Violette was helpless before Reva, who had her pinned down with only her foot. Behind Reva, Saffron politely tapped her armor in concern.

“You’re not killing her, right?” she asked curiously.

“Oh, no. Why would you ask that?” Reva asked, surprised. Her furious demeanor had been completely broken by that.

“Because of the righteous indignation in your voice when you talked about her being better left as ‘just a memory’.” Shiso said to her side.

“Eh? Well, I don’t kill.” Reva pouted, putting the sword to her side. “I thought you all knew me better than that by now.”

“Can you… remove your foot from my gut?” Violette struggled, trying to lift Reva’s foot off of her in vain.

“Oh, yeah.” Reva said bashfully, lifting her foot. Although a second later, she looked like she remembered something and put her foot back down on Violette. “Wait, no!” she said. “You just tried to kill us!”

“Water under the bridge?” Violette shrugged. Reva looked back at Saffron, Shiso, and Hazel, not quite sure what to do.

“So, what do we do with her now?” Reva asked. “I actually really don’t want to kill her.”

“I could kill her.” Shiso offered.

“That was a blanket want.” Reva said, unimpressed.

“We could leave her here to die.” Shiso reasoned. “Then, we can just blame it on nature. Is that better?”

“How is that better?” Reva barked.

“I don’t know!” Shiso said, throwing his hands up in frustration. He pointed at Saffron. “Kid, you got any ideas?!” Saffron twirled her hair and whistled for a second before speaking.

“Can we just take her with us?” she simply asked. Everybody looked around and shrugged in agreement. Everyone except for Shiso, that is.

“I don’t wanna take any more people who’ve tried to kill us.” he firmly stated. Hazel ran over and threw an arm around Shiso’s neck.

“Why start now?” she joked, rubbing her fist against his head.

“You really want me to start asking that?” Shiso threatened, reaching for his hip.

“So can I let her up or what?” Reva asked, Violette still struggling under her foot. Saffron gave Shiso a look that would undoubtedly haunt him if he didn’t agree.

“Fine…” he sighed. “Just let me do one thing.” Shiso walked over to Violette’s violin and violently stomped on what was left of it, leaving it as scrap wood and twine. Saffron gasped and Reva lifted her foot. Violette gathered what was left of her instrument and carried it in her arms.

“Shiso, that was heartless!” Saffron shouted, stomping her foot.

“No, it was safe.” he hissed. “If you don’t like my work, you can find someone else.”

Everyone stared at Shiso, who looked as if he was some cornered wolf. Reva strided towards Shiso, carrying both her confident demeanor and the broadsword.

“Shiso, it’s time for your nap.” she playfully claimed. “You’ve been up for too long without sleep.” she said, advancing towards him. She looked like a warlord mother about to put a grown man to sleep. Into a bed or coffin is to be determined.

“Get the hell away from me.” he hissed, taking a few steps back.

“The less you fight, the sooner you can get to bed.” Reva said, dropping the sword and cracking her knuckles. “Don’t make me put you down.”

“Don’t get near me, woman!” he exclaimed.

“Have it your way.” Reva smiled.

What ensued was a 10 minute chase where Reva did wind sprints at Shiso as fast as possible, and he tried his best to scramble out of the way of an impact that would've probably shattered his femur. Saffron helped Violette up.

“You okay?” she asked.

“Yeah.” Violette responded. “Are they going to be okay?” she asked, pointing at Reva’s dangerous game of chicken with Shiso.

“I’m sure Reva will be fine.” Hazel yawned.

“And the other one?”

“Eh… He’ll sleep one way or another.” Hazel estimated, shrugging her shoulders.

“Hey Violette, can I call you Vio?” Saffron asked. Violette was taken off guard by the question.

“Like, a nickname?” she asked.

“Yeah, like a nickname. After all, friends give each other nicknames, right?”

“Yeah… Yeah!” Vio said, smiling. “They do.”

They all sat around and watched Reva and Shiso’s elaborate game of tag together. It all finally ended when Shiso landed wrong on the snow, slipping and falling over. Reva took this chance to pin him down.

“Now, sleep.” Reva said sweetly, promptly hitting Shiso in the back of the head and knocking him out. As Shiso went limp in her arms, she carried him over to where the others were. Sighing, she put Shiso down and picked up the red and gold sword.

“Nice new weapon.” Saffron complimented.

“I dunno.” Hazel speculated. “Kinda looks a bit too heavy, even for Reva. Using a two-handed shield and a two-handed sword? Sounds like a wrist-killer to me.”

“I don’t think Reva has weak wrists after handling that shield for so long though.” Saffron argued. Reva looked like a child who just wanted to get a word in.

“Why can’t I just use it when I need it?” Reva asked.

“Depends.” Saffron said, arms crossed. “Where’re you gonna put it?”

That was a good point. If Reva didn’t constantly carry it in her hands, where would she carry it? Suddenly, the sword in Reva’s hands began to glow, as if made out of light. In a giant flash, it disappeared, leaving nothing behind. They all stood there, speechless.

“Well… problem solved.” Hazel joked.

Out of the slot in Reva’s shield where she would insert spell cards, one came out. It had a golden border and a picture of the sword in the center of it. Along the top of the spell card it read Tyrfing in bold white letters.

“Woah.” Reva whispered. “Is this how you make spell cards?” she asked Saffron. Saff scratched the back of her neck and looked apprehensive.

“Well, usually I synthesize them in a lab using mana and stuff, but spells can be made in more… unorthodox ways.” Reva was going to ask what then meant, but Vio interrupted with a giant yawn. Everyone stared at her, which made her blush.

“I’m just tired.” she admitted, trying to hide her face. Reva looked like she got an idea.

“Hazel, you got a long rope?” she asked.

“Sure.” she shrugged, pulling one out; no questions asked at all. Reva tied the rope to her shield, which she set down into the snow.

“There!” Reva exclaimed. “Now you can get in and sleep on the road!”

“On the road to where?” Vio asked innocently.

“Eden.” Reva said, rolling Shiso’s body into the shield. Vio narrowed her eyes.

“Didn’t you all attack me because I was on my way to Eden?” she asked.

“No, we did it because you were ready to silence me.” Hazel complained.

“Sorry about that.” Vio apologised. “It was all business, just so you know.”

Violette climbed into Reva’s shield and took her place lying down next to Shiso, who was still unconscious. The shield wasn’t exactly the softest bed, so she put her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes.

“Time to move out!” Reva exclaimed, pulling the shield with the rope over her shoulder.

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

Hazel and Saffron shrugged and trudged along with her. Hazel lagged behind, trying to build something mid-trip. Saffron hung out in the front with Reva to talk.

“You alright from the fight earlier?” Saffron asked.

“I took a few serious hits, but nothing to keep me down.” Reva assured. Saffron pointed to Reva’s arm, which had two bullet wounds in it.

“That looks pretty serious to me.” she pointed out.

“Oh!” Reva said in surprise, as if she hadn’t noticed them before. “I didn’t see those. I’ve got it though.” Reva tensed her arm as hard as possible; a few seconds later, two bullet’s popped out of her arm, clattering as they fell on her armored foot. Some blood began to seep from the sound, which Reva used a spell to bandage.

“Reva…” Saffron said, pointing to Reva’s arm. “Did you just… flex the bullets out?” Reva shrugged her shoulders.

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“Reva, ditch the armor.” Saffron commanded. “I wanna feel your muscles.”

“Um, no.” Reva replied, looking quite uncomfortable. She tried to quickly change the subject. “You said that spells can be made in unorthodox methods. What did you mean?”

“That’s hard to answer.” Saffron admitted. “Before modern spell card creation, spells used to come from mastery of knowledge. You had to know how nature worked, and how to exploit it. Most couldn’t manage it by learning on their own. They usually learned it from others.”

“Like old wizards in small village homes?” Reva asked earnestly.

“Yeah,” Saffron sighed. “Like old wizards in small village homes. Over time, people began to use science and magic in tandem before magic just became another science.” she said, holding up a card with a purple jackal face.

“So, how do cards like this get made?” Reva asked, taking out Tyrfing’s card.

“Um… I don’t know.” Saff admitted. “I synthesize them in labs, but it’s probably possible that they can still be made naturally. I heard that some magic used to be made from the memories of people who had come to pass, but there’s only speculative theories beyond that.”

“Well, thanks anyway.” Reva said. She looked behind to see Vio sleeping on Shiso’s shoulder; she smiled at the sight.

“Hazel, whatcha working on back there?” Saffron asked.

“Just a thing for Violette.” Hazel replied, holding up what she had.

Hazel had a half-constructed violin, which had a metal interior inside of a wooden shell. A small slot rested at the end, like the slots that spell cards fit into normal weapons. Hazel was fine-tuning the strings to some sort of mechanism.

“Anything special about it?” Saff asked.

“Well, unlike her last one, this one can hold and use spell cards. I’m also trying to make the different strings fire different spells. I figured her magic might match the symphony she plays if I do that.”

“Sounds awesome.” Saff said. She looked down at her own weapon on her arm.

In their time, weapons usually came with a small slot in them; a slot where you insert your spell cards into. Hazel’s giant wrench and Reva’s shield both had these as well. (Hazel’s in the crook of her wrench and Reva on the inside of her shield.) Some older weapons, like Shiso’s Lynchpin, have no slot; in this case, individual cards can be cast by holding them.

Saffron had built her Field Bracer to be primarily a weapon for holding magic, but it could also provide some supporting fire if she couldn’t cast for some reason.

“I’m sure she’ll love it.” Reva said sweetly. They all shared a laugh as they continued their trek. Saffron smiled and looked to their right, noticing something in the distance.

“Do you guys see that?” she asked, pointing to a mass of snow clouds heading their way at a pretty quick pace.

“Is it an avalanche?!” Reva panicked.

“Avalanches need mountains, genius. We’re on a flat tundra plain.” Hazel said, not even looking up from her work.

“When what is it?” Saffron asked.

All three of them stopped and looked at the snow, trying to see what it was. The giant cloud converged onto a small point in the front. Squinting her eyes, Saffron saw a woman at the front. She had blue hair, a hooded coat, and icicles around her. Her shoes themselves seemed to be ice skates as the snow below her froze when going over it.

The woman seemed to pull up some sort of snarl as she advanced faster. Saffron got out her spell cards as the woman skated even faster, almost as if trying to collide head-on with them.