The interior of the train was a simple one. There were rows of seats two chairs wide along each side. A table sat between each row of seats. And while it was on the larger side, the amount of people moving around inside made it feel cramped.

“So, what are the first steps?” Tarnish asked as he lounged across the table from Solace. He took up both seats, upper body on one and legs on the other.

“Steps?” Solace asked. Unlike Tarnish, he sat upright and on the seat closer to the inside, putting his bag on the other.

“To Senior Brother’s plan for when we reach the city,” Tarnish clarified. “Senior Brother always has plans, and this one would like to be privy to them.”

Solace frowned as his spiritual senses detected someone taking a seat in the row directly behind him. He didn’t want to speak about any plans in public on principle, but that was standard caution talking. Briefly, he wished he had paid for one of the private booths the train offered, but those things were expensive.

He scanned his surroundings with all of his senses before speaking. “I went ahead and booked a place a month ago, in preparation for this. We’ll be heading there first when we reach the city.”

“You want us to share a room?” Tarnish asked, amused.

“Location,” Solace clarified. There was no way he’d ever share a room with someone if he could help it. “I have reserved two rooms, adjacent to each other, one of which you will be paying for when we get there. The price is about average, based on my research, but you’re more than free to cancel and find your own place.”

“This one trusts Senior Brother’s judgment, and thanks him for the consideration. The room will be fine,” Tarnish said. “What about after?”

“We go register for the Exhibition,” Solace said. “In order to decrease attempts at fraud, the people running the event have made it so that registration needs to be done in person at one of several listed locations.”

“This one recalls hearing something along those lines, but not much beyond what Senior Brother has just said. Will there be any sort of trial? A test to even be allowed to register.”

“Not that I’m aware of. From what I’ve read on past Exhibitions, it’s just signing up at a location to prove one’s identity. We should be ready for foul play, though, if not by the hosts as a test than from other people trying to get in.”

“Agreed. What shall we do after?”

Before Solace could reply, a woman stopped by their table. “Excuse me?” She said.

The two turned to her.

“Can I have a seat?” She asked, pointing to where Tarnish’s legs rested.

“What is she saying?” Tarnish asked.

“She wants to take a seat,” Solace translated.

“What are you guys saying?” The woman asked.

“I was telling him that you wanted to take a seat.”

“Oh… Well, can I?”

“Can she?” Solace asked Tarnish.

“Can she what?”

“Take a seat.”

“This one isn’t stopping her.”

“Hey! What’s stopping the line?” Someone shouted several rows down. A queue had formed behind the woman as they waited for her to get out of the way.

Solace sighed. “Can you sit upright?”

“Why?”

“So she can sit.”

“Ah,” Tarnish said, pondering for a moment. He looked the woman up and down. “No.”

Solace paused. “What?”

“What are you guys saying?” She asked.

“He’s saying—”

“Hurry up!” The same impatient voice called.

Solace gave another sigh, picked his bag up, and slid a seat over. “Here,” he said.

“Thank you!” She said, sitting.

Once she was out of the way, the line of people were able to move past. A man near the end glared at them as he walked by. There were several large bags on his person. A sword hung at his side. Solace idly wondered if he was also going to the Exhibition, but waved the thought off to focus on the person beside him.

“Did you need something?” He asked her.

“Hm?” The woman replied. She was looking out the window as the train began moving. “No, why?”

“You decided to sit with us instead of finding an open seat somewhere else,” he pointed out.

“That’s true, but it wasn’t about you two. I just prefer to sit in this specific car somewhere because it’s the most convenient exit when the train stops at my destination. It was either you guys or sitting much further away from the doors.”

Her answer was a very strange one, but all of the other rows nearby were indeed full. What she said wasn’t unbelievable, but it didn’t convince Solace. He tightened his grip on his bag and kept it far away from the woman. He also took a moment to remember what she looked like—something he barely did anymore. She was Tier 2, middle aged, blond hair and brown eyes. She wore business casual attire and had a tiny purse resting on her lap. Her posture was upright and relaxed. Nothing in her body language implied anxiousness or anything else beyond patient boredom. All in all, unmemorable. Just another person on their way to work.

And perhaps that’s all she was, because less than half an hour later she got up as the train stopped, and left without saying another word to them. Solace spent a moment checking the seat she had occupied with his spiritual senses, trying to see if she had left anything behind. When he wasn’t able to find anything, he just slid back onto his original seat.

“This one didn’t know Senior Brother had such exotic tastes,” Tarnish said. His eyes were closed and he was using his own bag as a pillow as he leaned against the train’s wall.

“What?” Solace asked.

“The woman,” was all Tarnish said, flashing a toothy smile.

It took Solace to understand what Tarnish meant. “I wasn’t interested in her like that.”

“No?” Tarnish said, his smile widening. “Then why did Senior Brother move to accommodate her? Spend several moments studying her in such depth? This one has never seen Senior Brother do that with anyone else.”

“I was trying to understand why she wanted to sit with us,” Solace said. “And paying attention to any details that might have indicated motives. That was all.”

“Sure, sure,” Tarnish said. There was a pause before he spoke some more. “Now that this one thinks about it, Senior Brother had scrutinized this one quite thoroughly in our first encounter. This one is flattered, but—”

“Tarnish. Enough,” Solace said flatly.

Tarnish gave a loud huff of amusement and shuffled around a bit as if he was going to sleep. The only reason Solace was unconvinced was because the man was still smiling, as if he had hit on something genuinely entertaining.

Solace shook his head and looked out the window. The scenery blurred by as the bullet train picked up speed, zooming down the track near frictionlessly as it levitated on the electromagnetic track. In some ways, the view was just as blurry as many of his memories, flashes of color compressed to meaninglessness as he rushed on through; only outlines and general shapes remained to suggest what was there.

Still, he knew that he had never had a serious relationship in all his lives. For him, physical intimacy was secondary to emotional connection, and that was never going to happen when he died so much. He knew himself well enough to be aware of that, and it was part of why he kept himself at a distance from anyone else. But he hadn’t expected to be so touchy when someone teased him about the subject. And that bore some consideration…

At a later point, when he was less busy.

Solace briefly stretched and stifled a yawn as he settled in for the remainder of the eight hour trip. Now was a good chance for him to practice changing his essence allocations. Currently, it took him a minute to completely change between sections, but he felt that it was possible to work up to a near instantaneous transition time. He just needed to put in the effort.

—

“Arrival in five minutes to: Elindor,” the intercom announced.

Solace could barely hear the words over the din of conversations. As the train neared the city, it had started picking up more people than it let off until the interior was packed. Four hours into transit, Solace had ended up permanently scooting over the one seat in order to be a bit more accommodating, but that hadn’t helped much. There were so many people inside the train that many stood, several shooting glares at Tarnish who was peacefully snoozing, undisturbed over the eight hours or so hours. Perhaps it had been luck, or some level of social politeness, but Solace suspected it had something to do with the man’s status as a Tier 4 on a Tier 5 planet.

Someone at some point tried to yell at Tarnish to wake up and vacant one of the seats, but Tarnish slept through it. Or at least, pretended to sleep through it, from what Solace could tell. Because the moment that Solace spoke, the man was wide awake.

“Tarnish, it’s time,” he said softly.

Tarnish opened his eyes. “Already?”

“In five minutes, to be precise,” Solace clarified.

His partner nodded and sat upright, but nobody took the seat. In fact, it looked like most everyone was trying to leave, forming a packed line in order to be the first ones out at the stop.

Solace frowned as a thought occurred to him. With the amount of people here, there was a very real chance that some people wouldn’t be able to get out in time before the train left the station at Elindor. He took a moment to run a simple estimation, taking into account the people already in line and the size of the doorways. Based on where they were currently sitting, the two would make it, but only if they got up now to secure a proper spot in the queue.

“We need to go,” Solace said.

“Now?”

“Yes,” Solace replied. He grabbed his bag, turned to the person sitting beside him, and asked them to move. “Can you get up? My stop is next.”

The portly man merely sniffed and said, “Just wait for the row to clear.”

Solace shook his head. “Sorry, I can’t.” He began to climb over the man to get to the line.

“Hey—Hey!” the man said as he was basically forced to change seats with Solace. “Impatient little…”

Solace ignored the mutterings as he forced himself into the line. Two people ahead, Tarnish had done the same thing. As they waited, he looked over everything that the others were holding or wearing, trying to determine if they were also people trying to participate in the Exhibition. To his not-quite surprise most of them were. Or at least, most of them had some sort of weapon or gear that suggested it; barely concealed blades or impressions in their clothes that suggested under-armor of some sort.

It looked like a two week head start wasn’t enough since so many others seemed to have had the same idea. But then again, he reflected, in a reality where lifespans were inordinately longer than most other places, perhaps two weeks wasn’t actually that much of a head start.

He pondered the thought while waiting for the train to stop. Over that time he could hear several arguments and scuffles in front and behind him. At some point there was a worryingly loud bang as someone was apparently shoved against something. It was so crowded that he couldn’t see exactly what happened, but if people were being that rough just to get a spot, he was sure it would be worse when they fought to get out. So, he quickly shifted some allocations, taking most of the essence from regeneration and his sense of taste to bolster the rest.

“Focus on getting out over staying together,” he said to Tarnish. “We can always meet up outside.”

“Agreed,” Tarnish called back.

The situation reminded him of his first moments in this reality. Only this time, he wouldn’t be beaten unconscious at the end of it.

At least, he hoped so.

That was when the bullet train stopped, and the stampede began. It was a wave of people trying to cram through bottleneck exits. Fortunately, Solace’s change in allocations allowed him to ride it out, shoving his way to the front. He was able to make it to the exit with no complications. But the moment he was there, he was assaulted not by any attacks but by the hot air outside. He almost hesitated, but pushed forward until he was out of the train altogether.

The station stop was located underground. It was a well lit tunnel that stretched as far as Solace could see on both sides. And while the place looked to be carved out of the Tier 5 planet’s crust, the exit platform and support beams were made of Tier 6 metal and stone.

People were rapidly filing into and out of the station from several sets of stairs. Posters and advertisements adorned the walls, wrapped in flashing lights to try to grab the attention of anyone who passed by.

Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

“Someone stole my stuff!” A voice shouted, loudly audible through everyone else’s conversations.

Solace turned his head to see that it was the impatient man from the beginning of the trip, now very much without all of the bags. The man was talking to a woman in a uniform. He couldn’t hear what she was saying, but the man’s reply gave enough context.

“No, I don’t know who took them!”

They were still talking, but Solace tuned them out. There wasn’t really anything he could do to help anyways. He began to search for Tarnish, but spotting his partner was hard in the shuffle. He decided to wait for the train to depart and for the crowd to clear.

But just as the train began to leave, with quite a few people still stuck inside like he had predicted, the station was rocked with a loud explosion as someone desperate blew a hole through a portion of the train’s walls with some sort of [Skill].

“Not again!” Someone shouted.

People poured out of the newly created “exit,” even as the train was forced to stop. Solace just stared at it in mild confusion. There really was no reason to be that desperate to make it to the city, was there? Anyone wishing to participate still had two weeks to do so, and at worst missing the stop would only cost a day.

It would be something to ponder later, because Solace quickly spotted Tarnish nearby, watching the whole debacle unfold. He made his way over to his partner.

“Ah, Senior Brother, quite the scene isn’t it?” Tarnish said. “This one thought that the Merchants were a drab lot, but it appears there is some spirit to them. Like those… bees? Bees. Single minded and sometimes vicious, though with more explosives.”

Solace didn’t know how to reply to that one, which was perhaps answer enough in regards to the state of things. Instead, he pointed to the stairs. “Let’s get going. And be careful with your bags, people are trying to steal things.”

“This one knows. A few stops ago, this one saw a woman running away with that one impatient man’s bags,” Tarnish said.

Solace paused. “And you didn’t tell anyone about this?”

Tarnish tilted his head. “What would be the point?”

At those words, Solace quickly reevaluated his current life’s decisions. Somehow, he had found himself in an unknown city with a relatively unknown partner whose only traits were a vicious backstory and blatant self-interest. Perhaps he had been a bit too empathetic when accepting the partnership. An understandable risk was still a risk.

He idly wondered if this was how some of his past teammates felt when dealing with him.

“Senior Brother?” Tarnish asked, snapping Solace out of his thoughts.

“Yes?” He said.

“Was the theft important somehow?”

Solace sighed and looked to where the person in uniform and the man had been. They were both long gone. And it was unlikely that putting in a report would help at this point. “No, but make sure to tell me if you see anything like that again.”

“Very well.”

They made their way out of the station, ascending one of the staircases. As they walked up the steps, they passed by an advertisement for the Exhibition. It was the same general layout, a griffin and a sword, but the details were slightly different. The sword’s blade was curved while the other was straight, and they were held such that the blades pointed in opposite directions.

But what does it mean? Do these changes even mean anything?

He wouldn’t be surprised if they did, but it could also be random changes or a false lead specifically designed to waste time. Solace’s job with Edison had given him a taste of how people in the Corporations operated. A simple innocuous job like delivering something, or designing and putting up an advertisement, could be tampered with by some third party.

In the end, he decided to look into the matter later, when they had settled into their rooms and finished registering.

The light was much brighter at the end of the steps, and Solace quickly found himself in the middle of Elindor city proper. In some ways, it was about what he expected. A bustling metropolitan place with tall buildings connected by skywalks passed within and underneath them.

But in other ways, it was not what he expected. While the buildings were tall, they were certainly not towering despite the fact that they were made of Tier 5 materials that could have easily supported the weight of dozens of more floors. In addition, the architecture had a certain… seamless quality to it. Arches had indentations if anything at all, windows and other bits of glass fused smoothly into the surrounding stone and wood. Hardly anything jutted out from the walls. Anyone trying to climb a building would struggle to even be able to get a floor off the ground, regardless of their cultivation.

And perhaps, in a city that catered to people of all Tiers but was attracting people on the higher end of that spectrum, that was the point. A Tier 3 human was on average eight times as strong as an unawakened individual. The amount of casual damage or shenanigans a careless population of higher Tiered people could do was considerable.

“Where do we go?” Tarnish asked Solace as several shadows passed by from overhead.

He looked up and saw that some people were flying around on various devices.

“Give me a moment,” Solace said as he tore his eyes away from the sky to look at the signs on the streets. He briefly looked at his phone to double check the map he had saved, and then gestured for Tarnish to follow him. “This way.”

The sidewalk they traversed ended up being two sidewalks, side by side. One for those who wanted to move slower and the other for those in a rush, unwilling to restrain their cultivation.

Solace and Tarnish took the interior sidewalk, the one meant for people moving quickly. As they traveled, Solace noted how clean everything looked despite the city being such a populous place. The only thing littering the streets was the wash of colors from the poster boards and neon signs on the walls, lighting up the places that the hot afternoon sun could not.

“This heat is unbearable,” Tarnish commented. “This one cannot believe so many people could ever want to live here.”

Solace nodded in agreement. “I imagine the inside of the buildings are much cooler.”

“Then this one hopes our destination nears soon,” Tarnish replied.

The man began to speed up the cadence of his stride, nearly catching the heels of Solace’s shoes. Solace took the hint and began to increase his speed as well.

They rushed down a dozen blocks, winding their way through the streets until they reached their destination.

The Duke’s Palisade was an extended stay hotel, one of many within the city. What set it apart was its claim to fame as one of the oldest buildings in the city, and the only hotel that was also a historical monument.

Of course, that wasn’t what interested Solace about the place. He couldn’t care less about the age of a building nor its architecture, which honestly just resembled a giant fancy hotel one could find in any other reality. No, the reason why he chose the Palisade was because of its location and the fact that the building offered every amenity he could want. Private computers within each room, an extensive array of equipment within its guest only gym, and, most importantly, complimentary meals in the dining hall. If he wanted to, he could get through his entire daily routine without once stepping a foot outside the building.

He wouldn’t actually stay inside, of course. His research on past Exhibitions revealed that the nature of the event changed every time. Sometimes it was a melee tournament, other times it was a Talent show. Infrequently, it would be a city wide event. The last Exhibition had been a convoluted scavenger hunt. Thus, he needed to actually explore the city in case it became relevant later on. He even had a few places in mind to specifically visit.

But first, they had to confirm their room bookings and then register for the Exhibition.

Solace walked inside with Tarnish in tow. Neither spent much time appreciating the elaborate interior decorated with tasteful furniture and detailed murals, more preoccupied with enjoying the air conditioning. Looking at everything else could be done later over the course of their stay. Instead, they went straight to the reception desk.

“Reservation for two rooms,” Solace said.

“Name?” The clerk asked.

“Solace.”

“No last name?”

“No.”

A raised eyebrow, but the clerk made no comment. After a few moments of tapping, they said, “The rooms are occupied.”

Solace frowned. “But I had reserved them for two weeks, starting today.”

“Tomorrow,” the clerk corrected, squinting at the screen. “Technically, the current occupants have until a minute past midnight tonight to check out. And then, room service has to clean the rooms up, so you won’t have them until two hours after that.”

He sighed. “But we can confirm our bookings now, right?”

“Sure.”

Solace turned to Tarnish to explain the situation. “We won’t be able to enter our rooms until much later tonight,” he told his partner.

Tarnish shrugged. “That is fine. This one had a nice sleep during the ride here anyways.”

“Then we’ll claim our rooms now, pay for them, and then go register,” Solace said. “There are places I wanted to explore afterwards, but we’ll see how long the registration takes before we make additional plans.”

“Agreed.”

The two quickly paid for each of their rooms individually, at Solace’s insistence, and then left the Palisade.

“How far to the Registration?” Tarnish asked. He was fanning himself with one hand.

Solace checked his map. “Twenty minutes.”

Tarnish studied the map on Solace’s phone for a moment before saying, “Twenty minutes too long,” and then sprinted off towards the registration building.

Solace ran after him. “Slow down!” He said.

“Keep up!” Came the reply.

He sighed and subtly altered his allocations to match the pace of the Tier 4. At least he would meet his daily goal for running...

—

In his haste, Tarnish had run through the road once while ignoring the traffic lights. Almost immediately, he had been stopped by an officer on a flying device and issued a hefty fine. The whole situation only took a few minutes and, as the officer flew away, it was suddenly very clear to Solace how the Corporations kept such a big city clean. Closely monitored streets and painful, near instantaneous slaps on the wrist.

He briefly wondered if there was a company or companies that revolved around profiting off of law breakers by catching them and issuing fines. It wouldn’t surprise him. The Power known as “The Corporations” clearly weren’t making any attempts to form a distinction between government and business.

And that fact was no more apparent than in the building hosting registrations. It was a government building, one that was normally meant for people trying to validate and sign paperwork in person.

The two made their way to the end of a rather long line inside which snaked from one end of the large room to the other. There was a palpable tension in the air, an impatient irritation that many of the people in line exuded, exacerbated by the building’s insufficient air conditioning.

It took over an hour before they were able to talk to someone behind one of the desks.

“At last,” Tarnish muttered underneath his breath as they approached.

“Hello, how can I help you today?” The clerk asked.

“We would like to register for the Exhibition,” Solace said.

The clerk sighed. “Does no one read the sign?”

“Sign?”

“The one that tells people where to go for that,” the clerk replied while pointing to a banner strung onto the front of the desk.

It read, “Exhibition registration is on Floor Twelve.”

“Oh,” was all Solace said.

“What is the problem?” Tarnish asked.

“We’re in the wrong place, it’s upstairs,” Solace said.

“... Surely Senior Brother is joking, surely.”

Solace didn’t answer. Instead, he just sighed. “Thank you,” he said to the clerk, gesturing for Tarnish to follow him.

They both walked down a hallway to use the elevators, only to find that all of them were somehow broken.

“This is becoming quite ridiculous,” Tarnish commented.

Solace couldn’t help but agree.

The two followed a group of others who were entering the stairwell. It was a cramped open well staircase that seemed to go on and on with seemingly very little ventilation. Someone had vandalized the little plaques by each floor’s doors, making it so that Solace had to physically count each flight as they ascended.

At some point, one of the people with them began counting the number aloud and, when they crested over the eleventh flight, there were quite a few cheers.

Until everyone saw the line inside.

They all shuffled inside, mildly disgruntled. “At least it’s cooler up here,” someone commented.

Before entering the queue, Solace looked around to confirm that it was even the correct place. Another banner was visible, hung overhead this time, with the image of the griffin and its sword.

Solace narrowed his eyes at it. There was something off about the banner, though he couldn’t quite place what it was…

Tarnish, who had paused because Solace had done so, looked at the banner as well. “It’s part horse this time,” Tarnish observed.

Solace looked at him. “What?”

“The creature on the image. See its tail? And notice the hooves instead of talons on its hind legs.”

Now that Tarnish had pointed it out, Solace did notice the difference. The animal before them wasn’t a griffin, but a hippogriff! He spent a moment pondering what it meant. Was it unintentional, some sort of accident? Or was it some sort of clue.

A thought suddenly struck him.

“Follow,” he ordered Tarnish, walking back towards the stairwell.

“Why?” His partner asked.

“I want to check something…”

He quickly ascended another flight of stairs and found a room much similar to the one below, except with less people in the line and a banner with an actual griffin overhead.

Tarnish frowned after peering into the room himself. “This one does not understand. Are there two rooms to register?”

Solace shook his head. “No, one of them is almost certainly a fake one. I think it’s a little trick the people running the Exhibition put up. The elevators were disabled and the signs on the stairwell were destroyed so that people wouldn’t realize that the first floor was the ground floor, meaning that the thirteenth floor would actually be Floor Twelve in this place.”

“That sounds like such a nonsensical practice,” Tarnish said. “Is Senior Brother certain?”

“No,” Solace replied. “But I can check.”

He quickly pulled up his phone and confirmed that, indeed, the building they were in did have a ground floor.

“Yes, this is most likely the correct place to register,” Solace said to Tarnish.

The man nodded and joined the line. Solace did as well. And because the queue was much shorter, it only took them a brisk half hour to reach the front.

“To participate, you need to agree to a few waivers,” the bored person behind the counter said.

Solace read everything carefully, making sure that there weren’t any hidden clauses and that he understood what he was agreeing to. It was mostly liability forms and giving permission for the people running the Exhibition to release footage of him to the hosting companies. When he was satisfied that he had combed through everything and that it actually was for the Exhibition, he signed by placing his thumb on the essence scanner.

“This is the right spot,” he said again to Tarnish, who had slipped behind him at some point during the wait in order to let Solace look at the release agreements first.

“Excellent,” Tarnish said.

The man signed without reading, because he couldn’t. It was a level of trust placed on Solace that he was still baffled by, but made no comment on.

When they were both finished, they made their way back down the stairs.

“Shall we search for a place to eat?” Tarnish asked.

Solace shook his head. “Not yet, I want to see what that other line is actually for.”

“Why?”

“To make absolutely sure we aren’t missing anything.”

And, Solace thought, if the floor was making people sign up for something they didn’t actually want to, instead of being a mere decoy, then he would have to inform the people in line about it. Corporation contracts could be, as Edison had heavily repeated before he left, unconscionably vicious. He didn’t tell that to his partner, however, because he was certain the man wouldn’t understand.

Tarnish sighed. “Very well.”

It was another hour long wait, and then they were done. The decoy turned out to be just that, a decoy. The people who signed up for it wouldn’t be able to enter the Exhibition two weeks from now, and Solace decided not to inform them about the ruse.

It was a nasty little trick, one that Solace turned over in his head as they left the building. What else were the hosts implementing to try to test the people registering? Had it even been the hosts? Or some business tampering with the signs.

Solace had a feeling that he was going to find out. The sun was just beginning to set, and it was going to be a long night out in the city of Elindor.