The days pasted quickly for Jackson, who once spent his time travelling studying his old magic books. He was now rereading the mad researcher’s notes, trying to make heads-or-tails of them. Even going back to the transcripts, it did not make much sense to the young hero.

The wagon ride was mostly uneventful, save for Angela challenging Catherine to a pout each time they stopped or Barbara being a little friskier. Catherine continued to defeat Angela with ease every time and the hero was starting to lose her patience. She even tried to blackmail Jackson into revealing the girl’s weaknesses.

“How do I know her weakness?” he complained why losing his place in the notes.

“You’re her father!”

“I’m not her father,” Jackson said in a whiny voice. “The girl I’m going to raise is right now in the oven. Catherine is more like a distant niece who I just learned existed.”

“But she uses your techniques! Tell me your weaknesses!”

“No!”

Barbara was somehow worse. Each night she tried and failed to get Gypsy to sleep with them in the crow’s nest instead of her assigned room. A few times she tried to abandon the post and drag Jackson to Gypsy’s room. She managed to make both Jackson and Gypsy uncomfortable. It was decided they would use the first few nights in the madam’s shop to get all her energy out. Jackson then got more worried when Gypsy started planning the evenings down to the positions. She had a minute-by-minute plan of how they were going to tame Barbara’s weird needs. Somehow, this made Jackson more worried.

Catherine was the only one who brought calm and comfort to him. She was not clingy, nor did she threaten him. She was a charm to talk to, and an excellent person to learn the old magics from. She was still a novice compared to her father, but she was more advanced than Jackson. She even agreed to help Jackson train Edward.

The republic hero was having difficulties of his own. His problems came from the princess who loathed him. She not only hated him but had attempted to murder him more than three times a night. They made such a ruckus on the fourth night of the trip that Jackson started locking them in separate rooms or forcing one of them onto watch him during the nights. Edward insisted that he still loved her, and that he would prove himself to her somehow. The princess was adamant she gets out of the marriage if it meant murdering the entire town. Jackson had, at one point, thrown her from the wagon’s crow’s nest one evening due to her attitude. This slowed the journey home by a couple of hours while Gypsy and Joseph struggled to pull the two apart. Jackson still had a black eye while the princess had an arm in a sling.

Jackson smiled brightly when he finally saw Border Town again. What a sight to behold after all this time.

“Wow,” Catherine said. “I never got the opportunity to see my birthplace before.”

“Really?” Jackson said in alarm.

“Yeah, it got destroyed shortly after I was born. Burned to the ground by the Republic.”

Jackson glared at Edward next time he saw him but resisted the urge to threaten the boy. It was unlikely that mage had anything to do with the possible destruction of his favorite town. The war had been stalled for now, after all, and it was unlikely to start any day soon. Or so everyone hoped.

Thinking back on the Beast Men’s capital, Jackson realized he needed to inform Gypsy of everything he had learned. She needed to know he was a seed and that Berserker they fought was in fact his future self. He also struggled to think of a way of explaining Barbara’s brief return to being Elizabeth.

Jackson didn’t know how he felt about Elizabeth. Was she Barbara, or was Barbara a mere shadow of that monster? Did Elizabeth wish to harm them, or did she have other goals? He Jackson even trusts the mute anymore?

After completing night one of Gypsy’s rather strenuous plans, Jackson sat in bed watching the garnet haired girl. Watching for any sign that she was no longer the sweet and innocent Barbara he had been travelling with. Wondering if she was a mere disguise for the Berserker.