Plom guided Pellex over the city and into the airship district. At this time of night, air traffic wasn’t too bad, and Pellex was able to mostly sail over it on his way to priority landing. When he hadn’t come out of the bridge, Evwel had come in to find him, and she had woken the others up after hearing the news. They were all in the lounge now, their presence on the bridge proving too distracting, so as Pellex flew over the docks, he hit the intercom.

“We are coming in for what the sorely mistaken might call a landing, please try not to die.”

All things considered, landing an airship wasn’t actually too hard. Pellex positioned the Cloudherd over the pad, learning all sorts of things about maneuvering drives in the process, and gently decreased the output of the lift engines. With a surprisingly gentle thump, the Cloudherd came to rest.

“You made it! Congratulations! We still haven’t heard back from Dawnwatch, but their centrex operator is new, so I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about. We’ll keep the ship in one of our hangars until you can get the Dawnwatch to confirm your priority request was warranted, but since we weren’t able to contact them directly, we’ve sent a shuttle and a driver over. They can get you to the nearest station.”

“Thanks, Plom. I guess I’m signing off then, thanks for all the help.”

“Oh, no problem. See you around!”

With a few haphazard flicks and presses, Pellex shut the ship off and left the bridge. The others were waiting in the passenger area, and when he saw them, he realized a problem they had overlooked.

“What are we going to do with Iote?”

From their reactions, he could tell none of them had considered it either. After a few seconds of awkward silence, Iote resumed the conversation.

: you wish me to hide :

“Pretty much, yes. Wandering around Zolnre with a dungeon core would attract a lot of attention.”

: does the storage rod i gave you still work :

“I think so? Ucria, you would know.”

“It’s, um, got a few more days left.”

: put me inside of it:

Pellex opened his mouth to respond, then closed it.

“I suppose that would work, wouldn’t it. Alright then, if you’re okay with that.”

: i spent three months poorly bonded to a human soul :

: the rod is not nearly as cramped :

After Ucria put Iote into the storage rod, Refos opened the door, and they stepped out into the airport. There were three landing pads in the emergency section, each big enough to hold sky cruisers. Each pad had a large hangar adjacent to it, and Pellex could see servicing equipment and mobile medical facilities inside the closest one. Massive lights kept the entire area well-lit, and past their glow Pellex could see airships traveling to and from the standard pads. Back on the ground, the shuttle waited, one of the fancy thi powered ones. Smooth orange lines swept across the sleek bronze exterior, curved and tapered around a starglass roof, faintly twinkling under the night sky. Walking over, the driver got out and opened the door for them, bowing and introducing himself.

“Untir Kalbes, at your service.”

“Good to meet you, Mr. Kalbes,” Pellex said, shaking the man’s hand, “I’m Pellex. I must admit, the car’s a bit nicer than I was expecting.”

“Ha! Typically, this is available for important passengers, but it’s also the fastest of our fleet, and I hear you need to get to a Dawnwatch station?”

“Yes, they wouldn’t respond to routing’s link requests.”

“Odd. Good thing I’m here. All of you hop in, we’ll be there faster than you expect.”

Untir wasn’t lying. As soon as they were all seated, the car spun on its axis and sped out of the emergency landing zone, slamming through the airport’s complicated network of roadways before merging into proper traffic. Slipping around the other cars, Untir wove through traffic with an undoubtedly skill-guided hand, maintaining speeds that Pellex expected of trains, not a car. Even at their unexpected velocity, Pellex was still able to look around at his home. He’d been away for a long while, finishing his last year at Nurrio College in Vokit, and Zolnre was not a static city. Steam was changing everything, not only radically altering what was possible with thi constructs, but replacing thi entirely in some cases, purely steam-powered devices taking the weight off of a burdened thi infrastructure and making thi constructs cheaper to make, purchase, and use for everyone. And Zolnre was the source of all this advancement, its natural springs providing easily exploitable steam production. The Circle had aggressively promoted steam as well, providing for the development of piping throughout the city, and bankrolling massive research teams developing new technologies.

Even with just the cursory snapshot of the city he could see outside his window, Pellex noticed a difference. Steam cars were much more prevalent than before, their chimneys blanketing the roads in clingy droplets. Off the streets, thi lighting seemed far more common than he remembered, few shops going without. On the sidewalks, people wore clothes pressed and printed by Kof Temme’s revolutionary new steam loom, and phi construct arms clung to the backs of the well-off in the crowd. Overhead, those who could fly soared above the rooftops in coruscating whorls of color, watching their surroundings through dayglass lenses, and above them, massive airships hung in the night sky, suspended by physics and power, spotting lights piercing the gloom.

Once the Dawnwatch was alerted to Julian’s Court, Pellex was excited to walk the city again. The 2800 square-erafesure city was home to millions, and it was impossible to go a day without seeing something new. He was from the Sun District, and it was a wildly different from even another middle-class district like Greentown, their current location. He’d visited the Court once, but Black Sector? Adesville? Even the Moon District, Sun District’s more refined twin, was unfamiliar to him. Adventuring would hopefully take him far afield, but that wasn’t mutually exclusive with working inside the Peacejoined States themselves. As anyone who lived in Zolnre could attest, as long as Bronzewalk was still standing, there would be plenty of opportunity in the city for a prospective adventurer.

It was only a few minutes before they elegantly slid into the Dawnwatch parking lot, Untir finally slowing down as they neared the station. As soon as he parked, they threw the doors open, and, Pellex taking the lead, marched into the Dawnwatch’s district headquarters.

Greentown was a quiet district, and the Dawnwatch branch reflected that in its small, minimalistic lobby. Clearly not designed for traffic. A single receptionist sat at the desk, and she looked up as they approached. Fortunately, they had managed to piece together presentable outfits back on the airship, even if they were a bit eccentric looking, from a combination of the best of their former clothing, whatever they could find in the luggage that hadn’t been unloaded, and, in Pellex’s case, his coat from the dungeon. All in all, not the strangest thing seen in Zolnre by any means, but enough that a guard station in a well-off district would find appearances like theirs a rare occurrence. Whatever her misgivings, the receptionist greeted them without a hint of worry.

“Hello, and welcome to Dawnwatch station 0452! I’m Kinme.”

“Hello, and sorry, but we need to speak to whoever’s in charge.”

Dawnwatch wasn’t stupid, and they didn’t hire stupid people, either. When she heard Pellex’s statement, Kinme immediately became serious.

“What’s the nature of the crime?”

“We just escaped from an arder compound in the Bulwark Mountains, from which the pirates have been capturing airships and taking their passengers as prisoners.”

“I see. Follow me.”

Getting up from her chair, Kinme led them up a flight of stairs and to an office door, on which she knocked twice before a man’s voice responded.

“Come in.”

Opening the door, Kinme led them inside the room, where a tall, blond man, with slicked back hair and an impeccably clean orange-on-white uniform sat a desk. He stood up to greet them, shaking Pellex’s hand and introducing himself.

“Lutfedr, Dawnwatch Captain here in Greentown. You’re here to report a crime?”

“I’m Pellex. And yes. There’s an arder compound in the Bulwark Mountains, from which they’ve been hijacking airships and imprisoning passengers. There was a riot, and we managed to steal an airship and fly back, but there are still people there.”

Lutfedr nodded, and reached under his desk to press something. A centrex started buzzing, then connected.

“Horizon, this is Captain Lutfedr, we have a situation purple, arder compound in the Bulwarks. Prepare hostage transport and a combat team. I have witnesses here and will transmit further information until a [Coordinator] arrives.”

After a few seconds, a response crackled through.

“Acknowledged, Captain, mobilizing now. Please query as to: location, environment, expected resistance, and hostage numbers. Horizon off.”

Before the captain could finish turning back to them, Pellex had started answering Dawnwatch command’s questions.

“It’s in the Scourge-affected part of the Bulwarks, not sure where exactly, but Plom at routing over at the airport might be able to tell you what our heading was. It’s got a large landing pad full of airships and cargo, hard to miss from the air. The base itself was built inside a Sarter dungeon that wasn’t allowed to grow. The core isn’t there anymore, though, so ventilation in the deeper areas might be a problem. Most of the arders weren’t very high level, but their leader was nearing the edge of Second Echelon. A large portion of them may have Facet boons, however, as their leader appeared to be an Iriode fanatic. Hostage numbers… I’m not sure. Several airships worth.”

“Thank you, Pellex. I’ll let Horizon know, but unless you think you have any other information, we’ll let you all retire to our guest facilities for the night. We can’t let you leave just yet, unfortunately. We have to get this sorted out, so we can do a proper debriefing.”

They had expected something like this, and Pellex just nodded. The captain reestablished a link to command as Kinme led them down the stairs. After they told Untir he could leave, Kinme took them to the basement of the branch, which had eight small bedrooms and a lounge area. This wasn’t uncommon, as people needing a place to stay under Dawnwatch purview happened fairly often. From adventurers hiding from an enemy sworn to take their life, to important witnesses needed for trial, the Dawnwatch had lots of people it may need to keep eyes on for a night or two.

Right now, though, they needed to sleep. And, given the soft beds awaiting them for the first time in days, it didn’t take long.

When they woke up, Kinme greeted them in the lounge, telling them they were needed upstairs. In the lobby, Captain Lutfedr waited for them with another man, this one wearing a black-on-white uniform Pellex didn't recognize, presumably the [Coordinator] the captain had requested.

"Good news," Lutfedr began, "Horizon decided there was no need to debrief any of you. We have all the relevant information you can give us, and thanks to all of you, the operation is well underway and right on course. You're free to go."

Bleary-eyed, Pellex mostly just watched as Refos thanked them, but remembered something before they went downstairs to grab their things.

"The airship we flew in, what's happening to it?"

Lutfedr frowned in thought for a moment, and the [Coordinator] spoke instead.

"The Vexed Cloudherd was family-owned and operated, and it appears the entire crew was on board when it was taken. No known inheritors. The ship is being left in the emergency hangar for now, and if they're found imprisoned they will be able to simply pick it up. If they are not found, it will be turned over to the Dawnwatch siezings auctionhouse. Does that answer your question?"

"Yes, thouroughly," Refos replied, "now, if you'll excuse us."

After collecting their things, showering, and generally finishing waking up, they headed out, this time only passing Kinme in the lobby, sitting at her desk. They exited into the city, and Pellex inhaled sharply before calling out.

"Taxi!"