Aura scarring was known to Remnant, even if it was incredibly rare. Certain semblances could damage the soul in a way that prevented the aura from healing without external intervention. Pietro Polendina was something of a tragic example of this, in that his own Semblance removed chunks of his soul in this way.

In turn, it was only a rare few semblances that could repair Aura scarring, and as far as Ozpin knew, there weren't any people alive right now with that ability. Beyond that, there were some off-shoots from the soul-transfer project that Ironwood was working on that could theoretically be used to manipulate the soul, but the risks of soul-scarring were so great that no one was willing to complete the research on that front.

Still, the fact that we had a person in our organization that could inflict damage like that spooked, well everyone. Aura scarring was effectively a way to put hunters out of business permanently.

I could tell that all the hunters were quite terrified of Ahri, at this discovery.

I could understand, but the fact that Cinder had managed to survive Ahri's first attack told me that their aura did protect them from this avenue of attack. Testing it further would be difficult at best, getting volunteers for one wouldn't be easy after all.

However, I did spend some time learning how to replicate Ahri's attacks and even if I was a lot weaker than she was, it dd has the same properties.

The confirmation that this form of magic was a safe way of interacting with the Soul was a big one for me. Soul manipulation was…

Well, let's just say that it was dangerous.

In the mystical texts that I had referenced in Gwen, Raven and even Ahri's world (I'd finally managed to track down a few members of the moonlit world that were willing to talk, even if I did have to bribe them) the soul was described as part of the trifecta of living things. In tandem with the Mind and Body, it made up the very existence of a creature.

The exact specifics of what it did vary from source to source, and often depended on the capabilities of the local necromantic tradition, but in many ways, the Soul was what defined an object as more than the sum of it's parts.

Being able to manipulate that… It was definitely an ability I wanted to have and not need rather than the other way around.

I was sitting in Ozpin's office contemplating this as Glynda and Ironwood discuss the events of the previous night "quietly".

Ahri, sitting next to me, spoke up, "You do know that I can hear you right?"

They froze, and looked through the window at Ahri and me.

"What?" They asked.

Ahri shrugged, "If you are going to try and talk about me like that, you can at least say it to my face."

Ozpin seemed embarrassed and opened the door to let us in, "I'm quite sorry about that."

"Yeah, whatever." Ahri said dismissively, "Now, I know you are worried about this whole aura scaring thing, but if you don't try and eat my soul like that little bitch I'm perfectly capable of controlling myself."

"Eat your soul?" Ironwood asked.

"She didn't try and eat your soul, that thing that she attacked you with is a separate creature, at least as far as I can tell." I offered.

Ahri waved me off, "Okay, so maybe she tried to feed me to that thing, but it's the same difference. That thing was trying to grab my soul and I wasn't happy about that."

Ironwood stared at her.

I shrugged, "I'm guessing that you recognized the feeling?"

"Fucking Incubi." Ahri explained.

I winced.

"If that's the case," I acquiesced, "I completely understand your reaction."

Glynda looked at me, "What's an Incubi?"

"Something that eats people souls." I drawled out blandly.

Ahri started muttering something about Evelynn and her stupid sexy family and I pointedly tuned that particular little bit of information out.

Ozpin looked at me, "Those sorts of creatures shouldn't exist in this age."

I raised an eyebrow, "What are you talking about?"

Ozpin looked at me, "Incubi and other magical creatures were removed from Remnant when the gods left this world."

I turned to Ahri, who looked a little embarrassed by her slip up.

I pulled out a chair and collapsed into it.

We did technically have a plan for something like this. Magically enforced mind-wipes were possible even if none of us was particularly happy with the prospect.

The more ethical prospect was a magically enforced contract.

Contract magic was surprisingly easy since it operated on a simple fundamental mystical principle, permission, freely given, bypassed magical protections of any kind.

If the complete agreement was understood and no external influence was applied, a contract could act as the basis for delayed, unlimited range spellcasting, capable of being broken only by extremely skilled mages or by the contract being annulled by both parties, should such a clause be included.

That said, you can't incentivise someone to sign the contract outside of the terms stated in the contract, and unless you were very skilled, all this meant was that you could trigger spells when the contract was broken, according to the terms of the contract, after which the contract will be considered broken.

There was a reason why contract magic was often considered second-rate in comparison to binding seals or geasa even if the latter two were far more difficult to pull off.

Still…

I sighed and reached into my coat, drawing a scroll from inside my pocket.

I peeled it open and started reading out the contract.

It was, ultimately a simple thing. They could choose to join me in a prepared space to receive information, and in exchange, they may not grant this information to anyone else.

Attempting to break this contract causes the complete knowledge that was gained in this room to be removed from their mind entirely.

Entering the contract in bad faith, such as attempting to bring any means of information storage or transmission into the sealed room will cause you to immediately pass out upon entering the room.

I would be informed of the termination of the contract.

The actual contract was much more detailed, covering every loophole that we or anyone else we could get to proofread the contract could spot but that was effectively the gist of it.

The others in the room read over the contract with detail, and Ozpin checked over the spellwork with what little power he had left.

As they each pressed a bloody thumb to their copy of the contract I mentally started running over the preparations I would need to do in order to refill our stock of contracts.

We should still have stock of spider-silk and oak-ash for the physical contract, butI'll have to see if we have the material components for the memory destruction spells and the knock-out spells on hand.

Especially since the drugs we used to make the memory destruction spells safer than attempting to cause an alcohol-induced blackout weren't exactly… legal in any of our worlds.

But hey! That's what I have international contacts for.

When the thumb-prints turned black and the contracts were sealed, I requested a room that I could seal off from any external monitoring.

This particular spell was actually treey tricky, but I could magically reinforce a room's separation from the rest of the world enough to prevent any communications from getting through.

It… it wasn't perfect,but we have tested it with a wide range of sensors and equipment and we do know that it does work on the CCT-based communications that Scrolls and similar technologies use, as well as EM signalling. Gwen had managed to break through with some technology that Janet gave her, and while the spell did deflect Raven's generals crying, the moment that she had a physical focus, it wasn't enough.

Still, it should be enough for the purposes of concealing this one conversation.

The others listened to me carefully as I detailed the specifics of what happened when Yang was kidnapped, and before long, I was fielding questions.

"This other world, could you take refugees?"

I winced, "Technically, yes. But we do not have the power to ignore Divine Edicts. It is why we approached Strange to facilitate communication through Agamotto. We are already risking far too much simply to interfere with Amber's death, and that could have been prevented if Qrow had been on hand in the initial timeline. Any other support, be it what we already have planned if we receive permission from your gods to interfere, or something as obvious as opening portals to evacuate Remnant until you can deal with Salem or simply just live without fear of the Grimm."

"And if the Brothers invite your intervention?" Ozpin asked.

I shrugged, "We have our own plans, but I suppose that if you feel that they are not sufficient then I will have to discuss with my associates."

Ironwood asked me about technologies I could share, but I locked him down on that front.

To be honest, I wasn't too likely to share technology with him even if the Brother Gods were open to our interference. No offence, but I didn't want any of my tech supporting the Schnees.