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Yang Wuhan, that is, Beska of Derrechston, as a transient hire, was worth first four, then eight, then twelve Grains per shift, unheard of for child labor.
Her memory for short orders and adhoc instructions was impeccable, her ability to navigate the estab workflows the systemic accretions of multiple management philosophies, once implemented as stopgaps and holdovers servicing the perpetual feud between Marketing and Accounting, now regarded as Legacy and inviolate almost unnatural, her energy indefatigable.
Her course through the local branch of these Rhea franchises ran roughly thus:
First day, the Sub-Lead she was assigned to gave her the lightest work, which was common sense, and a discretionary Canteen Voucher for the staff catering service, which was Rhean good nature showing pity.
Past Teatime, late afternoon, it would be noticed that the transient workers were taking more tea and baccy breaks than normal.
By lunchtime the third day they would be positively loafing and the orders still got closed, which would prompt the Sub Lead to investigate and quickly escalate their discovery.
The Lead would then ask the new hire, Beska the Twiceling bint, to come into the shop office to discuss Employee Matters. That is, she would be offered a tentative Perm Hire, and if her legal guardian was willing, she had excellent potential for the Internship programme.
At which point she would innocently ask to be attached to the high-performance Lines, unpaid, for a few days, just to see what it was like. Inevitably, she would tell the Lead that she was interested, but she had to wait for Unca Oats to come back from his ... beastness trip, hmhm... before giving a definite answer.
Then she would repeat this in the next firm. And the next. And next.
After the third firm news of "Beska the Stint", rumored to have some kind of Underground connection, started spreading, so she made use of Change Appearance, Friend and Suggestion, picked up from Cheery Chaim's Sales-Angling Optimisation Seervice, and continued her intellectual pillage incognito.
~~~
Yang Wuhan made an important discovery. The Qi in this world was not sparse, but controlled.
It was uniform in a syncretic World Harmony maintained by the Principles. When Magicians cast Spells, they did not cast it out of their own resource though they undoubtedly feel they do, the weaklings, but only initiated it. It was the World Harmony that empowered the initials, making the castings possible.
What the Magicians termed "Spells" were really single personal Arrays, made with verbal, somantic and material components, to tap into the World Harmony. What they called their "Spell Slots" was merely the capacity to initiate. Hence, when high level Magicians travelled to other worlds, they might find some in which there was no Harmony, or a contrived False Harmony Ravenloft, and there be practically useless.
