Ted succeeded on his first try to get employed.
"Nice, strong young man, will do! Will do! We'll teach you the assembly shortly! Get in line!"
Everything seemed to be working efficiently. Ted got to grease some parts that looked a lot like plumbing, but from the drawings that Mad had shown him earlier, it was apparent that they were not the desired pipes.
Ted did his job well enough that he was transferred to another department after three days. There was an adjustment period of sorts, but it paid off to be clever.
He found the plumbings.
He greased them, but one part that was deemed too broken to be reused went inside the massive pockets of his shabby coat.
Ted knew Mad needed something more to work with. The way the plumbing had been constructed in the old ships actually told many things about the fuel itself. It was a known fact in the industry that the plumbing was occasionally linked with whatever the airships actually runned on, whether it was steam or something else, and the parts that had to withstand a magical burden inside them had to be made out of magical stuff as well, at least partially.
Ted smirked. He would go to work for a few more days and then quit without further notice. His fake persona had passed all the tests, but he had one more thing to do about the airship thing before his departure. He had a feeling Madorn would protest. He did not tell the scientist about his intentions.
On his last day, he took on a different disguise, one resembling the appearance of a coworker greatly, and sabotaged a vital component that could or could not eventually cause the destruction of an entire airship.
If that happened, it would have been unfortunate for it to happen in flight.
Ted had no real reason. Of course, he had been inconvenienced by this whole ordeal, but he wasn't as much hypocritical as he was just plain evil. He wanted to know what would happen.
He left the massive building just as the target of his impersonation walked in.
Ted quickly changed the way he walked and hid his face, and that was it.
He laughed in his room, tearing away all the signifiers of a lack of wealth, and he was so exhausted and laughing so hard that Eknie came to him, concerned and bringing tea and date cakes.
"Good heavens, no, I will never eat date cakes again, and if you want to know what makes me this happy, keep an eye on the skies and another on the news."
Ted arranged a few things to get them out of the Kingdom in time, but those few things failed him. The weather had turned bad. The only ships that would fly were those with captains with nothing to lose.
Such as Ligurza.
Ted had no idea how the pirate had found him in a little town that was just about to bloat up into a magnificent industrial center. However, Ligurza was here, and he offered the tired trio a ride.
First, though, Ted had to offer the man some emotional support.
Ligurza had been in a bad run-in with the sun god. The deity had demanded continuous sacrifices and the captain had obliged, being the weak-minded lesser individual he was.
Ted feared he might suffer the same fate, though. If demons were bad when it came to moving the goalposts of an already accepted bargain, then gods had to be even worse. Ted did not want to know how demanding the sun god would become if it got the idea in its immaterial head that the Society was to provide regular sacrifices as well.
"I don't think I have ever experienced anything as disgusting," Ligurza sighed and ran his finger around the brim of his tankard.
"I know the feeling," Ted whispered.
"Is it always going to be like this?"
"Convince it. I don't think there's any other way," Ted replied with candid honesty that he did not recognize as his own. "It has to believe in you as firmly and painfully as you believe in it. The best way to do it is to…cast some spells and crack some skulls, so to speak."
A depressed pirate captain was an efficient attention repellent, in the same way that manic and happy pirates attracted everyone's ears and eyes. The girls in their striped stockings did their raunchy dances that showed quite a bit more thigh than Ted was used to, but they did not flock around the sad legend.
Perhaps it was a blessing from the sun god, even though the windows were so filthy that the dirt itself acted as thick curtains. If the deity was willing to help with its rays through that gunk, it had to be better than Ted had imagined it to be.
Ligurza sighed again, and again, and finally he did the nose pinch. Ted almost imitated him, but the cult leader managed to stop his hand and counter the gesture with a manly rub of his hair.
Eknie blushed visibly.
Ted didn't care enough to be angered by her weakness.
"All right, let us go." Ligurza got up and resumed with his piratical swagger.
Ted would have loved to hear more eastern music. He couldn't name half of the instruments, but a doing-doing-doing of what looked a bit like a guitar got him thinking of all the places he could travel once…yes, it would be over one day, one way or another.
Ted was going to determine which course his own proverbial airship took.
They made their exit just as a particularly threatening spot appeared on the horizon.
It grew closer and closer, and as the airship called Pretty Noblewoman arose, so did the big airship behind them. It was flying no colors, which was cause for concern in itself.
"Trim the hatchet sails!" Madorn bellowed to the captain.
"I'm sorry, what? How do you know what they – oh, never mind. YOU HEARD HIM, BOYS!"
The sails were trimmed, and a favorable wind took a hold of the nimble airship.
Winds couldn't last forever, but Ted had hopes that they could ride this one far enough to run.