Fiona walked down a long hallway with the agent's Liv and Felix at her back. A frown decorated her blue face as Liv made happy banter with her Hobusian partner. For his part, Felix nodded along as he carefully watched the princess—suspecting she might try to run.

“Oh, after we’re done, we should stop at that sweets shop on the way back!” Liv said with no concern for the mission they were about to embark on. As far as the trio knew, they were going to pick up Hal and Odell and return to the hospital for further discussion.

Fiona trembled, and her frown grew more intense. The mention of a sweets shop almost tempted her to turn around and make friendly banter with the agent. Liv seemed very much like someone she could enjoy idle chat with, and the realization gnawed at Fiona’s mood.

To make matters worse, Felix’s gaze at her back only made her more self-conscious about the scar across it. She still wore the beauideal dress that covered it, but the wound seemed to burn as she pondered the idea the others might be looking at it. She hated that it had come back to the forefront of her mind.

After a long walk full of anxiety, the trio exited the hospital. Fiona found herself out of breath, unaware the stress was draining her energy more quickly than any movement she made. The yellow Needaimus, Sun, bonded to her arm, sought to warn her of increased anxiety, but the blue princess was too lost in thoughts to pay attention to her metallic partner.

Felix and Liv quickly overtook the princess, and they began to lead the walk to the train station. Fiona shook her head and followed after.

‘I don’t like this; I’m not myself,’ she thought as she did her best to keep up the pace. Her worries had grown from zero in Quenth to what felt like a multitude since coming to Nun.

As Fiona tried to distract herself with other thoughts, the group came close to the train station. They were shocked to find a crowd waiting outside.

“Train’s closed!” someone was yelling in an attempt to disperse the group.

“What’s going on?” Felix muttered as he rubbed his chin.

“Looks like the train is closed, obviously,” Liv replied.

“What I mean is… this is suspicious.”

“It’s just a breakdown or something! Happens all the time. No need to be so worried!” the Netzian companion to Felix smacked him on the back. Even with her attempt to reassure him, the Hobusian agent was not satisfied and went up to inquire from the man who directed the crowd.

“He’s always such a worrywart!” Liv complained to Fiona as the blue princess came close.

Fiona nodded. She felt a bit more at ease since the duo took the lead.

“There is no use worrying,” she said.

“Right! I tell him time and time again and get nowhere! Let me tell you, if you join a secret agent group, make sure you get to choose your partner! You wouldn’t want to end up with a spoilsport.”

“I’ll… keep that in mind,” Fiona looked around the station at the crowd. They all stood around and looked for someone to tell them what to do next. The train being down was liable to mess up the schedules of many in the city.

Felix returned while shaking his head.

“No luck; there’s been some kind of accident in the exact direction we want to go. They are planning to open the tracks to the other parts of the city soon, but we will be stuck. It’s all too convenient to be a coincidence,” The Hobusian agent said his last sentence while rubbing his chin.

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“Oh, it’s no problem, Felix! We just have to find a vehakul and drive up!” Liv suggested. She found his worries to be something better ignored.

“I suppose we could try to find something; we don’t have any vehakuls in the fleet at the moment, though.”

“Could we rent one?”

“We could, but someone already maxed out the purchase card for this month….”

Felix crossed his long Hobusian arms as he glared up at Liv. She whistled softly and looked away. Fiona perked up.

“We have a vehakul near our inn,” she said. Though the blue princess had no way to know, far on the other side of the city, in the casino, Odell felt a chill go up his spine.

“I suppose that will work,” Felix replied.

As soon as the train tracks for the south were opened, a short ride from the center of Nun brought the trio to where the Ali had been stored. Liv and Felix stood staring at the transport which had brought the team across a large chunk of Resh.

“It’s kind of ugly,” the Hobusian agent said with a frown.

“I… I have to agree with Felix on this one,” Liv added.

Fiona wanted to argue with the two agents, but she was not particularly fond of Ali’s aesthetic design either. She let her head hang and unlocked the doors. While navigating to the seat, the blue Aqueenian realized she did not know how to drive the vehakul.

She had spent most of her life in the castle or using her Needaimus to teleport where she needed, and Aqueenian royalty was always chauffeured if the need arose. Though she knew the basic driving principles, she had never been behind the wheel of something before.

To make matters worse, Odell had spent a fair amount of time modifying the vehakul during their trip. The dashboard was littered with several new buttons and dials, which were set with different colors but had no labels indicating what they did.

The team had noticed the increase of buttons during their trip but didn’t say anything as they thought it would never be relevant. Now Fiona stared and racked her head for which button was supposed to start the hovering transport.

The eye’s focused on her from Felix, and Liv only made her more nervous than Fiona would have liked to be. Both agents had decided to sit in the back seats and stared at Fiona from behind. She pressed her back into the seat harder as her purple eyes darted around to take in every button. It seemed like sweat was beginning to bead up on her forehead as her heart began to pound in her chest.

“Is something the matter?” Felix asked in a gruff voice.

Fiona took a deep breath and selected a button that seemed like the best guess. The vehakul roared to life and began to gently hover over the ground.

“Nothing at all,” she replied. Her voice came out weaker than she would have liked. The blue princess shook her head as she tried to shake the feelings away. She didn’t like thinking so much about things.

Slowly and steadily, Fiona moved the vehakul forward. She tried her best to hide her inexperience with driving and moved as carefully as possible. The blue princess had no intent to let one of the agents take control; she thought it impractical. More importantly, it stung her pride to think about giving in that easily.

She managed to get out of the parking lot and onto the street with relative ease. After which, she slowly accelerated through the Nun roads.

“Take a left here,” Felix gave directions from the backseat.

Getting from the southern section of Nun to the north would take about half a day, even if they sped, and Fiona was driving much slower than either of the agents would have liked.

“Princess Fiona, dear, you can go faster in this section of the city,” Liv said politely.

“Step on it, girl! We’re not getting any younger!” Felix added.

“Speak for yourself, Felix,” Liv added.

Fiona tensed up as they got on the Resh equivalent of a highway. The road was open, inviting her to go faster, but she wasn’t sure if she wanted to.

“You need to speed up!” Felix hollered from the backseat.

Fiona finally took a deep breath as she pulled off the ramp and into the lanes. She pressed the petal, and all inside the Ali felt a jerk as they rapidly began to accelerate.

She had decided she didn’t like worrying, and there wasn’t anything important enough to think about. The blue princess pushed away the thoughts without dwelling on them a moment longer, and a smile came across her face. There was bliss to be had in being careless, and she preferred that way of being.

“Don’t worry, we’ll get there in no time!” she happily said as the vehakul raced down the road. Several other vehakuls came into view and quickly left as they sped past them.

“Slow down!” Felix quickly changed his tune.

His words didn’t reach Fiona as she began to feel what driving was like. She silently planned to scold Odell for not telling her sooner.

They continued down the long stretch of highway to the north part of the city. None knew what awaited them at the end of the road.