Weiss's blissful sleep abruptly ended when she found herself jostled awake. A firm hand on her shoulder shook her repeatedly in a desperate fashion. Weiss was dimly aware of a voice calling her, but couldn't figure out for the life of her whose voice it was.
Klein's concerned expression was the first thing that greeted her when she opened her eyes. Behind him, she could see the sun rising over the garden wall. What was she doing in the garden?
"Ms. Schnee! Are you alright? I found you sleeping in the garden," The faithful butler exclaimed worriedly, his gentle eyes filled with worry over her.
"I'm... fine. W-why am I in the garden?" She inquired, not able to remember the events that led her to her falling asleep outside, on the cold ground.
"I was hoping you would be able to tell me," Klein sternly responded. "You could have gotten very sick, sleeping out here in the freezing cold. You're very lucky, young lady."
"S-sorry," Weiss said, still disoriented by the bizarre awakening. What had she been doing out in the garden so late last night?
"Why if it wasn't for the Fire Dust used to keep the rose bush you slept in warm, you may very well have gotten frostbite," Klein continued on, seemingly oblivious to her internal dilemma as he continued his well-intentioned tirade.
But what had she been doing in the garden? Weiss almost never spent time in this garden, especially not at night, when the freezing winds of Atlas blew through the grounds of the manor. Try as she might, Weiss just couldn't shake the feeling that she was forgetting something.
Klein finally saw her expression and his own softened. "I apologize, Weiss. I know what your father asked of you yesterday must be weighing on your mind."
"Oh, so your name is Weiss. Nice to meet you," Came a voice from the rose bush, and with it a rush of memories from the previous night. The heiress whipped her head to stare at the glowing silver ghost that was floating inside the rose bush.
The poor girl couldn't take it. The sight of the apparition from last night terrified her, causing her to let out a shrill scream.
Klein reacted immediately, turning to face whatever had made his charge scream with such terror. However, nothing seemed out of sorts to the portly butler, so he turned his attention to the girl who he loved like his daughter.
"Ms. Schnee, what is it?"
"You mean you can't see it?" Weiss asked him, practically hyperventilating at the sight of the ghost.
"See what?" Klein queried, trying to figure out what was making her so terrified.
"He can't she me," The ghost of the young girl told Weiss. "You are the only one who has been able to see me."
The girl's words sent Weiss's mind into overdrive. "Am I going crazy?" She thought to herself, but dismissed the thought quickly. She certainly didn't feel insane, and she highly doubted that the first sign of her sanity slipping would be such a vivid hallucination.
She knew she was sane, but others likely wouldn't. If she told Klein she saw a ghost behind him, she knew he would take her to the infirmary, believing she had gotten sick while sleeping outside. The doctors would easily dismiss her as insane, and her father would disown her to avoid the shame of having a daughter that went crazy.
"I... I was just tired, and thought I saw something in the shrubbery," Weiss lied to Klein. The man looked at her sympathetically, misunderstanding her scenario as her being stressed about what her father had planned for her. Which wasn't an entirely inaccurate assumption, but that wasn't her primary concern at the moment.
She would deal with the ghost on her own. She would go to the family library in her free time to research all she could on ghosts, then use her magic to get rid of this one haunting her.
"Nice to meet you, Weiss! My name is Ruby Rose. Sorry for scaring you last night," The ghost, Ruby, chirped. Weiss glanced at her out of the corner of her eyes and was able to see the ghost in far greater detail than the night prior.
She was young, meaning her death must have been a tragic one, yet there were no clues on her body as to how that death might have come about. No ghostly arrows that stuck out from her skull, no gashes in her chest she could see her organs out of. The silver flames that crackled around her might be a hint, but Weiss felt safe in assuming they were not the thing that killed the girl.
Ruby was about her height but floated about three feet off the ground. She was dressed in a simple skirt dress with a corset. A large pair of boots went up to the girl's shins. A faint cloak seemed to be wrapped around her neck, billowing down to her ankles.
Her entire body was outlined in silver light, yet Weiss could see straight through the ghost. Most notably, however, was the girl's eyes; Two radiant silver orbs that seemed to be the source of the silver flames that softly flickered around the girl.
"Klein, what time is it?" Weiss asked without taking her attention off the ghostly girl that floated a few feet away.
"Why, it's five-thirty in the morning," The jolly butler responded without missing a beat.
"Thank you," Weiss said with a nod. That meant she had around an hour to get ready for the day, eat breakfast, then make it to her arithmetic lesson. Plenty of time on a normal day, but today that wouldn't be enough. She needed time to research, to figure out why only she could see this spectre.
Klein nodded, then gestured her towards the estate. Weiss made her way through the mansion to her room, intercepting the servant who had been sent to wake her up and dismissing her with a wave of her hand.
"So... hi?" Ruby spoke the instant Weiss entered the privacy of her room.
"Why are you here?" Weiss asked, her hand grasping at the rapier on her waist. She had no idea if her magic could harm a ghost, but she was cautious of the ghost. The instant Ruby attacked her, Weiss would use all of the skills Winter had taught her to survive.
"I don't know," Ruby replied, a confused expression crossing her face. "Speaking of, where exactly is 'here'? Is this Vale?"
"We are in Atlas. Vale is thousands of miles away from here," That shut the girl up. A pensive expression crossed her face for a moment as Ruby pondered that information. "Why did you think this was Vale?"
"Well, I died in Patch, so it made sense for me to be in Vale, which is nearby."
"Patch? The island just outside Vale?" This girl was from Patch? How did she wind up in Atlas?
"What is it you want from me?" Weiss asked, turning towards the ghost who had been following her.
"I don't know. I have no idea why I'm stuck here, and you're the only one who can see and hear me, so I guess I'm just going to stick around, if that's okay with you?"
It wasn't. The idea of having this ghost follow her around was a terrible one, but Weiss reasoned that it was best she kept the ghost distracted. She didn't believe much of what Ruby said, and was sure the girl would do something terrible the instant Weiss let her guard down. Better to have the ghost where Weiss could see her.
The heiress, therefore, didn't bother to say no to the girl. She had no idea if agreeing to something with a ghost gave it power over her, but she wouldn't take any chances. She would dispose of this girl as quickly as she could, but until she could she would simply have to watch her every move.
Once Weiss was finished getting ready, she made her way to the room next to the library. Here, a dignified scholar sat, teaching several low-ranking nobles, as well as a few servants. Weiss's father had paid for the historian to teach in his home, meaning other nobles had to pay him if they wanted their children to learn from the man.
Weiss sat down at the desk she usually sat at, the very picture of dignity. No one sat near her, the servants too terrified of her and the nobles too jealous of her family's wealth.
Once everyone had arrived, the man teaching the class nodded to himself and began discussing the topic for the day. Yet Weiss found herself unable to pay attention to the man, constantly finding her attention drawn to her uninvited guest.
Ruby seemed to hang onto every word the man spoke, soaking up everything that he said. She listened with rapt attention as he spoke about the ongoing civil war happening in Mistral. When he began to talk about the formation of the White Fang, the girl seemed to be blind to everything else around her, only paying attention to her teacher and his words.
Weiss wished she could boast such an interest in the subject. Yet this was all very familiar material to her; Father made sure she learned of current events to ensure that she would be fit to inherit the role of head of the Schnee family.
After an hour that seemed to last a day, Weiss finally got to leave the lecture. While she was walking out into the hallway, she heard a voice chirp up behind her.
"Wow! That was so cool! You get to learn like that every day?" The ghost girl floating next to her seemed to be in a state of bliss after the lecture. Weiss's eyes narrowed. What was this ghost planning? Was she trying to get Weiss to reveal something?
She was forced to put her suspicions aside for the time being at the sight of her younger brother, Whitley, approaching her in the hallway.
"Hello dear sister," Whitley greeted her. Weiss nearly rolled her eyes. Whitley was much like her father; a slimy, scheming, rat of a man, yet Whitley was more of a boy than a man. "It's nice to see you today. I heard about what Father asked of you yesterday. Have you spoken to Mother about it yet?"
So that was his goal. He wanted her to hurt Mother with the memories of her forced marriage. "Not yet, I was busy throughout the day, and when I finally had some free time yesterday, Mother was... already occupied."
Weiss longed to wipe that cocky smirk off his face. "I see. Well, if you hurry, you might be able to tell her now, while she isn't... intoxicated," The heiress seethed in anger. Whitley's scheme was the furthest thing from subtle, but they both knew how much it annoyed Weiss that her mother was such an alcoholic.
Whitley seemed to have no such reservations about dragging his own mother's name through the dirt. "Unfortunately, I must hurry to the training rooms. I have to practice my glyphs."
"I see. Well, I wish you luck with your... little magic tricks."
"And I wish you luck in your studies," Weiss responded without an ounce of sincerity, as was the Schnee way. Her brother sent one last cocky little smirk her way, before he brushed past her, heading towards the lecture hall she had just left. She let out a sigh. Dealing with her family was always difficult, but in many ways, Whitley was the worst. He was so much like Father, but he was so young. She was torn between pitying and despising her brother.
"That's your brother? He's a prick," Ruby spoke up, reminding Weiss of her presence. The noble once again narrowed her eyes. She just couldn't understand what this ghost wanted. Was she trying to convince Weiss to make some sort of bargain with her? Weiss cursed her limited knowledge of ghosts. She knew they existed before she met Ruby, but she had almost no clue how they worked.
"While Whitley can be... aggravating, I would prefer if you refrained from insulting my family," Weiss replied coldly.
"Why are you defending him? He seemed like he hated you."
"I am aware my relationship with Whitley is strained, but he is my own blood."
"Weiss I'm pretty sure he is plotting something. He looked like my sister did when she planned a prank on me, only more evil."
"I am more than aware of what Whitley is plotting. I cannot say the same for whatever you have planned," Weiss said with a glare.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Ruby asked innocently.
Weiss did not dignify her with a response, merely heading towards the training room on the other side of the manor. Her companion gasped in awe at the numerous statues and paintings that decorated the halls on the way over. She voiced her opinions on everything, from how the statues of Grimm looked so lifelike, to how her ancestors had weird mustaches.
The endless chatter enraged Weiss, but she could not scream and rant at Ruby without looking like a lunatic to any passing servants. She could only imagine how awful the gossip would be if she started screaming at the air to shut up.
At last entering the training room, she breathed a sigh of relief. She hadn't been late, meaning the mage her father hired as an instructor wouldn't complain about her being late.
She spent the next two hours practicing creating glyphs under the careful scrutiny of a powerful mage. Glyphs were a complex type of magic, and often could be very volatile. Rather than using her own power to practice the arcane, glyphs used the magic that surrounded them, pulling it out of the atmosphere to accomplish a variety of tasks. Due to not requiring her to use too much of her own power, glyphs were more powerful than normal spells, but creating the glyphs took time and concentration.
At best, she could create a basic glyph in around five seconds, but making anything more complex than a glyph that shot a fireball would take minutes at the very least.
She went through the exercises with familiarity, a feeling she found herself lacking these past two days. First, she created basic wind glyphs, creating a gentle breeze as a small gust of wind billowed out of them.
Next, she tried to amplify the power of the glyphs, which required creating a more complex outer layer to the glyph while she drew it in the air with magic. Amplifying the effects of glyphs was simple in principle, but having to expend the magic to draw the extra layer caused far greater strain on her mental muscles.
Then, she created a basic fire glyph, and added an extra continuous glyph atop it, layering the two together and shooting out a jet of fire that went around fifteen feet and persisted for five seconds. Humming to himself, her instructor marked some things down on a piece of parchment. Layering glyphs together allowed her to alter how a glyph would behave, but doing so required great mental effort.
She continued to practice amplifying and layering glyphs, sometimes both at once, under the eye of both her instructor and Ruby, who watched her draw glyphs in the air with Myrtenaster with childish glee.
Practicing her glyphs was all about creating muscle memory, so that she could be able to create these glyphs in the air while blindfolded in under five seconds. Only then would her instructor accept that she had fully mastered a glyph. But learning how to weave complex webs of magic that drew upon the very arcane energies that surrounded them was difficult when a ghost gasped in awe at every little glyph that was created.
After her lesson finally ended, Weiss was gasping for breath. Creating glyphs was less draining than casting spells, but doing so for two hours straight was hardly easy.
After catching her breath, Weiss made her way back to her quarters. She had a brief hour long break, a fencing lesson, and then had the rest of the day to figure out how to get rid of the pest named Ruby, who only seemed more annoying after the magic training.
"Weiss, that was so cool! I've never seen someone do so much magic!" The girl babbled excitedly while floating a few feet over Weiss, who was lying in her bed.
"I won't listen to whatever you have to say," Was the dry response Weiss gave. Her excitement at Weiss's magical talents did not bode well. "Does she want me to do something? Or does she plan to possess me?" Weiss thought to herself, before her musings were interrupted by a knock.
"Ms. Schnee? I was wondering if you would have lunch with me?" Klein's jovial voice was muffled by the door. Weiss stood up and walked to the door, opening it to reveal her favorite butler in the hallway with a tray of food and tea.
"Oh, it's the chubby guy. He's nice," Ruby voiced her opinion on her family yet again, but Weiss agreed with her sentiment. The nice part, calling Klein chubby was uncalled for.
"I'd love to, Klein," Weiss responded to his previous question, ignoring Ruby. The man gave a grin, and Weiss guided him to the small table in the corner of her room. The man sat down and poured each of them a cup of tea. Klein had made a simple meal, sandwiches, which the two ate while having a brief conversation.
Or rather, Klein listened patiently while Weiss talked about her father and Whitley. His sympathetic expression let her know he understood just how annoying the slimy man and his conniving son could be.
It would have been an extremely pleasant meal, were it not for the ghost Klein couldn't see constantly butting in to share her opinion. Weiss was concerned, wary that Ruby may be trying to sway Weiss's opinion to align with her own before encouraging her to fulfill whatever nefarious plans she had.
Altogether, it wasn't a horrible experience. It was nice to talk to Klein, who did not care much for formality and seemed to be endlessly patient with her, and she left the meal wishing she could talk to him more. It also solidified her belief that she must do something about Ruby before she did something that may potentially harm him.
She only had one more lesson to attend before she could go to the library and research how ghosts worked. Unfortunately, if there was ever a time Ruby would attack her, it would be after she exhausted herself in her fencing lesson.
She returned to the training rooms, yet this time went into a different one than the one she practiced magic in around an hour earlier. Her instructor, a tan Vacuoan with little hair remaining to cover his head, was waiting for her. He drew his practice rapier, nodding at her to do the same. She adopted a fighting stance across form him and breathed in deeply.
Drawing the blade, she recalled the lessons Winter had given her. Winter was her favorite teacher, she didn't care that Weiss was a noble. The instructors her father hired taught her to fight like a noble, to have a nice trick with which to impress her peers. Winter taught her to fight like a survivor; someone who fought to live and would kill her opponent to do so.
"Begin!" Her instructor barked out before lunging at her, the blunted point of his blade catching the light streaming in through the window. Bringing her blade up just in time to deflect the blow, she swiped at her instructor, only for his blade to flick up and meet hers before she could strike true.
She pressed the attack, slashing once more, only, for the result to be the same. She grit her teeth together, bringing her blade up to parry a strike, then twisted her blade around to catch another slash. She was being forced onto the defensive, his blade flashing towards her with graceful flicks and swishes, and each time she was only just barely able to stop it from hitting her.
The sound of steel colliding with steel filled the room as their blades met over and over, and Weiss found herself being pushed to the edge of the arena. She was losing ground fast, and she needed to turn this around.
She knew she couldn't win if they were to lock blades, she simply built for that, so she needed to do something else to break his momentum. She noticed her opportunity when he lunged forward, trying to push her back even more. "As if that would work!" She thought to herself as she flicked her sword up to parry the blow then threw herself to his left, rolling on her shoulder to position herself behind him.
With their positions now reversed, Weiss took advantage of his surprise. An onslaught of slashes and stabs forced the man further and further back, the cocky expression he had worn since the duel started now replaced with a look of concentration as he desperately tried to defend from the flurry of sword swings.
Her sword sang out as it swung through the air, meeting her instructors each time, but he was losing ground fast. Her hyper-aggressive fighting style clearly surprised him. "He must have expected me to be some noble who barely knew which side of a sword was the sharp one," She thought smugly to herself, pleased with the man's expression as she forced him back until there was only about a foot between him and the edge of the ring.
She slashed at him endlessly, each time getting closer to breaking through his guard. Any chance he got to strike at her was perfectly deflected. A grin crossed her face as she noticed gaps start to appear in his defenses, brief moments where her sword could flash out and score a hit, ending the match. But she didn't want to risk striking at them, knowing some gaps could be used as bait to get her to overextend herself.
Their blades were barely visible as they swung over and over, each time sending a familiar jolt of energy up Weiss's arm. He was skilled, she'd give him that. But he would have been no match for Winter, so she knew she could win this.
To be able to beat her instructor only a week after they were hired would be a new record, and one she longed to achieve. Father never kept an instructor after Weiss beat them, claiming they had nothing to teach her if they lost to a seventeen-year-old girl.
"He ought to be tiring out by now. Just a few more seconds and I can win this!" Weiss thought to herself while parrying a desperate strike and countering it with a perfectly executed one of her own, only to find that one blocked just before it could claim victory. Her instructor tried to lock blades, but she was no fool. She backed up slightly, giving a little bit more room to move. It was better to simply give him a little bit of room than to pointlessly test her strength against his.
Eager to take back the ground he had managed to claim, Weiss launched into yet another offensive, her sword flicking upwards to try and score a hit. The instructor narrowly sidestepped the blow, but this left him open. Weiss's arm shot out to stab at him, a move he barely deflected with a flick of his blade.
Their blades met, but before he had the opportunity to push against her's, she flicked her wrist to the side, throwing open his guard. "I've won!" She cheered to herself as she lunged forward to attack his unguarded torso. However, just before her blade could strike him, she caught a flash of silver out of the corner of her eye.
Instinct took over, and she redirected her blade to deflect the perceived attack, only for her blade to meet nothing but air. Her shock was only heightened when she felt the familiar pressure of a blunt training blade plunging into her stomach.
"Enough. You've lost," Her instructor told her, his sword having struck her after she redirected her attack to protect herself from nothing. "What was that? I'm sure I saw something silver... Ruby!" Her thoughts abruptly led her to shoot a glare at the ghost, whose silver outline she had seen from the corner of her eye causing her to lose the match.
While she and her instructor caught her breath, all she could think about was how angry she was at Ruby for causing her to lose the match. She could have been free of this terrible instructor, but thanks to Ruby, he would now be more cautious when sparring with her. Weiss couldn't wait to be free of the girl.
The instructor then began to practice some basic moves with her, not eager to enter another spar in which he might lose his job and pride. Yet as she practiced parrying his thrusts, all she could think about was how angry she was at Ruby.
When the lesson finally ended, Weiss stormed off towards the private library. She, thankfully, did not have any lessons with a private tutor today, so she had the rest of the afternoon and evening to research ghosts and how to be rid of them.
"Weiss, I'm really sorry for distracting you during your fight," Ruby apologized incessantly, clearly feeling guilty for causing her to lose. Or at least, pretending to feel guilty.
Weiss did not bother to respond to the girl, believing she was just desperate to stop her from finding out how to destroy her. She would not be distracted by the ghost's attempts. She refused to even acknowledge her presence.
"It's just that your fight was so cool! I could barely even keep track of you guys' swords as you fought," The ghost began, before noticing Weiss's determined expression. "I'm... I'm sorry for making you lose."
Weiss seethed in anger. The last thing she wanted to be reminded of was that she just lost. She was Weiss Schnee. She shouldn't ever lose.
"Please, is there anything I can do to make this up to you?" Ruby's silver eyes seemed to grow in intensity as she pleaded for the chance to make things right.
"No," Was the cold reply she received, causing Ruby's eyes to widen slightly, the light dimming to a dull grey rather than the vibrant silver they had been moments prior.
"O-oh."
Weiss ignored the ghost as she made her way into the private library. She moved through the shelves with determination, resolved to find answers on how to be rid of this annoying pest. Hopefully, this whole mess will be behind her tomorrow.
"Ah, these books ought to do it," Weiss murmured to herself as she grabbed several books off the shelves and made her way to a table in the back of the library. "Now, how can I get rid of you?" She asked herself.
