He accepts, of course. He did not, when he died, expect to be raised - there are empowered priests of Iomedae who are dead and not raised right now - but if they want him back, he will return. 

It's quiet. He feels slightly like he was recently thrown off a horse. 

"It's been eight days.

They raised the families of the men who were in the manor, though not the servants. I understand the archmage offered to raise you and Arn, and the church requested that instead they be given back empowered priests who had been killed elsewhere. And they offered to send one of those priests to us, later, on the assumption that it would be better for our needs as well. A week ago I thought that was probably true, and meant to leave you alone.

But that was a week ago. The convention has grown teeth, after the riots. They abolished halfling, though not orc, slavery. They passed laws regarding censorship and slander, and today they are set to vote on whether to re-introduce execution by disemboweling for treason, execution by burning for heresy, and execution by breaking on the wheel for anything else they feel deserves more than a swift beheading. I think the church is going to lose the vote.

And they are set to argue, within the next few days, about whether to outlaw the private worship of all evil deities, including Asmodeus. Played badly, the way things are now, that will be a vote about whether to burn to death tens of thousands of people who are following the law as they understand it. I've spoken to Lord Cansellarion, and he was easy to talk around, but he hadn't realized himself that that was at stake, and had been prepared to speak in favor of both making private prayer illegal and forming multiple organizations specialized in seeking it out.

You know what is going on in this country. Not by interacting only with criminals, like the paladins who have been on assizes; you've lived among us. You understand us. And you are a priest, and people who won't listen to me might listen to you, or listen to both of us together. So I've paid to have you back. That's on the Archduchy, not the church. Ten thousand souls not burnt, Marit, that's our work today. And then our work will be whatever they come up with next week, because there will be something else next week."

...well, from that he can infer that the defense of the manor did not go well, and also that Arn is dead. He would really not have expected that to produce a convention that was more active. He wonders what happened to Valia Wain.

" - well," he says, a bit slowly, sitting up. "That does sound like important work. It sounds like probably I should be speaking with delegates? Which ones? Where would I find them?"

"Following the riots, the convention created an Urban Order committee, tasked with determining how to keep peace in the cities. So far it votes mostly together for stricter law enforcement and harsher penalties, with the Archduchess Bainilus, Count Cansellarion, and myself voting against most of their proposals. The bill that hopes to bring back torture comes out of this committee, and is being voted on today. Yesterday, the Duke de Fraga suggested that the committee write a law focused on rooting out demon cults and diabolism, as well as worship of any other powers they place on the list. All were in agreement, at the time, that all evil deities should go on the list, but there was disagreement over whether any non-evil powers belonged on the forbidden list as well. 

Aside from de Fraga, the committee is headed by the Count de Cerdanya, resurrected from heaven. It has fairly quiet elected and sortition members, an Abadaran, and the Marquis de Almenar, who I know little of but who assisted in capturing a lich in the city two nights ago. It has the new Duke of Tendrui in Menador, who we ought to have insisted on speaking with personally before now anyway. And it has Count Solpont, an infernal holdover. He and his pregnant wife were killed by rioters on the same night that you were. They were brought back, but the child was lost. Valia Wain was found innocent of all crimes and taken to Lastwall for catechesis, and he is looking for blood to spill.

- really quite a few of the people who were targeted that night are probably in fairly desperate need of counsel, but I don't know how much time we have. I don't know how to think about how much good it would do to have Arn back, too."

"Valia didn't cause the riots?" he asks, baffled. He had really kind of assumed that Valia caused the riots, what with how she gave an inflammatory speech about the Menadorans and then a mob showed up and apparently killed a great many people in the house. Lastwall would in sentencing consider the fact that Valia had experience only with circumstances where killing evil nobles was the right thing to do, and is a teenager, and was specifically invited to give speeches about her perspective to the convention without any instructions about how to avoid calling for riots or check if her speeches were legal, but he does not think they would find that she did not commit any crimes.

"It was decided that Valia's speech itself didn't move anyone to acts of violence. Instead, her speech was published in abridged form and with commentary, by a gentleman who claimed that men could earn the Summerlands by rising up and killing the remaining evil nobles, as well as all teiflings, many of whom were also hanged that night. That gentleman was hanged; he refused the final blade. This is why the immediate focus on censorship and slander, though the laws there are still quite mild. But Valia Wain herself was found innocent. It was decided that she did not call for violence, and that violence did not result from her words themselves. Obviously, feelings about this are - varied. Some are pleased. Some are very angry. Some are afraid. Some feel the church of Iomedae has been declared above the law. I think, overall, it has lost some credibility. Perhaps perversely, Menador has gained some; people are no longer keeping us at arm's length."

"All right. How are you doing? Were you killed in the fighting at Charthagnion?"

"No, I'm fine. Trying to decide how many people to call down from Menador to form a proper security force and staff, and how long to impose on the Duchess de Chelam given that it's really quite politically convenient to live in her mansion, but fine. The other noblemen aren't taking it as well; they didn't die, but Napaciza's daughter and Reixach's nephew were killed in front of them. Ramirez's grandson was killed, as well. All brought back, but I think some of them are taking it harder than if they'd died themselves. Napaciza was especially troubled, I think, though he's cooled off more than I expected following the trial. But they're none of them planning to write a law that kills ten thousand people."

"They burn people for illegal worship in Mendev but that's because Mendev is a war zone where it's approximately treason, and it was still actually a bad idea. I wonder if the Church here in Westcrown has some examples of sympathetic people who were still worshipping Asmodeus but in a way that's plainly not very culpable or fixed by harsher sentencing, I did not in any cases I am familiar with secure permission to share them for political debates. Is there any way to get the convention to, uh, slow down? I don't think men are at their wisest when they're rushing to react to an emergency."

"I don't know, maybe. I understand de Fraga spent much of his adult life in Mendev, and I worry that he's viewing it through that lens. Cassiodor would be a reasonable example of some things, but we couldn't possibly talk about him in public. I worry that many of the people who would most be hurt are not trivial to talk to, or they would know by now that worshipping Asmodeus is unsafe. Maybe the reclamation paladins have examples. Oh, uh - the reclamation has been called in to maintain order in Westcrown for the moment, and nine of their officers were given the remaining seats in the convention reserved for clerics of Iomedae."

That's probably quite costly in the long run but an improvement over anything else in the short run. "I see. We're imposing on the Duchess of Chelam presently? I haven't met her; should I?"

"Probably, when we have time. She's engaged to the Lord Marshal as of last night."

In most weeks fewer things than this happen. Probably it is mostly disorienting because he missed it all. "Congratulations to them," he says, even though by now he has absorbed the Menadoran habit of thinking of the southern nobility with utter terror and marriage to them as a fate not worse than death only because death is a very bad fate indeed around here. "I am - very glad that you are trying to make the convention go well, given that it seems to have real power. I hope good comes of it. What do you think should happen first?"

"You should come to the hall with me today, I think. Get some sense of what's happening in there, and I can fill you in on the rest of what happened this week. We have an hour before it opens, if you want eat something or check in at the temple of Iomedae. Any proposal to outlaw prayer to infernal powers can't hit the floor before tomorrow, but if we want to shape the proposal rather than simply try to vote it down, that will come down to the work in committee, which might be today. We should probably alert the Duchess de Chelam before we move, she's better at coordinating politics, and will agree with Cansellarion. The only point we have left to speak to anyone before committee will be to catch them during lunch, but I don't know whether to hope that de Fraga will be at all receptive."

"Then I suppose I'll introduce myself to the Duchess or her people, if we ought to coordinate with her and are enjoying her hospitality, and then stop by the Church and - see if some healing perks me up. I can attend as an observer just by saying that I am an advisor to you?"

"I believe so. I'm afraid you won't feel entirely better without a good deal of diamond dust, I'm sorry about that. We could buy some, but - it seems like more expensive good to purchase, at the moment, yes?"

He smiles at him. It is a slightly tired smile but mostly it is a proud one. "I agree."

"All right. Let me know if you need it, but we'll try without, first. And - thank you, Marit."

"It's an honor to work with the people of Menador, your highness, and I assure you not one I was tired of by the time it killed me."