More pond problems. Called over at 4:30am despite my sleepy protests I can't fucking fix anything. Went over, couldn't fix anything, fall asleep on mother's couch, woken up at 6:30am because she wants me to try again – couldn't fix anything and now she's sulking while I do work on the couch. Apparently, sleeping is a sign that I'm not taking this pond issue seriously so I have to just sit and work instead even though there's nothing I can do.
Cover Art: Z-ComiX
Chapter 111
The power swirled around and within her, ever the heady and addictive feeling of lava rushing through her veins. It was liberating, freeing, and her anger fed it until it was a raging inferno. This was the power they feared, the power they sought to lock away. Glynda flung her arm out and sent a wave of golden light rushing at her, only for Ruby to grasp it with both hands and rip it apart.
"Wildmage!" Glynda gasped and fell back. "Monster!"
"The only monster here is you!"
Playing with people's memories, toying with their lives, choosing who lived and who died to fit their own narrative. Ruby enjoyed the fear on Glynda's face as she rushed to her desk and lunged for Merlot's sceptre. I think not! Ruby waved her hand and the object leapt from the table to her. The oddly warm stone and wood thrummed with life. Ruby inspected it, eyes flitting curiously.
"No!" Glynda cried. "You mustn't summon the Grimm. They'll kill everyone!"
"Summon them?" Ruby laughed harshly and tossed the sceptre into the corner of the room away from them both. "Why would I summon them? I'm nothing like you."
Lady Goodwitch wasn't listening. Her hands gripped the desk and flipped – or at least she made the motion. Contrary to her own physical strength and the sheer weight of the desk, it flew up into the air assisted by trails of magic, hurtling head over heel toward Ruby's head. Glynda obviously thought that if magic had no hope against her, gravity and weight might.
Ruby wrenched one fist back and imagined Yang, snarling as lightning crackled around her hand like a glove. "Rargh!" One punch, a blow that didn't even hit the desk but was aimed at it. Lightning crackled and thunder boomed, followed by the horrific and cracking explosion of a solid wood desk being reduced to matchsticks.
It was a testament to Glynda's experience that three more spells came spearing through the debris and struck Ruby in the chest. One tossed her up into the air; the second bound her arms to her sides; the third caused her vision to invert. Up became down, left became right. Ruby tumbled and struck the tiles with a grunt, barely able to move.
Even so, a fireball came hurtling toward her prone body.
Arcanists shouldn't use fire offensively. That was the lesson from their teachers. It was a viable tool to wow or use for its intended purpose to light fires or for warmth, but as an attack it was too volatile, too explosive. That was why Pyrrha had taught them a tight netting spell where the fire wouldn't spread. It was considered too dangerous for Arcanists to use, especially anywhere the average folk might see them. Glynda wasn't making even the slightest effort to save face, nor to take her alive. This was an execution, plain and simple.
That made things even easier.
Ruby wrested control of the fire from her, made it swirl into the air and rush back. Wide-eyed, the future Grand Arcanist leapt to the side and rolled away, her robes smouldering as the fire smashed into the floor where she'd been. The lapse in concentration meant the end of her spells holding Ruby in place, and she scurried to her feet.
Footsteps hammered up the stairs behind them. The two guards. Shit!
"Lady Goodwitch." The door slammed open. "We heard-"
What he heard would never be known because wind slammed into him, picked him up and launched both of them into the stone wall with a sickening crack. They fell like broken dolls, blood pooling from their heads either from the impact or where they'd struck back onto sharp stone steps.
"Murderer!" Glynda accused.
"Oh, like you can talk!" Ruby shouted and turned invisible. Glynda flinched and backed up, then cast random spells around the room to try and detect her. At the corners, at the walls, at all the places a spellcaster might hide.
Not a street rat, though. Arcanists never imagined one of them might stoop low enough to drive a foot into the back of your knee, nor to follow it up by hooking a hand around your throat and yanking you back. Glynda fell like a cut tree and Ruby jumped on top of her.
Ruby was small, light and so much weaker than Yang, but no one had ever given her a pass for that in the slums. Yang made sure she knew how to clench a fist and throw a punch without breaking her thumb. Ruby showed Glynda the fruits of her efforts, brutalising her with quick blows to her face, neck and then to her chest when Glynda futilely tried to cover her face.
"You've killed more people than I ever could!" Ruby growled and wrenched Glynda's hand away, then blackened her eye. "Or did they not count as people for you. Is that it?"
Glynda flung a fist up toward her as well. It was so pathetically executed that Ruby didn't even bother to block it; she just swayed her head to the side to weave around it, then slammed another into Glynda's left cheek for the attempt. Her face was a mass of bruises. For all her training and years of experience, the future Grand Arcanist knew nothing of roughing it out like this. Ruby fixed both hands around Glynda's throat and tightened her hold.
"Ack! H-Hack!" Eyes bulging, Glynda flailed around with one hand for a weapon. Her fingers found a letter opener that had fallen from her desk. Ruby saw it and swore, rolling off the woman full seconds before she could even think of swinging. It didn't stop Glynda stabbing air, then staring up at the nothingness in confusion.
Ruby's boot caught her wrist with a sickening crack. "Too slow!" The knife flew away. "I've met seven-year-olds quicker with a knife than you. They had to be, or they'd have starved to death. Not that you'd understand what it means to go hungry."
Glynda mumbled something back. It was indecipherable with blood on her lips, but Ruby sensed the prickling electricity in the air above her and leapt back before it could strike. Oh, Glynda wanted to try a duel of magic again, did she? Ruby grinned ferally. Okay.
Willing her power forward, Ruby caught Glynda by the foot and swung her into the air. The woman shrieked as she was picked up by some invisible force and slammed back down into the floor, then swept across it and sent hurtling into the nearest wall. Paintings of former Grand Arcanists, all of the White, ripped themselves from the walls and assaulted her like wasps, their metal frames cracking into her arms and shoulders until she, with a desperate cry, set them all alight. Goodwitch stumbled to her feet and, with desperation, summoned an entire wall of fire that she sent rushing Ruby's way.
More fire, huh? Glynda really hadn't learned her lesson.
Ruby swept her hand across, and the fire followed her, flickering to the side and away from her. Ruby brought her hand back up and lashed forward as if she were swinging a whip. Instantly, Glynda's spell became a lash of pure fire at the woman. Glynda dodged but Ruby only grinned.
The whip, which had been following the path swung, suddenly turned into snake-like in its movements, lunging at the Arcanist from behind and coiling around her. Its bonds tightened, latching the woman's arms to her side and making her white robes blacken and char.
"Arghhh!" Glynda screamed as the fires burned her. It brought her to her knees.
"I'm going to destroy everything you ever worked for." Ruby stalked forward, her every breath scratching through her lungs. "I'm going to bring the White Arcana to its knees. I'll make sure that even if the Collegium does survive, the White will never have control of it again."
"Monster!"
Ruby paused before the woman. Monster, huh? It was hard to take that seriously from a woman who ordered the sacrifice of an entire section of the city to dull an attack aimed at her and the Collegium. The back of Ruby's palm struck Glynda's cheek. Her head snapped to the left, but the flame-snake still burning her kept her upright.
It was callous, cruel, but Ruby struck her a second time, then a third. Then she drew her fist back and slammed it into Glynda's jaw for good measure. Blood and a tooth flew out. Ruby gripped the woman's head by her hair and pressed their faces together.
"Maybe I am a monster," Ruby said through heaving breath. "But if so, I'm the monster you made. I'm your monster."
"K-Kill me then. G-Get it over with…"
Ruby pushed the woman's face away and let her struggle for air. Killing her was warranted after all the things she'd done, all the wrongness, but Ruby didn't want to. There had been too much death already and she'd just killed two Arcanists by accident. That didn't mean she was going to spare Lady Goodwitch, however.
After all, there are worse fates than death…
"I'm not going to kill you. That would be too easy."
Ruby walked away from her – for a moment Glynda sagged, but then her entire body tensed when Ruby knelt among the wreckage of her desk. Something had survived the fall, something that was enchanted by the Black Arcana to withstand a small drop. The glassware had not shattered, and the stopper prevented the silver liquid inside from spilling out.
Understanding dawned, perhaps for the last time, and Lady Goodwitch screamed and thrashed against her bindings, finding new strength in fear and rage. "No!" she screamed. "No! No! No!"
"It's only fitting, don't you think? You've had such fun robbing other people of their memories, of months or years of their lives." Ruby walked back, flipping the stopper out with her thumb. It clinked to the floor with all the weight of a tolling bell. Ruby gripped Glynda's chin with her other hand and forced her head back. "This is only right."
"HELP!" Glynda screamed. "White-mphhh!"
The glass funnel smashed against her teeth with force enough to chip a tooth. It served to silence her, even if Glynda forced her tongue against the opening to try and stopper it. With the snake keeping her pinned in place, she was powerless to do anything as Ruby tilted Glynda's head back and pinched her nose shut. The woman thrashed helplessly.
"I'm not sure how much I'm meant to administer. One drop? Two? I doubt you were careful with Sun, Emerald or Nora, so I don't see why I should be." Though she tried, Glynda couldn't force herself to suffocate. Her eyes shot open, her throat bulged, and the silver liquid flowed down her throat. "Bottoms up!"
Tears poured from wide-open eyes, running down the woman's cheeks. They only made Ruby angrier. As if she had the right to cry after what she'd done. Tears hadn't helped Melanie, Miltia or Junior. They hadn't saved the women carrying young children who had both been dashed against the walls or torn apart by Grimm. It hadn't spared the people begging for rescue who had been intentionally left to die.
"This is for the slums…" Ruby hissed into the woman's ear. "This is for everyone who died there because of you." Ruby forced the bottle higher still, watching the last of the silver flood out of it. "Not that I think you'll remember any of it."
Ruby let the bottle fall. It didn't shatter but bounced away with musical clinking. She took a few steps back, letting the fire snake dissipate and Glynda fall onto all fours. Droplets of silver fell from her mouth, and she desperately tried to spit and vomit more.
"Invisible." Ruby whispered. "Unseen."
The air rippled and her body faded from view. Ruby walked over to Merlot's sceptre, stooped to pick it up and hid it in her robes, then made her way out the tower and away before the rest of the White could realise anything was wrong. The bells had begun to toll already, and she knew it was only a matter of time before the Collegium was turned inside out.
/-/
The White Cathedral burned.
It had been so easy to set it alight. Any Arcanist could have, but none dared for fear of the consequences. The fires were fuelled by her anger and had fast spiralled out of control, first from the entry hall and then to the wings on the left and right, then across the rooves to the spires and towers. The Cathedral was not collapsing, but it was burning, and Arcanists of every colour and Arcana ran around screaming like fools.
Water was summoned, flames were attacked, people were hurried out of the building, and in the midst of it all the tolling of the alarm bells went ignored. Ruby walked out the White Cathedral with her body shaking and her robes blackened, and yet no one questioned her. Down the steps she went, past huntsmen being sent in against their health to try and find more valuable Arcanists inside and get them to safety. The Emerald Arcana were out in force, ready to heal burns and sooth the wounded.
"Ruby!" Pyrrha found her there amongst those leaving and rushed up to her, gripped her shoulders and stared into her eyes. "Ruby, are you okay? What happened in there? Are you alright?"
Was she…? Yes. Funnily enough, she felt great – even when a part of her thought she ought to feel some guilt. Any at all. There was none, only a heady sensation of having done this. "Yes." Ruby laughed. "I'm fine. I'm great. If you'll excuse me…?"
"Excuse you? Ruby, where are you going? The Arcana is on fire – we need to-"
"I don't need to do anything. There are plenty of people here." Ruby pulled her shoulder out of Pyrrha's grip. "I'm off to see Jaune."
"What? B-But the Arcana-"
"It's a building, Pyrrha. Let it burn. Maybe it'll teach them what the Azure felt like."
"Ruby…" Pyrrha watched her walk away. "What's gotten into you…?"
Nothing. No, something. Ruby took a deep breath and was amazed by how clarion clear it felt. I should have done this ages ago, she thought. I always had this power, I knew the Collegium was afraid of me, and yet I never realised just what that meant. I could have saved Cinder and Adam from day one.
No longer. They'd waited enough. Months in Adam's case, her whole life in Cinder's. It was time to free them, find Jaune, meet with Yang and Blake and leave the sorry hellhole Vale had become.
/-/
The Wild magic fled her body as she reached the Sanctum. The sudden loss of it was like being thrown into an ice-cold river. It shocked her system, snapped her awake and suddenly left her filled with doubt. With the heady power making her feel invincible ripped away, Ruby suddenly felt far more mortal. Fragile. Weak.
No. Focus. Shaking her head, she forced her feet to keep moving. The Collegium wouldn't be distracted for long. There wasn't much time, and even less time for hesitation.
The Huntsmen guarding the Sanctum didn't move to stop her. They wouldn't so long as she didn't break any rules or take any aggressive action. Ruby walked through the open doorway and inside, to see that yet again Nicholas Arc held his position behind the main desk. Two more flanked the doors leading deeper into the Sanctum's halls where the prisoners waited.
Ruby cleared her throat and raised her voice. "By order of Lady Goodwitch and the White Arcana, I order the two of you to make your way to the White Cathedral and assist there."
The huntsmen, one man and one woman, didn't move.
"Did you not hear me? These are orders from Lady Goodwitch. Why are you not going?"
Now that they'd been told to answer, they did. The woman spoke. "We have been told not to leave our posts under any circumstances, Lady Arcanist. We will not leave our posts."
"Not even if there is a Wildmage on the loose? Have you not heard the bells?"
"We have, Lady Arcanist, but we have been told to stay and we must."
"The Wildmage may come here," the other added. "Our orders are absolute."
Damn it. She'd really hoped that would work to move them. Ruby bit her lip and touched the handle of her small dagger. She was quick and wily, but these weren't arrogant Arcanists who didn't expect an opponent to get in close. These were trained fighters, knights even, and it would be like jumping Jaune or Sun and expecting them not to react. In short, suicide.
"A-Are there any within who can respond to the call for aid?" Ruby tried. "There must be spare among you who can go."
The man and the woman exchanged looks. "There are surplus huntsmen at the Sanctum," the woman said. "In the event that some of us fall."
"Go deliver my orders to them then. You two stay, and any more who must, but we need every spare huntsman possible out there looking for the Wildmage!"
The man bowed and moved away from the door. "As the Lady Arcanist commands. I shall inform the others."
He left, and Ruby was sure that at least some of them would be gone within minutes. Honestly, they should have asked for proof of who she said she was, but that was the flaw with them. They had such limited mental capacity left that it didn't occur to them they might be tricked. It wasn't their fault really. This was a mistake the White Arcana had made with its precious thralls. While the woman remained to guard the door, Ruby made her way over to Nicholas Arc.
"Nick," she whispered. "Nick, it's me. Ruby. Do you remember me?"
His eyes were so vacant, and yet he managed a small smile. "My son…?"
"Yes!" It was close enough. Closer than she dared to hope for. "I'm your son's friend. I've met your wife, Juniper. I… I'm here to save your son. I'm here to save Jaune."
"I… I… remember." Nicholas Arc's brow creased. "Inner Sanctum. He is… in the Inner Sanctum."
"I know." Ruby whispered. "You're going to take me there."
"I… yes…" Nicholas stood unsteadily. Louder, he said, "Yes Lady Arcanist. Your will shall be done."
A cue. He was giving her a hint. Ruby nodded and turned back to the huntress. "You there. I am borrowing this huntsman for a task. You can both guard that door and watch over the main desk, can't you?"
"I can, Lady Arcanist."
"Then do so. Huntsman," she commanded Nicholas. "Lead on."
Nicholas nodded. "Yes, Lady Arcanist…" He moved over to a sealed door behind his desk and toward the wall, removed a key from his belt and unlocked it. The huntress watched them but couldn't leave her post.
The corridor they entered was short and led to a steep staircase down. Nicholas stopped her at the top and said, "Any Arcanists beyond this point are to be considered rogue and killed by huntsmen. That is the law."
Beyond that point. Ruby took a deep breath. "Do you intend to follow that law?"
"A Wildmage runs amok in the Collegium." Nicholas Arc searched her eyes. "That… is you. Isn't it…?"
Deny. Deny. Deny. Ruby touched her knife and said, "Yes."
"I… suspected…" Nicholas turned away and released the one-handed sword at his side. He took a deep breath and let it go. "You… You are close to my son. Jaune. You… You will save him."
"That's part of why I'm here. I also want to save the other Wildmages in here." It was a risk telling him, but if she was going to be helpless in here then she needed an ally. "Please, Nicholas. The White don't have your best interests at heart. Maybe I don't either, but Jaune is my friend – he's important to me. I'm not going to leave him to suffer. To become…"
"Like me?" Nicholas asked mirthfully. "A husk of a man like his father?"
Ruby swallowed. "Yes."
The man laughed harshly. "Yes," he agreed, "That would be a terrible fate." His speech, which was normally so scattered, sounded clearer. He sounded more confident. More aware. That must have taken great effort from him. "Draw your weapon, Lad- child." His eyes grew clearer. He drew his own sword but held it ahead instead of pointing it at her. "Magic will not help you here. The Sanctum's power is fed by the inner sanctum. It is… It is the source. It is what fortifies our curse, what pushes it out over the building."
"Can it be stopped? I know huntsmen will always be immune to magic, but can the immunity effecting the building be lifted?"
"Yes. Save my son and it will fall." Nicholas took the first step, and Ruby followed anxiously behind. "Save my son and those above will regain their powers. How far they get, however, will be out of your control."
Because Cinder and Adam would still have to escape the Sanctum, and it would still be crawling with huntsmen. Ruby took a deep breath and let it go. All she could do was trust that they'd be able to look after themselves.
Drawing her knife and tugging her hood up, Ruby followed Nicholas down into the inner sanctum, where no Arcanist could ever go.
/-/
They found her kneeling.
The people rushed forward, rushed to her, lifted her up and checked her for wounds. Cuts, bruises, burns and more. Something cold like water ran over her skin and the aches lifted. Soothing sensations flooded through her body; blood that had dried across skin flaked away as hands cupped her face.
"Lady Goodwitch!" the woman in green said. "Can you hear me? Lady Goodwitch, are you alright?" Her hand came up. Fingers too. "How many fingers am I holding up? Do you feel dizzy?"
"…"
"Why isn't she responding?" a man in white demanded of the woman in green. More people of the same white crowded around her with anxious expressions. They were dirty, sooty and grimy. "Lady Goodwitch!" the man tried. "Grand Arcanist Goodwitch – speak to us. The White Cathedral has been attacked; the bells tell of a Wildmage on the loose. We need instruction!"
Grand Arcanist Glynda Goodwitch fixed her eyes on the man and opened her mouth. A torrent of puerile, babyish sounds came out, followed by a giggle and then a gurgle. The green-eyed woman lolled back, smiling dumbly at the woman in green. "Gurglll. Eeeeh. Uuuuh…" she opined, delighted at the sound of her own voice. "Maaaa! Bwaahhhh." Her lips tested the words and dragged them out. She giggled. "Ehehehe…"
The Arcanists stepped back in horror. One tripped over the empty bottle on the floor, landed on his rear and stared at it. Others pressed themselves against the walls, shaking their heads no.
In the centre of the room, the woman whose mind had been reduced to that of a newborn baby gurgled and babbled away. Her hands batted at the green woman's clothing.
"What… What do we tell everyone?" one of the White asked. "The new king is expecting to see her – she was supposed to be coronated as Grand Arcanist. Everyone is waiting for her orders."
"She can't be seen like this!" another said. "The memory tincture isn't to be known!"
"What else can we do? How do we explain this?"
"We don't." The first of the White Arcanists closed his eyes grimly. He reached into his robes and drew a small, sharp knife, then approached the helplessly babbling woman. Lady Goodwitch, with nothing more than the mind of a child, looked up at him curiously. Then at the knife, without once comprehending the danger. "We tell them Grand Arcanist Goodwitch faced the Wildmage in battle."
The man took hold of the woman's hair. Glynda made an unhappy sound. He closed his eyes.
One slice, a wet gurgle, and a damp thud.
"We tell them she fell in combat…"
So goes Glynda Goodwitch. Dying twice in a sense. The first perhaps deserved, but the second most certainly not. Man, I'm tired today. Going to have an early night to try and catch some sleep but I know I'm going to be running on fumes at work tomorrow. Argh.
Next Chapter: 5th December
P a treon . com (slash) Coeur