It's a good reminder that he should be careful. Calsa and Merta have been nice but he could still get hurt. Some of those guys are talking a bit like the woodsmen do. He knows that low tone of voice, sullen anger.

They're alone in here, right? He looks around to confirm it, then whispers:

"...I should try to heal her. If she wants. It worked on the mice. Made their paws less sore and helped fix one that got its tail pinched. Merta's a lot bigger than mice though."

(Siki is pacing and makes sporadic marks in the sand table, and Lin is lurking by the doorway, but they won't hear his whisper.)

"Oh, kiddo...

Do you need her to take the covering off? Can you try just a bit first?"

"It's good practice!" He says sharply. "I can try it with one point and then the other. I don't need it off. It just might be hard to tell if it helps a tiny bit or not at all if we don't. Also you should eat and drink before this kind of healing."

"I'll know."

"She ate half a burger and drank plenty..."

Gentle poke of Merta's upper arm or hand. Get-well-now.

She can feel the magic thrumming, then catching. It's not smart enough to go for the worst damage. Everything just gets a little bit better, and not just in her leg. Other aches ebb slightly too.

"What happened?" He whispers to Calsa.

"Mh. Yeah, that did something."

"Merta did a surprise inspection of the waterworks, and asked for a pump to be paused so she could talk to the crew. Somehow, the water was only partially shut off, and the fire was not chilled at all, and that made the water boil into steam, which filled the access corridors. Merta had just started down the ladder from the aqueduct. She hurried back and jumped in the water. The only other person hurt was a catfolk lighting the way for Merta; he got burned on the steam somehow but not as badly."

Siki has been listening to the rumors and might know more, but she doesn't call him over since she's not sure why Nico is whispering.

"...And healing is definitely a secret.

They're saying lots of angry things outside. Like whose fault it is and stuff." And how maybe Lin is going to do something... "It's making me think that turbines are really dangerous actually. Is there no way to make sure the water doesn't get into the fire at all? That's stupid!"

That's intense enough for Siki to notice.

"There are multiple sluice gates on the incoming water. One didn't close at all, one jammed partly open, and one was closed successfully a minute after the accident started.

Yes, it's stupid that we didn't test them more often and that there wasn't better ventilation in the access corridors. The sluice gates are made of stone, and were inspected by werewolves regularly, but that just confirmed that they were strong - I think the one jammed because it was slightly the wrong shape to slide closed. We should redesign them to not need to be precise.

The chains for the sluice gates are steel, which werewolves couldn't inspect. A wroth was here this deci-year, but I don't know what they looked at.

The emergency signal to the fire crew broke. That's made of stone. Maybe it was too fragile for someone heaving on it on a panic. Maybe it jammed the same way as the sluice gate."

"They'll calm down once everything is fixed and we know what happened."

"Why is there ANY way of water getting to fire at ALL, the shaft can go through rocks! Water should not be in the turbine part ever!"

"Hm. The point is for hot air to go up into the water to push it up into the aqueduct... But if you had the air go up and down and up again, the water might not be able to flow down into the turbine?

Add that to the list of things that seem obvious now."

He punches the table.

That's gotta hurt.

"What do you need to do to heal Merta further? If you're out for today...hm, how about you go with Siki and Lin to the water side of town and see if there's any solid information there?"

"...All I can do is wait, yeah. How much did it help?"

"A few spots hurt less now and a few spots started hurting, as I expect when skin grows back."

"I think you're going to be okay."

Sniff.

"I'll follow Siki today if you want to be alone now."

"Oh, no, kiddo, I just thought you might feel better if you had something to do. You can stay. How about doing some illusions to distract Merta?"

"...I can't think of anything. What's Lei like?"

"Lei? It's a country in the chartreuse. I've never been. I hear it's beautiful: a lot more plants, you can see for miles, animals, so many people of all species. And I guess it's dirty and windy and wet and you need to seal off the sun when you want to sleep.

...Wait, they were talking politics out there, weren't they? Lei is the origin of the Lei Empire. It has the same currency everywhere, but it's hard to travel unless you're rich enough to impress the local magistrate. Especially if you're a new or rare species. It's ruled by elves, so the laws are the same everywhere and haven't changed in hundreds of years. Some people like that, I guess."

"And what are Sota and the Allheart Alliance really like? My home was part of an empire. Nobody liked them."

"Sota is fine? Some of the Magistrates are better than others, but the bad ones get overthrown, sometimes without any violence at all. And you can leave. Even if the Magistrate is good, the don of your species might not be. Not a problem for you! I didn't fit in with the Argolake catfolk. It was fine, I wouldn't have gotten in trouble or anything, but I like how Kef doesn't have dons. All disputes go to the Magistrate. It doesn't even keep her that busy, all Magistrates should do it this way.

The Allheart Alliance... So, the Lei empire is at war with the Freedom Democracy, which doesn't want elves in power and treats them badly. The Allheart Alliance is neutral in the war, containing countries that let elves rule under various restrictions. Like in Sota, only one elph can work in the government for each 5000 people in the town."

"Also we sell weapons to both sides, so we get rich while they wear each other out."

"I- Um. Bandits war or hate war?"