Meet Glynda Goodwitch.
Please read the author's note at the bottom once you're finished.
Edit: After playing the dialog in Ozpin's office again and again in my head, I felt increasingly unsatisfied with how I portrayed Glynda. So, I added some more thoughts and hints throughout the chapter. If you already have read it, I suggest you reread, starting from the scene in her apartment.
Enjoy
Her gaze drifted left and right, trying to find something to orientate herself to. Wherever she turned, the same dark blackness greeted her.
In fact, she couldn't even discern whether or not she moved at all, strangely having no feeling of her body whatsoever.
She started walking, taking one silent footstep after another, aimlessly wandering around in the dark, the indistinguishable expanse seemingly endless.
She made out a faint light in the distance.
As she drew nearer, the shape of a person began to take form. It was a woman, sitting in seiza, facing away from her.
Her shiny raven hair was woven into a long braid, which was built into a complicated looking top knot around a metallic hairpin, the rest dangling over her right shoulder. She was clad in black leather armor with silver highlights.
"You're late, Glynda," sounded an ethereal, deep, feminine voice from all around her, sending shivers down her spine.
"Who... who are you?" She demanded, her voice shaking.
"What, do you mean to tell me," the woman continued, slowly turning around, "that you don't recognize your best friend?"
Eyes full of black stared back at her, blood oozing out of them, running in fine lines down her face. Her ghostly pale skin seemed to glow, creating a stark contrast against her hair, eyes, and blood red lips.
"O-Onyx?" Glynda gasped, horrified, "what happened to you?"
A low chuckle echoed through the darkness. "You always were slow, weren't you?" She inclined her head slightly, drawing Glynda's gaze to the hand-sized glass shard protruding from her throat. "Remember now? Remember what you did?"
"I... what... how? I don't understand."
"Look into yourself and listen, carefully," the woman replied mysteriously, "for truth can only be found in the soul."
"What, wait!" A feeling of vertigo washed over her. "What do you mean, 'look into yourself'?" The sensation of falling growing stronger, tugging at her. "Answer me! Waiiiiii-" Weightlessness overcame her, the woman's form growing increasingly smaller above her. Panic rushed through her body, her heart beating frantically.
Glynda shot up in her bed, panting heavily, her fingers firmly grasping her bedding. Her fair skin glistened with sweat, the white tank top soaking wet. She shoved a few strands of sticky hair out of her face and shielded her eyes from the intruding morning light.
Groaning, she pushed herself up against the wooden headboard and let her head fall backwards. Exhaling shakily, Glynda tried to banish all lingering thoughts of the nightmare from her mind.
'Look into yourself'. Whatever that means, she thought, irritated. Onyx had never been the strongest with words, always talking in riddles and preaching her maxims. But still, she could only guess at its possible meaning.
Her breathing and heart rate normalizing, a placid feeling began to spread gradually through her body.
It had been a while since she had dreamed of one of her teammates, the scars deeply buried within herself, but the happenings during yesterday's Initiation had apparently shaken her more than previously assumed.
The start of the semester and subsequent team building was always a trying time period for her and she tried to distance herself as much as possible from the goings-on.
"How can you ever trust her, when she was keeping secrets from the very first moment." Miss Schnee's words echoed in her head.
Listening to them had been like a dagger through the heart, and she had excused herself from the Initiation site after making sure that all students would make their way back safely.
To this day, she still couldn't discern the whats and hows of the events that had transpired that fateful day in Mount Glenn. Was that what her dream had tried to tell her? That the answers were already within herself but she refused to see them?
She didn't think so.
Anyway, whether she knew the truth or not hardly mattered anymore. What mattered was preparing the new students so that they may never have to go through the things she did.
Sighing, she picked up her scroll from the bedside table. Maximizing it, a message from Ozpin popped into focus.
Please report to my office before the first time period this morning. Ozpin
"Great," she mumbled, her head once again resting atop the headboard, eyes closed. "First day of school and I already have to clean up some mess he's caused."
With tremendous effort, she picked herself off the bed and made her way to the bathroom to freshen up.
Daily routine taken care off, she donned her teaching outfit and cloak, securing her riding crop to her right boot.
Looking herself up and down, stern mien in place, she nodded approvingly to her reflection and began making her way out of the apartment.
Strolling through the deserted corridors, her mind wandered back to the confrontation between Miss Schnee and Miss Belladonna the previous day.
She had been honestly shocked upon the revelation of the latter's faunus heritage. Ozpin, being the sly bastard that he was, hadn't looked surprised at all. He had most likely known about it from the very beginning and chosen to not fill her in.
It was at moments like this that she wondered why she endured his constant games and secrecy.
Speaking of secrets, Mister Arc had obviously also been in the know about Miss Belladonna's, seeing as he had been the one to relieve her of her bow.
Another thing that doesn't add up about him, she thought, making her way past the infirmary. Glancing inside, she briefly observed the aforementioned blonde sleeping in a bed, tossing in his sleep, a strained expression on his face.
Seems like I'm not the only one having a rough night, she thought tiredly, continuing on her way.
The latest member of the Arc line was a mystery to her. His transcripts presented him as top of the year and an all-around model student, but what she had witnessed so far hadn't matched up with said description.
He was unfocused and brash and evidently not properly prepared for the life of a huntsman. Him not having a landing strategy and getting hurt badly in the process had been the final nail in the proverbial coffin.
She had been convinced that his transcripts must be a forgery and that he had lied his way into Beacon.
But just as he was about to prove her fears right and find an untimely end by the claws of a Beowolf, the unthinkable had happened.
Mister Arc had drawn, dodged and struck so quickly in one fluid motion, that she first couldn't believe her eyes. He had then proceeded to push the limits of possible, getting up on his injured legs, suffering through unimaginable pains to save his partner.
This had left Glynda deeply impressed and ultimately even more confused than before.
The lift's chime sounded, heralding her arrival to the headmaster's office, breaking her out of her thoughts.
"What a lovely morning," Ozpin greeted her, situated like always behind his desk, coffee mug in hand, "wouldn't you agree, Glynda?"
Before she could respond, he continued, likely knowing that she would refute his previous statement. "We missed you yesterday at the team inaugurations."
"You know full well why I prefer not to attend these and yet you keep–"
"–pestering you about it every year. Yes, I'm well aware of it." He sighed, looking at her sorrowfully. "But one shall never lose hope."
She crossed her arms. Fixing a stern glare on the headmaster, her temper flared up. "Get to the point already, I got classes to prepare."
The brief look of hurt on Ozpin's face made her instantly feel guilty for exploding at him like that. She let out a shaky breath. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to–"
"It's fine," he reassured, coming around the desk and laying a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Having nightmares again?" He prodded carefully.
She looked down, nodding jerkily. She hated feeling so vulnerable, Ozpin's soothing nature reducing her to a child once again, and all she wanted to was to burrow her head in his shoulder and cry her heart out. "No, it's... I'm sorry for losing my cool like that. I know you only want the best for me."
She knew he truly did. After helping her through some difficult times, the headmaster had become somewhat of a father figure to her. Although he could never replace her real father, who held a special place in her heart, Ozpin was the sole reason she stood here today and she felt immensely grateful for that.
"No, I'm the one who should apologize, I know how hard it is for you, but I keep pushing anyway." He fixed her with a sympathetic look.
"It's fine, really," she sighed, smiling, "in fact, I would normally never admit this, but I appreciate it. It reminds me that there still is someone out there who cares greatly for me."
Schooling her features, Glynda pulled away from his comforting touch, creating distance between them once more. "So, with that out of the way, can we get to why you called me here first thing in the morning?"
Ozpin returned to his seat and started to type away at his terminal.
"–yway lying there all… hey… you're not dead, are you?" Miss Schnee's voice sounded through the room.
"Not yet. Sadly. Could you now kindly leave me to die in peace?" replied Mister Arc's voice.
The whole interaction between the two students had struck her as a little odd. At first, she had assumed that Mister Arc, upon being faced with the reality of the situation after his failed landing, had simply given up.
That had been under the assumption, that he had made his way into Beacon via illegal means. Considering that he came from a famed line of Huntsmen, one could only wonder how their latest descendant appeared to be so unskilled and inexperienced.
She had concluded that due to him having to fake his transcripts to get into the school, that either he had grown up away from his family, his family had explicitly wished for him to not follow in their footsteps and refused to train him, or he was just simply not skilled enough – even with their training – to attend a combat school.
Either way, this had likely led to him wanting to uphold the family's legacy with even more vigor than before, which had brought him to Beacon even without the skills necessary.
And thus, coming to Beacon with notions of grandeur and foolish, childish ideals, his dreams must have been utterly crushed after that crash landing. Which in turn, had likely forced him to admit defeat in the face of reality. Said reality being that he had failed in his quest and the people he had been trying to prove wrong, had been right all along, leading to him giving up on life in shame.
But this whole theory got eradicated the moment Mister Arc showed his combat prowess, refuting his earlier claims of wanting to die as well as her previous assumptions of him.
And thus, this left her with nothing all over again, the mystery remaining.
"Why are you showing me this?" Glynda demanded. "If you want to insinuate that Mister Arc is at risk of committing suicide, which I don't believe he is, you know full well that this falls into the responsibility of Doctor Oobleck."
"For all that good it does them, being talked to death by him," Ozpin chuckled at his own misplaced joke.
"Suicide is no laughing matter," Glynda snapped, causing him to sober up immediately.
"No, I suppose it isn't," he acknowledged. "Which is why I want you to take over the task of counseling Mister Arc."
"What?" she almost shouted. "If this is some ill attempt to force me to relive my past, I swear Opzin–"
"No, no. Not at all," he tried to assuage her, "it is just, that Mister Arc turned out to be quite the interesting individual. Wholly different as to how I had anticipated in fact, which has me greatly worried."
So, in other words, Ozpin agreed with her about Mister Arc not being suicidal. But the recording nevertheless gave him perfect legality to initiate counseling sessions, giving her the perfect opportunity to coax information out of him.
In short, he wanted her to spy on the Arc kid.
"Yes, I also have noticed some... irregularities about him."
Even though she abhorred the headmaster's underhanded ways of doing things, she couldn't help but agree in this case.
"But if you feel that it is too much for you, I can alwa–"
"I'll do it," she cut in calmly, her mind made up.
Still, it made her a bit angry that Ozpin would try to guilt trip her and use reverse psychology to get her into accepting, and not just flat out tell her his intentions.
"Excellent," he exclaimed happily, clapping his hands, "now then, let's get to more–"
"If that is all, I'll be on my way," Glynda interrupted, stern scowl in place.
"Yes, yes," Ozpin waved his hand nonchalantly, "go on. My apologies for keeping you so long."
"M-hm", she nodded before turning away and making her way to the elevator.
"And Glynda," he caught her gaze right before the door closed. "Thank you."
Yes, thank me for accepting to do your dirty work, she thought bitterly, staring at her mirror image inside the lift, like there ever was a choice.
She just wished Ozpin would put more faith in her and not always treat her like this delicate flower she wasn't.
Arriving at ground level, Glynda made her way to the infirmary to inform her new charge of his added obligations.
She had a mystery to solve, after all.
Before you all accuse me of pulling some random ghosts for Glynda out of my ***, rest assured that I have her backstory lined out in detail.
From her childhood, her family, her time at Beacon, her teammates (with unique personalities, weapons, and Semblances), what happened to them, and how this will affect Glynda moving forward and tie into the plot.
I'm not quite sure yet how I will relay all that information.
Options being like in this chapter with dreams, occasional flashbacks, and in dialog and thoughts.
The other approach would be to have a disconnected storyline of Glynda's life running parallel to the main story. The advantage of this would be that I can write in the perspective of all characters, ensuring a better understanding of what's going on.
How interested are you in exploring her background?
Please review and let me know what you think.
