We sat inside the train as it moved us forward. Outside my window was the thick unnatural darkness. It'd be bad if that would get inside the train. I was wearing my seatbelt. I wish I could wear several more seatbelts. It seemed too normal and pedantic now after the crazy adventure I had undergone. In the fancy train carriage surrounded by tired individuals, it was difficult to maintain proper levels of paranoia.

I was seated on a forward facing bench. Next to me was James, his eyes staring at the train in complete fascination. Jeseme was seated across from us in a rear facing bench, legs stretched out along the entire bench, as her injury was at long last receiving medical attention from Lt. Burdree who crouched next to her.

We could see Hawthorne speaking to someone on the other side of a pathway behind a closed glass door. A woman, her white blonde hair in a tight bun. Hawthorne was clearly not enjoying the conversation. The woman seemed completely nonplussed by Hawthorne's impressive build as they discussed events.

There were several other passengers in this carriage with us, most of them were sleeping. My overtired brain was trying to tell my paranoid brain that it was okay to sleep a little.

Hah, nope. Not going to happen.

The train was much slower than before. And no one knew for sure how far out we were from the city and it's beautiful city walls that would keep out the inhabitants of the forest.

“It’s completely unfair.” Jeseme said, after wincing as the awol solider continued to carefully poke her ankle. “How did you do that with the pocket watch?”

“I just did it.”

“But you didn’t even move your hand at all.”

“Why would I have to move my hand to manipulate the steam of my fobby?”

“Because that is how you do it.” She said, sighing. “Of course, it’s not like anyone here is normal. Master Lee over there is stoic forester expert.”

Rock Lee completely ignored her, because he was finding the little dohicky side reading lamp immensely worthy of all his attention. It looked like he was ignoring her. He wasn’t. I knew that, but apparently she didn’t.

“And Shelby is a natural stationer.”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

I didn’t know what a stationer was. Hopefully they worked like an accountant and made a lot of money.

I had revealed my name before we entered the train carriage. Welp. It wasn’t my name. But I needed something when Jeseme had asked for a name to call me. But not any name. A name that had meaning to me. I was in the middle of a shell game at the moment. Moving the cups around quickly and all that.

Also, it sounded similar to what Yu Lin had called me earlier. Little Red Flower had sounded like Shel buy.

So I created a pseudonym. I am glad no one asked me for a last name, because I would have probably picked something lame like Evergreen, Lemonsworth, or...or Smith.

Hawthorne returned. “How is her ankle, Richard?”

Lt. Buradee sighed. “Not broken, but the ligament and tendon may be torn on the ankle. It must have been agony walking around.”

Jesseme sighed. “It was much less to worry about than the steam starved.” She sighed again. “What else could I do? Die quietly? I just paid off my student loans and fellowship notes.”

Hawthorne nodded, calculation clear in his face. “Keep your boot on. Once it comes off, the swelling will prevent you from putting it on again.”

I watched the comfort and contentment fade from Jeseme’s face. She had no guarantee that she could watch until we reached the central city and be taken to a hospital. More action.

We had all entered the train understanding that we needed to stay vigilant and watchful.

This train had left with 152 passengers. Around 30 had been foresters. Around 35 had been those with Brit ratings. There were more brit rated people than foresters, but no forester had been injured in the sudden stop of the train, while around 15 of the 35 Brit rated had been not been so skillful.

The amount of injured was around 1/5 or 1/6 of total passengers. We had a lot of injured people. Then add all the people who had their names stolen and injured more people.

In short, we needed to get to the city.

“Lee, if there is danger, you need to prioritize Miss Roger.”

“I want to take care of Shelby first.” He said. Wow, no stutter. I felt special.

“Believe it or not, I believe my Ward will be able to handle herself.”

“She is as hardy as a beetle.” Rock Lee acknowledged, remembering that he was shy and looked down at his hands again.

Wait…did he think I was a beetle? I felt insulted. I mean, it was good that no one viewed me as helpless. But as I was probably actually helpless, I wish they would stop overestimating me. I mean, seriously…My college forced me to get a meal plan because they couldn't trust me to feed myself!

“So…is that really Reina Sinclair?” Asked the Lt.

“It can’t be.” Said Jesseme, grimacing as she bumped her ankle. “She is on holiday to somewhere foreign. Why would she go into the most developed of all the cities? She could have gone to any of the costal regions, or the interplex too.”

“She likes it.” Said Hawthorne. “No mud. No nasty flowers. Order and civility. Or at least that’s what she said at the class reunion.”

“You…went to school with the famous detective?”

“Just the police academy. You make it seem like it was an honor.” He said darkly. “Back to practical matters…She says that she believes we have around 5 minutes before the next attack.”