“I don’t want be your damn robot anymore! That’s what they call me, did you know that?” Ahzila scoffed, fire behind her blue eyes “they call me a ‘Mirandabot.’”

“Sort of a cute nickname.” Miranda sighed, with a twitch of whiskers “Since you’re threatening to kill them with a knife half the time.”

The tracks of the train clattered beneath them, a strong sway shook the cabin and threw Ahzila off balance and into one of the metal poles. Miranda caught a piece of paper before it escaped her writing desk, elegantly recovering and returning to her letters.

It was nice to have a private cab, but it was no more special than any other on the commuter train. It had the same plastic seats along it’s side, the same guts as any other public car. It even had the same amount of gum on the side of all the handrails. 

It was a clever jab by the Himalayan cats who operated the cars, and Miranda was doing her best to politely ignore it and accept the insult with benevolent grace.

“It is a very nice knife.” Miranda suggested, pointing at the purple blade on Ahzila’s wrist. 

Ahzila flicked her hand, and the blade hovered in the air, magically suspended with only a mere whisper from off of Ahzila's tongue. 

“A big perk, Ahzila. Not many people can wield it. They get Azmriz—such a horrible way to die.” Miranda sighed distantly, a hint of a threat on her voice.

“Yeah, yeah, Azmriz...We all gonna die from Azmriz. I hear you, I hear you.” Ahzila sighed, snapping her claws.

A study book appeared from thin air and fell into her long fingers. Since Ahzila was a calico, one hand was brown and the other black, but she always wore gloves that covered her soft fur out of fear of Azmriz.

The knife continued to orbit around her as Ahzila studied for her test. It was made of a plum colored crystal; the hilt, the blade, all of it carved from one piece of lethal rock. Art deco curves arched around a sinuous blade that was similar to the shape of rickrack lace.

Despite it’s age, it was very sharp, but it didn’t need to be. Azmriz could burn people that were still inches from it’s point.

“You don’t have to wear those gloves to hold Sempiternity, Ahzila.” Miranda sighed, “You might be on probation for the rest of your life, but you’re still 17th in the Kingdom. You haven't lost everything.”

“Miranda, our best years are behind us.” Ahzila sighed, “Pat’s kid’s will be legal age before we know it. And then it will be done. They will replace us and we will all go to hell.”

The knife was old, but young enough that it had an English name. The last person who held the Knife was an Achart from around a century before her. 

The same Achart who used it to try and defend herself right before she was brutally executed by their own people.

It was hardly a subtle gesture to give it to Ahzila now.

“Is that why you’re so eager to work with Patrick?” Miranda wondered. “Or is there something else?”

At that moment, all of the mechanical blinds on the windows lining the cabin started to close, humming like a swarm of locusts.

“What is going on?” Miranda asked tensely, losing composure, and hastily picking up the letters in front of her. In a fluid movement, she threw the letters to the side and they vanished into the air with an ethereal snap.

“This train isn’t scheduled to leave Avurn! Who had the authority to do this!?” Miranda hissed.

The gunmetal blinds eventually covered the entire window. Each of the blinds bore a foreboding message: “Do not open while In Between.”

“No.” Ahzila begged. “Did you do this to torture me!? I get your point! Come on!”

“I did not do this! I would not waste my time!” Miranda yelled back, menacing behind the dark fur lining her pale eyes.

Ahzila often had nightmares of what existed in between Earth and Avurn. 

There were stories about how travel to Earth would send most species into a stretched, deformed spasm, their bodies lengthening and spiraling until they died, continuing to split, stretch, and spew, melting into pools of bile. 

That looking forward, you would see the back of your own head, and watch as every part of you collapsed to a fine line.

To be frank, Ahzila had not been to Earth and really didn’t want to do it at any point in her life.

A soft and gentle chime filled the intercom speakers, offsetting Ahzila’s fear.

“Hello, passengers, we are making a slight detour! Do not be alarmed!”

“Detour!?” Ahzila hissed, “Like a Himalayan engineer would do anything off schedule!?”

“Stupid insolence! Just who do they think I am!?” Miranda growled, as the train bolted forward, sending both of the women towards the floor.

After an awkward moment of gathering their sea legs from the chaotic swing of the train, they rushed to investigate. Ahzila lead the way from cabin to cabin, aggressively swiping aside each train door with one hand wielding magic and the other hand wielding her knife.

“Move!” She demanded of the other passengers, who made a very wide girth with one glance at Sempiternity.

“It’s South Sector terrorists, I know it!” Said a hairless Laquem, who encapsulated a Laquem’s energy in how he felt so eager to give out his unsolicited opinion. “Are you going to bribe them off again?”

“Maybe it’s lizards!” Shrieked another cat, covered in beige fur and a long scarf, “I heard they’re all over on Earth.”

“There’s no such thing as lizards! No such thing as mute magic!” Miranda barked at her. “Ahzila, open the conductor's door, I want to speak to them directly.”

The Himalayan breed of cats were a more recent human breed and didn’t trust magic, instead they shunned robes and chose to stay on all fours. 

This meant many important and systemic things. But to Ahzila, it only meant that she could always beat them. She was over 10 times their weight, and so was her magic.

The door was flung back on it’s hinges under her spell, and the cats inside the conductors cabin reacted in a frenzied panic, darting across the floor from one computer screen to the other.

“Close the door behind you, Ahzila. I don’t want anyone else to overhear.” Miranda whispered.

Ahzila wished she could have stayed outside of the conductors cabin. Three walls inside the front cab had windows...

...and none of those windows had blinds.

There was a shade outside that was devoid of color, but it was was neither black or gray or white. It was a shade she had never seen before, and it was so bright, and so dark, that it hurt her eyes. Yet, she could not look away.

“Stop that!” Said a Himalayan persian in a little conductor hat who’s tail barely came up to her knees. He hit her legs with a rolled up newspaper. “You want to get Kingdom madness?”

“Hey! Do you have any idea who I am!” Ahzila complained.

“Yes pretty princesses! I know who you both are. But we aren’t in Avurn anymore, and I’m your Captain in charge—Conductor Moggie. You get your royal magicky magickness BUTTS back in that private cabin before I throw you out into the In Between!”

He was very commanding for a creature that was only about a foot tall. His siamese markings and persian fluff which covered his feet made him look like a floating cloud on the black carpet.

“Where are the tracks!?” Miranda hissed, pointing out the window through the front of the train. “How are we moving if there aren’t any tracks!?”

Moggie jumped up onto a control panel, pressing buttons adeptly while checking numbers and graphs across the dashboard computer screen. Several of the Himalayans were on beams across the ceiling, adjusting knobs and tapping on calculators with their chubby paws.

“There aren’t any.” Said Maggie bluntly. “We jumped the tracks.”

“Is that...normal?” Ahzila asked.

“No, Miss Vlumane! That is not normal! Thank you for asking!" Moggie said sarcastically, "But we are Himalayans! We are the masters of science! We are smart and resourceful so don’t you worry! 

"And, in case you are worried, we do carry a crash and safety pamphlet under your seats—which you cannot access because you’re in the wrong damn cabin!” Moggie reminded them.

“Great.” Miranda answered, “Can science tell me what’s outside the window right now?”

Several train wheels floated gently outside the window.

“Mmrrow Fft!” Moggie cursed, as all four of his feet left the counter. Miranda and Ahzila also felt the ground leave their feet as they began to hover towards the ceiling, surrounded by fluffy Himalayan Persians in 360 degrees.

“...and there goes the gravity...” Moggie hissed.

“We’re all gonna die!” Cried a little Himalayan, swimming behind Ahzila’s ear. “The pressure outside is going to tear apart the whole train! We’re spiraling out of control!”

“WHO has taken over my train!” Miranda shouted, “I’ll skin you, dye you, and sell you as fur mumus if you don’t tell me what is happening right now!”

Moggie was ignoring them, typing into keyboards and swimming up to controls and levers on the ceiling.

“Fire the exhaust thrusters!” Moggie hissed, “Destroy the engine! Put every last watt into the remaining wheels! We need to gain speed or we’ll never break through!”

“Break through what?” Ahzila asked, horrified of what that inferred. “Break through WHAT!?”

“And if we don’t break through, at least we’re gonna go in a blaze of glory!” Moggie smiled, his eyes full of vigor.

 Ahzila recognized that those were eyes of a man who enjoyed the In Between, a man who enjoyed the threat of adrenaline, a man who for the first time felt true joy when he flipped all of the gas towards the engine.

The speed hit her so voilently, she vaulted into the door, several Himalayans piling on top of her like a cascade of soft pillows with very sharp edges.

***

(I usually put a footnote image here but I'd have to sacrifice one of the art pics and I felt like using all 5 today)

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