Selene, mounted on Blackfeather, approached Evernight Castle alternating between doubt and resolve. Doubtless her mother was already aware of her approach. Her Grimm sentries were very effective.
She was not disappointed. Her mother, Salem, Queen of the Grimm, awaited her at the bullhead dock, alone. She stood tall, inscrutable.
Blackfeather touched down, and Selene dismounted, walking the few paces forward.
It is time to put a week's worth of thought into action.
Well, half a week's worth of thought.
As the young woman stepped forward, Salem spoke a single word.
"Selene." There was a mixture of emotion behind it, but none shown on the woman's face or posture.
Then Selene moved unexpectedly.
With a flourish of her skirts, Selene performed a deep curtsy, and remained so, eyes downcast and palms cupped together in front of her. "My Queen, you honor me."
Selene heard a small inhale, but kept her eyes focused on the stone below her. Her heart beat several seconds. "Rise, Selene."
Meeting her Queen's eyes, she saw a hint of sadness. Of something lost.
"Your Majesty, you honor me, but I would beg your indulgence." A flicker. "I have not seen my mother Salem in some days, and we parted poorly. With your leave, I would meet with you on the morrow so that I may speak with her before I retire this evening."
Salem's eyes narrowed in confusion and her mouth opened and closed. Had it been in any other situation, Selene might have found it humorous. Here it was not. Here it was deadly serious.
"Selene, have you… are you well?"
"I am, My Queen, thank you."
"And you wish to… meet with me, your Queen, tomorrow."
"Yes, My Queen, if you will."
"And now…" She seemed to be struggling with the concept. "You wish to meet with… your mother."
"Yes, My Queen. If it would be possible for your servants to send word, I would refresh myself after my journey, and meet with her in my private chambers. We have much to discuss."
Salem blinked and Selene struggled not to smile at the raw humanity of the reflex. The woman then shook her head slightly, drew herself up, and frowned. "Very well, Selene. I have considered… your request, and I will see it done." She considered. "Come, you may escort me back inside."
"As you will, Your Majesty.
Stepping forward, Selene offered her arm, and Salem took it, and they walked regally into Evernight Castle. The doors closed.
Blackfeather stood for a full minute watching the door, head cocked. He was not the most intelligent Grimm on Remnant. There were far older, and more aware. But he knew his masters well. He didn't understand all of what had just transpired there, but he knew one thing.
That, was not normal.
Selene took her time. For one, she did indeed need to clean up after spending a week in the wilderness campsite, and riding Blackfeather tended to further attract grime.
For a second, assuming this had worked as intended, she wanted to give Salem time to consider and make her own arrangements.
She prayed that it worked.
When she left her private bedchamber, she was dressed in comfortable clothing, somewhere between bedclothes and what one might wear travelling. She paused in the doorway to her own seating area, eyes scanning the room. A small but warm fire burned, providing an orange glow. Candles had been lit, filling the room with a soft scent of vanilla. The low central table was provided with fruit and cheeses, as well as wine. Surrounding it, the larger and smaller sofas and single chair angled toward the fire.
Her mother, Salem, stood behind the chair.
She too had changed clothing. She was wearing a modest robe, fastened across the front with buttons, her feet shod in comfortable slippers. The ornate hair pins had been removed, and her white and black hair was gathered to fall to her back, except for a few tendrils that framed her face. Her hands were draped across the back of the chair.
Selene had not seen this image of her mother since she was a child. She was beautiful.
More than that, Salem's expression was… tentative. Unsure.
Selene's heart ached.
"Mother," she breathed, and stepped forward to embrace the woman who gave birth to her. Who raised her as best she knew how. The woman who was terrified of losing her. She felt arms hesitantly wrap around her, then slowly fall as Salem stepped back but reached out and clung to one hand.
Salem's expression was still unsure, but there was a wariness there, or perhaps fear. "Selene, daughter, this… I do not understand what you mean by this. You realize that-"
"I understand, mother. I assure you I have not lost my wits. I know that there is one person. But I also know that tomorrow I must meet with My Queen, and ask difficult questions and beg her leave in certain matters that previously I could avoid." She met Salem's eyes calmly. More calmly than she felt. "But tonight, before I retire, I wish to spend time with my mother, who loves me and is loved in turn, to understand what would drive her to such heartless despair as I have seen." Selene stepped back, gently pulling the ageless women with her. And Salem bonelessly allowed it. "Come, will you sit with me?" She drew down onto the larger sofa, in the middle, and urged Salem to sit beside her. Selene's eyes flicked to the fire, thinking of what Garek and she had discussed, of Salem's words of fear earlier in the week. Of signs growing up that had been there but never understood. "I fear I have been a poor daugh-"
"No!" Selene's eyes snapped back to her mother. To find them wide and wet. "No. You have not…" She seemed to choke. "You have not… you have been all that I could hope for. If there has been failure, it has been mine." Eyes brimmed, held. "I have wronged you, daughter. If you wish, I will beg your forgiveness on hands and knees if it would gain me your forgiveness. I have lost too much."
Selene reached out and stroked her mother's cheek, spilling tears from that side in the process. "That would be cruel, and I am not."
"You are not. No."
"And I have determined." Selene paused. "We, have determined," something flickered in Salem's expression, "that we will forgive you, once we understand you."
"Understand me."
"Yes. I am your daughter, and I thought I knew you. I did not imagine you capable of hurting me so, and this tells me that I do not know you nearly as well as I believed. I need to understand. I need you to tell me who Salem, mother of Selene is." She smiled gently. "And who she has been."
Salem turned away. "And if you determine that I am not who you believed at all? If I am nothing more than a monster, pretending to be otherwise?"
"If that were true, you would not be here, at this moment, afraid that I would find it true." She wiped her own cheeks. "No, no I do not believe that. But you must promise me." She squeezed her mother's hands. "I will not ask you of the Queen's plans, but you must tell me, your daughter, everything of your life. I wish to understand."
"Everything." Salem's hands worked. "There are things that are painful to remember. To recount. Things that I have done…"
"Yes. I will listen." Three words. Simple words. Powerful words.
She did.
Salem began quietly. In portions, she smiled, and the words came freely. In others, halting, fighting against her own pain to force the words into being.
A father, a girl without a mother, secured in a tower.
A hero who rescued her. Dreams of a life together.
Devastation and loss at his sudden death.
Gods that walked the earth. One light and one dark. Determination. Disappointment. Hope and Joy.
Devastation.
Rage.
A world of magic, that she rallied against the Gods themselves, with disastrous consequences.
A god's curse of immortality, and an attempt to circumvent it that went horribly wrong.
Ages of loneliness in an empty, broken world, until primitive humans and faunus somehow arose from from its ashes.
And against all hope, her love returned to her, in a new body. Joy reborn. Children. Five cherished daughters. There was fear still. Her husband and children would age. She would not. But they were there.
But strife as well. They could use the old magic, the new races of the world could not. Conflict arose in the kingdoms, and spilled into her family. Heated arguments, growing angrier and more divisive. Ozma and Salem drawing further apart, and that pain adding to the fire.
Then, he tried to take her children from her.
The telling nearly broke her, leaving her weeping in Selene's arms, unable to give any real detail, but the truth was clear enough. At the end, without intent from either, their children lay slain, and all that was left was loss and rage for hundreds and hundreds of years.
Again and again.
Ozma reincarnated over and over, different names each generation but maintaining memory and power. He had been given a mission, she had learned. There were Relics. Four of them, each with power, but which combined would summon the Brothers themselves, to judge her and Remnant as a whole.
Ozma hid them, to prevent that, fearing the Gods judgment would find Remnant lacking, and mean its destruction.
Salem sought them.
Hundreds and hundreds of years of war, intrigue, deception, pain, hatred.
"What would you do, Mother?"
"I would end this curse."
"The gods." She breathed.
"Yes. When I have learned the value of life and death." She laughed bitterly, "We shall summon the gods, and they shall judge me, and then Remnant."
Selene gazed at her mother, "Have you?"
Salem's lids fell. "I learned the value of death, my death denied me, moments after they took Ozma from me. Seconds after my children-" her mouth worked. "I cannot attain it. I do not know what the Gods" her face twisted, "wish of me. I wish to die, daughter. I am tired, broken, and angry. And my ages on this world have made it… difficult to value the pain of others who can so easily escape it." She shook her head "So very easily…"
"But there is only one way for me to gain this release. And Ozma denies it to me. Age after age."
"Because he fears the Gods' judgment."
"Yes."
"And what do you believe?"
Long silence as the dying fire crackled.
"I believe it likely that Ozma is correct. That the Gods would find Remnant wanting." Bitter. "They have not shown themselves to be understanding, nor merciful." She dug her fingers into Selene's arm. "But I am desperate. Why must I be the one to suffer? It must end."
It was long past midnight. No servant had dared enter, and the fire had burned to embers, several of the candles had gone out.
Selene shifted, cradling her mother against her.
"I understand," she whispered. "I forgive you."
Salem, mother of Selene, wept.
Selene was summoned to audience with the Queen of the Grimm the next afternoon.
Selene dressed formally and regally for the occasion. The Queen sat upon her throne, gazing with stern eyes upon Selene, supplicant before the throne. None others were present.
"I have had words, Selene, with your mother. She has told me of your reconciliation. I am pleased."
"Thank you, your Majesty." Had there been a hint of irony, Selene was unsure what the result would have been. But she had spent hours across many days, in her own mind, separating out Salem into two people in her thoughts. It was important that she keep them that way.
"Very well, child of the Grimm. What would you have of your Queen?"
"I would request your aid, and your forbearance."
One black eyebrow raised. "Oh? And in what manner?"
"I would request information sufficient to allow me to aid my mother, but in my own way. And Your Majesty's leave to pursue it without fear."
"Your… own way."
"Yes, My Queen."
"And what is this… 'own way', of which you speak?"
"I do not yet know." Selene frowned. "This is my quandary. I seek knowledge to know where to begin, but I know little, and fear that I would, all unknowingly, cause greater harm." Her tone was frank, but revealed her honest frustration.
"I see. But would not telling you of my plans, plans that would aid your own mother, put you in a position to aid her very enemies?"
"I would never do this," Selene protested, forgetting herself and stepping forward.
"But you might thwart me." It was a statement of fact, not an accusation.
"I… if I believed that I could help her through other means…" she bowed again… "I would beg your indulgence."
Queen Salem's eyes narrowed. "You play a dangerous game, child. Will you gamble with your mother's love and sanity, and through that the lives of so many? You and your little pet Huntsman?"
"Only if you allowed it, My Queen."
"Hmph. I doubt that, child. You are stubborn, as is your mother." But there seemed to be a slight pride in the words. "So. You would give me your vow that, understanding your mother's goals, which I also have sworn to achieve, you will work toward them… in your 'own way'?"
"I do."
"And you will hold your little Huntsman to the same?"
"I will."
"Hmm…" the Queen tapped her chin with a dark nailed finger. "Understand, child, that my enemies are many, and they would not think you different from me, were you found or captured. They would torture you to learn what you know, and destroy you." Her hands gripped the arms of the throne as she spoke. "And I would destroy them in turn, regardless of the cost, for your mother's sake."
Selene swallowed. "I understand, My Queen."
"Very well. I will grant your request, as I deem appropriate. I will have such information as I am comfortable sharing with you compiled and provided to you. I will have word sent to my Agents that you and your companions are not to be harmed, though you may be impeded. And you will be given freedom to travel as needed. This will take some time for my servants to accomplish."
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
Queen Salem nodded, and dismissed her with a wave. "Go, spend time with your mother. I am sure she has many more things to share with you."
And take care with your life, child, Queen Salem mused. You are a dangerous piece to place upon the board, for all involved.
[A/N] My my my... Garek and Selene appear to be playing an interesting game. I hope you found her approach interesting and entertaining.
Well that can't possibly get more complicated. No way this can blow up in their face.
Oh it can?
Well crap.