“I’m glad I could be of help.  I should note I might be a bit unusual because of my background.  I’ve noticed I’m a bit more direct and a bit less subtle than most people.”

“I think I’ve asked my main questions, did you have any more for me?”

"What should I know about Irori?"

She should get better at proselytizing, she hasn’t bothered that much.

“Irori desires that people are able to pursue mental and physical perfection.  This is traditionally pursued through monastic training including exercise and meditation.  I’m still unsure if the monastic arts are Irori’s preference in and of themselves or if they are simply the best path to perfection, but either way that is the direction my existing skills and training are in so it’s the path I’m pursuing.  Irori values self-reliance, discipline, humility, knowledge, and truthfulness.”

"All good things. Do you happen to know why He's Neutral?"

"I'm not actually completely sure?  I think he favors an attitude focused on oneself and one's own perfection which isn't Evil but also isn't very proactively Good?  And he likewise isn't proactively pushing a Good overall plan like Iomedae, as opposed to aiding people individually when his support is requested?"

"That makes sense. The proactivity part, I mean. Like Abadar, a framework to be relied upon for good or ill."

"Right!  Except instead of money and numbers and an orderly society, Irori's focus is meditation and discipline and an orderly self."

"What have you been focusing on to that end so far?"

"Reworking all of the training and teaching of myself and my younger sisters.  The Sisterhood of Eiseth focused on a bare minimum of intellectual studies, like basic literacy and theology (of Asmodeus and Hellish Demigods).  So I've expanded to a much broader curriculum of reading.  I mean to improve on our math as well, but I'm not good at that myself.  And they taught us meditation, but with strictly utilitarian aims like developing Ki usage, resisting spells, staying focused in combat, and collecting information in espionage.  So I've expanded the range of meditations we practice based on those described in Irori's holy text to more broadly develop the mind.  Stuff like generally improved memory and understanding and reasoning ability.  And finally I've reworked our philosophical approach so it is no longer emphasizing pride and brutal revenge and striving to force our place in the world but instead on self-improvement."  

"And then I've been busy with practical matters... like keeping us financially stable.  The fully initiated cultists of Eiseth took all of the money when they left us acolytes, so I was lucky the shortage of clerics drove prices so high I could support all of us despite only being at first circle."

"How many of you are there to support? Was the Sisterhood previously doing no remunerative work other than covert ops?"

It feels kind of awkward to discuss her abbey’s problems, but Select Artigas seems to have both discretion and good sense, so he should either offer worthwhile advice or at least not go spreading it around if he has nothing helpful to offer.

“Myself and 2 others are of age and there are another 16 sisters ranging from just under age to five years old.  And indeed, you are basically correct, the Sisterhood of Eiseth had a cover operation of a crematorium, but almost all their money came through, uh payment for covert operations.  Most of our skill is martial… I’ve been considering taking up adventuring or arranging it for the sisters that are of age, but I wanted to have things on a stable footing before doing that.  Oh, and I started renting rooms, the monastery was barely half full even before all the full members of the Sisterhood of Eiseth abandoned us, so just finding enough tenants will be enough to get us financially stable even without worrying about how my spells sell."

"That's clever of you, especially with the lodging market the way it is at present."

"It's obvious in hindsight, but it actually took embarrassingly long for me to think of it, I only started a few months ago, and I've been choosey with my tenants, I don't want anyone that will cause any trouble.  But yes, I'm happy with the solution."

"Well, it sounds like you have it well in hand however awkward it was to inherit."

"I think we'll be okay unless there is something major I've missed.  I'm not sure how much slack I'll have to proactively offer beneficial services to the public, like classes on meditation on something, I'll think about things after the convention." 

"I suppose I do worry something outright idiotic might be passed in the convention.  Like if the conservative nobles that thought the censorship bill didn't go far enough succeed in passing some blanket ban that incidentally bans all writing and leaves it to the discretion of prosecutors or something absurd like that."

"At their best the pamphlets were encouraging about the remaining spirit of Cheliax and it is a pity they had to go. I'm not sure how optimistic to be about the convention, but there are nine paladins there now, so that's something."

'At their best' is doing a lot of work in that sentence.  Thea won't argue about it though.

"The better sortition delegates seem worth a lot... they've made me rethink a lot of opinions I had about commoners."

"Oh?"

"Prior to the convention, I hadn't reexamined the attitude I had been raised with that commoners were weak willed, lacking strength, and/or easily coerced and manipulated.  All of these flaws have had clear counter examples at the convention, besides the obvious example of Delegate Tallandria, I've seen many sortition delegates regularly pursue their goals and interests with determination and cleverness and resistance to schemes to sideline them or manipulate them."

"It's the commoners from whom are drawn almost all of Cheliax's wizards, priests, and - unless I am confused about where your order gets its five year olds - monks. That some of them might be worthy in ways not well represented by those particular extraction methods is no great surprise to me."

"Putting it like that, it does seem obvious in hindsight.  I suppose even if that argument had been put to me before the convention I would have still failed to grasp just how much strength there is in the common people that the infernal regime had failed to extract and apply to it's own ends... Delegate Tallandria mentioned in an education committee meeting that she was failed out of school and beaten near to death.  That example seems like a clear indictment of everything about the old regime."

"A lot of people - do much better under gentler disciplinary arrangements. I was in the habit of collecting those people, at the Worldwound, and exchanging away people not well described that way. I'm sure the military pipeline did not deliver me anyone even more on that end of the distribution but I am unsurprised they exist."

“Huh, I hadn’t thought of it that way.”

She had thought a lack of usage of pain an obstacle to overcome, not something that could play to some people’s strengths… she tries to work through the implications but finds herself mentally drifting, she is pretty tired after the convention.

They're at the temple of Iomedae now. "Is there anything else you wanted to discuss?"

“You answered all my questions and more, thank you for your help!  Good luck with your book.  If you can have a commentary ready, I’ll be back with paper, I want to get started on a copy right away!”

The thought of another book to add to her library wakes Thea up.