A.N. (3/17/23) - Sorry, I released this a lot later than I intended to.
Atlas (12) - Dowsing
Jewel Magecraft.
It was her specialty, but it was as if she specialized solely in that field. If one thought of a magus as an occupation, then it would make sense that one would be educated in a multitude of topics to build the fundamentals.
Similar to how students would learn about mathematics, language, and history, magi learn about subjects such as curses, spiritual evocation, and necromancy. Even if a magus only pursued a single path, it was inevitable that one would learn the basics from other fields as well. At the very least, most magi would learn a few of the most popular spells like making bounded fields, reading leylines, or dealing with basic curses.
In the end, magecraft was merely a discipline capable of altering the world that was a shadow of the Root.
Attempting to rewrite the nature of something without permission, that was a basic definition of what magecraft defined as a curse. Her Gandr spell was one example, using the concept of pointing at someone to strike a target with illness. But even in simple conversation, one could invoke misfortune on another person through rough and vulgar language. After all, profanity was one of the simplest forms of curses.
From that, one could take the name of something and define it as the shadow of its true nature. To use the microcosm–macrocosm analogy, a name correlates to the small order while the true nature becomes the great order. Because there is correspondence within all matter, it is feasible to affect something else using a shadow of its existence.
Rin stood before a table with a map displaying a general layout of Atlas on top of it. Her hand opened, dropping several sparkling objects onto the surface to roll around.
-Start-
"—Anfang."
The crystal objects began to move about on her map without prompt. As if moved by an unseen force, they positioned themselves in a circle around the city depicted on the map.
Her finger traced the perimeter of the city as magical energy flowed between her and the map.
-Search for the Target Location-
"—By my request, I inquire thou."
Dowsing was a technique that most magi utilized. The simplest applications ranged from looking for ore veins to searching for water sources. The gems were now linked to the city, acting as the small order to represent symbols to seek her target within the shadow of the great source. Using this method, she could use the divination technique to locate General Ironwood within the city limits.
-Find out the Status of Health-
"—Thou art alive or not, I seek."
One of the gems started spinning in place, spiraling around the table while narrowing the radius as time passed. Coming to a stop, it suddenly shot off the table as if something exploded under it. While concerning, it was still not a cause for worry yet since there would be no reaction if he were simply dead.
-Determine the Untrodden Path-
"—Seek thy ally, I beseech thee."
The rest of the gems on the map began spinning around as well, leaving thin trails of light behind as they traveled across the surface of the table. Converging around the spot indicating Atlas Academy, all of them shot off the table in a similar manner as before, clattering on the ground with faint wisps of smoke emitting from them.
She frowned. "Well, the good news is that he's definitely alive."
Except the issue was that her spell had failed to pinpoint exactly where he was located. Not that it meant that she failed to figure out where he was. After all, the reason the spell failed was that something had interfered with it. It was similar to a litmus test, where a reaction indicated that the curse encountered something that caused a large reaction. In this case, that something was most likely a protected space of some kind.
Since Ironwood had no such capability to set up a defense against this, the only reason the spell failed would be because he was in a boundary field that stopped such detection. And if you considered the fact that the boundary field was located on the premises of Atlas Academy…
"He has to be inside the vault."
}-{
General Ironwood slowly opened his eyes.
His memory… he faintly recalled the instant when he realized that something bad was about to happen to him. It was a feeling of dread that assaulted his senses, a warning that the potential loss of his life was about to occur if he did not do anything to stop it.
Whether it was instinct or something else, he was able to somehow act in time right when the explosion occurred. At the moment when heat washed over his skin, his hand had already struck the activation switch of the emergency life preservation device in his jacket. A prototype from the Scarlatina facility, it was a hard-light full body barrier that shielded him at the last second.
Sadly, it only buffered the worst of the damage.
Injured and paranoid of further retaliation, he activated the secondary functions of the device and turned invisible before quickly wobbling away from the area of destruction. His mind and senses were unable to function properly then, so he was forced to rely on the Accessibility Dialogue Assistant installed on the device to lead him to safety.
"Ada," he spoke. "Where am I right now?"
"You are currently located at [REDACTED]." The female monotone voice that came from his Scroll was set to its lowest volume. "As ordered, Cyrano protocol is still running and scanning for any threats within proximity. Update—no threats detected within a hundred meters of user."
The fact that the name of the location was redacted meant only one thing. There was only one place that he removed from his device's systems in the event that someone managed to hack it.
"Did anyone pursue me?"
"No," Ada replied. "The prototype invisotech was able to function properly until twenty minutes ago when power-saving mode activated. By then, nobody else was within range of detection."
"I suppose that's one piece of good news." He winced as he lifted his body up. "Damn it, how long was I out?"
"Record indicates that it has been four hours and twelve minutes since activation."
"So I've been out for that long…"
"Alert." Ada began making a beeping sound. "Priority messages from Rin Tohsaka."
He glanced down at the screen where several messages began appearing on it.
Where are you?
Answer me!
There's no way you're dead.
Never mind, I found you.
I'm guessing you're safe.
Do you require healing?
At the last question, he finally took in his current state and began assessing the full extent of the damage. His robotic prosthesis was showing but appeared to have suffered no issues from a casual inspection. Pressing a button, his Scroll revealed that his Aura levels were dangerously low but recovering. Most of his body suffered from minor injuries ranging from cuts to burns from the explosion, and he could tell that he had several broken bones if the pain was any indication.
"No," Ironwood verbalized. Typing the rest of his response, he sent a message to Rin. "I'll be fine on my own. Do not attempt to make your way toward my current location."
Not even a minute after he sent it, the Scroll began vibrating from Rin trying to call him.
He accepted the call.
"Do you have your Semblance activated?"
At the unexpected question, Ironwood blinked in surprise. "I do, but is there a reason you're inquiring about it?"
"Yes. In fact, it might be the reason why someone tried to kill you."
It took them twenty minutes to catch each other up to speed, with most of the conversation dominated by Rin explaining what she knew about the enemy that attacked the Schnee gala while he was away. The fact that she was able to identify the enemy and he had no knowledge of their existence grated him, but he swallowed his anger and moved on.
"So you suspect that the reason this Crown organization tried to kill me is that they have no means of controlling my mind like everyone else?"
"That's my leading theory," Rin replied. "According to my source, Jax Asturias is heavily reliant on his Semblance in comparison to the rest of his skills. That makes whoever is resistant to its effects dangerous to him. I doubt he would know that I can resist his mind control, but he might have found out that you're protected against him somehow."
"Yes, according to your source who you still haven't named yet." The other end went silent, and he rolled his eyes. "Except the knowledge of my Semblance is limited to a small number of people within my circle. So the fact that he somehow knows about it indicates that one of them might be compromised."
"Who would that be?"
"Ozpin, Glynda, Qrow, Winter, and the rest of the Ace-Ops excluding maybe Marrow. He might have learned about it from the others though, so I can't be certain about that last one. The first three are not in Atlas at the moment, and you already mentioned that Winter was recently taken by Jax."
"Then that means…"
"Yes." He grimaced. "At least one of the Ace Operatives is currently compromised. Worst case scenario, the entire team is under their control."
"Are you sure that no one else knows?" Rin asked. "There has to be someone else, right?"
He thought about it. "Well, it could be that someone else in the military was able to guess it. Other than that, maybe one of the staff members in Atlas Academy who works closely with me. A few names come to mind, such as Olive or Stephanie."
"Stephanie… Do you mean Professor Santiago? I don't think I know the other one though."
"That's right, she should be one of your teachers. Her role means that she assumes most of the administrative duties of the school whenever I require help, meaning that the two of us work closely together. The other person I mentioned is Lieutenant Colonel Olive Harper who also assists me with matters regarding military operations."
"Compared to the Ace-Ops, would you say they're easier to subdue without raising attention?"
"Not really. Both work closely with huntsmen, so their combat skills are not to be looked down upon. Not to mention that someone was able to plan ahead and set a bomb within my vehicle. Those two have access to my schedule, so it would be easy to plan ahead and set up something to kill me. But then again, the same could be said for any member of the Ace-Ops."
"So there are seven suspects that might be the ones working with them."
"See if you can narrow that down for me." He held in the urge to grunt as a flash of pain assaulted him. "Right now, everyone believes that I am dead and it would be easier to maintain that cover until the situation changes. I'll be making some calls with Theodore to see how much he knows about the Crown. Since you said they are normally based in Vacuo, he might have some insight into their intentions regarding Atlas. Meanwhile, I want you to look into determining what other attacks they might be planning."
"You think there are going to be more?"
"One doesn't simply move to another kingdom near the launch date of Amity to merely kill the CEO of the SDC and a single general. No, I fear this is merely the start of further attacks."
In a way, they were worse than the White Fang in that regard. At least the latter knew how bad it would be to attack Atlas during this period. Unless their leader was a complete fool (which was an idea he wasn't about to dismiss yet), there was something else happening soon that they needed to prepare for.
"Start by looking into the Ace-Ops first," he continued. "Right now, they should be on guard duty for Doctor Polendina while he goes over maintenance checks for Amity Arena. Even if my death has been announced already, I doubt that they'll be reassigned so soon. In fact, I suspect that our good doctor might be another target of the Crown at this rate."
"How do you figure?"
"So far, their targets have been influential figures whose deaths cause a large amount of chaos in Atlas. Polendina is one of the leading scientists that contribute to most of our technological advancements. But more importantly, he's one of the people in charge of making sure that the Amity launch goes successfully. If he's taken out before Amity leaves for the Vytal Festival, then his death will have far-reaching consequences that outclass even mine and Jacques Schnee's."
"Got it. I'll make sure that he's safe."
"Thank you. I'll be in contact soon once I learn more about the Crown."
The call ended, and Ironwood's expression turned serious as he opened his contacts list. He could rest later. Right now, Atlas needed him to be ready for whatever was thrown at them next.
The dowsing spell Rin used in this chapter is somewhat based on the one Luvia used in volume 1 of Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files. Ada is also something taken from the RWBY novels that Fox Alistair uses. The other two suspects that Ironwood mentioned are minor characters that don't appear in the main storyline and aren't original characters.
I'll be busier than usual this weekend, so I might release the next chapter on Monday later than usual. Just letting you know now in case I end up posting late like today.
