Hi guys!

I just want to apologize for posting such inconsistent updates lately. Life is crazy busy, as per usual, but I want you to know that I'm doing my best and haven't forgotten you guys or this story that I so much enjoy writing. Thanks for sticking around!

I appreciate you always!

***

"Strength comes from your core," Ezra said, softly hitting Yona in the stomach. Yona let out a huff as the hit expelled some of the breath from her lungs, left unprotected by her relaxed ab muscles. "Tighten it up."

Yona nodded, blowing a chunk of hair out of her face.

"Swing."

"Ha!" Yona grunted, swinging the sword.

Ezra carefully watched her friend, looking for any flaws in her technique as Yona swung the sword several times. After the girls had taken their bath, Yona had insisted on a practice session. Ezra suspected that she was worried about the boys on their mission and was trying to distract herself.

"You really are learning how to use a sword."

Ezra and Yona turned to find Lili behind them, cradling Ao in her hands. Ayura and Tetora stood at her sides.

"You look weak," Lili commented.

"She's so cute!" Tetora said with a giggle.

"Your swing looks good, though," Ayura told her. "Flawless technique."

"Really?" Yona's eyes brightened with the compliment.

"Yes. You have no wasted movements." Ayura looked at Ezra. "You are a good teacher."

Ezra shook her head. "Oh, I'm not her teacher; I'm not allowed."

"Really? Why?" Tetora looked intrigued.

"Long story," Ezra said, waving her hand dismissively. "In any case, I'm just her drill sergeant and occasional practice partner."

"Well, you have a good teacher," Ayura said to Yona. Yona's answering smile was blindingly bright.

"Hak and the others are late, aren't they?" Lili asked. "If they're in the red-light district, they might not be back until the morning."

Yona redoubled her grip on her wooden practice sword. "Even if they don't come back, that's part of the plan."

"You're being deceived," Lili said.

"You're wrong!"

"Here we go again," Ezra said with a roll of her eyes.

Tetora watched the two argue with fond eyes. "I'm really glad that Lady Lili has made a friend."

Lili glanced up, shocked. "What?"

"Ever since you were little, you haven't had any friends. Even if there was a lady around your age, you would quickly start fighting with them, remember?"

Ezra snorted. She could see that.

"Hush, Tetora," Lili ordered, shooting Ezra a glare. "Besides, these country girls aren't my friends."

Country girls. Ezra laughed to herself. It was an apt description for her, certainly, but not at all for Yona. 

"That's right," Yona agreed with a nod. "We aren't friends."

"I don't need any friends," Lili insisted. "If I need someone to talk to, you and Ayura are enough."

"You really shouldn't depend on us like that," Tetora said with a wicked smile. "We're currently getting paid by your father to hang around you, after all."

Lili glared at her attendants. "That's the part where you should've stayed silent."

"Well," Tetora said lightly, ignoring Lili's glower. "Shall we have some tea and sweets?"

"Sure!" Yona agreed.

"I'll be back in a bit," Tetora said. With a short bow, she turned and entered the inn.

"So..." Lili turned back towards Yona. "Where are your men, huh?"

"They're not my men!" Yona protested.

Ezra and Ayura shared a long-suffering glance as they stepped away from the arguing girls.

"So, you wield knives, right?" Ayura asked. Lili's dark-haired attendant had seen the girl gracefully slip knives into her hands at a moment's notice, but she'd never watched her wield them.

"I can," Ezra responded. "But I prefer to use my swords."

"Oh?" Ayura had never seen her with swords. "You wield swords, too?"

Ezra nodded. "I've learned to use a variety of weapons. I even got Hak to teach me the glaive. I'm not very good at it; he's much stronger than me. He makes swinging that heavy thing look easy."

"That's admirable," Ayura said. "It's rare for Tetora and I to meet other women who are warriors."

Ezra laughed. "I think all women are warriors. We just fight in different ways."

"Very true," Ayura agreed.

"Hey!" Lili interrupted them. "Yona and I are gonna go find the boys and check on Tetora."

"Be careful," Ezra called. Ayura nodded at them in understanding, and the women left.

"How long have you been training?" Ezra asked.

"For several years now," Ayura told her with a small smile. "I can't remember a time when I didn't hold a sword in my hands. They've become an extension of me."

"I feel the same," Ezra said. "I haven't been wearing my swords so as not to draw attention while we've been in the Water Tribe. I feel almost naked without them."

Ayura nodded. "I--"

"Wait." Ezra held up a hand, listening intently. She heard a scream and a series of bangs coming from somewhere inside the inn. "Something's happening in there."

She and Ayura immediately moved to action, sprinting inside. They followed the sounds of commotion until they turned a corner and Ezra's blood turned to ice inside her veins.

Yona stood with her back to Ezra alongside Shinah, Yun, and Zeno. The back of the princess's kimono was ripped and stained red with blood; had she been injured? Lili sat on the ground behind the protective ring of Shinah, Yun, and Zeno, while Tetora lay on the floor some distance away in a pool of blood, her eyes closed and her breathing shallow. In front of the group stood a blond man with feline eyes and a nasty scar on his forehead, surrounded by fallen men groaning in pain.

"Yona!" Ezra screamed at the same time Ayura yelled Tetora's name.

At the sound of Ezra's voice, Shinah turned, completely disregarding the hostile man at his back. His shoulders and arms relaxed, allowing his drawn sword to droop towards the floor, as his gaze bore into her.

Ezra stormed forward, her eyes flashing dangerously. "Don't relax your guard in front of your opponent, Shinah," she ordered, stepping in front of Yona to face the feline-eyed man with two knives in hand.

The strange man's eyes crossed as he tried to watch a drop of blood drip down his nose from a cut on his forehead. "My skin!" he suddenly wailed. "There's another gash on my skin!"

Ezra tightened her grip on her knives, steadying herself. The man seemed unhinged. She wanted to be prepared if he decided to suddenly fling himself into a wild attack.

The man completely ignored Ezra and glared at Yona, a hatred so deep and cunning that it looked like madness swirling in his dark eyes. "You," he growled, his voice sending shivers down Ezra's spine. "I will never forget your face. And I. Will. Kill. You."

Then he turned and sprinted down the hallway.

Ezra and Shinah moved to follow him.

"Ezra! Shinah! We'll deal with him later!" Zeno yelled at them. "First we need to tend to the ladies!"

Ezra froze in her tracks, feeling as if her heart was trying to crawl into her throat. She had no idea who that madman was, but she had a feeling she shouldn't let him go. He might have something to do with whatever was happening in the Water Tribe.

It was with great effort that she turned her back on the fleeing man. Zeno was right; their companions were injured and needed help.

As if to emphasize that point, Yona slipped to her knees behind Ezra, a whimper of pain escaping her lips.

Ezra immediately moved to support her. "You brave, reckless warrior. What did you do?"

Yona grinned weakly. "I only tried to be like you."

Ezra sighed. "I wish you wouldn't. I get hurt a lot."

"Come on," Yun said. "Let's fix them up."

~~~

"What happened here?" Jaeha, Kija, and Hak stared down at the princess, who was sleeping on the floor on her stomach, the wound on her back cleaned and bandaged.

"A smuggler named Hiyou was having a secret meeting at this inn," Yun said. "Yona just happened to be there, and a fight broke out. Yona and Tetora were injured."

Jaeha's eyes widened in shock as he recognized the name. "Hiyou? He's the owner of Suirei."

"To think he was controlling this inn, too," Kija murmured. "What happened to him?"

Yun clenched his fist. "He fled."

Hak glanced around, noticing for the first time that a few members of their group were absent. "Where are Ezra and Shinah?"

"As soon as the ladies were stable, Ezra took off after Hiyou," Yun told him.

Jaeha's eyes widened. "Alone?" He knew that the dark-haired warrior was more than capable of taking care of herself, but Hiyou was the leader of a very prominent and very dangerous drug ring. Even Ezra wouldn't hold up well if Hiyou called his drug addicts against her; addicts don't feel pain, and they'd do anything to get their next dose.

"Shinah followed her as soon as he realized she'd left on her own," Yun said with a roll of his eyes. "They're both idiots."

"No doubt," Hak agreed. "Then I guess there's nothing for us to do except wait for them to get back."

~~~

When Ezra stormed back into the room over an hour later with Shinah on her heels, Yona was awake, sitting up with a blanket covering her chest.

"Shinah! Ez! You're back!" Yona exclaimed, smiling brightly. Her grin faltered when she noticed her friend's expression. "What's wrong?"

Ezra's amethyst eyes flashed dangerously before cooling. She tried her best to soften her expression as she kneeled on her haunches next to the princess. "Nothing. How are you feeling?"

"Great," Yona answered.

"Did you find anything out?" Hak asked, mumbling around a cookie he was eating.

Ezra sighed as she stood. "I wasn't fast enough. Hiyou had skipped town by the time I went looking for him. But we got one of his henchmen to talk." She rolled her neck, trying to release some of the tension she felt. She wasn't used to missing out on a fight, and she didn't like the feeling one bit. "Hiyou owns stores not only in Shisen but also in a Water Tribe town called Sensui. After he was exposed here, he'll likely go to Sensui and make that his base."

"I see," Yona said. "Uh, Ez, before we continue this conversation, can you help me dress?"

"Oh, yeah. Of course," Ezra said, grabbing a simple kimono from Yona's bag.

"Turn around, everyone," Yona ordered.

"Why?" Hak asked. "You have no sex appeal, Princess."

"Shut it, Doe-Eye," Ezra snapped, smacking him on the head.

"Ouch! What was that for?" Hak complained.

"For being an idiot," Ezra answered with a smirk.

"In that case..." Jaeha stepped forward and raised his hand, giving her a solid whack on the back of her head.

"Ow!" Ezra said, more out of surprise than actual pain. She shot Jaeha a glare before bending to help Yona into her kimono. "How am I an idiot?"

"For taking off after Hiyou on your own. You have no idea what that man is capable of," Jaeha scolded her.

"Rich words coming from the man who knowingly took nadai," Ezra said darkly, quickly tying a loose knot around Yona's kimono at her waist. "Hiyou is just one man. And a fairly frail one, at that. The longer we waited, the more likely it was that he would make his escape. I took that gamble knowing my odds. Of course, I still failed, so it ended up being a no-win situation."

"You came back safely, so I call that a win," Yona told her softly.

Ezra mustered a smile for her friend.

"So," Yona clapped her hands to change the subject. "What kind of place is Sensui?"

"It's another harbor city like this one," Ezra told her. "It was a beautiful sight-seeing town before, but now..."

A light knock came at the door before Lili entered the room.

"Lili!" Yona smiled brightly.

"How are your wounds?" asked Lili, concern in her eyes.

"It's not a big deal," Yona said with a wave of her hand. "More importantly, how is Tetora?"

"She needs to stay in bed for now, but her life is no longer is danger," Lili answered. "I'm planning on bringing her home to Suiko and letting her rest there."

Yona twisted her hands in the fabric of her blanket. "That's probably best. It'll definitely be safer in the capital of the Water Tribe."

"Speaking of the capital..." Yun mused. "I wonder what the tribe general is doing."

"General An Joon-Gi," Hak said. "I don't know what he's doing, but he's a cautious person. It's the Kai Empire, after all. You can't make a move carelessly."

"But look at the state the Water Tribe is in!" Yun protested.

Lili looked at the ground, her blue eyes sad. She moved further into the room and sat by Yona, striking up a conversation about their future plans. Ezra walked away to stand by Hak near the entrance to the room.

"I'm sorry," Ezra said quietly.

Hak glanced at her in surprise. "For what?"

Ezra kept her eyes trained firmly on the floor. "For not being there to protect her this time."

Hak let his gaze wander over to Yona, who was chatting happily with Lili. "You would take a blade to the back before you'd let anything strike her. You should know by now that I would never blame you for what happened."

"I know." Ezra let out a breath. "I'm apologizing anyways."

"Apology accepted." Hak leaned his head back against the wall. "How are you holding up?"

She let out a bitter laugh. "For the first time in a long time, I escaped a fight entirely unscathed. Yun is so proud of me."

"And yet you sound upset about this."

"I wasn't even a part of that fight," Ezra grumbled. "By the time I got there, everyone was injured and Hiyou was escaping. I had never felt so useless."

Hak chuckled. "Do you remember that time during our Happy Hungry Bunch era, when I came back from scouting with the others to find you and Shinah beaten within an inch of your lives, with Yona sobbing but otherwise unharmed behind you?"

Ezra narrowed her eyes. "We were not an inch from death. We were at least... two feet from death."

"My point is, I missed that fight. I wished that I could've switched places with you, that I could have been the one injured rather than see you two covered in bandages, knowing that you had protected the princess when I couldn't." Hak sighed. "These feelings accomplish nothing. All we can do now is move forward."

"I suppose you're right," Ezra sighed. She returned her attention to Yona, who was smiling brightly at Lili, and tried to calm herself with the knowledge that she hadn't been completely useless. She'd managed to find the location of Hiyou's next move. Now that they knew where to find him, they could take the fight directly to his door.

Ezra grinned. She couldn't wait.