chapter 137 – grounded

“haha,” podrick’s father laughs 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 lack of emotional connection unsettles her, a pang of guilt and discomfort resonating in her chest despite her absolute calm.

“what are you doing back so soon? and who’s this lass?” the man asks, pulling away from his son and glancing 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 glances towards emily, noticing 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 man belts enthusiastically, not noticing the genuine panic behind his son’s reaction and slapping him on the shoulder before using a fake cough to regain his composure 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. “mechanic and wanted criminal.”

rodrick’s smile freezes, and he glances uncomfortably between emily and podrick.

“emily?” podrick asks cautiously, equally surprised and slightly unsettled by her introduction.

“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 explain everything to you later, but we are kind of in a hurry and need to do some work on the ship. can you open a warehouse for us?”

rodrick slowly nods, his cheerful smile fading as he looks at his son with concern for a few moments, searching within his earnest gaze for any signs of distress.

“sure,” he finally says, turning and grabbing a large keyring and an oil lamp from a hook just inside the 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 coming back as he jogs to walk beside him.

emily trails a few metres behind them with a slow, controlled gait, ignoring 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 locating the approaching form of calypso, still a few minutes from the compound. they walk along the well-lit central street through the shipyard, attracting curious glances towards from the few workers still milling about, and quickly arrive before an oversized warehouse with a large 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 lamp to his son, picking a small bronze key from his keyring, and unlocking it. they step into the dark, empty warehouse, the space barely illuminated by the small lamp. rodrick turns to the side, walking parallel to the giant doors as he makes straight for a thick chain hanging down from the roof on the other side.

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

the chain 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 glances up and sees a tiny crack opening in the roof, revealing the glistening starry night sky above.

after four strenuous tugs on the chain, emily steps forward, tapping rodrick on the shoulder.

“move,” she says. “i’ll do it.”

“haha, i may be getting old,” rodrick replies, glancing over his shoulder and attempting to flash emily a reassuring grin despite 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 reaching up with a single hand. she activates the enchantment on her boots to boost her weight a little before pulling down. the chain 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 chain. “but i assure you, i’m stronger than i look.”

as the roof above clangs shut, emily turns to face ash walking over from the ship.

“rodrick’s offered us a few trusted hands to help if we need it. how do you want to do this?” they ask.

“he did?” emily responds with a question. “in that case, are you okay managing everyone out here to swap the armour plating?”

“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 places, or the enchantments i’m working on won’t work.”

“got it. is there nothing else you need done outside the ship?”

“no. you should already know we’d need to make too many changes to the structure for a port to not recognise the ship as mandrago-owned,”

since you’re the one who told me.

“and any weapon systems i want to add would take too much time to produce and teach you guys to use right now. we’re gonna have to rely on speed and defence to 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 counts against my quest. i’ll have far more control if i’m the only one fighting back.

“okay,” ash says with a nod, turning to face the small warehouse door where rodrick and anton are standing together waiting for a signal from the ship’s mechanic.

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 swapping the plating in two days.”

“perfect,” emily responds. “i’ll have the engine done in one, and any unfinished runework can be done on the move.”

with their plan decided, emily drops the armour plates already in her belt in an open space before heading into the ship. she grabs her long-term storage backpack and walks between the ship’s cargo rooms that contain the rest of the places, gathering them all up and moving them outside. leaving a drawn-up copy of the blueprint for the ship’s externals with the plates, she ignores the confusion of the shipwrights entering the warehouse as they see the floating magical light and heads back into the bowels of the ship.

emily enters the engine room with excitement and begins the slow process of upgrading the beating heart of the ship. she slowly strips the outer panels, revealing a complicated blend of chambers for water and steam, along with cogs, gears, and pistons for generating 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 machinery, leaving a gaping hole in the centre of the large chamber, surrounded by coal-burning ovens. she leaves the engine room behind and spends the next twelve hours tirelessly machining new pieces to rebuild the engine, carefully selecting non magical-metal alloys from her newly-recorded collection to fit each roll, some with better heat resistance, some with more rigidity, creating the perfect blend to squeeze every drop of power she can from the engine without increasing its size.

finally, after a quick trip outside to check on the progress of the armour swap after podrick comes to ask her to remove her magical light, she spends another eight hours building a new engine in place, forming a beautiful blend of silvers, blacks, and greys from the different alloys perfectly woven together. as her work on the engine finishes, emily can’t keep the excited grin from her face in anticipation of turning it on for the first time.

“finally,” she says with a satisfied sigh, tightening the final bolt of her new masterpiece into place and stepping back to take it all in. “if this beauty can’t get us out of the country, we’re fucked.”

a small surge of machina through her leg reassures her that it’s perfectly reconnected to every system driven by the old engine. however, the scan of the ship also knocks the excitement out of her, forcing emily to return to her usual disquieting apathy.

“i should probably tweak the propellers too,” she mutters, tapping her foot restlessly in place and glancing 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 cold metal of her new creation one last time, before turning to leave, heading to the first crawl space on her list to start carving runes.