The spear-legged titan centaur was galloping forwards at sixty miles an hour, eating up ground with its long limbs. Its upper arms lifted up, poised to stab into the train. When it was still two hundred feet away from the train, it stumbled.

  Luke had sped up his mind with Acuity so he could time this just right. He placed half of a Vortex Door in front of himself and the other half directly in front of the Slenderman Centaur. The tricky thing was timing it just right so the titan couldn’t avoid plunging both front feet into the large portal he had created.

  On the train’s roof near Luke, two long sharp limbs stabbed upwards through the portal he had created in front of himself. The legs moved forward as the titan fell in the distance. He watched them move in slow motion and moved himself into position.

  The monster’s legs were a lot like spider legs, chitin with dozens of barbs. Luke grabbed them in slow motion and held them tight on either side of his head. The legs hit the edge of the portal and immediately destabilized it.

  Vortex Door had a safety feature when it closed, forcing things back through the portals so they wouldn’t get cut off. Luke was trying to make that happen anyway. The monster and the portal pulled back, but he held on tight and stood steady. The portal continued to iris shut and a second after he canceled the skill, the closing Vortex Door lopped off both front legs.

  The Slenderman Centaur shrieked in pain, its mouth opening wider than should be possible. Luke flinched at the sound, hoping that wouldn’t wake anyone. He decided to take a small risk. He threw a portal into the narrow gap between the writhing titan and the ground. Once the portal formed, Luke reached though and placed his hand directly on the monster’s belly.

  Then he unleashed Phantom Shot after Phantom shot, most of his mana pool. The monster’s screams warbled and it twitched with every spell. Luke kept a careful eye on the titan, making sure that none of his insubstantial projectiles escaped the monster’s body.

  The titan’s screams suddenly cut out and it slumped to the ground. Luke stood back up and watched as the titan’s body fell back and into the distance. The train kept going eighty and they soon left it behind. It was too bad that he couldn’t collect the core. Still, the fight wasn’t without rewards.

  He also leveled up his class, he was a level twenty-three War Machine now. Only one more class level and he would hit his next threshold. He had good sacrifices already lined up, and apparently he would be sacrificing his glory too, whatever that meant. He shook his head and pulled up his stat screen to decide where to put his two stat points.

  He felt like his Acuity was good enough for now. With the rising mana density, he was pretty sure he had a regeneration rate of one per minute. He had bumped up his Memory and Dexterity last time, which ended up being useful. He could do that again, but he really wanted to focus on one stat at a time. It would be faster to get to their thresholds that way. The only question was which one to focus on. He wanted to raise them all.

  It wouldn’t be hard to find a great reason he should focus on each stat. Constitution would keep him alive, Strength would help him fight in melee, Dexterity would help him take advantage of his sped up thoughts from Acuity, and Perception would help him aim and avoid ambushes.

  He was back inside the train car and in his pajamas before he made up his mind. He decided to go with Dexterity. If he could move fast and precise, that would help him build on his strengths that came from Acuity. He put both new points into the stat and stretched as his body was made more limber and fast. Next level up he would put two more points into Dexterity and hit that threshold too.

  Jinx arrived then, phasing through the door to Kruro’s room. She hopped up on the bed and Luke welcomed her with scritches and smoothing out her fur. Now that she was bigger than him, he had to really put some effort into petting her.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “I hope you weren’t bothering Kruro, Jinx. Naga really like their sleep. Maybe as much as cats do.”

  Jinx purred and snuggled in closer.

  “Eh, whatever. I’m just glad that we’ll be bonded soon. I really want to be able to hear what you are thinking.”

  ???

  “I’m here to ask if you are willing to sell your pet night stalker,” an elvish woman said and gestured towards Jinx, who sat at Luke’s feet.

  “She’s not a night stalker and she’s not for sale. Jinx is my pet and soon to be my bonded companion,” Luke said, gearing himself up for action.

  This elf was clearly an aristocrat, with her ornate yellow robes patterned with glittering silver runes. Her short blond hair was sparkling with flakes of gold. She was probably used to people giving her what she wanted.

  To his surprise, she slumped in relief and said, “Thank ?ojo and Amo. I don’t want another mouth to feed. I’m only here to appease my kept man.” She gestured subtly towards the front of the dining car where a burly man sat at a table made for two. “May I sit here briefly, so that my paramour thinks that I’m working hard on his behalf?”

  Luke smiled easily and said, “Sure, have a seat. I’m Luke. Luke of Machines. What’s your name?”

  Her eyebrows rose slightly. “You don’t know? Well, I suppose you are human, so I shouldn’t expect too much. I am Baroness Elo Ewaen. My demesne is the border land you traveled through to get to the train.”

  “A pleasure to meet you, Baroness Elo Ewaen. It’s an honor to speak with you,” Luke said, suddenly much more polite. There was a good chance this was the most highly ranked person on the train. He didn’t want to piss her off. Besides, she seemed reasonable.

  She swept her hand through her hair, raining flecks of gold on the ground behind her. With a smile she said, “Please, you are not one of my vassals, you may call me Baroness Ewaen.” She leaned back in the chair and brushed her robe off. Jinx moved over to get pets, but she was ignored. “What brings you to the Empire’s capital? I’ve heard that humans aren’t allowed without special dispensation.”

  Luke glanced over to where Momoh sat. “I hadn’t heard that, but I believe I have dispensation anyway. I participated in a noble duel and I am going to the capital to collect my share of his holdings.”

  “Oh, you’re that human. I’ve heard of you. From the stories, I expected you to be twice as tall. You know, you’ve upended my Shuffle plans, replacing Edobar Falodun will cost me political capital, no matter who I choose.”

  “I’m sorry to cause you extra work, Baroness Ewaen. Is that how the Shuffle works? You just choose the new lord? No one has explained it to me yet.”

  She slashed one hand down, lazily. “No, the actual process is complicated and obtuse. Sufficient glory or adequate connections will upend anything the nobility plan. But in practice, what I say will usually end up happening.” She glanced back to where Imohi ate with his uncle. “It’s always a sacrifice. Do I choose the better leader and anger my best producer, or do I bow to nepotism to keep my faction happy?”

  “I’m sure that is a difficult decision. If you are asking for my input, I would say Provisional Lord Imohi needs more experience before being put in a position of permanent power. But I’m just a human, I don't really understand all the factors at play.”

  “Thank you for the opinion all the same. An informed decision is always better than not. Allow me to give you some unsolicited advice as well. While you are in the capital, be careful. Humans are not well loved at the moment. The uninformed populace is often swayed by baseless fears. You may wish to wear your armor and helmet in public, regardless of how ridiculous it looks.”

  “Thank you,” Luke said, both grateful and offended. All his mechs looked awesome, not ridiculous.

  She turned to the window and pointed ahead of the train. “You should see this, I find it fascinating, so it should be doubly interesting to a human.”

  There was a large clearing cut out of the forest, barren of anything green. There were monsters slowly climbing out of the forest, which were met near the train path by a group of dwarves with spears and scythes. They had neatly stacked monster bodies off to the side, packaged and ready to go. Luke guessed that the train was probably going to take them to the capital. He could see why the baroness pointed out this particular monster culling operation. The wooden monsters were very strangely shaped.

  “Are those monsters furniture? I swear I’m seeing chairs and tables running around.”

  She laughed. “Your eyes do not deceive. Those are furniture monsters. They come from a cracked artifact deeper into the forest. It creates copies of tables, chairs, and ladders and animates them. The dwarves kill the monsters without damaging the wood, and the capital has a source of ready made furniture."

  “Fascinating. I heard about broken artifacts creating dungeons, I never thought about how you could turn them into a factory. How many of these are there out there?”

  “Thousands of cracked artifacts litter the land, but I have only heard of a handful of them producing something useful and close enough to civilization to be worthwhile. I’ve heard about harvested mirrors, teleboxes, buckets, pressure jacks, and tents. There may be more.”

  “So cool,” Luke said and stared out the window at the operation.

  The dwarves were so precise in their stabs and cuts so they wouldn’t damage the merchandise. The baroness returned to her seat as Luke watched. A hook on the side of the train picked up stacks of furniture and swung them around to land on top of the train.

  The rest of the journey seemed to slide by as train travel became more familiar. The next day passed by quicker than the last. The aristocrats grew to like him when he didn’t summon his vehicles again and efficiently dealt with his share of monsters. He got the pleasant surprise towards the end of the journey. The train employed a Harvester stationed in the caboose. The Chosen spent all his magical power collecting orbs from the monsters they killed. They kept most of the spoils for themselves, but Luke’s feat with the titan had netted the train something extra. They had paid him half value, a tier eight mana core. It was enough to make him feel rich.

  When they were almost to the Empire’s capital, Luke spent some time sitting on the roof. He told Kruro and Bosa he wanted to be able to see the city as soon as possible, but he was actually meditating on if he should betray both of their trusts.

  They had separately entrusted him with secrets that could get them killed, their lives were in his hands. But if he ignored the risk and told the other about their respective missions, they might be able to join forces and both succeed. Or one would kill the other, who knew. When spies and rebels were in the mix, just having good intentions wouldn’t be enough to guarantee a good outcome.

  Bosa would probably be happiest if her secret didn’t get out. She was a spy for hire, she didn’t necessarily care if she did a good job. She just wanted to do the job and get home safely. Her bosses might feel differently, but she seemed like she wasn’t a ‘true believer’.

  On the other hand, Kruro clearly was a ‘true believer’. She had dropped the revelation about the White Scale on Luke’s lap and mentioned her possible death as an afterthought. She might be ok with Luke spilling the beans to Bosa, since it would probably end up with a major ally in SPEAR. That assumed that she didn’t feel like the security breach warranted her death.

  The whole thing was a mess. The safest choice would be to keep both their secrets, but he wasn’t sure if that was the right choice. If an invasion truly was imminent, everyone needed to start working together as soon as possible.

  Luke sighed and decided he would make up his mind after he collected his winnings and before they both went their separate ways. Besides, he had a convenient distraction. The capital was coming into view now.

  The train had rounded the final bend and the city was in the valley below. Its official name, ‘The Summer Wind Falling on a Spear of Blood and Might’, had sounded pretentious to Luke when he heard it the first time. Now that the city was in front of him, the name seemed inadequate.

  The capital was a colossal edifice, construction on a scale so grand it was impossible to imagine it being replicated without magic. It was about the size of Manhattan, with several physics-defying features. The entire city was lifted up on enormous pillars. The street level was over fifty feet above the ground. It was shaped like a hexagon of stone with several layers reaching into the sky. The lowest level was green with bits of white stone peeking through. There were dozens of parks, tree lined streets, and a farm on every flat surface.

  The next level up was constructed mostly of black stone. Huge hulking buildings were interspersed with turrets and parapets like a medieval castle. This layer was more sparse than the one below and let in plenty of light to the greenery.

  Atop the stone layer was one of metal and glass. This third city was very similar to a modern Earth metropolis, with the exception that they used a great deal more curves and flowing lines. There wasn’t a speck of green on this highest level. Thin shapes flitted between buildings on this layer and the one below. Luke couldn’t estimate height very well, but he suspected that his ears would pop several times if he were to go from the bottom to the top of the city.

  In the exact center of the city was a glittering castle. It had flying buttresses supporting building that stretched high into the sky, above the clouds. It was made of white stone with metal bands throughout, the wide windows were clearly crystals, as evidenced by the way they sparkled in the sun. Waves of magic started at the top and slowly cascaded down in hypnotic patterns.

  Luke suddenly got the feeling that someone was looking at him, staring down directly at him from the palace. He shivered and quickly climbed off the roof. It was probably just his imagination but he needed to pack now anyway.