Chapter 13: A Fly on the Wall
The insect to buzz in the Sin of Envy's ear was no ordinary bug, its iridescent exoskeleton and seven amethyst colored eyes were not that of any creature without magic infused into it. Vermin like these were often used as familiars to Holy Knights, bugs being the favored choice of Holy Knight Miltiades of the Weird Fangs.
Still within the walls of Baste Prison, Miltia giggled manically at the vision her familiar had shown her. "It looks like I've found them," she explained to her fellow knights. "It's just as you said sis." Melanie examined her fingernails with a cocky smirk, silently gloating over her small victory.
From his ornate chair in the shadowed corner, Junior spoke up. "Will you be going then?"
The younger twin nodded, "Yes, I want to make the first move, then… who knows? I might make the last move too!"
Miltia suddenly dawned a pair of metal claws befitting of the Beowolf, log and curved, serrated and deadly, all painted in a lush shade of red. They gleamed in the light, as did her jade eyes that sparked with malicious intent.
Nora sat idly on the roof of the town doctor's home, kicking her feet back and forth and fidgeting impatiently, occasionally glancing into the window to Yang's room where the blond lay quietly in bed with a cold compress pressed to her forehead. "Captain…"
Inside, the doctor gave the unconscious woman an herbal tea, blended with herbs to help her wounds heal. He had Blake part her lips so he could pour the liquid down her throat so she could absorb the medicine. "This blend is my own special concoction, I guarantee it will ease her suffering."
Blake's eyes remained focused on Yang, barely hearing the doctor speak. Every sound seemed to be muffled even with her advanced Faunus hearing. Her ears were tucked tightly beneath her bow once more, the princess having to keep them concealed so no townspeople would recognize her as the king's daughter. She remembered the silk ribbon peeking out of Yang's dresser, the black fabric standing out against the light colored wood as if the woman had intentionally left it there for her to find.
"Thank you for helping her," she told the doctor, her voice low and melancholy.
The man rubbed his chin, "Based on her injuries, it's a miracle she is still alive." He explained. "In addition to the rather deep sword wound, she has bruises all over her body as if she were chained up… how did a young woman get these?"
Blake thanked him once more before he left, trusting the black-haired girl to keep watch over the unconscious blond woman until he returned with her evening dosage. She had stared at her for quite some time, not moving from her place at her bedside save for the unsettled wringing of her fingers and occasional twitches of her bow.
Yang did not like when she wore the bow. She may not have ever said it aloud, but she was always trying to wrangle it away from the Faunus, teasing her with it or hiding it as some sort of game to get Blake's mind off heavy subjects. Subjects like her family or if what she was trying to do by bringing back the Seven Deadly Sins was worth it… or if it was all just a destined failure and the kingdom really was doomed.
She never even had to tell Yang that anything was wrong; the woman would just pet her ears out of nowhere and make some crude joke or lame pun that would completely take her mind away from her worries.
Blake took the compress from the brawler's forehead, dipping it into the basin of cold water on the table beside the bed, wringing out the excess water in silence. "This is my fault." She whispered, so quietly that Zwei almost did not hear her.
"Huh?"
The princess replaced the compress on Yang's head, moving some of her golden hair out of the way before laying the cloth over her burning skin. "I was so obsessed with stopping the Holy Knights, and finding the Seven Deadly Sins… that I didn't even think about Yang… or the fact that no matter how powerful she is… she's still human." Her fists tightened at her sides, knuckles turning white with her growing disgust with her carelessness.
Zwei rubbed his head against her leg. "Easy there Blake," he soothed.
She took a deep breath. "You're right… I just hope she gets better soon." She pushed more of Yang's hair out of her face, taking note of the soft golden waves running along her fingers.
"So, what are we supposed to do now?"
Blake did not want to leave her blond comrade's side, at least not until it was absolutely certain she was healed. She didn't want to risk it, not again, she would not leave. Baste Prison could wait, right now; the most important thing was tending to Yang so she may recover faster.
A girl in pink climbed into the room through the window, her boots making a thump as she dropped down. "I'm going to start heading to the prison now." Yellow eyes looked at her slightly taken aback, from what she had seen of Nora, being as serious as she was now, was not common of her. "Once the Captain wakes up, I'm pretty sure she'll want to go there right away and not waste any more time." The Valkyrie woman jumped back out the window, landing swiftly in the street and taking off in the direction of Baste Prison.
"Hey! Wait!" Blake called, sprinting to catch up with her with Zwei following close behind. "You shouldn't go alone, I'll come too."
"Not happening!"
The princess stopped when Nora stopped, turquoise locked with yellow. "I don't want you endangering yourself; it's not that I'm doubting your ability to fight, being a princess probably got you the best training in the kingdom, but right now Yang needs you more than I do." She thought back to when Yang had stolen her bow in the Forest of White Dreams, waving it around like a toy for a kitten to bat at. She had been playful, teasing, but then she had not even hesitated to fight Adam after he had hurt her. A man she had known since he was just a boy, who she had trained and taught like a student. Her sunny warmth had blazed into a flame, but now that flame was nowhere to be seen. "Yang would probably prefer your face to be the first thing she sees when she wakes up anyway."
Zwei stomped his paws while Blake stared, light pink tinting her cheeks. "You think this is the time for that? Just cause she can't throw people around with lightning and shake the ground when she walks doesn't mean she's no good!" Nora fixed the corgi with a glare.
"I didn't say that! Someone needs to look after the Captain!"
Ignoring the canine beside her, and the stirrings she felt in her stomach, Blake clenched her fists, fixing the demigod before her with a determined glare of her own. Bright yellow stared unwaveringly into electrified blue, as the princess decided to be stubborn rather than selfish, for Yang's sake. "You expect me to sit here and do nothing?! Yang is gravely injured because of me! I cannot just stand by while people keep risking their lives for my sake… not when I can…"
A blast of lightning from Nora's hand promptly silenced the Faunus, the ginger's features twisted into a scowl. "Now don't kid yourself!" she shouted, "The captain may have just risked everything for you!" Blake let out an inaudible gasp, stepping backwards from the smoking scorch marks on the cobblestone. "It may not seem like it, but she's always been like that… it's who she is… trust me I should know."
Her ears twitched. "What do you mean?" she muttered, the armored Sin of Envy looking down at her white boots once again.
Yang was not the type of person who thought before they acted. Sure, she could smile and be polite when faced with the need to do so, but when it came to fighting, and defending her comrades or anyone she cared for… the Dragon Sin would not think twice to throw herself into harm's way to protect that person, even if it meant endangering her own life.
Nora sighed, fingering the hem of her skirt in deep thought. Yang was the perfect blend of reckless and selfless, never putting herself before others, but also never thinking before she dove into the fray of battle. Even if who she was protecting was a complete stranger, who did not deserve her trust, she would give it her all to stand between them and adversity.
"It was back when I left my hometown…" she explained, recalling how she had hastily packed a bag with reddened eyes and exhausted muscles, haphazardly throwing anything she grabbed into it before disappearing into the wilderness. She did not like to think about what had brought about her sudden leave, but she did like to remember what had happened in the weeks that followed. "I had just started traveling, on my own… and got into this stupid argument with some knights along the way."
She had been younger back then, only a decade short of four-hundred and fifty years old, and at the time not in any mood to deal with knights who kept her from going on her way. They had recognized her by the insignia emblazoned on her back; the mark of Thor himself, and had proclaimed her an enemy. It was annoying to be accused of crimes she didn't commit, and when she had rightfully defended herself with her lightning, the knights had resorted to calling her mean names like Witch or Demon-Spawn.
Honestly, they were the ones in the wrong, drawing their swords on a cute girl the way they did, and name-calling was pretty pathetic coming from a race that was only powerful in large numbers. She had voiced these thoughts to them with a smug grin, and of course, they had tried to gang up on her after that, their poor pride wounded by a small ginger-haired girl.
Nora hadn't been afraid of them in the least, but she was still surprised when a blond woman in a long brown coat appeared out of thin air, beating the knights into the dirt with seemingly no effort whatsoever. The knights had challenged her too, but Yang had scolded them for attacking a little girl and being jerks about it, suggesting they apologize. They had puffed out their chests and threatened her, but the larger woman had broken through their steel with her bare fists, making them retreat with their tails between their legs.
Once they were gone, she had asked if Nora was okay, if they had scared her or if she needed any help getting to the next town. Of course, she hadn't known what to say to her strange savior, it was the first time anyone had ever treated her as if she was exactly the same as any other girl. Like she was human, and not the spawn of a human and a god. For the first time in her life, she felt the smallest bit… normal. Nora knew it wasn't true, and that she'd never be like other human girls, but for a moment… it felt nice to believe that she could be.
"I'm not as brave as you princess, or as determined to protect the people of this kingdom." She said, never breaking eye contact with the Faunus girl. "I can't let you put yourself in danger for me when the captain needs you more, but I can fight with everything I have so that you won't have to!" she clenched her fists tight, her metal gloves crackling and popping with barely contained static energy.
Blake did not answer her right away, a pause stretching between the two girls before the black-haired princess broke it. "I only wish there was more I could do, to help you fight the Holy Knights." She sighed, her bow twitching as her gaze moved slightly to the window where she had just been with Yang, tending to her injuries, as she should have been from the beginning, instead of trying to convince herself that she was needed elsewhere.
"I wish I was born from ordinary human parents," Nora whispered, tugging on a loose thread at the end of her skirt and wincing slightly when it easily snapped under her strong fingers.
Blake could not find the words to answer that, having only now learned more about the Serpent Sin in five minutes than she knew about Yang herself in the near month they had been together. Rather than fight her on it any longer and delay their mission, the dark-haired Faunus decided to stay where she was and help her blond comrade. Her own selfish vengeance could wait, and none of the other Seven Deadly Sins were ever going to be found if their leader succumbed to her injuries because Blake wasn't there to tend to them.
Suddenly, her ears began to twitch and flick sporadically, her enhanced hearing noticing a distinct fuzz in the air. It was clouding her other senses, and growing louder the more she strained to listen. It almost sounded like… buzzing?
Nora could hear it too, albeit not as vividly, but their sights were drawn out into the distance, towards a structure that was no doubt Baste Prison. A pitch-black cloud seemed to be hovering over the entire tower, writhing and humming ominously. "What is that?" Blake whispered, not believing it to quite be a cloud, but not knowing what it could be otherwise.
People on the streets began to notice the unease in the air, turning their heads and muttering to each other in confusion. All save for Yang's doctor, who only placed a hand on his nurse's shoulder, silently telling her not to worry and all would be set right.
"I don't know… but it looks like it's coming from Baste Prison!" the cloud began to buzz louder as it drew closer to the city, reshaping itself a hundred times over as if it were alive somehow. It moved with such speed that Blake did not realize exactly what this was until it was right over them.
The cloud… no, the swarm began to block out the sun as the hoard of insects began to descend upon the town. "They're… insects!" the princess cried, able to see them more closely now. They were not like any other bug she had seen before; each one alight with magical power contained in their exoskeletons. "Look out! They're poisonous!" Blake threw her arms out and shouted to the townspeople, urging them loudly to run or get inside quickly as the hoard rained down their spurs of venomous toxins. Each drop melted through the stone-paved ground, some of the bugs were even strong enough to rip buildings from their foundation within minutes!
Dalmally became chaos. People shouting and running as they attempted to escape the swarm with their lives, acid rained down from the sky like a plague, and Blake winced at the sight of a fountain in the square. A stone statue of the Summer Maiden, a deity to this part of Liones, melting into a smoking puddle as if she were made of ice left in the sun. "Could Baste Prison be behind this?!" she yelled to Zwei as the two ran for cover.
"This is definitely a Holy Knight if I ever saw one!" the corgi yipped, barely moving to dodge a heavy droplet of acid.
Blake cursed under her breath. "Nora! We'll lead them to you, use your lightning!" she called, but the Sin of Envy seemed completely unresponsive, she did not even appear to be moving out of the way of the insects.
The armored girl bent down, huddling with her head buried in her legs as she screamed. A terrified shriek that came from deep in her chest. "I hate bugs! I can't stand them! Someone please help me!"
Blake and Zwei could only stare at the aforementioned demigod before them, cowering like a small child at the mere sight of a meager bug she could easily incinerate with her power.
"What?!"
Hi there! Been some time hasn't it? Well don't worry, I won't be dropping this story until either RWBY or the Seven Deadly Sins drops dead! And with the new volume up and running i'm simply TEAMING with ideas for this story! Like perhaps making Vernal one of the Ten Commandments... hm? Anyway, I digress, I hope you're still enjoying this and your reviews give me life! Ciao!