"Hear hear!"

Ha. But his faction was the one who focused on delaying the abolition of halfling slavery for 'Oh, but this isn't well phrased enough right now, let's send it back.'

She doesn't think that means that Fraga's thoughts are this man's, just that she sees a chink in that faction's unity and might perhaps want to chip away at it somehow.

I attended. The judge held Valia innocent because the legal code was incomplete. We are completing it.

I am not planning to speak against the law.

"Honored Delegates, I am as you have already heard Weary of Slander against Myself and those I know to be Honorable. Imagine then my Mix of Emotions at hearing this Proposal so Speedily Delivered from Urban Order, its Membership numbering one who, Earlier this Very Day, Openly Slandered me."

"In the Manner of a Lawyer, I wondered at it. For it is said to have come Unanimously from that Committee. If it is so Criminal, Slander, then why was it to be Found in the Mouth of one of this Proposed Law's own Proponents? Is this Bill perhaps his Attempt at Indirect Apology?"

"Can Damages result from such Remarks as have been made of Me? Why, they bear Semblance to the Remarks shouted as I was Hurled in the River."

"I wish Wholeheartedly that they Cease and Refrain from these Remarks."

Theatrical sigh.

"But would I see this House descend into a New Style of Accusation appended to Every Statement, the Accusation of Slander thrown as Liberally as Accusations of Diabolism have been until now? Would I see Debate Stifled, would I see Delegates scheming the Prosecution of Fellow Delegates? Would I see, in short, the Nascent Stirrings of Galtan Terror?"

(Lluïsa has a somewhat vague conception of "Galtan Terror" as "that thing where people start guillotining one another instead of doing a nice constitutional convention".)

"I would Greatly Prefer to see No Such Thing. Let this Proposal not release a Weighty Final Blade to fall on the Neck of this Constitutional Convention. I have experienced here Collegial Debate with my Fellows who Strive to do Good, and do find myself to Enjoy it."

"If the Cost is more Unfounded Slanders against Me on this Floor, I pay it Reluctantly but Willingly, to Purchase something Greater, this very Convention itself and the Delegates here Assembled."

"Therefore if it Pass Here, this Proposal should at the least Exempt the Business of this Convention. I would word it thus:"

The Business of the Constitutional Convention requiring Free Debate, no statement within the Convention, including Without Limitation the General Floor and Meetings of Committees alongside other Convention Business necessary or proper, shall be Liable for Prosecution, unless it be Promulgated Publicly outside said Convention, in which case only the Circumstances of said Promulgation may be Considered under this Statute.

Aroden's balls.

Yes, thank you!  This is exactly what she would have pushed through Forms of the Convention, but Lluisa is striking while the moment is hot.

She gets in line to say something in support of Lluisa.

That would have passed on the second! That will pass in a month! The archmage said that they weren't allowed to try a failed vote again! You absolute moron!

Line up.

Some of us are on the Galtan radicals' "guillotine this month" list!

I don't actually think this is factually true!

Thea is obliviously to these tradeoffs.  She’s isn’t remembering about the no repeat votes rule, and she assumes Lluisa’s political acumen matches her lawyerly skill.

... ugh. Message to Lluisa, might work: This is Count Ardiaca speaking. I approve of your proposal, but I think it will fail today and will pass if it has been more than a month since the riots of the Third. Archmage Cotonnet said we can't re-introduce failed proposals.

She has had a little more time to prepare her speech, this time, so maybe this one will actually work.

"Those of you who did not grow up under Asmodeus — which I am given to understand is more than a few of you — might not be familiar with the sorts of insults the Asmodean nobility would have ordinary people punished for. It was common for them to have people tortured or killed for using the wrong title, for implying they were ugly or foolish, for daring to suggest they could possibly be inferior to anyone who didn't outrank them.

As written, this statute would enshrine that into our laws.

I assume," she glances at Delegate Cerdanya, who apparently somehow went to Heaven despite going after Valia and siding with the nobles who are obviously Evil, "that this was, somehow, an accident. But this law gives full discretion to the magistrates in deciding which claims are "scandalous or malicious," and while that works fine if the magistrates are paladins, like some places are doing, it doesn't work anywhere where they're the same people left over from Asmodean rule. Will they punish people for daring to suggest a nobleman is foolish? Cruel? Ugly? Cowardly? Asmodean? This law allows them to, or at least gives them the opportunity to do so, not just because they're nobles and they can do what they want but by writing it into our laws.

Delegate Puigventós e Valldaura said himself that he thinks it's slanderous to call Evil nobles Evil. Would he also treat it as slanderous to warn your neighbors to stay away from a cruel baron, if you do so in public? Would he treat it as slanderous to seek healing at the temple of a Good god after falling victim to a crime, and explain what happened, merely because the priests are not empowered to conduct arrests?

To be absolutely clear, I'm not saying we shouldn't have laws against slander at all. I don't think it's okay to falsely accuse people of being diabolists just because you don't like them. I definitely don't think people should stir up mobs against people's innocent servants because of something they heard on the street, that seems like a totally different thing entirely.

We should vote down this law, and if it passes anyway we should make sure it only passes with Delegate, uh, Blanxart i Thrune's, amendment, and Delegate Oriol's."

Reply to Ardiaca, spoken quickly.

Do you expect many delegates to live through the end of the month? Do you expect me to survive the radicals' Galtan Terror?

I expect more than nine out of ten delegates to survive the month, you among them.

Oh good, the anarchic Calistrian is against the proposal because it'll make it harder to incite the murder of the nobility, that should make it even easier to pass it, and to vote down the various ill-considered amendments.

Even as passionate a speaker as she is, and the moderation to her words she has learned, the mood of the floor is too against Victoria… she should talk to Victoria about speaking in favor of ideas she wants to sabotage… assuming Victoria’s sense of proposals to oppose matches Thea’s?

Victoria is really not a useful asset to her own side, which is more of an issue when she's on his than it normally is.

To Ardiaca.

Quibble then with the wording and I will withdraw for rewording. And reintroduce on the morrow if you have no plan and are merely a disguised radical seeking your own allotment of necks. The generosity of archmages does not extend to the executed.

I understand. He'll get in line.

She gets up to the stand.

”I think the main part of this law is a good one, but the truth needs to be permitted outside of private settings. It will be impossible to fix this country if we are forbidden from saying on the floor that more than half the officers in the army are corrupt or fools.”

Clap clap clap.

The Church of Calistria should be outlawed.

Agreed.

No, she thinks it's probably a good idea to not have people able to say "that's a vampire's granddaughter" even if it is true, since it inherently includes "kill her."