"Sewing machine?"

"-Wouldn't be too too hard. Mostly a lot of fussing with really precise steel parts. I mean, I remember the key insight and the Spark will help me cheat the rest. I cannot emphasize enough how much I'm cheating. This stuff would have been the work of weeks or months and the plant and Shroomy wouldn't be possible at all without it. Anyway... You- Put two lines of thread in and there's a thing that goes back and forth to weave a stitch really fast, it's... Needle pulls top thread down, shuttle goes through the loop pulling bottom thread, needle pulls top thread back up, shuttle goes back to starting position. You use a foot pedal to drive the needle, and it does about a few hundred stiches a minute."

"Wow."

"This is the kind of thing I mean by automation!"

"...Unseen Servant is a spell. It can maybe thread your wire. Tomorrow."

"Ooh, Unseen Servant? I've never heard of that. What does it do?"

"...slave things." It's hard to be complete like this.

"Many different- Sorry, no Tongues, just Comprehend, right."

Nod. "Just Comprehend. Tomorrow, Unseen Servant."

"It will be interesting!"

Nod nod. And off she goes.

She's been taking more walks, still 'guarded' by Shroomy, in the nearby caves. It's not helping her feel less itchy and restless anymore.

...Okay, what she's feeling, she's pretty sure, isn't 'cramped', but 'lonely'. Hrm. A harder problem.

When her mood gets bad enough, the Spark is meaner. She'll have to mention it tomorrow.

Belmarniss is back again with shopped swag and more food. She has scored some dried fish and some salt-cured pork with the strawberry proceeds.

"Hi. Ooh, yummy! Uh- I think I'm getting... Lonely. I'd be tempted to ignore it but, uh, my mental health is actually a going concern considering if I snap the Spark'll try to build a death ray."

"Uh..." Belmarniss looks down at herself.

"I'm used to the noise and bustle of a city. I only see you every day now. I mean, I don't need to have - substantial conversations with people, but-" She makes a vague gesture. "I don't know. Whatever."

"Mm. Come shopping?"

"Yeah, that'd be nice. Also, prestidigitation please, and thank you. I'll go pick the strawberries..."

There's eighteen, today, but several of them are small.

Belmarniss prestidigitates her and holds out the bag for the strawberries, and leads Waltana through the maze of tunnels into the city. She sells the berries at a fancy produce stall, which also has potatoes and cabbages and rhubarb and some herbs, and shows Waltana how much silver she gets for them.

She knows enough Drow to catch the occasional word. It's busy here. A nice bustle. For all that it's still a tense, dark cave... She's not exactly relaxed, but definitely something better than before.

"Good stuff. Hrm, I could really go for sliced potato fried in oil. It crisps up really nice. Maybe some other time."

"Some other time," echoes Belmarniss, giggling. Anything else in the shops catch Waltana's eye?

Nothing and everything. She's enjoying the chance to walk around and ask questions (-Is that a usual price, how often do you see those around here-). Fabric. Scrap steel.

"Have you considered trying to sell quicklime or is it not really worth the effort? You've seen the whitewashed walls in the workshop."

"When you talk more, you can say, this is quicklime, it does this this this, I am an alchemist and I know. I say, this is quicklime, an alchemist made it, what is it for, I don't know, nobody wants it."

"It's mostly for-"

She catches herself and shakes her head.

"Ah, whatever."

"When you talk more. We can get a shop like these shops and you can explain."