"ENOUGH!" Ethan barked, raising his head from his hands, eyes slightly bloodshot and a vein visibly throbbing on his forehead. "We CAN'T. Not won't. Not don't want to. CAN NOT afford any of the better buildings. We are too damn poor!"

  He touched the stone of the table in front of him, picturing the core buried in its stone pedestal, then flicked his fingers outward as a Blue Screen popped into existence in front of them.

  "But-" Ermina began, he slashed a hand through the air.

  "No! I want them as much as you! I might quibble about the order, but here is the plain math. At a hundred points a month and into the 4th month, after heating the keep for last month and saving enough to keep us all from freezing this month, that left 340 points. The Mushroom cave was free as a naturally occurring space, though I needed to buy a tunnel to it."

  He took a deep breath and continued. "Tunnels. That's where nearly all the rest went! Tunnels and open spaces. At one build point per ten foot per side cube, I spent damn near every point on just getting our people out of the cold!"

  He sighed, the anger suddenly leaving him and taking much of his energy with it. He coughed miserably for a few moments before the spasm left him, and he could lean back into his furs and chair. He looked out sadly at a quiet and slightly red-faced council.

  He pointed to the box at the top of the blue-screened table. "I have 42 points left. And frankly our people are crammed in with the animals like fish in a crate. I want so many things. But I can't have them yet."

  "Ethan, it's not as bad as it looks." Ermina began again in a voice that had a bit too much patience in it for his liking. He hid a grimace and tried not to let his ill humor close his ears. "And that is likely my fault. I, well, I thought you knew. Those costs are if you have the Core do all the work. And unless you are in a tearing hurry, you really don't want to do that!"

  He stared at her for a moment, then glanced to his sides. Andrew, James and Conner were staring at her with as much confusion as he was.

  "Wait, wait." Andrew broke the silence. "We don't need to spend Build Points to build things? We can just build, what, by hand?"

  She shrugged, "In theory, yes. In practice, it usually costs at least a few points as the core fixes something and recognizes it as a building."

  "Fuck a few points! That makes everything possible! We have 1400 people sitting around bored out of their damn minds. Carving contests for the God's sake!"

  "Those are important!" Ermina barked, turning a bit red in the face herself. Andrew opened his mouth, a mulish look in his eyes, then thought better of it. Sitting down and waving a hand in resignation.

  "They are!" Ermina insisted, though only Miro would meet her eyes.

  "So we don't need the Build Points?" Ethan asked, and if the question was a bit rushed, why, he wasn't about to admit it.

  She waved her hands in the air, describing something but not in a way that told Ethan anything, then shrugged. "It's not... That is..." She stopped and grimaced. "I'm sorry. My father taught me this as a child and I can't think of a better way to explain it than as he did for me.”

  She stood up and walked over to the sand table, though it was more sand box on a stand at this point. Decent enough for a quick sketch of the territory, but as makeshift as the rest of their circumstances. She grabbed a pinch of sand and walked back till she held it raised shoulder high above the large central table.

  "This is the 80 20 rule. Father used peas, but this will have to do. Consider these 100 grains of sand."

  Probably ten or twenty times that, Ethan mused, but didn't interrupt.

  She opened her fingers and let the sand spill down onto the table, piling up in part, but as much again bouncing about in every direction. She waited a second, ensuring everyone could see her, then, with short sweeps of her hand, began to clean it up. "In very little time, I can get the majority of this mess." She swept the pile off the table and into her hand. Holding it upright easily. "But if I want to get the rest, well, I'd have to dig into cracks, search the floor and generally waste a great deal of time."

  Ethan nodded, but with no idea where she was going with it. "Build points are a measure of the Labor the Core will do on your behalf. It would charge you a flat fee per grain, or per unit really, to collect. This-" She held up the sand, “-would cost 80, and the remainder-“ she pointed to the few visible bits on the table and nearby floor “-20 more.”

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  Ahhh. No wonder it hadn't made sense.

  "It's not worth having the Core do the entire task, but it can be to have it do details that are hard, or exceedingly time-consuming, to do manually. Spend 20 manual effort to collect the 80, then have it spend 20 for the remainder. A total cost of 40, instead of 100 that either party would spend alone."

  "Like what? Wes don't exactly need to count sand. What can yous do better wit it then wit out it?"

  "Have mortar set right and in minutes, perfectly seal a container, line an aqueduct with no leaks, pick out an elaborate pattern for you to follow. The list goes on and on. It's easier to consider it from the other direction."

  "Like how?" Leo asked right beside Ethan's ear and nearly launching him out of his chair.

  "Dammit Leo!" He barked, wiping spilled broth from his hand and cursing as the room broke into snickers. “Do we need to put a bell on you?”

  "Sorry My Lord," He said without the slightest bit of shame. Or sincerity.

  Ermina looked away for a moment then turned back with a suspiciously straight face. "Look at it from the perspective of what trained labor you do have. How much work is it to move blocks of stone into place?"

  Ethan shrugged, even with the uniform stones left behind by the Core's quarrying, an example he realized of where it was useful, it was work, real work to move a building’s walls into place. But they did have a lot of people sitting around.

  She continued on. "And how much to pile a wall of them, no mortar, no worry about perfect alignment?"

  Even less work, though he'd not want to stand under such a wall. Be a good way to lose a few fiefsmen.

  "Then you get an inefficient, expensive building." Wait what?

  She grinned. "Sorry, that question was a trap. Using labor to move the resources over is an easy discount, but you have to be more careful doing the building."

  She was grinning happily as they stared at her, slightly nonplussed. "Quality matters." She offered after giving them a few seconds. "It's a hidden multiplier to a building's effects. A stacking multiplier if you think of how a craft chain works."

  That he could easily understand. A demon hide was a quality ingredient. But the skinner mattered, the tanner mattered and for damn sure the leatherworker mattered. If all 3 were skilled you got much better results. If the building those three worked in also increased quality at every level… huh. No wonder the capital produced superior goods.

  "A core-built building is always at basic quality. If you want better than that, then let experts in a given craft utilize their skills and skills. Then use the core to touch up flaws that might detract from those benefits."

  "Alright." Ethan offered gruffly, clearing his throat for a moment. "My Apologies, everyone, Ermina. It's an issue that’s been... gnawing at me. I didn't want to worry you and well..." He trailed off and waved his hand pointlessly in the air.

  "Accepted, My Lord." The voices overlapped one another considerably, and if Ermina's was a bit more enthusiastic about agreeing, well, he couldn't really blame her either.

  "So where does dat leave us." Conner asked, rubbing at his face easily.

  "Dat practice ground is pretty tasty. No too expensive either in this light." Ethan snorted, he didn't need Ermina to explain this one. He focused on the table and flicked another finger.

  “It’s not the building that's expensive here, but the space I'd have to clear out.” Ethan pointed to the Footprint line, he’d already done the math. “That's 8 months of points without heating or any other upkeep costs, just for a room big enough. It would be fairly affordable in an open field."

  "Where wes can't use it. For near half da year." Conner pointed out skeptically.

  "Not half." Miro protested, though she didn't look like she really believed it. The winter had barely started but he knew how they felt. It had started so very early after all.

  "Wes need that inside." Conner insisted.

  "We do," Ethan agreed, raising his hand and patting downward as Ermina and Miro protested. "But we can't afford it. Not now and probably not before next winter either."

  "Maybe not." Leo offered, having pulled out a knife and beginning to trim his fingernails. "Yous found da mushroom caves. Might be more down there."

  Ethan opened his mouth, then closed it. "That... would work. if you can find the space, I'd be more than happy to use it. But until then, we do need that cook house first."

  There were groans, but Ethan ignored them. "We don't have enough people with the stats to be outside gathering wood. It’s getting harder and harder to keep those kitchen fires burning. And we can't do without warm food. Not without spending more points on heat." There were a few longing looks sent his way, as they, nearly simultaneously, tucked cloaks tighter or tugged on rough-stitched mittens. Even Leo shrugged his shoulders, and the thick fur cloak attached to them.

  "Then shall I organize the work party?" Ermina asked, thankfully refraining from crowing her victory.

  Ethan nodded while a few more flicks of his fingers revealed another blue screen. One containing a translucent image of the Stone, with a glowing outline of the main tunnel, running the full distance of the mesa, though at a slight incline towards the riverside and never closer than 20 feet to the top. A larger gatehouse on the landward side was just enough to keep the best of the wagons, Miro’s dowry, through the winter.

  And if those wagons were used as homes for the space-starved Band, well, needs must. The central, straight tunnel spawned off three dozen small galleries for the village seeds and store rooms, while a larger cavern, covered in tents at this time of evening, held most of the Bandsmen and their families. Another half dozen rooms, little better than square-cut caves, housed makeshift craft benches of various types.

  He ignored the downward spiraling route to the mushroom caves, which as one of the larger open areas often doubled as a walking area, for now, then selected the Cook House;

  He moved that glowing footprint to near the middle of the main road, almost opposite the council room in fact, where a smaller alcove filled with cooking fires already sat.

  He glanced around, raising an eyebrow for objections or suggestions.

  "Make sure to leave some space around it. Some upgrade modules require extra space." Ermina offered.

  ... A good thing to know, if not one that would affect the current placement. He focused on the area, as he'd learned to do quite a bit recently, and willed 6 BP's into cutting the surrounding stone in a very familiar pattern.

  He didn't need to be physically present to see the results. His bed was made from them; they lined nearly every wall and were even piled, like some demented children's blocks, atop the keep itself.

  Units of stone. 1 cubic foot, in a 2 ft x 1 ft x 1/2 ft brick shape. Cut from one another, but still filling the room with barely even visible cracks between them.

  He oriented them so the thinnest side was upright, like a painting on a wall, but beyond that it would be elbow grease that saw the room opened. A bit of work with a chisel in a top corner would give them the first brick, then the rest of that sheet would be fairly easy.

  "And that," He mused, imagining the significant amount of labor that small bit of will would incur, "Is that."

  “Indeed, it’s also why I assumed you knew about the manual discounts.” Ermina offered.

  “Come Again?”

  “The bricks, it’s a very clever way to use BPs. It's removing very little material so it costs very little too. If you’d tried to banish the entire block or turn it to sand, the cost would have ballooned beyond your imagining.”

  He stared at her for a moment. “Huh.” He offered intelligently. Picturing where they might have been… and where they might end up if he didn’t learn these frankly arbitrary rules! He shook his head, “That, well, as much as I’d like to claim otherwise, that’s half an accident. I wanted to build some houses or fortifications on top of the Stone. But it turned out they didn’t get the heat.”

  She stared back, then sighed. “Now I feel more like an idiot. They didn’t ‘get the heat’ because they weren’t recognized buildings. You have to spend a few BP to have them tagged as part of the keep.”

  Conner perked up. “Sos you could build a walled gymnasium atop for our practice hall?”

  Ermina froze for a moment, visibly unwilling to answer, but at last she did nod.

  “Not this winter.” Ethan repeated sadly. “I’ll not spend the BP’s to do it, and the Labori can’t be out in that cold. Nor would they do to well fighting through snow drifts.”

  Conner raised a finger in the air, then with a grimace, conceded the issue with a regretful wave.

  “So what else?” Andrew asked. “The Cook House is on the way. Then what?”

  Ethan hesitated. Rethinking some earlier assumptions. “We don’t need the warehouses yet, a few unheated rooms will keep the meat, and we don’t have enough of the rest for it to matter much. A tannery would be the most useful next. We have a large number of furs around, and are getting more all the time it seems.”

  “After that, I’d like to get an iron mine up and running, but I’m not even sure where the node is. A smithy to work that iron. But again, we need to find the damn node before I bother with either.”

  He tapped his fingers on the table, then flicked them to the side. “As for dreaming big.”

  Andrew let out a low wolf whistle. “Does that do what I think it does?”

  Ethan shrugged. “I know as much as you on this one. It does what it says, but what that means… Well, I hope it means what you think it does.”

  A chance for the men to take the damn Bir quest without having to go out in the cold. Though with risks included. The bit about advancing, succeed or fail might mean you wouldn’t die to a failure. Maybe. But if you failed, you’d have to take another class. And probably a significantly worse one.

  “Can we build it manually? Enough not to spend 400 BP’s that we don’t have.”

  Ermina studied the screen, then raised her fingers and tapped a few times in front her. “Normally I’d say no. But… we do have a magister.”

  Blake glanced up from where he was mixing several odd liquids into a cup of tea. “What does this have to do with me?” He walked over and handed James the cup. Then stared at him until he reluctantly took a sip. Grimacing as he did so.

  “Magic effects, and that has magic written all over it, require magically skilled hands.”

  “I’ve not the faintest clue how to do whatever that is doing, Ermina.” Blake Protested.

  She waved a hand. “That matters less than you might think. I did mention patterns earlier, didn’t I? Spend some BPs to trace the magic for you, then follow the instructions. If you have the required proficiency to start with at least.”

  “But… that upkeep cost. Is it worth it?” Miro asked, pushing the tea mug on James who was coughing too hard to resist. Ethan tried not to react, but he could smell the damn thing from across the table, and it was making the broth he’d drunk threaten to come back up. He straightened his back slightly and tried to look healthy… However healthy looked. Dammit.

  “If it does wat wes think? Yes Lass. A dozen times yes. Wes-“ Conner pointed at Ethan “-been worried. Fierce worried. We can no deny da men a new class, but wes can’t afford to lose dose men. And in a ‘fair’ fight, yous do lose sumtimes. Dat’s why you never should fight fair.”

  Andrew picked up the narrative easily when Conner stopped for a drink. “We can’t deny them a chance at growth and a longer life, but we can’t afford to lose to many. This might give us a different option. Not to mention one we can use right now, when the snow and cold makes sending a tier 1 aspirant damn near murder.” The basic recruits were already a risky proposition. Their opponents would be tier 0 like them, but they didn’t have the training, the skill with a weapon, even if strong skills weren’t available to them, nor the tough-mindedness a soldier developed.

  No, a common class at T0 would, with both skills, skills and training might have a good chance. But a Basic? Even without the snow that might be an elaborate form of suicide.

  Unless they underwent significant training at least… Ethan considered. It was a thought at least.

  One that lingered as the debate about the future continued on, long after an increasingly unhappy Blake dragged James off for a healing ritual.

  ___