Roland and his companions — the twins, Tsubasa, and now Muirrach — had returned to Twinkling, and from there were now following a winding road of paving stones, which cut its way through increasingly rugged and dramatic landscapes. The rounded hills of Twinkling gave way to rougher plains, and those soon were carved up into dramatic cliffsides by rushing rivers and tumbling waterfalls. Here one could see an interesting monument, flowering grove, towering tree, or crystalline cave only a few hundred feet away from them, but the actual route to get there could take hours of winding back and forth, finding the right trails and bridges connecting one high, narrow plateau to the next. This made the road they followed so valuable, charting the surest course through this awe-inspiring drama of nature.
“It would be so easy to get lost here, wouldn’t it?” Erika asked, holding onto Enrique’s hand. “You can see so far away, but actually going where you see is incredibly complicated.”
“Which is why we should be grateful to those who first charted this course,” Roland said with a smile.
They shared in scattered conversation like this, but most of their walking was taken up by telling Muirrach of their adventure so far, and the quest that lay before them. It wasn’t just about the Path of the Eight, but about the twins’ mission to take the wishes of the world to Elysia.
Muirrach had questions, naturally, but the others didn’t have as many answers as they would like. It wasn’t just that Erika and Enrique remained reticent to divulge details about where they came from, or if they knew why the Masks pursued them. It was also that neither Roland nor even Tsubasa, who had been hunting down the Masks for several months, knew much about their mysterious foes.
“I still don’t even know what they call themselves,” Tsubasa said. “They have to have a name for themselves! They can’t just be called ‘the Masks’! And I’m sure their chosen name would reveal more about their intentions, but…” her shoulders slumped, “I still don’t know. And as far as their intentions are concerned, I don’t know that, either. They twist symphonic crystals to their own wicked ends, they pursue our favorite twins for mysterious reasons, and they are determined to hide their faces. The pieces just aren’t fitting into a clear picture. Not yet.”
“So you haven’t been able to capture any of them,” Muirrach said. “I should have subdued some for us to question, then, rather than toss them off a cliff. But I was none too happy to see them abusing symphonic crystals so brazenly.”
“I knew you were a man of culture,” Tsubasa said, beaming at him. “It’s wonderful to travel with friends who know just what matters in life. Oh!” Her eyes brightened. “I did uncover a little about the Masks’ leadership structure. It appears to be relatively flat. The woman with the eagle mask is one of their big-wigs. Each of them has a unique mask from all the rest, and their own specific color. Each leader’s direct subordinates clothe themselves in their leader’s color. Though the significance of all of that is… unclear. I still have no idea when they were first formed, or whose idea it was, or why. And I don’t have any names. I’ve beaten down grunts, trashed their gauntlets, rescued crystals, but they stick up for each other. It’s hard to take prisoners. And the leaders have plenty of slippery techniques for running away.”
“You two wouldn’t happen to know why they’re after you, would you?” Muirrach asked the twins.
“They were after our parents,” Erika said. She and Enrique both drew a little closer together. “Now they’re after us.”
“They do want to stop our mission, and have an interest in it,” Enrique said. “But… more than that, they’re after us. We don’t know why. That’s the truth.”
“We believe you,” Roland said, smiling. “We won’t pry further than you wish, so don’t worry about that.”
“We’re just trying to look out for you,” Tsubasa said. “But this puts us on even footing, doesn’t it? We’re all trying to figure out the truth about things. And we will! Whatever the Masks want you for, they won’t get it. That’s a promise!”
“Thank you,” Erika said, and there was relief in her smile.
“No ideas of a point of origin?” Muirrach asked, turning his attention to Tsubasa. “Even theories?”
“I chased seven different very excellent theories,” Tsubasa said glumly. “None of ‘em panned out. I didn’t even find a former hideout that they’d abandoned, or a safe house they hastily evacuated when they realized I was on their trail, no sir. That would have been so exciting, too!”
“If…” Erika started tentatively. She took a deep breath, then started again. “If they’re after us, then we’ll run afoul of them again. It’s inevitable. So please — use those as opportunities to find out the truth!”
“Let me be the bait,” Enrique said, stepping in front of his sister.
“Whoa, hold up for a moment,” Tsubasa said, waving her hands. “There’s no need to go for anything so drastic! Let’s just keep our eyes open, and when they strike again, we’ll be ready for them. We won’t go setting any traps, or putting either of you up as bait. They’re already after you, and that’s enough. We just have to make better use of the opportunities we’re given.”
“We’ll be grateful for your help, Muirrach,” Roland said. “Your continuous melodic artes —”
“Are not as all-powerful as you seem to believe,” Muirrach said. “But I will do my best to help capture one of the Masks — hopefully one of their leaders. We need answers, there’s no doubt about that.”
“Muirrach, you’re a martial artist, too, aren’t you?” Tsubasa asked, gazing at Muirrach with undisguised excitement.
“I’ve received adequate instruction,” Muirrach said. “My interests lie more in the scholarly than the martial pursuits.”
“Oh, really?” Tsubasa asked. There was that glint in her eyes, all too familiar from when she’d gone after Roland. He thought about warning Muirrach, but in his brief moment of hesitation…
Tsubasa attacked.
She darted in, so fast she was only a blur to Roland’s eyes. Muirrach reacted, and he too was shockingly fast. There was a brief altercation, less than a second —
And Tsubasa was lying on her back, blinking up at the sky dazedly. Muirrach sighed, and then held out his hand to help her up.
It was only after that, that Roland’s mind caught up with what he’d seen, processing the events of their swift conflict. Muirrach had seen right through Tsubasa’s attack, sidestepped, and with his one arm flipped Tsubasa, using her own momentum against her.
And down she’d fallen, flat on her back.
“That…” Tsubasa started, staring at the offered hand. A moment later, her dazed eyes brightened, and she kicked back up to her feet on her own. “…was amazing!” she cried, beaming widely. “You have to show me how you did that!”
“I am under no obligation to do so,” Muirrach said.
Tsubasa chuckled, readied herself…
And a moment later, was lying on her back, blinking dazedly at the sky. She’d charged again, and Muirrach had knocked her down again, emerging unscathed.
“I’d appreciate it if you would stop attacking me,” Muirrach said, holding out his hand to her.
This time, Tsubasa took the assistance, though she was no less enthused once back on her feet. “So many humble martial artists, everywhere I turn,” she said, eyes glittering with delight. “Roland! Do the same move to me that he did!”
“Oh, no, I’m not that skilled,” Roland said, waving his arms, but of course it was futile.
Tsubasa charged him this time. Roland sidestepped and threw up a block, and this time, Tsubasa actually followed through her attack — and Roland committed to his defense. But when he successfully blocked Tsubasa’s punch, she stepped back and frowned at him. “You’re supposed to knock me down,” she said.
“I told you, I’m not that skilled,” Roland said, catching his breath. He really wasn’t built for this kind of stress. But he was proud of himself that his arm didn’t hurt from the impact. He was rusty, but not so rusty that he was throwing up incompetent blocks.
“So you actually meant it this time?” Tsubasa asked, tapping her chin with one of her tonfas. “Huh. Humility can be really confusing sometimes. But you both were taught in the same style, weren’t you?”
“Yes,” Muirrach said. “But, as Roland has no doubt informed you, his training was limited.”
“To foundational self-defense techniques,” Tsubasa said, nodding. “Swiftly dispatching a charging foe like you did seems like a perfect foundational self-defense technique.”
“It isn’t about the technique,” Muirrach said. “What I did wasn’t all that special. If the technique was all that mattered, you wouldn’t have fallen to it twice.”
“Well, of course!” Tsubasa said. “So you’re saying it’s about your own skill and experience?” She grinned. “A new challenge, then! I’ll figure you out in time. And we’ll have plenty of it, traveling together to all of the Canons!”
“Six of them,” Muirrach said. “We’ll not be revisiting Kirin’s or Viatos’. But yes… I suppose you will have time. Though I’d still appreciate it if you wouldn’t attack me unannounced.”
“Hmm,” Tsubasa murmured, bobbing her head from side to side. Then, with a smile, she asked, “But what would be the fun in that?”
And so their journey continued. Across swaying metallic bridges above dizzying drops, following the road through this carved-up, cavernous landscape, the spray from waterfalls and rushing rapids creating a mist that sometimes obscured their view of the expansive landscape around them — and sometimes captured the sunlight just right, creating mini-rainbows to delight in.
They stopped for lunch, and continued on, and day slowly turned to evening. Night was falling as they finally glimpsed the end of the road. Somewhere along the way, when Erika had been noticeably slowing, Tsubasa had offered to carry her, and despite Enrique’s disapproval, Erika had accepted, and now rode on Tsubasa’s back. She seemed to quite enjoy it. But as night fell, her eyes weren’t on the path ahead and their latest destination, but instead on the sky.
“Why is it so different from the night sky over Twinkling?” she asked.
Roland looked up, at a pair of overlapping moons that glowed a soft cerulean, amidst scattered white stars and painterly brush strokes of mysterious nebulae.
“Who wants to field it?” Tsubasa asked, grinning. “I’ll gladly answer if no one else does.”
“Go ahead,” Roland said with a smile.
“Wonderia’s sky is amazing!” Tsubasa said. She set Erika down and held her hands in front of her, facing each other, forming a loose sphere. “This is how we imagine each realm. Albia, Wonderia, and possibly Elysia — though we don’t know enough about Elysia to be sure — appear to be spheres, or globes. They’re round!”
“That’s… common knowledge,” Enrique said, eyeing Tsubasa, clearly unimpressed.
“And I’m glad it is!” Tsubasa said, cheerfully undeterred. “But here’s the really fascinating thing — Wonderia’s sky is also a spherical entity, surrounding Wonderia. And it isn’t, as far as we can tell, the void we believe to be space beyond, say, Albia’s atmosphere, but an actual physical construct in its entirety. The darkness you see between stars, moons, nebulae, and all the rest? That’s not void or empty space. It’s like… well, we aren’t entirely sure. Some research suggests it's incredibly solid, like the earth under our feet, or ice. Other observations suggest it’s more like an ocean of its own, a vast body of… well, not water, but some kind of liquid, in which all the stars, planetary objects, space-clouds, all the rest swim through. And there’s new research to suggest that both observations are correct.”
“But not at the same time,” Enrique said, now more thoughtful. “That wouldn’t make sense. So the dark spaces of the sky beyond Wonderia’s atmosphere… it’s a mixture. Water and solids. Like oceans and continents?”
“Oh, you’re sharp!” Tsubasa said.
“He is,” Erika said, beaming at her brother. “He knows all sorts of things, and he’s very clever about understanding new information, too!”
“We’ve just got a whole squad of smarties, don’t we?” Tsubasa asked, laughing. “That’s fantastic. But you’re right! Current prevailing theories picture the sky — meaning the space beyond Wonderia’s atmosphere — as almost another, inverted sphere, or globe, surrounding Wonderia. A Sky-sphere! And that globe has its own continents and oceans, rivers and lakes, islands and archipelagos. But the real kicker is that for Wonderia’s Sky-sphere, almost all of it is constantly in motion. Even the continents move!”
“Doesn’t all of Wonderia move, too?” Enrique asked. “The globe’s always spinning.”
“Correct,” Tsubasa said, nodding sagely. “What I mean is that different parts of Wonderia’s Sky-sphere move independent of the others. So Wonderia’s night sky is mapped in regions.” She pointed up at the two moons. “Those are the Twins, the Cúplach. They mark the center of what researchers call the Leathan, what appears to be the widest and deepest part of the Sky-Sphere. This region of the Sky-Sphere moves in the most easily-tracked and consistent pattern, a sort of…” She used her finger to trace a sort of rising and falling series of figure-eights around an imaginary globe. “Like that. Other regions move in their own ways, and while it’s not entirely clear yet how it all works, the Cúplach seem to be the most prominent bodies to govern the movement of the rest of the Sky-Sphere. The Leathan is the region to which the rest of the moving regions of the Sky-Sphere synchronize themselves.”
“Then what about the night sky over Twinkling?” Enrique asked. “Aside from the stars ‘turning on’ in different patterns, it’s the same every night, isn’t it? Is it a static region of the Sky-sphere?”
“Got it in one!” Tsubasa said, beaming at him. “There are regions of the Sky-sphere that don’t move, as far as we can measure. They’re called static regions, and the Sky-sphere region over Twinkling is one such region. The different patterns of the stars, and the star trails you can see in certain seasons, appear to be like weather phenomena over or inside that region — it gets complicated to describe, since there’s still so much we don’t know. But that’s why the stars can come on in all sorts of different patterns, each night unique from the last.”
“That’s… dizzying,” Erika said, wide-eyed. “The world is full of amazing mysteries, isn’t it?”
“That’s what makes studying it all so exciting,” Roland chimed in.
“But the realms were all one, once, weren’t they?” Enrique asked. “So did the Fracturing create the Sky-sphere around Wonderia? But then how do we travel between Albia and Wonderia so easily?”
“Doors,” Tsubasa said with a shrug.
“Which we understand far less than we would like,” Roland said. “Doors, like looking-glass portals, transport us through a mysterious realm that we know precious little about. The doors take us between Albia and Wonderia through a realm of light, while looking-glass portals use a realm of reflections, of shadows, to travel between places within Wonderia. How it all works is still…” He tried to find the right word.
“Hazy,” Muirrach said. “And there is ample evidence to suggest that Wonderia’s Sky-Sphere is older than the Fracturing. Which only adds more questions about what the world was like before it was broken.” He shivered, such a subtle movement that Roland almost didn’t notice it. “But the night grows cold. Shall we continue?” He nodded forward, and finally the twins looked ahead with the others at where they’d arrived.
A train station.
Having crossed the carved-up cliff-like plains, they had arrived at a train station, all aglow with light against the darkening night. It was a rather grand building, with huge archways over its glass doors, and a high, domed, glass roof above it all. It felt too grand to be out here in the middle of nowhere, with no city or town or any other building at all for miles around, too far away for anyone to see or reasonably travel to and from.
“Let’s head on in!” Tsubasa said, darting ahead. Muirrach was the first to follow after her.
“A train station?” Erika asked, tilting her head to the side. “Are we taking a train the rest of the way?”
“Shureen’s Cove is much too far for ordinary travel from where we started,” Roland said. “The night train will take us where we’re going in less than a day. Without using the Wonderian Rail Network, it would take at least a month to get there, even with other vehicular means.”
“Hold on…” Enrique said, still staring at the train station, not yet starting up the steps. “A train can get us where we want to go in less than a day, but even other vehicles would take a month? How does that make sense?”
“Wonderia is a marvelous, impossible place,” Roland said, smiling. “Come on, let’s go inside. You’ll find answers better there than out here.”
Roland led the twins up, and they entered into a vast atrium, the domed ceiling high above giving a beautiful view of the night sky. The floor was patterned marble, whorls of color here and there vivid and lovely. The station could easily handle hundreds of passengers, boarding and disembarking and waiting, but right now it felt rather empty, even though there were almost thirty others besides Roland and his companions. All were waiting for a train, because no trains were currently here. To the right were ticketing counters, and to the left was a wide staircase leading up to a lounge area. Straight ahead was the platform itself, with train tracks running left-to-right and right-to-left.
No one was waiting right at the platform itself, but that was no surprise. There wouldn’t be a train for quite some time. Roland smiled at several waiting passengers who were fast asleep on the benches, arms wrapped around their luggage so it wouldn’t disappear on them.
“This is beautiful,” Erika breathed, gazing all around. Numerous lamps shed lovely golden light, lending a warm, inviting atmosphere to the space.
“It’s certainly grand,” Enrique said. He was walking straight towards the platform, and Roland and Erika followed. There was something in his posture that spoke to a curiosity, the kind of curiosity that had latched onto a specific question and was pursuing a specific answer. At the platform, Enrique looked left, then right, his brow furrowing. He turned and looked up at Roland. “Where do the trains come from? And where do they go? I’d ask if this was a joke, but I’m beginning to see that Wonderia is… defiant of the rules.”
Roland smiled, stepping to the edge of the platform. He looked left, then right, at train tracks that continued on only for a dozen yards or so outside of the station in either direction before abruptly ending. “It’s true that the physical tracks don’t go very far,” he said. “But you were wondering about how trains can take us somewhere so much faster — exponentially faster — than any other mode of transportation. That’s because trains in the Wonderian Rail Network spend only just as much time in physical space as possible, and not a second longer.”
“They don’t travel through physical space?” Enrique asked.
“Just like the doors between Albia and Wonderia, or the looking-glass portals, the Wonderian Rail Line’s stations function as gateways to and from another, um…” Roland paused a moment, trying to find the right term, “let’s say ‘metaphysical’ realm. It’s really more of a pathway, not an entire realm in itself — there are tracks, just like train tracks, that the Wonderian Rail Network trains can follow. This allows unprecedented speed of travel — though not nearly as fast as taking a door from Albia to Wonderia, or vice versa. There isn’t much of anything faster than that.”
“Is travel through doorways truly so fast?” Enrique asked. “Do we know for sure how distant, physically speaking, Albia is from Wonderia?”
Roland laughed. “Well, that’s… certainly a complicated question,” he said.
“You’re full of questions,” Erika said, grasping her brother’s hand. “Enjoy the mystery! Roland can’t have every single answer in the whole universe.”
“And as for the distance between realms, physically speaking, that’s a question I definitely do not have an answer for,” Roland said. “It would be amazing to discover the answer, though, wouldn’t it?”
“Yes,” Enrique said, looking away.
“What are you doing on the platform already?” Tsubasa asked, joining them with Muirrach. “Our train won’t arrive for another hour. Come on! We were just exploring the upper lounge.”
“Please, do join us,” Muirrach said, giving Roland a look.
Ah, so her infectious enthusiasm is excessive for your tastes — at least when you’re stuck alone with her.
“Let’s go,” Roland said amicably. Though they didn’t go right away — Roland stepped over to the ticketing counter to buy tickets, first. Then the five of them headed up the stairs to the upper lounge. Here were several bookshelves with a variety of reading materials — mostly magazines, breezy dissertations on various topics. The section of fiction novels was limited to some of the most popular reads at the moment. There was a rack of newspapers and informational leaflets, as well. A shelf of various board and card games stood out at the moment, since there was a trio of young children — siblings, no doubt — debating which game they should play, while their parents sat back reading, only occasionally glancing their children’s direction. The seating up here was comfier than down below, with plush couches and armchairs instead of metal benches, and some even had nice footstools to put one’s feet up and really relax. One feline young man was doing just that, legs stretched out in front of him, head tilted to the side, eyes closed, fast asleep, the book in his lap forgotten, and in danger of tumbling to the floor. Two avian individuals with colorful plumage sat at a high table, playing a complex card game and chatting back and forth, playful ribbing absolutely a part of the game. A station worker walked by, watering the potted flowers and ferns arranged by the railing.
“We should play a game,” Tsubasa said, eyes glittering with joy.
“Let’s wait until those three have figured themselves out,” Erika, watching the trio of siblings’ debate escalate. The two younger boys were fighting over their choices, while their older sister watched on with exasperation, shaking her head like this scene was all too familiar.
“I’m going to read something,” Muirrach said, striding to the bookshelves with a lumbering gait. “In peace.”
“Party pooper,” Tsubasa muttered. But it was a playful jab — nothing seemed able to dampen her cheer. Once the three siblings had come to a decision, thanks to the sister insisting on a stop to the fighting, they wandered off to play, and Erika, Enrique, and Tsubasa approached the games shelf. They only started to investigate their options for a moment, though, before Tsubasa and Erika turned back to look at Roland.
“Aren’t you going to play with us?” Erika asked.
Roland stared. Blinked, twice. “Me?” he asked, caught completely off-guard.
“Yes, you!” Tsubasa said, rolling her eyes. “Come on! We’re all playing together — aside from Muirrach, of course. You should have a say in the game, don’t you think?”
“Oh,” Roland said. Still, it took him another moment to actually move his feet and come over to join them. “Yes, of course. This will be… fun, won’t it?”
“Hopefully,” Enrique said, nowhere near as enthused as the girls.
“Don’t be like Muirrach,” Tsubasa said. “You’re a kid, so have fun like a kid! Come on, what games do you like?”
It took quite a bit of goading — and input from Erika — for Enrique’s preferences to finally come out. Roland joined in, and together they engaged in a much more amicable debate than the three children before them, before happily deciding on a game and heading off to play together.
And, despite Roland’s surprise — it had been ages since he’d last played a board game, and… well, he couldn’t actually remember a time he’d been invited to play anything with someone else — this turned out to be a wonderful way to pass the time. Erika was a delight, of course. Tsubasa was cheerful as ever. And Enrique showed a surprising competitive edge, while maintaining excellent sportsmanship.
And while they played, the world turned around them. The sleeping feline dropped his book to the floor with a clatter that woke him up, ears tall, fur standing on end. But when he realized what it was that had awoken him, he simply collected his book, settled it into a more secure spot on his lap…
And promptly went back to sleep.
The avians playing a card game went for several rounds, before finally declaring a winner and then getting up and wandering off to stretch their legs — and their wings. And the siblings who had chosen a game to play, while they got off to a rocky start — the littlest one was not happy about his choice of a game not winning out, and the older of the boys kept trying to rewrite the rules — they eventually settled into a nice game flow.
Muirrach found a book to read, and spent the entire wait in a chair a decent distance away from Roland, Tsubasa, and the twins, reading intently.
Time passed by, and their train came in. Roland made sure to let everyone know several minutes before the train arrived, so they had time to head down to the platform and watch its arrival. “You won’t want to miss this,” Roland said, specifically to Enrique, who’d been so curious about it all.
Their train arrived from the right, heralded by a sudden crackling of energy, bolts of azure light arcing through the air in a wild, chaotic circle. In between the crackling bolts, cubes of light materialized and vanished, winking in and out of existence in a dozen different colors.
Then, a bell chimed, three times. The bolts of energy all joined in the center of the circle, and then expanded outward, forming a proper, circular portal.
Out from that portal came a train.
It glided smoothly onto the tracks, its breaks grinding only lightly, emitting a soft whine as the train slowed to a smooth stop. Its exterior paneling was all a metallic, reflective blue material, not dissimilar in color from the azure electricity that had opened the portal for its arrival. The train’s whole body was sleek, except on top, where there were numerous smokestack-like protrusions that coughed up a hazy mist — not smoke, but not steam, either, because it had a shimmering quality to it, its particles slightly reflective, changing colors across the entire spectrum.
The train stopped, and the doors hissed open. Only a few passengers stepped out, a variety of peoples with a variety of luggage.
“Does it travel through a nonphysical realm?” Enrique asked, eyeing the train curiously. “That energy… does the train get transformed into energy? What about the passengers, then?”
“Those are excellent questions,” Roland said, smiling. “Perhaps we should find the conductor and ask him.”
“Can we?” Enrique asked. He had a look in his eyes, a challenge in his voice, like he expected Roland’s suggestion to be an adult’s non-real suggestion to a child in patronizing jest, never to be fulfilled.
“Let’s go,” Roland said, boarding the train. The twins, Tsubasa, and Muirrach followed, and Enrique watched with constant expectation of disappointment as Roland led the way from car to car, towards the front of the train.
This isn’t something I would normally do. I don’t have this kind of confidence all alone. But with others by my side, I feel more capable of speaking to strangers. Especially now that we have a purpose, a specific question in mind.
Before the train departed, they were able to speak with the conductor, and Enrique was more than willing to ask all of his questions. The conductor reciprocated cheerfully at a child showing such interest in the deeper workings of the Wonderian Rail Network.
“Neither train nor passengers are transformed in any way,” the conductor said, his walrus whiskers dancing. “We are all transported into something akin to Pocket Space.”
“Pocket Space?” Erika asked.
“It’s a Wonderian magic,” the conductor said. “Pocket Space is a region where items and objects can be stored in one’s pocket, no matter the size and weight. The Rail Realm — that’s what we call the region our trains move through — is something like that, a folded space that warps the rules of physical reality to allow for much faster transport across the physical realm of Wonderia.”
“So we’ll be entering into a different realm, like with doors or looking-glass portals,” Enrique said. “What… are these realms, though? How were they discovered, and how are we able to make use of them? How much do you really know about the Rail Realm?”
“I, and even the greatest experts, know less than we would like,” the conductor said with a chuckle. “If you would like to know more, I can recommend several books on the subject — I may have studied extensively, but I don’t know everything off the top of my head. And if you ever find yourself in Keyarch, you should look up Maestro Keene Dornan. He’s the leading expert on the metaphysical realms and folded spaces beyond our physical reality.”
Enrique eagerly asked for a recommended reading list, and the conductor happily obliged, writing down the titles and authors. Bowing his thanks, he and the others left to take their seats.
“Where can I find these books?” Enrique asked, looking over his list.
“They’re sold in numerous bookshops,” Roland said. “We can see if they’re available at Shureen’s Cove.”
“Cove?” Erika asked. “I thought she was in a Canon? And why does Shureen have bookshops?”
“Sorry,” Roland said, smiling. “Shureen’s Cove is the name of the city where her Canon is located. It’s quite the tourist destination.”
“Hmm,” Erika said, sitting back. “Here I’d been imagining Canons as being these mysterious gates and ruins out in the wilderness, far from any form of civilization.”
“The Fantasians’ powers bring great blessings upon the land around their Canons,” Muirrach said. “Around each Canon has sprung up a sizable town or city because of that. Ah, but we’re about to depart. Keep your eyes on the windows.”
A soft whistle blew, and the conductor’s voice came on over an intercom system to prepare the passengers for departure. After the brief safety preamble and a reminder of their destination and the estimated time of arrival, a countdown began, as passengers took their seats and many of them eagerly watched the windows, waiting for what was to come.
And then they were off. The train started forward with another whistle. Azure bolts of light crackled and lanced all around outside as they started along the tracks. Amongst them, cubes of azure energy appeared and disappeared, dancing in the air. A portal opened ahead of them, and they picked up speed, hurtling through it…
Roland couldn’t help himself. Despite having rode on many a Rail Network train, he gasped just the same as the twins did. The physical world vanished, and they now traveled through the mysterious Rail Realm. Outside their window, all was kaleidoscopic light and color, like they were flying through a nebula in the far reaches of space, but even brighter, even more intangible. Along and below and above them could be seen straighter, more uniform lines of light — rail lines made of magical energy, guiding the way to all sorts of destinations.
The azure bolts of energy, and the azure cubes of light, were here as well. Bolts lanced from cube to cube, and the cubes, on being charged by a bolt of energy, lit up, expanded, and showed brief glimpses into the physical world. There were places Roland recognized — the underwater ring-shaped architecture of Atalan, the castle in the clouds called Morithia, and the deep, twisting ravine of Windyway — but there was so much more that even he had never seen before. A fleet of towns held up by balloons, an underground upside-down city where people walked on the ceiling, a forest half-submerged in boiling water, a mansion full of life-sized dolls. And so much more! Roland and Tsubasa both were just as amazed to look out the train’s windows as the twins were, despite having ridden these trains before, despite having seen these sights before.
It would all be over soon, too soon to take it all in. Roland knew that, which is why he tried to see as much as he could, and remained amazed like a child every time.
It was wonder, awe, amazement, that kept the heart young. Another lesson that Alystair had taught Roland, engraved on his soul.
When the conductor came over the intercom to announce that they would be arriving shortly, Enrique was visibly disappointed.
“Cheer up!” Erika said, beaming. “This won’t be the last time we ride one of these trains.”
“No, it won’t,” Enrique said with ardent determination.
A portal opened, and they returned to the physical world, to Wonderia. The train came to a smooth, easy stop, and the doors hissed open. Roland and company joined the disembarking passengers — nearly all of them — into the station. Night still hung dark over their heads through the high skylight.
“The sky hasn’t changed much,” Enrique said, gazing up at it. “Are we still under the Leathan?”
“That’s right,” Tsubasa said. They stepped outside, and Tsubasa pointed with one of her tonfas. “See? The Cúplach are right over there, shining bright as ever.”
“Oh, and smell the sea air!” Erika said, taking in a deep breath. “It’s wondrous!”
Roland took a deep breath, too, smiling at the smell of sea salt, and more from the town that lay just a short walk down the hill from here. Sprawling on the beach below them was a port town, lights all aglow even late at night, though no boats were going in and out of the harbor at the moment.
“Is this Shureen’s Cove?” Enrique asked. “But it doesn’t look like a cove.”
“This is Caladhlen,” Roland said, “the harbor city that will give us passage to Shureen’s Cove. We’ll sleep here tonight, and set out across the sea in the morning. We should try to get an early start, so we have plenty of time to explore the Cove before and after taking on the Canon.”
“You’ll succeed this time, Roland,” Erika said, gazing up at him earnestly. “I know you will.”
“Thank you,” Roland said, feeling his heart flutter. He was nervous, no matter how he tried to help it. Even though he knew so much more than last time, and had a clear plan and understanding of how to succeed… he couldn’t help worrying, couldn’t quite shake off the fears and failures of the past.
But the time was coming. Tomorrow. Tomorrow he would face his great failure, and overcome it, once and for all.
Watch over me, Teacher. I won’t let you down again.