First, we needed to determine just how much we could scavenge.

Getting the bone clean enough to work with was a process in itself. Once Inertia had the bits she was most interested in, Calbern and I went through stripping the meat.

While Calbern used his sword with precise movements, I was stuck using the less eloquent Flense spell. Technically, it was designed for removing the hide of a creature from the flesh. Since it was designed to work with a wide variety of creatures, including those with a carapace, with some finicking with the inputs, it worked. It just meant that the bones tended to pop to the side on occasion as the spell 'freed' them.

Did leave the bone nice and shiny though.

We spent a day just accessing the spine and cataloging the largest bones, marking out undamaged sections of scales, and retrieving the organs Inertia had left behind. The higher essence in the meat meant the monster wouldn't start rotting, but it was also more of a pain to process and would bleed off most of its value fast without proper storage. Meaning taking the meat wasn't a high priority.

It was a big serpent, so there was a lot of meat.

Tasted good over a fire, something Tresla took care of for us. Apparently cooking was fine even if she couldn't handle the butchery itself.

After we had a simple idea of what we were working with, we started making plans for what we'd harvest, Inertia and I talking the entire time, drawing designs and ideas as we worked.

We didn't want to leave any of the good stuff behind, which meant we needed a way to transport it.

"So… most obvious idea, and I'm just throwing it out there to get it out of the way. Build a four wheeled wagon, then haul it along," I said Inertia and I inspected one of the sections of the serpent's scales that remained too thick to cut through. "Then we could drag it behind us."

After a few puffs of smoke, Tresla said, "And by us, Inertia presumes you mean her. While she isn't adverse to hard work, she has no intention of being a beast of burden."

"Inertia's the one who was so adamant about not leaving anything behind," I reminded them, getting a puff of steam out of the large Forgeborn. "And it's not my only idea. I think we both have better. Maybe we can use the skull to power an enchantment of some sort. Use that to make a powered carriage or wagon."

Inertia paused, nodding her head slowly while tapping at the thick scales. Then she shifted, looking towards the skull, the only thing we'd extracted in its entirety. There was a lot of fire essence in that skull. Too bad it wasn't the easiest piece to work with. We could break it into pieces but then we'd be wasting a lot of the value of such a large component.

"Inertia shall give the matter consideration as you work," Tresla said, not following Inertia's gaze. "I will be at the lakeside, if you need me."

Without waiting for a response from either of us, Tresla left, walking away from the mess that was the dead serpent. That was okay, we had plenty of work to do before we could truly design anything. Our extended labor led into our discussions over the last couple weeks and Inertia and I started coming up with less simple options.

Taking a break, she sketched out a shape in a nearby rock, leaving faint white scratches in the tan stone. What looked like a powered wagon, or even a buggy, one that we could all ride in together, with the skull atop it.

After another exchange - one where Tresla kept looking away because Inertia, Calbern and I were starting to neatly peel off scales - we decided we'd start with a cart, one that could be made into a trailer, then work on the powered part.

As we were washing off after, Inertia started waving her hands around before letting off a large burst of steam, feet sloshing free of the lake water as she stormed over to the pile of organs, collecting them all.

Then she'd gone off to collect her translator once more, the pair coming up to me, Inertia's eyes whirring and clicking as the metal around them shifted.

"Inertia has decided there is only one solution to our problem," Tresla said, shaking her head. "As though an embarrassment of riches is a true problem."

"What's her solution?" I asked, looking over Inertia's selection of gathered organs. All of which were potent. I couldn't help but note the serpent's heart among them.

"Inertia will create a Forgeheart."

"What does she need?" I asked, wringing out my hair while looking at the frankly ruinously expensive selection of organs she was holding. More than half of the value of the serpent, if I wasn't mistaken. "Is that everything?"

"To create a Forgeheart?" Tresla asked from where they stood nearby on the shore, the usual pleasant nature of her words having a touch of something I couldn't place to them as she looked towards the mechanical being next to her. "To be powerful enough to carry all of the scavenged resources, she will need three pounds of your scribing silver."

Three pounds was enough to do thirty pages.

"That's a lot of spells," I said, eyes moving in the direction of the highroad. "Or a lot of repairs."

"It is a significant investment, she agrees. However, the value of what would be left behind far outweighs it, in her opinion," Tresla said, cloak shifting as she pulled her pipe, looking towards Inertia. "I think she also wants to prove she can."

"So… there's a chance she'll fail?"

Inertia turned her head, eyes narrowing as they focused on Tresla, feet shifting in the sand.

"Inertia would like to remind me that she is a master of her craft, having spent more time working the forges than most mortals spend breathing," Tresla said, the shift of her hood and her tone carrying a trace of fond exasperation. "And I'd like to remind her that there's no forge here."

Inertia turned and pointed towards the steam rising from the vents of the hot springs nearby. Then they turned to each other. Rings of smoke rose from Tresla's pipe as Inertia whistled, clanged and hissed out steam.

Eventually, Tresla's cloaked form turned back to me. "It isn't her first time using a volcano to forge such things. Though I was not there during those early days, she has created Forgehearts with even less than we have here."

Honestly, I was suddenly concerned about Inertia's work area. Discovering that the source of the hot springs was an active volcano was a little startling. When I mentioned that, Tresla informed that's how most hot springs worked, at least in the Howling wastes.

"She's not… this isn't how new Forgeborn are made, is it?" I asked, glancing at the large machine like woman, forcing myself onto a different subject.

A musical laugh issued forth from Tresla's cloaked form, a flash of red escaping her hood. "It takes a great deal more than a Forgeheart to make even the least of the Forgeborn."

Spending that much would hurt, but if we wanted this to work, we'd need it. Also… it would mean seeing an example of one of these Forgehearts in person. That alone made it worth the dust. I nodded, pulling the material from my storage ring. "Okay. If that's what she needs."

Inertia accepted the set of four tightly secured pouches the dust was stored within, barely glancing inside the first before hefting them and giving me a nod before striding away with a whistle-hiss.

"Right," I said, stepping out of the water now that I was mostly clean. Kinda wanted to get up and follow, to see her forge the serpent's heart into a magical tool of steel and steam, as she put it. Other than the whole doing it in a volcano thing.

Between the Forgeheart and our cataloging of the serpent's most useful materials, we could make real plans on how to use them. While laying in the sun to dry, I got to work.

A short time later, Tresla found me tucked away in the nook between the big boulder where I'd attacked the serpent and our shelter. Calbern had erected the shelter next to the boulder when we'd decided to stay. I had slid into the nook to escape the surprisingly warm afternoon sun after I went from drying to practically baking.

"How are you going to power it?" Tresla asked as she inspected some of the rough sketches I'd done. There were a half-dozen designs on the scattered pages, none of them ready to be read by others, nevermind put into production, though Tresla had waved that protest off.

"Well, I'm hoping Inertia succeeds in making the Forgeheart. Otherwise, I'm not sure."

"Ah, I misspoke," Tresla said, tapping my drawing with her pipe. "What I meant was, how are you going to use it to power these vehicles you've designed. A Forgeheart doesn't move machines on its own."

"Well, from what I understand of how the Forgeheart functions, it works as a powerful heat source. One that can't be regulated directly, at least with the materials we have available? You guys got kinda cagey about the details. But that's fine. We're going to use some of the bone as heat sinks, since they seem to have a high natural thermal conductivity. Didn't know that was something Fire essence could affect. It's… nevermind, total tangent."

"I… do not know all those words," Tresla admitted, cloak shifting towards me.

Her confusion caused me to pause, the pages under my hand flapping as they were caught once more in the wind. Being able to absorb even esoteric words from the Elinder books had given me a vocabulary I'd never had before, even in English.

It was an eerie feeling.

Shaking off the sensation that slid down my spine, I flipped through my journal to the relevant page. "This part of the skeleton. These parts in the jaw? They absorb and release heat fast. Well, fast for bone. Really fast for bone."

"And that will allow you to power these?" Tresla asked, tapping my sketches of the vertebrae shaped roughly like wheels.

"No. It'll let us keep the Forgeheart from getting too hot, in theory. Most of its heat is probably going to be wasted at this point. We don't have the processes or tools to make use of it directly. What I'm thinking we'll do is use the excess steam you guys kinda hinted it gives off to turn an enclosed paddle wheel or two. That'll be connected to a belt or chain drive and-"

Her raised hand interrupted my explanation. "I believe it will make more sense as it is built."

"And that's how I know you've never assembled furniture before," I said, shaking my head with a light chuckle.

"Then perhaps when the drawing is not, as you said, 'a back of the napkin sketch'," Tresla said, musical chime-like laughter filling the air.

"That'd probably help," I agreed, going back to said sketches to take my rough ideas and make them workable.

It bugged me that the Forgeheart was the only reason we could add power. A more experienced enchanter might've had other options but for all my skill with putting spell to page, I was far from experienced with enchanting. As Tresla had indicated, we needed a way to make the Forgeheart give us motion.

Didn't take a genius to make a wheel, but it did take a little more understanding to run a chain from one smaller wheel to a larger one.

With Fuse Bone, it might be better to simply have a paddle wheel that was attached to a solid drive. Those had issues of their own, especially if we used wheels on both sides with a single solid axle. And providing power to both? Most people didn't understand how complicated it was to get a pair of powered wheels to work nicely with each other.

Maybe two wheels up front with a single wheel at the rear? Would simplify the powertrain a lot, especially if the engine, or Forgeheart, was in the back.

My sketch of the inverse trike was awkward, and I chuckled when I realized the skull would sit perfectly atop it, though it would be facing behind us. Not a huge deal, but not an aesthetic I'd choose, if it was an option.

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While Inertia was working on the Forgeheart, I turned my attention to the wheels.

They'd need to be strong enough to support the rest while also being capable of maneuvering through the occasionally broken landscape. Slipping into Memory Palace, I started placing the vertebrae together only to realize another limitation. The wheels couldn't be smaller than six and a half feet across, since the vertebrae didn't want to tighten up more than that. The thing's wheels were going to be taller than I was.

The nature of Memory Palace made the prototyping easier, though I would have to transition back to reality to see if I could actually fuse things together like I thought I could.

In the end, I determined we had enough of the large vertebrae to make two roughly equal sized wheels as well as two even larger ones that were further restricted by the size of the vertebrae. I could probably squeeze a third out of the smaller bits, though it would take a lot more work to make them into a solid piece. As it was, I suspected it would take me a day per wheel for the larger ones.

And it wasn't going to be a smooth ride for whoever ended up driving the thing.

The pair of same-sized wheels I marked for use in the trailer, since we'd want that even if we couldn't figure out how to make the Forgeheart work.

Then I used Memory Palace to bring up several old designs of paddle wheels, overlaying the bone beside it. Nothing lined up, of course, but I only needed the basics. Simple scoops would be easy enough, I hoped. Shape Tool would give Calbern a perpetually sharp blade he could work with - so long as he stayed within a few feet of me - and any breaks could be fixed with Fuse Bone, at the cost of some of the material's essence.

Annoying as it was, I tried to copy the designs into something I could sketch for the others, making sure to refresh my memories on the principles before I exited.

Standing up, I grabbed my petal rod and designs, making my way over to where Calbern was practicing forms with his sword. An unusual thing to witness in the afternoon. Even he was showing signs of sweating. I found myself distracted even as I settled in to watch, having grabbed several smaller pieces of the serpent's skeleton to practice with.

While Fuse Bone let me combine them in almost any manner I could think of, testing the smaller pieces revealed it was as slow as actual welding and just as finicky. It didn't make them into a single essence material either, stealing away bits of the nearby essence to create the fusion in the first place but not establishing bonds between the pieces I'd Fused.

At least it didn't require me to spend time moving around the heavy cart or cables actual welding would require, saving a lot of time and hassle. As did not needing to wear gloves or a welding shield.

Not that I'd always worn those, if I was just making a quick weld.

Deciding that there were better pieces I could practice on than the wheels, I leaned back and watched Calbern finish his routine. After another few minutes, his blade dipped and he moved to wash himself off in the nearby lake.

After, I recruited him into my efforts, explaining vaguely what I wanted to build. We spent the next few hours testing several different varieties of scoops. One of the weaknesses of Fuse Bone became more apparent the more we experimented. Any single bone had a limit to how often it could be fused.

If Calbern made mistakes in the same scoop several times - which he hadn't, but he'd been nice enough to pretend for the sake of the experiment - then the fused material would lose strength. Eventually, it would be as weak as regular bone, defeating the point of using it in the first place.

"It is a good thing we tested this with the smaller pieces," Calbern said, gaze shifting towards several of the large vertebrae sitting in neatly arranged in lines nearby. A process we'd started, but not yet finished. "Finding replacements for those would prove a considerable challenge."

"Fair point," I said, nodding in agreement while jotting down my observations on the rate of essence draw compared to bone fused. Not that I had exact levels. Detect Mana didn't give me granular detail but I could at least measure the size of the bone itself, guess at the rough density based on the rest of the skeleton and then… math it a bit.

After a few more experiments, I went back into Memory Palace to figure out the designs in more detail, still not settling on anything in particular.

It wasn't worth it until we knew what we were working with, in regards to the Forgeheart.

There was one thing I was starting to realize though. Either I was going to have to create a fifth weaker wheel, or we'd either have to make a bike and trailer. Maybe a wagon with some sort of variable piping system to send thrust to each wheel.

I wasn't sure what we could use to pipe steam to the individual wheels, but it was possible Inertia would have some ideas.

Once more leaving Memory Palace, I got together with the Calbern and Tresla to make a list of priorities.

The next day, while Tresla smoked what meat she could with our limited wood supply, Calbern and I processed as much of the serpent's hide as we could, Flense doing a lot of the initial work. Thanks to resources I'd barely remembered before Memory Palace, I knew the basics of how we could preserve it. It wasn't quite tanning, since that worked using a whole other set of chemical processes, but it shared some parallels, in that we used parts of the monster to process other parts. Instead of using brains to soften leather, we were using part of its digestive tract to preserve the scales' strength.

In theory.

It could turn out we failed utterly and had ruined the scales entirely. We wouldn't know for a couple weeks. Since we were only able to apply the process to less than a quarter of the scales, themselves the weakest of those we'd scavenged, it wouldn't be the worst thing if we later discovered we messed up.

Mostly it was something to keep us busy as we waited for Inertia, once we'd finished extracting the rest of the skeleton.

Another thing I did was test several of my 1st Order spells I thought might be useful. Jet, which allowed me to create a focused jet of water, had potential, though it was a tiny thing that only worked if I kept my hand in the water. Utterly failed to scratch the scales or bones unless I submerged them, and then it took time. Calbern was able to do more with Shape Tool.

Adjust Fit, which normally stretched or compressed bindings, was able to do similar to the scales in a limited fashion, though like Fuse Bone, it drained essence to fuel the change.

Melt, which allowed me to heat metal… didn't work on the bones at all. Not that it was entirely useless. It did let me melt a small deposit of iron out of a rock Calbern found nearby, gaining us roughly a nickel sized chunk.

Cut Gem turned out to work great on anything, though only if the cut was small enough. Any cut too large and the spell simply wouldn't activate. It was also only able to create certain preset gem structures, though a little imagination could go a long way. By using a single face preset, I could keep the spell from cutting the full gem-shape. Then, if I used it along the edge of a bone or scale, I could work it slowly to create a very smoothly shaved edge.

Even small mistakes could lead to whatever I was working on suddenly developing deep unplanned gouges. Far from perfect, but seemed like the best of the lot on first brush.

With how long it was taking Inertia, I thought I might just get to test every spell in my repertoire. We'd long since extracted everything of significant value from the serpent.

When Inertia did finally complete the Forge Heart, I almost had a heart attack.

The completion had been anything but subtle, the nearby hot springs erupting with massive bursts of steam as the ground beneath us rumbled.

Minutes later, she walked out of a cave I was pretty sure hadn't been there that morning. In her hands was the heart of the serpent, now bound in bands of silvery metal, unfamiliar writing along the surface. Even at a glance it was obvious the Forgeheart didn't just produce heat. Every beat let off a billowing fog so thick Inertia looked like she was walking through a cloud.

We had our engine.

At least, we had the literal beating heart of one.

Now we just had to figure out how to transform it into a vehicle capable of pulling the rest of the giant serpent behind it.

The next day was spent testing the new Forgeheart's output.

"Well, once more, the heart proves stronger than that which would bind it," Calbern noted dryly as the spinning cup we were testing exploded into pieces, each of them shooting into the distance. Much like the rest before it. It'd shattered all of the spinning cup wheels Calbern and I had assembled. None of them had been able to handle the amount of pressure it had put off when channeled through Inertia's cupped wings.

From fifty feet away, where the actual test had been carried out, Inertia let out a hiss of steam as she opened her arms, allowing the Forgeheart's pressure to escape around her.

"Inertia would like to remind you once again that she remains most amused that you thought simple bone would be enough to contain the might of a Forgeheart," Tresla said, her own musical laughter letting me know it wasn't just Inertia who thought so.

"We'll just need to build something stronger," I said, waving at the literal mounds of skeleton nearby.

When Inertia approached, she nodded and we set about designing several new paddle wheels. In the end, we ended up using a single vertebrae that was already mostly the right shape. It was crude, but it didn't shatter when we tried running the steam over it.

Which meant hunting down something other than Inertia that would let us direct the steam. Just like the wheel, doing so wasn't easy. The first thing we tried were scales fashioned into a chamber that directed the steam in a single direction. But even with Adjust Fit, getting a small enough chamber to be useful was tough. If I used it directly, the weak points we bent tended to blow apart.

We were able to build a basic chamber by layering the scales, but aiming the steam after without scalding everything in the general direction was our next issue.

It was Tresla who reminded us of the serpent's jaw. Specifically the hollow fangs which had dripped with fire when it had been alive. We repurposed them to carry the steam back over the paddle wheel-vertebrae and then out the sides. Only after we confirmed that worked did we set about solving the force transfer issue.

For that, I slipped into Memory Palace again.

Fixed axle, chain fed and belt all had their issues. Especially with a two wheel system. We could simply not run power to one of the rear wheels, but I knew that had its own issues. A bike also had issues, though I found myself leaning towards it anyway. Mainly because two wheels could navigate a lot of places four couldn't. With the size of the wheels we were dealing with, that might matter.

Instead of making the choice on my own, I threw together half a dozen different designs, downloaded another book on engineering and returned to reality.

Since Adjust Fit could weaken the scales, I used it to create stripes of scales that could then be linked together into a chain. The resulting transfer of force was rough, but it was enough. I ended up going through more than five times the amount of scales I should have to make a single chain, but we still had far more than we needed.

Only after the chain was working and connected to the big wheel did we discuss what we were building.

"What could be more magically metal than a motorcycle?" I asked as we were looking at the drawings.

"Unless I am mistaken, master Perth, none of these designs contain any metal at all," Calbern said, eyebrow raising minutely.

"Inertia would like to know which of these designs was the motorcycle again?" Tresla said even as she tapped her pipe against the correct drawing.

"Yeah, that's the one," I said, nodding as I slid the page forward. "Not actually sure it's the best though. Was just a cool thought."

No one said anything, shuffling pages as we considered. I'd included everything I could think of, along with my notes of the strengths and weaknesses of each.

"Of the designs here, she believes it will get us there the fastest. Including the time it takes us to build it, of course," Tresla said, gesturing to the page with the motorcycle. "Yet she has concerns about piloting such a thing."

"It would be harder to drive," I agreed, pulling the sketch over. "Also, might need to add some sort of kickstand or something to keep it from falling over when it's not moving. A big one."

"Could not such a mechanism also serve as a ladder?" Calbern asked, making a few quick sketches of his own. Much neater and more accurate than mine, unsurprisingly. "So that you and Lady Tresla may ascend more easily."

"Think a trike is the best design. Keeping a bike that sized balanced would be… tricky. Trike wouldn't have that problem, it'd just take a lot more patience to get the last wheel made," I said, gesturing towards the bone pile. "Might be able to use something other than vertebrae. Some of the smaller ribs, maybe. I've got a few ideas."

"If balance is required, then I believe I can handle it with ease, master Perth," Calbern said, inclining his head slightly.

"Inertia believes the amount of balance required for such a thing would be beyond most," Tresla said, tapping the page. "Though she thinks it is still the best choice."

The moment she'd uttered the words, Calbern went over to the test wheel I'd rigged up, one that while being roughly the right size, would be far too weak to handle the forces involved.

Standing it up, he managed to ascend it while it was still rocking in place. He hadn't even bothered detaching the rough gearing that was on one side.

For a second, he stood atop the wheel, more than six feet off the ground.

Then he started slowly walking backwards.

None of us spoke as he navigated towards the piles of bone, easily navigating the wheel between them. Then he took it around the camp, before stopping directly next to us, not once having shown any sign such a task was difficult. He'd sweat more during his afternoon sword practice.

"I do believe balance shall not be a significant issue," Calbern said, descending from the wheel with three quick steps, which left the wheel aligned neatly where it had been when he started.

"Well, that settles it for me. Bike?" I asked the others.

Inertia let out a whistle-hiss of steam, nodding while Tresla cackled musically. "Yes. Inertia looks forward to building this motorcycle."

While it meant he'd be the only one who'd be able to drive it, that felt like an acceptable trade-off. With Calbern in mind, building something we found acceptable might be possible in as little as a week.

With that we set to work.

Even with the basic form decided, we went through several more designs even as we started building the trailer.

The trailer was much simpler than the bike or trike would be, little more than a rib cage turned upside down with wheels underneath. Then between those ribs we layered scales to give it proper sides. Even the hitch was easier to assemble than most parts of the bike would be.

Using Adjust Fit along with Inertia's not-inconsiderable strength, we reinforced the wheels with some of the scales. Only to realize it was an awful idea when the scales both cost us traction and made the trailer bounce twice as much. Another use of Adjust Fit had the sleeves sloughing off before being stacked to the side.

After nearly a week since we'd first arrived, we finally started on the bike itself.

The frame didn't take long to put together. Making sure it didn't fall apart as soon as Calbern applied any amount of power to the big wheel… that took longer.

Fuse Bone got us three-quarters of the way there. Using the sleeves we'd originally created for the wheels got us the rest.

Three days after we'd started on the frame, it was no longer falling apart beneath Calbern. Which meant it was time to add seating for the rest of us.

We chose to use the skull for that. Not for entirely practical reasons, though we did have a couple of those. For one, there weren't many better places to put it than at the rear of the bike, fangs hovering over Calbern's head near the middle. It was simply too awkward to put any farther forward. And it was also big. Loading it into the trailer meant it was always in the way if we needed to access anything else.

That it looked great should've been secondary to those, but I knew that, in my heart at least, it wasn't.

While we'd gotten it working, the Forgeheart assembly got more attention too. There'd been several other ideas, but we'd ended up wrapping the entire Forgeheart and paddle-wheel assembly in another couple layers of scales to ensure it wouldn't act up.

Two weeks after we'd stopped to have a nice day off, we were ready to roll out. As bad as I felt for our lost horses, it was satisfying to have built our own replacement.

With the new vehicle, I was certain we'd be in my domain in no time…

Once we got all the kinks worked out, of course. Like its tendency to roll whenever Calbern applied what passed for brakes.

Normal mechanical problems.

I really had to hand it to Tresla. She'd been right about stopping at the lake. It had been the most relaxing break I'd had since we left Nexxa's domain.

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