CHAPTER XII

Chessmasters

Qrow sat at the very back of the peanut gallery, listening in on the Mistral Council, on which his wife was a sitting member. Winter also attended as an ambassador, a title and role granted to her several weeks back by the Atlas government, a move completely unexpected given the increasing isolation from the country.

The hell are you planning, Sergei, Qrow mused as he shifted in his seat.

The discussion moved to the growing belligerence between Atlas and Vacuo. Two members of the council were in favor of some measure of involvement, but the overwhelming majority opted for non-intervention. Qrow could see the frustration in his wife's demeanor, but she did well to keep it hidden. At least, from the rest of the council. This was his wife. He knew without a doubt when things were bothering her.

When the council adjourned and the members dismissed, only Qrow remained with Winter and Hollie. He joined the two women on the floor.

"You doin' okay, beb?" Qrow said.

Hollie gave him a glance and sighed heavily. "I wish these guys knew what we knew. Funny because half of them actually lived through the war nineteen years ago."

"But they didn't fight in it like we did," Winter said.

"Yeah, I guess."

"I'm still tryin'a wrap my head around this whole ambassador thing," Qrow said to Winter. "Weren't you supposed to be on the run or something?"

"Not officially," she said. "I'm sure they've been keeping an eye on me ever since I got to Mistral last year, but I haven't been promoted to the rank of traitor just yet. I'm officially on paid leave."

"And what about your unit?"

"My executive officer is more than capable. She will keep things running while I'm away."

"No, what I mean is, do you think the country is gonna try and do anything to decrease your power?"

"General Holland likely views me as a potential threat. His first move in the open will be to disband the Schneesturm Specialist Corps officially, moving all of my closest officers into new commissions where they will be completely powerless and splitting up all of my men and pressing them into other units."

"Effectively stripping you of all your power," Hollie said.

"Yes. I don't underestimate my men, however. Those who work in the shadows will likely disappear as soon as such an order is given, to reemerge when a certain signal hits the airwaves."

"I'm guessing that's a signal only you and your most trusted lieutenants know."

"Of course."

"At least you have everything planned out in advance."

"Does this have something to do with your own position?"

Hollie sighed. "I'm not a military leader or anything like that. I'm just a teacher at a Huntsman Academy."

"You hungry?" Qrow asked his wife.

"Kinda. Why?"

"What about you?" he asked Winter.

She read the situation loud and clear and declined politely.

"Looks like it's just you and me for lunch, beb," he said.

"I'll go home ahead of you and get changed and shit," Hollie said, leaving the two behind.

"Will she be all right?" Winter asked Qrow.

"I hope so," he said. "You gonna get into contact with Atlas regarding all this?"

"I have to. Given my position, I don't really have a choice."

"Right. I'll get in touch with Oz later. Say 'yo' to Jimmy for me, yeah?"

"And you can confirm these reports?" Oscar said.

"I'm afraid so," Glynda said.

He sighed before heading to the window to look out over the city of Vale. "There's really nothing we can do, is there?"

"About the buildup of military forces in Atlas and in Vacuo? Probably not."

"And the same goes for our own country. We haven't seen a mobilization this large since the war almost twenty years ago."

"Mistral has also declared non-aggression, but the odd thing is the relative quiet over in Menagerie."

"Yes, that has bothered me. I spoke with Queen Belladonna a few days ago and she also vented her frustration with her country's council. It seems all of Menagerie is against the idea of war."

"It's understandable. Their kingdom is officially less than a year old and they have the lowest population and the weakest military force. It would be best to approach the table with economic strategy instead of aggression. The Dust deposits discovered in the central and eastern sections of the continent should provide plenty of negotiating power in that regard."

"I don't think Sergei is in any mood for negotiations. The last time we had contact with him was during the Vytal Festival. He hasn't been taking any of our calls and all of their ambassadors have been pulled from Vale, Vacuo, and Menagerie. Only Winter remains in Mistral."

"Do you think he has any intentions of aligning Atlas with Mistral against Vale and Vacuo again? Just like a hundred years ago?"

"It's a possibility. Or at the very least, keep them out of the fight. Mistral has already declared non-intervention, so if that's the goal, then Sergei has already accomplished it. I do have to admit I'm a bit worried about Leon and Ivory."

"Because of that whole fugitive case a while back?"

"Yes. And every single one of our people is a potential target for assassination if we cause too many problems for them."

She paused for a moment. "I have a feeling you have particular concern for their children."

Oscar sighed heavily. "You've heard what Raven's team has had to say about the matter. And the report that Tai just sent. And all of the other bizarre phenomena around the world. It's not just the impending war that we have on our plate. We're dealing with otherworldly occurrences as well."

"The Labyrinth."

"I wish he were still alive. Even without his power, he at least knew what was going on with all of this. He always had an explanation for these things. I am well-versed in our own world's cosmological order, not that of another world entirely. Whatever paradigm the Labyrinth and all this magic comes from, its nature is not even close to our world."

"Dr. Hillphire and Dr. Cherenkov have been making progress in their studies, though."

"It's still not enough. I doubt any of us can figure things out before something catastrophic happens. We've already dealt with twenty mass vanishings to date, including whole villages and towns that just empty themselves of their people. And given what we know now about Kuroyuri and those Daemons, whatever they are, I fear the worst for our world."

Glynda stood right beside him. "Ozpin, I know you have a lot of doubts these days. After all, things aren't as they once were. But I want you to know that I am always by your side and will continue to be until the end."

He turned to his assistant headmaster, the one whom he could count on to be there when he needed her most. Even if it was for mere morale reasons, she would always be there.

"Thank you, Glynda," he said. "Truth be told, I might need you now more than ever."

Neptune leaned back in his chair, sighing heavily. A war was brewing and there was nothing he could do about it. There was no way he was going to suggest to Kronos Jupiter that capitulating to the Schnee Dust Company was the right thing to do. He didn't even believe that himself. After all, appeasement only leads to further encroachments. History has shown that plenty of times in the past.

"I guess we did have a good run, though, didn't we?" he mused.

There was a knock on his door.

"Come in," he said as he sat up.

"Headmaster Vasilias," Orion said as he walked in, shutting the door behind him.

"You really won't drop the formalities ever, will you?"

"It's my way of showing respect to your position."

"I guess I can't argue against that."

"Have you thought about what we discussed?"

"Yeah, I have, actually. You know you'd be the youngest in the history of the academies if we went through with this."

"On the bright side, you'd finally be able to relax."

"Yeah, right, relax? With a war on the horizon?"

"Hence why I made the suggestion."

Neptune sighed. "Yeah, I guess. I can't deny that you were top of your class when you graduated. Hell, I'm pretty sure you were the highest scoring in the strategies and tactics categories in the history of our academy."

"It was one of the fields in which our country was quite lacking compared to the other kingdoms, which is why I pursued them with much more rigor than the rest of my subjects."

"Hmm. Do you really think you've got the chops? You know it's not just the academy you will be leading. You'll be in charge of an entire country."

"I know. I am aware of the burden I will be taking and I accept it."

"If that's the case, then sure. We'll make the announcement at the end of the school year."

"What about you? What will you do once you step down?"

"I'm a Huntsman. I'll go back to doing what I do best. Hunt for the hearts of maidens."

Orion sighed heavily.

"In all seriousness," Neptune laughed, "I'll probably go back to teaching classes."

"On how to win hearts?"

"You know me so well, Orion!"

"Master Whitley," Klein said as he entered Whitley's office. "The coffee you requested."

"Thank you, Klein," Whitley said, gesturing for him to enter.

"You seem preoccupied, sir."

"You've been watching the news, too, haven't you?"

"I have."

"Do you think we'll really go to war?"

"It is a certainty at this point. With the curfew that has been in place since last year and the sudden increase in wartime production, we are most definitely going to war."

Whitley let out a heavy sigh, ruminating for a while before taking a sip of the coffee, the same blend that Ivory enjoyed so much. The sound of excited laughter grew louder and louder until the door burst open and all three of his children piled through. He set down his mug in anticipation of the assault, catching Finn and Bianca as they jumped into his lap.

"Papa!" they both repeated over and over again.

"I am terribly sorry, Master Whitley!" one of the maids said as she panted in the doorway mid-curtsey. "I tried to stop them, but—"

"Don't worry about it, Mildred," Whitley chuckled, holding his children close. "Gwen, where are you?"

"Over here, father," she said, curtseying from beside his chair.

"No need to be so formal when it's just us."

The youngest smiled before pulling a nearby chair to sit next to him.

"She takes after the late mistress, does she not?" Klein said.

"She does," Whitley said. "So much."

"Okay, children," Mildred said, "you've all got to study before you can play with your father."

"Aww!" Finn and Bianca said together as they lazily slid down to the floor.

"Very well, Mildred," Gwen said, returning her chair.

"You see, that is how a proper lady behaves," Mildred said.

The youngest curtseyed and the two elder children responded by sticking out their tongues.

"How mature," Gwen said.

Whitley couldn't help but smile as his children headed to the door. "Wait," he said, getting up and following after them. He knelt on the ground. "Come here."

All three ran to him and the whole family shared in one giant embrace.

"Papa, is something wrong?" Bianca asked him.

"No," he said, stifling the tears. He couldn't let his youngsters see them just yet. "Everything is fine. Papa will take care of everything."

"Okay."

"You kids be good, all right? Don't give Mildred and the others a hard time."

"I gotta be ready to show off my glyphs when Ivory comes back from her mission!" Finn said, excitedly summoning small glyphs in either hand.

"Exactly."

"Me, too!" Bianca said, showing off her own glyphs, which weren't as stable or sharp as her big brother's glyphs. "Aww!" she said as both of them flickered out.

"It's okay sis!" Finn said. "We can practice together!"

"Yay!"

Gwen curtseyed as they all left the room together.

"They sure grow up fast, don't they, Master Whitley?" Klein said.

"They do," he said. "We still have more of those coffee beans Ivory had specially ordered, yes?"

"We do, sir."

"Set some aside."

"For?"

"She will return home eventually. I don't want her coming back to an empty pantry."

"Very well, sir."

Hillphire stood in front of all the data before him. He had just gotten off the line with Ariadne and Dr. Cherenkov discussing all of the information both parties had been gathering about the Labyrinth. There were still so many unanswered questions, such as the very origin of such a world, what sustains its physicality, and its relation to all of the events occurring all around Remnant, including the mass disappearances, the skyrocketing mental illnesses, and, more worryingly, the relation of these "Daemon" creatures to the Labyrinth.

"You took a shower recently, right?" Yang said from the doorway, her nose pinched.

"Huh?" Hillphire said. "Oh, yes. I haven't been here for a week straight, if that's what you're asking."

"Oh, thank gods." She walked over to his workbench. "Damn, that's a lot of shit to go through."

"Yeah. Apparently, they encountered another Daemon in Vacuo's Labyrinth, one by the name of Ashtaroth."

"So two confirmed, Ashtaroth and Moloch, which the kids encountered over at Echo's hometown south of Vale."

"This is quite disconcerting. How many of them are there, I wonder? And what exactly is their endgame?"

"From what the kids say, that Moloch guy was pretty tough. Even took Penny's arm. And the one that Yuan fought in Kuroyuri only left because he had another really important thing to do."

"That's another thing that worries me. They seem to be connected to those Nexus activations all around the planet. To date, there have been eleven of them, each one accompanied by cataclysms, whether mass disappearances, mass hysteria, natural disasters, all sorts of unexplainable events."

"Didn't Ruby say there was a Nexus activation over in Vacuo, too?"

"Yes. Apparently, right in the middle of the Jupiter Manor."

"But that wasn't accompanied by any mass disappearances aside from everybody in the house getting sucked into the Labyrinth."

"No, but there have been plenty of unnatural weather patterns in Vacuo. You know it snowed there this winter, don't you?"

"Wow."

"And they've also been getting unnatural amounts of rain. Apparently broke all of the records from before."

"Take that, climate change deniers."

Hillphire stared at her wryly and she chuckled.

"In all seriousness," Hillphire began, "have you been experiencing anything unusual?"

"You mean after the thing?" Yang said.

"Yes."

"Nope. It's been months and everything's fine. Honestly, I expected some pretty crazy shit and bad juju to come along with it, but I'm surprised nobody's died yet. Knock on wood."

They both knocked on his desk.

"Then again," Hillphire said, "we did have the help of the man who originated the whole thing."

"Yeah, true. Ugh, it's still so weird to think of Oscar as Ozpin. And he's so different from the guy we got to know in the beginning now that they've completely integrated."

"Such is the nature of magic. There's so much we don't understand about any of it."

"I'm gonna go secure the perimeter with my mom. We'll be right next door so you don't have to worry about a thing."

"Oh, I'm not worried," he said, drawing his sword, which could transform into a battle axe if necessary.

Yang chuckled, giving him a thumb up as she left the Forge.

It was afternoon when Qrow returned to the manor to pick up his wife for that lunch they had agreed on. He had expected her to be waiting for him down in the foyer already, but she was nowhere to be found.

"Beb?" he said aloud, receiving no answer.

He wandered around the ground level for a while, looking for her in all the places she usually hung out. He ultimately found her in the garden at the back of the manor, where artificial streams and ponds littered the landscape along with massive trees that provided shade almost everywhere. She was at the very back, leaning against the banister overlooking the valley behind Mistral, where a few settlements dotted the riverbanks as far as the eye could see.

"Hollie?" he said, stopping several feet behind her.

She let out a heavy sigh. "What the hell am I doing, Qrow?" she muttered.

"What do you mean?"

"I wasn't made for all this. I'm just a singer. Hell, I wanted to be a teacher, not the headmaster of an entire academy, and definitely not one of the leaders of a friggin' country."

He walked up to her side, standing inches away from her, ready to listen to everything she had to say, which clearly was a lot given the tears streaming down her face.

"God, I can't even get any of the other council members on my side. And now we're looking at a war that's probably gonna kill millions of people again just like the Great War of a hundred years ago and our children are gonna be the ones to fight in the damn thing and they shouldn't even have to. Why the hell did I ever get into all this?"

"Because you actually gave a shit," Qrow said.

She turned to him.

"You were one of the few who gave a damn about what happened to the world, while everybody else was interested only in politics and money."

"Yeah, look at all the good I've managed to do."

"Exactly. You have managed to do a ton of good."

"Like what, huh?"

"All the curriculum changes you made to the school for starters. It was your idea to reintroduce the arts and god damn has it made a difference in morale. You were also the one who first reached out to Blake to sign trade agreements with Menagerie, remember? And it was you who brought up to the council all of the different infrastructure overhauls and retrofits that have improved the lives of millions of people. Hell, the snowplows were your idea."

"Psh. That was all luck."

"Nah. It wasn't luck. It's cuz you're so damn stubborn."

"Fuck you."

He laughed. "I mean that in a good way. Don't you remember how you hammered away at the council until they finally saw your way and voted almost unanimously in favor of expanding the city walls? Or how you kept pestering them to prioritize building the water reservoirs correctly as opposed to quickly?"

She sighed heavily.

"You've done great this past decade. Don't sell yourself short."

"Then, why the hell do I feel so lost?"

"Probably because we've got a war on our hands. But it's not just you. We all have to deal with it. After all, war is everybody's business."

"Our boy is gonna get thrown into all that mess that we had to deal with almost twenty years ago."

"I used to tell myself that all the time. But the truth is, they're all involved in something much worse already."

"The Labyrinth."

"I told him there was no way I was letting him go with Team LILY and APEX. But now that I really think about it, maybe I'm being unfair."

"No. Nah-uh. You totally made the right decision not to let him in that place. One hundred percent."

"I had a feeling you'd say that, and I still stand by what I did. But at the same time, part of me wonders. What if I just prevented him from being prepared for it?"

Hollie let out another heavy sigh.

"Let's go get some barbecue," Qrow said. "That'll cheer you up."

"You think you can bribe me with food?"

"Yup."

She pouted. "Well, you're right."

He chuckled. "Let's go, then."

"Ugh, I hate you sometimes."