"...Now, yes, I agree that people are mostly looking out for themselves. Mostly? Some people are nice? Even if you can say they're nice because being nice feels good, oh look how generous I am for giving the urchins fresh bread. And moaning about it doesn't help, you have to do something about it... Also, the Church certainly doesn't have much more proof of their claims than old books, so good on you for actually having supernatural powers, honestly, that's pretty convincing.

Also, see, 'for the next hour' is a lot more reassuring than a nebulous 'sponsorship' that creates a sense of responsibility and puts me at your disposal- to be disposed of, even- Or may let you decide I haven't been working hard enough and now owe you the grant back with interest or something. If you want me to fix a broken clock I can do that. If you want me to research something for you I can do that. But there's all kinds of horror fiction about making open ended deals with magical beings and I figure it's not bad advice to be careful about it. I'll answer your engineering questions with the caveat that I don't have reference books and I'm historically kind of bad at... Explaining my intuitions."

"I'm not saying that altruism doesn't exist; I'm saying that society works better if you don't expect people to be nice. Certainly, don't expect me to be nice; expect me to keep my word when I say I'll do things for you. In the society I want to build in my shelter, everyone will be reliable when they make agreements, and emotional manipulation will have no place. I hate the practice of breaking people's vanity so that they can be punished by anyone who happens to want to hurt them. Of course, in the society you actually live in, I recognize that there is currently an equilibrium of people breaking their word and needing to be controlled instead with the tyranny of social capital, that it will take a long time to change, and that you can't instantly heal from fourteen years of abuse.

I was speaking vaguely of 'sponsorship' because I don't know the details of how things are done here, but I want to make a concrete agreement with you that you won't regret."

She puts 10 pence on the table. "Let's start with that. How are engineers trained? How common are people with an intuitive grasp like yours? If you're rare, would you learn best in a normal engineering school, or something else? People at home might learn best with successively harder dangerous tasks, or they might need to relax and take their time, or they might need a careful balance of challenge and ease - do any of those approaches sound correct for you? When did you first notice your ability? Has it improved over time, and if so, when?"

"...Gonna leave all the new society stuff aside for now. Um... I'm not sure if I'm just smart or if it's something else. I think it might be something else. When I'm in the flow it's a little bit like when you were reading my mind, it's a thing... Uh. People talk about the 'spark of genius' sometimes, that Nicola Tesla builds things that just shouldn't work at all. Scott's predictions of the weather are uncanny intuition, not carefully reasoned conclusions.

Engineering is supposed to be about, you know, careful mathematical work to find the best spot within a set of constraints, machines that are just a bit different in a hundred tiny ways. A normal engineer background is getting a relevant apprenticeship for a few years, then applying to a college and going through their program for four years, and then work experience. I don't think there's time for that.

I'm not sure how I would best learn. I've just been kind of... Doing it? I read about something, I get an idea, I write down some notes and notice problems and write corrections and eventually make something. I'd need tools and goals, though. It goes a bit better if I need something. Maybe someone to discuss things with, trying to explain something can help. And useful stuff would happen along the way, so."

"It goes better if you need something personally? Would it will go better if you needed the money from selling the finished product, or if someone were threatening you?

How much do you know about Generators and steam cores? How much does that average engineer know? If you had plans for a shelter, and sufficient tools, materials, and untrained assistants, could you build it as well as the IEC? Worse? Better?"

"Probably worse because I'm fourteen and they have hundreds of real, experienced engineers! And planners! And administrators. And I don't exactly have a lot of data on what makes tinkering around go better, it's confounded by other stuff I had to do and what tools and materials I had too. I'm kinda guessing but I think I have to need it, either directly or as a big part of a - scheme. Like the walking configuration on that cargo loader."

"Hmm." Right, a shelter is like a fort with a couple of spells that you need a powerful wizard for, and also need lots of masons and smiths and carpenters and managers etc to build the rest of the fort, not a single spell you can cast wherever.

"Are there any engineers at all who understood that you had a 'spark of genius'? Anyone else who would be useful for me to talk to?"

"-So, sorry, forgot a question. The big deal about steam cores, is that they are mass produced. Relatively. There's all sorts of ways to build electromechanical control systems. But a steam core? Industry standard. Plop it down, plug it in the right way, and there's your money, it'll just work. Need it for something else, yank it out and change some levers and put it back in. And because it's standard like that, they can make them on an assembly line. I bet the Generators are the same way, someone made a set of plans that will work and doesn't need a genius to put together. I could make a little automaton probably, it'd just take longer than using a steam core and a few big cylinders and leg armatures.

Um.

I don't think so. The whole reason I'm here is because I was trying to get an in with the IEC. Some of my friends will agree I'm good at making stuff, but... You could probably talk to Ms. Penn, the librarian? She's good at finding things. The library charges fees though."

If steam cores aren't magic, it's more like an art school turning down a bard who can't play a scale. A mistake, but more understandable.

So then where does the engineers' power come from? Actually, they don't have much power nowadays; 'engineer' as a title has lost its distinction. Maybe true engineers were a sort of cleric of the old god, and that's why there are so few of them now.

Which means that Waltana, who is definitely not Lawful, is probably Neutral Good, and pulling her toward Evil will break her 'spark', and Kireh would prefer a less combative relationship with the Lawful Good old god, who is apparently still alive. Queue that.

"You could use your intuition with the cargo loader because you wanted to make it work better, though, not because you needed it to? What was the 'scheme' there? Do you often get spontaneously invested in things like that?"

"To show off and get a job, of course! It was kind of stupid, though. I was excited about it, and thought it was cool to program an automaton, and it was bugging me how it was obviously not optimal, and I sort of think I made up a reason it was a good idea after I'd already decided to do it."

"So your spark of genius works if you want something for its own sake, or as part of a goal that you want, but it has to directly contribute to the goal? Or possibly only when you want things for their own sake?

It seems to me that you would benefit from being able to direct your inspiration and desire, which I might be able to help with. How about I buy a variety of materials and tools - I have some specific ideas but I'd rather not tell you in advance - and read you while you think about them. Anything you make in a week, we'll sell and split the profit half and half, and I'll guarantee you at least six shillings and room. I don't know how much I'll be able to help. I'll stop reading you if I notice that it's damaging you, or you ask me to stop."

"...I want to think about ways this ends badly some first. On the one hand there's no time to lose. On the other hand, divine fox person? From a whole different god? I mean..."

Sigh. "You do this sort of thing a lot? Reading people and saying things to point them the right way?"

There's no one who can vouch for her, so she doesn't comment Waltana's doubts.

"I've spent the last two decades doing things like this, yes. But more focused on making people think like I do, and enhancing the things they like about themselves, and giving them the mental infrastructure to follow rules consistently and manage their emotions. When followers of my god die, they become beings like me, any of several varieties of angel-equivalent that my god has. That's my job, with help from the ambient alignment and some divine magic. I also advise living mortals sometimes, but then I can't read them and can't give them negative reinforcement - positive reinforcement is still allowed, due to a technicality in the treaty between gods about what spells they can give to their 'clerics'."

...She nods. ('Negative reinforcement' sounds like the nanny pretending 'light' hits with the switch are good for you somehow, so... Good that it's not allowed?)

"Returning to engineering, I expect that I will be able to get plenty of materials for my shelter, plenty of common reference books, some professional advice, lots of untrained labor but very little trained labor, and definitely not a good geographical location. I think that means that fuel will be tightest constraint? The non-standard resources that I have are my immunity to cold and electricity and my ability to keep discipline in the shelter, even if the quarters are tighter than usual and the environment less comfortable. It is possible, but not certain, that I might also have access to magical healing, a supply of water, the ability to give a weaker version of my cold immunity to one other person, and the ability to move heavy objects. Do you have any thoughts about these constraints or resources?"

It's fine if she doesn't have any thoughts right away - hopefully talking about details will get her interested in the engineering problem for its own sake.

"...I think it means there's a lot of planning to do before I can even give a good estimate. It feels larger than me, I mean, protecting that many people..."

She's not skeptical of that discipline bit at all, nosir. 

"Immune to electricity... That'll make some repairs easier..."

She sucks in a breath. "Food is going to be a problem... I think I'm interested. To work with you for a week's trial, so long as there's- conditions. I can quit and not get paid if I do, but nothing worse. No." She waves vaguely. "Chicanery, cornering me into things. Stop the read and any other magic if I say so."

"Yes, either of us can end the contract at any time, with you receiving the pro-rated minimum, or half of the profit. I won't punish you for quitting but I might be more reluctant to hire you again, and if someone asks me about you I'll tell the truth.

My minor defensive spell can be shared. If you ask me to stop doing all magic on you and I think stopping the defensive spell will endanger you, I would prefer to leave it unless you clarify that you mean to stop that too.

I am opposed to all 'chicanery' in principle. If we have a dispute that we can't resolve by ourselves, I would normally defer to a shared authority. I have no proper superior here at all, but for this narrow concern, I would accept mediation by Police Chief McAllen or someone he delegates, or take it to an English civil court unless I think the judge is corrupt, biased, or incompetent."

"That sounds... Fine?"

The more she thinks about this, the better this crazy idea sounds. The fox woman who's immune to cold is going to survive the frost, and even if she thinks in strange ways, don't you want to be close to that if you want a chance yourself?

"Uh, some ideas for quick cash engineering projects in escalating order of ambition- Fixing broken clocks, laundry or sewing devices, fans or ventilators, light industrial machines if anyone will listen to you about it, I'm talking conveyor belts or stationary saws or lathes, I'm not sure how far and fast I can push things... Something inane for rich people but I have no idea what rich people even do... Cameras...? Automata in general can be made to do one or two simple tasks forever, like cutting timbers or moving heavy things... Refrigeration is a fascinating concept but it's kind of the opposite of what we want, and even if you run a heat pump in reverse I don't think it's worth all the extra effort. There's this really interesting effect called 'trompe' that had me thinking about unconventional sources of power, it's basically a way of turning the motion of a river into compressed air. They're making articulated prosthetics these days, what if you did that with things like big saws or crowbars? I don't know as much about chemical engineering but maybe cooking up better insulation is possible, reduce the amount of heat we'd need. For fuel there's all sorts of things that burn, if nothing else there's plenty of forests and charcoaling isn't that complicated, an automaton sawmill would be fairly spectacular, there's lots of forest outside of town..."

"Great.

...Wait, automata run forever? Does each one have its own steam core? Are prosthetics powered by the person using them, or do they have a steam core too, or something else?"

"Automata need fuel, but you can have one of their steps be 'go to the coal bunker and get some coal!' The prosthetics have to be powered, yes, the simple ones with muscle power. Straps and levers attached to other parts of the body, like the legs for a prosthetic arm. There's electric ones but those are heavy, there's pneumatic ones you hook up to an overhead line, there's a lot of ways to do it."

"Ah. Hm. Could Nicola Tesla make an automaton that doesn't need fuel? Could you, someday?"

"...No? No. Everything needs energy. I mean, there might be some exotic fuel source that is constantly recharging, so it doesn't need fuelling... Solar, maybe..."

"Back up. I have at least one misunderstanding. What is a steam core? How are they made? As far as you know, is there a religious aspect to any part of engineering? Are there any engineering techniques which you have heard of, which can be taught to others, but which are kept secret?"

"So- Hrm, I don't have my notebook to sketch with but a steam core is a metal device about the size of a wagon and rather heavier. It contains a miniature furnace and electric and clockwork systems that can do simple mathematics. It has eight powerful actuators, sixteen inputs for sensors, and a variable but large number of memory rotors, and rows of switches and wire plugs. And a clock. The sensors tick signals on and off, and the switches and plugs do things like add two numbers, or check if one number is bigger than another. The memory rotors can be set to a number, one through six, and then read that number back later. Put it all together, if you line up the instructions right, you have a sort of extremely simple mind that follows simple instructions... As long as the sensors give the right numbers, and the memory rotors don't slip, and the machines attached to the actuators give the right result, and none of the switches got disconnected or damaged, and you didn't make a mistake setting it up. You usually want someone minding it in case it goes off the rails?"

"All of it, as far as I know, is mundane. Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace partnered to develop the first Steam Cores, called Analytical Engines at the time, but that was decades ago and eventually they were understood enough that that could be made in a factory. There, each person or machine has one very simple job that they learn to do quickly and efficiently. One person takes bits of metal and uses a heavy press to flatten them out, then passes the discs on. Next person cuts a small hole near the side. Next person puts a bolt into that hole and attaches two pieces together. And so on. Engineers design and oversee the process, but ordinary people or dumb machines can do each individual step. I think there is a major steam core factory in Chicago, across the ocean, and one in London, capital of England. I recall reading a newspaper article saying that it produced over three dozen steam cores per day."

"I don't think any of it's religious? People curse or hit their machines, or swear they're malicious or only like one operator or won't work if you don't ask nicely, but that's superstition, not religion. I mean, I never managed to explain to the other orphans how I made the pressure cooker and they jokingly call it witchcraft... It didn't feel like magic or religious fervor, though? Even if I don't precisely recall the exact steps I took? You don't need to bless your engines with holy oil or have a priest say benedictions over them or anything. But maybe it does help. As for secret techniques, like, yes? They call it trade secrets- Something someone came up with that they want to earn money off without revealing how it works to everyone else."

"-My thing might be different. Might. I can't explain it and if you have magic too, maybe magic is a thing now, just something we don't understand. I think engineering as practiced by most people involves more hard work. Making me kind of a poser after all. Maybe better to call the other thing, where I get flashes of insight, uhhhh, sparkiness or something."

"Hm, I would like to try mind-reading a steam core, but it's not urgent."

If steam cores have souls, and they're all Neutral because they just sit in factories all day, Pharasma must be annoyed. If this universe is Hers.

"How old are the most important trade secrets?

Do sparky people tend to have similar personalities, politics, or interests? Are they as dismissive of the Church as you are?"

If superstition is widespread, that would give cover for genuine religious practice, so the clerics of the heretical god of sparkiness, or other gods concerned with engineering, can hide from the inquisition.