Sorry for the week delay with this chapter, I got a bit swamped with school work so I had to postpone this chapter until now, but we should be back on schedule until further notice. Anyway, I hope you enjoy and don't forget to follow the story if you enjoy it and maybe leave a review as well, thanks.
Chapter Three: Consequences of Conflict
A man stood on the balcony overlooking Rouge's base and its diligent occupants. He wore long white priestly robes with red accents along with matching gloves and slacks, the latter of which were tucked into a pair of leather cuffed boots. He also wore an ornate silver mask that resembled a face. On the front of his robes was a large hollow circle with a red Teutonic Cross inside it, on each point of the cross was a symbol for a season; At the top was a bushel of wheat, to the right was a blazing sun, at the bottom was a golden leaf, and to the left was a snowflake.
Rouge stepped onto the balcony and walked up behind the man, "so, Arch Deacon Wolfe, what do you think?"
The man turned to face Rouge, "your grace…" he dropped to his hands and knees, "I am not worthy to be in the presence of such a divine being."
Rouge chuckled at the man, "Albus please stand, you need not grovel before me."
The man stood but refused to make eye contact with the Summer Maiden, "I'm sorry your grace, it's just being in the presence of a god can be a bit overwhelming, especially one as beautiful as yourself."
Rouge gently placed her hand under his chin and pushed his face towards hers and she smiled, "you flatter me, but understand this, while the maidens have great and immeasurable power, we are not gods, we were born as you were born, and we will die as you will die."
"You are as humble as you are beautiful, your grace," Albus bowed.
"Thank you, now, we have some business to discuss," Rouge leaned against the railing of the balcony and looked down upon her crusaders, "I plan to rid Remnant of all evil and remake the world anew, I need allies and loyal soldiers for this however."
"You seem to have plenty of allies, why do you need my help?" Albus inquired.
"I have but a thousand crusaders, everyone would fight and die to the last man for me, and I them… but, it is not enough, a thousand men cannot conquer the world," Rouge paused as she faced the Arch Deacon, "I wish to bring you into my circle, I would like to know what you can provide to our cause."
"I have no doubt that once I bring word to the masses of our meeting that they will be lining up by the tens of thousands to join your righteous cause, but that will take time," he paused and looked over Rouge's troops below, "for now however, I can pledge our five-thousand templars to you."
Rouge chuckled slightly as she heard what the Arch Deacon pledged. Her reaction surprised him slightly, "I have spent four of the past five years gathering what I have now; I saved Jet and Nilah from an abusive household and they brought nothing with them, Field Marshal Berg brought only a dozen Atlesian deserters that now serve as his officers when I brought him into the fold, but you Albus… you have given me more over the course of a single conversation than I have managed to gain over my time as a Maiden."
"I am glad that I have pleased you, and I hope to serve you faithfully till my last breath, your grace," Albus bowed.
"I'm sure you will, now follow me, it's time you met the others," Rouge began to walk back inside and was closely followed by the Arch Deacon.
Ember Haze made her way to Neptune's office as the day's first classes were getting underway. She didn't have a first period class for her time at Haven, but she would host the combat classes for the other Beacon Students who made the trip to Mistral. After that, she would be holding the qualifying matches for those competing in the Vytal Tournament.
She passed by the members of Team AYST and exchanged a cordial "good morning" with them before continuing on her way.
When Ember entered Neptune's office his back was turned to the door and he was looking out his window over Mistral. On the center of his desk was a short stack of paperwork, most likely the work he had to get done that day. Ember hadn't noticed it the previous day, but above the window Neptune was looking out of was a large Trident.
"Ah, Ember, nice of you to drop by," Neptune turned to face his compatriot.
Ember walked up to Neptune's desk, "you wanted to speak with me?"
"Yes, please make yourself comfortable," Neptune motion towards the chairs and couch next to his desk.
Ember sat on the couch, "so, what is it, word on Summer or that cult?"
Neptune smiled as he sat, "no, nothing of such importance, I would've called for Winter and Marcus as well if that were the case."
"Then what is it you wanted to talk to me about?" She inquired.
"It seems word has reached your old master that you are back in Mistral, she was very keen on meeting with you," Neptune said.
Ember shivered lightly, "a-are you sure she said that?"
"Yes, I am, she would like to meet with you, and maybe observe your students a little," he said.
Ember gulped, "s-sure tell her she can observe our qualifiers at the end of the day."
"Very well, I'm sure she'll be elated when she hears the news," Neptune replied.
"Y-yeah…" She said.
Team BLAC exited one of Haven's lecture halls along with many other students from the other academies. They all looked tired and relieved to be out of the class.
"Who thought history could be so boring," Cyrus said.
"I know, Professor David doesn't have the same enthusiasm for the subject that Professor Arenas does," Bianca stated.
"Not to mention he sounds so flat when he lectures, he almost put me to sleep three times," Alyssa added.
"That's not all that hard to do," Lucas remarked.
Alyssa scolded her partner for a moment and then turned to her cousin, "anyway… what do we have next?"
Bianca pulled out their class schedule and skimmed it, "let's see… ah here it is, Grimm Studies with Professor S. Ayana."
"Let's hope he's not as strict as Professor Coventina," Cyrus said.
"She's only hard on us because she cares, she doesn't want any of her students going through what she went through," Alyssa said.
"Yeah, you're right on that," Lucas added.
As they walked through the halls to their next class, Alyssa began to remember the previous day's events. She took in a deep breath and then exhaled, unintentionally gaining the attention of her teammates.
"You ok?" Lucas asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Alyssa turned to her cousin, "hey B, how much time till our next class?"
Bianca pulled out her scroll and opened it, "about a half-hour, why?"
"I'm gonna head to the CCT and make a call, I'll meet you guys in class," Alyssa said.
"Are you sure you're ok?" Bianca inquired.
"Trust me, I'm fine," Alyssa replied.
Alyssa walked away from her team as they watched her go. The remaining members of Team BLAC looked concerned for her, but there was nothing they could do if she wouldn't open up to them. Bianca seemed to be the least convinced by her cousin's answer, considering what she was currently going through.
Haven's CCT Tower matched its surroundings with its pagoda stylings and the interior had a similar ornate oriental appearance. Since the incident in the city, Alyssa had noticed a large disparity in the ratio of faunus to humans in Mistral. Back in her hometown of Vale, the ratio was roughly one faunus for every two to three humans. However, here in Mistral she only ever noticed a handful of faunus among the hundreds of humans she had passed by, both in the city and academy and that's including the students from the other academies. Alyssa headed up to the communications room and was directed to a terminal by the CCT A.I.
After she sat at the terminal, she waited a few moments while her call went through. Her mother Blake then appeared on screen.
"Hey honey, it's nice of you to call, how have you been?" She asked.
"I've been fine, but tell me, are mom and Cerin there?" Alyssa inquired.
"They're out back doing some light sparring; did you want me to get them?" Blake asked.
"No, I was just wondering if they were nearby, I wanted to talk to you about something," Alyssa said, her voice growing a bit somber.
"What's the matter honey?" Blake asked with concern.
"Faunus aren't welcome in Mistral, are they?" Alyssa inquired softly.
Blake's tone turned serious, "what happened?"
Alyssa turned her face away from the screen, "well, my team and I went out to get something to eat and well, the place we went had a 'no faunus' sign out front, but, as you know, my semblance doesn't allow me to sense flat detail, so I didn't know what was written on it, and to make a long story short, the owner pulled a gun on me and my team pulled me out of there."
"What?!" Blake shouted, "you're ok right!?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, the guy didn't shoot, plus, my aura would've deflected the shot anyway," Alyssa said.
Yang's voice called out from the background of the call, "everything ok Blake?"
"Yes, everything's fine, now go back to train with Cerin please." She replied.
"Ok, let me know if anything is wrong though," Yang called out.
"Well, mom sounds better after what happened with that prick Roman," Alyssa stated.
"Yea, she finally got her tooth implants to replace the ones he knocked out," Blake chuckled for a second, "she got them in gold too."
Alyssa chuckled at this as well, "that's mom for ya."
"Anyway, back to the matter at hand," Blake's serious tone returned, "over the past few decades human and faunus relations in Mistral have been difficult to say the least. Even though the civil war wasn't strictly between humans and faunus, there were factions made up of both after all, it ruined what your grandparents and I worked for in that kingdom."
"It's just a bit jarring is all, sure I've been stopped by police every now and again on my nightly walks, but I've never been out right insulted or belittled because of my heritage," Alyssa said.
"Well, you haven't ever been outside of Vale before, you were going to experience something like this eventually," Blake paused, "just know that hate and prejudice aren't everywhere in the world."
After Alyssa spoke with her mother, she made her way to the classroom where the rest of Team BLAC were waiting. She sensed the presence of her friends in Team AYST as well when she entered the room. They and her team were all sitting together in the first two rows of the room's desks.
This lecture hall was similar in size to the one's Alyssa knew from Beacon; however, they were arranged bleacher style as opposed to than of an amphitheater. The seats and desks were split down the middle by a walkway and they were flanked at each side of the room by walkways as well.
"Welcome," a voice called out as Alyssa entered the room, startling the blonde faunus. The voice sounded familiar and she recognized it from yesterday. The voice belonged to Sierra Nahla.
Sierra was standing off to the side of the door waiting to greet all those who would enter. She presented herself in a respectable way; Her uniform was perfectly straight and ironed, she stood straight up, at near attention and held her hands behind her back, and her short red hair was arranged into a stacked bob with a messy finish. Along with all that, she had a welcoming smile on her face.
"Hey," Alyssa waived and proceeded to take a seat next to her teammates and friends.
Bianca looked to her cousin, "so, who did you call in the CCT?"
"I just wanted to talk to my folks before class, and let them know how everything is going," Alyssa replied.
"You tell them about what happened the other day?" Bianca inquired.
"Yea, just my mom though, since she knows a thing or two about faunus discrimination," Alyssa stated.
Ebony tapped Alyssa on the shoulder, getting the blind faunus' attention, "hey, your team told us about what happened yesterday," she paused and looked down to the ground, her expression growing from one of sorrow to shame, "I'm sorry you had to experience the bad side of my home on your first day… I should've told you to avoid Mr. Hong and his restaurant."
"It's not your fault Eb, you don't have to worry about it," Alyssa said.
"But I do," Ebony stated, "it's my home, and I feel ashamed that it wasn't as welcoming to you as yours was to me."
Alani inserted herself into the conversation, "I don't see why humans and faunus hate one another outside the islands, where I'm from we live in peace and harmony with our faunus brothers and sisters."
"Well, unlike your home, humans have marginalized and even enslaved faunus throughout the world for centuries, that's not something you can just forget," Alyssa said.
"That's a damn shame," Alani stated.
"You're right about that Al," Alyssa replied.
A couple more students entered the room after Alyssa and were similarly greeted by Sierra. She continued to stand by the door until a large man walked in; He had a dark complexion, similar to Ebony's, and spiky sage-green hair, altogether with yellow eyes. His clothing consisted of a long white coat with asymmetrical sleeves and a golden pauldron on the right shoulder with a matching cuff on the left wrist. His coat was buttoned all the way up and its large collar covered the bottom half of his face. Along with the long coat, he also wore dark gray pants, fastened by a white belt with a golden buckle, and a pair of gray boots.
"Hello Professor Ayana, how are you doing today?" Sierra asked as the man walked in the room.
"Hello Ms. Nahla, I'm doing fine, thank you," Professor Ayana replied.
Professor Ayana walked up to his desk at the front of the room, while Sierra took a seat at a small desk off to the side. He set the books and binders that he was carrying down and walked to the front of the desk.
"Hello everyone," he said, "for those of you visiting from the other kingdoms, my name is Sage Ayana, I will be your Grimm Studies professor for the duration of your stay here at Haven Academy."
The class went smoothly, Professor Ayana spent most of the class lecturing on the perceived habits of the specific types of Grimm native to Anima, like the Beringal. During the class he proved to not be as strict as Professor Coventina, even though he still did run a tight ship. His lecture on perceived Grimm habits turned into one speaking about rarer more dangerous types of Grimm that inhabit the wilds of Remnant.
"There are far more dangerous Grimm in the world than the ones we as huntsmen and huntresses have become accustom to seeing on missions, Grimm that with one look could strike fear into the hearts of anyone," Professor Ayana paused as he saw a student's hand go up. He quickly pointed to the student in question which was Alani.
"How many other types of Grimm are there?" She asked.
"We don't know the specific number of Grimm species, so there's no putting a cap on the number, however, we know that there are hundreds, and quite possibly thousands of species. Most of you know that the most common type of Grimm is the Beowolf, it's native to every continent on Remnant, however, have you or anyone else for that matter heard of a Nuckelavee?" Professor Ayana looked around the room. Only a handful of students raised their hands, two of said students were Bianca and Alyssa.
"Hmm… To be honest I wasn't expecting these many hands, but I'll continue nonetheless," Professor Ayana stated, "the Nuckelavee is an incredibly rare and dangerous beast, the last one was encountered and killed roughly twenty-three years ago near the abandoned village of Kuroyuri."
Bianca and Alyssa had heard the story of how Ruby, Nora, Jaune, and Ren had fought and defeated a Nuckelavee, but they had always imagined that a beast like that would be one of a kind, not a member of a whole species of Grimm.
"I've seen many a species of Grimm in my years as a huntsman and believe you me, some of the things out there are pure fear; along with the Nuckelavee there are Minotaurs, Rakshasa, and Wendigos, just to name a few," as Professor Ayana finished his thought the bell rang, and the students began to pack up.
"Ok, that's all the time I have, I will see you all tomorrow," Professor Ayana said as the students began to leave the room.
As Teams BLAC and AYST made there way out of their last class for the day, Ebony pulled out her scroll to check the time, "huh… It's only one-thirty."
"Really?" Cyrus inquired, "we've got like three hours till our qualifiers start then."
"Two and a half, but still," Roy said.
"So, what do you guys want to do till then?" Ebony asked.
"I guess we should just find a spot to hang out and chill," Bianca said.
"I'm ok with that," Ebony stated, "anyone else have any ideas?"
No one else could think of something to do to kill the time between class and qualifiers, so the two teams headed off to Haven's courtyard to hang out for the time being.
The two teams found a spot with a pair of benches to sit and hang out. They didn't have the same seclusion here that they did at their normal spot in Beacon, but it would make do for their time at Haven. The benches could only hold two people each, Alani and Yin took one, while Alyssa and Bianca took another, the other four either sat on a nearby low wall or the ground.
Dozens of students and professors passed by the eight of them as they hung out. They may have had some time off, but the school around them was still busy as ever. Across the courtyard from where they sat was Team SLVR practicing their Tai Chi together in perfect unison, much like how Team BLAC had noticed them doing the previous day. Along with Team SLVR, they noticed a pair of Vacuan students sparring with karambits while their teammates watched.
"Hey Eb, I've been wondering, where in the city did you live before you came to Beacon?" Alyssa asked.
"I grew up in the lower districts, my family wasn't the most well off, so we couldn't afford to live in the upper or middle districts," she replied, "but then again, no one who lived where I did was."
"So, was where you grew up like the rest of Mistral?" Alyssa inquired, "you know with the whole Faunus-Human thing."
"Well, I'd be lying if I said "no", but it wasn't as bad as the rest of the city, we couldn't afford to hate one another where I'm from," Ebony replied.
"That's good to hear," Alyssa said.
"Even so, some of the old folks didn't exactly approve of Human-Faunus relationships of any kind, but my generation didn't care what they thought," Ebony chuckled lightly, "I know my girlfriend and I didn't."
"Wait." Alani stated, "Eb, you have a girlfriend, why didn't you tell us?"
"You guys never asked," Ebony replied.
"Hang on, if you have a girlfriend, then what was with all the flirting and… you know… back at Beacon?" Alyssa asked.
"It's fine, you guys don't have to worry about it," Ebony said.
Team BLAC and the rest of Team AYST looked at one another for a moment and then back to Ebony.
"Are you sure Eb?" Bianca asked, her voice sounding worried.
"Guys, come on, it'll be fine, you don't have anything to worry about," Ebony replied.
"If you say so," Bianca said.
Four boys walked up behind where Teams BLAC and AYST were sitting, they were all wearing Haven's uniform and they had angry looks on their faces. The two teams were unaware of the boys walking up to them, and once they got behind them, one of them stomped on Yin's tail, while another, grabbed and twisted one of Alyssa's cat ears. The two of them jumped up in pain and turned to confront their attackers.
"Ow! What the hell!?" Alyssa shouted.
"What have we done to you?" Yin asked while rubbing his tail.
"You're in our spot, so scram," one of the boys said.
"Babe are you ok?" Alani asked Yin.
"I am fine," he replied whilst continuing to rub his tail.
Alani immediately got into the face of the boy who stomped on her boyfriend's tail, he had braided shoulder length black hair and a Fu Manchu mustache.
"Who the hell do you think you are," she yelled, "how dare you step on my boyfriend's tail and twist one of my best friend's ears."
"Tss, look what we have here," the man turned to his associates, "a faunus lover. You know what they say, the only thing worse than a faunus is a faunus-loving human."
"Hey man, we won't hesitate to kick your ass," Roy stated.
"I'd like to see you try," the man replied, "I'm more than confident that my team and I can handle a couple of faunus, five… what is it second-years, no, first-years, and a Southern Isle Savage."
Alani curled her fists and pulled back to punch the man in front of her. As she was about to let him have it, someone grabbed her fist and stopped it dead.
Sierra Nahla slowly pushed Alani's fist down and she and her team confronted the man and his associates. Team SLVR stood side by side in between Teams BLAC and AYST, and their harassers.
"You've got a lot of nerve Huo, you know that?" Sierra stated to the leader of the four men.
"I have a lot of nerve?! They're in our hangout spot!" Huo replied, "filthy faunus and their damn human lovers are stinking up the place with their presence."
"The courtyard is for everyone, regardless of race, find somewhere else to lay around, and need I remind you that I'm a faunus," Sierra bore her claws for all to see.
"Oh, I know you're a faunus," he spat on the ground, "the only reason I tolerate you is because you're the top student in the academy."
"Leave. Now." She commanded.
"I don't have to listen to you," he replied, "I'm staying right here."
"I suggest you leave," Russell stepped forward, "some of us don't have the patients of our team leader."
Huo was heavily intimidated by Russell and he began to back away slowly, "c-come on guys, maybe we should g-go somewhere else."
"But we can take them," one of the other men said.
"Shut up and go," Huo commanded.
Huo and his associates quickly left the area as Team SLVR continued to watch them and make sure they did so. As they went out of sight, Sierra and her team turned towards Teams BLAC and AYST.
"I'm sorry about him," Sierra apologized, "Huo is a misguided individual."
"Misguided!?" Alyssa shouted, "you call blatant harassment and racism 'misguided'!?"
"I agree, 'misguided' isn't the word I'd use for him," Alani said.
"Human and Faunus relations aren't black and white here, things are more complex than they may seem," Sierra replied.
"That's a load of bullshit." Alyssa stated, "how can a Faunus defend a racist?"
Sierra turned from Alyssa to Yin, whom was still rubbing his pained tail, "do you have anything to say?"
"No, I have heard stories of the conflict between our people and humans," Yin said.
"I'm not making excuses for his actions, they were deplorable, but Huo, like many others has been through a lot in his short life," Sierra paused, "both he and myself were orphaned because of the war."
"I'm sorry, but that doesn't make what he did right," Alyssa said.
"That's true, but he, and all of us here in Mistral were forced on a journey that we didn't want to take," Sierra paused once more before looking Alyssa in the eyes, "he who returns from a journey is not the same as he who left."
Sierra and her team began to walk away from Teams BLAC and AYST. Before they left however, Sierra placed her hand on Alyssa's shoulder, "meditate on what I've told you, thing's may look bad, but they are not as bad as they seem."
Alyssa began to ponder what Sierra had told her as the tiger-faunus walked away. That last phrase echoed in her mind. She thought to herself for a moment and it did make sense, experience, both good and bad changes a person and shapes them, whether they like it or not.
"Hey Eb," Alyssa said.
"What's up?" Ebony inquired.
"What was it like living under the prospect of the war spilling over into your home?" Alyssa asked.
Ebony looked to the ground, then back to her friend, "all I can say is, it wasn't easy."
Alyssa nodded her head as an expression of understanding came over her. She couldn't begin to imagine what people had gone through in this kingdom for nearly the past twenty years.