“Your seat of government is called the Charterhouse, is it not?” She showed more interest in the tiered tray of food than the direction of the conversation, selecting a marbled egg and a dumpling folded to look like a moonfish, shifting them to her plate. “Led by a five-member council, the Cinquerat. The way it’s described in Seteris sounds very inefficient, but my impression is that everything—trade, defense, construction, and so forth—is handled through charters granted by the council to noble houses.”
