"Why's history important for clerics?" asks one of the other female wizards.

"If they set a policy that seemed like a good idea, but it had been tried a hundred years past and turned out terribly and they should have known that?  I suppose village priests don't often set policy, but wizards you scarcely hear about involving themselves in politics before archmage level-"

...oh no.

The comment about archmages gets a bit of a nervous laugh all around. "Maybe that's more of a thing in Osirion, where you've got your cleric king?" offers Txell.

Okay they don't hate her forever.  Or are hiding it very well, which is totally possible because again, Chelish, like she apparently forgot for a minute there.  Breathe.

"Maybe, yes, Taldor has... dukes?  I think?"  She should probably say something less stupid than that but it's a coherent grammatical sentence and that's as good as she's getting right now.

"We have those too! Dukes and archdukes, counts and barons, petty lords."

"I fear I know little about how countries govern when they aren't theocracies- or, rather, aren't Osirion especially."  Okay, focus, small talk, she can do small talk.

"You've got some assholes and some bigger assholes that tell them what to do," says Txell.

Is this banter?  Godsdammit she can't tell.  Banter is harder to pull off than flirting but plausibly a better sign.

She chuckles and briefly ducks her head again.  "Well, it seems that much is the same everywhere."

"Does Osirion even have nobles or just priests? Are they all like Boian - I guess you've probably never met Boian, he's not even Osirian -"

"You know we don't all know each other."  She flashes Txell a quick bright smile.  "But I don't recognize the name, I fear.  Is that the insurance adjuster?  First Arcane Grec mentioned one."

"Yeah, that's him. Whole fort has to kiss his ass."