"I'm guessing the ships aren't using the currents, either?"

"No, heat can be converted to force to motion. Her majesty's ship Meteor could run at twenty knots. I can build steam engines. Though probably only with fairly ruinous amounts of metal..."

Eb whistles. "I've hit twelve with a lateen rigging with fair wind, but there were three of us Tidecasters speeding its way and we were trying to set a record."

"Airships have almost no range - a hundred miles, two hundred one way - but I've seen one go fifty, across a small bay. Mail ship."

"Damn. I have no idea what an airship - like an artificial bird? - would look like, but, still, damn."

"I can sketch it later, maybe."

Sheeeee should keep things back more, keep to generalities until- Some sort of promise or place is assured. Knowledge is valuable. Even if it's nice to teach and be excited about things.

These guys are barely in the Iron Age, there's not going to be much they'll be able to replicate without help. But, you know, the printing press might be doable, so fair to be a little worried.

In any case, they're in sight of the town.

Eb's been here fairly recently and knows a good place - tavern with a back room.

So soon they can be sitting down at a table, with bread, cheese, and weak beer.

(She frowns unhappily at the beer and mutters something about filters, but will drink it.)

"So I suppose we'll need some formalization about how I'm to work with you all, if you'll have me."

"Yes. The two main options I see are swearing to my service with some promises made on my side beforehand, and agreeing to an alliance of some kind.
The drawback of the first is that by Kyros's Law, it is difficult to hold me to my word.
The drawback of the second is that, not being an indirect vassal of Kyros, you receive no protection from the law at all."

"...If you become my enemy, nowhere Kyros touches is safe for me. I suppose breaking your word is different than pronouncing something horrible to me, for your reputation..."

"Fatebinders usually hold to their word pretty strictly, though many are known to parse the letter of the promises pretty finely. I think Tunon would enforce honesty on them if he could. For whatever comfort that offers."

"I was his enemy until he took the Spire, and knelt to beg for my life. My expectations were very low, Peacebinder or not. But he's treated me like an ally, not a servant. For whatever that's worth."

Verse snorts and turns her head away.

"I have tried to behave, since the beginning of the Conquest, as someone Tiersmen could approach and be dealt with fairly, and someone who would make their lives better for my involvement, if I could. You are both much more dangerous and much more useful than they."

"To betray you more than them would be foolish."

"...Boys all know how to say such nice things, but don't give them what they want unless put a ring on your finger," she sing-songs.

And then shakes her head. "No, just no. The safety of being valuable is an unnerving sort of safety, isn't it? I'll kill myself before being made to work at swordpoint, by the way. What would swearing to your service consist of? What sorts of trouble are likely to find me if I don't?"

Verse tries to smother a laugh, but doesn't quite succeed. It doesn't seem like it's at Walta, oddly. Maybe at the Fatebinder.

"I'm not cut out for this negotiation shit, Kohl. I think I'll just wait outside." She stands up and leaves without waiting for acknowledgement.

Kohl blinks. "What was that about? Never mind."

"The main problem would be the Scarlet Chorus. They consider me their enemy in this civil war that's going - Verse excepted - and aren't good at keeping their people in line even when they're theoretically allies - which is part of why we have a civil war. If I claimed you as an ally and helped the Disfavored more formally than I have been, I could keep them off. Well, as long as you were around here and not in the Blade Grave where they've set up their main camp. If the Chorus got wind that you were my ally but not formally a vassal of Kyros, they'd try to kill or capture you to spite me even if they didn't understand your potential. And the Archon of Secrets should be assumed to understand... most things."

"Suicide is preferable to being alone in a room with the Voices of Nerat. In the event that comes up."

That gets a pair of...

...emphatic nods.

"If you're my vassal, that gets you Kyros's Peace, and I won't claim there's no chance of Nerat trying to poach you but it's a much-reduced risk."

"Of course, that also makes you a subject of Kyros. Which you may not want yourself to be."

"...I may even agree with that."

...???

Well, not her problem. Her problem is: Being a vassal of Kohl rubs the smoldering (not burning, but still there) spirit of Liberty in her heart the wrong way. And it may or may not give him and Kyros some sort of weird magic power over her that merely acknowledging that they are powerful does not. And she needs to remain fucking calm and take this seriously because this is, the rest of her life here, everything's on the line.

"I wasn't planning to go sight-seeing, and I very much want to buy armor, a shield, whatever protective talismans there are... Make some sort of escape system... I'll probably need to sleep on it, though I do understand that not choosing is also a choice. Being sworn to you, a vassal, pretty much involves swearing to do whatever you say, at least formally speaking, no matter the practical reality?"

"Right, yes, I meant to say. Yes, formally speaking it does. It would also put you under Tunon, Archon of Justice, though many people say that there's nothing left under his mask but Kyros's Law, interpreted as literally as possible, and if that's not strictly true it's pretty close. I'd be willing to commit to promising an escape clause - say, that I swear that if you ever want to leave, you promise not to make weapons or teach others to, and then you go free and I never give you another order or try to compel you unless and until you break that promise."

"That would be very reassuring. Another thing I would want is a portion of materials or money for my own use, in addition to building things for you. And if I am merely an ally at first, nothing stops me swearing to you later, no?"

"I could easily agree to that. Half and half, perhaps. But before we work out details, there is another question, which for unfamiliar reasons is at least as important. How personally visible do you want to be?"

"If you let your devices travel but the woman behind them is anonymous, you are safer. But if you take credit for them, you are likely an Archon."