βThis old girl remains pretty intact, actually. Sure, it came apart, but it came apart, well, correctly. Instead of like, pieces snapping in half. Weird. Probably just got lucky. So Iβm guessing, like, a few weeks. And then another few weeks of testing to make sure she can withstand the storm. For that, I may need Kalishaβs help, but itβs too hard to explain,β Chloe answered without making eye contact.
But then she sighed happily as she realized Sita was taking an interest in her career. In
her, really. It was rare that anybody did; Alice of course did, but that was it. Even then, she could sometimes seem mentally far away as she tried to protect Chloe from whatever was going on, but that wasnβt her fault necessarily.
And the question was very interesting, actually. Perhaps the idea of seeing a woman as an airship pilot was too radical for most, as nobody really knew how to start small talk with her, or engage with her in general apart from as a tour guide. (And, to be fair to them, she didnβt know much about how to do small talk either, and hadnβt had much practice in Edinar.)
βWell, yes and no,β she said after pondering it for a moment and beaming up at Sita. βNo, because Iβm not a dragonling, or a faerie, and so
staying up in the air requires a lot of work. Like, itβs amazing I have time for anything else when thereβs so many systems to check, like the wheel, and the rudder, and the pneumatics, and the engine, and the...β
Once Chloe realized she was trailing off, she course corrected by saying, βBut once you do that work and are
just flying, it becomes a truly amazing experience. Like...someone made a luminograph of the Divine Gathering, a series of jagged mountains in western Gudaria I saw a month ago, but it doesnβt capture the majesty of this view. I...could go back there sometime. With you. If you want.β
With that, Chloe blushed and handed the
light etching off to Sita, showing how it looked like several gods were having a secret roundtable meeting, surrounded by heavy fog.