? Town of Camp Constanza: Replacement Charter, passed Town Council vote by 80%. Now initiating Resident vote.

  “Excellent,” Agent Bea said. “So! While that’s in process, let us conclude your oaths of office. I’m going to use an administrative Skill, then you will take a simple oath to govern honestly. Then I will deliver a welcome gift from the Government of Firmitatem, and ask you to take an oath to use the gift responsibly. Then we’ll wait for the Resident vote on the rules changes, and then we can all finally go to bed – except me, because I don’t get to sleep until I’m done with another chore. Is everyone ready?”

  Everyone around the circle nodded or said “ready,” even Brooke, who made an effort to sit up straight again for the first time in at least an hour. Danielle tugged down her Mana Deflector, and felt Agent Bea’s Skill wash against her, humming in questioning tones.

  “I, state your name, duly elected town council member of Camp Constanza,” Agent Bea began, pausing for everyone to recite the line, “hereby swear to perform the duties of my office with honesty and integrity,” she frowned at Jason, “and to pass on my office to my successor, if any, in a peaceful manner, according to the charter I have ratified.” Agent Bea concluded. “Again, Councilor Lehay, without the juvenile joked this time. Your term of office ends at dawn tomorrow if you fail to take oath.”

  “That wasn’t in the charter I ratified,” Jason said with a smirk.

  “It’s one of the State laws that applies to all towns, and therefore to Camp Constanza,” Ranger Bernard said. “All elected officials of the state and its subdivisional entities have until dawn the day after their votes are counted to take oath, or their election is invalidated.”

  Jason leaned back, still smirking. “Well, then that would invalidate the election for all of building seven, so – “

  “It would not. It invalidates your state of being elected, not the process by which votes were received,” Agent Bea said. “Your seat would simply sit empty for a year.”

  Danielle groaned. “We should probably fix that, next time we meet. Add a sub-paragraph about electing a new councilor to a seat that gets left empty too far before the next election.”

  “When are we meeting again?” Marc asked. “We never decided that for sure. Can I propose as a council rule, rather than a town law, that we meet monthly or when needed?”

  “How would you call the ‘when needed’ meeting?” Belle asked. “I’m not giving everyone here my room number.”

  “Oh, that’s the reason for the second oath,” Agent Bea said, bringing a cloth bag out of her satchel. “Duly sworn councilors are given a communication Skill token.”

  “Ah! Then yes, monthly or as needed,” Lithios said. “But I think we should meet next Saturday to iron out some of those little details before the official government review of the charter in two weeks – unless this counts as the review?”

  “No, I may be sent as the representative again, but I’m not the one who performs the review,” Agent Bea said. “That will be someone at the capital, working from a System-manifested copy of the charter like this one.” She waved the scroll in her hand for emphasis. “So, are you serving or exiting, Mr. Lehay?”

  “Fine, I’ll take your oath,” Jason said, his face a study in annoyance. Agent Bea promptly renewed her Skill, which seemed to annoy him even more, but he took the oath normally this time. Danielle didn’t know what he’d done last time, exactly – perhaps repeated ‘state your name’ instead of actually putting in his name?

  Once he was done with that, Agent Bea renewed her Skill again, and had them all take the same oath Danielle had taken earlier outside the Dome of Decision; only a few words were different. "I, state your name, honorably Sent Exile of Firmitatem, do swear to use the communication Skill granted to me by the state in a responsible manner, for the state and organization or organizations that have raised me to leadership, and not for petty harassment or any illegal activity." Jason looked downright sullen after the last line. Everyone else, however, was looking pretty excited – well, except Brooke, who was back to looking like she was ready to fall asleep at any moment. Even Danielle was a little excited to complete the last part of her token trading and get the last promised token.

  Agent Bea went around the circle, individually handing a token to each person, starting from Vanessa and ending at Danielle. She got to watch as each person read the token and realized that they were getting the Skill the Rangers kept waking people up with. Marc’s conflicted face was priceless, as was Zephyr’s. Sirocco, by contrast, was just plain delighted, and pumped a fist in the air with an excited, “Yes!” Ember actually laughed. Lithios and Arabella both managed to give off an air of receiving their just deserts.

  Jason took the token and seemed to be trying to – Danielle wasn’t sure. Break it? Will it to absorb? He finally asked, “How do we get it out of the token?”

  “You take it to the Access Point,” Ranger Bernard told him.

  Jason looked like he was about the throw the token at the Ranger, then thought better of it; his face reddening with fury. “We’re not allowed to go to the Access Point, stinkhole,” he said.

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  “You are allowed to go to any access point outside the fence, Mr. Lehay,” Agent Bea said. “There’s one a half hour’s hike due north of here. Well, maybe up to two hours at your level.”

  “The one with the ‘obvious’ path you ‘can’t miss’ but nobody can find?!” Jason ground out, lurching to his feet with his hands fisted.

  Lithios, on the other end of the circle, added, “My circle of friends has looked too, and we can’t find it either.”

  “What’re you talking about, Lithie?” Brooke asked tiredly. “I was jus’ there. That’s why I was away from camp when the election message came.”

  “Don’t call me – wait, you mean you were at the Access Point? Not just the path?” Lithios asked.

  “Yeah. Buncha people went. Was like forty people. Zephyr too!” Brooke said

  Lithios turned to give Zephyr a disbelieving look.

  “Why did you think I got back to town so late? I went to the Access Point with the big group, got a new Career and confirmed my unlocks, and did some hunting on the way back,” Zephyr told him.

  “I thought you were just dodging the court, as usual,” Lithios said. “You can show the rest of us the way, then?”

  Zephyr snorted. “All anyone had to do was widen the search area a little. It really is just ‘follow the road north and keep going north.’ There was a tree down across the path at one point, but we cut out the section blocking the path, so that’s not even an issue anymore. Just go north until you find the path, and keep left when it forks around the pond. Left again at the log, so you don’t just come all the way back around the pond to where you started. That’s it. We camped overnight, but it could be a day trip, easy, now that the path is confirmed.”

  Ranger Bernard laughed. “Day trip? If you jog a little, you can do it in two hours, like the lady said. One hour round trip, if you have some Speed Improvement!”

  Gideon chuckled. “Yeah, well, the group didn’t know that starting out. We were afraid it might take a while just to find the path. Then we were waiting for everyone to cycle through the Access Point itself, so that took a while considering there were forty of us and only one pillar. ANYway, are we agreed that we can use one of the little buildings as a council hall and another as a courthouse?”

  “We can arrange for that. Which two do you want?” Agent Bea asked.

  “Let’s use the one between buildings five and six for the council hall,” Ember proposed. “It’s the only one that connects to two inhabited buildings, so far.”

  “We can put the courthouse between seven and eight, then,” Marc said. “So people on our side of the street don’t feel left out or whatever.”

  “That works,” Agent Bea said. “Does anyone want to offer opposition to those choices?”

  Nobody spoke up, so the agent nodded and pulled out her data pad to make a note. “We’ll have to do a little cleanup, but they should be open to you by next Saturday,” she said. “We’ll be back to handle the votes for the non-council positions at the end of the Summer Fair, as per the charter. Until then, you – oh! Excellent, charter ratified,” the agent said, interrupting herself to acknowledge the System message.

  Danielle was gratified to see that the new charter had passed by 59%, a significant improvement from the first time. Had some people voted against the original charter in hope of forcing them to stay and make a better one? Either way, she was feeling a lot better about the town laws now.

  She was not, however, feeling a lot better physically. Her head was pounding, and she was starting to feel just a little bit light-headed again. She got the neglected juice box out of the paper bag, where it was waiting for later with the special cheese, and started drinking it – it had helped last time. She also switched her active mana pool again, barely hearing Agent Bea saying something about having a good week and remembering to take care of their own needs between sessions taking care of the town’s needs.

  The little speech she was ignoring must have been a dismissal, though, because when Agent Bea got done talking, the meeting broke up. The Systemists all went off together, Ember and Sirocco supporting a slightly unsteady Brooke while Belle talked a mile a minute at Lithios. Jason took his token and jogged straight back to his room. Marc headed for building six, presumably to check in with his hunting party.

  The other Shade Tree Society members gathered in front of the tables, talking excitedly – making plans to get to the Access Point with their tokens, Danielle gathered as she stood swaying just to the side of the group. A Now Hear This message directed at “all residents of the Town of Camp Constanza” came and announced the members of the town council. A moment later, Danielle felt the prod of a Skill bouncing off her Mana Deflector and looked around to see Agent Bea giving her a significant look.

  Oh – right, she needed to trade tokens. She really was getting tired.

  Danielle approached her, palming the token in her pocket. “Um, Agent Bea? I think I might’ve gotten the wrong token,” she said, approaching the table. The other green-uniformed agent gave Danielle a skeptical look. “It says Alter Tag, and everyone else’s said Now Hear This?” Danielle said, trying to sound confused.

  “Ah, is that what happened?” Agent Bea said smoothly. “I noticed there was one more token in the bag than expected, but I didn’t realize how it came about. Here, this is the one meant for you.” She pulled a token out of her pocket and handed it over, smoothly taking Danielle’s extra Now Hear This in the same motion.

  Danielle glanced at the new token; it was Alter Tag, as promised. “Thanks, that makes a lot more sense,” she said. “It sounds like the Society will be hiking out to use these on Monday.”

  “Well, don’t overdo it,” Agent Bea said. “You look like you could use some rest. Oh, and don’t forget to take your emergency radios – remember, Now Hear This only works for people lower than or equal to your rank in your organization, short of some complicated administrative manipulation to authorize upward messages. You can’t call on the Rangers or the Authority with it – heh, not yet anyway. Maybe someday.”

  Danielle laughed, then frowned and looked around for Ranger Flo. She didn’t seem to be there – the catalog question tables were obviously in the process of packing up, with Agent Bea’s table evidently going last. Danielle looked back at Agent Bea. “You, me, and Healer Flo should make a little communication org,” she said. “Just for, you know, official business like this afternoon.”

  Agent Bea raised her eyebrows. “That’s not a half-bad idea,” she said, “but Flo and I will actually have to get special permission from our respective superiors to do it. I’ll get the requests put in, and if all goes well, we can set that up on catalog orders day, in two weeks. OK?”

  “Ah, OK,” Danielle said. “I guess I’ll see you then. I’m gonna go sleep for twelve hours now, I think.

  Agent Bea laughed. “Sleep well, then!”

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