Ink Forged

~Setting Out~

Maevus sat on a bench in the train station, arms crossed, staring up at the glass ceiling. The suitcase Korie had let her borrow leaned against her leg, stuffed almost to bursting. Only a few minutes after Vraylor had left her in her room, both Korie and Letya had come. They'd studiously ignored the tear tracks on her face, instead helping her pack for the journey with minimal questions asked.

Her sword rested across her back, snug in its sheath, mostly hidden by the oversized coat Kinai had lent her. Maevus was practically swimming in the excess material, but it was better than fending off questions by concerned constables.

It wasn't illegal to carry such a weapon, but since the creation of repeating pistols, swords weren't very common anymore. They drew attention, but she wouldn't bear parting from it again.

At the sound of footsteps drawing to a halt beside her, she asked, "How do you suppose they keep those clean?" Maevus pointed to the clear glass overhead that allowed a lovely view of the twilight sky.

She lolled her head to the side to look at Volt. All he did was hold out her ticket. Maevus slowly pulled out the silver pocket watch she'd bought from a street vendor as they'd walked to the station. She flicked it open. "We still have thirty minutes before the train leaves."

Volt sighed and dropped her ticket so it fluttered into her lap. She picked it up, slipping it into the pocket of Kinai's jacket. "I'm not getting on that death trap any sooner than I absolutely have to," she told him. "So you can stand there and loom, or you can sit down."

Just when Maevus had resigned herself to his looming, Volt sighed and sat on the bench across from her. He leaned back, crossing his long legs in a smooth motion. His head turned toward the tracks and the sleek, black train waiting there.

Maevus pursed her lips, a million questions bubbling in her throat. Given the tight set of his shoulders and the fact that he refused to look at her, she found it unlikely that she would garner any response from him. So she tilted her head back again, watching as the sky shaded toward a darker blue.

The minutes trickled past. Every now and then, Maevus got the prickly feeling that she was being watched, but whenever she looked down, Volt was still turned toward the train tracks. Few people were in the station at this time. 

A young woman in a blue silk dress was met by a gentleman in a charcoal suit. The heels of their shoes clicked as they crossed the station arm in arm. Two men dressed in the black robes of Faldana's priests waited a few benches away, talking quietly. Maevus wondered if they were going to or coming back from presiding over a funeral. A few scattered men and women stood waiting around the station, most wearing rough-spun workmen's clothes. It was impossible to tell if they were waiting to disembark or to pick someone up.

Volt stood suddenly, snapping Maevus out of her reverie. Before she could ask him what he was doing, he had picked up her suitcase along with his, jerking his head toward the train. Maevus had no choice but to scramble to her feet when he strode away.

The soles of her boots squeaked on the marble floors, her coat slipping from one shoulder as she caught up to him.

"Why do we have to get on now?" she grumbled, eyeing the rapidly approaching door of a car about halfway down the train. "We still have time to wait outside."

Volt just stepped up into the car, disappearing inside. Maevus lingered by the door, her gaze straying to the sky far above. A rapping sound from above her and to her left made her jump. Turning, she craned her head back to see Volt standing at one of the windows. He crooked a finger at her, obviously telling her to join him.

Barely managing to resist the urge to stick her tongue out at him, Maevus instead took a deep breath and turned toward the door. She cast one last look at the free sky before stepping up into the cramped train car. 

A compartment door slid open with a bang—apparently Volt's version of an invitation. Maevus scowled and stalked down the narrow corridor, stomping into the compartment and flopping down on the velvet-covered seat with a huff. Volt's lips twitched in irritation, but all he did was swing her suitcase up into the overhead rack.

Maevus scooted closer to the window, closing her eyes and rubbing at her temples. The sharp snap of fasteners being popped open startled her. She opened her eyes and watched as Volt riffled through his luggage, extracting a pad of paper and a thin, metal case. After laying those on the seat, he closed his suitcase and stowed it away.

He sat, crossing his legs and opening the pad in a flutter of paper. Maevus watched in silence as he popped open the metal case, revealing an assortment of pencils, charcoal sticks and ink pens. His fingers hesitated over them for a brief moment before selecting a pencil with a deadly looking point.

As soon as he touched the lead to paper, Maevus asked, "So where are we going exactly?"

The only answer was the light scrape as Volt began to draw.

Maevus crossed her arms, leaning back in her seat. She watched for a while, curious in spite of herself as his hand twitched in small, graceful strokes. An announcement rumbled through the station, warning of ten minutes until departure.

"This is a northbound train going to Fresi," she mused, resting her elbow on the window ledge and cradling her chin in her palm. She fished her ticket out of her jacket pocket and waved it at him. "That's what this says anyway. But that seems kind of stupid to me."

She took the slight pause in his movements as an invitation to continue. "Fresi is, after all, the biggest city in the northern province. In my experience, big city means lots of Greenies."

Volt rubbed at the corner of his mouth with a finger, head tilted in consideration. His pencil tapped against the page. Maevus bit down on her irritation, continuing to wait until a five-minute warning until departure echoed from above.

Then, Maevus scooted to the edge of her seat and kicked out a leg. Her foot collided with his shin. The jolt traveled up his leg, paper fluttering as it knocked the pad askew. The pencil skidded across the page and he grew very still, staring down at the paper.

Maevus bit her lip and sank back into her seat. "Sorry," she muttered. "But—"

She was cut off by the harsh sound of paper tearing. Volt balled the page up, tossing it to the floor. Through gritted teeth, he said, "Out of Fresi, there is a westward road. You follow that road west and it leads to the Yanger Mountains. In the Yanger Mountains, there are small villages and caves and valleys, all perfectly remote and perfectly suitable to hiding from the Greenies in Fresi."

With that, he scooted to the corner farthest from her, picked up his pencil and began to draw.

Maevus eyed him for a long moment before her eyes fell to the crumpled piece of paper lying on the floor. As discreetly as she could, she used her foot to nudge it beneath the edge of the seat.