Day 49: In under an hour, the ornithopter approaches the Manticore’s crash site and sets down a mile from the site. Hatching a bold plan, Whitechapel, Never, and Nai approach the Guild encampment that controls the site of the wreck. Putting forth the navigator as the lawful representative of House Nai, Never is taken to the Guild technomancer, Frederick Faust, who commands the salvage operation. Xender Nai is then summoned and it is decided that Never will descend into the flooded sinkhole to recover the Spirit Engine. Wasting no time, Never dons Faust’s diving suit and is lowered in the dark frigid water. He reaches the submerged engine chamber and begins work. Hours later at the onset of the second dark, the black fortress of Pax’Rora emerges from the rift above the crash site. The Talon’s of the Raven Clan descend from the fortress and begin dropping tenebrous bombs on the crash site. The Iron Guard returns fire. With the Spirit Engine freed, Never sets to scavenging orichalcum while the firefight rages above. Nai is shot through the shoulder by a Talon’s black rifle and badly wounded. Never emerges from the dark water and secures the Spirit Engine to the hoist as they mark a dark ship emerging from the fortress above. With the Iron Guard driving back the Talon’s, Whitechapel, Never, and Nai manage to load the Spirt Engine onto a wagon and make their escape back to the ornithopter abandoning the camp. Flying low over the canopy, the ornithopter makes away largely unseen. As they approach Fortune’s Bluff, the town is in flames and a dark ship is on the ground up the hillside near the Bellamy manor. Whitechapel tries to sweep around but they are spotted and the dark ship pursues. Grossly outgunned, Whitechapel tries to sweep back around and escape over the town, but the dark ship kills the ornithopter with its corrupter. Struggling with a dead stick, Whitechapel, tries to control the crash as ship slams into a barn on the south side of the town.