Epsilon Twilight
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25. Train
🕑 Added 2025-01-25 11:40:45 +0000 UTCAloe had completely underestimated the capacity of the train. There had been a lot of people on the platform so she thought the insides of the train would be no different from a jar of beans with everyone pressed against one another. But surprisingly enough, the train was rather empty. She closed her parasol and hung it from her forearm.
As they strode forward, they were welcomed by a luxurious interior with many hints of red velvet and inlays of gold. Or rather, golden touches as it was most likely gold-coated, or even cheaper brass.
"Woah, this is very different from the train I was pushed on," Xochipilli said at her side.
"How was that train?" Aloe continued walking down the hallway as the first seats were taken. And even if they were empty, she wanted to be as far as possible from people. She couldn't know how glamour would sustain for long durations or what side effects could generate, especially those lust-related.
"I… uhm…" Instantly she became aware of how insensitive her question had been.
"Oh, sorry, Xochipilli," the druid patted the boy's head. "You don't have to answer that question."
"No… there's no problem," the disciple responded with a wry smile. "It was a dark place and there weren't any seats. We had to sleep on the ground next to boxes that were always close to tipping."
"Oh dear," Aloe hugged him. "Everything's fine now, child."
"I know, I know," he muttered, his voice mostly silenced by a powerful whistle.
That got a smile out of her. He's certainly stronger than me. Instead of leading the boy by the hand, she placed herself behind him and pushed him by the shoulders. They were still walking to the endless corridor that was the train once it started moving.
"Oh," Aloe yelped. "That startled me," she said with a hand on her chest. "I knew it would move, but I didn't expect it to be this sudden."
Her balance was preternatural, and her feet were no different from the roots of trees, so she was completely unphased by the moving colossus that was the train, and so was Xochipilli as she still held him. Aloe looked out of the window as the outside started moving, or rather, they started displacing from the platform.
"Ah, I get it now. All those people outside were waiting to give their farewells to the passengers." She mused as she saw almost a hundred people waving at the train.
Xochipilli, blessed be his adorable small size, neared a window as he was unable to see what Aloe was talking about.
"That's a lot of people," he said under his breath.
"Yes, they are," Aloe giggled. Even if it were her exact same thoughts, having them voiced out by Xochipilli's impressionable and young voice made them endearing. "Hand me the suitcase, child."
The boy shook his head in mild confusion but quickly realized his master's intentions. With a bit of teeth clenching and holding a breath a bit too long, Xochipilli managed to raise the suitcase up to the height of Aloe's hands. His antics were very amusing, making her ruffle the boy's hair with her parasol hand whilst she grabbed the suitcase and effortlessly put it on one of the shelves on top of the seats like she had seen other passengers do.
She then released the child from her teasing, and she sat on one of the seats. It wasn't the best spot, but it was isolated enough, and they had already walked next to the windows, so it made no sense to search for other seats.
"Are you comfortable?" The druid asked him after he sat down.
"Yesh!" Xochipilli portrayed his characteristic accent that accompanied his excitement. "These benches are very fluffy!" He bounced a bit on the stuffed benches of the train.
"I'm pleased you like them." Unfortunately, Aloe didn't enjoy the same comfort as the kid. However, it was for the polar opposites. Her body was so malleable and impervious to damage that any seating was comfortable for her.
The noise of the train was quite prevalent – both the 'engine' and the wheels – even with the windows shut down, so she allowed the boy to open theirs.
"Be careful not to fall down," she said mostly in jest.
Even if he did fall, she could save him before he realized. Hells, she could most likely outrun the train if she wanted, but that would most likely ruin her dress, so it was better if that didn't happen in the first place.
Perhaps she hadn't enjoyed the company of the tailor who had created the work, but dunes she was enamored with her dress. She may even kill people if they ruin it!
It scared her knowing that might as well be true.
The wind may not be as powerful as the one she was greeted by yesternight during her run or her flight, but it was comfortable, nonetheless. Especially because she could enjoy it without needing to move a muscle. Her vitality excelled in moving, it wanted to be an active and thundering force of nature; but her body reveled in being static, a stagnant yet constant entity.
Both options were too extreme and fatidic for her liking.
Stagnation was deplorable and being a force… she didn't have good experiences with entities that could be classified as forces of nature.
Xochipilli took more liking in the wind than she did, and that was fine. If he was happy, so she was. Am I a bad person for leeching of a child's happiness? Aloe didn't have the answer to such questions.
The thrill of the ride quickly died down with the monotony of the train movement and its noise. Even the enthusiastic Xochipilli closed the window just to dampen a bit the noise from the outside.
Still, that didn't mean they were without tasks.
Her disciple may know the eight stances that mattered now, but he needed to practice. Whilst it wasn't the place to do heavy lifting or endurance training to boost the base values of his body, there were other stances she could make him train, besides the switching time.
"Where's the seed?" Aloe would juggle a seed between her hands with enhanced sleight of hand thanks to her mythical dexterity and Xochipilli had to try to find it.
The activity looked innocent enough – not that different from a game played on caravans back in her time – from the outside and it worked to starve off some boredom. This training she was originally taught by Naila, the young sultanzade, only a few months prior to her exile, and it worked wonders.
Only now did she become aware of the real importance of the exercise as her speed and sense stance reached multipliers that no mortal should possess. Acute reflexes were needed to manage any of these two stances and this simple exercise was scalable in difficulty if it was practiced by two cultivators. As soon as Xochipilli started getting a success rate higher than the fifty percent possible by randomly choosing, Aloe simply upped the difficulty.
Once the boy grew dizzy by observing too many hands moving faster than thoughts, she let him rest. But she had a treat prepared for him.
Aloe looked around with her many senses and once she verified no one was looking, she pulled her down her dress a bit – much to Xochipilli's embarrassment – and put her hand inside the Slowtide, where she took a handkerchief full of pastries from.
"Come on, child, indulge yourself." As soon as she finished speaking, Xochipilli jumped for the pastries, which took a giggle out of her.
Like his breakfast today, they were cold, but she had had the presence of mind to keep the pastries that were better served cold and would survive the journey for this moment.
Whilst the boy ate, a person approached them from behind. Aloe had sensed him walking from the very beginning – she was sensing everyone on the train – and knew it was the ticket examiner who had validated their tickets.
"Tickets please," the man said with a smile as he observed Xochipilli.
That drew another smile on Aloe's visage as the child was finally met with another emotion that wasn't contempt born out of racism.
"Is it really needed?" Aloe asked with feigned exhaustion.
"I'm afraid so, lady. It's protocol." The middle-aged man nodded.
"Well, I guess I can't deny your petition then." Aloe turned to face the child. "Xochipilli, could you show this gentleman our tickets again?" She had learned that the way to refer to men was with 'gentleman' and 'lady' for women from the newspapers and also the tidbits of conversation she picked up from the city.
The boy coughed as he almost choked but dutifully took the tickets out of his pockets and gave them to the examiner, who simply looked at them before returning them.
"Excuse me," she interrupted the examiner as soon as he made the gesture of going away. "How long will this train take to reach Sadina?"
The examiner took the device from his coat's front pocket and examined it. "We should be in Sadina in the night-slash-early morning of the twenty-seventh, that is to say, two days from now, three in total."
"Dunes," Aloe cursed under her breath.
"I know the journey can be quite long and taxing for a woman of your pedigree," he said. "You are more than welcome to rest at one of the bed cars at the end of the train."
The train examiner promptly left, but he had completely misunderstood her. The journey wasn't long for her, but the complete opposite.
"Is something wrong, Aloe?" Xochipilli asked as he saw her bewildered expression. Not even glamour could hide it.
"Nothing much, Xochipilli," she pondered it for a moment but decided to reveal the truth to her disciple, if partially. "Once upon a time, I traversed these lands to get to Selen. This journey took me weeks traveling in basically a straight line, and that was with me being sice as fast as the average person back in the day."
Now it was the young boy's turn to portray surprise.
"What is it?" She pulled the question off him.
"Aloe, what does 'sice' mean?"
"Urm…" The simplicity of the question astonished her back. "It means 'six times', in this case, six times the speed of a person."
"Oh, I recall now," he said after scratching his scalp. "The missionary taught us about these words, but they said they were ancient and felt out of use."
Never before in her life had Aloe Ayad felt older than now.
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The3rd
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