On the iron road Second Ring

With her hand on the lever, Tharia felt hesitation. Given her track record, everything that could explode tended to do so when she was near. The goddess next to her had folded her arms and put on the usual stone-face expression.

The human girl made one last check of the controls. They really had been made for numbskulls like her. All she had to do was to regulate the pressure flow, uncouple the brakes, keep the temperature steady, maintain a proper speed, manage steam influx, keep about a dozen scales in mind and deal with more levers, valves, and mechanisms that she had ever heard about.

“There’s a slight chance this might explode”, Tharia said. Her mouth had twisted into a slight frown. Maybe it was stupid to do this after all. While her mind was hesitant, her hand suddenly jammed the lever forward.

“Explode?!” Annie called out.

“Maybe?”

No turning back now. With the lever in full, the scale suddenly jumped up all the way from the white part into the red. The boiler started hissing like an angry beast about to attack. Intense heat radiated into the cabin. Something was missing. Pressure control! With a yelp, Tharia reached for a valve off to the side. It had been marked as important, after all. Two turns and the train suddenly bucked in place.

“Fairy...”

Tharia bit her lip and pulled the lever back until it throttled back down into the white part of the scale. With that, she further opened the valve and this time, the train jerked into motion. Slow at first, it quickly gained speed. The main engine dragged them into the auditorium. She saw the room fly by outside and the machine still kept accelerating. Annabelle held onto a small metal bar, her hands white from clutching at it with all her strength.

“Early models had the idea to drive on literal explosions”, Tharia mused about something she had read in a book. Annabelle paled.

Slowly, Tharia inched the lever forward and watched the needle approach the green part of the scale. With each second, the train seemed to move smoother. More gentle. That is until it smashed straight into the ice wall on the other side of the auditorium. Chunks of ice flew past them on both sides of the train.

“Humans are insane”, Annabelle declared then and there.

“Well I love it and I’m fresh out of humanity”, Tharia said and grinned.

Centrifugal forces tugged on her stomach as the train leaned into the various turns of the iron road. It bucked once more and then everything went dark around them. The darkness lasted for an entire minute during which the sound of the engine and Annabelle’s quiet cursing were the only sounds to be heard.

A sudden plume of snow marked the end of the tunnel. The large machine trailed a minor snowstorm. Tharia pressed her nose against the window. Shapes and blurs were all that remained of the houses near the iron road. With a steady pace, the train raced along the tracks and soon followed it above the rooftops onto a high-road of iron.

The observatory stood proudly in the distance. It consisted of three metal domes on a movable platform. Gears and mechanisms almost as large as the observatory encapsulated the hill the building stood on. Looking back, she saw the storm Annabelle had talked about. To Tharia it looked like a burial veil had been draped over the capital. Thick clouds reached all the way down to the ground.

“Maybe it’ll kill the golden fields for us, eh?” Tharia said. With no reply, she turned around and saw Annabelle fast asleep in a corner of the train. The human girl smiled for a bit and then went back to watching the capital race by. With the steady rhythm of the train, she had to fight the urge to sleep as well.

Tharia suddenly jerked up. So much for that. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes when she took a look out the window. If she had seen the largest of monsters, it wouldn’t have shocked her as much as the darkness around them. Barely any light reached into the train. She hurried to the window, careful to not stumble over the sleeping Annabelle and pressed her nose against it. There was about a meter of sight and it was filled with hail, snow, and rain all at once.

It hammered against the metal shell of the train while gusts of wind threw themselves against their vehicle. All of a sudden she was very glad that they weren’t out in that nightmare. As if on cue, the train groaned and Tharia got the feeling they were losing speed.

“Oh, come on, I didn’t even speak it out loud!” she grumbled and ran towards the instruments and levers. Her eyes could barely make them out in the twilight of the weather. Tharia didn’t need eyes for this, the heat radiating out from the boiler had dropped significantly.

“Is there a problem?” came Annie’s sleepy voice, “We’re going to explode, aren’t we?”

“Don’t give me this shit... sorry. The engine is choking on the weather”, Tharia grumbled and hammered her hand against the metal in abject frustration. With a stutter, the engine hissed a swansong. It lasted but a few seconds, before it all gave out. When the train stopped, Tharia locked the brakes and then fell down on the ground.

“Alright, we’re going to need your brains on deck for this”, she said to Annabelle with a smirk the girl probably couldn’t even see in the dark, “Now that the engine is out, this will freeze out quickly. We need a decision. One of them is to hold out as long as we can. The weather might pass us by”

Tharia shuffled over towards the silent Annabelle and nudged against her before she continued laying down the options.

“With our luck, we’re looking at weeks of this weather soup. Alternatively, we go out there and continue on foot. We’ll be freezing in no time. I can heal most of the damage but it would be a slow drain, plus you would have to carry me”, Tharia continued and sighed.

“We could hide in my domain”, Annabelle said.

“That’s another option. Aye. How long can you keep it active?”

“I... don’t know”, came Annie’s answer.

“So for all intents and purposes, we have to assume it’s the same as holding out here”, Tharia rubbed her nose, “With Sisi here, we’d just stuff her into the boiler and watch her go. I kinda miss the little cranky thing”

Already, the cabin started to become cold. Tharia closed her eyes and let her mind wander. There were tiny flames in the storm. Creatures that zipped around in this weather were decidedly on her list of things to avoid. If only she still had that cloak. Tharia had no idea when or where she had lost it. Last she remembered, it had happened just after she went over the edge and she hadn’t been in her best mind then. It most likely was still in that Zeughaus.

“We go out”, Annabelle suddenly said and stood up. The human girl found herself pulled onto her legs as well.

“We’ll freeze out there”, she pointed out.

“Inside as well. I’ll die running, not sleeping”, Annabelle said with a grunt.

That was a thought the human girl could get behind. She nodded and then gave a confirmative sound. It didn’t take long to collect their things. For the last time, Tharia placed her hands against the metal up front in an attempt to soak up a bit of warmth.

“First part of the trek, I’ll try walking on my own. But when either of us needs healing, the best I can do is an awkward stand, so past that, I’ll have to burden you”, Tharia declared.

Her hands touched the metal door leading outside. She took one last breath and then tried to open it. A moment later, she leaned her entire weight into it but the sheer force of the wind pressed it shut. Only when Annabelle too kept pushing against it, did it open a hint. Painful frost reached through her clothes. They both pressed their weight against the door until the wind suddenly took care of the rest. It tore it from their hands and smashed it into the metal.

Outside, a cacophony of noise assaulted her senses. The hail caused an endless drumming sound while distant thundercracks rumbled without end. Tharia suddenly smacked her head.

“We need to move fast”, she shouted over the infernal sound, “When lightning comes, the elevated lightning bridge will mate with the storm – and us in-between”

When the girl stepped out of the train, the sheer brunt of the weather hammered down on her lithe body. The hail felt like punches, the rain got through everything and the snow seemed to freeze on contact. She used the orientation of the train to pick a direction and then leaned her body weight into the storm. Annabelle followed close by.

It took all her strength just to move a few meters. Each gust of wind threatened to throw her off the tracks. There were times when Annabelle had to hold her to prevent her from falling. Her senses started to numb.

“Dear fate, I’m happily tempting you now. It would be an absolute nightmare to have a warm summer day right about now. That would be the worst!” Tharia whispered into the chaotic weather.

She noticed one of the flames dance around in the wind near them. By her estimate, it was about three or four meters out but she couldn’t see it.

“Company. Something is moving out there”, she screamed into the weather. Annabelle nodded in reply. That’s why it was particularly odd to hear the voice of Annie come out of the storm.

“Save me, help me”, it screamed, “they’re killing me. Fairy, help me!”

She whirled around and stared at Annabelle. The goddess shook her head and golden light manifested into a Scythe. Tharia squinted her eyes but there was no way they could see in the storm. The young woman moved right next to Annabelle and then lowered her voice somewhat.

“It’s those cloth-like things. I’m sure of it. Let me be your eyes”, Tharia said and Annabelle nodded. She gave her love enough space to assume a combat stance and then searched the sky for more of the tiny flames. Sure, she could knock them out with a lucky shot from her crossbow. No way one would reach its target in this chaos.

One of the flames darted for a spot just ahead. Tharia nodded forward and together, they approached it. The thing creature had hidden by wrapping around part of the iron road. It really was one of those things from the False-Star. At the best of times, this was a stupid idea for a predator. No one would mistake iron tracks for a person. At the current time, it was even worse an idea. The wind pulled the creature from the iron road. That’s when Tharia got a sudden and extraordinarily stupid idea. She gave Annabelle a sign to wait and then unsheathed her short-sword.

“Are you alright?” she mock-acted into the storm.

“Yes, I’m here”, the cloth-like answered, “Help me, quick.”

This was a game of hunting the hunter. Tharia walked close while giving her best impression to appear gullible and harmless. The cloth-like wrapped around the ground trying to do the same. Once Tharia was close, she instantly stuck her knife through where she assumed the eye to be. Her first stab missed, the creature suddenly unfurled and she stared directly at a singular eye with a mouth nearby.

Her second stab went straight through it. She waited until the flame went out and then picked up the creature. In the meantime, several more of the creatures had placed traps before and behind them. Several voices started to call out to both Tharia and Annabelle. Painful cries for help, begging for mercy with heart-wrenching intensity. How she hated those things. Tharia picked up the dead one and rolled it up, then stowed it in her bag.

“What the...”, Annabelle began but shut up when Tharia placed a finger against her lips. The goddess narrowed her eyebrows and then finally nodded. She probably didn’t understand her plant but she couldn’t very well speak it out in front of their prey. Tharia held up both hands and then held up nine fingers. That was her best estimate for what they would need.

The best part about being drenched in monster-blood was the warmth it momentarily gave. The worst part was everything else. Tharia looked like the stuff of nightmares, even though the weather managed to wash most of it off instantly. Over her back, she carried a total of fifteen cloth-like corpses. It hadn’t even been a battle. Annabelle stared holes into her back as Tharia headed back to the train.

“Keep any more of them away from me. Let me work, I’m getting us out of here”, Tharia exclaimed. She moved next to the frozen train and then placed down the dead monster-bodies. Her fingers were too frozen to move but a bit of healing magic took care of that. With swift motions, she tied the creature around the plow of the train and then knotted it to the next one.

“What in the blazes are you doing”, came Annabelle’s question but Tharia dismissed her with a wave of her hand. Not now. Soon, she had knotted ten of the creatures into a white blanket of dead bodies. She spent a moment contemplating the life-choices that led her to this moment, knee deep in monster-guts, knotting together corpses.

“Good times”, Tharia snarked. She looked up at the boiler. This would be the hard part. There wasn’t really any spot she could tie it to. Unless... Tharia slung the crossbow from her back and then gestured towards Annabelle.

“Lift me up the train”, she commanded. The goddess shook her head but helped her up regardless. Up above, she was once more fully exposed to the force of the weather. Only by pressing herself flat on the long engine, could she inch forward. One hand dragged the blanket of corpses, the other aimed the crossbow at the still slightly warm boiler. With a loud thunk, the bolt burrowed itself into the metal.

“Almost, get ready”, she screamed towards Annabelle. Her fingers knotted the last end of the monster-corpse blanket to the bolt. She then locked it down with two more bolts. It wouldn’t be forever but it was good enough. With one look back, she saw the white blanket draped over the front of the train. Good enough.

Satisfied with her deranged plan, she slid off the boiler and plunged into the snow below. It broke her fall but she felt the pain anyway. The goddess had closed up. Tharia heard a single word whispered into her ear: Insane. She wasn’t in a position to argue. Annabelle lifted Tharia off the ground and pushed her into the train cabin. In the same motion, she used the Scythe to lift up the blanket just enough for the wind to dig under it.

As if hit by the fist of a titan, the train jerked. Metal groaned around them. Tharia shuffled onto her feet and dashed for the brake. The moment she unclasped it, the train lurched forward. Half-frozen, Tharia leaned against the wall and caught her breath as the vehicle accelerated again.

“I present to you, the first track-carriage-sailing-ship”, she said with a cough.

All of Tharia’s plans ended like this. It started with a whimper. The train rocked in the tracks as the winds finally caught full purchase of the makeshift sail. It raced with a speed the vehicle wasn’t made for. Each curve saw the vehicle lean further into it. During one of those curves, Tharia saw a large shadow up ahead. It looked like a monster had made the iron tracks their home. And with that, the whimper soon became a trail of destruction.

The train cleaved the beast in two. Bits and pieces of dead monster rained past on either side. The vehicle turned into a projectile as it was further accelerated by the downward slope. Loud screeching from the large wheels and then unsteady rumbling made clear that something had gotten stuck. The train shifted to the side and then the moment of truth was there. The place all her plans went to die. Total, irresponsible disaster.

Tharia felt a moment of clarity as the train lost contact with the ground. That brief respite allowed her to realize they had just passed the iron road to the right while their train crashed straight ahead. Strong hands picked Tharia up before she could protest. Annabelle dashed for the open door and jumped, moments before the train impacted the ground. The human girl got a front-row seat to the destruction the train caused. It bore straight through a four-story building, crashed into a street, buried carriages underneath it and then kept going for several hundred meters more.

Fate gave Tharia just enough time to burn it into her mind before the dreadful impact announced itself with the creaking of bones, a plume of snow and blanking out.

She was alive. Somehow. Tharia coughed out a vile-tasting liquid from her mouth. There was something stuck in her throat, she reached for it and pulled out a bent metal tube. A cold shiver ran down her spine when her fingers touched the soft feather-blanket over her entire body. In a hurry, she pulled it away.

A small white room awaited her. Flowers had been placed on a desk next to her bed. Images of prancing ponies decorated the walls. Frail, she turned towards the edge of the bed and lowered her legs. She pushed herself off and smacked into the ground.

“How many years and I still keep doing this”, she grumbled. Instinctively, she reached for the familiar spark and found nothing. No matter what she did, her legs wouldn’t move either. With gritted teeth, she then dragged herself along the floor. A place this clean, she hadn’t seen since this mess started. She pushed the door open and found herself in a long corridor. Her heart skipped a beat. Not because she saw actual humans in the distance, but because of a few letters on the wall.

Saint Ilinas ward.

She rolled onto her back and started laughing hysterically. Now ain’t that funny. It wasn’t, she still laughed. Look, the ponies on the walls are looking concerned. They come to dance. It took Tharia a moment to realize what was going on. The complete lack of pain and a strange floating sensation.

“Oh dear, that won’t do”, she heard a voice nearby. It belonged to a man in a white coat. He knelt down and picked her up.

“You shouldn’t be moving yet. Don’t worry, everything will be fine. We’ve cleaned the corruption out of you, while you were out”, he said with a large smile. In Tharia’s mind, the smile kept going all the way around the head and went dancing with the ponies. Whatever they had given her, it was strong.

“Annabelle”, she tried to speak.

“Your friend is still being cured. We realized that what was causing humans to monsterize was an infection caused by exposure to divinity. Her corruption had progressed much further than yours. It’s remarkable to find two young women still alive out there – only to nearly lose them to that blight.”

Tharia pushed her hands against the man.

“Bring me to her”, she slurred with a heavy tongue.

“Give it another day, woman. Then she will need your help. People, as corrupted as her, will have trouble adjusting to being normal people again”

Anger fired up the rage in her heart. They were harming Annabelle. Gritting her teeth, she once more placed her hands against the chest of the man and pushed with all her might. He simply put her down into the bed. Despite being high on sedatives, she pieced together some things. Their talk of corruption most likely referred to the divine spark. It was gone from her body and they said it had struck Annabelle much worse. Naturally - she was a goddess. Tharia once again pushed up.

“Man. Listen to me”, she said with clenched teeth, fighting through the sedatives, “The last time someone drained all essence from Annie, she murdered the entire Pantheon.”

The man tilted his head to the side and gestured for her to continue.

“She is Annabelle. Godqueen. The last of the old divine”, she forced out. It was difficult to speak when the flowers told the best jokes about melting walls.

“You’re just delirious”, the man said, “The gods are gone.”

Tharia groaned. This wasn’t going anywhere. She closed her eyes and listened in on the tiny flames around her.

“Four people in the room next over”, she said with a flat tone and pointed to the wall, “One of them sick, nearly dead. Two more next to that person. The fourth is sick as well... correction, the fourth just died”

“What are you saying?” the man asked. Tharia opened her eyes again and stared into his eyes. The drugs gave her that extra deranged look. Loud shouts suddenly echoed from the next room over. She noticed that the man in front of her started to panic. It was visible in the way he slightly opened his eyes and by how the flame inside of him grew in intensity.

“I’m Mother Bone, the end of all things”, she said and stretched her arms. The man suddenly stumbled back when an earthen coat laced with bones appeared on her shoulders. It kinda surprised herself when it did. She quietly hoped she at least kept her clothes on this time.

“We appreciate what you have done for these people”, she said.

“We will have taken back what is ours”, she added and stretched out a hand.

“This was solved amicably by leading me to my Annabelle”, she finalized her sentences and touched one of her fingers against his chin. The flame sputtered and he clutched his chest. One look into his eyes and Tharia quickly pulled her hand back. He looked at her as if he was gazing at death itself. Had she done that, or was it a result of his nervousness? Quietly, the man pulled a wheelchair from a nearby closet.

“I’m sorry”, she whispered and burst out laughing. That joke about the fox and the cow had been amazing. Out of all the jokesters around, the blanket had just won the competition. Now that she calmed down again and her Mother Bone part was shushed out, she realized just how drugged she really was.

End: On the iron road | Coming up: Plans and Monsters