She flinches slightly. "I'm working on it."

"Good luck."

The cleric of Abadar comes in the morning. He wears fancy magic armor that doesn't impede his range of motion much, and identifying sleeves with five stripes embroidered up them, and he's of a different ethnicity than the one predominant in Lastwall. He seems - very upset, for some reason, by the paladins' explanation of Ibyabek. 

"They don't have money?"

        "No."

"Do they barter instead?"

         "I don't think so."

"How...do people decide what work to do."

         "The government tells them."

"And it tells them how much of it to do?"

          "I think so."

"And it gives them goods when they have done the amount of work it told them to do? Or regardless of whether they did that?"

"Regardless! - I suppose on some occasions the lunch break is scheduled for whenever some amount of work has been accomplished rather than for a specific time. But people get fed even if they're sick or something."

"What if they are not sick but do not like their assignment and choose not to do it, or to slack at it."

"Then someone will try to find out what's gone wrong."

"And the thing that is wrong is that they have been told by the government that they should unload ships, but they don't like unloading ships, so they're going as slowly as a person can possibly go and will only haul one box all day."

"I have not specifically worked in job allocation. If someone thinks they're - too good to unload ships or something - then that would probably be handled with a visit to a remedial philosophy school."

"Do people who unload more boxes get more ...anything."

"...praise from their managers? I suppose? A sense of satisfaction at their contribution to the People of whom they are part. I was in the military and there are promotions, there, for exemplary service, I don't know if box-unloaders are structured that way."

He spends a minute staring at the wall, apparently thinking of and deciding not to say a dozen things. 

"In an average twenty day period how many days does a person in Ibyabek work?"

"Twenty. Sometimes there are special occasions but not that frequently."

Nod. "And how many hours."

"I think that depends on the job - and the time of year for some things, farmers have less to do in the winter. My duty schedule on the ship was ten hours on, but it was more in training; when I did brickmaking it was nine unless we were behind."

"And - how many shirts does the average Ibyabek man own."

"That also depends on occupation. I had two sets of fatigues so I could be in uniform while the laundry was running, my father has a variety because he has to go to formal functions..."

Nod. "How about books, do people own books?"

"Of course people have books! And movies, which you don't have here."

"How do people get books? Are those also allocated?"

"Yes, or sometimes first come first serve if it's a limited run and then people share with the neighbors."

"What is the book allocation?"

"An age-appropriate children's book every month till your children are all grown, copies of everything official, some improving literature a few times a year, copies of the scripts of movies for the blind or deaf, reference books for every household and you can turn them in when they're worn out for new ones or just wait for the next edition."

"Are those the only books people are allowed to write and get published?"

"There are some others but they don't get sent to every household, they're in libraries."

"But everyone can go to those?"