"Seems like we have to get off here"
Van looked toward the window, outside there was still a vast expanse without a single building.
Dex also looked out but he didn't know why they had to get off in the middle of the road like this.
"Are you crazy Van?"
Although it didn't sound like a question, those were the first words Dex could think of when looking out the window.
Van stood up from his seat instead of answering Dex's question, he was about to take something from his bag.
Seeing Dex being ignored by Van, Anna finally spoke up.
"We'll soon reach the border, and to avoid inspection we have to pass through another area"
Van was already standing taking his bag from the rack above his head, his movements calm and measured as usual, even so Van looked like he was enjoying it.
"If we enter through the official border, the inspection there is no joke" Van searched for something inside his bag. "They check all passengers, travel documents, kingdom of origin, destination, even luggage, and with a situation like this..." his eyes briefly shifted toward Anna, "one wrong name is enough to make everything end isn't it" his eyes quickly turned sharp.
Anna could only smile awkwardly at Van's gaze, her back straight, her hands still in her lap, but her fingers gripped slightly tighter than she realized.
"Then which way do we go?" asked Liana, her voice cold and straight to the point, she was slightly annoyed seeing Van's gaze at Anna.
Van finally pulled out a sheet of paper from his bag that had been folded many times until the lines were nearly torn. He spread it out on the seat he had just left. A map, hand-drawn with ink that had partially faded, its lines not always precise, but readable enough.
"Where did you get it?" asked Dex while looking at the map.
"Long ago, I really wanted to go on adventures, so I often drew maps of every region because I was so looking forward to it," answered Van, his voice carrying nostalgia. In his heart, he recalled his youth and the dreams that once enveloped him, the ambition and eagerness to explore the world that stretched before his eyes, and that was also why he followed Dex, having a travel companion at least made him unafraid to go to frightening places.
Dex let out a soft sigh, his finger tracing the faded ink lines on Van's handmade map. "You drew this when you were still a kid? How remarkable that we're risking our lives on the hand-scrawled lines of an overly imaginative child."
"My imagination is measured, Dex," Van replied while slinging his backpack on.
"Look here" He pointed to a spot outside the rail line that curved sharply toward the mountains. "This is Tepas, that place is an old hiking trail used by illegal slave traders, This route will take us around behind the mist forest and emerge right in Shine's Third District"
"Mist forest?" Liana raised an eyebrow. "Rumors say that place is a den of wild unfriendly Creons"
"They're indeed unfriendly if you try to disturb them" Van added lightly. "But if we move fast and stay on the footpath, they won't care. For them, humans are just disgusting creatures that don't taste good"
The train began to slow. The screech of metal brakes grinding against the rails created a piercing wail, as though the giant machine was struggling.
Outside, the view of the beautiful grasslands from before began to be replaced by denser, wilder vegetation.
Trees with pitch-black trunks began to dominate the horizon.
"This is the point," said Van firmly. "The train will slow for ten seconds as it passes the steep incline ahead. We have to jump"
"Jump?, is there no other way" Anna turned pale. As a princess, even though she had been on the run for some time, the concept of jumping from a moving train still sounded like unaesthetic suicide.
Dex stood up, rolling his shoulders until a cracking sound was heard. "Don't be spoiled, Your Highness. Compared to the swords of your pursuers, hard ground is far more forgiving, besides I am a sorcerer you know"
They immediately walked toward the train carriage door, several passengers turned their eyes toward them.
The carriage door was slid open by Dex. Strong wind immediately rushed in, carrying the scent of wet earth and leaves. The train shook violently as it began to climb. The speed had indeed decreased, but to the untrained eye, everything was still moving too fast.
A conductor walked toward them with an annoyed face, yet still maintaining his dignity and charisma, he immediately spoke in a tone of voice full of authority and a slight note of warning. "What are you all doing, that is dangerous, quickly return to your seats" his instruction was firm. Around the conductor, several ropes appeared to be floating, moving in sync with the intensity of his emotions, as if giving a signal that this conductor was no ordinary person, but someone with psion abilities.
The ropes quickly flew toward them.
"Wow a psion became a train conductor?" Van appeared surprised at what he saw.
However, he quickly created a barrier that slowed the ropes' advance with his power.
Casually, Dex used wind magic to lift their bodies out of the train, before the conductor could catch them.
Unfortunately the rope managed to reach Anna's foot slightly before she could fully exit the train.
The rope coiled around Anna's ankle quickly, pulling her back toward the carriage.
"Anna!" Liana turned around, her hand already outstretched.
But the distance between them was too far, Liana's body was already floating outside the carriage, strong wind surrounding her body from all directions.
"Hey quickly, direct me toward the princess" she looked at Dex with an annoyed face.
"Be quiet" Dex only replied briefly to Liana.
Anna gripped the edge of the door with both hands, her fingers whitening from the pressure. Half her body was still hanging outside, the other half being pulled back by the rope that tightened increasingly. Inside the carriage, the conductor stood with a cold face, hands raised, ropes spinning around him like an unpleasant crown.
"You're not going anywhere" he said calmly.
Dex who was already outside floated for a moment, one hand holding his body in the air with a spin of wind under his feet, he glanced toward Anna, then toward the conductor.
He let out a long sigh, then he stepped back inside the carriage.
Dex kept his magic aligned with the train's pace, so that his friends wouldn't be left behind.
His steps were casual, as though he hadn't just jumped out of a moving train, several passengers who had previously only been watching now began to edge away from the aisle, survival instinct apparently stronger than curiosity.
"Hey" Dex greeted the conductor.
The conductor looked at him with eyes that assessed everything, The ropes around him spun faster, preparing.
"I have no business with you" Dex continued, his voice flat like someone delivering a train schedule. "Release her foot and I'll leave without trouble"
"Oh yes? But it seems like I have business with all of you, you have violated train regulations" the conductor replied. "Jumping from a moving vehicle, endangering other passengers, and most importantly..." his eyes shifted briefly toward Anna whose hood had opened and revealed her face. "it seems you're carrying a fugitive"
"You know her?" Dex frowned.
"Just a guess, but seems like my guess is correct isn't it, a face can't lie" The conductor spoke with an unpleasant calm. "I don't work for any kingdom, but I work for this rail line. And this line has agreements with all the kingdoms it passes through. If there are problematic passengers, I am obligated to hand them over at the border"
A brief silence. Only the sound of iron wheels grinding against rails and wind hissing through the gap of the door that was still half open.
Anna looked at the conductor with an expression that was difficult to read, somewhere between tired and something deeper than mere fear.
Dex put his hand in his pocket.
"How much?"
The conductor furrowed his brow. "Pardon?"
"How much do you want to not see us for the next ten seconds"
Something moved across the conductor's face, not offended, but more like someone who was considering something he did not want to consider.
"I'm not someone who can be bought"
"I'm not buying anyone" said Dex.
"I'm paying for the service of indifference for ten seconds. That's different"
Van who heard this conversation from outside the door, still floating with a spin of wind at his feet, briefly closed his eyes with the expression of someone who had given up trying to understand his friend's way of thinking.
The conductor didn't answer, but his ropes spun more slowly, not stopped yet, but their rhythm changed.
Dex pulled out one gold coin from the pouch he had taken from the bodies of the pursuers two days ago, he placed it on the backrest of the nearest passenger seat.
Then one more.
Then one more.
The conductor stared at those three gold coins without moving.
The conductor did not deny it.
"Add two more coins" the conductor said finally, his voice as calm as before.
Dex added two coins without expression.
The ropes slackened, the coil around Anna's ankle slowly unraveled itself like a snake that had decided someone wasn't interesting enough to eat, and Anna floated back in the air.
Anna pulled her foot in fully, stood up, and brushed dust from her skirt with a gesture that tried to appear dignified.
"Ten seconds start now" said the conductor without turning his head.
Dex had already turned toward the door.
They landed at the edge of the rail track in different ways.
Van landed with bent knees, one hand touching the ground for balance, like someone who had practiced this in their imagination many times though had never actually done it.
Liana landed perfectly, both feet parallel, body immediately upright, her hands already on the hilt of her sword though there was no threat yet.
Anna landed in a far more humane way, that is falling seated on thick grass, her hair disheveled, and spending the first few seconds just making sure all the bones in her body were still in the right place.
Dex came down last, the wind carrying him slowly like a leaf that wasn't in a hurry.
The train left them with a deafening sound
He looked at Anna who was still sitting on the ground.
"Are you alright?"
"Very much so" Anna answered in a tone that wasn't entirely convincing, her fingers slightly injured from gripping the train door.
Dex extended his hand. Anna looked at it for a moment, then accepted the offer and stood up.
"Thank you" she said softly.