"Awful. Incredible. Terrifying. It was insane, Zara. They spent an hour arguing about whether they should be allowed to murder each other, and after that they sat down and started working on writing a fucking constitution."

"...isn't that what they said they were going to do?"

"Well, yeah, but - I didn't think they would get that far."

Zara feels like people tell the truth about what's going to happen often enough that it shouldn't be completely shocking that some particular thing is not a lie, but Korva is older and has been lied to more times. 

"Did you get to yell at the archmage?"

"No. I think I may have made vaguely reasonable-sounding policy suggestions to a total of... four out of five archdukes."

" - like, as part of the voting?'

"No, with my mouth, using words."

She stops walking. 

"They're going to write a fucking constitution in there, Zara."

"Sounds like it."

"Nobody in there knows how to write a fucking constitution! Not me, and not the archdukes, much less the halfling slaves they bought to sit on it! This whole thing is - like, almost exactly fifty percent serious and fifty percent a joke, which is just about the worst possible percentage split!"

" - alright, listen. If we have to write a constitution, we are going to be one hundred percent serious about it. Zara, you are now my assistant."

"Okay. What are we doing?"

"We're studying the genre, first off. I need copies of the constitution of Andoran, the constitution of Galt - as many consitutions as they had, if there were multiple - and books or notes or summaries of how the government functions in as many other countries as possible, especially Absalom, Lastwall, Taldor, Osirion, Rahadoum, Kelesh, Hermea - look, anywhere you can get, but the more civilized, the better."

She hands her four silver. "Up to this much; report back if you find something borderline or more expensive. The money is only for buying texts that are exactly what we're looking for. We don't have a good way of getting more metal. Understand?"

"Got it. Bookstores first."

"You take that side of town, I take this side. Meet up at the house at dusk. You have your orders, soldier."