Linna emerged from the wagon a short time later. Her hair was braided to keep it out of her eyes, and she’d replaced her shirt with a light red shirt trimmed with dull gold. She had vambraces on each arm and padded leather pants that offered slight protection from impact injuries.

“You needed to go the blacksmith for those?” Ethan asked, gesturing to the armor on her arms.

“You’ll see,” Linna said with a smirk.

She drew her sword and walked into the ring Ethan had drawn. He shrugged and drew his own sword, bending his knees and shifting onto the balls of his feet. Linna mimicked his stance. Ethan gave her a quick approving nod and beckoned her forward, signaling the start of the fight.

Linna made the first move. Her sword flicked through the air toward his right shoulder. Ethan blocked the strike and forced her back with a wide swing.

“Your face told me what your hands were thinking,” Ethan informed her as he slipped under Linna’s next attack.

Jasper yawned as he watched Linna clash with Ethan. She had improved drastically in recent days, but it was impossible to match up to Ethan. Avril jabbed him sharply in the side, bringing him back to full attention with a yelp.

“What’s your problem?”

“This will be interesting. You should watch,” Avril murmured.

Jasper muttered a few curses under his breath, but he returned to watching the two fight. Ethan effortlessly deflected yet another one of Linna’s attacks. The young woman hopped backwards, keeping her sword leveled at Ethan in case he tried to advance. However, the swordsman appeared to be content where he was.

Linna rolled her shoulders and took a deep breath to get some air back. She lunged forward as if she was about to try for another overhead strike, but suddenly pulled back at the last moment. In the same motion, a blur shot out of her hands.

Shock flashed across Ethan’s face as something slammed into his arm, rapidly wrapping around it and pulling him off balance. Linna didn’t waste a second in sending her sword whistling through the air toward the swordsman.

Ethan’s eyes narrowed moments before the sword hit him. There was a silver blur followed by the screech of metal on metal. Linna’s sword spun out of her hands and flew straight toward Jasper. The gremlin yelped and threw himself to the ground.

There was a loud clang as the sword crashed against something and fell to the ground a short distance in front of Jasper. The gremlin glanced up just as the glowing gold wall in front of him started to fade away. Linna lowered her hand as the shining yellow energy behind her eyes and around her body started to dim.

“Holy shit, you damn near killed me,” Jasper snapped as he rose back to his feet.

“I’m sorry,” Linna said. “But I’m pretty sure I just saved you too.”

“I meant Ethan,” Jasper said, still shaken. “He knew exactly where that sword was going.”

“Jackson!” Ethan said quickly.

“Shit,” Jasper said.

Linna burst into laughter and shook her head. The last of the gold energy around her disappeared.

“Just drop it. I was wondering how long you two would keep this up but come on. How many tiny vulgar Visions with short tempers are there? I’ve known who you were for most of the trip.”

Jasper’s ears drooped and he sighed.

“In that case, thanks for not giving us away,” he said grudgingly.

Avril smirked at them but was clearly content with watching everything unfold and didn’t say anything herself.

“Could we go somewhere more private?” Ethan asked, unwrapping Linna’s weapon from his arm and glancing at it curiously. It was a bola – a strip of cloth connecting two metal spheres. He nodded approvingly and picked Linna’s sword off the ground as well. He handed both weapons to her with a grin.

“As long as you give me an explanation for what you’re doing here,” Linna said, taking them from Ethan.

Linna lead the group back to her wagon, where all four of them piled into it. Linna pulled the tarp closed behind them and gingerly put her sword down beside her bed before flopping onto the floor.

“We were hired to protect your wagon,” Ethan said when nobody else started talking.

“From whom? Yourselves? And who hires bandits to protect a caravan?”

“Hey, we can’t rob the caravan if we’re protecting it. And funnily enough, the same guy that hires bandits to rob them,” Jasper said with a shrug.

“The same guy? Who?” Linna asked.

Jasper glanced up at Ethan, but the swordsman didn’t offer any help. He just shrugged and pulled out an oilcloth to polish his sword.

“A Vision who goes by the name of Bartholomew. He’s a scummy bastard,” Jasper said, his brow furrowed.

“Then why are you working for him?” Linna asked. “I’m sure there’s another way you could make money.”

Ethan glanced up from his sword and met Jasper’s eyes. The swordsman shrugged slightly and gave his companion a small nod.

“Because it wasn’t money we needed. Bartholomew was in possession of something we needed,” Jasper said so quietly that Linna had to strain just to hear his words. She sat down on the wagon beside Jasper.

“What could be so important that a Vision needs it so desperately?” Linna asked.

“You’re going to have to swear to secrecy if you want to hear any more,” Jasper said.

Linna raised an eyebrow, but the other Vision didn’t respond.

“Sure, I won’t tell anybody,” Linna agreed.

“It’s not me you need to say that to. Tell her,” he said, gesturing toward Avril. “Avril is tagging along, so she might as well make herself useful.”

The beautiful Vision smirked, but she walked over to Linna.

“If you make that promise to me, you’ll find it enforced whether you like it or not. You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” Avril said.

“I’ve met these two twice already, and I owe Ethan a life debt. I might as well see if I can do anything to help,” Linna said after thinking for a minute. “I promise not to tell anyone.”

A wisp of grey smoke escaped Avril’s mouth and fluttered through the air. It plunged into Linna’s chest. The young woman glanced down, but the smoke had vanished as if it had never been there.