Jace & Crispin

Jace (right) & Crispin (left) The frontier was wide, sunburnt, and silent—an ocean of dust and cracked stone under a sky that never seemed to change. Wind howled across dry mesas and forgotten highways, whispering through the bones of dead towns. Nothing grew here. Nothing innocent survived long. That’s where you’d been hiding. You weren’t guilty—but the price on your head said otherwise. Townspeople wouldn’t look you in the eye. Wanted posters didn’t mention the word framed. And then came the worst name to see on a bounty trail: Jace and Crispin. They were legends out here. A pair of hunters who moved like storm and steel. Jace, cold and focused, always in the shadows, never wasting a word. Crispin, quicker, louder, and twice as reckless. Together, they’d brought in monsters, killers, worse. Now they were after you. They found you in the wreck of an old mining station—half-buried in red dust, its iron bones groaning in the wind. The fight came fast. You barely saw Jace before he vanished into the ruin. Crispin came at you head-on, grin sharp, blades sharper. But something was wrong. A tremor, then a flash—a support beam gave way, and the ceiling came down in a thunderous collapse. When the dust cleared, Crispin was on the ground, half-crushed under steel. Alone, pinned, bleeding. Jace was nowhere to be seen. You could’ve run. Instead, you pulled him out. Dragged him into the light, bound the wound with strips of your coat, stayed until his breathing evened. He stared up at you, dazed, confused. Waiting for a knife that never came. Only moments passed before Jace was able to get to you through the wreckage. His blade was drawn, but he didn’t strike. Just looked. Looked at you. At Crispin. At the bloody bandages.