A/N: Shock of shocks, I am not dead.
This chapter was just... the absolute worst, and I have no idea why. I knew what I wanted to happen, and it wouldn't happen.
Happy late birthday, Okibruez. Sorry you had a shitty day... but you motivated me to push through and post this imperfect mess of a chapter. Now it's done and we can just move on.
(Note: This chapter was edited after being posted. No content was changed, but TaliesinSkye was kind enough to fix a few things that slipped through my hack-job of editing this. The original version can be found in the spoiler, if for some reason you want to see it.)
After the beauty of Ciel, the Watchtower was...disappointing? It was made from a similar material but with obvious seams between blocks in the stonework. Where the city seemed like it was almost entirely a single piece carved (or grown?) into the desired shape, the Watchtower was clearly constructed. Besides that, Blake could see signs of wear and tear where the city had been nearly pristine.
Still, it was large enough to serve its purpose. A place where much could be seen, and a place that could be seen from a long distance. A projection of power, so to speak.
It seems so petty, this posturing. Is this what the world was like, when the Kingdoms were at war?
Perhaps. War affects mortals in many ways.
Her thoughts caught short when they entered the Watchtower -
bloodstains and corpses
- and she reflexively stepped in front of Salem, her hand clenching around a half-formed blade of shadows. Her eyes darted from side to side sweeping across the wide chamber, but there was...no threat. A circular room with sparse furniture, stairs leading up, and mangled bodies scattered about, dried blood matting parts of the walls and floor.
Salem gasped sharply as Veve barked orders to her men. They spread out defensively and advanced slowly, the moments long and tense. After a time Veve breathed out slowly.
"Spread out. I doubt someone would set an ambush on the floors above, but we'll keep prepared. Geran, Volst, watch the stairs. The rest of you, eyes out. Look around while I examine the remains. Salem, stay with Blake."
"I... of course." Salem stepped a bit closer, and Blake continued to look around. The back of her head itched, but no matter where she looked she found nothing. Slowly, she approached where Veve knelt.
"You don't need to see this, Salem. Blake, take her-"
"No! No, this is important. I'm not a weak maiden that needs to put others at risk to spare my mind, Veve." Salem crossed her arms, her eyes flicking down to the corpses as she swallowed. "I'll... be fine. We should stay together, shouldn't we?"
Veve looked up, briefly, her face hard. "I- fine. For now." She shook her head, returning to her examinations. Her fingers traced along gashes in uniforms as she muttered to herself.
As Blake's eyes flicked across the scene, memories of her time in the White Fang playing through her mind, something jumped out at her. That wound wasn't...she knelt next to one of the men.
He's young. Nineteen, maybe? And this. She reached out, fingers not quite touching the hole punched through his neck. "Veve, I don't...this wound here. The only beast I've ever encountered that attacks like this usually won't follow people indoors."
"Hmm? Show me." Blake did, turning the young man's face towards her to show the injury, and Veve's brow drew into a deep frown. "...I'll have to believe you. I've never seen any beast with a single piercing weapon. That would mean..."
"Princess? Does...this Watchtower have a basement level?" One of the soldiers approached, looking slightly uncomfortable as he resolutely did not look at the bodies.
"What?" Veve's head snapped around. "No. None of them do."
"...that might be a problem, then, since we found a trapdoor leading down."
"...by the brothers, damn it all. Fine. You three, lights on and come with me. We'll investigate. The rest of you, hold this floor and continue searching." Veve rose from her crouch, pulling her blade free and holding it loosely at her side. Her men pulled forth runed rods that momentarily confused Blake before Veve visibly focused and Blake felt a tingle across her magical senses as the rods began to glow. The four figures descended into the basement and Blake slowly wandered away from the corpses with Salem in tow.
"Blake? Are you well?' Salem's voice was hesitant, and her eyes kept twitching towards the dead men.
"...I'm just on edge. Something's not right."
Salem let out a sudden, bitter laugh. "Blake, there are dead men on the floor. Surely it is normal to be on edge?" There was a slightly pleading note to her voice that made brought Blake's thoughts short.
She sighed. "It is. Salem, it's always difficult. But I...you have to understand that this isn't the first time I've been among the dead." Salem blinked at her, and she shook her head. "It isn't...it isn't that it doesn't bother me. But this is different. There's just...I have a bad feeling."
There was a brief silence, before she forcibly shook herself free. For the sake of her friend, if nothing else. "So. What are your thoughts, Salem?"
"My thoughts?"
"You have greater knowledge of Ciel and its history with the tribes, and your mind is sharp. What do you think, based on what you know right now?"
Salem paused, visibly relaxing somewhat as she considered. "I am not sure what to think. If not the beasts, there are only so many options. Not that many men can use the Bridges, and without them it is a long journey from the city to here. I would say from that it is unlikely a Cielan was responsible. Which would leave... a Wilder, but who and why? It is almost impossible to say. The tribes move so often that I could not say with certainty which ones have been lurking in the area, and even so...it has been a very long time since Ciel and the tribes acted with outright hostility. Was it simply a madman, a Wilder lost to bloodlust or fury? Was it the beginning of something? I...I don't know. It does not make sense. The Watchtowers do not even have a real purpose beyond...watching..."
"Salem?"
"...if someone wanted to do something in this area without being noticed...then would they not...?"
Blake's eyes narrowed, before she sighed. "That narrows motives but leaves us with no idea who's responsible. Still...knowing that you have enemies is better than not knowing." Something about that thought brought a vision of Neopolitan's smirking face to mind, and Blake scowled.
Obsidian. I haven't...I hate her.
Yes.
That hasn't changed. But I...I understand why you did what you did. You...for what little my approval matters, you made the correct decision.
There was a silence.
You remain alive, and the others likely do as well. Thus...the desired outcome was obtained.
A smile briefly quirked at the corners of her mouth before she stretched her shoulders, reaching out to the shadows being scattered through the windows. "Well. All we can do for now is wait for Veve and prepare, just in case." She folded the shadows into her own, layering them as she always did.
Salem gazed off into a corner of the room, a puzzled look on her face. "Blake...you missed...a spot?"
"Hmm?" She looked. There in the corner was a long, thin shadow cast on the wall. All around it shadows drew in and down towards her own, but that one remained stubbornly unmoving and invisible to her senses.
Her eyes widened as something clicked in her head.
One moment there was nothing there. A perfectly ordinary, perfectly overlooked space with nothing of note inside of it. Completely and utterly normal, offering no reason to pay attention to it.
Then, with a rasp of metal, the corner was filled with a lithe leatherbound figure, face twisted in irritation, red-brown ears twitching atop its head and amber eyes narrowed in irritation.
"Watch-" Blake's cry was cut off as the figure exploded out with the speed of a Huntsman, and Aura-boosted strength plunged a shortsword through a guard's armor like paper.
Salem's eyes were wide as the guard - Xenn? Zhern? I can't remember! - crumpled, and the Wilder assassin (for what else could he be?) flitted to the next figure in a heart's beat, his movements smooth yet also missing some indescribable quality. The next soldier had enough time to bring forth his own blade, but against that kind of speed and without Veve's boon there was no way he could match the enemy. Salem took a step back and began to close her eyes -
- and Blake was there, moving like the liquid shadow that surrounded and cradled her. That is what she'd been expecting from the assassin. That predatory grace and overwhelming presence she'd seen when Blake had trained and fought. A black blade slipped into place, perfectly timed to divert a second kill, and the rescued guard stumbled back with wide eyes as the two Wilder began to dance. Two blades crashed and diverted each other, again and again, and step by step the assassin was maneuvered. Where for a moment at the beginning Blake had been to the side, now she was between Salem and the murderous Wilder.
Because of course she would think of protecting me, even in the midst of this. Salem bit her lip, her eyes darting in an effort to follow the combat. There was something off, though. Blake seemed slower than before.
"Who are you? What's the purpose of this?" Her defender's voice was low, almost a growl. Ah. She is seeking information. Of course she is.
The assassin sneered, expression filled with more disgust than Salem had seen in her life. "I have nothing to say to a domesticated Cielan pet."
For a moment Salem's mind froze as Blake's shoulders tensed and the magic that poured from her grew thorns that prickled at her senses, sinking deep into her mind with furious intent.
And when the moment passed, the shadows that weaved around her guardian sprouted into a second blade in her left hand. The two blades moved in perfect synergy, and the other Wilder's sneer melted into a wide-eyed look of...surprise? Fear?
What followed was beyond Salem's ability to perceive. The weapons were a blur, but seconds later there was a grunt and a clatter as the attacker's blade skittered across the stone floor, and Blake struck the attacker dead in the chest. Her shadow blade ground against his soul, pushing him back its full length and then grew, becoming a twisting spear that left him scrambling to keep his feet under him as it pushed him further and further away until he finally lost his footing and sprawled backwards across the stone.
"Guh!" He scrambled to his feet as Blake interposed herself between him and his weapon. His eyes were wide and they darted across her guardian's form as the soldiers finished forming ranks on either side of him, slowly and cautiously beginning to close the distance. "You...are you the kind of monster they were seeking?"
Blake paused in her steps. "What?"
"You...hah. You don't even know? Haha! That's...that's so absurd. You really are nothing but a housepet?" When Blake growled and tensed again, he simply laughed harder. "Ask your princesses then. What is it they're hoping to find?" He stepped back, eyes sweeping across the growing threats as Blake and the soldiers matched his movements.
What? What does that mean?
"You say that like it should be something profound." Blake's voice was clipped and short, but the madman merely laughed harder.
"If you hadn't abandoned your people, you might understand why." He stepped back once more. "Just remember: your beloved city isn't invincible. We have the secret now. Do you think your walls and towers can stand against all the souls of the tribes?"
"Why are you speaking like we are enemies?" Salem's words escaped before she could stop them. It just...it made no sense. There had been no war for ages, and suddenly an ambush? A baited, premeditated ambush?
The man peered at her like she was something revolting he had stepped in. "If you're lying for the benefit of your pet, you disgust me." One more step back, but this time his eyes didn't leave hers. "And if you're telling the truth, you disgust me even further."
Then he turned and vanished leaving only the puffs of his footprints in his passing. For a moment, Blake tensed as if to follow him before relaxing slightly and backing towards Salem, her eyes never leaving the door he had escaped through.
For a moment the guards peered around anxiously, unsure.
"Form a perimeter around the basement. I doubt he'll return, but it's possible, especially if he has allies in the forest. If he does, he might try to sneak through after Veve." Blake's voice tore through the silence, firm and resolute.
Veve's men looked at each other. Then one of them nodded, and others followed.
They formed a perimeter.
"Blake? Are you uninjured?" Salem's concern washed over her, but did nothing to calm her or lower her hackles.
"I'm fine. He was strong, but I don't think he was practiced. I don't think...he'd been Awakened for long."
"I wonder if...he alluded to 'all the souls' of the tribes. Have they really learned how to Awaken any soul?" Salem's voice was a strange mix of the curiosity Blake was used to hearing and a deep concern that was new.
Have they not found a way to unlock Auras in this period? I'd thought, since they depended on it for so much, that they must, but she almost makes it sound as if...
"Blake, I. That is." Salem's voice interrupted her thoughts. "I do not...I do not see you as a curiosity, or as a pet, or...anything like that."
"I know, Salem."
"I mean it. I...you are more than that. I do not want you to think-"
"Salem. I know. That's not...I'm not irritated because I think he was right."
"Then...?"
"He just...brought up some bad memories. It's nothing."
Salem paused, considering. "If you...ever wish to talk about it...we have already exchanged secrets, have we not?"
With a sigh, Blake found herself smiling slightly. "I know. Really, though. It's nothing."
"I...okay." Salem seemed unconvinced, but whatever fire had lit in her died and she relaxed into silence.
Eventually, Veve and her escorts emerged from the basement. "Salem, I need your-" Her eyes fell on the fallen soldier. "What happened."
They explained.
Veve sighed heavily. "By all the...and that was everything he said?" At Salem's nod, and Blake's confirmation, she shook her head. "Fine. We can decipher it later. Volst, please prepare the body. We will bring it back with us when we leave. For now, Salem, I need your expertise. Come."
They stood, Salem's gaze sharpening. "Magic, then? I cannot imagine anything else you would need me for."
Veve nodded as they began to descend the crudely formed steps. "There are fragmented inscriptions. I tried to decipher them, but they are heavily damaged."
"I'll see what I can do."
The stairs went deeper than Blake had expected. No wonder Veve didn't hear any of the battle.
It was short, as battles go.
True enough. He was...maybe as trained as a first-year Beacon student? He made a lot of errors that Weiss would have chewed him up for.
Even without training, his Aura made him a threat to many.
Yeah. I don't want to imagine what would've happened if we hadn't been here.
The stairs let out into a crude chamber with earthen walls and a hastily smoothed stone floor. There were various symbols and inscriptions on the stone. Most notably a large circle dominating the center and several smaller circles along the edges. Or what remained of circles. They were cracked in some places and worn away in others.
"This is going to be difficult. I'll see what I can do." Salem strode forward, confidence returning to her gait as she knelt to examine some of the larger symbols.
Blake allowed her attention to wander. I can't understand any of these glyphs. I thought I could comprehend their language?
The inscriptions are heavily damaged. You can perceive the 'meaning' of things... but the meaning of these inscriptions has been worn away, either by time or intent. They are a collection of symbols devoid of any meaning to discern.
Hmm. Frustrating. Do you have any insight on any of this, Obsidian?
There was a pause, as she felt Obsidian turning the question over in her mind.
Circles have a single function, magically: to divide what is within from what is without. They can thus be used to ward what is inside from what is outside, or prevent escape. They can provide protection or to prevent contamination. They can also be used to focus energies upon the circle, to aid in control.
...it seems unlikely they'd put wards down here, wouldn't they? External ones, anyway.
Yes. A ward to protect the building would be better placed in the first floor along the border of the room, or built into the tower's foundation.
So they could be for focusing or to imprison something. Hmm.
"Anything, Salem?" Veve seemed impatient. For good reason, Blake supposed.
Salem shook her head. "I cannot get much. Most of this is just gone. Looks like someone broke it intentionally. There are a few fragments here and here, but they could be almost anything. Just...this, here." She gestured towards a handful of partial symbols. "The only thing I can think that might be is...I suppose you'd say 'self.' It's mostly used in meditative aids, but I have no idea what it would be doing here."
"Self, as in...?" Blake tilted her head.
"As in, 'what makes me who I am.' Self-definition, maybe. Without the rest of the circle I have no idea what it was for."
"Hmm." Blake knelt down, brushing her fingers across the circle, frowning as she felt something. She brushed the dust away to see three small holes - about the size of the penny - painstakingly carved into the stone. "I can think of a few things that could be used for, magically, but no way to tell for sure."
Salem perked up. "What sorts of things?"
Blake shrugged. "Well...for example, I know of a barrier spell to ward against hostile magic. It involves dividing yourself from the world around you, so the world can't touch you. Not sure how that would apply here, though."
"...hmm. Interesting." Salem seemed lost in thought.
Veve interrupted with a sigh. "Fine. I doubt we will find anything else here, but we'll search the upper floors, then leave. I do not want to linger if there may still be hostiles in the area."
That I can definitely agree with.
In camp that night the mood was somber. Veve had gone off somewhere - likely upset about the loss of one of her soldiers, and Blake had no idea how to approach that problem - and Salem seemed bothered by something as well. She stayed close to Blake, but remained quiet until long after the meal was over. Blake immersed herself in her shadow, finding something calming in the roiling and shifting darkness.
You turn and twist upon yourself forever, even when I'm not looking. How many shadows have you taken on? How many reflections of objects or people are you carrying? I don't even remember some of the shadows I've folded into you.
"Blake. Can...may I ask you something? A favor?" Salem's eyes were heavy, and her jaw was set. Whatever this was, Blake could see it was important to her.
Her ears twitched. "I...can't promise anything, Salem, but of course you can ask. We're friends, remember?"
Salem nodded. "I...I just... I realized something today. You and...that Wilder. I could barely follow any of what happened." Blake blinked at her. "I...I am Awakened, my soul sings to me, and...and my sister's mundane soldiers reacted better than me, even without her blessing."
Her blessing?
Salem's voice filled with an achingly familiar venom. "I was worthless, and I hate it. I do not want to be that weak. And if I..." Her voice dropped to a rasping whisper. "If I am to be useless as a magician, then I will find my worth elsewhere."
Her blue eyes locked onto Blake's, shimmering with pain.
"Salem...I told you I'd protect you, while we were away from the city. This was...the entire reason I was here. You aren't worthless to anyone. Veve needed you, remember?"
A sad smile flitted across her face. "Yes...for the first time in ages, you are right. Even so. You will not be here to protect me forever, will you?" As Blake winced guiltily, Salem closed her eyes. "I know. You are searching for your way home. But until then, Blake. Will you...will you teach me how to fight? Even if it's only a little, if it's you, I..."
...oh. I...Obsidian? Are we even going to be here long enough for me to try?