Chapter 35
Adam was dead, and his body was missing.
Atlas had a fine institutional memory. In a city where every street had eyes, and every drone was a potential witness, accurate records were not in short supply.
Still, cameras did not make the best samaritans. So, when situations required immediate attention, Atlas called in the police. And, when situations started affecting history books, Atlas called in all of the police.
Thus, in the aftermath of Raven's assasinaton attempt, Mantel found itself experiencing a sudden shortage of law enforcement, as all active duty personnel from the surrounding area were sucked up like water through Atlas's tether system.
Many things were quickly discovered in Atlas.
Three dead bodies, various blood spatters and body parts, a crater full of ice. Although, in that last case, a boling pool of heated water was found, carved into the body of the otherwise frozen lake. Cinder and Mercury were nowhere to be found.
Down in the witness-deprived Mantle, as far the police departments were concerned, there was a half-day blackout with regards to information.
Later investigations dug through the archived footage, of course, trying to find anything they'd missed. And, unsurprisingly, they'd missed quite a lot.
A thousand petty crimes and hundred middling ones tore through the city, leaving it riddled with graffiti marks and minor scuffs.
The most major crimes were the least visible, however. And the highlight of these was the daring exodus of the remnants of the White Fang.
The Raven attack was a distraction from heaven, as far as the cowering remnants of the organization were concerned; and everywhere across the city, in each burrow and farm house and inner city block, a thousand minds cooperated seamlessly in response to the impromptu signal flare of the attack. And, in the dead of night, under the cover of rain, on the ocean-side borders of the city, several dozen bullheads and dust runners made a break for the open ocean: the first of many waves of escaping faunus.
Of course, the Mantel police would not be unwise to this for very long. What they lacked in responsiveness, they made up for with a surveillance system that was almost as extensive as that which befitted Atlas.
The same could not be said for the City of The Damned, which lacked a regular presence of police on the best days, and had about as many cameras as an Anti-Photography cult on picture day.
That is, to say, it had a lot of working cameras, and not one that was pointing in the right direction.
And so, investigators were left at a loss, as to what happened to Adam's missing body. Those following the case were left with little to go on except an incidence report of a bar fight and some UFO sightings.
Adam's body was dead, and now lost.
Mr. Schnee's body was still present, however, and still under the purview of Mr. S, who was now rapidly backpedalling.
"I'm not saying you have to get married!" he retorted with frustration. "I'm only letting you know, that you don't have to wait! I thought you liked her!?"
"We've only been together for three months!" a crimson blush ran all the way to Weiss's collarbone, as she forced herself to straighten into a rail spike, bolstering against the increasing, downward pull of her mortification. "What makes you think we'd want to get married now!?"
"... Love!?" Mr. S answered, at a loss for any more rational argument.
"We're not getting married!" Weiss said, unwilling to give ground.
Mr. S sighed, and leant back into a straight stand from where he'd been leaning over the safety rail. A surrendering look painted his expression with disappointed colors. To be honest he hadn't expected that to work. But…
"Ok, Weiss, very well" he put his hands together in prayer form, tilting his fingertips to her imploringly, "how about, a quarter year anniversary celebration?"
Adam was dead, and Blake was trying very hard to feel right.
"Ugh, goodness, can you believe my father!" Weiss seethed deeply next to her, repeating such phrases as, "I can't believe him!" and "This is unbelievable!"
"Uhum," Blake looked away to the side wall as they walked, making some very non-commital noises.
"You know, this is just like him-"
And Blake burst suddenly, hands coming up to cover her face, into very quiet tears. Sobs shaking her, she walked down a side hallway, her attempt at escape failing her, as she fell against a pillar wall, too weak to move any further.
"Oh, no, Blake!" Weiss hovered around the girl like a fluttering moth, avoiding very carefully any physical contact with the crying faunus, even as her wild movements suggested a desire for appropriately solemn contact. "I didn't really mean what I said back there!" Weiss voice shook with panic, as she desperately thought of the words that would fix the situation. "I do want to get married, really!"
Blake, falling with the momentum of her cries, collapsed onto her thighs, sitting crouched against the wall as increasingly heavy sobs shook themselves from her tired body.
"Um… I love you!" Weiss said, feeling very anguished now, as every sob seemed to stab into her.
Weiss, however, did not apologize.
This wasn't because of excessive pride, or because of ignorance. No, to Weiss, it was clear that she'd done someting to draw the reaction. But, still, she wasn't the kind of person to immediately start apologizing just because someone became emotional. No. Weiss was determined to have a grown up conversation with Blake, and to move on from there.
But, then, Blake continued crying for the next fifteen seconds. A deep, sad, cry that kept her from articulating, and which Weiss had never imagined could last so long. And she'd never imagined someone else's pain could hurt so much!
By the forty-fifth second, Blake, on the trailing end of her cathartic expression, regained some of her facultures, and managed to open her eyes to a clear world.
The first thing she saw was Weiss, on her knees next to her, and clasping her hands as desperation shook her voice.
"-am so, so deeply sorry, Blake," Weiss said, genuine regret filling her. "Just please, please talk to me!"
Weiss's own eyes, in contrast to Blake's, were shut tightly as she shook her clasped fists with a begging gesture.
That actually managed to draw a laugh from the previously crying girl.
Weiss's eyes opened with flustered surprise at the noise. "Uh…"
"I wasn't crying because of you!" Blake said, affronted.
"...ok," Weiss accepted, glad to have gotten out of that unscathed. "Why were you crying?" she asked.
Blake hesitated, and looked to be on the verge of running away again.
Weiss, impulsively and without thought, reached out her hands and grabbed at Blake's. "Stay," broke from her lips.
Blake took a surprised look as her hands were lifted up to chest level by the earnest looking girl across from her. Blake looked off to the side, eyes drifting downward. "I don't know," she answered at last.
"What?" Weiss drew back a hair, sparked by indignation. "What do you mean you don't know?" she asked, too late to soften the admonition in her voice.
"I mean I don't know!" Blake raised her voice in response. "Can't I just be sad! I… I'm just sad, ok? What else am I supposed to feel?" Blake's voice quickly died down, coming out in a tired whisper by the time she came to the end of her sentence.
And, Weiss remembered suddenly, the more than usually melancholic tone that had descended upon the girl over the past several days.
Weiss had assumed that was because they were stuck in the Schne Manor, and that she would get over it once they were able to leave… Ohhhh.
"Ok, look, I know I've made some mistakes. But you have to believe me, we will get out of here soon-"
"It's not because of you!" Blake interrupted her, trying hard to hammer the point home. "Stop apologizing already!"
That... knocked Weiss for a loop. "Ok, you're sad, and you don't know why, and it's not because you're stuck in a castle with my father." She said, growing steadily more confused over the course of her recap.
Blake only looked away in assent.
And, for whatever reason, as Weiss looked at Blake, she felt she just knew the girl, and a new feeling developed in her, one that seemed to grow and burn in time with her thoughts.
"You know," Weiss laughed to interrupt the silent shore they'd fallen into. "I actually missed this place, back when I was at beacon."
Blake remained further silent, and Weiss, pushed forward by that new feeling that made her want to say everything, cursed herself as she dove back into her confession, committed to the truth.
"I…" here she fell to a whisper and leaned forward so that only Blake could hear, "actually missed father."
That got the faunus' attention. Blake whipped back to look at Weiss, eyes wide.
"Haha, yeah." Weiss laughed nervously, she felt ashamed of the confession and nervous of how Blake would react to it, but that new feeling drove her on, even as, at times, she wondered why she continued letting herself fall prey to it. "I even missed him," she repeated, looking off to the side to make the comment seem incidental. "Crazy as it seems, I… actually rather appreciated, sometimes, how he'd see my performances and tell me - 'you've merited yourself'." She quoted her father, taking on a comically stern expression and punctuating her mock-baritone voice with a small nod.
Blake laughed at the impression.
Weiss laughed along, quieter. "I hated him. I still hate him, rightly. He… destroyed…" she took a calming breath. "He hurt a lot of people, Blake, including me. He… and I still missed him. I never wanted to see him again. But, when I was alone at Beacon, before, I still missed him. I don't know, maybe because he was the only father I had, but I couldn't help it.
"The feeling didn't last long," she quickly course corrected. "When I got here, I only wanted to leave as soon as possible. But, still, for a moment back then I… well, I still hated him, but…" Weiss huffed in frustration, covering her face with a hand and shaking her head. "It all probably sounds pathetic, doesn't it?"
"No!" Blake surprised herself by yelling, rising onto her knees as she redoubled the grip between her and Blake's hands. "It doesn't. Please continue."
Weiss smiled at the support. "I'm saying that… I know my father wasn't nearly as bad as Adam, but… I wanted you to know that-"
"I know," Blake said, looking very suddenly at ease.
Weiss was moved by the response; and in her elation she said something that would haunt her in the days and hours to come: as she would scrutinize her every word, and try to find something in them that could have drawn such a startling reaction from Blake.
The words, which would cause them both so much turmoil, as they would be burnt into her troubled thoughts, were:
"Thank you, Blake," Weiss leant forward to hug her with genuine love and appreciation. "I just knew I could trust you."
Blake leapt back from her as if struck by lightning, on her feet in one movement.
Weiss nearly fell, catching herself on a hand as she looked up at the now standing Blake.
Stiff backed and horrified, Blake set in motion, walking away from the girl.
"Don't!" Blake implored, stopping Weiss, mid rise. Blake supported herself with a straight arm on a nearby wall. "I just need to be alone for a while. It's not because of you. I promise it's not because of you. I just need to be alone. It's my fault, all of it. I'm sorry."
Blake looked very weak as she said these words, having to lean on the wall as she walked.
Weiss, in her turn, looked very sad, a hand partially stretched in the succeeding girl's direction.
Adam was dead, and the world kept turning.
Most notably unaffected, was seatrade.
For, while air travel on Remnant was always a dicey proposition, as every new disturbance created grimm storms. Sea trade, on the whole, was far more stable. One could always rely on the sea-lanes, it was said.
This was unfortunate, for some people.
Somnra was a faunus burdened by this responsibility. She ran the main shipping dock of the largest city of Menagerie. And every day a quarter of a million tons of cargo approached shore, eager to leave.
Ideally, the ships would show up on time, none of the machines would ever break, and everything would go along orderly and in a quiet fashion.
In reality, the harbor was a booming mess of crates and lifters, and very few of her initiatives had worked to make it any neater.
Still, despite the thousand ton ships that greeted her every morning, Somnra very quickly learned to appreciate how - comparatively speaking - they caused her very little problems on an issue to weight basis.
No, on that basis, her highest density of problems came from people. Every hour was a new request and petition. "Oh, I know I don't have the proper papers, but I really, really, really need to charter a ship."
Ha! Somnra laughed.
Of course, she never granted the requests. But, she still had some fun with them.
One of her favorite moves was to ask why they needed the charter. Oh, the hilarious excuses never failed to amuse her.
Rather, they didn't fail to amuse the first four hundred times. After that, it started to become bothersome, how everyone felt they could just barge into her office uninvited.
Over time, this became a great problem for Somnra, until she'd hiried the new door guard.
Totan was a massive hulk of a creature. The only thing that managed to cast a greater shadow than his stern, old-world sensibilities was his massive size and heraklion strength.
Somnra hadn't hired him for his strength alone, however. No, what perhaps she valued most about the man was his sense of duty, and the strength of honor that bound him tightly to the word of law and courtly manners.
And, Somnra was convinced she'd done so rightly, because she faced very little bother after hiring him.
So, it was very surprising to her when, that day, Totan came crashing through the door, stumbling back in an unbalanced fashion; his bent bull horns scraping against the metal fin of the ceiling as he toppled to land on a pile of grain bags.
Somnra had many questions. Chief among them: why Totan wasn't getting up to face the intruder.
After Totan, through the destroyed door, came Kali Belladonna, answering many of Somnra's questions with her presence.
The woman wore a plain, brown robe that contrasted with her stance and stature. Beyond her humble clothes, she was a very well ordered woman, that gave off a glow of youth and order wherever she went.
It was by these, indefinable, characteristics that the Kali became recognizable.
To all of Menagerie, she was an icon; and all recognized her wherever she might have been, whether it be in the market, on TV, or standing over the desk of Kuo Kuana's port manager.
"I will need a ship to Atlas," Kali said, an indeterminate tone taking her voice. "I would also like a city order, requesting my admittance to the Schnee Manor."
Somnra didn't ask why. It was obvious why.
"Will you provide me with these things?" Kali asked.
"...ok," Somnra looked up from her desk of papers, saying the words for the first time in her career.
Adam was dead, and a meeting was adjourned in his honor.
In a quiet bar, having gotten admittance after hours, four White Fang Members and a fifth took positions around a standing table. The crickets chirped harmoniously in the warm, night air and a cool breeze blew through fenced off section of land that enclosed the space.
A door slammed closed, and they all looked over as the bar patron, a friend of the fang, came quietly to dispense drinks, before leaving with a bow.
What followed was a long silence, as they all took small sips of their drinks, and occasionally dropped an ice cube or two into their glasses, once they deemed themselves ready enough.
Karro was the first of them to break this cycle.
"You know what I think happened?" the rather disappointingly average-sized bear faunus left the question to hang in the air, keeping his eyes on the slow drift of ice-cubes as they circled round in his drink.
"What?" the weasel next to him asked, leaning against the table with his back to the rest of them. He bent his head back and blew a stream of smoke up into the air.
"I think he just got too emotional; he let his anger get the better of him, and he got into a shootout he shouldn't have.
"Yeah, or maybe he was just a homicidal maniac that needed to be put down," Soma challenged softly, though with none-too-little of the acid that came in his tone whenever the topic came up. He was a wolverine who, in all respects, looked very much like Karro, despite the startling difference of opinions they often found themselves faced with.
"Well-"
"Look," Feru, the fox, said, bringing a dark, thin arm to massage his closed eyes. "Can you guys give it a break?"
"We're here because of Adam? Why should we have to?" Karro asked.
"Because I'm tired of your arguments," Lala answered for him, her voice muddled with discouraging tones.
Karro desisted with some stifled mumbles, grumbling as he cradled his drink closer.
"So, anyway, you guys hear about the Schnee situation?" Feru asked, trying to fan the conversation back to life.
"Who hasn't," Lala answered, bringing a crystal glass up to her mouth.
"Yeah, It's pretty weird isn't it?" Feru observed. "I mean, just the whole relationship aspect of it."
"Yeah, pretty weird," Weasel answered, still turning away from the rest of the group, and taking a drag of his glowing cigarette.
"Yeah," Samo agreed.
And there was silence.
"Seriously, though," Samo said, " there's no way you guys believe Adam was working with them, right?"
"Obviously!"
"I know! I just didn't want to say it first!" Karro looked over the table at his intellectual rival, surprised to share an opinion with the wolverine.
"Does anyone even believe the news anymore?" Lala asked, slamming her glass on the counter after a particularly hearty gulp.
"Yeah, I just saw that, apparently, everyone was saying that Adam and Mr. Schnee were colluding and I was like: no… they're not, duh."
"Hah, every human is saying that, maybe," Samo laughed. "But, there's no faunus alive that would believe Adam was working with Mr. Schnee. The guy hated him!"
"Yeah, yeah," Karro nodded, surprised but not questioning the sudden support he'd gotten from the Wolverine. "I mean, I seriously think they're just trying to pile on Adam's legacy with that."
"Yeah, calm down. He's piled on his own legacy enough," Samo said, raising a hand to slow the bear faunus.
"Well, at least we can both agree that, no matter what, Mr. Schnee is the greater evil here."
"Yeah, I mean, how does that guy even sleep at night?" the weasel postulated, bringing a hand up in question.
"In faunus pelts, probably," Feru laughed. Several others rose to join him.
"Come on, I'm asking seriously."
"And you think I'm joking?!" Feru insisted with a laugh. "What? You think he sleeps in pajamas?"
"I think he just sleeps in that suit of his," Weasel answered. "I don't think he ever takes it off. He wakes up in that suit, whips faunus in that suit, eats in that suit, fucks his wife in that suit, and goes back to bed in it." See, the daily life of Mr. Schnee.
"No way," Ferru denied.
"To be honest, I think he might just sleep naked," weasle said suddenly.
Karro and Soma both joined each other in chocking on, and then spitting out, their respective drinks.
"Dude!"
"Don't put that image in my head!"
"Hey, I'm only saying it's natural!" weasle raised his hands with a shrug. "I mean, it's either that or the faunus skins, here."
"Anyway," Karro said, eager to move on from the conversation. "We're all agreed that he wasn't working with Adam."
"Yeah."
"Of course."
"Obviously."
"No shit."
They all answered in their respective turns, going around the table until the last answer came, very casually, from Lala, who was sitting on his left.
Still, the complete agreement he had from everyone left Karro in some very dire straights. Namely, he still felt the need to make sense.
"So…" Karro then said. "What exactly happened then, these past few days?"
"Look, I'll say it for the last time," Samo lept in from the other side. "Mr. Schnee, I don't know about. I think he's just trying to keep his image running, and he's decided trying to keep his daughter in the household is the best way to do that. Probably, he's biding his time until he can have her quietly killed somewhere. As for Adam… well… I know he wasn't working with Mr. Schnee."
Karro nodded in assent, paying suddenly close attention to the conversation.
"Well, what do you think Adam was up to, then?" weasel asked, his voice containing a hint of that goading mirth that took it whenever he knew he was about to start trouble.
"I think he's an idiotic jackass," Samo answered, not even trying to dodge the bait.
And, after him, fell Karro. "And I think he's just trying to protect faunus-"
"Protect faunus!?" Samo laughed loudly. "Dude! Have you heard the reports from Atlas! The guy destroyed the branch up there! No wonder everyone thinks he was working with Mr. Schnee!"
Karro felt impelled to rise to the man's defence, though he did so quietly in the face of that admonition, and looked aside as he spokt. "Well, he tried at least-"
"What!" Samo rose to new heights, standing back from the desk as his voice lifted to match his rage. "Are you even listening to yourself? The guy killed ten faunus for every human! That's the opposite statistic you want to take when they outnumber us ten to one! I mean, we would literally have gone extinct if he hadn't been stopped!"
"The Atlas branch betrayed us first!" the words slipped heatedly from the now blushing Karro! "I know it's no excuse, I know what he did was wrong, but I was fighting in Vale! I saw what happened to us because of their politics! I know it's wrong, but I just can't really muster the indignation at their deaths, when no one even remembers what happened to the Vale branch!"
The speech ended abruptly, and Karro drew in on himself, cradling his drink in both hands.
Everyone fell silent at that admission. Having never gathered the bravery to ask how he'd gotten the prominent scar that decorated his face, they were all suddenly shocked at the revelation, and feeling very sensitive around the unnaturally shy faunus.
Samo, in his turn, retorted with stern words. Though, he spoke now with very little of the combative anger that marked his previous arguments, replacing them with a more reasoning, imploring tone.
"But, he didn't even kill the people we wanted dead!" he said, reaching out to the man opposite him with words. "I mean, the guy literally had Mr. Schnee himself in a room, and he turns away and starts killing White Fang instead!"
Karro was silent.
And, feeling a little responsible for his current position, weasel decided to pick up in support of the bear's argument. "Come on, that's not fair," he send the admonishing words over to Samo without looking at him. "The Schnee palace wasn't nicknamed 'the graveyard' for nothing. Adam had a lot on his plate.
"And, sure, he's a loose canon," weasel admitted, "But, he still the first person to make it into the castle and walk out alive!"
Samo, still stubborn, only grew angry at the admiral. "Yeah, for managing to walk out alive and then die two days later, after destroying everyone in the Atlas branch! And he does this straight after he fails to kill the big man himself! The guy isn't a loose canon! He's a dropped grenade!" Samo banged on the table for emphasis.
"Was a dropped grenade!" Karro interrupted, smiling slightly as he looked down at his drink.
And a round of jolly laughter rose up at the positive sign from the bear.
Samo, in his laughter, lifted a glass to the man, becoming him to clink glasses.
Karro obliged him, soon finding himself joined by the rest of them as they touched glasses, drank, and started refilling themselves with the bottles and gourds that had been left behind by the attendant.
And, after a quiet moment of drinking, they all returned to a more comfortable quiet, basking in the casual drunkenness that had overtaken them.
"I just don't get it," Karro said at last. "Why would he give it all up like that? He had everything!"
"Come on, the guy'd just lost the entire Vale branch in a one sided massacre, maybe he felt he had nothing to live for?" Feru was the one to answer him.
"But nobody blamed him for that! It was Atlas's fault they were in that position in the first place!"
"Hm, maybe he blamed himself?"
"Ugh," Lala rolled her eyes, "boys," she muttered.
"What?" Feru asked.
"It's obvious he went because of Blake, duh!"
"Seriously?" Samo said, incredulous.
"Yeah," Lala assented, "I mean, just think about it. She was his girlfriend, remember?"
"I don't get it," Feru said. "I mean, the guy's girlfriend ditches him, runs away with a train, and starts dating Weiss Schnee. I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure the relationship's solidly over, by that point!"
"Hey, maybe some things are worth fighting for?" the weasel said, flicking his cigarette away into the grass.
"Yeah, but this guy literally gave up everything. He lost his legacy, the white fang, and his life in that little stint!" Feru started counting off on his fingers. "Is any girl worth that?"
"No girl is worth that," Samo said suddenly, looking up into the air wistfully, "... and I should know."
A series of eye rolls went around the table.
"Oh my gods," Lala sighed, looking up and shaking her head at the impending speech.
"I mean, I gave her everything!" Samo said suddenly, genuine tears coming to his eyes. "And she laughed! Do you know that? She laughed when she-"
"Ok, ok," Feru calmed, raising his hands to the Wolverine faunus next to him. "We know all about that, Samo. And, we're really sympathetic, but I don't think its good for you to keep dwelling on that."
"Yeah, yeah," Samo agreed, sniffing. "What were we talking about again?"
"Blake," weasel said, twisting around briefly to pick up another glass.
"More specifically, we were wondering wether she was 'worth it'," Karro said.
"Hey, she's gotta be," weasel said. "I mean, she literally managed to catch both Adam Taurus and Weiss Schnee. You don't do that with any ordinary pussy.
"Language!"
"I meant female cat," weasel smiled at the undoubtedly affronted scowl Feru was locking onto the back of his head - which he tilted back, downing half his glass in a gulp.
"Trust me, you don't get a relationship just by being hot," Samo said, having calmed down from his earlier tearfest. "I mean, she's a Belladonna, right? I bet she's very… genteel. You know. All proper like, and a lady."
"Dude, she spent her entire childhood in the Fang. She's spent more time here than you have. Do you honestly think she'll be trained up in tea sets?" Weasel shot back. "There are no girls worth dating here!"
"Fuck you!" Lala scowled.
"What I mean, is: she's not very likely to be trained in the polititudes of the upper class?"
"Then how did she hook the Schnee?" Samo said.
"Fuck if I know. All I know is, she's likely not prime dating material."
"I actually agree," Lala said, putting herself into the conversation. "I actually met her at a convention once, and she is Such. A bitch," Lala punctuated, fluffy dog ears flapping on either side of her face.
"Look, this is nice and all. But we're getting off topic," Karro said.
"We had a topic?" Samo lifted himself dazedly from his fifth glass.
"Yes. I was saying that, Adam may have not been perfect, but at least he tried to show faunus as anything other than supplicants! I mean, what, would you rather dig Ghira up and put him on the throne? So he can bow to humans on our behalf?"
A round of laughter fell across the group.
"You know what?" Samo stood back onto the flat of his feet, and picking his glass up with a conciliatory gesture. "I'll say this. The guy fought like a beast. And, when he wasn't team killing you like an asshole, the Faunus race has never had a greater fighter."
"And never a brighter symbol!" Karro lifted his own glass.
"And I suppose he wasn't a bad tactician," Feru responded, taking up his glass.
"Yeah, he was pretty epic," weasel held his out at half extent.
"And so handsome!" Lala swooned with theatrical grace, setting off another round of laughs.
"To Adam!" Samo started.
"To Adam!" The other's chanted in greater unison.
And they all struck out their hands, and poured one out for the departed faunus.
Adam was dead, and Sienna Khan had yet to hear of it.
In Kuo Kana's main palace, modern technology was not allowed.
This would have caused great consternation to Sienna Khan, if she didn't have so many servants to air out her sleeping chambers, fan her with cool air, and light all the candles.
But, considering the palace had a staff of a thousand to replicate these effects, she hardly noticed any inconvenience.
Besides, considering she'd managed to arm-twist the head priests in allowing her to bring a personal harem, she considered this an overall win.
Still, there was one respect, at least, in which she was decidedly behind the rest of the world.
News was rather slow to get to her.
Except in the case of true emergences, the palace was secluded from all visitation during weekend hours, and even during weekdays there would always be a delay, as criers came in and out of the building, to relay whatever news of the beyond they'd managed to recover over the course of their travels.
Of course, this being the modern age, their "travels" often involved a short jaunt down to the nearest cafe that had a news channel on its televisions.
Still Sienna often appreciated the theatrics they undertook in order to best represent their various reports: even if most of them involved miming news reporters.
"And, I, for one, love this faunus! Kiss me! Blake!" The crane faunus, covering her wings with a borleo and playing the part of Weiss Schnee, shouted melodramatically, raising a bent hand up to her forehead.
She… didn't get many parts.
"And I love you too, human!" the black-cat faunus, who somehow looked less like her part than the crane, stood up, grabbing the crane by the shoulders and bending her back to hide the fact that they weren't actually kissing.
"I, for one, approve of this!" a thickly accented, polar-bear faunus with a mustache and a hat stood from his chair to declare. "And I also would like to say that I am enamored with Blake's ears. Thus, by saying so, I consecrate this relationship!" The lines were delivered broken and with great struggle, as the polar bear took a moment every few lines to look at the smudged writing on his palm.
Sienna Khan, really appreciated their effort, but wondered sometimes weather it would worth their spared feelings not to tell them to just give her a transcript.
"Ok," she said, leaning a face against her hand, and massaging her temple with two fingers. "What exactly happened here?"
"Oh, Sienna, isn't it obvious?" Alina sprawled coquettishly out on the giant pillow next to her. "They're recounting a tale of true love-" an excited flutter overtook the woman's ears, "surely even you're not too reserved to see that, hmm~"
Sienna's eye twitched. She could feel the hot breath falling on her cheek as the scantily clad faunus hovered just out of touching distance.
"Trying to get me to break composure? That's so unlike you," Sienna said dryly.
"But it gets so boring watching you sit here," Alina returned to a cooler voice, reclining back away from Sienna. "The girls have been getting lonely without you, you know?" She crossed one bare foot over the other, and the slit in her dress-
"High Leader Khan!" A strong voice erupted from the opening gates, following a trailing figure as the Albain brothers came through.
It was amazing, Sienna noted, the speed and subtlety with which Alina managed to get into a more befitting pose, letting her long skirt cover her once more as she sat stiffly on her knees.
She nodded in acknowledgement of the brothers, as they, unheehing of the play, barreled through the troup to stand, and then bow, at the foot of the dais
"You are bold to interrupt her majesty, when she has requested there be no disturbances to her briefing." Alina spoke now with that rich, magisterial voice which seemed to carry endless depth, and which worked well to intimidate the rattled faunus that still bowed, staring at the floor, before the pair.
"Forgive us. But the news we bring is urgent!" It was Fennec, who spoke, notable by the distinguishing marks of the red hood he wore.
Alina looked first to Sienna, deliberating silently with her.
At last, Sienna nodded, and Alina spoke on her behalf.
"You may speak," Alina said.
Thankfully, Fennec was brief.
"Adam Taurus is dead, high counselor," he said, voice seeming to collapse over the course of the sentence.
Alina's face, as the woman reared back, was wide eyed at the news.
It was a subtle change in Alina's expression, but Sienna could easily tell the shock in it, as she could feel the shock in her own.
Silence, Sienna knew, could speak louder than words in circumstances as these, and so she didn't wait for Alina to speak on her behalf.
"Announce the death," Sienna decided immediately. "Adam Taurus died in service to the White Fang. He is to be remembered with full honors, and let the council resolve that the White Fang shall wear mourning for the space of thirty days. Send communications to Vale, let the bereaved know of our stance."
"And, of the recent news of the Atlas branch?"
"The Atlas branch was destroyed by the machinations of our enemies. We shall say nothing more of the matter."
"Of course…"
"Is something the matter?"
"Adam Taurus had no family to speak off, High Counselor Khan. The only 'Bereaved' to speak of on record, is Blake Belladonna. In consideration of that, would you still send a letter her way?"
"It is proper to send a letter, and it shall be done. That is all."
They bowed quietly, and soon left the chambers.
The Actors, noticing the look in Sienna Khan's eyes, very quickly evacuated the area.
Even Alina, once she'd noticed the expression, hesitated before she spoke.
"Would it fit-"
"Not now, Alina," Sienna said, with a great weight on her voice. "I'd like to be left alone."
And Alina complied with the request, standing up wordlessly, and turning away on quiet footsteps.
Sienna Khan sat in the vast emptiness of her chamber, watching as the candle wax dripped steadily down the various candelabrum, noticing the shifting, undisturbed air currents that ghosted now throughout the room. It was by that sign she knew she was truly alone… but still, it wasn't enough security for her.
So Sienna Khan stood, and left, going to the back of the room, where lay the path to the secreted, inner recesses of the palace.
The hallways from this point on were narrow and undefined, marked by bare walls and unmarked surfaces which told of a place abandoned by visitors.
The servants did not reach these parts, and Sienna was forced to rely on a small candle, held in the crux of her palm, to guide her way.
She passed through the narrow paths into a large stone corridor, knowing herself now to be several hundred feet below ground, as she marveled at the stone lions that guarded the room on either side.
Here, was a place of mourning, where none dared to come except by request of the Khan herself.
And still, Sienna was unsatisfied, and she traveled deeper into caverns, passing without acknowledgement the secret city, the hidden mineral springs, the discreet lava flows of heat generation and the mysterious hanging orchard until, at last, she reached the place she was looking for: the Khan's chamber.
She shifted aside the four-ton granite block that guarded the chamber, stepping it in before grinding it securely back into place behind her.
The Khan's chamber was a securely isolated vault. Built from a single, carved, stone boulder, it was a place with no access point for eavesdroppers, no nook for hidden technology, and no outsiders who even knew of it's existence.
More than the practical considerations, however, were the religious connotations, which bolstered Sienna's confidence that she was safe here. The Khan's chamber was a relic, so sacred, that no faunus in the White Fang would have dared to enact any treachery while in its presence. And by that, Sienna knew herself to be safe from any prying voices.
The inside of the chamber was appropriately furnished, by the Khan herself, as very few others were allowed admittance into this place.
And it was not a hard room to fill, considering its size.
Ten feet stood to either side before being stopped by the solid granite of the walls. This space was made smaller by the thick padding of woven rugs and hanging tapestries that covered every surface with warm colors and golden weaves.
On the floor, a dozen rugs overlapped, creating a geometric, uneven surface that flickered in time with the continual dust fire that roared in the far back of the building space.
And the dust fire was the main object of her attention, now.
It glowed brightly in her vision, turning the peripheral walls into relative darkness, and seeming to extend the apparant size of the room infinitely by that hidden trick.
Two rows of statues extended out from the back wall, lining the path to the fire place like a frozen procession, depicting the deceased Khans which had come before her. Their features were stark as they looked at her with stone expressions, and they each extended a hand out to the space in between them, palms facing her, as if forming a canopy over the fireplace.
Sienna knew the meaning of the statutes. They were there to remind her of the legacy she'd inherited. They were raising their hands to her, without the swords that would normally accompany such a gesture, to remind her of the purpose of power. Ghira had a quite different interpretation, she recalled, looking up at the towering statue of the man: the most recent edition.
Sienna sighed a deep breath, soaking in the magical aura of the space, and feeling an almost exhilarating warmth come over her.
She took another deep breath, and exhaled, and another deep breath, closing her eyes as she pondered the deep news.
Taking another meditative breath in the dim darkness behind her eyelids, Sienna at last opened up her eyes, faced the quiet room, and whooped with joy.
"Whooo!" Sienna leapt up with a small hop, lifting her raised arm into the air and the landing to pump both of her fists in a victorious gesture. "Yessssss!" she punctuated the motion by.
She suddenly extended into a straight stand, pointing triumphantly at the line of statutes.
"Adam's dead, motherfuckers!" she yelled. "Yeah! Uh, huh! Uh, huh! Who's the best? This gal!" She pointed at herself with two thumbs, all the while dancing over to the open mouth of the procession.
Once there, she began to walk between the stone rows, clapping hands with the raised palms of the statutes. "Yeah! High five! High five! High five! High five! Not you, Ghira!" she twirled past the statue of Ghira after making motions to almost supply it with a high five.
Without missing a beat, she picked up a red dust crystal from the storage bowl, tossing it into the glowing fire. She'd already walked past the flame by the time the dust crystal clanged into the metal bowl which held it, and she only had time to appreciate the sudden brightening of the room for a moment before she noticed her secret wine stash, right next to her ant farm.
She jumped back into the hastily assembled hill of mattresses and pillows, all the while pouring herself a glass of one-thousand year old wine, brewed from the ancient crypts of the Zagaros hyper-
Actually, she decided in the middle of her recitation, she really didn't care. All she knew was that it was time to get drunk!
She swirled the drink about in its container, looking aside at the sizable queens chamber that had developed in her ant-farm.
"You know," she said, speaking to the queen, "I think today has been a great day for faunus kind. Especially this faunus," and she took a sip.
Adam was dead, and Qrow was hunting for his collaborator.
Qrow was under magnificent auspices, all his life.
Too many of them, he'd long ago decided.
Still, his burden was not easily shifted, and his heart drove him to correct what his duty would have let him neglect.
Qrow felt a thermal rising, puffing itself up against his outstretched wings like a soft force against gravity, and, very lightly, he was lifted up along with it. Below him, the shrouded woodlands of the easter forest belted by beneath him, each leaf of each tree crisply apparent to his new eyes.
Qrow hadn't taken his usual form.
A crow would just be what his sister was looking for.
No, as far as the rest of the world was concerned, Qrow was an ordinary gauss hawk. And he worked very hard to appear as little more than that.
Despite his still active aura, he kept to manageable speeds, and seemed to drift more on chaotic currents, than to cut through with the lightning power strokes he knew to be stored in his faintly enforced body.
Raven… she'd gone too far this time. And he needed to look inconsequential if he was ever going to find her.
He'd been flying now, for several days, and the hawk mind that contended with his own didn't offer much in the way of conversation. It was a solitary animal, by nature, and seemed to be quite enjoying the lack of company or competition.
Not that qrow minded, he quite liked the seclusion himself. Besides, the hawk mind was never really one for riveting conversation. Often it only peeked through his subconscious whenever it felt threatened by something, or whenever it sensed Qrow was making an unforgivable flying mistake. Of course, Qrow considered himself an Ace flyer at this point, finally having managed to shrug off the judgemental niggle in the back of his mind, whenever the hawk sensed he could afford to trim some distance off his turning radius.
Qrow laughed.
Taiyang had two kids and a happy family, and here Qrow was, annoyed at the rude hawk in his head.
Qrow wondered when his life had taken that final dip into the weird. He'd first pondered this question on his second day into his recent journey, and hadn't stopped thinking of it since.
Finally, though, he managed to track down the moment: the moment when his life turned into what it had.
Qrow stood lonely atop the city spire, looking down plaintively at the city of vale.
Near him, Raven stood, watching the bright wash of autumnal leaves raining down onto the city below.
Qrow tried and failed to take in the sight, feeling sick to his stomach.
Ozpin had made no varnish of the warnings he'd given them last night. Despite all they'd already been told about Salem and the grimm, tonight was the night, as Ozpin had put it, when the most terrible powers would be revealed to them.
Qrow looked away from his sister in silence. His butterflying stomach nearly leaping out of him when he heard the soft footsteps of Ozpin approaching.
The man could be quite a bit stealthier than he was being. He wanted them to know he was coming, Qrow guessed. And a good thing, too. Qrow imagined that he'd be the first to leap off this tower if he suddenly appeared behind him, as the eccentric man sometimes had a habit of doing.
"Qrow, Raven," Ozpin called quietly as he came to stand in between them, leaning on a cane in one hand and raising a mug in the other as he looked coldly at the distant horizon.
"Yes?" Raven asked.
"Yes, sir?"
"Have you… ever wondered what it would be like to be a bird?"
"What?" Raven asked,
"What?" Qrow asked.
And Qrow's life had never been the same.
Granted, it wasn't a very useful power for fighting, considering hunters were to the food-chain what a howitzer was to the food-chain, but flying was still pretty sweet, Qrow had to admit.
And, looking suddenly off to the side, Qrow almost didn't want to believe the hawk eyes, which made the world seem unnaturally apparent even when it lay as a small spot, miles away.
Because there he saw Raven.
And Salem was there, too...
Also thanks to commenters on SpaceBattles, DahakStaz, gadeel, Kamzil118, Centergg and BuffetAnarchist, who inspired this chapter with their suggestions.
