"Which one was that, I only looked at the list of which were banned to make sure Iomedae was okay -"

"Milani. He did not ban Her, though, She apologized and explained - and also was backing the underground resistance, which he did not wish to remain underground or resisting." 

"Ah. 

Should I plan to meet you back here in two hours?"

"Sounds good." 

He kisses her and then goes off to inform Aroden and Parmida of his successful marriage proposal and the apparent deadline on their wedding, and also Carissa's idea about the illusion-performances.

She takes some of her money and goes to a tailor and gets measured for a dress and gets told it's too late for it to be ready for Signing Day and spends more money until it is no longer too late for that and goes to a stationery shop and learns, again, they're booked through after the holidays, which is fine because she can do all the copying herself with magic if she can just get someone to do the first announcement card the others will be copied from.

In Corentyn she knows lots of people but here she really doesn't. She hits up some more stationery shops until she finds one who will agree to do a card on the spot for a generous sum of money. - then he refuses once she tells him what to put on it, thinking it's some kind of prank which will probably get him in trouble. 

She gives up on that for the night - the shops would mostly be closed by now if it wasn't the leadup to Signing Day - and swings by the library to read imperial wedding contracts. 

She's back at his place at the agreed-upon time. 

Aroden clearly has a lot on his mind, but he agrees, a bit absently, that while two weeks is definitely rushed they can probably pull it off, albeit at higher monetary cost but it does seem worth getting it in on the traditional day and not being committed to wait an entire year. And that the illusion-performers are a good idea and he can spend a bit of time in the morning working with them on a proposal if Carissa is available.

He's unsure what other logistics are required for a Chelish wedding, aside from making announcements so people know it's happening at all, since he and Parmida were married in Osirion and also on a very low budget. What does Parmida think?  

She does not know much about local wedding traditions! She could find out but there's only so much time for finding out. Presumably there is a large category of people who'd be affronted not to receive an invitation and a large category of people who it'd be a good idea to invite and you've got to feed them all but beyond that they should probably track down someone actually in the Chelish nobility.

Leareth promises to ask Carissa if she has any leads on this. Alternately, Taver probably knows who they could ask, at least; Taver knows who just about everyone in Cheliax is, due to his helpful coordination work. 

Also they should maybe invite some of the Heralds, given their close relationship with Valdemar during the war? 

Yeah, that makes sense, and probably the leadership of other allied countries too, Lastwall will probably send people and Cheliax's neighbors might too, she's not sure if the pharaoh can do public events what with all of the protocols but presumably Leareth would want him there.

That makes sense. They should invite people from the countries that stepped in to help Aroden during the war, for sure, Andoran offered a lot of aid. 

...He does of course want the pharaoh there but it seems like it might be more headache than it's worth given all the protocols. (And he's vaguely aware that it'll probably make Carissa sad if he's spending the whole time Mindspeaking with Khemet for reassurance.)

He calls for a late dinner, since he didn't manage to eat during the two hours. Sits down on the sofa, wearily, and holds out his arm, wordlessly offering for Carissa to join him. "And how was your evening of tasks?" 

"Paid a tailor a lot of money to put fitting my dress ahead of fitting everyone else's Signing Day dresses. Found someone who could do up a fancy announcement card with beautiful writing, but then I told him what I wanted written on it and he decided it was some kind of prank that he might get executed about and refused to do it. I wrote down what I think the announcement cards should say, and I can copy them myself with magic, but you might have to be the one to go to the shop about it. Went and looked up imperial wedding contracts. I think it's way more complicated if I'm bringing my own titles or property into the marriage and relatively uncomplicated given that I am not. Also there's so much in there that's just really specific, I keep wondering, did they add this after someone had this specific marital disagreement or were they just trying to be comprehensive and why be comprehensive in this direction -

- for example, it seems historically common for a woman to agree to testify to the children's paternity under a truth spell once they're born, which seems sensible enough, it beats the Osirian solution of constantly surveilling me, but one contract specified that if she was uncertain, then her husband could divorce her about that but not disinherit the child, unless he found out before he was born and divorced her then, unless she was uncertain due to violence or magic against her person, in which case he could still divorce her but this did not disinherit the child even if unborn. None of which is exactly unreasonable but it's so specific to have bothered - negotiating at some length in advance -"

Sigh. "I can go to the stationery shop with you before we Gate out on our many errands. I want you there so I can pointedly have you on my arm and stare at him - no, hmm, that might be scary... The marriage contract sounds like the legacy of an extremely low-trust society, where people did not expect softer social mores to prevent them from being treated badly. Although legislating good treatment of wives and children is - not an especially effective solution to to that problem, in my experience." 

"You will definitely scare that particular poor man if you do that but we could go to some other shop, I doubt we'll have trouble convincing any of them to take it on with you there. I would rather a fairly minimal contract for the sake of my Law but probably if we're notably excluding a bunch of traditional clauses that's weird. ...it would be useful to have anyone to talk to who is actually Chelish nobility but I expect they're all nervously keeping their distance and also awfully selected for terribleness?"

"I am worried about the selected for terribleness aspect. I was going to ask Taver for referrals to nobility who are unusually non-terrible and willing to speak with us, he knows a large number of people since he was making the Mindspeech announcements for us before." 

"That's a good idea. And it's not as if it'll be the end of the world if it's nontraditional, since all the recent tradition is poisoned... oh, you know what else we could do, since apparently you can just rent a place in Aktun - the old King before the death of Aroden will be there. Gaspodar, I think his name was. I don't trust much of my political education but he was famously preparing to abdicate in Aroden's favor once he returned. And then assassinated in the civil war not too long after that."

"- Poor man. I wonder if Aroden ever visited him there after he publicly revealed his existence." His lips twitch. "The thought that just occurred to me was 'I could ask Abadar for advice' - He is much lower-cost to speak with after I conveyed the human-communication interface to him from my god-research, I had so many headaches from doing it but it will save me more headaches in the long run." And Khemet too. "That being said, possibly I ought get out of the habit of asking gods for advice about my personal life. Myself two months ago would have been so shocked and appalled about it too." 

"I can see why it's tempting if they usually just answer you! And don't have better things to be doing - I'm not clear how much gods talking to us trades off against gods doing other important things..."

"It definitely costs something, and this question does not seem especially like Abadar's comparative advantage, so probably I should not. It would be interesting to learn what the marriage customs were like before Aroden died, and make a deliberate move to bring those back? And there are probably many people in Axis who remember that. Aroden's adopted son Saba's parents by blood are there, though they were farmers and not nobles." 

"That would be nice. I have - no idea, really. I guess maybe it's close to whatever they do in Andoran."

"If that seems to be the case based on a quick assessment, we could crib further details from Andoran, I am not sure if people who have been in Axis for a century will remember their exact wedding ceremony."

Leareth leans against Carissa, running his hand through her hair. "I find it tiring, navigating politics in a country I barely know. It is - fine, if I feel oriented to a place's culture and relevant considerations, though I suppose never my favourite activity." 

"I find it stressful but that's almost entirely the feeling that if I trip up at it I die, if actually the worst thing that happens is that some people are judgmental then it's not very stressful. And it helps a lot that Iomedae chose me, normally I think I'd be worrying a bunch right now that we're missing some information that would make this seem like a bad idea. It'll also make it - more legible to people, if we're willing to admit to it. They know Iomedae is Chelish, it'll - make sense that she wanted to choose you a Chelish queen..."

"I feel fine about admitting it? I suppose I can run it by Aroden in case there are considerations against, but - I feel it helps my case as well, that a Lawful Good goddess is willing to endorse me in that way." 

"People aren't going to be at all clear on what that means - I was really unsure when She chose me - but it does seem like it'll count for something. 

The thing is that it's hard to tell if Good is actually - anything other than what the enemy calls themselves for all the general reasons armies have to call themselves that."

"That makes sense. I think even I was - somewhat dubious of it as a term, when I first arrived here." 

He puts his head down on her shoulder. "Maybe we can take a break from talking about this now? I am not sure I can last through two entire weeks of only ever talking about wedding logistics and politics. - Oh, by the way, Aroden wants to meet tomorrow morning to ask you about the illusion-theatre proposal and help plan that." 

"Makes sense. And sure, we can talk about something else - I guess I don't know lots of things people are supposed to know before marriage - do you have a family -"