The City of Shade was an interesting sight. Unlike many of Kingdoms' capitals that Ruby and the rest had visited, there seemed to be little order in regards to design of the city. The buildings were low and white with interestingly arched roofs. Alleys and roads were near indistinguishable and, as they drove through these unfamiliar streets, Ruby felt as if they were moving through a maze where, one wrong turn, would leave them wandering the sanded streets for days.
Neptune had explained that the City of Shade had never intentionally been built. The early nomads of Vacuo and had been forced deeper inland by natural disasters, Grimm, and foreign invaders. It had been initially meant to be simply another temporary settlement until, finally, it became too large to ever move again.
However, there seemed to be some form of order within the chaos. As they'd driven through the haphazard streets, Ruby had noticed what appeared to be shop fronts whittling away into much simpler residential homes. These eventually, too, disappeared the deeper they travelled, giving way to more manual oriented professions. At one point they'd driven past a man who had been hammering away at a red hot rod. His face glistened with sweat, his back arched, surrounded by past creations forged from a variety of different metals.
However, the true centrepiece cast an impressive shadow over the City of Shade. Like a pyramid constructed by some ancient civilisation, Shade Academy loomed over the rest. Made of three tiers of decreasing size, the Huntsman Academy was, by far, the most complex and intimidating building in the capital. Unbeknownst to them, at the very top, watching over the bustling city, headmaster Theodore Dell was silently awaiting the arrival of visitors he had wished to avoid for a while longer.
The small group was dropped off at the front of the academy. The towering building blocked the light of the sun, the shadow it cast seemingly chilling Ruby even though the air had been nothing but hot and humid since crossing the strait. Maybe this was the Academy's way of warning them they were not welcome.
A short flight of stairs led to the main entrance where a man was silently waiting for them. He wasn't a very tall man, his lightly tanned skin, somewhat paled due to long hours indoors. His slightly curled hair was brown with streaks of grey. He wore an open, white lab coat upon dark clothing, his hands casually stuffed in its pockets. A black stethoscope hung around his neck as he inspected the small group with dark brown eyes.
He looked upon the new arrivals sternly as he watched them climb the stairs, studying their movements and the items they carried with them. His eyes only softened slightly when they landed on Qrow.
"Look what the metaphorical cat has dragged in." The man said in greeting, nodding his head at the Huntsman. "I see the crow's feet have settled in pretty nicely since the last we met."
"If I remember right, last time your hair had less silver in it." Qrow countered, though he smiled as he said this. "It's good to see you again, Bellamy."
"And good to see you are still in one piece, Qrow." The man called Bellamy responded, but although his words seemed friendly, his voice was wary and calculating.
"Barely." Qrow admitted, stopping to stand before the man. Qrow's voice then softened as he continued to speak. "How has Valerian been doing?"
"Getting by." Bellamy answered rather obscurely. "Though she still claims to be in good enough condition to knock you out of the ring… as she had done during our match in the Vytal Festival."
Qrow laughed. "That sounds like Val but I think all that disinfectant has messed with your memory. Val had knocked Summer out during that match, remember?"
"Yes, of course." Answered Bellamy and this time he actually smiled at the Huntsman, openly relieved for some reason. "It really is good to see you again, Qrow. I wish it had been under better circumstances, though."
"My arrival is that bad an omen, huh?" Qrow sheepishly asked him.
"We've known of your arrival since you stopped at Aneglus." Bellamy admitted. "And considering what's happened in the other Kingdoms you've been to, the maths wasn't very hard."
"So Theodore's been expecting us." Qrow concluded, that would make explaining a lot easier.
"Yes, but you know Theodore…" Bellamy sighed, as if the headmaster's antics tired him. "He'll only see you and those two." With a little gesture of his hand he pointed at Ruby and Oscar.
"Us?" Ruby asked, surprised and looking at Oscar in confusion.
"What does he want with them specifically ?" Yang growled mistrustfully, taking a protective step forward, almost standing between the man and her sister.
"Oscar Pine is Headmaster Ozpin's current reincarnation." Bellamy stated matter-of-factly, unflinching as the Huntress stared him down. "Ruby Rose is the Huntress that froze the Grimm at Beacon as well as having been the one to send the distress message from Atlas."
"One Vacuo chose not to answer." Weiss mumbled not so quietly. However Bellamy ignored her comment.
"The rest of you will be coming with me to the infirmary." Bellamy looked around the small group, his eyes challenging anyone to disagree. His gaze rested on Nora for a moment, and they lingered on her face, his own remaining as emotionless as it previously had been. "As the Shade students will probably tell you, it's protocol, so no use complaining."
With that, Bellamy casually turned on his feet and began to walk into the academy, closely followed by Qrow.
The Huntsmen looked between themselves, hesitating to follow the man.
"He's right about it being protocol." Velvet admitted. It had been a strange concept that she and the rest of her team had taken time to become accustomed to.
"I didn't know your uncle knew Dr Dell." Sun whispered, slowing his pace to walk in step with Ruby.
"Neither had I." Sheepishly admitted Ruby, it seemed this man had also known her mother.
"Was that really necessary?" Muttered Qrow, walking beside Bellamy. He remembered that the man's conversation skills had always been on the crude side but that had seemed excessive, even for Bellamy.
"Theodore will explain." Bellamy answered in a voice so low Qrow had barely heard him. "Just keep your guard up."
Shade Academy from the inside was far less intimidating, looking much like any other generic academy. It seemed that the tiers weren't simply for show but actually indicated a particular order. The ground floor made up the dormitories while the one above that housing the classrooms and infirmary. On the topmost floor was the headmaster's office.
Bellamy led the group across the ground floor, the corridors eerily quiet, their steps echoing around them. It almost felt as if Shade Academy was holding its breath as the new arrivals trespassed in its passages. It took Ruby a moment to realise why the academy felt so unwelcoming, they had not seen a single student. With spring in full swing outside, the semester should have been buzzing but, even as the doctor led them to an old looking, iron barred elevator, they met not a single other person.
"Where is everyone?" Sun eventually asked as Bellamy pulled the grate closed behind them and pressed two buttons. However the doctor did not respond and the Huntresses and Huntsmen shifted uncomfortably as the elevator jerked upwards with a loud, groaning sound. The commute wasn't very long, the gate sliding open loudly, the metal folding in on itself as it did so.
"I trust you remember how to get to Theodore's office?" Bellamy turned to Qrow as he walked out of the elevator, turning to face the Huntsman while waiting for the younger fighters to follow him out. Yang and the rest hesitated, even Neptune and the other Shade students who had become accustomed to Dr Dell's somewhat peculiar behaviour, paused. This was strange even by his standards.
"Yes." Qrow carefully answered, Bellamy's whispered words to him had left him feeling wary. The man had been meticulous even in his youth, there was a reason why he had chosen to separate them in this way. However, experience with past visitations to the other academies had left Qrow cautious of who to trust and believe. However, Bellamy was fundamentally different from Lionheart and Ironwood. Where Ozpin had personally chosen them to help him, Bellamy himself had chosen to get involved in Ozpin's mission with the aim of, not protecting Remnant or the Relics, but the people he cared for. First his sister, and now Valerian.
"We will meet you after your check up." The Huntsman concluded, choosing to trust his friend. Maybe, this one time, it would not prove to be a mistake.
"Are you sure?" Yang cautiously asked, like the rest, they had all become skeptical of such people.
"You can trust Bellamy." Qrow finally reassured them, looking at the former Huntsman. Bellamy nodded his head, grateful for Qrow's cooperation, appreciating that, even though he was still in the dark about the situation, he had heeded his words.
"Are things always this sketchy here at Shade?" Ruby eventually asked when her friends, reluctantly, exited the elevator and followed Dr Dell to the infirmary, leaving the three of them to continue to the next floor.
"Bellamy is headmaster Theodore's younger brother." Qrow explained, leaning against the back of the lift, feeling the mechanisms behind the metal as it was slowly pulled towards the next level of the academy. "Unlike the other headmasters, Theodore had not been chosen by Ozpin to protect the Vault, he inherited the job when his father was killed."
"Shade Academy has already been attacked by Salem's forces in the past." Oscar ominously added, Ozpin providing him with the required memories to aid him understand the situation. "That day their father, the previous headmaster, had been killed along with the previous Summer Maiden, their younger sister."
"That's horrible!" Exclaimed Ruby, she had never anticipated that the Headmaster of Shade Academy would have such a tragic backstory.
"They've probably been following our journey across Remnant, knowing that they'd be our next stop." Qrow continued to explain.
"And, with us, another attack from Salem." Ruby concluded as the elevator halted and the door slowly folded in on itself to reveal a small entry way and three doors. She could understand why Bellamy and his brother would not be particularly welcoming to her and her companions- tragedy and disaster had had a tendency of following them at every stop they had made.
Qrow pushed himself off from the wall he was leaning against and led Ruby and Oscar out.
Qrow stopped before the furthest door, made of dark, almost black coloured wood. Without a word, he knocked on the heavy wood with his knuckles, the sound it made deep and haunting.
Nora sat awkwardly on the edge of the examination table while the doctor scribbled something onto a notepad. The Huntress had become unexpectedly fidgety as the doctor had taken her temperature and heart rate. However, she suspected it had less to do with the man and more with the Academy itself. She couldn't exactly explain why however, for some reason, as they had walked through the Academy's corridors, an uncomfortable sense of familiarity had begun to tug at her. She'd known each turn the doctor would take before he actually made it, her feet moving more on memory rather than consciously being guided. However, anytime she'd tried to grasp at why it all felt so familiar, a stinging pain would run up the back of her head. It also did not help her restlessness that the doctor kept on raising his eyes from the notepad and silently observing her. It was creepy not in the sense that he was leering at her but rather it was almost like, he too, was struggling to figure something out.
"How did you get those scars?" He suddenly asked, finally seemingly satisfied with whatever he had been writing.
"I was electrocuted by a door back in Atlas." Nora casually answered, not wanting to go into detail about the event, she desperately wanted to get moving, sitting about like this was, unexplainably, making her restless.
"Those are serious burns." The doctor observed, his dark eyes fell on the small area of scarred skin he could see in the gap between the long sleeves of her dress and her gloves. "From my experience, people who receive injuries like that don't usually get up afterwards."
Nora shrugged casually, really wishing to be elsewhere. "My Semblance turns electricity into power."
Her skin began to tingle as she remembered the incident, the pain had been insupportable but, at that moment, she had felt almost dangerously unstoppable. However the feeling had been fleeting. She may have been able to free her friends but it had left her immobile and nothing more than a burden to them. It was an unpleasant memory not only due to the pain.
"Convenient." The doctor answered, understanding that that must have been why the Huntress had survived such injuries. He leaned against his desk in silence, his arms crossed, studying the woman's face. It was unnerving how much this Huntress looked like Valerian when she'd been younger and healthier. They were not identical of course, but he could see the subtle similarities, like the gentle slope of her eyes. They were little things Bellamy would have only noticed after spending so much of his life with Valerian at his side. It was unnerving.
"Erm, can I go now?" Nora asked sheepishly, as the silence between the two lingered.
"Yes." The doctor answered, looking down at the papers on which he'd written his notes. "You're as fit as a fiddle. You can tell the next person to come in."
"Thanks!" She answered, instantly jumping off the table and walking to the door, not even looking back at the man as his eyes followed her out. It really was unsettling.
In the small reception area outside Jaune, Ren, Velvet, Weiss and Mercury were idly sitting on the uncomfortable plastic chairs, waiting for her return.
"Was given a clean bill of health." She declared, putting her hands on her hips proudly. She knew Jaune and Ren had been worried after her fight with the Grimm but, after she'd rested, it seemed she'd suffered little repercussions for using the Maiden's power as she had. "The next person can go in."
Velvet stood, stretching her stiff arms. The small group must have decided while she was in for her check up who would go next.
"Yang, Blake and Sun just left a few minutes ago." Weiss explained. "The doctor apparently told them to wait for Ruby and the others in one of the study rooms on this floor."
"It's at the end of the corridor." Neptune explained, leaning back into his chair and causing the plastic to squeak as he did so. "If you hurry you might actually catch up with them."
Nora turned her head towards Jaune and Ren, although she was eager to get moving, she felt bad leaving without her teammates.
"Go on ahead." Insisted Ren, noticing how Nora's eyes kept on darting towards the door. She'd been tense ever since they'd first set foot into the academy and, although it was subtle, the air around her had fallen a few degrees. "I don't think we'll be too long."
"Thank you." She gratefully answered, Jaune nodding his head in agreement. Feeling less guilty at leaving, she walked out of the waiting room and into the corridor outside.
Neptune had been right, at the other end of the passage she could just make out the shapes of Yang and the others calmly walking away. Their backs were turned towards her, their voices echoing alongside their steps as they filled throughout the otherwise silent passages.
Nora began to walk towards them, quickening her pace to try to catch up with the trio but she stumbled to a stop as she passed a small window through which she saw something she had not expected- a garden. The vibrant colours- purples, blues yellows nestled amongst the green, were a stark contrast to the white limestone walls of Shade Academy. From her vantage point, Nora could make out a number of trails that snaked through the vegetation which seemed to have had no particular design when it had been planted. Palms had been surrounded by ferns while these were nestled amidst succulents. It was an intriguing combination that seemed to scream that the wildness of nature could not be tamed and, in its own way, it was beautiful.
Having savoured the view enough, Nora made to walk after her companions who had just vanished into another of the rooms further along the corridor. However, as she took a step away from the window, a splintering pain thundered through her mind, mixing unpleasantly with the anxiety she had been feeling. Cringing at the discomfort, she leaned against the window, pulling it open and forcing her head outside, hoping that, maybe, the fresh air would improve her condition. She swallowed heavily as it successfully lightened some of her symptoms, slightly. The headache had her worried, maybe she should return to the infirmary and get the doctor to check her out again? Maybe there was something he had missed?
Nora desperately tried to walk away from the window but, the further she got, the more painful the headache became, and now, mixing into the fold was an underlying hum- incomprehensible yet frustratingly persistent as it fogged her thoughts.
The air outside seemed to be the only remedy, capable of diminishing these bizarre symptoms, at the moment.
No one will mind if I just head out for a short breather. Nora thought to herself. Through the pain, a mischievous smile spread across her face. Why use the elevator when she had other alternatives available to her now?
She sat on the window frame, looking back into the corridor and at the garden below. It wasn't very high considering they were on the first floor, so even if this didn't work the consequences wouldn't be too severe. Truthfully, she'd dealt with worse falls.
When Nora was certain no one was around to see her, she closed her eyes and focused on the strange ball of energy within her that she pictured to be the Winter Maiden's power. She found visualising it in this manner was the easiest way for her to control this power and, in a relaxed situation like this, even more so. She felt the power's comforting cool touch spread around her body, condensing it at the bottom of her feet and pictured the way Penny used to use her jets for flight. She remembered her spinning through the air the first time they had seen her in Atlas, the broken moon casting a distinct shadow. That had been the first time any of them had met Penny as the protector of Mantle.
Nora caught her breath as she felt herself shakily being lifted off the window sill. Rather ungracefully, she waved her hands on her side, struggling to keep her body upright. However, with slight adjustments in her posture, and mentally forcing herself to remain calm, her erratic movements become more fluid, responding to her thoughts without the slightest delay. She hovered on the spot, several feet above the ground for a few moments, looking down at the gardens. When she wasn't being attacked by monsters, the Maiden's powers were significantly easier to use.
Gently, she lowered herself to the ground, allowing the glow of the magic to fade. She looked around herself curiously. Up close the gardens looked even more beautiful, the flowers were bright and their exotic, fragment scents filled her nostrils. Flying between the flowers, Nora could see insects traveling, filling the air with their low buzzing. Nora took a deep breath, allowing the clean air to ease the pain in her head, reducing it to nothing more than a low, yet persistent, throb. Savouring the sun's warmth on her skin, Nora began to explore the area. At first she simply followed the path before her but, like what had happened within the academy, her feet began to move on muscle memory alone, taking turns long hidden by the overgrown vegetation.
As before, this observation made Nora actually wonder about her past before Mistal. Maybe, at some time, she'd visited Shade Academy? That would explain this strange feeling she had since arriving. Although she could not imagine the reason for a child of any age to pay a visit to such a place. Whatever the case, although she may not have been able to remember, for each time she tried, the throb in her head would intensify drastically, her body seemed to.
Nora eventually stopped when an unexpected polished piece of metal caught her attention. She wondered towards it, her curiosity getting the better of her. Unlike the rest of the garden, which seemed to have been left to grow as it pleased, the shrubbery around this area seemed to be kept trimmed, making sure the words upon the plaque's surface were unobscured.
" Though our lives are limited by years on Earth
Our dreams won't be bound inside
The goal's not to live forever
'Cause eternity loves the creations of time"
Nora's eyes widened when she read the quote on its surface, which was then followed by a series of names. This must have been a memorial of sorts, though Nora had no idea for what. It seemed to be dated to an event that had occurred a few years before she had been born. She reread the names, one name in particular catching her eye. It shone in the late morning sun, having been polished over years of being touched.
"Amelia Dell." Nora whispered, bending down slightly to better read what had been written. As she uttered the name, she was filled with unfounded sadness.
Why?
That seemed to be the question that she continued to ask herself.
Why did Shade Academy make her feel so confused?
Why did she know paths she'd never seen before that day?
Why had this unknown name saddened her so deeply?
These were the questions that consumed Nora's thoughts, distracting her from her surroundings, and the new presence that had walked up behind her.
"What are you doing here?" A woman's voice demanded, causing Nora to jump and turn on her feet guilty.
Nora's reaction upon seeing the woman was to raise her hand to her hammer for, at first glance, the woman shared much the same features as Salem. Her face was a milky white so pale she could almost see the blood vessels under her skin. The sclera of her blue eyes, which should have been white, were as black as her lips. The roots of her hair were also discoloured, though the tips were a striking shade of orange. The unnamed woman was dressed in a knee length navy blue dress and leaning heavily on a black walking stick, a cloak over her shoulders despite the heat. In her free hand, she carried a small bag.
"Answer me." The woman asked, ignoring the surprise which must have shown on Nora's face. "What are you doing here?"
Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed the update and feel free to drop a comment. I'll see you all next week :D