After their classes for the day had finished, Blake and Weiss walked back to their room together. Ruby and Yang had decided that they wanted to go home and check up on how their father Was doing, and so that left Weiss alone with Blake. It wasn't as though that was a bad thing. All of the worst of their problems had more or less been resolved at that point.
The two of them were starting to get closer and closer to each other all the time, getting more and more used to each other's presences. Weiss was even at a point where she honestly forgave Blake for what had happened in their entrance exam, regardless of the scar that she still wore and would wear for the rest of her life.
As of then, the two of them didn't have any plans for how the rest of their day was supposed to go. Classes were over and while if they wanted to they could have gone ahead and used a training room, Weiss and Blake were both tired.
Really, the only plan that the two of them had was that the two of them were going to be sure to get something to eat later on. Nothing special, just whatever they could get out of the mess hall. The food wasn't that good, and that was something that Weiss wasn't too happy with. That didn't mean that she wasn't trying to get more used to it. Even then, she was sure that she was adjusting just fine on the whole.
Beacon was just different from the place where she'd been raised. Its people were different, and its schedules were similarly different.
What she hadn't been expecting was that she would come back to her room and find that the door was already open.
Weiss stopped and her hand snapped straight down to Myrtenaster at her waist. She didn't think that she was going to need to fight, but if someone had broken in-
Blake understood what was going on perfectly well, though. Weiss watched as her teammate removed her own weapon from her back before Weiss took a step or two back from the door.
At the very least, she could keep herself prepared for a fight.
"Blake." Weiss whispered, and Blake understood, taking the space at Weiss' side.
Weiss raised her sword in front of her and concentrated. A white glyph of her family's crest appeared over the doorknob of the door, and turned black and began to spin when Weiss commanded it to.
She needed to concentrate a little bit more, and then the door swung open, revealing the inside of their shared dorm.
There was someone in their room, it turned out.
Someone that was taller than Weiss, with hair like hers worn up in a bun. Someone that had fallen out of Weiss' life all but entirely years before.
Blake was about to spring into an attack of sorts, but Weiss spoke up before Blake could move at all.
"Winter?"
Her sister turned and stared at them both, with a book in her hands that she had all but assuredly been taking notes in. What kind of notes they were, Weiss didn't know. Winter looked at Weiss, and then at Blake, and then back at Weiss.
If there was any sort of excitement in Winter, it was immediately tamped down and brought under control. Winter snapped her book shut and slid it away into her pocket before standing facing Weiss and at attention.
"Weiss." Winter greeted her. "How are you, sister?"
"Winter!" Weiss sheathed her sword and rushed into the room for her sister. She leapt at Winter with open arms and was so glad to be received.
Blake lingered by the door, and it occurred very quickly to Weiss that she needed to do something to make things a little bit less awkward. At least make it clear that Winter wasn't a threat.
There was a rather immediate pang of guilt that told Weiss that she needed to turn to Blake and explain herself desperately. Leaving Blake out in the cold was not only rude- it was forgetting that she and Blake had already been looking into how they were supposed to spend their evening together.
Weiss pulled away from Winter and turned to Blake.
"Blake," Weiss began her explanation, looking back at her sister and then her teammate. "I suppose that I should probably introduce you. This is my sister, Winter."
Winter seemed to go stiff, like there was something serious going on in her head that she didn't want to admit to. Either way, she was giving Blake a look that was at least on some level unsure. Weiss didn't like it one bit, especially because she was Blake's teammate.
"Hello." Winter greeted Blake, holding her head high and looking down her nose the same way that their mother would. "Thank you for taking an interest in my sister."
Those words were more than enough to make Weiss' hairs rise on the back of her neck. It felt a bit too presumptuous, Winter was saying things that she didn't have any business saying.
Weiss was sure that Blake was annoyed by it as well, but her teammate was making quite an effort not to let it show at all. "Right." Blake said, looking over at Weiss before turning back to the door, giving an opening for privacy. "I guess that I'll see you later?"
And oh, there was that guilt building up in the pit of Weiss' stomach again. She was going to have to be able to do something later on to make sure that she could make it up to Blake. As things were, Weiss didn't like how this was going.
And she wasn't going to let this be a major obstacle anyhow.
"Right." Weiss said. She watched Blake leave and the door close behind her. Once she was ready, Weiss looked back over at her sister. "I suppose that you want to talk?"
"I would like to spend some time with you, yes." Winter said in that tone of voice that she used when she was trying to show that she was affectionate. It had been a long time since Weiss had last heard it, and she didn't mind that at all.
Weiss nodded to Winter and went over to her bed to set down her sword because she was sure that she wasn't going to need it that night anyways. If she was going to be doing normal things with Winter, then arming themselves was just unnecessary.
Once Weiss was done, she led the way out of the room, and Winter followed after her. It was only after the door closed that either of them felt like they could do anything to show affection from one to the other.
"Winter," Weiss asked, looking up at her sister and trying to figure out why Winter was even there in Vale in the first place. "What are you doing in Vale?"
"Officially, I am here on professional business which is classified." Winter explained with a quiet sigh. "But I have been asked to try and spend some time with you while I am here in Vale."
"You were... asked?" Weiss leaned in towards her sister, squinting up at her. There was something so patently wrong about that statement that Weiss didn't know how she was supposed to make anything out of it. None of it made any sense, unless...
"Yes." Winter clarified. "I heard about what happened with..."
"Father." Weiss finished for her older sister.
She found that she wasn't able to do anything to keep the undeniable bitterness from seeping into her voice. The truth was that everything that had happened with regard to their family lately was still an open wound, and seeing Winter now...
There was a small part of Weiss that felt like it was just putting salt in a wound that didn't need it.
"Yes." Winter replied, looking away from Weiss in a way that showed that she was feeling guilty herself over the matter. "The general told me quite a bit about it. Apparently you and your teammates left quite an impression."
"Did he?" Weiss asked, blinking because that wasn't what she had been expecting. She had been sure that maybe their father would have reached out to Winter directly, but that was also wishful thinking. Winter wouldn't be contacted for family matters any sooner than Klein would have been.
Actually, Klein would have assuredly been first.
"He did." Winter sighed, bringing her hands together behind her back as she and Weiss began to walk away from the room together. "He said that there was an... altercation?" Winter paused, and the way that she looked at Weiss really told Weiss everything that she could have ever needed to know about this.
Weiss reached up for her scarred cheek and rubbed at it gently, staring down at the ground as she did so. She couldn't think of anything that she could really say, and so Weiss just followed closely after her older sister.
"That..." Weiss paused, looking for the right words to describe something that wasn't going to ever be able to be described easily. "That's one way of putting it."
Winter stopped dead in her tracks. She reached out for Weiss, wrapped a hand around Weiss' wrist, and pulled her to a stop. Normally this was something that Weiss would have made some effort to escape from, but it was Winter, so she allowed it.
"So he did it." Winter stated, not needing to ask the question.
"He did." Weiss confirmed, pulling her arm back away from Winter. She wrapped her arms around herself in a poor imitation of a hug. It wasn't enough to help her calm down or relax, but it was something. "I'm sorry."
"You're... apologizing?"
"Should I not?" Weiss whispered. "I was the one that ruined our family this time."
"You haven't ruined anything, Weiss." Winter responded, her voice a little too hard and a little more confident than Weiss had been expecting. "You did what you wanted with your life. Him demonizing you for it doesn't change that."
And really, Weiss wished that she could have felt more confident. She wished that she could feel like she could actually relate to her sister more with the situation at hand. Maybe there were too many things that had happened between the two of them that had never been fully discussed.
Either way, Weiss wasn't sure what to do.
This Winter that she had next to her was different from the one that she had grown up with. Before Winter had been rebellion, glad to run from Atlas to live her own life, and in doing so she'd had to cut some ties.
Weiss' training coming from Winter was just another layer of that rebellion, that was something that Weiss was sure of.
And now, she didn't know how she was supposed to feel when it came to her older sister.
If there was anything that Weiss felt like she could feel somewhat confident in, it was that there was more to Winter's visit. For instance, she couldn't imagine that this was going to be anything other than a limited visit.
"Winter?" Weiss asked, looking up at her older sister. "How long are you going to be here in Vale?"
Winter's expression sank, and there was something about it that told Weiss that she had only managed to make a mistake by asking that sort of question. "I'll only be here for as long as I am kept her for work, sadly." She admitted, sighing and looking over at Weiss. "And I have a feeling that you know what I'm here for."
"The grimm." Weiss said, filling in the blank for her older sister because what else could she have done?
The grimm was still out there, wandering around outside of the city like it was going to find something in the woods. And that was just the big one, it didn't account for what she and her team had seen out on their patrol. They were looking at dealing with things that were so far outside of Weiss' realm of ability, that she could only wonder about Winter.
After all, Winter had the luxury that was full and proper training. She hadn't had to hide behind closed doors to learn to be a huntress like Weiss had, and she had years as an Atlesian Specialist under her belt. That was anything but insignificant, if only because it meant that Winter was more than capable of putting up a fight.
"Yes." Winter sighed, she looked away from Weiss and walked up to one of the windows. Weiss followed closely after her elder sister and looked out for herself. Sure enough, there that giant grimm was, wandering and waiting and watching as it had been for ages. "That."
There was a quiet that settled, and Weiss realized that she had an opportunity to say something. To introduce an element that Winter didn't know about.
She dropped her volume and edged in as close to her older sister as she could before beginning to speak.
"It's not the only one out there."
Winter actually seemed to startle over that a little bit. She whipped around to face Weiss with shock written across her face. "What?"
"My team." Weiss waved her hand to signal to her sister that she was trying to make sure that they were keeping a low profile for the time being. "We just got back from a patrol earlier today. This morning, actually."
"And you saw something other than that grimm?"
"We did." Weiss sighed, looking out at the giant grimm. "But we also... found something. A pool of black water, something called a beringel." Weiss stared her older sister in the eyes and didn't let the contact break for even a second. "We fought it, and we killed it but..."
"But?"
"But I don't really know what it means." Weiss admitted, feeling terrible for what she was now having to say. "We told Professor Ozpin about it but they didn't really explain much of anything. Neither did the huntsman that we were on the mission with."
Winter reached out for Weiss and pulled her into a tight hug, one which Weiss allowed for herself to relax into for the time being. This was the least that she could do for her sister all things considered.
"I'm so glad you're okay, Weiss." Winter whispered into her younger sister's hair. "But I need to know about the fight, were you able-"
Weiss felt herself go stiff and annoyed, and she turned away from her sister. "It wasn't that simple." She muttered. "I'm not as good as my teammates by... Well, a relatively significant margin."
Winter's expression softened, and Weiss felt a pang of guilt for it. Maybe telling Winter that hadn't been the best idea that she'd ever had, all things considered. After all, based on the way that Weiss had gotten her training, it would mean that Winter's training of her had been inadequate as a baseline.
And that wasn't necessarily true.
It was just that her teammates were that much better, and Weiss didn't quite know how she was supposed to handle it.
"I'm sorry." Winter said quietly. "I wish that I knew what I could do to help beyond just offer additional training time."
"I know." Weiss sighed. "I think that it might help, though." She thought back to her sword, laying on her bed back in the shared dorm room. "I mean, that's the best way to get better, right? Training?"
"It is." Winter confirmed with a soft smile. "If you would like, I can try and get the general to join us for a training session."
The offer was almost too much, and it made Weiss' eyes widen in shock because it was something that she never would have even begun to consider being put on the table. Never before would she have been allowed such help, and now...
Well, she would have to be a fool to pass that sort of thing up.
"I think that I would like that." Weiss said, looking back out the window and at the grimm. "He trained you, after all, didn't he?"
"He did." Winter confirmed, leaning in towards the window and bracing herself against it with her arms outstretched in front of her. "For better or for worse."
Weiss nodded. "You think that he'll be willing?"
"If I ask him nicely enough?" Winter asked, looking out at the forest and then up above it, like she was looking for something. Either way, she was interested in what was going on out in the forests. "I'm sure that he would. I know that I'm not supposed to say it, but I'm his favorite."
Weiss laughed, because that didn't seem like it could have been too true, but it wasn't worth it to question it all. "Are you sure?"
"More than I should be." With those words, Winter stepped away from the window and the two of them began their walk through the building. They were going to have to go to the training room eventually, but for now it was going to be for the best if she tried to make sure that she could get food with Winter.
Not that any of it would end up being ideal either way.
The two only made it about halfway down the hallway that they were already in before Winter decided to ask some questions of her own. There were obviously things that the two of them needed to be able to discuss.
"So." Winter began, bringing Weiss' attention over towards her. "You're on a team here?"
"I am." Weiss said, holding her head high. "I'm sure that we weren't placed together in the normal way but I like them."
"Tell me about them."
"Well, there's Ruby and Yang. Their father lives here in Vale so they go to see him pretty often, like tonight. Ruby's some sort of prodigy, and Yang is exceptionally strong." Weiss paused and looked back over at her sister. "And then there's Blake, and she's..."
"The one that I met back at your dorm." Winter finished for Weiss, even though it wasn't what Weiss wanted to hear. "And what is she like?"
Weiss thought of the scar on her face, that hadn't been there the last time that she'd seen her older sister. She could have easily explained that story, but Weiss was sure that if she did it would only end up with trouble.
And that was making the assumption that Winter hadn't already heard the story from someone else. The general seemed to know the whole story, but that was another issue.
"Blake's strong." Weiss answered, hugging herself slightly. "I don't know all that much about her, but I like her. It's just been kind of... hard."
"Hard?"
"One could say that Blake isn't exactly a fan of our family's name or reputation, or how the company runs." Weiss began her explanation. "And that's been a bit of a problem as we get to know each other." She stopped herself, realizing that there was so much more that she needed to explain about herself. "But since we've gotten to get to know each other, it's gotten easier."
When Weiss looked up at her older sister, she found that there was skepticism written across Winter's face. A look that wasn't going to be able to go away that easily. "And you're sure that you want to be here at Beacon?"
"I am." Weiss replied. "I do really like it here, as awkward as things can be. I think that I have what it takes to be here, it's just that I know I'm not as good as everyone else."
"I seriously doubt that." Winter replied, holding her head up high. "You're a Schnee, Weiss. You are always going to be exceptional in some way."
"I don't want to be exceptional for being a Schnee, though." With those words, Weiss let her stance change. She stood up taller and held her head up high, even though it wouldn't do much for her height in this setting.
"Oh?"
"I want to be considered exceptional or great because of what I've done myself, not because of father or mother." Weiss began to explain herself in the only way that she knew how. It was the least that she could do, since she needed to make it all clear. "It's something that I will have to take my time to be able to get that, but that's what I really want."
Winter stared down at her with such a look of affection on her face. One that made Weiss want to beam and soak in all of the affection that was coming down on her. Once in a while, Winter was warm, and those were the times that Weiss treasured above all else.
"You've got the right idea, Weiss." Winter said finally. "And if you think that being here in Vale will make you a better version of yourself..."
Weiss waited.
"Then I have no choice but to support you."
It caught Weiss entirely by surprise. She picked her head up and stared her older sister in the eyes. Winter just smiled down at her with a sort of gentleness that was nothing like anything that the two of them would have seen as children. In the end, all that Winter was being was genuine.
And Weiss was going to love her sister forever for it.
"Thank you." Weiss said, keeping her voice quiet. She wanted to do a lot of things. She wanted to jump up and cling on to her sister, but to do that would be improper at the very least. "For believing in me."
"What kind of sister would I be if I didn't?" Winter asked, waving a gentle hands o that the two of them could continue on their walk. Weiss fell into step beside her sister, and the two of them walked until they were in the great hall where the two of them were able to get something to eat for that evening.
It wasn't much, but it was something. More than anything else, it was a chance for Weiss to spend time with the sister that she had lost. In that case, she was dedicated to enjoying that time to the best of her abilities.
Because after all, Winter had always been there when it counted.
And now, more than ever, it counted.
The more that they followed the leads that they did have, the easier things began to be. For Tyrian, he didn't spend most of his time among the others while they tracked the dear Maidens. He couldn't blend in with the people so easily, no, but he had his own ways of doing things.
They hadn't spent long in villages before heading out into the world in search of their maiden.
When they had been stopped in a village, Tyrian had used that time outdoors. He'd walked between the stalls of businesses, listening in on everything that he could. Most of what he got was whispers, important ones nonetheless.
The village of Oniyuri was waiting for them, all that they had to do was get there first. He was hearing that bandits had been through there, or something else. There had even been one rumor that it had been members of the White Fang.
Tyrian didn't know that he believed any of those rumors, but when notes had been compared everything came up the same: There was something in Oniyuri, and they were going to be the ones to go and find out just what.
It was all rather exhilarating.
"We're going to find a maiden!" Tyrian exclaimed as he walked side by side with his teammates. He had Cinder right up beside him, but that wasn't the greatest matter for him to worry about or attend to, no. "I can't believe that our Goddess has thought us worthy of such a task-"
"It's not going to be that big." Hazel grumbled, shoving his hands down into his pockets like there was something that he was nervous about. "She's given us everything that we need."
"Has she?" Cinder asked, turning towards Hazel. "Because you don't really tell us that much-"
"Hazel is right." Watts interjected. "We've been given a task, and it will be up to us to be able to fulfill that task for her. She's given us everything that we need to get started."
Tyrian blinked and stared up at Watts, feeling wholly unsure of what he was supposed to make of that. "Then when we kill the maiden-"
"Then we will have to contend with how the power transfers." Watts explains, sounding wholly bored by the entire affair. "If the research and stories that Hazel and I have done turn out to be correct, then we just need a way to ensure a way into the girl's head. After all-" He paused and looked back at Cinder, grinning slyly before looking to Hazel ."Do you remember how it works?"
"The last young woman in her thoughts when she dies," Hazel explained, his voice hard and frustrated. "If it's not a young woman or something goes wrong, then it goes somewhere random."
"And then we have a harder hunt." Tyrian giggled. "What fun it could be!"
"Yes, well," Watts sighed. "We have a young maiden with us, and so we just have to make sure that-" He paused and looked back at Cinder. The entire group went quiet for a little bit too long before Watts decided to finally finish what he was saying. "Have you ever killed a man, Cinder?"
Cinder's mouth dropped open and her eyes widened in shock. Tyrian didn't quite see what the big concern was, but he'd been doing terrible things since he was a boy. All in the name of survival at first, but when their Goddess had first come to him he had been elated to act in her favor. Whatever means necessary.
"I thought so." Watts sighed, looking back away from Cinder. "You'll have to do the killing blow if this is going to work, I would guess." He lifted his head up, talking out into the open because he was sure that there was nobody there to overhear them. "If not, then we'll have to go on another wild goose chase to find a girl."
"And we don't want that." Hazel grumbled.
Cinder was silent for a little too long, clearly mulling those words over in her head before she finally decided to say something. "I think I know what the maiden will look like." She said, keeping her voice down. "I saw this... girl, when we found the cave. In a dream or a vision or something, and if I'm right then..."
"Then you just made our jobs a little bit easier." Watts replied, not letting any happiness or excitement reach any part of him. "Of course, then we'll have to do our job to get her away from the village. Perhaps-" He paused, squinting at Cinder. "Perhaps finding some new teammates wouldn't hurt."
"What do you mean?" Cinder asked, stopping dead in her tracks and facing Watts. "New teammates?"
"You want to be able to find a way in with this girl?" Watts asked. "Because I think that the best way to gain her trust would be to..."
"Risky." Hazel said.
Tyrian cocked his head to the side, more than unsure of what was being said or communicated. There were a lot of layers to that statement, but Hazel was right. Getting close the maiden would likely be risky.
But Watts didn't seem interested in listening. He just smiled wide and continued walking.
"And that, Hazel, is why we should do it."