Once upon a time in a small village, a young child had a dream. This young child was Jaune Arc, he was only twelve years old, he had seven wonderful sisters, and two loving parents, but in his small village, surrounded by a loving family, something plagued Jaune, a dream, a dream to be a warrior, a hero.
A thundering roar shook the ground and the bones of the armor clad knight, or it would have, if that knight hadn't been Jaune Arc. He stared straight at the giant scaly monster who had unleashed that roar, his gaze never leaving the dragon that towered over him.
This monster had kidnapped a fair princess and burned down a village, so he had come to put an end to this beast's rampage, he was going to slay this dragon.
It was a tough battle of fire and strength, of claws and swords, but eventually he had won. He had defeated the Dragon, and now everyone was safe. The whole Kingdom had gathered around him and the corpse of the dragon.
"Jaune! Jaune! Jaune! Jaune!" They cheered and chanted.
He waved at everyone, he didn't do this for fame, but it was still nice.
"Jaune! Jaune! Jaune! Jaune!" The last cheer shook the world, confusing him.
"Jaune!" He stumbled back startled as the world broke apart.
The ground split open, the sky fell, and then darkness swallowed him whole.
"Jaune!"
"Wah!" A blond boy woke with a shout, and he flailed about before he fell out of his bed, dragging his blankets down with him.
"Finally awake are you? Did you stay up all night?" A voice asked him.
"Uh..." Jaune groaned half asleep as he sat up, before reality kicked in. "Oh, good morning Saph." He said, with a wave and a smile, to his older sister, Saphron Arc.
"Don't 'good morning' me." She made finger quotes and spoke tightly. "It's almost ten, and you're still in bed."
He looked at the alarm clock on his nightstand, it read '9:52', but then his mind remembered something. "But today's Sunday." He said, as if it answered and explained everything in the universe.
Saphron looked down at him, unimpressed. "Yeah, it's Sunday, all the more reason to get up earlier, we leave at ten."
"Mom said that if we weren't ready, we would get left behind, that's my plan." Jaune explained as he got off the floor and sat on his bed, wrapping himself in his blankets.
His sister sighed. "You know we won't bring you back any ice cream, right?"
Jaune looked his sister straight in the eyes, and his face took on a serious expression. "'Sometimes when you sacrifice something precious, you're not really losing it. You're just passing it on to someone else.'" He quoted from a comic book he had read, and ignored his sister's confused face. "I may be missing out, but that just means someone else would get to enjoy a treat. I've thought long and hard about this, and I no longer consider ice cream to be a fair price."
"It wasn't a price." Saphron sighed again. "And Mom just said that to encourage you guys, I doubt she'll really leave without everyone."
"Oh." He said, and he flopped back on his bed. "I still don't want to go." He said after a minute.
"Why not?" She asked.
He hesitated before answering. "I-I don't believe in the Church."
"...Jaune." Saphron started after a pause, but didn't continue.
He stared at the ceiling. "I only went because it made Mom and Dad happy." He said.
"Jaune, everyone has doubts." Saphron's voice lacked conviction.
"I never believed." He admitted. "I know our family has always followed the Church since our ancestor joined a war because they heard The Voice, but I never believed." He took a deep breath and held it for a second. "I don't want to tell our parents, I was planning on never telling them, it would only worry them. They would think I wouldn't join them in the afterlife, and that my soul would be stolen after I die."
Saphron took a seat next to Jaune and wiped the tears that had begun to form on her brother's face away. "Don't worry Jaune, I'm sure Mom and Dad could handle it. Besides, these thoughts are too heavy for a kid like you to be thinking, so stop it, 'kay?" She asked with a warm smile.
He smiled back and sat back up. "Fine, I won't think about it."
"Thanks." She said as she got off his bed and walked to his door. "I'll tell them that you weren't feeling well, but you should tell them the truth when we get back, okay?"
"Yeah, I will, and thanks."
"Goodbye." Saphron said and left.
Jaune remained in bed, he only found the courage to get up, when he heard a car pull out the driveway.
He kept his mind off the topic of telling his parents, he went through his morning routine as if nothing was happening. He showered, got dressed in fresh clothes, put on his necklace, and ate his cold breakfast in silence, it unnerved him to no end.
In the silence, his mind roamed. He hadn't told Saphron the whole truth, that he did believe in Gods, just not the two that his family believed in, he didn't believe in the Wonderful Wizard and the Wicked Witch, who the Church claimed to govern Life and Death, Souls and The Grimm.
There was a bunch of stuff the Church claimed. That the Grimm were lost Souls who were denied access to the Afterlife, now they roamed the ground. Or that there were four children of the 'Gods' that controlled the seasons.
There was even a story that had ties with the Arc family, The Voice. If you were a true believer, The Wizard would speak to you and only you could hear them, then he would guide you to a better future.
Of course, the Witch was also capable of doing this, so if you heard her voice, the only way to save your Soul was to burn her out of your Body, it killed you, but your Soul was sent to the Afterlife.
Those weren't the Gods Jaune believed in, he found his Gods in a fairytale. The book was old, and supposedly only existed to teach kids the importance of balance and compromise. It was called: The Tale of Two Brothers.
And it was about Two Gods that built and shaped the world, one would make something, and the other would make the opposite. Day and Night, Animals and Grimm, Nature and Fire, Life and Death, and so on, until they made Humans and The Faunus.
When Jaune first heard this story in school as a kid, it stuck with him. He knew he wasn't the only person to believe in this fairytale, but unlike others, he had a problem with the interpretation most people had. They believed the God of Light was Good and the God of Darkness was Evil.
He imagined something different, he believed that the God of Darkness was just unlucky. If both Gods made the world from nothing, then that was the Darkness, and then Light came after. And Light decided to create stuff, Darkness didn't want to completely destroy his brother's work, so he just created the opposite.
And that was a good thing in his opinion, he couldn't imagine a nightless world overrun by nature, where animals lived forever. And without Darkness, Humans and Faunus wouldn't exist. Jaune believed in the Two Gods, but he always pictured Darkness to be the responsible Brother.
He definitely couldn't tell his parents he didn't believe in their Gods, but instead he believed in a God of Darkness and his Brother.
Jaune mentally sighed as he washed the dishes, he decided to put his problem on hold. He started doing chores, his family wouldn't be back until three, and he was bored. So, he did the rest of the dishes, then he started on laundry, then he swept and mopped, then he took out the trash, then he vacuumed, then he dusted the walls, then he did the lawn, then he did whatever else he could think of.
He finished at noon-ish, he had run out of stuff to clean, so he took a break and ate an apple. And after he rested on the couch for thirty minutes, reading old comics, he stopped on a page. It showed a villain being punted through a house, each panel was a different room, the first was an attic.
That gave him an idea, he hadn't cleaned the attic. He got off his butt and walked to the hallway, where the entrance to the attic was. It was the kind with a retractable ladder, but it didn't have a string, no unfortunately it had a handle that Jaune had to jump to reach. After a few tries he finally got it open.
The attic was dusty, but that didn't stop him, he opened two windows to let some air in and the dust out and went about cleaning. He started by moving everything to one side, which took thirty minutes, then he swept the empty spot before moving some stuff back.
While cleaning, Jaune found a few things that almost made him abandon his job, interesting things and toys, but he held strong, and told himself he could play after he was done. He finished at two, he was exhausted, but proud of his work, and glad his family didn't store heavy things in the attic, even now, his twelve year old arms were sore.
He collapsed on the empty side of the attic, his breathing was harsh, he decided he would take a short napm but before he could drift off, he noticed something odd in a wall. A small discolored and rectangular part of the wall was dislodged, it was at floor level and in the corner, hidden by a support beam.
He found himself drawn to it, he knew he wouldn't be able to rest unless he satisfied his curiosity. He crawled over to the wall, he felt the rectangle, it was wobbly, but stuck. He struggled to get a grip on it, he almost quit when a broken piece of wood pricked his finger, and when he managed to grip it, he pulled hard, but it didn't come out. Jaune kept trying, eventually, he pressed his foot against the wall for leverage.
When it finally came loose, Jaune was sent tumbling backwards. "Ow, you better be worth this pain." He grumbled as he searched the floor for the rectangle. He found a wooden box, one side was spotted with fresh blood. He guessed the rectangle was just the visible part and then he picked up the box, he examined it from all directions, but couldn't find a seam. He shook the box, something thumped against the sides, but he didn't know how to open it.
He was close to just grabbing a sharp object and cutting it in half, when he found a seam. It was smaller than a coin slot, and was on the opposite side of the side that was sticking out the wall.
Jaune was too lazy to get up and find a screwdriver, so he improvised, he used the edge of the pendant on his necklace. His pendant was a circle with five points coming out the edges, the base was a silver stone and was surrounded by gold, two golden arcs crossed the stone. He had found it in his family belongings when he was a toddler, and according to his parents, never took it off for more than an hour.
He stabbed a point into the gap, and tried to pry the box open, but no matter how hard he tried it wouldn't open. He strained his tired body. "Darn it! Open already!" He grumbled through clenched teeth.
A sigh of relief escaped his mouth as the box snapped open, the top coming off clean. His sigh turned into one of exasperation when he saw a small book in the box.
"What did you expect?" Jaune asked himself. "I don't know man, I was caught up in the mystery of it all." He answered.
He picked the book up, it was black and blank, the only thing on the cover were two golden arcs, and the edges of the book were lined with silver. He was hopeful the book would be an interesting read if nothing else. He tried to open the book, but it was stuck.
"Of course!" He shouted, he was obviously frustrated. "First you were stuck in the wall, then in a box, now you won't even open!" He grabbed the book with his right hand and raised it in the air, he was planning on throwing till it opened, what he wasn't planning on was cutting himself on the silver edges. He yelped out in pain as he dropped the book and clutched his hand with his other hand in a panic. He released his hand to see how severe his wound was, he expected to find sliced flesh and blood, but his hand was uninjured.
Jaune double checked, but couldn't find an injury. He turned around to find the book to see if it had blood on it He found the book lying on the floor, opened to the first page. He bent over to pick it up, he took a seat on a box and read the first page, his supposed injury forgotten.
"I was Jeanne Arc, I am a Witch and this is my Grimoire."
'Witch? Grimoire?' Questions raced through his head, but he kept reading.
"If you are reading this, I am dead. If you are an Arc, then congratulations, you are now the owner of my Grimoire. If you are 'him' and you found my Book, and spilled the blood of an Arc on it, then, fuck off you Parasite! ignore the last part if it doesn't apply to you. Ah, where to begin? I know, I'll explain the first line. My Birth Name was Jeanne Arc, I had a twin sister by the name of Joanne Arc."
Jaune couldn't wrap his head around why he was reading, the writer just jumped around without explaining anything.
"Since I'm dead, I'll even tell you my Magic Name, it was La Malfaisant Doré Sorcière. Don't worry I'll explain this later. I was disowned by my family when I fucked up, my sister had claimed to hear a voice, it wanted her to fight in a war. We were thirteen year old twins, everything we did was a competition, so, not wanting her to win. I claimed to hear a voice too."
'A voice spoke to an Arc? Was this a coincidence? Or was this the story of The Voice? Was that story real? Was this story even real?'
"That was why, the how is another story. A 'Witch' is a female magic user, but to a certain group of people, there is only one Witch, and she controls the Grimm. Through brutal trial and error, I learned magic. Then I was called a Witch, that meant I had to die. See we have this funny thing, where if a peasant woman does something extraordinary, they get called a Witch and are burned at the stake, alive. My case was justified, but still."
'Would the Church still burn a Witch alive, in this day and age?' He wondered.
"On to the next word, I hope you're keeping up. A 'Grimoire' is just a fancy way of saying 'Magic Book.' A Magic Book is a simply a Book with magic either on it, or in it, sometimes both. This Grimoire was mine, I wrote down all my Magic Knowledge in here, I had Enchanted the book to only be opened by the blood of an Arc. I had intended that to mean by someone with the blood of an Arc flowing through them, but it came out literally. I compensated by adding a Curse on this Book, now any injuries done by this book are reversed after a second."
Her claims to use magic didn't make sense if this was non-fiction.
"Oh, that bit probably confused you. Enchanted? Curse? I wrote all my Knowledge down, but I wrote that I wrote it in the beginning? Well, flip through the pages."
Jaune flipped through ten pages, all of them were blank. When he stopped, text suddenly appeared.
"This Grimoire is also Enchanted to be extra helpful, you probably hadn't noticed, but you haven't needed to flip the pages while you read. Since learning magic can be dangerous, I didn't want some novice to try something that would kill them. Pages and Chapters are restricted, until you've proven capable of handling them. I hoped to pass on my Knowledge, I know you can learn, the box this book was in was locked by Magic."
Jaune was amazed. He just witnessed actual magic at work, he had his doubts about the authenticity of Jeanne's words, even thinking the book was completely fictional, or in the worst case, the diary of a delusional ancestor. The instantly healed cut on his hand was unexplainable, but it could easily be discredited by saying he never had a cut, he only imagined it. The book generating words on a random page was harder to ignore.
"Since this is your Grimoire now, you're allowed to alter it once you've proven yourself capable. How do you prove yourself? Easy, step one: flow your Mana into this book."
'What? How did he do that?'
"No Mana? Do you need time to try again or is there another reason? Write down your answer, or Flip the page if there is another reason."
He flipped the page.
"Are you capable of using magic? Since you flipped, I'm assuming you don't have a writing utensil. Flip the page once for yes, twice for no, and three times for you don't know."
He flipped three times.
"You don't know? By the way, are you impressed with how far I thought ahead? Seriously, I haven't slept once in the ten years since I started writing in this Book."
'It's pretty neat.' He admitted, even if it was by magic it was convenient for him.
"Did someone else open this book for you? One flip for yes. Two for no. Three for you don't know."
Two flips.
"You opened it yourself? I'm expecting you to know this stuff. Are you a Faunus? Flip the pages to answer. Do you have a Magical Artifact? Press the Artifact against the page."
Jaune was pretty sure he wasn't a Faunus, not that he knew why that mattered, and the only thing he had that could be called an artifact was his pendant. He pressed it against the page, he took a moment to appreciate the weirdness in his situation.
"Ooh, Charged Lunar Stone and Imbued Gold, Nice."
He didn't know what his pendant was made of, it was nice to know, even if he didn't understand.
"Yeah, okay, I'll give you one chance. You can put this Book back, the Magic will lock it away, you just put the parts back together. Or, I'll tell you how to unlock your Mana, but know that the price is high. You'll likely regret your choice either way. Which is why I'm not giving you the choice, a Hex will charm you to put the Book back, if you really want to learn Magic than you'll resist. Don't worry, it's painless, and you'll forget all this even happened."
He felt numb all over his body as something washed over his brain.
"Jaune?" A voice roused him from his nap, and he turned to face the source.
"'Sup Dad." He responded.
"We noticed the house was clean, and your sisters told me you were up here." He spoke gently as he sat down next to his son. "What do you want? Or what have you done?" His father asked teasingly.
Jaune took a moment to gather himself, his mind slowly backtracking his day. He took a nap after cleaning the attic, because he already cleaned everything else, and he did that so he wouldn't think about telling his parents he didn't believe in their Gods. He sighed. "Actually, I need to tell you and Mom something important." He wouldn't tell them the full truth either, but hopefully half would be enough.