Xochipilli fell asleep after eating, and Aloe didn't have the heart to make him study more, so she left him to rest. She could have explored the train in the meanwhile, but she didn't trust people to leave her disciple alone, nor would exploration have granted her any insight into the train. They had already gone from head to tail and there wasn't much more to explore.

  So there she sat in comfortable silence, still like a tree until night came by and Xochipilli finally woke up. It was… eerily terrifying the degree of stillness she could achieve.

  "What time is it?" The child asked groggily.

  "Early night," Aloe answered. "Is the train rocking draining your strength? You've slept for almost a third of the day."

  "No, it's not that…" Xochipilli looked away, ashamed, so she decided not to pry any further.

  "Are you ready to continue with your studies?" The boy silently nodded. "Then let's continue with Evolution, take this."

  She offered him a black seed. Without the need for any commands, Xochipilli evolved the seed out of his own volition. Yes, he does not have enough vitality, but he has managed to evolve it into a Flourishing Spring seed twice now. But how? If it were me, I would have puked, passed out, and most likely failed the evolution, but he's conscious, if a bit dizzy.

  "Alright, that's enough Evolution training for now," the old druid said after retrieving the evolved seed and storing it in her slimy pocket.

  "Already?" The young druid was shy most of the time, but he didn't fail to express his disappointment now. "I want to do more! I can do more! I want to evolve plants like the Blossomflame!"

  "All in its due time, Xochipilli," she ruffled his hair. "You are young and don't have enough vitality to even evolve a single Flourishing Spring without severely straining your body." How severely, that I cannot tell, she kept those thoughts to herself. "If we find one of these Haya pills, a real one that will increase your maximum reserves, it will significantly boost your early growth, but for now, you must be patient."

  The child nodded sheepishly, prompting another hair ruffle from an amused Aloe.

  "Let's continue studying, shall we?"

  Reading, writing, and vital arts, there were many aspects Aloe had to teach to Xochipilli. She asked herself from time to time if she was doing it for the child or herself, and every time she wasn't able to come up with an answer. It always ended up with a: Well, he's getting an education, and that's always good.

  It was difficult teaching the boy how to write as they lacked the tools to do so on the train, and if they did, it got bumpy more than once. More than practice, they had to study the theory, which wasn't as hard as she expected as the Aloe Veritas always wrote in perfect calligraphy, allowing her to teach Xochipilli with literally perfect examples.

  Unfortunately, night seemed to take a toll on the child, and even if he had been sleeping not that long ago, he went back to sleep a few hours past midnight.

  The poor child had fallen asleep on her lap. The cultivator wondered if she should change her internal infusion to dexterity to make her thighs even more comfortable, but ultimately decided against it as the movement of her passive shapeshift could awaken the boy.

  "You make sleeping such a comfortable endeavor," Aloe mused as she caressed Xochipilli's sleeping face.

  She was so tempted to sleep. Not because she was tired, but because she almost ached for the release of consciousness. She had been conscious for long. Too long, too long for anything to remain on this singed earth…

  Having nothing better to do, Aloe evolved a myriad of plants. Not the plant, like a collective of them. First, it was the Heartgrowths to increase her reserves, but after making a pile of them she grew bored, so she switched to other more useful seeds like Blossomflame or Cottonpull. The former was always useful, especially now that she was accompanied by someone who could use magical healing, but what interested her more was the latter.

  "I've been feeling this for a while now, but in buildings in Selen, and even in the walls of this train, I've been sensing vitality." She mused to herself if just to interrupt the monotony of the train's rhythm. "I doubt that buildings are alive in this age, so this can only mean one thing. They are edifying buildings with Cottonpull."

  If just to be sure, Aloe twisted her finger into an unnatural shape and pushed it through a small indent in the wall. Perhaps she couldn't see what was happening, but her enhanced sense of touch was keen enough to notify her of the fibers running through the walls.

  This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  "Oh, that's very processed," she hummed in surprise. "It's different from the fabric of my dress, more tightly packed. How many strands of cotton are there?"

  Aloe frowned as she moved her finger around and found that the Cottonpull fabric was very tightly packed. If it weren't for the texture, she wouldn't know it was cotton as it was hard to the touch.

  "I guess I now know how they can build so high," she retrieved her finger from the wall. "They are putting Cottonpull on everything to make it lighter. Buildings, dresses, the train… It's quite an intelligent application. Maybe even more so than the Myriad." She gave a look to the shining lamp in the middle of the night hanging by the booth's wall. "No, this is one is certainly the best invention. Limitless light everywhere for the cost of a single campfire. Scratch that, the light must not cost anything on the train as they need that fire in the engine to move it."

  She had asked around and had seen some articles in the newspapers, so she had a rough idea of how the engine of the train worked. It heated water and used the steam to create movement, not unlike a kebab spinner she had once seen at the University of Sadina when she was young, only that on a greater scope.

  "Considering Cottonpull is this valuable and in high demand, I should have no problem nurturing a fortune in a matter of seconds. Though I guess that would raise too many questions if a woman were to suddenly try to sell tons of cotton. Hmm…" She left those thoughts for later. She had been trained as a banker, the person managing the finances, not the one making the sales.

  When the sun made its appearance for this third day of the ride, Aloe knew they were close to their destination. They had long passed the Whistling Sands and entered again into the forest the people of this age called 'The Evergreen'. She did not need to look outside her window to know that, for her sense of vitality already showed that they were surrounded by life.

  But it wasn't the myriad signs of life that betrayed the closeness to their destination, but the overwhelming one looming on the edge of her senses. It couldn't be overstated how much vitality Aloe was feeling, especially at this distance, so her mind instantly thought of one thing and one thing alone.

  The train stopped yet again to restock on water and coal, but now that she had the hindsight of the Cottonpull, it surprised her how much they had stopped to refuel. She could only assume that the train was a mechanical mount, it may not tire, but it definitely needed to eat to keep working, and they had stopped quite a few times already, especially during nighttime.

  I guess you will need to stop more if you are going this fast. Selen to Sadina in nearly three days is ludicrous. It had taken me maybe three weeks and that was sice the speed of a normal person.

  She was infinitely faster than the train now, but the timespan still left her wordless. It didn't seem possible for technology to do this. Magic? That was perfectly comprehensible. But technology? That was harder to wrap one's head around.

  The morning swiftly came by, now the sun was really out instead of just a spec of light on the horizon. The sunlight woke Xochipilli up, who jumped out of his prone position after he noticed where he was sleeping.

  "I'm sorry!" The child apologized with a face as red as a tomato.

  "Don't be," Aloe chuckled. "Was my lap comfortable?"

  "I… uhm…" Xochipilli looked around embarrassed. "Yes…" He admitted sheepishly at the end.

  "That's good to hear," the vegetable woman giggled again, but now that it was more audible, she hid her mouth behind her hand. "However it may be, we should get ready to leave this booth soon. We are near our destination."

  Xochipilli nodded and grabbed the suitcase, or more exactly, tried to. Aloe had left it on one of the top shelves to not bother them, and now the child was struggling to get it even if he was on his tiptoes and hopping.

  "Need any help?" The old druid amusingly offered.

  "No…" The young druid refused short of breath as he continued his fruitless attempts.

  She noticed how he switched to the potency internal infusion, but even if he doubled his strength, that didn't fully translate into twice the jumping height from his still position. Nor would that twice have been enough.

  Aloe was amused enough that she let Xochipilli continue until an alarm from the train like the one warning of the stampede sounded, but this time it was to inform the passengers that they were arriving at their destination.

  With a groan, Aloe put her hands underneath the child's armpits whilst he was airborne and raised him enough to grab the suitcase.

  "Thank you…" Xochipilli said timidly after she left him on the ground.

  "Let's get going, shall we?" To which he just answered with a nod.

  Now, as they had been distracted for a long time, they were unable to take in the sights of Sadina as once they were done the train had already reached the station, though it was still slowing down. Unlike the one in Selen, this one was more covered from the elements so there was no massive skylight that illuminated the place. Instead, they opted for many Myriad ceiling lamps.

  But that mattered not. Her eyes were locked with the powerful vitality signal she was sensing, even if there was a wall in the middle. All the passengers, including them, disembarked the train and furiously left the station, more than happy to finally stretch their legs on stationary ground.

  As they left the station, words failed to describe what they saw.

  Yes, Sadina's buildings were taller and fancier than Selen's, but that had always been the case as Sadina had been a trade capital and the latter a frontier town. No. It was something more… primeval.

  Right after going outdoors, Xochipilli and Aloe were greeted by a tree that loomed over the Evergreen. No. It loomed over Sadina. No. Not right yet. It loomed over the world.

  "Oh," a silent yelp let Aloe's mouth, whilst Xochipilli boasted a loud "Woah!"

  Before them lay a white and blue tree that scraped the very heavens with its height in the hundreds if not the thousands of meters.

  But Aloe's first thought wasn't that the tree was colossal, but instead…

  "What's the Na'mul Ter'nar doing here?"