The flight seemed to go on forever. In the windowless cabin it was near impossible to tell if they were even moving or not. The only sound to be heard was the soft hum of the propellers keeping the ship in the air, muffled by thick layers of steel.

Never before would have Kress thought that silence could get on his nerves this badly. Or was it less the silence and more the heathen boy seated less than three feet from him?

"Are you angry?" he finally asked in low voice. Varlon hadn't seemed to pay much attention to them for a good while, but he was still cautious.

"About what?" Lucas asked.

"That I didn't tell about your mother earlier."

He pondered the question for a moment. "Not really, I suppose. You're still my friend. I'm sure you had your own reasons for not telling."

"Thanks..."

"I was right, wasn't I?"

"Huh?"

"I said you would like her once you met her. And you did. I'm sure she liked you a lot too."

Kress smiled a little. "Yeah. You were right."

He was saved from further discussion by a voice announcing through loudspeakers, "We have visual contact. It really is a city floating in the air."

Varlon abruptly stood up, walked to the bed and dragged Lucas to his feet by his arm. "Let's go, boys. Tavali awaits."

Kress followed the chancellor quietly. There wasn't much else he could do with Lucas held hostage.

The first thing they saw through the huge window of the command bridge was a blue sphere. A very big blue sphere. But as they got closer, they could see that it was actually some kind of barrier sparkling in the sunlight - they were above the clouds, so there was nothing to block it - much like the buildings of Delavia. Inside it was a city possibly even larger than the capital of the Kingdom of Dawn.

"Go ahead, messenger," Varlon spoke. "Let us in."

...How?" Kress asked.

"I don't know. You have the key. Figure it out."

Kress took a deep breath and closed his eyes. That was easier said than done. He hadn't actually done anything this far. The pedestal in the shrine had just activated with his presence.

Somehow Lucas managed to move to his side and take his hand again completely unnoticed. Kress instantly felt a little calmer. Alright, the key. The pendant was the key that illuminated the path to the land beyond the clouds.

He held the small item on the palm of his hand and tried to focus all his attention on it. 'The path...show me the path...'

The metal tingled, sending tiny electric shocks into his flesh, just like when reacting to other pieces. Then it started glowing and a beam of blue light shot towards the floating city.

Varlon smiled. "Follow that light," he commanded the crew.

There was indeed a gap in the barrier where the light from the pendant met it. The airship slipped inside and landed on the open field outside the city. Strangely enough the grass was still green and flourishing despite being trapped underwater for centuries, if not millennia.

Once their transport was securely on the ground, Varlon and his soldiers ushered their captives outside. From there Tavali was even more awe-inspiring than through a window of the airship. The barrier around it wasn't so obviously visible from this side as they could clearly see the sky, but the sunlight was distorted ever so slightly, just enough to indicate that something was reflecting it.

Apparently they weren't the first visitors after the long slumber under the ocean either - there was a single wild cerro circling them curiously. But it kept its distance and eventually flew away towards the center of the city.

Most of the soldiers quickly spread out to investigate the field and the nearest buildings. There was a huge tower the same color as the blue crystals they had seen in the shrine of the Sky spirits in the distance, but otherwise the local buildings seemed to be relatively flat and made of white stone for the most part. There were also high stone archways littering the area.

Several streets - there were very smooth streets of material that was almost like stone, but not quite anything they had seen before, crisscrossing between the buildings and occasional greenery - snaked towards the center of the city like poles of a wheel. Tavali was built in a large circle, and the tower at the center was probably quite important.

But quite a bit of the local architecture seemed to be damaged. Some buildings and bridges had downright collapsed, while some bore marks of some kind of destruction. Less than half of them were still whole.

One of the crew from the airship brought chancellor Varlon some kind of plastic sheet, and the man calmly unrolled it.

Lucas peeked past him to see what it might be.

"It's a map," Varlon commented. "It was also left by the Dawn King. With this kind of destruction it might not be very accurate anymore, but..." He pointed towards the tower. "That's where we'll be going. Very hard to miss, don't you think so, boy?"

"Is that 'miracle cure' there?" Kress asked.

"No. Something much more important."

"But Tamaris is hurt!" Mrei protested.

"She can hold on for a few more hours," Varlon answered coldly.

"But I can't," Kress said. The numb ache he had felt these past days was being replaced by searing pain. Rolan's...power had to be wearing off. "My time is running out. If you want me to do anything more, find that cure first."

"If this is some kind of trick..." Varlon warned.

"It's not. I had some help suppressing the pain, but as you said...I'm flawed. I can't use these powers anymore."

Varlon muttered something that was probably curses. "Fine. According to the map, the house of healing is this way. If it's not completely destroyed."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Lucas asked as they slowly made their way through the streets, some in better shape than others. "I wouldn't have asked you to do this."

"That's exactly why." Kress smiled slightly. "You would have called off the entire search and we would have never completed the key."

Lucas frowned. That was...sort of...true. At the very least he would have wanted Kress to rest until he was feeling better.

Fortunately the place was in one piece. The exterior walls made of white stone had crumbled in places, but there was a sturdy layer of metal under them.

On the inside the floor was littered with shallow, oval-shaped pools just big enough for one adult person. The liquid in them was colored light turquoise and smelled strange.

Lucas knelt by one and experimentally poked the liquid. There was a tiny charge of what felt like static electricity running through his finger.

Varlon checked the small room at the back, but it looked more like an office. No medical instruments anywhere. Either this wasn't a hospital or...those pools were some technology they didn't know yet. "Tamaris, why don't you be useful and try if that liquid heals your wounds?" he suggested.

Judging by the way the soldiers were pointing their guns at her, saying no was not an option. Slowly she lay down in one of the pools, her head supported so that her face was barely above the surface.

Countless metallic lines lining the interior of the pool came alive with a soft hum.

"Well?" Varlon asked. It was certainly doing something.

"I think...this is it," Tamaris stated. "I feel a little better."

"Alright. Your turn, boy."

Lucas helped Kress lie down in another pool. But the moment he stepped back and the lines lit up, a transparent lid of some kind slid over the other boy and more liquid flowed into the pool from somewhere, leaving Kress completely submerged.

"Kress!" Lucas hit the lid with his fist, a sudden sense of panic creeping over him.

Varlon grabbed his shoulder and pulled him away. "Cut that out."

"But he needs air! He can't breathe like that!"

He eyed his little creation floating completely calmly inside the container. If the boy really couldn't breathe, he should be flailing about and trying to get out. "We all start our lives in the womb completely surrounded by water. He seems fine to me." He let go of Lucas. "This place probably decided he requires a deeper treatment."

"...How long will that take?"

"I don't know." Varlon nodded to the guards accompanying him. "Keep an eye on them. I have other things to see to."

He still needed Kress to access the most important locations, but now that they were inside the floating city, there was no reason not to look around a little while waiting. The map hadn't mentioned any specific storage areas, but since Tavali had been engulfed by a civil war, there should be weapons somewhere.

~*~*~

Four soldiers remained to keep watch on them. Varlon really wouldn't have needed to leave even that many, since both Kress and Tamaris were asleep and Lucas and Mrei could have taken on maybe one adult together - that was, if they were willing to risk getting shot.

"Are you alright?" Lucas asked, sitting close to Mrei. The girl had seemed awfully downcast ever since they had gotten here. It was not the circumstances he would have wished either, but still his heart felt light that they really had found the land beyond the clouds.

"I thought...that the cure would be some medicine. Or something like that." She was happy that these pools were helping Tamaris and Kress, but... "How am I going to help daddy now?"

Her father had barely left his bed at all for months. She wasn't even sure if he should move at all. Varlon had said that he shouldn't exert himself, but could she really trust that man's word?

One of the soldiers guarding them cleared his throat.

Mrei looked at him curiously. "What is it?"

"Your father, the king, is dead, young highness."

"What...what are you saying? Tamaris said he wanted to see me!"

"He passed away mere hours before the airship left Delavia, although it's not public knowledge yet. Lady Tamaris had departed on car a few days earlier." He paused, just watching Mrei for a moment. "You really should do exactly as the chancellor says. Otherwise the lineage of the Dawn King may be completely extinguished."

She didn't understand anything anymore. Daddy was gone. And all these people were working for the chancellor. If she didn't do as Varlon told her, would she be left here? Or killed? What would happen back home if she did do everything he told her? Would she become a queen? Or would she just be a run-away princess with the chancellor making all the decisions?

...She really just wanted daddy back. She didn't care about being a queen or a princess. Not about the kingdom or this city floating in the air.

Lucas tried to comfort her by hugging her gently. "I'm sorry, Mrei." After a moment of thought he added, "You can come live with me and my father if you want. Then you wouldn't have to be alone."

That made Mrei smile a little and she snuggled closer to the boy. "I'll think about it," she promised.

Many hours later the lid covering Kress finally slid aside. Tamaris had woken a good while earlier and remained close enough to Mrei to be able to reach her any moment, but not quite close enough to actually be with her.

Lucas hurried to his friend's side. "Are you feeling okay now?"

Kress pondered the question for a moment before replying, "Actually...I don't think I've ever felt better."

He had gotten used to at least some amount of pain. Now that it was all gone, it was even a bit strange. But beyond that, he really felt alive right now.

Lucas smiled. "That's great!"

"The boy is awake," one of the soldiers notified Varlon through a communicator.

"That's good. How about Tamaris?"

"She seems well too."

"Take her and the princess back to the airship. I'll be at the house of healing momentarily."

"Yes, sir." The soldier turned to Mrei and Tamaris. "I'm sure you heard him. Let's move."

"No!" Mrei protested. "I want to stay with Kress and Lucas."

"You don't get a choice in the matter, young highness," the soldier who had spoken with her earlier said. "Come along quietly and nobody needs to get hurt."

Lucas moved back to Mrei and took her hands. "We'll be fine. I promise we'll all be together again. So make sure you don't get hurt and I'll make sure neither I nor Kress gets hurt. Okay?"

Mrei sniffed. "Okay. You have to keep that promise, you got it?"

"I know. I will."