The train station in New York was always busy. Teeming with all sorts of people, those dressed in imposing business suits, others in relaxed casual ware, and, on this particular day, a girl dressed in a Renaissance costume. To be fair to New York, this was a bit more out of the norm than usual. The girl, looking to be in her late teens or early twenties, was sitting daintily on one of the benches, her ankles crossed prettily. While her posture didn’t display anything outside of calm indifference and casual observance, her tightly clasped hands on her small coin purse belied her nervousness at the situation. Her busily moving eyes seemed to drink in everything around her and store it for later.

Grand central station didn’t seem to care, though, its opulent green tiled ceiling overseeing that day like any other. Nobody noticed how the girl didn’t have any luggage or didn’t move from her position. Indeed, the security guards didn’t notice how the girl had appeared all of a sudden, out of nowhere on their camera screens. Glitches happened all the time. Why raise a fuss?

When somebody did finally notice that the girl had been by herself for hours, it still wasn’t a big deal. Lots of people get confused. A short conversation and everything would be cleared up. The heavy-set security guard made his way to the bench, he was only heading over since it was almost the end of his shift and she’d been there before he had shown up. He didn’t make it a policy to approach strange people at the station, but this was a young woman in New York City. He wouldn’t be able to look his wife in the eye that night if he didn’t make sure she was alright.

“Hey girlie, everything all right there? Are you waiting for anyone?” Her attention now fully on him, he was transfixed by her lavender-purple eyes. He had never seen such a shade before, speckled with flecks of gold. Maybe she was high? He hadn’t heard of any new drugs making the rounds, but he wouldn’t put anything beyond bored young people. If only they would put their smarts to better use instead of making drugs, cancer would probably be cured. Well, that was probably an exaggeration, but drugs would certainly explain a lot.

The girl raised a brow at the familiar term the guard used in reference to her. She was a lady after all, couldn’t he tell from her ruffled skirt? It was the latest trend at the capital. She’d know, she went to the academy there.

“It’s Lady Indrin, thank you.” Inspecting the guard, she noted the drab grey colors of his uniform. Deciding to excuse him for referring to her so casually, he was clearly in mourning after all, she answered after a pause. “I’m sorry for your loss.” A lucky man to be sure, receiving her condolences, he’d be able to redeem that later. Nobles didn’t give them out like candy. Going back to his question, she replied.

“No, not anyone specific, I suspect a teacher may come through soon, however,” giving him a practiced smile, Lady Indrin nodded at him in dismissal, waiting to see a short curtsy in front of her. She was the daughter of a Duke, after all, it was even rumored that she’d marry a Prince!

Benjamin, on the other hand, was staring at her incredulously. He hoped she wasn’t insane, the paperwork for that was horribly long. Perhaps she’d run away from an institution? That hadn’t happened in a while, and he hadn’t received any alerts, but who called themselves a Lady for heaven’s sake? They weren’t even in Europe!

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It was either that or she was high on some new drug. That would be much easier to process, Benjamin was unfortunately intimately familiar with that paperwork. This new drug even made her talk in a weird accent, he thought he hard heard them all already. This one was definitely new.

“Miss,” he cleared his throat, hopefully this would clear everything up. Indrin, for her part, let her eyebrows come down a little in a show of displeasure. She knew it was the height of impropriety to display her emotions thus in front of commoners, but she had already told him her title. Not to mention that she was hungry. She hadn’t eaten in hours!

“It’s Lady Indrin. If you’re not careful I’ll take back my condolences.” That last bit was also a step beyond what propriety allowed, taking back condolences was extremely frowned upon, but then so was not referring to her by her title. It wasn’t that difficult, was it?

“Sorry, lady-”

“Capitalized, surely you know that otherwise it’s a joke. You’re walking on very thin ice,” there, she had even given a warning, if he continued acting like this anything she did was on his hands.

Benjamin, for his part, was getting annoyed. He was the security guard here. And this was a high woman. Nonetheless he played along, he didn’t want to write up a report about his own behavior. The boss was quiet strict about keeping up a positive public image as a result of a recent scandal.

“Excuse me-”

“You’re excused,” she turned away from him and proceeded to observe the train station. The people really were fascinating, she hadn’t seen a single noble yet!

“- Lady Indrin, I’m afraid I have to ask you if you’re high.”

“Oh,” she scowled at herself, she was trying to remove such inane words from her vocabulary, “we’re still talking? Of course I’m high,” she could hardly keep herself from rolling her eyes, only the fact that this man was clearly beyond uneducated stayed her hand. It was her duty as a noble not to point out his deficiencies unless the occasion called for it. She thought most people could recognize the daughter of the Duke of Rollechester. After all, lavender eyes with speckles of gold were a signature of their family tree.

Benjamin was relieved, this was much easier than he thought it would be, usually people tried to circumvent the question or lie. Grabbing the radio on his shoulder, he called for some back up in order to arrest her. Not like he thought they’d need it, what was this girl, maybe a hundred and twenty pounds? If she was lucky. But procedure was procedure. So the call was made. The second the radio reply came back, her attention was again back on him.

“Oh, what was that? You must show me,” the man hadn’t appeared important enough for anyone to waste a magical construct on him and he didn’t feel like he could do anything.

The thing was also incredibly well hidden, she hadn’t registered it in her senses at all, and she had received some of the high marks on her magic registration that the teacher had seen in years. Or at least, that was what she had been told, she knew teachers didn’t always tell her the complete truth given her position, she wasn’t naïve. Still, she prided herself on her senses, the fact that this got past her rankled a bit on her pride, though she would never admit it.

Getting up, she let her coin purse tie itself to her belt as she left it hanging in space. Reaching for the radio, people started to notice.