Thank you, Séfora, for saying something that will sound perfectly reasonable if the minutes are read. "I was thinking of asking one of the Glorious Reclamation paladins to join, as they have extensive experience with the road safety problem from the work they are doing to provide justice."

Well, that might just be a way to make it so Raimon can't explode the committee by walking out and letting the floor hash out whether hellknights are "religious" (religious of fucking whom? good question!) but she doesn't seem to be going to bat for Conde Abolish-Calistria, so he doesn't make a fuss about it at once.

"Agreement between a Hellknight and a Chosen of Calistria on a subject other than the Worldwound would be very nearly unprecedented," he says dryly, "However, I would happily agree to the Duchess's suggestion, so if Delegate Pages agrees also, then it can be achieved here."

"I am a nay on the Conde and not so firmly decided on anyone else; in his absence I would be happy to admit these other two fellows and a paladin."

(Carlota thinks you should probably ban the Church of Calistria but she's not going to say so in any situation where she lacks the power to immediately do it, because she is not an idiot.)

"I'll send to the Glorious Reclamation to ask if there is one among their number who would be qualified to join us and can spare their time." And she'll hand a note to this effect to an aide.

"While I am of course chiefly interested in this committee being well run for the good of Cheliax, I cannot help but think that several of its members do not belong on such a commitee. Perhaps a broader restructuring in general would not go amiss?"

Or, your grace, I had been under the impression that you had this commitee under control, not that you were held hostage by bandits and whores.

Well, there goes his ability to make this vote about him, instead of Acevedo.

"Conde, I bear you no ill will, and should this committee vote to have you as a member I would happily join my vote to theirs. But I remind you that this is a Republican body, with many of its members drawn from the commons, and if you are to ask the floor to reconstitute this committee I believe you'll have to put forward an objection stronger than that there are people in this room who 'don't belong', like that their actual contributions have been counterproductive. I do not believe that the minutes of this session, read on the floor, would support you in such a claim. The Delegate Ginel and the Delegate Séfora may not wear fine silks, but no one can read the minutes and doubt that they have proposed reasonable compromises and voted as their conscience and wisdom demands." Sèfora please please take a hint and keep it that way. "The Delegate Pages works for the mail service, work I think we can all acknowledge as crucial and as relevant to this committee whatever our opinions of Calistria. Does our committee need more expertise? Yes, and we have sought it out. What expertise do you worry we would still be missing, if we adopt the proposed compromise and add the Duke and the Marquis and a Glorious Reclamation representative?"

He'll try anyway. "I trust in the committee's ability to consider us as separate candidates." Hopefully that strikes the balance between agreeing with Sefora's deal and not selling out Acevedo.

"I note that even with three new members, the committee will only be at ten, and have room for a paladin of the Glorious Reclamation, who I would be happy to vote for." He really doesn't think it makes sense to agree to be a second class committee member! Imagine having to explain to a paladin why he abstained instead of voting in favor of him.

"Perhaps those committee minutes would indeed assuage my doubts. Do you happen to have them on hand?"

He flatly doesn't believe the Calistrian managed to make it two sessions without saying something Carlota doesn't want to defend to the open floor, and the other one doesn't seem smart enough to have kept their mouth shut either.

The Duke should accept standing aside for a single set of votes, because otherwise the peasant won't vote for any of them and the committee will explode, and there's no reason to believe that the the reconstituted committee will be less insane rather than more insane. The only real problem with the current one on a policy level is the bandit queen.

At this point Llei is also pretty unimpressed, but he's going to try very hard not to show it, because he doesn't need more enemies.

"Do you?" she asks the aide. The aide won't; Carlota did not have copies of those minutes made. 

        "No, your grace."

"If you have some specific concern, Conde, this committee will hear it. Here's my impression of the present situation: this committee will on my recommendation welcome the Duke and the Marquis, if they do the courtesy of abstaining from today's additional membership votes, but will reject both if they refuse to abstain because in that case the new arrivals are all a block and should be evaluated as such.

Delegate Séfora has recommended that, since the Duke is not willing to consider abstaining, we instead accept the Duke, the Marquis, and a mutually agreeable member, and reject the Conde. I think this is a sensible compromise, but will hear out the Conde if he wants to make the case that he offers this body some expertise which will otherwise be absent even with our new members, or if he has some specific concern about the present members. We are in private; any truthful allegation can be heard, here."

So it completely undermines her argument, got it. Both the Calistrian and the bandit have no business here. He can't actually force his way onto the committee right now if she's going to fight it but if she's going to keep trying to play the game in bad faith he'll make her tie her name to them.

"I expect both His Grace of Fraga and Marquis Almenar will do a fine job for their own parts, and sought to join merely because I believed that sharing my expertise was the best method to serve Cheliax. I have no interest in impugning your word, though, and if you tell me the delegates here have your endorsement I won't insist on seeing the minutes you said would support them."

How confident is she that neither of them will say anything in front of De Fraga or Almenar that would ruin her to endorse?

"I have profound disagreements with every man and woman in this room, but we are commanded by our Queen to serve alongside one another nonetheless, and I do not think she selected any of them for this convention in error, and I would not back a motion for their removal in the absence of a specific allegation they are unfit for their duties.

A vote, then, on the addition as a single motion of the Duke de Fraga, the Marquis Vidal, and a representative of the Glorious Reclamation?"

"In favor."

"Yes"

"Aye."

"In favor."

"Abstain."

"In favor."

"And I am also in favor. Welcome, new members. I have copies of the measures I introduced to this body for consideration on the first day." She'll pass them out. She will now have to prevent Acevedo from being furiously angry with her, which is annoying, but she can't actually really bring herself to blame her committee for it; they had no reason to vote for the man and were only given less and less of one as the interaction went on. 

The aide comes back with a paladin.

"Welcome to Safe Roads, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?"

"My name is Angela Jornet and I am a paladin of the Reclamation, originally from Molthune; I've spent the better part of my time in Cheliax since the war riding assizes in the province known as the Hellcoast."

"Thank you for joining us. This committee when it last convened was contemplating this proposal:

Cheliax's roads and rivers should be free of violence. It is the duty of each lord who has been entrusted with Chelish territory that he maintain the rule of law within his territory and further his duty to ensure that he not permit the escape through his territory of those who have done violence in the territory of his neighbor. No person acts wrongly, or may be punished, should he, having failed to secure redress for lawlessness in a specific Chelish territory from the lord of those lands, speak or write to that lord's liege to make him aware of the problem yet unredressed, presuming he speaks truthfully, or speaks or writes to the lord of a nearby territory to the same effect.

I think this is of particular importance given the slander laws, and should be written to provide specific assurance that it is not slander for a person to truthfully complain of a specific failure to maintain order to anyone empowered to redress it."