“Of course, Your Highness.” 

“In my experience, the foundation of order is certainty. When the people know what to expect - when they know that following the law will see them protected and safe, and they know breaking the law will see them found and punished, they choose well. If no one knows what the next day will bring, if the laws are twisted and used to advance one’s agenda, if they are applied capriciously, above all if they are not enforced - then there is no certainty, and no order.” His voice is firm as he meets Jilia’s gaze.

“I began with a curfew and men to break up the riots, which were near daily when I arrived. I had brought food from Tandak - enough to take the edge off the masses for a few days. I put what clerics I had, and some of the more persuasive officers, on the food lines to proclaim the most important things: there is a curfew, crime will be found and punished, you will not be punished otherwise, Asmodeus is gone.

That meant it was just the real troublemakers on the streets at night, and I could target and remove those. By the time I was back to depending on the archmagi for grain shipments, there was enough momentum for stability that I could keep a lid on things.”

It’s not a large crowd, so he can take note whenever someone nods in agreement and mirror them, build on those little connections.

“I continued in the same vein - keep the people happy enough to avoid significant trouble, while maintaining a low-level presence throughout the city to keep the law on everyone’s mind, and leaving my best to focus on their worst.”

A philosophy she has seen from numerous average guard captains. "And how long did you continue that for?"

“I continued in that vein for the next three weeks, then began to relax the curfew by stages and by districts. Where that lead to more crime I reversed course, but it was only necessary for a few particular trouble spots. After another two months of success with that policy, the Archduke of Sirmium replaced me.”

He’s bitter about it but not that much. Xavier’s proof was damn convincing. He’d be furious with his mother instead if it hadn’t worked out so much better than most alternatives. Xavier even offered him a barony, but he couldn’t bring himself to settle for the scraps. 

"In short, you treated securing Ostenso as a military operation and conducted it, from what you say, in very good order," she says coolly, smoothly, "But a military camp generates no tax revenue, and so a city is not a military operation, and cannot be run as such." She shrugs slightly and continues, "Ostenso was a modest failure, sir, not a success, and you did not observe this because you had neither the time nor the tools to see it."

"Firstly, the tools. What you did may work to establish certainty in Taldor, but it does not work in Cheliax. The lower classes, especially of the city, do not believe in any such thing. For the next generation, or longer if we are unlucky or unskilled, every city in Cheliax will be expecting arbitrary cruelty, and crackdowns which are pointlessly brutal and revel in their excessive brutality, from its guard, in response to anything and nothing." She pauses to make vaguely placating wave. "I do not mean to impugn your men's discipline, but that would be true even if it were spotless, and we know perfectly well that it is not, not unless you lead paladins. Determining the actual state of impulse to unrest requires a network of observers or informants to keep tabs on how discontent the rioting classes are when they are out of sight of their governors. What you do then has a great deal of variation based on circumstances and the aptitudes of your staff, of which preemptive crackdowns are the most common option but one of the least effective."

"Secondly, the time. From my experience, in my own city and others, such a policy does not work in the long term, with problems generally seen within six months and always within a year. It suppresses riots, but the factors that drive them remain to emerge at the next opportunity, leading to more deaths and property damage in the city over time. It also requires substantially higher guard mobilization, across substantially larger fractions of the year, than a more politically-oriented mix of methods; an expense we can ill-afford, especially at present. Again, those other methods have many variations, most of them ungentlemanly; I needed to simultaneously support a nascent rebellion against the Thrunes and so had to work by earning loyalty, but well-run secret police can also be effective, and targeted bribery works more cheaply than you'd expect."

"I mean no insult whatsoever to your character or intelligence, Captain; many sensible military men have made these same mistakes before you, and many more will make them after you. Your skill and expertise would be an asset any lord mayor would be pleased to rely on, did you offer them to him, and I am surprised you have not yet been offered another holding - a coastal county, likely, if I understood your nautical background right. With experience you would learn some of the other skills and then be a good candidate for the mayorship in a few years. But the situation is too delicate at present, and we cannot wait; the Lord Mayor cannot be you. Has anyone else a candidate to recommend? Duke de Fraga? Ser Cansellarion?"

"Archduchess, Kintargo is constantly on the brink of revolt. I cannot imagine how you claim any expertise in this matter. You rule weakly, with catastrophic result, and then hector men doing real work."

He's right but she's also an archduchess, even if she shouldn't be.

She's just here to slow them down, everyone should say "no doubt, Archduchess" and keep asking Sarroca questions, but she just passed the ball to Fraga and Cansellarion.

They do in fact have other options if the Archduchess decides to be difficult about this, but his best guess is that Captain Sarroca will do a better job than any of them. 

"We are discussing Westcrown, not Kintargo. Whatever challenges the archduchess faces, we face different ones here." Hopefully that tables that line of discussion without actually defending her.

"I suspect if you dislike Sarroca, you will not like Horta or Rigau much better. Sadly, those friends from Mendev that I could convince to come to Cheliax are already employed in Fraga. If the Lord Marshal has a city-dwelling candidate, I think we should consider him, but if not, I do not think Sarroca would underperform an empty chair, which is the rulership the city currently enjoys."

"Kintargo 'was constantly in revolt' because that served the rebellion, and in point of fact we did not have significantly more riots than Westcrown according to all intelligence reports I received. I made no attempt to hide them, unlike virtually all the other lords mayor, because it served my purposes to protest to my hostile Asmodean superiors that my city was constantly in revolt despite my best efforts. I was fighting a war for fifteen years where it was death to declare it, I have made more brutal choices than any three of you put together except perhaps in Mendev, and it would strain most of your stomachs to hear them. I will be happy to fetch my champion for a duel by the time the convention concludes if you continue on this approach, or if anyone else wants to embark on it, but I would prefer you drop it like a man of breeding."

"I am pleased and surprised to learn there are men with any honor in your service and must regretfully remind you the Archmage forbids me from killing them or you for the insult you offered me when you testified for Valia Wain."

Well, this is a disaster. He would not have said a week ago that women are more likely than men to have the virtues of wide-eyed radical idealist revolutionaries who can't control their tempers but it would, frankly, explain a lot about the convention.

"Your Highness, this would be a temporary measure, to restore order in the immediate aftermath of the riots, and the Queen would certainly be free to replace him once she has identified a suitable permanent candidate — or earlier, if she finds his leadership lacking and believes another candidate could perform his duties better. Your concerns about whether the same measures would be necessary in the longer-term are understandable, but I think His Grace has the right of it, when he says that for the time being our alternative is an empty chair."

How convenient for her that all of her supposed issues are invisible and in the future. The fact of the matter is that it worked, in Ostenso, much better than the poisonous viper pit Kintargo sounds like. The point about informants isn’t totally wrong, a month in he realized he needed way more of those. But by the second month trade was up and crime was down and if she couldn’t manage that it speaks more of her than of him.

He can’t say that to an archduchess though, just enjoy playing out the conversation in his head while smiling politely and listening to the others tell her how wrong she is. At least there are enough competent men here that she won’t derail things. 

"I apologize for the necessity of responding to that interruption, but certain insults are especially deadly in my position and cannot be abided, any more than an accusation of perfidy for a military officer. Conde de Cerdanya, there is certainly some truth in what you say, and if we formally made a temporary recommendation I would be somewhat reassured. I would still like to interview others at least briefly, if they can be brought here within a day, or two if necessary. An empty chair for a few more days will do less damage than a poor mayor would in their first few months, and so it is our duty to ensure we do not recommend one such and follow the appropriate forms."

Berenguer has decided to ignore the Archduchess of Kintargo. "No doubt, Archduchess. So, Captain Sarroca. What difficulties did you face locating and dealing with the troublemakers, in the first few months, and how did you overcome them?"

“The foremost issues were those of the populace that saw us as Asmodeans in new colors, the radicals on the other end that thought no more Asmodeus meant no more Law, the infernals seeking a resurgence, and the seasoned criminals taking advantage of every disruption.

To the first, many people were unwilling to report crimes nor provide evidence when called upon, for fear of the government. There was little I could say to convince them otherwise, so I rather let my actions speak for me. 

The radicals were the easiest of my problems, and in fact I was able to make good use of them, for a time. They were the one sort willing to report on the problems simmering under the surface back under infernal rule, which gave me some excellent leads on the major crime families and Asmodean holdovers. Once they moved beyond that and started organizing, their inexperience and their very goals worked against them.  They sought to organize, to recruit, to swell their ranks, which made my informants’ task much easier. When they crossed the line into any unlawful behavior - usually incitement - I had enough information to quickly quell them. 

The infernal remnants were likewise off-balance, without the support network they were accustomed to. There was no sympathy towards them from the rest of the city, so I was not restrained in their pursuit. Any whisper of devilry could be thoroughly and fiercely investigated, as any of those torturers found and executed bought me significant goodwill. 

I must admit, the criminals were the most tenacious of my problems, using their existing connections and enjoying any weakness in the government. I know no place short of Axis or Heaven that has solved that problem fully, though I did my best. I claim no significant innovations there, just old-fashioned guard work - investigate crimes, follow the money, and hit them hard when they show their heads.

Does that address your question, Your Grace?”

"Yes, I think so. Sounds like good work to me, Captain. How'd you handle the manpower to get yourself the spells you needed?" Zone of Truth. Detect Thoughts. The things that make every interrogation yield results.

“Anyone who can cast is an asset in many ways,” he smiles “whenever I find one I do my best to hire them.”

“Two decades of running escorts, fighting pirates and fishmen and everything else on the Inner Sea with more teeth than sense, meant I knew people like that. Many of them gained circles under my command and were willing to continue. I had a solid core with me initially, and I brought some more on a temporary basis. Enough would have stayed long-term for the promise of stability and the chance to build something here.”

He was also paying them quite a lot but that’s what taxes are for.

He nods. "Divine as well as arcane?" See, Marshal, you're getting someone who comes with his own clerics.

“Leaning arcane - they’re easier to hire - but divine casters too. Many gods smile on protecting innocents and merchants.”

Jonatan realizes, belatedly, that the reason there's suddenly a lot less noise outside the committee room is that the floor session has resumed. He'd really been hoping to have a Lord Mayor candidate in time to present to the floor today, but he doesn't know how long the archduchess intends to obstruct this, and he'd prefer to at least ensure the Lord Marshal is in agreement if they need to fight this out again on the floor.

"—I believe our break is over. My sincere apologies for keeping you all so late; I look forward to meeting with you again this afternoon."

"Welcome back. I hope you all had a pleasant lunch."

"Yes, Your Excellency, thank you for your consideration."

Solpont's wife came and found him during the lunch break and gave him a hug and told him with surprising intensity that she wants, more than revenge, for him to keep passing good laws like the slander law that will keep them safe, and that he mustn't provoke any Archdukes. He is determined to try.