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Shufti is in the bar, by the fire, knitting a little bobble hat. The ball of wool rests on her heavily pregnant belly.

And there's a crossbow resting on her belt as always, just in case that demon she's heard about should show up.

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"No time passes at home when I'm here, so I'll only be working one at once."

If you don't work in Borogravia you starve, that's more or less it really.

"Is he a watchman then?"

"He's independent. The watchmen - we call them police, or cops - are kind of corrupt. Oh, the men in charge are honest, but if you want to get things done, it's sometimes eaiser to be outside the system till they clean things up.

"Thing is, he's a man of secrets, and that's part of the story."

"Won't he be angry and upset if you reveal his secrets? He's only helping people after all."

Knox stops and sighs.

"You got a point. And believe me, if I really wanted to, I could go after all of his secrets. But I don't want to stop him. Or find out his real name. I just want to know more.

"And that plane of his? Someone wants to learn more as well. Someone in the government. So in a way, I'd be helping him by revealing their secrets, too." This is what's called splitting hairs. Knox is good at it.

"How does that help people?"

"It helps him by letting him know just who's been keeping an eye on him. And it helps the public by letting them know that the government is playing games.

"I mean, if they really wanted to impound his plane, couldn't they just take it away?" Knox tries to make a logic that works for others. It works fine for him.

"What does impound mean?" she asks, starting a new row.

"To take away to a government storage yard because the item in question is in the way or dangerous or badly parked. They do it all the time to, er, horseless carriages. So they could do it to the plane.

"They'd just need a really big tow truck." And he gets ready to explain what trucks and horseless carriages are.

"Like cars?"

"You know cars?" Knox is now ready to be surpsied, in case she means what he thinks she means.

She nods.

"They have engines in that makes them move without horses, and many families have two or more. They don't use magic and are cheap enough for ordinary Earth families to afford. CJ told me. He sells them."

"That's a car alright. Though this CJ forgot to tell you that you don't want to own one in a big city, and that the cost of maintaining one is high. But if he's salesman, I guess he'd gloss that over." Knox smirks.

"A truck is a larger form of car, meant for work purposes. If a car is a racehorse, a truck is a team of workshorses."

"So a truck is stronger than a car, and so it can take cars away?"

"Yes. And if you have a big enough truck, or enough trucks, you can tow away even a small plane. Which weighs a lot.

"But that isn;'t what's going on." Thus Knox gets back what he thinks is his point.

"How does a plane work?"

Knox pauses. He has a very vague idea. But he is no scientist.

"Um, there's a very strong engine that pushes, I think, and it has wings, like a bird only not like a bird, and it...

"Shufti, all I know is that it has something to do with something pushing it and air currents. Other than that, I just let the pilot do his job, and hope my luggage doesn't go to Omaha."

Her expression suggests she doesn't really get it, but she was told as a child it's rude to as too many questions, and she feels she's rather bombarded him this afternoon.

"It sounds exciting. Have you been on one?"

"A few times. They build some planes as large as big boats, and passengers go from city to city on them. It's pricey, but it saves time on travel." Knox tries to see the excitement in such travel, but he's not one that finds the journey to be as rewarding as the arrival.

"Wow. It must be amazing going so high."

"Hm. I guess so. I can never afford daytime flights, so I usually sleep all the way." And Knox realizes that he is really, really jaded. But what can you do?

"It takes less than a day? That must be very fast."

"Some planes can travel faster than the speed of sound.

"Which is about 700 miles per hour.

"And do you know what a mile is?" Frame of reference is everything. Whihc sort of means Knox have very little in this conversation.

"I think so. A long way."

"You know, there is a lot you don't know. Things that you should know. But I am a lousy teacher. Maybe we should get you some books. Books about Earth, or science. Maybe some math as well."

She fidgets a little.

"I'm not a very good reader. It takes me about an hour to get through each page of that parenting book."