Has anyone ever thought of making a character who was a horse Faunus? Just a thought. Also, some may find this chapter reminiscent of Volume 3's "Brawl in the Family", and so do I.

Faye was down at the docks wishing Crystal a farewell along with Ember and Azura. Crystal was going back to Mistral to attend a public viewing of a meeting of the Mistral Council. According to Crystal, it was at her father's request—and Faye could certainly understand wanting to please one's father. It was then that she showed up.

A woman with an unimpressive build, blue hair several shades darker than Azura's, and slightly tanned skin walked off of a ferry wearing a long blue coat and a long bow and a quiver full of arrows over her shoulder. Faye wondered who that was, and so did Taline, who happened to be around the docks. "Who are you?" Taline said loudly enough for the woman to hear over several paces and Faye to hear even farther away.

Faye took an interest in this, and so did Crystal despite her responsibilities to her father.

The blue coated woman smiled. "I'm, shall we say, a visiting professor." She looked around and her smile disappeared. "What are so many students doing outside of class?"
"Didn't you hear? The teachers have all been arrested, and classes are postponed until they can come up with replacements."

"Well, who's in charge of the school then?"

"Me I suppose." Lord Taryn's voice carried all the way from the entrance as he walked towards the docks. "So, you're involved with this?"

"What, the school?"

"The conspiracy!" Taryn drew his sword and pointed it at the woman. "How do you plead?"

"Innocent, but I feel like that's not going to matter to you." The woman drew her bow, but not any arrows. "Do we really want to do this, Dustin?" Who was she to use Lord Taryn's first name?

"Come with me and we may be able to sort this out, Jayana." So that was the woman's name—Jayana. It was an interesting name, if nothing else. It sounded familiar though. "Maybe you're not one of them."

"You wouldn't want to know what I know, Dustin. You wouldn't. Don't try to force me to give it up." Faye then wondered how they knew each other, but decided it did not matter. If Taryn was going to do things like this, then she feared for the safety of Mistral.

"You've been keeping secrets, then. If you don't tell me what this is about, then I have no choice but to do battle."

"I just want to teach, but if it's a fight you want," she drew an arrow and raised her bow, "it's a fight you'll get."

After a tense moment, Taryn charged. Jayana shot an arrow at him, but she seemed to miss rather ridiculously, being several feet away from her target. Then, a high pitched noise came from the arrow, and Tayrn stumbled. In fact, Faye felt a little disoriented from where she was standing—perhaps that was the purpose of that arrow.

Taryn recovered, and then continued to charge. She shot another arrow near him, but this one was knocked away by a wave of green energy that seemed to come from Taryn's aura. But then it exploded in a burst of smoke that seemed to expand around Taryn. Another energy wave burst forward, and the smoke dissipated.

Taryn did not charge again though. It only made sense when Faye realized that she had neglected to watch Jayana, as she was no longer where she had been standing. In fact, Faye could not see where she had gone at all. Strange.

Then a blue blur began to circle Taryn at incredible speed. Arrows would shoot from the blur at Taryn at random times. Sometimes Taryn blocked, other times not.

Faye switched semblances to Crystal's, so as to try and see what was going on more clearly. It seemed to help a little, but not much. She did not get a very clear image, and could only hold it for a brief amount of time. The only thing she could confirm from that was Jayana was the blur.

Jayana then jumped into the air and fired an arrow straight down at Taryn. This one he sent back at her, which messed her up a little. When she landed, Taryn lunged at her. She blocked with her bow, and then tried hitting him in the head with it. He repulsed again, sending her back a ways.

She did not have much time to recover as he pursued. He lunged again, and she managed to deflect it. But then he pulled out a dagger, and lunged with it as well. She managed to trap it between the shaft and the cord of her bow. Then a pistol barrel deployed from it and fired.

Jayana staggered back as her aural collapsed. "I win," Taryn announced.

She shook her head and said, "I don't stop when my aura does." She then drew an arrow and it dispensed a cloud of smoke. It engulfed both of them.

Faye had no idea what was going on in there, as not even using Crystal's semblance was working in there. It became less a spectator sport and more a game of waiting. Who would emerge from the smoke victorious, and who would fall? Everyone watched for several minutes waiting for something to happen.

"What's going on?" Faye jumped at the sound of Storm's voice. He then looked apologetic. "Sorry. I didn't mean to startle you."

"If you must know, some woman with a bow showed up and her and my father are now fighting," Crystal explained.

Storm looked questioningly at Crystal. "Is that the headgear kind of bow or the weapon?"

"Weapon."

"Ah." Then Storm looked at the smoke. "Huh, so you're all watching a cloud of Dust?"

"That's not dust; that's smoke," Crystal said. "Don't you know anything?"

Storm frowned. "That's not exactly smoke; it's a gas mixed with a couple kinds of Dust to produce an impenetrable barrier of privacy. You can't hear, smell, or sense anything in it." He pointed to it. "You can see a sort of pinkish hue around the edges—it gives the whole thing away."

Faye considered what that might mean. "So they could be carrying on a conversation in there without anyone knowing?"

"I guess so, yeah."

"I wonder what they are talking about then."

Crystal had a different question though. "How do you know about the smoke then?"

"Well, my mom uses it sometimes when she's out on missions. She's a Huntress."

Crystal had a contemplative look as she said, "Then perhaps your mother's fighting my father?"

Storm laughed and shook his head. "No, I doubt it. She's probably out on some mission right now or something like that." He paused. "Though… Nah!"

A moment later, Jayana and Lord Taryn walked out of the cloud side by side, weapons put away, and without the slightest bit of aggression towards each other. And Storm's head slammed into his hand. "What is wrong?" Faye asked.

"That's my mom," he said painfully.

"She seemed to know my father," Crystal added.

He looked over at her. "I didn't know that. Apparently she has a larger circle of friends than I thought."

Then Faye realized where she had heard that name before—on the news. She looked at Storm. "So, you are one of those Sapphires."

"Yep, I'm one of those Sapphires."

"I did not realize that your uncle and your mother were part of the same family; I thought it was a coincidence."

"Well, it's not. My uncle Norbert is my mom's brother."

Crystal cocked her head. "Then why do you have her name and not your father's?" she asked.

Before he could answer, Jayana—his mother—waved at them. "Hey, Storm," she called as she walked over to them. "How's my favorite Storm?"

He face-palmed again. "I'm fine, Mom."

She looked at Faye and Crystal. "Who are your friends?"

"This is Faye, and this is Crystal. Girls, meet my mom."

No, my own mother's not like that (mostly).