After a very fun morning, Tom had gone in search of Edita to ask his questions for the day. He had found both the artificer and Tink playing with the children in the grand hall under the supervision of Anchor. Tom didn’t even need to ask what they were doing; he knew that game well. They were making card houses at the tables. Tom wasn’t going to ask where they had found that many sets of playing cards, but the set Kiran seemed to be using was definitely one of Tom’s.

‘Oh whatever,’ he sighed. A few kids noticed the human and turned to say “hi” as he walked up to the tables with Jacky hot on his heels, if walking a little funny and still breathing heavily. “Someone is having fun I see?”

“Of course, we are building keeps,” Edita replied, placing another pair of cards atop her considerable construction, most of the children struggling to get more than one layer to stand. Holdey was doing quite well though, he was trying for three layers at the moment.

“Holdey good at it,” Kiran added a little dejectedly, shoulders sagging as his keep once more collapsed into a pile. Then the little kid had a brain wave and looked to Tom. “You help! Come here, here,” he went, getting up and tapping the bench with his little foot. Tom complied and went to have a seat, Kiran immediately hopping into his lap to get comfortable. “You beat Edita.”

Tom glanced at the really rather impressive construction the artificer had going on and tried to think back to when he last tried to do a house of cards. To his dismay, all he could think of was as part of a drinking contest at least half a decade ago, where he had lost horribly. Beside him, Jacky sat down, picking up Turinia mid card placement, the child not giving up and continuing to try and place the card. She ultimately failed and collapsed her house, letting out a sad whimper that soon turned to crying as she was put down in Jacky’s lap.

“I’m not so sure on that one, but I can take a stab at it,” Tom said with false cautious optimism. Jacky tried to console the now rather distraught Turinia by building the house back up for her but to little avail.

With not-so-steady hands he began the delicate task of erecting his own house of cards, tuning out the crying from beside him. Laying down the first layer was easy enough. From there, though, it didn’t go so well. Tom glanced longingly at Edita’s tower. The artificer hadn’t stopped building yet, and it had a full five layers standing proud at this point. ‘I guess I know how Kiran feels then,’ Tom sighed as he went back to his sad pile to try again.

After some time, Linkosta had joined them as well. She confirmed that there had not been any sighting of Yldril yet, though the weather was flyable so it would hopefully not be too long. The scholar had joined in the card building, Tink and the two women going over how the enchantments for the actively cooled machine gun were to function. Tink weighed in when able, as did Tom, though the constructing demanded nearly all of his attention and what was left over was gobbled up by Kiran and Jacky.

For Kiran’s part it was mostly questions about what else they were gonna do today and if Tom knew any games. As well as complaining that Jacky was doing better than them, the woman having seemingly decided to just make the house for the little girl. It had stopped the crying though, and before long Tom had more or less just given up to watch Jacky’s efforts rather than carry on his own. Besides, he had questions to ask.

“Soo… I wanted to ask something, Edita. That cold steam stuff we talked about… How do you condense it back into liquid?”

“Oh, most machinery would simply vent it to atmosphere,” Edita replied absentmindedly as she placed another set of cards, tongue just peeking out from the corner of her mouth.

“No no no, you wouldn’t simply vent something that valuable away? Frost powder is very valuable. Well, at least compared to water it is,” Linkosta protested as she too started making relatively quick progress on her own tower. “How would you ever get it back?”

Edita just blinked, not seeming to understand the fact that water could in fact become valuable by adding frost powder to it and taking the time to perform a magic ritual over it. She honestly left Tom stumped. Up to this point the artificer had been very particular about proper usage of the valuable things she had brought, and she had been very protective of them. She did seem to have a rather twisted idea of what things were worth, but then again so did he around here.

“It is not a very complicated ritual. I am sure you could make many dozens of liters per day and not feel overly tired. One could also make the substance by machine. Such a device would require power, of course. But it could be anyone who does so then.”

“Dozens of liters?” Tom questioned, cocking an eyebrow. “That’s not a lot for a steam engine.”

“Well no, not for the purposes of driving large machinery, of course. Cold steam is often reserved for smaller more important endeavours you see. Though there have been tales of even large vessels employing it. For such vessels the cold water would have to be mass produced by machines much like we have seen for mass production of magical equipment. Fueling such machinery is… problematic though,” the artificer finished, suddenly growing uncomfortable as if she remembered something she should not talk about.

“The energy requirements would surely be enormous, would they not?” Linkosta questioned, scratching an ear a little. “Would it be driven in the same fashion as in the capital?”

“I… do not know,” Edita replied, glancing to the children before putting on an incredibly poorl forced smile. “Besides, such technology is well beyond us. For our applications, I believe rituals conducted by people such as yourself would be the way to proceed,” Edita replied with a gesture towards Linkosta.

“Riiiight,” Tom let out, letting his doubt show. ‘Magical energy needed on an industrial scale. And it can only come from living creatures, preferably magically potent creatures… Yeah, that can only go one way, can’t it?’

“Oh yeah, that would make sense,” Linkota relented, rubbing her chin as she looked up into the middle distance. “Still need the frost powder though.”

“Of course, or one can do it more directly if a white dragon is willing to cooperate. I have seen it done so in the past. The cost would be lower as such, I believe, since that cuts out all of the cost of drying dragon spit into powder in the first place.”

“I guess we do sorta have one around we can ask. Galaxer is definitely coming back… but how would we store it once it is made?”

“In pressure vessels. The liquid will suck up heat from its surroundings, and it will evaporate if not contained. Such pressure vessels can be used to drive any manner of lower performance or mobile equipment.”

“Right yeah, you talked about that… should we get some of those made? Do we have a use for this ‘cold water’ yet?” Tom replied, doing a pair of air quotes around the slightly silly name.

“I do not know. I would believe it unnecessary for the factory. Hot steam should suffice.”

“Yeah, about that. I was thinking... Central heating for the keep. Could we pull that off? Gonna need to cast a lot of pipes and just sorta run them wherever we can fit them.”

“Oh yeah, you talked about that. Heated beds… Yus,” Jacky added in triumph as she managed to complete her third layer.

“That is a luxury reserved for only the most opulent within the cities and such. Also, well done, Jacky,” Linkosta added, praising the huntress and gesturing at the construction just as it fell apart into a pile of broken dreams.

“Awwwww,” Turinia broke out in dismay, Kiran joining in as the flying cards knocked his and Tom’s tower over too.

Edita’s hands shot out to defend her tower, though no threats headed her way.

“That is a shame… Anyway,” Tom carried on, looking back to Edita, Jacky letting out an annoyed grump. “We would need pipes for something like that. Cast iron probably, to transport hot water around.”

“It will be hard to avoid, yes… Are you wanting to ask to have such pipes produced to order? Personally, I would use rolled and brazed copper. The temperature and pressure requirements should not be high for a simple heating solution.”

“Hey now, if heating is so simple then why don’t we have it out here?” Jacky protested. Tom just smirked a little and went to lay a hand around her waist.

“Now now, I’m pretty sure that’s not what she meant,” Tom tried with a chuckle as Turinia started to build the card house anew.

Edita for her part just stared blankly before continuing. “It would be an important consideration for its construction. In the case of a… very complex heating system, low pressure could be used. But if it is to supply pressure to drive machinery on the same circuit, then stronger pipes and joints would be needed.”

Tom tried not to chuckle at her deliberation on complexity, though Jacky certainly seemed satisfied, nodding approvingly.

“Separate circuits then?” Tom questioned. It wasn’t a terrible idea. A simple heat exchanger should do just fine, even if it did present a couple extra challenges. “If we set up a high-pressure circuit then we could maybe install a small engine for use in the forge or workshop? We could replace the wind-powered bellows perhaps, or the electric motor on the lathes and mill. I’m sure we could find use for them elsewhere.”

“There is not much space to spend there, unfortunately,” Tink weighed in with an apologetic shrug. “But maybe? How big will it be?”

“Oh I don’t know… The engine would be like this, maybe?” Tom held out his hands about a meter apart in front of him. “Just a little one. Boiler would be much bigger though. I was thinking of putting it in the storage room down below.”

“Ahr, very good. Junior could perhaps be responsible for keeping the fires lit. He has been talking about responsibility and duty as of late. I believe he would much enjoy it,” Tinks added with an affirming nod.

“Where is he by the way?”

“Oh, he is with Jarix. I believe they were to be discussing something with Dakota.”

“Yeah, practice I’m betting,” Jacky joined in, having given up on her house of cards, leaning back and letting Turinia have another go at it. “But that’s not happening until they get their asses back here.”

Linkosta cleared her throat a little at the curse word, a few of the children looking up from what they were doing, looking oh so innocent.

“Sorry. But yeah, once they get back I think they’re gonna need a nap.”

“They are okay? Right?” Holdey questioned cautiously, a twinge of fear on the little guy’s face.

“They’ll be fine,” Jacky dismissed with a sigh. “But in this weather they are gonna be miserable, that’s for sure.”

“All the more reason to have a look at this heating idea,” Tink interjected with his usual bravado, Jacky nodding in approval, a serious expression on her face. “Sure, nothing would beat a nice warm bed to get into at night. I heard people often use servants to fetch them hot rocks through the night. Or perhaps leather water bottles with hot water within.”

“They do indeed. What you can take with you only lasts so long after all. It is rather annoying to have to get up in the middle of the night to fetch more.”

“Yeah, and then you scald your hands in the middle of the night trying to pour in some fresh water from down in the kitchens,” Jacky added, shaking her hand. “It fu-... Hurts really bad, that.” Tom let out a repressed chuckle at the notion before he felt himself get pulled in towards her. “Not a problem anymore though.”

“Har har,” Tom let out, bemused, looking to Linkosta. “Oh so that’s what all those extra waterskins were for. I thought those were just spares or something. How does that work?”

“Oh, we just tend to have a cauldron of hot water in the kitchen or on the big fire over there,” she replied, pointing to the fireplace behind the high table where the Bizmatis sat normally. “For everyone to take from. We put some rocks in the fire too, of course.”

“I prefer the rocks,” Tink added. “I once broke one of the waterskins, you see. Let me tell you that is not how you want to wake up in the middle of the night. Popped just like that. Must have rolled over onto it.”

“Sounds like a pretty poor quality waterskin to me.”

“I once had the cork come out of one of mine. It had already gone cold though. Still a cold wet bed. Sucks during winter.”

“Sounds like it,” Tom concurred. “But it sounds like we might have a solution to all of this then. Edita, you said something about being able to get pipes?”

“Why yes, of course. I trust the factory would possess the ability to produce something like it, but as it stands casting sounds to be our only realistic option. But copper pipe is something we could request. It is a standard part often needed for maintenance. The request would have to be made to Joelina though. We may actually have some within the supplies we brought, though I doubt it would be enough.”

Tom sighed a little at the mention of the woman he was starting to become more familiar with than he really wanted. “I guess that makes sense, yeah… Well I don’t see why we should spend the time on it if our inquisitorial goodwill could get us it. There is still the boiler and possible engine to consider. And a pump to move the water around, of course.”

“I believe it would pose a fine challenge, yes,” Edita concurred.

“And it sounds a lot more like something you actually want to work on,” Jacky added with a loving nudge.

“No arguing there. It’ll be good fun.”

“Now though, that is not an excuse to spend our day off on it.”

“Yes yes, fun and games today only, I know… Actually on that point, I really wanted to go fishing at some point.”

“In this weather?” Jacky protested, pulling her head back with a very reluctant smile on her face. He guessed she might even say yes if he asked. He wouldn’t do that to her though.

“No no, far too bad weather. But I’m gonna need something to catch them with. I need a fishing rod or something like that. At least a line and hook.”

The kids all looked at him with various grimaces on their faces, some funny, others quite disturbing really, Edita staring at him and tilting her head rather far to the right. “You want to catch water demons on your day off?”

“I did make the promise after all. I’m gonna catch a fish and show you how to cook it.”

“Eeewww,” Turinia broke out from Jacky’s lap, looking at him with disgust.

“No, Turi! Remember Nemo! He was so pretty. He has to taste good,” Kiran counterd from Tom’s lap. Turinia’s expresion switched to pondering as she considered that one.

That wasn’t really the message Tom had hoped they would get from that movie, but better than nothing he guessed.

“Yeah, and they are really fucking dumb,” Holdey added. Linkosta looked at him with an shocked expression.

“Holdey!”

The child just giggled, looking at her with a big wide grin, as only a child that had just broken the rules could.

Tom just shook his head a little in bemusement as Jacky let out a chuckle.

“I blame you for this,” said Linkosta, looking at Jacky, who held up her hands defensively, leaning back.

“What? Me? I never swear. Promise.”

“Jacky is a fucking liar,” Holdey carried on, giggling like a gremlin.

“That will do, young man. You are coming with me,” Linkosta said, getting up and taking the kid with her, still giggling. “We are going to go ask Esmeralda what to do about you.”

“Oh no,” Holdey let out, the grin vanishing from his face as he was carried off. He was a bit big for Linkosta to haul around, but stubborn determination carried the day as the other kids looked after him then to each other.

Kiran letting out an exasperated sigh and shook his head. “He gonna fucking die.”

“Bad mouth!” Worpock shouted out, trying to throw a card at Kiran, the little rectangle spinning as it flew through the air and arced straight into Edita’s by now extremely impressive construction. The artificer actually had to stand on the bench to reach by now. The whole thing came crashing down to both laughter and cries of dismay, leaving Edita standing holding two cards that were supposed to have made the new peak as she just looked at the child with a sorta sad and dismayed expression.

“Whyyy?”

“Sooorwy…”

“Accidents happen,” Tom tried, privately finding it at least a little funny. The artificer just looked so sad, though not mad in the slightest.

“Well to be honest, any keep that can be knocked down by a single rock really needs to be looked at,” Jacky joked as she picked up a card and sent it flying across the hall.

“Are you going to go get that?” Tom questioned, looking after the card.

“... I should, shouldn’t I?”

“Yes, yes you should.”

As Jacky got up, the door to the greeting hall opened, everyone turning around to see if maybe it was Saph and Fengi returning. Instead it was just Junior sticking his head in.

“Daad. Can I go flying with Jarix? He wants to show off how you use clouds to hide in, and I like storm flying.”

“Not much of a storm anymore,” Jacky let out with a snicker as she walked to grab her lost card.

“Sure son, have fun. Try not to fall off,” Tink replied, not seeming overly worried and quite happy all things considered.

“Thanks, dad,” came the quick response followed by a door slamming shut once more. “Quite unlike him to ask me. He is a young man by now, not some boy,” Tink replied bemusedly, seeming quite happy that Junior had wanted his opinion.

Silently Tom guessed Zarko had probably demanded the father’s consent, but there was no reason to let the old man know that.

__________________________________________________________________________________

As they finally saw the keep just peek into view over the horizon, they guessed it was perhaps already afternoon. Saph had honestly considered taking off and just going to get a hot bath and a clean change of clothes, leaving the damn dragon to trundle along by herself.

If Fengi hadn’t been there she might have done it. But she was, and Fengi couldn’t leave, or perhaps more so wouldn’t. Saph knew that. So she stayed. Yldril had grown quiet for the last couple hours as they trudged through the dripping cold rain. The ground had turned into a soft soggy mess, and behind them Saph could see the deep grooves their cargo was dragging, the improvised skid sled at the front having been wrecked in the slide. An ugly brown scar ran across the wet soggy green that made up the plains.

‘At least we’ll have a marker to go by for some time, I guess,’ she sighed, looking to the horizon behind them, trying to follow the trail. It would be visible for miles and miles. Some keeps liked to point out where they might be found on the frontier. She had heard traders talking about keeps that maintained arrows pointing towards them throughout their territory. It worked both ways though. To any darklings passing though it might as well say “Food that way” after all. And it wasn’t out of the question some of the wildlife could perhaps decipher the meaning too.

She certainly wouldn’t put it past a drakyr. They hadn’t seen one for at least a decade, but they were on the island, and every now and again they would find some remnants of a kill or tracks if they were spending time on the ground. It was stuff like that which tended to keep them in the air if possible when out hunting. The ground held dangers, after all. She was currently smothered in one. It was very comfy though.

“Hey Fengi… Imagine if Tom had run into some wolves or worse,” she chuckled out, somehow bemused with the little theoretical situation. It wasn’t really something to be joked about, but Tom would at least have stood a decent chance of just scaring off a pack. Not like they would have any idea what he was after all.

“That would have been a mess. What about a silver bear? At night that could have been sooo bad.”

“By the gods yeah, if he got caught in his sleep that would have been the end probably.”

"Imagine all the trouble that would have been saved,” Yldril wheezed out between laboured breaths. The fatigue was really showing by now as she once more stopped, limbs trembling under her. “I am going to lie down for a little… Then… Then the last bit,” she carried on, head hanging low as she settled onto the cold wet grass with a groan.

“It’s okay… Once we’re back maybe we go by the little lake so you can have something to drink.”

“And a wash,” the dragon added, shoulders sagging as she tried to relax upon the ground for a little. Saph had to agree. The dragon was caked in mud and gunk.

Much as they wanted to get home, Fengi let the dragon rest for a bit, and Saph wasn’t gonna argue. It was clear Yldril was pushing herself, though it seemed to be out of spite rather than anything noble like duty or self-sacrifice. Still, shouting at her to go faster would likely not get them home any sooner.

Awkward silence reigned for a short while as the rain kept falling before Yldril once more rose to her feet. Her breathing had calmed, but her head was still hanging low as without a word she proceeded to lumber on.

Once the keep was at last properly in view, though still hazy through the misty rain, a large blue shape had taken to the skies, heading their way. It had soon been revealed to be Glira once she started getting closer. Yldril had raised her head to watch them come in, not saying anything, though Saph believed she was silently hoping she wouldn’t have to drag the logs any further.

Any such illusions had soon been shattered though as the laughing Glira set down in front of them, demanding to hear how they had ended up a day late for a day off while looking like hogs in a mud bath.

She had only found it even funnier when it became clear what had happened and what the state of their cargo was. Rachuck and Kokashi were along for the ride together with a few of Glira’s own crew. They seemed somewhat less pleased by the news, though they didn’t seem angry. How could they? It was pretty clear the trio had been through hell just to make it home.

When Ylril had asked if she could be allowed to leave the logs for Glira to haul back the blue had nearly doubled over, laughing so hard sparks had started jumping between her teeth. She even managed to unseat her helmet, requiring some assistance from her crew.

“Noo, no you may not,” the blue had replied once she finally was able to get a good breath in. “But I guess you might get something to eat seeing as you didn’t kill anyone. Not like we can take the damage to the logs out of your paycheck, now can we! Aah hahah! Oh I’m so sorry… Wait! No, no I don’t think I am!”

Yldril lowered her head as the laughing continued, Fengi’s ears flattening and even Saph growing some fresh pity for the black. This surely had to have been her life at some point in the past. Yldril had been to the mines after all. This sounded a lot like what Saph would expect life to be like down there. There were no quibs, rebuttals, or sarcastic remarks from Yldril, which in Saph’s mind only served to confirm her assumptions. Though sheer fatigue likely had much to do with it as well.

As Glira quieted down and instead moved to walk alongside the slow moving Yldril, Rachuck and Kokashi hopped over to Sapphire and Fengi. Rachuck had of course insisted on checking if anyone had gotten hurt, as Kokashi set about getting Fengi some dry clean furs and, joy of joys, a pair of hot water bottles he had apparently fetched right before they departed. Fengi had taken one with near reverence as she wrapped up dry once more.

Saph had reluctantly brought up her finger as well as the general battering both she and Fengi had taken, leading to Rachuck demanding she go to the keep at once to have it taken care of properly. She didn’t wanna leave Fengi though.

“It is only a short walk. I’ve been out with it all day, not gonna make much difference.”

“You know that’s not true,” Fengi countered. “The sooner the better, that is always how it goes.”

“Yes Sapphire, you really should go. We’ll go together. I am sure everyone is quite eager to hear that you are both, mostly, alright,” Rachuck added with a sharp nod.

“It’ll spare Fengi having to tell what happened too,” Kokashi added, tone softer than usual.

“Fine fine, I’ll go. Here, have this at least,” Saph replied, handing the hot water skin Kokashi had given her to Fengi. The young woman accepted it without complaint, which made it quite evident just how cold she was still.

And with that Sapphire had taken to the skies and made for the keep, flying slow on half-closed wings so she had to work a bit harder to stay airborne. There was still water in the air, and the fast wind cooled you rapidly the faster you went. She could see her target, she could afford to be wasteful in her flying, better tired than frozen after all.

As they passed the halfway point, she saw the door to the greeting hall crank open slowly, Jarix sticking his head outside and soon taking flight. He had clearly seen them and came to meet them. The dragon easily outflew the two dragonettes, especially with them going as slowly as they were. Jarix had come around behind them and pulled in under them to get his head as close as the weather would allow, seemingly wanting a chat.

“Fancy the timing, we’re gonna go play in the clouds, wanna come?” the dragon asked enthusiastically, Saph glancing at his back where Zarko, Radexi, and Junior were all sitting. The gun was not present, nor was what armor the young dragon wore for battle.

“I think I’ll skip. I’ve had enough rain for a year,” Saph retorted, giving Rachuck a questioning glance.

“I am afraid I need to see about this first.”

“Well you’re the one that wanted bad weather training while we had it… Very well, suit yourself,” Jarix replied, seeming a touch bemused as he unceremoniously turned away, before pulling up towards the oppressive cloud cover that was still spilling rain in a steady stream.

“Well you know what they say about blues and storms!” Rachuck shouted out as they carried on, clearly aiming to break the silence that ensued.

“Yeah, what I don’t get is why the rest of them wanted to come along.”

“Zarko believes he is behind on his training, Radexi doesn’t have a choice, and Junior will be thrilled to be along by the sounds of what I heard.”

“I guess that figures.”

“By the way Sapphire. Do you think you would be ready for some formation training tomorrow perhaps?”

‘Oh gods no.’

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