I was at the dust markets with Cinder, looking at the exotic goods which merchants had brought from far off lands. One man claimed to have dust that could make you sprout wings, but upon further inspection, we found his wares to be less than advertised. Yang accompanied us to the market, looking morose and exhausted. Her bastard lover, Jaune, had just broken things off with her while she was recovering from a serious injury. She followed a dozen paces behind us as we explored the bizarre.
I told Cinder that my sister needed me so I would be spending a lot of my time with Yang and less with her. She took it pretty well, all things considered.
"I take it things are over between us?" She tilted her head as she beheld a pomegranate which supposedly had dust filled seeds beneath its skin. She didn't look at me when she asked, I supposed even she can struggle with these sorts of things.
"No, just the opposite in fact. Right now I need some time alone with my sister. It's been ages since we last spoke and now that she's free again I want to spend as much time with her as I can. Do be sure to keep your windows locked though. I may be in need of my sister's company, but one of these nights you may find me crawling into your bedchamber if you're not careful,"
"That's funny," Cinder laughed, "Where was this passion last time? Didn't you offer me a handshake instead of a kiss goodnight?"
"T-That was different. Next time you'll see,"
"Ruby, you don't have to pretend to be something you're not. If women don't interest you, then you can say so. I won't force anything onto you, unless, of course, you ask,"
"You don't know half of who I am. Just wait, soon you won't be so quick to taunt me,"
"I'm not taunting you, I'm feeling things out," Cinder put her hand on my waist and I jumped. I think I yelped in surprise too. I didn't mean to, but she caught me off guard.
She was quick to move her hand and apologize, all the while I insisted it wasn't what it looked like. Although Cinder was understanding of my situation I felt as though she was beginning to discredit my feelings for her. Granted, I was unsure of how I felt, but that didn't mean there was nothing between us.
We parted ways with Cinder soon after. Yang and I went home, having bought nothing from the market save for a few cores of gravity dust. Yang only bought it to make me happy, to make it seem as though she was doing something other than merely following Cinder and I; so she bought the first thing she saw that piqued my interest to not appear like a scowling Skadi.
Later on, Weiss met up with us at the agreed upon location to take us all home. She summoned a nevermore, which was already saddled and ready to ride. Seeing one with alabaster white feathers was jarring. That dissonant feeling was only exacerbated by the fact that we were riding on its back while it flew.
Yang and I were careful to hold onto the saddle so that we didn't fall, but Weiss sat casually, unbothered by how high up we were. The saddle was like a small leather raft affixed to the creature's back. It was white, just like the Grimm itself; the saddle was most likely an aura construct as well, somehow bound to the form of the Nevermore by the white circle.
"What's in that bag?" I asked.
"You mean this bag?"
"Aye,"
"This bag here?"
"Yes,"
"The one right next to me?"
"What other bag is there?"
"Fine, if you must know, in this bag is the money I collected from the bounties placed on the heads of The Brothers. When they say in Vale that they'll pay your weight in gold they really do mean it!"
"Their souls weren't enough?"
"Oh god! Are we still on this? Look if their 'undying souls' were so important to them then they should have kept a closer eye on them, or at the very least put them to good use,"
"I see," I said, facetious, "And what do you plan to do with the money?"
"It's like I said before, I probably won't spend a single penny of it,"
"Then how about you give it to me? All of it,"
"Pardon? I know that, in the case of whores, the younger ones get paid more, but even if I was into that sort of thing I wouldn't pay you so generously. No, I wouldn't pay you even one one-hundredth of the gold in this purse, not even for a fortnight of pleasures,"
"That's fine, I didn't have any plans on touching you anyways, not sure what part of your little mind cooked that one up. I was saying you should just give me the money for free," after I said it, Weiss laughed at the idea.
"And why would I do that?" She hissed.
"Because I have a dream, and the path to realizing it is paved with gold, gold that you happen to have an abundance of,"
"I'm listening,"
"Have you heard of the prophecy of the four kings?"
"Actually, I think you mean the prophecy of three kings. The fourth abdicated shortly after receiving visions of the prophecy,"
"I promise you no one cares, all of them are dead. Anyway, the other day I had a run in with someone who had seen the prophesied vision for himself, saw it firsthand he did. He showed it to me as well and now I'm about ready to go looking for the bleeding star myself,"
"What a comforting delusion, it must be like nursing at your mother's teat. A human could never find the star, don't you get it, examine the prophecy again and you'll come to understand that it was never meant for your kind. I'd just give up on the whole thing if I were you,"
"Is that so? Then tell me why I know of its exact location?"
"Because you're a liar! A milk drunk babe and a liar!" Weiss was furious, the idea that a human might find the fallen star was making her uneasy. The fact that I didn't really give a damn about the stupid star only made her more angry. That was fine though, because I had her right where I wanted her. Oh, my fair lady of ice and snow, why have you wondered so far from home? Now you find yourself melting in the heat of the summer lands with no way out. Fear not, for I am a good hunter; my blade is sharp and my hand is swift. This won't take long.
"If only that were true, if only I was just a dumb girl telling silly stories. No, I'm afraid The Brothers Grimm were onto something. There are books on campus that tell of the location of the bleeding star, they just aren't in the library. I happened upon one such tome not too long ago and the annotations in the margins have been most enlightening!"
"Shut up!" Weiss lunged and was on top of me in the blink of an eye. I would have been scared if the topic of our conversation wasn't so unbelievably stupid, "Shut up and tell me where you found it!"
She was getting awfully close to me. I could feel the heat of her breath. In a last ditch effort to bring the conversation back down to the level of fervor I needed it to be at, I planted a kiss on her lips. Weiss pulled away from me and scuttled over to the other side of the Nevermore's saddle.
It was a spur of the moment decision. I didn't mean to kiss her, in fact I didn't even give it a moment's thought. I just sort of did it. Our kiss was a matter of reflex, that was all. Why was it that I was drawn to her so easily? When Cinder tried to touch me I physically recoiled, even though I cared about her very much, but with Weiss it all came without me having to think.
"How about we all calm down? I haven't found anything yet, all I know is where it currently is. Retrieving the star is the hard part which is why I was hoping I could get your help," I took control of the situation and made sure to ask for Weiss's help in the sweetest way I could muster.
"I would never help you defile something so sacred. What do you even want with it? Once you get your hands on it, what will you do then?"
"I don't know. I'll probably sell the thing,"
"You can't do that. You can't! Thousands of years of history have been leading to this moment. Recovering the bleeding star and restoring it to its rightful owner is paramount. It's the only way my people can be saved,"
"I care as much about the Spriggans as you did about the Faunus. Sorry if that makes me some sort of hypocrite, but it's the truth. Your kind have been no friend to me so why should I care about whatever fate befalls them?"
"Ruby, without the star there is no future for us. My people are lost right now. They're like I was before: they're hateful and in love with their own ignorance. They have no interest in the outside world, and little interest in each other. The star can change all of that, its power can change the hearts of my people, I know it!"
"How do you know any of that is true though? You haven't seen the thing before so there's no telling what it actually does. What makes you so confident it'll help?"
"May I respond to your question with a question?"
"Sure,"
"Do you know how many Spriggan children have been born in the past 500 years?"
"How could I possibly-"
"Just guess,"
"It would have to be thousands, tens of thousands more like,"
"No, the answer is twelve. Only Twelve of my kind have been born in the past half a millenia, with me and Cardin Being the two most recent births. No matter what the star ends up doing, it couldn't be worse than this,"
"You seek the light of prophecy not out of reverence, but rather a sense of desperation? I'm surprised. You struck me as a true believer based on our earlier conversations. Back in the old chapel you told me your people respect the masked god,"
"Call me whatever you like, the only thing I care about is saving them. I beg you, I'll help you find it, just please don't sell it,"
"You'll actually help me find the thing?"
"I will, I swear,"
"And what happens when you betray me at the last minute and decide to use the star for your own purposes?"
"I would never!" I shot Weiss a knowing look and a smile pinched across her face, "Well, perhaps I would turn on you, under normal circumstances, but things are different now, Ruby. For one I still need you and the rest of the team to help me pass the exam, and besides that I don't even know how the bleeding thing works. I was hoping you would be a guinea pig of sorts. Were the star's power to come with some horrible cost, well, better for your head to roll than mine,"
"That's not the kind of thing one should say to a person they're trying to take advantage of,"
"Twas only a joke, Dear,"
"No such thing as a total joke, they all carry with them bits of truth"
"Our uncle used to say that a lot when we were younger," Yang was looking at the sunset, her head turnt and hair billowing.
"What's that got to do with this?"
"Nothing, I'm just reminiscing," I didn't think she was following the conversation at all to be perfectly honest. It was a pleasant surprise to hear her speak, now if only it was something more coherent.
"Right. Anyways, before we land I have just one thing to ask of you, all of you. Whatever you do, don't tell Blake about the star nor of our intent to make off with it. If Ozpin catches us, hell if he even catches wind of our plan, we'll be expelled. I don't want Blake getting caught up in this, unlike you two she actually has a future ahead of her, and a bright one at that,"
"Hurtful, not untrue, but hurtful nonetheless," Weiss nodded her approval of the plan. I took Yang's silence to mean that she agreed as well.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" said Yang. Again, my sister's sporadic interest in the conversation took me by surprise. I had to tell her no. There wasn't anything she could do, not with how distraught she was.
Weiss's bird landed in the school's courtyard to a grand commotion. Students recoiled at the sight of a nevermore of such a peculiar color. The three of us dismounted and Weiss dismissed it, drawing the thing back into one of her magical circles. However, even after it left people still stared. I suppose riding in on a giant omen of death was somewhat fitting for our team, given how destructive we were. Perhaps people were right to fear us, and perhaps I wasn't wrong for enjoying their shocked glances.