"Every now and then some idiot suggests deporting everyone who isn't a mage and Atennesi waits to see if everyone else will shout them down on their own before reiterating that he is definitely not going to do that."

"I like Atennesi. I think Eisar would also like Atennesi."

"I look forward to finding out."

He laughs. "Yeah."

"I think we might finally upgrade the wind enchantment soon, though!"

"Ooh!"

"There's an upgrade proposal under discussion that seems like it'll work well--it'll put more load on the flight enchantment but hopefully not enough that the extra people-space won't put us at a net negative enchantment-sustainance per."

"Yeah, hopefully."

"They won't go through with it until there's a plan to deal with the extra load at least until the quotas've stabilized."

"Sensible."

"If they don't come up with anything cleverer they might ask for extraordinary volunteers, I'd probably do it."

"Volunteers to spend all day making the city fly?"

"Not necessarily all day, but--oh, has the quota system been explained to you yet?"

"I don't believe so!"

"Okay, so every few years there's a census, and they divide up the load for the year into a number of shares proportional to the number of citizens, and if you're a hedgewitch--which most people are--you're supposed to take a certain number of shares, and if you're a mage you're supposed to take a larger number of shares, and anyone who hasn't discharged their shares by the end of the year has to pay a fine, although it's possible to get an exemption if there's a reason you can't, and any excess shares get picked up as paid magework."

"Aha."

"Extraordinary volunteerism isn't totally uncompensated, but it doesn't work within the shares system and it comes in bigger chunks."

Thoughtful nod. "Seems like a pretty good system."

"Sensible, even."

He laughs. "Yeah."

"So in the long run they'll want to fold the extra mass into the shares system but in the meanwhile: extraordinayness. They'll probably be likelier to approve the thing if some people commit to volunteering ahead of time, so I probably will once it gets to that point."

"I might too, if I'm capable of contributing at the time."

"We should maybe check up on your carrying capacity, then."

"Maybe we should!"

"Cool. Have you been keeping up with your gratuitousness?"