Law. An oppressive sense of law, duty; everything has a place, and everything belongs in that place. Things which have their place work without requiring personal intervention.

You do what is required of you. No less. What is required is not impossible. It is correct. And there is nothing more pleasing than to see everything in its proper, lawful place.

The sense of LAW in this room is almost stifling. It's hard to pick up anything else in here...

Arkady: Mysteries: +4 Roll: +2 Total: +6

...but Arkady is equal to the challenge. There are... other things that can be seen. Mere footnotes to the monolith of LAW that stands like a colossus over this room, but present nonetheless.

A hint of childlike laughter and whimsy from behind Arkady. It... smells (for lack of a better word) like Piper; a note of creativity and joy among the sterility of LAW. And it seems that LAW accepts this note; Piper is explicitly permitted in this place (and likely could not enter if she wasn't).

The Patriarchs... it's hard to tell them apart from here, hard to pick them out individually, especially over the influence of LAW. But while there is some difficulty picking out individual Patriarchs, there is the unpleasant smell of greed, the clinking of coins, a vision of gold; which is a problem, because the Patriarchs themselves are a cornerstone of the structure that is LAW.

Raven himself... he smells of rot, through and through. Rot, and other... unsavoury things. But not external control. He may have been tempted - he may have succumbed to all sorts of temptations (and probably has), but what he is doing right now, he is doing as himself, not as the puppet of another.

Even amidst the Patriarchs, Sir Sparhawk stands out; a gleaming figure, a protector, a paladin in bright armour. Unsullied, untouched - and in this place, in this domain of LAW, perhaps even untouchable.

Arkady gets the distinct impression that if LAW had wanted to take him over, in this place, he wouldn't have so much as a chance to resist. Fortunately, LAW doesn't seem to want to do so.

Arkady, loosely speaking, prays (in and so much as he's addressing a power): "You can delegate authority, but you can not delegate power or responsibility. If they are embracing Chaos in your name because you are allowing them to believe that you consent, then the failure is not theirs. And please to know that I grew up in a nation under Chaos; the people out there are not deserving that."
Then he closes himself off again and glances over his shoulder. "Piper, you must love it in here."

Piper makes no response to the English phrase.

Down below, the interrogation of Sir Sparhawk has moved on while Arkady was... not in a state to be listening. At the moment, Dolmant is interrogating Sparhawk about the size of the Elene treasury (Sparhawk isn't quite sure of the exact size of the treasury, so Dolmant is asking a few questions about the historic size of the treasury; it seems Sparhawk has an excellent idea of how large it was a decade ago, for some reason).

As he listens, Arkady pens a note to Ortzel:

Ortzel takes and reads the note. His eyebrows go up, and then he frowns.

But he doesn't interrupt Dolmant.

Dolmant, for his part, has managed to get a sworn statement, from Sir Sparhawk, Royal Champion of Elenia, that the Elene treasury cannot possibly have more money in it than a figure about 250% higher than the Ship's economist's expectations (and he admits that the true figure is probably a lot lower). He's now presenting a simple bit of mathematics; he points out that there is a rumour that most of the people voting for Raven had been bribed, and that implies that each of them could have been bribed for a given maximum amount.

"Since it's undeniable that no Patriarch could possibly sell his vote so cheaply, it therefore follows that the Primate could not possibly have bribed this assembly. Unless he had some other source of income, of course, such as the fabled infinite gold of Zemoch; but surely no true churchman would touch that cursed wealth."

Those Patriarchs who have been bribed are very busy doing some multiplication themselves, and seem to be reaching some quite unsettling conclusions.

Arkady is quite curious about how both the uncommitted dozen and our dear friend the Primate are taking this...

Arkady: Empathy: +5 Roll: +0 Total: +5
Raven: Resolve: +5 Roll: -3 Total: +2

Raven has gone very pale, and is walking towards the nearest exit with the oddly hurried walk of someone who is putting a lot of effort into not running with complete panic.

The formerly undecided dozen look resolute. They've clearly decided something.

It's at this point that Dolmant suggests Makova call for a vote for the Arch-Prelate. Mokova tries to recover the initiative, suggest that perhaps a brief recess - but Vanire starts chanting "Vote! Vote" and within minutes, almost all the patriarchs are chanting "Vote! Vote! Vote! Vote!"

No-one on the floor below is paying any attention at all to the fleeing Raven.

Arkady says out loud: "Nobody who matters would be upset if Raven tripped and fell on one of those guards, now would they?"
Perhaps it was that he thought he saw a pen lying right where Raven was about to step, perhaps he thought some power or other might hear him and take a hint. Either way, his influence on the fates lessens a bit as he hurries over towards the departing primate. Should he happen to stumble, Arkady intends to be there before he can recover himself. And if there happens to be a church knight nearby, he beckons him along.

Raven glances around behind him, and runs directly into one of the messenger boys (who had been carrying his notes back and forth). Raven quickly shoves the boy aside (not caring what happens to him) and hurries along, but even that brief delay has been enough; Arkady reaches the only exit a moment ahead of the Primate Raven.

There are plenty of (theoretically completely neutral) guards here at the exit, all ready to spring into action.

Arkady looks at Raven. "Attacking a page? Isn't that against the rules, Anias? Guards, the Primate here should be held to answer for that. And it sounds like your order is about to have a new head who would be disappointed not to deal with this issue in person. I'm sure you wouldn't want to be disappointing him."

"So, you have an official complaint, sir?" asks one of the guards, while another grabs Raven.

Arkady nods. "Yes. I declare that this man, Primate Anias Raven, has violated the rules of the convocation by physically attacking that page" (indicates the one in question "in the gallery without provocation. He did so in the presence of numerous witnesses including all the members of the Arch-Prelates guard here present. He glances over at the guard. "Do you need me to be putting that in writing?"

He has a strong suspicion what he's going to find, but he's also trying to read the folks around him. He might need to duck fast if Raven decides just the wrong way...

"No need to have anything in writing, sir," says the guard. "Now, since there's been a complaint -"

"No there hasn't!" objects Raven. "He can't lodge a complaint, he's not a member of the Elene Church!"

"I'm sorry, sir," says the guard, very politely. "He looks like a member of the Elene church to me."

"No, look! He's almost as pale as a Styric!" objects Raven.

"Sir," says the guard coldly, "there are no rules against a foreigner being a member of the Elene Church."

Arkady turns to the page who was shoved out of the way. "You, lad. You're the one he shoved. He attacked both you and the rules of god. We should not stand for that, not in this his holy Citadel. You should be filing a complaint too.

I think Arkady gets a free tag against his brand new attribute: was just shoved aside by Primate Raven.