'Where could that little prick be hiding?'
Cesar's eyes flashed with a strange green glint, his movements turning quicker with every turn.
It was like he was the wind itself, rushing past the passerbys who never noticed his presence except for the wind blowing their hats off.
The train station itself wasn't as big as the citadel, but its size was enough to match the entirety of the first floor. It was a wide, well-lit building made of old brick and cement. On the right side, where they came from and the road curved to the left, a couple of stores were barely visible from the platform, not far from them stood the overcrowded ticket counters he had waited at not long ago. On the other side were the office and the train in front of it with brick pillars separating them aswell as holding the glass roof.
He ran alongside the bullet train, occasionally stealing a glance at its structure, which he had seen already.
The driver's cabin was already far away from him, hidden at the edge of the train station, which was covered in a veil of impenetrable fog. The passenger cabins ran alongside the brick walls of the station, stretching for over five hundred meters of strengthened alloy and a deep shade of golden paint; small windows were set into the cabins, their reflections showing how bright it was inside. Occasionally, a door would appear with ticket inspectors talking to the passengers before letting them in without much of a problem.
'He shouldn't have gotten far; the flux I felt around him was strong, but not enough to break through awakening.'
Cesar looked up at the glass ceiling, the dim moonlight glowing through the pale night sky, then, with a light move of his feet, he jumped into the air.
Delvers weren't regular people by any means; they had the power to awaken the flux from within them and make it their own.
Thus, people came up with a way to rank them.
From awakened to bronze, from bronze to silver, from silver to gold, from gold to sapphire, from sapphire to emerald, from emerald to platinum.
It was hard to meet someone wandering outside the rift of a rank higher than bronze, but some individuals chose to live on the surface instead of exploring the unknown.
'Now show me...'
His body, light as a feather, landed on the ceiling as if gravity had no hold on him. He crouched down on the glass panels, closing his eyes for a second.
Luminescent lines started to climb up his chest, wrapping around his limbs as if they had a mind of their own. Some wriggled up his neck while others tightened around the torso, reinforcing it with themselves until he finally exhaled a low breath and forced his eyes open.
'...where winds follow you.'
As this phrase crossed his mind...
...The world turned black and white in his eyes. The bright lights of lamps and fresh color of brick are turning into a colorless world of grey. His eyes darted in every direction, seeking whatever he could in this empty world until finally, in between a couple of pillars and within the thick crowd, a thin golden line was reflected deep inside his eyes.
'I got you now!' He thought as he pushed himself off the ceiling and launched his body in the direction of the thread.
He flew past the pillars, past the people who stared at the ceiling with wide eyes, and right towards that little corner where the thread was hiding. Like wind, he weaved through the building as if no constraints were put on his body, darting deeper into the building until there was no one in sight.
It was like a game of tag; he had to find the one behind this thread, grasp it, and pull it with all his might until finally finding the one behind stealing Vlad's ticket. Strangely enough, however, the thread always seemed to be too far, its length shortened each time, getting further and further away as if the distance between the two was growing in uneven jumps.
- Tshh!
His boots scraped against the floor as he came to a stop in an empty corridor.
His hands now held a string of golden light in his hands, pulling it firmly towards himself. He blinked once, and the color returned; a rope was now tied around a person in front of him, yet something seemed odd.
Cesar looked up at the boy who stood in front of him and frowned.
"You're not running away."
"Why would I?"
Cesar seemed surprised as he watched the boy tap his leg on the floor a few times and dispersing his rope, he took a step forward and turned towards him.
He had deep, crystal eyes that looked like drops of fresh rainwater; his hair, free from the hood, flowed down his neck like a living river, moving all over his head as if it had a mind of its own. His clothes looked cheap, not the kind you would see used for protection, but rather something you wouldn't care about when losing them.
A small smirk formed on his lips as he looked at Cesar with a proud expression.
"I mean..." He scratched the back of his head, still watching Cesar eye him with waryness.
"I don't think youd hurt someone like me, Cesar."
'!'
He took a step back out of instinct, surprise etched onto his face as he looked at the boy once more and asked.
His tone deep and calm.
"Who are you?"
"Who am I?"
The boy repeated his question loudly, making Cesar clench his fists.
He stopped after seeing how Cesar reacted. Something shifted deep inside his eyes, making him sigh.
"Ah-Of course."
He murmured before raising his hand above his head.
"You wouldn't know."
The air between them stirred the moment he finished his words.
Tiny strings of thin flux started to gather around his palm, forming into a little orb with surprising speed. Cesar didn't move; he chose not to after seeing this boy utter his name like he'd known what would happen all along.
"You and I."
He suddenly spoke, making Cesar tense up and start forming his sword.
But the boy only stood a few steps away, still focused on creating that little orb of... water?
"Won't be on very good terms from now on."
'What?'
A thin smile formed on his lips as he swung his arm down, right under his feet. The orb of water that had formed within his palm exploded into a small puddle of water that covered his feet and the floor around him.
"Thanks for the ticket-!"
Before anything could be said, he fell into the puddle as if there was nothing below, his body submerged inside it in only a matter of seconds that stretched out between Cesar standing there frozen and the wind picking up from the far end of the train station.
He looked down at the strange boy's clothes that were now soaking wet and lying on the ground where he had stood a second ago.
'Huh?'
Was all he could think of after looking down at the puddle slowly disappear from the floor into tiny notes of light, a sign that only awakened after using their abilities.
'Did I get played?'
As if to confirm his thoughts, a voice echoed from behind him, louder and clearer than the one he'd heard when with Vlad.
"This is a platform announcement... The train shall depart from platform four in five minutes..."