“Pardon me?” he asks in surprise.

“You’re not better than me, and the fact that I know nothing about the way things work here has already been established, so no need to keep harping on it,” I snap.

His eyebrows rise appraisingly, and Mbali stifles a smile.

Rafe draws himself taller and looks down his perfectly shaped nose at me, but before he lets fly whatever insult he has planned, Mbali gently pushes him aside.

“Down, boy,” she says, then patiently and graciously reviews all the guilds’ high materials with me as I take notes.

• High Materials
• Loam (Artisans): An easy-to-manipulate clay that is highly porous and sensitive to conductive Ha’i. Good for prototyping and simple golems.
• Glace (Alchemists): Like glass but lighter and shatterproof. Nonporous. Easily melted down to reuse without creating any waste.
• Sap (Bioscience): Biological healing compound. Main ingredient in patch paste.
• Spidersilk (Ciphers): Synthetic fabric. Thin and lightweight but virtually impenetrable. Used for ornithopter wings, military and athletic uniforms, etc.
• Sense (Sophists): Coin-shaped… something about a neural network?? Used as money and basic brains for golems.

The concept of sense, the Sophists’ high material, trips me up.

“I thought sense was money?” I ask Mbali.

“The coins can be exchanged as currency, but they are also used as neural network power sources.”

“So you’re saying they’re… batteries?”

“That’s not a bad comparison, but no. It is more like a basic nervous system. For example, these pigeons need to be crafted and animated, but they also need sense to give them the ability to fly on command.”

They sound kind of like computer chips. I’ll have to ask Georgie later.

The high materials feel like basic innovations that the rest of the world could easily benefit from as well. They all seem practical and sustainable, and I don’t see any reason beyond selfishness that such things should be withheld from others. I have to learn as much as I can about all the materials and get samples for the Families. Especially sap, the Bioscience healing compound, which sounds like it could be useful for Grandfather.

Mbali shows me how to roll out the loam into thin sheets and where to place the sense. The intricate folding pattern to form the pigeon is tricky, but I practice.

As we all work, Rafe ignores me, but he is simply too present for me to ignore. He’s like a looming rain cloud of discontent and hotness. You know that idea that people become less attractive if they have a bad personality?

All lies.

Once I complete something somewhat recognizable as a pigeon, Mbali says, “A golem can’t work until it’s animated by a Sire. Rafe is particularly good at animation, so he can demonstrate.”

Apparently, the chance to show off is enough to get Rafe to stop pretending I don’t exist. He splays his hand in shiin over the bird.