The convention is an outrage, an insult, and now a massacre. The whole nonsense has to be shut down at once and it's reassuring to be in a room with other people who think so and are willing to say it. They're here to set the country's laws? Fine. They'll go back in and they'll vote for martial law in the city and a ban on all publishing and for Valia Wain to be exiled to Nidal if Her Majesty's too precious to do punishments properly anymore. And a ban on ever abolishing slavery, while they're at it, just to show the abolitionists that aligning with the radicals doesn't pay. 

Jaume is new to having any political importance at all, and would not actually have expected his total failure to dissuade his flashier committee from mass expropriation schemes would inspire anyone to consider him a valuable ally. But he is willing to, at least speculatively, attend such a dinner.

He does not immediately have an answer to the question.

He, on the other hand, is entirely used to this kind of question! The Senate is good training for it, and for all its flaws the convention seems better at actually passing bills.

"Ban all the pamphlets, keep the army in the streets until people stop getting ideas, and send everyone who doesn't belong at the convention home. Whatever hold the archmage has on the queen might make the last one difficult, but at least we can start with the sortitions since even they know they don't belong here. Perhaps bring in some more sensible barons if he digs in his heels about everyone else who doesn't belong, but a too-large senate will have problems of its own."

He'd rather they be rid of Cotonnet entirely, of course, but if he were easy to be rid of the queen wouldn't have had to bribe him with a chance to play out his radical fantasies.

"All the pamphlets? I've written one myself. I suppose the enforcement overhead might be a bit much if they were to be sorted on quality."

"I hope the Archmage as discredited before the Queen, the body of the assembly, and the gods themselves as he deserves to be but I think our first demands should not be ones he has forbidden us from making. Ban pamphlets, get the army on the streets maintaining order, execute as a rioter every man who can't say under a truth spell he wasn't one. The convention itself Cotonnet can make whatever a Galtan farce. If the criminals all die we'll have weeded out the body soon enough anyway."

"In the long run we should have a board of Censors which would approve sensible productions, of course, but it rather seems foolish to wait on that to deal with the problem."

He nods approvingly at Count Bellumar. 

"I'm sure some of them will slip through the gap anyway, their sort always does, but getting rid of their easy patsies ought to limit the damage of anyone we can't put the fear of the law into."

"An end to the pamphlets, yes, order in the streets, yes - But how do you plan to march a quarter of a million burghers through a zone of truth? There must be better ways to find the guilty, and besides - we can hardly execute everyone who stood by and cheered."

"Ask them if they engaged in any violence, theft or arson," says the grey man in the background who was invited because he is, quietly, one of the richest people in Westcrown. "If we miss a few guilty by it, we'll still get enough of the criminals to send a message."

"That solves the moral concern but not the logistical one."

"Let them show up at their leisure. Arcane Mark for everyone who passes. After a week, everyone without is an outlaw."

"I see the merit in allowing people to present themselves for assessment and marking but a week would be very tight. The vouch itself would go some way toward rewarding the peaceful."

He nods at Count Bellumar. 

"If a week is too tight, we can adjust the timespan, so long as we make sure no one leaves the city without it."

"Oh, I'd say let them leave the city. It'll be easier to root them out without damaging any honest business out there than here. Watch who flees, run them down."

"A hallow to extend the Zone to last a full year costs less than a single warship," Elias observes, "and, once possessed, could be used in criminal trials thereafter until it expires."

"The church of Abadar would be pleased to host such a Hallow. It's possible the Inquisitor Shawil could cast it himself."

"I hardly see why we would need a hallow for criminal trials, but I certainly could see other uses for one. Fiducia, I imagine if guaranteeing the truth was as simple as a quick walk honest merchants would benefit?"

“With the way the archmage is dragging the country, we’ll have more than one occasion to want that Zone. Make the commoners walk through it every month, if that’s what it takes to weed out the radicals.”

"The trouble with a Zone in place of a Touch is that it is not obvious if someone has successfully resisted the effect. Few people can be confident that they will do so, though, so the willingness to walk into it and make statements is still a fair filter, particularly with the power of someone like the Inquisitor behind it."

Thoughtful frown at Puig. "Perhaps it would be best to start by marching every delegate through, or purchasing Truthtellings if there are enough to go around. I've no doubt there were rioters among the delegates, and as we've seen, even two days of opportunity can allow them to wreak havoc."

"There are not enough to go around. A handful a day per cleric even if we do nothing else. So far the economics classes have yielded one new Fiducia who immediately Scrivened the entire curriculum and moved to Higini to establish a temple there."

"Naturally. Were it feasible I'd prefer His personal touch as well, but if it were so simple to rid civilization in its entirety of criminals I have no doubt Abadar would have solved it millennia ago, and in the imperfect world we live in it's better that nine-tenths part of them be brought to justice than none. Send the delegates through the hallow as well, and have an inquisitor standing by to catch any lies - that ought to handle most of it."

Once a month? What nonsense. There would be little time for anything else. He turns to the Marquis,

"Perhaps instead of a temple of Abadar the effect should be put up across a large street, so that more people can be moved through it efficiently, and there should be soldiers stationed there with hounds at all times to immediately slay anyone who walks through it and forgets to announce that they are free of sin."

(To Acevedo:)

"I'd like to hope that having seen we'll question all of them any who manage to escape will be on their best behavior, but having seen the nonsense some of them have gotten up to I can't say I expect it."

"The temple seems more dignified. I would not care to be known to foreign visitors as the city where there's a street of slaying for all the murderous rabble."

“The important thing is that they are actually caught, and are truly dealt with when they are caught. Not these weak-kneed half-hearted half-measures that are sure to lead to a reprise.”