The Council meeting: There's something about opening a scene with dialogue like this that simply doesn't work for me. I wish I could tell you why, but I don't know, except that for some reason I find it a huge turnoff.
The term Presider makes a lot of sense now that I've had a moment to think about it, but at first glance it looks like you were going for President and missed.
"There was a general susurrus..." Whee, cool word.
"'I begin with a report filed by one Farre of the Weaver’s Guild. I should mention that Farre’s family residence abuts the old Meeting Place.' She paused to let that fact sink in a little, but most of those present thought it was an unnecessary and irrelevant bit of information." At this point, really, so do I. We have no idea what the Meeting Place is; I see you address that in the next line, but it might be more effective if we have the information sooner.
Or maybe you're just calling too much attention to it. You, through the Presider, present it as something to be made a big deal of; "she paused to left that fact sink in a little", but the other T'Awn don't seem to know why it should be and neither do we. It makes for a "so what reaction" all around. Perhaps a better way of going about it would to simply show everybody shrugging it off, without any sort of "alarm" phrases like "letting it sink in" that the reader might twig to. If this holds any significance for special significance for Taq, let us see some of his reaction. You don't even have to tell us what he's feeling. Maybe he blinks, or stands up straighter. Your readers will pick up on it.
"The old Meeting Place consisted of twin pillars of a type of stone that was very rare." What type? An easy spot to drop a name.
"But his suspicions, even if they later proved false, could not be hidden any longer." Passive voice in the last clause. And instead of placing the "even if they later proved false" bit in the middle of the sentence, you might just want to place it at the end. Less convoluted.
"'I beg your pardon Councilor, Qwerlik, but, what are you talking about?' Taq asked in such confusion that his eyes were clouded nearly white." Okay, this is, I believe, the third time the expression about the eyes clear/eyes clouded has come up. And you know what, I think it's a great bit of worldbuilding. BUT. This is the first time it's actually been presented to me in a context clear enough that I can figure out what it means; I think I'd like to see it a little sooner.
"'And I,' replied Tolan, 'question your right to question my judgement!'" And I question your right to question your right to question your right to question your right to question my judgement!
Ahem. Okay, sorry. I don't mean to mock. But that statement struck me as pretty silly.
"It suddenly came to Taq that Tolan, though a Mentalist himself, had neglected to inform the Council that the Breach had been illegally performed. Perhaps he had been hoping Taq would be honest enough to reveal it himself..." Why does Taq assume that Tolan already knew about this? I rather had the impression that he didn't, actually. Partly from Tolan's reaction ("you know something about this, Taq") but mostly from the fact that Meles and friends had only just been discovered when Taq got called aweay to the Council meeting. Also, the phrasing in those two sentences is problematic; I had trouble following exactly what you were saying.
Tolan speaks quietly to Taq shortly thereafter, as if the entire room full of shouting, angry lizard people has vanished.
You submitted this as "Chapter 2 part 1" so I'm assuming that there's another half of chapter two, but I think you could easily make this a chapter break if you wanted.
Skimming through other peoples' comments: I also enjoyed the vocabulary in this one. And though I didn't have a problem with the gardener's smock, in fact I liked the idea, I see Renoard's point here. "As easily as a gardener's smock" should fix the problem.
I can see why Frog's a bit concerned with the introduction of the Council, introducing a few characters who are probably superfluous, but I've no suggestions on an easy way to avoid that--because I didn't find it too huge a problem, and like Renoard, I thought that this chapter was fairly strong. I like the introduction of the Council, not only for the points Renoard has already mentioned, but also because it brings a sense of scope that I don't think would come from Taq making solitary investigations, and a sense of scope that, if we don't one hundred per cent need right this very second, we certainly will as the story goes on. (I'm not saying the sense of scope that I'm talking about came in too early, necessarily, just that it probably could have come in later without the story suffering.)
Sniggering at Erik's use of the term NPCs. Hee hee.
Aaaand I'm done.
