“Haha,” Podrick’s father ughs heartily. “It’s good to see you, my boy.”

  Emily silently watches the reunion from the side, the sight awakening memories of Herber, which she quickly pushes away as the otional e ules her, a pang of guilt and disfort resonating in her chest despite her absolute calm.

  “What are you doing back so soon? And who’s this ss?” the man asks, pulling away from his son and gng over at Emily, meeting her cold, indifferent stare. “I have to say, son, she’s certainly beautiful, but I always hoped you’d bring back a woman as cheerful as your father!”

  “Dad!” Podrick yells in panic, his cheeks tinted in a rosy shade and his eyes wide as he worriedly gowards Emily, notig the ice-cold glint in her eye at the man’s insinuation, “Definitely not. Don’t even go there.”

  “Haha, I’m kidding, I’m kidding,” the mas enthusiastically, not notig the genuine panic behind his son’s rea and spping him on the shoulder before using a fake cough tain his posure as he turns to Emily. “Anyway, the name’s Rodrick Rockworth, shipbuilder and father to this little tyke. Who might you be?”

  “Emily Coldstone,” she responds with a cold smile that doesn’t reach her eyes. “Meid wanted criminal.”

  Rodrick’s smile freezes, and he gnces unfortably between Emily and Podrick.

  “Emily?” Podrick asks cautiously, equally surprised and slightly uled by her introdu.

  “What?” she says, looking at him with a raised eyebrow and a slow tilt of her head. “Anton told you to tell him the truth, didn’t he? We may as well cut to the chase. Calypso will be here soon.”

  “Right,” Podrick agrees, letting out a small sigh of relief and turning his attention back to his father. “I’ll expihing to you ter, but we are kind of in a hurry ao do some work on the ship. you open a warehouse for us?”

  Rodrick slowly nods, his cheerful smile fading as he looks at his son with for a few moments, searg within his ear gaze for any signs of distress.

  “Sure,” he finally says, turning and grabbing a rge keyring and an oil mp from a hook just ihe door before awkwardly stepping out of his house to lead the way. “Warehouse five is free right now.”

  “Great. Thanks, Dad!” Podrick says, his own smile ing back as he jogs to walk beside him.

  Emily trails a few metres behind them with a slow, trolled gait, ign what they think is quiet whispering and giving Podrick time to reassure his father of his safety as her gaze rises into the sky, quickly log the approag form of Calypso, still a few minutes from the pound. They walk along the well-lit tral street through the shipyard, attrag curious gowards from the few workers still milling about, and quickly arrive before an oversized warehouse with a rge number five bolted above the huge sheet-metal double doors.

  Instead of entering through the ship-sized doors, Rodrick approaches a smaller door to the side, passing his mp to his son, pig a small bronze key from his keyring, and unlog it. They step into the dark, empty warehouse, the space barely illuminated by the small mp. Rodrick turns to the side, walking parallel to the giant doors as he makes straight for a thick hanging down from the roof oher side.

  “This will only take a minute,” he says, reag up and grabbing one side of the with both hands before pulling down with all his strength.

  The doesn’t move at first, but then slowly slides down as a loud creaking fills the space. After a single full draw down to his chest, Rodrick lets go and reaches up to pull down again. Emily gnces up and sees a tiny crack opening in the roof, revealing the glistening starry night sky above.

  After four strenuous tugs on the , Emily steps forward, tapping Rodri the shoulder.

  “Move,” she says. “I’ll do it.”

  “Haha, I may be getting old,” Rodrick replies, gng over his shoulder and attempting to fsh Emily a reassuring grie the obvious caution in his eyes. “But I assure you, it’s harder than it looks.”

  Emily rolls her eyes, stepping past the man and reag up with a single hand. She activates the entment on her boots to boost her weight a little before pulling down. The slides down in a quick, smooth motion, and Rodrick’s eyes widen in disbelief.

  “I may be young,” Emily says as he steps back, giving her free access to the . “But I assure you, I’m strohan I look.”

  Podrick breaks out in ughter at his father’s expense as the rge man awkwardly bows his head slightly in apology. Emily calmly tinues pulling the until the roof has split open fully, revealing a gaping hole one and a half times the size of Calypso, letting in the dim light of the half-moon slowly rising.

  “Right,” Rodrick says, staring at Emily in slight disbelief as Calypso slowly floats over the open roof, high in the sky and waiting to e down. “Sihat’s dealt with, I’ll go light the guiding lights so they bring her down.”

  “Oh, don’t bother,” Emily says dismissively, raising her hand and pointing at the tre of the open roof.

  Before Rodrick question her, a small orb of glistening white mana leaves her finger, floating into the tre of the room as it quickly grows in size. Rodrick’s gaze follows it with a mixture of fusion and disbelief on his face. The glowing orb pours out light, illuminating the entire warehouse and clearly marking the nding spot for the ship high above.

  “What in Goddess’ name is that?” Rodrick asks.

  “Magic,” Emily says without looking at him, her eyes roaming the now-visible, well-equipped space around them with i.

  She tuhe man’s respo, leaving his son to help him e to terms with the revetion as she walks forward, iing the equipment. In the tre of the room is a rge metal frame with dozens of secure mounting points and adjustable metal beams between them, curling up and around the open space to hold ships off the floor aed balloons off the ships. There are several rge maes mouo the walls that Emily reises at a gnce, fre steam cutters to industrial sheet rollers.

  There are also several rge bins of pre-maed parts and at least five different ets that turn out to be full of tools when Emily approaches one and pulls open the door.

  “I could get used t in a space like this,” Emily mutters to herself as she stalks excitedly around the room, iing everything with maa dang between her fingers as Calypso slowly lowers into the room.

  The ship touches down on the hard-packed ground as Emily wanders back to the father-son duo standing at the front of the room, and the loud hiss of steam fills the room as its ballooes. Rodrick watches her approach with a guarded expression.

  “So, magic’s real and you’re some fanoble mage fleeing the try?” he asks, causing his son to immediately drop his head into his hands beside him.

  “Ha,” Emily scoffs. “I was never given a le, and I wiped out the family I was associated with, but close enough, yeah.”

  “Crazy,” Rodrick sighs, raising a hand to rub his brow. “Gilly’s gonna freak.”

  Podrick bristles, looking up in panic.

  “Please don’t mention the magic to her until I leave,” he says quickly in a pleading tone. “She’s already going to blow up about me going overseas.”

  “So, you’re certain you want to go?” Rodrick questions, with a serious tone.

  “Yes.” Podriods resolutely, gng towards Emily. “I ’t expin why, but this is an important opportunity for me. Also, how cool is it to bee a fugitive on the run!”

  “Ha,” his father barks, regaining his cheer and spping him on the shoulder again. “Good to see you got your sense of adventure from your old man. Don’t worry, my lips are sealed. Though, iurn, you’re telling her about going overseas.”

  Having said his piece, Rodrick walks over to the stairs dropping from the side of Calypso. Emily looks at Podrid raises a curious brow as his dad leaves, not needing to voice the question oip of her tongue.

  “My mum,” he expins. “She’s a devout follower of Goddess, and really scary when she’s angry. I still remember the three-hour sermoh got when I asked why Dad isn’t a believer in front of her.”

  “Ha,” Emily chuckles, patting him on the shoulder as well before turnitention to the opposite hanging to and close the roof. “Good luck telling her about your trip to the nd of the faithless then.”

  “Thanks,” he grumbles, his shoulders dropping as walks after his father.

  As the roof above gs shut, Emily turns to face Ash walking over from the ship.

  “Rodrick’s offered us a few trusted hands to help if we . How do you want to do this?” they ask.

  “He did?” Emily responds with a question. “In that case, are you okay managing everyo here to s the armour pting?”

  “Sure, that’s simple enough.”

  “Great. I’m going to tweak the engine a little, and then work on some internal rune work. I’ll grab all the panels for you and give you a copy of my blueprint to work off. Please make sure they put the right panels in the right pces, or the entments I’m w on won’t work.”

  “Got it. Is there nothing else you need doside the ship?”

  “No. You should already know we’d o make too many ges to the structure for a port to nhe ship as Mandrago-owned.”

  Since you’re the one who told me.

  “And any on systems I want to add would take too much time to produd teach you guys to use right now. We’re gonna have to rely on speed and defeo get us through whatever they have waiting for us at the border.”

  I also don’t want anyone else shooting down pursuing ships in case they kill someone and it ts against my quest. I’ll have far more trol if I’m the only one fighting back.

  “Okay,” Ash says with a nod, turning to face the small warehouse door where Rodrid Antoanding together waiting for a signal from the ship’s meic.

  They raise a closed fist and shake it, and Rodrick raises six fingers in response.

  “It’ll be tight, but with six people and a bit of help from everyone else we should be done sing the pting in two days.”

  “Perfect,” Emily responds. “I’ll have the engine done in one, and any unfinished runework be done on the move.”

  With their pn decided, Emily drops the armour ptes already in her belt in an open space before heading into the ship. She grabs her long-term ste backpad walks between the ship’s cargo rooms that tain the rest of the ptes, gathering them all up and moving them outside. Leaving a drawn-up copy of the blueprint for the ship’s externals with the ptes, she ighe fusion of the shipwrights entering the warehouse as they see the floating magical light and heads bato the bowels of the ship.

  Emily ehe engine room with excitement and begins the slow process of upgrading the beati of the ship. She slowly strips the outer panels, revealing a plicated blend of chambers for water and steam, along with cogs, gears, and pistons feing motion. She then carefully removes each delicately crafted piece of the whole, clearing space for her own designs.

  It takes her a little over six hours to pull apart the dense cluster of maery, leaving a gaping hole in the tre of the rge chamber, surrounded by coal-burning ovens. She leaves the engine room behind and spends the welve hours tirelessly maing new pieces to rebuild the engine, carefully seleg non magical-metal alloys from her newly-recorded colle to fit each role, some with better heat resistance, some with midity, creating the perfect blend to squeeze every drop of power she from the ehout increasing its size.

  Finally, after a quick trip outside to che the progress of the armour s after Podries to ask her to remove her magical light, she spends anht hours building a new engine in pce, f a beautiful blend of silvers, bcks, and greys from the different alloys perfectly woven together. As her work on the engine finishes, Emily ’t keep the excited grin from her fa anticipation of turning it on for the first time.

  “Finally,” she says with a satisfied sigh, tightening the final bolt of her new masterpieto pd stepping back to take it all in. “If this beauty ’t get us out of the try, we’re fucked.”

  A small surge of maa through her leg reassures her that it’s perfectly reected to every system driven by the old engine. However, the s of the ship also knocks the excitement out of her, f Emily to return to her usual disquieting apathy.

  “I should probably tweak the propellers too,” she mutters, tapping her foot restlessly in pd gng at the designs in her notes. “They’re going to be put under more stress because of this. Ah well, they’ll survive until we get across the sea as long as I don’t use Overdrive too much.”

  She reaches up and runs her hand over the etal of her new creatio time, before turning to leave, heading to the first crawl spa her list to start carving runes.

  KeroKeron