"You guys are not going to believe what happened in that forest," Robin panted.
She pulled the barn doors closed and tossed the Vulgaris sack. Sapphire didn't care for the story. She set to work with a mortar and pestle nestled in her cross-legged stance.
"Kale?"
Kale was beside a fire and pot, brewing the remedy's core.
"Yeah, we're good here. Remember the petals have to be really fine. We add the petals and it's ready to serve. How is she, Mud?"
Mud had moved Belladonna to a mass of hay beneath the skylight. Where the ceiling had been destroyed, moonlight pierced barn haze and lit up the silver of her skin. Mud busied his hands compressing a mass of bandage.
"Her stomach isn't punctured," he mumbled.
Belladonna wasn't curled anymore. She appeared dead to the world. But at the sound of Mud's voice, her head rolled to him.
"Professor?"
Kale approached with a cup.
"Professor Belladonna, we have something you need to drink."
Her eyelids fluttered. Her breathing revved, and she groaned. Mud flinched as if the pain was his own. He nodded to Sapphire.
"Lift her up. I need to keep pressure on the wound."
It was a team effort, getting her into position, getting her to sputter on the drink and finally chug it.
"Here's to luck," Kale whispered.
Belladonna's breathing hastened again. She was awake, but all her thoughts were consumed by the rapid pace of her lungs. Her eyes opened. She raised her hand and wiped blood from one, and they saw that her scar had sealed again.
Despite their exhaustion, they found the last bits of emotion they had not yet spent. Mud removed her bandages and wrapped his arms around her. Robin found an awkward way to add into that group, and Kale found Sapphire's side. He knelt and placed a hand on her back. By great effort, she was not crying with joy.
"You did good," he told her.
She nodded, and allowed herself a smile.
"Although I really gotta ask how you knew how to cure a poison that none of us knew existed. Grimm worms in her blood? They didn't teach you that in an elective class."
Sapphire shook her head.
"Remember that night I got arrested and I was too embarrassed to talk about it?"
"Yeah."
"I broke into the vault under the school. I took some books."
Kale chuckled and wrapped his arms around her, whispering, "you incurable nerd."
"We're not at Beacon," Belladonna noted.
Her breathing stayed rapid, but she was awake and alert. Her head snapped around to Sapphire.
"We're in Odessa," Sapphire said.
"No. We can't stay here!"
Belladonna tried to stand. Through incredible pain, she got her knees under her. She could go no further.
"No, it's okay, Professor."
Sapphire helped her back to the ground, forcefully.
"You can't be moving yet, but it's okay. We killed the slavers, and we have enough supplies to get back now."
"What about The Grimm?"
"Haven't seen 'em," Sapphire smiled.
She considered, then amended, "I mean... Haven't felt them."
Belladonna breathed easier. She laid back from her elbows to the hay. She was thinking. She felt her wounds.
"The cruiser?"
She turned it to Sapphire again, who shook her head.
"They already left."
"I guess we're walking," Belladonna hummed.
She sat up against a wall. She looked at Mud.
"How long since you strangled Ginger?"
"Three hours," Mud shrugged.
It had felt like days. Blake nodded, then smiled to him.
"It's cleaner the second time," she assured him.
They smiled together.
"I sure hope so," Robin interrupted.
She held out her skirt to display the blot splatter along her whole form. Everyone smiled.
"Damn it, Robin," Sapphire chuckled.
"You had to be there, though, teach," Kale laughed, "She threw a grenade into this group of five of them. Well one guy reaches his hand out, catches it midair, and throws it back. So she throws two more. Same guy- no joke- he reaches out and grabs both, and throws them both at me and Pond. So Robin throws another, Sapphire and I kick ours at him, and he catches both of ours in one hand, and Robin's in the other."
"Only I used the alt-setting," Robin sneered.
Kale demonstrated the explosion with his hands and mouth.
Sapphire mimicked the cries of despair.
Robin pretended to shield herself from gore.
Everyone laughed.
And Blake let them. She had never taken the lesson to heart, but she knew tragedy and comedy were two heads of the same coin. She didn't interrupt their chatter again until her stomach rumbled into the conversation.
"You know," Kale pointed to the organ, "that's not a bad idea."
Sapphire nodded to Robin, who was already tinkering with pots and pans.
"On it," Robin chimed.
Then to Mud, "Any special requests?"
"Uh..."
He saw that everyone else was watching him. Belladonna nudged his arm and winked.
Mud blushed, "I really like it when you make soup."
"Should be quick," she predicted.
"Speaking of which," Sapphire cooed.
She nodded to the overflowing sack of Vulgaris.
"Yeah," Kale noted, "How'd you get in and out of the forest with that much so fast? Vulgaris can't even grow near other Vulgaris."
"I almost didn't," Robin laughed.
Sapphire's neck straightened.
"Grimm?"
"No. A huntress. But she had a Grimm mask, so I thought so for a second."
Belladonna's eyes narrowed. She didn't comment. Beside her, Mud had assumed his normal silence and stillness.
"This sounds like another one of your stories," Kale pointed.
"It is, but it's also true," Robin pointed back.
"Anyway, it was Raven Branwen."
"Uhuh," Mud snarked from his corner.
"And she said I could have it if I answered a riddle," Robin continued.
"Mhm," Sapphire nodded.
"So I answered the riddle correctly, and she gave it to me," Robin finished.
"You stole it," Kale surmised.
"You robbed Raven Branwen," Belladonna smirked, "And I thought today couldn't get worse."
She leaned back against the hay and closed her eyes.
"I have to sleep now. You kids be sure and make a lot of noise when she kills you."
"I'm serious," Robin asserted.
"Me too," Belladonna murmured. And she was out.
Mud mumbled, "Who's Raven Branwen?"
They all sighed and explained.
It was a few minutes later that they woke the professor to eat. Sapphire had the map out for her, explaining the route she'd mapped. Belladonna listened to the entire plan without interrupting, then nodded. Sapphire beamed.
Belladonna and Mud finished first, together. Robin was too busy talking.
"I think I know what that blood circle was that we found."
Munch, munch, slurp.
"Raven said that the Balefires-" She had all of Belladonna's attention- "have rituals that make them invisible, and stop them from aging. They're intelligent Grimm."
"Did you say Balefires?" Mud interrupted.
Now he had Belladonna's attention.
"Yeah, why?" Robin nodded.
"The slavers were talking about Balefires. They said they couldn't sell Professor Belladonna to their broker. He said... Uh... There was something the Balefires do every month, but they hadn't done it for a long time. So he thought they could sell Professor Belladonna to them."
Kale slurped his soup to interrupt, "The slavers said something about Balefires when they were talking about us, too. The Balefires stopped chasing the Professor because they were chasing something else."
"Us?"
"I guess not," Kale shrugged.
They all looked to Professor Belladonna, who nodded, "I can fill in the blanks."
Everyone ate quieter while she spoke.
"Balefires are classified. If you speak about them to the general public, you'll get a swift banishment from civilization. I think you all understand why. They are intelligent Grimm," she nodded to Robin, "and we usually see them before a swarm attacks. They're highly dangerous, and worth a lot of money to the brave. That explains why Raven's here. But they can turn invisible now. That means they're relearning the old ways."
Kale leaned in to offer, "How do we beat them?"
"No," Belladonna snapped, "You don't understand. Balefires are to Grimm what Huntsmen are to Humanity. These are disciplined fighters. And judging by their bones, they're ancient. We should be scared of them."
"Well I'm not," Robin asserted.
She gestured to the second fire, to the bubbling pot. She added Vulgaris to it.
"Because I think I know why Raven gave me all of her Vulgaris and told me so much."
"You're probably wrong, but go on," Belladonna nodded.
"She told me that the Balefires make themselves invisible by banishing the shadows from their bodies. We already know how to brew shadows from our friends the slavers. They have the ingredients lined up right here on the wall, and they're the same as the cure. Like cures like, so reverse engineering isn't that hard."
"That's not how chemistry works," Sapphire pointed.
"But it is how alchemy works. And right now, we're dealing with magic."
"That's stupid," Mud mumbled.
"Sorry," he added.
"Does it work?" Kale pointed.
Robin shrugged. She reached her finger into the mixture and removed it with a look of wonder and terror.
"Sorry I called it stupid," Mud mumbled.
Everyone else was speechless. Her finger, even to their auras, was a Grimm. Robin dipped her finger into the cure and watched it wash away. The feeling receded from all of them. Robin made quick work bottling some. Belladonna was thinking.
"If the Balefires were tracking you, where would they be?"
She looked to Sapphire, who swallowed her soup.
"A few hours into the fields. We set up a dummy camp to lure some of the bandits out."
"When should the bandits be back?" Belladonna noted.
Sapphire checked her scroll. Everyone could see her worry.
"About an hour ago," she realized.
"But... We haven't sensed Grimm," Kale interjected.
"Yeah," Robin nodded, "We would have sensed them if they tracked us here. I mean, they turn invisible, not... You know."
Belladonna shook her head.
"If you had asked me yesterday, I would have told you they don't turn invisible."
"But they can't hide what they are! That isn't possible. Right?"
Blake's ears twitched. She looked up, through the skylight, at the shattered moon. Its beams shifted without cause. She dodged.
Thunder struck the room. The hay ignited where she'd been the instant before. Everyone leaped to their feet, weapons and panic rising. Robin had enough wit left to toss her potion. And the Balefire appeared. Its sword was human bones, glued together with Dust that crackled along the surface with energy. Its tongues were ceaseless, lapping from mouths on each head and whispering, discordant, in the human language.
"The shining light will sink in darkness/Victory for hate incarnate."
And in its off-hand hand was a glass bottle, something dark and viscous spinning within. The arm was raised, but came down and crashed its potion against Robin's aura. It crackled, fizzled, and popped. The potion wet her face. Another Balefire crashed through the barn doors, lashing out with a whip of sinew and teeth.
Mud's face was the last thing she saw.