"Good." No hairpet, Waltana isn't hers yet. "The medical tools sound useful, but I'd like to ask the chemist what he would want before building something. For now, make sketches of the most useful tool arm for your own use."

(Set a reminder about making rubber once they have a place where they can do chemistry...)

And then off to talk to the chemist, asking about the curtain on the way out - "I can fix it myself, if that's acceptable to you?" - and then to a hardware store.

Kireh drops the mind-reading when they leave her room - "observing a mortal mind too much can damage it" - and catches Waltana's shoulder again at the chemist.

"Will do. I uh- I think it makes you self-conscious, but I wasn't, so much caring about that or noticing it, while I was in the flow, working under the reading is intense, it like - magnifies attention?"

(The inkeeper rolls his eyes and says fine whatever.)

The chemist is at the counter of his store today. He stands and smiles when he sees Kireh.

"Ahh, ma'am! Welcome back! I haven't had a strike of inspiration for useful experiments yet, save perhaps some sort of artificial heart but I wouldn't know where to begin. Anyway I've sent several telegrams - the fools think I've gone mad, I fear. Ahem. I see you have a - friend today?"

(Waltana is thinking that she looks weird walking around with Kireh people are staring at her and augh.)

If Waltana doesn't flinch from observation, great! Fascinating that it affects her spark. Kireh has seen plenty of people who focus better under pressure, but this is different... "Have you worked in front of an audience before?"

"If you or your correspondents were more Evil, it wouldn't matter if they think you've gone mad.

This is Miss Waltana Hampson, an engineer. I want to consult with you about chemistry and the healing arts. I can pay 5 pence now, or one fifth of the increase in profits that I judge to be due to your information, with the understanding that payments after the cold might be delayed or forgone if I can't find you, if you're not in my shelter. I might be traveling to visit a lot of shelters, but I'm not guaranteeing that. - Waltana, are you willing to agree to that deal, if you go into business separately from me? If not, only the immediate payment is available." One fifth of the increase in profit because there's her, Waltana, and probably about three chemists easily available, and this math seems about right?

"I want to know what sort of unusually small, unusually large, or remotely-operated tools would be useful for a surgeon, or for a chemist. I want to know about making rubber. I want to know about making beer." Partly because of the rumor of magic beer, partly as a distraction.

Waltana will probably calm down in five minutes, but if not they can do some proper exposure therapy. Is it especially stressful being seen touching?

"Oh, find a young prodigy, did you? Well, I suppose the results will speak for themselves, won't they. I'm not a bloody doctor, keep in mind - chemists are three-fourths the way to simple shopkeepers, as they keep rudely reminding me." He sniffs. "I'd rather the immediate payment than some nebulous future kickback if you're offering, at any rate. Tools, hmm? Well, I'm no brewer, but I could probably manage a pot still if I had to. Rubber, though, I don't deal with the raw stuff, sulfur'd mats of it come in from India, already processed. That does remind me of an interesting monograph about the conversions of light oil fractions. They made all sorts of stuff with it, mostly useless of course, but a sort of hard rubber was one of them. For the tools, do you just want me to list some common ones?"

(She has a couple of times and it usually makes her more anxious, not less.)

"-We're going to need sulfur."

Her thoughts aren't exactly lingering on it, but the hand contact does seem to be making things worse. People glance and frown at the contact, as if something about it is odd, and she's keenly aware of it, even as her thoughts are mostly tracking what this man might be thinking of her and Kireh, and how weird and fake she is compared to real engineers, instead of something more useful.

(Maybe it's helpful to be observed by Kireh in particular, with her style of Lawful Evil where it doesn't matter how much Kireh likes her, she won't treat her any differently. Except when it comes to whims and offers of further contracts. But Kireh doesn't think she's explained that to Waltana? Her imperfect memory fails her on this. She'll try observing Waltana without using magic, or by casting Detect Desires or Detect Anxieties until Waltana makes her Will save, to see if that feeling affects her differently.)

Here's 5 pence, then. "Whatever you know about beer and rubber, or resources you recommend we study, such as that monograph. For the tools, if there are already tools that resemble prosthetics, I want to know what they are. If not, I want to know what opportunities there are for new inventions. Potentially-useful surgeries that are too finicky for human fingers; or tasks that require the strength of several commoners, introducing errors from poor coordination; or procedures to perform at a distance, say within a quarantine cell. Who would buy such tools?"

Most of Waltana's stress is easy, but on the way to the hardware store they should talk about 'realness', set a reminder...

The chemist can wax poetic about beer! It involves grain and hops and lots of careful heating and mixing and other things, along with fermenting with yeast, an odd little thing sort of like pond scum, at least in size. The good strains of yeast are kept to individual brewers mostly, of course. He knows less about rubber, but does manage to scrounge up a copy of the monograph he mentioned earlier and lets them read the relevant section- Three paragraphs on page 37/60, describing the process in rough order. You need 'naphtha', which can apparently be refined out of certain tars and oils, and coal and sulfur as well. Rubber's industrial value mostly comes in being pliable but quickly returning to shape absent of force- Indispensable for vehicle wheels, flexible seals on pipes and joints, and the like.

Something in that range certainly sounds damned useful, at least, but the biggest requirement for surgical tools is mostly that they be easy to sterilize, typically with a bath in strong alcohol and lots of scrubbing or extended immersion in very hot steam. There are drugs that treat infections, yes, but better not to need them in the first place! Bah! And there are indeed surgeries that would benefit from tiny, nimble fingers - particularly cases where they have to reach around some part of the body to reach what's underneath, preferably with an absolute minimum of excess cutting. A long, snaking tube, that doesn't have any sharp points to cut the vessels, and ideally that you could see out of as if it's a microscope, would be positively wonderful for certain kinds of internal ailments, though it's impossible as far as he knows. Glass is too stiff and fragile to move light like that. As for larger tasks, there are handcarts and pulleys a-plenty for teamster type work, but a big crate hefting arm on the back of a lorry to speed things up might go over well. As well as clamps and the like to handle corrosive or hot things at a distance. Those are mostly simple, repeating motions, which end up being done well enough with levers and such. Maybe a giant arm would be useful for for construction, for lifting and holding big steel beams flexibly yet steadily? Even better if it can wield a rivet gun as easily and delicately as a pen! Jewelers and those finicky electrical appliances might appreciate tiny, precise tools as well?

The beer... Gets a thorough 'meh' on the sparkiness front, in Waltana's mind, though there's some wondering if yeast could be induced to make non-beer things. She has more ideas about rubber, especially after reading the synthesis steps and the abstract- Polymers! -Yeah, she can totally do this process if they get the materials, it'll be easy, she's already picturing a reaction vessel. Heat and alcohol proof rubber for easy sterilization might be a slightly harder challenge, if she ends up using rubber in the tools. Ideas about construction arms really inspire her, imagine what you could do with a proper source of pressurized steam to drive the thing and heavy rotors to link it together-

Waltana tries to think sparky thoughts instead of loops of wondering how stupid she seems to Kireh and aborted half-formed suspicions against her being cut off to 'think about that later'. Eventually, she ducks away from the contact and blinks and mutters about how, yeah, maybe it is damaging.

Excellent, that was worth 5 pence. (It makes sense that Waltana wouldn't be interested in serving a patron of pond scum; she's not a witch. Dominating the yeast is admirably ambitious, if it can be done in accordance with the laws of Britain and Marra.) Does the chemist sell sulfur and other 'naphtha' ingredients? Does Waltana want to buy anything else?

"My intuition is that a machine to make rubber or polymer will be easiest to sell to the IEC. Or maybe a construction arm, but they have plenty of labor. I'm happy to build my shelter by temporarily hiring more laborers than can live in it, but in the future, for maintenance and expansion, a construction arm might be useful, if my initial permanent population is smaller than in an IEC shelter, and much less expendable. But right now I need money, not machines that will be useful a year from now. The surgery tools sound awesome, but I think we should wait until we talk with a doctor. What do you think of that?" She does not try to reestablish mind-reading.

Time for some lectures on the way to the hardware store.

"As a factual question, you're not stupid. You're a one-in-a-thousand prodigy, or you would be in my world. You're smarter than me; I'm only one-in-a-hundred.

I would prefer that you not worry about what I think of you. We have a week-long contract. Whether I offer you a longer contract is dependent on a lot of things, and your Intelligence is not one of them, unless you get attacked by a rare creature that curses your mind or something. Of course, if you were permanently mine, then even that wouldn't matter - I would be bound by my duties towards you just as permanently.

Anyway, the things I'm looking for that are under your control are mainly your ability to use your spark, which I'm not worried about, and your tolerance of mind-reading. So far I'm impressed with that too. You were correct to immediately pull away when you noticed your thoughts getting twisted. The best method you have to avoid thinking about something is to think about something else. To that end, I can help you practice focusing and aiming your focus. To suppress a thought while thinking flexibly about many things, you can either build a lasting habit of turning away from a particular topic, or you can restructure all the rest of your thoughts to follow a pattern which you can focus on as a single target, which is easier to adapt as the set of topics you want to avoid changes, but much more work to set up at the beginning.

Regarding being a 'real' engineer: as a factual question, it's normal in my world for some people to learn things slowly and some people to grasp them intuitively." Wizards and sorcerers are the obvious example, but also, sort of, fighters and paladins; and bards vary in how much education they have but end up with the same circles, as do alchemists. Clerics and oracles have a similar division, if you look at many of them on average; not with their spells, but with their spiritual development. "What is a 'real' engineer? Well, that's just a phrase, but an intuitive engineer is certainly good at building machines, which is the point of engineering as far as I know. You'll probably never teach at a school for trained engineers, and likewise a trained engineer is unlikely to teach intuitive engineers how to use their spark. However, the two kinds of engineers can probably collaborate profitably, and I want to hire a trained engineer to work with you at some point.

You might be able to become a trained engineer yourself - I don't know the qualifications but they mostly use their Intelligence to work, right? - but I don't recommend that unless you expect to be very isolated.

When you think of a 'real' engineer, though, I don't think you just mean a typical example of that concept. I think you're worrying about whether other people will approve of you. The usual ways to fix this in mortals is to give you structure and wait years until you trust that structure and feel safe letting go of worrying about other people's opinion, or by using emotional manipulation magic. Other Evil groups - not followers of Marra - also use overwhelming fear, or giving you power until you stop caring what your subordinates think, but that doesn't actually fix the mortal tendency to assign a value to every person and compare yourself to them, just suppresses or appeases it.

I'm willing to use emotional manipulation magic on you, if you consent, and if I'm sure that your spark is your own ability, or if it's a divine gift but I'm sure emotional manipulation won't damage your relationship with the god who gave it to you."

(She will buy a small box of aspirin with her own money. The chemist does have some naphtha, it gets used as a paint thinner sometimes, a gallon for a shilling, shall he look into getting a larger supply should they manage this?)

"...Well, I can definitely try to make rubber. Might have to use the pressure cooker, blech. It's already a high-pressure, high-heat vessel, honestly, more than it really should be. It's perfect for this, but I kind of don't want to."

She says nothing about the question of how smart she is.

"I would like to learn how to stay focused, I think. It's conducive to the spark. I'm pretty worried about your shelter idea- I'm not at all sure it'll work and considering if I had better go mend bridges with the IEC and try to get into the evacuation. As for real engineers- Hmm, yeah, part of that is that they still see me as a child, and also a woman, and low-class 'cause I'm basically dressed in rags, so I don't have the respect that 'engineers' ought to. I also don't think I deserve it, if what I'm doing is yanking answers out of the aether instead of actually putting in the work for them? ...It's funny how social people are. I'm not immune to it. I'm not gonna give you permission to use magic on my head without a lot more reason though."

(She buys a gallon of naphtha and tells the chemist not to get lots more yet, since they're hoping to sell the machine.)

Good for Waltana that she's pushing through her wince at using the pressure cooker, although Kireh thinks it best not to comment on it.

It makes sense that awesome people wouldn't want to waste their time being bothered by boring people, but that's not really what's happening there, is it? They just think it's low-status to be poor or young or female and don't want to be seen interacting with low-status people. If Kireh ran this city, she would interview everyone, and no potentially-awesome person would ever be wasted.

"Do trained engineers 'deserve' to be born smart and have someone pay for them to study?

Yes, people are social, that's what I want to fix. At least the part where they have emotional relationships - not just lovers, they have emotional relationships with everyone! It's fine to enjoy people's company, but not to get entangled and broken.

What do you think is going to go wrong with my shelter?"

Waltana is free to run away the IEC, sadly.

"If you make a new kind of rubber machine, can you draw plans for it? Can you make another one?"

Kireh wants a needle and would prefer thread that matches the color and fiber of the curtains - sewing is one of her vanities - but money is tight and she doesn't think the innkeeper would insist on an exact match. "Pick your string. Anything else?"

"...I mean, nobles and the wealthy or gifted are born into it, I know that, but it still stings. I think you need a Generator or some other massive energy source. If you have enough energy, everything else can slot into place, but if not..." Shrug. "So far all you have is talk. Uh, it sounds pretty unhealthy to - cut off emotional relationships? That sounds not great. The Church supports it even, love thy neighbor and all, not that everyone actually does.

If I tear down my precious pressure cooker to make rubber I wanna be compensated for that. I've put in a lot of hours of work on it over a year and a half now. It cooks food in half the time! And evenly! Steam injectors penetrate the heat deep into vegetables and meat without destroying the structure or burning it! I almost think you could sell it to a kitchen but nobody took me seriously when I tried arranging that!" (She is maybe emotionally attached and whining a little bit.)

"I'm hoping that by the time it's urgent, either I'll have enough money to buy a Generator, or you'll be strong enough to create a sparky one.

Sure, if you take someone who's lived all their life in a Good society and suddenly deprive them of their only source of emotional satisfaction, they'll be miserable and useless. Petitioners who weren't born in a cult of Marra take years and years to settle.

I will buy the pressure cooker from you, but selling it to a kitchen might be better, if they'll take an exciting newcomer more seriously." It makes sense to not take some people seriously, especially in a world without easy access to mind-reading and truth spells, but Kireh won't let that happen in her shelter. "It doesn't burn food - does it overall need less labor to operate? That would be useful for my shelter. Can you make another one?

Are you not guaranteed a spot with the IEC? I have heard conflicting claims about the capacity of their evacuation."

Kireh doesn't like whining but fixing it here would be complicated... since Waltana isn't hers, though, it's not her problem.

"It takes less labor but a bit of skill, and less coal, and it's fast. I don't know how much a kitchen would pay, I could make something similar with the right components... Murgh. They're saying they will evacuate everyone but I am well aware that I'm one of the first to be struck off the list if they start striking. And I don't trust the IEC to be especially competent."

"Could you make one with the broken pots and sheet metal I already have? Could you make a rubber machine with that?

The IEC would expel you even if you were working for them and they understood you have a spark of genius? Why, because they don't like your personality?" Kireh is going to filter by personality too of course but she thinks Waltana is great and in any case wouldn't reject someone so useful!

"You think their planning has too much bluster and they won't have as much space as they say, or some deeper incompetence?"

"I don't think that'd be enough. Need some kind of - well, a pressure vessel, a burner, a bunch of stuff, and it'd be slower. Uh, the guy who tried to recruit me was treating me like an ignorant child who he was doing a massive favor towards by forcing me to work for them, so. They kind of bumbled things. Go to jail. Wait, work for us. No, you deserve jail. No, you're going to go to London for unclear reasons, no why would we ask you what you want."

"I see, that's tyrannical of them.

Okay then, my plan is to finish up here quickly, get some more paper, and have you draw plans for the pressure cooker and rubber machine, as if you were making them with the stuff I already have and a few additional pieces. Then I have some things for you to look at that I'll keep a surprise. We look at the house, and when I go to my job with the police, I want you to think about a tool arm that would be most useful for you personally, and some other puzzles that I'm also keeping a surprise.

If there's time I'd like to practice focusing too.

In the evening, I'll accompany you to a kitchen to try to sell the pressure cooker."

"I do want to actually get something done. Writing out plans sounds good, yeah, but I can't really do it on the move. How much of a cut d'you wanna take from my pressure cooker?"

Kireh thinks entirely in terms of rules and values and incentives, gotta learn to speak the language.

"Giving you a cut makes you want to get the best price, sure, but... Depending on what that cut is it might not be worth it to me. And emotionally, there's some value from not tearing it down in a rebuild, seeing it go to someone who'll use it, I guess I'm not sure how to put a price on that."

"Do you think we could sell the pressure cooker now? I was imagining the kitchen workers would be busy. The only project you currently have that we can do now is the tool arm, and I would like to be sure I can leave you to work unsupervised in the inn... Maybe if the house and its terms are acceptable and we can move immediately, you can work on the rubber machine in the afternoon.

I approve of you being vain about your work.

Under the assumption that there's plenty of people who could accompany you to sell your pressure cooker, say 30 who you could find easily by asking at a church or something, and that the operation requires you and one of them, I should get 1/30 of 1/2 of the profit, or 4 pence on the pound. That's my usual rule. The unclaimed profit that would go to the other trustworthy people is yours to keep, for no logical reason, but you seem like the main person here. I could also say that I should get 1/31 of the profit, with the same assumptions but without any unclaimed profit, which is about, uh, 7¾ pence on the pound, but I am not in fact insisting on that.

A follower of the god of making all trades precisely fair would probably know a better way to do these figures, and care to do it, but I only care that my deals are endorsed after hypothetical extensive negotiation by the people actually involved."

"...Actually I think it would be more efficient to hire someone else to accompany you, which I can do easily, and in this case I would like a flat fee of one pence for that service, and you can negotiate with them however you like."

"Mm. You keep mentioning all these gods who have no evidence of their existence other than you being weird, magical, and saying so. Which isn't nothing. A God of trades? ...One in thirty seems fair, you're lending consequence. And the cooks might be busy around lunchtime yes. Hmm. Accompany me where exactly? I'm losing track of these plans."

"Well They might not exist in this world.

You mean 4d or 7¾d or 8d on the pound? If more than 4d, are you valuing me higher than a random reliable person walking by, or do you prefer to calculate trades without any unclaimed profit, or are you following your intuition, or something else?

Oh, I thought you had a kitchen in mind. We can stop by a bunch. By 'kitchen', do you mean any tavern or chop house or inn, or something more specific?"

"Eight, and yeah, you're locally famous which is an asset. Maybe intuition too. I don't have a location in mind, rich part of town would probably do- The places that sell meals to the middle class, like the Seven Spoons, they probably go through a lot of food and can use it to go faster?"

"I would have guessed that a cheaper place would care more about saving labor, although they'd both care about saving coal - your intuition is better than mine though. Is there anything your pressure cooker can do that can't be done otherwise? Then a fancy restaurant might be best."

They're back at the inn now. Marra's Inquisition.

"Hmmmm." Well it could probably power a light or two, or some fans, or some other moderately strong draw, off the drain tube. It cools and heats quickly, and it hits more pressure, and thus higher temperatures, than other pressure cookers- Three hundred, maybe up to three twenty. That's how it cooks fast. She doesn't really know enough about experimental cheffery to come up with anything else super clever. Though it's kind of a small bomb waiting to happen if it's breached while running that hot... The fact that it hasn't exploded, she attributes to sparkiness. Oh, you could use the release valve as a superheated steam weapon! Or as the launcher for some kind of projectile, or to drive high-impact tools!