The train carriage groaned with every rail joint it crossed, the clinking of metal and the rhythmic thudding of the steam engine weaving together into a monotonous melody Dex had been listening to for the past three hours. He sat tucked in the corner by the window, watching vast wheat fields slowly dissolve into forest.
It had been a long time since he had ventured this far from the library. Four years spent within those walls, yet somehow he was already missing it. Time truly was a strange thing.
He had no particular destination in mind, and he did not care. What mattered was to keep moving, to keep exploring, just as he had set out to do.
"Excuse me, may I sit here?"
Dex glanced up from his thoughts. A young man around his age stood in the narrow aisle, carrying a leather bag that looked worn but carefully tended. His hair was a messy light brown, as though he had just rolled out of bed, yet his eyes were sharp and alive with curiosity.
"Go ahead" Dex shifted slightly toward the window.
The young man settled in carefully, resting his bag on his lap. From inside it, he drew out a thick book with a battered cover, the title faded to the point of being almost unreadable. 'Magic and Sword.'
An awkward silence stretched between them. The train filled it generously, the rhythm of wheels on rails, the hiss of escaping steam, the occasional long wail of the locomotive's whistle. Dex returned his gaze to the window while the young man lost himself in his book.
"Strange, isn't it" the young man said suddenly, eyes still fixed on the page.
"What is?" Dex asked without thinking.
"People are always talking about their power. But the moment someone asks where that power actually comes from, they go quiet. As if it were just something that had always been there, no explanation needed"
Dex glanced at him. An odd thing to say to a stranger. "So where do you think it comes from?"
"Hard to say. Perhaps from a creator. Perhaps from the laws of this world itself" The young man finally looked up, his brown eyes meeting Dex's. "Either way, no one has ever truly figured it out. Ah, but where are my manners. My name is Van. Van Aurelius"
"Dex. No family name" He left it at that, deliberately.
Van offered a faint smile.
"If you don't mind me asking, where are you headed?"
"Nowhere in particular. Just wandering" Dex said quietly. "What about you?"
"No idea. I go wherever something interesting takes me" Van closed his book slowly. "Perhaps that's exactly why we ended up on the same train, in the same carriage. Some people would call that fate"
Dex raised an eyebrow. A suspiciously poetic thing to say from someone he had known for all of five minutes.
There was something in the way Van spoke that tugged at something familiar. Not because Dex had met him before, but because there was a certain resonance in his tone, something Dex recognized without being able to name.
"Do you always read books like that?" Dex asked, nodding toward the volume in Van's hands.
"A book is a window into someone else's mind. Honestly, sometimes it's more comfortable in there than inside your own head." Van opened it again, idly turning pages. "What about you, what do you enjoy?"
Dex thought for a moment. "Adventure, I suppose. Though I'm not entirely sure that's the right word"
"Adventure? Are you looking for something?"
"You could say that"
"Looking for what?"
Dex turned back to the window. The pine forest had given way to rocky hills glowing amber in the afternoon light. "It would sound strange if I said it plainly. If I had to put it into a single word, that word would be a story"
Van laughed softly, warmly, not a trace of mockery in it. "Yes, that does sound rather strange. But still, it's good to have someone worth talking to on a journey like this"
Dex reached into his bag, pulled out a piece of bread, and offered half to Van. Van accepted it without hesitation.
"It's a funny thing, finding someone you can actually have a conversation like this with, in a place like this"
"You're the one who started it" Dex bit into his half.
"But that's just it, life is funny that way. We build strength to protect the weak, and that same strength makes us the threat. We chase happiness, only to feel hollow when it slips away. We try to understand the world, and the more we learn, the more we realize how much we don't know"
Dex studied Van more carefully now. He spoke like someone who had lived through a great deal, yet everything about him suggested he was no older than Dex.
The train began to slow. Through the window, a station emerged from the distance, a red brick building beneath a rusted metal roof, chimneys breathing smoke into the sky above it. A large sign hung over the platform, painted in bold letters. 'MILLHAVEN.'
"Getting off here?" Van asked.
"Looks that way" Dex reached for his small bag, the only thing he carried apart from the clothes on his back.
"Mind if I join you?"
"Why?"
"No particular reason. I genuinely don't know where else to go." Van slipped his book back into his bag. "And besides, you look like someone who's about to stumble into something worth seeing"
"You don't even know me"
"Nobody knows anyone at the start" Van stood as the train rolled to a stop.
They stepped off together into the flow of dozens of other passengers. The station hummed with life. Vendors called out over each other, porters darted between the crowds with luggage balanced on their shoulders, and miners trudged past with dust-grey faces and heavy feet.
The air of Millhaven tasted of iron and coal smoke. It was a city in full stride, steam-powered machines clanking and hissing at every turn. The crack of hammers on iron rang out from all directions, tangled with the shouts of workers and the shriek of arriving trains.
"Busy place" Van said, taking it all in.
They made their way out of the station and onto the main road, which churned with activity. Steam-powered vehicles crept through the press of pedestrians, their small chimneys breathing pale smoke into the air alongside horse-drawn carriages and the occasional steam bicycle rattling past.
Shops crowded both sides of the road, most of them dealing in mechanical tools, shimmering energy crystals, and components for steam-powered equipment. Oversized advertisement boards loomed at every corner, proclaiming 'The Latest Steam Engines!' and 'Premium Mana Crystals, Unmatched Quality!'
"Look at that" Van pointed toward one shop in particular, visibly busier than the rest. A sign above its door read 'GRIMOIRE & GEAR - Everything the Adventurer Needs.'
"Want to go in?" Dex asked.
"Not necessarily. But probably yes, once we're inside"
Inside, adventuring equipment filled glass display cases from wall to wall. Swords humming faintly with Aura energy, staves tipped with crystals that pulsed with quiet light, bows reinforced with Mana-forged components, and a collection of curious accessories whose purpose Dex could not begin to guess.
"Welcome in! Looking for anything specific?" A middle-aged man with thick-rimmed glasses and an impressive mustache called out from behind the counter. His leather apron was generously decorated with oil stains.
"Just looking" Van replied, eyes already wandering the shelves with open delight.
The shopkeeper gave a friendly nod and returned to his other customers. Dex drifted through the space, listening. Most of the customers were adventurers or tradespeople with specific needs, and their conversations carried easily across the room.
"This whole thing is infuriating. Because of those Tarot people, we lost gear we spent months collecting" one customer was saying to another.
"Forget it. We also have them to thank for staying out of prison. The guards were too busy with them to bother with us"
"You know something about tarot?" Dex asked to Van.
"A little. It's an extraordinarily rare kind of power, complex and dangerous in equal measure. As far as anyone knows, only the organization called 'Eden' has ever used it." Van glanced toward the shop entrance, where a pair of guards were making their rounds outside. "There's also a rumor going around that they're planning to move against the princess, who's apparently due to visit this city soon"
The corner of Dex's mouth lifted. Perhaps coming to this city had been the right call after all.
"Sounds like things are about to get interesting" Dex murmured.
"Do you have to smile like that when you say things like that? It's unsettling"
"Don't be so dramatic" Dex said, amused.
After Van made his purchases, they left the shop and wandered deeper into Millhaven's streets.
The sun was leaning westward now, drawing long shadows from the industrial buildings on either side. The crystal lamps along the road had not yet been lit, though a few shopkeepers had already set oil lamps glowing in their windows against the coming dark.
Dex kept walking.
Night settled in gently, and one by one the crystal lamps blinked to life along the road. Millhaven shed its daytime skin, the noise and dust of an industrial city giving way to something slower and quieter. Smoke from the factory chimneys drifted upward, weaving a thin haze across the stars.
"I'm starving" Van announced, his stomach making its opinion known at almost the exact same moment. "Shall we find somewhere to eat?"
"Good idea"
They found a small eatery wedged into a street corner, the kind of place that existed to feed tired workers at the end of a long day. Simple and unpretentious, with wooden tables and chairs worn smooth from years of use. The few people inside ate quietly, conserving whatever energy they had left. The smell of spiced broth and roasting meat reached them before they even stepped through the door.
They took a corner table, half-hidden from the rest of the room. Van drew out his book again and opened it somewhere in the middle, reading a passage aloud under his breath. "Strength without wisdom is destruction. Wisdom without strength is helplessness. But silence... silence is where the two find each other"
"You're fond of quotes like that?" Dex asked, watching the server move between tables.
"Quotes are just other people's words for things we haven't managed to say ourselves yet. And sometimes, a little encouragement borrowed from someone else is exactly what you need"
The food arrived. A deep bowl of warm soup with generous cuts of meat and vegetables, and a round of bread still steaming from the oven. They ate without needing to fill the silence, listening instead to the distant rhythm of steam engines and the low murmur of conversations from other tables.
And for the first time since walking out of the library, Dex felt something settle quietly inside him. Perhaps leaving had been the right decision after all.