"Weiss thinking."

"Salem thinking."

Weiss walked into her dorm room to see it mostly empty of her roommates. Ruby and Yang seemed to be gone but luckily Blake was sitting on her top bunk, reading a book. Weiss approached her.

"You know, I've always liked the idea of bunk beds. I always wanted one despite being an only child."

Weiss wasn't sure how to respond to that random bit of information. "They're... Fun, I suppose." She responded to Salem then looked up at Blake.

"Blake, where's Ruby and Yang?" She asked to initiate a conversation.

Without looking away from her book, Blake responded. "They went to JNPR's room to play some games." She flipped the page. "They were wondering where you went off to earlier."

"Is she the bookworm you mentioned."

"Yes. Hopefully she'll at least give us a starting point."

"I was just taking a walk." Weiss said. "Anyway, I was wondering if you had any Fairy Tale books I might barrow."

Blake looked down from her bunk now. "I didn't take you as someone who enjoys fiction, much less fairy tales."

"Well I've gained a sudden interest. Now do you have any or not?" She responded curtly.

"Easy child, we don't want to scare her off."

Weiss ignored Salem.

Blake turned her body and hopped off the top bunk, landing on the ground. "I have a few." She knelt down under Yang and hers bunk, pulling out a wide bin. When she opened it, there were books neatly stacked in a few rows.

"You've got more literature than I thought..." Weiss said.

"I like to keep myself busy." Blake responded as she looked through the books. As she stood up she handed Weiss a short stack of four. "Here. These are all the books I own based of fairy tales. Make sure you don't lose any of them."

Weiss nodded and walked over to her own bunk where she sat down and began to look through them. Meanwhile Blake jumped back onto her bunk and started to read once more.

"Not many here."

"We don't need 'many', just one... I hope. Now let's see..."

Weiss began to go through the books, the first one titled 'The Warrior in the Woods'.

"You think...?"

"No, I remember some details from this. It's essentially a story designed to scare children to not be alone in the wilds. However there's a lot of missing details in the modern day versions."

Weiss nodded and placed in on her bed, looking at the next one. It was titled 'The Grimm Child'.

"Oh, I know this one. It's about a ghost-like Grimm that takes over bodies, right? It killed its victims and possessed their corpses. There's a lot of media based on it."

"Ah, that was an amusing night. I first made that Grimm and sent it into a village to give it a test run close to 1,000 years ago. It went rather well considering it was my first attempt at creating a new Grimm. They're now labeled as 'Geist' Grimm by the world. Fun fact, the boy at the end does actually survive. He's actually the reason the Fairy Tale exists today."

Weiss didn't quite know how to feel about all that. Dealing with Salem as an uninvited guest was one thing, but whenever the 'Grimm' part of her was front and center it always made her feel awkward.

"... Right, onto the next one then." Weiss said to Salem and put that book aside to look at the next. It was titled 'The Infinite Man'.

Weiss' eyes examined it carefully. "This one feels right..."

"Perhaps. Who's the author?"

Weiss flipped the to the first page. "It says it was written by someone named Arthur Lang."

"That's not Ozma. He always tends to put 'Oz' in all his names."

Weiss looked dismayed for a moment but then noticed a note lower on the page. "Hang on, it says here that it was based of a direct recording of a journal by 'Oztis Riverback'.

"Now that is certainly Ozma. Keep this one."

Weiss nodded and placed it on the opposite side of her from the others.

"All that's left is this one called... 'The Man with two Souls' … This one feels right as well."

"The author?"

Weiss flipped to the first page.

"Ursula Berpdioloo? What kind of name is that?"

"One who isn't Ozma."

"There's no note saying it's origins, but it's saying it's based on a true story which is weird."

"May as well keep it just in case."

Weiss nodded and put it with the other one. Then took the two she didn't want and stood up, placing them on Blake's bed.

"Here, I don't want these two." Weiss said and turned to sit back down on her own mattress.

Blake took the two books back and looked at them.

"'The Man with two Souls' and 'The Infinite Man', huh? Despite being from different times, people theorize they're linked."

Weiss' eyes widened and turned back to Blake. "Really? Are they?"

Blake shrugged. "Who knows. Well, it's all a fairy tale. But there's fun fan-speculation that Ursula read 'The Infinite Man' and tried to make a more internal conflict story for him with 'The Man with two Souls'."

Weiss brought her hand to her mouth in a thinking gesture. "I see..."

"Well, enjoy. They're good books. I like 'The Man with two Souls' more though."

"The authors, do you know where they are?" Weiss asked.

"Subtle." Salem said sarcastically.

"We're- or I'm on a clock here."

She was given a strange look from Blake. "... Well, I know the author of 'The Infinite Man' has passed away. Though Ursula Berpdioloo lives here in Vale. She does public signings sometimes."

Not perfect, but Weiss could work with that. "Is she popular?"

"Not especially." Blake answered. "But uhm... Why are you interested in the authors so much?"

"I'm just curious."

Weiss stayed up through the night reading these books. Eventually Ruby and Yang came back from JNPR's dorm and things were loud for a while. Ruby was annoying, trying to get her attention but Weiss ignored her and continued reading. They weren't very long books and she considered herself a fast reader.

It was around 6 am when she finished both of them.

She let out a yawn and rubbed her eyes.

"I'm surprised you're able to stay awake."

"Sleep can wait. Besides, this isn't the first time I've stayed up all night to study."

There were things that had to be done after all.

"So what did you think of the books?"

"'The Man with two Souls' has potential. It portrayed a man being tortured by having another voice in his head. It was similar to multiple-personality disorder."

"So do you think you're crazy?"

Weiss looked down and thought for a moment.

"... No. There were too many similarities between our situation and the protagonist... Or rather protagonists in the book."

"Well I agree. Though I suppose that doesn't mean much if I was a figment of your mind." Salem chuckled a bit. "And what about 'The Infinite Man'?"

Weiss grabbed that book at looked at it's cover. "This story... At first I thought it to be a cautionary tale about putting all your chips in one basket. But if I think about my situation with you it becomes much different."

"Oh?"

"It's more like an autobiography turned into a story... He seemed... Almost like he was mourning." She sighed internally and an angry expression crossed her face.

"Were you the one who killed him in this book?"

There was silence for a brief moment.

"Not directly. I did hire the one who challenged him to do so. To be honest I didn't expect him to die the second time, but it was a pleasant surprise at the time."

Weiss frowned. A bubbling anger rose from her stomach.

"You...!"

"Careful. It's late and we don't want any attention drawn to ourselves."

Weiss pushed the unpleasant feelings down and gripped her blanket angrily.

"Why would you do that though? He was helping people!"

"Because, girl. He was in my way. He had an entire civilization created which stopped me time and time again from making any progress. It had to go."

Weiss let out a low growl, thinking about all the people who died and suffered because of Salem.

"I keep telling you my name is Weiss! Once I get you out of my head, I'm throwing you in the darkest hole there is!"

Weiss stood up and walked to the door.

"Where are we going?"

Salem seemed un-phased by Weiss' outburst.

"To look for the author to 'The Man with two Souls'. It's early, but the SDC's Vale chain bank opens up at 7 am. By the time we get there it should be open."

"What's at the bank?"

"The SDC sells more than just dust. Merchandise of all kinds are sold through second parties. They also keep a record of all their sales. It shouldn't be too difficult to find someone named 'Ursula Berpdioloo' if they've bought even one item commissioned by the SDC."

"Sounds like a good start. But out of curiosity, is this legal? I'm not very fluent in modern day law."

"Of course. Though that doesn't mean it should be."

I made up a few things here and there to keep some kind of plot going, but I think it works out well enough.