Twisted Skies, Chapter 3 - Investigation (Patreon)

 The sliding door towards the back half of their train was occupied by the overnight cabins and the toilets. Different from most passengers on this long journey, Thurain himself didn't have a cabin ticket. Though of course he didn't need one, since he was just cultivating the entire time. Or rather, he would have been, had he not been so rudely interrupted by this inconsiderate jewel thief. Thus, he had instead opted for a transit ticket. While it had saved him some money, but he also had no right to use the cabins.   

“What does young master plan to do in the city, if this old man may ask?” Mr Aubrey asked in a tone far more polite than the one the clerk had used.

“Apart from handling the issues around my dead family member, my master has decided it best for me to join the Elemental Path Sect. Their entrance exam for this year will be held very soon. This train will reach the city just in time.”

“So young master Vaine is a loose cultivator,” Mr. Aubrey concluded. Although loose cultivators – unaffiliated with any sect – had a lower status, the rich man seemed happy. After all, without a strong backing, there was a bigger chance that a rich family of short-lived folk could prove valuable to them. Thus, there was a larger chance for the Aubrey family to recruit him long-term. Thurain ignored the rich man's calculations and answered his superficial question instead.   

“Yes, but as a loose cultivator in today's modern society, one can only get so far. That's why master wanted me to join a sect and get a proper degree. Without one, I'm no more than a quack in the eyes of the public, no matter how good my abilities are.”

While Thurain made offhand remarks about the changing times, his eyes ran across the floor and over the windows to his left, as well as over the doors of the cabins to his right. The floor was lined with the same thick, red carpet as his own compartment and the windows were high and small. It didn't seem like there were any trap doors hidden underneath the carpet, and the windows couldn't be opened without breaking the glass.   

“Who owns the cabins?” Thurain asked towards the clerk.

“We have already checked the cabins,” the employee answered in an abrasive voice, but a stern look from Mr. Aubrey made him soften his tone. “As of this moment, no passengers are inside their cabins. Further, anyone who owns a cabin ticket has been inside the front compartment ever since the theft has been discovered. We have already questioned all the guests, so there is nothing left for Master Thurain to do.”

“Is that so?” After a side-long glance at the worker who seemed overeager to prove his ability in front of a rich customer, Thurain continued his work. Despite the clerk's insistence, the cultivator still checked the cabin doors. His focus was on the locks, since he doubted some untVained clerk could find the traces of a picked lock. Even so, he couldn't find any scratches, and no residual qi, so it was also unlikely anyone had broken in by force.

“Master, what are you looking for?” Mr. Aubrey asked. Unlike his confident demeanor from before, his voice was repressed and his posture low. He was visibly awkward to be stuck between the clerk and the young master who were both eager to help him. Thurain was happy to alleviate the man's concerns.

“For now, you are convinced that the thief is someone inside first class, isn't that right? Whether or not that's true is irrelevant though. No matter who the thief was, the problem remains the same: He or she came from behind your own private compartment, but they didn't go through the entrance to reach your private compartment. Thus, they would have to find a different path inside. What I'm looking for, first and foremost, is exactly that different path.”   

With his explanation finished and no traces found in the hallway, Thurain turned to the clerk again. “Show me to the array between the train segments, please.”

At least no one who would bother with Mr. Aubrey's ring.

“Very well. Maybe then, young master will trust the security of Spiritbridge Transportations.”

Beyond the cabins, was the door at the back of the compartment. Once the door had been slid open, Thurain found himself outside outside, with only an ornate, wooden balustrade to save him from a potential fall. Above, he could see the edges of the iridescent starlight beetle shell that covered the first class segment. At the same time, he was confronted the front of the 'value compartments'. The contrast between the two reflected the status of the people inside. While their own train segment had been covered by the giant beetle shell, its inside clad in dark wood and an expensive cloth of a noble wine-red, the back compartments were surrounded by simple wooden boxes, colored in the dirty brown of muddy water. Thurain could feel the draft from here.

However, he had no time to lament the tragedy of the downtrodden. Instead, his attention was captured by the brass inlays on the ground between the two wagons.

The brass spread from the floor over the wooden supports on the side of the wagon and up onto the ceiling. When he concentrated, a strong fluctuation of qi could be felt from the construct, like the heat of a hearth. Although Thurain was no expert on arrays, he had seen similar forms before, in his home-mountain's own protective arrays.

“Doesn't this seem excessive?” he mumbled to himself and attracted the attention of his followers.

“What is it, master? Did you find something?” Mr. Aubrey asked.

“No, it's just this array,” he answered. “This seems a bit much for a simple train. Considering the amount of radiating energy and the form of the array, a real cultivator couldn't break through. Not to mention those ordinary people in the back.”

“Yes, the new arrays have been installed by a well-known grandmaster of the Elemental Path Sect,” the clerk beamed with pride, completely missing the point of Thurain's concerns in the process.   

“I'm guessing your trains have been robbed recently?” the young cultivator asked instead.

Stunned, the clerk stared at Thurain for a few seconds, before his eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Who are you? How would you know this?”

“You wouldn't waste money on this kind of excessive security otherwise. This is far too advanced for some short-lived's train. Unless you have something to prove. My guess is that you were robbed a couple times recently, so now your bosses broke the bank and invited an expensive master to guarantee security. You need to show that you can still guarantee reliable travel after all.”

Although Thurain's words had silenced the clerk, he still had the same dark look as before. Rather than worry about the petty clerk, Thurain shrugged and turned towards the door.

“Let's go back.”

“Where are we going, master?” Aubrey asked. “Didn't you say that the thief might have been from the back trains?”

“No, that's not an option anymore, not with that array around. This thing shields the entire back of the train segment, from just above the rails all the way to the roof. No normal person would be able to circumvent it from behind. There's always a chance that a cultivator could jump over the gap onto the roof and pass the barrier through force or skill but...”

Thurain trailed off, yet that only made Mr. Aubrey more curious.

“But?”

“If your thief can do that much, then I'm helpless as well.” Thurain sighed. “Someone who can break this array mid-jump would be far beyond my own abilities. Even if we caught them, what could we do?”

“So what are your plans now, master?” With a sour look, Aubrey asked again. While he seemed convinced that his ring was gone for good, Thurain wasn't that sure yet.

“No need to panic just yet. There's still one place left to check,” he said as he turned towards the toilets. There was only a single, large room, equipped with a wash basin, a cabinet and the toilet itself. As soon as Thurain entered the room, he knew he had found the thief's entrance strategy.

“There it is,” he said and walked up to the window.