"Rodney?"

"The zippers are made with a proprietary process, with enough time I could probably figure it out and if the Dwarves are good enough at material science they might be able to as well. Like Sheppard said though they're not entirely reliable. They're sufficient for rain, even heavy rain, or brief dips but prolonged submersion will eventually mean water gets through."

"If it's not metal, they won't be quite as expert, but unusual alloys or oils they know quite a lot. Karak Kadrin has a relatively new canal, too, and their river engineers might know more. But mostly there's a lot of work for them in damp tunnels, especially re-excavation, and I think I heard once that they need very fancy tricks to keep their powder dry for their defensive measures."

"If it's specifically for keeping gunpowder dry, I expect we have ideas they would find useful. If they're good at precision manufacturing. A lot of our stranger materials are ultimately the result of using unusual oils or oils processed in unusual ways."

Oh good Rodney didn't explain how their rounds are made.

"They don't exactly manufacture, the way humans do it. Virtually everything is handcrafted, and the rest is made with personally-handcrafted tools. And I think only rarely, like for bullets they're going to sell to us, do they make things in batches. But they're very good, especially at metallurgy and its uses, and faster that you'd expect."

"That seems like a strange way to do things, but if it works it works."

"They consider anything else both wildly unreliable and cheating. If it was good enough for their Ancestor Gods it ought to be good enough for them. I think. Asking a dwarf too many questions on this kind of thing is unwise unless you have some high-quality beer to offer him afterwards to calm him down."

"I imagine I'll be spending a lot of my time biting my tongue then."

"Trading your own secrets of manufacture is likely just as good. Better, perhaps. I mention beer because it's one of the few things we can sometimes make up to their standards."

"Well that's promising. I'll just have to figure out how to explain things in a way that's useful to them."

"I look forward to it." Partly because it will be useful and educational, and partly because he expects he will find it hilarious for as long as he can keep a straight face and not annoy the dwarfs.

The market's thinning out where they are, and a big building in what looks like a hybrid of local architecture and Greek Classical, with a clean stone plaza around it for a dozen yards, is peeking up over the smaller buildings nearby.

"That's a new style." Sheppard can read a little of what Teodor might be thinking but doesn't comment on it.

"Oh? Right, the Temple of Verena. Also known as Erengrad City Court. Verena's a far Southern goddess mostly, and she's concerned with knowledge and justice. I hear all meaningful Imperial courthouses are hers; we just have them in the three big cities. Well, the Praag Court is in ruins still but Verenans still hold the trials. Too many boyars to let them handle meting out the law in traditional court, so we imported the experts."

"Huh, I guess that makes sense. I take it she'd punish anyone trying to do injustice in her name?"

"Not necessarily at the first sign of corruption, but all the actual judges have her power, and ritually demonstrate it in small ways during the beginning of the trial. They wouldn't be able to fake it for long if she withdrew her blessing, and any severe misconduct she would. They also run a tight ship - it's hard to get that high in their ranks to start with, and they are fairly clever at rejecting graspers. We've had more difficulty accepting it's Kislevite than just, I think, but they learned the boyars' unwritten customs well in time, and they all practice their swordsmanship enough that they overcame the perception that the South's gods are soft."

"I see, I don't think the judges back home ever personally enforce their judgements."

"Oh, they still don't, almost ever. But her symbol is scales hung on a sword, and particularly among a warrior people like ours, they do issue visible reminders that if someone were to dispute their justice and try to impose the rule of force, they can issue a rougher and more immediate sentence on any disruptions. And that if the city is attacked, they will be able to man the gates and hold the walls just as well as their neighbors."