When Spensa started life in my brain, she was a Cosmere pilot character, from around Mistborn Era Four. When I started to work on Skyward as my next YA project, I decided I wanted to use a certain technological aspect from a story I’d previously worked on–something I touched on in a novella, but which was still very interesting to me all these years later. It was something that did not work with Cosmere technology though, so it was a natural fit to port Spensa over to this other universe instead.
So, here’s the thing–it’s a pretty big spoiler. Meaning if you know the novella this is tied to you’ll know a moderately large plot point in the book.
It’s not the type of spoiler that will ruin a story–I do think some readers would enjoy watching how I lace them together. But do be warned that if you haven’t read my science fiction novellas, and you hate spoilers, you might want to wait until after Skyward to read them.
That said, if you know the terminology of the novellas in question, you’ll find your answer in chapter seventeen.