Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

With the help of xTRESTWHOx and NaanContributor I've begun the process of rewriting Chapters 1 and 2. However, thanks to how my style has developed over time, these chapters will be...longer. We've already determined we're going to end up spreading the original two over five or six.

For AO3, this is basically the beginning. Enjoy!

Chapter 1: Under Unbroken Moons

August 7th

Feeling the ocean breeze grace her cheek and the sun's rays cast down from overhead, Ruby nuzzled her dog, a tiny black and white corgi named Zwei for a moment before handing him over to Nora Valkyrie, who immediately squeed as he rounded on her and licked her cheek.

“Make sure he gets his walks, or he’s going to destroy something,” Ruby reminded her. From the corner of her eye, she saw her teammate Blake Belladonna adopt a blank expression before shuddering, likely in remembrance of the last time that happened.

"So many books... Lost forever..." Blake muttered under her breath. Ruby's partner, Weiss Schnee, outwardly rolled her eyes at how overdramatic the Faunus was acting over two old books with chewed spines while Blake's partner and Ruby's sister, Yang Xiao Long, patted her back comfortingly. Nora, seemingly oblivious to Blake's distress, held Zwei under her arm while using the other to salute.

“Don’t worry! Me and this little fluffy boy are gonna head out every day. Aren’t we, fluffy boy?” she directed to the corgi in question. He yipped in response and licked her again, causing Nora to laugh exuberantly. The others from Team RWBY and their sister team, Team JNPR, watched with smiles on their faces before Jaune Arc, the leader of JNPR, cleared his throat and turned his attention back towards team RWBY.

“So, what are you guys getting?” Jaune asked, to which the sisters shrugged.

“Don’t know,” Yang admitted. “My dad just said I had a present in the garage. You’ll know when we know.”

“We’ll be back in time to celebrate at Beacon,” Ruby reassured them, “but while we’ve got this break, we’re going to show Weiss and Blake around Patch.”

“I do admit to being curious about where you two grew up,” Weiss said. “I’m interested in seeing what kind of environment you were raised in to get to this point.”

“Thanks… I think.”

“I just want to get away from the dog,” Blake admitted, unabashedly. She glared at the corgi held in Nora’s arms, and he looked back at her with his happy, drooling face and his tongue lolled out. "Don't give me that look, you know what you did."

“Ah, come on! You’ll love it on Patch!” Yang told her. “We’ve got cliffs, mountains, beaches, an old lady that walks around selling baked goods to everybody every week.”

“Did you grow up on an island or in a fairytale?” Jaune asked with eyebrows raised.

"Yes," Yang cheekily replied, causing Jaune to sigh and rub the back of his head. Leaning against one of the many wooden railings that lined the docks, Jaune's partner Pyrrha Nikos chuckled with her hand covering her mouth. Nora's partner Lie Ren, meanwhile, simply helped Nora tend to Zwei, a faint yet calm smile crossing his face before he turned his attention to the end of the boardwalk, where a Faunus with shark-like fins attached to his arms approached. His attire screamed sailor, complete with an anchor tattoo on his right shoulder, and it wasn't hard to spot the vessel the Faunus had come from.

“You girls ready?” the sailor asked, and Ruby quickly turned her head towards him and nodded.

“Just about, Ish,” she told him. “Just saying good-bye.”

“Well say it and hurry up!” another with a cetacean tail attached to his back yelled from the other end of the boat. “We’re burning daylight! It’ll already be night by the time we get there!”

“Don’t rush them, Mail!”

“I’m the one being rushed!”

“Are they all right?” Pyrrha asked in concern, looking at the two Faunus as they continued to argue.

“Nah, they’re fine. They just like to argue sometimes,” Ruby assured her. As the argument appeared to increase in volume, Pyrrha wasn't quite so sure, yet she was also far too polite to say anything more about it.

“They might be a little worried about the weather, but the storm’s supposed to go over Vale and go inland,” Weiss figured. “We might get some waves and rain, but we’ll miss the worst of it.”

“As long as you’re all safe, that’s all that matters in the end,” Ren said. The entirety of Team RWBY nodded, then they all gave each other their good-byes. Hugs and well-wishes were exchanged, and then Team RWBY walked down the docks and onto the boarding ramp. Team JNPR waved at them as the ship sailed towards Patch Island, Team RWBY doing the same until they could no longer see each other.

“Urgh, I don’t like this,” Weiss complained as she held her stomach. More of the storm had reached them than expected, and now it was rocking the boat in irregular patterns. “Why couldn’t we have gotten on an airship?”

“Because the boat was cheaper and more direct?” Blake guessed. She knew the airbus would’ve gone to the north end of the island and then worked its way down, whereas Ruby and Yang’s home was closer to the southeast coast.

“Money wouldn’t have been an issue.”

“For you.”

“I would have bought us all tickets to -urt- avoid this!” Weiss groaned some more and clutched her stomach tighter. "Uggh, remind me never to complain about Jaune's airsickness again."

"Will do, and don't worry. You'll get used to it. Eventually," Blake said as she rubbed Weiss' back. The action, although infantile in Weiss' mind, seemed to help, and so the heiress allowed her to continue. Ruby then walked back in from abovedeck, shaking out her raincoat as she took it off and shut the cabin door.

“Okay, the guys said they should be able to handle the rest of the night. Yang’s just grabbing us some grub, and then we can settle in.” She looked over to her partner and snapped her fingers in recognition. “Oh! I told them you weren’t feeling well, and Mail handed me some medicine.” She fished it out of her pocket and handed over the packet. It was over-the-counter, whatever it was, so Weiss didn’t object to taking it. As she swallowed a dose with some water, Yang came in with a few plastic leftover boxes.

“Who wants red snapper and rice?”

“Me me me me me,” Blake said almost frantically. Yang handed over a box and she opened it up to find it steaming.

“Already heated up for ya," Yang said as drool trickled down the corner of Blake's mouth. Yang then turned her attention to the blancette. "Weiss, you okay?”

“Just give me a minute," Weiss insisted. "I can already feel it working.”

“Just say-” Yang paused as a sense of weightlessness overcame her. The others felt it, too, and then things seemed to float for a second. Blake quickly put the lid on her box as she was lifted in the air for a moment while everyone’s hair seemed to reach up. Then everything came back down in a crash. The sound of water splashing up reached them all as they struggled to hold themselves and several things in place.

“What was that?!” Weiss cried out, a slight tinge of fear on the edge of her voice.

“I think we were on a wave,” Yang calmly guessed. “We must have been pretty high to fall like that.”

“Are the guys okay?” Ruby wondered, and Yang nodded.

“Don’t worry, Rubes. We’ve seen Ish catch up to wave riders and jump twenty feet out of the water, and Mail’s an even better swimmer than him. Even if they went overboard, they’d be right back on deck.”

“How do you know them, anyways?” Blake asked as she forked up fish and rice in big scoops.

“They’ve given us rides since forever,” Yang simply said.

“I go to school with their son,” Ruby added. “Buck’s pretty cool. I think he wants to become a Coast Guard or a sea-route defense specialist.”

“Wait, they’re married?” Blake asked in surprise.

“Oh yeah. Didn’t mention that.”

“I thought we did,” Yang said while thinking back. “I know we said we were going with the Peaks.”

“That could’ve been a company name, or a brother pair’s surname,” Weiss pointed out. “Also, we really didn’t pay attention to that one part.”

“Wow, and you’re usually a geek for little details.” Yang shrugged.

Things wound down from there, with the girls discussing one thing or another until they all felt the need to go to sleep overtake them. The boat was rocking far less than before, and the storm seemed to have lifted just before they all fell asleep.

Ruby was flying, high above the world and sky. Her breath came out in light whispers that spoke of healing and repair, her mouth opened to bite away corruption, and her arms and legs pushed her forward to find that which needed her attention.

A mass of gold flashed before her, slowing to show itself as golden scales, some bigger than her. A crevice opened, revealing a massive eye beneath. The silver iris focused on her, and she laughed and rejoiced in words like honey and thunder.

“You are,”  a great voice seemed to say, like the life of the world put their weight behind those words. Some part of Ruby wondered what it meant, but then she was tucked into a ball and falling towards the world, only for a great, black hole to open in front of her. She fell through, and then there was crying.

“Ruby,” a sweet and familiar voice softly spoke.

“Ruby, wake up!” The young girl yawned and stretched as she heard her sister waking her. She smacked her lips and looked around to see Weiss and Blake were just getting up themselves, but Yang was up, about, and looked worried.

"Wha's goin' on?" Ruby mumbled, still half asleep.

“Ish and Mail are gone!” she said, snapping Ruby away from sleepiness in an instant.

“What?! Gone?!”

“I checked all over the ship, even their cabin. They’re not anywhere!”

Ruby shot up and immediately ran around the vessel, zooming in and out of places as a cloud of rose petals. No matter where she looked, the sailor couple were nowhere to be seen.

“No,” she quietly uttered when she stopped on the deck. “Th- they couldn’t have gone overboard. They’ve gone through storms for years.”

The other three walked out and looked around at the ship and surrounding sea. The waters were calm and the sky above them was clear as could be. It would have almost seemed ideal if it weren’t for the two missing persons.

“They- they’re gone,” Blake said softly, scarcely believing the words coming out of her mouth. Yang was looking overboard in every direction she could, but ended up walking away and sighing.

“No sign of them,” she sadly relayed to Ruby, who looked terribly deflated. “Hey, it’ll be all right. We’ll get to the coast, and let the Sea Guards know.”

“We’re going to leave them?” Weiss asked in shock. Ruby wanted nothing more than to tell Weiss "no," but she forced herself to stop and think. After a moment, Ruby shook her head and focused her attention entirely on Weiss.

“Yang’s right. We’re not equipped to look for missing persons on the open sea,” Ruby explained. “Besides, they’re salt water type Faunus. If anyone will be fine, it’s them.”

“Salt water?”

“Some aquatic Faunus are able to drink salt water,” Blake told her. “If they both are salt water types, then they can survive for days, potentially weeks on the sea.” ‘As long as they can avoid too many Grimm,’ she refrained from adding.

“Huh. I didn’t know that.”

Yang made a sound of frustration, and they looked over to see she was fiddling with her scroll. “No signal! We’ll have to dock in to tell… No, I don’t know where we are. We can’t find Patch like this!”

“We’ll have to head back for Vale,” Ruby decided.

“Can’t we just go west?” Weiss asked.

“There’s no telling how far off we are,” the leader told her. “We might miss Patch entirely and then end up in the Drakewing Sea. At least going east means we’re almost definitely going to hit Sanus. Then we-” The cry of a seagull interrupted her thoughts and the girls looked to watch one pass by. They then saw its heading and were immediately overcome with relief at the sight of land on the horizon.

“Okay, new idea. Turn towards land, find our way from there.”

“Aye aye, Cap’n,” Yang replied as she went to check their bearing and steer them towards the dry ground. Ruby nodded, then turned her attention towards Weiss and Blake.

“You guys know anything about boats?” she asked the two.

“A little,” Blake admitted, though Weiss just shrugged. Accepting it for what it was, Ruby calmly walked towards the back of the ship and began to explain.

“Okay, let’s keep an eye out for anything nearby. Any ships or coastal cities. Cities mean ports, which mean places we can dock. Another ship can help us steer in or find out where we are.” She went over to the wheel, where Yang was setting their course. “Okay, I think we should head up north, since there’s a lot more ports that direction.”

“Uh, Ruby, I’d like to, but that land we’re seeing is directly south of us.” The younger sister blinked and then looked back at the distant shore, comparing its direction to the morning sun. Ruby was momentarily at a loss for words, and a tiny trickle of sweat began to drip down her brow as she pondered the implications of what Yang just said. None of them were good, and her entire team could pick up on that.

“We couldn’t have been blown that far off, could we?” she wondered aloud. In the end, no one there could provide an answer.

The Huntresses-in-training followed along the shoreline, soon catching sight of an old-fashioned lighthouse that led to a small city sitting over the sea on a peninsula arch. A cape was nestled up to the settlement, wooden ships docked and docking, loading and unloading cargo in its river mouth port. They slowly drove in and moored the boat, which Weiss noted was the only metal one there. Judging by the flabbergasted looks of the individuals around her, this port might not have ever seen one before. Everything about the place seemed to be rustic and old-fashioned, which wasn’t a good sign for the overall tech level of the place. The fact they still couldn’t get a CCTS signal at any point on the way wasn’t helping matters.

“Hey, we need to report missing persons,” Yang said as a woman who looked to be a customs official approached.

“You…lost people at sea, you’re saying?” she asked as she took a quill and dipped it into an inkpot sitting on the open ledger in her arms.

“Yeah, the owners of the boat, actually,” she further explained. “Ish and Mail Peak.”

While Yang explained the situation and described the two men, Weiss looked around for signs of where they were. A warehouse nearby was labeled East Empire Company, which she wasn’t familiar with. There was a sign down a path some distance away, but too far for her to read the names from. She swiveled her head around to try and get her bearings, but she was getting nowhere. Then, a man carrying a crate set his load down and she seized the opportunity to catch his attention.

“Excuse me, sir, but could you tell us where we are?” she politely requested.

“Ye don’ know where ya are?” he asked, an eyebrow arched up high.

“We got lost,” she explained. “We were heading to Patch from Vale.”

“Rrriiiiight,” he intoned slowly. “Well, yer in Solitude, cap’tal of Skyrim.”

“Skyrim?” She never heard of a place by that name. Given it apparently had a capital, she figured any entity that substantial would be well-known. Her confusion slowly rose, but she forced herself not to dwell on it and nodded towards the longshoreman. “Thank you. Do you know where that is in relation to Vale?”

“Dunno,” he said before heading back to work. “Ne’er hearda Vale.” Weiss looked after him in disbelief. A grown man never hearing about Vale seemed impossible, even for the most backwoods of places. Even a tiny port should’ve had direct and near-constant contact with them at this distance.

"Where in the Gods' names are we?" Weiss wondered aloud, then she felt a small tug on her arm. Weiss shook herself out of her stupor and turned to face Ruby.

“Hey, Weiss,” Ruby said. “Good news and bad news. Good news, they’re going to keep a lookout for the Peaks and have shore patrols search for them for a few days.”

“That’s good to hear." Weiss nodded, then raised her eyebrow. "What’s the bad news?”

“Ship’s not ours, so they’ll put her into dry-dock,” Yang answered as she walked up from the official. “We can get whatever we need out of it, but they’ll be holding the ship itself until either the Peaks come to claim it, or a year and a day have passed.”

“A year-and-a-day law? Really? Vale and the other kingdoms got rid of those laws centuries ago, why does this place...?” Weiss sighed before pinching the bridge of her nose. “Did she at least know where Vale is?”

“Uh, more bad news,” Yang answered with a nervous grin, and Weiss again sighed in exasperation.

“How is this even possible? There’s no way a place like this can be that ignorant.”

“Maybe they call it something else?” Ruby suggested. “Nora talked about this place that didn’t call Mistral ‘Mistral’. They called it the Jade Seat or something.”

"That, at least, has both historical and cultural reasoning behind it. This place has neither that I can tell."

“Well, at least we’re on land. We can figure things out from here,” Blake told them while looking around. Her eyes suddenly widened, and everyone looked at what she was focused on to see a scaly being with a crocodilian tail and tooth-filled snout climb out of the water, pulling up a net as he did.

“C’mon, Makum. You’re hardly going half as fast as Chakus on a bad day,” a human with dark skin called out while the crocodillian shot him a look.

“Most of us have a life besides fishing,” the scaly Makum answered the man as they and a half-dozen men began pulling in the mass of fish he’d dragged in. All of Team RWBY stared silently at the creature-person with dumbfounded expressions. The being was unlike anything they had ever seen before, even on a Faunus. All of the Faunus they'd seen only had one or rarely two animal traits on their person, while this Makum looked entirely like a crocodile who decided to walk on two legs and grow hands.

“Never saw a Faunus look like that before,” Yang stated, still staring at the scaled person who didn't seem to notice them.

“That’s not a Faunus,” Blake said quietly. The others looked at her oddly but shrugged it off.

“Did we really need to take their food?” Weiss asked. “It feels almost like theft.”

“It could go bad if we leave it, and we left a note saying we’d pay them back,” Ruby explained. “They’ll understand.”

“If you say so.” The girls paused at the gates of the city, seeing the line of people walking into a crowded square just past the entrance. To their horror, a man was standing on a platform with his hands bound behind him, a pair of guards near him and a man in black garb sharpening a large axe. The block with a round indention was the last piece of the puzzle needed to tell them what was occurring.

“Oh Gods,” Weiss muttered as she realized what they had walked into. The crowd was generally jeering at the man, and it sounded like there was a crying girl somewhere. Something pulled at her shoulder, and she looked back to see Yang pulling back out of the gate and pushing Ruby along as well.

“That- What was that? That can’t be right!” Ruby started to protest.

“Guys, hush,” the blonde told them. “We don’t know what’s going on. Don’t make a scene.”

“B-but…”

“We don’t know what he might have done. Could be a terrible guy or some crazy local thing. We don’t know. Don’t focus on it.”

The girls stood outside the city for several minutes until a loud thud sounded behind them. Soon, the crowd began to disperse, telling them the deed was done. With it seemingly over, they headed back in to see two robed people heading down the street with a stretcher held between them and the body covered by a red sheet. Someone was swabbing the platform, a coppery smell coming from the place.

“Gods, it really happened,” Weiss muttered. “This place performs public executions. How backwards is this country?”

“It’s not right,” Ruby insisted again.

“It’s not,” Blake agreed. “It was nothing less than barbaric. But we couldn’t do anything about it, not without starting a fight with all the police in the city without really knowing why. We’ll have to inform Vale about the situation when we get back.”

Ruby nodded in silent acceptance, and then they moved forward, looking through the city streets for places to buy and sell and a place to sleep. A market was near the center, with stalls and shops alike lined down each side and forming circles in larger crossroads. At first, it seemed like any normal, if primitive human settlement. Then they started noticing a couple of men with almost golden skin and pointed ears. Both were wearing gold-colored armor with a feathery motif, the metal looking light compared to what they normally saw. Blake noticed the glares that came their way, remembering how she and other Faunus were usually the targets of such ire, but then another gold-skinned being, a woman in plain clothes, gave them an even harsher glare. She seemed to be rolling a tomato between her fingers as if thinking of whether or not to throw it before setting it back in her basket and moving on.

“Whoa, those guys were stiff,” Yang observed. “It’s like if you took all the concentrated snoot from Weiss and made it a person.”

“Hey!”

“Am I the only one who noticed they were gold?” Ruby asked.

“No. It’s just…” A similar person walked by, only with ash-colored skin and red eyes. He started looking at apples, and Yang felt the urge to ask several questions that might have come across as rude. “…Maybe we’re further from Vale than we thought?”

“Okay, so is anyone else as confused as I am about all of this?” Yang asked as she set down another book on “history” that sounded like something out of a fantasy novel. Blake slammed a different book shut and cleared her throat.

“This is supposed to be historical fiction?” she asked the bookstore clerk who had introduced herself as Tiffany.

“You mean 2920? Yes.”

“How much would you say is history and how much is fiction?”

“Hm, well…" Tiffany paused and tapped her chin. "All the major events happened, though I don’t know if they did in the way it describes. I imagine the minor details were made up. I’m almost certain an Ayleid didn’t appear out of nowhere and help Turala give birth in the middle of the wilds of Cyrodiil, for instance, but it’s agreed upon by many that the destruction of her adopted coven and daughter’s death is what triggered her summoning of Dagon for vengeance’s sake.”

Blake blinked at all of that, flipping forward a bit and tracing lines.

“What’s an Ayleid?” Ruby asked innocently.

“Oh, some sort of elf that was darker than High Elves but lighter than Dark Elves while too tall and muscled to be Wood Elves. They used to rule Cyrodiil, but were scattered thousands of years ago after their Men slaves rebelled.” Tiffany then shrugged. “Who knows? I may be part Ayleid. A lot of them fled into the parts of Daggerfall my family’s from.”

“What would you say…” Weiss tried, thinking her words through carefully, “are the biggest differences between the average human and an elf?”

“Hm, well, if I remember my phylogeny studies correctly… All of us are ‘human’, save maybe the Khajiit but certainly not the Argonians. Mer, or elves most call them, tend to be more magically-inclined, less physical, live longer, and have ears with points usually pointed up. Men, like us- Well, you and most of myself, are more physical and have round ears. Doesn’t mean an elf can’t learn to throw a mean punch or a man can’t cast great spells, but that’s the usual. Does that about answer it?”

“Yes, I believe so.” Weiss nodded while taking in that information. “So, how different are those other two?”

She laughed at that. “By the Eight! Did your folks all skip out on your educations?”

“Hey, we’re from out of town!” Yang called over. “This is all new to us.”

“Out of town? I’d say you never set foot on Tamriel with such blanks in your knowledge. If it weren’t for the clothes, I might think you were from Atmora with the questions.”

“I’ll admit, we’re not from around here. Can you please help us?” Weiss requested.

“Certainly,” the shopkeeper responded cheerfully. “Maybe this will be a good start.” She reached beneath her counter and pulled up a thick book. “Heavy Scribe’s Field Guide to Tamriel, 3rd Edition. It’s one of the most up-to-date books on general knowledge of Tamriel and the Empire. Some people have thought of having the next Pocket Guide be based on it if they can’t find the authors to do it wholesale. You’ll find information on races and peoples in sections three through five. You can ignore six, since those touch on outside areas mostly, unless you’re curious.”

“Thank you so much!” Weiss said cheerfully before going through her wallet. “How much do I- Oh…” She pulled out a lien as she remembered how far away from civilization they were. “I don’t suppose you would accept this?”

Tiffany took the plastic card in hand and turned it around while looking it over.

“Is this supposed to be…money?”

“I can’t believe you traded so much fish!” Blake practically cried.

“It would have gone bad before we used it, and she has mouths to feed,” Weiss argued as she flipped through the book, her nose scrunching at the unprofessional tone that the writers chose for most of the entries. It felt almost like a couple of journals stuck together. The journals of some knowledgeable, curious, and intelligent scribes, but journals all the same. “Besides, I thought if there was one thing that you’d appreciate trading the fish for it would be a book.”

“Not just one.”

“Besides, this brings up another problem.” Weiss closed the book and her eyes then took a deep breath. “As far as this place is concerned, we’re…broke.” Ruby reached over and placed a hand on her shoulder.

“It’s okay, Weiss. Be strong!”

“Don’t be a dunce! It’s not…that terrible. We just need to figure out how to get some money.”

“Perhaps I can be of assistance?” a raspy voice offered. They looked to the side and saw a scaled person with horns on his head and nose and a frill. “Greetings. I hear you’re in need of septims? I happen to have a job that needs doing.”

“Whoa, buddy!” Yang warned him. “Just what are you wanting, huh?”

“Nothing untoward,” he assured her with a wave of his hand. “Don’t worry. Just got a job that needs doing. You four are armed and look to be built like warriors. Mind doing a little retrieval quest?”

“Retrieval?” Ruby looked to her teammates. None of them were really objecting to it, but Yang was still a bit tense and Blake was staring at him as though caught in disbelief. She turned back to the reptilian man and nodded. “What do you need?”

“There’s an amulet of mine, passed down through my family. I lost it to some bandit some time ago, but when I tried to chase him down, he ran into a cave full of frostbite spiders. The spiders got him, and there was no way I was going in there. If you could retrieve it, I’ll pay you handsomely. You wouldn’t even need to clear out all the spiders.”

“Frostbite spiders?” Ruby wondered with more than a little revulsion. They certainly didn’t sound like the normal creepy-crawlies, and she wasn’t sure if that was better or worse. “Okay, so…we’ll go get this amulet, and you’ll pay us?”

“What about an advance?” Weiss stepped in. “We need cash to make it there and back, after all.”

“Oh, certainly.” He reached into a pouch and pulled out several coins, then started going through them, picking out three square ones of a white color and ten golden, round coins. “Three malks and ten septims. Should last you a few days if you’re frugal. If you have a map, I can show you where the cave is.”

“Uh, we don’t…have a map,” Ruby bashfully admitted. He blinked, the action a little surprising to them as the extra set of lids came from the sides, then shook his head.

“A bit more advancement is needed, then.”

“Well, it was nice of him to buy us a map,” Ruby figured as she looked it over. “Kinda kills the northwest continent theory, though.” It seemed logical that they might have come upon a settlement on the shore of the least explored continent on Remnant. It would have explained the general ignorance of the people there along with the unknown elements they had run across, and the theory was further fueled by some of the banners having a stylized dragon on them. Instead, from the collection of maps available at Bits and Pieces, they saw a totally different landmass that was unrecognizable in any of their memories.

“This is becoming ridiculous,” Weiss muttered. “How can we have washed up to the shores of a totally unknown continent while going through a well-traveled sea route in a single day? It doesn’t make any sense. Not to mention this place is a complete backwoods still using archaic terms like ‘magic’. We haven’t seen the first instance of any modern technology since arriving.”

“Some places are just behind on that stuff,” Blake explained. “A lot of outlying towns are poor or constantly on the move, so they can’t set up their own industry or purchase anything like that from the major cities. A totally isolated kingdom would probably end up the same.”

“And a totally isolated continent?” Yang pointed out. “I’m almost surprised that we’re even speaking the same language. Let’s be grateful they’ve at least got a working sewer system and decent plumbing.” She tapped a foot against a sewer grate to emphasize her point.

“It just doesn’t make any sense,” Weiss complained. “How is there even an unknown continent in the first place? Remnant has been extensively mapped. I don’t doubt there’s a few small islands we may not know about, but a whole continent?”

“Weiss, there’s no use overthinking it,” Ruby reassured her. “We’ll figure it out, but first, we’ve gotta get through today. And tonight.” She started looking around at that. “So, we need to find a hotel or inn or something. Hopefully, that guy gave us more than enough for that, at least. Let’s see… Moon and Nausea…hard no. Ooh, Winking Skeever?”

“Winking what?” the others looked up at a sign with a sort of winking rodent next to a mug painted onto it. They shrugged at the odd sight, then headed inside to see if they could get a place to sleep for the night.

Ruby walked into the inn with a few more non-perishable goods than they had before, taking them up to their rented room to set in the chest for later. After she came back down, she sat with her team at a table. Blake was already helping herself to some fish whereas the other two had an assortment of vegetables and meat. Her eyes then landed on a bottle that Yang was drinking from, and she couldn't help but frown.

“Yang!” she protested, trying to take the adult beverage from her.

“Ah, c’mon sis. It’s just some mead.”

“You’re not old enough for that!” her sister objected.

“Well, here it seems there’s no real drinking age,” Yang explained while setting the bottle down away from her sister’s reach. Ruby, however, continued to glower. “Oh, don’t be like that. I’m not going to go Uncle Qrow on you because of some loose drinking laws.”

“You’d best not,” Weiss added with a bit of her own glare.

“You know their uncle?” Blake asked her after swallowing her food.

“No, but any time someone uses a person they know as a measuring stick, it’s usually serious.”

Something told Blake that Weiss' statement had something else behind it, but decided now wasn't the time to bring it up. Instead, she nodded affirmatively, then dug back into her fish.

Ruby ceased her attempts to prevent Yang from drinking, but let the young man serving them know not to let her have any more. He seemed to take it oddly that the younger girl was acting in charge, but then promised to serve them just clean water for the rest of the night. Ruby received her own plate of food soon after, noting the lack of seasoning in most of it. Thankfully, they still had salt, so it wasn’t too bad. The chicken was well-made, at least.

Several people entered and exited the inn as they dined, most human (or Men, as locals put it) and a few elves. One Argonian came and sat in a corner, but another one never showed after him. Then a group of about four members walked in, plus a large, tiger-like cat dressed in a sort of shawl with bags on its sides and back. The girls stared for a moment, a little intrigued that anyone would bring in such a creature to an establishment, tamed or not. They then noticed the furry tails swinging behind the people, under their cloaks. The common thought was that they might be seeing some Faunus for the first time since arriving in Solitude, then they pulled back their hoods. One had a human-like face, closer to Mer than Man, but cat ears atop his head and fine fur over much of his face. The other three had outright cat faces, something as unprecedented as the reptilian Argonians they’d learned the name of not too long ago. A smaller cat leaped atop the back of the not-tiger, and Ruby decided that deserved a bit more attention when it turned towards her. The cat had a sort of shirt on with an attached hood and a collar with a gem set in it.

“Well hey there,” she greeted the feline. “How are you today, little fella?”

“This one is well and good,” the cat said with a masculine, if tiny voice, his mouth moving a bit with the words and the collar making a small glow. Ruby and the others recoiled slightly with shock, with Blake's jaw slowly lowering as she tried to comprehend the talking cat. “He was simply investigating a scent.” He then turned towards Blake, and the larger feline he was atop of turned to look at them as well.

“Ah, this one sees it,” the bigger one said with a more feminine voice. Both nodded at the Faunus. “Greetings, Ohmes.”

“Uh, hello,” she said back, not sure what to make of what was happening. Talking cats were not a thing any of them were expecting for their day.

“Whoa!” Ruby said lowly in awe. “What are you?”

“This one is Alfiq. His wife is Pahmar,” the smaller cat answered. Team RWBY looked between the two, mostly trying to come to terms with the strikingly different couple being what they were.

“Mother, father, we have rooms,” the human-faced one told the quadrupeds. Now they were very confused.

“Ah, we should see to that. Get the little ones, then. We’ll go and unpack.” He lifted a paw and one of the bags opened as it began to glow. His wife began walking as he sorted through their belongings, the other three bipeds leading them upstairs and the fourth walking out. The girls looked at each other for a moment, then Weiss whipped out her book and rapidly flipped through the pages. She paused at the section describing different races, then turned over to a specific part.

“Khajiit,” she read aloud, “the feline denizens of Elsweyr. Khajiit are one of the most…” Her eyes widened and then she rotated the tome around to let her fellows see it. There was an illustration showing different forms of the race, ranging from the housecat-sized sort like they had just met to a form that seemed larger than a rhinoceros, the next biggest being almost half its size.

“Whoa!” Ruby intoned. “There’s, like, a dozen of them.”

“Wait, so that was a Khajiit family?” Yang asked. Right then, the one that had gone outside reentered, a couple of smaller Khajiit in his arms with proportions that suggested childhood. Three others followed him, one looking like an elf with cat ears that reached his waist, and two that walked on all fours but had sloped backs reminiscent of a gorilla. The elfish one sniffed and then looked at their table, her eyes settling on the fish Blake was nearly finished with before gaining that familiar look, drool threatening to spill out from the corner of her mouth. One of the others head-butted her back, pushing her forward despite her small, foreign protesting. Ruby and Yang giggled at the sight while Weiss covered her mouth to hide her smile. Blake watched them a moment longer, her bow twitching about.

“Huh,” Yang muttered as she looked over the entry of Khajiit, “so we’ve got cats, big cats, monkey cats, cat people, catty people, and super cat Faunus.”

Blake bristled a bit. “They’re not Faunus,” she insisted.

“Right. Didn’t mean anything by it,” she apologized. “Just seemed like… Well, whatever they are, they’re people.” She shut the book and handed it back to Weiss.

“People we’ve never seen before. I’m starting to wonder how hidden this place is.” Weiss started flipping through some other pages. “Geography, customs, whole new species of people… And apparently religion. Just what we were missing, a polity three steps from a theocracy.”

“It can’t be that bad,” Ruby insisted.

“Maybe not, but they honestly believed the Imperial line was chosen and/or descended from the Gods. “

“So, it got better?”

Weiss turned a few pages and traced some lines. “If you can call the least terrible warlord after a near-collapse of society better?” She narrowed her eyes in incredulity. “A collapse that apparently came from a literal invasion from Hell?”

“…Well, he was the least terrible.”

Night had long since fallen, and the girls were going through their items and making sure everything was distributed properly. Ruby was fiddling with her gunsmithing kit, proud of being right about possibly needing it as they hadn’t run into a single gun or ammo seller. In fact, they hadn’t found a Dust shop either, which probably meant there was some tight control over the substance being enforced. What’s worse, they didn’t know what the locals called it. The best answers they were getting was ‘magic’ and the ‘College of Winterhold’, which pointed them to the other end of the country. That meant the only ammo they had until they figured that out was what they had on hand, or what Ruby was able to put together with her kit. Even then, they needed Dust itself to make bullets.

Weiss was making sure each of them had a decent amount of food packed, along with checking to make sure they had purifier straws ready. While the innkeeper had assured them that the water he served was boiled (at least they weren’t too far behind on health safety), any traveling outside of civilization wouldn’t offer them the same courtesy. She was glad she had insisted on packing such things. At first, the sisters tried to convince her that their home had all the amenities of civilized life, just in a more rustic setting, but she finally got it through to them that that wasn’t her concern. She knew that travel on Remnant could be fickle. Airships would go down, trains would derail, and boats got lost in storms. It was better to be overprepared than underprepared, and here she was, prepared. Weiss resisted the urge to gloat, knowing it was beneath her, tempting as it was.

Yang stretched out after making sure her clothes were packed properly, now changed into an outfit better able to stand the cold, and walked over to the window. She was beginning to feel stuffy, and if she felt it, then surely everyone else did.

“Y’all good if I open the window for a bit?” after a low chorus of affirmatives, she opened up the wooden window shutters and took a deep breath of the cold night air. “Man, it might be a tiny little city without a single electric light, but it at least gives a perfect view of the night sk-”

At Yang’s sudden silence, the rest of the team looked over at her to see what was the matter. She was standing as though frozen, looking up at the night sky. Blake and Ruby went to her side first, Ruby tugging on her arm a bit to try and get her attention.

“Yang? Everything okay?”

Weiss sighed and went over to see what was the matter, standing right behind them as Yang finally moved, pointing up at the sky without a word. The girls followed her finger and immediately went still. Hanging among the stars, rather than a single, shattered moon, there was a pair of whole bodies. One was large and red, maybe the size of the one they were used to, if that one was a perfect sphere like this one appeared to be. A sliver of it was hidden in shadow, marking it as near-full in its phase. The other was much smaller and white, with only a little more than half of it visible, about halfway across the night sky from its fellow satellite.

The girls stood and stared out the window at the impossible image, barely able to note the unfamiliar patterns of stars with the giant, glowing sign in the sky.

“Guys,” Ruby quietly croaked, “I don’t think we’re in Remnant anymore.”

Chapter Text

The next portion of the rewrite brought to you by the wonderful workers of the Dragon Rose team, xTRESTWHOx and NaanContributor

Chapter 2: Into the Unknown

August 7th

For a long moment, none of the girls moved or responded. They just stared up at the impossible sky filled with stars and constellations they didn't recognize and two intact moons. Yang was the first, going over to a mattress, laying down, and just curling up with her back to everyone. Blake fell against the same bed and slid down to sit on the floor, her hands on her face and her eyes wide but unseeing. Weiss started backing away, then shook her head and made a joyless laugh.

“Okay, I get it now!” she declared, almost quivering and her voice increasingly becoming high-pitched. “I was already feeling seasick, I had some strong medicine, and then I ate that fish… I’m hallucinating. A whole…made up scenario is running through my brain, just on the edge of believable. I’m probably going to be treated at any moment now in a hospital near the port, and then I’ll be waking up and this will all…” She stopped her small tirade as Ruby came up to her and put her hands to Weiss’ shoulders.

“Weiss,” Ruby said calmly, “it’s real. I’m right here, with you.”

The heiress seemed to gasp in a breath and release it slow and raggedly, tears appearing in her eyes before she leaned forward and into her friend’s embrace. Ruby held her like that, gently patting her back while rocking them back and forth, slowly. Nearer the window, Yang managed to uncurl and looked back out to confirm that the moons were still there, then looked down at Blake. The Faunus seemed to have gone limp, and Yang was able to reach over and nudged at her head a bit, getting her attention.

“You okay?”

“A-are you?” Blake asked right back before looking at the window again. “You… It’s really real, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Yang relayed, looking back out again. “It’s real. God, I don’t… What does this mean?”

Ruby guided Weiss over to sit on the other bed and then hugged her friend again before sitting next to her. The four young women looked at each other, none speaking for a long moment before Ruby spoke.

“Okay, so this is more than we expected.”

“You can say that again,” Yang put in.

“But it’ll be fine. I know it will.” Ruby smiled, and Weiss seemed to lean onto her, prompting the younger girl to put her arm around her shoulder. “I don’t know how we got here, but we got here somehow. That means there’s got to be a way back. And we’ll figure it out. But one step at a time.”

“What’s the first?” Blake asked, pulling herself back up from the floor.

“First step… Well, first major step is getting money, but that shouldn’t be too hard. We might be students, but we’re still Huntresses. We’ve already got a job, in fact.”

“Oh right,” Yang recalled. “Spider cave. Uh, what kind of Grimm are frostbite spiders?”

Ruby shrugged, and the other two didn’t seem to know either. Yang just shook her head.

“Ugh, hate spiders…”

“But, our real first step is getting some sleep,” Ruby declared. “We’ve got traveling to do tomorrow, and that’s no small task.”

The girls could agree to that much. Yang shut up the window then went back to lay down. As they started to get comfortable, Weiss sat up for a long moment and looked over at her team leader.

“Ruby…”

“Yeah, Weiss?”

“Thank you.”

The girl smiled and then gave the heiress a sideways hug.

“No problem,” Ruby said. “It’s a leader’s job to make sure their team’s okay, and a good friend’s job to make sure her bestie is happy.”

“Don’t ruin it,” Weiss said with a small grin. She was released from the hug and they settled in to sleep, Blake blowing out the candle that lit up half the room, leaving just the fireplace’s slowly dying embers to illuminate the room.

Despite how much they tried, sleep came to them slowly, and even then it was restless.

Morning came, and the girls left the city, heading down the road towards their goal. Just outside the walls were a few homes and farms, including one with a horse stable right past the main entrance. After talking it over, they decided they didn’t really need (nor could they afford) some horses right now. Their first planned stop was in a place called Dragon Bridge, a settlement that lay next to a river gorge and, from what they heard, had a large and ancient bridge that tended to attract visitors in normal times. Along with being on a main road between several capitals, it was oft visited and well-traveled.

“Okay, so a Hold is like a county or district,” Weiss explained while reading through their Field Guide. “We’re in Haafingar, which is basically the capital Hold of Skyrim, a province of the Empire.”

“The Empire?” Yang asked. “So, there’s not, like, competing empires to differentiate from?”

“Well, if what I’m reading is right,” Weiss said while flipping a few pages, “technically no. There is, however, a polity known as the Aldmeri Dominion, which is functionally a competing empire. They had a war about twenty-five years ago, but the treaty at its end has caused a lot of tension within the Empire.”

“Is that why that guy was yelling about Ulfric and the Stormcloaks?” Ruby wondered aloud. Said guy had been a prisoner being led back to Solitude by a trio of guards. They hadn’t paid the girls too much mind, but their prisoner had told them that if they knew any ‘true sons and daughters of Skyrim’ that they should direct them to Windhelm. The soldiers just kept pushing him on with one telling them to be on their way. They mostly agreed not to touch that situation even with a ten-foot pole.

“That seems to be a little more recent than the book’s publication, but the authors definitely predicted things coming to a head.” She flipped back a few pages. “Going by this and the map, the cave we’re heading to will be near the three-way border point of Whiterun Hold, Hjaalmarch, and the Reach. Afterward, we’ll be close to Rorickstead, so we could stop there before heading back up.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Blake agreed.

“Yeah, but I got a bit more to the plan if we’re cool with it,” Yang suggested while pointing out some houses and a stone structure as they crested a hill. “That Dragon Bridge?”

“Yes, actually,” Weiss confirmed while looking at the map. “We’re making good time.”

“Nice. Hey Ruby, wanna go hunting?”

“Hunting? Like for food?” the younger sister curiously asked.

“Yeah. Hasn’t been any Grimm the whole way here, so we could use the target practice, the food, and the fur.”

“Fur would sell well,” Weiss contemplated before looking through the book. “I’m not seeing anything about poaching laws…”

“Which means there isn’t any,” Yang figured before leading them off the road. “C’mon guys, twilight’s coming.”

The others chased after her, Weiss packing her book away and Ruby taking out Crescent Rose, switching the ammo type for some low-grade shots. They still packed more of a punch than something along the lines of, say, a twenty-two rifle, but they wouldn’t blow a hole bigger than her fist through any unfortunate prey they found. Yang soon found a spot and then settled in atop an old log, the other three following suit as she dragged some nearby brush and branches into a rudimentary blind around them.

“What are we doing?” Weiss asked, only for Ruby to shush her.

“Waiting,” Yang whispered.

“And how do you know something will come through here?” she whispered back. Yang pointed over to a couple of oak trees nearby with disturbed ground beneath their boughs.

“Critters like acorns,” she simply explained. “Make sure your coats are covering anything bright,” she added, putting word to action by tying back her own golden locks under a beige kerchief and tucking the ends beneath the collar of her shirt, before sitting still as a statue. Weiss pulled the drab, brown coat a little more closed, looking out across the patch of forest they were in and then her teammates. Yang and Blake both seemed experienced and calm, but Ruby was a little giddier, putting some kind of camouflage net over her weapon before resting it on her lap. Weiss released a breath and waited. And waited. And waited. Just when she was beginning to grow aggravated at the boredom and worried about the sinking sun, Blake’s attention was taken as her bow twitched. Everyone followed her gaze and watched as a few deer slowly made their way towards the area. They seemed extremely cautious, taking a few steps towards the patch before stopping, then continuing again. Once they were all in sight, Yang leaned a little and whispered even lower than before.

“Get the buck,” she told Ruby, almost inaudible to Weiss’ ears. The younger sister took aim at the largest specimen, a buck with antlers that maybe had close to twenty points or so. Weiss waited for the gunshot to sound out, but nothing came. As she wondered what the holdup was, she saw Ruby lower the gun and pass it to her sister.

“It’s okay,” Yang reassured her before aiming it herself. Weiss wondered if she had ever used Ruby’s sniper-scythe before right before the shot boomed, a sharp contrast to the silence they had grown used to. The buck ran instantly, and soon the small herd followed suit.

“I think you missed,” Weiss pointed out while rubbing one ear.

“Nah, I got him,” Yang responded as she handed back Ruby’s weapon. She patted the younger girl’s shoulder before walking towards where the deer had run. After going around some bushes and brambles, they came across the buck’s body, now with a hole in its chest. Red blood stained the brown fur, and a small pool flowed out onto the green grass beneath and around its body.

“Heart shot,” Blake noted. “Good aim.”

“Yeah. People are always surprised about that for some reason. Like shotgun gauntlets are easy to accurately shoot or something.”

Weiss’ eyebrows went up at that. She never put much thought into it, but now she realized how hard it must actually be to aim something like that, especially since they fired through a punching motion. She suddenly found a new respect for the skill she never associated with their brawler too much.

“Well, now to take this guy and bag him. You think we’ll have to clean him, or would there be a butcher in town?”

“Let’s check for butchers first,” Blake suggested. “Less messy that way.”

After checking a few sources, Weiss was able to convince the butcher to give them twenty-eight septims for the carcass. He originally wanted it for twenty-two, but Weiss was able to haggle it up by pointing out the low damage to the edible meat and the size of the antlers. With several more of the gold coins to their name, Weiss walked away happily.

“So, how much is twenty-eight septims?” Ruby asked as they settled in at the Four Shields.

“See these?” Weiss asked as she showed Ruby the square, white coins. “These are malks, or marks in some areas. Each one is worth ten septims.”

“About the same cost as a room at an inn,” Ruby realized. Both the Winking Skeever and the Four Shields Tavern charged the same price for a room per night. Weiss figured it was regulated by law.

“Exactly. Assuming no one ends up wanting some extra privacy, making more than ten septims a day will be the minimum needed for profit. That’s not accounting for food and other necessities.”

“So, a deer a day will keep the bill collectors at bay?” Yang joked. Weiss glared, but Ruby actually giggled at that one.

“I wonder how much a moose is worth?” Blake asked no one in particular.

“Whoa, Blake, walk before you run!” Yang warned her.

“We’re Huntresses. We fight Grimm every other weekend,” the Faunus pointed out.

“You’ve never seen a moose, have you?” Yang asked her. Ruby thought back, and she couldn’t say she had either. Though she did hear stories about moose from neighbors. One time a couple swam all the way from the mainland, somehow. Someone hunted them down after they caused a bit of property damage and really hurt an old lady. They hadn’t even had any Aura, which could be a roll of the dice when it came to wild animals. The thought of what might’ve happened if those moose had unlocked their Auras left her shuddering. They probably would have needed her dad or uncle to personally fight them!

“Even I know you should careful about moose,” Weiss said. “Granted, I’d be more worried about polar bears or the like.”

“Ooh, now how much would that be worth?” Yang wondered.

“I’ll check possible price ranges before we start hunting dangerous predators like that,” Weiss told her. “Besides that, we could do Grimm hunting. Much more to our level. It’s what we’re all trained for, and I’ll admit I’m also more comfortable with killing soulless monsters for money than innocent animals.” She shot Ruby a sympathetic glance at that, receiving a grateful smile in return.

“Physically less of a hassle too,” Yang agreed with an exaggerated roll of her shoulder, “Since I’m the one who had to carry that whole buck all the way over here. Don’t have to deal with any carcasses from Grimm.”

“Yeah, although it’s weird that we haven’t spotted any Grimm yet,” Ruby pointed out before they all froze. “Wait, are there Grimm here? It’s…another world, after all.”

“Not thinking about this,” Weiss immediately announced before lying down and putting her fingers to her head. “One restless night was enough. Not going to think about otherworldly Grimm or lack thereof.”

“Right, forget I asked.” Ruby set out her gunsmithing kit and went through her spent casings and Dust loadout. She didn’t have much, but she could fashion a few bullets. “We figure out who holds the Dust?”

“I asked those officials, Penitus Oculatus,” Blake explained. “They didn’t seem to know what I was talking about, but figured it was magic. Seems there’s two places we can get any reliably. Court Wizards are the first, but there’s only one or two in every Hold and they work directly for the Jarls, and most are probably too occupied with their own stuff. The other is the College of Winterhold.”

“There’s that College again,” Yang pointed out. “You sure there’s nowhere else we can get some?”

“Not unless we want to dig up our own.”

“May as well dig up our own metals if we’re going to do that,” Weiss said. “So, we can try one of these ‘wizards’, and if they’re too busy or refuse, we can make for this college. Maybe there we can find out a little more about what happened to us.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Ruby agreed. “We’ve got some direction, at least. Okay, then. We’ll try the wizards.” She giggled at that. “Boy, it’d be something if they used ‘real’ magic.”

“Haha,” Weiss deadpanned before smiling. “As if.”

Travel from Dragon Bridge was mostly uneventful at this point. The girls looked over the impressive stone construct that gave the small town its name as they crossed it, but didn’t linger. They spotted a few men watching them from far away, up on a hill or some other high-rise. A couple of other travelers decided to go along with them, so their numbers were likely keeping any unscrupulous sorts from attacking. One man had a laden wagon that went at about walking speed that he offered for the tired to sit on the back of whenever they needed to. It was an offer the four Huntresses graciously accepted, but despite the seeming lack of danger, Team RWBY unconsciously took a defensive stance around the dozen or so civilians. They couldn't help it. This was an entirely new world they were only on for the past day and a half. None of them knew what dangers lurked. Only one man looked like a warrior out of them all, a double-bladed steel axe on his back and a basic, iron chest plate with some hide armor around and under it. Nothing compared to what they had, of course, but Ruby, being the weapon geek she was, couldn't help but gawk over it.

“So, what kind of steel did they use to make it?” Ruby asked, trying to get whatever information she could out of the man about his weapon.

“I didn’t worry too much ‘bout that sorta thing." The man shrugged. "I just grabbed axes off the wall until one felt right, then I bought it.”

“Oh, well, at least you made sure it was a good one. You wouldn’t believe how many people grabbed the first thing they could and tried to fight with it.”

“I reckon I could,” he responded with a sigh. “Little whelps think they’re invincible until they get shown how fragile they really are. Think they can just run in and take on the world.”

“I wouldn’t put it like that, but yeah, some people can get pretty cocky.”

The man moved to respond, clearly enjoying the conversation with Ruby, when someone screamed in fright. Several people scattered as a roar sounded out, sounding like a hippo mixed with a dinosaur. The girls all turned to see a brown, three-eyed creature holding a woman by the leg. She looked to be a Bosmer, and was desperately trying to pull herself free of the monster’s three claws. It slung her around, causing her to scream in pain, then Blake’s variant ballistic chain-scythe stabbed into its arm and yanked it forward. The beast roared as it dropped the woman and pulled back, causing Blake to brace herself and strain against its strength.

“Troll!” someone yelled before it ripped its arm free of Gambol Shroud. It went back after the woman, who was crawling away, but then Yang got in front of it and socked it across the face. It stumbled back, and Ruby rushed in to help get the woman out of the way. Yang repeatedly punched the troll, blocking its own heavy swings with her arms before returning five punches between them. The man had his axe out and swung into its back with a battlecry, digging in deep, but not quite felling it. Weiss readied herself to join in when a dark-skinned Dunmer ran up with his fingers curled.

“Get clear!” he called out in warning, and the two fighters jumped back. The troll seemed to be recovering, pulling itself back up off its knees, but then fire sprang up from the elf’s hands then shot out in a blazing roar, muffling the troll’s own cries. Weiss and the rest of her team stared flabbergasted at the display of raw power. They wondered what kind of Semblance this was, but part of them felt that this was something different. Something they couldn't quite pin down. A few seconds later, the Dunmer stopped and the troll was shown to be nearly burned to a crisp. It still moved, as if trying to overcome its wounds, but the warrior stepped forward and brought his axe down on its head, splitting the skull and finally killing it.

“Damn thing must have been starving to attack a group this big in broad daylight,” the man said before kicking a roasted arm. “Looks scrawny.”

“Whatever it was doing, it hurt Drolsi,” the Dunmer bit out before going to where Ruby had carried the Bosmer woman.

“What was that?” Yang asked, looking at the monster’s corpse, noting that it wasn’t sublimating like a Grimm, not that she thought it was one. At the same time, she couldn't help but glance occasionally at the Dark Elf as he extinguished the fire cupped in his hands.

“Troll,” the man said as though it was obvious. “Never saw a troll before?”

“Uh, not in real life,” Yang decided to answer.

“Well, I suppose stories either under or oversell it. " The man shrugged and shook his head. "They’re tough, but not unstoppable. Simple, but not stupid. Probably would have killed it without the elf’s help, but it would’ve taken longer.”

“Yeah, it did feel tough,” Yang admitted. Its body seemed cushioned by a layer of fat, though if this was a starving one then it probably didn’t have that much compared to normal. The Dunmer’s fire didn’t mix well with that, for the troll, anyway. The fat burned and boiled under its skin, some of it visibly leaking out as an oily liquid. She decided to leave the smelly corpse alone and went over to see Weiss and Ruby watching as some sort of cream was applied to the woman’s wounded leg. She figured it was medicinal, but as a gash on her calf started to seal like a zipper was being slowly drawn, without the accompanying glow of an Aura, Yang blinked and rubbed her eyes before looking back to make sure what she was seeing was real.

“Here, drink this potion,” the Dunmer offered her after uncorking a vial. “Should help with the bones.”

“Thank the Gods for alchemy,” she muttered before swallowing the liquid. She then hummed out a sigh and looked at the girls. “Thank you for helping me there. My leg or more of me might be in a troll’s belly if you hadn’t stepped in.” She then looked over to where the warrior was walking. “And thank you as well, sir.”

He harrumphed. “Just doing what anyone’d do,” he brushed off the thanks. Ruby smiled brightly.

“Doesn’t make you less of a hero,” the young Huntress told him. He kept his gruff composure, but didn’t say anything against it. For the next several minutes, the group recollected themselves, waiting for the Bosmer woman's leg to fully heal and the horses to calm down before they set off. Yang and the Nord, as he described himself, went out to ensure there wasn't anything else lurking out there. Ruby and Blake, meanwhile, watched over the injured woman, leaving a curious Weiss to carefully approach the Dunmer who had gravely injured the troll.

"Excuse me, sir?" Weiss asked, grabbing the Dunmer's attention.

"Yes?" he asked, and Weiss nodded.

"That fire you made. I'm curious, what Dust or Semblance was that? I've never seen a technique like that before."

"Dust? Semblance?" the Dunmer asked, completely confused. Again, Weiss was reminded that she was in another world, and judging from her previous discussion with the Penitus Oculatus, it was likely such terminology was different.

"Sorry, I'm not from around here," Weiss replied. "I believe your people call it...'magic?'" The heiress couldn't believe she was seriously using that term, even more so when the Dunmer nodded in recognition.

"Right, right. Thought that's what you meant. That was simply a Flames spell. Real easy, Novice-level Destruction spell. Anyone can learn it."

"Is that so?" Weiss asked, looking about his person to try and find the Dust shard he must've used as fuel. If it was as easy as he made it out to be, it would be wise of her to try and pick it up herself. If she was going to be stuck in this other world without any access to her resources, she and the rest of her team would need all the help they could get.

"Yep. In fact," the Dunmer said as he reached into a hip pouch and began to rummage around. At first, Weiss thought he was searching for a Dust crystal or form of apparatus, but instead he pulled out a worn hardcover book with the symbol of a burning hand stitched into its cover. "Here, this is an old spellbook of mine."

"A...book?" Weiss softly spoke as the Dunmer handed it to her.

"I'm not using it anymore, and you seem like the type of person who'd be able to pick up on the clever craft pretty easily," he said. "Think of it as payment for your friends’ help in saving Drolsi’s life."

"I... Thank you, sir," Weiss replied after a momentary pause. The Dunmer nodded at her just as Yang and the Nord returned. The two called out that they were all clear, and at that moment the Bosmer woman shakily rose with the assistance of Ruby and Blake.

With the entire group now ready to move out again, they piled back into the wagon and rode off. Ruby and the Nord returned to their previous conversation on weapons and combat techniques while the others kept a watchful eye on their surroundings. Weiss, meanwhile, pulled out the tome and opened it. She pored over its contents, seeing terms without any idea of what they meant. 'Magicka,' 'Aetherius,' 'Oblivion,' and more were thrown around as though they were common knowledge, and Weiss wanted nothing more than to dismiss them as the superstitions of a primitive culture. Yet, she couldn't help but think back to the Dunmer's display of power, and as she continued to read, she began to feel that perhaps it wasn't as far-fetched as she wanted to believe.

The party dispersed as they reached Rorickstead. Night was closing in, so the girls saved the search for the cave for the next day. Asking around helped to point them in the right direction of it, though most of the people warned them against going there.

“Ain’t right, whatever it is,” one man had told them. “Folks go in there and never come out. Seems to be far more than just spiders in that cave.”

"Sometimes, I hear something wail from that way at night," another woman shakily replied. More and more of the townspeople reported the same thing, and by the time Team RWBY made it to their room, they were all feeling a little unnerved.

“Right, so does anybody get the feeling this place might be more than we expected?” Yang asked her teammates. All of them nodded, but rather than dwell on it they focused on the task at hand.

“I found an entry on frostbite spiders,” Weiss started, showing them an illustration just below an article. “Apparently, they’re literally just large spiders.”

Yang shivered. “Seriously?”

“Seriously. I also read a bit about trolls, but let’s focus on the spiders for now. They’re predatory, but do make webs and sometimes catch prey in them. However, given their size, that prey can range from large rodents to humans. They also spit poison, though it’s not too deadly if treated quickly. I think they should be pretty simple to kill, as long as we’re careful.”

“Right,” Ruby agreed. “We’ll need to take it slow and get used to them. Since they’re not Grimm, they’ll have some self-preservation instincts, so we might not have to fight them all. We’ve just got to retrieve the amulet.”

“Speaking of, did we get a description of that?” Blake asked. Weiss started to answer, before her whole body froze.

“Actually, we didn’t. Ah, by the Lovers and Brothers!”

“It’s okay, Weiss,” Ruby reassured her. “We’ll just grab any amulets that might be there and ask him which is the right one when we get back.”

“Okay, well… I guess that’ll have to do. But if that’s the case, we might have to scour the cave for anything that might be the right one.”

“Aw,” Yang groaned, resigned to her fate of having to deal with the eight-legged creepy-crawlies.

“And that’s Bessa,” Sissel explained to Ruby, who was watching the cows eat hay with her. “She’s the oldest, but she’s tough. Ennis says that one time, she ran down a bear by herself.”

“Wow! That really is tough,” Ruby admitted. Bessa seemed to be just a normal cow, at that, making it that much more impressive. While Zwei taking out an Ursa was amazing from a certain point of view, he had an unlocked Aura and had been taught to fight Grimm for almost as long as Ruby had. He was practically a Huntsman himself. A small frown briefly crossed her face as she wondered how Zwei and the others would've reacted to their disappearance, but forced herself not to dwell on it for very long lest the younger girl notice.

Sissel then froze when a girl who looked exactly like her showed up, a mean glare on her face. The other girl paused when she walked up, seeing Ruby, but then continued on her approach, a smirk appearing as she did.

"You're gonna get it, Sissel!" the girl teased her.

"Why? What did I do?"

"I told you to weed the garden by sunset, and you didn't do it. Now you're in big trouble."

"Papa told you to do that, not me! Now leave me alone!"

Ruby was frowning and decided to step in at that.

“Hey, knock it off,” she told the young girl. “That’s your sister, right? You should always have your family’s back, not pick on them or make life hard for them.”

The girl sneered at her. “What do you know?!”

“Plenty. Family should be there to help one another, not put each other down.”

Sissel’s sister just frowned and walked away. Ruby sighed and looked back to the girl who she’d stood up for.

“Thank you,” the local girl muttered.

“Don’t mention it,” Ruby told her while gently rubbing the top of her hair.

“Nice goat,” Yang mentioned to a guy walking said goat on a leash.

“Thank you. She’s a prize winner,” he proudly told them before moving on. Yang hummed in thought before taking a sip of cider.

“I was thinking of a joke, but he seemed so genuinely honored.”

“Anyone else getting a weird vibe from this place?” Blake asked. “I heard the mayor-founder talking with some guy about the way the harvest is going this year. He was wondering how it was doing so well, but the guy insisted it was just the hard work everyone put into it.”

“Well, that’s not unusual,” Yang mentioned.

“I mean, he insisted. It was like he was afraid of people thinking of any possible alternative explanation. Just weird.”

“Huh, that does sound weird. Maybe he’s superstitious?” she suggested.

“Maybe.” She didn’t mention the part where Rorick muttered something about figuring there was something else at play, but decided that Yang was right about there being some superstition the people might have.

Weiss walked up from the marketplace, releasing a sigh as she did. “So, questions have led us down the same path. Wizards and magic.”

“Maybe they’re just what they call people with Aura?” Yang suggested. “Like in that movie where wizards were just people with, like, all of the Semblances and didn’t need Dust.”

“Or Galaxy Wars,” Blake proposed.

“I already figured it was just local parlance. I just wish we had more options than a single, isolated school or one of a dozen government employees.” She sighed and joined them on the Frostfruit Inn’s porch. Ruby came bounding up soon enough, a small smile on her face.

“So, is everything good?” she asked her team.

“As good as it can be,” Weiss answered. “We’re ready for the trip to the cave, and we’re pretty much supplied to head out the moment we’re done.”

“That’s good. Once we’re done there, we’ll figure out the very next step,” she declared. “It should either be getting to that college, getting a step closer, or getting some personal attention from a wizard. Whichever is more available at the time.”

“Should work out,” Yang figured. “Maybe Ish and Mail will have washed up by the time we get back to Solitude, and they can help us figure out how we got here.”

“How would we have gotten here?” Ruby wondered. “I still haven’t figured that out.”

“Well, in books and sci-fi movies, usually people go through some kind of portal,” Blake explained. “The only problem is…we were out on the sea. Storms aren’t uncommon, but they’re usually more fantasy.”

“True. Storms are usually a thematic source, not scientific,” Ruby agreed.

“Well, there’s a sub-theory I have,” Weiss relayed while opening her book. “This place does know about the other planets in their system, but they don’t match up with our own. They’re also named after the gods of the primary pantheon worshipped by most of Tamriel. Kynerath was my first guess, since it seems to contain life, but I got to looking further. None of the constellations match up.”

“Well, that’s expected, right?” Yang asked. “We’re on another planet, after all.”

“True, but it’s more than that. If we were in the same system, we’d see most of the same constellations, the only difference being where the planets appear as stars. The night sky of this world, Nirn, is wholly different from the one on Remnant. That’s not getting into the planets.”

“What are the planets?” Ruby asked, a curious glint in her eye as she looked over Weiss’ shoulder.

“Like I said, they’re named after the Eight Divines, which are Kynerath, Akatosh, Zenithar, Mara, Julianos, Dibella, Stenndar, and Arkay. The planet we're on they call Nirn,” she pointed out while going over the illustration of the planets and their orbits. “Our solar system only has four planets, including Remnant, though some scientists think they found a fifth one with the new observatory up in Solitas. Obviously, this place is behind on the science, as they use a geocentric model. Not to mention the plain oddness in the way they orbit. They go all over the place, and Arkay doesn't even look like it orbits anything. More importantly, none of the smaller rocky planets look like a brown rust ball like Ramsey does. Kynerath, like I mentioned, has been noted to have a green and blue surface, likely covered in forests and seas, though it’s noted that storms often appear. Akatosh is the largest, probably a gas giant similar to Hullum or Sorola. Zenithar is the second largest, and Mara and Dibella orbit around Zenithar. Apparently, they believe there are “angelic cities” on those two. Whether that means there are actually people on those worlds or a case of mistaken observation, I can’t say. The writer seems convinced they’re an aspect of the heavens brought close to Mundus, or the mundane world.”

As Weiss told more of the world’s lore to her teammates, they all listened with rapt attention, eventually getting a little lost and going further and further into the details of the world, its beliefs, and its cultures, until finally, they forced themselves to retire for the night.

The girls left for the cave first thing in the morning. Mostly backtracking up the road, they quickly found it hidden in the woods a fair distance from the path. Spiderwebs lined most of the opening, thick and silky. Weiss test-touched some of the substance, finding it to not be very sticky.

“Must be lined along the walls for insulation,” she figured as she rubbed her fingertips across her thumbs. Blake mostly led them along, being able to see far more clearly in the dark cave than the rest of them. She paused a moment before taking up a lighter and flicking it on up against the wall, catching the end of a torch aflame and burning away some webs near it. She pulled it free of a sconce and handed it back to Yang, who smiled as she took it in hand.

“Torchlight. How medieval!” Yang joked, causing her partner to roll her eyes.

“Well, you’re free to use up your scroll’s battery,” Blake told her.

“Eh, I’ve got half a year before I’ve got to replace it.” Despite saying it, she didn’t take out the device and continued using the old torch. A little way further, something jumped out and squealed at them. Yang squealed in return and stamped on it, leaving a green splotch with eight twitching legs around it.

“Sweet mother of-” Yang began as she turned to face the wide-eyed members of her team. "I know you said they’d be big, but…!”

“That…was probably a little one,” Weiss mentioned, finding it hard to believe herself. Blake suddenly took out her blades and stood at the ready.

“It was definitely a little one! Dodge!”

Everyone moved as a glob of venomous-looking fluid went past them, and something shrieked. They looked forward to see a pair of spiders that came up to their waists and drew their own weapons. Yang screamed as one came at her, jabbing the torch into its face then punching it back. Weiss stabbed at the other one’s eyes, getting one and making it back away and chitter in pain. Blake swiped her blades across its face, scoring deep hits, but not quite killing it. Ruby rushed at the one her sister was beating back and sliced three of its legs off. It fell, and Yang stamped on its head, squishing its brain and ending its struggles. Weiss pierced one of the wounds Blake left on the other and stabbed deeply into it. The spider struggled a moment, then went still as it slid back.

“Oh, I’m going to be sick,” Yang complained as she handed the torch over to Weiss and stumbled away from the green ichor and spider corpses. She heaved a moment, but nothing came out, leaving her gasping for breath before standing up and rejoining the others. “Let’s get to looking for that necklace, already.”

“Right,” Ruby said. “Lead the way, Blake.”

"How can those things even breathe...?" Weiss whispered to herself as she stared at the corpse of a spider the size of a large dog. Blake silently wondered the same thing, whereas Yang and Ruby (neither of whom knew about spider biology) wondered what she meant, but soon they all shook those thoughts out of their heads.

The Faunus nodded once they all looked at her, and they headed deeper into the cave. They started coming across braziers, which Yang lit after tossing in an old, spider web covered bag of coal set near them, each one providing a good bit more light than before. Something like a room with rotted furniture and a collapsed door was seen to their right, but as they went to enter it, a chest-high spider dropped from above. All of them screamed at that, but beat the creature to death in short order.

“Ceiling! Ceiling!” Yang shouted while holding up her torch, only to start whimpering. Several spiders the size of their hands were crawling away, with one slightly bigger taking a defensive stance against the threatening torch. The others started shivering at the sight, realizing they might have been walking under a handful of oversized spiders at any given moment.

"Don't look up, don't look up," Ruby muttered to herself, shivering slightly from fear. None of her teammates judged her, for they felt the same thing.

They went into the room, Yang and Blake watching out for ceiling spiders while Ruby and Weiss dug around, looking for any sign of the amulet. They ended up finding three necklaces, but two didn’t have anything on them. Still, they packed them away along with the scattered coins that they found, then moved along further into the cave. The spiders seemed to have mostly scattered from them, letting the girls feel a little less creeped out as they continued searching. Another room was checked and cleared, but then the girls came across a tunnel-hallway with several rooms set about and a distinct lack of spiderwebs.

“Looks like the crawlers don’t come back here too much,” Ruby pointed out while holding another torch she’d gotten forward. The room she looked into had chairs with holes in the middle and buckets set under them, making her back up while she crinkled her nose. Blake began looking towards the darkest end with Yang right behind her while Weiss moved towards the opposite.

To her surprise, a coffin was propped up against the far wall of a small room. At first, she thought it must have been where someone had died before the spiders took over, but then thought about the people who must have been in this cave beforehand. Not only did a coffin seem out of place for people avoiding the law, anyone using one would have set it down with the body inside, if not place it in the ground. Part of her was saying there was nothing in it, while another part told her they could have hidden items of value inside, believing no one would look in such a container. A small, but loud part of her also cried out in warning about investigating such an item in such a place.

Slowly, Weiss walked up to the coffin, reaching out with one hand while holding her torch in the other. Her fingers touched the edge of the lid, pulling at it slightly and finding it loose enough to open. She took in a deep breath and pulled, slowly opening the container to the world and her eyes, her heart pounding and other arm tensed as its inside was slowly revealed.

She sighed when she saw that nothing was inside, simply the cushioned lining typical of a coffin. She almost laughed at her childish fear of the simple object and turned to head back to her friends and continue searching, only to see a pale, sunken face behind her. Before she could react, the face’s mouth opened and came at her, sharp points piercing and sinking into her neck as it bit down.

Weiss screamed.

August 9th - 9th of Last Seed

Chapter Text

Life is hectic. I know I'm not the only one, we're all going through some tough times right now, but I can at least claim that I was sliding into the rough times beforehand. Hopefully, everything gets better for all of us across the world. Stay safe, from xTRESTWHOx, NaanContributor, and me.

Chapter 3: Blight of the Soul

9th of Last Seed

Pain was firing through Weiss’ neck as she tried to shove the man – or perhaps simply man-shaped thing – off of her. It had taken hold of her arms, gripping them with almost unnatural strength, but she was beginning to pull her way free of them as her Aura was heightened with her struggle. She almost ripped herself free when a feeling of fatigue began to overcome her. Her energy felt as though it was slipping away as cold took her extremities and began to spread through her.

“What the hell?!” Yang’s voice yelled before the thing’s face was pulled away from her throat. The thing tried to bat her away, but the brawler blocked and then punched it across the jaw. It shrieked as it leaped back, and then Weiss felt herself falter. Her team were yelling things to each other, at the creature, and to her, but she couldn’t focus on the words. Her head was swimming and spinning while she tried to gain her bearings, kneeling down to avoid falling from the dizziness. Her attacker looked back at her, but Blake jumped between them, bringing out her sword as she did. The creature drew a sword from a nearby rack as well, swinging it as soon as it was out of the scabbard. Blake slid back from the blow, then Yang came in. An audible punch hit the thing’s chest, breaking several ribs with a loud crack, and making it shout as it was flung back, but it punched back and hit Yang in the throat. The blonde was stunned by the strike, allowing the creature to kick her away and into the wall of the hallway with enough force to cause the cave itself to ominously shake.

Between Yang’s injuries and the shaking cavern, Blake was distracted enough for the being to slash at her again, but she still blocked it, though it knocked her back. Ruby tried to jump in, but the small space prevented her from bringing her scythe to bear quickly. This gave the thing enough time to turn its attention towards her, grabbing at the shaft of her weapon and stabbing at her. Ruby was able to jump back in a burst of petals, to which the creature roared furiously and splayed its arms out wide. A glow began emanating from its palms and black blood began to stream out of its mouth. The blancette had mostly recovered by this point, though she still felt weak and cold. She had enough strength to recognize the opportunity presented to her, however, when she noticed the creature's unprotected back was facing towards her. As quickly as she could, she shot to her feet, drew Myrtenaster, and dashed towards the attacker with the assistance of a Glyph. She stabbed where she assumed the heart was and pierced all the way through, much to the surprise of herself, Ruby, and the creature itself, who seemed to look at the thin blade in shock.

Then the thing shrieked in bloodcurdling agony as it clutched the place where the blade erupted from its chest and spasmed. Weiss stepped back before it fell to its knees, pulling her blade from it. The thing seemed to shrivel up before their eyes, soon crumbling into dust around the tattered clothing it wore.

“Wha- what?” she asked no one in particular, clutching at the stinging spot on her neck a moment later. Weiss then stumbled and swayed, fatigue returning as the adrenaline wore off. As fast as they could, Blake was back on her feet and Yang was stumbling towards them, the former going through her pack and pulling out a medkit. Ruby, meanwhile, adopted a serious look on her face as she analyzed the pile of dust the creature left behind, her anger visibly restrained. Yang joined her soon after, both content with letting Blake tend to Weiss.

“Here, you’re bleeding,” Blake said before taking alcohol pads and wiping them against the spots on Weiss’ neck. She hissed in a breath at the cool sting on her wounds, then let out a grunt of pain. Once the bleeding stopped, Blake looked over the punctures for a moment before shaking her head. “I don’t know how deep those go, but that’s about all we can do for now. Let me find some gauze.”

“What the heck was that thing?” Yang asked while shaking out her hair. “It hit like an Ursa, looked like a dried-up human, used a sword, and turned into dust?” She kicked at some of the dusty clothing, pushing a bit of the pile around to reveal an amulet of sorts. “Huh…?” As she fished it out, Ruby joined in on looking over Weiss.

“You sure you okay? It didn’t poison you or anything?” Ruby asked with naked concern.

“I’m fine. Just…a little cold, maybe.”

Much to Weiss' surprise, Ruby responded by taking her hand into her own and holding it. Weiss tried to sputter out to ask what she was doing, then she brought it up to her cheek. Blake set the medkit aside and did the same with her other hand, confusing her further.

“Yeah, you’re cold,” Ruby stated.

“Was it…draining your blood?” Blake asked. “This feels almost like someone who donated blood recently.”

“I don’t know… Maybe?”

“How do you know what someone feels like just after donating?” Yang asked with genuine curiosity.

“I used to donate all the time. Do you feel dizzy?” she directed back at Weiss.

“Not as much as I did,” she admitted, not sure what to think of something having drained her of blood. “Mostly…tired.”

“I’d say this whole thing is tiring.” Yang rolled her shoulders and neck as Blake pulled out a water bottle and mixed in an electrolyte packet. “Hitting that support beam sucked. A spider almost fell on me.”

“Support beam?” Weiss stepped out and looked down to see a wooden beam nearly broken in half. The cave above it was spilling dirt, and the wood seemed to be breaking further. “Oh no.”

Ruby looked down the cavern tunnel as well and gasped. “Hit the deck!”

The girls went into the room and hugged a wall. Seconds later, the crashing of stone on stone was heard and a rush of air and dirt was sent past the opening of the room as the ground shook. When things began to settle, they all headed back out and looked down to see several boulders had caved in, including one that seemed to be bigger than any two of them put together.

“Aw crap!” Yang complained. “Now we’ve got to dig out!”

“Not a good idea,” Weiss warned her before walking up towards the cave in. “If we move too much of this, we could risk another, bigger cave-in. It wouldn’t be a problem with something to stabilize things, but all we have on hand that could do that is my Semblance, and that would be a temporary measure.”

“Then what do we do?” Blake asked, looking to Ruby after a second.

“Weiss knows more about caves and mining and stuff,” the youngest of them pointed out. “What do you think, Weiss?”

The heiress smiled and looked back towards the darkness.

“We should see if there’s any other way out. Sometimes, mines and caves, such as this one, have secondary exits in case of situations just like this. In fact, look at the settling dust.” She pointed towards the dust still in the air, illuminated by torchlight, flowing down to the ground at an angle. “There’s probably a slight draft in the direction of the exit.”

“Okay, let’s see if we can find a way out,” Ruby agreed. The four of them continued down the tunnel, which seemed to wind its way around like a snake. With her natural night vision, Blake led them deeper into the cave, and after a few minutes of walking she turned her head around at a sound, and soon the other three heard it as well. It was a trickle, but it was unmistakably the sound of water flowing. At one turn, a slight stream of water flowed from slightly higher, cascading down the rock before pooling a bit at the bottom and then continued downhill with the next section of tunnel.

“Is this a good sign?” Ruby hopefully asked.

“It isn’t bad.” Blake squatted down to look at the place where the stream began. “Wherever this flows the water would have carved at the rock. It could lead outside to a creek or maybe a river, or it could lead to an underground reservoir.” She stood up and looked back down the tunnel. “We’ll just have to see.”

They continued down further, a foul smell reaching their noses after a few minutes. They started cupping their faces or holding their noses against the stench, Ruby feeling a little nauseous from it. They began to pass by another cavern where flies were buzzing but stopped when they saw what was within. Piles and piles of bones lay inside, some picked clean while others were covered in fetid, rotted meat. Dotted among the bones were skulls of clearly human origin, along with a couple feline-shaped ones. At the top of the pile, though, were three ‘fresher’ bodies. One was heavily infested with maggots, slowly exposing the bone beneath to match the mass around them, another bloated disgustingly, looking like a balloon of filth in human-shape. The newest one looked as though he had just been added to the pile, a slight dry look to him and his neck missing a chunk.

The girls ran away from the dumping ground, trying not to gag and hack as they fled the horrid scene. There were some near trip-ups, but they managed to stay on their feet and kept going, stumbling away from the rotting carcasses until they could no longer smell the stench of rot behind them.

“Oh God! Oh God!” Yang got out as she tried to keep down her breakfast. “That was disgusting!”

“How many people were in there?” Ruby asked as she looked back a moment.

“I don’t know,” Weiss confessed. “There was no way to count. But it was-” She shivered at the memory of maggots crawling over teeth and through empty eye sockets. As she rubbed her arms, trying to keep out the thought of her almost succumbing to that same, horrible fate, she almost missed the sight of natural light up ahead. “Oh, thank the Gods! We’re almost out.”

Everyone muttered their relief as they made their way out, stepping out of the cave into a bit of forest with nearby mountains. Weiss winced at the sunlight, rubbing her eyes a bit as a feeling of wooziness overcame her. Ruby was by her side in an instant, helping her to sit on a stone and keep her steady while Blake fished out the bottle of electrolyte water she had prepared. The heiress began to drink it down, shading her eyes while looking over everything.

“Where are we?” she asked. Ruby looked around them, not sure herself, while Yang seemed to take a lookout position.

“Not sure. Don’t worry. We’ll find our way back to Rorichstead.”

“It’s Rorickstead,” Weiss corrected her with a mumble. She smacked her lips after taking a sip of the water and sighed. “Let’s just…move on.”

Despite trying to find their way, the group was almost completely turned around by the exit area of the cave. They had managed to exit the forest and enter the plains area, which they knew Rorickstead was in. Following the road, however, didn’t return them to the village. In fact, it brought them to a whole new landmark, a sort of stone pillar somewhere between twenty and thirty meters tall, with five five-foot-tall stones arranged around it. An old, worn banner blew through the wind, attached near the top. It didn’t appear to be a ruin, so they guessed it was some sort of memorial or monument. The girls then set up camp against the stone outcropping nearby, as the sun was beginning to disappear in the distance. Weiss pored over the map as Yang tried to find a place to start a fire, trying to find out where they were.

“I think we went the wrong way,” she concluded as the blonde started pushing large stones in a circle for a firepit. This caught the other girls’ attentions, letting her continue. “If we had been anywhere north of Rorickstead, we would have run into it by now. And I know for a fact that we went south.”

“So, we need to go north?” Yang suggested as she set down another stone for a seat.

“We could, but there’s no telling how far we are from Rorickstead,” Weiss explained while showing them the map. “The stretch below it is vaster than above it. We could be a full day away from Rorickstead now.”

“What about here?” Ruby asked while pointing at another settlement.

“Northkeep,” Weiss read, taking the map from Ruby and running her finger across it. “It could be closer or further, there’s just no way to tell. But…we would be able to orient ourselves better if we found it. We’d have to go through the mountain pass here, which would be clearly visible if the map’s even half-accurate.”

“Plus, it’s civilization,” Yang added while rubbing her arms. “Not exactly looking forward to sleeping out in the cold tonight. Twice in a row would not be great.”

“We could make that in a day, I believe.” Weiss looked over to Ruby. “Well, what do you say?”

“Well…we’re not in any rush to get back to Solitude,” Ruby figured while rubbing her chin in thought. “We could see more of the area while getting our bearings. There may be even more opportunities there. We still aren’t sure how much what’s-his-name is going to give us for the amulet.”

“Forget that, I wanna know what was up with that thing,” Yang griped. Weiss shivered as she rubbed her neck where the two punctures had faded. “Did he know that was in there?”

“Maybe, maybe not.” Ruby groaned and crossed her arms. “Seemed kinda fishy, though. From that…one room, we can tell lots of people went in there and didn’t come out. We might have been the first ones he asked and everyone else went there for other reasons, or he kept asking people and no one was bringing back his amulet for reasons he didn’t know. Though, I doubt he would have tried that many times…”

“Whatever it was, we’ll get to the bottom of it,” Blake promised. She’d finally gotten the kindling started and was trying to get the fire to grow.

“I just…wanna give him the benefit of the doubt. He didn’t seem…malicious.”

“His face was reptilian. He wasn’t displaying much emotion at all,” The Faunus said as she put on another dry log piece and poked the fire with a green stick.

“I can’t imagine he had any reason to send people to die to a monster,” Weiss spoke up. “The people of Rorickstead didn’t seem to know what was going on either, and they lived near it. I think it might have been using the spiders as a cover.”

“Whatever it was,” Yang jumped in. “What was it? It definitely wasn’t a Grimm. Everything else aside, it turned to dust, not…empty air. Take into account it was using a weapon and wearing clothes…”

“Some kind of body-possessing Grimm?” Ruby suggested. “Like a Geist for corpses?”

“No, we would’ve seen it exit,” Weis pointed out. “Or there would’ve been some sign of it. I think…it was just a wholly new monster we’ve never seen before.”

“Like those elf people, or the super Faunus,” Yang suggested.

“Not Faunus,” Blake tersely mumbled.

“I guess that makes sense,” Ruby acquiesced. “We have run into some alien creatures. Trolls are definitely not normal. Frostbite spiders too.”

“If this place has giant cephalopods, I’m punching my way back to Remnant,” Yang promised with a tightened fist. The other girls laughed at that as the last vestige of the day sunk away.

Weiss decided to take first watch. She was tired, but something about the night felt a little re-energizing to her. Most of her watch saw her staring up at the moons and reading the book the Dunmer had given her. She was beginning to regret not getting his name. She also regretted not getting a little verbal assistance with her first steps in trying to learn ‘magic’.

Weiss was finding it increasingly harder and harder to sweep away the existence of 'magic'. She tried rationalizing magicka as Aura, but going further into it seemed to contradict the idea. Magicka was described as being a natural force, like light and gravity, suffused into the air, earth, and water. Even ignoring the ‘sun is a hole in the void of Oblivion leading to Aetherius’ nonsense, she had to admit they at least seemed to solidly explain how magicka came from the sun and the stars. The fact it was supposed to be a form of energy made sense, scientifically speaking. Everything needed an energy source. Even Aura depended on the state of the body as much as the soul.

She was sure she was getting somewhere. Her hand felt hot. That was a good sign, right? She should be able to summon plumes of flame soon enough.

For some reason, the idea of flames pouring from her hands didn’t seem so appealing now. Weiss reached up and brushed back some of her hair, feeling the sweat sticking to her bangs. She was then reminded of the bodily ache that had been slowly building through her.

“Weiss, you good?” she heard Yang ask and looked back to see the girl was up on schedule.

The heiress sighed. “To be honest, no. I feel dreadful.”

“Yeah, you don’t look so hot.” Yang reached up and felt her forehead. “Correction, you are hot. Not good.” Yang shook her head and pointed over to their packs. “There’s some fever pills in the medkits. Go ahead and take a couple and get some sleep.”

“Yeah, thanks.” Weiss closed the book and headed over to find the medicine, cursing the fact that she was coming down with something else already. She swallowed the fever reducers with a swig of water then headed to her sleeping bag.

It was dark and cold, and something was winding its way around her. She scrambled for purchase, trying to drag herself up and away from whatever it was. She kept ahead of it, but it was always there, looking down on her and laughing. No matter how fast she went, she couldn’t lose it, and she couldn’t get to her feet. Other voices laughed at her as well, enjoying the fear and torment she was experiencing. As they lapped it up, she cried out for someone, anyone to save her.

“Weiss, you okay?” Ruby asked her partner after she sat with them to eat breakfast. She looked ill to anyone with eyes, and probably sounded like it to those who didn’t.

“Didn’t sleep well,” she muttered, brushing off Ruby’s concern while drinking the almost detestable instant campfire coffee. “I think I’m coming down with something.”

“Crap, do you think it’s some local disease?” Yang asked, her eyes slightly widened. “That might be what gets us: alien germs and our unprepared immune systems.” Ruby gasped at that before fire seemed to shine behind her silver eyes.

“We better get to the town and get you some medicine!” she declared while hold her fist up in a determined look. “Let’s get ready ASAP! Weiss, don’t strain yourself!” Before the heiress could tell Ruby not to be overly worried, the younger girl quickly scarfed down the remainder of her food and set to packing. Yang and Blake went after her, leaving Weiss to finish her breakfast practically alone. She sighed good-naturedly and shook her head before focusing on finishing her food. Once she was done, she started packing as well. There wasn’t much at that point, but she didn’t want to feel like a burden. Intrinsically, she knew they wouldn’t see it that way, but there was her personal peace of mind to worry over as well.

Soon, they set off, heading south towards a place they hoped would point them in the right direction.

The girls arrived at Northkeep just as the sun was beginning to dip below the horizon. A few hours before, they had passed between the mountains the map showed just after hitting a four-way crossing in the road. Weiss, luckily, kept them on track when Ruby almost led them to the east-bound road. Keep Inn had some vacancies, and they managed to get a room just before the shops closed, with Ruby rushing out to the apothecary, the place most likely to have medicine.

Storm clouds rolled over, having been distant when they were on the approach, and now they were pouring rain down in buckets, letting the girls know they had narrowly dodged a bullet there. Ruby returned in the thick of it, her hood pulled up to help keep herself from getting soaked. She then brought out a bottle and sighed sadly.

“This was all we could afford,” she said sadly while handing the bottle over to Weiss, who looked it over curiously. “She called it a ‘low-grade disease treatment’ potion. Supposed to help fight off infections, but if we wanted anything more specific, we’d have to know the name of the disease or let her figure it out. But it wouldn’t matter, because I asked how much ‘cure’ potions are, and the cheapest one is eighty septims.” She sighed as she sat down at their table. “And I doubt it’s Witless Pox.”

“Someone having money troubles?” the dark-skinned bartender asked them. The four turned to her and she gave them a light smile. “We’ve all been there. Maybe I could give you a hand?”

Weiss’ face became a little pensive and the others looked uncertain. Suddenly accepting charity wasn’t automatically bad, but to do it when they weren’t actually desperate was another thing. Ruby was sure any one of them could go out and make a bit of money if someone was willing to pay them for work. From the look on the innkeeper's face, she clearly understood their concerns.

“Oh, don’t worry,” she reassured them with a wave of her hand. “It’s not a handout. I just need someone to deliver something for me to the inn at Helgen.” She pulled up a small crate that rattled a bit on the inside, the chinking of glass heard from within.

Weiss hummed with uncertainty while checking their map. She saw Helgen labelled to the east of them. “That’s…a day away if we leave first thing in the morning.” A roll of thunder passed over them, letting them know the likelihood of that.

“Well, I can promise you a whole denar if you make the trip.”

Weiss’ eyes went wide at that while Ruby gained a thoughtful look.

“How much is a denar?” she asked, and her partner leaned over.

“One hundred septims,” Weiss whispered.

“Oh, wow, uh…” Ruby took on a more thoughtful look before turning to her team. Blake and Yang both looked at Weiss, who still looked as if she was falling ill. For her part, Weiss was trying to resist the urge to haggle. She already knew this was charity disguised as a simple task, and pushing it when her well-being was on the line was not wise.

“Okay,” the younger girl finally agreed. “We’ll head over with it as soon as we can.”

“Good deal. Vilod will give you what you’re owed, just tell him it’s from Nania. Here, I’ll write up a note and leave it in the bottles for him to find.” The woman then took a sheet of paper from a box along with a quill and inkwell. She quickly wrote up a message for her fellow inn keeper as a man a few shades darker than her walked up.

“Giving these girls some work, dear?”

“They need a little more than what we can give them for chopping wood, Alusan.” They looked towards one of their windows being pattered by hard rain and both shared a smile. “Of course, no one’s chopping wood now.”

The man smiled at his wife as she set a denar on the dried note and folded it over the coin out of sight of the girls before setting it into the crate. The girls had an honest look about them that she felt she could trust. Despite their manner of dress, she could tell they were in a bad way. She didn’t know the situation, but she had been at the business of innkeeping and bartending long enough to tell when someone needed a hand. She just hoped the situation with their sick member wasn’t too dire. If nothing else, they’d get to Helgen and a priest would see to her, or they’d manage to get the right potion. Most diseases took a long time to become deadly, anyway, and the sick girl’s condition didn’t seem too bad yet. She should be right as rain in no time.

It was dark and cold, and something was winding its way around her. She scrambled for purchase, trying to drag herself up and away from whatever it was. She kept ahead of it, but it was always there, looking down on her and laughing. No matter how fast she went, she couldn’t lose it, and she couldn’t get to her feet. Other voices laughed at her as well, enjoying the fear and torment she was experiencing. As they lapped it up, she cried out for someone, anyone to save her.

No answer came, but instead the winding of digits and limbs were felt around her legs, dragging her back and into the cold. Slivers of something like creeping ice worked its way up her back, sinking into her skin with its unwanted embrace. The cold hands held her arms now, and she was screaming.

Team RWBY waited for the rain to let up, which took close to noon, before heading out to Helgen. As they hit the road, Ruby looked over their map before handing it over to Blake. Northkeep was a rather small settlement, tightly packed into a wall that once served as a fort, so it didn’t take them long to exit and leave it behind.

“We may have to camp out at night, but luckily I’ve got a waterproof tent,” Ruby told them. “You were right about being prepared, Weiss.”

“Even I couldn’t have predicted this,” she grumbled, trying not to sound irate. The sun felt more blinding than normal to her, but luckily the storm was hiding it behind cloud cover half the time. She didn’t really get to enjoy it, however, and instead was plagued by the constant fatigue and soreness flowing through her, not to mention the fever. Ruby had half-suggested that Weiss wait at Northkeep, but the heiress quickly talked her into letting her come, citing that if the treatment was in Helgen, then it would be more prudent for her to go there rather than wait on the others to make a round trip. More selfishly, she just wanted it to end as soon as possible, and if there was some form of “instant cure” that people seemed to profess existed for most diseases, then she wanted it the moment it was available.

“We’re kinda unprepared for all of this,” Yang admitted while putting her arms behind her head. “Big, mountainous land with monsters around every corner, medieval North Anima looking guys, walking reptiles, and variable cat people. Like a fantasy board game. All we need now is a dragon.”

“Well, none of us are bards, so we’d have to fight it,” Blake responded, smirking a little at the implied joke.

“Eh, my charisma score’s high enough. I could pull it off.”

Ruby started to make a sound of disgust, but it quickly morphed into laughter. Weiss look at them all in confusion.

“I don’t get it,” the blancette confessed.

“It’s a rolling joke,” Yang said.

“That explains nothing.”

“Remind me to get a session of Cairns and Chimeras started when we get back,” Yang said to her sister. “We need to give Weiss a crash course.”

“Hopefully it turns out better than Remnant: the Game,” the team leader responded with a chuckle.

“She purposefully confused me with that one!” Weiss accused while pointing towards the blonde. Yang defended herself, and the girls entered a short back and forth that was more playful than anything. As they rested for a short break, eating some tuna sandwiches that Blake threw together for them all, the cat-eared Faunus started looking around, her bow moving with the twitches of her ears. The others turned in the direction she was looking, and everyone tensed when she grabbed her weapons.

“What’s up?” Ruby whispered to her as she readied Crescent Rose, a finger twitch away from deploying the scythe.

“Something’s stalking towards us,” she warned them. They followed her gaze and, for a moment, didn’t see anything. However, they could all soon make out the details of a brown coat of fur approaching. Whatever it was noticed their alert stances and paused, then it rushed forward in a burst of movement and leaped the last twenty or so feet through the air. Yang’s fist came around and knocked it away with a crunch, a snarling yelp coming from the creature, now revealed to be a feline with exposed incisors the size of small knives.

“The hell?!” she exclaimed before turning back to see three more incoming, though they stopped and began circling the four girls. One came near where its fellow had landed and sniffed at the downed cat. It then growled before letting out a sound between a cat’s meow and a roar, then they all fled. The girls remained alert for a moment before Blake went over to the dead one and checked over it, the others moving around to look at the corpse from all angles

“I think you caved its chest in,” she relayed to her partner. “The others must have thought twice when that one saw it was dead.”

“I don’t believe this,” Weiss muttered while looking closely at the limp mouth of the dead feline. “Homotherium crenatidens.”

“Gesundheit,” Ruby told her, but Weiss shook her head.

“It’s a saber-toothed cat,” Weiss explained. “These things have been extinct on Remnant for ten thousand years.”

“I thought the saber-toothed cats were smiledons,” Yang commented, remembering her faint studies on Remnant's natural history.

“Those are the most famous, but there were several species. These were less well-known as they had smaller fangs, but still bigger than anything you’d find on an extant feline species on Remnant.” Weiss prodded at the gums with a stick. “Why is this here, on an alien world?”

“I think we’ll hurt ourselves thinking about it,” Blake told her before standing up straight. “At least, those three won’t come after us again. They’re animals, but they aren’t stupid. Still, we shouldn’t stick around here. Let’s move on.”

“Right,” Ruby agreed before looking at the carcass. “Should we leave it here?”

“It probably wouldn’t be any good for eating,” the Faunus explained before rubbing her chin. “But maybe the fur can get us a little money. Okay, I can skin it if we take a moment.”

With a new pelt added to their inventory, Team RWBY continued along the road. Night started falling as they reached the point where the lake emptied itself into a river, camping near the rockface after deciding to not tempt the world to show them if it had lake monsters. It turned out the world was going to show them anyways with a couple of crabs larger than the sisters’ dog. They were easily killed, but one had made a rip in a sleeping bag, which earned it a kick from Yang that split it in half.

“Stupid crabs,” the blonde complained as Ruby sewed a patch in Yang’s bag. While she was ripping the legs and claws off for food, the brawler was unable to hide the vindictiveness she felt in tearing the critters apart. Blake readied a pot with purified water and got out some butter from their stored food.

“Knew I wasn’t overpacking.”

“The crabbing industry must be a lot more dangerous here than we’d have thought,” Ruby said before shaking out the fixed sleeping bag and handing it over to her sister. She then looked over to her sick friend and grimaced. “Hey Weiss, are you okay? You need anything?”

“Water,” the heiress got out between winces of pain and discomfort. Parts of her felt as though they were being twisted and set on fire. While the sun’s sinking away provided a modicum of relief, they couldn’t let her get cold and so bundled her up. Her condition seemed to have deteriorated rapidly in just a couple of hours, and now Ruby was making plans to get her treatment at Helgen even if she had to ‘borrow’ it first and worry about paying back for it later. The leader returned with a drinking canteen and helped Weiss to get a few swallows down.

“Don’t worry about taking a turn at watch tonight,” Ruby assured her. “Well split it between the three of us. You just get some rest.”

Weiss looked at her for a moment, wincing with pain as tears came unbidden. “Thank you,” she got out.

“Don’t mention it,” Ruby told her while gently patting her arm. “Just lay down and relax. Let us know if you think you can eat anything.” At Weiss’ nod, Ruby went back to helping set up camp. The sick woman watched her leave and wiggled in her bundle of covers, trying to get as comfortable as she could, even as aches and fever plagued her.

It was dark and cold, and something was winding its way around her. She scrambled for purchase, trying to drag herself up and away from whatever it was. She kept ahead of it, but it was always there, looking down on her and laughing. No matter how fast she went, she couldn’t lose it, and she couldn’t get to her feet. Other voices laughed at her as well, enjoying the fear and torment she was experiencing. As they lapped it up, she cried out for someone, anyone to save her.

No answer came, but instead the winding of digits and limbs were felt around her legs, dragging her back and into the cold. Slivers of something like creeping ice worked its way up her back, sinking into her skin with its unwanted embrace. The cold hands held her arms now, and she was screaming.

She was lifted up, her struggles seemingly only serving to excite the limbs holding her in place, and her eyes beheld a pair of glowing, cold points of light. A smile stretched beneath them, teeth like needles the size of a man in mismatched rows revealed before her. A massive finger stretched out before her and came down, a gnarled claw coming for her face. She struggled and screamed, but could do nothing to move out of its path.

The tip of the claw touched her forehead, blood leaking down her face from the point of contact. A laugh like grating stone and billowing flames rang out around her.

“You’re mine now, my child.”

Weiss’ body shook as she awoke for a brief moment. She tried to get up but felt restricted by the blankets wrapped around her as well as her own weakness. Her heart raced faster and faster and images of demonic faces flashed across her eyes. She tried to scream, but the sound wouldn’t come to her. As her friends noticed her thrashing, she went still as her throat seemed to lock up. No breath reached her as her eyes fluttered close and she rattled, her body finally going still as her heart stopped.

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Chapter 5: Mortal Realizations

14th of Last Seed

“Seriously, I’m fine!” Weiss complained while pulling the hood lower over her head. The sun was extra annoying today, and she could feel her sensitive skin turning pink under its rays. Frowning to herself, she took another sip of water and grimaced. Her stomach felt terribly water-logged, yet the thirst in her throat persisted. If anything, it only got worse and was now joined by a pang of deep hunger. Groaning, she dug out some bread and nibbled at it.

“Nope,” Ruby refused before poking her cheek. “You’re staying on the sledge until we know exactly what’s wrong and can get you cured.”

Weiss muttered indignantly at that, but didn’t bother arguing any further. There was no point. She’d already tried telling them that she felt fine after running from the dragon – and wasn’t that an event! – but Yang had countered her by pointing out how she’d drank down healing potions soon after, and that was likely a big factor in why she didn’t feel quite like someone who had recently suffered a seizure. Given that they weren’t sure of the effectiveness of the concoctions, nor how they even worked, they couldn’t really judge how well it would have helped or how long it should last. For all they knew, it could suddenly wear off and she’d collapse at any moment.

Didn’t mean Weiss had to like feeling like an invalid.

“Wait,” Hadvar suddenly warned them, grasping the hilt of his sword. “Think I heard something.”

Everyone paused in their steps and went quiet. Ralof readied his axe while others reached for their weapons. Cynnrbert seemed to be holding a light in his hands, his eyes glowing before tracking something they couldn’t see.

“Wolves! About a dozen!” the Breton warned them.

Their weapons came out, and then a moment later the wolves were upon them, leaping out of the forest and surrounding the group. Weiss had jumped up and grabbed her blade, not willing to sit out a fight her friends were in, even against something as mundane as simple wolves. The beasts came out of the woods in brown and grey blurs, far swifter and more agile than the girls expected. Noise from behind let the group know the pack was trying to surround them, probing at their defenses as the humans stood with their backs to each other. One wolf seemed to turn suddenly, heading straight for them before leaping. Weiss readied her rapier to impale it when a bolt of purplish-blue lightning went over her head and collided with it, sending the wolf back with a yelp. It hit the dirt and whined, other wolves stopping to sniff at it as it struggled to get up. Blinking in surprise, Weiss dared to look back and saw electricity coiling around Cynnrbert’s hands and wrists before coalescing into his palms and firing off where he aimed them. Two more wolves were hit, zapped and sent reeling, but not downed. Still, it seemed to be enough to convince the others to not come any closer, and so the pack backed off. As the animals retreated, a few paused and turned around to growl threateningly towards them, likely to ensure that they wouldn't be followed. Then they, too, turned around and ran out of sight into the forest.

The group stood at the ready a while longer, everyone keeping their battle stances until the mage let his go and sighed.

“All right,” he announced to the others. “They’re gone.”

“That was…” Weiss began, not sure where to begin. The Dunmer’s Flames spell was surprising on its own, and Weiss was getting a feeling for the beginning techniques, but what Cynnrbert had just displayed was far more eye-catching and a stark reminder of the potential behind this realm’s ‘magic’.

“That was awesome!” Ruby shouted excitedly, displaying a far less calm response. She began shooting her arms around theatrically while saying, “They were like, ‘Rawr!’, and you were like, ‘HAH!’, and then ‘zap’ ‘pew’, and then they were running with their tails between their legs!”

Weiss and the rest of team RWBY rolled their eyes, used to seeing Ruby's childish antics. Cynnrbert chuckled in amusement as well as a slight hint of gratitude, as though he wasn't used to the praise.

“Eh, good work, I suppose,” Hadvar said, catching the girls off-guard with his nonchalance. “Saved the rest of us the trouble.”

“Well done, mage,” Ralof said, almost equally unimpressed.

The girls felt confused by the Nords’ lack of reaction. As the group regathered, there were some quick whispers about how common magic had to be for them to act like that, but it was eventually shelved in favor of getting back on the road to Riverwood.

“So, it’s right up against the river,” Yang noted as they came closer to the village. “That where the name come from?”

“That, and the wood, likely,” Ralof admitted with a quick shrug. “I know, it's very creative. Our village mostly trades out through logging. Lumber is always in demand. Most of it is sent along the river.” He then peered over to their team leader, looking a little nervous about the situation. “You sure you’re not tired, lass?”

“Nah, I’m good,” she grunted. Ruby was tugging along the sledge now, but she wasn’t struggling too hard. The girl was used to lugging around a weapon larger than herself, so the weight of one teammate, the lightest one at that, wasn’t a big deal for her. But it did usually keep her from talking, and after a quick smile and wave towards the Nord, he dropped his concern and carried on.

Soon, they were closing on the front gate of the wooden palisade, and as promised, Weiss was finally allowed to walk on her own feet. A number of tents were set up outside, Khajiit like those they saw at Solitude walking about or setting up stalls. A few Nords were looking over them, but didn’t seem too interested once they saw the two soldiers from opposing sides entering without killing one another. An elf carrying a load of chopped firewood then walked over from a side street, almost bumping into them. When he saw them, his eyes widened in recognition and he nearly dropped his load.

“Hadvar, is that you? And Ralof?” the elf started upon seeing them, gently placing the firewood on a pile near him then rubbing his head with a confused smile. “Does this mean the war’s finally over?”

“Sorry, Faendal,” the Imperial soldier sadly replied and shook his head. “Please, keep this to yourself if you can. We’re going to see our families for now, and we don’t need to draw attention.”

“Oh, of course.” He nodded and looked back into the settlement, then towards Ralof. “Well, I guess you’re going to see your sister? We can head right over if you want.”

“All right then. Hadvar, I assume you’ll head to your uncle’s?”

“You assume correctly,” the soldier grumbled while heading in. Neither said another word nor looked at each other as they walked towards opposite sides of town, leaving team RWBY behind. The girls couldn't help but feel saddened at the scene, and all were frowning.

“They really grew up together,” Blake mumbled as the locals went ahead of them. “They grew up here, and they’re fighting on opposing sides.”

“It’s harsh,” Yang admitted while shaking her head. “I can’t imagine what got them here.”

“Who could?”

“Should we follow them?” Ruby asked, looking back at her teammates for their opinions.

“Maybe,” Weiss considered for a moment. “At least, we should give them some time to catch up with their loved ones. We should look into stocking up and-”

“Oh! We need to check for an alchemist doctor or whatever!” Ruby suddenly remembered before taking Weiss by the hand. “Come on! Shouldn’t take us long to find one. And we’ve got plenty of septims this time.”

Weiss’ eyes were practically begging the other two to save her, but in an act of benevolent betrayal, they just watched her get dragged away by the suddenly rejuvenated Ruby.

"A dragon! I saw a dragon!" an old woman started shouting from her porch. A young man nearby who seemed to have been trying to chat up some Ohmes-raht woman sighed and walked over to her.

"What? What is it now, mother?"

"It was as big as the mountain and black as night. It flew right over the barrow!" the elderly woman described, instantly making Yang and Blake pause in their steps.

"Dragons, now, is it? Please, mother. If you keep on like this everyone in town will think you're crazy. And I've got better things to do than listen to more of your fantasies."

"You'll see! It was a dragon! It'll kill us all and then you'll believe me!"

Yang hissed in a breath at that while Blake winced.

“So… They don’t know yet,” Yang realized. “Not sure if just telling people’s a good idea. If the old lady was the only one who saw anything…”

“Yeah, let’s try and figure out who’s in charge,” Blake figured after thinking for a moment. “If nothing else, we’ll get some info for the team to use.”

“Good call. They’ll also be the ones to know what we should do next.” A course decided, the two headed towards the village center, stopping by some people to ask some basic questions on the way.

Left behind on his own, Cynnrberrt looked around himself. After a few moments, he shrugged.

“Suppose I’ll get comfortable at the inn.”

“So, that was a bust,” Ruby muttered as she and Weiss approached the other two members of their team, who were now standing near Hadvar and Ralof’s gathered kinsmen, the two soldiers themselves having discarded their uniforms for more civilian clothing. “No real local alchemist, and the general store just stocks general stuff. In retrospect, I should have figured that from the name. Lesson learned, I suppose.”

“It’ll be fine,” Yang assured them. “Already asked, and Alvor here thinks the Khajiit caravan outside might be able to help.”

“Alvor?” Ruby asked as a big Nord man with a sooty apron and hairy arms reached out a calloused hand in greeting.

“Pleased to meet you,” he greeted her. “Ruby, right?”

“Yes sir,” she responded, smiling nervously.

“My nephew told me a bit about you. Not sure I believe half of it, but they’ve been waiting for you to tell the rest.”

“Aye, and not even Ralof would fess up,” a woman said from the other side of their gathering. “I’ve already told the men to clear out, so the lumberyard is abandoned right now. We can talk there.”

“Right, uh…” Ruby paused.

“Gerdur,” the woman filled her in with a smirk. “Ralof’s sister. And this is my husband, Hod,” she indicated the man next to her, who gave them a friendly wave.

“And my wife, Sigrid,” Alvor finished before they started towards the islet over a wooden bridge where much of the lumbering equipment was situated. “And your friend? Weiss, right?”

“We told them a bit,” Yang filled her in. “Just enough to get started.”

“So you didn’t mention Mr. Big-And-Flamey?” Ruby asked.

“Nah, left the best parts for you guys. Besides, figured we’d need a more private venue.”

“We didn’t want to cause a panic,” Blake added. “Even if the effects aren’t the same as back home, it wouldn’t do anyone any good right now.”

“Well, no need to worry now,” Gerdur said as they stopped near an old, large stump and some chairs. “So, what exactly is going on?” she directed at the lot of them. “Surely…the war’s not over.”

“No, at least, as far as we can tell,” Ralof answered. “The Empire had us captured, Jarl Ulfric too, and then…a dragon showed up at Helgen.”

Everyone paused, The villagers' eyes widened and they looked at each other, then back at RWBY, Ralof, and Hadvar in clear disbelief.

“A…dragon?” Gerdur muttered disbelievingly, hunching forward and rubbing her chin.

“Are you certain you didn’t see things?” Alvor asked.

“He’s telling the truth uncle,” Hadvar insisted, his face stern and focused. “It got…very close. I’d say I saw the white in its eyes, but it was all red. That thing…slaughtered us. It burned down Helgen without so much as a scratch on its hide. We barely got anyone out alive. These four and another came out behind us.”

Ruby then spoke up. “We fought it for a while, but it’s like it’s made out of some sort of carbon nanotube steel alloy. We didn’t even scratch it. The most we did was make it flinch. And that was with Weiss hitting it with a ton of ice spikes.”

“Carbon nano… What?” Alvor wondered aloud, confused as to what she was talking about, before shaking his head and moving on. “So then, a dragon? If there really is one, then this is bad news indeed. Riverwood isn’t made to defend against a large bandit raid, much less a dragon.”

“We don’t even have guards,” Gerdur agreed. “We’ll have to send for aid. They may not be able to spare many, but from the sounds of things we don’t need to fight it, just have enough time to get the people away to hide.” She looked up at the four girls. “You lot wouldn’t mind helping us in that case, would you?”

“We could probably help out. What do you need?” Yang immediately answered for the team, who all quickly nodded their heads.

“We need someone to speak to Jarl Balgruuf directly,” the woman explained. “Someone to convince him that Riverwood needs at least a few men to guard us. I think four witnesses to the dragon attack would work for that. Sorry to ask you, but as you can tell, this is quite dire.”

“Hadvar likely needs to return to Solitude and rejoin the Legion there,” Alvor put in. “And, I’m certain, Ralof will want to go back to Ulfric’s lot.”

Blake felt a bit of tension between the two families and nervously coughed to break their attention from it.

“We can get together transport for you,” Gerdur said. “The Khajiiti caravan will be in town for a few days. They’re headed straight for Whiterun after us. I’m certain they won’t mind another horse and buggy. The day after tomorrow is when they said they’ll be going.”

“Just keep an eye on your coinpurses as you go,” Alvor said with a little chuckle. Blake began to glare at him, but he didn’t seem to notice. “No, don’t worry too much. We’ve traded with them many times. Honest enough folk, if strange at times. They can get you there safe, at least. Their warcats can be fearsome things. Keep the sabers off of you at any rate.”

“Until then, we need to prepare.” Gerdur began to think. “The Embershard Mines southwest of us could be a good place to hide, but I think bandits have taken it over. Same problem with Bleak Falls Barrow.”

“Embershard is closer,” Alvor pointed out. “Even if we don’t stay, having it cleared will give us a good place to wait it out. The barrow though… Might be in danger of the ones up there if we have to abandon the village. Not to mention there could be far more skulking about up there.”

“So, two days to take out some bandits?” Yang smirked with some enthusiasm behind it. “No problem.”

“You’re a confident one, I see,” Alvor said with a laugh, to which Yang nonchalantly shrugged while absentmindedly checking the back of her hand.

“Meh, I could probably take them on my own.”

“Well, if you think you could,” Gerdur began, seeming to take her confidence at face value, “Embershard is the first priority then.”

“Got it!” Yang gave a thumb up.

“Maybe we can do some things around town to help out,” Ruby suggested. “Ooh! Can I check out your forge?”

“I suppose there’s no harm,” Alvor conceded. “So long as you know what you’re doing.”

“We could check out the caravan?” Weiss asked Blake. The Faunus seemed a little nervous but nodded.

“Well then, I’ll let Sigrid know to cook for a few extras tonight.”

“We can help with that, Alvor,” Gerdur said. “You all needn’t worry for the next few days. After what you had to face, and what you’re doing for us, the least we could do is let you take it a bit easier.”

Embershard was only about an hour’s walk away along the same road they came from, and Yang headed there as soon as she was able. Ruby felt apprehensive about letting her go and had been planning on joining her, but after getting a quick sitrep from the villagers and learning that there were only a dozen bandits and only three or four of them had any sort of combat competence, Yang convinced her to let her go alone. It was understood that if she didn’t return by six o’clock, the rest of the team would come in and there would be words. Yang, however, was confident that the outlaws wouldn’t stand a chance. Especially since she’d beaten the first one with a single backhanded slap.

Yang tossed the guard away, who rolled down the hill with several grunts of pain. Heading inside, it took her eyes a moment to adjust to the difference in lighting. There were a few torches, but not so many as to completely mitigate the darkness. Nevertheless, she continued walking confidently with no hint of nervousness. Then she heard something snap at her feet and looked down to see a broken thin rope. Something shifted above her and she looked up in time to see several rocks crash down on her. She yelped and raised her arms to shield herself, but each one bounced off her Aura and settled around her feet. She huffed a little and groaned as she dusted herself off and picked small rocks out of her hair.

“Traps, right,” she mumbled before continuing on. When she rounded a corner, she came across a wooden bridge over a pool of water. On the far right was a downward flight of stairs, and at the bottom was a small campsite. Two men were chatting among themselves, their backs turned to her as they instead tended to the fire.

“Aren’t you worried someone’s going to walk in here?” she heard one of them say. “The entrance isn’t exactly hidden, you know.”

“This again?" The other scoffed and shook his head. "I told you, we have someone standing guard out there. And don't forget the rock trap we rigged up.”

“Yeah, that tickled,” Yang said as she walked in between them, loosely draping her arms across their shoulders. The two dumbfounded bandits turned their heads to her before jumping back in alarm, pulling out their weapons. “And by the way, your ‘guard’ couldn’t even do that much,” Yang quipped, cracking her knuckles.

“You…”

“Get her!”

The two charged at her, only for one to get smacked aside easily. Yang blocked a slash headed for her neck and then socked the bandit in the jaw. She grabbed his shoulder and turned him, taking the iron sword from him and breaking it over her knee. The man looked at her in fear before taking off screaming, the other one running up and joining him, soaking wet.

“Heh, losers,” she laughed while tossing the broken sword away. A raised bridge separated where she was from the rest of the mines, so she pulled the blatant lever that obviously lowered the bridge. The moment she did, more bandits came running, shouting about how the bridge wasn’t supposed to be down. As the group advanced down the bridge, Yang decided to introduce herself and leaped from the balcony onto the bridge. It shook from the impact, sending a few of the bandits stumbling. A few others backed up in surprise, but others did not and instead charged her. The first had a warhammer and swung it as soon as he got in range. She easily moved in past his defenses and shoulder checked him, sending him into a woman with darker skin. One man slashed with an axe only to get backhanded off the bridge. Two people shot arrows at her, which she caught before crushing them in her hands, then fired Ember Celica at them both in return. The bandits went down with a yelp, the sound of the gunshot echoing across the cave and causing the bandits near her to drop their weapons and clutch their ears in pain.

“What’s going on here?” a man yelled from deeper inside the cave, attracted by the gunshot. When he emerged, he was fully clad in a suit of thick, heavy armor. The steel plate covered him from head to toe, and he had a shield and mace in his hands. He looked around the cave and saw the state of his men, and when he saw Yang, he growled angrily.

“You’re going to regret this,” he seethed, shifting his mace's weight in his hand.

“Nah, the only regret around here is aaaall yours,” Yang cheekily replied, raising her fists and angling herself to the side.

With a mighty, bloodthirsty roar, the man came in with a heavy swing, faster than one would think his armor would allow. Yang deflected the first strike and ducked under the second before punching, only to hit his shield. The steel barrier was barely dented to her surprise, holding with a faint glow over its face. Now that she was closer, Yang could actually see that the man's entire armor had a faint sheen to it, seemingly originating from the shield itself.

“Get her boss!” a bandit shouted from behind, cupping his hands around his mouth.

“Show that harlot what for!”

“Hey!” Yang shouted as she fired towards the one who had said that. The bandit in question hastily ducked, clasping the back of his head as the shot missed and sent rocks and dirt exploding outward from the wall.

The ‘boss’, taking advantage of Yang's distracted state, quickly brought his mace down on her head, then smacked it across her face before ramming it up into her gut. The wind briefly knocked out of her, Yang rolled with the blow back across the bridge before coming up to her feet, annoyed. Before she could fire back, the 'boss' smiled and held out his mace with several strands of golden hair stuck on a single edge, waving it in front of his face.

“Had enough?” he asked cockily.

Yang looked up as her eyes went to red. She yelled and charged into an uppercut, knocking his mace aside before bringing down a torrent of blows onto him, denting his armor all around. He screamed, and Yang shouted as she reared back for a big strike, punching his helmeted face. Time seemed to slow as Yang heard a cracking sound coming from the helm. There then seemed to be a tearing noise, and red started gushing up as his head simply left his body. Yang’s eyes went wide with fear and realization as the man’s head took off and hit the far side of the mine and blood erupted from the neck stump.

The bandits started running and screaming. Yang looked over and noticed the two she had shot lying in pools of blood, holes in their torsos. She looked back at her hand and saw the sticky, red liquid covering it. She covered her mouth with her other hand, holding back the vomit that threatened to erupt out of her, and jumped off the bridge into the water below, desperately trying to clean the blood away.

Weiss and Blake watched with open satisfaction as Camilla tore into both Faendal and Sven for their plans. The two men had the decency to look ashamed, but still occasionally glared at each other with resentment. Sven and Faendal had apparently both been trying to win Camilla's affections and thought that a falsely written letter would be enough to frame the other. They tried roping Blake into their schemes, but the Faunus, disgusted by their methods, took matters into her own hands and jointly revealed their actions to the young woman. One quick convincing of an, at first, reluctant Weiss later, and now both simply sat back and enjoyed the show.

“Okay, that was fun,” Weiss admitted through a small smile, to which Blake nodded approvingly.

“Yeah. Told you.”

Weiss nodded back, then got up from the wall and stretched her arms. “Let’s check out that caravan now.”

Blake's bow angled downward slightly as she whined, “Do we…”

“Yes," Weiss cut her off. "The medicine the innkeeper gave me helped, but I’m still feeling…thirsty. I’ve had to stop for a break five times today already. If I keep this up, I could drink myself to death. Besides, the Khajiit could have something as well. They’re supposed to have come from a place that’s half jungle half desert, after all, so they might have different concoctions that could help.”

Knowing that Weiss was right, Blake went along with her, her ears twitching when she saw the Khajiit in their camp. A few of them were Senche and honestly looked like some form of big cat, if there was a big cat with shoulders as tall as a man and slightly shorter back legs, bigger versions of a couple of those cubs from Solitude. Despite their bestial looks, they still wore clothes and necklaces. One looked at them and nodded.

“Greetings,” it said, its necklace glowing with the words. “Khajiit welcomes you. Gerdur has asked that four men girls accompany us to Whiterun. These are you?”

“We are,” Weiss demured. “Us, and our other two teammates. I was wondering though, do you think you have some sort of medicine or…potion that can help me? I believe I’ve come down with something this past week.”

“You are in lucky paws. Do’dran’s wife is a skilled alchemist and knows many cures and treatments. Ko’ari can help you. Follow this one.”

The two followed the quadrupedal Khajiit further into the camp. There were a few children, but the smaller ones mostly looked like regular big cat cubs, even though several of the older ones walked upright. One of them seemed to be shedding hair excessively.

“You wonder about moon forms?” Do’dran asked them.

“It’s…curious,” Weiss admitted. “I don’t quite understand how your…forms range so much. I mean, I read about it, but reading it and seeing it...”

“It depends on the cycles of the moons. The ja-Kha’jay is tied to every Khajiit. Within a few weeks, one can see the form that we have taking hold. The three smallest cubs you see are newborns. The one losing her fur is Ohmes. She is nearing a year old.”

“Well," Blake started, "you all certainly grow fast.”

The Khajiit laughed at this and the three stopped by a woman grinding something with a mortar and pestle. Her ears flickered about a moment, and then she looked up at them. She was mostly furless, looking almost like a cat Faunus to the two save that she had no human ears along with her cat pair. Her face had markings that looked almost like tattoos, but Blake realized they resembled the fur markings many of the others had.

The two Khajiit pressed their faces together a moment before she focused on the newcomers. “Welcome, young ones. You come to Ko’ari for healing, potions, or something else?”

“Uh, healing, I suppose,” Weiss began. “I’m a little sick, you see.”

The Khajiiti woman began looking at Weiss’s face very closely then sniffed her. “How do you feel?”

“Um, thirsty, mostly," Weiss answered. "I keep wanting to drink no matter how full I am.”

“And hunger?”

“Well, I have been craving a rare steak lately, which is odd since I normally prefer medium.” There was also the deeper, inexplicable hunger that she wasn’t sure she could mention. The fact that images of gnawing raw flesh seeped into her waking mind was disturbing. Just as well, she was sure it wasn’t important, let alone pertinent to her situation.

“Hm," the Khajiit hummed, "likely blood rot.”

Weiss blanched at the sound of that. “Blood rot?”

“Yes." Ko’ari nodded. "Odd disease, it is. Affects the humours. Still, perhaps a bit of… No, not for a man girl like you. Let’s see. A…dash of moon sugar? Yes, that should do it. A moment, friend.”

Ko’ari went over to a table and began rummaging through things, fitting some into another mortar and crushing them together. She set a pot of water to boil over a fire and started putting some of the ingredients in, as well as a handful of some sugar-like substance. She ladled some of the boiling mixture into a beaker, and then poured it through an alembic, where it dripped into a vial after mixing with some sort of solution and being boiled over a burner. Once the vial was filled, she turned off the valve and handed it to Weiss.

“That should make you feel much better.”

Weiss held the drink in hand for a moment, then sniffed. She winced at the strong stench and nearly gagged, then powered herself through and drank the concoction. It was sweet and had a slimy feeling to it. She wanted to scrape her tongue to get the taste out, but it sat warm in her belly and the sliminess of it seemed to coat her throat, making her feel less thirsty than before.

She smacked her lips for a few moments as she handed back the empty vial, feeling the medicine take effect. Ko’ari laughed.

“You should feel better soon. You will need more doses in the coming days. Ko’ari will finish bottling the rest. She supposes it should cost… Hm, the lizard tail is hard to get in Skyrim… Moon sugar should be… Ack, five malks for the whole thing.”

“Ko’ari is a healer, not a merchant," another Khajiit protested as Blake's eyes widened at the price. "Your sister would hate to see you practically give away product.”

“It is my ingredients. Ko’ari will sell them how she sees fit.”

“Five malks?” Blake asked in disbelief. They almost never had that many septims at once, and she doubted they had that much at the moment. And this was apparently practically giving it away.

“If it helps, there should be plenty of coin in that barrow," Ko'ari pointed out. "We would go there, but it is cold enough for Khajiit on the level ground.”

“There are also bandits,” Do’dran added. “This one prefers to avoid the bandits.”

“I… Maybe we should go there,” Weiss suggested with a finger held up, suddenly feeling much more animated than usual. “Alvor and Gerdur talked about clearing it out just in case!”

“Are…you okay, Weiss?” Blake asked, eyebrow raised. That last sentence had come out at Ruby-speed, a very un-Weiss-like behavior.

“I'm fine! Great, actually! I’ll go tell Ruby! We can go up there later today or tomorrow!” Blake looked at her eyes and noticed how dilated they seemed. “I bet we can become a feared name in no time like this!” She sped off back to Riverwood. Blake stared after her teammate for a moment, immediately recognizing the signs of a drug-induced high, then shot her head around with an expression that screamed 'What did you do?' to the Khajiit traders.

“Oh, there may be side effects,” Ko’ari just now warned her. “This one wasn’t too sure how much moon sugar she should add. Now I suppose your friend may be having a… What do we call it?”

“Either sugar rush or sugar fit. Do’dran is not too sure.”

“Just what is moon sugar anyways?” Blake groaned at this chain of events. "Is it why my friend is suddenly high?"

“Ooh, how do we explain?” Ko’ari mumbled as she tapped her chin.

Ruby wiped her forehead and looked at the sword blade she had just dipped. It was all hammered out, now it just needed a hilt and some sharpening. The hilt was already ready, she just had to wedge it in. Once that was done, she took it over to the grindstone and started pedaling while running the edge against the stone, slowly and methodically. Dorthe had joined her father in watching the girl work the forge and had to be pulled back by the man when she tried to get closer to see the sword being sharpened.

With the edge nice and sharp as a razor, Ruby looked over her handiwork. It was just a simple steel sword, but she bet it could cleave right through a monster in the right hands. Maybe not that dragon, but it could likely bring down one of those trolls. She gave it a test swing and smiled brightly as it sang through the air.

“Divines smile,” Alvor murmured as he eyed the sword. “Can I see that for a moment?”

“Sure. Here ya go.” Ruby handed over the newborn sword and Alvor began to look it over from every angle.

“You weren’t joking when you said you knew your way around a forge,” he gasped in amazement. “I don’t think I’ve seen a blade this good since I last saw one of Eorlund Greymane’s works.”

“Ah, geez, don’t,” Ruby gushed as her cheeks went red from embarrassment.

“It’s amazing!” Dorthe babbled as she looked at the sword in her father’s hands. “I hope I can one day be half as good as you!”

“Aww, thanks! You’ll be great. I can tell,” Ruby told the younger girl. Dorthe smiled widely, her eyes gleaming in open awe as Alvor smiled warmly.

Suddenly, Weiss came bouncing into the forge, startling the three smiths as they stared at her. “Ruby! We should all go up to Bleak Falls Barrow!” she announced.

“Uh, if you think so Weiss," Ruby said, then tilted her head and leaned slightly forward. "You seem happy. Reeeaaaaally happy, actually.”

“Oh, I feel great! I got some medicine from the caravan, and I think I’m finally cured! I’m going to let Yang know!”

“Weiss, Yang’s at the mine!” Ruby called after her partner as she sped away. She blinked and looked at Alvor. “That was weird. The last time I saw Weiss that happy, the Vytal Festival was being planned.”

“I think the Khajiits likely know what made her like that," Alvor plainly stated, then looked to the side as Blake slowed to a stop in front of his home. "Ah, your other friend.”

Blake leaned forward, resting her hands on her knees and gasping a little. “Ruby, did Weiss come here?”

“Yeah, she said she’s going to tell Yang that we’re going to Bleak Falls. What’s up with her?”

“She took some medicine, but then the maker explained to me that she might have used too much moon sugar. She’s high as a kite right now!”

“Oh, so like reverse Nightwill™. Okay, well, Yang should have finished up the mine by the time she reaches her.”

“She could get hurt on her own!”

Ruby paused, then nodded in understanding. “Okay, we’ll go after her.” She turned back to the blacksmith and offered a smile. “Thanks again Alvor.”

“Anytime, Ruby. If you can make things like this, then my forge is open to you any time you’d like. In fact, I’ll be happy to pay for any work you’re willing to help with.”

The young Huntress-in-training’s smile brightened as she waved at the blacksmith and his daughter. She then joined Blake in running after Weiss, a few red petals following her wake.

Yang gripped her shoulders as she slowly walked along the road from the now emptied mines. She could see the tracks the bandits left as they fled, tearing through small bushes and ripping apart mountain flowers while crumpling the grass where they ran. All that remained in Embershard now was some scattered belongings, abandoned by the men and women who had fled, and the three bodies. She didn’t know where they had all scattered, but it didn’t matter to her anymore. Yang was just going to head back to the village, explain everything to Gerdur, and hope the woman would be lenient. There might not even be legal ramifications for all she knew. Back on Remnant, there were plenty of less than upstanding Huntsmen who would sooner eradicate a raider group than let them cause harm to nearby settlements, and they never received much more than a slap on the wrist, if that. And based on that execution they witnessed in Solitude, the prosecution of such criminals in Skyrim was probably no more merciful.

She shivered as the mental image of a man’s head flying off and being replaced by a fountain of blood came back to the forefront of her mind. She had hit plenty of people that hard. Some she hit harder. She was sure she hit her friends harder on occasion during practice or in spars. But they had Aura. Anyone back home who ever even thought about fighting had Aura. That man hadn’t, nor had the two bandits she shot down. Something that for most people she knew would have been a painful impact had torn them apart.

She had killed them, and it was something her mind didn’t quite want to accept right now. Bile tried to rise up, but she managed to hold it down, splitting her focus on holding herself together and getting back to the village where she could try and find a way to forget all of this. A rapid pit-patting of feet then reached her ears, coming from up ahead. Yang looked up to see what it was and caught sight of a white blur coming straight for her. Before she could focus on it, it stopped right in front of her, revealing a wide smile that just seemed wrong for the face it was a part of.

“Yang! There you are!” Weiss exclaimed way too cheerfully.

“Weiss? What are you…” Yang then saw her teammate’s eyes and noticed how dilated they were. Holding her friend’s face, Yang quickly figured out the basics of what had occurred while she was away. “Weiss, have you taken anything…strange?”

“Just some medicine from the caravan. It’s working wonders!” Weiss answered through a beaming smile. Yang paused and closed her eyes, counted to ten, then released a sigh and looked right at Weiss' face.

‘Better to pull the bandage off quickly,’ Yang thought to herself. “Weiss, I’m gonna say this slowly. You. Are. High.”

“What do you mean I’m-” Her attention suddenly snapped forward as realization dawned on her. “Oh, I get it.”

“Yeah, we should get you somewhere to lie down for a while.” The blonde kept the fact that she wanted nothing more than to lie down as well to herself.

“Ooh, you should meet the Khajiits,” Weiss gushed as she started leading her back to Riverwood. Just because she was aware of her impaired state didn't mean she was coming down anytime soon. More than a couple of irresponsible friends taught Yang that the hard way. “They’re actually very nice, and their babies are these cute little kittens. Remember back in Solitude? Well, the really little ones are even more adorable!”

“Sounds nice. I’ll go there with Blake later.” If Weiss had taken notice of Yang's subdued demeanor, she didn't show it and continued prattling on about the people-kittens for a few minutes.

“Ooh, Blake was there when I got the medicine. She already met Do’dran and Ko’ari. I think they’re a cute couple.”

“I bet they are.” As Yang absentmindedly replied, she started hearing people up ahead. The voices came clearer as they neared them, until she could make out Ruby and Blake’s voices.

“Weiss?” she heard Ruby holler. It seemed they were at least a little aware of the need to look out for their friend. “Weiss?”

“Over here,” Yang called out. As her partner and sister reached them, Blake quickly pulled Weiss aside and began scolding her, insisting that they wouldn't be going to Bleak Falls Barrow while Weiss was in such a state, even as the blancette tried to argue that they could make good time. Ruby, meanwhile, slowly shifted her attention towards her sister, noticing that something was different with her countenance. Before she could speak up, Yang made a gesture as though to ask what was going on with Weiss. Ruby shifted her attention back towards her partner, sparing Yang a little more time to get her thoughts together and figure out whether she should say anything at all.

Night descended quickly once team RWBY reentered Riverwood. Luckily, Alvor and his wife Sigrid were kind enough to lend the Huntresses their home for the night. The events of the last few days racing through her mind, Ruby herself sat in silent contemplation at the end of her borrowed bed in Alvor's basement. Weiss, meanwhile, merely mumbled to herself while lying on a bed. Sigrid was preparing dinner upstairs, venison stew if the smell was anything to go by, and the other three girls were seated nearby as they watched over their friend, who was finally coming down. Ruby looked over at Yang as her sister seemed to be shuffling about within herself. She didn't think it was because of Weiss, as everyone had told them she would bounce back fine, if a little groggy and possibly hungover. Ruby thought about staying silent on the matter, but didn't want Yang to feel alone with whatever she was thinking.

"Yang?" she began.

"Hm?" Yeah, her sister was out of it. Way too...quiet for her.

"What's wrong? You've been kinda...down."

Yang put on a smile, but Ruby could see right through it. "It's nothing! Don't worry! I've just got a lot on my mind, really. I mean, a lot has happened in a... It's been about a week, now?"

Ruby reached over and placed a hand on her sister's arm, giving it a gentle squeeze. "Yang, if there's anything you want to talk about, I'm here, okay?"

She saw Yang's eyes go blue for a moment. The blonde blinked, and then Blake reached over and patted her shoulder.

"We're all here," the Faunus added. Yang smiled at her partner and nodded. A moment later, a sound like a saw rose up and the three turned to see Weiss lying on her side and snoring. The girls chuckled a little, and Yang pulled up the blanket over the sleeping heiress.

"Supper's nearly ready if you want to come up," Sigrid said quietly from the top of the stairs. "How's your friend?"

"Sleeping like a baby," Ruby responded, putting aside the matter with Yang as she climbed up to the main floor. "Anything we can help with?"

"If you can just grab some bowls and plates and set the table, we can get started soon. Alvor and Dorthe are washing up right now."

"Can do, ma'am." Blake and Yang followed after her, but the latter paused as she came across a shelf with several bottles set on it. Her lips pursed as she looked back up to where the others were getting ready. Her eyes trailed back to the bottles before she gently reached over and grabbed a couple, looking over them for a few seconds before clearing her throat.

“Want me to bring up a couple of these?” she asked her hosts.

“Sure. And help yourself while you’re at it,” the woman told her.

While something else inside kinda twisted, another part of Yang that felt like it had been festering for hours seemed awash with relief. She pulled the cork from one of the mead bottles and took a deep swig, letting the sweetness and the burn take away all of her attention. She grabbed a couple more and brought them upstairs, purposefully ignoring the look of concern her sister had for a few moments.

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Chapter 6: Stained Hands

15th of Last Seed

Morning came; and with it, more than a few groans. Yang had helped herself to a few bottles of mead at supper, Alvor more than willing to share his stock with her. He actually seemed to find it amusing, although Ruby certainly didn’t. The blonde hadn’t really gotten a hangover, but she did experience a brief headache before breakfast. Weiss was actually far worse. Apparently, the medicine was less a cure and more of a treatment. They did allow her another dose, this time remixed and diluted by the potion-making Khajiit woman, and it did seem to help, but Ruby noted with some trepidation how her eyes kept glancing at the bag they’d placed her future doses in.

In her own mind, Weiss did want more of the medicine. It was certainly helping, but between the lack of inhibition and the constant, aching hunger-thirst, she would almost always choose the former, even dulled as these new doses made it. For once, she could, on some level, understand her mother. A thought that pushed her further away from upping her dosage. More than anything, the thought that she might be developing an addiction was terrifying to her.

With breakfast eaten and gear prepared, the girls readied themselves to head up to Bleak Falls Barrow. They would have to hike up a mountain trail towards it, which would take time and mean more than a little exercise, but it was nothing that they couldn’t handle. The crisp mountain air had a different feel to it than the milder climate down below, but it was soon joined by a freezing cold that made them all glad they had accepted the thick coats offered by the villagers.

“Whew! I can see my breath!” Ruby said as she did her best to keep herself warm. “Any colder I might breathe out icicles.”

“Cold enough for you, Weiss?” Blake asked while trying not to shiver.

“Admittedly, even I’m feeling it, but this is really more like an average day in Atlas,” Weiss admitted, barely showing any reaction to the frigid mountain air.

“Sheesh, remind me not to go there without a coat or three,” Ruby quipped with a smile. Her glee faded for a moment as she looked back at Yang, who was taking up the rear and seemed more than a little down. “You okay back there?”

“Y-yeah,” Yang answered, giving her a nervous smile and a wave. “All good. Just a lot of thoughts right now.”

“What’s there to think about?” Ruby shrugged as she turned back and tried to look ahead with her rifle’s scope. “We’re going to beat up and chase off some bad guys, maybe bring ‘em down to prison.”

“Probably best if we scare them off,” Weiss added. “Knowing the likely fate of bandits, they’d choose that over whatever primitive justice they might meet here.”

“Bandits…” Yang muttered as her steps slowed, new images taking over her mind. She could almost see a small horde of men and women standing against them and then charging them, thinking they could easily take on four young women. Ruby would probably move first, being the fastest, firing two shots and then dashing forward, almost faster than her bullets. Two people would’ve gone down with holes in their bodies before her scythe came and sliced through a man. They would hit the ground with blood pooling all around them, and her sister’s face…

Yang blinked and snapped herself out of it, looking forward to see that her team had turned towards her. It took her a second to realize that she had completely stopped in her tracks and they were likely wondering what was the matter. Taking a deep breath, Yang tried to brace herself for what to say, yet she wasn’t sure what she could say right now. At the same time, there was no way she could let them go ahead here and charge in without knowing what she’d learned. She let it out in a huff and took in a new breath.

“Guys,” she started, wincing as she forced herself to get out the words. “There’s something I need to tell you.”

“There’s no Aura?” Weiss asked in disbelief after hearing out Yang’s explanation. The others were equally as shocked, going purely by their expressions, though they hadn’t spoken up.

“If there was, those bandits would have had it, but they didn’t,” Yang explained, the pain she felt inside herself growing numb at finally coming out. “The guy who fought me, he only lasted as long as he did because he was armored and had a magical shield or something, but even if he had a puny amount of Aura, he should have been fine. I hit random thugs with the same amount of force, and all it did was send them flying. I… He…”

“Oh Yang,” Ruby said while reaching over and gently pulling her into a hug. The blonde looked over at her sister and saw a sad smile on her face. “It’s okay. You didn’t know. And it’s not… It’s not the…” She blinked and shook her head.

“Are you sure this means no one on Nirn has Aura?” Blake asked.

“Yang has a point,” Weiss pointed out. “If anyone would have Aura, it’s people who expect to fight for most of their lives. Bandits would get that at the minimum. No one wants to die because some villager got in a lucky hit with a shovel.”

“And this is an alien world,” Yang reminded them, pulling back from Ruby’s finished hug and crossing her arms. “It feels weird saying it, but that’s what it is. It might have some familiar plants, animals, and people, but this whole planet is not like Remnant. The course of natural history itself is way different. Not only that, but there’s no Grimm. People here just…don’t have the same pressure for survival as those on Remnant.”

“There’s still danger,” Ruby pointed out.

“One fire-breathing dragon and some animals that could give the average Beowolf a run for its money isn’t the same as the constant threat of Grimm,” Blake explained. “Dragons were apparently beaten once upon a time, and now they’re practically myths, and monsters like those trolls are still flesh and blood animals. Even the people there said that one was likely hungry and desperate. It’d be like if all we had to worry about on Remnant were occasional packs and one Leviathan every century or so. People just…wouldn’t be as strong. There’d be no reason to be. Add magic to the mix, and people just don’t need Aura as much.”

“But it…doesn’t make sense,” Ruby continued to wonder. “It’s still part of every living being. Everything with a soul has Aura.”

“That’s true…” The Faunus began to contemplate that as well.

“Maybe someone knows about it, but not the average layman,” Weiss concluded. “I can easily picture some monastic orders or warrior groups learning about it and keeping it secret, but right now we don’t have that kind of information. Even the occasional Aura unlocked by strenuous events could have been ignored or written off as flukes, and that’s assuming the person who unlocked it even knew what was going on in the first place.”

“So, what do we do?” Yang asked the others. “We can’t exactly beat down a bunch of people without Aura.”

“We can. If we’re careful,” Ruby quickly amended. “We’ll just have to… What’s the saying? Kiddy gloves?”

“Put the kid gloves on?” Weiss asked.

“Yeah, that.” Ruby nodded and gave them all a small smile. “We’ll start small and work our way up until we find the right amount of force to use. Hit soft at first, like if you were playing with a friend. No sharp or pointy edges unless you absolutely have to. Blake, Weiss, punch and kick more. Yang, punch softer. Blake, you and I can use the back of our weapons if we’re careful about how hard we hit. Weiss can use her Semblance on them directly, but hold off on the Dust. We do this right, and everyone will be okay.”

“We might need to coordinate differently,” Weiss mentioned as she thought their approach over.

“We’ll figure it out as we go. Just do your best, guys.”

The four slowly approached the stone, partially crumbled tower they had come upon. It was overlooking the valley below, connected to the mountain path through a small stone bridge. If they had to guess, this used to be an ancient watchtower that had long since fallen out of official use, meaning it was ripe for the taking by any entrepreneurial bandits. Blake was in the lead, being the stealthiest among them, with Weiss not far behind. Ruby and Yang hung back behind some shrubbery to hide the bright colors of their clothes until they were signaled. After Blake crossed the short bridge, her head perked up, and then she looked up the tower a moment before leaping up the side and going through the window. A man’s voice shouted out, and then the other three were rushing in.

“What the heck?” Yang muttered as they came up to the entrance. Ruby was also wondering what made their teammate suddenly jump ahead when the plan had been to silently take down whoever was posted at this tower, but that was a question to ask when they caught up and secured the immediate area. The three practically leaped up the stairs to the next level, pausing as they saw their teammate standing over an unconscious man with her sword pointed at a dark-skinned woman. The woman in question was rubbing one of her wrists and grimacing, but still kept a cautious eye on Blake, sparing the newcomers a glance for only a moment.

“What happened?” Ruby asked after taking in the scene.

“I heard a…commotion and looked into it,” Blake tried to explain, her eyes turning to the unconscious man as an angry frown morphed onto her face.

“Bastard,” the woman muttered through her teeth, still rubbing her wrist. “Couldn’t take no for an answer.”

As the others were starting to put what happened together, a bushy-bearded Nord walked in from the upper level. He opened his mouth to begin speaking but stopped when he saw the scene before him. Weiss and Ruby both drew their weapons, but it was likely the unfurling of the latter’s that convinced the man to take his hands away from his sheathed sword.

After tying up the three bandits and resisting the urge to brain the unconscious man, Team RWBY set out some of their food and three mugs of water onto the nightstand next to them. The woman had whispered to her other companion about what had happened, and now he was glaring at his fellow as well. Yang almost felt like kicking the man awake, but didn’t trust herself to hold back enough for that at the moment.

“Okay, if you guys get thirsty or hungry, just lean over,” Ruby instructed them. “If your buddy gets hungry, you’ll have to pass him something. Same with the water.” The woman had been tied to the other side, away from the men, but the unconscious one was right next to his counterpart. Somehow, the girls figured that the man wouldn’t be getting anything until they returned. “We can’t exactly let you guys roam free while we’re moving forward. You could sneak up behind us or something. But, once we come back, we’ll think about letting you go.”

That earned a pair of groans from the bandits, but at least they weren’t promising threats of violence like Weiss imagined they might. The team left the tower and made their way further up the mountain. The barrow was up ahead, and it was even more marvelous to see up close. Great stone arches, decorated with dragon heads, marked the entrance to the crypt. Ruby felt herself channeling her inner Oobleck and marveled at the ancient ruins as they walked towards them, thinking about the scale of such a construction and what it indicated about the land’s past, only to have those thoughts abruptly halted as an arrow flew by her head, missing by inches, and embedding itself into a nearby tree.

“Scatter!” she commanded as she drew Crescent Rose and tried to spot her attacker while resisting the urge to ready a shot. She zeroed in on a Bosmer woman with a mohawk-like hairstyle taking aim at her with a bone-white bow and changed direction to rush her, the stairs providing little impediment to her petaled Semblance. Another arrow flew straight for her, but Ruby knocked it out of the air with her weapon as she stopped. The woman seemed surprised and was unable to react in time before Ruby swung her scythe around, hitting her with the blunt side and sending her ten feet through the air to fall onto a pile of snow.

“Okay, a little softer,” Ruby told herself before seeing more bandits readying themselves for combat. Weiss slid forward on one of her glyphs, knocking bandits over with the broad side of her sword and sweeping kicks. Yang came in, visibly holding herself back, but still knocking outlaws around with her fists. Blake jumped in and out, blocking blows before smashing her opponents around. A digitigrade Khajiit leaped at her from behind, claws, teeth, and a sword bare, but what he attacked disappeared and the actual Blake reappeared before bringing her heel up to his chin, knocking him out cold.

Soon, all of the bandits were down for the count, Ruby counting around twelve of them sprawled out or groaning in pain.

“Okay, there’s a few more somewhere. They said there would be sixteen at the barrow.”

“Inside…” a man lying near her feet groaned while clutching his stomach, the same place where she had kicked him moments ago. “Please don’t kill me,” he begged.

“Thanks, and sure,” she told him before pulling him up and dragging him over to where her friends were tying and bunching up the others. Once secured, the girls snuck into the first chamber of the barrow. Once again, Blake took point with the others not far behind. The inside was messy, with some recently killed skeevers and thrown around debris scattered about. There was a fire up ahead, and two more bandits stood next to it warming their hands.

"So we're just supposed to sit here while Arvel runs off with that golden claw?" the woman asked while rubbing her arms.

"That Dark Elf wants to go on ahead, let him. Better than us risking our necks," her male companion grumbled.

“What if Arvel doesn't come back? I want my share from that claw!"

"Just shut it and keep an eye out for trouble."

The woman scoffed and started to head out, but just as she passed the first pillar away from the fire, Blake grasped her mouth and body and yanked her away, only a muffled scream being heard. The man immediately went on alert and took out his axe.

“What was that?!” he shouted in surprise while looking around in fear. “Soling?” he called out, but no answer came. As he breathed heavily and tried to figure out what to do, a flash of gold skipped into the firelight and Yang was there, waving coquettishly and smiling at him, to his confusion.

“S’up?” she asked before her other hand came up from behind her waist in a fist, sucker-punching his chin just hard enough to rattle his brain and cause him to fall over. She grabbed him before he could land on the fire and pulled him away to where his friend had disappeared before his eyes.

It took some time, but soon all of the bandits were gathered into the chamber, including the three from the tower. Most were grouped up, but once word got around, the attempted rapist had to be separated from the rest as they were ready to bite and kick him until he was bleeding. Apparently, deduced from their shouting, he broke ‘the rules’.

“I guess even bandits have to have a code,” Weiss concluded while watching the tied-up baker’s dozen of outlaws jeer their fellow. “Well, there’s still two more, and it sounds like one of them has the Golden Claw.”

“The what?” Yang asked with an eyebrow raised.

“Long story short,” Blake answered, “Weiss and I went by the general store and offered to get a valuable item that this lot stole back to the owner, after hearing him and his sister…argue.” She looked back at the bandits, who mostly just sneered at them. “Then we…pulled off a little something to help Camilla out.” She smirked at the memory, and Weiss even giggled as she twirled her fingers while summoning sparks of electricity between them.

“H-hey!” one of the bandits said nervously. “Careful with the magic!”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she mockingly apologized while holding out her hand. “This magic?” An arc of electricity suddenly leaped from her hand, stopping just short of hitting the man’s leg, who shrieked and bounced in his attempt to jump away. Weiss actually blinked in surprise and looked at her hand in interest.

“I finally did it,” she uttered in muted astonishment.

“Good job, Weiss!” Ruby congratulated her with a half-hug. “You’re now a mage!”

“Eh, I’ve seen better,” a red Argonian mouthed off. Weiss glared at him, but then drew in a breath and released it.

“So, we’re moving in?” Yang asked while looking at the stairway leading down into the tombs with some trepidation. “Kinda…creepy down that way.”

“Well, Weiss and Blake did promise to bring back Lucen’s stuff, and there’s two more guys we’ve got to worry about,” Ruby explained before looking back at their prisoners. “Okay, behave while we’re gone. If you get loose, then you better skedaddle. Once we’re done, we’ll turn you all loose, but you have to leave the area and not come near Riverwood. And if you think about fighting us again, think about what happened last time.”

There were some murmurs among the outlaws, but it seemed like they were all agreeing that her terms were far more generous than they could expect from anyone else.

“I was thinking of moving down into Falkreath anyways. Slim pickings in these parts.” Most of the man’s fellows agreed to that sentiment immediately. Ruby narrowed her gaze at them and smashed Crescent Rose’s head onto the floor, cracking the stone and gaining everyone’s attention again.

“And if I recognize any of you banditting again, I won’t go easy on you, and I’ll turn you over to the authorities next time. Are we clear?”

They all started vigorously nodding, including their recent outcast.

“Good. Now, we’re going to head into the barrow. Behave,” she reminded them through narrow eyes and a pointed finger before leading the rest of Team RWBY down into the crypts. Weiss paused at the sight of a small bag resting on a casket, then picked it up and began counting the coins inside.

“My savings…” a bandit woman practically cried out, but Weiss didn't care as she pocketed the coins and moved on.

Further inside the barrow, worrying signs were beginning to show themselves. Mostly in the form of giant cobwebs, though there was also the threat of booby traps, which they were warned of thanks to the bloated corpse of another bandit (who didn’t have the Claw on him, nor matched the description of Arvel) with several darts stuck across his body, likely poisoned. The trap he fell for was rather simple as well, being a lock combination that the solution to was literally right in front of them.

“So, does this bring us down to one?” Blake asked as Ruby tried to ignore the body.

“I…suppose,” Weiss figured while pulling her hand away. “Still warm. The darts on him must have been poisoned with something fast-acting and deadly.”

“Terrible stuff if it was still potent enough to kill him after all this time,” the Faunus said while looking at the small opening where the darts were likely fired from.

“Not even from something that complex,” Yang added as she twisted the last pillar into place. She double-checked her work and grabbed the lever. Everyone jumped away after she pulled it, but no darts came and the gate simply opened. The girls walked through, all breathing a sigh of relief. Yang noticed a chain on the other side and pulled it, causing the gate to close again and the pillars to spin a half-turn each. She pulled it again and the gate re-opened.

“Okay, that explains how Arvel could be on this side with the gate still closed.” She pulled it again, and the gate closed once more, though the pillars didn’t turn this time. “Keep the others from following us, at least.”

“Just watch out for more,” Ruby warned them. “If they put in one trap, they could’ve put in dozens.”

More and more cobwebs came into view, giving each of the girls a huge amount of spider-related anxiety. Some smaller ones were seen crawling about, reminding them all of the bigger ones likely scuttling further within.

“Guys, I really don’t want to see any more spiders,” Ruby whimpered. “The first time was enough.”

“I still don’t understand how they get that huge,” Weiss complained while scratching at her head. “It shouldn’t be possible. Unless they evolved lungs here…”

Weiss’ ruminations were halted as a dog-sized spider suddenly crawled out from an alcove. Ruby promptly screamed and shot it, blowing it into hundreds of green and brown pieces.

“Ruby, save your ammo,” Blake admonished the girl.

“Huh, wha?” She seemed confused.

“Guns aren’t really a thing here, and we still haven’t found anyone who sells Dust. Even if we get a supply, we’re going to have to make our own bullets. Kit or not, that takes a while.”

“Oh, geez, I totally forgot!” She then whimpered. “It wasn’t even a big one…”

“It’s okay. Let’s just be conservative about them. Shoot only when you have to.”

“Makes sense,” Yang agreed before heading in front of them. More spiders appeared as they went in further, and the girls thrashed them with only the hesitation brought on by the instinctual fear of arachnids holding them back from a full-on slaughter. As they continued on while trying to settle their nerves, they began to hear something distinctly human.

“Is… Is someone coming?” a small, scared voice called from a little ways forward. “Is that you Harknir? Bjorn? Soling?”

“Think that’s Arvel?” Yang asked in a low voice, referring to the one the bandits at the entrance had mentioned.

“Guess so,” Blake answered.

“I know I ran ahead with the Claw, but I need your help!”

“Sounds like he’s in trouble,” Ruby said as she shifted into hero-mode. “Let’s gooooooo… That’s a lot of web in the way.”

Blake responded by merely slicing her sword through the webbing a few times, clearing a path forward into the chamber.

“Thanks,” Ruby meekly stated as she ducked into the room.

“What? Who are you?” a Dunmer trapped in a thick web at the other side cried. “Oh, never mind. Cut me down before that thing gets us!”

"What 'thing'?" Weiss coldly asked. Suddenly, a spider-shaped shadow filled the room, and everyone froze in place before daring to look up and see a spider the size of a small car. The girls had to force themselves not to scream, although Ruby did whimper slightly. A few wounds covered it, but obviously weren't enough to subdue the creature. If Ruby had to guess, this spider was the mother to the ones they just killed in the previous rooms.

“No! Not again!” Arvel cried out in terror, wriggling in a futile attempt to break free of his bonds.

“Guys, spread out!” Ruby ordered as the spider came down. It let out a chittering hiss and turned towards the leader before Yang came in and punched its side. It moved sideways and turned a bit, but besides a small dent in its exoskeleton, there didn’t seem to be much damage.

“Blake, distract it!”

“Right!” The Faunus jumped forward and sliced at an already injured leg, earning a hiss and splat of green ichor on the floor. It turned toward her and snapped, but only caught air as the clone left in her place disappeared. It seemed stunned, and that gave Ruby an opportunity to make a downward slice at its middle. The creature shrieked and turned, but Ruby was already out of its reach. It thrashed around a bit and then clambered towards Weiss, who screamed in fright and fired out a shower of sparks from her palm. The spider shrieked again but kept going until it had rammed Weiss and pinned her to the wall. The heiress screamed again and stabbed forward with Myrtenaster, hitting the joint between its neck and body. It backed away with a frantic chitter, and then Ruby came in yelling with an upward swing of her scythe. Green fluid spattered out and then the head of the frostbite spider fell off. Green ichor pooled around the severed stump and stained the white snow that had accumulated on the ground, but other than the horrendous smell it posed no threat. Taking a moment to gather their bearings after the death of the arachnid, they approached the Dunmer thief, still suspended in spider silk.

“Well done, really!” he congratulated the four in excitement. “Now, if you could let me down, we could…work together, maybe.”

“Work together?” Weiss skeptically asked with a raised eyebrow. “Why would we work with a scoundrel like you?”

“Also, you guys stole something that doesn’t belong to you,” Ruby added. “We’d like it back.”

“You mean the Claw?" Arvel asked, his face betraying his panic as his wiggling quickened. "Listen, there’s more to that thing than you realize! The Claw, the markings, the door in the Hall of Stories. I know how they all fit together!”

“Fit together?” Blake mused.

“What…do you mean by that, exactly?” Ruby asked.

“See, the Claw…is a key! There’s a room at the end of the Barrow, the oldest part of the whole thing. There’s no telling what secrets are there, what riches await! And you can’t get in without the Claw or the secret I discovered!”

“Okay, so… You want us to go with you?” Ruby asked skeptically.

“You do realize we beat up a whole lot of your buddies, right?” Yang pointed out. “Practically all of them.”

“Sure, but I’m not like the rest of those blood-thirsty Men and Mer. I’m just here to get some gold and go. Who knows, if this whole thing pays off, I could leave behind the whole brigand life and start up anew! And there’ll be plenty for us all! Just think of it!”

The girls all looked to each other and Ruby shrugged.

“Well, no harm in it, I guess,” Blake answered. “It's not like he could hurt us, after all.”

“Okay then. Cut him down, Weiss.”

“Fine,” the heiress grumbled before a short cough. Her throat was beginning to feel dry again, making her grind her teeth. As she cut the spider web from around the Dunmer, she thought about taking a sip from her canteen. Her belly wasn’t full, so she could probably get away with a large gulp or two.

His bonds finally cut, Arvel came loose and dropped to the ground with an ‘oomph’. As he stood and dusted himself, he smiled slightly.

“Sweet breath of Arkay, thank you.” Arvel smiled, still on his knees, only to quickly grab hold of a few strands of webbing and throw it in Weiss' face. As she was distracted and sputtering, Arvel took the chance to flee further into the crypt, speeding off with a laugh. The girls, shocked by his sudden, but in hindsight inevitable, betrayal, looked after him, only to see him knock down a brazier behind him and set the ages-old contents on fire.

“Uh, Arvel?!” Ruby called after him.

“Fools! Why should I share the treasure with anyone?!” he called back, seemingly not aware nor caring of where he was going.

Weiss silently fumed while the other girls just looked among themselves, confused.

“He knows the entrance is behind us, right?” Ruby pondered, her hand on her chin.

“Maybe he thinks there’s a back way?” Blake guessed, trying to make sense of the Dark Elf's intentions.

“Could be, but if there was, why wouldn’t he just use that to get in instead?” Yang rubbed her head before looking to the side. “What do you think, Wei- Where’d Weiss go?”

The other two followed her gaze and saw that their teammate was gone, but after a moment’s listen, they could hear her heels clacking.

“Agh, Weiss! Now we have to chase both of them!” Ruby complained.

“Let’s go get her,” Blake huffed. The three took off after the runaway bandit and their teammate, none of them really in any kind of hurry.

“Get back here, you degenerate!”

“Stendarr’s beard! How?” the bandit cried out when he saw Weiss gaining ground on him despite the heels she was wearing. The heiress, to his shock, soon caught up and violently grasped his arm, yanking him around in a spin that tripped him backwards, before jumping on top of him and holding his arms down, pinning him to the ground.

“Did you think you could just run?!” Weiss yelled in his face, days of irritation and illness, stacked on top of all the aches her body held, having pushed the worst of her to the forefront. “Did you think we’d let you run away?!” she repeated as she grasped his shirt by the collar and pulled his face to hers.

“Please! I’m sorry!” Arvel begged, attempting to reach for a knife at his waist. Weiss saw it and grabbed the knife instead, pulling it up and cutting his arm with the motion. He cried out and clutched the wound, but now looked in fear as his own weapon was pointed at his face.

“I am tired, sick, thirsty…!” Her pupils contracted as she suddenly smelled the metallic scent of blood from the cut going up Arvel's arm. “So…thirsty…” The icy blue of her eyes suddenly shifted into a glowing orange, her mouth opening up to reveal two elongated fangs to the Dunmer, who froze in horror before struggling even harder.

“No! NO!! Someone! Help!”

Weiss’s face came forward and she bit down on the struggling elf’s neck. Liquid flowed into her mouth and down her throat, quenching the thirst she had felt for days. Her mind went into a flutter as Arvel screamed in pain and kept trying to get loose. A futile struggle, as his thrashing form only continued to lose strength with each passing second. When no more liquid was forthcoming, Weiss raised her head up again as she dropped the body, feeling revitalized and back at full strength, like she wasn’t even sick. In fact, Weiss felt better than ever. A smile formed on her ecstatic face as she basked in the moment. Her attention was caught by a gasp and she looked over to see her teammates, all of them looking at her in horror, disgust, and revulsion.

She reached up to her mouth and pulled her hand away to see red, sticky liquid upon her fingers. Shakily, she looked down and saw Arvel’s body, somewhat shriveled like a prune, not even bleeding from the holes in his neck. She gasped for air, her breath leaving her as the situation sunk in.

“…looked like a dried-up human, used a sword…”

“Was it…draining your blood?”

Her thirst was making her think - she could quench it with mortal blood!

"...Weiss?" Ruby whispered in fearful concern, clutching Crescent Rose like a lifeline.

"What… What did you...do?" Yang asked softly, her eyes wide at the gruesome scene.

"I..." Blake whispered to herself as she looked on with dread. "Weiss...did you...drink…?"

Weiss gripped her hair and screamed.

15th of Last Seed

Chapter Text

Chapter 7: Raiders of the Crypt

The white-haired girl kicked back and pushed herself away from the corpse until her back hit the wall. Her stomach churned, but nothing threatened to come out.

“Weiss,” Ruby called out in worry as she approached, Crescent Rose on her back again.

“No! Don’t!” The heiress shouted. “I… I’m a-”

As Weiss cried and pushed herself further into the corner of the room, Blake frantically reached into her pack and pulled out a small book she had purchased, "Diseases and Treatments". She flipped over to the page on Blood Rot and looked through the symptoms. All of them matched what Weiss had been feeling, but there was something else that she was missing here. She flipped through page after page. Brain Rot, Cannibal's Prion -she winced at that one- Cholera, Consumption, Corprus. She kept flipping through, glancing at the symptoms and trying to figure out what could have done this to her friend. She stopped somewhere in the S's when she saw something that matched her symptoms up until today almost exactly.

'Sanguinare Vampiris'
A vampire disease, most commonly contracted in Skyrim. While rarer than Poryphoric Hemophilia, Sanguinare is noted for being harder to detect due to its similarities to other diseases. It can be transferred via the bite of a vampire, and, should it have three days to incubate, the infected will die and reawaken as a vampire. See Vampirism

Paling, Blake flipped over slowly to the correct page.

‘Vampirism’
Those afflicted with vampirism are, essentially, cursed undead. They are harmed by sunlight and are susceptible to fire, in some cases they are repelled by holy elements. There are many strains of vampirism, but all of them are descended from Molag Bal and curse the soul as well as the body. All vampires have an innate thirst for blood that only strengthens as time goes on. Feeding will revitalize them and sate them for a few days, while starving gives them a more monstrous appearance. If there are any reliable cures, then they are not known at this time.

Blake gulped. How was she supposed to explain this to the others?

"Blake?" Yang called as she waved a hand before her partners eyes. Ruby was trying to talk Weiss down, but the heiress was still screaming at them to get away, grasping her hair tightly with at least one hand. Her legs were still kicking, as if trying to push her through the wall.

"I... I think I know what happened to Weiss," she explained quietly. "It's not Blood Rot." She handed over the book to Yang, who quickly scanned through the paragraph, and then looked up with eyes as wide as saucers.

"No..."

"Weiss," Ruby tried again.

"I don't..." she choked out through her tears. “I don't want to hurt you! Please...."

"Weiss, you're not going to hurt us!" Blake yelled, catching her attention. Her screams stopped for a moment and were replacing by frantic breaths. "I just... You have vampirism. It's...hard to explain, but it's another disease. You... You just drank. You aren't going to feel thirsty again for a while."

Her eyes looked over at the book in Yang's hand. Blake saw how they shifted from golden yellow to icy blue for a moment, then back into gold.

"Hand me," she started before clearing her throat. "Hand me the book."

Yang started walking forward, but Weiss flinched, stopping her.

"T- Toss it!"

Yang tossed the tome to her underhanded, and the heiress caught it before rapidly flipping through pages. When she stopped near the end, Blake unconsciously held her breath as her eyes scanned the contents thoroughly. A grimace returned to her face as tears pooled again. "No," she quietly muttered as she dropped the book. "No. No. This can't... This can't be happening." Her legs curled up with her knees pressed into her forehead as she started sobbing quietly. Blake looked on broken-hearted while Yang seemed to lose all luster. Ruby looked back to them and then at her partner. She went down to her knees beside her and put a hand on one of her legs. Weiss looked up at her and sniffed, tears running down her face. As she opened her mouth to say something, she went silent as Ruby threw herself forward and wrapped her into a hug, squeezing her tightly against her.

“It’s okay,” the younger girl whispered. “It’ll be all right.”

Weiss just seemed to stare forward for a minute in silence before her own arms rose up and wrapped around Ruby as well. Her eyes closed slowly, and then another pair of arms went around them both. She looked over to see Yang smiling faintly at her before setting her forehead to hers for a moment. Another pair came and they all looked to see Blake

For a while the team sat there, taking comfort in each others’ presence. Somehow, despite everything, they felt that it was going to be all right in the end.

Each of them had read over the portion of the book on vampirism at least twice now. Weiss herself was reading it her third time when Ruby spoke up.

"Weiss, are...you alright?"

"No, Ruby. I'm not alright," Weiss answered, taking a break from her reading and noticeably distant from the others. "I just found out that I'm undead, have a constant need to drink people's blood, run the risk of losing control of myself and killing you all, and it turns out that there is no cure for my condition, so I'm stuck like this until I die, which might never happen as apparently vampirism makes you immortal to age, disease, and possibly starvation. So yeah, I'm pretty far from alright."

"Weiss, I..."

"But I'll manage, like I always have," Weiss concluded before she sighed and went back to reading over the symptoms again. Ruby looked at Weiss in concern before her expression hardened into one of pure determination.

"We're going to find the cure."

The heiress was jolted from reading over the symptoms a third time and sighed. “Ruby, it’s not that simple.”

“Maybe not, but we can definitely do it. Besides, the book says there aren’t any reliable cures known. That means someone might know about unreliable cures, or maybe someone found a cure since?”

“This book could be pretty old,” Blake pointed out.

Weiss shook her head, tears welling up. “You guys…”

“Hey, uh, heads up about what’s up ahead,” Yang warned after peering forward. “You guys ever been to a mausoleum?”

“Oh, how terrible can it be?” Weiss asked in irritation before walking forward and then stopping. “What the...?”

The other girls looked into the next room to see what looked like dried corpses sitting in various shelf-like holes in the walls. Some were wrapped in ancient linens while some were left exposed, only clothing and armor on them. A few had weapons resting on their chests, likely indicating that they had been warriors in life.

“They just…left them out,” Ruby said as she gazed around. “Are they like mummies?”

“Kinda,” Yang guessed uncertainly. “I don’t think anyone’s used this thing recently. These guys have probably been up here for centuries.” She suddenly grasped Weiss’s arm as the girl tried to head forward. “Whoa there! Careful.” She picked up the lid off an urn and threw it forward. It hit a raised flagstone, and then suddenly a spiked grate swung forward, slamming against a wall before slowly swinging back into place.

“Right. Traps,” Weiss hissed. Blake walked up while looking through Arvel’s notebook and staring at the palm of the Golden Claw, noting three symbols etched on. She hummed and put the Claw back into her pack.

“So, we’ve got to watch out for traps? Just be careful from here out.” Ruby started looking at one of the battleaxes resting on a mummified warrior. “Wow, this thing barely has any-” A hand shot out and grabbed her leg, and the girl screamed while leaping back and landing against her sister.

“Ruby?!”

“It grabbed me!”

“Don’t be silly,” her partner admonished with a chuckle. “There’s no way-”

A growl came from the mummy as dust launched from its mouth. Its eye sockets began to glow blue as it rose from its place as though simply waking from bed, taking its axe in hands and facing the girls.

“I’m sorry!” Ruby cried out an apology.

“What…is…?” Weiss began.

“Undead,” Blake muttered. Her ears twitched and then she looked over to see three others rising up. “They’re undead!”

“How?” Yang shouted as she readied Ember Cilica.

“I don’t know!”

One of the mummies came forward, lashing out with an ancient sword. Yang deflected the strike and punched the undead, sending it backwards into another. The one nearest them swung its ax, only to be dodged.

“Dir volaan!” it shouted.

“We didn’t mean to!” Ruby yelled as she pulled Crescent Rose out.

“Ruby, I don’t think you’re going to convince them!” her sister shouted as she whacked that one back as well. The four approached as one and the girls readied themselves.

“Okay, there seems to be magic coming from behind the eyes!” Weiss observed.

“Try to remove the heads!” Ruby reasoned as she dodged another axe swing. “Like zombies!” She whipped Crescent Rose forward and pulled it behind a mummy’s knees, tripping it onto its back. With a twirl, she stabbed down into its head. The light in its eyes vanished and the corpse stilled. “It works!”

Weiss squared herself with a sword-wielding mummy and parried its swing before jabbing Myrtenaster’s end into one socket. The mummy twitched before it fell to the ground with a clack. Blake, meanwhile, dashed forward and swiped the head off of another, while Yang reared back and punched forward, smashing in the face of the last mummy. As it fell, Ruby noticed some kind of slime on the end of her scythe’s blade and made a noise of disgust.

“These things are gross,” she complained as she took out a cloth and wiped the slime away.

“How are dead things even walking around like this?” Yang asked as she kicked at one of them.

“Magic, I’d assume,” Weiss explained. “I went over a lot of magical subjects with Cynrrbert. One that really sounded interesting was the School of Conjuration. Essentially, it allows people to conjure things, normally from something called Oblivion. You can summon weapons, familiar spirits, even beings. But another branch of it is necromancy. He was going to explain some political disputations about it, but decided it wasn’t important.”

“Let me guess. “Never mind for now”?”

Weiss huffed. “Yes, yes. At least he stops his tangents. Anyways, necromancy is simply putting magic into a dead body and making it…do things. Unskilled mages tend to ‘burn out’ the body and they end up turning the reanimated corpse into ashes from the inside out. But skilled necromancers can revive a corpse for an unspecified amount of time. I think such a necromancer might have made these mummies into their thralls and then simply set them as a security measure for the barrow.”

“Makes sense, I guess.” Ruby tentatively picked up the ancient axe and looked it over. “Man, this must have been an amazing blade at the time. It’s held an edge for centuries!”

Weiss shook her head and chuckled. “You are something else, I swear. Your partner’s cursed, and you say you’re going to cure her. We get attacked by reanimated mummies, and you’re looking at their weapons.”

Ruby smiled and placed the axe down. “Well, being upset’s not getting us anywhere. So, what do you guys think? Should we try to find this, uh, Hall of Stories and the treasure, or go back?”

“We came this far,” Blake argued in defense of going forward. “And, honestly, the mummies aren’t too much of a problem.”

“After all of this, we deserve some treasure,” Yang complained.

Weiss just nodded when their leader looked at her. Ruby grinned brightly.

“Aaaaaaaallllllll right! Treasure hunters, forward!”

“Ruby! Trap!” Weiss shouted when she stepped on the raised flagstone. Ruby dashed back in a flurry of petals with an ‘eep’ and into Weiss’s arms as the spike gate slammed at her. She laughed nervously and rubbed her neck.

“Forgot about that thing.”

Weiss let her go and the younger girl landed on her feet. “What would you do without us?”

The team proceeded to the next room, where more mummies came up only to be soundly defeated in moments. A metallic shifting noise could be heard, and when they looked down a narrow hall, they could see pendulums swiping back and forth every couple seconds.

“Okay, how are we…” Yang paused when she saw Ruby speed through to the other side during a gap in the swings. “Rubes,” she admonished.

“It’s okay. There’s a chain thing here.” She reached up and pulled on the chain, and the pendulums stopped. “See?”

“Well, that makes it simpler,” Weiss said as she walked through cautiously. They continued through a winding hall with more mummies coming up once in a while. Past that was an underground stream with a waterfall and a bridge across it. A standing coffin popped open and another mummy walked out from it while hefting a sword. Yang sighed as she approached it and knocked its head off.

“These things are getting a little annoying.”

“Ooh, treasure chest,” Ruby marveled as she opened an old chest on a pedestal. “Ugh, just some cents!” She pulled out the partially corroded coppers and pocketed them. “And a rusty helmet. Hey, did you guys notice that the money is here is almost exactly like the current stuff? Like, the only thing different with this is that instead of a dude's face on it, there's a dragon head.”

“It is odd that they haven’t changed the currency in what must be at least a thousand years,” Weiss agreed before getting back to the matter at hand. “Where do we go from here?”

“Only way is through there,” Blake stated as she pulled at another chain that opened a rusty grate. The stream led them all down, though Weiss groaned at having her feet get wet.

“You’d think they’d have a path that didn’t lead through a stream,” she complained as they turned into a narrow cave that expanded into a wider one.

“It might have come up after they built it,” Blake guessed. “See, I doubt they planned for that one either.” She pointed over to another stream coming from above and joining the other one into a larger flow of water.

“Hey, that over there looks open to the sky.” Ruby rushed over to where some snow had gathered and stuck her head out to look upwards. “Whoa! It’s a big hole!”

The others, except for Weiss who stayed out of the sunlight, joined her before they turned and started walking along the path. A mummy was quickly slapped off the natural bridge, and they reentered the cave system.

“You know, it’s kinda impressive how far these guys dug,” Yang stated. “Couldn’t have been done all at once, either.”

“Normally how such a crypt would work is that they dig further as time goes on,” Weiss explained. “So it’s likely the deeper we are the newer the place is.”

The cave gave way to temple once again as ancient masonry reasserted itself as the primary feature. A mummy stood guard, but this time Blake was the one to take it down with a quick slice removing its head. A large set of double doors were behind it, which they pushed open and entered. After some more bends and impressive carvings, they heard a familiar noise.

“Another pendulum trap?” Weiss asked as it came into view. “Does anyone else feel like this is a bit much?”

“I honestly don’t know what I expected,” Blake responded as Ruby dashed through again like last time. As they came through, Ruby pulled out Crescent Rose and sliced through a mummy that had awoken when she got close.

“Sorry,” she mumbled to the others, and then ducked as an arrow flew at her head. More mummies had taken to arms at the other side of the complex looking room. Weiss responded by trying to fire lightning at them, but her attempts arced downwards only a dozen feet away from her.

“Guess we’re not ready for long distance,” Yang quipped before running forward to the archer mummy. Weiss closed in with another and tried her lightning again, and this time filled the undead with electricity. It spasmed in place for a moment and then fell over steaming. Weiss grinned at her accomplishment, but flinched back when a body fell from above next to her.

“My bad,” Blake called down.

“Honestly…”

The next room had another set of doors, behind which was a long hallway, on the walls of which were carved murals and inscriptions. The girls looked at them in awe as they continued forward, but then all of their focus went to the intricate carving at the very end.

“The door?” Yang asked.

“The door in the Hall of Stories,” Ruby mused as she looked over at the murals. “This must be it. Blake, what do we do?”

Blake took out the Claw and looked at it again. “The notes say that "When you have the golden claw, the solution is in the palm of your hands."” She looked at the door and began pushing the circles on it, moving the animal carvings around until they were ordered from top to bottom with a bear, moth, and owl. She pushed the claw into an indention in the center, fitting its points in and then pushed a little more. The stone in the center suddenly shifted in. She gasped, and tried turning it a little one way, then the other. The whole door began creaking, and Blake backed away with the Claw in hand as the door seemed to sink into the ground.

"Incredible... After all this time it still works..." Weiss gasped in amazement, echoing the rest of her teammates’ thoughts.

They walked up the stairs revealed behind the door and looked into a cavern where a large stone platform with stairs leading up to and sitting next to it stood, an iron coffin on one end and a large, curved wall with carvings and inscriptions upon it at the other. Some bats flew out as the approached, frightening them for but a moment before they continued onwards.

“So, does this look valuable to anyone?” Yang asked as she looked around inside of a chest, showing them a few gems.

“Yes, of course!” Weiss responded as she began going through it as well. “This will definitely be worth a small fortune!”

"I see your inner 'Schnee' has emerged..." Blake smirked, only to be ignored by Weiss, who had begun stockpiling all the gems into her bag.

Ruby, however, continued to look around the cavern until she felt a sudden draw pull her towards the curved wall. She could swear she almost heard something as she neared the construct. The words on the wall seemed to glow to her, and she began to mumble.

“Het…nok…faal vahlok…” she muttered.

“Rubes?” Yang asked when she noticed her sister staring at the wall intently. “Ruby? Are you all right?”

“Het nok faal vahlok deinmaar do…”

“What’s going on?” Blake wondered.

“Is she reading that? What is-”

The world began to shake as Ruby’s voice rose. “HET NOK FaaL VahLok DeiNMaaR DO DOVAahGOLZ ahRK aaN FUS DO UNSLaaD RahGOL ahRK VULOM!” she boomed as misty tendrils reached from the wall and into her. “Here lies the Guardian, Keeper of the Dragonstone, And a Force of unending Rage and Darkness!”

“Ruby?!” Yang shouted, finally pulling her sister’s attention away.

“Huh, wha? What’s up, Yang?”

Before Yang could ask Ruby the same question, there was a loud bang that came from behind them. The girls turned to see the lid on the iron coffin falling into the stream next to the platform. As they readied themselves for what was about to happen, a mummy rose up, wearing more filled out armor and a horned helm. It looked over to them, and stood straight.

“Getting real tired of these things,” the brawler ground out.

“Fus…” the mummy growled, “RO DAH!”

A wave of tangible force came at the girls and hit them. Ruby and Blake were sent backwards, but Yang was able to stand her ground while Weiss held herself steady by stabbing her rapier into the floor. Blake jumped back from the wall, while Ruby stopped herself from hitting it too hard.

“The hell?” Yang cried out as the mummy raised its sword and charged them. She punched at it, only for her blows to get blocked. The mummy slashed and she tried to deflect it, just for her gauntlets to get iced over. “It’s got an ice sword!” she warned.

Weiss came in and began slashing and stabbing towards it, but it was able to match her movements as well. It surprised her with a punch that sent her back before trying to stab her, but luckily her Aura took the hit and she was only sent rolling. Blake went for a kick, only for her leg to be caught and then for her to be thrown to the side.

“Guys, hold up!” Ruby called out as she came in, squaring up to the mummy and holding its attention. “This one’s tougher than the rest! Weiss, get your lightning ready! Blake, rock clone! Yang, get ready for a fastball!”

“Right!” her sister cheered while punching her fists together, shattering the ice on them.

Blake jumped to the side and swung at the mummy only to be blocked, but when it went for a retaliatory strike, its blade sunk in through her shoulder, only for her body to suddenly turn to stone. The real Blake reappeared and stabbed through both its arms.

“Weiss!” she called out.

The heiress nodded and ran forward as electrical energy built up in her hands. She shouted as she released the lightning at near point blank into the mummy, while at the same time Blake jumped clear. The living corpse spasmed as the magical voltage coursed through it. Meanwhile, Yang had lifted Ruby up by her arm and leg and activated her Semblance, basking the cave in a fiery light.

“Here…goes!” she yelled as she twisted and threw her sister as hard as she could. Weiss ended her spell with a gasp and jumped back out of the way as Ruby sped through, hooking her scythe under the chin of the mummy. She planted her feet firmly upon the ground and pulled as hard as she could, slicing through mummified flesh and brittle bone. The team watched for a moment as the mummy stood still, and then the magical light left its eyes and it fell, its head rolling for a moment before stopping next to its helmet.

Ruby let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding and smiled at her team. “That wasn’t so bad.”

“Compared to the others, though, this one was tough,” Yang argued. “Like, on a whole ‘nother level.”

Seeing how the danger had passed, Blake looked in the coffin it had sprung up from while Ruby started looking over its sword after yanking it loose from its now fully dead hands. “Hey, there’s some kind of tablet in here,” she told them as she picked up said stone. “Looks like a map.” She turned it in her hands and saw the inscriptions on the back side of it. “There’s something written on here. Looks like the same script on the wall.” She looked over to Ruby, and then at Yang, who glanced over at her sister as well.

“What?” the young leader queried as she took her attention away from the ancient sword.

“Ruby…do you mind taking a look at this?”

“Uh, sure I guess.” Ruby took the tablet from Blake and looked it over. She hummed a bit and squinted. “Het nok un…mahlaan drogge…erei suleyk se…Alduin vokrii.”

“Okay, in Vytalian?” Yang asked.

“What? I just did.” Ruby perked up her eyebrow in confusion. At this, the others glanced at each other before Yang continued.

“I don’t know how you’re reading that, but when you read the wall, you said it in Vytalian after…whatever that was.”

“It was really out there,” Weiss added. “Maybe…it’s some sort of magic wall that gave you the ability to read their ancient script?”

"If that is the case, then why was only Ruby affected?" Blake pointed out.

"Maybe because she was the closest, I don't know! Do I look like the magic expert here?"

"Compared to us, yes," Yang confirmed, causing Weiss to throw out her arms in exasperation. As she did so, Ruby reread the stone.

“I still don’t… No, wait, I can see it now.” She squinted again. “I didn’t even realize it wasn’t… So, what did I say? Uh, just now, I mean.”

“Het notch something or other,” her sister answered with a wave of her hand. “It all sounded like gibberish to me.”

“Het…” Ruby took a moment to mull it over in her mind. “’Here lies…our fallen lords until…the power of Alduin…revives.”

The team looked over at the tablet again as they thought about the translation. “So…it’s a map to burial sites?” Yang thought aloud.

“Possibly other barrows like this one,” Weiss guessed as she began to pace. “Assuming the others on the map are similar to this one, each would have a sort of key, leading to an inner chamber like this, with more clues to finding…something. I wouldn’t be surprised if this stone was a part of a puzzle that led to something…big.”

“Sounds like video game logic,” Blake countered.

“No, it’s fantasy logic. Which, given everything else around here, makes perfect sense in this situation. The mummies, the traps, the magical reading enchantment that’s now made Ruby the key to finding the rest of these things…”

“Oh boy! I read one thing and…” Ruby muttered.

“…It’s all part of some ancient culture’s scheming test to make sure whatever being finds their lost artifact, treasure, or what have you is worthy of holding it," Weiss started to crescendo at this point, while her team stared at her with blank looks. “We have displayed cunning and strength to get this far, and the others may hold more tests yet for us as we-”

“Or we could put it in a museum,” Yang pointed out. “We don’t have to go on a big treasure hunting quest.”

“Besides, you could be totally wrong and it just leads to some normal graves,” Ruby tacked on.

“Not to mention one or more of them could have collapsed,” Blake bet. “We saw a few hallways that were inaccessible on the way here. It’s likely at least one of them totally caved in.”

Weiss groaned in disappointment.

“Don’t worry Weiss,” Ruby bubbled as she went over and patted her shoulder. “We can still find someone who knows about this stuff and they might tell us more. And I promise we’ll look at one of them, at least.”

“I still think I’m right,” she objected. At this, Ruby smiled.

“Now, let’s check out the next room!”

“Maybe we should go back,” Blake retorted.

“But this might be where ALL of the treasure is at,” Ruby called as she hopped up the steps and into the cave tunnel. The others followed her in and looked to see her opening a hidden door after pulling on some handle.

“Oh, so there was a back way.”

“A secret back way,” Ruby whispered while ducking and moving her hands out. Yang felt a little regret taking her to see that cheesy spy movie as her sister sped forward ahead of them, stopping at a chest next to a shrine set in a recess and opening it. “Yep, more jewels! And a gauntlet!” She pulled out the piece of armor and checked inside of it before putting it on her right hand. “Neat! I wonder what kind of metal this is. It looks like bronze, but it isn’t corroded at all. Geez, how did these guys make this stuff last this long?”

“Huh, that is pretty cool,” Yang agreed before looking forward. “And it looks like we found our way out.”

After bagging all of the gems, the girls walked back outside to find themselves on a high rise at the side of the mountain. Weiss, with a wince, threw her cloak over her head as the sun hit her.

“Feeling okay?” Blake asked her.

“Better. Sunlight still bothers me, but… I don’t feel as bad.” She grimaced and shook a little.

Blake dropped the subject there and looked across the distance. There was a lake nearby, fed by the river, and across it was a green, piney forest.

“It looks beautiful, doesn’t it?”

“…Yes, it does.”

“Hey, look, a mammoth skeleton,” Ruby pointed out to the side of them. The young girl hopped down and went over to take a closer look at it. “I wonder if we’ll see a live one.”

“We could…sell the tusks,” Weiss explained as she followed along. “Ivory should be fairly valuable. And it makes for beautiful carvings.”

“Huh, yeah. It’d make a good hilt.” Ruby yanked a tusk loose and yelped as she fell back. “I’m okay. I’m okay.”

“Riverwood would be up the river from here, right?” Blake asked. “You think they have a boat or something we could use at that dock over there? I just…do not feel like walking all the way back.”

“We could ask, I suppose,” Ruby answered as she got back to her feet. “Might be quicker too. It looks… I don’t know. But it’s past noon. We should get back before nightfall to be safe. Oh! We’ve got to get all those bandits we caught!”

“Don’t worry Rubes. They’ll be fine,” her sister reckoned.

“Thanks for the lift!” Ruby cheerfully told the boatman. Weiss handed him two septims and he nodded to them.

“Aye, no worries, lasses,” he said while tying his boat to the dock. He’d be leaving in the morning with some wood for his fence he was building, as he told them, and staying at the inn overnight.

“Well, glad to see you all back,” Cynrrbert greeted as they came into town. “A totally different direction than the one you went in though. I guess it was quite the adventure.”

“Well, we took down the bandits,” Weiss answered proudly. “Several of them are tied up at the barrow’s entrance. And I finally got the basics of lightning magic down!” She held out a hand and several sparks flew from her fingers, singeing some grass.

“Whoa! Careful with the magic!” a passing man said. “Don’t want you burning any houses down!”

“S-sorry!”

“Ah, well done. Told you it was easy, didn’t I?”

“It certainly came in handy. By the way, do you know what causes those mummies we faced in the barrow?”

“Mummies?” A confused look crossed the mage's face before his eyes widened in realization. “Ah, you must mean the draugr. Same thing I suppose, but most Nords are going to call them that. Hm, can’t say I know what exactly causes them, but there are all sorts of examples of undead just happening for seemingly no reason. There’s an old legend that says draugrs are the people who worshipped the dragons back when they ruled Skyrim, cursed to never find rest, but it sounds like hogwash to me. More likely a security measure installed by necromancers back in the day.”

“Yes, that’s what I thought too. Oh, we also found something in there. Ruby, do you have that stone?”

Ruby looked from where Yang and Gerdur were talking about the bandits and started going through her satchel. “Uh, sure, yeah. Here you go.” She handed it over to Weiss, who showed it to the mage.

“Do you have any idea what this could be?”

“Hm, can’t rightly say. I think that’s Dragon script, though.”

“Dragon script?” Weiss questioned with a raised eyebrow.

“I can’t tell you too much. Dragons were never too interesting to me. Well, not since I was a boy anyways. What little lad doesn’t dream of slaying a dragon in his youth? However, there is a man rather experienced with dragon apocrypha. Farengar, the Court Wizard of Whiterun. You’re headed that way anyways, right?”

“That…is incredibly coincidental.” She looked back at the tablet and hummed in thought. “Say, do you know if there’s any sort of enchantment that could make it to where someone could read this?”

“I’m guessing you ran into such a thing.”

“Ruby did. Suddenly she was able to read this same sort of script on a wall, but didn’t even notice when she did. Then she could read this tablet. She said it was something like ‘here lie our fallen lords, until…something revives them’.”

“Well, it’s not outside the realm of possibilities that something could’ve given her the ability to read it. I’ve heard of stranger things happening in the Ayleid and Dwemer ruins. Heh, Farengar might want to take her on as an assistant if the ability turns out to be long-lasting or permanent. Maybe even those monks on… Never mind that. Well, I suppose I’ll be taking off as well, soon. Headed south to Cyrodiil. Want any more pointers before we part ways?”

“Yes, that would be excellent.”

“All right. We’ll send Faendal, Hod, and Sven to watch them overnight, and then bring up a wagon to cart them all back to the prison in the morning,” Gerdur agreed. “You’ve got some chains lying around, Alvor?”

“A few. Making a few more before supper won’t be any trouble. I’ll add them to your tab then.”

“All right. Then that’s taken care of,” Ruby sighed. “Blake got Lucan his Claw back, and we’ll be heading to Whiterun tomorrow. I can’t thank you guys enough for helping us out while we’re here.”

“You kidding?” Gerdur started. “You cleared two of the biggest threats to our village for miles, and you’re going out of your way to get us help from the Jarl. If anything, we owe you much more.”

“Aw, shucks, we’re just doing the right thing.” Ruby twisted her toes in the dirt while blushing a little.

“Heh,” Alvor laughed. “If a few more people did the right thing like this more often, we wouldn’t have any worries at all.”

“Take it from us, girl. You’ve done Riverwood a huge favor, and you’ve promised to do even more. You’ll always have a spot at our village, even if I have to toss out some people from the inn. Speaking of which, I think there are some people waiting to celebrate. Your sister already went there.”

Yang gulped down the honey-made beverage and then slammed the mug down. The people around her cheered and then her opponent downed his own mug, though noticeably slower. He slammed it down and the crowd cheered again, though a few went quiet when he lurched a bit, but swallowed back.

“I! Know when I’m! Beaten!” he shouted while throwing a sack of coins on the table. The crowd whooped and hollered and Yang celebrated by down a final victory mug.

“Hey, Delphy!” she called across the inn. “Put some on me!” And she tossed the innkeeper her newly earned coins.

“As long as it’s paid for,” she said while catching it. “All right, first come, first served!”

The group went over for their free drinks and Yang laughed at the tingly feeling going through her.

“Yang!” her little sister balked when she saw her. “It’s only been an hour!”

“Aw, I just had to celebrate with these guys though! Besides, I got offered a bunch of free drinks. It’d be rude to say no.”

“Did it have to be alcohol?” she groaned with puffed out cheeks. Yang just laughed uproariously and brought her sister in for a hug.

“Oh, dou’re adorable, sis," Yang slurred, the alcohol finally getting to her. "Lesh go get Weissy and Blakey. Blake’s ‘upposed to get the gems sold to the carrot van and Weiss is magicking stuff.”

“Yang, you’re drunk.”

“Wah? Really?”

“Well, today’s been…” Weiss searched for the right word, but could only find one. “Eventful.”

“At least things should calm down tomorrow,” Ruby said. “We’ll just be taking a trip with the Khajiits to Whiterun.”

“Hey, hey Blake,” their drunk teammate called out. “You should…let you ears out! Heh? Heh? They won’t mind. They might even…like, I dunno, like you more er somethin’?”

“I know they won’t mind, but…” Blake honestly couldn’t think of a reason to not let the Khajiit know, but she wasn’t as sure about the other peoples. “After we leave. And I’m keeping a hat around in case we come across humans.”

“You realize you don’t need to make promises to someone while they’re drunk, right?” Weiss asked.

“Yang’s memory is actually pretty good when she drinks,” Ruby explained. “I think she gets it from our uncle’s side. He’s like that too.” At the mention of her uncle, a forlorn expression flashed across Ruby's face before quickly going back to normal.

“As long as she doesn’t do this too often.” Weiss stretched out her arms and went over to the bed she’d be using. “If that’s everything though, maybe we should start turning in. We’ve got an early start tomorrow.” She pulled out a vial and uncorked it before downing the contents.

“Weiss! You don’t need that!”

“We need to keep up appearances,” the heiress explained as she recorked it and set it aside. “Besides, it’ll help me sleep.” She dug herself up under the blanket and sighed. Following her lead, Ruby helped a giggling, drunk Yang to her bed before moving into hers, with Blake doing the same. After a few moments of silence, a small voice sounded off.

"Hey, Weiss..."

"Yes, Ruby..." the heiress groggily responded.

"On the stone...it said something about an 'Alduin'. Do you know anything about that?"

"No, Ruby... Probably just some ancient necromancer..." With that, Weiss turned back to go to sleep.

"…What do you think is going on back home? In Vale? Beacon?"

"I… I don't know. The Vytal Tournament was about to start, so…competing in that is probably outside the realm of possibility..."

"Yeah…Pyrrha was probably going to win that, anyway."

"Sez you!" Yang interjected, still following along despite her drunken condition. "I cud take 'er!"

"Heh, not like that you can't. Jaune might be able to beat you in that state," Blake cracked, with giggles responding as Yang performed an obscene gesture with an outstretched finger while smirking. After a short round of giggles, a silence descended once again.

"I imagine that people are probably wondering where we are," Weiss stated. "Ozpin, Ironwood, my father…"

"Knowing Jaune and Sun, you can count JNPR and SSSN in that list as well," Ruby added before going silent. "Do you-"

"Yes, we will," Weiss answered the incoming question, resolute. "I promise you that we will get back home. It may not be today, it may not be tomorrow, it may not even be in a year, but we will go home."

"Just like we'll find you a cure," Ruby smiled. "Thank you, Weiss."

"No problem, Ruby," With that, a silence descended upon the team, only to be broken by a loud snore from a passed out Yang. Another round of giggles sounded off.

“Well, with that wondrous addition by Yang, good night guys,” the leader said to her team, blowing out her candle.

“Good night,” they all told one another.

Chapter Text

Khajiits are one of the most interesting races I've ever had the pleasure of studying. Men are simple, and, to me at least, Mer are not much different from Men outside of longer lifespans. I would have loved to study the Saxhleel of Argonia more closely, but I would not want to die from flesh eating flies just to get to know the marsh folk better. Thus, I studied the Khajiit more closely.

Many a person have been confused by the Khajiits forms, which are dependent on the cycles of the moons. When born under a particular lunar phase, a Khajiit's form is laid before them. There are seventeen of these forms, though one is unique and only conferred once every generation during the double new moon phase in which Khajiit say there is a third, secret moon. While I've never witnessed such, therefore doubt it to be something all races experience, it could simply be because I was born after the last double new moon, and the next isn't due for some time.



Most Men I have spoken with on the subject seem to be under the impression that Khajiit only come in the two-legged variety, some of them thinking Ohmes were simply Wood Elves assimilated into their culture, and that Ohmes-raht were half-breeds. What did they think of the four-legged ones? Beasts of burden and pets! While I felt offended on their behalf, most Khajiit seem to accept this as normal. In fact, a few seemed to use it to their advantage.

Quadrupedal Khajiit, which include the smallest Alfiqs and the enormous battlecat Senche-raht (twice the size of what I pictured here at the least) are unable to speak in the common tongues of Tamriel, but still communicate with their kin in a decidedly feline manner. There are, however, magical enchantments that can imbue jewelry with translation abilities, and so making one to translate the more cat-like language of Khajiit into more common tongues was not so hard (once my assistant found the right enchantment). I daresay our invention is beginning to take off as well. It's become very popular with the families I have spoken with.

Dagi and Dagi-raht were hard to find but interesting to see. They hold a more ape-like shape, which in hindsight seems rather obvious due to their affinity for living in the canopies of the jungles of Elswyr. I cannot truly think of them as bipedal or quadrupedal, but, seeing as they walk upon their knuckles, mostly classify them as the latter. As rumor has said, they are more skilled in the ways of magic than their kin, and with their propensity for tree-climbing I could easily envision them defending the jungles by laying down destructive magics from far above.

I only managed to meet one Tojay in my travels, and only because he was outside of the Tenmar forest at the time. Almost all Tojay and Tojay-raht are given over to the Moon Temples to be trained as Moon Bishops from a young age. Moon Bishops are considered one of the most important positions in the Khajiiti culture, just below Clan Mothers and the Mane. Moon Bishops have an important role in the production of moon sugar, said to have the ability to 'collect starlight' needed to make it. The Tojay are small and short, easily mistaken for a child if one doesn't know what to look for in a young Khajiit. From his words, Tojay-raht are perhaps just a head shorter than Ohmes. I wasn't permitted entry in any of the Moon Temples, and my talk with the Bishop was short, but it was very insightful into Khajiiti religion.

Another thing of interest I have found though, is that while all Khajiit can be classified as one form or another, some struck me as seeming a bit 'in-between'. Some Senche would have straighter backs. Some Cathay-raht would not seem so large. I even met a pair of twins, one Ohmes and one Ohmes-raht, born right as the moons changed phases as Secunda went from full to waxing. The Ohmes girl had more cat-like ears than elven and lacked a tail, yet her sister had definitely feline ears and a tail, but seemed to lack body fur (which I checked for purely scientific purposes no matter what my assistant insists). While curious about these 'almost outliers', the twins proved to me that there is no such thing as an unclassified Khajiit form.

As for the Mane, I was unable to meet him, as I was and am but a lowly scribe, though I hope in the future I may yet meet him on some auspicious occasion. Luckily, I was able to acquire a sketch of the Khajiit's leader-in-spirit.



As one can see, he is covered in the shaved fur locks of many of his closest subjects, tied to his own, long mane in a ceremonial fashion. It was once that he received a piece from all of his people, but the Khajiit population has long since grown, and he would simply be unable to move with that much fur tacked on. Hopefully, the tradition changes again. If I were to make a suggestion, I would say that a single lock from high-standing individuals like dukes, mayors, and the like should suffice, giving ample representation, and the Mane some room to move.

Then again, I am but a man. An outside observer of a rather spectacular and interesting people.



Jesse "Bubba" Kay, The Heavy Scribe

Chapter Text

Date: 4E190

Across my travels across Tamriel, through the different nations and provinces, I have noticed many things to differentiate them. Different cultures, pantheons, environments, and inhabitants, to name a few. One thing I have noticed remain constant is the need for money in a complex economic system.

Each of the major economic and political powers utilize a form of currency and coinage to facilitate trade, both inside and outside their borders. In Hammerfell, the yokuda, named after the ancestral homeland of the Redguards. In Morrowind, the nerevar, named after the greatest hero of the Dunmer. In the lands held by the Third Aldmeri Dominion, including Alinor, formerly known as the Summerset Isles, Valenwood, and Elsweyr, the ayrenn, named after the founder and Queen of the First Aldmeri Dominion. The province of Black Marsh, with most of the inhabitants surviving off subsistence farming merely bartering extras, does not possess any form of native advanced currency, and as such, economically, are insignificant, outside of their armies, as shown by the Argonian Invasion of Morrowind in the aftermath of the Red Year. However, several Argonian products are exported, including Argonian Ale.

But, the oldest currently used currency on the continent, used predominately in the provinces of High Rock, Cyrodiil, and Skyrim, is the septim, colloquially known as drakes, named after the founder of the Third Empire, Tiber Septim himself. Yet, the currency itself has a rich history, stretching back to the arrival of the ancient Atmorans during the First Era and the founding of the Nordic Empire. Such was its ancient influence that the Alessian Empire adopted it after overthrowing the tyrannical Ayleids. As such, the septim is commonly accepted in most provinces of the continent, despite the best efforts of the Thalmor to stamp out its use, both within and without its holdings.

The septim, since its adoption, has maintained a similar structure. The base unit, the titular septim, is a solid gold coin. However, due to the impracticality of carrying around thousands of septims all on one person, different denominations have been seen. With the exception of the Ebon, each denomination is worth ten of the next denomination down. They are as follows:

• Cent: Small coins made of pure copper, the cent is the least valuable septim. One hundred cents make up one septim. It is emblazoned with the symbol of a crown on its face.
• Diem: Slightly larger coins made of iron, the diem is the second least valuable denomination of septim. Ten cents make up one diem, while ten diems make up one septim. A visage of the Imperial City seen from above makes up its face.
• Septim: Solid gold, medium-sized coins, the septim is the base unit for the Empire. As such all values of worth during trade are measured in septims. The face of Tiber Septim himself is seen on all septims.
• Malk: Slightly larger than a septim, and square in shape, a malk is made of pure moonstone. Ten septims make up a single malk. Most everyday trade is conducted with malks. The image of the province of Cyrodiil, the central hold of the Empire, lies on its face.
• Denar: Even larger than a malk and with a distinctive diamond shape, the denar is worth one hundred septims, or ten malks. It is gold, with a silver center. Most large trades are conducted with denars, due to convenience. The denar is emblazoned with the Amulet of Kings on its face.
• Ebon: The most valuable, and subsequently the rarest, denomination of septim, the oval-shaped ebon is a large coin made of solid ebony. Hardly ever used in trade, with the exceptions of shipping, acquisition of inventory, and the purchase of property, many use ebon purely to store their wealth in banks. The whole of Tamriel, once the holdings of the Empire, lies emblazoned on its face. Although the Empire no longer controls the whole of Tamriel, it is kept with the hope that some day it will be again.

Trestus Whovinicci, Historian at the Imperial Academy

Chapter Text

Chapter 8: Whiterunning Them Ragged

Not many people were up when the girls and the caravan departed, but Dorthe had made sure to get up in time with them to see them off with her family. Hadvar was readying to leave back to Solitude, and it seemed Ralof had left for Windhelm sometime while they were at the barrow. Approaching with a sheathed sword in hand, Alvor handed it to Ruby, who pulled out the blade and immediately recognized it.

“The sword I made?”

“Consider it a gift. While you’re in Whiterun, see if you can get ahold of Eorlund Gray-Mane. Show it to him, and let him know you made it. I can only hope he sees the potential in you.”

“You’ll be the best if he teaches you!” Dorthe added with a smile. “Papa’s good, but Eorlund makes the weapons for the Companions. They’re kinda like heroes.”

“I’ll be sure to look him up,” Ruby promised with a smile as she tied the sword to her side. “But you better do your best too.”

“I will! Definitely!”

Laughing, Ruby turned to look at her team and the caravan. The caravan was beginning to move, Senche and Senche-raht drawing carts along with a handful of horse drawn ones. Her team had gotten seats in one of the emptier carts, along with a practical litter of cubs sitting around them. Weiss was currently cooing over the kittens, while Blake was admonishing a hungover Yang.

"...not so loud, please. My head is still ringing..." Yang whimpered.

"Well, whose fault is that?" Blake pointed out with a smirk.

"Mine..."

"That's what you get for drinking so much last night," Weiss voice rang out, disapproving. "Maybe next time you'll think better. Don't want to be a bad influence to these adorable little kittens! Oh, yes you are! Yes you are!"

"It's like Zwei all over again..." Yang laughed before wincing.

"No, not like Zwei. This is better," Blake obviously disagreed, to which Yang laughed again. Giggling at her team’s antics, Ruby turned to look back at Alvor.

“Well, I guess we’re going. We’ll get the Earl to send you those guards!”

“Jarl,” Alvor corrected with a laugh as Ruby took off and jumped onto the cart. She waved back at them, and the few folk of Riverwood up at that hour waved back.

At Yang’s insistence, Blake took off her bow once they were clear of the village, though kept a hat nearby as she said she would. The Khajiit didn’t show much interest or surprise besides a few sideways glances. One cub had tried climbing her to lick her ears, but that same cub seemed to be climbing everything it could.

“Okay, focus. Focus… There you go!” Yang cheered.

Weiss looked in the small mirror at her eyes, back to their natural icy blue, and sighed.

“Never dreamed I’d end up with chromatomorphic eyes. You know, I actually have a butler like that back home, only he has seven different colors.” She smiled at the memories of home. “Klein used to use them to cheer me up when I was younger.”

“Whoa, seven?” Yang was a little impressed by that. “I thought three was a lot.”

“Three?” Blake asked as she pulled the little, long-armed cub off of her once again.

“Oh, Yang’s eyes turn blue when she’s sad,” Ruby explained as she dangled a ribbon in front of two cubs, one of them still quite small. Both clawed at it, showing that the bigger one had thumbs on his paws.

“I never saw that. Then again, have I ever seen you sad?” Weiss wondered aloud.

Yang shrugged, and then a cub hopped into her lap. One look at it told her dislodging it would not be worth the hassle, so she began petting the toddler-kitty, earning a purr. “You guys should not be allowed to be this cute.”

A Pahmar-raht plodded up next to their wagon and looked over at the girls. “This one was meaning to ask you four,” he began. “Usually we make for a hunting trip between towns. Would these like to assist us in finding game?”

“Well, I don’t mind,” Ruby answered. “What do you guys think?”

“Eh, could be fun,” her sister, still petting the kitten, said.

“I’m not much for it, but we should give back a little,” Weiss agreed without making eye contact. She was still new to the eye changing, and didn't want to risk being found out.

Blake just nodded, right before the cub hopped onto the back of her head and meowed as it reached for her ears. At this, Blake merely sighed, exasperated and amused at the kitten's antics, smirking slightly. The tiger-like Khajiit let off a loud purr-growl and began slowing.

“This one will let the others know.”

A cub mewled towards him, and the Pahmar-raht sped back up and head-butt the kitten gently, received one from the cub, and then went back to speak with some other Khajiit.

“D’aww!” Ruby gushed.

The caravan had stopped to make camp just before dusk, and the hunters set out, most of the two-legged ones with bows, save for three of Team RWBY. Blake, having some experience with the weapon, decided to see if her skills with it hadn’t completely rusted away. The hunting party split apart several times, each time sending more of them on their own. Blake’s ears swiveled as she listened for prey, the other girls doing their best to not raise their voices over a whisper.

“So, what kind of animal should we bag?” Ruby whispered.

“Whatever we get,” her partner answered. “We don’t really get to pick.”

“Shhh,” Blake went quietly. She closed her eyes and listened for a long moment. Her eyes suddenly snapped open and she drew back her bow before releasing it, letting an arrow loose. A black and grey form had leapt out of the bushes, only for the projectile to sink into its chest. The creature let out a whine and collapsed, showing them a dead wolf.

The rest of the pack emerged, growling and baring teeth. They tried to charge, but the girls were used to more deadly and vicious killers swarming them with far more reckless abandon than the wolves could hope to accomplish. Six more died before the rest ran, whimpering and giving off calls of retreat. Team RWBY stayed vigilant for another minute before allowing themselves to sheathe their weapons and look over their kills.

“Good thinking going for the head and neck,” Blake told her teammates. “That’ll keep most of the meat good.”

“Wait, you want us to eat these?” Ruby asked in shock.

Blake arched an eyebrow. “I mean, it’s meat.”

“They’re wolves!”

“O…kay?” Blake didn't really see what the problem was as she kneeled over one of her kills.

“That’s like…one step from a dog!”

“Ruby, I think you’re blowing this way out of proportion,” her partner admonished. “Besides, we can trade them with someone who’s got an excess of deer or something else. Surely someone in the caravan has a taste for wolf meat.”

“Heh,” Yang laughed. “Cats eating dogs.”

“Really, Yang?” Blake asked in annoyance.

“Come on, it’s ironic!” she defended.

“Let’s just…heft these back.” Blake picked up one of the wolves and threw it on her shoulders. “Maybe I could show you how to clean them.”

“How hard can cleaning them be?” Ruby asked innocently.

The team leader whimpered once the lesson was over.

“I thought you knew what it meant. Didn’t anyone ever teach you survival skills?” Blake asked, an eyebrow arched as she looked at the whimpering girl, her sister comforting her.

“Yeah, but not how to butcher an animal,” Yang answered on her sister’s behalf.

“I haven’t butchered it. I just skinned and cleaned it.”

Weiss was silently catatonic. In a past life she may have gagged and retched at the sight and smell of an animal being emptied of its innards, but it seemed that in this life she couldn’t find it in herself.

“Butchering is when you cut the meat apart. So…next step. Actually, I think that’s his job.” She and Yang looked over to see a Cathay with a table set up, cutting apart the cleaned catches of his caravan with expert ease. He already had a stack of meats beside him and several smaller animals hanging next to his makeshift workstation.

Before anyone could say anything else, one of the two Senche-raht, both bigger than any sort of cat the team had ever even heard of, dragged some kind of three-eyed creature out of the woods.

“What in the world?” Blake muttered.

“Sintesh, you have the oddest of tastes!” an elf-like Ohmes told the massive lion-like being. “How do you even taste the troll’s meat through all of that fat?”

“Do not judge Sintesh’s palate when you like the taste of dartwing seasoning on your rabbit.”

“That is something completely different!”

“Wait, aren’t dartwings those little dragonfly things?” Yang asked. Silence descended over the girls as they thought over Yang's observation, before they all simultaneously retched.

“Ew!”

The girls had just finished a meal of grilled pheasant and roasted carrots after setting up camp with the caravan. Unlike before, the team had tents to sleep in and didn’t need to worry about watch. The four had their sleeping bags set out when Ruby suddenly looked over at her partner.

“Are you…getting thirsty?”

Weiss stiffened and looked over at her.

“I’ll be fine,” Weiss answered, unconvincingly. Already, the signs of her 'dehydration' were beginning to appear.

“Weiss, last time you looked like you were going to keel over at any minute,” Yang pointed out.

“If something’s wrong, you should let us know,” Blake added.

The heiress sighed and sat down.

“Well, what are we supposed to even do?”

Ruby hummed, thinking of a way to help her partner, before an idea popped into her head. Looking through her pack, she took out a cup and set it on the ground before taking out an iron knife. She gripped the knife’s edge and took a deep breath as she held it over the cup.

“Ruby?” Weiss half-shrieked. A second later, Ruby yanked the knife out of her hand and hissed in pain as blood poured out into the cup.

“Ow,” she muttered before smirking. “Have to…hold back my Aura, but I got it.” Just before the cup filled up, blood stopped leaking from her hand and she opened it up for a second. The girls saw her flesh knitting itself back together as her Aura flowed through once again. She picked up the cup with her other hand and took it over to Weiss, who looked at her incredulously.

“Ruby… You…”

“You can’t afford to risk biting us, but we can’t just let you get starved again, so here,” she offered the cup over, almost in Weiss’s face. The heiress smelled the scent of blood and, unable to hold back, took it and slowly drank the red liquid within. When it was all gone, down to the last drop that could roll down the cup’s side, she let the cup down from her face with a satisfied smile. Already the effects kicked in, with her looking like normal again, her new normal at least.

“Thank you,” she muttered.

“No problem,” Ruby said with a grin as she wiped her hand with a handkerchief, though she didn’t seem to be cleaning it well. “Slight problem.”

“Here,” Weiss said as she opened her water flask and dabbed a little into the cloth. As she sponged away the blood, she couldn’t help but notice it seep into the wet handkerchief. She slowed down in her cleaning, watching as she wiped away the stains, turning the white fabric redder and redder with each rub.

“Ahem.” Weiss jumped out of her stupor and looked over to Yang. “Do you think you can give my sister back her hand?” She looked over to see Ruby smiling awkwardly and let go of her right hand immediately, an embarrassed blush entering her face.

“Sorry!”

“No, it’s fine. You did get it pretty clean.”

She just nodded and looked back to the cup. Thinking about it for a moment, she poured a little water into it and swirled it around before downing it.

“So, should we set up a schedule for who feeds Weiss and when?” Yang asked.

“Yang!” Weiss shrieked in surprise.

“What? I’m being serious. You can’t just give her your blood every day. Besides, what if I want a hand massage?”

“I- It was-” Weiss sputtered. “That was just a- I went into a daze right after drinking!”

Yang just chuckled as she lay down.

“You know,” Blake began. “We’ve come across some awful things here, but… Compared to back on Remnant…” She trailed off.

“Besides the dragon, it’s so much safer,” Ruby finished her teammate's line of thinking. “Well, the vampire thing was bad, too, but that’s something we’re going to fix.”

“Mummies,” Yang reminded them.

“Draugr,” Weiss corrected. “And those stay in the ancient barrows. A village like Riverwood existed just down the mountain from them this entire time. They figured the bandit groups to be a bigger threat than the undead sentries.”

“Heck, so if we can figure out how to get rid of the dragon, or convince him to not kill people, then this place would be….” Ruby hummed in thought. “Not perfect, but…I could bring everyone here and feel good about it.”

“A paradise,” Blake agreed. “It really does seem that way, doesn’t it?”

“When compared to home,” Yang thought aloud. “Yeah.”

The second day of travel was uneventful, aside from seeing a few giants herding around a dozen mammoths across the tundra. Team RWBY were awed by the sight of the large beings and their massive chattel, but it soon rolled away. Almost the moment the giant’s disappeared, Whiterun could be seen on the horizon, its tiered levels rising as they watched.

“Whoa! It’s totally different from Solitude!” Ruby awed, standing up to get a better look.

“For one thing, it looks like it’s made out of wood,” Weiss pointed out in worry.

Yang hissed. “Not good.”

They passed by several farms as they closed in on the city, but at one, there seemed to be a commotion. Three people seemed to be fighting against a giant. Seeing this, the Huntresses pulled out their weapons and leapt into action.

“Hold on! We’re coming!” Ruby yelled before jumping in and hitting the back of the giant’s knee with the back of Crescent Rose. The leg bent forward, but the giant caught itself and turned with a swing of its club.

“Eep!” Ruby dashed out of the way and huffed. The large man with a greatsword swiped at the giant, barely cutting into his thigh and eliciting a deep yell from the large creature. It attempted a stomp, only for a shot to ring out, impacting the giant's shoulder. It roared in pain before looking the source, its eyes narrowed as it looked at a smirking Yang.

“Hey big guy! Pick on someone your own size!” Yang shouted up at him before jumping up and punching his gut. It stumbled back and the archer woman laughed.

Yang turned back and gave a thumb up, but the other woman snarled.

“Pay attention or-!”

The giant’s club came around and smacked Yang into the air like a golf ball.

“Waagh!” Yang screamed out as she flew through the air before smacking into the top of a nearby windmill, creating a neat hole and making the turbines collapse to the ground.

“Shor’s Bones!” the swordswoman called out in horror, certain she was dead.

“Yang!” Ruby called out.

“That’s why you focus!” the swordsman yelled before turning and using his momentum to slice at the giant’s knee. Weiss dashed in and stabbed at his calf, piercing through it and earning a yell of pain from the large being.

“Blake, ribbon!” Ruby called out. She grabbed the cloth part of Gambol Shroud and ran around the giant before pulling it taut. The giant’s legs were forced together and it swayed uncertainly before Ruby jumped forward and hit it in the back, knocking it forward onto the ground.

“Hey ugly!” everyone heard from above and looked up to see Yang with her hair alight. The three warriors eyes widened at the sight of her not only alive and well, but unharmed. In fact, she merely looked enraged. She jumped down with a yell and punched the giant in the face, smashing it into the ground. The large being groaned and went silent.

“Gods damn!” the large man said as he sheathed his sword to his back. “Never thought I’d see someone knock a giant unconscious! With their fists, no less!”

“So…” the swordswoman began uncertainly. “Do we kill it or…?”

“No honor in killing a downed foe,” the archer answered as she walked up. “The Khajiit are coming in. Maybe they can get one of their battlecats to drag it back to its camp.” Turning to the young huntresses, the archer looked them over with appraising eyes. “Good work, strangers. I haven’t seen any of you around before.”

“We’re new,” Ruby answered.

“I’ll bet. Still, it’s obvious you all know your way around a fight. And at least one of you knows how to take a hit.” Yang laughed nervously at that. “You should come by Jorrvaskr. Meet Kodlak.”

"Yeah,” the big guy agreed. “We’d love to see you in the Companions.”

“Companions? I think I heard one of the Khajiit mention them. That a group?” Yang asked as she dusted herself off.

“We’re a fighters’ guild, of sorts, but that doesn’t really do us justice,” the archer explained. “You’ll just have to see for yourselves, I suppose. Just tell them Aela asked you to come. If you don’t mind, we’re going to see if those Khajiits mind dragging this guy off.”

“Oh, we’re traveling with them actually,” Ruby explained. “We have a message for the Yerl.”

“Jarl,” Weiss corrected.

“Right.”

“Understandable. Just be sure to drop by when you have the time, anytime.”

“Sure thing,” she said as she collapsed Crescent Rose.

“What in Oblivion!” the swordswoman declared.

“Was that some kind of Dwarven artifact?” the man asked in surprise and wonder.

“Uh, no?” Ruby shrugged at their wide-eyed expressions.

“Okay. Have our things,” Weiss declared as she picked up the bundle of wolf furs wrapped around a mammoth tusk.

“How about we give these things to the Khajiits?” Yang suggested.

“First of all, they’re ours. Second, they suggested we sell them. Furs are always in demand, and ivory is hard to acquire outside of poaching or direct trade with the giants clans.”

“So we’re going to sell them?”

“Yes.”

The girls walked up the winding way, passing by a small drawbridge and then up to the gate. When they stepped through, they could see the keep up at the top of the hill above the rest of the city, along with some large houses standing next to it. At the second tier there seemed to be a larger collection of homes and a tall tree near its center. At the bottom were even more buildings, but it also appeared to be the bustling business district of the whole town. They started walking in, but turned when they heard a guard calling out to someone.

“Just where do you think you’re going?” the guard said to a young Suthay Khajiit that had followed them most of the way.

“This one wished to see-”

“You aren’t allowed into the city. We don’t need any thieving cats mucking about.”

“You…” Blake walked up to the guard, who seemed taken aback by the girl getting in his face. “What’s your problem?!”

“What are you on about?”

“He just wants to enter the town! What’s so wrong with that?! Why are you keeping him out?”

“It’s my job!”

“Your job is to turn people away or kick them out because of their race?!”

“Please, friend,” another voice said and she turned to see Ko’ari there. “M’thri, go back to the camp. We aren’t welcome in the city except on special occasions.”

The younger Khajiit groaned and turned to walk back own the path.

“Ko’ari, you don’t have to-”

“Let the Nords do what they want with their lands, Blake. It isn’t worth arguing over. Besides,” she leaned over, quietly whispering into Blake's ear, “the spot we take is one of the best, between the gate and stables. Anyone heading into the city will run into us first.” She laughed and started back to camp.

“It just isn’t right. It’s not fair to you.”

“Life is rarely fair. But we make the best of it. Go and make your best.”

Blake seemed dejected, but went back into Whiterun, the guard keeping an eye on her as she reentered. The team looked at her nervously.

“You okay?” her partner asked.

“I’ll…be fine.”

“Remind you of some bad times?” Yang asked, putting her hand on her partner's shoulder.

“Yeah. Bad times.”

They started walking forward, only to almost immediately get sidetracked by Ruby walking towards a forge and watching the woman there work over some steel into plate.

“You going for a chest piece?” Ruby asked, excited at the sight of something being made.

“I am,” the woman responded as she looked up from her work and wiped her brow. “Welcome to Warmaiden’s. The outside anyways. I have a few things out here, but there’s more inside.” She thumbed towards the nearby building.

“Ooh, actually, do you know what this is?” Ruby asked as she showed her the gauntlet she’d been wearing everywhere but to bed. The woman looked at it closely and then nodded.

“Looks like Dwemer, or Dwarven as most call it. Good metal, but hard to work. No one’s ever figured out how to remake the metal they made most of their things out of. Just a few know how to forge it into new shapes.”

“Cool. How long does it last? We found it in a really old place.”

“Well, seeing as the Dwemer have been gone since the first Era, and I’ve never seen a spot of rust on anything of Dwemer make, I would guess it’s going to last you your whole lifetime. Probably longer, actually. Might want to replace the lining on occasion though.”

“Oh, I did that at Riverwood. Alvor didn’t know what it was. Said it looked elven but was too heavy to be.”

“Technically, the Dwemer were elves.” Ruby was about to ask how Dwarves could be elves when a cough directed her attention to her annoyed team.

“Uh, Ruby,” her sister insisted.

“Oh! Sorry, we’ve got to go up and see the Jarl.”

“Ah, hold on then. If you’re heading up to Dragonsreach, would you mind giving my father this sword? He's the steward, up at Dragonsreach.” She handed over a greatsword from the wall to the older sister, but Ruby took it instead.

“Ooh, nice!” the girl said as she eyed over the weapon.

“I’d hope so,” she laughed as she watched the girl. “It’s my best piece yet. Tell him to present it to the Jarl for me at some point. He’ll know when the best time is. Also, see if you can mention him visiting his daughter once in a while.”

“Sure. No problem.” Ruby sheathed the sword next to the ancient ice sword on her back. The blacksmith laughed for a moment at the sight.

“I think you have more blades than limbs at this point. Well then, I’ll leave you to it.” She turned back to her work and looked over the steel piece before taking her hammer back up.

“Okay, to the Jarl.”

“No more stops this time,” her partner chided. “We can look around after we’ve told him about the dragon.”

The girls began walking up a set of stairs leading them straight to the tree. At the other end a man in priest robes was yelling something about Talos. The girls immediately found it annoying, but could understand why he was upset.

“Still can’t believe they did that,” Yang muttered.

“What I don’t get is why,” Ruby said back to her. “What good does making a god illegal do?”

“I think…this is what they wanted,” Blake answered. “Because of the whole thing, a war broke out. Now a possible enemy of theirs is making itself weaker from the inside.”

"That's…smart," Weiss begrudgingly admitted. The more she learned about these 'Thalmor', the more disgust formed within her.

Past him they began walking up another set of stone stairs. Across from the top was a bridge that led to the keep’s entrance. They continued forward and entered the building to see a U-shaped table, currently clear of anything but candelabras. At the other side of the room, sitting under a dragon skull hanging on the wall was a man in noble regalia fitting of the country speaking to another man. A Dunmer woman saw them and walked over, a hand on the hilt of her sword and her fingers curled.

“She’s cast-ready,” Weiss warned.

“Huh?” Ruby asked, confused as to how Weiss would know that.

“The way she’s holding her hand. She’s ready to use a spell if she has to. Cynrrbert taught me that.”

“What’s the meaning of this interruption?” the Dunmer asked them. “Jarl Balgruuf is not receiving any visitors.”

“We came from Helgen. We saw the dragon there,” Weiss explained. “The people of Riverwood sent us forward to request aid.”

At this, the Jarl stood up, having overheard them.

“You know about Helgen? Very well, approach, but no funny business.” The Dunmer escorted them to the awaiting Jarl, eyes trained on them at all times.

The girls walked forward, and the Jarl’s eyes scanned over them all.

“So, you were at Helgen? You saw this dragon with your own eyes?”

“Yes sir, uh, lord,” Ruby stammered. “Weiss, help me,” she whispered to her friend.

“We arrived at Helgen to see it destroyed. The dragon attacked us, but we managed to escape,” Weiss clarified. “After we got out, some soldiers helped us reach Riverwood. Once we recuperated, we headed straight here. Riverwood is close to where we last saw the dragon, and we’re afraid it might strike again.”

“I see. This is bad news indeed.” He looked over at the man next to him. “What say you now, Proventus? Shall we continue to trust in the strength of our walls? Against a dragon?”

“Shall I prepare a detachment to send to Riverwood, my Jarl?” the Dunmer asked. Before the Jarl could affirm, the man next to him interjected.

“The Jarl of Falkreath will see that as a provocation,” Proventus warned. Ruby noted he must have been the smith's father. She'll have to give him the sword after this. “He’ll assume we’re preparing to join Ulfric’s side and attack him. We should not-”

“Enough!” Balgruuf demanded, making even the team go rigid at his command. “I’ll not stand idly by while a dragon burns my hold and slaughters my people! Irileth, send that detachment to Riverwood at once.”

“Yes, my Jarl.” As she walked away, Proventus cleared his throat.

“If you’ll excuse me, I’ll return to my duties.”

“That would be best,” Balgruuf coldly replied as he walked away as well, before sighing and turning his attention to the young girls in front of him. “You four, you’ve done us a great service, confirming this dragon for us. For this, I will see you all rewarded with armor straight from my own armory.”

“Uh, thank you, sir,” Ruby responded. “We were just doing what was right.”

“That is why you deserve it. I’ll have Fianna and Gerda show you the way in a moment. But first, given your…relative expertise in this matter, I’m hoping you can help us with something else. If you would follow me.” Jarl Balgruuf began walking down one of the halls leading to the side. The four girls followed him, wondering just what he would request. He opened up a door and walked in. They saw that the room had haphazard desks with scattered parchment atop them. There was a set of alembics and vials sitting near a burner, and in the corner there was a table with glowing runes etched upon it. A man in a blue robe was poring over some documents at one table while tracing lines in a book. “This is my court wizard, Farengar. He’s been researching dragons and…rumors of dragons.”

“Ah, thank you, my Jarl,” the wizard said as he took note of them. “Who…exactly are these young ladies?”

“Survivors of Helgen. I’m hoping they can assist you.” He looked at them all and nodded. “I’ll leave you to it, then. I’ll send a servant to lead you to the armory in just a moment.” At this, the Jarl left, leaving the girls alone with the wizard, whom they just now noticed had mutton chops.

The wizard began looking them over, taking note of their appearance, though his gaze definitely lingered when he saw the two greatswords at Ruby’s back. “So, he thinks you can be of some use to me. Very well. How experienced are any of you with ancient barrows?”

“We’ve been in one, if that’s what you mean,” Weiss answered. “Actually, we have a few questions about that one. While we were in there, some kind of wall with writing on it did something to our friend.”

“Hi,” Ruby squeaked.

“Now she can read what another mage thinks might be Dragon script.”

“Wait, you can read Dragon script?” His interest was definitely piqued at that.

“Uh, kinda…” Ruby answered nervously. “If I see it, it looks like normal words to me. I actually have to focus to notice that it’s not regular writing.”

“She also says it out loud in what I think is their spoken language,” Weiss went on. “The first time she read it aloud, she immediately repeated it in Vyt- in Common. She has to think about it to translate, but she can read and understand it.”

“Oh, how interesting!” he exclaimed. “Tell me, what barrow were you in? What did this Word Wall say?”

“We were in Bleak Falls Barrow. It said: Here lies the Guardian, Keeper of the Dragonstone, and a Force of unending Rage and Darkness.”

“Fascinating! Well, then this should be simple if you’ve already been there.” He walked over and picked out a blank parchment while taking out an inkpot. “Well, assuming that it’s there. I need what’s known as a Dragonstone, which the Word Wall was referring to. It’s a map of ancient dragon burial sites. Since you’ve gone through it once already, all you need to do is reenter the main chamber, where it most likely is, and bring it back. Now, what did the Wall say again?”

“Wait a minute.” Blake pulled the tablet from her pack. “You mean this thing?”

Farengar looked at the stone and began laughing. “Truly, you lot are a different sort. That’s it exactly! Tell me, can you read what it says?”

“Sure. Het nok un mahlaan drogge erei suleyk se Alduin vokrii. Here lies our fallen lords until the power of Alduin revives.” She suddenly went still and then gasped. “What if it was a zombie dragon!? The one that attacked Helgen!”

“Don’t be absurd,” Weiss reprimanded her, slightly smug at how she was mostly right about the stone map.

“It’s unfortunate I don’t have much else in the ways of Dragon script. Perhaps you can visit sometime and read another thing or two for me?”

“Eh, I don’t mind.”

“Actually, I have some questions,” Weiss started. “Do you think you could show me some things about magic?”

“Ah, an aspiring mage? Certainly, I could show you a thing or two. How good are you with alchemy?”

“Um, I’m not sure?” she said with uncertainty.

“We’ll just have to see then.”

“While you do that, how about the rest of us check out the town?” Yang suggested.

“We haven’t gotten our reward yet,” Blake pointed out.

“After we get our rewards, of course.”

“So, I can get you a tusk, but it will be at least a hundred,” Blake explained.

“A bit much, but I can meet that,” Ysolda answered.

“All right. I’ll bring it by the Bannered Mare tonight then.”

The two shook hands and then parted ways. Blake smirked at the deal she’d just made, though she did have to wonder why no one in the caravan approached them about wanting a mammoth tusk. As she walked, she began eyeing the tree, wondering just what it was. It looked dead. As far as she knew, it was the tail end of summer in Skyrim, and a tree shouldn’t have lost all its leaves already.

“Such a shame, isn’t it,” a woman in priest robes said to her.

“Is it dead?”

“Dying, but…it may as well be dead. It was struck by lightning some time ago, and it has only faded since. I’ve done everything I could think of, but I’m afraid it will be lost to us soon.”

“Maybe you can plant a new one.”

“It wouldn’t be the same. The Gildergreen is no ordinary tree. It grew from a cutting of the Eldergleam, the oldest living tree in all of Skyrim. Maybe the oldest living thing in Tamriel.”

“Wow, that’s actually…pretty amazing.” Blake wondered for a moment about such a tree. “The oldest trees where I come from are known as the bristlecone pine. They grow on Sanus, and can reach almost five thousand years old.”

“They sound amazing.”

“I’ve actually seen them. They look kinda gnarled, to be honest. They aren't pretty to look at. This thing looks like it must have been beautiful.”

“It was.” The priestess seemed to think to herself for a moment. “Let me introduce myself. I’m Danica Pure-Spring. I work in the Temple of Kynereth.”

“Blake Belladonna. I…guess I’m an adventurer.”

“Most people are quick to use the title. I suppose you know what it’s really like, though. Which is why, if you don’t mind, I’m asking this of you. See, there may be a way to restore the Gildergreen. If it were treated with the sap of its parent tree, I could likely restore it. No, I’m almost certain I could.”

“I guess it’s in a hard to reach place.”

“Not the Eldergleam, no. But I don’t have anything that could draw sap from it. It’s an old tree, older than metal. There is one thing though that might work. I’ve heard that there are some Hagravens at Orphan’s Rock who have a weapon they use to sacrifice spriggans. They call it ‘Nettlebane’. If it is the one I think, then…it should work.”

“Hagravens?”

“Evil creatures. Completely unnatural. Some witches turn themselves into them with human sacrifice. Very dangerous, too. Hence why I don't get it myself.”

“So…there are some of these at…Orphan’s Rock. And they’ll have this Nettlebane. What does it look like?” Blake asked, slightly disturbed.

“Probably a ritual dagger. I’m not certain. I only started looking it up recently because of the Gildergreen. I suppose…look around wherever they’re throwing the dead spriggans at.”

The sound of hammers hitting metal resounded across the yard as two smiths worked to forge a blade. At one anvil was an older man, with arms teeming with muscle. At the other anvil a young girl, and though she didn’t appear very strong, she swung her own hammer with as much fervor.

Eorlund dipped his nearly finished blade into the water trough first. Ruby’s was only ready long after he pulled it free and set it aside. When the younger smith’s blade was sat next to his, three warriors, who hadn’t seen which blade belonged to which, came and looked them both over.

“This one,” the first said.

“Both are good, but that one’s definitely better.

“I agree. Though, I wouldn’t mind either blade.”

“Ah, pickles,” Ruby bemoaned her loss. Eorlund just laughed and patted her on the shoulder.

“Hey, you did fine work lass. I haven’t seen a blade come out that well from someone else in an age.” He lifted up her work and looked it over. “It’s still a beautiful sword. If I didn’t see you forge it myself, I’d have thought it to be the work of someone nearly as experienced as I am.”

“Aw, shucks, you’re just saying that.” Ruby blushed, embarrassed at the older smith's praise.

“Hey, does this mean you’re finally getting an apprentice?” a woman asked. “Gods know you could use a little help around the forge.”

“I can still work it on my own,” Eorlund stubbornly insisted. “Besides, the apprentice finds a master, not the other way around.”

“Well, I can’t really stay,” Ruby admitted. “I do love your forge, honestly. And I love making weapons, but me and my friends have to find our way home.”

“Don’t worry girl. I understand entirely. Though, if you’re going to be around, see about helping an old man fill out some orders, hm.” He laughed again and took the two blades over to the whetstone.

Yang came up to the forge and stretched herself a bit. “Hey, Rubes. You done beating up old folks?”

“Actually, he won.”

“What? No way!”

“Yep. Unbiased judges and all. He’s just that much better than me.”

“Well, he has been at this for a long time.”

“Longer than either of you have been alive,” Vilkas said as he followed the blonde up. “You’ve both got your initiation mission tomorrow. We’ve got a problem with a mad bear over towards the south, and some people are saying some witches’ coven has been causing a ruckus. Feel free to ask someone for assistance. We don’t plan on you doing these things alone.”

“Well, I guess we could use someone as a guide. You guys know this place like the back of your hands by now, I’m sure.”

“That we do. All right. You girls can feel free to sleep at Jorrvaskr if you wish. Free bed and all. I’ll be seeing you later.”

As Vilkas walked off, Yang took a look at the sword Eorlund was sharpening and whistled. “Now that’s a sword!”

Weiss winced when, once again, the enchanted item she was observing seemed to crumble into dust.

‘Ruby is not going to be happy about that one. Well, at least I know how to make anything cause a freezing effect upon a hit.’

“Good one to learn. Anything that can be slowed can be more easily killed.”

“Um, is there a way to learn these without destroying the items?”

“There is.”

Weiss waited for a moment for an answer. “And that would be?”

“Experience. Once you’ve gotten good at learning enchantments through observing them, you can do it without causing any sort of damage to the item in question. But that’s a ways away. For now, let’s try adding an enchantment. Let’s see… Where did I put those Soul Gems?” Farengar opened up a drawer and pulled out several ‘gems’ that made Weiss’s eye go wide. “No, these are empty.”

“Wait a moment,” she pleaded while picking one up and observing it closely. “This…looks just like an inert Dust crystal.”

“I’m sorry? That’s just your everyday Common Soul Gem.”

“Well…yes, but… you said it was empty? Do you have ‘filled’ ones?”

“Certainly. I’m looking for them.” He opened up another drawer. “Ah, here we go.” He picked up a similar gem, this one with a bit of shine to it. Weiss’s eyes narrowed as she observed it.

“What…do these Soul Gems do?”

“They have a number of uses, but most of them are as power sources. In the case of enchantment, they are what you use to ‘fuel’ the enchantment you add. Well, I say fuel, but it’s more that they’re sort of the bonding agent. I suppose you don’t know how Soul Trap works?”

Weiss didn’t like the sound of that. “I don’t. Enlighten me.”

“Well, I’ll teach it to you afterwards. So, every size of Soul Gem can hold a soul of a comparable size.” Her eyes widened again. “But of course, they only hold White Souls. That is, the souls of your everyday animals. The souls of sentient beings like ourselves require Black Soul Gems, which are, quite obviously, rarer, and don’t have size classes. I also…object to their use.”

“You…capture souls…as fuel.”

“I can see the worry in your eyes. Don’t be apprehensive about it. Captured White Souls passed on into the Aetherium and are reborn just as they would be if they’d died normally. As for Black Souls…it’s more complex. Which is why I don’t like their usage. Better to use a White Soul I know won’t suffer than risk sending someone into eternal damnation.”

“But…it still seems so…wrong.”

“I suppose it takes getting used to. Just think of it as using any other part of the animal. Skin for clothes, meat for food, bones for hilts, that sort of thinking,” Farengar advised. Still unsure, Weiss continued to look over the Soul Gem. “You know, normally one wouldn't expect a vampire to care so much about the fate of another creature's soul."

Weiss froze, fear tingling down her spine as she slowly looked over to Farengar, his stoic expression now gazing into her soul.

"Don't be so surprised. You aren't the first one I've met. And you’ve done well with the eye-color changing trick, but it lets up when you’re feeling emotional.” He smiled and shook his head. “Relax. I know there's a difference between a mindless, blood-thirsty vampire and one who simply wants to continue their life as before. You're the latter sort, I can tell. There's no point is trying to 'slay' you or turning you over to the guards. You traveled with a cadre of friends, none of them vampires, none of them enthralled. I assume they're helping you of their own free will, and no doubt know about you. And if someone who goes out of their way to help a village in the back end of the hold can get said village and the Jarl himself to trust you, then there's no risk in me trusting you either."

"You've...thought this through really well."

"Of course. I've been observing you this entire time, even as I taught you. It's no big trick to hold two lines of thought at once. I daresay, it looks like you’d rather leave your friends out of the whole vampire deal.”

Weiss nodded. “There’s no way I’d ever do something like this to them. I’d rather die.”

“That’s good to hear. Now, seeing as you haven’t tried to use your enhanced strength to break my neck and your natural invisibility abilities to sneak out of here after my little reveal, I think I can trust you a bit more.” As Weiss stood there, confused as to what he meant by that, he pulled an iron dagger out of another drawer and set it on the enchanting table. “Your first few enchantments are going to be pitiful, but, once you gain mastery of it, you will be able to bestow enchantments the like of which only gods can better. Try enchanting that dagger then.”

Mikhail fell back onto his rear, nursing a swollen and bruised eye.

“From now on, know that no,” Yang cracked her knuckles, “means no.”

“Undershood,” the bard lisped through a swollen lip.

“What was that?”

“Understood, ma’am!”

Yang smiled and nodded. “All right then. Have a pleasant evening.”

One Nord watching seemed to have a twinkle in his eyes. “The arms on that woman!”

“Wouldn’t mind going a few rounds with her,” his friend said before wagging his eyebrows. Both laughed and returned to their mugs and banter. Not noticing her new admirers, Yang strolled over to her team, who were eating their stew while waiting on her return.

“All hail Yang, defender of the single mothers,” her sister teased, failing to hold back her giggles.

“Yeah, yeah, laugh at me. Weiss, what are you doing?”

The heiress looked up from whatever she was fiddling with. “Uh, what?”

“What’re you doing under the table?”

In response, the white-haired girl lifted up a sack and set it on the table.

“While you were off punching insistent bards in the face, which I thoroughly support, I counted through our money twice,” she explained. “One ebon, four denars, two malks, and six septims, or nine-hundred and twenty-six septims. …And sixty three cents.”

Yang let out a low whistle. “Sounds like a good bit!”

“Not really. It’s enough to live off of for quite a while, but there’s no telling how much we’ll need in the future. And we still have to go by Solitude and get our reward for that amulet. We still have those, right?”

“All five,” Ruby confirmed, before pouting. “But I lost my special water-breathing necklace because of you. And my frost sword.”

“How many times…! I’ll make you a new one, I promise.” She sighed in exasperation before quickly looking through the bag of money again. “We should put at least one ebon in savings. I’ll open up an account at the bank in the Cloud District.”

“Wait, they have banks?” Ruby wondered. “How does that work?”

“Banks existed on Remnant long before instant communication. They just weren’t internationally connected until about fifty years ago.”

"Then how will we be able to...?"

"Crystal balls hooked up on some kind of interbank network that tells the other banks how much money each person has in their account. At least, that's what Farengar told me..." Weiss interjected before going silent, remembering how he had recognized her condition.

"Ah... Neat."

Seeing how their money problem was currently resolved, and tired after a long day’s work, Yang reached for a brown bottle, only to have her hand stopped by Blake. “Ten more minutes.”

“Aw!” Yang whined, half serious and half joking. "Come on, Blakey! Live a..."

A loud noise reverberated throughout the inn, sustained for about ten seconds, stopping Yang in mid-sentence, along with the rest of the diners. Everyone went quiet, tense at the unexpected sound. When it started up again, the diners quickly exited their seats, leaving their food and drinks behind in a rush, each sporting a worried look.

“What’s going on?” Ruby asked the departing crowd, getting up from her seat, along with the rest of her team.

“War horn,” an armored man answered. “Doesn’t make sense. There would have been an official declaration of war.”

“Whiterun’s neutral, right?” Yang asked him.

“Officially, but the Jarl might as well declare for the Empire the way he runs things.” The war horn echoed out it’s signal once again, making people pick up their pace. At this point, Whiterun itself was in a mild panic. “Ulfric Stormcloak wouldn’t have attacked without officially declaring war on Whiterun either. He believes in honorable conflict.”

“I doubt he’d have the time either,” Weiss muttered. “He probably hasn’t even made it back to Windhelm yet.”

“Let’s go see what’s going on,” Ruby suggested as she headed straight out the door. People were rushing along the streets up towards the Cloud District, likely to get further from whatever was threatening Whiterun. Near the gate she saw several guardsmen beginning to gather up, with Irileth herself leading them. Seeing Irileth at the front made Ruby pick up her pace, recognizing that if she was here, this was not just a bandit raid. Her team followed her outside while the other patrons still inside the tavern began heading up towards the Cloud District. Looking over the crowd, Yang recognized and waved at four people moving against the crowd.

“’Sup guys!” The other three turned and saw Aela, Vilkas, Farkas, and another man only Yang knew the name of leading them. “What’s going on?”

“I still don’t understand your greeting,” Skjor scowled before shaking his head. “Doesn’t matter right now. We just got word. Someone just ran all the way from the Western Watchtower. Says it was attacked by a dragon.”

The girls froze up. The memories of that black beast they had fought and barely escaped from coming back to them.

“S-so it’s here?” Ruby queried with a slight shake in her, the rest of her teammates not much better.

“Near about. The Western Watchtower is a short ways from Whiterun proper.”

“We’re going out to help the force being put together to hopefully fight it off,” Aela added. “It caught Helgen off-guard, and while they were occupied with other matters. Hopefully we stand a better chance.”

Not wanting to waste any more time, they began walking towards the gate, Team RWBY right behind them. Upon realizing this, the four companions halted in surprise.

“You four not planning on heading to the keep? Maybe Jorvaskr?” Farkas asked them.

“No,” Ruby stated simply, resolute and determined. “I mean, I’m not. You guys-”

“No way we’re letting you go alone,” Yang interrupted.

“You’re our leader. If you’re brave enough to go out there and face a dragon, then it’d be shameful if I ran,” Weiss explained.

“We’re better prepared this time,” Blake said with a nod.

“Yeah, and besides, it's our duty to protect people from monsters.”

“Atta girls,” Farkas quietly cheered for them.

“What about you guys?” Ruby asked. “Are any more Companions coming?”

“The rest are preparing a defense, just in case,” Vilkas explained. “We volunteered to go sally forth. Besides, fighting a dragon? Victory or Sovngarde, this’ll be a tale to tell.”

Nodding their heads at each other, the eight marched up to the front gates upon the gathering guardsmen. As they neared, they could hear Irileth finish what must have been an inspirational speech to her men.

“Could you call yourselves Nords if you ran from this monster? Are you going to let me face this thing alone?” she challenged to the group of warriors, briefly noting the new arrivals before nodding in approval, and then redirecting her attention to the soldiers.

Several of them yelled out a throaty ‘no’, but one guard nearby muttered under his breath something that they all thought at least once.

“We’re so dead…”

“But it’s more than our honor at stake here! Think of it! The first dragon seen in Skyrim since the last age. The glory of killing it is ours, if you’re with me! Now what do you say? Shall we go kill us a dragon!”

The crowd of guards, now thoroughly enraptured, started giving out battlecries. The nervousness and fear wasn’t quite gone from them, but it had been greatly diminished. Even the teen girls felt a little better about their chances.

“Let’s move out!” the housecarl yelled before hopping down from her raised stone and heading out the gate, the small army following her. The Companions and Huntresses ended up somewhere in the middle as they jogged out of the city and down the path towards the west, with only the light of the moons guiding them, with a faint orange glow coming from the west.

After several minutes of jogging, and then slowing to a brisk walk, the crowd neared the watchtower to see much of it ablaze, and its walls crumbled around it. The tower itself was still standing, but there was a large scorch on one side of it. Men and women stopped just behind Irileth, who looked about with a small spell in her hand that fizzled away after a moment.

“No sign of any dragon, but it sure looks like he’s been here.” She looked back to the crowd and waved one arm out. “I know it looks bad, but let’s figure out what happened.” She looked back at the damage before muttering, “And if that dragon’s still skulking about anywhere. Spread out, and look for survivors. We need to know what we’re dealing with.”

Aela walked over to the teens with a bow in hand. “Look like the dragon’s handiwork to you lot?”

“Yeah, but…” Ruby tried to search for the words to describe her thoughts.

“We didn’t have much time to observe the damage done to Helgen before we had to focus on the dragon itself,” Weiss explained. “The fire fits the bill perfectly though.”

Yang lifted up a chunk of masonry and sighed as she dropped it to reveal a charred body. Farkas and Vilkas worked together to remove some heavy stones only to reveal a man that was more paste that anything.

“Anyone find anything yet?” a guard asked after looking around a small, collapsed wooden structure.

“Nothing here,” the blonde called back.

“Hey, I found someone!” Blake announced from within the tower. Several people began running for the broken opening, seeing a man with a partially scorched uniform, groaning where he leaned against the wall.

“You should-” His coughing interrupted him. “You should all leave. It’s still around somewhere.”

A roar, one familiar to the girls resounded through the tundra, making everyone turn toward the mountains south of them.

“No…” the survivor muttered. “Kynereth save us…”

“Get ready!” Irileth shouted before pulling out her blade from its sheath.

“Where is it?”

“What does it look like?”

“You four!” the Dunmer called out for Team RWBY. “You’ve seen the dragon before. What can we expect?”

“That was definitely it!” Yang called out in reply, trying to keep the fear inside from coming out. “We heard that same noise before we reached Helgen!”

“It flies faster than you’d expect,” Weiss described. “It mostly breathed fire, but it can breathe frost too. And the scales are harder than steel! Aim for the wings!”

“It really doesn’t like people, and called us dumb mortals before threatening to kill us,” Ruby added.

The other three paused at that.

“Ruby, what?” her sister asked before a louder roar shook the air around them.

“Look!” Blake screamed as she pointed up.

The whole crowd looked at the sky to see a shape passing in front of Masser. As it passed by Secunda, it blocked nearly the whole of the smaller moon before seeming to drop and grow as it rapidly approached.

“Ha!” a deep voice called from it as it passed them by. “I had forgotten what sport you mortals can provide!”

Three of the girls felt a chill overtake them. Ruby stared at it with wide eyes.

“It’s…not the same!”

“What?!” Aela and Irileth both screamed.

“It’s not the same dragon!” Ruby shouted. “The dragon at Helgen was bigger and all black. This one’s more grey colored!”

“Another… Focus everyone!” the housecarl ordered as Aela fired an arrow towards the beast, going wide.

With a loud laugh, the dragon swooped down and grasped one of the men with its large talons, his panicked screams filling the night air as he was taken into the sky as the dragon banked upwards. The reptile released the man, catapulting him away, flying higher through the sky before reaching the zenith of his flight and falling back down in the distance, his screams ending with a loud crunch.

“Bows out! Aim for the wings!” At her command, a volley of arrows erupted, speeding towards the flying reptile. Most missed, but a few hit its mark, and to Blake's surprise and relief a grunt of pain came out.

“Guys!” Ruby yelled as her team regathered.

“There’s another one!” Weiss shrieked. “Why is there another one?!”

“I don’t know, but listen, it’s smaller, and we have help!”

“I saw a few arrows hit it,” Blake explained. “Only one stuck, but it felt that. It's way softer than the other one.”

“So, we have a chance this time!” Yang pounded her fists together, itching for some payback.

“Maybe, but it’s…smart,” Ruby pondered. “Maybe we can make it back off?” At Ruby's suggestion, her team went silent, the sounds of battle and death overtaking them.

“What are you thinking?” her sister asked cautiously.

“It is intelligent, but I’m thinking it’s going to be hard to convince something like that to not try to kill us,” Weiss warned.

“I have to try. Even if I fail, I tried my best. Until then,” she took out Crescent Rose and set it to gun mode, “we’re going to do our best to stop it.”

The girls nodded and went into action. Arrows continued to fill the sky, with some hitting their target, only to be repelled as a word left the dragon’s maw, scattered by a wave of power. Irileth, noting that the dragon was much lower to the ground this time, raised her hand and fired a bolt of lightning that hit the dragon’s underbelly. It roared in pain and turned as fire began leaving its mouth. Guards ducked behind whatever they could, while the Dunmer raised a magical ward, attempting to shield themselves from the flames, but some were still immolated, their screams sounding out as their bodies flailed. The ward spell began cracking, but held until the flames died and the dragon turned again and glided over the ground, circling the watchtower and coming back around. Irileth dodged out of the way of its jaws and spun to fire another lightning bolt at it.

Yang charged up and fired two shots at its side. The dragon roared and banked back up and Yang cheered.

“That hit ‘em! Drew blood!”

“So it is softer,” Weiss whispered in relief.

The dragon turned back and spun through another swarm of arrows before breathing out a stream of flames at the unfortunate Nords beneath it. It roared more joyously and began hovering while looking for prey.

Ruby fired, her shot bouncing off of one of its horns. The dragon hissed and looked towards her.

“Stop!” she screamed. “We don’t have to fight!”

The dragon laughed as it came closer to the ground before it's feet landed.

“Wrong, mortal,” it taunted as it stepped near her. “The war is begun again. It will not end until our lord has trampled you all under the rule of my brethren and I.” It laughed again, much louder this time. “Thuri du hin sil ko Sovngarde!”

Ruby grit her teeth, aimed, and fired, striking its eye. The dragon jumped back and roared in pain. Ruby chambered a new round and fired again, hitting its neck and causing a spurt of blood to erupt. As she chambered a third round, the dragon reared its head back.

“Yol,” she heard before disappearing in a swarm of petals. “Tor SHUUL!” Fire filled the area where Ruby once presided, scorching the land and adding to the ever increasing amount of flame that at this point threatened to turn into a wildfire.

The girl looked back to see the dragon taking off again before it turned to make another pass.

“Talking failed,” she groaned. “But…it said something about a lord.”

“Well, we can hurt it!” Yang shouted as she cocked her gauntlets.

“Yeah, let’s show this-” Something slammed into the speaking guardsman and Yang, throwing them both through a partly collapsed wall. Yang struggled to get up, but the Nord hadn’t been so lucky, practically exploding upon contact. The dragon banked hard and jumped off the side of the tower.

“Hahaha! Tiid! Clo! Ul!” the dragon said before Ruby felt like the entire world was suddenly covered in molasses. Everything but the dragon slowed, and then the creature was coming straight for her, a foot open to catch her. She pushed her Semblance to the max and got out of the way. Suddenly the world came back to normalcy, but everyone seemed to not notice the effect, instead feeling as if the dragon seemed to have gotten extremely fast.

“What…was that?” she gasped.

Ice spikes flew at the dragon, smacking into it and breaking, save for three that pierced its wings. It turned and unleashed fire from its maw blindly, enraged as it began to slightly lose altitude before recovering. Attempting to disengage, Weiss ran from the flames, but it noticed her and, recognizing that she was the one who launched the ice spikes, unleashed a more directed stream right at her, encircling the teenage girl. The heiress screamed as she was enveloped in fire, her Aura straining to protect her. Before her Aura couldn't take anymore abuse, a yellow blur shot through with the sound of two guns firing at once, grabbing her and pulling her loose. Her clothes were singed, and her Aura was visibly taxed as Yang set her down.

“Get some cover Ice Queen,” the brawler told her before turning back and pounding her fists together. “Good shot though.”

The dragon landed for a moment, looking at its injured wing and growling. Several men charged, armed with different weapons, only to be enveloped in flames as the dragon unleashed another fire breath upon them, setting many on fire or outright charring them. One man was lucky enough to dodge, but as he picked himself off the ground, the dragon’s maw enclosed upon him, snapping him up before thrashing about and then tossing the body away.

Yang charged at the dragon with a shout. Its head was smacked away by one punch and then upwards by the follow-up. The dragon flapped its wings and leapt back before smacking at her with its tail again, only for her to meet it with a fist and for them both to get knocked back. The dragon straightened out its flight as Yang skid away.

“Blake,” Ruby shouted towards the girl that had relegated herself to firing arrows. “Can you get it if it gets close to the tower?”

The faunus looked at the structure, and then nodded to her leader before heading inside. Ruby watched as the dragon circled out again, closing the distance it made quickly. She hefted Crescent Rose up and sped forward.

“You can’t catch me!” she taunted the creature. It looked towards her and seemed to snarl. “Come and get it, you flying lizard!”

“Hi fen oblaan us Mirmulnir, neltiid joor!”

Ruby sped back to the tower, circling around it and waiting for the dragon to show. As it came around, she aimed up towards it, making it flinch back and hover. Just as it did so, Blake jumped upon its back and ran down, swiping at its spine before digging her sword into the skin of its wing between the third and fourth fingers and sliding off. The dragon roared in pain as it was forced to descend. It crashed into the ground, and the remaining guards had come around to see it.

“Is it dead?” someone asked.

The dragon rose up on its wings and snorted outward before growling at them all. Yang came around and charged up.

“Got you this time!”

“Yang! Wait!”

“Tiid!” the dragon shouted as Yang neared it. Once again, Ruby saw the world go into slow-motion and the dragon stepped forward unaffected before snapping down onto her blonde sister. Ruby tried to speed forward, but her Semblance had barely activated before Yang was being lifted into the air and then tossed back down. She bounced once and landed on her back before the dragon jumped upwards and landed a foot on her legs and waist. Time resumed its pace and Yang was screaming as her Aura flared and shattered. Ruby felt the world snap into some kind of focus as her blood pounded in her ears.

“YANG!” she screamed before bursting into petals with Crescent Rose unfurling totally. She charged the dragon and dragged her scythe across its scales as she spun around it from its neck to its torso, causing a long line of a bleeding wound to suddenly burst on the dragon. It roared in pain and backed away as Ruby dashed back, grabbing Yang and taking her back to the tower.

“Yang?” Ruby begged her unconscious sister as she checked her over. Blake hopped over to them and Weiss was looking from the tower’s base. The guards tried firing arrows at the dragon while it was stunned, Irileth adding her lightning to the mix, but there were far less of them than before. Vilkas, Farkas, and Skjor were out on the field with some of the guards circling around the dangerous creature, hoping to get it occupied. Ruby blinked back tears and looked at the dragon in rage.

“Weiss,” she called out to her partner. “Make a trail! Blake, hold its head back!”

“What are you-”

“Just do it!” she yelled, startling her teammates. She looked at the dragon, and recalled its name.

“Mirmulnir!” she yelled at it, gaining its attention after it tried to knock Farkas away with a wing. “Hi ahraan dii brihnah!” she roared out. “Zu’u los do us krii hi!”

The dragon growled as its tail whacked the ground in front of a charging Skjor, missing the Companion as he backed away. Then it laughed mirthlessly.

“Brit grah! Come then, meyus joor!”

Ruby held Crescent Rose in a ready pose and put herself into a sprinting position.

“Now!”

A trail of white glyphs appeared before her, leading straight to the dragon, as a black ribbon appeared following a bladed gun that fired. Blake grabbed the gun and pulled it and the other end of the ribbon, snatching it into the dragon’s mouth and tugging back. The dragon’s head was pulled back by the faunus, and then the men on the field rushed to her side to help.

Ruby shot forward, firing her sniper-scythe as her Semblance activated and the glyphs pushed her speed even higher. She released a yell as she swung her scythe forward. The total momentum behind her swing was thus that she buried her scythe’s blade all the way into the chest of the dragon where she believed its heart to be. Mirmulnir roared in pain and whipped its head around as it struggled against the pain. Ruby yanked Crescent Rose loose and jumped clear as the dragon fell to the ground and wildly thrashed its limbs about. It looked at Ruby, and the girl could swear she saw fear in its eye as it struggled to escape, rapidly losing strength.

“D- Dovahkiin?! NOOOOOOOO!!” With one last pathetic thrash, the dragon went still. For a long moment no one moved, and then the remaining men and women began cheering.

“Let’s make sure that overgrown lizard is really dead!” Irileth ordered as she approached.

Farkas tested with a stab to the neck, which elicited no response. At this confirmation, the cheering doubled in strength, with many of the surviving guardsmen turning to look at Ruby in amazement, who herself was still checking over her sister in worry.

“Amazing! You really killed it!” one guardsman cheered. Ruby ignored him as she went over to check on her unconscious sister.

“Yang!” Ruby cried before hugging her, hoping that she’d be all right. Their other teammates came up to try and check on her as well.

“Well done ev- What’s going on?!” Another guardsman shouted out in panic, directing everyone's attention

Everyone looked back at the dragon corpse, which had begun to glow and seemingly light on fire. As the flames from within it burned away its flesh into ashes and embers, wisps of energy leapt from the burning dragon and into Ruby. The wind seemed to pick up around them all as the energy flowed into her. Ruby felt as if her soul was being pinched from all around, as though her Aura was being overfilled with power. When the lights died down, she felt as though she could recall seeing things she never saw before, and a deeper understanding of Words and how they differed from words filled her memories.

“I don’t believe it,” a guardsman muttered as he took off his helmet. “You’re…Dragonborn.”

Ruby looked around in fear and began patting her torso, feeling like there should have been more wounds there.

“Am…” She blinked and teared up a bit. “Am I going to die?”

Thuri du hin sil ko Sovngarde! - My overlord will devour your souls in Sovngarde!

Tiid! Clo! Ul! - Time! Sand! Eternity! - The Slow Time Shout

Hi fen oblaan us Mirmulnir, neltiid joor! - You will die to Mirmulnir, fleet (fast) mortal!

Hi ahraan dii brihnah! Zu’u los do us krii hi! - You hurt my sister! I am going to kill you!

Brit grah! - Beautiful battle!

Meyus joor - Foolish mortal

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Chapter 10: Dude, Where's Our Ruby?

“Get up!” Yang's head throbbed as the angry voice shouted her awake. “Get up, you drunken blasphemer!”

“Nooooooooo,” she whined, nursing a headache. “Five more minutes…”

“I’ve tolerated you sleeping in my temple long enough!”

Blinking her eyes open, Yang groaned as she sat up. A woman in priest robes was standing in front of her, an expression of anger marring what was otherwise a beautiful face. The Huntress smacked her lips as she sat up, but paused when she realized she was feeling cold stone beneath her…everywhere.

A single glance down gave her all the answers she needed, followed by a shrill scream. Horrified, Yang wrapped her arms around her bare chest and shut her legs. “What… What happened to my clothes?! Where am I?!”

“Oh, so you’re going the ‘I don’t remember anything’ route? Next, you’re going to tell me you don’t remember coming in and blathering about marriage, goats, or birds and cats. And you’ll say you don’t remember getting outraged and getting your white-haired friend to help you freeze the water basin solid while you brought in trash and threw it all over the temple before unclothing yourself while she proceeded to…fondle Lady Dibella’s statue. Which means you don’t recall your Khajiit friend dancing around and then climbing up the walls before falling asleep on the table?”

Yang looked and saw Weiss passed out in front of said statue, her bolero and stockings gone, but otherwise still fully dressed. A glance to the other side had her see Blake wearing a white dress, which strangely looked like a wedding dress, laying on a stone table like a napping cat.

“I… Look, I’m sorry, but I don’t remember how I got here. I didn’t even know Whiterun had a Temple of Dibella.”

“Whiterun? The Temple of Dibella’s in Markarth!”

“That’s…not where we were…” Yang tried to make sense of what she was just told, but her brain couldn’t fit the pieces together.

“Then either you were drunker than even I thought, or you found someone who could teleport you here.”

“So…were there some other people with us?” Yang glanced around the room, worried as she noticed a distinct lack of Ruby's presence, or for that matter Lydia. The priestess, however, did not appear to be sympathetic.

“Gee, I’d love to help you put together your revelry-induced memories, but I’m going to be too busy cleaning up the mess you all made to help.”

Yang sheepishly grinned and laughed while looking around, realizing that there was a lot of broken wood and…things scattered about the room.

“I guess…I could clean up for you?”

“That would be a good start, and the first good thing you did since you came in here.”

Yang quickly scooted away from the woman, who remained in place with her arms crossed before leaving them for her personal chambers, and picked up her discarded clothes. Her yellow shirt was easiest to find, but her pants had taken a minute. Luckily, her boots were right next to the entryway. The moment she was fully dressed and had all of her things on her, she went over and woke up Blake, who seemed more akin to a zombie –or perhaps draugr would be the appropriate word here– when she started walking after her, and then Weiss, who gave off an annoyed noise somewhere between a groan and a baby crying.

“I don’t wanna,” the heiress cried.

“Come on, Weiss. We gotta get up and clean up.” Normally, Yang would be amused at this, but now, with a temple trashed and Ruby apparently missing, Yang couldn't find it in her to find any amusement in this situation.

“Make the maids do it.”

“There aren’t any maids.”

One blue eye opened, the inner part of it yellowing. Her other opened as well, in the opposite state. She blinked a few times, and her eyes returned to their regular icy blue.

“Where are we?”

“Markarth, apparently.”

“MARKARTH!” Weiss screamed as she shot up, only to immediately clutch her head and groan in agony. “H-how?!” she whimpered.

“Lady mentioned teleporting as a possibility. Know anything about that?” Yang shrugged, just as confused as Weiss was as to how they crossed half of Skyrim in a single night.

“Supposed to be rare, and really hard.” She groaned again and pulled her cloak up over her head. “Master Conjuration and Alteration.”

“Both? Heh, guess you’d need a double master.” She looked around and winced. “Okay, so the place is a mess. Kinda feel bad about it and everything.”

“Fine,” the heiress groaned. “But first…do either of you have some…” Her eyes shifted uncomfortably. “I’m…thirsty.”

“Right. Let’s…go find an alley or something. Blake, hold down the fort for us?”

“Sure,” the faunus sleepily moaned as she reached down and lifted up a piece of scrap wood. “Just…gonna start cleaning.”

After a quick drink from Yang’s wrist, leading to Weiss feeling a bit more rejuvenated, the three began to clean up the trashed temple. After nearly an hour of dumping out trash, sweeping up dirt, and putting things back in their place, the temple was finally back into decency. The priestess came out from the inner chambers and looked around, seemingly impressed.

“Well, it’s a lot better now,” she admitted.

“So, mind helping us figure some things out?” Yang asked as she set a broom aside. “Like, where a young girl with dark red hair and a tough looking Nord woman might be?” At this, the priestess brought her hand to her chin as she remembered the events of the previous night before shaking her head.

“Sorry, but no one else came in but you three last night,” she explained. “You were all so deep in your cups, I could barely understand you. All I got was something about a goat in Rorickstead.”

“A goat?”

“Rorickstead?” Weiss took out her map and began looking it over. “That’s at the edge of Whiterun Hold, halfway between here and Whiterun city. How in the name of the Bro- uh, Divines did we get there and here?”

“Maybe that Sam guy from last night is a master wizard?” Yang suggested. She pulled out her scroll and switched it on. “Maybe I got something that’ll clue us in.”

“A master wizard? Well, it would explain why he was so easily able to give up a magic staff like that,” Weiss replied before joining her teammates in watching the small screen.

“And now,” they heard a drunkenly slurred version of Weiss from Yang’s scroll announce, “I, Weiss Schnee, Heiresh to the Schnee Dust Co- Cor- The SDC! Shall prove that I am a better barb than Michael!”

“It’s Mikhail!”

“W’ever! Hit it, Blake!”

“Apparently Blake can play the lute,” Yang observed as the faunus of the past started strumming out some quick notes and chords.

"Weiss, you get down from there this instant!" The angry, shrill voice of Ruby sounded off in the video from somewhere in the crowd. Yang sighed in slight relief, as this this meant Ruby had not joined in on their…revelry, only to gulp in anticipation of how Ruby would react once they caught up to her.

“What is that? Some sort of magical time viewer?” the priestess asked in interest.

“Sort of,” Weiss answered uncertainly. “I’d appreciate…if my teammate wouldn’t…display anything em-”

“The merry folk of Skyrim, so sturdy and so stout!

“When the day is done, when it’s time for fun

“We’ll drink and sing and Shout

“You weak-livered milk-drinkers

“Go let your throats run dry!

“Cuz there’s just one drink that we will sink

“Until the day we die

“Drinking mead in the halls of Whiterun!

“The maidens and the men!

“We drink our brew until we spew

“And then we fill our mugs again

“You can keep your filthy skooma

“It makes our bellies bleed

“’Cause when we raise our flagon to another dead dragon

“There is just one drink we need

“Nord mead!”

“Oh my god, did you improv this?” Yang asked through giggles.

“How much did we have to drink last night?” Blake rubbed her face at the thought of what occurred in that empty space of time in her memories. Weiss remained in a state of silent horror, which only amplified once the crowd started singing along.

“Nord mead!

“Chug another mead

“And another mug of mead

“Chug another mug of mead

“’Til you fall down!

“Chug another mead

“And another mug of mead

“Chug another mug of mead

“Warrior!”

Yang cracked out into bellows of laughter, the priestess joining her soon after. Weiss turned a little red from embarrassment, but Blake patted her on the shoulder.

“It’s okay. If anything, it’s kinda impressive.”

“And it’s hilarious,” Yang cried out as she wiped away a tear. “Phew! Okay, well, that was the only video I had. Everything else from last night is selfies, which are...not appropriate for present company, but Ruby was only in the ones at Whiterun.”

“So, she’s probably back at Whiterun?” Weiss sighed. “We need to find Sam and get back then.”

“So, should we head for Rorickstead?” Blake asked as she looked at the map.

“It will take us at least three days to walk there!” Weiss objected. “But, then again, we don’t have much choice. Let’s just try to figure it out as we go.”

“All right.” Yang turned to go, but paused in her step. “Um, sorry again about last night and all, miss priestess.”

“Senna.”

“Senna, do you…think you could give us instructions on how to…leave Markarth?”

“Wow, that place is a maze compared to Whiterun or Solitude.”

“The architecture was inspiring though. And it’s much more dragon-proof than Whiterun.”

“That tends to happen when everything’s made out of stone,” Blake pointed out. “Who makes beds out of stone?”

“Dwemer, apparently.”

A young man came up to them, leading a horse by the reigns. “Here you go, ladies. Just a moment and I’ll have the other three brought out to you.”

The girls stared in incomprehension for a moment as Yang held the reins to the yellow horse.

“The hell…?”

As he brought out a black one with white speckles, Weiss waved him down.

“Excuse me, but did you…see us come in last night?”

“Yes, actually. Don’t worry. I’ve had sleep since then. A little. You all looked like you’d just come from a party. Bragged about beating down some bandits and ‘liberating’ their horses.” He stroked the side of the animal as Blake took the reins. “Think I prefer them in your hands than some lawbreakers. Blondie’s a little rambunctious around the mares, but that’s a stallion for you.”

“Did, um… Did we come in with anyone else?”

“No ma’am. Just you three, talking about a wedding or some such. My congratulations to the lucky couple, by the way.”

A moment later and he had a pale horse with strikingly blue eyes and then a grey and black one out for them. Apparently, the last one they had used as a pack horse for a number of ‘liberated’ items, including some armor with the feeling of enchantment around them, and a large garden scythe. The armor was all missing, but the scythe was still there and now gleaming slightly.

“Of course, you’d enchant a scythe while you were drunk,” Yang stated as she held the farming tool. “What do you think it does?”

“I’m not sure. Probably just has a freezing effect, considering that was the only offensive enchantment I know...or knew, anyways.”

Yang gave it a half-hearted swing, and then noticed a rune near the handle. She thumbed it, and then shouted as she was slung backwards by a sudden bout of force. She coughed a little before chuckling. “Found it!”

“Was that… Did I enchant that thing with my Semblance!?”

“Apparently. Looks like your glyph. Cool. Maybe I should figure out enchanting?”

Weiss took the scythe as she helped Yang to her feet and looked it over. “Okay, so maybe in my drunken haze I thought I was making a suitable present for Ruby.”

“Might belong to someone in Rorickstead? Maybe we should return it?”

Weiss eyed it a little longer and then set it back on Grey’s saddlebags. “We’ll see. First, let’s get there. If I’m right, then having horses will significantly increase the amount of ground we can cover. I think…maybe half a day, if we push them.”

Blake looked hesitantly at her horse as Weiss hopped upon Pale with nary a step out of place or a nervous flinch. Yang was a little more uncertain mounting Blondie, but ending up sitting in the saddle with just a bit of a wobble.

“Blake, you okay?” her partner asked. “Something up with Speckles?”

“No, I just…don’t know how to ride a horse.”

“Me either. I’m just totally guessing at this. Then again, I do have a motorcycle back home. Ever rode a bike? Weiss, any tips?”

“I took several horseback riding courses while growing up, but I don’t think I could help out much. I’m…not the best teacher.”

“Huh. I guess just try to sit steady. You made it here, after all.”

“Let me give you a hand,” the stableboy said, holding his hands together and low, ready to give Blake a boost. She accepted, and was soon up on Speckles’s back, tilting one way and then the other before leaning forward and clinging onto the saddle horn.

“Thanks,” she squeaked out.

“Gotta lead rope or something we can use?”

As the horses quickly trotted forward, Weiss looked through her own scroll, wishing that they had some kind of signal to work with, and seeing pictures from the night before. Some were embarrassing, but most just seemed to be them posing for one reason or another. Like Yang had pointed out though, Ruby was only present for the ones in Whiterun. It was likely the young girl didn’t ever take a sip of anything alcoholic the whole night, and looking at her face she was not amused by her team's antics, mostly. A few showed her with a genuine smile, though more often she was worried or just…displeased. The vampire groaned, and then picked up a tantalizing scent. It was also familiar, and had her look to her side.

“Stop,” she told her teammates. Blake began slowing, but Yang didn’t heed her. “Hey, hold on!” The blonde ignored her, and so Weiss sped up Pale and swerved in front of Blondie, halting the other horse with a whinny.

“Weiss!”

“Get off the horse, Yang. You’re injured.”

“I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not! Now get off so that I can heal you!”

The two met eyes for a moment, and then Yang swung off of Blondie. The moment she was on the ground on her own legs, they buckled beneath her and she fell.

“Yang!” Blake cried out and jumped off of her own horse, only to trip up as well.

“I should’ve thought about this,” the heiress muttered as she dismounted and walked over to Yang with yellow magic forming in her hands. “Neither of you are used to horseback at all. Of course you’d get saddlesore at the least.” She began pouring the healing magic into Yang’s bleeding thighs, the girl wincing and beginning to tear up. “I’m sorry. Does it hurt too-”

“I screwed up,” Yang whimpered. “I screwed up, big time.” She wiped an arm across her face, but a few tears still came. “I got us all into this. Now Ruby’s alone, probably scared out of her mind. We just…left her there, and all because…” She sniffed as tears poured more freely from her eyes.

“Yang,” Weiss spoke softly. “It’s not your fault. We all went into that dumb contest willingly.”

“Because of me. Because I just had to get drunk and use the whole cultural excuse for it.”

“Oh come on. Like you didn’t have your fair share of experiences to tell you this sort of thing shouldn’t happen.”

Yang shook her head. “Two.”

Even Blake looked surprised at that. Weiss blinked. “What?”

“Back on Remnant, I got drunk twice in my life. And two or three buzzes at a friend’s house. Only blacked out the second time. Went home and got my ears chewed off by dad and Ruby.”

“Hold on,” Weiss ordered as she stopped using the healing spell, Yang’s wounds now closed. “You mean to tell me, that the two times here on Tamriel make up half of all the times you’ve gotten drunk?”

“I just…” She sniffed again and wiped away her tears. “We’re stuck here.”

“We’re… We’re not stuck-”

“It’s bullshit, Weiss!” she shouted, surprising the other two. “We don’t even know how we got here! And these people know there are other worlds out there. They’ve been invaded by them. Ruby keeps saying we’ll find a way, but… I just don’t want to break her heart. There’s no Dust, no one has Aura, no Grimm. This place would have something if there was any connection to Remnant at all. We’re never getting home.

“And then…back in Riverwood… You killed a man.” Weiss looked on in horror at what her teammate was saying. “But so did I.”

“Yang,” Blake begged. “It’s okay.”

“Killed three, actually. Shot two of them down, didn’t even notice. How about that?” Her face looked dead to the world. “Their boss was armored up, and tough. Didn’t stop me from wailing on him, or…” She looked to her hand and clenched it into a fist. “I punched his head off. I hit him so hard that I decapitated him.”

“Yang, it’s not your fault,” Weiss argued. “These things happen.”

“Punching peoples’ heads off is a thing that happens?”

“No, I meant-”

“I know what you meant Weiss, but…all of this happening. I’m trying to stay strong, but it gets hard. So I think, ‘a drink will relax me’, but then I drink another, and another, thinking each time, ‘this’ll be the one. I’ll feel better after this one’. I know going in that it won’t really help, but I keep hoping that I’ll be wrong.” She fell onto her back and looked up at the passing clouds. “That’s why…this is my fault.”

“Shut up,” the heiress muttered.

Yang blinked in astonishment as she looked over. “Wha-”

“Don’t act like you’re the one carrying the whole burden on your own!” Weiss cried out as her own face became tear stained. “We’ve all thought it. Maybe we’ll never get back. Maybe we’ll never see Remnant again, but we accept it and move on. And you think the way you killed someone was bad? At least his death was painless. At least you felt immediate regret. I can still hear Arvel’s screaming sometimes! I remember exactly how it felt, draining him until he went completely still, until there was nothing more to drink! I still remember how good it felt!” Her eyes were turned fully yellow as she ranted. “And I remember…how horrified you all looked when you saw me.”

Yang said nothing as the heiress sat back and held herself. She struggled to sit up and looked across to her partner, who seemed unsure of what to do. They both looked as Weiss continued crying to herself, as though the rest of the world wasn’t there. With only the faintest thought towards ‘what would Ruby do?’, the blonde Huntress wrapped Weiss into a sudden hug.

“It’s okay,” she whispered. “I’m sorry. We were never scared of you. We were scared of what happened to you.”

“I- I’m an actual monster. I could accidentally kill any of you, at any time. With nothing but a bite.”

“But you won’t.” She pulled back from the hug and wiped a tear from Weiss’s face. “I know you won’t.”

Blake crawled over and pulled herself into a three-way hug with the others. “We’re all a mess.”

“I guess so,” Yang admitted. “Well, I can promise you guys this much. No more than three in an hour, from now on.”

“That would be great, yeah,” Weiss chuckled.

“Yeah, need to take your own advice into consideration,” Blake suggested.

“Oh, what would that be?”

“Slow down.”

Things were quiet for a moment, and then Yang burst out into laughter, Blake adding her own giggles a second afterwards.

They were more careful on the rest of the ride to Rorrickstead, making it there about mid-afternoon. As the girls tied their horses and began looking around, a man walked up to them angrily, a hoe in one hand held as menacingly as a gardening hoe could be.

“You three have a lot of nerve showing your faces in this town again! What do you have to say for yourself?”

Yang looked nervously back at the other two, who shrugged.

“Uh, sorry?”

“Sorry’s not good enough! Sorry certainly won’t bring me Gleda back from Grok. Sorry isn’t going to help her while she’s out there, fearing for her life, because of you selling her to Grok!”

The three were stunned at this.

“Oh…my god! We’re so- Okay, this sounds pretty bad! We-”

“You’re damned right it’s bad. I’ll never breed another prize-winning goat like her again.”

And now they were stunned in a totally different manner.

“Oh!” Blake realized. “Weiss, how could you?”

“What? Me?”

“I mean, out of all of us, you’re the one most likely to have sold something, like say, some poor guy’s goat.”

“Look, uh, okay. So, we don’t really remember most of last night,” Yang tried explaining. “So, do you remember us being with a guy with a staff?”

“You mentioned something like that…when you were running off with my goat!”

“Again, can’t be sorry enough. Okay, so, we’ll go get her back for you. Just point us in the right direction, and we’ll talk to Grok about selling her back, then you can remind us about what we forgot, okay?”

“How did you sell a goat to a giant!?” Yang screamed as she ran with the goat in her arms. This one was even bigger than the one that was just outside of Whiterun, and from the way he chased them, he was also fast.

“I don’t know! I don’t even speak giant!”

The giant bellowed something at them while swinging its club, missing Blake and instead hitting a clone she left in her place.

“Quick! Duck into that ravine!”

The girls hopped down into the dip in the earth, and suddenly heard a guttural yell as the giant went overhead, apparently tripping up. The sound of something impacting earth accompanied several shakes of the ground before they came up and looked down the hill from the ravine, seeing the massive man now stuck amongst a few stacks of felled logs, his arms and legs sticking out at awkward angles and a slow trickle of blood spreading from him.

“Oh god! Hold on, we’re coming!”

Yang was the first down the hill and began pulling a log off of the giant while Weiss began preparing her healing spell. Blake looked in and winced before waving them away.

“Guys,” she announced. “He’s…gone.”

They came around and saw what she meant. The giant’s neck was twisted all the way around and pinned by a log. He likely had died as soon as he hit the pile.

“We…” Yang began.

“It’s his fault!” Weiss decried. “He got worked up over a goat, and tried to kill us! If he hadn’t have chased us, or tried to talk it out, this wouldn’t have happened. Let’s just…go give this goat back to that farmer and move on.”

“Oh Gleda!” the Redguard said as he pet the goat like one would a beloved dog. “And not a scratch on her!” He looked towards the others and sighed. “I still can’t figure out why you stole her. You left a note, but half of it was gibberish scribbles and the other half had mead spilled on it.”

“Never picking up another bottle,” Blake mumbled.

“Only thing I could make out was something about ‘repaying Ysolda’, and even that was chicken scratch. Honestly, you wouldn’t have had to worry about that if you hadn’t left your coin purses back at the inn. But from what I hear, you found them right before leaving again.”

“How did we even have time for… Teleporting, right.” Weiss grumbled to herself about learning how to teleport as soon as she could.

“Sorry again about the whole thing,” Yang told him. “You take care. You too, Gleda.”

The goat bleated at them.

On the road again, the girls paused for a moment’s rest and to let the horses drink from a stream. As Yang and Blake finished cleaning a fresh deer carcass, intending to sell the hide and eat the venison, Weiss stood alone and looked out across the horizon, as if focusing on something in the distance. Seeing this, the other two walked up beside her. As the two girls approached, she turned to them with a hint of fear in her eyes. “We need to go south.”

“What? What’s going on?” Yang asked, confused as to what had spooked Weiss so much.

“Look,” Weiss declared, pointing towards the east. Yang and Blake had to squint, but they too saw what Weiss was worked up over, as a large amassing of dark storm clouds were forming over Whiterun hold. “There are storm clouds rolling in from the northeast. By the time we make it halfway to Whiterun, the whole of the plains and tundra will be soaked thoroughly.” She took out their map and pointed along the road. “If we go south, it would take longer than a normal straight shot, but trying to go straight in this weather will slow us even more, assuming you and Blake don’t catch your death in the freezing rain.”

"You're scared of a little rain?" Yang replied, slightly angry at Weiss for the suggestion, only to shrink back with Weiss glared at her with bright yellow eyes.

“I'm scared of what comes with it! As in hail, lightning, dangerously high winds, exposure, you name it! This isn't some game where we can just ride along in a storm with no issue. We are not equipped to handle storms right now. We don't even have a suitable tent!” Weiss yelled out in frustration.

“Okay, okay! I see your point. No riding in the storm, got it,” Yang placated the angry vampire, raising her hands upward.

“What if the storm goes south?” Blake asked, genuinely curious and attempting to get the conversation back on track.

“It’ll hit the mountains here,” she pointed at Bleak Falls and the Brittleshin mountains, “and would either slow down or be completely halted. It could only come down between Bleak Falls and the Hrothgar range, but it’s already going past that area from what I saw.”

“So, we have to go south?” Yang groaned in annoyance. “How much longer will it take us?”

“We’ll have to camp soon, but I imagine we can get to Whiterun by the day after tomorrow.” As Weiss declared their ETA, Blake squinted as she looked at the map in greater detail, her eyes widening as she realized what was along their path.

“Could we make a slight detour?” Blake requested. “Should be around…here.” She tapped a space in-between and to the east of Helgen and Riverwood. “Orphan Rock. I need to get something for the priestess of Kynareth from there. A dagger of some kind called Nettlebane.”

“I guess.” Weiss shrugged, seeing no issue, given how close the location Blake mentioned was to their path. “Shouldn’t take too long, right?”

“We’d just have to fight something called a…hagraven.”

“I want to get back as fast as possible,” Yang muttered. “But…we can make it work out.”

Agreeing to their course of action, the girls saddled back up and continued to ride south. Eventually, they reached a four-way intersection of roads, and with only a sideways glance eastward, they continued south down to Falkreath Hold. They went a little further, stopping just before dusk near a hut where some hunters lodged. After getting permission, they were able to tie up their horses in front of a feeding trough, and went to a fitful sleep. They took off the next morning as soon as the sun peeked over the horizon. As they rode eastward, the sounds of thunder reached their ears and caught their attention. Looking through the peaks of the mountains, they could see the thick clouds slowly drifting over the lands north of them, flashes of lightning seen in the distance.

“Wow, you weren’t kidding about that storm,” Yang said as she watched it for a moment, seeing what Weiss was so worked up over.

“That is why you listen to me,” Weiss declared as she let Blake pass her to take the lead. After all, Orphan Rock was her detour.

For several hours, their trip was mostly uneventful. They saw Helgen a ways off, but none of them were quite willing to revisit the burned city just yet. A little ways after, they headed off-road towards where Orphan Rock was supposedly at. They could see a few tents though the trees, but what really made the place obvious was the deer, goat, and skeever heads impaled on wooden spikes marking out a perimeter.

“Got a real homey feeling,” Yang deadpanned. The horses tied up, they slowly began their approach.

“So, how should we approach this?” Weiss directed at the faunus.

“You’re asking me?” Blake raised an eyebrow in confusion.

“You were the one asked to find this thing.”

“Well, I’m not really sure. She said that it was held by hagravens, and that they’re apparently witches who transformed their bodies with human sacrifice. I kinda…took it with a pinch of salt.”

“So, is that actually possible or- Hit the deck!”

Yang shoved the other two aside as she jumped away from a careening fireball. The missile exploded behind them, hitting them with a bit of debris, some of it flaming. Weiss screamed as a piece of burning detritus impaled her leg, and went hobbling for cover as another fireball exploded behind her, tossing her through the air and into some kind of hole.

“Weiss!”

Weiss blinked her eyes open dizzily. Her left thigh hurt like crazy, and she smelled blood. Looking down revealed to her that the pain and blood shared a source, namely the spike of wood that had pierced her leg. Gritting her teeth, she braced herself against the ground and yanked her body up with a groan of pain. She left out a huff as she sat down and began healing the wound. While pain had been generally deadened ever since her change, she still felt it, and some things just didn’t feel any less painful. Fire felt worse, in fact.

The moment the hole in her leg was closed she began standing, but paused at a horrible sight. A small whimper escaped her throat as she threw a hand over her mouth. Tears began collecting themselves at the corners of her eyes and she shut them closed. A quick gasp of air entered and left her lungs, followed by a quicker one. Her breaths turned into hyperventilating, as her other hand clenched Myrtenaster’s hilt tighter and tighter, her already pale hand whitening from the pressure. Her exhales became ragged, then morphed into growls. Her eyes reopened, bright yellow and filled with rage. Her other hand ripped away from her mouth and magicka began gathering in her palm as a feral scream left her lips.

Just as Yang got closer to check on Weiss, she heard a scream, and the heiress leapt out of the hole in the ground in a blur of white. Weiss landed and released a sustained bolt of lightning into a nearby witch, electrocuting the woman thoroughly. As the first witch screamed and writhed, Weiss formed a Solid Glyph that blocked off several retaliatory strikes, then dashed on her Repulsion Glyphs towards another, skewering her with her rapier. Before the woman could even acknowledge her mortal wound, Weiss grabbed her by the hair, yanked her head back, and bit down onto her throat messily.

“W- Weiss!” Yang objected. The vampire ignored her and slung the woman off of her blade as she ripped out her throat, then summoned a veritable wall of ice spikes, which were sent hurtling towards a group of witches, some of which were impaled by the projectiles while others either ducked for cover or summoned wards.

“Vampire!” one of them shouted in warning. “Namira’s blood! It’s a vampire!”

“Weiss! What the hell are you-!” Yang shouted out towards Weiss, who continued her rampage against the coven.

“Yang…” the brawler stopped speaking as she heard a quieter voice come from behind. She turned to see Blake looking down into the pit Weiss had fallen in, her skin having gone pale. Yang trudged over to see what had caught her gaze, and gasped at the sight.

At the bottom of the hole were three bodies. From what they could see, each of them had their chests carved open, with a hollow left where a heart would have been. They were in different states of rot, but none of the bodies could have even been a week old.

And they were all children, likely none of them older than ten.

Yang heard her fists clenching before she felt them, her teeth grinding against each other so hard that they might have shattered. The heat around her rose up as her muscles tensed. When she finally dared to move, it was to turn, and immediately jump towards the nearest witch with every ounce of killing intent she could muster.

With a cry of rage, she knocked down one of the women, and then stamped down on her abdomen, feeling organs disintegrate and vertebrae crunch underfoot. Before, she might have felt guilt, but now all she could feel was murderous rage. Another tried to run, only for Yang to catch her by the hair, lift her overhead, and then slam her back against her knee, snapping her spine. The woman pitifully tried to pull herself away as she cried out in pain, but Yang took her chin and head in hand before snapping it to the side. The target of her rage now extinguished, she dropped the woman and looked for others.

Blake had dashed after several who had run from the other two’s rampage. Throats were cut with surgical precision, and some witches were hamstrung before a thunderous noise popped off and something lodged itself into their hearts. One thought she could get away by casting invisibility on herself, but it only gave her an extra twenty seconds before a leg kicked out and slammed her into a tree. A sword ran her through and pinned her as she cried out in pain, clutching at the weapon and trying to pull it away.

“Ple... Please...” The faunus looked into the begging witch's eyes with intensity and silently used her cleaver to slice off her head. The faunus began gasping, before yanking out her sword and lumbering away from the corpse. There was a sickening knot in her stomach, but she couldn’t tell whether it was from the sight of those slaughtered children, or the slaughter she and her friends were now reaping upon the coven.

Yang and Weiss chased a single witch over a log bridge, where she stumbled up at a tent that an ugly creature stood before, a black dagger in one of its clawed hands that was jabbed into the chest of a green creature that looked like a humanoid being made of wood, likely a spriggan. The abomination looked at the witch with disdain, and then at them with hatred.

“Damn’ed interlopers,” it growled out with a fleck of spittle. “Could you wenches not hold off two fetchers?!”

“Mother Zira! One of them is a vampire! And there’s a third lurking in the wood like a shadow!” The last remaining witch begged, only to be slapped across the face, marring her visage with deep claw marks. As she fell down with a shout, Zira, the hagraven, spat off to the side in disdain.

“Feh! Worthless sacks of meat! Should have brought more of my sisters!”

The witch whimpered as she stood back up, but was ready to stand by the hagraven’s side regardless.

“You…” Yang ground out. “You’re the one…who killed them!”

“Gah, saw the grave?” Zira smirked in pride, causing Yang and Weiss to growl. “Doesn’t matter. You little harlots have no idea what can be done with something as insignificant as a heart! Just a few is all that’s needed for a powerful ascension!”

“I’ve heard enough!” Weiss shouted. “I’m going to rip your heart out, you monster!”

“Monster, says the Spawn of Molag? Crah, I’ll show you what a real monster is!”

The hagraven pulled back her arm as a fireball coalesced within her hand. As she threw it forward, Yang stepped in front of Weiss and let it hit her directly. The force of it knocked her back, but the fire did little but scorch at some of her clothing. The last human witch began forming a lightning spell, but before she could ready herself to throw it a sickle at the end of a ribbon sunk into her back. She grunted in sudden pain, and shouted as she was yanked back and Blake pulled herself up, leaving only Zira to fend against the Huntresses. Zira tried to set the faunus aflame, but only hit an illusory clone as the real Blake landed and swiped at her, cutting into her left arm. Yang ran forward and caught the right one by the wrist and pulled the arm straight. The hagraven tried to claw at her with her injured arm, but received an elbow to the face, dazing the creature. Yang threw up a knee and slammed it into Zira’s elbow, snapping the arm back and earning a shriek from the abomination. Weiss charged forward and grasped the hideous face before sending jolts of electricity through it. As she pushed against the hagraven, they knocked the dead sacrifice off of the brazier it was set upon, and so the vampire slammed the hagraven’s face into the hot coals.

They backed away for a moment as the hagraven kicked about, flipping the brazier and hot coals onto herself in her struggles. Feathers caught on fire and flesh sizzled as the beast tried to roll away. When it managed to pull itself to its hands and knees, a gun barrel was pressed to its head, and Blake pulled the trigger, ending its life instantly.

The three girls stood still for a long moment, each one breathing deeply as the adrenaline that had flooded them slowly faded away. Yang began hacking, and turned towards a cliff to send whatever came up off its side. Blake just sighed and went to check on her, while Weiss remained unmoving and silent.

Not another word was muttered in Orphan Rock. They took the spriggan and buried it with the three children. The witches and hagravens were left for the crows, the most being done for any of them an extra stab to ensure their deaths. They didn’t speak again until they had nearly reached Riverwood.

“I hate witches,” Blake muttered under her breath.

“We say nothing about the children,” Yang reiterated as they walked up to Whiterun’s gates at the dead of night. “If you have to, just tell her that we saw they had done human sacrifices. That’s bad enough as it is.”

“I know we’re not really sheltering her, but…it feels a bit like it,” Weiss complained.

“I know she’s a big girl, but I’m afraid of what she’d do if she found out.” Yang had a sad smile on her face. “She’d probably make it her personal mission to find every witch coven in the land and defeat them all, and… Well, we have other things to worry about. But…if we ever hear about one having a bounty or being a problem for a settlement…”

“I won’t hesitate,” Blake answered with every bit of seriousness. Weiss nodded as well.

Up in the Bannered Mare, the first thing they did was ask about Ruby. Hulda had to think for a moment, but then she snapped her fingers in memory.

“Right! Earlier today! She went out with that housecarl of hers. I’m not sure why, but they seemed to have a destination in mind.”

“So, we just missed her?” Yang asked, deflated.

“I’m sure she’ll be back soon. Ah, but Ysolda’s been asking for you three. In fact, there she is.” The girls looked over to see the woman in question walking down the stairs.

“Ah, there you are,” she said as she stepped off. “Look, I hate to ask you all so soon, but you still owe me.”

“Whoa, wait, back up,” Yang called out. “For what do we owe?”

“For your friend’s wedding ring, of course.” She pointed out Blake as she said this, making the faunus suddenly feel like falling down and going unconscious was a good idea.

“Excuse me?” Weiss asked. Of all the craziness that they had gone through that night, she didn’t think a wedding was even on the table of possibilities.

Then again, it suddenly made sense why Blake was in a white dress that day and they were at a temple for a love goddess.

“Don’t you remember? She kept talking about a girl she met in Witchmist Grove. And something about starting up a population of… Was it baby deer? Something like that. Is everything all right? Did the engagement fall through?”

“Possibly,” Yang groaned out nervously as she tried to think of a way to spin it.

“Well, I’m sorry to hear that. Tell you what; we’ll call it even if you can return the ring. Not tonight though. I only came down for a bedtime drink. I’ve got a lot of sleep to catch up on.”

“Yeah, we do too,” Yang told the Nord as she walked to one of the back rooms. She looked over at Blake, who Weiss was already staring at. Blake looked ready to fall down at any moment, but compromised and instead sat down at the bar and ordered a glass of water.

“Let me guess,” Hulda teased, pouring a glass. “Drunken proposal?”

“Sure looks that way…” Blake trailed off as she looked deep into her cup.

“Don’t worry dear. Happens all the time. Either she’ll accept that you both moved a little too fast, or you’ll have to hide a while. In the second’s case, it probably wasn’t meant to be.”

“Thanks, I’ll…keep that in mind.”

“We should probably go to bed now,” Yang offered, the events of this drunken escapade catching up to her again.

“Your room from yesterday is still there. Just drop some coins for tonight and you’ll be fine.”

Weiss immediately pulled out some diems and handed them to her as the three of them retired for the evening. As they headed upstairs, Yang paused to look over her shoulder, smiling at Blake.

“So, were you seriously planning to start up a population of fawns?” she teased, purposefully emphasizing the “ns”.

“Never again,” Blake swore, stomping past Yang and plopping down onto her bed, ignoring the giggling of her partner.

“Again, half way across the country!” Weiss fumed as she looked at Witchmist Grove on the map. “There’s no way this happened without teleportation!”

“I’m more worried about this mission Ruby’s on,” Yang said as she flipped the paper onto the table. “So, apparently Ruby’s first mission for the Companions was one put in by Sam, and he says we’ll meet up with them if we ‘keep tracing our steps’.”

“He couldn’t be watching us, could he?” Blake asked, now a little worried.

“Now that is a good question. I checked by Farengar, but scrying spells are not only complex, but usually very easily detected. Even if he was watching us, he could only do it for a little while at a time, and only in a still location. We’ve been on the move, so there’s no way he could have been watching us unless he set up a lot of scrying points, which would have been next to impossible.”

“Geez, is there anything magic can’t do?” Yang wondered aloud.

“It can’t really bring back the dead. Not on its own, anyways. It would take a lot of different effects to completely restore a fully dead soul back to life. Most supposed instances of it are legends as well.”

“So, no cheating death? Good to know. How about this fiancé thing then?”

“I’m kinda nervous about the whole thing,” Blake admitted. “I can’t imagine under what circumstances, even if I was drunk off my ass, would I just propose to someone.” Her bow tilted forward, indicating her ears drooping. “I’m not even into girls,” she muttered.

“Well, all the more reason to go clear it up. Come on, we’re not doing anything sitting here talking about it.” The other two followed Yang’s lead towards the door. “Bye Hulda, we’re off to break a heart. Let Ruby know we’re looking for her if she comes back first.”

“All right, girls. Try to let her down softly, you hear.”

“Try doesn’t mean succeed, but we’ll give it a go.”

“Uh, guys…” Yang muttered as they closed in on the house, which was surrounded by familiar pikes with the heads of animals stuck upon them. “Is this the right place?”

Weiss looked back at the map, tracing her finger along with it and gulping. “I- I think so.”

Movement came from within, and then a hagraven exited, smaller than Mother Zira had been, but the same sort of creature all the same. It smiled and walked over to them.

“My love, you’re back!” she said as she started towards Blake, who had completely frozen. “I got worried that your friends had gotten you lost, but now that you’re back we can-”

Yang and Weiss jumped as a gunshot rang out. One of the hagraven’s eyes imploded while her brain matter and bits of skull scattered behind her, staining the wall of the house. Blake silently hopped off of Speckles and approached the corpse slowly, nudging a leg with her foot before bending over and grabbing its wrist. She practically ripped the golden ring from its finger and then slowly trudged back to her horse and hopped on.

“Blake?” Yang murmured in worry.

“Three children died for one of their ascensions, whatever the hell that is. Three innocent children, just so they could become monsters. I don’t care who she was, she was just a monster to be put down.” Blake turned her horse around and started heading the way they came from. In silent agreement, Weiss quickly brought Pale about so that she could get in the lead and guide them, with Yang and Blondie taking up the rear.

The girls were practically catatonic when they returned the ring back to Ysolda, but another clue had come up from what she said.

Morvunskar. They had planned for the ceremony to be at Morvunskar. Knowing that Ruby would likely be there, they headed straight for it, not caring about how close it was getting to dusk or how far it was from them.

When they reached the fortress in the snowy mountainous area, they left their horses a ways away and approached. Some man in robes kept warning them about coming too close.

Weiss responded with a lightning bolt that sent him off the wall.

The entire fortress was alerted to them a moment later. Yang’s fist came around as a mage got too close and slammed him to the ground. A woman tried firing an ice spike at her, but Blake easily closed the distance and rammed her gut with a knee backed by her Aura enhanced momentum. As the woman coughed and retched, a Dunmer came screaming with a mace in one hand and flame spell in the other. Weiss’s ward easily blocked the flames, and her rapier swiped the mace from his hands. An almost elegant pirouette sent him on his back, followed by Yang’s heel stomping on his chest hard enough to knock the wind from him.

The one Yang had floored a moment earlier stood back up and reached towards her with hands covered in lightning. The blonde turned on her heel and brought her fist down on his head again, only this time his skull met the ground with a wet crack. The other two looked on in horror at how easily their fellow had been slain, and the three Huntresses kept moving forward. The woman started crawling away, hoping that they didn’t come back to finish her, and the Dunmer man made plans to do the same once he could breathe straight again.

“I can’t believe I’m the one stuck at the forge. Again!” A mage currently working a forge inside Morvunskar complained, continuing to strike a hot piece of metal.

“Quit your whining. You-”

The two mages’ conversation was interrupted by Yang busting down the door to the indoor forge. Both looked at her incredulously before they dropped whatever they were doing and readied spells. Before the man could even start gathering magicka for a summon, he was slammed up against the wall while his companion was lifted and thrown through the table she was sitting at. He pulled a dagger from his belt, but Yang slapped it out of his hand and into the hot coals. She grabbed him by his hair and held him over the furnace, forcing his face closer to the red hot coals with contemptuous ease. She halted and then lifted him back up, the smell of ammonia and a growing wet spot in his robes telling of his fear.

“Get the hell out of here,” she growled.

The two needed not be told twice, and scrambled to escape the blonde.

Further in, there were more experienced mages who were ready for them, or so they thought. A volley of Destruction spells came at the girls when they entered, but all were halted by the appearance of a solid glyph. Shocked at what seemed to be a unique ward, they had little chance to brace themselves for the oncoming attack. Blake seemed to swoop in from nowhere, her foot catching an Altmer’s neck and slinging him across the room before her blades swiped the dagger out of a dark haired man’s hand, and then were reversed to knock him away with their blunt sides. Weiss slung a woman into a pillar, where she cried out before falling to the ground in a daze. Yang punched one man so hard he slammed into another, breaking the second one’s arm. As they started to get back on their feet, the woman started running for the door. The Altmer sneered and readied a lightning spell to hit her, only for Yang to catch his arm and bend it back, snapping the shoulder out of place. The others saw this display of strength and erred on the side of caution, running after their female compatriot.

“Damn you to the deepest pits of Oblivion!” the high elf cursed as he held his arm with a golden glow. He didn’t seem intent on running.

“You’ve got one more-”

He yelled as he stabbed at her with a golden-bronze dagger, which bounced off of her Aura with a slight spark and audible chink. She sighed and gripped him by his arms, seeing the fear in his eyes.

“That was strike three!” Knowing that two of them had turned back to see what would happen, Yang reared back a fist and swung as hard as she dared herself to. There was a meaty crunch as her fist met the elf’s face, and then his body was flung all the way across the expansive room, smashing into the far wall with a bloody splat, his face completely pulverized by the punch. The two screamed, one far less masculine than the other, and then the Huntresses heard their feet carrying them further and further away.

Yang shook her hand and wiped her knuckles off on an old cloth as they continued on, pausing at the sight of a large, misty, glowing orb at the top of a set of stairs with a setup like a cheap throne.

“What…in the world…” Yang wondered.

“This looks like…a portal of some sort,” Weiss observed.

“A portal to where?” Blake asked as she sheathed Gambol Shroud.

“Going by the three-dimensional shape, it’s a portal to another world.”

Yang looked at her with wide eyes. “Does that mean…? Could it…?”

“I…doubt it leads to Remnant,” Weiss admitted with some disappointment in her voice. “More likely, it leads to a plane of Oblivion, as those worlds seem to be adjacent to Nirn. But, thanks to some kind of seal made at the end of the Oblivion Crisis, we can at least assume this portal is…safe. Relatively speaking.”

“Okay…so… Do we go in?”

The girls looked at each other, none of them seeming to want to suggest that they or someone else take the first step. Finally, Blake stepped forward.

“I’ll look in first,” she said. She seemed to hold her breath as she took a step forward and leaned her upper body into it. After a moment, she came back out, a little wide-eyed, but physically unharmed. “It…looks like some kind of grove. I saw a bridge, a lantern, trees, and a small waterfall.”

“So safe?” Yang asked.

“Yeah, pretty safe.”

“All right then,” the blonde announced with a clap. “Let’s dive in!”

The three stepped through the portal and looked around themselves, seeing that they were in a place like Blake described. Lanterns lined along a path, part of which was a stone bridge over a stream, from which a short waterfall poured just past the bridge. A light mist hung in the air, but it seemed more inviting than invasive.

“Is this…how Sam traveled us around?” Weiss wondered aloud. “Could he have actually found some sort of shortcut through dimensional hopping?”

“That sounds more sci-fi than fantasy, but I guess it could work.”

“We’re not in some sort of B-class movie, Yang,” the heiress reprimanded. “This is reality. As it turns out, reality is stranger than fiction.”

“Should we…go?” Blake asked as she pointed at the path before them.

“Well, we do need to find Sam. He said he’d be wherever we retraced our steps to.” Weiss took the lead as Yang pulled out her scroll and flipped through some of the pictures.

“Huh, I think we actually were here. The environment looks…about right.”

After crossing over a couple of bridges and following the path to the right, the girls came upon a table with lanterns set all about and people seated around, eating from a feast on the table’s top. Some were drinking deeply as well, bringing a mote of apprehension to the girls. One reveler was an Orc that looked familiar to Yang, and the cause became clear when she found a picture of her holding him bridal style, only he was shirtless in the picture. She grinned as a sliver of memory came to her, and recalled that at some point she declared that she’d go beat every Orc Chieftain in Skyrim to him, which just seemed to make him adore her all the more.

She couldn’t quite figure out if the make-out was real or imagined though, as there was no picture proof.

“Yang Xiao Long!” a voice shrilly called up from the side. The girls turned and felt both relief and trepidation at seeing their leader unharmed, though wearing a party hat.

“Ruby!” Yang cried out, but paused in her reach for a hug, when a finger collided with her nose and pressed in.

“You’ve been gone for days! Days! I don’t even know how many, because I was underground for at least a full day! Do you know what I fought!? Falmer! Do any of you know what Falmer are?! They’re like evil, blind versions of Gobble! Oh, Gobble wasn’t nearly as evil as these things! At least he had a good side for a while in the second movie! Falmer? Pure evil! And then they have pets! Do you know what their pets are?! Chaurus! And chaurus are giant, unholy hybrids of centipedes, ants, earwigs, and nightmares! They make their armor out of their shells!”

“Ruby, calm down,” Yang said as she tried to hold on to her little sister’s shoulders, only for Ruby to jump into her arms and hug her tightly.

“I was so scared,” she started to cry. “But I was even more scared because I didn’t know if you were all okay! Please, don’t ever do that again!”

Yang felt her heart sink before she wrapped her own arms around Ruby. “I promise. I’ll slow down from now on.”

Ruby sniffed and then pulled away before rubbing her eyes. Their teammates came up and the other two gave the younger girl a hug.

A chorus of “aww’s” reached their ears and the girls recalled that they had a bit of an audience watching them. They separated with a bit of blush on their cheeks, and Yang laughed heartily.

“Oh man, we had a trip getting back!” Yang boasted, though she winced a little at some of the clearer memories. “I’ll spare you the details. Just know that Weiss sold someone else’s goat and fondled a goddess’s statue.”

“What the- Me?! You’re the one who trashed the place and fell asleep naked in a holy place!”

“Hey! To be fair, it was the temple of the goddess of beauty. If anything, I was paying homage to her with that last bit. Besides, you helped with the trashing.”

“Jeez, guys…” Ruby moaned before looking over at her dark-haired teammate. “What about you?”

“I got engaged to a monster. It’s dead now.”

“Um…good?”

“That it’s dead, yes.”

“I can’t believe you’d all be so irresponsible,” a grown voice said. The girls looked over to see Lydia, also wearing a party hat. “Getting a little deep in your cups is one thing, but traipsing around the whole province to wreck it while drunk is another.”

Yang tried her best to keep her chuckles contained, but she couldn’t help it and began slapping her leg as she guffawed.

“What?”

“That hat…! It doesn’t suit you!” she laughed a little more before it finally cooled down.

“I wouldn’t have worn it, but it’s not a good idea to get on any god’s bad side.”

“Uh, do wha?”

Suddenly the three girls felt something plop on their heads as another familiar face popped up.

“Heya girls!”

“Sam!” the three yelled at once.

“Boy, I have to hand it to you! That was the most fun I’ve had in…centuries! The last time I had that much fun was a drinking contest with the Nerevarine about two hundred years ago. Man, could that guy hold it or what! Nocturnal seemed to hate him, though. Or really liked him, you could never tell.”

“Wait, centuries?” Weiss asked. “But…you’re not an elf. Are you?”

“Hm, oh no, I’m no elf. Gimme a sec.” Purple energy swirled around the man, causing the girls to take a step back. In Sam’s place stood a tall, dark skinned creature with red markings and horns upon his head. Spiked armor covered his body, with red running through it like pulses of energy or blood. He laughed jovially at their shocked expressions, though Ruby seemed to be irked rather than surprised.

“Guys, Sam’s actually Sanguine. He’s like…the god of parties or something.”

“Prince is the more…accepted term,” Lydia explained. “Though, for all intents and purposes, he is a god. And…the god of revelry, debauchery, gluttony, lust, and greed.”

“Thaaaaaaaat’s me!” the apparent god cheered. “Oh boy did we have a good bit of all of that! I’m pretty sure we made ‘Bella blush with that last act. Course, I wasn’t physically there. Can’t really enter a Divine’s temple all willy-nilly, you see.

“Oh, and I just remembered! Miss Xiao Long, you ‘beat’ me in that drinking game, twenty-five bottles to my twenty-four! Of course, you were sloshed as could be once that was said and done. Still, deal’s a deal. That’s three hundred septims –hm, let’s put it in denars for simplicity’s sake.” A bag of coins appeared out of thin air and landed in Blake’s hands. “And of course, my staff.” The staff appeared as well and Yang caught it.

“Uh…how do I use it?” Yang asked gently, not wanting to offend the guy who was apparently a god.

“Oh, give that here,” Weiss demanded as she snatched up the rose shaped implement. Magic focused in the blossom, and then was launched a few feet away, where an orb expanded and disappeared, revealing a creature that looked frighteningly like Sanguine, only smaller.

“Ah, hello my lord!” the daedra said towards the Prince. “So, the Sanguine Rose is in the hands of a mortal once again?”

“Again?”

“Eh, I like to give it out once in a while. It’ll summon up whatever daedra you need to the occasion. Fighting, setting up a party, cleaning up your house, messing up your house.” He blinked with the last suggestion. “Oh, speaking of which, need to get those guys back.” Four more spheres appeared, this time summoning up the four horses the girls had been using. Before they could object, Sanguine waved his arm to them. “All right, you guys can turn back now.” Again the purple energy surrounded them, transforming them all into humanoids. One was like the daedra summoned by the staff, two were violet-skinned, a male and female, and the last looked like a normal human but with six horns on his head.

“That…was the most degrading thing I’ve ever done,” the armored one complained.

“Next time think before you place a bet,” the female violet one reprimanded.

“Hey, Yang, right?” the male violet one asked. “Got to say, that had to have been the hardest anyone’s rode me in centuries.”Yang blinked as the innuendo finally registered in her mind, causing her to pale and hold herself tightly.

“Did he just…” Weiss began, slightly horrified.

“Can I go back to eating now!?” the horned man yelled.

“Hey, that’s what the food’s for,” Sanguine told him.

“Yes!” he cheered way too happily.

Sanguine smiled at the girls. “Didn’t think you really got a set of horses that never seemed to go tired or get hungry, did you? Well, that second part’s debatable for the Glutton there. But yeah, figured you all might need a little help getting around, so I set you up with some daedra looking for entertainment, or in that dremora’s case, in need of punishment.”

“We’ve been riding around on demon horses this whole time?” Blake asked in a higher pitch than normal.

“Hey, whatever works, right?” He laughed at her expression and waved his arm.

“Sheesh, well, I guess we, uh… Wait, how’d you get here Ruby?”

“We were invited.”

“Well now, I think it’s about time to send you all off,” Sanguine said as he started collecting purple energy into his hands. “I know you all promised to lay off after some…consequences, but don’t quit cold now! After all, life’s bland without a little fun now and again. And you all have a lot of potential! Have fun with the staff!” He released the spell at them, and then they felt themselves fall out of one world and into another.

The girls all looked around themselves in confusion. Rather than Morvunskar or some cave, they were inside of a warm, familiar room. They looked out the door and saw that they were back at the Bannered Mare, in the room they usually rented.

“Guys,” Yang began.

“Yeah?”

“Let’s go to bed.”

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Chapter 11: Darkness Through Mist

Wind passes under wings. Clouds go by. A structure of stone is before. Wings tilt, and she’s swooping down, catching a mortal with her talons. She laughs as she flings the mortal away. She catches another one and tastes it before swallowing it. Another runs for the city of wood and stone. She lets it run. It will bring out the other warriors into the open, where she can destroy them with ease.

The Overlord has finally returned. His undeniable Truth will be for the entire world to see. And this city’s embers would be her gift to present to him. When the defenders were dragged out and killed in the open, destroying it would be that much easier.

Waiting in the mountains, the trap is sprung!

She wings out once again and begins to destroy the foolish creatures in droves. Their arrows sting, but it will be fine. They are sharper than in times past, but still not sharp enough to kill a dragon!

Magic hits, and it hurts! The spell casters are more careful about dodging the Voice.

A Red one bothers to speak with her. Pathetic! It wants peace? Then it should have fallen on its knees the moment the Overlord returned!

It is fast though. It dodged away even when Time was Slowed to the crawl of Sand.

The bright Yellow hurt her, so she tries to hurt it, but it survives. It is strong.

Something fell upon her back! A wing! It cut a wing! She cannot fly and falls to the ground. No matter. Even when bound to the earth a dragon is formidable. The mortals will see their deaths up close.

Yellow charges at her, and she Shouts for Time again. She snaps up the mortal and flings it about before throwing it back to the ground. It still lives, so she jumps forward and stamps a foot down. This time bones crunch and the mortal screams. The Red screams as well, and then charges at her with its blade, cutting a long, winding wound upon her neck and body. She roars in agony and backs away. It’s the most damage she’s ever faced! How could such a small mortal do such a thing?

Red drags Yellow away and looks back at her. A few mortals have surrounded her to try and close in, but she doesn’t let them. She needs a moment to recover before going on the offensive again.

A voice yells to her in her own tongue. It threatens vengeance and death. It comes from the Red. She actually feels honored that the mortal would bother with Dragon Tongue to relay such. She accepts and promises death.

Then Black reappears with a tether and yanks back her head. White uses some sort of magic to create a trail. Red dashes forward so fast she cannot be seen.

Pain! Pain explodes through her chest! Heart is pierced! Thoughts weakening!

She struggles to remain awake, to keep living, but in the throes of death, she feels a tugging at her soul. There is a dragon nearby! Her eyes lock onto Red, and she realizes why she’d spoken in Dragon Tongue.

“D- Dovahkiin?!” she cries out in surprise as she can feel her life blood pouring from her chest and her soul being torn from her being.

“NOOOOOO!!!!” Ruby screamed as she ripped away the blankets and clutched at her chest, trying to keep blood from flowing from a wound that didn’t exist. Her body was covered in cold sweat, and her breathing was ragged. As her heartbeat slowed, and breathing regulated, she closed her eyes tightly.

‘It’s just a dream. Just a dream. You’re not Mirmulnir. You’re not dying.’

Ever since she…absorbed Mirmulnir, she could feel exactly what he felt in his dying moments. There were other memories, but the memory of dying was the freshest to them both. Ruby had to keep touching her neck to assure herself that there wasn’t a spiral cut on it. She needed to feel the place above her heart to remind herself that there was no stab wound.

Before she could examine herself further, a candle moved as Lydia came over to her, slightly bedraggled and in her sleeping clothes.

“My Thane, are you all right?”

“I- I’m fine, Lydia.” She wasn’t, but she doubted the housecarl knew how to help with nightmares fueled by the soul of a deceased dragon. “Just a bad dream. I just need a moment.” Ruby looked around in the dim light and noticed that her team’s beds were empty. “Where are the others?”

“They went off with that wizard,” Lydia harrumphed, clearly displeased. “They said something about raising fawns and baby birds.”

Memories of the three’s intoxicated misadventures in the inn came roaring back and Ruby sighed in annoyance. “I can’t believe those guys.” She got enough before from her uncle, and it was really looking bad when Yang seemed to be letting the culture get to her, but now her whole team was drunk off their butts? She would be making rules after tonight! She blinked wearily. After some decent sleep of course.

“Thanks for checking on me, Lydia. I really appreciate it.” She pulled the blankets back over her, blocking off the slight chill in the air.

“Only doing the least of my duties,” Lydia dutifully nodded. “I’ll let you go back to sleep. Good night, Thane Ruby.”

“G’night,” she wearily replied as she tried to let sleep claim her again, hoping for a night without dreams.

When Ruby woke up again, this time to the light of the dawn's rays, she quickly noticed there was still no sign of her team anywhere. As the girl trudged down into the surprisingly clean inn’s lower level, she went over to Saadia, who was watching over the inn while Hulda rested.

“Have my friends been back yet?” Ruby kindly asked, hoping that they were still around.

“No, sorry, ma’am. I, er, haven’t seen them since last night.”

Oh yeah, last night. Last night when after Weiss finished her impromptu drinking song (which Ruby would admit was good, but still!) she started getting all cuddly with the Redguard woman. Ruby had to watch them like a hawk to make sure nothing bad happened there, but that gave an opening for Yang to start making out with some orc.

“But," Saadia, reaching into a nearby cupboard, interrupted Ruby's thoughts, "there was someone who left a note for you.” Quickly finding the aforementioned note, Saadia took out a folded piece of paper and handed it to Ruby, who unfurled it and started reading the contents.

To the new Thane,

Me and your friends are going on a little trip. Shouldn’t take too long, but you might feel a little lonely without ‘em, so I figured a way for you to join us up early.

You’ve still got a mission to do with the Companions, right? Well, I put in a request with them, and I asked for you specifically. There’s an item down in Shimmermist Cave that a friend of mine wants out of there. Said a good warrior should be the one to do it. I figured a dragonslayer fit the bill nicely.

Oh no, what did they tell people?!

Anyways, get the request, go kill everything in that cave, and retrieve the object. Don’t need you to return it to me. My friend will pick it up from you, eventually. You’ll know what it is once you find it. After that you’ll be able to head right over to one of my places.

Meanwhile, the girls and I have a wedding to attend. But between you and me, I don’t think the marriage is going to last all that long.

Your party buddy,

Sam Guevenne.

Ruby groaned and rubbed her face in exasperation. She and Yang were going to have a long talk about what was and was not acceptable when following in Qrow’s footsteps.

“Thanks Saadia. Sorry about last night. Weiss isn’t usually so…”

“Oh, it’s all right. Could have been worse. Better a girl just holds onto my arm while complaining about her family than a man decides to hold on to other parts of me.”

“True enough,” Ruby chuckled, but then stopped when she realized that that might actually be a problem. Saadia noticed her concern and waved it off.

“Don’t worry about me. That’s what this is for.” She brought up an iron dagger for a moment and then sheathed it back to her pocket. Ruby nodded and then headed back upstairs, ready to go through her morning routine before heading up to Jorrvaskr.

“Aye, it’s not often we get a request for a specific member. Less often that member is a greenhorn like you,” Skjor explained as he went over the short contract. “Then again, you have made a bit of a name for yourself. Well, it’s rather straightforward. Honestly, we’ve been looking into clearing that cave for a few weeks now. Falmer seem to have taken up residence in it. Probably trying to grow their little nasties,” Skjor snarled, much to Ruby’s discomfort. “Kill any Falmer, kill any chaurus, rescue anyone caught by them that aren’t dead yet, and retrieve whatever this object is and…hold on to it.” Skjor rubbed his chin in thought. “Last bit’s odd, but shouldn’t be a problem. I suggest having a mage look whatever it is over, just in case. As for Falmer, be careful. They’re sly little monsters. I suggest taking backup.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve-” Ruby started, only to get interrupted with the sounds of Jorrvaskr’s doors being opened.

“My Thane, I’ve stocked up on our provisions,” Lydia announced herself, catching the attention of both Ruby and Skjor, whom she briefly locked eyes with before continuing on. “We are ready to depart.”

“… Thank you, Lydia,” Ruby thanked the housecarl, still unsure about her. Skjor, on the other hand, shared no such feeling and gave the slightest hint of a smile, the most Ruby had seen on the man.

“Lydia, it’s an honor to see you again,” Skjor remarked, a degree of respect in his voice Ruby had again not seen or heard.

“Likewise, Skjor,” Lydia nodded to the companion. At this, Skjor paused for a moment.

“You know, the offer is still valid.”

“My answer is the same,” Lydia’s reply was quite curt, Ruby observed. Almost as if this conversation had happened before, in many instances. Over what, she didn’t know.

“Well, anyway,” Ruby interrupted before the conversation could start back up, “we better get going. The sooner we get this…thing, the sooner I can get my han- I mean, get back to my friends. Hehe, yeah…” Ruby nervously chuckled, trying to hide her slip up. Judging by Lydia’s nod of approval and Skjor’s nod, she was unsuccessful. Flushed with slight embarrassment, Ruby motioned for Lydia, and the two left the hall of the Companions behind. The two silently walked through the bustling town and through the front gates.

“Just so you are aware,” Lydia cut through the silence, her smirk audible to Ruby’s ears, “if you wish to throttle them, I’ll hold them down.”

“Oh, shush.”

Without any means of transportation, Ruby and Lydia began the long hike towards Shimmermist Cave. They were lucky that the cave itself was relatively close to Whiterun, but even then it was still half a day’s journey.

“So,” Ruby began, trying to break through the awkward silence that had once again descended over the duo. This had been a familiar song and dance between the two of them, and if Lydia was going to be sticking around, Ruby was determined to break the ice. “Your weapons and armor? Steel?’

“That is correct, my Thane,” Lydia quickly gave a to-the-point answer, causing Ruby to sigh. Once again, Ruby would ask a question, Lydia would give a direct answer and not elaborate, causing Ruby to go silent. But not this time!

“So…did you forge it? I’m a pretty good smith, if I say so myself. At least, Eorlund thinks so, even though he beat me…” Ruby whispered the last part, causing Lydia to laugh slightly. Success!

“I heard about that. A little girl caused the great Eorlund Grey-Mane to actually sweat for once,” Lydia mirthed to herself. “It was actually Eorlund himself who made my weapons and armor. A gift for being chosen to be a housecarl.”

“I wanted to ask about that. How did you become a housecarl anyway?” Ruby asked, curious about the subject. “Were you always a housecarl, your parents? Were you born into it?” Lydia perked up at this, evidently proud of the accomplishment.

“I was not born into being a housecarl. I earned it, actually.”

“Oh! How’d you earn it?”

“It started with my father, really. He was a guard for thirty years. Used to be an adventurer, until he ‘took an arrow to the knee’, so he says,” Lydia chuckled. “Nine times out of ten, that simply means that they got married. In this case, to my mother, who…died during childbirth.”

“Oh, I’m… I’m so sorry, I-” Ruby stammered, trying to give an apology, only to be waved off by Lydia.

“It’s alright. I never knew her, though sometimes I wish I did. It's far in the past now. As I grew older he taught me everything he knew. When he grew too old and weathered to continue being a guard, he stepped down. As he did, I rose to take his place.” Lydia smiled at the memory. “I’ll never forget how proud he was when I first stepped home wearing that armor.”

“He sounds amazing,” Ruby replied.

“He was…” Lydia grew wistful, causing Ruby to look downcast as she realized the implications. Lydia, noticing her charge’s disposition, continued. “He had developed ataxia during his last few years, which caused him to step down in the first place. It…eventually caught up with him, and he died peacefully in his sleep. The entirety of the Whiterun guard went to his funeral, along with the Jarl.”

“I’m… I’m sorry. I…lost my mother when I was young, too,” Ruby added, forlorn, to which Lydia nodded in understanding.

“He rests in Sovngarde, now. At peace. When I die, I will join him once again.” Lydia smiled at the thought, before shaking her head. “Moving on, thanks to my father’s training, I quickly caught the attention of my superiors. I quickly rose up through the ranks, eventually settling on captain. Many thought I was going to become commander, but my fortunes quickly changed.”

“What happened?” Ruby got slightly worried, which went away when Lydia smiled.

“I stumbled across evidence that the Thieves Guild was attempting to reestablish a foothold in Whiterun,” Lydia revealed, only to receive blank look from Ruby.

“Thieves…Guild? What is that?”

“I’m not surprised you hadn’t heard of it. In their present state, they’re a joke. Back in my father’s day, now that was a different story. The Thieves Guild is what the name implies: a guild for thieves and other illegal activities. Anything short of murder is fair game to them. Their fortunes had reversed over the years, making them a shadow of their former self, until they all but disappeared.”

“So they tried to make a comeback in Whiterun?” Ruby inquired.

“They did. It wasn’t a large group, thankfully. Only about five members. Regardless, I uncovered evidence that they were in the city, which I investigated, and found that they were trying to establish a foothold and were planning a massive heist of Dragonsreach, which I stopped,” Lydia perked up in pride at that.

“Wow!” Ruby gushed. “Then what?”

“That caught the attention of many, including the Jarl and the Companions. I was approached by both, who each extended an offer for me to join, either as one of Balgruuf’s housecarls or as a Companion.”

“And you chose to be a housecarl,” Ruby concluded, to which Lydia nodded.

“That I did. I wanted to serve Whiterun, rather than be a Companion. They still extend offers to me, which I refuse each time,” Lydia revealed, answering an unspoken question of Ruby’s.

“That’s…amazing,” Ruby stated, eyeing the cave. They were close now.

“If I may ask, what about you?” Lydia asked, curiosity etched on her face.

“Well,” Ruby began, unsure of how to proceed. She was still thinking as they walked across the bend, only for the two of them to stop dead in their tracks as they came across a grisly scene. In the middle of the road was a destroyed cart. The horses were missing, and there was a dead Nord woman lying on the ground with strange arrows having turned her into a pincushion.

“What happened?” Ruby asked, apprehension filling her voice. Lydia had already unsheathed her weapons and was looking around for any threats. Seeing none, but staying on guard, the housecarl walked up to the corpse and pulled out one of the arrows, inspecting it before throwing it away in disgust.

“Falmer,” Lydia revealed, uttering a quick prayer for the woman before standing. “Falmer must have attacked her.”

“There’s a blood trail. Look,” Ruby pointed out, eyeing a trail of bloody splotches leading up to Shimmermist Cave’s entrance.

“They must have dragged off any survivors, leaving her as a warning,” Lydia mused, unsheathing her weapon again before taking point. “Have you faced Falmer before?”

“No, I haven’t,” Ruby answered, unfurling Crescent Rose. If Lydia was confused about the sniper-scythe she didn’t show it. “Any advice?”

“Show no mercy,” Lydia responded. With that, the two of them made their way into the dark cave. Whatever was in there was key to finding the rest of her team, and Ruby wouldn’t let some cave monsters stand in her way.

On high alert for any danger, the two slowly entered the cave, with Lydia taking point. Upon entering, Ruby suddenly let out a shriek, causing Lydia to whip around in search of the source of Ruby's distress. A spider was just inside the entrance around two waterfalls, and Lydia, seeing Ruby’s apprehension, smirked.

“Don’t like the spiders?”

“I…really don’t. They’re just so…creepy!”

“The Dragonborn. Slayer of dragons, devourer of souls, scared of spiders," Lydia laughed to herself, causing Ruby to slightly frown in embarrassment. “All right. One moment.”

The housecarl drew her sword and charged the giant arachnid. The spider seemed stunned, and barely had any time to react as the Nord sliced across its face before jabbing it in its ‘neck’. The oversized bug shuddered, and then collapsed, its legs making a few twitches as the life left it.

“Phew! Thanks!” Ruby beamed as they continued forward.

“Any time, my Thane.”

They traveled downwards and then into a narrower tunnel where the light from outside found it harder to reach. Ruby looked up and around the cave as the light slowly died out until it got close to pitch black.

‘Really need to get Weiss to show me that candle spell,’ Ruby thought in remorse. 'Either that or buy a torch.’

The darkness didn’t last long, to Ruby’s relief, as their path suddenly became illuminated by the soft blue of glowing mushrooms. Ruby awed at them for a moment and reached out to tap one, surprised by its sturdiness despite its gel-like looks. The darkness fled even more as the ceiling became practically covered in bioflorescent flora. Mist seemed to waft in from further in the cave like a thick fog, reflecting and refracting the light from the fungus and other glowing life, likely giving the cavern its name. Ruby began wondering about what kind of ecology was at work in this place when Lydia held out a hand, stopping her. A ways ahead of them, Ruby saw the silhouette of a hunched over creature holding what appeared to be a sword and looking back and forth over an outcropping.

“Did he spot us?” Ruby whispered.

“It can’t see,” her housecarl answered. “Falmer are blind. They go by sound, not sight. If we stay quiet, we should be able to get closer.”

‘Wait. If Falmer are blind, how do they have archers?’ Ruby thought to herself, confused by the implications, before shaking her head, shelving the question for later.

Softly, the two tip-toed their way closer, carefully stepping over a tripwire that had been softly illuminated by the pervasive blue glow when they came to the opening of a larger cavern. The image of the apparent Falmer cleared the closer they got, and soon Ruby was able to make out more details. The creature was anorexic looking, with ribs poking from wrinkled, pale skin. Two long ears were on either side of its head, likely picking up every stray noise. Its face was mostly flat, with two slits in place of a nose, an open mouth filled with needle-like teeth, and no eyes. The creature made little grunting noises as it walked in a small patrol, listening out for intruders.

‘Ew! It looks like Gobble’s ugly cousin! If that cousin was also the baby of the ugliest goblin ever!’

A low hiss brought her out of her thoughts and she and Lydia spun around to see another Falmer barring its teeth and taking out a sickle-looking weapon and a shield.

“We’ve been spotted!” Lydia shouted as she unsheathed her sword, preparing herself against the creatures. The one from above jumped down aiming for Lydia's head, only to be smacked aside by her shield, sending it sliding in the dirt away from them. Ruby pulled out Crescent Rose and dashed over to the sickle wielder and struck at it. The Falmer managed to duck under her first swing and went for one of its own to which Ruby quickly stepped back and continued her scythe’s arc, returning it and crashing the blade against the chitin shield in her foe’s hand. With an audible crack emanating from the shield, the Falmer flew several feet away and into a stone column. The creature struggled back up and made for a jumping swing, which Ruby used to impale it upon her scythe’s blade with an upward spin of her own weapon, sending the creature over her head with a gaping hole in its stomach.

She looked over and saw Lydia flick her sword clear of blood over the body of the other Falmer, a scowl on her face. Before Ruby had a chance to speak up, a horrific smell, previously masked by adrenaline, caught her attention. Slowly, Ruby walked over and peered under the alcove where the woman was at and gasped. Under the ledge was a small pile of human and elf bodies. Some were dressed like hunters or bandits, while others wore normal, everyday clothing. One High Elf had purple robes and enough stab wounds on his torso to look like he belly-flopped into a knife factory.

“What- What is this?”

“Victims,” her housecarl spat as she bent to observe one a little more closely. “They’ve been dragging the dead into this place. Probably only under the cover of night.”

“This is just…awful!” Ruby figured these things were bad news, but she didn’t think it was this bad. “But why do all these…bodies look…?”

“Fresh?” Lydia stood back up as she said it.

“Y- yeah…”

“I don’t know. Maybe the Falmer eat them?”

Ruby felt like she was turning green, but shook her head and stepped away from the bodies. “We- we should keep going.”

“Of course, my Thane.”

Deeper within they came across a boulder where a set of chitin armor, shield, sword and bow lay. Ruby took a moment to look them over, but stuck out her tongue in disgust when she detected how much they felt like picking up a large bug leg. Only a little ways past that there was a Falmer with its back turned towards them. Usually, Ruby wasn’t one for sneak attacks or backstabbing, but after seeing the murdered innocents earlier, she felt little sympathy for what were obviously monsters. Her scythe sunk deep into the Falmer’s shoulder, nearly splitting it in half when she yanked her blade free. The creature let out a slight gurgle as it fell forward, blood splaying out and a foul stench emerging.

“Urk! I don’t think…I’ll ever get used to that.”

“The smell of death is never a pleasant one,” Lydia agreed. “Especially when you cut open their intestines.”

“Yeah, next time I’ll try to only get the upper half. Blehk!”

They continued on, going up and down for a while until they came upon another open area, this one with a few huts made mostly of some unknown material. The Falmer within noticed them almost immediately and began charging them. Ruby nodded to Lydia and hopped over the ledge near them, drop kicking one of the creatures. Another fired an arrow at her, but the young warrior dodged the projectile and aimed Crescent Rose at the archer. Before she pulled the trigger, she recalled how she had a limited amount of ammo and swung her scythe around behind her, fighting the urge to use her weapon’s recoil for a boost. A shaft of wood suddenly appeared in its chest and Ruby recalled that Lydia had brought a bow along.

Her attention returned to the other Falmer and she swiped over, detaching its head from its body before it could fully stand. She was ready to give Lydia an all clear, but then another Falmer dropped from some high spot and caught the older woman with a dagger to her side. The Nord cried out as Ruby screamed.

“Lydia!”

Recovering quickly, the housecarl dug her blade’s edge into the Falmer’s throat and stumbled away, dropping down to her knees in pain before pulling something from her pack. Ruby rushed up to her and the woman waved her off concerns.

“He didn’t get me deep,” she bit out. “Poison’s the worst part.”

“Poison?!” Ruby practically shrieked.

“I’ll be fine.” Lydia downed the potion in her hands and sighed. “All-Purpose Antidote. It works with nearly any kind of poison. Only the truly exotic ones can get through it. Going by the color on that dagger, I think it’s just a slow acting poison. Probably meant more to cause pain than death.”

Ruby shuddered at the thought and looked at the dead assassin. It had several little sacks around a belt on its hip, and she could only assume that some kind of poison was in each of them, going by the one that was sliced open and had the same orange color inside it as the poison on the dagger.

As she went back to going forward, she looked at the huts and felt another measure of revulsion.

“The doors are made of bug legs? Do these guys farm bugs?”

“Actually, I think that they do. They raise a large species of insect called a chaurus. I’ve only ever seen the tiny ant chaurus, but apparently the ones they raise grow like pigs.”

“Ugh, why do bugs get so big here?”

Lydia raised an eyebrow, but didn’t question the comment as they moved on once again. As they rounded a corner, Ruby noted a strange, bulbous thing on the ground. Another glowing cavern was up ahead, but they paused when a chittering sound reached their ears.

“Uh, how big did you say these things could get?” she whispered.

Before Lydia could answer, a creature crawled within their sights. The size of an average dog, it was covered in chitin and walked on four legs, mandibles extending around a horrific face filled with teeth. The back end of it had a set of pincers with sharp tips, snipping at the air. Its upper body bent upwards, giving it an appearance like a snake moving to strike. Its beady eyes looked over to them and then it chittered loudly before squaring up with the ground and rushing over to them.

“Oh god!” Ruby screamed as she jumped away from its chomping mandibles. Lydia attempted a slash, but her sword slid against the hard chitin of the creature, barely scratching it enough to draw blood. The bug turned towards her, giving Ruby the opening she needed to slice it in half. The front half of it struggled in vain for a moment before going still, green ichor leaking out from its corpse in a growing puddle.

“This place is so gross,” Ruby complained as she turned, only to stop suddenly as her eyes opened wide at the sight before her. “Lydia?” she squeaked out.

“My Thane?” the housecarl answered with worry. She walked up next to the younger woman and looked about to see what she saw. Piles of bones were scattered about, but many of them were recognizable. Human and Meri skulls dotted the pen, as well as a few more feline or reptilian shaped ones. Some of the skulls seemed smaller than average, and one unscattered skeleton looked a little smaller than Ruby’s frame.

Ruby’s grip on her scythe tightened as she walked over to one of the bulbous things that lined the whole room. She kicked it open, revealing a small, blue orb inside, and then stomped down on it. When her foot lifted up, a small, white chaurus was revealed to be inside of it.

“It’s a feeding and breeding pen,” she growled before stomping another nest. “They’ve been feeding them people.” She stamped two more, destroying their contents as well, finally letting out the built up stress she had been accumulating since her arrival in Skyrim. “They’ve been making more!”

Lydia blinked at what her Thane was doing, but then supposed it was the responsible thing to do. There were a lot of those egg sacs around this chamber. Just as she decided to begin helping, Ruby had come close to the other end of the chamber, and both heard a high-pitched shriek and saw an even larger chaurus charging the younger girl. She tried jumping away, but the spiked mandibles caught onto her leg and the massive bug began slinging her around. Ruby shouted as she was swung through the air and then away and into a wall. She made to recover, but the chaurus was already charging upon her again.

Luckily, a blade plunged itself into the soft flesh around its mouth. The chaurus screeched and began thrashing as it involuntarily backed away, hitting the ground and slinging itself side to side in painful death throes before finally going still. With the danger passed, Lydia was down by Ruby’s side in an instant, looking her over with worried eyes

“Where are you hurt?” she asked as she carefully looked about the tear in Ruby’s leggings, only for the girl to push her hands away.

“I’m okay, I’m okay! My, uh, shield...no, stoneskin saved me.”

“I know for a fact you never used a stoneskin spell, or any other spell for that matter.” She looked back at the tear and gripped her leg firmly as she turned it. “Even with stoneskin, you should’ve had puncture wounds. Just what is going on? Your sister was said to have been crushed underfoot by a dragon, yet she was walking the next day. Miss Schnee was reportedly set directly ablaze by the dragon but walked away with only some scorches. My Thane, I don’t mean to question you, but this is no normal magic you all have displayed.”

Ruby quietly mulled over the options in her mind. She could keep lying, and possibly risk losing Lydia’s trust. She could just tell her that she couldn’t tell her about it, but that might be just as bad. But then, it didn’t seem right to let the world know about this when no one here knew about Aura.

Weiss and Blake both agreed it was dangerous. Aura was the big game changer in Remnant. If people in Tamriel learned about it, there could be a huge uprising of power for a select few individuals. Powerful people had turned the continent on its head in the past, and giving them Aura would only escalate that power. Even on Remnant, in the early days of Aura, it was said that many of the first Auric warriors –essentially Huntsmen before the time of Huntsmen– would often fight for selfish reasons before they fought for the good of the people. They would be conquerors rather than heroes. Warlords instead of defenders.

Yet, when she looked into Lydia’s eyes, she saw only eyes of concern that begged her to relay the truth of the matter for her own good. They reminded her so much of when Yang looked at her, trying to be more of a mother than a sister without realizing it. Ruby took in a deep breath.

“You’re…going to be around a while, right?”

“I swore to serve you and defend you and all that is yours, until your dying breath or mine.”

She sighed. “Well, if you’re going to be around that long, let me explain…where we all came from.”

Once her explanation was over, Lydia seemed to absorb all of the information slowly. They didn’t say much else as they went onwards again. She simply…accepted it. There was a moment of worry about something to do with Sheogorath, whoever that was, but she dropped it rather quickly.

A watery cavern and a few more dead Falmer later, the two paused at the sight of a set of bronze double doors. Ruby looked at the metal and that of her gauntlet, realizing that they were the same material.

“Wait, what did Adrianne call this?” she wondered quietly.

“I didn’t even think a Dwemer ruin was around here,” Lydia mused.

“Dwemer, right! Wait, do Dwemer have anything to do with Falmer?” Ruby recalled Weiss describing each of the elf races with a name that had ‘mer’ in it some time ago, then remembered someone calling Dwemer ‘Deep Elves’.

“I suppose so. I mean, they’re both elves.”

Ruby felt herself pale at the implication. ‘This whole time, those things were elves?’ She shook her head. ‘Even if they’re some kind of elf, all of these guys are cold-hearted murderers. Besides, Lydia might not really know. She could just be guessing. I haven’t seen anything elfish about these things yet.’

She pushed open the doors and saw a Falmer in the distance look up in surprise. Quickly she took in the room, seeing a large metal statue thing next to a lever. A lever that the armored Falmer was now running towards.

“No you don’t!” she yelled while dashing forward in a burst of rose petals. She bashed the Falmer away and then swung down, piercing its chest through its insectoid armor. It let out a pathetic grunt as it made to grab at the blade, and then went still. Ruby pulled her scythe free and looked over as Lydia walked up, observing the structure they had come upon.

“A fully intact Dwarven Centurion,” she whistled. “Good thing you stopped that thing. This might have been a bit much for us.”

“Wait, what? You mean that thing…” She took a second, closer look at it and then realized that it had actual joints and parts made to move. She also finally started hearing the clanking of gears and the sound of a steam release valve going off somewhere. “Tech?”

“What?”

“Nothing! Just, um, thinking… Ooh, a chest!”

Deciding that a distraction was in order, Ruby opened up one of the Falmer’s chitin-made chests and began digging through it. Inside was a sword made of the Dwemer metal, a scattering of coins, and an odd looking, vaguely orb shaped object. Ruby lifted it up to inspect it, before a loud, feminine voice suddenly boomed out from all around.

"A new hand touches the beacon,” the voice began, scaring Ruby into almost dropping the object and causing Lydia to jump in shock. “Listen. Hear me and obey. A foul darkness has seeped into my temple. A darkness that you will destroy.”

“M-me? What?” Ruby shrieked, out of both fear and confusion.

“Return my beacon to Mount Kilkreath. And I will make you the instrument of my cleansing light."

The two waited for the voice to say something else, but no more words came. Ruby looked over to Lydia, who seemed a little paler than usual.

“I- I think that might have been a daedra… Possibly a Daedric Prince.”

“A Daedric what?”

"A dark god..." Before Ruby could respond, a strange, alien feeling washed over the two.

“Hey, you got it!” a much more normal voice said, prompting them to turn and see a somewhat familiar figure.

“You… You just… How long have you been there?!” Ruby demanded of Sam.

“Hey, I swear I only just got here. But besides that, hurry up and grab your loot! Your friends are on their way.” He waved his hands and a purple orb shimmered into existence before him. “This portal will take you straight to the Misty Grove. You guys have been in here a while! I bet your thirsting and starving half to death! That won’t do! Dying of thirst is no fun at all!” He stepped into the orb-portal and disappeared.

Ruby looked to Lydia, who just stared forward incomprehensibly. When she looked back at the portal, she sighed and turned back to grab what she could before taking Lydia by the hand and pulling her along with her into the portal. On the other side was a grove, like the man had promised, as well as a table covered in a feast, surrounded by merry folk eating and drinking to their heart’s content.

“Okay, so this is weird…” Ruby spotted the man that brought them there and stomped over to him. “Look!” she started, catching his attention. As she angrily pointed at his chest, he seemed more amused than irritated. “You dragged my sister, best friend, and next best friend off last night-”

“Two nights ago,” he corrected. “You were in that cave all day and most of the night. It’s nearly morning now.”

“Whatever! I just want to know who do you think you are doing that?!”

“All right, I’ll be perfectly honest with you. Name’s Sanguine.” With that he was surrounded by a purple energy that, when let up, revealed a red and black being with horns on his head and jagged, spiky armor. “And I’m the Prince of Pleasure, Lord of Debauchery, God of Sin.”

Ruby’s brain ceased working for a moment as she tried to wrap it around what she’d just been told.

“Wait what?”

“Just think of me as…the party god,” he simplified before plopping something onto her head. Ruby reached up and looked at what she’d received to see it was a cloth party hat, which all of the revelers seemed to be wearing as well. Deciding she actually kind of like the color, she placed it back on.

“Okay…” She really didn’t know how to respond to this. She could barely talk to a Jarl, how was she supposed to talk to a god? And a party god? Were the rules just completely different for them?

“And hey, I had a blast with your team! Most fun I’ve had in a while! Unfortunately, they’ve gotten a little delayed by a storm, which I had nothing to do with, before you ask, but they should be here tonight. Until then, pull up a chair! Have a drink! Eat as much as you want! Or fall unconscious somewhere! Whatever floats your boat!” He went over and patted Lydia on the head, leaving a party hat on her cap as well with an audible plop. “Get some relaxation in!”

Ruby looked towards the feasting table and a nearby keg with mugs stacked around it. Wondering if she was breaking any rules, she took a mug and looked into it. Lydia seemed scared, but she was already moving to fill a mug and started downing it.

“You okay?”

“We’re in the realm of a Daedric Prince. The best thing to do is go along with what he wants until he becomes uninterested enough to let us leave.”

Ruby looked at the keg and groaned. She filled it up and looked at the yellowish drink with a grimace.

“Lydia.”

“Yes, my Thane?”

“I’m going to try to drink this, but don’t let me drink any more after it.” She looked over and tried to channel her inner Weiss. “In fact, I order you to not let me drink another.”

“As you wish, Thane Ruby.”

Ruby took a large sip of the mead, and immediately wished she hadn’t. She let out a noise of disgust and actually threw the mug away, the only thing keeping her from spitting being what manners remained.

“Not to your taste?”

“It was awful! Ugh, do we have any milk around here?”

“There’s some goat’s milk over there.”

“Close enough,” Ruby groaned as she closed in on the white drink. She gulped some of it down and smacked her lips, tasting an obvious difference between it and cow’s milk. Still, it was better than mead, so she went with it while eating from a plate that seemed to be almost magically served with the foods she wanted to eat the most, including a PBJ, several strawberries with a sugar dip, and a stack of warm chocolate chip cookies. She just kept eating until she felt stuffed, the grove seemingly wanting her to continue her feast, but she managed to drag herself away from the table and lay down in a nice spot under a peach tree. Lydia sat near her, seemingly just as filled.

“Hey Lydia?”

“Yes?”

“We met a god.”

“We did.”

“And I think another one yelled at me to do stuff.”

“Certainly seems so.”

A moment of silence passed between them before Ruby rolled over and wrapped her arms around the older woman’s waist. “I’m scared,” she admitted.

“It’ll be all right,” Lydia comforted as she started stroking her thane’s head. “It’ll be fine.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 12: Post-Meeting Stress Relieving

The four huntresses had barely plopped into bed when sleep finally overcame them, too tired for even dreams to appear. They slept peacefully before waking up to the rays of dawn.

"Heuah," Yang stretched with a yawn and smacked her lips. Her hair was in a disheveled state, something she would have to take care of later, and looked around the room, where the others were also beginning to stir. "Morning, guys."

"Morning, Yang..." Ruby trailed off, rubbing her eyes from the sleep.

"Why are you so loud...?" Weiss complained, annoyed and half asleep.

"You know what they say, Weiss. Early bird gets the-" Yang suddenly stopped in mid-sentence, her expression changing to one of horror. Following her eyes, the rest of her team turned to look at what was causing Yang's distress, their eyes widening at the sight of a familiar white orb, glowing on the nightstand. The memories of the past few days, who, and more importantly what they talked to exploding to the forefront of their minds. Before, they didn't have a chance to comprehend it, but now they could. Gods, actual gods exist here on Nirn. And they've interacted with them personally.

"AAAH!"

“Uh, this is a headache,” Yang complained after Ruby set down the strange object and explained how she’d found it. “So this friend of Sanguine’s is probably another one of these Daedric Princes, which are, basically, ‘demon gods’?” she asked with air quotes.

“It’s more complicated than that,” Weiss answered, flipping through some pages in a book. There was an anonymously written encyclopedic part at the front, followed by a listing that described the Princes in slightly more detail and nuance, written by an Imperial historian. After that was some self-described large scribe’s description of cults, on which she lingered for a moment. She eventually settled on the description of Meridia, then flipped to the last portion of ‘Compilation of Common Knowledge of the Daedric Princes’, which gave details like locations of shrines and summoning days.

“A shrine west of Skingrad, north of the road,” she read aloud in a low mutter. “Ah! Here we are! ‘There is an old temple dedicated to Meridia west of Solitude in the Kilkreath Mountains, commonly called the Kilkreath Temple.’ There you have it. Well, Meridia’s supposed to be one of the nicer ones,” she said as she picked up the beacon and started to turn it in her hands. “Still, she’s a Daedric Prince and I wouldn’t want us- Agh!” Weiss screamed as she dropped the item, her hands showing horrific burns on them more akin to roasted meat.

“Weiss!” her teammates screamed in worry as Ruby rushed over to her side and held her wrists, looking over the injuries only to hiss in sympathetic pain. “What happened?”

“If that abomination touches my beacon again, I will not be as merciful,” the voice of Meridia echoed from the beacon before falling silent once more. The Huntresses glanced between the beacon and their harmed teammate, worry etched on their faces.

“That… That was stupid of me,” the heiress groaned out through tears of pain. “I should have known better. One thing they keep emphasizing is that Meridia…hates undead.”

Weiss began pouring magic into her hands, giving them a yellow glow as she worked the healing spell, slowly mending her burned flesh while pushing off the charred bits of skin like crumbling paint. Ruby let her arms go and turned to glare at the beacon, which now Yang was cautiously picking up. The blonde set it back on the table and put a hand to her hip.

“So, are we still gonna…fix her temple or whatever?”

“I’ll take it there and see what she wants,” Ruby growled. “But if she says anything about hurting Weiss then I’m going to tell her to shove it.”

“Ruby, I’m as mad as you are about that,” Yang explained gently. “But we’re still dealing with what these people unironically call a god. Don’t get yourself hurt over it, okay?”

Blake placed a hand on the white orb and waited a moment. When nothing seemed to happen, she picked it up and turned it over in her hands. “Probably shouldn’t take Weiss there. If that’s what her ‘beacon’ can do, I’d hate to see what she’d do if you came close to her temple.”

“Yes, that’s an experience I think I’d rather avoid.” The healing spell stopped and Weiss groaned. Her hands still looked a little raw, but the worst of it was gone. “Why am I so bad at healing?”

“Bad at it? You can heal wounds by just waving your hands over them,” Yang pointed out.

“It’s not that simple. Every different School of Magic takes a different sort of skill. Sure, you can be good at magic in general, but being able to summon a bound sword or lash out with enough fire to melt an armory doesn’t translate to healing wounds or using magic armor.” She paused for a moment in thought. “Oddly enough, magic armor seems almost trivial to cast for me.”

“Speaking of spells,” Ruby led off, “can you show us a few? If it hadn’t been for all the glowing mushrooms, I wouldn’t have been able to see in Shimmermist.”

“Ooh, I wanna know how to throw fireballs!” Yang bounced excitedly before reigning herself back. “I, uh, for practical purposes.”

“Fine,” the heiress groaned. “But we’d better take it outside. We don’t need you burning down the inn.”

Ruby watched as the ball of incandescent light raised up from her palms, only to sputter and then pop, disappearing in wisps.

“Ooh, that was five seconds! I’m getting better!” She began summoning another one.

Yang was several feet away and pointed toward a stone wall with nothing flammable nearby. She had managed to actually create flames in her hands (which had excited her to no end), but was finding the part where she needed to concentrate those flames into a throwable ball to be a lot harder than she imagined.

The flames puffed up once more, escaping her hand and fizzling out.

“Damn it!” she muttered.

Lydia walked in from around the inn and looked at the scene. A couple of guards were watching to make sure nothing bad happened, such as a building catching on fire. The housecarl looked over the scene once more, and then cautiously approached Weiss and Blake, who were both going over a spellbook.

“Honestly, I don’t expect you to get it this quickly. Yes, you have an affinity for it, but this is an adept level spell and you only just…” Weiss stopped when she looked up and could see straight through Blake.

“Did it work?” the faunus asked.

“Yes, but…the effect is only partial. It’s almost like…extremely clear glass. Try standing in the shadow of the building.”

The nearly invisible Blake did so and almost disappeared from sight. If they hadn’t been looking for her, they could have easily missed her.

“Well then, you now know the chameleon spell,” Weiss said with very little enthusiasm. “I get that your Semblance is an illusion, but that shouldn’t mean you can blow through the Illusion School like it’s nothing. I’m still having trouble with the command spells.”

“You’re all practicing magic?” the housecarl asked.

“Oh, hello Lydia,” Weiss greeted, finally seeing her. “And yes. Everyone’s trying something they think will be useful to them in the future. Blake here is doing…exceptional with illusions. Ruby has gotten the creation part of candlelight down, but is having some trouble maintaining it. Yang’s getting close to an angry outburst.”

“Stupid spell!” the blonde yelled before punching her fist forward, not noticing how the flames she had made gathered around her punch. And so when her fist hit the wall the accidental fireball exploded and launched the unprepared girl backwards, landing her right next to Lydia and Weiss. She coughed a few times and then smiled, despite the wince.

“I did it!” She gave a thumbs up and coughed again.

“An angry outburst with a breakthrough apparently. You just skipped flare and firebolt entirely and went to the next level.”

“Well, that’s good, right? At least now I won’t have to use up Ember Celica’s ammo.” Yang hopped to her feet as Blake became opaque once again right next to Weiss, who jumped.

“Yep, as long as no one’s looking,” the faunus smirked.

“Ooh, think I got it!” Ruby announced as she walked over with a small ball of light lazily floating over her right shoulder. “I’ll never stumble around for a flashlight again.” She grinned brightly in victory, but then looked over at the light. “So, uh, how do I turn it off?”

Weiss facepalmed for a moment while holding up her other hand. “It… Okay, normally they just run out after a time, but I guess you might want to make it go away quickly in some cases. So, to dispel magic from yourself, you need to focus on the magic within the spell affecting you. Remember how I taught you to ‘feel’ the magicka?”

Ruby nodded and then Weiss pointed at the little ball of light.

“Well, now feel the magicka in your candlelight, rather than in yourself.”

“Oh, okay! So then I just pull it like thread like you said before and-”

The candlelight with out with a glass-like pop, making the girl jump and let out a small squeak of fear. One of the guards watching had to cover his mouth to keep himself from letting out a rather emasculating sound after seeing the cute girl react like that.

“Gently,” Weiss admonished. “Gently. Well, you have Mysticism basics down. I suppose I’ll see if you can learn detect and absorption spells. We should all probably learn a little of those. Armor doesn’t block magic, and…Aura only blocks the damage, not the effects.”

“Meh, we should be fine. Although…speaking of armor, I heard that if I make the cut and then some for the Companions, I could get a custom suit of that awesome wolf armor that they have.”

“Ooh, it is pretty cool,” Ruby admired, recalling some of those special armors hanging on mannequins and worn by some of the Circle during their tour. “Oh, maybe you could get a dragon-styled helm! You know, because your name means dragon and we’re dragon slayers!”

“Eh, I probably won’t wear it. It’ll mess up my hair.”

“That’s poor reasoning if I ever heard it,” Lydia commented.

“What’s your reason?”

“Full vision. A helm blocks off a lot of my sight. Unfortunately, they haven’t devised a helmet that only covers the skull.”

“I could probably make one based off a skater helmet,” Ruby mused. “It would have to be strapped on, and it might look a bit goofy, but it’ll protect your noggin.”

“Really? Well, guess I shouldn’t be too surprised.”

Yang flicked a little flame on and off her thumb. “So, how long until we get our robes and wizard hats?”

“What is a…wizard hat?”

“Oh nothing. Just a cultural reference.”

Blake eased out of Dragonsreach, hoping no one asked about the almost invisible object in her hands. Luckily, no guards were around the entrance as she had told them about a nonexistent Khajiit lurking around the Cloud District. She felt awful for saying such a thing, but she needed a distraction while she went and got whatever was behind that door away from those people. Sanguine’s appearance had proven to her that gods were a real thing in this world, and Meridia’s beacon showed her that they were very dangerous, especially when they had artifacts lying about.

She eventually made it back to the Bannered Mare. By now the chameleon she had wound around the sword had faded, but no one really so much as gave her a second glance. Almost everyone at least carried a dagger on their person, and seeing someone with a new sword was not unusual. Some seemed a bit interested in its design, but looked away again after a few moments.

She made it to their room and sighed as she shut the door behind her.

“Hey Blake,” Ruby greeted, looking up from a map and a few books. “Wha’chu got there?”

“Whoa, now that’s a katana!” Yang said in admiration.

“More of a daikatana, actually,” Ruby corrected. “It’s longer, likely needing both hands to be effectively wielded. Branching out on your style? Where’d you get it?”

“I, uh, did a favor for Balgruuf’s…brother,” she lied. The sword seemed to vibrate in her hands, as though the terribleness of the lie offended it somehow.

“What did Hrongar need from you?” Weiss asked curiously.

“You know what her family has done to your kind,” a whisper came to her. Her eyes widened a moment before she took a deep breath.

“I kinda had a double-bounty going on for that hagraven. A friend of his was killed by the same coven a long time ago, and he heard about how I was heading to Orphan Rock and asked that I kill it. I showed him Nettlebane and he believed me.”

“Oh, you never mentioned it.”

“I…wasn’t sure about how I felt about hagravens before then.” She nodded at that and her eyes hardened at the memory of those dead children. “Now I’m sure.”

“Wow, the edge of this thing is really sharp,” Ruby observed as she slid a piece of cloth on the blade, only for it to be split cleanly within a second.

“Ruby, careful!” Blake admonished as she moved the sword away from her leader. “This thing’s more than just really sharp! It’s been…enchanted or something!”

“Okay, I’ll be careful. By the way, where’s the sheath?”

“He didn’t have one. It was sitting on a display.” Technically true.

“Well, we should get you one so you don’t end up cutting yourself on it. And maybe a new hilt. That one seems pretty worn down. Ooh, maybe I can ask Eorlund where he gets his stuff from.”

As Ruby made plans to affix the Ebony Blade with new pieces, Blake set the sword on a shelf gingerly and turned towards Weiss, who seemed to be drawing up their traveling plans.

“Blake, question?” the heiress asked.

“Fire away.”

“You don’t mind if we…split up with Ruby and Yang for a while, do you?”

The faunus raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean? We just got back together and now you want us to separate?”

“We’ve all discussed it, and, well, Ruby has a sort of responsibility now with all of this dragon and Dragonborn business, and she’s planning to stay the course and get to the bottom of it all and, hopefully, stop them and the World-Eater.”

“Definitely will!” Ruby added with a bit of cheer.

“But, we still should try to find a way home. Now, the Greybeards might know something. After all, they’re supposedly Masters of the Voice, which is a sort of magic all its own. Then again it could be that the Voice is far too direct for that. All I know is that it can be used to create fiery or frost breath and some kind of concussive force.”

“Well, there was that time slowing Mirmulnir did.” Ruby winced, as though bothered by a memory. “Everyone else thinks he just went fast, but I felt it.”

“So, there’s a chance, but we can’t put all the eggs in one basket, so I’m still headed to the College of Winterhold to hopefully learn more there. It’s the premier place of learning in Skyrim, and if anyone has knowledge of planar travel, or the ability to learn about planar travel, it’s the College. The only thing is we have no idea how long this Greybeard business will take, and we can be certain trying to find or make a portal home will not be a quick and easy process. Also, Winterhold is a long way from the Hrothgar Mountain. Yang volunteered to stay in Whiterun while working with the Companions to keep up a place for Ruby to come back to. The thing is…”

“We really don’t want Weiss to go alone,” Yang finished. “Like, we’ve seen what can happen to people on the roads. Bandits are a growing problem, and there are all kinds of nasties out there. Remember that troll that one Senche-raht ate? That was a little one! Not to mention she might run across a group called Vigilants of Stendarr, and they might figure out she’s a vampire and try to kill her. They won’t succeed, but it’d help to have someone not undead there to talk them down.”

“So…you guys want me to go with her?” She looked over at their leader. “What about Ruby?”

“I’ll have Lydia with me.”

“A normal person with no Aura.”

"You know, there's an easy fix for that," Yang pointed out, to which Blake sighed.

“Yang, we've been over this. Giving these people Aura is not the best thing for us to do. It would be like lighting up a powder keg. Besides, we don't even know if they even have Aura.”

“You've been over this. I say we should unlock people's Auras. Give them a fighting chance against these dragons, bandits, hagravens, whatever else attacks them,” Yang argued, echoing their previous conversation about the subject. Blake responded with a glare, and Yang shrugged, dropping the subject for now.

“Moving on, Lydia is a local who is good enough to oust a conspiracy of people with skills based entirely in stealth, and really good at striking the weak places of giant bugs.” Weiss shuddered and rubbed her arms. “Seriously need to look into what makes them like that. There are normal sized spiders on this world, so there’s absolutely no need for them to be that huge.”

“While I wouldn’t call hand-sized normal for a spider, I have to agree that Lydia’s a pretty okay gal.” Well if Yang was behind it, it must be fine. She wasn’t going to leave the well-being of her little sister in the hands of someone incompetent. “Besides, we’ll be with each other at least until Ivarstead. The owner of the mill in Ivarstead is making complaints about bears, and I'm to help her out.”

“And then we’ll head there together, if you’re fine with that,” Weiss told her. Blake thought it over for a moment, and then looked up at Yang.

“You better behave while I’m gone.”

“D’aww, you really do care,” Yang faux gushed.

“So, plan’s good?” Ruby asked, looking up from her notebook.

“We’re good,” Blake affirmed. “I will miss you guys with only the Ice Queen to keep me company though.”

“Really?” Weiss asked, annoyed.

“Eh, you’ll live. Besides, you’ll get to see her in her natural habitat. Apparently, everything’s covered in snow from Windhelm and onwards.” Yang chuckled at the thought

“Joy,” the girl born on a tropical island deadpanned.

“There you go. Gentle with it now.”

Ruby tapped her hammer against the red hot sword. She turned it over and tapped the other side as well, being mindful of how much lighter it was than normal. She smoothed out the metal bar slowly, being mindful of its slowly dissipating heat. She turned it, ready to start evening it out some more, but found that it seemed to be ready.

“All right then,” Eorlund said as he looked the blade over. “Remember, into the saltwater.”

“Yes sir.”

Ruby dipped the blade into the separate trough and then wiped an arm across her forehead. She looked down at her current work, admiring how much effort it took to get the three metals working together right. Moonstone alone couldn’t make a sword, so it needed iron sheeted in to make the actual blade’s edge, and a metal Eorlund called quicksilver, which Ruby believed to be aluminum, coated most of it. The reaction between the disparate materials ended up making an item with an almost gold shimmer to it. The blade was perhaps the lightest sword of its size that Ruby had ever held.

When she brought it back out and prepared to bathe it in the forge once again, Yang came up wearing a grin and holding a scale mail shirt.

“Forgot how long it took to make one of these by hand.”

“Still faster than anyone I’ve ever seen,” the old Nord said as he looked the armor piece over. “Hm, no obvious chinks I can see. Makes me wonder if there’s a bit of orc blood in the two of you as well as Nord.”

“Orc?” Ruby wondered aloud.

“As backwards as many of them can be, orcs boast some of the best smiths. They normally work with orichalcum, that green metal you may spy them wearing or wielding from time to time. I know how to work it, but I had to venture all the way to one of their strongholds and prove myself to the forge-wife, as well as swear to never teach anyone about it.”

“Aw, so you can’t show me?” Ruby asked, feeling a little let down that she couldn’t learn all the secrets.

“I can’t. But if you’re willing to make the trip you can always ask a forge-wife in one of the Orc Strongholds.”

“Hm, guess I’ll do that. At some point.” She pulled the red hot blade from over the forge. “Oh Brother, this stuff heats quickly!” Carefully, she turned the blade with her tongs and dipped it into the oil, grateful for the heat resistant gloves protecting her from the flames.

“So what don’t you know how to forge?” Yang asked the blacksmith, who rubbed his beard in thought as he continued watching over Ruby’s progress.

“Don’t know anything about forging those Akaviri katanas that I’ve heard some Cyrodiilic smiths spouting about. I won’t say they’re bad blades, but they aren’t suitable for most battles. More of a dueling weapon, if you ask me. Also, daedric metal is beyond me.”

“Daedric?” Yang asked, feeling a little apprehension at the mention of such a thing.

“Aye, daedric. That’s what happens when someone forges a living daedra into ebony metal. I've no idea how it works, likely through some sort of magic. But they say that the daedra experiences horrific pain as it's melted into the metal and forged into a weapon or armor. I don't even know anyone who knows how to do it. Maybe some elves. In the end, it's not something I’d even want to forge.”

“But…why would anyone even do something so horrible? Even to a daedra?” Ruby wondered as she pulled the cooled sword free.

Eorlund noticed the serious look on the sisters’ faces. “Something wrong, lasses?”

“It’s just…” Yang started, wondering how to word it. “Blake, Weiss, and I ran into…daedra worshippers. A witch coven.”

“Oh, that. Yes, I could see that leaving a mark. Especially if you came across one of the Namira or Molag Bal sorts.” He hummed as he took a seat on a stool. “Well, I don’t know what to tell you, aside from that you needn’t worry about the daedra themselves overly much. Their power’s limited on Nirn, and they can’t enter Mundus except in a weakened state. In fact, I don’t think they can enter with ill intent.”

“But they could with…neutral intent?”

“Suppose so. As I said though, the daedra themselves aren’t the worrisome part. Worshippers of them, like that coven, are a much greater danger. They’re tangible, and the wall between Nirn and Oblivion won’t keep them out. Still, a mortal’s a mortal. They can be defeated like any other group. More so, in my opinion, with the Divines on your side.”

As Ruby tightened the clamp, she thought about the beacon she’d found. “What about good intentions? I heard that some of them were…nicer. Like Azura or Meridia.”

“Wouldn’t know too much about that. I suppose they would be fine, but I’d still be weary of any interaction with a daedra or daedric cult, good or no.”

“Hm, so if someone asked me to go to one of their temples…?”

“Have a good blade, and even better armor.”

“Well, good thing we’ve got you for that,” Yang joked, hoping to lighten the mood a tad. Eorlund laughed and grabbed a box nearby filled with several items.

“That you do. Now, we’re going to need lining for that mail. And Ruby, were you going for a one-handed grip, or a longer pommel?”

“So frustrating,” Weiss complained in a whisper.

“Well, at least we won’t be traveling there alone,” Blake offered.

“I understood offering to help that man. He’s all alone and doesn’t look like he’s ever swung a stick, let alone a sword. But then you invited a family of Khajiits.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“Nothing, really, except we’re getting bogged down with numbers.”

“We’ll be fine. And they’ll all either stick around Eldergleam Sanctuary or head back to Whiterun afterwards. M’thri offered to bring back the sap for us, and he really wants to see the Eldergleam since he couldn’t come in to see Gildergreen or visit the temple.”

“M’thri was Ko’ari’s apprentice, right? The Suthay?” Weiss giggled. “So he offered huh?”

“Yeah. I told him why we were going, but mentioned that we couldn’t really bring it straight back.”

“Oh Blake, have you really not noticed?”

“Noticed what?”

“Oh, you’re lucky I’m the one telling you this! Yang would beat around the bush and probably tease you endlessly about it. M’thri’s had eyes for you ever since we got to Whiterun. Every time we go through or you talk with any of the caravan he starts getting distracted staring at you. I’m pretty sure he’s wanted to ask you on a date since. Or at least, whatever a date is to Khajiit.”

Blake blinked incredulously. “No way. You have to be lying.”

“I take offense to that. This isn’t exactly something I’d lie about.”

“Okay, maybe you aren’t but…it’s a little weird, okay.”

“What’s so weird? Never been crushed on before? Even I had a few admirers at a point. Probably different than normal but…”

“Weiss, he’s a totally different species. Not even like how faunus and humans are different kind of difference. He’s more of a cat that walks on two legs. His brother is essentially a tiger that has to speak through a magic collar.”

Weiss raised an eyebrow at her teammate and then shrugged. “Well, I still think it’s cute. Probably wouldn’t work out in the end anyways. I mean, he is only fourteen or so, going by how he looks.”

“There’s also that, yes.”

“But, you wouldn’t even consider going out with one?”

“Dating a Khajiit?” Blake mulled it over in her head. “Maybe. I couldn’t… Not with any of the quadrupedal ones. Suthay and Cathay are…just weird, even if I can look past that to see them as people, I don’t think I could be romantic with one. If I was, it’d have to be an Ohmes or Ohmes-raht.”

“So only the absolute least cat-like among them.”

“Don’t judge.”

“I’m not, just observing.”

“What about you?” Blake fired.

“Me?” Weiss hummed to herself. “Well, we have my condition to consider.”

“And if it weren’t in the way?”

“Then I’d have to keep in mind that I’ll need heirs at some point.”

“Let’s assume that’s not a problem.”

“In that case…I’d go for it.”

Blake blinked in surprise. “Even the…?”

“No, none of the quadrupeds. While they’re still people, it’d be a mite too close to… Nevermind, that’s a bad subject to touch on. But if there’s a Cathay or Suthay of sufficient intelligence and charm, I’d allow myself to date him.”

“Well…. I can’t say I’m not a little shocked.”

“What’s so shocking? When it comes to a partner in life one should look for quality of personality first. I’m not saying looks aren’t a factor-”

“What’s shocking is that the Schnee is more willing to date a being more animal than a faunus than the actual faunus.”

Weiss considered her words with a finger to her cheek. “You still feel a little weird about them and Argonians?”

“I’d like to think I’m used to Khajiits at least. Argonians… I’m still not too sure about them. We only ever talked to the one, and he sent us into that cave.”

“Oh, him.” Weiss rubbed her neck where two little white spots could be seen under her shirt collar. “I hope Ruby gives him a solid tongue-lashing when she goes by Mount Kilkreath.”

“She has been able to channel your essence rather well lately.”

“Hey!”

The two stopped at the foot of the Skyforge for a moment before walking up the steps. They got there just in time to see Ruby fitting an ivory hilt onto a yellowish blade with silvery edges. She nodded over to them, but otherwise kept her focus on her work, her tongue poking out from the corner of her lips. Yang was working at a table, a pair of pliers in both hands as she fit rings together through metal scales quickly before pinching them together.

“Hey guys,” the blonde sister said without so much as glancing up.

“How’s your workshopping been?” her partner asked.

“Pretty therapeutic, to be honest. And it feels nice making something with my hands. Haven’t done it in a while, but it’s like riding a bike. Never really forget.”

“That’s nice. Lydia’s still getting all the stuff together?”

“Yep. Getting tents, cooking pots, camping stuff basically. She looked pretty surprised when we handed her that ebon.”

“I’ll bet,” Weiss said. “I didn’t realize before, but we’ve sort of accumulated a small fortune by accident. Even if she ends up spending every cent, we could afford half of that small house near the entrance.”

“Has it even been a month since we got here?” Ruby wondered.

“Three and a half weeks,” Blake answered. “We arrived in Solitude on the Eighth of Last Seed. It’s the thirtieth.”

“Yeah, we missed Harvest’s End, apparently,” Yang added. “Bummer. Apparently there was pumpkin pie.”

“Wait, pumpkins?” Ruby asked.

“They import them from Cyrodiil. There wasn’t many to begin with, so they went quick. Not a single slice leftover for us.”

“Wait, you kept track of one of the local holidays and learned about an imported vegetable?” Weiss questioned her blonde teammate.

“Hey, I like pumpkin pie, all right. I heard someone mention it, and I thoroughly questioned them about it. Politely,” she added as Ruby began to speak up.

“Right.” Ruby undid the clamp holding her sword and held the blade properly. She whistled and twirled it around her gently before letting out a small giggle. “This thing is crazy light. Look at this.” She balanced the sword on a single finger, just a few centimeters from the cross guard. “It’s almost a perfect balance. The whole thing probably weighs less than a pound!" She caught the hilt and gave it an expert swing.

“Interesting,” Weiss mused as she looked it over. “How much do you think a sword like that could go for?”

“Uh, Weiss, this is mine,” Ruby told her. “Figured I need to actually keep a sword on me. One of those chaurus got my leg and threw me across the cave, and I couldn’t do anything. If I didn’t have my Aura, it would have torn my leg off. So, I traded the Dwarven sword and gauntlet with Eorlund for the materials, and he showed me how to use them. Now I’ve got a Nordic style, moonstone-quicksilver blade.”

“Wait, quicksilver? As in, mercury?” Blake asked, feeling a little worried.

“No, it was more like aluminum if I had to guess, but maybe a little less pure than what we’d use on Remnant. Really, it’s used as the bonding agent for the moonstone and the iron, but something about the moonstone makes it really shine. Kinda miraculous that the three materials could even work together so well, the moonstone making a great edge, with the iron keeping it all solid, and the quicksilver holding them both in place,” Ruby rambled and began to stroke the sword in admiration, only to be interrupted by a cough.

“Ruby, please quit petting the sword,” Weiss requested awkwardly. Her partner blushed and lowered the blade with a stifled laugh.

“So, yeah, got a backup weapon for when little critters like that get too close.”

“I suppose that makes sense. Still, if you ever feel like making another one, we could definitely get a nice amount for a quality blade like that.”

“Thus did her Schnee blood call out for the buying and selling of items for great profit!” Yang mockingly said in the tone of a narrator.

“Quiet you!”

“What about the armor?” Blake asked, redirecting her attention towards her partner, still holding the aforementioned armor.

“Needed something to do. Besides, Eorlund said he’d pay me for it.” She shook the scale mail shirt and looked it over. “I made one of these back in my first year at Signal. Didn’t like wearing it too much though. You have to have something between you and the mail or it’ll pinch you all day. Never was one for wearing armor anyways.”

“You’d think a front liner such as yourself would be more given to wearing armor,” Weiss pointed out. “Besides, weren't you just telling us about how cool that 'Wolf Armor', or whatever it’s called, is?”

“I said it was cool, not that I was going to wear it.”

“Hypocrisy, thy name is Yang,” Weiss teased, earning a warm-hearted chuckle from Yang.

“Hey, Weiss, speaking of armor, whatever happened to your old dress?” Ruby asked. “You’ve kinda been going back and forth between the buttony dress and some local made stuff.”

“Uh, I…couldn’t get the bloodstains out.”

“Oh. Oh… Right. Sorry.”

“Well, we’ve all about had to abandon our normal clothes,” Blake indicated. “Too cold for most of it. Except Ruby, who just added a coat.”

“Well, ya’know,” the leader began while digging a toe into the ground. “My outfit’s pretty…”

“Whatevs. As long as you don’t freeze your butt off up on that mountain.” Yang looked over at Hrothgar Mountain, specifically its peak, The Throat of the World, in the distance. “Man, that’s going to be a climb! At least they added a stairway or something.”

“Ooh, maybe I should count them. I bet there’s less than seven thousand.”

“Pretty sure it’s a euphemism,” her partner explained.

“Wait, aren’t those guys who’ve been…”

“You’re thinking of eunuchs,” Weiss sighed.

“Wait, like the ancient cows?”

“Auruchs,” Blake corrected.

“Okay, now you guys are just messing with me.”

Before anyone could reply, another set of footsteps was heard coming up to the Skyforge and the girls turned to see Lydia arrive.

“My Thane, I’ve gotten just about everything you would all need for a lengthy trip. I made sure we weren’t swindled by Belethor getting them.”

“Thanks Lyd. You’re a big help,” Ruby complimented.

“Oh, uh, tha- You’re welcome!”

“Guess I’ll give this to Eorlund. We’re all eating at the Mare, right?”

“Where else?”

“Yes. Ysloda said something about getting a unique foodstuff from the giants,” Weiss informed them. “She told me about it when I asked how anyone could trade with them. Apparently magic talismans are involved, similar to the ones used by Khajiits. Anyways, I’m curious as to what exactly giants would eat that the people here would trade for.”

“Holy moly, it’s strong!” Ruby half-yelled. “It’s good, but it’s so…strong!”

“There’s not…a cheese this…sharp back home,” Weiss gasped out as her cheeks seemed to be trying to implode.

Blake seemed to be enjoying the mammoth cheese the most normally. While her lips did get sucked in once in a while, she could eat it more casually than most of the patrons. Still, her ears flickered beneath her bow conspicuously. Some of the humans were actually beginning to notice.

“Blake,” Ruby whispered. “Your bow!”

The faunus paused a moment and reached up to her cloth covered ears and then smiled. “Hey Lydia?”

“Yes?”

“All the guards and pretty much anyone important… They all know I’m a Thane, right?”

“Yes. There was a sketch of your likeness posted down near the guard barracks so that they could all recognize you four. Why do you ask?”

Blake’s response was a small smirk and then her removal of her bow. Her ears flickered a moment and she sighed as she tucked the ribbon away. Her teammates blinked and then smiled at her bravery, while Lydia and a number of Nords stared dumbly at the ears atop her head. There were whispers, but they eventually went away as the girls continued eating their meal of steak, leeks, and mammoth cheese.

“You’re a…Khajiit?” Lydia eventually asked.

“Actually, she’s a faunus.” Weiss elbowed Ruby, who looked at her in offense. “What? She already knows the rest. She’s supposed to guard me forever and ever. She was going to have to know at some point.”

“Just don’t go telling everyone. If we’re lucky, we can solve the dragon problem and…other things, and get home before a year’s passed. Then our two worlds can go on in total ignorance of each other. Barring that, we leave the interdimensional communications to the people who have something close to experience with it.”

“I don’t believe there’s anything close to that,” Lydia responded. “…At least, peacefully.”

Yang came in, demanding attention with her gait, and then parked herself between Blake and Lydia. “So what’s on the… Hey, your bow’s off!”

“Decided to make a statement,” her partner explained. “I’m pretty much as high up the ladder as we can climb, right?”

“A Thane is right below landed nobility in the Skyrim hierarchy,” Weiss explained. “So, yes. Unless you plan to marry a Jarl’s son one day.”

“So, who’s going to be the one to throw out a Thane?”

“Oh, I getcha.” Yang gave a smirk as she accepted a plate from the barmaid and set it before her. Her eyes lingered on the bottle of mead for a long moment, as though trying to set it ablaze with her sight. She sighed and moved the bottle away from her and waved her hand to call the barmaid back. “Can I get a mug, about half full of water?” As the barmaid turned and left, Yang redirected her attention back towards her team, who were busy making their final preparations.

“Mm, so we’re all pretty much prepared to head out tomorrow, right?” Ruby asked.

“Pretty much. Just gotta divvy up the supplies. I won’t need too much since I’m headed right back.” The blonde sighed. “I’m gonna miss you guys.”

“I’ll miss you too Yang.”

“We’ll try to write a letter now and again,” Weiss comforted them. “The courier system is rather well done here, even if only a few have horses.”

“What about the magic balls?” Ruby wondered. “Like the bank uses?”

“Those are horribly expensive! And the one’s the banking system uses don’t even work that way. I asked, but the teller explained that they only keep up with the account information. Basically, imagine the most basic computer systems. The kind that our grandparents used.”

“Ooh, oh gosh!”

“Could you even make one?” Blake hazarded.

“The materials are equally costly. I could try to find workarounds, but my main prerogative is finding a way home. Once that’s been settled, we’ll work on the dragon threat exclusively, then on my personal problems.”

“Personal problems?” Lydia asked.

“Nothing…too bad. I may or may not have had…my soul promised as a sacrifice to a Daedric Prince, which we originally did not take seriously, but with new information having come to light we must now find…the person who did this and stop them.”

‘Good save,’ the rest of the team thought.

“How did-”

“Touchy subject! Please don’t bring up!” Ruby yelled.

“I- All right.”

A mug was brought up and Yang poured half of the bottle into it before setting the rest aside. After a sip, she took a bit of cheese and her face contorted.

“Whoa, mama! What is that!?”

“Mammoth cheese,” Blake smirked as she took a bite of her own.

“Whew! I think I just curled my toes all the way to my heels!”

The next morning, the girls prepared themselves to leave Whiterun. Several guards were seeing them off as they and their four guests headed out the gates at the crack of dawn.

“Going out on a great adventure, hey?” one of them asked.

“Yeah,” Ruby responded wistfully. “Adventure.”

“I used to be an adventurer just like you.” They were pretty sure he wasn’t just like them, but Ruby supposed he had his fun in his younger years. “Then I took an arrow to the knee.”

At Yang and Weiss’s looks of concern, Ruby burst out laughing.

“Rubes, that’s not funny!” her sister admonished.

“Something like that could’ve shattered his patella,” Weiss began. “Have a little respect.”

“Guys,” she got out through her laughs, “he means he got married and settled down!”

The two blinked and looked at Lydia, who nodded.

“Realized a while ago some from outside Skyrim didn’t get it. Mentioned it to Thane Ruby.”

“Wait, but…”

“Arrow…” Ruby then mined something hitting her knee, and then kneeled down onto it, “to the knee.” She stood back up and chuckled again. “Come on guys, even I got it pretty quickly!” At Ruby's explanation, the two girls turned to look at the guard, their confused faces meeting with an amused Nord’s, who nodded in affirmation.

"... Heh," Yang slightly chucked. "I get it." Weiss, on the other hand, merely groaned.

It was at that point that Blake walked back up to the group and nodded. “So M’thri, S’dir, and Jo’nir are all ready to go. Maurice?”

“Packed and ready,” the Breton responded. "And may I say again, thank you for letting me tag along. The opportunity to see the Eldergleam in person is just...!"

“Then I guess we’re good to go.”

“Take care, all of you,” another guard told them as they began leaving.

“Watch the skies,” a woman added.

The girls waved and a few other guards saluted them as they hit the road again.

Chapter Text

Chapter 13: The Voice of the Beginning

The group had nearly left the area beneath Whiterun when a roar was heard echoing across the plains. Everyone turned to see a familiar shape flying around the Western Watchtower, causing Maurice and the Khajiits to pale and shiver in place while the huntresses and Lydia quickly readied their weapons. The guards had only just begun to mobilize when the roars suddenly gave way to mournful cries, followed by words.

“Zeymah!” The dragon cried out. “Mirmulnir! Mid gein! Hin miiraad lost drun wah dinok! Fin sil los vod! Pah los queth! Nid daal! Ul los vul! Erei faal laat, Vah Su’um Ven!”

The dragon ceased circling the tower, and then began flying away, heading southwest and away from them. The whole world seemed to be still, not a sound was heard in all of the city and surrounding area. A silence only broken when the group suddenly heard a sniffle, and all looked toward Ruby, who had tears in her eyes and a slight redness to her nose.

“R- Ruby?” her sister asked in concern.

“I- I’m sorry.” She sniffed and wiped her eyes with the back of her sleeve.

“What…just happened?” her partner asked, hoping for an answer to either of the events that had just occurred.

“He… Aakdremsot. Mirmulnir…knew him. Aakdremsot realized…he was gone and… I feel…bad for him.” She rubbed her eyes once again and cleared her throat. “We…should go on. Aakdremsot lived in the mountains near Bruma, and he probably…won’t be coming back out for a long time. He’s not even…much of a fighter.” She began rubbing her forehead as she turned back and began trudging along, her sister staying close by her side, and her team watching over her carefully.

Whiterun disappeared from their view by about midday. There were no more signs of Aakdremsot returning, so they felt relieved about that much, at least. That wasn't to say their trip was uneventful. Their first stop came after little interruption near the border between Whiterun and Eastmarch. Some opportunistic bandits had decided to set up an impromptu toll booth in what their map called the Valtheim Towers. A quick show of force later, the toll booth was promptly cleared, leaving the ruined towers clear and empty, where the group then set up camp and laid down for the night. The next morning they turned south and headed off-road, going by landmarks and guidance from S’dir and M’thri’s father, Jo’nir, who led the group with the occasional casting of clairvoyance, an Illusion spell that the others were slowly picking up on from the eldest Khajiit.

It was only slightly odd to most of them that he was the size of a bobcat.

“Ooh, someone up ahead,” Ruby pointed out as they neared a small rock face that looked as though a hill had been sheared in half decades ago. At the top of the mound stood an orc, wearing old, battered steel armor across his torso and with gauntlets of a green color, and sword in his hand dripping blood from a fresh kill, likely the pair of saber-toothed cats lying dead near his feet, or the beheaded bear just a little past him and into the woods.

“Be wary,” Jo’nir warned through his enchanted amulet. “No telling with orcs sometimes.”

The troupe paused a moment, but the Orsimer made no moves to attack them. He simply kept his spot and looked around. Feeling brave, Ruby decided to approach, despite her partner trying to whisper for her to stay back.

“Uh, hello? You waiting for somethin’?”

“Indeed I am,” the orc gruffly replied. “I’m here for a good death.”

Ruby backed up a step at that, and then steeled herself again. “Um, do you mean…yours?”

“Yes. Mine. Were I to lie down and die, it would not please Malacath. So, I wait for something to rightfully challenge and kill me. A good death.”

Ruby felt her teeth clench as her sister came up and tried to pull her away. “But- But why?”

“I’m old,” he responded, as if it were the most obvious thing. “My time has come. I’m too old to try and become a chief. Taking wives as I am now would be wrong. So, I’m going to die. Malacath has granted me a vision of a glorious death. I know not what it will be, or what will bring it, but it will be here.” He looked towards the group and began eying them over, noting the swords at some of their sides or backs. “Don’t suppose it’s you?”

“I- There must be some reason to live on? You can’t just want to die already! You don’t even look that old! Just a few grey hairs at most!”

“Peh, of course! One should find his death while he can still fight!” He looked at his sword and gripped it tighter, the leather squeaking under the stress. “We orcs are not like you humans. Getting old, grey-haired, and frail, losing your strength. Becoming worthless until your body gives out on its own. To cling to something beyond uselessness is unseemly. How long until that useless thing becomes you?” He shook his head and went back to staring out across the distance. “No, I will find my death here. If you won’t bring it, then go on. You might end up scaring my good death away with your babbling.”

Ruby felt disheartened and began clenching her fists. She wanted to find the words to say to get him out of it, to somehow convince him life was worth living beyond just fighting. But before she could speak, a familiar and dreadful noise erupted from around them. Team RWBY paled and turned eastward to see a dragon, this one with green scales and horns that curled down and then up. The dragon looked about and then Shouted something low, to where they almost couldn’t hear it.

“Laas! Yah! Nir!”

The dragon’s eyes swiveled about, but then focused on their location. It roared and turned towards them, winging its way up and over them, getting a glimpse at the group as it peered between the trees.

“Yes!” the orc cried out as he raised his sword and shook it at the beast. “YES!”

“Guys, scatter!” Ruby ordered the Khajiiit family and Maurice. They instantly obeyed and headed out for the forest. Team RWBY and the death-seeking orc jumped out into the open, Ruby looking towards the dragon and deciding to get its attention.

“Hey! Over here!”

The dragon responded by circling around and then hovering near the group, buffeting them with the winds of its wingbeats.

“This sign of life! So it is true! A Dovahkiin comes forth once again!”

“We don’t need to fight!” Ruby tried to reason, hoping that maybe this one would listen.

“Wrong, little mortal! We exist to rule, and you exist to fight our rule! Ful ni los! Swear on your name to our lord, and only then is mercy considered, but you shall not?”

Ruby kept silent. She didn’t know everything about the dragons, but from what bits and pieces she’d seen, their ‘lord’ was the one leading this whole thing, having them attack people in preparation for conquest. Mirmulnir’s memories weren’t clear, but she could see that they’d tried it once before, so long ago. She shook her head and steeled herself as she pulled out Crescent Rose.

“No. I will stop you! All of you! Even if…” She swallowed, feeling a lump form in her throat. “I won’t let you destroy this place!”

“Then fight! Show me the power of your Thu’um, and I will show you the might of Paalduzaam!”

“Let’s just fight already!” the old orc screamed before taking a bow from his back and letting loose an arrow at the dragon. The arrow struck Paalduzaam on his breast and he roared before winging forward and dive-bombing at them. Everyone moved aside, but with a flap of his wings the dragon was headed straight up and turning back to them. Fire poured out from his mouth as he tried to set the girls ablaze, but Weiss was able to summon up a glyph in time to block it from hitting her and Lydia while Yang remained nearly unaffected and Blake had fully dodged it.

Both Lydia and Blake took out their bows and began firing arrow after arrow along with the orc, tracking the flying creature’s movements and trying to hit him. A few landed, but Blake could see they weren’t doing much damage.

“We need to get him on the ground!” Ruby shouted as she aimed with her scope. “Maybe… Wait, I got it!”

Before Ruby could enact her plan, Paalduzaam came back around and roared before looking towards Lydia and Blake.

“Zun! Haal! Viik!” he Shouted at them, and suddenly their bows were ripped away from their grasp and sent flying. Lydia clutched her wrist in pain while Blake immediately set after her weapon. The dragon’s eyes locked onto the housecarl, but before he could take in another breath, a bolt of lightning struck him from below, followed by several spikes of ice that sunk deep into his belly.

Weiss began charging up to fire another lightning bolt through her weapon when fire began raining down from above. Her glyph appeared, but the force of the pyre caused it to crack and nearly shatter. She gasped in fear of the dreadful flames, but held her ground and fired upwards again before using a repulsion glyph to get herself away.

“Fastball, go!” Ruby yelled as she jumped forward and was given more momentum by a throw from her sister. Blake leapt up and grabbed onto Ruby’s hand before going into a spin and throwing her up and over even further, which Ruby fueled more with her Semblance, leaving a trial of rose petals to drift through the air. Paalduzaam looked up in curiosity to see the Dragonborn about twenty feet above him at the top of her arc, and then Ruby felt the power within her. It coursed through her very soul, and was launched out from her lips like it had once before.

“Fus!” she Shouted down at the dragon. The force hit him solidly and sent him careening downwards with a roar of surprise. The ground shook and parted as the dragon skidded along the forest floor, and the orc laughed as he drew his blade.

“Here I come, lizard!” As Paalduzaam pulled himself up, the orc charged for his face and swung his sword with both arms. The blade hit dragon scales with a clang and Paalduzaam’s head was knocked sideways by the force, scales coming loose and flying off with a bit of blood spatter. He roared and turned towards the orc, ready to bite down, but missed as the Orsimer ducked away and then swung his sword up, this time carving a furrow into the neck.

“Ruth Strun Bah! Ogiim, fen naak hin kopraan!”

“That’s disgusting!” Ruby called out as she landed nearby and slashed out, digging a wound into the dragon’s left leg. A pained roar rang out, and then Paalduzaam swung his tail at her, missing by inches. The orc went in for another swing, but the dragon ducked his head down in time and slammed the top of his skull against the smaller being, tossing him back dozens of meters away.

Yang had now closed the distance and watched warily as she prepared herself to fight up close. The dragon turned to look at Ruby, and she went in for the opening and smashed her fist against his shoulder. Something cracked under the blow, and Paalduzaam roared out again as his right wing went limp. He backed away, and when his wing contacted the ground, it flinched up in pain. Worry seemed to etch itself across the reptile’s face, and he looked back to see his foes surrounding him.

“You’re only the third dragon we’ve ever met,” Ruby called out to him. “I don’t know much about you, but I don’t think we need to fight. Please, at least-”

“Cease…your whimpering,” Paalduzaam snarled. “Do you expect surrender? To betray my great overlord, Alduin? I don’t need to fly to end you, Dovahkiin! Tiid! Klo! Ul!”

Everything went back to that molasses-like state that Ruby recalled from Mirmulnir’s battle, only this time the dragon was already lunging at her and so close. She knew she wasn’t going to get out of the way in time. Instead, Ruby held her scythe up vertically and tucked in as she jumped forward, right into the dragon’s closing mouth. Putting as much focus as she could into her defensive Aura, she waited for his jaw to try and close.

Time sped back up and the dragon’s mouth was halted as Crescent Rose was wedged into his jaws. Paalduzaam seemed confused by this and tried shaking his head to dislodge her, but only found that Ruby had gotten purchase against the backs of two of his teeth and was holding herself in.

“Ruby!” her team shouted in fear.

“I got this! Hit him until he goes down!”

“Gladly!” the orc shouted as he rejoined the fight, his steel armor now gone and his chest bare. He swung his sword and sliced into the dragon’s body, spraying hot blood onto his frame. Snapping themselves out of it, the others went forward, Blake and Lydia trying to slash at his flanks while Weiss called upon ice magic and Yang bashed the creature’s front. Gurgled roars of pain came from the dragon’s throat as Ruby held herself in place.

Paalduzaam thrashed about, his tail, talons, and one good wing trying to beat back the assault. He scored a lucky hit against Lydia with his tail, but it was mostly absorbed by her shield and just sent her rolling back. One foot finally kicked the orc away with a deep yelp, only for the old warrior’s sword to get caught between his toes. Stumbling about, the dragon tried shaking his head again, and then went still.

Ruby felt heat building up, and looked forward to see light coming up from Paalduzaam’s throat.

“Yol!” the word came out gurgled, but clear enough. “Toor!” Ruby felt the heat rising even more, and in desperation, pulled the trigger of Crescent Rose, firing a shot straight up into the roof of his mouth. Ruby came loose as she willingly freed herself and hopped out of his jaw, only to find that she was going straight up.

The Dragonborn looked down to see the mostly broken dragon trying to fight off her friends almost pitifully. Grabbing onto the handle of her scythe firmly, Ruby sent herself into a spin as she fell. Her scythe hit flesh and sank in as something slammed into the ground, and she looked up to see that she had struck Paalduzaam right behind his skull, the blade of Crescent Rose dug in deep in his neck, the sharpened edge directly pointed at his vertebrae. The felled dragon looked her dead in the eyes and snarled.

“You…cannot win. I am weak…compared to my…brethren. Hin sil fen…kos du…gein sul! When it finally happens…we…shall…reign…”

Ruby’s muscles tensed and her teeth clenched with a grimace.

“It won’t!”

She fired Crescent Rose and sliced through the dragon’s spinal cord. Paalduzaam went still as his body fell limp to the ground. A last rush of air escaped his lungs, and then his flesh began to burn away. Knowing what to expect, Ruby braced herself, but still wasn’t prepared for it as the soul of a dragon crashed into her own.

Bormahu has given me form. We are meant to rule this world? Then I shall do so. I haven’t thought of what to call myself, but I will know eventually. The eldest already has a name. Al Du In, for he is meant to eat the world at the end, for that is the procession of Time. Things Begin, and so they must End. He is strong, so I will follow him for now.

Mortals. Strange beings. Their Time is short. Their Ends come so quickly once they Begin. Constantly renewed. I think we were meant to rule these.

Such sport they provide! Their Voices are so tiny, they can hardly hope to hold dominion over one another. Weak as I am, they are so much weaker! They hate me for finding it fun to eat them, for ruling over them. Let them, for I am Paalduzaam!

Alduin is gone! Ripped away from Time itself! In their moment of bravery, so many mortals have challenged me! I’ve killed many, and I have no fear for death, for there is no Dragonborn left amongst them. These wounds still sting, though. I may need one of my brothers to help me.

I have been asleep so long, but I awaken to a glorious sight! Alduin has returned! He tells me to watch the mortals and keep an eye out for the Dragonborn. I shall obey! This Dragonborn will fall, and then there will be no more! We will rule once more! I will grind my slaves underfoot once again! Fear me, little Dragonborn! I shall find my Foe and Consume them!

The girls watched as Ruby stumbled over in a daze. She didn’t seem to be all there, and her arms gave an occasional twitch to the side as if she was hitting something away. Yang felt apprehension run over her, but she became distracted by pained grunts coming from another direction.

Everyone turned to see the old orc lying on his back, only he was in terrible shape. Weiss slapped a hand over her mouth to stop herself from screaming, and the others could see why. His chest had been cut open, likely by one of the dragon’s talons, severing even part of his sternum. Other long lines bled from the orc, making a pool of blood grow around him.

“Ho- Hold on!” Yang called out as she ran up to him. She was hoping to find some way of helping, but this close she was seeing how little there was that could be done. She looked over to Weiss, who had followed her along with Blake.

“Can- can you heal him?”

“There’s… I don’t think I could heal this kind of injury. I can barely mend little cuts.”

“Don’t…” the old orc groaned out, “bother. Seen better…than this…end orcs…younger than me.” A smile appeared on his face. “Vision…was right. Died fighting…a dragon. I made it bleed before…I fell, didn’t I?”

Yang felt a little heartache, but put on a brave smile. “Y- yeah, of course! You were…amazing out there. You smacked him around like a- Like a punching bag.”

“Thought so. Didn’t want to think…I’d imagined it.” His breaths became shallower, and his eyes widened. “A good death…indeed.”

A last breath left him and his body stilled. Yang looked back at her teammates for a moment, and then looked over at her sister. Lydia was watching over the leader closely as she stopped against a tree and leaned on it. The three all looked to each other and then at the body of the orc.

As Ruby tried to regain her senses, Weiss, Blake, Yang, Maurice, and the family of Khajiits took stones from the surrounding area and began stacking them around the fallen orc in a simple burial cairn. None of them knew anything about Orcish burial rites, but a large, flat stone was picked out from them all and they carved an epitaph upon it.

Here lies an Old Orc

Who died fighting a Dragon

He made it bleed.

“Maybe someday some Orsimer will come by and…” Weiss began, only to stop herself.

“If we did anything wrong, I’m sure they’ll…fix it.” Maurice was uncertain. “Is your…friend going to be all right?”

“She’ll be fine,” Yang reassured him. “She’s just…a little shook up. She was stuck in the dragon’s mouth for a minute.”

“If I was half as well after something like that I’d call myself the bravest Breton in the world.” He looked over at the dragon bones. “Strange how they die.”

“Khajiit found several patches of scales,” Jo’nir explained, pointing his nose towards a pack slung across his elder son’s back. “Bones are heavy though. Will get cousin Sintesh to carry the skull back once we return to Whiterun. Rich men will clamor for real dragon skull to decorate their walls.”

“I’m sure they would,” Blake stated.

Ruby walked up to them, a glassy, faraway look in her eyes. Yang walked over and patted her on the shoulders.

“You okay?” Ruby shook her head. “You wanna talk about it?” Another shake. “Okay, but we’re here and ready to listen. Remember that.” She wrapped her little sister in a hug, and Ruby slowly reached up to hug her back. Yang led the near catatonic girl by the hand, and the procession left once again, leaving behind the grave and dragon skeleton as the only indicators of what occurred in that space.

They reached Ivarstead around dusk and went straight to the Vilemyr Inn. The Khajiits gained some sideways glances, but they mostly seemed directed at M’thri rather than the family as a whole.

“Not sure if I have enough rooms for all of you,” the inn keeper told Weiss once she requested them all places to stay the night. “You’re going to need to do more than double-up to all fit.”

“This one can sleep in a cushioned chair,” Jo’nir offered.

“S’dir can lay at the end if M’thri does not kick him off.”

“This one will endeavor.”

“Well, uh, this is a mite awkward,” Maurice muttered, looking at Team RWBY and Lydia. “Not that I mind sharing a room or anything, but…”

“How about…Blake and Yang share with Maurice, and then Weiss, Lydia, and I get another.”

“Wow! Way to throw me into danger, sis,” Yang joked.

“He’s more in danger from you than the other way around,” Blake remarked.

“And what about you?”

“I trust him not to do anything. After all, anyone who did would never be seen again.”

Maurice chuckled nervously at that and then gulped.

“I’ll just, uh, go settle in. This way?”

“Third on the left,” Wilhelm directed. As Maurice scampered away, he sighed with a small smile. “Puttin’ the fear of the Gods in him, you are. Well, I won’t charge but per room since it’s like this.”

“Thank you very much,” Weiss demurred with a pleasant grin. “Is there anything special being prepared for supper?”

“Just salmon, garlic bread, and baked potatoes. Feel free to use the fire to prep something if it’s not to your taste though.”

“We’ll keep that in mind.”

Weiss looked around the inn and then closed the door. “Okay, coast is clear. Are you certain you’re feeling well?”

“I’m fine, Weiss,” Ruby reassured her partner. “Just felt really…scrambled, I guess. That’s the kind of thing that happens when…” Ruby trailed off and shook her head. “Well, let’s do this!”

“Don’t be so enthusiastic about…something like this,” Weiss told her with a slight grimace as she pulled out the knife they made doubly sure was sanitized after supper.

“I’m just happy to help you, even if it’s kinda weird.” Ruby rolled up her sleeve and looked at the side of her palm. “Right…there should be good.”

“Okay.” Weiss held the knife up and started to press the edge against Ruby’s skin.

The door suddenly opened and shut, Lydia walking in quickly.

“My Thane, I…” The housecarl’s words cut off as she absorbed the scene in front of her. Weiss moved the knife out of sight and started stammering, trying to think of an excuse.

“It- it- it’s not- We’re were just going- You see-”

“You were going to...” Her eyes widened. “Your eyes… You’re a vampire,” she uttered under her breath, reaching to grab the hilt of her sword.

The girls’ felt their blood run cold. Weiss had forgotten that her eyes tended to change when she began anticipating her ‘feeding time’. The heiress clutched the sides of her head while trying to keep herself from breaking out into…whatever passed for hysterics to her now. Feeling the situation quickly deteriorating, Ruby stood up and raised her hand.

“Lydia, this is an order! Do not leave this room until I say! You can’t tell anyone about this!” Lydia immediately halted, her eyes never leaving Weiss' form, ready to move at a moment's notice. Feeling that at least something was under control, Ruby took in a deep breath. “Look, where we come from, there are no such things as vampires,” she calmly explained while reaching over and holding Weiss’s hand for support. “When Weiss got bitten, we didn’t know what it was about. We thought it was just a crazy man who got a lucky hit in. We went a whole week before Weiss…” At that point, she wasn’t sure if she should be the one to tell the story. Luckily, Weiss had regained herself and looked up resolutely.

“It was a bandit named Arvel,” she continued for the team leader. “I didn’t even realize it was blood I wanted until then. Ever since that day, I’ve subsisted off of what my friends have donated to me.”

“It was my idea, actually,” Ruby admitted.

“So…you gave her your blood? Willingly?” Lydia seemed shocked by the entire concept.

“Weiss isn’t a bad person. I know people are afraid of vampires for a reason, but she only ever hurt a guy who lied, stole, and maybe even murdered some people. And that had to have been at least six days after she was bit.”

The housecarl looked to her side and shifted her weight. The Huntresses watched as she seemed to ponder over what she had been told, holding each other’s hands tightly. The Nord looked back to them, and let go of a breath neither realized she’d been holding.

“You’ve been a vampire the whole time?”

“Since before we ever met, yes.”

“I see.” She walked forward and took the knife from the bed, the younger girls unsure of what to do. She stepped back again and looked the small blade over. “I swore to protect my Thane from all harm.”

Ruby gulped, afraid of what she might say or do next.

“So if you really need blood, then don’t look to her.” She raised the knife up and quickly cut open a line in her arm. The scent of mortal blood hit Weiss and she leaned forward a bit before righting herself. Lydia offered out her arm, but then pointed the knife towards her. “But if I feel your fangs so much as prick me, I will drive this kitchen knife into your neck, to the hilt.”

“R-right,” Weiss responded, unsure if she was kidding or not, and then moved forward and wrapped her lips around the cut.

“Th- Thank you Lydia,” Ruby whispered. “I can’t…tell you how grateful I am. Or how grateful Weiss must be.” She looked at the vampire drinking from her housecarl’s arm and made a small giggle. “But she’s pretty grateful too.”

“I can…imagine. Um, how much-”

Weiss detached herself and held a hand to her mouth as if she was caught eating a small snack she wasn’t meant to have. “Sorry. Uh, here.”

Yellow Restoration Magic flowed through Weiss’s hand and over the cut on Lydia’s arm, sealing up the severed skin until there wasn’t so much as a blemish. Lydia rubbed the space and nodded.

“So, you’re okay with this?” Weiss asked her.

“Well, you didn’t immediately use your vampire magicks to hypnotize me and make me kill myself, so I suppose I do trust you somewhat.”

“Okay, where are people getting these ideas? Besides not feeling hungry for food and feeling significantly less pain, I have not felt any sort of ‘power’ or ‘strength’ from being a vampire. It’s nothing but an annoyance. A very deadly, life-altering annoyance.”

“Maybe…we should ask a vampire?” Ruby suggested.

“And where would we find one?”

“I dunno. That was as far as I went with that plan.”

Weiss felt a chuckle slip her by and began rubbing her head with a smile. “Ruby, sometimes I truly wonder about you.”

Ruby looked up at the mountain before her. The steps were in sight, yet the peak high above them was not. High Hrothgar was somewhere near that peak, and it was her next stop.

She looked back to her teammates, Weiss and Blake packed for a trip to the tip of the country, and Yang unburdened and ready to move. The sisters hugged first, Ruby burying her face into Yang’s shoulder for a minute before letting go.

“Just watch out for the cold, okay?”

“I will. Got plenty of extra clothes.”

Weiss walked up and received and gave a shorter hug.

“Don’t take too long now. Some people apparently spend years up there learning what you’re after.”

“I won’t,” Weiss declared in a way that told Ruby Weiss wasn't lying.

Blake’s hug was about as long, but it also ended with the faunus giving her an affectionate head-butt.

“Take care.”

Ruby nodded and began backing away before turning towards the mountain once again. She took a deep breath and grasped the straps of her bag before heading forward. She glanced back just before the first of the steps to see her friends still watching her go.

‘They are Strong and Loyal,’ a voice that seemed to be hers, yet was not, said within her mind. She hummed, thankful that the other one hadn’t deigned to make itself known. She turned back towards the ancient stairway, and took her first step.

When Ruby and Lydia were nearly out of sight climbing up the mountain, the rest of the team headed for the opposite end of town, where Maurice and the Khajiits were waiting. The plan was to head south for a little while to get back to the main road, and then follow it north towards Windhelm, and then go off-road just before the road crossed the river near Mistwatch. The two girls looked to Yang for a moment, each wondering what to say. Blake made to speak and stopped herself, but then both found themselves pulled in to a double hug by Yang’s arms.

“You two watch each other’s backs,” she told them. “It’s a rough world out there.”

She let them both go and Weiss nodded. “We will. You just keep your wits about you. And…try not to do anything too crazy while we’re gone. We don’t want any…repeats of ‘The Night’.”

“Hey, I’m keeping it cool. You just make sure to hold on to that staff tightly.” She looked over to Blake. “And you make sure she eats well, but don’t overdo it. There’s…plenty out there.” The meaning went unsaid, but the two girls understood it clearly.

“You just worry about yourself. Whiterun might be nice, but it’s not always safe.”

“Hey, we’ve beaten two out of three dragons. That’s a passing grade.” Smiling, she hugged her partner again. “I’ll miss you.”

“I’ll miss you too.” They separated and Blake looked over to their awaiting travel partners. “I promise I’ll write.”

“Me too. Just have ‘em send it to Jorrvaskr, and I’ll write back.”

“All right.” The two teammates began walking away, the other four following behind them. Yang watched them go for a long moment and then released a sigh. She sniffed and rubbed her eyes, but found them drier than she’d feared. With no more goodbyes to be had, she went back into the village, set on meeting with the client about the bear trouble.

“So you see, the damned things are ruining my business!” Temba Wide-Arms exclaimed. “Now, I can’t just pay you to kill every bear in the area. I haven’t the money and I doubt you’d take that much time looking for them. So, just kill about ten of them, and bring me the pelts as proof. I’ll know if they’re fresh and from around here.”

“Kill about a dozen bears, skin ‘em, and bring you the skins,” Yang affirmed. “Sounds about like a training mission I once had.”

“Don’t be a braggart,” the mill owner reprimanded with a smirk. “But seriously, good luck hunting.”

Yang saluted the woman and immediately headed into the woods. Stopping herself for a moment, she raised up her hand and focused a blue sphere into existence. She pictured Ivarstead, and a misty trail formed from her hand and lined itself towards the village. Suddenly the spell puffed out and Yang felt a sort of exhaustion separate from both physical and mental sorts.

“Well, won’t get lost,” she reasoned with herself. “Takes a minute to recharge, but I’ll find my way.”

She headed in deeper, looking out for trees marked by bear claws. One was surprisingly close to the village, and so she looked around for any more indications of a bear being around. Almost out of her line of sight was another marked tree, and so she went over to it and saw it to be a bit fresher, though not fresh per se. There were a few more trees she had to follow, and then she came across one that looked like it had been clawed possibly that day, leaking sap and giving off a smell of cut and ground green wood.

‘Well, one’s gotta be close,’ she thought to herself. ‘Maybe…’

A bellow interrupted her musing and she turned to see a brown furred bear roaring at her in challenge. She stared the creature dead in the eyes without flinching, and the bear seemed to realize it wasn’t looking at an easily intimidated human. It backed up a bit before rearing back onto its hind legs and roared again, and Yang had to sigh.

“Sorry buddy, but I’ve got a contract to keep,” she cracked her knuckles and moved in. “I’ll be quick.”

Only a few steps up the stairway, Ruby noticed a sort of shrine that a man was sitting in front of, seemingly meditating. A fresh candle was set before him, giving off a sweet scent into the air. Giving a respectful nod to the man, Ruby looked into the shrine and saw words etched onto a tablet inside it.

Before the birth of men, the Dragons ruled all Mundus; Their word was the Voice, and they spoke only for True Needs; For the Voice could blot out the sky and flood the land

She mulled the words over as memories came forward. She could see the ground…far below her and passing by at great speed. Forests, tundra, deserts, jungles, oceans, and mountains, all were going by in the blink of an eye as she…flapped her wings.

She pulled herself away from the foreign memories and continued onwards. The way was somewhat winding and rough. After a while, she started stepping on snow, and felt the temperature difference in the air. Then she came across a second shrine.

Men were born and spread over the face of Mundus; The Dragons presided over the crawling masses; Men were weak then, and had no Voice

‘Does that mean that people couldn’t speak, or that there was no one with a Thu’um?’ Ruby mused over the tablet's meaning before moving on, pausing only to shiver slightly.

As Ruby continued to hike up the mountain, she began to realize that the steps would have been a little trickier if she hadn’t gotten some new boots meant for walking through deep snow the other day at Weiss’s behest. It was still scattered this low, but that may have only made it worse to tread around.

Past another turn Ruby heard a wolf howling. Normally she would have expected Beowulfs, but the everyday wolves of Tamriel proved to be hostile enough to go after people before. Crescent Rose was extended and Lydia drew her sword, and a few seconds later several wolves popped up from the surrounding vegetation.

“Okay, little annoying,” Ruby complained. Her senses screamed at her and she turned and slammed her scythe against a wolf leaping at her from the side. Unfortunately for the lupine, she used the bladed edge, and so it was thrown in two halves towards its pack. Several wolves began yelping and scrambling in fear, while the only ones standing their ground seemed to be older specimens. A particularly brown wolf went for Lydia, only to get a shield in the face, dazing it, and then the housecarl’s sword digging into its chest. The others finally scattered, and the two were left alone from there. Once they felt confident about moving on, they stowed away their weapons and went back to the path.

Snow began gathering thicker underfoot, but many of the steps could still be seen. In a bit of a flat area Ruby came across another shrine.

The fledgling spirits of Men were strong in Old Times; Unafraid to war with Dragons and their Voices; But the Dragons only shouted them down and broke their hearts

‘So dragons were winning at first? But what actually started the war?’ she thought to herself.

The snowy, wind-blown path went up and down from there. Ruby eventually had to pull out her thicker coat and fur pants from her pack after a while to defend herself from the chill. Lydia, Nordic as she was, just pulled on a regular coat. She wasn’t sure when it happened, but Ruby looked outwards and noticed that they were about half as high as the mountain in the distance. Being that Hrothgar was supposed to be taller, that told her that they weren’t even halfway up.

“Oh Brothers,” she mumbled under her breath. Up ahead, she saw another shrine, this time a woman sitting in front of it. Being certain not to disturb her, Ruby looked around and read the tablet.

Kyne called on Paarthurnax, who pitied Man; Together they taught Men to use the Voice; Then Dragon War raged, Dragon against Tongue

‘Oh, so that’s the war. The Goddess Kyne asked…someone for help, and they… Taught? Created? They did something, and that must have made the first Dragonborn. Then before that it must have been…just slaughter.’

A phantom pain struck at her chest and Ruby clenched the spot over her heart and stumbled back. Lydia quickly caught her and held her still.

“Are you all right, my Thane?”

“I- I’m fine,” she half-lied. The back of her neck started stinging. She stood herself back up and cleared her throat. “We should…keep going.”

“Only if you’re certain you’re fine.”

“I am. Just…soul searching.”

Another bend, and this time the path led upwards for a long while. About halfway up the steep steps, Ruby felt her legs burning and her lungs pining for more air. They had to stop for a moment, Lydia taking deeper breaths while Ruby gasped for oxygen.

“If nothing else,” the girl got out, “my lung capacity’ll increase from this. That’s gotta be only good for Shouting, right?”

Lydia merely laughed and shook her head.

Past the steep stairway Ruby saw a rocky overhang ahead of them. At first she thought nothing of it except that it could guard someone from the wind, until a white form appeared on top of it and roared with a sound that she was certain should have been fictional. From the looks of it, it was bipedal, with arms like a gorilla, ending in claws that wouldn’t have looked out of place on an Ursa.

“Frost troll,” Lydia warned as she armed herself. The troll had apparently spotted them, and was now closing the distance far quicker than something with that kind of gait ought to.

“Any advice?” Ruby asked as Crescent Rose came out again.

“Dodge, and fire.”

Ruby leapt over its first swing and swung back at it, only for her blade to stop after cutting about an inch of flesh on its shoulder. She jumped back and watched as the wound seemed to close itself rapidly.

“It’s healing!”

“Trolls can regenerate quickly! Hit it fast, hard, or burn it!” Lydia began swiping wildly, cutting it in several places at once. Ruby figured she was going for the ‘death by a thousand cuts’ route, but the Huntress was never one to prefer extended engagements and instead always looked for the quickest ways to end a fight.

“Keep it looking at you!” Ruby commanded as she squared up behind the beast. Lydia kept her shield up as the troll’s three eyes focused on her. As claw went swinging, but Lydia met it with her shield and stabbed forward, the blade sinking deep before being pulled out. The housecarl grunted as the wound immediately began to close itself, but she pressed forward and bashed her shield into the frost troll’s face, sending it staggering back. Ruby took the opportunity and used her Semblance to dash forward, giving her scythe an over-under spin and then stabbing it into the frost troll’s exposed back. The scythe sunk into flesh, for a few inches, and then was halted by the sheer density of trollflesh and thickness of its fat. Surprised, Ruby’s grip slipped from her main weapon as the troll spun around and backhanded her away.

The girl yelped and rolled through the snow for a moment, and then sprung up back to her feet in time to see the troll coming at her. It reared back a clawed hand and went for a powerful swing, but Ruby was more than fast enough to move out of the way. She noticed her scythe still sticking out of its back, and had to somewhat admire its tenacity. The troll was probably the closest thing to a Grimm she’d faced on Tamriel, even more than the dragons, which she would count more as super powered people the size of a bullhead VTOL.

Ruby drew her sword, which she had thought about naming but hadn’t gotten around to, and prepared to fight the troll further. As the beast lumbered at her, Lydia blindsided it, knocking it to its knees. Ruby aimed at the neck and dashed forward, rose petals trailing her as she impaled her blade into it neck, shoulder, and through its chest. The troll gurgled, and then fell onto the snow, bleeding from the wound for a moment.

“Whew, that was a little hairy!” Ruby went to tug her blade out of the troll, but found it to be stuck. She pulled with even more effort, but couldn’t seem to get it to budge. “What the…”

“It healed around the blade while it died,” Lydia explained as she grabbed the hilt of the sword and yanked on it, tearing it free and causing more blood to spill. Ruby stuck her tongue out in disgust at the pints of troll blood flowing out and took her sword back with a thankful nod to Lydia. The housecarl then went to extract her other weapon while Ruby cleaned her sword in the snow.

“I’ve been meaning to ask,” Lydia began as she pulled upon Crescent Rose, “why a scythe? It does not seem a practical weapon.”

“I guess not, but I always thought it was so cool when I was growing up, especially since my Uncle Qrow uses one. Only…his can turn into a sword. I thought about adding a mode to Crescent Rose in order to turn her into a sword, but the best I got was a spear setting.”

“So your uncle taught you?” Lydia asked as she finally got the blade free.

“Yeah, actually. I was totally bad at it before he started teaching me. Still tripped up a lot, but I think it was audience nerves, because I didn’t really trip much when I started training on my own.” She sheathed the sword and took her main weapon back in hand before dipping the bloodied bit of blade into snow.

“I still don’t quite understand using it. I’ve heard of peasants resorting to using scythes to fight bandits when there weren’t enough weapons, but they always reset the blades so that they’d function more like a spear or bardiche.”

Ruby just shrugged, unsure of what else to say on the subject. She could probably mention some of the weirder weapons she’d seen; like that one person whose weapon seemed to be a hoverboard, but something like that would fly right over the heads of people from Tamriel.

Only a little past where they’d killed the troll was a fifth shrine. Ruby looked in and read the words.

Man prevailed, shouting Alduin out of the world; Proving for all that their Voice too was strong; Although their sacrifices were many-fold

‘And so people won! But, going by what people have been saying, and what I can see from Paalduzaam, Alduin’s back. Al. Du. In. Destroy. Devour. Master.’ Ruby itched at her head as the foreign knowledge blended into her memories. ‘So, the World-Eater must be Alduin. But I don’t know where he’s getting these dragons from. Those two were really old, but maybe he’s been growing an army somewhere to replenish their numbers? Maybe baby dragons take a long time to grow?’

They persisted, going down a short ways and then walking through more open ground, where the snow was deep, even in the closing summer months. Ruby was thankful that there seemed to be pillars made to guide folks through the path, otherwise they might have gotten lost. The next shrine was between two piney trees, just up a short set of steps.

With roaring Tongues, the Sky-Children conquer; Founding the First Empire with Sword and Voice; Whilst the Dragons withdrew from this World

‘Hm, didn’t Cynrrbert say something about another continent?’ Ruby thought to herself before remembering she had a person right there who could provide an answer. Still moving up the mountain, Ruby turned her head to Lydia, who noticed the movement and turned as well to make eye contact.

“Hey Lydia?”

“Yes?”

“What do you know about a place called Akavir?”

“Admittedly, not much. Though, I have heard that it’s populated by snake-men, monkey folk, some sort of tiger folk that might be like the Khajiit, and snow demons. Some people say the dragons first came from there to escape the snake people who ate them.”

“That…sounds like a pretty tall tale. Especially considering what happens when dragons die.”

“True. It has been a long time since anything from Akavir came to Tamriel, and the last expedition to the continent was made by the Nerevarine, the hero of the Dunmer. That was two hundred years ago, and he still hasn’t returned.”

“Maybe that’s where the dragons were hiding?” Ruby suggested. “They came from there in the first place, so maybe they went back after losing the Dragon War.”

“Sounds logical,” the housecarl agreed.

“How about the First Empire? What’s that about? How many were there?”

“Well, the Empire of today is the Third Empire. The First Empire was established when Alessia, the Slave-Queen, rebelled against the Ayleids and took Cyrodiil from them. I believe some armies from Skyrim helped her at the time.”

“Never heard of an Ayleid before.”

“They’re extinct.”

Ruby sucked air through her teeth and clicked her tongue. The idea of a ‘people’ going extinct was a new and unwelcome one to her. Afraid of what more she might hear, she decided to drop the subject and move on.

The next shrine wasn’t much further ahead, but they would have missed it if she hadn’t been looking for them. It rested at the very edge of a precipice, and Ruby was a little scared to get too close to it, but she was enthralled by the story, despite the breaks in it, and wanted to know what happened next now that dragons weren’t an issue.

The Tongues at Red Mountain went away humbled; Jurgen Windcaller began His Seven Year Meditation; To understand how Strong Voices could fail

“Red Mountain’s in Morrowind,” Ruby recalled.

“It is”, Lydia affirmed. “I think it refers to the failed invasion of Morrowind.”

“To understand how Strong Voices could fail…” Ruby murmured as they went on their way. ‘So they were strong, but still lost, and they didn’t really know how they could have at that point. Well, they did beat an army of dragons. I’m sure I’d have felt indestructible for a while if I wasn’t…distracted. Yeesh, that’s a bad way to put it. My sister could have been dying for all I knew! She still has a scar from that on her left thigh!’

The next was also nearby, just before a turn that led further upwards.

Jurgen Windcaller chose silence and returned; The 17 disputants could not shout Him down; Jurgen the Calm built His home on the Throat of the World

‘He built his home on the… Oh, this is the history of how the Greybeards began! Okay, so Jurgen fought in the Dragon War, and ended up founding the Greybeards and… What did Balgruuf call it? Something with the Voice.’

As the path led on, upwards with the occasional walk downwards, Ruby began to see a building in the distance. She immediately knew that it was her destination, and that the Greybeards would be inside, waiting for her.

‘Hopefully it’s warm in there.’

They stopped at another shrine, this one made in front of a statue like the one in Whiterun. A statue of Talos. Ruby read the tablet within.

For years all silent, the Greybeards spoke one name; Tiber Septim, stripling then, was summoned to Hrothgar; They blessed and named him Dovahkiin

Ruby admired the story for a moment and then went to go on, but paused in her steps. Her heart began hammering in her chest as she looked back at the statue.

“…she’s definitely Dragonborn. Like Tiber Septim used to be.”

“Then…it was you the Greybeards were summoning.”

“The last time this happened was when they called on Tiber Septim himself.”

For years all silent, the Greybeards spoke one name;

Her eyes seemed to focus on the statue for a long moment as she consciously weighed the words in her head.

‘The last…and first person they called up here…became a god.’ She wasn’t sure if the thought of that horrified her or not, and the thought of not being horrified by that scared her.

“My Thane?”

Ruby snapped her focus back and shook her head. “I… I’m fine. Just a lot to think over.”

“I understand.”

‘I doubt it,’ she thought as they trudged on towards the stone building. As they walked towards the fortress, Ruby admired the stonework. Just before the split stairway that led up to the doors was another shrine. Ruby looked within and saw what she figured must be the final part.

The Voice is worship; Follow the Inner path; Speak only in True Need

‘True Need. Like the dragons did before the war.’ She looked up at the structure and gulped. ‘Like…dragons…’

The stairs here seemed to hold more weight than the ones leading up the mountain, each step having a seeming finality to it, yet she began to feel a sort of calm wash over her. She thought back to the shrines and the plaques within them, and took courage in the fact that she was here to learn from the masters themselves. Even as the weight of her footfalls increased, she felt her spirit grow lighter. As she reached the door, she looked off to left and gasped. Through the mist and in the distance, she could see Whiterun from where she was. The sight of the familiar city brought a smile to her face and she took in a deep breath of the chilling air. Her eyes locked onto the door a moment later as she released the breath in a fog of steam.

“Let’s do this.”

She reached forward, and opened the door.

Dovahzul

Zeymah! - Brother

Mid gein! Hin miiraad lost drun wah dinok! Fin sil los vod! Pah los queth! Nid daal! Ul los vul! Erei faal laat, Vah Su’um Ven! - Loyal one! Your path has brought (you) to death! The soul is gone! All is bone! No return! Eternity is dark! Until the end, farewell!

Vah Su'um Ven - Spring Breath Wind - used as a farewell (similar to Drem Yol Lok - Peace Fire Sky - used as a greeting)

Laas! Yah! Nir! - Life Seek Hunt - The Aura Whisper Shout

Zun! Haal! Viik! - Weapon Hand Defeat - The Disarm Shout

Ruth Strun Bah! Ogiim, fen naak hin kopraan - Rage Storm Wrath (expression of anger and hatred)! Orc, (I) will consume your corpse!

Hin sil fen…kos du…gein sul! - Your soul will...be eaten...one day!

Chapter Text

Chapter 14: Assassins, and Ghosts, and Bears, Oh My!

Upon leaving Ivarstead, it quickly became very apparent that Maurice, while a traveler, was not a fighter. Or even a good lookout for that matter. Every other member of their traveling party had superior senses. Blake had excellent vision, especially at night, and great hearing thanks to her array of ears. Weiss’s sense of smell was extremely acute, more so when blood was involved, which most predators carried the scent of to some degree. And all of the Khajiits were good at each sense, and unlike Weiss had them their whole lives. Maurice, on the other hand, had almost walked into a bear trap one time. Luckily, they were able to keep him alive.

Nevertheless, they were able to keep their party in one piece. Continuing northward through Eastmarch, they encountered a few scattered wildlife, but outside of wolves and a sabercat nothing of note hit them during the day. As dusk neared, however, they heard a dragon in the distance. Everyone but Maurice had halted in their steps, but Blake had caught him by the shoulder. To their east, at a place called Northwind Mountain on the map, a dragon was circling around its summit. It made three circles and roared again before seeming to land, disappearing from most of their views. Blake and the Khajiits could just barely see it roosting atop a large wall of stone. If they had been noticed, the dragon seemed content to leave them be.

“…Gods that scared me half to death,” Weiss complained. Blake couldn’t help but note the irony in that, but felt a little bad about it.

“Dragons are becoming a bit too common a sight, this one thinks,” Jo’nir voiced. “Perhaps we should move on before the dragon decides to find a bedtime snack.”

“Right..." Weiss quickly agreed, pulling out the map. “There’s a fortress ahead called Mistwatch. I’d rather not go in there in case of bandits or other such miscreants taking over. But, with a dragon nearby, I’d like to have a fortress between us and it.”

The others agreed to that sentiment and pushed on, stopping to camp near the bridge that continued the road, the four towers of Mistwatch just between them and Northwind. A watch was set, but nothing bothered them throughout the night, thankfully. They began again the next morning, heading straight north and off of the road. The sanctuary wasn’t much further, and they reached it well before noon. The girls were a little dubious about going into a cavern, but decided that they had to in the end, and went in first to make sure everything was safe. Past a few turns, they emerged into a grove, streams flowing through, birds singing as they fluttered about the trees, and a beautiful, pink and red leafed tree sitting above the rest, directly under a skylight with sunshine pouring down upon it. The group stopped in awe for a moment as they took in the scenery.

“The Eldergleam,” Maurice admired. “It’s as beautiful as I had imagined.”

Weiss and Blake nodded to one another, both in agreement with Maurice and in understanding of their purpose here, and moved up ahead. Maurice and the Khajiits went to speak with a Nord man and woman who seemed to be visiting as well. While the others became preoccupied with conversation, the two huntresses looked for a way up to the tree, but couldn’t find a straight path. Blake attempted to leap over a root in the way, only for a smaller one to smack her back. The faunus landed with an ‘ooph’, and Weiss looked down at her with concern.

“Well… Feistiest plant I’ve had to deal with since those chilies,” Blake joked as she stood up and dusted herself off.

“Well how are we supposed to get the sap?” Weiss placed her hands on her hips in annoyance.

Blake took the dagger from her side and unsheathed it. She glared at the evil looking dagger before wielding it and trying to tap the root itself. The root suddenly shot away, like an arm being pricked. The creaking of wood echoed and Blake looked to the dagger.

“Well, guess we know how to get to it.”

“This…doesn’t feel good,” Weiss admitted. “I’m getting a bad vibe all of the sudden from this place where it used to feel so…calming.”

“She doesn’t trust in your mission.”

‘Shut up!’

“We’re just going to tap it for a little sap. Trees have it happen all the time. I’m sure the oldest tree in the world can take it.”

A few more roots lay across their pathway, but a single prick of the Nettlebane sent them reeling out of the way. The two soon stood just across from the Eldergleam, but they both could feel the dark aura in the air clearly now. Blake gulped and looked at the dagger again.

“It’ll be fine,” she reasoned. “The tree just thinks we’re out to hurt it. Everything will go back when we leave.”

She started walking forward when a voice stopped her.

“I had no idea you were such violent women!” The two turned to see Maurice standing just behind them, and expression of rage written across the normally tranquil man’s face. “Just what are you trying to do here, hurting the Eldergleam’s roots like this?”

“Look, Danica asked us to gather sap from the Eldergleam in order to heal the Gildergeen,” Blake explained.

“You would… would… Violate this marvel of Kynareth’s glory for that half-breed…stump in Whiterun!?” Blake was shocked by his words. “Abominable! Barbaric! Why didn’t you say something about this?”

“He’s getting in your way,” the voice whispered.

“We… I didn’t think it was that big of a deal,” Blake admitted. “I was just trying to help the temple. I didn’t want to hurt the tree. But, without the Gildergreen to bring pilgrims around to Whiterun, what can the temple do? What would you do?”

“What would I do?” His expression calmed some and he sighed. “What would I do? I certainly…wouldn’t go to these lengths, but…” He looked over at the ancient tree. “I do have an idea. Wait for a moment.”

The man walked over to the Eldergleam and kneeled before it, holding his arms out as if to accept an offering. Blake and Weiss watched as they felt the dark tension in the air slowly evaporate, until the previous serenity that once filled the place returned once again. In front of the tree, a sprout emerged from the ground and grew rapidly, branches splitting from the tiny trunk, and leaves forming at their ends. The two girls watched in awe as this miracle happened right before their eyes. The tiny sapling’s roots seemed to pull themselves from the earth and wrapped about a chunk of dirt beneath it. Maurice took a cloth from his own pack and tied it around the roots of the new tree, and lifted it up above him as he revered it.

“The Eldergleam has blessed us with a sapling,” he announced with his returned tranquility. He gingerly handed the newborn tree to Weiss, who looked it over curiously and carefully. “Have it taken to Whiterun. Danica should see that the true blessings of nature lie in renewal, not a slavish maintenance.”

“Thank you,” Blake uttered, still in awe of what just occurred. “This is…better than I’d hoped.”

“You are very welcome, friend. Please, try to keep your mind open always for the less violent approach to such problems.” He looked back to the Eldergleam, a serene smile on his face. “Please, feel no need to wait for me. I believe I’ll stay here and bask in Eldergleam’s warmth a while longer. Good luck on your travels. May Kynareth’s winds only carry the sweetest scents.”

Blake nodded, and looked once again at the Nettlebane in her hand. She took a few steps over to the Eldergleam and held the wicked looking blade across her palms as she considered what she’d nearly done.

“I’m…really sorry,” she offered, not knowing if the tree could understand her or not. She bent down and laid the dagger before the trunk. “Hopefully, no one will ever harm you again.”

A single root came up from the ground and dragged the dagger below, amazing Blake once again. The sounds of creaking wood echoed out once more, but this time when Blake looked back, she saw that the roots had rearranged themselves. Now, rather than looking like they’d been scared away from the path, the roots lined themselves with it, showing an inviting picture, as though the tree welcomed visitors with its boughs. She felt a light smile crawl across her face.

“K-khajiit will make sure the priestess receives the sapling,” M’thri stuttered out as Blake handed the little tree over to him.

‘Oh god, Weiss was right! Still, kinda adorable, in a sort of kitten with a favorite kind of way.’

“I trust you. You’re all sure you’ll be fine?”

“The road is always easier on the second trek,” Jo’nir explained. “We’ll be back at the camp at Whiterun before you reach the gates of Windhelm. Of course, we may leave soon after. Up to Solitude this time. Jo’nir will see to it that word is given to other caravans about you and your friends. For such a small favor as a ride, you have shown our families much kindness.”

“Thank you so much,” Weiss said as she began reaching over, but stopped herself when she realized that she’d almost pet a person. She pulled back and began stammering an apology, but Jo’nir simply turned his head.

“Behind the left ear if you must.”

“Father, don’t solicit the young man girls,” S’dir scolded the smaller Khajiit. “Please, forgive him, girls. He’s losing his inhibitions in his old age.”

“Forty-four is hardly old,” Jo’nir argued with a nip at his son’s paw.

“May as well be to me, old cat,” he teased back with a pat at his father’s head. The two began pawing back and forth in a mock-up of clawing at each other, and M’thri sighed in exasperation.

“This one is so sorry about this.”

“It… It’s fine,” Blake got out while trying to holding back her laughter. Weiss just watched on with joviality.

The monochrome Huntresses continued on their journey soon after entrusting the sapling to the family, heading north along the nearby river rather than going back to the road, figuring they could cross at a small place marked as Mixwater. Weiss noted that they were almost there when a small trip sent her careening down a canyon.

“Weiss!” Blake yelled as she looked over.

“I’m fine,” the heiress said as she straightened up her cloak. “It’s steep, but not…” She paused when she noticed just across from her was an old stone building. The location was a strange one, and so she checked the map to see if it was labelled.

“Not here…” she muttered in interest. Blake slid down next to her, kicking several stones and dirt into the river below.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. I’m fine. Of interest though, that old building there isn’t on the map.”

“Well, it looks like it’s been abandoned,” Blake admitted.

“Which means that there could be things of value left inside. We should check it out!”

“Weiss, seriously? I don’t think…” The heiress hopped over the canyon and onto the ledge in front of the old, nearly rotted wooden door. Blake sighed and jumped after her. “We’ll go in, look for your loot, and leave.”

“It’s not looting. It’s salvaging,” Weiss argued as she entered.

“And if someone still lives here, it’s robbery,” Blake muttered under her breath.

Within they could hear the sounds of running and dripping water. Weiss immediately began searching every nook and cranny for septims or small things of value. Blake went down the stairs and glanced around, noticing a battleaxe sticking out of a chest too small to hold it in a mostly flooded room that was likely draining from somewhere seeing as water still poured in from a hole in the wall.

“I don’t like this,” Blake complained. “The whole place looks like it could collapse at any time.”

“Oh, get a hold of yourself. We’ve been in older structures that stayed together. Come on, let’s see about below.”

Blake groaned and followed the vampire down the stairs into a room with a table pushed against a wall and a set of elk antlers mounted above it. There was an old, dirty plate set atop it, probably meaning that someone had to leave their meal behind. To the left was a storeroom, where Weiss picked up a bag of coins with a glint in her eye, but also happened to notice an old piece of paper. She looked at it from where she was, not wanting to risk it falling apart from age by picking it up.

“’We can’t let the prisoners out, so either kill them or let them drown’,” she read aloud before sneering. “Barbarians. ‘Either way, all guards must evacuate as soon as possible. The storm is about to wash this whole fort into the river, and I’ll be damned if I have to report one Legion death while under my watch. You have your orders!’ What a horrid response to disaster! Leaving people to drown!”

“It could have been a prison solely for the worst criminals. But I do agree. That’s just cruel.”

“Well, any compunctions I had with taking everything of value here is gone.”

“Wait, you had a compunction about it?”

“Oh hush,” Weiss playfully responded.

The next room down held some armor pieces, a few weapons, and ingots of iron. One of the hallways connected to it had collapsed, but there was still a way downstairs even further. Here the girls could see a few prison cells, as well as a skeleton with rotted, rusty armor lying next to a rusty, old sword and rotten shield. Weiss didn’t feel any sympathy for whoever it had been, and Blake only stopped long enough to look at another piece of paper beneath one of its bony hands. The paper hadn’t aged well, but the writing on it was only slightly smudged.

“’The storm is coming, I can tell’,” she read aloud. “’The water leaking in has become stronger. There’s no better time than now.

“’When the storm hits, the guards will be scrambling to figure out what to do with us. Amidst the confusion we need to overpower the few that will be standing guard outside our cells and hold off the cell block entrance. We need only hold off until I can get one of their swords and break open the drainage gate in the corner of my cell. That’s where we’ll make our escape. Everyone move down river and we’ll try to find shelter there until the storm passes.’”

“So the warden planned to murder them all while the prisoners planned an escape?” Weiss deduced. “Sounds like one of those thrillers Yang would love to watch. Hm, but the intrigue behind it would make for a good story. I… What is that?”

Weiss suddenly pointed over to a glowing form that had risen from the floor. It bore a human shape, but was translucent and seemed weightless. The figure pulled a weapon made of the same substance as it and began running at them, passing straight through the bars of the cell it was within.

“You’re not welcome here!” it shouted in an echoing tone while swinging for them. Weiss pulled out her rapier and parried the strike, and Blake made to stab at it, only for her weapon to pass through it harmlessly.

“Wh- what!?”

“Fools! The living should not be among the dead!”

“It’s a ghost!” Weiss cried out as she blocked another strike from its mace.

“What do we do?!”

Weiss’s response was to suddenly grab at the ghost as her hand funneled electrical magic through it. The electricity managed to actually affect the ghost, and it lost its cohesion with a cry, melting into a puddle on the floor.

“Right, I recall now. Silver, daedric, or magic. That includes enchanted weaponry. Unfortunately, all I have is a dagger.” She pulled out a steel dagger and handed it over to Blake. “Careful, it’s frost enchanted.”

“So..." Blake paused to look at the pool of what she could only describe as ectoplasm, “this will hurt them?”

“The enchantment more than the weapon. Essentially, it’s like you’re stabbing them with an icicle.”

“Good to know. I think I hear another one.”

A ghost appeared from the opposite side of the cell block and pulled out a hammer. “There are living here!” it shouted. Weiss aimed Myrtenaster at the ghost and channeled her lightning spell through it. A bolt of electric magic slammed into the ghost and caused it to practically explode.

“Death…”

“So, these ghosts seem to be…bitter.” A glance around let the two see that the cells were mostly filled with skeletons. “I can imagine why.”

“But why are there ghosts in the first place?”

“I have no idea. The research into the causation of ghosts varies, but the basis of it is that sometimes souls feel unfulfilled and either end up staying behind, or imprinting their emotions onto the world, causing magicka to congeal around them into ectoplasm. Wish I had a jar with me. This stuff isn’t exactly easy to find, and that makes it rare and expensive.”

“You’re still on with getting money out of this?”

“Well, at worst we just hurt some things that are already dead. At best we’re freeing them from their chains to this world and releasing them into the afterlife. Or these ghosts have no souls at all and are just the impressions of hatred left behind.”

Weiss walked over to a table at the end of the block and plucked a key from its surface. Looking into the cells, she found one with a broken wall and opened it up, leading to a conjoining cell block where another ghost resided. It charged her, only to be met halfway with a fireball.

“I will return!” it yelled as it melted.

“Sure, whatever.”

She and Blake traveled up the stair from this room, discovering that it was the section closed off from the collapsed hallway, as well as it being the guards’ sleeping barracks with another storage room, this one seemingly more dedicated to books. Luckily, the room had remained dry and the book were in rather good condition.

“Biography of Barenziah,” Blake read the title as she picked up and packed away a book before grabbing and packing another. “The Real Barenziah. The Adabala-a. Journey of the Heroes. Song of Hromir. Huh, The Champion’s Pinning. Looks like a side-story to Journey of the Heroes.”

“Didn’t expect to find a library in here. Suppose doing naught but guarding prisoners can get boring.” Weiss went over to a chest and used the key to unlock it, finding herself giddy at the number of scattered coins of nearly every type. After looting the rooms for all they were worth, the two headed back and found the drain in the corner cell. Weiss was the first to look down, and for the first time seemed hesitant in continuing. Blake followed her in and she both peered down to see a couple of small skeevers looking around at the bottom before seeing them and running.

“Uh, after you,” Weiss indicated. Blake sighed and hopped down into the drain and ducked into it. It was short, and emerged into what seemed to be another hall, though she had to push a skeleton out of the way at the end of the drain. Weiss came in right behind her and yelped when she accidentally stepped on and crunched the skull.

At a left turn the girls found themselves at a flodded room with a rickety ladder at the end. Deciding to risk it, Blake climbed up the ladder and came up to the sound of rushing water. Weiss followed her and the two could see that they were under a bridge just before a waterfall.

“Well, bridge means path,” Blake reasoned. “At least we’re on the right track.”

“And we’re now two-hundred and thirty nine septims and sixteen cents richer than before,” Weiss happily pointed out.

“That many?” Blake asked with a raised eyebrow.

“There was a denar and several malks. Of course I’m not carrying almost three hundred gold coins.”

The heiress and faunus began walking along the edge of the water, hoping to find a place to climb up onto the bridge. Blake began finding some handholds, but when she was ready to pull herself over, an elf in black and red suddenly leapt at her from above with a green dagger. Blake immediately called up her Aura defense and caught the Dunmer’s wrist, but was pushed over the edge with him and into the water.

“Blake!” she heard Weiss scream before she went under. The faunus struggled against the Dunmer as he tried to somehow stab her while they wrestled with each other and the current. Blake felt the river suddenly change direction, and expected the worst before she and her assailant were tossed out of the water and onto a stone ledge at the far side of the falls. She was able to pull in a breath, but then the attacker was at her again, almost desperately trying to drive his dagger into her. Blake fought against him and tried to push him off, but when he rolled off of her he dragged her along, and rather than reverse their positions, they rolled right off the ledge.

The dark elf shouted, and Blake kicked him away from her, knocking them both in opposite directions. She was certain that she saw her life flash before her eyes, and then watched as the Dunmer hit a stone with a muffled splatting noise while she hit water. Her breath was knocked out of her for a long moment, but she began regain her sense and tried to swim upwards. Suddenly, she felt a pair of arms wrap around her and drag her up and out of the river, pulling her up the shore and away from the water. She started coughing and hacking, and looked up at her savior to see a scantily clad, violet-skinned woman. Weiss was hopping down from above on self-made platform glyphs until she hit the ground and ran over to Blake, the Sanguine Rose in her left hand.

“Blake! Are you all right? Are you hurt? Where does it hurt?” She frantically asked while checking over her teammate.

“I’m fine. Weiss-” a few coughs interrupted her and she cleared her throat. “I’m fine. Just wet and cold. Way better than the other guy.”

They looked and saw the corpse of her attacker, bleeding on the stone he landed on and into the river.

“Mazken, thank you for rescuing my fried. Could you please retrieve the corpse over there, and try not to get it too wet.”

“Will be done.” The summoned daedra turned and dived into the river before swimming up against the current as though it was no obstacle. Blake stood up and shivered in the cold air.

“We’ll get you warmed up, even if we have to burn down… Wait, I think that’s Mixwater right up there.” Weiss indicated a mill just down the river from them. “Well, we can warm you up there. First, let’s-”

The body landed on the ground next to them with a thud, and the two turned to see that the Mazken was still at the spot where he died, apparently having thrown him all the way to where they were several meters down and across the river.

“Right. Let’s search him, and see if we can find what that was all about.” Weiss began opening pockets and pouches and searching them. Several vials labeled as poison were found, as well as two extra daggers of differing materials. Blake pulled a piece of paper from a thankfully watertight pocket and unfolded it.

“’As you were instructed, you are to eliminate the targets, Blake Belladonna and Weiss Schnee, by any means necessary.’” Blake blinked and looked at her teammate, both of them feeling a substantial amount of dread.

“Wh- What?! Why?!”

Blake looked it over and over, but came up empty. “It doesn’t say. Just gives…frighteningly good descriptions of us, and it’s signed by someone named Astrid, from the Dark Brotherhood.”

“Oh… Oh Brothers, you don’t think…this has to do with Ruby? What if… What if they sent people after her and Yang? Yang’s all on her own!”

“Weiss calm down!”

“Calm?! How can we be calm about this?!”

“Look,” Blake began as she looked to the Mazken, who had just returned. “We need you to pass on a message to Sanguine.”

“Do I look like a messenger to you?” the daedra patronized as she crossed her arms. Weiss jumped to her feet at that with her eyes glowing yellow.

“You! Are whatever! I! Order!” she yelled as she hefted the Sanguine Rose. “If I demand you to be a pile of dung to spy on the stable boy then that is what you’ll do!” At this, the Mazken looked totally in fear of Weiss. “Now, you will tell Sanguine that our friends are possibly in danger and that we need him to warn them as soon as possible that the Dark Brotherhood is after us, or I’ll summon you for that very purpose! Understand?!”

“A- At once, ma’am!” And then the daedra disappeared into a swirl of Oblivion energies. Weiss’s eyes lost their shine, and she sighed while gripping her forehead.

“This is disastrous. Why is this happening?”

“I don’t know,” Blake admitted. “But we’ll get through it. They can’t send assassins after us forever.”

‘How the heck am I supposed to find a woman who’s been missing for a year?’ Yang thought as she combed through the forest for the third night in a row. She only needed one more bear for Temba, and that would be it, but on the side she had run into Narfi, a poor man living in the most run-down house in Ivarstead. He was clinically insane just going by how he spoke, but Skyrim, and perhaps Tamriel at large, didn’t really have much in the way of mental institutions to take care of people like that.

“With father I said goodbye… With mother I said goodbye. Reyda leaves and Narfi can’t say goodbye.”

Just the memory of the pure sadness in his voice nearly brought a tear to Yang’s eye. She wanted to help him, gods know she did. She could only compare it to the time when Summer disappeared, and she wanted nothing more than for her to come home. And when that didn’t seem possible any more, she tried finding her birth mother. She never stopped looking, but she no longer searched for the same reasons as she did before. After a while, it was less about completing her family, and more about just getting closure. And closure seemed to be exactly what Narfi wanted, even though he was sure his sister was still alive. Wilhelm, though, was convinced she had died, and the only advice he could give was to search around the small islands to the east, where she used to pick plants for alchemy. Yang had already looked there, and found nothing of note. She would’ve tried using clairvoyance, if only she really knew what she was looking for.

‘I just don’t know what to do for the poor guy,’ she thought forlornly.

A sweet scent hit her nose and Yang looked upwards and saw a cave just a little ways away, a broken beehive sitting near it. Two of the bears she had found had similar evidence to their presence, so she figured she was close to finding another. She was ready to be done with this request and get back to Ivarstead with one, final bear corpse. As she approached it though, she heard a more human sound. It sounded almost like a man groaning in pain. As she came closer and angled up, she could see by the light of Masser that there was a man sitting at the mouth of the cave, wearing clothes so ragged that they made Narfi’s rag look pristine. He was clutching his stomach and kept doubling over while groaning, obviously in a great amount of pain. Yang wondered if it was hunger or something bad he ate as she approached, keeping in mind the supplies she had with herself.

“Hey!” she called out, catching his attention. Fear was sparking in his eyes, but Yang held out her hands pacifyingly.

“Easy, easy,” she whispered. “Are you okay? You need help?”

“Gods…” he muttered. “No, no! You can’t- You have to run! Run!” He stumbled up to his feet and began looking around before going into the cave.

“Hey! Hold on! Let me help you!” Yang started chasing after him, but paused to let her eyes adjust to the darkness of the cave. She tried recalling the candlelight spell, and cursed herself for not having practiced it more.

“Get out of here!” the man screamed in fear. “It’s…not…safe!”

Giving up on the light spell, Yang just summoned flames above her hand. While not as good for guiding, it was better than nothing. But, before the Huntress could get very deep, she heard the man screaming, followed by something that sounded like crunching bones and squelching flesh.

Terrified of what was happening, Yang rushed deeper into the cave. The man’s cries ceased, and the Huntress’s boots skidded as she came to a stop. Bloodied, torn rags were scattered about, and standing before her was the biggest bear she’d ever seen. Closer to an Ursa in size and build, this bear stood in a hunched stance as it turned to look at her and growled. There was no sign of the man, but the cloth in the giant bear’s claws told Yang enough. Her eyes flickered to red as her fists balled together, and with a cry of rage, she punched forward.

Almost every other bear she faced went down in two or three hits, the toughest thus far taking five before going down, and it had been a superb specimen. Even then, one hit from Yang was enough to send them all reeling. This bear was sent back a step before catching itself and then swinging forward with a roar. Yang blocked, but was sent flying back and out of the cave with a shout. She hit a tree with a yelp and tried to recover, only to see the massive bear charging at her on all fours.

Huntress and bear burst through the tree in a spray of splinters. As the tree fell over, Yang rolled to her feet and tried to get out of the way of another swipe, only to be sent through a thinner tree barely more than a sapling and smack into a third. Yang barely pulled herself out of her daze enough to duck under the incoming claws of the bear, which swiped through the thick trunk behind her like butter. The bear roared again and chomped towards her before clawing at her face. Yang jumped back in a back handspring and readied herself.

“All right, you bastard! Bring it!” she shouted in anger. Her body lit up as her Semblance activated and the bear charged at her again. Yang leapt out of the way as it sped by at the speed of an automobile. As the bear stopped, Yang ran at it and punched out towards its face with a battle cry. The blow connected and sent the bear in a spin, but it recovered and swiped up at her, sending her through the air where she had to adjust for falling to land on her feet. When she came back down the bear was back upon her and smashed downwards. Yang tried to block, but the strength of her foe was far more than its musculature suggested, and it had a lot to begin with. She actually felt herself sink several inches into the ground before she managed to deflect a blow and return it, rewarded with the sound of ribs cracking. Rather than be distracted by pain, the bear simply roared and bit down, catching her head in its jaws.

Yang screamed and tried to pry the bear’s mouth from around her skull as it grasped her with its claws and seemed to try to rip her head from her neck. Unable to dislodge its bite, she reared a fist back and felt magicka alight itself at her fist and punched while releasing an explosive fireball. The force of the blow jarred the bear enough to lose her, and Yang punched with another fireball empowered punch. Screaming, Yang summoned all of the arcane energy within her and used it to fuel her next several hits, punching the bear solidly while also burning its hide with fireballs. When her magicka ran out, she continued laying down punishment with just her fists, punching with the maximum amount of strength she could summon until the bear finally fell over. Yang then grasped its muzzle and yanked it around, breaking its neck just to be sure.

With the death of the ‘super bear’ ensured, Yang began pulling back her Semblance and catching her breath, her eyes fading from red to lavender. After her adrenaline left her system, she let out a shaky breath and leaned against a tree while cradling her head. She recalled the man, and realized that he must have been warning her about that bear, thinking she couldn’t handle it. She wasn’t sure about his suicidal move, but the fact of the matter was that he was gone. As she went to get the sled she used to drag the other bears back, she made a mental note to ask around and see if anyone knew who he might have been. She’d need to warn them before having the bear skinned.

She dragged the overly large bear into Ivarstead, and the people still about began pointing at her kill and running to get others. She figured killing one of these ‘super bears’ was a big deal, and she could see why. She, a Huntress-in-training with Aura and enhanced strength, had trouble with it. Temba was one of the villagers to come out and see Yang’s newest kill, as well as Yang’s disheveled state.

“Got number ten,” she quietly cheered to the mill owner. “This one put up a big fight too. What the hell kind of bear is this?”

“Kind of…? Girl, this is a werebear!”

“Werebear? Weird name.”

“A werebear’s not a bear,” Wilhelm interjected as he looked over the creature’s singed fur. “It’s a man-beast. A child of Hircine.”

Yang was utterly lost at that. “Huh?”

“Haven’t you ever heard of lycanthropes?” Temba asked. “A werebear is a cursed being, like werewolves and such. It would be a man by day, but then transform within the night, normally during a full moon, into a terrible beast with no mind but to kill. A beast you apparently put down.”

Yang’s mind seemed to screech to a dead halt and rewound itself.

“A… A man?”

“Aye, this would’ve been a man earlier in the day,” Wilhelm affirmed. “Likely lost his mind when he changed. Werebears pop up from time to time, but this is the first one I’ve seen this far south in years.”

“Oh gods, be sure it didn’t scratch you!” Temba warned. “Well, I don’t know if scratches will do it, and bites are so-so, but it pays to be safe. Get yourself washed up. Wilhelm, you have some monkshood and wheat germ, right?”

“I’m already on it,” the inn keeper said as he headed back to his establishment. “I’ll have you a fix-up in just an hour or so, Miss Yang,” he called back.

“Fix-up?”

“Just in case. You can make a decent lycanthrope treatment with monkshood, wheat germ, and a sprinkle of silver dust. It’ll make you queasy for a few hours, but you won’t turn.”

“Turn…” She looked back at the corpse and gulped. Her stomach began to churn as her mind began spinning again. “I… I’m going to…”

Temba just patted her on the shoulder and Yang started to stumble forward. Her eyes locked onto the inn as she started trudging towards it, her hands twitching a little. She stopped in her tracks and took in a deep breath before steeling her resolve.

‘Slow down,’ she reminded herself.

She turned from the inn and headed over to the bridge on the river. She watched the currents flowing by the village as she crossed, and then began walking along the river’s bank, listening as her feet crunched sand and silt beneath her. She took in a breath and looked to her hands, focusing magicka into a pale blue light with no real sense of direction. Without a goal in mind, the clairvoyance spell simply twinkled uselessly in her hands. When she exhausted her supply of magicka, she waited and did it again, letting the sight and sound of the spell calm her.

Suddenly, a line of blue leapt from her hands and trailed a little ways away from her. Yang followed the trail with her eyes and spotted what looked like the end of a bone sticking out of the ground. Curious, Yang went over and dug up the bone to find that there was a set of human wrist and finger bones connected. Yang dug through the wet soil with no real goal but unearthing whatever she’d found. Soon she had exhumed a skull, and the top of the spine connected to it. She spied a silver pendant on its neck and decided to pull it out to examine it closer, figuring that this was no consecrated grave she’d discovered.

Yang gently took out the pendant and washed it in the river’s water. As she observed it with only the moonlight, she found what seemed to be etching on its face. She angled it in the light and her eyes went wide.

Reyda was the single, solitary word etched upon it in a stylized form. Yang looked back at the skeleton and realized that she’d discovered Narfi’s sister’s fate.

“Oh god,” she muttered as she looked back to the pendant. Tears began to fall freely from her eyes, and then she looked back to the village upriver from her position. Her thoughts spun wildly for a moment, and then, a moment of clarity seemed to flow over her as a stray breeze brought a scent of honey though the air.

“…a terrible beast with no mind but to kill,” she recalled.

‘He was so scared. He knew what was going to happen. He knew, and he was afraid he’d hurt me.’ She looked to her right hand and slowly clenched it, feeling the leather of her glove crease and hearing it squeeze.

‘But if I hadn’t run into him, he would’ve been so close to Ivarstead. So close to so many people that couldn’t hope to fight him. So many could’ve died.’ She looked back at the skeleton again. ‘It’s so easy to die here. It’s so easy to die…at all. Reyda… I don’t even know what happened to her. She could have drowned. She could have been murdered. She could have been killed by a bear, a werebear, or just a large skeever.

‘He couldn’t…stop himself. I stopped him.’ She looked at the pendant once again and clutched it tightly. She pushed the displaced bones into the holed and kicked the soil back over them before heading back towards Ivarstead. She first stopped at Narfi’s broken down home and knocked on the wall before walking inside.

“Left. Gone. When will… Oh, hello friend. Did you find her? Is Reyda coming home?”

Yang felt her heart crumble, but put on a smile anyways for the beggar.

“Hey,” she started, feeling herself croak up. She cleared her throat and tried again. “I did. I found her.” She squatted down and placed the pendant into his hands. The man looked over it with misting eyes and ran a finger over its surface.

“Reyda…”

“You…” she felt her voice nearly crack again. “You need to be strong, for when she comes home.” At that, his face lit up. “She said it was going to be a while, probably a long time. But you’ll see her again. Until then…you need to take care of yourself. She- Reyda would want to see you doing well, right?”

“She would. She would! Thank you! Thank you friend! You made Narfi very happy! Thank you for finding Reyda! Tell her I’ll do it! Narfi will take good care!”

Tears spilled from Yang’s eyes for a moment, but the crazed beggar didn’t seem to notice. “I will, okay. I’ll see you later.”

“Thank you friend. Good bye!”

Yang stepped out of the broken down house and sniffled. She looked up at the stars and took in a deep breath before going forward to the inn. When she entered the building, she could smell something bitter coming from a pot boiling over the fire.

“It’ll be ready soon,” Wilhelm assured her. “Are…you okay? Can I get you anything?”

“I’m fine, yeah,” she sniffed with a smile. “I’ll…just have some water right now.”

Yang awoke the next morning quietly before leaving the inn. Temba was up early to work as usual. Just as Wilhelm had warned, the cure or preventative or whatever didn’t sit well with Yang’s stomach, but she drank it down all the same. Her muscles ached and her head rang, but it was a small price to pay to not turn into a werebear. She could only imagine the horror of being trapped in one’s own body and forced into a savage state against their will. As Yang prepared to leave the small village, the mill owner saw her and gave a light smile.

“Glad to see you up and about. Listen, I think that werebear should count for the request, so I’m going to say you’ve done your part. Really, you’ve done far more. Who knows what a werebear could’ve done to us. Anyways, the Companions have the bulk of your pay, but I’ve tacked a little something else on.” She went over to a table and picked up a war axe. It seemed to be made of a kind of bronze and had a more angular shape to it than most axes she’d seen.

“Is that Dwemer metal?” she asked.

“And Dwemer made. Had a cousin who found it in an old ruin. Apparently he thought I could use it to chop wood. There were several problems with that idea, not the least amongst them is that it’s enchanted to set whatever it cuts on fire. And given how fire enchantments seem to work better on Dwemer metal... Anyway, seeing as you’re the kind to set things you kill on fire, though, I think it’s better in your hands.” She handed the axe over to Yang, who held it in her right hand before tossing it between each hand to get a feel for the weight.

“Thanks.”

“No problem. Oh, and one of your friends came back from High Hrothgar. She’s speaking with the guards at the Foot Bridge.”

“One?” Yang immediately headed to the north end of the village. Like Temba said, one of her friends was there. Specifically, Lydia, who was talking to two Rift Guards, their distinctive purple cloth and chainmail standing out. If nothing else, the helmets gave them away as guards. She paused for a moment when she saw a dead body near them, but continued on soon after.

“Hey Lydia.”

“Ah, hello Thane Yang. I was about to come and see if you were still here.”

“What’s…this about?” Yang questioned as she got a good look at the body, a Redguard woman if she had to guess.

“I got word that the Dark Brotherhood have sent assassins. And then I found one. The guards are here to clean up and see if they can’t sniff out any more of the murderers.”

“Wait, assassins? After who?”

“After you, apparently,” one guard said. “Found a note on the corpse. They’re after you and a Ruby Rose.”

“What?!” Yang shrieked.

“It will be fine,” Lydia calmed her. “Trust me. This is one of the main things I’ve trained for. Are we good here?”

“As good as we can be until Tarl gets that cart.”

“Then have a good day, brothers. Talos smile on you.” With that, Lydia walked away, Yang right behind her.

“Just what is going on?” the blonde demanded.

“We got a note last night, pinned under a bottle of Argonian Bloodwine. It was from Sanguine. Normally, I’d be wary of notes from Daedric Princes, but it said that he was passing on a message from Weiss and Blake. Why he decided to do so is beyond me, but I am glad he did. Apparently, they were attacked by an assassin yesterday, but managed to fend him off, and they feared you two may be in the same danger. They were right.”

“Oh god, this is bad!” Yang muttered as she rubbed her eyes. “Oh, we shouldn’t have split up. This is all-”

“Calm down and listen,” Lydia said as she grabbed the younger girl’s shoulder. “Ruby is in one of the safest places in Skyrim. If Ulfric Stormcloak can Shout an army off walls, then the Greybeards can Shout them into ash and scatter it to the winds with the same breath. I’ll also be there, and like I said, I’m trained to handle these things. I’m not one to brag, but Irileth often said I was the second-best housecarl after her. I’m certain she meant it as a compliment.”

Yang cracked a laugh at that and sighed. “Okay. So, what do I do?”

“I suggest sticking to the roads and trying to travel in sight of other people. You’ll be safe once you reach Whiterun, and either way it may take some time before the Dark Brotherhood realize their assassins have failed. A week at least, a month at the most. After that, try to always have someone by your side outside of the walls.”

“I guess I can do that.” Yang took in a breath and let it out with a puff. “By the way, how’s Ruby doing? She taking to the training well?”

“Well…”

“Fus!” Suddenly dozens of pots were flung all around the monastery main hall. “Wah, I’m sorry!”

“Fus! Ro!” The wave of force knocked Master Borri onto his backside. “Oh cheese and crackers! I’m sorry!”

“Wuld! Wah!”

Ruby bounced off of the grate and the Greybeards looked over her in concern before she sprung back up.

“Okay, that works way different from my Semblance! Still, what a rush!” She noticed a small dent where she’d collided. “I’m so sorry!”

“Well, it could be worse.”

“She’s actually taken to the meditation aspect much better than expected.”

“Let the breath of the world flow through you. Treat each breath as a motion of power. Think of each exhale like you would a swing of your blade. Picture a-”

Einarth tapped Argneir’s shoulder and pointed his thumb at Ruby, whose eyes had fallen completely shut and posture had slackened. Her breaths had a slight noise to them, like a soft snore. Argneir made to sigh, but ended up laughing.

“I guess it’s…progress?”

“She’s only just begun. Still, they made it clear that it’s to be a short lesson. Only a few days more and then she’ll start setting out. Part of the training is the search for Word Walls, which can help her to better understand the dragon language, and make it easier to learn Shouts.”

“Ah, I’ll have to keep my eye open for those then.” Yang nodded. “Well, it’s good to hear from you guys. I hope Blake and Weiss are doing okay too. God knows they’re probably scared out of their minds after that attack.”

“Thank the gods!” Weiss sighed as they came upon Windhelm around dawn. Blake looked over at a clifftop to see a shrine to Talos overlooking the city. It certainly wasn’t a recent construction, but she couldn’t help but feel it symbolized defiance against the White-Gold Concordat’s ruling to the people of this part of Skyrim. Weiss quickly noticed the shrine as well, and turned towards it.

"Kind of surprised that they would have that shrine that out in the open like that. Even Whiterun had theirs behind their walls," Weiss mused, curious towards the implications.

“Well, we’re in rebel territory now,” she said to her teammate.

“Yes, but despite that, it doesn’t feel like there’s a war going on. Though, I suppose dragons suddenly popping up would grind things to a halt. If Windhelm got attacked, they’d probably be reeling from it for a while. And that’s if Ulric made it back in one piece. If he’d gotten caught out on the road by something, it could leave a power vacuum in the Stormcloaks and cause in-fighting. That would spell the end of their rebellion right there. Seeing as the city isn’t up in flames or smoldering, however, I think it’s safe to assume he made it back and there hasn’t been a major dragon attack.”

They passed by the horse stables and crossed over the bridge leading to the gate. A few guards were patrolling about, but didn’t pay them much mind except to look at Blake’s ears on occasion. The faunus nearly froze when she realized she hadn’t put her bow back on, but when the guards didn’t say anything about it, she felt a little calmer. The two stepped through the opening and looked around, glad to see another city that was more stone than wood.

“Has a real rustic feeling to it,” Weiss commented. “Almost like the older parts of Mantle.”

“Speaking of nostalgia, that guard’s glaring at me like the police back home would.” Weiss looked over to the guard in question, who was glowering at Blake with a grimace and whispering to another guard, who quickly ran off to the palace.

“Well, if anyone tries to say anything, I have over a dozen lines to put them in their place. Just play along with whatever I say and we’ll be fine.”

They started heading over to some signs that seemed to be indicating an inn, when they caught sight of two Nords on either side of a Dunmer woman near a stairway. Both girls immediately noticed the uncomfortable expression on the woman’s face and stopped as their attention swapped over to them.

“We haven’t taken a side because it’s not our fight.” The Dunmer seemed defensive, her posture tense, and hand near a concealed iron dagger, details the two Huntresses caught onto as they walked over.

“Hey, maybe the reason these gray-skins don’t help in the war is because they’re Imperial spies,” one Nord accused.

“Imperial spies? You can’t be serious!”

“Maybe we’ll pay you a visit tonight, little spy,” the other Nord proposed. Blake felt her teeth clench at that, and Weiss had to resist reaching for her rapier’s hilt. “We got ways of-”

“Back off,” Blake growled as she shoved the man back. Her eyes focused on his face as her pupils shifted. The man snarled and clenched a fist, but saw Weiss’s hand on her sword hilt.

“There are certain ways men should never treat ladies. It could be hazardous to their health.”

The man spit and started stumbling away. “Whatever. Filthy foreigners.”

“Th- thank you,” the woman expressed once the two Nords were out of earshot. “But please, don’t get yourselves in trouble on my account. You’ll find that the guards aren’t up to taking the side of a dark elf against a human.”

“We couldn’t just stand by and let that man harass you like that,” Blake replied. “What was that all about anyways? About being an Imperial spy?”

“Some Nords, in their ignorance, don’t know how to differentiate a dark elf from a high elf. They tend to forget that our kind have hated each other since before the first men set foot on Tamriel. So there’s no love lost between Dunmer and Thalmor, just most of a continent.” She smiled a little and held out her hand in greeting. “I’m Suvaris Atheron. Pleasure to meet you both.”

“Weiss Schnee,” Weiss greeted as she took her hand.

“Blake Belladonna,” her friend met while repeating the handshake.

“Good to meet you both. I should say though that you might not want to stay here too long. Windhelm’s a dreary place to be, especially if you’re not a Nord.”

“We won’t be too long. We plan to head up to Winterhold, actually.”

“Headed to the college? Must be. It’s the only thing of worth up there.”

“Yes actually.” Weiss beamed a little. “I’m hoping to study planar travel in-depth.”

“That…is a rather deep subject to get into. I wish you the best though. May you find what you’re looking for.”

The Dunmer began heading down the stairway and Blake let go a sigh.

“Everywhere we go,” she muttered.

“It could have been worse. Besides, I’m almost certain those were quiet threats. From what I’ve read, Dunmer aren’t exactly the forgiving sort, and if she has even one family…” Weiss trailed off trailed off as she noticed a guard marching over to them, his eyes never leaving the two huntresses. In any other situation, Blake and Weiss would have already had their weapons drawn, but wisely decided against it. Soon enough, the guard had marched up them and stood face to face.

"You have been summoned to the Palace of the Kings by Jarl Ulfric himself. I am to escort you both. Come with me." The man left no room for argument.

"Why? We haven't done anything," Blake argued before receiving a sharp elbow to the rib by Weiss.

"We would be honored to speak to the Jarl," Weiss diplomatically replied, receiving a light glare from Blake.

"Hmph, at least one of you is smart. Not surprised it isn't the Khajiit," the guard huffed before motioning for the girls to follow him, Blake's stare of righteous anger not fazing him in the least. Soon enough, the three walked up to a large set of doors, with a plaque in between them, showing that this was indeed the aforementioned palace.

"Hurry along, then. The Jarl's inside," The guard ordered before setting off again into the city, continuing his previous patrol.

"I swear to the gods...!" Blake was fuming at this point.

"Blake, now is not the time," Weiss cautioned, attempting to calm the angry faunus down.

"When is the right time?!"

"Unfortunately, not right now. I'm angry too, but lashing out is not going to help us," Weiss reasoned to Blake, who began breathing deeply before calming herself.

"Fine. But if that happens again, I'm punching whoever does it, status be damned."

"And I'll join in. Come on, the guards are staring." Indeed they were, some of them with curiosity, others with suspicion, yet none made a move. Deciding to move inside and out of the cold, the two opened the doors to see a group of men and women in Stormcloak garb, but most of them wearing symbols of office like bearskin caps or insignias on their shoulders. Many of them turned their heads when the girls entered, and at the head of the group was a man wearing a long, fur coat over a set of armor.

“Oh, uh, we’re sorry,” Weiss apologized as she curtsied. “We didn’t realize-”

“Come in and shut the door,” the man’s voice boomed. “The meeting just ended. Everyone, you have your orders. Talos watch you.”

The soldiers saluted. “Talos watch you, Jarl Ulfric!” As the crowd began to disperse, either heading into different sections of the building or outside, the girls began to notice that not all of the apparent commanders were Nords. A handful were Bretons, or perhaps Nords with a lot of Breton heritage. Three were, surprisingly, Dunmer, though they stuck close to each other and didn’t seem to mingle much with their Nord fellows. The sore thumb in the whole group was a single Argonian with dark blue scales and a white neck. He had no horns, but most of his head was covered in black feathers. His red eyes looked at them for a moment before he went back on his way to the west wing of the building. Seeing as the way was cleared, Weiss and Blake approached. Before they could speak, the Jarl, Ulfric Stormcloak, spoke up.

“So, two of the newest Thanes of Whiterun have come to Windhelm?” Ulfric stated as he sat down, surprising the girls. “Two of the four who gained the title after the slaying of a dragon, an event that likely triggered the Greybeards calling upon the new Dragonborn. It stands to reason then, that the Dragonborn would be amongst those four. Seeing as you two have traveled all the way here, however, it’s neither of you. On the other hand, another Thane, the only one given a housecarl, was seen climbing the Seven Thousand Steps. Am I correct in assuming that she is the Dragonborn?”

“You… You know about all of this?” Weiss questioned, alarmed and slightly impressed. “How?”

“I’m a man at war. I don’t like cloaks and daggers, but I’d be a fool to refuse their use in this time of strife. I have eyes in every hold, and some spotted a new Thane, reportedly one of the Dragonslayer Four, heading up to High Hrothgar. After that, it’s simple deduction.

“I have no quarrel with any of you, of course. I just want you to know that I know who you are. What I don’t know is why you’re here.”

Weiss and Blake looked between each other, trying to gauge whether or not they could trust the man. In the end, Weiss swallowed her suspicions and moved forward. “We only meant to stop for the night on the way to Winterhold, nothing more.” Ulfric pondered their words for a moment, thinking them over while staring them down, before nodding.

"I see," Ulfric simply replied, a heavy silence descending upon the group, broken only by the sound of him rising to his feet. "Well, I suppose that makes us your hosts for the evening. I recommend Candlehearth Hall. You'll find the food and mead to be more than satisfactory."

"I... Thank you for the recommendation, Jarl Ulfric," Weiss curtsied, motioning Blake to follow, who slowly complied. Rising, the two made their way out of the palace, feeling the stare of Ulfric Stormcloak at the back of their heads the whole way.

As they left the palace, the Argonian commander came out from a corner.

“Excuse me,” he began, his voice deeper than the last Argonian that they met. Both girl’s felt a moment of hesitation, but Weiss ended up stepping forward.

“Can I help you?”

“Simply welcoming you both to Windhelm. I am Commander Runs-Through-Storms. You’re newcomers here, but more than that, you’re growing in fame. Tales of four dragonslaying women are spreading throughout Skyrim. You aren’t famous, exactly, but you’re getting there. And I’m beginning to see why. I heard about how you pulled Ralof away from Helgen, and how you cut short Rolff’s bullying of some dark elf. You’re brave, kind, and strong. Those three traits are difficult to find in a single being, let alone four who work together.”

“We just try to do what’s right,” Weiss explained. “Nothing more.”

“Funny. I think it’s written down that the Divines-Blessed Hero said the same thing many a times.” His face didn’t change much, but they could see a smile in his eyes. “I hope your experiences in Windhelm haven't turned you off, like some of my people.”

“Your people?” Blake asked.

“Argonians,” he clarified. “We’ve never gotten the best when it comes to Skyrim, and many still are bitter over the Dunmer’s slaving of our race for centuries.” That statement shocked Blake so that her ears went stiff upwards as her eyes widened. Weiss only covered her mouth in concern. “Still, when we work hard, we can accomplish great things, even in a place that prefers its own kind above all others. Don’t be too harsh in your judgement of the Jarl over the disparity. He’s not anti-Argonian so much as he is pro-Nord. I’m living proof of this. Still, there are things that can tie us down, keeping us from reaching our full potential. Most Dunmer hate us, more than Nords hate either of us. And the rage my people feel against the Dunmer is untellable at times. Still, we get along enough, even if we can’t live within the walls with them.”

"Wait, your people are segregated from the rest of the city?!" Blake was shocked, even more so when the Argonian nodded not in sadness but something that she couldn't quite pin down.

"We tried. It didn’t last the month. Frankly, I'm surprised Ulfric didn't just kick both races out, he had every right to. But he didn't."

"Still! Why do you put up with this injustice?" Blake demanded.

"Because only Ulfric will actually do something against the Thalmor!" the Argonian Commander resolutely declared. "When the Oblivion Crisis hit, Black Marsh, my homeland, was left to fend for ourselves by the Empire. Our armies died by the thousands, but we ultimately prevailed, even leading charges straight into Oblivion itself! But now, we are ruled by the An-Xileel, who are so isolationist that they ignore the threat the Thalmor and the Aldmeri Dominion pose to us all. The Empire is crumbling, unable to defend itself, and now the Thalmor have free reign over the entirety of the Imperial Provinces, abducting people as they please, whether they be men, mer, or beast-folk. I love Skyrim, it is my home, and Ulfric recognizes that and when he becomes High King, he and a strong, independent Skyrim will make the Thalmor pay for what they have done." Runs-Through-Storms’ declaration was surprising to both girls, who were unable to form a reply. Seeing this, the Argonian shook his head and laughed.

"Don't mind me, just venting a little. Well, I shall take my leave. Enjoy your stay in Windhelm," With that, the Runs-Through-Stroms turned to leave and walked away, leaving the two girls behind, who silently looked to themselves before moving towards Candlehearth Hall.

"He's trying to recruit us," Weiss suddenly declared, inside the privacy of their room, which to their surprise was already paid for by the Jarl himself., along with their food and drinks.

"What makes you say that? Not to say I don't agree," Blake asked, agreeing with the sentiment but wanting to know her teammate's reasoning.

"It all adds up. Us meeting the Jarl not ten minutes upon entering the city. Runs-Through-Storms telling us his reason for joining his army, which while I believe him to be telling us his actual reasons, he was clearly ordered by Ulfric to make his case. And now, our room, board, and food have been paid for. It all adds up."

"Why would he go to such lengths to recruit us?"

"Think about it. We killed a dragon. Two in fact, and there is no doubt in my mind that he knows about the second. Not to mention Ruby. Us joining his cause would give him incalculable legitimacy to the eyes of Skyrim, not to mention a massive military advantage. And with us just waltzing in, it's too great an opportunity to miss. I caught on to what he was doing as soon as he revealed he knew who we were."

"Speaking from experience?"

"My father did it all the time," Weiss coldly replied, her father, even worlds away, still being quite the sore spot. Blake nodded at this, before standing up from her bed.

"Well, he's going to be disappointed. I have no plans on joining this civil war."

"Agreed," Weiss stood up as well. "Well, we might as well explore the city. We aren't going anywhere for a while, and I heard about some interesting shops in the city from Susanna the Wicked."

"Why is she called 'the Wicked'?" Blake asked, following Weiss out the door.

"Because she flirts with the patrons to earn extra tips," Weiss giggled, nodding her head to Susanna, who was doing just so to a Nord patron. "See?" Blake merely smirked before the two turned and exited the door, leaving the warm hearthfired inn for the cold tundra air.

“God, I’m freezing. How do you stand this?” Blake complained as the girls walked near the Grey Quarter. To no surprise, the guards didn't harass them at all, despite Blake's heritage. Some even seemed to give the two respectful nods. It seemed Ulfric was going all out in his recruiting.

“Quit your whining. It’ll be fine. We’ve taken on dragons, and you’re complaining about a little cold? Honestly, nothing could be worse than those things at this point.” The two then rounded a corner, seeing a young boy talking to a Dunmer woman. They paid the two no heed, only to slow down as the two's conversation reached their ears.

“Then it’s true,” they heard a boy say as they started to walk nearby, “what everyone is saying. That Aventus Aretino is doing the Black Sacrament?” They both paused at that. “Trying to summon the Dark Brotherhood?”

Blake felt bile reach up for her throat as her memories played back to the other day. That assassin had almost killed her, by virtue of simply having gotten the drop on her. And they still weren’t sure if Ruby and Yang were safe.

The Dunmer woman he was talking to shook her head. “Oh Grimvar…always with the nonsense. No, no, of course not. Those are just tales.”

“Fine, then I’ll invite him out to play.” He started heading towards a doorway. “He lives right here. I’ll just knock on his door…”

“No, child! Wait!” The Dunmer shot over between the boy and the building. “That boy, that house- They’re cursed!”

“I knew it! Ha! He’s trying to have someone killed!”

“All right, I won’t deny it. What you heard is true. But Aventus walks down a dark path, and it’s one that can only lead to ruin. You needn’t concern yourself with him. Now come on, I'm the only friend you need,” the Dunmer woman gently told the young boy, who smiled and took her hand, both walking away.

With no one in earshot, the two huntresses, both pale -paler in Weiss's case- went over to the house, feeling fear twist knots in them both.

“Blake,” Weiss whimpered.

“Yeah, I know.” Blake eyed the house, looking at the door and the windows. Listening closely, she could hear a steady tapping coming from inside. “Watch out for me. I’m going in.”

“Going in?”

“If this is how someone summons them, then maybe I can get to the bottom of this.” A lockpick was pulled from her pants and she set to work on unlocking the door. Weiss watched for any incoming guards both ways down the path. The moment the door came unlocked, Blake put her effects away and stepped inside. The sound of tapping was much clearer within the building. Pausing for a moment, Blake took a bandana and tied it around her mouth and nose, and then placed another on top of her head.

She followed the noise to a room lit by candles, and heard a voice murmuring an incantation, over and over.

“Sweet mother, sweet mother, send your child onto me, for the sins of the unworthy must be baptized in blood and fear. Sweet mother, sweet mother, send your child onto me, for the sins of the unworthy must be baptized in blood and fear.” The boy sounded tired, like he had been doing this nonstop for days. Judging by the smell and the large amounts of discarded leftovers, that might have been the case. "Please...how long must I keep doing this, Night Mother?"

Walking up the stairs, she looked in and saw a boy kneeling down, tapping the yellow bones of a rotted corpse with a knife. The body was nearly a skeleton, with almost all of the flesh gone and most of its yellow bones exposed to the air. A book lay next to the boy with a purple flower lying upon it. He repeated the incantation once more, and slowly stopped, having noticed Blake’s presence.

“You’ve come at last!” he cheered as he turned around to face her. “I knew you would!”

“Are you all right?” she asked in concern when she saw the bags under his eyes.

He didn’t seem to hear her, however. “I knew it’d work! I just knew it! I did the Black Sacrament over and over with the body and the… the things. And then you came! An assassin from the Dark Brotherhood!"

Blake had no idea what to say, or what to tell him. She remained silent for a moment, and the boy seemed to be willing to carry on without a word more from her.

“You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want. You’re here, so I know you’ll accept my contract!”

“Contract?” If he meant that, then there was someone he’d want dead, and, looking at the ritual, Blake knew that there might actually be a sort of magic, perhaps even a daedra, behind this sort of thing. The Dark Brotherhood probably didn’t even need to show up. They might just know who needed to be killed whenever the Black Sacrament was performed. And for payment, it could have been anything from money left at the spot, killing the contractor when all was said and done, or taking their souls upon death. Apparently, some of the Daedric Princes loved to do that last one.

“My mother she… She died. I was all alone, and then they sent me to that awful orphanage in Riften. Honorhall,” he spat. “The headmistress there is an evil, cruel woman they call 'Grelod the Kind', but she’s not kind. She’s terrible. To all of us. So I ran away, and came home. And performed the Black Sacrament! And now you’re here! And you can kill Grelod the Kind!”

Blake said nothing as she started to back away, but then her eyes fell to the book with the nightshade laid across it. She pointed it out, and the boy looked over to it and quickly grabbed it once he realized her intention.

“Okay, here you go. I guess this is part of it?” He handed the book to her and nodded. “And please hurry. I’m kinda lonely here, and to be honest, as much as I hated getting sent to Honorhall, I miss all of my friends from there.”

Blake just nodded and used her Semblance to disappear, mostly just to throw off the boy, but also because it got her to the door that much quicker. She closed the door quietly and took off the bandanas before taking a deep breath.

“What happened?” Weiss asked as Blake stowed the cloths away.

“He thought I was the assassin he summoned,” she explained. “Weiss, I’m pretty sure this Black Sacrament thing is a magic ritual. I don’t know how it works, but I’d bet that there’s already someone after Grelod.”

“Who?”

“The headmistress of the Riften orphanage. Either she got an ironic nickname, which would be stupid, or the boy is simply overreacting to such a degree that he'd send trained killers after her.”

“Wait, so, what are we supposed to do? Riften’s not exactly a stone’s throw away, and we need to set out for Winterhold tomorrow morning.”

Blake thought their options over, but concluded that there was no way for both of them to go stop the assassin and get to Winterhold in a timely manner.

“Weiss, I hate to suggest this, but...we’re going to have to split up again.”

“Wait, split up? I… I’m not being needy here, but I don’t think I can be on my own!”

“Not for long, no, but I swear I will get back as quickly as I can. Look, if nothing else, I might be able to figure out how to stop the Dark Brotherhood from coming after us ever again. If I go right now, and rush, I can get there in two days, and be back in four. I’ll let you get as much blood as you need, and we can… You have some bottles right?”

“Blake…”

'She doesn't trust you.' The Ebony Blade made its presence known once again to the faunus, who quietly ignored it.

“You have to trust me on this Weiss. Someone’s life is in our hands right now, and we’re the only ones who could possibly save her. Can you do that?”

Weiss scowled. “What kind of question is that? Of course I trust you. It’s just…I’m worried for you. For both of us.”

“We’ll be fine. Fought dragons, remember?”

“Don’t go using my words against me,” Weiss protested good-naturedly. “That’s just unfair.”

Blake hadn’t expected to feel as woozy as she did after filling up a couple of pint-sized bottles and letting Weiss take a deep draught of blood. The heiress actually objected to taking any more of the precious liquid from her after a point, even though she was willing to give more. Probably for the best, as Blake couldn’t even walk to the stables under her own power.

Luckily, a carriage was resting there, the driver having just swapped out his horse. Weiss negotiated a price with the man, and then pulled her teammate onto the back before taking a thick blanket and fur pelt from Blake’s back to throw on top of her.

“Don’t expect a smooth ride now. And I expect you to stay on this thing until this evening at least.”

“Yes mom.”

“Don’t sass. She’s ready to go when you are sir.”

“All right t’en. Must be a tired lass.” The driver checked over the horse’s harness before hopping onto his seat. “All right, let’s go. On to Riften.”

As the carriage began moving forward, and unable to do much of anything, Blake took out a book from her sack. Journey of the Heroes. She knew the basic story from people talking about history, and a children’s picture book she’d come across, but she never got to read a full novel about them before. Weiss gave her a final wave and Blake waved back before cracking open the book. The first page was a simple little introduction, describing the heroes themselves before actually going on with the story proper.

In the time of our greatest need, when the Third Empire was threatened by the very denizens of Mehrunes Dagon's Deadlands, when death hid around every corner, and any moment doom could be spelled for an entire city by way of a single Gate, there were five heroes who answered the call to bravery, and faced Oblivion without batting an eye.

Their leader, the Hero of Kvatch, the White Knight of the Empire, The Great Crusader of the Divines, The Golden Paladin, The Great Healing Archmage. He was a man of valor, the first to look into the Gates of Oblivion and step into them, knowing he may never return, all with the intent to stem the tide.

His second, and by some accounts his lover or admirer, The Champion of the Arena, Martial Champion of Cyrodiil, The Unerring Spear, Goddess of Victory. Always by his side, she gave her all to defeating the daedra not just for herself and the people, but for him as well.

Their comrade and joy of their party, Hammer-Maiden, The Guardian of Thunder, Savior of Minotaurs, The Last Laugh, The Lightning Hammer. If the daedra gave pause from the Hero and Champion, then they fled at the sight of the Guardian, for she was blessed by Wargod and Madgod alike, and even conquered the once wild minotaurs themselves to lead them against the forces of Dagon.

Every group must have the quick of foot, and theirs was no different. He was the Monk of Bladed Fists, the Silent Watcher, The Painless Death, Everywhere and Nowhere. The calm to the Guardian's wildness, the two were considered as inseparable as the Hero and Champion. He kept watch over all the others as his solemn duty to be the guide of their spirits, and anchor to the world.

And the last of their great party, the one most tragic, for he is Unknown. All records of him near vanished, all memories of him fogged. All anyone can recall is his odd turn of phrase, his skill in finding things in unlikely places, and the indications of madness about him. With the Five Heroes last venture into the Oblivion Gate of The Shivering Isles, and evidence that Jyggalag is free of Sheogorath, many philosophers have assumed the worst, and that the Fifth Hero sacrificed his very being to Mantle the Madgod, and free the Prince of Logic and Order.

Blake sighed. ‘Okay, never read Tamriel introductions again, because apparently they’re spoilers!’

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Chapter 15: Blood on the Ice, Blood in the Water

Later that night, Weiss was sitting at one of Candlehearth’s bars, throwing a smile towards Susanna as the woman pulled on her coat, getting ready to leave now that her shift was over.

“Take your time, but don’t forget to rest, honey,” she told Weiss with a wink before heading out the door. The girl just shook her head with a laugh. Despite the nickname she got for the flirting, she was actually a rather kind woman. For one thing, she actually saw Dunmer as people first, and couldn’t understand her fellows’ hatred of them.

“Hope she doesn’t bother you too much,” Elda said as she wiped up a clean mug. “She can be a little bit much for some, but she really can bring in the customers.”

“I have a friend who’d have loved to hear you say that, simply so she could make uncouth jokes at everyone’s expense.”

The inn keeper laughed a little, but a nervousness began to show on her. “Say,” she began. “You’re…a fighter, right? Do you think you could do me a favor?”

‘Oh boy…’

“If it’s within my limits, certainly.”

“Could you…watch over Susanna while she walks home? The streets have been…dangerous lately, and I fear for the girl. She’s headstrong though, and won’t ask for anyone to walk with her, even though… Will you, at least?”

“Ah, that’s not too much to ask.” Weiss stood up and stretched herself. “Just point me in the right direction.”

“Thank you kindly. I’ll have a free cup for you when you get back. She normally heads through the cemetery on her way home, towards the west. She usually stops there a minute, so you’ll likely catch up with her there.”

“I remember seeing it earlier. I’ll find it. I’ll be back shortly.”

“Keep yourself safe as well,” Elda warned as Weiss opened the door and stepped out into the cold night air. She took and deep breath and headed on her way, using clairvoyance for just a moment to get started. As she walked along and stuck her hands in her coat pockets, a breeze flowed across her, carrying the scents of chimney smoke, pines, and blood.

Weiss paused in her steps and took a sniff of the air. She was picking up blood and a lot of it. She started walking quicker, deciding to track the scent first and then go back on Susanna’s trail. However, as she got closer to the source of the scent she realized she was still headed towards the cemetery rather than veering off like she'd expected. She turned a corner, seeing the light of the cemetery candles, and saw an older woman in threadbare clothes looking over the balcony, covering her mouth with eyes wide open. Weiss looked over and saw Susanna, her coat thrown aside, clothing ripped apart, and her body pockmarked by stab wounds. She was lying atop a grave, a bloody pool still growing around it.

“Oh gods!” Weiss muttered in horror.

His foe then twisted his mace, shattering his sword. Surprised as he was, he was unprepared for the Dremora to kick his chest and then pin him to the ground.

“You were strong, mortal, but not nearly strong enough!” the daedra taunted, swapping his mace for a sword and hoisting it above him. “How does it feel knowing that you’ve failed?”

The young man clenched his teeth, clawing at the foot pressing down on him, and tried to stand, but it was no use. He looked up at the Dremora with defiance in his eyes.

“I…didn’t fail. I did exactly…what I set out to do. I beat your army back long enough…for my team, my friends, to get as many people out of the city as they could.” His hand fell to his side, but his eyes continued staring with righteous anger at the monster before him. “I don’t matter. Only they do. They’re the strong ones, the powerful ones, the ones with skill. I’m just a boy who tried to swing a sword. That’s all you’ve beaten.”

The Dremora snarled as he reversed his grip on the blade and hefted it up to stab down into the young man, who continued to refuse giving him the satisfaction of seeing any fear or regret.

“This is only the beginning!” it shouted as its arms raised up high. “Of our vic-”

A spear suddenly sank into the Dremora’s chest, and only a second later a hammer was swung forward, smashing into its gullet and sending it flying back, causing the spear to be forced from its body. The young knight looked up to see his two female companions standing battle ready, and then his two male friends dragged him back a few feet and started tending to his wounds.

“Don’t you ever,” that musical voice reprimanded, cracks coming up to try and interrupt her words, “do something so foolish again!”

“You have several cuts, and I think a rib might be cracked, but overall you’re fine.”

“And if that isn’t a shattered sword I see,” the Unknown One observed. “Good thing I brought you a spare.” Said spare sword was stabbed a few inches higher than his knees in the space between his legs. A little frightened of the placement, but thankful for the blade, he took it in his hand as he was helped up to his feet.

“Ready when you are boss!” the Hammer-Maiden called back as their Dremora foe stood up and a veritable sea of scamps and clanfears came charging.

“Keep them from the Gate!” he shouted as he readied himself for battle.

The carriage stopped with a small jolt, pulling Blake out of her reading. It was rather good, to be honest, if a little embellished. The thought of the Hero of Kvatch being a boy with only a few months of basic training saving the world was obviously an artistic interpretation meant to sell more copies. She read the exact same plot numerous times back on Remnant. Yawning, Blake took a look around to see that the sun was going down, and it looked like the carriage driver was getting ready to set camp for the night.

“I think that’s as far as I need you to take me,” Blake told him as she climbed down and began packing her things. It was much warmer this far south, but Blake still needed a coat on.

“I wouldn’t be going just so soon, missy. As tired as ya were this morning, I doubt you up for trekkin’ at night.” He gestured over to what looked like a bonfire nearby. “Ya better off waitin’ here, near the Steamcrag Clan’s camp. The Giants’ll keep most anything away, and we can always get near the fire if it gets too cold on ya.”

“Thanks, but, I’m in a-”

The familiar roar of a dragon stopped her words and Blake felt dread overtake her. In all their encounters with the beasts, she was never the one doing much damage to them. The most she could do was distract or go for their wings. She looked west and saw one coming from a plateau. The Giants nearby were moving around, startled, and the mammoths trumpeted in fear as the fire-breathing reptile swooped in and hovered down, landing only a few meters away from them. The bronze and grey dragon let out a sound that Blake could only consider a laugh.

“Welcome, little joor, to the lands of Vulgahrotru. You needn’t worry. There is simply a toll, a fine you must pay for passing through my borders.” The dragon laughed again, as though doing this was hilarious.

“Wha- what do you want?” the carriage driver stuttered out, holding onto the horse’s reins to keep it from galloping away.

“Mm, I’d say…fifty gold for both of you, and twenty for your key.”

"My... My what?" The carriage driver was a strange of mixture of confused and terrified as began to fish for his coin purse.

"Your horse," The dragon chuckled, confirming to Blake that this Vulgahrotru did find this to be hilarious.

“And…that’s it?” Blake asked, surprised that she was, essentially, being shaken down by a dragon rather than it trying to kill or eat them.

“Well, I can’t take all of your gold at once. Otherwise, you won’t pass through again, and I won’t be able to charge the fee again. Yuvon nu, yuvon ruz.”

The driver began looking through his coinpurse and started pulling out malks, to which the dragon sneered.

“Not your moonstone bits! Gold!”

“Y-y-y-ya want it in septims? O-okay!” He dropped them back in and began fishing out the gold pieces. Blake checked herself for septims as well, but found she was nine short of fifty.

“Tell me you have at least ten extra,” she whispered over to him. “I’ll give you a malk, just please have ten more septims.”

“I- Ive got ya c-c-covered, lass.”

The two went to hand over the gold, but were unsure how to do so, when the dragon opened its jaws and pulled its tongue back. Blake saw golden trinkets, coins, and even a fork in its mouth, and so dropped her fifty coins in as well. Once they were in the dragon closed its mouth slowly and seemed to be pushing them around with its tongue.

“Mmhm, yes. All accounted for. Tiid bo viing. Farewell, little mortals.” With that the dragon highwayman took off into the air, heading back to his plateau. Blake watched him as far as she could, but at this distance the dragon seemed like a silhouette. The driver nearly collapsed in relief as he let out a sigh.

“By Mara! We were just held up by a dragon! Boys back home ain’t gonna believe this one!”

“I’m…having trouble believing it,” Blake murmured as she looked at the road ahead of them. “You know, I think I will rest for the night.”

'Yang must never know.' Blake thought, knowing exactly how that conversation would go.

‘A serial killer,’ Weiss, standing in front of the palace gates, thought as she shivered once again. Not from the cold, but from the thought that around a corner a killer could be waiting to strike. She was relatively safe, having concentrated on keeping up her Aura defense at all times, but the same couldn’t be said for anyone else. ‘An actual, damned serial killer on the loose.’

With one final push, she stepped into the Palace of the Kings, thankful to see that the steward was still at work this late. She took in a deep breath, ready to approach him and get herself on this case. Her gut told her that she might be the only one able to do this, and it just might be true going by what that guard had said, the conversation still fresh on her mind as she made her way towards the steward.

“Susanna makes the third. It’s always the same: young girl, killed at night, body torn up.”

“How’s the investigation into this going?” Weiss asked, struggling to avert her eyes from the grisly scene.

“To be honest, there isn’t much of one,” the guard explained with shame lacing his voice. “War’s stretched us thin, and the dragons aren’t helping matters. No one has the time to really look into this.”

“What!? No one has the time?!” Weiss practically shrieked, loud enough to echo off the walls.

“Please, don’t be upset. It’s the truth. I’m already pulling a double shift, and I’ve been pulled away from my watch. Jarl Ulfric’s trying to straighten things out with his commanders, but there’s a lot going on. Between keeping villages from being burned down by either dragons or Imperials, and the fighting in general, supply lines, recruit training, arming the soldiers… Just…don’t blame him for this. This killer’s truly taken advantage of the times.”

“But…there must be something. Maybe I could help?”

“You want to help? You can be my guest, but first, you better speak to Steward Jornleif. Make it official.”

“Yes, may I help you?” the tired man asked when Weiss came close.

“Yes, it’s about the recent murders. There’s…been another one. Susanna, who worked at Candlehearth.”

“Susanna?” the man asked in surprise as he fully turned towards her. “Oh, gods, that poor girl. I just can’t… Oh, look, if you want to ask about the investigation-”

“I want to join the investigation,” Weiss clipped in. “Something like this… It can’t be allowed to continue. I never realized how close something like this can hit someone. I saw her less than half an hour before her death. Not only that, but I’ve been trained to investigate criminal acts like this.” Not entirely the truth, but she had been trained in some criminal investigation. “Let me help you.”

“I'm not sure that's appropriate, ma'am,” Jornlief protested with great reluctance. “I'm afraid that-”

“You heard her,” a voice boomed, and the two turned to see Ulfric Stormcloak and his housecarl coming from the east wing. “Let her help.”

“Oh, uh, my Jarl, uh-”

“She has some skill in magic that most of my men lack. She may be able to find angles that we might not have been able to search. And, if she really has been trained for this, she might be the push we need to find this bastard.” The Jarl grimaced. “This killer has made a mockery of my city, and turned the streets at night into a place of fear. He’s harmed my people. Frida Shatter-Shield, Giraise Droldran, and now Susanna. This needs to end.”

‘Droldran?’ Weiss thought. ‘That sounds like a Dunmer name! What is this degenerate’s target spectrum?’

“Of course, my Jarl. Well, then, if you’re going to be on this case, let’s get you a badge of office to-”

Ulfric placed a dagger onto the table, a carving of a bear on its pommel. Weiss immediately picked up the dagger and unsheathed it for a moment to see that the Windhelm bear was also etched on the blade itself.

“Go with my authority. Find this killer, so I can put his head on a pike.” Ulfric practically growled those last few words. Weiss nodded as she sheathed the dagger.

“I won’t disappoint.”

When Weiss got back to the crime scene, the body had already been cleared and taken into the Hall of the Dead. Even after talking to the witnesses and getting permission to examine the body itself, Weiss wasn’t getting much. Susanna’s coinpurse was untouched, so money wasn’t the objective. The beggar she’d seen, Silda, explained that she just heard a scream and came to see Susanna already murdered. A guard had questioned a man named Calixto, who said he saw someone running, but didn’t get a good look at him. That didn’t really narrow anything down. If anything, it only made things more complicated.

'If the motive wasn't money, what was it? Spurned lover? Jealous customer? Brothers, I wish I had more to go on! The incompetence of that guard!' Weiss internally raged, directing a glare towards where the guard stood, who had, perhaps a bit more quickly than normal, had went back to his previous patrol. The idiot didn’t even think to ask which way the suspect had headed, and Weiss let him know just how much of an imbecile he was for that. After venting her frustration a decent amount, the girl went off to the side to take a few breaths of fresh air. She didn’t mind the smell of blood, but the smell of death was something altogether different.

'I just hope that I never get used to the smell of death. Gods know I experience that first one enough as it is. And with the blood...' As she breathed in the clearer air rolling in from outside of the city, she caught a faint whiff of something and looked down. The deliciously sweet scent seemed faded, but she could still pick it up. She bent over and brushed away the snow layer by layer until her eyes caught the slight spreading of a red line. Weiss tapped a finger to it and brought it to her mouth.

‘Blood,’ she realized. She took a sniff of the air again and began walking forward. She uncovered another spot of blood, and looked forward, practically seeing with her nose at this point. She slowly followed the trail, taking deep breaths in through her nose and out of her mouth to the side. There was almost no chance that anyone else could have followed such a trail, but Weiss’s sense of smell was especially attuned to the scent of blood. Even a Khajiit would have had trouble matching her in this regard.

Following the faint trail of blood, Weiss walked through the city, moving out of the Stone District and into Valunstrad, where all the nobles lived. No one was awake at this hour, so she wasn't disturbed. So focused on the trail of blood, she didn't notice that the trail stopped at a door until she walked straight into it.

"Ow!" Weiss grunted in slight pain, holding her nose as she gazed at the door. "Stupid... Wait. The trail... It goes inside..." Weiss could smell the blood from outside, and judging by the strength of the stench, it was a lot. Backing up, she was able to observe the manor in greater detail. It was a large, wood and stone two-story manor, surrounded by an iron fence. It was close to the palace, and seemed practically abandoned. She tested the knob and snarled when she found it locked.

“What a time to not have Blake around,” she muttered as she stepped back and looked the house over once. She focused magic into her eyes, weaving it so that it matched the pattern she wanted, and then she could see pinks lights all over the district in the basic shapes of humans, a few dogs and cats, and a family of mice. Nothing appeared inside the house before her, telling her that the killer had left the vicinity. She sighed and let go of the detect life spell. Just in case, she cast detect undead, but saw nothing but her own hands glow. Satisfied, she left the building, planning to get someone to unlock it for her, or just get a key.

Finally arriving to Riften, a little shorter on septims than she would have preferred, Blake walked from the stables up to the city of Riften as the carriage driver told a heroic story about how a dragon had forced him and “the fair young maiden” to pay a toll or be eaten, where he naturally gave her what she needed to pay the beast off, for while he was a man of heart, he was not so much one of arms. Blake decided to let him have at it and acted like she couldn’t hear him. Seeing the wooden gate standing before her up the hill and the wooden walls, she once again felt a bit of apprehension concerning so much burnable surface area when there were fire-breathing dragons about. Still, dragons weren’t the problem right now. Rather, she was glaring at her current problem, a guard who had stopped her from entering.

"There’s a tax for all new visitors to Riften," the guard, wearing the purple gambeson of the Rift, smugly told Blake. "Twenty-five septims to enter.” The guard held out his hand, expecting to receive the 'tax', only to quickly pull his arms back when Blake merely glared harder and crossed her arms.

“Look, I got shaken down by a dragon on the way here. I am not putting up with this! Let me in right now, or I swear I’ll-”

“Alright, alright,” the guard placated her. The other guard nearby looked over to them, his eyes squinting at his fellow, confused as towards his actions. Or frustrated over his apparent lack of spine. Blake couldn't quite tell with the helmet. Regardless, the first guard began walking towards the gate. “Keep your voice down. Go on in then.” He pulled the gate open and Blake walked through to see Riften from within. The city almost seemed to be halfway a dock, with much of the market and shopping district suspended over the waters of the lake. Blake could actually look down in several places and see water, as well as the lower level of the city, which seemed to be where most of the commoner population actually lived. Some people fished from just outside of their homes, making Blake think of having a nice trout for dinner before she refocused on her task. She saw a sign for ‘The Bee and Barb’ and, assuming from the building’s size that it was the local inn, she pushed open a door, curiously placed at the building’s corner, and entered into the atmosphere of coziness she was coming to associate with inns and their main floors.

“Come on in,” a raspy voice called out from behind the counter. Blake walked in the rest of the way and shut the door behind her, then noticed that the person working behind the bar was actually a female Argonian, identifiable by her slimmer, almost feminine build and duller scales, as well as a lack of feathers, large horns, head crests, or head bumps that the males displayed. A waiter taking orders at a table was actually a male Argonian, and Blake had to wonder if they were married or related. “Don’t be shy, dear,” the female continued, somehow getting her voice to carry a sense of care across. “Let Keerava know what she can do for you," the female Argonian, Keerava, spoke in an approximation of normal Khajiit speak, only to receive a blank look from Blake. Rubbing the back of the head, Keerava let out a small chuckle. "Heh, sorry if I offended you there. Just saw the ears. Wasn’t-”

“It’s okay. I don’t talk like that anyways,” Blake brushed off. “Never even been to Elsweyr, so,” she shrugged.

“Oh, well, if you don’t mind my two cents, perhaps you should visit, once things calm down. It’s always good to see the lands of your ancestors, get a perspective on the past.” Blake thought over her words for a moment before nodding.

“I might one day. Right now though, I was hoping you could point me out to the orphanage, Honorhall?”

“Honorhall? Ah, Sithis’ spit! Look dear, if you were hoping to adopt, I have some bad news for you there.”

Blake felt a knot form in her throat. Was she too late?

“See, for some reason I can’t fathom, adoptions aren’t being allowed right now. I can’t tell you why. If I ran an orphanage, my only worry would be if I was sending them to a good home. Other than that, I’d do my best to get them out as quick as I could. Of course, I run an inn, so I’m always trying to get people inside, and only out when they don’t pay or get unruly.”

“Oh, I see,” Blake sighed in relief. “Well, it’s not that. I just have an important message to give to the headmistress. Family related.”

“Oh, courier then? Or one-time job? Eh, either way, can’t imagine anyone sending her something. Maybe someone died? Well, you’ll find Honorhall on the west side, on the southern pad, just past the Scorched Hammer. If you see Rena’s goat, you’ve gone too far south. If you’re wondering which is Rena’s, it’s the only one in town.”

“Thank you so much,” Blake said as she headed for the door. She paused a moment and looked back. “I, uh, may need a room when I’m done.”

“And you’ll have one once you pay,” Keerava responded playfully. Blake smiled, headed back out, and went south of the inn. As she maneuvered through the odd, planked streets, she heard voices calling out, trying to get customers to look at their wares. There was another Argonian at one stall, right across from a Dunmer, and both seemed to be selling jewelry, though the Dunmer also had an array of daggers and potions on display. As she started wondering why the two seemed to not have any sort of hatred showing between them, a large Nord stepped in her way and stared down at her.

“I don’t know you,” he growled bluntly. “You in Riften looking for trouble?”

“I’m just here for a little while then I’m gone.” She made to go around him, but he stepped back in her way. A grimace crept onto her face as she looked up at him angrily.

“Well listen here, get out quick. The Black-Briars don’t need anyone sticking their nose around here.”

“Who?” The large Nord snarled and actually had the audacity to look offended

“The Black-Briars are the most powerful family in the Rift, and have Riften in their pocket, and the Thieves Guild watchin' their back, so you best keep your nose out of their business. Otherwise, you answer to me, Maul.” Maul declared, slapping his large war hammer for added emphasis, only to receive an unamused reaction from the faunus.

“Well, lucky for you, I’m not interested in anything here," At this point, Blake moved around the man, only to pause. "…What’s even your deal with me? I can’t be the only person you haven’t seen before.”

“No, but you stood out. Most Khajiit don’t leave their caravans, and I ain’t heard a Khajiit speak clear like you before. Ya practically sound like a Breton. Then you go looking for information. I don’t know what it was, but I’m keeping an eye out on you.”

“I was just looking for the orphanage, okay.”

“Heh, so that’s it, huh?” He seemed entertained by that statement. “All right then, piece of “friendly” advice, stay out of Maven Black-Briar’s way. She’s pretty much runs the whole operation. She's got friends in high places if you know what I mean. She's also got ties to the Dark Brotherhood and the Thieves Guild, so basically no one can touch her.” At that Blake’s eyes opened wide and her breath hitched in her throat. Maul noticed and chuckled. “Yeah, I see that got your attention real quick. Just remember, if she tells you to do somethin'... you damn well better do exactly what she says.”

With that, the man walked away, and Blake did her best to recover her sense.

‘Couldn’t have anything to do with it. She doesn’t even know who we are! I don’t even know who she is! But, if I- No!’ She banished the thought of her silently ‘getting rid of him’ from her mind. More than a little unnerved still, Blake continued on towards Honorhall, hoping she was in time.