015

The Deep End

In the depths of the Purple archives of Kroan Academy, a certain individual was perusing the many, many documents with his reptilian claws. He moved with supreme disinterest and spent a lot of his time yawning as he poured over various texts, wishing that the lighting down here was more practical than the obvious devotion to the “Purple aesthetic.”

This deep in the Archives, things were decidedly difficult to parse. Many of the documents down here weren’t written with audiences of any kind in mind and were often personal notes of long-dead Wizards who didn’t care to bother with consistent notation or even much more than chicken-scratch.

The reptile’s job was to examine such documents for points of interest, especially points of interest for his employer. Or employer’s employer. His situation was rather unique in that regard.

He picked up a manuscript that talked about the minute differences in crystal mass reduction-to-heat output produced by shining particular colors out of Purple crystals. A fact that had been novel back when the aging paper had been written but was now taught as part of the standard curriculum—useless. The next paper he picked up was filled with mathematical nonsense, so far as he could tell, all oriented around “properties of the number seven.” Then there was a short experiment that noted that dogs couldn’t tell the difference between different Colored crystals… A record of Crystalline One feats no one could even dream up theories on how to replicate…

“Why does Gronge have me dig this far?” he grumbled, placing the documents back where they belonged. The next document was actually stored in a Purple crystal device and showed a three-dimensional model of a swinging pendulum when he pushed his will into it. He was very glad it was simple enough that his will could properly generate it—he wasn’t exactly the best at using crystals.

The next document he found was brand new and talked about launching a craft so high the curvature of the horizon was observed.

Wait…

He went back to that one and read it over again. What’s a new document doing all the way down here? And… of something so fundamentally bizarre at that?

The more he read the details, the more he realized that this was exactly the sort of thing his employer would be interested in.

“Looks like today’s archive plunge wasn’t a waste of time…”

~~~

“There you go…” Vaughan said, pulling himself out of the arcane furnace and closing it up. “The heat injection core is ready to go.”

“And it only took you until nightfall,” Darmosil deadpanned as he used a crowbar-like tool to bend a thin piece of metal into an arc shape.

“I needed something to do anyway.”

Darmosil gave a half shrug. Once he completed bending the metal, he tossed Vaughan a small bag of coins. “Keep the change.”

“Really?”

“It’ll make its way back to me eventually.” He walked over to the arcane furnace and turned it on, beginning the long heating process.

“No sleep tonight?”

Darmosil shrugged noncommittally.

“You could come back with me, see what your wife’s been up to.”

The slightest hint of a smile crawled up Darmosil’s face. “I know what she does better than you do, Vaughan.”

“Well, I—“

“Tonight you are going to launch Jeh into the sky and have her run a somewhat long and involved series of tests with fireworks, using the darkness to make sure they’re visible. There will also be a thermoscope, a handful of plants, and a little mouse in a cage.”

“Sometimes I forget how much Krays talks.”

“Such an omission speaks measures of your intellect.”

Vaughan gave Darmosil a confused look, but the blacksmith simply returned to his work. With a slight roll of his eyes, the Wizard left the room. As he passed through the bakery, he noted that one of the Sourdough twins was sleeping on the counter—the other was nowhere to be seen.

Whenever he saw one and not the other he always got nervous. He was never entirely sure why.

Walking outside, the cool night air greeted him with a slight breeze. The sun had set only a short time ago, so it was still easy to see Willow Hollow and the road. He noticed that several construction workers were wrapping up their task for the day—building that little launchpad Lila had commissioned in her new position as Mayor.

Speaking of Lila, she was actually near the incomplete launchpad, standing on top of a crate and looking at it deep in thought. The construction really didn’t look like anything special: it was just a raised stone platform made out of several segments. When it was complete the top would be flattened, smoothed, and polished while a few Magenta lamps would be set up around it to make it easy to see from above, but even that was rather simple.

“So, Mayor…”

Lila chuckled. “Please, call me Lila. Mayor is a title, not a name.”

“So, Mayor Keeper Lila…”

Lila rolled her eyes. “Yes, Vaughan?”

“You seem deep in thought. Are those thoughts of yours something I might be able to comprehend?”

“Some of it, at least,” Lila said with a short nod. “I’m just… observing how appropriate it is that a crazy endeavor such as ours involves such an unassuming and simple construction. It’s just a platform of stone. Takes a lot of effort to make and in the end doesn’t look very impressive.” She smirked. “It’s a perfect metaphor for life. The best things come from that which we would consider low, weak, simple. Dia herself is the triangle, after all, the simplest of the shapes; and yet, as Suro will tell you, triangles are the strongest.”

“But the world itself is filled with such curious complexity as well…”

“The paradox of life. There are so many complications and details that make it worthwhile, while our purpose is nonetheless simple. To be, to love, to…” Lila stopped herself. “Goodness, I’m becoming one of those pedantic old Keepers, always waxing poetic about higher concepts.”

“Maybe they’re onto something,” Vaughan shrugged.

“Mmm… possible. Likely, even.”

“Or maybe this is just your Mayorship getting to you.”

“I am somewhat surprised by it, actually,” Lila said. “Very little has changed, overall. I get the impression that if I had asked everyone to build a launchpad when I was just ‘the Keeper’ they would have. It’s simultaneously heartwarming and a little unnerving.” She folded her ears back. “I gave up power to come here, Vaughan. Part of me never wanted to have it again.”

“Ah, but now you’re a lot better at using it, huh?”

“It only seems that way. That’s exactly how I felt back in the Tempest. And you… you know.”

Vaughan sighed. “I do. But I want you to know that I mean it when I say… you’re now the wisest person I know.”

“By the grace of Dia…” Lila shook her head. “We really have to stop dwelling on the past. We are the Wizard Space Program, we look toward the future.”

“Wait, didn’t you tell me fixation on the future wasn’t the best thing…?”

“True…” Lila licked her paw and ran it across her cheek absent-mindedly. “The present moment is the best. And in the present moment, we have a launch to get to.” She hopped down from the box and started walking to Vaughan’s cabin. “You better have all those extra beds set up.”

“Mary and Seskii say they have it covered.”

“Those two really go out of their way for others. It is good to see.”

With that, Wizard and cat journeyed back to Vaughan’s cabin. Neither of them made much effort to go very quickly and spent a large amount of time simply chatting like the old friends they were. Reminiscing about the past, thinking about the future, and just talking about life. Eventually, Vaughan had to light a small fire to illuminate their path and the stars started to come out. It was truly dark by the time they reached the Cabin.

“You’re quite late,” Krays said as they walked around to the backyard where the others were sitting around, waiting—save for Jeh.

“How do you know?” Vaughan asked, crossing his arms.

“It is precisely eight-thirteen.” Krays smirked.

Vaughan gawked at her. “H-how?”

“You can tell time by the stars, you know, not just the sun and moon.” Krays shrugged and shook her head. “Some master of the Wizard Space Program you are, can’t even tell time by the stars.”

Lila raised an eyebrow. “It takes quite a bit of training and knowledge to be able to discern the state of the sky as it changes throughout the year. Consider me impressed, Krays.”

Krays gave them a slightly awkward grin. “Oh, this is just something small I picked up over the years.”

Big G walked up to them. “How is the launchpad coming?”

“Well,” Lila said, taking a moment to walk to Suro and give him a quick nuzzle. “But it’ll be a few days before we can get anything going.”

“I doubt we’ll have another launch for a few days,” Suro added. “The next one might be on the launchpad.”

“Jeh awake yet?” Vaughan asked.

Blue nodded. “She’s eating up befo—“

“I shall pierce the night itself!” Jeh shouted, running out of the cabin at high speed. “The demon of sleep has been pacified, tonight shall face the wrath of the one, the only, Jeh!”

“…Wrath?” Blue asked.

Jeh crossed her arms. “Yes. It is the best word for the situation and I am not changing it.”

“If you insist.” Blue rolled her eyes. “So, do you remember your mission?”

“Absolutely!” Jeh cleared her throat. “Ahem! During ascent I shall, every few minutes, release one of the fireworks we have strapped to the Skyseed and see what happens.” She gestured at the few dozen fireworks that were draped over the edge of the Skyseed rather haphazardly—but evenly distributed so as not to throw off the weight. “Make sure not to go too fast so they don’t explode. Second!” She ran over to one of the tables, upon which sat a sealed glass tube filled with a mixture of water and air. “Examine the thermoscope to see how hot everything is inside. Red line is too hot, blue line is too cold.”

“You have no idea how hard these things are to make,” Krays said, gesturing at the glass tube she had created. “You have to seal the air in there with the water, make the tube tiny, but also allow the external air to be open to the water without pushing it out…” She shook her head. “I hope you’re satisfied.”

Vaughan shrugged. “It’ll let Jeh know what she needs to know up there.”

“Third!” Jeh ran to a little cage with a mouse and a few plants inside of it. “See if these things die. That’s… yeah, that’s pretty simple. And, lastly…” Jeh pulled out the arcane imaging device and the telescope. “Someone’s paid us to take pictures of the planets. Zhevanthe and Qi are up tonight, I’ve gotta find them.”

Blue tapped her hooves excitedly. “Very good, Jeh! That’s everything!”

“Yay! So can I go now?”

Blue unscrewed the Skyseed’s lid with her telekinesis. “By all means.”

Jeh ran into the ship with all her supplies—making the interior rather cramped, even taking into account her small stature. After a few grunts, she gave Blue a thumbs up and the lid was screwed back on.

“Ten!” Seskii called—triggering the countdown once more. When it ended, Jeh drifted up into the air bit by bit, a little slower than usual due to the extra weight and concern over the fireworks, but it was still a respectable speed.

About a minute of flying later, she released the first firework. A colorful burst of green spread out across the sky with an immense bang that showered the land with a green light.

“Hmm…” Lila frowned. “I think that’s going to wake a few people up...”

“Who cares? It’s pretty!” Krays clapped her hands together. “We’re putting our own stars in the sky!”

“The people need their rest, Krays. In the future, we should try to avoid releasing fireworks at low elevations this late at night. I may have to organize an announcement tomorrow for everyone who was affected…”

“They’ll understand,” Suro said.

“Very likely, but they need to see that I’m thinking about them, not just running things blindly.”

Seskii sat down on the ground and shrugged. “Let’s not worry about that right now. We have a fireworks show to watch!”

The sky was devoid of any sparks aside from the Orange glow of the Skyseed that they could still make out.

“…A very slow fireworks show!”

~~~

Jeh couldn’t afford to relax even though she was comfortable with the Skyseed at this point, simply because she had a lot of things to keep track of. Not only did she need to keep her focus on the drive and the air restorer, but she also had to release fireworks every now and then, keep an eye on the thermoscope, and record what she found in a little book Vaughan had given her.

It wasn’t too much for her to handle—far from it—it just didn’t give her any opportunity to really appreciate much of anything around her.

She used some Orange to release another firework, quickly striking it with Red to ignite it. The bang happened a few seconds later and was absurdly loud, exploding with enough force to make Jeh’s ears ring. The actual shockwave from the fireworks was nothing compared to the drag of the atmosphere, though, so she had no difficulty continuing her climb.

The mouse was freaking out in its cage but it seemed healthy enough.

The thermoscope indicated the temperature was slowly decreasing. Jeh wasn’t entirely sure how it worked—it was a glass rod with two bulbs on either end; one filled with air, the other with water. The water end was actually exposed to the air of the Skyseed via tiny holes in the glass. Jeh wasn’t sure why this was necessary but apparently it was what allowed the water level to move up and down the center of the rod—up when it got colder, down when it got warmer. Currently, the water level was climbing. It was a cold night, to be sure, and Jeh made sure to keep the temperature in what she was told was “comfortable” with applications of Red.

So she continued on her way up. Every few minutes she’d release a firework and light up the sky and check how the temperature was doing. Flying at night was basically no different than doing it in the day, only she didn’t have as good of a view of everything. She was still able to make out the lights of major Kroan cities, though, so she wouldn’t be lost coming back down.

She made a note to record an image of Ikyu at night. The device had three slots; she only needed to take two as part of the mission, it was an opportunity. But that would have to wait until she was much, much higher.

As she continued her ascent, however, a few odd things began to crop up. First of all, the noise from the fireworks became less and less the further along she went—and, related to that, their bright intensity decreased over time and it took more and more Red effort to get them to ignite.

Then there was the thermoscope. Early on, it had been getting colder and colder faster and faster—but that rather quickly leveled off until it stopped getting colder. And then, ever so slowly, it started to get warmer.

“…What?” Jeh cocked her head. “Are you… broken?” She had been told that turning the thermoscope upside-down would ruin it, but she hadn’t lost control of the drive or tried to alter her course yet. She would have blamed the sun for heating her up but she couldn’t see the sun—there was just a glow over the horizon. What was making her warmer?

She shrugged. It wasn’t getting warmer very quickly, so it was just another oddity to report back to the others when she was done.

Releasing another firework, she ignited it. It took a lot of energy—and she had to focus on the firework itself rather than the fuse—but it did explode. But it only flashed for a second or two before dissipating. Jeh heard nothing this time.

Jeh frowned. Fireworks were not going to work in space, clearly. Why?

Well, she wasn’t the person who answered “why” in the Wizard Space Program. She was the one who went into the great unknown and asked everyone else “why.” It was a good setup.

At least the mouse and the plants were fine. After dealing with the journey for a few hours the mouse had calmed down. It had started nibbling on one of the plant’s leaves.

Jeh rolled her eyes. Not space damage, not my problem.

She took out the imaging device. Ikyu at night was absolutely stunning if a bit hard to make sense of. In her studies of the maps of the world she had spent much time on the kingdom of Kroan and surrounding areas, so she was able to make out what those little specks of light were. Beyond Kroan, however, it became harder for her to make things out. It was difficult to tell where the oceans ended and the land began—usually, the land had more light on it, so the dark areas were most likely water, but this wasn’t always true. Not to mention the clouds dotting the distant stretches of the world that made it even harder to see. There were a few storms that let out flashes of lightning in the distance that, from above, didn’t seem all that powerful and looked more like fireflies than anything. One area of the ocean glowed a curious green—but most obvious of all was the giant Purple cube glowing rather intently.

It was very easy to see at night.

Weird… she quickly turned her attention to the stars. She already knew where to find her targets. Qi was the brightest and appeared through the telescope as a smooth, fuzzy orb with smaller dots around it. She thought that maybe she could see some details on the orb, but it was really hard to tell. Zhevanthe was much smaller and only appeared as a vaguely reddish speck, even with the telescope as an aid.

“All this work for just a couple of blurry pictures…” Jeh said. “People sure are willing to pay for strange things.”

With that, Jeh realized it was time to go down. She glanced at the thermoscope one last time. It was still within comfortable levels, but the heat was steadily increasing.

“More stuff for them to puzzle over.” Jeh took one last look outside at the starry, moonless sky. She grinned.

It was really amazing that she could just come up here and look at the world below. Everything that everyone had ever known… below her. So tiny, almost insignificant. It made her giddy.

She stayed up there for quite a while just looking. But, eventually, she recognized that she had to go back down and report. She took the armored casing off the drive and turned it upside down, ruining the thermoscope’s careful balance, but not breaking it.

Once again, there was no sign of any tiny rocks flying through space. Nothing was damaged.

~~~

Blue squinted her eyes at the sky above them. There was not a single cloud in the way, but she hadn’t been able to make out any fireworks for a while. “Hmm…”

“Something must be keeping them from working properly,” Vaughan said. “Not sure what…”

“She’ll tell us when she gets back.”

“She’ll be fine,” Suro said. “She knows what she’s doing.”

“None of us know what we’re doing,” Krays pointed out. “Not really.”

Seskii nudged her.

“What? I’m just saying it like it is. Speaking of, she’ll be fine even if she crashes. The ship won’t.”

Blue let out an annoyed whinny.

“Hmm, is there a horse in here?”

Blue glared at her. “This horn is very sharp, Krays.”

“And so are my elbows, and I have two of those. You’re woefully outclassed in the pointy competition.”

“I could lift you into the air.”

“And I could shoot a rock through your skull.”

“And I…”

Mary facepalmed. “Give it a rest, you two.”

“…Speaking of rest, not everyone needs to stay up,” Lila said. “Jeh slept all day to be ready for this, we have not. Some sleep might do us good, only a couple of people need to stay and watch.”

Blue nodded. “I’m staying.”

Krays folded her arms. “Then I will too.”

Suro sighed. “Since when did you two have a rivalry going?”

“Since five minutes ago,” Krays said, grinning.

“Oooh, can I have a rivalry too?” Seskii asked.

“I—“

“Quiet!” Big G said, holding up his hand to his ear. This prompted everyone else to listen closely. They heard the tell-tale sound of large, heavy wings flapping, pushing through the air and sending a gust down to the ground. Since it was dark out, they could not see what was coming, but the rush of air told them it was close.

Vaughan lit a fire in the air, revealing a deep blue reptilian form with four legs, two wings, and a pointed face filled with predatory teeth. He was easily the size of a large carriage, but he was no beast, for a large sea-colored sash hung around his neck and over his chest, and rather large packs hung off his sides. He was, unmistakably, a dragon—but of the younger variety, given his size.

“Greetings,” he said in a deep, but rather soft voice that did not fit with his predatory appearance. “I am Alexandrite.”

Blue pointed at his sash. “You… you’re a Deep Messenger?”

“And you must be Blue.” He nodded curtly. “Yes. I am a Deep Messenger.”

“What in the name of Ikyu are you doing this far from the ocean!?”

“I bring a message. Specifically for yourself and Wizard Vaughan.” He stretched out his leathery wings before folding them to his side. “It would be for the ears of anyone else involved in your research.”

“…Our research?”

“Your Skyseed.”

Vaughan frowned. “Blue, can you help me figure out what’s going on here?”

Blue shook her head. “The Deep Messengers carry out the affairs of high-ranking anglers on land since they can’t leave the ocean depths. What an angler would want with the Skyseed I have no idea. And how they’d even hear about it…”

“My master, Wizard Gronge, has me peruse the arch—“

“Gronge!?” Vaughan blurted. “The Gronge? Arcane wizard of the deep!?”

“Yes.”

“We study his experiments in the academy!”

“So you know this is no joke.” The dragon raised his head. “I am tasked to uncover that which may be of interest to the great Wizard Gronge and his experiments. I found your file deep within the archives, and it was of immense interest to him. He is willing to provide significant funding to this endeavor.”

“…Why?” Blue asked. “It’s not like he can go to space.”

“He has numerous reasons. For one, he believes that refining the Skyseed design may, in time, lead to a proper submersible that could withstand the great leviathans and allow for proper traversal of the barrier between the surface and the depths. Secondly, the discovery of the air restorer has prompted him to run similar tests on waters, finding that it also functions as a water restorer. He wishes to compare notes on it. And, lastly, while Wizard Gronge has never seen the stars, he has been given many drawings, and finds the outer world fascinating.”

“…So, Alex, buddy…” Krays said, stepping forward. “What’s he want us to do?”

“He has a decent list of suggested experiments,” Alexandrite said, either not noticing or not caring about the sudden nickname. “The first of which is to take the Skyseed into orbit while filled with water. Such an increase in weight is not beyond the drive’s capacity, according to his calculations. If you find it difficult to procure that much water, do note that I am a water dragon and can provide as much as you will possibly need.”

“Well… we are selling our services to anyone who wants it…” Vaughan glanced to the others. “And we don’t dare refuse the great Gronge, do we?”

Lila coughed. “We will accept Wizard Gronge and yourself as usual ‘customers.’ “

Alexandrite nodded. “And you are?”

“Lila, Mayor of Willow Hollow and member of the Wizard Space Program you see before you.”

Alexandrite bowed his head slightly in respect. “I was unaware the town itself was involved in the procedures, though I suppose it would be expected. Do you have records of your more recent experiments?”

Vaughan nodded. “We haven’t sent anything else back to the Academy yet, the winter was rather limiting. Blue can probably show you some things about the mathematics…”

“It will be very much appreciated. However… I would like to see the Skyseed first.”

“Bit difficult, as it’s up in the sky right now,” Krays said. “Who knows when Jeh’ll come back down?”

“I expected as much, given that you were all awake at this hour.” Alexandrite turned his head to the sky. “How much longer do you suppose she will be?”

“Few hours?”

“Then I shall wait. I shall not impose my curiosity nor Gronge’s on you—you are in the midst of your work. I shall merely observe, unless you do not wish me to.”

Blue glanced awkwardly at the others. “It’s… fine, right?”

There were a bunch of awkward shrugs.

“Welcome to the team, Alex!” Seskii said, running up to him and giving him a friendly pat on the neck.

“I am merely a messenger—“

“And I run a fruit juice stand, it takes all types. I’m Seskii! And the rest of these colorful faces are…” She then proceeded to introduce everyone in the most energetic manner imaginable. Which was to say, exactly how one would expect Seskii to introduce everyone.

~~~

The plan for landing was rather simple—look for the Magenta glow from the crystal atop Vaughan’s cabin. It wasn’t hard to see. Or, at least, it shouldn’t have been, seeing as it was on top of the cabin and there wouldn’t be any trees in the way from Jeh’s angle.

This did nothing to help her actually find it. She knew she was somewhere near Willow Hollow simply due to the lights of the major cities she’d seen from above, but she couldn’t pinpoint exactly where. It was night and Willow Hollow didn’t exactly have a lot of lights. It did have a lot of crystals, but only Vaughan’s cabin had an active Magenta core that would glow.

She took the Skyseed back up a short distance—prompting one of the spikes to shatter—and tried to get her bearings once more. She pulled out a map, compared the lights of the cities, focused on a single place on the ground, descended… and got lost in the dark again.

“This is getting ridiculous,” Jeh grumbled. “At this rate, I’ll be going up and down until the sun comes up…” She glanced at the mouse that was sleeping peacefully in its cage. “I wish I could be you right now…” She frowned. “I could just land somewhere and wait for morning, but Blue would get so worried…”

Then she remembered something.

She hadn’t used all the fireworks yet.

She was back in the atmosphere.

With a grin, she released one of them and ignited it. The bang woke the mouse up and he let out a terrified squeak. A brilliant pink glow lit up the sky and some of the ground below, revealing the ominous shadow of mountains. Lots of mountains. The light of the firework persisted for a few seconds, allowing Jeh to get her bearings in reference to the mountains.

She was on the other side of the mountain range—too far to the east. She adjusted the drive, tilting it sideways, and moved over the range. Since she had extra fireworks, she kept releasing more to ensure she didn’t keep getting lost. As she crossed the range, she was mildly annoyed to find that she didn’t recognize any of the mountains in particular. They clearly had to be part of the same range as Mt. Cascade, though if she was too far north or too far south she had no way of telling for sure. The fireworks, while bright, didn’t exactly illuminate anything very far away.

North or South… She racked her brain for a while on this problem—losing focus on the drive for a moment in the process, but not long enough to start plummeting. She regained control calmly and decided to release another firework to see if she could locate anything at all. But all she revealed were mountains and an exceptionally large number of trees. There weren’t even any roads…

“Aha!” Jeh declared, waking up the poor mouse. “Willow Hollow is the southernmost settlement before the wilds! If there are no roads we must be South! Hah! I’m smart.”

She directed the Skyseed to the north, drifting through the sky and releasing a firework every few minutes. Eventually, at the edge of her vision, she spotted a glowing Magenta spark.

“There it is!” Jeh grinned. She drifted overtop the Magenta glow. Since the glow wasn’t lighting anything up, Jeh released a firework so she could see where the backyard was in order to land without shattering the Skyseed.

The reddish light from the firework revealed it not to be Vaughan’s cabin at all. It was some kind of stone structure covered in patches of green. From her height, it was impossible to tell much more about it besides the fact that it was large.

For a moment—a long moment—she considered going down to check it out. Her curiosity burned within her to know what this strange structure was.

It would simply take too long, though. She’d already been up here much longer than everyone had probably been expecting. There were still no roads, so this must have been further South.

“North we go, little buddy…”

The mouse understood none of this and only knew that there were more terrifying explosion sounds.

~~~

“I can get you any kind of juice under the sun! Or moon! Or stars if neither of those are up at the moment!” Seskii winked at Alexandrite. “Don’t you worry Alex, I can cater to the tastes of even the most eclectic of dragons!”

“…I highly doubt you have azure melon extra—“

Seskii kicked a nearby crate open and pulled out a bottle filled with a light blue and slightly fizzy substance. “One should never doubt Seskii’s supply!”

Alexandrite’s eyes widened. “I… how? These are only found in the shoals beneath the Tempest and…”

“Sorry! Trade secret. But hey, at least you get to have some! Free of charge!” She threw it to him. He managed to catch it in his claw—making it clear how tiny it was in comparison to his girth. It would have been a sizeable drink for any of the members of the Wizard Space Program, but it was barely more than a swallow for him.

“So…” Blue said. “Do you Deep Messengers have to go through all the nonsense us normal messengers have to go through?”

“Absolutely exquisite…” Alexandrite said, staring at the now empty bottle for a few seconds before realizing Blue was talking to him. “Oh, er, not so much. I do very little actual courier business myself. I’m essentially Gronge’s personal scribe from afar. Most of my work involves looking for things he might find interesting, copying them down, and sending them down to the bottom of the ocean.”

“So you get to read all day.”

“Mostly, yes.”

“Why couldn’t I land that job?”

“Connections and recommendations are needed, as well as no small amount of luck…”

While Seskii and Blue chatted the dragon up, Suro and Vaughan had slowly but surely moved to the opposite side of the yard, near the edge of the forest. The hope was that they were out of earshot.

“What do you know of Gronge?” Suro asked Vaughan.

“He’s an angler. He has made several discoveries of great importance to wizardry. Beyond that… not much. Communication between Kroan and the depths is almost completely business, I’m not sure there is be anyone on the surface who can be said to know the man.”

“A complete unknown, then.”

“Yes.” Vaughan shook his head while he scratched his beard. “It’s… unnerving, to say the least.”

“On the surface, it seems legitimate. A scribe hired specifically to plumb the depths of the archives finds something interesting and sends it to his master… which is exactly what his job is. Then his master finds it interesting enough to follow up on and provide assistance… giving good reasons for wanting to do so, but not very detailed ones, and he is so far removed that we shouldn’t expect much more detail.” Suro frowned. “The entire situation is far too easy to insert subterfuge into.”

“I dunno,” Vaughan said. “Alex seems fine.”

“I tend to agree. He is just doing his job. But does he even know who his master is? Or just the sorts of things he might be interested in?”

“Either way, we can’t just say no. The money in the ‘Sea Traversal Fund’* is nothing to sneeze at.”

*The depths and the surface world have an understandable desire for trade, interaction, and cooperation. However, the fact of the matter is that leviathans prowl the oceans at a certain range of depths, and no way has been found to get a live person through their hunting grounds. The anglers live below this boundary, while the surface-dwellers live above. Communication is accomplished entirely through messages in bottles, though over the years the bottles have gotten rather sophisticated, durable, and easy to pick out from the surface of the water at the bottom of the ocean.

It was rather difficult to come to a political agreement over this communication method, but a series of treaties were hammered out between the depths and the surface—which included nations other than Kroan. Most of these were rather boring and didn’t lead to much, but one of the arrangements was the Sea Traversal Fund. Any citizen of any nation could petition their nation for access to specifically set-aside funds that could be used to purchase anything on the other side of the leviathan hunting grounds. Every nation agreed that they would set aside certain funds for this use, to encourage cooperation.

It was not quite as altruistic as it may seem. Quite simply, it was impossible to buy things across the barrier made by the leviathans and the only information that was sent up and down had been done so by charity. With the Sea Traversal Fund, a Kroanian could petition the Crown to order something from the depths. If the Crown determined such a request was worthwhile, they would send a message to the depths, at which point the depths would take from the money they set aside into their Sea Traversal Fund to purchase the item and send it up.

The same worked in reverse. Gronge, being a high-profile arcane researcher, would have access to a large chunk of the Kroan-side Sea Traversal Fund, enough to hire a dragon to work for him full time.

Granted, there is a lot more nuance in the actual treaty, as well as several annoying loopholes, but now “purchases” can be made across the layer of death managed by the leviathans.

Suro shook his head. “It definitely isn’t. I believe our end is mostly spent on research, while theirs is literature, for some reason.”

“The King’s librarian gets priority, as always…”

Suro chuckled. “Careful who you say that around.”

Vaughan rolled his eyes. “Suro, we live in the middle of nowhere and never see anything even vaguely related to royalty.”

“That could change, Vaughan. A dragon with connections to the depths has arrived. Others may come. Willow Hollow will be put on the map.” He flicked his ears. “We may need to start watching what we say again.”

Vaughan glanced to Alexandrite and folded his arms. “Point taken…”

“Unintended consequences of going up.”

“That’s a list that keeps growing…”

“Hey, what’s that!?” Seskii shouted all of the sudden, pointing into the distance through the tangled nexus of trees.

Everyone quickly turned their heads to catch a green explosion happening just on the edge of the Southern horizon. They couldn’t hear anything at this distance, but it was unmistakably a firework peeking through the evergreen needles.

“…Why’s Jeh launching fireworks?” Vaughan asked. “She didn’t need to do anything on the way down…”

“Wrong question,” Blue said. “You should be asking why she’s all the way over there.”

“Wh…?”

“She’s lost, obviously!” Blue pointed up at the Magenta core on top of Vaughan’s cabin. “She must not have been able to see that!”

“Oh, in that case…” Vaughan pointed his scepter into the sky and created an orb of rippling white light with Purple magic.

It was hardly any time at all before they were able to see the Orange glow of the Skyseed’s core drifting through the air toward them. Vaughan was more than a little pleased to see that Jeh was taking it slowly and methodically, without any jerking movements. She was doing it right.

One day, I’ll get to go up there… Vaughan thought.

Everyone gathered together to watch as the ship came to a near stop above them before slowly drifting down and gently setting down on the dusty ground in Vaughan’s backyard.

Blue peeled the lid off the top. “Welcome back.”

“We need to make a bigger light or something if we keep going up at night,” Jeh said as she jumped out of the ship and landed hard on her feet. “Also, hey there mister dragon, you look awesome.”

Alexandrite glanced at Lila. “Your pilot… is a child?”

Lila raised an eyebrow. “She has the skills required to pilot the craft and is smaller than most of us. Furthermore, she is willing and ready.”

“I can also do this!” Jeh lifted her hand into the air, curling the fingers into a fist...

“Ahem!” Suro coughed. “Jeh, perhaps we shouldn’t spend our visitor’s time? He is here on a business matter, and I’m sure you have some sleep to catch up on.”

Jeh deflated. “But… but dragon. Dragons are cool!”

“You will no doubt see a lot of me in the coming months,” Alexandrite said. “There will be time for you to… do whatever it is you want.” The dragon quickly looked away from Jeh with supreme disinterest, focusing instead on the Skyseed. “What a curious shape…”

“Yeah, it is,” Blue said. “We’ve already figured out it’s not the best. A pure sphere would do basically everything this does up there. This is also prone to shattering if you hit it too hard…” She let out a yawn. “And…”

“The mission has come to a close,” Lila said. “I believe the rest of us should turn in soon. Alexandrite, I… would suggest you take a rest, but I don’t think we have a bed large enough for you.”

“No worries,” Alexandrite said. “I shall find a suitable tree.”

“Hey! How come he gets to sleep in a tree?” Jeh asked.

“You can,” Blue said. “Nobody is stopping you from sleeping in a tree rather than a bed.”

Jeh blinked a few times. Then she rubbed the back of her head. “Oh yeah. I forgot.”

“…Do you want to sleep in a tree?”

“Nope!” Jeh ran into the cabin.

“Come, Vaughan,” Suro said. “Let’s move the Skyseed inside.”

Vaughan nodded. Just in case Alexandrite is here to steal it…

The water dragon continued to stare at the Skyseed as Vaughan and Suro started sliding it to the cabin. Blue eventually added her telekinesis to the mix to get it the rest of the way.

“I am honestly surprised that it functions as well as it does,” Alexandrite said as they dragged it over the boundary. “I expected it to be barely held together, and yet you clearly have taken more than a couple of voyages in it. It makes one wonder why you are the first to do it, so far as we know.”

Vaughan shrugged. “It’s unbelievably dangerous and we’re all insane.”

“Perhaps…” Alexandrite nodded slowly. He let out a strange clicking noise, spread his wings, and took off into the sky, vanishing into the dark of night.

“So…” Blue glanced at them. “Why’re you two so suspicious of him? He’s a messenger, you don’t get to be a messenger while also being a scoundrel. You have to put up with a lot of crap and stolen parcels get you barred from duty or worse.”

“Just a lot of uncertainties about the situation,” Suro said. “It all seems… rather odd.”

“And Sandy was odd too, but she was fine.”

Suro chuckled. “Perhaps… but had I been trapped in the cabin with you, I likely would have raised similar concerns. It is best that I was not there, clearly, as she needed her space and not a suspicious cat getting in her face. But here… well, perhaps we’ll find out that I’m being paranoid later, but we don’t have the luxury of hindsight yet.”

“Mmm…” Blue clicked her tongue. “Well, I like him.”

“I don’t know, he seemed rather… hoity-toity,” Vaughan said with a playful grin. “Almost like he was… well-educated…”

“Oh, I haven’t decided if he’s in the club of morons yet. But at this point, given my present company, I wouldn’t be surprised…”

~~~

Blue woke up before the sun rose. On a normal day, this was a good sign. Today, however, it meant she hadn’t gotten anywhere near enough sleep. With a grunt, she pulled herself out of bed and crawled down the stairs to the cabin’s main hall.

Jeh must not have managed to get to sleep after her endeavor in the stars, for she wasn’t in her bed, but rather flopped awkwardly on one of the entryway couches snoring as loud as a bear.

Blue couldn’t help but smile as the mental image of a tiny yet fearsome bear awkwardly passed out on the couch. She noticed a notebook lying on the ground and levitated it over to her. It was a hastily scrawled record of what had happened on the mission in penmanship that was decidedly bad, but still legible. It took the form of a list: things to tell everyone. It then went to shortly describe the odd things uncovered. The curiously rising temperature, the survival of the passengers, the slow cessation of firework function, and the successful pictures taken.

Then there was the note at the end. Strange stone thing with Magenta on top to the South. Explore later?

Blue frowned. There’s nothing south of Willow Hollow… She set the notebook back down at the foot of the couch and trotted over to her lab, where she rummaged through several stacks of paper before arriving at a somewhat detailed map of the local area. To the South was just more forest that eventually gave way to dry bushland and even harsher deserts. All the other nations were to the north or east—the west was most of Kroan, and then the ocean.

There’s nobody to the south. Who would be able to set up a Magenta crystal?

It was a curiosity, to be sure. But was it really their concern? There was the giant Purple cube they saw from space, but they didn’t go investigate that or any of the other odd things they could see from above. They had a mission, and that mission was to go up, not investigate mysterious structures to the south.

Still… it did get her curious. She’d have to ask Jeh about it later. Probably after they talked to her about showing herself off to the visitors. She may have been a kid, but she could probably understand the need to not tell everyone about her at this point. Blue wondered if she had underestimated her maturity earlier. For such a impulsive and rambunctious individual, Jeh was surprisingly capable. Maybe living in the forest all those years had done her some good.

Blue found herself wondering about Jeh’s parents. Whoever they were. Wherever they were. Probably harrowed by the mysterious disappearance of their daughter.

Maybe we should have been looking for them…

Her thoughts turned to her parents. Lesser unicorns, a bit insufferable, wanted her to follow the family business of farming rather than becoming a wizard… she hadn’t seen them or even written to them in years. They probably didn’t even know she’d been a messenger.

Blue shook her head. The journey would be far too long. She had responsibilities to attend to. Math to do. A spaceship to design…

She looked up at a large sheet of paper she had hung up on the wall. It was just a sketch, but she still found it beautiful. A sphere of solid metal with six circular windows… multiple levels… a junction to store multiple drives… and a large black box with a question mark labeled “airlock?” in the hopes that Vaughan would have that part figured out.

“We’ll be needing that money of yours, Gronge… the Moonshot won’t build itself…”

~~~

SCIENCE SEGMENT

First, something you might already know: in space, nobody can hear you scream. Sound does not carry in space because there’s no air, and sound needs air to reach our ears.

Except that’s the boring, simple explanation. Let’s dig a little deeper.

Sound is, at its core, a vibration that travels through a substance. If you shake something back and forth fast enough you create a sound of a certain frequency—this is how speakers work, by shaking themselves in exactly the way needed to produce the right sound. When an object vibrates, it pushes air molecules away from itself, and these pushed molecules continue to push into other molecules creating a chain reaction that runs through the air.

The best part is that it’s not limited to air at all. Solids, liquids; they can all transmit sound because their molecules are capable of bumping into each other. This does mean sound can be interrupted if the medium is moving—say, a lot of wind or waves pushing through it. (In fact, you could think of waves as just really big, really low sounds we can’t hear).

The real interesting part though is our ear. The explanation given is usually “the air molecules hit our eardrum and then our brain turns that vibration into a signal that goes to our brain and we hear the result.” Oh no, the eardrum is just the start. All it does is focus the sound onto a physical object that vibrates. The vibration is transmitted along a series of very tiny bones with amusing names (hammer, anvil, and stirrup) that take the vibrations of the eardrum and focus them into a very very tiny membrane with the very creative name “oval window” which is like another, smaller eardrum.

Then we get into the really crazy part, the cochlea. The cochlea is a fluid-filled spiral-shaped organ that takes the vibrations from the “oval window” and turns it into pressurized waves that run through the entirety of the spiral. Along this spiral are thousands of hair cells—which are not the cells of actual hair, but just cells that have a few dozen protrusions that stick out into the cochlea’s fluid. Each of these hair cells are fine-tuned to a specific frequency of sound. When a wave passes through the fluid, it only excites the hairs that it’s meant to. These excited hairs finally, at long last, produce an electric signal that runs to the 'brain.

Hairs cells at the end of the cochlea die out faster than those in the middle in many cases, which leads to high-frequency hearing loss.

Anyway, uh, I think I got sidetracked. The cochlea is cool though.

Fireworks.

Yes, they really do explode in space.

Yes, the reaction they use to explode requires oxygen. So why can our fireworks still explode in a complete vacuum?

It’s because black powder has the oxygen already in it—specifically in the form of a chemical called an oxidizer. In true gunpowder, this oxidizer is potassium nitrite (KNO3) and reacts with sulfur (S) and carbon (C) to create a bunch of products that don’t matter all that much and E X P L O S I O N!

All this to say, the reaction will carry out with or without air present. However, while it explodes in space and gives off immediate light, there’s no air to let it keep burning. So the light we associate with fireworks themselves will flash on and off rather quickly.

Unless a firework is the standard orange-white, it’s not pure gunpowder—rather there are other metals mixed in that will burn at different colors. Yes, these reactions need oxygen too, but the oxidizer should provide them as well—though in space these excess reactions will definitely be cut short and be a lot less impressive. And not good for, you know, seeing from the ground. Like the WSP wanted.

In conclusion, it would definitely be possible to ride a firework in space. It just wouldn’t look very impressive. (And would also probably explode differently since there’s no atmospheric pressure to help the casing keep cohesion.)