"Oh, trust me, I'm impressed.  Caged a star?  That's...I don't even know where to begin.  It's just that I can tell that your high towers don't do...

"The Spires were the work of some unknown people, who came long before Kyros did.  We don't know their secrets in the slightest.  But they are responsible for upwellings of magic that Archons are a pale imitation of.  And you would have noticed if yours did that."

"Or re-created the conditions that exist at the heart of a star here on Earth, at least. There's at least eleven fusion reactors in Cinci- One in each of the Projects, five at Serisse Municipal Power in the north side, one under the airport somewhere, and at least one for the Ohio Army. Common parlance has long accepted the more poetic form."

"...How do you know that?"

There is an irrepressible expression of genuine wonderment upon her face.

"...I mean, it's not exactly secret? The airport has one because of some disaster preparedness thing, and to generate hydrogen for the zeps, that takes industrial amounts of electricity. Serisse ads mention the power plant sometimes, 'providing Cincinnati with plentiful clean energy,' pah. The Projects are famous for how they're a failure of the self-contained arcology concept, and part of that self-containedness was their own fusion power. And of course the Army needs their own, reliable power sources, and soldiers gossip, and it's not like 'they have a power plant somewhere' is a key secret like the exact location of said power plant."

"No, no, not how do you know where these 'fusion reactors' are - how do you know what's inside a star?"

"Oh. I don't actually know how it was originally found out? I think they built particle accelerators and did experiments to understand the smallest pieces. Rocks fall, water's wet, hydrogen atoms fuse into helium and release energy under hot and dense enough conditions."

"Atoms are real?", she says with a breathless curiosity and surprisingly evident lack of guile.  "That's - I want to know all about it.  I know there were some theories, the Forge-Bound talked about it a lot, how you needed traces of certain essential things to make the best iron and you could get them from different sources but they'd still be the same thing - oh how I want to tell them everything, they'd be ecstatic to know so much more..."

...and then, suddenly, her eyes are watering with tears and she's tightly gripping anywhere that might be remotely convenient for a hand to clench, because she won't see them for years she thinks, not if she has to research teleportation all on her own and she will, there's so few people she can trust, and who knows how many of the people she cares about (Verse Barik Lantry Welby Calio Tunon Sirin Sniggler Dagos General Ashe Marshal Erenyos the Forge-Bound the people of Lethian's and Plainsgate -) will end up dead by hands that care not what they hurt so long as they obey - or by Kyros' dreadful orders -

"...There is a whole world that will only ever exist in my head, I think, and I find I cannot help but miss it."

"I won't say I Understand, but I think I empathize with missing friends. Too bad for you I'm not actually a great teacher. Textbooks, I'll be getting you though."

"I have been a very dedicated learner for most of my life," she says, pulling her mask of composure back on with a sweep of her hand, "from even those who wished to not teach me.  I imagine Bleden Mark would be vaguely annoyed I first started learning to hide from prying eyes by watching him. 

"If you're trying, I'm sure I'll manage.  And goodness knows I've learned a lot from books.  I certainly did not learn my style of drafting from any other Fatebinder."

She hasn't spent too much time contemplating it, but she believes that it actually derives mostly from formal logic.  Premises laid out, and followed to conclusions.

"I suppose I could start rambling about technology in general but I'm kind of paying attention to the road."

"Ah.  Yes, that would be important.  Perhaps you could ramble about medicine?  As you might suspect, I know very little of what electrification and mass manufacture has brought to the field.  There's also clearly a much more profound understanding of alchemy than was available to myself; we hardly have anything but pieces of leather to bite, for pain, though occasionally we had poppy-syrup.  ...I imagine you actually know why that works, if there's sufficient inquiry made here as to understand - not just understand but replicate - the interior of a star."

He can explain the biochemical pathways of opioids, tolerance, and addiction, sure. With a sidetrack into organic chemistry too.

"...Kyros preserve us, there are people living lives so intolerable - not even from physical causes - that they prefer to drug themselves insensate and risk death rather than further live them?"

It sounds absurdly like a prayer.  (Because it is.  Ophelia takes Kyros's Name seriously.  Not only because of the law, but because Kyros, Archon of Archons, Overlord of the Empire, is powerful enough to likely mean it when they say it is blasphemy to speak it falsely or with derogative intent.)

"A bad life definitely contributes but I don't know that I would classify addiction as an entirely psychological malady. There are real physical effects that make it hard to throw, and it's a form of entrenched habit. I also think there would be people like that where you're from if addictive drugs were cheaply and freely available."

"I'm sure, but - you should be living in abundance, not - in this deep suffering!  At least the Empire's suffering happens for reasons, even if the reasons are stupid ones like 'Kyros unleashed constant earthquakes on a breadbasket territory because Cairn decided to revolt while he was there'!  ...Okay, actually, 'Civilization is in the same stranglehold that the Bastard City was in before Tunon wrecked three districts and took over to massive popular acclaim' is a - reasonable - reason, but I'm still - baffled.  Where is freedom from hunger, hostility, and hopelessness?  Surely someone must be trying to achieve it!  You've the resources!"

"Europe still mostly has what most of the world did in the late 21st by all accounts. Climate change was the big one. And the resource wars when rare earth metals started running out. And America is worse off than many other places- I can't really say how we got here though. We're here. And I have sick and injured to help."

She nods.  Then she double-takes.  "Thought you closed up - or do you have a different job you're heading to, now?"

"Oh, no- More philosophically, I mean. I'm not delving into the hows and whys as much as the what nows."

"Ahhh.  I see."

...Are they actually back yet?  It's been a long enough day that she's ready to rest.

They're driving through Bordertown, not Badlands, at this point. The Mercy Crew's hill is up ahead. It's getting dark.

Doctor Anno pulls up and parks, then speaks briefly with a man who seems to be a night guard. Then gets back in and drives off without her.

The guard waves her to follow and then summarily points at one of the tents that were left behind.

"Thank you."

And she will sleep, and prepare for the coming day.

The first thing to bother her is an unfamiliar face depositing a cup of coffee and a bagel in her tent at 6 AM or so and saying, "Hey overnighting head. Shower's up, need you out in half an hour." And vanishing straight away.

Mrgh.  Well, she can do that.  She shall...investigate the shower, after she scarfs down the bagel.

And - hmm.  This is a strangely bitter brew of tchocolatl but it sure is.  She sets it aside to drink once it's cooled - there's no reason to drink it hot in this weather.

The shower is a set of plastic dividers hooked up to a big tank on a trailer. Looks like private changing areas and spigots dropping water from above. A sign says 'good hygiene saves lives'. Another says '3 minutes, cold: Go down to Chief Lane if you want it hot'. There's a push soap dispenser hanging on a board. A volunteer comes out, donning his blue uniform, as she approaches. He gives her an odd glance but doesn't say anything.