"General Ironwood?"
The man looked up from his desk to see Ruby Rose, one of the most trustworthy young Huntresses in training that he'd ever met. A girl who had fought in battles with enormous Grimm monsters and even the treacherous Fall Maiden, and not only had she survived, she'd won. And she'd brought the Relic, the Lamp of Knowledge, with her to Atlas. Now, thanks to her, Ironwood had two of the four Relics safe in his control. He really couldn't thank or praise her enough, so he hadn't tried, instead giving her and her friends his unshakable support. They deserved it, they had earned it, in his eyes. So he had left the Lamp with her for the time being, because he knew there was no one he trusted more with it than the one who had brought it all the way from Mistral. If she now needed a little of his time, even a busy man like Ironwood, who was both the general of the Atlesian military, the headmaster of Atlas Academy, and held two seats on the council; even a busy man like him, or especially a busy man like him, could take the time to listen to what she wanted to tell him.
"Ruby. How can I help you?" He meant that, in every sense. If she needed help, he would do almost anything in his power to give it to her. Slowly, but not too slowly, he stood up. He didn't want to act like a skittish junior officer, but rather the dignified general that he was, yet he wanted to show her that respect when she entered. It was the least he could do, and that was the truth.
The Lamp. She had it clipped onto her belt. She was so careful with it, making sure that it never left her. But now, she reached down and took it off her belt, holding it in both hands as she walked towards his desk, offering it to him. "General, I've been thinking about it, and..."
He held up a hand to stop her, cutting her off. "Ruby, I've already told you. I trust you with it. You brought it this far, you should keep it." She was so innocent and trusting. If he ever had gotten the chance to have a child of his own, he'd wish for a daughter just like her. He smiled knowingly. "Besides, it can't actually answer anymore questions right now."
She looked nervous. "Uh, yeah... about that..."
The general walked around his desk and put his hand on Ruby's shoulder. "Didn't you say that before?" He'd believed her then. If she told him now that she'd lied, that she hadn't trusted him in return, it would hurt. But it wouldn't change anything important, as far as he was concerned. It hadn't been that long, and nothing big had changed since then. It didn't seem like any opportunity had been lost, and she was offering it to him now, so it was easy to forgive that.
"I did, but..." She let out a regretful sigh. "I didn't want to tell you when we first got here, because things were so strange. It looked bad, especially down in Mantle, but over the past few months I've come to realize that you really are just doing the best that you can with what you have, so..." She looked away, taking a breath because she had said all that without pausing to breathe. "I trust you. And I did trust you then, just not... completely."
He was right, it hurt, but the way she'd said it made it not hurt nearly as much as he'd expected. He understood her reasons. Everything she'd gone through to get here had made her wary. After everything she'd been through, it was hard to reestablish a bond of trust like that, considering what she'd seen when she arrived in Atlas. "Ruby, I-"
"But I'm ready to go all the way. I'm ready to trust you completely now." She held up the Lamp again, practically thrusting it into his chest. "You should be able to ask one question now. You wouldn't have been able to when we first got here, so please believe me, I didn't want to keep that from you!"
He was startled by her high-pitched voice declaring that, against all odds, some time in the past couple of months they had crossed the threshold of a hundred years since the Lamp had answered a question. Startled, but willing to believe her. He decided then and there that it didn't matter if she was just saying that to get around not having told him before. She was trying her best to keep him from thinking she'd lied to him, while fixing the problem that had caused. Whether she was telling the truth now, or had been lying before, the truth was that she wanted him to have the Lamp and ask it a question, and that she felt bad for keeping it from him for even a short time.
Taking his hand off her shoulder and placing it on top of her head, he ruffled her hair, taking hold of the Lamp in his other hand. "Okay, Ruby. Thank you. I'll make sure to put it to good use."
Ducking away, Ruby stamped her foot and gave a quick salute. It was completely wrong, but she wasn't a soldier. She was Ruby. And she had just delivered him something of incalculable value. He returned her salute, mirroring it perfectly. It wasn't the Atlesian military salute, but it was Ruby's salute, and he would humor her today. He thought she deserved that.
"Thank you, sir." The mutual salute finished, she lowered her hand before he lowered his, a total deviation from regulations, and marched to the door.
He called after her. "You're not going to stay and hear the answer I get?"
She stopped at the door, turning as it opened just to say, "I trust you."
The door closed, and she was gone from his office. Ironwood turned his attention to the Lamp. The Relic of Knowledge was in his hand now, and he could ask it a question. This was a great opportunity, and he had to think of how exactly he wanted to word his question. He had to figure out what his question was going to be, in fact. There was so much he needed to do to prepare, but now that he had it in his hand it felt like suddenly time was running out. His chance was going to vanish soon. How soon, and why, he didn't know, but instinct told him he needed to act now. He needed to ask now.
The door opened, and he nearly jumped, turning suddenly and hiding the Relic behind his back like a child caught red-handed, but it was just Ruby again. "Sorry, I forgot to tell you, you have to call her name first. Her name is Jinn."
Relaxing, he shook his head and laughed. "I already know that, Ruby."
"Oh... okay, take care." She was gone again, far less professionally than even last time. He didn't mind. She'd brought the sledgehammer of levity to his mental brick wall. He could think now.
"Alright then." He took a deep breath, then procrastinated, walking around to behind his desk and locking down the room first. It wasn't really procrastination. It was a safety measure. He couldn't risk anyone overhearing. He would ask his question, and then impart the knowledge he gained as he saw fit, to whom he saw fit. Due to the nature of the questions he had in mind, it seemed only fair that he tell Ruby as much as possible. He set the Lamp down in front of him and called out that name. "Jinn."
Ironwood knew how to summon her, but he had never seen her before. A blue fog rolled out of the Lamp as it floated away from him, hovering in the middle of the room. Then the fog took form. A body, sleek and feminine, adorned in gold. There she was. Jinn, reclining in the air above the Lamp, staring back at him with knowing eyes. She took a moment to stretch her limbs, for whatever good that actually did, and then went back to her resting position, looking down at the little general before her. He felt small, dumbstruck, and somewhat drawn to her figure. Shoving all of that way down into the back of his mind, he pushed through.
Jinn leaned forward to inspect him more closely. "I see. You have questions you would like answered. Well, you are in luck, as I can now answer two questions."
He stood in stunned silence for a moment, unsure how to proceed. He'd been told an enormous opportunity was before him, and when he decided to take it he learned that it was double that. "Two? Did Ruby know that?" He wondered aloud.
Jinn smiled. "I get the feeling that wasn't one of your questions."
"What?" He realized what she meant, then shook his head, waving his hands at her frantically. "No, no, of course not! That's not what I meant. I was just thinking out loud." He had two questions now, which meant he could approach it differently. Instead of asking the most pressing question and only that, he could ask the most important question, and make his decision about the second question based on that. Yes, that was right. Obviously, the most important question came first. "Jinn, tell me..."
She leaned in to hear every word. "Mmm?"
"How can Salem be stopped?" He'd put enough thought into it. On the off chance, he determined, that she could not actually be destroyed or killed, then he would simply be told so. But there were other ways to defeat her besides destroying her, and more importantly there were other ways to win against her. Knowing any of those ways far outweighed the risk of wasting a question on finding out she couldn't die.
"You know, Ozma once asked me how he could kill Salem. I told him he couldn't." That's what Ironwood was afraid of. She continued, though. "So desperate to destroy her, he didn't stop to consider other possibilities. And there are many."
"Many? What are-" He stopped, catching himself and hoping she wouldn't decide he'd asked another question of her. "You say there are many ways to stop her." He struggled with what to say next, trying to prompt her into telling him what those ways were without phrasing it as a question. As it turned out, however, he didn't need to bother, as she was prepared to tell him all of those ways.
Jinn began to explain. "Most of these ways simply require the use of the Relics. While I can't directly affect her, and the Sword of Destruction can never put an end to her, there are of course other options. The Staff of Creation can be used to create many things. You can contain her, trap her, and imprison her. You could banish her so far away that she would never be able to return. With the Crown of Choice, you could control her, or change her."
This was all great news, as far as Ironwood was concerned. While she was right, the Lamp and the Sword wouldn't be of help, and he couldn't use the Staff without letting Atlas fall to the ground, the Crown gave him a chance. It would take an expedition, but he already saw a way for that to work. He could use it to alter Salem so that she would no longer be a danger to anyone. All he had to do was stay the course with his plans, raise Amity higher into the atmosphere to reconnect communication with the rest of the world, and then go to Vale under the guise of aid. Then, there, he could retrieve the Crown, and use it to put an end to Salem's tyranny.
"Plenty of the other Relics could also be used to stop her."
Ironwood's thought process stopped dead in its tracks. He looked up to her, seeing that she'd paused at his display of alarm. "Other... plenty...?"
"Indeed." She smiled. "Remnant holds more secrets than you know. More than Ozma knows. Relics that passed into legend, then to myth, and then faded from memory, long before I was created. Relics that have been waiting since before my creators came into being, hidden in the wilderness since time began. I can begin to tell you now which ones you could use to stop Salem, if you like."
This was new information. No, that was wrong. This was very old information, that nobody knew anymore. Nobody but Jinn. "Yes." If there were more Relics in this world, he had to find them before Salem could chance upon any of them. "I want you to take me to the Relics. All of them."
She let out a sultry laugh. "How amusing. Ah... would you like to rephrase that as a question?"
If it took the second question to learn the locations of every Relic, that was definitely worth it. "I would. Can you take me to these Relics?" He was aware that she could just say 'no' if she couldn't actually take him there, but when she asked him to rephrase, it told him that the answer would, in fact, be 'yes'.
"Why yes, I will."