"I think if we make it narrow for Erastil and let no one short of the Queen or her royal censors expand the list, even those who would rather have everything be limited by the royal censors will have little room for arguing against it, though I'm quite sure they would do so to deny our law a victory, if they could find an excuse. I'll write up language."

A Publication Statute for the Holy Books of Virtuous Churches.

Certain holy books, particularly the Parables of Erastil, are written with variations and not permitted by other Publication Statutes. For these books, it is permissible to make substantial changes to the text, so long as a chosen priest of the god is willing to sign their name and where they may be found - a home village, ministration circuit, or similar - to the modified version. These modified copies may be copied as though they were the original and further modified and so on, and they are considered permitted under the same statutes as those original texts, if marked with this Statute in addition to the one authorizing the original.

The Queen or Her Board of Censors may designate other virtuous churches and their holy texts to receive equivalent status, if they judge such status necessary. When first passed, this Statute applies only to the Parables of Erastil and the Sowers of Erastil.

"Read it for me, if you please?"

Enric will say nothing about whether Erastil has enemies or not, because he only talks about laws and not people. So he’ll listen to them read this law, then talk about it.

Txell is here to help and will read the whole bill to them.

"Yeah, all right."

"Let's have a vote, then. I'm in favor."

"Aye."

"In favor."

"Aye."

"Aye."

“Aye.”

"Aye."

"Passes unanimously. The performance licensing, then?"

Enric wants to celebrate a right agreed on with no debate, and one for Erastil too. Even if it’s just a book. But not yet, it still has to pass the floor. 

“Before we go to performances. We bringing this to the floor tomorrow? Who’s introducing it?”

"I'm happy to bring it myself, but if you or the Sower would like to, you're welcome to it."

"I think the Sower would have the best odds, as he is a priest and so it is rightfully his domain." Of making it not a political battle.

Whoever brings this to the floor looks good to anyone who worships Erastil. If Enric brought it, might give him a reputation. But he didn’t help with this one, wouldn’t be right to take credit. If Jilia brought it, all the decent peasants might think a bit better of her and worse of everyone calling her radical. 

No. It’d be wrong to do politics with Erastil’s holy book. 

”Agreed. Easiest if Sower Soler brings it.”

"It'll look a little self-interested, won't it?"

“Right, that might look bad. Like we’re using rights to give ourselves special privileges.”

"Clerics of Erastil are respected, trusted. Nobles may think they're inexperienced with politics and so prone to make bad decisions, but they certainly don't think they're schemers. I think a great many of the delegates, noble and religious and even some sortition alike, do think the Archduchess and I are schemers, and would watch this proposal for some sort of Mephistophelean trick. Sower Soler they might think was a fool, but never a rogue. If this bill fails, which I do not expect, it will because someone thinks it is a smokescreen for a plan to do evil under the cover of Erastil's work, and convinces others of this."

"Well, I can say it but I'd have to memorize it or else not get it said exactly as it was written."

“Could introduce it, then have one of the scribes read the whole thing out from the paper.”

Enric gives the note-takers a look of ‘if it isn’t imposing too much to ask’.

"If the President's convention staff weren't already told to do this for illiterate delegates they ought to have been and I will bother the President about it." Actually now that she thinks about it, he's the person whose view on whether factions are actually ruinous she would most trust and she might bother him anyway. "But if they won't, one of us will loan you someone to do it, Sower."

"Very well then. Hopefully it's less busy tomorrow, on the floor."

"I sincerely wish it will, but that's been wrong every day of the convention so far so I'm less hopeful than I might be. Urban Order and Judiciary will pass something that starts another loud fight, more likely than not. But we'll all have to carry on and hope events outside the hall slow down as well."