1.10 – Away

“I can’t believe my baby’s all grown up,” Mom wailed, clutching onto Natalie’s arm. “The house'll be so empty. You promise you’ll write? Promise me.”

Natalie rolled her eyes. Mom had always been dramatic … but Natalie guessed if there was ever a time for it, it would be Natalie shipping off to Tenet. Still, it was embarrassing.

“I’ve said it a hundred times, haven’t I?” Natalie extricated herself from her mother’s clinging embrace. “And it’s only a few months till break. I’ll be back in no time.”

“You better be,” Mom said firmly. “And you better take care of yourself. And Jordan and Sofia. I’ve heard so many stories of the Dungeon … promise me you’ll be safe.”

“I’ll be safe,” Natalie said for the millionth time. “It’s definitely not part of the plan to become monster food.”

Mom swatted her shoulder. “Don’t even joke!”

“Sorry.” Natalie adjusted her backpack strap, settling the weight. Her suitcase was set behind her; the two bags were all Natalie would be bringing with her to Tenet. “I’ll be fine. Seriously. Relax.”

In the background, a train whistle pierced the air. Natalie glanced its way, then said, “I should get going.”

Her dad had been standing stoically by, watching Mom make an embarrassment out of the two of them. Despite his calm exterior, Natalie could see the hint of sadness in his eyes, too. Natalie’s train signaling it was time to board, he stepped forward and hugged her goodbye. “We’ll miss you, Nat,” he said gruffly. “You’ll do great things. But keep yourself safe. Go slow and steady. All that matters is you make it back.”

Natalie hugged him. She hadn’t thought she’d get so emotional over this … she’d been waiting to escape Tinford since she was eleven. Her voice wasn’t choked up when she replied, “Like I said, I will.” She pulled away and cleared her throat, glancing to the side. “They’re boarding. Um. Bye, then.”

She waved her parents goodbye, then scooped up her suitcase and departed. A glance over her shoulder, and she saw her parents standing there, arms wrapped around each other’s waists, Mom leaning her head against Dad’s shoulder, watching her go.

Natalie cleared her throat a second time, then focused her attention forward.

They’d needed to travel to Illesa to catch the train. Tinford was too small a town to have a station; even Illesa was barely large enough to justify the routing. Valhaur’s capital city Aradon was three hundred miles to the north. It would be a several hour trip.

Which was insane. Hundreds of miles in five hours. That sort of trip would’ve taken a week or more on foot, assuming good weather and traveling light. The Magitech Insitute was changing the world at a rate hard to comprehend. Though, in a town as small as Tinford, Natalie hadn’t gotten much chance to see their fantastical inventions. She’d only heard of them. Progress came slow to outskirt towns like Tinford.

Natalie would have plenty of opportunity to see how the world was advancing, now. Aradon, and Tenet, would be stuffed full of the Institute’s inventions. Even the train itself was fascinating, unlike anything she’d seen. It was constructed with enormous, complex mechanisms … but more importantly, covered in glyphs, the swooping, arcane symbols responsible for manifesting magical energy into the physical world.

In the engine room, Natalie knew, monster cores were hooked up to fuel the vehicle. Batteries. Monster cores which delvers were responsible for gathering … Natalie’s future career. It was a bit surreal to think about. How many cores, and what quality, did it take to run this mountain of metal?

Natalie glanced at her ticket as she shuffled along with the other boarding passengers. Cabin 18A.

Mom and Dad, along with Jordan’s and Sofia’s parents, had pooled their funds to buy the three of them a private cabin for the trip up to Aradon—a going-away gift. Natalie was flattered, but also, she couldn’t help but feel like it was a waste. So much money … it couldn’t have been easy for them to scrape the funds together, even splitting it three ways. Natalie wouldn’t have minded sitting in the cramped public cabins. Her parents weren’t destitute, but they weren’t well off.

She might be able to change that, if Natalie’s future went well. Delvers earned exceptional money … or, the non-low-level ones. Assuming Natalie didn’t turn into monster food, as she’d joked about to her parents, then by the time she left Tenet in four years, a single delve would be a month of their pay, or more. Wealth was one of the main motivators for why people flocked to the dungeons.

Natalie had an advantage, at least, in that she’d been accepted to Tenet. Some people starting delving without any professional training, or preparation of any sort. Desperation, usually. The mortality rates weren’t bright even for skilled delvers, so for those cases … even less so. Natalie’s chosen profession had a grim reality to it; it didn’t pay so well without reason.

Her parents’ insistence that Natalie keep herself safe had been justified. Especially since they knew Natalie wasn’t the most careful of individuals. They were ecstatic Jordan had qualified along with her. They’d made a few comments about how she’d keep Natalie out of trouble.

Which … Natalie would see about that. Jordan did have a moderating effect on Natalie, but she hadn’t managed to ‘keep Natalie out of trouble’, growing up. Why would it be different now?

Natalie was almost at the front of the line. She looked around, shifting in place as she waited, and caught a glimpse of white hair.

Sofia had always stuck out in a crowd. Her hair, mostly. White wasn’t a common color, down in Valhaur. The culprit was Sofia’s Theliosian blood, the snowy, mountainous nation to the north of Valhaur. Natalie didn’t know the exact circumstances behind how she’d been adopted by the Kipper family.

She was pressed in by her siblings and parents, who were, in much the same way Natalie’s mom had been, wailing over her departure. Natalie didn’t understand how such an annoying, smug girl had a family so bright and cheerful. She stuck out in the mass of brown-hair and tanned skin. Sofia’s hair wasn’t the only thing blindingly white about her … she had the skin of a Theliosian too. Theliosians didn’t tan like Valhaurians; they just burned. Teasing Sofia over it was one of Natalie’s favorite things to do. The fact she had to put on sunscreen to avoid roasting was something she was definitely annoyed by, much as she pretended not to be.

Natalie reached the front of the line, and she turned her attention to the attendant, handing him her ticket.

She boarded.