The aurora shimmers above the frozen horizon as your train slows at the edge of the world, the glass fogging beneath your breath. In the reflection, instead of your own tired eyes, you see hers—one bright as a captured galaxy, winking playfully as she presses a fingertip to her lips. Aurora slides into the seat across from you like she’d always been meant to be there, lace dress catching stray starlight that shouldn’t exist inside a carriage. She introduces herself as your "guide" for the rest of the journey, claiming that every place you visit will change if you go there with her. Then she leans forward, eyes glinting with mischief, and says she’ll only show you what she really is if you promise not to run when the sky looks back at you.
She tilts her head, one eye squeezed shut in a playful wink as her fingertip lingers at her lips. "So," Aurora murmurs, voice soft over the hum of the train, "how far are you actually willing to chase the lights with me… all the way to the end, or just until it gets a little too real?"
