The troll is back sadly, and impersonating me and others in reviews again. You'd have thought they'd get bored after however many months.
As has been noted, there is a troll in reviews spamming guest reviews and trying to frame people by writing their name in the name slot. Just ignore it. It's not worth the effort of paying attention to and I'm only writing this message so people are aware.
He's also pretending to be me by writing my name in guest review slots. I would only ever review something from this (logged-in) account.
Cover Art: Z-ComiX
Chapter 42
It quickly became apparent that `On Wildmages` was written by an Arcanist and not a Wildmage, and that it was tinged with the same mistrust the Collegium had towards her kind. The book made no effort to hide it, to the author's credit, with the first lines simply stating:
Wildmages are the greatest threat to the stability and peace of the Kingdoms.
Not exactly the best start.
Ruby flicked through the first two pages, irritation mounted as the rhetoric continued to hurl accusations toward the Wildmages without explaining anything about their capabilities. It spoke of the importance of hunting Wildmages down, the great work of the White Arcana and dove into the most wonderful hyperbole of how megalomaniacal Wildmages were, always wishing to flaunt their power and bring ruin to innocent people. Twenty pages in, she began to despair.
"There has to be something in here." Flicking on, she scanned further. Biased as it was, it still told the Collegium's side of things which might include details on why she was such a monster as to be hunted down and killed.
/-/
Upsetting the Balance
The greatest magic of the past millennia was not some grand spell or incredible enchanted device of the Black, but the creation of the Collegium system and its implementation across and within each Kingdom of Remnant. Where arcane ability creates disparity in power between equals, the Collegium enforces such rules as to limit the potential for abuse, providing a system that those without power can rely on to bring balance to everyday life.
That this arrangement could be introduced in a manner by which the average person would accept it is nothing short of the greatest magic and a matter of dispute and theory to this day. How did early Arcanists convince royalty to allow our stay? How did they convince the people that we would control and limit the danger of magic? How did they convince anyone that a body to judge Arcanists, run by Arcanists, funded by Arcanists and in favour of Arcanists, would be a fair and just system?
It is the magic of words, and a reminder that sometimes the quill can hold more power than any cantrip.
Further investigation into the formation of the Collegiums is not within the purview of my work here, but its importance is tied proportionally to the importance of hunting down and exterminating the Wildmage strain.
Stability is only maintained so long as both the Collegium functions and the people believe it to function. It relies on trust, with results only serving to bolster that trust. Without the faith of the people and the royal families, mistrust toward Arcanists would grow, creating strife that might evolve into conflict, conflict that might evolve into war.
It is imperative, therefore, that the balance between the Collegium and the people be maintained.
Such a balancing act is difficult to maintain. Rogue Arcanists rebel who rebel against the Collegium sow seeds of doubt, while even loyal members who act in their best interests or flaunt their power can remind people that Arcanists are fallible. If enough instances of this abuse of power were revealed, or one was sufficiently great enough, the balance might be broken. It is therefore required of the Collegium to move against such individuals.
The key is stability. Whether or not the Collegium can prevent all instances of abuse is less important than the perception that it can. As with all laws, some criminals go unpunished, some escape or are never identified as such in the first place. Yet we consider our Kingdoms just, our laws upheld. The onus lays on the Collegium to control the perception of its efficacy, be that through pursuing and punishing those found guilty, or by mitigating and minimising the chance for other breaches to be noted in the first place.
Naturally, this lays also in the interests of the people, for if the Collegium is seen as being without fault, not only may they sleep easier, but aspiring Arcanists will enter the Collegium believing to err is to be punished. The system is self-contained and runs today without complication. Both the average man and the average Arcanist believe the Collegium capable of detecting and acting to prevent any abuse of magic, and thus, abuse is discouraged.
Punishment is not the only form of control the Collegium has in maintaining this balance, however. Control of information in terms of what Arcanists learn is tightly monitored to ensure no potentially harmful or dangerous magics are propagated. For instance, all magics related to the creation or spreading of biological infection are considered anathema and punishable by incarceration within the Sanctum.
The Arcanist should have access to means of self-defence as befits his station, but not the means to harm en masse the populace. This naturally weakens the reach and potential of Arcanists, but it is considered an acceptable and even necessary sacrifice, for no amount of posturing would convince the people to accept those with the power to wipe out entire populations at a whim. Other magics are no doubt controlled in a similar manner, many of which I would not be privy to and do not wish to discover.
This control is paramount to the success of the Collegium, providing a universal standard across Remnant that every Arcanist will be held to regardless of individual choice of Arcana. It both prevents the most dangerous of spells from being learned, while also encouraging less violent ways of incapacitating enemies (where safely possible). As such, Arcanists are seen as exercising restraint, caution and moderation, invaluable for the continuation of stable relations between the Arcanists and the Kingdoms.
Again, it is the perception, for while the Arcanists very well could concoct a plague capable of annihilating a village, and while the Arcanists certainly could summon storms to level armies, and while the Arcanist absolutely does hold the power capable of taking over a Kingdom – this is a fact unknown to the average person, and to the average Arcanist. Thus, stability is maintained as from without as is from within. What an Arcanist is seen to be capable or incapable of is just as – if not more – important as what he or she truly is.
That is where Wildmages come in and upset the balance.
Wildmages are constrained only by their imagination and will. A virulent plague to slaughter a population is a whim and a thought away. Storms to sink fleets are thrown out in tantrum and armies can be crushed asunder with a sweep of a hand. Such power intermingled with immaturity is a dangerous prospect, but every magic of an Arcanist can counter it. An Arcanist can, with training, counter and defeat these spells, banish the plague or heal the sick. Similarly, an Arcanist could, with access to forbidden magics, perform all the same feats, albeit with more effort and time required.
Therefore, it might be said that the Wildmage is little different from the Arcanist, except only that their magic comes more freely. Alas, that is but the slightest threat the Wildmage poses. A destroyed village with its inhabitants slain is a tragedy, but it is an event that has no further consequence for the Collegium as a whole.
The greater danger is in a Wildmage being seen and the witness not dying. The far greater danger is that one might see a Wildmage and an Arcanist side by side and question just how different they really are. If the people were to think such thoughts, the carefully maintained balance that Arcanists have maintained for hundreds of years might be shattered.
Stability would falter, noble families would demand action – Arcanists would act independently, believing the Collegium weak and ineffective. Magic would be abused once more and Arcanists would become mistrusted, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy in which the Arcanist must defend himself against the people, fuelling more distrust that will cause the Arcanist to defend himself further. A cycle that can only end in the dissolution of the Collegium and the complete breakdown of the stable relationship between Arcanists and the Kingdoms of Remnant.
Chaos would reign.
It is therefore imperative that the Wildmages be hunted not once they have committed a crime or once they have garnered such attention as to warrant the Sanctum, but before they might find the opportunity to imperil the balance of power our ancestors worked so hard to create. Their greatest crime is not the bodies they leave behind, nor the damage they might cause, but the fact that their existence might remind the people why Arcanists should be feared, opening eyes – be those plebeian, royal or even Arcanist – to the idea that there are some things the Collegium cannot control.
The balance, the weave, the spell or even as one might call it, the lie, must not be broken.
Whatever the cost.
/-/
Ruby pulled away from the pages, staring down at the damp splotches her bitter tears had left. That was it? This was what it was? All her doubt, all her fear, all her questions on what made her so monstrous, and the truth was that it was nothing?
The truth the Collegium wanted hidden so badly was that Wildmages were hunted solely because it might make the Collegium look bad if they couldn't. It was more complicated than that, but paring it down to the basics, that was it. It reminded her of when Junior had Yang and the Malachites hunt down and kill one of his gang members who welched on them. Junior hadn't really cared about the secret or the runaway but had confided in them that he had to make a big deal of it, or they'd look weak among the other gangs and probably get attacked. They'd been forced to act to save face.
The Arcane Collegium was like a fucking slum gang. Ruby didn't know whether she wanted to laugh or cry, but she punched the floor, wincing as pain both shot up her wrist and a wave of fire rippled out, charring the lower bookshelves and leaving black marks on the floor.
It could have stopped at the plagues. Honestly, she wished it had. If the book just said Wildmages might unleash a plague if they lost concentration and kill thousands of people, she could have accepted it. Yes, she'd never do that, but the Collegium couldn't take the risk of trusting her word, so she could have respected their reasons for pursuing her, faulty or not.
This, though. This was nothing. The only reason they wanted Wildmages gone was so the reputation of Arcanists didn't take a hit. Which explains why they throw us in the Sanctum. It doesn't matter if we live or die, only that we're out of sight.
Ruby stood, wobbling on one foot as rage coursed through her. She closed her eyes and counted to ten, breathing slowly. The wild magic would only get out of control if she let emotions take over. "Calm," she told herself. "Nothing has changed. They're still after me; I just need to stay hidden."
Reading more would have to wait. It was probably late out already, and Weiss would only start wondering where she was. And if she kept going while this upset, she was going to miss something. Tossing the book aside, she willed it back to its spot, watching it fly up and onto the shelf. After a second's thought, she had it pulled out a little, just enough to hand with one corner sticking out, easier to spot at a distance when she came back for it again.
The Archives were less busy when she reached the portal. There were still some people using the Rubricator or reading away, but it must have been later than she realised because they numbered fewer than fifteen and they were all of them adults and free from lessons. Ruby picked her way to the door, laying her map back down on the stack for someone else to use.
"Initiate Rose," the Librarian called. "A moment please."
"Hm? What is it, Lord Arcanist?"
"A message I was asked to deliver to you." The elderly man reached into his pocket and handed over a sealed envelope. "No doubt regarding your work on the Rubricator. I've already had several Arcanists ask the details of young Miss Valkyrie."
"Is there a problem with it?"
"Not at all. I believe they are looking to have similar tools created, a smaller, more portable version of the Rubricator that will allow them to travel further. If the Archives are as large as we believe, it might be unreasonable to expect those with the scanning implements to travel back to the central Rubricator each time they want to locate a book."
"Oh, you mean putting some in the rest stops?" The Librarian nodded. "Yeah, that'd work, I think. How far away are some of them?"
"The furthest recorded rest stop is five days west of here." Five days!? Ruby's shock must have shown because the man laughed. "Yes, it's quite the distance. I do not mean five days slow walk, either. There were proposals before to bring and breed horses down here, but with how poorly understood the Archives are, it didn't seem worth the effort. With your Rubricator and the updated maps, we may have to explore that again. Worry not, that's not your responsibility to plan."
That was a relief but still, five days? How many miles was that? "Wow. I didn't realise it was that big. Do we know who created the Archives in the first place?"
"Goodness no." The Librarian laughed. "If we did, believe me when I say every Azure would be hunting down his or her secrets. We're little more than guardians and beneficiaries of it now. We don't know its limits, how it works or what secrets it contains. We don't even know if we are alone in here."
Ruby's spine tingled. "W-What does that mean?"
"Just a theory," he said. "But we don't know that our portal is the only one. It's possible there are others with Arcanists accessing it a thousand miles from here, perhaps even from other Kingdoms."
Right. Normal people. Panic subsiding, she let a breath slip out. I felt like I was being watched back there. Thanks for giving me nightmares. He'd just meant other entrance points, though, which meant that even if there were other people in the Archives, it'd just be Arcanists from other Collegiums. Nothing to worry about, other than the prospect of travel from one Kingdom to another.
Even if that worked though, it wouldn't be expedient travel. Space seemed to go on forever down here, but it wasn't dilating time or anything of that sort. Marching for miles in the Archives was the same as miles on the surface, so it'd probably be the same as walking to Vacuo, just with books for scenery instead of forest and desert.
Ruby wished the Librarian goodnight and let him go back to his caretaking, slipping over to the staircase before taking the envelope out. The cursive script on the front simply read `Initiate Ruby Rose` in black ink. The wax seal on the back was simple, an `M` in a circle made of flowering vines. Ruby slipped a finger under to break it, pulling out the sheaf of paper within.
Dear Initiate Rose,
I know what you are. I know what you seek. Perhaps we can help one another. Invite yourself to my research chambers so that we may discuss further. And fear not, I would hardly go so far to contact you if it were my wish to see you harmed.
Your friend,
Dr S. Merlot
Ruby crushed the letter in her fist and bolted for the staircase.
/-/
"Ah. Initiate Rose. Welcome, welcome." Merlot opened the door, his white hair sticking out at odd angles but his smile as charming as it had been the first time he spoke of the wonders of the Azure. "I see you received my message. Wonderful. Won't you come in? Take a seat. Or stand if you prefer." He chuckled, watching her stand stiffly in place. "You look tense, my dear."
"What do you know?"
"Hmm? I know the truth of you."
"What truth?" she demanded. There were more lies than one and he could have found something easier like her not being noble or not from Menagerie. If she acted too soon and got it wrong, she could be in trouble. "What truth are you talking about?"
"Why, the truth that you are a Wild-"
Ruby charged forward, impacted something solid and bounced back with a startled cry. Her back hit the floor and she gasped as something tight and hot burned its way around her body, strands of golden light tying her to the floor. She yanked against them, willing her power to lash out.
"Calm down!" Merlot ordered. "I am no threat to you if you are not to me. Do not do anything reckless or we shall both of us end up in the Sanctum!" The golden bands vanished before she could destroy them. The elderly Arcanist stepped back and spread his hands out wide, gesturing for peace. "I would not have taken the time to write you a letter if I meant you ill, but believe me here and now, should I die, your name will be the first to reach the Grand Arcanist's ears."
Scrambling to her feet, Ruby's heart beat like a drum. This was it. The secret was out. The very moment she'd dreaded. Power coursed through her body and her fingers twitched, burning with energy she instinctively knew could be hurled his way. He'd caught her by surprise with his barrier, but she could tear through, it she knew. Tear through him. And in doing so, expose herself fully.
"What do you want?" Ruby asked. forcing her shaking hands down.
"Is that the first question you should be asking?" Merlot replied. He stepped back and turned his back on her, and for a moment she considered striking. "I should think the bigger question is how I knew and how likely others might be to discover it."
"Alright," she said. "Answer me that."
"There was no single mistake on your part that drew my suspicion, only a culmination of them combined by a confirming incident. You were always a curiously determined young girl, that I noticed the first time I met you. All within the Azure thirst for knowledge but yours was all the more desperate. You did not desire answers; you needed them. Beyond that, you went out your way to forge this new toy the Arcana is falling over themselves to test."
"That doesn't prove anything," she argued.
"On its own, no, but the very moment you entered the Archives, my experiments have become… somewhat more excitable." Merlot chuckled, indicating several large cages. The bars had been torn outwards as though whatever lay inside had forced its way through solid steel. "My captive Grimm all escaped. Most, I dealt with, but the one that did escape bypassed at least a hundred Arcanists to hunt down two Initiates. Initiate Ren, I personally know to be an Arcanist. You, on the other hand, were new. Did you know the Grimm fervently hunt those with magic?"
"No."
"I expected not. And thus, you would not have known that they tend to focus almost fanatically on those displaying wild magic." He looked back over his shoulder, smiling condescendingly. "Grimm will ignore an average person if an Arcanist is nearby, and they will ignore Arcanists if a Wildmage is nearby."
Making them perfect ways to expose her. Ruby swore, eyeing the cages again. They were all empty, and any Grimm there would have gone mad the second she entered. At least the White couldn't use those against her unless they wanted to unleash Grimm in the Collegium. Either way, Merlot had his proof. Irrefutable proof.
"Did you like my gift by the way?"
Her eyes widened. "What?"
"On Wildmages. It took me quite a while to find it for you. Of course, I knew the very first thing you would search for is a book on Wildmages. Why else work so hard on the Rubricator? I had to commission quite a few Initiates to go around scanning books until that one was found, and I took the time to move it to a quiet spot for you to look over."
"It was… illuminating."
"Illuminating? Yes, quite the apt term there. You could practically feel the White Arcana dripping from every page."
"You read it?"
"I did," he admitted. "Not entirely useful for your purposes, but I'm sure it answered a few questions. Before you ask, no, I do not know any more than you do – but I'm willing to assist you in finding out more…"
Generous offer. Ruby hunched her shoulders. "Why should I trust you?"
"You cannot. Of course, I cannot trust you either, can I? You truly considered killing me the moment I let my guard down. How frightening. It wouldn't be difficult for you either, would it? I set up my defences before you arrived but you're aware of them now and the casting time for an Arcanist compared to a Wildmage is not exactly in my favour. If you wish it, I won't survive this meeting."
"And yet here we are. Talking…"
"Indeed. You know why I am part of the Azure, don't you? It's because I share the same thirst you do." He stepped toward her, smile taking an ugly edge. "I need to know the truth as well, Initiate. No, Ruby. My thirst burns as harshly as yours does. Not in the same veins. You seek answers of your power. I seek answers to the Grimm. They're not explicitly related and yet, we can aid one another."
"Why would you want help from a Wildmage?"
"Look at me!" He stood before her. "I'm an old man. I have sought answers to the Grimm for decades and though I have discovered much, the truth still eludes me. I am afraid, Ruby. I am afraid of dying before I can satisfy my thirst. What more horrible fate could you possibly imagine than to dedicate your life to something and fail?" He looked genuinely terrified by the prospect. "I won't have it. If I must risk my life in asking a Wildmage for aid, so be it! If it brings me closer to my revelation, I will consider my life a currency well spent."
"And you," he continued, pointing to her. "You need my assistance. More than you realise. Did you not wonder why Ironwood and Ozpin didn't call on you? It is I who stopped them. At the time Miss Valkyrie's workshop went up in flame, I spoke on your behalf, telling them that you and I had met in the halls, retired to my quarters and spoken deeply of the Archives together."
He lied for her? No, that… but no one had called on her. No one had bothered to ask where she was, which would only make sense if they thought they knew already. Ruby watched him carefully. It wasn't in her to lower her guard, but he had her in a bad spot. Channelling everything Yang had ever taught her, she squared her shoulders and faced him head on. "I'm listening."
"Good. Marvellous!" Merlot cackled madly. "Yes, this will be the beginning of something incredible, I'm sure. And your work for me would hardly be difficult. What I need isn't so much your attention as your presence. The Grimm will almost entirely ignore me while you are present, allowing me to inspect them closer and weave my diagnostic spells without distraction. More than that, since your magic responds to your will, you might be able to influence them in ways I cannot. We shall test that and more. All perfectly safe, I assure you."
Not like she had a choice. "And in return?"
"In return, I shall be most generous! An apprenticeship to myself. All your lessons shall come through me, which will allow you to perfectly dodge any pesky questions as to how you perform your magics. If I say you are studying intently, the Collegium will be forced to accept it. If I say I have definitive proof you are not a Wildmage, it will be taken at face value."
"That… That'd be useful…"
"Indeed. And I shall; go further. Your time is wasted in lessons so we shall focus on what benefits us both. I, to investigate the Grimm and you to have more time to scour the Archives. To delve deeper and further, for I fear the books we both desire will not be found close to the portal. The White will have seen to that."
"What?" she demanded, voice rising in pitch. "But they're not allowed in he-" Her eyes widened. "White-Azure!" she snapped. "Arcanists of both Arcana can access the Archives, and they've probably told the White Arcana all about it!"
"My thoughts exactly, my dear." Merlot snarled in the direction of the wall, and beyond it at where the White Cathedral lay. "Their agents will have long been scouring the closest shelves, and while they cannot sneak the books out, it wouldn't surprise me if they travelled a few days to put them on a shelf deeper in, trusting no one would ever find them again. Or they may even have destroyed them entirely."
No. Those books were her best chance of finding out the truth! Ruby gritted her teeth and trembled, power lapping around her feet. Before she could let it get out of control, Merlot snapped his fingers, ripping her attention away.
"Fear not. The White cannot have found every single book – though I imagine with the use of the Rubricator, they will only hasten their efforts. The furthest reaches are still unexplored. They are rife with mystery and unfound knowledge just waiting to be claimed. Knowledge that the White cannot yet have interfered with."
"I can't go that far, though. If I vanish from the Collegium-"
"You can go that far if I explain why you are," Merlot countered. "As my apprentice, I may teach you how I wish. We are both Azure. Who would argue if we chose a journey for knowledge, I teaching you out in the Archives as we venture deep for a week or more? There, we might hunt for answers. There, none would witness your surges. There, your presence would be accounted for, your tracker placing you in the Azure Archives with myself, and I confirming that we did naught but study. I, providing your alibi."
The perfect excuse. If she surged in the Archives it would be noticeable, but not if she were over fifty miles or more out, hidden by rows upon rows of shelves. The bells would still sense it and search for her, but if Merlot could say they'd been peacefully reading books and doing lessons and vouch for her then the suspicion would be alleviated. He could do a lot to make her life easier but being his apprentice would mean tying her fate to his. And if they were found out, they'd both go to the Sanctum.
What choice do I have? He hasn't done anything illegal yet, so he could still expose me. He hadn't brought it up, but that was almost certainly because he knew she'd attack and kill him if he did. Or he thought she would. The idea scared her, especially now that she knew she could, if she lost control, unleash a plague on the entire city. Or just summon a storm to wipe it flat.
"Help me," Merlot said. "And I shall help you." He held his hand out to her, palm upwards. "As one Azure Arcanist to another, irrespective of your station, let us form an alliance. We shall search for knowledge together, to whatever end it might bring us."
"What's to say you won't betray me after you have your answers?"
"The moment you become my apprentice I will have tied my life to yours. It will require me to lie to the Collegium as to how your lessons have progressed, immediately placing me in allegiance with a Wildmage. If you read that book as I know you have, then you know how dimly that shall be looked upon. It matters not whether you or I do ill, only that we have the potential to upset the carefully constructed balance the Collegium relies upon. You and I would be forced to trust in one another, if only because the White shall hunt us both."
Put like that, the only way she could confirm he wouldn't rat her out was to drag him into the fiery pot with her. Swallowing, every nerve protesting, Ruby reached out and gripped his hand, feeling the cloying sweat meet in their palms, aware that she was signing her safety, her future and her life away.
The manic smile that spread across Merlot's face was no comfort.
You know, I hate that whenever I use an apprentice relationship in a story – which is a perfectly in-period student teacher relationship for medieval and fantasy times, I still can't not have Emperor Palpatine saying "Yeessss, my apprenticeeee" in the back of my head. "Do it."
Really kills the mood I'm building.
So, here we are. Ruby has joined the dark side (DAMN IT!). Ahem, Ruby has been manipulated into siding with Merlot, who is running his own experiments and is prepared to risk everything to complete them. Meanwhile, the White has already been active in the Archives, subtly influencing all the Arcana to their way of thinking.
How deep will Merlot and Ruby go? Will they find out the story of the Wildmages? It's not a story the White would tell yo-
DAMN IT!
Next Chapter: 31st May
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