“So how high up is the sky? Can we measure it?”

“What, get a rope and just —?”

“It’s about as big as my umbrella.” Chapton unfolded a large parasol. “See! It covers the whole sky.”

Paladin scribbled something on a bit of paper and passed it to a member of his entourage.

Meth crouched down and peered under the umbrella. “That’s actually quite interesting. Now if we cut a hole in the umbrella, and measured the angle, we could — “

“Not with my umbrella! That’d ruin it.”

“As you say, High Magistrate.” Meth retracted his head. “Metaphagos! Someone go and fetch an umbrella.”

Paladin

While the engineers were arguing, Paladin’s “security” team returned with his order: several coils of silk rope.