The sun had barely risen when the city made its first stop of the day on the Eastern side of Corvale Valley. Only a single merchant wagon had been waiting with the group, and the grumbling man appeared barely awake as he took the Southern road on some delivery. Ethan could feel the nervous energy in the people around him as they watched the massive, walking city of Corvale slowly move away.

  They were quiet as they took in the sight, the dawn’s rays reflecting off the white stone of the palace. Ethan still felt that he should be able to feel those enormous, crab-like footsteps of stone, but the magic of the forgotten Champion who’d crafted the city had been truly remarkable. Minutes passed as they saw the large bridge pulled in, and caught last glimpses of a city they might never see again.

  Finally, one by one, the group turned to look at one another. They were tired, and looked it. They’d made their way directly from the Forgotten City–the Cathedral City, really–and agreed only to take a day to get their affairs in order before leaving. They weren’t truly in a rush to get to Terranova, which was an ocean away, but they all believed that leaving Viridus as quickly as possible was in their best interest.

  They had no reason to believe that the Church had any idea of what they’d discovered, but the kingdom was the only place in the world where they were recognizable figures, and they longed for the safety of anonymity. Prince Calevaro was the first to speak.

  “My father has taken steps to ensure that no one knows we’ve left. The knights on guard who witnessed our departure are his most loyal, and in hours the rumor will spread that we’ve headed to the Northern mountains to fight a Dusk rank horde.”

  Cara seemed unconvinced, but also looked the worst, leaning on her bow with dark circles under her eyes. “How much time will that buy us? I want more than a few days head start.”

  “No one’s chasing us, Cara,” Selina said, as if the Archer had made a joke.

  Calevaro continued, his voice echoing from his helm. “After the horde there will be something else, then another, and so forth. The important thing is that we have a valid excuse for missing the festivities tied to the ending of the Grand Tournament. After that, we’re just another group of Hunters that failed to reach the center.”

  Cara seemed ready to argue further, until she saw the prince pull something shiny from his inventory. “Speaking of reaching the center, you won this.” He revealed the Fable Cube, the grand prize of the Grand Tournament. It was only slightly too large to fit in the palm of one’s hand, and made up entirely of silver, brass, and gold. Ethan leaned forward to look at the clockwork interior, gears spinning and turning all over it.

  Even Valanor leaned in. He’d been almost entirely silent since they left the Forgotten City, alternately staring at his restored arm, then into the distance. The Shield Knight had been raised by the Church, fought for them, and lost siblings in their causes–one only days before. Ethan had gently probed to make sure the large man knew he had someone to speak to, but hadn’t been at all surprised when Valanor shut him down.

  Now though, his eyes were locked on the remarkable prize. He even seemed to have forgotten he was wearing his old armor–the type that bound his left arm to his chest. It was a necessary disguise, given how closely they needed to keep the secret of Selina’s healing, but must have been torturous to the man who’d just regained the use of the limb.

  Selina reached out to touch the cube. “I’ve never seen it so close up before! It looks incredible!” She paused, then poked it a couple of times with a red finger. “What does it do? Is it doing it now?”

  Ethan was equally curious. “This is techwork right? Does it come from Terranova?”

  Cal shook his head. “Techwork is anything made using the human gift. This one was made by another of Viridus’ Champions.” He pointed meaningfully at the mobile city, still slowly retreating. “They say he was trying to outdo the builder of Corvale.”

  “Well, did he?” Ethan asked.

  “I don’t know,” Calevaro said with a shrug. “He created many marvels, but this is the only one he left to us, and no one knows what it can do. It won’t work until someone Bonds with it.” He passed it to Selina, who eagerly examined it. “Your team reached the inner chamber, you decide who gets it.”

  The group exchanged awkward looks, an understandable greed warring with a powerful camaraderie. Surprisingly it was Valanor who spoke. “Ethan reached the chamber alone; none of us would have managed it. And he’s the Chosen. Any advantage we can give him will be to the benefit of us all. Maybe even to all of Nexum.”

  Selina shrugged, and handed over the device, seeming unconcerned. Ethan looked from Valanor, who was already back to staring into space, to the Rune Mage, who smiled encouragingly. Finally his eyes rested on Cara, who was still leaning on her bow. “We should all have a say,” he insisted.

  “Huh?” she replied, seeming barely aware of what was going on. Ethan’s eyes narrowed at the Archer, and he reassessed her condition.

  “Cara, are you–”

  “We were celebrating!” Selina said, putting an arm around the much smaller elf. “We didn’t really have any last minute business. The guild knows I’m on leave, and all of Cara’s friends and family are back in her village.”

  “So…you spent the night drinking?” Ethan asked in disbelief. Cara hiccuped in reply.

  Despite the Archer’s condition, Selina turned to her and spoke in serious tones. “Cara, Ethan wants to know if he can have the cube. How do you feel about that?”

  The exhausted woman spent a long moment looking at the silver box of strange mechanisms, eyes following the spinning gears as they wound in complex circles. After a moment her head seemed to sway and spin in concert with one in particular, then she hastily ran to a bush. Selina followed, talking loudly to drown out the sounds of the Archer getting violently sick.

  “She says she’s good!” Selina insisted, then hastily pulled Cara’s long black hair away from the action.

  “Maybe I should give her some time,” Ethan said, trying to be sympathetic, but also feeling a tad judgemental.

  “Just take the bloody box, Bishop!” Cara called, then went back to her business.

  “Okay, I’m done arguing.” Ethan turned to Cal. “How do I Bond this? I’ve never Bonded with anything but monsters before.”

  The prince looked around. Although there was no one on the road, he still gestured for Ethan to follow him as he moved into the trees nearby, and the group came after. When they reached a small clearing, Cal spoke. “It had rune wards to protect it from being Bonded before, but those are gone now. Send a trickle of mana into it, and it’s yours.” He pointed to the clearing. “I’d do it where there’s space though, no telling what it’s going to do.”

  “Is it dangerous?” Ethan asked. “It’s not a bomb or something, is it?”

  The prince shook his head. “Certainly not. We know it’s a construct of some kind. As I said, the Champion was trying to follow a similar path to his predecessor.”

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  Ethan looked down at the Fable Cube, then shrugged. They could guess all day, but this was a prize after all. He quickly gave it a scan with the system out of curiosity.

  Fable Cube [Champion Rank] Legendary Rarity

  Bondable

  Effects: Unknown

  That told him less than nothing, so Ethan moved away from the group, and placed the cube on the ground. With a little bit of effort he sent mana into the Techwork object, and felt it respond instantly. He hastily stepped back as it started to spark, and bounce back and forth, the mechanisms inside moving and spinning faster and faster.

  He and the group moved to the edge of the clearing to watch as the cube began to rapidly unfold. Silver pipes shot out, some pushing into the ground and lifting the cube into the air, while brass and gold pistons and gears exploded outward. The materials seemed to come from nowhere, or perhaps the cube itself was a dimension space, like an inventory.

  It quickly expanded, with the silver metal clearly becoming some kind of frame. Ethan could feel his attachment to the cube as it moved, as memories of his life flashed before his eyes. It was fast, taking barely seconds, but he saw images going all the way back to his childhood.

  He let out a breath as the feelings went away, and saw that the object was putting itself together even more quickly, now half as wide as the clearing. Then he felt something else, like heat building up in his chest. No, his Bonds. He sensed his Familiars in mild discomfort–not pain, exactly, but it was something like being poked and prodded. Ethan realized the cube had Bonded to them as well.

  Now the rapid construction truly went into high speed, and his eyes widened as the shapes began to resolve themselves. The construct was about triple his height, and split into sections; there were four of them, each about forty feet long. The back three pieces looked similar, and quickly resolved into large, box-like compartments. As the silver frame came into place, with gold and brass trim, wheels began to form underneath.

  Ethan could only shake his head as he turned his attention to the front of the construct, now expecting what he’d see but barely able to believe it. This part of the construct was vastly more complex than the three large compartments, and countless gears, pistons, and mechanisms were forming and growing on top of one another as it put itself together. Soon the large golden wheels were in place, and connected by silver rods, as the main body formed into the shape of a cylinder.

  Now Ethan was grinning as a rectangular shape appeared behind the cylindrical section, and steam began to vent through a raised chimney, even as the machine kept building itself. “This shouldn’t exist here…” he whispered.

  “What is it?” Valanor asked. “It has wheels, so I imagine it’s transport, but it looks like a series of enormous wagons tied together. No amount of oxsteeds could pull this…maybe you’re meant to attach it to your Familiar? Can Flagras pull this thing?”

  “I don’t think so,” Ethan said with wonder in his voice. “That, Valanor, is a train. I don’t know why it’s a train. But that’s definitely what it is.”

  It was true, and unmistakable now that the engine had taken form. It was old fashioned, and had a distinctly steampunk appearance given the countless gears and pistons visible from every angle. Even the three coaches had exteriors partly consisting of constantly moving and shifting gears and panels, as if it were still transforming even as its form settled.

  As the front of the engine finally completed its transformation, Ethan could only shake his head in wonder. He turned to the prince, assuming he had the broadest education in this regard. “Do you have trains here?” he asked.

  “There are countless forms of magically enhanced transportation, though they tend to be in kingdoms richer in both coin and magic. But I’ve never seen anything like this.”

  Ethan looked down at the massive wheels, already sinking into the grass. “I can guess why…trains take massive amounts of infrastructure.” He moved forward to touch the railing on the stairs leading into the cab of the engine. “Without rails, I don’t know how this thing can possibly–” he cut off as his hand came into contact with the metal, and again he felt an unmistakable tug at his Bonds.

  Suddenly the train seemed to jump upward by nearly a foot, and looking down Ethan saw there truly were train tracks beneath the wheels. Instead of being metal, however, they were ethereal, and colored somewhere between pink and red. He raised an eyebrow in surprise, and Tomo appeared next to him to examine the sight.

  “Those are Mystic constructs,” the demon confirmed. “I feel connected to them, yet it was not our mana that was used in their conjuration.”

  Ethan could only shrug. He felt the connection as well–in fact, he felt increasingly connected to the vehicle by the moment. The experience was somewhat like Bonding a Familiar, and yet also like a limb that had fallen asleep slowly regaining feeling. He turned back to his team, who were each staring at the unusual vehicle with different reactions.

  “Well, all aboard? We should check this place out. See if there’s a way to drive it.” He looked at the wall of trees in front of the engine and sighed. “We might need to clear a path…” He shrugged, then moved into the cab. Calevaro quickly followed, while the rest of the team went into the first car behind the engine.

  It was roomy inside, the train being impressively wide, and just as old-timey as Ethan had expected. There were levers and gauges everywhere, but none of the controls looked like what he expected from an actual train. Looking around he found a few indicators that both answered, and raised a number of questions.

  “Look here,” he said to the prince. “This panel lists out my Bonds. They all just say they’re ‘active’. I don’t know how, exactly, but it suggests they’re all part of how this thing operates.” He looked at the steam rising steadily through the smokestack at the front of the train. “I guess maybe Flare powers the thing?”

  “Unlikely,” the prince replied. “Constructs of this complexity typically channel magic from the world around them. The higher quality ones can store large amounts, like the Dunebreaker.”

  Ethan considered that. In retrospect, if someone could make a ship that flew on continuous waves of sand, maybe conjuring rails wasn’t really pushing the limits of what magic could do. As he walked through the cab, he found numerous other controls and displays, and felt like he was gaining an intuitive understanding of them, although slowly.

  Finally he reached the front, where a surprisingly comfortable looking chair sat in front of a large map. “I don’t see any controls to actually make this thing go,” he said. Looking closer, he slowly began to recognize the map, having been all over Viridus in the last year. “Look, this thing even has Fort Dralis,” he said, tapping at a small picture in the East.

  The moment his finger came in contact with the map, the train lurched forward. He and the prince both reacted by trying to keep their feet under them, only to realize they could barely feel the movement–similar to the walking city. Ethan’s next concern was the wall of trees, and he quickly moved back to the entrance, leaning out.

  He didn’t know how to stop the damned magic train, so figured he could possibly help cut down the trees in the way if nothing else. What he saw though, was not a forest being barreled into by a massive metal construct, but bursts of blue-white energy as the vehicle passed right through the obstacles–must like how his Dimensional Mantle worked.

  Ethan watched for a moment, though he tucked his own head back in, not confident the magic would work for him. “That’s one problem solved,” he said, unable to take his eyes off the sight of a forest disappearing and reappearing as the train passed through it.

  Eventually he came fully back inside, only to see Cal watching the display as well. The man seemed completely enthralled, and Ethan could only grin. He moved forward to the front window, which gave a clear view of their path. All at once they seemed to burst from the forest, as the train gently curved toward the Eastern mountains.

  As expected, he saw rails appearing from nowhere a short distance in front of the train, and they did a good job of indicating the direction they were headed. “Not exactly subtle, though,” he muttered to himself. As the thought passed through his mind, a light began to glow on another panel, and he moved toward it.

  He almost laughed as he read the label next to the shining silver leaver. “Trick of the Light,” he read aloud. “Don’t mind if I do.” He pulled the lever, then turned to look outside. A wave of murky energy passed over the engine, leaving a reflective surface almost like clear water on a sunny day. It wasn’t perfect, but any significant distance would make the train look like a mirage.

  Ethan moved to lean out a nearby window, feeling the wind blowing through his hair. He turned back and watched Corvale growing smaller in the distance, and smiled wider, and more genuinely than he had since arriving on this world.

  He was free.