"I'll set it up later. For now, want to watch me fly this thing?"

"Yes!"

He undoes the ropes. He turns on the engines. He vents a little gas. He carefully notes down some things in a book. He nudges the controls this way and that as the ship slowly starts moving under its own accord.

He seems to enjoy piloting.

"I was planning on hitting up another farm or two for more food before heading to a town, but I can skip it if you'd rather - a sun mage's output can keep me busy much better than a farm's."

So cool.

"If you'd rather. I don't know enough to care yet."

"One more farm it is, then. Feel free to ask questions, of course. And I'll show you the raw material for my gold payment when we stop for the night."

"Do you know how many people live on Cloudbank?"

"Not to any precise number. If I do a guess based on... Hmm, there's perhaps five to ten thousand people in a large town. Large towns are a hundred or so miles apart... Given the size of the planet is about 20,000 miles... Multiplied by..."

He scribbles some calculations onto some loose paper.

"Somewhere between two and five million. Probably."

"Wow. That's a lot, especially having no magic and just these islands to live on. And I get the impression people live better here than they do in Har."

"...Huh. That's actually really surprising. I would think that mages would make the average Hari really rich. Then again, technology's a wealth multiplier too and we have a lot of leftover ancestor knowledge. Hmm."

"It's not the wealth, it's... Har has more metal, if Kar's home is typical the buildings are bigger in Har and Har has nicer carpets and more convenient windows. But I was afraid all the time there. And no one would ever just take someone in for no reason, just because it was the right thing to do. And I think you might have fewer people dying... maybe not, maybe Har's population is smaller because of pre-empire times, but I think in Har they'd have trouble getting to five million people. And it seems like it was so easy for Kar to just go live by himself. And you..." He shrugs. "You have so much you can just give it away and you can let someone in your home without being afraid even if there's no agent of the law who even knows where you are. Even if you, I don't know, can't stop hurricanes, I don't think Har is better. ...You can stop hurricanes, right?"

"We can't stop hurricanes or firestorms or downwinds, only avoid them or ride them out. Kar's home is small and simple by comparison - and I imagine he has trouble getting everything he needs, he's risking getting sick or get eaten by something. Yeah, there's something to be said for... Peace. Neighborliness? There's pirates and slavers out there, Kar was being very kind actually, but people like Kar are fairly common. Also, I wouldn't let most people in my home, it's a bit of special circumstances here. Also also, I have weapons just in case. By the way."

"I guess we need to figure out how to stop all the slavers before this place can be perfect. Why can they do what they do?"

"Because there's no global law enforcement, probably. And boarding ships and stealing things and kidnapping people isn't generally risky enough that some people won't try it. Sometimes folk become pirate-hunters, just to make the skies a little safer. Sometimes the big towns will pay a ship of pirate-hunters to be on retainer and circle the area hunting pirates. If pirates get taken down a lot, the risk-versus-reward looks different, see. That's too risky for my blood, though."

"I would do it but I might be worth more alive than anyone else on this planet."

"Quite. We actually aren't that used to using metal for things, since we've done without for so long. If you were, say, a force mage, or an information mage, you'd probably make a pretty effective pirate hunter. But as it is, what's best for the people of Cloudbank is probably lots of titanium and copper and silicon and so on."

"We should figure out how to fix your magic, too. Otherwise you'll all have the same problems as before once I'm gone."

"That, I have no idea where to even start - if we ever had magic in the first place, that is."

"Kar mentioned a gate, but he didn't know where it was or how to get to it."

"The Stargate. It's in space somewhere, in orbit. Also, blown up."

"So we'll figure out how to get to space later. And how to survive there."

"And fix it, you suppose? That project may be beyond my ken even with a sun mage helping. I'd think it's better to focus on what you can do for people while you're here."

"I guess."

"We can look into it. It might be possible. I just don't think jumping directly to 'fix the stargate' is a realistic goal yet. It might be later. Especially if I find Milliways again - you could go back to Har, or your version of Har, rather, and fix it if we do.

"I will go back to Har with an army or not at all. But maybe by then I'll have one." Sigh. "Yeah, we'll worry about that later. You're right."

"Armies are a bit hard to come by. Armies that can stand up to death and heat and force mages moreso." He shrugs. "The other you seemed to be dealing with it alright, but it's your choice. Back to airships one-oh-one, then?"