"Oh, uh, I miscalibrated someone's level of legitimate concern versus bureaucratic obstructiveness and freaked some people out by shining on a whole hospital without permission." 

June whistles. "Yeah, I can imagine people would be concerned? That'll do it. Tho', there's plenty of bureaucratic obstructiveness going in places. What I heard is that things nearly came to blows in front of the hospital - and that the Windward Company bullies backed down - and that the Tackety hoodlums unlawfully threatened them, from another guy five minutes later."

"Oh, both sides were there and they both backed down after I established that I was not signing any nondisclosure agreements with anyone and if they started shooting I would resurrect and subsequently yell at everyone." 

"-Ha. Good job. I mean, I am technically mostly a Tackety so maybe I should be rooting for them but it'd be unfriendly - or unreasonable or something - of me to expect you to go break the Windward Company's stuff for me. So."

"I might, eventually, break their stuff, if they're committing atrocities, but I'd definitely need to learn more before doing things like that. I'm certainly a lot more suspicious of the Windward Company than the Tacketies, but I'm not going to go around being mean to people based on suspicion."

"What's the difference between an injustice and an atrocity?"

"In terms of what they are or how I respond to them? An injustice is when you're treating people unfairly and you have to be made to stop but it's basically livable day-to-day for the people you're being unfair to; an atrocity is when the people affected just plain aren't okay. I'll warn an unjust ruler that they need to stop before taking serious action against them, but if they haven't cut out the atrocities by the time I find out about them they will be made to stop, immediately."

"...Most Windward Company shenanigans going on now are injustices. The Workworlds, in Albion, are an atrocity. I've only heard rumors and it didn't really - hit me - until I started thinking about it because of everything that's happened today, but they involve way more people than the Winchester War and they've been bad longer and they're more inescapable and they're just plain worse. The workworlds are huge factory complexes running on fast time where you work until you're frail and grey, then work some more. Criminals, debtors, and the homeless get rounded up and sent there. Fuel for the factories. Even if you earn enough to pay your way out they make the forms for that so confusing that you'll definitely screw it up and owe money for misfiling fees again."

"Where are they? Who runs them?"

"In Albion. The only way to get there - well, for humans to get there - is through the Transit Relay near Port Prosper. I presume wealthy Establishment figures run them." June crosses her arms uncomfortably. "They argue that the abundance of cheap goods improves quality of life for everyone else, so it balances. As if."

"An abundance of cheap goods does improve quality of life, but that only balances if you don't give a shit about the people trapped inside. So I wouldn't say their argument is a lie so much as being the product of them being shitty." 

"They're really censorious, too. Feels like the Empire is falling apart at the seams sometimes. Maybe it should if it only ever does evil shit."

"Yep. Looks like I'm going to have to go yell at the Traitor Empress sooner than I thought." 

"It's heady, imagining actually doing something about it? I mean, maybe I would have done something about it if I were - celestial. But I was sort of just going through the motions until yesterday, it feels like. And then my whole world got blown up and I got kidnapped by pirates and I was so s-s-sure they were going to rape and torture me, and then suddenly everything is mostly fine again except I'm jumpy but-"

She bites her thumb, cutting off her rising voice, and screws her face in concentration, ignoring the tears from her eyes.

"Uh. So, so maybe I wouldn't have done anything about anything. I could've been doing more things than just follow Dad and maintain a locomotive, and I didn't. So, 'm not a good person. Not a bad one but- Not a good one."

"--You know, when I went into London for the first time, I didn't have any plans besides figuring out more about what I was. I knew that people on the Surface were dying all the time, but I only started doing things when I heard something that made it sound like I had a sibling I didn't know about that needed rescue. Which, uh, it turned out I did, but that was totally unrelated and I didn't find out about it for another couple of years ANYWAY. So I investigated that and it turned out that there was other shady stuff going on, but--people need a push to start actually doing things. It's okay if you didn't get your push until I showed up." 

"Yeah, a push. I'm not sure what I can do that nobody else can. Or that nobody else is, I guess. I'm mostly just a pretty okay mechanic who's maybe kind of good at staying calm. I can fix stuff for people who need the help, maybe. I'm also really, really scared of getting - pushed back. And dying, and you're not there that time."

Uncertain slightly guilty look-

"-Hug?"

Hug. 

"Even if I'm not there at the time, that doesn't mean you won't be okay. I've brought back Second City mummies that had been dead for thousands of years, and they were fine."

Very hug.

"I could get wrecked in a fungus-infested corner of nowhere and not be found ever. Or fall into a Well. Or be burned to ash and scattered. Or just go star-mad and not be me anymore. Maybe I should cut off a finger and put it in a safety deposit box and give you the key."

"Honestly not a bad plan. What's the significance of wells, in the Neath they were bad news but, uh, the guy I mentioned it to today hadn't heard of Seeking the Name so I'm going to guess it isn't that." 

"I don't know what they are but they're bad news. Basically, permanent hurricanes around extremely deep pits, that are supposedly inescapable. Not just because they're deep, they're... A little Correspondence-y? I don't think there's sigils there but there's definitely something celestial about them. Old Tom's Well in the Reach, the Well of the Wolf in Albion, the Well of Wonders in Eleutheria. Oh, and the White Well in the Blue Kingdom. They say that there's old unhappy things in the Wells and we're lucky they can't get out."

(Unhug. June sniffles slighty.)

"That's concerning. There was something unhappy in the wells of the Neath but I could handle it. Well, eventually. I had to figure some stuff out first. Certainly there were no hurricanes. I hadn't figured out how to solve it but I had figured out how to neutralize it temporarily so I could climb down and collect the bones of its victims to resurrect." 

"World's better with you in it. I wanna do the, uh, finger thing, just in case. Out back, maybe, so there's not blood everywhere."

"Good idea. Uh, I can put you under for it, so you don't have to feel it."

"...Yeah there's no point in trying to act tough for no reason."

They go outside.

Lucy nips her finger for blood and traces a Correspondence sigil on June's forehead that puts her deeply to sleep, pinches off all the digits from one hand, wraps each in a different scrap of fabric and stows each in a different pocket, then glows at the hand until the fingers are back and finally wipes away the sigil so June can wake up.