Next to the house, there was a shed which Claus and Lavie had built to house their vanship. It was cramped and tended to leak when it rained, but it served its purpose. They usually left the door unlocked; nobody would be stupid enough to steal something so distinctive. Nor would they get too far if they did.

Claus and Lavie were going to work on their vanship again. The roll linkage had been slightly stiff lately. As he pushed open the door, Claus caught a flash of white out of the corner of his eye, but dismissed it; it was probably just a bird. Then he stepped into the shed and blinked in surprise. Next to him, Lavie's eyes widened.

Dio was standing next to their vanship, running his fingers over the side with an expression of intense concentration on his face. He looked up as they entered, his eyes wide and innocent. "Good morning, Immelmann!"

Claus tried to speak, but no sound came out. Finally, he managed to articulate a question. "Dio…what are you doing here?"

For a brief moment, Dio appeared confused by the question. Slowly, he replied, "I like vanships. And I…I just remembered what it was like to fly. And I heard you saying the other day that you had to do some cleaning and repair work, so can I help?"

"It's a good thing you reminded me; I think I left my…best wrench…in my tool kit in my room. Come on, Claus, help me look for it." Lavie grabbed Claus' arm and steered him outside, out of earshot of Dio.

Her forehead was creased with worry. "Claus, what do you think? Is it safe to let him work on our vanship?"

Claus frowned. "I think he knows what he's doing, Lavie. His mind wasn't so badly affected that he'd lose basic skills like that. And he was…is…a good pilot and navi."

Lavie shook her head. "That's not what I'm worried about. Do you—do you remember when the Silvana caught him? When he fell? I'm scared that if he starts flying again, he could relapse. If he goes back to what he was like a few months ago, we might not be able to get him to recover again." She shuddered.

Claus was silent, thinking. Lavie was right. If Dio relapsed somehow, he might never recover, and all the progress he had made over the past few months would be for nothing. On the other hand… "I believe in Dio. If he wants to help with the vanship, we should let him. Who knows, it might help him recover faster. You remember how important flying was to him, right?"

Lavie smiled sadly. "Yeah. He loved vanships more than almost anything else. He's come a long way, but you're right—the best way to speed his recovery would be to let him fly."

They walked into the shed together. Dio was sitting in front of the pilot's seat, drumming his fingers on the hull. He grinned at them and held up a wrench. "Is this what you were looking for, Lavie?"

She grinned back. "Yep. You wanna help us with our vanship?"

In response, Dio did a backflip off the hull, landing on his feet directly in front of her. Smirking slightly, he bowed. "My pleasure."

Claus edged around him to the vanship. "Okay then. See, we've been having some problems with the roll adjustment lately…"

&

While his nausea had thankfully subsided after some bread and a few glasses of water, Luciola's headache had faded only slightly. Accordingly, he had decided to take a walk to the lower levels by the simple navigational method of descending the first steps he found. Maybe it would help clear his head. Besides, Daphne had told him the kitchens were down there, and he might be able to find better food. Exile's lack of staff or crew made it so that everyone had to cook for themselves and Daphne, while a passable cook, had a tendency to undercook nearly everything. And, he thought as he walked down a seemingly endless flight of stairs, she's never learned that some things just taste better when they're covered in pepper.

The door to the second level was open, and an artificial breeze carried a faint whiff of plant life. Luciola frowned. A garden? Here?

He walked through the door and was nearly blinded by the light. For a brief moment, he was frozen in place as his mind flashed back to Delphine's garden. And then, slowly, his eyes adjusted to the light. Instead of the heavy, cloying aroma of roses, he caught the spicy smells of herbs and relaxed.

He could see to the other end of the room, but just barely. Terraced rows of pots lined the walls and stretched in neat parallel rows to the other end. There were fruit trees interspersed with the herbs; despite the season, every one of them was bearing fruit. Someone in the back was humming, so Luciola decided to investigate. As he walked down the rows, he found himself idly cataloguing the uses of various plants he passed.

Almonds for amygdalin and cyanide, cherry and peach pits for glycosides, tomato greens for solanine, castor oil plants for ricin, rhubarb for oxalic acids…water hemlock—oh no, this is just carrot. The next row over is basil and oregano, I think.

The humming stopped as its source appeared from behind a bush two rows over. A young man, his Guild mark partially obscured by his shaggy brown hair, caught sight of Luciola and made his way over to him. "Well, hello there. What do you think of my garden?"

Luciola blinked. "Your garden?"

The man studied him closely, grinning. Up close, Luciola could see that he was roughly around the same age as him, tall and thin. "Yep, my garden. I used Guild technology to get everything to grow faster; there's no time to waste. Wow, you must be new around here. Are you from Disith? What's your name? I'm Lucius Columella, by the way."

I haven't heard a flood of questions like that since…since Lord Dio was with me. Even Daphne is more restrained. "Luciola, from Anatoray. I just boarded Exile yesterday."

Lucius promptly slung an arm around his shoulders. "New guy! Hey, in that case, let me show you around. Would you like an apple?"

Luciola shrugged his arm off. He had never been fond of physical contact, unless of course it came from Dio. Now I know how Claus felt. "Sorry. My roommate will be wondering where I am around now, and I wouldn't want her to panic."

The other man shrugged. "Fine. Would you like to maybe eat lunch with me later or something? I make a pretty good chicken sandwich."

He blinked again. He sounds as though he's asking me out. Why does he sound as though he's asking me out? "Umm, I'm sorry, but I really do have to go."

He left quickly and did not look back.

&

Dio knew that he was grinning like an idiot, but he couldn't seem to stop. His fingers were covered in engine grease, there was an interesting stain on his shirt, and wiping his hair out of his eyes had left a smear of grime across his forehead; yet he was ridiculously happy. Finally, he had an opportunity to fly a vanship again.

Lavie tapped him on the shoulder. "Dio, if you keep smiling your face'll stick like that. And could you hand me that hammer?"

Correction: I will have an opportunity to fly a vanship again once this one is fixed. "Sure." He bent down and handed her the one by his foot. "This one?"

"Yeah."

"I could fix that dent in the maintenance hatch for you, you know."

Lavie flinched slightly. "You don't have to do that. I can handle it."

On the other side of the vanship, hidden from view, Claus was working on something Dio supposed was the roll linkage. Or the throttle. Whatever it was, it was making a lot of noise and involved a great deal of banging. Curious, he vaulted himself over the side of the vanship and crouched on top of it, peering down at Claus. "So what are you doing, Immelmann?"

Claus jumped and turned to look up at him. "Don't do that. I'm working on the roll linkage."

He blinked. "Ah." He realized, not for the first time, that he was slightly out of his depth. While he could fly Claus' vanship well enough, it was so primitive compared to those used by the Guild that he was at a loss to help him fix it. "Er, can I help?"

Claus shook his head. "Nah, I've got this taken care of. There's not really enough room for anyone else to work over here anyway."

Dio pouted. Lavie and Immelmann…they said I could help them with their vanship, but they don't need my help. They just wanted me not to feel useless. "I'm going down to the river to wash this gunk off."

Abruptly, he stood up—the roof of the shed was high enough to allow it—and jumped down to the ground like a cat. Lavie and Claus watched him go and exchanged worried glances.

The river water was cold and clear. Briskly, Dio splashed his face and set to work scrubbing grease out from under his nails. When his hands were satisfyingly clean, he flopped on his back and stared at the clouds, thinking.

I wish Luciola was here. He was better than I am when it came to fixing vanships. No…he is better than I am. I want to fly again…but with him, not with anyone else. They all think I'm too fragile to handle it.

Footsteps behind him made him twist around to see Claus standing there. "What do you want?"

Claus took a step closer. "We're done with maintenance. Do you—do you want to fly with me? As my navi?"

Dio stared at him. Immelmann's navi? The last time…the last time I flew with him, we… "No. Just go fly with Lavie."

"But Dio—"

He shivered. "I don't want to fly. Not with you, not yet."

Claus sighed and headed back to the shed. Dio's statement was worrying, but if he didn't want to fly then there was nothing he could do. He only hoped it didn't signify a relapse.

&

Luciola arrived back at his room to find Daphne chatting happily with, of all people, Alister Agrew. His navi beamed at him as he approached. "Luce, how's your headache? Better, I hope. This is Alister; she was a pilot on the Silvana; I think you might have met her. Alis, this is my friend Luce."

He looked from one woman to the other. Well, I shouldn't be surprised that Daphne made a friend so quickly…but Miss Alister? Now that I think about it, it's not so strange that they might have something in common. "Nice to meet you, Miss Agrew."

Alister smiled. "It's nice to meet you too. Please, call me Alis."

Daphne continued. "There's kind of a street fair set up on the fourth level. That's where we met; I recognized her from the Silvana—you know how you see people around sometimes and say hi—and so I asked her opinion on this new vest." For the first time, Luciola registered that she was indeed wearing a vest, black with dark gray trim. "I got a skirt to go with it, but it needs to be taken in and I need more thread. You wanna come with me? I saw some clothes that might fit you."

He was suddenly acutely aware of the fact that he had been alternating between the same four shirts for over a month, and that none of them were very clean. Furthermore, he no longer owned a pair of socks without holes, and was down to his last two pairs of clean underwear. "Where is this street fair? I'll come with you."

Daphne grinned. "Excellent. Alis, I'll see you later for dinner, okay?"

Alister smiled and waved goodbye as they left, trying to banish the strange feeling that she knew him from somewhere. That was ridiculous, of course; they had only just met, hadn't they?

Descending the stairs put Luciola and Daphne right in the middle of the street fair. Rows of tables had been set up to display whatever their owners had to sell—secondhand clothes, old jewelry, used books, and appliances in questionable states of repair. Daphne left him to his own devices. "I won't be far. The shirts were over by 413 if you want to look."

Luciola wandered down the nearest row, casting disinterested glances at the tables. This section seems to be mostly knickknacks and cheap jewelry. There's nothing of interest to me…hello, what's this?

An old Guild man was sitting at a table spread with a variety of knives. Luciola went over to him, and the man grinned. "You like my knives, boy?"

Luciola inspected his wares. Most of them were old-fashioned collector's items—very shiny, but ultimately useless. However, one caught his eye. It had a brass wire-wrapped handle and a hand guard shaped like a half-moon. "This one is part of a set. Where's the other half?"

The man sighed heavily. "I used to be quite the fighter in my youth. I'm afraid I gave it to my partner to replace the one he broke…before his death. That knife and its twin are supposed to share one sheath. They never will again, now. If you'd like it, I can give you this other sheath to use."

Two knives in one sheath… "I'll give you twenty Claudia for it."

"Hmmph. After hearing my life story, that's the best you can do? Fifty."

"Thirty-five."

"Deal." The man briskly shoved the knife into a sheath; Luciola hooked it onto his belt and turned to go. Instead, however, he spotted a horribly familiar face.

Before he could slink away, Lucius saw him and waved cheerily. "Hey! What brings you here?"

Inwardly, Luciola groaned. On the outside, he was careful to present a friendly expression. "Just some shopping."

Lucius shrugged. "Yeah, me too. I was wondering…um, this'll probably seem kind of sudden, but do you have any plans for later this evening? Some people on my block are throwing a party, see, and so I was wondering if you'd like to come with me."

…He is asking me out. What do I do? He had never been in this situation before. Luckily, he was saved from having to make a response as Daphne came up next to him, resting a hand on his shoulder. "You look flustered, Luce. This guy bothering you?"

Luciola cast her a desperate glance. Be my alibi here. She grinned at him and turned to Lucius. "A party? Yeah, sure, we'll go with you."

Lucius turned red. "…Sorry, I didn't know you had a girlfriend. I'll…just be going now, yeah. See you around."

Once he left, Daphne gave Luciola a questioning look. "I don't know what your problem was—that guy was cute! But I guess you're not interested in anyone other than your Dio, huh?"

Now it was Luciola's turn to blush.

&

It was a clear night, and the sky was filled with stars. Dio sat in the grass in front of the house, staring up at them in silence. Claus joined him. "Wow, the sky's bright tonight."

Slowly, Dio spoke. "Immelmann, do you see that star there? The bright one?"

Claus nodded.

The moonlight made Dio's hair glow; the scars on his forehead glistened in it. "That star's going to fall to earth soon. That star, and the fireflies with it."

Claus stared at him. Then, silently, he went back into the house. This was not good, not good at all.