Falco resumed breathing and grabbed the rope with both hands. He stomped one boot against the railing and heaved with all his might.

“Don’t climb, just hold on!” he screamed down to Finn.

“Hey, uh, you need to stop the ship!”

“What?” Falco dragged three arms length of rope onto the deck, careful to never let go of fully as he switched his hands around. If he made a misstep now, the kid would probably fall off.

“The ship is still sinking!”

Falco cursed, “oh, right!” and he almost did let go before remembering to tie off the rope again.

“Hold on my friend!” he shouted down as he turned.

“Quickly!” The kid sounded frantic.

Falco bounded once more up the stairs and into the helm. He cursed as he remembered the broken lever and tried to pry it back into the neutral position. It didn’t budge.

“No, no, no, no…” he muttered as he waved his hands back and forth over the control panel from lever to lever, unsure what to do next. He flinched as a resounding crash emanated from far below. The crash of something large dropping back down to earth. The next crash could be his ship, with him on it. Falco made up his mind. He leaned over the console and grabbed his metal helmet.

He skidded as he rounded the doorframe leading out on the stairs. Then he jumped up on the large structure consisting of twisting tubes, fuel tanks, mechanical gears and strange contraptions with countless vents and gauges. With one hand holding the helmet he climbed past the vents, gauges and valves on the ground level up to a large tank underneath the top-most vent that aimed directly into a hole in the balloon above.

He clamped his knees as best he could around the curved top of the tank and gingerly let go with his one free hand. He lifted the helmet above his head, holding it tight with both hands, ready to strike. He knew this was an extreme measure. Just one spark and his darling airship would become a fireball. He hesitated one more second. He yelled and slammed down, aiming to hit with the edge of the helmet.

The fuel tank reverbated a deep clang and dented inwards but didn’t breach. Falco screamed louder and bashed the helmet against the tank again in pure adrenaline-fueled desperation. The dent ruptured. The force of the hydrogen within ripped the edges of the hole outwards and flung Falco several paces into the air.

He tried twisting in the air but couldn’t manifest a resonance in time because of his panic ridden mind. He landed awkwardly onto the deck below, just one pace away from hurtling over the edge of the ship. His elbow struck the fence hard and all feeling rushed from it as numbness spread up to his shoulder.

Falco lumped his half-turned body over on his back and he lay there staring into the balloon as hydrogen rushed past it on either side, making the canvas flutter and contort. Some of the hydrogen must’ve found its way inside the balloon because Falco could feel the pit of his stomach drop as the airship lifted.

He stood up, holding one arm around his numb elbow.

“Hey kid! Are you with me?”

“I’m— I’m alright!”

Falco breathed out a long sigh of relief. Taking his time now that the crisis was over, he sauntered over to the railing where he’d tied the rope. It was fastened in two places, the second one from when he’d needed to raise the ship out of its decent.

A hand appeared from behind the railing and startled Falco. The image of Crassus crawling up the side of his ship flashed before his mind. The illusion dispelled however, when the hand grasping the railing tensed and brought up the smiling face of a golden haired man. His smile faltered a bit when he spotted Falco.

“What’s wrong?”

Falco clutched a hand to his beating chest. “Nothing— nothing, my friend,” he walked to the closest wall and slid down into a sitting position, “I just thought you were someone else.”

Finn looked back over the railing he had just climbed over. He peered down for a long while but didn’t say anything. He seemed to understand that Falco needed a little moment to himself. It took him longer than usual but Falco shook out of it in the end.

“Let's get something to eat, eh, or what do you say, boy?” The kid didn’t answer, he looked to still be in shock. Not too hard to understand, considering what he’d been though. On the good side of things though he appeared to accept the new reality of things quite quickly.

“Are you sure you’re ok?” Finn asked.

Falco couldn’t help but laugh. What a considerate fellow! “Of course, my friend, never better. Now, how about that food? You’ll feel better, I promise.” Falco smacked his forehead, “and questions! You must have so many questions.” Warm laughter bubbled up from deep in his belly. “Come! You eat, you ask and I will answer!” His aching elbow forgotten, Falco slapped Finn on the back and gestured him inside to the galley.

“Oh— uhm— alright I guess.”

***

“I want a second key before we go see your friend.” Isaac tried turning to face Aster as they climbed down the spiral staircase but had to give up in danger of breaking his neck falling down the stairs.

“We don’t have time, you’ll have to wait until after we’re done.” Aster bit every syllable off with obvious irritation.

Isaac turned as he reached the end of the staircase and blocked her exit. Standing on the step of the staircase she stood even with his height and stared him straight in the eyes. “What if we have to fight again? How will I be able to help you. You said it yourself, this place is unwelcome, how am I supposed to survive if I never grow stronger?”

Aster brushed him aside, again surprising him with her inordinate strength. “It’s not as simple as ‘getting a new key’,” she spun, and anger flared in her eyes, “there are people who go through a hundred keys without finding a compatible one.”

Isaac’s stomach dropped. “There’s compatibility as well?” The hope that had blossomed in him ever since the conversation in the bell tower waned.

“Yes. You have to synchronize with a key, and it has to synchronize with you. If both of those aren’t true, then a new key might as well just be a piece of metal to you.”

Isaac despaired, but he wasn’t ready to give up yet. “What about that resonance thing, you mentioned that earlier, I could use that to fight other key users right? Could you teach me that at least.”

Aster looked uncomfortable. “It takes a very long time to master, very few live long enough to learn it,” Isaac sighed and her voice softened a bit, “resonance wouldn’t be of much use to you anyways. Most people would kill you before you’d ever get close enough to use it. That’s the largest drawback with resonance, it’s range, in a real fight you need some other complementary ability to close in.”

Isaac wracked his brain for other solutions. Aster must’ve mistook his thinking for brooding however, because she continued, much kinder this time around.

“Reach out like I told you earlier, listen to the voices.” She closed her eyes to illustrate, though Isaac couldn’t see what she was doing inside her mind. Still this was one of the things that at least, that seemed to come easy for Isaac. He closed his eyes. “Listen to the volume of the whispers, the louder ones are the closest.” Isaac tensed, he could hear a ton of voices, but they sounded very far away, as if through a tank of water.

“I— I hear something.”

"Finn"