SEVENTEEN GOING UNDER || k. brekker || CURRENTLY UPDATING

3.3

VICTORIA PREDICTED THAT this wouldn't end well. They were in the Fold, nothing ends well when it's to do with the Fold.

Metal clung outside the train as the Crows, plus Arken, were all seated in the train. It was silent, too silent. Normally Jesper would be making some joke, before Victoria would make fun of Jesper and the four Crows would end up in collected conversation. But that wasn't the case. Instead, Jesper kept fidgeting, Inej was looking around at the train's infrastructure, Kaz was keeping an eye on the build of it too - as well as the occasional suspicious glance at Arken, of course. Victoria, however, was constantly rubbing her fingers together to remind herself that there was no grimy skin against her hands, just worn leather. Her whole body seemed to be charged with nerves, shaking just a little too much for someone who's in something one of her kind created - surely this would feel like more of a home than any?

"What was that?" Jesper questioned cautiously, already reaching for his pistols.

"I've erected a system of timers along the line. Bits of metal hung on poles to keep me apprised of our pace." Arken informed, not at all fazed by the fact that they were in the Fold. The countless scars on his arm were explanation enough - he'd crossed more times that some of the Crows' years alive. Victoria had one singular scrawl across her arm from her one time crossing - she supposed it was a trophy for surviving. If they made it out alive, perhaps she'd scrawl a second.

"How did you know where to put the poles?" Kaz enquired quickly, staring straight ahead of him.

"Physics and engineering account for... most of my success." The Conductor informed, not looking up from whatever he was doing. Victoria, if she wasn't in such a state, would've quizzed him further. Or at least she thought she would have.

"And the rest?" Inej responded, looking from the ground up to Arken.

"What we might call divine intervention. What others might call luck." He told Inej, looking at her briefly. "And after all, the Fold is thick with volcra, and the tracks are not complete." Victoria shuddered at the word, sure she could feel them swarming closer as they continued through this hell, no - this was worse than hell. Upon hearing the tracks weren't complete, Victoria felt dread crawl over her and strangle her just like the volcra. They were surely about to die. And it would be in the Fold, of all places.

"Coal please." Arken gestured to Kaz as if it were nothing, before the sharpshooter spoke up in surprise.

"I'm sorry. Did you say the tracks weren't complete?" Jesper asked, fear now setting in his tone. Victoria's head sunk into her hands, though she tried to disguise the fact that it was fear. She didn't know what it looked like.

"I said they aren't complete." Arken corrected pedantically, looking at Jesper with a judging look.

"What? But-?" Jesper leant forward to question the situation, what good were incomplete tracks?

"Ah, ah, ah. No moving." Arken instructed, and Victoria's head snapped up as she was on her last slither of patience.

"We're a tad late. More coal." Arken told them and Victoria glared, and hoped that maybe Arken would stop talking such half-explanatory sentences.

"Back to the real issue. We're on tracks that don't connect to other tracks?" Jesper asked, trying to wrap his head around the seemingly ludicrous situation.

"This is a death sentence." Victoria muttered, wanting nothing more than to be out the damned Fold already.

"Yes, there's a gap but-" Kaz cut him off.