A/N: to be honest, this chapter really should have been 88, and Yana should have been 89, but I wrote Yana first.

Likely sidestory chapters left, in no particular order: 1 more Interlude, 1 more Morey, 1 more Elkas/Fort Yang Attack, 1 more overall Inath/Ektal/Ranra situation

Willio. Ironworker. Foundry owner. He had many names. The wealthy business owner did not insist others call him by a fixed name though. He was too busy tapping the pencil over the floor plan of his complex. Great furnaces dotted the space, surrounded by beams, rollers and other equipment. Footpaths snaked out from the piers in the river to unload coke and iron ore from the waiting barges. Warehouses for ore and finished stocks. Great vats for the quenching and heat treatment arm. Now Willio had another two things to squeeze in.

The magical power pipe was going to reach his foundry soon. With magical power, he could power those pulley crane designs Bashal had drawn up. That would reduce the amount of muscle power needed to run foundries, and improve safety. Concrete buckets of molten pig iron were dangerous and if magic could be used to feed the Bessemers from the blast furnaces, the number of people required to run each pair would be reduced.

And the furnaces could be built bigger yet again.

And there was the matter of fitting all the rollers, stampers and other forming equipment downstream of the steel production. Bar and sheet stock was getting popular, as the new ironworking companies found regular sized stock much easier to deal with. Especially bar steel. The Muller and Concrete company sucked up that up like a hungry paka at the trough.

The second thing to squeeze in was the assaying and ore purification processes. With abundant magical power, steel designed for an exact level of impurity could be achieved. With the production scaled elemental Water chromatography process that Elma was promising him any day now, Willio would have to make extra space for when the processes were finalized.

So, space for the assaying labs, the warehouses to store waiting ore and coke. And the secondary furnace and roasting ovens for the precious alloy metals. Willio would see chrome and nickel in his foundry if he had to pay out of his own pocket to get it. The metals department in the University was systematically creating and testing a series of iron alloys with Cato's suggestions. With nickel, the strength test report had made Willio want to call it a god metal, at least until Cato mentioned tungsten carbide.

He scraped away a line with the new eraser. The rubber subsidiary of Kalny's had made the Recordkeepers, and anyone else who had to write a lot, very happy with the vulcanization using the sulphur byproduct from Cato's coal to coke refinery. Rubber was better than hard bread.

Hmm, the layout for the expansion should take into account the waste runoff. Slag left out in the dumping ground was rained on and the minerals that leached out were killing everything around it. Willio wrote a reminder to himself to purchase another ring of fields around the foundries for a buffer zone.

There was a knock on the office door. "Come in," Willio said, without even looking up.

"Do you never leave this place, Willio?" Kalny asked as he pulled up a chair. The portly food merchant sat down across Willio's workdesk without waiting to be invited. Willio didn't mind, both men did not stand on ceremony and they knew that. The chair creaked alarmingly below him but the cast iron frame was tough. Good ironwork. It wouldn't give way, no matter what his weight was.

"You missed the first Lesser Circle meeting!" Kalny exclaimed, when Willio didn't react.

"They were just starting to draft the rules," Willio twirled his pencil and marked in another furnace, "my work here is more important. So what did you come here for?"

"Minmay sent me to make sure you turn up to the next meeting. " Willio waved vaguely at Kalny. "And I also have a new order," Kalny added finally.

Willio was still absorbed in measuring out a footpath with a ruler. "Anything special?"

"Not really. I just need some enchanted pipes. Your Ironworker Elma in Corbin told me that magical barriers enchanted into steel can let it survive elemental Water for long periods. I need new equipment," Kalny said, digging out a folder from under his coat.

Willio glanced at the summary pages for a few minutes before nodding, "easy enough. You want Bashal's subsidiary company though, they're the ones specializing in steel enchantments. "

"Bashal doesn't have enough capacity," Kalny said, "I hope you can make things a little faster for me. I need this equipment before others can get to it. The windeye sugar refining depends on this. "

That got Willio to look up. "Not enough capacity? Ah, that must be Cato's magic density pipes," he nodded to himself, "not a problem. I will budget for another workshop to fulfill your order. It won't happen in the next two weeks but we have some that can be displaced. Thirty percent. "

"Are you serious?" Kalny raised an incredulous eyebrow, "you're going to build an entire enchantment workshop just for my order? You'll barely break even, even with thirty percent markup. I'll accept though. "

Willio pulled out a different sheet, the layout for Bashal's three interlinked workshops next to the foundry zone. He shrugged, "we'll manage. With the way the market's been this last year, it doesn't matter how much capacity I build, someone will buy the steel. "

"You're reducing your own profits though," Kalny pointed out. While it was true that steel was always in demand, Willio was not exploiting the shortage by raising prices. He aimed to produce enough steel to fill the demand, and hence the market price had actually dropped since the older days of first rate steel.

That didn't mean that the Steel Foundry wasn't a wealthy company though, just that most of the profits had been plowed back into a bigger infrastructure. More furnaces, more people, more everything. Willio had even bought joint ownership in the Minmay iron mines to help them expand to meet his demand for ore. The foundry covered multiple fields and the soot that rose from it's furnaces was literally dyeing the downwind land blank.

"Profits are just a stepping stone Kalny. What will I even do with the money? There are only so many fancy dinners a man can eat, and I do get my fair share," Willio said, still scribbling, "any more and I'll be too fat to lift a hammer. "

"That goes against the entire idea of being a merchant or guild though? What happened to profit first?"

Willio sighed and put down his pencil. He got up from behind his desk. "Look out there," Willio threw open the window from his second floor office, "tell me what you see. "

Kalny already knew but he looked anyway. Ten pairs of blast and Bessemer furnaces chugging away day and night. Two more under construction. One more planned. And two more in Willio's drawings that were half again as large as the last model. A small forest of towers built with concrete and steel, tipped with fire and ash.

"The biggest and grandest company. A heart of industry underlying all of Minmay's steel. That's why I do this," Willio said, "profits are just a necessary step. "

"It's impressive, but money speaks for itself," Kalny shook his head, "I'd call you crazy for crashing your own market-"

"-but you pay less for steel so you won't complain," Willio completed Kalny's words and smiled back at the food merchant.

"Indeed," Kalny nodded, "well then, you're a busy man and I got what I came for. "

They shook hands to a mutual understanding and Kalny turned to go.

"That man just wants to build a bigger ironworks," Kalny said to himself outside the door.

Willio shook his head and smiled to himself, Kalny really needed to watch where he said those things. A lesser person might even get angry.

"By the order of the Chancellor, the following activities are declared illegal and subject to penalties up to and including death! Penalties will be enforced by the Minmay Guard!"

The herald shouted the words in the main square. The crowds around barely listened, the proclamations had been repeated every day for the last week after all.

"Theft, penalty is ten strokes! Disturbing the peace, penalty is one stroke! Disturbing the peace, armed, penalty is ten strokes! Violence and assault on citizens, penalty is death! Armed robbery, penalty is death! Attacking an officer of the law, penalty is death! Attempting to bribe an officer of the law, penalty is death!..."

The list of crimes and proscribe maximum penalties continued on and on. This wasn't even the full list, just the most heinous crimes. Several high profile raids and arrests made by the Guard had produced the array of bodies strung up behind the herald. Front and center was a minor baron, caught paying mercenaries to attack and rob a competitor's warehouses.

Each day the bodies were taken down and replaced with new ones. Products of the purge of the city's underbelly. Truth was, most of the arrests had already been concluded, the prisoners were hanged in turn and displayed with their crimes for all to see. Several of the biggest crime leaders had been given public 'trials', where evidence of their crimes were read and the criminals executed publicly. Always with one or more of the city's aristocracy or wealthy business leaders present. Among the more well-informed, the conspicuous absence of Cato at these executions was heavily speculated on.

Minmay's justice had been swift and terrible. With a police force armed like a military, he wielded the Guards like a weapon against the lawlessness of the darker districts. Smugglers, gangs and thieves were swept away into the execution grounds, or simply cut down where they were cornered. In a span of two weeks, hired muscle had virtually disappeared from Minmay. A shadow war, no less fierce than the riots, was being fought with organized crime but Minmay was never hesitant to break out the big guns and questioners. Those who dared to resist found themselves looking down the barrel of a spell cannon, those among them who survived sometimes wished they didn't. After that, the problem was reduced to finding the criminals.

What few escaped the city and towns to become bandits found themselves hunted from the sky by Elkas. Clan Two had sent three of their best scouts, in exchange for Minmay's delivery of curse breaker, food and political support in the Central Territories. Those who remained stayed low, with severely curtailed activities.

With the total number of Guards numbering nearly a thousand, regular patrols could be seen at all hours of the day. Despite the brutality of the crackdown, Minmay retained many sympathizers. Called a daring leader, willing to make hard decisions, he was rapidly acquiring a tough reputation.

And indeed, the streets were safer. Although it would take a long time for peasants to feel safe after dark, the truth was that the usual nighttime predators were conspicuously absent. Either by deterrence or natural selection.

It was to this backdrop that the Lesser Circle of the Minmay City concluded the finishing touches on a working set of laws to be enforced. Today was the last day of the mass executions and the start of Minmay's push for standardized law.

Cato sat in the simple cushioned chair, looking unhappy.

"Any further points to be made about the list of laws and their proposed penalties?" Minmay looked around the room.

A hand raised, followed by a thin wiry man. The Recordkeeper's guild leader.

"Yes, Blair?" Minmay asked.

"Cato from the University has been a great source of knowledge and advancement," the man said, bowing fluidly to Cato. He had no wasted movements, all gestures were precise and sharp. Like a piece of clockwork. "Yet, he is strangely silent in the Lesser Circle. While we appreciate his intellect on problems and definitions of laws, I find it strange that he remains so silent on the punishment portion. Are we doing something wrong here?"

There was a general shifting as the Lesser Circle looked at each other. They couldn't help but doubt, yet they could find nothing wrong. The laws reflected how criminals were treated, they were just codifying and formalizing the process. The men and women gathered here were unable to guess Cato's reasons.

"Cato, will you answer?" Minmay asked as the silence dragged on.

Cato sighed and closed his eyes. "There aren't any answers for me to give. You aren't doing anything wrong. It's just that I have realized the culture here is much different from my homeland. "

"I would like more details. How have we made our punishments different?" Blair asked after another pause.

"For one thing, you don't even have a prison. The concept of corrective punishment is impossible. "

"Are you referring to that 'correctional facility'?"

Cato nodded silently. He had only joined the discussions after the initial draft was made, under Minmay's continued insistence, and he had introduced the concept of prisons and rehabilitation. It had not been treated seriously. Like the foreign concept that it was.

"That was a serious suggestion? How did you intend for us to pay for that?" Blair pressed him some more, "besides, what merit will coddling the criminal element give? Shall we not enforce the rules we have just laid down?"

Cato's eyes were still closed, he spoke slowly and softly. "Even criminals are humans too. ... I acknowledge that Inath is not rich enough to afford a prison. If you wish, I will formally withdraw my suggestion to build one. But I cannot endorse what you are doing. It is just not my way. "

"Do you have any reason to believe that the current listed punishments will have undesirable effects?"

"Other than our consciences you mean?" Cato made a dry mirthless smile, "If you apply it fairly, to commoner and noble alike? I doubt so. So long as Minmay is perceived to obey his own laws, subject to the additional capacity of his office as Chancellor, fairness will go a long way. I suspect future generations will wish to rewrite the rules, perhaps when Inath becomes much wealthier than it is now. When people are more used to a kinder world. "

The Lesser Circle was silent at his words.

"What if we allowed the people to suggest changes to law?" asked Kalny. The food merchant had been rather silent, as had most of the commercial seats on the Lesser Circle, preferring to leave law determination to the Recordkeeper and Guard representatives to work out.

"How will peasants write laws? What do they know of the issues we discuss here in this council?" Blair snapped back immediately.

"I don't mean letting them write it," Kalny waved a hand, "something like... the Greater Circle suggests changes or new laws, the Lesser Circle drafts them into proper form. If we don't like it, we can just ignore it. In the end, Minmay still has to sign the law to make it official, so technically, we can't write laws either. This stack here is strictly speaking, a suggestion to Minmay. "

"A very good suggestion," Minmay pointed out, "given that I wrote most of it. "

That got a round of light laughs. The Chancellor was the only person to have any experience witnessing laws being written, being an attendee at Ektal's court.

"Secretary, make a note of this point," Minmay said, "the Lesser Circle shall discuss the official process of drafting new laws and inclusion of inputs from common representatives from the Greater Circle. This will happen at a later date. "

One more thing for them to discuss. The more they met, the more points were raised and the more problems they needed to resolve. The Lesser Circle was a good idea, many of changes to tax codes, traffic laws, construction permits and even district planning had advantages and downsides that Minmay would not have seen without their input. It almost made Minmay feel inadequate as Chancellor, until Cato pointed out that no single person could fully understand all of them.

Minmay was beginning to see why Earth government was so complicated.

Cato walked up to the test field, following the cracking sound of supersonic projectiles. Landar testing a new weapon was a common sight, although actually getting to fire it at targets was something that only happened about half the time. Cato's field was legendary for the number of holes it had acquired over the last year.

He rounded the corner to find a squad of heavily armed Guard and a spell cannon. Fully charged steel staffs tied to bowguns and copious quantities of exploding pebbles. And a small mound of crystals in the waiting cart. All of them were looking nervously at the targets downrange.

Landar herself was holding a modified gun, powered directly from a steel staff, with a stack of what looked like enchanted arrows next to her. A gun that fired arrows?

What caught his attention however was the haze of magic down in the range. There were a crowd of armoured figures standing there. They looked like humans at this distance but the haze of magic around them was nothing at all like the sharp boundaries of a spell. There was something familiar about it that...

Shit, was that zombies Landar was shooting at?! There must be nearly thirty of them there, enough to make the black mist appear.

Cato strode forwards, "Landar!"

The squad of twitchy Guards looked at him in sheer relief. "Landar!" Cato shouted again, "what are you doing?"

Landar looked up from loading the gun. "I'm testing a new idea," she said.

"I can see that. But what idea requires putting thirty zombies loose in the shooting range? If they get loose-"

"They won't," Landar pointed at the figures, "see the armour? We welded the suits shut with the zombies inside. Those things are more like statues than armour. They can't even move. I just need to test their aura. "

Huh.

"And I borrowed a squad and spell cannon from Minmay. It's fine Cato, what could go wrong with them here?" Landar leveled her gun at the zombies and pulled the trigger without even waiting for his reply. There was a loud crack and the loaded arrow disappeared in a huge flare of magic.

Almost instantly, the arrow shattered on the backstop, a sharp report ringing across the field. Landar had set up a sheet of waste iron as a target behind the zombies.

"Ah, that sounded like a hit," Landar nodded, "come along Cato, let's take a look at the result. "

Cato looked at the squad, who avoided his gaze. They knew less than Cato about what was going on. Landar trotted off into the field, swinging the long barrel of her gun over her shoulder.

"What's the experiment about this time?" he asked, following behind. The squad of six trailed them, still eyeing the zombies.

"I wanted to see if we could make bullets work against the zombies," Landar explained, "we know that poking holes in them with normal bullets does little. But with Resist enchantments, a bullet can deal significant damage. Especially if you reduce penetration by fragmenting the bullet into smaller pieces. "

Cato stepped around a sand-filled hole. He restated the same argument, "But we know that the zombie's aura will kill any enchantments, bullets can't hold a strong enough magic to penetrate the aura. "

"That's what this experiment is for. If you simply pour in enough power, the enchantment will break through," Landar said, "now that we have the guns that charge from a steel staff, I can use the magic circles to turn the guns into mini spell cannons that can enchant the bullet directly in the barrel. Overcharged enchantments lose their power just like normal spells but that's insignificant during the bullet's flight time. But simply relying on powerful Resist enchantments is also inefficient, only a portion of the Resist enchantment will reach the zombie. Disruption effects will penetrate magical effects much better and the aura is no different. "

She unhooked one of the arrows from her belt and held it up. At close range, the arrow was indeed strange. The arrowhead was a cone of steel, and the edges flared out larger than most arrowheads would. The shaft was also steel and it lacked any of the fletching normal arrows had. What was most different was the two part enchantment on it. The arrowhead and the shaft were distinctly different.

Landar explained, "the shaft contains the Resist enchantment. The hollow cone arrowhead is enchanted with a disruption magical barrier. You see, since magic only normally moves at ten meters per second, the cone will sweep a hole through the aura and shield the shaft from the erosion effect. That is, if the arrow is moving fast enough that the aura can't refill the hole before the arrow passes by. "

As they got close to the target, the damage was obvious. The entire cast iron plate had shattered into two pieces, with metal fragments spalled out the back into the bales of hay behind it. The iron arrow itself was unrecognizable among the wreckage, completely destroyed by the impact.

"Well, this is a large scale version to make it obvious," Landar said, gesturing at the much less damaged iron plate next to it. That one only had a large dent and a hole in the center. "That was fired without a Resist enchantment. "

"I see," Cato nodded, "and that's why you needed enough zombies to make an aura. "

"Indeed, the Resist enchantment clearly survived, although I'm not sure if that's due to the enchantment being strong enough. So I've made a series of increasingly weaker enchantments to see if the aura touches them at all," Landar explained.

Hmm. And of course, only zombies had auras. No one had managed to reproduce the effect. And there was a spell cannon for emergencies. In the worst case, they would just have to set the entire field on fire.

"Fine, I approve," Cato said. Landar grinned. See, he could understand her!

The disapproving gazes from the squad behind them dug into Cato's back. Why were they looking at him like he had just betrayed them? Never mind. Landar wasn't minding them so Cato shouldn't too.

They trudged back to the firing line where the next arrow was waiting for Landar.

Cato watched her fire off another three arrows, admiring the laser like intensity she was bringing to bear on the experiment. The sun caught on her black ponytail, the shine on her hair winking at him. Kalny's new hair conditioner, no doubt.

"Say, there's a new cake shop opening by Kalny today. Shall we go together?"

Cato blinked. Did he just say that? Landar didn't react outwardly but Cato could tell that her focus wasn't on the arrows any more.

"Sure," Landar fired the arrow, "just let me finish this and we'll go. I need to design the circles for the bullets. I can do that at a cake shop. And a snack sounds nice. "

"Do you still need the zombies after the experiment?" Cato asked. The Guards shifted behind him.

Landar thought for a while. "Sure, I can use them for a live target once it's working," she said.

The stares from behind turned from hopeful to despairing. Cato sighed, he should do something about that. "Alright, you finish the experiment, I'll get the monster research division to bring up some chains just in case, we can't leave the Guard here to watch them forever. "

He nodded at the six men and women who seemed pathetically relieved. They smiled back in thanks.

"Ah! Speaking of tests, I have a new fire ballista enchantment to try out. Since the weather's good, I might as well give it a shot," Landar said happily. She still hadn't dropped the liquid fire spewing ballista bolt idea?! Though the current incarnation was closer to an incendiary shell.

Cato sighed and looked back at the Guard with pity in his eyes. They looked like people waiting for an execution. He could even see the youngest girl trembling in her boots.

"Don't worry, it probably won't set the field on fire this time. Not even liquid fire can burn sand. "

Cato came into the workshop with a smile on his face. "We found it!" he announced, presenting a letter.

The ironworkers crowded around, looking for the reason they had been working this last week.

"Tracing the source for tar and bitumen torches, informants have identified petroleum seeps in the northern province of Inath, just beyond the Ektal border!" Cato exclaimed.

Bashal stepped out of the door leading to the neighbouring laboratory. He bounded over with long confident strides. Being the head of the company that produced magical enchantments on steel and equipment had turned the burly ironworker into something more approaching a businessman. Although it would never get rid of his tendency to get too involved in the design. Bashal was getting to be the rival to Landar's alchemy division, his commercial applications to her militaristic ones.

"What's this about?" he asked.

"We found oil!" Cato said, "some rare torches noted for their foul smoke allowed me to trace where they were being made. There's an oil seep in a bog that was used to make them. "

"Oh, is that the one that Kalny wanted?" Bashal asked.

"Yes, it is. More than just him. Oil provides the raw materials for a wonderful material known as plastic. And with petroleum products, we will have a true chemical industry!"

"And it's just there for the taking?"

Cato shrugged, "we'll have to drill down to get at it. We could dig another Borehole but that sounds expensive. We'll drill a small hole, that's all we need for oil anyway. You'll be getting an order for steel pipes and a drill head. The head will have to be extremely hard and tough. We'll test with tool steel first but I suspect we'll have to use that nickel alloy.

The pipes need to make a good magical seal when placed end to end despite not having a physical seal. We know this is theoretically possible but you'll be the first ones to try it. The pipe will be used to transmit raw magical power from the surface to the drill head. Rather than wait for harder materials like tungsten or diamond for drills, we'll send magic down to shatter the rock and the drill head will simply push the pieces to the outside of the pipe where the water we pump down the pipe will return them to the surface. The enchantment on the drill head will have to be able to project the magic we feed it from the pipe into the rock. Landar will have the circle ready by next week. "

Bashal looked up at the cylindrical test piece, placed in the center of a magic circle. "Ah, so that's why you wanted us to test these self-sealing enchantments. I thought you had some improvement ideas for the magic density pipe network. "

Cato nodded, "they are be useful for that too, but there is another purpose for this. By forming a magical barrier, the pipes can carry not just oil but also magical density. This means that if the hole goes down far enough, it will work just like the Borehole, only smaller. In fact, I won't be drilling for oil first. We'll start by testing the drill and procedures next to Willio's foundries, until we manage to make a mini Borehole for him. I suspect this will be easier and cheaper than a half year project that can nearly bankrupt a Chancellor. "

Bashal nodded and smiled, "ah, I can see how that would be profitable. "

"Profitable for you as well," Cato smiled back, "if people want their own magical power sources, there will be great demand for magical barrier steel pipes. "

The two men's smiles met and turned into outright grins.

Cato stirred the cup of warm tea, watching Landar nibble at her cake. The cake was a new product. Cake in the sense of fluffy baked flour had existed before of course, but this cake had choko jam and a helping of windeye syrup on top. It was a sweet cake rivaling most chocolate creations on Earth and served on stylish glazed pottery. Very popular among people with disposable income.

She cut out another sliver of the sticky cream-filled layers and nibbled at it, still looking at her notebook.

Drawing new magic circles wasn't quite what he expected a date to be like but watching her do that was fine too. Cato needed a break anyway. The waiter who couldn't decide if he should treat them as a couple could continue wondering. Cato found his confusion funny.

Slice. Stab. Chomp. If it wasn't for the excruciatingly slow pace at which she ate the cake, Cato would have thought Landar wasn't tasting it. He watched her do it, letting thoughts wander without thinking of anything specific.

They sat there in silence.

Patrons came and left but no one disturbed them.

When the sun had begun to hide behind Selna for the Little Night, Landar threw down her pencil and snapped, "what's wrong?"

Cato raised an eyebrow.

"You're looking at me wondering how I know you just thought of something bad, but your eyes give you away," Landar said.

Had she even been looking at him? Cato sighed. "Yes, I just made an uncomfortable conclusion regarding Morey's exploits in the ancient ruins. I think the Tsarians had been engineering people. And I have a hunch that the Fukas and Elkas are the result. "

To his surprise, Landar just shrugged, "that's one of the most plausible theories for what lifeshaping means in Tsarian. "

Cato closed his mouth, blinking at her. "You didn't mention this?"

"Ah..." Landar frowned and bit on her fork cutely, "that's probably one of those cultural differences. You said that sometimes what we consider important are different? One of those. What about the theory?"

The Tsarians could edit people and this wasn't important enough to mention?! When Morey had wrote his speculation that nightcryers and perhaps whatever caused zombies were the result of Tsarian lifeshaping, they hadn't thought humans were included. But Landar had just dropped a bomb like this and didn't think it anything special. It was just a theory, true, but just the thought of it was vaguely disturbing.

"Never mind," Cato shook his head, "it's not important anyway. "

"Don't you go thinking this will ruin the mood when you're frowning over there," Landar smiled, "yes it is important. Why are you so surprised we have that theory? It's quite obvious if you consider the history of Fukas and Elkas. "

Cato closed his eyes, pushing away the feeling that the whole world was sliding sideways. "You're misunderstanding me, I wasn't surprised to learn that the theory existed. Yes, in hindsight, there is enough evidence to make that conclusion, perhaps not with certainty but enough to rate that theory one of the most likely. But I was surprised that you thought the Tsar being able to edit humans was not surprising. "

Now it was Landar's turn to look confused. "How is that not surprising? If you accepted Morey's theory about the Tsar creating nightcryers, why would you not expect them to have created Fukas?"

Because editing animals and editing humans are different? Cato forestalled himself. The answer to his question was obvious. "You don't think changing humans is any different from changing say, a paka or a piyo. " Cato ventured a guess.

Landar's confusion only got worse. "Uh. I guess so? Hm. Why do you think changing people is any different from changing animals or monsters?"

Feeling like he was standing on the edge of a drop into the ravine known as a culture gap, Cato began to tread lightly. "I thought the Tsar would not have dared to change people," Cato said.

"Why wouldn't they? They'd have to be able to change themselves before they could change others, right?" Landar asked, "isn't that how it works? You must learn before you teach. "

She continued to elaborate as Cato felt the shock creep onto his face. "That interpretation of the Tsarian legends and history indicates that they created the demihuman races first, before creating the monsters as a weapon to use against the First. Lifeshaping was mentioned as a tool the Tsars used in their war. If it's true, the theory explains many things. "

And what of ethical considerations? If the Tsar started their genetic engineering research, presumably what they called lifeshaping, on humans first, that meant that all the initial mistakes were made on humans, and all their consequences... Cato gulped. "Wasn't that too cruel?"

Landar shrugged, "If they were troubled about that. The world before the Great War was much richer and more powerful than we can even imagine. I'm sure they could find willing volunteers with sufficient incentive. "

That statement made the culture gap rather more clear. That ravine was bottomless. Cato sighed, "I can't believe I'm spending a date in a fantasy world discussing the ethics of genetic engineering. "

"I don't think this qualifies as a discussion. "

"Misunderstanding then. "

They sat there for a long moment until Cato gave up. "This isn't productive so I'm just not going to worry about it now," he concluded, "maybe if Kupo pulls it off in our lifetime, which I very much doubt. "

"We just have to figure out how the First or Tsar did it, it can't be that hard," Landar mused, "I can almost imagine new Fukas that shoot fireballs from their tails. Wouldn't that be useful? Oh, how about making the Elka feathers tougher? They could throw bony feathers with their powerful wings!"

Leave it to Landar to instantly gravitate to impractical ideas on how to weaponize a technology. Cato rubbed his forehead and smiled ruefully at the sun sliding behind red Selna. He'd deal with bioethics another time. Preferably when he wasn't on a date.