"I'm hoping there will be no war. What's a Nobel Peace Prize?"

A good idea that she should spend some time trying to replicate, is what it is. Mental note to make a plan for that after this conversation.

"It's - the man who invented dynamite felt really guilty about it and set up a fund to give a bunch of money and prestige to whoever does the most to…make the world peaceful, I guess - each year. According to a committee…There was a big fuss about them giving it to Obama when he hadn't done anything yet... I don't think eternal peace tends to last but I sincerely wish you the best with that. But today you're not here for peace, you're here to ask me to build you guns."

"Yes."

"When are the first elections?"

"Hm?"

"The first elections. In Cheliax. When are they?"

"I don't know. We haven't decided what form the Chelish government will take, in the long run, and even if we were sure we wanted a republic the Chelish people aren't ready for that..."

"Well that's my price. Plan for a republic. Set a date. It can be a few years out, it can even be a couple decades out, but plan for a republic, set a date for elections, and make an announcement."

"I think you want me to move faster than is wise, on that -"

"I think democracies don't usually start wars with each other. So that's my price for handing out guns." Will it work? Probably not. It might help.

"Cheliax has guns already. The government doesn't, but there's private arms manufacturers who are learning… It's not just about Cheliax being armed, it's also about the Reclamation being armed and not having all the gun manufacture in the hands of the old nobility."

And here she thought Iomedan paladins weren’t supposed to say misleading things… maybe he just doesn’t understand the situation very well himself. "Uh huh. The Henderthanes don't have steel at scale, they don't have smokeless powder, yet - I know they'll get there eventually, but for now - building you the factories you want would be giving the new Cheliax significant capabilities. Set a date."

"I'll think on it…will you help us set up some non-military factories, in the meantime?"

"Well, there's the problem, isn't it? I give you good steel mills and fertilizer and that's everything the Henderthanes are missing."

"...fertilizer?"

Oh come on, that wasn’t even secret. She knows he got copies of her lectures to the Iomedans…which he might not have read. She won’t call him out on it. "Yeah it turns out the same things that help plants grow make all the best explosives. A factory that makes fertilizer is very easy to turn into a factory that makes smokeless powder and bombs."

"I see. The Henderthanes are probably going to get themselves established if I can't get your help or enough people from Vigil. I really don't think this is the best way to advance your interests."

She really hates it when people act like they know better than her just because they’re twice her age. They almost never do. "Well then you'd better get started on those elections… if it makes you feel any better I'll see about buying the Henderthanes out." She was considering doing it anyways. Even though being a monopolist is sketchy and unamerican.

"That might make the situation stable a little longer.  Thank you."

"Yep, that's me, selflessly consolidating a monopoly on arms manufacture for the good of the world. The hypothetical marxists are going to love it."

Cheliax' new engineers will need a tour of the facilities. Alfirin decides to have them shown the gunworks first; it will impress the handful of them who are actually Chelish and haven't seen the factories in Vigil, and a factory for a finished product will be a better demonstration of the factory process and some of the general-purpose machines than the more specialized chemical plants or the blast furnaces. And maybe seeing the amount of steel needed will make it clear how the gunworks are not actually the important part.

She has her guide ask Carissa if she'd be willing to meet with Alfirin after the first day of tours are done.

She would be delighted.

The meeting is in Alfirin's office in her only-technically-wizard's-tower. "Please, have a seat. How did you find the factory, Miss Sevar?"

She sits. She is mostly managing not to look impressed. 

“It was extraordinary, ma’am. I am very happy to be here.” 

Chelish people tend not to be very expressive. Mostly managing not to look impressed might mean 'very impressed.' It might also just mean mostly not impressed. Either way, she should really just make her pitch.

“Thank you. I’m rather proud of it. Ser Cansellarion, as best I can tell, wants you to spend your days making and overseeing copies of it, with a little bit of weapon enchantment worked in at the end. I think that’s a waste. You figured out how to lay enchantments on guns on your own, without a research team?”