To you who know,

Neither solitude nor silence,

To you, filled with white dough,

Admit the emptiness in your stance,

And then venerate the Gods,

Forget about the old ones hereunder,

Realize your voices have been helping murder!

But you’ve understood nothing.

As long as you’re only looking up, you’re only seeing down.

Ah! And when finally solitude stripped you down,

Be welcomed in this world of mine.

Biting words, Janis the White.

Water was gliding across the train’s window, forming currents of some miniature river. But the rain had stopped, and the little canals quickly depleted, letting Nay see the sun rising over a gigantic green canopy. But the beautiful view was quickly gone, replaced with obscurity as they delved inside the Hymere. The morning became night again. The trees were gigantic, and the light that managed to painfully pass through the thick foliage and the tortuous branches was so weak it barely let you see a dozen yards afar. The jungle was unsettling, and it would have been even if Nay hadn’t heard all the horror stories about the place, the ones that Fredere liked to tell them when they were gathered in Veridienne’s house in the evenings. She had always imagined the Hymere as a very big forest, everything green or coloured vividly, with exotic plants and weird creatures around every tree trunk. She could now witness her mistake fully, as they entered the jungle edge. Everything was brown. The numerous lianas and roots were creating improbable geometric forms, the dead leaves on the ground were removing any hope of seeing green grass or multicoloured flowers, everything was dark, everything was dreary, everything screamed this place was haunted.

“I’m getting a better understanding of what is going wrong.” Trinne declared. “Can you imagine cutting down those trees, clearing everything around to put the tracks? What’s more, according to our reports, they even had to built walls to stop wild animals getting in the way of the train. This is relentless work.”

Nay simply nodded. Only cutting one tree had to take days and tens of lumberjacks. “Do you already have some ideas to speed it up?”

Trinne continued looking through the window, at this brown vegetation flashing by.

“I have ideas, yeah, but I have no idea if they are realistic or not. Between the reports and what’s actually happening on site, there are usually huge discrepancies. Just now, I’ve been told they had to build bridges at some point on the way, and it is the main reason why they are taking so long. But from what I’m seeing, everything is perfectly flat. The jungle floor is even, well, if you can call all those roots even.”

“We just entered it, we’re still one or two hours away from the centre of the jungle where the site is currently at.” Nay explained.

“Ah?” The redhead asked.

“One of the workers next door told us.”

“Really? Dang, I was speaking with someone else and missed that part.”

“For the one time you don’t know something and I’m the one explaining it to you.”

Trinne rolled her eyes. “Really, you love underestimating yourself. Well, it’s true that if you constantly compare your intellect with mine, you can only badly misjudge it.”

Nay shook her head, sighing exaggeratedly.

The two women stopped talking then, only gazing at the many tints of brown outside their wagon. The further they penetrated the jungle, the smaller the visibility. And the feeling of warmth was also becoming higher and higher. From time to time, they spotted high clay walls, blocking the view completely if not for the top of the trees, and then the walls stopped, for no apparent reason.

“Well, I know my first question to Lockier.”

“Who?”

Trinne gave a long look at Nay. “The chief engineer. Our contact on site?”

“Oh yeah, his first name was Terrine, right?”

“Tarrin.” Trinne corrected her immediately. “We’re not on a trip to meet a pâté expert Nay.”

The young Legio giggled, under the very disappointed gaze of her friend. “Really? I wasn’t even trying to be funny there.”

“Terrine, pâté expert.”

This time, it was Trinne who shook her head while she sighed. “I don’t how I’m still putting up with you.”

When they finally descended from the train, Nay’s smile had vanished for a much more serious expression. The train conductor had personally come to accompany them in their departure, clearly there to make sure they would not make him lose more time.

The first thing Nay felt when she stepped out, was the disgusting impression of being covered in a towel filled with tepid, warm water. She immediately hated the sensation, and already felt sweat flowing down her legs. She already decided that she would have rather been in the Striavie desert than here.

The worker encampment was busy, and not large, but it was extending all along the length of the tracks. And when Trinne and Nay reached the ground, something immediately became evident. Where they were, the tracks had been set on solid ground, gravel having been put underneath to flatten the soil. But a mere thirty yards out, the tracks had been put on a wooden structure: the beginning of a bridge. The tents, the outdoor workshops and the many piles of wooden trunks and metal bars were next to the tracks, but also under the tracks. It was now clear that the encampment wasn’t on flat ground, they were standing on a small hill. But the jungle floor didn’t follow the slope, it stayed perfectly flat.

That was why they hadn’t spotted bridges on their way there, or why there were sometimes walls, sometimes not. On the train, you had no way of knowing if you were on ground level, or way above it.

Trinne clicked her tongue. “That complicates things.”

And she finally turned to face their welcoming committee. There was a very tall man, but thin as a nail who was wiping away the sweat on his face with a napkin that once had to be white, but now was closer to yellow. He was wearing brown knee pants and a tank top the same colour as his napkin. Next to him was a middle-aged God-Touched, linked with Patrex. He was also quite tall, and his hair was almost of a green colour. His robes were obviously violet, but the cloth was much thinner than usual, letting clearly see that he had a sword underneath. The bottom part was also quite roughed up, it was torn up everywhere. The last person welcoming them was a young woman, pale with brown hair. She had to be in her twenties, and was very small. Nay couldn’t have described her more than that. She had no idea how to describe her features, as she had never seen anything like them in the West, and definitely not looking like someone from Jarulam or Giamen. The woman was barely reaching her navel, and was wearing a muscling vest and a long skirt (quite short if someone like Nay wore it) reaching her ankles. She was the only one here who seemed perfectly comfortable in the ambient humidity; Nay couldn’t spot a single trace of sweat on her.

“Good day to you Diamond, Ruby.” The men talked first to Nay then to Trinne.

The redhead pointed her finger at Nay, then at her. “Ruby is her, and I’m Diamond. I know, it counterintuitive. You can call me Trinne and she’s Nay.”

The Patrex priest spoke with a deep voice. “You are the duchess of Gite and you are the Darae, goddaughter of our Mother, aren’t you?”

Trinne nodded but her response was scathing. “That is so, but we are here as the Imperatrix’ Jewels, and as such, you shall not use those titles to name us.”

“Understood, Diamond.” The priest didn’t seem bothered by the show of authority. “I am the officer in charge of security, Horick Valassian.”

“A pleasure.” Trinne and Nay shook his hand. It was moist, and the Legio repressed an expression of disgust.

“And I’m the chief engineer, Tarrin Lockier. I heard the rumour about you, Diamond, every help you could provide will be most welcome.”

“Oh? I’m curious what those rumour say about me.” Trinne asked.

The engineer clearly didn’t want to answer, looking rushed. “We will have ample opportunities to talk about that but let us do that while we walk to your quarters. You two will have to share a tent, but it has been enchanted against humidity and insects. I hope this will satisfy your needs.

Nay felt her friends Rreico at that moment, and the tremendous effort she did not to respond sarcastically. “It will be satisfying, thank you. By the way, who are you?” Trinne too had to lower her gaze quite low to meet the one of the woman with brown hair.

“My name is Lynn, Trinne, I have no title nor family name, at least not anything you could pronounce. I am Nay’s liaison, to help her reach the Ghtythrilljghtn.” There was not one recognizable sound in that last word, while everything else had been said with perfect Leïn accent.

“I see, a pleasure meeting you, Lynn.” But the woman didn’t meet Trinne’s extended hand.

The chief engineer quickly started apologizing. “I apologize, I should have told you, but people from the Hymere do not have the custom to shake hands with each other.”

Trinne’s eyebrow rose. “Really? Why haven’t I heard about that?”

“It is a belief from the tribes here and…”

“It is not a belief!” You would never have guessed that the little woman could respond with such vehemence. “Some diseases here can spread through sweat. With so many people gathered in one place, touching each other for no reason doesn’t make any sense.”

The engineer sighed. “Those claims of yours are baseless, we haven’t found…”

“You are native from the jungle?” Nay cut him off, curious.

Lynn gave her a big smile. “Half. My father was a member of the Cali tribe, and my mother was a merchant crossing the road from Leïn to Giamen. I lived here for a time, but my family lives in Leïn now. Except for my cousins and my grandfather, who are still here. My grandfather is the one who will guide us to the Ghtythrilljghtn, when he decides to show up. The Cali tribe isn’t as…erm…strict, when it comes to dates and time.”

Nay shook her head, fascinated. She knew that there had been some indigenous tribes in the jungle in the past, but she thought they had all been incorporated in the Empire a long time ago.

Trinne spoke again, this time with discontent in her voice. “Why not tell us about the jungle diseases? You shook our hands without even a warning!”

“Madam…” The chief engineer began.

“Diamond. Or Trinne, or miss, but never madam.”

“…Miss, I can assure you that no issues have risen, and I did not want to seem impolite at our first…”

“I gathered that, thank you. But we have no time for pleasantries, Lockier. The Emperor wants his railway system connected to the east. And he will have it. Advice from a tribe that lived here for generations will be more accurate than our two year experience. I didn’t come here to be flattered; I came here to find solutions to your problems. This time, I will be lenient, I understand that you were trying to be nice. But if you forego more information, for any reason, I will use the power invested in me to make your life miserable. Have I made myself clear?”

“I…yes Diamond.”

“Perfect. Now show us to our quarters, then you’ll give me a breakdown of everything that happened.”

“Understood.” Tarrin Lockier stood up straighter. He was taking things seriously now. Trinne was young and looked young, but everyone knew she was a Jewel. And during a mission, Trinne had all the authority of the Emperor, even if she was technically under the Imperatrix’ orders. Nay had the same power, of course, but the Legio didn’t think she would need to intervene. She stayed back, noticing that the priest and Lynn seemed pleased at seeing the engineer in such an uncomfortable position. If those two, that couldn’t look any more different, didn’t like him, it probably meant there was a problem with the chief of operations. She would report it to Trinne when they would be alone, even if Nay knew that her friend was never going to miss such cues, even without the Rreico.

Everything was rustic, but at least there was running water. A Touched having created a well of Canna in the encampment. They even had a personal shower inside their tent. Other than that, there was a table, two chairs and two beds. Their new temporary home was nothing special, if not for the pair of runes inscribed on the tent cloth.

“A Touched will come every day to…” The chief engineer began.

Nay stopped him. “That won’t be necessary.”

The man blinked wildly, and the Patrex priest rose an eyebrow. Lynn wasn’t with them anymore, she had left them here, promising Nay to come back later to explain how she needed to prepare, and would look for her when Lynn’s grandfather showed up.

“Miss Ruby, without a God-Touched to recharge the enchantments, they will only work for a few days…”

“I am aware, but we have our own methods. No need to bother a Touched for this.”

Nay had kept her severe expression, mimicking Trinne’s. Honestly, she just wanted to be nice, she could feel the exhaustion tormenting the two men, but they had to act like they were in charge, or they would never be taken seriously.

“I…” The Touched was clearly intrigued by what those methods were, but Nay was still not allowed to reveal she was a God-Touched. And so she only stared at him coolly, until he relented and his expression darkened. “I see, I will pass the word.”

She felt enchantments clinging to her power, not only those inside the tent. She let them, at least it would give some respite to the Touched here. They would ask questions about why they suddenly didn’t need to recharge the runes, but Nay and Trinne would not stay long enough for this to be a problem.

Tarrin cleared his throat. “Are you satisfied with your quarters?”

“The beds are a bit small, but it’ll do. We didn’t come here to play tourist, though. Show me the worksite.” Trinne commanded.

“I…now? You aren’t dressed appropriately, the ground is treacherous here, you need solid boots and…”

“We have those. Give us a couple of minutes.” Trinne waved them away.

The two men did look slightly offended at being dismissed like that, but they obeyed.

Nay emptied her bag on one of the beds, and she picked up her knee-high walking boots.

Trinne took her time unpacking, but it still didn’t take more than five minutes for the two women to exit the tent.

“We’re following.” Nay told the two men. She had taken the extra time given by Trinne to trade her pants for a skirt. She had also put on her belt with her weapons, not bothering to hide them. She had decided that even if she didn’t like showing off her legs, her tall boots would protect her from the vegetations, and it was way too hot for pants. She only had packed two skirts though, she would need to take care of them.

The look of priest Valassian stopped for a long moment at the lower part of her body, but before Nay could really feel insulted, she realized he was looking at her blades.

This time, she didn’t hide her smile. “You like them?” She asked.

Trinne coughed very loudly.

“I…oh, apologies, but are those blades from the forges of Zenith? I do believe I recognize the seal on your scabbard, but it isn’t exactly as I remember it.”

Nay looked at the little inscription looking like the Zenith Mountain. “Oh, it must be because those were forged by Roger Vorcan I believe.”

The Patrex Touched didn’t say anything more, only showing a brief expression of stupor. He gulped audibly, and stood as if he was standing to attention.

Tarrin Lockier looked at him, clearly not understanding what they were talking about, then he turned to face the two women. “Are you ready?”

“Yes, yes, let’s go.”

They crossed the encampment in silence until they reached the start of the wooden bridge. Then they started descending on the little slope of the hill.

The ambient light wasn’t much before, but the further they delved under this strange ground floor canopy, the darker it became. Torches had been set in rows two yards apart, and tents became rare. There were many piles of wood and metal, but not much else. Nay could feel the power emanating from the torches. She recognized the enchantment as a miracle of Ja, that kept the flames alive without needing a combustible.

The engineer followed her gaze, and he finally broke the silence. “The arrival of the Touched really helped us tremendously. We would have been stuck a long time before now if they hadn’t been there.”

“How many Touched do we have here?” Trinne asked.

It was the priest Valassian who answered her? “Fifty or so, but there are many rotations. Most of us are used to the city and our churches. The only thing that comes close to a place of cult here is the Trayx temple in the centre of the jungle, but very few are brave enough to delve in the under-jungle to go there.” He looked at Nay when he said that.

“This is where I’m supposed to go. How did Lynn call it?”

“I am unable to pronounce the name the Cali give the temple, but it is also one of their main worshipping and pilgrimage sites. On many points, the Calis are Trayx priests, and it is why the laws of the Empire are lenient for them. They are not obligated to speak Hymerian, for example, and we do not bother them. They are friendly though, and helped us a lot with our work here, despite the way we have sometimes treated them.” This time, the priest glanced at the engineer, who was completely clueless about it.

Nay nodded, starting to see the bigger picture.

“But, they live in the Hymere, and the language comes from here, doesn’t it? Why wouldn’t they use Hymerian?”

“I honestly do not know the answer to that, miss Ruby.”

The question wasn’t essential right now, so Nay didn’t try to push for more.

As the continued forwards, Trinne started to ask very technical questions to the chief engineer. He did his best to answer as best he could, but it was clear he was very careful in his answers not to forget anything, he was hesitating a lot before speaking.

And during all that time, as they continued their slow descent, above their heads was no more light at all. If the jungle had seemed creepy before, once the only light source was torches, it was plain terrifying. The Legio wasn’t scared, but she was anxious. No one else would have been aware, but hundreds of Rreicos were surrounding them. Some not even four metres away, invisible under the guise of darkness. She didn’t recognize any rhythm of life, knowing only one thing for sure. Those were wild animals, but if they were the size of a rabbit or the size of a Tertia, she had no idea. Nothing was interested in them though, so she wasn’t that worried.

“How far are we going?” Nay asked Horick, seeing as Trinne and Lockier were still talking.

“A bit further ahead, but not much lower. The deepest part of the under-jungle valley we found is ten metres deep.”

“Ten metres?” The answer hadn’t escaped Trinne. “That is problematic. A ten meter high bridge, having to hold the weight of the train and hold on through the years…We can’t expect frequent renovation works here.” Nay noticed that despite her confident look, Trinne was often looking at the dark beyond the torches.

It had been some time since they had crossed paths with someone, there was only the bridge to their left, forming like a cage of wood, torches on the other side, and torches on theirs. The road itself was just planks set directly on the ground, already mostly covered in mud, and there were numerous wheel tracks next to them. A few minutes passed, and they met a chariot coming from the other way, pulled by two Yaes. The beasts were serene, but the worker guiding them seemed afraid.

“Is there a problem Ian?” The engineer asked.

“No chief, just my nerves. We heard a Banshee the whole morning.”

“Was it screaming loudly?”

“It was chief.”

“Well you know the saying, the louder a Banshee’s scream, the farther she is.” Lockier’s sentence sounded completely empty, as if it had been repeated hundreds of time until it lost all its meaning. And seeing the worker’s reaction confirmed it was probably the case.

“I know chief, thank you chief.” Ian said with a flat voice.

And on that, they let the chariot pass, and continued their march.

It took ten more minutes for them to finally see something other than a corridor of torches in the night. A big space was lit up by flames, clearly the end of the bridge. They had heard the sounds way before the lights. Hundreds of workers were working relentlessly, orders were shouted, enormous beams hoisted up and hammered to the bridge, Nay heard the soft moos of the short-haired Yaes and the loud hacking noise of axes hitting wood.

Then, a scream. As if it was coming from just next to Nay. A strident scream, gritting your teeth and forcing your hands to clench.

“Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.”

Nay laid her hands on her weapons by automatism. She quickly lowered her guard though, as there wasn’t anything dangerous around them.

Absolute silence reigned on the worksite. It felt like everyone had stopped breathing. Then, after a long minute, everyone resumed their work.

“Biach.” Trinne swore.

The Patrex priest laughed softly. “A fair assessment. And even then, the Banshees are only dangerous if you go outside our security perimeter. They won’t come closer since my guards raise Vanni walls at the first sight of their presence. The main danger is the roots and branches falling from the fake-flat floor, those are our main cause of accident. Well, that and human error. Everyone is on edge.”

“I see. Do you have anything else that comes to mind?” Trinne asked the engineer.

“No, I…I believe I have told you everything. If I forgot something I will come inform you of it as soon as I remember. You’re free to discuss with my workers of course, and Grotta, our master lumberjack, has some things to ask, if I’m not wrong. She has to be around her somewhere. Guards and a Touched will be ready for you when you desire to go b…”

“It won’t be necessary; Ruby is enough for my protection.”

“Miss Diamond? I can’t…”

“I do share miss Diamond’s opinion, Tarrin.” The Patrex priest intervened.

The engineer gave him quite the quizzical look. “You barely met the gi…met them.”

“Yes, and it is my honest opinion as chief of security. These two women can handle themselves fine.”

The chief engineer looked at Nay and Trinne, quite befuddled, but decided that it wasn’t his problem. “Fine, you’re in charge. Can I get back to my work, miss Diamond?”

“Yes, you may. We’ll see each other tonight though, during the evening meal, if possible, I will give you my initial review.”

“…understood.” The chief engineer acted as if he wanted to go back through the dark corridor, but he looked at the Patrex priest when the aforementioned did not follow. It was quite clear that Tarrin would not go back on his own.

Valassian examined Nay’s swords once again, before asking: “I do not want to seem rude, miss Ruby, but if your schedule permits it, could I join you in your training? A simple spar, even just a single exchange?”

“I’d love that.” Nay responded immediately.

The man that had to be more than twice the age of the Legio bowed deeply. “I thank you.” And then he left to join the chief engineer and went back to the encampment.

The two women stayed there for a few moments.

“I thought he was ogling at your legs. Then I hear you ask if he likes them. I almost choked.” Trinne announced, her serious duchess expression entirely gone.

Nay laughed for a while, before she felt her friend’s rhythm of life.

“Are you ok?” She asked.

Trinne looked at the dark, clearly terrified. “I feel as if there are hundreds of monsters waiting for us to make one step beyond the torches, just one, to then eat us whole in one bite.”

Nay decided not to tell her there were a lot of Rreicos around them, not belonging to the workers further ahead.

“There are no monsters there…” Nay hesitated. “I would know.

—Idiot.” Trinne gave her a little smile, then breathed deeply, her expression turning back to professional noblewoman. “Let us go talk with the brave.”

Nay nodded, it was a good way to describe the poor men and women working here.