Alexa didn’t know the first thing about hot air balloons except for the part where she assumed they floated by heating up the air inside an envelope to make the whole vehicle rise. It was logical enough, and she saw the appeal of the weird and varied shapes of them as a form of art…but she hadn’t imagined there would be this much. Then she thought about how long the craft had been around, and it made a little more sense.

Just not completely.

Aerin was like a blur the entire time, dragging her up to different booths to hear about the latest innovation in ballooning. She’d always had that much energy, but unlike Alexa, hers never faded as they grew out of childhood. A miracle, in Alexa’s eyes, second only to the miracle that she wanted to be here at all - especially with her.

“Oh my god it’s so cute!” Aerin scooped up a small model zeppelin on a display. “Does this actually work?”

The pudgy man in a stetson nodded. “Yup! Gotta use a remote though.” He held up a little plastic box. “You wanna see it fly?”

“Alright!” She gently put it back down on the table.

The man pressed some curtains, and something inside the miniature zeppelin’s envelope lit up, causing it to lift off the ground and wobble in the air. “It uses heat-emitting runes, so you have to recharge it.”

“Not…useful for me then,” Alexa said, crossing her arms.

“It was the only way to somewhat stabilise a model that small,” he said, deftly landing it at the other end of the table.

“Oh come on, it’s kinda cool,” Aerin said, nudging her shoulder. “And you could use some casting practice.”

“I’m good,” Alexa said, looking for something else to change the subject. She settled on pointing up. “Which one's yours?”

“Oh, uh…” The man scratched his head. “I didn’t bring a big balloon. Didn’t have the budget.” He chuckled nervously. “I’m a big fan of miniaturisation though! A lighter balloon would need less heating to rise, so there’s less byproduct of whatever they’re burning to make it. Magic’s just one way of doing it, and there was recently this study on whether a seasoned magician can maintain their own balloon with minimal burning. I think it might be more efficient to contain the air and their heat magically though....”

Alexa’s eyes drifted to a booth on the opposite side of the aisle that was set in front of a smaller, grounded balloon, and from its mosaic of colours, it was likely one of the ones that had looked like stained glass in the air. “Oh, hey.”

The exhibitor at the small fold-out table in front of it has scaly skin, and a short snout with little horns along its ridges. Their eyes were large and wet as he looked over at her, the translator implant in their throat flickering. “Oh, hello!” they said in a synthesised voice that wasn’t exactly identifiable as definitely male or female. “Are you interested in my project?"

Alexa gave them her best smile. “How does it look different in the air?”

The saurian slinked over to the smaller balloon, their tail curling into a spiral as they shook the anchor holding it to the ground, and then switched on the heating element sticking out from under the envelope. The inside came slowly aglow, and the surface of the envelope began to unfold from previously invisible seams, a new layer puffing out and creating more dimensionality within the thickness of the material itself. Light lensed through it like glass, even though it-

No, there was glass in there, or something like it. She could see its smooth, curved surface reflecting in one of the exhibition’s light poles. “What is that?”

“Ah.” The saurian clasped their clawed hands together. “I am afraid it is currently a trade secret. But I can tell you it mimics the properties of a transparent, amorphous solid.”

“It looks exactly like stained glass.”

“That is the idea, yes.” The saurian reached under the table and pulled a small piece of darkened, glossy material that was just so slightly translucent in its topmost layer. “Do you have a light?”

“Sec.” Alexa switched on her phone’s flashlight, and passed it under the material. The colour of the sample lightened considerably as light moved through it, turning it more a light grey, with internal refraction present, albeit looking much different from what she would expect with glass. She tilted her phone to shine over the material sample instead, and the way the fresnel dampened the angle of the light was odd to her. “Do you have to light it differently?”

“Good eye! Are you by chance a materials specialist?”

“Ha, nothing like that,” she said. “I’ve just looked at stained glass and drawings of stained glass a lot. The reflection doesn’t really get stronger when at an angle.”

“In the future, when this is licensed, you may be able to make a window not so heavy, no?” He held the piece out to her.

When she reached out to grab it, she didn’t know what to expect, but it felt more like plastic in her hand. A little flexible and flimsy, but it made sense for the construction of something meant to float. “That’s kinda crazy. Is glass the only thing it can mimic? Can you do amber? Resin?”

“The research is not entirely complete. I am seeing other types of light interactions, though. It is just too early to tell if I can reproduce them with a…reasonable integrity.” The words the saurian actually said in their native tongue seemed much longer than what the translator produced, likely from a complexity mismatch. “It has to be strong enough for its applications, so the limits are important.”

“Actually…” Alexa reached into her bag, only to realise it wasn’t her work but a casual bag. “I actually work for an art museum. We might be able to use this for displays and to repair sculptures, I think. Could I get your number? I can discuss it with my supervisor once he’s back on-planet. Maybe you can do a demonstration or something.”

“Oh, amazing!” The saurian produced a phone, and carefully tapped at the screen with a claw that was covered in a rubber slip, before presenting their contact code to her.

She entered it into her own phone, getting a picture of him in turn. “Well, lovely to meet you, uh, Vekh…Ssa-Toruun.”

“And you, Miss Alexa Romilly,” they said as the contact was established on their screen.

“How long are you in town?” she asked.

“I live in the Anaheim satellite district. A couple hours’ drive. But I will be here for three more weeks. Many meetings with production companies.”

“Might send you some examples so you can compare with what you’re making.” She gave them a little wave, and spun around to find Aerin just standing there with a cheeky smile on her face, staring at her. “What?”

“Just realising I haven’t seen you in your element yet.” She flicked the hair out of her face as wind blew across the plateau. “I remember you used to be so embarrassed when I came to see you after your classes.”

“Yeah, because you liked to embarrass me by trying to massage my shoulders and hug me or something.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that. Though now I think you just didn't want me to see how serious and competent you are so I keep taking care of you.”

Alexa fought the urge to cringe, knowing full well it was true. “Or maybe I just used to be super shy and now I’m better with people,” she said, feigning offense. As she turned away for dramatic effect, a familiar face passed by in the next aisle, flitting past displays.

Aerin appeared close, next to her, looking in the same direction. “Was that…?”

“Why the hell is he here?”

“I swear if we can’t just have a day off…” Aerin strode to a gap between the exhibits, with Alexa trailing behind. “Where’s he gone?”

“There.” Alexa pointed, to her dismay, towards a tented area, the fabric branded with the Aerostat logo. “I was hoping to go there later.”

“Well now you have an excuse.”

Alexa stared at her.

“Didn’t you say you needed some kind of glue or something?”

“It’s a synthetic canvas adhesive.”

“Yeah, look, you should just go in there and get it. If Kurt had him watching us we should blow this whole thing wide open.”

She grit her teeth. “Yeah. Okay. You wanna come?”

“Right behind you.”

Alexa strode towards the tent, straightening herself for the confrontation. Her hand rested on the entrance flap for a moment, a hundred potential conversations running through her head. Somehow, Kurt had figured out the exact thing she needed. Another ploy to get her to sign a contract, perhaps? Some kind of loyalty test? Was…Aerin in on-

She shoved the intrusive thoughts down and pulled the flap to the side, ducking into the well-lit interior.

There were shelves upon shelves of Aerostat products, tubes of glues and rolls of fabric, and in between them was a small table and folding chairs, at which Suthers sat, scrolling images on a tablet. Across from him was a woman with greying hair, who Alexa recognised from the company site. She was a little more unkempt, but it was definitely the same woman.

“Miss Lezine?” The words left her lips before she could stop herself.

Both Suthers and the woman looked up towards her, surprise in the former and confusion in the latter.

“Aren’t you-” Suthers started, but chose to stop talking.

“Sorry, do I know you?” the older woman asked.

“I…I’ve been emailing you the whole week. About the adhesive. Have you seen them?”

A glint of recognition in her eyes, and her expression softened into a smile. “You must be Alexa Romilly.”

“Yes.” She sat down next to Suthers, forcing him to shift his seat away. “You’ve read them?”

“Yes, but…I’m a busy woman,” Lezine said. “I was hoping to reply next week, once our preparations for this festival were complete.”

“...oh.” Guilt welled up in her chest. “I’m sorry, I was just…I really wanted to start running tests on the adhesive.”

Suthers cleared his throat. “Uh. Hello again, Alexa. I didn’t know you also liked balloons.”

She turned to him. “Why are you here?”

“My dad used to take me all the time as a kid. I’m looking to repair his old one and take it over the ocean.”

“O-Oh.” She hadn’t considered that one. There she was, thinking like Kurt again. “Um…is this urgent?”

“Admittedly, no.” He exhaled sharply.

“I won’t be long.”

He sighed, and grabbed the tablet as he exited the tent.

Alexa watched him leave.

Lezine narrowed her eyes. “You were light on the specifics. I haven’t heard of that kind of interaction from the painting.”

“Would you like to see?”

“If you don’t mind.”

Alexa reached into her bag and removed her file, a little creased from competition with the laundry bag jammed beside it, and slid it over the table.

It took Lezine only a minute to flick through all the photos, which were mostly of Guernica under the different types of scans, but her facial expressions could tell an entire story on their own. When she was done, she carefully closed the folder and put it down. “This is…unprecedented. How was this kept out of the press for this long?”

“I have it on good authority that the one on display is a Federation forgery.”

“And now the Federation is all but gone,” Lezine said quietly. “Can I ask you a question?”

“...I suppose?”

“When - if - you succeed, what will you do?”

“We’ll display it.”

“Yes, obviously, but I mean with the other one. The forgery. I assume it’s not one or two people who managed that.”

“I believe it’s a whole management board. I’m not negotiating with them, and they have no idea I have this. They’ll just have to face the truth, don’t they?”

Lezine nodded, mulling it over to herself. “You have to understand, I must think of the company first. Can you guarantee there’ll be no backlash from my involvement in this?”

Alexa froze. Nobody had said anything about retaliation. One more thing to ask Mendoza, she supposed. “The unveiling will be a highly public affair,” she said, inadvertently bringing herself back to her essay-writing days. “I don’t think there’s any real way they could spin your contribution as a bad thing.”

“So how much do you need?”

“Only a little. The core of the problem is figuring out what it’s bonded with so I can try and reverse it.”

“Then I suspect you’ll need a lot more. Now I know your museum. I’ll have a courier deliver a batch to you on Monday. Along with some of our internal test documents that might help you.”

Alexa leaned back in her chair. She let out a breath long held in, and ran a hand down her face. “Thank you,” she managed weakly.

“Now if you don’t mind,” Lezine said, “I think Mr, Suthers has business with me.”

“I’ll be waiting for your sample.” Alexa grabbed the file and left, trying her best not to jump for joy or congratulate herself. One obstacle down, out of…possibly dozens. Now all she had to do was trace the restoration attempts.

She exited the tent deep in thought, and before she could start planning the next week’s work, she spotted Suthers standing there with Aerin, in front of…Kurt.

“-one and done and you leave me alone, uh leave us alone for the entire weekend, yeah?” Aerin was saying, pointing an accusatory finger in Kurt’s face.

“I’m already paying you overtime, you don’t need to convince me.” He turned to Suthers. “Not coming?”

“You want me to do overtime, you work it out with my CO.” Suthers spotted her, and took the opportunity to disengage, patting Alexa on the shoulder as he passed her by and disappeared into the Aerostat tent.

“What’s going on?” Alexa asked cautiously, clutching the folder to her chest.

“He wants my help,” Aerin said, frowning. “For like five minutes”

“With what?”

“There’s no time to waste,” Kurt said, checking his silver-plated watch that clashed with the thick designer jacket he was wearing. “They’ll be here any minute. Come on!” He strode off, heading for the edge of the convention area, fully intent on walking off into the darkness.

“Come on.” Aerin jogged after him.

Alexa stuffed the file back into her bag and walked after them, keeping her distance. Kurt was leading them to a copse that had sprouted along the northeastern edge of Mastiff’s Mound, repeatedly glancing at the time.

Whoosh.

Alexa looked up. The air that had rushed past her was unlike the wind that cut across the plateau. This had just manifested directly above them. “What was that?”

Aerin was too far ahead to hear her, sticking close to Kut as he stopped just in front of the treeline.

There was a patch of dark on the grass, and Alexa knelt to grab it. The moment she lifted it, she knew what it was. The light from behind her danced off the lines of the black feather, and just as she clocked that, the trees ahead rustled. Something had fallen, or descended through the branches, and there was a silhouette of two large wings above the bushes. Her mind raced back to the body in the ship, and the strange hand she burned into her memory. Those same claws gripped the trunk of a tree as a large bird’s beak protruded out from the shadows, bright red against the black feathers covering most of its body.

Kurt dropped to one knee, facing down. “Honoured child of the mountains, I welcome you to our lands.”

The tengu beat its wings, producing a brief gust, and stepped forwards.