"...Talk to the Sages up in the library, they're magic specialists but if they don't know, they'll have a friend who does who will gladly visit you and talk your ear off. I don't think there's strong political reasons to favor Stalwart over Vendrien's Well. Prefer those two, though, southern Haven is possible, but it's in Tunon's custody directly rather than through me. If you were made officially Forge-Bound, you'd be permitted to practice your craft within Tunon's jurisdiction, but also in theory subject to his orders. So Haven isn't ideal."

"I'll be sure to do so. Oh, here..."

She goes to a worktable on one of the walls.

"Any of this look useful?"

A pair of binoculars. A handheld ropehook launcher. A cylinder labeled 'water filter'. Another cylinder labeled 'torch'. A cone shaped thing labeled 'loudspeaker'. A small bottle, labeled 'strong acid'.

He'll pick up the binoculars and torch and experiment. "...Yes, these could definitely be very useful. My group is usually fine for cleaning water with sigils, but if that filter is easy to make in quantity that seems promising for villagers."

"Not so easy, there's a good bit of the Spark in it since I was so tired of beer." She shrugs. "The initial plan for villagers is wells, watermills, thread spinners, maybe some iron and bronze tools. Torch will last a good long while on its own, but if it does run out - See how the bottom here is hexagonal? Twisting that back and forth quite firmly will give it a kick." She plucks a foot-long bronze wrench off the tool-shelf. "You can use this for it. Seemed better than attaching a huge crank to it..."

"Good wells should help nearly as much in any case. You're sure you don't want these? I don't expect to use the little lantern that often."

"I make things. Lots of things. That's my legend- Or what I want it to be. Though I'm still not so great at lenses, and the Forge-Bound did the hard part of those," she nods at the binoculars. "Show it off, maybe. Gift it to someone who will need it, with my name."

He smiles. "Good strategy. Actually, I think Fatebinder Rhogalus might appreciate this," he says, taking the loudspeaker and trying it out. "...Yes, this would do him some good."

"Yeah, hence the subtle coat-of-arms, as it were. Same charging mechanism."

She taps the hexagonal bottom. There's her sign, the fist with lightning, surrounded by part of a gear, faintly embossed.

"It's a good symbol. I'll be sure they know it's yours."

"Aye. ...To peace and prosperity and safe travels?"

"Indeed. See you in a few fists."

Back to work.

(She wants to make herself nice quarters, but cannot really justify that when she's still in the ramping-up phase. Limited indulgences only. Music and good food and occasional drinks at the Rest. She sings old nursery rhymes in her workshop, sometimes, when she's just barely on the edge of a fugue, focused and intent but not quite blind to the world. She's getting better at staying halfway there.)

She does keep up the spear training, though. And takes occasional breaks to chat about the other forge-bound's projects and try to get a hang of magic, which still resists her. Or maybe she's just not trying hard enough. Eventually, her tools are built up enough that they're no longer really the limiting factor... So, mining machines and smeltry equipment, to further her own productive capacity, or a well-digger, for the farmers? And perhaps something for that horrible set of switchbacks she had to pass, to encourage trade.

...It's time to actually start helping.

Another fist and three days. The Well Digger starts taking shape as her next major project, as a towering metal thing some fifteen, twenty feet long all bronze and iron and cables. It requires coal or a skilled Sigil of Fire user plus, somewhat ironically, plenty of water. The well lining will be easiest if it's concrete, which means she needs a whole lot of limestone- She can make it fill in automatically, smooth on the upper part and porous as soon as you hit water.

Anywhere that could use a well? And would any of the people here in the Cross be interested in learning technician work? Not quite forge-bound, not quite engineer. Using the machines to some level of competence, rather than designing or fixing them. To see if they're easy enough for anyone to learn to use, and help her get more work done than one pair of hands grasping one tool at a time.

Plenty of places could use a well. If she just wants a test run, they could use another one by Ascension Hall inside the citadel, actually - there were two, one in the inner ring and the other in the courtyard, but the courtyard one was badly damaged in the Conquest and there's a good spot to re-dig it.

In the Crossing proper, there's not terribly high unemployment - it was a trading town before and trade is booming. And there aren't many Forge-Bound recruits who wash out badly enough to want to abandon the craft. But by the Ascension Hall Citadel - since the teleporters made it a bridge for trade, it's effectively becoming a third district of Lethian's Crossing; people have started calling it the Mountain Crossing - a lot of displaced people from Vendrien's Well and elsewhere in the Tiers have been accumulating, for protection and Kyros's dole. There'll be a couple dozen interested people, mostly young.

She'll put out the call in the Mountain Crossing- Technician work, paid out generously in bronze. The idea is that they'd be trained to use some of her simple tools. It'd be moving and carrying things, using hazardous-to-reckless-idiots tools, learning and remembering instructions and following them without getting lazy or careless. Ability to read is a bonus. Anyone interested should come by her workshop in the morning in two days.

And then- She'll dig a well inside Ascension Hall's citadel. It's a loud process, the gleaming metal tower auguring down and pulling up dirt, and then lowering down weird ring-shaped rocks with iron cables, ring-shaped rocks which she has apparently made in her workshop out of liquid stone. She makes a show of it whenever she doesn't have to babysit the machine, chatting with onlookers. Does anybody think they could do this? Look how simple it is, just pull this lever and lower it down!

Many people are intimidated, but some (mostly young, as expected) are intrigued. What will happen if they use it wrong? One of them has heard that Forge-Bound explode if they lose their focus and is excited to share this gruesome factoid with everyone else listening.

Many things, if they use them wrong, they will just break and the worst danger is making her cross. Or maybe drop a heavy piece of metal on their foot by accident, if they don't wear the steel-toed boots she's making. Some things are more dangerous if you don't know how to use them- Blades could go flying, or fingers get crushed if they play around carelessly, or maybe worse if they touch things they don't understand- This is why slow and steady is important for technicians. It's not a race, and haste makes waste. If you're not sure what you're doing, she wants you to stop and get someone who does. Better lose a day's work than a finger.

This is less terrifying than exploding though some of them are quietly dubious that magic is ever that polite. She has some recruits.

She gives a lecture on the tools. (Don't touch that, that, that, that, or that until she gives more specific lectures for them). She gives them a workbench and a pile of pieces and a series of sketches! Their trial run is to take a table saw apart, clean it and replace the worn parts, and put it back together. (She demonstrates undoing latches and bolts, and how to check that it's definitely unpowered and lifeless at the moment.)

She'll be available nearby. Remember, slow and steady, ask questions even if they sound stupid, this is learning time.

(She's observing for leadership potential and learning potential.)

"...Okay, this bit's sharp, is anything else sharp..."

"...Are you sure you sent it to sleep, I swear it twitched when I touched it..."

"...Oi, poke less, look more. I don't want to see what happens if you leave it half-dead and wake it up."

There are minor injuries - the most severe is a superficial but bloody finger cut, not from the saw but from the leavings being cleaned out. They clearly have a lot of misconceptions, but about a third of them seem to be adapting well. One muscular boy who has a well-maintained blade in a sheath and a girl who looks healthier than the others seem to be the most successful at getting others to stop stepping on each other's toes and coordinate, of the ones who are adapting.

She hovers around and mostly doesn't interfere- Remembering what Old Bear said about running a union... Delegation is key.

She pulls the two obvious leaders aside a bit, giving everyone else a break for lunch (and a few coins apiece for coming and trying)

"I think you two have potential. Organizing is harder than just doing what you're told. What's your names?"

"Nasim, ma'am," says the boy, "I was trying, happy to hear it was working."

The girl says, "Mures Jenica, Archon. But just Jenica is fine."

"Nasim, Jenica." She nods firmly. "Archon? Not quite yet, I think, but thank you. I'm definitely headed in that direction. And Archons mean something- I want to mean wonder, awe, but also teaching, and plenty. It's why I'm going to dig wells for people. And why I want to teach others. Much of what I know... Doesn't need to be the hands of an Archon. What's the point if it's just me in a lonely castle, scheming away with iron and lightning? No, I intend to build a school, perhaps in Stalwart, perhaps in the Mountain Crossing or here. Eventually I mean to build a city, dedicated to iron and machines. You don't have to commit for good or be in a tearing hurry about it, but if you'll have me, I'd like to hire you both. Ideally, you'll learn how steam and electricity work, how machine tools work, how to run a workshop, how to take what I can give you and make it work, and thus become something like engineers yourselves. That you'll make tools by the dozen, or dig wells for villages near and far, or pound new roads into the landscape like Earthshakers, or tear a mountain of iron from the earth."

"If you say so, Engineer, ma'am," says Jenica, "but people are calling you that already." Nasim nods in agreement.

"I'm in, ma'am," Nasim says first, "I'd been thinking an army, but this seems better."

"I as well," says Jenica, "I can't promise my family won't call me away, but I don't think they will, and this is worthy work."

Family... It stings her to think about.

"If they do, I'd say to go. Family is... Important."

Deep breath.

"Right. So, I'd say go enjoy a lunch and this afternoon we'll keep the most promising of the rest and work out how to make a whole lot of wheelbarrows... Sound good?"

"Eh, I don't really like those cousins anyway. Mom's not going to ask, just... some other Mures. Anyway, seems like a good plan."

"We'll see what we can do."