"We'd probably have noticed you as well. Definitely can use some more wood. Dinner isn't too far off, though, I'll probably call you in in, call it a half hour?"

"Sure." Pause. "I'm actually really hungry because we've been on thin rations for a while now. Also I don't actually know the right way to fell a tree without a power saw. Or where your axe is. I have a lot of things in this belt but not a whole axe."

She points to the axe, which is right by the door on the hinge's side.

"There's a few small trees off to the left of the garden, skinnier than you. For those, you'll be fine if you cut a wide wedge in one side, and then stand so that you're facing the tree with the wedge by your right hand; it won't fall on you, only to your right or - if you give it too much force - to your left. I'll show you the trickier parts another day."

"Cool. Right, time to be distracted."

She will take the axe and go punch chop wood. She works on taking the branches apart from each other after felling one, until dinner's called.

It's weird to be too warm. But kind of nice.

Dinner will make that worse, because it's a hot stew. Speaking of - "Stew's ready! Looks like you did alright with the wood, thank you."

There are some wooden bowls and implements on the table inside, with the chairs she already saw.

"I miss my machines," she grouses. "Steam saw could have done that in five minutes. But ugh, can't be ungrateful now. That smells delicious!"

"Really? I almost miss them myself, and I don't even know what they look like."

The specific vegetables in the stew aren't immediately recognizable, but it looks like there's some potato-ish tubers and maybe beets, and a little meat, smells gamey, maybe venison.

"I might not be able to make you power tools, but I am planning a plow. I'd offer a Prosthetic if you needed one- I'm real good at those."

"A - replacement arm, made of iron? Wouldn't that be a sight to see. When you find your feet, you must send me a bird so I can see it."

"Making things has the potential to be so good. I might try to teach. And I don't know how birds work but I'll remember. I could draw it, maybe."

"Oh, no, I meant a message bird. Do your people not use pigeons?"

"I'm sure someone does, but not me. We had the post. A courier guild, sort of. And, uh, lightning semaphore."

"We have couriers, but for distance you want pigeons. Faster than cavalry, and much cheaper."

"Well, that requires a person to run the whole way. Efficiency was an important word for us..." Sigh. "I want to look for a few more magnetite nodes, then start the charcoal burn. Tomorrow maybe."

"I think mostly it's birds between major towns or cities, and then either local couriers from there to the farms outside or the neighborhoods. Or local birds, sometimes."

"If you find some large pieces you need help bringing back, come get me. And I'll definitely want to watch part of the process, maybe help out."

"I certainly shall, Essa."

Well, after a hearty meal she can do more work, can't she? Digging to set up a proper charcoal pit is going to be just as tedious and annoying as chopping down a tree by hand... But at least she's getting sparky feelings about it, telling her to make the embankments in slightly different shapes or to pack it in this way, which makes time seem to pass faster.

 She can! It's getting late, but she has a lamp.

She does! She'll get the pit all prepared!

...And then debate with herself over setting the fire overnight, but she still has to stack wood and close it, and working late into the night is a recipe for injuries.

She goes and sleeps, fitfully, far too warm and with no comforting background buzz of machinery or groaning pipes to lull the senses.

In the morning she asks about Fatebinder Kohl- Are fatebinders like a judge, administering the law and resolving disputes? Are they magic, like archons, with the literal power to bind fates?

"Judges, not magic, though they may know their sigils. I think the 'fate' part is that there is no appeal. All judgments are final, and escaping a judgment is very hard."

"And reporting to Kyros, with the ability to judge even Archons, with caveats and restrictions or in specific domains in some way that is surely no less arcane than Parliament but I wouldn't understand without seeing it in action...?"

"They report to Tunon the Judicator, Archon of Justice; they say he's Kyros's most trusted vassal. He's been holding court in the Bastard City for four years now, since just after the Conquest of the Tiers started. You'd want to ask a Sage for the edge cases, or an actual Fatebinder, but I think they have the right to judge anything Tunon could. Even between Archons, in theory. In practice I expect a judgment delivered on an Archon gets sent back to Tunon for confirmation. Unless it's an Edict and just needs to be delivered, not decided. Then a Fatebinder is the mouthpiece."

"...Well, nothing I can do about that from here, is there? I'm hardly qualified to navigate backstabbery politics and rally armies. Better to get as much iron as I can and make something useful."

"Probably, though I should run through the basic laws with you some time before you leave. There aren't many, but they are, as I understand it, very strict."

"May as well do that now. I want to start the charcoal burn today and then go find more useful rocks... I'll think it over while working on the batch of steel."

"Sure. There are nine laws, as I understand them. The first and most important is Kyros's Peace: Everyone who serves Kyros and his hierarchy is guaranteed safety from violence and starvation. Doing violence to someone protected by the Peace is a death sentence. Then there's the Right of Destruction: The Overlord, and only the Overlord, may kill his subjects. He may delegate this to subordinates, mostly the Archons, and they also may delegate it. Suicide is illegal, though I don't know what the punishment is. Maybe they kill your family."