Chương 65: Chapter 64: A freight train

++I do not like freight trains. I hate them, in fact. If it were practical I would very much like to round up every freight train in the world, melt them into a single mass of molten iron, and propel it into space. ++ - From the writings of Isabel Vornholt, 'The Great Lich'. 1, 891 A. E. I had spread my tendrils of influence deep and long through the Winzorth Institute so far.

It had not been especially difficult; the prestige of being its most talented student, combined with the advantage of being seen as so thoroughly non-threatening due to my age and gender, meant that I had experienced almost no opposition. My mother's methods proved their use again. Favours and subtle obligations, all softer powers that were far less visible, but nearly as irresistible, as the brute-force commanding I had grown used to doing in my previous life. It all started with the other apprentices.

At twelve, I had not yet been attracting the sort of grunting, masturbatory-barbarian attention I was now. Instead I had been relying more on the social status of my magical gifts, and, more specifically, the social status other people could acquire by being seen to associate with them.

Slowly, and subtly, I had let it be known to various prominent apprentices that I was willing to accompany them to public meetings with visiting relatives and put on a show of infatuation and friendship, always in less-trafficked parts of Laugrey, where I would not be at risk of getting a wider reputation for being seen with too many men on different days, and never for anything beyond just the show. This made me very useful to a lot of them. More importantly, it gave me a good deal of leverage.

And when a certain Artur Hortwik made a certain comment about me and my sexual proclivities, it was all too easy for me to write his parents a letter explaining the whole affair. That put the fear of Gods into the rest of the apprentices, and made it entirely clear to all who had taken me up on my offer for free favour with their families that I now held their reputations in one hand, and could squeeze at will. I had to be careful with that though.

Send too many letters and the magician families would share the scheme with each other, rendering all of my leverage—and the services for which I was owed favours—worthless. Hortwik was my chosen demonstration because his parents were less connected than the rest. So far, after two years, no other apprentices had quite noticed that weak point in my scheme, and I remained the queen of Winzorth. My approach with the Professors was different, and softer still.

I did not blackmail them, simply offered continued roles in each of their ongoing research. Helping them push the limits of what was magically possible within their fields, letting them document my progress and write out papers on the facts. There was so much competition in any science, and more still in magic. Those who initially refused were soon forced to do so just to keep from being upstaged by their own colleagues in the wider academic world.

And all who accepted my help needed to continue accepting it, or else have their careers slow again in my absence. Professor Varylani had the strongest ties to the region Paula's family hailed from, Yirin. She had apparently come from a family situated there herself, and the woman was fortunately already at the Institute when I sought her out now. My Professors had begun travelling more, since we began our arrangement. Rushing to conferences and speeches all over the Empire.

Three knocks, and the door to Varylani's office opened. She looked up at me, shorter than I was now, and scowled.

"Oh, it's you." Needing me for her career had done many things, but sanding the edges off her attitude was not one of them.

"May I come in?" She sighed, like she had just been asked to donate two pints of blood and one of her femurs.

"Yes, fine." The Professor stepped to one side and let me pass. Her office was smaller than most of her compatriots, but still expansive and handsomely decorated. Hers was by far the most ordered, everything stashed with an obsessive precision. I got the impression that if I were to nudge even a single book out of place, either the room or its owner would combust on the spot.

"I need transportation to Yirin," I told her.

"Heard how many cocks there are over there, did you, you little minx?" the Professor asked. There are many things you can say to an aeons-old lich that will wound her. Saying that she is sexually promiscuous is, obviously, not among them.

"I am in no mood for your usual jabs," I sighed.

"Can you or can you not help me?" Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. The professor sniffed, like she usually did when a shot she fired missed its mark.

"Why ask me?" she shrugged.

"Has to be dozens of people at the Institute who can get you passage there."

"I need discreet passage."

"Ah," she sniffed at that.

"You actually are going to meet some lover, then?" Her eyes glinted, like they always did when she thought she had found a weak spot. The Professor had been trying to discover some way to verbally wound me for two years. None of her attempts had yet yielded fruit.

"It is none of your concern what I need it for, and I will cease my cooperation with you if you attempt to uncover any particulars," I let an edge expose itself in my voice and made it clear this was not an idle threat. A mistake, I thought. There was no need to escalate tensions over a trivial matter like this, but now it was done. The Professor met my glare with her own.

"You're getting used to pushing your luck," she told me.

"One day it's going to push back." I just said nothing and stared, waiting for her to finish her little display of petulant defiance so that we could move on to more important matters. A few more moments and she caved with a sigh.

"... I can arrange transportation for you," she managed at last.

"Not good doing it last minute, but doable. How are you with trains?"

"Perfectly comfortable, I have ridden one to Lachfel and back several times a year for the last several years." She smiled at that, the expression nasty and taut on her features. I did not understand that at the moment, and did not care enough to investigate further. Overconfidence, especially manifesting as being too quick to dismiss others, is one of the chief shortcomings of any lich. In my case, it did not lead to a disaster today. Just a massive discomfort.

Ten hours later Paula and myself were at a seedy edge of Laugrey. With our lessons seen to and our work rushed through well in advance, we had bought ourselves a good fortnight's reprieve from the exertions of our education. It should have been relaxing, but of course the sight of our transportation ruined that somewhat.

"It is a freight train," I said. Paula looked at the poorly-maintained vehicle that was surely composed of at least fifty percent rust by volume, forcing a smile.

"Looks functional, at least, right? Plus, nobody would suspect the great Isabel Vornholt is in here."

"It is a freight train." She winced.

"Well you said discreet, right? This is a good pick for that."

"It is a freight train." Paula looked at me, and I could tell she was trying not to laugh.

"I don't remember you being this picky in the past," she pointed out.

"That was then," I snapped. Over the past few years I had, admittedly, gotten rather used to the lap of luxury. Here I was now dressed-down like a commoner, essentially wearing rags, and being expected to ride in what was essentially a giant, mobile petri dish for tetanus.

"It is beneath my dignity," I added after a moment. Paula burst out laughing outright at that.

"What?!" I snapped.

"Nothing I just…you're making the same face now that you did right when you got your first period." We boarded the so-called 'vehicle' and I did my best not to cut myself on anything, trying to ignore the raw scent of mangled metal as we tucked ourselves away in, of course, a cargo compartment. It was fortunately big and boasted a lot of empty space, though not as much as I would have liked. We were competing with a number of crates for volume.

"Conductor said not to peek inside," Paula reminded me as I began eyeballing one.

"I'd rather not piss him off considering we're relying on his mouth staying shut." It was not often, these days, that I was at the mercy of another person's discretion, and I did not care for it any more than I had ten years ago. I reluctantly kept my curiosity shackled for the time being. The train wheezed and groaned, lumbering out onto the tracks like an old cow on the day of its death. Paula leaned back against a crate while I sat opposite her. The levity was gone now, tension thickening between us once again.

Paula cut it first.

"It hurt me."

"What?"

"What you said, those years ago. I keep thinking about it. Keep thinking about how stupid it is that I let a twelve year-old hurt me like that, that my best friend was a twelve year-old at all but…well, you're a weird one, aren't you? Almost like you're older…" I tried not to go visibly rigid.

"... Wise above your years, is that the saying?" I relaxed slightly.

"Beyond," I corrected.

"Right. Well, your wisdom did a fine job of hurting me." She trailed off, and I realised she was waiting for an apology. Or hoping for one, at least.

"I said nothing that was incorrect, did nothing wrong and will do it again," I told her. The woman scowled.

"Then why are you here?"

"What?"

"Helping me, like this. I've been thinking about our talk. You could've offered me money, I know you have ways of getting it if you wanted it. Hell you could just walk over to half the apprentices and ask them for a thousand shillings before being given it on the spot. Maybe you'd need to smile, flutter your eyelashes a bit. Can't be too hard even for you, right? But instead you're riding a freight train with me." I ignored the insulting impression she made of my voice as she uttered our vehicle's name.

"I have learned the benefits of soft power," I said, more thinking aloud.

"Right," Paula nodded.

"Of course. Yes. Soft power. Like telling people who you're getting favours from that you're deliberately helping them for those favours, in order to spread your power. Very soft." I glared up at her.

"I am starting to see now why your only friend was a twelve year-old." She chuckled, looking away to the side after a few moments.

"Thank you Isabel," she said at last.

"Everything I told you still stands," I riposted.

"You cannot rely on me, or on anything but yourself. Others will fail you out of malice, weakness or something else." She just kept smiling.

"One day, I hope to teach you better than that," she said. I fell silent at that, my mood now souring. Perhaps I should betray her, just so she could learn that lesson. Except… no, I could not. I needed her loyalty and her debt. And besides, I had already expended the effort to arrange this journey. No, for now I was best served going through with this. And if Paula learned all the wrong lessons from my doing so… well, that was her problem. She could not rely on me, after all.

Not even to keep her from falling for the same trap I once did.