Saffron, Reva, and Hazel were all huddled together, trying to preserve precious body heat while Shiso walked alongside them, shivering under his scarf. They had been walking across the tundra for quite a while now.

“I’m cold! Shiso; make it not cold!” Saffron commanded. He readied his gun.

“Increased blood pressure would heat you up.” he said cynically. “Where do you want the shot?” he joked.

“I shall take the shot for you, Saffron.” Reva said seriously. Shiso took a concerned step away from her.

“I was joking.” he said. “Besides, you’re probably the warmest person here.”

Shiso’s claim had some validity to it. Reva was in a suit of armor; sure, the outside of the armor got cold, but it kept quite a lot of heat inside, especially when she was wearing her shield.

“At least you and Saff have scarves!” Hazel complained. “Why not just do some talking to pass the time?” she suggested. She turned over to Reva as they continued their walk. “Reva, what did you do as a child? Everyone has something that their parents forced them to do.”

“My parents didn’t force me to do anything.” Reva said in surprise. “Although, I did lift a lot of weights in my teens.” Shiso wasn’t surprised to hear that; he’d felt all that armor on him before. It wasn’t exactly a paperweight.

“When I was a kid,” Saffron pondered. “I played with my spell creation kit a lot. I… caused a lot of house fires.” Everyone fell quiet from that comment except for Saffron, who laughed in nostalgia.

“I used to modify my family’s automatic vacuum to… not clean the floor.” Hazel said awkwardly.

“What did it clean?” Shiso inquired.

“Um… One time, it was my mom’s hair; another time was my family’s cat.” Hazel stayed quiet, apparently embarrassed at admitting her acts.

“Shiso, what did you do as a child?” Saffron asked eagerly. “Gunslinging? Archery? Brooding?” Shiso rubbed the back of his head.

“I took ballet.” he said quietly. Everyone stopped in their tracks and looked at Shiso with dumbfounded faces. “What?” he said with confusion.

“You… took ballet?” asked Reva carefully.

“Yeah. What about it?” Shiso asked quietly.

Saffron, Reva, and Hazel exchanged glances before starting to give subtle chuckles. Before Shiso could say anything, all three of them burst out into extreme laughter. Saffron and Hazel were crying from laughing so hard.

“What’s so funny?” Shiso asked in defense.

“You, a brooding gunslinger…. TOOK BALLET!” Hazel shouted in laughter.

Shiso ran over and seized Hazel by the collar, but it didn't stop all three women from keeping up their laughter. Shiso was getting ready to start a fist fight when he heard a soft sound that he hadn’t heard in a while.

“What’s wrong, Shiso?” Saffron started. “Are you-” But she stopped talking and her laughter quickly died down. Even Reva and Hazel went quiet to listen to the sound. It was music; and not just any music, but damn good music. All four of them walked to find its source.

There was a dilapidated wooden stage that looked like an extreme victim to rotting from all the snow around it. It was the kind of stage where huge concerts would be held, but it remained mostly empty. In front of the stage were chairs that looked like they had once been metal, but now only rust remained on most of them. Some of the chairs were populated by lopsided snowmen, but most remained empty.

What really attracted all the attention was what was on the stage itself. Alone on the stage stood a beautiful woman in a dark red dress, which had fur decorated all around it. She wore platform heels, but she hardly needed them because when she played, she seemed to levitate off of the ground.

Eyes closed, the woman was strumming away at her violin with such vigor, but also grace; like she was giving her last performance. The way she moved about as the played; keeping time, never missing a beat, but also telling and expanding on the story being told in her own two hands. It enthralled the entire group enough that they all took front row seats, not caring about the mystery woman or the rusty chairs they had to sit on.

All four of them were on the edges of their seats, wanting to know what the woman would do next. Their ears perked up when the woman started to slow her playing and singing.

A rope I walk of my own string,

Dancing gently to hear it sing.

The shot that killed the albatross,

Was fired at too great a cost.

I seek to know the reason why,

The world is dead, cold, and dry.

The echoes that come back to me,

Will haunt my soul for eternity.

The rope that I walk and stride,

Will in the end, kill my pride.

After the woman stopped singing, she started crying from under her closed eyes as she drew the song to a close. All four of them jumped up and gave loud applause, which startled the woman, as she didn’t even know they were there.

“That was beautiful!” Saffron shouted as the woman began to recover. She wiped the tears from her eyes as she bowed in appreciation.

“Thank you! It’s felt so long since I’ve had an audience.” she said sheepishly. She walked over to the edge of the stage, where Shiso helped her get down from.

“What’s your name?” Shiso asked.

“Oh, it’s Violette.”

“The Violette?!” Reva exclaimed, eyes lighting up. She grabbed Violette’s free hand and held it carefully in her own.

“You... know me?” Violette asked quietly.

“Know you? For years, I lived your music until the war!” Violette blushed furiously as Reva kept showing her with compliments and praise.

“Haze,” Saffron whispered to Hazel. “Who is she? She’s really good.”

“Like she said, her name is Violette. She used to be a real big deal in the musical world; some people credit her for reviving classical music altogether. What, you never heard of her?” Saffron shook her head.

“I’ve never heard a violin like that. It was… magical.”

They both turned their attention to Violette again, who seemed to be starting a song request from Shiso.

The old home town looks the same,

As I step down from the train.

An there to meet me,

Is my ma-

“What’s with the violin?” Saffron asked, interrupting the performance. “Your melodies sound too good for it to be a regular one.”

“Saffron!” Reva shouted in protest to her intrusion. Violette gave a tiny laugh.

“It’s quite alright. My violin is nothing special. I could play any old one; it’s the music you make that’s powerful.” Violette said, cryptically.

“How so?” Saffron asked, tilting her head.

“Um, like this.” Violette said as she readied her instrument.

Violette did a minute or two of tuning before she finally put her bow on the instrument. As she made a sharp note that cut through the air, something else also cut. Looking over, a whole row of chairs collapsed, having been cut down the middle. Shiso quickly drew his gun as Saffron and Hazel jammed spell cards into their weapons.

“Everyone, at ease!” Reva panicked, shielding Violette. “She means to cause us no harm!” Shiso narrowed his eyes, now distrustful.

“Why can she do that then?” he asked. “Nobody around can just wander this far. No, she’s after something. She’s after Eden.” Violette put her hand on Reva’s shoulder, getting beside her and putting her hands together.

“Please, sir, I am going to Eden, but I don’t mean to cause any trouble.” Shiso tightened the grip on his weapon.

“Come on, Shiso! That merchant wasn’t a guardian!” Reva complained.

“That doesn’t count! You could go to the moon and you’d probably still find solicitors! This is a dangerous woman. You think she’s been performing on that rotting stage in the tundra for fun?” Reva looked back at the stage, then at Violette.

“Violette’s not going to hurt you!” Reva said, angry and frustrated. Violette clearly looked distressed about the whole situation.

“Please, you can all call me Vio. Is there a way to resolve this?” she pleaded. Saffron and Hazel lowered their weapons at Violette’s plea. Shiso kept aim, with his finger on the trigger.

“Hey, cool it for now, Shiso.” Hazel barked. Shiso slowly lowered his gun, but kept it at the ready. Violette’s stress levels seemed to have gone down.

“I’m glad that’s resolved.” she sighed.

“So, are you an Eden guardian?” Shiso interrogated. Violette looked down and fiddled with the strings on her instrument.

“Yeah… I am.” she said sadly. “I wanted to make it to Eden to play for the rest of my life, but now I’m stuck here…”

“Told you.” Shiso said to Reva.

“...”

“...”

“...”

“What now?” Hazel asked. Everyone’s guard was down, but tension was still high.

“Team huddle.” Shiso said, making his way behind the stage. “And leave her out.” he said, pointing at Violette. Surprisingly, Reva made no protests as they left to have a team meeting. As soon as they were out of the way, Reva and Shiso started furiously arguing.

“What the hell was that?” Reva asked.

“That was being cautious against strangers!” Shiso countered.

“Have you ever met a stranger you’ve not tried to kill?!” Reva spat back.

“What should I do? Wait for them to kill me?!” As Shiso and Reva argued, Saffron happened to be caught in the middle of it all. Hazel motioned to Saffron that she was going to leave to check on Violette, which she gave a thumbs up to.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hazel sneaked around the stage to try and comfort Violette after that pretty stressful situation. She was in the back row, back turned to Hazel.

“Hey… Vio. Are you-” Hazel begun.

“Really?! I could?” Violette exclaimed in excitement. Hazel took cover around the corner of the stage just as Violette looked behind her in fear. Hazel looked back at the group; Reva and Shiso were still obliviously arguing. Violette turned back around. She appeared to be talking directly to a floating ball of light.

“So, I can have a place in Eden and play until the day I die?” Violette asked, carefully.

“Yes, that is correct.” said an angry woman’s voice.

“What do I have to do?” asked Violette eagerly.

“Kill all of your trespassers.” the voice said sternly.

“All… of them?”

“Yes, all of them.”

“I can’t even… keep one?”

“NO!” the voice said, more forceful and angry this time. “ALL OF THEM! Do I make myself clear?!”

“Yes ma’am.” Violette said quietly.

Hazel slowly got up to tell the others, but her hip pouch got caught on one of the boards of the stage. Violette turned around, looking wide-eyed and terrified. As Hazel struggled, Violette slowly lifted her violin and bow. This scared Hazel so much that she took out a hammer and just broke the board and ran. She threw the hammer at Violette, but one strum easily reflected it.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Violette deserves freedom too!”

“Well, how do you plan on-”

“Time to high-tail it out of here!” Hazel said, with Violette giving chase behind her. Shiso fired his gun right at Violette, but before she could even make a note, Reva rushed to her defense. Violette stopped, surprised at Reva’s action.

“She hadn’t done anything wrong!” Reva raged.

“Reva, run! Now!” Hazel shouted.

Violette rapidly strummed away, almost inhumanly. Suddenly, Reva began to levitate, limbs outstretched. She yelled in anguish before falling to the ground in a giant crescendo.

“Reva!” shouted Saffron. “Are you alright?”

Violette, expressionless, began to pluck the strings of her violin. With each note, a part of Reva rose up, as if possessed until she was fully standing, but something was off. Reva’s limbs were raised in unnatural parts, as if she was a puppet controlled by strings.

All of a sudden, Violette flew into a fury of notes and Reva charged forward, being stopped by Hazel planting her wrench into the ground.

“What’s wrong with you?” Hazel pleaded.

“That’s not Reva.” Shiso said grimly. Violette sighed as she called Reva back in front of her. She gave a look of true regret.

“You all have such great bonds. I shall write you all truly beautiful requiems when I am given a place in Eden.”