Prism
Weiss peered at the strange, gem-like object at the centre of the elaborate collection of runes, seals, and other magical paraphernalia. At first glance, it was little more than a dull, broken crystal. Yet the longer she looked at it, the smaller the cracks seemed to get, and the brighter its interior seemed to glow.
Her lips curled.
It had taken her almost a decade and a significant chunk of her wealth to acquire it, for it was no mere crystal. It was something more, an object whose true nature could only be revealed under the right circumstances by someone with the right gifts.
She stepped back and Sang.
A star was born.
The dull prism was gone. In its place was a seething, multi-dimensional solid of living fire. Her attic vanished, and she gave a cry of triumph as the world around her splintered and fractured like broken glass before falling away entirely.
She was in a void.
She was in a hall of titan pillars.
She was alone in the frozen ruins of long-dead and long forgotten Atlas.
She was lost in the thriving forests of Vacuo before it became a desert of glass.
She was a billion years into the future.
She was at the dawn of Creation.
Her mind shuddered beneath the strain, and she forced herself to focus, to see through the cosmic lens of the star-crystal and bend it to her will.
A familiar.
She wanted a familiar.
She Sang once more, and her Song echoed across all space and time, through the highest of dimensions and the lowest of planes.
And something answered.
The star dimmed. Her attic returned. The cracked, dull crystal shuddered twice and then fell still.
Weiss found herself staring at the ceiling.
Silence, deep and still, filled the room. Had she failed? Impossible. She'd done all of her research. Something had answered. She'd heard it. She had to have summoned a suitable familiar.
A canine face filled her vision, and she gasped as an adorable corgi bent over and licked her cheek.
"What?" Weiss sat up and found herself reaching down to pat the dog as he shamelessly crawled into her lap. "A corgi? Don't tell me that I went through all that trouble, and all I got was a corgi?" Surely not. If so, she could have saved herself years of trouble and a whole lot of money by simply going to the pet store.
Still, she had to be sure. She looked at the dog with her World Sight. For a moment, she couldn't see a thing, and then her vision was completely overwhelmed. A vast, tenebrous being stood before her, a titan of shadow and fire whose mere presence could crush worlds, whose gaze could rend universes.
She jerked back and immediately Sang an Aria of Binding. She might as well have been throwing confetti. The dog simply ignored the Aria and padded closer with a smile on his face. She wove a dozen Signs and Sang an Aria of Annihilation. It was enough power to crack the foundations of the World. The dog smiled and wagged his tail.
"What... what are you?" Weiss tried to steady her breathing. The dog was not her familiar. She felt a vague connection to it, almost as though they'd met before, but that was it.
The dog walked over and nudged her leg. She knew, somehow, that he wanted her to give him a scratch behind his ears. Wordlessly, she knelt and gave him a scratch behind his ears.
"I..." She had no idea what the dog was. None of the entities she'd encountered in the past had come close to his power. And the way he'd just ignored her attacks... it was difficult to imagine how strong he must be. Thankfully, he didn't seem hostile.
Weiss swallowed thickly. "I don't suppose you'll be leaving now, will you?" The dog shook his head. "Do... do you mind if I try again?" After all, she was supposed to find a familiar using the ritual, one that would be strong enough to help her overthrow her father.
The dog gave her a happy smile and sat down.
"I... I see."
It took her another hour and a half to prepare the ritual again, and she took a deep breath to steady herself before beginning again. The dog that could not possibly be just a dog sat down nearby, seemingly content to watch.
Once again, Weiss was transported beyond the shallow confines of her attic and into the infinite complexity of Creation. And once again, her Song was answered.
She was less fortunate this time.
The gleaming lights of the higher dimensions faded. The shadows of the lower planes warped and twisted. The star of living fire at the centre of her ritual gave way to a seething, hungry chaos. It shattered the defences that Weiss had prepared and reached for her, a twisted amalgam of eyes that Saw, teeth that Gnawed, and claws that Tore.
A hundred Songs came to her lips.
But her words were wind. The chaos closed in.
Weiss screamed.
The dog barked.
The chaos was burned away in a hail of divine fire.
And a tall woman in a red cloak appeared.
Weiss tried to focus on her features, but they slipped away from her, like a memory just beyond her reach. Twin stars of silver flame looked back at her before vanishing, hidden in the shadows of the woman's hooded cloak.
The woman bent down and picked up the crystal. It hummed in her grasp, the music of the spheres, the Song of Creation itself, filling the air for just a moment. Weiss could have wept at how beautiful it was.
"Do you know what this is?" the woman asked, and her voice seemed to come from every direction at once.
Weiss nodded. "A shard of the higher dimensions."
"No." The woman shook her head. "Although I can see why a mortal might think that. It is a shard of the Between."
"The Between?" Weiss asked. There was weight behind the word, a weight that crushed all the Songs that Weiss knew.
"The Between exists between all spaces and all times, between all worlds and dimensions, between all universes and planes. it is Everywhere, and it is Nowhere. It was there before the birth of Creation, and it will be there long after Creation is gone. It is Everything, and it is Nothing. It is what separate you from me, and it is what separates a drop of water from the shadow that lies at the end of time. Every now and then, a piece of it becomes solid." The woman glanced down at the crystal. "Such shards allow even mortals to access some small fraction of the Between's power, but the Between is a dangerous thing. When you issue a call into the Between, you never know what might answer." She nodded at the dog. "You were fortunate that Zwei heard your first call. Otherwise, we would not be having this conversation."
"What now?" Weiss looked at the woman with her World Sight. Her World Sight failed. No. The World itself refused to let her see what the woman truly was. That... that had never happened before. It wasn't supposed to be possible.
"I'll be taking this." The woman closed her hands around the crystal, and it vanished. "So you don't get into any further trouble."
"Wait!" Weiss cried. "I need it!"
"No, Weiss, you don't." The woman gestured, and the dog leapt into her arms. "You have no idea how strong you are. When you Speak, the World listens. When you Sing, the World replies. Stop singing the Songs that others have written. Sing your own instead, and who knows what you'll be able to do?"
"But…"
"The Between cannot help you, Weiss. Write your own Songs. Give Voice to your own legend."
"Who are you?" Weiss asked.
The woman and her dog vanished, leaving her last words to linger in the air along with the scent of roses. "It's better that you don't know. It'll be the death of you. Oh… and Happy Halloween."
X X X
Author's Notes
As always, I do not own RWBY. I'm not making any money off of this either.
Haha! You thought I wouldn't have something ready for Halloween? I always do. Anyway, there are countless versions of Weiss in Creation, but most of them have a knack for finding trouble. This particular Weiss got lucky. If not for Zwei showing up (he has Weiss radar), who knows what would have happened to her? And, yes, he is that Zwei, and that was Death.
Happy Halloween! And just a reminder, but for today (October 31st) and tomorrow (November 1st), Two Necromancers, a Bureaucrat, and an Elf will be free on Amazon. You'll never have a better chance to give my original fiction a try!
As always, I appreciate feedback. Reviews and comments are welcome.