'From a scientific perspective, this great land we presently inhabit is abundant with mediums of complex composition. Here on Terra, the medium is commonly known as air, and it isn't substantially different from the liquid medium filling the ocean. Ægir living in inland Iberia often make use of their analogous knowledge of the sea to produce toys like this, that drift unimpeded through the air.' Such was the answer Weedy gave, when the operators of Rhodes discovered the N.B.P. floating about in a cabin, to explain the origins of the seemingly unattested equipment. 'Is it some kind of common sea custom?' Weedy silently watches the prototype lilt back down to the ground. The urge hit her out of nowhere to tell them that Iberia wasn't nearly the seaside place most thought of it as, but had vast and arid lands to its name as well. Still, even at Rhodes Island, some were still caught up in the impression of stiffness that the tense, fiercely isolationist nation tended to leave. She folded up the N.B.P.'s soft wings and stowed it back in its box. 'To clarify, I've never been back to the sea before, and don't know much about the Ægir. Like you, I've never been to Ægir itself either. I may have been born an Ægir, but what I know is sandstorms, misty dawns and thick jungles, the dry inland—less so the coral on the coast. When I was still young, I went out into our desertified lands with my mother, using bioengineering to treat it with technology. When we had downtime from our field work, she'd fly toys like these for us to run after. There wasn't any kind of special significance to it—it was just a pastime.' She thought back to her home soil of Iberia. The Profound Silence was merciless in revising their place in the country, especially after the Inquisition 'visited' their doorstep to forbid the family from 'spreading dangerous Ægir technology.' As far as most Ægir living in Iberia were now concerned, 'Ægir' was no more than the name that branded them, and ever more vaguely at that. 'You already had bionic technology this developed back then?' 'What you see here is actually a successor model I made recently. It now has the propulsion capacity to 'float' in quicksand, and... also some flaws.' With that, Weedy picked up the box and left the cabin. Only she knew that this improved model, the spitting image of an aquatic creature, had lost all ability to enter the water.