Twist

Marco could not help but feel uneasiness. A feeling Lexi was too eager to beat out of him.

"Hey, focus will ya!" She whispered, punching him in the arm.

"Ouch," Marco yelped, rubbing his arm. He was ready to retort but knew she was right, he needed to focus. "Sorry."

"Ugh, its fine," Lexi sighed. "Just listen, cause I've been talking and you ain't been responding."

"Again, sorry," Marco said straightening up. "I'm listening now."

Lexi sighed again and placed a gently hand on Marco's forearm. "Listen, I'm worried too but we have to trust that Octavian can handle things on his end, alright?"

"Yeah." Marco nodded, looking down and trying his best to not look back at the saloon.

"Hey, we'll finish this mission up, head home, and celebrate a little, together. Everything will be alright, okay? I promise." Lexi said, squeezing his forearm. Marco nodded his head before taking a deep breath.

"Okay, I'm honestly listening now. Thanks." He managed to smile faintly.

"Anytime," Lexi returned the smile, shaking his forearm slightly before letting go. "But what I was saying was that the train will begin boarding in about eight minutes and will then leave in about another eight. And so far, I've only seen four train guards either standing around right outside the train or helping the cart hands load luggage."

"Think there could be more guards inside?"

"Could be, but no more than two. The train isn't big, so I think it's safe to chalk it up to at least six of them."

"Not a lot, but that'll still be a hassle."

"No argument there but on the bright side, at least from what I've seen, the local law enforcement seems to be pretty lax around here."

"Yeah, I was wondering what the deal with that was," Marco responded, stroking his chin. "I've only seen the one deputy patrolling around on a horse and he seemed very lackluster and inexperienced. You'd think with bandits everywhere and the rising fear of revolutionaries there'd be more law enforcement around. Especially in an outer-wild town."

"No clue, but it's definitely rubbing me the wrong way so let's be caref-"

Marco whipped his head around to the source of the heavy thud, only to be met with the barrel of a revolver.

*

Amazed was an understatement, Sasha was overwhelmingly giddy after hearing Octavian use his gift. Seeing him twirl the brute's strings so effortlessly made her wonder how often he actually used it. Especially witnessing how quickly he did so as well. Either way, Sasha wanted to hear more. Hell, she wanted him to use it on her. Unfortunately, now was not the time and Sasha would have to settle for the bit she got. To which, she graciously accepted with a swig of her lae. But what she did not accept, however, was falling backwards into a pool of nothingness after knocking back her drink. It happened too quick for Sasha to realize the abyssal waters had engulfed her; and too quick for anybody to notice that their hair changed from silver to black.