Then suddenly the train lurches and brakes. Nillian can hear the brakes give off a high pitched whine as they try to halt the wheels from spinning. Then with a low thunk the train grinds to a halt. Nillian looks out of the window but cannot see anything. The other people in the carriage begin to talk among themselves, asking what is going on.
Several minutes later one of the train stewards enters the carriage. People immediately fall silent, waiting to hear what he has to say.
"Dear sirs and ladies, there is no cause for alarm. It seems that some farmer's livestock has escaped their pen and are walking on the train tracks. This means that we will have to stop here for a moment, until the livestock has been captured and removed from the tracks. We will continue out journey as soon as we are able."
"How long is that going to take?" one of the other passengers asks.
"I am afraid I have no idea sir. We are contacting the farmer, so he should be able to help us. I expect that it will not be long. Our apologies for the inconvenience."
With these words the stewards moves on, going to bring his message to the next carriage.
Nillian grumbles a bit to himself, then resumes looking outside the window. Now that the train is standing still he can see a bit more, though it still isn't much. He spends the next hour waiting while the livestock is rounded up.
One time a calf comes walking by, past the train, followed by a farmer and his servant. It takes them lot of trouble to steer the calf in the right the direction, until one of the helpers manages to get a rope around the calf. After that it is quite easily, and they leave Nillian’s field of vision again. The all clear is given, and the train starts up again. It slowly takes on speed and continues on its way.
By the time the train arrives in Kataras it has regained a bit of the lost time, but it is still very late. Nillian feels exhausted as he stands up, and almost stumbles when he tries to leave the train. Luckily an attendant is nearby to help him, and after thanking him Nillian walks back to the station.
There he gets one of the couches to take him home. It takes him some tries to open the front door with his keys, not used to actually open the door himself. When he is finally inside he stumbles upstairs and goes to bed immediately, too tired to even unpack or brush his teeth.
The next morning Nillian wakes up feverishly, and decides to sleep in. After sleeping for some hours he is woken by his parents, who have discovered that he is home. Apparently he had woken up one of the servants with his entrance last night, and the servant saw Nillian going upstairs. He mentioned this to the butler, who in turn informed his parents.
When his parents discover that Nillian has a fever they react worried and try to wake him, asking what is wrong. After they discover the swelling on his head they panic, and immediately send for the doctor.
By the time the doctor arrives Nillian is awake and mostly coherent. He has already tried to explain the robbery to his parents, but in his feverous state it didn't come out right, and they think he was attacked last night, on his way home. The doctor gives Nillian some smelling salts, and Nillian's head becomes clear.
This time his explanation is more coherent and his parents are somewhat reassured. The doctor gives Nillian a thorough examination, testing his reactions and examining the swelling. He explains that his symptoms are probably some residual symptoms from the blow to his head, together with the tiredness from last night. So he recommends several days of rest, with only light activities. Relieved Nillian's parents escort the doctor out, while Nillian gets dressed and makes ready for breakfast.
The next two days Nillian spends doing nothing, under close supervision of his parents. They had quite a scare from that morning, and do not allow him to leave the house. First Nillian spends his time reading and sorting his notes, but quickly tires from that. So he spends an afternoon just reading and relaxing, and turning in early that evening.
The next day he feels a lot better and returns to his work, starting on a bit of writing. He also collects the two packages that arrived for him. The first one is from Lyxia, containing the records he was looking for about the things Gerardina Nott bought in Räan. Nillian leafs through the records but cannot make much of it. It seems there are a lot of sails and propellers in the purchase. But the other things don't say him anything, as he is not used to the terminology of wind-machines. He puts the records away, to study them in more dept on a later date.
The other package has a note saying "I was in the neighbourhood, so here is the information you were looking for. ~ Tom". Nillian eagerly opens the package and reads through Tom's notes.
It seems that the two rangers, Lisa and Robert, died several years after the Great Bang. They encounter a large group of bandits and were killed in the resulting fight. Their bodies were recovered by the other rangers, for a burial. But they did apparently have a son, Ned. Who is still alive, and currently working as a gunsmith.
Nillian checks the address, and sees that it is right here in Kataras. He smiles, having found another lead to follow.
"You can never have enough of those" he says to himself, noting down the address and figuring out how to best get there.
He decides that he will give this Ned a visit tomorrow, just to see if he perhaps knows anything. As they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Then Nillian gets an idea, and considers visiting Lyxia. His parents told him that she was in Kataras, as she visited some kind of party a few days ago. He would like to check up on her, asking about his speculations concerning her and this Norbert Giles...
But no, that is something best done in private, and he doubts that privacy will be allowed in the monastery. He hopes that he will encounter her somewhere else soon, so he can talk with her. He does decide to write a small note for her, to say that he is back in Kataras and doing well, and asking how she is doing. Hopefully she will get the hint and visit him out of her own accord.
After that Nillian turns back to his writing, as there is still much to be done for his book.
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