Beaumont is waaaaaaaay out on the Rim. 

"Out on the rim, I guess industrial in some or several industries, but the industrial products have to get into the Core somehow, so we can probably get passage if we want to be on another planet."

"I guess the center worlds are probably where the big levers are? But it might be easier to get to the big fish in the little pond first and then springboard from there..."

"If I didn't know your bag was resurrecting the dead I'd find the way you talk real concerning."

"I admit that I have habits of thought that may be less productive in a political landscape not dominated by the likes of Mr. Fires, the Traitor Empress and literally Hell and I should probably work on that." 

"Who are Mr. Fires and the Traitor Empress, and can I have a three-sentence Hell summary to make sure I'm not just porting over stuff we have associated with the word?"

"Mr. Fires is one of what are called 'The Masters of the Bazaar,' mostly they act on their own recognizance but they do what the Bazaar tells them when it tells them to do things, and also they are human-sized space bats who hide this fact from the general public. Mr. Fires in particular isn't the worst of the lot, that's Mr. Veils, but Fires is, uh, his own recognizance isn't great. The Traitor Empress is the Empress of the British Empire, insofar as that still exists, which is...nominally...anyway she sold London to the Bazaar in exchange for her consort's life and is now some unspecified variety of weird, she actually isn't all that politically active. Hell is space bees that are, like, mostly fine, except that they have something I have yet to figure out against Rubberies, and they take souls. It's the soul-taking that's the real problem. I don't...know what they do with them...but, uh, I'm not optimistic. Also they run around in bodies made of magic paper that mostly look like humans except for having yellow eyes. Also they used to have an aristocracy but then they drove them off and became a Republic, which is fair, except that their aristocracy were the ones who had superluminal capacities and knew anything about the Correspondence and they're as cheerful as anyone about doing unethical things to get their hands on resources-including-information to make up the gap." 

"Why exactly is the space bees' civilization called 'Hell'?"

"I don't know whether associating them with the Christian mythology of devils was their idea or the Church's and if so why they go with it, or if they inspired it--they've been on Earth for a long time--but like. They do take souls. And say nothing particularly reassuring about what happens to them. It's extremely concerning, I'm extremely concerned." 

"Where do they get them?"

"People sell them. You still have a brain when you don't have a soul, it basically forks you until and unless the two are reunited. It's also possible to take them without consent. That's, uh, highly illegal, but it doesn't stop everybody." 

"What do people sell them for?"

"It varies. Some souls are more valuable to the devils than others and can get a higher price. Mostly they pay in Nevercold Brass."

"...that's a form of currency?"

"Yeah, London has a lot of them. Jade, Moon-Pearls, Rostygold, Echoes..."

"That's a lot of forms of currency to have in circulation in the same place and time."

"Echoes are the only one that's fiat."

"But the others are common?"

"Mhm."

"Still seems weird but I don't know as much as I'd like about economics. I guess here they seem to have both 'plat' and 'credits'." She checks the social studies book for an index.

Credits are the official currency! The textbook has nothing to say about plat. 

"Credits are official, but there must be some reason Josie sold us the rooms in plat."

"Credits're fiat, plat's hard coin, and we're pretty far from the center."

"Yeah, maybe there isn't a bank in town or something."

"It wouldn't surprise me if that was a city thing too, since this place doesn't have a library or a, a Cortex."