It's fucking cold here.

There's a thin line of glow, on the horizon.

The terrain under her feet is Somehow Fucked Up.

(Yes, it's fucking cold, that's not really new, though usually one only has to endure it for minutes at a time, going from workplace to home and back. The heavy waxed boiler suit is not nothing in the face of such temperatures, but is also not really sufficient.)

...Teleportation?? To outside the City??

Maybe the creature was... An assassination attempt, like in the novels?

What do you do in this situation.

She takes a few deep breaths and has a careful look around, clutching the power saw and trying to look for... Anything significant on the horizon. Or high ground, even.

There's the glow!

There is also some blobbish sort of creature, hustling not very fast across the blighted landscape, off ahead and to her left. It hasn't obviously noticed her yet.

Monsters.

She will... Try to stay low? She drops prone and considers what part of her is most visible - her hair?  Tied up in a neat bun for saw-related reasons, right now, but she lacks a hat. Since she was being stupid and protective headgear is uncomfortable.

She watches it for a bit... And looks at the glow on the horizon. Does it seem like twilight sun, is it otherwise dark here?

The sun is actually behind her if she faces the horizon glow, quite low but a sun and not a line.

Oh, that makes a big difference, that suggests it's the lights of civilization! She should definitely head that way, before she freezes.

She tries to recall tidbits about tracking, hiking, and stealth from a few adventure novels... But they're novels. There's not really much of use. Maybe it'll help if she stays in the low ground, so she's less easily visible?? And keeps checking around every minute or two. And try to stay distinctly in the blind spot of the ?monster?.

The ?monster? notices her when she's made about five minutes' worth of progress toward the glow. It snarls and displays claws. It's really gross looking.

Welp.

"Stay the fuck back if you know what's good for you!"

She raises the power saw and revs it.

The monster considers this, though it does not obviously understand, and then shrugs to itself and charges.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Running would not help. Monsters frequently have inhuman speed, stamina, and strength. This creature likely has some sort of strong ability, and her intuition as the Spark starts to grind into motion says it may be related to toxins- But this is just a hunch, a vague guess.

The spark makes her faster. The Spark makes her stronger. They have tested this, there is empirical evidence of it! She wants to be home, to be safe, in the workshop, making something clever and cool and - And she will DIE-PERISH-CEASE if she does nothing, without the spark there will be no more. So pull on that well of fury and audacity and RAISE YOUR WEAPON.

"Taste the power of a TUNGSTEN CARBIDE BLADE at eight thousand revolutions per minute!"

And she also charges, somewhere between panic and rage, letting instinct guide the revving tool to tear into the monster in bloody chunks compromise the greatest structural weakness of the construct-

It's not that tough of a monster, it turns out. It does smell stupidly awful though.

She spends a while crying. And throwing up. And screaming about monsters. It attacked first, she would have been fine to just... Keep walking... She had to. It was too easy, when the Spark was up, when she was fire and fury.

...

It's still really fucking cold, though. She can't wallow here forever.

...Are monster parts useful in any way? If they can- If she just has a body this collection of parts to work with- Need any advantage you can take- A claw or something, at least, they're sharp-

Just keep walking. Towards the light.

The light gets closer, grudgingly, over a rather long hike. At least no other monsters notice her.

The light is a shimmering dome, it turns out, prominent next to the horizon but present across the sky when she's looking for it.

She's too fuzzy-brained to make any real conclusions about it.

Keep walking. Keep walking. She doesn't have any food, fuel, or drinkable water. Well. The residual steam in the power saw has probably condensed into an antifreeze-laced liquid, but that's still not safe to drink.

Here she is at the line. There's maybe a building, maybe a mile or two off that way. The air is thin and frigid and there is no wall, unless the glowing line counts.

......Poke? With the saw first, then a finger. And then she steps past it, out and in, a few times, trying to identify... Anything about it.

(The Spark is silent on the subject, interested but confused.)

The line doesn't do a bit of harm to her saw or her finger. It tingles faintly, when she steps through, but it admits her otherwise like empty air.

...The dome shape, plus a fort, plus monsters inside, suggests a containment field, going by story tropes. Not meant to keep her in, apparently. Or else some sort of enormous anomaly being studied or exploited in some way?

Well. Towards the building.

The last twenty minutes of the hike are still cold but the ground is less mysteriously fucked up under the layer of frost. Still not a lot of plants or anything but looks like a fundamentally reasonable wasteland.

She's getting rather too cold to appreciate its relative level of reason. The lack of a head covering is painful; She undid her hair and wrapped it around her ears a while ago but this is woefully insufficient and barely helped. She walks, rubbing her gloves together and trying to move fast to generate warmth.

There's archers, up on the walls, and one calls out in a language she's never heard in her life.

Yay! People!! Soldiers. Primitive ones, at that.

She fights the urge to wobble or sit.

She halts, and carefully sets down her saw, and displays the seized fleshy claw unfinished blade, and then sets that down too, and raises both hands high.

"I speak germanian as spoken in city Frostbound! Uh... Parlez-vous francois? God Save the Queen?"

They talk amongst themselves; a different one tries another language.

Nope.

She's going to... Sit down now. And hold the saw again, alternating looking at it and the walls. Stone walls, low-tech. She's considering... Reconfigurations to make it still spin... Without an active steam source...

Some people are now coming out of the fortress toward her.

Literally nothing she can do about that, thanks! If this is the part where they throw her in prison and sell her as a slave, or maybe try to sacrifice her to something, as novels suggest, well She Tried. She is out of Try.

Here they are. Another language is attempted. When that doesn't work a guy gets out a scroll and then very loudly and clearly, like she might understand this sentence, reads from the scroll.

Then the scroll shrivels up into nothing which might be interesting.

"-How by all fucks does it do that. Autoignitive pigment...? No, you- Obviously meant to do something. I'm sorry, I'm too cold to think clearly, I was in my workshop and a monster teleported me out into the snow." Point at the claw. "Not the one this came from, which was encountered and dispatched estimated - three, maybe four kilometers at one o'clock from perpendicular to the thing that's maybe a containment field- It was self defense, I assure you- I'm rambling."

"Dretch," about the claw. Affirmative nod at "containment field" and again at "self defense".

"-Oh, you understand me." That's not that far fetched as Sparkwork goes. "Yes, killed a dretch. How do I cooperate with your security protocols?"

(Of course they have security protocols. City Frostbound has security drills all the time, especially the gate guards, and these guys are some sort of equivalent.)

She frowns. "Right, one way. Uh. I don't wanna freeze or starve. I have the Spark*. I have received training in moderating its influence, though my ability to do so degrades under high stress. I'm willing to give up all tools and weapons given the danger an average Spark with tools and weapons represents. I presume you have regulations against a number of things but I do not... Know them. I promise to obey security-related instructions as best I understand them. Maybe I should - learn words for the most essential commands? Stop, yes, no, danger, warning..."

*Probably comes across as some kind of sorcery.

They seem to find this speech extremely reassuring. The guy who was doing other gestures-and-mutterings says stuff to the other guys. They motion her to follow them to the fortress.

And they're not taking her weapon (yet?) Odd.

(Call upon the barest embers of that audacious madness, thermal energy insufficiency of all things is not allowed to defeat me-)

She can stand and walk another couple hundred meters at least. There is enough left for that.

It is warmer inside. Not a lot warmer - they seem, on inspection, to have to make do with body heat and very miserly fires; everyone keeps their coats on indoors - but it's insulated, at least.

She looks beat. They direct her to a barracks-y room - it has blankets in it, and a sleeping person - and gesture encouragingly at a bed there.

-If they're sure?? "You don't want to use the remainder of the translation effect? Or check me for contraband? Or anything?"

She feels like she's getting away with something. But will, in fact, attempt to Become Warm and promptly fall asleep, probably.

The translation effect guy cups his ear when she says that, but if she doesn't actually have anything to say, she can sleep.

She feels surprisingly beat for what wasn't really all that long out in the freezing cold. Five or ten kloms hiking, and a brief period of higher exertion and calling the Spark.

It was the MURDERING a flesh and blood monster that did it, probably. It clearly had THOUGHTS. Which makes her a MURDERER.

She does something vaguely resembling sleep for about four hours, and then checks to make sure everything she laid down with is still there, the saw, the odd bits and bobs that always accumulate in worksuit pockets, the... Claw. And then looks around, feeling a bit lost as to What Now.

Her stuff is all still there. A different configuration of random people are sleeping in the room now. She could exit the room.

There aren't any CLOCKS or a SCHEDULE on the wall how is she supposed to know what to do

That bastard MONSTER probably destroyed all her hard work on the multitool arm

No. Stop. What are some useful thoughts?

She needs to find a source of steam or convert the saw to hand-power. Okay, that's something, there are a few ways to go about it, but-

-Probably not immediately relevant as those will require ~resources~ and she is not in City Frostbound anymore, not to mention her stack of heat stamp money would be useless here anyway.

Yeah, she will take her saw and exit the room and retrace steps entranceward, ready to stop if it seems called for by anyone.

Somebody spots her and waves her over and tries to beckon her thisaway further inside the fortress!

Oh, okay, here come the security procedures. She will nod and follow with, not exactly eagerness but at least purpose.

Through the mess hall - if she stares at the food she can have a food first.

Eh. She's more staring at the inefficient fires with vague annoyance and thoughts of improvements.

Also. A lot of anxiety about not knowing the rules or language.

Up a bunch of stairs, then, and into an office.

A man behind a desk extends his hand to her.

She hesitates, but: Handshake?

"Share Language."

This guy super reminds her of the Captain in a bad mood.

Processing.....

"Interesting. Thank you. What now?"

"Perhaps you would care to explain more about where you are from and how you came to be at the Worldwound."

Okay, she can do a report. Report cadence on.

"I am Waltana Hampson, from City Frostbound. A deliberately isolated community whose exact location is meant to be secret. I was having an ordinary day when in what I am guessing was either a bizarre accident or some sort of assassination attempt, a Huge snake with a mirror for a face appeared in the workshop I was using and began thrashing around. I confronted it- Unwisely, my - sorcery? - can drive me to unwise actions for all that I have done mental disciplines to control it. When the mirror touched me, I found myself inside the... Worldwound, inside the containment field. I walked towards the field edge and fought a - I think they said dretch- Along the way. And then here. I'm a bit surprised the soldiers allowed me to keep my saw?" It's hanging on the boiler suit belt now.

"It is not customary to deprive people of their weapons at the Worldwound unless they have done something very seriously concerning, being as there are demons around and they do not always consent to appear only at predictable moments. Being an unwise sorcerer who had a teleport accident and fought a dretch and did not attack human defenders of the border does not make you very seriously concerning."

"Hmm. I would like to know the rules. Also it is not currently functional as a weapon, by the way. Also would you like your fires to be more efficient? Blast or forced induction style stoves and furnaces burn most fuels more completely and lose less heat to exhaust, compared to unimproved fires. If you have visible smoke you're wasting energy. It's- I make things. That's what the Spark* is all about, it stood out."

*Used as a loanword

"...more efficient fires would be enormously useful, we are forever rationing fuel." He pulls out a packet of paper, apparently handwritten, and pushes it across the desk to her. "The Worldwound treaty, under which you qualify as an 'independent adventurer' and we are the forces of the state signatory Cheliax."

"So I should read this and return it? I - can't imagine there's much prospect of going home-"

"If your home's location is secret there is not much chance you will happen across a teleporter who has enough familiarity with the place to chance it. Maybe if you are an exceptional artist. You should read it and return it; there are regular classes and refreshers on its contents for recruits if any points are confusing and you may sign up for those; if you are interested in contributing your sorcerous - crafting? - to this fort then we can discuss what it will take to make that worthwhile as an expenditure of language spells on top of normal supply. Are you quick with languages?"

"Right, of course."

Teleporters! Apparently exist! That's probably WHY it's secret!!

"No, I don't think that's going to work."

Push back the despair, it is Report Time.

"I've never tested whether I am quick with languages. What's the alternative to staying here?"

"You can travel with a series of patrols around the border till you reach a wardstone outpost which is also a city, Kenabres in Mendev, and there travel further or adopt a civilian life or sign on with a different Worldwound defense operation."

"Okay... Right. I'll - My current plan absent corrections is to convert my saw for hand power over steam, produce a proposal for efficient stoves or heaters, read this treaty, attempt to convert the language effect into long term understanding. I don't necessarily object to having - duties while being here and therefore consuming supplies - I don't know if people are being paid for that matter - but would like the chance to read the treaty first to understand things, if you would like to expect them. I'm good at repairing objects."

"Enlisted soldiers are paid. Independent adventurers are entitled to food and shelter so long as they are assisting in holding the border but in the general case they are here either out of a desire to see that border held or a desire to personally grow in power, and are not moved by the wages a soldier commands. If you're crafting things and you have the materials you need with you, we can buy those products from you and sell you a coat; if you need a loan of a coat and materials, we will have to work out something bespoke, I haven't hosted a teleport-accident adventurer who arrived without cold weather gear and their own crafting supplies before."

Sparks get sparkier if they fight a lot, she's pretty sure? It sounds right, at least?

"I... Do not really have materials except what's in the weapon. Would that I had stuffed my pockets while the monster was destroying months of work. Is there any trash?"

"...what kind of trash?"

"Well, whatever's cheap or free, I'm not expecting billets of Krupp steel straight from the forge hall. Ruined armor, copper coins, wood scraps, rags. I could probably get anywhere with bones and rocks but it would be deeply suboptimal. There's some sort of use for almost anything, I've heard semi-reliable tales of Sparks animating shoes with cobblers' tools to bite intruders and, yeah, that feels possible-"

She visibly interrupts herself. "...Plans for more than a day feel silly at this point. I have to come to terms with my current situation and read the treaty and so on."

"There are probably some unMendable rags and scraps in the midden but they are not at all sorted. Copper coins are... usable as currency... and therefore not trash. If you can use dead demon parts you can have them as they come in; there are beef bones, though trashed ones have already been used in stew broth; disturbing buried soldiers can lead to haunting problems and is therefore against protocol."

Seems like a waste compared to wake services, then processing them into fertilizer for use in a hothouse, but well, they don't have the hothouse. She built the current version.

"...Well, digging through trash is slightly better than sitting there doing nothing. I think I should leave you to your work now." He seems important. "Present you with a heater proposal later perhaps."

"Share Language will last twenty-four hours and ideally I will know before the shift change tonight whether I should prepare another for the next day or whether you have other plans."

"I want to stay here for at least a day, will update you if it changes. Is there a schedule written anywhere? Information on the monsters being contained here? Or a person I should ask. I think those are my last questions."

"Scheduling information is on the wall of the mess hall, including for classes on demonology, and you may attend those unless the instructor finds you a nuisance and dismisses you."

Nod. Her thoughts are drifting towards tinkering on her saw...

"Nothing else right now unless you have questions for me."

"You may continue to sleep in the same room as before for the time being and you may have two bowls of stew and one of porridge per day, with an extra one of either acceptable if you take a patrol round trip. What do we call you?"

"Walta, Waltana, or Miss Hampson, I suppose."

...She stands and feels a vague urge to do the city salute, a fist bump to the left shoulder, but does not.

"Dismissed, Hampson."

...Stew, how about some of that.

It has beef and rice and salt and tiny flecks of something that might be cabbage.

It compares favorably to cookhouse rations by containing more protein!

Schedule check next. The background of people here also feels familiar-ish, somehow.

There are patrol schedules, going out every twenty minutes, around the clock, filled in with various names in various handwriting. There are classes posted too - treaty review, Common Taldane practice, archery drill, topology circle, stellar navigation, demonology, snow shelter construction, basic patrol skills.

All of these sound useful and some of them even sound interesting!! Topology isn't a segment of math she's been very into before, so she might not be able to usefully contribute, though. Also it seems odd next to all the practical concerns.

When's the soonest one? -She doesn't know the current time. She asks someone how they are telling time here.

"It's up over there, the entryway wizard increments it every time a Prestidigitation runs down."

-Nod.

"Manual clocks, what has the world come to..."

So, when's the next session for any of those? If it's not soon, probably... Read the treaty.

She could actually get in on a Taldane class but she speaks Taldane quite well right now, which is also why she can read the treaty.

It's probably still worth it! Thinking about the language in trying to learn it terms- Well, there's some amount of time pressure on making the heater designs-

She'll skip that, then, and lock in on heater designs, writing them out in her own notebook, because working is very engrossing and distracting from how she's in a STRANGE FORT with STRANGERS (who, admittedly, seem very reassuringly orderly), far from home, with no expectation of a hot shower or seeing her mom.

Anything happen for the hour or so she'll be writing in the mess hall in her tiny notebook with a tiny pencil?

People do look over her shoulder, otherwise no.

...Hmm but what if... That could... If she took that part out...

The spark flows sluggishly for some of it, making her a bit more energetic and animated as she plans. Lots of math and some diagrams are on the 4 pages she uses up.

And then at the end, neatly tallied, three designs for efficient-heat-production: One that will just take some rocks or bricks and time and effort putting them in the right shape, one marked as needing ~3lbs scrap iron that will include a self-starting turbine and mostly work faster by forcing air through (theoretically could be used to do other useful work) but is around the same amount of efficient, one that is marked as using a fairly critical component of her power saw and also rope and a few other things that apparently will be much more efficient due to some mechanism involving evaporation and condensation - producing double to six times the amount of heat per unit of wood input, depending on the outside temperature of this other component where it's stealing heat from, which must be placed outside or on a roof somewhere with a clear line to where the heat will come out-

...Back towards the boss's office?

It's right where she left it. There's a guy stationed outside the door asking her business.

"I have design proposals for improved-efficiency heaters. We discussed earlier and I said I'd write them up to see if they're worth fort resources, as I understood it."

"- yes, let's have a look."

Here is a hand sized piece of paper!

"So, the cheapest is this one which really just needs some time and effort to chip rocks into shape and maybe a bit of mortar or something, the wood goes in here, air goes down here, and then air coming out of here will be stronger and hotter than a normal fire and there will be much less smoke. The hottest part is this, which can be a cooking surface. Easily twice as much heat per unit wood burned compared to an open fire.

This one is closely related to the cheapest one, but I'd need about three or five pounds of scrap metal to beat into shape. Basically, it's a little better because of forcing more air through faster, reaching higher temperatures in the inner chamber. But it's hard to say just how much better without trying it.

This one I don't expect you'll want but, well, Spark, it's what I call a heat pump and would be around three times as much heat per unit wood burned as even the optimistic estimates of the second type, since it's moving heat from outside to inside, but it would require, well, a bunch more stuff, the list here is approximate and adaptations are possible, but representative of the kinds of materials I might need. It also requires the heat engine from my power saw, which is, uh, maybe not."

"I think we have that much scrap metal available in the form of broken arrowheads or bent horseshoes. What's the time expenditure on any of these?"

"Ehhh... I'm not very used to using literal rocks as materials... The spark helps but... Eight to twelve hours work," number one, "Ten to fourteen," number two, "And the heat pump would take like six hours if I had everything in my workshop and only keeps going up the less good the materials are until it's impossible. Call it forty plus hours of work. Maybe less once the Spark is active, those are conservative estimates."

"Would you need to kick the smith out of his smithy?"

"Oh, I could help in a smithy! - For a couple hours yes, for type two."

"We have only the one smith posted here at the moment so you could perhaps work while he's sleeping, if your sort of sorcerer can tolerate the schedule adjustment."

"That's fine once I get used to it yes."

"That would put your hours at..." Paper shuffling. "2200 hours up to 0600."

It's really rather relieving to have a Specific Schedule set! Even if she might... Leave.

Yeah, she might.

Didn't she want to leave? See the world?

She doesn't have to do it right now. She might want, like, a coat. And a functioning weapon. And to have read the treaty.

"If I work to make improved heaters at whichever of the first two designs you pick, will this work feature in your consideration for whether I can get a coat or other things for personal use, should I decide to leave towards, uh, Kenabres?"

"If your heater works sufficient to reduce the amount of fuel we go through for cooking and heating by the factor you describe I would value that at approximately..." He does some figuring. "A coat, a pair of boots, and about a thousand dollars, though I only have that in paper Chelish money and if you choose to leave you will need to exchange it for coinage."

"Oh, nice. I don't need boots, I think, my work boots appear to be holding up acceptably to the cold. It's just the work outfit that isn't. How many 'dollars' is an enlisted soldier paid per day? I'd really rather be paid in materials, but I imagine the logistics of getting them out here is... Dubious."

He can show her the pay schedule for various ranks. A thousand dollars is apparently a lot. "I can requisition things, but turnaround is slow. We have some things but were not expecting your sorcerer varietal."

That's... A lot of money, actually. She tries to compare it to heatstamps and ends up concluding that it's about two months of her pay back in Frostbound? Is sparkwork just that valuable??? Maybe no Sparks are around here? They haven't been really... Recognizing it. It'd explain the general lack of technology, except for the esoteric mental effects...

Or maybe she was being cheated and exploited at home, the captain is suspicious and they put so many restrictions on her work-

Down, Spark.

"-I haven't read the treaty yet, I made these designs first. I think I'll - 1000 to 0600 hours you said - does that leave me with just four hours of sleep or am I misunderstanding? I'm trying to see if I should try to go back to sleep immediately or not."

"1000 to 0600 is a period of eight hours. The blacksmith is not in his shop during all other hours, but it is to be reserved for his use during those hours unless you come to an arrangement directly with him. The rest of your time you can develop more plans like these, attend classes, sleep, eat, play cards, sign up for patrols if you fancy them."

"Oh, an evening to morning distinction. - Oh, it may be difficult to relocate once complete, being large and unwieldy, I should know where to build it. And whether you want type one or type two, I have been assuming type two since we are discussing use of the smithy."

"I can have someone show you to the kitchen, and, yes, I meant type two."

"I think that's all again for now? Thank you - it's releiving to have a project."

"The project existed through no doing of mine." He leans out into the hall to tell the nearest internal patrol guy to direct her to the kitchen and the smithy and to alert the night cooks that she's to have access to build a new stove.

Well, first she'll take a look around to see the space and say hi to the people who'll probably be using it, no reason to be rude and you usually want to talk to the people who will use your tools, it's just common sense- Figure out where exactly it should go in a room that presumably already has space laid out and accounted for. No rush to decide, she won't be able to start properly until at least the next night anyway.

The kitchen is in fact pretty cramped but they have a big staging area for butchering entire cows in and she could put an oven in a corner of that space if it's not too giant and still leave them room to butcher an entire cow.

Well, it's going to end up fairly big actually, it kind of has to, to be efficient? The main box will be about five by three by five feet. Maybe the long straight flume part can go vertical instead of horizontal (which would have made a nice warm bench), up and run along the ceiling, here?

They can rip out some of the counter here and put it where the current stove is, if it's got to be that large. It's also not impossible to cut up a solid frozen cow in the freezer, they acknowledge, resentfully.

"So, I don't want to disrupt things unnecessarily - it'll reduce the amount of wood used for heating and that's why the boss wants it, but I can make it taller more than wider, I can try to not mess with what you've already got as much as possible, I can try to make your job easier in the process, that's why I'm asking instead of just going right ahead. Pretty sure I can fit it... Here, without chopping off any counter. But then the hot surface for cooking would be here, right at my shoulder height, which is kinda high to try and actually cook on-"

Cooks glower at her. One eventually ventures, "Yeah, that's too tall."

Nod, nod. "If I can knock a vent hole in a wall about - here - it can go right where the current stove is... Or maybe I could double the flow back on itself, shrink it that way- What makes a stove nice to cook on?"

"Haven't you ever cooked nothing?

"That wall goes to the punishment room."

"No, I think it's the stables, that side."

"Not in a long time, actually, where I'm from there's a giant canteen. Everyone gets rations, three times a day. That way they control the portions and do it 'efficiently'. Okay, how about- A little chimney going up from here and then to the left? And the hole to put wood in and sweep out ash would go right here. No holes in any walls."

Nobody actively glares at her about this.

"Okay, I'll assume that's how it'll go. And try to set things up so it'll only take uh... Maybe an hour to put all together when it's ready-ready."

"Understood," says the head cook.

"...Good bye for now then."

This place must be getting to them, that would explain it. It's not exactly a cushy assignment, is it? And not everyone's pleasant at the best of times in Frostbound either. It sits unquietly but it's not actually... Her problem? If the cooks are grumpy?

Something about it still isn't sitting right.

This whole place is wrong, wrong, unfamiliar and primitive.

...Whatever.

Now. What's this treaty about? She remembers the mention of 'cheliax' and her being an 'independent adventurer'...

The treaty has a lot of stuff that doesn't apply to her, and in her own case as long as she doesn't violate the treaty first she is protected from signatories doing assorted bad things to her and entitled to help in exchange for her own help at least up to a point, and has to not interfere with operations or attack fellow treaty-applicable people.

Okay.

She still doesn't want to think about home or what to do next so she very industriously summarizes down the relevant parts in pencil in her notebook. And then checks the time- Tries to practice the language? That's the next time bounded task. She'll mutter things in Germanian and then in Taldane over and over... And actually feels out the alphabet and transcribes it and starts making a phrasebook with small writing, sharpening her pencil with the pocket multitool that did manage to make the trip with her. Until 1000 hours, when the smithy is designated as free, then she'll head over there.

It's a smithy. Looks like it does mostly arrowheads and horseshoes and some melee weapon maintenance and production.

She can work with this... A fun night of locating her authorized scrap metal and pounding it into better shape for the fancy stove!! And also doing some of the incidental repairs. And cleaning up properly, of course, she's not a barbarian. With absolutely minimal use of forge heat, since fuel is so critical. Only once near the end of the night.

(She also ends up reconfiguring the saw to hand-crank power during this. And somehow the dretch claw ends up in there as a sort of butt-spike. There's clearly something Sparky about this. Any ominous chuckling and low-voiced Sparky ranting will proooobably be sufficiently contained by the walls. It's pretty easy to not let it get out of hand working without anything really exciting or especially urgently, too.)

And then, a food please, (it's a lot less good on a repeat, maybe it was just novel the first time compared to cookhouse potato mash), and then sleep.

-Oh, right, she should return the copy of the treaty. She'll do that.

The next day she checks the time against any of the workshops she wanted to visit, especially demonology, and wants to know if she can go outside for appropriate crafting rocks without violating some sort of security rule?

The food is actually porridge if she asks for one first thing in the morning, which means it is watery soft rice with barely identifiable dried fruit in it. She can get into a demonology session (Topic: Incubi & Succubi) right before day-shift lunch. She can go out for rocks or fresh frigid air or whatever as long as she notifies the security wizard on duty, does not bring a cleric with her, and holds still for a Detect Fiendish on the way back.

Mind control is scary!! She would like to acquire LEAD for a HELMET!! (If appropriately plated in steel it shouldn't be toxic!) ...For now, rocks will do. Security protocols are 200% understandable.

She will chip and chisel literal random rocks from outside into the right shape (lots of precise curves) somewhere out of the way, making far more progress at this activity than her metal knife really ought to allow. She stays up until just after lunchtime despite growing fatigue, to force herself onto the new schedule. The Share Language runs out during her sleep, but with consultation of her phrasebook she can at least request stew and continue preparing the new stove some more.

Blithely ignoring any pretense or attempts at social interaction and just Doing Work is surprisingly comfortable. Every moment is a step closer to accomplishing a thing. Everyone has a job and mostly ignores each other. It's weirdly nostalgic.

(The things she misses are electric lights and the bathhouse that runs off residual heat from the smelting fumes back home. Those were both legitimately very nice. Also, her mom, and the few assistants on the rotation who were genuinely more friends than minders.)

Someone finds her that evening and tells her that if she wants the Share Language re-upped she needs to report to the commander's office.

Oh, sure, she'll report to the commander's office. Slightly nervously.

Hand.

And apologize, "I did not consider whether you were going to apply the effect again, that was a mistake. I understand there is some opportunity cost."

"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?"

"Eh, I'd probably have to make most of the tools myself. Copper, steel, rubber, acids, glass, some nickel and zinc, silver, chromium- My type of sorcerer throws specialties or at least styles and mine is largely metal-ish."

...She considers the word 'spellsilver' and attempts to identify it based on memories of Iolantha Heterodyne's Magnificent Metallic Matrix.

Does the Matrix include the category "lanthanides"?

"So alchemist shit."

It does! So the rare rare metals. Curiosity resolved.

"'Electroplating' at least is alchemy, yes. I know my alchemy but it was never a specialty. Oh, uh- What thing is going to bite me on the ass for not knowing it the worst, do you think? I've only seen the one demonology class and it was about succubi and incubi, I'm not going to attack anyone or mess with things, but... Unknown unknowns."

"Uh, foreigners never wanna get into it about religion, so don't. Aaaand you need a coat but if your thing you're doing in the kitchen works probably you can get paid partly in a coat."

Hey Common Taldane, what's a religion?

The practices surrounding prayer and worship of whatever god or subpantheon is favored in a given community.

Oh, so not relevant to her seeing as she is not a cleric or aiming to be one. These ""gods"" are pretty clearly just powerful superbeings anyway, like the Queen of England.

"Gotcha. And yeah, I'm asking for a coat as part of it. Now a scout suit, they'll keep your toes warm in a blizzard, I want to make one of those, but like, they run on heavy oil and also that'd take more glass, steel, and rubber, and some naphtha, and- Okay, no rambling, sorry. I ramble."

"All the fun people do."

Tacit permission received?

"Scout suits are multipurpose! They are armor, warmth, light, electro power for running devices! They also burn oil at a rate that may be prohibitive given that firewood is a major constraint. I made major improvements to the facility that makes them, that and the potato house are probably my two favorite creations. Everything requires energy input of some kind- Burning things is some of the easiest energy to work with, though pure muscle power hauling on a crank is technically even simpler, it's far less convenient. I've been having thoughts about using large mirrors to concentrate heat from sunlight. Or perhaps trying to draw out wherever magic comes from."

"What's a potato house? - could we be putting the horses to work, when they're not needed on patrol?"

"The potato house used electro stimulation and dense fertilizer - complicated, alchemy - to make potatoes grow at an extremely rapid pace. One eighth of the plants were harvested each day and by the eighth day they're ready again. But it takes a lot of complicated alchemy and upkeep, and lots of energy leached off our smelter... The horses probably have to eat more if they're doing more work, right? I'm pretty sure that's how horses work, there is no free lunch."

"Yeah, but only to a point. They have to eat even if they're not doing anything at all."

"Maybe you should, then. I could whip up some lights off a horse moving with just copper, zinc, and some glass, as a first thought."

"You'll wind up dipping into the wand materials, till the requisitions come in."

"I might go to, uh, Kenabres, once I have a coat. Resource scarcity is not very fun."

"Ah, fair enough, Worldwound's not a popular posting. Maybe you'll be very lucky and something big'll attack, enough that we call in a strike team, and they can bring you home with them."

"Someone's got to do it but the people I consider to have authority over me are... Not here. Maybe it's where I should be, getting stronger. Maybe not."

"It's the right place for that. There's sort of an awkward valley around third and fourth circle where you're not strike team quality yet but you're too tough for routine ops to get you much of anywhere, but for getting past first and second, here's where, way better than grubbing around in a three-man party hunting dire bugs and zombie outbreaks."

"White bears and the bandit dregs of Polar Lord civil wars for us."

Stacking stacking. Hmm noise.

"Is circle a relevant metric because of topology somehow? It seemed odd that there was a math group among all the more practical ones. Obvious answer, math is practical actually."

"Oh, yeah, us wizards need it. Sorcerers use it but don't need to understand it, they can just pull perfectly formed spell structures out of their asses."

"Sparks can pull animated biting boots out of their asses, but proper learning helps. A lot. Think I could sit in on topology circle without being useless?"

"I mean, you can sit in and not say anything, then you'll be useless but at least not worse than that."

"I'll imagine my voice is annoying and weaselly and calculate threshold of interruption accordingly."

"We all got it in school, see, and you might've gone to some alchemy-sorcery school but you didn't go to wizard prep."

"And interdisciplinary studies is not the prescribed topic. I've some calculus?" Shrug.

"Ooh, that could be fun, write us a calculus presentation and bring it in after you've been through a couple times and know how it goes. It's not essential for spells so it's niche."

"Sure. Where does one requisition paper and pencils if one is not a wizard? I suppose I shall talk to the commander about more of my stove pay being exchanged for supplies."

"If you want quick notes you can erase you get a slate and chalk, if you want to write on paper you get a pen. Storeroom sergeant'll know how much credit you're allowed to draw down unless somebody fucked up."

"Pen, nyeh... Oh well, guess I'll have to learn how to use one without blobbing it everywhere." Put-upon sigh. "I'll need a backpack, too... And a backup weapon or two..."

"Yeah, we oughta have spares of most things. You know how to use a real bow or just a crossbow? Mace or spear?"

"I know how to use a pistol. Crossbow should be fine-ish? I think you'd want to account for wind and drop much more. Mace probably better than a sword - sparks get rage strength. I wouldn't call myself trained so much as instinctual in 'power saw', even."

"I never heard of a pistol. We've got the cheap not-cold-iron-tipped bolts for practicing with if you're not sure you know the ends from each other."

"'s an alchemical crossbow, more or less." Shrug. "Yeah, I'll probably wanna do that."

"Ooh, alchemical crossbow - like does it do acid damage or something - wouldn't help much with demons, they're so anti-energetic that you can really see why dretches are caught napping often as not -"

"Oh, it's really just a carefully contained explosion driving the bolt instead of spring power in tension arms. Now I'm thinking about a bomb launcher, you could put all sorts of interesting payloads in that with two or three pounds to work with instead of a few ounces of an arrow. Acid, lightning, incendiaries, smoke or tangle goo, fragmentation, or an electrical discharge- Ahem."

"Demons are outright immune to electricity. Like if you hit them with enough fire or acid, eventually they'll take notice, but electricity nothing doing. Tangling them up could be really good though..."

"What the fuck, how does that even work? Demon skin must have absurdly insulative properties."

"It's not the skin, if you make a coat out of demon skin it doesn't give you that unless you do additional magic, it's just a magical property demons've got. Most outsiders have some complement of shit like that. Like devils are immune to fire, but just partly resist acid and cold."

"...Would it be terribly cruel if I tried to study one while it was still alive? Every property has a cause. Or possibly I could get anywhere with recently alive- Hold on, the spark is waking up about this-"

Deep breath.

"Calm."

"What a funny kinda sorcerer, how does that work - is it like those guys who get high on anger and it makes them strong enough to put an axe through a vrock only it makes you sorcerous - anyway the treaty doesn't give a shit about cruelty to demons, you probably have to do it all outside but if you wanna vivisect a dretch and can stand the smell more power to you."

"Sparks get - intense. Not just anger, but yes, anger always does it. No, I'm pretty sure that's a 'cruel and unusual experiment on an intelligent being'. Which I am expressly forbidden from." It's easier to remember not to do things while Sparking if it's a RULE! "Are there any demons that aren't... Smart?"

"Nnnn I mean there's fiendish animals but those aren't demon demons. A lot of demons are dumb as shit but if you're throwing around the phrase 'intelligent being' probably you're going to count a bunch of kinda dumb shit like dretches and slips and whatnot. The kind of thing with enough thoughts to detect."

"I probably will, if your instincts say so. Such are the laws of home, which I still consider myself bound to. Where practical."

...Yeah, no forgetting that the horror stories of all sorts of absurd cruelty that dominate Europa and the great steppes and the rest of the world. This place probably has some too and she's just not seen it yet, because it's a tight-run military location.

"Your Law your business. You likely to learn anything from a dead one?"

"Likely enough to be worth trying, sure."

"Cool, sounds fun. Also means you can use one that doesn't smell as bad as a dretch."

"Yeah, it sure smelled, the one I got. Would that I had bleach and chlorine and peroxide and acid. The good cleaning chemicals, the kind you need rubber gloves and a breathing mask to work with..."

"If you want just any acid somebody'll have Acid Splash prepped most days. It's not much use but every once in a great while we get a demon cultist, and those don't shrug it off."

"Acid could be useful. How much of it? Do you know if it's sulfuric, nitric...?"

"...it's green. It doesn't smell like sulfur. I've heard of people getting different kinds but I'm not a conjuration specialist."

"...I actually can't think of any acids which are naturally green?"

"I don't actually know if you can get it just by mixing things or not."

"...More things to experiment with. When I have actual supplies, that is."

"You're gonna be dipping into the wand stuff. I'm not strong enough to pick up wands yet but I mean to get there so I watch sometimes, they have all kinds of fancy stuff because you want the wands to look distinctive and it's easier to inlay the effect if you've got some arts'n'crafts to do in the process."

"Well, presumably commander-guy is going to make me pay for them, if it's any consolation. And once you're using less wood there will be more room for other stuff."

"It's mostly coal, I think, though sometimes if there's a supply blip he'll send people logging."

"-Oh. Well, serves me right for being stupid and not thinking to check, the benefits to heat production from coal will be significantly less than I claimed under the previous assumption and it requires different design considerations to ensure full burn- I should tell him if he's going to be making supply choices about it, ugh- What kind of coal, brown stuff or black stuff?"

"Black stuff. There's brown coal?"

"Yeah, it's mostly shitty for everything so you don't bother mining it unless you're gonna burn it right there, though."

"Explains why I haven't heard of it."

"There's grades of black coal but they're mostly gonna be the same for heating and cooking purposes. I mean, my turbine heater will still help, just, not 'double the burn'. Maybe more like... A third to half more?"

"That'll add up but probably is not as exciting to the logistics guys, yeah."

"Ugh. It's going to bother me constantly until I go tell him. I should probably just do it now."

"Sounds about right, yeah."

She finishes the current set of stacking and handing.

"Bye. Later maybe."

And then commander's-office-wards.

He allows her entry pretty promptly; he's got a letter turned facedown on his desk when she comes in. "What is it?"

"I became aware of an erroneous assumption in my projections. The figure of approximately double total heat per unit fuel in a turbine style forced furnace-stove was for, specifically, wood. Wood doesn't burn completely in most fires. Coal is usually better about it. Improvements to coal heating efficiency will still be present but significantly lower. At a guess about one third to one half more, not double."

She sounds professionally annoyed about it.

"I see. Were you making any other assumptions that may not hold?"

"Hmm, let's see... That it would be fairly consistently and constantly in use. That the primary goal is to provide heat for cooking and warming the fort is a side-benefit. I didn't know prestidigitation existed when I did the first draft but if anything that makes it easier to clean..."

"It makes everything easier to clean, yes. There is generally a batch of stew or porridge on at any given time."

"I had some new ideas about drilling a really deep hole into the rock and using deep-earth heat for various purposes, but that's a significantly bigger production than just finishing the stove aaaand maybe irrelevant right now. Anyway. At home I was told to always report sooner rather than later when estimates change, was it the correct move?"

"Yes, my requisition hasn't gone out yet."

Nod.

"Nothing else from me."

Small sigh.

"Dismissed."

It is TIME to GRIND some ROCKS. Frustratedly. She complains at the rocks, in Germanian, about material limitations and demons and how this place isn't home and how she's a little scared to go looking for horrible things because there probably are some she's trying to not see.

She's ~still grumpy~ hours and hours later during the 'night', when it is TIME to actually INSTALL the new stove, packing together the BRICKS in the right order and hooking up the METAL BITS and then hitting them with a HAMMER in a way that really oughn't make them stick together like they've been mortared and set, but does, ranting just a bit. This is how to control the heat, this is how to open it for occasional prestidigitation, and, yes, that windy noise is normal and means it's working.

(...It is pretty clearly producing a hot stovetop with less coal, if anyone is paying attention. And radiating more of that heat into the kitchen at large, mostly via the 'chimney'. The stovetop can get hotter than the old one ever did if they turn the burn rate all the way up too.)

And then: Sleep. Grumpy sleep.

When she emerges in the morning the wizard she was talking to plops next to her at breakfast. "The cooks love it," she says.

"And did they express this with a particularly articulate glower?" She drawls.

"Ha, no, they got ahead enough of the rush that two of them were sitting down with their feet up at the same time. I don't have to read their minds to know they like it."

"Great. Don't mind me. I can't actually tell where my mood is coming from today."

"You don't scare me."

"...What?" That doesn't even make sense as a response. "Whatever."

Food. Yes, that.

"Maybe it's just setting in about home."

"Not glad to see the back of the place, huh?"

"...Complicated. I've wanted the freedom for a while, but also... Routine and familiar places are comfortable? If I make a joke about the Heterodynes, or mention the steam hub, nobody here will have any idea what I mean. And-"

She pauses. Then shrugs.

"Well, you could tell stories, if you want, people are always bored enough to listen to a new story."

"I guess I can do that. A brief recent history of Europa, as told to me through a book. The Heterodyne Boys, the Other, Wulfenbach's Empire and the Storm King... The Other made breeding creatures that could permanently Dominate Person most anyone. Little wasps that crawl down your throat. Really scary."

"Ooh, spooky. Does that want an endurance save, or a wisdom one..."

"What's the-" Share Language: Common Taldane, help- "--Wisdom, I think, could let you sort of shake it off for a bit? I heard about Agatha Heterodyne being infested but suppressing it until she was able to make something to remove it. But it'd probably be endurance to not get affected in the first place? Wulfenbach bred wasp-hunting weasels to counter them, and also did, uh, quite a lot of war about it. The book was kind of sketchy on the details. Oh, Wulfenbach thought he'd got the Other for good a while back, but it turns out he missed a backup body somewhere so she started operating secretly instead."

"What a name. The Other. Kind of presumptuous, to make like there's no... other Other... who might come up in conversation."

"Lucrezia Mongfish. Apparently the Other War consumed most of the continent so, if you say it with gravitas- The Other- It's just, obvious who you mean. Are there any legendary doom threats around here? The Wound," she intones gravely. "...She was revealed again like threeee years ago? By the new Heterodyne. And- Well, a lot of other stuff is happening, it seemed recent, Agatha woke up Castle Heterodyne and then had adventures across Europa and England, but it's all ridiculous rumors, I don't know what's true. Stuff a couple years old has become mostly consistent and agreed on."

"I think your storytelling needs some work before you try to gather more of an audience. Let's see, there's... Tar-Baphon, he's got a totally normal amount of a name. There's... Nidal, that's a name too."

"I have never deliberately storytold in my life. It really did not seem like a priority."

"You don't have to be great at it, just get the hang of putting the beginning first and all."

"I'm not actually sure this gets me the thing I want, but maybe maybe."

"Suit yourself, naturally."

Any lessons meeting up today?

There's something every day unless something weird is going on. The next one is a one-off on fort repairs.

Oh, she definitely wants to listen to that!! But later.

"-Do people play games that aren't cards here? I never learned any card games, I preferred board games."

"There's dice. Some people know how to play chess," says Txell. "Or might learn how any day now."

"Chess isn't awful. ...If the thing I know of as chess is the same. Knights, Clanks, Dragons, Minions, and a King and Consort?"

"Knights, rooks, bishops, pawns, King and Queen. But maybe yours move the same."

"Maybe I'll find out from someone who's more enthusiastic. And there are other games, they can get complicated, I used to play Tunnel War with this guy- I'm itching to carve some pieces now-"

"Any wizard can just make 'em, Prestidigitation does it. It's not good for anything you want to take pressure but it's fine for game pieces. Oh, the commander can do that too, actually, he hasn't got the whole spell but he can do the making little things."

"-Huh. Well I'm not a wizard and carving things is something to do. If I sorcery at it, my steel knife goes through stone like wood, as long as I'm actually making something."

"Oh dang, okay, cool. We don't have a ton of spare wood unless you want to hike out and cut it yourself but it's never too hard to find a rock."

"I love the Spark even when I hate it for, you know, trying to put me into the madness place. You know about anything carvable and particularly in demand?"

"Hmm. I mean, we go through more arrowheads, and practice ones don't have to be cold iron?"

"I may well carve stone arrowheads when I have itchy hands then. Until I figure out a bigger project."

"Project like the stove or a bigger one than that?"

"Bigger than that! I mean, if I'm going to be near a source of endless monsters- I mean demons- I need more weapons for sure. Armor, with some defensive and utility subsystems, definitely a steam system to power it all, maybe - no, not a lightning rod actually, just a regular steam blast? Or," plasma, "-Fire. I bet I could manage that. Acid bombs."

"Energy damage is not usually the way to go here. - oh, hey, you're probably not evil, you could use a holy weapon no problem, if you can make one. That'll cut through them like butter."

"Oh, hmm. I don't have prior engineering context on a holy weapon. Is there holy stuff around to poke at?"

"Wait, evil?"

"Yeah, we're basically all evil, so if we pick up a holy weapon it's like, hey, I hate you, even if we are using it to shoot demons, because weapons can't read treaties I guess. We have a holy bow anyway though, it can still be worth it sometimes."

"Nnnnot really sure I want a weapon to be judgy. I'm skeeved out by making things that are, um, moral actors. And I'm not even sure where I would start poking at a 'holy weapon' without, like, building analysis equipment first..."

"Oh, the bow doesn't like, talk or anything, it's just holy, not intelligent. Do you guys not get Detect Magic?"

"I don't cast spells, I like, either push down or embrace the Spark or try to point it at particular things - building stuff, or making speeches, or fighting, mostly. Sometimes studying or experimenting."

"Weird. I guess sorcerers are mostly all more or less weird and you're especially weird. Would it work if you tried to get the Spark to pay attention when you shot a few arrows with the holy bow?"

"-Not impossible, likely even, but prooooobably only if I let the Spark get high enough to actually make me do something stupid?"

"Like, what, shoot one of us?"

"More like... Take a bunch of shit that isn't mine to make something really awesome. Or take apart the bow and rebuild it into something else right then and there. Maybe be a lot more inclined to shoot people if something sketchy happens during it, instead of demanding answers or whatever. I mean, it's not like I literally forget where I am and what the rules are, it's that... I get very very sure I'm right and everyone else is wrong, even intellectually knowing that's a mistake. Being reminded loudly about the treaty would probably keep it to just ranting, but the Spark is very - immersive - and 'probably' isn't 'definitely'."

"Do you know if you're too tough to hit with Sleep?"

"No clue. -Actively Sparking out seems like the kind of thing that helps with saves."

"I guess it'd be of a piece."

"It's something testable, if there ends up anyone with the sleep spell to spare when they're going to sleep? But yeah- I uh, I have to be a little scared of going all out, it would cause so many problems."

"Does it just go on forever or will you eventually crash, if you lean all into it for a balor or something?"

"Oh yeah, I'll crash when I'm tired, or if there's nothing - urgent going on anymore. -What's the one round version of a balor's deal?"

"One of the scariest possible demons, good as fuck at fighting and have some spell-likes and also when they die they explode."

"I'm feeling the sudden itchy urge to make a rocket bomb. Or five."

"I dunno what that is but it sounds wicked. What do you need?"

"Hmm so - the explosives and propellant are going to be the hardest part out of all of it, it can just be a dumb fucking brick that goes in a flat arc, no fancy guidance. Maybe make a rangefinder? Some nitric and sulfuric acids, some glycerol - or maybe other alchemist stuff, I hate dealing with raw materials though it's way more work - glassware and tools for working with it, then I can mix up solid propellants and some high explosives. No, I can probably whip up something less - good, with like, acid and wood pulp. Bit of cold iron for the shaped charge liner, since it hurts demons, maybe up to a pound of it? This'd get converted into a jet of molten- Wait fuck, heat ruins it. Nevermind that. A bunch of iron or steel to work with, and the use of the smithy for a while."

"I think balors might be one of the ones where cold iron doesn't even work, or at least doesn't by itself and it has to be holy too, or something. Really if this happened we'd call in a strike team and half of us would die waiting."

"Joy and celebration. ...Anything tend to slow down the really scary ones? Block their vision with smoke? Glue bombs? Blinding light... Intense noise?"

"Sonic damage works on demons fine, if you have a way to deliver it! The other stuff might help, I don't know off the top of my head if any of the balor spell-likes are good for handling glue or light or smoke but I guess if you make it spend a spell-like that's still decent."

She rubs her hands through her (ponytailed, today) hair, then on her forehead.

"Smoke bombs are pretty easy. A noise cannon would be... Expensive. A really bright lightbeam, same. Rocket bombs are, like, single use crossbows. That shoot bombs. Damage is damage. If I make a batch, fort can have 'em as emergency gear... For use against demons and obvious allies thereof particularly. Could volley 'em against a Balor if one shows up."

"Damage isn't damage, that's the whole deal with the cold iron and the holy bow and stuff versus the everything else."

"I was under the impression it's a lot harder to hurt them without those, not impossible?"

"Yeah, if you hit them hard enough. It's just that's really hard."

"A big enough warhead will knock a mining suit's drill arm clean off and that's an inch and a half of good steel."

Hand-wobble. "I don't know if you can compare straight across unless the steel's enchanted."

"Something else to test. When I have more... Money. Smokes, what could make a lot of money... Spellsilver refining... Steelmaking? Industrial cloth...?"

"I mean, depends how good you can do any of those things but yeah, all of those, if you're gonna make a magical crucible that refines twelve grams of spellsilver a day you'll clean up, if you're gonna finally crack the problem of sticking an unseen servant to a loom same deal."

"-Oh, I was more thinking a power loom. Steam engines and waterwheels are wonderful things. What are the limitations of unseen servant, could one turn a millstone like a draft animal?"

"No, they're not that strong. They're passable at spinning but weaving's too hard for them."

"...What I should do, is figure out a logging trip. Some wood to work with would help. Spark at wood hard enough and, like, paper, experiment with some acid splash and maybe get some plas or explosives out of it. Is it terribly dangerous to do so alone, aside from the cold?"

"I mean, yeah, elevated risk of demons all around the whole place because patrols don't always catch them right off, plus there's sometimes like a bear or some shit."

"So figure to go along with a patrol or something that was planning it?"

"It's not a patrol if they're going out to the trees, but a squad, yeah."

"Life at a fort is really all about finding stuff to do, huh..."

"Some people just take lots of extra patrols for the bonuses."

"More than just extra food?"

"Yeah no there's a pay bonus too, if you go on enough of them. Like, only if they want you, you can't just follow a squad and go 'I'm helping' if they wish you would die the entire time, but when we're understrength you can usually pick up as many as you want."

"I should do a patrol ever, when I have a coat and maybe a backup weapon, but I'm probably better off crafting..."

"Yeah. I mean, you might still want it for the circles, if you're in a place where you can still get those off patrols."

"I'd never heard of the circles thing before, definitely not phrased that way and only sort of 'adventuring makes you stronger' - but City Frostbound was pretty censorious about some things."

"I dunno if your thing even has circles, I'd have to stare at you with Detect Magic or something. Maybe it's all supernatural shit."

"As a colloquialism for getting stronger and weirder though it makes sense to say 'circles'. The stories are all, oh yes Agatha Heterodyne grew mightier and mightier over time, but- That could also be explained by accumulating materials, projects, and minions, and people exaggerate everything. So I can't assume I will circle up, or that I won't."

"Oh it's not colloquial, it's a topology thing. But like fighters also get stronger and they don't have circles because they're not doing anything topological."

"...But can you say, oh, that fighter's about like a third circle wizard?"

"Yeah, pretty much, you're guessing but there's fighters who can stand up to the same kinds of fights as a fifth circle wizard."

"I guess I have plenty of time to learn the comparisons..."

She is pretty much done with her food at this point and looks like she's considering getting up.

"Lemme know next time you're gonna cut loose so I can watch, I'll letcha know if I see any circles."

"Oh, sure. It's a good idea to schedule it and have watchers to yell at me if I get too out of hand, too, yeah."

She'll go return her bowl.

And then... Report to the commander that the stove is done, she guesses?

"Excellent. I haven't heard any complaints from the kitchens so I take it everything went more or less as planned."

"Yes. I interrupted cooking for about forty-five minutes last night. They're already using it and - rumoredly - approve."

He nods and counts out her money.

"This says it's - backed by the souls of the damned'?"

"Yes. I don't have this amount in coin on hand but I can get it, if you prefer."

"-I

Is it just - notional - we had money backed by heat and you could go into an office and turn some in and get the heat being sent to your quarters raised- augh."

"I am not aware of any mortal having actually collected a sufficient amount of money and made an expedition to go exchange it for a damned soul but if it were not possible in principle the money would not in fact be backed by the souls of the damned."

"Yeah I'd prefer coin or supplies in kind - with a markup for transportation costs, whatever."

This is probably 'religion', isn't it?? 'Damned' is doing a lot of work in this Share Language.

"Very well. I can get you half this in coin, obviously you need cold weather gear, what supplies most interest you -" Papershuffling.

Deep breath.

"...Iron, coal, copper. Glass. Paper and ink and a pen. Slate and chalk. Plain cloth, needle and thread. Maybe some wood but that can be more cheaply got by going with whoever next plans a logging trip. Rubber, if it's available. Small samples of sulfuric or nitric acid. Glycerol, niter... Could go on but that's already probably longer than what my pay would get. I'm not going to be picky when this is already a change."

"We do not have all these things in the fort but I can inform the quartermaster's office about your... what shall we call it, it's not really a line of credit... your allowable expenditure, at any rate."

"Alright. I had - more ideas for things to build - but now I want to think first before proposing them. -I was advised by someone to not talk about religion." Because your religion SUCKS APPARENTLY.

"It's not usually constructive. If you do have a burning question I am a reasonable person to ask."

"I'm not coming up with anything that won't come out - accusatory - uh.  I suppose... Just why? Why evil?"

"Are you asking what makes us Evil or a more historical question about how this came about?"

"I mean- I don't think-

I suppose, what are the things that make - I am assuming - an overwhelming majority of Cheliax evil, and why are those things... Practiced."

"The soul trade is Evil, as you have apparently intuited, and paper currency is standard in Cheliax. Worshiping Asmodeus is Evil and doing as He commands likewise and this we do because His church and His backed noble House control the country and order our faith. Torture is Evil and common to create incentives for lawful behavior; you do not need to worry about this because you are not a Chelish soldier. Slavery is, if not invariably Evil, at least a common occasion for it; we don't have chattel here because it's a security risk but it's common domestically because it gets the spinning and the farming and so on done. In general attempting to improve one's situation in a negative-sum environment is Evil and ordinary people generally desire to improve their situations even in such cases."

"It felt like magical slavery via Share Language."

She is going to rub her forehead with both hands now apparently.

"I would think Evil anticorrelated with Law, the most natural evils I had heard of before being things of - desperation and opportunism - of course no industry means more people are doing hand work but- Ugh."

The 'god' is the problem. He even admits it, and Share Language agrees.

-City Frostbound tortures people for capital crimes. Very occasionally.

"Many Evil beings are not Lawful, such as the demons, but Asmodeus is and we as His creatures are meant to emulate this example."

"And you are His because... He'll torture you otherwise? ...I can see why this line of questioning is usually unproductive."

"It is a fact of the matter that many powerful entities such as gods can project power into the Material Plane by the means of various omens, miracles, and representatives. I happen to be an example of this category. The exact way in which it came about is trivia."

"I don't plan to immediately leave for Kenabres but I am considering it much more strongly now. I have learned enough Taldane for some basic functions without a Share Language. If I decide to leave and work east with patrols it will be after claiming my - allotment of supplies and building equipment with it."

"I can also write the adjacent fort's purser a note to the effect that you are entitled to the remainder of your coin if you prefer, though if you are going to travel with all that you might want to spend some of it on a Bag of Holding. They are quite marked up out here but I expect someone can spare one for enough money."

"If someone steals from me that's a treaty violation, right?"

"Yes."

"So it's just the weight or a demon stealing it. If I get enough metal I can make a skeleton suit, I'd probably prefer that... If there's enough metal. But at this point it's not something that needs your personal involvement to plan." Sigh.

"Do you need anything else?"

"I may be able to learn something by examining the holy bow or other magic items, and would put that knowledge to use here if a good application is found, while I remain here. Also in the event of a serious crisis allowing my sorcery to run wild improvisation with the contents of the storeroom may produce an unusual and deadly weapon in a short time. One to five minutes. I've done it before, converting a mining machine I was repairing into a drill launcher to fight a pack of giant cave moles, it draws down some ephemeral resource much faster than more careful work. It seemed worth mentioning for consideration before such a crisis actually occurs."

"The holy bow is fortress property and kept up on the parapets and Lieutenant Bartra can give you permission to examine it. Other magic items are generally personal property and therefore personal discretion, or consumable and therefore kept secured, but if you can get anywhere with the bow and want to look at more objects something can likely be arranged. I will write the quartermaster a note about your claim."

"That's all I think."

This was exhausting and confirmed the building dread in her gut.

"Dismissed."

...She's gonna go have a sulk nap.

And eventually show up for that fort repairs class because may as well.

They really want to keep the stairs in good repair because people go up and down the fast in emergencies and if there's a chunk missing because somebody was fucking around with Acid Splash it'll trip somebody. Here's how they do that. Serious issues need to wait for a Stone Shape but they can patch things temporarily.

Makes sense yep.

Sigh.

She gets her coat and coins, and negotiates with the quartermaster for Stuff. She fusses with the Stuff in the smithy overnight, making Other Stuff. She plods forward on learning Taldane. She puts together a calculus lecture but her heart's not really in it. She goes out into the snow and fetches rocks and makes bowls and buttons and belt-buckles and boxes and little decorative figures and arrowheads with them. She staaaaaaares at the holy bow and ultimately declares that she'd definitely need spellsilver and several tries probably to make something like it. She slowly works on something approximating proper gear with deeply inadequate materials (including more Literally Just Rocks),. Mostly it'll consist of a small boiler and steam engine in a backpack-like configuration, and a skeleton suit to bear the weight for it, and then putting the saw back to proper steam power.

Time passes.

A group of adventurers comes in from the east to stay the night; they think their sorcerer is coming up on fifth, and want the teleport locations.

Oh? Someone who's not Chelish? She's been pretty closed off... Might be a good time to. Go. To really go.

(It feels like she should Do Something about Cheliax, but what can she do? One person, fucking with a mostly competent operation of hundreds, and a not-the-queen-of-england-but-something-like it evil torture slavery being? It'd be suicidal and counterproductive.)

She's currently carving arrowheads in the mess and wearing her mostly complete cobbled together from scrap and raw iron backpack-engine on her back, to get used to it and because it's just... Comforting, to have it right next to her. She waves, glumly.