Well then. Korva seems too busy to be leader, and also doesn’t have the secret powers of an archduchess. Lluisa won’t be able to do as much without being in the room, unless being a lawyer keeps her safe from pamphlet law and lets her read the transcripts. But he asked her to be leader because he trusts that she knows what she’s doing. 

“Right, then.” 

Apologetic look to Lluisa. Then concerned one. “No we already— this morning— We’ll talk after rights.”

The first explanation he can think of was that inviting her to rights was luring her into an ambush. Which makes sense, the last time he asked her to go somewhere was. But…

And here is Theopho, who isn't leading anything but has noticed that Korva really ought to be.

"Archduchess, I do hope you were able to receive my Letter; it seems Fit Material for this Committee to discuss. I have spoken with my Colleagues on it briefly as well."

"Ah, the consideration of drunkenness for interrogation? Yes, I think it's reasonable to consider in the committee. I'm underinformed on what the alternatives are, besides heavier use of enchantments, but you're absolutely right that Cayden wouldn't approve and it ought to be something we do regretfully if at all. I was... charmed that you thought I'd enjoy the pamphlet; I did, but in fact I'd seen it much earlier."

Smile. "Thank you for your Consideration. May this Committee carry out its Duties Joyfully." Nod.

Stomp stomp.

"—I think using enchantments in the interrogations is mostly fine, but — uh, I know this is going to sound kind of pathetic but I'd rather not have to explain it too many times, so probably I should save the explanation for the actual meeting—"

"Personally I'm hoping Ser Cansellarion convinces the Judiciary to adopt Lastwall rules and save us a great deal of trouble. But yes, you probably ought to. And we may ask the President's scribes to omit the details of what you say from the record."

That’s a thing we can do?? Now she’s just showing off the secret archduke powers. 

He said it earlier!

"I don't actually know what the Lastwall rules are, I don't know if they'd cover all the things I'm worried about, but probably that's the sort of thing we can talk about in the meeting." 

She's honestly not sure they'll obey, but the Chair can certainly ask. Politician powers are mighty and various.

"Indeed. Well, let's take our seats, shall we? I don't want a long session, given this long morning, though I did have one suggestion. But first, I wanted to thank you all for this morning. It was a scramble, one that started last night for three of us, drafting and proposing it, and we missed a few spots, but it was a success, and in my estimation quite a great one."

"And I think we ought to take a moment to thank the principal means of that success. The archduke and I may have drafted it, with Delegate Lebanel's assistance and some from parties not in this room. But for convincing the delegates of the convention, more than any of those, we have Delegate Korva Tallandria to thank. That was a truly remarkable series of speeches you made, and they very definitely made the difference between failure and success, and I suspect by quite a large margin, thirty votes or more. Congratulations, Delegate!"

She bows shallowly toward Korva but does not, yet, start applauding.

Korva is going to spend a moment trying not to look like she's determining whether she's being made fun of or not. Probably not? It's not like she was completely useless up there, but -

Xavier can start applauding, then!

She's confused about why they asked Delegate Lebanel for help, he's a priest of Hell (like Chosen Artigas — she should probably not be thinking about that right now, the twisty feeling in her chest is back and she needs to be able to focus here). But Korva's speeches were really good. She claps for Korva too.

And Theopho will follow them!

Tallandria looks a bit like a stunned deer, to sharp eyes. Not entirely unexpected.

She'll clap enthusiastically all the same.

Enric will applaud. Probably some people heard her book speech and took the side of books, instead of screaming horror at cities. Which is important for people who need books and have faraway people to write letters to. Well, it’s rights committee, and every right is a win. He’ll celebrate the less important ones too. Encourage Korva’s bravery, too, she spoke up on the first day and she keeps doing it. 

These people are sure all very pleased about having banned the Parables.

....okay, Ferrer is a lot of things, and Lebanel is a lot of other things, and Enric more still, but they are not all making fun of her. Even if this is... weird.

"Thank you, Archduchess," she says, bowing back, and hoping that it isn't more disrespectful to bow the incorrect amount to someone than to not bow when it's called for. "But I rather think you deserve more thanks for calling us here to see that we put forward the best version we could. I didn't even know the battle needed fighting, before this morning."

"I'll take them, and share the credit where it's due. But were it not for your speeches to the sortition delegates and those like them, it would have failed, and our version would have been proven not so good after all. I have some experience with identifying people good at speech-writing and talking to crowds of non-nobles, employing quite a few in Kintargo. You're excellent at both. You were the main spokeswoman for this law, and I hope you will be for whatever we send to the floor in the future, too."

Korva would suspect a plot - sort of does anyway, really, the Archduchess can have similar priorities and still want someone else to take the fall for any ideas that go sour, or can simply not care about her safety, which now that she thinks about it isn't a plot at all, it's just the normal way for things to be and only feels off because it's really incredibly rare for anyone to say anything nice to her, and three separate nobles are now clamoring to use her - but you at least can't go around under the delusion that what you do doesn't matter, under these circumstances. 

Still. This is really an awful lot of talking about her.

"If we put out something good, I intend to speak for it. I do think we're doing good work here, so far, and I'm eager to do more of it. What are we hashing out today?"

A visible leader who isn’t associated at all with Valia. Enric is starting to see why Jilia wants to make Korva the spokeswoman. Though he hopes Jilia is still willing to organize things behind the scenes.

He’ll ask after the committee. For now, rights.

”With all the ideas and things still on the table, is there anything urgent, like the pamphlet law was? That we should focus on and get done in the next day or two?”

"We should prepare a new amendment to the bill for public theatrical performances. Songbird Solandra was right that we failed to consider it, and we should include some role for it. Also, formal protections for a right of petition."

Nod nod. "I don't know if this is urgent, but me and Delegate Bainilus and Delegate Porras" and Valia and Lluïsa "had some thoughts about rights for people who've been arrested, besides the ones we've already voted on."

"All good thoughts. I think I would prefer not to cover rights of the arrested today, but dealing with them soon is a good idea. ...And I think one of the ex-Lastwall Reclamation paladins might be a good choice to add to the committee, for their perspective on what rights a Lawful Good state includes. Particularly for the judicial process, where I think being sufficient for paladins to approve it is about the highest praise possible. For proposals of my own, I'd like to pass a version of Count Ardiaca's resolution that there ought to be another convention in forty years. I'm not sure I'll bring it to the floor immediately but I'd like to have it ready if no one else does."