Fire's body was hurting all over, the creeper's explosion had done a lot of internal and external damage. Shadow's healing spell had stopped the bleeding but that was it. Fire only felt his right side heart beating, the other two must have been destroyed by the explosion, and judging by the pain coming from the rest of his torso he assumed that a lot of his other organs had been destroyed as well. This wasn't immediately life threatening since his internal bleeding had been stopped. Mencur-Besh could survive as long as their respiratory system was intact and they had enough of the highly reactive substance commonly known as drandinian Heavybrew in their blood, which was normally the case with a well-nourished Mencur-Besh. If no silver was in play they could painfully live on for multiple days.

TehLulz' only injury seemed to be the impact he had sustained, the others had several smaller wounds and bruises, Shadow was completely drained and couldn't stay awake for more than a few minutes at a time, freeZe was the only one who was left completely unharmed.

The corridor they were in was the entrance to the railway station. The closer they got to the light the more they felt the temperature created by the glowstone lighting, it wasn't hot, just pleasantly warm. The railway station itself was rather plain aside from the usual engravings in the walls. On the tracks in the middle stood a locomotive painted in Mencur-Besh colors, in this case in the style of an Earth Mencur-Besh: black, white, green. Two wagons were coupled to it, a small one which carried the blaze powder that fueled the locomotive, behind it was a passenger wagon.

Fire said: "Ambigious, you and me will go operate the locomotive, everyone else just go to the other wagon. Unchosen, freeZe, take care of TehLulz and Shadow but don't use our potions if you don't have to, we might need them later on. When we reach Drandin we'll get potions there."

Fire helped TehLulz and Shadow into the passenger wagon. The inside of the wagon was very spacious since it was built to be comfortably used by both humans and Mencur-Besh. The seats had nether wool cushions on them that had patterns stitched onto them with different shades of green. Everyone took off their armor since they knew that there wouldn't be battle on the rails.

Fire and Ambigious then climbed into the cabin of the locomotive.

Ambigious said: "You know, as a child I always wanted to operate a steam locomotive."

Fire smiled. "Now you have your wish. This model is easy to operate, just make sure that the gauges don't go into the red and keep feeding it blaze powder and you'll be fine." Fire pointed to some gloves and an apron that was were hanging on a hook. "You should also probably wear those."

While Ambigious made himself familiar with the workings of the locomotive, Fire filled up the water tank from a reservoir and double checked the wheels, when he was satisfied he climbed back up to Ambigious.

Ambigious pointed to the different gauges. "From what I can see this one is water, this one is pressure and that one is speed. The buttons and levers are also pretty clear."

"I'll manage the start since these things can be a little bit stubborn when they haven't driven in a while, this particular one must have been sitting in this station for about five hundred years now. When everything gets going you can take over." Fire said.

Ambigious took a shovel that was formed like a spoon from a tool rack and started shoveling blaze powder into a funnel that lead to the burning chamber. Whenever the shovel touched the powder, sparks flew in all directions. When there was enough powder in the chamber Fire told Ambigious to stop. Fire then started rapidly turning a crank and then pushed a button, the powder in the chamber lit up. It took a few minutes for the water to boil, once Fire saw the pressure building up and heard the pistons moving he coupled the engine with the wheels. Very unwillingly they started turning, giving off some very concerning creaks, the locomotive started moving slowly and then faster once the mechanisms had decided to play along.

The train left the station at a respectable speed and entered the unlit tunnels, the train itself was equipped with glowstone lanterns so Ambigious and Fire could still see fine. Half a minute later the train reached a railway switch and transitioned over to the rails of the main rail line.

"The rails we are now on are gold plated, the redstone power needed to activate them comes from the locomotive itself. It's not turned on yet, we first need to let it run for a bit to bring it up to temperature." Fire explained.

Ambigious kept shoveling blaze powder down the funnel and the train sped up more as the pressure increased. After a few more minutes Fire turned to Ambigious again.

"I believe we have reached enough pressure, do the honors." He pointed to a small lever labeled "Redstone Signal".

Ambigious shouted: "Hell yeah!"

He flipped the lever. Fire heard the crackle of redstone and a moment later the train sped up by a large amount, Fire had been prepared for it but not Ambigious, he managed to hold onto a handle to keep himself from falling over. Once the acceleration had stopped and they were moving at a constant speed again Ambigious let go.

He pointed at a rope on the ceiling asked: "This is the whistle, right?"

He pulled on the rope and found out that it was indeed the whistle, a fairly deep whistle at that. The sound resonated far through the tunnels, Ambigious laughed.

Back in the passenger wagon Shadow had regained enough strength to sit up and talk but she still felt quite weak. They had used a row of seats as a makeshift bed for TehLulz, he was awake but his broken ribs forced him to take shallow breaths. Unchosen and freeZe were sitting next to Shadow.

Shadow said: "If you want to know anything about what you did earlier freeZe, you can ask now."

freeZe said: "Are you sure? You don't look that well."

"There isn't much energy down here for me to refill my reserves."

"Just take some of mine." freeZe offered.

Shadow sighed. "I actually wanted to ask you that but decided against it, but now that you brought it up yourself…"

Shadow opened her sense for energy and focused on freeZe, slowly she started drawing from her life force. The process wasn't painful but it seemed to cause freeZe noticeable discomfort.

"Just tell me when you want me to stop." Shadow said.

freeZe just gave her a thumbs up, Shadow continued. Her own energy pool was filled up within a couple of minutes, freeZe hadn't said anything.

Shadow said: "You do have a lot of life force, I can see why it's so hard to only use small amounts. When we arrive in Drandin I'll make sure to get life force storing gems for both of us, just in case."

freeZe asked: "So, now about whatever I did back there. What was that?"

"I assume that you tried combining Fire and Wither magic, in which you succeeded. I did notice you trying to cast Wither magic in the savannah but I didn't think much of it, after all we haven't really tested what other affinities besides Fire and Air you have."

"Yeah, makes sense. Why did the flames spread through the entire staircase though?"

Shadow explained: "The result of the combination of Fire and Wither is called a black flame. It has the most destructive properties of both Fire and Wither magic. What you get is a flame that is fueled by life force that still behaves like a normal flame. It can't be extinguished by water, the only thing that will make it stop is when it runs out of life force to burn or is contained in some form, by the shield I made for example."

freeZe said: "If that's not a weapon of mass destruction, I don't know what is."

Shadow nodded. "Exactly. If there were forbidden spells, which there aren't, this one would definitely be on the list. After it is set free it will burn out entire areas and kill every living thing it finds, including whoever created it. It is extremely dangerous so I recommend that you don't ever use it unless there is no other option." Shadow paused for a second and then continued: "If anyone asks you what your magical elements are, just leave out Wither."

freeZe asked: "Why?"

"If there is anything that people fear more than a pyromancer then it's a pyromancer who can create black flames, it's something even other mages are wary of. I'll still teach you how to properly use that combination of elements so that if you do use it you do it right."

freeZe looked over to TehLulz and asked: "Can you heal him a bit? Just so that he has an easier time breathing."

Shadow said: "I can do that." She hesitated and then asked: "You do have enough energy left to refill me another time, right? Just so I know just how much I should spend on the spell."

freeZe nodded, that was enough for Shadow. She raised her hands above her wounded friend and let her magic run its course. She felt once again how draining it really was to cast healing magic. Setting bones back into place was so much harder than breaking them. When she was done TehLulz sat up and took a deep breath.

He said: "Thanks."

Shadow was glad that she was able to help him. The train ride to Drandin would still take quite a while and she wasn't sure how bad his internal bleeding had been. She let herself fall back into her seat and closed her eyes, even if the ride was long, it for sure would be quiet, apart from the rhythmic stomping of the locomotive.