The calm of the night was unexpected yet welcome. Ruby had prepared to have to fight her way towards Doilier, the darkness night brought with it hiding not only Grimm but also less supernatural predators. However, if such predators were hunting through the darkness, for the time being, they were seeking different prey or were stalking behind the pair, patiently waiting for the right moment to strike.
Oscar and Ruby covered the first leg of their journey in silence. Each sound cast by the night made them jump, each crunch of their own boots against the coarse sands sent their hands to their weapons. The celestial light cast by the moon and stars created monsters where only shadows were cast.
"Hey Oscar?" Ruby eventually asked when she had deduced they were probably far enough from their friends not to be heard. With the distance they had already covered, not even the light of their camp could be seen any more. "You and Ozpin, do you ever just talk?"
Oscar took a moment to answer her question, not because it was a particularly difficult question to answer but, rather, an unexpected one.
"Occasionally." Oscar admitted. They weren't as much conversations as they were Oscar asking questions and Ozpin answering. Sometimes, Ozpin would share some inkling of knowledge or pass a comment about something unfolding before Oscar's eyes but rarely could he call their exchange of words conversations.
"Has he ever mentioned my mum? Summer Rose?" Ruby paused to look at her map, partly to double check they were still on the right path and partially not to look at the younger teenager as she'd asked her question.
"No, he hasn't." Oscar sadly admitted, watching as the Huntress's shoulders slumped slightly at his words, although she refused to look up from her map.
"I know I must sound like a complete crazy person, to travel the wasteland based on rumours and the words of a witch." Ruby clarified. Her mind had continuously nagged her to see reason, just as Yang had bagged her to, however something in her heart had persistently continued to whisper- what if?
"No one would blame you for hoping your mum might be alive somewhere." Oscar reassured her, earning him a grateful smile as she finally looked away from the map.
" Even if it is extremely unlikely, I just can't help wonder." The Huntress admitted. "Salem seemed to know something so I thought maybe Ozpin might have as well?"
Oscar paused, skimming through the memories that were not his own. It had become far easier as of late, as had begun accessing memories of lives further back. They were like files in a computer whose password he had recently acquired. This was surely a result of the extent at which their souls had merged. Soon, he too may simply become a compartment of memories alongside the rest. Oscar shook his head, not wanting to allow his mind to wander to darker things.
He saw images of Remnant before it was today. He could see four children, their faces blurred by the passage of time- sitting before a fire, idling the time away as children do. Oscar had stumbled upon such memories before and he had learnt that these young girls were the children of Salem and Ozma's first reincarnation. Memories of them resurfaced occasionally and, when Oscar had questioned Ozpin about what had become of them, he had not replied. However, not for Ozpin did not wish to tell his current host about them but, rather, the cycle of reincarnation had paid its toll. He could no longer recall the details of what had happened to them.
He carefully pushed the memory of the children aside, feeling the alien prick of sadness that often spread through his body at such ancient memories. Instead, he searched for Summer Rose. The name was quite prominent in Ozpin's memories, having always taken a keen interest in the woman due to her silver eyes. He saw a young woman who looked so much like Ruby walking the halls of Beacon in a white cape. He desperately skimmed through memories of her time as the leader of team STRQ, accepting the missions her headmaster assigned them with little complaints. Like a movie in fast forward, he saw her graduate and continue her Huntress work alongside Qrow. She'd helped raise a child of another and gave this world a daughter of her own, all the while still fulfilling the missions Ozpin assigned her and carrying out her duty as a Huntress. But then, one day, it all stopped, and Ozpin had no other memory of the woman.
"I'm sorry." Oscar sighed apologetically at his friend. "But unless she had something to do with the Beacon Vault I don't think I can tell you anything you don't already know."
Though what really concerned Oscar, at that moment, was how uncharacteristically quiet Ozpin was being, as if he were deliberately ejecting himself from the conversation.
Do you actually know something? Oscar silently accused.
But Ozpin remained quiet.
"Thanks anyway." Ruby smiled, oblivious to Oscar's internal struggle with Ozpin. "And thank you for not thinking I'm crazy…"
"You are talking to a guy with two souls." Oscr tried to joke, mentally noting to question Ozpin again later. His prolonged silences did not bode well, and Oscar suspected that he really may be hiding something concerning Ruby's mum. But, until he got some concrete answers he had no right to mislead the Huntress. "And it's not like I could ever stop you."
"I don't know." Laughed Ruby, her smile instantly lighting the mood. "You seemed quite impressive back in Atlas when you stopped that bomb!"
"That was Ozma's magic." Oscar explained. He would have to pay the price for that day soon enough.
"You don't really talk about it, do you?" Ruby observed, noticing the forlorn expression that fell across his face. "This whole sharing a body thing."
"Why would I? It's been a few years now…"
"It doesn't mean it's any easier, that you don't need to talk to someone." Ruby delicately prodded.
"This may surprise you, but there aren't that many people out there in my position." Oscar tried to joke but faltered when he noticed the hard look Ruby was giving him. Even through her goggles he knew she was not joking.
"You know you can always talk to me if you need to, right?" She offered. Ever since Atlas she'd wanted him to talk to her, to tell her what was going on his mind when his eyes seemed to be looking out at something none of them could see. "To any of us really."
"I know." Oscar reassured her, smiling sadly to himself, touched at her concern but scolding himself for having worried her. Ruby had so many other things to deal with, he didn't want to add to them. "But that won't be a problem for much longer."
"What's that supposed to-" But Ruby's words were cut short when an unfamiliar thrashing sound filled the air.
It emerged from the distant darkness, its many legs struggling to propel its too large body forwards. It's armoured abdomen was ghostly in the white light of the moon. The red markings that crossed its plated shell glowed menacingly, a golden orb following just overhead.
A Death Stalker.
Without hesitation Ruby extracted Crescent Rose from her back. The Grimm seemed to be in a frenzy, charging towards the pair blindly. Beside her, Oscar unclipped his cane, allowing the weapon to extend to its full length.
Oscar spared the Huntress a brief glance sideways, his hazel eyes meeting her silver ones in a silent exchange. Ruby nodded her head, she had his back as much as he would have hers. The two took several running steps towards the advancing Grimm, battle cries almost on the tip of their tongues as the crazed creature filled their vision. A trail of rose petals had already begun to follow Ruby when the monster finally noticed its path was blocked. It reared on its hind legs, emitting an unexpected shriek. Its stinger bobbed even higher over its head in panicked retaliation. But, before either Ruby or Oscar could appropriately react, a sudden, blinding white light erupted from behind the Grimm. It was so bright that, even with her goggles trying to adjust to the brightness, Ruby could not look into it, forcing the Huntress to look away just as Oscar had had to. The light washed over the two, blanketing them with a stifling warmth that lasted a few seconds longer before fading.
Struggling to blink away the flecks of light that had obscured her vision, Ruby let out a surprised gasp at the Grimm that had been charging towards them. It still stood where it had before the light had engulfed them, posed to strike or escape, its intention unclear. But, as her goggles finally readjusted to the darkness, Ruby could see that the sheen of its armoured plates had dampened to be replaced by a strange, indeterminable coating. It was almost as if the creature had been turned to stone.
Beside her, Oscar too had come to notice the turn of events however, while Ruby had been focused on the Grimm, Oscar was preoccupied by the person standing on the creature's back. A humanoid figure cloaked in white, their face obscured as it slowly rose from the kneeling position they had initially been in.
Oscar could hear Ruby's breath hitch beside her, her eyes wide as plates.
"Mum?'' The word barely left her as a breath, her heart pounding so aggressively it threatened to drown out all her other senses. Unintentionally, she took a step towards the faceless individual.
But, as she did so, Oscar raised a hand, hindering her path. Something was not right. He had felt the power of silver eyes back in Argos and many times over the generations in his memories but this had felt different. Something had not felt right.
However it was Ozpin's voice, finally ringing through his mind, that had caused him to act.
That is not Summer Rose . The man clearly declared, speaking for the first time since he and Ruby had begun this little side quest.
The hooded figure slowly rose, as they carefully put a glove onto the bare hand that had been pressed against the creature's back.
"I think it's a little past your bedtime, kids."
A voice echoed from the hood. A woman's voice, still young but it held the characteristic gruffness of one who smoked excessively.
Oscar, from the corner of his eye, saw Ruby shift disappointedly. From the voice alone she knew that this woman could not be Summer Rose.
"Are you the Huntress of Doilier?" Oscar called, lowering his arm that he had raised to stop Ruby, but not the one that still held his cane pointed at the woman.
"There are quite a few Huntresses in Doilier." The woman countered. "You may need to be more specific."
"You have silver eyes, don't you?" Ruby finally called, swallowing back her disappointment. She knew this had always been a long shot but, before she could control it, she had begun to hope that maybe… Instead she lowered her goggles to around her neck, allowing the moonlight to illuminate the silver silver flecks within her own eyes. "Like me?"
The woman studied Ruby in silence, her body shifted under her cloak, most likely analysing the weapons in their hands. She eventually raised a gloved hand and pulled back her hood to reveal an olive toned face framed by hundreds of black braids.
"That's a complicated answer." The woman admitted, looking at the Huntress with one silver and one blue eye.
Ruby sat awkwardly in the wicker chair, a glass of untouched lemonade on the table before her. Condensation ran down the side of the glass, a liquid coaster forming at its base. Her recent mishap at Port Skoleinois had made her wary of accepting drinks from strangers.
By some bizarre turn of events, Oscar and Ruby now found themselves sitting in the Huntress of Doilier's, whose name they found out was Petra Euryale's, kitchen. She had promised to explain but, the outskirts of town in the middle of the night in The Wastelands may not have been the safest place to do so. So she had led them to Doilier, nodding her head at a small handful of sentinels that were keeping watch along the city boundary. She led them through the sleeping streets to a quant house and that's how they ended up here.
Oscar held his own glass cupped within his hands, as he awkwardly waited for their host to join them. She was busy pouring herself her own glass of lemonade before pulling out another chair and joining them on the small table.
"They are real." Petra reassured them, catching both youths looking at her eyes.
"I've never heard of a person having only a single silver eye." Oscar admitted.
Neither have I. Added Ozpin, his curiosity pulling him out of his silence.
"That must be so weird to use!" Ruby mused. " Is it easier because you got to control only one? Or is it harder as the power output is expelled from a single…" Ruby's voice trailed off, realising she was rambling.
"Was there a particular reason you came out here specifically to find me?" Petra said, not unkindly but it had gotten late and she wasn't in the mood to deal with kids, even if one did have an official Huntress license. "I mean, you've got your own silver pair."
"Yeah, but it's been a bit of a hit and miss when it comes to using them." Ruby sheepishly admitted. "Then I heard rumours of someone with silver yes and I thought…"
"That I could show you some pointers?" The woman correctly deduced. Petra sighed.
"I mean I'm not useless!" Ruby hastily added, taking the woman's reaction to be due to her inabilities. "Someone else, Maria Calavera- the Grimm Reaper? She taught me the basics, it's just-"
"I'm sorry kid but I really can't help you with this." Petra blurted out before Ruby could flounder any further.
"But…" Ruby tried to protest but was unable to think of a valid reason why this Huntress would help a complete stranger. In all honesty, what form of training had Ruby expected to receive in a single night? That had meant to be an excuse to confirm that this woman was not her mum. She had always known that, deep down, even before she'd left the camp. But she'd also known she would have forever wondered about her if she hadn't come to this town to investigate. She knew Oscar had known so as well but he'd still chosen to come along with her rather than talk her out of it.
"It's not that I won't , I just seriously can't ." The woman insisted, as she eventually let out a tired breath. She may not have known these kids but they had braved the Wastelands to find her, they deserved the truth.
"What you two saw out there? That had nothing to do with my eyes. It's all smoke and mirrors really. My Semblance merged with light Dust."
"But we saw you stop the Grimm…" Ruby shook her head, this didn't make sense. She'd seen the Huntress stop that Grimm in its tracks.
"My Semblance allows me to petrify any living thing I touch. The light is just some well timed light Dust bombs for effect." Petra explained.
"I don't understand..." Ruby blinked, unable to comprehend what the woman was saying. "You have silver eyes…"
"Eye- singular." Petra corrected. "Apparently you need the matching set to have the power you most likely do."
"But your Semblance and the light, it seems oddly specific just for a charade." Oscar tentatively asked, unable to read Ruby's expression.
"Me and some friends were once saved by a traveling silver eyed Huntress as kids." Petra recalled. "We'd seen the light and the stone Grimm she'd left behind. Unfortunately, when she left, us kids, being kids, got it stuck in our heads that I could do the same thing.
"At first it was just innocent experiments. Purposely looking for small Grimm and trying to use my eye to stop them. But, with each failure, the Grimm we sought out became larger and harder to escape. Until, one day, we couldn't." Petra's voice sounded empty as she recalled the memory. "That's when my Semblance awakened. I think I just wanted it all to finally stop…" She then cleared her throat. " After that I took to protecting Doilier and rumours quickly spread across Vacuo about the silver eyed Huntress of Doilier. No one particularly questioned why I only had one, or that I never actually attended any formal Huntress training, but rumours have power here, they help keep trouble away, most of the time.".
As she spoke she remembered an old piece of gossip she had heard as a child, of a woman who lived in a forest south from Doilier, that was capable of taming Grimm. Although it had been years since she'd last been seen, her legend still lived on in the small towns. That was the kind of power such stories had. That's why she'd made a whole show of herself with cape and flash bombs, to make it as authentic as she could.
"But to put it simply, I'm a fraud." Petra confessed, it was never a secret, just very few have actually ever bothered to question her. "I'm sorry you came all this way for nothing, kids."
Silence fell between the small group. Petra slowly took a sip of her lemonade, half wondering if it was due to shock that neither one of her guests had drunk any of theirs yet. Oscar carefully looked at Ruby, the expression on her face beyond his comprehension. This had proven a double dead end for her, first with regard to her mum and now with the silver eyes. Would Ruby be angry? Or frustrated? Or disappointed? There was only so much someone could take, even for one as strong as Ruby Rose, before it all became too much.
"You aren't a fraud." Ruby finally said, surprising the youth who thought she'd simply choose to remain silent.
"Did you not just hear me?" Petra pointed out, raising an eyebrow.
"Maybe the part about your eyes isn't exactly the truth." Ruby elaborated, smiling at the woman. " But you've still been saving people, fighting Grimm. It shouldn't matter if you had to use your eyes to do so or not."
"Got a good head on your shoulders." Petra noted. "Better than what I had at your age."
"I've had some good friends and teachers to help me." Ruby admitted, smiling, not only at Oscar but at Ozpin as well.
"Although I can understand the lights." Oscar injected. "But why the white cloak?"
"You remember the Huntress I mentioned that had saved me as a kid? She had one just like it, although hers seemed to always be surrounded by flower petals for some reason..."
Oscar looked at Ruby again and, although she smiled, it was sadder than it had been a moment before. "I think she may have been my mum, Summer Rose."
"She's a real hero." Petra admitted, leaning back on her chair.
"She really was." Ruby agreed, her silver eyes glistening. Would a day ever come that she could speak of her mother and not wish to cry? Petra couldn't help notice that Ruby had used the word 'was' rather than 'is', had something happened to her over the years? Well that was the price some paid for the life of a Huntress.
"So are you." Petra's words surprised Ruby. "I don't know you, kid, but, I get this feeling in my gut when I see you... like I did when I first met your mum. You'll be a hero that would make her proud."
"I hope-" Ruby began before shooting up so suddenly her chair clattered backwards. "The map!" She yelled, patting her pockets for the familiar piece of paper.
"Ruby, please don't tell me you lost it?" Oscar shook his head in disbelief.
"I must have dropped it when the Death Stalker attacked- Oh Jaune will literally murder me if I've lost it!"
Petra chuckled, shaking her head and also standings. Heroes could come in any shape and size, and may be a little scatterbrained at times.
"I'll take you to where we 's where you most likely dropped it." She offered. "The sun will be rising soon but, if we leave now, you'll be able to make it back to your camp without problems, I think."
"There's no way we'll make it to camp before dawn." Sighed Oscar, already dreading the scolding the two would receive from the older huntsmen. At least they had found the map again, so that was one piece of good news.
"Hey, Oscar?" The huntress's voice was surprisingly quiet. The two hadn't said much since they had parted ways with Petra. They had promised her they'd be fine to find their way back to camp without her, especially as the stars had begun to disappear from view and the sky began to lighten. After that, they had walked in silence, Oscar not wishing to disrupt the Huntress who was, understandingly, deep in thought.
"Hmm?" Oscar vaguely asked, looking back at Ruby. Her eyes were tinged with pink, either from lack of sleep or from holding back tears. Oscar chose not to pry.
"Thanks for coming with me." She answered, surprising the youth again. He hadn't done anything worth thanking and, he knew, if the roles had been reversed, Ruby would have done the same for him.
"Any of the others would have done the same." He simpered.
"I know, but you were there for me when I needed someone today." Ruby answered, smiling thankfully.
"Well, you can thank my bladder for this one!" Oscar admitted, running an awkward hand through his hair as he felt his cheeks flush slightly at the way she looked at him.
This needs some work . Mulled ozpin and, if he still had a head, he would have shaken it.
What's that supposed to mean? Oscar asked back but was silenced when a laughter that slowly increased, filled the early morning air. Oscar looked up to see Ruby clutching her stomach as she laughed, tears running down her cheeks. His comment should not have been funny enough to instill such a reaction from the woman but Oscar let it be, knowing that, this, at that moment, may have been her only way of venting her pent up emotions. Laughter was one way to deal with them.
"You done?" He asked when her laughter finally died down.
"I do have a question for you." She admitted, wiping her eyes from the tears that had stained her cheeks.
"And that would be?" Oscar asked, unsure what train of thought Ruby was following.
"Before the Death Stalker appeared, you were saying something… it sounded like you might not be staying with us for much longer?" Ruby carefully asked, her tone completely different from what it had been a moment before. "Is there something you aren't telling us?"
Silence filled the gap between them and Ruby half wondered if she may have pushed him too far with her question. But, eventually, he did answer.
"Physically I'm not going anywhere." He began. "But my soul has almost completely merged with Ozpin's…"
"What!?" Ruby blurted out. "But I thought Ozpin said you still had time?"
"I did, beforeI I used up so much of Ozma's magic to save Atlas."
That shield, that impossible work of magic that had saved the kingdom. They had all congratulated Oscar for what he had accomplished but none had been aware of the price he had had to pay. And suddenly it all became clearer. Why Oscar had become somewhat distant and why he had spoken as he had on the ship to Port Skoleinos. That had been because, soon, he would cease to exist as Oscar Pine.
"How much time do you have now?" Ruby demanded, fighting against the numbness that had spread across her body. She had not expected finding her mother in Doilier and the lack of silver eyes had also been a set back, but nothing could have prepared her for what Oscar had just revealed to her. That she'd loose Oscar to this war as well.
"Ozpin thinks that, like this, I could still have about a year left before we fully fuse." Oscar explained. "But, if I use Ozma's magic just once more…"
Oscar let the sentence hang in the air, Ruby didn't need him to explain what would happen.
"Then we'll just have to stop Salem before that happens." Ruby declared, as if it were obvious.
It was now Oscar's turn to laugh at the ridiculousness of her words.
"If it were that easy, Oz would have done it centuries ago."
"You'll be surprised how much can get down in a year with the right motivation." Ruby explained.
Oscar opened his mouth to try to explain just how unlikely that was but a voice rang through the morning air, stopping him.
"Where have you two been?" Demanded Weiss, tapping her foot against the sanded ground, her arms crossed like a teacher waiting for an explanation.
They had finally made it to camp where most of their friends were still struggling with the different stages between sleep and waking.
"It's a long story." Ruby admitted, trudging towards Weiss, leaving Oscar to catch up.
"Isn't it always?" Weiss answered, slightly rolling her eyes.
Petra walked through her front door, stretching her arms in tiredness. Thanks to those kids she hadn't gotten a wink of sleep that evening. The sky had already begun to lighten and soon, with it, the rest of the village would awake.
"The other Huntsmen can patrol for the morning." She deduced, yawning and pulling off her cloak, draping it over her arm.
"I think they'll have to make do without you for quite a while." Petra jumped, almost dropping her cloak at the unexpected voice that dripped through the air.
"Who are you?" She demanded when she finally identified the source to be a strange man with wide, crazed eyes and long braided hair. He was casually sitting in one of the chairs in her kitchen, the glasses she's left on the table untouched. "And entering and breaking is a crime, even here in Vacuo."
"Oh! I may have entered." The man sneered, giving Petra a leering smile. "But I haven't broken anything- yet."
As he spoke, a metallic tipped scorpion tail rose from his back to above his shoulder, its poisoned tip pointed at Petra.
"Our people in Atlas say that conditions under Jacques Schnee continue to worsen." Ghira Belladonna said, as he sipped the warm tea his wife had just served him. Kali sat across the man, her ears twitching slightly as she sniffed the pleasant scents of hibiscus and berry from her own cup. The heavy patter of rain against the closed windows indicated a storm was brewing outside, forecasts claiming it would be one of the worst to hit Menagerie that season.
"Do you believe it appropriate for the White Fang to take action?" Kali asked, thinking back to all the previous complaints they had heard with regard to the new head of the Schnee Dust Company. The previous heiress had recently given birth to a third child, escaping into her role of mother and closing an eye to the mistreatment her husband was inflicting on the Faunus.
"For now, they plan to organise a series of peaceful protests." Ghira admitted, looking at his wife with his golden eyes. "But, if he continues to ignore their pleas for a better working environment, more extreme measures must be taken."
Kali opened her mouth to respond but her ears twitched, hearing the rustling of small feet before the actual soft knock that echoed across the large room in which they were sitting.
"Is everything alright, dear?" Ghira gently asked, as his daughter, Blake, stood in the doorway. The child was snugly dressed in an oversized black jumper, her black hair so long it almost dragged on the ground.
She looked at her parents with large golden eyes before answering. "There's a woman outside that wants to talk to mum."
Kali exchanged a curious look with Ghira, who shrugged, they had not been expecting any guests. Who would be foolish enough to brave the storm raging outside?
"Val!?" Kali exclaimed, barely able to believe her eyes as she recognised the woman who was dripping rainwater all over her carpet.
Valerian gave her old friend a very tired smile.
"It's been a while, Kal." She responded, shifting her heavy cloak to reveal a small, slightly less wet child from beneath it. The girl looked up at Kali with awed interest. "I'm sorry to have dropped in like this, unannounced."
"Blake?" Kali called, swiftly taking in the state of her former teammate and her daughter. She may not have known the circumstance that had brought them to her door but, just a few days prior, Bellamy had contacted her informing her of the pair's disappearance and begging to be contacted if she heard anything of them. Bellamy had been searching for them for almost a month but Kali most certainly never expected Valerian to come to her after so many years. Kali may not have known what had led to Valerian's unorthodox departure from Vacuo and her even more sudden appearance on Menagerie, but she knew she wouldn't have appeared after being in the wind for so long if she didn't need help.
The young Faunus appeared from around the corner, looking at the new arrivals with quiet, yet wary, curiosity. She wasn't used to seeing humans on Menagerie.
"Eleanora, right?" Kali politely asked the child, trying to recall her name from the messages she'd received from Valerian when the child had first been born. Eleanora nodded her head, her eyes never looking away from Kali's twitching ears. "Blake, could you please take Elanora to your room? Give her a towel to dry herself, and maybe some dry clothes?"
"Who are these humans, Mum?" Blake asked, still trying to understand what humans were doing at her home.
"Friends from when I still worked as a Huntress." Kali explained patiently. "Now Blake, would you mind? Before Eleanora catches a cold?"
Blake nodded her head, though her ears flattened in discomfort as she gestured for the girl, who appeared to be the same age as her, to follow her. Eleanora looked up at her mother momentarily but the Huntress nodded her head, encouraging her to follow the other girl.
It was only when the children were out of view and earshot did Valerian allow her facade to crumble, her legs giving out under her. Kali barely had time to catch her before she would have crashed onto the ground.
"I'm sorry." Valerian apologised through gritted teeth, fighting back the pain that she had been suppressing all this time. She had been using the Summer Maiden's power to float just over the ground, covering its light with her cloak and to give those who saw her the impression she was walking. However, such tricks had limits with her diseased body. "I really didn't mean to drop in like this…"
"I know I've been begging you to visit." Kali began, slowly supporting the woman to stand on her feet. "But what are you doing all the way here in Mangerie? Bellamy contacted us saying you'd gone missing…"
"He's over exaggerating." Val tried for a laugh as, from around the main passage the children had previously disappeared through, a broad chested Faunus appeared, having come to see who their unexpected visitors were. "We just went on a small girl's trip is all…"
"Mangerie is quite the detour." Kali admitted, looking at her husband. "You remember Valerian Carrie? From my old academy days? She and her daughter got caught in the storm, would it be possible for them to stay for the time being?"
"Of course," Ghira answered without hesitation, remembering how his wife had so fondly spoken of most of her old teammates. "Should I call the doctor though?" He did not look pleased with how pale and weak the woman appeared.
"It's ok," Valerian politely declined his offer. "I'll be fit as a fiddle after some rest again, I'm sorry about this."
"It's no hassle at all." Kali responded. "Ghira, could you ask the cook to prepare some warm bowls of soup?"
Ghira nodded his head, already heading to the kitchens. "The guest bedroom should still be set up from the last time we had visitors."
Kali nodded her head as she carefully began to lead Valerian towards said bedroom. Valerian's steps were slow, her feet barely capable of dragging themselves over the lacquered surface. Kali could see pain in the woman's blood shot eyes. Kali remembered feeling sorry for Valerian when she'd learnt she'd contracted the Scourge but, never had she imagined she'd wilted into this in barely a year.
"I really am sorry for this." Valerian repeated once again but Kali cut her off. Valerian had never been one to over apologize like this.
"I'm more worried as to what really led you to come here." Her voice quietened slightly. "Is it Bellamy? Has he hurt you in any way…"
"Oh heavens no!" Valerian quickly denied what the other woman was implying. "Bellamy is doing all he can to handle this illness…" However her voice faltered before she continued. "It's just been a tough year for all of us."
Kali nodded her head in understanding, such things could not be easy on the mind and soul, not even for one as strong as Valerian.
"I know I'm already asking for a lot," Valerian continued, stopping outside the guest bedroom to catch her breath. "But could you not tell Bellamy we're here, just yet?"
"You know he's probably pulling out his hair looking for the two of you…" Carefully said Kali. She could understand Valerian's need to get away, that was how she had felt following the attack at Shade but Bellamy also had a right to know that his daughter was alright at least.
"I know." Sighed Valerian, the guilt that had rooted itself in her stomach since her escape dug deeper into her gut. "But I'd like us to remain in the wind just a little while longer, if that's possible."
Kali sighed, forcing the door open. "We'll have to have a good talk after you eat and rest though, agreed?"
"Agreed." Echoed Valerian, giving her friend a grateful smile.
Hi! Sorry this turned out to be a bit of a filler but thank you so so much for reading and I hope you still enjoyed the update I'll see you all next week 😁