Here's the second half for your visual enjoyment. Remember, you can always enjoy chapters a day or two earlier at the SpaceBattles forums.
"What the heck is it about siblings and beating each other up?" Blake asked as the girls recollected themselves and moved forward.
"What do you mean? Is that not normal?" Before Blake could answer Ruby's question, Weiss entered the conversation with a smug harrumph.
"My siblings and I don't beat each other up," she declared proudly while Ruby stared blankly at her.
"You once told me about how your sister pummeled you," Ruby accused her.
"That was training."
"And those were love taps."
"I am so glad I'm an only child," Blake said in relief, ignoring the two partner's bickering. Luckily for her, they soon subsided and pressed on. They stopped at the bottom of the stairs, where Ruby saw an etched tablet and began reading it.
"'Hail All, Brave City North King…' No wait, it's one word, Bromjunaar, North King Servant, Northern Kingdom. 'Hail All, Brave City Bromjunaar, Forever Shall These Walls Stand, May Enemies See Her Majesty, May All Quake To Behold Her.'" Ruby paused and looked upward, then nodded to herself. "Well, the walls are still up."
Suddenly, the ghosts reappeared around them. Ruby jumped up and then back, being caught by Weiss before she could trip over herself.
"We…We have to go back," the woman that wasn't Atmah said shakily. From this distance they could finally make out that she was an elf. "We can't leave Girduin…"
"We barely made it out alive," the Nord man objected, "and you want to go back in?"
"It's too late," Atmah objected. "There isn't enough of him left to go back in after."
"Gods, what have we done?" the Argonian lamented.
"We can't go back. Might as well go forward. We can still do this," Savos declared, trying to rally them despite his voice starting to slightly quiver.
"Savos is right," Atmah agreed. "We can make it if we just stay alert."
After they disappeared, Ruby frowned and looked down.
"This didn't go well for them," Yang concluded , eyeing the spot where the ghosts previously stood.
Weiss said nothing, but continued on ahead of them. The other three went after her. As they came into another chamber, the four suddenly felt something like icy tendrils wrapping around their souls. Weiss was the most affected, as their magicka seemed to be siphoned out from their bodies. At the same time, a deep voice seemed to echo out from the depths of the ruins, powerful enough to rattle their bones.
"Wo meyz wah dii vul junaar?" the voice called out in Dovahzhuul, which Ruby recognized immediately.
"What…" Weiss gasped out. "What was that?"
"Dragon language," Ruby groaned. "He was asking who we are."
"Not the best way to greet guests," Yang quipped through a wince.
"He, uh, didn't ask in a welcoming way."
"Yeah, kinda figured that out on my own."
Cautiously, the girls went on the move again, but had to stop to melt down an elemental barrier and destroy the spirit within it. Ruby almost expected it to be difficult when it marched out of the icy door, but it went down rather quickly. As they made it through, the voice from before echoed out again, only this time they were more prepared to brace against it.
"Nivahriin muz fent siiv nid aaz het." Once again, the four felt their magicka being siphoned from them, and through gritted teeth, Weiss came to a realization.
"Oh gods, he's going to keep draining us," Weiss cursed as she forced herself to stand on two feet.
"It'll be all right. He can't stop us from regenerating magicka," Ruby argued before stumbling forward. A draugr was in her sights on a bridge across the chasm before them. Almost like a lightbulb went off in her head, Ruby prepped a spell and launched it at the undead. For a second it was being zapped, then it suddenly disappeared and reappeared a few feet off the bridge, then fell the hundreds of feet to the bottom. Satisfied with herself, the girls continued going down, smashing through draugr as they went and collecting valuables as they came across them. Weiss was uncharacteristically focused on getting through the place, only ever stalling to search something thoroughly when they came across an old lab where she picked up a spellbook. As they crossed an old stone bridge, the voice called out as they felt their magicka being sapped away a third time.
"You do not answer… Must I use this guttural language of yours?"
Ruby shook herself and looked around. "Were you expecting an answer?" The voice didn't respond, and the Dragonborn huffed. "Well, fine then. Didn't want to talk to you, anyway."
"What is that thing?" Yang asked.
"I don't know, but it's ancient. He called this place his kingdom a minute ago, but I don't think it's a dragon."
"Maybe a sort of undead?" Weiss posited.
Yang hummed and started rubbing a lock of hair between her fingers. "A Dragon Priest?"
"A what?" Ruby asked, unfamiliar with the term, and Yang nodded.
"You remember what Valdimar said about Dragon Priest masks? Well, I recently…learned a bit more about Dragon Priests. Apparently the dragons could make people immortal, and those Priests could make draugr from the dead bodies of their servants."
"Huh, where'd you learn that from?"
"…I'll tell you later. Let's focus for now."
"Yes, we need to hurry," Weiss agreed before going ahead of them. "We can worry about dragons and priests when we run into them."
They went on, through a stone hall and down into a stream that was pouring against a rusty iron door at the other end. Weiss and Ruby walked in with no hesitation, but Yang flinched back when she felt how cold the water was. Blake just looked at the other two in disbelief before Weiss looked back at them and sighed.
"I have a spell that will dry your clothes. Come on."
"That doesn't stop this from being cold as all hell," Yang complained as she gingerly made her way in and waded towards them. After a few steps, she yelped as something landed against her and wrapped around her waist and neck.
"Don't let me fall," Blake said to her as she straightened up. Yang turned her head to look up at the cat Faunus incredulously, spreading her arms wide.
"Seriously?"
"Yep." Blake's voice held no ounce of shame, which only served to irritate Yang further.
"Can't you walk yourself?"
"Nope."
Before Yang could tell off her partner, Weiss reached towards the door and the voice called out again.
"Have you returned, Aren?" it asked, making Weiss' blood run cold. "My old friend?"
The vampire winced and shook her head before pushing through. They walked up onto dry land, Blake hopping off Yang as she did, and Weiss quickly used a spell that created a whirling gust of warm air around them. The heat quickly dried the wet cloth, though Yang had to take her boots off for a moment to get to her socks. After downing a skeleton and a draugr, another skeleton showed up at the end of a short corridor. Weiss readied a bolt of lightning to strike it, but then she felt her magicka slipping away again as the voice came up, her spell failing.
"Do you seek to finish that which you could not?"
The skeleton charged her, but then Yang whipped her crossbow up and fired, hitting its sternum and causing it to stumble back. Weiss snapped out of her confusion and struck out with Myrtenaster, lopping the skull off and felling the bony summon. Breathing a sigh of relief, they continued on through the winding passages until they came out into an open area, where a rather scrawny looking troll was picking through bones and chewing on them. Upon seeing them, it let out a roar that reminded them of a hippo and started charging. Weiss and Ruby jumped clear of it, but Blake dashed forward and dug her sword and Daedric dagger through it. As the troll staggered, Yang came in and bashed down on its head with her fiery axe, chopping through most of its skull in one hit and setting it alight.
"Bleh! And I thought the rotting corpses smelled bad," she quipped before going forward with the others. As they exited the chamber, they felt the draw on their magicka again.
"Seriously?" Ruby griped, thoroughly annoyed at the voice's presence.
"You only face failure once more!"
"Nahlot rotiil!" Ruby yelled, causing some dust to loosen from nearby walls. The girls halted and looked at their leader.
"Ruby?" Weiss asked.
"Hey, I don't like him constantly draining me either."
She continued on, entering a much larger chamber where some scattered skeletons began closing in on them or firing at them from a distance. Blake and Yang took potshots at a pair of archers while Ruby and Weiss rushed the fighters coming at them. Once the skeletons were down, they started looking at the closed up gate before them.
"You… you are not Aren, are you? Has he sent you in his place?"
Weiss seemed to growl at the voice before she yanked the lever opening the gate. Team RWBY then came upon what seemed to be a graveyard. Weiss stopped in her tracks and held out a hand as she saw a twinkling, glowing orb circle around a grave marker before floating upwards.
"That's a wisp," she warned them.
"What about it?" Ruby asked with an unconcerned shrug.
"Wisps are extensions of beings known as wispmothers, which are icy creatures that drain the life from living things. If a wisp is here, then…" The wisp suddenly zipped away and the girls followed it with their gazes as it came to what appeared to be a pale woman floating in midair. Her legs were missing, their place taken by a strange sort of mist, and her forearms appeared to be made out of ice. Weiss readied herself and the others followed suit. As the wispmother let out a shriek like ice shattering atop of an ice sheet, it released a hail of frozen spikes at them. Yang, Blake, and Ruby dodged, but Weiss slipped through and sent a lightning bolt at the creature. Two wisps headed straight towards her, but Weiss zeroed in and skewered one, which then fell like a rock. Yang got out of the way of the wispmother's follow-up attack and launched a fireball at the thing, which exploded and sent it back through the air.
"Maroon!" Ruby called out as she jumped up behind the wispmother. Blake leaped up in front of it with Gambol Shroud in sickle mode and hooked it from across its lower chest as Ruby hooked it from behind. Both girls planted their feet against each other's and pushed against one another while pulling their weapons. Both sliced through, meeting in the middle of the creature and letting its two halves fall. The upper half tried to pull itself upright, but it began crumbling into ash and shrieked just before it completely disintegrated. The remaining wisps flickered out and fell to the ground, where Weiss picked up a couple and looked them over.
"Well, that proves that the wisps depend on the mother and not the other way around." Internally, Weiss was pleased at this information. She could finally settle that debate with Onmund once she got back.
"What the heck was that thing, anyways?" Yang asked as she kicked one. "Some kind of ghost?"
"Some think that, but I'm not sure. There aren't exactly that many of them to experiment with."
Just a little past where the wispmother had been was a fiery door similar to the icy one from earlier. As Ruby and Weiss discussed the possibilities of the wispmothers' existence, a spirit wreathed in flames came from the construct and drew a pair of swords.
"Uh, guys?" Yang warned them as she pointed at the oncoming elemental. Weiss turned her head and screamed as it came at them, but Ruby balled up a hand and launched a Hailstone forward. The icy spell exploded outwards, hitting Yang with some of its frostiness.
"Ah! What the hell?!" she shouted as an unnatural chill overtook her.
"Sorry, Yang! I forgot that one explodes."
Weiss put a hand over her heart and took a deep breath. "Ugh, what's the point of being undead if I can still get a heart attack?" Ruby shrugged and headed towards the fiery door, only for the voice to ring out again.
"Did he warn you that your own power would be your undoing? That it would only serve to strengthen me?"
Weiss gasped and looked at her hands as she felt the drain take hold again. Blake's ears flicked around as she looked from side to side.
"There's no way. Everyone has a limit to how much magicka they can hold, right?" she asked the mage.
"Yes, but…it's not a hard limit. Someone can practice and expand how much magicka they can have at a time, but too much is…not recommended. Skill is at least as equally as important as power. However, he might be using it to charge himself, or something in his grasp."
"Don't worry, guys. We'll make it." With that, Ruby blasted the door with twin cones of frost, opening it. They passed through and headed further down, opening an iron gate as they went, only to pause when the ghosts of the past came up again.
"Come on, we can't stop now," Savos tried to convince his fellows. "We have to keep moving!"
"Where's Elvali?" Atmah asked in growing worry. "She was right behind me."
"Dead," the Nord answered sadly. "Something grabbed her from behind. Gone before I could do anything."
"This is insanity!" the Argonian declared as she leaned against a pillar, clutching her side. "We never should've come here!"
"You're right. This is all my fault," Atmah lamented. "Should we turn around, head back?"
"I don't think going back is a good idea."
"Going back would be the end of all of us," Savos agreed with the Nord. "We keep pushing forward, and we'll make it. We will!"
"Come on, you can make it," Atmah said to the Argonian. "Let's go."
When the ghosts disappeared, the girls noticed the Argonian skeleton resting against the pillar in the center of the room, the college robes now little more than scraps of cloth atop the bleach white bones. Unsure of how to take what they just saw and what their minds put together, they pushed on, hoping that whatever was ahead was something they could all get past.
"Come," the voice called to them as they walked down a circular hallway, undead beginning to rise at its mouth, "face your end."
The draugr now seemed almost spectral, and ghostly hounds began attacking alongside them. Yang took out her axes and began hacking through while Blake jumped ahead and started cutting at limbs with her daggers. Unsure if Crescent Rose could harm them or not, Ruby elected to start throwing spikes of ice. Weiss seemed to drop all semblance of composure and began slicing and raking through the undead before her with her teeth and fangs bared, her rapier coated in lightning, and her eyes aglow with a poisonous yellow. As she rushed forward, two Soul Gem traps began blasting her with cold air, which only served to open her eyes to a rune trap just a ways before her and a trio of Soul Gem traps that were beginning to charge a fire attack. She simply stepped back while knocking the two down, then sent a Hailstone at both the other traps to disable them. The other girls tried to keep up but by the time Ruby had picked up one of the ghostly swords and collected the Soul Gems, her partner was nearly done ripping through the next force of spectral draugr.
"Weiss!" Ruby called out as she sped by Yang, skewering an undead hound and then kicking it off of her sword. She looked over at Ruby, panting, and slowly seemed to calm herself back down, but not enough that her eyes would return to their blue color. "Weiss, what's wrong?"
"I…" The vampire looked around and hissed. "I just…hate this place. I hate what's going on. I hate that the College is in danger, that this thing keeps sucking us dry, that we're seeing the last moments of some of Savos' old friends…" By now she was clenching the hilt of her weapon so hard that it was creaking from the strain. "I hate all of this!"
"Geez, Weiss, I get that this is stressing…" Yang began, only to stop when the heiress glared at her, briefly baring her fangs. Weiss then blinked and shook her head before looking at the fighter remorsefully. Ruby came up and patted her arm.
"Weiss, it'll be fine. We'll get out of here with the staff, fix up the Eye, and then Savos will heal up and you can ask him about this place yourself. But right now, we need you collected and focused."
She sighed and nodded. "You're right. Sorry."
"It's okay. I know what it's like to get worked up. Now, let's go kill some ancient, unspeakable evil and stop the possible end of the world."
"Thursday again?" Weiss joked, gaining a small laugh from everyone. Just as they were about to continue on, Ruby suddenly spun around in mid-step and walked over to a closed gate and looked inside at a sword stuck straight into a burning brazier, likely lit by magical means. On top of the sword's hilt was an old helmet that hadn't so much as rusted, a pair of antlers mounted into the sides.
"Looks like something straight out of Black Souls," Yang stated as they looked it over.
"Yeah." Ruby took out the lockpicking set Blake gave her and began fiddling with the keyhole. She seemed to get frustrated after a moment, but then her smile returned and the lock came undone. As she entered the room, she took up the ancient helmet and looked it over, finding it to be cooler to the touch than expected. "Huh, this is cool. I think it's enchanted with…fire resistance."
At the same time, Yang plucked the sword up and rolled the hilt around with her fingertips while blowing on it. Weiss offered a hand with frost magic and Yang turned and let her cool it down. Taking it up, Yang hummed in appreciation.
"Cool, longsword enchanted with fire. It's got some etching on it, too."
"So's the helmet," Ruby pointed out. "'Helm of the Unburned', and that's 'Sword of Burning'. Well, it could also mean scorching. Hey Weiss, want a helmet?"
"Thank you, Ruby, but I don't think that will work for me. It looks very…heavy."
"Oh, okay." And then she placed it on Yang's head, who turned around to glare at her and then started shifting her head around.
"Huh, this actually fits pretty good. Here, Rubes. You can have the sword."
"Thanks. The ghost sword was kinda weird feeling. Too light." She looked the sword over in her hand. "Wonder if it'll sell…"
After pulling everything together, the girls went on down the hall, pushing open a pair of double-doors to enter into a large chamber. Some bats scattered at their presence, but Ruby ignored them and honed in on a Word Wall at the far side of the room. As she walked forward, ready to read it, the other three noticed a throne sitting at the end of the raised stone section. As they came close, a spectral draugr stood up from the throne and turned towards them. Ruby immediately snapped out of it and drew the Sword of Burning as the others readied themselves for battle. Yang charged in first, her shoulder level with the undead, but it took in a breath and Shouted.
"Fus…ro dah!"
Yang stumbled back, but kept on her feet even as it came at her with its own axe. Blake flashed by, cutting across an arm before coming to a stop. Four spectral dogs came at her, barking and howling, and the Faunus ran back to her comrades with a scream. Seeing the problem, Weiss focused and summoned up a wolf familiar, but then, in a moment of inspiration, suddenly brought up a second one. Amazed at her accomplishment, she hardly noticed when Ruby and Yang started picking apart the draugr bit by flaming bit with their fiery weapons. Luckily, the familiars were able to fight without her direct instruction and took down two of the ghostly hounds before she shook herself out of it and sent a lightning bolt into another. The familiars then took the last down and gave happy howls as Weiss was able to smile at her achievement. At the same time, a bony arm landed right in front of her, clutching a translucent axe and bringing her attention back to the sisters and Blake, who was somewhat hiding behind Yang, but seemed battle-ready.
"Found the miniboss!" Yang happily declared.
"Does anybody know where Dunkreath is?" Ruby asked after looking at the Word Wall for a moment. After receiving a series of shrugs, she let it go and moved on with her team. A number of draugr and skeletons tried to get in their way, only to be destroyed by the Huntresses as they pressed on. At the end of a corridor, three ghosts appeared, the ghost of Atmah looking distraught and, from what Weiss could see, tear-stained.
"We shouldn't have left her there to die!"
"What else could we do?" Savos asked in frustration, regret seeping into his voice. "Stay there and die with her? She refused to go on, we didn't have a choice!"
"This is it, you know," the Nord said with finality as he stared at the door ahead of them. "Through this door. Can you feel it?"
"We're not going to make it, are we?" the woman asked her companions.
The Nord looked back at the other two. No fear lingered in his eyes. Only a calm, nearly serene acceptance. "We stay together, no matter what. Agreed?"
Atmah sniffled before standing up straight and rubbing her face with her sleeve. She looked towards the man and nodded. "I'll be right with you."
Savos nodded as well. "Agreed. We all stay together."
As the ghosts faded, the girls looked at the closed doors. Weiss reached over and felt the dark power twisting behind it. She put a hand to the door and began pushing, gasping at what she saw beyond. On two raised platforms were the ghosts of Atmah and the Nordic man, both seemingly channeling a spell at a floating creature that formed a dome around it. The thing was definitely undead from what little she could see of its flesh, cloaked in cloth that may have once been a splendid color but was now dull and dark, with armor all around its chest and down its arms. On its face was a mask of brilliant blue, a hood thrown over the rest of its head. In its right hand was a staff with an orb that looked like a miniature Eye of Magnus, suspended in the air between clawlike prongs. Weiss knew -if not from its appearance then from the feeling of power that was far and away distinct from that of the being's dark energy- that this was the Staff of Magnus. The creature looked at the approaching Huntresses and seemed to laugh.
"So he has sent children to face me? Very well. Do your best to stop me. When you have failed, just as he did, I will be free again."
Yang went up and pushed against the dome, but it didn't so much as budge. Weiss looked back at the ghosts channeling the spell and then at Ruby. The Dragonborn seemed to understand and nodded before dashing up to the closer one while drawing Dawnbreaker.
"I'm really sorry about this," Ruby apologized before plunging the sword into the Nord's back. The ghost dissipated and his contribution to the spell ended. She went over and did the same with Atmah's ghost, but the woman managed to look back at her with a sad smile before she completely faded. With the spell cut off, the dome around the Dragon Priest faded and it rose up into the air. It pointed the Staff of Magnus at Yang, who braced herself, only to be sent flying back by a lightning spell that began to arc off of her and into nearby objects. Ruby ran up to help her, and barely stopped in time for the second bolt to miss her. She responded with a ball of fire, which hit the Dragon Priest and scorched him while sending him back.
"You stand no chance. Fall to Morokei."
"Not happening!" Ruby declared before bringing out her scythe, swinging it around, and standing at the ready. She rushed forward, but then came to a stop and brought Crescent Rose around with her momentum. The Dragon Priest backed away, barely getting out of the way of the blade at the last second. He clenched his free hand and released a spell, and then was covered in a dark aura, signaling the use of Ebonyflesh.
"Monochrome!" Ruby yelled before zipping to the side. Blake came in and slashed at Morokei's back eliciting a dusty yell. He reached for her with a lightning wreathed hand, but instead only grabbed a clone that disappeared instantly. Weiss then came in, having been pulled a second earlier by Blake's ribbon. With her staff she cast a Backlash, making his lightning run up his own arm, and then with Myrtenaster she slashed while coating it in ice. Part of his armor froze over as he hovered away. He leveled the Staff of Magnus at her and Weiss began to fire a stream of electricity, to which he responded by firing out beams of his own that seemed to greedily catch and absorb the lightning.
"Code Orange!"
Back on her feet, Yang picked up Ruby and threw her at the Dragon Priest before charging in herself. Ruby started bringing down her scythe, but then Morokei turned his head and lifted a hand, summoning a ward. The tip of Crescent Rose's blade made it through the first magical barrier, but was stopped by the magic armor. She kicked off from his shoulder and then Yang swung her fist in a hook, smashing his face and slinging him away. Weiss cut off her channel as she repositioned herself with the hovering figure. Yang drew both of her axes and closed in again, first swinging Black Whisper then following up with Holy, carving a deep rent in his arm then his armor. He raised a hand in her direction, but when nothing happened he seemed surprised.
"Enjoy the silence, buddy," Yang taunted him. As she came in again, he thrust his staff forward, hitting her with its power. Yang shouted in pain as the beams of the Staff coursed over her.
"Yang!" Blake shouted as she came in, but Morokei hit her with a lightning bolt that arced out and hit Ruby as well before she could move to help either. Weiss, seeing both stunned teammates, focused and set a glyph under Yang that launched her off the raised portion, then summoned another one to cushion her fall. Yang shook her head and Morokei looked at them before turning back to Ruby and Blake.
"Crap, that's supposed to last for at least eight seconds," Yang complained after nodding her thanks for the save. "Or do 'silencing' effects affect staffs?"
"No, they wouldn't. Enchanted staffs are used as workarounds for magicka-heavy or complex spells for those not quite at the ability to do it themselves. But they could also be used for when natural magic can't be."
"Well, it stopped him for a bit. Shoulda took his head." Yang rolled her shoulders and looked at her teammate. "Send me back up! And bring out your friends. We need to end this guy."
Weiss nodded before giving Yang a series of directional glyphs slightly slanted upwards. She rocketed off back into the battle as Weiss snapped out her focusing staff to summon a Frost Atronach. It began heading towards Morokei, who waved a hand in its direction while casting. The Atronach stopped, then turned and stabbed towards Yang, who was knocked back by the attack.
"Ow, what the hell, Frosty?!"
"He used Command Daedra!" Ruby realized as she jumped above a ball of sparks. She tossed a firebolt at the elemental, melting away a large portion of its upper body. Yang summoned up fire as she swung both axes, hitting the Atronach explosively and destroying it. Just as they were about to go back on the offensive, two more appeared, only this time summoned by Morokei.
"Come on!" Yang complained as she began hacking through one of them, blocking its downward swing and absorbing the crushing force. Weiss groaned in frustration and took out the Sanguine Rose while letting the focus drop for the moment.
"I need something that another person can't turn!" she announced before using the staff. Purple energies swirled around and then a Dremora-like Daedra was before her, sipping from a mug.
"Hm, you need something?" it asked calmly.
"I need you to fight that," she said while pointing at the Dragon Priest. He looked and then shrugged.
"Do I have to?"
"What? Oh, are you…" Weiss looked at the staff in annoyance and then put it to her back before picking up the other. "I can't believe this." She began firing bolts of lightning and spikes of ice, hoping that she was somehow chipping away at the undead being's defenses. Morokei's Atronachs were quickly killed and then he looked over at Weiss' latest summon taking a drink before waving. The Daedra halted and then looked at the Dragon Priest with wide eyes.
"Did you just try to control me?!" he shouted before he became surrounded in flames, molten rock spikes bursting out of his back as he shouted a battlecry and then leaped, flaming bound swords appearing in each hand. As he attacked, the girls took a second to back off and catch their breath.
"Weiss," Ruby called over, "do you think we can hit him with Bullet Time?"
"Ruby, the only Lightning Dust I have left is at Winterhold."
"Can you use magic?"
"…I'll try, but be ready if this doesn't work." Weiss took a deep breath and began focusing on her glyphs, trying to apply lightning magic to it like she would Dust. For a second nothing happened, then she gritted her teeth and switched her approach to something more like a Lightning Rune spell's weave and the glyph responded. For a second she was shocked, then tried it again. Satisfied, she nodded and started creating a time dilation glyph under Ruby's feet. The younger girl readied herself, just as the Dragon Priest came out of the flaming area where the Daedra was now falling down and disappearing. Much of Morokei's left arm had been burnt, but nothing too debilitating had occurred. Weiss then focused and made a series of glyphs around him. He looked around at them in suspicion, but then Ruby was charging forward, her Semblance and Weiss' glyph pushing her to new limits. She sped by the undead rapidly, hitting and cutting him several times a second. Weiss then tuned some of the glyphs from directional to frost and began firing spikes of ice that weaved between Ruby's attacks. For six seconds, they managed to hit him over a hundred times. Suddenly, Ruby came to a stop as his hand came out, hitting her with a Repulse. She landed on her feet and Morokei waved the Staff, hitting all the glyphs and absorbing those charged with magicka.
"Long Cat!"
Yang and Blake went in separate directions while Ruby charged forward. The Dragon Priest was then hit by Black Whisper and the Blade of Woe simultaneously, but managed to release a rune spell underneath them. Both girls balked before it exploded, damaging all three and tossing the two back. Blake rolled while clutching her stomach a moment, while Yang hit the dirt in a heap. Morokei simply floated in place for a moment before Ruby came down at him. This time her scythe dug deep into his right shoulder, but then she was hit with the Staff's power. Ruby screamed in pain, but the beam ceased as a Hailstone slammed into Morokei's back. The Dragonborn pulled her weapon loose and backed away as more projectiles flew from Weiss and into him, each stumbling him but none doing much damage. Ruby looked at her downed teammates and then at her options. Quickly she sheathed Crescent Rose and then drew Dawnbreaker.
"Weiss, stay back!" Ruby called out before she ran and jumped at her enemy, ready to bring down her full weight and the power of her swing. She could feel the undead slaying blade quiver in excitement, then Morokei turned to her.
"Fus Ro Dah!" he Shouted. Surprised, Ruby felt herself hit with the power of the Shout and sent up into the air. He reached a hand towards her and she could feel a pull tug her down. Another ice spell hit him, breaking his concentration, but Ruby's fall was already out of control. Her back hit the stone bridge and she bounced off and under it, her Aura flickering as she did. Morokei fired a lightning bolt at Weiss, who put up a ward to guard herself, then looked at Ruby's fallen form. He sent a massive ball of fire at the bridge, shattering many of the pieces loose from its stonework, which then began falling down towards Ruby.
"No!" Weiss screamed as she reached out, trying to grasp as many of them as she could. A golden blur then came down and stopped right on top of Ruby. Several chunks of masonry hit Yang's back, but the girl winced and took them all. Ruby blinked and managed to look up and see her sister grunting while shaking off several hundred pounds of stone.
Weiss looked back at the Dragon Priest and clenched her teeth in anger. A directional glyph formed and she fired herself forward, aiming Myrtenaster for Morokei's torso. He raised his left hand and the rapier's tip went in but a few centimeters after catching in his ward before it began to bend. Too late, Weiss couldn't stop as he pushed forward and Shouted.
"Zun! Haal! Viik!"
Pushed beyond its limits by so many conflicting forces, the thin blade of Myrtenaster shattered apart and its pieces scattered, leaving Weiss with only the hilt and revolving chambers. She was stunned for what felt like an hour, but couldn't have been even a second before Morokei aimed the Staff at her and began firing its beam into her. Weiss screamed as she felt her Aura being pulled away like the layers of an onion and tried the grab the Staff with her left hand.
"You cannot win. Now, die!"
Weiss' screams morphed as the image of her friends being killed came to mind, and then a deep rage echoed from within her. She grasped the Staff of Magnus just behind the prongs. Pain was replaced with wrath as a spell she didn't know weaved its way from her soul to her hand.
"I'm already dead!"
A red beam fired from her right palm and at the Dragon Priest. Weiss could feel herself draining what little lifeforce the flying corpse had into her and pushed against his grip on the Staff. Its beam turned away from her and at the ceiling where it seemed to suck the life out of any unlucky moss or insects in its path. Morokei struggled, but then Weiss grabbed him and held him still as she continued to drain his life and turn the Staff slowly. He reached towards her and her mouth clamped down on his wrist, her teeth pushing against the magically protected skin but refusing to break even as her mouth exerted as much pressure as was inhumanly possible. The Staff's beam was nearly pointed at Morokei, but he no longer held control over its power. Weiss felt it draining him of his magicka, an enormous font like she'd never imagined, then it began pulling at his lifeforce. He shrieked as what little remained was completely taken from him and let go of the Staff while ripping himself out of her grasp and trying to get away, but Weiss kept both the Staff of Magnus and her own vampiric drain on him. Slowly, he began to crumble away as the magic holding him to life was siphoned and unable to replenish what was taken. With a final scream, he fell while disintegrating into ashes, and Weiss finally let up the magic.
With Morokei finally down, Weiss looked over and rushed to Yang and Ruby's aid, making sure both were unharmed before going and checking on Blake, who had managed to sit up despite bleeding from her scar. The vampire quickly took out a healing potion and fed it to her, and the Faunus sighed as she felt her wounds closing up a bit.
"Good job," she complimented the heiress, who sighed and smiled a bit before looking at the Staff of Magnus. Now at peace, she couldn't help but marvel at what she was holding. She could feel the power it possessed. It didn't have just its enchantment, which hardly seemed like an enchantment at all. It also worked as a focus, but it was the sort that she didn't think she could ever fully take advantage of. Not even Savos, the most powerful mage she'd seen cast spells, would reach its full potential limits. It truly seemed to be the staff of a god.
"Damn!" Yang groaned as she stood up before helping Ruby to her feet. "So we got it. Can we leave now?"
"Yes. This…has been quite taxing."
"Please tell me that's the right one," Ruby said after dusting herself off.
"It is. There's nothing else this could be." Weiss looked it over again before nodding. "Alright, let's get out of here."
"Hold on," Ruby said before going over to the armor atop of Morokei's ashes. She pulled the blue mask off and looked it over before brushing away some ashes. "Just like the wooden mask." She placed it on her face and gasped. "Oh, this is nice," she said easily, causing everyone's eyebrows to rise up. "It's making magicka regeneration go so much smoother."
"Makes sense," Weiss said before groaning and rolling her left shoulder. She looked down and picked up the hilt of her old sword and sighed while Ruby gasped and took the mask off.
"Weiss, your Myrtenaster!"
"It's fine. I'll get a new sword."
"That doesn't mean this is okay! Here, have this one until we can get you a new one," Ruby offered, taking the ghostly blade she'd pilfered from a spectral Draugr and handing it over. Weiss appreciated how light it was, despite being a bit thicker than she was used to. Ruby then gasped again and ran over to where Dawnbreaker had fallen and sheathed it back before returning to her friends. "Okay, so we need to leave the Labyrinthian and teleport back to Winterhold. Oh, me and Yang should show you guys that thing before we leave! I think these masks might unlock something."
"You sure we have time?" Blake asked while she rubbed her scar gingerly.
"It should only take a minute on the way out," Yang explained with a gesture, "assuming this place doesn't have a backdoor that exits way out behind the mountains."
"Well, there is a path back there," Ruby pointed out with a thumb over her shoulder. "Let's go?" The rest of the team agreed and began following her out of the ancient tomb. As she began heading up an inclined ramp, they saw the ghost of Savos' memories appear once more.
"...I'm sorry, friends. I'm so sorry! I had no choice! It was the only way to make sure that monster never escaped! I promise you, I'll never let this happen again! I'll seal this whole place away..."
The ghost then disappeared, and Weiss hung her head in resigned disappointment. Ruby looked at her and patted her shoulder.
"Hey, you saw what happened back there. We had a tough time just getting there, and they had to have brought down some of the horde. And then Morokei… Well, you saw what he did."
"I know, but it feels like…I trusted him explicitly, and yet I never really knew anything about him. Still, if that monster had gotten out…"
"It would've been almost as bad as Potema," Ruby filled in, the memory of the Wolf Queen springing to mind.
Weiss nodded, and then the girls began heading up, each internally relieved to be headed that way instead of down again. Weiss, however, began to pause when the scent of unfamiliar blood came up, older than the smell of Blake's freshly spilled blood and far too new to be that of any undead down here.
"Someone's down here," she warned them. The girls readied themselves, grabbing weapon hilts or readying themselves to cast. When they opened the next door, however, what they found was the corpse of a High Elf in Thalmor garb, pinned down to an altar by a javelin. Team RWBY looked on at the scene for a moment before coming over to investigate, finding a note set under a ruby on the opposite end of the table and another impaled on the hilt of a dagger stabbed into one of his eyes. Grimacing, Yang took the note from the dagger and looked it over.
"'Agent Estormo,
"We've received a Communicae Telepathica from Agent Ancano, stationed at the College of Winterhold. He requires the elimination of one Weiss Schnee and any accomplices accompanying her, as well as the retrieval of an item known as the Staff of Magnus. She can be found at the Labyrinthian ruins. Warning: Subject is dangerous and possibly a vampire. Take caution.'"
"'I caught this lurking around outside," Ruby read from the other note. "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me. Remember, you've got some friends in high places. We might be able to meet soon. Just listen for One and look for twenty-three.'" Ruby blinked at the oddness of the note and looked at her companions. "What does that mean?"
"It means someone in the Thalmor ranks was looking out for us," Weiss deduced. "It might have been Ulquarrion, or one of his close associates."
"If Ulquarrion did it, he'd expect us to owe him," Blake pointed out. "He might be okay…compared to the rest, but he's still a Thalmor."
"Wonder what he'd want to meet about." Ruby hummed and then pocketed the note.
"Well, that was simply amazing!" Weiss declared as she returned with the wooden mask in hand, her mind racing with the possibilities of what it was. Blake was currently looking over the note she'd found in the old bag Ruby had left last time.
"You know, they didn't have to resort to murder to quit their job."
"Some people don't really think much of it. And some don't think much at all. This seemed to be a case of both." Weiss shook her head. "Anyways, the Morokei mask definitely fits one of the spaces, and there are probably more out there. Given what we know, these were enchanted by dragons, which means the power behind them is probably second only to godly weapons. If these powerful items are simply the keys to something else, I can't imagine what it must do."
"Neat, so we can go around, collect 'em all, then unlock the ultimate dragon priest mask," Yang stated.
"We're kinda busy at the moment," Ruby pointed out. "But it does sound like something we can keep in mind."
"Speaking of busy, we should head on. Is everyone feeling better?" Weiss asked the team, who all answered in affirmatives. "Then let's head out, and hope there's still something left of Winterhold." The four then headed out of the decrepit city and went on a ways until they were certain they were far away from any effects it may have had on their teleportation. Each of them started using their separate enchanted scrolls, and they began to feel the displacement of the magic within.
Seconds later, they reappeared in the middle of Winterhold, and, for the first time since Weiss had first arrived, the city seemed to be bustling with activity, almost all of it from displaced mages. Several were trying to find missing fellows. Eleanor was asking around if anyone knew where Urag gro-Shub was. A group of young men were trying to keep the heat of a terrarium with several ant chaurus inside warm while another held two jars, each with a bird-sized, buzzing insect contained within. Tolfdir seemed to be trying to direct the mass of students while the guards seemed helpless to do anything but keep the streets open enough for people to get through. Weiss started headed his way but stopped and gasped when she looked to her left. Mirabelle was sitting on an old stump, her face haggard and disheveled, but most shocking was her left arm. It was gone from at least the elbow and the stump was now bandaged with Riane tending to her, a mass of red bandages lying next to them both. Lydia was nearby, and looked to see her Thane and team returning.
"You're back!" the housecarl exclaimed in relief as they came up. Ruby looked at her and then at the injured Master Wizard, and Lydia began to look ashamed. "I…tried to save her, but I was a bit too slow."
"No!" Riane declared as she stood up. "You saved her life is what you did! If it hadn't been for you-"
"Riane, please, calm yourself," Mirabelle got out as though she hadn't been recently maimed. "But she's right. I'd rather be alive even if I'm short both arms and legs. And I have you to thank for that, Lydia. But enough about me. I'll live; that's been established. Were you able to get the Staff?"
Weiss nodded and held up the implement in question. Mirabelle stalled and marveled for a moment, and then nodded.
"Good, then we need to get up there and stop Ancano, before he throws the whole city into the sea."
"Oh no, you're not going anywhere," the voice of Tolfdir scolded her as the older man approached. "The others fought off that last group of anomalies. Weiss and her friends are back, and while we can, we're going up there." Tolfdir looked at Weiss and the Staff and then let out a sigh. "I hope that Staff is as powerful as they say. Alright, your friends are at the bridge. Let's go. Mirabelle, you stay here and let that young healer tend to you."
"No point in arguing, I suppose," the woman said as she sat back down.
"Okay, let's go stop a madman before he collapses the world," Weiss said as they followed Tolfdir over to the bridge leading up to the College. The barrier from earlier had expanded, and some of the professors were attempting to beat it back with spells or summons. Weiss looked at the barrier, then at the Staff before leveling it and pushing forth its power. The beam fired out and came into contact with the shield.
"01010101 01101101 01010110 01101000 01011010 01000111 01101100 01110101 01011010 01111001 01000010 01111010 01100011 01000111 01000110 01101010 01011010 01010011 00110001 00110000 01100001 01010111 00110001 01101100 01001001 01000111 01010010 01101000 01100010 01011000 01000010 01101100 01100010 01101101 01010110 01111001 01001001 01001000 01001110 01101111 01100001 01010111 01010110 01110011 01011010 01000011 00110100 01100111 01010010 01001000 01001010 01101100 01011001 01010111 00110001 01110000 01100010 01101101 01100011 01100111 01100011 00110010 00111001 01110011 01100100 01011000 01010010 01110000 01100010 00110010 00110100 01110101 01001001 01000101 01000110 01110111 01100011 01000111 01111000 00110101 01100001 01010111 00110101 01101110 01001100 01100111 00111101 00111101."
Weiss could practically feel her brain ringing from the information trying to pour through it.
"01010100 01110010 01100001 01101110 01110011 01101100 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 00100000 01100101 01110010 01110010 01101111 01110010 00101110 00100000 01000001 01110100 01110100 01100101 01101101 01110000 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101110 01100101 01110111 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 01101101 01100001 01110100 00101110.
"UmVhZGluZyBzcGFjZS10aW1lIGRhbXBlbmVyIHNoaWVsZC4gRHJlYW1pbmcgc29sdXRpb24uIEFwcGx5aW5nLg=="
'Oh gods, that might have been worse!'
"VHJhbnNsYXRpb24gZXJyb3IuIEF0dGVtcHRpbmcgbmV3IGZvcm1hdC4=
"Reading space-time dampener shield. Dreaming solution. Applying."
'Yeah, that sounds good. …Wait, what?'
Weiss felt the energy of the barrier collapsing as she absorbed it into the Staff. The colossal dome seemed to wick away as the beam ran across the surface closest to them, all to the amazement of everyone watching. When it had completely fallen, Tolfdir, Team RWBY, and Team LIME readied themselves and rushed up and in. Once they were past the courtyard, they could see Ancano, still connecting himself to the Eye of Magnus. The Altmer seemed to be snarling, but against the light the Eye gave off Weiss couldn't tell.
"So, you've come for me, have you?" he yelled at them. "You think I don't know what you're up to? You think I can't destroy you? The power to unmake the world at my fingertips! And you think you can do anything about it?!"
Inigo aimed and loosed an arrow, but the ebony tip merely bounced off. Tolfdir threw a fireball at the elf, but the flames merely washed over him.
"No spell or attack is working!" the elder man realized in alarm.
"Ha! I am beyond your feeble attempts at magic! You cannot touch me!"
"Weiss," Ruby called out. "Try the Eye! Use the Staff on the Eye!"
"To see through Magnus' Eye…," Weiss muttered before pointing the staff and activating it again. The beam sprung forward and linked to the Eye, which began to open itself, the separate pieces spinning and hovering about the core.
"Alert! Anuic overabundance! Padomaic unmaking imminent! Beginning balancing protocols. Alert! Multiple users! Find solutions. Dreaming…"
As Weiss continued to lead the beam, Ancano looked at her in rage.
"Still, you persist!? Very well. Come then, see what I can do now!"
Light exploded out from the Eye, and then Weiss had to duck out of the way as the elf threw a ball of fire at her. Everyone moved into action, with fireballs thrown back, a couple of arrows loosed, and even Ruby sending an arc of lightning his way. Everything seemed to hit an Aura-like barrier surrounding him. Weiss tried using the Staff against him, and then the beam connected.
"Unprepared user of Eye detected. Resolving conflict…"
Weiss ducked from under another fireball, breaking the beam, and Yang tried to close in with Ancano, punching his face with enough might to cause a small thunderclap, but the Altmer barely seemed to notice. With a wave of his hand, ice formed around Yang's lower body almost instantly and sharp slivers began stabbing at her arms and neck. Ruby came in with a scream and tried to bash him away, but he sent her back with a stream of electricity. Inigo continued shooting while M'rissi tried to freeze him to the floor, but with a mere wave of his hand the young Khajiit girl was sent flying back into her fellow. Both Lydia and Erevan then closed in, slicing at him only for their swords to slide off ineffectually. The Altmer began laughing madly as he summoned two swords to his hands and started lashing out with them.
"Weiss," Ruby got out as she stood back up. "What's going on with the Eye?"
Weiss looked back at it and saw how its disparate pieces were still floating about, randomly it seemed. She looked back towards the elf toying with everyone as they tried to figure out a way past his defenses, or in Blake's case trying to free Yang. She then looked at the Staff in her hands and nodded.
"I'm going to try to realign it. He's getting his power from the Eye. If I can close it…"
"Then he won't be so powerful," Ruby finished. She nodded and readied herself. "How long will you need?"
"At most, five minutes." Ruby's expression changed, and her partner looked at her. "What?"
"Nothing, just… Well, he's kinda been kicking our butts and it's barely been a minute… Eh, I'm sure we can handle it. You just do your magic." Ruby then sped over to help free Yang a little before coming up with a plan of action. Weiss looked towards the Eye and readied the Staff once again.
"Link established. The Eye is Open. Alert! Energy output exceeding safe levels! Searching for-"
'Close.'
"Closing the Eye. The figures of dP over dr equal Gm over r squared times pi…"
Weiss tuned out the voice, concentrating only on keeping the flow of the Staff and what she wanted clear in her mind. Slowly, the pieces began putting themselves back in order and fitting themselves together. Once it was fully closed, Weiss smiled and looked over only to see that almost everyone was down except for Ruby, Erevan, and Blake. Everyone else was either glowing green and frozen from a Paralysis spell or down and out. Scared for her friends, Weiss, immediately used Sense Life to confirm that everyone was still alive, then looked at her foe. Erevan had carefully gotten past his sloppy guard and jabbed, stabbing into the other elf's shoulder. Ancano screamed and stumbled back, then looked at his bleeding shoulder. Fear seemed to take him for a moment, but then faded, replaced by rage.
"Give it up, Ancano!" Ruby demanded before taking a stance with Crescent Rose behind her back. "You're outnumbered, and your power's gone. We would've killed you a hundred times over at this point, and now we actually can."
The Thalmor looked at his hands and then over at Weiss. Ruby went to move, but Ancano jumped up while flailing his arms, leaving Lightning Walls in random patterns until he reached Weiss. He surrounded them both, and the heiress tried to hit him with a spell only for the much taller being to step in and grasp both her wrists.
"You…ruined everything!" he shouted before shoving her against one of the walls. Weiss screamed in pain as the electricity coursed through her. Unfortunately for him, it flowed through her and into his arms indiscriminately. As he was forced to let go Weiss lashed out, reaching up and grabbing something soft before biting. The Thalmor screamed again and Repulsed her, laying her onto the ground. Ruby was just outside, yelling something and trying to get through, but Weiss couldn't hear. Ancano stood over her, his neck bleeding and a pair of fire spells beginning to wrap around his arms.
"You bitch!" he spat as he readied the fiery spell. Weiss made to lift the Staff, but somewhere she had dropped it, and now she was seeing fire. Fire was going to burn her. Burning. Flames.
Something in Weiss seemed to snap, and her fear seemingly washed away. She didn't care that she didn't have a sword or a staff. She reached up and pushed back with frost magic as the flames came down, her determination to snuff it all out and stop the madman in front of her overriding anything that might have resembled fear. Even as the flames began to push through, she refused to accept defeat. Compared to the truly powerful adversaries she'd faced and overcome before, this up jumped fool was nothing. Her Aura reached out and formed a glyph behind her.
There was a familiar roar, and then Ancano looked forward before screaming. A pair of white, scaled jaws slammed shut around the upper half of his body, reaching from just over Weiss' head. The jaws lifted away, and the lower half of the Thalmor dropped, blood and gore pouring out from the severed waist. Weiss looked up and saw a head that looked almost exactly like Nahkrensos, the dragon she had killed months ago, coming from out of one of her glyphs. The head then slung itself to the side and opened its maw, tossing Ancano's dead upper half to the other side of the room. The head and glyph then disappeared, leaving the room clear of its presence and that of Ancano's spells. For a long moment, everyone stood in silence, then something began to appear. Weiss stood up, grabbing the Staff, but then her tension faded when she saw a Psijic monk standing before her.
"We knew you would succeed," he said as he turned toward her. "In fact, I daresay you've exceeded our expectations. You've managed to save far more than you realize with your actions here."
"I'm glad that I could save anyone, but what's going to happen now?" Weiss looked up at the Eye and the Psijic followed her gaze.
"The Eye has grown unstable. It cannot remain here, or else it may destroy this College, and the world." He crossed his arms and shook his head. "Ancano's actions proved that the world is not ready for such a thing. It must be secured."
"And when will the world be ready?"
"It is hard to say, but someday. Perhaps a day long after all standing here are gone." Two other monks appeared, and they seemed to be getting ready to do something with the Eye.
"Wait!" Weiss called out. "I want to know what you know. Tell me everything you can about our home. Do you know how to get back? Do you know how we got here? Do you know anything useful at all?"
He stopped and looked back at her, a somewhat sorrowful expression on his face. "What little we know…is not of much use. There have been less than a dozen cases like your own in all of history, all of them over a hundred years ago. Yours is the first since before the Void Nights that ended in the Year One-hundred of the Fourth Era. We do not know why each case occurs, as each seems to be unique. As for how to return, we cannot help you. Your world is unknown to us."
Weiss bowed her head and sighed. "Thank you for telling us that much, at least." She looked back up. "And please, try to be more…interfering when it comes to people misusing pieces of gods."
The monk offered her a small smile, then turned back and raised his hands. Soon, all three monks and the Eye of Magnus had vanished.
Three days after the Magnus Event, Winterhold was nearly back to normal. Most of the town had started blaming the mages for what happened, but others had borne witness to them defending the town from the magical anomalies and heard of how it was a Thalmor that caused everything. More and more blame seemed to be shifting towards the Thalmor, which for a Stormcloak controlled Hold was only normal. Undoubtedly news of this had already reached Windhelm, and it wouldn't be long before word reached Solitude and the rest of Skyrim. How Ancano's actions would affect relations with the Thalmor was anyone's guess, but it would undoubtedly be bad.
Weiss walked alongside Arch-Mage Savos, who sat in a contraption Yang best described as a 'magical wheelchair'. After the first confrontation, his spine had been badly damaged beyond even Collette's ability to heal. He could still feel some things below the waist, but he would likely never walk again. Yang and Ruby had thrown the contraption together with some wagon wheels and a broken chair, then had Weiss enchant it in specific places with her directional glyphs. After nearly a day of rest and recovery, the two had been ready to do something, and so elected to do one of the best things they could. Of course, now half the College was making plans to add an elevator so that the Arch-Mage's room would actually be accessible to him.
"I never meant for it to go that way. None of us did. We were just a group of young students, looking to find quick and easy ways to power for power's sake." He looked up at her. "That's why I so admired you and your group. You all had some purpose, some greater drive. You wanted to see your friends safely home. J'zargo wanted to never be caught at a disadvantage by others. Dear Brelyna just wanted to make it without relying on her family name. And Onmund? Wants to fight the stereotypes and follow in the footsteps of the battlemages of yore. We just wanted power, and we paid the price for that. They paid the price."
"I know you probably blame yourself," Weiss spoke up, "but it's not your fault. You went in without knowing what was down there, and when it became apparent what was you tried to do what you thought was right."
"I did, didn't I? That is almost exactly how I've consoled myself for years about it all." Savos stopped and turned so that they were heading out of the Hall of the Elements. "Yet, I still did. Five prospective mages, all with bright futures, all dead. Maybe I'm not the only one to blame, but I'm the only one left alive. Weiss, my dear, you and yours have done something not even I could have done. You put their memories to rest. You saved them, what little could be saved. You stopped that monster, that Dragon Priest, from coming out into the world with the Staff of Magnus in hand. My mistake isn't erased, but neither are your accomplishments." He held up the Diadem for her to take back. "You are a worthy archmage and, I believe, someday you will be a worthy Arch-Mage."
"I still have a lot to learn." Weiss smiled as she took the diadem and, after an approving nod from the Arch-Mage, placed it on her brow, shifting her ponytail out of the way.
"We all do. I learn more every day, and I have much more to learn still. It'll never stop." He looked over to where Yang and Ruby were looking at the ant chaurus terrarium, getting small lessons in how their life cycle functioned. "I have this feeling, though…"
"Yang wants me to come with her to a certain place that may or may not contain vampire artifacts," Weiss confirmed. "Mostly to talk down any vampires we run into while we're there. It shouldn't take long."
"I hope not. If it does, you always have your communication device. How goes the construction of the second version?"
"Good, but I need a few more specialty parts ordered. At least this one will be portable."
"Hm, that will be useful."
"Okay, so the hunters are adults," Ruby stated while pointing at the jarred, flying insects. "Wait, oh god, does that mean caves are going to be full of giant versions of this?"
"No, from what we've heard, it takes just a tad longer for the giant versions to hatch," the Redguard student answered.
"Besides," his Argonian companion added, "they stay in their caves until nightfall, and only come out to go straight to other caves. They follow faint smells humans and most elves can't detect to find a mate, then they look for carrion to eat, then the females lay the eggs, then they all die before spring ever gets here. Ant chaurus wasps just come out a little earlier."
Ruby still shuddered and made a small mental note to steer clear of any caves during the winter. While Yang was asking something about how they were planning to keep the giant ones they were going to hatch, a man clad in the uniform of the Courier's Guild suddenly came up to her and cleared his throat.
"Ruby Rose?"
"That's me," she answered cheerfully. The man then handed her a letter.
"Express delivery. Someone really wanted you to get that. Have a good day, ma'am." The courier then ran off and headed back down the bridge to Winterhold. Ruby looked the letter over and hummed before opening it to find a short, simple message.
Ruby,
I think I've found a window. Come to the Bannered Mare immediately. We don't have much time.
D
"Aw, man!" Ruby griped. She was not looking forward to dealing with Delphine again.