"We can weigh you soaking wet? Or you can take it off on the plane."

"Well, it's magic, so I'd rather not lose it, even if it's of lesser interest to other people than the spellbook page."

"I would expect it to be possible to rig up a better flotation device for your use case, it's not like we need to cheaply fit a hundred of them under everyone's chairs. And maybe get you a better gambeson, if that's of interest."

"I am not attached to mine."

"All right. I'll pass that along. Oh, and it might make sense to bring the second-circle repair spell you mentioned, just in case?"

"...the plane we saw was too big for me to land a Make Whole on it."

"Oh. What are the constraints on that spell?"

"It can handle a lot more than a Mending and scales with power like most things do, in this case by volume. I might be able to make it work on one of the trucks, I'm not sure because I don't have a lot of practice eyeballing that; the plane was too large by a long shot."

"Can it target a specific region of a larger machine, or no?"

"If it's not - integrally attached, I expect. You might have to disconnect and reinstall something."

"Hmm. Might still be good to have as an option, I don't know."

"Understood."

"That's everything I wanted to bring up, but if you have any questions ask away."

"How tight will the schedule be, if I see something confusing will I have an opportunity to inquire about it or should I proceed regardless?"

"There will be time for you to ask quick questions but probably not enough for us to have an entire long sit-down discussion. Oh, also. As with the last flight, timing depends on weather conditions. We announce when a flight departs for the base, but sometimes even after a flight departs it has to turn around for safety. The first passenger flight through here should bring in my replacement, and we'll see if it can also bring in a replacement gambeson for you, and then hopefully we'll take the flight after that."

"Understood. I don't think I have further questions."

"Great."

When it comes, the first flight in fact brings Chris's replacement, a resupply of fresh food, and a gambeson, red with white trim and made from strange fabrics.

It's lovely, does it also fit?

Pretty much exactly as well as his other one does, since it's built to measurements from it.

Great. And if it's a little thinner or anything like that then at least the armor's magic and will resize.

It is a bit squeakier but not noticeably so when one is also wearing chainmail.

Maybe it'll break in and stop squeaking after he's worn it more, and at any rate he is not generally trying to be sneaky.

The base now has more fresh fruit and a round of better-looking scrambled eggs for "winterovers only" (a group which apparently includes Blai), some new people, and a more available Chris again.

Blai likes scrambled eggs!