Note: No, you're eyes aren't deceiving you. It's a second chapter the day after the previous one. If you haven't read the last chapter, definitely make sure you've seen it before you read this one. Other than that, not much to say. Time to cover something people have been asking for for a long time. Enjoy.

"Nope."

Ruby turned the page.

"No… come on…"

She turned to the next.

Then, the next.

"Not that either."

Ruby reached the book's end and let out a heavy sigh. She added to the pile that was now larger than her head. Research was supposed to be fun—at least, that was how she felt in her younger, less cynical years. The joys of learning were incomparable. She would nestle herself into a hidden corner of a library, surround herself with novels from fiction to science to war, and spend all day flipping through the pages, filling up her skull with as much information as she could. She liked learning new things, letting her mind flow from topic to topic in pursuit of some new, fascinating factoid. Unfortunately, Atlas took away her joy in learning, like it did in most things. Their library could hardly be called such, taking up hardly a single room with a dozen bookshelves. Their topics were equally limited, mostly propaganda and religious texts; nothing with even a whiff of sex or blasphemy was stocked within these hollowed walls. And of course, she wasn't learning for the sake of it. She was on a mission, one that would continue to haunt her until it had been cracked open and its secrets revealed. She was no closer to such a discovery. She sat on one of the few tables the library provided, over a dozen books laid out in front of them, all of them worthless. She rested her head in her hands, the many wasted hours piling up on her brain like even more books.

She wanted a distraction. She wanted to worry about her teammates and their mission which was no less important to their survival. But, she couldn't allow herself that. Worrying about Team RWBY wasn't going to help them. Bothering them wouldn't, either. She could only be useful by solving this riddle—this Rosaline.

God, even the name itself sounded like it was taunting her. That thing had already stolen her attention, her memories, her dreams—why not her name itself?

Ruby stood up from the table. She had to continue. The sun was still high and seeping in through the library's dusty windows. The grey-colored carpet dulled her senses, but she had to keep her focus sharp. Atlas would not conquer her. Perhaps a new approach? No. Nonsensical. Her current method was the most likely to succeed. Stay on target.

She walked over to the nearest bookshelf, littered purely with the religious tomes of Decum Luna. She placed her hands on the next volume she was up to—Number VII. Texts of the Banker. She was hoping this would be a more profitable endeavor. She hid her smirk. Just a little joke. Keep it light. She pulled the book off the shelf—and she saw a pair of bright green eyes staring at her from the other side of the bookshelf.

"Ah!" Ruby jumped back in panic. The librarian, sitting by her desk at the front of the room, shushed her. The tome fell to the floor, it's thick, black casing landing with a thud. Ruby leaned down to grab it, only for her stalker to swoop in and collect it for her.

"You dropped this."

Ruby glanced up to see Penny smiling back at her. "Geez, Penny, you startled me."

"Oh my. I'm very sorry to scare you," Penny said, placing her hand over her heart. "I promise I wasn't spying on you and trying to act secretly." Before Ruby could question Penny's words, the android checked over her shoulder and then leaned in with a mischievous whisper. "Okay, I was spying on you and acting secretly. Isn't that exciting?"

"What?" Ruby asked, not excited. "Why were you doing that?"

"I wasn't trying to be harmful," Penny explained. "Ironwood has been very strict with me recently. He doesn't want me to spend time with you anymore because he believes you are a bad influence on me. I had to give Ciel the slip again to spend time with you. Hopefully, no one tells on me." She turned to the librarian and waved. "You are not going to tell Ironwood I was here, are you, Mrs. Humfruff?"

The librarian sighed and said nothing. Ruby could only assume that working at a library in a school where no one wanted to read anything crushed her spirit a long time ago. She pushed that concern out of her head, and walked back to the table, Penny following suit. They lowered their voices, though it wasn't like it mattered with no one important around them.

"What do you want, Penny?"

"I believe we both want the same thing," Penny said. "Answers about the Holy Grail."

Ruby was surprised. "You know that's what I'm doing with these?" she said, gesturing to the many books of Decum Luna.

"It seemed like the next logical step," Penny said, leaning over the table as she explained her conclusions. "I asked Ironwood directly for information regarding those keywords that Glass stole, but he stonewalled me. The next step was to use the internet, but I think we both discovered that our searches turned up no results. Obviously, no one wants us to find any more details. Direct means were cut off, so we needed indirect means. I would assume you realized, just as I did, that our closest source of unrestricted access to information would come through myths and legends regarding Decum Luna. After all, since the Aspects are really Fables, it stands to reason that other elements of Fable culture would permeate throughout the religion."

Ruby sighed. She wasn't expecting Penny to lay it out so clearly. Honestly, she might have been stalking her for longer than she realized. Despite her misgivings, she saw no reason to hide anything. Everything was hidden enough.

"Yeah. Pretty much," Ruby admitted. "I figured that if our mystery words were related to the Fables—and there's no reason it wouldn't be—there would have to be some reference to them somewhere. There's a lot of Decum Luna to go through, but if it was really important, something would have been preserved."

"Allow me to guess," Penny smirked. "You didn't find anything."

Ruby shook her head. "I checked for Holy Grail, relic, vault…" Rosaline, Red Angel, red, cup, chalice, drink. "Nothing. Not a single mention anywhere. If this was some part of Fable history, then it didn't get written down. Just like a lot of things, I suppose." Ruby, dejected, sat back down at the table. She leaned back, exhausted by her failures. Penny's smile turned sad, and she pulled up a chair next to Ruby and sat down beside her.

"That's all right. I didn't find anything either," she confessed. "I have a lot more experience with the Faith than you do. I searched through my memory in church, thinking of stories from my childhood. I read through every available source I could find. Nothing in Decum Luna relates to what we are looking for. It makes sense: the legends of Decum Luna focus less on specific objects or events, and more on the Aspects… Nation… responsibility. A story about a Holy Grail would be out of place."

"Well, what do we do now?" Ruby asked hopelessly. "We can't just give up."

"I agree. Being denied answers is… upsetting," Penny sighed. "We fought hard to learn what Glass wanted. We deserve to know more. That was why I was hoping you and I could pool our knowledge together. You are one of the smartest students in this Academy, and my background can be highly useful for providing context. Maybe there is something that we missed alone that we could find together."

"And… you're fine with that?" Ruby asked, worried. "Ironwood ordered you not to spend time with me. You'd be violating his direct command again. What if he finds out?"

Penny remained strangely silent for a long moment. Something unpleasant was caught up in her memory. She swallowed her doubts within a few seconds. "I'm willing to live with the consequences of that. I have learned from you, Ruby, but I still disagree with your morals when it comes to who and what we sacrifice."

Ruby wanted to question her further but held back. Again, distraction. She didn't need distractions. She supposed that if Penny was willing to work alongside her, there was no reason to deny her help. She took a deep breath and dove deep into thought, trying to find the next piece of their puzzle.

"Okay, then. Let's cover what we know," she said, going through her usual process. "Glass searched Ironwood's records for three things: a relic, a vault, and a Holy Grail. What is a Grail supposed to be, anyway?"

"It was hard to research," Penny stated. "Based on what I could find, 'grail' is an Old Kingspeak word for 'valuable object'. It is something that people desire. Honestly, I think we could have determined that without the search."

"Well, that's something," Ruby theorized. "I assume the Holy Grail is the major thing Glass is after. And if it's an object to be desired… it probably is the relic, right? Like, that's what she was looking for? It's an old, valuable thing left over from Fable civilization."

"And if it is something valuable, it would need to be stored somewhere," Penny added. "So, altogether, Glass is looking for a valuable object known as the Holy Grail, that is being stored in some kind of vault. That seems to be a rather succinct explanation. Unfortunately, that doesn't tell us what kind of object it is."

Cup! Ruby's subconscious screamed at her. She pinned the thought and tried to focus on something more useful. "Well, there aren't too many possibilities. It would have to be something that Glass is actively seeking out, and she is a terrorist. So, it probably has something to do with the Grimm, or the Anti-Fable… or, more likely…"

"A weapon."

"Right. I mean, her attack on Vale was a failure. I doubt she'd give up her plan to kill everyone so easily. So, this thing she is looking for would have to help with that. That all seems straightforward."

"But it doesn't help us get any closer to understanding what it is, or how Glass plans to retrieve this."

"True…" Ruby hesitated again, but without her friends there to moderate her, she found herself incapable of holding back. Something deep within pushed the question from her lips before she could stop herself. "Are there any important Decum Luna stories related to chalices?"

Penny cocked her head, perplexed. "A chalice?"

"I… I don't know why," Ruby admitted shakily. "But I just have this strange… feeling. Like, the Holy Grail that Glass is searching for… I think it's some kind of chalice. I saw in my dreams. It was really vivid, and wild. Maybe it was left over from when Emerald attacked me. I don't know what it was used for, or how it works, but… sorry, I probably sound crazy."

Penny didn't linger on Ruby's apologies. Instead, she took on the challenge bravely. "Chalices are often used with great symbolic importance in Decum Luna. Ceremonies often involve a participant drinking from them, usually wine. Sometimes large bowls are used. When a person comes of age, for example, they are often asked to drink from a chalice held in possession of a Dreamgazer. I'm not aware of any specific legend of a chalice, or one chalice standing out as important among the rest, however. They more so have a vague, general importance than something specific we can utilize."

Ruby sighed. Dammit. So much for that thread. Just when she thought she might actually get somewhere, her dreams were dashed again. "Well, something had to be important to Decum Luna."

"It only matters that it was important to the Fables," Penny reminded her. "Decum Luna are not the Fables. They maintained what was relevant to them and discarded the rest. The sheer absence of all other Fables in their stories is evidence of that. It's very unfortunate that these stories are all we have of the Fable legacy."

Penny bowed her head in disappointment. The two of them were once again at a standstill. With nowhere else to turn, they could only sit in the meager library in silence. They both stared at the books, full of so much information that had been mutated and perverted over centuries. Ruby felt her anxieties come back over her. Even though it was silly, she felt like a failure. Decum Luna and their followers, in all their selfishness, had erased the true history of the world and replaced it with something meaningless. All of what they knew of history was merely derived from this putrid, fascist gutter.

Then, Ruby's eyes shot open. "Wait…"

Penny was stunned as Ruby bolted up to her feed, unable to contain her excitement. "Ruby?"

"That's it," Ruby said, barely able to stop herself from screaming and bothering the librarian. "You're wrong. I mean, you're right, but you're totally wrong."

"You have an idea. I would like you to share it with me."

"Okay, okay, hear me out," Ruby said, leaning over the table and pointing furiously at the tomes of religious texts. "We've been leaning on this idea that Decum Luna is our closest representative to actual Fable history. On the surface, that seems like a reasonable inference. We know the Aspects of Decum Luna exist, and all other history is lost, so it would seem like Decum Luna is the most direct descendent of the truth. But it's like what you said: Decum Luna is only derived from Fable history. They aren't one-to-one. It's an interpretation, a reinvention. How does a religion get made?"

Penny answered slowly. "By… taking what is true and changing it over time?"

"Right," Ruby insisted. "People took the history of the Fables, and they changed it, highlighting the parts they wanted and discarding the rest. But the Fables are real. They are history. And if they are really history, that means their impact shouldn't only be felt by the Atlasian scholars. They should be felt everywhere. Think about the story of the Two Brothers in Vale. That's a religion, but it had to come from somewhere. What did the people who created the Two Brothers base it upon… if not the truth?"

The truth dawned on Penny—the awful, incredible, blasphemous truth. Ruby's point made an incredible amount of sense. Their perspective had been highly limited. Decum Luna may have been the most obvious, but why should that prove it was the sole carrier of a true legacy? If the Fables had ruled the world, why would their memories not be felt across oceans, across Kingdoms? If some men discarded some stories, who was to say others could not remember them? If one religion turned out to be true…

Why not all of them?

"You believe that other religions contain the truth about the Fables," Penny realized.

"Yes—sort of," Ruby said quickly. She realized how deeply offensive her words were in her current setting, and she did her best to lower her voice just in case someone somehow overheard them. "I don't think any of them are correct, necessarily. Decum Luna isn't a correct retelling of Fable history, but it contains fractions of the truth. If that's the case, so should other religions. Maybe the fraction we're looking for is buried somewhere else."

Penny pursed her lips. "That is a highly controversial hypothesis, Ruby. If you are correct about it, that means we have to fundamentally reconsider the origins of most Human culture." Ruby just shrugged. What else was new? "It also means we have more to search, though our net is considerably wider. There are dozens of major recognized religions. I do not even know where to begin."

Ruby thought for only a short while, but her excitement quickly guided her to an answer. "I have an idea. Do you know how it's often theorized that Decum Luna copied Arillystos?"

Penny just stared blankly at her. Of course. There was zero chance Atlas would teach its children anything other than a "divine" truth. The true but controversial origin of their faith would be silenced.

Ruby sat back down, scooching next to Penny so she could explain carefully. "Okay, so… a lot of anthropologists believe that the oldest religion in the world is the Pantheon of Arillystos, the major religion in Mistral. Mistral is probably where the first Humans came from, even. Well, for a long time, people realized the similarities between the Pantheon of Arillystos and the Faith of Decum Luna. Both seem to focus on a large collection of gods, and both have some very similar morals—or at least, they used to, we think. Mistral had a lot of cross-cultural contamination with Atlas. The original Atlasians were like Mistrans themselves, moving across the ocean. When you put it on a historical timescale, the theory goes that Decum Luna was basically… plagiarized."

Penny hung her head. "I… I was unaware of any of that."

"Yeah," Ruby said, taking pity. "It's not something they would want you to know."

"I was never taught anything about the Pantheon of Arillystos," Penny admitted. "We were told that all other religions were copies of Decum Luna, or dark rituals made up to trick the masses. To think it went the other way around… it's quite humbling."

"I mean, they aren't the same, exactly. I think a lot of religions tend to borrow each other and make stuff their own. Plus, it's kind of hard to think that Decum Luna couldn't be accurate. I've seen the Aspects with my own eyes. You'd assume they were the only real ones."

"But they aren't. The Pantheon is real as well, per your theory," Penny said, suddenly filling with determination. "And if they are the true oldest source of knowledge, then they would be the best place to start. Our only problem is how we are supposed to learn about them. Information about other religions is highly restrictive in Atlas. They don't have any texts we can read. I doubt we can simply look up the answers online as well. Atlas tends to be rather good at censoring the information they don't want their students to see."

Ruby huffed. Dammit. Back to the beginning again. Atlas's censorship was really starting to get on her nerves. How was she supposed to make any progress when her opponents kept throwing up brick walls every five feet? She at least had a better understanding of why so many people would live under Decum Luna when it was objectively terrible. There was no way to learn more! You were completely cut off from the world, unless…

"Unless… we happen to know someone who is already familiar with the Pantheon's myths," Ruby realized. "And then we could just ask them directly."

Penny caught on quickly. "We would need to find someone who worships Arillystos."

"And someone who would be willing to speak to us within Atlas Academy."

"And someone who is already sympathetic to our cause."

Penny and Ruby turned toward each other, and with a fire in their eyes, they spat out the answer at the same time.

"Pyrrha Nikos!"

Ruby knocked frantically on the door to Team JNPR's dorm, Penny awkwardly lingering behind her like some cheerful specter. Ruby rushed through her opening salvo in her head a million times, trying to find the words. How to explain this to Pyrrha without pissing her off… how to explain this to Pyrrha without revealing everything she ever knew was a lie? She anxiously bounced up and down as she waited for the Mistran Huntress to respond to her. Yet, that moment never came. When the door opened, it was only Nora who waited for her, seeming uncharacteristically glum.

"Hello?"

"Oh. Hi, Nora," Ruby said. She leaned over, trying to catch a look inside the dorm. "Is, um, Pyrrha there? We kind of need to talk to her."

Nora had a lot of questions she kept to herself. Penny's smile seemed to drill a hole directly through her face, and Ruby's urgent tone freaked her out. However, she herself had a mission to protect, and as much as she despised it, she did her part.

"I'm sorry," Nora said quickly. "The others are… uh, they're out, at the moment."

"Oh," Ruby said again. "Do you… know when they'll be back, or…"

"Nope! No idea," Nora said with a forced smile. "They're off just… doing stuff! Stuff without me!"

"I didn't know that," Ruby said uncomfortably.

"Well, ya do now!"

"Yeah. I guess…"

"So, bye!"

Nora tried to close the door, but Ruby stopped her. She nervously cleared her throat. "Do you know when she'll be back?"

"Total mystery!" Nora insisted. "They just left without telling me, and I definitely don't know what they are doing. So, you can go now."

"Okay," Ruby sighed. She released her hold on the door, and Nora tried to close it—only for Ruby to suddenly remember something else and jam the door right before Nora could finish closing it. Speaking to Nora's upset eyes through only a crack, Ruby asked her final question. "Sorry, last thing. You wouldn't happen to know a lot about Arillystos myths, would you?"

"Of course, I do."

"Didn't think so. Sorry to bother you."

"Bye!"

Nora slammed the door, and Ruby sighed in defeat. Well, once again they found themselves at a dead end, a recurring theme for the night. She supposed she would have to wait for Pyrrha to—hold on, Nora said what now?

Ruby frantically pounded on the door, and within moments, it flew open wide. Nora leaned against the doorframe, her mouth a long, thin line that broadcast her annoyance into outer space.

"What?" she huffed. This girl was making it very difficult to keep Team RWBY-related secrets.

"You know about Arillystos myths?" Ruby said, shocked.

"Yeah, of course," Nora said like it was obvious. "I loved those stories growing up. I didn't have anything else to keep me entertained, so I got really fascinated with them."

Ruby collected herself. "I'm really sorry. Can we come in? This is just… this is really important."

Nora had to stop and think it over. Obviously, spending time with Team RWBY was a terrible idea. Her teammates were spying on them, and she was never good with keeping secrets. One wrong missed comment, and suddenly the whole operation would blow up in her face. She couldn't betray her team like that, even if she really didn't approve of them leaving her behind. And yet, Ruby's big, pleading eyes sparked some sense of empathy within her. If Ruby was here, that meant she was on her own, too. Abandoned. Desperate. Nora had wanted to help her for a long while now. She wanted to build bridges whenever she could; it was her truest nature. Pyrrha was the reason why she wasn't able to talk to Ruby normally. It was that disruption of her team that forced her into silence.

But Pyrrha wasn't here right now. Ruby was, and she needed her help.

A brief conversation about religion wouldn't hurt anyone, especially if Pyrrha never found out.

Nora stepped aside, granting Ruby and Penny access. The two entered the dorm, and Nora locked them behind her. Ruby was surprised to see that JNPR's room was more cluttered than there's. She didn't know why, but she expected that Team One would be better at organizing. One bed in particular was a total mess of discarded clothes and layered sheets. She assumed that was Jaune's, though she had no basis for it. Nora invited them to sit on the floor, and the three sat together in awkward silence.

"Sorry. Wasn't expecting guests," Nora confessed.

"No one ever is," Ruby tried joking, though Nora didn't smile.

"So, uh, what do you guys want to know?"

"Well, this is going to be a sort of odd question," Ruby admitted. "Penny and I wanted to study important legends of various religions. We figured that Arillystos would be the best place to start, given how old it is."

"It is pretty big," Nora stated. "There are like a thousand gods in Arillystos, tons of different families and stuff. It's like a huge smorgasbord of a bunch of local cultures smashed together."

"So, you probably don't know everything, then."

"I don't think anyone knows anything. But if I happen to know what you're talking about, then I'll let you know."

Ruby's confidence dwindled. She failed to take Arillystos's size into account. She wasn't expecting any great revelations from Nora Valkyrie anyway, but she was bracing for disappointment.

"Okay, um," she began. "We wanted to know if there were any specific legends or myths in Arillystos about… cups. Or chalices, or basins, or something like that. Some story where drinking from one of these cups, and the cup itself, is very important."

Nora scoffed. "Cups? That's an easy one. You're thinking of the Infinite Chalice."

Ruby's mouth hit the floor.

"You know it?"

"Yep. It's not super popular, but it's not really hidden, either," Nora explained. "I never cared for it personally. It's really hokey. I always liked the myths where people turned into animals or blew other gods up or—"

"Wait, wait, wait," said Ruby hastily. "The Infinite Chalice. What's that one about? Please."

Nora still didn't understand Ruby's urgency, but she had to admit: it felt nice being needed. Besides, if there was something she could talk about that wouldn't accidentally slip into what her teammates were doing, it was bound to be useful. So, putting on her best storybook tone, she began the way all good stories did.

"Once upon a time, there was a family of Gods known as the Y'llari. The Y'llari had over a hundred members, and each one of them was known for their particular brand of selfishness. They would build their homes in the mountains, the clouds, and the sea, forming them from marble and gold. To the Y'llari, possession was all that mattered.

"The greatest possession of the Y'llari was known as the Infinite Chalice. Built by the Y'llari elders, it was a magical cup of great power. The Y'llari would take any object they could find. Dirt. Nails. Scraps of food. They would feed it into the Infinite Chalice, and the Chalice would transform it into something of exponential value. Dirt would form into beautifully carved stone. Nails would become golden ribbons. Scraps of food would become entire feasts, capable of feeding one hundred men for one hundred days. The Chalice was protected and worshipped, but only ever used for the selfish purposes of the Y'llari. When others came to their home, asking them for help, they would refuse to offer them even scraps.

"One day, a black wolf came to the doorstep of the Y'llari. This wolf was lured by the many great possessions of the Y'llari, and asked that it may take some food for its den to survive the winter. The Y'llari refused to offer it anything, even though they could make as much as they desired. The black wolf cursed the Y'llari, saying it would return the next day and ask again. If the Y'llari refused, it would take one of their children and eat them. The Y'llari dismissed this concern, and when a day passed and the wolf returned again, asking for food, they refused to engage with it. The black wolf howled, unhinging its jaw, and swallowed up a Y'llari child whole. When it finished, it said it would return the next day and ask again for food. If they refused to feed it, it would take another child.

"The Y'llari debated among themselves what to do. They all agreed that the wolf must be fed, yet none were willing to give up any of their plentiful food to it. Their arguments lasted through the night and the morning, and when the wolf returned, it asked for food. They could not agree on whose food to give away, and without anyone willing to make a sacrifice, the wolf unhinged its jaws and ate another Y'llari child. It said it would return the next day, asking for more food.

"One week passed. Each day, the wolf returned, and when denied, it consumed a Y'llari child. After a week, the elders of the family agreed to give a portion of their food to the wolf. When it returned, however, fattened from eating children, its hunger was not satiated by their meager offering. It demanded not just a portion of their food, but a portion of their gold to consume as well. They were willing to part with food, but they denied the wolf their gold. It ate another child and said it would return the next day. Having grown larger, the Y'llari knew it would ask for more.

"One month passed. The Y'llari family had been reduced to a third. All of the children had been consumed. Each day, the wolf would still return, fatter and hungrier than ever. Its demands for a meal grew more ravenous with each return. The Y'llari would offer it portions of their houses, entire feasts, and more to the wolf, treasures beyond the wildest imagination. Yet, the wolf would merely consume the offerings of the Y'llari, see that they had more to offer, and return the next day. When there were no more children to consume, it began eating the adults as well. The Y'llari tried fighting against it, but its hide was too thick to pierce. The wolf had grown too large to be killed.

"Chaos and disorder overtook the village. The Y'llari would funnel whatever they could into the Infinite Chalice, desperate to make more to satiate the wolf. They would turn their feasts into elaborate banquets, yet the wolf consumed that. They would turn simple homes into grandiose mansions, and the wolf would consume that, as well. Gold became platinum, calcium became granite, and all were fed to the wolf, along with a member of the Y'llari. There was no solution to how to deal with the wolf.

"Then, one member of the Y'llari spoke out amongst the others. Her name was H'aboTotlitr. Unlike the other Y'llari, she did not make offerings to the Infinite Chalice. She stayed in her small hut, enjoying meager loaves of bread each day for meals. She was known for her kindness, her compassion, and her humility, which made her an outcast to the Y'llari. She told them that there was only one way for them to survive the wolf. The wolf, she explained, had continued hunting them for they saw it always had more to give. It would feast and grow and feast as long as it could manage, having surpassed the normal needs of survival. To satiate the wolf, there must be nothing left to give to it.

"With no other options, the Y'llari followed the wise H'aboTotlitr's advice. They threw the rest of their homes into the Chalice, followed by their food, then their prized possessions. They threw every scrap of material, dirt, and grime into the Chalice, only it did not spit them out. Finally, they threw themselves into the Chalice, sacrificing a piece of their souls—the parts of them which desired to consume, to grow, to possess. They threw all of this into the Infinite Chalice, and the Chalice produced this in the form of a pure wine. H'aboTotlitr drank the wine, taking all of the Y'llari's world into herself.

"On the final day of the wolf's arrival, it saw there were no more houses, no more gold, and no more food. Instead, it was greeted by H'aboTotlitr, herself holding the Infinite Chalice.

"'Hello,' she greeted it. 'I make one final offering to you, Wolf. My people have thrown all we have into this Chalice, and this Chalice has given its power to me. Please, consume me, Mr. Wolf. Take all that we have to offer you. Enjoy your final meal on behalf of the Y'llari.'"

"The wolf, now colossal in size and staring with dead, red eyes, still hungered. Seeing that the Y'llari had nothing left to give but this girl, it unhinged its jaw, and consumed her. However, it had made a mistake. By consuming all that the Y'llari and its mighty Chalice, it had consumed the very concept of infinity itself. The wolf's belly ruptured, and with a mighty howl, the beast died and its body turned to ash.

"The Y'llari, with no food, no homes, and paltry Souls, left their land behind. Alive but in scraps, the remaining family agreed to live their lives without excess or selfishness, lest they attract more hungry wolves at their door. The sacrifice of H'aboTotlitr was remembered by the Y'llari as the brave, selfless, simple soul, who saw it necessary to make sacrifices to keep those she loved protected. It is still said that one can hear the dying howl of the wolf if they listen closely to the wind."

"Or you know… that's the gist of it," Nora finished to her captive audience. "A lot of Mistran fables tend to be kind of wacky, and it's always hard to get what the moral of the fable is. Like, I think it's a story about how you shouldn't be greedy, but is the wolf the bad guy then? Or is it the punishment? I don't really get it. Fun story though."

Penny nodded, though fun was hardly what she was thinking. "That… very well told, Nora. Thank you for explaining." She turned toward Ruby. "Was that helpful, at all, Ruby?"

Ruby sat in silence, trying to process what she was told. She knew very well to be cautious of the meanings of religion. That was the whole reason why she was here. It was obviously true that any story Nora would tell her contained falsehoods, legends, bits, and pieces rearranged to become more salient to the culture that created them. There were things in that legend that she found fascinating: a single, joint family, the potential for infinite growth, and the motives of the Y'llari and the wolf. Yet, she couldn't confidently put weight behind any of them. They were just as likely to be most fabrications based on fragments of a forgotten truth. And still… there were parts of the story that screamed for their authenticity. A large, black animal with red eyes, capable of consuming gods. The cup of legend—and the sacrifice surrounding it. People on the verge of a failing civilization, putting their hopes and trust in a single soul, leaving not a remnant of themselves behind. It seemed scarily accurate to what she had envisioned. A powerful Chalice capable of consuming Souls and transforming them, gifting them to someone else… all through a drink…

"That… that woman," Ruby said suddenly, her voice distant. "The main character. What was her name again?"

Nora paused for a minute. "Oh, that? Old Mistran names tend to be pretty complicated. I don't have any idea what the words actually translate to. That stuff has been lost to time. The character is usually depicted a few different ways. Sometimes as a little girl, sometimes really muscular, most commonly like an angel… uh, Ruby?"

And just like that, Ruby froze. The truth came from the deepest recesses of her mind, and forced itself into her. The image of the character—a woman she had never heard of before now—was burning.

"Ruby?"

She said nothing. The world seemed to fade into the background. Her lips were parched.

"Ruby."

It couldn't be…

"RUBY"

Ruby jumped back with a blood-curdling scream. She crawled back along the floor, the voice crashing through her mind like thunder. Penny and Nora stared at her, confused and deeply worried at the sudden, unprovoked outburst.

"Oh, my god. Oh my god…" Ruby panted, barely holding back tears.

"Ruby? What's wrong?" Nora asked frantically. She tried to approach Ruby, but the young Huntress swatted her away, pressing her back deep against the far wall. Her silver eyes darted around the room, desperate to find the source of the voice, but none was visible. Despite Nora comforting her, nothing could stop the rapid beating of her heart, the sheer panic that was overtaking her, and the madness she was forced to endure.

She was getting close.

Or rather, something was getting close to her.

Far too close.