Playing games, singing songs, and shooting the breeze.

  That’s what Tina figured how the first few days of their trip would go, and she had good reason for it. They missed out on the fun on their way up to Pleasant Dunes, but only because she didn’t link up with Howie until he was already in Meadowbrook, with the next leg of the trip taking them right into the Coral Desert. That there was Independent and Gobbo territory, which meant you had to be bring your A-game to keep from getting got, but here on the Highway in the heart of Federal territory, the chances of running into trouble were slim to none.

  Sure, an Abby horde could come skittering out of the Badlands at any given time, but with three lines of watchtowers keeping an eye on the horizon, they’d have at least 24 hours of advanced notice regarding any large Abby incursions. That left the really fast or really sneaky threats, and there wasn’t much you could do about those except be ready to defend against them should they ever show up. Around these parts, that meant Harpies, Razorscythes, Gorebuzzards, and Skreeler Wasps pretty much, unless there was some new flavour of flying or camouflaged Abby out there. Dangerous yeah, but not so dangerous that Howie had to keep his head on a swivel 24/7, as they didn’t show up all that often to attack travellers on the road.

  Had to do with opportunity cost. A flock of Harpies might have it in them to take out a trader caravan, but most would die in the process, and what would they have to show for it? Twenty, maybe thirty bodies and not enough Harpies to carry all that biomass back home. Even if they had dedicated porters to eat or otherwise carry it all back, a caravan wasn’t all that big of a catch unless it was a caravan full of honey or vegetable oil or something calorically dense.

  Which is why Abby learned early on that attacking random caravans wasn’t worth the effort, not unless it was an attack of opportunity. Anything coming out of the Badlands these days had other concerns though, so chances of an Abby attack on their party of 13 were slim to none. Didn’t have to worry all that much about bandits or outlaws either, as the Highway was patrolled pretty often here in the heart of Federal territory, and even the dumbest criminals would spot the Ranger badges and lay low until they passed.

  All told, Tina figured Howie would be pretty laid back for the first few days of the trip, as there wasn’t nothing to worry about until they were past Redeemer’s Keep. And she was right, as soon after they linked up outside of New Hope, Howie kicked up his feet, grabbed the guitar handed to him by Chrissy, and sang some songs as they made their way down south. Was currently doing a soulful rendition of “”, by Roger Miller, which wasn’t the hardest song to sing or play, but he was a little out of practice after so many years. Was also using his Mage Hands to play the guitar, on account of him not wanting to blow a twice a day Ability on a lark, even if it lasted a full five hours a pop. So Mage Hand it was, which meant he played slow and made a fair few mistakes, but a lot less than Tina would’ve expected considering she’d never seen him play guitar with the Mage Hands ever before. They were great at keeping a steady beat on the tambourines, but this was a whole new level of dexterity from the simple Cantrip, one she wanted to study while watching Howie sing his heart out for all to hear.

  And maybe sing a few duets with him, except she couldn’t, because Tina was technically still on duty and Catfish Kairi had a whole regimen of training exercises for her to complete each and every day. At the moment, the name of the game was misdirection, meaning Kairi would call out a hand sign like movement ahead or enemy contact or something along those lines, and Tina had to use Minor Illusion to throw that sign out overtop of her actual hand. At the same time, she had to use her real hand to give a different sign, one that the Rangers would try to guess. If they identified Tina’s real hand sign, then she lost, with the idea being that sometimes, the best Disruptions were subtle ones that no one really noticed until it was much too late.

  It was something of a game, one Tina might even enjoy if she ever managed to win once or twice. In just over four months though, she had yet to successfully hide her hand signs even a single time, and the constant failures grated on her almost as much as Kairi’s cutting statements. “Gotta do better, Song-Bird,” the woman sneered, her rough, dry rasp more grating than ever since she had to shout to be heard overtop of Howie’s singing and strumming. “Won’t fool anyone with shoddy work like that. Fall Back.”

  Tina’s Illusory arm swept out and waved the back of her hand thrice, while her real arm went with it but her fist closed tight. “Hold position,” Zeke called, beating Armando by the slimmest of margins which meant it must have been obvious, as Armando was usually pretty slow on the uptake.

  “Sad,” Kairi declared, and Tina had to fight not to puff her cheeks in displeasure, because she’d only get called out on it. “Is this too difficult for you? All I’m asking you to do is cover up the real hand signal with an Illusion of another one.” Except she wasn’t. She was asking for an Illusion of a hand signal to cover up the real one underneath, which was a whole different kettle of fish. It was all too easy to see through an Illusion when you already knew what the Illusion was, and Kairi knew that good and well. Again. Aerial Threat.”

  And again, Tina failed, because there was only so much you could do with sleight of hand and misdirection when the game was focused on her hands and nothing else. Couldn’t do anything out of the ordinary either, since moving shadows or bright lights would give away the fact that someone was throwing out Illusions. Fact is, it’d be a whole lot easier if not for the fact that she’d been ordered to overlay the Illusion overtop her actual movements. That there made it ten times tricksier, because the movements interacting with the Illusion messed everything up, especially when she had to craft it on the fly like she did.

  And so the morning dragged on, with Tina failing again and again while Kairi ground her down beneath the heel of her proverbial boots with her disparaging comments. Never said anything outright mean or cutting, but she never had a word of encouragement either, nor any advice on how to do better. All the while, Howie sang songs and played guitar until he got tired of singing, but he kept right on playing to keep Chrissy entertained. It wasn’t that Tina wanted him to say something to Kairi, and in fact, she prayed that he’d keep a level head and his lip buttoned up, because there wasn’t nothing he could say that would make this better.

  All she wanted was a little encouragement or maybe even some advice maybe, though he never was any good at teaching others how to do what he did. He just had a knack for seeing through Illusions, one developed over years of Tina and Chrissy tricking him with fake doors, Illusory cakes, and runaway wallies that wasn’t really running away. You’d think that meant he could offer constructive criticism on how to make them better, but he’d only ever say ‘it just don’t look real’ even though they were good Illusions that would fool almost anyone else. Then he’d follow it up with a shrug and maybe an apologetic look if Tina looked sour enough, but that’s all she ever got.

  Then again, maybe things had changed, because after a few more failed tries, she heard Howie whisper into her ear. “It’s all about perspective Tina.” She almost jumped out of the saddle to hear it, but settled her nerves right quick. This was a Minor Illusion of his own, though one of sound and nothing else. He was pretty good with those kinds of Illusions, but auditory Illusions had less to dissect since they were one and done. No need to maintain the Illusion in place, not unless you were holding a note or making it echo or something, and people typically covered up for inconsistencies by thinking they misheard. Still, it was pretty good for Howie to get the tone and mood right, like he was helping her cheat on a test right in front of the teacher. “The goal is to show a convincing Illusion of one hand signal while hiding the real one,” he continued, gradually shifting the sound from one ear to the other to hammer home the point about perspective. “No reason they need to be over top one another though, is there? Instead, put the Illusion between you and the Rangers and make it look like it’s over top your hand, as opposed to actually sitting over it. Perspective.”

  Except Kairi had specifically ordered her to put the Illusion over her hand, so Tina stuck to the rules and failed a few more times before Howie’s voice sounded out again. “It’s a test, Tina. Soldiers follow orders to the letter, because that is what’s expected of them. Specialists receive orders and decide how to best carry them out. That’s what makes them Specialists after all, because they know their jobs better than their commanding officers, and you know good and well that every Ranger is a Specialist. They understand their own strengths and weaknesses, as well as those of their Spells, so when told to do something in a suboptimal manner, it’s on them to call an audible and say, ‘it’s better to do it this way instead because of this, that, and other things’. Or, failing that, carry out their orders in the best possible manner so as to ensure success.”

  Except Tina wasn’t a Specialist with a capital S. She wasn’t even a Magus yet, much less one with three Third Order Spells in a single School of Magic. Barely even felt like a soldier really, but the more she thought about it, the more she felt like Howie had it right. Kairi had even stressed how she wanted Tina to cover up the real hand signal with an Illusion of another one, so maybe Howie was onto something. Rather than cheat though, she tried it out on the next round, even though she could’ve taken some extra time to work out the perspective. As she threw the Illusion together, she knew she done messed up, because she forgot to account for how they wouldn’t all be looking at her hand from the same perspective.

  So while it might look fine for Zeke sitting in the middle of the three, Armand and most importantly Kairi would see that there was something off about how her Illusory forearm was connected with her elbow. The upside was that she was able to hide what her hand was really doing, because even if they could see that it was an Illusion, by the time they focused on seeing through to what lay behind it, she was already done making the hand sign.

  “No point in throwing up an Illusion if it’s obviously an Illusion,” Kairi declared, and Tina’s shoulder’s slumped to hear it. “Name of the game is deception, not obfuscation.” There was a long pause that saw Tina’s heart skip a beat, then, “Again. Break Contact.”

  So no haranguing for going against orders, meaning Howie was right once again. Hardly surprising, but what Tina wanted to know was how he read people like he did. Wasn’t like Uncle Ming would use these sorts of tricks while teaching him. No, he was a straight shooter who’d always take the time to explain things when asked, or even admit he didn’t know when he wasn’t sure about the answer. Did that a lot of the time though, admit he didn’t know, because end of the day, Uncle Ming was a soldier through and through, always happy to follow orders unless those orders couldn’t be done. Howie was the opposite, as he hated following orders and loved asking questions and finding out answers, so even though she’d never brought up her training before, it took him maybe fifteen minutes to figure out exactly what Kairi wanted from Tina.

  To do things the right way, even when told otherwise by someone who may or may not know what they were doing. That was a pretty common pitfall for Illusionists, other people expecting too much from a simple Cantrip, and expecting even more from First, Second, and Third Order Spells. Yeah, Major Illusion sounded pretty useful, but crafting realistic and believable Illusions for up to an entire hour was easier said than done. Take this exercise here. To hide her real hand without giving the game away, she had to craft an Illusion of her hand making a sign while riding a horse on the open Highway complete with the shadows from the trees to the side of the road. That was a lot of movement and a lot of variables that had to come seamlessly together to fool the eye, and while she wasn’t out here drawing every shadow of every leaf, it wasn’t like she could just throw something like together on the fly and expect people to fall for it.

  That’s the thing about visual Illusions though. Folks relied heavily on vision, primarily even, so while they might be quick to distrust their ears, they wouldn’t be so quick to disregard their eyes. Assuming you heard wrong was second nature, while eyes were drawn to visual flaws because that’s just human nature. Mama told her all about it long ago, how folks would almost always notice a wonky shadow or wrong perspective even if they couldn’t explain what they’d noticed off, but you could make a horse moo and they’d just look around wondering where’d that cow get to.

  So maybe Tina could take advantage of that. They were expecting to see through a shoddy Illusion, so why not give them what they wanted? Again, she did it on the fly, because she was honest like that, and Armando took the bait. “Need Medic,” he declared, sounding all too happy and excited to finally get one over on Zeke who was a beat too slow.

  That’s how Tina knew she’d messed up. She’d tried to throw up an Illusion of an Illusory hand making the ‘All Clear’ sign and a ‘real’ hand behind it making the ‘Need Medic’ sign, all while her actual real hand showed ‘Out of Ammo’. Worked well enough to fool Armando, which wasn’t a high bar to clear by any measure, while Zeke saw it and was more confused than fooled, because he still tried to give the wrong answer all the same.

  “Said it before, but I guess it needs saying again,” Kairi began, sounding all sorts of put out by Tina’s mistake. “This is an exercise in deception, a test of your ability to craft an Illusion on the fly that’s good enough to pass muster at a glance. Crafting an Illusion that is obviously an Illusion might win you this game, but out in the field, all that’ll do is alert your enemies to your shenanigans, and most don’t much care for being fooled, nor will you always have the Firstborn around to slip you the answers you need. Shape up Songbird.”

  “Yes ma’am,” Tina said, wincing at being called out and also having to use that term of address, even though Kairi all but demanded it. Very different from Mama who’d see it as a personal attack, but then again, Kairi wasn’t nothing like Mama. Not just in appearance, being a stout and solidly built woman who looked mighty steady and dependable. Like she could take care of business herself, no matter how hard and gruelling that business might be, whether it was building a house or clearing out a tree. Built for long days and hard times Kairi was, all substance and no flair, a soldier’s soldier and a Ranger to the end. A little surly yeah, without so much as a hint of sugar or spice, but she was the same with her fellow Rangers and even her immediate superior Staff Sergeant Lee, so it wasn’t like Tina was being singled out.

  Still… it wasn’t like it’d cost Kairi anything to be a little nicer. Catch more flies with honey after all, a lesson she and Howie could both stand to learn, but Tina didn’t say nothing and kept trying her best while Howie and Chrissy had a ball behind them. Took a few more tries before she finally got the perspective right, but Kairi kept calling out hand signs and pointing out every which way Tina had screwed up, like how the shadows on her knuckles stood out too much compared to the shadows overhead, or how she failed to account for the wrinkles on her sleeve that made it all too obvious it was an Illusion from the elbow down. This was pretty much what her life had been like these last four months, and if Kairi kept this up for a few more yet, then Tina was going to snap and cry.

  Didn’t help how Howie didn’t seem to have any sympathy, or how he went and brung Chrissy up to the Deadlands and had a whole adventure together up there. Would’ve been so nice to go along with, not just to help Howie out like Chrissy had and wouldn’t stop bragging about, but also to see Uncle Edward, Uncle Luther, and Uncle Aaron again. Howie didn’t even take all that many pictures with them, though he had a few adorable photos of Uncle Edward looking so very pleased while holding hands with Elodie, and then a few more with Chrissy thrown in, but that was it. At least Chrissy knew well enough to take a whole slew of Photos, though most were candids of everyone going about their day as opposed to group photos where everyone was smiling.

  Uncle Edward looking for birds in the morning gloom. Uncle Aaron tending to someone’s blisters by firelight. Uncle Luther twirling his lucerne hammer about in the rising sun. It wasn’t as happy and cheery as Tina liked, and even had a hint of melancholy to it, but Chrissy’s pictures showed what life was really like for them out in the Deadlands. Or worse, how hard it must have been to sit and watch Howie as he slept for days after he’d been shot by a French Capitaine with an itchy trigger finger. The pictures painted a bleak image of the trip, one that was at direct odds with how Howie told it, and it made Tina wonder just how much of the nitty, gritty details Howie had covered up over the years.

  Probably a lot, but that was hardly surprising. Tina couldn’t help but think back on their trip up to the mesa, one which they kicked off by watching a band of unlucky mercenaries walk right into an ambush then do absolutely nothing about it. That wasn’t what the Howie in her mind would’ve done, but that’s just what life was like out on the wild Frontier.

  “When things go pear shaped, it’s every man for themselves,” Howie had said, in response to Tina asking what she ought to do if she ever found herself in a pinch like that. “Their lives are their own to protect. You look after yours. If that means going Invisible and leaving your friends to die alone instead of dying alongside them when all is lost, then that’s what you do, understood?”

  Which wasn’t exactly wrong, but didn’t line up with what she believed a Ranger stood for. They were the tip of the spear in the war against Abby, but here on the Frontier, they were also the first and final line of defense. She’d grown up hearing stories about heroic last stands that turned out alright, and she imagined herself in those shoes one day, defying the odds with Howie at her side and coming out with a story to tell about all the lives they’d saved.

  Except now that she was older and wiser, Tina knew those stories were the exception, not the rule. That’s why they were told around the campfire time and time again, but no one shared the tales of the Rangers who stood firm and died to the last. Nor did those campfire stories ever feature any repeat heroes, because defying the odds once in a lifetime was more than enough for most.

  Unless you were Howie of course, who was making a habit of it. Ever since he took out them Outlaw murderers disguised as lawmen in Pleasant Dunes, it was like he was doing everything in his power to one-up himself. Folks still told tales of what happened to Vanguard National and the Puglianos, and while no one really talked about what happened in the Badlands with the Qin Kill Team, Tina had been front and centre for that whole trip, and she knew full well how close Howie had come to biting the dust then and there. If Uncle Teddy hadn’t given the orders to break camp and investigate the disturbance in the dead of night, or if he’d done it just a hair slower and showed up a minute later, then the tale of the Firstborn would’ve ended then and there, with Howie falling to a skittering band of Swarmlings after dealing with Ao Tian’s suicidal gambit.

  And now he’d just come back from the Deadlands after a near miss put him in the hospital and left him weak enough to need Chrissy to bring him water to drink every day. Which was adorable, especially since Chrissy kept talking about it and even trying to show them while Howie played along like a good sport, to the point where Tina wanted to hold a cup to his lips just to see what he’d do.

  She wasn’t jealous of Chrissy. Not one bit. Okay, maybe she was, but it wasn’t fair. Howie was all like, “Go be a Ranger Tina. Learn the skills you need to learn, and then we’ll partner up against Abby.” Which was fine and dandy, except now he was partnering up with Chrissy who didn’t have a lick of training to her name. To make matters worse, even though Howie was still head and shoulders above the rest, he clearly wasn’t good enough to get by without a scratch. No one was, not really, but his list of injuries was quickly piling up. He’d been shot at least a dozen times in the last year, mostly grazes yeah, but three hit him clean in the back in Brightpick, while he just took one in the chest. Not to mention the hand he lost which apparently was still hurting him something fierce, though none of them would’ve known it if Astrid hadn’t clocked how often Howie was using that numbing balm.

  All in all? He’d been lucky to survive the last year or so, but if he kept burning the candle at both ends like this, then it was only a matter of time before the odds caught up and his hot streak came to an end.

  Long before Tina was ready to back him up mind you. Plus, with Chrissy at his side, Howie was liable to get got even quicker considering how he doted on her. If anyone harmed so much as a single hair on her head, Howie would go scorched earth to see vengeance done, and even on his best days, he wasn’t exactly what you’d call level-headed. Mama saw it too, which was why she’d worked so hard to stitch a dozen armoured plates into his duster to try and keep him safe, but there was only so much armour could do. A Bolt to the plates would still knock him on his butt, and one to the face would put him down for good, and then where’d they be?

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  Nowhere good. That’s where, and Tina didn’t want to have to bury her sorta-brother. That’s why she was so happy when Uncle Teddy finagled things to get her this Ranger escort mission, even though Howie would have a conniption if he found out. They were birds of a feather they were, both so puffed up with stubborn pride and unwilling to take a step back. Yeah, Howie done some things wrong, but that didn’t mean you stopped showing love and support. Thing is, Uncle Teddy thought a little tough love was in order, except Howie didn’t see it that way, as he was unrepentant, but unwilling to let anyone use him to criticize Uncle Teddy. The way Howie saw it, if he broke things off with Uncle Teddy, then wouldn’t no one throw shade at the Marshal for Mentoring a ‘scoundrel’ like him, except anyone who would’ve said anything like that was still saying it all the same.

  Which meant this standoff between them wasn’t doing no one any good, and actively hurt them both. Tina saw how happy they both were to see one another up at the quay for the signing ceremony, and how they both tried their darnedest to hide it. Broke her heart it did, because she knew they both still thought of each other as family but were just too darned proud to be the first to say it. Wasn’t no talking sense into either of them though, not even with Mama’s silver tongue, so it was a nice surprise to see Uncle Teddy come up to the quay all by his lonesome. Showed that he still cared and was worried about Howie, and maybe even rightfully so, as everything Tina had heard about the situation down south painted a bleak picture to be sure.

  That was neither here nor there though, as all these errant thoughts were distracting Tina from the exercise and Kairi most certainly noticed. After another remark that was tame in content but cutting in delivery, Tina put it all out of mind and tried to get it right, but even though she’d figured out how to obscure the real hand sign, her Illusion was suffering for it. Changing perspective sounded easy enough, but without being able to stop and look at what the others would see made it difficult to envision the proper Illusion and throw it up in a jiffy. Kairi’s criticisms weren’t all that helpful either. “That’ll fail in wind. The background is off. Your patterned stones are too neat. Your leaves too sparse.”

  And so on and so forth, until it was almost noon and Howie called for a half-hour break, which Staff Sergeant Lee didn’t like one bit. Was hard to get a read on the woman, as she almost never smiled or joined in with the ribbing that the other three doled out so readily amongst one another. She was almost like a machine, one built to patrol the Badlands and nothing more, as she was always ready and raring to go out on patrol even though it was about as exciting as watching paint dry.

  Except when it wasn’t of course, but those days were few and far between. Word was Howie had made too much of a fuss around New Year and now them Proggies were looking to get sharp or get even. Meaning they were either gearing up for a massive autumn raid after pushing their numbers higher than ever before, or they were scouring the countryside in search of Howie before directing an attack his way. Which wasn’t really how Abby worked, as they were all about that biomass, and the fact that they hadn’t come out in droves this spring like they usually did meant they were dipping into their reserves, reserves they could ill-afford considering they had no other means of securing fresh biomass. Not unless they were waging war against the Gobbos in the Coral Desert or the smorgasbord of Abby down south, and if they were, the Rangers would’ve long since noticed what with Drex Durden going in and out of the Divide almost every day.

  Long story short, the Bug Ferals of the Divide weren’t acting the way Abby were supposed to, which meant their Proggies were up to something down in those depths. What that might be was anyone’s game, but it made for some real boring patrols out past the watchtowers with plenty of grumbling from Kairi, Zeke, and Armando about how they were being hobbled by Tina’s presence and kept from the action deeper in the Divide. Never you mind that she’d been right there with Howie when he stirred up all them bugs to keep the Qin off their backs, and while Howie had done most of the heavy lifting, Tina had still helped.

  Not as much as Mama of course, or even Chrissy who lent aid to the effort with a few well-placed Psychic Screams and one Phantasmal Force that worked wonders with Howie’s Deck of Illusions. Tina had still contributed though, so she was more than capable of patrolling deeper into the Badlands. Staff Sergeant Lee wouldn’t hear none of it though, because she was as by the book as they come, and was none too pleased to see Howie call an audible and break without checking in with her first. That’s why she didn’t dismount, just slowed and said, “Protocol says we ride until nightfall.”

  “You are free to do as you please,” Howie replied, sounding polite in tone but clearly having none of it. “Thing is, even if you Rangers can go all day, I got four civilians who’re lookin’ like they could use a good stretch, and a whole host of animals that need feedin’ and waterin’.” Mostly the cattle, though little Pebbles needed to nurse every few hours and couldn’t really do that while sitting in the wagon with Mama. Case in point, the sweet calf ambled out of the driver’s seat and ran over to Momo to do just that while the mama cow groomed her baby and big Cowie huffed in jealousy. Howie smiled to see it, but was quick to pat the big guy’s neck and soothe his nerves, which wasn’t the way to do it. Was better off ignoring Cowie’s jealous huffs and paying him no mind. By soothing him like a baby, Howie was only reinforcing Cowie’s fear of being replaced by letting him think there was something worth soothing him over. Then, when Howie was off playing with Pebbles and too distracted to soothe Cowie, the big jealous bull would only work himself up into a lather and overreact after the fact. That’s why they’d been selling all of Cowie’s babies, that and because they couldn’t really afford to keep them. Didn’t have the time or money to teach and feed them, so they were better off going to the Rangers and finding a home in a mounted unit somewhere.

  Only now, Howie was having a full-on tantrum with regards to anything and everything related to the Rangers. They had Wayne to blame for that, because up until that mess in Pleasant Dunes, Howie had still been a die-hard fan. He was just too stubborn and pragmatic to actually join up, not that he didn’t have good reasons to worry. The lack of American citizenship was a real problem, but if he really wanted to join up, all he had to do was let Mama formally adopt him. He wouldn’t have it though, because even though he loved Mama like his own, he still felt guilty for killing his own mama while coming out the womb and figured the best way to honour her was by being her dutiful son and carrying her family name.

  Which he could’ve kept even after being adopted, but again, Howie was stubborn as can be and set in his ways, and right now, he was dead set on not caring about the Rangers no more. That’s why he only shot a glare at Armando as he lit up a rolled cigar full of wacky tobacky, instead of saying something or worse, doing something. Was disgraceful was what it was, as those cigars stank to high heaven and gave away their position to anything with a nose in a klick’s distance, while simultaneously dulling Armando’s cognition and reactions. While Tina didn’t much care for what anyone did off duty, lighting up while on patrol was just spitting on the badge, but neither Howie nor Staff Sergeant Lee said much of anything at all, so Armando just had at it.

  Time was, Howie would lob a Water Sphere at the man to put that cigar out, or maybe do something even more drastic, but here and now, Howie just scoffed and grumbled while cuddling the affectionate Pebbles once she was done with her meal. Which of course Cowie didn’t much care for, but Howie was ignoring that jealousy because he thought it was cute. And it was, and would continue being cute until it became a problem that was better off nipped at the bud. There was that stubborn streak again, because no matter how many times Mama warned him, he thought things would work out all the same, so he’d stick to his guns until he was inevitably proven wrong. Same with refusing to make up with Uncle Teddy, or refusing to become a Ranger or American Citizen. Might also be the reason for a whole host of other things, but Tina wasn’t about to sit here and list them all out in her head. Instead, she continued on with her exercises under Kairi’s tutelage, because while the Catfish wasn’t exactly great at teaching, she was nothing if not persistent.

  Visualization drills. Split focus exercises. Memory conditioning. Perception and Sensory training. Kairi walked Tina through all that and more, keeping her busy with Minor Illusion and Bardcraft all the live long day. She had to hold a complex Illusion of a banner while manually making it flap in the breeze and answering questions about the scenery they’d seen along the way. Then she counted steps while reciting the Ranger’s Creed, before summarizing the conversation Zeke and Armando were having about which shop in New Hope had the best bagels and coffee to show she was paying attention. After that, it was Kairi’s turn to throw up Minor Illusions, and Tina had to spot the inconsistencies in shadows, reflections, motion, and more. All of which were subtle and difficult to detect, because say what you will about her personality and low rank, but Kairi Hamilton was still a top tier operator and thus one of the best of the best.

  Granted, among the best of the best, she ranked near the bottom, but that was still pretty impressive all the same. Even the worst Ranger was head and shoulders above the rest, so anyone who underestimated Kairi Hamilton would be in for a rough ride.

  The clever woman even added a new exercise today, namely perspective practice to teach Tina how to properly sketch Illusions from odd angles, with a whole lot of talk about occlusion, parallax shift, forced perspective, and depth cues that she only sorta understood. Frustrating is what that was, because a few months ago, Tina thought of herself as a pretty good Illusionist, but had since come to realize she was just an amateur who was a little more talented than the rest.

  Wasn’t nothing wrong with that though. Time was, Tina had thought herself untalented compared to Howie, who had always been so smart and quick on the uptake, but Uncle Ming had taken her aside and told her, “Howie is more talented, yes, but talent is nothing. He run a little faster today, but that no mean you stop running just because he ahead. Life is not race. Life is long journey, and journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.”

  Course, Uncle Ming never said nothing about what Tina ought to do if Howie just kept getting faster and farther ahead, but Tina figured she could only keep putting one foot in front of the other and carry on like normal. Wasn’t easy though, especially since Howie only helped her out the once, no doubt feeling sheepish over getting called out earlier on. To make matters worse, he was having a grand old time on the trip, as after lunch, he saddled up Old Tux for a ride and spent an hour or so showing Sasha the ropes atop Winnie. When the solemn and stoic Soviet couldn’t handle it no more, Howie let Sasha off and brought Chrissy out for a ride instead, letting Old Tux lead the charge like he was young again and walking back with Chrissy in tow who was having a grand old time on her trip.

  Most wouldn’t see it, not with her big summer hat to protect her fair skin from tans and sunburns, to say nothing of her oversized sunglasses that she so loved to wear. That was Tina’s twin sister though, so she knew Chrissy was having a ball just from the set of her shoulders and the way she took the time to actually cast her gaze about. Was tough seeing them have so much fun, especially when Chrissy rode on by with her twin tails trailing behind and a subdued smile on her lips while waving as she passed by. Tina smiled and waved back, as it warmed her heart to see her normally sedate sister so cheery and animated. Bringing her out of New Hope had done wonders for Chrissy, and the same went for teaching her ASL. It was all in the confidence, as she was coming out of her shell and more eager to interact with the world around her instead of remaining a passenger to watch it all go by. Tina hated having to miss so much of these developments while out and about, but that was the price for being a Ranger. Even though she was drowning in the constant practice, she realized that this was the sort of standard Howie held himself to, as even while playing music and going on joy rides, he was pushing himself to improve, whether it be with training his Mage Hands or working on his Divination Spells to check the range, time, or even listen for far off sounds using Rangefinder, Timepiece, and Discern all the livelong day.

  To say nothing about Detect Abby and Detect Magic, which he kept active using Rituals he performed while sitting in the driver’s seat so he could send sweeping bands of Detection out further than Tina could see or sense. By the end of the day, Tina was tired enough to fall asleep on her feet, but she still had to settle the horses in first. Howie though? He was ready and raring for more practice as he stopped by to help. “Care for a light spar once we done here?” he asked, lifting the back hoof of Kairi’s horse while Tina tended to her own. The battle-trained gelding wasn’t none too pleased to see a stranger act so familiar, but Howie gave him a stern look followed by a gentle pat on the rump that settled the horse right down so he could get to work with the hoof pick.

  Thing is, Howie’s idea of a light spar meant going toe to toe until you were both drenched in sweat and breathless to boot. It was the same as a regular sparring session, with the only difference being that after the first time you cried uncle and laid down, he’d expect you to pick yourself back up and try again after a short rest. That said, tired as Tina was, it was all mental fatigue, so she didn’t mind getting a good bit of exercise in too. “Sure,” she said, sounding more chipper than she felt, because she knew she was in for a rough ride as Howie wasn’t none too gentle during spars. He was getting real good at it too, and was real frustrating to fight, because he finagled things to make it feel like she was fighting herself.

  Didn’t help that his weapon was a whole lot longer than her butterfly sword, which meant it was a whole lot stronger too. To her surprise, Howie wasn’t looking to bully her with his pole-axe, as when it came time to spar, he drew a rough, blunted wooden knife that looked like something he’d carved himself. Seeing her surprise, he shrugged and said, “Figured I ought to get some practice in with the knife in case I ever find myself without my axes.” Or a Conjure Weapon Spell, which he’d been putting a whole lot of practice into lately. Not without reason either, as one look at his chain-axe was enough to send anyone running for the hills, especially after he’d gotten good enough to decapitate straw dummies from five meters away with little more than flick of his wrist.

  Had nothing to do with how good he was with a whip, and everything to do with his familiarity with the Spell. Tina understood it better than most, as she’d been practicing with Shadow Blade and learning the ins and outs of using a semi-corporeal weapon that moved according to mind almost as well as it moved with her muscles. Howie’s chain-axe was similar, albeit more rooted in reality than Shadow Blade, but the principles were more or less the same. It wasn’t a solid mass of metal, but rather Ecto masquerading as it, and as such, that Ecto could be controlled using the mind and nothing else. Same as controlling his Mage Hands really, or moving a Shield about, or directing orders to a Simple Servant to wash the dishes or do a little dance. The trick was learning how to make those Spells do what you wanted, the same way you practiced moving any muscle really; repetition, repetition, repetition.

  He got plenty of normal practice in with the pole-axe too, which translated well to knife work as Howie opened up their spar with a feinting thrust that turned into the real deal somewhere along the way. Tina parried with her butterfly sword while stepping in for a counter, but Howie saw it coming and faded back before she’d even begun to move forward. He wasn’t the fastest, or the most skilled, but he knew how to read his opponents and stayed three to five steps ahead.

  It showed in how he chained his movements together, as a normal person would’ve taken a beat to regroup and rethink after retreating from a thrust. Against another opponent, their spar would have reset to a standoff, but Howie was all aggression all the time as he wasted no time darting back in at an angle to try and lock her sword in place. Unfortunately for him, his knife was just that, a regular old 7-inch clip point that was more tool than weapon, and his wooden sparring knife was modelled after it. It was great for cutting, skinning, or deboning game, and the sharpened steel could most certainly kill a man, it wasn’t designed for fighting blade to blade like her butterfly sword was.

  Which had a steel crossguard that was made for just this kind of fight, allowing her not to just block his attempt to lock her weapon in place, but to turn the tables on him and hold him down while angling her blade for a slash across his wrist. They were both holding their weapons in the left hand, so the angles were all there and burned into muscle memory, but Howie disengaged once more by stepping aside and keeping his knife wedged between the blade and crossguard of Tina’s weapon. Unwilling to let him escape that easily, she put her full weight into a thrust that combined with her superior leverage should have brought his knife along with her for the ride, but he let go of the hilt and the knife shot right out now that it was no longer wedged in between them.

  Not that big a deal, as the whole point of locking the knife down was to keep Howie from using it against her, except somehow, as she followed through with her thrust, he somehow stepped aside while catching his dropped knife with his right hand before tapping her stomach, sternum, and shoulder before gently resting against her throat, all while using his free left hand to grab her wrist and guide her butterfly sword out and to the side. That was some fancy hand and footwork, so much so she refused to believe he’d come up with that on the fly. “Where’d you learn that?” she asked, doing a double and triple take at his right hand to make sure it was still the Automaton Prosthetic and that he hadn’t stealthily wasted a use of his Wildshape just to win a spar.

  “Remember what I said about Vicente’s pigsticker? That big old machete he wears on his hip?” Grinning from ear to ear, Howie shrugged and said, “Turns out, he actually knows how to use it, and he been teaching me a trick or three alongside the rest of the fellas. You wouldn’t know from lookin’ at ‘em, but Carl fight’s dirty, and Johann knows enough about axes to show me a fair few things.” While saying all of this, he twirled the wooden knife around one prosthetic finger, then tossed it back to his left hand lightning quick and took it through a practised routine that sent it dancing through his real fingers. Small wonder he’d carved himself a well-balanced practice knife; if he tried learning that little flourish with real, sharpened steel, he’d be short a fair few more fingers than the five he’d already lost.

  “Again,” Tina said, wincing to hear how she sounded so much like Kairi, but Howie just smiled and squared up once again. She won a few, lost a few, but she wasn’t really keeping score, because Howie was pretty good and she was feeling rusty ever since she lost her sparring partners to their own assignments out on the Frontier. Kacey was aces in close combat, and Big Al had enough muscle to make fighting him a daunting prospect, while Errol was a real tricksy one with his rope tricks which couldn’t be blocked, but Howie was like a mix of all three while also having front row seats inside of her head.

  At least this trip to New Sonora meant they might see Alfred, Ike, Antoni, and Kacey again, though there was a chance they’d miss one another since it wasn’t like them Ranger recruits were just sitting around doing nothing. Tina hoped Howie would stop in at Redeemer Keep too and see if Uncle Rigsby had time for a meal and a chat, as his last visit left a whole lot to be desired.

  Might see Errol too, as that’s where he’d gone haring off to without so much as a care about Sarah Jay’s thoughts on the matter, so Tina didn’t care much to see him.

  Tina and Howie did more than a bit of light sparring, as they went at it until Mama called them over for dinner. She made enough for everyone, including the Rangers who had their own rations, but even Staff Sergeant Lee wasn’t so much of a stickler as to turn down a delicious meal in favour of dried jerky and hardtack. They were all proper grateful, especially Armando who was being awful forward with his praise and transparent as glass with his intentions. Mama fended him off with a practised polite smile that was cold as ice though, so cold that the message reached Armando through his haze of smoke and sent him scurrying a good ways away with his stinky wacky tobacky cigar.

  Tina much preferred the company of Howie’s other friends, like Clayton who was pretty good with a banjo and had a lovely, gravelly voice to go with it. The beanpole Nhiall always had a bright, beaming smile for everyone he met, and his uncanny ability to lounge on hard dirt like it was soft straw stuffed in supple leather reminded her of a marty all stretched out and relaxed, but also ready to jump up and do violence at the drop of a hat. Bodvar the bald, bearded hulk of a Nord didn’t say much of anything at all and kept to his own company, but the way the horses all gravitated around him showed that he was a kind and gentle giant whose scowl didn’t mean much of anything at all.

  The only person she wasn’t all that sure about was Raja, the Malaysian man who Howie said turned into a big old tank of a rhino. He didn’t look the type, as he was a wisp of a man, all rangy and raw-boned while standing at five foot five. His hair was long, straight, and a little greasy for a lack of shampoo, and his beard equally so, but it was his furtive gaze which threw Tina off. He was always glancing this way and that, a little like how Howie kept his head on a swivel, but Raja did what he could to keep his vigilance hidden away. The other thing that bothered her was how he had a natural scowl, one that would turn into a smile every time he caught someone looking at him, just like how he smiled at Tina now. He even gave her two thumbs up for no reason that she could see, then held his left hand up with palm out straight as he chopped at the air in a slow and meaningful manner.

  Then he flicked his wrist and gestured at her while nodding with an expectant gaze, one that faded just a bit when met with her lack of understanding. Seeing this, Raja’s smile returned in full force as he pointed at her blade, then at Howie, and repeated the motions with his left hand.

  “That’s interesting,” Howie said, having caught it all the second time around. “He’s showing you how you could’ve straight up disarmed me. Or dis-handed as it were. A flick of the wrist and you’d take my only good hand off at the wrist.” Raja didn’t speak a word of English, but he understood some, and he pointed at Howie and nodded as he went through the pantomime again. Tina still wasn’t seeing it though, so she brought out the practice knife again and Raja’s eyes lit up as he accepted it with both hands and a seated bow. Seemed like a bit much, but Tina returned the bow, then watched as he made the butterfly sword come to life in his hands.

  Showing Tina that there was still so much she had yet to learn, and so many teachers to learn from. She spent the rest of dinner picking up a few routines from Raja until it came time to report back to Kairi, who greeted Tina with, “Who is that man teaching you how to use the butterfly knife?”

  “That’s Raja,” Tina replied with a shrug, as she didn’t know his last name. “He lives up at Carter’s compound, in a little community just south of the Quay.”

  That was all she really knew, and she knew even less about the others. Well, she knew they were all powerful Wildshapers too, but that was their secret to share, not Tina’s, not even at the behest of her Federally appointed Mentor. “That knifework,” Kairi said, drawing it out like she was about to say something else only to pivot and go with, “Learn it well. Could save your life someday.” Then it was back to exercises again, and Tina did her best right up until it was time to sleep as she had second watch. At least Kairi didn’t insist on Tina sticking with the other Rangers, so she ran off to snuggle up with Mama, Howie, and Chrissy who were all laid out in a row underneath the stars, with Clayton taking first watch because Howie probably didn’t trust the Rangers. At least it meant she’d be on watch with Howie, and they could keep each other company for a few hours, but he wasn’t being the least bit sympathetic as Tina grumbled about being overworked and underappreciated with Kairi.

  While curled up against his shoulder no less, because he’d been a lot less skittish lately and more open to snuggling. Probably thanks to Chrissy who was never far from his side, but Tina was happy to reap the fruits of her labour and hug Howie’s arm to sleep.

  “Honestly?” Howie said once she ran outta steam, even though no one asked for his opinion on anything and Tina just wanted him to listen. “I’m actually pretty surprised by how serious she’s takin’ your education. Sure, she could be nicer about it, but it looks like she’s picked up on the fact that you ain’t all that book smart and won’t take well to the scholarly approach.” Tina hit him with jer best glare and he chuckled to see it, but he leaned in to touch his temple to her forehead and ease the sting of the truth. “So it’s the Blastgun approach for you, just throwin’ everythin’ there is at you and seeing what sticks, puttin’ you through yer paces until you pick up what she’s puttin’ down. Only seen you two at work for a day, but if every day is like this, then she’s puttin’ a whole lot of thought and effort into your trainin’, which is a lot better than the alternative.”

  “Probably because she’s worried Uncle Teddy will check in on me sooner or later,” Tina grumbled, only to regret bringing him up, but Howie wasn’t feeling all that maudlin today and just laughed it off.

  “Maybe,” he said. “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth though. Best to take advantage while you can and benefit from Kairi’s wisdom so you don’t run into the same growing pains.”

  “I don’t get it though,” Tina said, upset that Howie wasn’t being as sympathetic as he ought to even if he was right on the money as always. “Like that work we did all morning throwing up quick and dirty Illusions to hide only part of a movement and replace it with something else. When am I ever gonna hafta do something like that?” Howie paused, and his silence was so loud Tina couldn’t help but ask, “Well? Let’s hear it.”

  Glancing over at Chrissy and Mama behind her, Howie cleared his throat and said, “Nothing.” Then, using Minor Illusion so no one else would overhear, he whispered, “Theoretically? You could make it look like someone reaching for change is goin’ for a gun instead. Or somethin’ along them lines, you know what I mean?” Tina’s eyes went wide to hear it, and a few seconds later, Howie used Minor Illusion again to whisper, “Ain’t what you think. I ain’t never done that myself, and not just because I ain’t nowhere near good enough. I only know about it because I was almost on the receiving end of that very trick over in Ashbend. To hear him tell the tale, the Watchman was on standby, ready and waiting to do just that and make me draw first to give Dakota Slim proper justification for gunning me down in broad daylight.”

  To which Tina had no answer, except to cling to his arm a little tighter while snuggling in closer. Aside from a sigh and another touch of their heads, he didn’t say nothing else, because there wasn’t nothing else to be said, nothing that wouldn’t ring false at least. He’d had a whole lot of close calls in the last year, and with how things were shaping up, it looked like there’d be many more ahead.

  Meaning that if Tina wanted to be his partner like she’d always dreamed of, she had to step up her game in a big way, else she might never catch up. Not until it was too late, and then it wouldn’t matter, so she closed her eyes and willed herself to sleep while resolving to give it a hundred and ten percent come tomorrow, and continue to giving her all every day thereafter.

  Didn’t matter what anyone said, not the Rangers, not Uncle Teddy, not Mama, and not even Howie. Tina was his partner, and she’d be there for him through thick and thin, so best she get good enough not to drag him down before it was too late.