"The plants of the Reach grow real big, real fast, and real unpredictable. Bronzewood is one of the more useful ones - it's tougher than nails, it's available to get a lot of, and it gleams beautifully. A consignment of heart-bronzewood - a crate of the stuff in the center of the trees - goes for one hundred seventy five Sovereigns typically, but prices up to two-seventy or as low as a hundred aren't unheard of!" She blushes. "...I had to memorize a lot of prices as schoolwork."

"Heh. Makes sense. Where's a good place to find a tree?"

"Bit barren around here but the Nature Reserve is lush and verdant. A side passage or somewhere deep in the vegetation and you'd find one pretty quick. There's also Traitor's Wood but that's a horrible place. And far away."

Hesitation.

"Can I fly with you or's that a terrible idea?"

"That is not remotely a terrible idea!" 

She smiles, slightly. "It'll be different to fly outside of something I helped build. Seeing something of the wonders of the sky from up close, without it trying to kill me - pretty unique experience. We could maybe find a vein of time for you to look at, too."

"Are they pretty?" 

"Ah, sort of, but I could show you what they do." She pats a recovered toolbox. "Hours are new, right? And learning by doing is the fastest."

"That it is." 

She takes her dress off again and changes. 

From outside the train, it's easier to see the entirety of this form. At her base, she looks something like a giant crab about the size of a football field, with legs and pincers in proportion. It would have to be a decorator crab, though, with an entire palace on its back, towers and spires rising to their highest mountain-like peaks in the center. And the whole thing is made of diamond, and the "palace" is shot through with tunnels and chambers that give it an odd bubbly sparkle. 

She floats over in her sky-suit again. When she grabs on to one of the back-palace spires she finds herself being pulled down gently and pushes off again before it can take hold.

She hooks her tether to a convenient pillar and settles in one of the tunnel mouths, where her feet settle firmly. "Apparently you count as an island or a vehicle. That's the rule for what has gravity - islands and vehicles. Wait, can you hear me? This is so strange..."

"I can hear you! On the earth's Surface I can hear the Sun speak." 

"Huh! Stars speaking wasn't just a story thing? You could carry their engine to a safe spot, then we go look for Bronzewood and Hours, I think? I can point the way, if that navigator guy doesn't."

"Stars speaking isn't just a story thing! They speak Correspondence. People call it the language of stars but I think that's a little silly 'cause lots of kinds of people speak it, like Messengers and Curators, not just stars. But stars are at the top of the chain so I guess it's not surprising. The Reserve was that way, right?" she asks, pointing with one claw. 

"Yeah. Keep going straight past the Memorial to the Unknown Rat, the sky widens a lot past there but keep going, and when the major path splits, go left - and we'll be close enough that it's time to find a good landing spot for the pirates to disguise their engine. I'd like my family and the Lucky Strike's crew back somewhere else."

"That's really reasonable!" 

She keeps an eye out for the referenced landmarks. 

The Memorial is a surprisingly huge statue of a rattus faber holding a wrench, lit up by a few lonely lanterns.

Several hundred miles on, the sparse vegetation on lonely rocks gives way to a fierce riot of mushrooms and greenery. Mostly greenery, the mushrooms are outcompeted. Another hundred miles, and the wide sky-path splits.

She goes left. 

"Is the Memorial for all the miscellaneous rattus faber that died before they were properly recognized as people instead of pests?"

Her passenger is in something like awe from this magical experience.

"Well, it's officially for all those that died colonizing the High Wilderness. But I think that's what got people to respect them, working to build desperately needed things together. Oh - watch for Chorister Bees. They're worst at Titania and deep in the wilderness past the Reserve, but there might be some out here."

"What are Chorister Bees?" 

"...Uh, they're giant bees. They sing. They swarm, their songs knock you out and then they eat you. Nasty sting, kills fast."

"Well, they can't eat me, I'm made of diamond. Maybe you should scoot a little farther back so if we encounter any I can shut the door on you. Are they connected to devils?"

"I have no idea. And sure." She scoots back.

"Hey, that plateau there, on the left above the little waterfall, would be a good place to put the marauders. We're close to the Reserve. They can start on the rebuild - if you'd warn them not to take the pieces I need - then we can go looking for time and a tree?"

"Okay!" 

She puts down the marauders and the unnecessary pieces. 

Her passenger guides her into the side-passes and canyons in the great jungle, staring around at the sky flashing past at immense speed.

...Over there is a swarm of dog-sized bees, passing over the jungle below and humming a chorus that sends the other animals running.

...She's curious but the responsible thing to do would be to find some later when she doesn't have a squishy passenger or time-sensitive responsibilities; she'll ignore them if they ignore her. 

The bees hide below the canopy when she passes near.

A bit later, "There's a Bronzewood tree!" It's as wide around as a small house, and proportionally tall. You could build a small village in its crown.