Ruby Rose sighed as she checked her phone one last time. The sun was just barely beginning to peak over the horizon, but… still no new messages. The temptation to call was strong, but there was a chance doing so could get them both in trouble. Still, it hurt to have waited for Yang at the park for four hours, and still not gotten so much as a text confirming that she was alright. Yang had said she might be a bit late due to dinner with dad, and Ruby knew she had to let Yang live her life, but...
With only about a minute before the Wave of Dawn crashed over the city, Ruby fiddled with her suit lapels, and sent a ping Pyrrha's way.
"You know I can't help you." Pyrrha sent Ruby's way over soulsense, not bothering to send a full manifestation Ruby's way this time.
"I know you're not allowed to tell me where she is, or what she's doing, but… you promised that I could protect her!" Ruby sent back. "You have to at least tell me if she's alright!"
Ruby could feel the conflict coming from Pyrrha over the line. Her desire to help warring against the laws put in place to limit the gods' direct influence over the world. But right now, Ruby couldn't care less about the Free Will Accords.
"Yang is…" There was a painful, grating feeling coming in over the line. Like Pyrrha was trying to say something but physically couldn't. "...Not dead." Pyrrha eventually finished. "I'm sorry. That is literally all that I am capable of telling you."
"I understand." Ruby sent back, morose. "Thank you for trying."
"You'll find your way through this, little Rose." Pyrrha offered. "I believe in you. But dawn has come."
Immediately after Pyrrha finished, Ruby felt the dulled Wave of Dawn crash into the apartment's wards. With her soulsense, she could see the full force of the wave roll around outside the apartment, and she could see the wards weaken. The leyline the wards were built on would bring them back to full strength by tomorrow morning, but there was no magical solution to remove the hurt and worry that pooled in her heart. With a sigh, she made her way out of the apartment, onto the bus, and into the city to search out a new nest of demons.
It wasn't an exciting process. Her "day job" as it were, was mostly slowly walking around the city, carefully feeling out with her soulsense for the small gouges in the magical equilibrium demons left in their wake. She had to be mindful to avoid the deeper gouges of demons above the level considered "safe" for her to take on alone, and also to not confuse the weathered gouges of demons having passed through long ago with the fresher, sharper cuts left by more recent activity.
Further complicating matters was the way magic ebbed and flowed through the world. Leylines cut rivers of magic through the city. Swirling eddies formed around the deep craters that marked the locations of past traumas; the sort of negativity demons chose to feed upon. And yet, none of it truly flowed like water; rather, it was like a massive tapestry blanketing the world, moving only up and down to simulate these watery motions.
In a lot of ways, it was a beautifully serene scene, one that, unfortunately, the living could not see. A working human body simply dampened one's soulsense too much. Ruby wished she could show this to her sister… to give her another tool to calm herself down, to see how they were both connected - how they were all connected. Forever linked to the universe so long as their souls survived.
But dwelling on Yang and her apparent disappearance only soured her mood. Still. Yang was alive. She knew that with the certainty of omniscience. Ruby just… had to let her live her life. Certainly, she had never been a fan of when Yang had gotten too involved in her private business.
Even if… the most invasive instance of that ended up being the catalyst for the single biggest improvement in her short life.
But, again, she needed to stop dwelling on Yang. She was on the clock. It was time to do her job.
It was always frustrating how slowly she had to go to get a good enough look at the magical equilibrium to track the bobbing surface markings that would lead her to the demons. Blake assured her that she'd eventually get good enough at it to move along relatively fast and still take in all the information, but it was a harsh reminder that, while she was rather good at the fighting part - benefits of having a police officer for a mother, a former martial arts instructor as a father, and a sister and uncle who had been taught to fight by what was effectively the mob - she was still very much a novice at the job overall.
Sure, she'd have a few hundred or even thousand years to truly master it, but right now she was focused on what was happening now.
And her worries about Yang were a potent distraction that she still could not shake, forcing her to move even more slowly. There was a lot of negativity in this part of town, and there had been for a long time. The fresh demon tracks were scattered among much, much older ones. Trying to sort it all out was making her head spin. She… probably wasn't going to find anything productive today.
Just after 8am, her phone rang, and she pulled it out immediately. She was slightly disappointed to see Blake calling, rather than Yang, but wasted no time in answering regardless.
"Please tell me you know where Yang is." Ruby said quickly.
"Oh." Blake sounded disappointed. "I was calling to see if you knew."
"Oh." Ruby's unbeating heart dropped. "She didn't show up?"
"No. She's usually very punctual. I tried to call her a few times, but after the third attempt it started just going straight to voicemail. I'm worried something happened to her."
"Pyrrha…" Ruby sent towards the goddess, including her urgency and concern over the link.
"Still… not dead." Pyrrha sent back apologetically.
"Thanks…" Ruby sent to Pyrrha, before returning to the conversation with Blake. "Pyrrha says she's alive, at least. Hopefully her phone just died?"
"I'm not sure." Blake said. "I've got a bad feeling about this, and… magical intuition is usually worth trusting." There was a brief pause. "Wait… you were able to get some information from your god? Did… did Pyrrha say 'alive' or 'not dead'?"
"I didn't think there was a difference?" Ruby replied. "But it was the latter."
"Shit." Blake swore. "This could be bad. Ruby, I need you to try calling Yang. Immediately."
The panic in Blake's voice was contagious. Ruby ripped the phone away from her ear like it was made of hot lead, then ended the call and dialed Yang. The anticipation was killing her, making her fumble with the buttons and take longer than expected for her shaking hands to complete the task.
It rang.
And rang.
And rang.
And rang.
"Yo!" Yang's voice came over the line. "You got Yang! Yeave a message after the yeep!"
Ruby's heart sank again, and she hung up before a message could be recorded, before calling Blake back.
"Hey-"
"It rang out." Ruby said morosely, cutting Blake off before she could finish her greeting.
"Mine went straight to voicemail." Blake said. "She… must have blocked me then. Or someone who has her phone did."
"She wouldn't do that, though!" Ruby defended. "She's not that type of person!"
"I know." Blake said softly. "Which means… if her phone wasn't stolen - which seems unlikely given that she's made no alternate attempts to contact us despite her having a magical method of doing so - she… probably got caught up with either vampires or the Fae. And we'd best pray it's not the latter."
"We need to find her! I'll be right over to-" Ruby began.
"No." Blake cut her off. "You know the rules, I know it's difficult for you, but you're still on the clock, and in your probationary period. But don't worry, I will do everything I can to find her in the meantime. I'll get in touch with my Fae contacts… do you happen to have any of Yang's hair or anything?"
"N-No?" Ruby squeaked. "Should I?"
There was a heavy sigh from Blake's side of the line.
"Should probably consider it in the future, but… I do have her address. If push comes to shove, I can sneak in and grab some."
"But I know the layout!l It'd be easier if I-"
"No, Ruby." Blake cut her off. "It's not worth you getting caught by your father or uncle, and I know we'd both rather not wait until sundown to get started. I will do it. And we will find Yang by tonight, okay?"
"Okay." Ruby said, swallowing back the thickness of her throat. "Okay."
"Be safe, Ruby. I'll talk to you tonight."
Blake hung up.
And given her somewhat realized fears? Ruby made even slower progress than before.
It was going to be a very long day.
