"Teeechnically the king and queen can't just arbitrarily tell the citizenry what to do. But if you break the law - uh, if people do bad things the king will stop them."

"King is what?"

"You remember the fountain people? Arde was first queen of Rainfold. Cenric was first king. The queen - queen pays people to build things, to take care of city. The king makes sure people follow the laws and don't hurt other people, and makes sure people from other places don't hurt Rainfold."

He has so many questions and no words for most of them.

"Thank you. Person is not queen, later queen, later not queen? People say yes, person is good queen, say no, person is bad queen?"

"The queen says, this is a good person, says this person will be the next queen when the queen dies. If next queen is very very bad, king and many many people say queen is bad, not queen anymore. Most are queen until death."

"Huh. Thank you. In Har, uh, 'king and queen'" (he makes a wobbly gesture, they're not exactly the same thing) "not king and queen anymore, many people say 'this person will be the next queen' and, uh... one or two or ten people say this person, this person is not queen. Many, many people say this person, this person is queen. Can be 'queen' earlier, people say 'queen is good queen' or 'new person is good queen' and if many people say 'queen is good queen' then queen is queen more. If many people say no, new person, then new person."

She nods thoughtfully. "Makes sense. In Rainfold, good to have one queen for a long time. But also good that if very bad queen, not queen later."

"Yes, good for Rainfold. Imrainai said king makes sure other places don't hurt Rainfold. Other places?"

She nods. "Other places are - Rainfold is a city? Other cities. Different kings or queens in different cities. Not both king and queen, Rainfold has a king and queen but other cities don't. Dagnyfell is a city, Alkarra is a city, Regnas is a city. A few cities, maybe."

"Regnas is bad!"

"Regnas is... Rainfold is better."

"Other places is bad. Har is... words. Water," he says, making a big expansive gesture. "Not water." He indicates a squarish shape with both hands. "Not water is Har. No other places. No other places hurt Har, no killing. Is good, better than Rainfold. Later Rainfold and no other places?"

"...there have to be other places. Har is an island? Water all around? Peth - "

She gets Peth's slate, and draws a square with some trees on it surrounded by waves for water. "Har is an island?"

"Yes. Har is an island, no other places, water all around. Earlier Har is many cities, one island. Now other places are Har. Earlier many cities hurt other cities, now one Har, no cities hurt other cities. Not scared, better than Rainfold."

"So the water makes it harder for other places to hurt you, that's good. But Rainfold isn't an island."

That's... missing the point.

"Earlier, one island had Har, Anavel Sani, Thervigenia, Republic of Anemone Bay, Ethornak." Mahan mangles most of those names as badly as he mangles Kaltish but it's not like Imrainai can tell. "Now Har is Har and other places. Now Ethornak is Har. Now Thervigenia is Har. Now Anavel Sani is Har, has Hari law, doesn't hurt other Hari places. Earlier, many places hurt many other places. Har hurt other places more. Har took places that weren't Har's. Now places are Har's. Rainfold hurt other places, take places, make other places have Rainfold law? Later Rainfold an island, no other places?"

"Ohhh." Pause. "Then we'd have to kill a bunch of people, though. And one king and queen can't rule all of the other places, other places are far away and they wouldn't understand things that happened there. Or would understand much later. Too late to do anything."

"Maybe king and queen choose a little king and little queen, little king and queen in other place, understand earlier, do anything earlier."

"Maybe? Could be better for some places. But - if you fix the water and kill the diseases, if you make Rainfold very good, more people will want to work with Rainfold without being hurt. Fewer people die."

"Say you can have Rainfold fountain water if you have Rainfold law?"

"Maybe! Better than killing people."

"Killing Rainfold people is bad. Killing other place people is bad?"

"Yes! Sometimes - if people hurt Rainfold, need to hurt them, maybe. But better not to."

"Yes. Hurt people who hurt Rainfold, don't hurt people who don't hurt Rainfold, maybe people don't hurt Rainfold. Thank you saying Rainfold law. More fountains? Talk to queen and king?"

"More fountains first. But - augh, other laws." She thinks about trying to explain all of the laws herself in his limited vocabulary and - nah, nope. "You still have that translation tablet, Peth?"