Fur-singed and cloak-burnt, Jötz could only stand there and stare at Ivy as she raved on and passed by. Shaking his head, he resisted the urge to point out that having lines of trade no one knew about was rather pointless. Unless of course she was talking smuggling. [i]That[/i] he could get behind! Ivy’s rather rural and isolated upbringing made him doubt she had any such thing in mind, however, and her plan to return to Motorhum was simply out of the question. For one, he doubted the underground canals ran in that direction. And second, even if she came back draped in gold and jewels and all manner of sparkly thing, it was doubtful her family and friends would welcome her back with arms open. Again, these were things the Jaeger could see that his Sparky ward had either forgotten or never ever thought about to begin with.

Fighting back a sigh, he shrugged. “Chou can gets a new arm in Beetleburg, usually dey gots lots of mechanical vuns. Ift chou vants to grow a new vun, ve need to goes to Mechanicsburg; da great hospital der can gets it done.” Jötz pointed towards the bow. “I tink dis goes towards Beetleburg, but I don’ts know of any canal mooring der. Shtill, Beetleburg vast around vhen da canal vere built. So der’s a good chance. Ift nothing else, eet vill bring us a bit closer, eyh?”

As he spoke, he removed the ruined outer garment and tossed it into the furnace, where it sizzled and popped briefly before flaring into ash. The look on his face was morose. True, a cloak was nowhere near as important as a hat, but he had the cloak for a long time. It was almost like burning a piece of history.

Looking back towards Ivy, he decided now was as good a time to warn her of the dangers in either city. Once they were underway, she was all too likely to become distracted again. 

“Look, Ivy, der ist sometings chou gotta know before ve gets undervay. Once ve gets into der cities proper, chou can’t let peoples know you is a Mad Girl. Vimmen Sparks? Der isn’t many of dem to start wit, und dey tend to go poof-vanish-gone pretty quickly so dat no one sees dem again. Dat, and if da Baron finds out? He’s gonna vant chou. To study. Maybe he finds you a safe job and do all sorts of neat Sparky stuff, and maybe he slices chou up for parts. Ders no telling. So vhen ve gets into da towns and cities? Chou gots to keep it down. Chou understand?”