“Maybe so. But we won’t know until it happens. Things like this have a way of coming back to bite you. I’m just saying what you already know, all three of you. What seems like a good idea at the time can turn out to be a bad one looking back at it later.”

“What will you do?” Mirai asked.

Redden shook his head. “We’re supposed to think it over and make a decision. Railing’s already made up his mind. He wants to go. I guess maybe I do, too. But maybe Farshaun has a point. This feels like one of those things we might decide later on was a mistake.”

“Except this time making the wrong decision could kill you,” she said quietly. “Your mother might be right about not wanting you to go.”

“You always take her side,” Railing griped. “If we did everything Mother told us to do we’d never do anything. We’d never go anywhere or see anything or fly airships or …”

“I get the point,” she interrupted. “But we’re not talking about the way you live the rest of your life. We’re talking about if you live it. Pay attention to what’s on the table.”

“She’s right,” Redden agreed.

Railing gave him a look, then turned to Farshaun. “What do you think?”

The old man shrugged. “I’m not about to tell you what to do in this business. I can see the argument for both sides. You’re big boys; you can decide for yourselves. You don’t need any help from me or Mirai.”

Mirai made a face. “I wonder.”

“If it were you, Farshaun, would you go?” Railing pressed.

Farshaun laughed. “I don’t know. What does it matter? No one has asked me to go. This has to do with you, not me.”

“But what if you were asked?”

“I’d think about it, like you’re supposed to do, and I wouldn’t spend my time trying to find out what someone else would do! Especially an old man whose best years are behind him. Now get out of here, the two of you. Go!”

He chased them from his cottage and stood watching until they were out of sight.

“Cranky old toad,” Railing muttered.

“He just doesn’t want to make the decision for us. He doesn’t want to have to live with the responsibility.”

“I notice he kept Mirai with him.”

“He doesn’t want her to have to live with it, either.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“What are you going to do?”

They walked on, undecided.