Ruby let out a sigh as she sat down atop a grassy hill overlooking the camp's training grounds, where Weiss stood instructing several groups of rebels on how to use magic. A warm spring breeze blew through the trees while the afternoon sun shone down on the clearing.
The Atlesian noble was demonstrating a basic glyph that would send out a bolt of lightning to around a dozen young soldiers, while a group of older veterans was practicing creating shields. After showing her skills with magic at Shion, she had become the unofficial instructor for all of the Rebellion's mages.
Unfortunately, that meant Ruby had to come along and watch. While the silver-eyed girl would usually be ecstatic to watch people perform magic, there were two things stifling her enjoyment. The first was the simple fact was that this was all basic stuff. Nothing she hadn't seen Weiss do hundreds of times.
The second issue was that Weiss and she were still arguing with each other. Despite two weeks having passed since their initial disagreement, they had yet to reconcile. In fact, aside from Weiss trying to brush past it the day after, they hadn't shared more than a few words since that night.
Ruby felt a flare of anger at the memory. The very next day, Weiss had tried to confront her about their argument, once again ignoring every point Ruby had made. The ghostly girl had snapped at her, furious at the noble for failing to address the root of the problem.
Weiss was just being so reckless. Throwing herself into a war she had no place in for a stupid book. She wasn't even the one who had something to gain. And that wasn't even mentioning how... extreme she'd become recently. Ruby understood why Weiss studied necromancy all that time ago, but the way she was using it now would've made her stomach churn if it actually could.
Unfortunately for her, however, her decision to not ignore the issue meant she could no longer talk to Weiss. At least, not without getting into an argument with her. While the white-haired girl might be able to distract herself with training, Ruby had no such opportunity. If it hadn't been for a bizarre stroke of luck, she would've been completely alone.
"Ruby? Is that you?" A voice called out quietly from behind her. Turning behind her, she saw Ren walking up the hill, his eyes looking around. Not that there was much point in it. Weiss was still the only one who could see her.
In order to answer him, she slipped into her flaming form and let her aura brush against his, sending feelings of acknowledgment into his soul. The raven-haired man shuddered slightly in surprise before nodding at her. "Ah. I thought I sensed you over here. Good afternoon." He bowed his head respectfully.
Ever since he felt her aura while fused with Weiss's, Ren had been able to sense Ruby's aura whenever it came in contact with him. All three of them had been surprised by the fact, especially considering how no one else was able to detect Ruby's presence, even magically sensitive individuals like Pyrrha.
But Ruby was hardly complaining. Even if she could only communicate by sending Ren her emotions, having another person acknowledge her presence and try to communicate with her did wonders to make her feel less lonely.
Letting a wave of happiness pass from her to Ren, she greeted the young man happily before partially shifting back in order to keep watching the training. Ren once again shuddered, though less severely, as he felt her feelings wash over him.
"Still arguing with Weiss?" He asked softly, a sympathetic look on her face. She immediately sent a wave of emotions into his aura. Irritation, anger, sadness, and several nameless emotions all flowed from her into him. He simply nodded along.
While he clearly didn't have the full picture, only knowing what Weiss had shared with him, he knew that the two girls had gotten into an argument soon after Ren learned of their shared secret about Weiss's actions. And though he had a personal stake in Weiss staying with the Oniyuri Rebellion, he sympathized with Ruby and took time to speak with her and tried to act as an intermediary.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you," Ren whispered while adjusting his quiver to hide his lips from any onlookers. "I simply wanted to know if you had managed to work out your issues."
Ruby flickered into bright flames, her anger washing into Ren. There was nothing to work out. Weiss was killing people for Ruby's sake without her consent, and that needed to stop now. But the other girl wouldn't even listen to her. She constantly threw herself into dangerous situations where she was forced to kill people, and had even started using cruel and inhumane methods to accomplish this.
"You know, Weiss told me she misses you. Maybe you should try talking to her. You might be able to convince her how you feel about all this."
Ruby sent a feeling of disbelief into Ren, causing him to chuckle. Just because she wasn't talking to Weiss didn't mean she wasn't paying attention to her. Kinda hard to ignore her when she was stuck within fifty feet of her. She had never expressed such a sentiment to Ren.
"Yeah, that was a pretty obvious lie. Still, you should try talking. Even if you disagree, you can reconcile your different points of view." Ruby simply snorted and gave him a sensation of annoyance. "I can't solve this issue for you. If you want to make up, one of you is going to have to take the first step."
Ruby just rolled her eyes. "She's already taken too many 'first steps' for my liking. What she needs to do is take a few steps back." As her thoughts and emotions were a bit too complicated for her to interpret, she didn't bother sending them to Ren.
The pink-eyed boy just sighed. "I'm just trying to help. I want to be able to actually speak to you, Ruby. And I need Weiss to tell me what you say in order to do that." Ruby remained silent. "Well, I'm here for you."
At that, Ren sat down on the hill and closed his eyes, slowing his breathing and beginning to meditate. Over these past two weeks, he had chosen to meditate around Ruby so that she had someone to communicate with outside of Weiss.
Though many of their 'conversations' left her feeling annoyed, she was immensely grateful to him for doing this. It felt nice to have someone there for her.
Weiss let out an annoyed tsk as she watched one of her trainees mess up a glyph, causing it to fail and explode in his face. Fortunately, it wasn't a very powerful glyph and thus not a powerful explosion, but it was still enough to throw the young man to the ground painfully.
Almost all of the young mages and quite a few of the older ones looked intimidated by her annoyed expression. She had been training them harshly since the battle at Shion, citing a need for stronger mages for the rebellion.
While that was true, she had also done this to throw herself into work so that she didn't have to interact with Ruby. She had been caught off guard when the silver-eyed ghost had exploded on her not once, but twice after the battle. She had been sure the younger girl would calm down after a few hours, but here they were two weeks later and still couldn't meet each other's gaze.
"U-umm, Lady Schnee?" Amber asked. The young girl was one of the two mages that helped her during the battle, as well as one of the more promising students. While her actual talent with magic was average, her work ethic led her to outpace her more gifted peers.
The younger girl had obviously started looking up to Weiss after the battle, especially given how Weiss had saved her several times. As such, she was a bit too wary of upsetting Weiss, which only made it harder to communicate with her.
Rubbing her temples with one hand, she responded. "Yes, Amber?" The brown-haired girl shifted slightly, gripping her staff tightly to her chest and muttering out a response. "Apologies, I didn't catch that. Could you repeat yourself louder?"
"I... I think I've got it this time!" The girl exclaimed much too loudly in order to overcome her nerves. Weiss winced at her volume but smiled at her enthusiasm. Nodding for Amber to demonstrate, she allowed the shorter girl to step forward and begin drawing the glyph.
Amber's staff was a lot less refined than Myrternaster. If Weiss's rapier was like a fine point pen, then her staff was like a twig with charcoal on the end, used for crudely painting on the walls of a cave. The lines of the glyph she drew in the air were thicker and required Amber to take her time.
Still, the enthusiastic young woman was able to successfully create a glyph in the air that crackled with electricity before sending out a powerful strike of lightning. Weiss let a warm smile grow across her face.
"That was wonderful, Amber!" She clapped her hands, causing the girl to blush and shuffle her feet awkwardly. Weiss absently thought that it made her look a little like Ruby, but quickly buried that thought. Thinking about Ruby only made her more annoyed.
"Excellent work. Do you think you can repeat it?" She asked, walking across the training field to stand across from Amber and drawing her rapier. "I want to test its power myself if you don't mind?"
Amber frantically waved her hands. "Oh no, I couldn't- I would never just- I can't just attack you!" She panicked even as her fellow mages were encouraging her, cheering her on and clapping for her. She had been the first one to successfully use the glyph.
"Nonsense. It's important you get used to trying to hit human targets with this spell. It's a useful one for dealing with armored opponents." Weiss encouraged, but Amber still panicked.
"Still, I don't want to hurt you!" Weiss laughed at her, causing her to blush madly. "I- Not to say you're weak, or anything!"
"Amber, I don't plan on letting you just hit me with it. I'm going to block it. How else would I test it?" She teased, smiling wider when she saw her pupil's face grow even redder. Even the older mages were now starting to encourage Amber now. "You've got this. I believe in you," Weiss spoke softly, just loud enough for the brunette to hear her.
Looking up at her with wonder in her eyes, Amber gave her a determined nod before beginning to draw the glyph. Weiss rapidly spun up a shield glyph and placed a hand on it, pouring a small amount of aura into it to maintain it.
While she doubted Amber's glyph would kill or seriously injure her, it would give her a nasty shock she wished to avoid. If she were wearing her armor she would be mostly unharmed, but given how she had elected to wear plain clothes today she wanted to avoid being hit.
As Amber slowly drew the glyph, Weiss's attention shot towards the top of the nearby hill, where she saw silver flames flying around a green figure. Ren and Ruby. Feeling a twinge of irritation, she huffed. Ruby was being completely unreasonable.
Her concern for Weiss's health, while touching, was unwarranted. She was perfectly aware of the risks from the very start. Just because Ruby was having second thoughts about the danger of this journey didn't mean she should give up now.
And while she understood how Ruby might feel uneasy about necromancy, Weiss had explained many times how it was a necessary evil for this quest. As was joining the Oniyuri Rebellion, and killing those White Fang back in Vale. They were all things Weiss wouldn't want to do normally, but she chose to do them for Ruby's sake.
While she was distracted by her annoyance with how unreasonable Ruby was being, Amber's glyph activated and sent a bolt of yellow lighting into her shield glyph. Weiss let out a yelp of surprise as she felt the lightning begin to overpower her shield, her distraction causing her to fail to maintain it.
Just before her shield gave out, Weiss drew Myrternaster in her free hand and swiped upwards, absorbing the electricity and sending it skyward to dissipate. Amber looked pale as she and the other trainees rushed towards her worriedly.
"Ms. Schnee, are you alright?" Bartleby, the other mage who had accompanied Weiss in Shion asked. He and the other few elderly mages looked her up and down to spot any injuries while the younger ones were seemingly trying to keep Amber from fainting in fear.
"I'm fine," She said, breathing deeply to try and catch her breath. Turning to face her favorite student, she spoke loudly. "Amber, you did nothing wrong. It was my fault. Let this be a lesson on not letting yourself get distracted, everyone."
As all of the trainees began to calm down, their concerned frowns turned to teasing grins as Amber's peers began to gently mock the brunette for 'nearly killing their teacher' to her chagrin. Weiss was hardly weak enough to be killed by a measly attack like that. At worst she would've been numb for a few minutes.
Their training continued with no more hiccups, though Weiss still felt her attention shift toward Ruby on occasion. She didn't let herself make any more mistakes, however, trying to maintain the appearance of the strict and unflappable knight that Winter effortlessly seemed to portray.
As the sun began to set, she saw Ren walk over to her. She had seen him in his usual spot earlier, meditating while keeping Ruby out of her hair, though he had left a few hours before. To her surprise, he was fully equipped in his armor and carrying his bow, Stormflower.
"Good evening, Weiss. Go ahead and grab something to eat and head over to the generals' tent. We're having a war meeting, and your input would be appreciated." He told her quietly, so as not to allow the others to overhear. Weiss nodded at him before heading off to grab some food with her trainees.
The younger recruits chattered happily while the elders reminisced about their pasts. Bartleby spoke at length about his farm he had to abandon. Amber nervously tried to talk to Weiss but kept falling silent after she answered whatever question she came up with.
After grabbing a serving of food, she walked over to the generals' tent where she first met Pyrrha and Yatsuhashi. Walking into the room, she gave a respectful nod to the two generals and Fox, General Daichi's loyal bodyguard.
More and more people entered the tent soon after she did, taking their places around the low table bearing a map of the region. Yatsuhashi and Pyrrha sat at the head of the table, with Weiss to the right of the red-haired general.
Eventually, Fox stood up and tightly drew the flaps of the tent shut before activating a silencing glyph sewn into the base. No spies would be able to leak the information unless they were present at the meeting to begin with.
"Let us commence the meeting. There is much to discuss.," Yatsuhashi spoke out. "Sun, you said you had news for us?" All eyes turned towards the monkey faunus, who wore an easygoing grin.
"Yeah. Seems the news about us stopping the Scourge finally reached the capital. All my informants are telling me how it's spreading like wildfire throughout the city. And we didn't even need to spread the rumors in the first place."
"Good. Do we know where the populace stands in regard to the rebellion given this news?" Pyrrha asked, to which Sun just shrugged.
"Most people don't really care either way. Sure, everyone is happy that we finally got rid of it, but at this point most people just want the war to be in the past. There are supporters and detractors for sure, but the majority is just apathetic."
"A rather standard response," Ren spoke out. "Our successes and failures have done little to sway the people of the city to our side in the past."
"Yup. There is some good news. For one, old King Leo is getting a lot of flak for failing to be the one to kill the Nuckelavee. People haven't been thrilled with him given the recent laws he's been passing, and seeing this has only contributed to the dissatisfaction."
"But more importantly," Scarlet, Sun's right-hand man, said, "Lady Schnee's name has drawn a lot of attention from the merchants in the city. While most are still being cautious, a few have agreed to start selling supplies to us."
"Excellent news. You have done us a great boon, Sun," Yatsuhashi clapped politely. "You as well, Lady Schnee. My thanks for allowing us to use your name to spread our message."
Weiss just waved off the compliment. "It is no bother. Besides, it is not as though I had any use for it."
Pyrrha nodded. "Well, combined with the recent support we've gained from our allies back west, we're in a better position than we've been in for years." At the mention of allies to the west, Weiss shot a curious glance to her right, where Ren sat.
"Nobles who suffered from the Grimm hordes after Oniyuri fell. They support our cause, but most are too weakened from the disaster to do anything but lend financial aid. Only the Daichi clan offers military aid, and that has begun to dwindle in recent years."
"My squadron has been able to reclaim a large amount of weaponry after the battle at Shion," A captain Weiss didn't recognize spoke out. "We've handed it over to the blacksmiths to see what they can do with it."
"Most of it was still usable," A man who Weiss assumed was the representative of the Rebellion's craftsmen. "What we couldn't salvage has been melted down. We'll find a use for it."
The meeting progressed rather smoothly, with reports on the various statuses of the Rebellion being given rapidly. Their food was starting to run low thanks to the influx of recruits, but a recent deal with some merchant caravans would alleviate that. Likewise, medicine was in short supply, but Pyrrha set a squadron to task searching the forest for ingredients.
Eventually, the reports finished and silence fell over the table as Yatsuhashi held up a closed fist. Eyes nervously darted around as he took a deep breath. After a moment, he spoke.
"Comrades. It's time. We've received report of a force consisting of several squadrons leaving the capital. In just a week's time, we will be meeting Mistral in battle as equals for the first time in years." Cheers rang out at his words, but Weiss could feel the nervousness still in the air.
"We plan to engage them here," Pyrrha placed a finger on a large clearing on the map. "Over the next few days, we'll begin setting up defenses and moving our soldiers forwards. By the time the enemy reaches us, they'll be forced to face us on our terms."
Weiss looked over the map. The area was large, with dense foliage to the north and south. The only way to move would be forwards. The open area made it optimal for a large battle and given it's close proximity to them they could prepare days in advance. It was the best place she could see to have this battle.
"Ren. You and your squad will be in the rearguard for this battle. You as well, Lady Schnee. While we appreciate your assistance last time, we need you alive for now. Understood?" Yatsuhashi asked with a pointed look. Weiss nodded mutely while Ren saluted in response.
"Alright. Ladies and gentlemen, rest well. In a week's time, we'll be at war. You have the rest of the evening off. Do whatever you need to prepare yourself. Just be ready to fight and die come tomorrow." Pyrrha spoke, receiving a round of applause from those present. "Good. Dismissed."
At that, the captains stood up and began to exit the tent. Some bore nervous looks, while others looked confident and eager to prove themselves. But common among all of them was the look of passion in their eyes from Pyrrha's words. Weiss simply stared blankly ahead, making a point not to meet the sharp silver gaze that pierced her from the corner of the tent. She had no time for arguing with Ruby. She had a battle to win.
Bit of a short chapter this time. Sorry about the delay on this one. Got caught up doing stuff with my family over the holidays and didn't have a chance to edit and release this chapter. I finally managed to get enough time to myself where I'm close enough to my computer that I can finish polishing up this chapter in order to publish it.
Thank you for reading this chapter, and look forward to the next one coming out sometime soon. See you all in 2023.