"Well. Want a desalinator or a bolt of fabric or something for the advice and maybe to send word when that shapes up?"

"I'd love a desalinator, although I must tell you that the advice was given as much to avoid danger to the Empire, for my own ends, as to help you; is there anything else I can do for you to fully earn such a prize?"

"I dunno, a Throne I guess. Or a Crown, I keep mixing those up, I don't have a great sense of money here yet. Or promise to use it in the cause of Not Slavery at whatever remove. Actually now I'm having thoughts about how much I may be causing war to happen even if it's just logistic support. Weapons win fights, logistics wins wars."

"I can definitely pay you a Throne for it, if you're happy to accept; in general a Crown would be for something useful but ordinary, whereas Thrones are for durable construction projects or rare and precious things.

I can also assure you that it's certain to be used in the cause of Not Slavery, as that is essentially the fundamental cause of the Freeborn, and a cause to which the Empire is committed; I can't promise that this won't involve warlike actions, as most of the people who can be simply persuaded not to keep slaves already have been."

"Yeah, that's the rub isn't it. Everyone ends up fighting sooner or later pretty much no matter what." Sigh. "Well, America had the fine tradition of lend-lease arms well before I was born. And it's not like I'm giving you high-yields. Okay. In the spirit of the Brass Coast being so mercantile, a Throne for a desalinator." Her eyes go distant for a moment. "...The standard pattern one just needs salt water poured in, and puts out clean water and concentrated brine in two channels. It takes some energy from being in the sun, like plants, but there's a crank you can drive it with if that's not enough. One hundred to two hundred liters of water per day from sunlight, more if cranked."

"Sounds fantastic. I am very sure that many enthusiastic corsairs will be happy to turn the handle." He reaches into a hidden pocket in his robes and pulls out a small shiny golden coin, which reads 'One Throne - Freedom's Cost' one one side with a stylised throne and 'Imperial Mandate - Prosperity' on the other with a wolf's head.

...Collect Them All, from each Virtue? She curiously investigates the Thrones she got for the hyperweave jackets earlier.

"-Oh, stand clear." Because with an unfolding that is weird to look at, there's a chest-freezer-sized block of metal sitting on the ground now. It starts making a humming/grinding noise. "There. Fifteen minutes for your desalinator. Fabbers are great. Unfortunately I cannot make new ones and can only maintain this one by absorbing it again."

The egregore dutifully stands clear, and is extremely fascinated by the device - as is Marilla, who has carefully been making herself as unobtrusive as possible so nobody tells her to leave and stops her listening to this fascinating conversation - but neither does anything impolite like attempting to touch it.

"Does that - require anything other than, reabsorption? Materials of some description?" he asks. "You don't have to tell me, of course, but I may be able to work on sourcing them, if you are interested in further cooperation."

"It assembles stuff on a tiny scale. Cellular level, smaller than the veins on a leaf. Lots of stuff is carbon- Same as most flesh, plant or animal, and it mainly works with that to make plas and diamondoids, so I fed it a tree in Navarr. Know much chemistry? I could use some beryllium and cobalt and manganese. Helium... Lithium... Aluminum, or rather, bauxite..."

"Beryllium... that sounds like it is something to do with beryl? That's a gemstone we get a fair amount of - you'll find plenty in the gem markets in Siroc, and maybe in smaller settlements if you're fortunate.

Cobalt, if what you're looking for is the same as cobalt blue, is a common dye sand - I'd expect to find some for sale in this very town.

Manganese we can certainly do - I expect to most easily find it in Sarvos, some of the glassworkers of the Coast will use it, but the League also use it as a black pigment.

"Alum would have aluminum in it. It's technically an ore, just hard to refine without electricity. Helium is an unbreathable non-flammable gas, found in pockets underground, but- Oh, nevermind on helium. Apparently I can build fractional distillation columns to get the trace amounts out of the air if I really must. Most of these aren't urgent at all, but there's actually a lot of elements that I could use more of, though nothing super urgent. Maybe I should just take a look at a well-stocked chemist warehouse and see if my Valkyrie Core goes 'ooh, get that one' at any of it?"

"I'm not sure where you'd find a 'chemist warehouse' - an alchemist warehouse, certainly, but for minerals - normally I'd recommend Nestor's Bounty, but it's somewhat of a war zone at the moment - although we did recently liberate it, and I suppose the road being blocked is less of a concern to you?"

"Rather not a concern, no. I think I'm going to check out the Urizen and Druj next though."

"Yes - while I have certain biases that make me predisposed to fight for my own people first, that does seem to be an excellent place to deploy large, unilateral quantities of firepower. There really is no question as to who is worth an arrow over there, unlike the other fronts, where there are at least some complexities."

"...In a transparent display of showing off the firepower home has to deploy, wanna see some gun cam footage from my fellow Valkyries?"

"Absolutely."

(The one throne pieces are all the same; the five throne piece has 'Vigilance' on it instead of 'Prosperity'.)

Marilla quietly shuffles round so that she can see whatever Lenora's going to pull out as well.

Here's a big tablet screen, showing a birds-eye view as something skims at extreme speed low over blasted hills and cratered plains.

"This is what Ava Schimmhoff, ranked Ace but not part of the two hundred - our most elite - saw during one of her combat runs."

"Coming up on the convoy. No alertness, they haven't seen you."

"Roger. Plan unchanged?"

"Yes. A-whacks saw an interceptor flight in G12 but they're going for the fuel tankers."

"Shit, need that fuel. Mama's thirsty."

"Don't worry, blue's got them."

"Cut the chatter. Ten seconds. One pass, assess, possible second pass."

There's a series of clicks.

Then, with a "go go go!" and a rushing sound, the perspective leaps high into the air. Glowing bright streaks and trails of smoke leap forth from the point of view and the sides, impacting a line of grey and brown wheeled vehicles trundling along a road. Most of the vehicles explode immediately- A few figures surrounding them scatter, clearly inhuman- One shoots back, but they're gone before it can do anything.

They circle around and count the burning wrecks, then are ordered to head back to friendly lines immediately, complimented for a "clean attack run".

Marilla can't keep in a surprised squeak when things start exploding. Her eyes are very wide.

The egregore... blinks a few times. "That is incredibly confusing, but certainly I am impressed," he replies.

"It's a whole different way of fighting. Armor changes things. The, uh, bow? Changes things. We have about ten or more further shifts. It's almost absurd really. The only thing is, I only arrived here through an accident, so I don't know if I'll be found."

"That makes it very important to keep you well maintained, then," replies the egregore. "I don't think the Druj are going to touch the sides, but you might want to get an anointing before you go in - or a Banner of the Bold or something if you don't like the idea of any of our auras. That will shore up your spiritual defences, which is the thing you might not have."

"Important question though, does the banner do anything weird?"

"No, it's extremely straightforward, it just allows you to focus on it and dispel one instance of a spiritual effect trying to affect you. It refreshes when you sleep, or theoretically also if you rest in specific enchanted areas, or have some other items used on you, but I'm not convinced you'll have access to that.

It is not as good as an anointing because the second effect can still get to you, but it should at least cover you against the miasma; once you've dismissed that once, it shouldn't affect you for the rest of the day."

"If I ever get home they're gonna be like 'so how much research did you do on this 'magic' stuff exactly, can we make it in a factory'. Ha. How much does such a banner run?" 

"Because they decay, they're normally made on commission, but in a big city like Siroc you'll likely find a few - probably for a crown or two, but it depends a lot on supply and demand, and how long they have left to run, and if the banner design itself is pleasantly generic or specific and embarrassing, and so on."

"I'll have to swing by before I head off. No playing with fire."

She checks the fabber with a semi-conscious glance.

"Seven minutes left for your order."