August chuckled underneath his breath, sliding his hands into his pockets. He probably would've enjoyed exchanging words with the noble, but he had far more important things to attend to. Not to mention the impatient look on Luke's face.

"Of course. Well, I shall cut straight to the point then."

August turned to look at the throngs of people around him as he spoke. "I have need of a powerful engine. More powerful than the famous battleships of Hagar."

Luke kept his gaze fixed on August, arms still crossed. He cocked an eyebrow. "Then I suggest you look for the Divine Wind. Or perhaps the Altas, which is Heravera's most recent project. The Divine Wind is supposed to be able to out race the fastest airships in existence, and from what I have heard, the Atlas will become one of the largest, strongest ships in all of Gaea. It can carry tons of ammunition and weapons as well as a few hundred soldiers." His eyes flickered off to where August was looking, irritation as well as envy glinting in them. "If it's a powerful engine you are looking for, the Atlas will be the most powerful engine in the world."

August glanced at Luke, eyebrows raised. "Oh. The engine strength I need will be far greater than what the Divine Wind or Atlas can provide."

Luke scoffed. He glanced off to the side, a myriad of retorts flashing through his eyes. "And how strong would this engine have to be?"

August shrugged. "Well, let's say it must be powerful enough to lift, say, a piece of land."

There was a long pause. The lines of irritation etched along Luke's face faded, his scowl dropping clean off his face to make way for a very serious frown. August looked at Luke, a mildly pleasant smile on his face, then quickly added with a far too casual tone, "A few hundred tons, at least."

"A... A few hundred tons?!"

"Yes well, perhaps that is too light? How much would you say a piece of land weighs?"

"Are you mad?!" Luke turned his head away from August as a few of the nobles nearest to them threw disgusted glances their way. He turned toward August, looking the man in the eye. "Listen here. The Atlas itself can only hope to carry a few dozen tons of extra weight and even then, the engine can't function for longer than a few hours. Even if we could make such an engine, it'd have to be massive, far larger than... than this hall! It'd have to burn even more fuel in order just to take off! It's just not feasible at all!"

"Lack of belief is something that stunts scientific progression, is it not?"

"Lack of belief doesn't have anything to do with it. It's physics! It takes massive amounts of energy to lift something of that size! Any engineer or physicist or hell, anyone with common sense would tell you it's impossible."

"It's not impossible."

Luke waved one hand violently in the air. "Oh sure! Why don't I just walk out there and pick up this Citadel with my bare hands?!" He crossed his arms, fighting to keep his voice calm. "If we could make an engine that powerful, Hagar would've done it already."

"What say a hundred strongmen?"

Luke huffed. "What are you talking about?"

August grinned. "I never said I wanted just one engine."

Luke stared at August. "You want more than one of these things?!"

"It's true than a flat piece of paper will float better on water than a crumpled up ball of paper, no?"

"Why don't you start speaking sense?"

August let out a laugh, turning toward the engineer, and began to gesture with his hands. "Allow me to explain. It will be a system of engines in a fixed location around the object. Each will be able to suspend, say, a few dozen tons a thousand feet in the air. There will also be sky stones within each engine, providing extra lift to said object so each engine will be able to propel more weight into the air." The doctor paused, then added with a grin, "Like hiring a hundred strongmen to lift this Citadel with their bare hands! Granted they will have a bit of help."

Luke stared hard at August, brow furrowed, then added with diminished ferocity, "Even so, it'd require a dozen of those engines to lift something weighing a few hundred tons. They would require massive amounts of fuel to burn. One engine will probably burn a few tons on take off if you want it to go as high as you say, and stay there for any period of time. I doubt all the stores of coal that any one company holds will be enough for one ship."

"I only need one ship. And the source of energy I plan on drawing from is not coal."

"Not coal? There is no other fuel. Unless you plan on taking solar or wind." Luke scoffed. "Though the energy those produce is nowhere near as much as coal."

August shifted his weight, turning to watch the crowd again. "Neither of those, actually. I plan on using the energy in the sky." That earned a look of shock from Luke, but August ignored it. "It is the source that the sky stones are drawn to, what gives the stones their gravity-defying lift. When the stones are activated by heat, they are drawn toward this stream. When close enough, they actually begin to absorb the energy, giving it off as heat. Even down on the surface, the larger sky stones are attracted enough to this stream to lift Hagar's carriers and airships, but as an illustrious engineer of Hagar, I'm sure you already know this."

Luke frowned, looking thoughtful. He turned so that he was standing beside August, a motion that made the doctor smile. "So then... the sky stones are attracted to the source that causes them to supply energy... and the engine will use this energy from the stones in order to keep them in the air..." He cocked his head. "It's a self-sufficient system."

"How else do you think the Island of Tranquility is able to suspend itself in the air? Enough so it doesn't even require an engine?" August smiled.

Luke looked to the doctor. "How are you so sure of this? The researchers at Hagar have been attempting to harvest this energy in the sky for years."

"I have... connections, let's say. They wish to remain anonymous, but I can provide you with the technology to harvest energy from the stream. That is, if you will help me in this project."

Luke didn't say anything for a long while, but August could tell, simply from the look on the engineer's face, that he was finding the offer irresistible. "There is still a few small issues," Luke added quietly.

"Oh?"

"How do you plan on putting the ship in the air in the first place?"

August smiled again, except this time it was bordering on malicious. "You may leave that to me."

Luke glanced at August, but didn't question the man. "And we will need a vast supply of sky stones. And funds."

"Again, you needn't worry about them. I have everything covered."

Luke finally let out a laugh. "You have thought this through very thoroughly, haven't you?"

August turned to Luke, grinning. "It has been on my mind for... many years now. Is it alright to assume that I have your cooperation?"

Luke pushed his glasses up against the bridge of his nose and let out a sigh. "Well, such a project will benefit Hagar greatly, so I suppose it will be for the better if I give you my cooperation."

August laughed. "Of course, of course." He turned his head, noticing that a few elaborately dressed men were emerging from the staircase, assembling in columns with trumpets in hand. "I will send you word on where to meet to discuss this further. But for right now, it seems the wedding is about to begin."

(OOC: D: Rushed ending.)