Weiss waited for Yang and Ruby to close the door behind them before she turned back to Valerius. She stared at the fay. He stared back, grinning defiantly. Even with his broken features, he seemed to be growing more confident with each breath.

"Who is your master?" Weiss asked, level and calm.

Valerius rolled his eyes. "Why do you want to know? So you can kill the best hope this realm has for some unity?"

"I want to know because they sent you to kill me," she upturned her nose and huffed haughtily. "Quite rude if you ask me."

Valerius scoffed. "It's quite rude to rely on others to win your battles for you."

Weiss gave him an odd, quizzical look. "I believe I would have killed youif she hadn't stopped me, not the other way around."

"I've beaten worse."

"Says the one who was being beaten— quite savagely, might I add."

She did not add that it was a bold-faced presumption— she couldn't really recall turning his face into a purple mush, but the stains on her knuckles gave her a line of rationale that was easy to construct.

Valerius scowled. "Might you not? I wasthere."

Weiss pinched her chin in smug mock-thought. "That's interesting, because I remember very little. You're quite a bore."

Valerius wasn't particularly affected by the minor slight, and remained annoyingly silent.

"Your master," Weiss pressed, honing her voice to a fine edge as her eyes drifted to the pouch at his hip. "Or I'll down one of those vials; I'd love to see how many different shapes I can break you into."

The fay stared dubiously, but Weiss' glare remained strong. It wasn't a lie to say that she desperately wanted another helping of sap, and knowing Valerius had them was torture to the highest degree— she wouldn't let Ruby see that again, but the fay didn't have to know that; the desire was real, so she'd draw whatever intimidation she could from that fact.

Valerius turned his gaze, cowed, his lips curling into a snarl. "Taurus."

Weiss reeled— that was a name she hadn't heard in a while. "Taurus?" she loudly repeated. "That's not possible."

The fay smirked. "Adrian has done more for us than the last millenium's worth of imperators. He is the herald of a new order, by his hands we will cast off the human's yoke and see The Shimmer returned as a place with no humanity."

"Except for him," Weiss pointed out.

Valerius raised his chin, his bloodshot eyes staring condescendingly at her. "No, dickhead," he mumbled. "He's medius."

"Medius?" Weiss replied incredulously. "A half-fay heading the household?Surely he's working for a patron or—"

The fay interrupted her with a scoff. "There are no patrons. It is only Adrian."

"And Adrian—"

Valerius bobbed his head as he recounted. "Sent me to meet with House Schnee, to rightfully oppose your toll increase. Only the Taurus has the right to this land."

Weiss opened her mouth, something along the lines of 'his Highness is the only one who can mete out these lands' brewing behind her lips, but Valerius kept speaking.

"And I must admit," Valerius sighed. "I see now the error of my ways; attacking you was a mistake. You are clearly not the Schnee sacrifice."

Weiss almost shared his sigh, but Valerius cut her off before they could share any modicum of relief.

"It was your champion, Roseus' muddled daughter," the fay suddenly spat, making Weiss flinch. "Of course I was fated to meet that cunt's progeny— the stars are as capricious as they are implacable, and I'm no astrologer."

"Who is Roseus?" Weiss found herself asking, even though Aulus violently shook disapproval through his handle.

'Do not, Weiss! You are better off not knowing, keeping that secret will tear you apart!'

Valerius snorted. "Read for yourself, Schneeling. I'm sure you humans didn't burn every book, maybe you'll find something here before you get bored and gate home."

Weiss scowled down at him. "Tell me."

Valerius spat a purple glob onto her face.

Weiss' features pulled into gaping horror, her mouth parting wide as a high-pitched wail airily shrieked from her throat. "Oh my gods, what is wrong with you!" Weiss tried desperately to wipe it away, but the mixture on her face was thick with mucus and blood, so she only succeeded in smearing further down her cheek. "Why would you do that! That's repulsive!"

Valerius snickered.

Yang watched her sister nervously pace outside the fay house, her forge-calloused hands alternating between twiddling in the front, then twiddling in the back. Front twiddle, back twiddle, her anxious fingers gradually entangling the threads of worry into a growing knot.

"Ruby…"

"What!" Ruby suddenly snapped, immediately ceasing her nervous gestures as her hands fisted down to her sides.

Yang innocently raised her open hands. "Look, I know it's—"

"I thought it was Grimm!" Ruby screamed, her fingers shooting up to grab tight fistfuls of her own hair. "You all told me it was Grimm!"

"I thought it was Grimm!" Yang responded, throwing up her arms. "I'm angry too, okay! We're…" she looked away, her voice bitter. "In the same boat."

Ruby turned away, twiddled her fingers some more, then whirled around on her sister, her features creased with anger. "We're not!" she shouted again, voice faltering with uncertainty."I-I mean, we're… it's like we're in the same boat, but… but…"

Yang perked up, leaning towards her sister. "But?"

"But I'm…" Ruby fumbled with her hands, searching for a way to complete the analogy. "The captain, an-and I don't know where to go— I don't know anything— but… but my… my s-ship-friends all… they all know more than me, and— and shouldn't… shouldn't they be the captains?"

Yang gawked at her sister, stunned by the sudden outburst of insecurity she didn't know the girl had been holding.

"And I got all of us into this… mess," Ruby spat that word, as if it were poison on her tongue. "Blake, and then you, and now… Weiss. But I…" she grunted and writhed with frustration. "Yang, I can't even read! I still don't know anything about magic, or all these 'realms', or Aura, or Semblance— Animus, whatever!"

She let out a frustrated shout, one that looked like it should be relieving, but the uncertainty across Ruby's features only doubled. Yang watched silently, unwilling to interrupt.

"And now, I— mom is… hearing him say that— that she's evil or a monster— it's… it's almost…" Ruby shook her head, as if what she was about to say shouldn't come out, but she let it go with a cautious, guilty look at her sister. "Relieving?"

Yang immediately opened her mouth, but Ruby preempted her.

"No, not like that!" Ruby hurriedly assuaged, quick to cool the Huntress' flare in temper. "It's just… I just… we…" she looked away, shame reddening her cheeks. Her words were slow, quiet, and weak. "Haven't you been… mad, at mom? For leaving? For… dying?"

Yang started a refusal, but those questions put a lance in her heart the moment she processed them. They didn't hit the same spot as they did in Ruby, at least not in the way she intended, but they hit something even deeper in Yang.

Yang loved Summer. The woman was a mother at heart— even if it was clear Yang was her first child— despite the fact Yang wasn't even hers. Summer had more years mothering Yang, but by the time Ruby was born, she'd grown some maternal instincts that she didn't have with her bastard daughter. It was natural, especially with Ruby being her real child, for Summer to spend more time with her. Yang understood that.

But that wasn't what had Yang emotionally frozen. She wasn't particularly bitter with Ruby being favored by the superior mom; by the time Yang was old enough to notice the favoritism, she had already started her Huntress training. She was done being doted on by then.

No, what had Yang gripped was the way her mind went straight to her real mother: Raven. She always said she wasn't angry, she always said she understood the abandonment, and she did. She was the only one who could understand it; not even Tai had found it in his heart to forgive that woman, but Yang could. Yang knew what the Huntress life was like— she knew the freedoms it entailed, she knew that desire not to be shackled.

But now, hearing Ruby talk about Summer, she sounded just like the thoughts Yang had been squashing for years.

"I… I've been… angry at mom," Ruby continued, her tiny voice forcing Yang to come closer. "But that was selfish. I was mad because she died, and that's not really… her fault?"

Yang could see her sister's line of thought, predict its every turn, because she'd thought the same thing before. Whenever someone told her Raven was bad, or a poor mother, or whenever Tai got overly drunk and cried when he thought he was alone, Yang thought those things. She pushed them away, trying to understand, trying to relate— trying because in the darkest, deepest, most scorched part of her soul, Raven was her hero.

And if Yang couldn't understand her hero, how could she ever become her?

Ruby continued, her voice a whisper over the crashing avalanche of embattled thoughts in Yang's head. "And now I… I know that it's not true— that he was just trying to rattle me— but part of me… hopes that it is, that mom can be bad, so… so…"

Ruby trailed off, her silver gaze piercing every speck of dirt beneath her feet. Yang's lips moved, spilling words straight from her heart, too true to be filtered through her mind. "So you can hate her."

Ruby winced, but remained silent.

"Ruby, what you feel about mom, it's…" Yang wasn't sure what the right thing to say would be. She should've spent more time at home, she realized, more time bonding with Ruby, understanding her sister, and less time living her dream life. It was a dream her sister couldn't share, but Yang had indulged in it. Sometimes she spent months away from home while Ruby waited and waited, forging, working, toiling, and wishing she could be at her sister's side.

And now that same girl was… well, she wasn't the same anymore. Yang could see that plainly. The small plumpness of home-life was gone, both from her face and her body, burned away by constant and excessive use of her Aura, combined with days of battle, then torture, then escape. No hint of comfort remained— if anything, she looked a little gaunt under her forge-wrought muscles— and the intense scarring on her face only made that more clear. Come to think of it, she was certainly more scarred than Yang, even though… no. There wasn't any contradiction to it; Yang may have been a professional monster-killer, but the things Ruby had seen, done, survived…

She couldn't be overshadowed anymore. She wasn't the 'and Ruby', she was the 'Ruby and' to their group— at least, that was how Yang saw it. The path was Ruby's alone, mired though it was, and it was their job to see her through it.

Perhaps Yang should've run home at some point, taking Ruby and leaving the chaos behind, but… that didn't feel right anymore. She didn't hold the reins of this journey, her sister did, but Yang still wasn't embittered. It felt… fulfilling, like she was watching Ruby transform in front of her eyes. It was the smith's turn in the crucible, and who was Yang to take that from her? Thiswas her moment. Everyone else was here to add their nugget to her life.

Tai had stoked her into action, Jaune showed her loyalty, Blake showed her friendship. Then came Yang, who showed her trust, then came Weiss, who showed her… well, it was a word Yang didn't like to use for anyone but Ruby, but it was something that'd been pricking her mind a lot lately. She didn't want to think about that. Not right now.

And while Ruby's friends played their parts, her enemies did the same. The tournament showed her pain and fear, but Ruby cast them off her mind. Jacques showed her death and despair, but Ruby lived. Pyrrha showed her strength untenable, endurance indefatigable, bloodlust unquenchable, and yet Ruby remained.

And yet Ruby remained…

Yang stared at her sister in awe, but the smith kept a keen watch over her own feet, still red with shame. No matter how Yang saw her, it was clear that Ruby didn't see the same. She just pictured herself as a patchwork blacksmith who couldn't read.

"Ruby," Yang restarted, putting a hand on her sister's shoulder and drawing her attention. "I'm… sorry. I'm sorry for not—" Yang bit the words, unbidden, but she would make them come, for Ruby's sake. "I'm sorry for being a bad sister."

Ruby threw up her hands immediately, apologies and denials quick to her lips, but Yang slapped a hand over her mouth.

"No, Ruby, it's true. I'm sorry that I was out so much, back home. The time I spent…. gallivanting like my life was some fairy tale… I should've spent it with you."

Yang removed her silencing palm and clasped both of her sister's shoulders tight as she continued. "I should've trained you. I should've taken you to the Academy, away from dad, I should've helped you, but I—" Yang choked from a sudden sob, one which she gulped down with a hiss. "But I abandoned you. Just like my mom did to me, just like yours did to you."

"She was your—"

Yang silenced her with a palm again, and Ruby was too slow to bat it away before Yang started talking. "Summer was your mom, Ruby. She was our mom, but she was your mother— and I'm not angry about that, I swear. She raised me, but she had you, and that's just natural. I'm okay with it, I still love her."

Yang kept going, her grip pressing tight into Ruby's shoulders as if she could shove all her confidence into the girl. "But that's beside the point; Ruby, I was wrong. My life is… it's just this…" Yang scrunched her face up, searching for words to elucidate this jungle of feeling. "It's this… thing, like…"

Ruby watched her sister fume and back away just so she could gesticulate her frustration. "Like…?" Ruby intoned.

"Like you and Weiss!" Yang suddenly blurted, her face bright with enlightenment. When Ruby gave her the strangest look, Yang elaborated. "During the tournament, what would you have done if you won? If you got her?"

Ruby stiffened, freezing in thought for a long while before she eked out, "I… don't know?"

Yang jumped up and punched the air. "Yes! That! I. Don't. Know! That's what my life has been like, in all my time as a Huntress— I've just done it to do it, no thought of the future or any consequences in my mind!"

Ruby tilted her head, unsure of how this was going.

The Huntress splayed her hands towards her sister, smiling. "But this! This is something meaningful! Helping my sister on her quest, whatever that quest is! It feels like I've got purpose again!"

Yang took the still-confused Ruby in a half-hug, continuing. "That's what we're all here for, Ruby. We're here for you. This is your path, we're just along for the ride— and to drag you off if need be." She leaned in close towards Ruby, her eyes hard but encouraging. "You just need to figure out what you want."

Ruby's eyes grew scared. "But what about all of you—"

"Ruby, we are here for you!" Yang shouted, her volume practically slapping Ruby silent."Don't worry about what we want, just find out what you want and we'll do whatever else we can along the way!"

Yang stared into her eyes, demanding thought before speech. After a long moment of silent, forced contemplation, Yang finally nodded. Her arm lifted off Ruby's shoulders, and the smith breathed a deep sigh.

"I…" Ruby's eyes searched nervously, waiting for someone to come in and decide what she wanted before she could do it herself, but nobody did. "I want… I want…"

Yang watched her sister start to pace once more, her fingers thoughtfully pinched around her chin. Confidently, Yang turned back and leaned against a wall of the fay house, waiting.

It took a long time for Ruby to decide, long enough for Weiss to poke her purple-smeared face outside and check on them, but Ruby didn't notice her arrival until she spun towards them on a heel, her finger raised high.

"I want to find my sister's paramour!"