"-Hello again, Kleobis. I'm not. Special occasion. For Stalwart, hear hear. And for seeing the bitter truth that underlies all society. Seems like a drinking occasion."

"Best keep an eye out, or next you'll be feeling some bitter truth of biology."

"...It probably won't help," he says more quietly, "You'll still be morose, and now with a hangover."

She glares, then shuts her eyes and sighs through her nose.

"The alternative is what, exactly? Moaning impotently about how it's not fair? This only reinforces my desires to not build real weapons, if I can help it."

He shrugs. "Point. Keeping busy often helps. Or thinking of what you can do. People you'll protect, people you'll help. Any of your fancy iron tricks that would help farmers plow fields full of debris?"

"I can build tractors. I can build one tractor. Just... Need a fuel source to power them. Forge magic. I haven't gotten much of anywhere with it so far. Or. Tools to make the tools to make the tools. Gonna do wells, and thread spinners..."

"Like iron oxen? Could be a great help. And nice deep wells keep lean seasons away, which I think they'll need. Well, Kyros provides, in need, but he doesn't always provide enough for comfort, and I imagine they'll like not having to take the dole, a proud lot like Stalwart."

He takes a drink of beer. It doesn't get him drunk like it did before he joined up, but it's decent beer all the same.

"Can Kyros provide where Edicts and war fall, though? Hmph. The real point is to make everything, every craft and productive human activity- Faster, or better, or less tedious. It's- I wish I could show people. The docks of Bristol. A general store holding plentiful food from a dozen nations the size of the Tiers. Gas lamps along King's Square. The Generators. County Fair..."

"Not during the war, but fortune willing that's done in Stalwart. It's always a rich season somewhere in the Empire. Not saying anyone'd turn down some help making it everywhere, though. Your home sounds like a magnificent place."

"It was." And it's utterly gone, now. Crushed under the frost. "Sometimes it feels like the biggest thing keeping me moving is spite at the world for being so... Cruel, unjust."

Damn, he thought that was helping. Welp. "Ah. That... that, I don't know." He puts a hand on her shoulder. "But cruelty and justice can be things we bring to the world, right? Hopefully more the latter than the former."

"Yeah, maybe. Can't stop trying. It's like I told Sirin. Not trying would be intolerable.

I should go try and fail to sleep, if I'm going to be getting back to work tomorrow."

"Sleep's important. Failing at it, less so. Better to wear yourself out first; try finding the training field and spending a while on spear drills or beating a dummy into stuffing."

"Sure. I'd build something if I had my workshop here and it wouldn't be liable to end up wild, in this mood."

She will eat some more roasted meat first, though.

Well, he doesn't think he made things worse... Not as helpful as he'd hoped, though.

He'll just eat quietly himself, for now.

See, the thing is that she just doesn't feel connected to this place. To these people. Stalwart may as well be Zimbabwe. Vendrien's Well may as well be freaking Suzhou or some other random Chinese port. Well, a bit less so now, in the latter case, that she's starting to know people. The magic is creepy, and the people aren't savages, but it's still just so... Stupid, barren, empty. Like toys in a storybook. The people celebrating Stalwart's renewal? She doesn't get it, she doesn't feel it the way they do. Everything is equally terrible, and she's an outsider, meddling. And she's pretty sure they can tell.

She smiles thinly and apologizes for bothering him on a day of celebration after she finishes, and makes for a training field to exhaust herself going through forms, and the like.

And then, sleep. And then, presumably, walking for the Ocean Spire, after a quick look at the cleanup progress, at least.

There's still cleanup to be done, but that's true everywhere. The rubble from the blasted walls is mostly gone, the paths are looking more like roads again nearby, the metal-clad lean-tos are being replaced with proper canvas tents that don't rattle...

Nothing calls out for her attention. so yeah, she'll probably go.

Kleobis will see her and catch up, if she does.

She is in a better mood today! Somewhat, at least. She appreciates the escort, she wouldn't count on getting herself out of trouble yet. Tallboy needs a bit more attention in the morning- She says she's already noticed a dozen and more things to fix and improve- And then she can thump at a walking pace towards the Ocean Spire to see if they kept up the debris cutting without her. It's only been... Actually, most of a week at this point?

Four since Iron Hearth, and six more since she left the Mountain Spire. Probably another two to where the Ocean Spire ought to open out, from here.

Travel is something she's going to have to make all effort to improve... Walking along silently is Boring.

"Would you like to talk about anything, Kleobis? Or just march?"

"Nothing that needs saying, but I'd welcome some conversation. Bet it'll be more cheerful than idle thoughts."

"Can you tell me some... History? Folk stories? Everyday life, maybe? I don't know, I feel like I don't really know the Tiers, and won't for a long time."

"Well, I was born in the North, like all of us, but I've heard a few tales. They say the Tiers were settled six centuries ago, by fisherfolk who sailed west from the Eastern Peninsula and kept going until they found unsettled land. They call them the Five Wives and Seven Husbands, and I'm not sure if Occulted Jade counts as one of the five..."

He can keep going for a while.

It's better than silence for sure. For her part she gives tales of factories and complains about the Church of England and tries to describe what a Steam Core does.

She pivots into asking what the North is like, later.

"Oh, where to start? Down here everything's about the sea, but there's almost none of that at home. Herders and farmers, and plows rather than hoes, maybe a little fishing along the coast but only between planting and harvest. Men own most of the land and property; that's been changing under Kyros, but slowly. In the legion families, everyone keeps very close track of lineage and trains, hoping to qualify to follow their family in Ashe's service. I think the rest of the Northern Empire cares, too, but the legion's people - mostly interact with each other. Keeping the traditions alive, for ourselves and our neighbors..."