, and then at the top, there's a false roof, which I would imagine you could do something with, and then the top of the tower. There are cellars, but they have not been used in a generation." 

Six and six and six is eighteen… so with a few more sixes to spare, it is easily the minimum size.  Or doing a room per age-group cohort, that is two rooms to spare.  It occurs to Ilda, although she doesn’t want to, she should ask Thea for some math meditations to get better at math.

”Sounds suitable.  It might be helpful for my report if you could show it to me up close on our tour.”

Overall it is obviously inferior to their Westcrown base, but that was the work of generations for the Sisterhood of Eiseth, with countless stone shapes and permanent magical flames, and even (at their peak when they could afford higher circle arcane support) permanent illusions and spells to turn dirt to solid rock.

"Of course."

The clinking of glass announces a maid with a tray- who comes up and whispers in Núria's ear.

"Oh! Well- it appears as it I am being pulled away by the affairs of state. Joana will take care of you, and I will meet you again after you have a chance to freshen up!"

Some time later, after Ilda has gotten the chance to settle in, Núria shows up again, at the little green room on the south side, and in much less formal clothes.

"Knock knock," she says. "Did Joana offer you a bath- I forgot to ask if you wanted one? I thought we might visit the fort?" 

Ilda is clean and dressed.

“She did, thank you.  Yes I’m ready for the tour now.”

Núria glances briefly at Ilda's clothes, and doesn't comment on them. Maybe it's a religious obligation, as a monk. She's not going to offer horses, because who knows if city folk can ride.

"It is a quick stroll along the escarpment. In the meantime, perhaps you can tell me the any recent gossip about... our new rulers"

Ilda’s robe was actually a brilliant orange and black before she bleached it so it would no longer be Eiseth’s colors.  And it hasn’t been properly tailored in over a year, only some ad-hoc adjustments followed by mendings.

Ilda has some (relatively) safe answers.  Hopefully Nuria isn’t digging for something to entrap her with.  Ilda will just shut up if it looks the conversation is going in that direction.

“The very fact a constitutional convention is happening indicates an interesting relationship between the Queen, one of her Archmages, and their shared Galtan upbringing.”

"Ah- I forgot about this part- it's the recent rains, you see.  This boulder is a bit large for me- perhaps you might be strong enough to give me a hand up?"

“No problem.”

Ilda can find stable footing even on irregular surfaces and has the upper body strength to practically lift Nuria up directly.

"Oh- my, you're strong." So the monk part wasn't a lie.

Núria points. "See, those are the gates to the cellars of the fort. After the rest of the castle fell, they're a bit precarious to get to, but I'm sure you could do it. I must ask- how ever did you come to be in such female an organization?"

They aren’t all that strong, the weaker or less wise or more charismatic or more dexterous monks just specialize differently!  Ilda doesn’t even realize Nuria is taking the strength as proof of monkhood.

“We used to be acolytes of the Sisterhood of Eiseth.  One night after the Four Day War, the fully initiated sisters abandoned us.  Several of the older acolytes also left, but Thea, the oldest acolyte left, decided to find a new God to worship, and settled on Irori, and he empowered her and so she is now our Abbess.  With the shortage of clerics, Thea was able to make enough money to support the rest of us so we could continue to train.”

"What a talented woman! What vision!" Núria means it. 

On the one hand, an all-female order of monks. On the other hand, they would also be a great hindrance for my plans. On the mage hand- they can be subverted, of course. 

"And how did they then come to the Condesa's attention? I know she's looking for a new god- she's been attending the Fiducia's lectures down at the port. Is it Irori, then?"

Thea made it sound simple: they’re monks in a monastery, they need divine patronage, Irori is a monk God.  Ilda can appreciate the complement to Thea nonetheless.

“My understanding is that it was a chance meeting, the Condesa was seeing the city and they started a conversation.  Abbess Thea had already been considering both connections to make with other delegates and the possibility of finding noble patronage and the Condesa seems outgoing and friendly.”

Núria blinks.

"She is that. As you can see- Here's the gate, as you can see, rather sturdy." She pulls a large cast iron key off her chatelaine, and hands it to Ilda. "You're best suited to turn it, I fear. It's quite a lock" 

She hesitates. "There's quite a lot of torture equipment in there, I fear- an artifact of the old Conde- he had it all over the castle, and rather specialized. The Condesa meant to have the metal go to the smiths, but the Captain of the Guard put a hold on it. I couldn't comment on why. I do hope you're not squeamish"