Unfold: S2

I am Charlie Winas, a sixteen-year-old girl just graduated from school last summer. It had been about four months since my big sister, my only family—Selene—disappeared into her business trip and completely exited my life.

To trace her path, around a month ago, I got myself the chance to visit the reopening events of mountain “Midwhere”. The south-east division of the conglomerate known as “The Winairs” was located here. With my help, the reopening events became quite a family drama—perhaps also a bit of a detective show. I would not elaborate on that. Eventually, though, I aided Chione Winair—the twenty-three-year-old daughter of the divorcing chairing couple of The Winairs—in saving the future of Sarlis Arts—a small but professional arts material company. Although the divorce property settlement decision of The Winairs was thereby more uncertain, perhaps Chione had retained solace by finally stepping down from the stage.

During the reopening, I encountered Vander Lorret, the chair of the conglomerate “The Lorrets”, primarily operating in the nation of Ciellea. To get to his twenty-five-year-old son—Uiljam Lorret (simplified to “William” for non-Ciellean speakers)—who happened to be my private tutor during school time, he gave me a commission. One of very little importance. But I accepted. Why?

Before visiting Midwhere, I learnt from William that a certain substance was emerging—a substance with the capability to invade any energy construction, disarming or altering any energy-based defence or security system. A substance with the capability to create disasters. More than a decade ago this substance appeared in Foldin—the international region in which everything took place—but soon vanished without a sign.

From Chione, I found that this substance from a decade ago never “vanished”. Its emergence paused, but its remnants were split between the main stakeholders at the time. An “accord” between these stakeholders restricted any of them from using or studying the substance. Currently, with the re-emergence of the substance, the accord was on the edge of revocation. The scales were tipped.

Now knowing about Vander Lorret’s involvement in this accord, I chose to accept his commission offer, hoping to discover more information regarding Selene’s absence, and perhaps…also the history of our family that she refused to speak of.

Though, I did not mention the accord to William. He got a lot to deal with in the past month.

Also as a strategy to get to him, his father sent his younger brother—Iäcoms Lorret (by the nickname “Iämj”, pronounced as “Yammy”)—off to find a job. Without providing any accommodation, of course. The result was that Iäcoms had to stay with William.

“‘Either find a job on your own, or come back to work in The Lorrets!’ That’s what they said to him!” William told me over the phone. “Of course he doesn’t want to work in The Lorrets. Who wants to work in The Lorrets? But if I negotiate with my parents about this they would seize every possible chance to kidnap me back to The Lorrets.”

Iäcoms Lorret, according to William, graduated a year before me. He was born in late Fruitfairy (the eighth month in a year), the year before my birth, so I was around eleven months younger. Being born at a time so close to the start of an academic year meant that he was “always the youngest in his cohort, but not the prodigy type,” said William.

Unlike William—who funded all his parent-disapproved overseas studies with his scholarship—Iäcoms’s performance had been quite mediocre across all things that their parents cared about.

After graduation, he ran into a music college, got dragged out by his parents after a few months, ran into a sports college, got dragged out by his parents after a few months again, and it came to now. To be honest, I did not know the details. What I did know was that finding a non-technical job in this part of Foldin would not be easy for Iäcoms.

Although the Northern Tongue, or “the Nor”—the language we all spoke and used—was the official language of Foldin, the language Terrinian was used quite commonly in the east here. It was not a surprise that service-directed workplaces would be reluctant in accepting non-Terrinian speakers.

“So why don’t they just let him find a job in Ciellea?” I asked.

“How else should they wrap me into their Foldin expansion plans.”

And then…his issues became mine…

“Please Charlie I am really running out of ideas—just give him a small chat, like an interview?”

“Interview?”

“If it’s about the salary—”

“It’s not about the salary—it’s just that—I don’t think I need an employee for the moment…? What I’m doing is barely a business—”

“Receptionist? Marketing? He’s really really good at talking with people.”

“Okay okay okay…” So I told William that I would consider, after finishing my task in hand—the commission from his father.

“You’re helping them look after their freights during transportation?”

“More like the delicate products and materials. They rented two baggage cars for that. And they need a technician to look after the conditioning equipments on the train.”

But Vander Lorret was not actually expecting me to do any of that. They already had a full team of people to do the job. I was a last-minute add-on, just to lure William into talking to him.

“Well William I can’t tell you which railway, the contract doesn’t allow me to.”

“Then a call at the end of each round?”

“I am also not supposed to telecommunicate with anyone unrelated to the task before the end of transportation procedure.”

“But that’s two full weeks! How do I explain to Selene if anything happens to you! I promised her to look after—”

“Oh I’m sure you’ll come up with something.”

“Charlie…! I’ll have to talk directly to my father to know anything at all, don’t I…”

“That’s the bait,” I laughed. “Don’t take it.”

Today was Woodblossom 28th, Methaday. (The fourth month in the year, the first day in the week.) I had my usual outfit—white polo shirt, navy blue jacket, navy blue jeans, and white-turned-grey trainers. My bangs were just as messy as before, parting at somewhere to the left of my forehead, swinging above my dark eyes. My tousled bob also remained unchanged. Well…actually my hair did change—it grew and I cut it back. What really did not change was that it had always been as dark as charcoal.

I had been on this train for a week. So far I had got nothing to do and nothing to say. As mentioned, Vander Lorret never expected me to do any actual part of this job. This was made even more evident by how they placed my compartment a thousand miles away from the baggage cars—hyperbolically, of course. Thank goodness I was still on the same train.

The train traveled across Foldin, back and forth between the east of Ciellea and the west of Terrina. Sometimes we paused in the middle, to get goods off at different locations in Foldin. The baggage cars they rented—the last two carriages on the rear side of the train—did not carry large and bulky freights in a traditional sense. Instead, they stored the delicate, fragile, or expensive goods that required guarding or specialised conditioning.

Excluding me, the team contained five people, one of which was a technician, in charge of the maintenance and inspection of conditioning equipments. The remaining four were other types of specialised carers or guards. They made up two pairs, taking six-hour shifts at 12 o’clocks and 6 o’clocks to watch over the baggage cars. Their compartments all located in the carriage right next to the baggage cars, while mine was towards the other end of the train, amid some other random passengers. Not hard to guess, the past week had been quite boring. So I had spent some spare time observing the passengers as they came and went. Unfortunately, they had not been extremely interesting either—until one caught my attention.

Around 8AM this morning, we stopped by just within the east boarder of Ciellea, slightly to the north. After this stop, the train would travel a bit to the south, stay by for two hours to load a new round of goods, before heading east into Foldin.

The train was just departing, when a teenage girl rushed and hopped into the carriage right before the doors closed. She seemed to be around my age. Her emerald eyes were shimmering with a shade of lucid watery blue, a perfect match to her youthful, excitable and energetic character—an abnormality to the monotonic world within my sight.

Most importantly, she was…different.

Behind her blunt bangs, her shoulder-length hair was tied to a high ponytail which was then braided. Her hair was generally black, but within that darkness, several strands were overtaken by a bright and vivid colour—an artist would call it quinacridone magenta—a vibrant mixture of violet and bold red.

It was safe to assume that these were her natural hair colours.

As mankind it is inherently difficult to change the colour of our hair, because our hair colours are somewhat governed by the energy we absorb from our surroundings—namely norsiera and derimos. Any foreign colour injected into our hair would soon get washed away by the energy in our body, and any pigment applied onto the hair can be clearly differentiated from a natural hair colour.

Naturally having hair of more than one clearly distinguishable colours is a key feature of a person with expressed mixed-blood traits, the result of inheriting only a recessive type of bloodline factor—the mixed-blood factor. Such bloodline factors are created when a ninakera and a dorasias—two persons, one from each of the two branches of mankind—have children. These children would not directly inherit any bloodline factor from their parents, but would instead possess the mixed-blood factor, which could only be passed down recessively. In terms of energy-related abilities, a mixed-blood would only possess either the power of norsiera or the power of derimos. Due to the two energies’s unbindable character, no one could wield both powers.

Mixed-bloods were so uncommon not only due to the recessive nature of the mixed-blood factor, but also because traditionally it was rare for ninakeras and dorasiases to get together.

But this girl—now skipping around the dining car to explore the scene—was a mixed-blood. She had this very well-dressed makeup—an emphasis to her already supreme facial features—elaborating her bluish-emerald eyes while resonating with her vibrant magenta hair strands. Her outfit was tight but comfortable nonetheless, outlining her athletic yet balanced build which accentuated her youthful femininity. Her top was a camisole with the colour of her eyes, while her leggings were in quinacridone magenta like her hair.

Must be a very confident girl to dress everything according to her eyes and her hair, I thought.

She was very lively, very active. Half-eight in the morning on a long-distance train, everyone was tired like deflated basketballs. She, on the other hand, bounced across the train as if she was a basketball. On her courageous and youthful face there seemed to be no worry, no fear, no burden. She was gleaming like a spotless crystal, distinct from anything that I had seen in my somewhat melancholic life. How could such a person even exist! I exclaimed in my head when she jumped past my dining table.

Anyhow, by 11AM the train arrived at a station a bit more to the south, to load the goods for this round. At 1PM the train departed for Foldin, towards Terrina which was in the east.

Slightly after 2PM I received a message from my team through a wagon conductor. It was a very weird message. I was told not to get close to the baggage cars and not to speak to the team members openly. Any communication should be made only through this wagon conductor. Something was off. I followed these instructions to observe the winds.

Around 3.30PM I received another message from the team. One of the team members caught a fever, and the technician was aching in the stomach, but I was told stay put until further notice.

A bit over 6PM I received the third message. Another team member was experiencing severe nausea, potentially due to a known allergic response. Only two team members remained standing. They insisted that I must stay in my compartment and respond to any message instantly. I must not take any food from the train.

At 7.45PM I received the fourth message. It said that I must “saunter” to the baggage cars immediately, acting as if I was simply exploring the train.

Around this time, everyone was moving around and having dinner, so it was not hard to just casually walk to the back of the train. When I arrived at the carriage, the two remaining members were having an intense yet quiet discussion. They were visibly tired from covering the shifts for the rest of the team, and their expressions were drowned with anxiety. As I approached them, one of them left to communicate with the lead train manager.

I tried to ask the remaining person what was happening, but he stopped me from asking any questions.

“The furthest corner, you see? In the back.” He pointed to the next carriage on the rear side. “There is a safe.” He stuffed a booklet into my hands. “This tells you how to open it.” He was breathing heavily. He was nervous. “In the safe you’ll find a small box. It’s black and round. Put it in your inner pocket and walk away. You hear me, kid? If anyone asks, The Lorrets never hired you, okay? You know nothing about the transportation. Okay kid? Get off the next stop. Go straight home.”

I tried to obtain a bit more information from him but—

“There is no time!” He suppressed his volume. “We got targeted. They don’t know about you. Now go to the safe—quickly go! Be fast.” And then he left the carriage from the front side.

I did as he said. The safe was very secured. Even for a proficient safe-intruder like me, breaking into this one would take heaven knew how long. When opening the safe, I pondered, if this little box he mentioned was the target to be stolen, why not just leave it in this safe? It would be much safer here than in my pocket. After getting the box, I tried to lock the safe back up, but realised that I could not. This safe was never supposed to be opened before reaching its final destination.

I walked to the front of the baggage cars. I was approaching the gangway passage, when a piercing alarm struck through the air. It was from the passenger carriage just after connection door. In a few seconds more alarms started to ring, all coming from the following few carriages in front of me. The train should gradually slow down under the emergency alarms—but it did not. It could not. We were entering a tunnel, and slowing down may introduce ventilation problems to this train.

Indeed, a perfect timing for a heist.

My heart was thudding. I took out my foldler—my elbow-length folding fan—from my sleeve. The sapphire dye on its fan leaf faded into the air as I reached to the connection door. I opened the door and looked through. The alarm was shrill. The carriage was empty. There was no one.

But the dye I released into the air was sent to my blind spot behind the doorframe. It formed a weak but well-connected energy field to send back even the most subtle acoustic pressure signal from a chosen spot.

So I heard…sounds of breathing. A person was behind the doorframe, awaiting the moment I step out. What could I do to get away…? My mind raced as I glanced around.

Then I saw, on the side of that carriage there were lamps. Between those lamps were energy wires. Perhaps I could…put them to use…?

I reshaped my energy field so that a strand of energy flow led towards the location of the breathing sound. Ideally, I should light up the strand of energy that I was working on to achieve precision, but by doing so I would be alerting the person. Thus, I had to manipulate my field without any visual indications. This was called a “blind act”, particularly difficult to achieve when dealing with an unfamiliar environment.

My intuition was the ultimate weapon.

I cautiously adjusted that strand of energy, until I felt like it went through both the lamp wires and the person. I had only one chance. If I activated this path but directed it to a wrong spot, the person would know.

Better now than never, I thought.

With a buzzing sound the person groaned and fell before me. The mineral energy I directed from the lamp wires successfully knocked out the person, whose entire body including the face was covered completely. I had no interest in unmasking them, not when my heart was going to bump out of my chest. “What in this brilliant world is going on!” I muttered to myself, as I stepped over that body and raced towards the next connection door, retrieving my sapphire blue dye along the way.

I was halfway through the carriage when another person entered from the next connection door. That person had the same outfit as the one on the ground behind me—they must be associates. I stood still as that person walked over. All they could saw, was the confusion and fear written on the face of a young teenage girl, but not—

With another buzz, this person also fell to the ground—the result of walking through my invisible setup, which redirected the energy from the lamp wires to knock them out.

Meanwhile, another one of them watched us from the next carriage. Now this person noticed the issue. In another second all lights were out and the piercing alarm ceased—to force me out of blind act. Oh come on! I cried in my head. There were no more mineral energy in the wires for me to redirect, and I could not see a single thing in this sudden darkness.

The bright side was that my ears had regained some peace—which was how I heard that person’s rushing footsteps. Golden threads of light emerged around that person and raced towards me. I recognised this field pattern. It was a predesigned energy arrangement, used in association with a device to immobilise the target, commonly used by—

Governmental operations? I thought.

Funny enough, Selene had taught me how to counteract it. She had forced me to practise this method for at least a thousand times. In the blink of an eye my golden threads deconstructed the ones of the person. I got the upper hand.

My golden threads overlaid onto one another, forming an intricate multilayer net around that person. Between the layers, air vibrated intensively in different phases, increasing the surrounding air pressure, under which the person could barely hold still while kneeling on the ground. But sounds of more steps appeared behind me.

I turned around fiercely—the person I knocked out earlier woke up and was about to hit me. Before the strike was landed, I created another pressure trap and locked that person to the floor. Yet, instantly I felt—something icy and sharp touching the skin of my throat. Without looking I increased the pressure intensity of the first pressure trap. And then I peered over.

When I was distracted, the previous person managed to stand up and place a dagger to my neck. Although this motion was held still by the intensified pressure, I had no spare energy to push this person back to kneeling position.

Now two big masked persons were wriggling in my energy field, one big masked person was unconscious on the ground, I was in the middle of a passenger carriage which was on a train passing through a tunnel, and the blade of a godforsaken dagger was touching my neck.

Ahhh what the hell is going on! I cried in my head.

I did not know how much longer I could hold. Similarly, the person with the dagger was also fighting hard against the air pressure to remain standing. Now it was a match of perseverance and concentration.

To distract me, the person started speaking. “Where are you from, kid?”—a male voice. To cover his natural tone, he spoke from deep in his throat. “Blind act, pressure traps, and whatever you did back there—sharp skills these are. You must be a special little girl.”

I did not say a word.

“You see—you may have the upper hand, but I have the checkmate.” He eye-pointed to his dagger. “Why don’t we both stand back and sort this out calmly? My associate is on the way…if anything…” Within his lenient tone was menace, silently flooding the blade of his dagger. “You’re are still so young…it is worth the cost?”

When said, footsteps came through the connection door behind him. It was too dark for me to track the person approaching. My mind raced. My heart pounded. What should I do? There must be a solution, there must be…

With the sound of a strike the man with the dagger fainted to the ground.

What?

Revealed by his fallen body was the bluish-emerald sheen of a vibrant pair of eyes, unveiling the young, courageous face of a teenage girl.

It was the mixed-blood girl I saw this morning!

“Gosh!” she cried. “Are you okay?” She had a very bright voice.

Before I could answer, she grabbed my wrist and dragged me forward. Simultaneously a spark bursted on the sidewall just beside me—the result of an energy strike missing its target. The person previously unconscious on the floor woke up and attempted to knock me out with a blind act, which would have been successful if the girl did not pull me away.

How did she see it coming?

Though I did not have much time to ponder. Pulling me away resulted in the deconstruction of my pressure trap. The remaining person in my trap broke free.

So the girl and I turned around. We rushed though the gangway passage and ran along the next carriage.

Also, why is she here again?

Due to the alarms, all passengers had been moved to the very front of the train, so the several carriages before us were empty. When we got to the next connection door, the “associate” mentioned earlier finally appeared. That person also had the same outfit as the rest.

I was still figuring how to deal with this person, when the girl got hold of a broomstick out of nowhere. She extended her arm fiercely and jabbed the person in the stomach. The person curled down in pain. She took the chance to jumped over like a gliding eagle, and performed a proficient knockout with a vigorous elbow blow.

“Oh wow…” I exclaimed in a whisper, perhaps with a slight increase in admiration.

We kept running. I was barely on my feet but she randomly started speaking. “Oh right yes! I am Aletheia.” She was very excited. I was very confused. Why on this great and wonderful land would anyone be so happy getting chased aside a total stranger on a running train by a bunch of masked and scary people?

“Uh—thanks for helping but can we talk later?”

From the window I saw that the train was exiting the tunnel to a mountain railway. We were heading towards the next connection door when—

“Heavens! What the hell!” I cried.

—an explosion tore the gangway passage apart.

The last five carriages, including three passenger carriages and two baggage cars, separated completely from rest of the train. The connection door and the train door originally at end of this carriage were no longer existent. Looking forward, I could only see the railroad track and the other half of the train moving further away from us. Looking backward, another masked person was approaching our carriage.

“We need to get out of here,” I said to the girl hurriedly.

“But how,” she asked.

We stood by the empty frame of the train door. Gazing out from here, aside the railroad was not a mountain cliff but a greatly inclined ramp, leading to a woodland.

“We roll down from here,” I said. “I can surround us with a pressure field like a cushion. Only if you also want to leave—”

“Of course I do! They have explosives! And—”

Before she finished her sentence, golden threads of light blasted towards her from the masked person just arriving at our carriage. I clutched her shoulders to drag her aside but we both fell out of the train from the door frame.

Holding my foldler, I surrounded her shoulders with my arms. My layers of golden threads wrapped around us right before we dropped onto the rocky ramp of the mountain. The shield of air pressure induced by my energy field protected us as we rolled along the ramp, but it could not relieve the disturbing fuzz in my stomach as we fell, nor the acceleration of my heavy breathing. It was a moment where you could find nothing to grip on. Nothing was certain. Nothing was safe.

I’ll be fine. I’ll be fine. I’ll be fine… I repeated in my head. I’ll be fine. I’ll be fine. I’ll be fine!

I was falling on my back but the girl her front. She opened her eyes. Along our trajectory she saw a large rock. Its edges were strong and sharp, perhaps enough to jab into the pressure field and injure at least one of us—more likely me, because of my position.

She stared forward. She wished if she could do something.

As my back approached the edge of that rock, my nested golden threads started warping. Then, like a miracle, the entire pressure field concentrated to the point of contact between the rock and me. I got bounced away without a single scratch.

What just happened? I yelled in my mind. I did not do anything to my field. I could not.

Instantly afterwards, the field resumed its original distribution. Though, before it was restored fully, we fell into the woods and for a moment a tree branch stuck in.

A few seconds later, we landed. The pressure field vanished and we were both lying on the ground. I retained some golden light threads for the dark evening woodland.

The girl sat up straight—“Yes! We got off!”—and shouted cheerfully. She got back to her feet, and I sat up straight as well.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“Yeah I suppose.”

But then she noticed, a rupture on my sleeve. The back of my right forearm was bleeding.

“No—what happened”—she kneeled down to check my wound.

But I retreated and stood up—“I’m fine.”

“But you’re bleeding—”

“I am really fine. It’s just a scratch from a tree branch…” I took another step backwards. To be honest it was a little scary for me to receive so much attention from a complete stranger. And then I saw a mountain stream. “I’ll just…wash it,” awkwardly I said as I walked over.

“Thank you for helping out just now,” I said to her while cleaning my wound.

“Oh no it’s nothing.”

“What did you say your name was again?”

“Aletheia. Aletheia ZyKou.”

“ZyKou? That’s a Terrinian last name.”

“Yes.”

This was not a very surprising revelation as she spoke the Nor with a somewhat obvious Terrinian accent. It was just that—she had more of a dorasias face, but Terrinians are traditionally ninakeras. So it was an interesting match.

Meanwhile, around my wounded forearm I applied a weak pressure field, which acted as a temporary substitute to bandages.

“But ‘Aletheia’ sounds like a Northern first name,” I continued.

“That’s also true,” she giggled. “My parents said that a deceased good friend of theirs really liked this name and made this recommendation. So they used it. But to make it easier for Terrinian speakers I am usually called ‘AaLytIa’ over there. My parents just call me ‘LytIa’.”

“So your parents…is your mother a dorasias?”

“Ah okay I always had to explain this. Actually, Both of my parents are ninakeras.” She cleared her throat. “A lot of people don’t know this, but mix-blood traits are actually caused by a recessive bloodline factor—the mixed-blood factor!” She was very enthusiastic in her explanation. “So, any ninakera or dorasias could be carrying a mixed-blood factor, passed down from a mixed-blood ancestor, without knowing about it.”

“Okay so you’re saying that each of your parents carried a recessive mixed-blood factor, and you happened to have inherited both, and that’s why you’re a mixed-blood?”

“Exactly! Woah no one ever understood this so quickly.”

“Because I already knew about the mixed-blood factor,” I chuckled.

“Oh really? Not a lot of people care about this. You studied about us?”

“I…um…have heard about these…yeah that’s it.”

Looking downhill from the woods, a main road was actually not afar. There was probably also a rest station where we could get some food and first aids. So we started walking that way. Also thank goodness that we both had our wallets in our pockets, which contained some change and our identity documents.

When walking we heard a loud boom from behind us, at a distance. I glanced back, lifting my head.

“Did they just—blow up the carriages we were in?” Aletheia peered into the mountain railway.

“Oh heavens…” I muttered. “They blew up half of the train!”

Finally I understood why the team wanted me to take the small box away, even with such a secured safe. If the box could not be obtained, the baggage cars would get blown up anyways. Thus…whatever that was in this box must be very important…so important that it should either be taken or destroyed. Though, this tiny box was actually also a small safe itself. It was locked up quite well and I had not been able to open it.

“Who are these people?” said she.

“I don’t know.” But I had a thought, which I kept to myself, at least for now.

I told her that I was just in charge of maintaining some equipments in the back, but somehow ran into this bunch of people during the alarm.

As we continued forward I got to know more about this Aletheia ZyKou. She was seventeen, around five months older than me, also graduated last summer. She lived in west Terrina, and went to Ciellea to watch the Ciellean fencing championships. She was heading back home by this train.

She was a professional competitor in all kinds of martial arts. Visibly a very good one. Growing up, she managed to get hands on all kinds of medals and prizes, but not yet the chance to represent Terrina in major events. She seemed very competitive, caring a lot for her ranks, which explained why she was always nervous during important competitions, losing to her opponent despite being the better player.

She spoke a lot, sometimes using many words to describe simple things. After all, the Nor was not her daily language. I replied to her whenever necessary, but did not tell her too much about myself. From her words I sensed the innocence and impulsiveness appropriate to teenage.

A lively little girl, I thought.

The day after tomorrow would be her last chance of participating in the most valuable martial arts competition for under-eighteens in Terrina. She told me that it would have a longstanding impact on her future professional career. Therefore, she would set off for home at most tomorrow morning. Although technically speaking she had not gone through the Foldin customs, it should be fine as long as the situation was explained. Her baggages were in the front of the train, and so were mine. She was hoping that we could retrieve them before she returned home.

“So why were you in that carriage during the alarm?” I asked Aletheia. “Your seat was in the front, and I suppose all passengers had been moved to the front as an emergency procedure?”

“Ah yes. Where do I start… Okay! Let me start from the morning. So after the train departed from Ciellea, there were some weird energy signals jumping across the carriages.”

“Energy signals? Like short distance telecommunication?”

“Maybe. And then I located some suspicious people.”

Wait… She noticed the energy signals, before locating the ones who sent it? To do so she would need to have a specialised signal detector, which was not a common thing to have. Anyhow I let her finish her story.

“But I’m not sure about exactly who or how many—they put their hands in their pockets so I can’t always know who was sending the signals. And then, when I was having dinner, signals kept flashing by, like, a lot more than before. I thought they went across many carriages, so I left the dining place to have a look. At…which one was it again?…oh yes at the ninth carriage, the alarm started ringing just after a signal! I thought it must be someone doing this on purpose, so I stayed to see what’s gonna happen.”

“How? Didn’t a wagon conductor chase you out?”

“Oh of course not. I hid in the—how do you call it again?—oh yes the overhead luggage shelf thingy.”

“You hid in the what?”

“The thing on the top”—she pointed up—“you know, the lined metal thing where we put our luggages—”

“Yes yes yes I understood you—but just—how on earth! How did you even get up there…”

“Oh it was easy.”

“Uh…wow…okay…? Very…um…capable…you are.”

“Thanks! And then I saw a person tried to stay, but the other passengers pushed too hard, like”—she ran from one tree to another while putting up her hands, trying to demonstrate this action that she was describing—“everyone tried to get to the front”—she did a tiny hop at the end—“so they pushed him out.” She was probably talking about the team member who instructed me to open the safe.

With a silent chuckle I smiled. Her motion was amusing.

“And then the carriage was empty. And then those masked people came from the eighth carriage. Four of them. They didn’t speak. One went back to the eighth carriage. The other three was walking to the tenth carriage. But then the one who entered first stopped the two behind—like—discovered something strange. So the two went back to the ninth carriage. One of them said something like ‘there are sounds in the baggage car.’

“Maybe a few minutes later, bang! Something fell to the ground in the tenth carriage. They opened the connection door. I don’t know what they saw but they were like”—she enlarged her vibrant green eyes and opened her mouth, trying to act shocked. “I couldn’t see very well because—the mask—but they were definitely making this face. One of them rushed into the tenth carriage, and then, bang! The same sound. Something fell to the ground. The last person quickly jumped to the side”—she hopped over a tree root on her left—“and cut some wires with a knife”—waving her arm in a slashing motion. “Everything went dark suddenly and the alarm stopped. The last person also ran into the tenth carriage, and then I saw some light coming from there, and then, bang! But not so heavy this time. Soon another, bang!”

I wondered how many times she was going to say the word “bang”.

“I heard some voices like ‘special little girl’ and ‘is it worth the cost’ and some stuff like that. I don’t remember. But I thought, ‘What? There’s a girl inside?’ So I got down and walked through the connection place. I saw that guy pointing a knife at you so, bang! I knocked him out!” Aletheia grinned and clapped cheerfully.

“Oh wow,” said I with an uplifting tone, which soon fell back to bland—“I would’ve run the other way”—then hurriedly lifted again—“uhh…which means thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” she grinned again.

“You also dragged me out of a blind act attack.”

“Did I?”

“You did. Blind act means using energy without visual indications.”

“Oh… Really? I thought—” She paused her words but soon continued, “I saw that person moving so I thought they were about to do something so I dragged you away.”

“Then, how did you know that those suspicious ones were sending energy signals?”

Aletheia touched her nose. Her face was written with the realisation, that she said something she should not have.

An impulsive little girl, I thought.

But then I chuckled, “It’s fine, you don’t have to tell me.” In my mind I had formed my speculations. “Everyone has something that they don’t wanna tell. Plus, shouldn’t I be nicer to my life-saver?”

Aletheia beamed in relief, and skipped forward delightedly.

Again I smiled. An innocent little girl, I thought.

Finally we arrived at the main road, which we crossed to get to the rest station. Aletheia found a telephone booth to call her parents, while I entered a convenient store to get food and first aids. When I got out, she told me that the telephone was out of service.

I looked around. Luckily we fell off at somewhere close to Crossinwaves.

“Well…my home is actually not faraway from here. Do you want to come and stay until the morning? I also have a telephone—functioning, of course.”

“Oh really? Is it too much trouble for you—”

“Nah the place is empty. I’m living on my own. Wouldn’t hurt to fit another person.”

“That is too nice of you!”

So we hailed a wagon and set off for Crossinwaves.

At a tiny, one-person dining table, a well-dressed man was enjoying his dinner. He was a ninakera, aged around thirty. The area in which he was dining belonged to a small yet expensive personal restaurant. It was already past eleven at night, but the tables were still full.

He, was one of the five governors in the Central Bank of Foldin, or “Foldin Central”. These five individuals, consisting of the Chair, the Vice Chair, and the three remaining governors, were the most superior in the hierarchy of Foldin Central. They control a force distinct to the Foldin government, yet equally capable of affecting the life of Foldin.

However, his delightful meal was soon interrupted by the arrival of an elegant lady in her late twenties. She walked up to his table.

“Ms Silluue?” Surprise was written on his face. “How…did you…know I am here?”

She grabbed a chair casually and sat down. “I arranged your meal,” she smiled.

Upon hearing this he coughed uncontrollably with a terrified face, dropping his cutleries to his plate at once.

“What,” as graceful as always she laughed. “You think I’d give you poison, Mr Mizrra?”

He pulled himself together. He glanced at her in vigilance. He did not know how a meal supposedly arranged by his subordinates ended up in the hands of this, Lua Silluue—another governor of Foldin Central. He knew better than the rest, this sweet and gentle woman had a heart colder than ice—she lusted for the vibrant and rosy, blood.

What he did not know was that this woman had another name—“Selene Winas”, by which she was nothing but a loving guardian of her little sister. She would do anything to protect her little sister. At some point he would pay the price for his lack of knowledge—soon, but not yet.

“Why are you here,” he said coldly.

“Oh love, what do you think?”

He shivered.

“You know,” she continued, “I’ve been told that there was an incident on the railways tonight.”

“Oh, how come?” His voice was calm but his heart was thudding. “Hmm, I figured and figured, but couldn’t quite figure it out. Would you mind to enlighten me?”

“Uh…so…what was the incident?”

She picked up his fork, jabbed into a slice of steak in his plate—“A common passenger train, half of it exploded”—and gave the slice a bite. “Delicious,” said she, “I made a good choice.”

“Exploded? That is very extreme.”

“Hmm isn’t it? Two of the exploded carriages were rented by The Lorret for transportation. Oh right. Wasn’t you a bit, weary, of their expansion plans?”

“I uh…”

“And your little friends with the Foldin government, did you guys speak much lately?”

He did not know how to respond, so he looked aside and laughed awkwardly.

She stood up, lent across the table, until her lips touched his ear.

“Don’t make me say this again,” she whispered. “Get. Out. Of. My. Way.”

Before standing up straight she stole a kiss on his forehead. And then she smiled to his plate—“Do make a good choice darling”—and walked away.

He remained frozen in his seat. Some minutes later he asked for the bill and left in a rush.