Chapter 3: Cloud SailingIn the East, there lived an old queen who had long recognized the folly of men and the dangers of the path on which they walked. The old queen, in her wisdom, had bid her people to set aside some of the bounty which was given them by the Great Tree. She directed her most skilled crafts-workers to use it so that swift ships of silver sail could be built that would ride upon the clouds. Inside each ship was to be laid a sleeping young queen, and in her hands was to be placed a seedling from the Great Tree—gifts for her to start life anew in her own land.
—Selected passages from The Book of the Origin by Bella Aurelius Nobilis, Modern Language Translation
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“I heard you almost got blown up at work the other day,” Lina’s mentor said, as she tugged at the bow of
