"I have an idea," she said one day to Zahar, of the Knowledge Society. The wealthy Vulin had been involved in half the major infrastructure projects around here. Those included the more modern parts of the sewer system that made this place not a literal cesspool; the drawbridge, and some siege engines on the western walls. He'd gotten more polite after hearing her talk about the catapults.

Zahar had just walked into the main library, drinking the local version of tea. "Another idea?"

"I've noticed that some of these books you have are printed by machine. Printing presses are pretty new, right? What if the Society bought one and made its own books?"

"Whatever for?"

"Making them available to everyone. My family makes a point of teaching all the employees who haven't already got Literacy."

Reading was a surreal thing in how it interacted with the System. The System had crammed the local language into her head and started showing messages with it. But she'd learned that illiterate folk perceived the rules in some picture format. There were illustrations of how that looked, with dots and icons.

The fox still seemed puzzled. "To what end, though?"

"The kingdom has you and other Engineers doing useful work. What if there were a hundred more people like you, who will never get discovered because they're living as peasants?"

"I'm not sure the world could handle more of me! But have you ever been to the outlying villages? Nothing's there. It's not fertile ground for scattering the seeds of knowledge."

Selen had spent the last few years in a college town, and found Zahar's attitude familiar and self-justifying. "What if you're wrong, and someone out there could develop the next improvement in farming or dungeon-delving, if only she had access to more information? I'm adopted, you know."

Zahar shrugged. "If you want to see more book printing, it can be something to propose at the next Society meeting."

"Are you going to bring it up?"

"No, you are. You can attend, discuss your 'calculus', and petition for membership beyond merely browsing the library."

"Thank you, sir!"

Zahar smiled. "I wonder though, do you intend to be a purely abstract scholar? I'm part of the Engineers' Guild, a small group. You could gain a level of Craftsman and then specialize the next season."

"By converting the general Craftsman level to something else, right?"

"Yes. Doesn't have to be Engineer; you might spend a few months seeing where your talents lie, if you intend to use them."

Feeling bold, Selen picked up a sheet of paper she'd scribbled notes on, and folded it into a paper airplane. "A good idea can come from anywhere." She tossed the glider and it looped, flew five paces and nosedived.

Zahar grinned. "Nice little trick, but you may want to stick with your main pair of wings." He started for the door.

"Wait." Selen stood up and knocked her chair around while grabbing the plane. She threw it again and it swerved off-course as if to strike the fox.

He caught it, managing not to crush and tear the fragile thing with his clawed fingers. He unfolded it slightly to show her notes on math and magic. "All right, it's amusing. But what matters more to you, the shape of this toy or the ideas you've freighted it with?"

Selen took the folded page from his hand and looked down into it. Had she been put here to teach what she considered modern science? She was no expert on it, by her reckoning. Nor had the original Selen been a scholar. What she could do in one lifetime was to spread more general ideas of learning and opportunity. That job seemed to be in accord with her family's actions: adopting the orphaned old-Selen and taking in several other kids as employees with a place to live.

She said, "In the long run, letting the knowledge fly far is going to matter more than exactly what the knowledge is."

#

She had a lot on her mind by now. Would anybody out there care if she managed to get more printing presses, more books, an attempt at industry? How much of it could she personally create?

The Knowledge Society meeting was coming up soon. So her focus, during her free time, became the least useful thing she could build. It made sense, really. On the first day of summer, she went to the temple with the help of her young Centaur colleague hauling her latest invention. She quickly set it up in the temple and prayed nobody would flip it over for blasphemy.

She announced to a confused priest, "I call it a 'pool table'."

The device was the work of several days' cutting and hammering and arguing with her family about exactly where to work on it. The result was passable. She'd even gotten green felt for the play surface. But she'd accidentally put an inward bump on one side that made it asymmetric. Best she could do at her very limited skill level. When she studied it, the System described it as [Pool table, poor quality]. The System seemed to name and define the thing based on her own intention.

"Furniture?" asked the priest as he examined it. Selen had to explain it was a game, and bounce a few of the wooden balls around.

There was some talk about having Selen sacrifice part of the device, and she ended up leaving behind one smooth ball as a token. She could replace it. That allowed her to sit and meditate again, to see if these supposed local gods would listen.

I want to try building things, she thought. Alchemy, eventually, but really whatever I can do to get started.

Her body shined with eerie silver light, and she felt herself floating as though underwater.

[Agility +1! You are now a Level 1 Craftsman!]

She had concentrated on three of her skills that were Agility based: Flight, plus newly acquired skills of Woodworking and Dodge. This last one had involved combat training on the ground and in the air. In other words, she'd invited her co-workers to try beating her up with padded clubs and thrown sticks. They gleefully helped out for several days.

"Ow," she'd said, down on one knee. Her vision was tinged red from being dinged with many minor impacts.

Bluemoon got between her and her attackers and spread his wings. "Enough!"

"I'm okay, Dad," she said. But he shooed the others off and fussed over Selen until he made sure she was intact and safe again, never even asking if she'd gotten the skill point.

Now, since she had gotten it and traded it in with the other skills, she let the System show her what she'd earned.

[

Selen Moonlit, Aves Female

Mage 1, Craftsman 1

Physical: Agility 1

Mental: Learning 1, Wits 1, Sanity 2

Social: Charm 1

Feats: Slowfall

Skills: Staff (Agility), Hiking (Toughness), Bureaucracy (Learning), Elemental Magic (Learning), Literacy 2 (Learning)

Health (Toughness + Will): 25/25

Mana (Sanity + Will): 45/45

Stamina (Toughness + Sanity): 45/45

]

She had a bottleneck problem already. No skill could advance more than two points beyond its underlying stat. She had Elemental Magic at 1, so in System terms her power could only improve by one more point until a season where she improved Learning. She'd cashed in Flight to raise Agility, so she wasn't immediately better at the skill but had room to earn two more points of it. She wanted to raise Learning in the fall but also needed some Toughness or Will to raise her Health in case of trouble. Lots of options.