Golden Thorns: Chapter Twelve

"You have probably heard of my father, Samuel Silverthorne. Y'know the one. Big time exec in Schnee corp. yeah that's me. From the day of my birth I was given lessons by the best private tutors that money could hire. Lessons in history, music, language, extraction and manipulation of dust, and, most importantly, business. I was to take over for my father when he retired."

"Growing up I was taught how to speak, how to move, how to eat et cetera. All so that I could be the model child. A son worthy of a successful businessman. I was taught that everyone was a threat to my position and that in business you are ruthless and strong or you are nothing. As such I wasn't allowed to interact with other kids my age. Heck, my father didn't let me even meet any of his business partners until I had "learned sufficient self-control". This was when I was ten." He took a breath.

"My father was hosting a party in celebration of a large deposit of dust that an exploration team had discovered. It was a very economically attractive prospect. All the board of executives were invited along with many other senior officials in the company. This was where I met Weiss."

"Weiss, as in the girl from the illustrious team RWBY?" asked Jo curiously

"Yes. Heiress to the Schnee dust company, she was the first person my age that I had ever talked to for any length of time. So naturally I enjoyed her company. Our fathers knew each other well so we often shared dinner at each other's mansions. Sounds hilarious but it's actually the truth. Slowly over the course of these meetings, we became friends."

"So what happened, no offence but you hardly look like a toff." Asked Dev

"Fast forward three years. I had gotten to know Weiss quite well. My father had encouraged this friendship in the hope that it would get him closer to the boss. And get him closer it did. By the time I was thirteen my father was one of the bosses most trusted partners. Things were seeming to be going well. However this is the time when attacks by the white fang were getting serious."

"White fang?" asked Marie. Clearly they didn't have much of a presence where she was from.

"A bunch of deranged terrorists who think they can change people's attitudes towards Faunus by blowing stuff up." He answered

"They wanted me to join once," said Dev and everyone turned to stare, "I brushed them off saying I had to think about it and never spoke to them again, don't worry. Carry on Coran."

"My father had been asked to go on one of the shipping trains with a small security team. He was tasked with making sure that any attackers were seen off. This would, and should, have been easy. Up until that point they had only been stealing dust from the train carriages. I was told that instead of raiding the train, the white fang had blown up the tracks. Eleven people in the damaged carriages were killed. The rest were unaccounted for, my father included. All they could find was his glaive, my glaive now." He paused.

"We survived for a time, believing that there would be a ransom demand but the call never came. Instead we spent every penny we had on search parties. Without my father's steady source of income we couldn't afford to keep searching. My mother laid off our maids and butler and sold our house. We appealed to the Schnees to help us but they no longer had the time of day for us. I had tried to talk to Weiss but I wasn't her problem anymore. After that things went downhill fast. I was sent to a normal school with normal people. I was bullied for "being a posh toff." The teachers did nothing to help. Just ignored me."

"Last year my mother got sick. We had each been working wherever we could but we still didn't have enough money to pay for the treatment. She died three months ago." His voice caught in his throat, "The night before last I went to go find Weiss. I got angry. I regretted it yesterday morning but she was avoiding me, understandably. I hid in the office and just let go. I couldn't hold on to it any longer. I just felt like nothing could go right for me. I'm sorry."

"We are here for you, Coran. We always will be."

"Thanks Marie. But I'm just… really tired." And he fell back to sleep.