"Is that a watermill?" Pryce asked in surprise.

"You would know better than me," Fortitude snorted in amusement. "This device uses water to spin. I normally use it to blow wind into the fire, but this time I will use it to make bubbles."

"Interesting," Fathom rumbled beside Pryce.

The process of smelting iron was considered a great secret, and Devotion had been reluctant to allow his presence. Fortitude on the other hand didn't seem particularly bothered by the idea, seeing as how human manufacturing techniques were far superior to begin with.

"That's a watermill all right," Pryce confirmed as he approached the device.

The mill wasn't technically as impressive as smelting iron, but it was easily the most mechanically complex piece of dragon technology he had seen thus far. Attached to the watermill was a cylindrically-shaped pump, with a slider-crank to convert the rotary movement of the mill into a linear pumping motion. All of the rigid mechanisms were made of wood, with a few sections being made of leather or that strange rubbery substance Pryce had seen her collect.

"I suppose humans have much bigger water mills?" Fathom asked.

"Yes, much bigger. We've built things to block rivers called 'dams', and that lets us control where the water goes."

"Of course you can block rivers," Fortitude snorted after a moment of silent incredulity. "Next you are going to say that humans can make rain."

Pryce shook his head. "No, we can't really do that."

The dragons narrowed their eyes. "What do you mean 'can't really'?" Celeste pressed.

"Oh…well we make it easier for clouds to make rain, but can't make it rain if there's no clouds," Pryce shrugged, referring to the practice of cloud seeding. "It's less impressive than it sounds."

"You are going to explain that later," Fortitude huffed as she hobbled towards the furnace, crucible in hand. The container was filled with various pieces of scrap cast iron tools, and it would serve as a good test sample.

Pryce examined this new furnace as she worked, and noted that it was shaped fairly differently from the firing kiln – most likely to help it reach the significantly higher temperatures needed to melt iron, especially as the removal of carbon raised the melting point. He had warned Fortitude of this fact, and the elder had picked out a great lump of charcoal in preparation for the attempt.

He considered asking about the strange cone that extended from the firebox, but he decided to wait and see what purpose it served. A glance at Fathom told him that he probably didn't know the answer either, and the two of them watched with interest as Fortitude placed the crucible into the heart of the furnace, then fed the ceramic pipes through a hole she punched through the top, feeding the tip into the bottom of the crucible. Once the pipe was in place, she packed the hole tight with mud, leaving it firmly secured.

«And that…should be good,» Fortitude announced as she finished connecting the watermill to the pump, which immediately puffed air into the still-cold crucible before she disconnected the pump. «It works! Fire it up, Ghorrah!»

Devotion casually lit the furnace with a quick jet and snap of hydrogen, swiftly igniting the dry charcoal. The sudden surge of heat rapidly sucked air into the furnace, allowing the fire to burn brighter and brighter until a jet of roaring flame blasted out of the chimney.

«All right, now we're getting started,» Fortitude grinned as she fanned the smoke away with one of her wings. "We need to slowly make this hotter, so the ceramics do not crack."

The dragons gradually raised the temperature of the furnace over the course of the next half hour, until the iron finally began to melt. The sheer heat generated by the flames was truly astonishing, and it was even strong enough to force Fathom a few steps back – though the three females didn't seem particularly bothered by their proximity to the flames. Evidently they had long since grown used to working with such high temperatures.

The cast iron scraps slowly began to melt within the crucible, and it only took another several minutes to turn fully molten.

«Alright, connecting the pump now,» Fortitude announced, forcing the pumped air to escape through the suffocating molten metal.

"It is too bad you do not know more about iron," Celeste said with a glance at Pryce. "How do we know when to stop bubbling the metal?"

"We don't!" Fortitude laughed, clearly not minding the handicap. "But it should become thicker and harder to melt!"

Pryce had already told the old artisan everything he knew about the process, but humans normally used pure oxygen to purify iron, unlike Fortitude who was forced to use ambient air, which contained a mere 18.3% oxygen.

The only indicator of the process would be the increasing melting point, which would rise along with the removal of the carbon impurities.

«It really is getting thicker – feed it more charcoal!» Fortitude ordered as she fanned the flames with measured and methodical wingbeats.

Now the purpose of the furnace's strange design became clear – the cone caught and funneled the great gusts of wind directly into the fire, causing the fire to gradually surge with renewed vigor.

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The charcoal they used seemed to be of good quality, but it burned far more swiftly than coal, and the roaring fire required near-constant feeding from Devotion, while Celeste assisted whenever either of the two needed a break.

Together the three of them worked seamlessly to feed and nurture the fire to even greater heights, all under Fortitude's masterful direction.

For a moment, it really seemed that they would succeed.

But of course, this was still their first attempt.

Crack.

«Of course,» Fortitude sighed as she examined the ceramic pipe, one end of which had cracked and fallen into the crucible. «Ah well, let's see what we made first.» She carefully extracted the crucible with cast iron tongs, then poured its contents into a rectangular mold that had been heated along with the iron.

«Doesn't look any different so far,» Devotion noted as she peered at the cooling metal. «But I suppose we'll have to wait for it to cool.»

«Indeed,» Fortitude rumbled distractedly. «The pipe probably cracked because I didn't let the clay dry for as long as I would have liked. There's nothing I can do about that, so we'll just have to increase the temperature even more slowly than before.»

«If steady temperature is what we want then we should use coal instead,» Devotion suggested.

«It is a shame to use coal on a test, but I suppose you're right,» Fortitude sighed as she picked up another pipe. «Well, it's a good thing I made spares.»

Each test took some time to complete, as Fortitude and Devotion took great care not to subject the pipes or the crucibles to excessive thermal shock.

The second attempt wasn't as successful, with the pipe cracking apart just as the iron began to melt.

The third attempt went better, with Fortitude removing the crucible after ten minutes of bubbling.

The fourth attempt lasted the longest, but was met with an unfortunate end when the crucible cracked apart before Fortitude could remove it, spilling its contents into the furnace.

These attempts took up most of the day, but by the end of it they had produced two bars of smelted iron…along with a now-frozen puddle scavenged from the furnace.

"The iron does look a little different," Fortitude rumbled in excitement as she extracted the bars from their molds. "It is a bit lighter. Not black like cast iron, and it sounds different too!" she exclaimed, tapping the bars with an iron poker. The second bar produced a somewhat duller ping than the first, proof of its softer nature and lower carbon content.

«Huh. It…really worked,» Devotion rumbled in surprise.

«Why are you so shocked?» Celeste asked. «It doesn't seem very surprising to me.»

«We've been trying to make this for hundreds of years!» Fortitude laughed as she cheered, reverting back to Draconic in her excitement. «Well, we've been trying to make steel,» she hastily amended, «but pure iron was the missing fragment of the shell!»

"Well I'm glad I could help," Pryce said, smiling at her exuberance. "I'm not sure how pure this iron you made is, but it's definitely a good result."

Fortitude dipped her head in gratitude. "Yes, thank you," she said, a sentiment echoed by the others.

"It is too bad this failed," Devotion commented as she picked up and examined the frozen puddle of iron. She ran a talon along its surface, leaving behind a faint scratch.

Fortitude noticed this, and swiftly did the same on the softer iron bar. "It seems purer than the bar, which means I should bubble it for at least fifty beats next time…» she trailed off, then shook her head. "Grah, I can think about this later. Today we celebrate!"

Devotion nodded, then turned to Fathom and Celeste. «You two, get a mountain stag and I'll cook it for us.»

«You got it!» Celeste replied, and immediately sprinted away to take flight.

"H-hey!" Fathom snapped before running after her. "We didn't start yet! Get back here!"

"Can't hear you!" Celeste sang, laughing her taunt as she took off to the skies.

"This is delicious," Pryce mumbled past a mouthful of roast meat.

It had taken Devotion several hours to prepare the meal, but the end result was well worth the wait. A crisp outer layer encrusted the expertly roasted stag, and she had clearly already learned how to use the Mainland's spices along with her own to great effect. The combination of native and foreign spices worked excellently together, and it was the best meal Pryce had eaten since his departure from the Mainland.

"The tools that I make for her help, but Ghorrah is the best cook on the land," Fortitude boasted as she savored her own portion.

"Having all the salt that I wanted to use was very helpful," Devotion said, modestly tossing her head.

"If you're going to cook more of this then I'll give you all the spices that you want," Pryce said before taking another bite. "Oh, that reminds me, are you coming with us to retrieve the ship?"

Devotion hesitantly glanced at her partner. "I…suppose I could," she slowly replied. "We will only be gone for one day, yes?"

"Correct," Fathom nodded. "It will take us about half a day to get back to the ship, but it travels slower than we can fly, so if we leave tomorrow morning then we should be back sometime during the day after tomorrow."

«Go, my wings,» Fortitude said, encouragingly nudging her partner. «You don't fly as much as you should, and it'll be some good exercise before you go off collecting allies for us.»

«Oh…alright,» Devotion reluctantly nodded. "Tomorrow we will go and see your 'ship'."

"Good, and tonight we celebrate!" Fortitude cheered, bringing out a ceramic container. "I got this ten years ago. It was made by the Brewer clan – want to try some?" she asked, swishing the jar at Pryce.

"Er, sorry, no thanks," Pryce said, turning down the offer. "I would like to try some, but we have a long flight tomorrow, and I don't want to get sick."

"I suppose that is sensible," Fortitude agreed, though she sounded rather disappointed.

"But I do have some human-made alcohol here, if you want to try some," Pryce said, pulling a bottle out of his backpack.

Fortitude's eyes widened as she perked back up. "'If I want to try some'?" she asked incredulously. "Is water wet? Open it up!"

[JOURNAL ENTRY EXCERPTS]

Day 93,

Fortitude and Devotion's mastery of their craft is truly a sight to behold. I hadn't expected this test of theirs to be met with such success, and on the first try too.

I wonder how dragon lifespans will affect future technological developments. For humans, new generations always replace the old, and the skills of old masters are inevitably lost to time…But dragons are able to continuously refine their craft, without regard for the mere passing of decades.

Given the ever-accelerating rate of technological progression, I imagine that the draconic ability to learn and retain skills across centuries would be invaluable to future generations. What would such a future look like, I wonder?

It's a pity I won't be able to see the full extent of it.

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