Life went on. Although the loss of the prototype impacted his mood considerably, Ves knew he shouldn't dwell on it too much.
"The most important task right now is to finish the design." He whispered to himself.
He cast away as much distractions as possible and let go of his concerns about his volatile surroundings. The contradiction between the reformers and traditionalists still raged on, but his role was set in stone.
Completing the design of the Transcendent Messenger mattered more than anything else. His plans and Calabast's plans hinged on its success.
When Ves and Ketis finally returned to the workshop, they went back to work. Ves already analyzed a good amount of test data, but the processors at the guest compound were too weak for his purposes. The mech workshop offered much more capable processor banks that specialized in performing mass calculations typical to engineering projects.