Siroc is the city reached at the end of the Convoy’s disrupted journey, a setting whose immediate significance lies less in permanence than in pressure: the arrival summons authorities, forces Vivi and Saffra to abandon the expected route, and turns the city into a threshold between the derailment and their onward movement toward Meridian.

Arrival After the Derailment

Evening had already come and gone when the Convoy rolled into Siroc’s station beneath a blanket of night. Its arrival was the delayed consequence of the Convoy’s derailment rather than a routine stop. About an hour outside the city, a smaller one-carriage vehicle carrying a rescue crew had intercepted the damaged Convoy and escorted it back, bringing the passengers and whatever remained of the journey into Siroc under unusual circumstances.

The recovery did not restore normality. The derailment had created a delay conspicuous enough to generate a commotion outside the station, and the City Guard or other local authorities had apparently gone out to meet the Convoy. Their purpose was to interrogate those aboard and establish what had happened. Siroc therefore receives the travelers not as ordinary arrivals but as witnesses and possible sources of information in an unresolved incident.

A City to Escape

Vivi recognized that the official response would become an immediate burden. The gathering investigation threatened to pull her into the same kind of prolonged entanglement she had already learned to avoid, and she explicitly resolved not to repeat the experience associated with Prismarche. Rather than remain available for questioning, she told Saffra that they would take their leave, presenting departure as the only practical way to avoid the coming hours of annoyance.

Their escape depended on movement through the city rather than on formal transit. After Saffra indicated the direction, Vivi used Blink to move them from roof to roof, while Saffra took the lead in choosing their path. The rooftops transform Siroc from a civic destination into a temporary obstacle course: the station and its authorities remain below, while the two travelers seek distance without waiting for permission or explanation.

Temporary Refuge and Departure

The pair eventually searched for a tavern and found both food and a place to spend the night. By the following morning, Vivi was pleased that the City Guard had not tracked her down and demanded a report. Siroc consequently provides a short-lived form of safety, but not security in any lasting sense; Vivi remains aware that the authorities might still find her and refuses to idle.

At the tavern bar, Saffra was already eating breakfast consisting of eggs, bread, ham, and a mug of weak ale used in that world as a substitute for water. Vivi joined her and announced that they would skip the Convoy. The decision converts Siroc from the endpoint of the interrupted train journey into the launch point for a more independent route, shaped by caution, mobility, and the desire to avoid institutional attention.

Departure of the Other Traveler

Siroc also becomes the point from which Jasper leaves the authorities behind. He caught the first greateagle out of the city that he could find, judging that only suckers remained to speak with officials. As an orichalcum-rank adventurer, he was not pursued when he excused himself from the situation, and he relied on his status to make departure possible even without teleportation magic.

Jasper’s route differed from Vivi and Saffra’s rooftop escape. The greateagle carried him to Tilden, where he caught a Convoy toward Meridian, with only one intervening stop and an expected arrival by the next morning. He declined a Lounge ticket despite having money to spare, unwilling to waste it after escaping the deep north. Through these separate departures, Siroc functions as a dispersal point: the derailment brings travelers together under official scrutiny, while the city’s pressure sends them onward by different means.