Hmm, a knock. He listens for a moment in case of a crowd (no), and then comes to the door and cautiously opens it.

"Ah, Delegate Iroria! Come in, come in."

"It's good to see you Watcher.  Or should I say Delegate Lebanel?  And its good, and very surprising, to see this building is intact given recent events.  I would seek your counsel on a proposal or two I've been considering for when the convention resumes.  I think they will align well enough with your interests, but perhaps you will correct me on that."

"Just go with Theopho, that at least is definitely accurate."

He closes the door behind her, and gestures to some chairs.

"Sure, go ahead and ask."

"And I'm going by Thea Iroria now, you can call me Thea.  One of my sisters finally got around to pointing out the obvious disadvantage of being known by a name based on that of Eiseth... I should have figured it out myself of course."

Thea takes a moment to gather her thoughts.  She doesn't believe the accusations thrown around by Valia and Alicia and various pamphlets, but it still makes her slightly more nervous dealing with Theopho.  The nervousness only barely shows if Theopho is watching carefully.

"So... one proposal that came up briefly in the first two days was sending the sortition delegates home.  It might come up again.  Obviously this would shift power in the nobles favor and I've been very impressed by Korva Tallandria and moderately impressed by a few other sortition delegates.  So I have a modified version of that proposal.  Return the sortition delegates home if they desire it, but have them designate their vote, or votes to another sortition delegate before leaving, with the designee retaining full power to vote on their behalf.  This will preserve the overall balance of power, and I suspect it would concentrate power in the sortition delegates with more courage and sensibility than the average sortition delegate.  Like, for an obvious example, Delegate Tallandria, who, if I recall correctly, spoke in your favor at one point.  For myself and Irori's interests... I think a future where children learn to read is better, and from the preliminary feel I got from the education committee, Delegate Tallandria would see that happen.  Compared to the nobility and even many other sortitions who would let the memory of the infernally run schools or the costs drive them to end public education entirely."

"I like Tallandria. A few others, too; Enric Porras is an ordinary farmer but he's been very sensible and suggested good ideas at times. I think that propsal is reasonable, and might get approved by the arch-President, though her illustrious imperiousness of Chelam will probably contest it. Makes bribery harder, and sets up bidding wars."

"I'm generally for education, but I am not sure how much anything that continues public support and endorsement could pass the floor. They see public teachers as - what was her name - Imperia Caballé, at best, and for the time being I'm not sure they're even wrong."

“It already occurred to me making bribery harder was another possible advantage to my idea… I missed the obvious implication that it would make the nobles fight it harder.  Still, I think the sortition delegates should strongly favor it whether they mean to leave or stay.”

“The sentiment about public schooling was already divided in the education committee, it was going to be tricky just to get any proposal just for basic literacy through… I hadn’t thought about the floor yet, but thinking on it now, it seems obvious it might be even less favorable than a committee on it.”

"That's what I'd expect, having read the committee transcripts."

Oh duh, the transcripts are getting passed around and Theopho got in on that.  A flash of momentary confusion followed by irritation at another obvious-in-hindsight fact shows on Thea’s face.  Well, at least talking to Theopho has proven well worth it once again, even if he figures out his own angle to play Thea for.

“What’s the rate transcripts are going at?  I could probably spare at least a few silvers a day on the more obviously relevant to me committees, if not all committees…”

"Depends how long you're willing to wait and how much you shop around, but I've been paying a couple copper a committee where I want them that evening, and about a copper each where I was willing to wait. You want to look for Counts, mostly, preferably ones who seem moderately poor but not extremely."

“I’ll make a list of committee by priority for myself.  If any of your existing sellers wouldn’t mind someone else to sell to I would appreciate being put in contact once the convention resumes.  Otherwise, your advice seems good enough for figuring out who to ask myself.”

"Sure, anyone who's selling prefers volume. I'll write you a list and probably all the same ones will be selling when we resume. I don't particularly have concrete suggestions for how to go forward with education, or I'd probably have joined that committee; did you have ideas there to ask about?"

“I don’t yet have any ideas for education, I mean to find Delegate Tallandria and see if she had any she could use help developing before the convention resumes.  My other idea is… broader in scope and possibly even more important.  Tell me how much would ensuring Delegate Tallandria and any like her feeling safe to speak be worth reducing the ability to mitigate speeches like Valia’s?  I have in mind a proposal that means to do both, completely protect any speakers while enabling most speech and stopping clearly illegal speech immediately.”

"I... don't know. It depends somewhat on how her trial turns out. We certainly couldn't pass Andoran's protections and I'm not sure it would even be good if we could, those protect everything said in the parliament and let you distribute copies of everything said freely in defiance of all other censorship laws, and though I see the virtuous intent there no one in Westcrown would vote for it. I think it's probably important for delegates to be able to speak, and for copies of what they said to be given or sold to all the literate delegates, but both perception and reality of the downsides are going to be different if Wain is exonerated or pardoned."

“The proposal I had in mind was: ‘The President and agents appointed by him shall immediately inform delegates if their speech is crossing into illegality.  Delegates shall be immune to prosecution for floor speech so long as they are responsive to corrections issued by the president and his agents.’… I wasn’t sure what to do about committee speech.  And I’m not sure if this proposal is best sent through a committee first or risked directly on the floor.  But I do think if I can make the danger apparent to other delegates (that they could be jailed not for the immediate content of their speech but for after-the-fact political mood or political expediency or distortion of their words by a vile pamphleteer) then this proposal has a chance.”

"That seems... Probably fine, if he's able to tell us what is illegal. I don't know how the balance between the Queen and Cotonnet goes; I don't think either of them could entirely dictate terms to the other but there's a lot of room in between."

“I was thinking the Archmage could appoint a representative more closely in tune with the Queen’s will, and allow the representative to intervene if they catch something the Queen opposes he might otherwise let slip through.  You’re right I don’t know about the balance between them, I just want to make sure they err on the side of not crushing any delegates between them.”

"That seems fair enough. Probably make it 'agents appointed by him with the consent of the queen', I think. As long as it doesn't need any more complications, I think submitting it directly without a committee is probably best; it's simple enough, and I suppose it could route through Rights but I think the floor is a better bet."

“That makes sense to me.  Do you happen to know where Delegate Tallandria is staying?  I was planning to try to speak with her soon if I could, but I only have a starting guess as to where she might be based on the areas of the city most popular with sortition delegates.”

"I do not. I've spoken to her, but she was being cautious about being followed home and didn't let on where she was staying."

“Reasonable of her.  Well I will arrive early when the convention starts back, maybe I can get a few minutes of her time.  Those were the major things I needed help with.”

“This is the second time you’ve given me good counsel.  Is there any proposal from the Education or Virtuous Churches committees you would find beneficial to see brought to the floor?  I’m not actually skilled enough to promise anything, but I can keep your interests in mind.  I’m already aware non-Evil Gods being non-proscribed would benefit you, but virtuous churches might end up just making a list of virtuous churches.  Still, if I see a chance I’ll add that in.”

"I appreciate it, but not in any large way. I would like it if there were means for the talented poor to have that talent discovered and be taught, but that is probably beyond our means for the next generation. I hope you get education proposals limited enough that the floor will accept them, which will, as I said, be hard, but I don't have good ideas, I got tutored by a bookseller until I was confirmed onto the wizard track. And for Virtuous Churches... I don't really expect any amount of political capital is likely to keep Erecura legal. I'm planning under the assumption I'll be leaving the country within a year, either to Absalom or Rahadoum."

“I understand, let me know if any other favors you need that I could possibly do for you.”

Well, there was one part of that which was puzzling.

”Wait, Rahadoum?  Do you mean to renounce Erecura?”

Thea’s going to feel like an idiot if it turns out even Theopho thinks Erecura can’t be trusted.  Well her assessment of Theopho’s character will have been correct in that case, but still.

"You may have noticed I covered the symbol on the front facade? After Chelam accused me, I went talking to an actual Iomedan, with more experience than Wain. And he pointed out that I have little way of knowing whether Erecura's history as a mortal and causes for being in Hell are, as I know them, accurate. If she chose Hell willingly, then yes, I will. I intend to buy a commune; I'm still working out where and from who."

She had thought the covering a temporary pragmatic move…

“So you need a God that would know the true story, overcoming Hell’s secrecy… and secrecy is part of Erecura’s concerns as well, right?  And you need the God to have clerics with communes for sale.  And you need the God to be willing to understand your question and answer it truthfully.”

That sounds like an impossible puzzle.  Thea still takes a few moments thinking it over.

“Is there any relevant arcane magic… isn’t there a spell that gives you legends?  Or does it just give you legends as they are told without any hint as to their truth?”

"Legend lore exists, yes, but it's notoriously difficult to interpret in most circumstances and requires a material focus. I could probably try it on my holy symbol, She made it by a very small miracle, but I doubt it would be informative. Most of what I'm looking to check is about her last days as a mortal and very first days as a god, so they're likely to be less secret than, say, asking why She chose me. Pharasma would know but might lie. Irori would be unlikely to lie but also unlikely to know. Nethys certainly knows but you can't learn anything from a commune with Nethys except how to think like Nethys, and nobody wants that. Abadar may be my best bet, He certainly won't lie and is likely to know."