Glynda III
Glynda eyed the four people standing before her.
Summer Rose was shifting nervously on her feet, glancing around the Student Council room every so often. Qrow and Taiyang on the other hand, were very relaxed, bearing such languid expressions that Glynda feared they had not absorbed the significance of what she had told them. But most curiously, Raven seemed to be the most willing out of all of them.
And strangely, the Mistralian girl was quite protective of Summer, even if she didn't show it. Glynda did not think her teammates knew, but she herself could recognise the body language - Raven always made sure the girl was not standing directly in front of Glynda, even if Summer was the team leader. It was odd, but Glynda wasn't one to comment - it wasn't her problem.
She already had enough of those.
"Alright, all of you get out. I'll see you next week."
As expected, Raven subtly urged Summer around so that she would be behind the team leader, before gently pushing her out of the room. As the door closed, Sangrie commented;
"I don't think they're gonna pass."
Glynda groaned, "Then I have my work cut out for me."
Her Vice-President was a strange one. Sangrie had colourful dyed hair and accessorised uniforms - which wasn't not allowed, per se, Beacon did promote individualism - and she was the kind of person to never study for any exams and yet get the best grades for them. From her time in the Student Council, Sangrie had always slacked off and took a back seat while the rest did her jobs for her. Very smart, and extremely popular - no wonder she got elected.
It infuriated Glynda to no end.
Well, at least she seemed to be taking more responsibility now that she was Vice-President.
"Eh, boss lady," Sangrie called from her desk, "I'ma bounce now, I'll see ya next week?"
Glynda mentally retracted that statement.
"...Have you finished your-?"
"Eh, I'll come in tomorrow, yeah?"
Glynda sighed, before throwing her the spare key to the room. Sangrie caught it with a hand as she shrugged on her backpack, and left with a wave. As the door swung shut behind her, Glynda found herself left alone in the room.
Frowning, she set to work - first things first, check all the clubs budgets. First semester is always the worst, because every club will request a higher budget, citing new members and equipment. Next, all the student requests and letters - and worst of them all, the disciplinary committee's reports. Bunch of robots overreact on every single thing that is a quote-on-quote breach of conduct - for God's sake Vale isn't Atlas. Glynda wished she could throw them in the trash, but every now and then there was something actually worth looking at - like Raven Branwen shoving a sophomore's head down the toilet - which forced her to sift through them all.
By the time she was done, the sky was already dark. Well, it was not uncommon - Glynda had a terrible habit of leaving everything to Friday and ploughing through everything then. It allows her to do everything at once, she reasoned, even if she has to stay back late.
Glynda stood up, cracking her bones to lighten her limbs. As she closed all the windows, she noticed that it was going to be a moonless night, for the clouds had blanketed the sky. Inwardly, she hoped it wasn't going to rain.
"It appears this night ought to be a quiet one," a voice murmured from behind her.
Glynda froze, instinctively activating her aura. Slowly turning around, she found the doll - which she had honestly forgotten about - staring out the windows. And automata, perhaps? Or were they called androids these days?
She faintly recalled a massive scandal from a few weeks ago about some Atlesian military documents being leaked. Among them were a draft of a military android concept, which sparked massive discussion on the forums about whether these androids were going to replace Huntsmen. Was this doll maybe a prototype? Unlikely, but the Headmaster was known for stranger things. Then again, perhaps that was simply her own recency bias.
"I hope so," Glynda flattened her expression, giving nothing away, "It would be terrible if it rained. I have to go over the campus grounds to reach my dorms."
"I do not think it will," the android said, "So you shan't need worry. This night was always known to be clear."
"I… see," she replied, wondering whether the android had the software to check the weather forecast, "That's good. I wish to get to know you better, but it is getting quite late. Perhaps next week? Or tomorrow, my friend is coming over, and I'm sure I can make it too."
"There is no need to be hasty," the android giggled, "I will be here for the foreseeable future. Ah… but perhaps you would wait a while? At least until the ball is over."
Glynda paused, was there a glitch in her software? What ball? Beacon Academy was a school, there weren't any balls here. Did she still think she was in Atlas? Maybe, such a breakthrough in advanced artificial intelligence would certainly warrant a ball. Wait, did the Headmaster steal Atlesian military technology?
"I think… I think I'll head out first," Glynda reached for the door, smiling at the android, "I'll visit tomorrow, tell me if you need anything then."
"Of course," the android bowed her head, "Good hunting, Lady Goodwitch."
Glynda pulled open the door - and was greeted by a thick white fog. She frowned, did the air filtration system fail, or something? Or did some fool leave a window open? Beacon was at the top of a mountain, albeit a small one, and it was a cloudy night. Thinking nothing much of it, she strode through the fog and emerged into a dark hallway - so the janitor already turned off the lights - where there wasn't a single speck of cloudiness.
What?
Glynda swivelled around, and found no fog at all. She could see the closed doors of the Student Council room just as well, even if they looked just a little off - like the wood was a little faded. Maybe she was just seeing things - it had been a long day, after all, and Glynda was tired to the bone.
Ah… she also had to bring up the android to the Headmaster as well! Bloody hell, Glynda shook her head, she'll have to remember that for later. Hopefully they weren't in too much trouble with Atlas… or something.
Glynda released an exhausted sigh as she shouldered her backpack, and began making her way down the hallway. Thanks to her footsteps thudding flatly against the carpeted floor, she could hear the muffled laughter and conversations of students remaining on the campus - she'll have to investigate that later - and the cawing of birds outside. Craning her neck and feeling some bones pop, the paintings on the wall caught her attention, the noble figures depicted on canvases seemingly staring down at her.
Wait - Glynda froze - carpeted floor? She glanced down, and found herself standing on a long red carpet that was rolled down the entire length of the hallway. Beneath the carpet were dark, hardwood floors, lacquered and polished.
Beacon Academy had tiled floors, with dust-lights embedded in them.
Glynda took a step back, mind waking up as she tried to orient herself. The walls were brick - even though Beacon Academy had modernised its look by plastering over them long ago - and dust-lights were replaced with hanging sconces with golden arms. She slowly turned around, and began speedwalking back to the council room.
She began to notice things she had not seen before - the windows were old and grilled with wrought iron, and there were strange armour stands flanking every doorway. The paintings hanging on the wall were painted in the Old Sanian style, dating back from the High Valean Kingdom period - and oh did she have to wrack her brain to recall her history lessons for that.
Every doorway was tall and arched, with heavy oaken doors that exuded strength and nobility - unlike the fire-rated wooden doors used in Beacon. And the ceilings - they were so high, and arched with stone supports and timber rafters, whereas Beacon had flat ceilings. Was she even in Beacon anymore?
It was impossible not to be, Glynda forced herself to think rationally, she was just in the council room not a few minutes ago. And while everything seemed different, the layout was completely the same. She was familiar enough with this very corridor to recognise it.
Glynda reached the Student Council room and barged through - and froze just as she stepped through the threshold.
This was not the Student Council room.
Because there was a massive bed in the centre, with a bloody canopy of all things. And were those velvet curtains!?
She glanced around - her eyes adjusting to the darkness - and she could not find the android that she swore was just here when she left. Did she get the wrong room? Impossible, Glynda knew all of Beacon Academy like it was on the back of her hand; she could blindfolded in the gymnasium and still be able to reach the council room.
A long groan caught her attention - and to her astonishment Glynda saw a figure on the bed move. No, there were two figures on the bed, buried under the comforters.
Glynda's face reddened.
"Who's there!?" a rough, growling voice called.
Glynda slowly backed away, "Uh, very sorry… I'll leave you now-!"
She tried to close the door, but the person leapt out of the bed and dashed at her at incredible speeds. Glynda slammed the door shut just in time for something to pound at it from the other side. The handle rattled violently as Glynda held the door in place with all her strength, her pounding in her ears. Then, after a minute the rattling stopped.
Glynda tried to take a breath, but nearly choked on it when a fist punched through the heavy oak and grabbed her face. Sharpened nails scratched at her aura as the claw grasped her head and slammed it into the door - and Glynda's vision shook and blurred. One, twice, three times she was smashed against the door before the hand shoved her away and Glynda tumbled to the ground, nursing her concussion.
Click, and the door creaked open. Glynda struggled to her feet, seeing the world swirl and mire around her. Still, she raised her aura just in time to feel herself lifted into the air and thrown down the hallway.
"Kghak!" she crashed into the ground, the carpet burning her exposed skin, "A-Are you trying to kill me!?"
She could hear a snarl, and then a presence leaping onto her. Glynda hastily scurried away, backtracking just as she could hear the wooden floor snap and splinter where she just was. Glynda screamed when her teeth shattered her naturally weak aura and clamped down on her shoulder, knife-like claws tearing ribbons of her chest and back as the creature grabbed.
She couldn't take anymore of this.
Still half-blind from the concussion, Glynda allowed her Huntsman instincts take over. Immediately she marshalled her Semblance and thought of the most dangerous thing in the hallway she could take control of - the wrought iron bars that gridded the windows.
Metal screeched and screamed as raised a hand she tore the windows free, showing glass shards upon them. Glynda ripped up the window grills into long snakes of iron and with a grunt, forced them deep into the creature trying to eat her - and was rewarded by a howl of pain. Glynda swiftly kicked the creature away and scrambled to her feet - and she wasted no time bolting down the hallway, ripping the window grills from their sills as she went.
Once she could feel the presence of hundreds of iron bars surrounding her, she carefully opened her eyes and reoriented herself until the blurriness subsided. Suddenly, her ears picked up the sound of bounding footsteps, and Glynda immediately brought all the metal bars behind her and smashed them together to create a shield.
BANG!
She turned on her heel and thrusted her arms out - folding the metal bars inwards until it completely swallowed the thing that tried to kill her, encasing it in a coffin of wrought iron.
Only for the second creature to leap over its partner and slash at her with a fur-covered arm. Glynda backtracked rapidly, eyes darting as she tried to find something - anything - she could take control of.
The glass shards crunched under her feet.
Not a moment later, the hideous creature was blasted off its feet as a torrent of glass shards slammed into its gut. Glynda couldn't hold it for long, because such a multitude of tiny objects was much harder to control than a few large objects. So instead, she unwrapped the first monster and shoved it backwards using the sheet of metal until its partner slammed into the sheet too - before wrapping them both up.
Glynda pondered letting both suffocate to death, but she decided it would be preferable to know what she was up against. Wrought iron shrieked as it was unnaturally warped into a twisted rope that bound the two creatures together back to back, their limbs painfully pinned to their torsos.
"Faunus?" she breathed heavily, "Wha- what the hell are you?"
No… they were more animal than man, with elongated snouts filled with sharpened teeth. Their ears were wolflike, their arms fur-covered and tipped with claws. They gnashed their jaws and snapped at her violently, spittle and slobber leaking from their disgusting mouths.
There were so-called fera-faunus, she thought. Glynda had seen pictures of them while wiki-surfing. It was a birth defect where a faunus was born more animal than man, whether physically or mentally - or most of the time, both. Their existence in the mediaeval times spawned a number of folktales and horror stories still told today, though the truth behind them was now known thanks to medical breakthroughs.
"What am I in?" Glynda half-laughed, "Some shitty horror flick?"
She heard slow clapping behind her. Glynda snapped around to see a beautiful woman with long golden locks that tumbled wildly down her back like a mane. Her antiquated rosewood coloured riding dress ruffled in phantom wind, open in the front so that her silken thighs could be seen in high socks. The fluffy carmine petticoat under her skirt came up to the tight corset around her waist that tightly hugged her perfect curves.
The woman was beautiful, the most beautiful Glynda had ever seen - or that was so she imagined, for the woman was marred with soot and ash. Her heart-shaped face covered in patches of soot, particularly around her right cheek, and her golden locks plagued with split ends and singed, blackened tips.
Most strikingly, was the massive rifle in her hands. It was of an old design, with a bronze revolving chamber beautifully gilded with depictions of vines, and a gold-trimmed barrel and grip. Glynda did not know any more of it, but she was sure it was called something like a blunderbuss… or was it flintlock? Ah… if only Sangrie was here, she would definitely recognise the type of gun just at the sight.
"Uh," Glynda started, "Who are you?"
"Hmm?" the lady grinned, "I'm invited for the ball, just like you. Good hunting though, how you rebounded from the surprise was incredible."
"You were watching the entire time?" Glynda asked, aghast, "And you didn't help?"
"Well, it's rude to steal a kill, right?" she tilted her head, "Oh, well you seem to haven't finished the job. Let me help you."
The woman raised her rifle, and Glynda flinched out of the way.
BANG
The heads of the two monsters disappeared in fine mist, brain matter splattering across the walls and floor. Then, the two headless corpses slumped in their iron binds.
"Wait, you just said-"
"My apologies, I'm not known for my politeness."
"What the hell-"
"I'll see you at the ball!" the madwoman cheered as she turned around, "Our prey is all gathered there! Oh, and careful about the guards… they are quite protective of the guests!"
"Hey, you didn't explain-!" Glynda cried, but the woman had already been swallowed by the gloom.
Just as she was pondering what to do now, Glynda realised her uniform was in all tatters. She glanced at the suit and dress the two fera-faunus were wearing, but wrinkled her nose in disgust at the mere thought of wearing anything that had been on animals.
But before she could land on anything, the ringing of swords being drawn from their sheathes echoed down the hallway. Suddenly, the suits of armour clanked off their pedestals and brandished their swords and spears at her. Or were they just suits of armour? What if they were all actual knights? It wasn't as if she could see through their armour, and right now she wouldn't discount anything in the madhouse she was trapped in.
Glynda prodded the suits with her Semblance, and realised they didn't have aura. She breathed a sigh of relief - her Semblance couldn't interact with anything with an aura, which was just about most living beings. And that meant these suits of armour were just that - empty suits of armour. Maybe they were automatons like the Atlesian Knights, or maybe they were animated by a possession Semblance. Glynda did not know.
But she did know they were powerless before her.
With a wave of her hand, the suits of armour were lifted off the ground one by one - and then they flew through the air and crashed into one another. Like tin cans, they were crushed together, steel groaning and crackling as they were crumpled into a ball. And everytime a new suit of armour entered her range, it was picked up like a toy and added to the growing mass of steel floating in the middle of the hallway.
Gritting her teeth, Glynda strained her Semblance as she clenched her fists together - mirrored by the steel ball buckling under the strain of her arms of aura, until it snapped and and collapsed on itself.
Letting out a breath, Glynda released her new creation, and the solid ball of ruined metal slammed onto the ground - nearly punching a hole straight through the floor.
Eyeing the abandoned weapons left on the ground, she took control of them and lifted the blades up to her body - snapping the shafts of multiple spears to make them more manageable in the process. After taking a few experimental swings, she nodded to herself in satisfaction and started her hunt for answers.
Both the madwoman and the android spoke of a ball in this castle, and Glynda wanted to get to the bottom of it.
Cinder-Soiled Girl
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Author's Note:
Eat your heart out Penny Polendina. By the way, I am now working on my first original project! I consider it my best work, so if you enjoy my writing please check it out on RoyalRoad! It's title is Precipice: At the Edge of History by mirrth; at royal road dot com /fiction/59075
Thank you very much for your support!