Leanne said sadly. "I am sorry but I know almost nothing about him. He tends to be very private. I suspect that he is likely more active behind the scenes with the other gods."

Sçæaisøh spoke and Leanne translated. "Though Catiano was on the side of the pro-thinking faction during the Rift War, he did not send any soldiers or even military advisers to aid his side."

"What did he do then?"

"He tried repeatedly to have the two sides negotiate a peace but failed repeatedly. None of the other gods wanted to compromise. Finally, he gave up and receded into the background until the end of the war. Other than this, Sçæaisøh knows very little else. He has not been known in recorded history to reveal his powers openly."

"I'm guessing recorded history is a few thousand years?"

Leanne answered. "Approximately 2500 years on this continent and 2000 years in Tesia."

Ruciella licked her lips. "I'm going to interrupt this discussion here. Any chance that we can take a break before we continue?"

They were just starting and she's already asking for a break? Ada would have thought that Ruciella would have more energy than this. She hoped that her voice didn't sound exceedingly obnoxious in her reply. "A break? This won't take too long. Let's finish this and then take one?"

Ruciella frowned. "I have been trying my best but I just can't wait any longer. Unlike you two and the farmers, you know I didn't get a chance to eat any fish heads or even a small toad since last night. Definitely no fishblood wine either. Also, the ride here on that maniacal bird has given me a serious headache."

As if to emphasize her point, a loud rumbling growl emanated from her stomach. For the first time, Ada noticed that Ruciella looked exhausted. She felt embarrassed at not realizing the oversight. "Well, yeah, that slipped my mind. I'm sorry. I did plant the seeds Ayula gave while Leanne and you were setting up the room. Maybe those are ready? Maybe..."

Ada's voice drifted off as she tried to formulate a reason that didn't sound like a lame excuse on why there was no food on the Divine Cloud. Leanne came to the rescue. "We do not have any food right now but I am sure that we will be able to stockpile this palace once we reach the Academy. Alternatively, you can pledge to be a follower of Goddess Ada. She has powers which would remove your hunger and headache."

"Uh, no thanks. Ada, you are definitely someone who is worthy of my admiration but I don't ever plan to follow any god. I think I'm resigned to suffer through this for now. I knew I shouldn't have skipped breakfast."

Sçæaisøh said something. He must have been asking what they were discussing since Leanne had stopped translating. Leanne sounded apologetic in forgetting to translate for him. After he understood the situation, he nodded and then reached down. Without skipping a beat, he gently tossed a small bag on the table and then barked something at Ruciella. Ruciella scowled and retorted with a few sharp words. He simply laughed. Leanne translated for Ada's sake. "He said that there's food in this bag which the little girl can eat. He's not hungry right now so she can have all of it. Ruciella said that she's not eating anything a dirty scoundrel has touched. He laughed and told her that she can choose between her pride or her stomach."

Being offered food by a man who was trying to kill you a few hours ago would irk anyone's sense of pride, Ada thought. Yet, she hoped that Ruciella was reasonable enough to accept. "Does she think the food is poisoned?"

Leanne said confidently, "It is most likely not poisoned."

Ruciella broke away from her futile exchange with Sçæaisøh and turned to Leanne. "How do you know that? He may have been planning to murder someone else after he was done with us. Poison sounds more like a technique a pickled fish gill like him would do."

Leanne explained. "That bag is not his. I saw Sçæaisøh take it off from a side harness to our mount. It is most likely provisions for one of the city guards that was the ostrich's owner."

"You mean one of Yuano's lapdogs." Ruciella corrected. Then she said something to the 'thug' who was gazing at her with mild amusement. The man laughed and nodded. There was an audible word from Ruciella that Ada guessed to be a curse. Hearing that, the man laughed even more. Ruciella's face reddened. She swiped the bag sitting on the middle of the table and hastily dumped its contents on the table in front of her. Hearing items hitting the tabletop, the two Gunder kids turned their heads and glanced at Ruciella. Seeing nothing more entertaining than a few assorted dried foods on the table, they turned back to play with their blocks without another thought.

Ada asked Leanne. "What did he say?"

"He said that he has not touched it at all. He purposely pretended that it was his since he wanted to see the little girl's reaction."

"Hmm, that does seem a bit sadistic. Ruciella, digging through my memory, I do recall this bag was on the ostrich. If you wish, I can test and see if the food is perfectly safe."

"And the sooner we can do this, the sooner we can get back on track," Ada muttered to herself.

Ruciella licked her lips. She looked like she was ready to devour everything at once. "Sure, let's do it."

"Leanne, can you tell Sçæaisøh to give the bag and all its contents within to me?"

Leanne translated the request for Sçæaisøh and the man nodded. Suddenly, Ada heard several notifications.

Pause systemhelper, Ada thought.

She had the thought that it was strange that she can create a torch with the state of either on fire or not but she can't create a canteen that contains either water or not. However, being limited to inorganic molecules is not irresolvable if she wanted to create organic compounds. For instance, water was made of hydrogen and water as almost everyone knows. The actual process of converting it wasn't quite as simple as just putting the two elements together though since breaking diatomic molecules and then combining them would be a massive exothermic reaction. NASA's most efficient rocket engines combined oxygen and hydrogen to combust and generate thrust but they weren't worried about blowing up half a building. Perhaps the better alternative route for her would be creating some sort of atmospheric water generator.

"Do you still want me to test it?" Leanne interrupted Ada's musings.

Ada shook her head slightly and snapped out of her reverie. "Yeah, just tell me whether it's poisoned or not. No need to give me the nutritional facts."

Leanne pointed at one of the bread loafs who did look a little drier than the others. "bread93178 is stale. The others are fine. None of them are poisoned."

"Bread 93178?" Ruciella looked thoroughly puzzled.

Ada tried to explain. "Yeah, it is an object of a particular class. In this case, the class is bread."

"I'm sorry but I think you just confused me more. Is this something I should worry before I eat any of this?"

Ada laughed. "No, just make sure you don't eat the one to the furthest right unless you don't care about stale bread."

"In that case..."

Ruciella didn't bother finishing her sentence for she grabbed the nearest loaf of bread and stuck half of it in her mouth. Dried fish and ostrich meat with some very dry bread didn't look terribly appetizing but for a hungry girl, Ada supposed that it didn't matter. While Ruciella voraciously tore into her food, Ada pondered aloud. "We can all take a break. Leanne, would you kindly check on the Gunders? I need to go outside and adjust where we're headed. Last I checked was an hour and thirty-two minutes ago and the direction we were heading had an error of three degrees towards the south. By a quick trig calculation and given our current average velocity of this vessel, we would be over off by 300 kilometers if we kept going in this direction at the time that we should arrive if we had gone the direct path."

Leanne nodded. "Sure."

The Seer translated for Sçæaisøh and the man also nodded. He replied and Leanne translated, "Sçæaisøh here wonders if he can accompany me. He does not want to stay in the room taking care of children."

Hearing this, Ruciella gave the man a glower and then turned back to tearing pieces of dried fish. Ada didn't want to see any likely conflict that would ensue between these two when Leanne and her were out of the room. "Sure, go together. Also, see if you can situate Sçæaisøh and the Gunders in their respective bedrooms. We didn't have time to go there earlier but I'm sure you remember where they are?"

"Of course."

"You want me ... to watch ... over the kids?" Ruciella stopped several times in the middle of her question when she had to swallow pieces of the fish and gulp some of the water. She has really done a number on the food with half of it already gone, Ada thought.

"If you don't mind, that would be great."

"I don't particularly mind. I used to take care of my nephew when he was younger."

"In that case, it's settled. We'll adjourn for now and continue in half an hour. Maybe in that time I can come up with a better way of maneuvering this Cloud."

Ruciella took a swig from the canteen. "On maneuvering the Cloud, I have an idea on how you can improve that."

Whatever she was about to say was interrupted by a loud burp. "Ugh! Sorry. Master Arbon always told me that I have worse table manners than an obstinate wildebeest."

Leanne looked away and Ada chuckled. "You're probably in good company here. But you were saying you had a good idea?"

Ruciella's mood appeared to be much better now that she had some food. She smiled. "Yes. You have the power to manipulate the shape of the Divine Cloud right? What if you can create sails like a ship through water? That way it'll be easier to maneuver and it'll probably go faster too."

"I'm pretty sure I can. A sailplane or glider is what you're suggesting. Wow, that might not be a bad idea. I've thought of this Cloud as analogous to a balloon but why does it have to stay that way? I can adjust its weight distribution and shape so that it is more compact and has less drag."

Ruciella nodded. "Exactly."

"Adjusting all this might take longer than half an hour but if it gets us there faster, that'll be worth. All of you good with that?"

"Since I came up with the idea, I definitely don't have a problem with it."

Leanne concurred with a nod. "This is a good plan."

Sçæaisøh also nodded after the plan was translated for him. Ada clapped her hands together. "Alright, then. Let's take a break and we'll reconvene as soon as I'm done with the modifications."