The Heavenly Host

“That would seem a bit easier,” Elrose noted.

“True, but they power them primarily by geomancy and then use aeromastery with the sails for propulsion. This limits their altitude; they cannot get that far from the ground, and being open vessels, they cannot adjust atmospheric pressure. They have a maximum altitude of less than two leagues above whatever altitude the ground is.”

“But if the mountains rise in altitude, they could repel against that and still climb over the mountains.” Elrose pointed to the large mountains they were now passing over. “I thought you said the Oorstemothians could not scale them?”

Trevin smiled. “In theory, you would be correct, but they cannot pressurize their ships, so they would run out of air. However, perhaps they could create special suits. The bigger problem is that of propulsion up and down the mountainside. The steepness presents their method with serious problems. Their ability to climb in altitude decreases with the incline of the ground they are traveling above.” Trevin grinned with delight while explaining this. “In other words, geomantic lift works perpendicular to the ground. Steep verticals mean they are pushing away from the mountain horizontally. They can correct for that, but they lose climbing capability as the slope becomes infinite. If a mountain slope were completely vertical, up and down, they would have nothing to push off of that would take them up. Add to that the horribly unpredictable winds around such tall mountains and they need incredibly powerful aeromastery to control those winds, fill the sails and not get the ship ripped to pieces.”

Trevin leaned back against the railing. “I wish balling wizardry had always been what it is today; I would love to have shown you their attempts to serve notice on the Grove four hundred or so years ago. It was most amusing — for us, at least.” She grinned wickedly.

“So how high could the Nimbus go?” Jenn asked Trevin.

Trevin made a small grimace as she thought. “Well, technically, it’s only limited by how much mana we have to burn. It’s that resource question again.”

“So could you travel to either of the moons?” Jenn asked.

“I’m not at all sure why we would want to do that,” Trevin said with a shrug, “but if we could figure out how to get enough mana, then probably. I suppose I have never really thought about it. There is nothing of interest on either of the moons, so I see no point in going there. It would also take a really long time.”

Elrose frowned. “The air would be too thin, so how would you move without air?”

“Well the bigger issue is keeping the cloud and what air we have together; however, we can already do that at this high an altitude. Technically, in the absence of air there is vacuos, which can be manipulated by enchantment, as you know. But it would be slow going. However, I am sure Gnorbert could come up with something. It is an interesting thought, I suppose; an excellent theoretical exercise. Hmm.” Trevin was lost in thought for a moment. “Yes, it would be tricky. I am probably going to be thinking about it all night, unable to sleep.” She made a mock stern face at Elrose. “Thank you for sticking that in my head.” She shook her head. “Fortunately, it’s one exercise we won’t ever have to do for real.”

Trevin turned slightly to smile at Gastropé. “Maybe I’ll need to figure out something else to keep me occupied tonight?” Gastropé gave her a small, tight grin, presumably being polite.

Jenn shook her head at the ancient wizard’s more-than-obvious designs on poor Gastropé. She glanced again at the woman’s way-too-revealing clothes. At least she did not have anything to worry about. Gastropé would never fall for Trevin; she was obviously way over a hundred. An image of the woman from last night, dancing on the satyr’s lap, suddenly resurfaced in her mind. She had forgotten that. For some reason, at the bacchanalia Trevin had appeared young and stunningly gorgeous!

How could that be? How drunk had Jenn been? Did she have something to worry about? Wait — what was she thinking? She had no interest in Gastropé, so why was she suddenly worried that Trevin might steal him away or something? It was not any of Jenn’s business! If the two wanted to... ugh, she did not want to think about that. Jenn closed her eyes for a brief moment to get a grip on herself. It was just her naturally competitive nature getting the better of her. She had seen Trevin’s advances and her competitive streak had just kicked in, creating an artificial interest in Gastropé out of a sense of competition. She did this sort of thing all the time. She was sure it was only the fact that Lenamare was so insufferable that Jehenna’s interest in him had not made her competitive.