The trip down to the research level was fairly uful, though Fer getting sidetracked by the promise of all sorts of knowledge waiting just out of reabsp; She really, really wao grab one of the books off the shelves and curl up with it for a few hours - there was no telling what she could learn out here, giveime! Maybe even some secret spellcraft or teiques that the tower couldn't teach her, or just some new skill that would help her feel a little less ie. There was simply too mubined knowledge here for that not to be the case.

  But time kept steadily advang, and the group kept moving down the spiraling stairs; and so with no more than a wistful little sigh esg her, she followed along. Maybe she would have the time to explore on her own ter.

  Ohey desded to the first level where the walls turned from bookshelves to solid stohe librarian stepped off the stairs and over to an archway with metal doors sealing it off. "I'm quite proud of the research we've aplished here," Geoffrey began as he pressed a button on the wall, sounding three asding chimes before the doors hissed open. "This is the upper entrao the boratory and associated research areas, but as you'll soon see-"

  Fer out a gasp as she peeked inside, and even Ember seemed impressed as she opened her eyes all the way for once.

  "-the facility extends well below the surface," he finished with a cheery grin. And so it did; oher side of the chamber they shuffled into, massive transparent walls of - surely they weren't gss, the fallehought, but it was hard to imagine what else they might be - held the outside world at bay. At the top they showed the sky and the o's surface from above, then lower down, the deep blues and teals and aquamarines of the sea as it appeared from underh and within.

  They stood atop a ptform of metal grillwork, it seemed, suspended over a floor littered with meical parts and strange devices, with various dividers seing some pces off - as well as deeper levels that looked to have direct exits into the o. It all seemed very fusing, and Fern said as much.

  "There's a kind of order to it," Ember spoke up quietly, the group turning to look at her. It was the first she'd spoken sining inside. "Not unlike a few maintenance floors I've seen."

  "And? What do you think of our little operation, Ms. Grace?"

  Her eyes half-lidded at the question. "I'd have to see more of it to give an ho answer. But it does i me. Somewhat, anyway."

  Geoffrey smiled brightly. "Well, I'm not sure how long you all pnned on staying, but you're wele to take a look at anything that makes you curious. Nothing we do here is iionally kept secret, you see - it just doesn't get that many eyes on it, what with visitors ing around so rarely."

  Ravenna made a little hrm. "To tell you the truth, I hadn't po be here for aeay, just long enough to show Fern your lovely library and perhaps let her pick out a book or two to copy. She's quite the avid reader, you see. But I'm afraid circumstances forced me to, ah, expand our little... adventuring party to its present size, even though I inteo keep this a retively simple shopping trip at its outset."

  Fern's eyes widened. "I get more books?! To keep?!"

  The librarian chuckled at the outburst. "Well now, I don't see why not. To deny someoheir heart's desire without a good reason would be the height of petty cruelty, and I am not a cruel man."

  "You never have been, darling," Ravenna murmured lightly. "Fern, why don't you go explore the library for a bit and see if you find - ah, we'll say two books at most to keep you from losing yourself pletely. Bernie carry them for you."

  She huffed slightly. "I'm not a helpless damsel, you know..."

  "Merely a precaution, darling; I doubt you'd piy light reading, after all." The dark mage waited until the two of them were out of sight and earshot, and then grimaced slightly. "I rather wish she didn't have to deal with my problems like this, but here we are. How is our joint projeing along, Geoffrey?"

  He raised an eyebrow. "You don't mind if Ms. Grace listens in?"

  "She's newly arrived to these shores, and even then, I rather doubt she has any particur appreciation for the aristocracy, unless I've made a grave mistake somewhere along the line."

  This time Ember arched an eyebrow. "I'm perfectly fine keeping whatever secrets you've got in your closet, but if I were you I'd be more ed about hiding so much from your actual partner."

  Ravenna's brow wrinkled ever so slightly, sidering the words, but she just gave Geoffrey a nod, and he gestured to one of the ses of the bay. "We've made some goress over the past year, specifically," he began, walking along the tral ptform so the others could follow for a closer look. "But nautical pursuits are oter, and subnautical pursuits quite another. More expensive, more dangerous. We've had to do a lot of reinfort ahinking of the design, and even then, we're already pushing the limits of what we mah the materials we have."

  She crossed her arms, looking down at the ungainly, bulbous shape in the bay. It was clearly some sort of vessel, given the circumstances, but the fact was hard to appreciate given that the back half of the thing resently disassembled and scattered aost of the avaible floor spabsp; "So what do you hat I do for you?"

  The librarian half-smiled. "If you find something strohan the shipfed steel or the pressure-gss we're currently using, that would certainly help matters, though other than that it's mostly a matter of getting people who sit in the vessel and not go to pieces. The darkness in the deep waters turns out to be pretty unnerving, even without the ued brushes with undersea life - and you may have noticed we're ly overflowing with personnel out here."

  "You do have a pilot," Ember noted dispassionately, eyes half-lidded as ever. "Unless you've... tried that."

  Ravenna shot her a sharp look, which she ignored and tinued. "If it's a matter of materials, the advas made in the west could certainly prove valuable; but as far as I'm aware they don't export their teology, so you'd have to figure out some way of getting it out of their hands and over here without being turned into paste in the process. Probably more trouble than it's worth, but it is the stro stuff I know - from experience, anyway."

  Geoffrey nodded. "It's certainly something to sider in the long term. As for the princess, she... has some problem with the water. We've worked through quite a few of her personal issues, or at least touched on them, but that's one pce where she hasn't disclosed the specifics yet."

  Ember's eyes narrowed. "Shame, that. Putting her skills to good use for a ge would be... endable."

  The tense sileurned.

  She broke it herself after a moment, with a little shrug. "I'm not going to push her, obviously. Not my pce to, and I promised you already. Don't look so damned serious, you two."

  "Mm. Well then - I suppose I'd better go che and see where my darling has gotten to in her search," Ravenna remarked flippantly, turning with a swish of her coat. "If we don't cross paths for a while, I'll bring her back to the baly."

  "Sounds good to me." Ember waited until the dark mage disappeared as well, gazing down at the submersible - or the pieces of it. "Uhe waters, huh... I wonder what she's up to in such a pce." Her eyes flicked back up tard the librarian. "I don't suppose you have a bite to eat around here, do you?"

  Geoffrey just ughed. "Do we ever! Why, I've got one of the fi seafood chefs around, I daresay." He started walking toward the way they came in. "e with me, Ms. Grace, and I'll take care of the introdus - while she takes care of lunch."

  Fern wahrough the library in a vague spiral at the beginning, looking for anything that would i her as she asded from the research level. Ravenna's library was useful, to be sure, and she hadn't exhausted its tents by any means; but there were certainly some gaps in her knowledge. Yet nothing immediately came to mind, and so she tinued browsing - almost entranced by the massive colle, by the lovingly tended spines in every color, from pin to detly ornate. A bibliophile's paradise, to be sure, and one she hoped to return to again, perhaps for a loay...

  But she remembered that the inal purpose for the trip was to gather supplies; and still frustrated by her own sense of slowing the group down, the fallen hero resolved to find a book to study without dey. But what?

  "Say, Bernie, do you know anything about light and dark magibsp; Like..." Fern pondered for a moment. "I dunno, some way to enhahem, or pensate for their weaknesses, or anything like that."

  The bodyguard rubbed his . "'t say as I've ever been much for slinging spells myself, ma'am, but let me think. I have known a few types over the years to do so... usually with some sort of devi hand, e to think of it."

  She frowned briefly. "A teical mage I am not. Magical devices are a little beyond me right now - though learning about them certainly wouldn't be unwise, I suppose. Anything else e to mind besides that?"

  "Hmm. You might try stargazing a bit, I suppose." Bernard's eyes narrowed slightly. "There are a ways - not that I have any personal uanding, mind you, this is all hearsay. But a ways of giving yic a little boost by getting in tuh the heavens; you know, the stars, the ps, the sun and moons, all that. Back before devices got real popur, that was one of the few ways to do it. As for how... something called 'astrology'. Study of the stars."

  Fern's eyes lit up. "Fasating! I've never heard of it before, I'll have to look it up right away. Thank you so much!"

  "Pleasure's all mine, ma'am," he returned, watg her s the markings on the shelves and floor for a moment, then following her as she took off at a speed that most library patrons would probably sider a little disrespectful to the establishment. But no one was around to hold back her enthusiasm, and she certainly wasn't oo restrain herself under ditions like these.

  A few minutes and a few flights of stairs ter, Fern stood in front of her intended bookshelf, breathing heavily from the exertion. After a moment she straightened up and peered at the array of titles. If I find somethio give me the edge when I , maybe I won't feel like so much of a burden. Her fiwitched, but she was too reverent to touch the volumes directly until she chose one.

  'Introdu to the os' sounded okay, but she knew Ravenna had that in her library; also, most of the books iower were more focused on the heavens themselves. 'A Brief History of the Moons'; maybe too specific, though it piqued her curiosity for sure. 'Navigating by Starlight' - had she read that in abridged form once before? The name sounded familiar, but this was a much thicker tome...

  Fern passed over a handful of other titles, then stopped, eyes widening, as one seemed to dematention. 'Astrological Aetherics'; a medium-size reddish-brown tome with gold lettering. She reached up and carefully slid it off the upper shelf, turning it to look at the front. 'A Practical Practitioner's Perfect Primer (Third Edition),' read the subtitle, putting a smile on her lips. An author with a sense of humor was a good find. She opehe cover and flipped the yellowed pages to the preface, taking a deep breath of that lovely used-book smell...

  "A practitioner like yourself doubtless already knows the power of the leylihat run through the depths of the earth. But should you find yourself far from ourn your eyes to the skies! For with my help, the knowledge in these pages, you will never be too far from the celestial empowerment of: Astrology!"

  "Find what you wanted?" the bodyguard inquired patiently.

  Fern grinned brightly. "I do believe so."