While Misty dangled from Ahzila’s grip on her collar, Conductor Moggie chimed in over the intercom speaker. 

Both of them paused mid argument to look up and listen to the lively conductor. Moggie spoke in a charming sing song as if to brush aside that horrific experience the entire train just went through.

“Sorry about the delay, everyone!” He said, which was an odd choice of words.

“As if we didn’t nearly escape the dissolution of our cells in a botched jump through inter-dimensional space...” Miranda scoffed.

“We’ve powered up the backup engine and put on enough functional wheels, that after some taxiing, we should be back on the nearest tracks and en route to North Sector by lunch!” 

This was all he said before he locked every door from cabin to cabin.

Through the walls, they could hear murmuring resonate from rest of the passengers aboard. It was clear the engineers were giving them only one single option: which was to remain firmly seated, Princess or not.

“Where am I?” Misty scoffed as the sliding doors shut behind her. “Are you one of those monsters from before? Or a...Laquem?”

“Laquem? Ew! No, I’m a Vlumane. Look at me. I’m covered in fur.” Ahzila growled, dropping Misty quickly, as if she carried a disease. “Laquems are hairless! I can’t believe this is happening. She thinks I’m a damn Laquem!”

Miranda laughed into her paw at the thought, “You could’ve been a Laquem if your Mother married better.”

“You-! Wait! Wait, did he say lunch!?” Ahzila piped, slapping her own head. “The test! I won’t make it for the test! Because of this stray-on-the-train ending to this stupid as hell mystery, my entire life is over!”

“You wouldn’t have passed anyway, girl.” Miranda sniffed as Ahzila swung her elegant knife directly into a plastic seat.

“Excuse me!” Misty hissed from the back of her throat. “In case you are completely blind, my friend is dying and I need help! Do you know of a vet!?”

Ahzila and Miranda paused and contemplated the dying boy. Carefully, only using the tips of their fingers, they moved the jacket covering his body and winced.

“Oh! Azmriz covering his whole side! He won’t make it, dragging a whole train with magic!” Miranda wondered, seeing how his fur was burned with deep gashes.

“How did he know a spell like that to begin with?” Ahzila scoffed.

Misty wasn’t sure what they meant. Magic spells were fairy tales. But so was the massive creature that burnt them alive, so she decided it would be hypocritical to argue about it.

“Can you help him?” Misty asked, getting straight to the point.

“Oh.” Miranda sighed, looking back at Misty as if she were only a little girl. Miranda even changed the cadence of her voice to that slow whisper that Mother’s do for babies.

“Dear, I’m afraid your friend is already gone.”

“He’s not! He’s still breathing! I know you can help him!” Misty begged.

“Stupid test...Stupid train...” Ahzila hissed, collapsing into a plastic seat away from them and leaning over her arms. She massaged a headache above her spotted brow, her thoughts far beyond whatever was happening in front of her.

“A shame.” Miranda sighed, placing the jacket back over Brinkley. “He’ll have died before telling us how he did it.” Miranda sat down in her same seat as before, shuffling her robe so it draped pleasantly to the side.

Misty could not understand it. This was the most important thing in the world to her, so she could not believe that this wasn’t the most important thing in the world to either of these fools.

But, there was something else that Misty could do, a terrifying thing that Brinkley told her so many times she should never do. But, it was there, in the back her mind. A doorway that she could open, a click in the back of her neck that let her fall in a type of woken slumber.

She felt her vision flood with deep red, a color she could only describe since no one else she knew could ever see it.

Although her thoughts were focused on tests and work, Ahzila saw Misty’s eye color change. Slowly, Ahzila raised her gaze, and her own eyes filled with dread as the small house cat leaped from the floor and onto Ahzila’s chest. Their brows touching, Misty’s eyes were no longer that forest green, but filled with a deep red glow, like a waning fire.

There was something else behind her gaze, a voice that could speak beyond their hearing.

“Tell me where this train is taking me.” Misty said, in that horrible speech that made Ahzila’s eyes water.

Ahzila felt her neck compress, as if she were falling into a deep sleep. She felt a vibration on throat, as her own voice spoke back without her compliance.

“Avurnnnn.” Ahzila said in a drone before she snapped out of it, slapping Misty away from her. “You Mchrow Mrea demon!” Ahzila cussed, “What Mrrow Fft was that!?”

Miranda sat up in her seat, now fully intrigued, but not scared of the strange magic she just witnessed. Ahzila had never seen anything like it, but could tell that Miranda recognized the craft from somewhere. A true smile started to form around Miranda’s muzzle, a sparkle in her sky blue eyes.

“Well?” Ahzila asked Miranda. “What’s going on? How does some stray know how to do that? What even is that!?”

“What is Avurn?” Misty asked. “Is it Heaven or something? Did I die?”

The train jostled, finding tracks, and starting to gain speed. The smell of the cabin started to change as it felt like they were ascending towards the sky. Or perhaps it was down, deep into the Earth? Misty was unsure, as the horrifying howl of a jet engine roared from beneath her.

“Heaven...” Miranda wondered softly, used to the sound of the train’s movements. “Isn't that some human afterlife? I don’t understand.”

“Some human word.” Ahzila answered, “You think I know it, either? I say we tell the conductor to drop these brats off at Earth and to think twice the next time they want to abduct the heir to the throne!”

Ahzila pointed at Miranda with the knife, not as a threat but as a symbol. It wouldn’t matter if Sempiternity touched Miranda’s side, it could not hurt her.

Miranda was so powerful that barely anything could give her Azmriz, besides Elemen himself. Which was part of the problem with taking that particular throne that Elemen guarded over.

“No one sits on that throne.” Miranda said, with a twitch in her eye, “Lets not say things we can’t take back.”

“You’re right.” Ahzila sniffed, “To say ‘heir’, is to suggest that you don’t already have it.”

“No one sits on the throne.” Miranda repeated forcefully, a hint of fear behind her words.

As if to change subject, Miranda focused back at Misty, contemplating something as she watched the alley cat trip drunkenly on her own two feet. It was not just from the change of pressure from the moving train. She was visably dizzy from magic.

“That seems to take a lot of energy out of you, little one.” Miranda noted.

“I’m fine.” Misty hiccuped, sitting on her haunches when the car shook. This made her feel even more nauseated. She could taste vomit on the bottom of her throat.

“Ahzila. Give him this.” Miranda snapped her fingers, and a glass vial of amber liquid fell into her palm. Ahzila jumped up quickly as if it were a grenade.

“Are you completely insane!?” Ahzila cried. “Is that what I think it is!?”

“Are you really that naive?” Miranda sighed.

“Potion cats!? Really? You just have a vial of whatever the hell that is on you? Like what does that even do? That’s potion cat magic!”

“It cures Azmriz.” Miranda told her. “This is no ordinary situation, Ahzila, you saw it yourself. We need the boy alive.”

“We are at war with Potion cats. They want to kill you, what makes you think that this potion isn’t full of poison?” Ahzila paced, absolutely betrayed. “You’re supposed to be the smart one, Miranda!”

“I trust who made this for me.” Miranda said confidently, “She needs me alive.”

“A potion cat killed my Aunt, you know that. Just from shaking her paws! They kill gentry all the time! I’m not touching that thing!”

“I’ll do it, then.” Misty insisted, trying to hold Brinkley’s head so it wouldn’t bang on the cold floor as the cabin swayed, “I’ll do it instead, whatever it is.”

“So you want your friend to die?” Ahzila huffed, “I know we just met but trust me, whatever is in that vial is going to kill him because it was meant for HER!” She pointed at Miranda, who didn’t respond. With a glance towards Misty, it was clear that Miranda was leaving it up to the little alley cat to decide what to do.

“It’s better than doing nothing.” Said Misty, “He’s in pain, please!”

Miranda nodded and kneeled next to their side. She poured some of the thin liquid on the burns and then the rest down his throat. It smelled sweet, like citrus and lemongrass. Brinkley coughed in response, seemed to relax a little bit, but the burns did not seem to change otherwise. For a magical ingredient, it didn’t seem that incredible.

Ahzila stood in the darkest corner of the train, not giving either of them eye contact.

“Well, is it working?” Misty asked Miranda.

“Let’s just say it’s not poison.” Miranda answered. “I was told this was the best potion for Azmriz there was, but apparently whatever spell this boy did was beyond even that.”

“So...it didn’t work?” Misty shuddered.

“It took some of the pain away, at least.” Miranda confirmed. “I’m sorry about your friend.”

Misty held Brinkley’s paw over her own, but he didn’t return the grip. He seemed too far gone to know she was there, his breathing shallow and cold.

“Did you keep that potion around because you’re worried about Elemen?” Ahzila asked Miranda in a whisper, so as no to bother the moment between Misty and Brinkley. Miranda didn’t answer, instead she looked back down at the two stray cats. Her eyes were filled with concern, but hardly compassion.

“Ahzila, take her friend to a bird.” Miranda decided.

“A Sugarbird!” Ahzila growled, pacing again out of stress. “We’re going to waste all that money on a stray!?”

“See if he can keep the boy alive long enough to talk.” Miranda told her pointedly.

“Are you mad!?” Ahzila hissed.

“Just do as I say.” Miranda locked eyes with Ahzila’s, and while her gaze didn’t have the strange hypnotic force that Misty had used, it was far more effective. Ahzila bit her tongue and bowed to her uncrowned queen.

“Yes, Miss Hanshicock.” She hissed.

There would be no test. No certification for any new job. There would be no way out. Ahzila was trapped now, as much as she ever was, within the claws of Avurn.