"I've been afraid
Never standing on my own
I let you be the keeper of my pride
Believed you when you told me
I was nothing on my own -"
"Stop."
"Is there something wrong with the lyrics?" The young songstress asked the woman near the large windows, light pouring in the large room like a river. The standing one wore a long-sleeved, shortened dress that glittered like falling snow on the soft blue fabric. The petticoat kept her warm and a white sash wrapped around her waist kept her together. The sitting one wore a sky blue dress that touched the floor, her arms bare save for the single decorative fabric that draped from her upper arms. A long, draping headpiece carrying crystals around in the center of her head. Their snow-colored hair gleamed from the sun's rays, long and proud. Not only their appearance, but their names replicated that of the image the windows captured.
The woman's slender fingers tapped her chin, "No, it's your emotion. Or really, the lack thereof." This comment caught the young girl off guard, her eyebrows lifting in confusion.
"Excuse me? I - The lyrics are about -"
"Yes, I know. But I'm not feeling the emotional impact it has the potential to have. Do you want them to feel this frustration in your heart?"
Weiss took a few steps back, wondering if she truly did. She was grateful that the idol of her childhood had taken time out of her newly-established retirement to train her. Yet it felt much more brutal than she expected, taking more time and energy on singing solfege and random sounds than the song itself. The event was nearing closer each passing day, yet Weiss found herself more irritated than the day before.
"What's the point in singing if there are no emotions? Do we singers sing for the hell of it? Or because there is something deep inside our souls, wanting to be spilled out into the world?"
The Schnee girl opened her mouth to let loose her answer before realizing that her mentor's question was rhetorical. Her sighs echoed throughout the vast room, along with the clacking of her heels, ready to center her breathing to give it another try.
"I've been afraid!
Never standing on my own
I let you - "
"Stop."
Weiss groaned, "What now? I put more emphasis on the 'afraid' than before!" Her cheeks puffed like a chipmunk with her arms crossed. She wasn't used to such criticism in her singing before now.
"You were trying too hard, as if you were forcing emotions that just weren't there."
"Then what's the best way to convey the right amount of emotions then? It's not easy trying to convince people to feel what you are."
Silver waved her hand side to side, giving a look that told Weiss there was no real answer to her question. The Veteran Songstress knew this new 'student' of hers had a range of skills, but she lacked the most fundamental part of being an artist.
No. That's wrong. She thought to herself. Weiss didn't lack it, just heavily repressed the key to the expression as a singer. But she couldn't blame the girl, living in a harsh environment full of rules, regulations, and expectations. Living mainly for family and never for oneself, only to find true liberation in the act of leaving the coddled nest.
How familiar that sounds.
"Then shall I demonstrate?" Silver offered, gesturing to take her place in the center of the room. A silent agreement was made as the two switched places, the echoes of their heels reverberating within the empty room. One had several long pauses in between as the other was quicker, as if in a hurry. The mentor took a soft deep breath before letting out her soft voice, a sound that showed a somber face, as if lost -
"Silent in the veil
A storm rages in these depths
A place I can't return
With all my missteps
Find my voice,
Find my words
Silent in the veil,
Let the winds flow"
The voice that felt so soft, hardened along with her once solemn eyes, eyebrows furrowed, fists clenched.
"I will not consist
My unyielding woe
Allow the storms to destroy
Allow the plagues to fall
Even if there is none to save me,
I will never be under your thrall
See what you've created
A woman who stands tall."
Weiss noticed that she had not only sang with her voice, yet also with her body. Her hands moved in a melodic manner as if it had its own core to dance with. The way she looked onward with saddened, soft eyes yet only to grow in anger and frustration. The mentee felt it all. She felt the determination, frustration, anger, helplessness that was being projected by a single woman in an empty room.
"Ahem," to the side of the room, a singular door was slightly ajar, where two people of similar stature stood. "Tea, ladies?" The Schnee family butler, Klein Sieben, held up a silver-plated tea set in hand. He was a jovial older man with balding hair and a large brown mustache. Silver found him to be one of the sweetest men in the estate and those were in high demand.
Next to him, Lynessa Alseides motioned her hands in their usual graceful dance. When the famed Silverstream arrived in Atlas, it surprised the Schnee Heiress to find Lynn beside her. A Haven student accompanying a traveling, singing Huntress to a foreign country? It puzzled Weiss how they knew each other, yet found no opportunity to ask since Silver pushed for the singing lessons to begin that very second. It had been a week and yet, her question was never answered. They never spoke, just signed to one another. Clearly, Silver understood the cipher-language that Lynn communicated in. What surprised her even more - Klein understood it too.
The small group moved to an adjacent room, a smaller one decorated with snow-like flowers that glistened in the sun's presence. The floors nearly reflected themselves as if living in a complete mirrored world. The table before them was clothed in white as Klein prepared the tea.
Silver's eyes were closed as she relaxed, making Lynn snicker in response. The elder butler tilted his head as the short Lynn signed silently.
"She's making fun of me, isn't she?" Silver asked.
"Oh, ma'am. Well, yes. Yes, she is." Klein chuckled along with the young miss that arrived with the Schnee's honored guest.
"I just have preferences, that is all."
Lynn signed once again with a wicked smile on her face.
The conversation continued with Weiss's growing confusion, being completely left out of the conversation. The brown-haired girl glanced over to Weiss and signed to her, leaving Klein to translate. "It must be difficult without Neptune, I apologize."
"No, well -" She realized she was replying to Klein at first then quickly turned towards the original voice, "Well, sort of. I've just never seen anything like that before. Using hands to communicate. Does it make it easier on you if people sign back?" She assumed the inaudible one followed lip movements.
Lynn shook her head, signing, "I can still hear, but I can't speak."
"Why is that?"
Just as Klein finished setting the teacups before the guests, Silver's eyes quickly opened at that question. As far as the Huntress knew, no one asked why Lynn was this way. All assumed she was born with it and never thought anything else of it. On one hand, Silver was grateful so no ill memories of the past would reemerge to haunt the small one. Yet on the other, it didn't allow Lynessa to properly heal. Lynn noticed Silver's worried face and smiled then signed to Weiss, yet this time Silver translated.
"A long time ago, there was a Grimm raid in my village. It didn't do as much damage as Kuroyuri or Shiroyuki, villages completely devoured by the Grimm. I was almost eaten by an Ursa when I was suddenly saved by this amazing Huntress!"
Lynn gestured towards Silver who softly blushed after saying those words. The group took a sip from their tea, remembering it was still there.
"She defeated - Okay, enough about that!" Silver used her own words to stop praising herself using her own voice. Lynn continued to answer Weiss's question, "During the attack, I got a brain injury. I'm completely fine now, but I used to be able to speak, yet now I can't. And I can't change that, no amount of healing, research or therapy will change that." She smiled, "So now I just happily live with it!"
Weiss was taken aback from this short story told by a victim of Grimm. She knew it happened to people all the time. She had a suspicion that her friends, Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie were victims of such raids. There was a reason Huntsmen were needed in Remnant, and this was exactly why. People just want to live their peaceful lives. Yet it always seemed to be disturbed by a new darkness every time.
"After she recovered from the hospital, I took her home with me and sponsored her through whatever it was she wanted to do. It just so happened she chose to become a Huntress." Silver concluded the story afterward then took another dainty sip, "Of course, she'd stay in Mistral whenever I had a concert to perform at."
"You have a home in Mistral, Miss Soteria?" Klein inquired.
She nodded in reply, "Yes. I, technically, have homes in every region. Yet I find myself more often renting them out to those who need it. It's a way to keep a steady income for myself, especially now since I'm retired from performing."
"Yet you didn't do it for the money."
"Of course not! But it did help to support my families in times of need."
"Families?" Weiss asked.
"My blood family and the family I emotionally created, or really bonded with. Such as Taiyang, Qrow, and the girls…"
"You helped with their expenses? Even after you left them?"
Silver was surprised to hear such bluntness come from the Heiress, nearly spitting some of her tea. A tea that she very much enjoyed. "Well, yes. I'm not heartless. Taiyang was… not doing well, and the girls needed to eat. I would send it anonymously, yet I couldn't fool Qrow. So I let Tai and the girls believe the money came from him. Matters not to me. Yang would have been more willing to accept it if it came from him, anyway."
To hear about the disdain Yang held for Silver surprised Weiss. From Weiss's memory, Yang showed no signs of this emotion during the time of Silver's performance at the Vytal Festival or when Blake talked about her and her aunt's long talk afterward. She couldn't tell if it was either her mentor's imagination that Yang felt this way, or if Yang was really good at hiding it. Something told Weiss that it was the latter, but only because she'd feel just as angry if someone she trusted left her all alone. And she had.
Lynn could sense the dread in the room and turned to Klein, moving her hands elegantly for her short stature.
"Excuse me, Miss Weiss," Klein interjected. He only ever called her a 'Miss' whenever guests were around. Otherwise, she'd be his little 'Snowflake'. "Miss Lynn is asking why you pursued singing as strongly as you did."
Weiss's mouth moved like an acrobat without sound, her face growing red and hot from the sheer embarrassment of it all. Why did she start to sing? The answer was much more self-centered than she really wanted to admit. Yet the innocent and kind-hearted Lynn had asked her, she didn't want to lie to someone like that. It felt just as wrong as lying to Ruby. Someone she had missed dearly - all of them.
"I used to be a pianist and I'd get the praise of everyone around me after every recital. That is, everyone but my father." The days of the past rushed through her mind, reliving it all, every struggle, every criticism, every 'charity' party, every sound of her own voice telling her to be perfect.
"I was ten years old when a woman came to Atlas, carrying herself like no one I had ever seen do before. I remember her being tall, beautiful and so talented." Weiss sheepishly glanced at Silver, who kept to herself as she drank her tea. "She was an enigma to everyone, wearing various colorful veils over her face, sometimes masks of a solemn face as if living in the moment. The mystery of her and her perfect winter name, Silverstream, kept her away from everyone. The whispers I heard about her from people in the company got me interested and I asked my mother for one of her performance tickets. She agreed but said that she and my siblings had to accompany me. I was only ten after all, I needed some sort of chaperone.
"Anyway, the first time I heard her sing - I was in awe. The way she moved on the stage was so graceful like, like-" she tried to find the words to describe the event, seeing it perfectly in her minds' eye. "-like she embodied the river creeks in the middle of a forgotten forest. And her voice? It carried so much weight to it, bringing some to tears, some joyous smiles, and some - It was just amazing.
"When it was over, I heard so many different cheers and applause from the lower seats, since we got VIP seats, the ones on the balcony. And then I realized. The people who praised me after my recitals were hollow. They just wanted to use me to have better and more connections to the Schnee Dust Company. I wanted to be praised from the bottom of their hearts, just like I saw Silverstream receive. I wanted to be recognized for being me, not the daughter of the Schnee family. The piano became tainted for me at that point, so I decided to learn how to sing instead. However, I got obsessed with being perfect at it, so…" Her words trailed off at the end of her story, shrugging slightly.
Lynn's hands started to move the second Weiss' mouth stopped, but before Klein could translate, Silver spoke up, "It isn't self-centered as you think it is. You're allowed to think about yourself, since every night you are the one who lives with yourself every step of the way, since birth."
"That still sounds… self-centered".
"Perhaps. But the meaning to life, in my opinion, isn't obedience to one's family or sacrificing oneself for some bigger purpose. Some choose this path, but they choose to. As you choose to become someone who'll gain her own power, recognition, path on her own, without the power previously given to you. There is nothing wrong with this. It's how your grandfather made his stride that became the company. It was the Will."
"The Will?" Weiss' eyebrow lifted, "that sounds like fate to me, something that negates what you just said."
Silver chuckled at this. She knew it sounded hypocritical, but that was all life was - twists, turns, hypocrisy - the grey area. Never black nor white. Just it. "The Will is different than fate, though I somewhat believe in that. The Will is the free will of each individual that becomes the world's will. Because it was your willpower that brought you to sing and even Beacon Academy, it also became part of the Will. Understand?"
Weiss slowly nodded as Klein fiddled with his mustache slightly away from the ladies at the table. He hadn't thought of things that way, but what exactly was fate? He asked and received an answer.
"Fate is something preordained by a higher power. It is beyond the control of mortals, Humans and Faunus. An inevitable outcome that can never be changed, no matter how you get there. The Will brings us to our Fate. Does that make sense?"
Klein confidently nodded, "Yes and no. But then again, I suppose that was how it was originally meant to be." Silver tapped her nose gently to confirm the validity in his words. He smiled and continued with, "Then I suppose it was the Will that brought you to sing for Miss Weiss to do the same."
Lynn and Weiss's eyes lit brightly as they both communicated at the same time, "Why did you start singing?" Lynn's hands moved just as quickly as Weiss's mouth, finishing together in perfect sync. It impressed the Huntress that sat before them but felt slightly panicked at the question itself. People rarely asked her this question and when they did she would always find a way to give a simple answer. Yet she knew, like Qrow, Nyx, Elysia, Tena and Kier, they wouldn't accept the simple answer since it was anything but.
Silver extended her hand for the pot but was stopped by Klein's. She gave him a pleading look but was only given a joyful smile and a refill in her cup. Silver sighed, stared at the herbal infused waters and thought aloud, "I don't remember. It had been so long since I began." The weight in her eyes felt like nothing once she relaxed them to the point she didn't think she was looking at anything in particular. They moved slowly side-to-side, like a pendulum trying to hypnotize her to speak her truth. "As a child, I spent a lot of my time trying to be what others wanted me to be. And what they wanted me to be wasn't an artist. They wanted me to be a warrior, a fighter, a survivor."
Silver's thumb fiddled with the teacup's handle, "life was tough where I grew up. I had some luxuries, but not enough time to find the artist in me. If I had to say 'why' I started singing, I suppose it would have to be 'because I wouldn't survive otherwise'. Why I continue to… It's for everyone else's."
Weiss had so many more questions beyond that, but once she noticed the difficult expression Silver made, she thought better of pushing the subject further. The two winter women hide themselves from the world one way or another. One more so than the other. Yet their songs held the greatest truth within - and how vulnerable they feel from it.
