Bzya shrugged. "They lose a few. But they don't care. Adda, we're expendable. It doesn't take long to train up a new Fisherman, and there're always plenty of recruits, in the Downside. And they know the cake keeps us here in the bars, happy, quiet and available. They gain more than they lose." He chomped another mouthful. "And so do I."

Adda worked his way slowly through the bowl, cautiously observing the cake's increasing effects on him. Every so often he moved his fingers and feet, testing his coordination. If he got to the point where he even thought he might be losing control, he promised himself, he'd stop.

The Fisherman had fallen silent; his huge fingers toyed with the cake.

"I hear you're on double shifts. Whatever that means."

Bzya smiled, indulgent. "It means I'm assigned to the Bells twice as frequently as usual. It's because they're running twice as many dives as usual."

"Why?"

"The upflux Glitch. No wood coming into the City. Not enough, anyway. People bitch about food rationing, but the wood shortage is just as important in the longer term. And let's hope the day never comes when they have to ration beercake... Anyway, they want more Corestuff metal, to use as building material."

"Building? Are they extending the City?"

"Rebuilding. It goes on all the time, Adda, mostly deep in the guts of the place. Small repairs, maintenance. Although," he said, leaning forward conspiratorially, "there are rumors that it isn't just the need to keep up routine repairs that's prompted this increased demand."

"What, then?"

"They're trying to strengthen the City's structure. Rebuild the skeleton with more Corestuff. They're not shouting about it for fear of causing panic; but they're endeavoring to make it more robust in the face of future problems. Like a closer Glitch."

Adda frowned. "Can they do that? Will it work?"

"I'm not an engineer. I don't know." Bzya chewed on the cake, absently. "But I doubt it," he said without emotion. "The City's so huge; you'd have to rip most of its guts out to strengthen it significantly. And it's a ramshackle structure. I mean, it grew, it was never planned. It was built for space, not strength."

Parz had been one of the first permanent settlements founded after humanity was scattered through the Mantle following the Core Wars. At first Parz was a random construct of ropes and wood, no more significant than a dozen others, drifting freely above the Pole. But at the Pole the bodies of men and women were significantly stronger, and so Parz grew rapidly; and its position at the only geographically unique point in the southern hemisphere of the Mantle gave it strategic and psychological significance. Soon it had become a trading center, and had wealth enough to afford a ruling class — the first in the Mantle since the Wars. The Committee had been founded, and the growth and unification of Parz had proceeded apace.