"Sounds like a good plan, yeah, let's."

"Thank you." Is Valanda still in the main bar area?

Yes and he's noticed the open door.

"Hey, Katherine, want to do something about your world?"

"Yes. We should sit down and talk about it. You can join us if you like," she tells her door-holder.

"I think I'll wait... Outside? If you don't need me."

"It won't take any time at all from your perspective, then. Thank you."

Her door holder goes outside and shuts it behind him. Katherine gestures towards an empty booth.

He goes and sits there.

So does Nimo, she'll just presume she's invited until Katherine actually says otherwise.

Kat glances at her a bit askance but doesn't say anything.

"...Your friend Liane and I both failed to think about the rest of the world last time we had a Milliways door. I want to hire Nimo, a force mage or two, possibly a heat mage and a few others, and evacuate or supply the entire world."

"We talked about evacuating the world, the reason we didn't was the travel time with the door open traded off against distributing heat cores. That's not a problem I've solved since then. If you have there's still the size of the door and the fact that it'll be hard to place tens of thousands more refugees at once. We might be able to do it, though. I'm in favor if we can."

"A few months of time have passed there. Nimo, can you tell me how many settlements got heat cores?- Wait, no, the door's closed. Well. With a force mage, the travel time concern is mostly obviated. Nimo suggested going back to Har, getting out of my house somehow - through the windows, perhaps, and I'll tolerate a demolished wall, it's important - and hiring one."

"Travel time's a worry with force mages too, you know, no reputable pilot will fly faster than they can react if something comes up," says Nimo.

"Yeah, but say we get five dozen working in parallel," says Valanda. "...I'm not going to pay for five dozen and eventually I'll run out of land to give away, how are you planning on funding this?"

"I have some savings and can appeal to the town for theirs, but that's not really enough. I can also tell them to get started on building scads and scads of temporary housing. We can probably work with much less land per person than you gave the first round of immigrants. As for the rest of the money, an expedition to Harrods. There are liable to be tens of millions of pounds in banknotes in its vaults. Bar accepts defunct currency, and so long as it's recognizable, if soggy, that will fund quite a lot."

"That works. And I bet I can find someone who can find at least a few dozen of them jobs if they come to Ira Sani. Then again you all didn't like the idea of coming to Har much and that was when there weren't that many other people to hold doors for you. Think we should get some other people in on it, offer everyone more choices than you had?"

"Har has some unpleasant failure modes for us, and I think many people will choose to stay where they are. Conditions are improving, they won't trust us entirely, they won't like the idea of Har's laws. As for other people and other worlds, yes, I think we should. I don't know if anyone here is going to be in a position to accept thousands of refugees, though."

"Well, if we get enough of them helping, no one'll need to take thousands. Maybe we should put up a sign while we talk, so people who could help know what we're up to without us having to bother anyone."

"Worth trying. Though signage doesn't have the same pathos as talking to people will, it gives us more exposure. I'll think about a good message."

"And it won't annoy them, can't forget that. So when we do this, will everyone in your world speak English?"

"No. Perhaps three fourths of the survivors will have good English, looking at these numbers." She pulls out the map. "Other survivors from France, the low countries, the Nordic states, I'm not sure if these groups will be Austrian or Germanic, these are probably Russians - Oh, I just realized." She points to Texas. "They must be burning petroleum. Clever. Anyway, of the natives who outlasted the cold alone, and any survivors from places other than the United Kingdom or America, few or none will know English. I have a little French and Russian, and we can probably scrounge up someone with any given European language. If only one person can talk to a group that makes things harder. Hmm... For natives we can't talk to, we can't explain Milliways. So I'm inclined to just give them some useful things that are easy to use - invulnerable tools, heated items - and let them make of it what they will."

"If there are multiple groups of those in different places it'd be possible to let them communicate through illusions. They might not understand each other but they could learn after a while."

"None of them are illusion mages. What do you have in mind?"

"You know, like illusion shows - Nimo, you'd know more than I would - "

"Paired objects with knowledge and illusion enchantments, each one shows what the other one sees and hears. You want them to come with boxes that block the magic just in case. Making them do translation would be harder but people on either side could point at things and name them. That what you mean?"

"Yeah, those."

"We can get a pair or several but they're on the expensive side for enchanted things."

"Technology can accomplish the same sort of thing but it breaks down a lot more readily than something with proper defense magic on it. Hmm. I think whatever happens, we're going to want someone staying in Milliways permanently, to look for opportunities. So that can go on a list of helpful projects and we'll look into it when everything more urgent is done."

"Yeah. How much is it going to cost me to buy your house?"

"You want to buy it? I was going to donate it to the New Dover Council and let them turn it into a resettlement center or whatever's needed. I'll get it back, or a new one, eventually."

"Yeah, I want to buy it. If you were thinking of giving it away free I'm guessing it won't cost me too much, but I'd rather not just take the land I promised you without any compensation."

"I am not, to be honest, quite sure I want to sell it to you. You've been very kind, but there are other concerns. Is there any particular reason why you have to own the entryway to Milliways?"

"Yes. I need to be able to make sure that everyone who enters Har is willing and able to obey the law. If I don't, you can bet the imperial government will hold me responsible even if you're the one who held the door. You're not in as much danger if I let criminals in."

Oops, she'd forgotten about that bit.

"Someone will commit a serious crime eventually. If thousands and thousands of people are involved it's all but guaranteed to happen sooner or later, even if people are individually, on average, quite law-abiding."

"And I'll make that argument to the imperial government when I have to, I'll point to the crime rate among natives, but if they buy that then I still have to make sure the people I let in aren't any more criminal than the ones who live in Har already."

"Hmm... I am a little concerned you will end up denying people I want to include, mostly. Will you want to limit how many people immigrate, or just make sure they understand that the law is the law, or...?"

"If everyone ends up wanting to come I might want to limit it to a certain number, but they probably won't. Who do you imagine you'll want to bring in that I won't?"

"People with violent or criminal pasts who have reformed and won't have to do that sort of thing anymore? I'm not entirely sure."

"I wouldn't turn people away just for that. Just if they seem like they'll do it again."

"...Hmm. Fair enough. Would it be alright if I sold you a lengthy lease on the house and land, instead? If not-"

Her named price is less than what it cost her to have a nicer house than most of her neighbors built, but not by that much.

"I can afford that. I hope you don't mind but I'd rather wait to pay until after we've talked about it where someone can scry the deal."

"Of course. I'm a bit peckish - I'll go get a signboard and something to eat. Do you two want something? I'll buy."

"Oh, always. See if Bar can get you something Hylian-style, they have good food there, I bet you'd like it."

"...I'm full from earlier but thanks anyway."

She goes and gets food.

"Hylian-style looks tasty! Thank you for the recommendation. Here's your plate, Valanda."

"Thanks! So will most of the people from your world be against slavery, or just the ones from England?"

"Not everyone, I think. But most of them, probably."

"Good. If this goes well maybe abolitionists will be a voting majority in Ira Sani, then maybe I won't have to run for a second term."

"That would be an exciting development, to be sure! I imagine an abolitionist governor would irk the imperial government a lot with incessant attempts to figure out some way to get rid of slaves - though honestly, what you've done is a step in the right direction. Laws about fairly treating slaves, or somehow distinguishing minor slaves, will be called for I think - but that's for later."

"Yeah. If it weren't so dangerous to let someone loose who doesn't know what they're doing, we could require parents to free their kids when they're grown, but that'd get everyone killed pretty quick." Sigh. "You know, if you want it to be your problem I'll endorse you."

"It's intimidating. But I think I could handle it. And someone has to handle it."

"I'm not intimidated! I just hate every minute of it. So we'll try to get as many of them through as we safely can - I hope Liane wants to come."

"Perhaps she actually will, if the situation on Earth improves enough!"

"I can't imagine she'd have any reason to stay if we offer everyone a ride to Milliways. Even if they don't all take it. ...Hey, is time still paused in your world? You said time passed while you were in Har, so is having you in here enough to stop it now?"

"Well, I intend to go back. Intending to go back is what pauses time according to one of Bar's rules of thumb. Nimo, if I open the door for an instant, can you tell if time passed without us there?"

"Not literally instantly but if I can have a second or two, yeah."

So she produces a ring and tosses it gently and goes over and opens the door for a moment and then shuts it again and comes back over.

"Yup, time's stopped there."

"That's a relief. We can recruit from Har and plan without things deteriorating any more out there."

"So you were suggesting more heat cores and I thought we should have illusions for different groups of people who are staying. And we need to find and rescue people in parallel, not serially. How many force mage teams do you think we'll need?"

They get to work on planning.

A few people approach them because of the sign. One of them is from another Earth where it's 1812, and from Australia, and would be happy to let a few dozen people through if they'll work for his shipping company. Pay's fair, or so he claims. One is from some kind of magic theocracy and doesn't explain very clearly and says they only want unmarried women. Katherine makes a face and says that that won't be necessary, have a nice day. One of them is from a rich, liberal, English-speaking-for-some-reason not-Earth place, and will let one family of refugees through and no more.

"Wow. You'd think Har would be the least helpful."

The next person to see the sign offers asylum and personalized language-tutoring and job-finding for "lots of people, maybe most of them" by which they turn out to mean a couple hundred.

"That's still quite helpful if anyone would like to go with you. Thank you. We still have a lot of planning to do but with any luck, Milliways will be convenient about timing."

She's going to verify that his world is a decent one with Bar later, of course, though.

(Based on its published works that world is a low tech one with high infant mortality but the country the door opens on is politically stable and cosmopolitan.)

"So when we open the door to Har we start knocking down walls, I buy your house, we go to the city looking for force and illusion mages to hire - maybe we should get Nikolas while we're there, I bet he has good ideas - anything I'm forgetting?"

"Should the imperial government be aware they're going to have thousands of new citizens soon, or is it better to ask forgiveness than permission in this case?"

"Let's let them figure it out. I'll send them a letter when we're done but they'll see when people start showing up."

With the door open they can get out without too much trouble. Valanda pays Nimo to watch the door for them.

In the capital there are only a few force mages interested in working for them right now.

Valanda goes to check if Nikolas is in his store.

"Mr. Roth is not in today!" A cashier cheerfully informs him.

"Did he tell you where to send people who are looking for him?"

"Uh no but I can take messages that will be sent to him via computer."

"I'd like it if you'd tell him there's another door in New Dover and I want his advice about things."

Click click typety typety- "There, message sent. I don't know if Mr. Roth will-" Ping! "-Uh. He'll be here in five minutes, apparently, Mr. Valanda."

"Thank you! While I'm here can you recommend me any force mages?" His hands go to his necklace as he asks.

"I'm afraid I don't have any particular recommendations for force mages, but we do offer a few transportation products by special order."

In that case he'll go wait outside for Nik.

And he seems to just appear out of nowhere with a slight breeze, like it amuses him to do. "Good afternoon, gov."

"Nimo found a door, it's in Katherine's house, I thought you could help with things. We're heading back there as soon as we've found some force mages, wanna meet us there?"

"I have a bunch of force mages I've been paying to send things into orbit, you can borrow those if you wanna pay them. Depending on how many you need a trip to the mainland might be called for. And, sure, Milliways is always fun."

"I would love to borrow those. We're going to need so many. Who are they and how do I find them?"

He gives names and probably places. "I'll let you pitch this job yourself, since I still don't know where it is."

"It's in the icy death world the English people came from. See you at Milliways if you're going."

And he'll go try to recruit Nik's force mages.

They're used to generous pay, but are totally up for being hired, including the thwilit with two force mage birds in its flock.

Hey, a thwilit! Convenient! He hires one of their illusionists too.

Now where's Katherine gotten to?

She's still in Milliways, writing prepared statements and explanations and lists of cheap-ish but useful presents for the many different groups they'll be talking to soon. Turning the factory shanty-town into a sort of processing area is on the docket too.

He shows up back at Milliways with some mages in tow and a bunch of paperwork to try to finish whenever there's downtime.

"Hey! I couldn't find as many force mages as I was hoping but I've got some."

"Welcome back. We can work with that - I've brought in a few people from New Dover to delegate to. The general idea is that each force mage has two liaisons, and will drop one off, then go drop the other off, then retrieve the first one and anyone who wants to return with them, then repeat. Efficient use of force mage time. I'd rather be able to stay in contact with all the liaisons, report everything back and organize it with a central staff, sort of. It's much easier to adapt that way. But if knowledge magic relays are expensive that might be a bit prohibitive."

Oh look the sneaky vampire is here. "I'll donate a bounce sat and let you borrow a few hundred satellite phones for some collateral equal to the cost of manufacture, for this."

Katherine fails to not startle. "-Thank you. Can those stay in contact through the entire world?"

"Maybe a third of the total land area, with only one sat. So maybe you need two, that's not too pricey, and works much better." He shrugs. "You'll also want gear to organize and tabulate the phone data. I'll set it up for you but I'll have to charge at least nominally for that."

"We can probably afford a nominal charge. Mind if I talk about the details with you in a bit?"

"Sure. I'll be back when you're free."

"And you've already rounded up all the translators we'll need? Where are we going to put them while we're vetting them for immigration, the backyard?"

"Most in the backyard, some in rented rooms upstairs."

"Have you already gotten those places prepared for people? The backyard might need beds, if this is going to take long enough. And leaving a bunch of copies of the laws around for them to read while they wait wouldn't hurt."

"I was planning to ask Bar for copies of the laws when it's time. And I was also planning to set up staging areas in the factory, and on my front lawn. If we can keep everyone in constant contact, we can prioritize the sick and homeless and only bring people through as fast as we can handle them. You may want to screen many people at once for their likeliness to comply with the law, if you're going to gatekeep. I intend to pre-screen people as much as possible to reduce the part that depends on you alone, but it's still going to take a while."

"Yeah, it'd be convenient if I could talk with people on the flight here - actually it'd be convenient to let them read our laws on the way here, maybe we could send the force mages out with copies. How are you planning on pre-screening?"

"Law tests, interviews, including interviewing people who know the people. If we're uncertain, perhaps a brief consultation with a knowledge mage to see if they have a bad history. I think we can discourage those who don't have much chance of actually complying with the law from wanting to go to Har."

"That... sounds like it should work. I hope it does. Are we going to do something about the people right by the door first?"

"I am going to recruit them to help, or process them into Milliways and Har as a test of the process we have literally just invented, or get them out of the way via bribes, whichever ends up being easiest."

"Sounds good to me. Do we need to do anything else before we start on that?"

"I want to have Nick's equipment here, and go over the plans and procedures with all my helpers, make sure they understand it all, see if they have any input."

"Sounds like a plan to me. I'll go get laws and things from Bar, then."

And they organize things. Katherine is a little bit in over her head. She doesn't let it show. She organizes and tabulates and has meetings and makes plans and writes tests and all manner of other things. It's three weeks, subjective, less for most others, before she's confident enough to kick this whole thing off.

He spends the time talking with Bar about the right format to hand out copies of laws and Hari lessons in, looking over maps to see where they can put this many people in the long term, talking to other bar patrons who might be able to take people in, and getting a list of things Bar can do for frostbite and lost limbs in order of price for frozen death world inhabitants.

"Let me know when you think it'd be helpful for me to talk to anyone."

(People from New Dover have started building a tent city just south of the existing town, and would like to plan the expansion with him.)

"Probably in an hour or two. Would you like to come along and observe as we set up?"

"Sure."

And Katherine and her small legion of helpers go through, carrying some useful presents for the locals. She goes straight for the Mayor again and steamrolls him entirely in the following conversation. He quickly agrees to let everyone here learn about Milliways and Har and serve as a test bed for their process.

Nick and his force mages start on assembling the satellites, carted through Milliways in door-sized pieces.

As long as the other force mages are here and being paid for their time and not yet retrieving survivors from all over the world, they can help build temporary housing and a few can go on an expedition to Harrods with Nathaniel and a few other trustworthy people while Katherine tries to keep everything organized and moving forward.

Liane ignores all the hubbub and soberly packs her things, what few things she has, and then walks towards the mayor's office-turned-command-center. Valanda is there, and Lady Katherine, and a few of the others she met before.

"Hey, guys." ...She's got an extra metal limb, now, her right leg, and seems a lot more subdued and pale than before.

"Liane! I'm so glad to see you. You've got to come see New Dover, it's great and it's only there because of you."

"Ah. That's nice." Huff, huff. She takes deep breaths and leans against a wall. "Yeah, I think I want to go there, now." She taps her two metal limbs together. "I've paid an arm and a leg. Heh. Think I've done my bit."

"You really have. Do you need any help?"

"I'll be alright. I am done adventuring, though. Probably never going to be really able to do anything more strenuous than laundry. Which sucks, but, lots of things do. I'll deal. I'll move in to the slavery empire, since it sounds like lots of people will."

"If you can't find anything to do I'll find you something once you've learned Hari. I'm glad you're coming to Har, you have no idea how glad I am. Do you want a hug?"

"You know and like another me, right? I don't really know you that much... I could use a hug sure."

"Oh, I love the other you I know, but she's not the one who got me New Dover. She's not the one who found Milliways and could've been safe and chose to go back to save people - actually she did that too, but that's not the point."

She walks up to him and holds her arms out tentatively - hug?

"I did what I had to, yeah? Hurts, now. But I don't regret it."

He holds her tight. "I bet laundry is still a waste of your talents, you know. We'll find you something more fun and show you the whole town of people you saved and it's all going to be fine."

She's maybe crying a little. And shaking a little. "There's - gonna be a new city. Full of survivors and hope."

"Because of you."

He won't let go until she does.

"Not just me. And - you guys - I could have done this, what you're doing now, the first time..." Deep breaths.

"Nah. If I hadn't had New Dover I wouldn't've taken as many. And getting even ten thousand people all vetted and taught Hari would've been just about impossible, but now I've got more people who can translate and explain things."

"Guess it all works out in the end, huh."

Sigh. Unhug. "...Thanks. I'll see what life brings me next, yeah?"

"It'll be something cool. Well, go on, there's law codes for you to read and a whole new world when you're done with that."

She goes, smiling slightly.

"I'm assuming she's a shoo-in? And... I can see why you like her."

"Unless she tells you she only wants to come so she can kill all the slaveowners, yeah, I want her in Har. Isn't she great?"

"Selfless, steadfast, heroic." Nod, nod. "She's the sort of person who thrives when there's dangerous work to be done. I'm not so sure how she'll cope with safety."

"There's dangerous work in Har but I'm not sure she can do any of it. I'll be keeping an eye out for jobs she can do, though."

"It wouldn't be danger per se - more... Things that need doing."

"There's a lot that needs doing, but she doesn't seem like she'd like trying to figure out child welfare laws that don't create perverse incentives."

"Yes, that sounds difficult and not really to her skills. Perhaps an airship captain. Or emergency responder."

"Yeah. If she were a force mage it'd be easy, I'd have half a dozen jobs to suggest just that I can think of right now."

"I am hopeful it will all turn out fine."

Meanwhile, back to testing out their process. The expedition to London's banking district goes well - the New Dover Resettlement Fund is now pretty rich. They buy lots of stuff - books, tools, vehicles - from Bar to give to the people who want to stay on Earth and rebuild. Three hundred and forty-five people of the group that lives near the door want to move in to Har. A few hundred more want to go live in Milliways with the generous living expenses account Katherine and her cohort can afford to give them, which will last them couple of years. A few dozen want to sign on to the evacuation and rebuilding effort, which picked up the name 'New World Administration' somewhere along the line, and Katherine gladly integrates them. And another couple hundred want to just stay where they are. The weather's been getting better lately, anyway.

(There are more than a few arguments and a few fights, mostly over family drama. One man stabs his wife in the leg and is dragged off to a makeshift prison. There are a few duels, which were legal before the Great Frost and nobody seems inclined to punish the victors of.)

After four days, "I'm fairly confident the ones who want to move to Har will be peaceful and productive. They all passed the imperial and Ira Sani law tests - even the kids - and they've all been interviewed. We have transcripts. Most of the reason they want to move in is to help liberate the place - free land and access to mages who can do wonderful things for industry and science won't hurt, though. We will be able to pay for all that land at a good rate, mind. How do you want to handle final interviews?"

"I think I'll talk with the ones who were getting into fights - that includes the duels - and I understand that in your world people take certain kinds of promises really seriously, do you think it'd be okay to have them all swear to follow Hari law or would that be a bad idea for some reason?"

Nod, nod. "That would work. Keep in mind that some people take oaths more seriously than others. But asking folk to swear to God or on their honor and life that they intend to be peaceful citizens of Ira Sani and follow the law has no hidden flaws as a plan that I can think of. Perhaps not children under six, there are a few families with those."

They can just get that started, then. Some people have been peaceful and will gladly, eagerly even, swear to those terms. They shake Valanda's hand and thank him for the opportunity. Most of the rest are a bit more neutral about it.

There are five people who've been in fights or duels and have to explain themselves to him. Their explanations, in order, are 'my husband is a selfish idiot who was trying to control me I just want to be where he's not', 'it was the heat of the moment, I was in the wrong, it was only one punch but if you bar me for that so be it', 'he challenged me to a duel over this stupid old painting what was I supposed to do???', 'we were celebrating the good news by drinking and we argued a bit and I don't remember anything after that - I'll stop drinking', and 'I wasn't just going to lie there and get wailed on I don't regret putting that bastard in his place'.

He likes all of them as people, anyway. He lets them know that Har doesn't have marriage, does have command magic that can be used for addictions, and understands the idea of self-defense. He watches how they react to that.

...How does not having marriage even work? Well, she'll be glad to be divorced anyway.

The second guy just nods without any particular expression.

Duels are probably illegal there, right?

Maybe he ought to get that done for his drinking. He does like beer but he doesn't like who he is on beer.

Good, because that was totally self-defense.

Wanting to be friends with all of them was totally not the goal. Whoops.

Yeah, they can come, they might all be less violent in better circumstances.

Yay!

The door to New Dover opens to let hundreds of people through, annoying the other bar patrons. A few people go home with said other bar patrons - the ones who volunteered to take a refugee or five, anyway. They're going to hold the door for a while to let everyone who just went through get sorted and settled a bit and to cart through Milliways purchases.

Non-Frostworld-or-Har people slowly clear out and nobody else seems to be coming in. "I wonder if the door slows down external traffic when people do things like this?"

"I guess no one could come in while the door is open."

"We've been letting it stay closed for a few hours at a time here and there... Well, I think we can still accomplish our goals even if we stop meeting new people. I think we're off to a good start."

"Seems like it, yeah."

And meanwhile the force mages are ready to get flying.

They have a big staff sitting in a crowded office with lots of telecom equipment telling them where to fly! They've even practiced this a bit with more local flights already, just to get the coordination down.

Force mages can fly all over the place, but especially north. There are a lot more small groups of people than big groups, but the big groups are so much larger that they account for most of the actual surviving population. The prioritization system aims for those who seem likely to be most in need first, though. Mostly it goes well. Force mages drop off liaisons and supplies and let them get to explaining all the weird stuff going on lately. A few of the groups they contact react badly and shoot at the force mages' levitating cabin things with those cheap-excuse-for-a-force-mage weapons called 'guns' they all got briefed on.

One of the force mages getting shot at decides to spell out "SEIHRA WAS HERE" in the sky with broken pieces of guns. Any more attacks?

Running and taking cover, mostly!

A few of them are trying to do something with a large machine that doesn't look like a gun...

The person she's supposed to be dropping off here is talking to control, "Shooting at us, yes - Seihra destroyed the guns - Roger that. Seihra, control says to get out of here!"

Well, that's no fun, but off they go.

The guy talks to control for a while. "...Control says they have some kind of exotic weapon, probably that big machine, and they're pretty hostile. Don't seem to be starving or anything. Better just to leave 'em alone, they're not even close to anyone else, good riddance."

Force mages can go to places that don't shoot at them. And shooty places' neighbors can get some weapons for self defense, too. They can take their time a little bit on this end of the door.

When it comes to the door back into Har, they get screened people through the door as fast as they can, opening it for thirty seconds and rushing forty or more people through, and slamming it again. If they're done by the time the Imperial Government can so much as show up to object, so much the better.

The imperial government notices eventually. They have a force mage in the air already by the time the last of the immigrants are through... but nowhere near Ira Sani yet.

Katherine is in the main bar area buying books, computers, construction equipment, food, and other such things and getting them out the door as fast as possible.

...They don't want the imperial government in control of the door. They could be a lot worse, but they're paranoid and authoritarian and might be a disaster. When they get a radio call from a lookout that someone is approaching New Dover at speed, Katherine tells everybody that it's all in Har who's going to Har.

No other visitors have come in yet. She shuts the door relaxes a bit from the fast-paced ordeal that was that big evacuation - and it's not even over yet, they have to build homes for everyone on the other side. She would like to wait here for years and years, looking for someone who agrees with her and could bully the Imperial Government into figuring out something else to do with all the slaves - but she'd get old, and so very bored, too.

She unwinds for one last day. Nimo and Valanda have all the time they could want in Milliways, and then she exits too and lets the door close behind her. At this rate, she's probably going to see Milliways again eventually, anyway.

Valanda and Nimo both come out with lots of otherworldly books. Nimo is months older.

"Well, I guess shutting it is one way to settle things. Want me to try to talk to them for you or do you want to do that yourself?" Valanda asks.

"Well. That was an adventure, but what happens now... I probably look like the mastermind behind this no matter what you say to them. But they like you better, I think. I'll talk to them if they want, but let's have you do it first?"

Out he goes.

"Hey, did the empire send you?"

"Yes," the belul force mage flashes a badge, "where's the door?"

"Closed now. And all the immigrants were vetted and shouldn't be any more likely to be criminal than anyone else. They're from the world that invented the automata, I thought some of them might have valuable skills. And they shouldn't be much of a danger even if anything goes wrong, they can't use our magic."

"Where are you putting this many homeless people?"

"I'll make New Dover handle that."

"Uh-huh. They want to see you in Mar Geru in three days. They'll cover travel expenses."

"Sure, I'll be there. Thanks for checking up on things, a bunch of people coming in could've been bad."

And back he goes to check in with Katherine and see if anything's gone wrong yet.

Nothing has obviously gone wrong yet. But there are literally thousands of homeless people wandering around the outskirts of New Dover, but most of them brought blankets and a few other essentials through Milliways, and they're already getting started on arranging for people to sleep in rows in every house, church, factory floor, and even the heat-enchanted park gazebo - as well as starting construction on a sort of tent city just outside town. There's some grumbling, but there's also a lot of celebrating. Katherine is in the thick of it - organizing a trip to the mainland to buy a hundred tons of food, currently.

Well, that's better than it could be. Probably shouldn't interrupt her.

Is Liane anywhere findable?

She is sharing automaton operation tricks with some of the locals! Her voice carries pretty well, so probably findable!

And he'll have to try to speak English, without having any shared language or translation effect to fall back on. Great. That's terrifying.

"Um. Excuse me, Liane? Found a list of jobs to you, they don't need good Hari or magic or legs."

He offers her a few sheets of paper stapled together.

"Oh, thanks. You doin' alright? The Lord-y types bother you much? Wait, this is a democracy, just a slave-democracy, so they're not Lords..."

"They don't bother me much, I talk to them soon. If you need a Lord-y type talk to me."

"Oh, right, English and Hari is a thing. I'll probably try to learn Hari. All this is exciting! Good luck and all!"

That sounds like probably a dismissal, probably. "Good luck and all!" he echoes and off he goes to get things done.

She helps with the 'building a city from scratch' thing for a while. Eventually she gets bored of it and eats from one of the common kitchens going up, and she has a lot of money from saving bills and turning them all in at Milliways, and starts hiking the distance to the other city, Riuhiu. (There are automata-buses and force mages going back and forth but that's way too crowded.) She doesn't get all the way there by nightfall, but she's well used to sleeping in random cold places, she throws together a makeshift shelter and she has her sleeping bag. She gets there in the morning and wanders around for a while, clanking slightly.

Signs point to the imperial and state government offices. An adult agerah and two kittens are going for a walk around town at the moment.

A noticeboard near the middle of town has a lot of ads, mostly in Hari, one in Ilan. Two are in English and seem to be new:

Hari and Lexori conversation practice for 24 rings per half hour, look for Exav the human on the first floor of the red building with the vines.

i want to buy humans. talk to han the erel illusion person at the market stall in the morning.

Aww, the kittens are cute! It's only slightly weird that they're people!

...She had better not go looking for Han. She knew that was the norm here, but eesh. Hari practice is probably a good idea, but she should try to figure stuff out at least a little bit on her own at first. To the government office! They have a thing for that!

They have a thing for that, yup. Just got a new shipment in this morning, figuring they'll have a lot of interest now.

In the video a cat seems to be naming objects.

Eh, this is going to take a while. Kind of boring, but definitely necessary. She'll sit next to a building somewhere and people-watch and listen to object-naming. She has the grammar and pronunciation writeup that some linguist made on Learning-Hari-For-English-Speakers, too.

She'll have such fun learning the tones.

There are all sorts of people out and about. There's a man with pointy ears wearing a baby who seems to be asleep. There's someone selling some sort of plants that have barely sprouted, from a cart parked on the side of the street.

Well, it's not that much worse than Swedish, which she learned bits and pieces of what feels like half a lifetime ago. 

Pointy ears probably mean 'not a human'. Probably. Maybe it's a medical condition. She hops to her feet and tries to figure out what the plants are, once she gets to a point where she's bored just trying to memorize stuff.

There are a few kinds and they have labels. They're such little sprouts it's hard to tell, but there's arugula, alfalfa and sunflowers. The seller tries to explain something about them. He's wearing the symbol for inheritance magic on a necklace.

"Hari is not! Sorry!"

She doesn't recognize the symbol. And she's not a farmer. But hey, plant seedlings, neat. Maybe she should buy some and bring them back to New Dover? ...Eh. She'll mention this stall if she sees anyone speaking English, though.

The inheritance mage seems confused and doesn't try to answer that.

A belul notices her accent and approaches her when she's done looking at plants. "Hello, my English slightly exists, can I give Hari and learn English?"

"That sounds good! I'm not a teacher, though. I am not a mahan," she finishes, gesturing at the government-provided language tutorial.

And this is what a belul looks like when they're... laughing? That's arguably a laugh.

"Mahan is boring anyway," the belul says in Hari. Then in English: "Is English first or is Hari first?"

Well, hopefully she'll get the joke later?

"'Should we do English first, or Hari first?'" Shrug. "English first, and Hari second, switch every few minutes?"

"...Is good. What is minutes?"

"It's good, that's fine, sure. All things that mean 'is good'! Minutes is, uh, are... Tick, tock, tick, tock, are seconds, sixty seconds, uh, five twelve seconds is a minute..."

She's not trained as a teacher or anything but she will gamely try her best! And chatter and try to absorb stuff from this belul when it's her turn, too.

The belul has lots of questions and lots of Hari pronunciation tips that are only sort of comprehensible.

She's focusing on the grammar and vocab bits of Hari. Her accent is kind of awful. Tones are weird.

"Learning Hari is hard. Learning English is hard. Hey, why do you want to learn English?"

The belul decides answering will be good practice and does it for free.

"Ira Sani people speak English. People know new automata, they speak English. Important people like you."

"Yeah, I guess so. Well, I don't know how to make automata. I just know how to use them." She shrugs again. "Me? Important? That's a laugh."

"What's a laugh? Is a laugh wrong?"

...She laughs. "What I just did is a laugh. 'That's a laugh' is like... 'No, that's not right'. And also funny? It's an idiom, like 'letting the cat out of the bag' doesn't actually mean a cat was in a bag. Idioms are hard, don't worry."

"I understand. Hari is like English, it has hard idioms."

He tells her some.

He'll keep on being a sort of okay language teacher as long as she's interested in chatting.

This is pretty productive and more entertaining than listening to the boring government standard language tutorial.

"What do you do to work?"

"I used to sell fruit back in Erhau before void magic was legal anywhere, but now I do magic research. What do you do?"

"I was a scout! Scouts go places, look for people, watch for danger, help other people survive in nature. Probably not anymore. I got hurt pretty bad doing that."

"That would be useful. Did it pay well?"

"Nope. They promised me a spot in one of the cities for my family, but they didn't pay up on that." Sigh. "Everything was falling apart, the government collapsed, and money wasn't worth anything more. It paid in food and other stuff I found and scavenged, I guess."

"Oh, no wonder you came here. Our government usually keeps its promises. Unless you count campaign promises, maybe. Are you still with your family?"

"Nope. They're... Gone. Such is life."

"Yeah, I never stick with one partner more than a couple years either."

"That's not what I meant. Family is for life for most of us. It hurts that they died."

"Oh, that makes more sense. I would never do it that way, it sounds horrible, but I know there are agerah who do."

...Sigh. "Yeah. Well. Goodbye, hope you learned something."

"Find me again if you want to talk more."

"I'm sure plenty of people want to learn Hari over in New Dover, just head northeast until you see a tent city. Or catch the bus. Either way."

She walks away. A stroll down the market might cheer her up. Or be depressing again but in a different way if there are slaves for sale out in the open.

There aren't any slaves for sale today. There's a child who's technically a slave but he doesn't seem to be for sale. He's sitting in front of a store reading a scroll.

There's someone hanging out turning things different colors. There are some frustrated people wearing magic symbols but not getting any customers. There's a doctor's office. There's someplace selling illusion shows.

She should probably figure out what kind of magic corresponds to which symbol at some point.

Hey, shows! Like the videos Bar showed her. Those are liable to be good Hari practice! She heads for that place.

The illusions are in sound-baffled boxes with still pictures and labels on the lids, maybe because it'd be really obnoxious to have ten shows talking at once. Three of them have names that are spelled in ways that Hari words are never spelled: two of those are illustrated with pictures of caralendri, one with a map of the mainland. Others are titled in Hari. They all have summaries in smaller, denser text that might be hard for Liane to read yet. There's Where Is Exav This Month, illustrated with a picture of a belul on a beach. There's The Ring Of Twilight, illustrated with an adult human and a baby agerah. There's Understanding Ereli, with a picture of an erel.

Is there a proprietor around she can ask about the shows? Ring of Twilight looks like some kind of fiction, but a lot of the others seem to be documentaries.

Yup, there's a caralendar politely trying not to obviously watch her.

She hasn't made the connection that eye contact is impolite here, yet. "Hello! I want to ask about the shows, is it okay?"

"Of course. What about them?"

"I want shows that are... Not about people and places? ...I am not good at Hari. Do you know English?"

"Not much," he says in English. "I try?"

"Fiction shows? Fake stories, made-up, not about real people and places? Is The Ring Of Twilight one? Do you have any more?"

"Yes! The Ring of Twilight is not real. You want them," he points to four shows including that one. It's not very many at all compared to the total selection. "They are a little different than Hari is the Language of the Empire. You touch them and you say 'liceti' so you see them. Say 'morati' so you do not see."

"Oh, that's handy." Do they have price tags? If not, she'll ask how much they cost.

"Can I buy one not sound box?"

They have price tags.

"I don't sell the sound baffles but my son does! At the moment he'd be up on the third floor of that building," he points. "Tell him Anran sent you, he'll probably answer."

She buys all four fictional things with a high-value ring picked out from her backpack, and stuffs the shows in there for now. "I go find him."

The building he's in has an elevator. Aside from the elevator and stairs there's only one door on the third floor.

Is this his house or something? Seems like it, anyway. She knocks on the door.

A caralendar answers. He's wearing an extremely flowy star-speckled black robe that seems to flutter without any wind stirring it. How he keeps it from tangling around his crutches is a mystery, maybe it's magic.

"Are you with Silver Productions or what?" he says.

"Uh... Anran say I can buy sound baffle?"

"Sure. I'm guessing you want one that'll just fit a copy of Hari is the Language of the Empire?"

Thinking, thinking, "...Big? I get more shows?"

"I have some big enough for a dozen that are still pretty portable. I've got bigger ones but you might have a hard time carrying them, unless you're a force mage. Want one that'll fit a dozen?"

"Okay! Ooh, can this sound baffle-" she indicates her prosthetic arm by waving it around some, doing something with what's left of her real arm to make the elbow bend and the little claw at the end clack together.

"You want it not to make any sound when you use it? I can do that for twenty-four rings."

Not quite, but why worry about the details? "Is deal."

He silences her arm. "Try it, see if that's how you want it."

She waves it this way and that. Lacking the clickety-clack she's gotten so used to, as feedback, is actually kind of disconcerting. She nearly whacks herself in the head with it, unable to hear the telltale click of the elbow locking, throwing off her balance.

"...Can you do less not noise? Not all noise, not none noise?"

"...I think I can do that. Forty-eight rings if I can, I'll put it back how it was and you won't owe me anything if I can't?"

"Will break if, uh, open my arm?"

"I'm not sure what you're asking. Spells break if the objects they're cast on break. Bending your fingers or elbow won't break it."

...Showing is easier than telling. She unlatches the hand and forearm and starts disassembling it further, revealing some fairly complicated internals.

It'll take him a while to figure out how best to do this. But if she doesn't interrupt he's just going to figure it out right now.

Heh. Scientists. That's fine, she can listen to Mahan while he does that. And even answer questions if he has any!

Eventually he figures out a way to do exactly what she wants that'll resist almost complete disassembly and reassembly. It's slightly more complicated than what he was thinking of before. Does she still want it for 96 rings?

She starts putting it back together.

"I get new one soon maybe. I come back later, 96 rings? Also, sound baffle box rings?"

He quotes her a price for the box. "And of course you can find me again when you've got your new arm."

She pays. "Maybe also leg."

This seems like a good time to attempt to find someone selling metal. Better stuff than steel exists, after all.

There are people selling metal ingots and other raw materials. There are smiths who can take commissions. There's someone selling a variety of blades and other tools, some of which are partly made of metal.

The smiths who look commissionable can be asked about copies of her prosthetics that aren't so darned heavy in halting Hari!

One of them thinks that should be doable. It'll take a while, it looks like they're pretty complicated and they wouldn't be the only thing he'd be working on.

Ehhh. Nah.

New Dover proper is still a buzzing hive of activity, and a few hundred of their people have descended on Riuhiu instead. They're talking on the 'phones' that Nick guy sells and grid-searching, hiring dozens of mages of all kinds, especially sun, force, and structure - even a few void mages.

There are a few just hanging around wearing magic symbols and waiting for customers, but not on the scale they want. There are people working other jobs who can be lured away if this job's going to pay more than what they're doing now. There are people who'll sell them recommendations for other mages to try. Hiring dozens of every kind of mage will take a while, though, and cost a lot.

They have a lot of money. Not an incredibly vast amount of money, but enough for this.

They test each mage on a variety of tasks in an area set aside for exactly this. They'll pay 288 rings just to do the test, and pay a lot to work for them if you pass, more the more kinds of tasks you can do safely. The work will last a week or two probably, after which the need will be less and the pay accordingly will go down.

They won't hire slaves. Even if this slows things down a bunch.

The tests weed out a handful of incompetent mages who probably shouldn't be doing magic at all.

Are they sure they won't hire slaves? What about this thirteen year old whose mother is sick and can't work? He has such big puppy-dog eyes.

That's above this hiring lady's authority. Lady Katherine said no slaves, and that means no slaves.

The church will totally feed sick mom and kid and get them a doctor and a death mage all free if they want, though.

They don't really trust that offer but they're out of better choices. The mom's not the kind of sick a death mage can help with, though.

They get a lift with a sympathetic man who promises everything will be fine.

There's a line for treatment. Nurses look over everyone who comes in to prioritize - They're triaging. It's warm here at least, if incredibly busy. Is the mom dying, bleeding, or actively getting worse?

(Also, have some biscuits and water in the meantime.)

She's not going to keel over in the next day, probably. She's got some kind of neurological problem that gets better and worse but mostly worse. If they're not going to be able to help can she sell them her son? He can work, are they really really sure they don't want any slaves? Because they seem like one of the better options if it's going to come to that.

"We do have slaves technically, since all our children have to be, but we don't treat children as slaves. We'll take him in if the worst happens, but for now I think he'd rather we focus on helping you. Our doctors have been learning a lot recently, from a magical library of sorts, and we might be able to help. It's just that we're really very busy at the moment. We can get you to see someone in an hour or two, I think. Are you in pain, miss? What are your names?"

The nurse doesn't ask about the kid's father, he's pretty obviously not in the picture here.

"I'm Echan and he's Isava. I'm always in pain, but even if you have anything for it I'm not interested in wasting the last of my savings on that. And if you wait for me to get executed for stealing you'll pay more at auction than if we come to a deal now."

"I might be able to get you some painkillers without charge - and I'm not the one who would be... Buying... Isava if that turns out to be the best course of action, but I'll find out who would be and get them to come here and talk to you, okay?"

"That might be nice."

Mhm. Free painkillers. Probably very addictive, then.

They're left alone for a while after that. The busy tent hospital full of people who mostly only speak English bustles all around them.

Their nurse comes back after about half an hour with some aspirin. Opioid painkillers are a bad idea to combine with an unknown neurological condition. They're not addictive. Is there some way she can prove that to Echan's satisfaction? Also, a doctor can look at her soon but probably won't be able to figure out what's wrong right away.

She doesn't believe them but she doesn't have much left to lose by going along with what they want.

Taking a few aspirin does not have an immediate dramatic effect. After a few minutes it might be doing something?

A doctor gets to her spot in the queue and attempts to figure out what's wrong with her in more detail than 'some kind of neurological condition'. There's lots of medical literature available but they haven't really had time to review it all yet, which might hinder this effort.

She has so many different symptoms in so many different places it rules out a lot of things unless she has more than one thing happening. Might be multiple sclerosis. Might be some new Hari thing they've never heard of.

The doctor asks for help from another, more senior doctor. The more senior doctor suspects something and borrows a knowledge mage and investigates - after asking permission - Echan's nervous system.

Yeah. It's multiple sclerosis. They don't have any way to treat it non-magically, but a medical structure mage might be able to reverse the very specific kind of cell damage that causes it. It would definitely be an experimental untested treatment, though. They would want to extract nerve cells from a dog or something to give the structure mage practice first, too, so it'd be a few days if she wants them to try it.

A few days might be fine but it'll be pushing it if she can't find work immediately once she's better. What is all this work they're hiring for and will they still need any of it done in a few days?

The Order of Mercy will totally feed her and house her for free, at minimum until they can try this treatment, and probably for a while after if she needs to get situated after recovering. Helping people is their holy purpose.

They're building a city! From scratch! It's going to be such a great city, with subway trains and efficient sewers and piping and magic-powered electrical grid and nice homes and parks and lots of businesses and an airport and a seaport and a glorious gigantic cathedral and he could go on like this for a while but he should probably get to the next patient sooner or later. Here's some paperwork, Nurse Helena will find you somewhere to rest, it's all kind of chaotic right now but everything is going to be great, soon! 

Sounds overwhelming to Echan but Isava likes the idea of moving there.

Well, they'll stay and impose on the Order of Mercy for a while, anyway. Echan would like to know why they're doing all this.

"Because it's the right thing to do. Because nobody deserves to starve and die in the street, or to be enslaved forever and worked like a dog. Because if everyone is kind and giving, everyone will be happier and more productive. Because we believe in a higher purpose, a noble calling more fulfilling than wealth and comfort, and we have faith that God's plan has sent us here to help everyone suffering in Har and spread this message. Because as long as a single other person is in pain or hungry or cold, and we can fix it, we should fix it."

"...I think I like you. Can I join you?"

"We'd be very glad to have you! You should attend church services, they're good for a sense of our community."

The two of them will do that next time there's a church service.

Meanwhile their small army of hired mages will try to get their city built.

Turns out building a city - or a medium-sized town, by the standards of old England - is hard. Even with most of the planning already done and powerful magic helping. A force mage can move ten tons of dirt with a thought, but there's a lot of detail work. The new refugees are motivated to work hard and a cadre of administrators keeps everything in line, but they're not going to hit their overly optimistic two week goal.

They have everything needed to house and support 10000 people in the medium term built - a slightly more permanent temporary hospital, contracts for bulk food delivery, temporary showers and bathrooms, and dozens of rows of heat-maged tents - after two days.

They start to go block-by-block on installing city infrastructure. Sewers and storm drains, then subway tunnels and stations, then fresh water, then electrical wiring, then streets and parks and such, then building foundations, then building frames, then finishing the buildings and letting people move in. (Slightly less planned suburban space is being worked on too, as are special projects like bridges, the airport and seaport, and so on, but slower.)

The old New Dover, while less than a year old, nonetheless has some historical value and is going to be left alone for now but eventually all the shiny infrastructure will be sneakily put in under it.

Liane goes back to New Dover to try and get a replacement arm, but they're all extremely busy and improved prosthetics are a few items down the list - not that literally every ounce of effort is going into the new city, people are doing their own thing or celebrating or relaxing, but still.

So eventually she goes back and tries to find that smith again.

That smith is still findable and still taking commissions.

She doesn't really want to leave her prosthetics here while he does it, she kinda needs them to, uh, do things, is that OK? If not, how much extra for a rush job?

She can keep them, but he'll need to get a good look at them and how they work now. If she doesn't have any illusions on he can pastwatch her if he realizes he needs to check something again, but knowledge mages do cost money, he'd rather take good notes and not need that.

She doesn't actually know how they work beyond the obvious, but he can totally look at them and watch her use them and move things half-disassembled and so on.

He does that for a while.

How much is this gonna set her back anyway?

Kind of a lot, but a lot less than it'd be where she came from.

She has no idea how much these things should cost, she got hers from an engineer who just kind of gave it to her. But, sure, deal, here's the cash.

She finds a spot a bit outside of town and watches her shows while waiting for her shiny new arm and leg. What's The Ring of Twilight actually about?

It's some kind of fantasy series that starts on an island archipelago on a tidally-locked planet orbiting a red dwarf star. The sun is always low in the sky, unmoving. Magic is different in their universe, but of course it exists.

A war leaves an agerah orphaned at less than a year old, so off she goes to try to make her way in the world. A human soldier on the opposing side takes her in. He struggles to give her an adequate explanation for why they're still at war when no one wants to be.

Meanwhile the little agerah's older brother comes back from the war and finds out that their parents are dead. He hires a team of human mercenaries to help get revenge for his parents. But before they can put their plan into action, they hear about a plan by the beluli on another island to exterminate everyone on their island and move into the empty space.

The two factions try to make peace and work together to stop their mutual enemy, but they mistrust each other and the beluli take advantage of that to trick them each into thinking the other side has betrayed them. They nearly lose everything.

The little agerah realizes that she's had family on two sides of this war. She's loyal to the side she was born on, that her parents were on. She's loyal to the side her adoptive parent is on. When she brings this up to her brother and the human, they realize that if they were each other's family then they could trust each other. The little agerah's brother uses his mind-editing magic to make himself think that the human is one of his siblings. The human unwards his own mind for the agerah mind mage to do the same to him.

They fight off the invasion and follow the invaders back to their own island. The beluli try to sue for peace. But how can they be trusted not to try to kill everyone again, given the chance? Their world has no command magic. But there is a way if they'll just let the mind mage change them. The only problem is the beluli have no reason to trust that they won't just be slaughtered afterward anyway. So why shouldn't they just destroy the island and kill everyone? Sure, they'll die, but so will everyone else. At least the beluli won't be the only ones to die, that way.

The human who adopted the little agerah asks the mind mage to make him love their enemies. Then he goes to his knees sobbing, begging for peace.

The beluli accept the deal.

Now that both islands are safe from each other, they realize they could unite all the habitable lands on their planet. The entire ring of twilight.

...It's kind of a long series, she might not want to watch all the rest in one sitting.

Okay, nice message, but the weird mind-twisting magic is kind of intensely creepy.

What other shows did she impulse-buy earlier, anyway?

Two are in Ilan instead of Hari. The last one is called Order and Law in Thervigenia. It seems to be some kind of crime drama set before the empire.

Too many new languages. Annoying.

The crime drama might be fun, though.

A murder happened under a very extensive illusion. The knowledge mages are stumped! They call in a brilliant detective, a caralendar death mage, who has no special magical advantage so she uses the power of deductive reasoning! They solve the case and the episode ends with the murderer's public execution. It's not a merciful death. Only a minute of it makes it into the episode but the sun is shown a lot lower at the end than the beginning.

It's not that much worse than hanging. They hanged murderers sometimes.

The ones in Ilan are annoying her. She tries to figure out if there's something like the government Hari tutorial, but for Ilan.

The imperial government doesn't seem to have anything like that.

If she catches Valanda just getting back to his office from visiting the mainland, he'll tell her to try Ariu Moves South. It's for the wrong dialect but it should be a start.

"I think I'll just forget it, maybe go complain. You want these shows? Not like I can use them."

"I have this one! But I could buy the other one, I guess, how much do you want for it?"

"Just take it. And if you don't want the other one I'll just drop it on the street or something."

"...Sure, okay. Thanks."

"It's not even that much money? And I'm annoyed more than anything else. Bye for now?"

"Sure, bye, come back if you need anything."

Back in New Dover, the doctors have caught up with most of the miscellaneous injuries and illnesses their immigrant population brought with them. They have a few structure mages try the nerve repair treatment on a couple of dogs, those being at least mammals and the best analogue currently available. Their nerves weren't damaged in the same way, but it's better than doing no test at all. It doesn't seem to do the dogs any harm.

Would Echan like to try this experimental only kinda tested treatment?

It's got a decent chance of helping, but might do nothing, and might even make it worse (though they don't think so, the science checks out and dogs were fine, but then again they were dogs not humans...)

Echan would love to try anything at all at this point.

Okay.

They try it, a knowledge mage and structure mage working together. (This is getting kind of expensive, but the doctors aren't complaining.)

Extremities first. They stay well away from the brain and leave the spine untouched too.

Doing just the extremities gets partial results. After a while Echan announces that she can feel her right hand again. She could maybe go back to work part-time now, she's optimistic that they've probably saved her life at least for the next few months or so. But she's still exhausted and blind and in pain.

...Isava might hug the doctors, if they seem like they'd like hugs.

That's good! They could try this same thing again, on more parts of her. They were just taking it slowly in case something got worse. And there are other things they can try. Drugs from Milliways with a lot of otherworldly medical knowledge to back them up, but it's all experimental and it would be totally understandable if she wanted to stick with just this, in case trying more things makes it worse again. They could also try and figure out how to get various aid devices and prosthetics and pain drug regimens to work for her.

Hugs maybe not, but one of the doctors will pat him on the shoulder in a vaguely fatherly sort of way? ...A nurse looks at the doctor a bit disapprovingly and will totally hug Isava.

Then the nurse will be the one to get very hugged and thanked for saving them both.

She can think of some devices that might be useful. She's cautiously optimistic about trying the same treatment on the rest of her body, but that seems riskier and she'd rather not die before she can free Isava. She'll try it if she has to, but maybe they have part-time work for her now? She can sew and work with leather.

- Isava interrupts to tell her to please not make that choice just for him. If she just doesn't want to risk getting worse, fine, but can she please not make him the reason she's still sick?

Echan laughs. "I'd be fine, now, but since you insist."

"I'm not insisting! Just..."

"Okay. Anyway, I'll have them see how well they can fix me. You never know, maybe I'll be cured."

The doctors want her to rest and eat well for a day or two, observing, and then repeat the process. If this therapy helps Echan recover, they can use the same treatment for other people with the same thing.

The nurse doesn't argue with them, exactly, but she knows that Echan wants to be able to work again and feel useful, so suggests that she could try sewing as a, uh, dexterity exercise. Get used to using the hand again, reinforce the pathways. The doctors think that's fine as long as she doesn't overstrain herself or anything.

"I'll fetch you some shirt patterns, hon, and needle and thread. We'll even pay you for it, thirty rings a shirt."

"Good, I've spent too long resting already."

She's slow at it. She's quick when she's actually sewing, but she takes long, frequent breaks.

She's a lot better after a couple of days. Some of that is the treatment, some of it is having hope, some of it is having something to do. She's more animated when she talks. She's up more often. She listens to things happening nearby.

She tries to convince Isava she'll be fine if he goes back to Riuhiu to look for work but he's not letting her out of his sight right now.

The nurses continue to bring them both food, and will chat with them. She gets paid for the sewing on time. (The nurses aren't even taking a cut for fetching supplies and delivering the finished shirts.) Doctors and nurses and patients talk about a wide variety of things, though it's all English except for a few people trying to learn Hari.

They also bring Isava books to read, and perhaps he'd like to go to school once they have that organized? Most children in England went to school, learning math and science and reading and writing, and optionally history or cooking or balancing a budget or morals and philosophy. They're going to make it free.

The doctors think they can try the same myelin-restoration treatment on more parts of her, now, if she wants. Particularly her optic nerves. There's nothing wrong with her eyes - so if the nerves recover, they think that her vision might come back.

Echan lets the nurses know that she could teach people Hari or Lexori.

School sounds like a great idea but will he have to learn English first?

She does want that. She wants that very badly.

Nurses spread the word! Some people want to talk to her in Hari. Mostly not the same people for very long - most people who come in here get hurt, get patched up, and then leave. They seem weirdly reluctant to pay for Hari lessons but will do things for her or try to teach her and Isava English in return.

They're going to have at least one or two teachers who teach in Hari. Probably a lot of the other kids will know only English, though.

They try it. They do the same cell-restoring treatment on most of the peripheral nerves in her body, focusing particularly on the optic nerves.

If they're willing to trade English lessons then she assumes they're just not very liquid right now. Probably because they just arrived and don't have jobs. She could use some English lessons and so could Isava.

Well, she's better now. Hard to say if what's left is permanent damage or if they just need to keep going with her brain and spine or if it's both of those things. But she's happy with the results, she'll recommend them to anyone else who needs help.

There is definitely some permanent damage. And trying this on the spine and brain is probaly more risky than peripheral nerves, they're different sorts of things to an extent.

Is she going to move out of the hospital now or stay and acclimatize? They can probably let her stay for another few days but will have to start asking for money sooner or later. They also have experience in helping people recover. Special exercises, fitting aid devices, and the like.

She'll stay another day and then go home. She'd like to know when they expect to have school organized and what they'll need to do to enroll Isava.

The school will be ready in like a month. Probably she just needs to show up again closer to that? They're still organizing most of their... Stuff.

A city has sprung up outside of the hospital. The rows and rows of tents are thinned out some, and tall buildings in a strange style rise up in neat lines closer to the river.

Some travel services have sprung up on the road out. Automaton-bus fare back to Riuhiu is 6 rings per seat.

...Do they need any help organizing their stuff?

If not she'll just head home.

They think they have it covered, and that getting this much organized in a week and a half or so is already pretty impressive. The city government is going to have city taxes and city ""laws"" (you agree to follow the rules when you enter - technically it's a sort of common contract and there are probably going to be issues with that eventually but they don't think becoming their own state is a good idea right now.)

Ahem. Anyway, no, they're good on administrators and organizers thank you.

Of course, she's very impressed with them.

And off they go.

Nikolas gets a letter from Lanisal. When would it be convenient for him to come visit her?

He sends a letter about how very busy he is in return, along with a package containing a prototype satellite transceiver and instructions for attaching it to her computer and installing an also-prototype email client.

They are all very grateful for such a generous gift. Would he like the clan's help with any of the things he's working on right now?

Detailed feedback on the gifts would be appreciated! He's curious whether any video games or other programs have come out from them yet. And he's about ready to send them info on how to make websites. When the internet becomes a thing, having useful or fun websites ready to go will be good for both the clan and his business.

They've done a timewasting game and extended his calculator and are just finishing testing a family tree program. They send detailed feedback on everything.

Lanisal will be ready to launch some new shows as soon as the internet is a thing.

They wouldn't like to interrupt anything, but he would be very welcome to come visit at his soonest convenience when things are quieter.

I get the hint. Three days from now, sunrise?

Three days from then at sunrise Lanisal will be ready for him.

"Glad to see you've made progress on the programming. Handy things, aren't they, computers?"

"They're wonderful! I'm glad to see you, I have something to show you that I didn't trust could stay hidden well enough in the mail. Mind if I show you where we've been keeping it? It's under an extra layer of illusion, even being inside the house doesn't let you look."

"Likewise, I'm sure. Oh, you've come up with something good, have you? Alright, let's go see it."

It's over this way. She leads the way.

"We haven't done anything with it yet, at all. Haven't showed it to anyone either. Haven't mentioned it to anyone outside the family. Anything we could do seemed unfair to you and I consider you a friend."

And here they are at a small secret room with a table covered in notebooks and a blackboard covered in diagrams. In the middle of the table on top of one of the notebooks is a computer, but not one of the ones he's been selling.

"I see. Yes, of course. I didn't have any illusions on me coming out of Milliways - this does change things a bit. I never really expected to be able to keep the secret forever, nobody is perfect, but I had already screwed up the very instant I entered the world, eh? Heh."

"Yes. But the Vesairel clan won't be making any use of this. Not to compete with you, anyway, maybe you'd like being able to collaborate with someone who knows what you're doing."

"Yes, it's a lot easier to collaborate than to try and reverse-engineer the whole thing, isn't it? You could probably start making your own working computers by using knowledge magic on this one, eventually... I have been sort of running myself into the ground because I'm too secretive for my own good. Hmm. So, you want to get more involved on the hardware side of things, or on running the internet, or what?"

"It's Seli who's most interested, he's been so excited about examining the inside of a computer. I don't think I know enough to say how he'd be most useful but I'm sure he would love to work on whatever you think he could help with. I can go find him for you if you'd like to talk with him about it?"

"Hmm. Yeah, we should probably chat. I don't just need programmers, either. There's something I'm working on... Know anybody who fancies themselves an investigator or a judge? Someone to resolve disputes?"

"I have cousins who are police officers - state, not imperial. I know the people who keep order within our clan, but I'm not sure if that's what you mean."

"I have cooked up a system to make traceable, safe financial transactions over the internet. So that people can buy things off a website without having to physically send rings somewhere. Electronic commerce was a big deal for the internet of old. It could use some extra eyes on the design, looking for loopholes and legal issues. It could also use a dispute resolution mechanism, so that fraud is harder, and that requires a judge - if not an Imperial judge."

"I think you want a lawyer, someone who can tell you about relevant precedents. If you want my recommendation, I think Sardev Varoran could be helpful. I know who to ask to put you in touch with some Anavel Sani state judges but I don't know any personally myself. How is this system going to work?"

He explains it.

You go to an office set aside for this and give them some rings. You get a name, a password, and a little highly secured encryption widget. This is a 'virtual necklace' that has exactly as many rings as you put in. You can withdraw the rings in your virtual necklace by visiting the place and giving the correct password and having the widget - with a slightly longer verification process if you've forgotten one or both of those things, and a grace period for his bank to give the rings back if you want to withdraw a really huge amount all at once.

Web site owners can put in a bit that connects to a set of computers that only do virtual necklace transactions. It will show a prompt saying 'you are sending 30 rings to...' You have to enter your password and the six digit number on the encryption device, and then it will verify that the info is accurate, and then it will subtract rings from your virtual wallet and give a transaction number. (The transaction number is for tracking disputes and such.) There's also a nice program that shows transaction history and status and so on.

When you receive rings, you get them all at once, once every 10 days, and pay a transaction fee of 1/288 of all rings received (rounded up). It's free for spenders to encourage people to spend, but businesses will find that they are a lot more trusted online and have an easier time finding customers if they have a Virtual Necklace.

As to fraud and disputes - he's mostly concerned about customers who send money and then get defrauded and complain (he wants it to be as easy as possible for customers, and have a reputation for security, so everyone uses it), or people pulling complicated schemes involving moving money around and this somehow reflecting badly back on the virtual bank. You can cancel and raise disputes about transactions, and have it automatically reversed or sent to someone to review the dispute and decide what to do, depending on circumstances. He hasn't worked out all the details on that yet, and kind of needs a lawyer's input there.

He also has lots of technical detail about how it works and how it should be fraud-resistant and fast on the back end, which he does his best to explain in understandable terms.

"That sounds incredibly suspicious. What's your plan for getting people to trust you?"

"Extreme customer-friendliness, exclusive virtual-wallet-only discounts, sign-up bonuses. Give me 12 rings and get 144 free, try it out, see that it's not fraud-y, and let it build up a reputation. Maybe work out something to make transactions optionally scryable. Also, how else are you going to buy things on the internet? 'Mail in your rings to this address in norvand'? 'Go to my store in riuhiu if you want to buy it'? The former is also kind of unsafe, the latter is very inconvenient."

"I can see how that would be useful. Especially in small towns, I think. It isn't a scam, is it? I wouldn't tell anyone outside the clan if you said yes."

"I'm sure I believe you on that with absolutely no hesitation or reservations. No. It's not a scam. I'm not even gonna get into fractional reserve banking, an entirely different thing which is in fact kinda scammy. It's a perfectly legitimate way to make the internet more useful to the average person, which I intend to run cleanly."

"I wouldn't betray a friend for the sake of a few strangers who we've stipulated are the sort of people who fall for scams. But I can see why you'd hesitate to believe me about that. What's fractional reserve banking?"

"Well - and I'm not going to do this, it seems like the kind of thing that might get me enslaved or executed if it fails ungracefully - imagine I do this virtual wallet for a while, and I have everyone's rings, right? Sure, they can come claim them at any time, but if it turns out enough people find the virtual wallet convenient, maybe they tend to not. So what's stopping me from making loans with those rings? What's stopping me from granting virtual wallets and owing people five rings for every one I actually have? They're not going to come and actually claim all their money. At least not all at once. So, I lend out more money than the bank actually has and make a tidy profit by charging interest in that expanded amount. I have a reserve of actual rings, a fraction of how many rings I owe people. That's fractional reserve banking. And I'm not gonna do it here, because it's liable to get me executed."

"...Yes, that sounds like the kind of thing I was imagining when I said it sounded like a scam. It sounds like that's an accepted business practice where you're from?"

"Yes. It's more complicated than that by far, but in short, yes. It does have advantages, but I'm not optimally educated to explain or defend them. There were a rough few centuries when folks first came up with the idea."

And that's about when Seli shows up.

"Hello again, Seli. You can thank Lanisal for, ah, convincing me that I ought to collaborate a bit more."

"Thanks, Lanisal. So..." Seli asks so many questions.

He's not scrupulously hiding the answers anymore. He gives lectures that wouldn't be out of place in Computer Architecture 202 or Operating System Design 313 at a university.

He's clever. He's not a vampire, but he's clever and enthusiastic and Nick does need to delegate.

At a stopping point Nick says, "So, I think I want to hire you full-time to develop computer programs and hardware with me. And possibly some others if anyone you know would be good at it. I have too many things going on to personally oversee all of them anymore, is the thing, so I need to let other smart people have stakes in it. Much as that makes the control freak in me cringe. There's you, there's this caralendar called Nimo - Saramel, I think - there's someone from New Dover who's a fairly brilliant mad roboticist, that'll be fun - a few others I've been farming out programming work to. Maybe a dozen or two people in all. Ideally, I'd get everyone working in the same building, see what we can come up with."

"That would be fun. You want me in Ira Sani? For the long term or just for a while?"

"I'll have to think about it. New idea, this is. Maybe depends on how well you can keep up."

"Of course. Hey, have we been keeping you from getting breakfast? We have human blood if you want something."

"Oh, have you been keeping some on hand for me? I don't need three meals a day anymore but I won't say no, if it's not too stale. Oh, hey, you think tourist trips to the Moon would sell? I made a capsule that keeps air in a while ago to have some force mages put up the satellites."

"Yes I think that would sell! I want to go! And the blood's been warded since just after it was drawn - the wards will break when you open a bottle. It's in the kitchen cabinet, I can show you the way."

"By all means. I'd want to make a bigger, upgraded capsule for moon trips - maybe also have sun and structure mages along who can clean the air in the unlikely case my machines fail. The one I have now would sustain a dozen full grown humans or caralendri for twenty-ish hours. Less agerah, more essi or beluli or whatever. And, like, I'd put in plumbing and private rooms. The moon would be a day trip, seems pleasanter all around."

"...Someone's going to want to found a state on the moon just because it might not get them killed."

"Maybe I can sell them a lot of oxygen recycling gear and the like. It's probably still pretty easy to die on the moon if you're not careful, I'd advise someone to have at least three copies of anything important and test them often."

"Yeah, personally if I wanted a state I'd just have an island raised from the sea for it, it'd be a lot safer that way."

And here's the kitchen. Some of the family is there eating breakfast at the moment.

Nik socializes, acting perfectly pleasant while slowly getting more irritated and tired of it. Eventually, he goes to have business meetings elsewhere on the mainland.

His big think-tank plan will start taking shape later. He sets up meetings with lawyers to hammer out the legalities of his e-bank. Seli is welcome to come to Ira Sani and tour his factory and workshop. He should probably learn the basics of all Nik's various projects but choose one or two to focus on after that.

Back in Ira Sani, while the talking heads of New Dover continue to build automata and infrastructure and the school and the hospital and so on, and debate on whether to ban nudity, pornography, and prostitution within city borders, a bespectacled man finds the office of the woman who's been advertising security and bug-catching services. He has a shielded briefcase with him.

"Hello, what brings you to me today?"

"Well, ma'am, I'm new in New Dover, and detection equipment is something of a skill of mine. It seems like the devices I can make may be of use to you, and to that end I'd like to demonstrate them."

"I see. Here or somewhere hidden?"

"The devices themselves are warded. If you want me to demonstrate them and show how to use them, here is fine. If I am to explain how they work, I'll want you to buy the knowledge and to do it somewhere warded."

"Let's start with the demonstration and I'll think about whether I want the explanation."

"Sure! Okay, so, I have a wall ultrasound that can help detect cavities or other anomalies, I have an electronic noise listener that should detect most things using electricity, I have a radio noise monitor and a frequency penetration testing tool - see if any wavelengths of light are leaking - laser mapping tool, uh, camera finder..."

"Can you show me that they actually work?"

"I am honestly doubtful that you have any hidden cameras or listening devices in this room that I could conveniently suss out as a demonstration. I can scan your walls and show you where the support beams are and if there's any secret doors or the like. Should work even on knowledge-warded structures, too."

"That would be something."

There is a secret door. The room behind it doesn't allow any sound out.

If the seams of the door, or whatever lock or latch mechanism there is, aren't also silenced, they'll interfere with the sound pattern and he'll see it.

Even if that doesn't happen, the sound-absorbing room creates a dead zone that changes the infrasonic rebound a bit and will let him tell that something is off about that particular wall, even if he can't find the door.

"You could maybe have figured that out just by scrying at the right times but I think I want the explanation. How much?"

"Well, I'm not a knowledge mage. Hmm, let's say twelve for an overview of the principles? Blueprints are not on offer unless you make a really good offer."

"This way, then."

She shows him to a different shielded room. The door to this one is visible.

He follows.

He explains ultrasonic imaging! It's a really cool thing, isn't it? If something has different feedback based on conditions, any kind of different feedback, you can use it as a detection method. It works best if you use some kind of contact gel but he didn't think she'd appreciate him smearing gooey oil all over her walls and it worked well enough didn't it?

"A ring if you'll tell me how you learned about this?"

"You know, I don't quite understand offering rings during casual conversation, but I'll take it. I figured this one out in an experiment in my mechanical engineering class at Cambridge, and refined it in various ways since then."

"And what've you been doing with it since?" She offers another ring.

"Some doctor friends of mine found it useful for seeing inside the body. Knowledge magic kind of obviates that. They also used it for structural analysis, checking if damaged buildings were safe to enter, looking for flaws in wood timbers and steel... That sort of thing. I was thinking about using an analytical engine or computer to refine the output, make it easier to read. I could only tell about your door because I have experience with it, a layperson would not have been able to find it, I think."

"I bet this isn't the only invention you've brought to Har. Want to take the time to tell me about anything else I might want, since you're here anyway?"

"Certainly!"

He can go down his whole list, sales-pitch style, including half a sentence hinting at the operating principle for each device.

"Do you even have time to use any of these? Or make enough of them to sell everyone who wants one? It seems like you'd have more time for inventing if you just sold the blueprints."

"That's definitely a possibility! I might even go that route! Inventing is more fun than salesmanship! But for now, I have them, I put quite a bit of work into them, and I need money but not urgently. So the offer for the blueprints would have to be pretty good, to be worth handing off the work I put into them."

"It's not just these. We could come to a deal once and then next time you come to me with something about as useful and I give you about as much and you never have to find a buyer again. So. How's 14976 rings?"

He does some mental math, converting it to pounds. It's not a bad payday. However, on the general principle that you should always negotiate, "...No, that's not really enough. Perhaps if this were a barely-functioning prototype it would be, but given the amount of work I've put in and the usefulness of this device I should expect, er," He slips into English, "Twenty five thousand?"

She haggles.

He backs down fairly easily, the final amount isn't that much higher than her initial offer.

"It's a deal. Well, I'll actually have to go fetch all my notes and touch up some of the documentation - er, do you have a warded box I can put them in? I've just been keeping them indoors."

"Yeah, it's around here somewhere... yeah, here, no charge if you give it back when you're done."

"Thank you. Should I go now, or would you like to talk about the ultrasonic scanner a bit more before I do? No more careful answers. You're getting the blueprints anyway. Oh, and you can have this one for cost of parts, that's about, er, 144."

"Might as well bring it now. Want half the rings before you go?"

"No need, no need. This is civilized business after all. I'll be off, then, and back as soon as possible this afternoon."

Foreigners are so weird.

She's still at her office in the afternoon.

And he's back with her box of documents. "Hello again. Your name is Nimo Saramel, correct? I'm Curtis Warden, I realized on the way back that I never properly introduced myself." He presents his hand for a handshake.

She shakes his hand.

"Yeah, that's my name. You come back next time you invent something, okay?"

"I have more inventions now. And... You don't want, say, an explanation of how to efficiently build it, or the nuances in using it?"

"That would be good. That won't cost me extra?"

"Not unless you want to monopolize me for hours, no. I was assuming an hour or two of consulting on design was included with the blueprints!"

"Oh! Then have a seat, get comfortable. Would you like some greens?"

"And besides, you're 'in' on the technical secrets now, so you might have an interesting new perspective - and it'll be fun. Sure, thank you. Er, do you know if all your greens are alright for humans to eat?"

"I think so but I'm not sure, can you have arugula and alfalfa?"

"Yes, I recognize those. We don't find them tasty necessarily, but they're quite edible. Usually we would add other things, but I'm hardly complaining."

He starts unpacking blueprints and sketches. They're kind of disorganized, with a patch-job unifying them into one sensible document.

Nimo is very interested.

Curt is an enthusiastic inventor explaining one of his inventions! He's having lots of fun. Barely touches the snacks.

She has lots of questions.

"...You know what, if you don't come up with anything new, come by anyway if you feel like talking again."