"Did you want to check if any of the others are here, or is that all you need?"

"I don't think I need any of the others on a short enough timescale that I should be trying to get ahold of them right now."

Nod.

"Okay. What do you want to do now?"

"I really want to go check out the formians in the places that were suggested but going to Marduk and getting directions there could take any amount of time and we'll need to be back here in a few days. Do you have ideas?"

"I don't think finding the formians now is the best idea, yeah. Marduk and Heliopolis trade a lot but they're not really close. I think we should find out more about the Harmonium- I don't know a lot about it, and it seems important to know things about. You should tell me more about what Amentans are going to need, because there might be things I haven't thought about that could be important for you to know- like the pollution thing, I don't think I really get it and rivers help but if it's important I should get it. Um, and I don't know how much you know about starting a kingdom but we could learn more about how Heliopolis started, if that would help."

"Harmonium research sounds good, and then I can poke around on the Internet for you getting Amentan information and we can see what pops out at you?"

"Okay! We should find the library."

"Sounds good! Which way?"

He can lead her to the library. The light has changed, now; instead of the full strength of a desert sun, everything is a dusky hue. The streets are less bustling than when they arrived (deserted, by her standards). There is still enough light to see by, and they reach the library in about ten minutes of walking.

The building has text written above the entrance that reads, "Library of Heliopolis".

Inside, they find a few dozen bookshelves. The building is not large enough to house an extensive collection.

...well, she has the entire Internet if she is ever hurting for reading material. She will skim all the titles, as long as there aren't many - she takes pictures of all the stacks, too, her grandpa will like them - and hunts for a book on the Harmonium.

She can find:

Books which seem to be about "natural" phenomena (e.g. Plants of Arcadia, Abellian Dendrology, a Treatise on Agriculture, Feeding the Soil, Tributaries of Oceanus)

Books which seem to cover city planning and civilization building (e.g. The Polity, Homestead Management, The Shape of the Settlement, The Next Peaceable Kingdom, Building Orderly Kingdoms, The New Civic Art)

Books which cover general political and economic issues (e.g. The Law, Motion, Nature, and Origins of Money, Code of Harmony, Realms for the Petitioners, Civilizing Nemausus, Reflections on Governance, Improving Prime Supply Chains)

Books which Daernir points out as mentioning gods or their realms (e.g. Under Mount Clangeddin: My Time Among the Dwarves of Arcadia, Azuth, Feud: Savras and Azuth, Laws of the 6th District, Dry-Market Ward, Marduk, Abellio, the Peaceable Kingdoms of Arcadia, The Path of the Sun Barque)

And some books neither he nor she can immediately categorize but might involve magic, per Daernir's guess at the meaning of their titles (e.g. Called by No Name, The Science of Fortune, Divining the All-Seeing, Third Eye Blind, Just Experiment!, Necronomicon, Granting Mercy, Exacting Revenge).

She pulls Code of Harmony, but also Next Peaceable Kingdom and Building Orderly Kingdoms and Just Experiment!. "Can I get you to look at the Harmonium one and pull out useful information while I'm flipping through these others getting pictures for my everything to translate? I feel like I'm more likely to want to refer to these later."

"Sure, I can do that."

Daernir takes Code of Harmony and leaves Lintalai to her books.

Next Peaceable Kingdom speculates about various future technologies and how they would impact the Peaceable Kingdoms of Arcadia. While not all of them are things Amenta is capable of, chapters include ideas about how to integrate mass communications and mass production of goods into an Arcadian society.

Building Orderly Kingdoms divides itself into three major parts: the first, about how to build a kingdom that promotes law; the second, about how to build a kingdom that promotes good, and the third, about how to balance the two without creating internal conflict within the kingdom.

Just Experiment!, despite its title, appears to be a book written by Marduk (the god) about Marduk (the realm), and its role as an experiment in allowing his followers to entirely rule themselves. Marduk speaks glowingly about how justice is best executed by those subjected to it, and barely touches on magic in the first few pages.

She's mostly not reading them, just scanning them in, but she does pause over the chapters about mass communication and production!

The book posits a plane-wide network of angel messages that might result from people coming to expect faster and faster communication as technology on the Prime develops but fails to carry over. It suggests that the main problem will be that communication in the Peaceable Kingdoms will continue to rely on angels rather than technology, which will minimize the extent to which people can maintain their privacy, and will continue to pose the same ethical questions as about employing angel labor the current system does.

As for mass production, the book hypothesizes the existence of something like assembly lines, and suggests that the greater consumption of goods that would result would require new ways of thinking about money, and new laws about trade.

What are the ethical questions about employing angel labor?

As inherently good outsiders, angels are inclined to selflessly serve at their own expense. It is trivial for an ill-intentioned person to exploit an angel. Angels do not tire, and they do not experience pain, but they are capable of emotional/mental suffering, and will rarely recognize on their own that they are suffering.

Poor angels. Who is this author who is concerned with the plight of angels?

The authors are listed as Jilda Springbloom, Oriwan Meadows, and Gurek-va Reltrenthehr.

"Hey Daernir, are there non-angel ways to send letters?"

He looks up, mildly annoyed at the interruption.

"Wizards. Pocket everythings will help a lot."

"That's what I'm thinking, I want to get ahold of the person who wrote this because they seem concerned about angel welfare as standards for communications speed go up and they might want to help me."

Absent nod.

Reading reading reading.

Maybe her secretary or the diviner can help with that part if Daernir is not excited about it. She teaches herself to build a simple website, builds one, and puts all the book photos and their translations up. And starts on her next email to her family.