Blake walked in the back with Qrow, following the other three. Apparently they'd encountered a Binder and Weiss actually wanted to keep to her deal, so it was up to Blake to free him. She knew how— she'd been out of practice for about five years, but it wasn't a process she could forget.

It also wasn't a process Blake could think about— she was too busy staring a hole between Ruby's shoulder blades. With her umber cloak left in Pyrrha's grip, the girl was now covered by a white tunic, not quite knee-length and worn belted with her longsword. With the short sleeves and without leggings or her usual breeches, it was almost too flattering, and Blake frequently noticed their noble companion sneaking looks.

One of their noble companions, Blake internally mused. Qrow kept shooting her glances now that she knew.

"I'm keeping quiet," Blake told him.

Qrow made a gruff noise. He slowed his gait a little, forcing Blake to trail even further behind to keep lock-step with the Huntsman. He grumbled something much too quietly, even for her, forcing Blake to come closer and cup her ear. "I know," he reiterated. "I thought you were going to disperse that knowledge."

Blake gaped, genuinely offended. She hotly whispered: "Are you crazy? You expect me to— look, I'm well aware that I'm not a pleasant person, but she's an infant! I'm not going to tell some toddler that her mother's a war criminal!"

Ruby and Weiss looked over, making Blake swallow her volume. They turned back after a moment.

"Look, she's…" Qrow looked away and bit his lip. His eyes were only lightly pinked-over now. "It was a war, okay? We all did things we're not proud of."

Blake cocked her head. "Are you defending your own sworn enemies?"

Qrow shut his eyes tight and struggled with words. "No, I'm not defending her, I'm… I'm saying I understand— no, no, not… I can't judge her, I mean."

Blake scoffed. "Sure you can."

"Shouldn't you be idolizing her?" Qrow asked, thoroughly baffling the fay.

Blake fully recoiled, her amber glare hitting Qrow like he'd intruded in her home. "Of course not! That— she— no!"

Ruby and Weiss looked over again. "You two okay?" Ruby asked.

"It's nothing!" Qrow and Blake answered simultaneously, making Ruby raise her hands in defeat as she turned. Yang continued dutifully, never having spared a glance to the fay and Huntsman in the back.

Qrow and Blake shared a look, shared a head-shake, and silently agreed to continue this topic later. They separated. The rest of their journey went along with ease.

"Soror!" cried the fay named Valerius. He was fully entombed in a block of ice, left on a pile of straw in a barn, and looked to be in the process of dying. What little skin wasn't in the ice had become ashen, his lips blueing, and the border between neck and ice was covered in giant leathery blisters. "Beatus astra," he continued, his voice both weak and fervent. "Libera me."

Blake cringed. It was a supremely disturbing sight. "Uh, sorry," she apologized. "I don't speak dryadalis."

Valerius didn't even spare a look of shock, though all her other party fellows did. "Then get me out!" he yelled. "Get me out or give me death, please!"

Slowly, Blake turned towards Weiss. Valerius kept begging in the background, but that one yell seemed to take all the volume out of him. "You seriously did this?" Blake asked. "You froze one of my people in a block of ice?"

Weiss jolted— her gaze had been firmly locked to Valerius' frosty tomb, but Blake's accusation made her turn green. She put a hand over her mouth and looked away. "Y-yes," she admitted. "We… he tried to kill us— nearly killed me," Weiss nervously motioned to the giant scar over the left side of her face, its gnarled ridge still reddish and running from jaw to hairline, left eye somehow intact. "I thought it was the safest thing besides killing him."

Blake stared. A scathing rebuke churned in her stomach and boiled up her lungs, turning her throat into a growl as she—

Weiss looked away and started scratching both sides of her neck, her eyes crinkling as if full of tears despite seeming dry. She set her jaw, then yelped. She seemed to have a small internal panic before making a decisive gulp, which immediately made her gag. Her lips, nose, and eyes crinkled again, and her fingers started leaving red marks on her skin.

When Ruby had to take Weiss' hands to keep her from gouging her own flesh, Blake realized what was happening. She watched Ruby turn her around, cup the back of her head, and gently force the once-heiress' face into the crook of her neck. She held her there. Weiss' shoulders shook a little.

Blake blinked.

Crook and cane, she was an asshole.

Blake cleared the thickness from her throat. "Dispel the ice," she tried to demand, only for the uncertainty of her own voice to turn that into a simpering request. "I'll show you how to free him— all of you, just in case— but he'll need time to heal. Without an Aura he won't be able to—"

Without turning, Weiss fished in her pouch and extracted a vial. "He healed himself with this before," she claimed between soggy hiccups.

Blake scowled. She looked between Valerius and Weiss, the latter of whom kept her face firmly buried in Ruby while the former stared at the sap as if he could drink it with his mind. "This…" Blake squirmed uncomfortably and groaned. "This is fucked. This is beyond fucked. Weiss— for your own sake—"

"I won't freeze anyone ever again," she preemptively croaked, voice muffling against her paramour. "This was brash and stupid."

Blake made no comment, and approached Weiss with a beckoning hand outstretched. "Give me the sap."

Weiss didn't budge. Her knuckles turned white around the vial, and both Blake and Ruby stared with the same worry that she'd break it. It took a long time for her fingers to ease, and when they did, Ruby mouthed 'take it' to her fay companion. Weiss jumped nearly out of her skin when Blake snatched the bottle from her grip, but Ruby's firm embrace kept her from doing something she might regret.

Approaching Valerius, Blake sighed. "The ice, princess."

Weiss waggled her fingers weakly, and the ice instantly turned into a splash of dirty water. Valerius squealed when his back hit the floor. Both of his pinkies fell off with neither warning nor reaction. Blake and Ruby winced simultaneously. Yang and Qrow were unmoved. Weiss didn't even try to pry herself from Ruby.

"I'm gonna give him the sap," Blake announced. "I don't know how quickly or how well it'll heal something this bad, but I need someone ready in case the answer is 'very'. Yang?"

Yang made a gruff sound, which was… odd. She didn't say anything to Blake as she approached. She didn't even look. Yang just stared down at their fay prisoner and waited. For someone who'd dip-kissed her in front of their party, her silence was unnerving.

Blake kneeled beside Valerius and took an anxious glance up at Yang. The Huntress looked away the moment their eyes met, and her mouth went through a dozen intense skirmishes before it was pressed into a hard thin line. Getting nothing, Blake sighed. She uncorked the vial and tipped Valerius' head back.

Bringing the sap to his lips, Blake whispered: "On your toes."

Yang snorted. If Blake didn't have fay ears, she would've missed Yang's grumble: "Always."

A/N: sorry for the shortie, thats just how this part of the bridging arc is going. c'est la vie