3-5

“So it really is true, Cen. Maybe that isn’t the only thing you were right about,” Reba whispered to her bag. But she groaned, feeling the heavy weight on her back quiver.

The atmosphere had greatly shifted. It felt like everyone had just been told they had days to live. Many of them were still stuck, unsure of whether to exit through the gate behind the convoy or turn tail and go home.

But Reba couldn’t help but feel like it served these noble types right. For once, something wouldn’t be handed to them on a silver platter. She wondered if she’d get the chance to see the face of that Attian, Roia. And hoped he would go crying home at the sound of his future fate.

But even with Nagic, the reality of the situation was hitting.

“What do we do? We can’t go to a place like that. What if I get killed or worse, get turned into a wrath?” Oldin asked.

“Like Nagic would let that happen. Get a hold of yourself, Oldin.” Anastar shook him by the shoulders to force him to his senses. It didn’t work; it only doubled his panic.

Nagic looked him in the eye. “It’ll be alright, Oldin. She’s right. You two have nothing to worry about as long as I’m around.”

“See. He’s not worried, so I’m not either.” Anastar proclaimed.

“Come on.” Said Oldin. “Our parents would understand if we backed out now.”

“Just dream of a big house. A nice wife. Land in the countryside. And a big bucket of sina to live out the rest of your days.” Nagic said. “That should help the fear go away.”

“Right.” Anastar nodded. “A wife?” she realized, snapping at him.

“A figure of speech.”

Oldin groaned louder and longer.

“Come on, Oldin. Don’t act like you won’t follow anyway.”

Oldin moped over. But looking behind them, Nagic noticed Reba already making her way to the gate. A few of the instructors were directing the candidates. Those who were continuing to the front gate and those being left behind would exit through the rear.

Many were still stiff, contemplating with fear and uncertainty in their eyes, while Reba was one of the first to push forward unflinching. She was catching all sorts of eyes from the other competitors, and Nagic felt he needed to catch up with her. Anastar had to drag Oldin to follow.

“Looks like you were right,” he said.

“Of course I was,” said Reba.

“So what else do you know?”

“Don’t look at me. I don’t know any more than the Ardentia said.”

“Mhmm. Then why do you look so confident that you could make it through?”

“Meaning?”

“Think about it. Are you really ready for a place like the Immortal Spring Forest? If it's as the ardentia described, then we’ll be out in that place for days. It’s the arcane wilderness. We’ll have nothing but our wits and archaea. It’s a test meant to expose our limits. Are you sure you’re ready to face what’s in there?”

“Spirits don’t scare me. I’ve slain a spirit, you know. That’s likely more than you can say.”

“What? Some small trickster spirit you found in a back alley trashcan?”

Reba tilted her head in annoyance.

“That forest is said to attract the nastiest of beasts. It could be something as small as a bug or as large as a mountain, both having the same strength. Texts have read of a fire giant that was able to reach his hand up and burn the water from the moon, turning it into a barren wasteland. Being a builder, I don’t like your chances alone.”

“I’m not just a builder. I’ll make it through just fine.”

They approached a scribe at the front gate. He seemed to be taking down names and collecting their invitations. Until he looked up and saw Reba Kotter. “Oh, it's you. The Selplian from the tournament.” He frowned.

“You don’t have to sound so glad to see me. Do they have you writing everything in Armonia?”

“I am a royal scribe chosen by the king himself. I document all important goings-on happening in the capital. Thank you. Now I have a job to do. This is the path for those who will continue on to the forest. I recommend you go to the other one.”

“I’m sure you’d like that, wouldn’t you, ya crabby old man.”

“What I’d like to do my job. So if you insist on going then state your name, family, affiliation, and archaea.”

“Oh, umm.. Reba Kotter… I’m affill… I’m from here. And I’m a conjurer.”

The scribe looked like her answer bored him, but he waved her along. “Next!” he called. “State your name, family, affiliation, and archaea.”

Oldin shifted his draw back and forth with a lowered gaze before Nagic gave him a sharp push in the back. “Ok, fine. I’ll go,” he said before introducing himself. “Oldin of the Clearview family. I’m affiliated with Armonia, born in the Scrappers’ Edge. And I’m a child of Piam of shadow archaea.” He said, stuttering.

Anastar went next. “Anastar Sunburst. Oklani tribe. A resident of Scrapper’s Edge, Armonia. Fire archad,” she yelled out, saluting.

The last to go was Nagic. He paused for a moment. “Nagic. Armonia. Attian.”

The scribe raised an eyebrow. “What family?”

“Don’t have one.”

“Did you lose your parents?”

“Not really.”

“A product of distasteful conduct?”

“No idea.”

The scribe stared at him crossly and wrote something down in the column.

Just then, Roia returned, riding on the back of a large, decorated horse. “What madness is this? You belong to no one? No royal line?” He said with confused ire. 

Nagic glanced up at him, appearing slightly annoyed at the questioning. “Nope.”

“Impossible. Not with hair like that.” He said towards Nagic’s alabaster hair. “Commoners aren’t born with the pure white hair of those blessed by Attimus. That belongs only to Attian royalty. Don’t lie, where did you come from?”

“I don’t lie. I come from the Scrappers’ edge. I’ve honestly no clue what you’re talking about.”

The Attian boy laughed incessantly and pushed his horse past them. “Roia of House Ether, who serves under the St. Eisenia church in Attimus, the archaic realm.” He said to the scribe.

He took another glance back at Nagic. “You’re nothing more than a commoner. A worthless cur or a child thrown away as a disappointment of a great family.”

“Oh, really. I always thought my hair made me better-looking than most boys. I couldn’t help but notice that your hair is quite dark.”

Roia scoffed. “Do not speak freely before me.”

Oldin then stepped between them, bowing before Roia. “Our apologies. We don’t mean to offend anyone of the Ether house or the church. Let me clear things up for you. Nagic was found as a baby and raised by my family, the Clearviews. He’s of our house.”

Roia had another laugh. “An Attian raised by shadow archads. A disgrace in every sense of the word. Be gone from my sight.” The explanation seemed to be enough for him to lose interest. “And don’t think I’ve forgotten about you, builder. Trust, if Attimus is just, I will find what you are hiding.”

Reba snarled at him.

He then rode forward into the rest of the convoy, leaving a terrible taste in all their mouths. Several other Attians dressed in white followed close behind him.

Oldin kept his head bowed until he was sure Roia Ether had utterly disregarded them. Nagic patted him on the shoulder as a notice to raise himself.

“That jerk.” Anstar cried. “Who does he think he is?”

“A son of the house of Ether.” Oldin clarified. “It's one of the most influential families in the church.”

The church of Eisenia was the ruling force in all of Attimus. All places except for Armonia, which had created its own independent state within the realm. They were surrounded by the archaic realm on all sides, but the seaside, and thus, the reach of the church within their walls was impossible to avoid.

The city had an infamous number of problems stemming from the church. It was Armonia’s first natural enemy, considering Attian land was required to build it. However, King Armonia did not want to be ruled by the St. Eisenia church. Their regulations were always seen as far too strict, basing their teachings almost word for word on the sacred text. Eventually, peace was established between them, with families like the Ethers being one of the last to accept Armonia as its own entity.

But they were a powerful family with an ancestor who was said to be a close advisor to the great Saint Eisenia himself. Thus, their influence knew no bounds.

“You know, Nagic, these kinds of things wouldn’t happen if you just accepted our family name,” Oldin said. “You’re supposed to be my brother.”

“We are brothers. Just not officially. If I gave them a Piam name with my white hair, I imagine it would be just as much of a problem as me having no family at all.”

“I guess,” Oldin looked down.

“I always wondered why you always called each other brothers,” Reba said.

“Our dad found Nagic abandoned by a river. My mom had just had me not long before. We’re only a few months apart, but yes, we’re brothers.”

“But not really. Nagic is an orphan. An orphan without a family name.”

“I like to think that he’s a long-lost prince,” Anastar interjected. “He got lost as a baby and will one day grow big and strong to return to his homeland and overthrow his tyrannical parents.”

“I think you read too many stories, Anastar,” Nagic complained. “I wouldn’t think too much about it. I’m not too interested in whoever my parents are.”

“How can you not be? They are obviously villains for tossing a baby off by a river. I mean, what kind of people would do that?”

“The unimportant kind. You should forget it.”

And that they did for the moment. All the participants seemed to be gathered, and the convoy was in its final preparations to move. A large number of candidates showed up this morning, but the size had decreased by at least half. A few hundred of them stood in confused circles. Others were on the backs of horses or in the back of horse-drawn carriages.

From one of those carriages emerged the ardentia, Athi Kimble. He was riding in with Naciere Strongbow, but she remained in their covered wagon. He whispered a message to another instructor, and eventually, it got passed around that they would be boarding a train that was about ten miles away to the southeast.

There, they would board the trains that would take them into the Heavenly Realm. Those who had no mounts would be made to walk, but rest assured, they would keep a steady pace so as to not leave anyone behind.

“We have to walk ten miles?” Oldin said. Every time he spoke, he seemed to drive his voice lower into the dirt. Now, it was a low, gravelly mess. “Everyone else has horses and wagons.”

“Your family couldn’t put some money together to get you some mounts. Weren’t they supposed to be a big deal?”

“Obviously not anymore. We live on the Scrappers’ Edge. We’re barely any richer than you. And I don’t suppose you have a spare animal and cart lying around.”

“Don’t get upset at me for your poor planning. It's just ten miles. How long could that really take?”

Anastar calculated an equation on her fingers. “At least a few hours,” she recited like a child. “Why do you both already look burnt out?”

At the mention of a few hours of walking, both Reba and Oldin nearly fell to the ground. Reba was already exhausted from having gotten exactly zero sleep the night before, and Oldin, in general, didn’t love exercise.

Nagic chuckled to himself. “Alright, valiant stooges. The convoy’s moving. Onward.” Anastar led a fiery cheer, and they followed Nagic as the mass of bodies started moving to the southeast road.

They walked for a while through the gates of Armonia until they got to the Merchant’s Road. It was a road that existed far before Armonia, which acted as the primary route to the train station. Once reached, the road went parallel to the tracks all through Attimus. The road became essentially obsolete, except for this one piece that led to the tracks.

The first leg of the walk was already draining as Reba’s legs battled weakness and overexertion, her lack of sleep catching up to her. Also, there was the extra weight of Cen in her bag she had to contend with. She was made to watch the other archads having a lot more fun on their feet as they walked.

Wind archads could push the wind behind or underneath them to move at amazing speeds. Some of them were having sky races. The water archads could cast water from the air with flicks of their fingers in order to quench their own thirst. She even saw a couple of fire archads kick at the ground with explosions at their feet, which launched them a mile into the air.

She looked to Anastar, who walked in a cheerful strut next to Nagic. She was a strange girl by every stretch of the word, but Reba never sensed any danger or bad intentions. She was one of those kids who was blanketed in blissful ignorance. Fire archads were generally energetic, but she’d never seen one this happy all the time.

“Hey. Can you do something like that?” Reba pointed at the Ishai in the sky.

“Oh, that.” Anastar glanced at Nagic, who simply shrugged it off. “I’d rather not try, but I can catwalk for a whole half mile.”

“Catwalk?”

Anastar flipped forward, doing a handstand before circling her feet down and in front of her, almost looking as if she were sitting on her hands. “It's when you walk like a cat dragging its butt on the ground. Except your butt doesn’t touch the ground.”

“And why on Magmat’s earth would you ever want to do that?”

“I get bored a lot, and sometimes I play a game to see how many animals I can walk like.”

“Anastar, please don’t do something so ridiculous. Not while everyone can see,” said Oldin.

“Is it hard?” Reba asked her.

“It’s a true test of strength. Not just any archad can do it.”

In the next moment, the two girls were cat-walking side by side. After only a few steps, Reba crumbled, and Anastar claimed some sort of victory. The competitive spirit was now in the air.

Over and over, Reba attempted to stand on her hands, butt down, feet in the air. And time and time again, she was able to take a few fewer steps. All the while, Anastar was still walking from her first go.

Oldin covered his face as the other candidates started to leer at them. “Please, stop.”

“Look, guys, the act is rather impressive, but…”

Oldin thanked the thirteen that his brother, Nagic, spoke with some sense.

“It's got nothing on this.”

Then Nagic was cat-walking to the next level by clapping the bottoms of his feet together as he walked. The sight caused Reba to fall over just from laughter as Anastar looked far more impressed than she had any right to be.

Oldin was popping blood vessels of embarrassment. “Come on, Oldin. You know you want to try it,” said Nagic.

“I refuse.”

“You can do it,” egged on Anastar.

“I refuse.”

“What are you chicken? Why don’t you do a chicken-walk then?” said Reba.

“I refuse.”

Roia Ether, riding on the back of his mount, noticed the indignity going on in front of him.

“You’re making a fool of your Attian brethren. Act with some dignity.” Roia rode over to them.

“Oh, here comes the barber to talk about hair again,” Reba said.

The comment sparked a full-fledged roar of laughter from Anastar and Nagic. Roia was unamused. He acknowledged Reba as something irrelevant in his view before blatantly ignoring her presence.

“So this is the company you keep. Walking with the lowborn, I suppose, is proof that you really are just a nobody. Hear me, all of you. The Immortal Spring Forest is no place for a bunch of buffoons. You should quit now and not be fooled by this one. Attimus’s blessings come only in full, not half measures.”

Nagic sighed, not liking the look of this noble boy who constantly felt the need to insert himself. He tried to disengage without speaking, but that didn’t make him go away.

“Being of the church, I feel a responsibility for my archaea,” Roia said. “My pride will not allow for an Attian to witlessly serve those below the Attians. So I’ll offer you one lifeline before you make your entire archaea look bad. You should join my troop. Perhaps with the proper guidance, you can rise from your commoner's station.”

“Join your troop?”

“We will be entering the forest together. There was no rule presented about working with one another, and those who serve me will continue to do so.”

This caused Anastar to speak up. “Nagic wouldn’t serve someone like you. Everything you say smells like a bucket of poo.”

“This is what I mean. When you associate with scum, you become scum yourself.”

Anastar squinted her eyes at him, and suddenly, her body started to heat up with light steam. Nagic put a hand on her shoulder, calming her. “You should keep riding. It’ll be a long trip if you stop yourself every time you’re offended by me.”

“You misunderstand. I’m not giving you the right to refuse. As a commoner, it's your role to obey. Here… Allow me to demonstrate.” Roia pulled from his robe a brooch with a small ruby crested in the middle. He smirked before throwing them to the ground by their feet, pulling his mount in front of them, forcing them to stop.

“Now pick it up, a royal decrees it.” He stared directly at Nagic, who wasn’t budging. He chose not to acknowledge the brooch on the ground. If Roia hadn’t pulled them over with a large animal, he would’ve walked right by it.

“No.” Nagic gritted his teeth.

“Are you refusing me?”

“Here, my lord,” Oldin said, picking up the brooch and presenting it head bowed. Roia regarded him with disappointment.

“The Piams have always known their place. Forever repenting. You should learn from them.”

Nagic snatched the brooch from Oldin’s hand before Roia could grab it.

“What are you doing, Nagic?” Oldin asked.

“He shouldn’t have dropped it.”

Roia chuckled, noting that, cleanly and without much prodding, they had fallen right into his trap. “Guards! Thieves!” He yelled. Immediately, a traveling guard cloaked in white and an Attian instructor rushed to the scene to investigate the matter. Reba instinctively took a defensive stance even though it wasn’t her being accused.

The instructor asked Roia what the problem was.

“This boy and his friends have stolen something from me.”

The instructor regarded nagic, and the guard invaded his personal space. “Is this true?”

Nagic took a step back, noting that he didn’t have much choice. He couldn’t deny anything. Not with the brooch in hand, and the look on the guard's face told him they wouldn’t simply believe him if he said he just picked it up, not over Roia.

“Fine, take it.” Nagic tossed the brooch back at the royal. Roia caught it and discarded it in his sleeve as if he had never even cared about the thing.

“Wait.” He said, dismounting from his horse. “I can’t be sure that’s all they’ve stolen. I’ll do a full search on them.”

“Do you really have to?” Nagic said. The instructor nodded his approval after seeing that the boy was already a thief. Nagic spread himself as Roia patted down his legs and the outside of his shirt. It wasn’t an in-depth search. He seemed to stop at Nagic’s chest.

“This is a nice necklace,” Roia said. In his hand was a small gem tied around Nagic’s neck by a leather cord. It was the same shade of his hair with a slight glow inside. “Much too nice for an orphan. In fact, it looks awfully similar to one that I brought with me.” He snatched it from his neck, ripping the leather cord.

“That’s mine,” Nagic said, calmer than Reba would have.

“Is it now?”

Roia glanced back at the enforcers behind him, who watched without acting. Roia climbed his mount and held up the necklace. “You know what, consider this my gift to you, one Attian to another.” He threw it to the dirt in front of Nagic’s feet.

“I suppose there’s nothing else for now. Thank you, gentlemen.” Roia nodded at the instructor. When turned back towards them, he found a disturbed Reba with a scathing silver eye on him.

She hated this boy from the moment he spoke. And he seemed like another one of those hell bent on starting trouble because of their own superiority complex.

“As if there was something you could do, builder.” The boy rode forward, continuing with the convoy as the rest of them were left with the guard and the instructor, who regarded all four of them as if they were suddenly criminals.

“Thievery is not a behavior fitting of a candidate of Sachaea Academy. If there’s another incident of this caliber, I’ll have you removed from the determinations, you hear me.” He said.

“Yes. We understand, and we apologize for the inconvenience.” It was Oldin apologizing again. He decided to go the extra mile this time around, getting down on his knees in front of the instructor as if he were praying to him. The instructor took it as a sign that his message was heard and left them.

“You’re overdoing it, Oldin,” Nagic told him, picking up his necklace from the ground and tying it back around his neck.

“I don’t think I’m doing enough. If you get kicked out of the determinations Nagic, the rest of us are done for. I won’t make it through without you.”

“Geez. Where’s your self-respect?” said Reba.

“In the toilet,” Anastar answered.

“Huh…” Oldin was purple. “I… I have plenty of self-respect.”

“Well, he does have a point,” Nagic said. “I wouldn’t want to abandon the rest of you, knowing how much you all love me and would be so sad without me.”

Reba raised an eyebrow as Nagic seemed to include her in that group, and she immediately shook her head and turned away.

It wasn’t long after that when they arrived at the train station. The train was a bit of brass luxury. A full moving fortress of steel, sweat, and ingenuity. It had fifty different cars, all covered in the fine workings of hollowed steel. It was run on a combustion engine, which required the synchronized use of fire and earth archaea to burn rocks for fuel and propulsion. There were Ishai and Magmen workers covered in soot and ash heading to the rear of the train.

Reba was caught in a strange wonderment at the contraption. She, herself, didn’t know how it worked or what it took to build, but seeing something this big and crafted mostly of metal was awe-inspiring. It was nothing like seeing any of the great naval ships at the ports. This was more built for function than size. She wondered who invented trains and how they thought of it.

The others were less impressed. They waited in one of the many lines to enter and beckoned Reba to follow them when she lagged behind.

“I can’t believe I’m really going to another realm,” she thought.

They were guided to one of the back cars, but even they were like nothing any of them had seen before. The inside was lined with several soft but firm seats covered with clean burgundy cloth. Pillows on each seat, and everything made of fabric, had an unnecessarily complicated but beautiful design. Chairs were face-to-face with a sizable dinner table fashioned with silverware and napkins. Everything was clean, and the entire car smelled like flowers and a freshly made meal.

It was the epitome of high class. The likes of which shocked Reba’s eyes wide open. And she wanted to feel those cotton pillows on her face and relax in the soft cushions of the velvet seats. Compared to her little steel and stone house, she was already in what she would consider a heavenly realm.

She made a point to slip away from the others, back to the furthest corner she could find to avoid any unnecessary eyes. At least that way, she might’ve been able to give Cen some breathing room without anyone noticing. And based on the pup’s breathing, she could really use it.

“You okay in there?”

Cen looked up at her, taking some time to lick her fur.

“I can’t help the urges I get when I’m an animal,” the fairy squealed.

“I’ll just pretend like I didn’t see that… anyway, looks like we’re finally on our way.”

“Really?”

“Sorry, you have to stay cooped up in a bag. But this train is something else. And you can see all the grassland outside the city. It’s really endless out there.”

“Rub it in more, why don’t you?”

“Okay, I won’t. But I think we’re in the clear as long as we can keep away from people like Roia and any other pesky tag-alongs.” But just then, she snapped the bag closed as those pesky tag-alongs popped themselves into the booth with her.

“Talking to yourself?” said Nagic, plopping his frame right next to her, taking a curious glance at her bag. Reba shoved it under the table, bouncing Cen like a ball.

“You know you could’ve sat anywhere else.”

“Not really. All the other seats are taken. Plus, everyone seems to be really territorial around here.”

All around them, the archads were separated seemingly by archaea, with some groups being unintentionally color-coded by the colors of their nationality. The wind archads sat with the wind archads, the earth with the earth, and the meta with the meta. Even if they didn’t know each other before arriving at Armonia.

One of the instructors then boarded the train to address all of the competitors. “Listen up, you all,” He clapped his hands 3 times. “The journey to the heavenly realm will take 3 days. You all will be fed and taken care of for the entirety of the ride. This includes meals and anything the train staff can provide. We will arrive on the night of the 13th of the Spatial Moon. We'll then journey to the forest the following morning. And you’ll be given the official rules for your journey to the second layer. Until then, I suggest you all get some rest and relaxation. It may be your final opportunity.” He turned on his heels and took a seat at the front of the car, leaving everyone with a dark shadow in the pit of their gut.

“Why do they have to say stuff like that?” Oldin's face was a grim purple.

“Maybe because it's true,” said Reba.

“No way. It's just a cheap scare,” Anastar boasted. “But a fire archad never gets cold feet, you hear. Won’t scare me.”

“Right, of course.” Oldin cheered up. “There are too many important people for them not to have some sort of failsafe. Too many families that’ll be upset if they’re children suddenly go missing.” But his heart didn’t really seem to be in his own words.

“Well, Naciere Strongbow must be quite the prize for this many to have stuck around,” said Nagic thoughtfully.

“I still don’t get why everyone would be clamoring for the favor of someone like her,” said Reba.

“Favor means a lot, actually. A lot of people would give their firstborns to have what the second shield gifted to you. So imagine what they’d do for the daughter of the first.”

Reba shuttered.

In the very first car on the complete opposite side of the train, Naciere Strongbow sat patiently for the train to depart towards the defining moment of her life. She focused on her hands and the movements of the archaea within her.

She snapped her fingers over and over. Each time they emitted a flare of archaea. Fire, ice, lightning, earth, wind, control.

Each change within her jarred her, but if she was going to live up to the expectation upon her, she had to become used to the change. She had to become the change. She was chosen by the mother to fulfill a great task accomplished by none that came before her. A revolution would sweep the world, and she had to lead it. And that required absolute perfection. A perfection only achieved by gods.

She snapped, and a jolt of lightning snapped her out of her concentration. She opened her eyes.

Ardentia Kimble looked up from his book next to her.

“The train is almost ready to depart, Ardentia.” The conductor bowed, and Kimble nodded, letting him continue his job wordlessly.

The second shield flipped to the next page of his book. “Are your nerves growing?”

“Of course not.” Naciere was offended by the thought, but she forced her voice to stay reserved and unperturbed. “I’ve been training my whole life for my role as the Infinite. The history books will start my story once I enter that forest and conquer the spirits within it. There is no room for nerves. I’ll be the first to the second layer, and I’ll be the warning to the beasts of the third.”

Athi turned another page, relaxing for the long ride. “I hope so. The integrity of Armonia rides on it. The current peace we hold is solely reliant on the threat of power the Infinite holds. Remember that. As long as you or your father stands, Armonia can continue as the self-proclaimed capital of the world.”

“Hmmm… Did my father have any parting words?”

“He is a busy man. In fact, I don’t think either he or your mother will be returned from their missions by the time we are.”

Naciere scoffed. “My father doesn’t have to follow the king’s command if he didn’t choose to. I doubt there is a thing the king could do to stop him from doing what he wanted. But it isn’t like they need to spare the concern. I’m chosen by the gods. I can’t fail.”

Athi stayed silent, clearly focused on his book. Naciere took a moment to refocus herself, taking hold of each archaea in her mind. Each god, each element, each role was built into the Mother’s plan.

But something kept snapping her back.

“I just don’t understand why you had to give your invitation to that Selplian girl.”

Athi didn’t spare her an extra glance. “Did you need it for something?”

“You know what I mean. You did it in front of the entire world. And she’s sure to fail. It didn’t do anything but make you look foolish.”

“Quite the contrary. The grand merchants of Selpil are already proving to be a bit more generous in their donations to the capital. Word spreads quickly, and Armonia needs to appear united with all archaea, and we have yet still to find a worthy Selplian knight. Wouldn’t you think it better we have one for appearances' sake?”

“For appearances, you’ll put a shield on a builder?”

A smile briefly crept to the Ardentia’s lips. “Why, it’s almost as if you remember her from somewhere.”

Naciere closed her eyes once more. “I don’t know what you mean.”

Kimble turned the page.

The train’s horns and whistles blew as the wheels started to roll. Everyone was fastened in their seats, preparing to leave the capital for perhaps the greatest journey of their lives.

Reba decided to check on Cen once more, just to make sure she kept track of her. But when she picked up her bag, there was no weight to it whatsoever. Maybe she was still in her fairy form, but when she looked inside, it was empty.

“Okay, Dad, I can see how this would be annoying now.”

Cen had flown herself to the outside of the train, sitting with her legs dangling off the edge of the rear car. As the train chugged along, she was sure that no one could see her. Then the satyr emerged as she tried and failed to hold in her laughter. “I can’t believe she kept the potato.” She busted a gut, wiping her tears. “What a journey this has been… I’m a long way from home.”

But then she quieted, and the image of the satyr faded until it was just Cen, the wind waving her braided lavender hair as she left behind civilization. After everything, she was heading to the final stop of her journey. Not knowing whether this would be the end or a new beginning. She supposed she didn’t care. She could let herself breathe finally. “I’m almost there, you all. One more push.”