Enekai Rahal felt a mini orgasm every time the train wheels buckled and chugged. The world outside was a mixture between blue and white, as the sun had gone down and the snowstorm had increased in intensity. Snow whirlwinds blew themselves around close to the window.

She laid back in her bunk, sipped slushed butterbeer, tucked a black rose behind her ear, and said, 'I bet you've been wracking your silly little brains over how I know Xenophilius.'

Luna looked up from the Quibbler, staring as if caught in headlights, and said, 'Didn't you say you met him while he was doing research for the story on the Danbury coiled-tail goblins?'

'Indeed, I did. However, that's a lie.' Rahal rolled over and stared straight into her eyes. 'Certainly you know that I am a high elf, correct? And that I have a vastly longer lifespan. Perhaps you have considered the possibility that I have known Xenophilius for decades now, and that we go back to childhood.'

Luna sat back and said, 'You were wrong as to which one was the lie.'

Rahal's brow scrunched. 'Am I that obvious?'

'You are a terrible liar.'

Rahal sighed and tossed down a pastry wrapped in red plastic. 'Try this. Handmade Grecian lemonsprata.'

Luna undid the wrapping and gawked at the moist yellow ball of cake. It had a smooth layer of lemon-yellow icing all across its body and a pink swirl in the city. She picked off a piece and chewed it. Instantly, she smiled.

'It's the most delicious thing I've ever tasted!'

'I knew you'd like it.' Rahal grinned. 'But you know I lied about what it is, right?'

'No you didn't.'

'Goddammit, I can't actually be that obvious. Or are you just that good?'

Luna took a bite of the thing and said, 'Perhaps.'

Rahal nodded and said, 'A smart-ass art thou?'

Luna stopped. She pulled off her spectacles and her eyes darted around the room before settling upon Rahal.

'Do you hear that?'

Rahal grunted.

'Someone's playing music.'

Again, Rahal grunted. Luna stood and looked around the compartment before checking the other rooms of the train. She came back to her room.

'Is that you?'

Rahal grinned and gave a very bizarre grunt.

Luna put her hands on her hip and gave Rahal a look only a mother could give. Rahal kept right on grinning.

The faint music stopped abruptly, and Rahal cast her a glance.

'Personalized music, love. Can't be helped.'

Luna sat back down and asked, 'What are you listening to?'

'You wouldn't know them.'

'I know many bands. I'm not as musically challenged as I may seem.'

'Hmm. Ever heard of a coupla lads called 'Electric Wizard'?'

Luna put her finger on her chin and wracked her brain. 'I don't believe so.'

'Yeah, I figured. They're not exactly popular at the moment. Actually, they just got their start a few months ago, if I recall correctly.' Rahal pulled herself up to sit and said, 'What is it, 1995? Yes, yes, their first album came out this very year.'

'Do you like them a lot?'

'Truth be told, not really. I've always been an electronic music fan. But Solomon's big into them, so he's been doing his best to drag me into the world of hard and heavy rock music.' Rahal rolled on her bed and faced Luna. 'Are you into heavy metal?'

Matter of factly, Luna said, 'No.'

'Hmm. Figures. Not many people are these days. And I'd argue that you're doing yourself right by staying the hell away.'

'Why say you?'

'Oh, things are about to go south. You think the spandex farmers were dreadful? Just wait until the angsty rap metallers get on.'

'The who?'

'No, the rap metallers. Keep your ears closed to the likes of Korn and Mudvayne and Drowning Pool. For the life of you, even if you don't care for the music, you will come to despise them.'

Luna raised her brow. 'Um...'

'I blame them for turning me off metal music. They were my introduction to the sound. Back in the days when I first came to Elon Isle and Seventh Earth, Yoshie introduced me to the music industry and popular music as a whole. Goodness, so much of it was wonderful— except that dreadfully awful metal music. Of course, I said this and he wound up introducing me to the realities of the industry, that there were more types of music than I had ever known before, and the metal music I had discovered was only nominally considered 'metal' even by fans themselves. Bloody hell, it was embarrassing listening to these pillocks whinging about bugger all!'

'Um…' That expression of hers. Total befuddlement!

It made Rahal let out a yelpy laugh and say, 'I know, you must not be interested. It's not as bad as I made it sound; it was just a few particular bands and sounds. Truth be told, I've definitely found good metal bands. I've found good bands in all genres. It just happened that my first experience were negative. But when it comes to that sort of music, I tend to leave it to Yoshie. He's into that style. All those jazzy riff-rockers 'n whatnot.'

Luna looked as if she hadn't followed a word of what Rahal said, with her mouth hanging and eyes half glazed over. 'I mean, I'd imagine... Wouldn't...?'

'What're *you* into, anyway?'

Luna snapped herself out of it and said, 'I've been into alternative music for some time now, actually. As well as pop music.'

'I see. That's cool. Yeah, I'm pretty steeped into alt music. Any particular band?'

'I've grown a bit attached to the Pixies.'

Rahal laughed and clapped her hands. 'Which makes sense. Of course people here would like the Pixies!'

After a moment of silence, Luna asked, 'Is the only reason you don't like metal music because of the bands?'

'Oh, it's not that I don't like heavy metal. I just came onto the wrong bands in the first place. Yoshie redirected me towards his preference, and I feel he has a much better taste in music than I do.'

'That makes two of us, I suppose.'

'Oi, what is that supposed to mean?'

Luna dug her palm into her cheek and said, 'I've always had a terrible taste in music, but I've never cared much.'

Rahal gave a hearty laugh. 'Figures. I bet you're the type who'll unironically love the Shaggs.'

'I've never heard of them.'

'Well now you have. Perhaps I'll let you listen to them later on. I mean, once I have determined your mind is capable of handling their gloriousness.'

'Are they good?'

'The best! They're better than the Beatles.'

'They sound interesting!'

Rahal stared into the snow, and downed another lemonsprata.

'That's actually why Yoshie looks the way he does, though.'

'Hmm?'

'Why he looks like a cheap, hippie knock-off of Harry Potter. What with the glasses and whatnot. He's a 'eavy rocker type.'

'So he's the one into heavy metal music? You said he got you out of 'angsty rap metallers' music and into his own preferences.'

'Yeah, I mean, that's just it. You prolly wouldn't find too much of an analog these days to his style. The heavy rockers won't become an in-thing for quite some time.'

This satisfied Luna for the moment, and she went back to reading. However, she soon said, 'You keep talking like you're from the future.'

'I told you I'm from Navia, love. It's beyond the time of this world.'

'But is it in the future?'

'Of course not. Navia's the quintessential land of pre-industrial dicklords. It's Seventh Earth that's in the future.'

Luna slammed down the Quibbler. 'So you are from the future.'

Rahal shook her head and let out a frustrated groan. 'No— for the love of...— no! I'm from Navia. I visited Seventh Earth; I lived there a bit. And it happens to be further along in time than your world, Ninth Earth. But I do not hail from Seventh Earth. Do you need me to explain it further? Or is the job 'a good 'un?'

'I'm not following any of this. You haven't told me about Navia or Seventh Earth or any of it.' Luna had lost all of her dreaminess and distant tones. Now she sounded pissed herself.

Rahal scoffed. 'Tease it, love. I'll explain all it. It's just a right bitta fun I like to have with people, keeping 'em in the dark just so I can bust their brains with some facts.' She sucked up a mystery liquid from a cup and quickly added, 'Because if you face the goddamn facts, I'm the master of dickpottery, and you're as curious as the Shape.'

The train chugged on for hours, and the whole way through, Rahal failed to divulge anything about her history to the poor girl. Instead, she skirted around the subject with meaningless tangents and nonsensical allegories.

It isn't until Luna demanded, 'Where you are from?' that Rahal finally held up her hands and offered up her past.

'Tease it, tease it! I'm just playing one on you.' Rahal strutted around the compartment, placing her hand on her hip and throwing her eye over her shoulder. Taking on a sly grin, she said, 'Let this be your pearl bomb, lest you cock up a right bitta potential. You know how I joke off all around about being a high elf, yes?'

Luna nodded. 'You were the biggest controversy at Hogwarts since Harry Potter's first year.'

'Damn straight. Most of these little devils don't givva damn about the shlock that gets spewed about the airwaves. Lord Moldybutt doesn't care about blood purity. Take it from a person who knows what the youth of today care for— it's nothing to do with purity or idealism.'

'But what does that have to do—'

Rahal pressed her finger against Luna's lips.

'Let it grow, my dear padrooga. Things will progress naturally. Cripes, I keep forgetting you're still a child. Moldybutt is a Man, so surely the same rules apply for him that they do where I'm from. Menfolk everywhere lust for one thing— power. Pure power. As it was, many menfolk do not understand their own motivations. They skirt around their lust, or perhaps they justify it with feelgood words dressed up under the blanket term 'ideology.' Once menfolk figure out that they only live for power, they no longer live as cowards. Moldybutt is one of these men— though I'd say he's begun to make the transition from Man to Demon. I doubt many of his cohorts follow his line of thought, however.'

'But what is his line of thought?'

'I've been telling it to you— power! Raw, absolute power. What absolute power means, you will understand presently. You see, the malchicks and devotchkas over at Minimage believe themselves to be acting in the name of order. The Naz-eaters believe themselves to be acting in the name of purity. Someone like Moldybutt, as well as Malfiore— they'd only act in the name of power; in the name of instilling fear and misery in others in order to gain power over them. Powermongers believe inflicting pain to be the absolute expression of power, as it allows one to assert control over another's emotions, even their life. Pleasure simply does not compare— hence why soma is so much more insidious than ministries and their love. It is the answer to the age old question— ruling through fear is superior to ruling through respect, because it is only ever possible to rule through fear. A ruler who is not feared is not a ruler at all.'

'I don't believe that to be true.'

'Eh?'

'If a leader is not loved, and genuinely loved, how could he ever lead effectively? He will never know what his subjects want or need, because they will be too fearful to tell him the truth. He would be overthrown or done in.'

'I'm not saying it's the most effective means to rule; only that it is the reason why we wish to rule. Those who wish to rule must always accept what it is they seek, or else they will be deluded. That isn't to say a leader is the same. They aren't. Rulers seek the propagation of power at all costs. Leaders have goals that are beyond themselves, that lie in the people they wish to lead.

'You'd prolly like to know where I'm getting at with this. Rulers ruined my world. They ruined my life. Powermongers living for the present at the expense of the future have kept Navia arrested in a medieval state, and it's degenerated into the nadir of civilized existence. Fellow has betrayed fellow; neighbor kills neighbor; thieves uphold honor, while nobility adopts criminality. It is a disgusting waste of a world. And you want to know how it fell to such a point? Oh, I couldn't give you any one reason why, but I will tell you that there was one event that accelerated Navia's apocalypse— industrialism.'

'You mean an industrial revolution?'

'No, not at all. I mean the response to industrialism. Seventh Earthers managed to punch through the dimensions, and they brought our world the tools of modernity while we were still tossing spears and arrows at each other. Naturally, some embraced the industrial world and saw it as the medicine a dying world needed. Most, however, have seen it as a sickness that will usher in the end of days, not realizing that the end has already arrived.

'This unholy fusion of ideals— of illiberal industrialism and radical traditionalism— exploded into a savage orgy of madness and hatred. Sevedy Mickette is the new Kyaman Bol'Yaga. You don't know who that is, and I'll tell you when we crash at your place— we're here, at the station.'

The train had slowed, but Luna had not noticed for she was so entranced in the discussion. The wheels squeaked and the inertia slowed.

All of the snow they had seen before was a dusting of sprinkles compared to the blizzard that raged at the stop. It was terrible.

'Was the weather supposed to be this awful?' Rahal said with a laugh as she wrapped a scarf around her neck.

'It's nothing major, really. We've had much worse.'

'I'm not complaining! You know I love foul weather. I'm just hoping the weather doesn't improve.'

Luna shot her a glare. 'Who hopes for that?'

'Ysseehehehehe…' Rahal swaggered on ahead, and the two found the eyes of Xenophilius, who was overjoyed to see his daughter and her new best friend.