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Teja is in the forge, making surgical instruments from finely folded steel. Research, and design, have yielded results that he is now confident to actually put into practice, and make. For that young healer whom he respects deeply, only the best is good enough; and his work would, most likely, have to last her for a lifetime.

While he works, the door is open, and the cats are coming and going; now watching him, now going out to hunt. But they never disturb his work, no matter how curious they get -- one sharp 'NO!', and even curious Ferdinand retreats from the sharp blades.

Watchers, others that would work in the forge, friends, onlookers, potential customers or curious strangers are all welcome.-

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"Yes. It came with my room in the House of Arch." The room exists somewhere in the late 1960s, and is part of a building that was originally constructed in the Victorian era. Zhaan has no idea where the pot came from. "I had the misfortune of getting it when it was already approaching the end of its usefulness."

"What is the House of Arch?" Teja asks.

Pause.

"Then you would wish for a new one of exactly the same size and shape?"

"The House of Arch has a constant connection to Milliways - I think it is the only place that does - but one must be invited to go there. It's..." Zhaan frowns thoughtfully. It's not easy to explain the House. "It is made up of different rooms that have existed at different times within a certain area on Earth. I'm not sure how it works, except that it is connected by magic. I live there and teach the children who reside there.

"As for this," Zhaan says, holding up the pot, "I would like something similar, but with thinner sides, small feet or legs on the bottom, and a better-fitting lid." The pot seems to be rugged, but its design leaves something to be desired.

Teja gets up, and takes the pot. He turns it in his hands. "I can do that, easily."

"Thank you," Zhaan says. "I will have more peppermint sachets for you tomorrow. Considering that you work in a forge, might you be able to use some burn remedies as well? I can give you a jar of bunchberry poultice." A summer's worth of peppermint for a custom-made cast-iron pot doesn't seem to her like a fair trade: Teja should get something more out of it for his trouble.

"That would be helpful," Teja says. "And there are more men working in the forge than me. Such a thing would always be handy, for all of us."

"All right. Then I will have bunchberry poultice to give you tomorrow as well - although I still advise coming to the infirmary if the burns are serious."

"I have not had a serious burn wound," Teja says, "since I came here; and not a truly serious one in my world, either. But we would, of course."

"Just making sure."

"Thank you," Teja says. "One would not risk injury, in any case."

"I know. But sometimes things happen in spite of caution." And Zhaan should know: everyone on Moya, she included, had things happen to them all the time.

"I will let you finish your work here. I will be outside the infirmary tomorrow with the sachets and poultice."

"And once I have done these instruments," Teja says, "I would make your pot, next."

Zhaan smiles. "All right. Please leave me a note when you have it ready, and I will come here to get it."

"I will," Teja says. "That is what I would usually do when a commission is finished."

"All right. Come by tomorrow afternoon." Zhaan gives Teja a small, polite bow of farewell.

"I will," Teja says, nodding in return.

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