"Harqa would like to say that Koy is neither a democracy nor a country ruled by elves. Because Hestlierre said that FD is a democracy and all the other countries are ruled by elves, and that's not true. Koy is ruled by a council selected randomly. They have shrines, but no elves live in Koy. Once a year, they hire an elph from Nosimasna to visit the shrines and give advice to the council, but the elph is not in charge."

The journey to the diplomatic center will take two cycles. First, to the edge of the ice by barge, down the elevator (which is just another barge, with handles at the top of a rigid frame instead of at the ends of a slab), and carried in the arms of an equartier through a dark tube to the town of Kef, which is full of people and fire and stone buildings and the noise of the ironworks. A warm bath is available, then sleep in a stone box with clean blankets. The second cycle is back into the windy embrace of an equartier on the top of a starlit wall, passing over another town ("Archer's Tabard"), and eventually down into the ground, coming out into a dark humid room. He can rest here, in "Argolake", under the slightly-gray sky and cold drizzle, and then the last equartier ride is through a wide tunnel with barges and an underground river. They split off into a narrow path, and slow, and then the equartier sets him down to walk the last ten minutes by himself though an ordinary underground corridor lit by catfolk.

The diplomatic center itself is mostly just a bunch of tall rooms, each with a bed, a table, a tray of sand, a lot of chairs including some unusually large and small ones, and a small window in the ceiling admitting steady orange light. There's a conference room, and - everyone acts like this is a big deal - a garden on top with tables and a squiggly walking path, surrounded by farmland.

He'll definitely keep Koy in mind. It's good to hear about less influential countries that are less able to control the agenda, too. He even writes a note about it.

The elevator nearly makes him nope right back out of the whole process. They're supposed to have safety features! Nearly does, not actually does. The equatier rides get accepted on 'I've already come this far' logic.

He takes photos of the towns and infrastructure as he passes. It's honestly really cool how things are done with idiosyncratic 'magic' and otherwise low tech. And, yeah, this big building is clearly a lot of effort at this scale. If they're really having trouble with food because the planet is either blasted wasteland or frozen wasteland, it makes sense that a garden is a big luxury.

He diligently teaches English to whoever is interested and avoids more talk about trade and politics and so on except as incidental to teaching English. Exodus can do a lot of things. He's sure that teaching them will go better later, when they know more English.

He's not a diplomat. He's a farmer. Please don't try to influence him. He wouldn't know what to do with it.

He also takes notes on cultural stuff, magic types, different countries, and does also make a spreadsheet with English to Sotalese equivalents, or the best he can do with a normal keyboard, and take photos of long Sotalese passages, to help speed up a computer smart person's attempt at a translator later.

He might be interested in farming practices if there is time away from English lessons. He can't contribute much directly though. They clearly know what they're doing here and and big advances on the state of the art are techy enough he wants to wait for proper contact.

Safety features? He's surrounded by a flock of harpies, what could go wrong?

Got it, he's not a diplomat. See how his room is not the fanciest room available? That one is reserved for the future diplomat.

They have fertilizer (nightsoil and powdered minerals) and crop rotation and a great diversity of varieties. No pesticides, but not a lot of pests; apparently birds are mostly extinct, swarms of bugs can be baited and killed by lieflings, and diseases can be cured by ents. They use a lot of manual labor for tilling and planting and weeding and harvesting - especially gently harvesting from long-lived plants. Irrigation is through buried pipes. They don't use machines much. They don't have any farm animals at all. Their biggest worry is the wind eroding the soil - they spend a lot of effort making more soil with werewolf magic and importing nutritional supplements - and are eager to learn about hydroponics.

The tube reaches the end of the area cleared by Chime and stops. If Audron's aircraft proves unworkable they can resume, but for now, the assumption is that the tube over the ice is not going to reach the aliens; its only purpose now is access to the ice for science and mining. The extra catfolk hired by the FD and Lei are staying - presumably Allheart or Sota or some other relevant polity made a deal providing water to FD and Lei - and there's lots for them to do: strengthen the ice tube, experiment with ways of making ice that keep the tube warmer, deepen and widen the supports for the floor, catalog the kinds of ice and the shapes it makes, and build a scoop near the elevator to catch wind and push it into the tube going darkward so that openings in the tube no longer let in raw frigid air hazardous to everyone who isn't a catfolk or boark.

Chime and Siamek go to practice with Audron. "Neither of us are great flyers, but we do have wings. If the turbowing is about to crash, how should we help? Also, are we light enough to count as only half a person each? Then we could take Hestlierre and have space for two more, one Lei and one neutral... I'd like at least one more catfolk, with Tolesli from Lei as a natural choice. Maybe one tengu body, for communication and for additional flight, and I think they're pretty light too."

If they get stranded, he could call for help, and FD might equip a rescue mission with another radiobug to find him. But without Mofil here to approve that comment, he shouldn't say it. The very thought makes him sick.

The turbowing gently floats into the air, slightly wobbly and turning ponderously by tilting strongly to one side. Everything looks quite far away once you're up high. The wind tugs over their faces over the open top of the long trough in the central body where the seats are.

After careful weighing he agrees to a passenger list of himself, Chime, Siamek, Hestlierre, and two more if they're light enough. It'll be crowded. They can rearrange the chairs... Everyone will need to bundle up even with catfire to warm them. Because of the wind.

A crash would probably occur at around thirty or so klicks an hour; That is a fast sprint for a non-equartier, which isn't too terrible an impact. He thinks it would be best to brace yourself as best you can and just endure the hit? Duck down and curl up and wait for it to stop. They can wear rope harnesses like some harpy-barge riders do. The alternate is just jumping out and catching yourself as a flyer but if they're crashing there's not going to be much distance between the turbowing and the ground, so you'd hit immediately. Or hit the tail of the wing on your way out or something.

He's going to keep reducing the craft's weight until it stops completely, if there's an accident.

"We can't help in any way, so it doesn't crash at all?"

"Maybe you could? Maybe not. The metal wings are a lot bigger than yours! And you have to do counter-intuitive stuff to prevent a crash sometimes, like diving to pick up more speed. But even if you could it makes sense to prioritize your own safety, not trying to prevent a crash. We can build a new turbowing, we can hope for rescue if we crash in the middle of the ice, we can't bring back the dead. I guess - tell me if the metal starts to sound off, especially after any violent maneuvers?"

Nod. "I will monitor the metal. I guessss there might not be anything I can do to keep us from crashing, but... diving to pick up speed seems straightforward to me. Vampires mostly glide - we can't frolic in the air like you with your strength and magic - so I know what it feels like to go too slowly and drop like a lost feather. I'll accept that you're the pilot and we shouldn't do anything surprising in an emergency, if you're sure, but... I would rather crash doing what I can to help, than jump free to save myself and freeze to death in the drydark because the catfolk died."

"We don't really know what is the safest thing to do yet. This is all new. I've talked to people and if we hit a wall straight on at the turbowing's minimum flying speed this is about equivalent to - falling twice your height without anything to slow down. People die from that sometimes but they survive it sometimes too, if they protect their head or land well. And I think the most likely scenario that causes a crash, which is unlikely if I'm careful and cautious, is a piloting mistake that ends up in a spin. I wish we had permission to bring my friend Lenora in on this, she has a feel for it after months of controlling a little one with a cursor..."

"Ayyy ya, politics. If you think it's best to stay put and endure the impact, okay... Is there something we can do in a 'spin', on your signal, practicing now? Is there something a swarming tengu could do?"

"Rudder opposite the spin. So if we're turning right, you can fling your wing out left. We can practice signaling that but I don't want to start a spin on purpose."

"Okay, captain."

The tengu, once they arrive, is also amenable. And, with their contacts in Nitatlel, Sota, and the length of the expedition, they count as reassuringly substantial neutral representation.

"How much would Lenora increase the likelihood of success of this mission?"

Shit, he has to be honest... No lying just to get her involved, much as she'd want to be.

"...Probably not that much. A second trained pilot to take over when I get tired would be good, but the list of people coming along is already full and she's FD like me, so, politics." He throws his hands up. "Training someone who's already going to pilot would be a pretty big delay. I think she's going to be better at training people to fly turbowings in the future than me, though. Like, going forward, after this flight. I was planning on making one with two sets of controls, for teaching, but uh, it's only been about... Ten cycles? So we haven't yet. ... I should bring some wakeleaves from a liefling for myself, the trip is likely to take hours and I might need them, I can recover later."

"Is there a reason we can't land on the ice for you to rest? We'd have to pack more food? Not that much more, though..."

"Would it be safe to take the chairs out to save weight? It's nice to sit comfortably and enjoy the view, here, but I expect to be cuddling close to the catfolk when we're in the drydark."

"I don't want to land on ice repeatedly. There could be crevasses or upraised chunks of ice. But we could, if it's better than flying while exhausted. If we end up flying back and forth a lot maybe we build a rest area that's easy to land on and has... Reflective sheets of metal to shine catfire off and spot from a distance and see where the flat bit is, or something, or a catfolk whose job is to wait at the waystation and light it up. That sounds like a terrible job, though. And if we take the chairs out it'll be standing for hours, and that's a lot more tiring than you expect when the thing you're standing on is moving around too."

"I was imagining lying down, or sitting on the floor? If it's possible to pass low over a landing spot, I can check that it's safe before we loop around and land; does that work?"

"I guess that works, we can get blankets. I still need my chair because I have to keep my hands and talons on the controls. ...I feel really doomy about this. Low visibility, uncertain terrain..."

"Landing to rest, or the whole mission?"

"Landing to rest. Landing and taking off is the most dangerous part."

"What if we planned to always land and take off with a tengu swarm? - If you're willing? Or would another harpy help?"