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I arrived at the brass lined train station the next morning with some items from home. To my surprise I found the siblings awaiting me there. Seeing as they kept to their promise, I was more at ease. “So you got us our tickets? "Cartion fiercely spoke. “Indeed I did, although It put quite a hole in my wallet” I said. ”Must be because people are panic-moving. After all, the things they talk about on the radio keep getting worse and worse.” Elia shared.” Yeah, It’s like the worlds ready to turn on its head again. I feel real bad for whoever can’t dodge the next draft when the dynamite is lit.” Cartion added in a joking manner, referring to the state of the world not long ago and the controversial ENIGMA draft that sent hundreds of millions of men and women alike into war. I was going to reply until I was cut off by the intercom. “All aboard, next stop Aldorn City!” the conductor announced. We each got in the crowded train that had been covered on the outside entirely in clad iron protecting the inner valves. They put those in not many years back to prevent artillery fire from ripping through the train like what happened to the Tirmid Express among other machines that scoured near the border. Although the interior was quite nice just as the inside to the station was with smooth labels on signs, mechanical gizmos laid about connected to the core of the machine. Valves upon valves with posters warning people to not bring their fingers near. As I looked out the window before our departure I saw a colorful sunset half covered by the short skyline of our small city shining across the horizon with a faint view of the A&C company water tower that stood in the center of the capital of our country and stood as the tallest building worldwide. In this I had a rejuvenated hope, a small amount but just enough for now. None of us talked much during the ride nor did I know exactly where we were headed but I knew that I was to depart with them. “Next stop is ours.” Cartion announced in a groggy voice. “The town with one-hundred people living in it?” I asked. ”Yes, I should be in the house with the very decorated roof.” Cartion replied. “How do you know that they are here and where they live?Why would you know about this place at all?” I questioned. “I used to have a good friend that lived in this village.” Cartion proclaimed with a pinch of sorrow in his voice. ”Can’t you go and ask him again to make sure?, he does live here after all.” I foolishly uttered. “I’m afraid I haven’t been all too honest. He lost his life fighting for our country on the front lines, not that you would know anything about that of course, but his grandfather still lives at that house and he may know something.” Cartion announced. I was caught off guard by his drop of knowledge. I brought out my veteran’s card that I had been holding in my wallet for nearly a decade, ever since I bought it with a small bill from fighting for the army. “I was seventeen when they brought out the draft, and I wasn’t so lucky either.” I shared with a slight tremble holding the card that reminded me of the inferno: The worst battleground in the war by far. There was silence for a moment. “Well at least he had the bravery to volunteer, you were only there because you had to be.” Cartion argued in a quieter but still rash tone. I turned away from him not interested in reminders of the war. I heard many times over my life that I should never dwell on the past, so I’ve tried my best to avoid it and what happened during those years of my life. It even worried me to think about it, the utter carnage the mass graves, machine guns the- “Next stop Hejinaga Station” The conductor announced to all onboard, crashing my train of thought. “This is our stop.” Cartion said. We were the only people to get off at this stop as most were headed for the international route as Elia said before. We made it out of the train and into the quiet and calm village. It felt worlds away from what home in the city was like. Instead of busy traffic and people walking about the streets, there were smooth stone paths with people walking among them. Instead of dense lights at night and billboards in the day, there were just houses. Small brick houses with roofs and windows and doors. Sure we had those too, plenty of them but among that we had valves crawling about the sides and into the underweb: a pipeline of thousands of miles of hydraulic and steam pipes used to carry information in the form of pressure for our technology and mechanical computing devices that many of us used to communicate. Even television lines ran through here. Anything steam powered. I then turned my attention over to one of the more crafty structures. It looked much more permanent compared to the calm, quiet homes and was formed out of chiseled stone bricks with a beautiful painted wooden roof. “His house must be here then right?” I asked both of them. “Well it doesn’t look like it would be any of the other houses wouldn’t it?” Cartion replied with a tint of remaining wrath. Elia rushed over to go and knock on the door. No one had answered, after a moment she went to knock again…no response. “Well I guess they must not be home.” I said. To all of our surprise Cartion then flung open the door with a mad kick and marched right on in. “What do you think you’re doing!?” Elia scowled. “We have business to be done so we are doing it.” Cartion said harshly. We all ended up going into the house seeing as the door had just been thrust open and Elia already headed inside, though regretfully. In a way Cartion was almost right. there was business to be done, besides we didn’t wait in a train for an hour for nothing. As we all walked in we saw a messy floor and walls that had spiders crawling all over them with webs all around the house. “It looks like there hasn’t been anyone here for a while, maybe they moved?” Elia said. The house was empty, but not entirely. There was a lone table at the end of the room. I approached the table and began looking around it hoping to find anything of use. That’s when I spotted a letter lying on the table. “This might say something about where he went” I said hoping to aid in some way. Cartion snatched it from my hand and opened the letter. “To all those it may concern, Ivan Perevodchick is to be sent to the Aldorn province prison within ten days of this notice…, blah blah," Cartion read to us. “Damnit” Cartoon slammed his hand on the table in defeat. ”Well I suppose we have new places to be then.” I stated, fumbling my wording. ”I doubt that they would let us visit him though, we don’t even know the guy.” Elia argued hopelessly. “Then we break him out, after all don’t we have business to attend to?” I said mockingly. “And how the hell do you expect us to do that?” Cartion asked. ”With better gadgets than your little heists” I stated. “The ones we have already cost us hundreds in total!” Elia whined. “My skills are a bit rusty but I am still an engineer.” I revealed. “Then they better be good enough to outdo the gadgets that prison guards use,” Cartion warned. “If not now then I will soon, after all its why I’m so interested in that thing anyways, I want to become the greatest inventor of all time, I’ve honed my skills for years so that I could finally take advantage of the ultimate energy source” I announced. “Well I’m no engineer or inventor but what I can tell you is that you’re a damned fool, There’s a reason why society has stuck with steam power for almost a thousand years.” Cartion argued “Well that’s why the artifact means so much to me, It took me years of research to understand its importance, It’s the only way to get Aether…as far as I know” I said. “Oh shut it, that crap is impossible to obtain, trust me if they could have had it they would have years ago!.” Cartion said. “Enough you two, let's just focus on breaking the old man out of prison and stop worrying about conspiracy stuff, we’ve done harder jobs than this, like the Anakal bank robbery remember?”. “I suppose Elia’s right, we’ve done some harder jobs than this I’m sure we just might live” Cartion said.