Twenty minutes later, the cell door opened and Arvin and Talia turned to see a policeman enter.

“It has been decided that Arvin will leave the city immediately. You airship has been identified by Belmont Davis, and you will be escorted there by no less than four armed guards. Talia Marston, you are to be assessed at the hospital then send back home with immediate effect. Follow me, Arvin,” The policeman said and Arvin stood up.

“When you come back, Arvin, I would have found my courage,” Talia said and he turned to her with a smile.

“I look forward to it,” He replied before he was pushed out of the cell and brought between the four guards. Silently, they escorted him up to tier 1. It was almost midnight and all the streets were empty, and anyone who was around was moved out of the way by the guards. Arvin had been ordered not to speak. When they arrived at tier 1, Belmont had managed to get Arvin’s airship inflated.

“Arvin. I see the police have kept up their end of the bargain.”

“May I speak? My airship needs repairs before I can leave,” Arvin asked, knowing that Belmont was an engineer and it was in the policemen’s interest. As a response, they disbanded around him and removed Arvin’s cuffs. “Thank you,” He told them before he went to his airship. “It’s the propeller and the rudder.”

“I thought that it might be. I didn’t want to do anything until you were here.”

“Indeed,” Arvin replied as Belmont began to get to work.

“I don’t think that what you have started will end well my friend,” Belmont told him in a whisper. “The authorities are afraid of MA. It disrupts the safety base nature of society here, it’s a way of thinking. Safetyism you might say.”

“Yes. People here are afraid to take risks. They cannot accept that progress and development requires it, and that life cannot go on without it.”

“Exactly. Cities are stagnating and they have been for many years. It will come to a head soon. MA, or rather how MA is viewed, is a blanket covering for deeper issues at work. It may be a threat, but it is not as bad as people fear it to be. The society here will die, and we must all be ready for that. It will either take us with it, or we must be strong enough to leave. Talia is strong, she just has to believe a little more and she can’t do that in here.”

“Well this is a nice sight,” Came the voice of Adrian Marston from behind Arvin and he turned to face him. “The aeronaut is about to leave. I liked you at first, but then I saw how you were infecting my daughter.”

“I have not infected her with anything.”

“You have risked my daughter’s life and that of everyone who is around her. If she is deemed to have MA, you would have shown no empathy for her mother, me, or my mother, and Talia’s grandmother.”

“I have empathy, which is why I have made Talia a promise.”

“A promise to take her outside, where it is dangerous? A promise to expose her to more chemicals that will result in her death?”

“No. I made a promise to give her a life, more than what she has being trapped in here,” Arvin said as anger rose within him. How dare Adrian say that he had no empathy. How dare he say that he doesn’t care for life. He has no idea what it means to care.

“Arvin,” Belmont growled at him quietly.

“Is the airship ready to move?” Adrian asked directly to Belmont.

“It’s nearly there, just a bolt or two more.”

“Good. If you should ever return to Auksand Arvin. I assure you that you will not be welcome.”

“I will come back. I will bring friends and do what I must, for I will see Talia again.”

“I will make sure that you never see my daughter again.”

“Alright,” Belmont said sternly, and before Arvin said another word he climbed onto his gondola. Releasing a little more gas, his airship began to lift and he looked Adrian in the eyes. As he neared Auksand’s gates, he glanced back at Belmont, who was a friend and ally in what was to be the coming trouble.

“Your tier is being quarantined, you need to return there now,” Arvin heard a policeman tell Belmont and he watched as Belmont left tier 1. “Shall we issue the stay at home order, inspector?” The policeman asked Adrian.

“Perhaps. We need time to think of a solution to this problem,” Adrian replied before then the wind caught Arvin, and he was blown away from Auksand’s entrance.