"Liability in your line of work?"

"I've mostly gotten over it, but it took some doing. And I still get some tunnel vision if I'm actually in a fight."

"Well, not too much of that here."

"Yeah. This is harder, but - I'd rather be doing it anyway."

"We're all very glad you're here. I just hope it's enough."

"I'll do what I can."

Cor has him over for dinner. It's mutton stew with a lot of barley and no garlic.

Given how expensive it was, he will not complain about lack of spice. He will idly wonder how food was different before this all happened but not out loud, that seems rude.

Cor eats efficiently and without relish. "I have been eating so much mutton," he remarks. "The sheep are my usual source of blood, see, but."

"Ah, the wonders of demand shocks. It seems fine, but I see how you'd get sick of it."

"It tastes like having destroyed the world." He collects the dishes to get them cleaned.

"Eugh. Yeah, I - see the feeling."

"Destroyed any worlds?"

"No, but- I had to take apart an empire once. It worked, but there was a lot of damage to innocent people along the way. Rebuilding kept reminding me of what I'd gotten wrong. Not the same, but close enough."

"Might be interested to hear about that sometime when there's not more important priorities."

"I doubt it," he says, finishing his stew. "It was ugly, from beginning to end. I was lucky not to get nightmares."

"Okay."

"Just warning you what you'll get, if you ask."

"I understand."

And dinner is finished. "I should go get some rest, probably."

And check with Panj about using his kitchen and buying ingredients. He's a Lantern, taking charity when literally everyone else needs it more than him offends him.

Panj is fine with sharing the kitchen and has been getting groceries from over there but probably Red Lantern can get a good deal by going and doing magic till people give him things.

As expected but he did want to check, thanks. He will go sell some technically-not-magic for local currency.

Do local currency-havers want things chopped at ludicrous speed, or heavy objects moved quickly, or things destroyed or cooked by means that are not at all their local magic but can do a pretty decent approximation?

Does the chopping do milling? This guy has a lot of unmilled wheat and would prefer to have flour and would give him some for his trouble.

Huh, that's interesting, actually, he's not sure; his sorta-magic has this mindset thing. He'll try it.

This wheat is inedible nonsense and in the proper course of things it would be easy to have it all milled and sold and properly infrastructured and it hasn't been and that's fucking annoying. And there it goes, all pulverized straight to flour with no stone bits. The bags might not be the greatest for it.

"Looks like I can. I keep a twentieth?"

"With my compliments!"