On his birthday, a letter arrived from Selen, carried south on a motorboat. Its pilot was a proud Human man who'd remounted the engine and propeller on a better boat than the original. Vonn fawned over the vessel and asked questions about the brackets the guy had used, and his practical experience with the machine. The prop had even been repaired and modified with sturdier blades, which taught Vonn a thing or two. He called the apprentices over to do a free inspection and cleaning.

"Are you involved with the Grandbridge Knowledge Society?" Tazo asked the visitor.

The middle-aged man said, "Just a hobbyist. Not even an Engineer, just a Craftsman. Biggest problem I've had is people trying to steal the gems. I've started pulling them out and carrying them with me."

Vonn said, "I guess that's always going to be a problem. We could try a lock or a quick disconnect widget."

"The letter?" asked Tazo, drawing him away from more technical talk.

"Right." Vonn stepped away to let the others work while he read.

Mobile Airship #1, the Harvestwing named by Birb, was in the Duke's hands. His men had been practicing and experimenting with it, working with the Knowledge Society. According to Selen, the Duke was still exploring its uses for scouting, combat, Aves platform-jumping, and courier duty. And he had access to greater magicite shards, and was aware of Vonn's jet-assisted lift and the construction of Liberty Bell. So as the Baron had predicted, he wanted a Bell class ship next.

Vonn kind of wanted to send the Elf lord a pinball machine just to see his reaction.

Selen was in the process of moving out of Grandbridge over to Ralator's town. That meant setting up a dyeworks and alchemy lab and finding tolerable housing for herself and her friends and hirelings, much like what Vonn had done for the Company HQ. The new site would also include an airfield.

Selen was now at Alchemist 5, Mage 3, after doing more alchemy this spring. (So, like Vonn, she'd earned all nine possible levels including her conversion from Craftsman.) Her latest achievement was the supervision of a whole team to produce large amounts of photographic film by what she called chemical engineering. It'd been a challenge just to source and gather the right materials in a culture that didn't even use the same names she knew. It'd earned her a Chief Alchemist power similar to his own, which would help the safety and production of her team. And more subtly, it established the beginnings of an organized supply line. Selen was letting him know she was positioned to practically start printing money with her photography. She was being over-optimistic, since there'd been decades between even the first modern photographs and the mass-produced Kodak camera. Still good!

Selen was training up new people in the Alchemist class and proposed having them cross-train with the junior Engineers, probably a good idea. But it meant a potential work showdown due to fewer people being highly productive at each job. He'd just have to deal with it.

In his hangar, the next ship was taking shape. He was waiting on the boat section and had the main gas-bag being sewn elsewhere, but the other fittings were coming together including the engine. Same design as before. He'd had to be restrained by Ashfall to avoid replacing some parts of the boat design with a type of preserved tendon being offered by the necromancers. Even so, he checked the various production steps against his own documentation of what he'd done last time, correcting things as he went and sneaking in minor improvements, more to the process than to the design itself. For instance, Birb's insight into forces helped him see that a particular strut was weaker than he'd understood because of the way it'd been inserted and fastened, causing unnecessary bending stress to the metal. He redid that by attaching it differently.

"What's this one called?" said Tazo. They'd been calling it Mobile Airship #2 for simplicity and everyone apparently waited for Vonn to impose something more poetic.

Vonn tapped his chin. "The Duke might demand to change it. But let's stick with the theme for this 'class'. This one will be Concord."

Only Tazo and when he next stopped by, Polestar, understood how that was at all on theme. But that was enough for him.

#

A week later, the Centaur general store owner called for Vonn to ask about tool prices. But once she'd gotten Vonn into the shop, she handed him a letter. "This was addressed to me, inside a package telling me to forward it to you."

Vonn blinked. It was written in the riverlands language, but the handwriting looked like the work of Selen's merchant aunt and a bit of it was in crudely lettered English. That part said, "Trouble."

In the more common tongue it said, "I'm told that your Kobold friend is having success, working his way north from west of Shieldpoint to the border fort town of Thunderscar Pass. I'm excited for him. You may not know this, but there's an important lightning-aspect dungeon there, and if that region can be persuaded to someday join the River Kingdom it'd be a boon for us. A little bird tells me the commander there is a researcher, very interested in learning how he might adapt your friend's strange beliefs to become acceptable to his people's ruling faith. The more persuasive these odd legends are, the more important they might be. I'm sure you'll be eager to see him again soon!

Vonn read it several times. Given the shrewd bluejay's initial coded warning, the whole thing sounded like Kotta might be in trouble. Or causing it.

"What's all this sneaky stuff mean?" asked the Centaur beside Vonn.

"I'm not sure. Kotta is still out preaching. Do you know anything about Thunderscar Pass?"

"It's supposedly where the Kobolds fought off a royal army with some horrible resonance weapons. Some lightning blast that crashes through people and leaves them twitching and convulsing on the ground."

Now Vonn was doubly concerned. He paced, saying, "Long-term, maybe we'll end up converting the Scaled Nation to something more friendly. Short-term, I'm not sure."