A/N: Well that took me two days. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

3

"Geralt," Ozpin greeted. Glynda and Ironwood each just gave him a nod.

Geralt nodded back. "Ozpin," he said. "Anything new?"

"Nothing yet," Ironwood said, glancing back at Ozpin. "My sentries report no unusual activity at the expected White Fang gathering places."

Ozpin nodded. "Which means our enemies either are not involved with the White Fang, which I doubt," he said, "or they're successfully diverting our attention to unimportant locations."

"Should we increase police presence around the city?" Ironwood suggested. "At the least it'll make it harder for them to move their Dust around."

Glynda rolled her eyes. "And in turn make the entire populace of Vale significantly more nervous," she said dryly. "Do you want the Grimm to invade, James?"

"I seriously doubt a slight increase in police presence will cause that much of a stir," Ironwood protested.

"You forget, James," said Ozpin gravely, "that we are not in Atlas or Mantle now. Here in Vale, the populace values their freedom—freedom, not just from oppression, but from surveillance. The police is not merely a protective force, here: it is a symbol of authority from above. That makes it a powerful tool, but also a double-edged one."

"And it's even worse because the 'police' you'd be using is Atlesian military," Geralt added, coming forward. "Novigrad didn't like it when Redanian troops started patrolling their streets, back home. Doubt Vale would react any better to having a foreign military occupying their city."

"Precisely," Ozpin said. "It gives the wrong impression on several levels. It certainly would help to stop our enemies, I agree."

"But at the cost of making the city of Vale consider us, and especially you, James, to be theirs," Glynda finished.

Ironwood sighed. "I understand," he said. "It seems like a very… inefficient system, however. Why charge the police with so much tension? It just keeps them from being useful more often."

Ozpin inclined his head. "Indeed," he said, "but there is a benefit. When your police takes someone into custody, all it tells Atlas' people is that that person is an enemy of the state. When mine take someone, as long as they still trust me… it tells the people of Vale that that person is wrong."

"Which can be a hell of a tool," Geralt said, studying Ozpin warily.

"Indeed," Ozpin agreed, "which is why I am careful to always act in the interests of Vale and Remnant as a whole, because if for a moment I do not, that trust crumbles."

There was a silence for a time, as the group digested this.

"Ah, Geralt," said Ozpin, reaching into the drawer under his desk. "Since you are unfamiliar with Remnant's culture, and because of the particular nature of our conflict, I thought it best to assign you a bit of reading.

Geralt raised an eyebrow. "A history text?" he asked.

"Not… quite," said Ozpin, producing a book.

Fairy Tales for Young People, the cover read.

Geralt snorted. "That makes sense," he agreed. "Fair enough." He took the book. "I'll run through it."

"Thank you," Ozpin said. "Let me know if you have any questions about any of the stories."

"Will do," Geralt confirmed. "Any word from Qrow?"

Ozpin shook his head. "He is likely at sea by now," he said.

"What's he up to, Oz?" Ironwood asked. "He wouldn't tell me."

"And he has a right to that," Ozpin said clearly. "It's a personal affair, which nonetheless has bearing on our movements."

Glynda looked uncomfortable, Geralt noticed, but she remained silent.

"He will contact us the moment he has any information," Ozpin said firmly. "In the meantime, we must trust him to be prudent. I certainly do."

Ironwood sighed. "You know I do too," he said. "It's just… oh, never mind."

"You're used to commanding soldiers," Ozpin said gently. "You must remember, James: Qrow is not a soldier. He is a Huntsman, and accustomed to independence. His Semblance demands it, regardless."

Geralt frowned. "His Semblance?"

Glynda blinked. "He didn't tell you?" she asked.

"He likely lacked the time," Ozpin said. "You should know if you're going to be working with him. Qrow's Semblance is that he brings misfortune to those around him—enemies and friends alike. It's a large part of why he operates alone so often."

Geralt shook his head. "If anyone has bad luck, it's him," he said dryly, "with a Semblance like that."

Ozpin nodded gravely. "Indeed," he said. "it does, however, make him an effective combatant and infiltrator. It is, after all, unlucky for secrets to be uttered within earshot of a spy."

Geralt nodded. "Makes sense," he said. "Thanks for telling me."

"Moving on from Qrow," Ironwood said, "Summer's active again, isn't she?"

Ozpin nodded. "She is currently securing a village in Forever Fall," he said. "A monster—one of Geralt's kind—is terrorizing the area. I believe Geralt plans to take one of the student teams to clear it out."

"Against my better judgement," muttered Geralt. "I'm taking CFVY, I think. They've got more experience than the others, if only against Grimm."

"That seems sensible," Ozpin agreed. "When do you expect to leave?"

"Next weekend, if all goes well," Geralt said. "Hopefully the kids will actually have some tools to deal with a leshen by then, and I'll be a bit better-outfitted too."

"I shall tell Summer as much," Ozpin said. "Keep me updated, please."

"Will do," Geralt promised.

When Ruby and her team filed into Geralt's classroom on Friday, the man was half-seated on the lip of his desk, his eyes downcast, thinking. He looked up at their entrance. "Team RWBY," he said. "You're first to arrive."

"Something bothering you, Geralt?" Yang asked. "You're usually meditating or whatever you do."

"Yeah," he said slowly, studying them. "Talk about it once the others get here. Don't worry about it. Got some news yesterday."

Ruby frowned, considering him, before nodding and making for her seat. "I was wondering," she said as she sat down, "would just adding silver bullets to our set count for the tool we need for Monday?"

Geralt shook his head. "Too straightforward," he said. "We're going to be silvering all your weapons at some point in the next few weeks, anyway. No, it should be something more tactical. It should give you a solution to a situation beyond just shooting, slashing, stabbing, and punching your way out."

Ruby nodded. "I had a feeling," she said. "Just wanted to confirm."

Geralt nodded. "Good that you did," he said. "I'll make sure the whole class knows, once they arrive."

At that moment, the door opened and CFVY entered, Coco leading her team into their seats.

"You're up early," she said to Geralt.

His lips twitched upward. "Couldn't sleep."

"Something keeping you up?" Coco asked, waggling her eyebrows.

Geralt shook his head and didn't reply. Velvet blushed, and Fox rolled his eyes. Yatsuhashi just seemed to ignore the whole affair as he sat stoically in his seat.

"So what are we talking about today?" Blake asked the Witcher. "We've gone over your toolkit now."

Geralt nodded. "We'll be starting to talk about yours in detail now," he said. "Diagnosing holes in your strategies, that sort of thing. Might help you pick out tools for Monday."

And then the door opened again and there was JNPR. Geralt gave them a nod.

"Now everyone's here," he said. "Got an announcement to make. Yesterday a Huntress in Forever Fall came across a town where people were disappearing in a nearby forest. Townspeople thought it was a pack of Grimm. It wasn't."

Ruby leaned in. This was unexpected.

"Ozpin and Glynda have managed to print copies of my bestiary," Geralt said, nodding at a pile of ring-bound booklets on his desk. "Each of you should come up and take one. I'll tell you which page to turn to once you have them."

The students stood as one and surged forward in an orderly ripple, each of the twelve taking one of the booklets. Ruby thumbed through hers as she returned to her seats, wincing at the illustrated monstrosities.

There were several major sections: Necrophages, Specters, Insectoids, Relicts, and others. In each were a set of different strange creatures.

Geralt called her attention back. "Turn to the section on Relicts," he said. "Specifically, leshens."

Ruby obeyed. The creature drawn on the page was a strange, almost eldritch monstrosity of long, spindly limbs and a great antlered skull for a head, or perhaps a helmet.

Beside the image was a block of descriptive text. Leshens dwell in primeval woods, she read. Fiercely territorial creatures, they hunt with stealth and cunning as their only companions. They use their inborn magic to control the plants and animals within their territory—and so when stalking them, half the battle is merely getting near enough to strike. Leshens old enough to earn the appellation 'ancient' wield advanced skills and tactics that make them particularly dangerous.

Below this were noted a few words under the heading Weaknesses: Dimeritium bomb, Igni, and Dancing Star.

"The Huntress contacted me when she realized it wasn't a Grimm," Geralt said once the students had finished reading. "The bodies the villagers had found had been set on by wolves and crows—both favorite allies of leshens. The back page of the bestiary entry has detailed instructions on how to take out a leshen for good, but let me sum up for now.

"A leshen sets up totems—usually three, sometimes more—around its territory. Sometimes, if it's only just moved in, you can catch it before it finishes, but this one's been there for weeks. You need to destroy all of its totems and then kill the body. That prevents it from resurrecting itself."

"What happens if you fail to destroy the totems?" Pyrrha asked.

Geralt nodded. "Good question," he said. "It uses its animal thralls in a ritual which allows it to possess a tree or parts of one, effectively resurrecting I encounter a leshen way out in the wilderness I sometimes don't bother hunting down its totems just because it's not a huge threat to people out there and it can take a long time to find them. This one's right near a town, and so we'll need to go hunting."

"Wait," Weiss said quickly. "We? You're taking us with you?"

"I'm taking one team," Geralt said shortly. "Ozpin's request. RWBY, you've already seen a me fight a nightwraith, so I think I'll take one of the other teams. Since leshens are one of the most dangerous monsters in the bestiary, I'd rather take CFVY, if that's all right. You four have a year of experience on JNPR."

Coco nodded. "Sounds good," she said, all business. "Anything we should get ready before we leave?"

"I plan to have us out of here by the end of next Friday," Geralt said. "If we're lucky, we'll be back before classes start again on Monday. By then, I hope to have all four of you outfitted with silvered weapons and a basic grenade kit. Talk to me after class about getting outfitted."

"Will do," Coco agreed.

"And JNPR, don't worry," Geralt said, glancing over the four remaining students. "I'm pretty sure we'll get another contract in this semester."

Jaune nodded nervously. "Oh, joy," he said.

"Anyway," Geralt said, standing properly. "We've got forty minutes left; let's get to work. First, Ruby asked before class whether just silvering your weapons counted for the new tool assignment. The answer is no. You need something that'll actually have a unique function."

Ren raised his hand. Geralt gave him a nod. "What about Nora?" he asked. "Would your grapeshot qualify, even if she just uses it with Magnhild like her other grenades?"

Geralt shook his head. "The whole idea is to get you to have something you use when your usual strategies don't work," he said, "regardless of the silver/steel issue."

Ren nodded and lowered his hand.

Geralt glanced around the class. "Now," he said. "I'll bet some of you are wondering why we've spent so long on my toolkit. There're a few reasons. The first one is that I wanted to make a point. Ideally, everyone's toolkit should take two hours to go over in some detail. That's where you should be trying to get.

He shrugged. "That's not my best reason," he admitted, "but it's the one that's important for today. "Now, starting today, we're going to be going over each of your existing toolkits and talking about what holes you need to patch up. Anyone who goes today will have an advantage for the assignment on Monday, because you'll know where to look, but if you don't get a chance in class you can see me later today.

"So," he said, looking around. "Who wants to start?"

Pyrrha raised her hand first. He gave her a nod. "Come on up, Pyrrha," he said.

She did, her red sash trailing behind her.

"You use a sword and shield, right?" Geralt asked.

The champion fighter nodded. "Miló and Akoúo̱, yes," she said. "Miló also has javelin and rifle forms."

Geralt nodded slowly. "You happen to have them with you?" he asked.

Pyrrha shook her head. "We're not expected to carry our weapons around the school," she said. "Only to combat classes."

"Might want to start considering this a combat class," Geralt said. "Anyway, the rifle. How's it work?"

"Semi-automatic," Pyrrha said promptly. "twelve-round magazine. I use it for middle- to long-range accurate fire. It lacks the penetrating power of a sniper rifle but has a higher fire-rate and uses sights instead of a scope."

"So you use the sword for close-quarters, the spear for reach, the gun for range, and the shield for defense?" Geralt asked.

"The javelin and shield are both also thrown weapons," Pyrrha said. "I… well, my Semblance."

"Right," Geralt agreed. "You don't have too much trouble getting them back, I guess. Well, you've got most ranges covered, so that's a good start. No explosives or area attacks?"

Pyrrha considered this. "I could use dust rounds," she said doubtfully. "I don't carry them, as a rule."

"That could serve for long-range explosives," Geralt agreed. "And you usually don't want explosives at short range. How about traversal? I know that's a big thing for Huntsmen; getting from one side of the battlefield to another."

Pyrrha shrugged. "I usually just rely on acrobatics and my Semblance," she said.

"Might want to find a system that doesn't rely on your Aura," Geralt said. "Never know when you might need that. How about verticality? Huntsmen like playing with height. You can probably float using your Semblance, but have you got other options besides climbing?"

Pyrrha shook her head slowly. "Not in particular," she said. "It's never come up."

"I saw the footage of your initiation," Geralt said. "If you want to see it, let me know after class. Team RWBY played with verticality a lot while your team was busy with the Deathstalker. Might want to take some cues from them."

Pyrrha nodded. "Thank you, Pr—Geralt," she said gratefully. "I have a few ideas."

Geralt nodded. "No problem. Who's next?"

"It's quite unlike Geralt to ask me to follow him," Yennefer said amusedly, looking fingering the spines of the books on her shelves. "I find I mind a great deal less than I expected I would."

"So you'll come?" Ciri asked.

"Of course," Yennefer chuckled. "I said I was going to drop politics, did I not?"

Ciri raised her eyebrows. "And have you?" she asked.

"Of course not," said Yennefer. "But politics are the same everywhere. I'm sure I can hold my own in… Vale, you said?"

Ciri nodded. "It's a nice place," she defended. "Even if the Grimm are a bit of a problem."

"It sounds like they're rather more of a problem than that," Yennefer said lightly. "Then again, so was the Wild Hunt, and we handled that fairly well."

"So, what do you need to pack?" Ciri asked.

"That rather depends on how we shall be traveling," Yennefer said, leaning on her bookshelf and studying her adoptive daughter. "Have you managed to transport vehicles, or only yourself and others with you? How light must I pack?"

Ciri winced. "It'll take a great deal out of me," she said slowly, "but I suppose I could take a full carriage's worth of baggage."

"Splendid," said Yennefer, clapping her hands. "Then I shall pack my megascope, a few packages of key books, clothes enough to tide me over in the event that I cannot have more made for some time… Yes, that should do. Come, Ciri, help me."

Ciri rolled her eyes. "A few packages of key books?" she asked. "I should think you plan to bring your entire library!"

"Not all of it," the Sorceress defended lightly. "Only, say, two thirds. Come, help me fold and pack my megascope. Are you contacting anyone else to about Visiting Geralt?"

"I've already contacted Zoltan and Dandelion," Ciri said. "They'd both like to come. I'm trying to track down Regis, now. He's somewhere in Nilfgaard, but I've no idea where."

Yennefer nodded. "Then perhaps we shouldn't pack the megascope quite yet," she said dryly, replacing the equipment she'd been dismantling. "It may be of service in finding him. Oh, I never asked: whatever happened to Avellac'h?"

Ciri blinked. "He went back to Tir ná Lia," she said blankly. "Why?"

"Shame," Yennefer mused. "I should have liked to interrogate him about those world-gates he used. It would be useful to have an open channel between this world and Remnant. I'm sure I can work it out, given time."

Ruby had come to the conclusion that Beacon's forge was insufficient very quickly on Thursday. They'd taken the time to test Yrden with her semblance—yes, it did slow her—but beyond that they'd simply decided to meet on Saturday at a larger forge in Vale.

Ruby had asked him if she could invite others to join them. Geralt had agreed.

Somehow, he hadn't expected this.

His entire class turned to greet him as he entered the forge. Ruby was beaming proudly at him, as if to say, look at all the people!

He sighed. "We don't have class on Saturdays," he said.

Yang snorted. "Yeah," she said, "but we all want silvered weapons, so we thought we'd come by."

Geralt shook his head. "Was planning on silvering your weapons a couple weeks down the line," he said. "Good on you for taking the initiative, I guess. Glad you're here, CFVY—help you get ready for the leshen."

Coco nodded. "That's the idea," she said. "Anything we should bring besides silver rounds and burn dust?"

Garalt considered this. "Well, any tools you come up with for Monday will be good to bring too," he said. "I'm going to be focused on patching up my own kit, though, so I can't help too much today."

"You heard him," Ruby told the posse imperiously. "Geralt and I have work to do! All of you go get some silver and get started!"

Geralt made his way over to the girl in red as the group dispersed somewhat, each student making for their own workbench. "How's this work?" he asked. "Don't you have to pay for the silver?"

"Beacon students have free weapon maintenance," she said. "I doubt the forge will be happy with us for using this much silver, though."

Geralt shrugged. "No choice," he said. "I'll tell Ozpin to get them to stock up."

Ruby nodded, then studied him. "So," she said. "What did you want to make?"

He pulled out his crossbow and laid it out on her workbench. "I like this thing, don't get me wrong," he said, "but a good pistol would do better, I think."

She nodded. "A hand cannon, basically," she said. "Unless you want to make the switch to a revolving cylinder or an automatic?"

Geralt shook his head. "One-round stopping power is more my style," he said.

"All right," she said. "We can just modify basic Atlesian blueprints pretty easily. Silver and steel rounds, or just silver?"

"How hard will it be for me to swap magazines?" Geralt asked.

Ruby considered. "Not that hard," she said. "You already do a lot of swapping—" she stopped, blinked, and gasped. "Oh I have an idea!"

The workbench came equipped with a screen used to view three-dimensional blueprints. Ruby pulled up one of a pistol and started fiddling with it, talking all the while. "We can use mech-shift tech," she said rapidly. "Instead of shifting between different forms, your gun can shift between different types of ammo! That way, you never have to actually swap magazines—you can just shift the chamber to the right magazine! Sort of like Myrtenaster."

Geralt nodded. "Makes sense," he said, although it didn't. "Can I get three magazines?"

"Steel, sliver, and dust?" Ruby asked, still messing with the blueprint.

Geralt nodded. "Exactly."

"I could give you multiple magazine receptors for different Dust types," Ruby offered. "The weapon would need maintenance more often, though."

Geralt considered this. "Whatever you think is best," he said. "In general, I probably won't need more than one type of dust quickly enough to make it worth it, don't you think?"

Ruby thought about this, tilting her head from side to side even as she brought parts from other weapons into the pistol's blueprint. "Yeah, probably," she said. "Space is an issue, too. I couldn't give you more than about three rounds of each type if I went with all the different types of Dust."

Geralt nodded. "I also need a verticality option," he said. "Any ideas?"

"Ooh," Ruby said, pursing her lips. "I use my Semblance and recoil for that, but you don't want that kind of recoil on a pistol. Hmm."

"Maybe a grappling hook?" Geralt suggested. "I don't want to just carry one around, though."

"Ooh!" Ruby said excitedly. "Four firing modes!"

Geralt blinked at her. "What?" he asked.

"Four configurations," Ruby explained patiently, her fingers flying over the tablet. "Steel, silver, dust, and grapple. I can give you a speargun configuration on this thing, with a barbed harpoon!"

Geralt huffed interestedly. "Not a bad idea," he said. "Would it hold my weight?"

Ruby nodded. "You'll have to augment your arm with aura to hold up your whole body reliably with just your grip on the handle," she warned, "But that's normal. Blake has to do that all the time to use the ribbon on Gambol Shroud."

"I can do that," Geralt agreed. "Need to train, but I can do that."

"Then that's the plan," Ruby agreed, her fingers dancing over the screen. "What caliber do you want?"

Geralt blinked at her. "That's bullet size, I know that," he said. "Dunno how to decide, though. Talk me through it."

"Right, this is your first gun," Ruby said apologetically. "Okay, so there's a limit to how big I can make your magazines and firing chamber, right? So the biggest rounds I can account for are .50, like Crescent Rose, and if I go with that you're only going to have about six rounds a mag. Or we can go as far down as something like .22, which would have a lot less stopping power but I could fit twice as many rounds in or more. Or even something tiny like .10, but I wouldn't recommend that since you don't want an automatic."

Geralt nodded. "Go with .50," he said.

She nodded, fiddling with the blueprint. "Now you have to decide bullet shape," she said. "I won't go into all the design details. We've got blunts, which are less tapered and can really do a number on anything not armored. There's armor-piercing, which is almost sharp and will puncture armor like it's not even there, but won't do nearly as much damage to the target once it gets through. We've also got HV rounds—that stands for high velocity, by the way—which uses increased rifling to proper the bullet faster and make it go farther. I use those for Crescent Rose—it's better at longer range, and can be as devastating as the others at close range, but it doesn't have the penetrating power of the armor-piercers or the destructive power of the blunts."

Geralt thought about this. "Armor's always an issue with some monsters," he said. "Insectoids and the like. Go with armor-piercing."

"Got it," Ruby said, tapping out a command into the program. "Now, you're going to be using this one-handed a lot. Do you want me to account for two-handed grip in case you need to make a more stable shot? It'll mean slightly less accuracy in your one-handed shots because of the extra size, but with a two-handed shot you'll be able to snipe."

Geralt thought about that. "How much less accuracy, one-handed?"

Ruby lifted one hand away from the screen and tilted it from side to side in a so-so gesture. "Not huge," she said. "You'll still be able to, say, core an apple at a hundred yards or so. You might lose about… thirty yards of really pinpoint accuracy?"

Geralt considered this. "Is there a way you can give me a… detachable stock?" he asked. "Or something like that?"

"Ooh," Ruby said excitedly. "No need! You're the best, Geralt!"

He blinked at her. "How so?" he asked.

"You keep coming up with these great uses for mech-shift!" she said happily. "It'll be a little heavier, but you can swap it between one-handed and two-handed firing modes! Because the extra length will be folded in, you shouldn't lose accuracy to leverage!"

He nodded. "Sounds good."

"All right," Ruby said, tapping out a few more tweaks to the blueprint and then leaning back. "This thing is going to be a lot of fun," she said happily. "Now we have to decide cosmetics."

Geralt raised his eyebrows. "Color?" he asked

She nodded. "White's your color, right?"

Geralt nodded. "I guess," he said. "They called me the White Wolf, so…"

"Right," she nodded, tapping out a command. "That'll be the primary color. How about secondary? Gold-yellow, to match your eyes? Or silver?"

"Silver," Geralt said.

She nodded and fiddled with the screen. "Want any carvings or engravings?" she asked. "General Ironwood has a pistol like this, and his is hand-carved. The forge can't carve it for you, but you can add engravings to the blueprint."

Geralt considered that, looking at the wire-frame that would soon become the newest addition to his arsenal. "The weapon's name," he said quietly. "Along both sides of the barrel."

Ruby looked over at him. "What is its name?" she asked.

"Vesemir," Geralt replied.

"Well," said Ruby, tapping one last command and removing the blueprint from the screen. "Vesemir should be done in about three days. Now, I've got to go make some silver rounds for Crescent Rose."

Geralt nodded. "Thanks, Ruby."

"Don't mention it," she said, smiling at him before darting off.

Geralt glanced at the screen where, recently, the blueprint to his new weapon had been displayed. Honestly, he had no idea what it was going to look like in reality, yet. But if Crescent Rose was any indication, Ruby knew her way around weapon design.

"Oz," Geralt said, entering the Headmaster's office. 'Had a question about one of the fairy tales."

Ozpin leaned forward over his desk. "Indeed?" he asked. "Which one?"

"The Witch's Three Wishes," said Geralt, coming forward and putting the book on Ozpin's desk. "That one have any basis in reality?"

Ozpin pursed his lips. "That is one of the few I have been quite unable to verify in any detail," he said. "I believe the titular Witch to be derived from Salem, our final enemy. Her final punishment, however, does not seem to have happened. And of course, the Man in the Mirror is hard to believe, at best."

"He exists," said Geralt flatly.

Ozpin blinked once, slowly. "Does he really?" he said quietly.

Geralt nodded.

"Oh, my."

"He roped me into collecting one of his debts, once," Geralt said quietly. "In the end, I managed to beat him at his own game. Wouldn't want to try again, though."

"Well," Ozpin said quietly. "If ever he… comes to collect Salem's debt, I assure you—you should feel no need to save her."

"So you think she really did…?"

"Yes," Ozpin said immediately. "Yes, I do. And I can only hope that the Man in the Mirror does come to collect, one of these days."

Geralt sighed. "I have a feeling," he said quietly, "that if you're hoping for him to win at anything, it's because you're missing something. No idea what, though."

"Well, this is unsettling news, at any rate," Ozpin said. "I will look through Remnant's history and legends; perhaps I can verify his appearance in other places."

"Let me know if you do," Geralt said darkly. "If I never meet him again it'll be way too soon."

"Hey, are they new?" Blake asked at breakfast on Sunday, nodding over at a trio of students in black and white uniforms.

Ruby glanced over. They were two girls and one boy. One, the leader based on her mien, had long black hair and liquid golden eyes, a shade more orange than Geralt's. The other two were a girl, maybe slightly older than Yang, with long mint-green hair in pigtails and a young man with silver hair.

"Yeah, I guess," she said. "Those aren't beacon uniforms, either. I wonder where they came from?"

"They look like Haven Academy uniforms to me," Blake said slowly. "I spent some time in Mistral before coming to Vale."

"They're here rather early, then," Weiss said thoughtfully. "The rest of the Haven visitors for the tournament haven't arrived yet."

Ruby nodded slowly. "They probably came to Vale early for some other reason," she said. "I hope they're not too lonely."

The black-haired woman met her considering eyes across the dining hall. For a moment, silver and gold met and held.

Ruby looked away. "Don't stare," she told her teammates. "That's rude."

Yang rolled her eyes. "Fine," she grumbled, looking back at Blake. "Anyway, Blake, you've got that, uh, meeting to infiltrate tonight, right?"

Blake nodded. "Around six, yes," she said. "If you three could just… be around, that'd be great."

"In case things go wrong," Yang agreed. "Right. I'll be downtown anyway, following my lead. Weiss, Ruby, think you two can head downtown after finishing up at the CCT?"

Weiss nodded. "Of course," she said. "I hope it all goes well, though. And doesn't go too late—we have to be up early for Geralt's class tomorrow, and I need to put my new propellant through its paces before then."

"Oh, do you want to record spars?" Blake asked. "I don't know how important the extra credit is, but…"

"…But there's no reason not to try for it," Weiss finished, nodding. "Certainly. We can do that after breakfast, and then Ruby and I will go to the CCT after lunch."

"We can meet in Vale for dinner, and then Blake and I will head out to our things after that," Yang said. "Sounds like a plan!"

A/N: Phearo on spacebattles has generously created concept art for Vesemir! The post in question can be found at the following link (with spaces removed and the word dot replaced with periods): forums dot spacebattles dot com / posts/30417829/