18

"Ciri, darling, can you hear me?" Geralt listened with half an ear to Yennefer's bored drawl. She stood near the focal point of a ring of megascopes, speaking towards a flickering light in the center. Geralt lay reclining on the bed in the corner of the bedroom-turned-sorceress'-laboratory, flipping through his students' end-of-term papers, clicking the retractable red pen in his hand idly. Occasionally he brought it up to the clipboard and made a note where the student had made a particularly good or bad point. So far, there were far more good than bad.

Yennefer had been trying various megascope configurations for weeks now. Geralt understood some of the intricacies of the topic—the different focal lengths of the lenses, different cuts for the crystalline foci, and so on—but for the most part, he was just here to keep her company and occasionally serve as a stuffed animal for her to talk through her troubleshooting with. Rubber-duck debugging, was apparently the Remnan term.

It was already the dozenth configuration she'd tried today, and it was nearly dinnertime. There wasn't time to reassemble the array again tonight unless they wanted to be up very late indeed. The deadline was approaching, but they still had a couple more weeks before they would need to start preparing to enact Ironwood's plan in earnest.

After allowing the silence to stretch for a moment, Yennefer audibly sighed. "Another failure," she murmured, turning away from the megascope focus. "Perhaps I should go back to the platinum bands, those seemed to—"

"Not a failure." The voice startled both of them. Geralt almost threw his clipboard at the megascopes in surprise.

"Ciri!" Yennefer exclaimed, whirling to face the microportal again. "Darling, are you there?"

"Yes. Busy." Her voice was tight with either stress or pain. Geralt's heart sank, hoping it was the former. "Call back in an—two hours?"

"Yes, of course, darling," said Yennefer, eyes seeking Geralt's across the room. "Go. Good luck."

"Mm."

Yennefer stepped back and rotated one of the megascopes a fraction of an inch. The portal dissipated like mist in sunlight. She turned to Geralt, triumph in the quirk of her lips and worry in the lines around her eyes. "Do you suppose she's all right?" she asked. "I hope she's not hurt."

"She can take care of herself," Geralt reassured, half to himself. "But—yeah, me too." He swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up. "Let's go down to the dining commons," he said. "We'll call her back after dinner."

Fifteen minutes later, Geralt and Yennefer sat down beside Ozpin and Glynda. "We made contact," Geralt said, speaking quietly enough that no one outside their little group could possibly hear him over the cacophony of hundreds of students talking and laughing.

Ozpin's eyes flicked to him from his food. "I see," he said. "And?"

"She was busy," Geralt said. "In a fight, or something like it, I think. She said to call back in two hours. We'll let you know as soon as we've talked to her."

He nodded stiffly. "Good. Very good." He took a deep breath. "That's the largest hurdle cleared, yes? There's little chance she'll be unable to help?"

"Unless she has something going on she can't leave, she'll be here," Geralt said. "And I don't think there's much that she'd consider a higher priority than a city full of civilians. She's been the innocent kid in a warzone. She doesn't like standing by while that kind of thing happens to other people."

"Then we must hope she hasn't already found a cause of similar import somewhere else," said Ozpin grimly. "I'm not convinced James' plan would even work. She may have other ways of communicating with her followers. It would improve our odds, but by how much?"

"Well, with any luck, by the end of the night we can lay that plan to rest," said Yennefer. "Would you like to join the conversation with Ciri yourself? Make your request in person?"

"I wouldn't want to intrude," said Ozpin, shaking his head. "I trust the both of you."

"Nonsense," said Yennefer, lips quirking in amusement. Then her smile faded, and she said, "I suspect Ciri may only have a short time to speak, so we'll have to get through the conversation rather quickly in any case. If she does turn out to have more time to speak, we can always eject you once our business is concluded."

Ozpin nodded slowly. "If it wouldn't be a bother," he said, "I suppose I would like the opportunity to speak with her myself."

"In that case," said Yennefer, meet us at our suite at half past eight tonight."

Ozpin arrived exactly on time. Geralt let him in as Yennefer finished synchronizing the megascope array. The headmaster blinked as he took in the equipment cluttering more than half the floor. "You know, I could have provided you an empty classroom or laboratory," he said. "There was no need to convert your living space like this."

"I've woken up at half past three with ideas more nights than not, these past few weeks," said Yennefer without looking up from the lens she was adjusting. "I assure you, I've enjoyed not halving to cross the courtyard every time."

"I've missed getting a full night's sleep," Geralt murmured in Ozpin's ear. The man cracked a smile.

"There," said Yennefer, stepping back. "Now to see if I can repeat a miracle…" She raised her hands. Sparks ran between her fingers, then arced like lightning from her hands to the nearest scope. It chained between the focusing crystals, springing from one to the next around the circle in a matter of seconds, and as it passed each crystal lit up with an ethereal blue light. As the last megascope activated, there was a sound like rushing air and the same microportal as before opened in the air, shimmering pale blue. "Ciri, darling," Yennefer said. "Are you there? Are you well?"

"I'm well enough." Ciri's response was quick and mercifully light. There was no sign of the strain of two hours before. "Sorry about that earlier, I was in the middle of a hunt."

"What were you hunting?" Geralt asked before he could stop himself.

"Nothing you'd have heard of," Ciri replied, a smile in her voice. "They call them chasmfiends, here. Imagine a fiend without horns or fur, twice as big and with a chitin exoskeleton."

Geralt blinked. "That… doesn't seem anatomically feasible," he observed.

"I suspect it isn't," Ciri said cheerfully. "Magic behaves wonderfully strangely in this world. Anyhow, mother, how did you even contact me? As I recall it took Avallac'h centuries to learn to cross worlds without my help."

"Fortunately, I am smarter than Avallac'h," said Yennefer haughtily, but there was a smile on her face. "And it's much easier to send intangible sound than something so large as a person. I would need to make the spell far more efficient to manage that without exhausting all the magic available for thousands of miles in all directions. However, Ciri, I'm afraid this isn't entirely a social call."

"Oh?" Ciri asked. "Have you a need for your favorite worldhopper?"

"Worldhopper?" Geralt asked.

"A local term here," Ciri said dismissively. "I find it describes what I do rather well, although it's not exactly what it usually means. But really, do you both need me there? I'm a fair distance away, but I can be there in a week if I hurry."

"Yes," said Geralt, looking at Ozpin. "We've actually—Professor Ozpin, the Beacon headmaster, is here with us. Do you want to explain?"

Ozpin nodded. "Miss Ciri," he said, stepping forward towards the ring of megascopes. "We've recently become aware that your parents may be instrumental in stopping someone who has done… immeasurable damage to the people of Remnant, over thousands of years. In order to find out how she can be stopped, we need to transport them to Grimm-infested territory without letting her become aware that we are doing so. We wondered if you would be able to help."

"Of course," said Ciri without a moment's hesitation. "Is there a particular deadline, or can I take my time?"

"The sooner, the better," Geralt said. "There's a plan in place to shut down global communications to try and slip through under the radar, but there's no guarantee it'd work and it'd probably cause a panic. Especially since we're planning on doing it while the city of Vale is getting attacked. That's probably going to happen in about a month and a half, but we're guessing about the enemy's plans. We may need to respond quickly if she does something we don't expect."

"Understood," said Ciri crisply. "I'll take a day to set affairs in order here, then be off by the shortest path. I should be there in a little more than a week. Nine or ten days."

"Very well," said Ozpin with a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Miss Ciri. You have no idea how much I appreciate this."

"I think I might have some idea," said Ciri, an edge of dark humor to her voice. "Was that all you needed?"

"All we needed, yes," said Geralt. "But if you're not too busy, we can talk."

"Of course," said Ciri warmly. "I have plenty of time."

"I'll take my leave," said Ozpin, backing away. "Thank you again, all of you."

Geralt gave him a nod as stepped out and shut the door behind him. Then he turned back to the portal. "So, Ciri," he said. "Tell us about the world you're visiting now."

'Four hours ago, contact was lost with the KMV Horizons Broad, a freight liner setting out from the port of Argus towards Port North laden with steel. This marks the eighth freight vessel to vanish in the past month alone. While the SDC maintains that the first of these disappearances, that of a Dust shipment from Atlas to Vacuo, was an attack by the White Fang militant group, investigations have turned up no corroborating evidence. The absence of any ransom or demands has most security experts instead suspecting Grimm attacks, but no explanation for the sudden increase in the frequency and severity of these attacks has been forthcoming. We will continue to follow this story as it develops.

'Gabby Award-winning music group "Achieve Men" have canceled their upcoming concert in the Atlas Academy Concert Hall, citing the recent—'

Ruby tapped her scroll, pausing the radio feed, then switched over to music. As the opening notes of Anima Autumn began to play in her earbuds, she returned to the machine on her desk, picking up her screwdriver and getting back to work.

Her new cyberleg worked like a dream. She couldn't feel with it, but her control was as fine as ever. It was stronger than her remaining leg, too, not that she got much use out of that. She didn't think she was going to be transitioning to a kicking-heavy combat style any time soon.

But there were certainly downsides, even beyond the jagged-edged phantom pains which sometimes woke her in the dead of night, sweat on her brow and tears in her eyes, teeth clenched to hold in her scream. Not least of which was the ongoing need for maintenance.

She still hadn't gotten used to that. She'd only had the leg for three weeks, and already it had gone slightly out of alignment four times—not so severely as to be dangerous while she was just going between classes, but severely enough to be potentially lethal in high-risk combat. The documentation General Ironwood had provided claimed that service needs would become less and less common as the hardware adapted to the calibrations she needed. It couldn't adapt fast enough, in her opinion.

The door to the dorm opened suddenly and over the music she heard Weiss' voice. "I'm just saying, if she wanted us not to use—"

Her partner's voice cut off suddenly. Ruby gave a tiny sigh before she could stop herself, then painted a smile on her face and rotated her chair to face the door, pulling her earbuds out. "Hey guys," she said brightly. "How was combat class?"

"Fine," said Blake, shooting her a small, understanding grin as she crossed to the beds and dropped her backpack on her bunk. "Professor Goodwitch didn't like Weiss using her flashbangs."

"I still don't see why," Weiss sniffed. "It was a perfectly valid—"

"Probably because Lark had to go to the nurse," Yang commented dryly, coming up next to Blake and tossing her own bag onto the top bunk.

"He didn't have to do anything!" Weiss protested. "I told him he'd be fine in just a few minutes!"

"I'm pretty sure he couldn't hear you," Blake said, smirking. "You know, because of the flashbang?"

Yang snorted. Then she turned to Ruby, her smile slipping slightly. "How about you?" she asked. "What have you been up to, uh, besides…" she gestured vaguely at the cyberleg on Ruby's desk.

"Mostly this," said Ruby, patting her own calf. (And wasn't that an odd thought?) "Listening to the news, too."

"Have they figured out what happened to that SDC freighter?" Blake asked, glancing at Weiss before looking back at Ruby. She grimaced. "Was it really the White Fang? They've been… erratic. As we saw."

"Probably not," said Ruby. "If it was, they'd only be hitting SDC and Mistrali Arms ships, but only one of the freighters that's gone missing has been from each of those, out of eight. They think it's Grimm."

"Wait, eight?" Weiss asked, blinking. "Wasn't it seven—don't tell me another ship's gone missing."

"Four hours ago," said Ruby, frowning. "Mistrali ship—KMV, so it was a Kingdom charter, not a private freighter. It was on its way to Vale."

"The disappearing ships have been all over the map, though," said Yang doubtfully. "It can't be a wandering Grimm swarm—they couldn't have gotten to the Sea of Solitas after hitting that Menagerie ship last week."

Ruby shrugged. "Maybe there's multiple swarms?" she said. "Or maybe it's a Titan, since we know those exist now."

"Yeah." Yang sighed heavily. "Gods… Grimm Titans. How are we supposed to fight those?"

"Geralt and Regis beat one," Ruby pointed out. "We'll be fine, Yang. We've got, what, nine and a half more terms before we graduate? Plenty of time to learn to fight Grimm."

"I guess so," Yang said noncommittally, eyes lingering on the cyberleg on Ruby's desk before she turned away. "Anyway, what's our next class? History, right?"

"Grimm Studies," said Weiss with a roll of her eyes. "Honestly, Yang, how do you still not know your own schedule?"

"Cut me some slack," Yang complained. "We're only two weeks into the term!"

"Class doesn't start for an hour and a half," Blake said, checking her scroll before looking at Ruby. "You want to go check out the festival grounds? We saw them setting up tents this morning."

"Oh, yeah!" Yang said, brightening. "We should do that! Uh, if…" she hesitated, looking back at Ruby.

Ruby fought to keep her smile. "Just give me five more minutes to finish this," she said.

Emerald let her false smile drop as she and Mercury walked away from the four girls.

"What?" her 'teammate' asked, shooting her a smirk. "Didn't you enjoy talking to our friends?"

"Go die in a ditch," she said, grimacing. "Gods, they make me sick. Always with the smiling and the giggling and the… blech. Especially that Ruby. Didn't she just lose a damn leg? How the hell is she like this?"

"Who knows?" Mercury asked casually, sticking his hands in his pockets and shooting an easy grin at a civilian in a sundress sitting at one of the tents beside them. "You think she'll be up to competing by the time the tournament starts?"

"She's coming back to Goodwitch's class next week, right?" Emerald asked. "So, probably. Hopefully they don't wash out in the first couple of rounds, though." She shrugged. "Although I guess there's plenty of people I can fool into the plan. We don't need the blonde in particular."

"Just think of the blonde jokes, though," said Mercury, chucking darkly. "How do you get a dumb blonde to break a guy's leg?"

"Oh, gods," Emerald groaned. "Why are you like—" She froze, nostrils flaring.

Mercury took a couple more steps, then stopped, glancing back at her. "What?"

"Shh," she hissed, inhaling through her nose. Was that…?

The scent came again, rich and subtle and terrifying. "You go ahead," she said without looking at Mercury. "I'll meet you at the dorm."

"Huh." Mercury shrugged and turned away, shooting her a jaunty little wave over his shoulder. "All right then. Later."

Without bothering to respond, she turned towards Beacon's main gate and strolled into the courtyard as casually as she could madness, trying not to let the tension coiling in her gut show outwardly. The scent grew stronger, grew unmistakable, as she walked through the main doors into the entrance hall, then followed it up the stairs and into a corridor.

"—Massive swords," someone was saying, her voice bright and warm. "Made, as far as I could tell, of pure, solidified magic."

"Try not to talk to loudly about magic," Geralt, the monster hunter, said, glancing over his shoulder. She threw an illusion at him, covering herself as she stood perfectly still. He turned away again, talking to the young woman walking beside him, her ashen hair just a shade lighter than his own. "It's not exactly public knowledge around here."

"Oh, right, I'd forgotten," she said. "Odd, given how common it is. What do they think their Dust is?"

"Who knows," muttered Geralt, leading her down the hall. "Anyway, Yen isn't quite ready to leave some of the reagents she's going to need haven't arrived yet. Are you able to stay a few days?"

"I have time," said the girl cheerily. "I've no open contracts at the moment. I do want to head back to that world—there's some places I'd like to see, and offer my services. But I'm in no great rush."

"Good," said Geralt. "There's a free room next door to me and Yen, we can put you up there until her reagents arrive. Then we'll head out."

Emerald slowed, then stopped, letting them turn the corner and pass out of her sight. She'd seen, heard, and smelled enough to guess at the rest.

She would never forget that smell. It was burned into her memory, alongside the flames as her mother's house burned, the screaming, the sound of heavy metal boots on muddy earth, those pale grey eyes staring out of that skull-like mask.

That girl was one of them. The Wild Hunt. And she was going to transport the monster slayer, and his witch wife, somewhere as soon as they were ready to perform some sort of magic.

Cinder needed to hear about this.

"Ma'am?" Cinder's voice, vainglory thinly veiled in false humility, came from the scroll on Salem's desk.

The Mother of Grimm, Queen of All Remnant, Lady of Ash, stared out at the Dust fields outside her citadel with pursed lips. "I'm thinking," she said. "Do be quiet for a moment."

Wisely, the girl didn't give a verbal affirmative.

So, thought Salem. An Aen Elle capable of world travel comes to Remnant—one with some connection to the 'witcher' who brought Summer Rose out of hiding. This witcher, and his sorceress lover, have some spell they wish to perform in some other world, and should be leaving in a matter of days.

"Your vampire—Emerald, was it?" Salem said slowly. "She hasn't heard any whisper of this 'Geralt' resigning his post at Beacon, has she?"

"No, none of us have," said Cinder. "She and Mercury are somewhat in tune with the student gossip, but I can ask them to keep their ears open?"

"Do so," said Salem, "but I doubt you'll find anything. You've already been listening for any sign of danger—or I assume you have, since I told you to."

"Of course, Ma'am."

Salem nodded. Then they're likely not intending to be gone long, she thought.

"It's possible they haven't told Ozpin they're leaving," Cinder offered.

"No one enters his school without him knowing," Salem said. "And they wouldn't be putting her up in the school if they were trying to keep their departure secret. No—he's aware of this, whatever it is." She hummed. "He's the one who captured Fenrisulfr, isn't he?"

"He and his vampire friend, yes," said Cinder.

Dangerous, effective, with powerful contacts… and about to vanish for an indeterminate but short window. With a little luck, the vampire will be going with him. A slow smile spread across Salem's face. I can use this. I can most definitely use this.

"Cinder," she purred, "how soon can you be ready to cause a panic?"

A pause. "I can be ready by the time they leave, Ma'am," said Cinder, quick on the uptake.

"Anyone who can defeat Fenrisulfr, even with a vampire's help, is someone far more dangerous than the average Huntsman," said Salem, examining her sharp nails. "Coupled with a sorceress, they might be enough to put a significant obstacle in our path. How convenient, then, that they seem to be leaving. And just as I'm moving my Titans into position nearer to the Kingdoms."

"Are we moving up the schedule, Ma'am?" Cinder asked.

"The Vytal Festival was a good opportunity," said Salem. "This is a better one. We have no idea how powerful this sorceress is—for all we know, she may have spells stored capable of leveling whole swarms. Attacking while she's gone—especially if she takes both this witcher and his vampire with her—is an opportunity we can't let slip. How large a panic can you cause on such short notice?"

"Nothing on the scale of our Vytal Festival plans," Cinder admitted. "I don't even have the Dust we were stockpiling since Branwen blasted it all to hell."

"The real benefit of the Vytal Festival was that it allowed us to create a global panic with our control over the Beacon CCT," said Salem dismissively. "And all without exposing ourselves. But, as you said—the time for subtlety is over. I can create the panic. If you broadcast it, then shut down communications immediately thereafter, we will get the global terror we were looking for."

"Broadcast what, ma'am?"

"Why, my Titans attacking the Kingdom of Vale, of course."

Silence. "Oh," said Cinder. "Should I try to time our hijack of the Atlesian forces with the Grimm assault?"

"Please do," said Salem. "Your plans for that won't work quite as well, now, will they? I seem to recall something about that thief, Torchwick."

"I've found him already," Cinder said dismissively. "Vale's surveillance network is impressive when you don't need a warrant. I can only imagine what it must be like in Atlas. I'd planned to have Torchwick in position on Ironwood's flagship, but there are backup plans."

"Always have at least two backup plans," Salem said, smiling almost affectionately. "It's good to see you've taken my lessons to heart. Well—keep your ears open and try to make sure you know as soon as the sorceress and witcher leave, if not sooner. We'll coordinate from there."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Welcome home!" Taiyang's cheerful voice was immediately undercut by Zwei's loud barking. Summer smiled down at the little corgi as he darted around their legs like a fluffy torpedo with a faulty guidance system. "Hey Zwei," she said, kneeling down and petting him vigorously with both hands. "Did you miss us, boy?"

"Of course he did!" Taiyang said brightly as he passed them by, hanging his vest up on the hook by the door and kicking off his sandals. "He loves his mom, don't you boy?"

Zwei, obligingly, barked and tried to lick Summer's face. She laughed, fending him off with one hand and scratching behind his ear with the other.

Tai strode into the kitchen, calling back to her, "So, what do you want for dinner? I can make that mushroom casserole you like?"

"Sounds good to me!" Summer replied, standing up after one last cuddle and following him. "Can I help?"

"Well, if you want to start chopping the mushrooms?"

"Sure." She washed her hands and got to work.

For a few minutes there was a companionable silence in the kitchen as Taiyang started work on the gravy for the casserole while she found a sharp knife ("We really need to sharpen these, Tai, don't let me forget,") and started slicing the button-shaped mushrooms into thin strips.

Then Tai let out a sigh. "Summ, can I ask you something?"

"Sure," she said, a little hesitant.

"How long did Raven stay at Beacon after you got in?"

Summer paused in her cutting. "Who said she stayed at all?"

"Ruby mentioned her coming to visit both of you in the medical wing," said Tai softly, still stirring the gravy. He didn't sound angry, but there was an edge to his voice that wouldn't have been there twelve years ago.

"Yeah," she said quietly. "She stayed, uh, almost the whole time I was there. She only left last week."

"And she was avoiding me that whole time?"

"…Yes." She swallowed. "I didn't want to push her, Tai. She saved my life, and I think she felt guilty about what happened to Ruby."

"Maybe she should," said Tai quietly, voice rough. And that was new—when Raven had left, all those years ago, he hadn't been angry, he'd been hurt and sad. He had always been slow to anger, and reacted to everything from insults to cruelty with sadness first. It was one of the things she loved most about him, and not for the first time, she mourned for what he'd had to go through without her.

"She never meant for that to happen," Summer said.

"No, of course not," said Tai. He sighed. "I do mean that. I think maybe she should have seen it coming, but I guess she doesn't really know Ruby. She couldn't have known how far our little girl would go to protect people, even bad people."

Summer suddenly remembered the half-chopped mushroom a foot from her face. She went back to it. "She felt terrible, you know," she said quietly. "About a lot of things, I think—what happened to Ruby, but also what happened to me. She feels like she would have been able to prevent it if she'd still had a portal link to me."

"She's probably right," said Tai, but now the rage had given way to the familiar sadness. "She never mentioned me?"

"No," Summer said sympathetically. "We didn't… talk about it."

"What did you talk about?"

"We reminisced some," Summer recalled. "It was… nice, to be back in Beacon with her. We went to visit some of our old haunts. She told me a little bit about her tribe. I told her about Ruby and Yang, and how they were doing. We talked a little about Geralt, too, and the monsters he hunts. Apparently the Branwens actually know about some of them."

"I still miss her, sometimes," said Tai quietly. "Even with how she—with how it ended. Even though it led to us, to Ruby. Sometimes… I still wish…"

"Me too, Tai," Summer said softly. "When I first ran into her in Anima, I thought… I thought the woman we knew was completely gone. But she wasn't. She was in hiding, like a wounded animal, but she came back when I needed her. She saved my life. She helped our daughters, even if she didn't do a perfect job. I missed her already, but I think I miss her even more now."

"You, too, huh?" Tai asked wryly. He sighed. "For sixteen years I've wondered what I did wrong," he said, sounding exhausted. "I tried to be there for her, to be a good husband, a good friend, and it wasn't enough."

"I don't know if anything would have been enough, Tai," Summer said quietly. "I really don't know why she left. If anything… I don't think it was you, at all. I think it was me."

"You?" Tai blinked at her. "Why would she have left because of you? She adored you!"

Summer smiled wryly. "I think—I don't know what tipped her off, but I think she knew I was in love with you," she said. "I don't know what made her decide that was a good reason to, I don't know—get out of my way? But I think maybe that's what happened."

"Oh, gods, you blame yourself too, don't you?" Tai asked, grimacing sympathetically.

"I'm… trying not to," Summer said. "It's hard. I blame myself for her leaving, and then I get angry with myself for blaming myself, because if she hadn't left I'd never have had Ruby, and I wouldn't trade Ruby for the world."

"Yeah, I know that feeling," said Taiyang. "What I eventually started telling myself was that I can regret Raven leaving, especially the way she did, without regretting that we had Ruby. They aren't mutually exclusive." He chuckled hollowly. "Eventually I even believed it."

"Maybe I will, too," said Summer, smiling sadly at him. "It's… hard, to think that Raven might have left because I felt jealous of her. I tried so hard to hide it."

"I think we talked about this once," said Tai. "You hid it pretty well from me."

"That's because you're oblivious," said Summer, smirking at him. "Qrow knew, I know that. We talked about it once or twice."

"Really? He never told me."

"I asked him not to," Summer said with a shrug, turning back to her mushrooms. "Once we were together, I could tell you myself, and before that I didn't want to make you feel bad either."

Especially since, she thought in that deep, self-loathing corner of her mind, Raven wasn't the only one I was jealous of.