We walked across the aerodrome grounds and towards one of the smaller stone buildings that abounded on the nearby academy campus. The expansive parade grounds that bordered the aerodrome gave way to small ancient buildings with twisting alleyways.

The campus coursed with jubilant academy students as they celebrated with the graduates and I saw instructors and students alike all giving us curious glances even as the celebrated. Natasha waved to a few of them who returned the gesture and peered at the unusual sight of a wind folk captain on academy turf.

We entered a section with pounding forges, glowing crystals and the hair-raising tingle of elemental forces surging through power conduits around courtyards filled with working students and artificers. I saw a ballast from a small vessel being rewrapped in it’s netting, the individual round ballast stones being tested by an artificer with a large peaked cap. He raised his spectacles and glared at us when Natasha stopped to ask him a few questions.

“Cid? You looking for that madman?” He cawed and his shrill cackle turned into a cough as he wheezed for a second before pointing us to a nearby workshop that was trembling and shaking. I could see multi-colored sparks spouting from the forge’s chimney and I gave the sight a bit of a skeptical glance.

Inside I couldn’t hear anything over the crackling roar of artifices and the pounding of a massive mechanical hammer. A team of assistants were holding a large masthead with a glowing focus crystal atop it as a young man held both hands over it, one with an inscription rod that was carving glowing symbology into the crystal. His head was covered in a silver mask, with a blast shield over his eyes. Grinning he cackled and set the last of his work into the inscription.

Turning the crystal, he slammed his foot down on a pedal. There a hissing whir and the massive mechanical sealing hammer descended and slammed into the crystal, binding the inscription. The whole room washed over with a flickering burst of static energy and two of the assistants were nearly blown off their feet. They rode the blast wave with practiced ease as they stumbled back forward to resume their grip on their master’s work.

Natasha was pushed back into me as I grounded out the power of the blast of energy through my body and into the ground. I was staggered a bit, but I had to admit, that rush of power had felt good.

The man inspected his work and pulled off his protective mask to wipe his brow. I gasped when I saw that his eyes were slit like a cat’s. He nodded to Natasha and looked me over as he gestured to his recovering assistants. “Get da foci to dee containment bench.” He bellowed with a hissing roar and pointed at a workbench surrounded by a cage of glimmering metal. They rushed the large crystal over to the cage and place it inside where it floated sullenly. Arcs of power lanced from the crystal and into the cage every few seconds.

“Natasha, zu what do I owe da pleasure?” He grumbled and blinked soot out of his eyes as he peeled sweaty gloves off of his hands, and grabbed for a corked bottle sitting on a nearby shelf. Flicking the cork off with a clawed finger he eyed me with interest.

“You wanted to get out for some field work right sir?” She pointed at me and the man narrowed his eyes.

“I’ve heard about ziss Captain, aren’t you de one with da broken mounting in zee main hanger?” He smiled at me and pointed to a pile of broken bronze equipment in one corner. Next to it was a workbench with a scriptorium and a looking glass trained on one of the pieces.

“Costas subcontracted ze to help rebuild dee main gimbal.” He explained and I rolled my eyes. It was just like that skinflint.

“Zee wuld be nice to get out, especially now…” He grumbled and shoved a small flyer towards Natasha who picked it up and read it. “They… are what?!” She shrieked and he nodded.

“Ya! Zee trustees, zee are kicking me out! Zee humanist league has gained more power on za board and I’m turning in me resignation. I thinks I’ll go back home. I hears there ziss zee new king and he ziss the next bearer of Kinforge!”

“You mean that traveler? King Roger I think his name is?” Natasha asked and the man nodded. “Yes! Zat is him! I has received a message from ze cousin a couple of days ago. I thinks zit vud be interesting working with travelers. They have a lot of exciting ideas!” The man’s eyes seem to daze with the thought of some new gadget to tinker with, and he grinned, showing a set of small fangs in his teeth.

He turned his intense gaze on me, his cat’s eyes fixed on me almost like he was sizing me up. I returned his scrutiny, noting the burn marks on his face, a face that was lightly furred and had small thin whiskers.

Pointing to my gimbal, I explained. “I burned out on a full rotation, with a reversal of momentum, sheer force and both planes reversed.” I made the motion with my hand and he nodded.

“Yes! Ziss I know! I’ll be rebuilding most of za containment enchantments on da gimbal where you locked it, then spun your mountings. I understands Costas, zee is installing the new mounting container right now.” I nodded in acknowledgement and he smiled at me.

“Zis is not too worry! Ziss is not too badly damaged, your gimbal is quite sturdy! Zis only needs one axis replaced, and I have zee necessary parts on hand to do za rebuild. It vill take a day or so though to finish za work and reinstall zee gimbal.”

I sighed with relief. I had half expected that the entire gimbal would have been shattered beyond repair and had to be replaced completely. I doubted even my expected haul from the scales and other wyvern parts would account for half of that cost or that I could have found anything that was compatible with my vessel’s design.

He smiled again at me, and his eyes narrowed. “Just how ziss old is vuu ship captain?” He said, and a small funny little smile of expectation was set on his face as his whiskers twitched in amusement.

Grimacing, I thought he was thinking ill of my old vessel before I noticed the glint of excitement in his eyes as he waited for my response and realized that far from that, the ship intrigued him.

“Not sure exactly, it was my mother’s family that left us the vessel when her grandmother’s estate was divided up. My father chose the new name, as is tradition when a new owner takes command. My mother’s family have been sky folk for longer than anyone can recall in living memory, and celestial elves have both long lives and even longer memories.”

The man listened to my response then walked over to a large bookshelf that was covered in a glass slide to protect the tomes from the occasional flying ember or static arc. He selected a massive volume that was covered in protective enchantments and glowed to my mage sight. I blinked when he set it down and started paging through it, until he stopped and pointed.

I looked at the silhouette of a massive warship, and drawings of its crew. Next to the warship were smaller attack craft, dozens of them all with the same lines as Sweetwind. The hull configuration of the smaller craft was completely unmistakable. It was my ship.

“Ziss be the Arcadia one of zee only druid-built ships of za line known to have survived dee cataclysm. It vuss a carrier, and your ship, zit was one of it’s small fighting craft.”

I gasped, and many things seemed to click in my mind about how Sweetwind responded in combat, and the positioning of her bow lance. It would make sense if it was an attack craft, designed to work in formation. “Where… did you get this book?” I asked and turned it over to look at the cover.

“Ah…I’s has zit for some time actually. Your father, zee was da one who wuz interested in Sweetwind’s past and wanted to surprise ye mother with the information and zee asked me years ago to look into Sweetwind’s… fascinating pedigree. I would really like to finish za task, if vee don’t mind.” I could see a near fervent look in his eyes now as he gently pulled the book to him and stroked the page as he longingly stared at the massive vessel pictured in the description. It was actually a bit creepy, and I winced.

Reading the gold guilt on the cover, I realized that this volume was one of the last records from just after the collapse, about parts of the reconstruction and the exodus of the druids. How a professor at the college had been able to find this record, much less keep it in his workshop was something that baffled me. There was something very strange about this artificer.

“Zee says that those druid-built ships, zee could open za own worldgate portals, and travel between realms.” He said in a dreamy voice, enchanted by the picture of the massive warship. I just shivered and goosebumps formed on my skin as I considered how much power that the ancients from the before-times had wielded.

“You mean the Sweetwind can do that?” I asked and he burst out laughing and shook his head. “No no no! Zatts why zit vus a carrier, zee know. Zee carried ziss small craft and it traveled with them.” He chuckled at my look of disappointment.

“But… vell, vile have to see…” He looked around at his assistants, who were trying to downplay their interest in the proceedings, but were failing miserably. He narrowed his eyes and slammed the book shut, and quickly pushed it back into the shelf and shut the glass door, locking it with a press of his palm.

“I need passage to ziss… new kingdom zass has formed. I think zee need an artificer yes?” He gestured to the wreckage of my gimbal and I nodded. “I’d be glad to have you, even if it’s for a short time. My ship hasn’t had a good artificer look at her since I had to flee our holdings, about three years now.”

He nodded and I saw him grin, his whiskers twitching as he looked over his workshop with sadness. “I… am no longer welcome at ziss place. Za trustees have made vitt clear I must leave or, soon zee will just find an excuse to force zee to leave. I has lived here vee nearly ten years… teaching many fine students of artifice, but now I guess… time has turned on zee and now I go.” He sighed and I was taken aback by his words.

I knew that those with beast blood in them did sometimes age slower, like I had when growing up due to my elvish blood. However, he barely looked like he was twenty. Admittedly, however I wasn’t very good at judging the age of other non-human races.

Natasha hadn’t been paying much attention to the exchange as she talked with one of the working assistants, a small girl with bright red hair and a battered and soot streaked leather artificers’ apron. They were laughing and exchanging gossip, almost complexly oblivious to the revelation that I’d just been introduced to.

She had grown up in a life so very different from my own. My earliest memories were aboard ship, tracking the great sky whales as they migrated. We hadn’t spent a whole lot of time at our holdings in the islands of Skye, but they had been so beautiful, and our hanger for father’s harvester and grandfather’s trade ship had been constructed in imported redwood. Our family’s estate house was built into the side of the hanger. We had lived next door to several other sky folk, and the small community on our island had been a happy one.

It brought tears to my eyes as I remembered what it was like, when my mother and father had taken me to Akiraho, the Yamani capital and we had first set eyes on Sweetwind. The light in mom’s eyes as she told me of her own memories of sailing on her as a child, then her look of consternation at me when I had declared that I wanted to sail on her too.

I thought about the odd features of Sweetwind and I realized now why the mainmast could retract, and why it had originally been designed with large doors in the bottom of its holds. They were never cargo holds, they had been some sort of bombardment bays, like the larger warships typically had in the Mageos Air Corps.

The wing masts also folded to the sides, and I thought of many of the Sweetwind’s redundant systems, including the various helms. It all made sense in the context of a smaller craft designed to fight in formation with an entire wing. I tried to imagine the sight of a dozen strong wing of craft like mine, and realized that the Arcadia must have been truly gigantic to hold so many.

I felt my stomach flutter at the thought and once again an involuntary shiver ran up my spine as I wondered just what had happened to the grand old warship. Then… I froze. If Sweetwind was here on Prime, that meant it had been carried here by the Arcadia that fact entailed that it was likely that Prime had been its last destination. What if it or its wreck was still here on Prime somewhere?

My eyes went wide and my breath caught at the thought and I saw the look of rapture on Cid’s face as he sat down at the scriptorium table and just studied the piece of gimbal he had under the glass, his fingers tracing the metal as if it was a holy artifact. Yes, I’m sure he had considered the same thing.

“When do you want to move aboard?” I asked and he looked up, as if I had snapped him out of a trance.

“Ah, zee vill move equipment and luggage aboard veen I install zee gimbal. Veen I came to get za gimbal, I saw dat you had two shielded artificer’s berths next to your refractory. I’ll use von for myself and I think I refit zee other one into work area.” He grinned at me as I realized he had probably intended to approach me, but Natasha had simply sped up the process. I looked at Natasha suspiciously and narrowed my eyes.

“Natasha, how exactly did you know that Cid would want to ship with me?” I inquired and she grinned and pulled out a small short-range communication crystal.

“Aria here has me on her crystal and I told her what happened and how you took me, she told me about Cid.” She gestured to the girl who beamed at me and they both laughed at my expression.

Cid’s whiskers twitched and he give a bit of a chuckle at my expense. “Hah! Zee should know zat short range communication crystals, zee are standard issue at za academy… unfortunately zee do have… drawbacks.” He burst out laughing again as my groan of horror reached his ears. Teenagers, and their gossip. I wondered just how many people now knew I was depriving the academy of one of their best artificers. I would have to speak to her about keeping this stuff about Sweetwind under wraps though I suspected that it would get out eventually anyways.

I thought about how Costas had pitched me yet another offer for my ship, and an unsettling suspicion crept into my mind. Did he know about Cid’s research? Probably. In fact, it had likely been Costas that had recommended Cid to my father if he was looking for someone like him.

My blood froze as I realized that I would have to be very careful once Sweetwind’s pedigree became common knowledge, as I’d have every government in Endaria trying to acquire the ship, if not just to study it. Most would have no problem killing me and any crew aboard her in the process.

Just great, first I piss off one of the most powerful chairmen in Mageos, or I would once he found out about who was about to run off with his daughter, now I had this to deal with. Yes, all of this was just fascinating, but it was also trouble with a great big fat T. I didn’t like trouble. I had been trying to avoid trouble.

Well, it would probably be a good idea to find a few good adventurers to ship with me, ones that were experienced in aerial combat, as I suspected I would need them. I would also have to get Sweetwind into fighting trim, as it was in bad need of not only a full complement of storage crystals but the smaller standard containment crystals that were used all over the ship.

Just who could I trust? If Cid was right about my ship, it was absolutely priceless and when you are talking about that much coin, anyone can be bought. I would have to be very careful about who I selected.