The center mound of Black River, surrounded by water on three sides, was the most industrialized of the three mounds. Hidden amidst the layers of stacked tenement buildings, there were many small mines for coal and iron, as well as forges and workshops buried in the empty remains of exhausted mines. Felix flew through the city, disguised in a black cloak, carried by Shane's storm sorcery. Once again he enjoyed a fresh new perspective of familiar features. He discovered a market that he never knew existed, at the very bottom of a cylindrical hole between tenements. For the first time ever, he saw the airship construction yards, inverted places with buildings and equipment dangling like moss from the bottom of a massive precipice, bathed in the crimson light of the chasm.
Overlooking a red crystal cliff inside the chasm, there was a small campus of workshops built around an empty square. As Felix flew over the campus, he saw a mix of red and green hair. The Draconic Paladins patrolled the site with bows and swords, though their stiff black uniforms had been replaced with drab gray, devoid of insignia. Shane set Felix down gently on the powdery pink dust of the yard. One of the Paladins approached, a younger man with a massive red beard. There were only twenty-five Draconic Paladins in Quaria. Their names and faces were well known to every important leader in the government and in the military. Felix recognized the younger man as being named Liam.
"Welcome back commander!" Liam said.
"At ease," Felix replied. "Take us to King Cyneric, if you please."
The bearded Paladin led them both through the narrow streets of the compound, between buildings constructed from thin sheets of industrial steel. They quickly arrived at a roomy workshop filled with tables. Chains dangled from long rails on the roof. The mortal spawn of the Green Dragon roamed around the building, carrying tools or sheets of wood and metal. King Cyneric stood at one end of the workshop, flanked by Deorwine and Alice. Neasa, another Draconic Paladin of the rare female variety, was standing in front of the trio.
"Yes King Cyneric," Neasa said. "It is called adverse yaw. In the worst case it could lead to gyrations. It is easily remedied with the spine sails."
Deorwine was furiously taking notes in a small journal. "Thank you, Neasa." He waved the woman away. "Welcome Felix. Welcome Shane. I have acquired such a marvelous device that you must see!" He pointed to a massive metal contraption in the corner of the workshop.
"Your associates have been a great help," King Cyneric said as they walked. "This deception of yours has earned my respect."
"What deception?" Alice asked eagerly.
"It is not public knowledge that the Paladins have lost the ability to shapeshift," Felix said. "The Lord Paladin has sent them south on a secret mission. At least those were his public orders."
"King Cyneric," Shane said. "Certainly you know how to fly. What led you to travel to this continent for your research?"
"I can fly, yes," the Green Dragon replied. "It is intuitive for me. I lack the same eloquent descriptions of aerial maneuvers. My own Paladins would say the same. My nation also lacks the lovely industrial districts that can be found in this city."
"My King is long-lived and very wise," Deorwine said. "The Red Drakes of Quaria are famous for their flying skill. The pittance of time spent traveling here will be saved a hundred times over. Behold! The burning heart of an airship. At least it would have been, if we had not procured it."
"At great expense," King Cyneric added.
The hunk of shaped metal looked quite heavy. It resembled a large metal barrel lying on one side, connected by leavers to a heavy wheel. There was an empty slot through the hub of the wheel where a shaft might be attached. There was a bronze plaque on the side of the barrel that read: Persons who suffer from epilepsy or who may be intoxicated must not stand within 30 feet of the external propeller while the engine is connected. Do not connect the external propellers to the engine without explicit clearance from the Yard Sergeant.
"A steam engine!" Deorwine proclaimed. "However, by my calculations this machine is a hundred times too heavy."
"I agree," Felix said. "Dragons and drakes use innate Draconic Sorcery to make themselves quite a bit lighter, but not so light as to interfere with the center of mass, or to allow us to be battered around by gusts of wind. By all external calculations, it should be impossible for Dragons to fly."
"Is it possible for an inanimate object to be enchanted with Draconic Sorcery?" Shane asked.
"We were hoping that you would be able to answer that question," Alice replied. "You will have access to my grandmother's bookstore, including the books in the vault."
"I will freely admit that I do not know the answer," the Green Dragon said. "I will also admit that I hope to exploit your current familiarity with Princess Astrid. I am certain that a Dragon of her status absolutely has access to that information."
"I do not think it would be a good idea to bother Astrid with such requests," Felix said. "She sees us as servants. Are are only allowed to leave her spires when Brigid invites us to do so."
"He's right," Shane said. "I think the better option would be to scour old books. Alice, you mentioned a vault. What kind of books are stored there?"
"I do not know," Alice said. "Knowing my grandmother, there are saucy romance novels in there. You know, books that have been banned by the Church."
"Wait, wasn't the Lady Ghost married to another woman? Why would romance novels be banned?"
"Too much talk," Felix snapped. "Shane, be on your way." He waved the Rilnese man away. "Let me see the craft you are constructing."
Shane made his excuses and then left. The sound of lightning marked his departure from the campus. Deorwine led Felix to another empty structure where several bird-like metal skeletons rested on the concrete floor. One craft was nearly completed, with an expertly-shaped wooden body reinforced with metal joints.
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"This is a special type of wood, transported here from the north of Flood's End," Deorwine said. "It is strong and light. The workers steam the wood for a long time and then bend it into the correct shape using the metal skeletons. Then they bind the various parts together with metal connectors."
"The propellers, the gear boxes, and the crankshaft. Do you still have them all?" Felix asked.
"Yes, but for what purpose?"
"Assemble the engine fully, in here," Felix waved his arm around, pointing at the walls of the room. "But only attach one of the propellers, and rotate the propeller so that it produces thrust toward us, away from the walls. Also," he pointed at Alice, "make sure that Alice is not in the building while the thing is running. Finally, we are going to need some chemical flares."
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It took several hours for the Green Dragon's followers to make room for the machine and assemble it in the warehouse. Felix ate lunch with the other Draconic Paladins in the campus cafeteria. The food was all exotic foreign stuff but there was plenty of meat and Felix did not find the flavors offensive.
Felix had never seen a steam engine running. The machine hummed and puffed smoke out a window through a makeshift network of pipes, the levers pumped furiously and the wheel span so fast that the spokes became invisible. At full power, the propeller created a stream of wind powerful enough to knock a person to the ground. Deorwine commanded the carpenters to construct a series of struts to hold the craft fixed within the wind. King Cyneric was able to acquire chemical flares from a nearby alchemist at a price that bordered on extortion, but none of the Paladins were able to leave the compound, and a green-haired foreigner had little chance of being offered a fair price.
All the Draconic Paladins gathered into the warehouse to witness the experiment. They measured off thirty feet and strapped Alice to a chair so she could watch without being in danger. With the craft fixed in the wind stream, Felix lit one of the flares and held it, burning, in various places near the craft. Playful wraiths of smoke poured over the wings like a liquid, visible to all.
"The easiest way to understand the wind is to see it," Felix said. "Neasa, come forward and adjust the tail wing on this thing."
The woman's extremely long blood-red hair caught in the wind as she approached and grasped the tail wing with both arms. Without being instructed, she twisted the wing into the perfect angle, the same angle Felix would have picked, in order to make the craft aerodynamically stable relative to the main wing.
"Alright, we are going to need to remove the struts and guide it with our hands," Felix said.
It took five Paladins to hold the craft, with additional Paladins to hold them in place and prevent the wind from sending them flying. With Felix standing outside the wind in the front, the other Paladins arranged themselves to minimize their impact on the wind. Liam stood just behind the tail, preventing the craft from moving backward. With some effort, they were able to lift the craft off the struts.
"Let it bounce a few times," Felix said. "Liam, don't let it slip."
One, two, three bounces, until it felt right, and without being instructed all the Paladins except Liam heaved the craft up and then let go. Liam stood alone, bravely holding the craft, until more Paladins poured in behind him to help keep him steady. The craft, not being held by anyone at all, only contacting Liam's hands at the tail cone, remained almost perfectly steady in the center of the stream, defying gravity.
"It's flying!" Deorwine announced.
However, none of the Paladins were satisfied. They continued to make slight adjustments to the various surfaces. The rudder, the winglets at the end, and the tail wing all needed miniscule adjustments before the craft was truly stable. All the while, Deorwine took detailed notes and made tiny changes to his diagrams and equations. To his credit, he was happy to accept the evidence his eyes were giving him, even if it contradicted his equations.
The Paladins stopped fiddling with the thing and left, but the carpenters and engineers began to play with the craft themselves. King Cyneric approached Felix in private. "I know that we did not specifically discuss this before," the King said, "but I gather from the loss of your powers that the Red Dragon is likely dead."
"She has been dead for thirty years," Felix whispered. "Her power was being channeled from her corpse by necromancers. The Lord Paladin once mentioned that we were more powerful before she died. Our Draconic powers have been slowly diminishing over the decades."
"But you became the best fliers in the world," King Cyneric said. "As you grew weaker, flying became less intuitive. You learned the things I never did. The things that my own Paladins will likely never learn."
The sound of thunder announced the arrival of Shane. The Elder Books Aviation Club members all went out to greet him. He was carrying a bag filled with books, and his bright blue eyes were filled with hope.
"I was able to piece something together. A hint maybe. However, I will need a second opinion." He looked to Alice. "You know the most about the Lady Ghost and the Realms. I have a question."
"Certainly," Alice said. "I might not be high enough in the Church to know the answer."
"Is this line of thought wise?" Deorwine asked. "I do not think that religion will be able to answer any questions that our engineers cannot answer."
"Let the bookworm ask his question," Felix hissed.
"We both know that the Elemental Plane of Spirits is real," Shane began. "Whatever it is called, our world is supposedly the opposite of that world. They are mirrored. So here is my question, do the Realms have opposites?"
"Maybe," Alice replied.
"What would be the opposite of the Realm of Fire?"
"The Binding of Ashe, chapter one, verse twelve," Alice said. "The Elemental Queen of Water is Sister-Self to the Elemental Queen of Fire." She was struggling to recite the somewhat dense sentence.
"Wonderful, I can work with that." The little Rilnese man opened one of the books and pointed to a diagram of a man surrounded by three symbols. "Fire, Lightning, and Wind can be combined. I did not know that this was possible. I am only familiar with storm sorcery, the combination of Water, Lightning, and Wind." He flipped to another page, where three more symbols surrounded another man. At the bottom of the page, there was a little symbol that resembled a cloud and some lightning. "See, storm sorcery here." He flipped back to the first page. The little symbol at the bottom of the page looked a bit like a dragon.
"I understand," Felix said. "This foul sorcery of yours, teach me, so that we can build ourselves a new engine."
"I do not know how to reach the Realm of Fire," Shane admitted. "In order to reach one of the Realms, you need to be taken there by a Fire Mage. As far as I know, there are no Fire Mages on this continent. I think there is a guild that has a monopoly on that type of magic in the land of the Gold Dragons."
"That doesn't make any sense," Deorwine said. "Who the hell found the Realms in the first place? Who was the first Fire Mage?"
"The Lady Ghost, in her great wisdom, led the first mages there," Alice said. "Blessed be her name."
"My King, as your advisor I strongly recommend that we explore alternative, chemical means of designing a new engine. The success of this project should not depend on such superstitions."
"Focus on the craft for now," King Cyneric said. "Shane, so far I cannot understand the relevance of your original question. Why ask Alice about opposites?"
"Right. My thought is that maybe we could create a portal to the Realm of Fire from within the Realm of Water. I can easily lead Felix there and introduce him to the... uh, Elemental, as Alice has named them. We can ask the Elemental if such a portal is possible."