"There pretty much aren't any that you have to observe with demons or their cultists, but there are some that touch on them tangentially, like the fact that you can't send any 'spawn or servants of the abyss' into any signatory's territory without their knowledge and consent.

"As for what you have to observe with your fellows... you can't attack people fighting at the wound unless it's self defense, and you'll get in trouble if it's ambiguous or turns out not to be self defense later. You can deny them entry to your fortresses and encampments if they're a security risk, but we do have to supply them with food and water if they need it as long as they aren't lingering, which has a technical definition in the treaty but it mostly means what it sounds like. You can't fight people who are operating at the wound while they're doing things related to their operations, such as preparing spells or scrying on demons or buying gear, even if they're not currently at the worldwound. There are also some provisions about when you do have to come to your fellows' aid but there's a lot of leeway for judgment calls relating to the risk being too high, it's not a suicide pact. I can get you a copy of the text but it's not meant to be the kind of document everyone has to memorize in order to comply with."

"I definitely want a copy of the text, thank you." She's probably going to memorize it just to be on the safe side, because she has the best headband, and possibly keep a copy in tiny print on her feet or something, because why not. "Does it count as sending spawn of the Abyss somewhere if they rout in an inconvenient direction and my army gives chase and they end up in someone else's territory by mistake? Or does that only refer to territory outside the Wardstone barrier?"

"Mostly the latter, but if you end up chasing demons into someone else's camp and they get overrun that would run afoul of other sections of the treaty."

"Well, it was already important that I not do that so I guess it's good that there's a treaty provision to make sure I pay attention. I guess the details of how to prevent it are more Baroness Gaunther's area, though. Oh, did taking this job make me a citizen of Mendev or a member of the Mendevian government or anything? Are there things I need to do about it if so?" If Mendev has an income tax she will need to find out what kinds of accounting maneuvers Fiducia Rathimus is allowed to help with.

"A 'citizen'...oh, like in the Galtan sense. No, not from being knight commander, though if you swore an oath of fealty that would come with certain privileges and duties. You'll have to follow Mendevian laws on Mendevian land and ambiguously while on a Mendevian crusade, but it shouldn't involve any orders outside of your role as knight commander and no lasting obligations once the crusade is over unless you seek them out. Military service like this is a traditional way for adventurers to enter the nobility but it's not required."

"Makes sense. I would prefer to avoid any permanent entanglements. I should read the laws of Mendev at some point as well; would you be able to get me a copy?"

"As far as I'm aware no such document exists for you to get a copy of, but you might want to check with a barrister to be sure."

Blink. "Is it multiple documents for different topics?" That would make sense; if you had all the US laws in a single document you'd probably need a forklift to move it around. Somehow she suspects the truth is odder than that. Maybe the barristers all memorize parts of it and you have to check with one whenever you're planning something that might be illegal. That probably isn't the answer but it might be the right degree of odd.

"Nothing so neat, though the varying issuers of local and religious and state and customary laws is part of it. There's just not a repository for every law in Mendev, particularly if you include ones not being actively enforced."

Oh dear. "Does saying 'if I say I plan to do something that you happen to know is illegal, let me know and I won't do it' sound like as insufficient and doomed of a strategy to you as it does to me?"

"If I'm being honest, it doesn't sound very doomed at all. it's not foolproof, but the laws people don't know are mostly also the laws that don't really get enforced. The fact that you're the knight commander will help as well when it comes to people not wanting to try it - that wouldn't save you if you were consorting with demons or committing treason, but most of the crimes you could manage by accident would be fine."

Brenda is pretty sure that on Earth adults doing serious military and government things have access to all the relevant laws and also lawyers to help with understanding them, but maybe that's a modern technology thing. "Okay. Uh, let me know if it looks like I'm planning to do something illegal, I guess. Is there anything that's illegal--or just considered really rude--in Mendev that's fine in other countries? If I'm going to mess up that's probably where."

"There are a lot of things that are more harshly punished in Mendev, but most of them are things that are already illegal or discouraged elsewhere. The most obvious exceptions are that the lines around necromancy, defeatism, and consorting with demons are much more widely drawn, such that even an ordinary wizard binding demons to their service would likely still be arrested and tried. There are also obviously differences with specific countries, like Mendev forbidding the murdering of babies unlike Cheliax, or worship of Norgorber being illegal unlike in Absalom, but I don't think any of those are the kind of things someone would expect to be legal by default. Some kinds of publications, perhaps?"

"Where I grew up, nearly all publications were legal," she says with a note of wistfulness and pride, "so I definitely need clarification on which kinds are illegal here. Also, what does it mean for defeatism to be illegal?" She isn't sure whether 'murdering babies' means abortion or infanticide, but that's not going to come up in the process of Knight-Commandering especially since she has Planned Parenthood.

"The big ones are inciting people to crime, aiding in the execution of other crimes, blasphemy, lese majesty, and slander - you'll run into a few other edge cases here and there if a particularly onerous censor tries their luck, but nothing that would stick to you while you're the knight commander. Slander is similarly unlikely to be an issue unless it's at least two of blatantly false, very damaging, and to someone sufficiently important. The other four still are still potential issues, though. As for defeatism... that's the one that's mostly your tool. It covers people advocating for surrender, cowardice that doesn't rise to the level of desertion, opposition to drafting and requisitions, and so forth, as well as anything related you can swing it to."

She has to make an effort not to scowl about blasphemy and lese majesty--for about two seconds, before she's thoroughly distracted by the defeatism thing. It doesn't sound like her tool. It sounds like another opportunity for Captain Harmattan to persuade her to do things that make her feel sick. She had been hoping to offer high enough wages that she'd get a lot of volunteers and make the conscripts feel vaguely okay or at least like it could be worse. But she's never going to find out if she's succeeded at that, is she, because if people don't complain it'll be because they expect complaining to be illegal. Keeping her face neutral was a lost cause. 

Friends in Places reminds her that Nurah didn't write any of these laws and is just the messenger. "I appreciate the explanation. I'm going to need to do some thinking."

If Nurah sees this internal struggle, she gives no sign. 

“Of course. Don’t let me keep you, then.

"If there's anything you need from me to help with your work, don't hesitate to ask."

She's going to go find Nenio. Because there are important things for them to talk about and because she wants to.

Nenio is extremely findable! Not because she is still where Brenda last met her, but because - especially now that she regularly goes around looking like a kitsune - everyone vaguely nearby knows exactly who Brenda means and which direction to head. Said girl can be currently found staring intensely at a very precisely balanced set of scales.

Brenda is now also staring at the scales trying to infer what's so interesting about them!

To detect magic there's obviously a spell affecting exactly one of the weights, but it doesn't seem to be doing anything, and when it fades about a minute later the balance is still unnaffected.

"Another negative result," Nenio mutters, her pencil scribbling into a notebook, before she catches sight of Brenda out of the corner of her eye. "Oh, there you are. Hello Brenda!"

"Hi Nenio! What's the experiment? Are you trying to prestidigitate something lighter or heavier?"

"Yes! Lighter, primarily, but if I could manage it heavier was next. I found a book recently whose author purported to have a number of alternate uses for prestidigitation, including making small objects weigh less or even levitate, but I haven't managed to recreate any of them - even when using their claimed methodology. Making permanent color changes is already out, but I still have to try using it to alter an object's scent."

"Ooh. I'd expect heavier to be easier than lighter because temporarily adding something seems easier than temporarily removing something, but there are other approaches that I'd expect to be equally easy in either direction. If it does tastes it should definitely do scents unless the tastes are touch-range illusions. Can I try some things?" If permitted she will make a few attempts to prestidigitate one of the weights lighter by holding in mind that she specifically wants to flatten out the distortion it's causing in spacetime. 

"Certainly! Just make sure to record what you try."