"If the priest of Abadar is high level enough, we can just get them to raise dead themselves, but if they're not, we'll need to find the local cleric of Iomedae or whoever else has a big temple here. Maybe one day I'll be able to do it myself, that'll be cheaper. Ah, most of the cost isn't casting the spell, it needs a big diamond that's destroyed as part of the process."

"There's a legend that in old Azlant diamonds were as cheap as glass, and that's how they became so powerful and taught half the population to be wizards, but everyone kept raising the dead and casting Miracles and Wishes and eventually the diamonds ran out and Azlant fell and here we are today. And ever since, wizards have been trying to make more diamonds, but that's the one thing magic can never do." She grins. "Which is why we Desnans travel instead! All the diamonds ever mined on Golarion would make a mountain, but what if there's a whole planet made of diamond out there?"

"Diamonds are-"

STOP. Don't say it. 

-But she doesn't stop thinking it. Diamond-tipped mining drills and drill heads, or rather, diamond-dusted, technically speaking- They were at least more common in Europa and the far north. Wasn't the Spark Marielle de Cortez supposed to have used enormous rubies, diamonds, and other gems to do incredible things with light?

She could make a diamond. Couldn't she? It's just carbon.

...The Spark isn't chomping at the bit inside her about it, but it's not saying 'no', either.

Stop. Don't THINK it too loudly, lest you be tempted to say it.

"-Why would it be diamonds in particular, I wonder, though. Is the crystal structure important or something?"

"I don't know! Maybe Otho knows. There are spells that use rubies, too, and maybe other kinds."

She follows Viatrix towards the temple.

"I might find myself splitting off from you all sooner than I thought, if there's really such a huge market for weapons here. It makes sense, with the demons... But I still don't quite like making weapons. What if the demons get their hands on 'em? I don't know how to make them - good aligned or whatever-"

"It speaks well of you, that you don't like making weapons. Why do you feel that you have to, if people want to buy them? I'm sure there are other things you could build instead."

"I'm no expert, but as I understand it - enchantments like that are additive. You can make a weapon that bites Evil users, or that's much more effective against demons. But you'd be starting with a regular weapon that anyone can use, and  adding the enchantment, every time you make one. And someone Evil might still figure out how they work and make one of their own."

"If you want to mass produce anti-demon weapons and give them to strictly Good people, you could go to Lastwall - the country, not their border forts - and talk directly to their government. You can definitely trust them to - never leave you worse off for talking to them, I think is the way they'd put it. If your weapons are as good as they seem, they will probably buy as many as you can make, or the knowledge of making them if you're willing to sell that. There are other Good countries and organization, too, if you're not set on fighting demons."

"I'm at least going to make a few, since they're so excited about it and it'll probably be profitable. Get me established." She nods in the vague direction of back-towards-the-inn. "...And for personal protection too. I just... I don't know what to do next I guess, if there's not a maintenance and build queue waiting in the clerk's hands each morning when I go to my workshop."

"Some people are happy living like that. With a routine, clear goals, a sense of accomplishment. And of course there's nothing wrong with it, if it makes you happy!

"If you're used to that" - if that's all you've ever known, she doesn't say, because she promised not to pry - "it can be hard to adjust to newfound freedom, if it comes at the cost of old certainties. I do think that if you make the effort, you'll likely be happier living your own life, and not being told what to do by anyone else."

"You're probably making the right choice, here. Try different things, don't commit too much, don't get stuck in a new rut. See what's out there before you consider settling down. And don't feel pressured to quickly find your path in life - it's perfectly normal to spend a while wandering first!"

"Maybe the insurance people will have opinions on how much I should charge for a steam gun, given the talk about bank churches around the fire last night. You know, there's a travel church in Europa- The Corbettite Railway. You'd like them. Though again, I only know them through stories..."

Snicker. "The insurance people have so many opinions on how much everyone should charge for things! It's practically the only thing they ever have opinions about! Well, and they don't think you should do things for free. Be careful they don't charge you for telling you the price."

"A travel church sounds great! What's a railway?" She got the sense of a method of travel, but the word-combination used is unfamiliar.

"Steel roads, where a train of dozens carriage wagons thunder along faster than a horse- The fastest way to get from city to city, and the only way to quickly cross the regions west of Wulfenbach. The schedule is holy to them- If they say they're going from Bremen to Paris in eight and a half hours, they will be in Paris at the end of eight and a half hours even if they have to drive through fire and flood."

She has a brief vision of Abadar taking his travel domain as seriously as he does banks, a herd of thundering steel wagons bearing the Golden Curves. "Wow, we don't have anything like that! It sounds very useful? And very Lawful, too. Here we don't have anything better than ships and horses. Well, wizards can conjure tireless horses, like you saw, but most people aren't wizards. Some wizards and clerics can teleport a few hundred miles and bring a few people with them" - mostly in an inconvenient bag - "but there aren't many wizards that powerful, and most of them don't sell their spells, and so it's pretty rare and expensive."

"Very powerful clerics, like I hope to be someday, can Plane Shift to another plane and then shift back anywhere in the world, except you land off hundreds of miles off target so then you also need to Teleport to get where you're going. But when you've got the full package you can go anywhere, it's amazing." 

"Nice! A railroad has got to be easier for moving actually significant amounts of people, though... Or airships. I mostly only have theory for those, my Spark seems to run more towards heavy metal and lightning. We have - themes or styles, you could say."

"Ships that... fly in the air? Why are they still ships, do they also sail on water? I don't think we have anything like that and if we did it would be powerful magic. We do have spells for personal flight, but they're so expensive they're generally not worth it."

She hasn't missed the implication. "Railroads sound like heavy metal, could you build those?"

"I'm not sure why they're still ships, but everyone does seem to call them that. Probably their operation is more like a ship than it is like a wagon caravan. And I probably could! Staring with some small scale experiments first, of course. Somewhere flat and not too terribly far, to try it. You still need the rails, and that's expensive."

"A railway that doesn't go terribly far sounds a bit silly, but you probably have to start with small steps. I have no idea where you'd want to build one, though. The Abadarans will know who to ask, if it's an experiment in need of funding and not something useful in its own right, but might lead to something bigger down the road. Maybe there's an obvious answer but this really isn't my domain."

"The material and economic conditions here probably change things a lot. I think iron is cheaper for us, it's everywhere at home. Iron street lamps, iron benches, iron stairs, steel-framed carriages, steel boxes for food."

Abadar's temple is back by Southgate, an imposing-looking building with narrow stained-glass windows illuminated after sunset with Permanent Flames. Abadar's Golden Arches curve over the entrance. A notice-board by the door lists the daily channel times and current prices (two copper per head; the temples that do free healing cover the city's needs, now that the crusade is over, but some people will pay to avoid the crush.)

The front half of the building is a hall, with densely packed seating and a pulpit; the back half is divided into many small rooms. Another helpful sign informs them that the Priests are In, and directs them to the appropriate queue. 

There are only a couple people in front of them; demand is higher in the mornings. Fifteen minutes later, they step through the door to meet a well-dressed man, with a golden key hanging from a heavy chain of office on his breast.

"Welcome to the Temple of Abadar in Kenabres, Mendev," he says rather by rote, "I am Banker Vissaliy Rathimus, how may I assist you?"

"I need to claim two resurrection insurances," Viatrix says, producing some official-looking stamped documents. "I have the preserved bodies in my bag. And after they're raised we'll want to buy insurance again."

"Certainly. I need to cast Truthtelling on you to verify your identity and that of the bodies. And I have one slot free for Raise Dead tomorrow. You can wait another day for the other one, or check with Iomedae's priests, they usually charge a hundred gold extra in this kind of situation."

There's some back and forth. Can she state her name, and those of the deceased, and their relationship. (Adventuring buddy, listed on the insurance policy.) Does she consent to a non-refundable Raise attempt by a Lawful Neutral cleric. Does she need to buy a Restoration too (no, she can cast that herself). 

Does she have an explanation for the deaths that will result in them not raising the next insurance premium alarmingly close to the uninsured market rate.

"...we were surprised by a flight of vrocks outside the border, where there shouldn't be any vrocks, and there was also a magic snowstorm that interfered with shooting them, and our wizard was mostly out of spells for the day, and we got unlucky in a bunch of ways that really shouldn't happen again."

    "Will you avoid future situations where some bad luck can lead to your being killed by a flight of vrocks."

"Well we can't just - not go to dangerous places! But we'll be better prepared next time."

    Sigh. "Let's revisit this after the petitioners are raised." He signs some more papers and gives them to her. "Please bring one of the bodies after nine tomorrow."

"Do you require anything?", to Waltana.

"-Business advice. I can make lots of things. And some adventurers have offered me a loan on unclear terms to make weapons, I'm very sure I can do it but don't really know how money - works outside of my home which is weird in secret ways."

"You should never take loans on unclear terms. Write out a contract that sets out the requirements from the delivered product, the penalties for late or incomplete delivery or complete default, and valid reasons for lack of performance. For example, that you're allowed to delay in case of some circumstances outside your control, such as delayed deliveries by your own suppliers."

"Try to agree on a mediator ahead of time, that you'll both trust in case of later disputes. You can always go to the courts, but it can cost money and time, and may create ill-will if you resort to it."

"You can also pay for advice in formulating the specific contract. There are some standard contracts that you can look at for free" - he pulls out a thick pamphlet - "if you return this later. You do still need to understand the contracts in order to adapt them correctly for your own case."

"If you want more detailed advice, please schedule a longer appointment tomorrow. An hour of my time costs seventeen silver." He flips open a calendar-sheet that shows he's free from ten till twelve in the morning.

"-I'll think about doing that, sure. Gotta learn Taldane properly first before I can read any pamphlets written in it... Nothing else."

Since he's charging for his time, apparently, she restraints several further questions. She guesses it makes sense? She's going to charge for the time it takes to build things. But it feels very weird somehow, still.

Speaking of, maybe it would be a good use of her time to pay attention to her Taldane knowledge and write down phonetic spellings of important words. That sounds like a good plan.

Then they'll take their leave.

"Abadarans are very Lawful," Viatrix explains once they're outside, "which means they care a lot about detailed contracts, so you always know where you stand. And it's not a bad thing, but it does have costs, right. Personally, I don't think you need a lawyer every time you agree to something. Contracts are important when people can't trust or understand one another. And trust is the basis of society, and of Good, so it's better to cultivate it and not rely as much on laws."

"...I think deciding something, and then maybe agreeing to hire an Abadaran to handle the dispute if there is one, might be good enough. Since everyone's very eager to have me get to work and honestly so am I."

"That's the spirit!"

Back to the inn? In a small city like this, sightseeing and shopping are best done in daytime; the stores and temples will be closing soon, and the the inner walls' gates close in a kind of half-curfew.

Back to the inn! She's pretty overwhelmed by all the everything, by now.

She will suggest to the various adventurers interested in sponsoring a steam gun or two that she's going to sell the first demonstration models of completed weapons at twice the cost of materials and workspace, and spend a while teaching about how to maintain and repair them to the buyers, and pay back anyone who lends her money to make them one and a half times what they spent, and if there's some sort of disaster like a demon attack she'll pay back what she can, and if there are any disputes later they'll hire someone from the temple of Abadar to settle it.

Great! They can take her to see prospective work-places in and next to smithies. Most of them are clustered near Southgate, close to the market and to Warehouse Square in the next tier.

...tomorrow morning, after some nudging by Viatrix. 

"How long are we sticking around?" asks one of the Blackspears.

    "At least two days, for the raises and restorations. Probably a few more days after that, Otho and I need to sell some spells and scrolls to pay for insurance."

"But it's boring here! Can't we do something fun while you're stuck here scribing?"

    "If you get killed without me, I'm not paying for your next raise. There has to be something interesting in Kenabres! They fought a whole war here just last year! There have got to be, like, sewers and dungeons and undead cemeteries and people who need an adventurer's help! You'll manage."

"We have a dragon!" volunteers one of the locals. "She fought off the Storm King!"

    "And an inquisitor! He fought - uh, lots of powerful demons!" He may have been about to say something else before catching himself.

"We have a library, research tower, crusading museum, historical cathedral, and the country's only urban druid."

    "...Why's that interesting?"

"Let him be, he always talks wizard shop when he's drinking."

    "Philistines! Don't bother coming to me to fireball the next cultists you find!"

"Oh yeah, that's what we keep Hulrun around for..."

The dinner party slowly breaks up. A few people promise to come back the next morning to help Waltana find a workplace and supplies.