"If you want me to get you another drink, you only have to say so. But to your question, yes, I have a point to it: the Metalworkers are the one faction in this city who are actually getting things done. Yunxu's too busy fluffing his feathers and hoping the emissaries notice him, and the Woodsmen are trying so hard to be insular that they're practically seceding from the species. Hardly the stage for Zanru to be as brooding and short-tempered as she has been, according to anyone who's spoken with her in the last month."

He raised his mug and tapped it against hers like a toast, matching the way she watched him over its rim. "And she spends a lot of time in gambling houses, for someone who isn't in dire straits to make some quick cash. My point is: if there were some internal strife in the Metalworkers, you'd all be getting less done, not more. That's not the case, so it's likely a problem elsewhere. And as I like having at least something functioning at capacity in this city, it's in my interests to fix problems like that."