Eventually the gas bag took shape, bigger than any Vonn had seen yet. This one was oblong like an Earth blimp and netted with ropes. As it rose, Vonn helped set up the engine, tuning its gems so that the engine rumbled to life in its makeshift bed of springs. Tazo tested their mechanism for engaging and disengaging the gears: possibly the world's first clutch. The spinning shaft fanned out into a disc and the propeller had a matching one that would either get dragged along with its spin, or be pushed back to not touch it. Their first prototype had needed replacing after an hour due to friction damage, but that was fine for testing. Tazo's wear-and-tear ability would help with this one.

Tazo patted Birb on the shoulder. "It's your show."

As she'd been trained, Birb checked the equipment over again before trusting it. She wore one of the brass bracelets that worked as magic parachutes, not that Birb expected to need one with her wings.

By now, Birb's father was watching, his beak twitching in quiet prayer. Kotta was there and singing an encouraging tune.

Vonn looked at the painted name on the boat's side. Harvestwing it said in orange paint matching her feather accents. He asked Tazo quietly, "Did she ever say why she named it that?"

"Her mother's name, I think."

Vonn nodded and cheered her on.

The boat rose, bobbling enough to make Vonn queasy from the ground. Birb rode alone. Up it went, its dangling ropes held loosely by a few Human volunteers and Polestar. High above the village rooftops the boat floated as a dark, surreal cloud. Vonn strained his eyes to see the girl waving down before returning to her work. She engaged the clutch, the prop started spinning, and the airboat began a ponderous but noticeable move despite the still wind. Their attempt at a rudder wasn't doing much, though, and the blimp was headed due south instead of west. The people holding the guide ropes tried not to tug, as instructed. After a few minutes of obvious awkward attempts to turn, Birb vented some air and shouted "Down!" to get the haulers to work. They soon pulled the whole contraption back to near ground level just outside one of the southern villages, where people were staring.

Though Vonn's family and a few other prominent people in town tried to maintain contact with these settlements, Vonn hadn't had much to do with them lately. He was just too busy to get involved in their local Baron's bad behavior.

Vonn turned back to the problem at hand. "That was great, Birb! Congratulations. What was going on with the steering?"

Birb's head-feathers stood high in a smile as she hopped down and patted the boat. "The rudder's not strong enough for pushing air. What if we used Selen's jet thing?"

Tazo answered, "It could work. Need to build a swivel mount for it so it can push in different directions."

"But for now, I've got a boat that can take off and maneuver a bit!" She puffed out her chest and let herself face the small crowd, though it was obviously large enough to frighten her. "Hey everyone, do I have a volunteer to be my passenger?"

#

Vonn had plenty to report in writing. He dashed off several copies of a terse summary for the Duke and for Baron Bogstep, Ralator, the Grandbridge Knowledge Society by way of Selen, and Firefern. And for Urika, whose brash decision to do the missing Baron Kolm's job had gotten him rewarded with a formal promotion to the nobility. For Selen's eyes only, Vonn added a description of how the team had upgraded her blow dryer, teasing her about birds being a threat to jet engines.

That project needed some more refinement and he wanted his friends to get more of a lead in developing it. But it was the Fire Festival tomorrow, and snow was falling just in time to make it a pretty day.

Vonn spent the evening working with Tazo on Enchanting. Selen had sent two identical bracelets, one with the slow-fall power and one without, with tips on how to copy it. So rather than just being handed two finished devices Vonn now had the ability to make more. With some work he and his sister managed to get a second one right and double-check it. Proper magical safety equipment for any flier!

He began writing back to Riz in the south, talking about magic and the plan for a school of sorts, and about his own first apprentices. Then about the hope of a hundred flying boats cruising through the sky and a hint that a better version might be coming. Reluctantly he decided to send along the photograph of Selen, to boast about her coming up with picture-making alchemy. (The word Selen had picked was literally something like "potion pictures".) Vonn wrote, "I'll send a 'photo' of me and my family as soon as I can!"

Riz had mentioned she didn't have any eligible brothers, but she did have a clever cousin about Tazo's age. All the more reason to meet. As for her lack of progress in art, Vonn suggested something he'd already mentioned to his Artist friend: the concept of a comic strip. As an example, Vonn sent a page of stick-figure foxes building a silly gadget that somehow turned them into mice.

Vonn yawned and stretched, resting his head on his desk for a moment. His personal bedroom at the workshop was plain, stone-walled, with one of the shop's many blackboards and a river landscape from his Artist friend near Silvermire. His tiny clothing collection hung on the world's first coat hangars. The room felt lacking, these days. He was so busy that his chances to play games with his friends had suffered, he wasn't working on music with Kotta much, and he felt like he should at least have more art on display.

As he fell asleep he resolved to get a family photo and more books. What was the point of having these inventions without getting to use them himself?