"No! Cato, I already said that your fiat currency is out of the question," Minmay slapped the dining table. The rattling dishes made Arisacrota flinch from her corner of the room.

"But chancellor, you do understand that there simply isn't enough precious metal to forge the currency required for Minmay's economy. With the industrialization occuring in Ektal and abroad, the shortage of currency will get worse year after year. We have to increase the amount of money. "

Minmay scowled at the man from another world sitting across from him, "and your proposal does not solve the problem. One does not simply create money by saying a piece of paper is money. To promise that the paper can be exchanged for a fixed value of items is nothing more than debt, a promise of payment. And to spend it so that the paper enters the economy requires that I place myself into debt for no purpose! "

"It isn't for no purpose," Cato shot back, "the economy is choking. Prices cannot be lowered further because imports of raw material from outside the Minmay region have not reduced similarly. We are producing so much wealth that there isn't enough money to trade it with. "

"What about the internal investment scheme you and the recordkeepers made up with the bank? I still think it's suspicious to have money you can't move out of the bank but you have made the companies agree to it so I kept silent. Wasn't that supposed to fix your investment problem?"

Cato shrugged, "by allowing the companies to trade investment shares through the bank by 'on paper' loans, the old companies can provide new startups with the needed machines and land without moving currency. By agreeing that the bank cannot pay out the money except through mutual investments, most of the physical coins can be used to pay workers instead of making payments between companies that only go back to the bank. It's a temporary measure that only works because the companies circulate so much currency amongst themselves. "

"I don't see how it doesn't solve the investment problem you explained last week," Minmay asked, "that sounds like you solved it. "

"The issue is that we don't just have an investment problem. The lack of currency to pay for big machines and factory buildings are just a symptom. When we start producing more and more, the lack of currency will mean that companies won't have the money to pay their workers and the people won't have the money to buy the goods. "

Minmay considered the problem for a few moments but a glance at Aesin reminded him of her father's debt. He shook his head slowly, "no Cato. I will not have my currency built on promises and lies. Money has to have tangible value to be worth anything. "

"But-"

"I think that is quite enough," he said simply, "my word is final. Find some other way. "

The otherworlder met the chancellor's stare for a long moment before nodding and leaving the room.

Minmay sighed as he turned to his wife and daughter, the young girl had gotten over her initial shock at the hostility of the discussion and was giving him a curious look.

"I don't understand," she asked, "Cato said that we're so rich that we're running out of money? It doesn't make sense. "

The girl pointed at the food laid out on the table. A long row of dishes were presented for her, little delicacies that were all her favourites. The chancellor sighed and ruffled her hair gently.

"A good question indeed, Arisa. A very good question indeed. "

"You are all here today because you are the very best Minmay has to offer. All of you have created, designed and built machines that have contributed to what we have today. "

Cato paused to look over the gathered men and women in the room. Willio's foreman, Bashal sat front and center, surrounded on either side by two of his best assistants. Key recordkeepers who had managed the bank and levied the income taxes. The three brothers from Kalny's pump subsidiary.

Landar in the corner and most of the research alchemists.

"We have come together to create a formal college of the University of Minmay and your participation is greatly anticipated," Cato continued, "we are here because we believe that with the ingenuity of our minds and the products of our intelligence, the world shall belong to the people and not the monsters. We will not only defeat the monsters once and for all, but also create a place where we can live well.

To that end, you have all agreed to contribute one day out of your seven to work in the college. I encourage all of you to create projects that are different to what you normally work on. We are not here to improve the efficiency of steam engines or metal drills. Today, we are here to explore new concepts that we cannot achieve alone. Think of dreams, of great ideas. "

When he finished his introduction and formed discussion groups, to Cato's dismay, the room divided itself almost immediately into three circles. The purpose and the idea of this college wasn't a surprise, he had talked to these people individually, asking them to come with their own ideas for projects.

Cato had had vague ideas of creating a think tank like that of the software companies on modern Earth, with small teams working on world changing ideas. Perhaps that was too much to ask when the very concept of taking a day per week out of whatever you were working on was unthinkable, especially for the leaders of industry and research whose time was invaluable.

The first group was composed of mainly the recordkeepers, some of the university alchemists and one smith. Cato recognized her as one of the few smiths not with Willio's Ironworkers. A silversmith who also worked gold.

"The primary problem facing us is the lack of coins," the smith was saying, "I'm sure the recordkeepers are aware of the current trends that make obtaining currency loans even with the locking agreements that prevent cash withdrawals of the biggest holders. I have fielded many requests to obtain gold and silver for coins but the metal simply isn't there. Unfortunately, unless something has changed recently, I doubt the alchemists are any help. "

"We can't turn steel into gold, if that's what you're asking," an alchemist replied.

"The recordkeepers, in conjunction with Cato, presented the idea of a currency exchangeable for gold, with the intention that the exchange never happens. Being allowed to mint more coins than gold should help relieve some demand. Or switching to a currency expressed in value of grain. You all know Minmay's response to that. "

The silversmith joined their collective sigh, "Minmay is known for being extremely cautious around loans. And the amount he has had to take from the bank has made him nervous about turning the coin into a promise he can't keep. "

One of the junior recordkeepers raised a hand from the back. Cato recalled his face as one of the more enthusiastic boys that had been enamoured of the ideas in Cato's own writings. "I have an idea. If Minmay is resistant to creating more currency than we can pay the value for, then we just need to create more value to back it with. "

"We can't make gold or silver and there are no mines here in Minmay," his boss snapped at him. The boy wilted slightly and Cato decided to step in.

"Wait," Cato spoke. The men and women sitting there turned to face him, even the little side discussions silencing themselves. He hadn't spoken before to avoid this very reaction, Cato wanted them to create new ideas not just treat him like a celebrity. "I believe the man may have some idea of how to solve that problem. "

"A recordkeeper wants to solve the problem of gold?" asked the silversmith incredulously.

"I was thinking we should use something other than gold. Minmay rejected using grain because it cannot be stored for very long," the boy said, "but what if we use magic? The crystal can be stored essentially forever according to the alchemists," he got a nod from their bench, "and it can be divided up and move around. A currency denoted in magic power units that is backed by the total power of the Minmay magic wells and the huge stockpiles everyone is building. There's certainly no lack of value out there. "

The leading recordkeeper opened his mouth to oppose the idea and paused, thinking. Cato ran through some numbers in his head, quickly estimating the value of the total Minmay magic output. At one rime per thousand power units, the Borehole alone produced over a hundred rimes a day in magic.

Wow, the current price for a direct tap into the nascent power grid was undervaluing the power by nearly four times. That said, compressing the magic for storage cost about two thirds of the power to run a magic-based compression engine. Or about half that in value of coal fuel.

Given that the first of the new wells were undergoing testing now and the set that would complete the Ironworker's area would be sunk in the next week, the total value of the magic available was set to rise again. Although the per unit price would dive. Cato swung his attention back as a burgeoning argument made itself known.

"I can't understand how you think a currency that keeps losing its value would work," the boy was being grilled by his boss, "why would I keep a note for a hundred power units when its worth a whole telin less next month?"

That was true, the value of any currency denominated in magic would not be stable, being constantly dropping as new supply appeared. Cato blinked. Except that also answered the problem they had, with a rapidly rising value of currency. It was too much to hope that the value of magic would exactly match the expansion of the market except in extremely broad trends.

And if magic power was traded as a currency, with a floating value against the gold and silver of rimes, that was functionally equivalent to a floating currency that no one controlled at all. Anyone who sunk a magic well was literally printing money.

More work required, Cato muttered to himself as he left them to discuss further details. At least now they were considering the idea fairly, throwing around methods to store or administrate stockpiles of crystals. Maybe they could solve the problem.

The second group was the biggest. Led by Bashal and the vacuum pump brothers, the group contained everyone from blacksmiths to clothiers to woodworkers. Almost everyone who dealt with physical construction in the new college was here. Many of the alchemists outside the university who had been invited were also present. The group was so large that multiple conversations shifted around the core, like bubbles in a broth.

Cato suppressed his desire to ask them to form smaller groups. He ought to hear them out first.

"like a kite! We could use the wind to steer and anchors for when there is none. "

"What about using the pumps to move air?"

"wing shapes and the breadth against depth ratio-"

"can't store enough power to use it for direct lift. "

His circuit around the smaller conversations of the circle brought him to Bashal, who had already acquired a table from somewhere and was introducing a sketch on a large paper canvas to the big group around it.

"Ah, Cato! Glad to see you are done with the stuffy shirts!" Bashal clapped a meaty arm over his shoulders, "come, you must share your knowledge for our project!"

The big man's big voice forcefully dragged Cato through the crowd to face the sketch on the table.

Was... was that an airplane?!

Cato looked up the man incredulously, who returned his look with a huge grin.

"Surprised?" Bashal boomed as the group's conversations stalled for a moment. The grin on his face couldn't get any bigger.

"I thought flight was too expensive to bother with," Cato said, regarding the sketch. "Even the hot air balloon was too costly in power to be useful when Elkas are around. "

The sketch was a detailed thing. Around the central familiar figure of a wing and body, the parts were broken down to the wing segments. But for all its detail, the sketch of the airplane was not a blueprint. Many important details were missing, from the entire engine, shape of propellers to even the internal structure of the wings.

It looked like someone had taken a description of a early biplane and tried to draw a map of all its parts, leaving blank the areas that were not obvious. It was a half filled picture. Smoke and dreams, like the dream Cato himself had given up as too difficult so many months ago.

"Elkas are limited and cannot carry heavy loads. Weapons, bombs and magic," Bashal rumbled, "besides, your initial balloon flight and your stories of flying machines in your world are... more inspirational than you think. "

Cato looked up at the gathered men and women. Despite the attention Cato drew, the little side discussions he had overheard were still ongoing. To each side, smaller groups were trying to fill in missing details, murmurs enveloping them like a warm cloak. The magnitude of the project, of trying to reinvent the aeronautic knowledge of Earth, did not intimidate them. Rather, there was a sense of optimism.

One group was deep into the mechanics of controlling wing flaps, right next to the group of carpenters working on precision guides for cutting tools. Another was trying to derive the math of aerodynamics from the few rules and observations that Cato remembered.

He was about to say that the project was not an easy one but the look on Bashal's face was clear. They knew it, and yet they faced the task with more than optimism. There was a sense of inevitable victory. That they had faced such problems before and bent the world to their will. And no matter how far out of their ability, flight was not out of their ken. It had been done on Earth, it could be done here.

Perhaps they had grown used to success, perhaps they had grown confident. And who was Cato to say they shouldn't be? The speed at which Minmay was industrializing would not have been possible by himself alone. The best mechanics, ironworkers and engineers of Minmay and perhaps all of Ektal stood before him and there was no task they would admit was too difficult. They would dare reach for the sky.

No dream too high, not even the dream of flight.

Bashal and his gang waited for him, like school children asking for permission from their teacher. Cato smiled, "why not? It wasn't what I had in mind but I did not form this college to tell you what to do. "

He looked down at the papers. The biggest problem was the shape and design of the wing. Cato did not know aerodynamics beyond vague ideas.

"Have you considered making a wind tunnel?" he asked.

The last group was Landar's group. The smallest and most select group. One recordkeeper, a known genius with mathematics who had devoured even Cato's calculus text famed for its incomprehensibility. The rest were alchemists of the university.

"So what are you-?"

Landar cut across his words with a bright smile, "questions about magic. What is it? How does it do what it does? What forms it can take and why lifeforce is so special. The big questions. Possibly the biggest question. "

Cato considered leaving her to it, this whole college was meant to foster their independence from him. He wanted Minmay to establish its own research tradition. But it could wait. He sat down in their circle anyway. "Very well, any ideas of where to start?"

Minmay Papers, Issue 300

A special issue to all our readers and customers, bringing to you the 300th issue of the official newspaper of Minmay!

For this issue, we specially have compiled a list of new baby names that the Recordkeepers have worked hard to get to us! After the new citizen registration policy, the Recordkeepers now bring to you the most popular names in our city!

For boys, the most popular names are Aesir and Kon! Named for our very own matronly Aesin the wife of the Chancellor and Kupo of Pastora, the theme of our next generation looks to be kindness. Rumours say Duport region has a number of their own names too. Cheers to our most popular mother and doctor!

Girls' names are more varied, but of course the good Chancellor is not left out. Ein is the most popular girl's name as we all expected! Followed closely by Willow and Katy, this generation of girls will surely be strong and intelligent. We look forward to what you will bring to us!

Special thanks goes to Blair of the Recordkeepers for his work in leading the census effort.

And the honour of last mentioned goes to Kupo and her hardworking clinic! It is without exaggeration that her birthing practices and education of the Pastora's practices amongst the midwives of Minmay have improved the rate of bleeding and post-birth fevers. Many wives of Minmay owe you their lives, the parents owe you their sons and daughters. Your work cannot be more appreciated!

Indeed, we feel we must mention that the low prices of food is instrumental in making sure all of our new children grow up strong and healthy. Never in our history have so many survived their first month and even more their first year. The baby boom in our region and across all of Ektal is surely a symbol of our rising fortunes.

All cheers to the Chancellor!

The noxious mixture swirled in the tank, biding its time. One mixture test out of many.

"Living Fire test thirty seven! All clear! Engage pump!"

"Argh!"

Not a few people were startled when the flare of light swept the evening shadows aside, a stream of fire blazing out into the charred testing range. Refined crude oil, separated by crude distillation processes, yielded a black sticky liquid that was highly flammable and stuck to nearly everything. Mixed with powdered white phosphorous, the combination was a deadly pyrophoric sludge that set everything alight. It even burned on water, sending up gouts of steam and smoke that choked everything. Spraying water on a spill of the stuff caused steam explosions.

The Minmay Guard started calling it living fire and the name stuck.

A whole new set of safety precautions had to be invented, including improving on the fire resistant cloths. Quality control procedures to be followed strictly lest deadly mishaps occur. Right now, they were in the process of developing a nozzle to turn a mixture usable only in bombs into a flamethrower. Getting the gout of flame was easy. Doing so with a safe off switch and not having the nozzle drip fire afterwards? That was much harder.

The flames died away as the testing ground gained a new pyre right beside the previous one. The nozzle still dripped, bright orange white drops hitting the sandy soil with infernal hisses. Three of the guards approached with inert powder sprayers.

"That's an impressive weapon you've invented there," Minmay muttered.

"You mean terrifying," Cato clarified, "imagine if this was pointed at people, not monsters. Flamethrowers filling an entire trench with living fire, melting even the bones. In bombs carried by Elka or flying craft. An appropriate mixture with elemental Water? Vapourized Water combined with the heat will eat through even Muller's reinforced concrete. Drop a few thousand onto a city and you have a Firestorm. No more city. Space them out over farmland? No more people. "

"If this weapon can ensure the end of the zombies, the risk is worth it. If we are to die, at least we die by own hands instead of the claws of a monster. Plus, you know that the good Queen will work hard to ensure no one uses living fire against people," Minmay said. He paused for a moment. "But I have to admit that the idea of making such an effective way to kill massive numbers has its drawbacks. "

If they could make enough to burn all the zombies, they could make enough to burn a small country. The worst part of the entire invention was that living fire was cheap. Cheaper than an equivalent amount of magic required to have the same effect, on top of the efficiency the white phosphorous had shown in the Fort Yang battle. Development hadn't been cheap of course, trying to get an effective formula through testing thousands of combinations, but the promise of an area of effect fire weapon that worked on zombies was worth any amount of money. White phosphorous grenades hadn't seemed that dangerous since people didn't burn well and concrete construction limited its usefulness. Given the results, the Federation was probably going to regret sponsoring the cost of the living fire project.

So in one of his less brilliant moments, Cato's eagerness to ensure they had an effective weapon for zombies by the next attack meant that he had outsourced the mixing and testing of the combinations to hundreds of 'subcontractors', most of them spies of other territories thinly disguised as research companies in Minmay.

Sharing technology crucial to the defence of humanity sounded like a good idea until the weapon worked far beyond anyone's hopes. Hell, this stuff could give napalm a run for its money. And that was before the presence of magical disasters that literally set the sky on fire.

"Nothing to say?" Cato looked to his left.

Landar standing beside him was uncharacteristically quiet, he would have thought she would have been coming up with ways to hold living fire as a payload for her magical missile project. Or best ways to spread it to ensure a Firestorm.

Note to self, when your resident mad scientist obsessed with weapons is thinking your weapon is too deadly-

"I'm still thinking," the some time mad scientist pouted, "the containment tank or any bomb warhead will function very well as a compressed magic container. Against zombies, the compressed magic can be used to power an acceleration field to pump the living fire. That should greatly simplify the nozzle since you don't need to seal the pressurized gas. Against anything without the disruption aura, the stored magic can be converted to form elemental Water or Fire to further add to the payload. Liquid Fire in living fire, a synergistic combination that should melt steel given how close living fire is to doing so. Or burn the power to temporarily enchant the living fire before pumping with disruption magic, so that the stream will burn down even magic based shields, deflection and resist fields being the primary counter of this weapon. "

So much for that. Cato sighed, wondering how she managed to still look so cute chewing her lip while turning an already deadly weapon into something that gave soldiers nightmares.

"We will have to ensure that we don't use so much fire in a single battle that we trigger a Firestorm," Curasym added.

Everyone present nodded to that.

"Or know exactly how much is required to trigger one so that we can turn a losing battle into a draw," he further added.

Only Landar nodded this time.

The prospect of deliberately triggering a Firestorm on top of your own troops to ensure both sides suffered in your defeat was faintly horrifying.

"At least you could use magic to sap the heat from the last few drops in your nozzle to prevent the fire from damaging your equipment. Maybe a physical seal then acceleration to eject the drops," Landar said, "would even be simple and easy to design a second trigger for purging the system. Special payloads will take longer to make stable. Delay timers in liquids are not very reliable. "

Oh, that was a very good idea, except that enchanting living fire tanks that way to store magic laid the groundwork for turning living fire into a weapon designed to kill people better than zombies. Since magical payloads didn't work on zombies.

"Or since the fire burns for minutes," Landar continued, ignoring the looks she was getting. Cato knew she was slipping into a light episode again but couldn't break through his morbid curiousity to see what she came up with this time. "Spell cannon delivery should be possible. Liquid is cohesive enough that it can be constrained into a single stream with a continuous acceleration field, giving you a flamethrower with better range than any infantry held versions. I still wouldn't stand in front of it however. Or place a ceramic barrel of living fire on top of a black powder charge, buried at an angle ideally on a hillside. Triggered manually with coded magical signals and you have a short range wide area incendiary mine. With testing, it can form the basis of Curasym's deliberate Firestorm idea without needing suicidal volunteers. "

So very many ways to kill indeed.

The chancellor and leader of the university looked out onto the field as the next test began, the fire light sending mocking shadows chasing their legs and across the ground.

"So you finally deign to talk to me?"

The raspy voice came from a middle aged man, sitting on the hard bed in his cell. His unkempt hair and rumpled clothes maintained the same wild look she had faced. A familiar man, an opponent she had defeated once before, now looking like a caged animal.

"Tukor, or do you prefer Light's Edge?" Landar said, siting on her stool placed well away from the bars. The two of the Guard standing beside the cell had firebolt launchers, and enough power to ash them all twice over.

"I am at your mercy, call me whatever you wish," the Em master chuckled, "let me guess, you are unable to understand my sword and so have come to me for answers. "

"I have not even tried," the alchemist shrugged, "I recognize that sword you have, the Iris family has three and the Zanzi family has one. An old Tsarian weapon that no one remembers how to use. Older and simpler than the summoning stones, but still beyond our ability. "

The man clutched his chest, a twisted smile on his face, "alas, my secrets are not as unique as I thought. You have sheathed more swords than mine, lady?"

Landar and the two soldiers just stared at him.

"Tsk. Can a man not joke after having someone to talk with after months behind bars?" Tukor dropped his grin, "you suck all the fun out of life. What do you want?"

Landar kept her stony face. "We want to understand how you use the sword. We want to analyze how the attack works. We want you to teach how to use the other three we have. "

"And what do I get for this?" he glanced at the bars meaningfully, "not that this cell isn't warm and comfortable, but a little change of scenery would be nice, you understand?"

"The exact terms have to be discussed, but I suspect the Chancellor might be willing to extend pardon and a retainer for your cooperation. "

"Ah but don't I still have ties to my old employer?"

The alchemist shrugged, "Minmay recently confirmed that Duport has been killed. You have no more contract. "

The Em master held her gaze for a long while. Then he sighed, "I won't pretend I'm happy about losing out on the second part of my payment but very well, I am willing to discuss terms. "

"Thank you for your cooperation. The Chancellor will see you shortly. "

Landar eyed the ball of magic hanging in the air.

The streams of power flickered away from the edges, escaping into the air. Compressed magic was fickle and hard to contain, only solid walls of magical barriers could do it and even then, the compressed magic exerted pressure on the walls in order to escape. So in order to create a stable storage of power, enchanted walls of steel were used. That was the current understanding.

The problem was that steel could only take so much pressure. The current high density record was held by a container with a thirty centimeter thick hardened steel box. It was ludicrously expensive and contained an entire ritual summon's worth of power into a cup sized volume. Plus another ritual summon's worth of magical energy on top of that. Nothing interesting had happened. Cato had been working on that project and they eventually concluded that it was too expensive to use as a power storage battery.

So Landar was now spending her free research time on trying to invent a way to contain magical density without physical materials. Steel could only get so hard, magic could do much more than mere steel.

But any magic higher than ambient density would leak through her spell boundary on the inside of the hollow sphere into her spell. And a spell with higher power would proceed to leak it into the environment faster. So any attempt to contain magic density with free standing spells didn't meet pressure problems but instead leaked power faster than normal spells did.

She tweaked the shape of the magical barrier again and sighed as the bubble popped and the contained magic dispersed into the air.

That said, there were uses for spells that could carry a higher density power source inside them, provided the leaking problem could be controlled sufficiently. Normal high power spells suffered badly from the continuous drain, Landar was certain contained magic density could do better.

She would have to work on it to make the spell feasible. Alchemy constructs were slightly different than free standing spells after all and the magic density to power conversion didn't work as well as she hoped. Still, it was a solvable problem and once that was done...

Landar looked up at the blackness outside the window of the test lab.

Ah.

She sighed as her stomach rumbled again. Cato was going to get so mad again, after she promised to watch her health. But it was so difficult to remember that when the ideas started flowing.

Maybe she could make an alarm clock with magic. Magic powered clocks were already-

No! No distracting herself from food. She put down the pencil forcefully, half a design for a magic circle to make time triggered alarms drawn in the sheets of paper.

The alchemist got up from her designing table and stretched out the kinks in her limbs. The pops and cracks did not sound good, but food did. The cafeteria cooks might have saved something for her. Landar strolled out of her workshop, tossing her wandering hair back across her shoulder.