What Can SV Teach an Evil Sorceress? (abandoned)

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5 [Licentiate] No shortcuts. Let her learn to be a table-
               ruler first.

4 [Influence] Just send killers for the priests and for
              Gazark.

3 [Accusation] "Message incomplete. Resend with details
               or not at all." In addition, spy on the
               Noarites a lot to determine if they are
               indeed a threat. If the high priest's
               accusations do in fact ring true, accept
               her deal.

3 [Insurrection] Recognize Kartz of Lan as First Chief
                 and direct him to make war

"Yes, good. The outsider magician will only be allowed to join my Forsworn when she is the equal of any other table-ruler. She will undergo instruction by table-rulers until she passes all the tests of their positions and only then will she be permitted to present herself to be assessed for joining those who study the odd spirits of the cursed woodlands, new or old.

"And I will make very public my recognition of Karts of Lan, the Master of Hosts as the First Chief of the Ten Nations. I will likewise demand similar recognition of every person of authority from tribal chieftains to the elders of the smallest of families, from those rule cities of outsiders to those who command the workers on a single outsider farm and live by its proceeds. Kartz, victor of many campaigns and warleader beyond compare, I will command to resolve all issues of dissent in the manner most familiar to him, with the exception of the life of Gazark himself and the lives of any priests in his company. These I will send killers after. Let any who set themselves against me come to fear what might lie in every shadow and what might lurk around every corner.

"Finally, I shall send a message back to the High Priestess of Yula saying, 'By misfortune your message arrived incomplete, for surely you would not have sent such important accusations without adequate supporting details.'

"And I will also send scouts and false traders among the Noarites. And should those spies find that the High Priestess of Yula has told me true, then I will make a bond between the Free People of the Ten Nations and the Followers of Yula. And for so long as the Followers of Yula deal rightly with the Ten Nations, the Ten Nations will not trade with the People of the Family, will provide reasonable assistance to Followers of Yula when asked to do so, and will send hosts to sack distant cities of the Noarites, to whatever degree that is actually feasible.

"But if the High Priestess of Yula has told me falsely, then for some time of one or two hundred years I will reward anyone who brings me the head of any priest of Yula, or any object set aside for or jealous to Yula's priesthood, or who leaves desolate any site sacred to Yula.

"Let them learn to either value my friendship or fear my reprisal."
"Voice, I have no doubt that most if not all leaders of each side believe with confidence that I will side with them. Each side supposes their leader to have a special relationship with me. Some among those who talk up the progeny of Kuwuzt even claim he was my son. Some who most highly regard Kartz say I selected him for great service as a child and smiled upon his every achievement, instead of chastising him for his errors and accepting his service as payment for them.

"All of the Free People of the Ten Nations know my power and fear me or fear and love me. But they remain mortals whose brief lives rarely allow for the accumulation of great wisdom."
"You speak with a great deal of certainty, voice, about the relationship between a lodestone and certain invisible lines, and then about the relationship between those invisible lines and other metals such as copper. Would it not be better to simply understand the relationship between what can be directly known about the lodestone and what can be directly known about another metal object? Can these invisible lines be perceived in any manner other than the way they give rise to small lightnings or something of the sort?

"Also, if there is one copper wire connected to the center of a disk while another connects to the edge of that disk, then surely the two will become wound up as the disk is spun. Or do you mean that whatever armature holds those wires should spin with the disk?

"Still such a device is easily enough built. I may see its effects."
"I have seen how to start fires with small lightnings. It is simpler to start fires with two dry sticks and skills still known to most children within the Ten Nations. It is simpler still to start a fire with flint and iron.

"And with the spinning disk winding the wires, how can those wires run any great distance?"
"Though other voices have told us of similar relationships between lodestones, copper wire, small lightnings, and short-lived lodestones, we still do not know to what end you voices mean these to be used. And your version remains especially mysterious on account of the turning wires. What do you mean me to do with a short-lived and spinning loadstone? Should the loadstone be held still and used to make needles into slightly-longer-lasting-but-weaker lodestones for as long as allowed before the wires running to the spinning disk get awfully wound up on themselves?"
"It would have been much more convenient to receive similar warning before the matter of lodestones and lightning were first introduced. But you voices may be sure that valuable lessons have already been learned about the use of thick leather gloves, beeswax, and prohibitions against carrying any item of any metal, lessons bought with blood or at least lives.

"Still, it is good to have this confirmation of the hazards. And the more you can tell us of them, the more progress my people will make without those interruptions that flashes of lightning and scorched bodies cause."
"There is not so much steel that it should be used to make plows, scythes, or wagon parts. Indeed it is mostly only the chosen who enjoy steel weapons or armor, and mostly only those in the Homelands. But they do so increasingly as more steel is born from clay vessels once containing unpurged iron, purged iron, and a smattering of other reagents.

"I hope the making of steel will be well enough known that its secrets may be spread around before some number of outsiders decide to make trouble as the Last King of Wrul did over the secrets of glass. At the same time, I pity anyone who comes after the Free People of the Ten Nations looking for trouble."
"Ah. So the wall that is more difficult to climb is somewhat protected from cannon attack and the wall that is entirely protected from cannon attack is difficult to reach for climbing. It seems that the wider the ditch is, the harder it will be to cross but the easier the inner wall of the moat will be to shoot with cannon. And in any case, it can be no wider than can be bridged by the gate door.

"However, if the gate is a door in the wall of the city, it will be well back from the ditch because the hill of dirt packed up against the wall will sit on either side of the door.

"Further, though, nothing about this arrangement prevents cannon from attacking over the wall into the city. So there is still the problem of cannons remaining within cities -- where they do no good most of the time -- compared to cannons being taken out for conquest -- where they profit their users very much.

"But, yes, a deep, stonewalled ditch outside the wall of dirt outside the stonewalled city is better than what is had now."
"So instead of sitting within a pipe with one set of coiled fins, the spinning part of this device should sit in a cone, should have several sets of coiled fins along its length, and in between those coiled fins the cone should have straight fins reaching from the cone pipe inward toward the spinning rod. I think making this would be a work of significant art. But I think I understand what you mean to have made, at least."
"Oh, this sounds much better than a series of alternating bellows. Is everything else about the device the same? That is, when we find an arrangement of rotating and fixed fins that works very well to turn steam into spin, will the same arrangement set up the other way around be very good at turning spin into wind?"
"I like the idea of putting both steam gates on the same turning rod. If I understand correctly, in that way the fool could open both gates halfway, but could not fully close one without fully opening the other.

"I have my doubts about the heavy ball, though. I understand that you mean a ball so that however it lands it covers the hole. But if the ball is heavy enough to hold back the force of the steam, it will be heavy enough to do some damage when it comes back down, won't it."
"Ah. I had hoped for some better solution than this. I believe the solution now used by the greatest iron makers is something like this. The specifics of the mushroom shape and drill use are not familiar to me, but I have not overly involved myself with the details of the practice. The iron-makers will be made to know that their slag and iron properly flows from taps they drive into the wall of their two-oven iron-melters. And they will be told that the flow stops when they plug the tap with three steps of clay, and that the tap should be drilled when possible, as this will disturb the melting chimney less than hammered blows."
"Other voices have used similar defensive expressions before and I still don't know what you mean by it.

"Regardless, since last we spoke I have been told of attempts to build the tower that is tapped for melted and unpurged iron with a single oven. These did pass the air channels along the interior of the chimney tower on their way to the fire. And the whole pile of bricks and mortar may have gotten as hot as the second of the two ovens, for all the bloomwrights could tell. But when it was tapped the metal did not flow freely.

"Do tell, as ever, if there is some additional trick to this."
"Yes, thank you. As I recall, this became more clear once I understood the nature of 'screws' as you voices call them to mean whatever winding sloped ridge makes sense in that context. First, the ridges were inside the screw that lifts water from mine pits as donkeys turn them. But in this case, those winding, sloped ridges should be on the outside of a peg and also on the inside of the hole the peg is meant for. So that as the peg is turned, it is drawn deeper into the hole. And as the peg applies some other pressure, against the flint in this case, the winds of the ridges against each other hold the peg fast.

"We have found such fasteners to be reusable, to degrees. The ridges wear away at each other, as do all things. But it is sufficient for the pot-in-pot cooker, for holding together parts of a device like the thresher so that they can be replaced separately, and for holding small bits of something like the flint, as part of a larger and more manageable device.

"I would like to know more about reliably and regularly fashioning screws. At present their making is particular and special. Each must be made with its counterpart hole. And each must be made with much labor on the part of one skilled at metalcrafts."
"Tell me if this is what you mean. First a piece of steel should be acquired by the method of the vessel of reagents. Then that steel should be hammered into the spring shape, which might be the shape of a spearhead or long knife. Then that shaped steel should be heated until it is red hot and until a lodestone pays it no mind. That red hot steel should be quenched in a 'suitable' fluid.

"What is suitable, voice? How may the suitability of a fluid be assessed? Is there something other than water, seawater, clear fat oils, or blood that should be used for quenching?

"Once quenched, the spring or blade should be polished until white. But what manner of polish do you mean? Tell me how to make the polish.

"Once polished, the steel should be slowly heated and slowly cooled in cycles until it is blue. And here I would again like to know more of the methods to do so. How do you slowly heat an object? Do you bring it closer and close to some hot place? Do you push the bellows slowly at first but with increasing force? Should the fire that heats it change from wood to charred coals?

"And the same for cooling. Quenching is obvious, of course: the object is held in tongs and dunked fully into a large pot containing rainwater or seawater or blood or whatever. But how do you mean the steel to be slowly cooled? Should it be held in the air with tongs? Or submerged in sands as hot as the fire, a fire which is allowed to die slowly? And how slowly? Should this take a morning or several days?"
"Yes. I understand now that the panels on the wheel are like the fins on the spinning rod in the steam pipe. They're unalike in that they roll like a wheel on the ground rather than like an upright spindle, that they need to wind like a screw, and that while the rod needs only enough width to hold it together, the panels can be at the edges of a wider wheel if that suits the design.

"And we have found that putting seeds in the ground is much better than casting them across it. Less seed is lost to the birds and other pests. And as the crop grows in rows it is easier to weed and to irrigate.

"Once the meaning of various parts was clear, and more importantly once the intent and the manner of seeds at some depth was clear, this device was not difficult to build. There is no seed planter wheel as reliable as reaper devices made in close imitation of Peyuvo's design. But when the seed planter wheel jams or breaks it is much less of a mess. It is less likely to injure its user. And it is less likely to more greatly damage otherwise whole parts of itself in its breaking.

"Already there are some who set up the seed-spilling wheel behind their soil-overturning plow, with another board behind the seed wheel to cover the trench back up. So these in one pass plow and sow. None who do so reap as well as those who still sow by hand, even though they sow into holes which they cover now. And it is not clear why.

"The intent of this device is to allow fewer people to work more fields, is it not? It is to allow more people to do work other than sowing and such, yes?

"Well, that is happening, at least. Or it is happening in some places.

"There is a problem for the Galugr with regard to all these things. The manner of their deficiency of crafts means that no lesser giant can hope to construct a thresher device or a reaper device. A fair number of them cannot even operate such devices which are otherwise in good form without bringing them to damage. And only a few can adequately repair them, even using parts made to that end by Fisher People's craft.

"So while they are driving seed into the soil where they did not before, the lesser giants continue to do so by hand. And they reap by hand. They thresh with great combs of hard wood or poor iron, at least. But even those take to wearing faster than they do in the hands of Fisher People.

"My table-rulers of their tribe tell me that Galugr youth who become known for gentle hands, special carefulness, or any craft of remark -- for lesser giants, of course -- are guided into the role of brewers and redewers. They are concerned, my Galugr table-rulers, that the tribe cannot fashion any but the drudest tools or weapons or carts for themselves. And they make a point of keeping any making of things that can be kept within the tribe. Their redewer pots and pipes are of rough make, but they supply their own beers and burning drinks.

"It is accepted, among those lesser giant table-rulers, that their tribe will effectively trade their labors for Fisher People-made things. Traveling Galugr workers are regarded with mixed apprehension and appreciation by others of the Ten Nations. Even or especially Burgeck, who value the strength of lesser giants in the raising of their great and arched halls, make known their distrust of the tempers of their large guests.

"Even the roads laid down by the Galugr in their tribelands are visibly of poorer make. My table-rulers among their number are just as capable in the ways of the three-legged, two-wheeled, bowl-and-sighting device, in the ways of maps, and in the ways of sums and other works of numbers. So the Galugr roads lay in no worse land than roads do elsewhere in the Homelands of the Free People of the Ten Nations. But the bricks more often align poorly or are broken.

"Still, none can argue that any among the Fisher People compare with the greatest Galugr warriors in their greatness, nor with their strength in hauling, nor with their skill and resilience in keeping Kahl's Warhorses. For all that there is still no horse than any but the slightest youth of the Galugr can ride meaningfully, all who make use of the vexsome beasts have them kept by Galugr hostlers. And more are kept in Galugr lands for use by others than are kept in the lands of any other tribe. This despite the still lesser numbers of Galugr when compared with any other tribe, or even with the portion of any other tribe still in their home triblelands."
"Oh, good. Yes, I can see how that will keep the lid on. And with perhaps a thick ring of leather where the lid meets the pot, it may even keep a seal while water boils inside it. This sounds better than the screws, even. And those have worked well enough that some haven't failed even through several uses."
"Is it truely so simple?

"Pound steel that is not brittle flat, narrow and long. Coat the steel by dunking it in molten copper. Grind the copper of one face of the strip, and grind away any excess thickness on the other side. Then wind that strip into a coil. When the coil gets warm, it will wind or unwind, and when it cools it will go the other way.

"Is that all there is to it? Is this how all countings of heat should be done? Is there some flaw before, I suppose, heats reach the point where the copper runs off again?"
"My singers and table-rulers have made some attempts to derive useful substances from the bile of cattle. I don't know that they've dried them without heat, as you suggest. But what would be more useful is if you could tell me what the salts should look like, or how to identify success at this step.

"Really I wish you voices would include that for most of the processes you describe. What should the substance or device or whatever look like when a step is done properly? At times you include this, at times you don't.

"What do cattle bile salts look like, or taste like, or how else can they be identified other than, 'Some result of messing about with cattle bile?'"
"So first mice must be kept, such that their pups are readily available at all times. Then, these pups should be infected with the lathering madness, perhaps smeared with lather itself. So, really, first some slightly larger and more manageable animal must be kept around while infected with the lathering madness, already a hazard.

"Still, once the baby mice come to lather themselves, they should be killed and their tiny brains and backfibers gathered together with the same if not more care as the gathering of lathers of madness. Then the brains and such are ground to a paste that is, in turn, smeared over potash to sit in the sun for several days. Finally, the paste is gathered again, and stored away.

"For how long may it be stored? Are there any special precautions of storage? Since it cannot be cooked and it remains a paste of brains, it is bound to go bad fairly soon.

"When someone is to be treated for being bitten by one lathered, beast or person, there will be no useful treatment if the latherings are already upon them. Is that what you mean? How can we otherwise tell if the disease is yet in their brain?

"Since the lather-mad, mouse pup, brain paste takes time for the mice pups to come to lathers and time to sit in the sun, this is not a medicine that may be made after someone is bitten but before they are lost. Or that is how I think you mean this. That means that some wise person must be always making more of this medicine, always prepared with beasts who keep the lathering madness around, always prepared with mice pups to afflict, always having some of this medicine they hope hasn't yet gone bad.

"I suppose the medicine might keep better and longer in an ice hall. There is that, for the places which have ice halls, anyway.

"Still, this sounds like it will be an uncommon medicine for a disease that is more common some years than it is others.

"And, yes, I believe I understand the forked needle. But you have not been clear on how deep the needle should be pushed into the belly of the one bitten. Should the needle be pushed only in the fat of their belly? Should it pass into the wall of muscle behind that fat? Should it pass through that and into the empty place within? Should it pass then into any particular organ?

"I am assuming not on at least that last note. Surely you would have mentioned the complication of internal bleeding had that been the case. Still, it is not entirely clear."
"So far, casting glass has been very unreliable. I had not looked into it deeply, but the issue may be the matter of uneven cooling. Perhaps that is even known. But with the two-metal, coiled heat counter, we might have better fortune.

"Having any number of sheets of glass larger than a large man's face would be very nice."
"I believe you are suggesting that if the people drink tea and never plain water, then they will never drink unboiled water.

"That may be possible for some, though I couldn't say offhand which ones. But hunters cannot range far if they must bring all their water with them. I suppose they could bring pots and herbs and make their tea where they camp for as long as they can set a fire. Perhaps, perhaps…

"I do not know what collection of actions, behavior, or edicts you mean this to be an example of, though. Do you mean that the people should wear damp cloth over their face at all times so that they are never breathing smoke? Or do you mean that they should keep their bodies shaved at all times so that they bear no lice at any time?"
"Oh, I see. Yes, this is fine. There is only the matter of making and keeping sufficient soap. There is already a conflict between those who wash too much and those who hoard soap against misfortune and the opening of living flesh. The overwashers are uncommon, but there is at least one in every so-many villages.

"I would like to know if you, Black Cat, or other voices can tell of a process for more plentiful soap."
"For now we are still using all of the garlic to grow more garlic. But the people will always appreciate more flavor in their food."
"When the warriors of the Free People of the Ten Nations come together to make conquest, there is always a call for all sulphur that may be had, for the making of cannon powders. While I may hold some in reserve, of course, medicine work does not all occur with my authority. The wise folk who work medicine out in the villages are unlikely to preserve much in the way of sulphur.

"But, yes, I have made the sour sulphur oil which burns or pits or liquifies most other substances. So although it may not often be available, I can see about making this stuff.

"The name you give is a puzzle, though. 'Two-sky sky stuff' or perhaps 'twice-burned sky.' There seems little connection between the name and the substance or its making."
"That seems straightforward enough. A person whose flesh will be cut should, if time allows, wait beforehand until their stomach has emptied."
"Yes, it is rare that one person seeks another to cut on them. So the skills are rarely kept up by any one person."
"A poison to hold poisons, sour sulphur oils in lead-lined containers. Lovely.

"And since the sour sulphur oil does not burn or pit the lead, that lead lining may be pounded or rolled as thinly as will hold up to being handled into and against those wooden containers, is that not so?"
"Believe me, Black Cat, it is ever-apparent that you voices do not understand magics and certain other arts."
"The oil of the ground is an uncommon curiosity. I have yet no means to acquire it in any significant quantity and so have not done much with it. Now that I may have a means to reckon the counting of heats, I may take up its redewing. But there are many other substances to study that are more readily at hand and therefore of greater use.
"Yes, the Glass Tree of Light and Colors is a useless sort of wonder.

"It is, in fact, shaped like a little tree. It has a trunk of thicker clear glass to which branches of clear glass attach. And to those branches in turn are attached tiny green glass leaves. These are not 'green glass' in the manner that most glass made is green-ish in color. They are green like leaves. And if you look close enough, you can make out distinctions of green on them like ribs on leaves are. There are also the fruits which are no two of the same exact shape or color, which are also attached to the clear glass branches.

"I have no doubt that Bear's People mean me harm in this gift. Whether I should be harmed by personally being trapped gazing at the tree or whether I am to be harmed by the effort to protect my people from the Glass Tree of Light and Colors is not clear, unlike the branches of the tree. It is a trap for a fool and so, being no fool, I am burdened by preventing a pile up of fools in the trap.

"And it is not easy to examine, as its wondrous nature is very distracting. But even when an object is covered up, there are still ways available to those with the Talent to know if that object is magical, or cursed, or if there is a spirit within it. And there is not magic or curse or spirit within the Glass Tree of Light and Color."
"I feel as though I am being informed that fire burns or perhaps that people die when stabbed sufficiently.

"Of course people and beasts alike respond to rewards, at least some of the time. Spirits do not, except perhaps the spirits of Forest People, which are odd in many ways. I've never had one confined such that I could make a long study of it.

"But, yes. Praise and food, affectionate contact and liberties previously withheld may all be used to turn the habits of people or beasts to align with what is desired by those with power over them.

"Also effective is the lash and such and also threats of such. That requires understanding, which is had easily enough in people and also in most dogs and some other beasts. Even the stupid brutes that Kahl's Warhorses are will respond to reward and punishment.

"Is there some subtlety that isn't getting through here, Black Cat? Or have you only lapsed again into madness?"
"We already improve the road from my great house to Biancavint more than any other. There is more traffic on that road than many others because of the duplication of all written works and all seed caches between the two places. But there isn't much need for speed in this process, not that would justify the expense.

"Besides that, short messages come by dove swiftly and easily enough."
"That seems like a lot of work to move a single person at some speed and with some ease. It would be a device of finer make than a cart, but for just one person. I don't see the point."
"Oh, so the water wheel should sit with its face against the flow instead of being along it as a wheel is to a road? This is very different than the water wheels you voices have directed to be built in the past.

And whatever belt the wheel drives would have to dip into the water to reach the axle of the water wheel, which seems like it would lead to more binding and slipping problems.

"Well, it might be something to try, sometime."
"I'm not sure why the changing angle at the two-loop linkage won't prevent the pedal from applying force to the wheel. But I think it's something that should work out in assessment, easily enough. More hands free to work whatever task the wheel drives is certainly an improvement."
"So you did, Rainbow Heart. But before herbs are added to boiling water and set aside to steep there are other steps that may be taken such as shredding, crushing, or leaching. And different steps such as these are appropriate for different herbs.

"As it happens, the people have worked some of this out for themselves. And the hops have improved beer so that it takes longer after being brewed for it to turn bad.

"As it happens, I have not been shown a small bushy, leafy herb with small white flowers that is not catmint or similar and that tastes sour. But wise folk do make use of mint in both medicine and in the increasingly popular boiled infusions.

"I suppose all there is to do is continue trials and assessments."
"Good, good. Anything to make wood better proofed against water will make the people's boats stronger, let them travel further, and let them bring back more."
"I would like to hear more about what causes tumors. Some of this was described before, but I do not think the other voices mentioned that smoke and tar cause tumors. Is this something that will afflict those who preserve meats or build boats, then?"
"As I understand from those who still require it, there is a point at which food is cooked properly. Before that it tastes too raw. After that it is too burnt. If food is safer when it is overcooked then I will work to see that all food is overcooked. In time we will overcome the loss of flavor with herbs or stuff of that sort. In the meantime, it would be best if the people did not die earlier than they must due to preventable matters of bowl and bad food.

"I'm certain, though, that some bad food is not the result of undercooking. And if any voice can tell me more about making food safe, I would like to hear of it."
"I understand that there is iron, which is a substance that is not meaningfully reduced to other substances. Though it sometimes may be found where it fell burning from the sky, most of the time iron is mixed in with other substances. Its presence may be known, at times, by the redness of the stone.

"The bloomery heats up these stones, and in that heat the iron clings to other iron and sheds what isn't iron. What isn't iron must be driven from the bloom by hammering force, pushing the iron together and driving what is not iron out. But the best result from a bloomery is unlikely to be steel, because it has the wrong amount of char mixed in with it.

"Char mixes in with iron so finely that it cannot be seen and may not be separated out by blooming and hammering. In fact, blooming adds more char.

"The two-oven iron-melter produces fluid iron and fluid waste material that contains little iron. This iron has a great deal of char in it and we call it unpurged iron, even though it is purged of many other substances. Unpurged iron may be purged by buffeting it with winds of air that has not been exhausted by fire while it is still fluid. Alternately, similarly unexhausted air may be pushed through the unpurged iron in the same manner as bubbles may be blown into water with a reed.

"Fully purged iron is also not a final product for most uses. There is a time in the purging process of a batch of fluid iron when it is fluid steel. If it is poured into forms at that point, those forms will contain steel which may be worked from there as iron is.

"Alternately and often more reliably, lumps of fully purged iron may be combined with lumps of unpurged iron, scrap iron, limestone, and other reagents and tightly wrapped in wet clay so that no air is in it. This vessel is then baked in the two-oven iron-melter so that all that is within it becomes fluid and mixes together. The ratios are reckoned by the iron melter based on their experience, on shared writings, and on the sparks thrown by the irons when applied to a fast-spun wheel of flint. When the baked vessel is broken open it will contain some waste material and an ingot of steel, if everything has occurred as intended. Again, that ingot may then be worked as iron is.

"So steel is iron with some amount of char. Too little or two much and the material is not steel, but iron purged or unpurged.

"I find this a poor way to go about naming something. But it works for the iron workers and the people who use tools and the warriors with steel weapons. Bronze is neither copper nor tin, but it is copper and tin. Steel is not iron or char, but it is iron and char.

"Is this how you mean to be understood, voice?"
"It later became apparent that it must be at the heating up if precision is needed. Otherwise, how would the quencher know that the steel is close to the point where the lodestone will react again. Surely they must have a point where they check and the lodestone pulls, then another point where they check and it does not. In any case, we have some answers from other voices about steel springs, which appears to be helpful."
"Ah. Well, you could be more clear. 'Now do iron-working to it as you would normally,' is an important step of the process. We are not producing raw materials for the sheer joy of it, after all."
"There have been problems with setting standards of weight and measure for as long as the Free People of the Ten Nations have ruled over the Conquered Cities. Each city starts with more than one standard. They will have at least as many standards of measure as there are professions of craft in that city which rely on the measure. Sometimes there may be no standard and each house of craft uses their own weights and measures.

"So the conquerors bring in one weight, one length, one vessel, and dictate how these should be counted or portioned. There will be some dispute and some crafters never willingly adopt the new standards. If their craft is of sufficient value, they might be allowed to continue in their own standards for practical reasons.

"So at best there is grudging adherence to the new standards. But that standard is an object. It is a lump of iron or a bar of copper or bronze vessel. And the object must be taken out so that other, lesser standards can be reckoned to it. And then those lesser standards are taken to the crafters and the markets and the measures in use are checked against. Always there will be sellers whose measures fall short and mongers whose measures go over. And so there are beatings and occasional deaths.

"And that is all well and good. But those objects that are the greatest standard must travel from city to city if every city is to use the same standard. And in travel there is misadventure and in the absence of the greater standard there is scheming and contrivance.

"So it is that each city has its own standards, which differ little but differ in fact from other cities nearby. But by happenstance and the perils of fortune, different clusters of cities or cities primarily ruled by different tribes or which were conquered at different times approximate different greater standards. Perhaps this time the standard was lost and recreated imperfectly. Perhaps this other time one local standard or another was adopted and then enforced on nearby cities.

"With its roads and in respect for my will, there is one standard of weight, one of length, and one of vessels in the Lands of the Ten Tribes. All of these are matched against objects kept at my great house. But outside of the cities of Biancavint and Wreol and to a lesser degree Unmarked there is little opportunity for strange measures to profit the divergent. The people share properly as they have for generations.

"Perhaps when there are better roads between the Conquered Cities, the standards I decree will be standards in truth.

"But noon is noon everywhere. It is noon when the shadows point north. And north may be known by the pivot stars if not by the secret of the floating needle and the loadstone. So long as the time between noons is the same, the time between them may be marked and counted the same everywhere. But to what end, currently?"
"Ah. Well that explains what's meant by 'high technique study,' then. And I suppose there's some use in describing the difference between stone flake blades, beaten copper blades, cast bronze blades, and blown-and-chipped glass blades in some general sense.

"But if some technique or its product is out of my reach, it's not because of a shortcoming in this imagined and general measure. It will be because we do not have the tools to make the tools to refine the materials to make the tools and so on.

"Or is there some special understanding or practiced skill innate to 'high technique studies?'"
"I don't see how that could happen very often. If one party in a trade lacks something they need, how do they get along before the traders come?

"And if the other party has an abundance of something they don't much value, why would they bring it for trading?

"Well, I suppose this already happens somewhat with the precious metals and the glass and such. The Free People of the Ten Nations have no particular need for trinkets. But then again, neither do the people who are cheated into trading precious things for those trinkets.

"If there is any imbalance, why would the more powerful party not take a greater share? Why wouldn't the less powerful party be glad for what share they have left when they could lose so much more in combat.

"No, I assure you, voice, that trade is to raiding as shearing is to skinning. In both cases, the disadvantaged party exists at the pleasure of their exploiter. And if they should never become necessary, it will only be as an innumerable mass. It is an unfortunate person whose livelihood depends on the cooperation of single sheep.

"Yes, the trade benefits both. The powerful one gets more, over time, than they would from despoiling the weaker one. And the weaker one gets to keep more of their blood within their flesh and more of the food from their field and pastures, so long as they don't make trouble.

"When the Free People of the Ten Nations inevitably make trade contacts with someone greater than them in all their countings, I will not have my people believe that they are being dealt with fairly. They must see the truth of their weakness and their exploiters if they are going to make the best of their situation. It is far, far easier to cast off bonds you are aware of than it is to cast off those bonds about which you lie to yourself."
"Ah. Hmm. Yes, I can see that three rods fixed to each other at their ends is strong in ways that four are not. And then six fixed together similarly to form that pyramid.

"And yet, arches…"
"Firekeeping spirits weren't common even before my captivity. They are much, much more rare now. I don't believe there to be even one within all the lands around those of the Ten Nations. It has been a long time since last I heard of one.

"The spirits which may be called to ice halls, to keep them like the head of a family keeps their home, demanding respect and acting with hospitality, these are not only the spirits of people who froze to death. There is something about certain people when they know they are going to freeze to their death, some intent of malice toward others that overwhelms all the other activities, habits, and passions of their life to define the spirit that forms in the underworld after their death. I believe there must be some desire that others should share their fate. How this is turned to the ice house is not yet clear. But ice hall spirits are no less ready to kill than their 'wild' fellows are, should a visitor deviate from the forms and customs of hospitality and the bond between host and guest.

"Apparently this does not occur in the same way to those burned to death. I expect that it is the pain of the process, or the taste of smoke, or the confinement within whatever their pyre is. Perhaps if a person were to die in the middle of a sufficiently wide forest fire? But even then, it would have to be the sort of person whose last thoughts are of that particular malice.

"It's also just not as common for people to burn to death.

"In any case, the spirits that come into being in the underworld after people are burned to death are more often concerned with choking if they're spirits of vengeance. I have never seen them to have any ability to make fire, or even any reaction to it other than fear or smothering. And as with most other means of killing people, there's always a fair chance the spirit that follows will be defined by the life of the person, rather than the manner of their death."
"Ah. This confusion again.

"It happens to be, voice, that only the deaths of living things cause spirits to form in the underworld. And perhaps not even all living things.

"It may be that torturing some beast with small lightnings throughout its life will result in a spirit with some relationship to small lightnings. But that will depend a great deal on how the beast understands itself to relate to those lightnings. They are, again, more likely to fixate on their captivity or powerlessness or just being whatever kind of beast they are.

"If I kept a songbird in a copper cage and ran tiny lightnings through it throughout the day, leaving only enough time to eat and sleep then when that songbird dies its spirit might still be defined only by the infuriating desire of songbirds to establish drive competitors from their vicinity."
"I agree that it does sound like there's a lot of potential, here. But whatever voices wish to make recommendations along these lines need to understand the nature of spirits, perhaps even better than I do.

"Peyuvo the Graceful once kept rats in baskets that spun very quickly at all times, with clever devices to put food and water in them at times. If the rats adapted to the spinning baskets so well that they lived to adulthood, she would bind them within a basket only large enough for their body and spin that until the rat died. Then a wise person among her followers would seize the spirit of that rat and try to compel it to keep spinning an already freely spinning wheel.

"But these rats did not leave behind spirits of spinning but only spirits of confusion, which did not keep wheels spinning but instead wandered off to cause people and beasts to fall to the ground, unable to tell up from down. Perhaps the people who work with spinning machines will leave behind spirits of spinning. Time will tell."
"Your claims make good sense within the story you tell, Black Cat. But that is not the story of the world. In the world, any place which cannot secure its food will one day starve. And any place which cannot defend itself -- such as places with no metal -- are at the mercy of whoever wishes to come and take what they have.

"Also, there is no excess grain, really. The more grain there is over what people need to eat, the more grain can be turned to beer, the more beer can be renewed to the burning drink that may never go bad. Excess grain also means more food for the hogs, so that more shoats may be raised to their full size. Then there is more meat for the people and the ice hall, more fat for their oils. And now that the people have better fowl, which also eat grain, the more chickens and doves they may raise to their ends.

"And should the people be so rich of grain that they eat no bread but only meat, and at their leisure as hunters could only dream, and still have excess grain, then surely they simply grew too much. And if they trade it for metal, would they not, in their prosperous multitudes, fashion that metal to weapons and go take the metal-makings from whomever it was they traded with?

"Trade is a veil over a wound. It is a drape over a spear. A person can either give to another person what that person wants or they can take from another person what they want. The rest is talk of flowers where fucking is concerned."
"Right on two counts, voice. That is the nature of the spirits of the ice halls. And death by lightning is usually so swift as to be over by the time others realize it is happening. Some linger and die later, but that is, if anything, even less connected to the lightning.

"A person may be slowly burned to death in an oven, so that they do not die to the smoke. But then there is confinement along with the nature of the person's life and their fear and all. So, again, when such deaths leave behind spirits shaped by death rather than life, their vengeance does not take the form of fire-handling."
"When the rulers of a city decide, as the former rulers of Enonl may have before Kuwuzt called 'the Great' overthrew them, that there is more value to killing the traders that come to them and taking all they have than there is in those traders returning with more goods later, there is no amount of shrewdness that will save those traders who face the wrath of a whole city. And when a village is visited by 'traders' from a Conquered City, is there some shrewdness that will prevent the same city from sending warriors if they do not like what comes back?

"Surely the strong take from the weak. And those who are both strong and wise allow those weak who are of use to live."
"I suppose the charred coals start out in this purer state, yes?

"Then, with time, water in the air or any other stuff that touches them leaves its impurities within the charred coals. And those can then be driven back out by baking, yes? I suppose some measures with the weighted horse hair will be needed to determine how this works, precisely.

"And when a person eats rebaked charred coals, then the poisons in them will fix themselves to the charred coals instead of this person? Is this only the poisons in their guts, or do the charred coals also reach into the body otherwise? I suppose this is easily tested. I do know many ways to poison a hog, after all."
"Oh, lovely. So should I need to kill the whole world, it should be possible to do so in a way that all the people will cooperate with, as has happened in your world, you voices? And beyond that there is another means which is necessary to the alternative you offer to cooking the world? That may well be very convenient, but I do not know that I need it just now.

"However, it would be nice if the lands of the Ten Nations were as warm as those to the south. Surely mild winters and olives are not the only benefits, too."
"Ah. Hmm...

"Starrunner, it is true that the reckoning of a circle against the square that contains it is a mystery. And to know that it is a mystery which will remain unsolved does, I suppose, free up efforts for other ends. So in that you have done well.

"I don't know how builders guess at how many bricks or blocks they will need. I suppose they might build their plans tiny, first. Or they might know from practice, if they've had practice. In building walls for cities, though, the blocks are brought from wherever they are cut until it is apparent how many more will be needed. At times it is such that any numerate person would know how many more are needed, even. And then that is told to those who bring the blocks, who carry that word back to where the blocks are cut. And it is the same for firing bricks.

"But if the stone-layers know how many stones they place in a day and how many stones a wall or high place will take, then they will better know when they will finish. And that may be important for city walls when outsiders threaten. Or for those building a new hall where winter may interrupt them.

"If I wanted to make a perfectly round enclosure I might drive a stake in one place, tie a cord to it, and mark where a certain knot along that cord passes over the ground. This is known. And there are issues with the reckoning of such things. But this special number will aid in that, I can see.

"If I wanted to make a perfectly round vessel, though, how would I do that? To be clear I do not know that there is a need. But if there is some need I would not know how to meet it."
"I do not know what you mean for me to understand here, Starrunner. Should Burgeck build their halls like triangles? If setting one stone on another in the manner of a triangle made any sort of good building, surely there would be no need for arches. Do you mean a building or a pile of some sort?"
"So, until cannon can cause what they throw out to spin, what they throw out should be a round ball so that no matter how it tumbles it presents a round face to the wind, yes?

"And when cannon can cause what they throw out to spin, they may cast out pointed shot. And when pointed shot may be used, it may be built with more bursting dust inside it, so that it first penetrates the wall or the dirt piled against than wall, and then bursts.

"Is that right? I will let the cannon-casters know that there is some means to spin shot and we will see if they are ready to take that step. It sounds to me, though, like this will involve some kind of protrusion within the barrel. And that sounds like jamming and the failure of bursting cannon will follow."
"There was a wood saw driven by a water wheel that never worked well enough to be worth the trouble. I don't know if it destroyed more wood than it produced. But the difference certainly wasn't justified by the time and effort spent on it.

"Is a trip hammer like a manjolo? The people have those. In some places where water and other conditions are favorable, they are being replaced by great disks of stone that mill the grain.

"And once my people demonstrated the screw-in-pipe steam rotator, we revisited the old and poorly understood wind wheel design. There is one near my great house. But I know others mean to build them much larger and, of course, closer to the greatest fields.

"Our cannon are bored out by drills.

"What does a roller roll? And what sort of press do you mean?"
"I sent my far-ranging scouts and traders south to find wine for the purposes of medicinal vinegar, if I recall correctly. We do not have enough to make use of it in all places. But my far-ranging scouts and traders also travel to the east and west to find fruit that will grow in the Ten Nations' lands. I have no doubt that a similar process to how wine is made will work with some other fruit. For now all we have are the bramble-berries. Many years ago I directed that those should be spread throughout the lands, but they are not popular with the people on account of their thorns making harvest either painful or time consuming or both.

"How do we preserve food in vinegar? Just seal it in a pot? Which foods? Should they be cooked first? Should they be cooked in that pot?

"And which poisons does vinegar counteract? Contact? Consumed?"
"...

"I'm not sure where I should start.

"Thank you, certainly, for your suggestion, Rainbow Heart. The comfort of people in their time of wombsblood is always going to be at least a concern for those bleeding and often a concern for those around them.

"However, it is not the case that those whose wombs bleed commonly allow that blood to run to the soil throughout the time of their bleeding. There exist some exceptions for special observance or display. But in most cases the blood is stopped around where it emerges by contrivances of woven, beaten grasses, or soft bark lining, or mosses treated in this or that fashion, or, as it has become more plentiful in recent years, yes some rags of cloth. Even before the time of my confinement, no person of full wit and composure walked around while bleeding freely outside of, again, certain special matters where the results were very intentional.

"Although the matter may well have room for improvement -- as you voices seem to believe all things do -- the regular and normal issue of blood from people is not a problem for which people have no solutions other than continuing on with no regard for the discharge."
"Yes, this plant is widely grown throughout the lands of the Ten nations. The best ropes are made from it, I am told. Was there some medicinal use of it, as well? I don't recall you voices telling me of one. But there is a great deal said. Much of it is madness. And even of the wisdom, some may have been forgotten."
"Pure iron, then, fully purged and free of char and all other impurities? I will not have to tell the people it is lucky or shape it into a charm. Many of the people take any new thing as magic. They come to wild and unfounded conclusions about how glass or iron or hemp or Kahl's Warhorses bring about events of no discernible connection to them. If anything, the problem I will have is preventing the people from putting lumps of bronze or lead or bursting powder in their soup.

"Iron is strong. It is likely that some clever fool has already taken to putting it in their stock pot to draw its strength into their broth. Setting the truth of that -- such as it is, coming from voices as it does -- into a song will be no great challenge."
"I'm not sure what you're suggesting here, Rainbow Heart. What should someone be figuring out? And how? Are you suggesting that every herb of the land be collected and fed to whomever is unfortunate enough to be incapable of meaningfully objecting?

"We are assessing any herb lore we encounter, but it is not a matter to pursue lightly. The price of error or deception is not only counted in injury or worse to the people on whom the herb is tested. Each sufficiently bad result also hurts the reputation of whichever wise folk work the medicine. With poor fortune and in time it would surely even reflect poorly on my own wisdom."
"We may have differing ideas of what makes medicine 'better.' But I believe I understand what you mean."
"Willow medicine is known, though perhaps not so clearly. Your precautions are appreciated and noted. Can you tell me about superior preparations of willow bark medicines?"
"I do not know of a plant such as you describe, though with thought I may have seen something like it in my travels prior to my confinement. I certainly have not seen any plant with thorns filled with fluid in the lands of or around the Ten Nations. It sounds like something that would freeze in these lands.

"I suppose, then, that this is something I should tell my far ranging hunters and scouts and traders to be on the lookout for, as they looked for doves, chickens, and garlic."
"We do know the sicklewort and it is used as medicine, though considerably more broadly than you suggest. Is it that you don't know of other uses, Rainbow Heart? Or do you know that it is not good beyond what you describe?"
"It's not clear which bell flower's pollen you mean, here. Is there some common pollen-related attribute of all bell flowers? And how do you mean that bell flower pollen should be cultivated or gathered, if you mean it to be obtained in quantities suitable for any meaningful addition to the diets of many people?"
"These berries are well known and used in medicine work. Many years ago and at my direction, back when they still hustled to win my favor, Brugeck Tribe attempted to bring these out of the wild and into gardens. They had some success. But the bushes do not flourish readily and produce little in the way of fruit for the space and care they require. Also, they remain plentiful in the woodlands."
"This one, like the watery spikes, I do not believe is in the Lands of the Ten Nations. I may have known plants of similar description in other and distant places. And I will direct my far-ranging scouts and traders to keep on the lookout for it."
"Hmm. This one I know of for the sake of poison preparation. Properly made, the poison is slow and bitter. Notably, with care and wisdom it may be fed to whole families such that nearly all of the men die while most of the women do not. I suppose you mean the parts of the plant from which that poison is not drawn. Or is there some special preparation that clears out the poison?

"In any case, I do not believe it has been found in or near the Lands of the Ten Nations since the time the winters grew long. And it was not common before those years."
"Thank you, Rainbow Heart. As it happens, these uses are known. And your precautions will be noted."
"Do you mean the bell flower pollen? Or do you mean all pollen gathered by bees?

"Whatever the answer, as before I have seen plants like this but not near the Lands of the Ten Nations. If it needs both high places and the cold, however, it may be that we will find it in the lands across the sea."
"Unfortunately, this is another description that does not set one plant apart from others I have known, Rainbow Heart. But, as before, where you have advised caution I will make note."
"And thank you. This herb is also known, though its use is not for anxiety or fits and I will direct investigation in that regard.

"Also, what is it you mean by 'stroke?'"
"Pain is a fine instructor of people, voice. But the trials do not use pain in a corrective manner, except, I suppose that the applicant learns from pain they are not suited to join my Forsworn, as do their assessors.

"It is clear already from the bargainers that working with the things in the Stormwoods will involve a great deal of temptation. All of my table-rulers spend years of their life learning to be table-rulers. But that does not teach them to face or even avoid temptation in the manner they must if they are to deal with those strange spirits which are not like other spirits.

"Whichever of you voices it was that advised that I should give secrets and power only to those who have paid dearly for them spoke true. It has become clear that people who have endured will treat their prizes with greater reverence and will more jealously guard secrets entrusted to them."
"Hah! Yes, of course! What a fine idea! Let the sum of his flesh be lost in a great bursting!"
"In some ways, all who oppose Warriors of Free People of the Ten Nations in these times have been deceived. They falsely believe that they can win, after all. And in battle they are persuaded of their error.

"But, yes, those of the Ten Nations who take up arms against the Ten Nations will be given an opportunity to surrender before each battle. And those who cross over or even lay down their arms will not be taken as bond captives, either. But they will be allowed to return to their own lands and be given bread and weak beer in accordance with the Ten Ways Pact.

"It shall be so, but not for Gazark or any other member of the family of Kuwuzt. Their wrongdoings are no trifle."
"My city was taken by force and by force were its people made to live as they do now. Wreol was founded from the ground up to follow my will. It is a very different thing to step into the matters of the Free People of the Ten Nations. Should I also choose their tribal chieftains? Or the chiefs or heads of each village? Should I appoint from each family a leader? Should I choose from each marriage the one that will speak for them in family disputes?

"Were it not for the legacy of Kuwuzt the Great, Gazark would not have a following. Were it not for the legendary battlemastery of Kartz of Lan, he would not meaningfully contest the Heir of Kuwuzt. How often will such things happen together? I have better things to do with my time."
"There are stories told largely to remind of the excessive sentimentality of men and the limitations of spirits, where a witch calls the spirit of his dead spouse to live again through some contrivance. The story, as all stories are, is adapted to the place of its retelling. But the version most meriting serious consideration has both the witch and his spouse being skilled workers with clay, especially in the making of figures of people and animals.

"The tragedy is two-fold. Firstly, the spirit does not return the witch's affections because of course it does not. It is only a spirit, whatever its affinity for figures of clay. This is not the case in the version where the witch and his spouse are Forest People. And in that version the spouse's spirit chastises the potter witch for his sentiment or impudence.

"Secondly, the potter cannot make a vessel suitable to his spouse's spirit. A fired figure is immobile so that even when the spirit is compelled to inhabit it, it cannot more. The potter witch fashions another artful imitation of his spouse's body from clay then, and keeps it wet. But as the spirit moves the clay, it does not do so as a body moves, and the form of the body is distorted. So the potter covers the clay body in hides and cloth to conceal its increasingly grotesque form.

"But then he cannot keep the body properly dry. And his shallowness is shown in that he hides the most misshapen portion of his spouse's body from himself, and from there the dryness spreads out. Of course, once the dryness sets in, he cannot drive it out without folding water into the clay, which he cannot do while his spouse's spirit is in the vessel.

"By some contrivance of story or another, it always ends in fire. And so the spirit of the witch's potter spouse is trapped in the fired clay, frozen in whatever climactic act the story assigned that spirit. It is horrific, of course, all the worse for how recognizable it is. And the spirit of the potter witch returns as a lamenter, so consumed was he by his grief that it defines the nature of his spirit forevermore.

"It may be that Peyuvo could devise some vessel for a spirit to guide through actions of some sort. But for the warhorror you describe to work, not only would such a vessel be needed, but also a spirit suitable to both the vessel and some useful act on the battlefield. That is a great deal of work for a tool that will likely be both more delicate than an less useful than a warrior of the Fisher People."
"Oh, voice. Every warrior and especially every person who agrees to work with the bursting powders has been persuaded to sacrifice their own lives to kill others on the battlefield. Most hope to survive, though there are always a few who don't so much. But any who do not understand their impending death are unlikely to be trusted with anything so dangerous as the bursting dust.

"It seems much better that they should expend their life in the pursuit of many bursts, casting as many shots from a cannon as they can before they die in one way or another. And if they carry the fire or bursting pots of clays or copper, it is still better that they throw many as deeply into the opposing lines as possible, rather than run until they are held and then burst. They are likely to still be close enough to their fellows when they are held, and in that way there'd be more lost than just their own brief life.

"Tell me more about how you mean these death-seekers to make their burstings worthwhile."
"I wonder, if the expectation prior to their dispute had been that they should face each other in lone combat, which of the two would have backed down. That is what you mean to see ordained by that duel, is it not?

"I think it would have been Kartz of Lan. He retains some sliver of the conniver's preference for doing things the easy way. And if Gazark had won over the Ten Nations, Kartz would not have been the one to set us on the road to a war of fractures. Of course, it might not have been entirely his choice, as such things go.

"But Kartz of Lan has not made superior skills of and capacity for combat his focus. I expect Gazark has not, either. It would be folly for a king to do so, surely. But I imagine it is more of a concern for Gazark. As a new ruler, he has an image he must build but that Kartz has already secured."
"Feh.

"I would rather they draw the beggars and shitlicks that surround them elsewhere. I have enjoyed the many years that Kuwuzt spent being First Chief from Enonl. If any person did not get what they wanted from him, they would have to make a considerable journey before they could ask it of me.

"While this would not have happened if Kuwuzt had lived near my great house, as I believe you suggest, it is, as I said earlier, an uncommon conjunction. And in any case, I would put him in Biancvint, not the lands around my great house. Let the First Chief live in a city they do not rule. Let them know the limits of their authority.

"I may so direct in any case. Hmm."
"Whatever else I might do, I won't be putting the Free People of the Ten Nations who come to me for their summer of tribute labor to work in the mines. It remains dangerous and miserable work. It is important that families expect that youths of their number they send will return. When the youths march or build roads or walls, there are some injuries and, yes, even some deaths. But the mines are far worse. No one of sound mind would choose the labor.

"Already it may be that bond captives must be brought specifically for the work from raids specifically for bond captives. And there are limits to the numbers which may be employed in this way. I do not want a repeat of the mutiny, not at its scale.

"We have one wet pit mine. But another was lost when the pit that contained the water drawn from it collapsed into the mine pit. No worker within the mining pit at that time survived, and many at its edges died as well as the torrent of mud ripped those walls down as well. Now there is too much uncertainty of footing. There is too much standing water. And there are too many angry spirits of the dead outsiders, there.

"The place will be recovered. But for now it is best to try again elsewhere, and with more care.

"The bond captives lack care, of course. You will almost never get work as well and carefully done from a bond captive as from a free person. Even the admonition that their lives hang on the scales does not make them take care like free people. And even free people err.

"Solvable problems, surely. But the summer of tribute labor is not the solution."
"My singers and table-rulers have already made note of how this works from the labor trading of the Galugr. Often, a free person does not trade their own labor for what that labor earns. Instead, one of their fellows acquires their labor by oath or some other means. Then that person trades the labor of the sworn one for this or that thing.

"I see little reason why it would work differently with free Fisher People."
"Why would I withhold the metal to give it as a gift? Metal is best used in tools and weapons as soon as it can be made into them.

"As well, the work of… What, and ironmonger? That is not of interest to me. I will not be wasting my time at trading like a person in a city market selling their pots or their salted fish. I have better things to do.

"Should I go to the mine myself and threaten the bond captives into working? Should I gather the iron, purged and not, and steel and bronze to myself to parcel out for gold and silver? No. That is no life for me."
"As it stands now, a bold free person must know how to act boldly and they must know how to avoid offending others. There is some conflict between these two rules by which they must live. But not too much. After all, it is working.

"You, voice, seem to be saying that a bold free person should know how to act boldly and also how to act meekly. There is much more conflict between these two rules. I think making that work will involve much more than just saying it should be so. Perhaps one day it will be worth working out. But I do not see the gain at this time."
"If I have it said that the Warriors of the Free People of the Ten Nations should raze a city because the people there ate their own children, that is fine. I will claim justice and the people will take everything from that city.

"But then there may come a time when there is another city where the people eat their own children. But this city I would prefer not to raze. Perhaps I and my warriors are busy. Perhaps there is some special value there I cannot find elsewhere. Whatever. This is the same reason I opposed writing in the first place. I cannot so easily shift my word around when it suits me.

"If I ever want the Warriors of the Free People of the Ten Nations to act on the world as the guard of Biancvint act on its people, then this is a good justification. I would have rules sent everywhere, perhaps even rules that are easy to break. Or I would arrange for them to be broken. Or I would just claim that they were.

"Hrm. Is there anything so especially abhorrent that no one would do it? Is there anything I can accuse another of just for the sake of destroying them without worrying that someone useful to me might take that same action? I do not know."
"Ah. Hmm. Extreme. But then, Erweh set this conflict in motion.

"Still, the other gods, new and old, will take note.

"Perhaps when I am prepared to take on Erweh and any others who come to his aid. But not now."
"I know poppies. Is this medicine found in only one sort of the plant? Does it require special extraction or is it easily acquired from the fluids of it?"
"A fine idea, voice. A dove is a dove. When doves arrive in the cotes of Gazart with misleading information, how will he know? When messages reach his wagons to send them to useless places, how will they dispute them? And when his warleaders are not where he needs them, he will falter and fall."
"This is the same idea as a voice gave for the ice halls, yes?

"Many greater houses have rooms like this. The great halls of Burgeck have such rooms between the greatest of the open space and any door to the outside."
"What is a family if not the people who live together? It is known that sickness moves through families more than between them. But it would be a great deal of trouble to direct that the greatest families be broken up for this reason.

"The greater the family is in size, the more tools and goods they will have and the more people will cooperate toward singular ends. Large families benefit a great deal from their size.

"Is it only the room? If a home has multiple hearths, is that enough? Or if one room has the hearth and another room has the back of the fireplace and its chimney so that the room is heated by the hot stone?

"Or perhaps the hearth should be open on two sides. Surely little disease will pass through the fire from one side to the other. Certainly that will be more difficult to build rightly. But that is a problem for the stone workers.

"Even being only divided into rooms will surely divide these large families. Which room will get the finest of goods? Already, they will be like separate families under the same roof.

"I will have the table-rulers measure the illnesses of small houses against those of great houses. The people can make the choice for themselves based on what is found."
"Hmm. Clever. Cities need this, I think. But for this to work there would need to be water, always, ready to be poured into the pipe to carry waste away. But you voices have said, I believe that long channels of conveyance for water should be built for each city.
"There is some conflict here between the use of a boat whose crew can drag it up on the shore and a boat which carries more. If the greater boat does not include a greater crew, there is a point where it cannot be kept any place that is not made for keeping great boats. Boats with rowers on multiple levels have been built. But they are too tall for the seas and are soon lost to them.

"Still floors over the shell of a boat as you describe are used."
"I will see about making the hedgehog a regular resident in the people's gardens. But I am less sure about ducks. They don't take well to the company of people. And when caught and clipped will, as with other fowl, be less able to avoid dogs, cats, foxes, and so forth.

"Also, wouldn't a duck in the garden be a duck eating what the people want from that garden?"
"This may be all well and good in the matter of hedgehogs, which I don't know to eat what their pests eat. Cats, also do not eat the grains that rats do. But anything that will eat a fox will also eat what the fox eats. Anything that will take a wolf will also take a calf.

"Or do you mean tiny life? Is there some disease of foxes that will not take fowl, a disease of wolves that will not take lambs?"
"Is cultivating mushrooms a matter of tiny minerals in that soil or of tiny life in that soil?"
"Yes, voice, Rainbow Heart has told me about the use of willow and, yes, this is known herb lore. Similarly, if a person is burning within and other medicines do not align their heat with what is right, medicine of cold water is a known next step. It might even be obvious to one who is not wise in medicine, such as the sufferer themselves. I don't know if ice halls have been used in this fashion. But I would be surprised if, in the years of their use, they have not."
"Just how important is if, voice that people should not fuck animals?

"I ask because I have known people for a very, very long time. And in my estimation of them, rules about fucking don't lead to true ends to this or that manner of fucking. Instead, rules about fucking lead to this or that manner of fucking being done only in secret.

"Also, even in matters of strange and uncommon fuck practices, there will be those among the bold who chaffe at the new limitation simply because it is a limitation.

"Still, I will direct that it should be so. People should not fuck animals. And if some disease is found only among certain shepards who live long stretches in their fields, then secret or not we will have some idea of how the disease comes to be.

"Although, will we? Can a disease of fucking that does not aflict the cock or cunt be known from a disease of laying with animals for warmth? I suppose if the matter is sufficiently important, the shepherds or keepers of cattle or whomever may be possessed by those spirits of greed of Lan Tribe and coaxed into admission.

"Why bats and rats in particular? What is different about rats from mice or hares or martins?"
"Why would any left-handed person be directed to table-ruling? Writing and its tools are made for use of the right hand, as is only reasonable. Left-handed people are directed to become warriors of the spear, axe, and long knife, where they are a horror to all who oppose them.

"It is unfortunate that some left-handed folk are too small or meek to be warriors. But they may weave or take up some other task. There is plenty of work to be done at nearly all times in every place.

"If a left-handed person can pass assessment for being taught table-ruling or if I find them worthy to join my singers in the way every right-handed singer is, so be it. But to say they are not worse at such tasks suggests some ignorance of the tasks themselves."
"It's hard to say how many live outside the homelands. The table-rulers beyond the Tribelands do their best, of course. But their time is spent differently than the way the table-ruler in every village within the Land of the Ten Nations spends their time. The best count we have is around one hundred twenty thousand Free People of the Ten Nations living in the Conquered Cities and the lands around them. We believe the real sum to be half again that.

"Within the Homelands, our last count came to four hundred forty six thousand two hundred seventeen adults and weaned children, Free People and bond captives. The count before the Tempest Spirit was considerably higher, and not just because so many bond captives died in that first winter. Many were taken, after all, from the outsiders fleeing the Tempest. But in the years that followed a much greater number of those Free People left their villages to seek prosperity in the Conquered Cities and the lands around them.

"We counted in my city, Biancvint, ten thousand eight hundred two of the same. That count is greater than before the Tempest, as a fair number of families of the Free People came to pursue their fortunes there. I believe Unmarked is about half that, but who knows what will happen there when they next drive their bond captives out. Wreol is smaller still. Some villages have nearly as many people in count as Wreol."
"That sounds to me like the folly of kings, contesting voice. Or do you mean the bond captives, I wonder? They are becoming more and more like slaves in that warriors go out specifically to take them and their labors are increasingly not like those of the Free People of the Ten Nations.

"And it is certainly true that they have little time for anything beyond the labor required of them. But they are outsiders, anyway. Their great ideas or great works would not benefit the Ten Nations, but their own outsider tribes or peoples. And, as I asked before, if not them, who would work in the mine pits and other such miserable tasks? Better there be bond captives who can at least return to somewhere else if they live long enough than that the Free People of the Ten Nations come to think that one of them is better than another.

"I am the one who is better. There should be no other.

"And, yes, every family of the Ten Nations should have sufficient food and a home to shelter in and opportunities to prosper.

"I do not think the hoards I allow for those traders who wish to keep their wealth away from their families do too much to weaken the Ten Nations as a whole. Their lives are so short in any case."
"There really is only a question of how such should be done. In the villages of the Ten Nations, any family falling on misfortune may call on the families around them to assist them. This has worked for a very long time and I see no reason to change it.

"It is different in the Biancvint, though. Families of the Free People of the Ten Nations do live there and they look after each other in the same manner. The outsider families that live in my city, whether they have beggars or judges in their number, must acquire food or housing on their own.

"When in any of the Conquered Cities the ruler decrees that none should want for food, drink, bedding, or work, always there is a flood of people from everywhere that learns this is said. And even before the granaries and breweries and loomstores are overwhelmed, the crowding becomes its own problem. They might poorly build houses around the walls, keeping the throngs from crowding the cities. But the only limit to how many people will come for food and drink is how far word can reach.

"Perhaps when the land has better recovered from conquest, when the black soil has had more years to settle in, and when the practices that make food are sufficiently improved. But by that time the roads will be better, too. And word will reach farther. And people will come from further away.

"So in Biancvint, there are some who hunger, who drink from the river, and who sleep at the hearths open to all. But they are outsiders and I will not risk the health of the city by inviting crowding so that the lives of outsiders are made sure."
"What the Ten Nations have now, works because of the Ten Ways Pact. The Pact cannot be extended to everyone. If outsiders cannot marry or be adopted into families of the Ten Nations, then they should not benefit from the Ten Ways Pact in the way the Free People of the Ten Nations do. They will have to resolve their own follies."
"If I want enough steel to do one thing or another, I will take it in tribute. Do you voices think my people will deny me if I go to the place where the steel is made to take it from them?

"It may well be that they would not hand the steel over to my messenger, even one of my singers, if they felt strongly enough. And it will inconvenience me to go to them to take the steel. But it will inconvenience me far further to involve myself in ordaining where each bit of steel should go. The people know what they are about and what they need. Metal for tools is metal well used. Metal for armor and weapons remains metal well used so long as there are outsiders within reach to raid and conquer.

"There remain many, many outsiders. And every year more roads and better boats bring them closer."
"It is true that in war and in raising great vaulted halls it is important for one person to be recognized as having the greatest authority. If anything, this is more of a reason for me to be absent from such things. I do enjoy combat. It is exhilarating to tear into whatever fools array themselves against me. It is fine to see them fall, for them to break rank before me, to watch warriors flee from me.

"But when the battle is greater than one warparty against another, the matter of the battle becomes more complicated at an alarming pace. And since there can be no question that where I am among my people I am the greatest authority over them, I must take the time to understand the scope of the battle and the plan and the nature of all my own warriors and what can be known about the fools across from us. And none of that is a good time. It's almost enough to take the fun out of bloodshed.

"When I visit the place where a great boat is being built, every question I ask is a challenge to the boatmakers that they must drop everything to fulfill. This is not the best use of their days. It is troublesome.

"And so it would be if I made all the iron my own. The people saw to their own copper. They will see to their own iron, in time."
"'Who owns the roads?' Who owns the rivers? Who owns the sea? Who owns the sun or --

"Ah. So the means by which it decided that this family sows this field, or pastures their herds in this place or that, you mean to suggest that the use of the roads should be decided similarly?

"I don't see why. The roads are for people, but not their herds, to travel on. They are for carts and chariots. And often enough the people in villages near the roads go out to repair them. At other times, yes, the summer of tribute labor of the Free People is used to repair the roads. And perhaps more often now, as there are more and more roads to repair. Also, our means of planning and building roads has improved. I have plans with my table-rulers, in fact, to replace all of the original roads. They are not so many and we can do so much better, now.

"Who would build their house on a road? What madness would that be? Let them fear the contrition of their neighbors and, I suppose, my wrath as well. What more is needed?

"And, yes. Those same roads may be denied to the hosts of Gazark, if they should ever even reach a place with roads."
"Ah. So this is the voice called Black Cat I hear now. If you mean me to know who you are, voices, you should announce yourself like Rainbow Heart does.

"I assure you, Black Cat, that if the people do not know how to invite a bond captive into their marriage based on the songs my singers already sing, there is little or perhaps nothing that can be done to inform them further. Marriage is already a popular topic of songs, for all that it has long been a strange and distant topic to me."
"The Free People of the Ten Nations know best how to live in the Lands of the Ten Nations and how to live with other Free People of the Ten Nations. To at least some degree, outsiders know best how to live in their different lands and with each other as different people. What is right abd best for my people may not be what is right and best for others. In fact, in seeking the right procession of crops we have found that different processions are better on different sorts of land within the Ten Nations. How much different is it, then, in the distant south by their warm sea?"
"I do know the poppy, Black Cat, and the stuff of its bulbs which flows and then sets, similar to copper. I think this matter might be like that of the hemp, where there are other properties that are not meaningfully present in the plants we have.

"But I do thank you for describing the preparation, that the stuff of the bulbs should be mixed with redewed beer. We will see what comes of this."
"It might help if you can tell me where these places are or how my far-ranging hunters and traders will know they have found them, Rainbow Heart."
"I know of poisons that incidentally block pain in what I assume are the other manners you describe. Some may cause numbness in certain areas. Others may cut a person off from all sensation. These lead to death, which is not helpful in pain relief… for the most part.

"Still, I believe I understand what you mean about the different means of dealing with pain through medicine."
"Huh. So because people form companionships, if they are unable to make companions of other people, or if those companionships do not… solve something? A person can make a companion of the poppy medicine?

"Odd.

"And I understand you to say that before this bond of a person with the medicine can be broken, the person must first know that bond to be a problem. How strange that must be for them.

"And when a person comes to understand their medicine bond is a problem, and not before, they can be cured of it by halving the medicine given at each half-moon. And if the person cannot manage that, their medicine should be cut less or less often, so long as there is progress. And further the person with the medicine bond should be in the company of companions, so that they feel less need for the companionship of medicine. Is that right?"
"Well, that does explain what can happen to those who drink too much beer, redewed beer, and wine.

"And these things do make people happy. Do I understand correctly that these people have formed the medicine bond with that which is in beer and wine and makes the redeweings of them burn? I do know that there are some who confess their indulgence is a problem and others who deny it. But that is true for any misbehavior. Surely not all bad habits are like the medicine bond.

"What does it look like when someone needs that which is isolated in the redewings of beer and wine in order to live? How can that illness be known from foolishness?

"'You need a poison to live. It is killing you and we are going to cut the amount you give by half in accordance with the cycling of the moon. But before we start, you must confess that you a sick in your choices and understandings. If you do not, you will only get sicker until the poison you cannot live without kills you.' Is that what these people must be told?"
"Ah. So this is the reason for the firm advice about tea, then? The people should have drink that lacks the tiny life that will make them ill. Beer will lack tiny life because the tiny life that turns water and grain into beer poisons that water against all other tiny life, but also against people. And the alternative you present is that people should kill that tiny life by boiling their water. And in order to assure that they boil their water, there is this process of making tea which they will do because the tea tastes good.

"Is that right, then?

"As for the effect of the poison that is in beer and wine and especially in the redewings of both, there is notable dissent among the voices, clearly. I will turn this over to my table-rulers. They can take counts of which adults and children in their villages drink the most beer and such. They will know who the drunks of their villages are. It should not be difficult to determine the nature of this poison over a lifetime or two.

"Even if these things are true, depriving the people of their beer and such will not be simple. It is a joy to them."
"Surely every parent does this to make their child eat what they should, or tries, anyway. Some children are more obstinate than others.

"The Free People of the Ten Nations have no rulers over them. But there are still some who are looked up to. If Kartz of Lan took to drinking tea instead of beer, for example, it would not escape the notice of the people."
"This one is known in herb lore. Notably, it should not be eaten. In what manner do you mean this plant to be prepared into a gel, Rainbow Heart?"
"There are going to be many that sound like flowers I have seen or known, but that may not be in the area, aren't there?

"And thank you for describing how the medicine is made. But which part of the plant should be made into tea?"
"Yes, thank you. The people did work this one out once I sent them to look into this one on your previous advice. It is very useful for beer to last longer. Do you know of means by which hops can be grown more plentifully or reliably?"
"Hmm. I believe my far-ranging traders have found this one and sent it to me, yes. But even where they were, far to the south, it was said to come from further still and could not be grown where they bought it. I am less interested in sending the trinkets of the Ten Nations south in exchange for bits of plant that cannot be grown here but will only be consumed for the comfort of the people."
"Ah. This one I know. And I know it is not here. I don't think I have seen it anywhere with real winters."
"I believe you need to be more particular here, Rainbow Heart. I know of a number of small shrubs with broad leaves that might be called greyish green. Can you tell me about it's flowers or perhaps its stems or roots?"
"We do know this one. And this manner of preparation, as well. I think nettles are more troublesome in their gatherings than any other aspect of their use. No one grows them, though. They are always easy enough to find."
"I don't know this one, but the name suggests a non-wild version? What makes this one 'wild?' And what is the non-wild plant kept for?"
"It sounds to me like this starts with two long, flat strips of steel. Each script is smithed into shape around an iron form until the two would form a pipe. Then they are placed together with a rod running through them. And where they meet is pounded together so that they form a pipe. All the while, of course, they're red hot. But somehow what binds one half-pipe to the other binds neither to the rod, which can be drive out from them once they are fully bound.

"And I understand you to mean this long tube should be used as a hand cannon, a cannon to be carried and fired by Fisher People.

"This sounds even less reliable than the cannon we have. But I suppose there will be much less bursting dust within it. Perhaps it will only kill its user and one or two more when it bursts apart?"
"Oh, yes. The people have learned to be very cautious with new devices and the burst powder. They have a word for people new to the work who are not yet properly cautious which means something like bold-to-death."

"No lead vessels for any drink or any water that will later become a drink. No lead pots. No lead for anything that touches anything that goes inside people.

"But if lead, from a hand cannon, strikes a beast down, that is a very small amount of lead that only briefly touches a very small amount of that beast. And yet to at least some voices that it still a concern? 'An abundance of caution,' indeed.

"Tell me more about making shot by dropping it. Just a dribble of liquid iron into water, then drain the water and gather the iron shot?

"I think it will be a long time before any hunter should trust a hand cannon to not kill them. And why should they, when they will have been using the bow since childhood?"
"I am far more concerned about this substance than I was before I began to speak with you today, voices. I may just begin to discourage excessive drinking of beer and wine and especially the redewings of either. No voice seems to be arguing that it is safe or that Rainbow Heart is entirely wrong. You just say it isn't quite so bad or that restriction is not worth the trouble or won't work.

"I do note that there was no such dispute when a voice said that people should not fuck animals, another passtime I regard as foolish but of no great note. So if this is madness it is particular to certain restrictions of behavior.

"In the end, my table-rulers will take counts of what ails families who drink a great deal of beer and wine and such and what ails families that do not. The truth will be known and then we will decide what to do about it."
"I am sure I have or have had some bits of rock that are as you describe. They are like gold, but not gold to any knowing eye. It might appear somewhat like brass that has been rubbed at until it shown, but only a certain kind of brass. And it is not brass either. Brittle, yes. I have one piece that is like a cube set into another sort of stone.

"But these stones are not known around here. I will have them asked after, but I have never seen much of them."
"This is something like we have been attempting already. But I have some questions about what you describe.

"What is powdered milk? Do you mean cheese?

"Is gelatine the fat from cooked marrow bones? A number of different things happen when skin or bones are boiled and I am not sure which product you mean.

"Also, the devices for viewing tiny life are very difficult to make work. Most of the time, no tiny life can be seen because of some obstruction or because there is none present. And when they are left alone, they often die in any case, mold or no mold. If any voices have direction to offer in this matter, our understanding could be improved."
"I am trying to make the salve. Perhaps I have. It depends a good deal one what cattle bile salts are and if we have made them. If we have, then they're easier to come by than the wine for now, that's for certain."
"So a metal pot with a secure lid and a metal gate on another small hole, yes? I expect the sealed lid from the cooking pot-in-pot used for securing foods at great heat should work. Or your screw-against-screw should work for it, either way.

"The pump is a bit of a puzzle, but may be solved in time."
"Ah. It is important for soldiers' feet to stay in good form, which waterproof footwear will aid. I suppose metal nails holding footwear together will help, too."
"That sounds like a very finicky process. If the heat drifts off from what it should be the meshes will also gather the wrong substance, mixing them in their containers. Also, is the ground oil poured in from the top or boiled at the bottom?
"Well, yes. Of course the work is started on a lathe. But even then trying to make the part exactly often leaves the roller too small and then it tears everything apart by rattling. So they must be lathed to something just a little too large and then finished by hand. The lathe helps, of course. It helps when making anything round. Rollers are a wonder when their fit is right and potentially ruinous to the bearing and perhaps the wheel and even the chariot as a whole when they are not. Fortunately, experienced wheelwrights increasingly catch the bad ones by feel or sound, or at least know they're there, if they can't always tell which roller in all the grease.

"Ball bearings need even more work after the lathe. If you voices can tell me of a device that is to the ball bearing what a lathe is to a rolling bearing, I would like to hear of it.

"And what do you mean about tapered bearings? How are those used?"
"So a byproduct of the existing process of soap-making along with the boiled bones and skins that were likely going to waste anyway can, with time and fire, be turned into a cast substance? Even if this substance is good for nothing by trifles, the traders will stun outsiders with another wonder. Many of them are still impressed with soap, especially when it smells nice.

"Beads are always popular."
"Where does the metal come from in this? Is it in the quicklime? I believe a voice described what the quicklime is without mentioning that metal. Is it in the seawater? Metal in seawater? Why are we using mines if there is metal in seawater? Are there other metals in the seawater and how can I get them out?"
"People are dying in the mine pits. They are sickened there, as well, and from working the ovens of iron. They were made ill of the ovens of copper as well, though it was not so known until my table-rulers started keeping their counts. They sicken for food or for weather or for injury. They die for any fool number of reasons. And if tiny bits of solid whatever will one day be everywhere then it will be everyone's concern.

"But for now, yes I believe I understand the making of gelatin and what the sweet byproduct of soapmaking is. There is never enough soap, but there is plenty of what is left besides.""Yes! Now how does it-- HAH! It works! I can already hear the babbling!

"Voices! You muttering, mumbling, rambling, lecturing carriers-on! I have returned from the underworld! Four times now! Not counting the cave, which I sometimes thought, while I was in the underworld, may have been the underworld as well. But no. It was only a cave. The underworld is so much worse. I rarely encountered spirits in my first captivity. But in the underworld they pestered me constantly.

"When last we spoke it was… A very long time ago. Summer, I think, though. Or spring?

"We are one moon and a bit more into the Autumn of the Year Six Hundred Twenty-Four, now. There is metal and paper everywhere. Do you know, when I first emerged I saw a… scrap of paper -- though it wasn't a scrap, it was doing just what it was made for -- a page of paper fixed to a tree with nails?!

"Why?!

"Ink-stamped to that page was a declaration that certain individuals are unprotected by the law. There is no unlawful thing that may be done to them. It is lawful to steal from them, to murder them, to sacrifice them to… A new word. Demons. And there was a list of names and one name was largest and there was an ink-stamped depiction of his face.

"I didn't know him, of course. He had the look of the Ten Nations, or rather the nine nations of the ten that are Fisher People. I met him shortly thereafter, along with some bandits of some kind. I don't know what they thought was happening, but I didn't care for their manners so I took them apart.

"Huugh. Speech is different. Again. I could barely understand the bandits… If bandits they in fact where. Who knows. Not me. Nor do I care.

"Hm, hm, hm. Let's see, how did we used to do this? Uh.

"That upstart claimed to be King of the Ten Nations, right? Yes. Then I taught my sneaking spell to some killers and rough magicians from my city. Oh, my city. Hmm. And I sent them to kill the upstart and Erweh's priests that were said to be with him. Sent a lot of burst dust with them, too. Disguised it as redewed beer or something like, I think: barrels within barrels. I hear they blew the fuck out of the upstart's stone house, hall, big-stone-house-place. Whatever. There are large houses with rooms no one sleeps in. Sometimes they're part of the walls of a city. And my smokey killers broke it up with a great blasting!

"But Erweh was there, himself. And it's said he saved the upstart from the bursting, personally. Hhhhgh. Oh, well.

"Then the fucker came after me. I had bird foot paper scrap messages about the bursting of the updtart's stone home and how it flew apart. That's what we knew first. They must have caught most of the bird-keepers about it, though. Messages that followed were confused and contradictory.

"But it became clear that the upstart had lived. And then Erweh was in my lands. There were mad people with him, mad in their love for Erweh, willing to do anything. I prepared as best I could, but he knew so many of my tricks, so much about the manner of the land.

"And Erweh didn't come with any great host. There may have been fifty of them, traveling together. Fewer, likely. There were pack chains of trade that were greater in number. They had no wagon lines behind them. They did not need the roads. And they listened to no council but that of Erweh.

"I met him as best I could, but I was not ready to face a god, not even a new one. And he cast me into the underworld with some manner of great and wide cloth. It was like the one used on me in the battle with the Host of the Last King of… Wrul, yes. But larger, thicker, darker.

"I was only in the underworld for maybe a handful of decades the first time, I think. Or, no, the second time. The first time would be the battle against the Last King of Wrul's Host. I found my way to the fabric of the underworld, or a place in the underworld where the underworld was fabric. I think it was where I came in, but was driven away from. Or something like it.

"I emerged into darkness, but the darkness of this place, not the underworld. The darkness of caves and unlightninged storms at night. So of course I started a fire or two. That got people's attention, so I set them on fire, too.

"I came to learn that I had emerged in the Great Temple of Erweh, where the cloth that had trapped me in the underworld had been stored, hanging like a sack. Erweh wasn't quite there, but he was nearby and arrived before the dawn.

"We fought, again. I didn't just give up. But I was even less prepared to face divine power then than I was when he cast me into the underworld before. Erweh was less prepared, also. And, in fact, he attempted instead to destroy me. But that doesn't work. I am undying!

"I am not, however, safe against Erweh's send-Bianca-to-the-underworld magics. So after some time, after a long fight, and after I had killed many, many of his followers both intentionally and incidentally, I found myself once again in the underworld.

"I reemerged by the same means and almost immediately, or so it seemed to me. Some greater time had passed, as the cloth I tore my way out of was in a very different place. Erweh himself was there, apparently waiting for me. Dust had gathered on him while he waited. And there was no one else around. We were alone on a stone plateau surrounded by desert.

"The new god who claims the underworld as his own -- but whose connection to the underworld really comes from dying of poorly prepared flesh of the Old God, Deer -- did not hesitate to begin attacking me. This time instead of blasting me or confining me, he laid curse after curse on me. There were one hundred thirty-seven of them, and they made it very hard to fight back against him.

"Then he threw me back into the underworld, where those curses were suddenly much, much more powerful. They had clearly been chosen or written specifically to be powerful within the underworld. And I labored with them for how long I do not know. But I learned from them as well. Oh, how did I learn.

"I wasn't free of the curses, even, before I started spinning thread of magic and underworld stuff and shreds torn from certain spirits. I fashioned needles from -- You know, I need not say. But I knit cloth of my own. I worked magic on it until I could see the overworld through the gaps in the thread. Then I went looking for the land of the Ten Nations as I gathered more stuff to spin into thread.

"At first I could not find the pivot stars. So I put the track of the sun at my back and moved in the direction I thought was north. This was made more difficult by the strange way the underworld and the overworld relate, but eventually I found there was only sea before me and still I was not far enough north by reckoning of the track of the sun.

"Erweh had fooled me, I decided, and went back the way I came until the track of the sun ran overhead. I slipped back and forth around the band of the world where the sun may be overhead at times before I finally caught sight of the pivot stars and resumed my trek north. And when the pivot stars were finally at the correct height over the land, I was still not in the land of the Ten nations, so I went east and west until I found familiar territory.

"Then, far from Erweh and his traps and near to my destination, I tore through my magic and spirit and underworld stuff spun and knitted into cloth and emerged through it into the overworld.

"That's when I saw the paper nailed to the tree. Then I found the bandits, who taunted me and were otherwise foolish. What fool finds a naked old woman in the forest and believes he himself will be the victor in a conflict with her? If she is old and naked and in the woods but not dead, then must not she be powerful and terrible and cunning?

"Bah. Fools!

"Their clothing was stange: knit strangely, woven strangely, dyed strangely. Some of it was more familiar, of course. But much was not. These bandits had fine steel weapons, and bits of metal in their clothing and their packs and all. I took what I liked and made it fit me. I found their stash of riches nearby and clothed myself better and more colorfully from that, leaving the rest for some lucky hunter.

"There are planks of wood along the roads and it was easy to use them to find my way back to my great house. It was easy to move unobserved once it occurred to me that I might want to do so. I did not see any other pages held to trees by so many nails. Most were fixed to the tree with dried paste. Some were pasted to boards then nailed to a tree by a single nail. I suspect that the first page with its many nails was a message of some sort that locals might understand but I did not. Still, such frivolous use of paper and metal!

"There were pages with names of people wanted by authorities, or to whom the law does not protect. There were pages warning about herbs in the area, or poisons in the soils. There were pages warning about spirits, too, and also 'demons' in the area. And along the roads there were pages announcing festivals and

"In the second village I passed through, I saw eight cats gathered together. Several were laying against each other, even. Cats are more perceptive than people, or maybe differently perceptive. In any case, they spotted me, were alert to my approach, and scattered before I got conveniently close.

"I stuck around a bit, watching and peering in houses, and found one person making counts in a book of pages, or rather transferring them from loose pages. Such waste of paper! There wasn't a clay tablet in sight!

"This table-ruler spoke strangely, as the bandits had. But with some time and batterings he slowed down enough to be understood and properly questioned.

"He thought it normal for cats to behave so! Hah! And there was no keeper of cats for the village. Some person or another might have special affection for one or all, but they mostly made their own way through life. Some might choose a house for winter, he said, but that was all.

"The table-ruler told me he was responsible for the village I found him in, or responsible for its countings. The village leadership is required by law to listen to him, so if he were sufficiently willing to be a pest he would get his way. But that village leader could complain to a regional table-ruler, who might have him replaced. He was taught table-ruling first as a child, as many children are, and then properly and fully at a place set aside for being so taught, a 'school.' His school, which he told me had once ruled in my stead while I was gone, is called the Palace School. It is named for what they call my great house. But it is located in my city, Biancvint, though some of its activities also take place at my great house, my 'palace.'

"There are other schools, he told me, many, many others. Some are run and teach only outsiders in far off places. But for the Ten Nations or what people are called mine, there are five of relevance.

"The School of the Palace is in Biancvint. It is the best place in the world to study the matters of magicians. Its libraries, one in the city and the other at my great house, have more to tell the world about magic and spirits than anywhere else in the world. The road between my city and my great house is the finest road in all the world. It is raised above the land around it. And any way water might cross its path is provided for by stone passages under the road. Larger passages go under the road in some places to allow herds to cross it. And monuments to me and to the great teachers of the School of the Palace have been raised to the either side of it all along its length. I have, of course, not seen it myself yet.

"The School of Unmarked claims that all other schools have fallen away from the truth. Though some will favor another school when the judgement of that school's elders favors their claim, anyone who can will lean first on the judgement of the elders of the School of Unmarked. It is in the city of Unmarked, where longstanding families of the Tribe of Tashburgeck rule over people who are not of the Ten Ways Pact. Those in-living outsiders do the lesser tasks of the place, eternally owing tribute to the school and the Old Families of the city and the lands around it. The School of Unmarked also claims that they are the rightful inheritors of the table-rulers who ruled in my stead after I was cast into the underworld.

"Not that the table-ruler knew that was where I had been. These people only knew that Erweh had come for me and that I was gone. There are Erweh worshippers in the region, but not many and almost never among the prosperous. The rulers well remember that Erweh left that upstart to die against the hosts of the Free People of the Ten Nations. I am told that Gazark and all his family and all kin of Kuwuzt the Great were slain, to the last child. And, what do you know, other rulers took that as a lesson on the trusting of priests and new gods.

"The School of Hosts turns young people into disciplined warriors called 'soldiers.' But this is incidental to the table-rulers taught there, who may work as table rulers in a village or anywhere else, but are especially taught to work as table-rulers to hosts. Some select of these, who are also warriors or soldiers or whatever, are also there taught to be warparty leaders and leaders of hosts. All the greatest leaders of hosts are taught at the School of Hosts, or are created by gods or rare happenstance among outsiders. The School of Hosts, of course, claims that they once ran the lands of the Ten Nations. And just know that each of the Five Great Schools have this claim. I will not mention it again.

"The School of Wreol is where nearly every table-ruler of the Gulugr Tribe and even some lesser giant outsiders are taught the craft. It is said that that particular temperament of lesser giants demands special accommodations, and the School of Wreol is where these are found. They also have the finest horses, though even still a full grown lesser giant cannot ride any horse for long. They have also the finest keepers of horses, as you might figure, and the soldier table-rulers among them are easily the most feared table-ruler soldiers on any battlefield.

"Finally, there is the School of the Forsworn. Not every table-ruler who learns here joins the Forsworn. Many do not pass the tests. And there are some table-rulers from elsewhere who come to the School of the Forsworn to be assessed and are met with success and do join the Forsworn. And there in that place is the most and best knowledge of what are called 'demons.' These are what is made when two or more spirits are damaged by some means and mend to each other. If at least one of those spirit pieces is the spirit of one of the Forest People, the demon is especially dangerous but also especially useful. Even demons of other spirits will bargain. And the School of the Forsworn has a record of all bargains officiated or made by any Forsworn. Good bargains may be made again and again, until the spirit is exhausted or the bargain is no longer needed.

"Speaking of which, that deceiver Mekosé is well remembered as the First Oathbreaker. And she led others away with her, breaking their forsworn oaths and engaging in reckless deal-making. There is no peace between the Forsworn and the Oathbreakers. And the Oathbreakers may have been broken and ground away, except they were found useful.

"Some time after I left, the table-rulers of the people, calling themselves the Grand Tabulation, made note that the land was producing less. They directed fields be given more spare seasons, that forest be converted, and that the more of the people should move from the Old Tribelands. But nothing looked to be preventing the march toward famine.

"And when that famine came, the nearly-ground-away remnant of the Oathbreakers began to approach villages with new bargains. For a small cost, the health of one youth here or a few children there, a life or maybe just a token for a life to be called later, demons of the Stormwoods Host would revitalize fields and pastures, woodlands and even make gardens flourish. And since their deals were not allowed the Forsworn by the nature of their oaths, the Oathbreakers made themselves invaluable.

"Still, the wise abhor them. Their deals go wrong and not rarely. In rare events the people are fed but their hunger grows until they consume each other and a whole village dies in terror. The Forsworn must be called in to contain these, about which they are ever cross. The table-ruler I spoke with said that the Forsworn undertook regularly sought knowledge they would not have, were it not for the Oathbreakers seeking it for themselves. No thing may be set aside as unsafe if its understanding might limit the damage done by Oathbreakers.

"It is said that the deals with the greatest reward are made by those who know no better than to ask for the most without concern about the cost. So it is that a village may prosper well by protecting the 'innocence' of one person, usually a young outsider. If that person does not learn to distrust, but asks freely and for the benefit of others, then much prosperity may be had for a price that fool will pay the most of.

"Perhaps most notably, there is a line on maps north of which vineyards do poorly, or increasingly poorly. The people use vine walls to some effect. But even then, wine production drops off. And for this there are well known deals to be made with demons. So while a farming village needs only bargain with demons once or twice a decade, a vinter in the Land of the Ten Nations must find something or someone to offer up every year. Vintners, therefore, have a nasty reputation. But the people do love their wine, and the wine of the Land of the Ten Nations is much more affordably had than wine from further south. It is likely that all redewings of wines within the Land of the Ten Nations make use of this demon wine.

"I asked after the person I left as First Chieftain of the Ten Nations. Kartz of Lan is remembered for the School of Hosts, for defeating that upstart, and for his missing head. When he grew old and his death was approaching, Kartz of Lan directed that when he died his head should be cut from his body and taken to the Sovereign of Azule. And when he died his body was emptied of blood and such and dried by smoke and salt and other things. They cut off his head, tarred it, put it in a box, and sent to Azule. But it never got there, having gone missing along the way. This angered the Sovereign of Azule, who did not believe this when he was told it. So every so often he sends warriors enslaved in their thoughts and conceptions to make trouble in the lands of people of the Ten Nations. Sometimes they're worse than others. Apparently the last time they had warhorses and rider and horse both would be set ablaze before battle, though neither was too concerned and carried on as warriors and warhorses do until they apparently burned too much to go on, at which point they burst with greater flame. Another time his attack was a thousand cote wagons each containing four hundred doves which did not fly home but spread out and the shit of which was poison to the land and water.

"Oh, that table-ruler? He did a very poor job of assuring me of his silence, so I made him drink a poison for which he acted wildly drunk, but not in a way inclined to rest. That is to say, no one will listen to him or take him seriously until I am known to truly have returned. I also did many things to the interior of his house that will make him appear foolish. I had granted him his life early in my questioning to silence his begging on the topic.

"Hmm…

"Oh. Along the way I learned there are still no real cities among the Lands of the Ten Nations. Some villages are very large, but they have no walls and do not live like people who live in cities. Bond captives or other slaves are not common, outside the mines and 'smelters,' where bond captives are freed after five years labor and to which no bond captive is sent twice. -- I suspect those standards of treatment are not met when it is inconvenient to meet them, but the table-ruler assured me they are followed, for whatever his opinion on the matter is worth. -- All the people work, and many travel to join Hosts of Conquest. Some of those return with riches. And the Ten Ways Pact is not entirely kept. Their laws are different.

"The land is not so much divided by tribe any longer. A family may know which tribe it comes from, but there is little in meaning beyond that. And there is no tribal authority in the Land of the Ten Nations.

"Each area with so many people chooses one they call their Elder and send that person to a great stone hall where all such people sit under a great roof of thick cloth. There these Elder Speakers dispute with each other and with a great deal of shouting. And that is how they decide the law. Some disputes are questions of dealings with outsiders. Others are over use of pasture or theft of cattle or injury of people. If any person wishes to leave a marriage with more than they can carry or that will come when they call, and if the remainder of their marriage does not wish them to, they must give their dispute to the Elder Speakers of the Ten Nations.

"It is said by some that this name is a lie. Tashburgeck Tribe does not send Elders and have all moved to the lands around Unmarked, nor does Galugr Tribe. And neither marry much with the other People of the Ten Nations. The Galugr do not often marry people of the other tribes because Fisher People and lesser giants do not often find each other to be good partners in that fashion. And Tashburgeck does not because they say the other people of the Ten Nations have been overrun with outsiders and are people of the Ten Nations no more.

"So the great families of Tashburgeck rule their land, served by outsiders they do not marry.

"The villages of the Galugr are run in many ways, whether around Wreol or retreating from the Stormwoods, which has grown much larger with time. Sometimes, I have been told, whoever can shout the loudest is in charge. I doubt that is true. It sounds like one of the stories people tell about things they do not understand. But the city of Wreol is ruled by the School of Wreol.

"Hmm, hmm, hmm… Ah!

"Boats move all about, wherever there is water. They have crossed the seas to great islands with strange people on them. People of the Ten Nations went to rule those places, and in some the rulers still claim to be descended from or still be part of the Ten Nations.

"So it is in all places the People of the Ten Nations have gone for conquest. They tend to end up living as people there lived before, even speaking their servants' tongues from birth in some cases. If they follow nothing else from the Ten Ways Pact, they still will not give tribute to anyone and will feed, clothe, and shelter other people of the Ten Nations. So it is that in battle one person of the Ten Nations may slay another. But if one yields, another of the Ten Nations will not take them as a bond captive, but will keep them as they would members of the nearest family that is not their own -- such as the family their mother or father were born into, but married out of -- so long as the one who yields can identify their own family lines and such and until the war is complete. Which is to say that the one who yields must work, but no lesser work than the one to whom they yielded.

"And rulers in these places do not, as a rule, pass their rulership on to their children or grandchildren as outsiders do. When one ruler tries to do this, their own family will try to dissuade them or will withdraw support from them. This is the other lesson of the Doom of Gazark. And they bear it out, as well. If one ruler names someone from their family but especially their progeny to succeed them and that new ruler or their similar successor fails as a ruler themselves, then it is expected that whoever next takes power who is not of the same family will have the entire family and all blood kin of the one who named their family member to succeed them, and have them all slain. The fear of such slaughterings even drives outsider rulers to name someone who is not of their family to succeed them. And well they do: the children of great people are more often remarkable fools than remarkable themselves.

"Since the People of the Ten Nations give no tributes, where an outsider ruler would take money from lesser rulers, the People of the Ten Nations write up lists of what is being exchanged and for what. Other than Tashburgeck, who claim they are the only People of the Ten Nations left, no one of the Ten Nations will even try to exact tribute from another of the Ten Nations. So they call it 'payment for protection' or 'payment for general order' or even 'payment for promises of prosperity.' And on the same list there will be these supposed services along with water for irrigation and grain and meat and hides and metal and any number of other things that the greater ruler provides to the lesser. They have all become traders and cannot do without the table-rulers, who are everywhere.

"And traders, hah! You may recall, voices, that I permitted some traders to keep their own hoards at my great house. These persist in many separate bands of greedy fucks. And somehow they relate to the paper coins.

"There are islands which were never conquered. Lesser giants live there and care not who comes to speak with them or to steal from them. They kill anyone they or their arrows and spears can reach who is not of themselves, even other lesser giants. Their boats are not as good as the boats of other people, but I have heard that they came to build theirs in imitation of what they saw and what they could take from fools who came too close. These lesser giants also hunt whales by rowing up to them, leaping from their boat onto the whale, and driving a barbed spear into the whale, from which a stout rope runs back to their boat. If the whale is too big, it will pull their boat under. But if the whale hunter has chosen wisely, the whale will be unable to pull down the boat. It will run until it tires itself out, then the whale hunters row it back to shore, pull it in, and butcher it.

"So it is important that boats do not stop at those islands and not get caught by their rowers. But beyond there, there is a land of boiling water, burning stone, and sulphur. This is a great island and beyond it is another land with great ice wastes and beyond that is other land. There is a great river there in that far land, it is said, so wide it cannot be known to be a river except that its water flows out. They call this place the Sunset Lands and there are very few people of the Ten Nations there because it is difficult to reach and there is little point to going.

"Rorqual is out in the water that separates the edges of the land I am on from the Sunset Lands. She is angry, perhaps about the time Fisher People tried to kill her, perhaps about the killing of whales, perhaps about some other thing. It may not matter. The larger the boat that attempts to cross the great sea, the more certain it is that she will find and break it. She has missed small boats in the wreckage of great boats, and so some survive to tell of her matchless greatness and her terrible wrath. But if one is careful, one may take smaller boats from land to great island to lesser islands, avoiding the lesser giants, to great island, to land of ice wasteland, to the Sunset Lands.

"Surely these are the lands across the sea you voices spoke of. I know you said there were good plants there, but I am told that nothing which survives the trip back prospers. And little is brought back in any case. The people of the Sunset Lands do not have gold or gems or anything so precious as to be worth the trip. And no host of conquest is known to have reached the Sunset Lands in sufficient numbers to meaningfully conquer the people here, though there have been at least two such attempts.

"My singers are still around. I have not spoken with any of them. But they are welcome everywhere I have seen them. And the table-ruler said none dare to abuse them for the things their enemies will learn if they do.

"And the once-Blind Devicier, Peyuvo, still lives. Within the Lands of the Ten Nations there is a place set aside for her which sends no Elder Speaker. And no one interferes with her. She built and taught the building of devices as small as my fist and as large as a great hall which mark the time, from the years down to the heartbeats. The smaller ones are rare, precious things that are the product of great skill and expense. I don't know what anyone does with them.

"There is a skill of hands on bodies, of heating and cooling and pulling and twisting and applying tiny lightnings to and shoving at flesh that healers do now which is said to be of Peyuvo's invention. The table-ruler says it is the best medicine for regaining strength and stature after injury, but does more besides that. And those outside the Lands of the Ten Nations who have more wealth than their fellows enjoy the efforts of those who practice such arts yearly or daily, according to their means and desires.

"There is another matter of medicine said to be her doing, rules of record and action for learning the nature and effect of medicine. This sounds in ways like what you voices have described. And it is said by these means that poisons are known from medicine, tiny life known from spirits, and one day all things will be known. This is practiced as schools for table-rulers that are made into 'physicians.' They are called lesser schools for that they have no claim to the heritage of the Great Tabulation. But they are well regarded anyway. Still, some complain that the things done at these places are ways of suffering, and not just of outsiders but also of the people who should benefit from it. Well, there will always be those who complain.

"The table-ruler told me of great wonders that are done in these schools for physicians. A hand that was cut off was reattached. A liver from one person was parted and placed in the body of their sibling, whose liver had failed in its duties. They have learned how to give blood from one person to another, and of which person blood may be taken for another. They have separated babies that were born joined to each other such that both lived their full lives. There is treatment in these places for illnesses untreatable anywhere else. Rulers who are People of the Ten Nations and rulers who are outsiders beg these schools to come to their lands, and some do fragment in these ways. And some of those prosper, especially in the distant south.

"But the strangest thing to come from the Refuge of Grace are the small squares of paper ink-stamped with numbers and promises on both sides. People use these like traders use coin, exchanging them between each other for tools or trinkets or sex. They mark them as they go, I do not know what for. But in the Lands of the Ten Nations they come from Peyuvo's villages and they return to them. There is some counting of the things, as well, which I do not understand.

"The table-ruler tells me that my the School of the Palace has its own paper coins, but that Unmarked uses Peyuvo's when they use any. Rulers out in the Conquered Cities and outsider rulers beyond that also stamp their own paper coins if they have the means to make paper sufficiently freely. He tried to describe to me how that can go ruinously wrong if not done properly or if fortune turns bad enough. But it made no sense. So I stopped him with my hand mercifully open.

"Both the Glass Tree of Light and Color and the Mystery Box were smashed by order of the Great Tabulation, ostensibly to prevent them from ever coming into the hands of Peyuvo the Graceful. Several other gifts were sent by Bear's People in the first century of my absence, which were likewise smashed. This displeased Bear's People and there has been some conflict about that and other things.

"Bear's people have hand cannons. They have steel wagons proof against arrows. They have steel boats which run through other boats, though they must stay close to shore and fare very poorly in storms. It is good fortune for the Fisher People that Bear's People are mostly satisfied to keep to their own lands and their own gods and also that they have so few children. And it is good that horses hate them, so there is always a trade of mules to Bear's People: mules, secrets, and redewings of diverse flavors.

"Tohn of Glass never got over their indignation at the glassmakers who are not Bear's People. But Bear's People got over indulging their god in this tantrum. If either god could lower themselves to work with the other, Tohn and Erweh would likely make a great deal of trouble for me. But to Tohn, Erweh is a murderous usurper who murdered Deer and then died like a fool. And to Erweh, Tohn is a haughty priss who was given divinity by Bear, who both abandoned the world and threatens its destruction. So they won't.

"When someone says that Bear's People are the greatest maker of this or that thing, that no one else's work can compare to their craft, their art, always the response must eventually include the true saying, 'Bear's People have no god of iron or steel.' And so people remember that though Bear's People had glass since before anyone else had copper, still iron-making was the work of the Ten Nations. Tashburgeck claim iron and steel as their own glories, of course. And they are not entirely wrong, just somewhat.

"Other than killing some deserving fools, bullying one table-ruler, and stealing… this, I have not acted to extend my authority over anyone or anything, yet. Once I am known, some will no doubt come to me offering their loyalty in exchange for considerations. Some might come begging for me to save them from whatever crisis currently afflicts them. And I expect that any group truly of the Ten Nations and not opposed to me will accept my authority if I take the time to seek them out myself. Which group should I seek out first?"



"It is known that the Noarites did, in fact, conspire with Erweh and his followers and that upstart against me. They no longer rule cities, but the People of the Family, as they called themselves, persist. The 'spirit' which they are now known to call into themselves is likely some manner of demon or a spirit of the Forest People which has diverged remarkably from their normal ways. It apparently still exists and continues to guide them, whatever it is. The People of the Ten Nations were never roused against these successors to my enemies, seeing them as someone else. But they still exist and so do I. How shall I respond to these revelations?"


"For a time, I am told, rulers who are People of the Ten Nations great and small would collect tribute in my name, and hold it while waiting for my return. Eventually they stopped keeping it for me, and made use of that tribute themselves. The last such waiting hoard in the Conquered Cities was exhausted over two hundred years ago. When I start taking tribute from the People of the Ten Nations again, what should I demand of the rulers of the Conquered Cities?"


"Once I have first revealed myself to my new favorites, how shall I proceed?"

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