Amber sighed as she scanned over the report in her hand. Outpost six had been attacked and completely destroyed, all personnel were confirmed dead when the investigation team had landed after the outpost had missed its check-ins.
"Are you sure there were no survivors?" Amber asked, silently glad for the mask hiding her stricken face.
"Of the fifteen auxiliaries stationed there, all fifteen were identified and accounted for." The messenger who had brought her report stated.
"Do we have any idea who attacked us?"
"No, mistress, we do not."
Amber sighed again, a hollow feeling in her gut. Fifteen auxiliaries dead. Fifteen men and women who just wanted to serve their time in the army and be done with it. Too old to train as a huntsman, too young to get out of service.
The thought that most of them probably had families just made an already bitter pill that much harder to swallow.
"Send word to the Legionaires, I want two full squads geared up and ready to go, their orders are to investigate the site and pursue any leads as to who attacked us."
The messenger bowed. "Yes, mistress."
After the messenger scurried off, Amber leaned forward in the throne, her head reresting in her hands. "Dust..." She swore. "This never gets any easier."
A side door to the throne room opened, and Amber scowled as she felt a familiar presence enter the room.
"Oh dear Amber." Shar mocked. "The pressures of being a ruler getting to you?"
Amber bit her lip to keep herself from snapping at the girl, her mood soured beyond repair at this point. "Shar, I'm really not in the mood right now."
Shar pranced around to the backside of the throne, her movements graceful and eloquent to an inhuman degree. "My, my, my...You sound stressed. Anything I can do to help?"
"You could fuck off."
Amber laughed, her head throwing itself back as her chest heaved. "Anything besides that? I can give you a massage, if you'd like?"
Amber shivered, the prospect of feeling those divine hands was tempting, but she shuddered when she remembered who they belonged to.
"The High Regent and an Imperial Princess intertwined on the kings throne? How scandalous." Amber said. "Here I was thinking about renting out a private room at The Rosy Cheek?"
She actually had thought about it. Going to the most premier brothel in the city and renting out a private suite for her own personal party. She had entertained the idea only as a 'what if' prospect, never fully intending to go there. It would be, in her own words, scandalous.
"Surely one as high-born as you eouldn't dream of mixing with the common-folk in such a way? We could always have the a few of the younger members of the Scarlet Guard join us in my private chambers, think about it, you and me, back to back, surrounded by young, strong, virile men. On our knees only part the time, and never having to do any of the actual work? Why, I'm sure that they would spend a long time making sure you were air-tight."
Amber shivered again, a pleasurable chill arcing up her spine. She was imagining it, and it was enticing...
How long had it been for her anyway? Certainly not longer than a month.
Two months.
Six?
A year?
Three years?!
She shook her head, disrupting the thoughts running through her head. "No, Shar. The Scarlet Guard are warriors, their jobs are to ensure the security of the outer palace, not fulfill our desires."
"I'm sure they wouldn't mind~"
Amber slapped her hand against the throne. "I said no, Shar. Do not make me say it again."
Shar huffed, her arms crossing over her chest as she stuck her tongue out at Amber. For an Imperial Princess, Shar sure could be a child sometimes.
"Fine then. Refuse my help. I just wanted to help you get laid but noooo, you have to play by the rules, consider other people and all that."
Amber giggled, her finger pointing mirthfully at the princess. "And that is why you will never be High Regent."
Shar blew Amber a raspberry, before disappearing down a hall leading deeper into the palace.
Amber chuckled as she slumped in her seat. The stress of the day temporarily alleviated.
Shar was right, rare as it was, but Amber could not act on such carnal desires, not when she was responsible for her kings most prized Kingdom.
(@)
Ozpin held the steel shod book in front of him, his eyes scanning over the smooth, shiny surface, his reflection doing the same. His fingers shook as he opened the cover, the memory of what happened to Miss Violetta fresh in his mind, and with a trembling hand he opened the first page.
'For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. For every decision made, there is one that is not taken.
For every Happenstance, a consequence.
This is universally true, in more ways than I originally had perceived, alongside those I had once thought of as my peers, which now I recognize as my lessers.
It was upon the discovery of the girl, Bun-Bun, that I realized that while this was universally true, its opposite was as well.
These two contradictory statements, canceling out eachother are both true. I had, at first, only manipulated the physical world using the immaterial one, the prospect of reversing that process never occurring to me in my studies.
If I could create, could I also manipulate?
It was during the creation of the twins that I had asked myself a rather perplexing question. As I was creating their bones, shaping their brains and filling their hearts, I asked myself it again.
What is the power of steel?
Steel, by any account, is the most useful metal on Remnant. Used in buildings, construction, weapons, medical technology and a myriad of other things.
The twins themselves were hugely successful, their seek and destroy properties slaved to my orders created a potent pair of assassins. I formed them from steel and stone, and they were very powerful indeed.
Steel is powerful, and by itself it holds so much potential.
Upon deliberating further, I realized that it was only that. Potential. Whenever I spoke to one of the survivors from the crash, she was defiant, even in the face of death. Such a will after so much pain was surely powerful in itself, and had she a weapon, she likely would have tried to defend herself. Yet she refused to take the weapon I offered her, sitting as it was in my outstretched hand, motionless and useless. It was after her death that I realized that steel could do nothing but rust and tarnish on its own, it was only the hand of mankind that allowed it to fulfill its purpose.
So what was the power of steel compared to the hand that wielded it?
Thus began my experiments in the flesh.'
Ozpin read the entry over and over again, his aged mind trying to seek out the words behind those written on the page. None of it made sense, a recurring theme when it came to Brutus Rose.
However, while not much was clear about the reclusive young man, the fact that he was a prodigy was all but assured. He obviously held a deeper, philosophical and metaphysical thought process than most students his age.
To see such a mind snuffed out was truly a tragedy. He was a bright young man, and his future was a bright one indeed.
Ozpin continued to read.
'My first experiments were on myself. Inside my armor, I am a walking goliath, all but unassailable, outside of it however, I was as fleshy and brittle as any of my fellow students. I needed to ensure that my will was as indomitable and strong as that armor. So I entered the sparring arena, brought out every training bot in stock, and removed the safety limiters. A terrifying prospect,and by all rights I should have been shredded, and my life ended there. Yet that was not my fate. I persevered on, despite the shots that impacted against my Aura, despite the blades that skittered off my own. I persevered, and triumphed. My aura never broke, the aggression of my attacks making me too much of a target for the bots to properly unite to destroy me, I kept them scattered, unable to fully come together to form one body of steel and wiring. Upon my victory, I had found an answer. My flesh was stronger than their steel. I was quite happy with the answer, the flesh being stronger than steel gave me a sort of confidence in my compatriots that wasn't there before. It was at the discovery of Amber that I realized I was wrong. Amber was, by all accounts, doomed. Her body had entered into a coma of sorts, brought on by the attack that tore her asunder from the better portion of her powers. It was this rather barbaric practice of psychic surgery that rendered her unconscious, the shock of having her mind and body so violated had scrambled her thoughts deep into her subconscious. The removal of the maiden powers had disrupted her to the point where her body had entered into a state of total shutdown. When I found her, her physical body was being kept alive through a machine, and her mind was trapped in a realm created by her own trauma and fear. The action of suspending her in a state of un-death had quite the consequence. What happens in the material world, affects its counterpart. Reviving her was a simple matter, in theory at least. Her body had no soul, so it was dying. Reunification of the flesh and mind should solve the problem. Only how to bring them back together?
I examined both her spectral projection and her physical shell, still sheathed in its steel cocoon. I realized that this presented yet another problem to my earlier philosophical musings. Her flesh had failed, and it was the steel of the machine that kept her alive. The idea that the flesh was stronger than steel was a false one. They are both equally infallible and weak. Steel rusts, but flesh withers and fades. So what truly was the power behind both? In a snap, I realized that my earliest manipulations of stone had pointed out the answer all along. It was the will to use the flesh and steel that gave them power. Steel rusts and flesh rots, but the will is forever. I was soon able to revive Amber, by repairing her psyche and will, her mind reunited with her body, two halves forming a whole.Amber lived again, although truthfully, she had never truly died. A state she would have never been in had she been given the proper security befitting her station.'
A dull ring sounded in the air and Ozpin jumped in his seat, the elevator doors hissing open scaring him out of his reverie. Qrow walked into his office, his head sunk low.
"Qrow, I was just about to call you. Your nephew was a brilliant young man, his philosophical deliberations are astounding!" Ozpin smiled despite himself, the situation of the girl in the infirmary being shoved to the back of his mind.
"How can you even read that? You saw what happened to Brutus's girlfriend, she was like a scene straight out of a horror movie!" Qrow yelled. "We need to take that book and destroy it!"
"No! While it is tragic that miss Violetta is in such a poor condition, this book, no matter its danger, is too valuable to destroy. It talks of how he did it Qrow! How Brutus brought back Amber!"
"Her condition?!" Qrow stammered, his voice fringing on full blown screaming. " Oz! She's...She's.." Qrow didn't finish.
Ozpin didn't need him to, he got the implication. "She's dead, isn't she?"
Qrow shook his head. "No, but the doctor's can't stabilize her, and she keeps screaming something about a kingdom."
Ozpin slumped in his chair, a loud sigh issuing from his mouth. "A kingdom? Which kingdom?"
Qrow shrugged, before gesturing to the book. "You need to be careful Oz. Whatever it was that she read, it hurt her, bad enough for her to bite her own tongue off in an attempt to keep her from repeating it. Whoever wrote that thing had to have been crazy."
The headmaster grimaced. "I know Brutus wrote it Qrow, and it details his experiments, as well as his inner musings."
"Really now?" Qrow shook his head. He didn't believe Brutus wrote it, not for a second. Brutus may have been...Eccentric, but even he wouldn't write something so vile. "Is knowing what is in that book really worth all the risk?"
"Yes, it is. Knowledge is power, Qrow, and if we read this, we might just figure out who killed Brutus."
A/N:Not too happy with this chapter. Not at all.Please, for the love of all that is good, REVIEW.
