"How are you alive?" layne’s voice cut through the silence like a blade. She was still staring at Lucille, who stood there as though she hadn’t been stabbed through the chest just minutes ago.
Lucille turned, complex emotions rushing through her eyes at once.
"That’s... complicated," she said quietly.
"We’ve got ti," Jax said, though his eyes kept darting to where the golem’s remains lay scattered. "The next round isn’t starting yet."
Lucille looked at each of them in turn, then sighed deeply. "This... isn’t my first ti on the Celestial Express."
Her admission caused the others to be a little taken aback.
"I’ve been here before. A long ti ago. Longer than you can imagine." She sat down heavily on a piece of crystal rubble. "I made it to the Navigator then. Got to ask him for anything I wanted."
"The Navigator?" Roman asked softly in disbelief.
Lucille nodded.
layne’s expression had shifted from suspicion to sothing approaching sympathy. "That’s why you knew so much. You’ve been here before."
"What was your wish?" Jax asked.
"I was young. Stupid. I thought living forever would be... amazing. So I asked to beco Immortal."
Lucille’s laugh was bitter. "And it was. At first. I could survive anything, heal from any wound. I felt invincible."
She gestured to where the crystal spike had pierced her. "But immortality... It’s not a gift. It’s a curse disguised as one."
Jax found himself leaning forward. "What do you an?"
"I watched everyone I ever loved die." Her voice was steady, but there was pain behind it that spoke of eons. "My friends, my family, their children, their children’s children. Civilizations rose and fell while I remained the sa. I wandered the universe for thousands of years, trying to find aning in a life that never ends."
"And finally, after all these years, I got another chance to board the Express. One more opportunity to reach the Navigator."
"To ask what this ti?" Jax asked quietly.
Lucille t his gaze directly. "To ask him to let die."
The words were like a guillotine, silencing each one of them.
"You want to give up immortality," Ning said.
"You don’t understand how it is. I want to be human again. Mortal again." Lucille’s voice cracked slightly. "I want to know that my life has limits, that my choices matter because ti is finite. I want to be able to rest."
They sat in stunned silence. Everything made sense now; her vast knowledge, her calm in the face of danger, the way she sotis looked at them with sothing that might have been envy.
Jax turned toward Ning, the only one whose expression hadn’t changed all that much. "You knew, didn’t you?"
Ning nodded reluctantly. "I saw her regenerate in the forest. Figured it wasn’t my business to ask."
"Thank you," Lucille said simply. "For keeping my secret."
"Thank you for sharing it," Jax replied. He took a deep breath, feeling the weight of his own hidden truth. "I suppose... I should share mine too."
All eyes turned to him.
"I ca to the Celestial Express to save soone," he said. "I don’t know who they are. Hell, I don’t even know who I am most of the ti. My mories are... missing. But there’s soone out there who needs , and I’m the only one who can help them."
"You don’t rember who?" Roman asked gently.
"No. But I know they’re important. More important than my own life." Jax’s threads flickered around his fingers unconsciously. "I’m hoping the Navigator can either restore my mories or help find them directly."
Lucille nodded with understanding. "You got rid of all mories, keeping only your deepest belief to co here."
Jax nodded and then turned toward Ning expectantly. He had been quiet throughout both confessions, but now all three were looking at him with patient expressions.
Ning sighed, running a hand through his dark hair. "I suppose it’s my turn."
He was quiet for a long mont, staring at his hands.
"I need the Navigator’s help," he said finally. "I was told to co here to et him, but instead of eting directly, he forced to go through these carriages like everyone else."
"What kind of help?" layne asked.
Ning’s jaw tightened. "My son. Max. He’s..." He struggled with the words. "He’s dying."
"Dying?" Lucille asked. "Why?"
"Let’s just say he’s been cursed at birth, and I have no way of curing him. But there’s a place, a realm where the cure likely exists. The problem is, it’s impossible to reach without soone who can show the way there."
"And the Navigator can do that?" Lucille asked.
"He’s the only one I know who can." Ning’s voice was barely above a whisper.
They all looked at him, not a single one of them realizing the carefree man held such a deep secret.
"How long do you have?" Lucille asked.
"Long enough," Ning said. "Max is in a... temporal stasis, so nothing is happening to him. But I can’t possibly keep my child there forever. I need to find a way to deal with his problem."
"We’ll get you there," Lucille said firmly. "All of us. We’ll reach the Navigator, and we’ll all get what we need."
"To save your son," Jax added. "To restore my mories. To grant her mortality."
Ning smiled.
Before anyone else could speak further, sothing changed. The familiar countdown tir that had been a constant presence suddenly stopped, with nothing else appearing there. Instead, bright light shone in the sky.
Where dozens of glowing nas had once filled the darkness, only one remained.
Their own.
The Trasncendents
"Holy shit," Jax breathed. "We actually did it."
"We won," layne said, disbelief coloring her voice. "We actually won the entire trial."
A voice echoed across the arena, warm and congratulatory. "Congratulations, survivors. You have completed the Monster Horde Trial. Your reward awaits."
Black crystalline cards began falling from the sky like dark snow. Each one glead with an inner light that seed to bend reality around its edges.
"Five-star tickets," Lucille said softly, catching hers as it drifted down. "I haven’t seen one of these in... well, ever in my entire life."
They each caught their ticket, staring at the impossible object in their hands. After everything they’d been through, all the pain and fear and desperate fighting, they had actually made it.
"So what now?" Roman asked. "Do we use them together?"
"I don’t know if we’ll end up in the sa place," Lucille admitted. "They might separate us."
Jax looked around at his companions.
"No matter where we end up," he said, "we’ll find each other again. We’ve made it this far together."
"Agreed," Ning said, gripping his ticket tighter. "Whatever cos next, we face it as a team."
"Even if we’re separated," layne added, "we know we’re all heading to the sa destination eventually."
Lucille smiled - the first genuinely happy expression they’d seen from her. "Then I suppose there’s nothing left but to take the next step."
They ford a loose circle, each holding their black crystalline ticket. The cards humd with power, reality seeming to waver around them.
"Together?" Jax asked.
"Together," they replied in unison.
And as one, they activated their five-star tickets, stepping forward into the next Carriage.
[End of Carriage 9]
And
[End of the novel ’Singe Spell Sorcerer’]
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