For. Slavery the way infernal cheliax did it was horrible and seeing it in action was especially jarring after a century in Axis. Almenar can get by with serfs.

You gotta pay what they’re worth so he votes against. Pretty sure it’s gonna pass though, that’s why he’s buying grain. The mages can teleport supply the cities but when the harvests get all messed up this fall (and they will, even if free men work better in the long run) he’ll make a killing in the towns. It’s an obvious play but it’s still gonna work, no one ever adjusts enough. 

For.  He's already ahead on this one!

Passes, 318-161. 

And that's all the day's really important priorities, aside from preventing things that'll destroy the country from passing, which is of course the obligation that never ends. She closes her eyes to pray. It seems more dignified than cheering.

So there is a question of whether the assembly of the Constitutional Convention has the authority to end slavery. One thing you can do, if you aren't sure if they have that authority, is to give it to them.

They're watching by scry. They're making copies, in Corentyn, in Ostenso, in Remesiana, in Egorian, in Kintargo. 

Let it be the law of the land, in that let it be announced as the law of the land and then it'll be unfathomably awkward if the Queen wants to backtrack on it. Republics cannot always wait around for the monarch to grant them authority; sometimes they must seize it.

Jordi has rehearsed this part. He’s gotten his nerve up to talk on the floor. He actually agrees with his wizard that this is gonna be so cool. But he’s as terrified as he is excited, as he makes his way to the podium. 

“Well then. We just voted to end slavery. Every minute a free citizen spends in bondage is an injustice. So how about we promulgate this right now?”

Did he say promulgate right? Hope so.

”Luckily, my assistant happened to bring a scroll of mage’s decree. Get to it.

Lisandro, hovering in the air for dramatic effect, pulls out a scroll. He pauses a moment so any invisible security wizards or jumpy archmages can see that it isn’t an attack. Then starts to read. 

Oh, she likes... uh, whoever that is.

And across Ostenso! And Corentyn! And Kintargo!

Neither of those people are the Queen, is the President going to stop this?

Ha! Clever. Well done, wizard.

Yeah no that's not happening. Once these people get it into their heads that they can start conducting debates by Mage's Decree, they'll never stop. 

"The Queen is at this moment" – he can confirm via Telepathic Bond – "issuing an immediate decree to the effect of the convention's proposal, but in light of recent events, I should think we could all agree on the inadvisbility of making public declarations from the floor. Delegate Mont, put that scroll away before it's wasted. You're free to announce the law right now if you wish, but go outside." 

message

Jordi gives his wizard a brief look of ’I’m not getting paid enough for this’ and then says, “Understood. One moment, we need to step outside.”

One dimension door, and the two of them can now read a scroll outside.

Aww, that's a shame, don't archmages know how to have fun - oh, the wizard just going outside to do it.

Voshrelka doesn't laugh often, but she laughs here.

Constitutional constitutional crisis averted, the Queen is in the loop.

And you can hear a Mage's Decree in the whole city anyway, so, fine.

Aw, no wizard fight. 

Excellent. He can now add the heroic tale of how he freed all the halflings to his collection of heroic tales.

(Also it's probably good or something?)

After they read Mage's Decrees in all the biggest cities Eagle Knights will start riding through the streets and then out into the countryside handing out copies and reading the decree aloud to any halflings they run across.

Evidently the Andorens can't even avoid provoking crises when we're doing precisely what they wanted us to do which does not make her optimistic they'll cut it out now with the piracy.

We need to reinstitute laws imposing travel passes and institute impose penalties of execution on anyone found trespassing more than thirty times.

Yeah they have travel passes. They’re just sheets of paper with  “travel passes are Asmodean; are you?” written on them.