"Yes. And those you associate with too, if less so. Though I'm not sure I'm following the more lyrical aspects of what you're saying. And I do also want to have a more thorough understanding of this before doing anything- Rash."

She nods.  "So far as I know, knowledge of sigils is transmissible.  ...What else confuses you?"

"What is a sigil, exactly. What is an archon. Who is the orphan midwife, if not literal. What empire are you talking about. That sort of thing. The more you tell me and the more it hangs together consistently, that's weak proof, at least."

He shrugs, then nicks his lower leg with a small blade. It bleeds sluggishly. "Fresh injury, test two."

And it heals!

"Mm.  Right.  My apologies.

"...I can't believe it, but I don't know the Orphan Midwife's name; that's her...title, I suppose.  The thing that - encapsulates her legend.  Except that her title for official purposes is 'Archon of Life'.  But let me explain to you the nature of Kyros's Empire, before we get into sigil theory, and the specific things I know.

"So.

"The structure of Kyros's Empire is thus:

"At the top of it is Kyros, the Overlord, who at the time of my unexpected teleportation incident had de jure if not de facto control of all the landmass Kyros knew of.  It's possible there's some other land on Terratus, Occulted Jade and her School of Tides went looking for it rather than face the Empire, but if there is it's farther than we can see.

"Beneath Kyros are Archons - individuals with a unique ability and mythos that allows them to - break the normal rules of magic, in a sense.  Cairn, the Archon of Stone, was a forty-foot-tall man-mountain.  Graven Ashe, who claimed the title of Archon of War by winning a battle against his predecessor, both bears and heals all the wounds of his loyal army.  The Frost triplets were born cold as ice, and that doesn't even get into the bit where somehow there's three of them.  That's not how it's supposed to work, but they're doing it anyway.

"Each Archon then has their own body of law, theoretically subordinate to Kyros's Law and incorporated into Kyros's Law by the law of Archon's Privilege.  ...I say theoretically because...well.  In practice Nerat - who the rumor mill would have passed on as the cannibal - got away with a lot of shit, and other Archons must have done so as well.

"This sounds like a mess, and that's because it is.  Laws will become entangled in irreconcilable conflicts whenever two Archons' domains touch, let alone when someone is facially contradicting Kyros's law.

"I served as a Fatebinder under the Archon of Justice, Tunon, who holds the right to judge those otherwise-irreconcilable conflicts - by Kyros's decree, because the right to judge and furthermore to enforce judgement is reserved to the Overlord by law - who has in turn further delegated that right to me.

"Beneath the Archons you have smaller organizations of various purposes, as well as some organizations that exist without an Archon, which is a bit of a risk because that means you can be conscripted by whoever scoops you up first.

"Oh, and I should probably go over the Laws; they tend to come up in my thought process rather often.

"Kyros's Peace, the root of the distribution system, protections against assault, right to travel and choice of profession when not conscripted...A lot of protections, really: All who bow to me shall be under my aegis.  Loyalty is freedom from hunger, hostility, and hopelessness."

Her voice has something of a strange echo to it, as she recites.  These words have weight.

"The Law of Archon's Privilege, establishing the right of Archons to declare subsidiary bodies of law so long as they do not contradict the Overlord's, and generally establishing a right to delegate power: The Archons carry my will, each in their own custom, all for my glory. Serve the Archons as you would serve the Overlord, but serve the Overlord first.

"The Right of Destruction, and the attendant corollary against self-destruction - as well as, indirectly, destruction of others not in your chain of command: Only Kyros may destroy a loyal vassal.  Trust the Overlord with the measure of your skein, and it will be glorious from the first moment to the last.  Your life is not yours to discard; the Overlord has plans for you.

"The Right of Adjudication, of which delegated - but final - exercise thereof is or was my job description, despite the fact that I was often also appointed governor of a territory and that ate into my time: If two sworn vassals shall come to an irreconcilable conflict, only the Overlord may adjudicate right from wrong, the living from the dead.

"The Balance of the Harvest, which reiterates that Kyros's Peace means what it says about the 'hunger' thing and that such will be enforced by arms if necessary, and generally serves as a backstop against theft even in the lack of specific Archonal laws: The harvest blooms and blights by the will of Kyros. In times of lean, you will be fed. In times of wealth, you will feed others. To oppose this balance is to starve your neighbor, and such thieves shall forfeit their labors.

"There's a lot of subsequent dicta about how that system is to be implemented, it's generally centrally planned, but it's dicta, not law of the Archon of Archons.

"Magician's Folly, which...mm.  I would, if I had to pick one and only one law to rewrite, rewrite this one, because it is...very much oft abused to attempt to skirt Kyros's Peace, but...well at least I hope it's meant as genuine protection from liability for accidents, rather than...ah...'accidents', such as 'Oh, no, Fatebinder, I absolutely didn't know that casting the boulder-throwing spell would throw a boulder at this person I don't like!': Those who work the powers of magic must do so with Kyros's explicit blessing. If, in the conduct of the Overlord's will, a mage inadvertently causes harm due to the unknowable perils of magic, the mage shall not be held liable if the magic was used for the glory of the Overlord.

"The prohibition upon the false use of the Overlord's Name - if I ever say something upon Kyros's name, for whatever reason, I mean it even if it kills me: The Overlord's name is not yours to give - whether to progeny, product, location or abstraction. Slander of the Overlord is punishable by death.

"And finally.  The Law of Forbidden Knowledge.  Kyros herself sets the standards of what can and cannot be known.

"It's a principle mostly used to implement a ban on researching certain things because they've gone horribly wrong before - Fatebinders are actually given specific permission to know some otherwise-forbidden knowledge, as we're more trusted - but...well.  It's not always benevolent and enforcement is pretty uniformly deadly.  There's also a more specific ban on interacting with certain structures of the ancients - the Oldwalls - that is declared as its own law, because there are specific hazards in there - but also, I hypothesize, to keep people from paying too much attention to the Spires, towers - much like those, if they were made of the stone of the city walls, rather than glass and metal -" she gestures at the city's spires in demonstration, "that are...amplifiers of magic, and serve as focus for the Overlord's Edicts - declarations of a thing that Shall Happen that then does.  Whether that's changing the seasons, darkening the sky, or killing everyone in a territory.

"...They do come with release conditions, but my understanding is that Kyros formulates them that way rather than that being a necessary element; Tunon sank a city with one once.  Sank another half of one afterwards - specifically the half with merchant barons in.  Seems like it would be useful to have here.  I...have declared two, over the course of my career, which is highly unusual.  One was intended to destroy a rogue Archon, and it is my deepest regret that I needed to use it, because - it turned a breadbasket into a craggy, underfertile mess, and Cairn isn't even properly dead for all the effort, damn him - but I didn't have enough oil of vitriol to kill Cairn outright and he was berserkering after I tried.  The other...executes the people within Vendrien's Well, should the Spire within that territory not be held by a representative of Kyros within...It's still Fourth Blood, presumptively, so...three hundred and sixty days, if time passes similarly here as there.

"Oh, I've been meaning to ask, what's your calendar like?  Kyros's calendar is three-hundred and sixty-five days long, divided into fourteen twenty-six day months - with Year's End Day left over - which are further subdivided into five five-day fists with one Kyros's Day left over - for rest - which are ordered into Warrior's, Healer's, Judge's, Farmer's, and Smith's Day."

He takes notes typing into a tablet, looking slightly exasperated. He's also recording, not that it's visible.

"I certainly don't have such a dramatic summary of this place handy. I'm sure you're picking things up, but the nastiest surprises are unknown unknowns, aren't they now? The archons were legendary figures, so they became figures worthy of legend? Kyros head of them all, the mysterious god hanging over all like a guillotine and ruling with an iron fist? I've read fantasy stories like that. The belief makes it real. Stories, of course. And our calendar's a mess left over from some ancient Emperor with attitude and cruft added on every century after that. Twelve months, either thirty or thirty one days, except for February, which can be twenty eight or twenty nine once every four years, except occasionally it's twenty eight again, and sometimes a they add or subtract a minute to the day to keep it in sync with Earth's rotation. We go by weeks, five days of work and two of 'rest', though that's never universal. It's Monday, today, start of the work week.

The belief makes it real, hmm? I'll have to think about how to study and prove that in a halfway reasonable way."

"...Hm, I wasn't even trying for drama with that.

"...even the ancient calendar wasn't that much of a mess, my goodness.  Anyway.

"Sigils have actually been derived from stories we know - that everyone knows - are false, so...Hmm.  I'm not sure how much it's the belief that makes it real, as much as...the focused weight of human attention?  And goodness knows how the Beastfolk do it; they have some sort of shamanic tradition I meant to inquire about but never found the time...Notwithstanding that Cairn - the Archon of Stone, I'm sure I've mentioned him before - did manage to teach them Sigil-casting, when he defected.

"And to say that 'belief makes it real' is an explanation of everything to do with magic - though it pretty much uncomplicatedly is, for Archons and artifacts...

"...Well, that's incorrect.

"The Sigil of Force was independently discovered by dozens of schools of magic, and behaved identically across them, to the best of my understanding.  Some schools had figured out different things, but theu'd found out the same different things.  That's not just belief, that's some underlying structure.  Though I suppose it may have been the structure of the Spires...but still, it was independent."

"You would know far more than I do what the origins of your weird physics-incompliant abilities are. I'm going to approach this as a novel application of physics- Or a novel medicine, or something."

"Physics-incompliant?  How do you mean?

"...And...Hm.  I want to see if I can teach you the spells I've been using, in the longer term.  Life and Vigor, and the various effect sigils.  You'd use them for the right reasons, and I need to figure out how possible it is in general.  My future plans vary significantly depending upon that, because I've seen no other casters here and I don't know why."

"I've never heard of any theory of fundamental physics that permits sourceless force or this - very targeted rearrangement of particles that Life represents. I want to- Ah, that counts as something you ought not know before I test it. Anyway I haven't looked at it enough to say it's complete nonsense but it is a very surprising thing given how I think the world works. Very, very surprising. I'm not opposed to learning it after bit more study. Depending on what exactly is required."

"Generally...Hmm.

"It's harder to explain than do, but the process of casting spells I know, is most like...

"You hold the story and feeling of a relevant Archon in your mind, as you reach to - a higher plane of some sort; we're not really sure - and trace the sigil.  You need both the mental state and the physical motion.

"And then there's rituals, which have that and props."

"We should head back now, I think. There's a lot to think about. Don't need to handle it all today."

"Mmm.  I suppose so, for all that I feel as though there's quite a few things that - want to be addressed before we go, still, let alone how you want me to use the capabilities I have demonstrated with the Mercy Crew."

"The problem is that you don't know and neither do I not really know how to avoid being noticed by the bigger fish in the sea, and eaten in one bite. Also I don't actually trust you. There's an don't adage of trust but verify and I'm skipping the first part."

"I've found 'looking like what they expect to see' to be usefully prophylactic, but that may well be blown, given..."  She gestures at the Bordertown, before continuing - "Well.  Everything, that's going around."

"I think you're good so far?" He starts packing up stuff. "Oddities and rumors happen fairly often. You're a weird foreigner or agent with some kind of disguise implant. A ninja, not a gold mine. Keep it that way and it's probably not an emergency. Obvious public mass healing would definitely be way too much."

"Alas, it seems my research on deriving a sigil for resurrection from the myth of this 'Jesus' fellow will have to wait until I have established myself."

"I should note that I fight using the sigils of Lightning and Force, most often, and I imagine you would know better than I what looks normal in that field.  In case I must defend myself."

"...That will look decisively unnatural. Perhaps you should find a busted shock prod down at the market to pretend to use. Most people you'll fight if you don't go looking for trouble will have terrible aim, for what it's worth."

"So no-one has a 'throw lightning' augment?  Interesting.

"...Though first I must reconsider how I fight in the wake of everyone having absurdly deadly projectile weapons in their pockets.  Ugh."

"I'm sure some do. But a shock prod or taser is much less remarkable. I can't really advise on combat tactics but GSWs are startlingly survivable."

He is mostly finished packing up and stands to head back to the car.

"Compared to javelins, I can't imagine they're less of a problem.  Though 'a catapult full of acid' is probably worse than either of those.  ...What sort of range do they act at?"

"That... Depends. Street thugs will struggle to hit anything outside of twenty, thirty yards. Pistols and shotguns- the wide barrels- Are in this category. Rifles are good to a couple hundred on the hands of someone competent. Both those go up with training, augs, and experience. Serious military hardware range is measured in miles. And it's not like armor can't stop bullets. It's just a matter of degrees. Oh, there's also grenades. Thrown. They explode on a delay. Shrapnel, stun, smoke, or incendiary."

Into the trunk his stuff goes.

"I see.  ...A yard, how long is that - in terms of my own height, perhaps?  I know what that is in Kyros's measure."  (She's kind of absurdly tall for someone from when she's from, really.  "About two" would not be wrong.)  "And your car measures miles, I believe.  Which implies frankly terrifying things about military arms."

"Why, yes, if you piss off the Army they can and will delete a postal code if they absolutely have to. Expensive, though, so they'd prefer to just shoot you with nice cheap rifle bullets. There's one thousand seven hundred and sixty yards in a mile- Three feet in a yard, twelve inches a foot- This steering wheel is about a foot and a quarter in diameter."

He gets in the car and starts buckling up.

"Oh, you have Tiers units.  I don't suppose you actually have an equivalent base ten system."