(A/N) Sorry about another long delay. Between Covid workload and college, on top of trying to get a steady internet connection, I might have to slow down for a few months. I'll try to keep up a pace of one chapter every two weeks from here on out.
By the time I round the edge of the mountains and traverse the rocky beach to enter the city, the red light bathing the city has dulled, darkened. Unlike the last few rays of sunlight, though, the Grimm show no signs of fading. Even now they swarm through the city, met by the muzzle flashes of Guardsmen's weapons and occasionally the far deadlier colored blurs of Huntsmen and Huntresses.
By now most of the civilians seem to have reached evacuation bunkers. Excellent. That means I don't have to worry about anything besides putting my bladework to the test against the still-unbroken horde.
A lunging stab punches through a Beowolf from the side. Two more fall to a spinning slash around myself, and a fourth that jumps me finds my booted foot planted between its wide-open jaws before being launched by my kick into the wall of a convenience store hard enough to destroy it upon impact.
More Beowolves begin to emerge, even a few Ursi. I grin. After weeks of dealing with the monsters in twos and threes, it's going to be a treat to work up a real sweat.
"Well? Come on," I say, spinning Aurora up into Spring Cloud.
The standoff breaks, and I hurtle forward with a series of downward strikes, stepping into my own swing and pulling the sword around behind me after each one to keep the blade arcing down over and over again. Three Beowolves explode into ash, too slow to get out of the way. An Ursa is able to take two slashes, but the third cleaves its skull in half, and not a moment too soon, as I break my tempo just in time to avoid another Beowolf leaping at me from the side. It almost sails by me, but I manage to catch a handful of its fur and, with a shout of effort, spin it around me and launch it into another approaching Ursa.
The Ursa looks confused for a moment before I skewer both Grimm in a single Aura Thrust.
From there, the battle melts back into a blur of opponents, none of whom manage to even threaten my Aura. Dealing with small fry like these is second nature to me now after months of doing it across three continents- and my own set of instincts is growing to match Arnaut's. The instincts mingle and make every reaction of mine faster and stronger than either would be alone, as well as smarter.
I remain mostly in Spring Rain, the most mobile and thoughtless of the stances I know. It frees me to tear through the Grimm until the ones before me are a dark blur and the ones behind me are nothing but crumbling dust.
The first time the stream of enemies is broken up is when I snap my eyes up from a group of disintegrating Beowolves and see the white head of a King Taijitu studying me. The body of it leads back into an alleyway to my right, yet… there's a subtle twitch in its movements, something in the way its flat red eyes inspect me.
"Dreki-"
"I know." I grin, still my breathing, and listen-
The sound of something huge moving very quickly through the air down towards me.
I cleanly take a rotating step to the side just as the black head's jaws snap shut on empty street, load a good five percent of my Aura into Aurora, and make a wide two-handed cleave that severs the Grimm's neck just above the head.
The other head hisses so loudly that it's more of a roar and strikes at me through the still-dissolving dust of the black head. I start to snap Aurora down into Planted Roots, then hesitate-
"The ground-"
"Won't hold," I finish. Planted Roots is all well and good for blocking blows up to a certain point, but if something strong enough to rip the sword tip out of the stone attacks, it'll break.
By now the head is practically on top of me, leaving me only way out- up. I vault just over the open maw of the beast, gather Aura not in Aurora's blade but in my open left fist, and then roar as I discharge it all in a downwards concussive blow that slams the Taijitu to a halt. Still airborne, I begin to fall and make sure to lead with my sword. It plunges through the spine of the monster and even a few inches into the cobblestone of the street beneath.
I only get a three second breather before the next Grimm enters my line of sight.
Not that I'd have it any other way.
Another storm of enemies come- or perhaps I'm the storm, coming to them. I never stay in any one spot for too long, obeying both Arnaut's instincts as well as my own, not to mention that commanding old voice of Alorn's: 'To stay still is to die.'
That's something I didn't need him to tell me; I've been running from things my entire life. To me, this was already second nature.
I hurtle through city streets, low to the ground in that sweeping way that Spring Storm has, spinning over, around, through them and claiming limbs whenever I cannot claim lives. It's better to leave a crippled Grimm behind than to double back and lose all my momentum.
For once, Arnaut has no critique, no warnings, no advice on my form. I can't spare the eyes to even glance at him.
The second time my monotony is broken is when I find myself striking in an X-shape before me and exploding through the back of an Ursa Major only to spill out onto the Argus docks, at the very bottom of the downward-sloping city.
I realize I'm panting- I'm out of breath. Have been for who knows how long.
"Dreki, you're doing exceptionally, but…" Arnaut talks like he regrets each word he's about to speak. "Don't you think you're pushing yourself a bit too hard?"
"No, I…" I pant a few more times, stab Aurora into the wooden planks of the dock and place my hands on my knees. "Why would… you know what, I… need a break…" I allow myself to fall back on my ass, drawing my knees up and resting my elbows on them.
"You aren't doing this out of a desire to protect the city," Arnaut muses.
I cannot believe he's finding a way to complain about this. "Who… cares."
Arnaut's silent for a few long moments, then- "You're trying to avoid thinking about Nyssa- or is it Adam? Whichever one it is, you-"
"Godsdamnit." I guess the break's over. I hop to my feet, yank Aurora's blade out from the deck, and survey the area around me, which is surprisingly- and annoyingly- empty of Grimm. "Every time you try this psychoanalysis bullshit, we both end up worse off for it."
I don't bother listening to his response, as I have something much more interesting to pay attention to: a swell in the water that rapidly emerges out from the water, coiling up and up and up… and up, and…
I crane my neck to look nearly straight up, eyes focusing on the head of the very long dragon Grimm, whose maw appears to be releasing hissing steam.
A grin splits my face and I drop into Spring Cloud, intending to take full advantage of the fact that this thing hasn't seemed to notice me yet. My Aura buildup in both Aurora's blade and my back leg and arm is shaken- but not broken- when I hear a scream from the waterfront building behind me and realize that there are still some civilians in the city.
"Stop screaming!" I shout. A mistake. As soon as the scream stops, the dragon snaps two steaming grey eyes down onto me instead of the terrified civilian.
Slowly, I angle Aurora upwards, leaning further and further back, leading more and more weight onto my back leg.
"Dreki! That's a Steam Sea Feilong- it's about to breathe boiling-"
The Grimm roars and steam comes hurtling out of its maw- not in the spray I'd expected, but in a compressed ball that flies far faster than I'd accounted for. Shit.
My instincts blank, but Arnaut's don't. Even as he shouts "Shoot!" my left hand is already moving up towards Aurora's trigger and clicking it. What exits the barrel- besides a hundred Lien- is a blast of flame that splits a Dreki-width gap in the steam.
The rest of the breath hits the dock around me and splinters it, reducing the timbers that it doesn't outright shatter on impact into a crackling, broken mess.
"My turn," I hiss, and then release ten percent of my Aura through my back foot. The dock is obliterated in a five-meter radius around my jumping point, the seawater leaping up in concentric rings from the pressure, as I tear forward through the air far faster than sound. My blade is up to the hilt in the beast's lower jaw before it can react.
I don't trust that to kill a Grimm of that caliber alone, though, and twist my body in the air in order to swing Aurora in a full arc around me, severing the front half of the Feilong's head.
In moments like these- tens of meters in the air, surrounded by the dust of a massive creature that I just slew, everything seems to fall away. I understand momentarily why some people want to be Huntsmen.
Then the dream fades and I fall back down to earth, barely managing to land on my knees and outstretched hands, before straightening up in the center of a crater of broken asphalt, Grimm Dust raining down around me.
When my eyes focus, it's on a civilian guy in his mid-thirties holding his Scroll like his life depends on it and staring at me like-
Hold on.
Eyes.
My hand flies to my face and I realize in horror that I lost the bandage over my left eye somewhere in the fighting. By now the very last traces of the sun are vanishing, but still… to think this man hasn't noticed my issue is wishful thinking at its finest.
"Sir," I say, trying to sound authoritative, "You need to make your way to an evacuation shelter."
"You're- you're the Grimm Guardian!"
I pinch my temple with one hand while fishing around in my coat pockets for any extra bandages. No dice. What I had, I already used in covering up the holes in my clothing from that storm back in the mountains. Worse, I have no idea how to get this man to haul his ass to a shelter. "Sir, you must follow… protocol…? I-" Fuck it. "Fuck it. Arnaut, help me out."
"Tell him you can meet him later if time allows-"
"No."
"You don't have to actually do it," Arnaut sighs. "But it'll get him to calm down in the moment."
"Fine." I look back up to the man's scruffy face, lit by the glow of his Scroll. "I don't have time for this right now. You need to head to the nearest evacuation shelter. If you have something you want to say to me, say it later."
"Hmm…" he taps his chin. I consider strangling him. "Fine. But I have a few questions for you right now."
"No."
"Two questions."
"No." I can see he's about to keep going and stomp just hard enough to crack the pavement a little. "Shut up and get your ass to an evac shelter before I drag you there myself."
He nods, settles a fedora on his head, and takes off running, Scroll still in hand. For whatever reason, I get a sinking feeling as he leaves, as though I'm going to regret saving him.
Whatever. I chamber another Burn/Blast round into Aurora, release a long breath that curls up into fog in the cool night air, and take off once more, this time moving along the waterfront.
Swarms of Kappa- apparently the Beowolves of the oceans- have emerged and are stalking through the waterfront and all over the docks. Not for long.
Two die before they notice my presence. Two more die before the rest can turn to meet me. One dies lunging at me, one dies from me lunging at it, and the last two fall to a wide Aura Slash that carves a deep crescent moon into the pavement of the waterfront boulevard. From the splashing to my right and the wet skittering from every other direction, though, I gather that I'm far from done.
My grin returns. Enough of these beasts to go around and then some, none of them have any obnoxious abilities, and I'm fighting something other than Beowolves and Ursi for once. It's what I like- a good old one-against-a-hundred beatdown.
"Well? Who's first?"
Despite asking the question, I'm already hissing forward on the final word as my sword slams down and bisects the Kappa unfortunate enough to be the closest to me. With the blade buried half a foot deep into the stone, I hop over it and catch a leaping Kappa by the jaws, snapping them far too wide open breaking them with a sickening snap. The monster remains alive long enough for me to spin it into the path of two more Kappa that come snapping up along the ground towards me. They snap their jagged teeth down onto Grimm meat and pause in confusion long enough for me to spin myself around Aurora's upraised hilt and land with two Aura-enhanced feet stomping one of their skulls into dust. The other shares its friend's fate at the hands of my fist a second later.
I vault back towards my sword once more, wrench it from the ground, and the familiar calm of battle returns to me. More Kappa come. I deal with them as easily as I did their brethren. And when no more approach, I tear off once more to find more of them, and repeat the feat.
Again and again, I dispatch them in swaths, sweeping strikes of Aurora at its full reach sometimes catching two or three in one go. No matter what I'm always surging forward, dodging or countering every attack rather than slowing down to block.
More time passes. All light leaves the sky, though the stars are difficult to see through the haze of light pollution from the city of Argus. Rather than their gentle twinkling light, it's the flickering orange glow of a hundred fires across the city and the pulse of red emergency lights that guide me in my slaughter. Not that my Faunus eyes need the help to pierce the dark of night.
My rhythm is interrupted for the third time when I leap over a final Kappa, sword trailing a deep groove in the ground behind me and easily bisecting the Grimm without faltering in its course. Its then that I slow to a stop, look up, and see that I've reached the western watchtower of Argus, and the end of the waterfront.
I've cleared the entire thing, from one end of the docks to the other. My Scroll is sealed in a protected pocket of my coat, but my hand itches to check the time- how long has it been? When I lose myself in a fight like I have, it all seems to blur.
Suddenly, I hear the *click* of one behind me- the sound that they make when taking a photo. I whirl to see that same fucking civilian from earlier standing on the path, Scroll pointed towards me.
The hell is this guy's problem? "I told you to go to an evacuation shelter."
He grins again, and I notice the glint of a metallic false tooth. "And miss out on a story like this?"
"A story…?" My blood goes cold. "You're not a reporter."
"Yes, miss, I am. And this may just be the article of my lifetime! The Grimm Guardian, talk of Mistral, right in front of me? Photos of her at work?"
"Fuck." I hesitate there, awkward, hand twitching towards my sword- but if I kill this man, Arnaut will… "Arnaut, can I please-"
"Absolutely not," Arnaut says, but with less humor than I'd expected. "This man is innocent of anything but doing his job."
"But if he publishes-"
"Anything he publishes will just be more solid proof of what a large portion of Mistral has already seen or heard about."
That hardly makes me feel better. An awful feeling emerges in my gut as I realize how I let Arnaut trick me again. Although, to call it him tricking me isn't really fair. He didn't trick shit. I just didn't think about what my actions would lead to. I never do. And now this is another kingdom that knows-
Nope. I snap my mind away from the dangerously pessimistic thoughts and back to the battle before me, and the fun promised therein.
"So, miss, about that question?"
I shake my head, beginning to walk away, only hesitating when I hear Arnaut speak. "You know, if there's going to be a story about you… might it as well be one that you control?"
I halt.
Arnaut takes it as an invitation to explain further. "Would you rather the story be made up of his-" he gestures towards the still-waiting reporter- "Educated guesses? Or one that you made up? Because if you leave it up to the country as a whole to piece together, it's a lot more likely that they'll pool up every slip you've made and put two and two together. If you give them an official story to swallow, though?"
I twitch. "Fuck you for being right." I turn to the reporter. "Look, you have it on my word as a Huntress that I'll give you a full interview after this shit calms down, if you just go to a shelter right now."
"A full…" the man trails off. "Okay. Okay! You've got yourself a deal, miss Guardian!" He offers his hand, which I shake with vast reluctance. "The name's Eddie Wright!"
"Go," I growl, rolling my shoulders and thrusting myself into a sprint back up a sloping street and towards where I can still hear some action.
It's only half a minute before I encounter more Grimm- and my first Huntsman, a mid-twenties Faunus wielding a straightsword and pistol. He's dueling a Beowolf Alpha as the pack circles around him, snapping around the edges of his defense and keeping him pinned.
I blow through the surrounding Beowolves like wind through grain and move on faster than he can hope to respond.
From there, the battle grows slower, more deliberate. I aid an overweight Huntress in dealing with a Nevermore, leap off an apartment building in order to ground a Sphinx for a few city guards to deal with, and join a squad of Huntsmen-in-training in dealing with another King Taijitu. I'm never around long enough for any of the various faces to give me anything more than startled greetings, and always leave before returning any of my own.
As I approach the crest of the hill- and the worst of the fighting- I sprint up the wall of a bank and get the full picture from the rooftop: the main wall of Argus is a ruined, smoking mess, with Grimm still coming in from the forest outside that's equal parts snowy and ablaze. It's an apocalyptic sight. Though then again, this horde is not so terrifying as the one that attacked Luskhan.
What puts a sour taste in my mouth are Argus's defenders- more specifically, those of them that wear Atlesian military uniform. I've been able to ignore the airships above up until now, but now faced with the idea of fighting side-by-side with Atlesians…
I can't do it. I scan the frontlines and see something promising- a large stretch of broken wall, through which several massive elephantine creatures are breaching. All around their feet are red-and-gold wearing guardsmen and Huntsmen.
I realize halfway down from my rooftop leap, too late, that this must be Nyssa and Pyrrha's family guard.
As I land amongst them, rather than the gratitude I've felt up until this point, I'm met with a wave of annoyance verging on outright hostility.
"You! Mistral Huntresses are to fight else-"
I don't catch the tail end of the soldier's orders as I release the Aura in my back leg and hurtle end-over-end through the air above one of the massive Grimm.
It flicks its head up with deceptive speed and swipes at me with a long tendril emerging from its face. In midair, I lack the repositioning abilities I need to dodge, and take the hit dead-on.
Instead of getting knocked flying, though, I snatch the appendage with all my strength, and manage to keep hold of it. The beast hesitates, showing intelligence in the way it seems to consider the new situation. Unfortunately for it, it'd have been better off simply flailing away like an unthinking monster, because it halting even for a moment gives me my opening to vault up along the length of its tendril and land astride its head.
It roars, rears back, tries to shake me. Almost succeeds.
But I raise Aurora's hilt above my head, channel ten percent of my Aura into it, and stab it down point-first into the skull of the Grimm.
The bone cracks, but doesn't break.
"Dreki, it's a Goliath! The armor's too thick even for Aurora to get through."
The Goliath slams its front legs back to the ground, jolting me off in front of it, and charges, catching me like a fly on the windshield of its skull. Two massive red eyes peer at me with something approaching triumph as it charges forward despite the harassing attacks of the Guardsmen and Huntsmen around its legs.
I brace my Aura for impact.
It slams into the stone wall of a massive complex of some sort, breaking me through two feet of rebar-reinforced concrete. Instantly my remaining Aura drops from sixty to around twenty percent and every bit of my breath out of me, leaving me doubled over on the ground desperately drawing in air in tiny hiccups.
"Goliaths are ancient Grimm, Dreki," Arnaut lectures, like he always seems to whenever I'm unable to respond to him. Bastard. "They're too strong to kill in one strike and too intelligent to underestimate like that. I worry that fighting all these lesser Grimm may have taught you the wrong lessons."
"I'll… lessons," I croak, slamming a fist into the carpeted floor in order to push myself to my feet.
"Pardon?"
"I'll show… you… lessons," I growl, retrieving Aurora and dropping into Spring Cloud right in the Dreki-shaped gap in the wall.
"Dreki, no! Don't-"
I discharge all the Aura from my back foot and launch myself towards the side of the Goliath, slamming my blade a foot into its incredibly tough hide. It bellows in rage and bucks again, swinging that long appendage that I now recognize as a nose at the air where I was- but I've already launched myself back towards the ruins of a watchtower, and its own blow pounds into the hilt of Aurora, driving it another foot or so into the Goliath's hide.
Another bellow, but I'm already gathering Aura in my feet, and the moment they touch the stone of the watchtower wall I've launched myself back in to kick with both feet directly against the crosspiece of Aurora, slamming it another foot and a half into the Goliath.
The beast stumbles, beginning to fall, and I launch myself upwards. It collapses onto its side beneath me, but I land feet-first again directly onto Aurora's crosspiece, driving it the final foot and a half down into the Goliath's flesh.
It releases one last roar that comes out more of a wheeze, and then dissolves beneath me.
I retrieve Aurora and take off, again ignoring the agitated sounds of one of the Nikos soldiers as I head off towards another of the Goliaths- this one much larger, though.
"Dreki, what you just pulled off was impressive, but… that's an Alpha Goliath. You can't…" Arnaut sighs as I spin Aurora up into Spring Cloud. "Oh, damn it all."
Just as the gathered Aura in my back foot reaches a breaking point and I start to launch myself forward, a commanding baritone voice rings out from behind me: "You! Who are you? This region has been designated as House Nikos's to defend."
I turn to see a massive man, easily seven feet tall in his armored boots. He's all carved gold-bronze plates, brown leather, and red cloth, tanned on what skin is visible on his biceps and thighs.
My mouth goes dry. "I…"
"No matter." He steps right past me and draws a heavy spear from his back, bringing his round shield to bear before him as he approaches the Goliath.
For a moment, I wonder what he hopes to accomplish.
Then he stomps one foot down, thrusts his shield forward, and shouts "Aegis!"
The Alpha Goliath, already bleeding from several wounds, is somehow launched off its feet and sent flying ten meters into the wall of the building I crashed into- but that's the least of his shout's fallout. The building's wall all but implodes from the shockwave of nothing but his voice, and even I- standing behind him- stagger a few steps backward.
Is this the Nikhos Semblance?
Shocked as I am, I unthinkingly look with my left eye, the Grimm one, and my breath catches.
Right off the bat, his Aura is absurd. It's easily larger than Armstrong's, which when brought to bear on me felt suffocating in its own right. I can sense it like a barely-contained sun, feel the waves pulsing out through that shield of his and know that if it were brought to face me I'd crumple just under the pressure.
But there's something more. His Aura isn't the nondescript humanoid shape that most people have. It's more detailed, and doesn't exactly match his form- where he's clad in leather and bronze vambraces, greaves, and a chestplate, the figure of his Aura is wearing nothing but a loincloth and a lion's skin, face showing through the wide-open jaws of the beast.
Activating Arnaut's Semblance on instinct, even without touching the man, I feel… something. Heroism, but not selflessness… just a sheer, overwhelming might.
"Who…"
"That would be Chrysos Nikos. Eldest son of Irenus Nikos, three-time Mistral Dueling Champion, heir to the Nikos shipping fortune, and strongest of the Nikos children."
"His Aura…"
Arnaut blinks at me. "You can sense that already? Well, well. That's part of his Semblance."
"What…"
I trail off as Chrysos approaches me and levels his spear point-first at me. "Now, little Faunus. Speak. Who authorized you to fight in the Nikos region of the battlefront?"
"I…" My throat feels dry, and my eyes keep dancing over towards his shield, upon which seems to be carved a monstrous many-headed snake of some sort. "I don't…"
Two piercing green eyes, almost seeming to glow through the dark t-shaped gap in his helm, lay heavily upon me. "I do not have all day. Identify yourself, or be treated as an enemy. You have ten seconds. Nine. Eight."
"I'm the Grimm Guardian!" I blurt out.
He tilts his head slightly. "Are you?" I sense his gaze rest on my left eye. "Grimm, I will believe. But Guardian? That remains to be proven."
"I met your siste-"
Fuck. The words escaped my mouth before I could stop them. This is really, really bad- I do not want to be the one to break to this monster that his little sister is dead. But now that I've mentioned her-
Wait. I can just say it was Pyrrha, right? That should fit with my story of having spent time as a Huntsman in Vale.
I open my mouth, the lie already on my lips. It dies when I look up to see that he's removed his plumed helmet to reveal a head of short-cut curly hair and a short beard, both of a red so dark it's bordering on black. He affixes me again with those eyes- not cocky, but superior. No insecurity. "Which sister, little Faunus? The one who is dead, or the one who is missing?"
"I-"
"Because," he rumbles, rising to his feet and pointing the tip of his spear at my chest, "Considering that neither are able to prove you false, I suspect either would make a convenient witness."
"Dreki, tell him you were friends with Pyrrha. It's the easier of the two lies-"
I start to do as Arnaut says, but hesitate- I never met the girl. Anything I say about her could be wrong without me knowing. Maybe it would be better to say I met Nyssa, and got separated from her in a snowstorm. But a Faunus saying that after disobeying their military code?
"Again with the pause," Chrysos muses. "I can smell the guilt dripping from you- guilt, or cowardice. So which is it? Come, now."
"I-"
"Brother!"
And heralded by the rays of the rising sun, I feel a blossom of hope in my heart to match the blossoming warmth on my skin as a red-haired girl about my age comes sprinting over the top of a hill and picks her way through the ruined forest.
Chrysos straightens, planting his club in the ground and rolling his shoulders before a wide grin spreads across his face. "Nyssa!"
Ten feet out from him, Nyssa leaps up into his waiting bear hug. I turn my gaze away, feeling like an intruder upon their family moment, and notice then that the last of the Grimm are gone. And also that I fought through the night without sleeping, which cannot possibly be good for my health. And on a related note, that I'm very tired. In fact, just letting my eyes close and dropping asleep right here is seeming like a better and better idea by the moment.
"Nyssa, you must show me the footage of your tournament," Chrysos insists, but then in an instant his voice loses its mirth. "Firstly, however. Do you know this Faunus girl?"
I look up from where I'm sitting and make my best winning smile at Nyssa. "Hey there."
"Dreki!" Nyssa's expression somehow grows even brighter as she shifts her attention to me. "You're alive!"
"Yay…" I murmur, eyelids feeling heavier and heavier. "I… haven't slept since…"
"Dreki, I do not think falling asleep here would be an advisable decision," Arnaut warns.
I don't think I have much of a say in it, I say. At least, I think I say. Or maybe I dreamt it.
When I awaken, I'm sleeping in the nicest bed I've slept in since…
Holy shit, ever. The thing's easily eight feet on a side and feels like a pit of quicksand sucking me in. It takes a fair bit of flailing for me to successfully extricate myself from under five layers of blankets, and I'm still tangled in one or two of them when I roll myself out of the bed entirely and slam into the expensive-looking carpet. When I rise to my feet and awkwardly hop while kicking the last of the blankets off my leg, I realize with a flush that someone must have changed me into the silk pajamas I'm wearing. For the first time in five months, I'm out of the utilitarian clothes Sekhma made me-
Oh shit. My clothes. My coat.
My Scroll!
I'm only panicked for a few seconds before noticing that my belongings are piled up on one of the several cabinets scattered around the room. The clothes are all washed and patched up, but that's at the edge of my mind- front and center is my paranoia about my Scroll.
Is there anything on there that could've given me away? The only thing I can think of are the message exchanges with Neo, but she always talks in code and nothing there is explicitly incriminating. In fact, she's the only number registered on it, besides… Roman.
My heart falls when I read his name on the contacts, but then my melancholy gives way to a sudden confusion. There's a third contact there: Nyssa Nikos.
Unsure how to react, I hurriedly pull on my skirt and top, followed by my coat and boots and gloves-
There's a small noise from the corner of the room and I yelp, only to color when I see Arnaut, who I somehow forgot about in my daze. "Arnaut, where the hell am I? Is this prison? Why is Argus prison so nice?"
"You're in one of the guest bedrooms of the Nikos estate. A guest of honor, actually," he says, amusement clear in his tone. "Although I'd be careful what I said. This room's likely wired, if not hooked up with a full camera system."
"Why am I here?" I look around frantically for Aurora and find it braced against the wall beside the door in its sheathe.
"Like I said, you're a guest of honor," Arnaut sighs. "That Nyssa girl's description of your Grimm-fighting with her, coupled with some other eyewitness accounts of your exploits during the Battle of Argus, were enough that House Nikos saw fit to take you in when you collapsed from exhaustion."
A tiny bit of stress evacuates my shoulders. "Oh."
"I'd say you should try that girl's number and see where the day takes you," Arnaut suggests lazily, lying back in his chair. "She really did say only nice things about you, you know."
"I'm not-" I feel myself color again and bite my lip. "She isn't someone I…"
Arnaut raises an eyebrow. "She isn't Neo, you mean."
"Fuck off." He laughs at that, which only irritates me more. However, I don't see a better plan than his for how to proceed, so I tap the Nyssa Nikos contact and pen a quick message: 'Awake now. Where should I go?'
Almost immediately, I get a return message: 'Be right there.'
It's less than thirty seconds before an out-of-breath Nyssa yanks open the door. I'm about to speak when I pause at the sight of her- she's wearing a compression top and workout pants, not the armor or winter gear I'd seen her in previously. Her hair's still done up in a ponytail, but without the braiding or the curls falling at the sides of her face.
"…What?" she asks, somewhat self-consciously.
"Nothing," I answer quickly, feeling equally self-conscious. "I just- nevermind. Look, thanks for all of…" I gesture generally around me, "This, but I have to keep going on to Atlas."
"Atlas?" Nyssa frowns. "Why Atlas- right, right," she amends, holding up her palms, "Let me guess, you're not going to answer. But I suppose it doesn't much matter why. All civilian transport to and from Solitas has been barred. Your only hope would be to talk to Cordovin, which…"
"She Atlas military?"
"Yeah."
I shake my head. "Figures. Well, I guess that makes things a little more difficult. You're sure there's nothing? None of the Nikos freighters are hauling anything?"
"Quite sure," Nyssa replies. "If they were, Father wouldn't be in such a foul mood all the time."
"Ah." Father, meaning Irenus Nikos. I'm glad that I won't be meeting him.
"Speaking of which, you've been invited to our dinner tonight."
"Huh?" I freeze up, then remember that I have all day to sneak out. "Oh, yeah, sure."
"Great! We'll be eating in half an hour. Ah… you might want to put on something more formal than that."
"This is all I have," I mutter.
She gives me an odd look- pity? "Yeah. Your backpack got lost in that avalanche, right? I think there're some options in those wardrobes in there, though." She takes a step back. "I'll see you in twenty-five minutes, 'kay?"
"Okay," I repeat. It's only when the door closes right in front of me that I snap into the realization that No, I don't have all day to escape. I have twenty-five minutes. "Oh, shit. Arnaut, is there a window? Or an air vent?"
"Why- oh, tell me you aren't planning on sneaking out of this, Dreki."
"Tell me- what?" I pause, flabbergasted. "No shit I want out of this. What good could possibly come out of me- a Faunus criminal living a lie- sitting down for dinner with the royalty of Northern Mistral!?"
"Loosen up for once, Dreki," Arnaut sighs. "They have no reason to suspect you of anything. You have the forged documents on your Scroll to support your story. Unless you make some truly grievous error, you should be more than fine."
"That's what I'm worried about," I growl, looking around for any exit. In desperation, I even pull open the wardrobes-
And pause. There's a wide assortment of dress coats hanging in front of me, ranging from gossamer-thin and dresslike to the heavy sort almost like a military uniform.
"This could be beneficial to selling your story," Arnaut says, suddenly standing behind me. "And Nyssa vouched for you. Whatever else you may say, you can't tell me you'd rather guaranteedly embarrass her before her family, as well as drawing the suspicions of Argus, than simply run the risk of embarrassing yourself?"
I don't reply, but at this point the decision's been all but made for me by virtue of the fact that I can't leave this room except through the front door, and I don't know what that opens up to or where it leads. My options are buck up or run through the halls of a strange mansion like a maniac, and I wouldn't particularly enjoy explaining to Chrysos if I happened to run into him.
"Fine," I hiss in a long-suffering tone, before rifling through the dress coats. Finally I settle on one of the more militaristic ones, reaching for the hook-
"No, not that one," Arnaut says. "Go two down- no, the other down- yes, that one."
The one he's picked out is a heavy dark grey one with a high collar and opens up just below the waist in the front while sweeping much lower along the sides and back. There's a pattern of black stitching along the bottom edge of the coat, the collar, and the shoulders that's almost reminiscent of feathers.
I oblige him and he responds with a genuine grin. "Fantastic. Now, for your actual clothing, I'd recommend that dress, those leggings, and those boots- no, wait, the ones to their left. Yes."
With ten minutes left, I shift to the bathroom mirror and look at myself- and, in no small amount of horror, at the still-visible Grimm eye. "Shit. Shit, shit, shit. Arnaut, did you see any fancy eyepatches in there?"
"No," he says. "Perhaps try the medicine cabinet? I feel a simple white bandage wouldn't be too improper to wear."
I luck out. In the cabinet I find black bandages close to the ones I've been wearing for a while now and wrap them around my head in a practiced manner. "Great. Now, how the hell do I explain that to the ones who've already seen it? Ideas?"
"Hmm." Arnaut murmurs to himself for a bit, pacing. "I think it's about time we come up with a story on what your Semblance is. Not just for this, but later, for that reporter-"
"Right, thanks for reminding me about that," I growl, dropping back down on the bed. "Remind me how you convinced me to talk to a fucking reporter?"
"You remember it well enough yourself," Arnaut says distractedly. "But more importantly- I've got it. An answer for your little eye problem. Hear me out- rare genetic condition."
"What?"
"Rare genetic condition," he repeats.
"Are you shitting me right now?"
"No."
"The best thing you can come up with is a genetic condition to explain my eye? Seriously? You convinced an entire kingdom that you piss gold and shit diamonds, and the best lie about me that you could conceive, after an entire fucking night to think about it, was a rare genetic condition?"
Arnaut levels an over-it look at me. "Do you have a better idea?"
"…no."
.
.
.
Nyssa's dining room isn't actually a room.
I realize this only after she leads me out an open door into a vast, perfectly-kept garden terrace, along several paths and up to a stone gazebo surrounded by statues of men and women in armor. At her direction, I step up a series of steps and up to a raised patio with a single large marble table. The top is inlaid with gilded patterns and the legs are carved in the shape of winged women clad in flowing robes holding it up.
She sits down along the side of the table, directly to my right. I try to sit beside her in the corner, out of the way, but halt when she puts up a hand-
"No, Dreki, you're the guest. You should sit there," she says, gesturing to a seat at the end of the table that two uniformed housekeepers pull out for me.
As much as I dislike being the center of attention, I don't see much choice here, and fall into my seat at the end of the table directly across from the Nikos patriarch.
Looking towards the man himself, I can only make out his dark outline against the backlight of the orange sunset. It takes a bit for my eyes to adjust, after which I can make out a few features- a head starting to go bald, but still lined at the sides and back with a deep scarlet hair. His skin is weathered but not wrinkled, and most notably, two piercing green eyes that almost seem to glow in the twilight. They burn into me in a way that reminds me of Armstrong.
The first food arrives and everyone eats in a silence that weighs down on top of me. Besides Irenus, there's three chairs on each side of the table- to my left, there's a younger boy, then the massive Chrysos, and then closest to Irenus an older woman I take to be his wife. On my right sits Nyssa, then an empty seat, and finally a young woman whose scarlet hair is cut short at her jawline.
I realize with a touch of melancholy that the empty seat must have belonged to Pyrrha.
The silence looms, becoming more than awkward- I fear to let it go on, yet also to break it. Looking around, the only person who appears happy to be present is Nyssa herself, and even her smile doesn't quite reach her eyes, which occasionally dart over towards the empty seat.
Suddenly, the boy directly at my left stands up quickly enough that his chair topples behind him. It's only once he rises to his feet that I realize how young he is- he can't be more than twelve or thirteen, yet the look he shoots me briefly as he rushes off has all the disgust and loathing of a much older soul.
On instinct, startled and curious, I reach out and brush him with my fingertips as he passes me-
An animalistic creature, branded with the sigil of the White Fang, with clawed hands stained with red blood, and worse, with bits of red hair trapped in them-
"You mongrel," he snaps, stepping back and yanking his hand away. "How dare you-"
"Jax." Chrysos, the massive one from last night, also rises from his chair and lays a hand on the kid's shoulder. "She is a guest."
"She's a-"
"Enough!" Irenus says in a voice slightly raised, but the difference in volume is enough to cause everyone but me in the room to collectively flinch. "Ajax, you are clearly unable to remain civil. Go to your chambers."
"I'll see him there," says Irenus's tired-looking wife, rising from her chair beside him. Through the curtain of her raven hair as she passes me, I see a glimpse of the same sort of loathing as Ajax had in her eyes as well, but much more muted.
My stomach begins to churn. It's as I suspected- that little piece of shit would rather go to his fucking room than sit down to eat dinner with a Faunus, and his bitch of a mother supports him in it. When I glance back towards the table, three seats now lie empty, leaving only me, Nyssa, the older sister, Chrysos, and Irenus.
And out of those four, only Nyssa's eyes bear anything resembling friendship when they look at me.
Irenus offers no apology for the behavior of his other family members, and I don't ask for any. Instead, he sighs and speaks his first words of the night: "Chrysos, Adelphe, Nyssa. Leave us."
The older two rise from their seats, but Nyssa seems to hesitate. "Father, I-"
He doesn't even need to say anything, instead simply turning a sullen look upon her that causes her to fall silent and rise to her feet immediately. I get one last supportive look from her as she steps out towards the main house, and then the silence returns.
Irenus breaks it again a few seconds later. "Now then. Little Faunus-"
That's it. "I have a name."
"Excuse me?"
"I said," I say, working my jaw to release some of the stress before lifting my eye to meet his, "I have a name. Dreki."
For a long moment, I'm struck with a formless fear as he seems to weigh my entire being with a heavy gaze- but the tension is broken as quickly as it emerged. "And a family name?"
"For that, I'd need a family."
He tilts his head ever so slightly, ignoring the servant that approaches and takes away his plate with a bit of food still on it. "Hm. Well then, Dreki, I've invited you here to thank you for your aid in defending my city."
"It was nothing," I mutter, glancing down at the plate of seafood that's been placed in front of me. Under my breath, to Arnaut, I murmur "Didn't hundreds of people aid in defending his city?"
"Well, hundreds of people haven't built up as much of a name as you have," Arnaut sighs.
"You are correct. It was nothing," Irenus states, surprising me enough to draw my eyes and attention fully back onto him. "We are both reasonably intelligent creatures, so we can dispose of the formalities. I've allowed you to grace my table because I have several questions for you, and it would be more civilized to ask them over dinner than… elsewhere."
And there it is, I think, eyes hardening. I should've known. "Ask away, then."
"You. Follow me," Irenus commands, stepping out of his seat and off towards a cleared area of colored stones. After a moment of hesitation, I follow, and when I get closer I notice that the stones are actually a mosaic of a muscle-bound man clad in the fur of a lion.
He stops at the edge of it, beside a carved stone railing that looks down over the entire city of Argus. Looking around, I realize firstly that this place is built high on the side of one of the mountains that ring the city's eastern, southern and western sides. And secondly, just how massive it is. The estate stretches for easily a kilometer to either side and several kilometers down the mountainside. It's a veritable compound, too, with several rings of large walls and visible military-grade defenses.
"The first question is not from my position as Archgovernor of Northern Mistral, but as a father." I turn to see Irenus looking down at me with those hollowing eyes. "After the terrorists' attacks on the CCT towers in Vale and Mistral, information has been scarce. My sources tell me you were present for the reclaiming of Vale. I would ask as to the fate of my daughter Pyrrha."
It's only then that I notice the slightest of trembles to his hand gripped on the edge of the stone wall. "What are you asking?"
Anger rises behind his eyes, but not towards me. "I am asking if my daughter is dead. The initial report stated that she was, and yet Vale has as of yet been unable to provide a cause of death or a body."
I bite my lip, unsure if he's liable to shoot the messenger here. Arnaut notices. "Dreki, I've met with Irenus before. He's prone to be irrational, but never for things like petty emotion- he won't bear you any resentment for simply telling him what you know."
Fine. I think back to the conversations I listened to among Russel's team. When they did mention Pyrrha, it was always in tones hushed with loss, but I was still able to piece together something of a coherent series of events.
I turn to meet Irenus's eyes. "I wasn't there for the Fall, but- I spoke to some people who were. They said that she went up Beacon Tower to deal with the one controlling the Wyvern, and that she was… killed, in the process."
Irenus's expression doesn't waver. "And the body?"
"The…" I trail off. I actually know the answer, but again I bite my lip, hesitant to deliver news of this breed. "Uh, they said… that she was burned to ashes."
"I see." Again, despite the news, Irenus's stoic expression doesn't shift- and when it does, it's to a subtle gratitude as he nods to me. "Truth can be hard. But it's the only thing of value. Thank you."
I know that quote from all the times Arnaut cited it to me. It's one of Alorn's.
The moment lingers briefly, and then disappears as his face hardens once more. "Now, then, I ask you not as a father, but as the Archgovernor: who are you?"
"Huh?" I blink.
"I do not enjoy repeating myself. I ask once more: who are you, to come to this continent and cut a path through bandits and Grimm all through Western, Central and Northern Mistral?"
"I-"
He's not finished. "I have sources claiming you've been seen with Raven Branwen, Jakkar Lionheart, and Maybelline Malachite. What's more, we tested the fresh blood on your gloves against the Atlesian criminal database and found that it belonged to Adam Taurus. So explain. Who are you?"
"I…" I trail off, unsure where even to begin. I've been lying for months, but to do it here, to this man, seems riskier than-
Well, not riskier than telling the truth, I think, as a morbid grin flickers across my face for an instant. "I'm a- well, I was a student of Arnaut Sylvas. He died seven months ago, and after that I've been making my way across the continents- walking his Eternal Path. After tying up his loose ends in Vacuo and Vale, Mistral was next, so…"
As far as I can tell, he seems to be buying it so far, so I continue. "Dealing with Grimm and Bandits is the job of a Huntress, right? I only met with Raven Branwen to get the price off of my back after killing too many of her men. Jakkar Lionheart is an old friend, and Malachite… I needed some information on an old friend."
"And the blood of Adam Taurus?"
"I..." I wonder how to phrase this. "I found him wounded on my way here and put him out of his misery."
He nods slowly, but I still can't get a read on his impassive expression. "Very well. However, I have another question you've yet to answer."
"Yeah?"
He looks right at the cloth covering my Grimm eye. "Arnaut was the Golden Guardian. Why, then, is your title 'Grimm'?"
"Because of the way my eye looks. It's a…" Gods damn it. "Rare genetic condition."
Another long pause, until finally Irenus sighs and turns back to look out over the city. When I turn as well, I see the last few bits of sunlight fade out from the horizon as night sweeps in.
"You helped my daughter and my city. Is there anything I can do for you in return, Huntress?"
I don't turn to look at him, but my mind is racing with ideas, most of which would be a terrible idea and give me away if asked. Eventually, Arnaut rescues me from my indecision. "Ask him for passage to Atlas."
"Passage to Solitas," I say.
Irenus makes a disgruntled noise. "That I cannot do."
"What?" I glance over and see that he's cracked, showing a bit of frustration. "Aren't you the Archgover-"
"It doesn't matter. Atlas has sealed their borders. Even I cannot sway them in that." Irenus steps back, rolls his shoulders, and begins striding off towards the house. "You are welcome to remain here for two more nights. I'm sure Nyssa, at least, will be glad for the company."
"Thanks…" I trail off as he leaves earshot, and then turn back towards the city. It really is a phenomenal view, even in the aftermath of a Grimm attack. A thousand multicolored lights of homes and still-smouldering fires leading up to the blue light of the moon reflecting on the sea.
"You're beginning to not need me to help you with your lies," Arnaut muses.
I make a noise of assent, but don't move from my spot admiring the view. Arnaut takes the hint and falls quiet as well.
For half an hour we remain there, watching the glittering lights.
Then reality sets in, and I start to move. First swinging by my room to pick up any necessary supplies and changing out of the formal clothes, I pack what I have left and take off back where I came from, moving through the gardens quickly and quietly until I reach the balcony terrace. A quick glance in either direction reveals that I'm alone, which means that I can swing over the railing and-
I freeze, clinging to the outer edge of the wall below the terrace, when I see that someone else is hanging beside me.
It's that fucking reporter from earlier.
I hear the quiet noise of a picture being taken on his Scroll, and then he lowers it to grin at me. "So, how 'bout that interview?"
"How long have you been there?" I ask in overwhelming disbelief at what I'm seeing. The sight of this middle-aged man in worn clothing casually suspending himself easily a kilometer above the city is beyond cartoonish. He's holding on with only one hand, too, the other clutching his Scroll.
"I'd say an hour, give or take. Heard your whole conversation with Archgovernor Irenus, if that's what you're wonderin' about." He's utterly shameless.
"You're trespassing," I state. It's not a question.
"My journalistic ethos is that- what's the quote? Truth is hard, but it's the only thing of value? I mean, you heard the Archgovernor say it, right?"
"I should turn you in," I mutter.
I think he pales at that, but it's hard to tell in the moonlight. "Now, then, missy, let's not be hasty! I'm just a friendly neighborhood reporter trying to get a good scoop on-"
"You're-" I glance down, gauging distance- "Twenty meters up a wall in a military compound that you probably snuck into. And you're gonna play the 'poor little me' card?"
"So about that interview?" It's like he didn't even hear me. His grin pisses me off at first, but then something- maybe the rush of freedom that I always feel climbing off high places, or maybe simple relief at the Irenus conversation being over- causes me to instead laugh.
"Here?"
"Nah," he says, glancing down at the rooftop twenty meters below us. "I know a spot."