Toni turned quickly back to the window as Sasha began speaking. The still damp part of her sleeve streaked down the sides of her face, collecting more droplets before she set her arm upon her lap. She lost herself for a moment, peering through the glass into the cavernous tunnel way outside. For fleeting second she might have sworn to have seen whirling shadows forming, and taken a soft rapping against the side of her arm nearer the window. But when she turned back to speak of the feeling, she allowed herself to stay silent; she absorbed Sasha's words as she caught the tail end of what she was saying. [color=fdc68a][i]If one Rue getting shot in the forest kept the others away... then maybe...[/i][/color]

The cranking mechanisms of Echoh stole her attention. She didn't mind though; the thought that had been cut off wasn't one she cared to hold onto. She watched as the robot scuttled to the corner of the train car and slumped down. A sense of perplexity set in. She couldn't recall ever encountering a machine with so much personality. Keeping her eyes towards Echoh, Toni found her balance and walked to the corner, the conversation still registering behind her. Unsure of how to speak to a robot, she began to gesture like she was drinking a cup of tea. 

But hearing her name from Yiya's voice made her turn on the spot.

Without a hint of a moment from coming around, Toni's eyes locked with Yiya's. A tenderness and familiarity seemed to fill the space between them. In sensation like a wave rolling onto the shore, Toni felt herself looking into a mirror and realized that her eyes still had puddles building beneath them. Maintaining eye contact with Yiya, Toni lowered into a seat near Echoh. Revelations began crashing upon her with an almost tidal force. 

That the senses she caught from the Rue were their own emotions... that each one was entirely it's own, complex consciousness... that the emotions and energy she put out into the aether played a role in how the Rue behaved around her... 

These ideas had only grazed her thoughts before. Now they were cutting deep into her mind. If the Gold Cathedral was as wide a portal into the plane of the Rue, she wasn't sure she could control her feelings well enough to keep them docile. And if they were, in fact, the complicated, individual beings that Yiya claimed them to be... Toni looked around the train car, first eyeing Sasha and the gun she had fired at the Rue on the tracks. Then she glanced back at Echoh, and the Trailing Bird housed in the terrarium. [color=fdc68a][i]Is killing them even right?[/i][/color]

She slid lower into her seat and pondered on the thought for a while. 

Before much time had elapsed, the train passed into what felt like a completely different realm. The train whipped around a corner. The cool, dark colors from the cavern earlier gave way to a brilliant warmth of light. Shreds of the sun's rays pierced through the earth over their heads. The rocky spires upon the marble floor collected the rays and glowed like the lamplights back in Oaken City, even more so. It was little like Toni might have imagined the Gold Cathedral to be; in a way it was more brilliant. 

Toni pried out of her seat to inch closer to the window... 

The feeling set in... rather, the feelings. Pushing. Pulling. A split second of an easy caress. An experience of simultaneously bursting from the inside and being crushed from the out. How would she do what Yiya instructed with so much colliding with her from so many angles?

[color=fdc68a]"Woah!"[/color] Toni cried out as the train joltted up and off of the tracks and landed miraculously back into place. She looked out the window and gasped at the sight of dozens of shapeless dark clouds flying by the train. She took firm hold on the seat in front of her. [color=fdc68a]"We've got to do something!"[/color] She called out to the others. [color=fdc68a]"Stop the train? Is that safe, Yiya?"[/color]