“I ’t believe my baby’s all grown up,” Mom wailed, clutg onto Natalie’s arm. “The house'll be so empty. You promise you’ll write? Promise me.”

  Natalie rolled her eyes. Mom had always been dramatic … but Natalie guessed if there was ever a time for it, it would be Natalie shipping off to Te. Still, it was embarrassing.

  “I’ve said it a huimes, haven’t I?” Natalie extricated herself from her mother’s ging embrace. “And it’s only a few months till break. I’ll be ba no time.”

  “You better be,” Mom said firmly. “And you better take care of yourself. And Jordan and Sofia. I’ve heard so many stories of the Dungeon … promise me you’ll be safe.”

  “I’ll be safe,” Natalie said for the millionth time. “It’s definitely not part of the pn to beonster food.”

  Mom swatted her shoulder. “Don’t even joke!”

  “Sorry.” Natalie adjusted her backpack strap, settling the weight. Her suitcase was set behihe two bags were all Natalie would be bringing with her to Te. “I’ll be fine. Seriously. Rex.”

  In the background, a train whistle pierced the air. Natalie gs way, then said, “I should get going.”

  Her dad had been standing stoically by, watg Mom make an embarrassment out of the two of them. Despite his calm exterior, Natalie could see the hint of sadness in his eyes, too. Natalie’s train signaling it was time to board, he stepped forward and hugged her goodbye. “We’ll miss you, Nat,” he said gruffly. “You’ll do great things. But keep yourself safe. Go slow and steady. All that matters is you make it back.”

  Natalie hugged him. She hadn’t thought she’d get so emotional over this … she’d been waiting to escape Tinford since she was eleven. Her voice wasn’t choked up when she replied, “Like I said, I will.” She pulled away and cleared her throat, gng to the side. “They’re b. Um. Bye, then.”

  She waved her parents goodbye, then scooped up her suitcase aed. A gnce over her shoulder, and she saw her parents standing there, arms ed around each other’s waists, Mom leaning her head against Dad’s shoulder, watg her go.

  Natalie cleared her throat a sed time, then focused her attention forward.

  They’d o travel to Illesa to catch the train. Tinford was too small a town to have a station; even Illesa was barely rge enough to justify the routing. Valhaur’s capital city Aradon was three hundred miles to the north. It would be a several hour trip.

  Which was insane. Hundreds of miles in five hours. That sort of trip would’ve taken a week or more on foot, assuming good weather and traveling light. The Magitesitute was ging the world at a rate hard to prehend. Though, in a town as small as Tinford, Natalie hadn’t gotten much ce to see their fantastical iions. She’d only heard of them. Progress came slow to outskirt towns like Tinford.

  Natalie would have plenty of opportunity to see how the world was advang, now. Aradon, a, would be stuffed full of the Institute’s iions. Everain itself was fasating, unlike anything she’d seen. It was structed with enormous, plex meisms … but more importantly, covered in glyphs, the swooping, are symbols responsible for maing magical energy into the physical world.

  In the engine room, Natalie knew, monster cores were hooked up to fuel the vehicle. Batteries. Monster cores which delvers were responsible fathering … Natalie’s future career. It was a bit surreal to think about. How many cores, and what quality, did it take to run this mountain of metal?

  Natalie g her ticket as she shuffled along with the other b passengers. 18A.

  Mom and Dad, along with Jordan’s and Sofia’s parents, had pooled their funds to buy the three of them a private for the trip up to Aradon—a going-away gift. Natalie was fttered, but also, she couldn’t help but feel like it was a waste. So much money … it couldn’t have been easy for them to scrape the funds together, even splitting it three ways. Natalie wouldn’t have minded sitting in the cramped public s. Her parents weren’t destitute, but they weren’t well off.

  She might be able to ge that, if Natalie’s future went well. Delvers earned exceptional money … or, the non-low-level ones. Assuming Natalie didn’t turn into monster food, as she’d joked about to her parents, then by the time she left Te in four years, a single delve would be a month of their pay, or more. Wealth was one of the main motivators for why people flocked to the dungeons.

  Natalie had an adva least, in that she’d been accepted to Te. Some people starting delving without any professional training, or preparation of any sort. Desperation, usually. The mortality rates weren’t bright even for skilled delvers, so for those cases … even less so. Natalie’s chosen profession had a grim reality to it; it didn’t pay so well without reason.

  Her parents’ insistehat Natalie keep herself safe had been justified. Especially sihey knew Natalie wasn’t the most careful of individuals. They were ecstatic Jordan had qualified along with her. They’d made a few ents about how she’d keep Natalie out of trouble.

  Which … Natalie would see about that. Jordan did have a moderating effe Natalie, but she hadn’t mao ‘keep Natalie out of trouble’, growing up. Why would it be different now?

  Natalie was almost at the front of the line. She looked around, shifting in pce as she waited, and caught a glimpse of white hair.

  Sofia had always stuck out in a crowd. Her hair, mostly. White wasn’t a on color, down in Valhaur. The culprit was Sofia’s Theliosian blood, the snowy, mountainous nation to the north of Valhaur. Natalie didn’t know the exact circumstances behind how she’d been adopted by the Kipper family.

  She ressed in by her siblings and parents, who were, in much the same way Natalie’s mom had been, wailing over her departure. Natalie didn’t uand how su annoying, smug girl had a family sht and cheerful. She stuck out in the mass of brown-hair and tanned skin. Sofia’s hair wasn’t the only thing blindingly white about her … she had the skin of a Theliosian too. Theliosians didn’t tan like Valhaurians; they just bureasing Sofia over it was one of Natalie’s favorite things to do. The fact she had to put on suo avoid roasting was something she was definitely annoyed by, much as she pretended not to be.

  Natalie reached the front of the line, and she turned her attention to the attendant, handing him her ticket.

  She boarded.