The very small agerah or possibly something else curled up a few seats over purrs at Bar, writes something with a paw-pen device, and grabs it in her teeth before walking over across the seats.

It says 'You smell funny.'

"Hi, tiny cat. You look funny."

She yowls in an amused sort of way. 

Do you have magic? Lots of people here do. It's exciting!

"Yeah, I do. Do you?"

I'm using it right now by being a cat! I'd have to leave if I stopped. You have to wear clothes in the bar.

"Changing shape sounds pretty great! My magic lets me make things stay the same."

I only get to turn into a cat though. I'm a nice cat so I don't mind. Tabby says there's other kinds of creatures that can turn into birds or elephants or wolves but I think she made them up.

"Is Tabby a friend of yours?"

Yeah! She's the one who turned me because some guy cut up my throat and I couldn't talk anymore and almost died! But turning fixes stuff like that. I want to do it to more people but the boss lady says that's a bad idea. Not enough blood for everyone, yeah right, there's all sorts of animals out there to eat.

"Oh, are you a vampire? Yeah, it would be morally wrong for your world to have a lot of vampires. I could have a couple more come to mine if you're in danger, though."

Why would it be wrong? Vampires don't die all the time like humans. Zeke keeps trying to get his girlfriend lol to be one but she doesn't wanna. I don't get it.

"Because it's hard for non-vampires without any magic to protect themselves if a vampire happens to want to do something bad, but you can't turn everyone because you can't have as many vampires live in an area as you can have humans, so either there have to be humans who are afraid all the time or you have to kill a lot of humans."

If there were only vampires eventually it'd be better though! Most of the humans died already. It's really sad.

"What did they die of?"

The Big Bug. You're sick for months and don't know it yet so it got everywhere before anyone noticed.

"I'm so sorry, that's terrible. If it got at least eleven twelfths of them you can probably turn all the rest into vampires, I think, but I'm not sure since you don't eat all the meat."

Yeah it's so awful. I think it got seven eighths? Almost all the adults. Not little kids. And some more later since little kids don't know how to farm but this one guy is a total hero he turned all the computers and phones everywhere into survival guides. Boss lady turned him. I didn't do anything like that. Just tried to stay safe.

What a sad cat.

"That sounds really terrifying. I can arrange for someone to heal some specific people in range of your Milliways door but I don't have a way to make people immune or help anyone on another continent. Um. Do you want to sit on my lap and be petted?"

Yeah. We're picking up the pieces now. It's been two years. And yeah.

She moves onto his lap and curls up.

Pet, pet. Carefully, with the grain not against it. "You're so small and fluffy. I know other people who are cats but they're all big."

Writing a response would require petting to stop, so she doesn't bother. Purr, purr.

Well that sounds like it's mostly not a trying-not-to-feel-so-bad kind of purr, at least.

"My neighbor across the hall was a cat at my old apartment before I moved. She could make sugar from thin air."

Meow.

She turns around in Valanda's lap. Still in a pettable position.

Tasty! You guys have neat magic. Vampires are magic but we can't do magic except turning people. Technology is kinda like magic though.

"Yeah. It seems like it really is just another kind of magic." Sigh. "I'm glad you know that already, I made some people feel bad before I understood it."

?

I meant it can do interesting stuff?

Oh and we can do the voice thing but it's creepy and hard and boss lady yells at you for it.

"It's just like magic, you study a lot and carefully and precisely exert your will on the world. What's the voice thing?"

Vampires can make people forget things, or scare them, or do things, by telling them to sometimes.

"So that is true, I wasn't sure. A book mentioned it but then a vampire told me the book was wrong about some other things so I wasn't sure if it was trustworthy."

The fluffy cat nods.

Maybe you can make some of my favorite stuff not breakable?

"I can do that! That's my job, actually, but I'll do one thing free if you'd like. What would you like warded?"

The cat zooms off somewhere and soon returns with a slightly tattered picture in a frame. A smiling family of five humans in front of a - restauraunt?

I'm the littlest one.

Oh. Well, it's not going to get any more tattered now.

"The frame too or just the picture?"

Just the picture is fine. Thank you. The writing is slightly shaky.

"There you go, it'll outlast your planet now. If you want anything else done it'll be... do you use the US dollar?"

Not anymore. Mostly we use food or bullets or batteries now.

"I guess that makes sense. I'm sorry about your world."

It's okay. It's sad, but sad things happen. You didn't make the Bug.

Bye.

The cat picks up her picture frame and walks out to the Milliways backyard.

"How do you cope with people coming in like that and not being able to help them?" he asks Bar.

I help those who need it most and who I can help. When I cannot, as with Ms. Jo, it is best to simply move on.

"At least you're a morality person. That's probably good for a lot of people."

Bar has no response to this.

He orders some Hylian-style food so he can sulk in luxury and comfort.

Honey-glazed herb-roasted vegetables and salted and spiced meat and creamy mushroom soup. 33 rings.

Another bar patron in a worn-looking trenchcoat approaches Bar for another beer and glances at him, then shrugs and goes back to his booth.

He finishes his food and gets a new sign. No mention of gender on this one, he'd rather find out how people read him now.

And here he is ready for trenchcoat guy or anyone else to come do business with.

Business is slow today. Trenchcoat guy decides he wants his coat and gun durable-ized and Bar converts some bottle caps to rings for him. A couple hours later, someone with bright blue hair offers to trade a firestarting charm for protecting her fancy staff.

"How does the charm work? Does the staff have any unusual functions that I shouldn't interfere with, like turning ice cold?"

"You put the charm into flammable material and speak the command word and it will release heat and sparks to start a fire. Leave it in the fire and it will absorb heat and recharge. The staff is a magical focus. It can't resist mana flow, but other than that it should be fine."

He asks Bar how much of blue-haired-lady's currency is worth about his usual Milliways price.

3 quarens would cover it.

"But I don't want to give you quarens. I'm saving up for a broom. You don't want the charm?"

"I probably do want it. Bar, if I went to her world, how much would I expect to pay for a charm like that?"

It would appear that simple charms typically cost 5 to 7 quarens. I cannot vouch for this particular one's quality, of course.

Blue-hair rolls her eyes. "It works. But you don't want me setting fires in here."

That would be against the rules, yes.

"Want anything else warded? Since the charm'll cover two of this kind of ward."

"Ooh, if you're offering. My hat?"

"Sure thing, same kind of ward as the staff?"

"Yep!" She bounces slightly and hands over the charm.

And her hat and staff are indestructible!

The charm he'll probably have to resell, heat magic is pretty much strictly better in every way but he can't exactly sell that.

Business is slow, though. Defense magic is pretty good but there just aren't a lot of people passing through Milliways right now.

Great. He can get in some more sulking. He's enjoying this sulk a lot, it involves cats and Hylian food.

Link comes through the door! Bundled up in a thick hooded cloak and heavy bulky pants, covered in frost and snow, dark concrete hallway visible behind her, carrying a big lantern and backpack...

...Wait.

Why is her right arm made of metal?

"Woah, it's hot in here!"

Valanda gasps and tenses up.

Half a second later he relaxes. "Are you my Link or just an alt?"

"Alt? I'm Liane Hunter, New Cities Preparation Corps. Or I was. I don't think the Corps exists anymore." She shuts the door. "It's good to see someone alive - and warm! - down here! I thought the whole place was abandoned."

"It probably is. Welcome to Milliways, a tiny universe consisting of a bar and some nice stuff outside. Sometimes a door magically leads here instead of wherever it's supposed to. Time is usually paused in your world when you're in here with the door closed and when you leave and shut the door behind you it'll go back to being a door to wherever it's usually a door to. I'm Valanda, governor of Ira Sani, you won't have heard of it because it's not on your planet."

"...Huh. Didn't think magic was real, 'sides miracles. Old fairy tales of visitors from another world... Maybe this is a miracle. Nice to meet you, Mr. Governor! What's an alt, though?"

"Sometimes there are versions of someone from different worlds. They look pretty similar and have some of their personality in common, I think. One of you is trying to save her kingdom from a very powerful thing that just wants to hurt and kill people."

"Her kingdom... And you're a governor, are you? Hmm. Well, it certainly sounds as if that needs doing. But kings have no place in the world anymore. The frost made me realize that lords will always look after themselves and step on everyone else if they have to. Eventually everyone else gets fed up with it."

"Step on everyone else how?"

"By lying their asses off, making hollow promises, hoarding everything for themselves, and shooting anyone who figures it out! My family was supposed to get tickets on the evacuation ships, that was the pay for joining the preparation corps. But every day the message was, 'good progress, go to the next site' 'evacuation proceeding smoothly, go to these coordinates and pick up supplies, deliver to New Manchester' 'your family wishes you well, godspeed'. And then one day, nothing. Silence. No more supplies, no more instructions, we were just left in the cold. I found out later that the lords took all the ships for themselves, leaving in the night. Leaving all us advance teams for dead, breaking all their promises, taking the only safe refuge for themselves."

"Do I need to kill them."

"That would kind of defeat the point of building winterproof cities in the first place. It's done. I hate them, I'll never work for them again, but there's been enough death. Well, maybe Lord Craven, the mastermind of it all..." Sigh.

"Want to move to Ira Sani? It's pretty cold there too but we have magic heating and I can make you immune to frostbite and the government is great. I know because I am the government."

"No. There's - It's tempting, but my world needs me. I go around looking for survivors in the old world, and scavenging. Not many of them. I helped some folks living in basements in Edinburgh's factory district. They only lasted that long living on stockpiles of supplies that never got sent north. Showed them how to build greenhouses, fixed up an automaton and programmed it to fetch coal from a mine for them. Magic heat sounds nice. Very nice."

"Even if you personally don't want to leave I can take some other people who are less useful for finding survivors and scavenging. Or I can open my door and shout for Saraisan and you can have a bunch of warm things that never stop being warm. And if your door opens on a room I can have her make that room warm, too. And I can make you immune to cold."

"I'm in an empty cannery. No point heating it. But magic eternally hot things? I want those. I want lots of those. If they're hot enough, stick 'em inside a boiler, never worry about coal again. It'll help so many people. Also, immune to cold, yes."

She's dripping onto the floor as the snow on her clothes melts, now.

"They can be whatever temperature you want! They can be like candles or just warm enough to hang onto while you sleep or, well, they can be cold too but you seem like you have enough cold. Have you got the things you want heated or do I need to tell Saraisan to round up some rocks?"

"Uhh, metal things with lots of surface area, finned cylinders maybe, would work best for boiler-fuel? Rocks are better than nothing. I'll want them candle-hot or hotter. I'll need a box that stays cold to move them safely, I guess. I don't know what you or Saraisan might want for pay..."

"You can buy the box and the finned cylinders here. Oh, you haven't had your free drink yet, have you? You should talk to Bar, she's the bar, the bar is a person for some reason."

"The bar is a person! Okay then. Like some super-advanced automaton or something? And I still don't know what you want. I have some pounds sterling, but... The government is kind of gone. So. I don't know if they're still worth anything."

"Yeah, like that! We'll find out if Bar can change pounds sterling into something useful. ...Oh, hey, how about if you give me the pounds sterling and I buy the metal? Bar might let me get away with that and I'm pretty sure metal's cheaper where I'm from."

"I don't doubt that. Lemme talk to Bar some first though?" He is, after all, a near-total stranger asking for her money.

"Sure thing. Want me to call for Saraisan now or wait till you've talked to Bar?"

"If time is paused outside - which is crazy if I know anything about physics, mind you - then we may as well wait? Unless you think he- She? They'll think of a good idea."

"She might think of something, this is her job. But she can do that just as well after you've talked to Bar, I guess."

"I'll just go talk to Bar, then."

...She sheds a layer of clothing, that overly-thick coat, first, revealing a heavy sweater under it. The metal arm gets in the way a bit, so she just removes it and reattaches it to some kind of device on the end of her stump of an elbow.

"...Doesn't metal get really cold? Is that a safe material for that to be made of?"

"It does. But I need two hands. Well, 'hands'. But my elbow's only so big, it's not like metal all across my front or something. And there's a rubbery bit that helps too."

"Maybe that arm needs to be immune to extreme temperatures. Anyway, I'll stop distracting you, you still have to talk to Bar."

"Right! This is going to be a good day!"

She talks to Bar. She gets a big mug of hot chocolate for her drink. She asks for a list of every newspaper published in the last month. There are dozens... But not thousands, like there were before the great winter.

(Sigh. The biggest tragedy since the Black Death. Maybe bigger. She'll just have to help whoever's left.)

Bar can take that big stack of pounds, worthless paper found in some abandoned factory owner's safe, two weeks' pay for a hundred workers, at face value.

Link has 160,231 rings.

"I hope that's enough for some ever-hot metal?"

"You have more than enough for the metal you want, you could live here for a year on that much, you could live here for a year on what's left over after you get your heaters. You really do want to pay me and have me buy the metal, though, ask Bar how much she'd charge either of us for a box of metal things, it's ridiculous but she has this objection to arbitrage."

"That's strange."

She asks Bar.

"...Yeaaaah. Okay. You get to buy me tons of finned cylinders, congratulations. I want a big box, though. Several big boxes. I can afford it, right?"

"You sure can. If you use all your money on boxes of metal scraps I don't think you'll be able to carry them out the door. And that's even if I take a cut. How are you planning on carrying these, anyway? Do I need to get one of my force mages to help with that?"

"You can totally take a cut. Not a huge one, but I don't mind a mediumish one. I can get them outside with pulleys and winches and rope, and then load them onto my automaton! Leave the rest in the factory and come back for them later. Automatons are great, they're strong and steady and will work or walk all day with nothing but some coal and water - nothing but water and a few of my shiny new heat sources!"

She has sketched out a model of what she wants. A cylinder about three feet tall and a few inches wide, with fins in a spiral pattern on it, and a big handle on both ends. "Should fit in most boilers and stoves, and makes it easier to move 'em with a hooked stick or something."

"How about I take a twenty-fourth of the difference between my price and yours? Bar, how many human-liftable boxes full of titanium rods made to those specifications can I get if I take that cut and the boxes are, hm, let's say also titanium?"

"Works," says Liane.

A box of three such items would be as heavy as a human can safely lift. If I provided you with small carts to be wheeled to Ms. Hunter's vehicle, such a cart could hold twenty without strain. I could allow for thirty such carts before the venture begins to strain my obligations to the landlords.

She names a price, about double the cost of the raw metal. To account for the complex shape and the cart.

"Well, will you be able to roll them over whatever the terrain is between you and your automaton? This deal works for me if it works for you."

"Yeah! I'm in an old factory. There's junk on the ground but I can deal with that. This is such a good place. I wanna hug you or something but I'm covered in snow."

"And I'm immune to cold and love hugs!"

In that case, hug!

Such hug!

"Milliways is pretty great, if you're literate you probably want to read some of the books, Bar has some books about how to make technologies that I never heard of before coming here."

"Oh, cool. It's the age of progress and all. The Royal Society studies and invents all sorts of things. That all stopped with the great frost, but without scientists we wouldn't have even known it was coming. I'll definitely hang out here a while, eat warm food, read interesting books. Call it a vacation."

"It's a good place for a vacation. Ready for me to get Saraisan?"

"Sure, let's do this thing!"

"One last thing: you can get away with not telling her anything for free if you don't want to. And she might try to cheat you, but just don't let her and you'll be fine."

He leans out the door and yells for Saraisan, who doesn't take too long to show up. She looks around like she's never been here before.

Before Saraisan does show up, "Woah I thought you were gonna handle talking to her about doing this? Since you know her? I don't even know your name."

"Sure, I'll do the talking for, let's say forty-eight rings?"

"That's a lot cheaper than messing up this deal would be!"

"You'd've done fine."

He negotiates a very unimpressively average deal for barely below market rate. Costs about fourteen thousand rings. Saraisan sits down to start working on them.

"Learn anything watching that?" he asks Liane afterward.

"I guess so? I never was a merchant. Message runner when I was a little one, and then airship crew, girls get to do that 'cause we're usually lighter, and then the Preparation Corps."

"What did you do in the Preparation Corps?"

"First couple of months, sailed to the high arctic and helped a bunch of scientists not die while they explored and evaluated city sites. They really needed the help, let me tell you. Built outposts and research stations and radio towers and city core generators and stuff. Ferried supplies around. Rescued stranded people. Fixed broken snow-crawlers. Ran messages and packages around, just like old times. Hunting for food. What's being a governor like?"

"It's pretty awful but at least I have no one but myself to blame for my frigid uncivilized ice adventures. There are a lot of meetings. I've spent more time than I wanted to trying to figure out how you build a city and I'm having a hard time attracting the kinds of people I need. I wish you wanted to immigrate."

"Meetings. Well, I helped build some cities. Most of the work revolved around heating them so it's probably not really relevant? You have Saraisan. You wish I wanted to immigrate... Because you know my 'alt'?"

"And because of what you've said and because of your morals and the skills you have and because you're human and might have human children."

"Aww, thank you. I'm flattered that you care about my childbearing capacity." She shakes her head. "No, I really am flattered about the rest of it. That hit a nerve, is all."

"I bet you have more humans left in your world than mine. We have less than ten thousand."

"Probably. But that's not... Whatever. Not a big deal, really. Wow, what happened?"

"Probably nothing as bad as happened in yours. There were maybe thirty thousand right after unification, humans don't have a lot of kids, we get executed a little more often than other species, it adds up. Or subtracts down. If there weren't so many humans settling for caralendri it'd be okay but caralendri are a lot easier to find, I know dozens and I only knew three humans counting myself before I was seventeen."

"...I'm confused." She doesn't really know what questions to ask, what she's missing, so that's a good place to start. "...What's a caralendri? Does this have something to do with magic?"

"Saraisan is a caralendar. She can't have kids with a human, a human can't have kids with her, but not everyone would rather look harder for a human when there's lots of caralendri right there. And any humans who only have sex with caralendri and buy orphaned beluli aren't having human children."

"Oh." Beluli must be some kind of pet, then.

"Well, I wanted kids someday. Never found anyone to marry. And now the frost's come and I have so much to do. If I get hurt badly again I'll probably give scouting up, though. There's only so much of me to give." She waves her metal arm slightly. 

"I wonder if Bar has anything for that. She has technology that lets humans change their sex, she probably has technology to let you grow your arm back. Am I right, Bar?"

Limb regeneration may be out of your price range, but it is available. More advanced prosthetics are available as well, if you would like one.

"Oh! Huh! So many new things today. I'll think about it! I've kind of gotten used to this one."

"It doesn't take too long to save up if you have a really in-demand skill but I can't think how you'd use your skills in Milliways. Not much need for radio towers or rescuing stranded people here. I could teach you what I know about having sex with people for money but I'm not sure the margins would be good enough on that to let you save anything."

"Also, no. I am not doing that. I can raid some more abandoned factories for paper money, and if the door likes me I'll be able to get it later."

"I hope it does like you."

Saraisan finishes enchanting things. The boxes aren't literally ice cold but they're pretty chilly. The rods are all glowing red. They sure do give off a lot of heat.

"Whoo, this is hot stuff. I'll have to be careful with it. But it will be super useful. You have no idea how much. Thank you, Saraisan!"

"Could you use a pair of gloves that was never hot or cold for handling this kind of thing?"

"I was planning on using, like, a long hooked stick. But a bunch of indestructible and always-just-right gloves and boots and other clothes would be nice if you two are up for that?"

"If you don't need them a different temperature than they are now I can do that myself."

"Won't work as well for what she wants," says Saraisan, "won't feel that temperature to touch it."

"Oh. Yeah, that's right. Well, I can make them indestructible once they're the right temperature."

"Yeah, it needs to be the perfect temperature for wearing. I'm not sure what that actually is though? I don't suppose I can learn to do that stuff?"

"Not unless Bar has some more tricks up her sleeve," says Valanda.

"If you're a human with ordinary human temperature needs and normal human bloodflow in your extremities and need it good enough in extreme heat and cold instead of perfect for one or the other, then I know what temperature you want. But is all that right?" asks Saraisan.

"You know more about it than I do! We're all humans over there. My extremities not so much," metal arm waves a bit again, "But most people have all their limbs still. And heat isn't as much of a problem as cold these days. Can you make them better for cold than hot? I'll buy all the clothes from Bar."

"If you're buying new clothes anyway I can do two sets, one for heat and one for cold. They'll each be... an amount of use for the other problem, if you have to use them that way."

"All this magic is so phenomenally useful I want to get as much of it out of you as I can afford. But if you just want to do one set, I want the ones I have to be better for cold."

"I can do all of what you've got now for a hundred twenty rings. More if you need it not to melt all the snow you touch, by default the outside will be the same temperature as the inside. You probably won't need both coats at once afterward, unless I'm badly underestimating how much cold you're dealing with. ...That's not counting the arm or your pack, if you want anything done to those it's another twenty-four rings, my professional opinion is that you'd be better off with your arm permanently lukewarm and I don't know enough about what you're using that pack for to give any advice about it."

"You're probably badly underestimating how much cold we're dealing with. Alcohol freezes unless it's super pure. Can't be too careful."

She pulls a face cover and a pair of heavy goggles out of the pack. "These too, and the arm, and the pack should try to keep itself room temperature."

"All that will be a hundred sixty-eight rings. Why's it so cold and are you sure this is all you want? Because it might take some time but if you make it worth my while I can make as much heat as you need."

"Nobody knows! The most alarming theory I heard was that the sun is getting dimmer! And I already got all those heat cores, they'll be a big help, and I totally want more warm outfits, people need them, I'm gonna keep you so busy until I pretty much run out of money, probably."

"And you're only not leaving because you're looking for other survivors. Hey, Bar, do you sell any ways of finding people and bringing them places quickly?"

Small and medium vehicles of various kinds are available. Devices to improve one's vision, to point out signs of habitation, or to receive radio messages sent from very far away are available. I don't have anything that can reliably locate people at long distances which would be remotely in your price range, unfortunately.

"Bar, I know you're a good person. And you know I want to be a good person. We both care about the people in Liane's world. You have more useful things than you're advertising and I know you want to save these people and I know you know if I get something that works reliably to find people and bring them here I'll save lives. How many rings are you making by letting them freeze to death instead of giving me the best thing you've got?"

The landlords do not want me to allow for excessive arbitrage or interfere drastically in other worlds on my own recognizance. Their reasons are not clear to me. I do what I can, and this is what I can do. Would you like to order something to help you calm down?

"Uh, I'm going to read and research a lot and get some stuff, once I know what stuff to get. I'm good at judging supplies. And the heat magic is already going to really, really, really help. I mean, you have no idea, my world's already got a bright future compared to this morning."

"You let me know when you figure out what other magic you need," says Saraisan, smirking. "Has he explained every kind of magic we have? Because if not I'll do it for a ring."

"He hasn't. And a ring is like, one pence, so sure? Bar?"

Bar appears one solitary ring for Saraisan.

"I have the kind of magic you saw. He has defense magic, keeps things how they are, you can keep food fresh with it but only if you have him to unpause it when you need it. There's sun magic, transmutes elements, you could use it to turn coal into tungsten. Structure magic changes how the atoms in things are arranged, you could use it to turn coal and iron into steel. Void magic makes emptiness, it disappears things. Green magic makes plants grow better, inheritance magic could give your children a different eye color, force magic makes things move, illusion magic makes things look different, knowledge magic lets you learn things, death magic kills things like diseases or unwanted children, command magic lets you keep people from doing things you don't want them to. For another ring I'll list what I think would be the most useful thing every kind of mage could do for you."

"Hmm, nah, I think I can figure it out. Green magic would be nice. And I'm sure the engineers would love to have a structure and knowledge mage on call. Command magic for criminals... Death for diseases... Void for airships, maybe. Sun for metals and other good stuff like that. I don't know much about inheritance, something about Darwin."

"Let me know if you want me to find someone for you, some of those kinds of magic are more convenient than others."

Meanwhile Valanda has given up on thinking of something useful and asks Bar what jobs she knows of people doing in Milliways.

Liane asks Bar for something and starts reading.

Many patrons trade or peddle personal magic or other skills, as Valanda tends to do. One can wash tables and mop floors and clean the bathroom in exchange for a room and barely enough money to eat modestly. If you have magic or knowledge that lets you heal or act as a doctor, you can get a shift in the infirmary, and if you would be good at subduing people without collateral damage you can get hired as Security - your pay depends on how powerful you are, generally.

Any good or service people want from other people can be profitable in Milliways as long as it doesn't break the bar rules or overly intrude on the ambiance, though cooks and such tend to do poorly with her around.

He slides that note over where Liane will see it if she looks up from her book. He waits. His ideas haven't exactly been winners so far.

Saraisan asks Bar for fresh produce and the most similar fiction Bar has to the caralendri dramas she likes.

Bar in fact has those exact caralendri dramas. Here's a new one by an author he likes.

Liane has gotten a map from Bar and is writing notes all over it, organizing where she's been and who probably is still alive and needs heat cores.

She sees the note. "Hey, cheer up. I would stay in Milliways hoping for something to fix my world for a long while, except I already got it. We do the best we can with what we have, yeah? And unless someone wants to pay me for tales of braving the frozen north or how to operate an automaton... If you're taking refugees, though, some of these communities aren't too far from where I am and might have some people who'd want to immigrate. I don't know much about what your... State... Is like though, don't know if they'd want to after you explain it."

"I know someone who'd pay for those stories. Bar has the imperial laws for them to read, she should have our state laws too but I don't know that for sure... at worst, if it turns out they don't want to move, they sit in a warm room and drink hot chocolate before they go home. It's probably worth it. If you hold the door I can... that might not work, I don't speak your language. Bar, any help?"

You can borrow a device worn on your heads that will allow Liara to see what you see and allow you to talk to each other smoothly. This could allow for translation, if Ms. Hunter stays in Milliways. If it is returned undamaged there will be a full refund to your tab, of course.

"Thanks, Bar. Want to try that?"

"It's definitely worth a try! Could take a while, though. Like, a day or two. I'll hold the door for you, of course, but you'll still be in my world... There's bears. Some people are... Not nice. They're desperate and suspicious. It does things to you. If you're willing to risk it..."

"I can handle all of that. Which way should I go to find people?"

She has a map! She has notes on the map!

This place two hours away had a few dozen or so people, this place three hours away is a hospital and probably has some people, but they wouldn't tell her much. This place five hours away has five lethargic scientists who are convinced they're all doomed to die in the cold, that place over there has..........

"Bar, what do you recommend I borrow to get these people back here?"

After discussing it some with Bar, the options are a very small fold-up airship (which Liane can help Valanda operate), or an mediumish enclosed expedition snowmobile that can fit through the factory exit. Either way it'd be several trips to get a hundred people.

"I recommend the airship. If you hit a crevasse you're not getting the snowmobile back out of it."

"Airship it is, I guess. Saraisan, I need the inside to stay a reasonable temperature, twenty-four rings for that? ...And which of these places has the people least likely to survive if I don't bring them back? I should go there first."

(Saraisan agrees.)

"Hmm. Toss up between those stubborn scientists and the - basement place. Scientists I bet you can definitely get to come with you, just invite them to break something you made and they'll want to ask you tons of questions, scientists are like that. I don't know what's up exactly with that other place, but... You should bring a few heat cores with you either way. Drop them off for whoever doesn't want to come with you."

"Good idea. Well, then, let's see what kind of horrible icy wasteland you've got, doesn't look like I can load the ship before I've got it unfolded."

Link puts on the headset and holds the door. "Woah, this thing is kinda weird... I'm seeing twice, almost."

The first section of the horribly icy wasteland is the inside of a dark, gloomy factory, with icicles and snow pushing in from the broken windows. All the stacks of heat cores they pushed through the door earlier are there, neatly lined up. There's junk on the floor.

Valanda might have to carry the little airship out before unfolding it.

"Any of that stuff lying around useful? Maybe Bar would buy some of it."

He carries the airship as far as he has to. "How many of the heat cores will I need, do you think?"

This is also a test of the translation, since he's outside Milliways now.

It still sounds like Liane is speaking Ilan.

"Maybe bring five, that shouldn't strain the airship too much. In the box though or they'll burn it. And, maybe? We can try it later, but it's mostly just steel scrap."

That means taking most of the rods out of one of the boxes. Valanda handles them bare-handed and leaves them in a pile on the floor.

"Metal's not expensive here? Or is steel just cheap for a metal?"

The patches of ice and snow nearest hiss and crackle and turn into puddles and steam.

"Steel's cheap for a metal. Not that cheap, you'd get maybe... I dunno, five rings a pound? But not super pricey either."

He figures out how to get into the airship and looks at the controls for a while before he risks touching them.

"You know how to fly this kind of thing?"

"Yep. Never seen this exact kind, but it's all familiar. Lesson time. Let's go over all the controls and instruments before you touch anything..."

She knows her stuff when it comes to flying, apparently.

He pays attention and wishes he could have her for Ira Sani.

He'll wait for her to tell him when she thinks she's explained enough for him to start trying to fly.

When he can point at the instrument or control he names without much hesitation, she says some stuff about wind and balance and ballast and trim, "I'll be giving you careful instructions, but it's not quite the same if I'm not there," and then declares him ready.

"If I ruin everything at least you'll still have heat!"

He takes off. He tries to gain altitude and point himself in the direction of the scientists. He looks around.

There's icy plains and icy cliffs and ice-covered buildings here and there and a not-icy ocean off to the east.

Liane walks him through the process and says, "Nice view, huh? I might want to buy this thing from Bar for myself when we're done..."

"It's a good view. It would be better with less icy death but maybe in a dozen years it'll just be icy mild annoyance instead."

Sigh. "Yeah. I try to stay upbeat. Emphasis on try. If I linger on the icy death too much I'd..." She stops, breath hitches. "Well, I don't let it get to that point."

"Well, you might have a few less people to worry about when I'm done. Oh, by the way, what morals will they have?"

"...They'll believe in the Church of England? Some of them anyway. Uhhh. How do I explain this to someone from another world..."

He does not point out that at least he understands the concept of morality now.

"What's the Church of England and what does what they believe about it have to do with their morals?"

"It's the state religion, for weird historical reasons. The major churches have different beliefs about God's teachings. I think the church of England doesn't recognize the Pope as representing God, because no mere human could do that? But they'll want to follow God's teachings as laid out in the bible, and the ten commandments, and be virtuous, and they'll want to build a church they can gather and hold mass in once a week."

"I met a god once but probably not the same one the Church of England follows. What are the ten commandments and your god's teachings as laid out in the bible? What's mass?"

“Er... I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt not have any strange gods before Me - There is only one true God, you can't believe in other gods - Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain - Don't swear using God's name, it's disrespectful - Remember to keep holy the Lord's day - That's the seventh day of each week, for mass, where people get together and sing and pray - Honor thy father and mother - Obey your parents, they know what's best for you - Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Adultery is sex with someone who's married or if you're married with someone who's not your spouse. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Er, no lying and spreading rumors. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods.”

Having "obey your parents" as a moral command is not what he wants from immigrants but he's not going to leave them out in the cold even if they are terrible. At least their justification for it makes it sound like they care about their children's happiness a little.

"Is it going to be a problem that I know of two other gods? Or maybe just one other god, is yours Hylia?"

"...Maybe these other gods are facets of the one true god? Multiple gods doesn't make much sense to me. But that's just the Ten Commandments, the most essential pieces of Christianity. Christianity has more than that, and there's moral issues that aren't quite about religion, they just don't come with a neatly organized list of commandments."

"They were in another world and they're kind of hard to miss so your world probably just has the one you know about. So, uh, does the commandment to obey your parents apply no matter what they do? Does it apply after you're an adult?"

"No. It's honor thy parents, not obey thy parents. You should always care about them and love them, but... It sort of slowly expires? A five year old asks their parents whenever they want to go out and play. A ten year old asks if they want to walk to the store alone. A fourteen or sixteen year old asks if they want to get a different job or stop going to school. A twenty year old moves out when they find someone to marry, usually. Little kids should obey their parents, unless they've told you to do something that hurts you I guess... They don't know any better for too many things."

"Oh, that's not what I thought you meant at all! Not that I'd turn them away when I have sanctuary to offer them and they'd be so useful, but it'll be easier for me if I can bring in some more people who agree with me about slavery being wrong."

"Yeah, slavery's, uh, wrong. There was a whole war about it in America and everything. The north won and banned slavery. You have slavery in your world?"

"Yeah, I'm trying to make that happen less. Any idea how they'll react to it if they move in?"

"...Maybe if you make laws against mistreating slaves? Or a way for slaves to earn freedom? Some will care less than others, but they won't like it."

"I'm still trying to figure out how to implement that kind of thing. I think I could make laws against mistreating them if I had something to do with the ones that can't be freed and no one wants for anything humane. I don't know if I could just personally take responsibility for them."

"Someone has to be responsible? Well, nobody who's going to immigrate owns any slaves, so there's that. And there's always, like, prison and monitoring programs. Those stink but not quite as bad as proper slavery."

"Maybe if I make the criminals pay for the knowledge and command magic I'd need I can try to get permission to try something. It's not just criminals, some people have head injuries and can't remember what the laws are, some people are children."

"Maybe a care house or asylum, for head cases... Making prisoners pay for their own prison will not work. Criminals are usually poor... Wait, kids are slaves? Geez. That is... Maybe a dealbreaker."

"Worse than this weather?"

"If they have heat cores to help 'em? Maybe, yeah."

"I think I like your morals! How do people here treat children?"

Okay then?

"You feed them and teach them and care for them as best you can? Most poorer families' kids have to work for the family to have enough to eat, once they're old enough to be useful. But people would do it a lot less if they didn't need to. Good parents save up money to send their kids to school, to learn things that everyone needs to know, and so that they can get a good job that suits them instead of becoming a chimney sweep, mill girl, or coal hauler because that's all you know how to do. And go to mass with them every week and teach them proper manners and morals and such."

"Sounds pretty similar to what I've heard about how Hylians do it. I'm going to subsidize education when I have enough tax revenue to pay for that and everything else, and once people can educate all their kids I'll arrange for them to want to."

"I think it's kind of sketchy to get people to move into this place with all the different rules... And it feels like another unpleasant surprise turns up every ten minutes. Do you at least give everyone the vote?"

"Every free person can vote in the empire-wide election every nine years, it's not the entire imperial government but the appointed officials are chosen by elected ones, I think. Some states and cities have partly elected governments, Ira Sani's going to have an election in a few years when we have infrastructure and people who care about the state and someone else is interested in running for governor. But if people don't want to move even so I'll give them some warmth and leave, or take them to Milliways and they can have their free drink and wait someplace warm for someone with a better home country to come through the door."

"You want human immigrants so you can build a moral, slave-free society, right, you can probably lean on that and 'look at all the shiny magic we can do for you in that world'. But you need to be able to do or say something about the law that kids are slaves."

"How's this for something to say? I hate it. I want to change it. I left my comfortable temperate apartment in a well-developed city with indoor plumbing and fresh fruit for sale every day just to try to create a place with a better culture. Something better than this is the thing I've wanted most my entire life."

"Hmm... Possible. And a lot of parents will say, 'well, we don't have to actually do creepy command magic to our kids do we?' and some people will say 'I never want to have kids anyway' and some will say 'I'd rather not live in a world where I have to own my precious little boy'."

"There's no law that says you have to use command magic on your slaves, you're only liable if they commit a crime, I'm sure if they don't have magic it's possible to keep them under control without that. If people aren't willing to put up with our laws then I'll help them the best I can and be sad that I can't have people that moral moving in."

"See I think - hmm, how to put this. Inviting a lot of moral people is going to cause you problems. They're going to be their own people, not yours, unless you're careful about it. They'll decide they want independence from the empire, or agitate to change the laws, or decide en masse to refuse to pay an unfair tax, or have a hunger strike, or otherwise rebel sooner or later. Because that's what I'd end up doing if I was going to live in your world without fully thinking it through, like a lot of people are gonna do. If something happens, you'll have a hundred angry people at your doorstep protesting. Maybe less so if you have a priest as a minister or something. Not having magic and being relatively powerless makes that less likely, but... Maybe if you pick the least moral of us who aren't, uh, criminals..."

"Oh. That might be bad. Thank you for warning me, that could be worse than not having them at all. Should I... not do that, should I give them some heat or take them to Milliways to wait for someone more moral? Or can I talk to them about slow change that doesn't involve any crimes or civil wars?"

"Hmmmm. I think if you're pretty clear that 'this is the law there, you'd be contributing to making the world a better place and have warm outdoors and nice magic, I want good moral people willing to live in an unfair system and change it for the better, but breaking the law WILL get you enslaved or killed', you'll get less takers, but few or no revolutionary types."

"But they'll still be moral people? I guess I can work with them even if they aren't as long as they understand self-interest."

"Being a good, moral person and being a revolutionary firestarter are not one hundred percent correlated! It's just the three-way intersection of moral, not rebellious, and wanting to go live in a slave empire might be kinda small."

"Can I get rebellious but willing to work on something long-term and likely to work instead of rebellious and going to try to start a civil war?"

"I can try to get a read on people and help you pick that kind of person? But people don't really come made to order. A lot of 'em will want to just... Live, start a farm or a store or whatever, but if there's enough of those and they, uh, multiply enough morality might become just... Normal."

"That's what I want most, once there's a community of moral people we can work on growing it or converting people. I think agerah could be convinced to care about morality and they're most of the population, I just... need something to start with."

"Well! Refugees from Frozen England might be that for you! We'll know soon I guess. You want to prepare for descent, see that little boxy thing on the hill at one 'o clock? With the radio tower? That's the research station."

He does his best to pilot the airship safely.

It's not the smoothest descent ever but with Liane's advice he can avoid dying or wrecking anything.

Two people bundled up in heavy coats and holding bright lanterns, moving a bit sluggishly, help him land the ship and tie it down!

They admire it for a few moments, then say some things in English at Valanda. Link translates after a few seconds' delay.

"We're surprised to see anyone still flying. Come inside to talk. Too windy here, and we can't risk getting sick."

"...How do I tell them things?" he asks Liane in case she has any bright ideas. He follows them inside.

"Oh. Oh! Uhh... Maybe if I make sure to say something in English, you can repeat it? Uh, that one just asked 'what's that on your head'."

"How do I say 'It's how I'm communicating with my translator' in English?"

"Ahem. 'It's a portable radio and I'm using it to talk to my translator.' It's a portable radio, I'm using it to talk to my translator."

He's definitely hearing English in the second part, but it's not quite as easy to understand as the translation magic in Hyrule was.

He echoes it as exactly as he can. He has no idea which parts of English are important so he tries to copy pitch and speed, too.

This method of translation proves reasonably workable! Though it will involve a lot of saying things to Link and having her repeat them.

They lead him to a room full of strange devices, all pushed to the corners and haphazardly stacked on shelves and the furniture rearranged around a metal barrel, in which there is a fire. There are five people here now, three men and two women. They look dirty, raggedy, and generally lethargic.

The one exception says, "That's pretty impressive technology, to get it so miniaturized. I read the theory that you can get a radio wave emitter down to the size of the wavelength, but doing it in practice is something else entirely. Maybe Tesla's been having fun up there in the arctic? Where are you from?"

"I'm from another world. I can take you there if you want but you might rather stay here. It's warm but people there aren't moral."

The oldest man in the room pipes up, "We may be third-rate rejects who didn't have any relevant skills to go on the Oxford mission, but we're still scientists. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. What is the method of transit to this other world? Why are you on this miserable frozen rock? And perhaps show us something more otherworldly than a shiny radio, hm?"

"Rogers, whatever language he's translating with, it's not related to anything I've studied. He's very foreign, whoever he is."

"...That's weak to moderate evidence for your claim."

"I've got some magic heaters that just stay hot, want one? I don't think you could make anything like them."

"Magic! Bah."

"Don't dismiss it out of hand, we can easily prove him wrong if he's lying to us."

"Very, very foreign..." Mutters the linguist.

"Could be a conlang."

"Why would someone invent an elaborate conlang to come talk to us?"

"Bosely's uranite experiments showed that high-weight elements can decompose and release heat, to an unscientific mind that might seem like magic..."

"Why bother? There's nothing in the whole world left for us to do but wait for God to claim us."

Liane translates all this as best she can, stumbling over the sciency bits a little.

They argue for a minute or two. Eventually, the consensus is that they want to do experiments on his magic heater.

"They're so gloomy! You don't need to translate that."

He gets out one of the heaters. He holds it without any gloves. Maybe that'll help.

This thing is hot! The scientists spend a while using the equipment in the room, trying to prove that the heat, and the holding it without gloves, are faked somehow. They grow more animated and excited the longer they can't figure out where the trick is.

Liane giggles on the other side of the radio link, watching them bicker. "Classic scientist behavior."

"Of course! It's their magic. What do you think, should I offer to help them hold it bare-handed?"

Liane thinks it's a good idea.

They test Valanda's gloves in various ways. When he can do the same thing to a pair of their gloves, and then to the eager volunteer herself, they seem to start to actually believe him. They ask lots of questions about how magic works, and offer some of Her Majesty's finest canned beans if he's hungry.

"Thanks but I ate today!"

They're so suspicious. He really did not expect it to be this hard to talk them into getting warded against extreme temperatures. The waterbenders weren't this thorough and they were warmer and more used to the cold anyway.

Well, they're scientists. They want to understand. They keep spouting out names of people and theories that Liane can't hope to translate the full meaning of.

...They start asking what exactly his world is like, besides 'does not contain people with morals', soon.

"We have an empire. We have slavery, it's how we deal with criminals and brain-damaged people and children, but people who aren't slaves can vote on who's in charge of the imperial government. We have eight species of people, not just humans. I don't know what else you'd consider important to know."

"Putting the back-alley stabbers and lunatics and your own kids to work... Back to the 17th century, eh?"

"At least they have the vote for free people. We'd be the smallest minority, but it's something."

"What's there in the way of work? I'm sure you can accommodate a third-rate linguist, botanist, geologist, mechanical engineer, and chemist, but having relevant work is always better."

"Children are slaves? This isn't just a, a technical thing where the reality is different, is it, because that sounds rather awful."

"It's not just a technical thing. It's the worst atrocity in history, counting the entire warring states period. Ending it is my second priority, after ending slavery for adults who've done nothing wrong."

"Yes, I think we can all agree that slavery is awful and should be ended. It's just that without a plan or fellow believers, going against the political will to achieve that is tantamount to shouting at the wind to stop blowing."

"You think we should all become his new abolitionists, then?"

"Perhaps. Like Davy said, there's not anything left for us to do here. We could stay here, use that heat core and hold on a while longer, but maybe this way we won't even starve when the beans run out. And the 'magic' is just begging for some proper experimentation and a real explanation."

The other four scientists nod in agreement to this last bit.

"Sir, I think we would like to take our chances with you."

"I'll be glad to have you! Liane, do you think I should bring them back to Milliways and stash them there so they can read our laws while I get other people?"

"Milliways sounds lovely. Maybe even more interesting than Har."

Liane thinks that's probably a good plan.

The scientists pack some of their stuff and install the heat core in their main boiler and turn the radio transmitter on, playing a looping message, in case anyone needs this place later, hopefully they'll have a warm place to sleep and canned beans to eat.

"If you have questions for me or want me to help figure out what kind of work you can do in my world, better if you ask now than once I've got other people to deal with and you've got Milliways to explore."

"Well, we certainly want to read the laws. Davy is a geologist, I'm Kenneth, a linguist, Katherine is a botanist, Rogers is a mechanical engineer, and Jane is a chemist. Do you suppose we could find work in our specialties in your little colony? Perhaps I can learn two or more new languages and make a living translating." He looks doubtful. "Ah, and I don't think you should count on keeping all of us. Milliways sounds like a better deal in several ways, to be perfectly frank."

"Milliways is great and if you wait there a day you'll probably have at least two other options! I have a little work for a geologist, if you can tell me things about my volcano. Once I have immigrants from other worlds I could use a translator if you learn languages faster than other people but other than that there's more work for a translator on the mainland. Which you can get to in a day from my colony. Jane might know some things a structure mage would pay to learn, Katherine should talk to some farmers because I have no idea what they'll want. Rogers might be able to collaborate with another immigrant I've got, but then again I'm not sure if he wants collaborators. To be honest you'll probably have to eventually move to the mainland or change jobs. Or both."

"Hmph. Thank you for being honest about my terrible long-term employment prospects. Still, anything's better than waiting to starve in this bleak place."

"Tell 'em about the pounds thing, maybe they have some old cash," Liane says.

The other scientists are finishing packing up now.

"Bar can change currencies. Including pounds sterling to something that has value now. Using the exchange rate they had when they were worth anything."

Oh, that's useful. They scrounge around and come up with some old paper money.

"Maybe we can visit Masterman's Bank on the west end and make a withdrawal from my account," Katherine jokes sardonically.

"How far is that? Can you give me directions?"

"I wasn't serious. It's under about two hundred feet of ice like the rest of downtown London, now. Let's just go. Onward, to unkown futures."

Onward they go. To Milliways.

On the flight back to the empty factory, Jane asks if they could pay him and other Har-locals to hold the door to Milliways for a day or two, so they can back out if they find Ice Beach not to their liking.

"You can but it won't be cheap, the door's obstructing access to some important government property and you'd be paying someone for entire days of work. Sorry."

"It's clear you want immigrants for your grand moral arc, you want us to go to this grim world and suffer the gloom and doom and morally wrong laws and inflict them on our children, all to contribute to changing it for the better. It's better than starving to death, but then, anything is. Perhaps you could be doing things to make that a more attractive option? Though Milliways does not sound... Predictable."

"The only selling points I have are warm tents, a lot of fruit, and the fact that summer's coming later this year. I don't have enough rings to pay everyone to immigrate, not an amount that would make a difference. If you don't want to come there will be other people who have other offers to make and I can't offer you any good reason not to go with one of them."

"You're honest about it, though."

She goes quiet and contemplative for the rest of the ride.

They get to Milliways. He checks if the airship needs anything and asks Liane if she could use a break from door-holding.

The airship needs more fuel.

Liane takes the headset off.

"I'm good. I have books. Pretty interesting stuff. But let's close it until you're ready to go again, so people don't freeze while we talk."

She lets it shut.

Scientists go enjoy their free drink and ask Bar questions. 

"And it'll give someone with a world they'll like better a chance to come through, too."

He asks Bar about fuel. Does it come in some kind of convenient container, maybe with instructions?

Yes. This little tank is full of fuel, just follow the pictures to unscrew the empty one and snap the full one in.

"Dunno why but I kind of feel like everything is going to work out fine. Milliways can't be bad."

"Good. Think you can start farming soon now that you can heat greenhouses?"

"I bet they can if they get some seeds and building materials. Greenhouses are an art some of us learned pretty fast, 'cause we had to. Hey! You don't have much money to offer them, but it sounds like you do have a lot of land. If they can get free or cheap land to farm and build houses on, that might attract some of the wafflers?"

"Oh! Yeah, I can do that. I could probably give everyone in your world a dozen acres if I could get to them, I can definitely do it for this handful. Bar, has anyone done something similar to that and written down what worked and didn't work? Can I get a book recommendation or something for after I get the next batch of people?"

There have been many programs that ran along the same lines, in many different worlds.

She produces a short list of suggestions immediately. 

Whenever you would like to read these, or perhaps something else, just let me know.

"Thanks, Bar! So, Liane, I don't know your schedule, I don't know if going for the next group now would be keeping you up or anything, want me to get these books and give you a break now or go for the next group?"

"I can stay up a while longer. Maybe one or two more groups. Thing is, if I hold the door for too long, time's passing out there and I can't go hand out heat cores as quickly, so maybe only one or two more groups and be done with it? Most of the others are much further away, anyway."

"However many more you think it's more valuable bring here than take heat cores to, whether that's one or two or none or a hundred forty-four. I'll trust your judgment about it."

"Hmm... The basement dwellers, and the hospital. Yeah. That'll do."

"Sure, which first?"

He puts his headset back on.

"The doctors at the hospital were kind of hostile and suspicious, but the other group actually let me help them, so the basement folks first. Maybe if you bring one of them to the hospital, they'll trust you more? I really don't know what's up there, though."

"At worst they can have some heat and be better off than they were before, I guess. Maybe I should get a volunteer from this group to vouch for me to the basement folks, too, do you think that'd be useful? Assuming any of them want to."

"That'd totally be useful!"

"Hey, anyone feel like coming along and telling the next group I'm not insane and Milliways and magic are real? Twelve rings, won't affect anything about your move to my world if you refuse except that it might be slower if I have to do more proving myself."

"I want to rest here, where it's warm, but that sounds important..."

Scientists mull over the offer for a few moments.

The sarcastic Katherine asks, "How much is a ring worth, anyway-" Bar provides a napkin. "Sure, why not, I'll do it if you stop somewhere for me after all. With a heat core to melt my way inside the seed vaults and immunity to temperature extremes I might be able to salvage some frost-resistant samples. Bar can't sell us viable seeds."

"Think that's worth the delay?" he asks Liane.

"How long will that take, and how likely are you to get good seeds?"

"An hour, maybe two. Depends on the species, I have seventy six in mind. Probably at least a few, hopefully twenty or thirty species. But it depends how well the vault interior held up."

"Yeah okay that's worth it."

"Seeds before or after the people?"

She consults her map.

"Before. Seeds, basement guys, hospital, milliways. Least travel time. Sound good?"

"Sure. Think I can get them all in one trip?"

"Not if everyone wants to come along, but I don't think they will. If only a few people from each place wants to come, yes."

"Guess we'll see how many trips I have to make, then."

Skyward?

Skyward they go.

Katherine helps him load the fuel into the ship. It's a quieter trip, this time.

Such interesting icy ruins.

"I could say things in Hari while we're flying. Might help with language learning."

"We might not all need to learn it, if enough of us go. Adults don't learn languages nearly as well as children do, anyway."

"That's true. I can get one-way magic translation to understand you and you can read the laws in Milliways and that'll cover a lot of it."

"We'll pick up some of it sooner or later. I'm - going over my memory, for the seeds, right now, that's all."

He avoids saying anything distracting.

They can pilot to the frozen ruins of a university campus soon enough.

"Most of the buildings are already ransacked for anything useful, of course. Registrar might have some gold bullion, and if Bar takes that at face value... But that building is badly ruined. It'd take days for me to dig through it alone. The biology wing is there, the vault is in the basement."

"Want me to try the registrar while you look for the seeds or help you with the seeds?"

"Let's just go for the seeds. Digging for gold instead of preserving life sounds like one of those morality tales where greed gets you killed. Heh."

If they're not going to be talking much while they look he'll ask Liane about those tales because he's never heard one.

Finding the vault is easy. Katherine knows exactly where it is. Melting through all the accumulated ice and snow to get to it will take a bit longer.

"Uh... I could read one to you but they're mostly meant for children, to get them to think about morals and why a certain moral exists?"

"Oh! I'll have to get a book of them when I get back to Milliways. I was thinking of introducing people to the concept with fiction, that's pretty popular with caralendri, good to know there already are stories like that."

"Ooh, Milliways has touched a lot of worlds. Bar probably has books meant specifically for explaining morals to amoral people."

"The books she recommended to me when I asked were a little dry and abstract and only interesting because I already cared about the subject. But maybe that's just because I wanted explanations and details and someone else would get a shorter version in rhyme with jokes."

"It might also depend on what she thought you wanted? Or how you asked? I think she'd have given you something more - simple and childish like I'm thinking of - if you'd asked."

"Guess I'll find out!"

"Yep!" Liane goes quiet.

Melting through things continues. They can see the vault and the heat core is very powerful, but the cold is pervasive and ice takes a lot of heating up before it melts and steams.

"Can you put your magic on the seeds for me once we get in there? If they survive we'll all fare better in your little town."

"Depends on what you mean. If we find them safe I can make sure they're not damaged by cold or heat in transit but there's nothing I can do to the seeds that would make the plants cold-tolerant after they start growing."

"Yes, that's what I meant. So they don't get damaged any worse than they already have."

"I can do that."

"Excellent. The last of this should melt away in a minute or two..."

Melting ice and hefting the super-hot metal rod around.

Soon enough they crack the vault open. It seems... Fairly intact! Clean insides, neat rows of boxes with labels and ladders for climbing up. Katherine gets to work, finding an empty box and fetching up seeds.

This one seems alright... These probably won't be but it's worth trying... Oh dear look at that crack that's definitely dead... And so on.

He wards seeds as they go and sorts the ones she thinks are worth bringing back from the ones she doesn't.

There has to be at least five thousand backpack-sized boxes in here. She writes whole sections off and knows exactly what she's looking for in the other ones. A skilled botanist, or at least familiar with the archives.

It takes an hour and fifteen minutes and she fills two boxes with warded seed packets.

"These will be the crops for whoever settles with you." Sigh. "We're done here... Never again will bright-eyed young folk walk these halls studying soil samples or seed splices..."

She stares at the high stacks of boxes, frost now forming on them through the open vault door, sadly.

She turns away, stonefaced. "Onward, then."

"Sure they're best taken with me? Your world might need them more."

"There are other seed vaults. They took a dozen times more, from all around the world, to the north with a small army of automata. The Oxford-Cambridge mission is the world's hope for crop variety after this awful eternal winter abates. If it ever does."

"Okay. This is the northern hemisphere, right? Why didn't they take them south instead?"

"Hm? I don't know the details of that... I think the north was unsettled, so no starving people to come steal the spots we were making for ourselves. Desperate times make for cruel, desperate actions, eh? We may feel awful about it, truly gut-wrenchingly terrible, 'tis one of the worst betrayals since the slaughter of Rome... But abandoning most of the population to the cold may be the only reason some of us survived."

"I wish we could have done better..." Liane says, after she translates this.

They're not his people to mourn, he's just here to get this job done. He doesn't say anything.

Liane might be able to hear how shaky his breathing is suddenly.

"It's going to be better now. You're saving people with Milliways and immigration. I'll save people with heat. We are helping."

"Okay. Yeah. That's right, these people will be okay now."

Katherine stows the seeds and starts preparing the little airship to continue on.

Skyward. Valanda's starting to dislike all the icy ruins.

They're beautiful in a brutal, austere sort of way if you don't realize how much death it all means.

They arrive near the group of basement dwellers soon. A large walking construction, an automaton, plods towards a cluster of buildings that are emitting smoke, carrying a sled loaded down with coal.

"Careful of the automaton. Most of them don't see, it'll run right over us if we're in the way."

He stays out of its path on the way to the buildings and keeps an eye out for anyone visible from outside.

He can see figures moving around in a greenhouse built on the back yard of one of the ruins. There are a couple of watchers who wave lanterns at them and seem to be pointing them to a clear area.

He goes where the watchers seem to want.

Katherine walks out first, boldly, and declares, "Hello all! There's some good news. A new place for you all to go, if you want! I'm told a scout by the name of Liane visited here a while ago?"

There are nods. "She's a saint, she is. All of us who are left probably are only because of her automaton an' the greenhouse."

"Well, Liane discovered this place. I've seen it myself. Though... It's very strange. Valanda here doesn't speak English but he has a translator, he can explain - and prove it better than I can."

"There's a place called Milliways. Sometimes by magic a door goes there instead of where it usually goes. It's warm. There's food. From Milliways you can get to other places it's borrowed doors to, like where I'm from. I can show you some of the magic we have where I'm from, I brought some heaters that will never cool off, you can have one if you want, even if you don't want to come to Milliways."

"It's magic? And you, that's an Oxford crest on your coat, yer a proper scientist, you believe it?"

"I have been convinced that they can do things you might call magic, yes. You can see for yourself - I'm going to bring out an extremely hot rod of metal. It will stay hot without any fire - the temperature not varying so much as a single degree. I'm going to touch it directly and not burn."

"-Like a miracle, the touch of God-"

"-We can put it in a boiler and never have to fill it up with coal again." She turns around and gets a heat core out from the box. The locals can feel the heat even ten feet away and see Katherine, untouched. It certainly causes a stir. More survivors come out.

"Is there a leader here?" Katherine asks.

"No. We're just families who found each other, we haven't had disputes that we couldn't work out or anything..."

"I think we should have a meeting with everyone here and explain the options. Can you all go gather everyone you can?"

The crowd goes back into the ruined buildings. Katherine follows, putting the heat core back in its box.

Following them is probably a good idea, right? Unless someone steals the airship but anyone who would probably needs it more anyway.

Katherine doesn't seem worried about airship theft, anyway.

It takes a few minutes to gather everyone. More human faces than Valanda has ever seen at once, about four dozen. Children, babies, teens, adults, and older people all.

"Everyone, please calm and listen. We're here to help you! I hear there's no leader here - that's fine. The ways we can help can be a choice everyone makes for themselves."

She briefly explains Valanda, magic, as much of Milliways as she knows, and a politely phrased version of Har's laws and Valanda's mission for it and the offer of land. People mostly seem confused about all this, not knowing what to make of it.

"The way I see it," Katherine concludes, "Everyone here has three options. One - stay here, with the powerful heat cores to help brace you against the winter. It will be much easier and safer than before... But we still do not understand why the great frost has come, or when - or if - it will ever abate. Two - go with us to Milliways and live there, warm and fed, and hope to find a new world warmer than ours and with pleasanter laws than Har's, though it is far from certain that you will. Three - take a homestead on Har and build a community with the others who choose to do the same. The laws are not what we're used to, but we will all have land, and warmth, and space to grow and build once again, and the prospect of changing it for the better, if we choose so. Valanda, have you anything to add?"

"Your prospects will be better from Milliways even if you choose not to come with me. It's been having a slow day today and what I mean by that is I've only met people from three other worlds. It's winter in Ira Sani, too. It's icy. It snowed yesterday. But it's warmer than here and that winter will end. If you come with me, before the year is out you'll see summer."

Summer sounds lovely, a lot of people agree. They miss being able to just walk around outside without getting frostbite. But the slavery thing is awful. A couple of the teenage boys end up arguing with their parents over it, refusing to even consider it.

Milliways has a summer, doesn't it? They don't need to move into the weird slave place to have summer. But they'll have nothing but what they can carry in, if they take that option. And why is staying here a bad idea anyway? They have food, they'll have the heat cores next.

He ambles over toward one of the arguing families. When he gets Liane's translations he makes sure he's loud enough for the others to hear too. "What's the problem? You look like an adult, though of course I don't have a mage with me who could check, just have to go by what I see and what you tell me. Just to be clear, the age of majority is seventeen. You're over that, right?"

"...I'm sixteen, sir. And it sounds awful anyway."

"Daniel-"

"No, mom. You say I have to grow up? I am. I'm saying no. I won't go to that place."

"That's probably a worse loss for me than for you. I wouldn't try to make you."

"Good. 'Cause I'm, uh, putting my foot down."

"Your father'd lecture you over being so disrespectful to me, Daniel. He's offering land, for all of us. Me, your little brother, and you. Our family's been badly off ever since we lost our plot in the shires..."

Daniel just shakes his head and says to Valanda, "You can go, sir. Please?"

"Yeah, I'll take whoever wants to come, if that's not you it's not you. But you really will be better off if you go to Milliways and wait for someone else than if you stay here."

"I like the sound of that option. If it's real. Only have you and that lady's word for it so far..."

"If everyone else wants to go there'll be too many for one trip, I can bring someone else back to tell you about it on a second trip if I have to make one anyway."

"Maybe. Seems like you have some takers from what I hear, anyway."

Some other people want to know if their trades would be in demand. The ones that ask are: Farmers, blacksmiths, tailors, butchers, telegraph operators, machinists, printing press operators, coach drivers, steelworkers, or furniture makers.

"We have people farm and work metal, you may find it's more convenient than you're used to with our magic but it'll be pretty similar. There are human-shaped people who wear clothes but people might want to study Hari fashion before trying to break into the market, same for furniture. We don't have telegraphs or printing presses but I know an inventor who might want to talk to people with experience in those trades. Coach drivers will just have to do something new."

Coach drivers could drive coaches, if there are cars to be had and roads and people or things that need to go places.

But fine.

They're starting to separate out into 'want to go to Milliways and decide what to do from there' and 'no I'm staying here you can go off and have a damnfool adventure fine by me', split about seventy-thirty.

"I think that's a little more than we can take in one trip, who wants to be first?"

Most of the adult men volunteer to be first, and maybe a couple of them come report back. Nobody seems to find the distribution odd.

Of course they don't. Old enough to be reliable witnesses, unimportant enough to be expendable, caralendri are the same way, if Valanda stopped and really thought about it he might notice something weird about that but he doesn't. It'll make for a really cramped second trip, the group just skews so much toward children, but it would sound really suspicious to ask for more volunteers.

So, skyward.

They install heat cores in the survivors' boilers before leaving.

The airship is noticeably more sluggish, weighed down like this.

"I'm surprised so many wanna come see Milliways! I thought they'd all want to hunker down and stay put. Katherine's speech was pretty good."

"Thanks, Katherine!" And not to be translated: "Yeah, I'm a little surprised too, it looked like you'd gotten them pretty cozy. You do good work."

"Glad to hear it! It's been, you know, hard work. Lonely too. But for some people, if you can help, it's immoral to not. And that's why I'm gonna keep doing it after my little vacation."

"I'd wish for you to meet some helpful people on your vacation but I guess you have."

"Who knows who else I'll find? But even if I don't, just relaxing for a while, and eating real food, will be plenty nice."

"Good. I hope you get to do that."

When the airship arrives, the men go into Milliways in an orderly fashion. Yep, this sure is an interdimensional-or-something bar. They get to chatting with Liane and the scientists still hanging out here.

Valanda stretches and waits for them to decide who's going back to tell people. If they look like they'll be long he'll just borrow a book of children's stories with morals while he waits.

Children's moral stories are shorter, simpler, and usually have one fairly clear "moral of the story" you're supposed to learn at the end. Don't lie about wolves being near to get out of work or nobody will believe you when they're real and you'll get eaten. Sharing your toys with others can make you new friends. Don't be cruel to other people or they won't like you anymore. Working hard isn't fun, but makes your life easier if you make a habit out of it. Sometimes a person who seems scary and mean is just misunderstood, you should try to understand them and be kind anyway. If you admit to doing something immoral and repent and ask for forgiveness, you won't be tortured forever after you die.

That's really alarming! But it's probably a metaphor of some kind. He'll have to ask Liane about it later.

Looks like they'll be a while talking. He gets one of the books about homestead grants.

Homestead grants come in many shapes and sizes. This one is about the program America used. They offered heads of a household (men with a wife and at least one child) over the age of 21 a hundred and sixty acres of free land if they would travel there themselves, build a house, and 'improve' the land for five years - or only six months if they were willing to pay the equivalent of about 288 rings per acre.

But there were problems - a lot of the land ended up in the hands of speculators, and the people the program was meant for (poor urban families) didn't have enough money to start a farm, even on free land. They ended up planting a tree or two to technically 'improve' the land and then finding other work, not increasing the food supply with independent farmers like the government actually wanted. That, plus increasing mechanization of agriculture, meant that the Homestead Act was a mixed success at best.

Well, he's not counting on them for food, if they find other work that's great, it's not like he's giving them enough land to make much difference to Har's food supply anyway.

If they're not done talking yet he'll eavesdrop on them a little.

Several of the men are now drunk and mourning semi-quietly, while drinking more, in a corner. One of the teenage boys is talking to Liane, who looks like she's mostly just tolerating him.

Most of the rest are huddled with the scientists over a pile of sketches, the biggest of which is a church and garden they hope to build by combining several peoples' lots of land into one.

The cranky geologist notices him listening and waves him over and asks, "How much land would we be getting again, and where is it? What's the zoning rules? We may'd want to find a flat area with a stream away from any establishment and make our place there, 'pendin on how much infrastructure you already have and what it'll cost us to attach to it."

"We don't have much infrastructure yet. It wouldn't cost anything extra to include you in the first city but there's not much reason for you to prefer that except a shorter wait before there's plumbing and it'll be more convenient to be there if you want to fly to the mainland. I was thinking I'd let you pick the land you want from... Bar, does the map Nick made for me count as published enough to get a copy of it here?"

Since it is displayed publicly, yes.

And a copy of it appears a few seats over where there's clear space.

He goes and looks it over. "Come let me show you the place. So you wouldn't want to settle here or south of here, probably, there's a volcano and permafrost. And these areas are reserved for other uses. This place is going to be the city. So if you want anywhere around here" he points out a huge swathe of land "you can pick your favorite spot, I wasn't planning to tell you where to go. Near here will make it easier to buy imported food and we're not producing much yet, I had a greenhouse made but it's just proof of concept, it doesn't feed even the people I've got. There's hunting, though, you have to pay if you take the animals from these areas, but over here anything's fair game if you can kill it."

"Hmm... Whoever made this map is a good surveyor. Assuming it's accurate. The hunting will be good. We have a couple of rifles. I'm fairly sure we can build efficient greenhouses quickly enough, but we'd bring a couple of months worth of preserved food through. I think... There, right there, the fjord that's marked 'shore access', with the river nearby. It's close enough to your city site that a road between them shouldn't be too much trouble, but it's well within the un-allocated area, has fresh water, and is on the north shore besides."

"We'll want to build a small port and fish, how are you handling fisheries? We may want to buy or rent a lot of this land here for logging - you don't get a huge amount of wood per-acre from sustainable logging, replanting the trees as they're cut, but there's a lot of wood to be had in the initial clearing from old growth to managed forest, so it should serve for a good while. I don't suppose you know where a good deposit of iron ore is? We won't need coal anymore, but steel and wood are the bones of everything we know how to build. Especially automatons, which may well serve as a good export."

"I don't know where you can find iron but you will be able to buy metals and probably still sell your automatons at a profit. Commercial fisheries have to pay imperial taxes, you can read about them in one of the supplements to the imperial laws, but if you're just going to eat your catch yourself you don't have to worry about it. I need some of those trees cut anyway, see, this area will be more useful when it's not forest, clear it for me and keep the wood for whatever you want."

"That will be helpful, the forests. Some folk will make a living off fishing, I'm sure. It's just... We had a government. With a rich history and a robust set of laws, and we more or less knew what we could expect from them. Your government, and it is yours quite directly from what I have heard, and Har's government... We don't know it. How it's structured, what it's likely to do, what it will care about and ignore. And we'll be losing many of the legally protected rights and freedoms our people fought hard political battles for. It's a frightening prospect."

"It's not going to be mine forever, if enough of you want to come you might be able to get one of you elected governor. The imperial government will care a little if you kill people or don't pay taxes, but they don't micromanage much, if no one complains about you and they get as much as they think they should be getting in taxes they'll ignore you. I can't say as much about Ira Sani, I have intentions but no track record."

"...So the imperial government doesn't care that much about the day-to-day of Ira Sani if they get their money? You know, it'll be a lot like moving to the Colonies, that way. And America started humble, folks arriving with not much more than their clothes and seeds, but it was on the rise by the time the frost came."

This new way of thinking about it makes the rounds and people react pretty positively to it. They resume urban planning and tallying up what they have, a little more encouraged.

Someone comes in the door, which is not currently being held. Someone in a bright red and white almost-skintight outfit, wearing a half-face mask.

"Woah, what's this, Steampunk Day?"

"Hi, I'm Valanda, governor of Ira Sani. These people are refugees who all seem to have lots of useful skills and I'm taking some of them home with me if you don't lure them away. This place is Milliways, doors sometimes magically lead here instead of where they're supposed to lead."

"I knew about Milliways, I thought it was just some Mastermind's pet project, 'cause I just met a bunch of other supers there. Not steampunk refugees. But, wow, refugees, huh? Good on you, guv'na."

"What are supers and can they change a world's climate?"

"Supers are people with super powers!" She bounces slightly and floats off the floor, grinning. "Maybe, like, Masterminds could invent something to change the climate, but most supers are like me. Flying, force fields, laser eyes, teleporting, something like that. I fly and can shoot lightning."

"That's pretty impressive! I don't know anyone who shoots lightning at home... and I know someone who might have a job for someone who does, maybe, he's not convenient to the door to ask about it. Ever wanted to move to another country?"

She laughs. "Nah. Almost definitely nah. I mean, there do exist things that could tempt me away from C-S-U's salary, benefits, and insurance but I doubt you have 'em."

"Oh? What things?"

"Vast quantities of money? The perfect husband? Immortality pill?"

"It's possible I have the perfect man for you somewhere but not very likely, there's not much of a selection in my world if you're into humans."