Chapter 43 – EVO
***Tirnanog, Mount Aerie***
***Magnus***
The next day brought a reunion with my sister.
When Astra took us out to the carriage for the long-awaited round trip, Iv was already waiting there, dressed in very practical trousers and a cream coloured blouse.
Ivonne! I didn’t see you yesterday. Where have you been? I asked once we were within comfortable talking distance. I thought you would come running when we returned.
Iv pursed her lips. How am I supposed to come running when I didn’t even know you were back early? I am not the type to sit at home and anxiously wait for your return when you are supposed to be on a honeymoon trip!
I coughed, unsure of how to reply. Guess I still hadnt truly arrived in this strange new world. Everyone was referring to my outing with Astra as a honeymoon trip, but it hadnt felt like one.
Without pause, my sister pulled a small notebook from a large pocket on her trouser’s thigh and showed me a tightly packed timetable. My new ‘Mom’ apparently thinks I am lacking in education. She had that old hag pack me a tight schedule. From morning till midday, I have theoretical courses for wildlife and animal behaviour, plus advanced math and calligraphy. Then I barely have the time to take a bite before I have practical sessions and the evening is blocked by hospital visits!
Who is a hag? Astra asked in her friendliest tone while linking arms with me.
Mary, Iv stated unashamedly. That woman is a taskmaster if Ive ever seen one.
Astra paled and whispered. Don’t let her hear that or things might get dire for you. Mary is mean enough to go through with making peoples lives miserable if they displease her.
I felt uncertain whether I wanted to cheer on Iv for having the bravery to call out the old elder, or whether I should be warning my sister away. I didn’t dare to trigger the woman because my sixth sense told me it would end badly for me.
Instead, I chose to switch topics. Hospital? Are you sick, Iv?
No, but Sienna is interested in some nerve relaxant inside my blood. She has me coming in daily for blood samples and additional tests, my sister explained and shrugged. I am fine with it as long as I am not treated like an experiment. Plus, it gives me a chance to see Thalia and Tor every day.
Who’s Tor? I asked.
A friend I made. Iv played with a lock of hair and grinned stupidly. And before you try giving me the big brother routine, Tor’s nice. You aren’t allowed to bully him.
I blinked, taken aback. I had no intention of doing that. You’ve survived on your own for years. As long as you don’t prove to me otherwise, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt when it comes to choosing your friends.
Iv gawked at me. I thought I got my big brother back so I could sic you on people I dislike. Are you intending to be a stranger now?
Then let’s see this Tor and give him some gas! I proclaimed jokingly. How bad could it be if Thalia knew the guy? I hadnt known her for long, but I was sure the woman would have said something if Tor was a bad influence. Her ability to look into peoples minds was uncanny, so as long as Thalia cleared the guy, I wasnt worried about Ivs safety.
Maybe some other time? Astra pulled me towards the carriage. I am afraid the day is already allocated. We can call ourselves lucky if we manage the entire round trip till late evening. Twelve hours of daytime and thirteen stratas to visit. If we account for travel time, thats half an hour for each strata.
I laughed and allowed Astra to herd me and Iv into the carriage.
Just out of interest, why do I have a glowsponge floating through my quarters? Astra asked once we were sitting, derailing the conversation towards yet another topic. Those things are weeds in the truest sense of the word. If we arent careful, we will have them growing all over the place.
She was referring to the floating, orb-like sponge which we had encountered in the Maw. Interested in its ability to generate and more importantly, capture, hydrogen or whatever gas it used to float, I had pocketed the thing.
I remembered taking the plant out of my rucksack when I returned to our quarters last evening, fearing it might die if kept in a confined space for too long. Its something I was thinking about. I was impressed by its ability to generate and contain enough hydrogen to float around. I seriously cant understand why nobody would use that to build airships or zeppelins. It would make it much easier to get around. Imagine us taking a zeppelin between the Old Camp and Mount Aerie!
My partner pursed her pretty lips and smirked at me.
What? I creased my eyebrows, feeling like I was missing something.
Nothing, dear. She squeezed my cheek lovingly and giggled. You will see.
Astras tour was more like a guided bus tour than a real visit to pay the various stratas homage. Iv and I got to ride to points of interest while Astra played tour guide.
As it turned out, my first visit to the central cavern had shown me only some public areas where people from different stratas could mingle with each other.
We began with the first strata, led by Elias and Judy Walsh. According to Astra, the first provided the clan with general labour and other odd jobs. The people from the first were the ones who maintained the public facilities and provided other stratas with manual labour when tasks had to be outsourced.
Their quarters were the most down to earth I had seen so far in clan Aerie. Living mostly in wide hallways which had been cut into the mountain, the people were tightly packed but healthy. It was as much as the powerless could hope for.
Something sobering to see was that even here, I could barely make out any children. The closest were some teenagers on the verge of adulthood. It had been already pointed out that the clan was very protective of their next generation and practically hiding them away, but the true extent hadnt sunk in yet.
On some level, I also expected to encounter something like slums among what could be called the clans lowest societal group, but I saw nobody who was too badly dressed or looked to require immediate help. Having a representative in the clans political leadership was an advantage.
We soon left what was essentially the firsts residential area.
The second strata belonged to Leo and Rita Brien. They specialized in what could only be called large manufactories where people operated various machines by hand to create all the odds and ends the clans population needed.
As a person from Earth who had grown up in a first-world nation, I was used to the idea of fully automated factories. What I witnessed here was a throwback to much simpler times.
Nonetheless, I felt impressed with the level of automation the Aerie had retained besides losing access to computers.
When we took a short detour through a manufactory for general tools, I got to witness first-hand how people could make do without electronics. The energy was provided by water pressure and computer controls had been replaced with pneumatic logic systems. It allowed the second strata to operate at a level close to the industrialization of the early 20th century. Some of the solutions these people had come up with were so mind-boggling that I couldnt have reproduced it if they had handed me the finished pneumatic system to copy.
Astra introduced us nonetheless to an extensive office complex with people whose profession I could only label as scribes.
The Mora were in charge of law and order throughout the clan. They managed cooperation between the various stratas and played judge for conflicts within the general population.
Thankfully, Astra explained they werent something like judge Dredd, judge and executioner in one. If a matter was brought to their attention, they would judge the case according to clan law and allow a stratas guard to execute the judgement.
If it was a case with political ramifications, the councils personal guard usually got involved as a somewhat neutral party.
But sometimes, if especially powerful people had to be apprehended, the twelfth would have to send out a hunting party, as Astras people had the strongest fighters. It was extremely rare for the council members themselves to be involved in the apprehension of criminals.
The fourteenth strata specialized in trading and exotic goods and was led by Harold and Xina Lloyd. Their main trading partners were the Caravaners, but they also sent out their own expeditions to uphold direct contacts with other clans. Accordingly, they operated a large warehouse complex and an attached auction house.
The auction house, located near the top of the central living cavern wasnt much to talk about for someone who had seen countless theatres.
If there wasnt an auction taking place, people would often use the stage to organize plays or operas for the publics entertainment. There was a small but professional group of artists who had made it their goal to revive some of Earths entertainment culture.
Last but certainly not least, we had the fifteenth, led by Skye and Juliana Rumen.
To see their facilities, we had to take a railway lorry to the mountains top. There, they entertained a genuine underground hangar and I finally got to see what made inter-clan warfare even possible in a world where a wandering army was more likely to be eaten by monsters than to encounter the enemy.
Clan Aerie entertained a fleet of hundreds of what I could only call airships?
They relied on giant versions of the glowsponges to keep them afloat, turning them into something similar to floating islands. Which was why I was reluctant to call these things zeppelins.
Essentially, they relied on the same principles as a zeppelin, but they were zeppelins taken to the next level.
Also, a whole third of the hangar system was dedicated to a tame drake colony.
What was a drake?
Well, it was a tame and very lean cross between an eastern and a western dragon of lore with four enormous wings. The body was almost snake-like when they drew in their stubby legs and, listen to that, they had a jet propulsion system!
What the actual fuck? I stood agape, looking after one of the animals, including rider, fart itself from one side of the huge hangar to the other. Admittedly, the sound was closer to a stuttering jet-engine running out of fuel, but it reminded me of southward winds blowing nonetheless.
It flies by farting! I exclaimed.
Astra quickly covered my mouth with a filament and looked around. Dont let any of the riders hear that or they might challenge you to a duel.
I pointed at the creature closest to us and mumbled through the filament. Mmh. Mhut-
I know how it looks. Astra slapped my hand down. Stop that, its rude. They arent farting! The drakes take in air through the gills along their necks. They then compress it with the muscles inside their bellies and expel it through a sphincter thats completely separated from their anus. All of it is their breathing apparatus. None is connected in any way or form to their digestion tract. They simply breathe in and breathe out somewhere else.
I raised my hands, admitting I simply had to accept this biological improbability as fact. For now. After all, it was right in front of me. How did something like this even evolve? Had drakes some amphibian ancestor who used octopus-like propulsion methods and simply decided one day to shoot out of the water and into the sky?
What do they eat? I asked, while eyeing the colony of huge animals warily.
Glowsponge and other plants, but they definitely prefer glowsponge if given the choice, Astra explained. And they are a lot lighter than they look. Most of their main body is filled with the sponges gas.
Meanwhile, Iv eyed the airships with a suspicious frown. Is something that large even supposed to fly, given this worlds gravity? I mean, doesnt the higher air pressure on Tirnanog make balloons an impossibility?
My attention was drawn away from the drakes. Iv, what was your grade in physics?
She looked at me, confused. I never had physics while I was with the Thich.
I curled my fingers, imagining to strangle someone who was lucky enough to be out of my reach right now. Once I had my impulses back under control, I placed a hand on Ivs shoulder.
Iv, buoyancy has nothing to do with the strength of gravity within a given system. Well, aside from finding yourself inside a black hole, but there was no sense in needlessly confusing her. Its just about something displacing more mass than the displaced volume of liquid or gas around it would weigh. As long as thats taken care of, things can float no matter a planets gravity.
On the same account, I dont believe Tirnanogs air pressure is that much higher or lower than Earths. Ive cooked a lot of stew since coming here, and I havent noticed much of a difference in the boiling point of water, nor did my eardrums pop when they threw me through the portal. Air pressure isnt just influenced by the strength of gravity. Its also about the amount of air above you. Which means Tirnanogs atmospheric layers just have to be smaller than Earths to explain the conditions. Less air above us means less pressure, capisce?
Ivs eyes flicked to Astra, searching for help. She looked like a deer caught in the headlights.
Meaning, she understood nothing I had just said.
I looked towards Astra who wore suddenly a distant expression and stared into the middle distance.
I sighed. I think Ill have to talk to Teresa. Maybe she can have a practical physics component added to those Math lessons you mentioned.
Nooooo! Iv wailed with the typical stubbornness of a student.
I patted her shoulder with a smile. Dont worry. I am sure Astra will be elated to join you.
My wife coughed, but didnt dare to speak up.
Eventually, the tiring tour came to an end and we returned to the mansion with me being a lot wiser about clan Aeries capabilities.