Seren walked down the narrow path to the tree and leaned against a rock, watching Jael work. Ze was pulling on invisible things, plucking the air and muttering to zemself. Classic magic person at work. Her dad and father had taught her that magic couldn’t be rushed, so she remained quiet, watching and waiting to see what the result would be.

“The work on your tree is amazing to look at,” Jael finally said, dropping zir hands and shaking zir head. “I’d give almost anything to meet the person who created this.”

“What can you tell me about it?” Asking open-ended questions had been a hard lesson to learn since she’d had few people to practice on, those who had ferried over to the island for their jobs. Once a person got started on anything they thought was interesting, whole hours would fly by, speckled with information Seren wouldn’t have been able to figure out otherwise.

“There are no snags, no split threads, no loose ends. Your caster was a master of thread, I can tell you that much.”

Seren wanted to ask if there were any lines which would let people track the ship, but she clenched her hand instead, concentrating on the little pain points her nails made. Much easier to let Jael talk, and at least keep zem from wondering who and why they were worried about being followed.

“The thing threaders don’t talk about is that we can thread some things without keeping a link to the original threader. And it’s not a secret or anything, so on one is going to care if I tell you,” Jael added, reaching out and touching the tree’s trunk. “But when people or items are threaded, it’s because a person wants to find them again.”

She nodded at that.

“Your tree has nothing connecting it to another person. It is, however, wrapped and threaded in such a way that it considers biological preferences, which I didn’t realize could be done.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Jael spread zir hands out and faced Seren. “How do I explain this... Your tree is alive, right? A living, breathing thing in its own right, which can be injured or pick up illness and disease. Normally, if a branch is broken, the tree will just shed it, right? Let it fall to the ground.”

Another nod.

“For most people, if they threaded a flower or a tree, it’s not supposed to lose things. That allows decorations to last longer than they would otherwise. If you take the time, money, and energy to put rare flowers in a vase, then you’d want the petals to stay there. Here, though, the threader gave choice to the tree. If there’s a branch it thinks it doesn’t want, it can drop it. And because this ship flies, the tree itself was made tougher to withstand storms and wind.”

“That explains that then.” Seren almost laughed at the expression on Jael’s face, but then she told zem about the thunderstorm they’d flown through and how she’d been worried when nothing had broken.

“I see,” ze said, nodding. “How the tree has grown here, with the wind whipping at it, also means that without a little luck none of the leaves are likely to stay, so it’ll look even more as if nothing falls or breaks. The last thing I can tell you is that because there’s no connecting thread, I think this was a commission rather than a favor for a friend.”

“Why would you say that?”

“Because a lot of threaders use their magic to keep an eye on their friends, a kind of just in case something happens. With nothing here, I’ll assume the threader didn’t care about tracking the ship or its crew, and so that pushes it more into the commission category.”

“What if they threaded something else, but not the tree...” Seren trailed off, then looked at Jael. “Is that possible?”

The smaller being put zir hand on zir hips and gave Seren a look. “Isn’t this your ship, captain? Shouldn’t you know that?”

“Normally, yes,” agreed Seren, “but I received this ship from another person and wasn’t told the details of how it was made.” That was the truth, wasn’t it? Sure, it hadn’t been a gift, and she’d taken it more than was given it, but she couldn’t tell everyone she’d stolen it.

“Well, I don’t sense any other threads, so there is nothing linking you with, or to, anyone else.”

Seren felt a ton of worry fly off her shoulders. She stepped forward and shook hands with Jael. “Thank you very much for coming up here, you’ve helped us a lot.”

“You can thank Vachlan.” There was a pause. “And, I just want to say... Good on you for taking her on as a crew member. Azmar’s a suitable home for me and others, but it’s not for everyone.”

“I think that’s a lot of places,” agreed Seren. Her home had certainly been good for others and not for her. “Is there anything else I should ask you that I might not know about? Like if I’ll need to renew the threading on the tree soon?”

“Eventually, it might need a little tightening, but right now, the threads are as strong as the day they were cast on. I’d check again about once a year, but you’re probably looking at needing to do something once every few years.”

“Oh! I have another question to ask you, if you have the time.”

Jael sighed. “What?”

“Is there any way to know who threaded this ship in the first place?”

“There is, but that requires me to have met the person in the first place, like recognizing a voice from across the room. This magical signature was new to me.”

Seren held out her hand. “Thanks for everything, then. Do you need me to get Vachlan for your payment, or—”

“She already paid me, so if you have no more questions, I’m done.”

“If you don’t want to climb down the nets, we have a rope you can slide down.”

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Ze snorted. “I’ll take the net.”

Jael walked over to the edge of the ship and sat, then grabbed the rope and started climbing down. Seren waited until ze was at the ground, then started reeling it in and setting it off to the side.

“I’ll ask Rive if there’s a better way to store this. It’s probably not a good thing to have out in the elements.” She studied it, then shrugged. “We’re probably going to want this out and within easy reach, though.”

It could sit on the landing pad for now. She dropped the last bit on top and left it there, then walked through the open door to see the central room full of everything the three of them had bought and brought.

“Look on the bright side, captain,” said Rive when they saw her face, “this is everything. We just need to find places.”

Seren laughed. “More like we need to find someone to enlarge the ship.”

A bit of darkness fell into the room, and when she looked back she saw that Vachlan was in the doorway, blocking the sun.

“That might be the next person you wish to meet, but do you have thoughts about the next place to go? There’s a gust of warm west wind we can catch.”

Seren looked at Rive, then back to her navigator. “We’ve talked about needing to find a large enough place to register ourselves as a guild. We have the ship, and a faction name, but that’s it at the moment.”

“What does a guild do?”

“Apparently, we get tattoos,” answered Rive, shuddering. “Along with ways to cast fighting and defense magic. We could read about it in Tairdi’s library, but we don’t have the book.”

“We might, actually.” Seren held up a finger. “I left that pile of books xe gave me outside. It’s possibly mixed in with others there.”

“I don’t know where any towns or villages might be from here, but I can just tell you the direction it’ll be easiest to head in.”

“We have a map,” said Seren.

“We also have a propeller,” pointed out Rive. “So why not launch ourselves now, grab the wind, and land when we see a place?”

“We also talked about going to Wavemeet,” Seren reminded them. “That city’s large enough to have everything we need, including someone who’d be willing to make this ship larger for us.”

“My suggestion would be getting this wind, then checking the map once we can see things,” said Vachlan. “And making our decision up in the air.”

Seren looked at the winged woman. She was shifting from claw to claw, the feathers around her head were ruffled, though that could have easily been from the wind, but what caught her attention was the wild, desperate look in her eyes. Probably the same look someone could have seen on Seren when she’d been desperate enough to steal a ship in the middle of the night.

“Let’s launch and get ourselves out of here,” Seren said, deciding. “Vachlan, check outside to see if there’s anything that needs to come in. Rive, you’re the one that knows the engine the best, so you’re in charge of getting it up and running as soon as we’re high enough. I’ll untie us.”

Rive saluted and abandoned everything for the under-room. Seren and Vachlan went outside.

“I’ll bring the books in, but what about the net?”

“Near the door is best for now, but eventually we’re going to have to figure out where to store it.”

Vachlan moved the net, then picked up Tairdi’s gift of books in a claw and put them just inside the door. “What now?”

Seren smiled back. “Where do you want to be when the Picotree Drop takes off? Inside?”

“...I’d like to be on a branch in the tree, overlooking everything getting smaller and smaller.”

“Sounds like that’s where you need to go now.” Seren crouched next to the bottom part of the tree’s trunk and grabbed the knot. “Three, two, one!”

She yanked, and the rope fell away from the tree. Seren pushed it to the edge and watched as it fell to the ground. A slight cloud of dust rose, and for a moment she wished Tairdi had felt comfortable seeing them off. Then she saw a slight flash of light, and a shadow that looked to be the right size of the bearkin they’d met.

Heart feeling a little lighter, she straightened up and turned to the tree. “How are you doing up there?”

“Nervous.”

“Mind if I join you?”

“Are you...okay with doing that? I know most people without working wings or air mastery don’t enjoy being up too high.”

Seren was already stepping over roots and grabbing hold of the bottom limb. She hauled herself up into the branches, found a place opposite of Vachlan, and made herself comfy.

“Hopefully you’re also excited?” She reached out, and after a moment’s hesitation, Vachlan extended a wing.

“Yes. I want to see more of the world than Azmar, and now I’ll finally be able to do that.”

“What are you worried about, then?”

Vachlan looked at Seren, and it felt as if the beastkin was looking into her very soul.

“This is my only chance to meet others and see if I’ll finally find someone and be able to have the family I’ve wanted for so long.”

Seren didn’t know how to respond to that. The farm had explained the birds and the bees, more like the cows and the sheep, and her parents filled in the gap of what happened with humans, but despite their instances that she’d be interested in someone eventually, she’d never had crushes on visitors or workers.

“Captain, what if I find someone at the next port we land at? That would be wonderful, but my adventure with you would also end too quickly.”

She smiled at that thought, and then almost laughed at the answer in her mind as it was very much like what her dad would say in this situation.

“I think you might be borrowing worries from tomorrow,” she said, keeping her voice gentle. “Having a family you love and who love you in return is a great thing, and if you find someone you want to settle down with, that’s wonderful! But I think it’ll be hard to know a lot about a person when you’ve only met them for a little while.”

“So, you’re saying adventure a lot first?”

“I’m saying that when you meet someone, anyone, and you think you want to spend the rest of your life with them, that you consider how much you know about them.” Seren hesitated, then shrugged. It would get the point across. “I mean, you don’t want to find yourself married to someone like Tairdi, right?”

Vachlan jerked back with a growl. “No!”

“Then it would be better to get to know the person first, right? Which probably means that you’ll meet them if we ever settle down in a place for a while, or if they join us on the ship.”

“...I didn’t think about that.”

“I’m sure you’ll find someone.” Seren leaned over and stroked a few feathers. “But I’m also sure that you don’t need to be in a hurry.”

“Thanks.”

“Anytime you want to talk, I’m happy to listen.”

Vachlan nodded, and Seren took a few moments to peer out over Azmar as the ship went higher and higher. The rocky part slipped away, changing from rough to sleek, looking as if it would be smooth if someone took their finger to it. She couldn’t see into the underground city itself, which made sense since they were already moving away horizontally as well as vertically, but Tairdi’s library took a while to fade from view.

When it finally became too small, she pressed against the stone in her inner pocket and wished xem the best.

“Vachlan? Captain Serri? Are you still out here?” Rive appeared in the doorway, and she could see their head from her position.

“Over here!” she called out, smiling as they turned around. There were so many more places to explore!