He will stab it off his face after hours.

He doesn't have much self-preservation, but he has enough to not cheer on a fight in front of the archmage, despite really wanting to.

Enric doesn’t know the rules for nobles, but back home in his village, Bellumar would have it right. Only a man who can’t control his temper hits a woman. The right thing to do is take it to her father or husband or brother, ask him to keep her in line. Same with children or old men. 

Jilia isn’t exactly a woman though, she’s an archduke. The way to handle this situation with important nobles back home is ‘accept the insults and beg for mercy’ but that’s not what nobles do to each other? Enric is confused, and also frustrated at nobles in general, and at Bellumar specifically. Yes, Jilia did start it, but she was right to start it, so he isn’t frustrated with her. 

She really doesn't know how to use it. Slightly better than the average peasant.

"A dozen Fiducias are among us. Swear to what you said under truthspell, if you can, Rodrig. And be sure to include the part where you think I'm unwell; it's ceased to amuse, and if you can't swear to it you ought to stop playing the fool."

"I spent the week between the riots and the convention working, protecting the city of Westcrown by calming them and solving their problems, earning their trust in the only way I've ever seen Chelish people respect. By the leave of the Lord Mayor, of course; ensuring they were not worried about further riots and had no need to be. Governing. You might try it someday. I had plenty of time to reflect, and what I reflected on was the character of those who rioted and those who didn't. It was not Valia Wain's words, but Bernat Vernal-Espinoza's, 'to him the Summerlands', that made the difference, and so I testified, as her lawyer requested, that this was so. It was a great tragedy and no one believed it a greater tragedy than Valia Wain, who intended none of it. She is gone, in Lastwall until she has grown older and wiser and will make no further mistakes, if she ever returns. She is not the business of this convention and never will be again."

"The business of this convention is, on the other hand, precisely the work for which I am trained and experienced. I have spent fifteen years heading a city council of forty and learning the needs, wants, and limits of the people of Cheliax and managing them against the needs of the Crown above me. It required an exceedingly hard heart and I doubt such a thin reed as you could have stomached half of it. The number of innocent men I have sent to the spikes and watched die, to say nothing of the risk at any time that The Paraduchess, the imperial spymaster, would turn her eye in my direction, roll up every spy, rebel, and cutout, have me die slowly with a malediction at the end if I didn't manage a quick suicide, and worst of all erase my life's work. And of course the dragon I turned aside, unarmed, to save Kintargo its flames. Really, if anyone's unsuited to sit in this convention, it's men like you, who assume because I never rode a horse on a battlefield I must not know what sacrifices it takes to fight a war or govern a country."

"We have been forbidden from dueling over anything said here, so of course nothing I said was a dueling insult. It was the truth, and nothing else, as the convention deserves to hear. I have no interest in dueling; it's always seemed rather silly, and I was quite surprised to learn it wasn't an infernal invention. Osirion has none of it, and this seems among its virtues. Certainly if you can't swear the claims I made were false you have no business challenging anyone to a duel about it."

"Sure. Truth spell?"

This convention is very stupid but very profitable.

"My lord, it is ideal to agree in advance of the casting what exactly is to be said during the spell's duration to save any quibbling."

Strange how she said ‘never rode a horse on the battlefield’ as if it was a minor detail. That’s basically admitting to being a fake noble. 

I don't respect literally any of you people.

...Okay, the Fiducias are fine.

"The Archduchess is not well. I do not believe that she is in her right mind, and I believe that when she recovers her senses she will regret her conduct today, which was emotional, unreasonable, and incompatible with reasoned debate and good governance. Every time I have said this I have been speaking to my sincere impression of the situation, which troubles me greatly and certainly brings me no satisfaction. I did not come into this convention believing women unsuited for governance; I came reluctantly to the position by observing the Archduchess, and how plainly her condition has deteriorated over the course of the convention as she has been forced to contemplate matters that women should not have to contemplate. She has spoken to her distress at conducting and witnessing torture, and I think her distress is not only real but also speaks well of her; it is a feminine virtue to have no taste for violence. But sometimes violence is necessary, and the country should be ruled by people who are not themselves ruled by their emotional and visceral distaste for the doing of it.

I agree that cities can riot if they are starved even if the laws are enforced strictly, as starving men have nothing to lose, but cities where men fear the law do not riot under the conditions Westcrown did last week. I wasn't lying, when I spoke to when cities riot, but I suppose I spoke a bit imprecisely. If the Archduchess were in her right mind she could have asked me for clarification, but instead she has lost her senses. I do not expect an apology, because she is not reasoning clearly enough to apologize when her claims are plainly disproved under Abadar's auspices. I desire only that she go home and seek treatment for her nerves."

Is the Archduchess… not actually able to fight?  Thea would offer to fight for her, she’s passable with a sword (she really prefers more unusual weapons) but she’s not sure about the actual rules for substituting in for a duel.

"That is not what you said before, Bellumar, and you have not done as I asked."

“If you clarify what specifically you’d like me to testify to I will be happy to. With it understood that when it is established that you called me a liar falsely you’ll go home and get the rest you need.”

"If you will not stand by all of it, then you were a liar indeed. You know what you said; repeat it."

“Sorry, you want me to repeat the entire speech? I did not give it from a script, I don’t have a written copy. I presumed you had in mind some specific statement you alleged was a lie. I underestimated the extent of your illness, plainly, if you can’t even name a specific claim you thought was a lie.”

FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!

Delegate Bainilus fought a dragon??? Unarmed????? ...Probably she's a wizard but you've got to be a really good wizard to fight a dragon.

"Your memory is even poorer than your judgment, but I invite you to consult the scribe's records. It would save very little time to summarize, as almost every claim was either dubious or outright false. Still, sentence by sentence. 'The first is whether riots like the ones we all just witnessed happened in Westcrown under the Thrunes. They did not. Because everyone knew they'd die horribly, and so they didn't do it.' Followed by 'In other words, the history of Asmodean Cheliax is a perfect example of how deterrence by torture does work to prevent riots,' though if you want to admit you believed this despite abundant reason to distrust the sources and have now been corrected I'd accept that. Then 'She would have you believe that men are nothing but beasts'. 'The second important matter in which she is wrong is that she says' - these punishments - 'will be done to you.' 'She does not see you as her countrymen. This is not how one speaks of their countrymen. She sees the people of Cheliax as mindless beasts too stupid to act on their own interests. She sees you as rapists and murderers best appealed to by proposing that you want your own hanging to be swift. That is not my vision for this country. That is not my impression of you delegates. I think that you are much wiser and much better than the Archduchess believes you are, and that your desire to see justice done does not make you Evil but indeed makes you Good.'" Say that all verbatim, if you can."

"The first is whether riots like the ones we all just witnessed happened in Westcrown under the Thrunes. They did not. Because everyone knew they'd die horribly, and so they didn't do it.' That's true and I am happy to repeat it.  - I was not claiming that no riots ever happened, but that riots like these ones did not; riots over food because starving men have nothing to lose prove my point, rather than disprove it. 'In other words, the history of Asmodean Cheliax is a perfect example of how deterrence by torture does work to prevent riots.' I still believe that and will not retract it; not to perfectly prevent all riots under any circumstances but to prevent riots like the one we just experienced, to limit them to cases where men have nothing to lose, yes absolutely. 

The second important matter in which she is wrong is that she says these punishments will be done to you. She does not see you as her countrymen." Neither does he of course but he didn't claim he did. "This is not how one speaks of their countrymen. She sees the people of Cheliax as  - I will concede that you have since given a passionate speech about how you see them as your children, but when I spoke I believed 'mindless beasts too stupid to act on their interests' was a fair summary, and seeing people as children and as beasts are not always too different.

She sees you as rapists and murderers best appealed to by proposing that you want your own hanging to be swift - that I stand by, because you explicitly urged them to vote based on those punishments being done to them! And because you supported Wain, who is a murderer, and her confederates in this room cheered your speech! 

'That is not my vision for this country. That is not my impression of you delegates. I think you- uh, a majority of you, at least - are much wiser and better than the Archduchess believes you are," he's leaning on considering wisdom and quality being 'more like Bellumar, less like Wain', and he's objectively right since they voted with him not the Archduchess' - "and that your desire to see justice done does not make you Evil but makes you Good."

Valia isn't a murderer, Valia didn't kill anyone that night, she just — didn't realize some people would be Evil enough to murder innocent people over it — how dare he talk about her like that—

She's gone from being annoyed that nobody would ever trust anything she said under a truthspell to wondering why anyone trusts anyone else under them. 

You cannot use Abadar's Truthtelling to settle matters of opinion! That's not what it's for!!

Count Bellumar sounds super heretical and disloyal!  (The Thrunes likely lied about riots to claim there was less of them and agreeing with lies of the Thrunes is loyalty to them and thus disloyalty to the current Queen.  And torture is obviously unIomedaen and Evil.)

Maybe that was the Archduchess’s play, make him repeat his blatant and obvious disloyalty all at once, even if he does think it’s true.

"You are preposterously credulous as to the Thrune's riots, then, and paying no attention to the words of those with experience talking when they correct you. But far less of a liar than I expected."

Why lie when you can just believe any claim you run into that’s convenient for you?