pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq

(Vernal PoV)

"Keep walking." I ordered.

My prisoner managed to sarcastically rattle his chains at me so I stabbed him in the back. "Easy, easy." He said in a low scratchy voice.

"You're lucky you're the Khatun's brother." I murmured. "Or I would crush you." I didn't have a choice in killing him, really. He'd walked into camp and handed one of my people over, claiming to have saved her life and near as I could tell he wasn't lying. I actually owed him. Imagine that thought, now vomit.

He just rattled his chains again. If he was anything like the Khatun, he could break them. His aura wasn't disabled for all that I had his weapon. His semblance wasn't a mystery to me, either. So I felt no safer possessing his weapon than I really did if he had it. However he had returned Crimson unharmed to me. I did owe him and the Khagan would be interested in this catch if nothing else.

None of the other Khatuns respected me. It was my age, I reckoned. I was at least ten years younger than the next youngest person. No one brought it up because in distant third for youngest was the Khagan, herself.

I paced through Raven's camp and no one bothered me in the slightest, however. The camp was enormous, much larger than mine. It was built in a handful of days and it could be torn down and rebuilt just as quickly. Really it was large because Raven was here, soon she would fly to another camp and the Khatun there would be happy to entertain her.

A boy flipped a knife outside of a tent. Moans could be heard from inside but it was none of my business.

None of them bothered me. They were also afraid of my skills. I was nineteen and already I was the Khagan's personal favorite errand girl.

I was her errand girl, too. Even if I was a maiden.

It wasn't much of an insult. Everyone at her table ran errands for The Khatun. She kept me close, though, trained me personally. Handpicked me. That was something different; something special. There were those at her table that knew the Khagan hadn't even trained her own daughter. Raven had left the life of a peasant huntress behind and became the empress. Her daughter, daughter by blood made rather than by blood spilled was abandoned. She wasn't important, though.

I pushed my way into her tent. It had no guards, who would guard Raven? Nothing here threatened her.

The Khagan had an eye for talent and fostering that talent. To all appearances it looked like I was next in line. The cream of the crop out of thousands of bandits from across Anima.

I wasn't the only such talent, or at the very least, I wasn't the only person who had caught Khatun Branwen's eye. At the outskirts of this tent, if a palace like this could be called a tent, were monks and scholars. These were people that Raven coerced, convinced, or outright kidnapped to suit her needs.

I wasn't like them. I had found Raven. Wounded her for real in battle. Rather than kill me she'd spared me. She gave me power, weapons, dust, and even people to command. She'd broken me, of course, but that was the nature of things.

Now some of my men were missing and I had little choice but to ask for permission to go after the fools that had dared touch my things. I had to do it right though. There would be punishment for acting without orders, even for favorite pets like me.

When I shoved my way into the tent Raven's attention never wavered to me. It snapped immediately to her brother's face. "Qrow."

"Sis. We have a lot to talk about." Qrow began.

"Do we?" Raven wondered, a hand on her chin.

"We do. Do you want your help here?" He rattled at me again.

I wasn't sure who the fuck he thought he was making actual demands of the Khatun of Khans, but she seemed content to allow it, if only to bother him later. It wasn't for me to go prying. I would stab him with his own sword if she asked but I wanted to leave it alone. Well, wanted was a strong word. Besides...

"Vernal can stay."

Besides, Raven trusted me.

"Vernal." Qrow sighed. "Her name is Vernal? Are you fucking serious?" I glared at him. Sure it wasn't my real name but I still took some offense.

"So what do you want, Qrow?"

"Maybe I wanted to catch up?"

"Maybe you could get on with it. I'm always busy." Raven glanced sideways through a portal. Spying on somebody somewhere.

"Look Raven there are things I know that you want to know and things you know that I want to know, if we skip the game, we get what we want, you even get to go first."

"Very well." Raven decided. Closing her portal by geasturing. "Does she have the relic at Beacon or not?"

"No." Qrow answered. "Did you know that Yang lost her arm?"

"I did," Raven purred. I couldn't help the smile that ran across my face. "She was too slow and too weak. Maybe the prosthetic and the lesson will be good for her. Qrow, where is the fall maiden?"

"I don't know." Qrow sighed. Raven tilted her head at him. "I don't. Nothing you can do will change that one. Where is the spring maiden."

"I have her, and that's the way things are going to stay. Where are the other maidens?"

"I don't know. It's been a real fun chat though I think-"

"I think, Qrow that you don't know anything and until that changes you're going to stay here with me too. Do try and remember something useful."

"Come on. You don't want me as a prisoner. You don't want me anywhere near you for real, do you?"

It was rhetorical. Even I knew about his semblance. Being near him and keeping him prisoner was waiting for disaster. Inviting something that actively drew misfortune into the heart of your base was anything but wise. Raven would want him gone.

In comparison, Raven kept live Grimm as stock and entertainment. Qrow would be neither and would only endanger everything.

"Fine, tell me where the other Relics still remain and I let you leave. Tell me where the winter maiden is too, and I'll let you leave with your weapon."

Qrow reached down and took a deep drink of some depressant. "You drive a hard bargain."

pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq

-WG