Karra held Kain's arm in a tight embrace as the two, cloaked in rags and hidden amongst the crowd of defeated and abandon raiders, made their way up the cargo ramp of the grand city ship, Atlantica. Kain soaked in the details of his surroundings, from the rusted and warped entranceway to the cavernous cargo hold beyond where officials and doctors studiously went about processing and treating the new arrivals.

"Such a waste," he muttered.

Karra squeezed her brother's arm ever tighter. "So, have you decided yet?"

"No, I haven't."

"Then decide right now."

He afforded her a longing glance, then diligently ushered her on.

"You can't ignore me brother."

"Very well," he said as he continued to scan his eyes about. "I will sing the Kingsland National Requiem."

"No," she pouted. "That's way too droll and depressing. It should be a song we both like."

"I'm rather fond of that song."

"But I'm not."

A physician dressed in white meandered into their path and kneeled down to gaze underneath their hoods.

"Are the both of you all right?" he asked.

Kain nodded, while his sister beamed a smile cheery enough to worry the physician.

"Your faces look so pale. If you'd be so kind as to remove your hoods. I'd like to give the two of you a quick checkup just in case."

As the man reached up, Kain took his wrist and gave it a sharp twist. He glared, offering a frozen, doll-like expression.

"We are fine. Leave us."

The physician briefly cried out as he twisted his arm again and sent him toppling onto his back. The sibblings shuffled on and disappeared amongst the huddled mass of herded bodies.

"Aw, he was being nice," Karra said.

Her brother remained unmoved.

A moment passed before she continued her prodding. "You have to promise. Promise that you'll pick a better song to sing at my funeral."

"I promise."

She squealed and nuzzled her shoulder against him.

At the edge of the crowd, they darted like ferrets to a shadowy corner of the bay and peered over a set of metal crates. High above them, they spied a girl leaning against a grated walkway railing. Next to her was portly man with a serious-looking expression that hinted at the urgency of their conversation.

"There she is," he whispered. "She fits Lady Alianora's description perfectly."

"She looks utterly common," Karra added. "How do you suppose Nora knows what she looks like?"

"The baroness learned all she knew about her from her father. Evidently he had a certain infatuation with her."

Her face lit up, then gasped as she proceeded to watch the distant figure with sudden, yet mild admiration. Giggling, she propped her chin against her palms.

"So Nora is jealous," she teased. "How fitting that her father cared for someone else more than his daughter."

"Perhaps. Perhaps not."

He propped a set of goggles over his eyes and twisted a few dials that zoomed and narrowed his vision towards the girl and her companion. He studied the man's lips and then the girl's as they exchanged what seemed to be a series of heated words.

"He's telling her about some food he horded from their last salvage trip and is offering it to her, reminding her that she hasn't eaten well in a while. He's worried that she's withering away. She's refusing; reminding him that stealing food is wrong, and that the crew grows suspicious of the only 'fat man' on the ship."

Karra's mind drifted as the monotonous tone of her brother's voice forced a somewhat unexcited yawn. Her attention drifted from one set of faces to another, eventually resting upon a stoic-looking young man directing the actions of several crew members. His unique clothing and his immaculately bound pony tail intrigued her all the more, as rarely had she ever seen someone from Sparrow Village so far from their home.

She waved her hand in front of her brother's goggles until he offered her a certain manner of what she only understood, as his attention.

"When I die, do you suppose he could sing at my funeral as well. He looks like the sort that could sing."

Though expressionless, she knew how to read his face. And this time it told her -in a manner somewhat polite- that a permanent silence would meet those that dared to share in the honor of his sister's funeral song. She smiled at his voiceless answer and continued with her idle people-watching.

Kain went on observing the tall, blond-haired girl, tracking her every movement as she shouldered past the round, thickly mustached man and proceeded down a set of stairs towards the pony-tailed boy. As they met, her mood seemed to change as she smiled and spoke with an instantly cheery look on her face.

"Aw, she has a friend," Karra chortled.

Kain gave an unamused grunt. "He's asking why he's here doing her job for her, and that she should stop lazing about and help. She's turning her head away, so I can't exactly make out what she's saying, but it seems she invited him here to explain something."

"Maybe a lover's confession," she joked.

"No. It's something else."

The girl whispered into his ear, then gestured to something around her neck.

The pale-skinned siblings turned their eyes to each other and afforded identical, satisfied looks.

"She has it with her," Kain said.

"Then let us hope she has someone to sing for her at her funeral," Karra replied.

A bout of rustling teased at the edge of Kain's senses, and Karra attuned to her brother's every thought, moved with him, away from the crates as they darted in opposite directions, ready to flank whatever was coming at them from the shadows. From their separate dark corners, they scanned for the intruder.

The sounds of chewing pierced the air, and the siblings immediately knew that it was deliberately loud enough for them to hear. Perhaps it was mocking their lack of stealth.

He emerged from inside a an overturned crate, crunching away at something resembling a green-colored biscuit.

They watched as the brown-eyed, dark-haired figure sat down onto the floor and glanced in both their general directions. He positioned himself to keep out of sight from the others in the bay, but remain in full view of Karra and Kain.

"You know what I love about these crates," the figure said. "They're big enough to hide in, if you want to take a break or eat your lunch in peace. And speaking of lunch, they call these nutrition wafers. They make them from the green goop they collect from their salvage runs. They actually taste better than they look. Ella says the flavor comes from the machine oil that occasionally drips into the mix."

"Who are you?" Kain demanded.

"Calvin, at your service. You two seem lost. Mind if I offer some assistance?"

"We need none."

"Oh come now. Two curiously healthy-looking people wander in with a crowd of battered and bruised wasteland rabble and stalk about looking to -what I can only imagine- cause some trouble."

"Oh, you are a silly one aren't you?" Karra said. "I'm going to have a lot fun with you."

"I sense something different about you," Kain interjected. "Who are you really?"

"Just an outsider. Same as you two.

Listen, you're welcome to end my life if you so choose, but know that nothing will come of it. As a matter of fact, doing so, may make your lives more miserable as certain powers that be, would not take kindly to my demise.

Karra, Kain. Whatever it is you came here to do, don't do it. There are bigger things afoot, things much grander and more important than you realize. And I can't afford to have the both of you disrupt that."

Karra yawned. "Now he's getting preachy. I say we end him now."

Kain twisted the lenses of his goggles, taking in every detail of his face. "How do you know our names?"

Calvin stood up and brushed the crumbs from his shirt. He turned his back and waited, giving them their chance to strike. After adequate time had passed, and realizing they would not risk the moment to strike him down, he idly waved his hand at the shadows and walked away to join Ella and her Sparrow Village companion.

The siblings snaked their way through the corridors, hugging every corner, careful to stay out of sight. Though each gargantuan car felt like a like a small mountain, crisscrossed by a sea of tunnel-like passages, they treaded their route with ease by way of the signs and wall-maps that conveniently guided their course.

"We should have killed him," Karra said, following close behind her brother. "No one would have seen."

"Didn't he seem familiar to you?"

"He did. But that's all the more reason to kill him. The more people you know, the more things get complicated. Besides, now he knows we're here, and he could tell the others."

"He won't. Something tells me he wouldn't."

She darted forward and hugged his arm. "I thought I was the only person you trusted."

"It isn't trust sister. It's intuition."

She threw off her embrace and bounded in front of him, twirled about and strolled backwards as she faced her brother, her hands clasped playfully at the small of her back. "Well my intuition says I'm tired of all these dark and dreary passages. Dispatching that girl is one thing, but having us spy the interior of this ship is completely droll and boring."

"Lady Alianora was specific about her orders."

She ran to a ladder just ahead and climbed towards a ceiling hatch. "Trust me brother, there's nothing in this part of the ship worth spying. Besides, outside is much more fun."

As the hatch flung open, two figures emerged.

Both gave a quick glance of their surroundings before sprinting ahead, the earth barely visible below them, as the top of the vessel soared like a mesa of steel and metal against the pale, dusty sky.

Their cloaks fluttered as they bounded effortlessly from one metal walkway to the next, their padded feet silently carrying them along in well-practiced leaps and strides.

Some distance ahead, a cleaning boy scrubbed away at a glass atrium-like ceiling that covered the length of one of the cars. Kain stealthily flew past him while Karra startled him with a witch-like cackle that sent him reeling. He fell backwards and over the side, shouting all the way down until the his safety line grew taut with a sudden whip-crack sound, saving him from an undesired death.

Both Karra and Kain looked down past the glass below their feet and what they saw, slowed their hurried movements to an idle stroll as they took in the sights.

"Brother, there's a town down there." She dropped to her knees and pressed her face against the transparent dome. "So pretty."

The world far beneath them was a mass of huddled, narrow red-bricked buildings, all reaching towards them like a sea of towering trees. Lanterns shimmered from every corner, walkway and window, illuminating cobblestone paths, finely carved stone statues and steel-cabled gondola lifts ferrying people from one end of the massive car to the other.

"A simple residential area." Kain said. "Hardly worth our time."

"Oh brother. My dearest brother." She propped herself into a casual sitting position and looked impishly up at her discerning partner. "Sometimes he forgets how well we know each others minds. I want to go sightseeing. You want to sightseeing. The only difference between us, is that you're better at hiding your feelings."

He stood silent for a time.

He then gave a slight nod and removed the goggles from his forehead, tucking them away into his cloak and proceeding past his sister to open one of the glass panels nearby.

"I suppose sightseeing and spying can be one and the same."