"Hard to tell. I'm not going to be making new tablets like this one for a while. The calculators are going to be fairly popular, though. I know Valanda wants one."

"Mmm. Do you have the instructions for the things you want to build in your handheld library?"

"I'll be leaning on it a lot, yes. But it's very hard and also I know a lot of this stuff inside and out already."

"So the hard part's not figuring it out. Hm. If you knew when you'd be able to pay it back I'd offer to lend you a few hundred-forty-fours of rings or so."

"I should be good for capital for a month or two. I'll keep it in mind if I need more. Probably will at some point. Oh, say, you know anyone who'd buy some penguin meat or sell blood?"

"Selar would probably sell blood. I might like penguin meat, what's a penguin and how much do you have for sale?"

"Penguins're big old flightless birds that live far down south. Twenty pounds or so, cut up and frozen by the weather."

"How small did you cut your chunks, can I get half a pound?"

"Yeah, sure. Be right back."

And in ten seconds, there's about half a pound of bird meat, frozen. "I'm looking to offload all of it on someone if possible. I'll shop around, I guess."

"Frozen like that it'll keep even if you don't sell it all today. What do you want for that much?"

"Cold-frozen meat eventually degrades. Maybe I'll pay our vaunted defense mage to preserve it. Eh, 24 rings a pound sounds good to me, so that's 12."

He pays. "I assume neither of the agerah wanted it or you wouldn't need to ask me. Shy about new meats, are they?"

"Oh, haven't asked them. I saw you first thing when I got back. I should go do that, since I've got two chapters done for you. And find blood."

"In that case I'd try Ahgari first, he eats a lot."

"Off I go, then. Enjoy your modern medical knowledge."

And off he goes. Ahgari, do you want some penguin? Selar, selling any blood? Valanda offered too, but the budding governor puts him off slightly.

Ahgari would love an entire penguin. Selar offers a pint of human blood for seventy-two rings.

Penguins and other wildlife are cheaper, after the conservation fee. But he'd have to hunt one down, anyway, and Selar is right here, and human is really that much better than wildlife.

"Price go down any if I have an invention that makes it mostly painless and quick to heal? Needle and pump and sterile bag."

"Sixty rings if I decide afterward that it really was as easy as you make it out to be."

"Got it." He hands over all seventy-two in good faith.

He has a professional-quality blood drawing kit, antiseptic swabs and all, and pint bags, knows exactly how to use them.

Selar hands him back twelve rings afterward. "That wasn't terrible. I hear it's a bad idea to sell blood too often but if you want more in a month or two I can sell you more then."

"A pint every eight weeks is the rule of thumb for what's definitely safe where I'm from. I'll probably end up subsisting mostly on wildlife, but human's nice. Species thing."

"Must be pretty awful to have to live off the wrong food."

"You could technically survive and get all the nutrients you need for this balanced breakfast on unflavored rice and soybeans, it'd be cheaper, but it wouldn't be tasty."

"Well, come find me again in eight weeks if you want food with flavor."

"Gotcha. And I imagine there'll be more immigrants sooner or later."

Anything else to do around here before he goes back to work?