"D'you think Yara is okay?" Chia asks nervously as the horse cart bumps and rattles its way down the rocky road (much to Tam's annoyance, where, from where he is perched upon a few crates near the front of the cart, his head hits one of the lower-hanging beams every time they hit another pothole).

It's bumpy. It's slow. It's crowded.

But it is also incredibly cheap, and one of these things is more important than all the others.

"I mean," Allioni shrugs and gestures vaguely as if to somehow explain the entire Yara-ness of Yara with his hands alone, "she's Yara. We've seen her break four ribs and not even sneeze at it."

"I don't think that's an expression, Allioni," Tam says, looking up from the book in his hands (how does he even manage to carry so many when they're literally on the run).

"Yes – well – you get my point!" he snaps back.

"Well, it is true that she seemed to be racing towards that burning... whatever building it was," Kaya agrees, "but the smoke stopped about thirty minutes after that, right? So she's probably alright. She has handled worse than burning buildings, after all."

"Probably," Chia says, her nod confident though she herself doesn't seem all that sure.

Still, they don't relax until they get to the airfield (paying the cart driver a few solars for letting them squish in with the rest of his cargo) and spot Yara waiting for them, looking a more disheveled than usual but still perfectly fine.

"Is that blood on your knee," Tam says.

"I introduced someone to my knee," she says back in an equally dry tone.

"Oh?"

"My knee won."

"Right. Of course it did."

"Cool," Chia says admiringly (the only one among them to do so). "Hey, could you teach me how to do those moves –"

"No," Yara says flatly.

Chia pouts. "Awwwww! You shouldn't hog all those ninja moves to yourself, you know?"

"They are not," Yara says, already looking like she's once again questioning her life choices, "ninja moves. And anyway," she spins, gesturing for them to follow, "that's not what I came here to talk about."

"Right," Tam says, getting straight to the point now that their short, albeit strange, hello is over (not that it's any weirder than their previous ones), "we're booking an airship straight to Solaire, right? It's probably the smarter move to switch up our modes of transport a little, but which time would be the best –"

"Booking?" Yara says, raising an eyebrow, a slight tilt to her lips that's forming into the beginnings of a smirk. "Oh no – I never said anything about booking a flight." And then she stops and the rest of them follow, craning their necks to look at the airship looming over them. "Apparently, Anya does know a lot of people – because this time around, you four are getting your own personal private airship."

Kaya blinks.

Allioni stares.

Chia gapes.

Tam, to his credit, does neither of the three and instead turns to Yara and carries on the conversation like nothing had happened. "Who exactly sponsored this? And for that matter, why exactly is there pretty much no one after us here? I'm pretty sure that guy we met in the mansion said he closed off all the exits and entrances, and this airfield isn't exactly a private one."

"For your first question – apparently pro-Star cults exist, and some of them are very, very rich. As for your second..." Yara held up a large dark brown pouch and shook it around a little, causing it to emit the sounds of jangling coins.

"You bribed the guards. Of course."

Yara shrugged. "It worked, and besides, we're on a tight schedule. Now, are the four of you going to get on or not?"

---------------------

"We'll arrive at Solaire somewhere around this time tomorrow," Allioni informs Kaya as he plops down next to her, from where she's sitting on the ground of the outdoor promenade deck that wraps around both the level they're on and the two levels above. They're at the back of the airship, the steady sound of its propeller spinning vibrating through the air, a perfect view of the clear night sky above them. "Considering they needed time for refuels and repairs before taking off, it's a bit slower than we would've liked – but as long as no one catches on soon and comes after us, we should have our head start. They're dropping us right at the foot of the mountain, apparently, but they can't go further than that."

"Mhmm," Kaya says noncommittally, her gaze still fixed on the sky above her, on those distant points of light winking in and out. She glances towards him a few moments later, scratching the back of her head sheepishly. "Sorry – I was only half-listening."

"It's fine," he says, waving her off. "Worried?"

She nods. "It's just..." she trails off, gesturing hopelessly as if to convey the magnitude of their specific situation. "I dunno. I'm worried about a lot of things." She looks up again. "I wonder if they're actually up there... do you think they can see us? Do you think they know what we're doing?"

He shrugs. "Yara would probably know, but..." He looks up at the sky again, and abruptly, says: "Make a wish. On any of them."

She looks at him, confused and maybe a little horrified. "What?"

He laughs. "Not in that way. Just, you know. Normally. It's, ah – a human tradition. Though you could also call it superstition, I suppose. Pick out a star and make a wish in your heart, and all of that."

"Hmm." A pause as she frowns up at the sky above them. "What would you wish for?"

"I don't know," he admits. "Back then – even possibly just a few weeks ago – I would've wished for money, perhaps. To buy a proper plane, travel the world. Or maybe even something more outlandish, like the ability to fly. But now..." he shrugs again.

They end up in silence, an undercurrent of unease underneath.

"All the lights in the sky are stars," Allioni suddenly says aloud.

Kaya looks towards him. "Hmm?"

"Oh, I uh – I didn't realize I said that out loud," he says, embarrassed. "It's something my mother used to say, when I was small and, ah, kinda insecure?" he winces. "Still am now, actually, but –" he buries his face in his hands with a groan, "– why am I saying all this. Anyway," he continues a little louder, trying to smooth over the previous hiccup, "having the dream of being a pilot was a little outlandish – still is, actually – so I worried a lot about it. So my mom, she said – 'for every dream, there is a wish, and for every wish, there is a star. And if all the lights in the sky are stars, then there's one for you as well – a star, a wish, a dream.' Sorry," he says, ducking his head sheepishly, "I'm just kinda rambling now. I don't even know why I'm telling you all this, so – sorry. Again."

She blinks, then smiles. "No, it's kind of sweet, actually. But your mom...?"

"She died. When I was six."

"Oh." Now Kaya is the one to apologize. "Sorry." She had assumed that Chia, Tam and Allioni were all orphans, but she had never actually known the exact details.

"It's fine, it – it happened a long time ago, anyway," he says, swallowing the lump in his throat. And then, quieter: "Sometimes, when I'm upset, I think of what she said. About all of these things. But still, sometimes, I can't help thinking the other way as well – that all the lights in the sky are stars, but I feel like I'll never reach them – not just with the dream, but with, well," Allioni shrugs helplessly, "everything. I mean – you've got your Starsong and your instincts in battle, and Chia has her navigational skills and her penchant for bombs and knives and all kinds of chaos, and Tam has his levelheadedness and knack for strategy, and I'm just, well – me. Only useful when with a plane, and nowhere else." Another pause. "Sorry," he says, for the third time, "I hadn't meant for this to turn into a pity party."

"It's true," Kaya starts, stops, thinks for a moment and then continues, "that you can't do any of the things that we do. But still – you have your own strengths. You were the one who reached out that day. You were the one who insisted on checking and who went after me. If you hadn't – I think I'd probably already be dead. And – if all the lights in the sky are stars, and you feel like you'll never reach any of them – well," she says, lips quirking up into a slight smile, "you reached me, didn't you?"

Silence, again, but this time more comfortable.

"Did I ever tell you," Allioni says, suddenly switching subjects, "about how I met Chia and Tam?"

She blinks, then shakes her head.

"It was when we were all seven," he says with a fond smile. "Looking back on it, it was actually kinda hilarious."

"What happened?" she asks, curious.

"First day of school," he begins. "We were on break, and the teachers were trying to get all of the kids to, you know, play with each other, socialize... the usual. Anyway, Tam, being Tam, did not want to socialize. So um uh... he snatched a box of blocks that Chia had been planning on playing with, then refused to share. Then she cried. And punched him."

Kaya bursts out laughing. "Seriously?"

"Seriously," he nods. "Those two were arguing even back then. But anyway, Tam began to cry too – I know, hard to picture, but it did happen, and it was a pretty hard punch, so. Then this other kid made fun of him, and, well – Chia punched him too. The whole thing developed into a brawl in record time."

"And you?" she asks, amused.

"Me? I'm the guy who got the wonderful job of pulling them apart," he says dryly. "And for some reason we became friends after that."

"That's... an interesting story," Kaya says at last.

"It is," he says. "Definitely not your typical friendship. But well – we've stuck together with each other all these years. So whatever happens tomorrow, I'm sure we'll pull through just fine."

High above them, there is a shout, and Allioni tilts his head back to spot Tam and Chia on the level above, the latter yelling something out to the sky and sea of clouds, hands cupped around her mouth, while the former dissolves into laughter against the railing, their words carried away by the wind.

"Yeah," she replies, quietly. "I suppose you're right."

---------------------

Enya Rivyet paces back and forth across the room in anger, a sheaf of papers fisted in her hands – the reports she had gotten just a little while ago on how that wretched Star and its friends had, once again, against all odds, escaped. "How?" she demands. From a nearby corner, Arthur Rivyet watches her anxiously, slightly afraid and more than a little nervous.

"My dear, pertaining to the transport to Solaire, perhaps we should –"

"I had the entire city on lockdown!" she spins towards him, furious. "That man – Argus – he said they wouldn't be able to get out! So how –"

"Darling –"

"And while I was gone, Raine was attacked! She could've been injured! She could've been killed!"

"Dearest, as I was saying about the transport, maybe we should delay it for a while so everyone can rest –"

"No!" she snaps. "No, we are leaving right now! If we delay any further, they'll reach Solaire and by then it's possible they'll actually break the wish. This is Raine's last chance – her only chance at normalcy!" her face darkens, and she mutters under her breath: "I should've killed that Star's friends and then headed to Solaire to sacrifice it as soon as I could. If I had just killed –"

That is when the door creaks open and effectively cuts off her sentence to reveal Raine behind it, pale and trembling.

"Mom?" she asks, voice shaking, something in her expression pleading, begging for what she said to not be true, for Enya to reassure her it's all okay and tell her she heard wrong (and Enya feels something crumbling, feels like something in her heart is cracking because the expression on Raine's face is absolute horror and heartbreak in equal parts).

And then she asks it, the inevitable question forming on her lips, with no way for Enya to stop it:

"What do you mean, kill?"

---------------------

"Right," Tam begins as he takes inventory of all his supplies, carefully counting them before arranging them for easy access in his backpack, "we're going to be there in half an hour. Does everyone have what they need?"

Kaya and Allioni voice their affirmation. "Yes sir!" Chia salutes from where she's sitting on the kitchen counter (this airship really is stocked with everything – Kaya wonders just who exactly sponsored this, and how rich they are), swinging her legs through the air casually. Kaya marvels at the fact that she's still completely carefree despite the fact that they're about to head straight into the complete unknown, and maybe fight the few groups of people after her that managed to figure out where they're going and catch up – because apparently, this airship isn't one built for speed, rather a luxury blimp.

And she realizes – this is it. They're really going to do this. She's really going to do this.

And all of a sudden, her chest tightens and her heartbeat quickens and it feels like she can't get enough air into her lungs, because this is actually happening and what if she fails? What if something goes wrong? What if someone gets hurt and she doesn't get there in time –

"Hey, Kaya!" Chia hops off the counter and bounces over to her side, ignoring Tam's exclamation of "how many knives are in here?" as he checks through her bag. And then she says: "Let's do this." Her face is set in determination, her voice firm, and somehow, looking at her expression, Kaya feels her anxiety melt away – or at least, become more muted than before.

Because her expression is one that says we've got your back.

We can do this.

And, looking around at the faces of everyone in the room, the same grim but firm determination they hold, Kaya finds herself thinking that the same thing.

She smiles. "Yeah. Let's do this."

Which is, of course, the moment there is a loud "BOOM", the entire frame of the airship juddering as the floor rocks beneath their feet, and the intercom system crackles to life with the panicked voice of their pilot breaking through:

"We're under attack!"