"Thanks, I'm hoping can sort it out soon. Here's hoping, you know?"

"Where'd we be without hope and beer, anyway?"

He orders another.

"On the one hand, we'd probably be more productive without beer. Without hope, though--"

"Some kinds of tea have the opposite effect. And, well, only when I'm done working for the day. As for hope, I'm not really sure, but the least one can do is keep going."

"I mean, that's kinda how hope works? You keep going, even if it might not work out, because you hope it will."

"I chose metallurgy, not philosophy, as my course of study, so I rather don't know."

"Sensible choice, honestly."

"I don't suppose you've ever had formal schooling from any institution Oxford would acknowledge knowing exists. But have you learnt particularly much despite that?"

"I was a noble back home. I had an education, but it was a little focused."

"Oh, dear. Should I be being more, er, polite?"

"No, not really. I'm not a noble here, and anyway being a witch sorta dramatically kicked me out of my birthright."

"Oh, you have that too? I wasn't sure magical nobles losing their noble titles was that common."

"Didn't realise you guys had that. It isn't all magical nobles-- certain types of powers mean you're special, you're the Noblest Noble with religious backing, but other types of powers you're demon spawn sent to corrupt the masses.

Yeah, I turned out to be the second kind."

"I think the Church struggled with that a lot in its early days, yes. If you demonize Witches you won't get any magical help, will you?"

"But if you demonise half of them, and act like the rest are really shiny, you're in the clear! ... well, maybe not half. More like five percent. The math is weird."

"I could see that happening and working, yes. People are messy, hm?"

"Sooo messy. Especially when power is involved."

"There's an engineering definition of power. The amount of work - again engineering definition of work - done in an amount of time. With sufficient power you could make a person - or anything else - very messy indeed. Like cannons do." He is very faintly drunk, now. Not slurring - he's enunciating more clearly, carefully, if anything, but you can tell.

"It'd be nice if power could be applied so straightforwardly. A lot of problems would be simpler if you could just, like, throw cannons at them."

"...though that'd probably be a lot of work."

"It's a little bit depressing that much of my work these past few years has been... Making better cannons. Beautiful instruments of lethal precision they may be, but it's still rather bloody work, if distantly so."

"At least they're aimed at the neuroi? ...currently. Though that's a little depressing."

"I like getting to work on machinery and engines and things like that... Well, not weapons, but the weapons are rather a priority."

"Hopefully it'll be over soon, and you can make mechanised-- whatever's useful. Hedge trimmers. Something like that."

"Too small and fiddly to be practical with current technologies. Mechanized shovels and carriages and plows maybe."