New chapter! Yay! I only just found out that Volume 9 was being released right now so I regained my passion and wrote this up. Please no spoilers yet. I'm going to watch everything that's out after I publish this. So enjoy this chapter of Silver Spectre!
A light grey mist rolled lazily over the ground in a large glade, covering the grass in a layer of dew that reflected the early morning sun. A few birds chirped quietly from the branches of the trees nearby. But the peaceful clearing was about to become a battlefield.
On the eastern side of the glade, a host of soldiers were forming ranks. Their weapons gleamed, free of rust and ready to spill blood. Several banners bearing the sky-blue crest of Mistral waved in the wind as commanders rushed about, speaking to their subordinates about the coming fight.
Opposite them was a haggard collection of fighters garbed in mismatched armor and wielding weapons that were worn at best. This group flew no banner, and their commanders stood still as statues, faces hardened as they stared out at their foes.
Unbeknownst to all but two souls, a girl robed in silver flames stood atop a hill behind the western army with an unreadable expression. Swallowing nervously, she cast her eyes out across the field, searing the sight of the enemy army into her mind.
Ruby had no time to gather her thoughts about what she was about to witness as the Mistralian force began to advance rapidly. At first they marched, before several squadrons began to lightly jog, only for them to begin charging towards the enemy with their polearms outstretched.
Dimly, she remembered what General Nikos had mentioned when debriefing Weiss about the coming battle. Mistral almost always attacked at dawn, and always from the east. Part of it was symbolic, with the rising sun indicating their unstoppable power. But it was also practical, using the rays of light to blind the enemy and frighten them enough to cause them to break ranks.
She got to see firsthand how effective that tactic was as several rebels dropped their shoddy arms and fell back, leaving the vanguard with several holes in it. The ones that remained held out their hands to try and block out the light, while the commanders didn't even react to their retreating comrades.
"This is going to be a bloodbath," Ruby thought numbly to herself.
As the enemy front line drew nearer and nearer, Ruby felt a chill as she began to be able to see their expressions. Faint as it was, she could see the triumphant smirks and cries of victory as they bore down on a defenseless foe.
"They don't even realize they've walked into a trap."
"Now!" The voice of General Yatsuhashi Daichi roared out from the Oniyuri Rebellion's forces, loud enough to startle the enemy's advance force. Several dozen rebels dropped their weapons and reached down, grasping something below the mist and began to pull.
Several ropes swung back, pulling up large polished mirrors with them which other rebels quickly caught and propped up, angling them to reflect the morning sun back at their foe. The enemy panicked, their tactic quite literally being turned around in their face. Their reckless charge halted, a few commanders began to bark orders to try and restore calm.
Ruby winced as she heard the tell-tale whistle and saw the enemy soldiers' fear-stricken faces. The rebels who had fallen back had dipped out of sight, only to turn around and draw their bows, unleashing a volley right as the mirrors went up and left the enemy too distracted to react.
Dozens of arrows rained down upon the Mistralian forces, and their screams made Ruby's insides squirm. The ghostly girl lifted a hand to her mouth in horror, choking back a cry as she watched a young man choke on an arrow in his throat.
"It seems Pyrrha's strategy worked well," Weiss spoke aloud beside her, stepping forward to gaze upon the field with a neutral expression. Ruby knew from the way her lips twitched and the slight downward curve of her eyebrows that she wasn't unbothered by the screams, but it didn't bother her as much.
"Indeed. Mistral has used this tactic for centuries, so countless ways of avoiding it have been devised. But General Nikos devised this counter a year ago. We simply haven't been able to implement it until now," Ren explained. Ruby noticed his demeanor towards the battle was simply exhaustion, as though he had no more emotion left to spare for the enemy.
"Feels nice to give them a taste of their own medicine," Nora muttered as she walked up to them, shouldering her giant hammer. The four of them stood atop the hill, watching as the rebellion snapped to attention while the enemy panicked, split between wanting to advance and wanting to fall back and regroup.
"Mhmm. We've lost a lot of good people to this fight," Ren said, glancing out at his comrades down below the hill.
"But now we just might have a chance to end it for good," Nora said hopefully. "Wouldn't that be nice, Ren? Peace at last. We could finally move on."
Ren nodded. "Yes. That sounds nice. But sometimes... I wonder."
Weiss quirked a brow. "Wonder what?"
He grimaced. "What would I even do with that peace, when all I've learned is war."
Nora smiled softly, leaning against him. "We'll figure it out together." The black-haired man turned towards his friend and gave her a grateful smile before turning his attention back out towards the battlefield.
Ruby's gaze lingered on the pair for a moment before turning back towards the glade. Her eyes were drawn as if by magic to where the corpses of dozens of Mistralian soldiers lay, pinned to the earth by arrows, never to draw breath again.
"Did they dream of peace too? An end to the conflict? A shared dream? Someone they wanted to see once all the fighting stopped?"
Ruby didn't know the answer. As she watched a third of the enemy army fall back to regroup while the remnants surged forward to finish off a foe they perceived as weak, she couldn't help but ask.
"Why are they fighting like this?"
Neither Ren or Nora heard her, but Weiss turned towards her slightly, her eyes curious. For a moment, the ex-heiress pondered the question.
"It's a cycle of violence," She explained, drawing a strange look from Nora and Ren. "Human nature compels us to seek reparation when wronged, so we do. But violence erodes the chance for peace, and thus the only reparation for violence is violence."
"But then what? Won't that just lead to more violence?" Ruby asked.
"It's how it has always been. Even just standing here today, we've all inherited some of the grudges of our predecessors. Eventually, they might fade, but often our feelings are passed down to those whose lives we touch, continuing the cycle of violence."
Ren nodded, subtly shifting his gaze near Ruby to show he understood what was happening. "Long, long ago, one person did something to wrong another. We'll never know what, or why, but ever since then, humanity has found itself trapped in this cycle of fighting."
"That's awful," Ruby whispered.
"It's the world we've been born into," Weiss explained. "It's all around us, and not just in the Rebellion. The Schnee family and the White Fang is another such example, as is Vale and Vacuo's consistent border conflict. The kindling was set centuries ago, we're only just now seeing the spark catch."
Ruby felt her heart tighten. Weiss explained things harshly for sure, but she couldn't quite disagree with her assessment.
"Damn. That's a pretty harsh way of looking at things, Weissy." Nora said with a thoughtful frown. It was clear Weiss's words had reached more than just Ruby. "So where does that leave us?"
Weiss simply stared out at the battlefield. "I never said that this cycle was always wrong. In some cases, it truly is the right thing to do. But it's important to understand that violence almost exclusively will cause more violence."
"Then will it ever end?" Ruby wondered aloud.
Weiss glanced at her. "Grudges all eventually fade. Vacuo and Vale have put aside their differences before to cooperate. And I have hope that one day Atlas will recognize Faunus as equal. But it's easier to hate than it is to forgive, and there will always be new grudges to take the place of those that fade."
"So no one wins then? We just keep screwing each other over?" Nora asked.
"There is a winner here. Just not one anyone wants to see succeed. The Grimm certainly don't seem to mind all the hate," Ren surmised. Everyone fell silent at that.
"There is no easy solution. If there was then we'd have done it by now." Weiss said.
"But that's why it's important to know the reason why you fight. Loyalty, fear, pride, justice, or whatever drives you. You have to be aware of it so you don't lose yourself to this cycle of violence." Ren explained. "If you know your why, then you'll be able to break out of the cycle someday."
Nora seemed to perk up at that. "So what we're fighting for isn't wrong? We're not just doing the same thing as Mistral?"
Ren shook his head. "No. We have an end goal and a reason to reach it. We'll go that far and not a step beyond and before that line."
Ruby turned to her friend. "Then why do you fight? It's not for justice like them. You said it yourself, you wouldn't have joined if it didn't help your end goal."
"My goals are the same as they've always been." She whispered back.
"I'm not asking about your goals, I'm asking why you want to achieve them."
Weiss didn't have an answer. Ruby felt a wave of disappointment and anger wash over her. "Forget it. Just keep fighting. It's not like you'll listen to me anyway."
At that, she floated as far away from Weiss as she could without being pulled back. Unbeknownst to her, Weiss's expression shifted to a conflicted and confused stare directed right at her back.
Ruby's words hurt worse than anything Weiss had experienced on her journey thus far. She'd take getting hit with a haunted suit of armor's person-sized sword any day over having Ruby cut into her like that. The worst part was that she didn't quite have an answer to her questions.
She wasn't an idiot. It was clear that the fighting was bothering her friend, much more than it did her. She supposed she simply had a higher tolerance for it, perhaps on account of her childhood being much less warm than her companion's. She had no illusions about life being a fairytale.
But when Ruby had asked why she fought, what her reason was, she came up empty-handed. It was something she had been pondering since Pyrrha spoke to her about joining the rebellion. But even after days of consideration, there still was nothing.
Of course, the easy answer would be that she wanted to help Ruby. but that was a goal, not a reason. Saying that she wanted to do it because Ruby was her friend was true, but that felt disingenuous. Her reason for fighting was something internal. She had a strong sense of justice she inherited from her sister, but also a ruthless pragmatism from her father. What drove her to pursue her goals at any cost, even her own life?
Weiss had nothing. Instead of stewing in her thoughts, she turned her eyes down towards the battlefield. General Daichi had ordered her, Ren, Nora, and almost everyone involved in the skirmish at Shion to rest for this battle. General Nikos was allowed to be present on the frontlines, but only as a commander and not a fighter. She was to retreat at the first sign of failure.
Instead, Yatsuhashi showed just how dependable he was. Though Weiss felt he was often overly cautious, he was an excellent commander given what she was seeing before her eyes. Besides, he had the rebellion to worry about. Weiss just wanted to get her book.
"Stop thinking about that. You'll end up going in circles."
After a third of the enemy army fell back to try and regroup, General Daichi surged forwards to engage the remaining foes. To the surprise of the Mistralian army, the rebel force nearly doubled as dozens of previously hidden soldiers leapt from trenches dug in advance to hide their numbers.
These reinforcements were also better armed, wielding weapons they recovered from Shion after the enemy there surrendered. There were even several mages among them, though Amber and Bartleby, the two who accompanied Weiss in Shion were in the rearguard with her.
The rebels fought in a loose but organized formation, leaving gaps to allow the mages to fire spells to devastating effect at the tightly packed Mistralian forces. General Daichi and several dozen rebels clashed with the enemy vanguard, his giant copper sword cleaving through the air and breaking their lines.
Yatsuhashi's trusted right-hand man Fox attacked the left flank, flickering in and out of reach alongside a handful of mercenaries. His bladed tonfa slashed quickly before he fell back out of reach, leaving a hole that was hastily filled by an enemy soldier.
The brunt of the Rebellion's forces, however, was moving towards the right flank. With General Daichi right in front of them, the enemy was so focused on pressing forwards to kill him that they refused to fall back. And with the pressure Fox was putting on their left flank, they had nowhere to move as the rebels moved to charge them from the right.
Suddenly, Weiss saw General Daichi raise his sword high and roar out a command. The sight of several glyphs being formed caused panic in the enemy ranks. A few mages tried to create a barrier, only for arrows to lodge themselves in them before the spell could come to fruition.
Magic ripped through the right flank, weak by Weiss's standards but making up for quality with sheer quantity. With their flank wiped out, the enemy tried to shift to defend against the new threat only for Yatsuhashi to crash into their ranks, making broad sweeping slashes that tore through the chain of command.
Fox and his mercenaries dashed into the fray, slipping between Mistralian soldiers and leaving a trail of corpses in their wake. The main rebel force likewise tore through the panicked soldiers, quickly routing them and leaving the battlefield silent and still.
Across the glade, the remaining force stood still. For a tense moment, Weiss wondered if they could hold them off if they decided to press the attack. Their strategy had been bold, fashioned by both Pyrrha and herself, but it had relied on surprise. Their casualties were low, but General Daichi was far from the rearguard, leaving him vulnerable to a sudden charge.
Fortunately, a cry of "Retreat!" could be heard as the Mistralian forces turned tail and fled eastward, followed by a victorious cry from the rebels as General Daichi pumped his fist into the sky. Nora gave a cheer and tackled Ren in a hug as Weiss chuckled at the pair.
Despite her wishes otherwise, she felt her eyes drift towards Ruby. She wondered how she felt about this victory, if she was proud of her friends. If she was proud of her. Unbidden, her previous thoughts began to return to her, leaving her to wonder.
"Why do I fight? And why do I care so much about what Ruby thinks about me?"
"The Oniyuri Rebellion? I don't know anything about 'em," A barkeep nervously stuttered in response to a series of questions from two cloaked strangers.
"Really? Because we were looking for someone who could tell us where to sign up," One of the strangers explained, prompting a few stunned looks from the patrons of the bar. The barkeep's eyes went wide and sweat broke out on his brow.
"N-not so loud! Y-y-you never know who's listening, y'know?" He hissed, leaning across the bar. "Two fine young ladies like you don't need that kind of trouble."
"Don't worry. I'm more than capable of handling anything Mistral throws at us," The other stranger spoke, shifting her cloak to reveal a gleaming silver sword and polished armor. Most of the patrons stopped blatantly paying attention at that, getting the message. A few still kept watching, either because they were drunk or interested in the two female warriors who walked in.
The barkeep still seemed nervous. "Now, there's a lot of good someones like y'all could do around here. There's money to be made fighting off Grimm and bandits for the towns 'round these parts, 'specially with all the fightin' that's been goin' on. Whaddya say?"
The two gave him an uninterested look. One began to pick at her nails while the other just reached into her pocket and tossed him a few lien coins.
"We just want to know where to go if we want to join. If anyone asks, you're welcome to say we threatened you."
The barkeep looked around nervously, but none of the patrons would meet his eye. Gulping, he considered his options. Tell the strangers what little he knew about how to join and risk someone reporting him for being a rebel, or piss off the duo who clearly could tear him and the entire town guard apart. Easy choice.
"East of here, head towards Shion village. Eventually, you'll come to a bridge over a river. Follow the river south for about four miles and you should find some recruitment camps. From there you can talk to them about going to the main camp."
For a moment, the bar was silent. Everyone watched the strangers closely to gauge their reaction, which was made difficult by the large black cloaks around them and their guarded expressions. Eventually, one of them broke the silence by slamming their armored fist down on the table.
"Next time, save us all the trouble and say that sooner. We've been here for half an hour, and it smells like piss and beer in here." She said, walking away with her companion following behind her. To his surprise, the barkeep found another lien coin.
Pocketing it, the barkeep let out a sigh of relief. But as he did so, something caught his eye. Pulling one of the coins out, he examined it under the dim light of the bar. Lien was used universally, so it could be used anywhere. But still, a town like this didn't see a lot of travelers pass by.
So he was confused when he saw a Valean Lien for the first time in his life.
Gee I wonder who those two mysterious women from Vale looking for where the plot is happening could be. Probably no one important. Definitely not major characters who've been absent for the past dozen or so chapters. I would never.
Also, Ruby and Weiss have a conversation about the morality of war and why it sucks even when you think you're doing the right thing. Not at all going to be important for their relationship. Never. Nothing to do with their current conflict at all.
I swear some actual progress is going to happen in the next two chapters with regards to both plot and shipping. And not just "Oh wow I need you in my life but am to repressed/dead to realize that's love" like I've been doing, but actual progress. And with Volume 9 out, I'm even more eager to write then before. Thanks for reading this chapter, feel free to leave feedback, and have a nice day.