Scarred

Chapter 47

Cassie's POV
"I hate to be that person, but how much longer is this train ride? I feel like I've been here for hours," Eva groans, stretching out across the chairs of the train. Alice laughs slightly as Eva rests her head on her lap.
"It's only been a few hours, y'know," she replies, "It's going to be a long journey, did you take a book to read?"
"No... that's the one thing I forgot to take."
"That's unfortunate for all of us then, you're just gonna keep bugging us without something to read," Flynn chuckles as Eva shoots him a glare.
"If I had any, I'd offer you one. You'll just have to deal with the boredom like the rest of us," I say.

She lets out a sigh as Cas settles on her stomach in his dragon form. Lazily, she reaches to him and begins stroking his head, something he seems to enjoy quite a bit. Sammy laughs at the silly, yet somewhat heartwarming, sight of the two of them, it seems they haven't changed all too much during this time.

"I am excited to see Maven and James again though, James especially. I've seen him once since the fire and that was when I found out he was alive... Did you know about him, Sammy? Wait, of course you did, you told Maven in the end."
"Yeah... I promised James years and years ago that I wouldn't tell anyone, which felt particularly horrible when Maven broke the news to you," she mumbles.

"It's weird, we've seen him more in the past few years than you have," Hunter mentions, nudging me lightly. "Who'd have thought that the little niece he mentioned every now and then would be the little shit that is you."
"Shut up," she hisses. "You're no better, I think we're equally as shitty." Alice gently bonks Eva on the head as a way to scold her for swearing, but Eva barely reacts to it, instead she sticks her tongue out at Hunter.

The journey itself has certainly felt long so far, I don't blame Eva for already being bored. Whilst I certainly don't feel as though it has been hours, the almost suffocating feeling of having basically nothing to do is more than just bothersome. Unsurprisingly, Eva's the most visibly bored. Staring dully, she twirls her finger, pink flames dancing around it and lighting up her eyes. Lucky is the only one of us with any form of entertainment, and even then, she seems to be getting tired of it. I suppose a book on potions can only keep you busy for so long when you can't actually make any of the potions they describe.

"We gotta change trains at the next station," Sammy says, glancing out the window. "You all got all your things? It's only a few minutes until the next stop."
"Everything's right here," Eva says, gesturing to the bags on the floor. "Food, some clothes, some other stuff. Oh, and some tents too." After Cas flutters off her lap, Eva jumps to her feet, grabbing her bags from the floor as she walks over to the door of the carriage. The rest of us follow, Alice gently pulling Eva's hood over her head as she stands behind her.
"Just to be safe, okay?"
"Alright," she smirks as the train begins to pull to a stop.

The station is relatively empty, a sign standing on the platform labelling this town as a place called Mafalia. It's quite barren, surrounded by fields, some empty and others filled with crops. It's the farmland of the country, of Lenox, that we don't usually get to see because of the fact we all live in the more industrial villages, towns and cities found by the capital. Though we certainly could be more advanced. After half listening to Eva rants about some of her favourite books that come from hundreds of years ago, it seems that at some point in history, our technology was sent decades, maybe even centuries back, and we're only just beginning to catch up.

Whilst it is different from all I've ever known, it's most certainly beautiful. No smog from the trains or even factories, a wide open space that allows you to look out across the whole sky, even some fenced off areas with farm animals walking around. There's an almost childlike excitement bubbling up inside me as I look at such a unique sight. It's not something I'm used to, and I should probably cherish this moment, this beauty, whilst it lasts. Because soon, I'll find myself in Syrin, a place I've been told over and over again is even worse than the shitty conditions of Meria, or any other Impure village near the capital.

Syrin's far away from the capital, in order to give that area a sense of cleanliness, and also in an attempt to avoid tarnishing the reputation of Pures even more.

"We'll have to hang around here for a bit. Not only because we've got a while until the next train, but also because I agreed to meet with a certain someone here," Sammy grins, walking ahead. "If any of you are hungry, we could find an area to eat."
"This place doesn't really seem like it would have many restaurants though," Lucky argues. "Unless we eat some of the food we packed - which seems like something we should try and save for Syrin instead - that's not really gonna work."
"Don't worry, there's a nice little pub around here," Alice mentions. "At least, there was during the war. I don't actually know if it's still here."
"Should be. I don't see why it wouldn't be open."

Eventually, we stumble across said pub to find it almost entirely empty except for one person sitting at one of the tables and the server waiting at the bar. Eva immediately walks over to the one at the table, lowering her hood as he smiles at her. "You look tired," James laughs as Eva drops down beside him.
"I am! It's so boring I think I'm gonna go insane," she sighs. "It's good to see you though, I thought we'd end up meeting you at Syrin though, not here."
"That was the original plan, but I didn't want to have to wait there for you... it's just that horrible..." he replies, glancing up as we walk over. "Alice... it seems your little girl's all grown up."
"She is, isn't she? It's been a while though, hasn't it? Just a month ago I thought you were dead," she laughs slightly. With a gentle chuckle, he hops to his feet, pulling Alice into a hug before beckoning Eva over. She gets dragged into the hug, grinning softly as James holds them both.

"Oh? I wasn't expecting you two to be here too," he turns to Hunter and I as the others take a seat at the table. "Guess you both got to meet Eva after all."

Before all this, I remember hearing stories from James about his little niece. The girl who died in the fire of Surrek. I didn't hear much more than just that, but I know Ada asked about her a lot. I never would've expected the girl he spoke about to be Eva, but I guess lots of things are unexpected. My blood being one of those things. Mum took the spell off, if I get cut at any point, the blood that will come out will be a colour none of us have ever seen blood be before.

"It's weird to think that you knew Eva all this time, if I had known that... well I dunno, it's just odd to think about," Hunter laughs. "And of course, there's the fact you know Maven too."
"Oh right, you two have met him. He's wonderful, isn't he?"
"Well there's no point asking, or course he is," Sammy grins, putting an arm around him. "Maven's the reason I left the dump that is Syrin in the first place. Well, sorta."
"He's certainly what made me realise that not all Pures are bad, even if I was suspicious of him at first."

Hunter and I join the rest at the table as James sits back where he was before next to Eva. She rests her head on the table, looking almost half asleep until James ruffles her hair. "I guess I was even worried about you at first, the idea of taking in a half blood was terrifying."
"Really? I don't remember you being at all antsy though," Eva replies, glancing up at him. "I guess I don't have much to go off though, one of my earliest memories of you was you swearing after stubbing your toe."
"Yeah... and then you began to copy me," he laughs. "Oh, I've got something for you Eva, might help fix that boredom of yours."
"Oh really?"

He pulls a book out of his bag, Eva's eyes widening the moment she sees it. Taking it from his hands, she opens up the front page, revealing two notes written in the inside cover. One from Maven, the other from James, both little happy birthday notes addressed to Eva. "You still have it? I thought it would've burnt in the fire," she murmurs. "I never even got to finish it, I couldn't find it no matter how much I searched."
"And now you get to finish it. Think of it as an early birthday present."

As Eva looks down at the book, I see a glimpse of the passionate bookworm that I first met before all this royal business. Although Eva hasn't changed drastically, seeing the passion and joy sparkling in her eyes as she examines every inch of the book is something that's almost comforting. Any book I've seen her read as of recent has been about spells, I don't think she's gotten to read for her own pleasure for a few weeks.

"Thanks James."

Nova Note:
:3
They're all cute I love them
Also I made some edits to a previous chapter (chapter 23??)
The one in Hunter's POV
It links more to an interaction he and Eva are going to have later on in the book
It's a little foreshadowing??
Not really foreshadowing but like, a mention of it beforehand

K bye