I acceded to her desires, and the next day we boarded the Hippocampus. I could not help but notice my mistress brought along the entirety of our meagre possessions. I did not know if such actions were prudent or overly optimistic. I focused on watching Crankshaft pilot the submersible, trying to understand its workings.

“Tell me,” my mistress said. “What exactly is your research concerned with?”

“Power,” Crankshaft said, “and lots of it. You’re familiar with the steam engine?”

She nodded, not making any further comment. His question seemed patently rhetorical to me; nopony could be ignorant of the drastic changes that the steam engine had wrought upon our world.

“It’s outdated. The future is in magikinetics.”

Madame Fog narrowed her eyes. “I fear that technology has proven to be resolutely impractical. No known source of magic could sustain a magikinetic generator at any reasonable efficiency.”

“Yes, no known source. But what if I had found one? Tell me: what lies at the center of the earth?”

My mistress looked at Crankshaft sharply...