"Hmm. I would like to know the rules. Also it is not currently functional as a weapon, by the way. Also would you like your fires to be more efficient? Blast or forced induction style stoves and furnaces burn most fuels more completely and lose less heat to exhaust, compared to unimproved fires. If you have visible smoke you're wasting energy. It's- I make things. That's what the Spark* is all about, it stood out."

*Used as a loanword

"...more efficient fires would be enormously useful, we are forever rationing fuel." He pulls out a packet of paper, apparently handwritten, and pushes it across the desk to her. "The Worldwound treaty, under which you qualify as an 'independent adventurer' and we are the forces of the state signatory Cheliax."

"So I should read this and return it? I - can't imagine there's much prospect of going home-"

"If your home's location is secret there is not much chance you will happen across a teleporter who has enough familiarity with the place to chance it. Maybe if you are an exceptional artist. You should read it and return it; there are regular classes and refreshers on its contents for recruits if any points are confusing and you may sign up for those; if you are interested in contributing your sorcerous - crafting? - to this fort then we can discuss what it will take to make that worthwhile as an expenditure of language spells on top of normal supply. Are you quick with languages?"

"Right, of course."

Teleporters! Apparently exist! That's probably WHY it's secret!!

"No, I don't think that's going to work."

Push back the despair, it is Report Time.

"I've never tested whether I am quick with languages. What's the alternative to staying here?"

"You can travel with a series of patrols around the border till you reach a wardstone outpost which is also a city, Kenabres in Mendev, and there travel further or adopt a civilian life or sign on with a different Worldwound defense operation."

"Okay... Right. I'll - My current plan absent corrections is to convert my saw for hand power over steam, produce a proposal for efficient stoves or heaters, read this treaty, attempt to convert the language effect into long term understanding. I don't necessarily object to having - duties while being here and therefore consuming supplies - I don't know if people are being paid for that matter - but would like the chance to read the treaty first to understand things, if you would like to expect them. I'm good at repairing objects."

"Enlisted soldiers are paid. Independent adventurers are entitled to food and shelter so long as they are assisting in holding the border but in the general case they are here either out of a desire to see that border held or a desire to personally grow in power, and are not moved by the wages a soldier commands. If you're crafting things and you have the materials you need with you, we can buy those products from you and sell you a coat; if you need a loan of a coat and materials, we will have to work out something bespoke, I haven't hosted a teleport-accident adventurer who arrived without cold weather gear and their own crafting supplies before."

Sparks get sparkier if they fight a lot, she's pretty sure? It sounds right, at least?

"I... Do not really have materials except what's in the weapon. Would that I had stuffed my pockets while the monster was destroying months of work. Is there any trash?"

"...what kind of trash?"

"Well, whatever's cheap or free, I'm not expecting billets of Krupp steel straight from the forge hall. Ruined armor, copper coins, wood scraps, rags. I could probably get anywhere with bones and rocks but it would be deeply suboptimal. There's some sort of use for almost anything, I've heard semi-reliable tales of Sparks animating shoes with cobblers' tools to bite intruders and, yeah, that feels possible-"

She visibly interrupts herself. "...Plans for more than a day feel silly at this point. I have to come to terms with my current situation and read the treaty and so on."

"There are probably some unMendable rags and scraps in the midden but they are not at all sorted. Copper coins are... usable as currency... and therefore not trash. If you can use dead demon parts you can have them as they come in; there are beef bones, though trashed ones have already been used in stew broth; disturbing buried soldiers can lead to haunting problems and is therefore against protocol."

Seems like a waste compared to wake services, then processing them into fertilizer for use in a hothouse, but well, they don't have the hothouse. She built the current version.

"...Well, digging through trash is slightly better than sitting there doing nothing. I think I should leave you to your work now." He seems important. "Present you with a heater proposal later perhaps."

"Share Language will last twenty-four hours and ideally I will know before the shift change tonight whether I should prepare another for the next day or whether you have other plans."

"I want to stay here for at least a day, will update you if it changes. Is there a schedule written anywhere? Information on the monsters being contained here? Or a person I should ask. I think those are my last questions."

"Scheduling information is on the wall of the mess hall, including for classes on demonology, and you may attend those unless the instructor finds you a nuisance and dismisses you."

Nod. Her thoughts are drifting towards tinkering on her saw...

"Nothing else right now unless you have questions for me."

"You may continue to sleep in the same room as before for the time being and you may have two bowls of stew and one of porridge per day, with an extra one of either acceptable if you take a patrol round trip. What do we call you?"

"Walta, Waltana, or Miss Hampson, I suppose."

...She stands and feels a vague urge to do the city salute, a fist bump to the left shoulder, but does not.

"Dismissed, Hampson."

...Stew, how about some of that.

It has beef and rice and salt and tiny flecks of something that might be cabbage.

It compares favorably to cookhouse rations by containing more protein!

Schedule check next. The background of people here also feels familiar-ish, somehow.

There are patrol schedules, going out every twenty minutes, around the clock, filled in with various names in various handwriting. There are classes posted too - treaty review, Common Taldane practice, archery drill, topology circle, stellar navigation, demonology, snow shelter construction, basic patrol skills.

All of these sound useful and some of them even sound interesting!! Topology isn't a segment of math she's been very into before, so she might not be able to usefully contribute, though. Also it seems odd next to all the practical concerns.

When's the soonest one? -She doesn't know the current time. She asks someone how they are telling time here.