As he took the ring, as his consciousness shattered into a million tiny pieces, one single thought flashed into Luciola's mind.

Lord Dio…

Everything was cold, overwhelming cold, he couldn't breathe, he couldn't think. Except at the very end.

I never told him I loved him.

&

At that very moment, in a Norkia hospital, a young man lay in a hospital bed. He was breathing, but only just. The doctor turned to her nurse and shook her head sadly. "His heart rate is slowing down. He won't last much longer; the only thing we can do now is wait."

The nurse nodded briskly and dabbed the man's forehead with a damp cloth. "Yes, Doctor. It's such a shame, though. A young man like this, dying from a fall down the stairs. And nobody even came to visit him at all…I suppose he doesn't have any family."

With a last, shuddering gasp, Curtos Atreides died.

And in that moment, Luciola of the Guild was reborn.

&

Dio woke up with a start. This isn't the Guild! Where am I?

It was a vast, well-furnished room, and he was lying on a bed with soft sheets—sheets which were nearly thrown to the floor in his hurry to get out. He giggled quietly to himself as he crept out of the room. I know what I'll do. I'll find Luciola, and we'll go flying together! It'll be so much fun. Now, where to find a ship…

He eventually came across a vanship, deep in the hangar of what he had come to realize was a mansion. As quietly as possible, he heaved himself into the pilot's seat.

Time to go flying!

&

Luciola sat up in bed, glaring at the nurse who was taking blood from him. "I told you, I'm perfectly fine." Then he winced. My voice sounds so hoarse.

The doctor mopped her forehead with a handkerchief. She had sagged into the nearest available chair, almost fainting from the shock of seeing a dead man open his eyes. "You may feel fine, but we'll see once the tests come back. You were unconscious for two months, you know."

Luciola thought for a moment. Now's a good a time as any to find out about what happened. "Actually, my memory isn't that great. Can you maybe tell me how I got here?"

The doctor shrugged. "You fell down a flight of stairs and sustained a very nasty blow to the head. We were about to give up on you, but I suppose our fears were groundless, Mr. Atreides."

Mr…Atreides?

Finally, hours later, after the doctor and the nurse had taken blood samples and urine samples and tested his reflexes and all the thousand other things which needed to be checked after one rose from the dead were complete, Luciola got up from the hospital bed and checked the hospital chart at its foot.

Name: Curtos Atreides. Age: 19. Height: 5'10. Weight: 175 lbs. Injuries consistent with a fall down a flight of stairs; fractured skull and multiple contusions. Address: 1047 512th street, Norkia.

Norkia? That's where Claus said he was from. Now that I know who I am, I suppose I'd better get an idea of what I look like.

He went into the tiny attached bathroom. There was a mirror there.

He stared at his face. It was not his face, not the face he was used to seeing. It was narrower, more angular, and the eyes were a vivid green instead of a clear blue. His hair was different, too, a shaggy dark brown instead of a close-cropped platinum blond. There was a thick fuzz of facial hair. He turned his attention to the rest of his body; slim, not as muscular as it could be, and with a slightly darker skin tone than he used to have.

He stretched, arching his back and feeling cartilage pop in his joints. His movements weren't as fluid and graceful as they once were, but they would do. Not bad, for a dead man.

So…I died. I died, and now I'm back. In this body.

It was clear to him what he had to do. He had been reborn for some purpose, he was sure. And that purpose was to find Dio.

The Guild would not stop him. Cicada was dead. Lack of money, lack of transportation, the disadvantage of having no earthly idea where to find his master; these would not stop him.

I will find him. It may take me years; I have no idea where to begin looking; but I will find him. Because I am Lord Dio's friend. And I love him.

&

Dio was falling.

The winds buffeted him, throwing him first this way, now that way. One strong gust spun him nearly horizontal for a few minutes. If this continued, he would be crushed by the next solid object he impacted, unless the wind tore him to pieces first.

He didn't care.

Luciola…Luciola is gone! Just because I said to jump out…he's gone! He would have wept, but could barely even draw in enough air to breathe.

And so he plummeted, down, down, down…and then the Silvana caught him.

&

On the third day since Luciola came back to life, he had a visitor.

The doctor showed a young woman in and shut the door behind her. "I'll just leave you two alone now."

She smiled at him, settling into the chair by his bed and smoothing out the creases in her blue dress. He nodded in acknowledgement, but did not speak.

She broke the silence. "I brought you some clothes. The doctors tell me you're okay to be released. I'll walk you home."

The shirt was rough and scratchy to someone who was used to the tight, smooth elastic of Guild bodysuits. The baggy pants showed signs of wear and tear, but they were clean and they fit, so he put them on along with the striped wool socks and tough boots. The entire outfit was heavier than he was used to, but he wasn't complaining.

As soon as they were out of the hospital, she laid a hand on his shoulder. "Now…mind telling me who you are?"

He flinched in surprise. "What are you talking about?"

She sighed and shook her head. A few tendrils of dark hair had escaped from her hair clip, and Luciola noticed that he'd never seen a black-haired woman before. "I know you're not Curtos. Curtos would never have a kind expression in his eyes, and he'd never wear those socks I knitted. So answer me. Who are you?"

He thought for a moment. She obviously knows the man who used to use this body. It would be useless to try to fool her. "My name is Luciola."

There was an awkward silence between then as they walked, and he realized that she was waiting for a last name. "Just Luciola."

She smiled. "Pleased to meet you…Luciola."

He nodded. "Now it's your turn. Who are you, and why would you knit Curtos socks?"

They were going up a flight of stairs, and she stopped to catch her breath. "Daphne Korakos. I'm your—well, Curtos'—next-door neighbor. And I knitted him socks because he kept wearing holes through them, and I was sick of seeing holey socks on the clothesline."

They stopped in front of a nondescript, three-story building. Daphne's eyes were steely. "This is your house. We can talk more inside, once we've had something to eat. And you will tell me exactly how you came to be in Curtos' body."

&

Dio tossed and turned, mumbling incoherently. He was unconscious, as he had been since landing. This time, to prevent another incident, he was strapped to the bunk; the crewmembers had donated their belts for this purpose, and the leather strained visibly to hold him. "Luci…Luciola…"

Claus stood by the side of the bed. Dio was strange and more than slightly annoying at times, but he was a friend, and it hurt to see him slipping away from reality. "Is there any chance of him ever recovering?"

Lescius sighed. "I don't know. The Trial of Agoon was started after I left the Guild, so I've never seen its aftermath. If—no, when—he wakes up, we'll see what we can do."

If there was anything at all to be done. Lescius realized that Dio, if he woke up, would likely spend the rest of his life insane, and was suddenly filled with a new surge of hatred for Delphine. No child should live his life like this.

&

Daphne fixed sandwiches for herself and Luciola and sat down on the rickety couch that had apparently been one of Curtos' only pieces of furniture. "So, tell me. Who are you, really? Why are you here?"

Luciola took a seat on an upturned milk crate and looked around. Curtos' apartment was shabby, but more or less clean. There was a photograph on the wall that had been ripped in half, but from where he was sitting he couldn't quite make out what it was. He took a hesitant bite of his sandwich—smoked meat and some kind of dark bread—before answering. "I am Luciola. I am searching for a young man with white hair, dressed in the manner of the Guild. His name is Dio Eraclea. And as for how I came to inhabit your friend's body…I'm not sure. All I know is that I was dead."

Daphne's eyes narrowed. "Curtos was nobody's friend. If you need help to search for your Dio, you picked a terrible body to do it in. My advice is that you change your appearance as much as possible, and pray nobody recognizes you."

'My' Dio…? He was vaguely annoyed to find his face heating up at the thought, and sought to change the subject. "If he was nobody's friend, why did you go through the trouble of knitting for him?"

It would have been imperceptible to most normal people, but Luciola saw her flinch ever-so-slightly before she replied. "I live alone. Knitting is a hobby of mine. Besides, it helps pay the bills and my navigation lessons."

That certainly got Luciola's attention. He forced down a half-chewed mouthful of sandwich to ask, "Navigation lessons? For a vanship?"

Daphne beamed. "Yes, for a vanship! I've always wanted to travel, you see, and a vanship is the most effective way to go from town to town. My uncle was a vanship pilot. When he was crippled in an accident five years ago, he gave his vanship to me, since he doesn't have children and my father didn't want it. I don't have space here, so it's at the Union headquarters. This may be a shot in the dark, here…but are you by any chance a vanship pilot?"

Luciola nodded. This girl may be my ticket to finding Lord Dio.

If possible, her grin became even wider. "Then I've got an idea. Since you'll probably need a vanship and a navigator to find your Dio, and I have a vanship and need a pilot…why don't we team up? That way we both get what we want." She offered a hand for him to shake.

Slowly, he took it. "…Thank you."

"Oh, don't mention it! Just…go slowly, alright? I'm not that good of a navi yet, and I don't think my old vanship could handle it."

He briefly squeezed his eyes shut. A half-trained navigator and an old vanship…Oh, Lord Dio…it could be a long time until I find you.