If you would.

While it's heartening to know that generalities and claims of poor judgement are probably not slanderous, the two statements we know to be so are not, in the minds of large parts of this country, particularly negative ones. They are neutral.

Delegate Porras speaks wisely, not to say anything of anyone.

These being inchastity and diabolism.

I see. Thank you.

Any time.

Carlota will depart the podium to go spend lunch taking urgent meetings, the day's not over yet.

Whyyyy does Blanxart like Ibarra. It's not that she wouldn't tolerate a great deal of private disrespect to get the Heartlands a dedicated fifth circle adventuring party but he'd have to start up the fifth-circle adventuring before he started up on the disrespect. 

(It wasn't a threat! The distinction is subtle but 'try to counterspell' is acknowledging he's the stronger wizard, which would be silly to do as part of a threat. It was a courtesy notification, because Blanxart does think the man worth the time, and Blanxart's strange but often not wrong in his strangeness, and so it'd be rude to not notify the man that she really does mean to get him executed if he says it.)

All of that was really confusing and alarming but apparently the upshot is you can say things if they're about the laws or if you're rich also about people, and now it's lunch! Maybe if he doesn't come back after lunch no one will notice. There are lots of committees. He could be on any of them. He isn't, but he could be.

She informed him that there was a set of actions he could take that would lead to her trying to murder him, and in the event that he refused to take those actions because of her threats he would be a coward and a slave, so he needs to establish that he isn't saying them for other, credible reasons. It's really very simple.

He seems like someone who might benefit from the realization that if you do things for impeccably defensible and righteous reasons all the time you can still end up destroying everything you ever cared about and it ends up being kind of cold comfort that your reasons were so impeccable, but she is not going to attempt to convey that particular realization. She's going to catch up with Joan Pau. 

"Pretty good morning, I think. Could've been worse."

"We almost won both fights," he says, quite seriously. "If we'd fought this out, too..."

"Yes. I should speak to Blanxart. I thought he was picking an entirely unwinnable fight. The current law doesn't seem terrible, to me. I guess I don't know how it'll land with most people."

He nods. "Yes, that sounds wise... it seemed reasonable enough to me too. But the commons didn't want it."

"I think it might be that among the things Asmodeus destroyed was any positive reputation, or any expectation it'd be valuable to have a society in which anyone could build one."

"At which point it's just a thing that their lords can accuse them of, not any shield at all."

"I have hired Tallandria to be formerly-Asmodean-commoner-translator for me. Maybe next time we'll realize that kind of thing going in. 

...where's Kin to the Chelish People at? I feel like every day we're chancing the law the Queen doesn't back by decree, and -"

"Beat me too it," he says with a smile. She hadn't mentioned that to him.

"Kin is ready every day but I want to talk to Cansellarion, if I can. I haven't been able to get a minute alone with him to tell him not to worry it's not a plot for world domination and I'm worried he will if we can't talk it out first."

"He might, yes. Maybe tomorrow I can host all the new Reclamation delegates for dinner and talk about where we and the Church have common interests, and you can ask him then. It can't be tonight, I am going to spend tonight endeavoring to stop the nobility's divisions from splintering into full-blown factions."

"Thank you. May all the righteous gods bless your work," he says with somewhat more fervor than usual. "Faction is the bane of a country."

"It would be a great ill omen even in a place much stabler than this. Speaking of which, I need now to add the conservatives to Safe Roads, where I have a majority but not a supermajority and will therefore have to hope they can avoid offending our sortition." It's not even hard to avoid offending the sortition but she has an apprehension they'll somehow manage to do it anyway. "May the righteous gods be with you also." 

And off to what will if all goes well be a wasted few hours of arguing over committee membership.