Their descent to Arn Allinor continued without issue, Tom bringing the Endeavour in for a soft landing at the busy docks.

Arn Allinor was somewhat different to other spires that Rhys had seen. Instead of having multiple docks with differing owners and levels of importance, it had a single colossal dockyard.

Dozens of cloudships were present, ranging from something akin to the Daedalus down to what was little more than the cutter that the inquisition had used to board them.

Interestingly, Rhys spotted several Bluefreight ships as they came in to land. He hadn’t seen any of their ships at Arn Gol, but it made sense that they were here. Arn Creth exported a considerable amount of ironwood, and almost all of it went through Bluefreight.

With an active shipyard here, Arn Allinor would constantly need more ironwood. A prime location to visit for any Bluefreight captain.

It was nice to see something of his home. Thinking back on his journeys, Rhys realised it must have been almost a month since he left Arn Creth now. A month. It was such a short period of time, and yet so much had happened.

Lost in his thoughts, Rhys barely noticed as they landed. The others didn't need his input to get the ship docked, so he was left to his musing until an official-looking group came their way.

The group consisted of a woman and two men, all three of them wearing a badge on their clothing that Rhys couldn’t quite make out from a distance. Rather than shout down to them, Rhys went inside and headed down to the exterior hatch to see what they wanted.

‘Good morning, are you the Captain?’ The woman asked once Rhys had opened the hatch and greeted them.

‘Yes, Captain Hunt, of the Endeavour. How can I help?’ Rhys said, noting that their badges were cloud quartz carved with the stylised initials of the spire. They were probably akin to a badge of office or something like that.

‘Excellent, my name is Darla. I’m the dockmaster for this quadrant of the docks. How long do you intend to stay in Arn Allinor for?'

‘Likely two or three days, depending on how things go and if we find any work that takes us elsewhere,’ Rhys said with a shrug, not wanting to commit to a timeframe right that very moment.

‘Well, three days will be thirty bits in dock fees. Anything longer than that will be another thirty bits per day. We encourage ships to move along before that point to keep trade flowing and stop the docks filling up,’ Darla said, her tone disinterested as she gave him what sounded like a well-rehearsed spiel.

‘Three days it is,’ Rhys said with a shake of his head, passing over the coins for the fee. This was the first time he’d come across a measure to encourage ships to leave after a few days, but he supposed it made sense. Rhys had no intention to linger, though. He didn’t like being here with the inquisition poking around.

As much as he disliked staying the thought of staying here after delivering the Kraus and Sons cargo, Rhys also knew that they had things to sell and jobs to look for, which took time. Besides, it was almost becoming a habit to pay for three days when they docked now.

‘Thank you, here, keep this on board as proof of payment,’ Darla said, giving the man on her right a nod. At her gesture, the man produced a small piece of ironwood with several symbols carved along the bottom. A bold carving in the centre of the piece stated the current date.

Taking it with interest, Rhys gave Darla a nod farewell as she headed off to her next stop. The fact that they needed tokens like this to help track who arrived and when they were due to leave was fascinating to Rhys. He tried imagining the organisation needed to keep something of this scale running smoothly. He wouldn't even know where to start. That was just the organisation side, never mind how he would stop enterprising ship captains escaping without paying their dues.

Doing something as mundane as paying docking fees had helped Rhys feel a little more himself. His mind kept drifting back to the inquisitors, but he was doing his best not to worry too much. Shaking off the creeping sensation of dread that was crawling up his back, Rhys headed back inside and sealed the hatch.

‘Zaxx, could you put this in my quarters? Thanks,’ Rhys muttered, dropping the piece of wood on the floor and starting to walk away.

‘Yes, Rhys,’ Zaxx said, the wood dissolving into the floor before Rhys could take his first step.

Rhys frowned at the deck. He thought Zaxx couldn’t act within a set distance of people due to some kind of interference. In fact, he was sure Zaxx had never taken something when it was that close to him before.

‘Captain, there you are!’ Oliver called out, distracting Rhys from his thoughts. ‘I wanted to ask you about our cargo.’

‘Of course, what’s the problem?’ Rhys asked, grimacing at the thought of further issues with their delivery.

‘Oh, not a problem, Captain. I wanted to check which ones you were dealing with and which ones I was sorting out. I don’t mind finding the Kraus and Sons branch if you have other business to take care of?’

‘Hmm, no, it’s fine. If you get the salt and the metal sold. I will deal with the pickup for the Kraus and Sons goods. Oh, and I’ve been moving the crystals as well, so feel free to dispose of the empty pallets that are leftover,’ Rhys said, deciding now was as good a time as any to bring up the crystals.

‘Oh, okay, not a problem,’ Oliver said, his brow furrowing a little before he shook his head and gave Rhys a nod. ‘I’ll get right on that for you.’

‘Thanks, Oliver,’ Rhys said, the cargomaster giving him a half-wave in response as he headed for the cargo bay.

Leaving him to it, Rhys headed over to the galley, finding both Lucy and Tom sitting at the table with concerned expressions.

‘What’s wrong?’ Rhys asked as he walked in and started to get some water boiled for a cup of tea.

‘We were just discussing the inquisitors and their odd reaction to Lucy,’ Tom said, leaning back in his chair as he spoke and running his hands through his hair.

‘I still don’t know why they treated me like that. I can’t think of anything that would link to them,’ Lucy added with a frown and a grimace. ‘It makes me want to stay in the ship, if I’m honest. I don’t want them realising they made a mistake and grabbing me off the street or anything.’

‘I’m sure it won’t come to that,’ Rhys said, trying and failing to use a reassuring tone as he realised that the inquisition would do exactly that if they felt it was necessary.

‘Hopefully,’ Lucy said, not seeming to notice his lack of conviction.

‘I’ll stay as well to help keep an eye on things,’ Tom said, much to Rhys’s relief. He didn’t want Lucy sitting in the ship on her own and worrying about things all the time he was gone.

‘Sounds good to me. Go find Oliver before he heads off, though. Make sure he has a list of any ingredients you need for the galley. Tell him to take it out of the money he gets from the salt, just don’t go overboard.’ Rhys said, his heart sinking as Tom got up with a grin and hurried out the room. He could almost feel the sovereigns slipping away. Still, Tom did make fantastic food, so it was an expense he could live with.

‘So, what’s the next plan with your pistol,’ Rhys asked as he finished making himself a cup of mint tea. He’d have to remember to ask the local Kraus and Sons people about the schwartztee that Hans had served him; they might have some for sale.

‘Well, I have the runes I want, but the release mechanism to change the chambers is still off. A delay in changing them could be lethal in a fight, but I’m struggling for how to make it smoother,’ Lucy said, perking up a bit at the change in subject. ‘It doesn’t help that it’s all metal, so it’s hard to get any changes done.’

‘Well, I can wait ten minutes while I drink my tea. Tell me what you’ve tried. Maybe I can come up with something?’ Rhys said, smiling at the sudden change in Lucy’s demeanour.

‘Right, wait a minute, I’ll go get it and my spare and show you,’ Lucy said, clapping her hands and bouncing to her feet.

Rhys shook his head as Lucy bolted from the room with a palpable aura of excitement. It was a little scary just how excited she got about weaponry.

-**-

Rhys ended up spending an hour talking with Lucy about her pistol and potential solutions. It seemed that the problem she was having was down to the connection between the chamber and the barrel.

Both the removable chambers and the barrel bore runescript, with the chambers also holding the power source for the pistol. For all of that to integrate properly with the pistol, the runescript needed to line up precisely. It was the precision that was the problem. With ironwood runescript, the sap was used to ensure a continuous connection, but that wasn’t possible with her pistol. The first time she changed chambers, the whole thing would be ruined.

Instead, Lucy had arranged it so that the chamber piece slotted into position and then was locked in. The trigger action rotated the chambers by a set amount, so it worked perfectly as long as they were lined up properly when first placed in.

The problem came when she then wanted to remove the expended chambers. At the moment, she had to manually rotate it part of the way and then separate it from the rest of the pistol. That worked well enough, but it took time, and it took just as long to reload.

Some artificers would call it there, to leave the development process at that. Lucy wasn’t one of them. She wanted to make it a seamless reloading experience, and Rhys supported her wholeheartedly.

The next problem she had was the cost of creating new chamber sections for the pistol. Between the cost of the metal and the price of such accurate work, it was expensive. Rhys didn’t think it was too much of a problem. It was a one-off cost, after all. Still, it was something to consider.

Rhys drew on his knowledge from his years as an artificer, but his projects rarely had moving pieces, so this was a whole new area to him. He was confident that there would be an answer. It was just a matter of working the problem through and exploring all their options.

All that was more than what could be done in an hour, but Rhys had places to go and people to see. He’d mull it over as he walked and see what occurred to him.

Promising that he’d talk more about it later, Rhys left a much happier Lucy to go and grab what he needed from his cabin.

A slight blush heated Rhys’s cheeks as he wondered if he was excited about having a potential project to work on or if it was because he’d be spending more time with Lucy.

Pushing such ridiculous thoughts away, Rhys grabbed his jacket and measured out a small pouch of sovereigns, just in case. This was his first time in such a large spire, who knew what he might find to buy.