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Nick, in a full environment suit like any sensible person would wear in untamed wilderness, is overseeing a small swarm of robots harvesting various useful plantlife from the uninhabited parts of a sparsely settled planet, when something suddenly comes tearing through the undergrowth towards him and it's not showing up on scanners-
He raises his hand-phaser, notices it has a mirror for a face and hesitates a little too long. And then he is in a clearing, cut off from his ship and 'bots, with all available sources of data telling him he just went through a jump.
What.
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winterlight
When she's run out of things to name she goes back to talking idly about things like places in town he might find a moneylender, the local currency, where he might find a mage to send him home if that's a thing mages can do (she doesn't know), possible applications for his joiner, another language spoken by a local minority that he might want to add to his computer if he can do that but she can't speak it right now because the paladin language thing only works with a target...
After another bowl of porridge, he says in Cirth, "I know some Cirth now. It is good enough. I will go find a moneylender and show him my devices."
"I don't think it will be very interesting. But if you want to, yes."
winterlight
"If you don't need me I'll stay here, but if you do need help I have permission to go with you."
"It would be bad to misunderstand something important. I'd like you to come with, then."
winterlight
"All right. I'll talk to Ebbe and we'll find you a moneylender."
She goes and finds someone who is apparently named Ebbe, talks to him, and then heads out into town with Nick.
She goes and finds someone who is apparently named Ebbe, talks to him, and then heads out into town with Nick.
Nick's computer listens carefully to all the conversation around him, absorbing more Cirth. Nick himself mostly seems... Unimpressed.
winterlight
"If you can't get enough lent to find a place to sleep tonight I can ask about letting you stay in the compound."
"If I can't get lent enough to rent a room at an inn, I won't have enough to craft anything useful. I might ask to be paid to repair broken staffs and armor with the joiner."
winterlight
"We don't have a lot of those around, but it would get you some coin at least."
"And presumably non-paladins have broken things. For that matter, my threader can make rope from wild grass. Rope is a thing that people sometimes need, yes?"
"It usually turns out slightly green and shiny, but is not necessarily weak... What's rope made of, normally? Hemp and tar? For that matter I can probably make polyester, which makes for durable and comfortable garments if you blend-weave it with cotton. Of course, rope and garments will be my industry only if I don't get a loan sufficient to make other things."
winterlight
"I am not actually sure how rope is usually made. But you could probably make a decent living and set some aside with the rope and the polyester."
"Or medicine! Can the winter's light heal people who aren't paladins? Do paladins get sick? Do you have access to antibiotics and antivirals?"
winterlight
"Paladins can only heal ourselves and our mounts, but we don't get sick. I'm not sure what those things are. ...And it's 'Winter Light', you've made that mistake twice now."
"Winter light. Got it. And you're Kaja?" He lapses into his original language. "I'm a bit terrible with names if I'm not actively reminding myself of them, apologies. So, medicine is not my specialty, but most diseases are caused by tiny creatures called bacteria or viruses. Or sometimes protists or fungi or parasites that are technically animals."
"At any rate, most of them are as small compared to a gnat as a gnat is to a griffon, maybe smaller. These things like to live inside humans because we're nice and warm and moist. The human body fights the ones that would do us harm if allowed to multiply. Sometimes, it stops winning, and that's when people get sick. Antibiotics and antivirals help the body fight the things. All of this is a vast oversimplification, of course."
"At any rate, most of them are as small compared to a gnat as a gnat is to a griffon, maybe smaller. These things like to live inside humans because we're nice and warm and moist. The human body fights the ones that would do us harm if allowed to multiply. Sometimes, it stops winning, and that's when people get sick. Antibiotics and antivirals help the body fight the things. All of this is a vast oversimplification, of course."
"...Where's this moneylender, anyway? We've been walking for a while."
winterlight
"Another block, if I recall right."
And after another block there is a sign for a moneylender. In they go.
"What the blazes are you wearing?" asks a lady who is presumably the moneylender. The question is aimed at Nick, still tromping around in most of his suit.
And after another block there is a sign for a moneylender. In they go.
"What the blazes are you wearing?" asks a lady who is presumably the moneylender. The question is aimed at Nick, still tromping around in most of his suit.
Back to Cirth. "It's foreign armor. I arrived here suddenly and cannot return home, but I know various crafts and I would like a little loan to get them started."
He proceeds to briefly describe a few of his ideas- polyester, mechanical water pump, non-candle light, cold-making machines. "I can provide a demonstration with the tools I have on me, if you would like."
He proceeds to briefly describe a few of his ideas- polyester, mechanical water pump, non-candle light, cold-making machines. "I can provide a demonstration with the tools I have on me, if you would like."
"Let's see it," agrees the moneylender.
He pulls out a flashlight and turns it on, then hands it over.
She looks at it, lights up various objects in her dim little shop, says, "You can make more of these?"