Fire {Elements of Power 1}

Chapter Twelve - Jasmine

We headed straight to the stop and Brae pressed the call button to request a cart, which, because it was a quiet period, pulled up a few seconds later. There were thousands of carts on the rail, each seating five people in its rounded couch interior. A free one came to the stop as soon as it was requested, which usually worked very well, though in the early morning and evening rush you could often be left waiting for quite some time. They were called bubble carts not only because of their rounded oval shapes but because of the material they were made with which managed to be translucent while still managing to shimmer with all of the colours in the Realm Rainbow at the same time. Brae keyed in our destination as soon as we got inside.

"Welcome to the Inter-City Rail," an unemotional female voice sounded in the cart as the doors shushed closed. "We will arrive at your destination - the Pepper Street Shopping Centre - in nine minutes." Brae laughed a little at the message, which he had always found strange, and sat down on the sofa that ran around the edge of the cart, motioning for me to sit beside him. I sunk back and looked out of the wall opposite me.

The city was beautiful at this time of day, when the sun hung high up in the sky making everything bright and cheerful. From the height the carts travelled at, you could almost make out the strange second sun that hovered over the Helian Realm in the distance. Their sun (though they received light from ours as well) hadn't always been there, but had appeared as if from nowhere close to the start of our recorded history.

Had their sun been over our Realm, scientists would have been up there, studying it to see why it was there and why it was so strange and low but reports of that sort never reached us from the Helian Realm. They were all too lazy to conduct research.

We knew very little about the Realm really. Very few merchant traders made it into their waters and the reports they brought back were sketchy and unreliable. Brae and the others would be the first Arcans to go there in over three centuries and it would be interesting to hear all about it when they came back.

Focusing on the end of the journey was easier, much easier, than dwelling on all the potential danger which would face them during it.

As we travelled further down into the city, the buildings became bigger and the cart travelled higher. The roofs of the main office buildings in the city were made of entirely transparent materials, to save on energy by utilising as much natural light as possible. If the carts hadn't been so rounded, or travelling so fast, it would have been possible to peer into the buildings below as we travelled across them.

A few moments later the cart came to a halt - too quickly for us to have reached our stop. "We apologise for the delay and hope to be moving again shortly." The voice was back. That was the Inter-City Rail: delightfully ambiguous, no mention of why we had stopped or for how long it would be, just a nice little apology.

"How helpful," Brae responded, trying to mimic her cool, unnatural tone.

"Never mind, the view's beautiful."

"You see, that's what makes you a true Arcan, Jazz; you love being up high in the air."

I forced a laugh. "We're back to the 'Jazz is a Brizan' discussion again?"

Brae grimaced. Did the thought that I might not be Arcan repulse him? "I'm just putting it out there as a theory, OK. You're not exactly a typical Arcan, Jazz, are you? Let's face it."

"Sure, let's point out all my faults: my skin is too tanned, my hair too dark, my eyes too blue," and I'm turning into a purple freak I added silently. A tear escaped from my eye and before I could help it. Brae held his hand to my cheek to stop it, the skin on them was hard but his touch was gentle. My cheek burned from the contact.

"Don't be upset, Jazz, I didn't mean it like that, you know that. Besides, you're the one who's always obsessing over who her parents are. I thought you would find it exciting, like a mystery."

I forced myself to calm down. Brae was right, as usual. A few months ago I would have found the similarities intriguing. But ever since the purple had appeared it was a lot harder to think about my parents. But Brae didn't know that, so I couldn't take it out on him. He didn't know how much his words hurt and it had been my choice not to tell him.

"Sorry. It is interesting. I guess I'm a little fed up of feeling like an outsider is all."

"You're not an outsider. No matter where you came from, you are one of us now. My family wouldn't be the same without you." He paused for a moment, reflecting. "This is about us going off again, isn't it?" he said at last. "I'm sorry, Jazz, really, I'd bring you along if I could, but it's way too dangerous and I would never, ever do anything that put you in danger."

He was wrong, but it was an easier line than telling him the truth. "But with the danger comes all the fun, you know." I forced a smile. We still hadn't started moving again so I pulled out my switch-top in order to change the direction of the conversation.

Usually, if there was a hold up on the carts, it was because there were too many carts all trying to go in the same direction. There was only one major rail line and carts ran across it in both directions, so they had to dip in and out of sidelines to avoid each other. This worked relatively well unless there was something big happening on one side of the city as it made it more difficult for the carts to keep weaving in and out of each other. Somewhere along the line one side ended up coming to a standstill. A quick search on the city net let me know what the problem was: "There's a market happening up by the north side of the river today. There must be too many carts trying to go in the other direction."

"That also explains why there was no one at the station in the centre; anyone who lives there will have walked to the market. And don't think you can change the subject that easily. Come on, Jazz."

I tried to ignore him. From here we had a clear view of the Realm Rainbow which stood, suspended over the south side of the city. It began in a cavern on the west side of the island and ended somewhere in the river, travelling across the city in a thin band of colour. The City scientists said that it was something to do with the sunlight and all the moisture in the air over that part of the city. I didn't understand it entirely but then science had never really been one of my strong points.

All I knew was that it was beautiful.