"It's a mess. A lot of people died yesterday. Nobody's really happy about it... Still. Hope for the best, plan for the worst, right?"

Blai nods. "If you don't need anything from me I will go retrieve my mace and see if there's anything to be done about the possibility of summary acquittal."

"-Listen. I'm not sure June and Nuts would say the same but I don't think your duty to us, by word and party, is unbounded in scale. I want to emphasize that. Good luck and thank you."

"Understood. Good luck to you as well."

He's certainly not going to walk off without them today, though. Who else is there to talk to who looks like part of this system? (After he's got his mace back.)

The mace is still there.

There's an immigration office, and a bunch of sharply dressed people with badges running around measuring things, and laborers clearing debris, and more constructions going up, and someone giving out thin soup if you have a Food Card (from the immigration office) and someone proselytizing on a soapbox with a prominent holy symbol, similar but not identical to the Generator Tower, and a bunch of medics going around treating people and gathering bodies- Two perpendicular red lines appears to be the 'healer' symbol.

He just... watches, from a polite distance so he's not in the way, all the proceedings for a while. It's a remarkably orderly and swift tiny conquest. What's the sermon about?

"Humankind has rightful dominion over nature! The power of the MACHINE is our salvation! Industry is the beating heart of our god, and automation will preserve us all from the ravages of the frost! We shall conquer this cold and rise higher than ever before! The fools in the council would deny you this truth, like they denied you decent homes, entry into the city, and the necessities of life- Our foes, the Evolvers, are the ones who require bribes at each turn, who deny you your rightful due as a member of humanity! Join us, the true Faithkeepers, vote with us, and make the voice of TRUTH known!"

And so on and so on.

Sounds maybe Arodenite? Maybe they just didn't get the memo that Aroden died here on this negligibly magical planet, maybe he visited it thousands of years ago and this is what the intellectual descendants of those he influenced sound like now. At any rate Blai does not find it particularly stirring.

Can he find out by asking people who is in charge of processing summary acquittals?

The bureaucracy puts up a pretty decent fight against this.

He is not trying to fight the bureaucracy, he is trying to talk to it. He is always happy to go away and stop bothering whoever he's talking to if they will tell him who he should be bothering instead.

These people are overworked and stressed and are pretty sure they'll get more shit from their boss for kicking things upstairs than his questions are annoying. They pass him around in a circle with occasional hinting for bribes.

"I have been reluctant to bring this up, as the riots yesterday were in part over the suggestion that someone might be in possession of food," Blai finally says to a bribewanter. "But if there is someone whose schedule would open up with a supply of food I have an avenue to go and get some."

"...Food is always in great demand, individually and for the city at large. Would you say this is a lot of food?"

"I can't spare enough to feed the whole city, but more than a dozen meals' worth is doable."

"I'm sure my manager would appreciate a little something to round out the usual bread and thin soup. The dole means everyone eats, but eating well? That is special. Should I arrange a meeting?"

"I would love to speak with your manager. Does this need to be a lunch meeting, or can that wait?"

"I think everything will go more smoothly if it's a lunch meeting. Or at least if I can show him a fish or something when proposing it."

"All right. I'll be back soon." He does not put it past these people to decide he's a strategic asset they can't release if he reveals his magic, so he's gonna tromp out to the campsite and make the food there and then load up about half of it. There's some fruit, though it'll inevitably freeze, but he leaves that behind, hidden in the snow shelter; he brings dried fish and hardtack and jerky with him, as less suspicious plausibly-travel foods.

The person he tried this strategy on happened to be a member of Appeals. 

The clerk and his manager and one other guy from Appeals are happy to meet him for lunch on Blai! Is he here about the testimony he entered earlier today? That's not quite Appeals's territory, since they haven't had a trial yet, but they can certainly make recommendations that will be treated with all due seriousness by the prosecution.

"I'm mostly hoping that they can be acquitted summarily and we can all go home together except for the one of our number who chose to accept residency in New London."

"That riot was a disaster. There were a lot of things that could have been different. We don't really have any way to prove who was involved except direct eyewitness testimony. I haven't read the case myself, it's not public as it's not complete, but if they are innocent and nobody emerges to say otherwise I think it's overwhelmingly likely to be an acquittal. What we can do is bring this particular case to the attention of the prosecution office as particularly open-and-shut."

"Yesterday's incident was deeply regrettable, and I think many people do regret it. I'm not sure who is in charge of preventing a repeat, maybe I should find out... Anyway, I have a friend who's part of a Council member's staff, and from what I hear, the problems that led us to this point are mostly political deadlock and the 'only skilled outsiders' law... I think I heard that your little group was from a frostlands community trying to learn more about the city? Ask away!"

"I'm curious about the code of laws, what occupations people have, how it's resourced, whether it has contact with neighbors more distant than this suburb..."

"Aside from the Common Law which defines things like theft and murder, the two most important pieces of law are the Steward and the Council. The Council consists of 100 people, who are periodically selected from among the factions. The various factions of New London are officially recognized and have registration rolls. Depending on the percentage of people registered to a faction, they are permitted to appoint a certain number of people to the Council, which debates and votes on new laws. Meanwhile, the Steward is the executive head of New London, dictating strategy, research, construction, and scouting, and proctoring the debates among other things. They were appointed by the old Captain who saw us through the storms."

"The Council's laws can end up a bit contradictory... Because the Faithkeepers and the Evolvers, for example, both have very sharp visions of what the future ought to be, and win some of their debates and lose others. And - Hmm, I'm not sure if we're supposed to talk about scout results?"

"It's not like it's a secret. It'll hit the gossip mill eventually, go ahead."

"We've found several in the two years since the Steward founded the scouting office. In particular, the town of Hot Springs still stands- They don't have much to spare and are little inclined to trade from what I hear."

"For jobs, I'd say the largest categories in descending order would probably be scouts and scout support, city infrastructure and the housing authority, the industrial districts, the extraction districts, the food districts, the research institutes, and the city government, including law enforcement."

"The laws are... contradictory? A law that contradicts a previous law doesn't repeal or amend the old one?"

"They do. I mean cases like- Currently the Evolvers are trying to pass 'communal childcare', but there's already a law about family apprenticeships on the books. The two will contradict, if it passes. No parents, no family to apprentice to."