The Last Heretic

THE BIG CITY

Evelyn stared out of the small, porthole-like window in the side of the traincar as it slowly crawled to a stop at the station. It lurched ever-so-slightly as it finally came to a complete halt. Other passengers were already fetching their luggage, eager to disembark the train and continue their journey to wherever they were destined. The older woman sitting next to the girl glanced over to her protege as she stared out the window enthralled by curiosity.

"Come on." Jillian mumbled, "We only have an hour."

The woman stood up and grabbed her duffle bag from the overhead storage bin and heaved it over her shoulder. The bag weighed more than the woman, but the girl could barely even tell given how easily her mentor held it. She looked like she was holding a handbag. Hardly a muscle used.

"So this is St. Bastion?" Evelyn asked, her gaze returning to the window.

"Yup. Welcome to the capital, my dear."

Evelyn's eyes sparkled at the bustling crowd of travelers outside her window impatiently waiting to board the packed train. There was a dizzying amount of people out there huddled about in the massive and multi-levelled train station. So many of them...so many different faces. The Rukkin islander catfolk, the Vorsun dogs of the north, the scaled Solladin lizardfolk from the west, and the Efrana men and women - the natives of the region long before it was called Muilur. The latter people looked just like her and Jillian - no scales, no fur, and no tails. Where were they all going? Some visiting family? Others traveling for work? Some of them looked like they had packed their entire lives in their bags. Entire families stood outside the train ready to travel to who knows where. The flames of the hundreds of oil burner lights dotting the walls of the massive train station danced their yellow glow upon all their faces.

The woman gently slapped her shoulder, "Let's go."

The train hissed at the two of them as it vented excess steam from deep within its pipework, greeting their first steps into the capital city of Muilur with a humid and sticky cloud of heated water vapor. Evelyn glanced up at the massive cast iron chandelier above them with its dozens of candle flames basking their gentle yellowish-orange glow across the four-story walls of the station. If a train went from one point of Eulan to the opposite end of the continent, it would stop through the magnificent capital. This place was the trade-and-transport heart of Muilur...the heart of all of Eulan itself, maybe. And the tracks were its blood vessels stretched out to all corners of the continent.

Jillian immediately strode into the packed train station. She effortlessly weaved through the crowds of people with the ease of a professional shadow. The girl jogged behind the woman, her shoes quietly tapping along the tiled floor as she looked around in absolute awe of the sheer scale of the station. The ceiling rumbled as another train crawled to a stop a floor above them. The hustle and bustle of the crowd of travelers was deafening - like the roar of a storm barreling through trees. The largest train station on the continent felt oddly familiar to the girl, but she brushed away the feeling. She had never been there before despite what her gut was trying to tell her. After the last few months of rigorous training with her mentor she was more than eager to finally see the big city. It was everything she had hoped it would be and more. They hadn't even left the station, yet.

Jillian walked out of the many revolving doors of the train station's main entrance and up to the horse-drawn carriage waiting for her on the curb of the busy sidewalk. The night outside was as cold as it was dark and every other passerby was tightly bundled in their jackets and scarves - except for them. The two of them hardly even felt the cool night air. Evelyn glanced at the passing horse-drawn carriages rumbling down the cobblestone roads, guided only by the lights of an uncountable number of street lamps calmly burning their oil wicks. She accidentally bumped into the woman. Jillian ignored her protege and turned towards the dark horizon to her left with a tired sigh. The calming blue aura of the approaching morning was starting to show its eager colors. The sun would be up in less than an hour; they were making terrible time.