Book I: The Nation of Alrest
Chapter VI
"Attention all passenger, this is your conductor speaking," a man's voice said over the intercom. "We are currently arriving at the Argentum Train Station and will be offloading shortly. The current time is 18:46, which means we are ahead of schedule. For those heading into New Torna, the next train will be headed out by 22:00 and will then proceed for eight hours, as New Torna more than four times the length from Argentum as Argentum is from Leftheria. Take your time and enjoy your time here, this is a large tourist attraction, and since it's the spring, it will not be too packed. Thank you for choosing the Ysheva Railing Corporation. Have a good evening."
"If the distance from Argentum to New Torna is four times the distance than the distance from Leftheria to Argentum, how does it only take two hours longer for us to get there? Shouldn't it take twenty-four hours?" Mythra asked.
"Don't know," I replied. "I've never really been outside of Leftheria before..."
I guess I sounded nervous, because Mythra looked sympathetic. I looked outside the truck window and saw the sun finally set.
"Don't worry, I'll protect you from the scary dark," she teased.
I laughed. "Yeah whatever!"
She stopped laughing. "But seriously, thanks for coming with me, I'm not sure how to do this on my own."
"Yeah, no problem. How hard could this be?" I asked rhetorically.
She looked away nervously. "You really have no idea what you've gotten yourself into have you?"
"Not really? Should I be worried?"
"Just... be prepared for anything."
We soon exited the train to be stopped by another railway attendant.
"Hello, are you headed to the next train to New Torna?" he asked.
"Yes, we are," I responded.
"I can take your luggage now and make sure it arrives at the New Tornan Station if you'd like," he offered.
I thought for a moment before responding. "Alright, here you are," I said, giving him my luggage.
He put the suitcases on a moving platform, the likes of which I hadn't seen in Leftheria.
https/youtu.be/cDxCLrfv20o
We walked outside of the station and were immediately surrounded by the area known as the Argentum Gambling District.
Despite this being the "slow" part of the year, there will still hundreds of people walking around. Argentum was built on a large wooden platform that stretched out into the ocean. Large, open wooden structures decorated the land, each building offering something different. Some had strange devices with moving pictures and coin slots. Another building was full of people betting their gold on card games and other weird spinning machines. Another area was filled with animals and monsters labeled from across all of Alrest. Needless to say it was a lot to take in.
"I'm guessing you don't know what any of this is either," Mythra noted.
"Yeah, technology on Leftheria isn't exactly what we'd call 'advanced'," I responded.
Before we could truly begin moving, I noticed people making way for a female nopon walking through. Behind her were two girls, both with blue hair and carrying different weapons. One was carrying some form of katana and the other was carrying a large-headed spear. The one on the left was decorated with objects that appeared to be water bubbles, the other one wore objects resembling icicles. The water bubble one had an eyepatch over her right eye, the icicle one had an eyepatch over her left. They almost looked like twins, but definitely not identical.
The nopon lady stopped and looked at Mythra.
"We forgot my cloak," Mythra whispered to me.
"Yeah I just noticed, maybe we shouldn't have given him our luggage."
The nopon lady walked right up to us, I immediately placed myself in between her and Mythra.
"How can I help you?" I asked cautiously.
"You can't, I was simply coming to chat with the lovely lady behind you," the nopon said in perfect English.
"A nopon that speaks English fluently?" I thought to myself. It was certainly strange, this was clearly no ordinary nopon. I then responded. "She's with me."
"Well aren't you the brave one?" she giggled. "How entertaining."
The icicle girl put her hand on her katana.
"Patience Theory, no need to cause a scene," the nopon lady said to the girl.
"You're quite fluent for a nopon," I pointed out.
The nopon lady stopped and stared in bewilderment before laughing. "My, my, you're not from around here are you?! Do you not know who I am, boy?"
"I have a name, it's Silas. And no, I'm from Leftheria."
"Leftheria? I assumed only pigs and peons came from such a remote town! Never someone as gorgeous as her!" she exclaimed. "Tell me child. Is he paying you as an escort? If so I believe you should re-advise your choices of affiliation!"
"Name's Mythra, and no, he and I share a certain bond," Mythra responded respectfully. I could tell she was about to punch someone though.
"My, my, well peon," she addressed me. "It seems you have some taste after all if you managed to get with someone like her."
"It's not like tha—" I went to argue, but she cut me off.
"Shut it boy, I am speaking," she said abruptly. "My name is Juliani, Alrest's first female nopon driver. I am one of the most important people in all of Alrest. Behind me are my two blades. The one with the chroma katana is Theory, and the one with the megalance is Praxis. I would simply like to give a gift to such a wonderfully beautiful lady."
She pushed me out of the way and handed Mythra a bracelet with a peculiar stone on it.
"Keep it with you and you'll find yourself with help when you both shall need it."
She then turned to me.
"I don't normally like peons like you, but I think I've decided to make an exception for you boy. You and her are both invited to join my entourage at any time. If you need help, let me know, I may be able to help you when you need it."
I drew my sword, immediately Praxis and Theory drew their weapons as well.
"Relax," I said, laying my sword flat in my hands. "Do you see this hole in my blade, what is this?"
She inspected it closely. "My! That is a socket. Such a fine blade indeed. Here," she said, giving me a red stone. I fitted it in the socket of my sword. Immediately the blade was lit aflame.
"Woah!" Mythra and I said simultaneously.
Juliani giggled. "You two are mesmerized by the silliest of things. Do me a favor and when you get to the armory here in Argentum, pick yourselves up a couple of ether stones. They'll power up your sword with various effects. Show them your bracelet and anything in Argentum is seventy-five percent off, so do enjoy that. Now ta ta, I must be off."
"Thank you Miss Juliani," I said respectfully.
She laughed as she began walking away. "You will be able to repay me soon enough boy. Take care of that girl for me, you hear?"
And then she was gone as fast as she appeared.
"Do we trust her?" I asked.
"Only about as far as you can throw her. I say keep her at arm's length, she's not the type to give something for nothing."
Immediately we were approached by a random nopon.
"Wowie! It not often Juliani acknowledge people she not making business with!" he said.
"Who is she exactly?" I asked.
"Friend kidding! Juliani is director of Argentum Gambling District! Juliani get rid of simple Argentum Trade Guild of old and make big tourist attraction for all!" he said.
"You sure are lively, what's your name?" Mythra asked.
"Rafi is Rafi!" he replied. "Rafi is super famous engineerpon who work on many important things! Who are friends?"
"I'm Silas, and this is Mythra. We're on our way to New Torna to... help her out," I said, not wanting to blow her cover.
"Oh! Mythra is blade?"
"Well... yeah," I replied. I didn't expect him to figure it out that fast...
"Be careful! Rafi heard that when drivers go to register blade that blade somehow come out looking completely different! Rafi thinks government take strong blade and give back weak blade!"
"Meh!" A deeper nopon voice said from the background. "Rafi better get back to fixing sink and stop telling customers about crazy conspiracies!"
"Sorry masterpon!" Rafi called back.
"What happened to 'famous engineer'?" I asked skeptically.
"Meh meh! Did Rafi not say 'in training'?" he defended.
Mythra laughed. "Same old nopon. Tell you what, if we need mechanical help, we'll come to you."
Rafi's eyes lit up. "It would be Rafi's pleasure!"
We began walking away to look around, as we did so, Mythra and I chatted.
"Why'd you tell him that?" I asked.
"Simple," Mythra responded. "Who knows? One day we might need his help, or he may need ours, and he definitely seemed willing to. The more people that we have rooting for us, the more of a chance that we'll have help when we need it."
"Do all blades think like that?"
"Call it... a blade's intuition," she answered, as if recollecting something.
We walked to one of the wooden structures, called a booth, and looked at all of the moving pictures.
"Sir," I asked one of the employees. "What are these?"
"Customer seriously not know?" the nopon responded. "This is arcade, these machines are interactive movies!"
"You mean like... a theatre play?" Mythra added.
"What?! No! Have... have customers not watched a television before?"
"Tele... vision?" I questioned. We had nothing this advanced in Leftheria, everything was cut off from the rest of the world.
This is how our day went. We walked around, asked what something was, received looks of disbelief, and then were talked to like we were idiots. We didn't mind much, however, as we really honestly had no idea what anything was.
At one point some Ardanian merchant tried selling us something, which was an... interesting experience.
"You look like a couple of find folks, can I interest you in a cell phone?" he said politely.
"What is a cell phone?" I asked. "What is a..." happened to be my most used phrase of the day.
"Wot? You gotta be jokin' me! A cell phone lets you talk to people from far away with tha push ov' a button!" he explained.
"How does it work?" Mythra asked behind me.
"Ah! Well ya see, ya gotta enter in someone's phone number, an' then it'll ring their phone, and they'll answer it, and then ya talk to them through a microphone!"
"So the other person has to also have a cell phone?" I interrogated.
"Yes, but 'avin one is so common these days that it's weirder not to have one!" he continued in his thick Ardanian accent.
"And all I have to do is buy a phone?" I kept going.
"Yes! For this 'ere model it's a fixed twenty thousand gold!" he explained.
"Twenty thousand?! Do you want the kidney as well?"
"Ah, don't worry none about it, I can set you up for just a hundred gold a month for the next few years. Add a plan so you can actually use it, and you'll be payin' a simple two hundred gold a month!"
I knew immediately this had to be some sort of scam. "And people do this?"
"All the time, just look around! 'Aven't you seen people talking on these machines?"
I had, which meant it wasn't a scam and people actually paid this normally.
"Yeah I think I'd rather die in a fire, thanks."
And Mythra and I moved on.
We ended up playing castle poker, a popular Urayan card game, inside of one of the booths. They called the place a casino and we would bet gold to see who'd win. I knew how to play, but I wasn't amazing at it. Mythra on the other hand...
"You're a cheating ass bitch!" one burly man said as he jumped off of his chair. He had been winning all evening, but as soon as Mythra showed up he was brought down to nothing, I had stopped playing awhile ago. Originally, he had started beating me and telling me how terrible I was when Mythra moved me out of the way and began to show off her skills. I just had to not laugh.
He pulled a gun to her head. "You give me my money back right now!" he threatened.
She laughed in his face. "Take the shot, you'll regret it." She pointed her finger in his face in a way that pissed him off even more.
He got pissed off and stormed out.
"Are you crazy?! You almost got yourself killed!" I scolded.
"Don't worry about it. I'm a blade, remember? I heal all wounds instantly and I've definitely taken worse blows. At least... I remember the feeling of worse blows," she pondered.
I sighed. "How're you so good at this game anyway?"
"Ever needed to fire a laser precisely enough to neutralize your enemies without killing them or destroying the area you're fighting in? Run those calculations a couple million times and calculating card statistics is child's play."
"I... have a lot to learn, don't I?"
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."
We started out betting one hundred gold, and we ended up with four thousand. We put the money in my coin case and we continued on.
The seventy-five percent discount Juliani gave us was really helpful. I bought a few sockets for my sword, one of each element, we got food, and even went to see a show. It was titled, "The Legend of the Aegis Part II".
When the curtains opened it showed a female, playing a male child, with a blue diving suit and a green sword. The play was definitely fun to watch. A machine was producing some thick fog for some scenes and other machines added lights and sounds. It ended with the main character, Rex, marrying the girl, clothed entirely in green.
"Did you wear only green before?" I asked.
"I know I didn't get married before, I would scratch this as inaccurate," she said simply.
Soon the time had passed and it was time to get on the train for New Torna. As we approached the station, a group of men blocked us off.
"You're gonna pay me back everything you owe me you blonde slut," the man that was front and center said. All three were holding large bats and pistols.
I recognized him as the one Mythra has destroyed in poker earlier.
"You still don't scare me hun. Will you please move out of the way before I decide to make your face look even uglier?" Mythra mocked.
"Lass thinks she's cute boss!" one of the other men said.
"Cuter than anyone you'll ever date sweetheart," she fired back.
I pulled my sword and loaded a fire gem into it, setting the sword ablaze once more. "You'd best get out of our way."
Four more men walked up behind us, Mythra and I stood back to back.
"Seven guys on one girl? Is this typical?" she snarked.
"Mythra this is looking pretty dicey," I warned.
"No, let them come, the more the merrier," she said, giggling a bit.
The men all fired their guns, sending the bullets directly at us...
Readability Level: 11th-12th Grade
Time Taken: 4.5 Hours
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