Xavier is, of course, also here, and has been wearing a Ring of Sustenance on the opposite hand as his Ring of Counterspells since he was made a captain. (The purpose of noble estates is to allow officers to obtain wildly more expensive gear than they otherwise could; all else is vanity.) 

Korva's super well-rested, which is to say that no screaming babies woke her up in the middle of the night.

"What's this about?"

"Ah, Delegate Tallandria. There's going to be a censorship bill passed. We would all prefer it not say 'nothing may be published without the approval of the royal board of censors, which doesn't exist yet'. The Archduke and I met last night to put together a draft we think can pass, which is no more restrictive than it needs to be."

He nods.

(Quim vanishes to go tell everyone else who was watching for Tallandria that they can stop watching. And then probably look for the religious delegates on the committee, they can guess that's the next order they'd get.)

Oh no. - the Archduchess is probably not lying, unless she was playing some complicated game before by suggesting a right to speech, which now that she thinks of it is totally the sort of thing you ought to expect Archduchesses to do.

Whatever. They're asking her. "Can I see it?"

"Of course."

In recognition of the enormous harm that has been, and is ongoingly, done by the publication of vile slanders, insinuations, radical materials, and advocacy both mistaken and malicious:

    It is forbidden to publish or distribute written material in Cheliax unless it is marked with an Arcane Mark of the creator or publisher and a note of the Statute under which it is permitted, of which six are henceforth enumerated, with the Queen or a future legislative body permitted to add others. A work is considered kept private as long as it is not distributed outside a small audience, not read in a public square or public house, not put on display outside a private domicile, and not made available for sale. Some work is permitted as long as it is kept private, which is not permitted to be published or distributed.

    Firstly, all material is permitted by the First Publication Statute of Cheliax if the publication of the material is permitted under the law in those Chelish provinces and allied states where the Rule of Law is strong, that is presently Lastwall, Molthune, and Osirion, and the material is not modified from the version distributed in those countries, notwithstanding a direct decree of the Queen to the contrary. Material which has been permitted under the law in other friendly states with similar laws, currently Absalom, Galt, and the Thuvian city-states, for a period of five years without its legal status being challenged is also permitted under the same conditions.

    Secondly, material is permitted by the Second Publication Statute of Cheliax if the material is published by a licit and authorized publishing house, and marked with an Arcane Mark on each page of a copyist registered with that publishing house, that it may be attributed to a man who is fully legally liable for any lawless consequences of its distribution.

    Thirdly, material is permitted by the Third Publication Statute of Cheliax if the material contains no political, social or religious commentary, and would not be identified by any reasoned observer to be attempting to make a political, social or religious argument; for instance it is a book of Accounts, a book of Recipes, a book of Apothecarie, or an announcement of an event (the latter being permitted presuming the event to be itself permitted, and illicit if the event is a lawless gathering). It is unlawful to mark a book as permitted under this statute if it adopts the form of a book of Accounts, Recipes, etc. to make a political, social or religious argument; in any case where a work is even ambiguously of political, social, or religious effect it must seek authorization under some other statute.

    Fourthly, material is permitted by the Fourth Publication Statute of Cheliax if approved by any board of censors appointed by the Crown. No such board exists and this Law does not create one; but should one in the future be created any materials it authorized would be legal under this Law.

    Fifthly, the right to know the Law being fundamental to a Lawful society, any book or printing of the Law in which the law is not abridged or modified is legal under the Fifth Publication Statute of Cheliax.

    Sixthly, in order to protect our existing booksellers from bankruptcy, works of at least twenty pages originally published before Sarenith 1 4714 are permitted with conditions. Wizards not authorized as publishers may put their Arcane Marks to such works under the Sixth Publication Statute of Cheliax and make further copies, which they may Personally sell, so long as their purchasers keep such works private and do not resell them. Resellers violate the Sixth Publication Statute unless they have the works authorized under another statute first. Works which have been outlawed by a decree of the Crown or law from a future legislative body, such as the Asmodean Disciplines, lose this protection from the date the decree or law is promulgated.

    For a publishing house to obtain authorization to publish in Cheliax, it must have a single, identified proprietor, in whose name the license is issued, and who acknowledges the following:

    He is a Subject of Her Majesty and means to abide by Her laws

    He has placed a bond of Six Thousand Gold Pieces against the possibility of chaos and destruction brought about by the works he publishes, either with the state or with the Church of Abadar, which will be returned to him thirty days following the closure of his publication house unless damages result, and seized to pay damages should damages result;

    He is further liable for damages from the works he publishes if they exceed Six Thousand Gold Pieces, and is liable up to the seizure of all of his properties, and if capital crimes are incited by works he publishes, he is liable for death;
    'Damages' in this statute refer only to harms monetary and personal that result from the publication being determined slanderous or libelous, or from Lawless acts which the publications advocated, directly or by implication; enabled, by instruction in how to carry out or evade detection for a lawless act, including harms resulting from lawless acts that the publication enabled by making it known that some other individuals had called for violence, or predicted it, or believe the gods to advise it, or believe it would solve Cheliax's ills, or by any other phrasing suggest it to the advantage of another person to commit criminal acts.  Should a publication cause monetary damages by some other mechanism than inspiring, encouraging or enabling criminal acts - for instance by the promotion of a business at the expense of a competitor-  the publishing house shall not be liable.

    The distribution or copying of works which are not marked with an Arcane Mark indicating under which statute they are authorized, is henceforth illegal, and punishable with 30 days' imprisonment, a fine of up to 1gp per page of illegal commentary distributed, and liability civil and criminal for all illegal conduct inspired by those works. Falsely marking a work as authorized under a Statute which does not permit its distribution is henceforth illegal, and punishable with the destruction of the spellbook used to so mark the work, with a sentence of up to hard labor, with a fine of up to 1gp per page of illegal commentary distributed, and liability civil and criminal for all illegal conduct inspired by those works.

    The possession of works which are not marked with an Arcane Mark indicating under which statute they are authorized, is legal, if those works are kept private. Personal correspondence, personal notes and records, transcripts of the meetings of the government at any level and in any form (incl. city councils, constitutional conventions, legislatures of a town, city, or larger area where they exist, &c), transcripts of sermons, business records, &c, may be produced and copied without authorization, provided they are kept private.
    
    The possession of works which are marked with an Arcane Mark indicating under which statute they are authorized is legal, even if that mark was made contrary to the law, except where directly forbidden by decree of the Crown.

It's probably unfair to call the publishing house measure completely useless; people did publish things under the old regime, too, even though it was risking your life then, too. Of course, then there was a censorship board, and it was actually possible to know which of the things you were selling were legal, which is absolutely not to say that all of them were. 

She has absolutely no expectation that Osirion or Lastwall allow anyone to say more than a tiny subset of things worth saying. Molthune... might. The shining beacon of hope on the countries list is Absalom; she's heard that Absalom has a giant library of nearly all the books in the world, and she doesn't believe it because that's impossible but it still, you know, might have a bunch of books that everyone else finds unimportant.

...realistically, the worst case is just a return to underground histories, with an effective death penalty for distribution, although it sounds like we're officially doing life slavery instead of execution (they don't execute you for being unable to pay a fine, right?). But that sucks. Though all of the current books will at least stay legal to own, so at least some hope remains of saving them.

"What does it mean for a work to have been published before the first of Sarenith? I mean - suppose a non-wizard owns a book, and has owned it for a year. Can he go to a wizard and have it marked, or give it to the wizard to make a copy from, and then take a copy in exchange? Or is the protection for existing works only for those currently in the possession of wizards, and only to be copied by those wizards, or for only some subset of texts that wizards have?"

"I admit I wrote that part mostly thinking of the merchants who bought expensive stock and would be ruined, not just annoyed, to lose them. Certainly keeping the existing copy is legal under the second-last clause, which should do for most personal collections. But I think the plain reading permits them to bring it to any wizard who will trust their word that they bought it before now, and for that wizard to make copies and sell them to anyone. ...That may be more permissive than I thought, actually. Which isn't a bad thing, unless it gets the law voted down."

"Hm. But then if the wizard is found to be incorrect about when the work was originally created, they're liable and their spellbook is destroyed?"

"Yes. There might be a truth spell involved in the 'trust your word' step."

"We can live with that. Does private use include borrowing books, without paying for them or making a copy? - actually, can you make personal copies of borrowed books, if you don't share them?"

"I think if it ever reaches a court the judge has an hour-long debate between the attorneys about whether or not it's sufficiently widely spread to be 'distribution.'"

"...so it's not legal to borrow a book from a friend."

"It is legal to borrow it, it is not legal to borrow it and make copies, making 'may be lent so long as copies are not made' explicit will probably not lose us any votes but explicitly permitting anyone to make copies of any book a friend lends him will lose us many."

"I think it's better to be clear on both counts, then. Any book that was in a wizard's possession before the convention began can unambiguously be copied and distributed and sold by that wizard, no matter who that wizard is and what the work is, as long as it hasn't been explicitly banned?"

"Yes, if they do the sales personally and don't pass them on."

"Good morning, Archdukes, Delegate Tallandria. Ah, I see there are edits..."

Somebody pulls Soler in before he's even gotten a chance to sit down. (He was running a little late this morning. If you tell a temple full of people to adopt children and then a bunch of them do it you're going to get a lot of questions for a few days. It's fine.)

"Sower! Thank you for coming. We're working on a censorship proposal to go first thing. Sofia, read it to him, will you?"

His comments, as the proposal is read to him, are: "How small an audience?" and "I saw somebody writing down my sermon, have I got to chase down people doing that lest I be a 'creator'?" and "it's traditional to modify Erastil's holy book with local fables wherever it's put about, so this bans it as it's meant to be done" and "clerics get Scrivener's Chant too, turns out, but not Arcane Mark".

Damn, Theopho's important enough they tracked him down during the break. ...or she just made herself impossible to find outside very concerted efforts, she did also do that.

"That was one of my people, Sower; Txell. But no, the one who makes the Mark is the one who counts. I'd love to ask Someone - Abadar? - to make Divine Mark, but unless They do I think we'll have to make do with wizards. I have absolutely no idea what to do that would allow the Parables of Erastil done traditionally and not make the floor vote it down."

"Hold a specific vote in the Committee on Good Churches to explicitly permit it."

There are a lot of wizards in Cheliax. It won't get everything. But it will get a lot of things, and the things it doesn't get won't be destroyed, just - in stasis, unable to be further saved, unless someone publishes them properly, in any of seven different countries, some of which probably allow books. That's... fine. It's not perfect but it's fine.

"I assume this doesn't mean to interfere with the workings of academy libraries, since those are literally run by the government, but are they currently covered? I'm assuming the librarians should go through the current collections and mark everything, at which point copies can be made, but only by the librarians? Do we want that?" She will look so dumb if Egorian was the only academy with a library, but the other schools were supposed to have more proper scholarship.

"That or become publishers, I think. I'd guess an academy library would have enough pull not to be charged with frivolous connections to crimes."

"Hi, uh, I heard there was an emergency meeting?"

"Welcome, Delegate Ferrer. A censorship bill is, unfortunately, certain to pass today; I'd rather it be one more moderate and reasonable than simply banning every work not approved by a royal censorship board that does not yet exist, which I believe to be the alternative should the Rights committee not provide a better one. Would you care to read the draft?"

"Well, yeah," she tells Theopho, "but they'd have to have six thousand gold, which doesn't even - actually, can you just - we were talking on the education committee about the possibility of somewhat expanding access to the libraries run by the government," to insane proportions but let's not get into that here, "and - do you think it makes sense to consider books owned by government services a special case, and allow such books to be copied? I suppose that's currently handing a lot of unchecked power to academy librarians, who were selected for - an adjacent skill, but not precisely this one. Maybe we can talk more about it in education and get it added later, if it's too much for now. Create, like, the ability to authorize someone as a government academic who can purchase unauthorized works and add them to government collections if warranted, and allow anyone to produce copies from a government work. That's... sort of like a censorship board, I guess?"

Victòria doesn't think censorship is unfortunate as long as the bill is censoring things that are actually bad and not, like, saying no one can ever criticize the nobility. 

"Yes, do you have a copy?"

Sure, right here!

Victòria looks over the proposal. She's a fast reader; it doesn't take long. About halfway down, she stops, does some figuring on her fingers, and frowns, before returning to the draft.

She circles the bond amount. "I'm not sure you realize quite how much money this is for someone who isn't an archduke?" More likely he does know, and is doing it on purpose, but — the azata thought he wasn't going out of his way to be Evil on purpose, it's theoretically possible it was an accident. "Like, my mother earned a couple silver a day. Even if she didn't have to spend it on anything, she could work her whole life and never be able to afford six thousand gold. As written this restricts publishing to important nobles, and maybe a few very rich people — most of whom got rich doing Evil things under Asmodeus, which seems like the opposite of who anyone should want deciding things. Like, I definitely think it makes sense to have some kind of rule about who can set up a print shop, but not, uh, one that says only important nobles and Mammonites can do it — if you want to be sure you can, uh, punish people with fines, you could require the fee but set it to an amount that a normal person might ever be able to afford? ...And then maybe you could... make people say under an Abadar's Truthtelling that they aren't going to break the law and aren't going to try to get innocent people killed and aren't going to try to convince people to be Evil, and, uh, I don't know how you'd say it but, know enough not to accidentally get innocent people killed, and anything else we can think of, for things people shouldn't be allowed to print?"

She moves her pen to the exceptions for personal correspondence. "And this might already be covered by the rules about letters, but I think you should write it out explicitly — I talked to Feliu the paladin yesterday, and he said if there's a really big problem that you need to tell the Queen about, like if your nobles are still making people worship Asmodeus, you're supposed to 'petition' her, which is where you write a letter to the Queen, and her servants will read it and decide if it's important and tell her about it if it is. And I think we should say explicitly that it's definitely legal to petition the Queen, even though it might be read by a bunch of her servants first.

...and I'm also confused about — on the first day you were saying people should be allowed to try to convince other people to worship Asmodeus, and this is a lot more rules then I'd've thought you'd ever be okay with. But that's probably not important, just confusing." (She does, actually, think it's important, but if she says "I'm worried that you're going to vote one way on proposals in committee and another way on the floor" that kind of gives away what she's concerned about.)

"I think it is too much for now," Jilia says to Korva, "Though I'm definitely not opposed to enabling academies to have extra censorship boards, the proposal I brought to His Grace relied more heavily on things like that."

"Okay, I will think about long term academic library stuff over in Education. Right now I think you just want to make sure the existing academies can continue functioning with the books they have, and I'm unclear whether this allows that."

....did Xavier say people should be allowed to worship Asmodeus? That doesn't sound right. Did she say that? She's suddenly uncertain. Surely last week's Korva had some sense.

The six thousand gold to publish is obviously intended to prevent almost anyone from publishing new things, but can you really expect anyone to be allowed to publish new things that say anything controversial? Not particularly. Though she still needs to ask about the other countries thing when there's time.

"The price is as high as it is out of a belief that the higher the price is the more conservatives will vote for the bill," he says frankly. "And I'd rather have freer language, but after the pamphlet that started a riot on the Third I don't think it's politically practical to pass any law that guarantees freedom of the pen. We could have passed it on the second; we cannot today, not with three hundred civilians' blood on the pen of one liar.

"And I doubt the crisis will be as bad as you think. And I think that the Church of Abadar will offer to fund any bonds posted by themselves at low rates to anyone who they trust to publish nothing likely to start a riot, so I don't think it will just be archdukes and adventurers who can open print shops. If I'm wrong, we can suggest an amendment in two months, once the more moderate conservatives realize that nothing overtly untoward has been thus published legally."

He smiles about the "talked to Feliu" bit, though. "I agree that there should be an explicit exception for a right of petition, thank you for bringing this up. We should add that to the bill." It's very fortunate for their working relationship that she came up with something not stupid to add.

She looks at Delegate Soler. "Uh, you're Lawful, right, if you went to the Church of Abadar and asked for six thousand pounds to start a print shop, do you think they would ever give it to you, that sounds like an insane amount of money for them to just lend someone but I guess I don't know for sure—"

"- I don't know an Abadaran from a hole in the ground and furthermore can't really read, I'm not quite the example you might want."

"The six thousand gold," as he points out, "would remain in the Church's vaults, lent by them to you only to deposit to them."

"The Church of Iomedae will have a press, and so will the Abadarans themselves, and Sarenrae, Shelyn I think they'd charge more interest but she'd call it worth it. I wouldn't be surprised if Irori has one, and Torag if he ever sends anyone to Taggun Hold, and if Pharasma's church wants one they'll get one. They won't trust Milani or Calistria or any Evil church and if I want a Caydenite press I'm going to have to fund it myself, but it will not be mostly nobility, certainly not if you count by number of books made."

"So, the thing I'm worried about is — let's say you have someone who's publishing something totally reasonable and definitely not going to cause riots, but that criticizes the nobility or says they should have fewer special rules that give them better treatment. Like saying that we shouldn't have travel passes, or that nobles who break the law should get the same legal, non-mob-based punishment as everyone else, or that the dues you have to pay the nobles should be lower, or things like that. I don't think people should be allowed to say that people should go murder all Hellspawn, that's terrible, and — I don't even think it should be legal for us to have made a pamphlet of Valia's speech, if we'd done that, because apparently a bunch of people thought it meant they should kill innocent people. For some reason.

If you can find me a normal random person who makes normal person amounts of money and isn't a noble, and I guess also isn't a priest of Abadar, who thinks the Church of Abadar would lend them six thousand pounds for it, then I guess that part is fine. Or if you wanted to give a person like that six thousand pounds to set up a print shop that would also be fine? But I think that if you think the Church of Abadar would give out a loan like that to an ordinary person, even a really Lawful ordinary person who knew exactly what things would cause problems, you're, uh, doing the noble thing where you don't realize what things are like for normal people."

"Avenger, you cannot win this. All you can win is killing this proposal in favor of the one that doesn't allow anything that hasn't gotten personal Crown approval. You're entitled to vote against it, but we have a time limit here. I request a vote on whether to keep the current six thousand gold piece surety deposit or continue arguing it. I vote to keep it."

"...As chair, request granted. I also vote to keep. If it got to the floor without them I'd vote in favor, but we'd lose all but a dozen other nobles and two-thirds of everyone else."

"Abstain."

"Keep." 

"Keep, but I want to note that I do think this will destroy domestic publishing of more than a very narrow band of new works."

" - actually, wait, can we vote on stuff without Enric? I guess we meet the basic committee requirements."

"If everyone else is voting to keep it then it doesn't matter but I'm not — thinking of this as a fight? Like, right now Delegate Requena i Cortes and I don't agree about what it would do to normal people, but if he really doesn't want to just make it so that only nobles can publish then... I mean, I could be wrong about what the Church of Abadar would do! I don't know very much about the Church of Abadar! But — I don't know how to explain this right, but — if Delegate Requena i Cortes is writing the law because he thinks the Church of Abadar would do one thing, and it would actually do another, that seems like it would be... good for him to know? Even if he thinks it would be worth it either way but especially if he doesn't? And I guess if he's secretly just trying to make it so that only nobles and rich Asmodeans and I guess also the churches can publish, I'd rather he just say so, but I don't think he necessarily is, I don't want to just assume it of him—

—also, wait, yeah, where's Delegate Porras? I heard he died in the riots but I thought the archmages were — bringing everyone back—" 

(Did he get to Heaven and decide he'd rather just stay there? It doesn't — seem like the sort of thing that should be upsetting — despite this, it's still very upsetting—)

"There's probably an Abadaran to be had if we need one."

"That passes, then, since I don't know that Delegate Porras is alive or where he might be. Avenger, anything that lets most people publish is going to be voted down. This will at least let established people in a community publish and be able to approve writings by others they know."

"Right, libraries and audiences. I'm inclined to say an audience of eight is small in such a way as to leave it open to the courts if larger numbers still count as small."

"...this is a dumb question and if we have a time limit I don't want to slow us down too much, but what is 'distribution'. Is it any situation where you show a book to someone else, or are we talking about copying?"

"Giving away would be distributing, showing a copy would not, I'm unsure about temporary loans without a fee. That might be worth defining... Ugh, there's not a good place to include definitions, I'd put it at the end but we want 'private' to be defined before we use it to avoid alarming conservatives..."

"I — we moved on, so it doesn't matter, but — I'm not saying that most people should necessarily be able to publish? Lots of people probably shouldn't be allowed to publish! Obviously no one would give me a publishing license and that's fine, I clearly don't know which things are going to get misinterpreted as 'go murder a bunch of innocent people for no reason' and I don't, actually, want that." The law doesn't even actually prevent her from publishing things, it just means she'll be punished for it. 

"If there's one publishing house in the entire city that's willing to sometimes publish ordinary people writing things that criticize the nobles that's probably good enough. And I can't tell if you're saying that you don't think this law is actually going to stop that because you think the Abadarans would be willing to give giant loans to normal people sometimes, or that you think all the nobles will vote down any law that lets people criticize them or say they should have fewer special rights, or that you don't actually want people to be able to write pamphlets saying 'nobles who murder innocent people should be tried and punished, legally, without any mobs involved, just the same as anyone else would be' or 'there should not be travel passes,' because you're nobles and you'd just as well not have anyone criticizing you — uh, to be clear, I'm not saying you've murdered anyone innocent, just, that's the sort of thing nobles aren't going to want to publish."

"It won't be as bad as you think; burghers always like reducing noble's power, the Abadarans will publish many things other people write, and some nobility are radicals themselves. But also there are, most likely, many delegates who affirmatively want that restriction. Even sortitions. People on the street would rather have the Asmodean rules right now, in many cases, and said so when my people asked. This is a compromise, Miss Ferrer, between what I would like and what Archduke Requena would like and what we think can pass the floor."

"Ma'am, Delegate Tallandria, here's a fairly conservative draft of libraries."

A library or other collection of books may register for a library license by registering a single proprietor who acknowledges that he is a Subject of Her Majesty and means to abide by Her laws. Books in this collection must be marked with the Arcane Mark of a wizard registered with that library before they may be on display, loaned, or made available to the public. Only a small audience may be permitted to view the collection at any one time, and loaned books may not be copied by the borrower without permission from a Publication Statute. Libraries are permitted to make unconditional loans of up to three months before they are returned, or loans may be made under other terms such as may be defined by statutes of censorship, education, or magic. The proprietor of a library is not liable for illegal conduct inspired by books in their collection unless said books have been outlawed, but if any such conduct occurs, the other penalties of unauthorized distribution of unauthorized works may be imposed, including imprisonment and fines up to a maximum of 30gp per volume, as well as revocation of the library license.

"And I think the second clause can be split like so to add small audiences:"

It is forbidden to publish or distribute written material in Cheliax unless it is marked with an Arcane Mark of the creator or publisher and a note of the Statute under which it is permitted, of which six are below enumerated, with the Queen or a future legislative body permitted to add others.

Definitions used herein:

A work is considered kept private as long as it is not distributed outside a small audience, not read in a public square or public house, not put on display outside a private domicile, and not made available for sale. Some work is permitted as long as it is kept private, which is not permitted to be published or distributed.

An audience of eight people or fewer is considered a small audience for all purposes. Larger sizes may be judged small for certain purposes by statute or precedent.

Victòria finds it hard to imagine anyone short of actual Asmodeans who would rather have the Asmodean rules than the current ones. Admittedly there are some actual Asmodeans in the city, and Asmodeans might be more likely to talk to an archduchess.

"If it's really the only way to stop people from passing a worse law that doesn't let people write anything at all I'd obviously rather have a law like this." She is still pretty sure that the nobles don't understand how much money six thousand pounds is for a normal person but she doesn't really think she can explain it if the explanations she already tried didn't work. "...if it turns out a month from now that you were wrong, and there's no publishing house in the whole city willing to publish things that criticize the nobles, are you willing to promise to find a trustworthy normal person who wants to start a publishing house and lend them the money to do it?"

"If that happens, yes, and to be sure it works, I will also do it myself and dig the self-professed Vile Scribe out of his hole and put my mark on his pamphlets, to show I'm serious."

(She nods to Sofia with a smile. It's good work.)

"And I as well," Xavier says, "though whether it will criticize the nobles you want criticized is another question." 

Victòria does not even slightly understand what's going on with complicated politics between the nobles. 

"...Okay. Thank you. I, uh, don't know anything about libraries, if Delegate Tallandria thinks the library rules are fine then I'm also fine with them."

Oh, it's simple, really. Jilia is the radical noble, with a couple young ones like the Condesa of Halmyris who are sort of radical in the way of young people who don't know better, don't see the point in tradition, and want to change things. There are liberals like Chelam and Lestdemarc who internalized the lessons of Axis or Andoran, mostly in alliance with the ones from Molthune who are largely liberal but primarily military. There are conservatives who and think this is all Galtan nonsense and we should reinstate the old traditions and go home, if not reinstate a nearly-absolute monarch. And there are Menadorans and other holdovers who just want to show allegiance to the new values of the Crown and ideally also escape Hell, who don't really know which of those factions to ally with but are mostly assuming it's the liberals.

None of them have a radical-but-also-vengeance-heavy agenda so you won't like any of them, Victòria, but the two who are your more natural allies each have someone in this room telling you this is the best we get.

But since that was all in response to a thought she didn't express and also not something Jilia would say where minutes are being taken:

"The definitions look good. I think we might manage to allow libraries to take visitors to view but not loan without registration but I want your thoughts before we change it, Tallandria."

"You don't need loans for libraries at all, if it loses you anything; I'd be surprised if most librarians allowed them, as the books are so expensive. I do think that you should say that libraries owned and operated by the crown will be automatically considered registered, which ought to hit the biggest ones unless they've restructured how the wizard schools work. Limiting use of the entire building to eight people of a time, on the other hand, seems very harsh. You could allow only a small audience to make use of an unregistered library at any given time, allow registered libraries to serve unlimited patrons, and say that currently only those libraries owned and operated by the crown are considered registered?"

"I thought most university libraries did for students and professors? Maybe they're just allowing them to copy books. I was rarely focused on Kintargo's, it ran itself well enough and half on army jurisdiction. ...Yes, I think that will probably work. Xavier, you've talked with more delegates affected, would you guess that's safe enough? Here's a wording."

A library or other collection of books may be put on display or made available to the public, but to only a small audience at any one time. Collected books may not be copied without permission from a Publication Statute. A licensed library, initially including those owned and operated by the Crown, may exceed the limits and permit a large audience. Other library licenses, like publishing licenses, require a registered proprietor who can be fined and arrested if works of their collection inspire illegal conduct, up to 30gp and 30 days in jail per offending volume, but unless said works are outlawed do not face liability for that conduct. Licensed libraries must affix an Arcane Mark registered with their license to books of their collection.

"I think the 'unregistered library' rule is enough to get the Galtan cafe to reclassify itself as a private library and show every illegal pamphlet it wants, but saying that a library must have a bond to open itself to the public unless owned by the Crown seems safe enough."

"I don't think you should push on unregistered libraries if it's already unambiguously legal to let people read your books in your own home even if you show them to more than eight people in your lifetime." She's not actually clear on whether it is. "I am not actually hung up on a general library system right now, we can handle the specifics of one of those in education later. You just don't want to shut down the academy libraries while we get it sorted out."

He nods. "Very reasonable."

A licensed library, initially including those owned and operated by the Crown, may books on display and make them available to the public, and permit a large audience. Other library licenses are issued like publishing licenses, with the same requirements for a proprietor, bond of surety, and acknowledgements, as well as the punishments. Licensed libraries must affix an Arcane Mark registered with their license to books of their collection. Education statutes are permitted to establish other licensed libraries.

"Straightforward enough. The bond's probably too large but I think simplicity trumps it here. ...I think that's everything mentioned so I'm inclined to call a vote."

"—We also need to add the part about people definitely being allowed to petition the Queen, can we do that before we vote?"

"Aye."

Enric has been fetched by an aide. It took a while, everyone know that when a nicely dressed stranger asks 'are you Enric Porras' the right response is misdirect and retreat. Took him a while to realize was someone from the good archduke from rights, and he should cooperate. But he's here now.

"Hello. I'm not dead. Didn't know committee meetings could happen this early."

"—Oh thank the gods you're alive again."

"This is an emergency session because we want a censorship bill as early as possible. Good to see you well, Mister Porras, no one knew whether you were still in the Material."

"Welcome. - Yes, we need to add the petition clause."

Petitions to the Queen, or to other nobility within their lands, may be written and sent regardless of content or status of the author or scribe, and may be read by the intended recipient and any of their servants or staff, regardless of number. It may be partially or wholly mistaken, or make accusations which cannot be substantiated and still be protected as part of the right of petition. Intercepting such a petition is illegal and if its contents are published, the publisher, not the author, is liable as for publishing any other work.

"Does this work, Jilia?"

"I didn't die. Thought I had to disappear, see why people thought I would. Sorry. Thank good you're all here, too."

He means it, it's a relief to see them all. Enric was afraid of what must have happened to all of them in the riots. The mob must have gone for the archdukes and neither deserve that, even the one who thinks skeletons aren't that evil. Korva and Victoria too, however bad the chaos was for him it must be worse for them, unmarried and presumably in the city alone. Especially with political enemies and– whatever dangerous things Calistrian might be doing during that. But here they all are, still alive. Soler too, though the Sower probably had the good sense to leave the city like he did.

"Lluïsa said she thought you might've been thrown in the river, and then no one I asked knew where you were—"

"I wasn't. She was thrown in but I think heaven brought her back to life to defend Valia. We can talk about what happened, after–" concerned look at minute-taking scribes. 

"I can read the proposed law for you, Delegate Porras," says a scribe not currently taking minutes.

"She said she swam out, I believe?"

Korva is quickly reading it through one more time.

"It's definitely legal to make and sell an unlimited number of copies of a physical book you purchased legally in any of the friendly nations, as long as it's more than five years old, and you arcane mark the copies, and include the note about the first statute, with no other requirements?" Imports are enough, she thinks, if the list includes Absalom, but will be the only way for anyone not affiliated with a publishing house to run an independent bookstore in the long term. And it will be possible to have Chelish books published in Absalom, she thinks, and then bring them back and make unlimited copies without relying on the publishing house statute. People dealt in imports when it carried the death penalty; they can muddle through if it can be done openly.

She nods when Enric mentions talking about the details after the meeting. "Yeah, she told me she survived, but it's possible Heaven helped, I don't know how you'd tell for sure unless it was really obvious."

"Need to find her and ask for the story, she still thinks I'm dead." To both Victoria and Xavier. 

He is unsure, a small wizard swimming out of a rain tossed river seems as implausible as heaven moving directly. He has to talk to her, has to apologize for– we're in committee. Focus.

"I'd appreciate a reading, but if we're in a hurry there's no need. If it's a bill stopping the presses, I vote aye."

"I think you might be questioned if they're surprised about the book. But yes, Delegate Tallandria, I thought that was important to ensure. Delegate Porras, we're looking to get something that stops most of the presses and all the unwise ones, but keeps the ones that haven't been causing problems going."

“Stopping most of the presses is good too.”

Enric is of the opinion that decent people just speak to each other when they have things to say. Pamphlets and the café and romance novels are fun, and having committee notes is convenient, but it’s not worth burning the city down. Let the people who read add the exceptions they need. 

One more time.

They're outlawing all the pamphlets with this. Newspapers, too. But that's not such a loss, is it? They're mostly nonsense anyway, only useful to gauge the moods of one confused little city. The important things, the old and foreign and different things, the things where unfamiliar truths lie nestled in between the lies - 

Those will remain. And all burn, otherwise, if the nobles aren't lying.

"We can live with this. I'll vote for it."

"I think Sofia's clause will do for petitioning. And let's add 'not shared with an audience outside a private domicile' to the list of privacy conditions, that should cover letting a dozen people read your books in ten years. But I'm inclined to call the vote. Last objections?"

He has none.

None here.

Probably there are things she'd think of if she knew more about how the laws were supposed to work but she doesn't, so.

"Go for it. I vote aye."

"A vote it is. Aye."

"Aye."

"Aye."

"Aye."

"Aye."

"Abstain." He doesn't think he can in good conscience vote to ban his own holy book even if they have made nods toward figuring something out.

"The Ayes have it. Archduke, you wanted to deliver this to the floor? Let it be done, and I declare this emergency session over. About time for the floor to open, too."

"...Delegate Ferrer, would you walk with me a few moments?"

"Uh, sure?"

Oh. Enric wanted to talk to Victoria about... everything. But Kintargo probably has something much more important "We'll catch up after the floor?"

Nod. Smile.

"There's a pamphlet calling for your head. Yours and Delegate Rivera. I kept a copy to show you. I assume it's been banned and the author arrested, but he won't be the only one. The archmage will keep the convention safe, but you should think carefully about your personal security before you leave."

"May the righteous gods watch over us," Xavier says. "Archduke. Sower. Delegates." And he picks it up and heads out.

"...I don't actually know how to, uh, have better personal security. I'm only first circle. Alicia suggested I sleep at a temple, so it'll be harder for an angry nobleman to kill me without everyone at the temple seeing him, but I still need to, like, walk between there and here every day."

"You probably can't hire great guards, but if you have the delegate's stipend you can afford some. Or just move in groups with Rivera or anyone else willing. I'd offer you some of mine but frankly my guard are only slightly better than most Counts have with them and I need everyone I brought."

"...I doubt I can afford guards that would help against a powerful nobleman. And if someone puts together a mob or something I wouldn't want to accidentally hurt my guards — uh, I channel negative. Apparently that means I'm not actually Chaotic Good yet but I wasn't trying to lie to the committees, I just didn't know there were Calistrians who didn't. Uh, anyways, I've never tried to hire guards before, so I guess I might be wrong about whether there's guards I could hire that will help against a powerful noble."

"Guards are well paid because they know that sometimes their job is to buy you time to run, and that this will usually not end well for them when it is. Running for here is an option you'll have for the duration, and I can see why you might be skeptical but sleeping in the Queen's offered quarters seems safer, no one up to an archduchess is going to try something under her eye. ...I don't have solutions for you, though. Just a few suggestions and the knowledge that the threat is real."

...The idea of paying innocent people to die for her is incredibly uncomfortable. For that matter so is the idea of just — running away — it would be stupid not to run away, if it were a powerful nobleman, but that doesn't mean she wants to.

"Oh, I don't think the palace is a trap or anything, it turns out the Queen is actually Good, just, I heard there were a bunch of nobles staying at the palace so I figured that would probably be more dangerous. Thank you for letting me know about the pamphlet."

"Of course. I don't think we're allies, but we're not enemies either. If you see Miss Rivera and she wants to see the pamphlet, send her my way, I'm in enough committees I'll be easy to find at most hours."

Victòria is honestly still pretty confused by how noble politics works, but she's not sure it's the sort of thing you can really ask someone to just explain to you. She nods and peels off towards the seating for religious delegates.