oh, for fox's sake | Glowfic Constellation

Sasha is in front. She turns around to level a questioning look, then shrugs and continues straight on.

Her passenger asks over the wind, "Should I be concerned about that light?!"

Okay, how to explain this-- how to explain this in a non worrying way.

"It's a thing that happens to some witches, it's kinda a training thing, as a side effect of using a lot of mana. 'A lot' being more like a half to two-thirds. I wouldn't be worried unless it started taking a distinct shape. Then I'd be a little worried, but it's really not likely."

He should have heard of that, if it were a thing. Shouldn't he? Well, he's never actually studied witches.

"Alright! As long as you're not going to run out of mana, do please not crash into the countryside in an effort to deliver me an hour quicker."

"Don't intend to!"

The rest of the flight is uneventful. Mr. Bolard spends much of it trying not to stare at the pretty glowing girl; Taking notes or reading is probably possible in these conditions but he doesn't want to risk it.

Sasha leads them straight to some place at the boat company, an open yard off a bay inlet, and lands.

Landing!

Oof, she has much less essense than she'd like. A nap would be ideal-- but she should probably hang around for the unloading. It's probably not jade, but either way, maybe 'it's [insert colour here]' will be useful to Rost or whatever. She's just gonna sit down out of the way under the wing. And try not to fall asleep.

A squad of workers starts unloading metalworking equipment.

Albert Hensen, that boat guy, comes out with them, barking orders, chokes mid-word upon seeing Marena, then proceeds to pretend she's not there as the unloading of things continues and he chats with the other metallurgist.

Marena's passenger, however, says, "You know... I sort of have to wonder what that's about."

Oh, she definitely waves at Albert. She's obligated to.

"What's what about?"

"You've interacted with our illustrious Karlslandish boat genius before, and he didn't like it, and you're rather relishing that fact. It's at minimum amusing and potentially more useful than that to speculate."

And idle chat while he's recovering his balance and breath from the flight is useful too.

"I did a delivery for him once, and he decided it would be a great idea to shoot the messenger. Don't think he thought said messenger would show up again."

"I sense the possibility of there being more to that story. Because there usually is. But I shan't pry."

"Those are the best kinds of stories. At least when I tell 'em."

"Not really time for a long tale at the moment... And I'd struggle to think of one to tell in return. Maybe the rocket boat. That thing was an awful idea in hindsight. They'll want us two engineers to go inside to talk about our exciting little project and shoo you witches soon, at any rate."

He's digging through one of the boxes on the 'wing as he says this.

"When you have the chance, you have to tell me about the rocket boat."

She does her best not to look like she's looking over his shoulder, while she is totally doing just that.

Investigated claims of objects/materials with persistent anomalous properties Jul-Sep 1404

...Reads the cover of one of the packets of papers he's sifting through.

He finds what he's looking for a moment later and brings out a small book.

"I'm sure I'll be in the area for the next few weeks. Maybe we'll run into each other again."

"And I travel enough that even after that there's a chance we'll cross paths."

'Anomalous materials' is... interesting. Still probably not jade, but still worthwhile to keep an eye on.

"I take it this is good bye for now, then? Theodore Bolard, by the way." He presents his hand for a handshake after a moment of hesitation.

Handshake! "See you when I next see you. Marena."

And the metallurgists go inside with all their tools and boxes, revealing a room totally devoid of boat parts (where it had several last week).

And Sasha the serious-faced witch says, "We go back to post office now. Job done."

You know what? She's found out non-zero things. She'll count that as a win.

She hops into her wing, and hopes she doesn't fall out of the sky.

She doesn't fall out of the sky. She gets paid a big chunk of money by the sleepy logistics director lady (it's late evening by now).

Yay, money.

She'll be more happy about that once she's had a chance to sleep.

Her usual inn is full by this time of night, but there are others here and there. She doesn't run into any trouble finding a place to sleep.

Sleep.

And then get up in the morning, and go and try and find Rost's client. It wouldn't do to keep one of his (and being extension her) clients waiting too long.