The troll is back and imitating me and others in the reviews, this time trying to make it look like I'd attack my own reviewers because obviously that's a thing I'd randomly do from a guest account. Ignore the nonsense.

Cover Art: Z-ComiX

Chapter 45

The monster bore down on her, black flesh, and white teeth glinting. Wood from the shelf exploded in every direction as priceless books were thrown aside. It was the eyes that terrified her. Animals hunted because they were hungry and would stare down their prey, but this thing didn't look at her like that. It was mad. Angry. Focused. It didn't want food and it wouldn't be stopped by any.

It wanted her. And it would have her.

"Begone!"

Pale blue strands of gossamer light came spiralling in from the right, catching and wrapping around the Grimm while continuing their twisting motion. They tore it off its path and sent it crashing into the ground past her. Even then, it tried to lash out and catch her frozen form rather than free itself. The blue strands continued on, turning and spinning over one another like a wheel until the creature touched back against a bookshelf, where they punched through the wood and behind, weaving themselves into restraints.

The Grimm's back was pulled flush against the bookshelf. It gnashed and snarled, claws straining against sky blue bands of magic and teeth snapping toward her.

"Rose!" Merlot hurried up to shake her shoulder. "Snap out of it. Are you hurt?"

"N-No." Her voice cracked. "I'm fine." Steeling herself, she pulled away. "It just surprised me. I wasn't ready."

"Time to prepare then. My bindings won't hold them." Merlot looked past it and back the way they'd come. He looked calmer than her, though even then there was some worry twisting his features. "We're more than three days in. Even if we ran with all our strength, we couldn't make it back without needing to rest. Grimm don't feel the same constraints."

They'd have to camp again in the Archives. An Archives that they now knew to have Grimm in it. How many was unknown, but the dead Arcanist from Menagerie had fallen to at least one, and if he was as skilled as Blake, probably more.

Wood splintered and gave way. Ruby and Merlot looked back in time to see the Beowolf rip its left arm free, breaking not Merlot's spell but the shelf it had steadied itself against. It brought its arm up to its mouth and bit into the blue bindings. They dimmed all over its body, fading out of existence.

"Is it… Yes, it's eating my spell." Merlot's voice was breathy. "Fascinating…"

"Research later! It needs to die!"

"Stand down, Initiate. Your wild magic will only draw more." His words had Ruby gasping and pulling back. How had she forgotten? If she cast here, they'd have every Grimm for aisles around crashing down on them.

"Then can you-?"

"Grant us protection!" Merlot shouted, summoning a shield of shimmering blue out from the ground ahead of them. The Grimm finally broke free and came crashing into it, punching an arm straight through with a sound like ripping paper. "Gh!" Merlot gritted his teeth and swept a hand down. "Knowledge as keen as swords, cut sharp."

Something invisible passed down along the inside of the barrier, scything through the muscular arm and tossing it up into the air. The Grimm roared and drew back, hurling itself at the barrier teeth first, biting into and tearing a large chunk free. It was an uneven gait as it made its way toward them – toward her – eyes blazing bright red.

"All air contains water." Merlot pushed out a hand and water splashed down onto the ground. "All water freezes under extreme temperatures." The same water hardened and crackled, shrinking in on itself as it froze to sheet ice a second before the Grimm's feet landed. It skidded and flipped, jaw crashing down and its legs flying back. "Light which binds."

More bands of light, this time golden and a spell Ruby was sure she'd seen before, fired out and stuck tight to the Beowolf, binding it down flat. It growled and thrashed on the floor, expanding its arms with such strength that even those began to stretch and splinter.

"Amazing," Merlot said, walking forward without a care in the world. His feet came close to its snout, but it didn't bother to attack. "I knew from theory that Grimm prioritise Wildmages, but I never knew it would be this potent. It cares not for me at all."

Ruby didn't share his enthusiasm. "Kill it already!"

"I suppose I should. A shame. This one would have made for a wonderful specimen." The Grimm ripped its remaining arm free and slammed it down, dragging its bulk toward her with murder in its eyes. It didn't react as Merlot knelt to place a hand on the back of its neck. "Pierce," he whispered.

The monster bucked, stiffened, and then went still, slumping down flat. Its eyes closed, and a moment later its body began to fade away, turning into dust that seemed to drift on a breeze that didn't exist, coiling upward and away.

"Why do they disappear like that? Just one more mystery among a thousand others. Truly, the Grimm are incredible creatures."

Ruby heaved a sigh of relief. "More like they're monsters…"

"Oh, undoubtedly, but even monsters can be interesting. Alas, I fear we must cut out exploration short. I don't know how close we are to Menagerie – this poor fellow may have travelled for weeks before succumbing – but whether we've come close or he has led the Grimm to us changes little. We are not safe here. Leave the equipment," he said. "We'll take as much food and water as we can carry and no more."

"What? Why?"

"Magic draws the Grimm, girl." Merlot was already rifling through a pack. "You carrying our luggage would only light a beacon to every Grimm within a mile and a half. We'll move quickly, but not hastily. We shall need our strength if we are challenged. Now come. Hurry. It's time we leave."

/-/

The pace they set was slower than Ruby would have liked. Merlot said it was because they couldn't outrun the Grimm and would be better off making meaningful distance and not wearing themselves out, but knowing now that the Archives wasn't as empty as it was said to be had her jumping at every shadow and checking every aisle. The silence felt even more stilted and the sensation of eyes watching her returned tenfold.

The silence was too much. Ruby had to break it.

"Why did you have to chant for some spells but not others?"

"It's a matter of experience." Merlot didn't sound surprised by the question, or the fact she'd been unable to stay quiet. "Newer Arcanists are taught to use spoken components to augment their concentration. As you grow more experienced it becomes unnecessary, but it can still make the act easier. Enough so that it's advised if you have the time."

"How does that work? I don't need to say anything."

"That's because wild magic doesn't rely on concentration. Have you ever learned a rhyme to help you tie your shoelaces or braid hair? There are some to help people remember the points of the compass as well. It's a similar thing. By speaking out the steps and what you intend to do, you're more able to focus solely on that. Before long it becomes routine."

"Could you have cast them without?"

"Almost certainly, but it would be `almost` certainly. There's a chance I might have faltered and that was a time we couldn't afford it. There's a lesson for you there," he added. "Try and say something whenever you cast a spell."

"Are they always the same? Do people say the same things?"

"No. Some are considered standard because we teach them and teachers tend to use the same incantation, but you could substitute anything. More experienced Arcanists will usually be able to bring their incantations down to a single word. It depends on the field, though. Crimson and White Arcana do more combat and so need to hasten their spells. The Azure doesn't feel the same necessity. Saving a few seconds isn't worth the effort for us. Most of the time…"

Ruby nodded. "Then you used longer incantations there because you needed it to work first time."

"That's right. When your life is on the line, it's not time for experimentation." Merlot sighed loudly and stopped moving. "I think we should start looking for somewhere to rest."

"Already? I can still go for a while."

"You're young. I am not." He let the small pack of food drop to the floor and cracked his neck from side to side. The audible clicking of bone proved his point. "What's more, we're going to have to set up a watch now that we know we're in danger, and I don't know about you, but I'd prefer a camping spot a little more secure than in the centre of an aisle."

It was the same for her, but with the Azure Archives essentially made up of rows upon rows of bookshelves going on forever in a uniform fashion, there wasn't much to work with. They could either camp between two shelves in a long aisle, or they could find a crossroads where the cases ended and sleep in a slightly wider area with four areas of entry. Merlot chuckled when she pointed that out.

"True. Although, we could use the shelves to make ourselves a shelter."

"You mean push them over? Would that work?"

"It worked for the Grimm," he said with a shrug. "But knocking them down will only cause noise. I was more thinking we might push one into a diagonal and create a triangular alcove. Or better yet, we could form a square with ourselves in the centre."

"What if the Archives moves the shelves back while we're sleeping?"

Merlot winced. "A justified fear. The magic might not account for our presence and could crush us." How he could say that so calmly, she had no idea. Moving bookshelves were not something to be ignored. "Hm. I'd suggest we scale them and sleep on top, but we don't have anything to keep us secure."

"A spell couldn't do that?"

"Only the Black weaves magic that has any permanence. Anything I cast would falter the moment I fell asleep. Yours might linger, but I wouldn't feel safe trusting it. Wild magic is as it sounds, and the Grimm will only follow the scent of it."

"Then what do we do…?"

"As bad an idea as it sounds, I believe we should sleep on a crossroads."

It did sound horrible. Terrifying, even. "What? B-But we'd be out in the open. Grimm could come from any angle!"

"They'll be coming from any angle regardless, I fear. We've seen already that the bookshelves are no barrier to them, but they would prove a barrier to a sentry's line of sight. I'd rather have ample warning of an attack than the flimsy security of an inch or two of wood. Keep in mind they don't need line of sight to hunt us. The cover exists only for them."

Ruby couldn't think up any excuses by the time they reached the crossroads. The open space between one set of shelves and the next was some six metres in total, a wide thoroughfare that several Grimm could run down shoulder to shoulder. Aside from the aisle they'd come from and the one ahead, there were now a good sixty or so visible on either side, travelling down several hundred metres until she lost sight of them. So many different points from which Grimm could appear.

"We have good line of sight here," Merlot said, setting his pack down again. "I doubt we'll be ambushed without us seeing them first. Is there any chance you can sleep if I take first watch, or are you too shaken?"

"I'll take first watch," she said, unwilling to admit it.

"Hm. Very well." Merlot used his small pack as a pillow and laid back on the hard floor. "It's not comfortable, but it shall have to do. We'll stay eight hours. That will only mean four hours sleep for each of us, but I fear it's the best we can do. Wake me the moment you see any Grimm."

Without another word, Merlot turned on his side and went to sleep. Or if he wasn't asleep, he was feigning it well. Ruby stood behind, bathed in the unending light from above, stood in the long hall between the various bookshelves. Their `camp` was little more than two packs with a person asleep atop one of them.

We even had to leave the Rubricator behind, she thought. This whole trip has been worthless. Aside from finding out about the Grimm, that was. There was obviously some luck there, because without it she might have wandered off and gotten killed. I felt like I was being watched the last time I was in here. Could that have been Grimm?

It couldn't have been. She'd been using magic to go through the shelves, and if the one before reacted just because it sensed the magic in her, they'd react to her throwing some of it around. Pulling her azure hood up, Ruby paced quietly between the two sets of shelves, eyes scanning one way and then back the other, then down the corridors they'd come through and the one ahead. There were so many different ways to look, so many avenues of attack, that she couldn't relax or sit down. Her head kept swivelling one way and the other.

We should have kept moving. The more distance we put between us and the Grimm, the better.

Keeping track of time was an impossibility in the Archives. The light didn't dim or falter and nothing other than them moved. Ruby's eyes locked onto shadows she could have sworn were monsters, only to realise they weren't moving. Whenever she turned, something seemed to move out the corner of her vision, but it would disappear when she turned back. Merlot's soft snoring was both a comfort and a distraction. Her own breath was heavy and loud in her ears.

Her mind drifted to thoughts of Menagerie and its final moments. They must have tried to use the Archives to escape the fall of the city. Was it just the Azure, or had they thrown secrecy aside to save more people? Had some been saved? Just because they hadn't run into any living people didn't mean they couldn't be out there. Maybe they'd made for another Collegium.

Maybe they were still in the Archives. She could imagine a small community settled between shelves, forming a miniature village in the Archives. Up until the lack of farmland or animals to hunt set in. Without food, no such group could survive. Menagerie fell a while back from what Blake said, and considering the time it took her to get from there to Vale. If anyone had survived the fall, they'd either found their way to new Collegiums by now or died. The only other hope was some spell or enchantment to make food.

It was just as likely that the fallen Arcanist they'd found was one of the only ones to enter, and that he'd been hunted down and killed by his pursuers, the rest falling to the Grimm soon after. Somewhere, there would be a portal just like Beacon's, a gathering of rounded tables, study desks and skeletons leading up to a door that would open to the fallen city of Menagerie, now reduced a tomb.

And if what Blake said is right, that wasn't an accident. Someone made that happen.

If so, she was no closer to finding out whom. Not that she'd kid herself – she hadn't even tried looking. Surviving as a Wildmage was more important to her than how someone else's city fell. Even so, nothing stood out here. Unless of course the Archives was how it happened in the first place. Someone from the Azure could, in theory, use another portal to transport Grimm through and lead them inside Menagerie's Collegium.

That would require a lot of things, though. For one, someone who could direct Grimm without being killed, or a way to transport them. Either they'd come from within the Archives, or the city fell first and the Archives after. I'll have to ask Blake if the Grimm came from outside the walls or not. That's the only way to know for sure.

If it were the Archives, that might be a problem, and this could be the start of a fresh invasion on Vale. Even if it wasn't intentional, the easy route for Grimm into Vale's Collegium was bad enough. What would the White do? Close the Azure Archives? How would the Azure Arcana react? Not happily, that was for sure.

Ruby's pacing only grew as time passed and no Grimm made their presence known. It could have just been the one; there might be no others; it was probably fine to relax. All those things meant nothing. Left and right. Left and right. Left and right. If she climbed a shelf, she could see far. If she climbed a shelf, the Grimm would see her from afar. Her head spun.

Merlot awakened on his own.

"How long has it been?" he asked tiredly, yawning and sitting up.

"I don't know."

"Hmm." He watched her for a moment before deciding he couldn't do anything. "Enough, I feel. You may take some rest if you wish."

"I can't sleep. Can we move on? At least a little?"

"If it will tire you out enough to rest, yes. Have something to eat at the very least." He held out a ham sandwich wrapped in crinkly brown parchment that Ruby stuffed into her mouth and chewed mechanically. He took more time with it, ripping off small chunks to eat while inspecting their surroundings.

"How are you so calm?" she asked.

"When you're as old as I am, you tend to slow down. I've lived a long life."

"I haven't!" she said pointedly.

"Don't worry. The chances of there being more Grimm here are slight. Consider for a moment just how vast the Archives are, and how low the odds are of us just `happening` to run into more."

"Even with them hunting Wildmages?"

"The ones I had in captivity only became enraged when you entered the building." Merlot drew up his pack and set off. Ruby followed, too alert for fatigue to set in. "That gives us an estimate of a distance – though the specifics will remain vague. Suffice to say, I doubt every Grimm from here to Menagerie is aware of your presence. It's only when we come within range of them. Of course, that may change if you actively use it. A shame…"

"What is?"

"I wanted to have you display a surge for me." Merlot ignored how she stiffened. "So deep in the Archives, I was sure it would go unnoticed. There are few who have documented it in person, or at least there are few I know of. I'm sure the White Arcana has more."

"The surges aren't fun…"

"I didn't mean to suggest such," he said without any real apology. "But they are something you'll have to deal with. It would have been convenient for both of us if we could test whether the White's detection travels all the way here. You could have burned it off whenever you needed to."

"I still can, can't I?"

"Of course. If you don't mind the risk of being slaughtered by the Grimm."

"I can kill them."

"You did a fine job of it back there."

Ruby bristled. "I was surprised! I killed the one you let escape before."

"True, I admit. Well, you might be capable of dealing with some if they appear, but as soon as we report back about this the Archives will be swarming with White Arcanists."

"I thought the Azure Archives belonged to the Azure Arcana."

"I doubt the White will care much for that."

/-/

Eventually, even Ruby's energy flagged, and Merlot called the stop again, offering to take watch while she slept. This time there was no budging him and Ruby curled up against her pack, flinching at every sound until sleep finally claimed her. They were both still alive when she awoke to the smell of Merlot cooking a small pot of soup.

No Grimm approached for the next day, and by the time Merlot insisted it was night, she'd begun to calm down significantly. A full day and a half put them about halfway back, and with no sight or sound of Grimm, it was beginning to look like they'd found a stray roaming far ahead of the pack. Neither felt confident in pushing it of course, and as soon as they'd broken their fast, Merlot pushed them on again, shuffling down the halls in his blue robe.

It was the beating of wings that undid them.

Slow at first and barely audible, the unfamiliar sound in an otherwise silent library had them pausing to look at one another. Merlot ushered her stand flat against one of the shelves with him, both craning their necks up to watch a dark shape fly by overhead.

"It shouldn't have seen us," he whispered.

"What about people seeing it? It's flying!"

"Indeed. I expect news of the Grimm will reach the Collegium before we do at this rate. What's more concerning is what is drawing it. If it can sense the concentration of so many Arcanists from such a distance, then what is to stop the others?"

"It's only one though," she pointed out.

"The hawk covers more ground than the fox. Or in this case the Nevermore to the Beowolf. There could be thousands on their on foot for all we know." Merlot gripped her shoulder and yanked her back when she made to move. "Stay still, girl! Don't move. Where there is one, there may well be more."

True to his words, another dark shape flew by overhead and then a third. Sleek and quick, they whooshed by without a screech or call, flying so low that if she'd been atop the shelves, she could have touched one. Or they could have torn her apart with their talons. It was a good job she'd been too afraid to climb the shelves.

More came. Of the big ones, she'd hazard there were only a few – four or five in total – but the air above them darkened as a cloud of smaller Grimm buzzed by, each no bigger than a pigeon, some as small as a finch. They buzzed above them like bumblebees, whipping to and fro, avoiding one another by some measure she couldn't understand.

"T-There's hundreds of them…"

"It's worse than I thought." Merlot drew in a long breath. "Their path is the same as ours. Have we stirred the hornet's nest, or did we just have the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time?"

"Wait." Ruby turned to him, horrified. "Are you saying I might have started this? That they reacted to me, followed and then sensed everyone else?"

"No. No. Calm yourself. If it were you they were after, they'd be attacking us now. No one knows what it is that draws Grimm to Wildmages, but I'd hazard a guess it is magical energy. If we want to call it that. Simply put, you must have more. Or it's wilder or more obvious. Either way, there's obviously a limit. One Wildmage might appear tastier than one Arcanist, but trade one for a hundred and it's a different matter."

There were a lot of Azure Arcanists congregated at the entrance to the Archives. There'd been at least fifty when they came down, though that number might have tripled by now. "Will they be okay? Azure aren't known for fighting…"

"There will be some Azure-White or Azure-Crimson among them and the Grimm are few in number. The larger ones at any rate. I won't claim all will be fine, but I expect the portal shall be held. The same can't be said if more are following." Merlot stepped away from the shelf. There hadn't been a fresh murder of Nevermore for a good minute now. "It seems they've passed us. We should get moving before those following catch up."

"You said they'd take longer."

"They shall, but Grimm are tireless, and we are not. If my estimates are correct we should be a day and a half out. That might be a journey we can make without rest." He looked back anxiously. "I'm loathe to risk another rest stop, even for only a few hours."

Neither did she. If the portal area was taken and lost, closed from the other side, then they were as good as dead. They didn't have the food to make the journey to another Collegium, nor an idea of what direction to take in the first place. If that happened, their best bet would be to try and break through and out, regardless of the risks. That would expose her, though. The Collegium would know she used wild magic and might try and pin all this on her.

How many Grimm did it take to conquer Menagerie? How many could the average Arcanist fight against? Her eyes flicked to Merlot. He'd won the fight against the Beowolf without too much trouble, but it had been focused entirely on her and he'd still had to use several spells to bring it down. In the corridors with Ren, she'd only needed to touch it once with her magic. Was that something unique to her? Was that the difference in power between an Arcanist and a Wildmage? Or had she just managed to make a spell that killed whatever it touched?

There were a lot of Initiates that were still struggling with basic concepts like controlling fire or levitating objects evenly. They didn't have her natural advantages or Weiss' talent. Against the Grimm, they'd die almost immediately.

"If the Nevermore return, you may have to tap into your magic," Merlot warned.

"I thought you told me not to."

"The situation has changed. The Grimm are on a direct path to the Collegium, as are we. Drawing them to us is meaningless now. They are going to run us down regardless. If it is Nevermore, utilise wide area attacks. Their bones are brittle."

"It doesn't work like that. I can't control what my magic does. It just… does it."

"Then let us hope it chooses to `just do it` here as well. Or we shall both be in trouble."

Behind them, long howls echoed in the distance, picking up in volume as more and more Beowolves heard the call and responded. One at first, then two, three, and soon it was impossible to tell just how many there were. Only that it was too many for Merlot to have any chance fighting. The blood drained from Ruby's face, though her vaunted `master` remained calm and started to quickly jog down the aisle.

"We're over a day out!" Ruby yelled. Less if they could jog for it all, but not by much, and they'd not be able to keep that pace. "We'll never make it."

"I'm aware. We'll have to deviate from the path they're taking." Reaching the end of the shelves, Merlot waved for her to follow as he took to the south. "Remember the numbers!" he instructed. "Two south. Three south. Four south. We can't get lost in here or we're done for!"

Five south. Six south. Ruby counted in her head, heart hammering as the howls increased in volume. Would just getting out the way work? The Grimm could be coming in a wide column. Ten south. Eleven south. More than that, they were accepting the fact they couldn't escape. If they were found at all, it would be fight or die. Fourteen south. Fifteen south.

"What is-? Ruby, ahead!" Merlot's shocked tone caught her attention and she pulled her eyes away from counting shelves. Up ahead, sat within one of the crossroads but far away, almost out of sight entirely, a large and unusual structure sat.

Considering the Archives were shelves, shelves, and nothing else, it stood out.

"What is it?" she asked, panting as she ran beside Merlot.

"I'll tell you what it isn't. Grimm. Come, we'll hide there. Perhaps it's an old rest spot from before our time!"

Or from another Collegium, she didn't say. It could be either. Before the Rubricator and any real chance of logging the library, people would have had to travel in groups with plenty of supplies to explore this far. They might have left camp sites or rest spots like the Azure did to the east of the portal. This was bigger than those, though, making Merlot's point of it being older more likely.

In fact, it was a ramshackle thing. Large shelves had been pulled aside and formed into the shape of a rectangle, some leaning precariously over others to form diagonal lines. Two of those met on their side to form a triangle that appeared to serve as an entrance. Merlot took them to it, and Ruby noticed the horrific scratch marks on the shelves, the torn and shredded books, and the fact that one side of the makeshift fort had been caved in. Because that was what it was. A fort.

Merlot slowed to a stop, eyes wide and scanning the interior. Built of numerous shelves brought together to function as rudimentary walls, with more inside but cut down for rough benches and tables, the tiny fortress sat alone and abandoned, filled with skeletal figures flung her and there, their multicoloured robes tarnished, torn and pitted with age. Several Arcanum lay scattered upon the floor, others hanging over the ribcages of dead men and women.

The snarling wolf's head told of the fate of Menagerie's attempts to escape.

Trying to make sure I keep my dates accurate. They went three days in and one and a half back, which means it should be four and a half days since they entered. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. It doesn't really change anything, but I know people like to point out the errors as I make them. Little numbers like that are hard to keep track of when you're working on five stories at once.

That also means Menagerie's survivors made it to within only a day and a half of Vale. I won't give an idea of miles since it all depends on so many things, and I've no idea how to accurately estimate the speed of civilians fleeing a warzone or whatnot.

Next Chapter: 21st June

P a treon . com (slash) Coeur