Yeaaaaah that is going to be... Tricky. When the Spark acts up.

"...I would actually like to be secret but it might be impossible. I get a bit drunk on the Spark. A bit mad. Manic, blind to consequences when I'm building the really good stuff. Seems to be just. How it works, if the stories about Tesla are true."

"I asked for advice, when I claimed the Spire. I learned several things, but in terms of advice, the crux was this: 'You have been thrust into the arena of the mighty. Your options are: a retreat into obscurity, suicide, or rising to the occasion.' I have chosen the third option."

"Sure. Words are easy."

"Know what you're choosing: Graven Ashe was once a skilled commander of a militia. Then he held back the Archon of War for months with great disadvantages, and could take away the fear and distraction from his soldiers. Then he killed Blood Echo, and now he takes on all the pain of his army. Tunon was once merely an excellent bureaucrat who saw that the ascendance of Kyros was inevitable and changed the local code of law to make assimilation easy; now it is unclear there is a human mind present at all. Even the Voices of Nerat was once a human being; now he's a monster of green fire and madness."

"Being an Archon means you are empowered by your reputation, and changed by it. This will happen to me. It will happen to you."

"Know what you're choosing."

Her head rests in her hands and grips her hair. She wants to tear it out. She wants to rage and scream and cry for everyone.

Stop feeling. Think.

The enormity of this place. They're practically tribal savages, in some ways, the Zulu waving sticks at each other. Not only is that deeply uncharitable, it's wrong. This is an empire. They have advanced, unknown technology. They have armies, and laws that are actually enforced. There is order. There is, apparently, peace- At least where the boot has stomped down enough.

...God, if you exist? FUCK YOU! DIE IN THE SUN, you murderer! Sadist! If paradise is not a lie, send the message more clearly! She's had it out for Yahweh, who doesn't exist, for years and years- And when she's really troubled, it always comes back up. God doesn't exist. At best, his churches are clinging to something that tries to make people work together, and often fails.

Stop- No, don't stop feeling. Acknowledge the feelings. Pick them apart. Yes, she is extremely angry. And sad. And anxious. Almost everyone she ever knew is dead and she's in a realm where she has no stability or power - yet, perhaps - so that's pretty understandable. She may as well be dead, too, as far as the evacuation's remnants are concerned.

Now, that's interesting. Is she dead? Sent to the Tiers as some sort of purgatory?

She's angry. She's sad. She's furious at the Church and their blind devotion, for all that they were trying their best. She's furious at corrupt nobles and ineffective Parliament, for all that having law and order is better than roving bandit hordes. Because that is what it feels like she's fallen into, here, a bunch of tribal warlords who are all going to murder each other inside of five years. She should have nothing to do with it. The first thing Kohl would have her build is weapons.

Is that what Kyros is doing? Imposing some sort of order through force of arms, for the benefit of all? Doubtful, not impossible. It's probably a dozen commingled things, plus the odd thing where your reputation changes you - not just because of what people expect affecting your thoughts and actions, but magically so, it seems? Thinking the best of everyone would be wishful thinking and moral platitude, lying to herself to feel better.

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Who said that? She doesn't remember exactly, just those words and the ring of truth to them. Cynical, but inescapable. Yes. Exactly. She doesn't want to be corrupted. She doesn't want to become the monster she sees in the clergy, in Kyros, in the East India Company. She- Can obviate power, and thus avoid becoming someone who has to do bad things.

Didn't she chafe so, in the orphanage? Just another young brat, another washer-woman fit to be married off on some farm somewhere or work grey dreary days in a factory? Didn't she escape that, in those heady days of the evacuation?

If everyone was kind and cooperative, the world would be a fine place indeed. But they're not. They're never going to be. It's not a good strategy to be selfless, to be harmless. Someone who isn't will step on you. So don't be harmless, don't be selfless. Take power, and be, what, better than the other option? Kill only murderers and rebels, to deter further murder and rebellion? There's a yawning pit of terror at that. She's screwed up before- Hurt people by mistake, or deliberately, and regretted it. Petty, stupid, childish things.

It's not, actually, different, to 'accidentally' burn her annoying bunkmate Jessie's sausage, than to happen to cause someone she's never heard of and will never meet to miss a meal. It feels different, but it shouldn't. Why should her own squeamishness stop her? It doesn't matter, not at the scales that are at play here. One person for a dozen would be worth it already, if it were just that, a sure trade. She... Has no idea how things will end up, but she can probably save a life or give some thousands one cumulative life's worth of ease and joy and peace, if she tries.

Not choosing is also a choice.

Put it like that, the answer is obvious.

"If you truly think I have the potential to become an archon, somehow, then I have a duty to do it, and be- The kind of archon I wish there were more of. And even if not, if all I can be is a mechanic of small renown, I have a duty to do that too."

He smiles, a big, honest smile like he gave Essa.

"Good answer."

"Which leaves the other question. As two future Archons. Two who are not much fond of Kyros."

"Archon sworn to Archon has precedent; Kyros gifted Nerat the Archon of Song, Bleden Mark is at Tunon's disposal, Cairn was placed in Ashe's command. But it is not a stable situation. So I suggest a second escape clause: when Kyros names you Archon, or you are proclaimed it by the people in the corners of every Tier, the vassal's oath is done and void."

"Hmmm."

She wants to cringe away from this, to flinch awkwardly at the notion of contemplating something she doesn't 'deserve', to grab at power and acclaim. But the choice has been made, hasn't it? It's no longer a question of 'deserve' but of - decisiveness versus dithering. And decisiveness wins.

If her reputation is to become her, in this strange land, she's going to need to deeply understand these people, and to be visible and public about it. She'll need a symbol- Will the engineer's sigil do well enough, or does she want something else? Some part of her responds: A flower. A lotus in profile, in red, perhaps? Fire, but beautiful, not destructive... Something to think about.

"...I want to build things. Walls, wealth, food, peace, tools, art and wonder. I want that to be my reputation, if I must have one. It's very easy to destroy, not so to build. Of course, the politics of things you still understand far better than I do at the moment, having lived your life here. It does seem unbalanced to have an archon sworn to an archon, though I think we're likely to always be - allies, people with similar outlook, unless things devolve beyond my imagination."

"Truth. I support you being a builder, as far as you can. Kyros is wise, and so will see you as a threat, if not an imminent one then within decades. So I think you will have to devote some of your time to implements of war. But not all, and being defined by how you help is an excellent way to begin."

"I also hope we will stay allies. Similar views on important things seems true; I suspect there are more disagreements hiding, though. You were raised somewhat poor among the very rich; I was raised by Beasts, and only later lettered and civilized. If we agree everywhere - that's shocking."

"It would make us weaker too. There's many parables about a parliament of nobles missing the obvious solution that one actually grounded maid or guard sees."

A nod. "So. Vassal for the near future, I find somewhere to set you up in Vendrien's Well, probably near the Spire. Half the materials and time creating is yours to use as you like; the other half I can direct you, though I may not fully exercise that. Likely I'll want to have you look at the wake of the Edicts and see if you have ideas to fix the damage - I'm intending to end the ones still ongoing, where I can, for reasons both selfish and selfless. Does that seem like a reasonable framework?"

"That seems reasonable! I think I will need to learn what I can about magic- Not how to use it necessarily, but what effects it tends to have, the same way I know a bit about weather and waves. What kinds of problems lie in the wake of Edicts? Famine?"

"In what was once Azure, the ground is fractured and fragmented into plateaus, gaps, and rickety bridges made to try to connect what were once opposite sides of a street, or a home. The Burning Library, once the Vellum Citadel, has a volcano piercing its walls, and lava pools breaking up its floors. Stalwart has been reduced to the Blade Grave, where the Edict of Storms swept away people and armor, wearing at stones and wrapping bronze and iron around each other in drifts. Though, yes, famine has generally followed."

"-Volcanoes are a surprisingly good source of energy! If a dangerous one. It's sounding like I'm going to need general industry. The tools to make the tools, so to speak."

"Eventually, I'm sure. I would not expect you to fix these things entirely - nor would anyone. I would bring them to your attention because I suspect some things will be surprising in their ease, given what you know, and perhaps some of them will be such."

"Well, I know how to make suspension bridges if that's what you're asking for Azure. Tunneling machinery perhaps, to make navigable paths through stone? I know the principles of making a good road and really, you can't go too far wrong building roads for people to use. Though a lot of our methods relied on vast quantities of cheap iron, bridges especially. I have no idea what is up with the Blade Grave from just that description."

"A storm strong enough to sweep up whole phalanxes into the air, buffet them around across miles, and bash them against the rocks. At least in its first moments. Since then, it's merely enough to knock down heavy men in full iron armor, except near the very center of the storm where it still blows as harshly as ever. At the center is the fortress where the last Regent of Stalwart hides. If he committed honorable suicide, it would end immediately. Needless to say, what is left of his populace hate him even more than his enemies."

She sighs. "Well, you can build in ways to withstand the wind, not that that helps at this point. 'Knock down a man in full armor' is still way too much. Kyros's Edicts are throwing around mind-boggling amounts of force, sheesh. Even if they're just redirecting something that was already there."

"Edicts are terrifyingly powerful. Kyros has many threats, but Edicts are the one which almost always works. Many experts believe even Kyros can't stop one once it starts; they all have end conditions, except the ones that barely last at all."

"...It would be an expense in the same realm as a city wall or a grand palace, but I can build a furnace that produces one hundred rings of iron. Per hour."

Lantry lets out an involuntary whistle.

"Make it so cheap bronze is only kept as a status symbol, at that point... What else can you speed up like that? Stone-quarrying? Felling forests? Horses?"

"Yes, yes, and yes, also weaving, though all my knowledge does sort of assume a large cadre of technically educated workers, a lot of costs to start it up, and access to cheap energy. Coal, rivers, something like that. And one imagines the people who benefit from expensive iron and the people who are threatened by rich competition will object, violently."

"The Forge-Bound had a monopoly on iron production, though you've clearly already broken that. And the Disfavored might not be pleased that other armies got iron as easily as them. The former I think could be bought off with new kinds of tools and crafts to master and wonders to build, they're artists at heart. The latter... well, either you're a fellow servant of Kyros and they will hold their tongues, or you're already their enemy and they have to be dealt with anyway. As for disliking rich competition... that's pretty well illegal. The interpretation of the Division of Harvest takes a very dim view on profiting off trade, especially profiting off keeping others poor."

"Well, I'm going to be swearing to a Fatebinder and future Archon, so he can deal with that sort of thing until I have more an idea what I'm doing, can't he?"