It was not easy, getting Velasco to come out of Sentinel for a demonstration of the railfreighter. Not just from how busy he was, but also from the general paranoia that festered around Sentinel these days. A veritable army of his security staff had been sent out to check the area, just to make sure no green menaces would pop up to cause trouble.

Elijah, as it happened, had bought a few acres of land beyond Sentinel's walls. It had been a few years ago when, according to Domajor, he'd had a brief spout of interest in being a rancher. Breeding mushiens and selling them and their meat to prospective buyers. But then there had been the civil war, the death of his son, and between that and the chaos that followed he had forgotten about it entirely.

It was enough room to set up the small track of prototype rails LeBon had made, and the prototype railfreighter sat perched upon them with a great tarp to keep the engine and its sole wagon covered from prying eyes.

Velasco sat on a chair, flanked by a quartet of heavily armed guards, watching the tarp intently. "I'd heard you were busy Albus, but this seems markedly larger than your hand cannon invention. Ideally it won't be as... problematic."

LeBon gave a strained smile, his posture so rigid it looked as if a strong gust would make him topple like a statue of hollow wood. "Ideally not milord!"

"Relax," Coin murmured at his side. "Take a breath."

"Now then," Velasco thumped the tip of his cane into the grass, "I am a busy man. So perhaps you could hurry up and show me what this... contraption is?"

Coin glanced to the inventor, waiting to see if he would speak first. No such luck, he was still breathing harshly through a painfully wide grin. "At present," Coin said, turning his attention back to Velasco, "transportation of cargo and people across Arcadia is slow and risky. Wagons and carriages drawn by horses and mushiens, taking days to reach their destination. If not waylaid by bandits and goblins."

"Indeed," said Velasco.

"So my friend Albus, with the aid of my money, has devised a machine that can carry people and freight in great numbers at speed. It can carry the weight of over a dozen wagons along the rails you see before you, outrunning any bandits who would seek to harm it."

He made for the tarp, motioning for LeBon to follow. They threw the sheet off in unison, revealing the prototype in full.

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It was a heavy armoured thing of burnished black iron, a cyclindrical shape with a driver's cabin at the rear, backed by a coal furnace, and an angular steel battering ram at the front. The carriage behind it was boxy and made of wood, the door a sliding one set on steel rollers in the frame.

At that point, LeBon finally found his voice. "This, your eminence, is a railfreighter. For a pittance of coal you can ignite the furnace and set the wheels of the machine in motion. I won't bore you with the science, but I.... I believe any man could be trained to operate the machinery. But a team of two would be best. One to drive the machne and control its speed, and the other to maintain the furnace."

"Ooooh," Velasco said, his eyes widening a bit. His guards remained stonefaced.

"This er... this is a prototype but it is still quite capable of carrying the weight of several carriages. I call him Big Terry."

"Big... Terry?" Velasco repeated.

"It seemed a nice name, ser."

Coin gave him a small nudge in the side, which spurred Coin to attention. The two clambered onto the engine, and Coin set about loading a few pieces of coal into the furnace. He set it alight, putting the boiler and its related mechanisms into motion. Soon wisps of pale steam began to rise from the heavy chimney to the side of the cabin.

Soon the wheels got to moving, rotating slowly on the track and then gradually gaining traction. LeBon paid close attention to the various gauges in his cabin, occasionally pulling a lever or flicking a dial. Coin didn't know the specifics of how the machine worked, but fortunately he didn't need to.

They did a few laps of the track, speed rising all the while, and soon they had set the railfreighter to a pace that could put even a galloping horse to shame. Then, as the heat in the blazing furnace began to die down, LeBon pulled the lever at his side to activate the brakes. The freighter shrieked, slowing down and kicking up small streams of sparks from the wheels.

They disembarked, leaving the chimney belching trails of steam. Velasco rose slowly to his feet and gave them a round of applause, to which his guards reluctantly joined in.

"Fine work, Albus, fine work. Yes I can see the potential of this machine. It can outpace any beast of burden without need to rest, to say nothing of how much freight it can carry. However I do see a slight problem." He raised a bony finger and pointed to the tracks. "These... rails. You would need a great deal of them to cover a lot of ground, to say nothing of the cost of land to put those tracks down."

"We thought about that, ser," said Coin. "I'm a wealthy man, yes, but even I could only foot the bill for so much. I'd quickly go bankrupt before we could even get a decent line set up. So we were hoping... the kingdom would like to be involved. In paying to get the line set up, the state coffers would receive a portion of the profits for the freight. Particularly if you charge people to ride."

"Even our funds are not infinite, Coin. Particularly with an insurrection brewing underground. Certainly I plan on chipping in, I could even... persuade a few obstinate landlords to let us use their lands. But that still only covers so much."

Coin winced. "I see." He supposed he should have anticipated funds being tight.

"You would need to consult other investors if you went this railfreighter to cover a few routes early on. Frankly, you would need to be as rich as a dragon to fund such a venture."

Coin stared at the old man, a spark of brilliance (or madness) igniting in the back of his brain.

"You make a good argument, ser," said Coin. "And I think... I'll need to do some serious research to find other useful investors."

Albus turned, giving him a puzzled look. "Coin?" he asked.

"Don't worry," Coin replied, grinning from ear to ear. "This might seem odd. But I have a plan." The time had come, Coin thought, to dig into Elijah's library again.

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