Weiss sighed as a wave of bliss made her shiver, from the very tip of her toes to the ends of her scalp, which tingled as she lowered her thighs into the hot water, and sat on the stone bench till all but the top of her shoulders were uncovered. The steam in the bath house was thick enough that she could only just vaguely distinguish the shapes of Ruby's form as she sat down across from her with tiny noises of trepidation.
"It's really hot." Ruby said, her voice loud in the quiet of the building. Open windows let in cold sunlight, making the moisture in the air glisten. Weiss' long hair fanned out around her.
"It's beautiful." Weiss remarked, unable to contain her smile. She'd never in her life spent a week without bathing. The feeling of the rose scented water eating away at the grime and sweat stuck to her skin was wonderful. Her muscles jellied immediately as the water caressed her skin and replaced the dull cold that wove through her body like a steel lattice.
They were alone in here. Ferrin had the deal with her that the bathhouse was to be closed to everyone while she used it, including servants. It cost her a significant amount of lien, but the comfort was worth it. She'd found she hated to bathe in tubs, or to share her baths with other women. Perhaps, when she was young enough the halls of her manor had started to feel lonely and too long, she may have found comfort in the presence of a pretty maid here or there. But she no longer took her baths in Atlas, nor did she find herself with so little to do that her mind had the luxury to be preoccupied with such things.
The water swished on the other side of the room as Ruby moved, not so close that she became more than a dark shadow. "Thank you, Weiss. For bringing me home." Her voice had that tight quality to it, that sound as if she was struggling to keep herself from tears. Weiss made the water slosh as she drew a leg up out of the water, rubbing it with her palms.
"You… You're welcome, Ruby. But you don't need to thank me." She said softly, deciding against telling the woman that she shouldn't hope too much just yet. She peered out at the unclear form of her companion, who she could just make out with her hands between her thighs, leaning slightly forward, face hidden in the mist. Gods help her, Weiss thought. And Gods help me, too.
They bathed in mostly quiet. Weiss wrang her hair out over and over, feeling like she might never get the dirt out. She used a particularly rough cloth on her skin, rubbing her legs and arms red before she was content with it. When she finally sat back, leaning against the rim of the bath, she closed her eyes and soaked.
Ruby began to hum. It was a soft sound, barely above a whisper, but it was carried to Weiss ears by the acoustic nature of the room all the same. She recognized the tune as the same belonging to the Cold Soldier, a nursery rhyme her mother used to sing to her when she was still little enough and her mother still interested enough to care.
The rises and falls of her soft humming brought strange memories and odd feelings with it. She found herself swimming through a sea of nostalgia of a sudden, of cold Atlas days spent curled up in her mother's arms, listening to the stories she would tell Winter and her of their family, of their semblance. Their destinies. "One of you will inherit it, some day. Men will seek absolution from the horrors that snap at their heels, and one of you shall be their answer, and the other shall be the strength she needs to seek it. My children, my dear, dear children. Oh, but you are both such wonders. Such gifts."
She was surprised to find her eyes stung. Her mother, locking herself away in the lonesome halls of her ancestral home. Bitterness gave those almost tears an edge. Her mother, whom she hadn't felt the touch of in years, who had only regret in her eyes when they fell upon her children, now.
She breathed out shakily as Ruby's soft hum came to an end, and when Weiss peered through the steam, she could see the woman was clearly entrenched in her own thoughts. She felt such assuredness, looking at the vague shape of Ruby then. Such safety that what she'd brought back from those empty woods was not a monster. Curiosity came unbidden about the person behind those bleak eyes, curiosity about the smile that Ruby offered her with effort.
She wondered, if perhaps, she might like to know the woman after their business with one another was through.
They sat in the water for some time after, in quiet, and Weiss mulled in her thoughts.
Later, as they approached the castle, Weiss wished she had stayed in the bath and put away this meeting for a later time. Their clothing was fresh, linens washed and woolens now soft. She made Ruby walk with her hood down, though the woman did grimace and her legs were stiff. "It'll make a better impression." She'd told her.
Only the guards outside the gate demanded proof of identity, and when they'd received it, they didn't question her odd guest. Ruby for her part would have drawn a lot of looks alone, with the way her clothing was worn despite the washing and how she peered up at every artfully sculpted piece of stone, each and every painting larger than her from tip of the toe to the ends of her hair if it was held up straight from her scalp. Weiss did not lessen the amount of fascinated leers they received from scullery maids rushing between kitchens and liveried servants alike. Nor did the court goers they passed refrain from staring, though none thought to interrupt the Schnee heiress. The cold glare she put in her eyes saw to that.
She had to see Ironwood. Had to ask him to find Qrow, because she needed to speak to a huntsman about her recent job. That should be fine enough, though her palms sweat at the thought of meeting the obtuse man. He was well known in the city, especially by other hunters. A man who spent a worrisome amount of time stooped over a drink, brooding in the darker corners of the city, always with his teeth bared and hoping for a fight.
The grimace she wore was for the loss of Myrtenaster. When Ironwood heard of that and the news of it made it back to her sister… The shame of it was something she'd have to learn to live with. Better she leave without a rapier than her life, she supposed, though it did little to soothe the wound in her pride, or the anger she felt picturing Vernal's face when she spoke of selling the thing. Then, she also couldn't decide if it was worse to have the bandit use it. Better perhaps neither, better it was at her side. Her boots clicked harder on the marble stairs she led Ruby up.
Two guards, dressed in Atlas finery with spears held upright, halted the two women outside the general's door. "The general is busy." One announced. He didn't even look down, his face smooth as the marble they stood on.
"He'll become less busy for me." Weiss said sharply. The man furrowed his brow and looked down, then, and his lips tightened. Any Atlesian man or woman or child would recognize a Schnee by the color of their hair and eyes together.
"A moment, my lady." He said tightly. The other guard's armor clinked as he stood straighter, somehow. The guard they'd spoken to knocked on the door twice.
As it opened, Ironwood's voice carried out. "... have them all in chains if it isn't solved by the time I return. I should hope that's clear enough." His tone of voice was hard, angry. Impatient. Weiss drew in her breath and heard Ruby do the same.
"Announcing the princess heiress to the Schnee and Atlas throne, Weiss Schnee, huntress." The guard said her last title with a touch of disapproval, and she shot him a glare he did not see. Or, at least, he pretended not to see.
Ironwood was a man she had not seen in some time. The arrival of the Atlas royalty had happened shortly before her travels out of the city, and at the time she'd made it a point not to reside in the castle. When he turned to her, she was unexpectedly glad to see he hadn't changed much.
He wore a thinner coat here in Beacon, but it was pressed to the same immaculate smoothness she remembered him to wear, and his medals of office gleamed even in the thin light that pushed through the dark curtains he had closed against the windows in his quarters. No fire burned in the fireplace, though dry wood was stacked. His hair was kept slicked back, and he wore barely a shadow on his square jaw. His brow was heavy above his eyes, though it was not ugly. It gave his already steely gaze a sharper depth. "It's been too long, Weiss. Come in." He said, voice much leveler than before. She noticed a messenger sealing a missive at a desk in the corner of the room.
They entered through the door and it closed behind them. "It is good that you've decided to come; your father has been… Imposing about his desire to speak with you." He gestured to the long table that sat near the unlit fireplace. "Please, take a seat."
There were few people in the four kingdoms who could get away with telling the heiress to the Atlas throne to pull up her own seat, but General Ironwood was among the disparate few. "Come, Ruby." Weiss ordered. The woman followed awkwardly, and the general paid her no attention as he took his own seat next to them. The messenger bowed to Ironwood.
"Your highness." He said to Weiss, bowing deeply enough that his forehead nearly touched the bare hardwood floor, and then he left through the door. She noted no other servants.
"The winter is cold even here." Ironwood began, "The people are harder because of it. You risk a lot, the way you live in Vale." His piercing eyes were on her, and Weiss recognized the challenge for what it was.
"My mother did not raise weaklings, General. Nor did my sister encourage foolishness in me." She met his gaze with strength.
"Maybe she didn't discourage it enough. Though I cannot deny you've done good work since taking up the hunt," He said the last word with contempt, "Atlas is lesser for it."
"My sister does enough for both of us, General. I am not here to talk of this, or to listen again to my father's wishes that he may have his daughter return home to be his pet. I am a Schnee, General. My life is not to be spent wasting away in some sycophant court. I'd appreciate it if we could move on." They stared into one another, challenging. Sometimes, she'd wondered if the General held more sway in Atlas than her family. At the very least, he acted as if. Sometimes.
"You are right, after all. It is not my place to order you in this. You shall find your way home eventually." He gestured his hands outwards in peace. The corners of Weiss' mouth tightened at the dismissiveness of her statement, but she let it go as well. She did not come to argue about home or duty.
She looked at Ruby from the corner of her eye, who seemed paler than normal. Her eyes were wide, and she'd rarely seen someone sit so still. "I return from my hunt in need of council from another hunter. Qrow is the one I'm looking for." The General's eyes tightened at the name. "I expect you may know of his current whereabouts." She did not ask, or imply it was a question. She said it as a demand.
Ironwood breathed deep, his barrel chest rising beneath the clean cut clothing he wore. "If whatever you need to speak to him is in any way a threat to the people of this kingdom, then it is also a threat to you and your family. I will know it as well."
She set her jaw. The General was a hard man, and somehow he was harder than she remembered. She had expected disapproval, but there was an edge to him that she hadn't known before. He seemed angry, and she recalled the tail end of whatever he'd been telling to his messenger to record in his missive. "It is a delicate matter, but nothing of such severity. It is of little consequence to the people of this kingdom, and much less you and your people."
"Our people, Weiss. Do not assume to shrug off your identity." She said nothing. "It worries me that you fight for other kingdom's peasants and speak to men who answer directly to another monarch. If ever you are needed to serve in your sister's stead, I wonder how well the people might take to you. You risk a lot, forgetting your people."
Weiss bit the inside of her cheek, pushing down the guilt in her gut. "I would hate to see the day when Atlas is under my rule and not that of my sister's."
Ironwood stared silently back. He did not disagree. "Qrow is in the castle. He was here a few days ago, at least, and I imagine he has not left yet." He dismissed her with a hand wave.
No, he couldn't even pretend to respect her. Nothing for those with such little loyalty. "Thank you, Ironwood. It is appreciated." He stiffened at the lack of his title, but said nothing more to her. She turned away from the room swiftly, making an effort to keep her gate calm and composed. She didn't need to tell Ruby to come for the woman to follow swiftly behind her. She mumbled something clumsy to the General as Weiss knocked on the door.
It opened and she was glad to leave the room and the general behind. If this is what awaited her in every encounter with the Atlas personnel, she would make a personal effort to avoid as many of them as possible. The guard stood stiff, his eyes darkened by the shadow of his helm. Whatever thoughts he might have, he kept them hidden. Good for him.
"That's, uh… I've never met someone like that." Ruby mumbled, trailing behind Weiss. "Royalty, from… Uh, another kingdom. He seemed kind of…" She trailed off, and Weiss noticed her scrunching up her face cautiously.
"He didn't kind of seem anything." She said, scoffing. "He has little love for my family, save my sister. He was entirely the egotistical, self absorbed gallant that you assume he is." She grinned sidelong at Ruby. "Don't worry about watching your tongue around me, Ruby. I left Atlas to get away from foolishness."
Ruby bit her bottom lip, seeming unconvinced. "If you say so. Still, I wouldn't like to meet him again. I don't think he liked me much."
Weiss rolled her eyes, turning them down a corner. "He didn't even notice you, Ruby. Believe me. Or at least, he noticed you long enough to decide you weren't worth noticing." She was already swallowing her tongue as she finished the sentence. A quick look over showed that Ruby was still mulling the meaning in her mind. Gods, burn me. "Not that you aren't worth noticing. I mean it as a failing of his character, Ruby. Not yours. Gods know, not yours." She said it with as much composure as she might manage, but she hated the way she nearly stammered over her own words to get them out.
"Do you know where my Uncle is, then?" Ruby asked, and Weiss was gracious for the opportunity to change the subject. By the tiny smile on her companion's lips, Weiss wasn't sure if she was doing it intentionally as a favor or not. Still, she eagerly took it. Not that it shouldn't have been the first thing on her mind… Gods, she was tired.
"If anything I've heard about the man is even remotely true, I think so, yes." She said dryly. "Plenty of stories have been told about your uncle and his habits. I expect he'll be down in the kitchens."
Ruby blinked, but she said nothing. Weiss led them back down the flight of stairs they'd taken to get up there, past tapestries woven in green and silver showing stylized characteristics of weapons, their ends tapering off in silver tassels, low enough they nearly brushed the floor. Smooth stone walls decorated in expensive fancies gave way to slightly rougher, bare stone, though not so much that one would call it badly kept, the lower they went. The floor lost its carpet, and soon they were walking on pathways lit mostly by torch sconces instead of windows.
The sound of the kitchens and the smells reached them long before they, the kitchens. It carried down the wide halls, passed maids and servants scurrying to carry out some directive or another. Ruby yelped in surprise at one point when a young blonde girl, perhaps their own age, turned a corner. She'd frozen holding a pot of steaming broth, looking between Weiss and Ruby as if trying to decide what they were. "Go on, girl." Weiss waved her off hastily, and the scullery maid gave them an inquisitive look before being on her way, intent on not spilling the hot steaming liquid.
"What was that?" Weiss asked her, her pace quick.
"Er, I just thought it was someone I knew." Ruby laughed awkwardly, tugging at the hem of her cloak as she walked.
"You know people who work in the castle?"
"No, uhm, not really." Came the reply a moment later, sheepishly. Weiss let it drop.
The smell of seasoned beef stock stewing over a stove, along with yeast, large roasts of cows and pigs, onions, garlic, cheeses, all made Weiss' stomach tighten hungrily. She'd been too tired to touch her food back at The Five Leaf Clover, and now she knew the price of it. It was very absentminded of her to ignore basic body needs like this, especially when her Aura was practically nonexistent. She promised to herself that, should she ever make it out of this mess with her head, she'd never waste another meal again. She refrained from putting a hand to her empty stomach and she hoped Ruby didn't hear the way it rumbled.
When they reached the kitchens only moments later, she hung back. Staff ran to and fro, weaving between each other carrying blisteringly hot iron pans, and the whole ensemble was some sort of chaotic dance. A man who seemed unfittingly thin to be a chef stood on a stool waving a wooden spoon in the air, barking in a thick accent Weiss knew to be from Mistral. "If those entrees don't start making their way to someone's table by the time that soup comes to a boil, I'll have anyone working on them thrown out of these kitchens immediately!" His voice rose in pitch with every word, as did his volume, and somehow the ambience of the kitchen still nearly drowned him out. She thought she could already see servers leaving with plates concealed by cloches. The man still fumed on his stool regardless, and for all intents and purposes, the staff seemed to ignore him.
"And get this drunk idiot out. Of. My. Kitchens!" The man's voice suddenly reached a new high, and Weiss and Ruby both winced simultaneously. He was pointing at a table where precarious dishes were stacked high, spoon wavering in the air while his cheeks puffed from the deep, angry breaths he took.
They followed the tip of the spoon to the table, and to Weiss it seemed the dishes piled there and the kitchen staff both seemed to avoid a specific area. Ruby was already walking towards the table, ducking around the staff as best she could. A few stopped to snap something at her, but the woman hardly seemed to notice. "Dunce." Weiss muttered, hastily following behind.
A man sat on a bench, arms crossed on the table while he peered into the shallow depths of glass filled with… Whisky, Weiss saw, by the half empty bottle that sat next to him. Ruby stood a distance away, hand to her mouth. She was shaking.
"Hey," Weiss began, just loud enough to be heard over the clatter of kitchen ware. "You alright?" She put a gentle hand on Ruby's shoulder, who jumped at the touch. "You seem a little disturbed." She ignored the string of curses muttered by one of the servers who jostled his way around them, standing in the middle of the floor.
Ruby nodded after a moment, lowering her hand to her chest where she clutched at the cloak Weiss had lent her. "Yeah. Just… I'm okay. Part of me wondered if I'd ever see him again. Anyone, again." Despite her words, there was strength in her voice.
Weiss nodded. "Come on, then. Let's see what we can do about this." She gave Qrow a doubtful look. "Gods help us both."
They took a seat across from him. Weiss and Ruby both tried to push some of the dishes further away, but it didn't make for much extra room. Qrow looked up sharply, and Weiss was shocked to see how alert his eyes seemed. His gaze passed over the both of them quickly, then his attention was back down to his drink.
"Qrow, I-"
Weiss cut off when his head snapped up all of a sudden. He was staring at Ruby. "W-what? The hell?" His eyes darted between the two of them. His hands were gripping the edge of the table so tight they were white. "I probably did drink too much this time."
Weiss sucked in a breath, her hand clutching the pouch on her belt that held her Scroll. Gods permit that she leave the castle with it. "Qrow Branwen," She began, and her voice trembled no matter how she tried to still it, "I have brought home your niece. I'm afraid there are also some particularly sensitive details we should discuss between each other."
He didn't even seem to be aware Weiss was there anymore. His eyes were entirely transfixed on Ruby, who stood still as a statue with eyes wide as saucers. Her hand held the cloth of her cloak no looser than his, the table. "Hi, uncle Qrow. I'm back, it's really me." She said, and to Weiss her voice shook harder than her own. She saw, by the way her eyes shone, it was an effort not to cry.
The hunter seemed to come back to life at her words, and his hands fell from the table edge. He blinked. "I don't… I…" He turned to Weiss, "What did you say again?" He narrowed his eyes on Weiss. "Schnee. Weiss, then. Huntress." He said, like he was trying to sort himself. "You found my niece? Where? I thought you were out on a hunt, after some newling vampire. Was she in the city?"
Weiss licked her lips, nervous under the intensity of his stare. For a man who was halfway down a bottle of whisky, he struck her as entirely sober. "Actually, I think it's best we take this discussion to somewhere more private." She was a little shaken up that he knew what she'd been doing all this time, but she knew she shouldn't have been surprised by it. "It's of a delicate matter." She reiterated.
His eyes returned to Ruby, who was still transfixed on him. His expression softened to relief. "Right. Wherever this kid has been, you two had better have a good answer."
Weiss' nervousness did not decrease.
He stood, leaving his bottle and glass on the table. "Oh, Brothers favor me, the drunkard is finally leaving!" The chef called out from behind them. Qrow ignored him entirely, and so too did the women.
"Ruby, Tai has been worried sick about you. Your sister nearly ran away to go look for you, I almost had to fistfight her to get her to drop it." He started talking when they were far enough from the kitchens to talk in normal levels. His voice had the quality of jagged gravel, though there was a smooth sauve to the way he walked. Even the badly kept facial hair did not diminish him much. "The time I've spent looking for you myself..." He strode ahead of them as he looked over his shoulder at Ruby. "There better be a good explanation." He turned his head away.
Weiss looked over at Ruby, whose face was pale in the torchlight. Weiss, who shared a deal of her same anxiety, reached out and grasped the woman's hand comfortingly. Her hand was warm, and Weiss felt foolish for being surprised. Of course it was warm; Ruby wasn't dead. Ruby squeaked in surprise, but then immediately her fingers wrapped around Weiss' hand as well. Weiss squeezed tight in a gesture, and Ruby returned it eagerly.
For all the worry in Ruby's face, though, there was now something else. The girl's eyes glimmered brightly; nearly glowed.
Qrow led them back up to the upper levels, even past Ironwood's quarters. A lot of the servants and nobles they passed, Weiss noticed, gave him dark looks. In some cases, there was a sly grin, or a particular batting of lashes that seemed entirely for him. Weiss wondered at that, if only to keep her mind off of the conversation they were about to have.
Ruby sat in the room with her hands balled into fists in her lap. Her uncle's quarters were lavish, filled with soft, comfortable surfaces to rest on. Fire burned in the hearth, unlike in the General's room, but to her there was an odd sense of sadness about the room. The way the curtains were pulled tight, and the stale odor that hung in the air. She thought that perhaps he kept the servants out of his space. That seemed appropriately like him.
Weiss sat next to her, just as tense. She could feel, even stronger now, something like a notion of her feelings. She felt pensive, alert. Ruby noticed the way the huntress' hand hung near the place where she'd worn her rapier, and it brought back unpleasant memories of when Weiss had threatened her with it. Though they'd only been traveling together a few days, Weiss had come a long way from that first meeting. It was her trust, Ruby realized, that had given her the strength to walk the steps into the castle, to sit down with her uncle now.
Qrow, for his part, seemed much more at ease. His fingers drummed on the table in a placid rhythm, and despite the scrutiny of his eyes, there was also relief on his face. He smelled of too much liquor, she thought. "Well?" He said, and she was glad again to hear the comforting sound of his voice. "Tell me a story, kiddo."
Ruby glanced over to Weiss. Qrow followed her gaze, and gave her an impatient look when Weiss licked her lips and opened her mouth to only shut it again. Then she took a deep breath, and launched into a tale. She found herself trying to recede into the quiet parts of her mind where she'd hidden before Weiss had come for her when Weiss talked about the village victims. She made clear that the only surviving victim was also the only victim who was directly Ruby's, but Ruby's eyes now only watched her boots.
She was sure, when the boy had come up, if she had looked up, the version of herself with the hollow eye sockets and the grey skin would be watching her from the shadows again.
"She saved my life, and still, as far as I am aware, has killed not one person." Weiss finished. She'd found strength at some point in the retelling of her tale, even as Qrow's own expression twisted from disbelief, anger, and pain to disbelief over and over again. He sank further and further in his chair. Weiss held her chin high, and squared her shoulders. Ruby knew then that Weiss truly did believe in what she was doing. Knew it for undeniable truth. She hoped she'd have that strength, as well.
Weiss and Qrow said nothing. After a long, drawn out silence, Ruby dredged up the courage to raise her eyes to look at them. She held back a whine when, from the edge of her vision, she saw the wretched, eyeless face she feared. I'm going insane. She thought mirthlessly.
Qrow was glaring at Weiss, and even looked like he wanted to hurt her. Weiss, for her part, held her chin high in defiance, the image of strength, though Ruby thought it might also be the kind of thing you do as a child when you're afraid. Yang had done that on numerous occasions.
Ruby cried out in surprise as Qrow leapt from his chair with a roar and away from them, knocking the piece of furniture back where it thudded against the carpet. Weiss flinched, and her shoulders tightened. She was afraid.
Ruby struggled to follow her uncle with her eyes, as he strode closer and closer to the thing that hid in the dark. She nearly wanted to tell him to watch out, but it didn't make any notice of even seeing him. It only stared at her, and though she knew it had no eyes, she also knew it was seeing her and only her. Her eyes fell as her hands began to shake, bile in her throat.
Both women flinched as Qrow threw something against a wall. It shattered. "I'll kill her! I'll put a blade through her cowardly spine myself!" Ruby froze, her breath hitching. He's going to kill me? The thought came numbly to her head. The thing in the shadows stirred, it's thin lips curling up in a snarl, sharp fangs revealed. "No!" Her voice came out nearly silent, harsh and strained. It trembled, leering at her. She found she could hold it at bay this time. It's voice was absent.
Weiss shot up from her own chair, and placed herself directly in front of Ruby. "Qrow," She snapped, "You can't mean-"
Qrow whipped himself around to face them. "What, you think I'd kill my own… My own family? My niece? The kid of my own- Don't be such an idiot." He snarled. Ruby, despite the harshness in his voice, found cold relief wash over her. The thing without eyes slunk deeper into the shadows.
Weiss still stood in front of her, though. Her hands were clenched by her sides. "Please, calm yourself, so we might discuss what we can do to help her."
Qrow laughed sharply, cynical. "Help her? Help her?!" His laugh made Ruby shiver, and she looked up. The thing he'd thrown at the wall was some expensive vase. It lay in pieces next to the door. He was brushing his hair back through his fingers with one hand, while his other gripped his hip. His laugh sounded like metal grating together, to her. Weiss swallowed audibly.
After too long it came to an end. Too long. He let his hand drop limp, and his shoulders slumped. Then he looked at Ruby, and though she wanted to look away, his eyes kept her. There was such pain in his eyes that she'd never before seen. Pain in the eyes of the one man she'd known to face down any situation with an untouchable grin, a grin that seemed to mock the idea that he might know pain and suffering and struggle. In his eyes now, though, she saw depths and depths of all the things she hadn't known him for. He wore no grin.
"I'm sorry, Ruby." He said, in a quiet voice. He put his back against a space where the wall was bare and sighed. He turned his eyes on Weiss, who jumped. "You," He started with scorn, "Should be in a cell. You definitely shouldn't have a hunter's license." Weiss stiffened, and her hand tightened around one of the leather pouches she hung from her belt. "You've done the exact opposite of the one thing you're supposed to do. The one thing." He scoffed at her.
When his eyes returned to Ruby, though, they were gentler again, even if it seemed like looking at her brought him pain. She bit her lip in frustration at the tears she felt on her cheeks. The thing that wore her skin was moving, she knew; it was behind her. She could hear its footsteps, though she was sure the other two people in the room were oblivious to it. "What have they done to you, kiddo."
"Uncle Qrow, please, I-"
"Quiet." He interrupted her. Anger flashed across his face, directed at her, and she choked on a sob she tried to swallow. "Schnee, I should have you thrown from this place and flogged. If it wouldn't start a war with Atlas, I might. I'm still considering it." Weiss shifted uneasily.
The thing breathed on Ruby's neck, through the thickness of the cloak, through the collar of her tunic. Her nails dug into the palms of her hands.
"Any hunter, anyone with a shred of decency would see it that way." It sounded like he was cursing himself. "But, damn it, I won't kill her. I can't."
Weiss breathed a sigh of relief. "Qrow, surely there are ways we can help her." Her voice was tight, as if spoken through grit teeth. "I came here to get her help. I promised her."
"You promised her." He mocked, sneering. "Life tip, then. Don't make stupid promises. Makes you into a self serving asshole."
"I risked my life for her!" Weiss snapped. "There is nothing self serving about what I did."
Qrow snorted. "I couldn't care less about whatever you tell yourself to ease the guilt, kid. Keep it to yourself." He looked back at Ruby. "We all make choices."
She tried to still her shuddering. Its wet breath on the nape of her neck, it's shallow, broken, wheezing breathing. It felt wrong, sick. She shook beneath its presence.
Qrow took a few quick steps across the room. Ruby winced as he drew close, and she saw that his boots stopped a few feet away.
He means to kill you. You must feed. Now. You must.
"No!" Ruby snapped. She flung out with her arm, twisting in her seat, suddenly furious at this thing that wore her face. Who was it to try and make a monster out of her? Who was it to-
Her mind crumbled as she came face to face with it. Two large, eyeless sockets, sunken deep into its putrid grey flesh. She was barely an inch apart from It, and she could see now that the eyes looked as if they'd been dug out of Its face. The skin was like leather, so thin she could make out every sharp bone beneath it. The hair hung in strawy clumps, and purple veins ran like spiderwebs beneath the surface. Its thin lips were drawn too smooth and too tight over the sharp fangs that hung from its jaw.
She felt its urging, felt its pulling. Felt the frigid touch of its hands as they gripped her wrists. "No." Ruby whimpered. It grinned.
I'll protect you. We'll be safe. I can protect us.
Tears streamed hot down her cheeks, and though she tried, she could get no words out. Her thoughts started to blur, started to blend, started to slough away like fetid skin wrapped around a corpse as the black presence in her head began to emerge. She trembled. Gods, how she trembled.
She tried to cling onto something, any thought at all, but everything she touched it took from her hands too stiff to grip anything with. It was always gentle. So gentle. So comforting. It started to wrap itself around her. Those unseeing holes in its face began to feel safe to her. She had to… Had to let It. They could protect themselves.
A flash of yellow broke the surface of calmness that was just starting to envelope her. The Need froze in its tracks, and when she reached for it, curious, it could not take it from her.
Yang.
The name of her sister rang like a bell in a tower. It was distant, but it gave her enough to pull her arm away, to break from the embrace. It snarled.
You'll die. We will die. Do not! You need to! We need to survive! We can save ourselves!
It snarled and tried to tighten its grip. "Yang!" Ruby shouted, or she thought she did, and reached for the memory as hard as she could. A childhood spent laughing and giggling, experiencing adventures together, growing up as friends. The warmth of her sister's hug. Gods, such a warmth.
With terror and desperation, she pulled with clawing hands from its cold embrace, and then she pushed it back, back down, back into the hole she'd carved out of her mind for it. The place she could not let it out of.
Finally she became aware again of the world. The creature without eyes, the creature that pretended to be her, was no longer there. She knew with instinctive certainty that, if she tried to look for it, it would not be there. Ruby shrunk into her chair and weeped, weeped for the horror of seeing it, weeped at almost losing herself to it again. Losing herself to it here, in a room with… Gods.
Her silent weeping made her shoulders shake, and she was dimly aware of Weiss, something else she simply knew, placing a tender hand on her shoulder, and then the other hand that stroked her hair. It was also Weiss'.
"I…" Ruby heard her uncle's voice, and it wavered. "This is no longer any of your concern, Schnee. I might not know how to help her, but I probably know someone who might." The strength in his voice was gone, and only the depth of his pain remained. Ruby wept all the harder for it.
"Thank you. I… Please, help her. Please." Weiss' voice was quiet, tight. She squeezed Ruby's shoulder tightly, and then her hands fell away.
Ruby stifled her crying. She found a last bit of strength to pick herself halfway out of curled form, and looked up. Qrow looked tired, though when he looked at her, it was with pity. There was more to it, something darker, but she was afraid to see it. Weiss was standing near him, and when Ruby met her eyes, there was only softness and comfort. It gave her the last bit of strength she needed to sit up and level her breathing.
"Stay here with her, Schnee. I have to go see some people. If you can be helped, I'll figure it out." He turned to leave but stopped at the door. "You're not lying about her feeding." He turned back to Weiss. It wasn't a question, it was a threat.
"If she'd fed, or even tried to once, Qrow, I'd have ended this myself. I swear it on my name."
He grunted. It sounded mocking, somehow. "And your Aura?"
"It's been better." Weiss said, after a moment.
Qrow grunted again, and then he left without another word to either of them.
Ruby shivered. Despite the fire in the hearth and despite that the cold no longer chilled her in the same way it used to, she was cold.
Weiss sat down in her own chair, breath shaky. When Ruby looked, Weiss' hands were trembling just as bad as her own. When the huntress looked over at her, there was a storm of thoughts behind her icey blue eyes. There was warmth there, for Ruby, too. She clung to that warmth, her flayed heart huddled next to it.
"I'm sorry, Ruby." The huntress said quietly. "I'm so sorry."
"You shouldn't be sorry for anything, Weiss." Ruby muttered, rubbing her legs. "Without this, I'd… I don't know what I'd be." But she thought of the creature that huddled in the flickering shadows, just out of sight, and she thought she knew. She sniffed.
Weiss only shook her head sadly and lay a hand on Ruby's knee.
Just wanted to thank the kind reviews I've gotten on this so far! You're all very sweet. I'm excited for you all to see more!