Hedi felt the world slide beneath her, and her body drift with it, like a cradle rocking on a slow tide.

At the same time, the world swayed around her awareness, as if her mind were the axis of a lantern turning.

Words are muddy, but the feeling stays, a small flame in fog.

Her head was a tangled thicket; she couldn’t tell if she trembled, or if the world jolted her like a cart over stones.

Most likely, a half-dream blur warped her senses, like heat shimmering on a road.

Suddenly—Hedi felt a delicate ripple move through her body, like wind brushing reeds.

In her nose, a swarm of playful sprites rose, heralding release like rustling grass.

Her throat tightened on its own, sending a thin pressure upward like a rising bubble.

Then an irresistible jolt shot through her nerves like lightning, twisting her face in a brief storm.

“Ah-choo!”

Her whole body jerked, like a string yanked by invisible hands.

In a blink, air surged out; mist threads sprayed from her nose and scattered into the room like fine rain.

“Cold?” Selina tilted her head, voice soft as shade. “We’ll reach the station soon.”

“Why are you carrying me?”

“Couldn’t wake you. I’m hauling you to the station like a pack over a trail.”

Hedi sniffled and laid her head on Selina’s shoulder, watching a bead of sweat slide down her cheek like a pearl on glass.

“Am I heavy?”

“A bit. You’ve been eating well. You might’ve put on a little, like dough rising.”

“Nonsense. I don’t gain weight, no matter how I eat.”

Selina blinked, envy flashing like a winter sun. “If I stop training, I’ll puff into a ball.”

“Round and rolling, kind of cute—like a moon.”

“Really?”

“But no.” Hedi pinched the hair at both sides of Selina’s head, like a pilot taking a helm.

She pictured herself steering a machine-beast that could wreck worlds, plowing forward without end.

“If you turn into a ball, you’ll crush me flat.”

“Like a little mouse.”

“A mouse?”

Selina’s voice dipped into childhood, like a bucket lowered into a well.

For a time, grain at home showed gnaw marks. To stop it, she set layers of defenses in the storehouse.

One line was clever: a triangle trap of sticks and bricks.

Touch the stick—just brush it—and the pre-set brick would drop like a falling star, turning the intruder into a thin rat-pancake.

“Rats, yeah.” Hedi drifted into her own memory like a leaf into a stream.

“Once, I saw the nuns chasing a rat. I was half-asleep, mistook it for a hamster, reached out—then it bit me hard.”

She showed her right index finger, a pale mark like a crescent scar.

“Here. It hurt so much I flung my hand. The rat fell mid-air, hit the floor, probably its head.

It lay still, only its feet twitching like grass in a breeze.”

“Didn’t expect the Professor to have dumb moments,” Selina said, a smile flicking like sunlight.

“I was yelling ‘little hamster, little hamster,’ trying to shield it from the nuns’ brooms, and it bit me.”

“Animals don’t get human talk,” Selina said, steady as a fence post.

“Even if it did, hearing you change its species would still earn you a bite.”

“Sigh. I’ll carry this scar for life, like a thread sewn into skin.”

“Anyone else know?”

“Besides those who saw it, only you.”

Selina lifted her head, pride bright as a pennant. “Don’t tell anyone.”

“Jealous over this too?”

“Having a private slice of you, the hidden part, feels like a privilege—like a key to a locked garden.”

“Peeking at the real me?”

“Yeah. Most embarrassing things get buried like stones under soil.”

“Not much can embarrass me.” Hedi nuzzled Selina’s face, swaying side to side like a gentle broom dusting a quiet room.

“Aside from the rat, not many.”

“You were going to say—”

“Tickets first.”

Selina set Hedi on the platform’s long bench, a row like quiet boats, and walked to the window.

Behind the pane, the clerk drooped, half-asleep, like rubber sagging under a hard sun.

“I’d like two tickets to Northstar City.”

“Mm.”

“Any express?”

The clerk leafed through forms while shaking her head, muscles slow like thaw.

“The eleven o’clock okay?”

“Two, please.”

“Sign here.” She pointed to the bottom like a teacher’s chalk. “I’ll process it.”

“We need signatures now?”

“We always did.”

Selina twisted off the pen cap, memory turning like an old gear.

Last time leaving Shattered City, they took the vice dean’s steam car, iron heart chugging.

She’d never caught the return train here.

She signed, handed the form, and took the tickets like warm bread.

“Asking for signatures, huh.” She came back to Hedi, voice light as wind.

“No one else asks.”

“Given Shattered City’s quirks, it’s reasonable,” Hedi said, calm as tea.

“We should’ve driven.”

“Got a license?”

Selina shook her head, a small pendulum. “Do you?”

“It’s a hassle.” Hedi smoothed her sleeve like a river ironing cloth.

“We don’t go far. I never bothered.”

“Feels like things will get busy, like storm clouds gathering.”

“Why?”

“Think about it. The vice dean vanished. The institute will notice, like hounds catching a scent.

Last time, his driver took us home. They’ll connect the dots and land on us like arrows.”

“You got smarter.”

“Being with someone smart makes your smart self smarter—like fire catching fire.”

“Never thought you were that smart.”

Selina hugged Hedi, a habit soft as moss, and teased, “That’s because you’re too smart.”

“True.”

“Shameless!”

Hedi smoothed Selina’s hair and flicked stray strands behind her ear, like tucking waves behind a rock.

“We’ll move step by step. We’ll learn the institute’s stance on Stratford.

Then we’ll decide if we tell the truth.”

“Feels like they’ll side with the vice dean, like trees leaning with wind.”

“If so, we’ve got Stratford’s surgical records. That keeps us from being totally passive, like a boat without oars.”

“You mean he ran the surgery without telling them?”

“It’s a guess—smoke without confirmed fire.”

“If the higher-ups find out, you’ll be passive again, like a net around a bird.”

Hedi smiled, a crescent rising. “You plus me is one and one greater than two—like two flames becoming a blaze.”

“I did nothing. When you entered the Dark Realm, I nearly died of worry, like ice in my veins.

And you got hurt. Your foot swelled like a tomato!”

“There won’t be a next time.”

Selina lay against Hedi and closed her eyes with a helpless sigh, like a tide going slack.

“Better not be a next time.”

A train whistled and slid in from the right, a silver fish cutting water.

The sky wore no clouds, blue so clean it faded like washed silk.

One glance lifted the heart, like cool river water rinsing dust away.