Relevant Extra
Aschenputtel
'Click' 'Clack'
With ferociously cattish gait she sauntered through the walls of the tiered tower that was Haven, her midnight hair bobbing as she swayed and lips glistening of bloody red, dripping of sinful beauty. The clicking of her heels echoing with each step as she made her way to place where seldom many students graced unless explicitly summoned by the esteemed Lionheart himself.
The headmaster's office was a fair walk away, situated high atop the tower's peak overlooking the seven hills upon which the capital was built on. Curious on-lookers eyed her as she made for the express lift. Some in question as to why she had been summoned but most of them were wandering eyes.
As she neared the office, the scent of various teas and herbal concoctions assaulted her senses, most pleasant but some few earned a grimace from her as they were far too strong for her liking.
Despite her distaste, the smells admittedly served to accentuate the grandeur of the office what with its exotic red-wood doors, the commissioned tapestry that littered the walls and appropriately themed, lion face door knocker.
From the other side of the door she could just barely make out the hush-hush of conversation that had apparently reached its end as soon as she neared.
"Do come by again Mr Nilah," she heard the gentleman say, a reply followed but too low to discern any words and such she only heard what sounded like a mumble.
A stone faced, olive tan, blue-eyed youth with a frock of neatly styled dirty-blonde hair walked out of the headmaster's office, a well-endowed girl of similar height and description in tow, both wearing heavily modified uniforms.
In place of the plain black-jacket, the young man wore a black and blue, frock-coat blazer(sherwani); and the girl wore, in place of the scandalously short mini-skirts, a blue patterned waist-sash(sari) that draped all the way past her ankles. Both of their ensemble with equal amounts of gold lining the fabric.
In his wake, the young man held the sliding doors open to allow her entry.
"Excuse me Professor." Of ingrained etiquette lessons, she excused herself in a lady-like manner as she entered the neatly furnished office.
"Please, be seated Miss Tremaine," the headmaster said as he pushed a chair her way while pouring a cup of fragrant tea for his guest and for himself.
"Miss Tremaine is my mother. If you wouldn't mind sir, I prefer Ella or Cinder." There was venom in her expression showing clear distaste at the notion of being associated with the woman she called mother.
"Apologies Miss…Cinder. I usually refer to my students in a formal manner…but suppose I can make an exception for my top first year student," he said as he slid a place-mat her way, followed by an ornate porcelain mug with gold lining the cracks, real gold judging by the heftiness of the cup.
"Much appreciated sir." She replied, in acceptance of the tea he offered and the compliment.
A moment of silence passed as the Headmaster took a sip from his cup followed by a content sigh. Cinder on the other hand waited for the concoction to cool down to a tolerable temperature in silence, whilst contemplating how the elderly gentleman seemed to be unfazed by the still boiling water as well as the purpose of her visit.
"Do try the tea. It's an excellent infusion of spice and herbs from beyond Mistral, courtesy of Mr and Miss Nilah whom I believe you just passed by."
"I've heard of their family name before but I've never had the pleasure of meeting them in person."
"…," he seemed to ponder in his lonesome for a passing second, "perhaps that's about to change."
"You called me here for a reason, sir. If I may ask, why?" The tea was an excellent ice-breaker and a good conversation starter. Not wanting to waste time on small talk with the gentleman least he detracts into irrelevant territory, she steered the conversation straight to the point.
"Of course…Of course. As it were, the new-student initiation will be held tomorrow and will go well into the week, in sync with Shade and much like Beacon's own. As such, we've decided to go a different route this year."
"No cliff-jumping," she asked out of curiosity with a mask of relief. The previous year had been a most traumatizing experience for herself and many others who survived the drop, the horrors of untimely free-fall were not something she would have wished on her worst enemy.
"Oh Oum no. As much as I value tradition, I must admit it's gotten old. We'll be doing something different this year. All the Academies have taken the initiative to break from tradition," he said as he poured himself yet another cup of piping hot tea.
"And how do I factor into this initiative, sir."
"With the semi-annual Vytal-Festival upcoming, we've decided to 'up the level' of screening so to accept only the best and brightest," he said as he summoned a holographic projector in the table centre.
"Atlas has decided to go back to its militaristic roots with a gruesome trench-war-fare simulator," at this the monitor displayed bird's eye view of tilled lands littered with barbed wire, the camera shaking every now and then whenever a background explosion resounded.
"Shade has gone with a trial by literal fire." The footage shifted to the inside of a volcanic crater with rocky stepping-platforms floating atop the pyroclastic ocean of bubbling molten rock, every now and then the odd platform would suddenly sink and rise back up glowing red and dripping with liquid fire.
"Ozpin has somehow convinced the council to sanction an exception to breach the Nidus Plateau and hold Beacon's initiation there." The footage showed an ominous low-angle shot of the mountain, taken from a significant distance away from the base in such a way the clouds seemed to touch the peak with the camera man panting and heaving as he ran from an unseen danger off-screen.
Unlike the previous snippets which played out in their entirety, this one was abruptly cut short when what appeared to be a giant feather landed in front of the terrified man and knocked the camera out of his hand, followed by muffled screams and a fade-to-static the next minute.
The headmaster sat up from his chair and walked up the sole window in the room, he motioned for Cinder to follow and drew her attention to a red clay, tiered ceramic-tiled tower down below.
"Haven's own initiation will be no-where near as dangerous but I like to think it'll be the most challenging," the headmaster said as he moved to the table and proceeded to tap in a few commands into the holographic display.
A soft-light model of the Tower appeared, slowly rotating and highlighting each of its seven floors.
"The test will be done in seven levels on each of the seven floors. I wanted you and Mr. Nilah to oversee the Special skills and Combat potions of the screening on the first and second floors respectively."
At that, the seven layers dismantled and portraits of seven individuals herself included, some students and others non-students she recognized as alumni.
The first-floor (Combat) had next to it, a portrait of the stone faced youth from before, expressionless as ever, with a tag hovering above written "Indra Nilah".
The second floor (Special Skills) was allocated to her and had a list of names below her portrait, her assigned group of students she assumed. Among the handfuls a golden-haired youth of faunas heritage stood out for quite possibly all the wrong reasons, his name tag popping up abruptly with a red watermark over his portrait printed 'late entry', almost as if he registered last minute.
The third floor marked aura manipulation had a floating tag that read 'sword in stone', allocated to a familiar face that she had absolutely no fond memories of. Smugness almost oozing out of the portrait of her fellow second year student Albus Pendraigg who was assigned to the floor above her.
The remaining floor masters as she had dubbed them, were third and fourth year students she recognised from her time as a fresh student and some were alumni that visited form time-to-time.
"I apologize for springing this on you out of the blue like so, but I trust in your ability to impart judgement. I'll mark this down as an opportunity to earn extra credit just to make it worth your while," the headmaster said.
"I'll be honoured sir," she responded.
"Do be so kind as to pass greetings to the Lady for me," the elderly gentleman rummaged through a cupboard compartment and fished out a beautifully decorated tin which he handed to her as he dismissed her.
My belated thanks to those who've followed and favorite. By default notifications where disabled and I never really looked at the numbers before, the summary is usually what sells me to a story.
A/N: With initiation out of the way I can finally move onto things like world building, development arcs and prelude to the tourney. This chapter was just a way to show what the other academies are up to. Without the threat of a queen, there's obviously going to be different conflicts and such.
A tiered tower is a pagoda. Mistral seems to be a mish-mash of Mediterranean culture and Eastern Architecture, if the Volume 4 is anything to go by. The bottom areas were white-column buildings so that's the Roman architecture and the upper layer were fill of Tiered Towers so Chinese Architecture. They have gladiatorial fights so the culture is prevalently Roman but the Quipaos(china dresses, what Chun Li wears) and Hanfus the people wear say Chinese.
Aschenputtel is Little Ash Girl, the title of the original Cinderella by Brothers Grim which was later re-written into Cendrillon with a sexual twist.
Indra - was often referred to as the one with yellow hair Nilah is sanskritt for Blue.
Albus = white | Pendraigg (Pendragon) = Chief Dragon
Gold is used in the art of repairing broken pottery and looks especially attractive on porcelain.
Thanks for reading and please do leave a review or a comment to fan my ego or crush my spirit if you can.