So, yeah. As I warned in Relic and downright expected, a thin aerial that handles all my houses internet does not in fact stand up well to extreme winds. I found it buried point down in the horse's field nearby. Funnily enough, it wasn't doing much for my signal from all the way over there.

And the power cuts all day. Christ, the power cuts.

Cover Art: Z-ComiX

Chapter 28

"Can we talk?"

Ruby looked around, silently pointing out that het, they were here, and shocker, they were talking. Raising a hand, she gestured for Weiss to continue.

"Privately."

"Did I… do something wrong?"

"What?" Weiss appeared shocked. "No, I…" Swallowing, she looked away. "No, you're not. This… I… Can we just talk in our room? Away from all this?"

`All this` presumably being the cramped and over-excited dorm common room. With the rain still going like mad, it was packed full to the rafters. Worse, the Initiates were becoming stir crazy and some had concocted a game involving controlling a small flickering flame through a series of water hoops. How no one was on fire yet was a mystery.

She'd offered to take Weiss to see the Azure Archives so they could sit in the comfy seats in front of the fire. Weiss had smiled but not agreed at the time and now she was beginning to see why. "Um. Okay. Now?"

Weiss nodded and they slipped up, Ruby wondering what the problem was. Had Weiss noticed her cast the magic that broke the wall down? Did she know? Every step had Ruby shaking just a little more, scanning each corridor to make sure there wasn't an ambush waiting. With the wall down, getting out would be easier – provided she could break through the veritable wall of guards and Arcanists.

"Take a seat," Weiss said once they were inside. A bit strange to offer when it was her room as well, but Ruby sat on the bed. Weiss, meanwhile, paced back and forth. "I have… I would like to formally… Hmph. This was easier in my head. There is something I must tell you."

Ruby waited as her friend trailed off. "Yes?" she prompted.

"I'm thinking of the right way to say it!"

"Couldn't you have thought of that before this point?"

"I did!" Weiss said. "I just… changed my mind. Reconsidered. This is not easy for me. I did not think this would ever be an issue. The fact it is could be called a good thing, but at the same time I'm unprepared for it. I am… I am afraid of the consequences."

Ruby felt a thrill of fear. "Is this about the wall collapsing?"

"What? No. Nothing to do with it."

"Oh." She relaxed. "In that case, I don't see what it could be. Just say it. I won't bite."

"Just say it. As though it is so simple. Fine." Huffing, she came to a stop. "You've no doubt been wondering what those outside meant when they referred to me as the daughter of a merchant. That you haven't said it may be politeness, but I imagine it's been on your mind."

"Uh. Not really."

Weiss balked. "What!?"

To be fair, the only thing on her mind had been her wild magic and what was going to happen now. Beyond that and even if it wasn't the case, she didn't think it would have bothered her. "I mean, he called you the daughter of a merchant. Seems pretty obvious to me. Your mom or dad was a merchant."

"My father."

"There you go." Ruby waited for more. "Is that it…?"

"What do you mean `is that it`!?" she shouted. "I have just confessed to my blood not being nearly half as blue as yours!"

"My blood is red."

"Blue blood as in a noble."

"Oh. Right. That."

"It's a matter of shame," Weiss continued, shaking her head. "Not only that my father is a mere merchant, but that he puts on airs and pretends otherwise. It hardly helps that even the noble side of my family became so destitute as to require the marriage to reverse their ill-fortune. Whether I am known by my father or mother's name, it's one that does little but embarrass."

"Why?" Ruby asked. "If they love one another-"

"They do not love one another."

"Oh…"

"Mother married because the family required her to. Father did because he reached as high as he could and saw it as an opportunity to buy his way into the nobility. He dresses as one, acts as one and throws feasts like they are going out of fashion. To his face, even the other noble families praise him and his generosity, but only because they wish to benefit from it. It's a different matter behind his back, as you've no doubt seen from how their children act here."

"Is that why they're so mean to you? Ignore them. They're jerks."

"You're not… upset about this?" Weiss sounded amazed.

"Should I be? You're still you."

"Yes, I realise, but doesn't this paint my earlier actions as hypocritical? I spent so long chastising you for not acting like a noble. Me, the daughter of a merchant, criticising a noble for not acting as she felt they should."

"Ah, well. I don't act like one either…"

"No." Weiss chuckled. "No, you don't."

Ruby wished she would explain why. With Weiss offering such a confession, it seemed like the good time for her to chip in but her own was so much worse. Even if she told of being a Dredger, that'd only raise the question of why she was here. Lead to the Wildmage angle and it was all over. The Arcanists knew the Wildmage was in the slums too, so even if she said she was from there but snuck in to learn how to use her totally normal magic, once Weiss found out about the Wildmage running around, she'd put two and two together.

"I still thought you should know. I didn't want to ignore the issue and let it grow worse." Seemingly more relaxed now that she knew this wasn't going to go badly, Weiss sat on her bed. "I apologise for how… critical I was of you before. It was just that seeing a noble be so crass upset me. I thought it was your way of mocking me. Showing me that even acting like that, you're more a noble than I'll ever be."

"What? No, I-"

"I know." She smiled. "I realised soon after it's just you being you."

"Is that an insult or a compliment?" Ruby asked.

"This time, it's a compliment. Thank you for accepting this." Weiss sighed. "It's been awkward dealing with people with this hanging over my head. Father's so desperate to push us deeper into the nobility that he expects more and more. My elder sister is a famous knight. My younger brother is being taught to manage an estate. I was as well, before I unlocked my power, at which point I was sent here."

"Is your dad upset about that?"

"No. Quite the opposite. A knight, an Arcanist and a noble as his children. He's thrilled to have engaged the family with so much of nobility in one generation. It's just that he expects a lot of us. I am to represent the family as best I can. That's why it was quite distressing to find out just how disconnected the Collegium is from the world outside."

"Is that how you knew Jaune?" she asked. "Because you'd been introduced to so many nobles?"

Weiss looked down again, swallowing loudly. "Not quite. Father… Father wished to have me wed to him."

Ruby's head recoiled. "You're engaged to Jaune!?"

"No. No!" Weiss hurried to assure her, and for all the wrong reasons. "I'm not in your way there, Ruby, and it didn't work out. We were… I won't call it a rejection because there was no other suitor, but the Arc family politely turned down the union. Why Jaune and I are familiar is because in an effort to help us save face from such a humiliation, they allowed it to look as though he and I were exploring the possibility. We spent some time together as…" Weiss trailed off.

"Friends?"

"No." Her eyes closed, and she sighed. "I thought it was at the time, but after seeing how he interacts with you now, and also myself; I can see that what we had was nothing more than polite sympathy on his part."

"Weiss…"

"I'm not upset about that now. I do consider him a friend now thanks to you. I am happier now than I have been for a while, so don't pity me. Also, life would have been worse if we agreed to marry, I can't help but think. I'm not disappointed in how things turned out."

"Good." Ruby stood and walked over, plopping down next to her and wrapping an arm around her. Weiss stiffened initially, but soon relaxed into her. "Because you're my friend no matter what you are or where you came from, and that means I don't like it when you're unhappy."

Weiss chuckled. "Thank you. I feel the same way."

"You don't like it when you're unhappy?"

"The other way!" Weiss said, laughing and pushing her gently. "When you're unhappy, you dolt."

"I was just teasing."

"Ugh. You're insufferable."

"But we're friends, right?"

"Yes. Much to my despair, we are friends." Weiss didn't look too upset, even if she tried her best. "And nothing will change that, I believe. You and I shall be friends for a long time."

Ruby smiled.

I hope you're right about that, Weiss.

/-/

Was it cognitive dissonance that let Yang be so relaxed about all this? Blake didn't know. As two days came and went, they continued to do what little they could for the people rescued from the slums. They only saw a couple of thousand but Yang assured her there were many thousands more likely waiting outside in the flooded farmland, and then even more still in the slums themselves, despite it being a slowly dwindling lake by this point.

To hear that so many had died was almost too much for her, but Yang took it in stride. Said it so easily. Not a thousand to the first waters, Yang had explained this morning with a laugh – a laugh! – no, when she mentioned a thousand dying, she meant over the course of the malady. Hundreds to the first water, a couple more after as things went wrong, and then the most to come later when starvation, disease and rot set in.

It wasn't even over yet. The slums were flooded and to hear Yang, this was but the first stage in an annual ordeal that would yet claim many more lives. Calling it a tragedy doesn't feel right. A tragedy can't be prevented. Why haven't the Arcanists diverted this?

As ever, one Collegium's methods were a mystery to another. Menagerie never did this because it hadn't needed to. Their water came from a lake that routinely filled when the rain came. When it overflowed, it did so into natural channels that ran down to the ocean nearby. Far more likely were storms that could send waves crashing onto shore, but even those were less devastating than this.

And far from having them help the cold and shaking people pulled out from the water, Yang had her buying and storing food in bulk. The latter made easier because their host family, which she kept enthralled, owned a warehouse nearby.

"Those up here are better off then most others," Yang said. "Trust me. The worst is yet to come, so we'll do a lot more helping deal with that. More than anyone else ever did, anyway."

That was hard to hear. For all she did her best, she was but one person and this was money conned away from Merchants. If they really wished to, the Merchants could have fed the slums multiple times over by donating but five per cent of their wealth. Even less if the nobles chipped in. That they hadn't was galling.

Vale was like a different world compared to Menagerie.

"How will we get it to them without riots?"

"We'll have to use Junior and the consortiums."

"Those gangs!? They'll steal all the credit."

"Is that a bad thing?" Yang closed the warehouse doors and sneezed, catching her face with one hand. She rubbed her hand over her nose, under the new scar granted by a hurled rock in their desperate escape. "Not like we want to be seen doing this. Might be hard to explain how we did otherwise."

Hard enough to explain to the gangs as well, but she could see the point. They'd need to make sure those criminals didn't try and charge or make a profit off this, but Yang likely had a plan. Of more concern was the redness of her nose and the way she shivered. "You're sick."

"S'just a cold."

"A cold can kill. And knowing you, you're hiding just how bad this is."

Yang cracked a grin. "Since when do you know me?"

Since she had to spend so much time with her. Blake scowled and stepped forward, taking and tilting the girl's head back so she could look in her eyes. They were clammy and red, the edges rimmed with crimson. "We need a doctor."

"C-Can talk to the Alchemist."

"A real doctor. Not some drug dealer masquerading as a healer."

That would be a problem. She couldn't weave an illusion over such a person without impacting their prognosis. They'd have to see Yang properly to be able to understand what was going on. They had money, fortunately. Asking their hosts to summon their personal healer would be of no use. They'd see that she and Yang were not as the family did and quickly raise the issue. Her illusions were good, but they were not able to take control of someone's mind. Provide enough proof they were false and a person could break through them.

On a Wildmage like Ruby, they wouldn't take hold. Blake knew, having tried just that the first time they met – and the second, when Ruby looked prepared to kill her. A Wildmage really was terrifying. Their magic was just too turbulent, cascading over her delicate spells and ripping them to shreds without thought.

Shadow magic was soft. Subtle. It was like weaving a delicate shawl as thin as gossamer and gently laying it over a person. Trying any of that around Ruby was like wrestling a snake in a hurricane while your hair was on fire.

Finding a healer wasn't hard. The Merchant's Quarter made a typical home for them since the noble had the money to call on the Emerald Arcana. Blake knocked on the door of a building with the mortar, pestle and flower symbol of a healer outside it. The lights inside were on and she waited for the door to open, Yang leaning against her side looking all too defeated.

A woman answered the door. Older, well-dressed and carrying a lantern in hand, a burning candle encased inside behind thick glass.

"My friend is sick," Blake said. "We'd like you to-"

"I don't do charity!" The woman made to close the door.

Blake stuck her foot in, stopping it. "I'm not asking you to. I've brought money. We'll pay."

"You can't afford me."

"I beg to differ." Blake pulled out a pouch of coins bursting full and jingled it before the woman.

"Stolen coin? Do you think I'm an idiot?"

It was stolen, but she didn't know that. "Do I sound like a thief to you, madam?" Blake asked imperiously. For all that she was one, she was still an Arcanist. A noble. In Menagerie, her rank had not been lowly. Her voice told the story. "I am here as a paying customer and you shall treat me as such, or I shall be having words with the guard. My friend is sick-"

"Leave it, Blake," Yang mumbled.

"No. I shall not leave it." Pushing the door open with her foot, she forced the woman back. "If there is a problem, you should-"

"Dredger!" the woman shrieked. "A Dredger is forcing their way into my shop!"

People outside began to cluster and watch, muttering to themselves, some angrily. Trapped in the doorway, Blake cursed and briefly considered using a spell to mollify the woman and have her usher the crowd away. Before she could, the matter was taken out of her hands as two guards pushed through the crowd.

"Now then," one shouted. "What's all this?"

"Dredgers!" the woman yelled before Blake could explain. "Breaking into my shop, my home. Filthy disease brings rummaging through trash and fetid water. I have good and innocent people sick inside and they'll only make them worse."

"I am no Dredger!" Blake said loudly, intoning every word carefully. "To suggest such is an affront and I shall not stand for it." Taking the coin purse, she showed off the gold within. "I am a paying customer seeking treatment for a companion of mine. This woman denies us it."

The Guard looked at the coin, Blake and then the healer. "Doesn't sound like a Dredger."

"She may not be," the healer said, "But she is!" Angrily, she pointed at Yang. "I've no time for good folk who mistake charity for interference. I would treat her were she sick, but I won't treat some sickly Dredger she's fished out the water."

Yang laughed hoarsely.

Blake's blood boiled. "Where I come from, it is considered a crime to refuse custom to a paying customer based on their characteristics."

"Sounds like a nasty place you come from," the guard said. "Vale is a free Kingdom. People can conduct themselves how they wish here."

"Free to discriminate and act like this!?"

"Freedom is freedom." He used the butt of his spear to push Blake away from the door. The woman smiled victoriously, sneering down on her. "You'll have to take your friend," he withheld his own sneer at the word, "elsewhere. There's illness aplenty with the floods here and it's only going to get worse."

"It'll be worse with her kind up here!" the healer said.

The crowd murmured their agreement. Blake couldn't believe it. Shaking and mentally running through several spells that would have them frightened or tricked into killing themselves, she struggled to contain her rage.

"Don't bother," Yang mumbled. "Won't change nuthin'."

It would make her feel better. But, as Yang likely knew, it would make things worse for other Dredgers. Scowling both at the guards and at the healer, Blake trudged away. "I will remember your face," she said to the woman.

The healer offered her a dismissive gesture.

She would see if that held tonight when Blake visited her for funds for the morrow. There'd certainly not be a mark telling her she couldn't raid this house. And perhaps even smash up a few things along the way. Petty? Yes. Vindictive? Surely. Right now, she was feeling it.

"We'll find somewhere else," she promised.

"Won't," Yang said. "Alchemist has a place up here…"

"I'm not taking you there, Yang!"

"You'll have to." Yang sighed, giving in. "You'll see…"

/-/

Blake slammed her fist on the door until it opened, then glared at the sleazy and irritated face of the man who opened it. The Alchemist. The same one she'd seen and heard speak in Yang's little meeting with the less desirable factions of the slums. He looked and smelled worse up close than he did from a distance. Not filthy, but a mixture of sharp and pungent scents mixed into a medley of nasal burning. She was sure the pocks and sores across his face were from sitting too close to fumes and noxious chemicals.

No one would help Yang. No one.

Of the few that didn't bodily throw them out, the ones who had shown sympathy had reluctantly explained they were already full or couldn't risk exacerbating their patients by bringing a new sickness in. Dredgers after the flood brought disease. That, apparently, was a given in Vale and not even Yang denied it.

"Do I know y-" The man's eyes trailed to the girl at her side. "Oh my, is that you, Yang?" Chuckling, the man opened the door. "I'm so happy to see you safe and sound. Come in. Come in. Oh, it has been a while since we talked. Welcome to my humble abode. Rented, I'm afraid. I can't quite afford to live here full time."

It was a small and dinghy home compared to the one they were staying at. Blake brought Yang in and curtly explained why they were here.

"Yes. Yes. It's common, you know. All that water the cold, added with stress and exhaustion and you have a home for sickness. It'll only get worse once the water drains. Not all of it does, you see. Pools left behind to grow fetid. Insects and pests and stray animals." He shook his head, leading them deeper into the home. "Samantha? Oh, where are you, Samantha?"

A delirious and bumbling reply came from a side room. The Alchemist led them in and Blake almost swore. Laid out on a couch, completely naked, was a young girl who couldn't have been older than them. There wasn't a stitch of clothing on her but the sofa she was on was sticky and stank of sex. Worse, was the empty and muddy look on her face. Her eyes swivelled, not quite seeing them but moaning out regardless.

"Don't," Yang mumbled. "Don't start anything."

"Are you seeing this?" Blake hissed.

"Hm." The Alchemist looked back and rolled his eyes. "Oh, it's not like that. She's paid for this." He chuckled. "Or rather, I'm paying by letting her stay here. Little thing didn't have a way out the floods and asked for my help. Offered her body as payment. Who am I to deny someone in need?"

Sick. Blake had already disliked the man but wanted nothing more than to stab him now. It hardly got better when he walked by the girl, slapping a bare ass cheek in the process. The girl slipped off the sofa and writhed on the floor, lost in some drug fuelled ecstasy.

"If you try and feed us any of that, you won't survive the attempt," Blake warned.

"Oh, come now. I would not run afoul of Junior like that anyway. And Yang would do worse to me than you could, little girl."

"Kick your ass," Yang mumbled.

"Yes. Yes. I know. How is your sister, Yang? Well?"

"Alive."

"Good. Good. Ruby is such a sweet little thing." He had his back to them as he rummaged in a pack on his desk. "Well, bring her over here, girl. Lay her down so I can get a look at her. On the desk here. Yang, I shall need you to take off your clothes."

"Fuck off and die."

"Ha ha. Worth a shot, no? Fine. I'll need you to keep your eyes open regardless. Open your mouth as well. Relax, I shan't be putting anything in it."

He wouldn't be with her there. Blake laid Yang down and stepped back, content in the fact that the Alchemist didn't have the slightest idea what power she had. She kept an eye on him either way, watching as he peered over Yang, poked, prodded and hummed. He had her open her mouth and leaned in to look. He asked some questions as to how she felt and held his fingers to her neck for a minute or two.

As examinations went, it was startlingly normal. Enough that she could tell he'd had some formal training in the healing arts. That was almost a given. Medicine and poison were not far removed, and to make drugs that caused such addiction would require some degree of tutelage. You couldn't bumble around with that and not kill people.

"You have a fever. I can't say what from exactly, but I would expect it's related to the flood. Hard not to be. You should stay out of the cold. If you need a place, I have another couch free…"

"We have a place," Blake hissed. "Your hospitality won't be needed."

He laughed. "Oh my. And I was being so generous. There's still the matter of payment before I offer anything. I don't mind favours-" The coin pouch jingled down beside Yang's head. "Or coin," he said, sounding disappointed. "I suppose that would work as well. I have a fever reducer that will cause her body to heat up, burning out the fever."

"How addictive is it?" Blake asked immediately.

"Not very, given the absolute agony she'll feel." He brought out a second vial and set it down on the side. That one had a powder in it. "That's why I suggest this to reduce the pain. A little on her tongue, or under it, and she'll not be able to feel anything."

The way Yang shied away from it, even exhausted as she was, told Blake a lot. "And that one?"

"All good things in life are tempting. It's up to the individual to resist."

"Or we could skip that one entirely."

"You could," he said, "But I would not suggest it. There is a reason I would offer the two together, but I ca see that you won't hear it. Very well. Take both. You've paid for them." He took the entire pouch, the bastard. "If she doesn't wish to take the pain reliever, then that's fine. If she does, that can be your choice. There's enough there for five doses either way."

"And the medicine?"

"One dose. That's all she'll need."

So, the five doses were for addiction. One to reduce the pain of the medicine and the other four for when Yang got inevitably hooked on it. Enough to make it worse so that she'd have to come to him for more. Blake took both with a scowl. If nothing else, it could prove a viable poison should the Huntsmen come for them.

/-/

Blank faces stood in a crowd, looking up at the white robed figure on a raised platform. Her robes fell from her long sleeves, her face spread not in joy but despair. The sanctity of the Collegium had been breached, as well they knew.

"The Wildmage struck at us for reasons we know not. An attempt to punish us for our actions in attempting to subdue her before, or just ambition. The reasons don't matter. What stands is that she has declared war on us and it is up to us of the White, alongside the Crimson and even the Huntsmen and the Sanctum itself, to stand against such a threat."

The crowd didn't respond. Not a voice. Not a flicker of a smile. The blank faces watched and listened.

"To that end, our allies from Atlas have come to aid, and brought with them a team of Arcanists specially dedicated to hunting down and dealing with Wildmages. They will be conducting their own operations but the huntsmen are to answer to Vale Arcanists only. Still, we would ask you tender aid if requested. I present to you James Ironwood, Arcanist of the Atlas Collegium."

The man that took the stage was heavyset, tall and no stranger to combat of the physical sort. They could recognise it in the way he moved and the way he stood. Tense. Steadfast. Even. His eyes roamed over them and he nodded, pleased with what he saw.

"Atlas is not here to take over, nor is it here to enforce our creeds upon you. We are here as allies. Friends. Though we should not require your aid, we will nevertheless thank any who choose to give it. If we do need to call upon you, we shall ask permission from the White, the Sanctum or the Grand Arcanist himself."

"Our team is experienced in handling Wildmages. Each has hunted down at least three." He gestured to the five people beside him. They stood in their white and red robes, hands linked behind their backs and eyes ahead. They, at least, appeared a little more nervous stood before so many blank and frightening faces. Not in appearance, but perhaps in mannerism. In the eyes. "Already looking at the situation here in Vale, we have noticed a disturbing occurrence. Though the Wildmage acted and lives within what you term the slums, the bell towers constructed around them did not resonate when the attack on the Collegium began. The Wildmage was not in the slums."

That prompted some minor reaction. A whisper here. A widening of the eyes there. The rest was muted, though the surprise was still felt. The implication was bare.

"We cannot yet prove if she simply moved from the slums to cast or if she is elsewhere, but given her power, we cannot rule out the possibility she may have wormed her way into a higher position. Or worse, killed someone and taken over their name and identity. As such, we shall be conducting searches of the Lower and Upper Districts, and, should that fail, of the Collegium itself. Be wary," he told them. "Keep your eyes open. Such a threat as this has not been seen for decades and we stand as eternal guard against it." The Arcanist slammed a fist against his chest.

The assembled mass of Huntsmen did the same, moving in unison. Among them, Jaune's blonde hair contrasted with the greying and white on either side. If the Wildmage was close to the Collegium, everyone might be in danger. Sun. Weiss. Even Ruby.

I won't fail next time. I will end her before she ends us. I swear it.

Again, sorry about this coming a day late. Kind of had no choice with waking up to no internet, opening the blinds to see the aerial stabbed in the field and going "Oh. That's why…"

Next Chapter: 16th February

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