Chapter 1

'Crack'

The sharp sound akin to a pair of porcelain materials grinding together came from his left. He peered up from the report about several miraculous improvements in CRDL's grades, to see his favorite coffee mug on the left with an impossibly precise, but clear weakness in its otherwise well carved interior imagery.

He sighed, he had been rather fond of the miniature depictions of Huntsmen and Grimm doing battle within his mug.

The dark Ambrosia leaked from the perfect flaw of the mug and threatened to seep into the white reports on his desk with its tantalizing shades. However, the Headmaster was faster with his superior skill. It was but a flick of a wrist to pick up all the sheets of paper into an orderly pile that was perfectly boxed and balancing it on the cane he had leaning on the right side of his desk. His other hand reached to his scroll to call his assistant.

"Glynda, there seems to be a mess in my office. Do bring some 'cleaning supplies' would you?"
Now usually, he would never ask her to do such a thing. That was what the cleaning staff was for after all. No, that was a code word, one of many he had prepared to say under very specific situations.

This one set the security level on campus an additional level up.

Immediately, the gears rotation over his head halted their rhythmic movement several times, before continuing on as if it never happened.

The headmaster waited several seconds, before the elevator doors to his office opened up, revealing none other than his personal assistant, Glynda Goodwitch.

Glynda appeared to be a middle-aged woman with very light-blonde hair tied back in a bun with a curl hanging down the right side of her face. Her eyes were bright green and she wore a pair of thin ovular glasses. She had teal hanging earrings with a small bead identical to her earrings on her collar.

She wore a white long-sleeved suit that exposes part of her cleavage, and puffy sleeves that tightened near the wrist before spreading back out near her hands. Her lower body had a black business skirt with buttons running in a vertical line up the front of it and lighter black-brown stockings.

She wore black boots with brown heels, and a tattered cape that is both purple inside and black on the outside, decorated by a row of diamond-shaped brown beads going horizontally across her cape. Above this line of beads appears an emblem of a tiara that is her personal symbol. A subtle thing that no one other than another master hunter would have noticed.

Calmly, her sharp eyes surveyed the scene in front of her, scraping the area for any indication that could have caused the trigger of the code word. She saw her 'Boss' sitting beind his desk calmly, his stack of paperwork balanced on the cane to his right side. On the gear-themed table was the after mentioned 'mess', an ever growing pool of bitter-smelling liquid that stemmed from the coffee mug on his left…which hadn't tipped over?

"Ah Glynda, come we must discuss this." He had one hand folded over his mouth, while the other gestured to the seemingly whole mug standing innocently over the mess. "As you can see, I did not in fact carelessly spill my quarter-full glass of coffee, tip it back and call you here so that you could clean up the mess and make me a new full glass of your wonderful coffee."

Despite the half-true admittance, the woman didn't change her stoic expression. "I assume that you had more in mind than just saying how much you'd like to have an infinite supply of my hand-brewed coffee?" She adjusted her spectacles as she walked over to inspect the mess, her weapon of choice, a crop, out and ready to handle the situation.

"Indeed, my Coffee mug seems to have developed an unseen flaw and cracked open."

The secretary furrowed her brow ever so slightly in disbelief, the mug was hand crafted from a very reputable supplier, one she had personally oversaw the dev- procurement of as a gift.

Glynda peered over the table, just enough to see into the mug, her keen eyes going wide at the impossibility before her.

The Coffee mug had cracked into a very specific shape, one that was a geometrically simplified trident with an indent over the middle point pike. Glynda eyed the symbol for several more moments before straightening herself up and waving her riding crop. This caused the window to open up and the now cooled caffeine gather itself up, levitate outside, and land harmlessly on some trees. The paperwork followed, as it set itself down in an organized fashion, a larger pile going to the desk while a smaller one headed to her hands. The man raised an eye brow when his now shattered mug followed suit.

"I might as well process these while I'm here right? In any case, I shall ensure that this mess does not repeat itself"

He said nothing, watching her leave with the completed paperwork in one arm with the strangely damaged coffee mug set over it. She entered the lift and disappeared below.

He waited several moments in his semi-circular gear-themed chair before releasing a bated breath, one of both relief and resignation.

"Now… what have we here?"

Standing up from his seat, the headmaster ignored the pile of paperwork yet to be done in favour of the small bookshelf he kept. Not many people kept such things now with the level of technology available, but… there was always something comforting in holding a weighty book, as if it had power of some sort.

The man ran his fingers over a row of finely printed, hardcover books, only stopping when he reached near the end. Pulling it out, he noticed that the nearly crumbling leather bound journal had the exact same insignia upon its front page, as if brand new.

Turning it over, the headmaster could only imagine its contents, for he had never opened its crumbling pages.

This aged book, dating back during a time before recorded history of Faunus and Humanity, resisted all attempts to pry it open. Nothing but age seem to have any effect on it, and even that was slow despite its age.

He didn't remember ever getting such a distinct volume, yet it was there.

He looked grasoed the spine and flipped the journal over, and brought it closer to his face. Immediately, he wished he hadn't.

Blood.

The book smelled of blood, no it seemed to be seeped in life fluids of all kinds. The smell was so over powering that even he was repulsed by such a strong and fresh stench. How could he have missed something as odorous as this? Something with such a strong aromatic signature eluding his senses while literally beside him? He knew this scent well, having been in its presence for much of his training years. He gently traced his hands over the book, noting how its pages seemed to part ever so slightly-

A buzzer sounded from his desk, and Ozpin shook his head to clear the addictive haze that had somehow ensnared him. Someone was calling him, but they could wait.

Ozpin tried to open the book as he had nearly succeeded in just moments before, but it failed, he also noticed the overpowering stench of blood was gone. It was now just a regular old book that could not be opened once again.

Sighing, the headmaster placed the ancient tome back to where it belonged and walked over to answer the call. He would solve this mystery another day.

"Headmaster speaking"

"Sir, there is someone that demands to meet you, insists he knows about the 'Mark'. Should I send him a way?"

"No, send him in" After a small pause he responded again, "Did he give a name?"

"Djura, no family name"

"That will be all, thank you"

"Have a pleasant day, sir."

Again, the gears over Ozpin's head pauses several times before returning to a normal rythm, signifying a load upon the elevator.

Djura was coming.