”Bringing a paladin in also helps with making sure we don’t accidentally bump into judiciary. I’m in favor.”

Paladin will also help with another person who knows what evil is and not to do it. 

Enric isn’t sure why theatre is the one we need to hurry to get? Archdukes and their priorities. Maybe it’s a strategy, get the nobles on board by protecting noble things like libraries and the opera with rights. So they’re used to the idea when it’s time for real rights like no serfdom and no torture.

"In addition to... theater..." Soler did not literally learn the word 'theater' today but it's a surprisingly near thing, "perhaps we can also, now that we are in less of a dire hurry, un-ban the Parables."

Because they told the Songbird that it was a mistake and they meant to fix it, and you ought to follow through on that. And also because Jilia's second-longest-standing ally in Kintargo is an opera singer and she is personally embarrassed by making the mistake at all.

"They should absolutely be unbanned, the only question is whether it is us or the Virtuous Churches that do it. Are they meeting today?"

"It didn't look like it."

"For the theater part, do we maybe want to send someone to go find Delegate Solandra so she can make sure that whatever we come up with works? Delegate Soler can tell us whether we've come up with something that'll let people copy the Parables but as far as I know no one here is an actor or anything."

"We don't have to vote on it today. But we can talk about something now, and take it to the church of Shelyn after hours. We don't actually have to limit ourselves to other delegates as experts at all."

Victòria kind of thought the reason they were focusing on "urgent" things was so that they could vote them through today and be ready to bring them to the floor tomorrow, but maybe this is more complicated noble politics or something.

"I think I'll see if she's free now, but that's true. I do, though, feel some duty to clean up our mistakes promptly, both the one to her and the one to the Sower. It doesn't have to go to the floor tomorrow but if it's later than the day after I'll feel I've let them down."

Everyone knows that Parables of Erastil are stored in the surviving grandparents, but the Sower thinks it’s important to write them down in a book like Aroden and Iomedae did. Well. Soler is the one Erastil picked, so he would know. 

“If we’re making an exception, is there a way to tell which books are truly the parables? So people can’t just write those pamphlets where Abadarans insult commoners, and say they’re parables. 

"If we can't use the foreign versions, and they don't already exist, the easiest way is probably checking whether anyone is willing to publish more through a publishing house."

She's not optimistic about most things, but come on. It's Erastil's holy book. ...... admittedly it's apparently a different holy book than all of his other holy books, which possibly means it's something some random collection of clerics are going to write, which isn't exactly a holy book as she's used to thinking of them and is not really wholly unlike a speech given by a random select of Iomedae.

Still.

"There's nothing wrong with the foreign versions, but the tradition is to add on bits for a locality, and we haven't already got lots of Chelish ones approved in foreign parts while we're rebuilding the church today."

"My suggestion would be for one version to be published - I'll ask Chelam about her merchant's press, or get started on my own - and a chosen Sower to sign his name and village or circuit to the changed version, and to give Erastil special status that this is allowed for His Parables. Let the royal censors give equal status to other churches if they want, when they exist. This doesn't need to be broad, I don't think anyone else does it."

“My guess, in most places the crown probably only bothers people in cities about books, leaves the Sowers alone.”

"Yes, I agree, but it's better for the book to be made legal than to simply be permitted against the law."

Nod.

She looks at Delegate Requena i Cortes. He did turn out to be right that they needed the ridiculous price to let anyone start a publishing house for their law to pass, even if he still kind of seems like he doesn't understand how much money that is for a normal person. "If we write the law like Delegate Bainilus said, do you think the vote would pass? Erastil has a lot of priests here, so I'd assume so, but I know there's a lot of noble politics going on."

Enric nods at the Archduke. Better to actually make it legal, since the floor won’t actually pass ‘have complicated laws in cities, leave the villages alone’.

“Could a publishing house go on circuit? To get to the Sowers in villages or on circuits far from here?”

"I expect so," he says to Victoria. "Erastil is a god with no enemies, and it's a narrow exception."

And to Enric "- They could send representatives, certainly, but that would be a large expense, and I don't know if they will, or will for every village. I'm not a publisher myself."

"I think it 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."