They're somewhere else.

It's cold. Bitterly cold. Snow swirls all around them. There are other features of the new landscape beyond blinding whiteness and cold cold cold, but they might take a minute to become obvious.

She hadn't had time to figure out what to say to Genea, and the generic 'watch out' seemed like it wouldn't be helpful at all, so she hadn't said that.

This means that Genea's first awareness of the situation is an instant of body language and then being - here.

It's freezing. She's never felt such cold in her life - the north of Southern Crossing gets cold enough in winter for a sprinkling of snow sometimes (she's never seen this much snow before either, but she doesn't think of that first.)

Warmth. Warmth warmth warmth. Non-mages die if it's too cold, don't they (the north of Tscher has considerably harsher winters than that of Southern Crossing.) Not this fast though, right, she just needs a moment - if she doesn't immediately get something she'll fall back on fire but she thinks she can do better -

Figuring it out like she's doing the wards would take a bit more, but if she just - 

Aye goes suddenly hot (or maybe just making heat out of herself, like some odd version of throwing fire without the fire?). Like some kind of mage furnace, heating the air around her. Enough to chase back the cold, let her breathe alright again. She does that.

"Are you alright? I mean, are you - not dying of cold, right? Or - anything else?"

"I'm fine. If that's what the being warm's about it's, um, working. 

...what is - happening?"

"We seem to have walked into something? Or, something seemed to appear where we were walking. I was looking out I promise - no idea what it was. Or what it did.

Except for the being somewhere else part, I think it did that.

Assuming we are somewhere else and this didn't just happen to where we just were. Think it's the somewhere else, though." She puts power into wards again, tries to think of more wards she might not have thought of and then do those. And also looks around.

She also does the last of those.

They are on a hill near the ocean. There is a mountain to the left, a wide beach leading to a dark ocean, illuminated by moonlight, to the right. What isn't covered in snow is barren rock or ice.

Except for the ragtag fleet of boats festooned with lights in the bay, a few miles down the hill. It's hard to make out details but the boats all seem to be loaded down with people. The ones nearest the beach have run up against the ice and people are trying to get out safely and work up the beach, carrying lanterns and backpacks. They're all bundled up in heavy coats. Some of them are children.

She has seen snow and ice before, but not this much or like this. She hasn't seen ocean before at all. She stares. 

"Well. Without all that water if it weren't 'Settlers, part II', my best guess would be north Tscher - or north Kashjar I guess, maybe they don't have wards against whatever-that-was either. Don't think Kashjar's enormous water thing is north enough either, though, come to think. So - Settlers part II? Maybe.

I'm assuming here by the way that 'people disappear and show up somewhere with a lot of snow and enormous water and then they come right back soon' isn't something where there's stories all over Southern Crossing about it and I just missed them."

She's focusing mostly on the people now. She shakes her head.

"If they - didn't come back, though -."

"Same from ours. Even mages - I mean, no one's missing me, people go off if they want to - even if someone says they'll show up somewhere no one's going to think much of it if they don't. 

If they happen a bunch you'd think someone'd catch them scrying, but if they're scry-proof and no one knew they were around to notice that missing -"

Still looking at the people. "They might not even have mages."

"Or might have something different - no reason to think we're where the Settlers came from."

She calls up water, stretches out a screen. Summons up the location of the people, viewed as though from closer up now. 

They're shouting to each other and helping each other disembark. It's proving difficult without a proper dock - their tools do things like lift big crates or give off light. They're building ramps across the ice. A small group is looking at a map, held carefully sheltered against the wind, and then points and start walking inland.

There are a lot of boats. A trail of lights on the boat-prows, a dozen near the shore and more stretching off towards the horizon until they become indistinct. Hundreds of people, at least. The boats are made of metal, covered in ice, and seem - poorly maintained, ramshackle, not designed for this.

"On one hand I kind of want to go see if I can help. On the other hand they might try to kill us. Doesn't look like they're doing anything magic right now, but that doesn't mean they don't have something for trying to kill us."

"Going to be true of anyone we see."

"True!

I can try to make something to keep you warm here and all that if you'd rather I try it alone first?"

She looks around, rather warily. "I think I'd be safer with you. Don't know if they have something like Beasts here, or -"

"Alright! I'll keep you hidden for a bit then, assuming that works here, if you don't mind. Also keep myself hidden for a bit while I try to grab some language."

She doesn't mind.

Then - they are definitely not here to hurt anyone and there is no need to pay attention to them everyone can just ignore them for a bit, just don't pay any attention to them -

And she teleports them within shouting distance.

Nobody notices them! They continue unloading things and people onto the icy beach. Strange metal tools, packages of wood and cloth. They don't have much supplies, though. The group heading inland gathers more people and sets a moderate hiking pace. About thirty adults and a few older children and teenagers. They talk to each other in low voices, sounding hopeful and determined. They hammer a wooden stake with an arrow pointing inland, a trail sign, into the ice a few hundred meters up the beach before continuing on.

Well then either the don't-notice-us thing is working just fine, or they're really good at pretending, and probably the former.

And - language language, she can do this with one person and there's a lot here, the same minds that shouldn't be noticing them know the language she needs and languages aren't private she should be able to reach them just fine. Mapping, mapping. She's done this before, it takes her attention but she knows how to be handling it. Language. Mapping.

"-Take days for everyone to get out. And the weather keeps getting worse."

"That's why the strongest of us are going ahead. Mark the trail and-"

"Mama, I'm tired!"

"But look, we're here! We just have to set up tents and help everyone get off the boat and we can rest a bit."

"That scout who went back south is just going to die like the rest of them. It's hopeless. Noble, but hopeless... I wish she would have come with us."

"I just hope we can find the new home. Does it even exist? All I heard was that the Lords tried to hide it from us, but... I guess I don't know."

She relays mentally to Genea. 

And, that sounds like people who could maybe use help alright. Still within shouting distance and not closer, she makes herself noticeable again (keeps Genea hidden.) Waves. "Hello!"

The ones who notice them jump! They mostly react nervously. The ones a bit further away pause work for a moment, then get back to it, faster.

A couple of them take charge and approach a bit, shouting, "Hello! Who are you? Do you need a spare coat?"

"I'm a peaceful and helpful visitor! Don't need a coat - but thank you. I have a friend with me and she could use one, but if you don't have spares I'll make sure she'll be fine anyway. 

We saw you from up there and though we'd see if we could help with anything."

"...We can spare one coat. Who are you? Where are you from? We'll be glad for any help we can get if this isn't some kind of trick. We've been tricked enough already."

"Thank you! I will pay you back. Or forward, if you like that better, though I could probably actually help more if my friend had a coat already.

We're from - pretty far away, we think, we got here in an accident. Probably accident. I'm Aye. My friend's Genea. Sorry about dropping in like this, I didn't really know how else to do it.

I am definitely not trying to trick you." If she tries to map to 'mage' in the language, does she get a word?

No. 'Wizard' and 'sorcerer' both kind of feel like the right thing? But not really, it's not that close. 'Witch' and 'angel' also kind-of-not-really fit, but are worse in two different ways.

"Leon, get one of the spare coats out. Where are you from? You don't sound British. The continent? America? Russia?"

"Not those. Or, don't think so. I can say Southern Crossing but I'm guessing that won't really help much."

Does she get one for 'magic'?

There is a word for magic.

"No, it really doesn't." He thinks for a moment. "We all know each other, in one way or another. There's someone to vouch for everyone. That's not true for you."

"That is true.

I did come and say hi though, when there's two of us and a lot of you, and I didn't hide and try anything not very friendly." Not that she'd actually have to hide to do that.

He confers with his friends for a moment. "Fair enough. You don't act like a Lord. You can join us, share our food and supplies, if you share our work."

"Thank you. My friend and I are both very opposed to Lords." And fortunately he only said she didn't act like one and not that he was sure she'd ever been one.

"Speaking of work - do you have magic here? Or something like that?" 

Well, some things don't seem to change much. I wonder what these ones were like.

"No magic. No miracles, no fairy tales. Just science and engineering, and when those won't suffice, where we don't have the tools - muscle and determination. Speaking of which, we'd better get back to unloading the boats. Come and join us!"

Did they give her the coat yet?

"I will absolutely help you unload boats if you want me to unload boats - also my friend will. But -" she conjures fire, spins it around in her hands. "Can't help with children's tales, we probably have different ones anyway, but magic I do have!"

Fire is alarming! Magic is also alarming!

...The guy unpacking a coat was walking towards her with it, but stops when the fire appears.

"Magic isn't real. You have - something. But it's not magic."

She dismisses the fire. "Sorry!"

She's agreeable enough to that. "Not attached to the word. I'll call it whatever you want. But I do have it so if you need anyone healed or near something warmed or something made fireproof or getting a look at something kind of far away and things like that -.

And if you don't I can just unload boats, I can totally do that too." Which is to say 'do healing and stuff when they think she's asleep unless there's some great reason not to'. But if friendly means unloading boats she can sure unload boats. (They don't look like they'll hit her, but you can't have everything all the time.)

"...Well. We could all use some warmth. Even better if you can make it last. I don't think anyone in our group is particularly sick or injured, we've been lucky. Though, you should probably really be talking to the Captain. We chose him for a reason. He knows what's needed most, what we need to prioritize."

"I can make it last. Not forever, I'll have to refresh it now and then. If anyone needs it right now they can stand near me while I talk to whoever I should to talk to. Or I can make something else warm." (If people didn't find the fire convincing enough they can also see her continuing to stand in the middle of the snow without anything like a coat (let alone a hat or gloves) and not looking at all bothered by this.)

Coat progress?

The guy who has the coat has started tentatively walking forward again! Almost in reach, now.

"If you can make the insides of our tents warm, that would be lovely. Or just an area around a steel post, or something. The Captain went on ahead, he should be less than a mile inland still. I understand if you don't want to spend time trying to catch up, though."

"I can do that. And, we can do that, no worries. Which one would you like first?"

The coat is successfully handed over. The guy carrying it nods at her nervously, then retreats quickly.

"Steel post. Here, we'll drive it into the sand over there. We can store things there, sort through it all, cook something maybe. And set up the tents while you do that, give the children and the ones who've been working longest a chance to sleep and rest before the hike to the generator. Thank you!"

They coordinate briefly so she can walk out from behind Aye and look a bit less odd just appearing. Can she put the coat on over her light armor?

"Thank you!" If they don't look like they want anything else she'll wait for them to do that. Does the coat come with a hat or gloves?

The coat comes with a hood and goes almost down to their knees. It's thick cotton, with a few patchy leather pieces. There are gloves too, but they're rather thin. No pants or boots.

They don't know what else she can do. But it kind of seems like what they want is for nothing alarming to happen, and to get everything they can off the boats, even down to ripping up floorboards and unbolting the walls of the superstructures.

Two men and a woman with sledge hammers drive a steel girder into the sand near the stacks of stuff coming off the boat. Some other people are setting up tents. Most of them are still trying to make their way from the boats over ice to the shore, carrying things.

She can work with thin; it would be harder to work with nothing. Fortunately Genea has good enough shoes and long pants already. She works while she waits - warmth, warmth, warmth. She doesn't have to touch, she can do the pants and shoes from here. 

Work can make you warm, Genea reminds her. ...Not sure if it happens the same when it's this cold though...

...I think it does. This is trickier; she works on adjusting the magic. A coat won't hold the magic long, but she doesn't need a week let alone a month even; a day works just fine. She can renew it later. Warmth. 

She doesn't do anything more visually alarming than existing. If they haven't called her over yet by the time she's done with the clothes she hands off the coat to Genea and starts walking (unalarmingly!) over.

She puts on the coat. 

If I'm going to be helping I should probably not be carrying things. And I don't know the language.

Right. She indicates a place for the packs Genea's carrying, somewhere the boat people don't seem to be going. Drop them over on the rock there; I'll hide them.

And when Genea does the former she does the latter (the packs are already warded, of course, and now - these packs are not dangerous and you don't need to pay attention to them, just walk around here if you're going this way and don't think anything of it...).

I can relay translation, just pass it on to me.

You need anything, call me.

And she heads on to the girder.

She's been watching the people working, she knows who to walk up to and offer herself in help. 

The girder waits, sticking straight up out of the sand. "We have a couple of heaters and some coal, but saving those for later will be good. How big an area do you think is workable? Are you running down some resource? You should prioritize, if so. Whatever you can do should be good, though."

As for Genea, the man who seems to be directing unloading efforts says, "I don't recognize you or your friend. I didn't even notice you until a second ago. Hm. Where did you come from, eh? You going to slip off with a box of food or something."

"Glad to make them saveable! I've got a resource and I'm using it, but it's the kind that comes back. And in my case the kind there's a lot of. Bigger'll take more time and all that - I can start with some area you're wanting?"

She doesn't blame them. "Far away. We're strangers to you, with no one else to speak for us. I'm not a thief. If there's work you can trust me with on my word, then you have that."

"Renewable. And powerful. Very good, that. Again, thank you. Let's say from the post to where I'm standing, in a circle. Don't make it as hot as summer - a ways above freezing will do nicely and be less of a shock. It'll melt the snow, that'll serve as a marker just fine. How long will it last?"

He nods solemnly. "Giving your word only means so much these days, but very well. We're working for ourselves, now... Working with you two as well should be fine. Samuel seems to be alright with it, at any rate. " He gives Genea an unloading task near a few other people who can watch her.

She gives an affirmative hand gesture (theirs, not hers).

"Depends how long I take with it. A week's quicker, a month's longer, a year will take more of a while."

Given circumstances she won't say "to the Law and the sovereign citizens".

She'll unload.

"A year! Astounding. I can't imagine it will take more than a week for all the boats to get here and unloaded. A week or two should be fine. I begin to think you really should go find the captain. You can clearly do a very great amount to help us, and he will know better than I what questions to ask you."

The unloaders are all working hard, and used to hard work. They're tired and cold and hungry and anxious, but there's an extra zeal to their labors. These are people working towards hope.

"Week or two it is! And then captain-finding?"

She was a field laborer and then a guard, she's perfectly used to hard work too. The coat is keeping her warm just fine and she's not currently hungry. Different kinds of anxious-or-hopeful-and-similar-things mix, of course.

She notices that about them, though. Relays to Aye if they're talking, and tries to use that for picking up some words herself.

"And then captain-finding, yes. You can probably just follow their footprints - if you and your friend are up for a fast hike, that is... Please do ask if you have questions. You two seem a bit lost."

As for Genea, most of the talk is about the work they're currently doing. There is a minor incident after a few minutes.

"Oh shit-" Crash, a dropped slab of steel. A shout as someone nearly follows it overboard.

"Can we get it-"

"No, it's under the ice. It's not coming back. Just be glad you didn't follow it."

"Damn."

"Take a breather. Your safety is more important than the materials."

"Without materials we won't have a new city."

"Without people, too, no city. Go, rest, come back when you feel calm."

The man who nearly fell into the broken patch of ice finds an out of the way spot and stoops down, clutching at his head and swearing quietly.

"Right, everyone! Stay calm, stay safe. We are in no hurry here."

Work resumes.

"We're definitely lost!" she agrees. "If they're going on foot I should be able to just scry them and teleport us over. Though we can hike fast if there's some reason not to do the teleporting."

And, girder. She doesn't need someone to carve anchor signs for her either. Or to touch. Palms open towards it and the signs appear, on the steel and then the ground below, a foot from the girder in a few directions. She stands there for a bit, doing nothing they'll be able to see, then moves out. More signs, farther away. Walking the circle, stopping regularly. Moving out again. Repeat. 

She's liking these people. She - hopes there isn't something they haven't seen yet here to warp it all. 

"My friend can get it later, if you want.

And can do healing, if you need."

"I see no reason not to... Teleport." He seems uncertain, wavering. But after he sticks his hand in to test it, there is definitely warmth coming from seemingly nowhere, here. It's almost surreal.

"She can? Handy. Well, don't go too far out of your way to. It's only one piece of metal in the end. We have more." He taps the side of the boat. "We probably won't be using these ever again, so they serve us once more in being disassembled. Healing would be better. You don't seem to have any tools or medicine with you, though?"

There is! From her and now also from the girder and the ground around it. She walks wider circles.

"More sense to wait until unloading's done, case anything else falls, if you want her to," she agrees. "She won't mind though.

We have a bit. We were traveling, before we ended up here. But - some people where we're from can - do things differently."

"And... You can just do these things? It's not learnable, it's not a tool?"

"Hmm... Well. We'll be unloading for days. The plan is for us to get everything we can off our boat, leave a little supplies on the beach for the others, and hike inland to find the generator, and every other boat behind us does more or less the same."

"Not that we know of. Kind of a tool, but not the kind I can pick up and hand over. More the kind like your arm. Not quite, but closer."

Nod. "The generator? If it's not a secret."

"That sounds like... Magic. To me. I would have said magic was impossible a few hours ago, but a good scientist updates his assumptions in light of new data. So apparently magic is real."

"The generators are supposed to be the center of a city that will survive even the harshest winter. We only know where one is. The Lords knew the great winter was coming, as much as a year ago. They sent thousands of people up here in the north to build things, outposts, generators, meant to let people survive the winter. But only some people. They didn't tell us. It was just work, work, work, harder, harder. Damn Lords lied for months and would have left us to die! It's only fair that we're taking their generator."

"It is where we come from. And, looks like I get to take it with me." ('Scientist', meanwhile, is an exciting concept.)

Nod. "My people's ancestors were oppressed and exploited by Lords. Not by yours, but it sounds like there would be much in common. When they got to a different world, they said they'd build it new, everyone citizens, everyone subject to the same Law, everyone's Law." ...And then they hadn't done very well with that, had they, but she hasn't seen anyone enslaved or tortured here yet, or even anything like town-livers and field workers, so.

"My commiseration, and my solidarity."

"Very convenient, that. I'm certainly not complaining." He continues to boggle at the expanding zone of heat.

"Thank you. That sounds like a grand ideal to aspire to. I think everyone is just hoping to survive, now - but hopefully we can build a place like that."

Smile. She continues to expand it.

"Thank you. They - didn't live up to it, in a lot of ways, after. But, the ideal is - something.

And, whatever we can do to help, since or while we're here. With the surviving, with the building." 

"...I think that is about big enough. We'll put up tents at the edge... I want to ask so many questions about the magic but I know it's not really a priority right now."

"Good! For now, let's finish the unloading. Carefully, of course. Almost done, here!"

Affirmative handsign. She does a boundary. "Can tell you all about it whenever! Should I be off to the captain now? Should I be bringing my friend? You?"

Work, work.

"Bringing your friend is up to you, of course. Bringing me might be wise. Shortcut the explanation, if I vouch for you."

"Can do!" She consults with Genea. They conclude that having her along seems a good idea. "Captain's with the group that was heading out before?"

She finishes up whatever she was doing and excuses herself for the meanwhile.

"Indeed he is. Are we hiking, or... Magic-ing?"

Genea can be excused. They're almost done, anyway.

"Don't see a reason not to try magic-ing first. Unless you do." She calls up water into a surface in front of her again, starts scrying for the group in question.

And here's Genea.

"I don't know the limits or tradeoffs of your magic. You're the better judge than me on this."

The group in question is hiking steadily! There's no trail, but they seem to have an idea of where they're going. It's not clear from this view who's the leader, if anyone.

They can find that out when they get there!

"Ready?"

"I don't need to - brace myself, or something? Ready."

"You don't need to do anything," she says, as the non-mage who's been teleported before.

And Aye teleports them to within sight and hearing distance but not too close to the other party.

"-Strange. HAIL! CAPTAIN! I've got some exceedingly strange news for you, and the proof is that I'm here!"

There is some confusion for a minute, then a man steps to the front of the pack. "Yes, please do explain why you rushed up to meet us, and how you got ahead of us."

The local just gestures at Aye.

She waves. "I teleported!" 

Does he want to explain it from his perspective? 

"So you have some device for instant transportation? Oh, that could be very handy."

"It's - well, it's magic, sir. According to her and as far as I can see, anyway. She did heat at the landing site, too. Be a boon to those unloading still."

"...I'll hold off on judging magic real until we know more. It's not really the time. What are you two's names? I'm Theodore Bolard, but I prefer Ted."

"I'm Aye!"

"Genea."

"Welcome, as much of a welcome as an icy snowfield is. So, will you two help us? There are hundreds of souls depending on our finding and securing the generator."

"I'm very helpful!"

She's liked these people, but they should probably - "We can help with work, and protecting people - from elements or hunger, also. If we need to fight we should probably know more."

"I have every hope fighting will not be necessary. Depending on how powerful you are - the answer seems to be very, which is very slightly worrying, I will admit - with your help perhaps we can even go back, save the Lords or other refugees as well. It'd be the decent thing to do."

Nod. "That's - very good of you."

"I'm all for saving people! Also powerful."

"You have no reason to trust it, but you don't need to worry."

"We all do what we can, don't we? It brought us this far. How much can you teleport? Limit on number of targets? On weight? How far? How much can you heat? What else can you do?"

If she does one maximum-distance teleport (while saving for emergencies), such-and-such far. If she spaces it out a little, a bit more. That's for about a day, though she doesn't think she can keep that up literally forever. Or at least not at home.

"Don't know exactly, would need to try. Think I can go less far with more people? Or weight. Probably trades off till I wouldn't be able to get much of anywhere.

Like, if I just stand around making it hot, or the way I did it back there?

Scrying, crops stuff, wards. Energy blasts, fire. Pretty good on endurance, so if you need someone to walk into a blizzard or climb a mountain they might fall off or spend a few hours underwater or something I can do that. ...Guess the last one's not really endurance. Healing. Pulling water out of the air, if that comes up for some reason. Some mind stuff - I'm not going to grab people without permission but I can do it. I can talk in people's heads if I get to know them some - and them to me back. Languages - that's why I'm talking yours. Probably more things, go ahead and ask if you want. Probably more things than I know."

"Water won't be an issue, I think. Getting people and supplies to the generator sooner might be the best thing you can do for us, but I want to learn a bit more before calling it... I was thinking permanent, or at least sustained, heat, like a fire. If you can do that in place of pouring coal into the generator, it will leave more hands for other work, and there's plenty of work. Endurance would be helpful for scouts... Mental effects. Hmm. Can you communicate with people over long distances? Can you find people?"

"I can do more heat like I did back there. Can make it last longer if I'm at it longer. 

Oh, endurance is mostly just me, though maybe I can help with something in there.

Longer than shouting, yes. Longer if I know them more than not. Maybe if I like them? Not sure. Very long and I'll need to set it up on both ends and it won't be instant, but can do.

I found you? Don't think I could find literally anything, don't know exactly where the limits go. Someone lost?"

"I don't think so, nobody's lost yet. There are a lot of interesting possibilities... But I think for now, transport is the most urgent one. I think you should teleport most of us and most of our supplies to the generator, if you can find it - I can describe it pretty well, if that helps, and we know where it should be, on this map. Once we're there, we can start building. A few of us should keep hiking and mark the trail, just in case. And then if you still have some potential for the day, perhaps you should go back to the boats and help them teleport people and supplies off, and move inland. What do you think?"

"Map should help, yep. How far's it suppose to be?"

"Eighty-five miles inland. Maybe down to seventy-five as the crow flies."

Fortunately it seems like he knows about how far distances mean, so she can translate those back and forth too. 

"And who'd I be taking?"

"Everyone here except Raolf, Kenny, Genevieve, Leanne, and Fraiser, and all our packs. There should be building supplies there."

Those five people helpfully raise their hands and separate out a bit. It leaves 28 people-to-be-teleported, each carrying a big backpack, a few dragging sleds loaded with stuff too.

"Think I can do that! Map? Generator?"

"Excellent. We can get started on building about four days early..."

Here is the map.

"The Generator is a giant cylindrical structure made of metal, pipes and tubes, and a large spherical boiler at the core. Taller than ten of us, and about thirty feet across. It should be in a wide pit in the ice, perhaps with scrap and debris surrounding it. I can draw a sketch if you need it."

She looks at the map. "Let's try scrying! Might be a little, don't worry." In lieu of calling up water, this time she lies down on her back on the snow and closes her eyes.

There's a lot of frozen wasteland. There are even a lot of big metal machines and buildings in this frozen wasteland.

There's something that fits the description of the Generator, surrounded by fallen trees, ice, and a few piles of debris and wreckage. Cold and abandoned.

She jumps up again, makes her water screen, calls up the Generator image on it. "This it?"

"That's it! I've seen the plans, but seeing it for real... Oh, it's almost in reach. Salvation from this damned cold. Hear that, everyone?" There is a ragged cheer.

"Alright! Everyone going to generator-land, come over here. Everyone else, don't do that."

Most of the people come over. "Let me know if there's something I can do in return! We can feed you two and give you a tent, at bare minimum."

"Thank you!" Helping people where the part where they can actually be aware that she's doing it and are happy about it isn't limited to 'Genea': can be nice, it looks like.

And (yes, she can do this, that's handy) she teleports them all to the generator site.

Some of the people shiver and flinch. "Witchcraft..."

"Come now, wouldn't our great-grandfathers say going from London to Manchester in mere hours was witchcraft?"

"She's not a train. It's unnerving."

"The Captain is fine with it. And it's brought us to the generator days sooner. Do you not trust his judgement?"

"...You're right. Whatever we do, we have to do it together - we chose the Captain, and now we follow him. But I still don't like it."

"Enough of that, lads. The Generator's here! Put down your packs. We have just received great aid, but we still have to work harder than we've ever worked in our lives if we're going to make a new home! Megan, Davy, take a look through the wreckage over there, tell me what we have to work with, please! Sims-"

"Already on it, boss!," he says, jogging towards the Generator.

"Excellent. You three-"

He keeps assigning tasks at a rapid pace, and soon turns to Aye and Genea. "You needn't work if you don't want to. I don't know how strenuous that was."

That's worrying. ('Witchcraft' isn't coming across as quite 'child-killing demons' but still as too close for comfort.) She looks at Aye.

Aye has a hand on a rock and is doing about what people do when they're breathing hard and the like. "Goodness." (She keeps translating for herself and Genea, though.) She notices Genea looking.

No worries, fore-citizen. Bit of a workout for me, it looks like, but no harm done. Not even by your standard. 

She mind-indicates the conversation.

Well that's fascinating, she observes at the ideas behind 'train'. Can't argue that I'm not one.

And at the pretty obvious 'you know what I mean' -

I am an alarming sort of thing, fore-citizen. You had all the stories, they've never seen mages at all, looks like. Can't really blame them either.

I think you can blame me. Not over you maybe, but.

They don't have any mages around to start enslaving, either. Just me.

Worst case, they don't have Helas either. And I'm still pretty sure I can keep you alive out here, if I have to. And we'll have helped however much we got to.

And the Captain seems to like us fine. 

Nod.

"I don't have any more magic than you do," she says at the Captain's address. "I can help with work, if I am wanted in it."

She waves a hand. "I'll be up in a few, if you want me for something. Well, or now, if you really want me." She's pretty sure now's not the time to be asking all sorts of questions.

"By all means, rest. Genea, I appreciate it. Let's have you help set up the tents for now, I think? I'm sure we have many questions for each other - we both seem mystified by what the other can do - perhaps a bit later we can have a proper talk."

She goes to wherever he indicates tent setting up is.

"Love to."

She rests mostly entirely for about five minutes, then gets bored and starts scrying the machines and buildings she saw before.

Abandoned buildings. An industrial cannery, though its purpose may be mysterious. What looks like a fishing village. An old camp. A tall tower of some kind. A mine of some sort. A badly crushed building, totally unidentifiable except as a jumble of metal and wood.

Abandoned - machines - it looks like they might be meant to move? That one has wheels surrounded by pieces of metal tracks, and a place to sit at the front. That one is far more badly damaged, crushed, sitting in a deep crevasse in the ice. There is an old frozen boat, with piles of frozen-solid fish still inside.

Its purpose is definitely mysterious. 

Does the metal tracks one match the idea she got for 'train'?

How is setting up tents? Are people talking about anything?

...Sort of? The idea for 'train' is, like, a hundred of those all in a line, tracks underneath.

Tent-workers are mostly talking about tents, 'hand me that pole' and so on. But at a short break one of them comments, "We'll want to set up workshops right after these tents. And then get the Beacon set up, to guide everyone in."

She remembers tracks in relevant 'train' associations. Are there more tracks here, if she tries to follow by scrying?

Nothing further about 'witchcraft'?

What are the tents like?

There are more tracks under the snow, but only in one direction. This thing reached the end of them at speed and crashed and tumbled! And then got snowed on. The tracks go on for a few miles and then head into a collapsed tunnel.

No witches or witchcraft are mentioned! One of them says that it's going to be much more satisfying working for ourselves, than to feed and house a bunch of ungrateful Lords.

The tents are surprisingly good. For tents. There is a sort of wooden frame that holds the flapping canvas relatively stiff, and they're decently roomy inside. Tall enough to stand up in, enough space to walk around a bit or for a small table or something. Three or four people could share a tent without being terribly cramped.

They're also running sections of pipe along the ground, covered with a walkway of wooden boards, which branch off into some of the already-completed tents.

This world has such interesting things.

She can have relevant feelings about that sentiment.

That's more more similar to something familiar to her than something like the generator is. The pipes are not familiar, but if they direct her to what she needs to do she can continue to help (and see if they say anything about them).

"The pipes are for steam," a woman tells Genea. "Yeah, saw you lookin'. Steam comes from the generator and goes along the pipes, heats up the buildings, nice and toasty. They say it'll get even colder outside, but the Generator will keep us warm as long as we stay in."

She's more accustomed to heating done by mages than by something like that, but she knows how bathhouses and the like work.

Nod. "Thank you. That's good." 

And, that's enough rest. Where's the Captain?

"It is indeed. Engineers work miracles. Steel and steam are now our servants."

The Captain is at the Generator with a few other people, doing some kind of work on it.

"They seem like very good servants to have." Servants that can do work you need done and help your people be secure and aren't people you're torturing. Certainly good to have.

('Engineer' is also an exciting concept!)

She won't interrupt but she'll stand around so that she's easily noticed. And look more at the Generator.

They're shoveling some coal into it and lighting the coal on fire while carefully looking at a set of gauges and controls.

Steel pops and groans as the heat spreads. The crew shouts instructions to each other, makes small adjustments to the controls, and watches anxiously.

Lots of novel things! She reaches out magical senses. She knows what fire is - what's the coal? What's that they're looking at?

She continues the not interrupting but being around.

The coal is sort of like very dense, rock-like wood. It's burning steadily in that big central core, heating it up like a house-sized cookpot. They're watching pressure and temperature gauges slowly rise. With the pull of a lever, steam vents from somewhere on the thing, and it starts ever-so-slowly moving. And picks up speed a bit. And the engineers are all cheering now.

The steam inside the machine spreads to all its extremities, and down the pipes they've been laying out. A thin stream of smoke starts pouring out the top. (They look reasonably approachable, now.)

Sense will tell her that about coal. The way they're looking at the gauges looks like getting feedback from some magic working, and she can tell those are numbers, but not for what. She attempts to trace where the gauges are getting their information. 

That is pretty epic!

Do they notice her standing there?

They do notice her, they're glancing at her, but they consider the generator more important at the moment. The gauges are getting their information from conditions inside the generator! How they work is a bit strange, but the information that '115C' refers to temperatures above the boiling point of water, and '23 PSI' means the steam is under a fair bit of pressure, is readily available in the engineers' minds.

"I'll be with you in a minute, Aye. Unless it's urgent?"

She does not countersay their priorities.

Interesting! And what a useful translation effect.

"Not at all!" She waits. Can she figure out what any of the other controls do?

Maybe by observing what happens when they're moved? That one controls how much some slots for air to feed the fire open - they're periodically widening it as the furnace of coal gets hotter and hotter. That panel of levers seem to control which sets of pipes the steam goes into, and how much of it...

At length, they seem to have the generator working and stable.

"What a marvel of engineering! If only we didn't need it. Hello again, Aye. I think we can talk for a while now, if you want."

ooh.

She definitely agrees on the marvel. 

"I'm all rested." (Not really - some things just take time even for her - but she's certainly not doing it any more at the moment. And is perfectly able to do a variety of other things). "Anything else you wanted from me?"

"Nothing urgent. I want to have a long talk about what you can do, what we can do, and if any of it can be done better together. For example, if you can keep the Generator running without coal, that would be handy. But it's not urgent, we have enough for three or so days already. At least at this relatively low power level."

Affirmative sign. 

"Doesn't have to be urgent! And I can talk whenever you want to do that."

(She passes this on to Genea as information.)

'Three days at low power' does not seem like very much. Probably they have more coming, but. 

"Your effort is a resource that I don't understand. And also, that I don't want to start to take for granted. Generator's on. Tents are up. Everyone else knows their jobs for the rest of the day. May as well discuss things now, no? Let's appropriate one of the shiny new tents. Home sweet home."

Affirmative hand signal. 

"Shall I call Genea? She may be more able to describe some things than I am."

(That sounds, by elements, like a good way to think (understanding; not taking for granted - in as much as taking for granted might threaten these people, and as thinking about not doing so might be a sign of concern for the user of effort's agreement), and like something to make her wary again ('resource' and the like).)

"That's probably wise."

Genea receives said call and excuses herself from the work at the next moment she can do so.

And they can follow him to wherever he wants to do this.

Into a tent they go. He sits cross-legged near a heater, a small metal thing sticking up from the pipes laid on the floor.

"So. Magic. If you can create matter and energy from nothing, that fundamentally breaks many of our best theories about the way the world works. I think between questions of my own, you two should ask whatever questions you have. I'll explain our world to you and we can see where things don't line up. How does one get magic? Can it be taught?"

"Theories about how the world works?" (Also, is it alright if she takes the coat off here?)

Affirmative sign about that plan. "...not sure I can do the matter-from-nothing?" she remarks. "Did you see me do that?" (She's not entirely sure she's clear on the concept behind the 'matter' word.)

"Can't be taught, not that we know. Or they know," she nods at Genea, "we're not from the same place, in the being born there way, I'd just moved over. The different-people-live-different-places-and-differently kind of not same place, not the kind where we're here now.

And all our" (she indicates herself and Genea) "ancestors came from somewhere else, and I'm pretty sure they didn't have mages there either. 

As far as we" (just herself, this time) "know, you get magic from mage sparks. They attach to things - animals, people. For humans it's before they're born, not actually sure about the animals. You're human, you have a magespark, you're a mage."

"You can create heat. That requires some sort of process, a release of energy stored somewhere else. Coal has chemical energy, the sun and stars will burn out, after a long, long time. We have observed the death throes of stars. If you get heat without taking it from somewhere else, that would break the rules we know about the world. Not to mention teleportation. How can one go from place to place without occupying the places in between? I want to test if you can teleport faster than the speed of light. Later. Low priority."

She does take off the coat.

"Fire makes heat? If you rub your hands together, you can make heat - not very much of it," she looks at Aye and the heater, "but heat." Once she's said that, she notices after that she's not in actuality tried either of those here. "...Does that not happen here?"

'Create' seems a bit of a weird word for heat but she's not quibbling over words when she's translating anyway. (The concepts for 'sun and stars', meanwhile, seem to have all sorts of pieces she's not seen before. Also that sounds rather worrisome.)

"Don't think I'm teleporting the heat. Not sure where I would get it, if I wanted to do that? Pretty sure I'm teleporting me though.

The speed of light?"

"Fire releases energy in the form of heat. Wood contains more chemical potential energy than ash and carbon dioxide, the products of a fire, does. Energy has moved from the wood to the air. If you run your hands together, you must exert your muscles, which are ultimately powered by the energy in the food you eat. All energy comes from somewhere as we understand it. And yes, light has a speed. It takes a brief time for light to propagate. Unfathomably fast, three hundred thousand miles per second. But not infinite. All this was found out through methodical experiments and reasoning, in other words, science. My question is, where are you getting the heat? It cannot be from your body, or you would already be collapsed in hunger."

Fortunately, since Aye is keeping track of this to translate, she can ask Aye (silently), and not the Captain, to repeat it. And since Aye is translating through concept, what she receives makes more sense to her than 'chemical potential energy' would. (Somewhat). (Also the concept, at least as best as Aye can currently translate it, is not so far from 'fire eats wood and makes heat', which she's already aware of).

Her understanding that is probably not the important part of the conversation, anyway.

She's not really sure how you do experiments on most of that without magic, but it sounds all sorts of fascinating.

"Well, I do need to eat," she notes, since it's not like she's planning on hiding that. And can starve, she decides to not add, for the moment.

"Pretty sure I'm not getting heat out of my body though. Or my food. Guess you could say I'm getting it from magic, when I do it like this?" she raises a hand a heats it up for a moment. "And I do what I did back on the beach I'm putting something down, with magic, that'll be doing that.

Don't think teleportation is quite instant? Don't think I turn into light either though, pretty sure I'd notice that.

...So if all energy comes from somewhere, is there a way it all got there to begin with?"

"But does how much you need to eat change if you don't do any magic? ...Where does it all come from? That is one of the great cosmic mysteries. We have no idea. We could be totally wrong about conservation of energy, too! Especially since you showed up and seem impossible!"

She thinks about it. "I think so? But not really that much, more like the 'eat more if you're running around a lot'.

Well, we're likely enough not from here. Unless it's on the other side of the world or something?"

"That's... Possible. I have a map of the known world somewhere in my packs."

He starts looking around for it.

While she waits, she tries scrying for local mage sparks or mages.

There are absolutely none of those anywhere in her range.

"Here we are, one map of the known world. We are currently... Here." He points somewhere north. Very, very north.

"Known world? Is there an unknown one?"

"Not as far as we know, just the one spherical planet. There are other worlds but we cannot go there. So, it's a phrase. Africa and Siberia are not fully surveyed, nor is much of the vast Pacific Ocean. The parts we don't know yet are Terra Incognita."

"Worlds you can't go to? And that doesn't look very spherical." She illusions up a map of her version of a known world. It's a much smaller map, the river fork in the center and the thirds marked off. "Well, here's where we're from. Over here for me," she indicates what Genea would call Tscher. "And over here for Genea and also where we were before we ended up here."

"...I'm not sure I'm up for explaining the solar system right now. Bit tired. And I was never very good at astronomy. The Earth is a sphere. There are other spheres, we can't get to them. If you keep going straight, all the way around, you come back to where you started eventually. And you can't simply take a flat piece of paper and fit it on a sphere, it'd overlap in places, so this map is intended to look sort of like what you'd get if you tried that, preserving the approximate shape of the land but making the bits at the top and bottom too big in comparison to the rest."

She gets some of it from the concept behind 'solar system'. 

"Sorry about that. That's interesting though.

We're probably a sphere? We're curvy, anyway. Don't know what the rest of ours looks like, though."

"I think there's some measurements you can do with the sun."

"Yes, solar measurements! I read about those - very clever... Anyway. I want to circle back to what you can do, maybe try to put some numbers to it, for planning purposes. Heat. Teleportation. Healing?"

"I do healing."

"How many times could you teleport like you did for us in a day, with appropriate breaks to rest? Would smaller payloads help? What sort of area could you heat, say it lasts a week, instead? And how many cases of frostbite or flu could you heal? It's alright to guess, I want a rough sense of the tradeoffs only."

"Doesn't work quite that way, with the tradeoffs? Some, not all the way. Like - running and picking things up with your arms. 

Teleportation's got a different limit, I know that one." She says it again. "I think it gets smaller if I start bringing more stuff? Like I said. Not completely sure though. Also I think if I bring more stuff it starts trading off more the other way too. But I haven't gone around trying a lot.

Oh, also there's time, if I do something I can't do something else at the same time. Or, not with a lot of things."

"But you could perhaps make several trips like that in a day, or spend your time warming areas, or healing, or some other thing, is the idea? You won't run out of magic?"

"I won't run out of magic. Won't run out of arms or legs, either. I'll get tired, if I do enough. Too tired to do more, at some point. Pretty sure I will, anyway, it does happen to mages."

"I see. So, I'd like to work out what is a reasonable magical workload for you, prioritize based off of that. Once all our people are safe, we could work together to find other survivors, and help them as well. Or allocate some time to experimenting. Our technologies augmented by magic seems likely to be very useful. All assuming you are willing to help, of course."

"I am! 

Unless it turns out you're also enslaving some people or something, in which case I'm still willing to help but it might go a bit differently." (The danger of saying this, obviously, is that they might try to hide something, if they are. But she hasn't seen anything yet, and it's not that easy to hide things from her, and if they start suddenly hiding something she might in fact just see that.)

"I'm going to have to be a bit... Strict about work schedules. We came here expecting that. Less so with your help, perhaps, but I think we ought to all still work hard, push as much as we can, save others. Work assignments, yes. You need to work to eat unless you're sick or old or small, yes. Is that slavery? I think not. Though I suppose I will have to let my actions speak for themselves. I'll be working just as hard, mind. And likewise, if you two turn out to have hidden evils, our friendly collaboration will become. Less so. If something suspicious happens and it's just a cultural difference we can come to understand each other, I hope."

Did he just imply they might starve people to death for work assignment disobedience, or is there some other meaning there I'm missing due to lack of life experience?

...I'm not sure. Dying that way - takes a while, but you could - force people into most anything with that, easily. And if he's in charge he doesn't have to assign himself anything he'd have any problem doing, even if he's working a lot and can say that honestly. 

...Not sure what 'strict' means, either. It might be hard to set up a whipping post here, but.

Well I think I'll refrain from pointing out just now that if that 'less so' part's meant to be a threat then threating me's. Not really going to work for them.

Not that I can really blame people for thinking I might have hidden evils, but.

She doesn't say anything, to that part.

They can threaten me?

They'd better not.

"We'd also hope so," she says outloud. "If someone is - not getting to eat, might you tell us? Maybe we can do something that would help, before if goes farther."

He seems tired. He closes his eyes while they talk to each other mentally, even guesses that they're probably doing that, and drags them back open when Genea talks.

"I don't think it'll happen. Folk will work. They know what's at stake. And if they didn't while everyone else does, their neighbors would harass them to no end... If they won't work... Well, even before this whole fucking mess of a weather pattern you didn't get to eat if you didn't work or have family who works, so don't you judge me for it, please."

...that last part really does not sound very good. (She remembers perfectly well still, her cousin and her alone. Knows perfectly well they were lucky.) And, of course -

"Sometimes something... has been true, and how things happen. And that doesn't mean it's - good. Or shouldn't change."

"If you're thinking the anti-enslaving-people is because where we come from no one would ever do anything like that and they'd be very upset about it, then actually it's opposite of that. Judging's really not among plans."

She notices the tired.

"...are you alright?"

"...I'm just tired. I'm the Captain, the example, I can't be tired, see? But I let it show through for a moment. Yes. Nobody should starve. Yes. Nobody should be forced to work. But nobody should freeze to death as an eventual result of our lack of our trying hard enough either. I was steeling myself for making some very unpleasant tradeoffs. Work for the children, thin rations, possibly worse. It seems certain that those won't be necessary, but I do not want to rule them out should they prove necessary later."

...that feels like it might only lead to everyone also feeling that they can't be tired. And - odd. Surely it's better to - handle that openly, if it's there. She isn't very sure how to say that, or if she should, now.

"I'm sorry. ...Everyone can be tired."

...Is there some kind of problem with children working I don't know about?

I don't think so? You shouldn't give very heavy work to children, it can hurt them. And there's work that's too complicated, at the beginning especially, if it's someone too young they can't do it right. And it's - crueler, if it's only work all the time. She doesn't think of her - nephew. Maybe that's what he means?

Maybe. ...Not sure if I can heal that kind of getting hurt. Hopefully can substitute and all.

"I'm not going to hold you at magic-point and demand you let everyone die. If that's what you're worried about. And if we've got a good working relationship I don't see a reason not to try just talking first, if something looks like it's up.

- Still won't do the magic-point-and-die thing if that doesn't work."

"I am much reassured. Yes, hopefully we can work together all peaceably and talk if something seems off. I swear, if people talked more the world might be a much calmer place. I should tell you what our tech can do now, I think?"

"I'm all sorts of a fan of talking."

Affirmative sign.

"Also maybe a bit of your story? I got a little just from people talking, but seems like it might be good to know."

"...So, about nine months ago. I was part of an engineers' union, when I wasn't working on experimental electrical systems. The government, the Lords, basically came in and shelved everything we were working on indefinitely, and said we're working on these new things instead. No explanation or reason given besides vague flimsy excuses that they were preparing for a war. So we knew something was up, but everyone I talked to acted just as clueless as I was. And then, I couldn't contact some of my old associates. And then, I started hearing rumors about secret arctic expeditions, dozens and dozens of them. We were still working at a hard pace on the new projects - automatons, snow vehicles, new steel mills and coal mines. And the Generators."

He takes a deep breath. "I was starting to get quite worried at this point, so I, er, got one of my employees' kids to pretend to be a maid and steal secret papers from one of the Lords. That's when I learned about the great winter. I knew people would panic. I did panic a bit. We were all doomed. But then I threw myself into... Organizing for when it was time for the exodus. I didn't know how the Lords would react, but I hoped we could follow along and join them, or perhaps find another one of the cities being prepared up here. But things sort of... Fell apart as the rumors spread. There was... One awful night of violence perpetrated by both sides. The Lords all retreated to their evacuation ship, and then I shouted at everyone until they got into the fleet of boats I'd been having people prepare, with whatever they could drag onto the decks. And now, we're here. All still alive who left the mainland, as far as I know, which is a small miracle in itself."

It takes her some extra to process it all, with all the transmission-of-concepts-as-Aye-can-get them. But,

"Admiration and congratulations, to you." That is - clear. And,

"Great winter?" (She's also not sure about the reason for needing to move elsewhere, but possibly the answer will explain that also.)

"Yes. Well. We do what we must, no? We don't know why, or just how bad it'll get, or even how long it will last - but the entire world has gotten and is getting colder. Much, much colder. Even at the equator, it will be frozen. These sites up here were chosen for the new cities, their unexploited natural resources and being far away from the panicked desperate masses desperate for somewhere to go."

Well that last one is just wonderful. 'Lords'. Her people would have things to say, were more of them here.

"Some people do. Some people don't." And, 

"What is the plan for growing food?"

"Hunting. There are seal and bears and such, I don't know the details, but Roche assures me he can bring us meat if I give him appropriate tools and a couple of guns. Also, one of the things we were made to develop were plans for industrial green-houses. They work quite well - we estimate ten workers can feed about a hundred and fifty meagre rations with one - but they require irreplaceable machine parts, so it's a trade-off I'm still thinking about. Depends on how well the hunting goes, I think."

"Can you live off only hunting, for this many people, indefinitely?"

"Irreplaceable machine parts?"

"Doesn't need to be indefinitely, just until the great winter lets up. Steam cores. Invented seven years ago by a true genius. Precise mechanical actuators, programmable control schemes, and steam control systems in one compact package. Many of the buildings the Lords made us design for this winter use them, as do automatons. We can't make more. The equipment to do so is too bulky and heavy to move up here. We might find some in abandoned installations, hopefully."

"Oh, will it not be very long?"

"D'you have materials? Maybe I could copy some."

"-Oh! That will be useful. There's some rare metals in steam cores. Alloys. We might be able to produce enough of the relevant things, or figure out replacements. Something to look into. And, er, we don't know how long the great winter will last, so it would probably be prudent to prepare for the long haul, yes."

"If you want to give me something simpler to try and copy first at some point, see if I can do that, I can try it out. Can also maybe scry for some, if you think they're around somewhere."

Might be able to make alloys, if you have the metals and don't need much.

Why does a greenhouse need that, anyway?"

...Yes, that would seem rather a good idea, preparing.

"Why are there abandoned installations?"

"It wouldn't, except for the extreme cold and also the lack of proper sunlight. The steam cores help distribute fertilizer, regulate temperature and humidity, and provide electric lighting. We could probably rig up a greenhouse that doesn't require them, but it would be much less efficient. There are abandoned installations because the people who were sent up here to build things were not prepared properly for the true scope of the freezing. The predictions of what it would be like kept getting worse and worse. Abandoned camps, empty factories, and wrecked boats are going to be the norm. I have to say, if only you two had come here a few months earlier..."

"Less efficient seems like it would be - still better than nothing."

"Well, not exactly something we control, one way or another.

Not prepared like so they left early?

If they're not too far and you want to do supply grabbing I can probably scry and teleport over."

"I'll be looking into it once we have made some progress on our new city. I don't know all the details of the scout corps and pioneer teams, much less what they're doing now... But it seems likely that many of them are tragically dead. We can get to that later. There are quite a few things I'd like you to scry, actually. And teleporting the others here from the boats. But neither thing is urgent on a scale of hours at this point, I think."

"Is there something that is?"

"Building proper homes, a cookhouse, an infirmary, setting up workshops to get all our technology and construction properly established, building the Beacon so we can send out teams of scouts and guide those walking inland to the city so you don't have to do it all yourself, clearing away all the wreckage and debris, setting up a source of coal and a source of ongoing supplies of timber and steel. In descending order of priority for important tasks over the next few days."

That seems far overmuch for a scale of hours; she is reassured on that when he says 'days'. 

"Nothing urgent on the scale of hours, then?"

"Happily, no. Merely lots of things that are urgent on the scale of days."

"Well then. You wanted to tell us about technology?"

"Right. So, it's rather complicated, but the general principle that most of it works off of are that gases under pressure exert force, and that when heated water turns to steam, a gas. Pressurized steam powers all sorts of equipment. Motorized saws, elevators, drills, vehicles. We can also turn it into another sort of energy called electricity - which is related to lightning, but might be a bit hard to explain for now - and that's useful for a lot of other applications. There's a lot more to technology than that, immense amounts of specialization and specific techniques. There's also medicine, surgery, chemistry which is the science of materials and how to change them from one thing to another, meteorology which helps us predict the weather, metallurgy which is about making and making use of all sorts of metals, and dozens of other such subfields."

The concepts behind electricity are very interesting, if not exactly something she currently understands very much.

"You can change materials into each other?"

"Only some things. Compounds. Elements, we cannot change. But with electricity one can separate water into oxygen and hydrogen, for example. Or turn carbon ash and other materials into useful things, like solvents and lubricant."

Electricity is just increasing in interestingness, here.

A lot of those concepts are unfamiliar, and while the translation method helps (if not entirely sufficiently) it's still rather overwhelming.

"...separate water?"

Impromptu chemistry lesson! Periodic table of elements!

He does enjoy teaching.

This is fascinating and she wants to play with it at first opportunity. 

"Er... Chemistry isn't necessarily safe. There are a lot of ways to make things explode, make acids, acutely toxic compounds, and so on. Please take some lessons before you start messing around with it. Chemists are known to kill themselves by accident, after all."

Goodness.

"I am very unlikely to kill myself by accident. In the 'I can set myself on fire and be fine' way, not the 'I don't think I need lessons' way. I would love lessons! Between whatever else I'll be doing."

"Well. Be mindful of destroying things by accident or contaminating other people, please? Lessons are something that could be arranged." He yawns. "...For now, do you think you could gather up some of the frozen trees and help feed them to the power saw I have Valentine's crew setting up? Lumber maketh the city."

"Will do. Thank you!

And, can do.

Also I kind of forgot before but now I remember - back home I think if you go up north it gets darker more. Does that keep happening? Because also back home not enough sunlight turns out to be not very good for people. Don't know if that's a problem here, of if your technology has a fix around."

...do you know that for the reason I think?

Some marble tower mages felt like keeping some humans underground and it turned out to not be a great idea? That would be it.

"Yes, that keeps happening. Or rather, nights lengthen in winter and days lengthen in summer. Hmm... That's an important concern. I've heard of something like that. I think there is a supplement you can take to combat sunlight deficiency. I'll have to ask our doctors, though. We're not at high enough latitude to get six months of twilight like the poles do, at least."

"Right, that was it. Nights and days." Poles, that's really something. And months of time of day.

"Plants need sunlight, don't they? Or do they not in - greenhouses?"

"We have artificial lighting to supplement the natural light! Electrical glow-lamps. They require a steam core running a lot of pressure to operate, but they do work."

"That does not work on people? Or the people cannot be in the greenhouses enough?" (There's a lot that's new and then some, but she's at least doing her best to keep up.)

"People can't be in the greenhouses enough, and they can't really do non-greenhouse work while in the greenhouse, and trying to rig up those lights for a whole city is liable to be prohibitively expensive in terms of components. Supplements are easier if it works that way. I'm not a doctor, though."

Nod.

"Do supplements help with the mind part or just the bones and stuff?

And, where would I find these trees?"

"Not a doctor. I will find you our doctor. Later. And trees, uh, I'll show you."

She'll follow.

"Should I - go back to helping, as I was? Or would I still be needed here?"

"It would be a shame if I used you as just an extra pair of hands and you turn out to have relevant skills. What did you two do, before you ended up lost here? -Which phenomenon I also want to investigate once there is time."

"Well, right before we ended up here we were walking through mostly wilderness after I helped Genea run off from lockup because she saved some people's lives in a way her superiors didn't like much.

And trying to plan how to rescue some mage-slaves."

"Field laborer, then guard, then fore-citizen in the guard. On the wall. Before - that.

But we don't have your technology."

"In the interests of not lying by omission, since you asked that - where I'm from the mages do the Lord thing. So that's what I was - born into, or taken from my parents probably into, whatever you feel like calling it. Grew up, ran around experimenting and all, tried to do some magic for some people when no one was looking. Tried to travel, ended up where she's from, pretended to be a mage-slave for a bit with more magic for some people when no one was looking. Then aforementioned lockup escaping.

"Rule by right of magical power? Not entirely suprising. Mages can be enslaved? I'd think that they'd just melt anyone who tried? ...I think I already talked about how I was an engineer, and also a union head. Basically I went to a lot of school and then started work making things and did that until this happened. Anyway. Genea, if you have no objection, they should be starting to build a workshop, could you help with that?"

"Don't think I heard anything about 'right', but power is about it.

Melting, huh. Don't think that one's actually come up. Not sure if it's the kind of thing I can do. Not that that's the point."

In the interests of

"Mages can be enslaved." Genea's looking down and away. "Where I'm from that's what - what's done. What we do. Everyone, everywhere. Since we first came and - had it. The Settlers said no more Lords, just citizens and the Law.

Mages aren't people, in the Law. And - that's what we did.

Take them when they're born. Torture them until they're scared to look at anyone wrong. If someone's starting to have too much power, kill them."

He sighs. "I wish I could say we were above that sort of thing here, but less than fifty years ago industrialists would patiently explain how people with darker skin weren't people. The magic is scary and a slightly better reason to do that sort of thing, but still not much of one at all."

...She tries to remember if she's seen people with darker skin, here.

"...Why?

Did they - change their minds?"

There were at least two on the frozen beach. None in this advance group.

"I can't be bothered to remember the exact excuses. Being charitable, societies of dark-skinned people were poor and dirty and didn't use writing and they got the idea that all dark-skinned people are uncivilized. Being uncharitable, they could and it was convenient to have slaves. Slavery was made illegal in England about thirty years ago. That doesn't count criminal sentences of hard labor, mind, but at least then it's the state doing it and not a robber baron."

If she understands correctly, that translates into - having slaves, by a - category, and wanting a reason to say - that they could do that.  

How do you even turn that into 'not people'? I don't think I murdered someone's kid in the womb and took their place, but if I did I see how that would mean I was a different kind of thing. Pretty sure when some of our humans are poorer than others and some of them can't read if I switched a bunch of them at birth it'd just be the same thing in the same places with the people the other way around.

I think it's like - what some towners say about the field workers. That if we - they - really cared to be somewhere else they would, so all the nice things you need, it's fine if they don't have them, because they can't really want or need them or do anything right with them. That we're - they're different that way.

Oh. Great. 

Well. Might be good to know how they did something about that sort of thing.

Yeah.

Externally, she nods.

"I'm sorry. I - wish we had places that never did anything like that. But it's - good if it can - change.

I can help with the workshop, if there isn't something I wouldn't know that I would need to."

"I'm hopeful it can change, it will change. In our new city, we'll have fair laws. Just... That's been tried before, in this country and in yours, so it's not good enough to simply say that..."

"...There are the trees - and the workshop is over there. Let's get to work, shall we?"

Nod. "'Speaking of harvest while your tools hang in dust yields no grain.'"

And, "Thank you." She heads to the workshop.

Affirmative sign. 

So, what do these trees look like, and can she see where this 'power saw' is and what she's supposed to do with them in between?

The trees are fallen, frozen, and mostly stripped of branches, in big piles! It looks like this place was at least partially once a forest that got knocked over by some cataclysm. 

The power saw is a large spinning metal disk taller than two men, being pushed by a reciprocating metal arm emitting puffs of steam. Some workers by the sawmill wave at her.

Well then. If it's the kind of frozen that'll stick them where they are, she starts melting where needed.

That works! A mass of frozen trees is pretty heavy, and trees themselves are pretty heavy, but ice is a little brittle - she might be able to unstick them from each other with just brute force.

This is not actually an easier kind of force. She'll do melting.

And then take a breath and something like a stretch and something like a half-smile, and one of the trees rises up slightly into the air and starts moving toward the saw.

Impressive! They can rig up, like, hoists and pulleys and stuff later to do this part if it's a bit much.

The tree needs to be lined up like so and such... Then just set it down and there, the moving metal clamps have hold of it and operators start efficiently de-branching it, one long sweep along the circular saw, rotating the tree a bit, and then another.

It's a more strenuous kind of thing but she can do it. Also she might get better at it if she tries more, that can happen.

She can line up and set down! (That's also not exactly the easier kind of thing, but she can manage fine.) Next tree, or not yet, or something else first?

Not yet. It'll take maybe five or ten minutes to do each tree. Maybe help sort the large, usable branches from the tiny twigs and stuff while they wait, the sawmill workers suggest?

She'll need someone to tell her where the dividing lines are, and then she'll need a few moments, 

and then a bunch of twigs will levitate up into the air and fly together over to a different pile. Then repeat.

Wow!

They'll produce like three times as much lumber as they expected to at this rate! It's pretty amazing!

She is definitely positive about such an outcome!

Twig-moving breaks are better than just straight tree-moving on her end, also.

How many of these trees are there?

Thousands and thousands. But they don't need to get to them all today - what they're doing is making the material to build houses and roads and workshops and so on.

"Actually, if you're so good at separating out bits and pieces, they might be able to use you more at the debris piles over there. There's steel scrap and steam cores in there somewhere."

In that case her dragging them one at a time is probably not the best use of time long term, and if they want her here she should switch over at some point to something more systematic. Can be a fine use short-term if they just need a bunch of trees asap now though.

She can go over there! - now?

"Yeah, we need lumber and we need it now."

"Up to you!"

"Or the Captain, where is he?"

"Probably in the workshop that's going up over there."

Unless they want her making decisions by which one sounds more fun to her, which is probably not the thing to do right now, it should really be up to someone who's not her. Because she can move trees and she can levitate steel instead but she definitely doesn't know much about frozen places city building priorities.

Well bossing around the powerful magic lady is not these peoples' job descriptions either.

...He said to help with the trees and would presumably come over or send somebody to say something else if priorities changed, so trees it is?

To be fair he didn't know in specific about sorting abilities, but to be also fair he figured the thing to do was 'trees' and not 'figure out more abilities', so.

Trees it is!

Trees, trees.

Trees indeed. A lot of trees. People come and take the lumber pile they're producing once in a while.

And then a loud foghorn sounds and an echoey voice announces, "End of shift! Come, eat and rest!"

If this happens sooner than in about five hours, then she will totally keep trees-ing until then.

She's guessing that means 'stop', though she's going to need a local for any details.

"That means we're done working for the day! Come on, you did good work."

She's not really used to hearing that kind of thing.  

"...Thank you!" And probably just following them is the way to figure out where to come on to.

Yep.

The smattering of tents around the generator has been expanded, and neatened up, and a few other buildings have been started - a surprising amount of progress for one day, all in all. People are gathering and talking cheerfully to each other in a little clear area near the Generator.

And the Captain is standing on a little pedestal in front of the Generator, making a speech. "...Whether it's by grace of God, or dumb luck, we have been given a great boon. There's a lot of work to do. It won't be easy. But we can do it! We will build a new city, safe from the Lords, safe from the frost, where we all work for ourselves. We have hot food, and somewhere warm to sleep - enough to rest up before our work starts anew tomorrow. We have a sawmill and workshops to start to rebuild the machinery we used in England. We've made a good start, and it's only the first day! I am proud of you all, and I thank you all for letting me lead you here. I also want to thank Aye and Genea. Mysterious strangers who we greeted with good will, and who have come to our aid. Helping each other like this is surely one of the noblest features of the human soul."

And he steps off the pedestal to clapping.

She is rather unclear with the concept behind 'by grace of God', but that doesn't seem like the important part of the speech. 

She smiles, and will wave if anyone looks at her.

(And where has Genea been, meanwhile?)

Genea has been sorting scrap and then building a cookhouse, if she's gone along with what the rest of her little crew were doing. They've been chatting to her amicably, trying to teach her more English.

She has no objections. 

She is glad to learn the language better, even as Aye continues to translate for her as needed.

She claps with everyone at the speech. (If it can only be true, this time...)

And then everyone is invited into the new cookhouse where there are individual hot meals, all a fair but not huge portion. One for each person.

Do you think we can eat it?

I guess the Settlers ate food they found just fine...

Let me try it first. Pretty definitely won't kill me, and I might be able to tell if it's something you shouldn't be eating for some reason.

Food?

Food. Some kind of beans, some kind of other vegetable, some sort of bread, a little meat. It's kind of bland. Doesn't seem to do her any harm.

The rest of the crowd chatters cheerfully while eating!

That's not very surprising! But it doesn't seem like anything that should do Genea harm, either.

(And if what she wanted out of life was elaborate food, she'd have stayed in the towers.)

Sit together or separately? Think people are a bit wary of me; might be less that around you if I'm not around.

Her mental tone makes it pretty clear what her expression would be, if she were physically making it.

Together.

They can sit together, then (a bit easier on the conversation for her too, if she doesn't have to do two at once.)

What are people chatting about?

"This 'new city' thing might actually work!" "Aye, emphasis on 'work'."

"Do we know why the great frost has come?" "I've heard half a dozen contradictory rumors. So, no."

"A toast. To absent friends." "To absent friends."

"Those tents remind me of the New Poor Law. Shanties." "We'll make real houses in time. This is practically the end of the world after all."

"Our Father, who art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name..."

What's the concept behind 'New Poor Law'?

The last thing and the concepts behind it is helping her out with the 'grace of God' thing.

The concept behind the New Poor Law is roughly 'the Lords trying to control us, keep us weak and half-starved!' There's more to it, something about reorganizing and reducing charitable donations? But that's most of it, and the sentiment behind it.

"What is the New Poor Law?" she says outloud.

"A travesty, that's what it was!"

"A few decades ago-" "Five" "-Yes, five decades ago, Parliament decided that poor relief was costing them too much money. So they stopped most of it and would only feed the poor in workhouses, and workhouses have horrid, awful conditions."

"Goes back on basic decency, it does."

"People got sick and died in workhouses with alarming regularity. But it did make the poor cost the government less money. It's just a bastardly thing to do to people - the rich only care about staying rich, and not caring for their fellow man."

Nod. "I'm sorry."

"It's all moot now, of course. Just another line in the catalogue of abuses."

Nod.

And what do people here do after dinner?

Either hang around chatting, or go to their tents and fall dead asleep, apparently!

Well she's definitely not doing the latter yet. Though they should probably find out where they will be sleeping.

"I gave you two bunks in one of the tents - we can throw together something a bit nicer if you need it, but proper living areas for everyone are probably going to have to wait a day or two."

They have no opposition to bunks in tents.

Is he also off to sleep? Does he want anything from them?

"I think we're in a much better position than we were expecting to be in. I'll have more work for us all tomorrow, but for now it's fine to rest. And, yes, I'm going to sleep for as long as possible."

Affirmative sign.

"I was figuring I'd teleport over to the beach again - and back after, obviously. Anything I should be passing on? Or back."

"We found the Generator, and it's running. We are building the new city. If anyone is sick or injured, please do fetch them back, we have eight bunks free and could throw up another tent or two if necessary. I was thinking of asking you to bring people here as work, tomorrow, actually."

"Can do. Well, can do some of that for the second thing, can't just do that all day. Unless you just want me to help with the road here or something, in which case that I can do all day. No issues with the first thing.

Anything else?"

"If you can lay a clean and easy trail, that's probably actually better than teleporting everyone here. I'm mostly worried people will get lost. Nothing for now. Good luck."

Asking him more about that: can wait till morning since he wants to sleep.

"Good night!"

And, to Genea, you wanna come with?

I think I'll stay. Unless you have a reason for me not to. I should sleep.

No reason!

She'll see Genea to the tent. Is it warm enough she doesn't need to magic the blanket or anything?

It's still kind of cold inside the tents, even with the radiators they've put in the middle of each one. Probably livable but a little extra warmth wouldn't hurt.

She magics the blankets. Anything else Genea needs?

She thinks she's good. And she has the longer-distance distress signal Aye gave her, if she needs it.

Then she bids Genea good night and heads back out of the tent again.

Scrying the beach people?

There's still a little visibility on the beach from twilight. The fleet of beached and icebound boats is getting bigger. There's a makeshift ramshackle string of platforms from boat to boat, helping people get ashore. Maybe a hundred fifty people are on the beach. Some on the trail inland. Plenty still waiting to unload off boats.

She teleports over. 

Nobody notices her immediately.

Does anyone look not currently busy? If so, she walks over to them. (Are they using her previously heated area alright?)

They're using the heated area!

There's a small ripple of confusion and caution when people notice her. Eventually one woman speaks up and says that this stranger isn't a stranger, she was here this morning, and heads for Aye.

Well, she is a stranger, but she's an established helpful stranger!

She waves at the woman. "Hi!" And she can pass on the message from the Captain. Also if anyone is sick or injured she can noted take them to the Generator, but she can also do healing.

"Hello!"

This lady is kind of skeeved out by all the magic. Nobody's badly sick or injured. The news that the Generator is running is great! Two hundred and twelve people are accounted for and on the beaches so far, they're going to resume unloading in the morning. Does Aye need anything?

If anyone is not-badly sick or injured, she can help with that too. 

She does not. Do they need or want anything? She can make more warm areas, or ward the little platform-bridge they have, or other things.

The warm area could be bigger. Or another one could exist. Doing something about the cluttered mass of ships and the platform bridge would probably be good, though they're not sure exactly what ought to be done about it.

She can do either or both those things! 

Well, if they want to leave them as-is she can ward the bridge so it's safer. If they want something else she doesn't actually know much about these things so she's going to need to know more about it to think of things.

Maybe she could shift the boats around so the bridge is a bit less precarious? Or weld the bridge and get rid of the dangerously slick ice?

Or some other way to get people and stuff off the boats that are still in the bay and over the expanding sheet of ice onto this place which no longer really qualifies as a beach.

Well. How many people are on the boats that are already here? How far away from shore are they?

A few dozen. They seem to be about half a mile out, not making any more progress through the thickening ice.

Alright. First things first. She heads out to them.

The bridging doesn't reach all the way out to the other boats - they're stuck in the ice a fair distance out from the collection closer to shore.

Well. She has rather wanted to try out the water, even as it had not really been the time. This seems like the time!

She dives into the water.

Predictably, it burns. A lot.

It's very exciting!

She can use magic to swim better (and has work to do, so she does that and doesn't go for getting distracted) and shortly is pulling herself out onto the ice. Magic can cover up the fact that, well, she just dived into something that burns her.

Hello to the stuck people! She's a helpful visitor who's been helping their friends on shore. Would they like a teleport over there?

Teleporting sounds fake, and dangerous if not fake. The shore looks awfully warm though...

 Also, going out on the ice like that is pretty dangerous! Is she OK?

Teleporting is not fake, she can do some non-teleporting magic for them first if they want to see. And not dangerous; she teleported a bunch of people over to the Generator and they're all fine. 

She's totally fine! It's very hard to make her meaningfully not fine. Because magic.

Still sounds fake.

Moving the boats inland or making an ice-bridge would be nice. If it's not fake.

She can do that, but it'll be somewhat more of an undertaking and it's getting late and all that. If she moves say one boat, would that convince them to try teleporting? Is there anything else that might convince them, like if she goes back and teleports over someone from shore, or shows them how the advance party is at the Generator?

Why doesn't she just come back tomorrow or something? Nobody's in immediate danger or anything. They're all tired and stressed out and scared and have no patience for new hard-to-evaluate things right now and just want to sleep!

She can do that if they prefer.

Would they like some warmth? She can make warmth. They can feel it so they'll know it's not fake.

Warmth would be nice.

Anything in particular they'd like to be made a source of warmth?

...The rooms where they've been sleeping?

She can do that! What are the rooms like?

Cabins with bunk beds, plus storage, hallways, or machinery spaces that have had a lot of bedrolls laid out on them.

If she was doing this like she did the warmth area (or if she was a different mage and not herself) it would take longer, but this doesn't need to last as long, and she is herself. She stands in or near the relevant places. And she can make the signs carve themselves and she can set (short term) warmth down.

The fact that it requires weird signs makes them nervous again! That word 'witchcraft' comes back.