Ilda was nearing the point when she would be told to beat someone to death with her bare hands when the Four Day War happened.  So no, she isn’t squeamish.  She isn’t sure if being squeamish is a virtue now or if it’s still an undesirable trait, so she’ll say nothing.

“It seems of questionable loyalty and sense to hold on to it, given the recent changes in Cheliax’s rule.”

Ilda could easily muscle the key, but she’ll try the minimum amount of force first then gradually increase her effort so as not to break the key or the lock.

Núria smiles microscopically. "I would tend to agree. I'll send a letter back with you, explaining everything to the Condesa. Then, if she overrules him, we could have the place cleaned out by the time you would be moving in. Yes, I'm afraid you'll need to force it."

Ilda deliberately makes a fraction of lip movement that could be interpreted as a smile back.

“The Condesa is lucky to have your aid in this.  Is the Condesa in need of more loyal women who can see her will carried out faithfully?”

Ilda doesn’t actually believe Nuria is helping out of straightforward loyalty to the Condesa, there’s probably some complicated noble bullshit games going on.  But Ilda is vaguely aware how she comes off, and she can at least try to play into that by pretending she believes Nuria is genuinely that loyal.

Aww, she's trying to do politics. That's adorable! Well, a teen assassin cult leader could hardly do a worse job than the present appointee.

"I certainly think that the Condesa could be better suited by finding another military representative"

"So this is the central room. You can see one of the bedrooms beyond that thing with the steel spikes, and if you move that wooden- yes, I'm afraid that's blood- you can probably get by. If you want to take a look in there- I can swear to you that all the rest of the bedrooms are the same- then can go up to the roof. "  

Ilda will look over that room… and check one other room at random on their way up to the roof.

She'll have to clamber over things with spikes and dried blood on them, but that's fine, it's not Nuria's dress that's getting torn.

There's a long set of narrow stone stairs, winding back and forth. There's both interior (to the court) and exterior windows on the higher floors- the latter sealed with shutters.

At the top, there's the usual wooden shed for hoardings, and small bench covered in lichen, for watching the ocean. 

“Nice view, our current monastery is underground.”

"Yeah- that's the arena, that's the old temple, that's the well. It's a great city. Halmyris-"

Núria has a long standard speech for this. Usually she uses it on merchants who might want to move here, and anywhere where she wants to puff up Halmyris, as The coast city of Cheliax (other than the capital, of course)

It's quite long, and today she makes sure to drone on a little extra.

Ilda is initially interested.  And then as the speech goes on and on she gradually finds her attention drifting.  Luckily it’s a nice view and Nuria is dramatically gesturing at the various relevant locations visible from it, so Ilda can feign continued interest while looking out at the city and ocean.  And Ilda’s facial expression never changes, so it isn’t showing any boredom.

[Unseen and not Undone][Cunning Caster][Hypnotism]

"-so I really do think it's the best city you could possibly hope for, given the unfortunate constraints of Remesiana. Because of that I really hope you support me as a Potential Ally, and Halmris as a suitable city, when talking to your Abbess"

Ilda has ever had practice spotting spells being cast and resisting them, but that was over a year ago back when she was being trained by the Sisterhood of Eiseth, Thea hadn’t had the spells to spare on it and Estella only helped them train a few times then got bored of it.

And in fact, Nuria blended the verbal components and physical gestures almost seamlessly into her speech and gesticulations, so Ilda would have had bad odds of even noticing the spell even if she was paying attention.  In short, the spell goes off without a hitch.

“Of course, the way you’ve described the city sounds wonderful and you’ve been very helpful.”

Ilda’s voice is the warmest and friendliest it’s been yet, and a slight but natural smile shows beneath her constant stoic expression. 

A genuine smile back. "Oh, I'm so glad. I'll leave the key with you- please do return it when you go back to Westcrown- but unfortunately I simply must be going."

“Do you know if the Regent had any other things he wished me to see or do today?  I would like to visit the Shelynite Temple if there is time.”

"Oh, I shouldn't think so! Do enjoy your stay and do please come to me with anything you need! The only place I'd really avoid is the lower port- when the wrong sort of ships are in town, there have been known to be some... ruckuses down there."

“Thank you for the advice.”

She’ll spend a bit longer staring at the sea then be on her way to Shelynite temple then.

She thinks on Nuria a little longer.  She feels set on recommending her to Thea.

Dia would think she’s being a naive idiot, but she thinks she can feel some common interest with Nuria.  The Sisterhood of Eiseth often offered aid to noblewoman in need of a trustworthy fist to put down their problems, perhaps they could figure out a similar arrangement with Nuria.  What actually is Nuria’s rank and position?  Ilda should figure that out, it wouldn’t do to offend an allied noble over some titles bullshit.  And Ilda has gotten the impression the previous default solution to an offended minor noble is no longer acceptable to Thea.  Well if Nuria turns from ally to problem to outright threat… Ilda and Dia can get Thea to accept the pragmatic option.

Doing ministry in liberated Cheliax has been surprisingly easy so far, so much so that he almost stopped waiting for the other shoe to drop. This means that rather than relief about finally seeing the catch, he's actually quite concerned to be told about an Assassin cult of Irori who indoctrinates children and plans to move into the town (the story has gotten somewhat mangled in the retelling). He can't even reassure them not to be worried, both because the Rivera family is one of those he listens to most closely and because he can't truthfully reassure them that Irori would never condone an assassination order. He would, it's a serious problem.

None of this shows on his face when he welcomes Ilda to the temple, though. She's just another at risk soul like so many others in Cheliax, and his mission is to help them, not judge them.

Ilda managed to learn the title of Shelynite clerics and this particular songbird’s name, so she feels reasonably prepared for this meeting.

“Greeting Songbird Armando, I’m visiting this town on behalf of my Abbess, Thea, cleric of Irori and delegate of his faith to the constitutional convention.  She has been considering relocating our monastery and is considering Halmyris at the invitation of the Condesa.  How are you liking this city?”

"It's mostly been a pleasure so far, especially compared to the worst my fears when I first arrived - it certainly helps that I had something of a congregation already waiting, and did not have to do all of the work alone. I've worked alongside some followers of Irori before, but I can't say they have all followed a single theme beyond honing their skills; how would you describe your monastary?"

“We’ve continued in training martial skills as we did before… I should explain in order.  All of our current members were acolytes in an infernal cult dedicated to Eiseth.  The fully initiated members abandoned us after the Four Day War, and then some of the older acolytes abandoned us, and the oldest remaining acolyte, Thea, turned to Irori and was empowered by him.  She’s kept us fed and clothed selling her spells, and she also reworked our training to be in line with Irori’s teaching… We’ve retained most of the martial training but also added in a lot more reading and intellectual exercises.  Abbess Thea has also changed up our meditations from purely pragmatic exercise intended to help develop the ability to use Ki and hone killing intent to more intellectual and enlightening meditations she’s learned from Irori’s holy text.  I think if she establishes lessons for the public, she’ll do basic meditation, and maybe some basic defensive unarmed combat training.  By that I mean, for example, in an introductory lesson, she taught the Condesa some basics on how to break free of grapples and grabs so the Condesa could cast spells with somatic components.  Long term, I think Abbess Thea also means to figure out how we can sell our skills as adventurers and bodyguards.”

Ilda had already been prepared with most of this statement in advance, so she recites it smoothly, only needing to pause to adjust a few times to focus her answer on the Songbird’s specific question.

That's... less reassuring than it could be. Even if he takes everything at face value, that's still an only slightly deprogrammed infernal cult, with no external support or internal role models who know anything outside of the cult, dedicated to the god who would be perfectly satisfied with a result where they went back to doing assassinations under a different goal. And he didn't miss how rehearsed that speech was either. It's times like this that he really wishes he had a whole seminary of songbirds here to help him out, and a few summoned agathions for good measure.

...Well. Lady Shelyn may tell them that Nirvana is for everyone, but she never said it would be easy to accomplish that. Get your head in the game, Armando, there might be a whole abbey of kids counting on you. And the first step is to make sure they know they aren't trapped.

"In Andoran there are usually rather more clerics in a city of this size than Halmyris has, and from a wide variety of faiths. I certainly have no intention of discouraging an Irorite from their chosen method of self improvement, but even if the adventuring doesn't work out as she hopes I expect your abbess will have options. For your other acolytes without such advantages, I run a number of classes on varying crafts in the evenings out of the temple, and would be happy to have any of you who wished to attend do so. Do you think there are any that would be particularly popular, either for your abbey or for you?"

More clerics means Thea is undercut on spellcasting price which means less money for the abbey.  She is actually aware she can’t just say that to the Songbird, it might sound like she’s saying she wants him gone.  She’s distracted by these thoughts for a few a moment before processing the rest of the Songbird’s comment.

“Abbess Thea considers diversity in studies and skills valuable, and is experimenting with different styles of teaching and areas of subject matter, so yes, learning crafts sounds like something she would at least like to introduce us to.”

Ilda tries to think ahead and see the implications.  Is the invitation a way of… feeling out competition from another God’s church?  A friendly way of networking?  An approach to proselytizing?  Whatever, she’ll act friendly and leave the door open, Dia can figure out the right follow-up move later.

“I should be in the city around a week, maybe up to two?  Are there any introductory classes in that time you would recommend I try?”

She doesn’t sound enthusiastic about it, but she doesn’t sound outright bored about it either.

"I was personally most fond of the painting lessons at my own church growing up, and if you feel the same way I'd be happy to have you over this evening, but I as far as the city in general goes the most popular tend to be the lessons on weaving and sewing and you'd have to wait for tomorrow for that one."

He's very proud of his work there, lots of people in post-Asmodean Cheliax have no idea how to do any of the things that kids in other countries learn from their parents, but they often fear the idea of it being common knowledge they don't know how. If he brings brings free colorful cloth to the classes, though, they can tell themselves they're only showing up for that and he gets the added satisfaction of seeing people joyful about the way they look for the first time.