"Girls cost extra- or is this for some shy dude? He can talk to Bru if he's too embarrassed to say what he's into."

A logical assumption, but a point against Dolca being a mastermind political operator of that’s he’d first thought.  …unless she’s just playing dumb? 

“This is actually about convention activity, that was quite a discussion you started… even if you ultimately didn’t get the chair you wanted.”

Her voice changes. 

"Who're you associated with, exactly?"

“I work for Thea Iroria, delegate of the Faith of Irori.”

"Irori- they're the people who believe in always getting prettier, right? Self-improvement?"

Is it some sort of psychological power play?  Or innocent ignorance?  She tries to gauge Dolca for veiled pettiness or naive openness.

“Irori is about many forms of self perfection.  The typical forms pursued by his clerics are mental discipline, physical conditioning, and martial arts.  But his teachings don’t exclude perfecting appearance.”

Now that you're not a customer (and she never really thought it, but always worth asking), Dolça can try to actually talk. 

"And you're not trying. Good to know. What do you want?"

Dia is healthy without any boils or other blemishes, what more could anyone want!  She’s just going to ignore the insult without even flinching, she expected some humiliation talking with a faction she’s mentally labeled “avaricious-commoner”.

“You tapped into quite a powerful mood on the floor this morning.  With a little organization and planning you and everyone that shares your… attitude… could be quite a voting bloc.  But your budding faction doesn’t have the numbers to consistently win floor votes on its own.  But you are big enough that with a little organization you could ally with another faction and trade votes and make things happen.”

Dia meant to be subtler, but she’s off balance, so she’s gotten straight to the point.  It’s a lot easier nudging Thea and interjecting than taking the lead herself.

Dolça is also blunt.

"Yes, that's something we want. What do you want?" 

Is there a “we” yet?  Well now that Dolca’s gotten the idea there is likely to be.

“Thea is working to pull together related interests and get them coordinated in voting with the moderate practical nobility.  That would be the nobility that got light censorship passed to avoid worse censorship that would ban all writing.  As opposed to the reactionary conservative nobility, or the Taldor nobility.  And that would be a voting bloc that may be willing to trade votes and compromise with your voting bloc.”

Dia lists these factions like she’s actually confident of them and didn’t just figure them out this morning.

"Sure. I think I can swing my side to anything that doesn't affect the economy today, if we're given something in the future. Arrange a party with the people who might be interested to trade votes, and I'll come."

“Sounds like a plan. I’ll be in touch about that party.”

‘Party’ might just be a meeting at a cafe over coffee or at the abbey over stew, but no need to sell herself short before it actually comes to it.

And she needs to make sure Dolca’s actually good for it.  She turns to leave but makes one last statement.

“It will help if you have a count of how many people are with you and how strongly they are with you.”

She’s going to pause just a moment so Dolca can interject with anything then walk away.

"Spent a lot of time on my back during the break. From my bank account, about fifty men. Strongly? They want what they can get out of it, but at least they know what I want, and from what I hear, they want the same things."

“50 votes sounds solid, I’ll make sure Thea has your bloc in mind and is looking for what she can do for you.  I should have an update for you by tomorrow morning, with a party invitation for tomorrow night or the day after tomorrow at the latest.”

50 is probably an exaggeration, but not totally bullshit?  Maybe inflated by two or three times.  Still, 25 votes could swing some of the more contentious issues.  …if they aren’t already bought out by bribes.  Well, the Archmage forbade checking delegates’ votes with magic, so straightforward bribes are actually a bad incentive structure…