"Yeah, I've heard of it but never really gone to seek it out. Besides, what would I say? 'Hi I'm here to gawk at you because you're intelligent but nonhuman?' Not really a good first impression. Maybe if I had some business I'd use the opportunity, but..."

"Well, you could ask about souls. I think you - collective you decided they're not actually people? But they're definitely weird, right?"

"They are definitely weird. They seem a bit person-like, but not actually people. A Devil might know more about what they're for, I agree. Maybe that tips the scales in favor of going and asking, but... I have other things to do." She stabs her skillet and takes another bite. "I'm sure there'll be Devils out there in the sky too."

"Yep. There's Carillon if nothing else. Sometimes I think I'm better off the less knowledgeable I am about all the awful things out there." Shrug. Nom. "Might be some truth to that. Metaphysically, not just not wanting to be burdened by knowing more tragic or horrifying history."

"Personally, I don't think ignorance is bliss. I want to experience everything. Even the hard and scary things. It's easier for me than for most, but... I don't want to live my life in fear. I'd rather do what I want with it."

"I mean. Some things aren't very reversible. There's rumors, horror stories. I'm a little scared even bringing up the topic? I want to learn and grow and adventure and help people but. There's a limit to what I want to see and experience of the biggest, baddest stuff out in the sky. Except, then I think that's selfish and if I really want to be the best I can be I wouldn't want that. I dunno."

"That's fair. I don't think you have to be... okay, with everything that could happen to you. You just have to be willing to accept the risk and move forwards. And if it does happen to you, you'll deal with it then." 

She runs a hand through her hair. "Big words, compared to the vastness of all the horrible things that might happen. But... I want to experience it all. That's just true about me."

"Sounds about right. Enough heavy stuff. Let's talk about something else."

"Where in the high wilderness would you most like to live? Are you content with New Winchester, or is there somewhere else you'd prefer?"

"Well, I do think I want to live - in a city. I could vacation somewhere like Port Avon, but not live there. It can't be Port Prosper. New Winchester is pretty much it. I could do London. I think Lustrum might be sort of alright. I don't know what Pan, the big city in Eleutheria, is like."

"What's Lustrum like? Aside from the hours-mining and that it's in the middle of nowhere."

"It's cold. It's a big place but not a huge place, maybe ten thousand people? It's got a lot of... Independent spirit, I guess. Lots of individual cabins, lots of people thinking they're going to strike it rich through their own effort, lots of entrepreneurs, not much Establishment at all."

"Sounds like my kind of place too," says Thorn. "We should definitely visit and bring some Hours back with us." 

"It's probably our best option to earn a lot of profit really quickly. Hours are worth a lot in - certain places, right?

"Yes, I think so. Though it's not necessarily much use to have foreign money. The things I'd want to buy are things like upgrades to the engine, at the moment."

"You can get chorister nectar for foreign money, or gold, or tea, or probably bronzewood or just food and fuel, right? And then sell if for Sovereigns and buy engine upgrades. Though, if we manage to amass thousands of Sovereigns I would want a whole new engine. The Spatchcock line is, well, its best feature is the price."

"That would be a responsible way of going about things. Gold or tea and supplies can certainly be had from my contacts. Chorister honey or bronzewood yes, but they wouldn't be ideal for us to turn a profit. Hours, though... My supplier would be willing to buy barrels of hours for..." 

She pauses. She thinks. Her eyes widen. 

She gestures for Lenora to lean in, and whispers in her ear. "Almost two hundred thousand OTC each."

"Is time that rare where you're from? So... Lustrum first."

"It's practically nonexistent. I'm tempted to just go down to the market and see what we can purchase in loose geodes first; then we might not have to settle for a Spatchcock."

"...Yes. Everyone is gonna be richer. How expensive is, mmm, life insurance. Because if it's achievable I want safety. An advance on my half of the earnings I guess."

"You'd need a lot of barrels of hours to afford my policy, but mine is a family policy with a lot of add-ons, where you'd be looking at an individual one. If we assume you want something close to mine, then..." 

She pauses to do mental math. Memory crystals are maybe ten OTC each. Indestructibility charms for solid objects are about fifty otc. Soul imprinting is a modified Trap The Soul which would take someone like Hannah about fifteen minutes of setup and teardown. At deity wages that's about seven hundred and fifty thousand OTC. A policy to always be able to retrieve the indestructible soulstamped crystal in case of theft, loss or death could run arbitrarily high depending on exactly how always you want it, but the Evatree has never met circumstances where a day's retrieval efforts was not enough. That's a policy worth seventy-one million OTC on full payout, but as it is literally insurance she could buy a policy outright for a tenth of the cost. And that should handle a cloning budget easily, as well. So...

"Around forty barrels of hours," Thorn says. "For a policy comparable to mine. Occasionally you'd have to pay a barrel or two into the policy to keep it going, but I don't think you'd have any trouble with that; even if you got out of the hours business for one reason or another, you could take up a lucrative trade like Hannah's."

She taps her chin. "I think we could advance you that. It'd have to get a signature from someone higher up the command chain than me, but with the excellent investment opportunity we have here..."

"Wow, that much, even with how expensive Hours are? I don't know that I'd want it to work like yours necessarily. I'd be sort of okay with it, uh, getting the me from a few months or a year ago back instead if it made it much cheaper. I just... I'm actually really scared, now that I know ka and policies like yours exist. Eighty years at the outside is not such a long time to sacrifice. Forever is a long time."

She nods. "You could get a less comprehensive policy for a tenth that price. You get what you pay for, but..."

Lenora nods rapidly, grinning. Then she has a thoughtful look for a few moments, shakes her head, stands up, walks halfway around the table, and kisses Thorn. "I am pretty sure talking to you in that bar is the best decision I ever made."

She kisses back and grins. 

"We're both very lucky." 

She hops off her stool. "Hours at the market, then? I'll have to stop by the bank, but..."