The SDC winter ball had been turned into an event celebrating the victory in Kulsa. According to Father the fact that there had been hunters and trainee hunters from all four kingdoms as well as Faunus was something which general Ironwood wanted to celebrate, and it suited her father to build bridges with Ironwood and to link the SDC name to the cause of reconciliation and unity.
With four days to go before the joint Atlas Academy and SDC Stronger Together ball, Weiss Schnee was having brunch with Yang, Whitley, and Willow. It was actually an enjoyable occasion. This was not something which she would have expected to be the case when she had made her first brief return to Atlas after the first term at Beacon. She was half listening to the conversation at the table, but mainly thinking things over,
Although she had joked with Klein that if she had known that having friends to stay would have such an effect on her family, she would have taken more care to have friends, the reality was that the good humour amongst her family was primarily down to the fact that father was in a good mood because for the first time in ages the SDC and the Schnee family was receiving positive publicity even from the pro-Faunus press.
In addition, the SDC had been having behind the scenes negotiations with the moderate Faunus rights group and Menagerie for a year now about an end to those organisations' boycotts of the SDC and an end to the embargo on supplying dust to Menagerie plus some sentient resources changes in SDC working practices.
These negotiations had previously been stuck on the problem of whom was to be seen as conceding first and the need to obtain the Atlas's council agreement to the end of the Menagerie embargo. The Faunus groups had decided that the behaviour of his daughters and the evidence that the SDC had warned Haven about the Raddock girl showed that there had been sufficient changes in culture within the SDC and actions by family members to unilaterally withdraw the boycotts.
Father had then spent a busy morning with the Atlas Ruling Council. Ironwood, Sleet and Camilla had agreed to withdraw the dust embargo on Menagerie. The old arguments that Menagerie was a safe haven for the White Fang were seen as unimportant and besides which the reality was that Mistral was the main centre of operations and its leadership was now based there. The Belladonnas at least made some efforts to restrict the activities of the White Fang while a quarter of Mistral was a no-go area for its military and hunters.
The share price of the SDC had rocketed and he was being hailed as an example of a leader who could change the culture of an organisation. Weiss had resisted the temptation to pretend to vomit. Even if her seeming approval of him was a marginal factor in him making the changes, it was worth preserving and no advantage could be gained for showing the level of her dislike for him.
Father still grumbled about a shortage of skilled workers, but even that was tempered with some optimism that it may now be possible to recruit more educated Faunus. He had commented that one of the advantages of the Vacuo debacle a few years back was that all the SDC's competitors had been covered in the same manure as the SDC and he hinted that Atlas Gold in particular had been significantly deeper in it.
Whitley was of an age when having someone like Yang walking around in her huntress gear was guaranteed to distract him. It also amused Yang to play up to him by slightly invading his natural body space, although that had initially probably just Yang being Yang. Bothe her and Ruby were more naturally tactile than the family Schnee,
Watching Whitley strain to look Yang in the eyes amused Weiss. The prematurely serious and calculating boy had turned into a hormonal sixteen-year-old teenager desperately trying to be cool. Mealtimes had the advantage that he did not have to worry about his body self-evidently embarrassing him and allowed him an opportunity to talk to Yang in a surprisingly human way.
Mother was on her best behaviour and had thrown herself into the organisation of the ball. She was not taking her first drink of the day at home until she had cocktails before dinner. She drunk then but had slowed down so that she simply matched Yang drink for drink. It helped that Yang was a happy drinker and that was rubbing off on mother.
Another factor which took Weiss by surprise was that she had not known that Yang had organised the Signal Prom and thus was able to take an intelligent and enthusiastic interest in her mother's discussions about the issues involved in organising social events. Mother welcomed having someone to talk through the issues and Weiss had found herself drawn in with Yang into the discussions Even Whitley joined in and proved to have a surprisingly strong visual sense.
Weiss tried to ignore the thought that Yang and her mother might go clubbing together the night after the ball and either have a fight with the bouncers or worse sing karaoke together. Mother had an unlocked aura, the family semblance, and the raw ability to have gone to an academy. When she had been growing up the laws requiring those with unlocked auras to have received four years training did not apply to women.
Father was even being polite to mother. For once he wanted her by his side at the SDC winter ball, or rather as it had now been rebranded the Stronger Together winter ball sponsored by the SDC and Atlas Academy. In any event organising charitable events was one of mother's strengths.
Father and Winter were also communicating in a polite manner although Weiss suspected that Ironwood had needed to order Winter to respond in kind.
In relation to Weiss, he had doubled her allowance and offered to fund upgrades to her team's weapons. Yang had passed on the news from their friend Lydia whose weapons were being updated by her great-aunts and her father had decided that he could not be seen to be behaving less generously than two aging widows from Vale.
Weiss in her turn was doing an hour-long gig at the ball and was practicing a mixture of old favourites and some songs she had learned in Vale. Actually, if her plans worked it would be more like a 20minute solo gig and then a series of duets and quartets with the heroes and heroines of Kulsa. Some of the girls were already in town and tonight she and Yang would meet with Coco and Velvet. More of her friends from Beacon were arriving in Atlas tonight and tomorrow. In particular she was meeting with Brede Campion for lunch tomorrow along with Yang.
Weiss returned her thoughts to what was going on around her and noticed that Whitley was talking softly and that Yang instead of telling him to speak up was leaning across the table with the result that Whitley was no longer even pretending to make eye contact. Yang spotted Weiss's look and winked at her. Willow also caught on and told Whitley to speak up. Weiss wondered if she had been hallucinating but she was almost certain that her mother had winked at Yang as well. She decided that the other three were doing no harm to anyone and returned to musing while half listening to the conversation.
In the end she and Yang had only stayed three days in Beacon before returning to Atlas. Taiyang and Ozpin had both insisted that Ruby now needed a crash course on her powers and that this needed to be private. Zwei was left behind with Ruby and Taiyang.
Weiss found it hard to believe but she had the sensation that Taiyang seemed to be worried for Ruby. Yang had mentioned that her father had made Ruby wear contact lenses which made her eyes look blue until Ruby had put her foot down at age thirteen. Weiss had gone back and looked at the pictures of Team STRQ which showed that Ruby had inherited her eyes from her mother.
Another source of conversation from the aftermath of the fight at Kulsa was the fact that Nora and Pyrrha had finally nailed their men. The clip of rubble being pulled off Jaune and then Pyrrha attempting a tonsillectomy had been the source of many memes and backing tracks nabbed from films.
It seemed perfectly in character that more or less Ren and Nora's first act as a together/together couple had been to finish of the few Grimm which had merely been petrified as opposed to turned to dust by Ruby's eyes.
Anyway, the whole of Team JNPR would be attending the ball, Pyrrha and Jaune would be staying with the Adel family along with the rest of team CFVY. Father had tried inviting them to stay at the mansion, but Pyrrha had sent a polite response saying that she had already made other plans with Coco who was an old friend.
Ren and Nora were staying at Atlas Academy along with Amber Arc and the Arc twins. Claire Arc was being worked on to attend. The Mistral government was trying to make her responsible nationally for Grimm defences and the woman was rumoured to be willing to drink from that poisoned chalice. If she did accept the role then it was anticipated that a meeting with Colonel Cordovin and the civilian authorities in Argus would allow her to visit her eldest daughter and family the night before and then attend the ball as a representative of the Mistral government.
Their time together had resulted in Weiss growing closer to Yang. She had not appreciated before how much of Yang's jovial and carefree demeanour was a front for insecurity and an underlying anger. Weiss now understood that when Summer had died Yang had been too busy looking after and comforting Ruby and her father to properly grieve herself. While everyone was used to Yang occasionally losing her temper seemingly out of nowhere, the more Weiss got to know her she was amazed that the girl was so even tempered most of the time and was perhaps the best at hiding her emotions.
Weiss had protected her own fears by being difficult most of the time. That made it in her mind hard to tell what she really thought. She now acknowledged to herself that it no longer worked with her team who had quickly identified the difference between Weiss and Miss Schnee and that if you gave her twelve hours Weiss would trump Miss Schnee on most matters. They had not entirely worked what made the difference, but it was enough so that at least with them she had moved to sighing or mild sarcasm rather than having a strop.
Blake rarely talked about what she was thinking and had clearly got used to not saying anything. However, while she could control her mouth, she could not control her body language and it was easy to tell when she was unhappy or angry. Yang would occasionally send Weiss and Ruby scroll messages warning them to avoid the dorm as grumpy cat was in residence.
Ruby was just transparent emotionally and if she were worried about something would tend to just say what was bothering her. Curiously, it made people careful around her. Certainly, after the first week at Beacon, Weiss had decided that being gratuitously rude to Ruby was like kicking a kitten. You felt bad about it and everyone else despised you.
Yang even sort of rubbed along with father. Certainly, she had managed to get him to say a few words about the Branwen tribe.
Yang had cleared the air a little in advance by making it clear that she held no brief for her mother and was simply mystified by how the rest of Remnant treated her.
Father had played with his moustache and then said, "As a business, the SDC does not have the luxury of solely dealing with good people or people who want to treat us fairly. We have to deal with career civil servants in three kingdoms, trade unions in Vale, politicians everywhere, the White Fang, tax authorities. People try to blackmail us, rob us, and harm our operations. I have no doubt Raven Branwen is a bad person. She is, however, a reliable person. If she says she is going to return something which belongs to us or someone who works for us, it or they appear in one piece on payment of the agreed price. In addition, we do not waste management team on posturing and negotiations. Nicholas Schnee used to say that as it was inevitable one would have to deal with criminals, his preference was to deal with organised crime. I would rather deal with her as a go between then deal directly with the White Fang or most of the Mistral gangs.
He paused, "We have ceased developing mines which are in her predicted expansion plans in Mistral. However, at least someone among our competitors' thinks that eventually she will negotiate reopening the mines in the areas she controls. Some of our competitors sold out at not entirely rock-bottom prices after the Vacuoan fiascos in part to fund the fines and required improvement in conditions. While we did sell a few mines in areas which we perceived as vulnerable to her seven years ago, we have not sold since. That is because we are taking the view that she is trying to turn from pillaging to a gathering and eventually we will be able to do a deal with her to reopen a mine."
He had paused, "Respect is not the word I would have used, but if I think of the Branwen tribe as a business it may be justified. Still, eighteen years ago the Branwen tribe was on the way to oblivion. She managed to halt the decline, reverse it and then in business terms take it from too small to bother with to being too powerful to go after without anyone taking them over. Like all start-ups. Which depend on a single strong person, there is a succession issue lurking. However, the woman is her early forties and there is no reason to believe that she will not be there in at least five and perhaps as many as twenty years' time."
Yang had seemed thoughtful after that. Just before bedtime she had expressed annoyance. "Ok, she is an able woman. Dad, Uncle Qrow, your father all agree on that. Why does she choose to waste her energies on a tribe of bandits and a life of crime?
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Brede Campion arrived in the grounds of the Atlas embassy for the flight to Atlas. The Atlas diplomatic protection squad had insisted he fly with them in a military airship if he was not flying in the Atlas Gold corporate jet.
While he should be thankful that he had talked them into accepting that he had not needed the full diplomatic protection squad at Lydia's Great Aunt Lydia and Dahlia's places, he half resented having to be protected by people he was likely stronger than.
It felt odd not to have his team with him for the first time in four and a half months. He knew that there were good reasons why Lydia and Anne were not travelling to Atlas with him. His family had insulted Lydia and if he insisted on turning up with Anne they would do their best to make her life miserable, Although, she knew that the truth about her past would eventually come out, this was in her view not the right time and Atlas was not the right place.
Anyway, Anne would be staying with Lydia and her parents this week as well as helping the mole Faunus whom Coco had brought back from Mistral to join Signal get used to Vale. He was sorry he could not join them. Leslie apparently had some work he needed to attend to and had disappeared after breakfast from the Travers townhouse at the end of the long weekend they had spent great aunt Dahlia.
For an aristocrat like himself staying with an upper middle-class family would no doubt be illuminating. It had been odd watching the different attitudes to money of his teammates. Anne was still coming to terms with the concept that saving money was possible, Leslie treated it as a weapon to be used when necessary while Lydia had her own instinctive spending limits. She would not spend money on things just because they were expensive but looked for quality. She had a ready reckoner in her head and made certain that she never spent more than her allowance but without skimping.
The chief of his diplomatic protection squad strode down the aisle, "Mr Campion, apologies for the delay but there has been a delay in boarding a passenger from the Atlas military and we have just been informed that we will have a third passenger"
"No problem, lieutenant. I no longer feel that I am wasting taxpayers' money by freeloading on a military flight. What was the hold-up?"
"One of the sentries who is a recent arrival from Atlas challenged the bona fides of the officer in question on the grounds he spoke funny, was not on the list of officers officially assigned to the embassy and was clearly an imposter. To be fair, we did have a security incident recently where an imposter did gain access, so his zeal was not entirely misplaced. However, the officer in question is a Faunus and currently the ambassador, the military attaché and head of security are taking it in turns to apologise to the officer, begging him not to make an official complaint and competing in making the sentry wish he had never been born."
Brede nodded, "It would be rather bad publicity for Atlas in light of recent policy announcements. I presume the officer in question enjoying winding everybody up but eventually was understanding about it."
"Correct. He did comment that the sentry had not known that he was a Faunus when he challenged him but that it was a sad reflection on the quality of Atlas officers nowadays that speaking properly was a ground for suspicion."
Brede then realised who the officer must be. "I presume that the officer asked for you to confirm his identity."
"Yes. Apparently I and my opposite number in charge of Miss Schnee's security were the only ones who had been informed of his rank and presence in Vale."
The two smiled at each other. A couple of minutes later a person in a captain's uniform entered the airship. He removed his cap revealing the lynx ears, saluted the head of security and sat down opposite Brede.
His team leader said "Apparently I am part of your personal security team this week. No doubt I will be expected t' protect you from Weiss and Yang, old bean."
Brede laughed, "I thought you had things to do in Vale this week."
"Until two hours ago that was what I thought as well."
Brede smiled and helped his team captain stow his bags. "When was the last time you were in Atlas?"
"I've never spent more than a few days at a time there. I have spent more time in Mantle."
Brede took the hint that this related to the special duties he carried out for Atlas and that he would not get a more detailed answer.
Brede knew that the Lynx Faunus was his best male friend and so he was glad he was joining him in Atlas on a personal level. On a political level he was concerned. He guessed that Ironwood had called the man in to receive instructions. He had hoped to have time to think about the comment which one of the hunters who had trained them at Lydia's great aunt Agnes's mansion had left him with on her final debriefing session with him.
The Lynx Faunus looked out of the window, twitched his ears, and laughed. "Guess who is cadging a lift with us."
Brede looked out of the window to see Glynda Goodwitch joining the flight.
Corkran said, "I suppose we will have t' forego the obscene limerick competition now."
/-/
Jaune for the umpteenth time in the last couple of weeks pinched himself. Nestled in his armpit was the most beautiful and bravest woman in Remnant who for some reason had chosen him as her partner.
For once he had been glad of his twin sisters' directness and previous willingness to embarrass him as he had recalled their stories of men whose only guide to relationships had been videos on their scrolls as well as those who thought women were fragile plants to be treated as though they would break if touched. The twins at least left him no doubt that women could enjoy the act and were equal participants. They had also made it clear to him that some acts shown in the scroll films were unwelcome to many women and had overtones of dominance rather than mutual enjoyment.
It had come as a shock that Pyrrha had even less idea than he did about the realities. As the oldest child she had not even had the second-hand experience of siblings to go on. She had also had the worry that the Remnant Enquirer and other tabloids would pay a fortune to the first person who kissed her let alone bonked her to tell their story. He at least had been able to make a fool of himself chasing Weiss and Lydia without worrying about anything beyond some in retrospect fairly gentle teasing and sarcasm.
Anyway, luckily things had worked their way through with the minimum of embarrassment. It helped that aura had multiple uses and that having fought for their lives and having expected to die hours before they first made love meant that they lacked inhibition. After the first few goes she had been able to stop herself apologising for her more enthusiastic displays of affection or not knowing instinctively what to do.
He was still getting used to the obsession the whole of Mistral had with Pyrrha Nikos and by extension him.
Oddly the first night in Kulsa had been the easiest. For once Pyrrha had not been the superstar. Ruby had been the undeniable saviour and Winter, his sister Amber, and Nora had arguably been more destructive. She was actually pleased by that thought.
Ruby had however quickly been flown out to Beacon and came from Vale. Winter Schnee had also left Mistral the morning after the fight as well as being an Atlesian who people found easier to respect than to love. Amber had been sucked into the politics and rebuilding efforts, had a certain amount of baggage with Mistralian polite society, and clearly hated the publicity side of things to really draw admiration. Despite coming from Mistral, Nora was, well, Nora and was not used to dealing with publicity. Besides which she was making up for lost time with Ren and was not interested in media training. She had her ecstatic fan base, but most people did not know what to make of her.
The truth was that Pyrrha was born in Mistral, acted like a hero, fought elegantly, and did not give off the vibe of being bat shit crazy. This had always meant that she was likely to be the focus of attention in Mistral. The fact that Lisa Lavender had filmed Pyrrha pulling him out from under the wreckage of the walls and then kissing him had captured the imagination of the public. She also understood the duties of being a celebrity and accepted that she and Jaune had to do the press conferences.
They had spent one day in Kulsa, one day in Ansel and then flown to Argus. Originally Jaune's plan had been to stay with Saphron, Terra and Adrian. This had proven impractical after the events at Kulsa and instead he had stayed with Pyrrha. His sister and family had come to visit them and indeed had been given a small wing of the mansion to use. His youngest sister Lavender had joined them. Mum and dad had not been able to leave Kulsa, one of the twins had been recovering in hospital with the other at her bedside and so Pyrrha had extended the invitation to Lavender.
It helped having Saphron around. She had always been a loving elder sister and had found it easier than most to deal with him when his aura could not be unlocked. She had been used to being the odd one out and had instinctively understood his feeling. Fourteen years ago, realising that you were a gay, non-fighting member of the Arc family must have been a hard path to tread and she could not have been certain that her parents would have welcomed it. While they had, Ansel as a whole just thought her odd and did not know how to deal with her. She was not exactly bullied but more left to her own devices by her schoolmates.
One thing which had terrified him was being thought to be a toyboy or gigolo. It helped that Pyrrha's family had heard enough about him from Pyrrha and that he had done enough at Junior's and Kulsa to be given the benefit of the doubt by both them and the general public. Pyrrha's family had also made his family welcome. In particular they fussed over Adrian with enthusiasm to the extent that he was slightly concerned that they actually wanted him to make Pyrrha a mother immediately. Pyrrha herself had said that any decision must wait until they both had their licenses.
He sensed that Pyrrha's publicity team enjoying themselves training him. Pyrrha explained that she had learnt all the lessons she wanted to learn three years ago and so they enjoyed playing with fresh meat. They also seemed to relish the challenge of how to deal with the fact that Pyrrha had a boyfriend and was clearly bonking him. He suspected that they were slightly disappointed that he was not a bad boy stereotype and that he was so easy to portray him as a wholesome boyfriend.
Whether it was as a loss leader to help persuade Pyrrha to sign up with the Adel corporation or as speculation in its own right, Coco Adel had arranged for him to be given a new wardrobe by the Adel for men label. In addition, he was being paid a retainer of an obscene amount by the Adel Corporation for wearing the clothes in public. He supposed that this was better than having Pyrrha pay for his clothes, but it still felt weird.
He was assured that the family hairdresser was happy to have another client. Pyrrha's mother and siblings knew what they liked and did not experiment. Pyrrha had vetoed one proposed style which she termed the ice cream cone, but otherwise Jaune was amazed to see how well he scrubbed up.
He also was in some ways appalled by the unexpected side-effects of his and his sister's efforts at Kulsa. After being held back for three years for unspecified reasons, Terra had just been promoted two ranks and had been put on the highflyer track. Everything he knew about her suggested that she deserved to be there, but it felt wrong that the fact that her in-laws were now heroes and heroines seemed to be more important than ability.
Anyway, tomorrow they would fly off to Atlas to go to both the Adel Atlas fashion show and the Stronger Together ball. A lot of their friends from Beacon would be attending. Both he and Pyrrha had been embarrassed about how to deal with an invitation from Willow Schnee. Neither of them felt comfortable about staying with the woman he had pursued for most of term. Luckily, Coco Adel had already extended an invitation to him and Pyrrha to spend time at the Adel residence in Atlas and they had decided to accept the invite.
They also had an evening invitation to eat with Brede Campion and his uncle Parsifal. Jaune was looking forward to it. Jaune had appreciated Brede helping him improve as a swordsman and he would also be interested to hear how Teams Cardinal and Lilac had managed a fortnight together.
/-/
Mercury was in the dorm with the rest of Team VBES. They were setting off for Atlas tomorrow having been invited to both the Adel fashion show and the Stronger Together ball.
Mercury had found the last ten days a source of endless amusement to him. Having unexpectedly being placed in a life endangering position and even more amazingly surviving, he and Emerald had ended up embracing in sheer relief. They had not entirely known how to end the clinch, but the blind Vacuoan Fox had taken pity on him and Emerald and had invited the two of them to get drunk with him, the sombre green giant and Team ABRN. Team Blood had also been invited, but they were not up to it. One of their number had killed their crazy ex-girlfriend earlier that night and they decided that they needed time by themselves.
It had been curious spending time with a man whose voice had been in his head for most of the evening and had saved his life at least twice by passing on warnings about incoming Grimm. He was prepared to listen to anyone who had a plan for a celebration. Team ABRN had been slightly subdued companions. They had done well but understandably felt a little deflated about being clearly outperformed by Pyrrha Nikos and Nora Valkyrie. It probably did not help that Arslan had worked better with the sombre green giant than with any member of her team. Reese Chloris was probably the happiest as her hoverboard had seemed like a gimmick at Haven but had proved invaluable in fighting the Grimm at the walls.
Anyway, after a couple of hours everyone had decided to feel relieved that they were still alive. Emerald had actually not minded resting her head on his shoulder. As morning approached the Vacuoan and the giant had roused everyone and taken them to meet an incoming bullhead carrying their teammates who had been fighting elsewhere. He had seen the clothes horse and the rabbit girl at Junior's not so long ago. This meant that he did not immediately dismiss the former as a poseur, but he still had no idea what the latter's deal was. He was watching the body language and wondering where the young mole Faunus who had turned up with them fitted in rather than listening and so was not prepared for the jab in the ribs from Emerald as the two newcomers described their adventures from the night before.
He started listening properly and understood Emerald's reaction. The two students had fought Tyrian fracking Callows and were still alive. Indeed, it sounded like that they had made him retreat. It was only when the mole Faunus produced the stinger and pointed to rabbit girl that he realised how humiliated the sociopathic madmen must be feeling now.
Anyway, Coco Adel had told all of them that they needed agents. Team ABRN already had some and so she advised them to make certain that the agents got their finger out and negotiated bonuses. She passed on business cards to him and Emerald and asked them to pass some on to Sun and Neptune.
Emerald had found this hard to take. Well, she had little problem with hearing about Tyrian, but she found it hard to deal with people who were pleasant to her without an obvious motive. He still did not understand her desire to hate or despise the people she was going to be involved in killing or humiliating. Perhaps it was their backgrounds. His father had taught him that being friendly with your targets or potential targets and acknowledging their strengths actually could help when it became necessary to kill them. He had hated his father, but the man had been an excellent assassin. Indeed, it had been his father's underestimating how much Mercury had learned which had allowed Mercury to best the man.
Emerald wanted to believe that her victims deserved to die. It had been a hoot watching her deal with Coco Adel offering them some final advice to Team VBES before team CFVY flew back to Beacon. She had told them that people would be approaching them and that they should not sell themselves cheap. She had openly said that there would be well behind in the pecking order after Pyrrha, Nora and the Arc family, but that the kiss had been embarrassing enough to ensure that advertisers would be flocking to them, and that Sun was a potential superstar.
The woman had seemed to know what she was talking about, and he had ready from the word go to call the agent who Coco had said could be trusted not to rip them off obscenely. Emerald had been taken aback by the fact that the woman had flirted with her. Even Reese after an evening at the bar had not been that bold.
Emerald had started out by calling Coco a phony and a clothes horse. Even she accepted that this was not sustainable considering she and her rabbit Faunus teammate had actually forced Tyrian to retreat from a fight. She was still resistant to calling the agent until they were called in by Lionheart and linked to Cinder via Seer.
Cinder had expressed perfunctory approval of the fact that they were still alive and told them that there had been no intention to put them in danger. She had reiterated that while their primary task was still to establish their bona fides as students and Mistral citizens, it was also their duty to take advantage of the opportunities offered by Coco Adel and by the SDC in Atlas to uncover information and to let Cinder have their assessment of the opposition. They were thus ordered to attend the ball and to fit in with the schemes suggested by Coco Adel. It was made clear to Emerald that this included pretending to be an item with Mercury (or Em and M as they were now referred to in the press thanks to Sun's enthusiastic shipping of them) and to responding to any approached by Coco Adel.
Mercury's cup had truly run over when it turned out that Coco Adel had not only invited Emerald and Sun to the fashion show, but she had also invited them to walk down the catwalk for a considerable one-off payment. Actually, the real moment to savour had been when Cinder ordered Emerald to accept. Apparently any information they could obtain on the two people who had vanquished Tyrian and on the silver eyed girl was worth any amount of humiliation.
To add to his joy, Cinder, Watts, and Hazel had been called to a meeting in the Grimmlands. He assumed that Tyrian was also there recuperating. Cinder was always on edge when she spent time there and tended to take it out on Emerald. Mercury had learnt to ride with the punches and Emerald's response presumably gratified Cinder.
A reversion to multiple POVs. Everyone is dealing with the aftermath of the Kulsa incident, and I thought it would be fun to explore that. Besides which Mercury winding up Emerald.