The wind at the harbor was far stronger than inland.
Snow struck his face, carrying the taste of salt. Su Li walked to the edge of the dry dock and stopped. The Ginkgo's outline blurred into a mass of shadow amid the night and wind-driven snow. The moss along its keel had frozen into a thin shell of ice, and thick snow blanketed the deck.
The last piece of tarpaulin had flown away at some point, exposing the rust-speckled railings beneath.
It had not moved in sixty years.
Su Li stood there and watched for a while.
The footsteps behind him came to a stop.
"Why are you stepping in my footprints?" he asked without looking back.
"Your footprints are bigger. It takes less effort to walk in them." Elonore's voice drifted over from behind him, slightly nasal from the cold.
Su Li glanced back.
She stood two steps behind him, a layer of snow resting on her white cloak. The tip of her nose was red with cold, and both hands were tucked into her sleeves. Her silver hair had been blown into a complete mess by the wind, several strands stuck to her cheeks.
A hundred and fifty years old, yet standing in the snow like a little girl.
"The core chamber is still reacting." Su Li turned back toward the Ginkgo. "Did you feel that just now?"
"I did." Elonore stepped forward two paces and stood beside him. "The frequency is the same as the one inside you. Resonance."
Su Li said nothing.
His Tier Five perception probed into the Ginkgo once more. The propulsion core lay in its base on the lowest level. Fine cracks had appeared across its shell, and almost no aether remained within. Yet deep inside those cracks, an exceedingly thin film of