It's mother's day over here so I spent this morning visiting mine to give some gifts and get roped into helping set up a horse brushing post in a field. Which sounds like a small and simple task until you realise how much digging has to be done by hand, then driving the central post down, etc. Took me about two hours, alongside my sister's husband who is the laziest sack of crap ever seen and kept trying to avoid doing any manual labour.

Cover Art: Z-ComiX

Chapter 80

"You made it!"

Weiss flushed and did her best to push Ruby off her, wrestling her away as the other Arcanists looked at their table. "Ruby, stop it," she pleaded. "I'm an Arcanist now. You can't treat me like I'm some Initiate-"

"Nope!" Ruby clung to her and laughed. "My best friend became an Arcanist!"

"E-Even so," Weiss stammered, too embarrassed to speak normally, "This isn't becoming! People are watching us. Ugh. Ruby. Try and act your age for once, please."

"Nope!"

Pyrrha laughed into her hand but refused to step in and help Weiss. What did it matter? All those people watching would get bored soon enough and go back to their own things. It wasn't like you graduated from an Initiate to an Arcanist every day. Weiss deserved a hug.

Plus, this means no more differences between us.

No more awkwardness or poorly concealed envy. No more moments where Weiss thought she wasn't watching and could let it show that the fact Ruby had passed where she failed continued to bother her. It was selfish for her to be happy about that specifically, but Ruby had never claimed to be anything else.

"How did it go? What did they do? Did they change the rite?"

Weiss finally managed to extricate herself from Ruby's grip – though Ruby would never admit it was only because she let her – and pushed her into a chair. The new Arcanist was proudly wearing her white robes, with a white-gold necklace around her neck that was a new addition but appeared to have been crafted for her, shaped like a tiny snowflake. Weiss was going for the `older woman` look, and she did pull off the maturity, even if her height and slim frame didn't do much to hide her girlish figure.

"I am not at liberty to say," Weiss began.

"What? Why not?"

"It was a rule. Lady Goodwitch was insistent that those not taking part in the rite remain ignorant of its particulars."

"That's only for Initiates, surely," Pyrrha pointed out. "So that the trick they pulled for the rite of conviction doesn't lose all meaning. Which it should have for you if I'm being honest."

"Why would it?" Weiss asked curiously. "No. Never mind. Lady Goodwitch was clear the rites should remain hidden. Besides, we're surrounded by people." Her hand gestured. "We shouldn't be discussing secrets of the White here. Or anywhere for that matter."

It wasn't really a secret though. Ruby rolled her eyes but couldn't argue the point. Even if everyone at the small tavern was an Arcanist already, some didn't have their second gems and might have been considering the White. Revealing the rites to them would create an unfair advantage. All three of the tests fell through once you knew the tricks to them, from breaking the illusion to being prepared for an attack and finally killing the fake.

There's no way Weiss could fail twice. They literally give you the answers to it after the rite is over. That felt backward and silly, but it might not always have been that way. Maybe in the past you only got the one chance to join the White. Those that failed were sent into other Arcana.

That felt more logical for such an all or nothing test, but what had changed? Numbers? The White was really populous now, dominating the Collegium. It didn't seem likely those numbers had ever dwindled, so maybe it was the philosophy of the White that changed. Instead of being a select group working in secret, they became a large organisation with a more public face.

And if you were already going public, why not widen yourself to accept anyone and everyone who applied, regardless of skill or conviction? You could always train them up, and it would be easier to make sure everyone toed the line if they were all loyal to the White.

It wouldn't have surprised her if, in the future, it became mandatory to join the White. Something that restrictive would never fly if they just up and announced it, but if they did it slowly – over decades or even centuries – then no one would notice it happening. It would become the new normal.

"Hey." Ruby perked up suddenly. "If you're an Arcanist now then that means you're leaving the dorms, doesn't it?"

"It does. Coco… Initiate Adel…" Weiss tested the word and found it to her liking. "Initiate Adel looked like she'd swallowed a lemon when she heard. It must be frustrating to still be an Initiate after all this time."

"Coco is nice…"

"I wasn't-" Weiss realised how she must have sounded. "My apologies, that was rude. I'm just… it's a heady experience. Yes, I'm moving out. I don't have any accommodations arranged yet but-"

"You should live with me!"

"Again?" Weiss laughed. "Why am I not surprised? We're Arcanists now, Ruby, we don't need to stay in tiny rooms or share a bathroom. I've no issue rooming with you until I sort out my own accommodation, but I want to have my own place as well in time." She paused when Ruby began to sulk. "Though… there's no reason we can't be neighbours. Or share a larger place…"

"We could pool our resources and get somewhere together." Pyrrha suggested. The idea made Weiss pause and Ruby look up. "Land is expensive in the Collegium, Weiss. Inhibitively so. I'm not sure if anyone but the heir of a high family would be able to afford even a small cottage. I mean no offence but not even I could afford to own a property here."

"Truly? The Nikos family is not poor…"

"You haven't seen the prices."

"I haven't." Weiss bit her lip, suddenly nervous. "Is it that bad? I don't mean to brag but even if my family were only merchants until recently, that has left us in a very positive position financially. I'm sure my father would offer me a stipend if it were an investment."

"You're welcome to take a look for yourself."

Ruby let the conversation flow over her head. As someone without the backing of rich parents, she'd never be able to own property in even the poorest parts of the city, let alone the Collegium. The best she could hope for was earning enough lien to rent her and Yang a place in the Merchant's Quarter. In fact, how expensive was that?

"Ruby. Are you listening?"

"Huh. What?"

"I asked if I could stay with you tonight and go out tomorrow with Pyrrha to look at the prices."

"Oh sure. You can stay over as long as you want!"

"Not that." Weiss rolled her eyes. "Did you want to come out with us tomorrow to look? It won't take long. A few hours around the Collegium looking at plots and smaller homes."

"Oh. Uh. I can't. I need to go back into the city."

"Your mentor again?" Pyrrha asked. "Did you go out of the walls with him? I hope you didn't run into any Grimm."

"Yes and no. We went out. No Grimm." And while Qrow had asked for her to come back out, that wasn't tomorrow. "And yeah, I'll be busy in the Merchant District. You can tell me about the places after, though. It's not like I could afford it anyway…"

Dinner went by in a blur of conversation about houses from Pyrrha and Weiss. Things Ruby had never really considered in life because home for her and Yang was whatever piece of shelter they could claim and hold onto from roving gangs, whore hunters and desperate beggars looking for a place to crash.

Before Junior, anyway, who despite being a cheating piece of shit, offered them their own room and the assurance they could keep it so long as they worked. He'd been as good as his word and that was all anyone could ask in the slums.

It was early night by the time Ruby showed Weiss back to her sponsored accommodation. There weren't two beds this time, but after a little wheedling and comments that they were both girls and it really didn't mean anything, Weiss agreed to share the bed with her, the two of them laying down back to back on the soft mattress.

"I'm sorry if it was rude," Weiss said suddenly.

"Hm?"

"To talk about homes in front of you. I know you can't afford your own…"

"It's fine. I wasn't upset."

"Are you sure?" Weiss sounded desperate.

"Yep." Ruby giggled. It really hadn't bothered her, and she didn't want Weiss thinking otherwise. "Hey, it's just the two of us now and I won't tell anyone. What did Goodwitch do for your rite?"

Weiss scoffed. "How stubborn can one person be?"

"I'm curious. Besides, it must have all been new since you already did it once. You'd already have all the answers from the first time. I'm trying to figure out how she could have changed things while keeping the same theme of conviction on the last one."

"Will you shut up and go to sleep if I tell you?" Weiss asked.

"Yep. I promise."

"Fine." The roll of Weiss' eyes could be felt more than seen, and the white-haired girl rolled over, tugging half the blankets over her. "It was a trick," she said sleepily. "I was brought into a dark room with nothing to focus on other than the person in it. You. They told me you'd committed a crime and that I had to kill you. I could tell it was fake, though. You said you would be out with Arcanist Branwen, and I saw you leave the Collegium, so I knew this one couldn't be real. I asked it a question you would know the answer to, then killed it when `you` didn't answer properly." Weiss huffed. "Is that enough to sate your curiosity?"

"Y-Yeah… Yeah, it is…"

Weiss noticed the stammer. "It's fine, isn't it? I knew it wasn't you, Ruby, and I made sure before I did anything. If I'd thought for a second it was you then I'd have never gone through with it."

"No. It's fine. It was an illusion. You… You did the right thing…"

The same thing. The exact same thing as had happened in their rite and the Weiss' last, except that she didn't appear to remember a thing about it. That was one way to avoid having to change the rites, she supposed.

Ruby struggled to sleep that night.

/-/

"Lord Scribe. Someone is here to see you."

The man spoken to could have been over a hundred by the looks of him, hair white and faded, straggly in places, and with his skin so leathery it looked to be forming cracks. His eyes were closed, completely shut, and she wasn't sure if he was blind or if his eyes could no longer open. He moved slowly, crookedly, over to the front of the desk and wheezed, "Arcanum."

Ruby removed and pushed it over to him.

"Menagerie," he whispered. "Rose. Ruby Rose. Arcanist of the White. Her blood is known."

With those parting words, the ancient man dropped the emblem on the counter and turned away, ignoring her. Ruby snatched it back up and put it on, while the younger man, comparatively, nodded and reached for a rolled-up scroll.

"The Lord Scribe has confirmed your identity," the person working the front desk of the Scriptorium said. He was not himself an Arcanist, that much she could tell. He looked like someone hired from outside to work as a clerk. "How can I help you today, Lady Rose?"

"I'm here to check on my finances…"

Her pay, stipend, wages or whatever the Collegium called it. Lord Port had promised her he'd arranged pay, and so had Glynda. All the talk of Weiss and Pyrrha renting a home had filled her head with ideas. Of promises she hadn't kept but really ought to.

The man nodded, unfurled her scroll and began to read through it. He adjusted occasionally, reaching over to another, tallying numbers in his head and cross-referencing with small letters that appeared to have been stuck to her larger scroll with wax. Ruby hoped those weren't anything dangerous.

"All seems well," he eventually said. "You have four-hundred and fifty lien accounted for."

Four hundred. That sounded like so much to her – enough that Ruby didn't know what to say for a few seconds. Back before the Collegium, she'd found a stash of nearly twenty lien and been over the moon at it. Money like that could last you weeks if spent wisely. People would mug you over twenty lien in the slums. They'd murder her for four hundred. Heck, they'd murder her for fifty.

This kind of money means nothing to the nobles.

Martyn had bet a hundred with her on the outcome of the White raid. To him, a hundred lien was nothing. Something a child could afford to throw on a wager, all for the payoff of embarrassing her when he rejected her request for a date. That was all it was to him, so it shouldn't have been too surprising that she had four hundred lien in her name, and no one thought it worth mentioning.

"C-Can I take it…?"

"Would you like to withdraw all of it or a portion?"

"All."

"Very well. One moment please."

The man left and returned in a few minutes, handing over a small pouch of cotton with a hefty amount of coin inside. There weren't four hundred coins. Some were brighter, larger and thicker. Obviously, she'd heard about the higher denominations of lien currency, but she'd never seen any or thought she might one day hold one. And they were just giving it to her.

"Is that all, Lady Arcanist?"

"Huh. What? Oh yeah, that's it." Ruby took a step back, half expecting them to shout for her to stop. "That's it? I don't need to do anything…?"

"A note will be left deducting the amount from your account. Other than that, no. Please return if you need anything from us."

/-/

Being an Arcanist opened a lot of doors it shouldn't.

It didn't matter that she was young, it didn't matter that she had no proof of who she was, or that she kept her face mostly hidden. She wore the robes and Arcanum of her station, and that meant she was nobility – or at least the person proudly showing her small home in the Merchant's District thought.

"I must say it's such an honour, Lady Arcanist. My home isn't large by any means but if it should suit your needs, I would be happy to have it play host to you."

Was it small? Compared to Arcanist Branwen's home, she supposed it was. The building was a square one set between other square houses, all the way back against the upper wall and, as a result, left in the shade most of the day. That must have been a put off for most people wanting better views or more natural sunlight. It wasn't for her.

"Do you not live here anymore?" she asked the man.

"No, Lady Arcanist. My wife and I moved to a larger home once our daughter was born. I wanted to sell this, but my wife suggested we rent it out to those wanting to work in the city."

"How much?"

"W-Well, I would be willing to let you have it for two thousand lien a year."

Two thousand. What a ridiculous number. The worst part was that it was probably more than fair, even generous. No wonder it was never realistic to try and buy your way out the slums. This is the cheapest place there is and that's just to rent. It'd probably cost way more to buy.

Too much for her. The number would go up close to fifty thousand lien if she wanted to own a house in the merchant district, and then ten or more times that for the upper. Not that you could get in there at all without noble backing.

"How much would it be for few months?" she asked.

"A short term lease? I don't know, Lady Arcanist, I've been looking for a tenant to live here at least a year…"

"The people I have in mind would be," she said. "They might even live here for the rest of their lives." She watched his face light up at the thought of such a constant source of money. Easy work on his end. "I only want to test it first, see if it is to their liking. I'll pay fully for those months. How much would four hundred up front get me?"

"Oh, I have complete faith, my lady. The Collegium are beyond reproach."

If only he knew…

"And I'd be more than willing to arrange payment through a monthly basis if you would like it. Four hundred would be worth two and a half months. Would you wish to discuss lengthening your stay after…?"

"Assuming all goes well, yes. Money won't be a problem."

Or it shouldn't be, given how well work in the Collegium paid. Either way, she knew better than to suggest anything else. If he knew she was a Dredger, it wouldn't matter if she came with ten million lien. He'd assume it fake, stolen or diseased in some way, and he'd kick her over the nearest pit back down where she belonged. In the end, it wasn't the money that was making him so polite. It was her apparent station in life.

There were probably a lot of people who would rent his home and refuse to pay, or who would trash it with no respect for its owner. A noble would never do such a thing, however. A noble would always have money to pay, would be a safe customer, would never be so uncouth as to cause trouble. And if he wormed his way into her good graces, such favour could set him and his family for a long time.

All that was going through his head.

"I'd be willing to let you have three months for four hundred," he said brightly. "Especially if it is up front. Consider the extra weeks a gift, my lady. I'm sure you'll find my old home to your liking. It's very well maintained."

She couldn't find any faults in it. The walls were actually solid brick and layered with clay, and there wasn't a crack to be found. It even looked like if it rained, the roof wouldn't leak. The windows were glass instead of empty spaces, and the large fire in the main sitting area – Ruby scoffed at that; imagine an area dedicated to sitting; how indulgent – was heating the whole house up easily. Something like this felt so quaint and humble compared to the Collegium.

To Yang, however, it would be like living a dream.

I've been living like royalty for so long, and Yang's been on her own in the slums, working for Junior and struggling to make ends meet. I should have done this sooner. I can't believe it took me this long…

Finally, though, she would make good on her promise.

"I'll take it. Can I move in immediately?"

"Absolutely, my lady. I'll just need a guarantor."

"A… what…?"

"A guarantor, my lady," he explained, missing the nervous edge to her tone. "I hope you understand and it's nothing against you. It's the law, you see." He laughed, all but certain she'd have no trouble. "It's very simple. All I'd need is the guarantee of a parent or adult who would sign for you. In the event you cannot pay, or anything happens to you, they would take on the contract."

"Is that necessary?" Ruby put on her most imperious voice. Her Weiss voice. "Is my word not enough?"

"Your word is all I need, my lady. Sadly, it is not all the city officials need…"

Merlot. He'd make the most sense for this since he knew she was a Wildmage and had family in the slums. There'd be a whole lot less risk if it was him over someone like, say, Goodwitch. The problem was that even if it was Merlot, that'd mean the documentation would go through the Collegium. It wasn't impossible the Collegium would be made aware of this anyway, but there was a chance to keep it quiet. If it went through Merlot, that chance would disappear.

"Is it just a signature?"

"That and their verbal agreement. It's really just a formality at this point, my lady. Even if you were to back out, you're paying in advance. I'd waive this if I could, but I don't need officials knocking on my door suggesting I'm evading the king's taxes."

Going to Merlot would involve the Collegium. That was the last thing she needed. Ruby bit her lip and looked back out the front door of the house. "There's someone who might do that for me here in the district. Would that be enough? He's an Arcanist."

"That would be more than fine, my lady. Would you like me to wait?"

Ruby swallowed. "Please."

/-/

Lord Qrow Branwen used a quill to sign his name on the document, then produced an ornate silver ring from an inner pocket and stamped it onto the wax. The signet ring didn't go back on his finger but was instead tossed back into his coat with little care. He straightened, looked about the small home and back to the man smiling happily nearby.

"Is that all?"

"It is, my lord. Thank you. Thank you ever so much. And you, my lady." He offered her the key. "Should you have need of anything, do not hesitate to call on me. I have left my address in the hallway cabinet."

Qrow waited for the man to leave before addressing her. "So, getting your own place, huh?"

"Yes. Is that a problem?"

It wasn't against the rules or she wouldn't have gone to him at all. It was perfectly allowed for her to spend her money however she wished, as long as she didn't try and leave without permission. Technically, she would need to speak to someone before living here, but he didn't need to know that she hadn't. Neither did the Collegium since she wouldn't actually be sneaking away to live here at all.

"No. Not on my end. Just a little curious why you came to me is all."

He'd been just as surprised when she showed up at his door again, but he'd also surprised her by agreeing without question. Did he not care? It was low risk, since she was paying in advance. Maybe he thought it just as much a pointless formality as the man had.

"You were closer. I didn't want to go all the way back to the Collegium. Who would I ask, anyway? Goodwitch?"

"Ha." He grinned. "That'd be a fun talk. Fair enough, I guess I was just convenient. Don't make me regret this, though. You know you can't live here full time without special dispensation."

"I can spend time here though. I can stay a night or two, store my things here, invite my friends over. It can be a home away from the Collegium as long as I don't try and live here full time."

"You can do all that," he agreed. "Is that what you want it for? Parties with friends?"

"Sure." Not untrue, just not the friends he thought she meant. "The Collegium is a little stuffy at times and it's not so exciting when you've been trapped there for the last few months."

Qrow hummed and smirked. She had the feeling he didn't believe her, or that he thought she had other motives in mind. What those were, she didn't want to know. Maybe he thought she was bringing boys back for reasons that she or her imaginary lover didn't want his noble family hearing about. He could think all those things and more as long as he did so without prying.

"That's all I needed you for, Lord Branwen-"

"I told you, it's Qrow. And getting rid of me already? After I came all the way over to sign as your guarantor. That's cold. Goodwitch levels of cold. Guess I should get going, though," he said, scratching his bristling beard. "You and I have a jaunt in the northern stretches tomorrow. Make sure you're ready for it. And try to wear something a little more rugged than that." He pointed to her robes. "Got it?"

"I'm not an idiot. I've got it…"

"Heh." He grinned at her retort. "I'll believe it when I see it. You're just like-" He cut off, swallowed and turned away. "Well, I'll see you tomorrow. Try not to cause any trouble until then."

The door closed heavily behind him, taking him away before she could even think to respond. It was almost like he was running away from her. Ruby watched the empty space, lips pursed.

Just like Summer…?

Ruby wasn't so sure anymore, not if he really had known her mom, because that would imply a lot more about Summer than she or Yang had ever known. Shaking her head, she pulled off her robes and revealed the hose and tunic underneath, tossed her robes away and worked on scuffing up her appearance a little.

Thoughts of Summer and Qrow could wait. It was time to come through on a promise she'd made herself and Yang a long time ago. One she didn't think either of them had ever thought would come true. It was time to get them out of the slums once and for all.

Sorry for how late this chapter came out – reason stated at the top to be honest. Just being made to do work in a field took away a lot of my morning. Same time spent writing as usual (about five to six hours for those who ask) just that time period started later in the day than usual for me.

Next Chapter: 21st March

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