The tram stops in a loud, humid room. Pallets of cardboard boxes are stacked in every corner, filled with goods and packed with wood shavings that give the air a syrupy texture. A metal conveyor belt rolls a line of boxes towards the tram, where a team of workers waits to load them. When the tram door opens, the workers yell over the squeaking metal pins.

“Hey! You’re not supposed to be on the tram! P-Princess!?”

Princess Arabella ignores them. The workers gape as they watch their princess glide past them and disappear through the ‘Employees Only’ double doors.

“Those poor commoners.” Aurora says, hiding inside of Arabella’s sleeve. “Is this your plan then? To prank the rabble all the way to the North?”

“Prank? I can do so much more than just prank! There are so many layers to every social situation, and I know how to exploit all of them; I was elected the People’s Princess for a reason.”

“You must be very proud, beating Asmoday for that title.”

“Oh? Oh! Well why don’t you just watch and learn then, little sister. Azzy could never d- ow!”

Aurora bites her.

They enter the Railway lobby, one of many identical buildings located in every major settlement. Some people crowd around the desks of ticket vendors, but most wait for their trains on metal benches lined in the center of the room. Behind the row of vendor desks, a single train track cuts through the interior of the building.

Arabella approaches the nearest ticket booth, ignoring the line of commoners. As the people notice her approach, they part for her like water for a boat, letting her through without a fuss but mixing tumultuously in her wake.

“No way! Is that-?”

“Princess Ari, here? Isn’t she supposed to be-”

“Excuse me,” Princess Arabella glances at the young man’s name badge, “Trevor. I’m terribly sorry to disturb your work, but I must speak with your manager.”

“Um, Princess Ari. Yes, please come with me please, ma’am. Your royalty.” The young man leads them to an unlabelled side door faster than a polite walk would normally allow.

“You don’t have to be nervous, Trevor.” Arabella speaks softly, then growls, “princesses don’t bite.”

“Yes’m! Highness!” He knocks on the office door. “Princess Ari, here to see you. Goodbye.” He returns to his counter as fast as walking can possibly take him.

“Princess Ari..? What a wonderful surprise!” The manager says, quickly recovering from the shock. She’s younger than Arabella expected. Her skin is dark reddish brown, as if sculpted from amber. Her gold eyeshadow glimmers in the harsh fluorescent office light, and as she holds out her hand, Arabella realizes that she’s been staring.

“I apologize for dropping in so suddenly.” Arabella rushes out, grasping the offered hand to shake, but with the flick of her wrist, the manager pulls her into a hand kiss. Arabella’s face flushes.

“Nonsense! It is an honor to have you. How can the Railway Corporation help the Princess Ari today?”

“I need to go North.”

The manager’s lips tighten. “I see.”

“Can you help me?”

“No.” The manager takes a deep breath. “But he looks like a creep, so I’ll do it anyway. We look out for each other, no? I can take you as far as Camita, just past the border. I assume you’ll be wanting to leave immediately?”

“Yes, please. And you have my gratitude for helping us.”

The manager hums. “I am always happy to help a member of the real royal family.” She stands, taking one of the princess’ hands and helping her out of her own chair.

“I thought so,” the manager mumbles to herself. Louder, she says, “Follow me, your royalty. We’ll take whatever’s boarding.” She leads the princess through the Railway lobby, tossing a keyring to one of the clerks as they pass by the line. A train rolls into the building, and they are the first to board.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

In each car, people enter from a door at the front right side, and exit through a door on the back left side, creating a kind of current of customers that carries the two all the way to the rear of the train.

“We call this area the staff cars. Storage, employee quarters, and anything else we don’t want the passengers to have access to. You can stay here until we get to Camisa.”

Both sides of the car are lined with couches that fold into beds. Arabella takes a seat on one in front of a large window. The Railway trainyard blocks most of the view, but some sunlight is still visible.

“If my princess can forgive my intrusion,” she bows, “I could not help but notice that you conceal something in your sleeve. May I ask what that is?”

“Well, while I’m grateful for your help,” Arabella says, “I’m afraid-”

“Thank Sol!” Aurora gasps, crawling out of the sleeve. “I was suffocating in there! By the stars, Arabelle, do you really need that much perfume!?”

“What.” The manager covers her mouth with a hand.

“It’s not- I- Ugh! Aurora!” Arabella yells.

“What? She already knew. We made eye contact earlier.”

“What!?”

“It is true, my princess, but I had assumed that it might have been a doll. Not,” she leans away as she gestures to Aurora, “that.”

“‘That’ is your former prince, now Princess Aurora.” Arabella says.

“I’m so sorry.” She bows again. “What a terrible burden; your family does not deserve that. I regret my intrusion, and hope that my princess can forgive me.”

A train whistle sounds. Arabella fumes. The car begins to roll, and the trainyard outside is replaced with slow moving off-white rows of plastic cubes dusted with just a little bit of pink pollen. Looming over everything is the royal palace, made from dark red chiseled brick in emulation of the castles of Earth.

Arabella places Aurora at eye level on the back of the couch, and stares out of the window, searching for words. The manager takes a seat opposite of the two princesses.

“I used to be into poetry.” Arabella says. “Everyone’s so obsessed with our pink miasma; I thought it would be nice to write about something from here other than the weather.” She points to the left side of the distant palace, to a room overlooking the gene garden. “I spent a lot of time in that sunroom when I was younger, so I thought I’d use it to write. When it stormed, we used to watch the spores from those windows. We’d set up camp and never leave until the sun came back out. We made forts out of pillows and had our food delivered to us.

“That sounds nice.”

“It was. And then Asmoday joined the guard, and then I found Howard’s body, and then it was just me. Just me, sitting in an empty sunroom, trying not to write about the weather.”

Tears sting Arabella’s eyes. “Who cares if I never have those days again. I have my brother back! Sister! How could you call that a burden?”

“I forgive you for bringing that thing on my train, because it is obvious that you still miss your brother.” The manager hisses. “But that thing is no longer Prince Howard. For Sol’s sake, I could stuff it in a water bottle!”

Aurora squeezes some of Arabella’s hair.

“Agree to disagree.” Princess Arabella commands. “I thank you again for allowing us to board your train, but as your princess I am ordering you to drop this.”

“Oh?” The manager gets very calm. “Very well, princess. You clearly understand the situation better than a lowly peasant such as I. Why don’t I go make sure no one comes to bother us? I’ll be right back.”

The manager slides the car door shut behind her with a click.

“Did she just call herself a peasant? In the current year?” Aurora asks.

“She’s hyping herself up. She has all the power right now, but she’s still deferring to me out of habit. We’ve probably got about half an hour before she calls ahead and has us arrested at the next stop.”

“Oh.”

“She’s doing this because of you. I love you, but,” she imitates the manager’s accent, “the peasantry are afraid of freaky little magic creatures such as yourself.” She pokes Aurora. “So when your big sister tells you to stay hidden no matter what, what she means is- Ack!” Arabella grabs Aurora. “Stop biting me!”

“And let you steal my position out from under me? Not a chance.”

“Aurora. Look at me.” Arabella lowers her hand so that Aurora has to look all the way up to see her. “You are the little sister now.”

Aurora hangs her head in defeat. Or is straining her neck to bite the hand that holds her. Impossible to say which from this angle, so Arabella chooses to go with the former.

“You’re a troublesome little sister.” Arabella taunts. “It’s a good thing your bigger sister is here to keep you safe. Aww, it’s impossible to stay mad when your widdle wings buzz like that.”

Arms pinned to her side, Aurora is forced to bow her head even lower to hide her blush. Her reactions are as embarrassing to her as they are involuntary. Every time she’s called princess, or sister, it’s like getting drenched by a bucket of ice cold feel-good feelings.

“Getting back on track,” Arabella says, “I suppose I do share some of the blame for our current situation. It would have been smarter to just take the insult and say nothing.”

“Yeah, but that’s not who you are.”

“And that’s not who you are either.” Arabella puts her hand in couch-mode for Aurora. “I hope you know that I see you as more than just some magical creature pretending to be my late brother.”

Aurora sweats.

Sweet Sol, what if I am? What if I’m that fae and I accidentally forgot that I was pretending and now I’m involved with Arabella’s life and when I remember who I am I’m going to leave her and she’ll be heartbroken and alone far away from home writing depressing poetry oh my god I’m a monster!

“Uh oh. Remember that time you pretended to be a royal guard and I gaslit you into believing it was real?” Arabella asks. “You had that same look on your face.”

“That was you!?”

“Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that sometimes you get very… suggestible.”

“You rewrote my journal!”

“Diary,” Arabella corrects, “and I also forgot everything I read so it’s kinda water under the bridge now.”

“You jerk! I’d never been more relieved to get yelled at by father.”

“You're welcome.”

“Argg!” Aurora tries to stand.

“Uh uh.” Arabella places her thumb over Aurora’s waist, pushing her back down. “No biting your bigger sister.”

“What if she deserves it?”

“You’ll have to fill out a form to get the proper permit.”

“Wait.” Aurora says. “We’re slowing down.”

Arabella looks out of the window. Dark red trees pass by at a roughly equal speed, but now that Aurora mentions it, it does feel slightly slower than before.

“Maybe we’re going uphill?”

Aurora’s eyes close. “No, we’re moving east north east in a straight line on a slight decline.”

“You’re not even looking out of the window.”

“I don’t need to; I just kinda feel it. You don’t think she’d stop the train, do you?”

“It’s too early for that. Unless I misread her?” Arabella slides the door open. The rest of the train is gone, and their car is still rolling along the tracks from inertia. “Oh.”

“Good read, big sis.”