"Do you not have clerics where you come from?"

"No, I don't think so? It's possible they are considered secret, or otherwise obscure somehow. The Captain and I were the only people with recognizable magic that I know of; We both have the Spark. -Oh, about half progress on an improved stove, by the way."

"Good to know. Clerics and wizards prepare spells in advance and clerics in particular must do so at dawn. Share Language takes a second-circle slot. It should, if you try, permit you to learn the language for real more rapidly, but if you do or don't need it on any particular day I should be notified ahead so I'm not guessing."

"I'm optimistic about accelerated language learning after the results of one day of study. But, understood. It likely will be not very necessary once I have the stove installed... I keep having additional ideas for fort improvements - city Frostbound had many advanced machines performing various functions - but few are as straightforward and short term from my perspective as the stove so I had thought to finish that and let it demonstrate the value of sparkwork before proposing anything more ambitious."

"Prudent. Anything else I need to know?"

Pause to Actually Think About It.

"Other than that I will be unfamiliar with most types of demons if a battle occurs and to plan accordingly until I have the chance to attend more demonology sessions, not that immediately leaps to mind. Also unfamiliar with clerics, for that matter, and possibly unknown unknowns."

"We do not have a class on Basic Things That Exist. If you find it impairing I recommend finding a wizard on one of the cleaning shifts and asking them questions; wizards can generally hold a conversation while Prestidigitating and enjoy talking about what they know."

"Okay. Last question, are there other uh - non-sensitive things - that worldwound forts tend to particularly need in case they inspire ideas?"

"Cold iron arrowheads - and other weapons, but those tend to be brought in rather than produced on site - and we go through a great many Endure Elements spells particularly in the winter."

"Arrow-

Do you know if they work against demons if only a small portion of the arrowhead is cold iron? The cutting edge, say? Or should I ask a wizard?"

Electroplating! It solves problems!

"...I am not aware of that having ever been tried but I might not be; asking a wizard seems appropriate."

"Okay I think that is all - I expect to benefit greatly from another share language tomorrow and have no firm expectation of if it will be necessary after that-"

She stands and makes to leave, seeming excited.

"Then I'll see you tomorrow. Good night."

She grabs one of the rocks that still needs a precise curve carved into it and looks for a cleaning wizard.

There's usually one posted to manage dishes and one in the entry hall for incoming patrols and whoever else wants cleaning up and one in the stables.

...Horses creep her out. She'll try the dishes one first and suggest that she helpfully stack and hand dishes in return for answering some out-of-context questions?

"Yeah, sure, I like to do them ten at a time. What's on your mind?"

"Well, the specific question I came here with was about cold iron arrowheads and how much cold iron is necessary thereto, but I think actually all the books I've read are lies - or I'm from a different planet - or something fucky. You don't have any - see, I'm not even finding a Taldane word for it - lightning machines? And we didn't have clerics or wizards. Or a worldwound. We do have monsters though. And, like, the concept of laws and treaties." Stacking stacking.

"They don't have clerics in Rahadoum. And they say old Sarkoris didn't have wizards. I don't see how you'd get along without either unless there were a hell of a lot of whatever you are though."

"I heard about one in a thousand, depending on where you live? I think the more important factor is that stuff we make, mostly other people can use just fine? ...Anyway, has anyone tried making only the cutting edge of arrowheads cold iron, does it ruin whatever special penetrative capability they have?"

"I think you can't forge them that way at the temperature that lets it be cold iron. I don't see why it wouldn't work - if you get a strong hit with a cold iron arrow, the shaft goes in after it."

"When I've proven I'm not just saying words I have an idea about that. It's heat that ruins it? I wonder if it's some property of the crystalline structure..."

"Yeah, too much heat. You have to get it a little hot to work up at all but if you overdo it you just have normal iron. Holy weapons work on demons too but they're mostly useful for the kind of archer who can put thirty arrows in a demon every moment and you want to be able to hand him the cheap shit and have it work because they don't like it if anybody who's not a paladin or something pick them up."

"They don't seem to be immune, I managed to kill a dretch with a weapon that is not, to my knowledge, either cold iron or holy- I suppose dretches are not necessarily the apex of the phylum, and more damage is better- Anyway there is a slightly exotic metalworking technique known as 'electroplating'," said in Germanian, "That doesn't involve high heat and seems worth trying, but it'd require a lot of presumably expensive equipment to attempt..."

"What kind of equipment, do you just mean you need like a lot of spellsilver to make the thing that can do it?"