"I don't know a better way to make people realize something is hard and important than telling them how it's done. And I want them to understand that. Maybe you could arrange for the lecture to be about both things somehow so they bother to listen."

"They don't really tie into each other that well. I can lean toward 'management is difficult and important', sure. And say things about arctic dangers. It seems a bit silly to me but if you really want to make everyone attend, I won't stop you. Also I might want to buy a plot of land to build on, once you've decided how to plot out land. Maybe several. Shall I stop interrupting you and the lovely miss Dareni now?"

"How much land and do you care very much where it is and who your neighbors are?"

"I want a building's worth in the center of the new city and a whole block somewhere cheaper, if possible. We can talk details later, I've got a calculator to go finish. I think you'll like it."

"I bet I will!"

Off he goes, then.

He's back with a dead animal to sell to Ahgari and a calculator to sell to Valanda the next afternoon!

"Can you show me how it works?"

"Of course!"

It's kind of a heavy and clunky thing, maybe the size of a laundry basket (with the controls at a human-appropriate height), since he had to use electric relays and not semiconductors for it, and it emits a constant soft 'thwipthwipthwip' where the little magical engine and alternator are, but gosh does it make a bunch of rapid clicks when the buttons are pressed and then an attractive 'ding!' and display a correct answer.

It can handle up to 32 digits of numbers, has trigonometric functions, has a formula-programming feature, has basic calculus functions, and can take arbitrary exponents and do square roots.

"How long will it keep working and how much do you want for it?"

"Until something inside breaks. You might want to defense-mage it up, I can open it for you to do that if you want. I thought I'd let you make an offer."

"Of course you did. A thousand seven hundred twenty-eight rings?"

"Considering that this is an early model and I'll be able to make better ones eventually, that's almost a fair offer. How about twenty-one sixty?"

"I'm only mostly sure this thing will be useful at all. A thousand eight hundred seventy two?"

"Fast calculations are useful for all sorts of planning, which you seem to be doing a lot of. A thousand nine hundred eight."

"Yeah, okay, that'll work." He starts counting rings. "How many more of these are you planning to make?"

"I think perhaps a dozen or two, and then I take a trip to the big city and peddle 'em, and then I come back with enough money to buy land and start up a proper workshop."

"Maybe I'll just keep you too busy to make more and then I'll have the only one in the world. ...Oh, have you had this shielded from knowledge magic or could someone spy on it?"

"It's been within range of my personal shield ever since it was complete enough to be useful to someone trying to copy it. And yes, I got Ariu to blur it - up to an inch above the display and panels, too."

"Good. It'll give you a little more time before someone figures out how to copy it. Not infinite time, someone might take one apart, but at least they can't do it from another continent without paying for it."

"If I have you or some other defense mage seal them, by the time someone copies it I'll have better ones."

"Good idea. It'd be convenient if you'd let me know when you're ready to have me work on any others."

"All the magic I'm doing to them will drive the price up a bit, alas."

He opens up the case and the top compartment with the little engine and points out all the tangled cords and gears and springs and wires and so on that need defending. 

"How much to ward it, per device, you think?"

"Sixty for the usual protections I give electronics, another forty-eight to seal it up."

"Do keep in mind these little springs have to stay flexible. That change it?"

"Nah, I have a lot of practice keeping things flexible."