CHAPTER 6 - The Lighthouses
January 15th, 797 E.A
Patch Village, Kingdom of Vale Territory
Taiyang Xiao Long stood in the living room, grasping at the corner of the table.
"Damn it, Yang." - He said to himself, only silence there to answer him.
It had been weeks now since Yang had followed her sister's example and disappeared without a word overnight.
He did not know where she was. He did not know whether she was safe.
Yet Taiyang could somehow believe that all of this was once again the fault of one and only Qrow Branwen.
That self-loathing birdbrained idiot.
The Branwen family only brings death and misery - Taiyang has long since accepted this fact.
Part of him felt happy that Qrow was nowhere to be found because Taiyang would have likely strangled him on the spot if he could get his hands on him.
Revealing even a little about the silver eyes to Ruby was already a gambit far too risky - Taiyang did not want a repeat of what had happened with Summer. He had protected his daughter from Ozpin's little schemes for a decade now, and he wasn't going to stop just because she had awoken those accursed eyes.
Qrow had other ideas - the birdbrain idiot was always far too willing to give up.
No way in hell it was a coincidence that Ruby had bolted after that idiot's visit - Qrow must have slipped up and said too much, or, even worse, intentionally said too much. Neither idea excited Taiyang as both would lead to an entirely different set of problems.
Patch was getting heated, too. No matter the efforts of more reasonable folk, it was only natural that the rest would want an easy target - something to fight or to punish.
For people back in Vale, the Faunus seem to have become that target - emboldened by the rhetoric of politicians and the rich, violence against them soared sky-high.
People in Patch found an easier target in his other rebellious daughter - Taiyang would get complaints almost every day, most of the villagers piercing him and Yang with suspicious glances - they were always sort-of-outsiders here - but their stares now held an aura of hostility to them.
Yang's tendency to thrash night-clubs, the incident on Vale's highway with the mech, what Yang did or didn't do during the Vytal Tournament - all of it had come back to bite them now, as the people that his family called neighbors, dug through the memory lane to find anything to justify their need for control.
Yang, his daughter, pulling off this outrageous vanishing act had only made matters worse. Everything had spiraled out of control now as Brun Orson, the pompous rich snob he was, had decided to use this little upheaval to climb up the ranks in the political game.
The fact that all this had happened in a few weeks left him in an almost permanent state of vertigo - it was like he was back in time all those years ago when tragedy struck their family.
Back then, apathy had dulled his senses and extinguished the fire in his heart - he just waited in his room - who, or what, even he had no idea. Maybe he hoped feeling the way he did would go away one day, or possibly he hoped for an end. After the darkest days, he forced himself to get back on his feet - he never wished that experience on anyone, friend or enemy.
Now, both of his daughters had disappeared. This time, Taiyang found himself physically unable to do anything about it, even if he wanted to.
He dragged the chair out from under the table and slumped down on it, out of breath.
He knew - it was getting worse every day - as he was now, he likely was in no shape to handle the journey out of Patch.
Before he could finish his thought, his scroll came alive - name lit up on the screen - Glynda Goodwitch.
Of course, who else would it be.
Glynda was likely the busiest person in Vale right now, but Taiyang couldn't help but ask his friend for help in locating Qrow or Yang. If there were a person who could have the pull needed to do it, now it would have been her.
"Please, tell me you have good news." - Taiyang said, taking a deep breath.
The scroll buzzed and crackled - a common issue nowadays with the Cross-Continental Transmit System being down. The shorter range of communications, worse connection quality, and constant interruptions - the relay stations, all around Vale, were a poor and temporary replacement, required repair, and beyond the range of the relay station, the signal would disappear completely. They were all wandering in the fog, in the truest sense of the meaning.
Taiyang's gaze wandered through the room as he waited for the answer. Years ago, when Summer passed, silence comforted him, but now he couldn't stand the it.
"I wish I had, but we still have no idea." - Glynda's voice came in and out between the white noise. - "The situation's still tense. Most of the remaining Huntsmen are overworked and tired. The police force, the huntsguards - the chaos pushed everyone to the limit as we tried to re-establish order and reinforce the defenses. There are still over a hundred people unaccounted for from the Fall, and we don't even know if they are dead or alive. And with those idiots spouting their nonsense, I don't know how long this fragile peace will hold."
"Wish I could help."
"I am not blaming you, Tai. I know why, and you already have done more than enough for this Kingdom in your years as a huntsman." - Glynda's voice softened. - "It's just that there's a lot of things going very wrong very fast right now. Even if you were healthy, I am not sure you could help with most of those. The politicking, the reactionaries, the conspiracies - it's a head-splitting headache, and I don't know how Oz did any of this. If I have to reprimand another idiot attempting to prove that Fall of Beacon never happened, I will, honestly, drop a building on them."
Taiyang scoffed.
"I think Ozpin has lots of years on both of us."
"Still, it must not have been easy." - Glynda said. - "In terms of your little request, the most I could tell you is that she is certainly not in the encampment and hasn't shown up anywhere within the city of Vale. I wouldn't have made this call over so little if something else hadn't come up."
"I'm listening."
"I did manage to get in touch with Qrow." - Glynda fell silent as if measuring his response. - "He's, as always, annoyingly cryptic and punchable, but he claims your daughters are safe and not to worry - he will deal with it when he has the time."
"Of course he does." - Taiyang clenched his fists. - "Of course, he'd say that."
The idiotic birdbrain said the same when Summer left on her last mission, too. And the next time he appeared - it was when he bluntly spit out the statement about Summer's death to his face.
"Tai. Have you told either of them the truth yet? About what is going on with you, about why you stopped being a huntsman now?"
"I…I don't think either of the two even realizes I stopped." - Taiyang narrowed his head, his palm against the forehead, as the elbow rested on the table. - "Why I spend so much time at home, why Zwei is here…I haven't told them anything."
"Why? They deserve to know."
"First, I did not want to because they just started at Beacon, and then they had too much on their minds, and now I can't…" - Taiyang felt tears roll down his face. - "But, also, I am afraid."
If he were to say what he was dealing with out loud to them, his issues would have become even more terrifying and tangible rather than just something he could read on his medical records.
"Please, if you get in touch with either of them somehow, don't hesitate." - Glynda said. - "It's better than not getting a chance to at all."
Taiyang stared at the surface of the table - the first thing Yang had done after Summer's passing, was to wash dishes and periodically replace table cloth.
Glynda was right.
Taiyang hasn't been an active hunter for a while now. His issues had been going on for over a decade now, but only somewhat recently had they started genuinely interfering with his work.
"Hold on a second." - Glynda said as a roar reverberated through the call. - "Oh, not again, please excuse me. I'll call you back in a few hours. I have to take out the trash."
Another Grimm attack - an awful lot of those these days.
The thing at the tower might have been as good as dead after receiving the dose of the Silver Eyes - the concept of the Apeiron, as Summer had called it - the all-denying merciless gaze of death enveloping it, but it still kept attracting its kin.
Taiyang did not even dare to think what kinds of things had gathered among the Ancients on the grounds of Beacon Ruins - what abominations had slaughtered the forces attempting to reclaim Vale that failed attempt.
The people were no better, though. Violence against the Faunus had escalated and exploded in numbers after the videos of White Fang participating in Beacon's Fall had spread alongside dangerous rhetoric. Likewise, as stupid as that sounded, a decent size of the population had decided that the whole attack was a hoax concocted by the Kingdom's government to control them - people being dumb did not make them any less dangerous.
Taiyang's mouth ran dry.
The Kingdom he gave 30 years of his life for was in flames, and here he was - unable to do anything - he likely couldn't even kill a single Beowulf right now.
The people of ancient times called the condition Quickfire. The Doctors of modern times have developed various scientific terms for the illness, like Semblance Burn or Aura Degradation.
The Quickfire was an elusive rare condition that affected the parts of the population that had awakened their Semblance. After all, a person's Aura was a physical part of a human being, so it was no surprise it was subject to its problems, conditions, and illnesses.
There was no data available on whether the condition was genetic or something caused by the environment - it sure wasn't contagious, but it was terminal.
Quickfire manifested in stages - some people would live decades with it, and some would deteriorate within weeks.
At first, a subject would find it hard to manifest their Semblance - for Taiyang this phase had started at least fifteen years ago.
As the condition progressed, the huntsman would eventually be unable to even activate it. In the third stage, the patient's Aura would deteriorate and eventually disappear - as the aura reached the state of permanent depletion, the subject's organs would begin to slowly fail from the stress of the body trying to regenerate the aura, resulting in their death.
Neither Yang nor Ruby knew, but Zwei was part of the experimental treatment options Ozpin had suggested to Taiyang.
Zwei's aura and his are intertwined, shared between them, allowing Taiyang's aura to at least stay stable until the condition progresses further, that is, as Zwei would generate and replenish it for both of them.
In turn, Zwei could use his Semblance even if he couldn't, as weird as it had sounded.
In all honesty, this likely had added a few years to Taiyang's life, allowing him to see his daughters grow up.
But since a few months back, Quickfire had progressed further - starting with September a year ago, when Ruby had started Beacon, his Aura had been slowly decreasing, as the connection to Zwei had stopped helping. He sent Zwei to Ruby then and, after medical check up, planned to make a trip to Vale next November and have a talk with his girls after Vytal Tournament had ended. And just as he had done that, everything fell apart.
Or at least that was the excuse he had used for not having had the courage to tell them the truth.
"Damn it, Qrow."
Taiyang's hands shook as his chest felt like it was going to explode.
He grabbed a cup of water.
Did he have months left or was it weeks or maybe even days?
He had no way of knowing.
After all the years of bravado and danger, fear became his constant friend. Taiyang wished he wasn't such a coward and would have told his daughters the truth.
January 15th, 797 E.A
Somewhere Underneath
Ruby Rose wanted to disappear - to do something, anything to drown out the sound of water and screams intermixing into a condemnation. Was this her fault? Was she destined to harm those close to her, whether with her words or actions?
The sound of dripping water drilled into her head relentlessly - the ticking clock spelling out their doom.
Ren had used fire dust crystals to light a fire - they had no idea whether the area they were in was airtight, but being defenseless in the dark wasn't an option, and they needed a heat source to keep Nora warm.
Tri-Hard, Neptune's weapon - formerly only light in the darkness and now embedded into the ground - still glowed, its light reflected upon the dark waters that covered half of the cavern as it enveloped them in otherworldly blue hues.
Ruby's mind raced through the events as she tried to find a logical justification for what had transpired with Nora here, attempting to ignore her screams and pain.
Nora could have been negatively affected by channeling the electricity the Wanderer used - an entirely likely risk both knew about at that moment. It could be some delayed reaction to that, and even then it would still have been Ruby's fault.
No matter the outcome Ruby imagined, it would always have been her fault - as always.
Sometimes Nora would let out a short scream, sometimes the water would let out bubbles indicating some air current underneath, and sometimes Neptune would loudly sigh whenever he had to walk anywhere close to the water.
At this point, Ruby was almost sure - the only life in these caverns had been her and her friends.
She glanced at Nora - Neptune had managed to bandage her arm, and Nora lay there, breathless and gasping for air. None of them had any idea whether bandaging a wound like that was a good idea, but it seemed to make more sense than just letting her bleed out.
They had to leave this place - that wasn't on Ruby - if they were to stay here, the cavern would become their grave.
There was an issue with the "get out of here" plan, though - the cavern had no exist they could locate. From what they could find in the short time they were there, this was a completely enclosed space, half submerged by water. The water covering half the cavern didn't stay still - it moved, meaning there were openings for it to move in and out of the cave - they just had no idea whether they were big enough to fit a person. Or whether they led to somewhere open or just somewhere deeper. Or how they would carry Nora out of there. If they were to find an opening like that underwater, they would have had to send a single person through to search for help, forcing them to face whatever lay ahead alone. The situation had no perfect solution, no matter how much she had attempted to think of one.
The ceiling above them stayed covered in darkness even with the light from the fire - Ruby could only assume that meant the cavern was big enough, which at least suggested they wouldn't run out of air soon.
For now, Jaune and Ruby had taken turns diving into the water to search for anything resembling an exit while Ren sat by Nora, keeping watch.
Ruby had situated herself further away from the fire, next to the flooded area. Ren and Nora were closest to the fire, and Neptune stood on the other side, as far away from the flooded part of the cavern as he could.
Ruby glanced at Neptune, who tried to distract himself with glyphs. Ruby wondered whether the sounds of dripping water had affected him, considering his fear - she couldn't imagine being in his shoes in a situation like this.
"Found anything new?" - She decided to break the silence as she stood up.
"Nope, can't read any of these. From how the glyphs are aligned, I'd like to assume these are akin to folk songs, but I can't know for sure." - Neptune replied, turning around. - "Useless as a brawn or as a brain. Some help I am."
Ruby didn't know what to answer to that.
"What do you think happened to her?" - She said as she stepped closer to the wall, looking at the glyphs.
"Honestly? Also, no ideas on that front either." - Neptune said as he froze still. - "I think it's likely that the red stuff was the Grimm."
"As in the energy?"
"Energy, particles, the same thing - the stuff that makes up the Creatures of the Grimm. The thing likely lost its form from the attack and dissolved like they usually do, but for some reason, the particles did whatever they did rather than dissipate like the Grimm usually do."
"Why?"
"That's where no idea part comes in, Ruby." - Neptune scratched his head. - "But we know Grimm particles are toxic to humans and Faunus. Different people have different genetic resistance. I had a splitting headache for a while after we ended up here, and Jaune seemed dizzy, while you look mostly fine. The effect likely hit Nora the most for whatever reason."
"Doesn't that stuff melt you?" - Ruby said. - "Being bathed in that sounds…Bad."
"Yeah. Basically, all of us must count ourselves very lucky because we aren't melting into piles of flesh right now."
Ruby tensed up - helplessness had become a frequent visitor by now, but realizing what they had survived, if Neptune was right, still shook her.
She gritted her teeth.
She might not have caused Nora's condition herself, but her plan is what got them into this in the first place.
And now Nora was hurt, and Ruby could have gotten all of them killed.
Not helpful, Ruby. Not helpful at all.
She struggled to push these thoughts away for now.
"Who do you think left this stuff here?" - Ruby gestured towards the markings on the walls.
Neptune sighed.
"What do you know about this Kingdom's history?"
"The usual stuff - Mistral is a Kingdom of city-states collectively referred to as Hearts - there are three of them each with its own culture, beliefs, and history. When, following the Third Crusade, Vale, and Vacuo abandoned monarchy, Mistral chose to retain the tradition. They also mention that Mistral is where the Faunus Revolution started, and they also took Mantle's side in the war. They don't exactly go into details."
"One of the aspects people often overlook is that technically there were four Hearts before the great war. Four great city-states that made up this Kingdom. And after the war had ended, only three were left." - Neptune traced the glyphs with his fingers as if lost in thought before he caught himself, moving away from the markings and sitting down on a rock. - "There's a common saying about the end of The Great War, Ruby. People often say that the day the war ended had brought different things to each Kingdom. Vale met it with triumph and celebration. Vacuo was shrouded in confusion. Mantle wallowed in defeat. Meanwhile, for Mistral, the end of the war was marked by grief and tragedy."
Neptune picked up four rocks from the ground, placing them on his lap.
He threw threw one of the rocks into the water with all his might.
"On March in the year 717 of Ever After, a massive flood befell one of the regions. Melting ice and snow intermingled with weeks of continuous rain and multiple dams in the area failed, completely flooding The Great Valley. The fourth heart of Mistral, often called Midhart, was completely wiped out by the ensuing catastrophe. The catastrophe displaced an unbelievable amount of water, ruining the ecosystem and forming what people now call The Great Lake. Mistral had lost its crucial logistics and agriculture center, the routes between the city-states fell apart, and the Kingdom fell into disarray."
Neptune dropped all three remaining rocks to the ground.
"Back at the start of the war, all four city-states made the unanimous decision to support Mantle. Even before the conflict escalated, Mistral had always been some of Mantle's biggest supporters. It's not surprising that what contributed to the end of The Great War was the tragedy that befell one of the hearts, crippling the Kingdom and making Mistral unable to continue supporting Mantle in their efforts. The Great Lake remains, to this day, with everything in the Great Valley buried in its depths. And I can't stress the word depth enough here. You know the isle that is in the middle of Great Lake? That used to be the top of a mountain"
Her heart attempted to escape her chest as Ruby put two and two together.
"You don't mean…" - She said.
"The caverns below the lake, if Ren's theory is correct and we are there - these caverns likely are remnants of what was here before that. This is not a natural cavern, but a cavern formed out of crumbling ruins of what stood here before, flowing water slowly eroding the signs of civilization as nature took over. If so, no clue what this could have been - a shopping mall? A garage? Someone's basement, for all I know."
"People just moved on. That sounds…"
"Terrifying? Big deal? Sadly, it's not." - Neptune looked up to the darkness above, a cavern filled with the sounds of dripping water. - "It's not just small villages that sometimes disappear. Sometimes it's the Grimm, sometimes it's the people. And, sometimes, it's just forces of nature. People move on. Survivors scatter and build new lives. People forget. People don't talk about some random city that got flooded almost a century ago any more than they do about the Third Crusade and the atrocities during it. Even I only had looked it up because I sort of have this quirk of just soaking up trivial information, especially anything to do with water, because of my fears."
"Neptune, when did you find out about your fear?"
"I don't know, I guess it has just always been with me. Ever since I can remember I just knew water's no good. I grew up in Nemea and that place's surrounded by Water from two sides, and I would have terrible nightmares of water rushing through everything. Why do kids fear the dark or why do some fear heights? Some fears are just there, I guess."
He stood up, turning his back to her.
"I'd say if I had to choose how I'd meet my fate, something like a flood is way too terrifying for me. Because water is scary, Ruby. And not in a fun way. It tends to very quickly erase any sign that you were ever there. I might have a problem with my fears, but you got to admit there are sillier things to be afraid of."
Could she say anything, something? Should she attempt to say something inspiring to him to reassure him? Should she comment on the nature of this place? Ruby didn't know - the words refused to come out as she tried to grasp the nature of this cavern in her mind - another gravestone to people who tried and then, in an instant, were gone.
Why would the Wanderer move here?
A thought crossed her mind that made chills run through her spine as if thousands of bugs crawled through her skin - she had forgotten something important.
"Did we defeat that thing? Or is it somewhere here, with us?" - Ruby said.
Neptune didn't answer.
Ruby had no way of knowing, and neither did he - they already had way too many problems they knew about to worry about the ones they didn't.
"Guys, she's waking up!" - Ren's voice interrupted them from ahead.
Neptune rushed past her, but Ruby found herself trailing behind - doubt gnawed at her mind.
Could I really come near her now? After all of this?
She kept her distance as she watched the duo slowly get Nora up as Nora's eyes opened.
"The serpent?" - Nora uttered, barely audible. - "Where's the serpent?"
"Nora, you were out for a while after the fight." - Ren responded, taking her hand. - "How are you feeling?"
"Like I had attempted sunbathing in Atlas, silly." - Nora said, grasping at Ren's shoulder as she struggled to stand up. - "I'm freezing, but we need to get out of here before it returns."
"Nora…"
"It always returns Ren. It will always return." - Nora paused for a second. - "Because of me."
"Nora, it's not your fault." - Ruby attempted her best to console her, still hesitant to come closer. - "Sometimes things just happen."
"No, Ruby. You don't get it. None of you do." - Nora turned her head towards Ren. - "Back then, it was chasing me. I just know it."
"Nora, it's just a Grimm."
"Do you really think it's a coincidence? Your father found me, and within a week it came after the town!" - Nora let go of Ren's shoulder, stumbling away. - "And now I am back here, and it appears again? I'm not naive enough to believe in coincidences."
"Nora, it's nonsense." - Ren took steps towards her, closing the gap again. - "Please don't torture yourself."
"What do you think I have been thinking about? Why do you think I kept bringing it up?" - Nora took another few steps backward. - "Ever since we got onto that damn ship, I couldn't get it out of my head. The night it came to Arcadia, the destruction, your father holding it off as we ran. It's all my fault!"
"What would that change, Nora? My dad likely had entertained the idea of a connection between the two events. What would you propose he should do? Abandon an innocent?" - Ren turned away from her. - "Should huntsmen just abandon hope and ideals and let innocents die as a sacrifice to appease evil?"
"But it's foolish. Survival matters Ren."
Ruby watched the unfolding scene, speechless. She glanced at Neptune, who seemed content not butting into ongoing discussion, which Ruby thought was a good move.
And then a familiar feeling of dread came over her, the same way it did in Kulhara.
Ruby's eyes widened.
"The Wanderer is nearby." - She whispered, her arms shaking. - "It's nearby."
The four of them observed their surroundings. Neptune had quietly picked up his weapon, and Ren picked up their belongings from the ground.
"Hey guys!"
The four yelped in unison at the sound of Jaune's voice as he emerged from the water behind them.
"The water's a dead end. There's an extremely small crack near the bottom that allows for the passage of water but nothing more. I think this might be a building or something." - Jaune spoke as he put his hoodie back on. He glanced at them, puzzled. - "What are you guys doing? Oh, Nora is back up?!"
Neptune giggled, out of shock.
And then it all started.
A screeching sound as a dark something fell upon them from above as it splashed into the water.
Ruby motioned to them to run away from the water. Water and electricity did not mix, and Nora had lost her weapon anyway.
The thing in front of them could barely be described as having a form - a swirling darkness with horse legs peering out of it, unnaturally bent.
Ruby subconsciously backed away as the others followed her example.
Within seconds, the group had found themselves with their backs to the glyph wall.
Ruby's mind raced with possible strategies for how to handle this.
There was nothing they could do - Nora's weapon was destroyed, Jaune's Aura was depleted, and Nora herself was hurt and barely standing. There was no way just her, Ren, and Neptune would be able to keep that thing at bay, wounded or not.
They were just five huntsmen-in-training, facing a seemingly immortal creature that had decimated entire villages for a decade.
What could they do? What could she do?
If only I knew even a single thing about how my eyes work…
The rumbling sound of the opening wall whispered away her thoughts. Ruby's eyes darted toward the sound - Jaune, Ren, and Neptune stood there shocked, while Nora clasped one of the glyphs on the wall, actually a switch, now rotated upside down.
"Quickly, get in." - Nora shouted.
Ruby jumped into the darkness that had opened up as she crashed into the other four doing the same.
They found themselves hitting a damp solid surface.
"Neptune." - Jaune uttered. - "Now is not the time for the dramatics. Turn Tri-Hard back on."
"I can't. It's like it just stopped working. I can't even transform it!"
Ruby grasped Crimson Rose in her hands - the weapon was silent and unresponsive.
"Could there be something here that, I don't know, disables technology or something?" - Ren said. - "That's one likely explanation of this."
The room hummed as its green hue slowly enveloped it.
As Ruby's eyes wandered around the surroundings, the darkness they dove into took form, assuming the shape of a square room surrounded by flawless concrete walls so even she could mistake them for glass. In each corner of the room was a metal columb, with a lantern installed on top, emanating the green glow. A metal container stood in the middle on a stone pedestal.
"Likely specifically Dust technology then." - Neptune said, pointing at the glowing pillars. - "Those things seem to be working just fine."
"Nora, how did you figure out this room was here and how to access it." - Jaune said
"I, uh, sort of, didn't?" - Nora slowly stumbled back up from the tangled mess, the five of them. - "It was weird, but I just sort of grabbed a random thing, and it did the thing."
Ruby's head hurt.
The emerald light around them, nauseating and dim, gnawed at her brain.
The light, the hum, the gray concrete walls - everything here made her tremble inside. Walls closed in on her again and again, in an endless loop, as if to crush her.
She had to get away. She had to get out. She had to run. But she couldn't.
From one enclosed space with no exit, they had entered another.
Nora found herself here and, yet, also in a place unlike anything she could remember. Her mind raced as a jumbled mess of imagery spun, turning her thoughts into white noise. Every muscle in her body shook as the room around her warped, walls dancing in circles around her.
For a second, she found herself above the cliff, overlooking a valley. The grass swayed all around. A figure stood there, contemplative. She turned her eyes towards where the figure's gaze fell and saw a great city surrounded by green fields and a river going as far as the ocean on the horizon. She could see shadows move on the fields as the clouds drifted in the sky, covering and then revealing the sun - an unending loop, the passage of time.
Every fiber of her told her to run, to avoid the figure on the cliff before it had devoured her.
"Nora, how did you figure out this room was here and how to access it," - Jaune said.
"I, uh, sort of, didn't?" - Nora's head spun as she tried to form coherent words, her hands grasping the ground beneath them. - "It was weird, but I sort of grabbed a random thing, and it did the thing."
That wasn't a lie - she did grab something completely random within her reach. She omitted a part of the explanation - "the something completely random" she grabbed felt familiar, even if she could concoct any explanation that wouldn't sound unreasonable. She knew what to do without really understanding it.
Ever since she had opened her eyes, a sense of familiarity lingered in the air - a weird sense of deja vu that she couldn't explain nor express - she had been here before, somehow.
She attempted to stand up. The bandaged hand itched like crazy, but she forced herself to ignore it.
A loud crack followed from the direction they stumbled into here - the wall that just closed behind them shattered to pieces, a dark swirling mess of tangled limbs behind it.
But it did not enter.
It stood there.
Nora realized she wasn't even afraid of it entering. She knew it couldn't.
"Why is it not attacking us?" - Neptune whispered, still leaning to the ground.
His voice reaching her caused Nora to turn and look at her friends - confusion and bewilderment still reigned in this enclosed space.
"Maybe it can't see or sense us?" - Ren said as he stood up.
"Or maybe it physically can't enter here." - Jaune, having already gotten up, brushed his hand against the stone column in one of the corners.
"Some sort of barrier device?" - Neptune glanced at the pillars, too.
Ruby hadn't said a word - part of Nora was afraid to come closer to her.
Even looking at Ruby elicited responses she didn't understand. The screams, the searing pain, the vivid memory of her own body hitting the ground - all surfaced every time Nora attempted.
Ruby did not seem to be in the best shape as she, still kneeling, grasped her head, her expression pained.
"Ruby, you okay there?" - Nora forced herself to say as she stood still, her eyes alternating between her friends and what was outside.
"Yeah, I am fine."
Ruby did not seem fine nor sound like it to Nora.
Neither did the hay stacks carried by the people through the field. Nora attempted to talk to them to touch them, but the nameless villagers kept going as if in a loop.
They picked up the hay, and carried the stacks, throwing them over the edge into the water.
It was the wrong way to do this - Nora hadn't done work like this, but that much was obvious.
Oh, how silly of her - the villagers weren't carrying stacks of hay at all - that would explain why this seemed incomprehensible. They held metallic containers filled with dust instead - offering to their leader - a plea to save them from suffering and war.
Wait, wasn't she just in a weird room with her friends?
The dim emerald glow greeted her again, as did the faces of her friends.
"I guess it really can't come in" - Jaune said, pointing at the broken wall.
The mass of decay and horse legs pressed against an imaginary wall lay between them and the creature.
Nora shook her head as she slapped her face, attempting to regain a sense of what was real and what was not. Sweat dripped from her forehead as she gasped for air.
And then she was in those fields again - this time, she floated above the city in the valley.
From up there, the city seemed more like a mountain to her - a circular structure of the concrete, reminiscent of a drill in its form, growing smaller as it went up - a circular pathway of gates and concrete pathways, and at the top, a forest lay there surrounded by walls and deep within the forest of this megastructure, she could see skyscrapers, streets, factories.
Nora couldn't tell what city this was, but somehow it felt familiar.
She could see the people in the city - the same ones carrying crates of dust before.
This time, they grasped their weapons, protecting the city and their ruler with their bodies. She saw a woman in the center, her chestnut hair flowing in the wind. She held a sickle in her hand as she was feverishly explaining something to the people around them. And then she looked at Nora.
A loud bang brought her back to reality as the apparition crashed against the invisible force again.
Was this reality? She found it harder to tell each time.
The column lights flickered, growing dimmer - were they struggling against the Wanderer's invasive presence?
Nora instinctively reached for her hammer before realizing Magnhild was gone.
Here she was, facing The Wanderer, and just like all those years ago, she found herself defenseless, hoping for what was between it and her to keep her safe.
Back then, it was Zhu Ren, Lie Ren's father. He and Arcadia's few other Huntsmen stood ready, weapons in hand, while she and Ren watched them from an evacuation truck, distance growing between them.
The last thing she had seen that day was its dark spear piercing Zhu Ren's chest straight through as it lounged at the men. Even now, she could still hear his son's screams as she and Ren hugged each other.
What could she do now? Could she change her fate? Could she fix everything? Could she be the hero, beat the bad guy, and save the day?
The answer was no - she already had done everything she could and even sacrificed the weapon she considered part of herself, and it wasn't enough.
Even with its form destroyed, the Wanderer was still there, ready to extinguish all that she held dear.
Even after all these years of training and growing up, she was still the same terrified little girl in the middle of the forest.
No weapon, barely standing, cold shivers running through her body, and sweat practically dripping from her forehead - Nora could imagine what an easy first victim she'd make if the thing managed to get inside and confrontation had started.
This wasn't a situation she could just shrug and joke her way through - even if years late, Death might have finally caught up with her.
She struggled to keep standing, to not fall to the ground - the last thing everyone needed was another distraction, another issue to deal with, so she willed her body to hold it together.
She couldn't shake the visage of that city, though - she could imagine walking its streets, looking up at the skyscrapers blotting out the Sun, as cars would drive past her and people would bump into her, rushing to work. She could see herself lounging both in the parks in the middle of the city and the weird artificial forest surrounding it - and even beyond, she could see herself climbing up the concrete walls and breathing in the wind atop the city that might as well have been a mountain.
She would look down, the wind blowing straight at her face, as the sense of vertigo overtook her, while she watched people arriving and leaving the city - small black dots down below.
She could imagine herself standing on top of the concrete wall, the sounds of the trees and the cars and the city behind her, and the boundless fields and sky in front of her as she watched the clouds move through it.
She couldn't quite smell the grass in the fields from this height nor the flowers. She could, weirdly enough whiff a sordid smell of earth beneath her face.
"Nora!" - She could hear Ren scream.
The rough texture of the stone slabs pressed at her cheek beneath it.
Her eyes saw the city in terror as she walked between the buildings, the streets shaking as cracks appeared, swallowing everything.
The woman looked at her - she was a bit pale, but her cheeks were aflush with red, matching her hair.
"It's one of his songs, the ninth one in the narrative." - The woman spoke to her, her mouth unmoving, frozen in a smile. - "That's the name of the judgment he sent to us, the heretics who violated his law denying his beacons with endless summer."
The skyscrapers crumbled as night chased away the day, the skies covered in dark clouds, although Nora soon realized those weren't clouds.
"I don't know when, but if you are there, the container beckons and your foe awaits." - The woman sat on the ground staring upwards. - "This is a time long bygone, but if you want to know, you will find your answers there, in that forge, just deliver what's inside back to where it was forged and the turning gears in the machinery will answer your pleas, you, the Last Valkyrie who had survived the end."
A single word floated in her mind - Nemea.
The crumbling streets shook as people screamed. Or maybe it was just Nora's ears endlessly ringing as her friends screamed.
She opened her eyes as her body convulsed against her will.
Her hand itched as if thousands of worms had burrowed to the bone - she could see blood seeping through the bandages, up to an elbow now.
But her eyes locked onto the container in the center. She needed that metal case, she needed to get what was delivered inside to Nemea - she needed to know.
"Ren, can you get me to the center, just lay my back against the stone pedestal?"
"Nora?"
"Just trust me, please."
Ren helped her stand up, as the whole room spun around her.
The columns in the corners flickered one last time.
Neptune's weapon lit up once again.
The Wanderer crashed through the broken wall as it lunged at them, wails of the dead in its wake.
As Ruby Rose gripped her scythe, every muscle tensed in her body.
The headache was getting worse, as if her head were to split open any second, spilling everything around, painting the world and her friends red.
She stared at the dark mass of limbs, and fog kept barreling at the invisible wall ahead.
All of this is my fault.
The emerald glow, permeating the room, burrowed into her skull, a bug gnawing at her mind - a snake had wrapped around her brain, squeezing it like a lemon.
Ruby gritted her teeth.
"I guess it really can't come in." - Jaune said, pointing at the broken wall as the creature kept trying.
Ruby looked at Jaune - his Aura still hadn't recovered. Not that it mattered, as none of their weapons seemed to work anyway. Neptune kept fidgeting with his to no avail.
Her eyes wandered to her friend she hurt - Nora stood there, visibly shaking and unusually pale. Ruby couldn't tell whether Nora was conscious of what went on around her or out of it - sometimes she would turn her head to stare at something, while other times she would breathe heavily, staring off into the distance.
Nora's shaking hand arose as Ruby observed her slap herself - Nora had succeeded after two or three attempts - likely her way of trying to keep herself anchored.
For a second, Ruby could see a familiar redheaded champion standing there.
A thought struck - despite being from very different walks of life, team JNPR were similar people to each other - heroes, warriors, champions.
They would have given their lives for the greater good - one had already done so.
Is there any meaning in that? In burning on the sacrificial pyre for the sake of the world as all will die all the same? In leaving people behind, knowing that they'll never see me again?
The stray thought stung her - for the first time in her life, Ruby had found herself questioning the value of being a Huntress.
Pyrrha and Penny - both of them - undeniable heroes, had perished, changing nothing.
Mom - Summer Rose - she also walked away one day, never to return.
Ruby shook as realization hit - had she thought about her mom being gone before? When was it the last time she had uttered out loud that Summer Rose was no more?
She pushed those thoughts away - this wasn't the time as she had other things to do - she had a struggle to overcome.
Those thoughts exist to be ignored, locked away in the dark recesses of her mind, never to see the light of day, but Ruby Rose seems to have lost the key she'd lock the doors to that prison with now.
Pyrrha.
Another headache came over her as her ears rang.
Ruby Rose had noticed a strange pattern - with each headache, the lights in the lanterns in the corners would flicker, growing dimmer.
Till now, she had assumed Wanderer's efforts were at fault, but it made no sense with how this place worked - this was supposed to be the safest room in whatever this cavern used to be before the waters rose.
When coupled with what had happened in Kulhara and what she, Ruby assumed, had done to Nora and the familiar headaches and thoughts of the dead - could her eyes have been acting up again, reacting to something here? If so, then why?
Ruby had never been more frustrated about being so clueless about her powers - the truth stung - year after year, she had intentionally avoided searching for information about her mother.
She never asked Qrow about Summer. She never asked Dad about it, either.
She doubted whether they would have told her, but she didn't even try to ask.
Were people to ask if she had called herself a hero, Ruby would have likely been too shy to say it, but she couldn't say that she hadn't thought of herself as one, even for a split second.
Heroes and Villains and Fairytales and Silver Eyes and Myths and Legends and Champions and Huntsmen and bravery and charisma and Good and Evil.
Words. Language - the Meaning behind words.
Had she ever considered what would make someone a Hero and whether it fit her mother, whom she never really got to know and never tried to?
Now Ruby Rose found herself desperate to know more - about what her mother had done, the eyes passed on to her, how they work, and how she could use them so people around her would finally stop needlessly dying, sacrificing for the greater good.
Instead, she was helpless, worthless garbage - a useless idiot who had dragged most of her remaining friends into an early grave in a fight that wasn't theirs, in a tomb nature had carved for someone else.
"There's no point." - Ruby found herself saying, her friends turned their heads. - "There's no point, there's no point, there's no point."
"Ruby, you okay?" - Jaune said, stretching out his hand.
"Nora!" - Ren screamed as he rushed towards her.
Ruby's sight jumped through her surroundings, searching for her.
Just a few seconds ago Nora had been standing here, holding on to her consciousness - yet now she lay on the ground, her muscles convulsing and her breath heavy.
All of this is my fault.
She grasped her head, Crimson Rose falling out of her hands.
The headaches intensified further.
The surroundings blurred - on the edge of her vision, she could see Ren shaking Nora awake as her body convulsed.
Then, a hammer or a pickaxe went straight through Ruby's head - or at least she felt it.
She wanted to scream, but no sound escaped her mouth.
And then the lanterns on the columns finally gave out, Neptune's weapon lighting up, the blue hue replacing the eerie emerald glow.
And the headache disappeared with it.
Ruby, hands trembling, knelt, picking her scythe back up.
The Wanderer, or what was left of, descended upon them.
Ruby, Crescent Rose taking the form of a gun, jumped forward, her semblance activating on an instinct, as she managed to block an attack coming at Nora and Ren.
As the force of the impact sent her flying, crashing into one of the now dimmed columns, searing pain coursing through her back, Ruby realized that "blocking the attack" might be a little bit too generous to her situation.
She once again bolted forward, covering the distance in a split second, clashing against the fog that wasn't fog - she blocked one of the horse "legs" coming at her from the right, this time managing to hold her ground.
She turned her head slightly - behind her, Jaune and Ren dragged Nora closer to the room's center, leaning her against the weird box in the middle.
Ruby swung crescent Rose, now a scythe, as she desperately unleashed a barrage of swift slashing attacks against the form, praying her battered weapon would hold.
The Wanderer was a formidable foe, but after half of it had been blown off, it had grown weaker - she was sure of it.
Gone were the ranged attacks, the oppressive shroud, and the ability to instantaneously move through the battlefield. No longer had it held a black spear - the apparition did not even have its lower half anymore, nor "arms" it could hold its weapon with.
The Wanderer now was a mass of swirling Grimm Energy, obscene and rotten horse legs peering through the fog - the Grimm that made up the apparition couldn't hold its form together beyond that anymore.
She felt a scorching pain in her left side as one of the "legs" connected with her ribcage, likely fracturing a few ribs - even weakened, the apparition still deserved its status as an urban legend, a Fable.
And there was no way to be sure its current, weakened state would last forever.
A few energy blasts hit the creature from behind Ruby as Neptune rushed forward - he had managed to push the Wanderer back from her slightly with his weapon now.
Tri-Hard, still the only source of light here, moving and clashing against the apparition, had transformed the environment around Ruby into something out of a nightclub.
A deadly disco party, water, and the wailing creature as the music.
Having secured Nora, Ren joined in, rushing ahead.
Ruby realized that the three of them did the damage to the weakened creature.
The area they were fighting in was less than favorable, however - enclosed space in what's essentially fallen apart ruins at, very likely, the bottom of the lake. Any extended fighting would risk the whole place caving in on top of them, and the creature would stay standing even after.
They had managed to push the creature back into the broken crevice they had escaped through, but they still had no way to get out and, likely, no way to destroy the apparition.
Ruby focused on the fight at hand once again as the apparition wailed, or growled, or was it gurgling? - she couldn't tell since its form had no discernible mouth or even a head to release that sound from.
There were no plans or solutions that would work - all they could do was to keep going until their bodies gave out.
And it was all her fault.
As if sensing her weakness, the apparition rushed back at them, its swaying limbs connecting with her chest.
Ruby groaned.
And then she flew backward, her vision blurring.
The next thing she could feel was pain coursing through her body as she hit the wall on the other side of their little enclave.
She repeatedly shook her head as if attempting to make the ringing in her ears stop.
In front of her, Nora slowly crawled up, using the pedestal as her support.
"Nora, hide somewhere, please." - Ruby said. - "Worst come to worst, we might bury it with us."
Nora did not answer, but Ruby could feel her stare pierce right through her.
Without a word, Nora grabbed onto the container case atop the pedestal.
Ground shook, the surrounding walls moved and the ceiling, already unsteady, began to crack, concrete, cement, and dirt falling onto them.
The lantern columns split apart, crumbling to the ground.
"Um, guys, just what did you do?" - Jaune shouted back at them.
"No, you idiots, the creature." - Delivering two more shots to the apparition, Neptune turned towards them as Ren rushed towards Nora.
Then the shaking stopped and the floor cracked apart.
Weightlessness overcame Ruby, and the ground was swept from beneath her feet.
The entire floor of the area, except for beneath the pedestal, crumbled, revealing a dark void below.
For a mere second, Ruby felt like a silly cartoon character as they realized the bridge beneath them had been cut.
And then vertigo and screaming wind replaced the silence and stillness.
She fell. Well, not just her, as she could glimpse Jaune, Ren, and Neptune all tumbling down alongside her into this dark hole that went who knows how deep- a crevice, an underground river, a tunnel? Ruby did not know.
All Ruby could do was look up seeing Nora, still in the room, staring at them from above as she grew smaller and smaller disappearing from all of their sight.
"Everyone, landing!" - She screamed at her friends.
The first thing a Huntsman learns is a landing strategy - a logical approach when Creatures of Grimm twice their size can be found.
Her landings had not been that successful in the last day or so - Ruby found a twisted sense of relief in actually being able to control this one and not hit something with her back or her head instead.
Neptune fired a few energy shots downwards as they fell - explosions ran below, indicating the ground was there and quite near.
Four of them clenched their teeth, preparing for the most basic test of being a Huntsman once again.
As her ears rang and her senses returned to her, Ruby instinctively touched her limbs - to be sure she did not break anything.
She looked around - gone were the concrete walls, replaced with more natural cave structures and brown hues.
The area wasn't completely dark anymore either, meaning at least some light had reached them from somewhere.
Her eyes darted around to find the others.
Neptune had somehow managed to land face to the ground - completely undamaged. Ruby did not bother to think how - A huntsman trying to describe their landing strategy to anyone would likely sound raving mad after all - if it worked, it worked.
Jaune, for once, seemed to have landed perfectly fine, even though she had no idea how he had done it with just a shield and a sword.
Ren stood a bit further ahead as he kept staring upward at the hole they had fallen through - still waiting.
"Ren." - Jaune said. - "I'm sorry. We got to go."
"No. We need to wait." - Ren answered, without taking his eyes off from the gap above they had fallen through.
Silence - the cavern ambiance and the ground beneath their boots were the only sounds surrounding them.
Great job, Ruby. I sure am good at this hero thing.
Ruby's chest hurt - no matter what she kept failing. If failure was all that awaited her, even when she had put everything into being who she wanted to be, then what was the point?
She shook her head, punching herself in the chest.
No, get a grip, this is not time for self-pity.
Ruby wanted to believe - if there existed one person who could, against all odds, come out unscathed, it would have been Nora. It didn't matter that she no longer had a weapon or was severely hurt and barely could stand or was left alone in crumbling ruins with a beast straight out of their nightmares - to Ruby, Nora had always been the one who'd laugh in the face of reality.
She needed a miracle. She needed a real-life fairytale.
Ruby wanted to believe there was more to this life than pain, suffering, and hard choices. Just this once, she wished everyone could live.
The cavern echoed with their voices and every single movement they had made, the sounds bouncing through the emptiness.
Ruby could still hear the water somewhere above - she wondered whether, in case the area they were in above crumbles, this area they were in now would get flooded.
If that were the case, they couldn't wait here long - they had to find some way to exit wherever they were now.
Was it water that she was hearing? The echoes bounced around, making it all indistinguishable.
No, wait, that was certainly not a sound water would make - it's as if someone was screaming or maybe laughing.
Ruby tensed up. Now she could hear it clearly - a voice.
"Get out of the way!" Nora's voice.
"Guys!" - Ruby shouted, rushing away from the spot they had landed as others followed her example.
The sound intensified and grew - Ruby could recognize that manic laughter anywhere.
Then, with a hard thud, debris came crashing into the ground.
And on top landed a familiar figure.
"Well this sure was lots of fun." - Nora said. - "Hey guys! Missed me?"
The four of them froze, staring at her.
Ruby could feel tears welling up in her eyes.
"You are…" - Jaune began to say something before Neptune stopped him.
Ruby fell silent too - she knew this wasn't her moment too.
"Don't ever do that again." - Ren rushed forward, hugging Nora.
For a second, Ruby could swear she saw him cry before he buried his face in a hug.
"We thought you for dead." - Neptune spoke.
"Me? Pfft. You all would have to try way harder to get rid of me."
"What happened?" - Jaune interjected, as he rushed closer, as if wanting to make sure that the person in front of them all was real.
"Oh the place went poof and boom and then I sort of grabbed the metal case, whacked the thing a few times and then the cave fell on it, so I whacked it a few times more and it dissolved for good then - I realized the only way to make it out alive was jumping after you guys and I did as everything there fell apart."
"You…whacked it with that?" - Jaune repeated.
"A few times." - She twirled the case in her hands before placing it on the ground.
Ruby stared at the container - It was a metal box with a handle to carry it like a suitcase. There was no discernible way to open it, but from the design and shape the box was very likely armored.
"Wow that's an interesting box." - Neptune jumped closer as he attempted to lift it. - "Interesting and heavy."
"Let me give you a hand." - Jaune stepped closer as he attempted to lift the box too.
Ruby wasn't surprised that Neptune couldn't, considering Nora's overall strength, but even they both couldn't make it budge.
"And you…whacked it with it?" - Neptune's head turned to stare at Nora, who smiled. - "Note to self - never get into a fight with Nora Valkyrie."
Ruby felt warmth in the laughter filling the cavern as the four of them tried to process this.
Another piece of debris hit the ground with a loud thump, interrupting the mood.
Ruby looked at the giant slab of concrete that had fallen through the hole barely a few steps beyond where they were now.
"So yeah guys, remember what I said about the place crumbling above?" - Nora said. - "We should, maybe, go."
"Go where?"
"I think I know the way." - Nora smiled. - "Trust me. We'll be outside in no time"
Nora hopped towards the box, throwing it over her shoulder as if it weighed nothing as she walked forward.
"You better keep up, you doofuses!" - She laughed. - "Or I'll leave you behind, and you might think I died again."
As everyone walked after her, Ruby, still dazed, took her steps too.
Many questions lingered in her mind, but for now, she could push all of them to the side.
For once, they all had lived.
Nora Valkyrie walked forward, carrying the case in her hand, as for the first time in a while, she felt sure of where she was going.
The bandaged arm no longer itched - whatever had afflicted her seemed to not only have stopped spreading but also had begun to recede - her breathing was once again even and stable - while her muscles still hurt, strength was returning to her body - a consequence of picking up the case and what had happened up there after everything fell apart.
They have been walking for an hour now, repeating the same motions - they'd traverse a somewhat cramped cavern, Nora would lead them to a small opening somewhere, and they would find themselves in another cavern higher up.
After one more crevice they had crawled through, they found themselves in a cave, sunlight greeting them at the end as the fresh breeze from outside hit them.
"So, uh, guys, this was an experience. Locked in an underground cave with all this water, oh, and the creature from depths of hell." - Neptune broke the silence as he secured his weapon. - "Let's not repeat this ever again, okay?"
"So, the part where you got a spear through your gut is fine then?" - Jaune joked.
"I'd rather take a spear through my gut than all that water, no thank you." - Neptune laughed, walking forward. - "But seriously, thanks, man. I don't know what you did, but you saved my life."
"We are not out of the woods yet." - Ren, usually contemplative, chimed in.
Nora wondered what Ren had thought of this ordeal - they had faced the creature that had destroyed his home, taken his father away - and come as close to slaying it as they could have.
Was he happy, sad, shaken? For the first time in nearly a decade, Nora had found herself unable to get a read on her best friend.
"So what do you guys think? Did we have a visit to the lost fourth city of Mistral here?" - Neptune said. - "By the way, don't you guys find it weird how everything comes in fours?"
"What do you mean?" - Nora asked, puzzled.
"Well, think about it - Remnant has four Kingdoms, huntsmen teams are comprised of four people, there were four communication towers, and we just likely visited the fourth city of Mistral and found ourselves in a shielded room protected by four columns."
I think you might be reading a bit too much into something that isn't there, book guy." - Jaune laughed.
"It's a conspiracy, I tell you!" - Neptune smiled. - "The numbers are haunting us."
"Mysterious ghost math sounds like a horror story or a mystery novel. Maybe you should write one?" - Jaune said as the group had finally reached the cave exit.
"The numbers, Jaune, what do they mean!" - Neptune's motions grew almost theatrical.
Nora couldn't laugh at it, though - the images from the weird hallucinations remained every time she'd close her eyes as if a picture etched into her eyelids.
She couldn't deny that there was something more to this encounter than them spending another stressful day in their jobs as Huntsmen and Huntresses.
Did she see the fall of the city that used to be here? If so, why?
Was the vision just a result of her feverish mind? If not, the tragedy that had transpired here was anything but natural - the waves and the water had come way after the massive city crumbled.
Why did she know how to navigate the crumbled ruins they just escaped? She could now vaguely remember wandering out of here as a child. Did someone bring her and hide her in the ruins? Nora couldn't shake a vague recollection of two people carrying her through the forest.
Nora Valkyrie, Zhu Ren had named her, but who was she before that? Who were her parents? Why did she end up in abandoned ruins? What was the name she was born with?
In a world obsessed with names and meaning, Nora had no idea.
She hoped to be free of secrets, and yet now she had found herself carrying even more of them - literally and figuratively.
The case in her hand felt heavy, metaphorically, of course, as there was no way she would ever have an issue carrying something this puny - these muscles weren't for show, after all.
She couldn't tell her friends about the visions, and she couldn't tell them how the encounter with the Wanderer ended either.
More secrets.
After hours of wandering in the dark, they finally stepped out into the familiar forest, just at the lake shore. The trees close to the Great Lake had all withered, most of the areas around having turned into swampy wetlands.
She looked ahead - if they were to walk just a bit more north, she was sure they could reach Arcadia's ruins.
She slowed down till she walked in sync right next to Ren.
"Ren. You know we could visit there, right?" - She began, placing her hand on his shoulder as they walked. - "Don't you want to see that place? For closure?"
"I'd rather remember my hometown when it was still standing, Nora." - Ren said, placing his hand upon hers.
"Do you blame me for what happened there?" Ren stopped in his tracks.
"Nora, no. Why should I?" - he smiled. - "Should I blame every single thing evil targets for what evil does?"
"But it came after me. I am sure of that."
"Whether it did or not, it changes nothing. My father lived as a Huntsman and died as one, protecting people." - He placed his other hand on her other shoulder. - "Should we blame Pyrrha too, because that woman came after her?"
"No, because that would be stupid.."
"Let's not spend our lives on blame, okay?" - Ren gazed past her into the forest - "Whatever remains of those ruins there - that's no longer our home, Nora. Remember what we said the day we got on the ship to Vale?"
"That home will be wherever life takes us"
He patted her head.
"Let's keep moving forward wherever that is, okay?"
"Back to Kulhara and then Nemea, right?" - Nora replied. - "We better hurry."
"We need to tell them the danger is gone, too." - Ruby noted, catching up to them.
"Come on, guys. We better hurry - I don't want to fight more Serpentines right now." _ Jaune shouted from up ahead. - "And we need to get a doctor to check out Nora too."
"Despite everything, I think we did pretty good for huntsmen in training." - Ren noted.
Nora smiled, brimming with peace for once - she was sure - there were very few people like Ren in this world, and she was damn lucky to be friends with him.
Sure, she did not know her name and ended up with more secrets than she had shed, but for now, she was going to be who she always was.
Nora Valkyrie - the mightiest gal with a heavy hammer in her hands - was the one who had survived the end again and again, and she didn't plan to stop doing that.
Rigid rules, cruel reality, and dangers that lay ahead? All those stupid things better move out of her way, or they'd taste her fist.
Sure, she didn't quite have her hammer now, but that wasn't going to be an issue once she would get to Nemea.
Magnhild was more than a weapon too - it was a name, a name that belonged to Nora longer than her own - and she'll damn make sure the next Magnhild will be a worthy successor to the one that had fallen in battle.
The red-haired woman walking next to her whom others couldn't see smiled back at her, reaffirming her that they were on the right track in the mission left to her.
Nora wondered if pancakes in Nemea tasted better or worse than most of the stuff in Vale.
She was sure to find out.
January 15th, 797 E.A
Town of Kulhara, Domain of Nemea, Kingdom of Mistral Territory
The Elder of Kulhara hurried along to the relay station at the back of the town - he hoped the creature hadn't damaged it.
It had been an hour since the terrifying creature disappeared - some of the citizens had claimed that the team of Huntsmen had fought it and managed to blow it apart, but the details were scarce.
Such a weird day - for the first time in his life he had witnessed the skies themselves dim as if night had come in the middle of the day. And then, the sun arose once again with it being gone.
He could still recognize the creature - it had been the same apparition that had thrashed Arcadia and taken so many lives all those years ago. He couldn't help but wonder why had it appeared again after all these years.
The Wanderer Horseman myth was born with the Fall of Arcadia, as countless huntsmen and citizens laid down their lives in the ensuing chaos.
He couldn't help but smile as he wondered if the little Ren and the food gremlin both had been involved in that. If they were there, The Elder of Kulhara couldn't shake the comforting thought that the old man Zhu would likely have been proud.
The Elder of Kulhara hoped that Ren had taken his words to heart about visiting his kin in Nemea. He couldn't bear to lead the boy on anymore - he wanted to be freed from the shackles that bound him for years before his time to leave this land came.
As he neared the communication station, relief washed over him as it still stood undamaged.
The metal door slid open, revealing a clunky giant - far less sophisticated than them scrolls that became so popular in his times - it would still do its supposed job.
What Elder needed to do was to send a message to Nemea about the situation, notifying them of the need for reinforcements and building materials and that they were sending a few logistics trucks back with weaker villagers for refuge in Nemea until the town had been fixed up.
Typing all that up seemed like a pain, though. People would always tell him he complained too much, even back in the day.
A scream from behind had reached the ears of the Elder of Kulhara. He turned around to see one of the villagers - was it the boy running the now-destroyed tavern? Or was this the miller? Either way, Elder just nodded, acknowledging him.
"Sir." - The villager gasped for the ear. - "There's a problem."
"Yes, I noticed."
"No, another problem." - The villager frowned. - "Not the Grimm."
"What happened?" "
Sir, they found a mutilated body in the town warehouse." - The villager gasped as he spoke, wildly flailing his arms as if that had helped to convey the information. - "Boyd the miller, his limbs pinned to the wall with iron and his insides skewered with a weapon. It was a work of a human, not an apparition."
"Great Anima, have mercy on us." - The Elder exclaimed.
"We also have witnesses who saw it happen. The perpetrator wasn't exactly inconspicuous."
The Elder of Kulhara sighed.
On one hand, this meant that the villager in front of him, indeed, was the one that ran the tavern and not the miller.
On the other hand, the message he needed to send to Nemea had gotten a lot longer now.