[X] No. She couldn't afford to wait, when it came to this.
The wagon creaked, as Blake rested in the back of it. The boxes full of Dust surrounded her, as she looked upwards into the covered roof, deep in thought.
Another reason to hate her burns. They made her recognisable. Getting in and out of the walls of the Kingdom wasn't as easy for Blake as it was for everyone else. She was too easy to identify, especially after being seen in the robberies she had pulled. It meant she had to be creative about getting in and out, and even with some fake identification, the resemblance was too strong for Blake to take the risk getting past a border guard.
Usually, there was a simple enough solution. A secret tunnel to sneak out of, an area near the border that wasn't monitored. But that did her no good, she needed to take the Dust with her as well. Without it, the entire plan fell apart.
Getting the Dust out at all was something that took a bit of difficulty. Fortunately, Blake had known enough to have the White Fang organise a cover story.
As far as anyone knew, the wagon was carrying supplies to a village outside of the Kingdoms. It was far enough away that by the time people realised the wagon wasn't arriving, the plan would be long since completed or failed, and whatever the conclusion, Blake would be long gone. Finding someone who sold horses was a bit of a difficulty, but it helped with the image of this being a long trip to a minor village if they avoided using automated transportation, so it was worth the price.
The real difficult part of the plan was getting past the border in the first place. Whatever was done, it had to be something that wouldn't draw attention, which meant that Blake couldn't just blow something up and charge through while nobody could stop her. Not could she just have Ilia sneak in and knock out whoever was monitoring this exit.
Or, well, not just that. Fortunately, the border of the Kingdom was far enough away from the cities that the main concern was with protecting the border from unwelcome Grimm, and non-Grimm criminals weren't as much of a concern. Especially not criminals leaving the Kingdom, where they couldn't do any harm. It'd be reported if they were found, yes, but it wasn't that hard to maintain a cover.
Which just meant that things had to look not suspicious. Fortunately, Blake knew how to handle this. Step one was up to Kettler Hackel, the enormous lieutenant of the White Fang. He was old and tough looking enough to look like he'd be able to handle Grimm for the most parts, and he wasn't immediately identifiable on a wanted poster like Blake was, which made him the perfect pick to put on a wanted poster.
And from there, all that Blake needed to do was make sure that the person on guard duty was sufficiently distracted that they didn't bother looking into the wagon. Which was why there was a bunch of White Fang members who had snuck out earlier luring Grimm near the border.
Blake heard the wagon draw to a stop, and she quickly looked around to confirm that the boxes around her would block her from anything short of an in-depth examination of the wagon.
"Cargo?" A grizzled old voice called out, from the front of the wagon.
"Standard supplies." Kettler replied. "Canned food. Water. Some steel. Some Dust. The usual."
"Hm." The grizzled voice noted, drawing closer to the wagon for a bit, before stopping.
"You know what, I don't care." He decided. "There's been a bunch of Grimm near the border, friend, and I can't waste my time going through your crates. Go ahead, you're free to go. But keep your wits about you, and your weapon moreso."
"Thanks." Kettler replied, before there was a crack of the reins to encourage the horses to send them onwards. Blake looked up to the roof, keeping quiet as the wagon went over a bump, causing her head to shift up and then slam down on the wood she was resting on. The road smoothed out a moment after that, and Blake kept resting, as the wagon was pulled onwards, further and further.
It took a few minutes, before Kettler spoke up.
"We're gone." He called back. "Border's out of sight. Nobody here but us."
Blake sighed in relief. "Good."
"You staying back there?" Kettler asked.
"Still a bit close for my tastes. If someone passes, don't want to have to hurry back out of sight. Need to play it safe."
"This wouldn't be as much of a problem if you hadn't left witnesses." Kettler noted, over the sound of the horses clopping along the stone.
Blake's hand tightened over Adam's sword, before she forced herself to relax.
"And prove Four right?" Blake asked. "I don't think so."
"There's no room for an ideological victory in war." Kettler replied. "Once everyone opposing you is dead, then you can care about ideals. If you want to prove yourself better then the enemy, do it when they can't kill you for it."
Blake went quiet, as she looked up to the roof of the wagon.
"Not in the mood?" Kettler asked, at her silence. "Alright, then. Just keep it in mind, Belladonna."
There was the sound of the reins cracking through the air, and the horses started trotting along faster.
"It's a long ride, Belladonna." Kettler advised. "And you're going to want to be well rested when we arrive. You should get some sleep."
"You might have a point." Blake decided, securing her scroll beside her head, by a strap holding a box to the wagon. "There's an alarm on my scroll, call it to set it off if there's an emergency."
There wasn't a reply from the Faunus at the front of the cart, as he kept guiding the horses along.
Closing her eyes, Blake vaguely wondered which nightmare she was going to have tonight.
She wasn't sure how long it was before the dreams of being burnt alive subsided, but Blake awoke eventually. It was still dark out when she did, but she could see the beginnings of a sunrise in the distance. So she'd had at least six hours of sleep, depending on how long it took her to doze off.
"Morning." She called, as she sat up.
"You're awake?" Kettler asked, before the horses came to a stop. "Good. Get out here, I've been awake for too long, we're swapping."
"Alright." Blake decided. She didn't really care enough to debate the point. "Which box had the food?"
"There's one open on the driver bench." Kettler replied, as he got off the wagon. He began walking around, and Blake shifted aside one of the boxes in her path so she could slide off, pulling her scroll, mask and Adam's sword with her.
Taking a quick moment to stretch, she noted Kettler pass by her, before throwing his chainsaw into the wagon.
"Wake me in a few hours." He decided, as he crawled in.
Blake rubbed a crick on her back, before attaching Adam's sword and sheath to her hip, and walking around the front of the wagon.
There were two horses, one black with white spots and one white with black spots. The sun was rising in the right, in a position where the burned side of her face would be exposed to sunlight first.
Still, she had a bit to go. Grabbing the reins on the horse, Blake briefly considered the fact that she had no idea how to steer horses.
Well, she would just have to guess. Crack the reins to make them go, pull them tight to make them stop, maybe pull it one way to make them turn?
Well, she'd figure it out.
Blake cracked the reins, and off she went.
Her scroll beeped as she tapped it with her off hand, quickly opening a map and checking her progress. It would be a while before they got to Mount Chantico. Once she was there, though, she'd have to be ready.
Her anonymous helper told only a little bit what to expect, of those that lived within Mount Chantico. The wyverns were useless for her goals, since they were basically big scaly, winged dogs. They wouldn't have the knowledge to forge a Pact. Even with what her saviour had told her, she didn't know enough about the process to forge the Pact with something that didn't know how to do it itself.
Which left two possibilities, one of which she knew would be harder, and either way, she'd need to negotiate on a quick time limit before getting out. If she didn't use all the Dust at once, she might be able to go in and then leave to consider, but that meant staying longer and giving the pursuers time to catch up.
"That's probably something you'd want to avoid." A voice said to her left, and Blake jumped as she turned towards the young woman who had saved her several months ago.
"What are you doing here?" Blake asked.
"Checking in on you." The girl replied. "Today's the day, huh?"
"I don't suppose you'd be willing to do that teleport thing to get us there faster?" Blake asked.
"Sorry." The woman sighed. "Rules. I technically broke them when I helped you out last time. And it's not technically teleportation, and there's a bunch of restrictions..."
She sighed. "It's annoying."
"So why are you here?" Blake asked. "If you can't help-"
"Bending the rules a little." The woman replied. "I'm not supposed to get attached to people, but you're not- And I can't tell you. Point is, I don't have enough friends, you're lonely, big sleeper back there's no good conversation, and I have an excuse. By the way-"
She reached over and tugged at the reins a bit, pulling the horses to the left. "It'll be faster like this."
Blake pushed her hands away. "I'm not lonely." She insisted.
"Yes you are." The young woman replied. "Granted, mostly because you're just scared of losing people again, but-"
"I'm not scared." Blake interrupted. "I'm not giving Four another weakness to exploit."
The woman sighed. "Therapy's not working. That's depressing. Sorry, Blake, I'm not exactly a therapist."
"Why are you here?" Blake demanded, feeling irritated. "If you don't have a good reason, tell me the excuse at least."
"Oh, that'd be the day job." The woman noted, reaching behind her. "How's the sword going for you?"
"It's worked fine." Blake answered.
The girl gave her a look.
"...It's no Gambol Shroud." Blake admitted. "I'm... Not a sword fighter."
"Exactly." The young woman noted. "So I think I might have a little solution to your current problem. You don't want to waste resources on remaking Gambol Shroud when you could just teach yourself sword play, but I think I can step in here."
Reaching out of Blake's sight, the young woman pulled out a list out of thin air.
"How much money do you have?" The girl asked. "I run a weapons shop, and can sell you some more things if you want."
"...I don't need more weapons." Blake shrugged off.
"Do you?" The woman asked. "I mean, you don't know how to use that sword anyway, not really. So why not just take a million and one different weapons and carry them everywhere?"
"I don't need more weapons." Blake repeated. "I need to learn the one I have."
"Are you sure about that?" The woman asked. "That weapon's holding you back, you know. It's too different from how you've fought previously. You're slow to transform it, you're swings are slower than if you were using Gambol Shroud, your movements are obvious, and I notice a lack of your old ribbon."
"I can get a new ribbon." Blake countered.
"Then why haven't you?" The girl asked. "It did a lot when you had it. Let you pull weapons back after throwing them. Could hook in and be a grappling hook. Use it to cut off oxygen supply. A lot of things."
Blake didn't reply to that.
...Why hadn't she gotten a new ribbon? It was something she was used to having in a fight, it'd make it a lot more convenient if she had it now, but at the moment, she hadn't. In fact, she hadn't touched Adam's sword at all since...
"You want to remember him, don't you?" The woman asked. "And that sword, that mask I made for you, that's all you have."
"...Yeah." Blake admitted. "I just... It's hard to know he's gone, you know? He was changing as time went on, got more violent, but he was still there at least. Now all that's left of him is me and the sword."
"And now you're risking one to maintain the other." The weaponsmith replied. "Well, I know you don't want to just let go of the sword, but be practical, at least? I mean, you should probably carry along one more weapon. Just for the surprise factor. In fact..."
The girl quickly ripped off some of the pieces of paper, and threw them to the wind.
"...Here! I got some magic weapons picked out, and if you want to grab one of these just so you can use them, go ahead and rip it off the page and throw it away, I'll wait for my payment at your destination. Just, uh, keep in mind, the transformations on them are meant to keep them small and hidden. If you tweak that, the magic might stop working."
She shoved the list of weapons in front of Blake, and the Faunus girl looked down at it for a moment.
"If these are magic weapons, why didn't you offer them earlier-" Blake began, only to look up and realise that the young woman was gone already.
With the sunlight starting to bother her, Blake looked down and briefly considered the apparent magic weapons.
If any of them were legitimate, then they could be useful in battle at some point. And Blake's mysterious sponsor did have some unusual abilities, so she was likely to assume that it was possible these weapons had some sort of power.
Thinking it over, Blake wondered if maybe her friend had a point.
There was nothing stopping her from remaking Gambol Shroud, and yet she'd persisted with Adam's sword. That was a mistake, now that someone had pointed it out. She was using a weapon she wasn't used to, refusing to modify it to make it easier for her to use, and wasn't adapting to it fast enough either.
She'd have to correct these, in future. Maybe use Wilt and Blush to help her build a new Gambol Shroud, fusing the two. Maybe just modify the red blade to make it easier for her to use, by shortening the blade and attaching a ribbon.
But that'd take time either way, and she couldn't exactly do it while she was riding to a volcano. And besides, she was vaguely curious about these magic weapons.
Well, she may as well take a chance.
Noting the prices on them saying she could only afford one, Blake tore off and threw away the piece of paper containing information on-
[X] Glory's Bane- A dagger which allowed the user to create and control swords out of light.
[X] Sorrow's Splinter- Those cut with this curved blade hear the screams of their failures.
[X] Slaughterism- A sword that produced electricity when exposed to blood. The more, the better.