Oh Gods, as was pointed out to me, Forged Destiny was two years old last week. Way to make me feel like life is rushing by. Argh! Well, that's certainly something, though! Gods, I feel so old.
Beta: College Fool
Cover Art: Dishwasher1910
Book 6: Chapter 7
The revelation about Salem and Vacuo made too much sense for me to ignore. Sun's words were as much a warning as a history lesson, telling me in no uncertain terms what would be the result of Salem's continued presence in our world. For now, she might be taking pleasure in twisting the wishes of the individual and watching them squirm, but a single ill-placed with could just as easily spell the destruction of everyone in Vale.
It was more reason to stop Roman and Watts, but more than that, it proved that the Greycloaks needed to be halted once and for all. They had the knowledge of how to summon Salem, and the motivation to do so. So long as they existed, more would come. There was no shortage of people willing to risk their lives for a chance at greatness.
I kept the specifics hidden from the others for now. I'd tell them the full story once this was over, but we were already determined to stop Roman, so adding some extra stress wasn't worth it. When we went back and reported to Ozpin, I'd tell them at the same time what we were up against. In the meantime, we rested, allowing another night to pass in relative peace, before we arrayed ourselves in the early morning sun the following day. Blake brought the map out and allowed the magical signal to flow through it.
"They're close," she said. "Very close. It's going to happen today."
"What about Cinder?" Yang asked.
"At least a day out. They've made good time but they're not going to make it here before Roman does."
"Do we delay or attack?" Ren mused. "If we could but slow them down, we would be able to fight with Cinder and her team alongside us. That would bolster our chances."
"If we wait, they will slip away into the desert," Sun warned.
"Not to mention what they might do to the people here," I added with a heavy sigh. "No. We have to ambush them – and we need to set it outside of the city. Can't have innocents getting dragged up in this."
The others agreed, and I was relieved to see that Ruby didn't act any differently around me despite what had been revealed the day before. Then again, if she'd suspected for as long as she claimed then perhaps I'd simply missed the moments where she treated me differently, or maybe they hadn't existed at all.
Either way, she had her little pauldron on, and I noticed that she'd replaced the chain links with leather straps to make it more comfortable. To my eyes, the rune imprinted on the back of it was obvious, as was the vigour in Ruby's every movement. She seemed more alive, healthier, stronger. I supposed it could be missed if someone wasn't looking for it, but to me it was as clear as day.
"How are we going to set up an ambush in the desert?" Ruby asked, breaking the momentary silence. "There's nowhere we can hide."
"I doubt even I could blend into the desert," Blake added.
"Even if you could, no one else could do the same," Sun laughed. "Nah, we'll hide in plain sight. If they're looking to rob tribes of food and water, we'll disguise ourselves as one and wander close enough for them to notice."
"Won't they see our names and Classes?" Weiss asked. "Roman knows us all, and Watts would certainly recognise me."
"Given the distance, heat and how bright the sun is, I doubt they'll be able to read them until we're practically on top of one another." Pyrrha said. "Sun's idea has merit. It would get us close enough to attack, although they'll still have a little time to react."
"It's the best we'll get," I agreed. "Sun, can you procure us some robes?" I handed him the pouch of lien, and the faunus nodded, ducking away into the bazaar. "As for us, we'll need to think up a way to fight these guys. We're not going to have Miss Goodwitch and Miss Tsune to save us at the last second."
"We're stronger than we were before," Nora pointed out.
"True, but it's arrogant to believe they have not grown, too."
"Arrogant but not necessarily incorrect," Ren countered. "Watts is a high-level Paladin, and I doubt he'll have found much conflict dangerous enough to grant him the Exp he needs to level. He might be one level higher, perhaps two, but I wouldn't expect him to have improved drastically. Roman might have, and we still know relatively little about Neo, but Watts should be the same as he was before, while we have grown much stronger in the past year and a half."
Ten or more levels each in most cases, almost twenty in mine. If Watts faced the same problem I did now, of not being able to find Grimm dangerous enough to grant any Exp, then it was true he might not have improved much. Then again, he'd been so far ahead of us before – and ahead of Blake, whose level back then had still been closer to forty. Though there was no way to tell, I'd put his level at something between sixty and seventy.
Quantity had a quality of its own, but could it really match up to so much quality? It was hard to tell. Watts was just too strong to deal with.
Wait…
"I think I might have a plan."
/-/
The heat beat down on us once more, and with trepidation for what was to come, my brow was covered with much more sweat than usual, made all the worse for the tan and beige robes wrapped around my body and head. They were probably much cooler to wear in the desert, but that came with the assumption you weren't wearing armour and padding beneath. Since we were going into combat, we were, which meant I got to swelter on the seat of the wagon, reins in hand as Blake sat beside me, red in face and shielding her eyes with one hand as she regarded the map in her lap.
The others had an easier time of it hidden in the back of the wagon we rode on, with a single beleaguered bison pulling it. It had cost us the remainder of our lien, since animals capable of pulling a wagon in the desert were more valuable than solid gold, but it was important that we look authentic, and that our group was small enough to make for a tempting target.
"Anything?" I whispered.
"They're close. Very close. The map is bright red – the blip practically on top of us. Either they're underground or hidden somewhere nearby, watching us."
Was it possible they were in a ruin or a shelter, like the one we'd stayed in before? I scanned the dunes around us, looking for any of the distinctive breathing tubes that might keep such a place aerated. There were none to be seen, but that didn't mean the entrance might not exist, somewhere over a dune or down in a dip.
All I could do was let the beast trundle on at a slow pace, nervously bringing a canteen to my lips to try and steady my nerves. With the white fabric pulled over the wagon behind, there was no way to tell what it contained. Everyone was remaining as still as possible inside, but the bison was struggling with all their weight. Would that give us away? Hopefully not.
I took a deep breath and let it go, and then repeated the action several times.
"It'll be fine," Blake whispered. Her hand touched mine. She smiled. "Believe in the plan you came up with."
"I do. It's just… what if we miss them? What if they go past us?"
"They won't."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Because if they'd continued moving at their normal pace, they'd be beyond us already," she pointed out. "Yet the marker is still atop us. They're here. They're stalking us."
My heart beat a little faster. That wasn't nearly as comforting as I'd have liked it to be, but I nodded regardless, fighting past my suddenly dry throat. My hands gripped the reins tighter, and sensing my nervousness, the bison began to twitch and look around.
Suddenly, a lone figure seemed to appear from the sands ahead. Blake saw him instantly and tapped my side to draw my attention. Tall and thin, it had to be Roman. He might have just crossed the dune or risen from a dip in the landscape, but I refused to believe that. He had literally appeared out of nowhere. Neo's work, no doubt.
"Only one of them," I whispered.
"The others must be nearby under an illusion. This is fine. It'll only make the plan easier."
With a nod, I went back to leading the bison, though I pulled on the reins to make it stop as Roman approached. Much like Pyrrha thought, I could barely make out the words above his head. They blended in with the sand and with the sun high in the sky, they were faint and muddled. It was obvious he couldn't see ours either, otherwise he wouldn't have come so close. His face was much more recognisable, tanned and dirty, but still wearing that slimy smile.
"Hello there," he called. "Do you have a moment to help a traveller in need?"
He was desperate and alone in the desert, a dangerous thing for anyo- no. I bit my lip until it hurt, which helped me fight off the frustrating compulsion to believe him. I could see why no one else was able to.
"Are you alone, traveller?" Blake asked. She stood slowly, one hand disappearing into her robes. "It's dangerous to travel alone in the desert."
"My companions were attacked by Grimm. I'm all that remains."
"I see. Would you like some water?"
Roman grinned and came even closer. I could just start to make out his name and Class, and he, no doubt, our own. "I wouldn't say no."
Blake tossed a canteen in an underarm throw. It sailed lazily through the air and Roman tracked it, taking his eyes off our Classes for a brief moment. Whatever his motives, he would almost certainly be thirsty. As he reached out to catch it, he was caught off-guard for the flash of silver. His eyes widened, and he ducked to the side, though not before the thin throwing dagger slammed into his shoulder.
The wagon exploded into action. The tarp was thrown aside, revealing not a wooden construct, but seven Heroes who poured forth – even as Blake surged from the seat beside me toward the wounded Thief.
"Nora, now!" I yelled.
"Got it!" The Barbarian leapt over my head, hammer held high. Her eyes flashed as she slammed down with a mighty shout, striking the ground and causing a gust of wind to blast forward. It picked up the loose sand and caused a small wall of it to rush back behind Roman. It blasted into two figures, made visible only by the distortion of the sand about their bodies. One was short and had an arm covering her face, shying away. The other, the taller one, was hurtling towards Blake.
I intercepted him.
I barely caught the two-handed sword swinging around before it slammed into Crocea Mors. I was stronger, and the blow didn't send me flying as it once had, but it still lifted me an inch off the ground and sent shocking pain through my arms. The moment our blades clashed, however, the illusion faded, Watts coming into view. He was not quite as I remembered him, somehow a little older, a little more weathered – likely from the desert. He'd eschewed his heavy armour in the heat and now wore leather and padded cloth, and the sword was a new one, the old one having had its runes destroyed the last time we fought. It was longer and heavier, and while I might be able to weaken it again if I could get a good grip, I had a feeling Watts would be more cautious and not let me.
"You again," he said, more with exasperation than any real anger. "I suppose that if they would send anyone after us, it would be those who had seen us before. Still, to send children? How reckless."
I didn't exactly disagree but refrained from saying so. Backing away, I brought Crocea Mors up before me, content to play defensively in what was a one versus one match against a foe far greater than me.
From the corner of one eye I saw Blake, Pyrrha, Ruby, Ren and Sun engage Roman, while Nora, Yang and Weiss went for Neo. The Illusionist backed away and started weaving her spells, but Weiss was able to contain them with wide area spells, the simplest hit causing them to fade out of existence. Even so, Neo was quick on her feet and able to dodge away from them all.
Roman, on the other hand, was having a much worse time of it – utterly outnumbered, and by some enemies who were of a comparable level to his own. The Thief was wide-eyed and parrying madly, but he couldn't fend off everyone and cried out as Ruby managed to hamstring him. Watts cursed and extended a hand to heal him. He seemed surprised when I let him.
"Hm, do you believe you can wear me out through healing? That's certainly an interesting strategy." Watts chuckled, reversed his grip on the giant sword and swept it up. I was barely able to keep my grip as I was knocked back a good three paces. "Of course, that relies on the assumption you have any chance of holding me. A rather arrogant thing to believe."
It was, but I didn't think I could hold him at all. Not indefinitely. I also had no idea what reserves he'd be drawing from for his healing or whether they were finite. They had to be, but it could take hours to burn through them.
Watts sighed and healed Roman again as he was stabbed in the arm by Pyrrha and the shoulder by Blake. The second he was done, Roman yelped a third time – and a third time, Watts healed him, this time with a frown on his face.
When Roman was wounded again, almost immediately, our strategy became clearer. Watts, for all his power and strength, was trapped on healing duty. He could barely take the time to stop and fight me. Taking the chance for what it was, I rushed in and lunged towards his chest. Watts slapped the blade away with his own and drove the hilt of his sword into my face. Stars exploded in front of my eyes, but any opportunity for the Paladin to take advantage was stolen.
"Watts! Healing!"
"Blasted Thief," Watts spat. He shoved me back and healed Roman again. "Can you do nothing without my assistance?"
I was back on him a second later.
My repeated attacks failed to break through his guard. He wielded the two-handed sword with expert skill, and even at times with a single hand, his Strength high enough to allow that and to fend me off.
"It really is hard to find good help nowadays," Watts said conversationally. He rolled his eyes as I twisted and turned us around so that his back was to Roman, so that he couldn't heal and hold me off at the same time. "Very clever, I must say, realising that while you hold no hope against me, you might be able to harm my companions. That said, do you believe it will make a difference if they fall? You will still find yourselves alone. I'm quite confident I could deal even with the nine of you."
As if to prove the point, Watts ignored Roman's cry for help and rushed in towards me. Panicked, I managed to bring my sword up in time, but Watts swept down with all his strength. The blade crashed into mind and slammed it down into the sand. He stepped forward, caught me in the chest with his shoulder, and then backhanded me. I fell hard, stunned, and was only just able to roll away from the sword that would have cleaved me in two.
I had no hope of dodging his follow-up kick, however. It caught me in the ribs and lifted me up of the floor, sending me rolling back with all the wind driven from me. Through eyes that wanted to close in agony, I saw Watts turn and charge into the melee against Roman. I tried to shout a warning but couldn't. Luckily, Ruby saw him.
"Incoming! Split!"
They were all gone before Watts could close the distance, and since Roman was badly wounded and bleeding profusely, the Paladin had to stop by him to offer healing. As that happened, Blake, Ruby, Pyrrha and Ren – the fastest of the group – charged straight into the melee against Neo, whose eyes went wide as she found herself utterly overwhelmed. Soon, she was limping away with a knife in one leg, a wound on her shoulder and blood pooling from a split lip. It was only the frantic illusions she cast all about her that kept her safe.
"Neo!" Roman yelled. "Damn it!"
"They are trying to separate us," Watts snarled, catching Roman's shoulder before the Thief could charge in. "Do not rush in alone or you'll just repeat the process."
I couldn't help but grin at the frustration in the Paladin's voice. We couldn't fight him, at least not fairly and without someone like Qrow or Cinder to back us up, but that was the beauty of the plan I'd come up with, that we didn't have to. A chain was only as strong as its weakest link, and right now Watts had two. To make matters worse, he had to keep them alive. Why else would he have demanded they come to Vacuo if he didn't need them in one way or another? He couldn't abandon them to fight us, because even if it only took him a minute to kill me, that same time would mean the death of Roman or Neo.
Watts knew that. He knew it as he trudged towards the fight with Neo, gripping Roman's shoulder the whole time, preventing him from being pulled aside.
"Weiss!" Blake shouted. "Cut them apart."
The Mage nodded and sprinted a short distance away from Neo to give herself room. Nora guarded her, just in case Neo tried to interrupt. Weiss weaved her hands in an intricate pattern and thrust her rapier in the air towards Watts and Roman. Icy dust flickered forward like glistening motes of air, coalescing into a localised blizzard that buffeted them. It was but the first step, as she touched one hand to the hot sand and her eyes flashed a pale blue. A line of ice traced its way through to them, growing far thicker and faster the moment it reached the blizzard. It traced between the two, and although Watts noticed and tried to grab Roman, he was forced to let go as a solid sheet of ice sprung up between them, sharp enough to cut skin and bone.
The Paladin growled and swept his sword up to smash it to pieces – but even the scant seconds it took him to do that led to a Roman bleeding from a wound on his shoulder, Ruby and Blake standing a little further aside with grim smiles on their faces. With Watts now in range again, they backed away.
"Enough of this," Watts growled. He healed Roman and hauled him towards Neo. "Try to stay alive for a few seconds. I won't be held responsible for you managing to get yourself killed in a fight with a bunch of children."
Watts charged into the melee with Neo, the combatants scattering again as Pyrrha called out a warning. They converged again on Roman, who let out a withering curse as he brought his cane up in a weak grip.
It wasn't a fair fight, not any longer. Roman buckled almost instantly, and when I managed to close the distance and lock my weapon against his, it was almost comically easy to break through and push him back. He was exhausted from all the wounds and probably low on blood, too. His clothing was tattered and slick with red. Blake drove a knife into the back of his calf and pulled it out again in one motion. Pyrrha slipped around the side and cut across his flank with her short sword. Sun thrust his iron-tipped stave into Roman's face, breaking his nose. Yang caught Roman's wrist and twisted, breaking it.
Nora shouted a warning. We backed off as Watts came back with a vengeance. Being the slowest by far, he managed to catch me, knocking my sword aside and catching my thigh as I fell back. I winced as he cut through cloth and skin with ease but managed to back away with Pyrrha catching and supporting me.
"It's a light wound," I gasped. "I'm okay."
Better than Roman and Neo were, anyway. Both were healed, or at least as much as they could be. Their skin was clear of cuts and their blood no longer flowed, but their clothing was ruined, dyed a bright red. Both sagged behind Watts, though Roman had it much worse, having been the target for much longer. By comparison, Watts was fine, and not just from his high level. He just hadn't been tested in combat, us fleeing any time he came near and the others attacking Roman or Neo so that he couldn't pursue and deal with any of us.
It was a deadly game of keep-away, but it looked to be working.
Still, we couldn't afford to take any risks. He had a healer. We didn't. Even a single good blow from Watts would take one of us out, and even if it didn't kill the person it hit, our ability to fight would be destroyed. He'd take the person hostage, or flee with Roman and Neo, leaving us to carry our wounded and never catch up.
"Back away slowly," Watts told Roman and Neo. "Stay behind me. We are leaving." He kept his eyes on us, or on Blake specifically, having accurately pegged her the biggest threat. The Assassin made no move to follow, however. None of us did. As Watts slowly built more distance between us, we let them go.
Eventually, they were far enough away that Neo could re-apply an illusion. They vanished into the sands, though the lack of any footprints approaching showed that they were on the retreat.
"Is this a good idea?" Ruby asked nervously. "Should we really just let them go?"
"Roman and Neo are wounded," Ren said. "Even if Watts can heal them, he can't take away their exhaustion, nor can he give them back the blood they have lost. Their pace will be much slower as a result."
"There's no way they can escape us with the map," Blake added. "Sometimes it's best to bleed out a dangerous enemy and wear them down. Maybe we could beat Watts as a group, but it would almost certainly lead to some of us being killed. Better to wait for Cinder to arrive." She nodded to me at that, acknowledging the plan I'd come up with.
Not a brave one by any means, but something that would hopefully give us the best chance of staying alive. In a way, it was Sun that gave me the idea with his stories of how the tribes had to give up those who became infirm or too frail. Watts, Roman and Neo were already low on food and water, hence their desire to resupply by attacking a caravan or reaching Vacuo. There was no way they could go to the Roaming City now, not with Sun having alerted people and they covered in blood. People would ask questions. We'd find them easily.
Instead, they would have to carry on, except with no supplies to speak of and two of their party on the verge of collapse. They would have to rest and recover, giving Cinder time to catch up. Or, if they decided to push on, it would be at a much slower pace.
Either way, we had the advantage now. It was just a case of pushing it.
"Sun, where would the nearest ruin to here be?" I asked.
"There's one to the south-west," the Monk replied. "It's a locked one, so they'll want to access it, and it's roughly in the direction they're going."
It was the perfect destination for them. The enclosed space would let Watts hold us off while Roman and Neo recovered, and the shelter would be needed to keep them safe from the Grimm. There was no question that they could only go there or to Vacuo. The map would tell us which.
"Blake?"
"They're going away from Vacuo," she reported.
"Then we head to that ruin. We're going to cut them off, and if they catch up, we'll do the same again and force them away." We'd bleed them out slowly, never quite engaging but dogging their path until Cinder and her group could become the hammer to our anvil.
I just hoped we could hold them off long enough.
/-/
Reaching the ruin wasn't as easy as travelling in a straight line. For one, the three of them were out there somewhere, currently invisible. If we got too close, Watts would attack and push us back, maybe even badly hurt or kill one of us. As such, we had to go around, keeping clear enough that Blake could still see them on the map, but at a distance that they wouldn't detect us and double back to Vacuo. That added to the distance significantly, since going around was a lot slower than taking the direct route.
On the other hand, we were hale and hearty, well-supplied and fresh from our time in Vacuo. The desert was still a furnace at the best of times, but we'd all had a chance to splash around in the oasis and cool our spirits, so it wasn't quite as gruelling. Roman and Neo were like to collapse at any moment, and Blake reported that Watts' group had stopped more than once.
Luckily, they never stopped for too long, or I might have feared that Watts abandoned Roman and Neo to die and went on alone. The map only traced Neo, which meant actually killing her would be a disaster unless we could deal with Watts at the same time.
"I think they're still together," Blake said, at a point where we'd overtaken them. "Their pace is slow and stuttering. I think Watts is giving them time to catch some sleep, though not much by the look of it."
"They need supplies," Sun noted. "The Thief and the Illusionist have become burdens."
And in Vacuo, burdens got left behind. Watts wouldn't understand that, however, and even if he was a bastard, he was still a human being, which meant he would hopefully feel some aversion to abandoning either of the two.
If he even could. Those two were important enough for Watts to come and rescue them in Beacon all the way back in our first year. I wasn't sure the Greycloaks could afford to drop them.
But what purpose could they serve? Roman was just a blackmailer and a money-maker in Beacon. He never did anything related to the Greycloaks, or at least that we saw. At best he was a spy, but Merlot was able to summon Salem without needing either of them.
Tyrian required the Tome to do the same, which Ozpin now had, but that still had nothing to do with Roman unless the Greycloaks wanted him to steal it back, in which case being in Vacuo was pointless. It felt like we didn't have all the clues we needed. We were missing something.
Maybe we needed to capture them to figure out what that was.
"The ruin is up ahead," Sun called from the head of the group. "It's a fairly big one above ground, but most of that is broken down and picked bare by scavengers and thieves. The real ruin is underneath."
I saw what he meant almost immediately. This was by far the biggest ruin we'd seen and was visible over several dunes ahead as a dark spire reaching up, twisted and broken at an odd angle. I couldn't tell what it had once been, but whatever it was, it must have been huge in its day. Now, it was like jagged and shattered teeth piercing up from the sand, weathered by age and covered in a light coat of dust and rock.
There were some parts of it that looked slightly more whole, or at least which had a fraction of wall and some other rock – or was it metal? – that reached up and over, providing cover. I could imagine tribes resting at it, but it was so ominous that I wouldn't have wanted to stay for long.
"Is this the biggest one in the desert?" I asked Sun as we approached.
"One of, yeah. There are a few that are larger now, but this one is wider at the base. Makes me think it would have been one of the biggest back when it was still a complete structure."
But the bigger they are, the harder they fall. Ravaged by quakes, sandstorms and other natural disasters, and lacking anyone to maintain it, the entire thing must have come crumbling down at some point. I wondered if Sun or his tribe might know what it once was but figured he would have told us if he did.
"How are Roman and the others doing, Blake?"
"Still on their way – several hours out, but definitely heading here. Cinder is maybe a day behind them still, probably a little less. Sixteen hours or so? It depends on whether they stop to rest or not."
Sixteen hours. It sounded like so long, but assuming Watts would have to camp for the night to recover, it might not be. If they took eight or ten hours for that, and Cinder chose to push on – likely, since she'd be able to see we'd engaged the enemy on her map – then they would catch up sometime early tomorrow morning.
The trick would be keeping Watts here.
"Yang, Nora, come help me with the cart. We're going to take almost all the food and water off and hide it somewhere we can camp. Sun, do you know a spot?"
"I know one. It's well-hidden, and the whole cart could fit in there if you wanted it to. There's no need to dump it."
"Yes, but then what will they drink?"
My words confused them, I could tell, but Ren's eyes slowly widened as he thought it through. "You want to give them reason to set up camp," he said, surprised, and if I dared admit it, maybe even a little impressed. No one else seemed to understand.
"Mind explaining it to us idiots?" Yang drawled.
"It's rather simple when you think of it," Ren said, taking the lead. "If Watts, Roman and Neo come here and are without supplies, then they will be forced to move on in search of victims. They might even dump their dead weight, which would be bad for us as we need Roman alive and well to give evidence as to the Greycloaks starting the war."
"Ah," Pyrrha caught on and nodded. "So, we're going to fake a ruined caravan and leave some supplies behind, which they will find. Enough for them to feel safe enough to set up camp for the night and recover their strength."
"Do we attack in the night?" Ruby asked.
"Bad idea," Blake answered. "They can't know that we've followed them so perfectly, but they might suspect we have a way of tracking them by now. With Roman and Neo so tired, they won't be able to stand watch tonight, which means it will be Watts the whole time."
"And fighting him would be pointless," Yang said, "But if he has to waste his time standing watch, he'll be fatigued come the morning. They'll either have to camp even longer, giving Cinder time to catch up, or carry on with Watts not at his best." The Brawled laughed. "I like it. Meanwhile, we can all regain our strength and prepare for the big battle."
That was pretty much my idea, and again one I'd picked up from Sun's stories of Vacuo. Tribes came to these ruins to rest and recover, and Grimm were aplenty. People died. That was just a fact of life out here. It was convenient for them to come across a wrecked caravan, but not outside the realm of possibility.
"We'll have to make it look a little different to the one we rode in," Weiss said.
"Shouldn't be too hard," Yang quipped. "Just break the axle, stack the supplies a little different and bury it in sand a bit. We can let the animal go. Grimm will ignore it and it should find its way back to an oasis on its own."
"I suppose not. I can help char the wood a little to age it," Weiss offered. "With any luck, they'll believe the survivors tried to fight the Grimm off with fire but perished."
The plan caught on quickly, and while Yang, Nora and I saw to moving the supplies over to the hidden spot Sun pointed us towards – another underground room, like the last. These, he told us, were common in all the ruins, if you knew where to look – while meanwhile, the rest saw to pulling the wagon over to the edge of the ruins itself and finding a spot to put it. I trusted they'd find somewhere in line of sight of Roman and his party when they arrived, but not so obvious that it would be suspicious.
Once we'd finished stacking the supplies, having left enough for Watts and Roman to last a few nights - we didn't want to make it too obvious that these were left for them – I approached Sun and asked, "Can you show me the sealed door they're looking for?"
The Monk seemed surprised. "Now?"
"We've got time."
"I guess. Alright, sure." Sun looked to Yang and Nora to see if they were interested, but neither cared for history and they'd already sat down to drink and cool off. Sun led me away from them and past the others, who were arguing about just how old, decrepit or damaged they wanted the cart to look. Ruby was busy talking to and stroking the beast of burden, whispering it well wishes. I had a feeling it would be fine, but if it made her feel better I wasn't going to comment.
Eventually, Sun led us to what seemed to be a conical-shaped structure half-buried under the sand, obviously leading downward. It reminded me of the Dungeon we'd found in Vale. Very much so, in fact. It seemed of an almost identical construction. I said as much to Sun.
"Well, these do count as Dungeons, too, so it's possible. Thing is, the ones in Vacuo don't move. Not sure why, but maybe it's just because no one has cleared them, or maybe they don't if the Grimm take over what was once human construction. It's not like we have much evidence to go on either way."
"So, this would have treasure in it?"
Sun snorted. "It's why we have to be so careful of looters and thieves."
"We're not after that," I said, feeling a little embarrassed.
"Your friends already told me you need something to bring back. I don't really mind," he assured me before I could formulate an excuse. "We act offended about it so that people won't dig deeper into what we're protecting. Obviously, it's not treasure or loot we're really worried about people finding down there."
"It's information on Salem," I finished for him. Sun nodded. There was no telling what information might be found, but even if it wasn't a means to summon her, even the concept of her would be enough to inspire some to try and dig deeper. People like Merlot, who had apparently found his own way to summon her, or at least been willing to try mass sacrifice.
And come to think of it, perhaps Merlot really was just trying it out. The initial sacrifices hadn't worked, and it was only the murder of the woman that loved him that truly summoned Salem. If he'd known about that beforehand, he wouldn't have needed all those captives.
His summoning of Salem was an experiment. It was the Greycloaks' first experiment.
Were they trying to slowly understand Salem, perhaps with a view to figuring out the best way to phrase or make a wish without her twisting it to their doom? It made sense. Merlot and Tyrian were just the first sacrifices in the search for that knowledge, and the Greycloaks could continue to throw away those they didn't care about, letting each make a wish and be punished for it, but slowly gaining more and more evidence on what did and didn't work.
"It would be better if no one ever knew she existed," I whispered.
"That's the ultimate goal of the Del'Ashari," Sun said. "We want to erase her, not just from this world, but from history entirely. She can only exist here so long as people wish her to. Anyway, I'm heading back to get some food. Just standing here looking at our failure kind of annoys me."
I didn't stop him. The door was an ominous thing of solid rock. On a whim, I stepped forward to push against it. To my relief, it refused to budge. I tried again, putting all my strength into it. If it was just a case of levels or Stats, then Watts might have enough, but I couldn't even feel the door begin to budge under me. Something told me this wasn't something that force would break through. It required a key. Sacrifice, if Sun was to be believed.
Idly, I inspected the pattern on the door, formed from raised rock chiselled into place, yet smooth in a way no normal craftsmen could hope to manage. It was a complicated shape, a circle with three spokes on the left, top and right, like a compass. The bottom was split open, however, with five dashes leading down and outward. In the centre of the compass was an odd oval shape, or, if I considered it as being sideways, an eye. It was inhuman.
It was also repeated on the amulet I wore. I swallowed my fear and brought it forth, holding it in the palm of my hand as I looked up and down. Apart from there being a red gem in the centre as opposed to the eye, it was all but identical. There was no mistaking it.
A part of me imagined pressing it to the door, imagined it opening…
I put the amulet away and refused to test that.
But if this mark existed on the ruins of what had once been the Ashari empire, then why was it on an amulet found by a simple Blacksmith in rural Vale? I hadn't forgotten Salem's interest in it, or her words to me in Mistral.
"You have seen me for the last two times, and this saw me the time before."
"This belonged to someone else, I do believe. A man once summoned me, and he wore that same amulet."
"It is yours now, I suppose. Treasure it. He certainly did."
Stepping away from the door that seemed to beckon to me, I shook my head. Had this amulet belonged to the first King of the Ashari? Was that who Salem referred to? The last person before Merlot to summon her properly?
If so, what did it mean…?
Dum, dum, dum. The above quote from Salem was back in Book Four, though it was spread out over several lines and with Jaune adding in his own things every now and then. If you really want to check it, it was in chapter 59, down near the bottom.
It's also something of an amusing coincidence that both Jaune the Blacksmith is at a mysterious door to a ruin baring this symbol, and Jaune Ashari in Relic is at an almost identical door with the symbol. Yeah, I didn't plan for those to happen in the same week. They just kind of did.
Next Chapter: 30th July
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