005

Some Assembly Required

Blue was ready. She closed her eyes… and let her imagination run wild.

The core came first. A sphere of Yellow crystal that glittered in an empty black void. All the knobs and switches built into it were in a recess so that the entire thing could roll freely as needed.

Next came the casing, a glass sphere with several rails cut into it. Control rods with Magenta knobs on them could be inserted through the rails, attaching to receptacles on the drive so settings could be changed, the direction of force altered, or the drive locked in place.

The complex mechanisms that allowed the drive to be physically manipulated while also retaining its capacity to roll around with minimal friction was by far the most involved part of the design process. Even imagining it now, Blue had a hard time keeping the entire junction in her head at once. At one point they’d just considered leaving off the free-rotation entirely and locking it into a directly “up” position, but that would have meant limited control. Disaster could strike and the craft could be knocked sideways, at which point a locked drive would be of little to no use.

This glass-encased crystal core was to be attached in turn to four rods, made out of steel*. These rods, in turn, would be surrounded by glass—glass that could be melted to adhere to the casing around the drive. Three of the rods would point more-or-less upward, while the fourth would point directly downward. These rods would fuse to the edges of the glass jar, forming the pressurized area.

*The major problem humanity had with developing steel was that of heat—producing steel requires getting iron hot enough to completely melt. Only small quantities can be made with traditional methods. Notably, a Red Wizard can bypass this problem if he has a controlled environment and knows what he’s doing. On Ikyu, this is essentially the only way steel is made.

The contents of the jar would be simple: Jeh, a bunch of cushions to make her comfortable, an air restorer, foodstuffs, a level, a box full of various small crystals of every Color (but mostly Orange), and whatever else Jeh wanted. Blue was currently imagining the How to Read book.

On the top and bottom of the jar were two large brass discs modeled after the umbrella-like surfaces on levitators, albeit much larger. The one on top would be welded to the jar’s lid, while the one on the bottom would be attached through notches bored in the thickness of the jar’s base. The bottom one would have a hole in it for viewing purposes—unfortunately, this wasn’t feasible for the top disc, since they didn’t want to risk cutting into the jar lid and break the seal. These discs existed for the purposes of manual adjustment, as they were of uniform density and easier to push on as individual pieces than trying to hold the entirety of the unevenly distributed jar interior.

A dozen trapezoid-shaped pieces of thin wood slid between the two brass discs, giving the jar large ribs or “fins” that spread radially outward. This was the result of all their labors on the properties of flying through the air: air blowing through things with slots tended to restore them to upright positions. If the ship ever started tumbling out of control for some reason, it would naturally seek to point vertically. Granted, it could point upside-right or upside-down, but that was still a better orientation than “spinning wildly with no rhyme or reason.”

With a final metal ring wrapped around the edge of the ship for stability, it was done. Blue could hold it completely in her mind. It was a bit wider than it was tall, giving it a vaguely disc-like shape, though most of the volume was just space for the air to travel between the ribs.

She grinned as she rotated it in her mind, examining the curious starburst of a ship they’d end up creating. Its job was to go up. Though, Blue noted, it could probably survive just fine as a levitating post in the air, or even underwater.

…Actually, probably not the water; the wooden ribs weren’t exactly waterproof.

She opened her eyes, looking down at a sketch of the ship she’d made with a levitated pencil. It didn’t do the image in her mind justice. Then again, she’d never been a good technical artist. It was time to turn it in to Vaughan and Suro to make a proper proposal diagram.

No doubt a few minor things would be changed. Perhaps the arrangement of the grooves in the drive’s casing, or the exact shape of the ribs. But the end product would look very similar to her imagination.

Just think, a month ago I still thought this was all insanity. It still is. But… I can’t wait to see this ship.

Can’t wait to see the… the…

What did Vaughan say he named it?

Skyseed.

The Skyseed.

Blue couldn’t help but chuckle at the mental image of Jeh inside a glass jar mutating into a seed that produced little Jeh plants. With a dumb smile on her face, she rolled up her sketches and went to report to Vaughan.

It was time to move forward.

~~~

“…And so…” Blue lowered the random tree branch she was using to gesture at the official diagram of the Skyseed. This new diagram was much better than her initial sketches, but monochrome. “That is the overall design of our craft. Any questions?”

Jeh raised her hand.

“Yes, Jeh?”

“I didn’t understand half of that.”

“You… will have time to assimilate it, since you’re the one who’ll be flying it.”

“Oh, I understand that part. Can’t have it exploding with you in it. ‘Danger’ and yea.”

“Your language has improved markedly,” Suro observed. “Congratulations.”

“It wasn’t that hard.” Jeh shook her head. “Just had to keep at it!”

“You couldn’t possibly have known all these words when you were first lost in the forest. You are learning, Jeh, and learning very well.”

“Sure doesn’t feel like learning.” Jeh pointed at the diagram Blue was pointing at. “That is learning. That doesn’t just click with me. That… hurts my thought head.”

“Brain,” Vaughan offered.

“Yes, brain.” Jeh clapped her mitts together. “Anyway, uh, Blue, is there anything you think I need to understand?”

“You’re responsible for manual correction, that’s the big part. You have to keep the ship upright if a particularly nasty gust of wind comes along. There’ll be training involved as soon as the drive arrives.”

“Training?”

“We’re strapping you to a chair with a levitator glued to it,” Vaughan said, smirking. “You’ll figure it out.”

Jeh clapped. “Sounds fun!”

Blue cleared her throat. “Now... we need to make the ship!”

“Which will take a lot of time and money,” Suro said. “We have the jar, but we need to put in orders for casting the bronze discs, working the glass, and cutting the ribs, not to mention all the minor metal bits strewn around.”

“But all of that is available in Willow Hollow, right?” Blue asked.

Suro nodded. “We have a smith, a glassblower, and multiple lumberjacks. We’ll be fine.”

“Then it's up to you, Suro,” Vaughan said. “Call in some favors if you have to.”

“I won’t. Big G’s funding can pay for it.”

“Imagine if we had to construct this thing without that!” Blue laughed. “It’d take… I don’t know, a year? More?”

“Time shmime, it’s getting made!” Jeh jumped up, giddy. “I’m gonna go to space!”

Suro rolled his eyes as he packed up the drawings. “Naturally. I’m glad it’s not me: I like keeping my feet on the ground!”

“Oh, this is just the beginning!” Vaughan said. “Soon, there will be vessels that can take anyone to the moon!”

Blue let out a whiney. “You’re delusional.”

“My delusions got us this far, didn’t they?”

“You would be lost without me,” Blue huffed.

“None of this could be done without all of us,” Suro said. “Try to remember that this is a team effort.” With that, he left the three of them behind in the cabin.

Jeh tilted her head at the position where Suro had just been. “I thought the arguing was part of the fun.”

“I do too,” Vaughan said.

“This explains… so much.” Blue tossed her mane back, taking a deep breath. “Well, Vaughan, the design is done and Suro’s out getting everything. The drive hasn’t arrived yet. So… what now?”

Vaughan shrugged. “Take a break, look through the telescope?”

Jeh brightened visibly. “I love the telescope. Best thing ever. I want to go to Hexi.”

“Hexi is absurdly far away. Several thousand times further than the moon.”

“Sounds like the best place to go!” Jeh giggled.

“Let’s just get to space first, okay?” Blue asked.

“Why can’t the Skyseed go further, though?”

Vaughan scratched his beard. “You might have a difficult time storing enough food for the journey.”

“Hunger can be ignored.”

“And the crystals in the drive will run out. I don’t think the Magenta conduits would last long enough to get to Hexi.”

Jeh ignored most of the words he’d just said. “But the moon?”

Vaughan shrugged. “You could probably make it to the moon.”

“Don’t go to the moon!” Blue hissed. “We can’t just take this all at once! There’s a reason we didn’t just tie a harness to a levitator and keep shooting Vaughan at the sky. Going slower means more chances to find where things might go wrong. Which is good.”

“Fine, fine…” Jeh said, nodding in understanding. “So, when’s that drive supposed to arrive?”

~~~

“And then I struck the bear between the eyes!” Ripashi declared, lifting his leg high and wrapping his talon around a rock. He proceeded to pull himself up so he was standing on only one leg, looking as though he were flying. “It somehow lived, rushing for me, but I flew over its fuzzy little head and gave it sweet, brilliant justice!”

“Uh-huh,” his audience of one responded: a tall, muscular woman in a thin shirt and shorts who was currently hacking away at a nearby tree with her axe.

“But, as it turned out, he wasn’t alone…” Ripashi thrust his wings to his head in mock fear. “For, egads, there was another bear, and this one was an adult! The rage in his eyes was palpable and—I admit—more than a little satisfying.”

“Uh-huh.” The woman continued swinging at the tree. Despite having worked up a considerable sweat, she didn’t look like she was tiring. Her long, bright orange braid flew like a whip through the air with every stroke.

“And so the duel began! There I was, tired and exhausted from one battle where I had already pulled off an impressive stunt, but I was without range and the bear was ready for me. So I—“

“Ripashi, are you telling that story again?”

Ripashi whirled to face the recently-arrived Suro. “You ruined it!”

“Everyone’s heard it, even Tracy. Isn’t that right, Tracy?”

“Uh-huh.” Tracy embedded the axe into the tree once more, at which point everyone heard a loud creaking noise. “Timber!” Tracy shouted. The tree fell toward her, though she easily sidestepped it. The trunk of the towering pine came to a crashing halt between Suro and Ripashi. Neither were harmed.

“W-well then…” Suro said, taking a moment to adjust his glasses.

Ripashi folded his wings. “You could have killed us!”

“Uh-huh,” Tracy said, twirling her axe in her hand like it wasn’t able to cut her fingers off if she messed up. Catching its handle in her tight grip, she slammed the axe into a perfectly healthy tree, leaving it there. Then she picked up a rope off the ground and started tying up the felled tree for transport.

“Tracy, before you get started…” Suro gestured with his tail at a rolled up piece of paper he had sticking out of his bags. “I need to make an order for some specially cut planks.”

Tracy took the paper out of his bags, her eyes darting across it. “Simple enough. I have enough large logs for this already.”

Ripashi let out a caw. “So you can talk!”

“Uh-huh.”

Suro continued his discussion with the lumberjack. “The payment will come from Vaughan, but I have some with me if you wan—“

“No need. You’re trustworthy.”

Suro bowed his head in respect. “Thank you. How is Simon doing?”

“Getting educated,” Tracy said, folding up the paper and putting it between her shorts and her hips. Somehow, it managed not to fall out or get caught, despite her returning to her backbreaking labor with full vigor. “…I do miss him.”

“Simon?” Ripashi blinked. “Who…?”

“Her husband,” Suro deadpanned.

“Excuse me what?”

“Ripashi, you really need to get out of that cabin of yours more often. Everyone in Willow Hollow has a life with many crisscrossed dynamic relationships. And furthermore…” Suro flicked his tail. “You know Simon, he’s the one we all helped last year. Remember? The fundraiser to send him to university?”

“I, well, er… No, I don’t really remember that, no.”

A branch from the tree Tracy was working on suddenly snapped, smacking Ripashi in the face. Tracy looked like she hadn’t even noticed. Suro had his doubts about the appearance of things.

“Regardless, I have places to run today,” Suro said, nodding to Tracy. “Thank you for your help. And be patient. He will return.”

Tracy smiled sadly at him. “I know. Come by next week for your planks.”

“I will.”

Suro trotted out of the forest, leaving Tracy and Ripashi behind. Ripashi must have given up his little routine shortly afterward, because a few moments later he descended from the sky and started walking alongside Suro.

Suro elected to start talking first. “You are a man of the forest, Ripashi. But you are also part of this town.”

Ripashi, for once in his life, had no response.

“You should come to meditation services more often.”

“…Meditating is not my job.”

“Ripashi, Ripashi…” Suro sighed. “You work far more than is necessary. You provide more than enough meat and bows for the town. You can afford to do something else every now and then. And no, I don’t mean devote yourself to that ‘bear crusade’ of yours.”

“There is nothing to conquer,” Ripashi said. “The town is just… town. No bears, no enemies, no evil, nothing to face or…”

“Nothing to look amazing while doing.”

“Exactly! There’s nothing there for a true man! True men rise to the challenge, find the greatest obstacle and bash their heads into it!” He pulled out his bow and hit a green cubefruit off a nearby bush. “We are pillars of defiance standing amidst a brutal world!”

“…Brutal?”

“Yes!”

“Ripashi, we’re at peace, the mines are seeing great improvement, and the farms are producing excess. Times are good, hardly brutal.”

Ripashi let out a soft, almost inaudible caw.

“It’s just… my advice. Take life a little slower, be more involved in the small, personal things.”

“Suro…”

“Yes, Ripashi?”

“Why are you… like this?”

“…I learned things the hard way,” Suro said with a sad smile. “Me and Lila both.”

“What was it like, out there? Sailing to distant lands?”

“…Lila always says it was terrible and we shouldn’t look back on those times with nostalgia. But… I can’t help myself. There was just something about drifting from place to place with our lives always in peril.”

“Maybe…”

“Ripashi… I do not recommend the lifestyle we used to have. I can look back with fond memories, but I know it’s good that it ended, that we settled down.”

“I can’t settle down,” Ripashi said.

“That’s nons—“

“No, Suro, it’s not that! Hmph!” He folded his wings. “There are no other qorvids in Willow Hollow!”

“Ah…” Suro looked forward at the town square they were rapidly approaching. “I suppose you have to ask if you want children, then.”

“Are you kidding? More soldiers in the fight against the bears!”

Suro couldn’t help but laugh. “Ripashi… oh, never mind. I suppose no one can really be ready for kids, no matter how much they think they are.” He flicked his ears back.

“…I should go, you have business in town. And I cannot be caught hindering your quest!”

“Why don’t you accompany me on my errand? You might find it helpful.”

“How so?”

“Just stick with me, it’ll be fine.”

With a vague shrug, Ripashi fell in line behind Suro and followed him. Soon, cat and qorvid trekked into the town square.

“Well, isn’t this a sight for sore eyes!” Seskii called as they passed.

“What does that even mean!?” Ripashi called back to her.

“Good question!” Seskii said, smile unfaltering.

Since Seskii was on the way to his destination, Suro opted to pass by her stand. “How’s business?”

“Good enough,” Seskii said, bringing out a bottle of Suro’s favorite juice: orange. “On the house!”

“I wouldn’t imagine ripping you off,” Suro said, slipping a ring-tool onto his paw so he could pay her. He took a few Red coins* and deposited them on the kiosk before taking the juice and placing it in his bags. “I must thank you for your wares. It is a miracle you have such a variety.”

*Coinage is usually made with a core of Colored crystal, since it can be easily shaped. However, most crystals used in coinage are coated in some kind of polish to keep it from losing its shape over time—meaning it can’t really be used for magic unless it’s broken. Different cultures consider different colors more valuable. Curiously, this means that foreign currencies are often accepted by traders, since most are based on Colored crystals. The issue is that the relative value of each coin changes. A few clever people have managed to abuse this to no end.

Seskii gestured at Suro while looking at Ripashi. “This guy gets it. This guy really gets it.”

“The wise old cat!” Ripashi cawed.

Seskii put her hands on her hips. “I don’t think he’s old.”

“In cat years.”

“Even considering the lower lifespan of cats, he’s not that old.”

“But what if we consider his age in wisdom? The cat knows all, sees into your deepest soul, and comes out with an epiphany worthy of an oracle!”

“If you’re quite done discussing the relative nature of my age…” Suro said with a cough. “We do have business to attend to. Seskii?”

“Oh, of course, of course! Don’t be a stranger!” Seskii waved with a cute little smile at Suro.

As Suro and Ripashi left, Suro spoke once more. “She is, in many ways, your opposite, Ripashi. She arrived about when Blue did and already everyone in town knows her. She goes out of her way to talk to everyone she can over fruit juice!”

“I found her at her stand in the middle of the forest. She has spunk!”

“She does certainly have… ‘spunk,’ I’ll give her that.”

Suro’s final destination was one of the oldest buildings in town, a construction of solid stone that had multiple chimneys that released exhaust into the air above. Rather than a single sign hanging out front that told passersby what was inside, there were three separate ones: a glittering Red anvil, a smooth Blue vase, and a Yellow loaf of bread split in two. It was a three-in-one extravaganza that existed for the purposes of efficiency.

It was much easier on Vaughan to only have to deal with one arcane furnace device.

Upon entering the door, however, there was no indication of the device that powered the three businesses: instead, there were shelves upon shelves of freshly baked bread of every size and shape. There were the usual loaves, crackers, and simple pastries alongside the occasional loaf of unusual color or material, including one that looked like it was made of salt crystals.

The bakery was one of the busiest shops in Willow Hollow, since everyone tended to want bread, so Suro was not surprised to find several other customers perusing the various loaves. He was surprised that the proprietors of the establishment bothered to welcome him personally.

“Welcome back, Suro!” two gari girls sang in unison. Their plastic was a smooth, dandelion yellow and both of them had heat-treated their hair into an impressive gravity-defying shape that looked like a crescent surrounding each of their heads. They were identical in height, wore the same kind of apron, and both wore one singular earring of gold. “Can you tell us apart today?”

Suro shook his head. “I’m afraid not, girls! You put so much effort into looking identical that no one can.”

“Our plans are coming to fruition!” the one on the left said.

“Up next: world domination!” the other said.

“All will bow before us!”

“Also butter rolls are half off today.”

“It’s a steal!”

“I shall not steal!” Ripashi declared, hoisting both of his wings above his shoulders.

“But what about for a shimmer silver-bun?” The one on the right said.

The one on the left picked a small, silvery bun from a shelf and showed it to Ripashi. The glint of the baked good caught Ripashi’s eyes.

“That… is magnificent,” Ripashi said, lifting the bun into the air with his wing. “A silver delight of shimmering magnificence and no doubt a delectable interior! The glimmer of divinity hides within such food…”

The twins high-fived each other again.

“That’ll be… thirty fifty-nine,” the right one said. “Would you like that in a bag?”

“We make the bags ourselves~!” the other trilled.

“They only cost a little extra.”

“That sounds like the perfect purchase!” Ripashi declared.

“And if you buy three, we can give you a fourth one free!”

“It’s like stealing without stealing!” the other added.

“Leave the poor bird alone, vicious capitalists,” Suro said with a chuckle. “Just get the one, Ripashi, don’t let them draw you into the pit of monetary despair.”

“Huh?” Ripashi looked like he’d just been shaken out of a beautiful daydream. “Oh, yes, right, be reasonable. I am a very reasonable man!”

Both of the girls couldn’t keep from snorting at this.

As Ripashi paid one of the girls for the bun, the other turned to Suro. “So, wanna buy anything?”

“I am immune to your feminine wiles,” Suro said.

She deflated. “Aww, but it works so well. Rissy said we only needed to try harder.”

Ah, the other one’s Rismelda, this one’s Ronadale. Finally… it gets so confusing. “I’m afraid I’m not here to purchase any of your treats, Rona. I’m going to the other shops and giving Ripashi a taste of society.”

Rona grinned malevolently. “I’m Rissy.”

Suro felt his confidence shatter like an unlucky mirror. “But… you just said…”

“Gotcha!” the girls said in unison, taking a moment to dance around each other with delighted giggling.

Ripashi stared at the girls. “By my favorite bear fur, you two are nasty.”

“We’re going to take over the world!” one said.

“Everyone always thinks we’re joking when we say that,” the other added, scratching her chin.

“Ahem,” Suro cleared, putting on his best “official business” voice. “Rissy and Rona Sourdough, we have business elsewhere.”

“We know!” They called. “You know which door it is!”

Suro bid the Sourdough twins goodbye and led Ripashi down the hall to the other part of the building.

“Such delightfully mischievous children,” Ripashi said. “I wonder how they do it by themselves…?”

“They had to,” Suro said. “The plague took their parents.”

Ripashi fell silent.

“There are some things even Green can’t cure…”

They arrived in the other portion of the building, which had a much larger space. On the left side were various metallic constructions ranging from swords to shields to anvils and even a few pieces of armor. The right side was dominated by various colors of glass objects; some of which were practical, such as vases, or entirely decorative, like the swirling nexus of wormlike glass tubes twisted into a ball. A handful of designs with both metal and glass took up the middle of the shop’s floor.

In the back, behind the service counter, was the arcane furnace. It was an absolutely massive beast studded with several very large Red crystals connected by hundreds of little Magenta nodes. The various crystal conduits weaved in and out of the blackish metal cylinder, each part shining brightly. While a visible shimmer was generally a sign of inefficiency in an arcane device, such a rule did not apply for devices of this size and power. It held within it the spells required to melt and mix metals, glasses, and any number of things. Its exhaust was hot enough to power the ovens for the bakery. There was no way to store spells with that much will in them without having a visible glow at all times.

“Look at this here!” A gari with ice-blue hair was shouting at the top of her lungs, pointing at a little checklist. “It says ‘make glass vase for Lila at two o’clock!’ Guess what time it is, buddy? Two! O! Clock!”

The male gari with red hair continued loading some lumps of silver into a smelting cup. “How can you have two clocks made out of Os?”

“You flame-ridden spice-inhaling brutally-violent no-good heat-hog!”

“I believe you are the violent one, Krays.” He carefully weighed the amount of silver in the cup on the scales.

Krays picked up a rod of glass and angled it angrily at the man. “I will run you through, Darmosil.”

“Your threats, as usual, have no basis in reality.” Darmosil gingerly reached for a cup of what Suro presumed to be tea and took one of the smallest possible sips from it.

“Oh, oh listen to this guy! He wants me to give him a threat I’ll actually follow through!” She poked the end of the glass rod to his neck. “Do you really want that, buddy?”

“And you have the power to do such a thing?”

She pressed in until her forehead was pressed to his own. “I am going to kiss you so Diadem hard.”

“How threatening,” he deadpanned, getting the jump on her and initiating the wild, passionate kiss. She responded by lifting him off the ground and twirling him around—never breaking the kiss. That is, until she accidentally smacked him into the wall, prompting her to lose her footing and fall unceremoniously to the shop floor.

“I… gotcha…” Krays managed. “Right in the wall…”

“I have no doubts about your intentionality.”

“You wanna go?”

“Another round would be most delightful, but we have customers.”

“Custom—“ Krays slammed her hands on the countertop and glared at Ripashi. “You!”

“Uh…” Ripashi held up his wings.

“What exactly do you think this is!? A play for you to gawk at!?”

“I… I have no idea what I just witnessed.”

Suro jumped up onto the counter. “You were watching people being people, Ripashi. Everyone is unique and has their own story to tell.”

“Our story is our story,” Krays huffed.

“And so I shall tell it,” Darmosil said as he put his cup of silver into the arcane furnace and turned the device on.

“Wh—hey! We weren’t done talking about that!”

“The customer takes priority, and the customer wants a story.”

“No, they don’t, you conniving little weasel-mongrel-pig-plast—“

Darmosil kept talking as Krays’ insult continued to grow in length. “My wife and I moved into town at the same time.”

“—owl-slimeball-grizzly-potato—“

“Vaughan hadn’t moved in yet, and the forges we built for our respective works failed. We were forced to join forces.”

“—uncompromising-moronic-foolhardy-boisterous—“

“We hated each other. Every day was a shouting match.”

“—frizzlebizzlewizzle-fernfaced-calculating-impassive—“

“Then we loved each other. And kept shouting.” A small smile crawled up the man’s face. “Oh, the wondrous shouting.”

“—two-ton-forgotten-piece-of-crud!” Krays took in a pained gasp of air and slammed her hand on the countertop to stabilize herself.

“Krays, that was actually a rather impressive insult.”

She snapped her fingers and gave him a wink. “Glad to be of service, you lard-butt.”

“Truly, the most devastating of comebacks.”

Krays slid along the top of the counter, pausing to flutter her eyes at Suro repeatedly. “So, my catastrophic friend, what can I do for you?”

“I… could be here for Darmosil’s services,” Suro pointed out.

“Pssht, we all know that’s not the case.”

“Yes, he’s here for both of us,” Darmosil said.

“Oh.” Krays suddenly seemed a lot less interested. “Well, that’s useless for our rankings.”

“Quite.”

Krays shrugged. “Aight, catto-batto, what is it?”

Suro laid out the diagrams for the metal-glass rods.

“Ooooh,” Krays traced her finger along the diagram. “For the sky ship…”

“Spaceship!” One of the Sourdough twins called from the entryway.

“It’s rude to eavesdrop, rabbits!” Krays shouted while shaking her fist.

“It’s impossible not to!”

Krays picked up one of the knives her husband had forged and threw it clear across the room, embedding itself in the wall just above the twins’ heads. “Go back to your bready wonderland, yeast-bins!”

The two girls did as asked, though they were laughing the entire time.

“The quality of the metal is all that’s difficult,” Darmosil said, returning everyone's attention to the plans. “It’ll take some time to refine and shape, but not too much.”

“And I’ll glass it with perfection!” Krays declared. “And they shall support…” She frowned as she got to the glass casing for the drive with all its folds and weaves. “…Hmm.”

“Problem?”

“This is a precision piece. It needs to be perfectly spherical, and all these notches need to withstand stress.”

Suro pulled his ears back. “You… can’t do it?”

“I can, but I’d need to get better equipment and… well, it might take a few tries to get right.” She drummed her fingers on the countertop. “You’re gonna have to go out of town for this.”

“That…”

“Is awkward, I know. Especially for you b—hey, wait, isn’t that unicorn of yours a messenger?”

“Blue is a messenger, yes, but she isn’t m—“

Krays had already gone through a door in the back. Frantic, loud rummaging punctuated by the occasional crash of breaking glass and swears from Krays met Suro’s ears.

“Just let her do her thing,” Darmosil said.

Ripashi winced at another crash. “She’s conquering the storage space!”

“Found it!” Krays declared, rushing back out with an envelope, a piece of paper, some wax, and a seal. “My old Glassblowers’ Guild seal! Here, Suro…” She was already scrawling a hasty letter down on the paper. “If your unicorn can get this to the Glassblower’s Guild in Valentia, my seal should be enough to get them to accept the job. They’ll be pricey but I’m sure with that fancy air-square-bobble you’ve got enough for it.” She flipped the letter up and, with one hand, folded it up neatly. She stuck it in the envelope and, using a metal rod that had been in the arcane furnace, melted the wax so she could put her seal on it. “There we go!”

“Krays, you didn’t put the diagrams in there.” Darmosil gestured at the plans for the drive’s casing.

“Fffffffffff!” Krays waved her hands frantically. “Guess we’re Diadem doing it again!”

Suro coughed. “Er, Krays, if you don’t min—“

“I will swear as much as I want in my shop thank you~!” She jumped out, rummaging once more for more paper and an envelope.

Suro shook his head. “Ripashi, I hope you’re taking notes.”

“On what?”

“On people. Who they are, the things they do.”

“How many subtle jabs at your intelligence they can get off,” Darmosil added. “It’s a good thing to know. It’s always better if you can tell you’re being insulted.”

“I think you’re right…” Ripashi said, scratching his beak. “People are always mocking me behind my back, I’m sure of it!”

“Good guess.” Darmosil took a long, obnoxiously slow sip of his tea.

“This time for sure!” Krays returned, wrote the letter again, and this time folded it up with the diagrams and instructions, placing it all within the envelope which she quickly sealed. “There you go, Suro! Enjoy!”

“That’ll be three-fifty!” The twins called from the entryway.

“It’s on the house, banana gremlins!” Krays shouted at them. “Darmosil, I’m going to need your heat-blade.”

“No kid hunting today,” her husband told her.

“But I wanna…”

“The consequences are simply too dire. That said…” He took a sword with a Red crystal core down from the wall and gave it to her. “We can always go into the forest, see what kinds of beasts our ranger has been missing in his quest for bears.”

“Oooh, monster hunt…”

Ripashi let out a gasp. “That was an insult to me! You insulted my bear quest!”

“The bird learns,” Krays said with a chuckle. “How cute.”

“Indeed,” Darmosil agreed.

“Seriously, though, go give that letter to your unicorn,” Krays insisted. “Should work just fine.”

“I will give it to Blue,” Suro asserted. “And she will choose to go or not.”

“Vaughan will tell her to go,” Darmosil said.

“Darmosil…” Suro dropped his line of thought and shook his head. “…You’ve got a certain something, that’s for sure.”

“I endeavor to please.” With a special, extremely long wrench, he removed his cup from the furnace, finding the silver within to be fully melted.

“…Hey!” Krays shouted. “You can’t just…”

“I just did.”

“Of all the good for nothing—“ Krays launched into another rant while Darmosil continued to work with his silver.

The two didn’t even notice Suro and Ripashi leave.

“Do we need to pay them?” Ripashi asked.

“Later, naturally,” Suro said. “I have a reputation of being reliable, somehow.” He turned to give Ripashi a serious look. “Did you see that there were people today?”

“Yes?”

“Good. Maybe you could walk around town on your own a few times. Consider it a new forest of wonders and challenges. But for now…” He used his ring-tool to place the letter in his bags. “I have a unicorn to give this too.”

“Your unicorn?”

“She’s not my uni—“ Suro stopped himself when he noticed Ripashi had struck a dramatic victory pose. “…Ah. I see you’re taking tips from Darmosil. Well done.”

“A new conquest!” Ripashi declared, letting out a belly laugh.

“Hey Ripashi!” the twins called. “We have more shiny pastries for you to buy!”

“Get out get out get out!” Suro called. “Run! Run, don’t let them find you!”

Ripashi ran out the door at high speeds and took to the skies.

“Awww…” the twins bemoaned.

“There’s plenty of fish in the sea,” Suro commented.

“But not many birds!” one of the twins said.

“You know what I meant.”

~~~

The next morning, before the sun was even up, Blue had put her saddlebags on and was performing some stretches in front of Vaughan’s cabin. She alternated between bending her front legs to their maximum and her back legs, giving her the appearance of a seesaw.

Jeh poked her head out of a window on the second floor. “Why?”

“Stretches loosen your muscles!” Blue called back up, changing stretches to focus on one leg at a time by holding one out perfectly level. Heh, you greater unicorns don’t have this mobility, now do you?

“I want to keep my muscles!”

“No, no, loosen in the other sense! Become more… malleable?”

“You really are bad at words.”

“Hey!”

“I thought so when you started teaching me and I still think so.”

Blue reared up on her hind legs and held it—part of the stretch. This was the closest she would come to understanding what it was like to be a biped. Her verdict: awkward and uncomfortable.

“So…” Jeh hung half of her body out the window. “You’re leaving now?”

“Valentia is a long way off,” Blue said. “It’s already going to take me a few days, might as well get started early. Don’t let Vaughan blow anything up, don’t blow anything up yourself. And good luck on learning how to fly!”

“Huh? Why?”

“The drive should arrive while I’m gone.” Blue leaned down, hoofing the ground to get some traction on her hooves. “Vaughan was serious about hooking you to that chair.”

“Awesome.”

“I figured you’d think that. Bye! Wish me luck!”

“What?”

“It’s an expression that I’m not explaining right now!” Blue waved with one of her front hooves before taking off in a gallop that kicked up considerable dust that glimmered in the pre-sunrise light.

As soon as she was out of sight, Jeh frowned. Vaughan wasn’t awake yet and Suro wasn’t here. She essentially had the cabin to herself. Since she couldn’t burn it down, she wasn’t sure what to do.

With a shrug, she decided it was time for a bath. Which, for her, involved finding a secluded part of the river in the forest. She wouldn’t be caught dead cleaning herself in that metal bucket of heated water Vaughan told her was the best.

Vaughan didn’t lie. But Vaughan was, as Blue loved to attest, a moron.

A moron who couldn’t wake up even when people were shouting outside his house.

~~~

Blue’s predictions were right on the money. The drive arrived while she was far, far away.

Well, the materials for the drive, anyway. Suro was a master jeweler and he could most definitely make it, he’d just needed some of the more fine-tuned crystal parts to be shaped elsewhere. Not the urchins, surprisingly—making a spherical segment with spines wasn’t all that difficult. The crystals he needed to order were the complex Magenta junctions that needed to be created by Magenta wizards to make sure they functioned properly. Suro probably could have cut them himself, but he had no way to test if the Magenta conduit’s shape was correct or not upon completion.

The first part of drive construction was simple: Suro called Vaughan in, and Vaughan pushed his will onto the various Magenta loops, storing push spells of various strengths. Vaughan was not an Orange wizard and was not able to make precise increments in the strength of his pushes, but that was what the secondary set of Magenta loops in the drive were for. Large pushes plus small ones should be able to provide the finesse needed.

That was the idea, anyway. Suro was doubtful, but both Blue and Vaughan thought it would work, and they were the ones who would know.

Storing the spells was the easy part, though. Now it was up to Suro to cut the rest of the crystals, lay them in a framework of his own design, and then somehow stick it all in a special Yellow sphere with various mechanical notches in it.

It was not the most complex thing he had ever made—merely the third. The second most complicated device had been the magic ring-maker he’d made to prove his worth to the Jewelers’ Guild. He didn’t like to think about his actual most complex design.

And so he set to work. Unlike with the rings he made, this was going to take some time. The first thing he did was take out the solid sphere of Yellow Vaughan had made the moment the design was finalized. Suro set it on top of a mottled area of his workbench, designed specifically to work on objects that would otherwise roll around.

At this point, it was time to take hold of the advanced tools. He put rings on both of his paws and his tail that had numerous hooks, barbs, spikes, and clamps for working with numerous things at once precisely. His first tool was a brass C-shaped object with a metal wire running across the ends of the C. This was a crystal saw. Coming from above, he touched the taut wire to the middle of the sphere and started pushing back and forth with slow, precise motions. Small amounts of crystal powder fell from the sphere to the desk as he cut through, reminding him that he needed to be careful.

Soon, he had two nearly-perfect hemispheres. Using a cloth, he swept up the powder into a waste jar which, when full, could be used to make more crystals. Returning to the hemispheres, he brought out a new tool—a very thin metal rod with a sharp point. He brought it to the flat side of one of the hemispheres and started making tiny marks—measurements to tell him where to cut. Once he found the center for sure, he used another rod to turn the first into a compass and a circle.

The next step was perhaps the simplest, but it was also one of the most time-consuming. For the next several hours, he scraped away the interior of the Yellow hemispheres, hollowing them out. Sometimes he used a special whisk-like tool that could cut away edges in a circle, but most of the time it was just him and a pointed metal stick, wearing down the hemisphere and dumping the powder into the waste pot.

In the end, though, he had two hollowed-out hemispheres. At this point he cut into the hemispheres themselves, adding all the notches and sliding bits that would be required to access the interior.

Speaking of the interior, it was now time to work on that. He pulled open a drawer, revealing the wire he had available. First, he focused on the most central mechanism: the inner Magenta cores. They had been sent to him as crystals with no casing; it was up to him to wind the wires and tie everything together in a stable configuration all while not interrupting the arcane flow. Interruptions could occur for many reasons: the crystals weren’t aligned properly, one of the wires changed the crystal’s shape too much, or any number of other things. The crystals were designed to operate for a decent amount of time, so it was possible an imperfection would have no effect until a few months down the line, and then it would break everything.

Such was the burden of a jeweler.

In the end, the Magenta segments appeared as a strange mixture of a tree with various flashing fruits and two separate gears. In theory, if this were attached to an Orange, it would be able to cast a push spell of a specific magnitude.

But to turn it into a drive, one last component was needed: the Orange itself. He once again started with a sphere, but this time he immediately went to the pointed rod and started placing dots all over the sphere’s exterior. It simply would not do to have this sphere resting on the ground, so he took a clever approach: hanging it from the ceiling. At the top of his workshop, he had a pointed metal rod with holes near the tip. When the fixture of the rod was pressed, spikes would launch out of those holes and embed a hanging crystal in midair. Usually, cutting into the center of a crystal was not an option, but he was going to be cutting this up into eight pieces anyway so he could work around it. It was a rather simple matter to wear a hole into the crystal so he could lift it to the ceiling rod and hang it.

Thus marked the actual longest part of the work: carving away the Orange into an urchin shape. For crystals other than Magenta, the actual shape tended not to matter much; it only influenced the way a spell would be carried out if no will were there to instruct a different way. For instance, if raw will were pushed into an Orange, it would push in the direction the crystal “pointed.” The study of crystal directionality is a complex one that was absolutely necessary to get arcane devices to function: if a Magenta loop’s spell doesn’t transfer in the same direction every time, things tend to explode.

However, outside of Magenta-fickleness, the other Colors are generally cut into whatever works for the device in question. Once a spell goes in, it’ll act in the direction the spell specifies, regardless of the crystal’s “pointed” direction. All that matters is the crystal be large enough to draw enough power, and have enough surface area that it can pull that power at an acceptable rate.

Hence why Suro was currently cutting a sphere of Orange into a sea urchin shape. If he maximized the surface area, he maximized how much power can be tapped at once. Getting it done right took an impressive amount of time, concentration, and tool variety. Suro had to chisel, cut, mark, slice, and shred over and over.

Once he was complete, he had a spike ball hanging from the ceiling with lines running along it that indicated where it needed to be cut. Suro took out the crystal saw once more and slowly, carefully, separated it into eight separate spiked pieces.

It was finally time to put it all together. He brought back one of the Yellow hemispheres and gently laid four of the Orange pieces in it, carefully setting the Magenta nexus in the center. The other four Orange pieces came next, followed by the other half of the Yellow sphere.

“Suro.”

“Hmm?” Suro didn’t look up from his work—one wrong motion could break something. The cover needed to go on perfectly.

“It’s morning,” Lila said.

“Ah. Well… Good thing I’m almost done then.” He carefully tapped the Yellow exterior of the drive to make sure it was stable.

“Morning on the second day.”

“Ah…” Suro blinked a few times. “I guess…” He yawned. “I really got into it.”

“Most sensible jewelers would have given a full month to make that.”

“Most sensible jewelers wouldn’t take the job.” He very, very slowly rolled the nearly completed drive to the holding press, which was just two large planks of wood affixed to a crank. He twisted the crank a few times, pushing the two planks of wood closer together, applying pressure to the drive. This would, in an hour or so, fuse the two halves of the Yellow shell together.

Visually, though, it was complete. A glittering Yellow sphere larger than Suro’s head. Through the translucent shell, the various spikes were visible, though they appeared dark through the Yellow tint. Deep within the drive were the stored spells themselves, giving off little blips of Magenta light barely visible from the exterior.

“Done?” Lila asked.

“Well, it needs to sit.” He gave her a quick nuzzle. “Are… the kids okay?”

“I was able to keep track of them. Don’t worry, you aren’t neglecting them. We all know you occasionally get like this.”

“Still… I do have responsibilities.”

“And you haven’t broken any of them. Now…” She patted him on the nose. “You need to stop thinking about your responsibilities. In fact, stop thinking at all. Go to sleep. Vaughan can get his special drive tomorrow.”

“…Yeah… he can wait.”

~~~

On the exact same morning Suro completed the drive, Blue arrived at Valentia. Valentia was a curious city situated on the shore of a crystal clear lake in a lush valley. The valley was overrun by evergreen trees so tall that some of them scraped low-hanging clouds. Some of the “trees” were violet spikes with only five branches at the very top; a form of plast that added a bit of color to the verdant scenery.

Valentia itself was a city largely built between the trees of the woods. A shack here, a farm there, a schoolhouse built in a circle around a still growing tree; it was all there. There were even a few buildings built in the trees, but these weren’t as common as one might think. It’s just much easier to build on the ground, even if having a home in the trees would look really incredible.

The founder of Valentia had been a dryad, and like most dryads, he had been determined to be one with nature. Thus, while the city very much made a lot of money from lumber, the forest itself was carefully catered. Adjacent trees were never cut together and the city itself was built around rather than over the ecosystem. The only part of Valentia that could be considered more artificial than natural was downtown, situated on the bank of the lake where there had been no trees to disturb.

Downtown was where Blue needed to be. She treated her journey as though she were on official messenger business: head held high, she trotted down main street with obvious, dutiful purpose. The “welcome to Valentia” sign had told her where main street was, though for the first few minutes of her journey there was hardly anything but stone road and forest. Signs of civilization came in slowly at first but quickly built up to a critical mass. Gone were the idyllic hills of nature, in their place were busy streets with hundreds of people scurrying about of every shape and size. Carriages had it difficult, as they had to weave in and out of the winding roads that looped the many trees. The entire layout of the city was supremely confusing and Blue had no idea why anyone had thought letting nature decide where everything went was a good idea.

It seemed to work for them, though. As a messenger (or ex-messenger), Blue knew to keep to the main road. Getting lost was very easy in this nest.

She was rewarded for her efforts by the slow disappearance of trees from the cityscape as it transitioned to downtown. Here, buildings were arranged along straight roads with much less care for making everything green. There were very few residential areas and homes here, but there were still tons of people. The most impressive landmark was the city hall, which was built into a single tree that stood alienated from the rest of the forest. It was rather hard to tell where city hall ended and the tree began since the shape of the building contained many knots and twists, not unlike that of a tree itself. Clearly, something a dryad would dream up.

At least it looked different. Dryads rarely built anything.

This mattered little to Blue at the moment—she had to make it to the Glassblowers’ Guild. Fortunately, all Guilds and official buildings had reasonable addresses and positions on maps since they wanted to be found. She only had to make two turns before arriving.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, most of the building was made out of glass and shaped like a vase. The glass itself was frosted so people couldn’t see inside, but Blue had to wonder how easy such a structure would be to break.

Upon entering the Guild, she found that the floors weren’t made out of glass but of some kind of fabric, giving her plenty of traction. The lobby was a small room with only a few chairs and walls adorned with banners that told Blue all she ever wanted to know, and then some, about the current state of glassblowing. “Invest in lake sand glass!” “Marble industry taking off: master the spherical art!” “Add a little SWIRL to your creations!”

“Hello, can I help you?” the receptionist—a human man—asked.

“Ah, yes.” Blue took out the sealed letter Krays had given her and handed it over. “Got a special order from Krays Piper, used to be Krays Viskar.”

“It says that on the letter,” the receptionist said, pointing at “Krays Piper nee Viskar.”

“Oh.”

“I’m surprised she found someone, she had so much fire it burned everyone in proximity.”

“They do yell a lot. Apparently they find it fun.”

“That explains a lot. Anyway…” the receptionist took the letter. “Let me go run this by everyone and get a cost. I’m assuming you have the money for payment with you?”

Blue nodded. “And if we’re short for some reason, Wizard Gideon Vaughan will provide excess funds.

“Excellent. Please wait…” The man scrambled through a door and left Blue alone in the waiting room.

With a toss of her mane, Blue sat down on the ground. She levitated over a little booklet—chained to the counter, of course—that listed the various services the Guild could offer. Direction to local glassblowers, large projects, sand purchasing… they even had a wizard on staff, apparently, since they offered arcane furnace services.

The front door opened again, allowing a truly majestic creature to walk into the lobby. The woman had four velvet-red legs with jet-black polished hooves and a thin tail. Her back sported a purple robe that matched the pointed hat that rested on her head just above her horn, patting down her silky mane. She was a unicorn, all right, and a greater unicorn at that—she towered above Blue, glaring down at her. Maybe. Blue had always found it hard to tell where greater unicorns were focusing since their eyes weren’t forward-facing.

At first, Blue stepped aside to let the Purple wizard through, prepared to tell her that the receptionist had gone back and would return in a moment. But then she recognized the greater unicorn.

“Itlea!?”

Itlea bore her teeth, a much more menacing act for a greater unicorn than a lesser one, given the longer face. The entire forward part of her became teeth.

Blue was not fazed by this. “What does the oh-so-powerful and amazing Itlea require from such a lowly, peasant-filled Guild such as the Glassblowers’?”

“A messenger has no right to speak to me,” Itlea huffed.

“Clearly, you didn’t study law. Furthermore, I’m not a messenger anymore, I’m a wizard’s apprentice. So ha.”

“Who’d take in a flunky like you?”

Blue smirked. “Oh, just some moron.”

At this, the receptionist returned. “They’ve accepted your order, assuming Wizard Vaughan turns out to be reputable.”

“Thank you,” Blue said, taking a little slip of paper out of the receptionist’s hands. “I have this on me right now, here.” She levitated out of her bags a rather impressive pile of coins, mostly of the Blue variety. “Make sure to send it to the Willow Hollow jeweler’s instead of Vaughan’s cabin—it’s annoyingly out of the way.”

“So long as you or Wizard Vaughan are there to claim the order.”

“If we aren’t, Suro will scream loud enough and we’ll be there.”

The receptionist smiled the “I have to smile at you” smile.

Blue let it slide, tucking the confirmation slip into her bags before turning to Itlea with a smug grin. “Look at me, doing apprentice things, like ordering complex parts for an arcane device.”

“…Why glass?”

“Why indeed…!” Blue laughed.

Itlea narrowed her eyes—Blue assumed, she could only see one eye at the moment. “You don’t deserve this. You cheated, somehow. You…”

“Don’t care!” Blue flicked her tail. “I’m free from the slavery of academia, I’m working on cutting edge arcane devices in the middle of nowhere! The rules can’t touch me! Hah!”

“Then perhaps you would like to demonstrate your newfound arcane abilities.” Itlea lit her horn with a malevolent red, levitating out an Orange crystal from her robes. “It should be a simple test to prove yourself.”

“Itlea, I know this is going to be nearly impossible for your little horse-brain to comprehend… but, but, not all wizards need to be good at casting spells. Some of us are theorists and constructors. Me? Hmm? I’m just both!”

“Ah. So only partial success.”

Blue’s left eye twitched. “Excuse me? Partial?”

“Wizards of legend are not theorists, they are the active. You do not change the course of history by tinkering with ideas in your backyard.”

“Wanna bet?” Blue sneered. “We’ve already got progress.”

“To what?”

“That…. is a secret! For now. But it’ll blow your little mind, little miss perfect.”

“I see you haven’t changed, continually trying to lessen my physical size in your words.”

“And I see you’re just as crabby and petty as before. Wasn’t nice seeing you again, I hope your horn breaks. Etcetera etcetera, cue disgruntled goodbye, exit stage left.” She scrambled out of the Guild before Itlea could get another word in edgewise. Nobody would be having any of that. Especially not Blue.

~~~

Later that day, when Itlea was trying to enjoy her seasoned hay strips for dinner, she found the thought of Blue continually returning to her. Blue, the most hopeless excuse for a wizard and the most annoying person in Itlea’s class at the Academy. Blue… had an apprenticeship.

It couldn’t be anyone important. Itlea hadn’t gotten anyone important. Just that dumb glass wizard. It couldn’t be. She’d never heard of Vaughan, he must have been a nobody.

Must have been a nobody.

Must have been.

With an overdramatic groan, Itlea stopped her meal immediately and informed her supervisor that she was going back to the Academy to look at some records—three days at maximum. Since it was a weekend and she was almost done with her apprenticeship anyway, she was permitted to leave.

I’m a full-fledged wizard of illusion, I shouldn’t need permission to leave!

She ran, ran as fast as she possibly could through the night. Charging through settlement after settlement until she arrived at O’ffanee Point. O’ffanee Point was a small town situated around a large, helix-like tree that had stairs cut into its branches. At the top of the stairs rested several floating creatures with saddles affixed to them—balloon whales. Each one had two eyes and massive mustache-like frills on the face that scooped up food in the air as it moved. The balloon whales’ fins were thin, see-through things, but the tail was every bit as impressive as its oceanic counterpart’s.

Itlea paid her fare and promptly went to sleep in the saddle as the sky-whale drifted along. When she awoke… clouds were all around her, making it impossible to see. She’d miss the glory of seeing the great city of Axiom from above. But that wasn’t important right now, right now she needed to be fast. Needed to know.

She left the foggy docks at a breakneck pace, clattering along the marble walkways. The Academy was right next door, though she could only see the Purple tower right now, and even then only the base of it. What’s with this fog?

Ignoring the question, she entered the Purple tower and immediately descended to the basement. As the Purple wizards were the ones most concerned with secrets and information, they were the ones who kept all the records. Itlea had access to the simple records simply by being a Purple wizard herself.

Most wizards could get in here, actually, but they’d be called aside to deal with paperwork. Her speedy access was just a perk.

The archives in question were a bunch of books lined up on black shelves. They were meticulously organized by category and date, the information lit only by light shone through Purple crystals. Solid Purple cubes adorned the edges of the bookshelves, serving no other purpose than to remind Itlea that her Color had a very specific shape it liked to take.

Itlea took out a book; the record for all wizards who had enrolled in the Academy when Itlea did. She flipped to her own page—not much there. Her barely passing grades were noted, as well as her disciplinary history. Her apprenticeship was barely tacked on at the end. She’d contributed nothing.

Blue’s record was much smaller. It mentioned her dismissal from the academy and the reasons for it, which was rather embarrassing for her. Itlea could have rested happily if that had been all there was in the record.

But no, there was more. Apprenticed under Gideon Vaughan. It was there, plain for her to see. But there was something below that which was even worse. Co-invented the Air Restorer, design sent to the Arcane Council for review. Design approved, large-scale production underway.

No… Itlea ground her teeth together. That girl couldn’t have done anything! Not…

She thrust the book back into the shelf and went back—Vaughan. She had to find Vaughan. Maybe he was just some poor sap who got lucky, a nobody…

When she found his file her eyes opened wide. Nearly perfect grades, honors, three degrees. The only negatives listed in his education history involved him talking back and making insults rather than studying. After that, he became a Journeyman wizard, and then there was a long segment about his involvement in the Tempest Incident, at which point he moved to Willow Hollow and… did nothing until he invented the Air Restorer, apparently. Even here, though, Blue was noted as co-inventor.

Itlea slowly put the book back on its shelf. She held her head high in a dignified manner and turned away.

She let out a scream of rage only seconds later.

~~~

The beast perched atop a nearby tree, glaring down at the cabin below. In it, there was a man in red robes and a not-bear girl. The not-bear girl was sitting in a wooden chair with a brass mushroom taped to it. A yellow sphere was affixed to a strap over her chest, while she held an Orange crystal in her hand—pointing it upward at the brass mushroom.

The red man said something, at which point the girl made the crystal release a burst of multicolored sparks from the sphere. The chair levitated into the air with the girl in it, but it started tipping over. The girl managed to level it with the crystal in her hand, but then the man used an Orange crystal of his own to add turbulence, at which point the girl crashed into the ground, snapping the chair in half.

The beast narrowed its eyes.

What were they doing?

It likely wasn’t going to be any help in finding delicious food but still… its curiosity would not stand down.

What is that?

~~~

SCIENCE SEGMENT

There’s not much new science this time around, we’re just pushing forward with what is already known. Most of the time here is spent on the completely made-up rules for arcane devices, which I will be explaining in-story rather than here.

Of note is a bit of a mistake they’re making in the design of the Skyseed. It is true that things with slots in them tend to fly straighter: it’s one of the reasons fins work on rockets. As a craft moves through the air, the air applies force to the craft based on the cross-sectional area of the craft. Things with less cross-sectional area are pushed less, things with more are pushed more. A fin, when a rocket is upright, has very little cross-sectional area. When a rocket tilts, more of the fin is exposed to the rushing air and force increases. However, due to how airflow works, this creates a difference in pressure between one side of the fin and the other, making the rocket desire to return to the minimal cross-sectional area position. This is the same principle of lift airplanes use to fly being used for a different application: rather than staying up high, it seeks to balance the craft.

The minor mistake is that they’re planning on going slowly through the air so the balance provided by the slots would be minimal. Since the Skyseed is more disc-shaped than pillar-shaped, going fast would make it quite unstable due to crosswinds.

It may be obvious at this point that crosswinds are a really big problem for spacecraft. This is (one of the many reasons) why real-world launches care so much about weather conditions.