The next morning Acolyte Dong Chul and Initiate Im Kwan-jo showed up with invitations for Hae-sung and Junseo to return to morning devotions at the Sun Temple.

Chenhui stared angrily at In-Yeon, "You gave them a nudge, don't deny it," he hissed.

In-Yeon shrugged, "Not much of one."

"And your certain it's safe? After what they put you through?" Chenhui continued to frown.

"Our Knight-Master will take precautions," In-Yeon smiled as Song-hee was introduced to the Temple representatives. "See, they are waving you over as well." Chenhui scuffed his feet as he made his way over.

"Did you really dream summon them?" Brother Kuin asked quietly from the edge of the veranda.

"Not exactly. More just read their existing desire back to them," In-Yeon blushed. He knew there was no obvious emergency to justify such an interference.

"I see you understand the ethical implications. I will leave it to the Mistress of the Dawn Temple to discipline you." Brother Kuin walked away leaving In-Yeon to brood on what might be in store at the end of their journey to the southwest. He was still waiting on his parent's approval for the trip so continued to work with the others. The laborious process of mapping the circles of dissonance radiating from the palace walls offered few distractions for a young man regretting his misdeeds. San Jin tried to coax him into a better mood but they were both discouraged by the lack of progress on the mapping.

"It's going to take forever to figure this out," In-Yeon complained.

"Especially since it seems to shift around. Look at the differences over three days." San Jin pointed to the notes spread across the workbench. "It's like it shifts with the wind."

"You might have a point there," Hae-sung said and looked to Junseo who nodded slowly.

"So, trailing around the streets is not going to solve much." Song-hee leaned back and crossed his arms.

Junseo reluctantly pulled out one of his older design books and paged through to the load bearing flyers. Chenhui leaned in but remained puzzled, "I've never seen a clockwork flyer."

"Not clock work. It would be too heavy." Junseo answered absent-mindedly as he gathered materials. Before long they were out in the back field chasing breezes.

Scout Jia and Knight-Master Lei watched with bemusement as the boys tested different models. The winds started to die down before Junseo managed to fully configure the crystal charged version. He did one last test only to find his flyer acting like it hit a wall twenty meters above the ground. "Well that really complicates things," he muttered to himself. The others tried to get him to explain more but he just shook his head.

Junseo knew he needed to come clean about why these designs might be problematic but it took until well after dinner before he had the courage to approach Knight-Master Lei with his flyer designs.

"Don't just hover at the door," the man said when he spotted a clearly worried Junseo. "Is everything alright with the team?"

"Mostly, I mean we still have to work through some things and are going to miss Pange In-Yeon. No, I need you to see these." He handed over his design notes.

"It looked like everyone enjoyed trying out the kites today," the man probed gently paging through the designs. He paused when he recognized the rebel sign on a wing.

"It's not like real racing but it was a good break." Junseo looked down at the page where his mentor had stopped. "Song-hee wants to test crystal activations with a modified kite design. We could cover a lot more ground that way, and maybe see if there is a charged dust cloud hampering our mapping progress." He paused, his voice dropping and he wrung his hand together before admitting, "It's just, well, my load bearing design was used in a rebel action in Illidan."

"I knew you were aligned with the Broken Wheel group before you came here. I thought we cleared everything up when you returned their delivery."

"Oh, I am clear of them now. No, its just one of my designs was used in an attack and people got hurt in the fires. The guards may still be looking."

"Not hard. And not here. You have done enough healing to square things with me but maybe not with the guards."

Junseo swallowed hard and nodded.

"First we will find someplace safe to store these designs." Knight-Master Lei bundled up the notebooks. "You can come up with different version, one more suited to the problem we are trying to solve. Bring your concerns to me but you should also figure out what you can share with the team. Just don't put one of them into the position of having to keep secrets from the others. We already know how that will turn out."

"Fair enough," Junseo nodded his thanks but soon realized this may well be the harder task. He was certain Chenhui and Song-hee would give him the benefit of the doubt and it was not like his rebel associations would be entirely unexpected by San Jin and In-Yeon. They had met some of his previous associates and Journeyman Yang did not hide his political leanings. He just didn't know how Hae-sung might react so he resolved to spend more one-on-one time with him. That meant pulling extra stable duties which was just as well since it became clear how easily Hae-sung might overdo things around the horses.

Junseo got a much better sense of how the rebel aims might land with the group when they were all bundled off for their community service day helping elderly neighbours with repair work. The first time they joined a crew re-thatching a cottage Scout Jia told them it was a balance exercise and had them go back and forth along the rafters.

"I hate heights," San Jin muttered under his breath.

"Ditto," Hae-sung said while scrambling for a more secure foothold. Still, it wasn't too long before they were both being warned not to distract other workers with their acrobatics.

Song-hee took the service work very seriously, admitting it was something he tried to do for his neighbours at home until the guild intervened. He gathered up extra projects to work on after hours and the boys all pitched in to help. Knight-Master Lei had to find ways to limit this initiative so the team would get out of the workshop at a decent hour and the guild would not take notice of his student's diligence. If the people in the neighborhood notice a senior minister's son was helping to fix rooves and dig out latrines, they did not say anything.

When Rainbow-maker Mein caught wind of the service days he was clearly affronted, asking, "What would Minister Go think about his son working for those low lives?"

"That his son is learning duty to the people can have many different faces," Knight-Master Lei responded calmly.

"But for someone of his station. And you. For you to sanction such activities?" His voice rose and octave higher

"Proves we value service whether or not it is rewarded by coin or status." Knight-Master Lei's tone made it clear there would be no further debate. "I should warn you the word I am getting from my estates indicate they will soon require my full attention. We are working on our final design tests and hope to have the key to mapping the dissonance shortly thereafter."

Rainbow-maker Mein could tell by the formality in this speech that he had offended his host. All he could do was check over the crystal alignments the boys brought to him before leaving for the day.

Scout Jia tried to hide his smile as the man from the palace retreated. "Good thing he doesn't know what the boys are planning for later."

"I know. Fish glue." He wrinkled his nose. "Junseo says they have to monitor the multiple heating carefully but there are good reasons to let servants handle such tasks."

"Yes, well I don't think we can afford for them to get it wrong. The dies and paper for those swallow-tail kites did not come cheaply," Scout Jia let some of his worries show.

"I miss having Manager Doak here but he managed to get a handle on the flooding. With any luck we can start the re-settlement plans as soon as we get to the estate. I would really like a win before I have to go begging again." Knight-Master Lei nodded to where the boys were testing stringless launches.

"He explained the theory to me but I am not sure I understand how it works," Scout Jia shook his head.

"Honestly, I'm at the point where I have to just trust the process," his friend admitted.