The flight back north tested their Flight skill, between wind and rain and a little tear in the balloon. They were both at their maximum relative to the Agility stat for now. Soaring over the river let Vonn sketch his own personal map in greater detail than ever before.

"Maybe they'll fly north to visit us, next time," Tazo said.

"Maybe so. If the Centaur team is leading the way, I'd expect them to focus on an engine-powered water boat though. Carries more people anyway."

"A 'water boat'!" said Tazo, laughing. "We're forcing people to specify."

"We're just concentrating a lot of effort and attention on this one type of project. Really we should take the time to do more water boats ourselves."

Tazo frowned. "Say that again."

"Eh?" Vonn repeated himself.

"I have a theory," she said. "A dungeon core that has just appeared is golden, and we were thinking it's in some special malleable state for several days, like hot iron. Something puts it into that state, and somehow it loses that."

"I figure that when it's created, the core is set to gold by whatever process the gods use to decide to stick it there."

"No. I don't accept that it's just the gods making something happen by no particular method. They do it in a specific way. I think it's like what Selen's been saying about her alchemy. There is a... 'catalyst' that makes it easier for some change to happen. If we were to pump Mana or other energy into a gem, it might reach that gold-colored state. And if we do it while doing the kind of spell-work that normally tunes it to a certain element, we might find a new element that's suddenly reachable."

Vonn turned his attention from the boat's controls to stare at her. "You really are a scientist. It's worth trying, though we'll need more specifics about how to zap it with energy."

"And we know someone with a tower studded with mirrors, who has a lot of Mana. And someone else with access to big magicite shards."

Vonn smiled and detoured them toward the east side of the river, to stop first at Silvermire.

#

There, they hailed the Baron's son and reported a successful flight test. The Baron himself was on site and eager for a report.

Baron Bogstep was busy overseeing the repair of a refinery building, but took a minute to listen. He grunted. "If you got that far and back, then you've got a proven design. I want a copy of it built for the Duke, ready for magicite to be added, and for you to train whoever he sends."

"Straight copy?"

"Yes. Do this one the way you know will work. Innovate later."

Vonn had mixed feelings about that, but his sponsor had spoken and was wielding the cruel whip of common sense. "Yes, sir."

Before flying west to home, he dropped off a sealed letter from Riz to his local artist friend. She was so excited to see it that he caught her grin. She said, "And it was delivered by air, too!"

"Glad to see we can bring friends together with our inventions."

"Someday I want to go in person."

Before Vonn and Tazo could leave again, young Brightstep took them aside. "Father mainly cares about keeping the Duke happy and being able to fund you. Since I know the bigger picture: how much did you share, when you met with the southern Engineer group?"

Tazo winced. "We told them a lot, and the Duke's men insisted on inspecting the airship. We cooperated."

Brightstep looked grim. "I thought that would happen. I can't fault you given your long-term goals. But when Father finds out that the southern duchy has airships before long, I want you prepared to tell him you have a better model in progress."

Vonn gulped and nodded. Then he turned to Tazo, who took the chance to talk about her magic theory.

Brightstep's ears rose. This was a subject he was more comfortable with. "So you need a greater shard to play with. Our dungeon is due to make another, and we can loan that out. But I want that work done through Ralator, partly so Father doesn't throttle you for spreading yourself too thin and party because he'll surely have the best idea of how to try the experiment. I'll contact him."

Someday Vonn was going to have to deal with Brightstep as his lawful ruler, if he kept living here. Best to keep him happy. "That sounds good," he said.

"But if you do make the discovery you're looking for, for the gods' sake do not blab about this one. The credit must go to Father's domain, and our Duke must be the first to own an improved airship." Brightstep smiled, and looked again like the young magic student he was when he didn't have to play at nobility. "Also, let me ride that one."

#

Vonn and Tazo flew back to Shieldpoint and managed to land at sunset, carrying their artist friend as a one-way passenger this time. Her excuse for the tourist flight was to visit the print shop and learn more about picture-making.

The two inventors went back to assure Mom and Dad they were fine, before paying much attention to the Company again. They'd landed in the clearing right beside the Company office, skillfully this time.

The arrival of Liberty Bell in town had acted as a signal that summoned all his employees to come and watch. So though it was getting late, Vonn had their attention to talk about the trip to Liiros and the ideas he'd swapped with Firefern's team.

Ashfall said, "Nice to hear they're doing well. Sounds like we have our orders for the next project. While you were gone, Baron Urika had us working on refining equipment."

From her explanation, Vonn figured Urika wanted to try doing steel production. Right now the shop generally worked with iron. (Even the Wright Brothers hadn't been able to avoid it completely.) It was possible to make small amounts of steel, but this world didn't yet sharply distinguish between the various grades of iron or steel, let alone have large-scale production. Vonn had decided, after a few rounds of being told no over the last year, to not get deeply into that side of the engineering work.

Maybe Ashfall would end up doing that. He rather hoped that the Smith profession stayed relevant through handling materials production, and Urika's abilities suggested it would.

For the moment, Vonn returned to supervising the shop, letting people catch up on using his abilities to help make engines and wind guns. They'd already begun setting up parts to duplicate Liberty Bell, and the local boat-builders were happy to start work on another of the strange wicker-bottomed craft.