Two carriages with the Seal of the County and City of Halmyris, dusty and somewhat worse for wear, with a bandit arrow stuck in one wheel, rattle to a stop outside the Palace of the Convention, and six people disembark, more or less stiff from the rattle of the cobblestones. Lady Nuria, Sir Bernat, three guards, and...
Ilda is here as well, have ridden in the carriage, spending most of the time in silent mediation. She would like to find and brief Thea as soon as possible, but it isn’t actually that urgent (compared to the mission of protecting the Condesa) so she’ll wait for instructions or until she is dismissed or at least a lack of active instructions.
“Thank you for taking me with you Lady Nuria, you’ve made my return journey much faster.”
Lady Núria has been looking more and more worried with each passing hour, and she barely hears Ilda. "Let's try to find out if the Condesa has been resurrected."
She’ll follow along then. It’s just as well Nuria isn’t paying attention to Ilda, Ilda can’t bring herself to fake an appropriate level of concern about the Condesa’s fate, even if she does (or did) have a nice port town.
She walks rapidly, looking through the bodyguards lazing in the sun. "You!"
"Don't worry, don't worry, they brought her back, she's inside right now!"
Núria rolls her eyes. "I'll let you deal with this idot, Sir Bernat. I'll go inside."
This is the convention location? And it started about a week ago, So Thea is presumably inside herself? She’ll follow along inside.
Núria whispers to one of the real guards, shows him the seal on her orders, and whispers again. He pulls a messenger boy into the conversation, and after a moment, he takes off inside..
"We'll need to wait to be declared official delegate support staff. I instructed him to go to your mistress after the Condesa."
Hopefully Thea isn’t getting interrupted on anything urgent? Ilda isn’t actually clear on what goes on during a convention.
She nods at Nuria.
Mercè skulks over to the entrance, looks them over, signs hello, and thank you for coming, we need you to Núria, and holds out a piece of paper to both Thea and Nuria.
It’s identification of her as working for Thea. She can go inside…
And it’s a massive room with hundreds of people and a line of people to speak at a podium… she’ll just wait for some type of break so she can look for Thea.
And Nuria walks up almost to the podium, spots the Condesa, and wanders over.
And the Condesa lights up, hugs her and begins whispering to her all about what's been happening.
Kind of a pathetic display of emotion, she already knew the Condesa was like that, but she thought Nuria was more capable. She continues to look for Thea.
She continues to have little idea how the convention is supposed to work, but she’s figured out it has four divisions based on clothing and holy symbols, so she’s looks for Thea among the people with religious symbols.
She’s concentrating on the speakers and occasionally whispering and does not notice Ilda!
Being hugged by the Condesa would probably be part of any vizier's job, in Halmyris.
She whispers to the Condesa, and points to Ilda.
Ilda is back, alive and unharmed! It’s probably a moot point, the monastery itself is a pretty valuable structure (she’s come to realize this over the past few weeks taking on tenants) so that’s a strong point against relocating, but she might as well keep her options open. She gives a friendly wave to the Condesa and motions Ilda over.
She heads over to Thea, she can give her report after the speaking portion of the convention ends for the day… whenever that is, it’s quite line of speakers…
When they finally have a chance to talk, Ilda has extensive praise for Halmyris as a city and Nuria as a potential ally… but the physical building sounds pitiful even when not compared to their current excellent facility. So Thea will try to keep her options open, but she is definitely not going to commit to anything. In fact, if pushed for a decision, she will simply refuse relocation.
Also interesting, it seems like Ilda met a family member of a delegate. Working through her notes on names, it is one of the former diabolist committee members and on committee with her in Virtuous Churches.
After lunch and before committee meeting get started she looks for the Condesa.