Delightful.

"The air around us is always pushing in every direction, you just don't notice because it's pushing the same amount in every direction. An airplane's forward motion and the angle and the shape of its wings make it so that there's more air underneath the wing than above it, so the air pushing it up from below is stronger than the air pushing it down from above. Would you like to ride in one?"

"...yes."

"I think you're next free during daylight hours on Oathday. I'll ask my wife if she wants to take you up then." She could ask another pilot, of course, but she's discovered she's curious about how a Chelish person will react to gay marriage. She's seen how the Lastwallers react (polite confusion until they realize Alfirin can polymorph) and how the Andorens do, (polite confusion even after that point) and can hazard a guess as to the Chelish reaction but wants to confirm it.

"Thank you, ma'am."

The Chelish reaction is... possibly just well-concealed polite confusion? Well, that fits the pattern.

"You are free to go. Please let Jandi know if you have any more questions for me or have made your decision about working for me."

"Thank you, ma'am. I will."

Flying always fills Iomedae with glee and euphoria which takes a long time to wear off. Well. Almost always. Going flying with the gun enchanter that Alfirin is trying to hire away from the Reclamation turns out not to have this effect, because Carissa Sevar turns out to be highly effective at turning all feels of glee and euphoria into deep concern, instead. 

"I'm upset about Cheliax," she tells Alfirin that evening.

"I thought it was probably something like that...What...happened, exactly?"

"We were talking about the war. And she said she was from Corentyn, and that - she got out - by being a wizard, presumably - but most people she knew didn't get out. And of course I said - I'm so sorry - and she said 'the liberation of Cheliax was noble and good and I am glad of it' -"

"Oh no that's - gods - like she... thought that was the 'right answer' and she'd get in trouble for a different one, or...?"

"Like she didn't want there to be any question of whether she was appropriately appreciative that we burned her city to the ground. 

And I said, well, it seems reasonable to me to be pretty upset about that, and she said, well, either Hell is fine and I shouldn't be upset my family went there, or Hell is bad in which case you were in the right."

"Oh." Alfirin hugs her. "I'm upset about Cheliax... should I be offering her a big chunk of her pay up-front, for resurrections -"

"Maybe? I think it'd be worth asking." Iomedae stares miserably at the wall. "But she's just one  - most people in that situation aren't talented weapons enchanters -"

"We would drive up diamond prices a lot, trying to raise the whole population of Corentyn… it's not worth it now, I don't even know if we could do it. If I'd known how magic worked when we were on Earth I could've learned how to make - cubic zirconia or something - and seen if that would cut it -"

"Mmmhmm…I want to do something about Hell. I know we don't have the resources yet but I hate - going around not doing anything about Hell -"

"And people call me ambitious…I support you in all your dreams and especially that one, as long as support doesn't have to come in the form of optimism. It seems like a very hard problem even with all the resources we could dream of."

"Becoming a god doesn't seem to do it," Iomedae says consideringly. "I guess there isn't guaranteed to be anything that does. Ugh." 

"- Becoming a god doesn't seem to do it in a thousand years," Alfirin corrects her, "It's not impossible that it does in two thousand… This really does seem like the sort of question your godself would have thought long and hard and godly about. We could get a cleric to ask Her."

"Yes. I should have done that ages ago, really. Do you have a plan and how long will it take."

"And how can we help."

Alfirin gets Sevar her advance pay and set up explaining her process to some of the other wizards on staff. She attends the first one herself; in theory at some point Industry will be too big and complicated for her to know every process herself, but she's trying to stave that day off as long as she can. By spending a lot of time learning everything new, not by slowing it down. That would be wrong.

Unfortunately, that day might have come already. Despite her best efforts she struggles to keep up with Sevar's explanations. It's probably not just that she's a fake self-taught second-circle wizard, because the older, more experienced wizards also seem to be confused. It's frustrating and embarrassing. She goes to every lecture.

After a couple of weeks of this she invites Carissa to have dinner with her so Alfirin can check how she's settling in. Carissa is very cool, and very smart, and really good at making magic items and Alfirin wants to learn all her secrets and be her friend. The fact that Alfirin is also her boss is a little awkward but probably surmountable.

She picks one of the classy restaurants that can afford spices teleported in from across the world, not so much because it's classy but because she likes spices teleported in from across the world. America had spices teleported in from across the world, or near enough. It was one of the cool things about America.

"So how are you finding Almas?"

"The university is wonderful. It is no wonder that Almas is so prosperous."

"The university is wonderful, I wish I had more time to spend there. I do regret - not being more of a wizard. Not having the time to be more of a wizard and do everything else. Your enhancement work is very cool."

"I hope it'll be of use. I was thinking, of course most of the reason it's spellsilver-intensive to layer enchantments is that they interfere even if they're activated only separately. Otherwise you could thread them. I've been wondering since I saw the factory if there are magical insulators that'd let you separate the parts of a gun and enchant them each separately and more cheaply…"