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Sue found that last one funny enough to give a real answer “You’d have to jump after him obviously. It’s your job to make sure he doesn’t kill himself,” Kat then went on to point out Sue had a shield ability to which Sue just laughed an ran off again. Still with no clothes on, even hours after the fact.

It did work to harden Lily’s resolve against such tactics though. After barely an hour of time Lily was already treating Sue normally. No matter how much Sue bounced around as she was running it didn’t distract Lily anymore. Well… that’s not entirely true. Apparently Lily’s instincts kept telling her to pounce on Sue’s tail. Not in the fun way for Sue though. The one Lily got in range, Sue just let her do whatever… and that whatever turned out to be biting down on Sue’s tail.

Not a fun experience for either girl. Sue ended up with two rows of bite marks in her tail while Lily found out that demon blood is disgusting. That did halt the game for a while… but not all that long. Sue started to run around and slowly act as if she was going to knock various ornaments to the floor. Kat had to chase after and catch them before any broke. Sue always made sure Kat was nearby when she dropped things… but Kat wasn’t entirely sure that Sue wouldn’t let them break if Kat didn’t get there fast enough.

The three girls continued to mess around until about twelve when Lily heard a knock at the door. She’d been hiding in behind a rather ugly looking pot and waiting to surprise Sue. With less teeth and claws this time. At Lily’s mental call, Kat yelled to Sue “We’ve got company!” and then made her way to the door. A female mountain elf was there, head bowed.

A beat of silence passed between the four, before the maid spoke, “I am here under Patriarch Bodier’s orders to show you to the boat,”

Everyone accepted that at face value and left for the boat. It was roughly where Kat expected. That odd mound that she’d seen just outside of the city’s ravine. There was a door in the side, leading to a staircase that sent them into the rock and eventually to what looked like a fancy dock. There were a few ships parked there. Some small, clearly private vehicles, a few others were large enough for a small family, and finally there was two large vessels that were just short of a full football field in size.

It looked very ‘age of sail’ and Kat couldn’t help but wonder about the why of it all. *I mean… surely they’re smart enough to realise that this isn’t very aerodynamic. I mean they have massive sails and OARS for crying out loud. Do they think they can paddle through the air or something?*

[It might be a symbolism thing? Perhaps the fact that it’s ship shaped is important. Alternatively, the enchantments used on it could be based pretty heavily on sail boat enchantments. Perhaps they haven’t innovated past that.]

.....

*Eh… I guess? Just… surely basic observation would prove that it doesn’t work as well as it could.*

[Perhaps Kat… but it’s clear that they DO work. Regardless of how much better we think we could manage they’ve clearly been using this magic for quite some time. I mean, think about it. Just the time it’d take to build the boat would be months of work, if not years. Then add enchantments on top. This could be the cutting edge of technology for all we know.]

Kat and co walked across the gangplank and onto the deck. A number of people in what looked like warm weather outfits scurried around the deck. Most of them had their jumpers tied around their waits by the sleeves, with some even rolling their pants up a bit. Presumably to keep a bit cooler while down here on the ground. In the middle of it all though, was the woman they assumed to be the captain.

Kat and Lily were making that assumption based on the giant hat the woman was wearing. It looked like some unholy cross between a tricorne hat and an ushanka. Whatever it was called here, it was very fluffy, comically large, and likely to get caught by the wind. That’s what the strap was for, clearly… but it did make the woman look a bit like a kid who couldn’t be trusted to keep her hat on her person.

“Greetings demons! My name is Creshe and I’m the secondary captain aboard the Floating Rock!” said Creshe as she tapped the mast fondly.

“Wait… this thing is called the Floating Rock?” asked Sue, unable to hold back her shock.

“That is correct my good passenger!” said Creshe cheerily. “The Mountain Shaker sect has a long tradition of naming its boats with amusement in mind. You can’t see it, but the hull has the name carved in. It makes for a good laugh, and a good security system. Plenty of folks think it’s bad luck to fly in something with a name like the Floating Rock here and we’ve seen a large drop in theft attempts since instituting the change. It’s only been practiced for a hundred years though, so who knows where we’ll be in another fifty.”

*Clearly this isn’t cutting edge tech then.*

[Yup. Clearly. Guess it has to by symbolism then.]

“Is there any questions you’d like answered about your time on board? If not I’ll just show you to your cabins,” continued Creshe, unaware of the internal commentary from the peanut gallery.

Of course, with the offer of questions so readily on the table, Kat had to ask, “Why is it a boat? Like I get that we’re using it to travel, and it’s a good way to have space… but you have a sail and oars! Surely there are better ways to move through the air right?”

Creshe nodded, “Indeed there is. We’ve got some smaller vessels that aren’t based on nautical designs at all… but they are remarkably less stable and not all that much faster, especially when scaled up. The whole ship is covered in an invisible barrier to make us much more aerodynamic then it seems. At the moment, the best combination of stability, speed, and safety still seems to be the old classic ship designs.

“It’s a bit of a debate actually. Are they so stable because we’ve refined the heck out of them? Or are they simply more inherently stable with the symbolism, the enchantments, and the shape all put together? There are a lot of arguments on either side… but it all comes down to time. We’re still finding little tricks to make this version of the flying craft better, so clearly it’s not completely optimised. Might be better to try other things… but it works and it’s getting better. Not worth the risk to R&D up something that’s probably not going to work better,”

Kat nodded, and the group continued chatting with the captain about notable places on the ship as they waited for the young master to show up. By the time they heard movement, Kat and Sue had learnt were all the main spots on the ship were, as well as what leisure activities were available. Apparently they even had a pool.

The group paused in that explanation when they heard marching from the gangplank. A group of maids and butlers made there way on, carrying a bags of things over their shoulders… despite the fact Kat was pretty sure they were all wearing storage rings. The fact they all had the same style of ring on their middle fingers giving that away. They were pretty varied in appearance but identical in uniform, between both men and women.

Each had a brown robe on it with a large pocket at the front. The collars on the robes were somewhat puffy, though looking at other servants revealed that it could be pulled up and over the face as a sort of makeshift face mask when required. Their shoes were closed in… but with open gaps in the sides where the arch of the foot went.

As a group they marched to the captain, gave a short half bow, then moved on. Clearly knowing where to go. The issue was… when the train of servants ended there was still no sign of the young master. *Oh dear. Looks like we’re not about to get off to a clean start.*