You reach out to the gate in Ruby's soul, pushing through it and touching the white on the other side. An impression of... eyes, frantically searching in every direction before turning to settle their gaze upon you.

Concern-world-change, you manage to filter from the chaotic ebb of the silver energy. It is odd, that your connection has degraded so far. Last time you connected to the entity, you were able to communicate with far more depth and understanding than this.

Has coming to the past disrupted the link? Or is it something else, the result of whatever has agitated the entity so deeply?

Past-time-distant.

Dismissal, the energy barely wavers, its focus somewhere entirely different. Event-alteration-concern.

Time-stability-calm.

Concern, the entity reiterates. Time-dismissal. Individual-concern.

An image of two princesses weaves itself briefly into being.

Individual-alteration?

Blazing silver simulacra begin to spin past your awareness. The two princesses, embracing. Veve clutching a fresh injury. Salem, head turning back and forth, searching as she runs in the void. A young man, clutching a crown to his chest, glancing over his shoulder with every other step.

Salem, screaming.

The Grimm, swarming.

Then, each of those images is seared away into nothingness - save for the embrace of two sisters. Concern-alteration. More images appear. Veve, face to face with an unfamiliar woman, agitated and gesturing. Something pulses between them like a heartbeat and Veve backs away, something heavy and dark settling behind her eyes, shadows visibly swirling beneath her silver skin.

The images of Salem and the Grimm flicker into being again, but they are ghostly and half-formed.

Time-specific-alteration. Grand-unchanging.

Specific-alteration-concern. All other images disappear, save one.

Salem, screaming endlessly into the void. Under her silver flesh, something moves.

Concern. Concern. Concern. Concern. Concern.

Comprehension. Knowledge-null-seek.

For a long time, the image of Salem is all that remains, and you remember. The last time you spoke to the Entity, it told you that it refused to part with knowledge. Perhaps, then, this is as much as you will receive... You begin to pull back –

Plea.

– and the image of the princess melts away into the shape of the Tower. Through the silvery material, shooting through the structure like veins and arteries, you can see a dark, shimmering liquid. It pumps and flows throughout the tower, leaving no section of it unsupplied.

But, like veins, it has a core. A heart, at the very top of the tower.

Then the tower, too, is whipped away, and the unfamiliar woman that confronted Veve appears again. Her features aren't clear, save one thing. Her eyes are voids, empty pools through which a black shimmer pours out to dissipate into the empty air.

Danger. Caution. Plea.

The link begins to dissolve around you.

Comprehension.

A flicker of a glow passed across Ruby's eyes as she chewed idly on her thumb. "So... my eyes are worried about Salem?"

"About what happens to her, at least." Weiss frowned. "I don't like this. There's too much we don't know."

Yang crossed her arms with a sigh. "It sounds like we have some investigating to do. More mysteries... ugh. I'm not suited to this kind of stuff."

"Investigation is a critical part of Huntress work, friend Yang!" Penny smiled, bouncing on the balls of her feet. "We should divide duties. Some of us can investigate the Grimm, while others investigate the royal family!"

"I'll try to figure out what's going on with Salem and Veve," Blake said immediately to no one's surprise. "I'm the one able to get closest, anyway."

"I'll continue my investigations in the library. Ruby, you should assist me," Weiss nodded firmly. Ruby wilted... but nodded, as well.

"Yang, you and I will examine the area! The soldiers have been very welcoming to me, so far!" Penny wrapped an arm around the blonde.

Yang sighed affectionately. "Well, whatever. I don't expect to find anything, but it's better than sitting around and getting glared at."