[quote=@Wayward][color=gray]Fascinated as she was, Toni couldn't help but question the need for such a laboring journey. If the tree produced the medicine that could cure the disease, why not have something made in Oaken? Would the machine even travel well through the Corridor? Could the Rue harm it and the tree it was preserving? 

..."There's something here," she said to the others. She stood upright and pointed towards the tracks. There, the red lights of the incoming train illuminated the forming mass of thick, dark mist. It was larger than the Rue she had seen in the past, it's fog-like form rising up to the height of two grown men. 

Toni looked to her new companions. "We may need to deal with this one."[/color][/quote]


[quote=@Mole][color=gray]“Yiya, wh-what is that?” Neomi asked as confidently as possible. She wasn’t sure why she had asked. The old lady had not seemed to notice it, but the question fell out of Neomi regardless. 

And then it hit her. She had seen something like this before. “Is… is that a rue?”[/color][/quote]


[quote=@King Cosmos][color=gray]She listened, then, as Yiya explained the purpose of her journey and her need for an escort. The plant the terrarium held was needed to cure her village of a Rue; the old woman didn’t mention any medicine, just that the plant itself would repel the Rue, which was strange. If the plant would protect her village, why would she need an escort to protect her from the Rue? Unless it only worked on that one kind of Rue? But then why did it sound like she expected it to draw other Rue to her to stop her from reaching her village?

...A hand moved to the holster under her coat and Sasha pulled free her father’s revolver. Holding it with both hands she aimed it at the shadow’s back, held her breath and pulled the trigger. It kicked in her hands, despite holding no bullets and produced a gunshot that only she, so far, had been able to hear.[/color][/quote]


In this standstill moment, the chandeliers trembled with the thunder of an approaching train. Red light bathed the concrete walls and floors in a murderous hue. Red glinted on Echoh's glass chamber, flashed in Yiya's calmly smiling eyes, and sparked on the barrel of Sasha's revolver. 

The thing on the tracks fizzled like a broken television screen. A smell of wet stone and hot metal permeated the stagnant air.

[i]click[/i]

Neomi and Toni only heard the empty click of the revolver echo in the hollow vaulted space, barely audible through the rising noise of the approaching train, though Sasha braced against the kickback jolt of a fired gun.

Toni and Sasha would see the shape vanish immediately: a puff of smoke dissipated. The prickling feeling on Toni's skin snatched away and was gone.

Only Neomi heard it scream. The curdling, high-pitched howl echoed through the hollow chamber, piercing her ears through the rumble and metallic shriek of the train that raced through the spot where the figure had been. The cry dimmed and silenced as the train came to a scraping stop and opened its doors.

[b]"That,"[/b] declared Yiya, gesturing with the small end of her cane, [b]"is a train, not a Rue. The looks on your faces -- I'd think you've never seen a [i]train[/i] before! Well, then, it's about time you all had a taste of the outside world, I see. Sasha, stand down and put that gun away: we're not going to shoot it, we're going to board it. Come along, then, don't be shy!"[/b]

Yiya had neither seen nor sensed anything of the figure on the tracks. To the old woman, her three new companions had become frightened of the demonic, snarling approach of the train. She couldn't blame Sasha for shooting at it: the engine of the Darklight train had been carved into the horrible visage of a gargoyle, its smiling stone jaws emitting the hellish red light that burned into the black corridors. Each train car behind it had been painted black and carved with intricate patterns and symbols, some of which Sasha, Neomi, and Toni might have seen before carved into the witch pilings that surrounded the city. The train was packed with every known ward against Rue that might interfere with the train or its occupants

The heavy reinforced doors slid open with a knock and a clang. The windows were black. The train cars were dark inside, dimly illuminated only by an eerie red light with no substantial source, the seats in rows of comfortable cushioned benches that seemed new and untouched. The train appeared to be empty of any other passengers.

Echoh crawled happily toward the train, spidering across the platform and ducking through the wide open door, where it crouched in a slightly wider area between the rows of seats. Yiya was slower, her kindly smile perpetually calm, her cane clacking on the floor. She was in no hurry, and the train appeared to wait for her.

At each end of the car was another reinforced sliding door that led across the connectors to the next car. The forward door would lead through one empty car before the engine. The rear door would lead back through three more empty cars behind.

Toni might feel another very faint brush against her skin, pulling from across the door toward the front of the train.

Sasha might see, in the corner of her eye, something dark flitting through the seam in the rear door.

Neomi might hear a small scratching noise, tiny as a mouse, underneath the floor. The traincar was sitting over the track where the shadowy figure had been shot.

[b]"I know you have questions."[/b] Yiya was still hobbling her way onto the train. [b]"We have a long time together for answers."[/b]