October 22nd began with not a bang but a whimper.

  “My arms…” Pacifica whined.

  “Urgh…” Taika shuddered, curling up under the blankets.

  All the manual labor was hitting them hard.

  “Taika’s never been worn out like this before,” Shouri noted, standing at the foot of the bed.

  “Probably comes with the extra control on her ad-Lib,” Rebecca posited.

  “You think?”

  “Yeah, she’d been using it all her life without realizing it, but now that she’s aware of it, she’s keeping a tighter rein over it.”

  Shouri hummed in thought, it did make sense. Checking the historical charts for Taika’s rhythm usage the day prior revealed she stayed near full all day. He nodded and returned the device to his side.

  “Okay yeah, that might have some merit,” he conceded the point.

  “Pacifica was the same way, over-reliant on her Resonator abilities, not enough in training her body,” Rebecca said with a shrug and a sigh.

  “Speaking of, the usual?”

  “The usual.”

  And then the ailing Resonators were left alone.

  “Where are they going?” Taika groaned, allowing the covers to slip off of her.

  “Dunno. They’ve been doing that off and on for the last week. Like leaving in the morning and coming back sweaty,” Pacifica realized.

  “Limonare…” Taika flopped back onto the bed.

  “I-I don’t think it’s that,” Pacifica stammered, unable to get the image of Rebecca and Shouri sharing a passionate moment out of her head.

  Pacifica joined Taika, spreading out on the large bed. “If it’s Rebby, they’re probably running.”

  “I think she’s been teaching him how to fight after that whole thing with Ilea Vim,” Taika mused quietly.

  “Exercise is healthy for him.” The otter rolled to her side, wrapping her arms around her foxy companion.

  “Eep!” Taika squeaked, having not expected the sudden embrace.

  “Etude is healthy for us my lovely lunar,” Pacifica cooed.

  “S-si…” Had all of them picked up romance books?! Taika was not meant to be calm with these people in her life.

  Rebecca and Shouri were indeed getting their morning exercise in, taking a jog around the property. Given the acreage that they were working with it did a sizable dent in their step counts for the day.

  “Let’s take a break before you break bossman,” Rebecca advised.

  “Good idea,” Shouri wiped the sweat from his brow.

  The two found a fallen tree to sit on while they caught their breath.

  “You’re getting better,” Rebecca noted.

  “Thanks,” Shouri smirked.

  “Don’t thank me.” She rubbed his back. “You’re the one putting in the effort.” The vixen rested her head on his shoulder.

  “You’re doing so much… too much.” She purposefully slipped, resting her head on his lap. She turned, looking up at her beloved Maestro. “Lean on us more… please.”

  Shouri hunched over her, the words stuck in his throat. He lowered himself further and showed his commitment with a kiss. She pulled him back down for another.

  “Did you know?” she whispered, refusing to release him, their noses touching. “When we Resonators hear ‘à deux’, it translates as ‘together’?”

  “I didn’t,” he breathed back.

  “Now you do.” She gave him one more parting kiss.

  “I will,” he replied, the implication clear.

  Rebecca released her captive, the two sitting up. “I love you, Sho. I don’t want to see you burn yourself out,” said the fire Resonator. “That’s my job,” her confident grin returned.

  “I don’t deserve you,” he chuckled back.

  “Were we expecting anyone, bossman?” asked Rebecca.

  “No, why?”

  “I hear a car.”

  As Rebecca and Shouri returned to the guildhall, they were greeted by a car rolling up. It was the most average car one could imagine. A standard four-door sedan, probably around five to seven years old kept in decent condition.

  The man in woman in the front seat didn’t look at all familiar to the pair. However, when the back doors opened, it became apparent who the two strangers were by relation.

  “Vince!” Shouri shouted.

  “Shouri! I’m here!” Vince announced brightly.

  “Man, he’s more excited to see you than me, the heck man?” Mila complained instantly, leaning on her door.

  Shouri rolled his eyes, shaking his head.

  It was at that moment that the front doors opened and the driver and passenger stepped out.

  The guildmaster looked around, and quickly wiped his hands on his sweaty shirt, a futile endeavor. “Wish he woulda told me he’d be here today,” Shouri hissed to himself, hoping he wasn’t about to get another stern talking to from someone else’s parents.

  “We look like shit,” Rebecca similarly complained to her Maestro.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Rayburn I’m assuming?” Shouri greeted the two parents, trying his best to remain somewhat professional.

  “Yes, and you must be Shouri, Vince has told us all about you,” Mr. Rayburn said, extending a hand as Shouri had feared. One more quick wipe of his hands by the guildmaster and he returned the parent’s handshake in kind.

  “Hopefully nothing too bad,” Shouri mumbled quietly.

  “Well I was concerned that our little Vincent has gotten in trouble with the authorities twice now,” Mrs. Rayburn chimed in.

  The stake of guilt stabbed Shouri right through the chest, now he awaited his verbal lashings.

  “But you seem like a nice enough young man and the helpful policemen told us all about it, so thank you for giving our son a chance,” the woman continued.

  “Yeah,” Shouri tried to laugh it off, but silently prayed someone would change the subject.

  “Alright, where are we staying bossman?” Mila was that subject changer. (Rebecca shot a nasty glare at the cat for addressing Shouri in that way.)

  Shouri’s eyes shot between the parents and the expectant Resonator. “Right this way,” he spoke quietly.

  The large group made their way to room five which was on the opposite end of the building from Shouri’s room one and the office as a result. This did give Vince the distinct luxury of having a free wall all to himself rather than sharing walls with two bordering rooms. The door was left unlocked, so Shouri opened it up to allow the tour group to take in all its majesty.

  The freshly steam-cleaned carpets and bed were certainly doing their share of the heavy lifting – the room didn’t look nearly as bad as it did the day before. That being said, there were many improvements to be made.

  For one, the rest of the furniture outside of the bed needed serious updating, most of which being outdated or on its last legs. The walls could have used a fresh coat of paint, and the bathroom also needed a renovation job as well.

  “Oh, it’s so cute!” Mrs. Rayburn exclaimed. “We’ll have to send you and your friends lots of goodies!” the elder woman exclaimed.

  Vince couldn’t help the splash of red that crept onto his cheeks. “Th-thanks, Mom.”

  “And remember to brush your teeth every day!” the woman scolded him more sternly. She turned to Shouri and Mila. “Both of you make sure he brushes his teeth. I don’t want to hear he’s got another cavity.”

  “Okay, Mom I won’t!” Vince shouted.

  “Also make sure you eat healthy. You might be a young adult, but that doesn’t mean you’re invincible, you still need to eat your greens,” the mother continued her assault.

  “I will I will!” Vince shouted back.

  If Mila hadn’t spent the last couple months with the Rayburns she could have made snide remarks. But… she knew her turn was coming next.

  “And you little miss!”

  The cat’s ears folded back. “I better not hear that you let him get arrested again.”

  “N-no ma’am…” the fire cat averted her gaze.

  “Look at me!”

  “Yes ma’am!”

  Shouri knew better than to laugh. He knew very well the wrathful mother’s ire would turn on him if he allowed it. The image of a furious Priscilla was still vivid in his mind – not something he wished to experience again. Rebecca was smart to make herself scarce as soon as the marching orders started getting shouted.

  Thankfully the beratement didn’t last too much longer as the mother grabbed her son and his Resonator and hugged them both tightly. “Make sure you call me every night. There’s two of you so I don’t want to hear any excuses about forgetting.”

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Even so, the two young ones smiled. “We won’t.”

  Shouri couldn’t help but smile himself. It was taking everything in Taika’s willpower for him to not tear up.

  He was happy Mila found a loving home and that Vince was healing – he hoped to provide the same to them here.

  “Can we check out the local hunting scene tonight Shouri?” asked Vince after his parents departed.

  “I figured you’d want to relax after getting up at the crack of dawn to drive up here,” Shouri commented as he looked away from the wall he was in the process of scrubbing.

  The two Maestros had taken up in the office. Mila was taking advantage of the freshly cleaned bed for a little catnap, while Shouri’s trio were working on some minor renovations in their own room. (He saw the paint buckets getting dragged out when he left them to their devices.)

  “Well part of me does, but also I gotta make some money for me and Mila’s room, so I figured we’d get started,” said the younger Maestro.

  Shouri digested that thought. “Fair enough.” Though he did recall a small issue. “There’s only five seats in the car,” he hummed as he went back to his own cleaning.

  “Oh, with me and Mila that’s two, and then the driver is three, but there’s six of us total with your team,” Vince counted off on his fingers as he spoke.

  “Someone would have to stay here,” he grunted as a particularly stubborn stain refused to come out – he’d need to get some touch-up paint, or just re-paint the whole room. Taika would most likely get to it before he could.

  “Is there bus service out here? How far are the hunting grounds?” asked Vince, pulling Shouri out of his maintenance-based thoughts.

  “The one we went to the other night is like thirty minutes out by car,” the guildmaster recalled.

  That’s when a thought occurred to Shouri. “Actually… I wonder if there is Scherzando around here,” he mused, setting down his cleaning tools and stepping over to his desk. Plopping down in his chair, the guildmaster opened the MA Office website on his laptop. After a moment of browsing, he nodded to himself. “Looks like we still get paid per kill even if they’re on our property, just the payout is less since we’re not in a high-risk zone.”

  “What’s that mean?” asked the younger Maestro.

  “Hunting grounds are set up in spots at high risk for Scherzando activity, places where they spawn in quickly in great numbers. The edges of our property along with some of the neighboring farmlands are in medium-low risk according to the MA Office website, so we get paid a hell of a lot less than the standard hunting grounds. It does still track and pay per kill, so it wouldn’t be a waste of our time to make sure the place is free of any wandering Scherzando before they become a problem,” Shouri explained.

  Vince nodded. “Better than nothing, and maybe we can meet our neighbors?” he offered.

  “Yeah, maybe they’ll appreciate some hunters being local,” Shouri hoped aloud.

  Gathering the gaggle of girls, the two Maestros made their way over to the property due west of them. They walked along the road that bordered the south side of their property, the one which led into the driveway of their motel-turned-guild hall.

  “Why is everything so big out here?” Taika wondered aloud as a car whipped by them.

  “Lybertera was called the ‘land of opportunity’ back when it was being populated because of the huge swaths of open land just out here. Population centers cropped up around rich natural resources and eventually developed into cities.” Shouri explained.

  Vince and Mila listened with intrigue, this being their first real exposure to one of Shouri’s patented lectures.

  “Unlike Unis-Resonné which has a much smaller land mass and many more years to develop than Lybertera means the chunks of land are much larger. Especially here in the inland areas where the population centers are more spread out. People want to be more secure in the cities and closer to the amenities they offer making land in places like this cheap to scoop up,” explained the guildmaster.

  “I wonder how they deal with the Scherzando then,” Mila mused.

  “Same way we do I’d imagine,” Rebecca commented.

  “How’s that?” questioned the cat.

  Rebecca ignited her heels, bolting into the air in an instant, delivering a blazing spin kick to an imaginary opponent before taking the combo to the ground. “Like that.”

  “Ah fair enough.” Mila nodded.

  Shouri was curious about who their neighbors actually were. They must have had some kind of Resonator presence. One couldn’t just live out in the country like this without one. People in the city really did take Resonators for granted.

  “It does help that modern home construction takes Scherzando into account and builds Vatonium into the walls so magic can’t easily bulldoze through them and Scherzando can’t easily find the people inside,” Shouri added.

  “Except when they leave their home,” Pacifica chimed in.

  “Except when they leave their home, yes. Which is why they probably have decently strong Resonators to live out here,” said Shouri.

  The conversation lulled to a stop as they walked onto the next property over. The asphalt of the road became dirt as they walked through the open gate onto the property proper. Besides the huge ranch house upfront, fields were being worked by a menagerie of Resonators. Nature, earth, and water were accounted for in the census of Resonators available.

  Pacifica studied the various workers. They were big, most working heavy machinery, with some using their own unique talents as Resonators to get the work completed. Given the time of year, the harvest had already been done and all that was left was prepping the fields for winter and next year’s rotation.

  They all seemed happy enough though. There was a lot of crude humor being passed around, but the atmosphere felt relaxed based on her initial inspection, a relief to be sure.

  However, that calm atmosphere quickly turned tense as the intruder’s presence was noted by the field hands.

  Before they even reached the house, the front door opened, and out walked the Maestro of the Resonators. He reminded Shouri of Sebastian, the Canolapran farmer they had helped all those months ago. Though this man was exuding a much stronger rhythmic presence than Sebastian ever did.

  “What?” asked the farmer.

  The young group froze.

  Taika grabbed her Maestro’s hand and pumped enough rhythm into him to spur on an army.

  “Hello sir, I’m Shouri, Guildmaster of Pruned Trees Re-Sprout. We just moved in next door a couple of days ago,” he tried to remain professional.

  “Good on ya kid. Didn’t hardly notice ya,” said the farmer. “What do ya need from me?” he cut right to the point.

  “Do you have issues with Scherzando on your farmland?” asked Shouri, deciding the idle chatter could be saved for later.

  “Does the sun rise in the east? Course we do son, that’s just farm life,” he looked over the four, much smaller Resonators gathered behind the two young boys. “What does that matter to you?”

  Poor Taika was pulling overtime, squeezing her Maestro’s hand. This random farmer was a tough cookie and was making Shouri’s flight instinct go crazy. Regardless, thanks to her, he could stay firm in front of such a presence.

  “We wanted to help out and hunt the Scherzando in the area. Just wanted to make sure it would be okay if we did so on your land.”

  The farmer once more sized up the Resonators this “guild” had on offer. He gave a nod of approval to Pacifica, and surprisingly Taika too. It was the two fire Resonators that drew his ire. “Not them,” he pointed to the two red-heads of the group. “Don’t trust fires on my land.”

  Shouri didn’t have a problem with that; sure it was a little draconian of him, but he understood the thought process. The main issue lay in the fact that Vince only had Mila, meaning if he couldn’t fight with her, he couldn’t fight.

  “I understand that sir but-”

  “My land my rules.”

  “What if we could prove we can be careful?”

  Everyone turned to Vince.

  “I trust Mila. Can I prove that to you?” Vince never wavered, even caught in the scrutinizing glower of the much larger man.

  “I like the cut of your gib,” the man grinned. “Let’s throw down then, boy. Been awhile since my better half has seen a good scrap – don’t disappoint me.”