"...And yet two archons are having a war?"

"One of them's a traitor. Or maybe both. I only hear gossip, but what I heard was that they both accuse the other one of starting the war. I heard that before the Spire lit up, there was an 'Edict of Execution' that would have killed us all but also all of them, saying that they were either traitors or criminally incompetent and if they couldn't set aside their grudges and beat our idiot oathbreakers who rebelled only a year after surrendering, then Kyros washed his hands of the whole thing."

"Sounds about like an ancient king to me. Or maybe it's some way to get rid of an inconveniently ambitious person or two? I wouldn't know." Sigh.

"More inconveniently aggressive, probably, they are running out of wars to fight. I think Archons are all ambitious but most of them are happy to have their fiefdoms. That's another law, Archon's Privilege: Archons can and do rule in whatever way they see fit within their granted territory or organizations. Limited by the other laws, but not very limited."

Kyros's Peace, Overlord's Destruction, Archon's Privilege. Very feudal. Peasants serve warriors serve archons serve Kyros. The only real way to run things, as you are."

"Entirely. Oh, and the Archon of Justice's role is another law: Right of Adjudication. Sworn vassals can resolve it amicably, but if they can't, then the Overlord has sole authority to resolve it. Which is delegated to Tunon, but no appeals, not even by going back up the delegation chain."

"Well, that's simpler than the felt-like-twenty different layers and jurisdictions of courts we had, at least."

"Twenty? How big was your empire?"

"It was said that the sun never sets on the British Empire, for its colonies and outposts spread across the entire world. Which is a sphere I dunno what your astronomy knowledge is like or if it works the same here. But also it was old and that added - tradition and cruft over time. Twenty is probably an exaggeration."

"Huh. I'd heard the world was round, it's hard to miss with the amount of sailors we have here, but no one's ever found land beyond the continent and a few islands nearby; I don't think spreading that wide is possible even for Kyros. I suppose Occulted Jade and her school - the Tidecasters - are across the sea looking for some, and if anyone could survive to find it, they can. But - let's see, other laws."

"Probably the easiest one to avoid, if you know about it, is Slander of the Name: "The Overlord's name is not yours to use." Don't swear by Kyros's name unless you're willing to die for breaking the oath. Don't claim luck is 'Kyros's Favor' or anything like that. Don't name any product, or person, or place, after Kyros. I've joked about naming a hog Kyros the Overpig, but that's a death sentence if someone catches you at it."

"Styling himself a god? 'Thou shalt have no other gods before me' and 'thou shalt not take the Lord's name in vain' are two of the Commandments..."

"Believing in gods is illegal. Also talking about them, knowing what gods people used to believe in, what superstitions people used to have, what they said the constellations were, and a lot of similar things. The law is Forbidden Knowledge: "Kyros sets the standards of what can and cannot be known." It also covers some history - probably history that makes the Overlord look bad - and a lot of magical knowledge. And lots of things I don't know about because the Overlord is pretty good at enforcing his laws."

"...I feel like I ought to be offended and affronted, but, actually, I was pretty doubtful of the bloody Church anyway. The other things are more worrying. History was - important to the empire. Though admittedly, history of its glorious deeds first and foremost... Thought control, you know? If you don't even know a thing is possible, if it doesn't exist as an option, that's a chain more unbreakable than iron."

"I see the principle, and the Sages care very much about it, and that's why the Vellum Citadel got turned into the Burning Library. Kyros is quite serious about it. Your technology might be declared Forbidden Knowledge, if it's enough of a problem and you can't use it to get leverage yourself."

"Fucking-" She rubs her temples. "Yes. I get it. I'm going to go on a rant about the wastefulness of stupid destructive wars and how people are idiots at this rate, which will not be useful. Obviously if you are in charge you want to stay that way. Shutting up now."

"That does seem to be the point of most of the laws. What else... Magician's Folly: Magic may only be worked by those who are part of sanctioned guilds of mages or some Archon's designated subordinates who work magic on their behalf.  The 'Folly' part is that for licensed mages, collateral damage of magic done for Kyros's cause is innocent in law. I think because magic is unpredictable even to experts. Your technology might also be judged magic, since it does look like it, even if that's not true for those who understand it better. Hard to know in advance. And the Oldwalls Ban: The Oldwalls are forbidden, as is anything that comes from them, everything that lives inside, and depicting their interior. I forget the justification for that, something like tempting people to explore."

"So I'm illegal from the start, because finding a sanctioned guild that would let me make stuff sounds, well, impossible. Honestly, some of the stuff I've pulled off is magic even to trained engineers... Okay, summarizing, Kyros's Peace, Overlord's Destruction - tad redundant with the peace- Archons are Boss, Adjucation, Name in Vain, Censorship, Don't Do Magic, Don't Touch The Walls. That's eight?"

"Yes, one more. Not likely to come up for you too quickly, but probably the most important for society. The Division of Harvest: Kyros has the right to allocate all food and production of any goods as he sees fit. Trade requires annual licenses and can change what you are allowed to sell at the local magistrate's whim. Taxes are a higher proportion the richer your harvest is. And a dozen other provisions about how goods are made, sold, distributed, everything. Trading with your local village is usually exempt but I don't push it, just in case."

"That one is actually relatively sensible and definitely important. I read about economic planning some, it's... Well, sidetracks. Though one imagines it ends up in corruption inevitably."

"Is it corruption if it's how it's supposed to work? I think a lot of it gets handled by Tunon's people, and they have a pretty good reputation for being hard to bribe. But I've tried to just be self-sufficient and not interact with it, I don't want to learn a whole new set of rules for tax and dole in my old age."

"I... Suppose not. Though I would consider some things that were entirely legal corruption, it's debatable sometimes.

Okay. Let me write all this down."

She has a pencil and a tiny, three inch notepad in her toolbelt. It's going to be precious and irreplaceable and she hates herself for doodling in it before she came here.

"I guess I don't have a sense for where the holes and cracks in the system are. I don't think it's viable for me to just obey the law. I refuse to live a dirt farmer's life, I probably actually cannot just mind my own business without the spark going wild eventually. There's a drive to build. I know you won't help me once I'm gone still. Are some archons and fatebinders - reasonable? Will being 'foreign' give me slack if I submit once discovered? Probably you don't already know, do you..."

"I don't. There are definitely cracks and edge cases, but you'd need to ask a Fatebinder, or maybe a Sage, what they are. You could probably do worse than Fatebinder Kohl; before the Spire, we called him the Peacebinder. He kept the deaths much lower than they might have been, with a long parley that ended in negotiated surrender. But who knows what power does to a man? He might not be reasonable anymore."

"Mmmh. Peacebinder sounds pretty good, honestly? Finding the least bad option and all..."

"Which my daughter and many other idiots went and threw in his face. But yes. Might not be a good man but he's not an awful one."

"There's a temptation to just look for what's best for me. I... Don't want to be that person. It feels bad to hurt people, in the way that some call the natural good in humanity, and some call weakness. Stupid awful wars, stupid awful bigotry and hatred, rich taking advantage of the poor and swindlers and thieves of everyone, there has to be a better way. A kinder way, that makes the future brighter. But - I don't know what that way is, and if I try to create a better way- Well, that's defying Kyros, isn't it, probably won't end well."