No terrifying wizardly smiting? Not even going to use the fear spell like with that Acevedo noble?

Smooth recovery. This and the catch-and-release trial with the Iomedaean might be enough to get the message across.

Lluïsa was never interpreting any of it as a command, exactly.

Well, she still believes she's probably going to die after the convention has done all this government stuff, does that count?

"Since I am a man who also has the wealth to afford to pay slander suits, having killed and obtained the movable possessions of more than a dozen Asmodean priests and nobles back before the amnesty under a Galtan letter of marque, and since I think it is for the good of the nation if the clear, unambiguous areas of speech are established slightly further out of where they are now - let's have this legal case now."

"It is presently my belief that Her Grace Duchess Carlota of Chelam wants statements under the floor not to be immune to prosecution because then people would mock her particularly, and while this is a perfectly honorable motivation and one I am wholly sympathetic to I think it is probably not a motivation that tends to the greater good of Cheliax. I think that it was an unwise decision on the part of Archmage Cotonnet to ban nonlethal duels between convention members and one that inclines towards making people dislike each other more, not less. I think that His Highness the Archduke Xavier wanted truth to be a shield against slander and therefore suspect he made poor tactical decisions to achieve this, given how closely the vote failed. I think that His Grace the Duke of Fraga has spent most of his life outside of Cheliax and therefore I suspect he is likely to make and has made errors at this convention due to misunderstanding the present character of the Chelish people. I think that His Lordship the Baron Jonatan Castell de Cerdanya is a count, and will not charge me for calling him a baron anyway because he would like Delegate Ferrer to be wrong."

And then he'll wait and see if anyone accuses him of slander!

He is in fact not going to try to have the Norgorber cultist charged with slander for this, but he is once again questioning the wisdom of giving a Norgorber cultist a seat at the convention. Did Valia Wain consider, at any point, going to the Lawful authorities about the Norgorber cultist? It really seems like that would have been better for everyone!

...okay, that one's funny. Stupid, and not particularly enough to know where the lines are, given the two known ones are things that are true of huge numbers of Chelish people and which normally can't cause scandals because they're the default assumption about everyone, but funny.

Iker tries to make eye contact with Xavier, waiting for a nod or a head-shake.

Relaxed amusement, dismissive attitude towards the King-In-Irons, no need for murder, hope this is enough that even if head-shake means kill shaking his head will get Iker to clarify instead of going for murder.

(They didn't explicitly clarify, see.)

He hasn't done any Norgorber cultist-ing in Cheliax since the amnesty, see.

That is, in fact, probably helpful, even if she resents it immensely. Precisely because she resents it immensely, even. 

"I don't want floor speech to be immune to prosecution," she says, "because I think people will use that power to call for each others' murders, and if the body demands immunity I'll ask that it be from prosecution for slander and not for incitement. But I expect you believe what you said, and I do not think any of us could abide in a country where it was slander to be mistaken, and I hope none of us want to create one where it is slander to irritate the powerful."

Iker will nod and lean back in his seat. Not yet, looks like. Maybe he’ll be getting a ‘I forbid you to go after this guy, here’s where he lives’ speech, maybe the boss has another plan. 

Clap clap clap! His last speech was funnier but the bit where he insulted the count was pretty good. Also he's totally right that they should bring back dueling.

Fine, Ardiaca, you'd better have a good explanation for this circus.

Get a peasant to write it for you, ideally.

Here's a peasant.

He's taking a moment, though, to mumble his speech to himself to make sure it's right. How to not call the evil wizard an evil wizard, how to tell people they won't get tortured to death for disagreeing with nobles without accusing the nobles of being the kind of people who would do that. Why did he turn into someone who says things on the floor? But it needs to be done, so he'll do it.

Killing "Asmodean priests and nobles," he says, like he didn't also kill a bunch of innocent children. It doesn't matter whether he had permission from Galt (also, wow, she didn't know Galt did that sort of thing, she kind of thought they'd stopped with the killing innocent people thing? but maybe she was wrong?), it matters whether he was doing the right thing.

All of his examples seem like things that people definitely shouldn't be killed or exiled for! But the thing is, even if Delegate Cerdanya (Delegate Castell? The nobles should have fewer names) decides not to have him brought in on slander charges, that doesn't protect anyone else, no one is going to say "oh, Delegate Ibarra wasn't charged with slander, so everyone is allowed to say that sort of thing forever" if some ordinary person out in the countryside messes up their count's title. Maybe Delegate Cerdanya cares enough about not looking Evil, but that doesn't mean the same is true of Delegate Puigventós e Valldaura or Delegate Solpont or Delegate Blanxart i Thrune — well, maybe Delegate Blanxart i Thrune, he's at least trying a little bit not to look Evil. Definitely not the other two.

"Thank you to the nobles and the powerful wizard with the mask. It's brave to do something like that to show everyone else not to be afraid. So I say than you for showing everyone that talking up here and disagreeing with each other is still legal. So long as it's just disagreeing, not starting fights or accusing anyone of crimes. I'm up here for the people who need to see a farmer without magic or money or titles doing it too. Now, I can't say I have the money to risk slander suits. I don't. So you won't hear me saying any names or pointing at anyone. I have nothing at all to say about people. Because that seems like the safest way to talk with the new slander law. But also, because I didn't get brought here from my village to give speeches about people. They told me to talk about laws."

"I say the law ending slavery for halflings was a good one, but a law shouldn't say all men are free when we have indentures and serfs owned by a master. It's better for men to really be free, and we can do that and still have a good harvest. I said it before the new slander law and I'm saying it again now. In committees, I've said things like that, even when it disagreed with other people. I'm still alive."

"There's a mark on my hand from a powerful wizard. That powerful wizard just said that we're here to make laws, but not to kill each other with them. There's another great wizard bringing us back from the grave. There's a good queen who watches the trials. The queen and wizards brought us here to talk about the laws. We can see that they're not going to let us die for doing what they brought us here to do. Now, they didn't ask us to accuse each other of crimes. The queen already has magistrates for that. Certainly didn't ask us to fight each other. But talking about laws is safe."

Enric holds his hand in the air, showing the wizard-mark.

Clap clap clap clap clap!

Enric, don't get killed...

Applause, in support.

Now, see, that's an actually sensible attitude.

More clapping!

That seems like a good note to end on. "I now propose we recess for lunch, as we're several hours late for it and that may be straining our patience and sensibility." 

And to Ibarra.

Thank you. ...and if you speak the rumor itself aloud you had better be intending to flee the country and you had better expect I'll try to counterspell the Teleport.

Oh, come now, Your Grace, there's no need for threats. Why say what every literate person has already read?

Oh hey, her message is probably still up, too. And now she won't be distracting from something important, unlike the last time she realized this.

Free insight into the minds of the commoners, Count?