The next day the workshop was quiet. Laveki had finished her job and I still had work to do.
'Since Kursattle is taking care of the prototyping, my designs can be a tiny bit rough, Let's start with the destroyers.'
I started drawing, this one would have to be quick, so I designed a thin hull with four propellers. Up next was weaponry, this one threw me through a loop.
"If I use net launchers, they will be slower but the projectile will be harder to dodge if the enemy doesn't suspect it. If I use repeating crossbows, then the projectile will be fast, but cover a smaller area, so that would be harder to hit with. What's something fast with a wide area?"
I thought for a moment and had an epiphany.
"Fire hoses! Water is fast and can hit a large area! The water doesn't have to kill them, just knock them out of the sky!"
'Water is really heavy though, you're going to need large balloons to keep this one afloat.'
'Not nearly as large as the ones my old self used. We can handle it.'
I widened the hull a little bit and fit a water tank into it.
"This won't work. Too much water is needed for the required flow rate, but if instead it were steam..."
I added a ring at the end of a water cannon that channeled thermal Eneru.
"The steam should mess with pressure mages since the water doesn't have Eneru in it."
'There won't be very many pressure Eneru users on that ship if its offense involves heat, how will you power the propellers?'
"A steam engine powered by thermal Eneru shouldn't be hard, plus they can stop at a lake and refill before battle."
I got to work designing the relatively simple mechanisms that would make up the steam engine. It would be a compound steam engine, steam would go from small chambers to large ones. Practically, this meant that steam would be reused, increasing efficiency.
"So we have the body, propulsion, and the weapons. All that's left is testing and some nitty-gritty details."
********
The final product was elegant and strong-looking. It hung from large balloons that were painted blue to hide against the daylight sky. The hoses protruded like quills on a porcupine and the hull was painted vibrant colors to draw attention away from the balloons.
"This kind of camouflage only works once or twice, so we will have to revamp this ship quickly, but it will work for the attack on Gluaze."
I submitted my final draft and the model to Kursattle.
"Next I'm going to do the enchantment, soon the airships should be coming off of the line. This is just going to be a lot of scribing, it works the same way as Golem Glass."
I set my paper out in front of me, it was a standard spirit page, but I knew something was off.
'There is no way I can fit this entire enchantment on this page, and the only way I know to bind more than one page is to use the forging method that was used for Changeling Armor.'
'Either Kursattle wants you to give up the method, or he underestimated the size you would need, go ask him for a bigger page'
I made my way out of the workshop and it felt like I entered a whole new world.
'What in the name of Order? Someone renovated the entire house while I was in the workshop? Admittedly, I do sleep in the workshop often, but I figured they would at least tell me.' I paused. 'Hmm, who's the one who's been dropping food off for me?'
"Hey, little one. Like the renovations? I thought the house could use a womanly touch." A feminine voice came from behind me.
I turned around and looked up at my mom. "Hey ma, so you did all this?"
"Yeah, sure did, Laveki helped a ton though, she is remarkably good at lighting a room properly."
"I wonder why?" I asked sarcastically.
"I'm going to ignore that comment. Anyway, how is it?"
"It's good, the lighting emphasizes some of the prettier areas while hiding the necessary ugly parts."
"Thanks, here's your lunch."
She handed me a box, turned me around, and gave me a little push.
"Bye ma!" I made my way to Kursattle's office in disguise.
When I opened the door, I was greeted by a violent scene, Kursattle was holding a bloody khopesh and was fighting off a man with one arm. On the ground was the corpse of a natural.
My disguise melted away and a spear emerged from inside my changeling armor.
"Mr. President get down!"
Kursattle ducked and my spear flew like lightning, striking the human squarely in the chest. He stumbled, but regained his footing and glared at me.
"Foolish natural, throwing away your weapon leaves you vulnerable." He kicked the president away and charged me.
Contrary to his expectations, the spear started spinning in his chest and huge speeds. He roared out in pain as the tip changed shape and eviscerated his insides.
Spitting blood he ripped the spear out of his chest with great effort.
"Don't think a human is so weak!" He resumed his charge, but my spear returned to my hand and I braced for it.
Just as he was going to reach me, he tripped over a little pile of fur and muscle. His face landed on my spear.
"They really can pretty much keep going until you hit the brain, huh?"