Here we go

Cover Art: Z-ComiX

Chapter 65

Martyn came down the stairs with one of his usual toadies on his arms – Cassie or something; Ruby hadn't bothered learning her name. Nor did she bother regarding him for any more time than she had to, rolling her eyes and turning back to Jaune, Ren and Weiss, hopefully before Martyn could see her and try to make a scene. No such luck.

"My, my, if it isn't Lady Rose. You look ravishing today."

"Lord Malneux," she replied primly, aware that her usual attitude could reflect poorly on Jaune. Since he'd gone out his way to help her, it'd be a poor way to pay him back. "Lady…?"

"Cassandra," the girl replied snidely. "Cassandra Thyme." Her eyes zeroed in on Jaune, her oncoming sneer warping away. "And Lord Arc. Good evening. How are you finding the ball?"

"Well. Thank you, Lady Thyme."

"You can call me Cassandra."

"Ah." Jaune's formal smile returned. The fake smile. The overly polite mask. "Cassandra, then. Well met."

Martyn looked just as annoyed at the girl's infatuation as Ruby and Jaune were, tugging her arm subtly and making her cheeks warm up. "Always a pleasure to see another scion of a high family in attendance," he said warmly. "I expect we'll be called on for the first dances." His eyes slid to Ruby. "I hope you've practiced."

First dance-?

"Of course we have," Jaune lied smoothly. That was all well and good, but first dance? Coco mentioned dancing, but she'd assumed it would just be her walking left and right with their hands linked. Wasn't that how posh people danced? Certainly not the wild and erratic flailing Yang liked to pull off.

"It's a chore but what can you do? Cassandra and I were just out watching the performers, but it was getting cold. Lord Lie and Lady Schnee, too." His brow creased. "Platonic, I assume?"

"Naturally." Ren replied. "We are here as friends."

"Of course. Of course. You're betrothed, are you not?"

"I am."

"And Lady Schnee is-" Martyn's eyes widened comically. "Oh, forgive me. I forgot for a moment, but you're not actually betrothed yet, are you? At your age as well. You can understand why I was surprised."

Ruby didn't have to understand the subtext to know Weiss was being bullied. "If you keep talking about me and Weiss, people are going to think you're obsessed with us."

Martyn flinched, and it was Cassandra's turn to be slighted.

"My sister is currently in the market for a pony." Ren said suddenly. "Something kind-hearted and gentle for a new rider. I hear your family is famed for its horses."

"Yes, we are. Your sister, is it? Ten years old, I believe. We have a few mares of gentle temperament getting on a few years. They're broken in and excellent training horses."

Jaune took the chance to steer her away while Ren distracted Martyn with family business, bringing Weiss along with them to a secluded corner by a tall window looking out over the festivities outside.

"It's Weiss and I," Weiss said quietly. "Thank you…"

"This rivalry is yours is more drastic than I thought it'd be," Jaune said. "It's honestly a little petty for someone of his station to be mocking someone like-" He cut off and stammered. "W-What I mean is…"

"It's fine. I know I'm the lowest of the low for nobles."

"Through no fault of your own," he said painfully.

Wasn't that the truth? Then again, most of the highs and lows of the nobles here were through no fault or merit of their own. Martyn was too young for any of the big deals of events that had shaped his family's glory, the same for Jaune's high regard or Weiss' mother's financial issues. Everyone got tarnished with the same brush here.

She'd thought the slums were bad. It wasn't. At least down there you were judged for what you could manage for yourself, how much you could scrape together. Unless it was you against someone higher up, that was. A Dredger would always be a Dredger. And here she'd thought people with money would automatically be happier. It hardly seemed like they were.

"What is this first dance thing?"

"It's what it sounds like. The high families are always called on to open the night – except when royalty is involved, as the first dance is always theirs. Lacking them, however, it goes down to us. I'm sorry I didn't warn you. I honestly forgot until he brought it up."

"How bad is it going to be?"

"It won't be. No one is expecting a grand display of dancing. We'll just move around for a bit and that'll be all."

"It's tradition," Weiss said.

"It's a stupid tradition," Ruby grumbled.

"Most are. That's why they're traditions. This is still better than what the adults will be doing. Father took me to one of those balls once. It's all business deals, boasting and subtly poking holes at other families." Or maybe it was just her family, Weiss' expression seemed to say. "I'd rather stay home and skip it all, but absence is worse than mockery."

"Don't assume it's any better if you're from a high family," Jaune said wearily. "Any family will want to drag their way up to supplant you and every move you make is watched."

"Coming with Ruby tonight is already a faux pas," Weiss said.

Ruby scowled. "Is it?"

"It is," he admitted, sighing. "You're… even if you're not of from a prestigious family yourself, you're a foreigner. Beyond that, you're without anything to offer the Arc Household. That doesn't matter to me of course, we're friends, but it will matter to others. You needn't worry. My family won't need to concern themselves-" He stopped, paused, continued. "It's not a concern. I've seven sisters and my mother is very shrewd. The family is in good hands."

"Why do all this, then? I could have taken the embarrassment of coming alone. It's not like I have a household to shame."

"I'd like to think I'm a better person than to let something so small stop me helping someone I care about." Jaune's embarrassed smile was adorable. Even Weiss smirked. "It's not like I don't want to help someone every now and then. Martyn also gets on my nerves. Ever since they tried for suit of my younger sister."

"Protective older brother?" Weiss asked.

"Not especially. I just… didn't like their attitude. It wasn't his especially. His parents, though." Jaune hummed. "He used to have a sibling once. There are rumours something terrible happened to her, that she was stomped to death by a horse."

Ruby froze.

"That's terrible," Weiss lamented.

"I know. A tragedy. If I'd lost any of mine, the pain would have crushed me. That's the issue, though. The Malneux family recovered so quickly – too quickly. There was never any grief but the politest minimum required. It bothered my mother. I suppose I get my distrust of him from her. It's probably unfair of me to treat him that way but… family is important to me. To my family. Not just our household, but us." He sighed. "I don't think any of us would have been happy letting one of ours wed into that family."

"What was the girl's name?" Ruby asked.

"His sister-? I don't know. I was only a child at the time and I never met her. She would have been older than me."

A few more names were called out in the silence, couples entering – and like Weiss said, none dared come alone. They came in two by two, even those she could tell weren't interested in one another had found someone to fill the shoes of a date. It was ridiculous how much they put it on when they clearly weren't together. Like me and Weiss didn't do the same thing.

Ren came back within a few minutes with a brief apology for Weiss. Ruby listened to them talk with half an ear, learning that he quite legitimately had made a verbal deal for his sister to visit the Malneux home and be shown around by Martyn's parents, introduced to a horse she could buy. There weren't any horses in the slums but there were plenty of donkeys that came through pulling wagons, and she got to see workhorses outside in the rich farmland. She and Yang had even broken into a field once to ride on one, then been chased off by an irate farmer and a dog that had tried to rip a chunk of flesh out Yang's leg.

The Malneux family bred them, apparently. The horses, not the dogs. Not the kind she would have ever been able to afford or touch, however. Warhorses, dressage ponies and racing horses. The kind that could cost so much that everyone in the slums could put their money together and not afford even one.

Before long, the hall had begun to fill and a new band – better dressed and equipped than the troupe outside – arrived with an arrangement of string and wind instruments, setting up on the large, raised platform to the back. Lanterns were snuffed out strategically to dim the hall and create long shadows on the edges, brighter over the dancefloor. A well-dressed man in a crisp black suit with white ruffled shirt stood up and coughed into his white-gloved hand.

Jaune took hers. Instantly, the connection she had to her wildmagic winked out. "That's our cue."

/-/

The dinghy tavern was a mess of sweaty bodies, noise and drunken song. Their cheerful and off-note singing was enough to shake the floorboards, especially when half the people linked arms and started to stamp their feet to the clumsily played tune a one-eyed minstrel-wannabe played on a crooked lute. Beside him, a younger boy hammered on the top of a barrel, belting out an accompaniment that was more enthusiastic noise than music.

The table rocked as Yang sat down, red-faced and hefting two clay tankards. Blake had to snatch hers to stop it falling when Yang put it down at a crooked angle, swinging her own back. The beer smelled acrid and bitter, foul compared to the fine wines she was used to, but at the same time better than the rainwater she'd been drinking on the long journey from Menagerie to Vale.

"You got that look on yer face." Yang slurred. "Thinking we're not good enough again?"

"I didn't say that. I was actually thinking this is quaint."

"Quaint. Huh. Way to use a word where I don't know if it's good or bad. Hah." The blonde leaned back in her rickety chair, hair falling down over the back of the wood. "We'd celebrate founding like this every year. Me, mom, dad n' Ruby. Then me, dad n' Ruby. Then just me n' Ruby. I was always scared it'd one day just be me. Guess this isn't as bad as it could be."

"Hm. Ruby is alive at least." Blake sipped the beer and felt her eyes water. Forcing herself to go on, she took a quart of it down. "The Collegium will be hosting this in a very different way. Believe me."

"I do. Fuck'n nobles."

I'm a noble, too, she felt like pointing out. She wasn't now, though. As an Arcanist who had intentionally refused to have herself registered to a Collegium for months on end, she was a Rogue. A criminal. Once you went Rogue, you gave up all rights you had before, including any ties to nobility, your family or inheritance.

There were times she wondered if she shouldn't have gone to the Collegium herself and tried to take care of things without involving Ruby and Yang. Many times. In the end, it doesn't matter. I was a coward and put it on Ruby. And now she's a Wildmage in the middle of the Collegium. If there was any relief to be had, it was in the fact that she'd have been found and taken eventually. A Wildmage couldn't stay hidden forever. Sooner or later, her power would have acted up and drawn the Arcanists down on her like a lightning bolt.

"Did you even celebrate the founding in Menagerie?" Yang asked.

"Not your founding, but we had our own. Different date, same thing."

"Oh yeah. Ha. I guess you would have. Every city has to be founded at some point, right? Dunno why we do, to be honest." Her clay mug clunked down, empty. Blake poured some of her own in, a `friendly` way to get rid of the foul swill. "Thanks. Anyway, yeah, there are times I'm not sure why we do. The city is fuck'n cruel to us. The floods, the rocks, the insults."

"I could understand why you wouldn't celebrate it. So, why do you?"

"Dunno. Maybe we just want a reason to be happy. Reason to celebrate. Listen to them," she said, laughing and pointing in the direction of the drunken revellers. "They're not singing founding songs. They're just having a good time. Guess it doesn't matter what it's for. We just need a reason to smile after the floods and all."

The floods. Blake still couldn't believe the way the city acted around it. The bodies had only just been fully taken away in the last few days – only then because they started to smell and rot so bad that slum dwellers nearby decided to do something about it. The guards didn't care to. In the weeks since, more bodies had piled up, disease and plague taking many, though thankfully not spreading so bad as to threaten the whole quarter.

It was hard living down here, and that was with her having money, magic and the means to use them both. No one else got the benefit of being able to sneak into the merchant's quarter and steal or buy food. Sometimes when she was on her way back, she'd be struck by pity and try to share some with the children running their hands in the mucky piss-filled river looking for scraps. Last time she had, she'd had to fight off some older boys that tried to kill and mug the girl she'd given food to. That girl might well be dead by now. It wasn't like Blake could be there to defend her all the time, and good food didn't last long.

Mom is lucky she didn't make it far enough to see this. It would have broken her. That wasn't to say it was all bad. The people here were hardy, resilient and somehow able to keep their spirits up despite the punishing conditions. Blake admired that, even if she'd never admit it to Yang. It'd probably come across as the pity it so rightfully was, and that would annoy the proud girl.

The door to the tavern slammed open suddenly, a man white as a sheet stumbling in covered in sweat with wide, frightened eyes. Such was his obvious terror that people stopped to regard him, curiosity if not concern edging out over merriment.

"The farms-" he panted. "The screams…"

"Oi, Toddy! What's got you in a twist?"

"You can't hear it?" He took in the revelry and quickly shook his head. "Course you can't. I wish I couldn't. There's a fire out on the farmland." He moved to a table and some locals made way for him. One handed him a flagon and he drank deeply. "Looks bad. Sounds worse. People screaming in panic, but it's the animals. They're the worst. Shrieking. Squealing. Fucking haunting."

"They burning alive out there?" someone asked. "Why ain't no one helping them?"

"Guards are, I think. Heard enough of a ruckus for it. Wolves, too."

"Wolves? Get out."

"Nah. I heard 'em howling."

"Outskirts," a grizzled man said. "They see the smoke and hear the sounds just as you did, and they're howling to it."

Others quickly agreed, taking the more reasonable explanation and nodding their heads. Toddy, however, looked unconvinced. Worried. He cupped his flagon tighter, muttering, "I hope you're right."

Blake nudged Yang's arm swiftly.

"I heard it." Yang said. "Fuck. That better not be what I think it is."

"We'd best check."

"I know." Standing, Yang drew her brown cloak up over her head and shoulders, then finished both her drink and Blake's. "Right. Let's move. Play it safe, though. Wouldn't put it past the guards to blame it on us if they caught us skulking around."

/-/

The guards had bigger things to deal with by the time they arrived. The fire Toddy spoke of had spread, overtaking two barns, a farmhouse and half a field of wheat. People were out from all the neighbouring farms with blankets and pails of water linking to and from the closest well. Several people were huddled in the centre of the dirt path, blankets thrown over their shoulders and local woman offering them warm soup and drink.

"Shit!" Yang swore, pointing to another patch covered by blankets stained red. The bumps beneath told of bodies. "He wasn't messing around. I doubt fire did that."

No. Fire wouldn't have caused so much blood. The animals were still screaming and squealing – horrible, twisted noise that had Blake's teeth clenching tightly together. It wasn't the sound of death or slaughter. It was of horror. Fear. Panic. Even the animals in farms not at all close to the fire were screaming themselves hoarse. Dogs barked and snapped, tugging at their leashes.

The commotion was enough that no one paid attention to two girls on the edge of it other than to hurry around them to support the others. The inferno had been contained, if not put out, and it was no longer spreading. The incident was over and now the people were doing their best to recover.

Yang tugged at her arm and brought her over to a small collection of city guards huddled to one side. Blake stiffened and tugged her cloak up higher, instinctive mistrust settling in. They didn't pay much attention to her, however. The one in charge, a weathered and worn looking man, turned to face Yang and sighed dramatically.

"Not a good night for you to be out. Tell Junior I'm busy."

"I'm not here on business, Sergeant Hannar." Yang nodded to the farmhouse. "What happened? Thieves?"

"Nothin' like that or we'd be bringing you in for questionin', girl." He tried to smile and failed, then gave up entirely and ran a hand through his greying hair. "Animal attack. Fire was set by the people there to try and scare the beasts off."

"Beasts?" Blake asked.

The so-called Hannar narrowed his eyes on her and Blake weaved a quick illusion. What exactly he saw, she didn't know, but it would be a plain and unremarkable face he would find it impossible to recall or describe later.

"The survivors are claiming monsters bigger than a man that came without warning. Personally, I think wolves or bears. Winter is close and the animals are hungry. To hear some of these folk, you'd think the Grimm had come to attack."

"Grimm?" Yang balked.

"Like I said, nonsense. Now I don't discount there's been a horrible attack tonight, but one of the first things you learn in my job is that panic does funny things to a man. Makes him see things that don't exist. Moonlight glows off a wolf's eyes and you're rightfully scared, well, no one would blame you thinking they was glowing red like blood. Pa and Ma of the house tried to hold the beasts off for the kids to escape. Both dead." He ducked his head. "Brave souls. Least the kids made it out – hung by the family dog for protection. It didn't survive, but it gave its life to protect the children. Hah." His explosive exhale was long and drawn out, his hand coming up to wipe down his sweaty face. "If only we'd been quicker."

"Did you drive off the animals?" Blake asked quickly.

"In a sense. I arrived with four others – sent two ahead to scout while we got the children out and away. Mart and Spinder." He nodded to the cloth on the floor. The bodies. "Whatever got the family got them, too, but they were nowhere to be seen. Blood on those lad's spears. We think they drove them off but were wounded and succumbed. Pack of wolves. Maybe a bear. I've seen a mother grizzly gore four good men before she was brought down. Those two wouldn't have stood a chance."

"Do you mind if we take a look?"

He eyed her sharply, eyes narrowing. "What good would that be? Fine. Do as you wish – but I hear of anything stolen and Junior won't be able to cover your ass, Yang. I've got better things to do tonight than stop you."

His piece said, Hannar moved back to his men, whispering quietly to them and dispatching them to their tasks. Most of the guards were busy trying to bring the fire under control, and they wouldn't be able to enter the house while it was still burning.

They went around the back instead, where anything coming from the outskirts would have first reached the farmhouse. Blake's cloak fluttered behind her as she moved, striding to the wooden gate and crouching down by it, fingers touching the muddy ground.

"It's not animals, is it?" Yang asked.

"It could be. I don't know how aggressive your wildlife here is."

"Not that aggressive. Wolves and foxes might come for chickens every now and then, and occasionally a sheep or cow is killed. I've heard of people attacked in the outskirts, too." Yang hugged her arms nervously. "Never on the farms."

There had been those rumours before. The ones of active wolves in the area coming into the farms. Blake felt around the mud but gave up with a sigh. The rescuers and guards had used the same approach and the ground was torn up and disturbed. Any tracks were gone.

"He said his guards scared them off. Grimm wouldn't run."

"He didn't say that, Yang. He said he assumes his guards scared them off. They may have killed them and died of their wounds, or the fire could have finished the Grimm off. If it were wolves or a bear, I'd expect to see a blood trail."

There wasn't one. Apart from the massive stains where she could assume the soldiers had died, right up by the burning back door, there was nothing. The thin wooden fencing around the farm's perimeter was in one piece, but it was only about three feet high. Blake pointed to a section that had been knocked inward, the posts ripped up from the ground but still connected to their wooden cross-section.

"Bear." Yang said. "Wolves couldn't knock a fence down."

"A bear wouldn't, either. Animals tend to use the path of least resistance. They'd go for an open gate or try and climb over. If that were the case, it should be the cross-beams that broke. They're still whole. Something walked through this. Walked through and broke it without a care in the world."

"It also ignored the pigs and cows in the pens and went for the family," Yang said miserably. She'd apparently given up on trying to convince herself this was a normal animal attack. "Fucking hell. They're this riled up? How is it this bad already? There's been no warning!"

"There has been."

Yang's head twisted her way.

"The Arcanists in the woods. Ruby being sent out. The fact the Collegium is worried is the biggest sign something is going on, but they're keeping it quiet. They don't want people to panic."

"Yeah? Well now people are dead!"

"To animals." Blake said mirthlessly. "That's what the official decision will be. Meanwhile, more Arcanists will be sent to the Outskirts to try and actively cull the Grimm population."

"Maybe that'll work!"

"It didn't for Menagerie."

They'd done the same thing. Her father sent out whole teams, arguing fiercely with the White before they agreed to assist in hunting down the Grimm in the surrounding area. It worked for a while; their numbers dropped. Only for a while. They came back, more and angrier than ever.

"This feels like a repeat. It happened with us, too. Travellers and merchants were the first to be attacked on the roads. We assumed bandits – then animals once we found the bodies. That was… two, maybe three months before the fall."

Yang gasped. "That quick!?"

"There was a reason we weren't able to defend ourselves."

/-/

Ruby swayed along with Jaune, letting him lead her movements and just keeping her feet between his. It wasn't as hard as everyone made it seem – no harder than climbing or jumping rooftops. The slow beat helped, and she realised that Jaune would dip his hand in the direction they were going, kind of like he was using a shovel to dig. Down and move, then swing up. Step. Step. Change direction. Down and move.

Once the ten couples were done, ten representatives from the highest families, not the ten highest but just a nebulous number considered high. No one ever explained what that entailed, but just like every noble seemed to know who was betrothed to whom, they all knew who was a proper noble and who was a pretender. Only once the upper echelon had finished were people like Weiss and Coco allowed onto the dancefloor, but from there it was a free-for-all, and in more ways than one.

"I love your dress. Where is it from?"

"Uh. It's an Adel bespoke-"

"Adel? As in Coco Adel? I've heard about her. I'll have to ask if she can make one for my sister. Oh, she'd love it."

"Just don't let her measure your sister. She might get handsy."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I heard…"

Jaune tugged her away before she could defend Coco's honour, whispering in her ear that Coco neither needed nor would appreciate it. "Rumours can be painful but getting another family involved can spark a feud. You need to challenge people less."

"They need to be stupid less," she fired back.

"Ha." Jaune laughed, his arm slipping down to the small of her back. "You really don't mince words. No wonder Sun likes you so much. You'd probably get on with my sisters too. I wish I could introduce you."

"Why can't you? I'm going to be an Arcanist sooner or later and then I can leave the Collegium whenever I like."

"It's not you, it's… well, it's complicated." He turned, picking up two glasses from a serving girl with a quick and polite word of thanks. He handed one to Ruby, the dry and bubbly taste of white wine tingling on her lips.

Wine, she quickly decided, was nasty. Red wine was okay – that tasted all fruity and sweet. White wine was a bitter horror, and she pulled a face.

"You really do wear your heart on your sleeve. You know, there are times I can't believe you're a noble at all."

Ruby froze.

"I meant it as a compliment. Sorry. It must have come out wrong. I just mean that you're much more honest, again like Sun, not afraid to speak your mind. There aren't many nobles who would have jumped into a river to swim with two Newbloods." His cheeks turned pink. "Not a girl at any rate."

"Eh. I wasn't naked."

"Ruby, that's-" He laughed clumsily. "I was going to say scandalous or wrong, but I guess you don't care about that. Do you?"

"Nope."

"You really are one of a kind." His arms tightened on her and she began to worry.

"Jaune…"

"Hm? Oh." He noticed her eyes flicking away and her hand atop his. "Oh no. Not like that." He unhooked his hand and brought it back between them. "As a friend, I mean. I'm not- I can't…" Jaune stared into his wine and took a long draught. "I'm not looking for romance. Not at all."

He sounded so vehement that she didn't doubt him. Still. "Not ever?"

"No. It's why I've turned down so many marriage suits. Marrying me. It wouldn't be fair on anyone."

"Why?"

"That doesn't matter. What I meant was that I'm glad to have you here." He smiled at her so brightly, so innocently. "I'm glad to have met you, Ruby. I'm glad to have a friend like you."

He sounded like he was going away or being assigned somewhere else even if she'd have surely heard about that in advance. Ruby opened her mouth to ask why he decided to say that now, only to gasp as a loud blast shook the building, rattling the windows and causing bright light to flash inward, blinding everyone. Instinctively, she reached for her power – at just the same time Jaune clamped his hand over her head and pulled her close to shield her, cutting off her powers entirely. It may well have saved her cover.

"What was that?" someone cried out. "Fire magic?"

"The tower!" another shrieked, pointing at the tall window.

Outside, the largest tower in the Collegium, the one that contained the Grand Arcanist's office, was on fire. The upper floor and much of the timber frame supporting his office came tumbling to the ground with an almighty crash, exploding on impact.

Scant seconds later, the bells across the whole city – the same ones that had detected wildmagic during her surge - began to toll.

Next Chapter: 22nd November

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