The boy lived.
Weiss slumped in her chair, gingerly sipping hot broth from a wooden spoon. A steady drum of conversation hung in the air of the White Hare, the village's tavern. Aromas of a vegetable stew and fresh bread, despite being a tad too unrefined for her tastes, was a very welcome smell. She wished she could enjoy it better.
Across the table Ruby sat, head low, wrapped in Weiss' dark cloak, an untouched bowl of stew and a hunk of grain bread beside. Those eyes didn't move from the still broth in the bowl, and Weiss suspected the reaction was shock. There was something rigid about how the woman walked, about the vacant expression that seemed permanently sealed on her face. The huntress couldn't bring herself to relax, though, and one hand never strayed too far from Myrtenaster's hilt.
The tavern door opened, letting in a gust of cool wind that made Weiss cringe, before it slammed closed with enough force to make dust fall down from the rafters above their table. Ruby didn't even look up. With genuine effort, Weiss looked over her shoulder and felt a pang of guilt, a feeling that was becoming more and more familiar. The village head, a greying man who's best years were recently behind him, turned a heavy gaze on her. He was large, a little round, and his eyes were shrouded in heavyset brows. His expression broke into a relieved smile when he saw them both, though.
Weiss turned back to pretending to watch her stew, but her eyes were trained on Ruby. Her fingers brushed the pommel of her rapier. If she so much as moved her eyes too fast… Weiss was thinking grimly, but the woman really didn't move, the steam from the stew making her face glisten. Weiss swallowed and looked over her shoulder again as the village head dropped a wooden stool next to the table and sat on it. A brown cloth pouch jingled as he set it down on the table.
"Happy to see yer alive, girl. Rest easy knowin' yer meals and room is paid for." Weiss couldn't bring herself to accept his thanks, so she nodded her head numbly. She felt a hand pat her shoulder. Ruby didn't say anything, or do anything at all. Nothing. Like a corpse. "What, ah.. Er, is the uhm, missy alright?" He asked, giving Ruby a quizzical look.
Weiss' mouth was like dry straw as she spoke. "She was being kept in its lair. I'm bringing her with me to Beacon City and getting her some help." Weiss' voice sounded flat and dull to her own ears. She wanted to vomit. Ruby looked up at her words, and somehow when Weiss met the other woman's eyes, she thought Ruby could tell.
The man just nodded, looking at Ruby with pity such that it was as if he was seeing his own child. "Old man had that look to him. He fought in the army and the things he'd done and seen, well, those kinds of things give people that kind of look." He shook his head sadly. "Or so I've heard. I'll say a few words of the Poet tonight."
Weiss mumbled a thanks. Ruby was staring at him now, finally noticing him. "I'm alright, sir. Thank you, for the hospitality and the words."
Hearing her speak gave Weiss a start. When Ruby smiled at the man, it was a genuine warmth. Weiss' entire forehead rose with her eyebrows, though it wasn't a look of mistrust, as some would think, but rather genuine surprise she struggled to contain. The man reached out and comfortingly gripped Ruby's arm.
Weiss stood up quickly, knocking the chair away. The two of them looked up at her in surprise. Weiss fumbled for an explanation. "I'm sorry for my rudeness, I… I thought I saw someone in the tavern whom I knew, but I'm sure I was wrong." Weiss bowed her head in apology, hands clasped in front of her legs. "I'm very sorry."
The village man chuckled awkwardly, shrugging. "Well, I imagine you're tired and want nothing more than to rest those tired bones of yer's. I apologize that there isn't any warm bath water. We've been afraid of the woods e'er since what happened and wood is a commodity. It'll stay that way for a few days until trackers can confirm what you hunted isn't leaving trails no more." He stood up from the stool, nodding at the two of them, as if he didn't just voice doubts about Weiss doing her job. "I'll be getting on, then. Please, take a day of rest tomorrow as well. Rooms and food on me again."
"You're far too kind." Weiss told him, knowing in the same moment she wasn't going to be bathing tonight. The idea of having her flesh bare before Ruby… It made her shiver as images of sharp fangs and long nails tearing her skin flashed in her mind's eye.
Ruby said nothing more, standing as if she already knew Weiss' intentions. The village head looked between them both, eyes lingering momentarily on Ruby, no doubt wondering about the cloak that hid her torso and the untouched food. "Light cherish you." He said finally. Weiss repeated it back to him, as did Ruby in her quiet voice. He left them standing, pulling aside a barmaid to tell her something. She looked over at Weiss and Ruby a few times with a studious gaze that made Weiss uncomfortable at being noticed too much. Any other time it wouldn't bother her, but she was waiting for someone to peer too closely at Ruby.
Then the barmaid nodded vigorously and briskly walked off to another table, no doubt eager to continue serving lest she get scolded. The village head left through the tavern door, letting in another gust of wind that made some people around the middle of the room murmur annoyances at whoever had opened it.
No longer interested in food, Weiss wanted to retire already. "We'll go to our room, then." Ruby stood from her seat without a word, and Weiss waited for Ruby to pass in front of her, the woman careful as she took her steps to not trip up on the rope tied between her ankles. It was hard enough to walk with her legs bound like that; it would be impossible to run. How it had to be.
There was a worry in Weiss' mind that was making her more and more anxious however. A thought that made her stomach twist in ugly knots and resulted in difficulty retaining food.
When the vampire grew hungry, what would she do? She regretted the lack of effort from Vale's researchers on studying these creatures. If it didn't pertain to how they could kill you then the subject was pretty much barely touched on. Oh, it gets hungry, they knew that much. But how hungry, how fast? Did it only drink from human veins?
There were supposedly others with stranger, more unique feeding habits. Vampires that had been watched and tailed for weeks to find their 'homebase' and never fed even once, according to records. Almost all fed, but some did not. Something strange Weiss had taken note of was how easily Ruby took to sunlight. After climbing out of the hole once her Aura had done enough work on her leg, Weiss was expecting to wait till the afternoon. Ruby had genuinely surprised her when she eagerly clambered out of the basement, scrambling up the rickety ladder that Weiss had originally missed in the farther corners. Although the woman hid herself as well as she could in the cloak, her discomfort had seemed mild.
It made Weiss swallow tightly. With her hip, and the sunlight being so gentle on Ruby, she could have well died a lot easier than she thought, thinking she was safer than she was. It had made her trust Ruby's intentions a little more, if anything, but the thought still made her twitchy.
Their room was the best available in the inn. Two very spacious beds, pillows stuffed full of goose feathers rather than straw. Two wooden basins sat in the middle of the room with rough towels and chunks of soap next to them. Weiss thought that, if the water had been hot, she'd have risked taking the bath. It wasn't, though, and she wasn't about to waste dust on it either. Better to wait a little while longer. With proper travel time, they'd be back in Beacon in a few days. Then she'd have her hot baths, or baths in general, really.
Weiss turned her head to Ruby, who's eyes were wandering the room curiously. Her interest fell on a bed, and Weiss snorted. It was a little absurd, seeing the eagerness that lit up Ruby's face. It didn't fit in well with the monstrous picture Weiss had for vampires. Wolves in sheep's clothing. She thought glumly. Not for the first time that morning, Weiss doubted herself. If Ruby hurt someone, if that little boy died, there would be no course for penitence. She might spend the rest of her life trying to make amends but nothing would ever undo the harm she might cause to even just one life.
Yet, here was another life that she might help. She huffed, banishing the thoughts. She hadn't signed up to hunt to seek out moral quarrels with herself. She'd done it, she supposed, because it beat wasting away in Atlas to serve as a good figurehead for House Schnee. That she got to do real good in the world was a gratifying bonus. She ran a hand through her hair, fingers pulling out knots. She really hoped she wasn't betraying the trust the world had laid in her hands. She hoped she was making the right call for once. If she wasn't and Winter…
"Okay, Ruby. Go, sit." Weiss snapped, pointing at the bed Ruby was so focused on. She wished she didn't sound so tired and angry, but this whole ordeal was exhausting, and it WAS Ruby's fault. Sort of.
Ruby glanced at her with a wince, but shuffled obediently to the bed and sat without complaint. The vampire put a pale hand on one of the pillows and pushed down on it carefully, and smiled. Too pale lips, soft and round and somehow wrong for not being pink. That smile reached up to her eyes then, and lit them with a soft glow that seemed to push the hollow back a little. Weiss stood and stared, mouth half open with words dying on her tongue.
The smile would make half the court back home, a court wrapped up in its own vanity, completely absorbed by themselves, extremely envious. There was a very simple beauty about the woman.
Weiss cleared her throat, loudly. Ruby tore her eyes off of the pillow and fixed them on Weiss, and that short lived happiness seemed doused, then. Somehow, Weiss felt the sudden need to apologize. She scowled at the notion and then tried to smooth her face a moment later, hoping Ruby didn't take it for something meant for her, and-
Gods turn her to ash, she was a fool.
"We should speak, Ruby. I want to help you, if I can. This much is obvious I think. Information about family, if you can. Where you live." Weiss sat down on the edge of the bed next to Ruby's and her body sighed in relief. What she'd give for the soft caress of her room back in Beacon Castle. The lavish silk, the crackling warmth of the fireplace, the perfectly trained servants who were always around when needed but never, ever in the way. A warm bathGod's damn it. "I'd like to know about you, Ruby, if I'm going to take this risk."
Ruby swallowed, and there was that look of genuine gratitude again. Weiss almost had to resist squirming to get away from it. "I'm from Vale, uh, duh. Of course. I live on Patch, with my dad and sister, and my dog, and my uncle is a hunter who sometimes visits, he's named Qrow, and my dad works with the local law enforcement and runs a tavern, and I…" Words had come out of her like a dam bursting open but suddenly they halted. The vampire pursed her lips and drew her legs up to herself, planting her heels on the bed frame as she averted her gaze. "I was in Beacon with my sister. I can't remember why, or what we were doing, or when we got separated, or if…" Ruby's eyes shot up with a jolt. The panic, the utter terror in them, made Weiss freeze. Her hand itched to draw her weapon. "Gods, I hope she's… If what happened to me, I!"
"Stop shouting!" Weiss hissed, pulling her hand away from her belt and to her chest. Ruby's voice died as a strangled whine escaped from her throat. "We can't worry about what might have happened to your sister. I'm sure there are ways to find out, but I'm helping you right now. Not her." Weiss ignored the hurt look from Ruby. "You said Qrow?"
Ruby sucked in a deep breath, fingers knitting together across her knees. "Yes. He's my uncle. He works directly for Ozpin."
Weiss still found it odd that the people of Vale didn't give their monarchs an honorific. "Yes, I know of Qrow. He's a… good huntsman." There were plenty of rumors of the man. A troubled soul, and Weiss thought of how Winter always seemed to bristle at the touch of his name on someone's tongue. But he was good. And important. Perhaps a good sign, Weiss thought, a little seed of hope sprouting in her chest. Ruby was staring at her intently, waiting for her to say something more. "I think that, if anyone can help me, help you, it will probably be your uncle. Good man to have as your uncle at a time like this."
Ruby nodded, the light in her eyes taking on a more real look at the words. It was like the woman was reaching for just about anything with feverish desperation, and Weiss thought the whiplash must be exhausting. "He'll help me. This is… It isn't my fault, I know it isn't. He'll know what to do."
Weiss nodded, feeling tired. She resisted the urge to close her eyes even as a dull ache formed behind her eyes, just above her brow, in that familiar place it always did. But she had to get some questions answered before she'd risk sleep. "How long has it been? Do you know who took care of you?" Her voice was hard, but she tried to take care with some of her words for Ruby's benefit.
"I feel like it's only been days, sometimes. And other times…" That drawn off gaze returned. "It's like I've only ever known that awful place."
Weiss shuddered, and Ruby too. Ruby, with her hand on the fence and facing the wind with that haunted expression, returned unwittingly to Weiss' memory. "What about… whoever was with you when all this happened."
Ruby shook her head as if coming from a daze and gave her small shoulders a gentle shrug. "I remember that someone would come. They never stayed and they never spoke and…" Ruby's skin paled to grey. "I don't think I could remember much about the time they were around even if I wanted to." She dropped her hands and began twisting the hem of the cloak between her thin fingers. "Even if I wanted to."
Weiss grimaced, feeling gloomy. This was gloomy business, she supposed, but her heart felt heavier than it had since she'd lived in the empty hallways of her family's mansion back in Atlas. "It's alright, Ruby. I'm sure your uncle can help. Somehow." Weiss added the last bit with hesitation. She wanted to assure the woman that there was something to be done, yet couldn't bring herself to do it. She wasn't sure what fool's game she was trying to play, but she was sure it was that of a fool's indeed.
Ruby, not for the first time, acted as if she could understand the thoughts behind Weiss' eyes. She nodded sullenly, eyes focused on hands that gripped tightly at the edges of the cloak draped over her shoulders. Weiss stared too, at those unbound hands, distrusting Ruby's freedom but too ashamed to tie them back up. It had been a necessity to untie her when they walked into the village. Now, Weiss felt like it would be cruel.
One more question.
Weiss' stomach danced a violent jig at the thought of voicing it, but it had to be addressed. It had to be addressed. "Ruby, I must know." The vampire looked up swiftly. "Are you hungry?"
Ruby seemed to find a quiet corner in her mind to hide in, then. Weiss could nearly see the woman recluding from Weiss, from herself even, maybe. "No." She simply said, with a sharpness that genuinely shocked the young huntress. "I haven't been since…" She shrugged, unable to force the words out.
Then she flipped her legs onto the bed and rolled over, head dropping into the pillows with a heavy thump.
Weiss stayed sitting for a while, watching the woman's side rise and fall on its own, thinking. She thought until the sun was high above the tavern and had chased away all the morning clouds, and the sounds from the common room below became loud with merriment, no doubt at the news of Weiss' return. She thought idly of the bag of coins she'd forgotten on the table downstairs, finding herself glad she had left it after all. She didn't want those coins that would feel like coals in her hand.
She also didn't find herself willing to bother Ruby any more with difficult questions, nor did she manage to satisfy the war raging within her. With little more to do, Weiss kicked off her traveling boots and sat comfier on the bed, back against the headboard with a pillow behind her head, and dozed off to sleep, Myrtenaster across her lap, hand wrapped tightly around the grip.
Flashes of twisted things plagued her rest. Things that whispered accusations. You don't try enough, Weiss. Betrayer. Behold, the eyes of the doomed.
Expressionless, hollow faces surrounded her. Children clutched the legs of their fathers and mothers. Mothers held the limp corpses of their newborns and toddlers huddled in the stiff, cold nooks of their parents' underarms. They lined the dark void of this place, and they all bore the crimson stain of blood on their clothes.
"I-I didn't," Weiss could barely form words with a tongue that felt too thick, "I didn't doom them!"
Her protest fell on deaf ears, gaunt faces with dull eyes that she couldn't look away from no matter the effort.
Behold, the eyes of the one betrayed.
The people swirled like smoke, as if picked up by a whirlwind made of nothing, and reformed into an image of a young boy, whose neck was wrapped tightly in white bandage. His chest did not move, though he stared up at her from where he lay at her feet. Weiss tried to look away from this, too, yet could not. She cried out that it wasn't her fault, that she could not be held responsible. It was Ruby's fault!
Behold, the eyes of the one forsaken.
The boy became Ruby. Ruby, with a neck drenched in her own gore, and eyes that were thorns the way they stabbed and lacerated Weiss' heart. She tried to look away, and the thorns tore at her eyes.
"Why didn't you just kill me then, Weiss? Why couldn't you give me that mercy? Why drag this cruel fancy on any longer?" Tears, hot and fierce that burned like iron on her cheeks, tasted like salt on her lips. She couldn't make words form. "What gives you the authority to play with lives like this? What great code you must follow for you to allow yourself this freedom."
Her silence choked her, her anger burned her, her fear tore her skin apart and left deep cuts behind. And her actions, those actions like thorns, they bound her and held her. The deeper they dug as she tried to pull away and the deeper they pushed into her flesh when she tried to push forward through them. If she stayed still, they would bleed her dry. Barbed, hooked and long, those thorns would tear her apart.
She screamed, then. Anger, terror, frustration, it turned her throat into a pulsing wound and she choked on the thorn vines she coughed up. She couldn't breathe. She fell to her knees, fingers clawing at her mouth, piercing themselves on lines and lines of thick vines covered in barbs until her fists were full and she couldn't open them any more.
She looked to Ruby pleadingly, who only stood and watched, eyes full of pity, of pity so warm and understanding that Weiss shriveled to find they condemned her.
Behold, the eyes of the one forsaken, and weep.
Her hand shot out like a bolt fired from a crossbow, snatching up the wrist. Myrtenaster was already singing through the air, raised to bare between her and the assailant, when she recognized Ruby's frantic protests.
Weiss froze, rapier halfway to Ruby's throat, her eyes finally seeing. Pale light filtered in through a window, illuminating the side of the woman's face. She was entirely focused on the rapier poised at her neck, eyes wide with fright. She'd let go of Weiss' shoulder, palm spread open in deference. Weiss cursed and flung the vampire's hand aside, and Ruby stumbled back on her feet, arms windmilling to catch herself and failing. She hit the floor with a loud thud and Weiss winced, biting back an apology that had formed on her tongue. Weiss sat straight up and glared down at the foolish woman, who looked dazed.
"M'sorry, it's just, we should be going." Ruby muttered quietly from the floor. She sat on the wood floor, eyes downcast.
Weiss sighed, feeling the weight of her decisions settling back in, like a particularly damp, thick cloak. "Yes, Ruby. I suppose we should." Weiss glanced at the far window, glad to look somewhere else where Ruby was not in her vision. Images of her morose dream flickered in her memory. She swallowed dryly over and over, as if she could taste it, and it soured her mouth. Behind her she heard Ruby shuffle to her feet.
"Sorry for uhm, startling you like that."
Weiss turned her attention back around, standing from the bed and wishing she'd been able to sleep in anything else but her dirty traveling clothes. Ruby was busy adjusting her cloak around her shoulders, pulling the corners tight in a pinch around her neck. She peered at Weiss with large eyes, weary. She seemed to intentionally avoid looking at the rapier hoisted between them.
Weiss relaxed her grip on the hilt and sheathed it, feeling angry. She'd been holding it in her hand so much it felt uncomfortable to be without it. With Ruby standing nearby it only made the sensation worse, and her fingers ached to close around the familiar leather hilt the moment it left them. "It's fine." She said curtly. The way the dim light left their room feeling gloomy was not helpful to her general mood, she decided, and suddenly she couldn't bear to spend another moment.
Without any words she stormed past Ruby, her back stiffening when they drew close together. She wished she could control her reaction, but no amount of court training could prepare her for the instinctual fear that Ruby dredged up in her blood, or the way it made her throat tighten, nor could it stop her from sneaking a conspicuous glance at the woman's face.
She seemed younger than Weiss had assumed, and there was a small light of interest in the woman's expression that hadn't been there before, like a tiny match. Still, darkness loomed around it on all sides. Ruby's eyes snapped up to meet Weiss', and the huntress looked away with a start she managed to hide within herself. Gods burn her.
Ruby didn't need any commands, stepping in behind Weiss wordlessly. She almost wished the woman would say something. Weiss marched down the stairs purposefully, seeking out the innkeeper with her eyes. He was busy minding a table with a washcloth. He kept glancing over his shoulder, and as Weiss stepped off of the last stair, she had the notion he wasn't even cleaning the table. She followed his gaze to a corner of the inn, where a group of road-worn individuals hunched over mugs full with ale, their faces well concealed by long hanging hoods sewn onto dark leather tunics. They paid less attention to their drinks than they did the rest of the room, and they seemed ready to unsheath the short blades that hung too loosely in their scabbards.
One of the shadow men glanced in Weiss' direction and her breath caught. His eyes moved on from her without pause. She scowled at herself, feeling a dunce, but the sight of them still put her on edge. There was a lethal cadence to the way their eyes prowled the room, as if they were mountain cats stalking something. "We should leave." Ruby whispered from behind her.
Weiss glared back at her. "Why?"
The woman shrugged, looking pointedly at the table in the corner. "Something feels wrong. I think they're dangerous."
Weiss snorted. "If they seem dangerous to you, then perhaps you're right." Ruby's cheeks flushed, and she bit her bottom lip. Weiss regretted her comment immediately, but there was no use in taking it back. "Very well. I suppose that's as good a reason as any. Let us be on our way." Agreeing with the woman and not pressing it further was probably the best way to let it go.
Originally she'd planned to alert the innkeeper not to worry about keeping their rooms for them, but she decided he'd figure it out on his own anyways. Would that she'd brought a horse with her. Getting a ride from traveling merchants was a way to save coin, and she enjoyed doing so in theory, for the novelty of it, but in practice it wore holes in her boots faster than she liked. They hurried out through the inn door, Weiss eager to get away from the eyes that were searching for someone.
She grit her teeth at the cold, muttering an old curse from Atlas under her breath. Ruby looked at her inquisitively, but Weiss ignored her. She wished she'd been able to dry her clothes properly, as they were still a tad damp and caught the chill on the air readily. "Come, I have need of the village head."
Weiss knocked on his door with a loud rapor. The sky wore a shade of afternoon, and darkness would descend soon, bringing along with it a deeper chill. She didn't know why, but her Aura seemed to be doing little to hold back the bite on the wind, and she supposed she needed a proper cloak.
The door opened abruptly to a glaring man. "The poor dog that thought to come banging down on my…" His glare melted into a friendly grin at the sight of Weiss. "Why, how can I help, young miss?" He briefly gave Ruby a look. "Yer leaving, I'll take it, unless you've some other reason for dragging the poor girl out into this cold."
"We are. In fact, I'd have preferred to be gone hours before, but a little rest was needed. I'm sorry to bother you further, good man, but I was hoping you might let me borrow a cloak." She smiled pleasantly. He was already back in his home in the moment she'd finished speaking. He appeared again after a brief time, holding a thick, brown fur cloak, with a collar of even thicker, darker brown.
"It's my best. Consider it thanks, Huntress, for the favor you've done us." Weiss immediately started to protest, but he let her know that he'd found out about the coin pouch she'd left, and she took the gift without more protest.
"My thanks, then, and may Light warm you."
"And the both of you as well."
The cloak dragged on the ground behind her, to her chagrin, but it deflected the weather better than her Aura ever could have. Weiss had red dust in her belt pouches for fires at night, though she planned to walk them through the night and the following day before they rested again. She didn't wish to be alone with Ruby much longer than was necessary.
They disappeared into the fading sun, and neither noticed the hunched figures that trailed behind them minutes later.