:Of course. I'm not going to make any decisions about it until I'm more recovered, in any case.:

"I understand." Lancir looks over at Savil again. "For now, why don't we start by reviewing the kinds of potential inventions, so we can decide what makes sense to focus on first?" 

"Mmhmm." :You brought the list?: she asks Sandra.

"I did!" Sandra digs it out. "And I rewrote it a bit, in better order. Roughly, I've got: things we currently do by burning fuel, like heating and lighting in the Palace. Things we use draft animals for, like transport. Some of the places where we use magic for building, particularly anything that's just lifting heavy weights. Er, and then writing – Deskyl thinks we can make a machine for copying books."

She moves further down the list. "It's also possible to make a machine for communication, to replace the Mindspeech relay, but Deskyl says that's a lot harder. Deskyl, am I missing anything that we talked about?" 

She spends a few seconds signing with DZ. :Glassmaking and blacksmithing, but they'll be more complicated than the rest and probably shouldn't be our first priority.:

"That makes sense. Hmm. If construction-type heavy lifting isn't too hard, that would save a lot of time for our mages in Haven. And faster long-distance transport than we have right now would be incredibly useful for the Kingdom overall. Both would pay off immediately, I think. Heating and lighting, I'm going to put at a slightly lower priority unless they're very easy, I'm sure your method is better but our current method is workable. And, copying books – I think that could be of remarkable value in the longer run, it won't repay itself quite as immediately but I do think that a lot of troubles in Valdemar are due to illiteracy, and at least some of that comes from the cost of books, often it's prohibitive for small rural towns to have any even in the temples."

He smiles encouragingly at Sandra, then turns back to Deskyl. "Does it seem like we're missing anything obvious here?" 

:I might want the printing machine as a side project even if it's not a priority, it's the sort of thing I like to tinker with in my spare time. Other things...: she considers. :Food storage; I don't know how hard cooling is but I can look into it. And - do you have germ theory, that's not a tech thing but it just now occurred to me to ask.:

"We can do cooling with magic, but not efficiently; we basically don't in practice, except there's magical insulation on the cellar where we store river-ice from winter. And - small-lives that cause disease? The Healers talk about that a little, I don't know much. I know they think it's important for drinking water to be clean, and we've got some magical systems for purifying water here in Haven but it's not feasible to do that everywhere, I don't know if that's something electricity can do?" 

:Water treatment is well outside my area of expertise, but I can talk to your Healers about what I do know. Food safety is part of it and I can help them get started figuring out more.:

"That seems really valuable, I appreciate it."

(Privately, Lancir is thinking that he still isn't sure he understands what Deskyl wants, here, and that's making him a little uneasy even though all her actions so far have been friendly.) 

Well, he's going to have to ask if he wants an answer to that one, she's not tipping her hand that she really is reading their minds just yet.

:I probably shouldn't do that quite yet, if they're going to have a lot of questions for me, but it'll be a good test of my state when I think I've recovered enough to start doing complicated things again. For the actual tech - the lift will make a good first project; it's not very complicated and with the right set of tricks might not need electricity at all. We can work on transportation after that, once we're more familiar with each other; heating will practically be a side effect of that, it's very simple. For the Mindspeech alternative, there's two possible ways of doing it - one uses a kind of light that's invisible to humans and that can go through wood and stone almost as if they were glass, and there would be machines to give off that kind of light with a code in what color it is that corresponds to sound, and other machines to see that light and decode it back into sound. The sending machines would need a lot of power, but you wouldn't need many of them - possibly only one - while the receiving machines would be much simpler and more common, with the downside that communication would only be one-way, and both machines would be more complicated than the other option. The other option is to run wires, and use machines to send and receive electrical signals through those wires. That only works where the wires are, but it means anyone on the system can communicate with anyone else - I can make the machines translate the signals to writing, using some of the same parts as the writing machine, but also people can just learn to understand the codes, it's complicated but not beyond what a human can reasonably do.:

"How fascinating! I like the sound of the wires setup, for a start, it's pretty important for us that messages can go both ways. And, starting with lifting makes sense. What kind of room and materials will you need?" 

:I'll need wood and rope and someone familiar enough with woodworking to make parts I describe, mostly. And a heavy-duty spring, are you familiar with those?: She sends an image and an impression of how they push back when compressed.

"Huh! No, I haven't seen that before. It's made of metal? I imagine we can either get one of the metalwork artificers to make one for you, or Savil could do it with magic, that'd be faster turnaround to get one or two made but not scalable longer-term." 

:Set the metalworkers on it and I'll get one from you if they don't have it by the time I want it, how about.: She sends an impression of the size and strength she wants, and :springs are another way to store energy, like batteries,: to Sandra in an aside.

Lancir sketches out some notes and a drawing of the spring. "What metal would you have them use?" 

She has to think about that for a second. :Steel if that's practical, iron if it's not, unless that's obviously wrong, and if it is I'll need to talk to someone who knows about metal properties.:

"We can do steel. Not with as fine control of its composition if the metalworkers do it, but hopefully that does not need to be exact for this purpose." 

:I can do stress-testing. This is for the safety system, so you really do want to make sure they won't break, but for development it'll be fine if we have some less-than-trustworthy ones as long as I'm right there when they're in use.:

"Sounds workable. I can let you know by tomorrow how long our artificers will need, and assign you someone with woodworking experience. How large a room will you need to work in?" 

:Enough for four people to move around comfortably, at least, and some space outside where we can leave things set up and they won't be interfered with.:

"Should be doable to arrange you something for tomorrow." He glances over at Savil. "...If you're not too tired, would you be willing to come talk a little longer in my private office?" 

:Sure.:

Then Lancir will lead her down the hall, while Sandra watches curiously over her shoulder as she heads off. Lancir's private office is a lot smaller and messier; he has to move some things off the chairs for her. 

"So," he says, once the door is shut and Savil has cast an extra layer of privacy-spells. "You mentioned how the appearance of a powerful Herald indicates that they'll be needed. And you're clearly a perceptive person. What have you put together so far?" 

"I'll stand, sir," DZ says when he goes to clear her a chair.

:Not much. Something's coming and you know it, and the boy... Van, is involved. I suspect I'm here partly to train him.: