Yang paced in her room, heavy footsteps making the floor creak loudly. Blake sat on the bed with her chin in her hand.
"Why did she have to do that," Yang grumbled, mostly to herself. "She just had to sleep with Weiss. How, even? How the fuckdid she even convince her to spend a night in some soggy tavern, anyways? Gods, she's so fucked…"
Blake lifted her chin to respond. "Maybe we could—"
"What the fuck could we do!" Yang shouted, whirling on the fay. "My fucking sisteris in goddamn shackles, and held at Palace fucking Schnee, of all places. They're probably gonna executeher!"
Blake rolled her eyes. "Yang, they won't execute Ruby just for sharing a room with her."
"It's not about sharing a room!" Yang seethed, restarting her stressed pacing. "It's about some no-name commonerbreaking into a royal tournament and humiliating the nobility! She chopped a Winchester's arm off, Blake! It's fucked! Even if, by some fucking miracle, she gets out of this— which she fucking won't, by the way— she'll be hunted for the rest of her days! Nobles are bloodthirsty,they will have their recompense."
Blake sighed and stood, hoping to say something that would give her friend some hope, but suddenly found herself wrapped in Yang's strong, tight embrace. The Huntress buried her face in Blake's shoulder.
"I should've just taken her home," Yang lamented, audibly holding back tears. "Oh fuck, dad… gods, it's all my fucking fault."
Blake froze at the contact— she may have slept with Yang, according to what little she could remember of that night, but she stood by what she said. Humans could not be her thing, even if this one had snuck under her skin for a single drunken night. She pushed Yang back at arm's length, meeting her puffy eyes. "It'll be okay," Blake promised. "We'll figure something out. I swear— Ruby will be fine."
The relief Blake expected to crest her face never came. In fact, what did come was the exact opposite of what she'd expected— fury, betrayal, disgust. Yang's brows furrowed into enraged lines as a sneer pulled her lips. "Oh yeah? How the fuck would you know?"
Blake recoiled, gobsmacked by the waves of anger that rolled off this girl. "I-I, uh, I'm sure—"
"Shut up! Shut the hell up, Blake, if that's even your name. You've just been using her, and I've been dumb enough to let you— you don't care about her,you're just scared of losing your fucking money!" Yang stomped into Blake's space as she shouted, finger poking hard into the fay's chest. "Yeah, I've seen all your fucking bets. Now I get why you kept pushing her to fight. She's your fucking cash cow."
"Hey!" Blake shouted and pushed the Huntress back. "I didn't push her to do anything!"
"Horseshit!" Yang exclaimed. "I saw those cuts on her face, they were here before I came. You should've stopped her!"
Blake shook her head, genuinely baffled. "I'm not her fucking mom, Yang," she stated. "She wanted to do this, who the hell am I to stop her? We barely know each other!"
"So you're making huge bets on this girl you barely know?" Yang sarcastically questioned. "You're either stupid, or you're lying."
Blake leaned towards Yang and gestured to herself. "I'm not lying! She's an amazing fighter, I really believe she can win this!"
"Well, she's not winning anything now," Yang sighed and stepped away from Blake, who remained still. The Huntress dropped onto the foot of the bed and put her face in her hands. "Gods, I should've… fuck."
Blake stood for a long time, just watching Yang sink further into herself. She watched her shoulders begin to hitch and shake. She was crying.
She slowly joined Yang on the bed, and risked laying a hand on her back. When she didn't react, she began to rub slow, calming circles between her shoulders.
"Do you think she's gonna get a trial?" Yang asked weakly, muffled by her own hands.
Blake could tell by her voice that she knew the answer to the question, so she just wrapped an arm around Yang instead. "I wish I could help," Blake mumbled quietly. "But I need to leave."
Yang looked up from her tear-soaked palms. "Huh? Why?"
Blake flushed red and pulled her arm away, then scooted away from the temperamental Huntress. "I, uh… I wasn't lying when I said I believed in Ruby. I really did, which means…"
Yang cocked her head in confusion, but her eyes showed the moment of her realization. "Wait, you can't—"
Blake shook her head with a rueful chuckle. "I'm dead broke. I gotta skip town before they come after me. Breaking out wasn't fun the last time I did it."
Yang's head shot up to meet the fay's eyes, but they were firm. She wasn't lying. "You've broken out of jail?"
A prideful little smile crept over her lips. "Mayhaps. Fay are very hard to imprison."
Yang nearly dropped her face back into her hands, but stopped when a niggling thought bit into her brain, worming its way between the folds and refusing to be ignored. She gave it audience, and let it spread its stupid, terrible, infectious ideas across her grey matter. It was just a thought experiment, she wouldn't really do it— she wouldn't dare! Of course she wouldn't. It would just get the ball rolling in her head, one bad idea to help conjure up some better ones. She wasn't serious about it. Something else would surely come.
Yang silently festered in her own thoughts. Nothing came.
"Uh, Yang?" Blake nudged her. "Are you okay?"
Yang remained taciturn for a few more moments before her gaze turned back to the fay. A small smile— the kind someone wore when they were about to say something stupid— pulled at the corner of her lips. "I have an idea."
Weiss ripped the sheets off her bed with a roar. She was such an idiot! Falling asleep in that sketchy inn, what did she think was going to happen! She'd barely taken two steps outside before the guards spotted her.
They'd hauled her off like some common criminal, not a shred of respect for a lady! And poor Myrtenaster… Jacques himself had ripped it off her belt and dragged her to her room. He threw her in when they arrived, and made her watch as he focused his Aura into his hands, using his magic to flash-heat the beautiful rapier until it melted to slag. He'd left her locked in that room, staring at the smoking lump of sword.
The worst thing was that she didn't know what would happen next. Angry as he was, Jacques hadn't said a word to her. She hadn't even seen her mother.
A familiar voice warbled through her bedroom door, dropping a weight of dread in her gut. It was her hag of a handmaid, Hulda, here to doll her up before she's forced to kneel at Jacque's feet. It didn't take long before the guards opened the door, letting the turkey-necked creature intrude in Weiss' space once more. Her wretched gaze quickly found Weiss.
Hulda stared at her with those birdlike eyes, remaining perfectly still until the guard closed the door behind her.
Suddenly, Weiss found herself being closely inspected by that buzzard of a woman. Her wrinkled hands drifted over various spots of Weiss' body, checking every inch of her flesh. "That brute!" She seethed, gesturing to the ugly bruise on the heiress' arm. "How dare he!"
Weiss was taken aback, eyebrows shooting up at her handmaid. "He… what? He's your lord, Hulda."
The maid pulled back, her wrinkly face puckering as she gave the heiress a disappointed look. "I don't give a damn," she stated. "I'm your servant. I'm here to help you."
"But I hate you!" Weiss blurted.
"Feh!" Hulda threw a dismissive hand out. "If you didn't hate me, I wouldn't be doing my job!"
Weiss blinked. Hulda became a new woman in an instant; gone was the wrinkled hag who tormented Weiss' every waking moment, her image replaced by a much more generous paradigm. It was her job to make Weiss proper, to wait on her every need, even if she wore her animosity for the older woman on her sleeve. She wasn't the same as her old servant, Klein, but he was a different man, from a different time, under a different household regime. Nobody could replace him.
Weiss' expression softened with guilt. "I'm, uh… Hulda, I'm sor—"
The handmaid threw her palm in Weiss' face, interrupting her. "Don't go soft on me now, girl! You'll need that fire at dinner."
Weiss shut up and swallowed her apologies, then screwed her eyes tight. She focused on her anger, her hatred for her father, how his repeated abuses had accumulated like toxin in her soul. She looked to the useless lump on the floor, her once-gleaming rapier. That stoked her ire nicely.
"There we go," Hulda said, following the heiress' gaze. "Keep your wits sharp, they'll do better than that thing ever could, especially here."
Weiss suppressed the grimace that she wanted to throw. It was hard to hear, but Hulda was right. This wasn't a problem Myrtenaster could solve. Brimming with restrained anger, she wanted nothing more than to move forward. "Aren't you here to dress me?" Weiss asked.
Hulda's head dipped low. "Of course, milady."
When Hulda's hands reached to undo Weiss' current outfit, she slapped them away. "Just get my dress," she commanded. "I can disrobe myself. Bring something old, preferably in brown or orange. Get a hennin as well, if you can find one."
Hulda nodded slowly, catching onto the heiress' idea. "At once, milady."
With that the handmaid hurried from the room, and Weiss was left alone again. Perhaps Jacques had thought he broke her when he melted Myrtenaster to slag, but she had no intention of bending to him. She had a plan.
AN: maybe i shouldn't have said this one would come out sooner lol, i forgot i was going out of town. sorry. we are getting closer to the end, i believe, and i've got three chapters lined up for twilight concerto, just waiting to get edited. Also, still looking to commission cover art for KotWR and Darkening Horzons, along with a cover for Twilight Concerto and some other illustrations I plan to include. if you know anyone, my dms are open on fanfiction and my gmail is ashendussst1414
**(SPOILERS below for darkening horizons)**
for anyone who cares, we've been doing a lot of brainstorming for Ruby's new weapon. i wont tell what the current form is, but rest assured it's still a scythe. we eliminated a sniper/scythe/sword, a double-ended scythe, and a scythe/handaxe, so have fun speculating what the new one will be. in terms of names, we're thinking something like Rose Harvest/Harvest Rose, Petal Storm, Harvest Thorn, or something to do with iron/silver. we had a really good name at some point, but my dumb ass neglected to write it down lol. if you leave a hella good idea for a name in your review, it might just make it in ;)