Hamideh has used the Sothis censorship office before, but only twice; most of Naima's publications have gone through the Alexandria one, as that's where the hospital is located and where Hamideh usually spends her days. But Dahab is going to try to get some people from the Alexandria office, and Rasima is handling getting people from the office in Tephu because Tephu is specifically angry with Naima, and so Hamideh is left to get people from Sothis, which is the most important site but supposed to be only slightly less friendly and familiar and helpful than the people in Alexandria, who recognize her.

Even the thing that this was supposed to be was going to make for a very unpleasant morning. Hamideh is on publications because she hates talking, and prefers to work with paper and ink instead of customers. Whatever is going on here looks like it will be wildly more unpleasant than what was supposed to happen, though. She has to try, though. Naima will be so disappointed if she spends a teleport to not even bother trying. She's still planning to pick up copies of half the Taldane books in the city, whether she gets the censors or not, but the censors are in fact a pretty important part of the plan.

"Excuse me," says Hamideh to the page, who at least looks like he might be half as nervous as she is. She's trying to sound like an Archmage's secretary instead of a mouse, but not really succeeding. "I am here on behalf of the Archmage Naima, who has a business proposition for the censors. Is it possible to see them?"

"To ....see them? I don't think so. I can run them a bid or a publication."

Oh, but she doesn't have a bid or a publication. She is supposed to be asking if any of them are willing to relocate to Westcrown.

"Could I write them a note?"

"I guess," he says uncertainly. "If it's not a magic note, 'cause it's got to go through security screening."

"No, just a normal note." What happened here?

"Well, then I'll take it to them." There are not much hints what happened except that everyone startles whenever someone new walks in.

Well. She's very certain someone is about to be upset with her, but she feels like that a lot of the time, so it might not mean anything.

To whom it may concern:

Yesterday, Cheliax passed a censorship decree which allows the free copying of materials approved by the Osirian Censorship board. The Archmage Naima believes that this is an opportunity for great profit for Osirion, as the people of Cheliax will pay quite a lot to have their works approved. She has sent me to discuss whether it is possible for some members of the Osirian censorship board to relocate, temporarily, to Westcrown, so that they can approve such publications without excessive transport costs. She will of course pay extra for the inconvenience of living in Westcrown, and arrange for any necessary transportation by teleport.

I will be available until dusk to discuss the matter in person if desired.

- Hamideh, Publications Representative for the Archmage Naima

She will wait while he runs it to them. Quietly dying inside.

He will go take it to the edge of the Dome and hand it off and return. 

Waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, dying inside.

...

"I'm going to step out and get a book. Will you please hold any notes they should happen to send back?"

"Yeah."

And she can walk unimpeded past the Risen Guard with the holy kopeshes.

Representative Hamideh,

The Sothis office for censorship of publications received your message. At this time no agents certified to operate as part of the Sothis office for censorship of publications are available for international work. It is the assessment of this office that such work would require additional certification in the law of Cheliax, certification which may be difficult to obtain in light of the rapidity and unpredictability with which the law of Cheliax is altered. We have received assurances from Cheliax's diplomatic representatives in Sothis that the publication decree took them by surprise and that they anticipate further surprises. We refer further questions about the feasibility of cooperation on censorship to Cheliax's diplomatic representatives in Sothis.

With regards,

Anet Khemmenar, head of the Sothis office for censorship of publications

Well, nobody's yelling at her.

"Do you happen to know who the Chelish diplomatic representatives in Sothis are?" she asks, without much hope. The page does not look very likely to know this.

"No, ma'am." She may as well ask him who the Grand Duke of Porthmos is.

"Thanks anyway." And she will tip a silver, because the Archmage Naima encourages them to tip wildly inappropriate amounts wherever they go.

She will make some attempt to determine who the Chelish diplomatic representatives in Sothis are. She can ask at... uh..... this city has a mayor's office, right?

It does, and it can point her in the right direction! The Chelish diplomatic representatives in Sothis have an embassy in the Dome for important people and an embassy outside it for ordinary ones. 

Hamideh is.... probably an important person, sort of, but she's not actually sure that she can demonstrate it well enough to get into the dome on short notice, so she will go to the regular embassy. She's kind of unsure whether the Chelish embassy in Sothis is better suited to this question than the (presumed?) Osirian embassy in Westcrown, but Hamideh is in Sothis and not Westcrown, sooo she's going to try here first. Is there a line, or...?

A relatively short one, and then a tired stressed Chelish person. "How can I help you?" he asks in mediocre Osirian.

Hamideh can speak Taldane! Her Taldane is actually not very good (she doesn't think so, anyway), but her Osirian isn't amazing either, and Taldane will probably be easier than him speaking Taldane-accented Osirian and her speaking Kelish-accented Osirian.

"Hello. I am here representing the Archmage Naima. She is interested in making it possible for members of the Osirian censorship board to operate in Cheliax, in order for them to approve publications for the Chelish people. They are worried about the laws of Cheliax being too unpredictable for their members to operate safely or lawfully in a Chelish context, and directed me here to discuss what might make it possible." She has the note she got and also has the text of the new Chelish law, in case it's useful and people here haven't heard about it yet.

"Ah. Yes, of course we're honored to help the Archmage Naima in any way, let me get you a meeting with Her Majesty's envoy to Osirion at once." And he will grab the nearest female employee to escort her to a much nicer waiting room than the main one.

She has a book now. She is too nervous to particularly enjoy her book, but it will at least make waiting less useless. She's really looking forward to the part of this adventure where she can throw up her hands, declare that she did everything she could reasonably be expected to do, and buy five hundred books.

Her Majesty's envoy to Osirion has had a thoroughly unpleasant twenty four hours. It started when he was urgently summoned to the palace to explain why a Chelish lich had come to the Osirian censorship office to get her biography published, which is how he learned that the Constitutional Convention passed a new censorship law which exempts any material published by an Osirian censorship board, which would have been very straightforward to spin as a compliment to the imitable competence and efficiency of Osirion's censorship boards if it hadn't come as a complete surprise and also not first been employed for lich biographies. 

The Osirians wanted to know why they hadn't been told and he has to explain that the Convention just does whatever it wants, which is not among the most pleasant things to have to explain. But the great Inquisitor Shawil is at the convention so probably it won't do anything too unreasonable, he says, praying this is so. The Osirians wanted to know if any further laws impinging on them were forthcoming, which he does not know. The Osirians want to know why there's even a lich in Cheliax, does Cheliax allow the intelligent undead now? He did not in fact believe Cheliax allowed the intelligent undead, and did not know there was a lich in Westcrown, and is left explaining that Cheliax just doesn't really have many laws, which is why the convention is moving so fast. 

Now the Archmage Naima wants something! Fantastic. 

"My lady Hamideh. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be of assistance to the Archmage Naima. What can I do for you?"

Dying inside.

"I am here to find out whether there are measures that would make it possible for members of the Osirian censorship board to operate safely and lawfully in Cheliax, for the purpose of approving publications written by the Chelish people. The censorship office directed me here."

He looks pained. "Well. Certainly there are such measures and if we can assist the Archmage Naima we shall. I think the biggest challenge right now is that Osirion wants to ensure all of its censors can know all applicable laws, and Cheliax changes its laws very frequently."

"They do do that."

Oh no, she's doing actual diplomacy now and not just doing what Naima told her to do. This is awful. She should - probably try to come up with ideas, or something, even though she's manifestly not qualified. 

"It's... possible that we could establish a procedure for distributing new laws to the censorship office employees immediately upon their passage? The archmage hopes to establish copy houses with approved Osirian censors. If the crown is currently making and distributing copies themselves... perhaps we could have the Queen pay the copy houses to copy each decree, so it can be distributed? And then there would be a step where the censors were always alerted each time. I don't know whether that would address their concerns, though."

"I think that would be extremely helpful, yes. In some cases a new law might require additional training for the censors and in general I think they should not be expected to offer same-day turnaround if there are new laws."