[Hex29 March -2020Act 7Scene 3Take 7]
The Royal express was the fastest train in the whole empire and the stories of its speed and the grandeur of its interior was something that every family in the empire would discuss.
Like name, the train was only used by people who wanted the best service and they would mostly be nobles or merchants with a lot of wealth — Both classes coming in the upper echelon of the society.
It would also only run in between special places. And one of these special places was the Dwarven city Metlatopius. The city was built in between mountains and only recently a track was laid out after a treaty was signed between the city and the empire.
Every year, the train would only go to the city two times. Once at the beginning of the year and once in the winters.
This year, again, a lot of nobles were travelling to the city during the winters. The whole Dwarven city was a tourist spot for these people as they wanted to explore it and buy the best pieces of equipment and showpieces.
Joining these tourists this year was the youngest princess of the empire.
And because of her, the security around the train was increased. Blaze was a part of the security team, having been promoted since he had started working in the special department of the police.
"It would be nice if I could take a vacation too."
"The train is a tourist spot in itself."
"Yeah, but we are here for an entirely different reason."
Blaze walked around the train with a guy with red hair. Both of them were not wearing any uniform and were instead dressed like nobles.
It was to mix in with the people in the train. The intel was that terrorists might try to target the train, so both of them were deployed to mix in and keep a close eye on everything.
"Are you sure it's not fake intel? We already got two such cases this month."
The red haired colleague asked but Blaze shook his head.
"No, it can't be. We have information that the terror groups are trying to aim for the princess for months now. If it's true, then train is their best bet. They could finish the job in the middle of nowhere."
"Yeah but isn't this train the safest thing currently? I mean, the sheer amount of security is too much. No one wants to go against so many Hex mages."
Blaze was about to reply when he noticed a person walking towards them. The lobby was pretty narrow, so he had to move aside a bit.
"Sorry, I'm going to the toilet."
The man said as he moved past Blaze and then, his red haired colleague.
Going by his clothes and hints of a southern accent, he looked like a wealthy merchant from the countryside. Why he was going to the Dwarven city would probably be a story of its own.
Blaze started walking away and after a minute later, a thought suddenly passed through his mind.
'The toilet isn't there. It's on the opposite side.'
As soon as he thought that, a terrifying image flashed in his mind. The complexion of his face quickly changed.
The man who looked out of place — He needed to catch him.
"Blaze, what happened?" The red haired asked.
"We need to catch him. That guy."
He said and ran towards him. The man wouldn't have been too far away. He saw his silhouette soon but it was then that a large explosion took place.
A shockwave went across the train and Blaze flew, crashing into a few seats. He casted a spell around him to protect his head and vital parts of his body.
Smoke was everywhere and the train had stopped in its tracks. Blaze could see the entire premium coach on fire.
It was the place where the most important people were sitting.
'The princess.'
Blaze thought in his mind and looked around but the man that he was looking for was nowhere.
It was then that the voice of Olio came out.
"Cut! Okay, good enough. We managed to time the explosions right this time. Good job!"
With this, the scene ended and Olio was also satisfied.
***
After the scene was over, the crew quickly began to clean the zone where the explosion had taken place.
They were using a modified train lobby to shoot the scene and a lot of people were present at the scene to make sure that all the security protocols are being followed.
As the scene got over and everyone got the green signal, Aiden quickly cleaned himself off a bit before walking towards Olio.
"Aiden, the scene was good. I did feel like we could get something more in terms of facial emotions but your body language made up for it."
Olio said in his titural style. He was both praising and criticising him in the same sentence.
"You can take a break for a while. We are going to shoot a few closeup shots of others before doing one more scene with you."
"Okay."
Aiden said, nodding before wondering if it was the right time to talk about the idea that was going on in his mind for the past few days. The day was mostly over and Olio was looking free for the first time since morning.
"Olio, I actually wanted to talk to you about something important."
"What? Is it about the story or your character?"
Olio asked with a raised eyebrow.
"No, it's not. I just have thoughts about the length of the movie."
"Oh."
Olio said but before he could say anything else, one of his assistants came forward to tell him that the camera was ready for the next shot.
This was the time to work, not to do discussions.
"Aiden, how about we talk about it over dinner after the shoot today?"
Olio actually wanted to gloss over whatever Aiden was going to talk about but as he was the lead and had proven himself to have a good sense of movies, he had agreed.
Aiden also nodded and walked towards his seat to rest till his next scene.
***
After the shooting was over for the day, Olio and Aiden made their way towards a Japanese restaurant that was preferred by the director. Apparently, he had come here a lot as he knew the owner who was a Michelin star chef.
They were able to easily find a place due to Olio's familiarity with the owner. After they sat down, the talk started.
"Look, if your idea or whatever is good, then I will stay for a while. Otherwise, I'm planning to leave after dinner. Tomorrow is another hard day at the set and I hope you sleep early too."
In a blunt manner, Olio started out.
Aiden, who was already used to this type of behaviour at this point, nodded his head and didn't waste any time in bringing in the topic he wanted to touch upon.
"Well, I just have concerns over [Hex]. Not at the screenplay but actually, the length of the screenplay. It's just too big and we are shooting too many scenes that we won't be able to cram into the final edit."
"I know that." Olio muttered as a matter of fact. "When I wrote the screenplay, I knew that it was too big for a movie. The thought of making it a series was also in my mind but like you know, the big screen experience with hundreds of people can't be touched by anything else. So, I was hell bent on making it a movie. As for the edited out parts, I can get them all in a director's cut and release it when the movie starts streaming."
As expected, Olio did know the problem with his screenplay but the man didn't look like he would correct anything. Aiden realised that it was because he wasn't making the movie for anyone else but him.
That's why, he was mostly fine with a lot of content being edited out.
But Aiden had a better idea.
"I have a better idea than that."
As soon as Aiden said that, the food arrived. When the waiter left, Olio alternated between the food and him before gesturing to him to continue.
"What is that?"
"Make it two movies. We are anyway filming at least five to six hours of footage. Even if I edit out some parts, there's enough for two movies."
Aiden proposed. It was a very simple thing in his eyes. With proper editing, two parts weren't hard. Anyway, Olio was planning on future sequels and other things.
Moreover, like this, Blaze would get proper character development instead of a lot of scenes being cut out from the final edit. Like that, it can easily ruin things.
But Olio shook his head.
"No, we can't do that. There's no way we could do it."
