City of Whiterun, Skyrim…

Arlene gripped her tankard of ale tightly as she stared into the large hearth of the Bannered Mare Inn. No one inside questioned why Lydia had brought in a crying, snot-covered Elf in for a drink, and everyone was keen on giving them their privacy. Hulda, the middle-aged inn keeper brought the two of them tankards on the house, and when the flirtatious blonde bard Mikael approached to attempt to soothe Arlene's heart, a venomous glare from Lydia sent the boy running.

And so Lydia and Arlene sat in silence for several minutes as they nursed their drinks and warmed their bones by the fire. When Arlene's sniffles and hiccups finished and she simply stared blankly into the fire, Lydia found the time right to speak with her Lady once more.

"So my Thane, are you feeling better?" Lydia politely asked, speaking like Arlene was made of glass.

"Yes… Yes, I am." Arlene gave her a small smile. "And please, call me Arlene. I am not one for titles truly."

Lydia returned the smile and nodded. "Well then Arlene, now that you are, I think it may be a good idea to talk about what we're going to do."

Arlene flinched just the slightest at that, but took a deep, calming breath before she slowly nodded. "Agreed. To start with, like I said before, I do not want to go to the Greybeards."

"And like I said before, we won't." Lydia immediately agreed. "But then that leaves the question, what do you want to do?"

Arlene paused for a moment to think. She'd never been the type of person to really have a goal, or a desire. Ever since the Great War, she'd more or less just… drifted. Moving from one town to the next, from one contract to the next. The furthest out she'd ever really realistically considered was a few weeks at most.

"I came to Skyrim to work as a sellsword. You know, mercenary work." Arlene finally answered.

Lydia nodded her head in understanding. "Well if you wish to do mercenary work, then how about we visit the Companions? There is no greater group of warriors and sellswords in all of Skyrim."

Arlene tilted her head to the side for a second, recalling the Companions she met outside of Whiterun earlier in the day when they slayed that giant. In all honesty, it was just that morning but it felt like a lifetime ago. "Yeah… that sounds like a good idea." Arlene felt a small smile creeping on her face, excitement at the idea replacing her previous fear and anxiety.

Seeing her charge's mood lighten, Lydia smiled in almost a motherly way. "Then we can go see them tomorrow morning." she then motioned to Hulda to bring them another round. "But for now, we drink."

When the two steins of ale were brought to them, Arlene grinned wider, and the two drank well into the night to forget their earthly troubles.

The next day, Arlene and Lydia found themselves standing outside of the mead hall Jorrvaskr. Upon closer inspection, Arlene actually realized that the roof of the mead hall was the upside down hull of a ship, propped up by walls of the building. Weird.

Shrugging off that interesting tidbit, Arlene entered the mead hall, and her eyes were immediately drawn to the variety of warriors currently eating a hearty breakfast within. Most were Nords, as was to be expected, but there were a few other races she didn't expect, like a lightly armored Dunmer, the Imperial woman Nila she saw the day before, as well as a Redguard.

A few heads turned to Arlene and Lydia as they entered, and besides some curious looks, most returned to their meals. One voice however, rang out above the ambient conversation.

"Arlene! Glad you could come!" Aela the Huntress boisterously cheered as she stood from her table, approaching the elf and patting her overenthusiastically on the shoulders. "I heard about how you helped out in that dragon fight yesterday! Busy girl, a dragon and a giant all in one day! Now that's what I call Companion material!"

With Aela's gloating, more and more Companion's seemed to take interest in Arlene's arrival, causing the Wood Elf to blush at all the attention. "I just helped out in both of those fights. That's all."

"That's not what I heard." Aela replied with a savage grin. "Sven in the town guard said a tiny Bosmer woman is the one who killed the Dragon, ripped out its throat with her bare fucking hands before she ate its soul!"

Making a mental note to kill this Sven later, Arlene waved off Aela. "Exaggerations, I promise."

"Well rumors don't come from nowhere, young lady." A new voice spoke out. This was an old Nord, far older than the rest of the Companions, with long white hair and a matching beard, with steel armor decorated with wolf iconography. As he stood and approached, Arlene took careful note at the amount of respect the rest of the warriors were giving him. He must've been their leader.

"Are you Kodlak Whitemane?" Arlene asked, ensuring she sounded tough but not boorish.

The old man nodded. "Indeed I am. And who are you, stranger, to come into my hall?"

Arlene gave a small bow. "I am Arlene of Valenwood. I am here because I wish to join the Companions."

"Do you now?" Kodlak looked her over carefully. "Hmm, yes you do have a look about you. Perhaps a certain strength of spirit. But while you may have proven yourself to Aela, you are unknown to the rest of us. How are you in battle lass?"

Part of Arlene was insulted that he was questioning her skill in battle. She'd fought in the Great War, been a mercenary for years, and had just killed a dragon yesterday. By the Laughing God she was probably older than him despite his snow-colored hair. But another part of her soul, the more cautious part, told her that this man was dangerous, and that gloating would get her nowhere.

"Good enough to know that there is always someone better." Arlene answered. Between the giant, the dragon, and now Kodlak, that idea was proving true more often than Arlene liked.

Kodlak barked out a laugh. "Wise words. Remember, the day you stop learning is the day you die. Today, why don't we have Vilkas test you and see if you can't learn a thing or two."

Arlene and Lydia followed Kodlak, Aela, Vilkas, and a small audience of bored Companions as they exited Jorrvaskr and entered the training grounds. Looking at Vilkas was strange to Arlene, having seen Farkas the day before. As expected of twin brothers, he looked like a mirror to Farkas. He had the same ruggedly handsome face and swept back brown hair. It would be easy to confuse the two save for the fact that Vilkas was more heavily armored and less… grungy looking than his brother. If anything, she preferred the more clean cut look of Vilkas, the dirty barbarian look was never really something she found attractive.

"Alright new blood, the old man said to take a look at you, so let's do this." Vilkas rolled his shoulder before he drew a sword and shield.

Arlene nodded her head, drawing her own sword and a dagger. "What are the rules?"

"Winner is the one who can take first blood, force his opponent onto his back, or make his opponent surrender." Vilkas stated. "No magic, and you fight your own battles. Your housecarl stays back."

"Fair enough." Arlene said as she twirled her blades, specifically trying to ignore how some of the other Companions were currently trading gold on who would win.

"5 gold on Vilkas." A drunken, blonde Nord called out.

"Same here!" The dunmer shouted out next.

"Cowards, the lot of you. Taking the safe bet." Aela berated them. "20 gold on the newcomer."

"Wow." Vilkas said with some real surprise in his voice as he bent into his stance. "You really must've made an impression on Aela."

"That's me, I suppose." Arelene gave a half-hearted bow. "I somehow impress a lot."

"Well then, impress me!" Vilkas shouted as he made the first move.

Vilkas charged right for Arlene, and cut the distance between the two in an instant. Caught off guard, Arlene was barely able to dodge Vilkas' shield as he tried to bash her to the ground. Hoping to use her mobility to her advantage, Arlene moved to Vilkas' left, trying to get to his flank, past his shield.

But as he proved with his initial charge, Vilkas was quite fast and agile for someone wearing heavy steel armor. The Companion was able to move and rotate with Arlene, always keeping his shield interposed between himself and the elf.

Arlene frowned. It was obvious Vilkas wasn't going to make this easy, but she was annoyed that he was dictating the fight so effortlessly. He was forcing her to come at him with a head on attack. Twirling her blades, Arlene smirked as she wanted to make him regret trying to force her to do anything.

Arlene charged forward, like Vilkas expected. The Companion grinned as Alrene was proving she had some actual warrior's blood in her, and swung his blade horizontally as she approached. That was exactly what Arlene was waiting for. As Vilkas swung, Arlene dropped low, going into a slide tackle as she slipped right beneath his attack. Vilkas' eyes widened with surprise and Arlene was then able to swing her sword and land a light tap on the side of his leg. With the rest of her momentum, Arlene continued sliding past Vilkas, where she then pushed herself back up to her feet behind him.

"Were this a real fight, I would've hamstrung you there!" Arlene taunted, smiling as some of the audience clapped and cheered for her.

"But this isn't a real fight, and you should've wasted an opportunity to take first blood!" He gruffly responded as his face focused once more.

Vilkas charged again, but this time he was faster. Apparently he no longer saw the need to hold back as he once more closed the distance between them. Biting back a curse, Arlene tried to retreat, but found that Vilkas turned into a bloodhound, relentless in his pursuit, not letting her get any kind of distance. Once more she tried to side step and get around them, but this time Vilkas didn't just block her; he bashed her in the face with his shield. Blood dripped down Arlene's nose as she was buffeted by the attack, but Vilkas wasn't done. Following up with a flurry of sword cuts, it took all of Arlene's skill and experience just to block and dodge all of his attacks.

From this one sided exchange, Arlene could tell how much better a fighter Vilkas honestly was than her. Arlene was purely on the defensive, unable to find any openings or opportunities to counter attack as Vilkas wouldn't give her any. All he had to do was wait for her to mess up once and he could take her down. But a strange, competitive part inside of Arlene didn't want to just roll over and accept defeat even though he was better. She wanted to win. And if she wanted to win, she'd need to do something risky to do so.

When Vilkas paused to take a single breath and recover his stamina, Arlene made her move. Moving forward rather than back, Arlene tried to reverse the momentum by charging straight into Vilkas. She raised her sword up high with a wide, almost amateurish attack that Vilkas saw coming from a mile away. As he tensed to block the attack however, Arlene instead flicked her left hand and flung her dagger right for Vilkas' head.

Vilkas' eyes widened at the sneak attack, and he was barely able to adjust his shield in time to block the thrown dagger. In doing so however, Vilkas cut off his sightline on Arlene, giving her the opportunity she needed. Immediately Arlene moved to Vilkas' flank with speed only a Wood Elf could have. Swinging her sword, Arlene aimed the blade right for a chink between his shoulder pauldron and breastplate, looking to draw first blood.

But then something happened. Vilkas reacted with reflexes that, in Arlene's experience, were definitely beyond human. Within a split second, Vilkas dropped his own sword and twisted his body, allowing him to grab Arlene's own sword arm. Using his shield, he then punched the sword out of Arlene's hand, disarming her completely. Still locked in his grip, Arlene was helpless as the stronger Vilkas then pulled her up and threw her into the ground with a body slam.

The impact of the throw knocked the wind out of Arlene's lungs and she was immediately seeing stars. She could vaguely hear the sounds of cheering and disappointed moans around her. Looking up, she saw the wild face of Vilkas, teeth bared, practically snarling at her. Then, just as suddenly as the expression appeared, it then disappeared as his face became a more passive, if perhaps even slightly perturbed neutral.

Still holding onto Arlene's wrist, Vilkas pulled her up. He didn't immediately say anything, instead seemed to mull over what just happened with a strange expression on his face.

Kodlak was the one who spoke first instead. "That was quite impressive, Arlene." he said with a jolly tone only an old man could have. "None of the other recent recruits lasted even half as long as you did in their tests." Kodlak then gave Vilkas his own strange, inscrutable look. Vilkas looked away from him.

"Still doesn't change the fact that I lost." Arlene let her head hang, somewhat down on herself. "I don't understand how my last move didn't catch you there." She half said to herself and half asked Vilkas.

Before he could respond, Kodlak spoke once more. "It is like you said. No matter how good you are, you should always assume there is someone better out there." He smiled kindly at her. "But enough of that, I judge you worthy to be among our numbers. Welcome to the Companions, new blood."

Companions around him cheered at Arlene's induction to their ranks. And despite herself, and all the craziness her life had become in the past few days, Arlene couldn't help but smile at the warm welcome she was receiving.

A few days later…

Arlene strode into Jorrvaskr, Lydia silently shadowing her footsteps, proudly carrying a large bear pelt over her shoulder. Walking past a few of the other drinking Companions she strode straight to Aela and plopped the pelt on the wooden table in front of the huntress.

Aela raised an eyebrow. "Well that was quick."

"I do know a thing or two about hunting animals." Arlene cockily said as she put her hand on her hip. "And if you want, I could show you just how much I know." she winked at Aela. Lydia rolled her eyes behind her Thane.

Smirking, Aela only shook her head. "Don't get cocky. You elves may think you're all the best woodsmen around, but you've never hunted with me before sister."

"So is that a yes?" Arlene asked a little bit too quickly, her voice almost cracking, drawing a blush from her.

The smirk on Aela's face deepend. "It's a maybe. But before any of that, you need to go speak with Skjor, he's been waiting for you to return."

Arlene scowled at the surprising news. She didn't dislike Skjor, despite his gruff, abrasive attitude, or the fact that she was sure they were both vying for Aela's attention. But the man had barely spoken to her. Why was he looking for her now?

"I guess I should go seek him out then." Arlene muttered.

Aele nodded. "He's down stairs in his room. Happy hunting, shield-sister."

Saying a quick goodbye in return, Arlene then moved to Jorrvaskr's lower levels, where she found him in his quarters, sitting at a wooden desk, reading some papers. The gruff, bald, one-eyed man turned to look at her as she entered.

"Whelp, there you are." Skjor curtly greeted.

"Skjor." Arlene gave a slow bow of her head. "You wanted to see me?"

"I did. I have a job for you. One that would prove yourself a true member of the Companions."

Arlene cocked a brow. She wasn't a full member yet? "What do you need me to do?"

"Last week a scholar came to us, saying he knew where we could find another fragment of Wuuthrad. If he's right, the honor of the Companions demands we retrieve it." Skjor bluntly laid out.

That surprised Arlene. She had seen the broken axe hung upon Jorrvaskr's wall, and heard the story of Ysgramor and his original 500 Companions. To have found another piece so soon after she joined was… fortuitous she supposed.

"I'd be honored to retrieve it." Arlene said again. She knew being straightforward and respectful towards Skjor was the best way to talk to him.

"There's a fine line between respect and boot-licking, whelp." Skjor rebuked, proving Arlene wrong. "But I like your spirit. This will be your trial. Do well, and you'll be counted among the Companions. In addition, Farkas will be your Shield-Sibling on this venture. He'll answer any questions you have. Try not to disappoint. Or get him killed."

Arlene nodded her head as she left to find Farkas now. Lydia agreed to stay behind, as this was private, Companions business, and Farkas could be trusted to protect Arlene. She found the grungy twin outside in the training yard, and together, the two left that day for Dustman's Crypt.

Beacon Academy, Present Day…

The sun was falling over Beacon Academy as the freshly cleaned teams JNPR and RWBY made their ways into the school cafeteria. They were tired, bruised, and just generally happy to be refueling their bodies with a calorically dense and questionably healthy school meal. The two teams plodded their way to their seats as they sat down.

"Brothers, today was the worst." Jaune groaned as he poked at his meal of a burger and fries. "A ten mile hike, in the rain, with booby traps!? I think Professor Volkihar must actually be insane." Jaune groaned as he let his head hang.

Pyrrha gave him a small smile and a conciliatory pat on the back as Nora giggled to herself, whispering, "Heh, traps."

Ignoring Nora's words, Yang looked at their party. "You know, I have to say I'm somewhat inclined to agree with vomit boy." Yang then ignored Jaune's indignant squawk. "You guys remember what she did to Cardin the first day of class? Now I have no love for the guy, like at all, but damn, she didn't just chew him out. She beat him down and humiliated him. What kind of teacher does that?"

"Not that he didn't deserve it." Blake muttered quietly to herself.

"Okay she may be a little… extreme." Ruby conceded. "But I think her teaching method is pretty effective. I don't think I'll ever struggle reading a map after today."

Weiss shuddered at the memory of today's class.

"The Professor lives by an extreme sink or swim philosophy." Ren added on his thoughts. "A survival of the fittest ideal which pushes those with the ability to succeed, and leaves behind those who fail." the young man's face then turned into a frown. "I do not know how to feel about it."

"Well I for one am very impressed by her usage of Dust." Pyrrha awkwardly added on, trying to change to a lighter topic.

Ruby excitedly bounced forward. "Yeah! Summoning that storm with lightning Dust was amazing! I've only seen Professor Goodwitch do something similar. She's probably as good as you are with Dust Weiss. Maybe even better."

"Hey!" Weiss indignantly shouted, before reining in her emotions and thinking about the Professor's storm. "You're not wrong… I suppose. But she is a Professor at one of the most prestigious Huntsmen academies in the world. It only makes sense that she would be so skilled with Dust."

"Maybe she has a Semblance that works with Dust?" Yang added on.

The others nodded at her theory, as Dust affected Semblances wasn't exactly rare. Blake's shadow clones could be affected by the type of Dust Gambol Shroud was loaded with, and Weiss's glyphs could give different effects through Dust.

As they continued to eat and ponder these questions, something caught Jaune's eyes. "Hey guys, look. It's Professor Volkihar." he quietly said as he subtly gestured to the cafeteria's food line.

Unfortunately, no one else at the table was interested in subtly as they all turned around to gawk at the professor. And gawk they did, because trailing behind Professor Volkihar was a beautiful woman, with short cut brown hair, a flowing red dress, and eyes as glowing orange as the Professor's.

"Who is that?" Yang barely found the words as she stared at the unknown woman, jaw slack at her beauty.

The woman spoke and said something to the Professor, flashing a smile at Arlene, revealing a mouth with two, elongated canine teeth.

"She's a Faunus as well." Blake muttered, this time everyone heard it.

As Professor Volkihar and the new woman spoke, the woman seemed to notice all of the student's attention upon them, and whispered something into the Professor's ears. Arlene turned her head slightly, glancing at the students from the corner of her eyes. Immediately teams JNPR and RWBY returned to their meals, whistling to themselves as they pretended they were doing no wrong.

Arelene rolled her eyes before she sighed to herself. Looking at her companion she gestured to the students' table with her head, and the two women made their way over.

"Hello children." Professor Volkihar greeted with a courteous smile that set some of them on edge. "Enjoying the show?" She looked them over slowly, and none tried to meet her eyes, save for Jaune Arc, who only did so by accident.

"I uhh…" Jaune Arc fumbled out as the Professor zeroed on him. "Yes?"

Yang and Weiss facepalmed as Arlene raised a brow.

"Are you asking me or telling me?" Arlene said back.

Before the flustered boy could dig his grave further, the Professor's companion slapped her on the shoulder. "Oh come now Arlene, stop bullying the poor boy." she admonished, and to the student's surprise, cowing the overly enthusiastic Professor. "Would you all mind if we sat here?"

The students' stared at her in a mixture of surprise and outright awe, before they started clearing out space for the two adults. They sat down and placed their trays of food on the table, both getting small chicken salad wraps and some water.

As soon as the two women found themselves settled, Nora immediately leaned towards the unknown woman and asked, "So what's your name? And how do you know the Professor?" Ren then immediately pulled her back.

As soon as Nora asked the questions, Arlene's face brightened and she moved to say something, but then the woman's hand found itself placed over Arlene's mouth.

"I can do my own introductions, thank you Arlene." She sent the Professor a smile that did nothing to hide the threatening aura she emanated. "I am Serana Volkihar. Professor Arlene's sister."

Arlene seemed to pout at Serana's introduction, but gave a grumbled affirmation.

"Really?" Jaune asked, a bit surprised. "You don't really look all that similar."

"That's because we're half-sisters." Arlene answered. "We share the same Father but different Mothers. At the most we have the same teeth and eyes." Arlene bared her fangs at the students, but Serana only smacked her side once more.

"I'm not snarling at the children like an animal, Arlene." She admonished once more.

Ruby meanwhile, brightened at their antics as she practically jumped up on the table herself. "Really! That's awesome! Me and Yang are also half-sisters!" Ruby then wrapped her arm around Yang's shoulder and pulled her in close.

Yang grew a bit red in embarrassment. "Hey come on Rubes, play it cool." She then gave a weak smile to the Professors. "But yeah we are. Same Dad, different Moms, like you guys. We're studying to be huntresses just like our parents."

"A noble goal." Serana nodded her head. "How go your studies?"

"Pretty good." Ruby answered nonchalantly as she scooped some food into her mouth. "We have Professor Oobleck's class next, and we're going over the Faunus Revolution."

"Doctor Oobleck." Arlene corrected. "And I hope you're taking his lessons seriously. A lot can be learned from the history of war, both of tactics and strategies, and of deeper socio-political issues."

The students nodded at Arlene's advice.

"Are you going to start teaching as well, Miss Serana?" Blake surprisingly, was the one who asked, her eyes twinkling with interest.

Serana shook her head. "No, unfortunately not. I am only living here with Arlene because it saves on rent." She smiled as Arlene pouted once more. "Oh hush you know I love you. But I am doing my own research while I'm here."

"Intriguing. Research into what?" Weiss asked.

Serana waved her hand as she took a small nibble of her wrap. "A variety of topics that both interest me and the school. They range from potent Dust combinations to Grimm biology. I'm particularly interested in seeing if I can create permanent Dust enhancements onto weapons, eliminating the need to refill Dust vials in the middle of combat."

Both Weiss's and Ruby's eyes went wide. Weiss at the sheer value something like that would have, and Ruby for her love of weapons and weapon construction.

"That's… an amazing idea." Weiss finally said. "I personally use Dust vials in my rapier that I have to constantly replenish. If I could get a weapon that I wouldn't have to refill… but I would be limited in the type of Dust I would be using."

"Not necessarily." Ruby countered, her mind now shifting into work mode. "Dust blades have been a thing for a while, the only issue being that they're far more fragile than regular weapons. So weapons that use them typically have detachable blades. If the Dust was somehow worked into the metal though, you could get durable blades which give the elemental effects of Dust. And you could then use the detachable technology to swap blades in the middle of a fight for different effects."

"Which is close to the end goal of what I am researching." Serana added on, feeling a strange, almost proud feeling at the level of intelligence Ruby was displaying.

Weiss nodded her head, taking in the ideas. "Well Ms. Volkihar, if you do make any breakthroughs, I'm sure the Schnee Dust Company would be very interested in working with you and your product."

"Of course they would." Blake rolled her eyes, earning a glare from Weiss.

Before a fight could break out between the two, Pyrrha intervened and said to Serana, "You must be quite educated to know so much about so many topics."

Serana gave her a polite smile and nodded. "I'm older than I look, and I've had a long time to study."

"Oh!" Ruby then practically shouted, drawing all eyes to her as she then turned to the Professor. "Going back to weapons, Professor Volkihar, where did you get those weapons from class? That dagger had some of the finest craftsmanship I've seen!"

Arlene then beamed with smug satisfaction. "Oh, that old thing? Easy. I made it myself." Arlene crossed her arms, and tilted her nose up at Ruby's admiration. "The metal is mostly quicksilver and a special ore called moonstone. Together it makes an alloy that is both stronger and lighter than steel."

Ruby's eyes were wide at Arlene's explanation.

Serana shook her head. "Please don't inflate her ego, Ruby. It's big enough as it is."

"But it's amazing Serana!" Ruby countered. "I tested the knife myself. Like you said Professor, it was lighter than a steel blade, but held an edge better. It was almost like it's some kind of golden titanium."

Arlene opened her mouth to gloat once more, but a glare for Serana cut her off. Arlene shut her mouth, and opted to reply with a simple. "Yeah. I'm proud of them."

Before they could continue the conversation any further, the bell rang. The students looked at each other with worry.

"Sorry to cut this short professor, Serana, but we have to eat and run!" Ruby shouted as she started shoveling the rest of her food into her mouth as she stood up to get ready to go to class.

"Stop eating like a barbarian!" Weiss shouted as she stood up as well, taking a few last second bites of her food before leaving.

The rest of the students said their goodbyes, and soon enough, Arlene and Serana were practically alone in the cafeteria. The two women nodded to each other and decided to take their meals to their room.

After a short walk, the two reached the teacher's dorms. Once they were inside the privacy of their own room, they incinerated their food. It was good to be seen eating, but they didn't actually need to. Not when there was blood to sustain them.

"So, what do you think of them?" Arlene asked her lover.

Serana put her thumb and index finger to her chin as she thought. "Ruby is young, definitely more impressionable. It would be easy to manipulate her, but young, idealists tend to stick to strict morals."

Arlene nodded in agreement. "True. I still think Weiss would be the best choice. She's ambitious, prideful, happy to jump on opportunities when they present themselves. Plus her connections to the Schnee Dust Company would make her useful." Arlene then took a seat on her desk chair.

"Perhaps. But what about Blake?" Serana asked as she took her own seat, crossing her legs and sitting up straight.

"Blake?" Arlene parroted with a confused eyebrow. "She barely said two sentences while we spoke."

Serana smiled smugly at Arlene, as she had seen something her partner had missed. "You didn't notice, but while Blake barely said anything, she was staring at us practically the whole time."

"I mean, we are rather attractive."

Rolling her eyes, Serana said. "It wasn't a lustful stare, I know what that's like. It was more… admiration. It was a look I'd seen on some of the more fervent followers when they looked at my Father. It was hero worship."

"That is… interesting." Arlene said, deep in thought. "I'll look into Blake's files. Get some more context on her."

"Do you plan on enthralling or turning any of them?" Serana asked, tilting her head to the side.

Arlene paused for a moment, but then shook her head. "No, not for now. But we do need allies outside of Ozpin, and they're a good place to start. They are young and malleable, allies for decades if we can convert them."

Serana nodded his head. With that choice made, she then asked, "So what did you find out from your meeting with Ozpin?"

Arlene smiled and leaned forward, showing she had learned much. "The mage beneath the tower, the one we sensed. Her name is Amber."

"You met her?"

"If by meeting her you mean staring at her comatose body, then yes." Arlene snarked. At Serana's unamused look, Arlene explained. "Someone tried to Soul Trap her, but somehow only succeeded in taking half of it."

That got a surprised look from the vampiric Arch-Mage. "How did that happen?"

"The spell was interrupted by one of Ozpin's men. A huntsman named Qrow." Arlene answered. "Her magic powers come from being something called a Maiden, a woman possessed by a spirit that gives them access to magic."

Serana paused to process this information. "Can we take this power?"

"Sorry, but apparently the power can only be passed to a young woman. And neither of us fit that description." Arlene chuckled. "But more importantly, I learned that Ozpin has an organization used to protect the Maidens. And they'll most likely fight against whomever he is scared of. And he wants us to be part of it."

"No doubt to use our magic powers for his own ends." Serana snorted.

Arlene nodded. "I'm still unsure whether or not we should join. If we do we could use the position to spy, but we'll probably be under far greater scrutiny than we currently are. Not to mention Ozpin would expect us to fight for him." Arlene shrugged, she still had time to decide on what to do. "What about you? What have you found?"

"I've been going out and experimenting with Grimm at night. I confirmed that they have no souls, as I wasn't able to Soul Trap one. And I also confirmed that, like we found early on, they are susceptible to Illusion magic. But I came to one other very important conclusion from my tests." Serana paused as she shifted her pose, swapping the positioning of her crossed legs.

"Oh? Do tell."

"As far as I can tell, a long term, mind altering spell, like our Vampire's Seduction, can put a Grimm under our control permanently." Serana grinned at her companion.

Arlene's eyes went wide at that. "That… is very good news."

Serana nodded her head. "So what do you think? We could start enthralling Grimm and build an army of foot soldiers."

Arlene was silent for several long moments, plans racing through her mind. Eventually, she said, "No. While so very tempting, gathering an army of Grimm would attract far too much attention, not to mention we don't have a base outside of Beacon to keep them. We'll keep it in mind though."

"Fair enough." Serana agreed. "So what's the plan now?

"I have an idea." Arlene smirked.

"You mean scheme." Serana interjected.

"Scheme, idea, nefarious plot, it's all the same." Arlene waved off Serana's jab. "I've been building a reputation here, both with the students and faculty. However, it's time we get acquainted with this world's underbelly."

"Interesting. How do you want to do that?"

Arlene already had an answer. "I want you to head into Vale and see if you can find this world's equivalent of the Thieves Guild or Dark Brotherhood. Start with the city's homeless. Give them Lien, food, alcohol, whatever it is they need. Homeless are after all, the best spies. They are everywhere and no one spares them a second glance."

"I know how to entreat the children of Namira." Serana snapped at Arlene, annoyed that her sister was talking to her as if she's never done this before.

Arlene put up both hands placatingly. "I know love, I know. Just wanted to make sure." She then put her hands down and smiled. "So will you do it?"

Serana rolled her eyes and stood. "Of course I'll do it." She then strode over to Arlene and gave her a deep, passionate kiss. "I'll head out tonight."

"Or you could head out tomorrow morning." Arlene wiggled her eyebrows.

Serana flicked Arlene on the forehead. "I'll head out tonight."

A/N, 9/27/21: And we're back! Been a long time since I got to write for Spinner of Webs, and man is it refreshing to do so. With Legion of the Damned and Jaune Arc, Lord of Hunger both finished, I am now going to start regularly updating this story alongside my Worm+Warhammer Crossover Flesh is Weak. If you're interested in that, please go check it out! No review responses for now, thanks for reading, and I'll see you in the next one!