Kismet’s Tale

      Mavin was in civilian clothes as he waited inside the dinner car of a train. He wore a tunic over a pea coat, and cargo pants. He didn’t look like a Lieutenant in the army. Most of the people inside didn’t look like they were army personnel as they didn’t wear their uniforms. Fresh tunic and trousers and all of that.

There are tables that separates the booth from the normal dining tables. From what Mavin recalled from the train crew, it was one of the longest trains in the continent. He didn’t really read the markings on the side. So he didn’t know. You could say that Mavin, for the first time, was lost on what direction he was going to. He did know that he needed to go home, but before that he needed to take care of the affairs in the Capital.

“Are you going to eat that?”

Mavin looked at the eyepatch-wearing companion that had decided to sit on the same table as him. She was holding a fork and pointing it at the rather juicy steak that was still on his plate. He looked at her idly and wondered if this was blackmail.

“Are you going to stare or hand it over?”

“Miss—”

“I said call me Natalya.”

“Okay, ‘Natalya’, why are you here?”

She landed her fork-holding hand on the steak while having a ‘you’ve been asking this again and again’ face. “I got a telegram from my dearest family that I Natalya Wilde,  is a rather shameful lout who had helped the ‘murderers’ of my people. Truthfully, it is probably the heir-apparent that wants me out of the house. I could return to Monte with all of my wealth and my salary, live a good life, find me a good man who I can order around, but I have decided, under a careful examination of my choices and feelings, and with the advice of my good friend and best of friend to—”

“Apparently, join me in my travel back home, now that the world is at peace,” he cuts in. She smiled at him with that same blank smile.

“Exactly,” she said eagerly, “I have a few friends to call me. Mind you, you are not my first male friend, nor I am a little girl who easily joins a man she fancies without reason. Nevertheless, I do admit that you are one, if not, the person who has pained me the most.”

“I said that you cannot use that scar of yours to bind me.”

“And I doubt it can. However, believe me when I say that I do, and honestly, do admire those who could best me, and you are someone who I want to share a friendship with.”

“You are rather mouthy today, hmm, I had thought you’d have a calm and a fewer words.”

“If that is an insult then you should retract that.”

“It is not. Still, if you want to be friends, then just say so.”

“Yes, I do want to be friends with the person who gave me this scar. Odd isn’t it?”

“True, we should be brawling with what I gave you.”

“And we are no longer teenagers who cannot reason. Us soldiers  could be calm under fire can reason even the maddest of madmen, so there should be no reason not to kill one another. Besides, how many times do I have to say that we are even in this regard? Or do you really think that my life is less than a scar?”

“You are not alright with that scar.”

“Who said I am? I spent two years with the scar, I am already fortunate that I only have this. Also, can we stop repeating this? Ever since I sat with you, all you’ve been doing is repeating this. I am sorry, do I bore you? If not, then stop talking about my damn scar, it is starting to insult me,” she chewed on the steak.

“Fine, let’s not talk about the scar and why you are here for a moment.”

“Good, you can learn. A good man should know how to listen.”

Mavin was about to speak up  when she raised her hand. She swallowed her steak and placed her utensils aside and took a drink of her glass of water. “The food here is certainly better than it is in Flost.”

“This is inter-continental train, of course they’d try to serve better than pigs swill.”

“True, I guess Flost doesn’t have that great menu. Perhaps it is the new peace that we are currently experiencing?”

Four days after the declaration of peace and the end of the war that brought the continent into the dark. The continent changed as if that dark ominous cloud that always covered it was broken by the sun that finally had settled in. The gloom that wrapped them was gone. More people smiled and there was less hostility than before. They didn’t want their day to be ruined and they were experiencing this ‘honeymoon’ like phenomena that kept them from staring daggers. The jolly mood affected them and he had bet that it would at least take a month until they got to move from this joy they were feeling.

“You seem to have been affected, Natalya.”

“Not you. Look around you and you seem like the only one who doesn’t want to smile.”

“I…just don’t know what to think and say. Like you know you have that one goal inside your head, then suddenly you find yourself unable to understand what you’re going to do next.”

“I understand a bit. With the war over, what should we do? What should I do to integrate back to normality? After all, we were molded for five years, killing, crawling, shouting, and murdering other people. There are only times we fought face-to-face and saw the people we killed. Behind the scope, there is a dead man, a corpse, and with a squeeze of a trigger, you would find the recoil the only thing bothering you.”

Mavin listened.

“Look, I know it may sound strange that someone like me is being friendly to a former enemy combatant, but you should know by now that I am no killer. We were soldiers who were told to kill. No, there are times we acted on our own, doing what we told ourselves what we needed to do because we believed it was what we needed to do. Still, let’s just say that it’s something that I need to find out for myself.”

“Finding it yourself, huh, what do you want to find?”

She looked at him oddly. “If I knew then I would have told you. Don’t worry, I have my own purse, and belongings. Treat it as someone going on a vacation.”

“Vacation? During this time?”

“It’s because it’s this time that I have to do it. Besides, I have heard great things about the Lazon Regions, might as well make the trip while everyone’s still acting nice. Not that they’d worry considering that most of my blood comes from the Empire anyways. You do know that I used to visit Arkadia as a student. Still, I had thought you’d go straight to Lazon, who knew you’d go to the Capital first.”

“Then I don’t have to worry about you not understanding the language. Hmm, most of us in Lazon speak the Imperial Script so there should be no worries. Though your accent needs to be slightly lighter and jolly if you want to sound like a native.”

“Not that I planned to become one.”

He had met her while boarding the train in gloomcrossing. Somewhere along the line, she had decided to join him. There was something that really bothered him when it came to her. Of course, the fact that she would have become the Imperator if things continued the way it was. Mavin stared at Natalya, trying to find that Imperator, that violent Empress that she would have become.

“What? I know that I am a beauty, but no need to stare at me so longingly.”

Mavin folded his arms and looked away. The train passed by an idyllic town. Then the scenery changed to a flat grassland with two mountains in the background. The attendants of the dinner car had started to clean up. The two didn’t move from their booth, instead buying refreshments in order to stay. Most of the food and drinks inside the car were expensive. The quality of their food and their service was worth the money they were paying.

As the train stops in the border town of Otynk. Mavin got out of the train and into the west ward of the town.  The center of Otynk was the trade district of the town. Stalls and stores populated the center while the rest were mostly warehouses where the tradesman and the town officials would check on the goods brought by the people outside of the Empire. North of the district was the mead yard where most of the inns and the bars were located.

The two-lane road was spacious enough for carriages and locomotives to enter. Most of the houses were timbered and the rest were brick houses with wooden roof tiles. Hanging between the houses were the small flaglets and in every two houses he would find the Imperial Flag waving on the air. There were no power lines and telephone cables.

They stayed in an open-air cafe where they took time to observe and watch a violinist play among the people. Most of the patrons drank juice, the rest feasted on salted snacks to go along with their refreshments.

“Strange, for a border town, they don’t have a lot of soldiers garrisoned.”

“They have their own base somewhere around here.”

“A few soldiers seem to have lived here.”

“It’s quite a surprise that this town looks untouched by the war, then again if they were able to reach this town, then the Empire would have been unable to stop the three alliances from making use of a breach in the defense of the border town. The town standing and unharmed should be the only thing you need to know.”

She bit on the salted snack, making a crispy sound. A car passed on the side of the road and took a turn. The town was connected to the rest of the Empire through long roads connected by old stone roads. Natalya pulled on her coat and leaned back, watching the open-air cafe make a ruckus as a violinist played a rather cheerful tone.

“This isn’t that bad, considering that I used to prefer luxurious cafes. If we do get to Arkadia we should visit some of the cafes there, that is if they still allow foreign enemies to come to this place.”

“That reminds me, you studied in Arkadia, but I haven’t seen you in that academy.”

“Your mistake is that I would be present in places where those who are beneath me. Honestly, those six years in the Academy were just parties and creating trouble for my seniors. I do recall having spent more time in those shooting ranges, too bad that I have to shame an escort who thought I could be less inferior than him in shooting because they don’t allow ladies to enter without escorts in those ranges..”

Mavin nodded.

“Well, I doubt I could remember a ten-year old well. Hmm, I thought you would have a tutor instead of attending the Academy.”

Natalya raised a brow. Mavin tilted his head slightly. “What?”

“To be an Arkadian Student is a great honor. How could I miss that honor?”

“Huh,” Mavin bit on his snack, “wish could have met you then.”

She leaned forward, smiling. “Oh, maybe you wanted to have been childhood friends? How sweet would that be.”

Mavin snorted. He took a sip of his juice and watched a tongue of smoke climbing up the sky. Natalya followed his eyes and saw it as well. The two left the open-cafe, traveled on the sidewalk until they reached the train station again. The new train that arrived in the station was inferior and seemed to have been one of those trains who had loud whistles that could burst ears. The large smoke coming out of the train seems to blacken the front of the train. One of the tenders three carriages away from the front was filled with water and coal.

They boarded the train.

 

---

 

Most of the trains are either interconnected or owned by Canic Company. The state-owned trains usually travel inside the Magnar-Azia Continent, though there were talks on the Canic Company creating a railway route on the land bridge east of the Kingdom of Norad. With the war taking seven years to end, the Canic Company had turned their sights on manufacturing equipment, taking contracts, and using their trains and railway routes to deliver supplies all over the continent. Most of those supplies were heavily regulated, checked, and had been charged with many crimes during the war. Though they did medical missions to help transport refugees and bring them to neutral regions that are safe from the war as part of their effort to show good faith.

The train they boarded was an Imperial-owned train. Most of the passengers were soldiers coming home from the Dinia and Sudugar Regions north of Lazon, northwest of the Empire, and west of the Flost Region. They sat on the first-class seat where they had to sit across another in a two-seater booth.

“You have twenty in the pot.”

He picked up a card and placed it on the side. She took a card from him and stared at it. Then she placed it on the opposite of the table.

“Eleven,” she snorted. “I hate this game.”

“You’d hate it if you lost thrice.”

Natalya placed the cards on the side. She took out a leather-strapped journal and wrote a few lines before putting it away. Mavin stored the cards back on his satchel bag and leaned on the table. Natalya studied Mavin.

“Nice weather.”

“Really, you have to start with that?” she rolled her eyes. “Men should know a multitude of activities, excel in many different things, and know how to flatter and humor.”

“Did you expect a comedian?”

“No, I expect something interesting. Are you doing this on purpose?”

“Nope. Just don’t think I have anything to say.”

She looked at him with that listless expression of hers. Mavin found her stare digging through him. They had met about two times before all of this. One was in the train and the other was during a party where they got to dance and then later on get chased by gunmen trying to take out a Prince. He would have done better accommodating her if she had not been a person who he had almost killed. War or not. Just the thought of how he almost put a bullet inside the base of her skull worried him. He would have reacted better if she had started to loathe him. If she had pulled a gun on him, declaring that she would kill her.

Those reactions were far easier to accept than a quiet anger without a tinge of emotion on it. How was he supposed to accept that she’d just let it go? He had been able to talk it out with even the violent ones, but having someone talk it down calmly and logically. It felt like she was not minding the scar, but the fact that she owed her life to him.

“Are we really even?”

“I don’t mind it. How long will you keep yapping about this? I told you many times that I don’t mind it at all. Not fully. Making it even is what I wanted. That’s all I have to say about this.”

Mavin didn’t know what to do at that. He knew that it was bothering him, but he couldn’t stop himself from asking that question. He decided to bury it deep inside his mind.

“I must have been annoying you with it.”

“Because you place the value of my life lower than a scar. It does piss me off, truthfully. If you understand then stop rubbing the hurt all the time.”

He had no right to demand all the truth from her. Natalya seems to know that very well. Hence she fell silent and began to look outside of the window.

Mavin folded his arms. Though he had noted it in his mind to avoid talking about the scar. Mavin couldn’t hide the fact it made him uncomfortable. No, he simply couldn’t understand what was in her mind. Having enough of thinking about what he should think of her. Mavin put his mind to rest.

His heart became still again. The light in his eyes grew dim, replaced with a steely gaze that accompanied him in the war. He held his breath to watch the scenery slow down for a moment, letting his breath out, Mavin shook his head and rid himself of that worry for now.

The two didn’t talk for a while. Mostly staring at the windows without a word. She didn’t bother talking. He didn’t think of being the first one to appease the situation. He found no reason to justify his silence. Mavin thought that there was nothing to excuse about. Natalya didn’t utter a word and mostly stared at the scenery. Better keep silent than try to talk without finding anything  worthy of discussion. He had also sensed that she had started to enjoy the sceneries so he had kept himself from bothering the way she looked at the blurry scenery. It would have been quite the scene if it wasn’t for the loud whistle of the train.

The slightly cold wind was starting to warm up. As they went past small hills and valleys, the scenery of a humid grassland opened up to their view. It didn’t take long before the train started to open up and on the horizon was the coastlines of Arkadia City. Even from the train he could spot the Gorecan Lighthouse facing the Dunham Seas, and the Ozal Ocean.

They were arriving in the first out of the fifteen districts of the city. It was the district of  Inrenika. They were still half an hour away from the Capital of the Empire of Athesia, Arkadia.

 

---

 

Inrenika’s streets were blocks of buildings. Most of the lanes were stone. In the center of the lane there was a tram powered by coal gas carrying passengers all around the city. Most of the locomotives and carriages drove on the right lane. There was a heavy smell of grease and smoke. People wore suits and dresses worn with coats.

Standing not far from the train station. Mavin’s gaze fell on Natalya who were looking at the city as if it was a stranger’s land.

“Don’t recognize it any longer?” Mavin’s voice was subdued. Natalya, after her silence, eyed him.

“It has been seven years since I entered Inrenika,” she closed in, her lips slightly raised. “Still, looks like you want to talk now?”

Mavin felt defeated somehow. Nonetheless, he had decided to lead her away from the train station and separate themselves from the rather loud noises of trams, people, cars, and horses that were making quite a ruckus.

Entering a cobbled street with less ramblers. The two occupied themselves by staring at the half-timbered and red bricked buildings. Walking side by side, the two strolled while keeping an eye on the street signs.

“A lot has changed really. I don’t even remember this street,” he pointed at one of the buildings. “We used to drink there before we started going around. This place looks alien to me.”

“I don’t have much memory of this district, but I do remember that there was a luxurious restaurant that was recommended to us. Didn’t really bother looking for that restaurant.”

The two turned right and saw stalls with canopies. Surrounded by all kinds of smell and noises. The two found themselves browsing stalls. They found jewelry and accessories. Even potteries and utensils that are made with ceramic or silverware. The two didn’t have much interest in them so they went and browsed the stalls selling foods. Once in a while, Mavin would drag Natalya to one of these stalls, allowing herself to partake on these delicacies.

Outside of this enclosed area, most of the city was parks and residential buildings. They weren’t tired, but they sat on one of the small parks where they found a wooden bench to sit on. Mavin leaned his elbows on his thighs. Natalya finished the food she was eating and rested her back on the bench.

“I appreciate the thought. I don’t know if it’s just wariness, but you are uncomfortable with my presence. I understand where you are coming from, but I think we should know each other better if we want to get along. We were doing fine when I appeared in front of you suddenly.”

“Yeah, I realized that. It’s funny really. I always use my mouth when faced with downtrodden soldiers and other people who carry heavy hearts. I found them easy to talk with. I guess it is true that it is easy to be a meddler, but it’s hard to be the person who is being meddled at.”

The sound of the passerby was the only thing he could hear. Natalya kept her silence until she leaned on the back of her bench.

“You’re probably surprised that someone who should loathe you is following you around. I’d be damn scared as well if it was the opposite,” she smiled. “I’d call you a creep if you do follow me around. If roles are changed then it would have been the normal strange. Mavin, how about you just think that I’m using you.”

“For what?”

She remained still. Her eyes travel on the buildings. Mavin came to realize that she wasn’t going to answer him on what she’s using him for. It felt strange that hearing that made him…calmer about taking her around.

“I see. Somehow, that calms me down.”

“Mavin…how many times have you been helped in the field? Don’t count the nurses and nightingales or even the medics.”

“Twice.”

“How?”

“Someone dragged me out of the mud when I almost got hit by a shell. Didn’t even know his name and couldn’t remember his face. He saved me twice. It was during the last years that he did. All I could remember from him was this,” he fished out a small pistol from his satchel bag. It was a .32 ACP pistol with leather grips.

“This pistol has been saving my life again and again.”

“You said twice, right?”

“I have been helped during my time. I only have a pistol and a knife to remember them.”

Natalya nodded her head. “So not much then. Is that why you were acting all nosy?”

He looked at her and then slowly nodded his head. “There are reasons that I do what I do is beyond the fact that two people saved my life.”

Natalya didn’t inquire further. Mavin wouldn’t even answer even if she does. How could he answer? He had sworn that he would bury the secret to his grave. The street was calm and the occasional loud passerby moving their legs to the enclosed market that they had passed by.

What should he do? He had been continuously trying to find an answer to that question of his. Here he was free from that initial spark that continued the war. Without direction and without the guidance of those ‘memories’ that had started to change this world. Nonetheless, there was merit to Natalya coming with him. Not only that he would kept her close, he might be able to get her help in finding the people he remembered was the cause for some of the problems that might occur in the future.

Mavin Tomas was lost. He couldn’t possibly know everything now that things might have gone in a different fated direction. Not only did he have to follow a different path, he also had to find the people that are trouble in the Capital City of Arkadia.

The Capital City of Arkadia was a quagmire of insolent people and brazen nobles. If he wanted to enter the Capital, then he needed to be a soldier, not someone who belonged to the Tomas Family. There was nothing more dangerous than the Empire’s High Society.

‘But first, I need to make sure to at least get along with her for now,'' Mavin sincerely thought. How he had wished that he could remember those ‘memories’ of those ‘profiles’ that they always brought up to understand the personality of a person.

Those memories were fuzzy and he didn’t know how long he could hold on to those memories that had been guiding his life.