"Yeah, that's how the Royal Engineers did it. Three inch hole, straight down fifty or a hundred feet. Specialized machine for it and everything."

"Sounds useful. ...If we had a few of those available, I suspect we could train the Forge-Bound prospectors to have better range, too. At a certain point, your senses just aren't sharp enough without the ability to test it against the land as it actually is."

"It can go on the list. Upper end of middle. The top is mostly tools I'm sorely missing."

She puts words to action, fetching out her increasingly tattered and full white paper notebook and making a careful entry.

"Have you checked with the masters of the forge - and the one up above - for all those? Having seen some of your handiwork, some of them have been trying to work out how to replicate pieces. No one made any progress on the ball - 'Steam Core', I think you said? - but on the gears and levers, some, I think."

"I probably should! I don't want to take more than I give, though."

"Like, in terms of saving their time versus taking some of it for your own projects? I really don't think you have to worry about that, now or any time soon. New ideas, new possibilities, are worth as much as well-done crafts. You're one of us, ask anyone; if you wanted to be named a Master of the guild, I'm pretty sure all you'd have to do is pick a title and ask for it."

"I'll have to go ask for help with more of it, then! The sooner I have something like a workshop from home, the better."

"And I think we're mostly pretty excited to see that workshop ourselves. You see why I'm not worried?"

"Come one, come all! Behold the wonders of... The electric lathe!"

"Well, I know what a lathe is, but unless you just turn wood faster, I think we'll still be looking in to see what you can do with it."

"No, it looks like I'll have to get a little more ambitious than that. Though steam cores can cut complex shapes all by themselves... If there's something where turning works but stamp presses won't... Hmm... I should finish eating before zoning out on this."

"Indeed, we should." Well, he's fine, but he's been the artist shepherd a lot, since he only gets distracted on the road, and this way works better.

She thanks him again and eats.

She has a message sent off to Kohl that she doesn't want to lose weeks of progress to travel, when she could be building things- Things that might save lives, even.

She's making most of the supply of armor and shields the Forge-Bound have orders for at this point, but still reluctant to construct weapons. She spars with Magnetism and a practice spear. She makes a whole lot of tools, most of which are sparky in some way. Drafting machine. Fancy lathes. Induction heaters for clean metalworking. A modification to the water-jet cutter that frees her larger, more complex engine for other uses. A thread-cutter, that will automatically engrave precise spiraling patterns on metal rods and tubes. A few more exotic pieces. She might need a second workshop... Or to dig out a basement. 

The first draft of a mining device, which ends up being a drill-arm attachment for Tallboy after a minor fugue. (Tallboy has not been moving around since she came back, and has been accumulating little modifications.) She turns out a steady stream of little curiosities between larger projects- Shiny brass nail clippers, a wheelbarrow, a little desk fan. She attempts to describe the process to make ice cream to the proprietor of the Rest.

They stop in on the way north. Kohl is pretty cheerful, and looks it - the peace went through smoothly, in the end.

He looks in on her new workshop (a building on the west edge of the Crossing had a good place to dig out a basement and still have an upper floor, with space to have her own living space if she hasn't moved out of the barracks yet). The new purpose-made devices have started to solidly look obviously different from a forge.

At a pause in her work, he says "You know, I think I'm starting to properly understand what 'industry' looks like now."

"I'm glad. But I'm just getting started. This is a maniac's workshop, not a factory. True industry are when things like this are in every hamlet, and one person can produce hundreds of times what they could by hand, and a great city of iron and glass rises above the land."

"You're making tools which are meant to make tools. Not just the basic hammer, but specialized tools for making specialized things. I... think I can extrapolate somewhat, to what that starts to create once you have momentum behind you. Tools that make tools that make tools, making them in vast quantity. I'm probably not picturing it properly, but I think I know what it is I'm trying to picture."

"Yeah... Yes, indeed. But - it's going to be slow to make it everywhere. I'm still going to need schools. More engineers, and technicians, who can use complicated machines, if not repair or design them... Getting closer to the point where I should start on that. I'd say my critical infrastructure is rapidly approaching complete. Long way since I built a charcoal pile and stone furnace in Essa's backyard."

"Well, I now have a large peaceful province with a decent literacy rate and a bunch of farmers who still can't farm. We can at minimum set up a trial school near the Ocean Spire you can consult with on curriculum, and set up more like if it's useful."

"Oh, Stalwart's that bad off? Maybe I should start there when my well-digger's up and going. Plows, spinners, water-mills... Hmm. That sounds like a good idea."

"Lots of topsoil got blown away, and lots of fields are full of metal that was blown into the soil. It's like clearing a new farm where you have to remove all the stones before you can start to plow. It's not entirely infertile, but it would be at least a generation before Stalwart grows enough food to be self-sufficient, even with the deaths and exodus the storm created, if things just developed organically. Obviously I don't intend to let that rest. We could introduce technology or magic to help them increase production, but retraining a lot of farmer's children as 'technicians' and relying on trade could be just as good."

"...Some of everything, I'd think. I'm planning to build a city. On the Matani, maybe, it's close to a large deposit of iron and coal. But perhaps somewhere in Stalwart is better."

"They are down a major city, where Ardent was. Worth checking for coal deposits, there and anywhere near the coast."

"I don't necessarily want to inherit an identity. But I know cities need reasons to exist, to really thrive... I'll look around once I have a decent fast vehicle, maybe. That's floating up to the top of the list given how much I hated walking. Well, 'walking'."

"Ardent got smashed into rubble by Cairn, back before he rebelled; there aren't any Ardentians anymore. And it wasn't legally part of Stalwart anyway, they seceded about fifty years back. It's just a good site for a city, river mouth, a road, and a great harbor - maybe less great since the rubble."

She nods firmly. "I'll have to see it in person. And my other location idea, and maybe a couple more. If there's political reasons to build Sparkton in Stalwart particularly, I'll very certainly weigh that. I don't suppose you know anyone who is an expert at how cities work?"