Thulia

It would be safe to say that, more than even the Captain, Thulia loved the Runagate like a family member. This should not be surprising, as the operation of the skyship was actually only possible because of the participation of three benevolent spirits, gloomers, which coursed throughout the ships corridors, sails, and mechanical components, never traveling too far from the flux cores that regulated the flow of energy within the Runagate. And perhaps it was the Captain and her crew who were responsible for the operation of the skyship, but ultimately, it was Thulia, the ship's engineer, who was responsible for the operation of the skyship. It was, simply, part of her soul.

The Runagate was not unusual; after the glooming had taken place, and this was many, many years ago, long before Thulia had been called up to the academy where she had learned the various skills of engineering; when the glooming had taken place, many kinds of large vehicles, once operated by people, had been quite quickly and thoroughly replaced with autonomous machine minds, and the glooming invaded these minds, with benevolent walking spirits, and with malevolent running spirits.

What made the Runagate different was the flux cores, that Thulia fussed as if they were her her own child, which contained, but did not confine, the three spirits that powered the airship, and gave it vitality. It was a symbiotic relationship, the glooming weirds flitting around the ship, bringing life to the sails that provided lift and propulsion; and acting as a conduit between the dreamguide and the other members of the crew.

Thulia was by no means idle, equally handy with a spanner and with an oscilloscope, but also she was a poet, musing on the beauty of contradictions, that kept the Runagate in motion. By subtle design, the airship could only function within the magnetic fog of the Swirl, taking it's life and essence from the fog; but without the three spirit weirds, she would truly run renagade, most likely taken over by more malevolent spirits. And the spirits were, well, friendly, and they relied on the airship's crew, and that was more than could be said for the majority of the glooming spirits out there.

The Swirl was special too, of course. Most of the autonomous vehicles had turned with the glooming, crashing themselves or reaching unsafe speeds, never to be seen again. Within the Swirl, though, the spirit weirds were all in their natural element, and that made them, at least, a bit more predictable. And the Swirl was vast, stretching from the mountains to the sea.