"My powers aren't expensive at all, if there's more you'd like to see."

"Uh, if you're - skeptical about the precogs that might actually be a priority to set something up to demonstrate it? Because by default we'll hear from them if anybody, especially a local since you have souls, is going to die, and I could imagine that being suspicious if we suddenly had instructions we were treating with lethal urgency and you didn't think the precogs worked," says Nelen.

"- People die quite often," she points out. "Then they come back."

"Yes, I'm really glad you guys have reincarnations catching you, but presumably it's still pretty unpleasant for everyone involved if - I don't know, a volcano erupts?"

"Oh yes," she says. "Preventing catastrophes is one of the things we're for."

"Right. So we'd get word of that sort of thing. Is predicting a number you'll say the kind of thing you'd like predicted?"

"How much does the cost scale with prediction complexity?"

"A bit. Since there's teams like ours all over your planet, and we'd all be using the same channel, we'd usually get our standard 'all okay' reports compressed together and then unpacked - sort of like multiplying a bunch of prime numbers. But we have plenty of slack for things like this, so really we're constrained on message length - longer messages will take longer for the precogs to register and relay. So you can ask for a very complicated prediction as long as it can be described concisely."

So, the problem is that there are other powers that are cheaper than precognition that they could use to fake this. In order for that not to be the case...

"Price of the top five goods at the Exchange in Mir multiplied together at the fourteenth hour."

... It needs to be something that is unknown in spite of competent people trying very hard to predict it until then.

"I'll send a runner over now who can report back to me what the prices are," and then she can do the math when that hits.

"Sure. For clean results you should assign the runner and then not communicate with them or the market till the message is back, otherwise the prediction could affect the result in a way it couldn't anticipate."

"Of course. If you can have someone do a quick demonstration of matter creation that would also help," she says. "Can you drop -" she considers what is economically nondisruptive "- a fifty ton* cube of carbon steel** cube on the experimental landing pad in Tormynon House?"

(*: Approximate unit of measure.)

(**: They don't quite categorize metal alloys the way English does, and "carbon steel" is not a uniquely distinct default for all steels.)

Rissimer will go out and make sure somebody's watching and nobody's surprised.

"Sure - Cassiel's not that fast about it but that's an easy enough to spot target that probably someone can do it from space." He taps on his computer and a minute later: big ol' chunk of steel.

He gives her a metaphorical thumbs-up.

"- Thank you." Runner sent?

You got it.

"And the precog report says..." Nelen rattles off some numbers, drawing them as illusions in the air so people don't have to look over his shoulder to see the message.

Mirimer will take notes! She's impressed by how instantaneous the message is; fast communication isn't something their magic is good at, telegraphs aside. (Assuming it is coming from elsewhere.)

Ari will also write it down! It unfortunately looks as if there may be the kind of power differential she was initially worried about, which leaves her in a position she hasn't been since she was, what, in her twenties? Thirties? And nowhere near this bad. Still, they ended up overthrowing every king on the zone, so...

"So is there a unified justice system for your federation, or is that handled at the member level?"

"Some of both. It's a membership requirement that states within Vanda Nossëo have and enforce uniform rules against murder, rape, and torture, and that nobody be prevented from leaving, but if a state is handling that on its own and doesn't want help it doesn't necessarily need help, except insofar as an accused person can also leave if they want to try their luck at the federal level instead."

She nods. "We'll want the Ministry of Justice to go over your definitions of these with one of your embassies, but all these things are illegal in Mir. An accused person - has choice of exile over all other punishments?" 

"Yes, that's about the size of it."

"Even if they are a danger to others?"

"A lot of places won't let them in if they're a danger to others, and if they've got magic that would let them enter such a place without help they might get locked up, but there are places that make it a point of pride to accept exiles even at some risk."

Well, then they aren't going to be joining Vanda Nosseo.