"Well, I told a bunch of people to go adopt children and now some of them are coming back around worried it won't stick if anything out of the ordinary should happen - mother comes back to claim the baby or they die and the executor of the estate wants to keep their stuff instead of giving it to the adopted kid or something."

(Victòria is Chelish enough that she could probably hide her general aura of hostility towards Delegate Napaciza if she wanted to, but she doesn't actually want to.)

If Josep was in charge of this committee, they would all currently be in their homes eating dinner instead of fretting over sorry brats.

"Well, that at least seems straightforward in principle, Sower. The law should recognize adoption as legal, irrevocable, and equivalent to a blood relationship."

Llei, on the other hand, is going to hide any feelings he might have about the Calistrian. They seem unlikely to help him here.

Well that seems like a fantastic thing to know if one is trying to figure out how to solve the orphanage crisis.

"They actually went out and adopted kids? How many?"

"How many kids or how many families, a few people got two. I think it was - nineteen kids that day but maybe a few more have gone in since then."

"I heard about the sermon. It hasn't gotten published yet, but despite everything I think it will be soon."

"Apparrently one of the Archduchess's people wrote it down while I was talking, yeah."

"Nineteen from one sermon? I want to know what policies get people to do that, and spread whatever you said throughout the entire empire. Irrevocable adoptions are only worth it if they don't interfere with them happening, because we're going to want a bunch of them to happen."

"I would like to contribute the fact that I've done a little digging since last week," which is to say that she asked Archduke Blanxart not one hour ago, "and it turns out that the orphanages - after halving their expenses from two years ago, so much so that deaths are up significantly - still cost more than half the cost of the entire army. If anyone, anywhere, thinks that the government ought to be spending more on something else, then ours is the problem that's standing in the way of it. I suspect this means that we can get a large number of the officers out there on board with incentives for men to raise and not abandon their children, which is the sort of thing that might actually make that fight winnable. We'll obviously want to think very carefully about what policies we put forward, but if they're good ones, I think it might matter."

That is a lot more money than she thought the orphanages cost! How many orphans are there?

That's catastrophic. Taggun Hold has orphanages, and there are a few rural ones in the south of the county, but - he doesn't pay for them, so he hadn't realized - he should check the numbers, of course -

"That does seem like the sort of thing that might allow fines for siring bastards to pass the floor. The problem, of course, is that the policy doesn't mean anything. Without clear law or custom on what marriage among commoners is, or what responsibilities it entails, encouraging it doesn't do very much to stop abandonment."

She doesn't see where he's going with this but she's back to radiating hostility in his general direction. 

"Perhaps the orphanages might, quite simply, charge for accepting children? If we allow a woman to sue the father for support of her child, and then allow the parents to, if they wish, pay an orphanage to take the child, I think overall abandonment should be much less of a problem."

"I think probably if you had to pay an orphanage to take your baby a lot of people would just kill them instead."

Well if they kill them, the state is also not paying for them. Win-win.

(He does not say that. He makes a thoughtful face and goes "hmmmm".)

"Ferrer's right; they mostly serve those with no ability to pay. Requiring payment is just telling people to kill them all. It's certainly cost-effective, if none of us care about suffering in hell forever."

"—Just to be clear, I don't think we should try to get more people to murder their babies to save money!"

"...sorry, Ferrer, that was sarcasm. Except for the part about you being right."

She thought it was probably sarcasm but people keep trying to act like she wants to murder innocent people for no reason and she wants to be absolutely clear that she thinks killing innocents is wrong.

"Yes, yes, of course, none of us wants to incite more people to murder."

Llei just wants men to raise their children! It's not that complicated!

...hm.

"A two-pronged approach, I think. Some policy for removing existing children from the orphanages, and for reducing the number of abandoned children going forward."

"For the latter, Your Grace, I suggest that one is not a large enough number of committee members who have experience with how marriages and families function outside Cheliax, if we mean to rehabilitate the institution. The Glorious Reclamation has added a significant number of delegates to the convention today. I doubt many of them have families of their own, but I assume most were raised in them. I suggest that we might do well to invite one of the Iomedan paladins to the committee, to provide more information about marriage and family in some context where they have been less damaged."

"That is a fine idea, thank you. I will raise it with one of them at the next opportunity. I may inquire with some of our long-lived or long-dead delegates as well, who would remember better times."

She manages to restrain herself, barely, from snapping at Delegate Roig.

She really doesn't understand why Delegate Napaciza is trying to recruit Iomedaeans to the committee, but she can't see any reason why it would be a bad idea. They're Iomedaeans, they're not going to secretly be plotting to hurt innocent people. Maybe he's planning to trick them like how he tricked Valia into thinking he'd repented, but it would be stupid for him to count on that working.

"Adding some more people who aren't Evil to the committee sounds good to me."

It's the thing where he's repented. Well. Trying to repent. And is therefore trying to suggest good ideas, and not bad ones.

Whatever. Llei doesn't have to care what teenage girls think of him, as long as the other nobles and the church think well of him. Unless they're his daughter Queralt, who looks five and mostly wants him to make up opinions for all of the horses in the stables.

"Avenger, while it goes against your natural tendencies, I request that you refrain from harping on the current alignment reading, known or suspected, of people present, and also those absent if it is not relevant. Many people are Evil and make up for their wrongs later; in Cheliax, a very great portion of those who are not Evil, myself included and likely yourself as well, have done so. Multiple Good gods, my own among them, bless all those who attempt it and feel very strongly that they ought to receive the chance to succeed. If anyone in this committee or elsewhere has committed crimes since the amnesty I would be happy to assist you in conveying evidence of such to the attention of Her Majesty's Justice, and if anyone here has committed specific Evil acts relevant to the business of this committee that is perfectly relevant and you are welcome to raise it. In other cases it is rude and unconstructive. Therefore, please cease, at least while we are engaged in our business here."