Beta: ShadowMeister234
An: This chapter took a while and I'm sorry about that. School hit me hard and there was basically a week where I didn't have time to write anything. It also didn't help that this is one of the longest chapters yet, so get ready because there's a lot to cover this time around.
The storm had broken sometime during the night, and even better, they all awoke to find they weren't knowing things they shouldn't have. Jaune didn't know if they had been intentionally targeted or if Cryphilictal just had some sort of power leak. All he knew was that he was relieved it was gone, for now at least.
Emerald and Yang felt the same way, and with that and the grimm fight now behind them, their group dynamic was the best it had ever been. They actually talked as they walked, told stories and cracked jokes. Perhaps for the first time, traversing the south part of Sanus was pleasant for all three of them, even if Yang kept making these terrible puns.
And as they say, time flies when you're having fun, so half the day went by without anyone noticing. The landscape changed into a rocky slope where the grass thinned and trees, even the little saplings, were completely nonexistent. The wind blew harder and the temperature grew cooler, but the air felt fresher and the sky looked fuller.
Grimm attacks had also become less frequent and less severe. Jaune would have liked to attribute that to their better mood, but he didn't believe for a second that was all there was to it. It was almost like the alligator-faced grimm had marked the end of the grimm's control and they were now walking through something else's territory.
No prize for guessing what.
It wasn't just grimm that were peculiarly diminished, either. There were fewer birds in the sky and less animals frocking around than before. It seemed that no life wanted to live or even grow near Cryphilictal. Hell, even the wind and the clouds were blowing away from the direction they were going.
Still, despite all these ominous signs, the travel was easy going and went mostly without incident. That was to say mostly, there was one but it wasn't so much an incident in itself but a harbinger to one that would probably occur in the future.
They likely wouldn't have even noticed if they hadn't stopped to take a break, but during their stop, Emerald had noticed a small circular outcropping of rocks. Upon further investigation, it was discovered to be a fire pit and around it the trace remains of a small campsite.
A rectangular area where all the loose rocks and wayward weeds had been brushed aside revealed where the camper had laid down a bedroll or sleeping bag instead of a tent. Trails, that held the slightest hints of footprints, crisscrossed around the area, and the fire pit was still filled with ash along with a scrap of shiny foil that looked to have come from a candy bar wrapper.
The fact they could tell and find all this without any one of them being proficient in tracking proved that whoever made this camp hadn't done so long ago. Only a night, or maybe two if the storm hadn't hit this area, but no more. They weren't alone out here.
"What should we do?" Emerald ask.
"There's nothing we can do," Jaune said, taking his eyes away from the fire pit. "There's someone else out there. They might be friendly or they might not. The point is, we're not going to know unless we meet them, so whatever we decided to do will happen then."
Emerald nodded and Yang did too, but she said something to go along with it. "They might not even be heading towards Cryphilictal, or they might be coming back from it. We might not even see them at all."
Jaune supposed that could be the case. They didn't have any proof to the contrary, but even so, he would bet all of Whitley's money that whoever made this camp was heading towards Cryphilictal, and if Whitley were here he'd be on board.
They left the campsite being and only thought about it when they scanned the terrain for more signs of their compatriot, but they never found any more definitive evidence.
The fourth day was largely the same, with the only change being that grass growing thinner and browner, that was until the sun reached its peak and they were only an hour or two away from seeing Cryphilictal.
They had seen the object long before they got to it, but the sun and the distance had made it too blurry to tell what it was. As they got closer, it became clearer and they probably could have guessed its identity, but none of them wanted to. None of them even spoke about it as they approached, not wanting to believe what they thought they were seeing. By the time they got there, though, there was no denying it.
The body of a Goliath, with its neck slit open almost to the point where it had been decapitated, was draped across the land. It was massive, easily being five or six times Jaune's height even on its side.
The trio could only stand there with garbled air coming out of their opened mouths instead of words.
"How big of a blade would you have to have to do something like that?" Emerald managed to get out.
"There's no way unless a giant killed it," Jaune said, shaken that he couldn't actually discount that possibility.
"I think you two are missing the bigger point," Yang said.
"What point! That there's something out here that can bring down a Goliath," Emerald ranted, reverting to her old treatment of Yang for just a moment. "Aren't these things supposed to be the apex of grimm that take multiple teams on huntsmen to bring down. This does not look like the work of a team effort; in fact, it looks like whatever did this did it in one blow."
She kept talking pushed on by her nervousness. Normally so calm and confident, this had gotten to her, as it had them all, and even though Emerald had come to terms with it, she was still the one who least wanted to be here so she was the one that got to complain.
"I know," Yang said, "but that's not the problem here. The problem is that the Goliath is still here."
Jaune understood what Yang meant immediately. He had just been so uneasy that he hadn't thought about it. Grimm dissolved when they died, yet this one was still whole. Not only was something strong enough to kill it but something else, or maybe the same thing, was keeping it intact.
That was somehow even creepier.
Emerald caught on a moment and her eyes grew to double their size. "It's not dissolving," she stated.
They observed it for a while longer thinking that maybe now that Emerald had mentioned it, the corpse would follow its natural progression and start to break apart. It didn't. It just sat there as dead and as physical as ever.
"Do you think—"Emerald stopped as fell into a coughing fit.
"You okay?" Jaune asked going over to pat her back like he had done for his sisters so many times before.
"You choke on some air?" Yang laughed.
Emerald pushed Jaune's arm away letting out one last puff. "I'm fine," she said. "As I was saying, do you think out friend from the camp was the one to do this?"
Jaune looked at the Goliath again as if he might glean some new information, but he could only give an answer that he felt like he was giving out more and more. "I don't know." Emerald just rolled her eyes, not that he blamed her. "We should just get moving. We not getting any closer by standing here."
"You sure we want to get any closer," Emerald retorted.
It was Jaune's turn to roll his eyes. "Don't be an ass. Let's go."
Easier said than done. Their eyes were constantly drawn to the behemoth-sized grimm even as they tried to walk past it. "Cryphilictal couldn't have given a better welcome even if they had posted a sign saying, 'Abandon hope all ye who enter here,'" Yang shivered.
Jaune nodded.
They were indeed close to their destination.
It was easy to forget, Jaune certainly had, but they weren't actually heading to the city of Cryphilictal, they were heading to the ruins of Cryphilictal. So, instead of the ominous walled city with spiraling architecture and glowing lights that Jaune had been imagining, they arrived at a place of crumbling stone bricks where the tallest walls only reached his knees and the only remaining structures, if you could even call them that, were decrepit foundations.
"Are you sure we're going to find something to help Ruby in this place?" Yang questioned.
Jaune doubled then tripled checked the map just to make sure they were in the right place. They were, this pile of rubble really was Cryphilictal. "The only way to know is to start looking around, but be careful, looks can be deceiving," he said, trying to not sound too disappointed. After everything they had been through, he had expected more.
The group stuck together, on the lookout for any dangers as they poked their heads over the walls into what was possible some ancient person's dwelling. There wasn't much to observe as usually the "inside" was empty with maybe the expectation of a broken piece of pottery lying on the grass floor. Emerald had taken the first few shards they had come across to observe them, but they really were just normal bits of broken clay.
There was no sense of danger at all in this place and slowly the group drifted apart as they explored separate sections. Maybe it was the city's way of lowering their guard, but as Emerald strayed farther and farther away from the other two without consequence, she started to believe the City of Magic had lost its magic long ago.
Sure, there had been all that strangeness that they had seen and experienced on the way here, but what if it was all just a lingering afterglow? Worse still, what if Cryphilictal had never had any magic to begin with? What if it was just all one big scam? A joke, where all the magic was just tricks set by other caretakers to make it seem like this place was the real deal. At the end of it all, there would be some moral like "don't believe everything you hear," or "there's no such thing as a solution to all problems." Then when they got back home, Roman would laugh at them for their foolishness. It would be the height of hilarity.
Some legends really might just be legends.
It was an extreme thought, but as Emerald searched fruitlessly for hours, she began to believe it more and more. The three of them didn't even bother to stay close by then. As long as they could vaguely see each other in the distance, it was fine.
Cryphilictal itself had probably been a pretty decent sized settlement for the time, looking like it had been about as big as Bury, but with everything cut down to its roots, it seemed much smaller. The ruins were positioned on top of, not a mountain, but what was the highest vantage point around. The height had probably given residents warning to any threats and protected them from grimm as best it could before the age of massive walls and automatic turrets. Emerald could even see a large river a little into the distance which could have been their water source.
The more she thought and reasoned how this city may have operated so long ago the easier it was to believe that this place was just like any other ancient ruin, no otherworldly forces needed.
The trio reconvened as the sun dipped below the horizon and the cool night began to settle. "Did you two find anything?" Emerald asked as they all worked together to set up camp.
"Not a thing," Jaune said striking a match and setting his enclosed bundle of grass alight. It was so small that it was really only good for light and not warmth.
"What happens if we don't find anything at all?"
"We'll find something," he said, taking a seat next to the fire. "This is Cryphilictal after all."
Funny how much weight that name had carried just this morning. Now she wasn't sure if it meant anything.
Emerald and Yang took their own seats by the fire; Yang looking away from it as she rubbed her forehead like she was fighting off a headache. Emerald had a headache herself.
"What's our watch schedule tonight?" Jaune said.
"Do we really need one?" Yang asked. "We didn't have one during the storm and I haven't seen a single grimm since we crossed paths with that Goliath."
Now that she mentioned it, Emerald hadn't either. Actually, she hadn't seen any animals since that point. Even the bugs, that she was used to hearing buzz all night, were missing. Once she noticed their absence, she realized just how eerily quiet it was.
"The storm was an expectation," Jaune said. "We shouldn't skip out on a watch just because it feels safe. If there's no grimm around then there's a reason for it. We don't want to be snuck up on by whatever is scaring them away."
"Like the Goliath Slayer, or whoever made that camp, assuming they're not the same person."
Jaune shrugged, "maybe."
"About that," Emerald said, "why aren't they here? I'm sure we all know that they must have been coming here, so where are they?"
"We might just be wrong," Jaune suggested although he didn't believe they were. "They could have gotten whatever they were looking for and already left, or they might be hiding from us."
"There aren't many places to hide around here," Yang gestured to the grey walls around them that wouldn't have been able to hide anyone even if they were laying down.
"I'm sure this place offers a host of hiding places. We just haven't found them yet."
"We haven't found anything," Emerald said again, and Jaune responded in kind.
"We will."
"But what if we don't?" Emerald shot back making it clear she wanted a real answer. She wasn't trying to be difficult, and it wasn't like she had dived so deeply into her theories that she believed that there was utterly nothing here, but there was no denying that Cryphilictal wasn't the place they had believed it to be. Even if they did find something magical, how likely was it to be something that could help Yang's sister? They had already been taking a gamble when they had thought Cryphilictal a limitless treasure trove, but the trove proved empty and now they could only bet on the scraps.
Emerald never got a verbal response as Jaune just stared into the fire, but that provided an answer in its own way. If there was nothing to find here they would have to go back empty-handed. It would have all been for nothing, and worse, it would mean they had reached a dead end. There was no other plan if this didn't work which was probably why Jaune, and Yang too, didn't know what to think about the possibility that it wouldn't.
Emerald could understand, but she also wasn't willing to stay out here for weeks searching for a cure that might not exist. She didn't want to lose faith so early either, but she had been with Jaune long enough to know that these otherworldly situations usually had this atmosphere to them. You could just feel the unnaturalness in the air.
But sitting here right now, it felt like Cryphilictal was well and truly dead.
The next day was very similar to the previous. Jaune had gotten his way and they had set up a watch. Nothing had happened except Yang losing out on one-third of her awaited sleeping time, and to top it all off when she had woken up, she had found she had a sore throat.
She knew it was better to be safe than sorry but that didn't mean she couldn't be grumpy. It didn't help that she hadn't had a proper shower in nearly and week (the rainstorm didn't count) and because of that, her hair was starting to lose its golden shine that she worked so hard to maintain.
She only had to remind herself why she was out here, though, to keep going and endure it, and besides it wasn't all bad. That fight against that subterranean porcupine may have just been the best thing she had ever done in her life. Sure, it had been terrifying and near-deadly at the time, but looking back, she could hardly believe she had done something so incredible. There was no comparison to anything in Vale.
This was a true adventure, taken straight out of one of the books that her mom used to read to her, or at least it would've been if there wasn't so much downtime.
Searching this city wasn't her idea of fun, even calling it a city felt like a joke. Cryphilictal was about as much a city as a movie popcorn was a meal. Maybe it would have been interesting if there was something to fight or even something to discover, but as of yet it really did feel like this place was devoid of anything besides rocks and grass.
A sinking feeling worked its way into her gut. What if there really wasn't anything here?
She swallowed the thought back.
The answer had to be here somewhere. She had seen Jaune use enough of his etches to know that magic was real, and despite being nothing more than strangers a few days ago, she didn't believe Jaune would lie to her. What would be the point? He and his slightly less bitchy girlfriend were out here with her, after all.
But what if he isn't meaning to lie to you. What if he's simply mistaken, a tiny little voice in Yang's head said. It was probably the voice of reason and, of course, it had to sound exactly like her dad.
Yang pushed it away and continued forward, hopping from one "building" to the next. She worked her way to the edge of the ruins, sweating heavily by the time she got there. She wiped her arm along her forehead and guzzled down one of the water bottles she had with her. Sadly, it didn't do much to relieve her.
She might have been used to being so hot that guys stopped to stare at her, but normally that didn't have anything to do with what the temperature was like. Not like the temperature should have been causing her condition in the first place. Seriously, it felt she was being baked despite it being a cool autumn day. Maybe it was all that traveling catching up with her or maybe it had something to do with Cryphilictal itself.
She would have to talk to the others about it and see if they were feeling the same effects. She turned to go back into the ruins, but before she could move, her eyes caught something on the ground. She had passed it up before because it looked just like another piece of stone that had broken off the wall, but on closer inspection, Yang could see some marks on it.
She bent down and picked it up. She was both happy and disappointed. There was indeed some writing on this stone slab, but it was so old and deteriorated that it was illegible. Not like Yang could have read it even if it had been brand new. The few symbols she could make out, that hadn't been rubbed away by time, weren't from any language she had ever seen before.
She looked at it for a while hoping that if she just looked at it long enough a flash of knowing would clue her in to what it said. Sadly, that strange power wasn't so convenient.
Since it was the only thing of note she had found, she decided to show it to the others. Just because she didn't see any use to it, didn't mean that they, with their magic ways, wouldn't gain something from it.
She caught up to Jaune first, who took the slate with intrigue and then produced a journal out of thin air in his other hand. While he flipped through the pages, Yang had to take a seat. Her face was beet red and she tugged at her scarf to try and cool down. Eventually, she just took it off entirely and massaged her neck.
"Do you feel unusually hot, right now?" she asked.
Jaune looked up and seemed to ponder the question for a moment before turning his attention to her. "No, not at all. You aren't getting sick, are you?" He bent down to check on her and didn't like what he saw. Her face was flushed, her eyes were a little hazy and the sweat on her collarbone was easily visible. "Shit, maybe it was a bad idea to walk through that rainstorm. Here takes this." He produced some cold medicine from his backpack and give her his own water bottle which she eagerly accepted.
"Thanks, that's really heat of you."
Despite rolling his eyes at her pun, he looked at her with concern. It had been a long time since anyone had looked at her like that. There were Ruby and her dad of course, but their worry was more of the what-if-yang-gets-too-reckless-and-destroys-the-school kind of worry. Jaune's variety was looking at her like she was something he had to protect. As if Yang Xiao Long needed protection from a guy like him.
Still, it did feel nice.
"Maybe you should go rest in the tent. Emerald or I could watch over you."
No way was she doing that, not when they were right here and Ruby was going through so much worse. "Nah, it's just a little cold. I'll push through."
Jaune really hoped so because there weren't exactly any doctors she could go to right now. He didn't push her on it and let her relax while he returned to skimming through his journal. At some point, Emerald wandered over to see what was going on.
"Wow, you don't look too good," she said to Yang.
"Still look better than you ever could," Yang replied with a dry chuckle.
Emerald chose to ignore that comment because she was understanding and recognized their relationship had bettered recently. It was definitely not because Jaune was standing right there and would be witness to any accident that might befall Yang.
"By the way, what are you holding?" Emerald asked her partner.
Jaune gave her a confused expression. "Um, my journal. You've seen it before." He said it so smoothly that Emerald might have believed he was being serious if it wasn't obvious he was trying to stop himself from smiling.
She gave him a sharp kick to the shin which aura block, but still got her a grunt of pain. "Alright, I'm sorry," Jaune said, fighting the urge to rub his leg. "It's a tablet that Yang found. It has some very worn down writing on it, and I was trying to see if I could make anything out of it."
"Can you?"
"No," Jaune concede, snapping his book shut. The legible symbols kind of reminded him of the one he and Emerald had seen in that cave during Beacon's initiation but that could just be him seeing a connection where there wasn't one. It wasn't like he would have been able to read it even if the symbols had been in his journal, anyways. Both because translating an entire language, if that was what this really was, would take a little more work than just knowing a few symbols, and because the tablet was mostly indecipherable to begin with.
It didn't have to be a complete waste, however. "Can you show me where you found this?" He asked Yang before backtracking into a disclaimer. "Only if you're okay to move that is."
"I told you I'll be fine," she said hopping to her feet and only wobbling a little bit.
Yang led them to the edge of the ruins and pointed to where she had picked up the piece of rock. "This doesn't look any different from anywhere else," Emerald mentioned, taking a brief look around. "Same old crumbling stone and same old empty "houses"."
"But it's not because this was here," Jaune said tapping the tablet with his finger.
"Oh, you're right! How could I be so stupid? That isn't just some rock. It's a rock that some child probably doodled on three thousand years ago. That changes everything."
"Laying it on a little thick today, aren't you," Jaune joked. "You're being more skeptical than Yang and she's had way less experience with magic than you. I know we haven't found much but have a little faith. When you were a thief, how often did people leave their most precious items out in plain sight."
Emerald sighed and had to admit the answer was never.
"Exactly, and I feel like Cryphilictal is the same way. It's hiding something from us."
"Don't you think you a little bit too sure of yourself since everything you know about this place came from Roman and his book," Emerald whispered that last part so Yang wouldn't hear, but Jaune still bristled at her words because they were true.
"Okay, you got me there, but I don't think he would lie about this."
"You know there are times when I think you're really smart and clever, but for the most part, you're just brain dead, aren't you?"
Jaune's shoulders slumped. "I knew you were going to say something like that, but hear me out. Roman only trick me when it was his favor to call in. He promised to tell me the absolute true whenever I call him, and he did for the other two. Cryphilictal is also mentioned in that book which was written by a bunch of caretakers. I doubt he would falsely edit something so important just to mess with me, and lastly, when he was talking about this place, he seemed genuinely scared of it."
"He's a thief and a con man, acting genuine is what he does."
"This was different. You would've had to hear him, but in short, I am 100 percent confident that Cryphilictal isn't what it's trying to appear to be."
"I'll believe it when I see it," Emerald scoffed.
"Magic is all about believing in what you can't see," Jaune smiled.
"Just because magical exist doesn't mean you can stick it everywhere."
"I didn't lead you over here because I found a romantic spot for you two to flirt on," Yang interrupted. "What did you want to come over here for, Jaune?"
"Same old, same old. We're going to explore this area, but make sure to go slow and search really thoroughly."
"All that talk and this was your grand plan? Just search harder," Emerald said, relaying what Yang was thinking.
"If anyone has a better idea, I'm open to suggestions."
The girls did not, so they continued looking going through the same empty "buildings" they had already been going through. Emerald wasn't even sure what Jaune meant by 'search thoroughly' since there wasn't anything to search through. Unless he meant for them to check between the blades of grass or in the cracks of the foot-high walls. Maybe Ruby's cure was microscopic and they should've brought a microscope.
Emerald chuckled at her own joke but that made her throat hurt so she stooped. Couldn't even have those simple joys in theses ruins, it seemed. She wanted to go back to Vale and sleep for a week straight, she felt so tired. This was not what she had in mind after the end of their vacation. Cryphilictal was a bust. There wasn't anything to find out here, yet Jaune just couldn't accept it.
She stomped her for on the ground in frustration, but instead of the grass and dirt, her foot hit something much sturdier. Curiously, she bent down and rubbed away at the ground. It was a thin layer that wasn't really ground at all but just clumps of dirt and foliage that had blown onto what laid below, giving it some great camouflage.
What she found was more bricks, the same type as the walls, which would have made this the first building she had found that still had part of its floor intact, but it was more than just intact. The bricks were immaculate. They didn't have a crack or even a scratch on them, and they were smooth. Smoother than anything Emerald had ever felt before.
"What did you find?"
Emerald nearly jumped out of her skin when Jaune said that from behind her. "What the hell!" She yelled getting to her feet. "Why did you sneak up on me?"
"Woah," Jaune said holding his hand out to protect his chest from Emerald's finger which looked dangerously ready to poke him. "I didn't sneak up on you. I was walking like normal you must have just not heard me."
Impossible. Emerald lived the majority of her life depended on being able to hear people coming towards her. There was no way that she had been so distracted by the bricks that she wouldn't have heard him approaching.
"Are you okay?" he asked while she was thinking about it.
"I'm fine," She quickly replied, "why do you ask?"
"You just seem aggressive, more so than usual," that earned him a hard jab to his chest, "and honestly you're looking a bit pale."
"You're just seeing things since Yang looks like crap. I feel fine."
"That's also what Yang said."
"Just help me uncover this thing. If we're lucky we might find some more symbols we can't read." The two worked together to remove all the debris, and by the time they were down they were staring at a perfectly laid grey brick floor about as long as Emerald was tall. There was also a stone arch on one end of it. To Jaune, it looked like a handle and he bent down to give it a good tug without even thinking about it.
It came as a surprise to both of them when not only was Jaune able to lift the floor up but was also able to roll it up like the lid of a can of tuna, the stone flexing in ways no solid building martial ever should. Peeling the layer of stone bricks completely back revealed an equally, perfectly kept stone staircase leading down into some sort of room.
"Still think we're not going to find anything here?" Jaune said to his partner with that dumb smirk of his face.
"Whatever," Emerald huffed not willing to give Jaune a single inch more of gratification although maybe that was more to keep him for noticing that her stomach was starting to bubble uncomfortably.
They retrieved Yang and their backpacks before heading down the secret passageway. The staircase actually didn't go that deep. By the time they got to the bottom, Jaune still had to hunch over to avoid heading his head on the ceiling. The floor, or perhaps it was better to call it a trapdoor, closed behind them, and after a mild panic attack where they thought they had been locked in, Jaune tried to open it back up and it rolled back easily. At least that was one crisis averted.
The room they had wandered into was square and small enough to where their three flashlights illuminated it all. They probably could've done it with only two. The smooth floor was bare and there was no furniture to speak of, but the room wasn't completed empty. On the wall, farthest away from where they were now, there was a circular indent with a vertical slit cutting down the middle. The group immediately recognized it for what it was: a door, and on this door were the same type of symbols they had found on that tablet carved across the top half.
Luckily, they didn't have to guess what they meant because someone had carved a translation below it, in the language they were all much more familiar with.
I am the key to open the future.
The existence that releases eyes and touches hearts.
The light that guides the lost.
The temptation that ills the mind.
What am I?
"Great, it's a riddle," Yang complained.
"There's more," Emerald said shining her flashlight on the wall next to the door. This writing was smaller and Jaune had to walk up to it to be able to see it. This carving looked newer—much newer—than the carvings on the door, and as he read it aloud he understood why.
"Welcome to Cryphilictal, Dirty Gem, Golden Dragon, and Ceaseless Knight."
"We've been expected," Emerald said walking over to Jaune to see the writing herself. "Can't say I like their description of me. It also not written in those symbols."
"I noticed that too."
"What do you think it means?"
"That whoever, or whatever, wrote it speaks our language and knows who we are."
"You think we're being watched?" Emerald said quickly running her flashlight around the already lit room.
"I wouldn't bet that we aren't," Jaune replied, "but for now we've got a different puzzle to solve."
"The riddle," Yang jumped in, wiping her palm across her sweaty forehead.
"Yeah, I'm going to guess that the right answer opens the door."
"We could always just break it open," Yang said readying her gauntlets.
"Let's at least try to get the answer before that. If nothing else than to prevent the room from collapsing in on us." Yang lowered her fist in disappointment but complied.
Emerald walked up to the door to read the riddle again. "I think the first line is just telling us that the answer will open the door like you said."
"Be careful about assuming that. A lot of times people get problems wrong because they make a mistake about the base information and that leads them completely astray." Jaune said that but he didn't actually have an alternative to offer, so they just went with Emerald's interpretation.
"'Releases eyes' is probably just an old way of saying 'opening eyes' and 'touches hearts' means that it affects people greatly," Jaune said, thinking out loud. "So, whatever it is offers people a new perspective on life?"
"And it gives people meaning 'guides' them, but also isn't good for them," Emerald mused continuing Jaune's line of thought.
"So, it's something that's important but can hurt people if they get ahold of it," Yang said bluntly. "That could be pretty much anything. Let's try love, friendship or war. Those are usually the big ones."
The door made no attempt to open at any of Yang's guesses.
"You're not very fond of riddles, are you?" Jaune asked.
"I think you know I'm more of a pun girl."
"Riddles can be puns."
"I don't think this one is. Besides, I don't want to stand her thinking through a riddle when a cure for my sister could be behind that door. You would think that whoever carved that translation would have been nice enough to include the answer"
Emerald laughed. "That's not how the unknown world works. Nothing ever comes easy."
"Oh, so you're finally admitting there's something magical to be found in this place," Jaune teased.
"We rolled up a stone floor to get down here and are trying to open a door with a riddle. I've seen enough evidence now, so stop being such a child."
Yang burst into laughed and then made the sound of a cracking whip, arm motion included. Jaune, who had shrugged off all of Yang's other innuendos about his and Emerald's relationship, blushed bright red at that and turned away to hide it.
"What about knowledge," Emerald said. "I think that fits all the criteria. It opens eyes, it leads the lost but becoming obsessed with knowledge can lead to disaster." It was a good guess but the door didn't react. Emerald pushed on it, just in case, but it didn't budge."
"We ready to do it the Yang way?" the girl in question asked.
"I guess you may as well," Jaune said.
Yang smiled as she walked up to the door and pulled her fist back. It wasn't the strongest punch Jaune had seen her give but it probably still had enough weight behind it to bend iron, yet the door remained unfazed, not showing even the slightest bit of damage. Yang tried several more times to the same result.
In an attempt to support her, Jaune tried blowing it open with an etch. That didn't work. Then he tried digging into the walls around the door with his sword, but no matter how much force he put behind his weapon the blade didn't dig into the stone even the tiniest bit. For all intents and purposes, this room was immune to damage and destruction. The fact letters and symbols had been carved into the stone at some point would have to be ignored. The only way they were getting through that door was to answer the riddle.
They sat around for maybe an hour throwing out guesses. Things like: death, life, happiness, sadness, willpower, duty, soul, aura, a cure for Ruby Rose. None of it work and they were getting pretty stumped. Looking around the room didn't offer any clues either
It was possible the translation was just straight up wrong, or that their answer had to be given in the language the riddle was originally written in, but Jaune didn't think either of those were the case, at least not yet. You knew the correct answer to a good riddle the second you thought of it. (What has a neck but no head? A bottle.) He hadn't gotten that feeling yet. The closest he felt they had gotten was Emerald's guess of 'knowledge.' Knowing things was certainly something it felt like Cryphilictal was obsessed with, but it wasn't quite right. Cryphilictal wanted something just a little different, and for the life of him, he couldn't figure out what it was.
Emerald and Yang weren't faring any better and if none of them could crack the code then there was no one else they could rely on.
Actually, maybe that wasn't true.
Jaune dug into his backpack and pulled out a rectangular wooden case and from that, he pulled out a knife made of glass. He hadn't been keeping in contact with Whitley as much as he had been back in Mt. Glenn, and he hadn't ever tried since getting to Cryphilictal. The conversation about it being unlikely to work in this place probably having influenced his actions, and examining the knife now, Jaune could indeed see some anomalies in it. His reflection was a little muddier and the edges of the knife appeared to be foggy like ice on a window. But, overall it looked mostly fine, and it wasn't like he had anything to lose by trying.
"Whitley, can you hear me?"
So, this was the girl Jaune was risking his life to save. She was pretty cute, Whitley guessed, a little skinny, but that may have just been because she had been getting her nutrition through an IV for the last couple of days. For what he knew about the girl she was being kept in a medically induced coma until the Beacon staff could figure out what was wrong with her. Apparently, the last time they woke her she had tried to claw her eyes out, but that was only a rumor he had heard in passing.
Regardless of the validity of that claim, wouldn't it be better to move this girl into a real hospital. Of course, the hospital wouldn't be able to find anything either but shouldn't the attempt be made? He wasn't a medical expert, and he didn't doubt the skills of the people who had chosen to take care of the huntsmen to be, but surely a fully-fledged hospital would have more equipment and better staff than Beacon's infirmary.
She was being kept at Beacon for a reason. That was the only explanation Whitley could think of. Ozpin, or maybe someone even higher up than him, didn't want her to leave. Was it for her safety, or did it have something to do with those silver eyes Jaune had mentioned?
It didn't really matter. Whitley wasn't here for that. He had simply been curious about the girl Jaune had run off to save. He wasn't even the only one here visiting the girl. A man with horrible unkempt hair and a flask of alcohol, which he probably wasn't supposed to have in here, sat in a chair by the girl's bed.
He had been there since before Whitley arrived and had been glaring at him the entire time. There hadn't been any trouble yet, but the man's look told Whitley that there would be if he stayed here much longer.
Whitley knew who this man was, of course. Not just from his own research but because Winter had mentioned him in one of those few times the two siblings contacted each other. Qrow Branwen was an ex-member of the Branwen tribe that his sister now led. Uncle to the girl that had tagged along with Jaune and unofficial uncle to Ruby Rose. Apparently, he also infuriated Winter which was a plus in Whitley's book.
The barely concealed hostility he was leveling at him right now didn't even subtract for that assessment. If anything, Whitley completely understood. From Qrow's perspective, Whitley Schnee, a person who on the surface had no reason to step foot in the infirmary, had just come in here and started checking out his niece.
"Mind if I ask you a question?" Whitley suddenly said.
"Huh," Qrow seemed very confused. "What do you want to ask me?"
"It's a riddle. It goes, I am the key to open the future. The existence that releases eyes—"
Whitley was cut off as Qrow jumped from his seat, shaking mad. Whitley thought he might even try to grab his shirt, but the man contained himself. "Are you mocking me?" he asked between gritted teeth.
"No, I just want to know if you know the answer to that riddle."
"Who gives a damn about a stupid riddle!"
"I think you should since the answer might save your niece's life."
Whitley was about two words from getting punched in the face and not even his status as a Schnee diplomat would protect him.
"Just get out," Qrow spat. "I don't want to see you near Ruby ever again, you freak."
"That's fine," Whitley shrugged as if Qrow words were in no way directed at him. "I have an appointment to be getting to anyways." He walked out of the infirmary under the drunk's watchful gaze. Again, Whitley did not fault the man for his actions. After all, how could a huntsman, protector of humanity, ever be asked to control their emotions.
Outside of the infirmary. Whitley walked the now familiar Beacon halls. His destination was the gardens where he and his sisters were scheduled to have lunch together. How long had it been since they had all been in the same room together? Sure, Weiss hadn't left for Beacon that long ago and Winter wasn't so detached after joining the military that she never visited, but it was Weiss that she coddled when she came back. Winter really only saw him as a courtesy. As for the two younger Schnee siblings they had kept their distance from each other at home and that had extended to Beacon. Despite him coming and going for a while now, he had yet to see his elder sister.
Whitley arrived at a beautiful pavilion at the edge of Beacon. It was far enough removed from the main school buildings that there weren't many students hanging around. The few that were here were quietly studying or reading.
His sisters were already there, sitting around a table with a spread of food between them. Neither of them had touched it knowing it would have been impolite to start without him. "Good day, Winter, Weiss. It's good to see you," He said taking his own seat at the table.
"What kept you?" Weiss greeted which translated to her asking him why he was so late. He was never late to anything and both of them knew it. Still to hear such accusations from his sister who he hadn't seen in so long just broke his heart.
"Something came up," Whitley offered which wasn't a lie. Jaune had contacted him and asked for help in solving a very peculiar problem. It was just that trying to find the answer to Jaune's riddle on his scroll, which didn't lead him anywhere, wasn't what made him late. He had been late on purpose. Let his sisters enjoy their bonding time before he came and ruined it for them. It was a wonder that Winter even invited him in the first place, let alone that Weiss allowed it.
"I see," Weiss said non-confrontationally not wishing to press the issue.
The Schnee family began their meal in uncomfortable silence where none of them looked each other in the eyes. It was so awkward that some of the nearby students took notice, and Whitley didn't blame them when some packed up their stuff and left.
He inwardly sighed. Winter was not only the one to bring them all together but was also the oldest. She should have been the one trying to start up conversations. "I hope you or Ironwood hold no ill will toward me, Winter," he said since no one else would.
Winter's shoulders stiffened just a bit as her eyes darted to Weiss then to him as if this was something that shouldn't be brought up out in the open. Winter's worry quickly waned, however, as she realized that the diplomatic meeting between Ironwood and the SDC wasn't really a secret. That didn't stop her from giving an answer that felt more like a press statement, though.
"The general respects your point of view and although he still wishes to secure the safety of Vale by canceling the Vytal festival he will readily accept that council's decision."
"Good to hear," Whitley said flatly.
In the end, he hadn't been able to persuade Ironwood. He had softened the robotic man's position but he still wanted the festival at least postponed. That forced Whitley to go be buddy-buddy with the Vale council, who were much more sympathetic to his way of thinking. Most had already been skeptical about Ironwood's plan, but Whitley's arguments had sealed the deal. Ironwood wasn't close to having the votes he needed and so he let his plan die without ever officially prospering it.
All negations were done, which was why Miss. Secretary wasn't shadowing his every move, and this was Whitley's last day in Vale. This lunch was basically his farewell meal. Kind of hard to have a farewell when he had barely even been greeted.
His head shifted to Weiss in the most obvious display of him expecting her to say something. He bet it made her uncomfortable and she tried her best to ignore his looks, but eventually, she broke. "Are you going to miss Vale?" she said.
What a generic question. Come on dear sister weren't you raised in the political world where entertaining people you don't like it a requirement? You could at least try to put in the effort.
Whitley didn't even get the satisfaction of replying with some snide remark because Weiss scroll decided to buzz at that moment. She glanced at Winter, silently asking if it was okay, and when she got permission she looked at her scroll.
A moment later her face turned sour and she put it away. "Who was it?" Whitley asked jumping on the most exciting event to happen thus far.
"Nobody important," Weiss replied and then went back to eating her meal to avoid the conversation. Winter gave her a pitying look and went back to her meal as well. That might have been the end of the siblings' talk for the rest of the meal, but a few minutes after Weiss', Whitley's scroll started to buzz.
He didn't bother to seek the permission of his sisters as he checked his scroll and then answered it after he saw who it was. "Hello, Father," he said which caused Weiss to choke on her food and Winter's eyes widened.
"I heard Ironwood pulled his proposal," his father said skipping all pleasantries. "I assume I have you to thank for that."
"I didn't do all that much. The council was already against the proposal."
"Even so, you were there and the proposal was killed. Don't dismiss praise that is handed to you."
"I'll keep that in mind."
"Good, now since you've been at Beacon for the last few days, do you happen to know where Weiss is. She is still refusing to answer my calls."
A glint formed in Whitley's eye. Perhaps this lunch wouldn't be for nothing after all. "I'm actually having lunch with Weiss right now."
He wished he could have taken a picture of his sisters' reactions. Weiss' mouth was hanging open and her eyes held an equal amount of fear and shock. It was like she had just watched someone run over a dog. Winter was as mad as he had ever seen her. Shooting him a glare that asked him what he had done?
Oh, was I not supposed to say that. Oops, sorry Winter, I'll do better next time.
"Reallly," Jacques dragged, "would you mind putting me on speaker? I would like to speak with your sister."
Whitley didn't hesitate to turn the speaker on and set his scroll on the table.
"Weiss, are you there," their father's voice came through.
Weiss took the time to flatten her skirt despite it being an audio call only. "Yes, father."
"Is there a reason you haven't been answering my calls?"
"I've been applying myself at Beacon and it's been very busy," she answered with a pretty poor excuse.
"So busy that you haven't been able to answer or return a call in months?"
"Yes."
Jacques sighed, one of those big long ones where you knew he was officially done with all this crap. "Weiss, do you even still care about being the heiress to the wealthiest company on Remnant?"
"Of course, I do." To Whitley, she was beginning to sound desperate.
"Really because most people would keep in contact with the business they hope to inherit. You, on the other hand, seem to be doing everything in your power to distance yourself from the SDC."
"That's not true!"
"IT IS!" Jacques' voice drowned out everything else and for a while there was just silence until their father started speaking again, going very slowly. "I had thought that Beacon would help you grow up, but I can see you're more of a child than ever. While you sit back and enjoy the perks of being an heiress, your brother continues to contribute to the SDC's success without question, so I think it's time for a change."
It was Whitley's turn to be shocked. Father wouldn't decide this right now, would he?
"From this moment on I'm revoking your access to all SDC bank accounts, and I am making Whitley the new heir to the SDC."
"You can't!" Weiss yelled, actually standing from her chair.
"I can and I am. Perhaps this will teach you to respect the things you have." The soft click of the scroll signaled the call was over.
No one dared move. No one dared breathe. For the first time ever, Whitley had nothing to say. His mind was blank, but as his father's words began to sink in, a stupid grin crawled its way up Whitley's cheeks. It was completely unbefitting of a Schnee, especially for the heir of the SDC, because that's what he was now, but he couldn't stop it.
Unfortunately, Weiss took notice of his uncharacteristic glee and dragged her nails across the table, mimicking the sound of a hissing cat. "You planned this," She growled.
In the general, of course he did, but if his sister was referring to this exact moment then no. Their father's delectation was as much of a surprise to him as it was to her. To think he would do it so openly. Just how badly had Weiss infuriated him?
"Whitley, please explain yourself," Winter said jumping to Weiss' aid just like she always did.
"I'm not sure what there is to explain. You two heard it for yourselves."
"So that's it then?" Weiss asked. "You're going to stab me in the back just like that. Do you even care that we're family? Was it really that easy for you to plot against and betray me."
Whitley's simile fell.
Betray?
Betray!
She thought he betrayed her.
WAS SHE SERIOUS!
How dare she. She and Winter were the ones to betray him. They left him, and Weiss had the nerve to think that she still deserved the title of heiress when she did nothing to keep it. He was the one taking care of everything while she ran off to play huntress. Did she just expect him to keep her seat warm until she felt like coming back? Had she planned to pat him on the head and tell him 'good job' while she took control and left him with nothing?
Whitley was raging mad, angrier than he had ever been. He tried to come up with words and nearly let slip that their mother was in rehab in his anger to prove them wrong, but he bit them back just in time. If his sisters cared so much about family then they could find that out on their own.
Instead, he forced himself to take a few calming breaths, and when he was ready to speak he did so slowly and delicately. "I'm sorry you feel that way, sister, but father has made his decision clear. I hope you enjoy the rest of your time at Beacon but I feel it is my time to leave."
"Wait a second," Weiss said, grabbing his wrist, "do you have anything to say to me."
Whitley thought about it, and he supposed he did. " Do you know the answer to this riddle? 'I am the key to open the future. The existence that releases eyes and touches hearts. The light that guides the lost. The temptation that ills the mind. What am I?'"
"Why would I answer your stupid riddle," Weiss replied.
"So, you don't know the answer?"
"Of course, I don't."
"Then there's nothing more for us to talk about." Useless till the very end.
Weiss' grip on his wrist tightened and he thought she might actually be trying to break it, but Winter came over to pry her off. "I think you should be going," she said to him as if he hadn't already been trying.
But Weiss wasn't done just yet. "You're a rat, you know that Whitley. Always eager to please but ready to strike the second you think you can get ahead. I hope it was worth it. I really do."
"You don't know a thing about me," Whitley muttered under his breath as he walked away. His mood which should have been bursting with happiness was now soured. All because Weiss thought that everything she wanted she deserved. He wondered if she realized just how much of their father's daughter she was. At least Winter, for all her faults, recognized how unreasonable it was to expect to remain heiress after joining the military.
As Whitley approached Beacon's docks, where his airship was waiting to take him back to Atlas, his scroll rang for a second time that day. He didn't recognize the number that appeared but the fact that whoever this was had his personal scroll number made it worth answering.
"Hello, Whitley Schnee speaking," he said, trying to keep the anger he felt out of his voice.
"Is something bothering you, sweetie. You sound upset," a feminine voice said from the other end.
At first, he didn't recognize is. The voice sounded foreign, and to be fair, in all of his memory he didn't think he had ever heard his mother sound so lively—so healthy.
"Mother is that you?" He asked.
"Of course. Who else would call you sweetie? Oh! Unless, did you get a girlfriend?"
This was not the same woman Whitley had grown up. Not even close. "I thought you weren't allowed to make calls while you were in rehab?"
"It's a special occasion. I've official been sober for two months."
Whitley felt a little of his cheer returning. "That's great news."
"Yeah, I won't lie and say that hasn't been some issues over these past weeks, but I'm staying strong. I have too. This call was my reward and I knew it had to be you." She paused for a moment and her voice cracked when she started up again. "I would still be sitting in the garden drinking wine until the end of days if it wasn't for you." She sounded about ready to cry.
"Jaune helped too even if it was indirectly. If he hadn't proven your stories about the unknown world true. I don't think I could have sent you away." Whitley choked up just a bit as a good portion of his mind and a bit of his stomach told him not to admit this. "I think I would have thought you a lost cause."
There was silence on the other end and Whitley thought he might have said too much, but his mother eventually returned. "Yes, I suppose we do own that boy a lot. How is he doing?"
"Actually, he's having a bit of an issue at the moment. This might sound strange but he needs to solve a riddle."
"What is it."
"'I am the key to open the future. The existence that releases eyes and touches hearts. The light that guides the lost. The temptation that ills the mind. What am I?'" Whitley said not seeing a reason not to give his mother a shot at it.
"It's magic," Willow said easily enough.
Whitley stopped walking as he processed that answer. It was a perfect fit. "How did you know?"
His mother giggled. "Your grandfather used to tell me that riddle all the time. He told me to always remember it because someday someone might need the answer. I never really took it seriously but I guess he was right."
Whitley grinned. Fate was working in their favor. "I guess he was. I'm sure Jaune will appreciate it."
Magic. Of course, that was it. Jaune felt a little stupid for not thinking of it himself. What other answer could Cryphilictal want?
Jaune probably would have beat himself up over for a bit longer, but he had other things to worry about, two of them to be exact.
Emerald and Yang had taken a turn for the worse while they had been waiting for Whitley's return call. Yang was laying on the ground with her arm over her eyes and sweat running down every part of her body. Emerald wasn't much better, sitting beside her, staring off into the distance with unfocused eyes.
The girls' conditions worried him. It didn't feel like a regular sickness since they had both gotten it at the same tie and deteriorated so rapidly. Jaune also felt completely fine. Cryphilictal was up to something. Maybe it was trying to keep them out.
Jaune wanted to do something to help them, but he knew he couldn't. Instead, he walked up to the riddle door. "I am magic," he said.
The door remained silent and closed.
Jaune began to worry.
"Magic," he said again.
Nothing.
He was starting to panic. Was 'magic' really not the right answer. Had Whitley gotten it wrong? That couldn't be it. 'Magic' felt so right. What could he be missing? Jaune reread the riddle again trying to find a clue, and luckily, it didn't take him long to figure it out.
He pulled out some chalk and bent down to the ground. If the door wanted magic he would give it magic. He had drawn an etch here before when they had tried to force the door open, and it hadn't done anything then, but this time when he drew the etch instead of doing its normal effect it caused the door to glow.
It shouldn't be surprising that things were different this time. After all, Jaune knew the answer.
The door swung open and behind it was another staircase of smooth stone leading down into darkness. Except this one appeared to go much deeper than the staircase that had brought them to this room.
Jaune looked at the pit of darkness and then looked back at the girls. He was hesitant to bring them. If Cryphilictal really was to blame for their condition then bringing them in deeper didn't seem like the best idea. What else was he supposed to do, though? They weren't going to do any better sitting here, and he couldn't exactly take them outside of Cryphilictal's territory. Assuming the nearly beheaded Goliath, where Emerald had first shown signs of sickness, was the limit of Cryphilictal's reach that was still hours away. Not to mention that bringing two sick girls out into the wilderness would be like ringing the dinner bell for the grimm. The fact that grimm seemed to avoid Cryphilictal entirely was the only thing keeping them safe.
Jaune made up his mind. If he was screwed if he did and screwed if he didn't he might as well keep pushing forward, but before he could even take a single step to retrieve the girls his body rejected him.
It refused to move in the direction he wanted and instead turned him back towards the door. It was like he was a puppet on strings and he was being forced to do the puppeteer's bidding.
His body walked him to the place where "Welcome to Cryphilictal, Dirty Gem, Golden Dragon and Ceaseless Knight" had been carved into the wall. Except those words weren't there anymore.
Jaune's hand made the motion to summon his sword and he wasn't surprised when his sword easily cut into the previously unbreakable stone. His sword wrote its own message into the wall and by the time the strings controlling his body were cut the message read, "Welcome to Cryphilictal, Flightless Poacher."
Jaune didn't know who the Flightless Poacher could be, but it didn't really matter. That message was for whoever came after them. It was unlikely they would see whoever that was.
He went to where the girls were and garbed Emerald by the shoulder. She seemed to look right through him. "I opened the door," he said. "Are you okay to stand?"
Emerald didn't say anything but made the attempt to get up. Jaune had to help her and even when she did make it to her feet, she was wobbled dangerously close to collapse. Yang didn't even try to get up and Jaune knew he was going to have to carry her.
Somehow, he managed to get the other blonde on his back, with his right arm stabilizing her and his left arm hold the straps of both Yang's and Emerald's backpacks, his own was strapped across his front, and just to add the finishing touch, his flashlight was clenched in his teeth.
It was slow going down the staircase with Emerald practically using him as a walking stick the entire way, adding to the massive amount of weight he was already carrying.
Between the slow pace, the lack of sound, and near-total darkness, it felt like they might just be climbing down forever, but eventually, Jaune did hear something. It sounded like the roar of some massive animal. Then he saw light. It was soft and inviting. He might have picked up his pace to get to it if Emerald wasn't leaning on him for support.
When they finally got to the light, the staircase had reached its end and it was there that Jaune laid eyes on the true Cryphilictal.
An underground city that put Mt. Glenn to shame. Crystals lined the entirety of the craven's roof bathing everything in a cool blue light. On the far end was a massive waterfall, which was what Jaune had been hearing, dumping thousands of gallons of water into the city below.
Speaking of the city, Jaune had a bird's eye view from the ledge where the staircase had spit them out. Twisting roads of cobblestone ran their way through wall-to-wall buildings with their jagged roofs and sharp architecture. Canals also ran throughout the city, crystal blue water supplied by the roaring waterfall.
But what drew most of Jaune's attention was the tower. The tower was positioned in what Jaune believed to be the center of the city except it didn't start at the ground. No, it was built upside down with its base sticking to the cavern's roof and narrowing down to a point at the bottom. Everything else in the city was either grey or a dull red, but the tower was made of perfect white titles with only the subtlest of black lines running between them. It had no windows or doors that Jaune could see, but he didn't need to be told that something important was kept inside.
Maybe even all of the important things to ever exist.
This was Cryphilictal. It was beautiful and eerie and magnificent and dangerous, but more than anything else it was where they were going to find a cure for Ruby's eyes.
Excerpt from the B03-Ir9rXiyH&gghD
[Source lost]
[Memory leak repaired]
[Resuming operations]
[Story]
When Nicolas Schnee made his expedition to Cryphilictal, he too was in awe of the stunning sight. Although his riddle door had taken him and his 40 caretakers up far beyond the clouds. The Cryphilictal he observed was made of many floating islands and some individual buildings. They bobbed up and down like boats on the ocean.
It was the discovery of a lifetime. Mr. Schnee had prepared for years, mastered his little section of the unknown world and gather the most powerful and skilled caretakers of the age. They were ready for anything.
Or so they thought.
By the time, it was all over their force had been cut down by a third and bumped up to half if you count those that lost their minds if not their bodies. The moon had only seen them twice before they departed and the knowledge and items they had pillaged were pitiful compared to what the city had taken from them.
Nicholas would never escape the nightmares that plagued his sleep, not even on his deathbed.
So, if a man as blessed and as great as him couldn't best Cryphilictal, what possible hope could you have, Jaune Arc?
An: Coming up with the riddle was hard. I didn't want it to be so difficult that it felt like it was impossible to figure out, but not so easy that Jaune and friends would seem completely idiotic for not figuring it out. I guess you can all let me know how I did.
Originally, I was going to have Jaune work it out on his own with Yang and Emerald slowly getting sicker around him, but going through Jaune's complete thought process started to feel like I was writing an AP English essay which was no fun to write and was absolutely no fun to read. So, I brought in Whitley not only to help out with the riddle but also give some more development between him and his sisters along with the announcement of his new position which otherwise would have happened off-screen.
I think it turned out a lot better this way.