Chapter 33 – Omen

Mirian took a step back and raised her hands in the air.

“Who are you really?” Sire Nurea said, voice low and dangerous.

“Still just Mirian. I’m not going to stop you, I’m just taking the train too.” She kept her hands up and voice steady, despite the gun still pointed at her.

The guard had tensed up too. His hand had gone to one of the wands at his belt. It was still sheathed, but he was looking right at Nurea. “Ma’am,” he started, then seeing the ornate gold clasp on Nurea’s cloak, he said, “Sire. Is there a problem?”

“We can talk on the train. I’ll explain everything,” Mirian said.

She could tell Sire Nurea still didn’t like that, but she holstered the gun, though she was still tensed. “No problem. Just jumpy today. There’s been a threat on my ward’s life.”

The guard, Roland, still had his hand on his wand. “Do you believe the girl is involved?”

Nurea hesitated. Finally she said, “No,” and relaxed slightly.

Nicolus, who had apparently been holding his breath, exhaled. “Gods, Nur,” he said quietly. Apparently his knight-protector had scared him too.

“We’re good?” Roland asked.

“Yeah. Sorry for the scare,” Nurea said.

Finally, the guard relaxed. The three of them then stood around awkwardly, getting some stares from the other folks on the platform. Mirian hated standing out in a crowd, but she endured it until the conductor at last opened up the passenger cars.

Mirian sat across from Nurea and Nicolus. Probably because of the gun that was pulled earlier, the few other passengers gave them plenty of space, with most of them ending up in the other train cars. As soon as they were seated, the knight immediately asked her, “What do you know? Who are you working for?”

“Nothing and no one,” Mirian said. “You won’t believe me if I tell you how I know.”

“Try me.”

“Time travel.”

Nurea glared at her. “You’re right, I don’t believe you.”

“I want to know how you know. There’s nothing in the newspapers. Professor Torres talked to her contacts in the military and none of them see any sort of suspicious buildup or anything. How do you find out?”

Nicolus sounded confused. “Military buildup? What are you talking about?”

Nurea sat back in her seat. “What do you think we know?”

Mirian looked between the two of them. What was she missing? “Akana Praediar’s surprise attack on Torrviol in seven days. Well, six days now, I guess.”

“The what!?” Nicolus practically shouted. One more passenger moved cars to get away from them. “Sorry, the what?”

“You know more than we do, it seems.”

Mirian threw up her hands, though she kept her voice low enough to not carry. “Well, please, tell me what you do know. It seems a bit unfair that I’ve told you my two secrets and you’re withholding yours.”

Nicolus looked at Nurea, and Nurea back at him. Some sort of meaningful information must have been exchanged between the two of them, because Nicolus finally said, “Oh come on. Throw her a bone.”

“Fine. All we know is that we received warning that something big was coming, and to meet the family at Palendurio.”

“From your uncle?”

Nicolus didn’t say anything. Nurea said, “I did warn you.”

“You said he was in Akana Praediar.”

“That’s not even a secret,” Nicolus said, exasperated.

“And yet,” Nurea said.

Frustrated, Mirian said, “Can we stop having two different conversations, one of which I’m not a part of? I know you all have your elite noble political things to do, but I’m just trying to save lives. Someone needs to get Torrviol evacuated, or barring that, get the Baracuel military to show up early so they can set up a proper defense. Otherwise, a lot of people die. Like, everyone in Torrviol. Any friends, acquaintances, or people named Calisto. Everyone.”

“Well one good thing comes out of it then,” muttered Nicolus. “Right, maybe not a good joke. But really—how do you know this?”

“Time travel,” Mirian said again. “It’s how I knew you were having study sessions. It’s why I was asking all those pointed questions about ‘so why would Akana attack Baracuel, hypothetically?’ They do. I’ve seen it, twice now. They have these giant airships that show up and cause a total rout, then they slaughter everyone left, and I don’t even know why!”

“It does sound unbelievable,” Nicolus said.

“Obviously. That’s why I’ve barely tried to convince anyone this cycle. If I had meaningful predictions and irrefutable evidence, I wouldn’t be on this train. But I’ve decided to live this time. I can protect my little brother from the coming war at the very least.”

“I didn’t know you had a little brother,” Nicolus said.

“Yeah,” Mirian said. “And he’s cuter than anyone in the world.”

“You’re from… east. Where again?”

“Arriroba.”

Nicolus was silent. He looked at Nurea, who shrugged. “My geography is failing me, apologies.”

“I doubt it’s on any map you’ve seen. North of Madinahr, which is east of Alkazaria.”

The boy snapped his fingers. “Now that one I have heard of!” he said, which made Nurea roll her eyes. Of course he’d heard of Baracuel’s second capital.