When it came to travel, routine was key to being content.
However, while they may have dropped a bunch of money on upgrades, that did not make the trailer feel less cramped when there were two new people inside.
Especially when those two new people did not seem to enjoy sitting still for long stretches of time.
Beatris was resting in her normal spot near the ballista, taking the time to warm herself in the sun as the days began to grow colder and colder.
Her winter coat seemed to be coming in slowly.
Beatris and Selene had taken off to grab some fuel since, apparently, while the A.T.V. was faster now, the extra weight caused an increased fuel drain Aiden had not expected.
As such, they were stuck with only around ten miles left in the tank.
In the middle of nowhere.
Funny how that kept happening.
Jax said it was apparently a trope that emerged in stories about adventurers, but even he seemed surprised by its frequency.
One would think this would allow the two children joining them to run around and burn off some of that excess energy.
Instead, they seemed preoccupied with different things.
Canna seemed to be the older of the two at nine years old, and apparently, she had set her sights on becoming a spellcaster of some kind.
For that reason, she insisted on following Liora while Liora practiced her magic, asking one question after another and taking what Beatris could only assume were notes in her journal.
It seemed she and Aiden had inherited that trait from someone.
If compared side by side, the two practically mirrored each other.
Abel, on the other hand, seemed to be more of a meathead.
He was only eight, but he was fascinated by melee weapons.
As such, he was watching Jax and Aiden spar.
His mouth hung open as the two went harder than normal.
Aiden was even using his Revolution Core, though it stayed between Idling and Low Gear.
The two had been increasingly aggressive in their sparring.
For Jax, Beatris sadly knew the reason.
Insanity that descended from sin had branches in sin.
One of those branches was obsession.
At night, Beatris went over practices with him.
Meditation.
Focusing oneself.
Ways to keep his thoughts from running wild.
But there were times when she could feel it flare up and simmer down, almost like a fire being held back only by the occasional spray of water.
What confused her was Aiden's odd insistence on keeping pace.
Almost like he could not bear for Jax to make the power gap any larger than it already was.
Though part of Beatris worried it was for a different reason.
Like it or not, they all knew Aiden knew something he could not reveal.
He had been pursuing strength before this.
But whatever knowledge he had learned seemed to have been the spark that lit something inside him.
Something that wanted to grow stronger.
"They are at the treeline again," Sera said from over Beatris's shoulder.
Beatris did not turn.
She let Sera and Malt act as her eyes as they watched the pair who had been following them.
They matched the descriptions Selene and Liora had given.
One was a lightblood white rabbit woman.
A set of gloves on her hands held metal studs and plates that would give her punches a nasty edge. She wore a large flower-petal ornament in her hair, and a simple dress draped down just above the ground in the front and back, leaving the sides open for freedom of movement.
The other wore a simple shirt and pants with an open leather jacket resting on their shoulders. A bandolier of bullets was strapped across their chest. Spurred boots clicked under them, and one hand rested near their side, ready to go for the revolver at the slightest twitch of movement.
Beatris stood from where she had been lying.
Malt looked bewildered as she jumped down and began heading for the woods.
The pair vanished before Beatris dropped down, but knowing where they had been, she could guess where they were hiding.
"Uh, Bea," Malt hissed, as if they would understand him, much less hear him. "What are you doing? They're over there."
Beatris ignored him and continued toward the woods.
Past the treeline.
She walked for a minute before coming to a stop.
Then she turned.
"Okay," Beatris said. "We're far enough away. Come out."
Silence answered.
Beatris's eyes narrowed.
"And don't pretend you can't hear me. You've been following us for days, and it's getting annoying."
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then the pair stepped out.
Beatris waited for the system screen she knew would appear as they approached.
Apparently, that was something that happened when they were nearby.
However, it did not appear.
The pair stepped out from behind a tree and looked her over with inquisitive expressions.
"So," the lightblood said, "you're the one they brought in to replace Kaelen."
She smiled slightly.
"You certainly have a good head on your shoulders. I'll give you that."
The gunslinger was less talkative.
She simply crossed her arms and glowered at Beatris with a look that seemed caught somewhere between what is the point of you existing and why can't you just die?
"Well," Beatris said, "I would thank you for the compliment, but considering the last interaction you all had with a member of my group, I feel like that would be cold comfort."
The gunslinger raised an eyebrow.
"You knew we were here," she said, "and decided that instead of using strength in numbers, you would waltz over to us?"
Beatris rolled her eyes at the shallow attempt at intimidation.
"Please," she said. "You've been following us for days. If you wanted to attack, you would have done it when someone went off for firewood."
Her expression flattened.
"Or to take a dump."
The rabbit woman's smile twitched.
Beatris continued.
"That means you are not here for that."
Her gaze sharpened slightly.
"Plus, we both know we have other watchers who seem to stop by from time to time."
Those other watchers, the scarred woman and the younger boy, had actually been missing for a few days.
Beatris had no intention of revealing that.
Hopefully, the implication would provide a bit of deterrence against anything rash.
After all, she was practically in the palm of their hand here.
They stared each other down.
From time to time, Beatris's eyes drifted to where the system screen should have appeared by now.
The lightblood noticed.
"Waiting for that 'your soul stirs' message?" she asked. "It's not coming."
Beatris stilled.
"Right now, the players are out, so we have control of ourselves," the woman continued. "They did what they call a time skip. So we have control of ourselves until the actual day of the games."
Control of themselves?
What were they talking about?
What was a player?
Questions like that ran through Beatris's mind.
She forced herself to stare ahead anyway.
"Okay," Beatris said. "But why should I care?"
The lightblood rabbit woman looked at her.
Then, with a small, polite smile, she said, "Because we are here to investigate why so many beings seem interested in what your group does."