"Hmm... I can make one that can be made bigger and smaller by anyone and goes where it's pushed and you can put it in a bag?"

"That'll work. Tomorrow I'll try to figure out who'd be in the market for one of these. ...Hm, I have time to start on that today, if I go now, but then I won't be back here before night. D'you need anything else?"

"You could tell me not to go anywhere that's not here or the bathroom instead of to not leave the room? ...That would mean you can't lock the door though. Eh, I'll survive."

"Command magic doesn't work that way, I couldn't enforce that. ...How about I don't bother to. Go ahead."

She even smiles a bit. A tiny bit. Yay. "Thank you. I won't go anywhere else. Good luck finding a buyer!"

She uses the restroom and comes back and starts studying. The lack of coffee makes it harder to focus - the clear goal ahead of her makes it much easier.

Mahan has so many words to teach.

The imperial laws would be a quick read if Walta were fluent in Hari. That's partly because they refer to other documents that expand on things but mostly because there just aren't that many laws and they aren't that complicated.

She puts a lot of effort into it. She's pretty sure she has them down, a few hours later. She has a few questions about words she can't quite guess from context, but otherwise can probably recite them all except maybe the detailed penalties for non-human species. She goes over them in her head. She imagines hypotheticals and runs down the list of laws to see if they break any. She practices vocabulary and grammar and pronunciation and takes notes from Mahan.

When Mahan starts on one of the episodes she paid a lot of attention to the first time, she decides to take a break. Bathroom. Pacing the hallway for a couple of minutes. Snack... Thinking about home. The school will have noticed her missing by now. Her friends, too. They're probably worried she's kidnapped or dead in a ditch somewhere. Heh. Her parents are probably worried sick. Screw 'em.

Sigh.

Breaks are important to keep focused and productive. That walk earlier cheered her up and cleared her head and let her work for a long time, but she can't go outside again. So she'll do... Something else to relieve tension. (In the bathroom, quietly, so the lack of any tissues is less of an issue and she can wash up.) She's not really comfortable at all, but is a couple days' worth of pent up and after some touching and some fantasizing she can get back to work slightly less tense and make progress on a calculator design that can process Hari-style numerals.

Eventually Valanda comes back.

"How's the calculator design coming?"

"I can't really say 'I'm one quarter done,' I can't tell exactly how long it will take, but I made progress. I think I know all the imperial laws now. I spent a lot of time on that. If you ask me questions I can answer without looking. Prove it to you."

"Sure. Without looking at the laws or your notes, tell me in your own words what you have to do to obey imperial law."

"For me, don't hurt people, don't lie to anyone in the government, don't break stuff, don't steal stuff, don't break any contracts or agreements, don't own any slaves or have any kids because I am not getting involved in any of that if I can help it, pay my taxes, don't trespass or try to get rid of people who're somewhere public."

Valanda laughs. "I didn't plan on having any slaves either! You're right. Keep working on your construct and I'll bring you a copy of the state laws tomorrow."

She salutes and says, "Aye, aye, captain," in her own language. Then goes, "Ah, that was a- I don't know the word. A joke. I mean, will do. It's actually a fascinating problem. I could talk about it if you want, or just be quiet if you want quiet."

"You can talk if you want to. For a little while."

"I'll talk about other ideas for constructs. One that watches and lights up if someone comes to your shop. One that can move people up and down buildings so they don't have to climb stairs. One that compresses air. Compressed air can do neat stuff. One that carries water out of a well and pours it by itself. One that can cut things precisely, like cutting up apples into little slices or cutting wood - I'd need you to buy a knife for that one."

"The thing that moves people up and down without stairs is an elevator. Buildings either have elevators or don't have room to put them. They're hard to put in after the building is done. What can compressed air do?"

Shrug. "...Actually maybe not that much. You can make weapons with it, you can send packages around in sealed tubes with compressed air, some people at home made tools that used compressed air but those aren't here. I could probably make one that sorts things, like, sorts big apples from little ones? Oh, constructs can move a lot of air around and make a warm or cool breeze."

"I think none of those are as useful as the one you're working on. Magic can move things around and make things warm or cool."

"You have to pay someone to move things or do it yourself though. A construct will move things until it breaks without needing rest or food... Well, okay. I'll keep working on the calculator."

She un-minimizes her notes and gets to it.

Valanda curls up tight and rests.

Walta sleeps too, eventually.

The next day Valanda stays out a while after his first shift and comes back with a much larger document explaining Ehima state law.

Walta has come up with a decent idea for how entering Hari numerals might work! It's not a calculator yet, it just displays the number she enters, and only goes up to 39. But it's a proof of concept. Perhaps Valanda should try it and see whether it is understandable or not.

He pokes at it for a while.

"Yeah, I understand how to enter numbers on this. You're going to make it so it can do bigger numbers before we sell it, right?"

"Yes. Probably to thousands but not millions. For putting in. For showing, I can do millions. I was going to turn Hari numbers into the way my home does numbers - I think my home's numbers make more sense - and then turn that into the way the calculator sees numbers, but that would make it break sooner, too complicated. I have to find ways to turn Hari numbers into calculator numbers directly. And also how to turn calculator numbers back into Hari numbers. It will take more than another day. Maybe two maybe three days. It's hard to estimate how long designing constructs will take."