A flash of metal split the dim red light.

Jade’s hand closed around a darker chunk of metal and ripped it up through the air. Polished steel clanged against rough iron, sending a hollow echo around the room.

“See?” Amber grunted, pushing the sword against Jade’s makeshift weapon, which turned out to be a rod of scrap iron. “It holds up fine.”

“It didn’t during sparring yesterday.”

“Well, it will now,” he insisted, taking a step back. He swung his hand forward, letting go of the sword’s hilt, and Jade snatched the weapon from the air with her off hand.

She twirled it around in her fingers, then extended her arm, letting the blade swing an inch from the smith’s chest. He didn’t flinch. “Good balance as usual,” she commented. “That, at least, is something I can count on, if not its integrity.”

“Only the best for my dearest sister.” He crossed his arms. “You could stand to be a little more thankful about it.”

“I thanked you in silver earlier.”

“No, Sheer Zenaryx thanked me in silver earlier. You were just the messenger.”

Jade let out a long sigh. Her brother was never going to figure out that her job was as important — and worthy of pay — as his. It was especially frustrating since he was one of the few people who actually knew what her job was.

“Very well. Thank you for fixing your own shoddy workmanship,” she said finally.

“Anytime,” Amber told her. He turned around, grabbing the sword’s matching sheath and throwing it to her as well.

Jade sheathed the weapon and held it in her hand, since her noble’s gown didn’t have anywhere to attach such accessories. Her role wasn’t as covert as some of her teammates’ — everyone knew she was a bodyguard of some sort for the Sheer — but keeping up the appearance of a traditional noble still caused people to treat her as less of a threat, if only out of ingrained habit.

The morning sunlight forced her eyes closed for a second as she stepped out of her brother’s shop, but she adjusted quickly, especially when a head of dark red hair bounced into her vision.

“There you are!” the woman exclaimed. “The boop-” her finger flew out and tapped Jade’s nose- “The guards were looking for you.”

Jade let out a long sigh. “What happened now?”

“Don’t know, but they wanted your help.” She jerked her shoulders up in a shrug.

“Of course they do. Every one of them is completely incapable of problem-solving on their own.”

Kynar let out a bark of a laugh, sounding starkly different from her usual high and gentle voice. “Idiots,” she commented, then blushed.

“You’re right about that,” Jade muttered. Summoning her patience, she said, “Let’s go see what it is.” She hefted the sheathed sword in her hand, as if it could solve this problem for her.

Kynar clicked her tongue, and suddenly, her face lit up, crystal blue eyes practically glowing. “Jade! Guess- guess what? Guess what?” She let out a little huff of frustration, twitching her head to the side and back up, but she seemed too excited to really let her tics bother her.

“What?”

“Hexis and Dyasen are back!”

Jade felt her face light up at that too, as much as it ever did. “Let’s go greet them first, shall we?”

“Yeah, and maybe Dyasen-” Kynar let out a loud snort- “can help with the guards since he’s a people person.”

Jade let out a small huff of a laugh. “I’ll let you talk him into that,” she said.

They made their way toward one of the city’s side entrances, with Kynar leading the way, since after all she was the one who could sense their teammates’ whereabouts.

Suddenly, Kynar jumped up into the air, stomping hard with both feet when she landed and causing the quiver of arrows on her back to rattle, then ran forward toward a covered wagon rolling in through the gate.

Jade jogged after her, smiling slightly at the woman’s neverending energy. When she neared the wagon, she slowed to a walk again, watching as four people climbed out from the front section.

Dyasen jumped down first, groaning and stretching his back. “Wagons. I love them,” he griped to no one in particular.

From behind him, a pair of dark copper eyes found Jade’s, holding her gaze as Hexis’ white boots landed silently on the cobbles, their hands spread to the sides in a sort of half-bow. She rolled her eyes, and they flashed her a grin before turning around, holding up a hand.

The person who emerged next looked to be under twenty, with long black hair a shade warmer than Jade’s own. She carefully ignored Hexis’ hand, using the step built into the side of the wagon to climb down before glancing around.

Finally, an elderly man emerged, the horses’ reins gripped in one hand. Hexis offered their hand again, and he took it, climbing down a bit shakily.

By now, Dyasen had exchanged several words and several high-fives with Kynar. He turned around, gesturing for the new girl to come over, and she did hesitantly, glancing from Kynar to Jade.

Dyasen glanced at Jade and nodded to her, which she reciprocated. “Nora, this is Kynar Akora and Jade Osylisci,” he said, gesturing to them in turn. “Kynar, Jade, Nora.”

“Nice to meet you, Nora!” Kynar exclaimed, holding out a hand.

Nora took it, smiling at Kynar’s enthusiasm. “Nice to meet you too.” Turning to Jade, she held her hand out again.

Jade took it silently, eyeing the girl as they briefly shook hands. She hadn’t quite figured out why Dyasen knew her, and why she was being introduced to the team.

Turning to Dyasen, Nora asked, “What are their jobs in the team?”

Dyasen flinched slightly, eyes flicking to Jade.

“I suppose she knows, then,” Jade observed, holding the man’s gaze. He’d better have a good explanation.

“She, uh…” Dyasen began, fidgeting with his hands. “Her ERA can make people tell the truth, and she truth-ed me, and then I thought she might be useful. Meaning, we talked and she seems cool and willing to work hard and everything.”

Jade’s eyebrows shot up. “Useful, to the team? That’s quite a leap to make.” It had been a year since the latest addition to the team — whom Jade herself had recommended.

“Yeah… well…” The fidgeting intensified. “I think it’s not unfounded. For the reasons I explained.”

She let out a sigh. “And Hexis thinks the same?” she asked, glancing over at where they were helping the old man tie his horses and unload the back of the wagon.

“I think so?”

She gave him a flat look. “That’s very reassuring.”

Nora cleared her throat. “Like he said, I’m willing to work hard and get things done,” she told Jade, sounding like she was partly trying to prove herself through how not-offended she was by the woman’s skepticism. “I know how to work with people, and I’m good at adapting to what different people need. And I could probably help you out a lot, at least with certain things, like… figuring out if some lord did something wrong, before anyone has to act on it…” Her voice got a bit quieter on the last bit.

Jade nodded. “We’ll let Miracca decide,” she said finally. That was as noncommittal an answer as she could give, and she didn’t want to give Nora any more false hopes than Dyasen already had. Until she proved herself, or proved that she wasn’t up to the task, Jade would make no judgements either way.

Hexis finished helping the wagon’s owner and walked over, stopping in front of Jade. “Lord Osylisci,” they greeted her jokingly.

“Don’t call me that,” Jade told them for probably the hundredth time.

“Why not?”

“It’s stuffy.” Trying a new idea, she asked, “How would you feel if I called you Lord Cansedara?”

Their brow furrowed. “I’m not a lord at all, so you’d just be incorrect.”

“Do you think of me as a lord?”

They made a face. “No.”

“I arrest my case.”

Dyasen raised his hand, glancing somewhat timidly at Jade again. “Can we answer Nora’s other question? About what you guys do?”

Jade let out a sigh. “I’m primarily Miracca’s bodyguard, but since I’m from a noble family, I also go to noble gatherings for various reasons, such as scaring people, keeping them in line, and hunting for information.”

Nora nodded in understanding. “And what about you?” she asked, turning to Kynar.

“I’m a lookout and spy,” Kynar said, grinning at the newcomer. “I- shoot things for fun!” She froze and turned bright red, clearly embarrassed by the outburst.

Nora’s brow furrowed, looking taken aback.

Kynar’s blue eyes searched around, landing on Hexis, who was giving her a questioning look. She bit her lip and nodded at them, and they moved to her side, pulling off one of their gloves and holding her arm in their bare hand.

“I’m really sorry,” Kynar told Nora. “I… sometimes blurt things out or do things that I can’t control. They’re called tics. I try, I really do, but it happens anyway.” She looked down.

“Kynar,” Jade spoke up. “It’s not your fault and we all know that.”

“I know,” she whined, still red. Looking at Nora, she said, “I guess… the best thing you can do most of the time is just move on. If I’m really struggling, you can ask if I’m alright and offer to help, but I’m usually fine. And if it makes you uncomfortable, you can leave or something…”

“She will not be leaving. She will be learning to get comfortable,” Jade said, giving Nora a stern glance.

Nora nodded resolutely, seeming like she’d already come to that conclusion herself, which Jade appreciated.

“Thanks,” Kynar mumbled. “And you can also get Hexis, since they can help me more directly.”

Nora glanced over to them, brow furrowing. “How does that work exactly?”

“I can redirect the urge to tic,” Hexis explained. “I send it through me and into the floor, or the air, or something else that obviously can’t act on it.”

She blinked. “That’s… really useful. Speaking of which, you still need to show me what exactly you can do.”

“We’ll get to that after Dyasen introduces you to Miracca. Right, Dyasen?” they asked, glancing pointedly at him.

Dyasen shook his head as if breaking out of a trance. “Hmm? Oh, introduce her to Miracca. Right, yeah.”

Jade frowned. “Is something up?”

“No, I’m just spaced out,” he said quickly. “I-” his expression went blank again before coming back. “Let’s go see what Miracca thinks, shall we?”

“Right this second?” Nora asked apprehensively.

“Just hold on a second, I’m talking to people!” Dyasen snapped suddenly. Then his eyes widened, before he groaned and grabbed his curly hair. “Did I say that out loud?”

“Yes,” Hexis informed him, raising their eyebrows.

“I… never mind, that was stupid. Sorry.” He looked tired, and nervous, so it wasn’t unreasonable that he would have slipped up in a weird way.

Jade just wasn’t sure it was that simple, and seeing the wary look in Hexis’ eyes and the way Kynar’s nose scrunched slightly, they were all thinking the same thing.

Dyasen had screwed up with his ERA before, had gone too far and gotten himself into holes where he didn’t know what real reality was. He’d since gotten a lot more careful, but it wasn’t out of the question that he’d done something like that again.

A/N: as you may have guessed, Kynar has Tourette’s Syndrome. I chose to write her with it because I want to represent people who don’t have as much representation in literature, and I’ve never written anyone with Tourette’s. That being said, I do not have Tourette’s myself, so if you do, or if you know more about it than I do, please please PLEASE let me know so I can write it as accurately as possible and avoid perpetuating harmful stereotypes.