Music Choices: Bad Moon Rising by Creedence Clearwater Revival, BloodSport by Sleep Token
Eclipse
Chapter 47
Bad Moon Rising
Raven woke sharply, as if something had jabbed her in the back of the eye with something glittering and pointed. Wincing, she reached instantly for her sword and found the hilt. Her watering eyes adjusted to the half dark of the dorm room, though not as fast as she would have liked. Soft light ghosted in from the window, despite the hefty curtains.
She paused, taking a slow, cooling breath as she studied STRQ's dorm room, searching for whatever had so rudely woken her. After a few tense seconds, she noted the bathroom door was slightly ajar; and inside said bathroom was a very faint luminescence. One that didn't belong there.
Raven hesitated, glancing towards Summer and Taiyang's sleeping figures. Neither had moved. Which, if it was just Taiyang, wouldn't be very alarming; but Summer hadn't responded to her jumping awake, which was much more unusual. In fact, Summer hadn't moved at all. Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. Something brushed the back of her neck, at the base of her skull, a sensation she was beginning to recognize as a heads up that magical or spiritual bullshittery was afoot.
I'm not actually awake, am I?
Her suspicions were quickly confirmed when a glowing, white smile peaked out at her from the cracked bathroom door; Raven rolled her eyes, before slipping out of her bed with an irritated groan and making her way silently to the STRQ's bathroom.
She flicked the lights on as she shut the door habitually, before speaking.
"What do you want, Set?" she asked, sword dangling laconically at her side as she glared blearily at the entity haunting her sleep. "Don't you have anything better to do right now?"
Set was in his grinning little cat form, leaning forwards on his fluffy white paws innocently.
"A million better things, actually," Set chortled, appraising her sleep tossed mane. "I suppose I could just jog off and let you learn about it all on your own - that would be deserved, I think? Considering how ungrateful you literally are at all times?"
Raven sniffed, unimpressed as she met his eyes. The dim bathroom flickered slightly; for a moment, it looked like a great, empty hall that stretched far beyond sight. Then it was all basic tile and spider-cracked countertop once again.
"Don't fucking start," Raven drawled, cocking an eyebrow. "I don't owe you my gratitude, you little weirdo."
"See, no, you ARE being the weirdo here, not me," Set stood on his tiny hind legs, scolding her as he folded his arms. It was impossible for her to take him seriously in this form. "Because you think common traditions of courtesy are in some way coercive, and not just normal fucking interactions between equals, because you , Raven? You? Are a bloody paranoid!"
She blinked slowly, her head still pulsing uncomfortably as she stared at the audacity perched before her.
"Bitch? You are the one invading my dream unannounced, trying to sell me magical secrets or some other sort of snake oil, all of which is completely uninvited on my part!" Raven sneered, gesturing. "Why the fuck should I be courtesous to you? Why shouldn't I be paranoid? My reaction is par for the course -You're just out of touch for what constitutes a mundane interaction. Don't get pissy with me over it."
"It's normal!" Set protested in outrage, tilting his head around to observe the dream bathroom. "This is a normal environment - look at the bloody paint job! It's fucking khaki ! It doesn't get more bloody well basic than khaki!"
"Ohhhh, yeaaa! You're right!" Raven started sardonically. "I forgot that the paint job determines whether the context of the conversation is normal or not."
"It contributes!" Set tossed his little paws out wide, glaring at her in frustration. "Look, do you want to hear what I have to say or not, you obnoxious giblet-donkey?!"
"That depends on what you actually want , you hairball hacking, taint worshipper!" Raven rallied, mirroring the annoying entity in front of her.
Set glared up at her resolutely. She glared back.
After an increasingly lengthy pause, Set made a noise that was dangerously close to a laugh.
"Taint worshipper? That's - Well, I guess you've got me there," he conceded, vermillion eyes watching her reaction.
Raven made a disgusted face. He beamed, pleased that he had disgusted her.
"What, you said it? Don't get all pissy with meeee -" he mocked, pressing a paw to his fluffy chest theatrically. Raven swatted at him and he danced away on the countertop, before dusting his little cat shoulders.
"Look," he started, settling down on the counter. She squinted at him. "I'm just here to give you little ingrates a 'heads up'. You don't have to listen, but you should; especially if you care at all about your peppy little girlfriend and the rest of your...friendship with benefits squad, or whatever it is you people have got going on."
She tensed a little before she could stop herself, trying to ease her dream-self's body language before realizing the action itself was absurd. This was her own gods damned dream, and she couldn't even mask her anxiety in it. She glanced at the mirror next her, pausing as she tried to collect her thoughts.
"I see. Well, if it's something that threatens an aetheri, then why aren't you including Summer in this discussion?" she drawled, suspicious of how Set was seemingly trying to divide them.
Or all of them, frankly? Hell, why doesn't Qrow get any annoying fucking dream visits?
"Because she really - emphasis on really - does not trust me," Set answered, seemingly put off by this phenomenon. Raven snorted. "I can't enter the dreamscapes of people who are that intent on keeping me out, I've tried already, believe me - she does not want me around….aaaand is strong enough now that her and Ciara's wards have me outmatched and I can't get around them! But look! You all need to know what's happening in the Speculorum, ok? Or it's going to completely wipe you off the board before you ever knew what happened."
"Wow, I wonder why Summer wouldn't trust you?" Raven tapped her chin facetiously. "What could possibly have happened to bring that about?"
Set shrugged, seemingly earnestly.
"Beats me, love, did you not listen to everything else I just bloody well said?" he asked, his pointy little teeth flashing in frustration. "Do you have any idea how fucking hard it is, to get into any of the magical planes surrounding Beacon without being detected? It's a lot of work, and I'm beginning to think it was a waste of bleeding effort !"
Raven growled under her breath, fixing him with a glare. Truth was, she was fucking tired. The past month had been a nightmare; going nonstop from one magical catastrophe to the next was taking a toll on her already, and she had a suspicious feeling that this?
This was her new normal. Not that her life had ever truly been normal, or lacking in magic happenings on the outskirts; but at some point she had stepped fully over the threshold and there was apparently no going back.
This was life now.
And for what? For who? Who the fuck was this guy? What did he gain from helping the free peoples, or pissing off Ozpin, or the witch, or who the hell ever?
Raven pinched her brow, feeling decades older than she actually was in that moment, and pinning the entity across from her with a serious glare.
"Set," she started, her voice calm. Unruffled. "Answer me honestly, or go the fuck away: what are you? And what are your ultimate goals?"
Set paused, eying her with a little more cunning than he had been showing during this interaction. This didn't shock her. That was the thing about Set. It was nearly impossible to tell just what you were going to get with him any given day. He could wear a dozen masks and be every single one of them, and yet none of them. He was both a reflection, and the mirror doing the reflecting-
She froze, a flash of some arcane understanding rippling through her as she appraised the grinning, sly thing in front of her.
He shows us what we expect to see. Change your expectations, and you probably change what you get. Or at least the packaging.
She focused only on her breathing, and tried to let her thoughts and preconceptions fade into the whitenoise of her subconscious.
The room flashed, flickering from STRQ's bathroom to the great hallway again. Raven swore she could hear a deep, bone shaking sound that sent tremors of fear and jubilation up her spine and down her femurs. Then it was gone, and it was just her and the shifting, smiling cat who was now no longer a cat, and instead a red haired man with red eyes, no sleeves and countless tattoos.
Raven and Set stared at each other as he sat cross legged on her countertop.
After a moment, Set smiled again.
"Hi," he beamed cheekily.
"...hi?" she repeated.
"I was wondering if you would figure that out anytime soon," Set hummed, leaning backwards on his palms as he studied her impishly. "Good job! You definitely picked it up faster than Nwyfre did."
"Cool," she drawled, struggling with her deeply instinctual desire to provoke the entity in front of her. It was hard to grasp that her idea of Set up until now was an amalgamation of her own expectations and the twisted reflections of them, and also Set's own personality. "We are different people, you know?"
"Debatable," he snickered, earning a glare. "Both of your threads of wyrd are impressively similar. Yours is a little more fun though! It has some pizazz!"
He tossed out his fingers and wiggled them.
"Yay," Raven droned. "Pizazz."
Set bobbed his head back and forth, wiggling his toes along with his fingers.
"You never answered my question," Raven prompted after a moment.
"Yes I did," he chuckled deviously. "You just didn't understand the answer."
She was getting another headache. He made a loud, popping sound before resting his chin on his hands.
"You think too loud, bird girl," he smirked, tilting his head at an impossible angle. "Too loud, and too hard! I am just a mirror! For you. For your friends. For every living and unliving thing on our beautiful, struggling world."
Raven glanced at the mirror to her left again, and realized that his reflection was different from what was sitting in front of her. In the mirror was fractal light, and dark, and thousands of eyes, and mouths and shifting colors. It was difficult to look at, to say the least. However, after a moment, she stopped staring at the amalgamation that the mirror was trying to show her and just appraised the silvery sheen of the mirror itself.
He's both the reflection and the mirror….but when there is no terrifying or obfuscating bullshit to reflect, he's just the mirror. Get rid of all your fears and all your baggage, and you'll see the total truth of him. In an isolated environment like this. Maybe.
" Last year," Raven started slowly, fidgeting with her sword's hilt. "Oz claimed to know who you were. And said you used to be a man, or something similar, who lost his way. Was he lying?"
"Yes. But he was also probably referring to the part of himself that he hates the most. Dear Oz loves his quadruple speak. Let's him trick himself into thinking he's being honest. It'd almost be endearing if wasn't so fucking annoying."
She blinked again, surprised by his forthrightness. Set scratched behind his ear with his foot, despite appearing human at the moment.
"Oh, and here's a tip: when having little chats like this?" Set paused in his scratching. "Don't call them by their names. It's the warlock, or the wizard, and it's the witch. Otherwise? You draw their attention to your conversation. And they can likely hear what the hell you are sayin."
Raven took a deep, slow breath, thankful she wasn't breaking out in goosebumps.
"What are they?" she asked, her knuckles turning white as she gripped her hilt. "What the hell does witch or wizard even mean in this context? Why are you three so...why is it that the three of you are the greatest threats to my people's existence? What do you want from us?"
Set rearranged himself again, though he never took his eyes off her face. Occasionally, the features of his face, skin tone or his tattoos, would shift and change; flowing like smoke, or sparkling like a lit fuse or flames on a log. His reflection would warp and shimmer and spiral in concert with him.
"Some things even I can't tell you, Raven," he said, sounding genuinely regretful, his tone serious. "Even here, even like this? I don't have the freedom I'd need to tell you everything you are asking of me. There are rules of engagement - ancient, reality shaping and breaking types of rules - that govern our behavior and the things we can physically say and do."
She sneered again, looking away in frustration. She didn't react more strongly however, because she could sense he was being honest; or as honest as he could be.
"So I guess I'll never get a straight answer from anyone," she sighed dryly. "Can't really say I'm surprised at this rate."
"Sorry, kid, but them's the breaks. Well, there is ONE person who can answer all your questions without cosmic repercussions," Set chuckled darkly, stretching at an odd, uncomfortable looking angle as he popped his joints. "She never lies. Ever. That's her whole gimmick. But if you got an audience with her, well, it wouldn't matter. Because you would be dead soon thereafter."
Raven used the science of deduction to figure out who he was referring to, and chewed her lip thoughtfully. It seemed like everyone on Remnant who was even marginally aware of magic and the forces at play were afraid of this witch; or at least extremely wary of her.
Her parents were afraid of her. Even Ozpin was afraid of her, if what she'd gathered so far from the half truths and conversations of the others. Set claimed she was the source of the corruption and that 'the wizard' was making her job easier, but….Set could lie, too, as far as she knew.
"Are you afraid of her?" Raven asked after a moment, watching his reaction carefully.
His eyes grew sharp, serious, as he studied her in kind. She knew he could see more of her thoughts and feelings than she would like, probably far more than she was aware considering he was essentially an spiritual conductor for such things.
"Look. I'm going to give you some advice, bird girl," he said, his voice quiet yet intense. Smoke and embers flickered off of his skin and eyes. "There's going to come a day, due to your nature, when you are compelled to fly too close to the pit, to see what secrets it keeps. Do yourself a favor? And for once, don't indulge it. Because I bloody promise you, love, the answers aren't going to be worth the price you'll pay."
The room hummed and shifted around them. For a moment, she felt like she was standing inside a great, echoing concert hall; she could feel the vibrations in her bones, in her muscles, behind her eyes. The sensation was both familiar and completely alien. In her mind's eye she saw silver.
Then it was the library room, the one she had essentially claimed as her study, hidden away amongst the forgotten relics and shrines of students and faculty past. Set was still in his humanoid form, though his hair was flame and he smelled like a cooking fire on a cold night.
"I'll try to keep that in mind," she said carefully, watching him. She didn't comment on the fact that he had once again not answered her question, at least not directly. However, she felt she knew the answer now. Oz wasn't the only one who communicated more with what he didn't say, apparently.
"I hope you do," he smiled sadly, before strutting away from her towards the aisles of shrines and knick-nacks. After an irritated huff, she followed him, trailing silently through the dark library. "Hmm! Nwyfre really cleaned this place up! How sweet of her."
Raven glanced around the aisles, confused as to what he was talking about.
"Are you ready to listen to what I wanted to tell you yet?" Set called over his shoulder, climbing up onto one of the shelves and pulling what was apparently a very old pinup magazine. He flipped through it, before tossing it over his shoulder, expression bored. "Or did you want to partake in more pointless banter?"
She caught her tongue before she could come back with a snarky retort, focusing on her breathing as best she could in a dream. Trying to essentially maintain a state of meditation around someone like Set was extremely difficult; she was beginning to suspect that it was supposed to be difficult.
"Ready whenever you are, litter-boy," she drawled, pausing next a photograph that made her heart jump. Because the people in it were her and Taiyang, and they were-
I'm not supposed to see this.
She forced herself to turn away, but it was a second too late. The image of herself in a wedding dress was burned into her mind's eye. Her face was burning red hot.
It's just a dream. It's my subconscious throwing out wish-fulfillment confetti - it's not prophecy.
"What ya lookin at?"
Raven refused to acknowledge the question; due to dream physics, Set had manifested behind her shoulder was now grinning moonily at the photograph. He didn't touch it, however, just nodded a few times and turned away.
"Awwww - you guys are so gross. At least Qrow has the good sense here to throw things at you, what is that? Bird seed? Hmm. I don't get it - is that a Mistrali custom?"
"No," she grit, moving away. "Now are you going to tell me what's going on or just keep wasting my time?"
Set chortled impishly, his eyes glowing in their sockets.
"Up to you, love. You're the one who keeps throwing up mental blockades, not me."
She was getting frustrated again, which was in itself frustrating. How anyone could manage to have a genuine conversation with Set for an extended period of time was beyond her; they'd have to be Deidrick or some other meditation guru.
"It's now or never, Set," she said, turning towards him once again. "Your presence is...trying. To say the least."
"Looking in the mirror is rarely easy, dear," he chuckled, climbing back up on another shelf. This time he reached up to the ceiling. "In fact it's supposed to be uncomfortable. That means you're actually learning something."
She rolled her eyes at his obnoxious preachiness, but watched closely as he pulled back a secret panel and stuck his hand into the hidden space. He pulled out a small mirror and examined it, his wry face growing very troubled, before he put it back in the compartment and dropped down again.
He started speaking before she could ask what he had been looking at.
"There is a young aetheri who has embraced Bakkheia," Set said quickly, his voice growing deeper, resonant. Raven felt the hairs on the back of her nape stand, and knew Set was speaking as more himself than as her idea of him. "Which, in shorthand, means they have rejected the physical realms and totally submerged themselves in the magic and spiritual madness of the Mirrorways. Embracing Bakkheia in this way makes an aetheri extremely dangerous to anyone that strays into their path. And this one, in particular, is likely the most powerful aetheri born to this generation."
The library around them was shifting and changing as Set spoke, flashing between scenes that Raven couldn't name but could feel in her gut as being moments in her life that had yet to pass. She looked down to her right, her eyes pulled by some invisible force, and met two pairs of eyes for half a heartbeat; one pair violet, the other, silver. Her breath caught.
And then, they were gone. For now.
Wait...wait, go back-
"Pay attention to the present, Raven."
She pulled herself back, but there was a chill in her spine that wouldn't leave.
I...I am seeing bits and pieces of the future…
"Of course you are, you're a baby Morrigan. The gift of prophecy through dream comes with your future mantle, now focus!" Set's voice clapped through her subconscious. She bared her teeth at him to mask the pain his amplified voice caused her. "This aetheri is hunting both you and your team, and your tribe! They've been hired to learn about you all and sell your truths to the Valish King's Service. Who for obvious reasons doesn't like you lot very much!"
If Raven hadn't been entirely focused before, she was now. She could feel her pulse racing in her throat.
"And this aetheri is also going to become very, very interested in Summer, here shortly," Set continued. "I don't need to tell you this, Raven, but...Summer is special. Not because of her power as an individual - she IS powerful -but because of the choices she is going to make! And what will come after because of them. Choices that are going to ultimately determine the fate of our planet here in the near future."
Raven's skin was coated in goosebumps. She felt more real, more alive, than she had her entire life.
"And," Set's glowing, infernal eyes were so full of sincerity and intensity she could not look away. "She isn't the only one. All of you? All of team STRQ, and team ARSN? You are all going to make choices and do things that will impact this world in ways I can't fully express or explain in a way that makes sense. However it is all so very fucking important that you get the chance to make those choices, just like your forbearers who came before! And the ones who are going to come after you."
Two pairs of eyes in the dark. Raven knew her conscious mind was going to forget them as soon as she woke, but she was absolutely determined that her subconscious would hang on to them.
For the rest of her life, for the rest of her existence, she would never, ever truly forget them-
" Especially the ones that come after. Because they're going to be the last. They will be our last shot at saving Remnant from extinction," Set explained, his voice raw, emotional. "So they have to get here , Raven. They have to get here! And if Summer dies before her time? They won't!"
She swallowed heavily, the weight of an entire world pushing down on her shoulders.
"This aetheri can't be allowed to kill Summer," Set insisted, his presence circling her. "Or to betray the lot of you to the King's Service. One of our allies is already working to stop them, but he won't be enough on his own! Not for an opponent like this. You have to kill them."
"Understandable, but...why am I the only one you're coming to with this?" Raven pressed, looking around at the empty library. In her mind, she held a pair of questioning blue eyes. "Why isn't this something you feel the need to tell everyone else on team STRQ?"
Why am I the one that you're focused on asking this of?
"You think I'm trying to manipulate you?" he asked.
"Yes," she answered. "I absolutely do."
He laughed, his chuckle like burning logs and thick ash.
"Good. You're a damned clever girl. You'll make a fantastic Morrigan one day, you really, really will," he exhaled in relief. "But in the end, it doesn't matter what you think of me personally. Because that doesn't affect your decisions where it actually matters."
The library started to fade out around her.
"They're called the Blank One. And they will kill Summer Rose, if you lot don't kill them first, Raven. But before all that? You need to talk to Waiting."
She tried to ask just who the hell Waiting was, but then things went totally dark; and there was no one to answer her questions.
Raven smelled coffee and then the driftwood scent from her detergent, before she shot upwards, reaching for her sword. She found the hilt, noting that it was warm. Around her were shadows and long streaks of moonlight.
It was early. Maybe four thirty, but not much later or earlier.
Raven inhaled deeply, reassuring herself that she was awake, no matter how groggy. In fact, grogginess reassured her that she was in the land of the conscious, no matter how reluctant.
"Raven?"
She could feel her heart skip beat out of habit, before she glanced to her right. For half a second, she expected to see several pairs of eyes: violet and silver.
But instead, she saw only Summer's familiar, glowing silver gaze in the dark.
"Are you ok?"
Raven swallowed awkwardly, feeling off-kilter as her memories of the not-dream realigned themselves. Then, she got out of her bed and shuffled over towards Summer's. In the kitchen, Qrow was making coffee, and soon, they would have to all get up and face the day; but not just yet.
Raven grumbled and crawled pushily into bed with her girlfriend, who squeaked in surprise, then happiness, and allowed herself to be cuddled as Raven shoved into bed with her, hugging her fiercely.
"Nnnr! Mmk," Summer giggled sleepily. "Are you ok, hun? Bad dreams?"
Raven exhaled slowly, letting all the tension out of her body as she let her thoughts and dreams recalibrate as she held her girlfriend close to her chest. For right now, she was big spoon, and Summer could just flippin deal with it.
Summer's fingers wrapped around her forearm, squeezing gently as Raven rested her chin on top of her head; Summer's wolf ears tickled her cheeks curiously as the shorter girl wiggled and tried to repeatedly get comfortable in her arms.
Typically, Summer strongly preferred to be 'big spoon' or what the hell ever, but right now, Raven needed her to just chill the fuck out and let her hug her for a little bit.
"Babe?"
"Shhh," Raven kissed between Summer's ears. "No talkey."
"But-" Summer started.
"Uh uh," Raven grunted.
"...Mmk."
There was no talkey until it was time for everyone to get up; and by then, Raven had forgotten most of her terrible 'dream' whether she wanted to or not. But not all of it.
She knew there was an aetheri called the Blank One who would, eventually, try to kill Summer if they didn't kill them first; and that she needed to find someone called Waiting and speak with them. On top of literally everything else she had going on, which wasn't exactly a light load.
In the light of the dawn, and the smiles of the people she loved, all these things seemed like they would be manageable.
If only that had been true.