<div style="text-align: center;">"<span style="font-style: italic">Are you alright?</span>" Anora asked as a series of short, shallow breaths emanated from her mouth.  As she panted her right hand quickly went to the left side of her torso, quickly feeling the site of her earlier wound to see if she tore any of her stitches, or re injured the wound all together.  To her surprise she found no signs of any tears.  Good.  She knew that at worse all she would suffer was maybe a bruised rib,  and that was something she could live with.  Though she also knew it would hinder her.  With her lack a strength, the unfortunate byproduct of the blood loss sustained from her injury, combined with a sore rib would mean that any attempt to shoot her bow would be nearly impossible.  Deciding to refrain from sharing this injury news with Avis, Anora instead began to make her way towards the stair case.  She walked without a hitch.  To the untrained eyes her movement was free of pain and injury.  Anora liked that.  <br/><br/>As she reached the top of the stair case, Anora turned her head around and spoke to Avis once more.  "<span style="font-style: italic">I will head down and check on the others.  I would like to make sure no one else had a fall.</span>"<br/><br/>As her voice trailed off, she began her descent down the staircase.  At first she walked as she normally would.  Her boots hitting hard against the wooden stairs and moving at a brisk pace that seemed not out of the ordinary.  Yet as the sight of Avis slowly was removed from her sight did she change her posture.  Her right hand shot over and covered her left side once again, the pressure of her hand on the wound brought a sensation of pain yet seemed to dull it all the same while her free hand was quick to catch the railing on the side of the stairs.  Each step down brought with it a wave of pain, causing her eyes to wince and her teeth softly biting into her bottom lip.  Eventually she made it to the bottom, much to the delight of her side.  She summoned her courage, and her strength, and quickly made her way to the room which Cyrus had chosen.  Her hand was quick to grab the door handle with a firm grasp, and she quickly turned it entering the room without a knock.<br/><br/>"<span style="font-style: italic">Cyrus, are you hurt</span>?  <span style="font-style: italic">Something.... something <span style="font-weight: bold">strange</span> happened up ahead.  Caused the machine to stop in it's track.</span>"  Anora spoke.<br/><br/>"'<span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold">Strange?</span></span>"  The old man asked, ignoring the question about his health for the time being.  "<span style="font-style: italic">In which way?</span>"  He paused as his eyes instinctively shot to Anora's wounded side.  They then darted to Anora's, and upon sensing the faintest bit of doubt in the air did he continue.  "<span style="font-style: italic">R</span><span style="font-style: italic">egardless, let me have a look at your side.  You must have hurt yourself in all the commotion, maybe tore a stitch out</span>."  He spoke as he rose from the side of the bed.  <br/><br/>"<span style="font-style: italic">Don't worry Cyrus.  I already checked and the stitches are okay.</span>"  Anora responded.  "<span style="font-style: italic">Maybe a bruised rib at worst, it can wait until we check on the others.</span>"<br/><br/>"<span style="font-style: italic">We must be su-</span>" He began to command, taking a few steps towards Anora before his voice was cut short.<br/><br/>"<span style="font-style: italic">It can <span style="font-weight: bold">wait</span></span>."  Anora spoke.  "<span style="font-style: italic">First let us head downstairs and check on the others.  Maybe someone knows what happened up ahead.</span>"  Anora quickly turned her body around, even though it brought back a surge of pain, and exited the room.  The duo quickly made their way to the staircase and quickly the two descended the staircase.  As they entered the cabin, Anora's eyes scanned for signs of injury or destruction.  She was relieved when she found none of it, a few chess pieces strewn across the table and the ground and a few books misplaced from their shelves seemed to be the extent of the damage caused down here.  Though in an instant, Anora and Cyrus both spotted a man on the ground on the far side near the door.  <br/><br/>"<span style="font-style: italic">Selen, is that man injured?</span>"  Cyrus asked as he quickly rushed to his granddaughters side.  Selen was on the ground next to him on her knees, with her hand on the man's forhead.  She turned her head slightly to face Cyrus and she let out a strong smile as he grew near.  "<span style="font-style: italic">No.  No he just fainted.</span>"  Selen responded as she looked back on the man on the ground.  "<span style="font-style: italic">He should wake up soon</span>."  She spoke.<br/><br/>"<span style="font-style: italic">Magnus, is everyone alright?</span>"  Anora asked.  She noticed a distinct lack of injuries.  Magnus seemed like he was in a state of shock, and no one would be able to fault him for that.  While Ardur was unaccounted for, she knew she was most likely the only one who suffered an injury.  In the depths of her mind she knew that this was caused by her earlier injury, and looked towards the healers. She knew if anything was to happen soon, she would need their help.  She turned her attention back to Magnus and asked a second question, as the first seemed to fall on deaf ears. "And who is that if I may ask.""<br/><br/>At first, Magnus did not answer. He continued staring out the window, his eyes locked on the pillar of light that pierced the heavens. His hand, still holding the dusty remains of his old talisman, finally dropped. Ash spilled from his palm onto the floor, and he registered the sounds of people talking around him again. It took some effort to tear his gaze from the summoning that had caused the earthquake, but he turned to Anora, and for a moment, the other man that had fallen into their car.<br/><br/>"I don't know," He answered. There was a distinct shake to his voice, and as he turned, Anora would be able to clearly see the cultist amulet stuck to the window, pulsing and glowing with spiritual power as it dried to follow the shimmering tower. "But I think we've found who we've been looking for." Swiftly, he snatched the amulet by its string, tugging it away from the glass. It was not resistant, but he felt a subtle tug towards the event. "They've summoned something. I don't know what, but it's big. This is more miraculous power than I've ever felt in my life." Nervously, he swallowed and breathed deeply, attempting to calm the furiously beating heart in his chest. "We need to go. As soon as this train is docked."<br/><br/>Anora fell silent for a moment of her own, absorbing the information that Magnus had just shot out.  While she still felt weary about the new, unexpected guest in their cabin, she knew that something was bothering a man who had until now been the one who has held his composure the best.  She looked at the talisman in his hand with wide beady eyes, still not processing the information that magnus had told her.<br/><br/>"<span style="font-style: italic">What do you mean Magnus?</span>"  She asked as she adopted a look of confusion.  "<span style="font-style: italic">What do you mean that they've summoned <span style="font-weight: bold">something</span>?"</span> <br/><br/>Magnus balled his fist around the amulet, looking towards its symbol. The gems on its face glowed a furiously bright shade of green and white. "Summoning a spirit from the Otherworld requires special rituals. Miracle casters tend to be more in-tune with spirits, and the church uses summoning during some gatherings. I've been to enough to know what summoning an angel feels like, but this is...This is something else entirely. It's not anything I know." Other spirits gave off distinct auras as well, but neither demon nor fae matched whatever it was that descended from the pillar. "But it's got an incredibly powerful soul. Whatever it is, it's far beyond anything that I've ever felt before."<br/><br/>Past that, he had no clue what it could have been. Some sort of spirit, obviously, that had come from one of the immaterial planes of Light within the Otherworld. The pillar and its runic halos gave that away merely by sight; it was a heavenly summoning. But its sheer power and uniqueness of its spirit, at least from what Magnus was able to process of it, was unknown to him. It filled him with a deep and terrible dread. Demons, the most common enemy of his religion, had become identifiable. This matched nothing he knew.<br/><br/>"Whatever it is, the talisman is reacting to it. They made these things, so it must be connected to them. My own wasn't able to process all this power." He turned his free hand over, the ashes of his old talisman's blessed wood still stuck to the glove of his gauntlet. <br/><br/>Anora's face once again drew a blank.  Summoning spirits was already a stretch of faith for her, having never seen it done and only hearing of it through second hand accounts on the roads. Yet now here was Magnus, telling her that someone somewhere had summoned something so strong that not even a devoted man such as himself has ever experienced. She did not want to believe it.  She could not believe it.   Yet here they stood, with the ash of a broken talisman on the ground and the assassins talisman still pulling towards whatever was out there.  Slowly, the gears in her head began to turn and the corners of her mouth fell downward as the weight of Magnus's words finally sunk in.  She briefly shook her head, before looking at Magnus again.<br/><br/>"<span style="font-style: italic">Do you think we're ready for something like this?</span>" She asked in a hushed tone.  <br/><br/>The question hung in Magnus's mind. Were they ready? Could anyone truly be for something like this? Before this moment, Magnus had no idea spirits of such power existed, at least in the mortal plane. He knew of religious cults, many that tried uprising, only to be snuffed out beneath the church's defenders. But these people, who had taken so many lives and torn his apart, not only went without trace for so long, but now brought a being that was beyond comprehension into their world. His eyes fell to the amulet in his hand again, which he moved with his fingers so that its symbol was properly upward.<br/><br/>"We have to be," He started, lowering his hand. "Because nobody else is." He opened a pouch on his belt and stowed the jewelry away, then took a deep breath with closed eyes. "Anyone on this car who isn't prepared for this is to be dropped off in town. I'm going out there, to find out what's going on, one way or another. Are you with me?" He extended his hand to Anora, awaiting an answer.<br/><br/>This time Magnus's words were very clear to her, and very much to the point.  While she was positively frightened by the thoughts of what was to come, she knew there was very little chance of her turing her back on these people now.   She quickly met his hand with her own, and responded with a soft "<span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold">Aye</span>, and so is Ardur.</span>"  She quickly released her grip, allowing her hand to fall back to her side.  She looked back towards Cyrus and Selen and wanted to move towards them and get some of the healing she desperately needed, yet her body remained frozen in place..  Her thoughts still raced about the uncertainty ahead of them.  She knew she would be needed at full strength for whatever lay ahead, and with that thought she quickly turned around and began making her way towards the two healers.  She noticed a couch was near their location and promptly sat down.<br/><br/>"<span style="font-style: italic">Selen.</span>"  Anora commanded.<br/><br/>"<span style="font-style: italic">Y-yes?</span>"  Selen stuttered back.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">"I need you to use your healing magic on my side</span>."  She again commanded.  "<span style="font-style: italic">We will need to investigate what caused this, and I need to be able to use my bow.</span>"<br/><br/>"<span style="font-style: italic">Grandfather?</span>"  Selen asked with an anxious look in her eyes.  <br/><br/>"<span style="font-style: italic">It will require a lot of your strength.</span>"  Cyrus said in a weary voice.  "<span style="font-style: italic">But you are as ready now as you will ever be."</span>  He turned his attention back to the man on the floor, waiting for him to awake.<br/><br/>Selen quickly rose to her feet, and found a seat next to Anora.  Selen quickly pulled up the side of Anora's shirt, enough to give her a clear look at the stitches and the area around the wound.  "<span style="font-style: italic">The stitches are all looking good.</span>"  She spoke as her eyes carefully scanned Anora's body.  "<span style="font-style: italic">This <span style="font-weight: bold">will </span>hurt you a bit.</span>"  She spoke as she quickly grabbed a sharp knife from the table.  "<span style="font-style: italic">I will need to first remove the stitches from your side, and then I can proceed with the healing.</span>"  She finished as her eyes rose to meet Anora's.  She was met with a simple nod, and Selen began to carefully cut the stitches out and begin the healing process.<br/><br/>As Anora left to finish up her healing, Magnus turned back to the window, returning his eyes to the distant site of spiritual power. His mind raced with thoughts of what exactly it was they were going to do, formulating plans and internally debating their best course of action. Right now, only one thing was certain: As soon as their train stopped, he was going to drop his parents off at the city's Alesian temple and go. His jaw clenched, and with one final deep breath, he turned away and walked down their private car's length, making his way to the stairs. He walked up to their room, both to discuss what needed to be done and to gather his weapons.</div>