Getting Gotrek into the Bullhead, when a replacement airship had arrived to the clearing by the cliff-side, had required something of a divine diplomatic intervention. Luckily one such thing had come in the form of the strict riding-crop wielding she-wizard, as she had seemingly gotten enough of Gotrek's growling and groaning about 'inferior manling machine crashing and burning if it tried to lift a dwarf'.

As the result of long negotiation the now truly furious woman had simply conjured up a slab of stone and had told Gotrek that either he gets into the airship, or she has the stone slab scoop up the Slayer from where he stood and toss both the slab and the slayer into 'Beacon' via expedited air-delivery. And that she would try to aim for a lake but wouldn't give guarantees whether she'd hit it. Gotrek had for a moment looked like he had wanted to put the woman's threat to the test, but Ozpin had finally coughed something to the effect of 'leader of daemons' and 'doom', and Gotrek had finally agreed to enter the airship.

Meanwhile Snorri had been just kicking his legs over the ramp of the airship while sitting within it. There was an array of clear bags beside the slayer within the ship. It looked like the old slayer had been helping himself to the alcohol he had found within the airship while the group argued with Gotrek. Felix had groaned internally as he had recognized the scent of disinfectant alcohol in the old slayer's breath, and suspected that if the airship came crashing down like Gotrek predicted, they would once again be out of alcohol to disinfect wounds with.

Felix had his own share of worries regarding travel by air, but when the alternative was either to be left behind in the daemon-infested forest, or be launched by the irate blonde woman's slab-express, he chose to enter the airship and tie his belt around a hand-rail of some sort. The ramp made to rise up, but Gotrek jut the blade of his ax between the ramp and the wall, keeping it so that if the ship fell, the passengers could jump out. The blonde woman looked like she wanted to argue, but Ozpin waved her off, spared a couple of words to the pilot of the airship, and the ship began to move even though the ramp was partially open.

Luckily the airship seemed to stay in the air without problem as it lifted off the ground with smooth ease that was a far cry from the choppy motions of a dwarf gyrocopter. Soon afterwards the group had flown on the airship all the way to some sort of tall castle-city. The city had been built on top of a steep cliff, it was surrounded by thick walls and lined with what looked like cannons of some sort of slender, foreign design. Several tall spires jutted out of the castle's many lesser buildings, as well as large halls, houses, and tall box-like houses that had several rows of windows. Magical lights, or so it seemed, shone from streetlights that didn't seem to have a burning fire in them and instead relied on some sort of shining crystal to provide illumination. The city was quite large and spacious, housing several parks and even a large lake within its walls. One of the walls was open and what looked like a dock protruded out of the cliffside, eerily similar to docks that ships used to reach port, except this one had been made with a flying ship in mind. Felix was amazed and wary of the implications

A white tower that was almost as tall as a mountain jutted out from near the center of the castle-city, nearly reaching the height of the clouds themselves. Felix wondered just how such a landmark had been built, and for what reason. He did not ask, though, as he suspected the sorcerers would not take kindly to outsiders poking their noses into their affairs.

In the distance there were lights of a far larger city, much larger than any that Felix had seen. Even Altdorf seemed like a collection of mud-huts in comparison.

The buildings and walls of the distant city were so tall that it looked more like the work of gods than of men. Felix shuddered as he thought about just what sort of an enemy would necessitate building of such a massive defensive system. He knew of one such foe, and its prowess in cracking even mighty walls had been well evident by siege of Praag, back in Kislev. The servants of Chaos would have cracked the northern city's defenses wide open if it wasn't for Gotrek killing the leader of the besieging servants of Chaos in a daring attack.

The airship came to hover above a landing strut of some sort that extended from the tall white tower's side, and Ozpin hopped off the airship first. He was soon followed by the blonde woman who turned to glare at the three remaining passengers. The pilot of the ship was in a separate compartment of the air-vessel, and hadn't introduced themselves nor had otherwise interacted with the ship's passengers on the short journey.

Gotrek jumped down from the ship onto the strut as if daring for the platform to break and fall from under him. It did not, and the Slayer gave the flooring a look that one might assume to be a sign of approval. It was as faint as hope in Mordheim. Snorri followed suit, though he landed on his butt as the old slayer didn't seem too keen on trying his balance after chugging what must have been a keg of near-pure wound-alcohol.

Felix carefully extended himself from the airship and tried to reach for the landing strut with his feet while hanging onto the guard-rail of the airship's side-ramp as if his life depended on it. A scenario flashed in his mind, one where he slipped on the landing, stumbled, and a gust of wind blew him off the landing strut. At least the descent was short, less than a few feet, instead of the twenty-feet rope-climb that the Spirit of Grungni had asked of its passengers.

Gotrek snort at the sight of Felix trying to get off the airship with shaky motions, and reached to grab Felix by his leg. One yank later Felix was lying on his back on the landing strut. The Bullhead flew off as if on cue, leaving the group of five standing on the windy strut.

Ozpin had led them into the interior of the tower after Felix had gotten his bearings straight and had stopped shaking. Soon they had entered a somewhat cramped metal-walled room with nothing in it except a glowing panel on its side. The gray-haired wizard had pressed the panel with his palm and the room had shot upwards under some sort of effect, magical or mechanical. Gotrek had eyed the thing warily and had told Felix it was an elevator. Apparently dwarfs used the invention as well for traveling up and down mine-shafts. And that it was prone to falling if its lifting cord was not maintained well, or if something other than dawi tried to use it to lift itself up from the dark depths under the mountains. Ozpin had waved his healthy hand and assured that elevator malfunctions were exceedingly rare in 'Remnant', as the world itself was apparently named such. Felix was not reassured.

In mere moments the group had reached their destination and Ozpin led the group into a large, circular room that had a large round glass floor at its center. The glass floor showed a bronze and silver clockwork mechanism underneath them that seemed to stretch for at least a full mile directly downwards. Felix didn't even dare to think what it was used for.

The walls of the large circular room were lined with pillars, and the walls were made out of translucent glass that was so clear it was as if there was nothing there at all. Felix felt nervous and sick in his stomach as he carefully made his way forward, waiting for either the glass floor to break, or for a gust of wind to break the large windows and blow him away into a sky-high free-fall. He wondered if Ozpin had brought them to the room precisely because of its intimidating nature.

The Slayers were less worried of the fragile-looking room, specifically after Gotrek had put his hand on the glass floor for a while and gave it an analyzing eye, and after a quick test with his foot, had walked onto the glass with zero concern in his posture or walk. Felix wished he was as confident.

The blonde woman snapped her riding crop and a number of chairs flew from the back of the room, and landed in front of a wood and glass table. Ozpin sat down behind the desk and motioned for Felix and the two Slayers to take seats. Felix sat down. He halfway expected ropes to shoot out from underneath the chair and trap him in it. At that point Felix was certain that anything was possible. The two Slayers eyed the human-sized chairs and hopped up with some effort, and began bobbing up and down a bit as if to check whether the wooden chairs would break under their weight. They did not, earning a begrudging grunt of acceptance from Gotrek. Felix suspected that it was the best the wooden chair, or its maker, could earn given the material the chair was made from. The Slayer's massive rune-ax remained in his hands, albeit he just held it over his chest instead of stashing it to a chain over his shoulder. He suspected the Slayer was still wary that the two sorcerers would turn on them at the flip of a hat and was ready to mete out death in response.

"I believe that it's time for me to explain some things about Remnant. And then you three can explain as much from the world that you hail from." spoke Ozpin while he had reached into his desk and began to apply some sort of balm on his bruised hand. Felix realized that it was the hand that Gotrek had mauled during the 'handshake'. A part of him felt bad for the wizard, given that he had been quite helpful so far, but a part of him felt a sense of vicious vengeance as the wizard's carelessness had caused Felix to forget the language of his homeland. And though Slayers forgot the language of the Empire as well, he was certain that the languages of men were not of much concern for those of the elder races. Had they forgotten dawi languages Felix was certain either they or Ozpin would have been dead by now.

A resigned sigh escaped Felix's lips as he put aside the issue of languages and such for now. Perhaps he had been just trying to cling to something familiar in an entirely unfamiliar place.

"Could I ask you to please start, lord Ozpin?" asked Felix, seeing that the two Slayers were not keen on divulging their share of the information first. Felix shared the sentiment.

Ozpin nodded, seemingly neither offended nor worried that the trio from the Old World would choose to withhold information they held even after the wizard delivered his part. Felix suspected that the wizard was counting on their gratefulness for being straightforward with the information.

Of course had either of the dwarfs agreed to the information exchange, they would have delivered their part without question or fail. However, neither had spoken and both had given a glare to Felix, prompting him to take the role of the diplomat once again. Felix suspected that the Slayers deliberately decided to have Felix speak so that Ozpin wouldn't ask them of the dwarf-holds or the treasures within.

Felix was long accustomed to being the duo's mouth-piece should an explanation, diplomatic speech, lie or omission of truth be needed, as it gave Gotrek a way to dodge uneasy questions and make dishonest claims without actually doing so by himself, by way of making Felix make the lie instead of the dwarf. It was an underhanded trick and would not reflect well on Gotrek if the circumvention of truth came to light, but the dwarf's often saw things like honor and promises with very different lenses than men. Felix had many a time pondered if widespread habit of exploiting such roundabout 'white lies' in the society that was as rigid and rule-bound as dwarf's had resulted in the intricate web of grudges and blood-feuds that tore at the unity of the dawi, and had perhaps even contributed to the elder race's fading spot in the Old World.

Gotrek's glare was impatient while Ozpin explained the existence of four nations of Remnant as well as its continents, while Snorri's glare was grateful as it gave the dwarf an excuse to avoid speaking to the 'vomit wizard', from whom he had tried to stay away from and not touch if at all possible. Felix secretly hoped that the one time the old slayer had referred to the elder wizard with such a title had been a mistake, and that the slayer wouldn't tempt fate again by keeping the nickname in the future. Ozpin seemed calm, collected and with near endless patience, and Felix didn't want the group to push their luck by trying to reach the limits of the gray-haired wizard's patience.

Felix concentrated his attention back on Ozpin's words as he realized he had started to become distracted from the explanations. He had been eyeing the Slayers and trying to ensure subtly that neither of them would do anything that warranted their destruction. He did not fancy his chances of survival if a fight broke out in the tall tower, as the riding crop-wielding woman was still holding back near the door of the elevator and her telekinetic power could easily toss the trio out of the window should they become rowdy.

"On to the matter of faunus- I happened to overhear from mr. Jaeger that animal features on humans were considered 'mutations', or something akin to that?" Ozpin paused to grab a mug of something from under his desk, put one mug in front of himself and slid three forwards so that Felix and the two Slayers could take one for themselves. Felix would have taken the offered mug, but Gotrek sent him a sharp glare and he chose to just keep his hands on his lap. The two Slayers just glared at their mugs without touching them- Gotrek eyed his with suspicion in his single remaining eye, and Snorri with disappointment as the mugs smelled of sugarplant and some sort of sweet fragrance. It was unlikely that the drinks contained alcohol.

"...Yes. The mutants are former humans that, for various reasons that involve some sort of touch by the Ruinous Powers, voluntary or otherwise, grow or devolve physically to the point they may sport additional mouths, eyes, perhaps six arms or something more extreme, such as both legs merging to become a snake's tail… There are no two similar mutants." Felix explained warily, unsure of what exactly Ozpin was insinuating. Were 'faunus' a mutants that had infiltrated Remnant's kingdoms as heralds of the daemons?

"Hm." Ozpin had a sharp look in his eyes as he leaned his chin against his hands. "And what is your opinion on these 'mutants'?"

"We kill them on sight." Gotrek grunt. Felix nodded, albeit warily. He would have likely worded it differently, as the wizard was acting strangely regarding the matter. "Those faunus as well, if they are mutants like you say."

"That is a large 'if', I might point out." Ozpin spoke with a slightly cold tone. It sent shivers down Felix's back, but neither of the two Slayers looked intimidated. "What drives you to slay these mutants?"

"They are abominations that are driven only by desire to ruin, pillage, and destroy. Though not all of them are overt about it. Some choose to infiltrate settlements and villages under friendly guises and only reveal their true natures when the Sigmar-loving folk find their wells poisoned, or their gates opened before a horde of servants of Ruinous Powers or worse. They are servants of Chaos, though many of them may not have desired to be corrupted in such a manner. But in the end all of them succumb to their corruption in body, mind and soul." Felix explained while holding his hand palm-open towards Gotrek underneath the table so that Ozpin didn't see it, signaling that he wanted to speak before Gotrek dug them so deep into the swamp that they drowned.

If Ozpin was in league with the forces of Chaos they needed to play along for now, and then strike once they reached a spot where the three could fight without getting killed by a gust of wind. Gotrek eyed the windows warily as he too must have realized the peril, and perhaps thought that falling several hundred feet to one's death was not the sort of heroic doom he desired. Snorri didn't seem to get it, but was content to just let Felix speak since Gotrek trusted him to do so.

"I see. I can see similarities to these servants of the Ruinous Powers… But with the Grimm and the bandits that use Grimm to do their dirty work so that they may come later and reap the riches left behind by the beasts. However, faunus are not the kind of 'mutant' that you speak of." Ozpin spoke while remaining guarded. "Rather, I would compare faunus to something like these two… dwarf's. I believe that your race was called such?"

Felix grimaced as he had warned Ozpin to not do precisely what he was doing. He hoped that the wizard had a plan as he spoke the provocative words aloud, and as a result both of the Slayers tensed up.

"Are you calling me a mutant, manling?!" Gotrek's ire peaked and the Slayer jumped up from his chair. Because the chair was made for humans the height of the dwarf didn't actually change, but the upraised great-ax was definitely making up for what the Slayer lacked in height. Snorri tried to replicate the motion but got his bolt-crest caught up in the elaborate leather coverings of the chair and as a result both the dwarf and the chair crashed down in a cloud of wood splinters, sweaty muscle and thick beard. A stray thought passed by Felix's head, wondering if they would be asked to pay for the damages. It was an absurd thought, but fit the suddenly rising panic that Felix felt.

"I am not calling you a mutant. I am calling you a dwarf. And I am calling a faunus a faunus. I am saying that from my point of view faunus are coexisting alongside humans much like dwarfs are coexisting with mankind of your world… Or so I have been led to believe. Mr. Jaeger?" Ozpin didn't stand up but remained sitting in front of the two Slayers, with only a fragile-looking wooden chair separating the two forces. The gray-haired wizard then glanced at Felix after he had spoken. Felix wasn't sure how terrified he should be as the spotlight was cast on him, nor due to the fact Ozpin didn't seem intimidated by the massive Slayer in the least. Snorri was picking wooden splinters from his beard after picking himself up from the floor and shaking off the chair's wreckage.

Felix realized that he had a chance to prevent bloodshed and spoke up. "...Yes. Dwarf-kind and mankind have been allies since the times of Sigmar. When the Empire was first established thousands of years ago, dawi were stout, er, strong allies of the Empire and helped build much of its infrastructure as well as trade technology and goods."

Ozpin merely motioned for Felix to continue as his speech trailed off. Felix glanced at Gotrek, whose muscles had wound tight like those of a bull about to charge, but the dwarf was holding back. He realized Gotrek was waiting for Felix to speak, or to draw his sword as well and charge alongside the slayer. Snorri was holding his axe and spiked hammer in loose grip and looked at Gotrek with a confused look on his face, clearly wondering why Gotrek was not charging already, and decided to hold back as well like a ugly, nail-crested duckling following the example of it's larger yet as ugly brethren. The implication of Gotrek waiting for Felix's signal shook him, and he continued speaking.

"...The relations between mankind and the dwarf's have been warm ever since, barring a few… incidents along the way." Felix spoke truthfully, hoping that he had read the situation correctly. "The relations between other races have been less warm. Mankind considers ogres as mercenaries at best. Halflings are considered as a thieving nuisance and wandering traders, and neither have a nation of their own that I know of. Though rumors say that in the World's Edge Mountains exists a nation of ogres. Elves, meanwhile, have two nations that I know of- One rumored to be in the forests that separate Empire and Bretonnia to the east, and other, the island-nation of Ulthuan, exists beyond the western sea. Rumors say that there is a third nation of elves beyond even that, of cruel and dark-hearted elves…"

"...which wouldn't make them any different from the rest…" muttered Gotrek in the middle of Felix's speech. Snorri nodded sagely in agreement.

"...And so on." Felix finished, hoping that he hadn't spoken too much. In truth he knew much more than what was 'rumored', but he chose to withhold information for now. Knowledge was a weapon, and though politics was not his strongest suite, he had inherited some of his father's political savviness. Much to his chagrin during his younger years, but he had come to appreciate the knowledge now that he had grown older and, arguably, wiser. At least this time he would have known better than to use his political savviness to lead a riot against an imperial tax that he considered unjust, which would have led to his untimely demise at the age of seventeen had Gotrek not saved him from the hooves of charging imperial heavy cavalry, which was how the Emperor had responded to the rioters's demands. That had also been when Felix had first met Gotrek. One night of drinking and being stupid about it later the two were bound through blood-oath, a dwarf rite of cutting open their palms and shaking hands, and Felix's new life as Gotrek's remembrancer had begun.

"I see. You have such a wonderful array of other races to call your friends, or… trade partners at least, I suppose, yet you balk at the thought of adding one more to the roster? I assure you that faunus are no servants of darkness, though there exists a group amongst them that have darker inclinations. Mayhaps it would be beneficial to think of faunus as a race like… say, ogres?" Ozpin spoke and made Felix realize why he had asked Felix to clarify the races of the Old World. "The faunus who serve, hm, the 'forces of darkness' are as outcast to their brethren as the 'mutants' are to you. I would find it difficult to believe that such a concept is alien to you. After all, you yourself, mr. Gurnisson, call mr. Jaeger your friend despite the two of you hailing from different races, no? Or have I judged your relationship wrongly?"

Gotrek let out a grunt but didn't lower his ax. The slayer looked like he wanted nothing more than to find one of the 'faunus' and gut it, and see if it showed the corruption of the Ruinous Powers before dying just to prove Ozpin wrong.

In the end the massive Slayer just allowed his ax to fall like the ax of an executioner, crashing on top of Ozpin's fragile desk, and shattering it in two. Ozpin remained sitting, though there was now a massive ax between his knees, its sharp star-steel blade buried into the wooden floor. Felix was glad that the circular glass floor was behind them, as it would have certainly broken from a similar impact. The wizard had his mug still in his hand, both of which he had moved out of the ax's path, and the other hand was pointed palm-forwards at the back of the room.

Felix paled as he turned to look in the direction and realized that the blonde woman near the elevators had lifted her riding crop to the air and there was an arch of needle-like steel spikes hovering above her shoulders, aimed at the Slayers like javelins, as well as several pieces of floating furniture, spare clockwork gears made from bronze, and other items that she would have been tossed at the Slayers and Felix if Ozpin hadn't stopped her in time.

"Gotrek…" Felix pleaded with the Slayer, hoping that the dwarf was not too far gone into his rage just yet.

"If you lie and these 'faunus' are mutants, my ax will not miss the next swing." Gotrek threatened Ozpin, then lifted the ax from the ruins of the desk, and sat back on his chair. "I choose to trust your words to be true until proven otherwise, wizard, so speak. You promised me a doom. If you lied about that I will have your head."

Snorri paused and looked at Gotrek sitting on his chair once again, and after a moment of deliberation, the old slayer sat on the splintered ruins that remained of his chair. The broken chair looked like an unlit bonfire after the altercation between the piece of furniture and the old slayer's bolt-crest. Felix felt like covering his face with his hands out of shaky relief and frustration over the two dwarf's stubborn bullheadedness, and relief flooded him as it looked like Ozpin's patience had not yet snapped unlike that of Gotrek's. He dread what would happen should the gray-haired wizard actually run out of patience.

Felix let out a breath he hadn't realized he had kept and analyzed the situation. It looked as if Gotrek had been just trying to test Ozpin, though it revealed to Felix just how out of place the dwarf must have felt as well- If they were still in the Empire Gotrek would have most certainly either just grumbled to his beard about mad wizards, or just slain Ozpin outright. The bluster and bravado the Slayer displayed now felt more akin to an unconscious attempt to regain control that the trio had lost over their lives once they had been dragged to that green portal. It was a curious feeling for Felix, to get a glimpse past the slayer's gruff and indomitable mask.

Felix pondered whether he should reveal the existence of the portal that had brought them there. But he chose to keep the information hidden for now. Though the portal had become unusable after their passing, it might be still open if Max gave it a good look after recovering from his injuries. It was a way back home.

He didn't know what Ozpin would have done to the portal if he knew of its existence, perhaps the wizard would destroy it to keep Gotrek and Felix from straying from their path? Ozpin had, after all, revealed his motive in taking them in, as apparently Karagul and Gotrek's Ax could slay the source of 'Grimm' daemons that plagued the world. It wouldn't make sense to give them a way out before they did their part. Felix spared a thought about what might happen if the portal was opened on the other end and it spat out a group of servants of Chaos in pursuit of the slayer, but put it out of his head. The cave was far away and in a 'Grimm'-infested cave that had some sort of daemon worms capable of burrowing it full of holes. It wouldn't pose an immediate threat to Beacon. But the worry remained, and Felix vowed in his mind that he would let Ozpin know of it as soon as Max had gotten a look at the portal.

"Now, if we have gotten past the phase where we destroy Beacon's furniture and bicker over racial issues…" Ozpin made a motion with his hand and the desk reassembled itself in front of the wizard. So did Snorri's chair reassemble itself under the dwarf, causing the old slayer to let out a small surprised yelp and jump up with his ax and hammer held high towards the regenerating furniture.

Felix hurriedly waved his hands at the old slayer to keep him from destroying the chair for the second time. In doing so he saw that the blonde woman in the background had waved her riding crop in concert with the reassembling of the chair and the desk, and the floating implements around her returned to where they had come from. The steel javelins had apparently been wrung-up steel supports of one of the pillars around the room. Felix shuddered at the blatant sight of powerful magic, and wondered just what kind of school of magic taught such potent telekinesis. It suddenly made sense how the massive structures and walls around them had been built, if the locals had access to wizards like the blonde woman.

"Ahem, yes. My apologies." Felix coughed to his fist and sent a sideways look at Gotrek, pleading for the slayer to reign his temper in for the future. "We shall refrain from attacking the mutants- er, faunus when we encounter them, if they don't attack us or otherwise display loyalties to the dark powers."

"I can agree to these terms. I take it that your two dwarf companions also agree, and that you convince your wounded companion to also agree once he regains consciousness?" Ozpin put his bandaged hand against his chest and gave a slight bow while sitting.

Gotrek let out a grunt that could be interpreted either way. Felix spoke hurriedly before Ozpin could draw wrong conclusions. "I'll ensure neither of them will break this agreement. I'll convince Max likewise as well. Ah- it might be wise to keep faunus away from him until we explain the situation, as otherwise there might be a potential start for a disaster."

"Hm. You raise a good point, as a number of our hospital staff, as well as the head nurse, are faunus. Glynda, could I trouble you to send a word?" Ozpin turned towards the blonde woman who nodded and drew a device like the one that the white wizard-girl form before had used, and ran her fingers along the device for a while before putting it aside. Felix realized that the device must have been a communication-rune of some sort.

"From what I've gathered your world's level of technology isn't as high as what we currently have in Remnant. I'll ask one of my professors, Dr. Bartholomew, to bring you up to speed with what we have and how the devices are used. Moreover, magic is entirely uncommon in Remnant- What we use is 'Dust' , a resource that…" Ozpin explained further. Felix listened and attempted to comprehend what he heard the best he could. A thought struck him some time later as Ozpin went further into detailing 'Dust' and the power drawn from the crystalline substance.

"...I am sorry if I draw uncomfortable similarities, but have you heard of… warpstone?" asked Felix. He didn't want to assume that the locals had somehow become as mad as the Skaven and had begun to use the chaos-tainted crystal-stone to power their own devices. It was bad enough that the ratmen used it, Felix didn't even dare to think of the ruin that the substance would cause if mankind attempted to use the ruinous substance. It was better off destroyed before its mere presence would corrupt and malform whatever existed near the accused crystals.

"This would be the first time I heard of such a thing. Please elaborate?" Ozpin motioned for Felix to continue, but instead Felix sent a glance at Gotrek. As one of the elder races and as someone who had fought Skaven several times before meeting Felix, he felt that the dwarf was better suited to explaining the substance than he was.

Gotrek grunt out a brief description and Felix supplemented it afterwards, as Gotrek didn't seem keen on explaining further despite his superior knowledge.

"I see… This is a worrying comparison, and I can see why you would make it. It's possible that this 'Warpstone' resulted from Dust of your world, if it was indeed that, being corrupted by the 'Ruinous powers' that you mentioned. You also mentioned a meteor that struck a city that was rumored to contain large amounts of warpstone? 'Mordheim', no?" Ozpin prodded. "I shall research this matter diligently. Rest assured that it is of grave importance to all of us that Dust remains pure and uncorrupted- If an effect like what you described is allowed to take hold, I suspect our civilization would soon collapse into ruin as we are highly dependent on Dust for energy, and for defensive purposes.."

Gotrek let out an approving grunt over the wizard's paranoia over the matter. Felix shuddered and nodded. Snorri snored while sprawled over his chair.

"But I see that night has come, and with it comes the twin heralds of tiredness and weariness that bring forth that third, most coveted of prizes: restful sleep." Ozpin glanced at Snorri's sleeping form and then glanced out of the windows which showed a dark sky and lights of the castle-city below, as well as the lights of the massive city in the distance. "Glynda will lead you to temporary accommodations that you can use to refresh yourselves and sleep. I ask you to not wander out without a guide, and not to get yourselves into fights. If you do end up forced to defend yourselves, I would ask you to not kill anyone that is not Grimm and instead try to knock them out or take them captive. Food and drink will be delivered to you in the dorm."

"Snorri would like a stiff drink first." Snorri snapped awake as food was mentioned.

"We don't usually condone students drinking alcohol in the dorms… But I suppose that you are a special case. Would wine be preferable?"

"Snorri would prefer beer or vodka. A barrel of both." Snorri rubbed his ham-sized palms together and licked his lips. Gotrek had a glint in his eyes and nodded curtly, adding his agreement to Snorri's terms. Ozpin nodded and gave the two slayers a notepad and what looked like pens, and asked them to write down their preferred foods and drinks.

"Ah, you mentioned 'students drinking'..." Felix realized something in Ozpin's speech just now.

"Observant of you to notice, mr. Jaeger. I've gone ahead and registered the four of you as first-year students in Beacon Academy. The three of you here, as well as your bed-ridden companion. This will give you a good excuse to remain in these grounds, a salary of Lien as I believe that you do not possess any of our currency, as well as a rank of a Hunter-in-training, which you can use to go to places that regular civilians couldn't and get out of trouble that regular civilians wouldn't be able to. I believe that this would aid in your task of ridding the world of darkness and those that serve it, as I have come to believe that we share that goal." Ozpin smiled at Felix while the two dwarfs were distracted by writing up a long list of culinary demands, mostly revolving around beer, meat, cheese, brandy, vodka as well as other sorts of liquors. "We'll go over the 'doom' that I promised mr. Gurnisson tomorrow, as I believe that such dark matters are no subject to be talked of during the night. Moreover I need to gather some information through my sources before I can unleash you against this foe. While I am aware of the goal of mr. Gurnisson, that of dying against a mighty foe, at least if what you told me is correct mr. Jaeger, I would much prefer that the mighty foe also died in the process, and strive that no-one other than those two would die in the attempt."

Felix shuddered and spared a thankful nod at Ozpin. At least someone was thinking of the future even past the point of Gotrek's death.

"Ah, and to that end, I would like it if you attended the naming ceremony tomorrow. I've gone ahead and grouped you four into a 'team' and enrolled you into the academy, as Hunter-students are arranged to such teams during their first and second years of training. Normally the students are late teenagers but it isn't uncommon for older applicants to come as well, so you should fit right in… Given a change in wardrobe, but I'll leave that to Glynda." Ozpin eyed Gotrek's choice of clothing, only clad in his waistcoat, britches, boots, and belt. "Normally I would also request that your weapons are stored away in weapons lockers while you walk Beacon's grounds, but I suspect such a request would not be agreeable?"

"You suspect correctly, I'm afraid. I'm certain we can come to some sort of agreement later, once the situation has had time to normalize." Felix spoke, drawing a nod from Ozpin, well aware that Gotrek would sooner try to fight through the entire Beacon alone rather than depart from his axe willingly. Ozpin seemed to have noticed it as well.

Felix wasn't willing to leave Karagul behind either, but he did recognize that Ozpin had a good point in not letting students meander about with weapons in hand. Felix had attended the academy of Altdorf in his youth, and was well aware that blood would have flown daily if the students weren't forced to keep their rapiers sealed in their sheathes, at least outside duels and such. Grouping several hundred men into a single building during their youth when bravado, recklessness and lack of foresight walked hand in hand tended to result in stupid decisions and fatal results, one of which had ended up with Felix driven away from the academy for an accidental murder of a fellow student during a duel.

It was only then that Felix realized that Ozpin had effectively conscripted the four of them under the wizard's banner. He felt worried for his future. Weren't the Hunters akin to Slayers, in Ozpin's own words? Perhaps Felix had missed something. But at the same time Ozpin had mentioned that by having the rank of a Hunter they might be able to get away from trouble with local law enforcement should they land in such a predicament. Felix estimated between one and two days before one such event could occur, or however long it took for the Slayers to find the nearest tavern that served beer in plentiful amounts.

The blonde woman, Glynda, eyed the trio and walked closer. "Three of you, stand up and follow me. I have sent a message to prepare a dorm. You three will not leave it before morning, when I shall come and fetch you."

Gotrek grunt something and tossed the filled-up notepad to Ozpin. The man caught it and eyed the contents. Then he allowed the notepad to flip open, showing that the slayers had somehow stapled the pages together into a long list that nearly touched the floor, and was filled with sharp, tiny writing that contained the dwarf's food and drink demands.

"I'll see what I can do. Mr. Jaeger, I trust that you can keep your group out of trouble at least until tomorrow?" Ozpin eyed Felix and he nodded halfheartedly.

"I'll see what I can do."

"I trust you will, mr. Jaeger. Glynda, if you'd please?"

"Follow." The blonde woman snapped her riding crop against her thigh as if she was herding dogs. Gotrek sent the woman a glare but waddled after her, as did Snorri. Felix sent Ozpin an apologetic look and followed the Slayers.

.

.

.

"Keep an eye on them, would you?"

"...Fine. I'll keep my distance though. Those squat ones look like they'd put me in a pot if I got too close."

"Thank you, Qrow. And thank you for coming back with such short notice."

"Half a day to travel from Mistral all the way back here… what a pain. Do you know how big a pain in the ass it is to fly over the sea at full speed? There's nothing to rest up on so you have to flap over it in one go. Sheesh."

"Did you end up finding the Fall Maiden?"

"No. You said that it was 'urgent' so I dropped everything and flew all the way here. I thought I had her trail tracked down, but the trail would have gone cold by the time I got back."

"I see. I'll ask some of my other, less capable assets to look for the Fall Maiden… She's sure to pop up somewhere… Whether friend or foe, much as it pains me to imagine what would have had to happen if the latter is true."

"...Oz, I-"

"It was my decision to call you back. Please see to your new mission rather than worry about my feelings, Qrow. Though it does you credit to be so observant."

"...Sure."