Remember a year ago when I used to update this frequently? It's only been a few days since my last update, but I've already managed to write another one. Of course, this is a much shorter chapter than usual, so it isn't that impressive, but still! I'm proud of it. But all that aside, I need a favor. I decided to finally start posting this on AO3 as well as , but I'm not exactly sure how to work that platform. If any of you readers would be kind enough to either leave a review or a PM explaining how I could go about posting this story there as well that would be greatly appreciated. Don't worry though; I'll still post here first. This site is just so much more writer friendly.

Regardless, here's the newest chapter of Silver Spectre:

Two pairs of quiet footsteps hurried through the halls, twisting and turning with purpose as they easily navigated the palace and made their way to one of the many gardens. Stepping outside into the cool night, Emerald and Mercury took in the familiar sight.

A large garden of raked sand sprawled out before them, with a path of smooth stones winding through it. The borders of the sand garden were in an uneven shape that vaguely resembles an oval. A single patch of grass bearing a cherry-blossom tree stood on one end of the garden, while the other contained a small fountain that provided a calming background noise.

Sitting in the middle of the garden on a stone bench, Cinder lifted her head from the book she was reading and looked up at them. Upon seeing them, a warm smile appeared on her lips that made Emerald's heart leap up in her chest. The green-haired girl faintly remembered Mercury's words from when they had spoken on the ship, but she quickly dismissed them. Cinder wasn't using her. How would she be able to form such a genuine smile if she was?

"Emerald. Mercury. Welcome back to Mistral," She said kindly, sending tingles up Emerald's spine. She loved the sound of Cinder's voice. The soft, dulcet tone she spoke with was calming, and she'd gladly listen to Cinder say anything in that voice.

"Good evening, Lady Cinder," The red-eyed girl responded with a low bow. Mercury just lowered his head in respect, which she found to be poor manners. But she didn't dare tell him off for it. The last thing she wanted her lady to see was her arguing with her partner like a child. She didn't want Cinder to see her as a child anymore. She needed to be mature.

"How is our supplier in Vale doing?" Cinder asked, eyes narrowing when she noticed the wince Emerald gave and the brief flicker of fear that passed through Mercury's eyes.

"Well," The grey-haired boy began. "He... he had to be 'taken care of'. Emerald let someone find out about our partnership with the Fang, so the entire city was after him. We had to ensure the loose end was tied up neatly."

Cinder nodded with a resigned expression. "I see. I'd hoped to make use of his skills a few more times before we had to rid ourselves of him, but I suppose I will just have to make do without him."

Emerald looked up in surprise. "Y-you aren't mad?"

Glowing orange eyes pierced right through her and made her squirm uncomfortably. "Of course I'm mad. You failed at the task I explicitly told you to do. But you did manage to clean up your mess, so I don't see any point in taking out my anger on you."

"You mean I took care of her mess. She nearly let him get away," Mercury interjected, but Cinder raised a hand to interrupt him.

"You two are partners. Whatever one does is attributed to the other. When one succeeds, you both do. When one of you fails..." She trailed off ominously, making them both gulp. "Well, you get the picture. Still, this is a setback, albeit a minor one."

"What should we do now, my lady?" She asked with a worried look on her face. She didn't like the idea of having disappointed Cinder and wanted to make it up to her as quickly as possible.

"Mercury," The black-haired woman addressed the man, who straightened and saluted. "I've sent out a few of Leo's supporters on a mission to the north. You are to make sure that Shiro Wan and Heather Shields don't make it back alive. I doubt that they'll manage to survive their mission, but I don't need them returning home to give that fool hope. And make sure to blame it on those 'violent rebels,' ok?"

"Got it. When do I move out?" He responded with a hand on his hip.

"Make sure you leave within the next three days. They should be arriving at their destination soon, so you'll need to move quickly to intercept their journey home should they succeed."

"And what about me?" Emerald asked hesitantly, mentally chiding herself for sounding so needy. She just couldn't help it. The guilt that had been stewing in her gut for the past few weeks felt like a lead weight on her stomach as she waited for her mistress to grace her with a response.

"You are to remain here. In a few weeks' time, the High Leader of the White Fang will be arriving in Mistral to speak to his majesty. You are to ensure that the High Leader is willing to listen to our offer," Cinder ordered.

The green-haired thief's lips curved downwards into a frown. "How am I supposed to do that? If Sienna Khan isn't willing to listen to another faunus, I doubt she'd listen to me," Emerald complained. Cinder just smirked maliciously.

"Well, if High Leader Khan won't listen, then perhaps it would benefit us to replace her with someone more... willing. High Leader Taurus has a nice ring to it, don't you think?"

Hearing this, Emerald wilted. She was supposed to assassinate the leader of the White Fang if they didn't agree to help her? She'd be killed alongside Sienna Khan. Even with her powerful illusions, there's no way she'd be able to fight her way out of their base after killing her. Cinder was going to sacrifice her as punishment for her failure in Vale.

At least, that's what she thought at first. But after seeing the kind look in Cinder's eyes and the slight smile on her lips, Emerald knew. Cinder wasn't assigning her to this task because she was being punished; she was being assigned to this task because she was trusted. Cinder trusted she'd be able to kill Sienna Khan if the need arose. She wouldn't fail her!

"I understand. I will succeed in any task you assign me!" Emerald passionately declared, cheering to herself when she saw Cinder's smile widen slightly.

"I know."

Cinder dismissed the two with a wave, causing Emerald to let out a sigh of relief. She was pleased with her. Cinder wasn't disappointed. Cinder cared about her. Cinder wouldn't cast her aside. The girl was sure of it. How else could she explain the pleased look in her lady's eyes when she saw how hard she'd worked?

"Oh, and by the way, boss," Mercury said, turning around to face Cinder, who glanced up from the book she'd been reading to meet his gaze. Emerald could tell from her glare she didn't like being referred to so casually, but she said nothing and merely nodded at the man to continue. "We picked up a little toy from Torchwick back in Vale. I thought you might be interested in it?"

As he said this, Mercury withdrew the ominous crown Torchwick had used to enrage the Grimm. Ever since they'd taken it from him, the crown had lost its luster and became a dull black, but Emerald could still sense the power it emitted. Cinder clearly could too, given the impressed look that crossed her eyes when she took in the sight.

"Well, this is certainly interesting. Tell me, what does it do?" Cinder asked curiously as she took the relic from the grey-eyed man. A brief glow emanated from within the relic before it quickly faded as Cinder took it into her hands.

"We don't exactly know. Roman used it to piss off a bunch of Grimm, but that seemed more like a side effect of activating it rather than its original purpose. But after he used it, it seems to have lost its power," Emerald explained before Mercury could.

"Hmm. Interesting. I doubt it has lost its power completely, but I don't recognize this artifact so I wouldn't know how to restore it. Nonetheless, you did well to bring this to me," Cinder nodded to Mercury, who straightened up with a proud smirk on his face. "I'll put this into my personal vault. I will likely wish to study it at a later date."

"Understood. Will that be all, Lady Cinder?" Emerald asked hesitantly. She wished it wasn't. She wanted Cinder to talk to her more, for her honeyed words to slip past her soft lips and lull her into a calm bliss she only experienced when serving her mistress. She wanted to stay here all night, waiting at Cinder's feet and listening to her speak. But Cinder clearly had no need of her right now.

"No, that will be all. Make sure to get plenty of rest you two," Cinder called out as they turned around and began to head to their rooms to retire for the night. Their mistress had ensured that they received some of the finest rooms in Haven Palace to stay in as a reward for their loyal service.

"After all," Cinder muttered to herself so quietly Emerald had to strain to hear her. "Soon things are going to get very busy around here."

The heavy clopping of hoofsteps broke the silent spell of the forest as Weiss rode Snowpea on a rough path. The woods were unnaturally quiet, as though no life dared to let out any sound above a whisper for fear of being heard. No birds sang among the trees, and no crickets chirped as they ran about through the underbrush.

A rumble from the light grey skies above startled a few birds from their perches as they took off into the sky, but the silence quickly resumed, only broken by the sound of Snowpea's hoofsteps. Weiss glanced around, not for the first time, to try and spot some sign of life in the ominous forest. She saw nothing. The only living things here were her and her horse. Ruby didn't count on account of being dead.

"It's... quiet," Her ghostly companion noted, glancing into the woods. "Why is it so quiet?"

Weiss shrugged. "Grimm, perhaps? It's not uncommon for animals to flee in the presence of a predator," She explained, but Ruby shook her head.

"No, that can't be it. Grimm only attack animals when they get in their way, and animals only attack Grimm when they're in their territory. And we've been traveling for hours now. Shouldn't any Grimm stalking us have attacked us by now?"

"Could it be bandits then?" Weiss asked tensely, casting a wary glance over her shoulder to try and catch someone who might've been tailing her sneaking through the woods.

Ruby shot that idea down quickly. "No. I've been scouting around. I would've seen someone if they were tailing us. Besides, wouldn't they have attacked by now?"

Weiss didn't have an answer for that. She pondered her friend's words with a frown. She had a point. While Weiss was by far the more academic of the two, Ruby had much more experience when it came to traveling, both from hearing stories and having done it herself. She would trust the other girl's caution.

Why was the forest so quiet? The clouds were grey and rolling thunder boomed out, but even then it made no sense. The past several days had been the same. They hadn't seen anything. No animals, people, or even Grimm. That didn't make any sense. Weren't Grimm attracted to lingering negativity? Shouldn't they be still swarming around Oniyuri as they did at Mountain Glenn?

None of this made sense. They'd seen nothing for days. The fact that Ruby hadn't been able to spot anything either meant that it wasn't that something was hiding from Weiss. It was like everything within a mile of her had just... fled. Whatever the cause of it, they were all on edge. Even Snowpea whinnied nervously as she rode along the dirt path.

Feeling her lips dry from the nervousness, Weiss pulled a waterskin off her horse's saddlebag and took a slow drink, relishing the cooling liquid that wet her parched lips and throats. Yet the water did little to calm her frayed nerves. Everything she had ever been taught about how to survive in the wilderness screamed that this was a bad situation to be in.

Fortunately for them, they wouldn't be here much longer. The sun may have been hidden behind the clouds, but Weiss had other ways of figuring out the time. She absentmindedly drew a glyph with her forefinger, creating a sort of sundial. According to the glyph, which couldn't be wrong, it was about to be noon. According to the map she had checked last night, they were due to arrive in Kuroyuri in a couple of hours.

Their journey thus far had been easy. After leaving Higanbana, they took a roundabout path to reach their destination in order to avoid the ruins of Oniyuri. They had gotten close, but never close enough to be able to actually see it. Or for the creatures there to see them. But even though they hadn't even been a mile from Oniyuri at one point, they hadn't seen anything. Where were all of the Grimm?

A few peals of thunder roared out across the sky, making her jump suddenly. Ruby laughed slightly at the sight, but even her embarrassment wasn't enough to do anything more than temporarily break the tense silence that hung over them. Deciding she had nothing better to do, Weiss removed her map of the region from one of her saddlebags.

Kuroyuri was nestled on the westernmost edge of the same mountain range as the Mistralian capital. In order to reach it, one had to travel off one of the main roads to follow a small path that led through the wooded valley and into the town. The dense forest surrounding the town and steep mountains meant it was nearly impossible to stumble upon it unless you meant to. Which she did.

"So, are we almost there?" Ruby asked, to which Weiss responded with a raised brow. "Well, you checked the time, then the map. I assumed you were trying to figure out how far away we are," The ghost accurately surmised.

"Well, we should be arriving in an hour or so. How are you feeling?" Weiss asked to try and break the silence, mentally chiding herself for not doing so sooner. Ruby had nothing to entertain her on this journey aside from Weiss. Usually, she could disappear along the side of the road and watch the animals play about, but when that was only possible when there were animals around to watch.

"Nervous. I don't like how quiet everything's been," Ruby admitted. Weiss had to agree. "I know this sounds bad, but I almost wish we'd seen more Grimm. At least then I'd know what had scared off all of the animals."

"I'm inclined to agree. I'd rather fight a foe I'm familiar with than one I don't know," As the white-haired girl spoke her hand found its way to Myrtenaster's hilt. "What scared off the Grimm and animals? People? Other Grimm? Or something else?"

The silver spectre perked up suddenly when she looked at the map just before Weiss rolled it up. "I've got it! I'll fly really high up and try and see if I can spot Kuroyuri from here! Maybe I'll also be able to spot why it's so quiet!" As Ruby said this, she shot into the air with a smile before the ex-heiress could respond.

"That girl," Weiss mumbled with a wistful smile on her face and a shake of the head. She liked seeing how energetic she could be, even in such an unsettling situation. But perhaps this was her way of coping with the fear and stress. "Can you see anything!" She called up to her friend, who she could clearly see was squinting at something in the distance even from fifty feet below.

"I... I think so! Weiss, I think I can see it!" She cried out happily. Weiss's eyes widened as she opened her mouth to shout up at her. "Wait, something's wrong. It doesn't look right. What is that?" The ghost panicked.

"What is what? Ruby, do you see something? Is Kuroyuri under attack?" The noble called out, but Ruby just shook her head violently.

"No, I don't think so. But it looks... strange. And I think I can see something else there. Is that... a Grimm?" Ruby questioned loudly so Weiss could hear. "Wait, I think I see something else. Something's moving. A lot of somethings. What are they... Oh no!"

Weiss pulled on Snowpea's reigns to stop her steed as she snapped her head up to Ruby. "What's wrong? What do you see?"

Ruby flew down to her in a rush, her expression one of panic. "People. There's a big group of them in the village, headed right for..." The silver-eyed girl rambled out but was cut off when the heavy silence that had been reigning over the forest for the past few days was broken at last by an otherworldly scream that forced Weiss to clutch her ears to block out the noise.

"W-what was that?" Weiss asked, but paled when she heard a different sound. Panicked shouting and cries of pain could be heard in the distance as she turned to face Ruby. "What did you see?"

The silver spectre's face was pale. "There's a massive Grimm in the village. Those people didn't even notice it was there. Gods, they're going to get massacred!" The girl cradled her head in her hands. "Weiss, we have to do something! Help them run away, lure it away, anything! We can't leave them to die!"

Weiss felt a lump in her throat. A small, selfish part of her wanted to turn around and run. But she quickly squashed that part and gave Ruby a determined nod. She had to help them. It was the right thing to do. Besides, she had to go to Kuroyuri anyway. "How far away is the village?"

"About a mile or so. We should be able to make it," Ruby exclaimed right as another nightmarish screech washed over them, making Weiss feel weak in the legs. As fear coursed through her, Myrtenaster shook in her grasp. But one glance at the concerned expression on Ruby's face let her swallow her fear. She may not be the hero from one of Ruby's stories, but she wasn't going to leave people to die.

"Let's go!" She cried out, not giving herself time for doubt as she spurred her horse forwards. She drew her sword and grasped her white mare's reigns in her other hand as she shot through the forest, trees blurring beside her. She needed to be quick. From what Ruby had described, the people in the village weren't going to be able to fend off the Grimm.

"Come on, Snowpea!" Weiss yelled at her horse as she rode through the forest, Ruby flying right alongside her. The crushing feeling of fear once again overcame her as the Grimm's hellish cry nearly threw her from her horse, but she remained stalwart. She couldn't afford to hesitate for even a second longer. Every second she wasted trying to get there was another opportunity for that monster to kill someone. She wouldn't let that happen! She may not be a hero or a knight, but she'd never just leave someone to die!

"Please," Weiss whispered to herself. "Just hold on. I'll be there soon. Just hold out until then," She said a brief prayer to whatever gods might be listening as she charged forwards recklessly, not even noticing as droplets of rain began to gently fall from the sky. She couldn't fail!

To be honest, the second half of this chapter was meant to be part of chapter 30 but I decided that chapter was long enough. So I decided to split it into two chapters, then added the bit with Cinder and her 'nefarious plan' to add some extra length to this chapter. It was always planned to happen, but I just didn't know where I wanted to put it. So I decided the first half of this chapter was as good a place as any.

I know not everyone likes this trope, especially based on some of the reviews I received for chapter 29, but I love when the story cuts away to show the villains giving ominous foreshadowing. RWBY uses it a lot, as do many of my favorite video games and TV shows. And after writing, I can easily see why. It helps establish the villains as characters and lets you put foreshadowing so the audience doesn't think its an asspull when the villain accomplishes their plan. For a good example, look at RWBY. Cinder had a lot of scenes in Volumes 1-3 that made the Fall of Beacon believable. Can you imagine how people would've reacted if her plans weren't heavily foreshadowed? Sometimes plot twists are good, but foreshadowing is always a safer bet.

Speaking of foreshadowing, I wonder what mysterious Grimm Weiss is going to fight in the next chapter. I doubt anyone would ever be able to predict what a crazy twist it's going to be. I know sarcasm can't be shown through text, but I hope you all can tell that my words are dripping with it.

Super subtle hints about what Weiss will find in Kuroyuri aside, I do need help as mentioned in the author's note at the top. If anyone of my readers has expirience using AO3 and is willing to help me figure out how to post this story there I'd be very grateful. I tested it out, but gave up after trying for a few minutes.

I hope you enjoy this short chapter, and I hope all of you readers have a great day.