.·✧☆Stellarium☆✧·.

Chapter 6

Alexander, Train Ride Catastrophe | 3,104 words

The rhythmic sounds of the train are somewhat soothing as we take the train to P. Lucius. Contemplating the journey so far, kind of makes me shudder. This is my first mission I’ve been the main investigator on, and the lack of proper leads makes a jump like this risky. I knew in my own investigations the leads wouldn’t be as clear compared to training, but still. I can’t help but wonder if what we’re doing is so far off track that it’ll all be for nothing. I look behind me through the glass separator between seats, Nova became popular pretty much instantly. No wonder why though, she’s Nova and hasn’t ever left Stellarium. She’s talking with some sort of eccentric museum curator from Forra, and I don’t mean to eavesdrop or anything but they’re right behind me.

“What exactly is the collection you’re making about?” She asks him. “It’s about prehistoric history, myths and legends. I’m actually coming back from a deal, I got my hands on an ancient artifact telling a creation story from ancient Crystalians.” Nova nods along, “Which version of the story is it?” she asks. “It’s the western version of the story, with angels. That part isn’t the interesting bit though, it was found with strange engravings not seen before.” I tune them out, that stuff doesn’t interest me much.

Sybyll sits across from me with a map in hand, basically studying it. Her face is kind of scrunched in focus. “Hey, what are you doing?” I ask her, somewhat hushed. She lowers the map in her hands and looks up at me, “Are we sure this is the right direction?” I don’t want to lie to her, but it wouldn’t reflect well on me if I told her I wasn’t sure. Especially because I’m the one leading them. “We don’t know where else the target would have gone, but if we hit a dead end, it won’t kill us to go back,” This seems to calm her down a little bit. “It doesn’t seem like you know much about who we’re hunting, since you keep referring to him as ‘the target’ and such.” Well, yeah.

I have a mental image of him in my head, but I don’t know how accurate it is. I was told he’s a kid around our age, but I can’t help but think he's older than all of us on this trip. It’s hard to think someone who’s young and without a bunch of military experience could actually get away with a heist like that. “I wouldn’t mind having some more background,” I replied. “He used to work with me in the castle, I never really liked him though.” I tilt my head slightly, “Why?” I wonder. “He was friends with Nova, which isn’t a bad thing, it’s just that he would encourage her to make dumb decisions; irresponsible ones especially for someone of her importance. I caught him doing suspicious stuff sometimes, but he always had plausible deniability.” It makes more sense to me now, how it was pulled off. “I had a feeling he would cause something to happen to her, just not something as bad as this. Now we’re going on an international investigation to fix it.” I grab my notepad from my pocket, it details what I know about the case, and I write down the new information. “Can you give me his name? Or any aliases he might go by?”

“Yeah, his name is Arthur. I forget his last name, and to my knowledge he doesn't have any aliases.” The reply sparks something in my brain, I recognize the name I was given but I’m not sure from where. Maybe we had met before? It’d have to be at the party, but I spent most of the night with my father. I jot it down and get back to business, “Any known motivations?” she hesitates to think, “No, none that I know of at least.” The lack of information doesn’t make my job easier. “You’d have a better time talking to Nova, I think they spoke before he got away. It didn’t seem good though, so don't push it.” That's probably a good idea.

“You seem to really care about her,” I say. “It's my job, being her lady in waiting and all that,” she says rather frankly. “Yeah, sorry if I’m overstepping, but it seems like you two are friends beyond your job.” She breaks eye contact to look down at the map again, obviously not to keep charting our course. “We’ve known each other a long time,” her voice is more hushed than before, despite our already quiet tone. “I do care about her, but I need to keep our friendship professional. I’m sure you understand.” Unfortunately, I don’t really understand, but I still write down the important details. Though my curiosity is tugging at me, wanting to dig deeper into this, I decide to put a pin in it for now. I need to interview Nova herself, but it's going to be difficult to get close to her right now.

I go to gaze out the window of the train, the sky a deep blue and the stars prominent tonight. “What about you? What's your story Mr. Investigator?” Sybyll speaks up. “It's only fair since you got to learn about me.” While it is my job to ask questions, I don't stop her since we’ll be on this investigation for who knows how long. It's fair I guess. “Go ahead, what do you want to know?” She thinks for a moment, “Why did you choose to come along on this trip?” I sigh a little, “My father mostly, It wasn't a ‘there's only one man for this job’ situation.” my lips purse together in a slight frown before I continue. “I’m the youngest of four and the only one who decided against participating in the house profession. I need to be successful in this investigation to prove that I made the right decision.” I found I was unconsciously picking my nails while talking, and quickly put an end to it.

That's the short version of what happened, things are much too new to say more on it for now. It must be obvious I’m biting my tongue because I'm pretty sure Sybyll is looking at me a little funny. “I get having tension within family, I haven't spoken to mine in years.” my face relaxes from tension I didn’t even know it was holding, mostly from surprise and sympathy. “Don’t feel bad, they’re still alive and all that. I just haven’t been in contact with them.” I wonder a lot about that statement, we have to be in a similar age range. How young was she when contact was cut? “Can I ask why?”

“We just had our differences. It was mostly between me and my mom.” She seems unwilling to keep going down this thread so I change the topic. “Well, is there anything else you want to know about me?” she hummed and hawed for a minute or two, starting and stopping sentences when Nova came back over to sit with us.

“I hope you guys weren’t too bored without me.” Nova says to both of us. “There’s so much happening on this train! You two wouldn't even believe it!!” before anyone replies she continues. “There's a lot of Forrans here, one girl was heading back to her hometown because she’s getting married, and then there’s a museum collector, oh and–” Sybyll decides to cut her off before someone overhears and gets mad at her for gossiping, “Nova, not so loud please.” She gets more quiet, “Okay okay, sorry.” I decided to butt in here, “Actually, could I interview you to get more information on this case?”

“Oh, yeah, go right ahead,” She replies. “So the suspect’s name is Arthur, do you know if that's an alias or if he had any aliases?” she barely thinks about it, “No, I only knew him as Arthur.” On my notepad I jot down next to his only known name ‘possible alias’. “I heard that you two spoke in the confrontation, is there anything of note he said that you can think of?” It seems like her eyes light up at this. “Yeah, he talked about what he was doing being super important. He refused to elaborate on it though.” I make a small bullet point under his name, away from my notes from earlier that just read ‘-insane?’. “Any known motives? Did he have a vendetta? Was he known to be crazy?” Nova seems to kind of snicker at my questions, “Honestly, I have no idea why he did it. I at least thought we were pretty good friends before everything happened.” She gets this kind of far off look as she goes on. “He used to come to my combat practices to support me, and we had some pretty good times together just hanging out. I wonder now if everything was just a lie to earn my trust.” She doesn’t seem to be taking it well at all, stealing one of the most important historical artifacts from the royal family is one way to stop being friends with someone.

The train slows, I feel the deceleration and the movement of the wheels from the floor of the car. When I move the sheer curtains to look outside, however, I don't see the train station. We’ve stopped in the middle of nowhere on the tracks. There’s an audible thud that comes from the conductor’s cabin, we’re right next to it being first class. You could cut the tension in the air with a knife considering how skittish Sybyll and Nova are both being. They are sharing looks like they know something that the other passengers haven’t noticed yet, leaving me also in the dark. I'd be a liar if I said I wasn't nervous at the fact we’re stopped in the middle of nowhere, I’m just… feeling a little left out here. Footsteps on metal grow louder as a tall kinda lanky guy walks in with a striking look to him; dark hair, green eyes, and white freckles. He’s wearing a half-mask to obscure his face and a tattered tan jacket. And the other two look like they've seen a ghost.

The man brandishes a gun, and says “Put your hands up if you want to live.” Everyone, including us, obliges because what else do you do in this scenario? He walks right past us and grabs the museum curator by the collar of his shirt, putting the gun against the curator’s head, “Bring me to the artifact you’re transporting.” His look and voice are familiar to me, but I'm having a hard time placing it, even the name. I’m racking my brain trying to remember who this guy is. The curator and the guy get up, barrel against his head, and we watch him leave the train cart towards the back. “Alex, THAT is our target,” Sybyll whisper-shouts at me. My eyes widen and I glance around a little before responding, “He is?? HIM???” “Yeah I introduced you two at the party, don't you remember?” Nova asks.

Now, and only now, do I realize why he’s so familiar. “What do we do about it?” Sybyll asks. “Obviously we have to do something about it, he could kill someone,” Nova says. “We should catch him if we have the opportunity, we need information about what's going on,” I say, this could be a big break in the case. I'm still kind of thinking that he’s a little insane, but in the case that he isn’t (which admittedly grows more probable the more I learn), this could be important to figuring out what's happening behind the scenes. “We don't have our weapons, and he could come back at any time,” Sybyll replies. “Let’s get them now from the luggage rack and wait to hear what they're doing. We should wait and only run after him if the gun goes off to minimize damage, but if he comes back we should wait for him to turn his back.”

The other two understand, we grab our weapons and I try to calm some of the young kids who’ve started crying while we’re up. It’s not for long though, because we rush back to our seats when I hear his footsteps growing near. He’s still got the curator alive, and is now wearing a bag presumably containing the “artifact”. He walks right past us, again, thankfully not noticing we’re there. They walk right up to the front of the train. “Thanks for the gift, don't count on getting it back.” He says and pulls the trigger on the gun, barrel against the head of the eccentric curator. The gun clicks. “What?” he pulls the trigger again, the gun clicks. “The- the fucking safety,” he mutters to himself, this kid is pathetic.

Nova rushes in faster than I can register, leaving a trail of bright violet behind her, she tackles Arthur and sends the gun skittering across the floor. He falls against the wall, clearly dazed, and I take the gun which still has the safety on. “What are you doing here??” He says leaning against the front of the train car. “I could say the same thing,” she replies, and reaches to draw her sword. Arthur takes this opportunity to scurry off into the conductor’s cabin, both Nova and I rush after him, Sybyll staying behind to guard the door. Inside the cabin the conductor himself is splayed out seemingly unconscious on the floor, I make a mental note to check his vitals later. He’s standing cornered at the front, the mask he’d been wearing has now fallen off his face. Arthur scrambles and pulls the lever for the train, getting it moving again. “You need to stop getting in my way-” he’s cut off by Nova swinging her sword at him. He dodges this by getting the door to the outside to swing backwards, barely holding on to the inside before climbing up onto the roof.

“Get Sybyll, I’m going after him.” She says to me, and before I can tell her how it's a bad idea she's already nearly on the roof as well. I get back into the car to see Sybyll trying to calm the passengers, saying things like how It's “All under control” and to “Sit tight” to varying degrees of success. Metal on metal from the ornaments on Nova’s shoes can be heard overhead as she sprints after him. “Sybyll, Nova’s gone after him, I’m going to need you as backup.” She nods and heads off with me. “What should I be doing?” She asks as I check the pulse of the conductor on the floor– he’s just passed out. “I’m going to find a way to capture him. I need you to wound him at long range, but not kill him.” She looks at me kind of funny, “don't you have a long range weapon?” “It's too risky, I have a shotgun and some hatchets. I don't want to hit Nova or risk killing either of them.”

“And you think I would be better? Basically untrained with a crossbow!?” This definitely makes me reconsider for a moment, but it’s still the same conclusion. “Yes. Better a crossbow than my shotgun.” A noticeable grimace spreads across her face. “C’mon we can't just leave Nova to deal with this herself, we’re a team aren't we?” Her face softens, “Okay I’ll do it.” But it’s still noticeably unhappy. I help her onto the roof of the once again moving train before getting on myself. I see both Nova and Arthur in the distance, it looks like he’s trying to make his way to the back of the train and Nova is successfully pushing him back to the front. “Sybyll, aim for one of his legs. DO NOT, and I repeat, DO NOT shoot him in the torso. And just make sure it's a clear shot, if you are even a little unsure that you’ll hit me or Nova don’t go for it.” She seems to be a little overwhelmed by all the information, but we’re a little strapped for time right now so it’ll have to do.

I start to make my way towards them, it's harder to be sneaky while on top of a train because of the metal roof. Arthur doesn’t seem too observant though, because I still catch him by surprise. He halfway turns to look at me, and seems to try and say something but is quickly cut off by the train itself. There must be something wrong with the track because it starts wobbling, threatening to throw all of us off at a moment’s notice. Arthur falls onto me and I take the opportunity to use my arms to scoop him up by the shoulders. He starts kicking, flailing, and he's trying to throw his weight around to make me let go or else we would both fall off the train. I’m unfortunately struggling to keep him from throwing both of us off the train because he is way heavier than he looks. I’m forced to let go as my foot slips and I need to catch myself.

I do manage to claw my way back up to the top of the train, I look around to check if everyone is still on too. Arthur has started escaping again, it seems over for us honestly. The train roof was really a bad idea, this was too dangerous and we are out of our depth. Nova is knocked over and dazed, and I can't move fast enough to catch him. As I start to stand again, I hear him let out a cry and a thud rings out over the wind in my ears. I see the green blood before I see what happened, but on the backside of his calf he has an arrow wedged in there. Sybyll actually made the shot. Arthur flips his body to face us, making his way backwards where he fell by pushing on his heels and wincing in pain. His eyes flick around wildly when they catch on to something to the right. I look in the distance to see what he’s so focused on and it's the switch to change the track.

He extends a hand, and I try to get moving to stop that. His eyes flicker as he tries to use magic, Nova is closer and attempts to stop him herself. She lunges to move the hand or stop him from casting the spell, but it’s too late, and the train careens to the right.