Harper drove the bike slower than before- but that wasn't saying much. Even after the time they lost, they managed to reach the train-station before Old Tom struck the half hour.
Arlene managed to dismount more gracefully this time.
Standing on the platform and stretching, Arlene turned to Harper and held out her hand.
"I wouldn't have made it here without you. Thanks for everything."
Harper stared at the outstretched hand and pushed it aside.
"Whoa. Woah- back up a second. If I didn't know better, I'd say you were trying to get rid of me."
"But-"
"I've noticed something now. You don't want to put me to trouble, but I'm going to come out and say this, I think if I let you out of my sight you're going to die."
"It's not your-"
"It's every damn bit my business!"
"Harper, didn't you come here to attend the Quarkton engineering College here? You can't just run off after me like this."
"I can and I will! Besides, I arrived early, I've got two months before the semester starts."
There was an awkward cough from the station entrance.
They both turned- Hahn was waiting there, along with Dasilva and Owen. The latter seemed to be holding something behind his back- while Dasilva was sporting a black eye.
"What're you doing here? And what happened to you?" Arlene's query was echoed with a nod from Harper.
Hahn just rolled his eyes.
"Please. We talked, and figured that this was where we'd find you. I knew that you never go back to the station- and they said that Harper would want to travel with you."
Owen, with a dramatic flourish, pulled out a long canvas duffel bag and handed it off to Harper.
"Packed as much as I could as fast as I could."
Harper beamed.
"Real sweet of you. But what happened to Dasilva? Didn't duck a punch?"
Dasilva looked away and Owen snickered.
"He tripped over in the room while he was looking for his lighter!"
Harper lightly cuffed Owen over the head.
"Don't be mean. Now, you two be good. We'll be travelling by tether."
Arlene opened her mouth to protest at how expensive it would be, but then closed it. Tether carriages were magical vehicles that floated in the air above conventional rail lines, using the rails for guidance. They weren't necessarily faster than a train in a straight line, but they didn't make stops or have to slow down based on the terrain. They were in a hurry and it would also ensure that they didn't have any unwanted encounters during the trip.
It was worth it.
"Alright. Harper, do you need me to pay for you?"
Harper stuck out her tongue in response and produced a coin-purse from her canvas bag.
The elderly man at the ticket counter woke up after a few prods and sleepily stamped a pair of tickets for a Tethered trip to the Capitol.
When they returned, Hahn and the boys were examining the treadbike with envious eyes.
"This is a nice set of treads- what do you plan on doing with it?"
"Bring it with us." Harper responded cheerfully.
Arlene stiffened.
"Uh, H-harper, don't you think, that maybe it would be better to leave it hahn. He could take it to the Watchman. Besides, it can't come with us on the carriage right?"
"Of course it can. I'll put it on the luggage rack. Besides, if we're in need of cash we can flog it off later down the line. Don't look sour, the Watchman won't mind."
Before the carriage arrived, Hahn promised to tell the professors at Quarkton about the situation of both Harper and Arlene.
"I won't be able to stick around to see if you come back. I'm heading out tomorrow myself to do a post-grad course in Device alloying. If you're ever by Entente university, look for me."
Owen and Dasilva nearly insisted on coming along, but this was vetoed by Harper.
"I can protect one person confidently. Three? No. You're staying here and you can pay off my share to Bert at the exchange."
The two of them looked crestfallen.
Arlene just laughed.
"Tell Bert that I'm not charging for this one. Now you just have to pay for Hahn's time and the parts."
Soon enough the Tether carriage floated down into an open bay on the platform, it was shaped like a train car but without wheels. Instead a soft golden glow emanated from beneath it that dimmed a little as it touched down on the platform. There was a luggage rack on the top of the carriage and to Arlene's dismay, Harper hefted the bike up and hoisted it onto the top of the car before lashing it down.
Together, Harper and Arlene boarded the carriage and after a few minutes of waiting, it rose into the air on it's predetermined flight towards the capitol.
The interior of the carriage was luxurious to say the least. This one-way trip had cost as much as a whole months rent on Arlene's apartment, and it showed. The carriage had a double bed in each corner, which could be hidden from the rest of the space by means of an embroidered curtain. In the centre there was a card table and a wet-bar. The window-glass of the carriage ran in an unbroken line laterally, clearly having been fashioned with the help of a craftsperson to shape the glass.
A crystal chandelier hung from above, softly tinkling as it filled the interior with sparkling light.
Tucked away behind a door at one end of the carriage was a small white-tiled bathroom.
As the sparkling glimmers of Lumiere's gaslamps were lost to the distance, Arlene yawned and went to lie down. It wasn't late, but the events of the past few hours had left her tired beyond reckoning.
"Oi."
Arlene felt herself be yanked back into a standing position.
"Shower first, before you sleep." Harper said, steering Arlene straight into the bathroom and shutting the door.
Arlene mechanically undressed, showered, and then realised she'd left her haversack outside.
Mercifully fresh towels had been provided, but, she was loathe to change back into her dirty clothes.
She wrapped a towel tightly around her midsection- which wasn't easy, the towels weren't all that large and she had more than most to wrap.
Harper stared at first when Arlene emerged and then swallowed heavily when she bent over to start rummaging inside her Haversack.
"I'm just, going to go... shower. Now." Harper disappeared into next room clutching her bag.
Arlene didn't notice, as she was making an unpleasant discovery.
First her bag had started gleefully delivering into her hands every article of laundry she'd haphazardly stuck into it and forgotten about over the last month and a half.
Second, when she started asking very specifically for 'clean-clothes' it gave her nothing.
And third when she'd slyly changed the request to 'the least dirty set of underwear and nightwear I have' she'd received only half of what she asked for- and then facepalmed as she realised that just that morning she'd gone on a washing frenzy and her nightclothes were currently hung out to dry in her apartment.
At least, she'd topped up her supply of clean socks in the haversack recently- but she vaguely regretted not taking a minute to dash inside her apartment and cram in a few more clean changes of clothes.
Sure, at the time both she and Harper had been debating on whether or not to drag the unconscious men back to the watch, and trying to figure out where the last one had disappeared off to- and how long they had before he turned back up with reinforcements....
"Dragons stone."
Arlene stopped her search for clothes for a moment and her hand emerged from her bag holding a rough irregular stone. It was hard to imagine exactly what value this fairly ordinary looking rock could have. It certainly wasn't any aesthetic value- it was only a bit smaller than the extremely ordinary rock that she'd earlier tossed into the lake as a bluff. Though... strangely, it looked different somehow now it was on the table.
She put it on the card table, and sat down to stare at it- searching for any clue to it's purpose.
Just looking at it was useless- but, Arlene had a hunch about something. The weight wasn't extraordinary, nor the texture or hardness. So the stone obviously had to have some other properties. She tried pressing a lodestone to it, which failed to reveal anything much, and then tried chipping off a few bits.
Most of the chemicals that she had on hand in her bag were cleaning and maintenance related- not exactly suitable for this sort of work. Surprisingly though, after dropping some chips into a coffee-mug full of industrial strength descaling agent and straining the results, there was a fine silvery metal powder that remained.
Unfortunately, that didn't tell her much either.
After a few minutes, the stone remained smugly inscrutable. Arlene was just experimenting with heating some chipped off pieces, when she was distracted by vigorous swearing from the bathroom.
The door to the bathroom opened, revealing Harper dripping wet, clutching a towel to herself and looking in an extremely bad temper.
"Tank's bloody run dry!" she cussed as she stormed out.
Arlene shrugged, "I don't think we used that much, they must've not filled it when it left the capitol... what're you doing with my bag?"
"You keep all kinds of stuff in here right? Got any tubing? I was going to go up top and siphon out water from the bike into the carriage." As she spoke, she shook her head with the vigour of a wet dog, droplets of rapidly cooling water scattering in every direction as her crimson hair whipped around.
"Hey! I'm right here you know-" Arlene's protested.
Even as she'd flinched away, she'd seen something that made her doubt her eyes.
The card-table was now covered with flecks of water, but the stone? It was practically dry. Almost instantly as the water had touched the surface, it had exploded into tiny puffs of mist.
Mouth half open, she grabbed Harper's hair and shook it over the stone, deaf to her sudden cries of protest. The same thing repeated- but, when she reached out to the stone with her other hand, the surface didn't feel much warmer than thirty or forty degrees.
"ARLENE! What're you doing!"
Harper's yell snapped her out of her reverie and Arlene turned to her, wide eyed.
"I figured it out! This rock, it's a catalyst!"