"... and so I think that we can have it shared with everyone else tomorrow," Ðani explains, summarizing how much of the village has magic now. "The outlying farmers will come in for the meeting, so we can ask them to stay over and get them in the morning, which was the main group that didn't get anything today. Likewise the fishers, since they were out on the lake most of the day."

She tears off some of her bread and uses it to mop up the last of her soup.

Today's dinner is very much like yesterday's dinner, with the exception that today's bread is a sourdough-like loaf with a strong flavor, and the soup is a thinner fish-based soup.

"Wow, you're going so fast. That all sounds like it'll work. I'm glad everyone is embracing magic like this." Given the plans to give everyone magic in short order Maenik has taken a more average portion this time. These people will be fine even with a little less food and the food is pretty tasty.

Ðani waves a hand vaguely.

"Well, you know. Hesitation works for the sea*," she replies. "Magic is pretty clearly a good thing, so there's no real point in delaying."

* Translator's note: a quote from a story about a ship lost at sea that narrowly escapes a malicious storm only because of decisive action by the navigator.

"Delaying the sharing," Anþasta corrects. "I'm pretty sure that people are going to talk forever about the actual ramifications of magic at the meeting, since that's less urgent than sharing the magic itself."

"That at least I'm familiar with, people are still debating about the implications of magic in my society and we've had it for much longer than I've been alive."

Anþasta snorts.

"I'm not surprised. People will—"

“I stand to call a meeting. There is a matter that must be heard,” Penþa announces, climbing up to stand on one of the benches.

Everyone gathers up the last dishes and shuffles around to pay some amount of attention.

"We hear you organizer," they respond.

"Alright — so I'm sure you all know what this meeting is about by now," Penþa says. "Maenik has shared her magic with us, and it is almost certainly going to radically change our way of life. Over the course of today, I think I made it around to everyone and updated them on what magic can do and what we should expect. So the main question is — what do we want to do?"

"I would like to start by discussing whether we need to make any adjustments to the laws. Do remember that 'no' is a perfectly valid option, but Sigeþe and Gornet both have proposals that they would like to bring forward. Gornet?"

"Oh — let me know if you have any question about the procedure for meetings," Ðani adds in a quiet aside to Maenik. "And feel free to speak up if you have comments; you're an expert here. It's polite to put your hand up if you want to speak but someone is already speaking. Penþa will track who wants to speak and who hasn't gotten a chance yet."

"Thanks, I'll ask if I need to," she whispers back.

Gornet stands, although a bit stiffly.

"A few of us spoke with Maenik a bit last night about how magic impacts crime. One of the things she mentioned was the ability to create magical bonds —"

He summarizes the limitations and drawbacks that she described, for the benefit of anyone who didn't hear about them during the day.

"I'd like to propose that we add to the organizer's duties a requirement to keep bonds to any members of the village who wants one, so that in the event of a serious crime, the organizer will already have all the details. The organizer wouldn't bother people through the bonds otherwise, but it would be a safety net that would make it much harder for anyone to conceal a crime."

"I also think having bonds to the organizer would also be convenient day-to-day, since we could send messages to Penþa without needing to trudge all over the village," he finishes. "But I think that's a less compelling reason."

"And what would Penþa think of that?" someone calls. "It sounds like they might get bothered a lot more."

"I've considered the matter, and I think I would be willing to do it," Penþa replies. "I also expect magic to make it so that less of my time is required on other things, although that's more of a long-term hope."

"Any other questions for Gornet? I want to hold voting on his proposal until after we've heard from Sigeþe, since they're slightly contradictory."

Maenik considers for a moment then raises her hand.

"Yes, Maenik?" Penþa acknowledges her.

"It's a small thing but I wasn't expecting you to propose quite so many bonds with a single person so I didn't bring it up. Having that many bonds will tie up a fair chunk of your magic a bit over one part in six and one. It's not enough to matter for most purposes but I think it's worth keeping in mind."

"Ah, that is good to know," Penþa agrees. "So maybe we should consider bond-to-the-organizer a bit like houses, and have a tax as well."

"You could also have people not be bonded directly," Lhemur points out. "Such as only having one spouse or one member of a household bond directly to the organizer."

"Well, that defeats the whole purpose," Gornet argues. "In that then you're still relying on witness testimony, just of a different sort."

"Let's hear from Sigeþe — I think her proposal is relevant," Penþa interjects. Gornet settles down again.

A woman stands, hoisting a child onto her hip as she does.

"My proposal is a simple one — we don't know what magic is going to do, and we have no idea how it will or will not affect anything, let alone any crimes. We can make guesses, but I think it's far too early to say for certain. So let's just increase the penalties for any crime committed with the assistance of magic, to prevent any trouble from springing up, and then revisit the matter later — in a year, perhaps. So an impoliteness would become a violation, a violation a crime, and so on."

A young man with short black hair raises a hand and is called on.

"I don't see why these proposals are contradictory; couldn't you have both?" he asks.

"Well — I think either we are going to rearrange our laws to account for magic, or we aren't. And Gornet's proposal really seems to call for changing the laws around evidence, at least. I just want to temporarily hold off on that until we see what is going to actually happen," Sigeþe explains.

"We could still do both, in order to find out how useful bonds are," Gornet points out. "Maybe do both, and then wait until there have been six crimes committed with magic, and see how many of them evidence from bonds was decisive in."