"I did want to see your factory. I'm just... being overcautious."

It's not far, they'll be up the Spire in a minute or two.

"-Ah. Hmm. Well. If this is a serious matter, that... Makes sense. I've never been the most socially observant, I suppose..."

When they're up the Spire, he shoos the couple people up there (sightseeing, mostly, it doesn't get old quick). "Down for an hour, thank you, I'd like to talk alone with the Engineer."

When they're safely teleported down, he walks over to the southern edge, toward where the storm used to be. He's - significantly more tense than he was a minute ago. Or, probably, showing the tension more.

"...You've found something dangerous."

He snorts. "Well, I found you. But this time, I found something secret. A town, hidden in a cave. If one of them hadn't sent me a bird, they could have gone five years without Kyros hearing a word of them, and she won't hear it from me. And they're extremely, extremely illegal, because they're in the lower levels of the Oldwalls. Mixed people - even Beastmen, and much calmer and... civilized than I've ever seen them. They really like fighting Bane, and they never run out, there-- that's not the important thing."

He takes a breath.

"Do you think, with months to work, as much direct research material as you could get your hands on, delivered safely, and the freedom to go sparking mad with no oversight at all, you could work out even a twentieth of what's going on in the Oldwalls well enough to replicate it?"

"Because that, even more than waking the Spires, is something that could bring down Kyros."

".........There can be no guarantees. However, I think nothing is beyond the veil of understanding. The nature of belief affecting reality... Of sigils and energies... Mmh. Someone built the oldwalls and spires. And it wasn't Archons alone who did the work- They're too big. The Oldwalls are everywhere. And something as complicated as these, you don't get with only one mastermind that knows what they're doing. Nikola Tesla, archon of lightning, understood his steam cores. But also Samuel Greens, shift supervisor for assembly hall two, knew what they were about as well, and I imagine Max Mustermann and Frida Engels under his employ also had some inkling of pieces of the whole.

Who carved the steps and passages? Who placed the mechanisms? Who designed the sigils? Who made the materials? It's impossible for one person, 'less they had an army of automata working to rule... My point being, I am mostly sure I can become an Oldwalls technician with that kind of time. Someone who can use the tools for their intended purpose, and has some simplified understanding of their deeper principles. I am less sure I can become an Oldwalls engineer. Someone who knows the principles behind the work well enough to turn it to completely new ends, or recreate it wholly somewhere else.

But there can be no guarantees."

"I won't tell you to abandon your projects and move and try it. I think we couldn't travel the last distance with the lorry - too visible. And, yes, no guarantees. It's your decision. This won't be the only chance, and may not even be the best one we get... But it's a hell of a chance."

He pauses, smiles apologetically.

"...I'm not sure if this came out of nowhere, from your perspective. There's some things I don't let surface even in trusted company."

"Now, see, this makes me want to have a very serious conversation about what to do... Without Kyros. Or after Kyros. I, perhaps, could, so the question turns to should. People are people after all, and I'm under no illusions that trying to rule wouldn't make me miserable and fail to prevent wars and murders and the like, if it were me. And if it were you..."

Does she actually trust Kohl? Really, really, bone-deep trust him? She does not. She barely knows him, by reputation, by a few deeds and conversations, and by sharing this singular mountainous secret. It's big, and it's a lot of evidence of his intentions, but still. Trust is fragile... Or something like that.

"...Also I want to at least prepare and sew things up first if I'm going to go live in and poke my finger into the Oldwalls."

"I've always hoped that a better Overlord could keep much of what Kyros offers and excise the worst. Most of the Archons are awful, but the system pushes them that way, and it doesn't need to. Some are like Ashe - he wants to be a good man, even when he isn't. Tunon cares about justice, and Kyros doesn't, really - he might turn. How many more are like them, I don't truly know. Even Edicts could be gifts rather than threats, I suspect. But... getting there would be difficult, even with great power. I doubt we could avoid war that covered five times the ground of the Tiers, or destruction just as wide by some other means. Is it foolish, to think we could do better on a foundation of destruction?"

"But Kyros killed my family twice over, both of them for little reason at all. So hubris or not, I still want to try."

"Hubris isn't... Gods, this must be what Oliver Cromwell felt like. -Famous general. Statesman too. Complicated figure, some damn him and others praise."

She sighs loudly.

"I still don't know the history here, but even mine - ours - is filled with so many terrible things, cruelty for cruelty's sake, cruelty for money's sake, for pride's, for control's, for... We banned slavery eventually, but went on ahead exploiting the colonies for cheap labor and materials. Farm work, mine work, the bad kind of factory work where you don't clean up the toxic dust because that'd slow down production. Same harms under a different label. I think it's foolish to try to do better on a foundation of destruction. Start as you meant to go on. People can learn. And if not, their children can."

"It feels like Kyros might be trying, with the Division of the Harvest, and Kyros's Peace. It's no excuse, but if one is trying perhaps it says something about the motivations. About whether it would be possible to present an alternative, and which way they'd jump if it happens. Or else it's just that- Kyros doesn't want to rule over a blasted wasteland. And the story, is important here. I feel like I'm already being affected by it, though it may also just be looking for signs that aren't there. But it's easier to flutter along the edge of the Spark now, it's easier to call up the lightning too. What end does Kyros see to her archonate, I wonder? Slowly supplanted by another as the world changes? Judged for her own crimes by the peacebinder? Torn down in a bloody war that destroys everything?"

"I know more history than is legal for anyone but a Fatebinder or an Archon to know. It's still not much. There were a lot of free magicians, before Kyros. Dangerous ones, not as bad as Edicts but approaching them. Keeping a firm rein on the Archons and sending Bleden Mark after anyone likely to become one outside the power structure most likely was the solution to that problem. Before that, and only Kyros if anyone knows how long before, were the Builders, the Older Realms who made the Oldwalls and Spires. The Beastwomen say they were around even in those days, and they're certainly much older than Kyros, but oral tradition is unreliable and my tribe's shaman had little to say about the Builders except that they weren't Beasts and that it was good that they built the walls."

"Stability, plenty, justice... all good, and Kyros provides. But I've seen that Kyros provides only because they protect her power. When the Law doesn't do what the Overlord wants, there is a decree that what the Overlord wants shall be done, and then it is. Or Bleden Mark arrives with a knife in the dark, which is why we're not in the dark. When ruining the plenty of Azure for a hundred generations or more was the easiest way to put down Cairn with an Edict... so much for plenty."

"I don't think Kyros sees an end to it at all. Change to less armies, maybe, but not less fear. And... whatever she meant to do originally, she's as affected by the story as anyone. Probably more. I doubt she still has the will to step away."

"And they're the one thing here that might give me an angle on... Home."

"If anything can bridge to another world, the Oldwalls and Spires are it. I'll happily help you with their problems, if so."