Temperance composes a letter to send home explaining the concept of a printing press and then goes to sleep. She wakes up early and starts doing magic research on her own. Comparing what she knows and what the book tells her. She has a late lunch and then remembers to actually send her letter.
That done she sits in the library and proceeds with her research. She ate enough at lunch that she decides to skip dinner and wait for Kaede while reading.
He looks at Temperance. Then he looks at Felix. Then he purses his lips, trying not to smile, and says, "Okay, then, walk us through it?"
She is glad to do so. Here are the bits she composed and how they interact with each other and what each provides in term of weather-protection. Here are the flaws and energy inefficiencies that they need to work out.
She finishes her explanation, albeit halfway through it she makes some amendments after being hit with sudden inspiration.
He has suggestions! And he had a couple ideas about the inefficiencies, although they're mostly based on his magic and what he's managed to pick back up of sorcery this past while.
Felix offers a few things too. But he is seriously outclassed by the metamancers.
They manage to have heavy-duty super-duper weather-protection ward that is fuel efficient soon enough. A metal ring is used as the focus for the ward. ...And it's up.
Yup. That is the purpose of the ward. Supposedly one of them (Temperance) could test the thing out, first?
As she approaches it, the wind becomes much, much stronger, much more quickly than it looked like it could, or realistically ought to.
Not magically but this is no normal storm. Or ten times one.
That is within the wards parameters. She might get worried if the wind speeds turn literally impossible.
Well, if the wind gets faster then it won't be literally impossible, but definitely beyond what they predicted.
No, it doesn't get faster, or at least not yet. But visibility starts getting lower and lower... except she can see the lightning travelling from cloud to cloud and hitting the ocean, like once every two seconds.
She is well protected against lightning and it is unlikely to hit her midair. She advances just a tad more to be sure it doesn't get worse than that...
Oh boy does it ever.
The lightning becomes even more frequent, and starts hitting itself sometimes, or other lightning bolts, in completely impossible ways. She can see what might be a tornado or two highlighted by thunder in the distance.
She would find this beautiful if it wasn't so intense.
She goes back to report those findings.
The storm does not do anything it hasn't done yet to stop her.
Good. Temperance reports. "I think we should reinforce the bits that protect against electricity and think of something to navigate the place. Maybe try to make the alterations... modular enough that we can just add to them."
"I don't think returning every time we hit a snag is a scalable strategy, the storm is large enough to take several days to cross at normal flying speeds."
"Well, we don't need to return all the way, but we could return to safer areas and shore up our defenses there. Maybe we should invest in something to perceive the environmental conditions better?"
"Our magic is useless for that, the storm blocks all scrying, but maybe sorcery will do better at it."
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