"I can achieve hotter, but at the expense of precision. During temperature tests, I held fire at a temperature of over 3000°C for 60 seconds. During endurance tests, I held fire at a temperature of over 2300°C for four hours, being provided mana by consuming electricity.

I was created by Alphazon at their Mars base, probably to use me as a weapon. I escaped, and my escape also destroyed the base and killed many if not everyone inside. I ran away, traveling towards Earth, because I had heard that there were other witches there. I was intercepted by Madam Einodia and told to come to Lunabella."

"That does seem like a good way to get the suits upset. Have they attacked you thus far? How did that go?"

"Yes, Lady Saffron. I was traveling to Arcadia to visit, but was intercepted by agents coming from a portal. I was attacked with Psychotics, which caused me to lose control of my limbs, and they used jamming commands to disable my implants and nanites, as well as darts. I believe the darts contained substances meant to disable me, but I am not sure." He really should have had the foresight to get his nanites to isolate the compounds used, but he was too panicked and wanted them to repair him immediately. Ugh.

"They also had very large spiders that tried to attack me. I repelled them using a combination of Windkeeping and Metallurgy. I used Windkeeping to deflect some of the darts, as well as use it in conjunction with Windkeeping to attack the spiders with lightning. I also used Windkeeping to cut them with wind razors. The Alphazon agents had metal implants inside them, which I controlled with Metallurgy to neutralize them. After this, they stopped attacking me, and I was able to return to Lunabella.

I moved around during the engagement and on the return trip using Windkeeping at first, and then Metallurgy afterward. I have fully recovered from the Psychotics attack and the darts, having had my nanites repair me. I have adjusted the security keys on my technology, but have not yet restructured it to truly hamper or prevent another cyber attack by Alphazon."

"Your first responsibility if I take you in is probably going to be to restructure that technology. Tell me, what affects on the surrounding Arcadia landscape did you have?"

She'll have a crab cake while he talks.

"My Windkeeping may have damaged some of the plants. When I used Metallurgy to control the Alphazon agents' implants, I also affected nearby metal. I know that I caused some handheld devices from passersby to also be moved and turned into shards when I used the implant metal to attack the spiders. More metal than that may have been affected that I did not notice during the fight."

"Hm. Very definitely not as bad as some sorceresses. Still. If you're going to fight on home territory properly, you'll need to work on doing so with less collateral damage."

"Yes, Lady Saffron. 

Aside from potential combat, what do you see me doing in your domain? What tasks would you have me do?"

"Cumin wasn't wrong when she said I'd really like to have a firecaller who can at least try to keep up with me. I do a lot of fire-based arts. If you're staying at least a few years, I'll want to properly teach you. If you're not, I could use an assistant who won't get burned in my workshop, and it might be a learning opportunity for you."

She fidgets with a brooch. "I do some jewelry. You're clearly a skilled metallurge, and you have some Earthmoving. You will either be a natural at jewelry or find it requires skills you don't have that it's hard to teach, and I'm not sure which. I'll want you to make an attempt, and if you fail, well, not everyone is as good as I am, it'll be entirely understandable."

"We all have domain maintenance responsibilities. You are not, currently, trained in domain maintenance. It's an academic art, it'll take a while for you to learn. In the meantime, you will be responsible for shadowing people who can do maintenance – that means following them around – and carefully observing what they do and asking questions, that tends to work better for sorceresses than reading theory texts."

"Combat readiness requires combat practice and good physical condition. You will drill with me and other members of my staff. You will take care of your physical needs and your mana charge, and alert me to any issues regarding those."

"You also clearly have some technological skills. I am not fully certain how to use these. It may be that you can go straight to producing valuable devices of some kind for the household to sell. It may be that there is no non-combat application you can reach without years of study. It may be that just a few months at a newfangled institution like Arcadia will lead to you wiring all the neighbors' houses for 'ethernet', whatever that is, it's got nothing to do with Aethernautics. We'd figure it out."

"Some matrons would put you to work as a salesboy. I will not. I believe that a saleswitch represents her matron's household, and you do not have the proper upbringing to represent my household. If the idea of public-facing work intrigues you, observe the manners of me and more senior members of my household closely, and ask again in a few years and I will reconsider."

"It's possible you could do meaningful work in construction. If this interests you more than the assignments I have proposed, we can discuss it, but my household does not specialize in it and it does not strike me as the obvious best use of your talents."

And she's going to have a fig.

That sure was a long speech for someone like her. Probably going by Sending from someone. Or maybe she practiced in front of a mirror a lot? She'd look cute like that.

"I would be very happy to learn Firekeeping from you, Lady Saffron.

I am interested in jewelry. I have done art with metals before, but never with gems.

I will shadow people who do maintenance so that I can learn domain maintenance.

I would be very happy to drill and exercise with you and the other members of your staff!" It shows on his face. "I will alert you to any issues regarding my mana charge and physical needs.

Yes, I also think there is a possibility that I could sell replicas of Alphazon technology, but with all connections to Alphazon removed. Probably I will be able to replicate the implants I have right now once I have figured out how to jailbreak them. However, I believe that doing this will upset Alphazon. I also have many varied firearms in my personal hat-space, and I can also replicate and build those easily. I am trained in using them both normally and with Metallurgy remote control.

Working as a salesboy does not intrigue me, and I believe I would not do well at the position. However, I am very interested in possibly doing performance art with elementalism and dancing.

I have done construction before. Only with very simple structures with Earthmoving, but I can do complex construction and repairs with Metallurgy. I can repair and construct electric wiring inside a structure, for example." He's done that before at the Alphazon base. Only once – he thinks the person that let him do it got punished – but he is confident he can replicate his good performance there.

She would. Conrad hasn't exactly experienced the sensation of cuteness before, and does not know the word for it, but he will feel it. Conrad would not be shocked to know that Cumin is talking to Saffron with Sending, given that she's doing so with him right now, although in that case he's slightly confused why Saffron doesn't just have Cumin speak for her.

"Oh, I would expect that you're already getting Alphazon close to maximally upset with you, and if I take you in I'll be doing similarly. And at that point, you might as well start selling replicas of their tech? If they don't like it they shouldn't have built you. I'll talk to my matron about what the risk profile looks like, of course, but I think it's a possibility we should seriously consider."

That was his thought too, but he wanted to explicitly state it.

"Yes, Lady Saffron. Given that you would be protecting me if I signed on with you, I would be totally willing to create replica Alphazon technology."

"Lovely. As for wiring: that is useful, but most people who want their estates wired want it done by someone who's been formally certified as knowing how to do safe electrical work. We can likely get you a certificate, especially if we can send you to an Earth facility and trust you to behave around ignorant humans, but not immediately."

"Performance art, like jewelry, has components which are hard to teach. You will certainly have free time in which to practice it, or perform on your own behalf, regardless of my judgements, but I make no guarantees that you will be permitted to represent my household in this matter."

"I understand, Lady Saffron. How do I make it clear to others when I am or am not representing your household?"

"If I introduce you, you are by default representing my household. If you are working out of a building with my name on it, you are by default representing my household. If you wander somewhere and don't mention my name, you are not, save for that if you cause egregious problems someone will look for your matron, and find me, and I will be displeased. The details can be discussed later, should you join."

"I understand, Lady Saffron." He wants to ask what 'egregious problems' counts as, but she said not to ask. Maybe he will ask later.

"When I was at Alphazon, they would simply give me tasks to do, and I would do them, and would spend the whole time in my room otherwise. I am not sure how you assign and handle workflows of your clients. What will working be like, generally, in your estate?"

"I would never confine you to your room when you're not working! I suppose one shouldn't expect better from Alphazon. Still, it's quite crass of them."

"Still, just because we've established what we're not doing, that doesn't mean you know what we are doing. I think we'd be looking at, oh. Four hours a day of work and a similar amount of time spent on study, assuming things pan out, and an expectation that you remain on or near the estate most of the rest of the time, with me knowing where you're going if you go somewhere else, at least for the first several months. I can pre-approve some places to spend off-estate time if that concerns you, though I'll still want to know where you are. If things don't pan out regarding your skills, we're looking at more like eight to twelve hours a day of work, depending on how much they don't pan out? But you sound like a talented person. If you're representing yourself honestly we should be fine. You'll get the usual holidays off. By default you'll have a room here that you can decorate to your own tastes, but if you don't need to sleep and you have poor memories of having a room, you don't have to."

That's a lot less than at Alphazon! He averaged sixteen hours a day doing practices, usually divided into one period studying and another period doing live training.

Conrad sees nothing wrong with your employer knowing where you are at all times.

"That is fine with me, Lady Saffron. I think I would want to spend time in parks and gardens sometimes, but I have not been to anywhere else in Lunabella aside from here and Chasmapolis.

I do not know what the usual holidays are."

He gets to decorate his room!!!!!!!!! He is So Happy.

"Oh, Chasmapolis public parks and gardens are fine. It's Chasmapolis. Everyone portals there, so the city always has to be ready for trouble."

Saffron smiles at him. "Well, I think this has been a promising conversation. I'll want a skill demonstration after dinner. In the meantime, you should enjoy the food and converse with my household, see if you think you can get along with them."

That's great! Chasmapolis is great! Admittedly he has a sample size of two (2) bubbles of Lunabella, but still! It Is Great.

"Yes, Lady Saffron," he will say.

He actually doesn't know how conversing without a specific goal in mind works. So he is just going to remain silent and eat until or unless someone initiates conversation.

After an awkward pause, Cumin can take the initiative. "So, Conrad, do you have a favorite of the foods served so far?"

"Yes, Madam. I really really like these," and he will point to the crab cakes. "I also like these and these," pointing to the cherries and dates.

"Oh! Those are crab cakes and cherries and dates. I like crab cakes and cherries, but I'm not such a fan of dates. And I like the deviled eggs."

"I don't like the sauce on the deviled eggs."

"Strange, I think it's the best part. No arguing with taste, I suppose."