Violet glared at Charlie's back as the older student paced. Once Violet had returned from the lavatory, Charlie had immediately ushered her and Alex to the next car for some kind of concerned interrogation. "I'll get straight to the point. Are you two... involved, romantically?" She asked trepidation in her voice. Violet returned the question with a saccharine smile, hoping the other woman didn't notice the annoyed tension in her jaw.

"Oh, I see why you would think that!" Violet laughed, "No, Alex here is just an old friend! We were neighbors growing up you know. But romance?" Her face took on an exaggerated look of disgust and she stuck her tongue out. "That would be like dating my cousin!" Alex looked at her with wide, shell-shocked eyes and she waved her hands at him as if she was concerned about hurting his feelings. "Wait wait, no, it's not like I think you're gross or anything, I promise! Someday you'll make a girl really happy I'm sure! Maybe Charlie here," she suggested, giving Charlotte a conspiratorial side-eye. "Is that why you wanted to check with us? I won't stand in your way, I promise!"

"No, that's not it. It's just... it's dangerous out there, and people are going to rely on both of you. These trains... they cost more to run with more passengers. Picking you up would be too expensive if we brought enough mist walkers to make it safe. So aside from the conductor, we are all we have. When we stop at a waystation, if we don't watch each other's backs, someone could die. I just want to make sure you aren't prioritizing anyone's life for personal reasons," Charlie explains. Violet crossed her arms and pouted.

"I'm a surgeon, you shouldn't suspect me of something so horrible! I would never let any of you get hurt, as far as I'm concerned, you are all my family already," she protested. Perhaps it was because Alex had never seen Violet look offended before. Perhaps it was the absurdity of the claim of kinship with anyone at all, much less strangers. Perhaps this was just a boiling point and Violet's even larger shift in personality had pushed just a little too far. But this was Alex's breaking point.

"Violet, what the fuck are you talking about? What happened to you? Why are you acting so weird? You have never given a single shit about any of this before! What is going on with you? You are like someone I never met! Everything is insane! I'm going to be a fucking mist walker and soulless Violet is suddenly everyone's chipper friend? Ninth degree? When did that happen? You were what, sixth degree fucking yesterday? You didn't even have a degree a year ago! What is happening!" He suddenly started panicking, his outburst painting concerned lines into Charlie's brow.

'It was going to be quick, Alex. All you had to do was keep your mouth shut and it would have been over in an instant. Now? Now it's going to hurt.'

Violet approached Alex, stepping between him and Charlotte, then put her hand on his shoulder. "Are you alright Al, you aren't making any sense? I know it was hard to say goodbye to home, to your mom, but you can't let it get you! You heard Charlie, people are counting on us now!" Her voice was kind and gentle, like sugar in tea. Looking at the back of her head, Charlie could only believe in her concern, and in Alex's instability. She didn't notice her long nails, biting into Alex's back. And she couldn't see her face. Her voice promised a kind smile, but Alex knew better and goosebumps crawled across his skin.

'I thought her eyes were blue, who is this... what is this?' Alex thought as he stared into her empty, black eyes. He smelled copper on her breath as her twisted, hungry grin lied that everything would be okay. She was the hand, reaching out from beneath his bed and the shift in the shadows in the corner of his eyes. He couldn't hear her anymore as she explained, with clear concern, how much trouble he was having with leaving his sickly mother. How he was concerned what she might do without someone to look after her. How riding into the mist had simply been too much, but how he would be back to himself by the time they reached the academy. Her face told the true story. It wasn't the blank, unamused stare she had always answered with him. It was fury and joy and a promise.

"You... You're a monster," he finally whimpered. He took a step back and covered his face with his hands, trying to deny what he had seen in the woman's face. When he lowered them, she had a kind half smile and a concerned droop to her glassy blue eyes. Charlie was next to her, looking at him with concern.

"It does happen sometimes. The mist is a lot for some people. We'll let him rest. At this point, it could be more dangerous using him in the mist than handling the waystation without him. Still, it could be dangerous if we are a man down... You're... really not romantically involved, right?" She checked one last time and Violet gave her an innocent smile, eyes closed and hands clasped behind her back.

"Nope, just friends, pinky promise!" Violet reassured before offering Charlie one hand with the pinky extended. Charlie smiled before accepting it with her own pinky.

"W-what are you doing?" Alex protested, "There is something wrong with her! Can't you see that? We can't trust her, we need her off this train!" Charlie turned to give him another worried look and Violet's face distorted into that of a starved animal as she glared at him.

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"Get him to one of the booths in the next car. We have half a day before the first waystation. Hopefully, he'll be fit to fight with a little sleep. Here," she whispered, slipping something into Violet's hand. "This will help calm him down. And don't worry about your friends. This isn't that unusual on a first trip into the mist." Violet accepted the small pouch then, without warning, wrapped Charlie in a hug.

"Thanks for looking out for us, with you here, I just know we'll all be safe!" She exclaimed before whispering back in Charlie's ear, "I think you'd better take him though... I think I remind him too much of home, he seems to be bothered by me right now." The sincere concern in her voice made Charlotte feel like an idiot. Of course she should be the one to help him, considering the way he was looking at Violet.

"You're right, I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking. I was focused on the bickering between the others. Of course, I'll take him," She agreed before turning to Alex. He was looking back and forth between the two women until Charlie put a hand on his shoulder and his eyes dulled. He slumped over, not asleep but complacent under the effects of one of Charlie's abilities, one that interested Violet greatly. Charlie wrapped one of Alex's arms over her shoulder and guided him to the end of the car before disappearing through the door. Violet sat down on a crate and began to rub her chin in thought.

The bubbly, innocent persona slithered off of her as she sat, finally alone. 'I need to work on that. Perhaps I pushed too hard? Or perhaps I should have killed Alex before we even boarded the train...' She considered. 'No, the capital expected two new students. He needed to show up. It would have been easy to handle after taking him to his room but... I don't want to be the last person to see him. But the panicked by the mist excuse will only last so long.' She examined the forgotten pouch of medicine Charlie had given her. It could come in handy, but it would also be too obvious to use it too soon.

It hadn't been long since she discovered her calling. Since she entered the mist with little interest in anything and returned an entirely new woman. She was still discovering who that woman was. It was like seeing a world of color after a lifetime of monochrome. The day the mist walker was hurt and asked for help. When she approached his broken and bloodied body and felt her heart beating faster. When she held his bag and hovered her hand over the potion he was begging for. When a blush colored her pale cheeks and she met his desperate eyes. She saw his hope sour to horror as he read the elation in her eyes. As she pulled the potion out of the bag and, instead of bringing it to his lips, casually dropped it.

When she knelt by the man's body and wrapped her hands around his throat she felt her lips curl up for the first time in her memory. His vitality far outstripped her own but he could no longer move. It was slow and his spiritual energy fought her weak hands. But as she cut off the blood flow to his mind and the oxygen, something she alone had never experienced happened. Her spirit began to grow. Rapidly. It was like a fire had been lit and her growth was explosive. As the injured man struggled Violet's degree rose. As her degree rose so did her strength, granting her the ability to fight hard and for longer.

When the man finally died and Violet was finally able to rest, she didn't want to. She'd felt more alive, more like it was worth being alive than ever before. She felt amazing and she wanted more. But that had just been luck. A massive boar monster did most of the work for her. This was different. She had to be careful. Slow. Smart. Violet wasn't a genius. She barely understood other people at all. She had to rely on an extreme persona copied from a children's book in order to consistently act in a way people would accept. She'd been practicing for months, relying on her new charisma attribute to sell it. It was the first day she was truly committing to the character and things were already going wrong.

Perhaps she should have better predicted Alex's reaction to this. She knew he would think it was odd but after months of practice she thought, even at a more extreme level, he might write it off. She hadn't accounted for the increased stress of leaving his mother and for one simple reason. She felt none of it herself. The mist was, to her, just mist. A tool to use if she wanted to repeat the experience with her first kill. It wasn't until he began to panic that it occurred to her. More accurately, it wasn't until she needed a new excuse for his outburst that she even bothered to consider it.

So she sat and thought. She didn't want to overlook something so obvious again. She needed to understand people. What they would react to, what they would ignore. What would clue them in and give her away as abnormal. But first, she needed to kill Alex. She needed a plan that wouldn't be tied to her, and she needed it quickly before too many people started to wonder if there was more than anxiety and panic to his words. More importantly, she had to hold herself back. She felt an energy, coursing through her veins, urging her to action. She wanted to move, and she wanted to do it right away. Her spirit wanted to grow. But if she was too rash, it would be the last time it ever did and her life would return to its old, dull, gray.

Finally, she stood. She took a deep breath, forced a smile on her face, and made her way back to the main car where the other students were waiting. It was exhausting, playing the chipper girl she wanted everyone to believe she was. The girl who couldn't hurt a fly and only wanted to heal. But she did it. Because with each fake smile she gave, she pictured its recipient's death and her anticipation built. It was hours of this nonsense before anything changed. Hours of giggling at Daniel's awkward flirting and pretending not to understand Jarod's innuendos. But finally, she felt the train slow and Charlie emerged. Much to Violet's relief, Alex wasn't with her.

"Alright," Charlie announced. "We've reached the first waystation. Everyone follow my lead."