The Dragon Stone:

"Well, great. Please give me my hair back."

Arlene complied, her mind spinning.

Tests. They needed to do more tests, that was for certain, but if this was what she suspected, it could be the greatest discovery of the times!

What was the great limitation of machines and devices?

The size of the boiler and the turbine! Even as state of the art experimental machines started to use turbines to send power via electrical wire rather than gearshafts, the problem every engineer faced was that to have more power you needed a bigger machine and a bigger machine needed to use more of it's capacity to carry the fuel and engine that sustained it. Size and weight brought even more problems with balance, wear on linkages and fuel efficiency. Although you could cheat using magic, such as using magic bags to reduce the amount of physical space needed for water storage, all magic items were handmade. Not because they HAD to be, but because the Magician's Union controlled the market for materials and worked to keep the prices high and maintain the status quo.

Thus by extension, the more magic you used, the less suitable a Machine or Device became for mass production. Devices, thanks to alloys that 'remembered' a variety of shapes and forcibly warped to fit those shapes when currents of various amperage's were applied, were far more versatile and complicated than Machines as well as being more power efficient.

Devices could be more compact than ordinary machines that used ordinary alloy's, but were two to three times more expensive than a Machine with a similar purpose.

But if Machine's could be made with a more compact boiler and turbine arrangement that delivered the same kind of output, it would change everything.

As Arlene stared into the distance, there was a draught as the door of the carriage opened and shut behind her- she didn't notice.

A minute later when Harper climbed back inside, went to the bathroom and resumed her shower, she didn't even blink.

Fifteen minutes later, Harper prodded her and Arlene awoke from her reverie with a start.

Harper had already changed into a set of soft buttoned pyjamas.

"Sorry about earlier." Harper said apologetically, sitting down, "I'm a real pest if I have to stop before I'm finished.... y'know you'll catch a cold like that."

Arlene looked at her blankly for a moment, and then recalling her current apparel or lack thereof, quickly changed into fresh underwear and the 'least dirty buttoned shirt' from her bag.

She then went to the wetbar at the corner of the room and poured herself a stiff drink.

Sitting down back next to Harper who'd started prodding the rock holding the glass and the bottle, she downed two fingers worth of amber liquid in a gulp and and poured herself a second.

"Harper. Honestly, I didn't want you coming with me, because, I figured that once I got to Gastielle, I could handle things somehow. But I'm now, very, very grateful that you came along.... and also, more than a little worried."

Harper reached for the bottle.

"If you're grateful you should've gotten me a glass while you were up."

"Hey- Kid, you're still growing-" Arlene grabbed at the neck of the bottle.

"Kid again? I used to be taller than you y'know." Harper's words made Arlene's jaw hang loose a little, prompting Harper to continue; "Oh come on, I was Iron Rank once like anyone else. Surely you know how that works."

Arlene massaged her eyes, trying to get the picture of a giant muscly version of Harper out of her head. The Harper in front of her was a head shorter than she was, freckled and bright and cheerful as the day itself. A question arose in her mind from that thought.

"Uh, do you keep growing after each rank up?"

Harper nodded as she returned to the table, glass in hand.

"They guessed I'll get another five inches before my physique compresses from Bronze to silver during my last checkup. It basically halves each time so it's easy to keep track of. Suuuper painful though."

"Huh. Hadn't thought about it. Harper, forgive me for saying this, but, you're a lot more confident now than you were when I met you this-afternoon."

"Well, that was because when you'd met me, I'd just screwed up my first real job as an apprentice engineer. And also, I didn't really know what I was supposed to do until you directed me around." she shrugged, "It's hard to be confident without experience."

"Huh. I guess you must've had plenty of fighting experience then."

Harper, who had been taking a drink, suddenly broke into a coughing fit.

"Uhhhh, *cough* well now that you come to mention it, not, in so many words. I mean, I've fought a couple of times, but, there wasn't really anyone who could teach me where I was living... and my family wanted me to focus on my engineering studies and control training."

"Are you serious? You did, all that flippy stuff! I thought you'd been training since you were a kid or something."

"Seriously serious... It's like, when, I feel like I need to fight, I just, see what I need to do. I don't even really think about it, it just happens. I haven't spoken to many other Craftsmen or Craftswoman, but it's the same for them, I can understand why we used to be so warlike. Moving my body like that, it's honestly not a bad feeling."

Arlene reached out to muss Harper's hair, and then paused.

"You... are these chairs different heights?"

"What're you talking about?"

"You're taller than you were a few hours ago. I'd say a couple of centimetres at least."

"It happens. I think we've gotten off topic. Arlene, you said you were worried about me. Why?"

"Well, if we can't find my father in a few days, this rock is valuable enough for a country to mobilise Silver or Gold rank Craftsmen away from their normal duties."

".... I'm sorry, what? No magic trinket-"

"It's not magic. I don't think it is at least. As a catalyst for water vaporisation, it could give a country a massive military advantage... Not to mention."

Arlene reached into her bag, took a deep breath and said-

"Dragons Stone."

The stone she pulled out, was heavier than the one from earlier today.

Harper blinked and then, with a hint of trepidation asked-

"How many?"

"Any kind of Container with Dragon Stones inside."

Arlene's hand came out holding a cloth bag, bulging with rocks.

Harper caught her breath.

"... How much would that be worth, exactly?"

"I guess it depends." Arlene replied, letting the rocks spill out onto the card-table.

"On what exactly?"

"On whether a geologist can tell us where these came from. A few rocks alone are incredibly valuable, but if there's a vein of this stuff somewhere, and I have a sneaking suspicion there might be-"

"If I was a country I'd throw everything I could at finding it... But why did they only have a piddly little iron ranker just now?"

Arlene had been thinking pretty hard, but, figured she had a good answer to that one and told Harper how the first group of men had known that her grandfather had found the rock originally.

"So you see, they might've been searching for maybe sixty years now. I can imagine that the number and importance of the people looking has gone down."

"-But now they're sure you have it, they're going to put a lot more effort in... Hooo boy. Well, at least, they'll try to keep it a little on the down-low since they won't want other countries to notice. But we'd best rescue your father and go into hiding quickly if we don't want to get smashed by some millitant gold rank."

Arlene nodded.

"Well, don't look so dour. Arlene, put those rocks away, and we'll have ourselves a game before bed." Harper opened the deck that had been graciously left on the table and started dealing.

"I... shouldn't we plan?" Arlene picked up the cards all the same.

"We won't arrive until about eleven O'clock tomorrow, we can plan our attack in the morning. In the meantime, you've got to stop stressing out. It's bad for your heart. We'll start with blackjack, Hit, Stay or Fold?"