Two and a half hours into the meeting, about eight o’clock, Agent Bea came to the tent flap and loudly said, “Knock, knock!”

  Jason grinned and responded as if it was a knock-knock joke, calling “Who’s there?” in a borderline sing-song tone.

  Agent Bea ignored him, and said, “Ranger Piper, how long is this going to go? I was expecting to be administering oaths an hour or more ago! We need to make the camp-wide announcement, too.”

  “Oh, ah, sorry – the councilors waded straight into the ‘lack of actual laws’ problem, and we’re making good progress, so I didn’t want to interrupt,” the Ranger told her.

  “While I am delighted to hear that, I still do need to get the administrative parts taken care of,” Agent Bea said. “Can you take a break now?”

  “We can do oaths and announcements now, but, um. I’m afraid we’ve barely touched the part of the charter you need to personally be here to ratify,” Agent Bernard said, his face going a bit red. “Um, come on in?”

  Agent Bea ducked into the tent, glanced at Danielle’s “presentation slide,” and looked around the circle. “How have you gone this long without covering the very first things we ask new councils to start on?” she asked.

  “We kind of jumped from ‘where do we meet’ to ‘do we need a courthouse’ straight to ‘definition of slander,’ and got into the laws from there,” Danielle said. “What were we supposed to cover that we didn’t?”

  “Length of service for councilors, how legal infractions are addressed, and any other elected offices that need to be filled when we come back for Summer Fair, catalog edition,” Agent Bea said.

  “Oh – right, so the whole courthouse question is relevant,” Danielle said. “Fortunately, we’ve resolved the question of whether we need a court. All the laws we currently have drafted include instructions to judges, so clearly we need to elect judges and operate a court.”

  “That does follow from the existence of default penalty clauses,” Sirocco agreed. “I think we should make every other week a court session, and focus on other governance issues on the alternate weeks.”

  “Are you sure you really want the whole council to sit as judges for every single case?” Arabella asked.

  “I don’t want to,” Brooke said. “I’m tired.”

  “We should elect judges separately,” Gideon said. “More than one though – maybe a panel of three, with an alternate who can step in if one of the main three is connected to the case or the people bringing the case, so there’s not accusations of favoritism.”

  “It seems to me that just using the Court – or the council, I suppose – would solve that problem,” Lithios said.

  “Um, Lithios, literally half of us are from one political party,” Zephyr pointed out. “And nearly half of us are from not just a single religion, but the local leadership council of that religion. With almost no overlap. We’re not exactly a balanced and unbiased group, and if one of us had to step aside because of personal connections, there’s a fair chance half the council would have to go with him. Also? There’s a Wolf. Let’s elect judges separately, please.”

  Agent Bea said, “Council vote: all in favor of electing judges separate from the council, indicate by raising a hand.”

  The vote, unfortunately, was split right down the middle; Zephyr, Gideon, Peter, Marc, Arabella, Cassy, and Danielle voted for separate judges while Lithios, Belle, Ember, Sirocco, Jason, Vanessa, and Sarah all voted to have the council act as the court.

  “Someone didn’t vote,” Vanessa pointed out. “We have an odd number, we can’t tie if everyone votes.”

  “I vote ‘I’m tired,’ and I don’t want to be a judge,” Brooke said.

  “That’s eight in favor of separate judges then?” Agent Bea asked.

  Ranger Bernard frowned. “I think so.”

  “Brooke!” Belle protested.

  “The councilor has the right to vote her own conscience, same as you do, young lady,” Agent Bea said disapprovingly.

  “Can we agree on three judges, then?” Danielle said. “I know some of us might theoretically prefer six, but that seems like an overly large number for a single court and also has the ‘even number of votes’ problem.”

  “Three primaries and three alternates,” Zephyr proposed. “Six altogether. If the court gets overwhelmed with cases, the three alternates form a second – what’s it called. Bench?”

  “Oh, that’s a good idea,” Danielle said. She checked that the text in her illusion was properly saved to her Planner, then changed the slide to read “Administrative Laws” at the top, and started a new basic list. Belle started an argument with Agent Bea over council voting procedures, which Danielle ignored in favor of coming up with a solid starting set of six rules:

  ? Town Council members are elected for one year, immediately before each Summer Fair.

  ? Town Council members have term limits (details go here)

  ? Three Active and three Backup judges are elected for one year, immediately before each Summer Fair.

  ? If the court is overwhelmed with cases, Backup Judges form a second bench to speed things up.

  ? Another rule goes here – election committee?

  ? Rule for voters with multiple rooms, org-controlled rooms, etc.

  Everyone except Belle, Vanessa, Brooke, and Agent Bea was shortly reading over the list. Vanessa seemed to have run out of mana, or at least mana she was willing to waste on Danielle’s newly disruption-resistant illusions; Brooke seemed half-asleep, slouched forward with her elbows on her knees. Lithios read the slide carefully, then interrupted Belle’s argument to ask, “Why only one year?”

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  “Half the camp thinks they’ll be inside next year,” Danielle said. “Either they actually will be Inside by the next election, or they’ll be thinking about the whole Sending in a radically different way. Similarly, I think most of us have important plans regarding higher-tier Classes and so forth; who knows what kind of people we’ll even be a year from now? Not us! Have you even met a level 4 Element Shaper? What about level five? We’re in a situation where the only thing we can be sure of is that change is coming. We shouldn’t try to lock things in for too long of a term.”

  “My grandfather is a level 4 element shaper,” Lithios said. “He always says that stability is key to making people feel safe.”

  “Plan to win the next election, then,” Peter said. “If we do a good job for the town, they’ll choose us again because stability makes them feel safe.”

  “Let’s ditch term limits, then,” Sirocco said. “They force a shake-up, instead of supporting stability. Besides, it doesn’t even say what the limit should be.”

  “I was thinking a longer time, like three or four years,” Danielle said. “Maybe with an option to come back after someone else has finished their term limits.”

  “Oh! We could make it so you can come back sooner if you leave sooner,” Zephyr said. “Like, say weekly council meetings make it hard for us to collect and preserve enough food for winter and work on our Systems how we really want to, and there’s a shakeup in the court of the elements; and say the loser then drops out of the council voluntarily to focus on his or her System for a year, and regains best/highest/most status; then they could come back the third year, because the downtime is only a year if the service time is only a year.”

  “Hm. That has possibilities,” Gideon said, eyeing Peter. “People could even alternate years as candidates, so their party always has a candidate people know, but nobody’s spending every single year doing the public service thing instead of working on their level. Dynamic stability, if the two candidates keep winning each other’s seats every year.”

  “Is it really a limit if they can come back as often as they want?” Sarah asked.

  “It keeps things moving,” Marc said. “Nobody’s just always in charge, even if some of the seats do end up having two people who just trade it back and forth. Anyway, the ultimate term limit here is basically five terms, right? Because in ten years, anyone that is even trying should be back Inside.”

  “We don’t require Sent to move from the Rooms to other towns until it’s been twelve years, or until the population falls below 64 people,” Agent Bea put in. “So the maximum number of terms under the system you’re proposing here would be six one-year sittings, although reaching a sixth term would require someone to stay outside for eleven – well, hm. It would be at least nine years, if they were on this year’s council. Ten or more if they start next year or the year after.”

  Danielle updated the term limits point with the proposed rule, and Vanessa promptly objected to the wording. The group barely managed to reach a consensus on the wording before Danielle’s Skill had to be refreshed. Then there was a fifteen minute argument over the question of whether building representatives could be voted on by System orgs at all, or people who had rooms in more than one building at all. (“Who would even do that? The whole question is stupid!” Vanessa declared.) Fortunately for Danielle, the Systemists wanted an org room for their political party, and supported the suggestion that the room should be able to cast a vote in a building election. They did most of the work for her in arguing that point, and the conclusion was that whoever was listed as the owner of the room got a vote – up to four individuals, or one sys-org; but sys-orgs didn’t get four votes (let alone one for every org member).

  After that, Agent Bea checked the time, and pushed hard for the fifth point to come out as “Each occupied building with enough residents to elect a council member shall also elect a member of an election committee, said election taking place at the same time as the election of judges. Election committee members will work with the Sending Authority, Rangers, and Government of Firmitatem to run future elections in the town and their district (building).” Danielle didn’t have any problem with that, and quietly kept the illusion going while Agent Bea successfully maneuvered the rest of the council into accepting it. She was starting to feel almost as tired as Brooke looked.

  It was nearly nine o’clock when Agent Bea asked Danielle to display the new charter as discussed. “I’m sorry, I can’t – my pool’s empty,” Danielle said. She had a few points regenerated in her other pool, but she was worried that she’d used too much mana to account for as it was. “I can read it out from my Planner, though. I’ve been copying everything down in there so I don’t forget stuff when I have to ‘change slides,’ so I’ve got a complete version there.”

  “Ah, of course. Planner is a useful Trait that way,” Agent Bea said. “Go ahead and read it out.”

  Danielle read it out, adding headings for “Section 1: Safety Laws” and “Section 2: Governance Laws” and ending with one more line: “These laws shall apply to all residents of Camp Constanza, regardless of their location, beginning this sixteenth day of June, 2237. No infractions prior to this date shall be considered in court. This replaces the previous charter, dated June the second.”

  “Let’s just make that the seventeenth – today is almost over, after all,” Agent Bea said. “All right. May I add the part of the original charter regarding voting districts and how laws are made and altered?”

  “Oh, yeah, the whole council vote / general vote thing? That works for me,” Marc said.

  “I second the motion to add the original rules regarding the adding or changing of laws,” Arabella agreed.

  “I also second it,” Brooke said. “We can add some rules for the judges next time.”

  “All right.” Agent Bea held out her hand, and to Danielle’s amazement, a roll of paper appeared there a few moments later. “This is the charter, as read out by Councilor Falconer, with the following amendments: the notice regarding date of effect was moved to the top and the date was changed to June seventeenth (from June sixteenth). The original charter’s paragraphs regarding district definitions and direct System votes for legal changes have been added below the date-of-effect notice and Section 1. That is all. Will a member of the council please initiate the System vote of the council to ratify this charter, replacing the previous charter of the town of Camp Constanza?”

  There was a long pause, then Cassy said, “As a duly elected member of the town council of Camp Constanza, in the presence of the full council and representatives of the Government of Firmitatem, I call for a System vote of the council to ratify this town charter as presented by the Sending Authority representative, replacing the previous town charter.”

  The System message came up in Danielle’s interface, asking her to Ratify or Reject “the replacement town charter for the Town of Camp Constanza.” Danielle chose Ratify with barely a second thought, and watched faces around the oval. Jason looked frustrated, and seemed to have already voted before she turned her attention to him. Vanessa seemed conflicted. Brooke looked exhausted, and relieved to be done. Ember was less exhausted, but also seemed relieved. Lithios was doing a pretty good stone-face, but she thought he was feeling conflicted too. Belle had voted fast, and seemed to be pouting for some reason. She couldn’t read Sirocco. Peter, Gideon, and Zephyr wore remarkably similar looks of tired satisfaction. Marc still mostly looked determined; she wasn’t sure what was going through his head. She couldn’t see Arabelle properly, but Sarah looked pleased with her vote.

  The System interrupted Danielle’s musings on her fellow councilors to announce “Town of Camp Constanza: Replacement Charter, passed Town Council vote by 80%. Now initiating Resident vote.”

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