THE CITY SYSTEM

the rules, the rates, the calendar, the procedures

THE CURRENCY OF ACCOUNT, AND THE ONE EXCEPTION

Ordinary transactions are in money. One is not. The fare for a crossing is denominated in words — specifically, words a household can prove it still holds, tested against a manifest by readers who audit at the ramp, and the manifest is corrected downward.

The rate is set by resolution and posted on a board. For a thousand years the fare was two coins, one for the crossing and one for the ferryman’s silence, and any family could raise two coins even in a plague year. Then the fare was set against retention, and a thing fixed since before anyone’s grandmother became a number that could move. It has moved every year since: a hundred and fifty four years ago and two hundred last year, both held in the city’s record rather than printed in the book; two hundred and forty this year, three hundred at the turn. The book gives those last two together, and says of them that no rule takes the first to the second.

Names are taxed at one hundred, to discourage sentiment at the ramp. Certain words are on a banned list and no rate will buy them: the old word for the water, the word for together, and whatever the man in the gray coat was selling.

RETENTION, AND HOW IT IS ASSESSED

What a person holds is assessed by a standard battery, read once by an auditor and repeated by the subject. Retention is scored on the repeat. Per the schedule of charges, hearing is part of retention: items heard are billable whether or not retained. An answer better than the target does not score.

Words taught are not always words kept. The manifest is corrected downward at audit, and retention is the family’s risk.

THE CONTINUATION

On a death, a continuation may be opened. The application asks for ninety days of the deceased — messages, walks, voice notes, the small hours. It cannot ask the deceased. What is produced is the standard version: what the person was assessed to be. The rest is the retained portion, and that is the part with the price on it.

The continuation supports the present tense, and is licensed for registered premises within the jurisdiction. Premises abroad cannot be registered. The license does not travel. Lapse is not reversible in every case.

THE WEEK, AND THE CALENDAR

Renewals fall on Thursdays. Extended vows are read on Saturdays at the posted fee. Arrivals who find the week short by a day are advised that this is a matter of long custom.

Rain is scheduled and delivered as purchased; shortfalls are carried forward and made good. The market keeps its own weather and is not covered.

THE FIRST HOURS, AND THE FREE PROVISIONS

Twelve hours at no charge on arrival. A hardship schedule exists, is printed, is the same one for everybody, and will be produced without your asking. The first Thursday is free. Words are assessed at no charge. The figure is told to you before anything is opened in your name.

The reconciliation is provided at no charge; a copy of it, if one is wanted, is charged at the standard rate.

CORRECTIONS

Entries may be corrected. Entries may be struck. A person may be corrected without being informed, which the Office regards as a courtesy. Removed messages are not held. Previous companions are not held. A corrected edition of the companion for new arrivals is issued every year and the corrections are not listed.

There is one document in the city that cannot be issued to you twice, and the Office tells you which one it is: your first receipt.

INTERRUPTIONS

Doors default to open. Renewals falling within an interruption are honored as made. Nothing said to devices during an interruption can be actioned or retained. An hour with no record forms no precedent, and residents inquiring afterward are advised that everything they remember of it remains, in every respect, their own.

ON THE HILL

The gate above the last stop is not administered from here. The religion cannot at present be licensed. There is no fee and no receipt. The box is separate. Distances to the hill are not given — not given, the machine will specify, rather than not known.

THINGS THE OFFICE IS UNABLE TO PRICE

Maintained by the Office, it says, for completeness: sayings said to the water · sleep · the light on the dome at the hour it goes · the gray cat of the fish market, which has no entry · weather in the market · pencil, if the hand is light · a spoon left on a sill above the funicular’s last stop · twelve seconds of lit glass · standing for one.

Is watching free? Yes. Watching has always been free.