The bathroom contains nice stone floors that slope downward to a drain, a wooden bathtub plenty big enough for her to lie down in, radiating warmth, and a small table with a dish of soap, a small cloth, and a larger, fluffy-looking cloth.

Presumably she knows how to take a bath - they're rare, not nonexistent, for ordinary folk. But the warm water is very, very nice.

After the bath there's perhaps an hour of sunlight left, and Mary says that Dame DeVoult forbids candles. So after that last hour she'll have to try and wrap her head around the navigation book tomorrow.

She tries to fit in what she can before bed, then briefly tries creating and holding a mana-light steady, but she's rather tired and so doesn't continue that for very long.

Then: bed.

The math for larger navigation is really difficult to follow, but the techniques for 'local' navigating are easier.

In the morning there is a note, apparently written by Farah. Do as you please until about an hour before lunch time, then return here for your lessons. I am visiting the lumber mill. Mary should have breakfast for you.

… She sort of wants to wrap her head around the navigation book but the message seems like it might be a hint to look around a bit.

She decides to go looking around, at least briefly, but resolves not to lose track of time.

The only real item of interest here is the town. It's much bigger than her little village. They have buildings three stories high, more than one properly paved street, bridges over the river and water mills, a fair number of interesting-looking shops...

Though she could also wander over towards the lumber mill if she's more interested in that. It sounded like some kind of advanced technology is being used there.

She is impressed by the town.

If it doesn't look like it'll take too much time, she's curious enough she would in fact like to investigate the lumber mill.

As she approaches the denuded sections of woods, she can see the cluster of buildings near the lumber mill. One large building with a team of men feeding logs into a door on one end - must be the main saw? It's also emitting a steady stream of smoke from a chimney. A few smaller buildings around it might be tool-houses or something. A big, brown, muddy open field has dozens of piles of cut trees resting on it, denuded of branches and bark. Those are in separate piles. In the distance are some more buildings, too far to make out yet. This place of industry is almost as big and complex as a village, all on its own.

And lumber mills are very, very loud apparently. The sheer noise coming from the building that she can hear even from this distance speaks to powerful machinery, much louder than a grain mill would ever be.

Eech.

Are there any people who look like they might want to talk? … Perhaps if she conspicuously creates a mana light?

The group of women and old men gathered at the top of a small hill, pointing and gesturing at something, are looking at something more interesting than a young Witch's manalight apparently.

Evelyn heads that way, curious.

As she crests the hill, she can see... A line of sort-of-carriages, wheels with platforms on top, stacked high with logs. The last one in the row being loaded up with more logs with help from Farah.

There are two metal lines with wooden planks between them on the ground. The log-cars are resting on them, and they end a couple hundred feet past the loading platform. Is this the 'steel road' Farah mentioned?

At the head of the line of carriages is a car full of coal and then a large mechanical-looking thing, a giant metal cylinder sitting horizontally on the track, with a tall smokestack and a plethora of levers and controls in a little cabin behind it. It's a very strange sight.

"What in the world is that thing?"

"I saw it coming in. Steel horse, pushing and pulling on that steel road."

"Steel monster, defiling our forests even faster... What will the damn army do to us next..."

"It looks ugly and scary like the rest of the new inventions, indeed. Where does the steel road lead?"

"To Guenroc. I overhead them talking about it. Then at Guenroc the logs will get loaded onto barges and sent down to the shipyards at Saint-Malo."

Evelyn's not really sure what to make of it all. It seems likely it'd be the steel road, but… it looks like it would be – complicated – to move. 'Steel monster' sounds like a very charged word to refer to it with though. Even if it is, uh, monstrous.

"Hi there!" she says, to the people. "I'm. Uh. Visiting."

Most of them glance at her, but then go back to observing the... Thing. One woman asks, "What for? There isn't too much to see 'round here. Especially not with the hunting forests going away like this. They're tearing up old growth!"

"Oh, uh. Just a short… apprenticeship. What's up with the – uh – thing?"

"The UDF put it here. Something about steam making the wheels move? Building the steel road for it must have been hideously expensive. And now that it's here... They're going to use it as much as possible. More logging."

"… How would steam make it move?"

She opts not to comment on it being used more.

"How should I know? I just... Don't like the thing." She glances over towards the workers loading logs, instead of the engine itself, though.

"All this science!" Rants another man, interrupting. "Uprooting the things we've done the same way for hundreds of years... I'm sure God would be ashamed if we accepted it by learning how this devilish machine works!"

… Perhaps.

"I haven't heard anything, nobody's really mentioned it where I'm from. It's… weird." She looks over at Farah, then points in that direction, frowning. "They get help from witches?"

"We only started hearing about these things two, three years ago. Dame DeVoult, I believe she is there as a member of the Defence Force. Not as a Witch. The war against demons needs many sacrifices..."

Old man clucks at this. "Don't take their side, Lottie. Besides, those boys would be sacrificing a lot more if they learned to use a sword and went off with the knights, as is proper."

Uh… huh…

She tilts her head inquisitively. "If they help more here – isn't that better?"

"They're not helping more here. They're looting the forest to build some ships for the UDF slightly faster. Swords and magic kill demons. Not logging."

Frown. "Then why are they doing it?"

"Greed! Some noble is profiting on this, or I'll eat my hat."

"Or maybe one old man's opinion is not the whole and unbiased truth." A man missing most of his right arm speaks up. "I fought, Cormick. I saw the demons. Trust me when I say the Force has desperate need of ships. They have desperate need of many things."

"Pah!" The old man pointedly turns away from the crippled veteran. Some people give disapproving noises at this, but he continues. "See the piles and piles of felled, butchered trees, sitting there and rotting in the summer sun! They are taking without any care for us at all, if this is the kind of planning the Witches do I would bet that the ships they build all sink! They're doing as much damage to our lives as the demons would!"

Most of these people are listening to the old guy, still, despite his hypocrisy in not respecting the veteran. The veteran looks like he dearly wishes to say something, but just shakes his head, looking pained. Shivering despite the warm sun.

Evelyn shivers some, herself, in response.

"If there's a problem –" She hesitates. "Could you tell them? Would they do anything?"

A few of the listeners admit that they did send plenty of grain to the town last winter, when the town's stores turned out to be full of mold. The old man thinks they just didn't want to interrupt the logging.