Chapter Text
Ruby bids the shopkeeper a cheery goodbye as she skips out of the door, gazing up to the blue fairy-lights that lend the nighttime streets of Citadel its unearthly beauty. She could fly home, she supposes, but there’s just something about walking at night that feels...adventurous. She pats her bookbag, reasoning that she can tell Dad she’s home late because the new books she got made her too heavy to fly. He’s no aeromancer. He won’t know she’s full of it.
Besides... there’s a big hole at home where her sister used to be. Gone without a trace for almost two weeks, and now the news that her uncle’s vanished from his post, too? Better to walk the streets, listening to the waves and feeling the magic that thrums throughout the city, than to lie in bed awake and anxious. She’ll do anything to avoid another quiet dinner with the dog watching the door, waiting for his favorite to come back home. Another night of listening to her father pace back and forth in his room.
She closes her eyes and focuses on the gentle breeze coming in from the Opaque Sea, the air humming along her skin. Focusing on the natural movement of the element she controls always helps, reminds her of the flow of the world, a current she needn’t always stand against.
It’s not that she doesn’t know her way home from the bookstore, of course. She just takes a few detours along the way, following her senses to gaze upon the remnants of rituals cast aside in alleyways, picking up pieces of broken idols or shards of gems. She stuffs the loudest into her bookbag, to add to her bowls back home. Running her fingers through them always feels nice.
It’s on one of these detours that she hears some kind of sizzling, a pulse of strange magic rippling through her body right after. She drops the heart-shaped emerald she’d been contemplating and cautiously steps out of the alley towards the sensation. The air buzzes with power.
When she turns the corner, she spots the source. Standing in front of a perfectly circular hole in the wall of a large warehouse is a man, dressed in a well-tailored white suit and red tie, a matching bag slung over his shoulder and a cigar in his mouth. The bowler hat he wears is slightly crooked, his bright orange hair swept out beneath it to cover one eye. He peers into the hole in the wall, raising his hands up in a clear what-are-we-waiting-for message, and on the backs of his neat, white gloves, Ruby spots incredibly intricate ritual circles, like the ones in her family’s spellbooks. The man steps back, and a pair of two other men, dressed in black, come out of the hole carrying a large crate between them.
“Right there. In the middle, you idiots!” the man in charge demands, pointing to a spot on the street. Squinting, Ruby can see that someone’s prepared a ritual circle there, too, chalk etched onto the cobblestones.
Ruby purses her lips. Something’s not right here. Should she fly off and find a guardsman? She’s considering it, wind swirling around her feet, when she sees the girl.
She walks innocently down the street, her green dress swaying around her knees, curly ginger hair bouncing with each step. She can’t be much older than Ruby. The thieves stop all their preparations, the leader pausing mid-crouch, a gem clutched in his hand, meant to join the others he’s been placing.
“Excuse me,” the girl says, her voice loud and clear across the street. “What are you doing?”
By the gods, Ruby’s going to watch someone die.
“We’re robbing the Consortium, dearie,” the leader says, standing up with the gem still in his hand. “What’s it look like?”
“So you confess to breaking and entering, burglary, and misuse of magic?” the girl asks.
“Sure, yeah, kid.” The leader sighs. “You two know this one?” he asks his subordinates, who shrug at him. “So nobody cares if she dies. Great!” He crushes the gem in his hand, uttering a single, strange word, and the following burst of magic is so strong it knocks Ruby out of her freeze.
“No!” she shouts, flying out of the alleyway, whipping up a storm of loose leaves and dirt behind her as she throws herself into the fray. The leader’s midway through throwing something when he turns to face the new threat, and his projectile goes wide, a shower of glowing red shards hitting the ground and exploding violently. The shockwave throws off Ruby’s control, and she slams directly into one of the thugs, knocking them both off their feet.
“Oh, great! You screwed up my circle!” the leader shouts, kicking the thug in the head. “Who the hell is this?” he asks, aiming another kick for Ruby. She flinches, until a rock suddenly whizzes through the air and hits him right in the head, knocking his hat clean off. Ruby looks to the girl, and finds her with her arms raised up, fingers splayed out, a grin on her face. More cobblestones float in the air around her, ready to fly at her command.
“I suggest you surrender peacefully,” she announces, her expression still wide-open, not a hint of anger or fear.
“Do sorcerer kids just live in the garbage around here?!” the leader hisses, clutching his head and glaring between the two girls. Ruby lets out a little sigh of relief that the girl’s not helpless after all, before she shoots herself backwards to avoid the other thug reaching for her shoulders. She winds up on her back beside the geomancer, who looks down at her with a smile.
“Salutations, upstanding citizen!” she says. “Would you mind helping me apprehend these criminals?”
Ruby jumps to her feet, steadying herself into a defensive stance. “You know it,” she affirms.
“I did not, but thank you for informing me!” the girl replies. She turns to the robbers. “Roman Torchwick and associates, you are under arrest by the authority of Magister Ironwood!”
The leader — Roman, presumably — turns to the thug who’s not currently lying winded on the ground and grabs him by the lapels. “You told me you paid off every guardsman in ten blocks!” he growls.
“Does she look like a guardsman?!” the thug replies defensively.
“Remind me to kill your family after I clean up this mess,” Roman says, shoving him off and reaching into his satchel. “Bad news, kids! I’m not scared of you just ‘cause you got fancy tattoos,” he announces, pulling out a large emerald and placing it in his left hand. “And you’re pissing me off by making me waste perfectly good gems, I’ll have you know.”
With another sharp, indecipherable word — a spell, it must be — he crushes the jewel and throws the shards at Ruby and the geomancer. They spew out a thick, greenish fog as they fly, and Ruby reacts instantly, blowing the attack back in their faces with a sweep of her hand. Roman ducks, but his associate isn’t so lucky, a shard flying right into the back of his throat. He falls to the ground, choking and gasping, but before Ruby can be proud of herself, another handful of shards fly at her and she leaps back to avoid the blast. The geomancer beside her, however, stays rooted to the ground, the earth rising around her feet to keep her anchored. With a flourish, she throws out her arms, and the swarm of cobblestones she’s been holding in reserve fly straight for Roman, who ducks behind the crate, covering his mouth to protect himself from the gas he’d released.
Ruby, not really wanting to be responsible for the deaths of the other two men, focuses her power and sends out a gale, blowing the gas down the street, the spent emerald shards tinkling as they roll across the ground.
“Surrender!” the geomancer insists again, but Roman raises himself up, dusting off his coat.
“Okay, okay, you’re a bit faster than I gave ya credit for,” he says, clapping slowly. “But you see, a good conman never lets himself get cornered. He’s always got a getaway.” He raises one hand up, and snaps his fingers.
Ruby doesn’t even feel her coming.
A short woman with long, two-toned hair leaps from the rooftops and plunges her heeled boots right into Ruby’s chest, knocking her to the ground. The woman gazes down at her with mismatched eyes, a childish smirk on her face. As the geomancer turns to face her, she cartwheels off of Ruby, gracefully dancing around her other opponent, getting behind her, and then—
If Ruby could breathe, she would gasp.
The woman’s fingers elongate into razor-sharp claws, her eyes turning pitch black as she stabs the geomancer in the back of the neck. Ruby coughs, her chest seizing in horror — but the geomancer doesn’t seem perturbed at all.
The claws wriggle out from the geomancer’s throat, and the woman tugs on her hand, finding it stuck fast. The girl turns around, gathers scattered cobblestones onto her fist, and punches the woman so hard she flies across the street into a shop window. The worst part is, Ruby hears a distinct crack, and sees that the claws are still stuck in the geomancer.
The geomancer turns back to where Roman had been standing, but there’s no one left standing there anymore, and as she runs across the street to check on the other assailant, she finds the shop empty. Ruby preoccupies herself with getting her breath back and trying to stand, while the geomancer huffs and puts her hands on her hips.
“Those rapscallions!” she declares. “They won’t get away next time!”
“What — hff — was — hff — that?!" Ruby gasps out, and the geomancer jumps in alarm and runs over to steady her.
“I am so sorry you were caught up in this arrest!” the geomancer cries. “Are you well? Do I need to take you to see a healer? The Schnee coven has fine witches, I can contact them right now!”
“You, uh, have...a thing,” Ruby manages to say, pointing at the claws still stuck in the girl’s throat.
“Oh!” She looks down, frowns, and grabs the claws with one hand, yanking them out and throwing them to the ground. “How embarrassing!”
“...Who are you?” Ruby asks, her breathing finally steady.
“My name is Penny. What’s yours?” Penny sticks out a hand, and Ruby reaches out hesitantly to shake it. As soon as they touch, she feels a jolt — she feels Penny, as though she’s shaping modeling clay, feeling the strength that it will hold once it’s been fired. Penny beams. “You are very turbulent!” she says, and Ruby’s cheeks flush. Right. Links are a two-way street between sorcerers.
Ruby snatches her hand away. “I, um, I’m Ruby. Ruby Rose.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ruby Rose. Please excuse me for a moment.” Penny reaches into a pocket on her dress and withdraws a small, rough crystal, reciting an incantation. The crystal glows bright blue, and Penny holds it to her mouth. “Ms. Schnee? The situation is safe to approach. We have two incapacitated suspects.”
“We?” the crystal asks.
“An upstanding citizen came to my aid during the attempted arrest. Her name is Ruby Rose, and she is an aeromancer! Isn’t that wonderful?”
“...I’ll be right there, Penny. Did you get Torchwick?”
“Negative, ma’am. A strange woman came to his aid and distracted me long enough for him to make an escape, and Ruby is clearly too injured to assist in a manhunt right now.”
“We have spotters all over the area. If they’re here, we’ll get them. Should I bring a healer?”
“Just winded!” Ruby shouts, still feeling flushed and flustered. “N-no need!”
“Torchwick’s partner landed on her from the rooftops,” Penny adds helpfully.
“I’m bringing a healer.”
“She was really little!” Ruby insists. “It’s — I’m fine, really!” Even if the adrenaline is starting to wear off and it kind of hurts to breathe in.
“Just stay put, we’ll have people there to help you soon.”
Ruby’s tempted to argue again, but she can’t get another word out before Penny says, “Affirmative, ma’am! We will keep an eye on Torchwick’s associates.” She puts the crystal back in her pocket and places her hands on Ruby’s shoulders. “Are you well?”
“Why are you asking me?” Ruby asks, staring at Penny’s throat. “You — you got stabbed! Right in the neck!”
“Oh! I suppose that would be rather alarming.” Penny smiles, then lifts her bangs up off of her forehead. A blue, glowing rune is engraved there, a circle with a line running from the bottom to the center. “I am a golem! I am in no danger from such an attack.”
“A golem?!” Ruby gasps.
“Is...is that bad?” Penny asks, frowning.
“It’s awesome!” Ruby cries, bouncing in Penny’s grasp before she winces with a jab of pain in her sternum. “Ow. But seriously, that’s so cool! I didn’t know anyone managed to actually make a golem!”
“I think it is fantastic as well,” Penny says, her face softening. “Are you sure you’re not hurt, though?”
“I...it kind of...hurts to breathe?”
“It’s likely she bruised or fractured your collarbone when she jumped on you!” Penny says with a gasp. “Please, at least sit down, do not over-exert yourself! Your bones are awfully fragile.”
“Yeah, yeah, sitting down sounds good,” Ruby agrees, dropping to the ground and putting a hand on her chest, trying to breathe shallowly. Penny nods at her, then turns, raising her arms and dangling her fingers like she’s putting on a puppet show. The scattered cobblestones across the street rise into the air, then slot back into the places where Torchwick’s attacks had blown holes in the ground. Ruby watches her work, wide-eyed.
Sorcery is so cool.
She wonders what she and Penny might have been able to do if they’d linked up during the fight. Maybe they could’ve made a sandstorm to pin Torchwick down behind that crate? Or maybe—
Approaching footsteps break her out of her thoughts, and she looks around to find a small squad of people coming out from an alley. The woman at the front draws her eye first, tall with white hair and dark eyebrows, wearing white-and-blue robes. She approaches Penny first, while some of the other witches start looking over the crime scene, unfolding stretchers to carry the two thugs away.
As Penny starts to explain how the battle happened, a young man with neatly cropped hair kneels down in front of Ruby, looking her up and down with bright blue eyes. “Hey, I’m Clover. What’s the damage?” he asks, starting to reach into his witch’s bag.
“Uhm,” Ruby says, swallowing. “Penny said she thought my collarbone might be bruised or...or fractured. It hurts to breathe.”
Clover nods at her, taking out his chalk. “Lie on your back with your hands crossed over your chest, please.”
Ruby follows his instructions, turning her head to watch him etch a small circle around her body, filling it with runes and small offerings of gems and herbs she doesn’t recognize.
“All right, you’re gonna wanna cough really badly, but hold it in, okay? I’m gonna blow this in your face at the end of the spell, and you have to inhale it,” Clover says, crouching over her and uncapping a vial of greenish powder, emptying it into his hands.
“Cohm can be picky about this stuff. If we fail the ritual, though, don’t worry, I’ve got plenty of supplies right here in my bag,” he assures her, patting the bag in question.
“Got it,” Ruby says weakly, turning her eyes up to the sky again.
Clover pauses before starting the ritual, reaching into his pocket and flipping a coin, catching it with the same hand. “Under Chance’s gaze. Here we go,” he says with a grin after viewing the result, stuffing the coin back into his pocket and stepping back to stand at Ruby’s feet. He doesn’t even check the spellbook at his hip as he speaks his incantation, finishing by giving a mighty blow to the herbs in his hand.
They tickle Ruby’s nose as they fall around her, and when she breathes in, they burn at the back of her throat. But she holds herself steady, and after a moment, the gems surrounding her pop and crumble into coal, chalk dust flying into the air, the herbs burning up into nothing. She takes in a deep breath.
“Great job, kid, you’re a natural,” Clover says, offering a hand to help her up. Ruby takes it gratefully, amazed at how much easier it seems to breathe and move.
“I’ve never done that before,” Ruby admits.
“Good thing, too! Nobody wants to see the healer,” Clover says with a smile.
“Clover, could you check over this circle?” another witch calls from near the crate. “I can’t quite figure out what they were trying to cast here.”
“Duty calls,” Clover says, sauntering off as the tall woman turns to Ruby.
“Ruby Rose, was it?” she asks, holding out a hand. “Winter Schnee. Penny tells me you showed great bravery in intervening when you did.”
Ruby hesitantly shakes her hand. “I just did what seemed right. I didn’t know Penny was a—” Ruby spots Penny frantically gesturing in the background, pointing at her rune in ways that very clearly mean do not tell her, “A geomancer!” Ruby finishes quickly.
“She’s one of our finest,” Winter says, looking back at Penny affectionately. “You wouldn’t happen to be the daughter of Summer Rose, would you?”
“Um...yeah? That’s me.” Ruby shuffles back uncomfortably. “Why?”
“You do your name justice,” Winter says firmly. “I’ll be sure to mention you in my report to the Magister.”
“Oh, you don’t need to do that,” Ruby deflects, blushing. “I’m — I’m nobody, really.”
“A strange thing to hear, from someone with a name like yours.” Winter looks her up and down. “I wish to thank you properly, and it will be done. I’ll make sure you’ll receive a small reward for your work, and a good word with the Guardian — assuming you’re not yet with the Core?”
“I’m going in a couple years,” Ruby says with a shrug.
“Perhaps we could...speed that along? You’ve clearly been developing your talent.”
“Well, I have it, what else should I do with it?” Ruby says with a chuckle. “Oh, but you don’t need to mention me to Chloe! She knows me already.”
“Hm… of course she does.” Winter clears her throat. “I assume you have questions about what you saw. I’ll get to the answers: Roman Torchwick is a criminal associated with underground cursing covens we’ve been tracking throughout Citadel. They’ve been stealing gems for their illegal activities for some time, but our average guardsmen are proving too easily bought or too easily beaten to deal with his... unusual combat technique.”
“What was he doing?” Ruby asks. “He had these gloves…”
“He’s a practicing war witch; an old art from before the Core was established and the Witchdom had loyal sorcerers serving it. We had to prove ourselves capable of defending against the Wilds actively, and so we designed ways to use formal magic in combat. It’s terribly inefficient, of course, but very...flashy, as you saw.” Winter curls her mouth. “As for the woman who attacked you...it may prove that Roman has other allies. What Penny described to me sounds like Wilds magic—warlock magic—and that could mean much, much worse things than an active cursing coven.” Winter puts her hands behind her back. “Ruby Rose, you have my assurance as the master of this coven that we shall protect you and your family from any retaliation by Torchwick or his allies.”
“Thank you,” Ruby says with a sigh. “But I don’t think he knew who I was at all.”
“That’s for the best. You don’t need to get caught up in this.” Winter looked to her witches, who were filing out of the street, heading towards whatever destination they had in mind for Torchwick’s goons. “It was good to meet you. Do you require an escort home?”
Ruby shakes her head. “No, I think I can fly home now, it won’t be a problem.”
“Clover always does exceptional spellwork,” Winter says, then turns to Penny. “Penny? It’s time we get moving, come along.”
“Wait!” Ruby cries out. “Is Penny going to the Core, too? We’d make great teammates!”
“I would love to!” Penny says, grinning.
Winter stiffens. “Penny...has other duties, I’m afraid. The Core isn’t the place for her.”
“Oh,” Ruby says, slumping down. “Well...I’m sure I’ll see you around, Penny!”
“I would like that,” Penny says with a smile.
Ruby steps back from them, forming a vortex around her body. With a wave, she calls, “Take care, friend!” and rockets up into the Citadel sky, hovering just under the blue sparkles of the ward dome. As she spots her home in the distance and starts making her way there, a thought comes to mind.
She’s going to have a lot to explain to her father.