Chapter 16: The two faces of the Moon.
I'll...keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge-to hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose – direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step.
The words given in the Headmaster's speech ate deep into Ruby's mind. Since the presentation at the Auditorium ended, she had not stopped thinking that perhaps there was a hidden meaning outside of the apparent cynicism. She wasn't exactly the most sophisticated tool, but she believed the director meant something with such a choice of words.
While the redhead burned her brain thinking, the line for dinner moved forward. According to Miss Goodwitch's words, the students will have dinner and rest in the main dining room of the Academy. She had her doubts, the food at Signal wasn't exactly the best, but as Uncle Qrow and her dad said, Beacon had one of the three best chefs in Vale. The redhead laughed at the possibility of someone baking better cookies than Grandpa.
"NEXT! FAST!". The cry of a deep voice brought the girl out of her thoughts. Ruby timidly moved forward with the empty tray to stand in front of the Chef. She was huge, almost nine feet tall, and wider than the redhead's own height, only her arms were thicker than the student's entire body. She dressed like a prison cook, if the movies were to be believed, with a net over her few hairs, elbow-length gloves, and a stained apron in front. She didn't want to judge people by their appearance alone, but Willhelmine was an intimidating Troll.
"H-hello…".
"By the lady of tears! Look at those little arms! You seriously need to eat! TAKE!". She couldn't even specify her order because the Huge Cook took her personalized ladle and poured three large portions of what Ruby could only describe as a black mass with peas, lentils, mushrooms and beans.
"There you go, puppy! WHO NEXT?!" Willhelmine shouted as one of her huge gloved hands pushed the redheaded goth out of the line with such force that she skidded across the dining room for almost twenty feet. Ruby had to fight against gravity to avoid falling and getting stained by whatever the dinner was, and she almost lost against such a natural law if it weren't for a cold, rigid, and strangely metallic arm holding her waist, preventing her fall to misfortune.
"Are you okay?" It was a serene voice, strangely deep and stern, but unlike the Schnee heiress she met at noon, this one did not contain any kind of contempt. Ruby recognized him as the strangely tall man who accompanied her sister in the Auditorium. Pale, like her. Redhead, like her. With pointed ears like hers. And silver eyes like hers. Even the color palette of their outfits were similar, but that's where the similarities ended. Their height, facial structure, and the exact shade of their hair couldn't be more different. Even the brightness of both pairs of eyes diverged.
But for some unknown reason, Ruby didn't feel intimidated, it was weird. There was something familiar about that stranger.
"Let me help you." And the taller redhead lifted her until she could stabilize herself again on her black boots. Ruby swung her tray around a bit before composing herself and thanking the stranger.
"Thank you!, that would have been a problem… ehhh, sorry, I don't think my sister will introduce us." In retrospect no, despite having shared seats during the welcome Ruby hadn't bothered to speak to anyone new outside of Jaune. With Yang still in line, Jaune lost somewhere, and Sun chasing that silent girl, she hadn't interacted with other people in a while.
"Daegred Swinsere, at your service" perhaps the bow was a bit exaggerated but despite her uncle's jokes and dad's doubts, her grandfather always told her that she should respond with the same gesture and so she did.
"Oh! Ruby Rose! Nice to meet you!" Her greeting was a little clumsier, but it didn't seem to bother the tall guy.
"Rose?, sorry, but I thought your last name would be Xiao Long." Daegred raised an eyebrow curious about such a difference despite being both sisters.
"Yes, that's my dad's last name, I use my mom's last name!" the hooded girl responded.
"It is a strange custom for me, but I am still new to these lands."
"It's a Patch thing, don't worry! A lot of people also think it's weird…" Being in the middle of the dining room wasn't exactly the girl's plan, but she didn't find any free seats for three people at the nearby tables.
"Do you see a free place from there?" It was a bit embarrassing to ask, it meant admitting that she was still short, somewhat humiliating considering everyone in her family seemed to be tall.
"Follow me," said the pointy-eared guy. He guided her between tables, benches and students in line until they reached a secluded part of the dining room where the lights were dimmer, creating a somewhat sleepier atmosphere. In the middle of the table, there was only one person, which left free space for at least eleven more. Ruby wasted no time and placed her tray on the table.
"Freedom! Yeah!" She exclaimed as she freed her arms from the weight of her dinner, and as a sign of victory she raised her fists to the sky. Daegred looked at her a little confused but smiled sideways and shook his head at seeing such childish behavior. The duo then sat at the same end, and it was there that Ruby realized that her new acquaintance did not have a tray.
"Aren't you going to dinner?"
"I have no appetite for that." And she wouldn't blame him, the thick mass still bubbled in patterns that almost made it look like breathing. Ruby considered imitating the other redhead, but remembered her uncle's words praising Beacon's food. It could be a joke, but Qrow never made jokes about something that would put his nieces' lives at risk... Most of the time.
She took a spoon, and in front of Daegred's astonished gaze, she introduced it into that semi-liquid black paste, taking a medium portion. Ruby lifted the utensil and slowly guided it to her mouth, purposely letting as many drops of the food fall to avoid any possible lethal dose. Once the spoon was in, she closed her mouth, placed the portion on her tongue, and swallowed.
...
...
"it's actually pretty good." Just that phrase was needed for the tall redhead's face to change from white to yellow, then green, and finally blue. He clearly made an effort not to vomit but managed to swallow whatever tried to escape his throat. Ruby thought it was an overreaction and continued eating. That amused the girl in the hood, perhaps in the end she could make more friends in Beacon. After a minute, her sister and Sun managed to find the red-haired duo. They talked for a while, although Daegred stayed mostly on the sidelines of the conversation, throwing out the occasional short sentence. It was then that the obvious need to talk about Weapons arose.
"So…Yang said you used a sword." She asked and Daegred confirmed her doubts by slightly opening his cloak revealing the two hilts that rested on his belt. They seemed archaic in design, perhaps even more so than Crocea Mors since the covers were made of simple leather.
"Oh! dual swords! That's great! And what they do?" Yang had to hold her from behind so she wouldn't violate the tall guy's personal space.
"They cut, and they also shine in the presence of an enemy." He slightly pulled out the blade of the largest sword, which seemed to be made of a whitish metal and although it was definitely of excellent quality, it did not literally shine. The curious expression on her new friend's face seemed to find that surprising, looking around for something. Maybe he had enemies there? Some students had been very jerks like Weiss, although she wouldn't go so far as to consider her an enemy.
"Well! It seems that the Ice Queen is not around!" Yang joked as she caught a portion thrown by Sun's spoon in her mouth. The blonde duo shared two thumbs up before continuing their game. Ruby almost scolded her sister when the taller redhead beat her to the punch.
"You mean the girl with white hair, right?".
"Yeah, Weiss Schnee, some rich guy's daughter, I think most of our ammo was made by her dad's company." He just nodded silently contemplating such information, not wanting the conversation to get sidetracked, Ruby looked for anything related to weapons until her gaze landed on the prosthesis that replaces Daegred's right hand.
"Does it also have a weapon function?" she asked pointing a finger at the robotic limb. She covered her mouth the instant she realized her words, Yang even missing her throw towards Sun, with the chunk of dough landing elsewhere on some unfortunate candidate.
"RUBY!".
"Sorry! I didn't want to…"
"It's okay, there's no harm in asking. I lost my hand a long time ago, as for your question, yes, it has an automatic crossbow function included that is recharged by inserting dust crystals into this slot on the back."
"So that uses crystals? Wouldn't it be more practical to use cylinders with standard Dust? It seems impractical to change ammunition every time you need a different type of element, it would make one of your hands busy in the middle of a fight."
"It is not necessary, the barrel system inside allows the storage of up to four different types of Dust, all I need is to retract my thumb back to activate the mechanism…".
Yang and Sun followed the exchange of information between the two redheads with their gaze as well as possible. None of them were stupid, but at this time of night they didn't have the energy to bother trying to understand half of what that meant. So that her sister wouldn't lose sleep talking until dawn with her new friend, Yang demands with a look that Sun do something. Sun refused, she insisted, he refused again and she tapped the table lightly, and then the Faunus gave in to the other blonde's will.
"So? Ruby! What's your weapon?" Yang slapped her forehead so hard that it left a red mark. This was going to be a long night and it was all Sun's fault.
As he watched both blondes drag Ruby's almost unconscious body to her sleeping place, Daegred couldn't help but think about the unpleasant and intriguing surprises he witnessed that day. Humanity's weapons engineering was more advanced than he believed if they were truly capable of converting gardening tools into weapons qualified to kill grimms. On the other hand, he also reproach the hygiene of this era if they allow the Trolls to feed future generations with their hands. Just thinking about it made him more nauseous, something he didn't belive was physically possible for an Elf.
He shook those thoughts out of his head, he had other matters to attend to first. Amber would receive a new support system for her legs early tomorrow, she wouldn't be able to witness the initiation, it was a shame he couldn't be by her side to see her regain her mobility, but they would see each other again after the ceremony and that was comfort enough. In the meantime, this would be his last visit for now.
He left the dining room, walked through the hallways for about two minutes straight, turning corners, going up stairs, going down to the lower floors, passing through the living room a second time until he was in front of the statue of the Husntmen in the middle of the Academy courtyard. A splendid view without a doubt, but none of that mattered now, he had to solve one last matter.
"I know you're there" the leaves of the trees moved in time with the breeze.
"Why are you hiding in the shadows?" She finally abandoned any pretense. Her clothes almost seemed to merge with the shadow cast by the statue. She was good, she would definitely fool anyone else, but not him, he knew her smell, the pattern of her breathing, the rumbling of her heart beating at full speed, he had tasted her fear something that those feline eyes had in abundance.
"I don't want to fight" Blake Belladona reeked of fear.
"I will decide that, speak quickly." His silver hand rested on the hilt of Foe Hammer. It had been a while since he had a proper fight, he was starting to get bored.
"I left the White Fang, but Ozpin managed to find me, I don't know how but he did. He sent someone, an acquaintance of his, to the house where I was staying and he offered me a scholarship at Beacon." That someone could not be other than Qrow, he had seen the old crow fly into the city a week ago. Why Ozpin didn't inform him of that was beyond him, did he think that the Noldor would forget the girl's participation in that attack?.
"Does Ozpin know what you did, on that train?".
"Yes, I told him everything. The orders were only to steal the contents of the SDC, but Adam wanted to blow up the entire train, I opposed–." The elf laughed when the girl reached that last part.
"You didn't seem too against the idea during our fight." She had fought alongside the horned boy, helping him, protecting him and even willing to use herself as bait for him to escape.
"I…he was still my friend, like a brother to me, I couldn't just leave him–."
"And yet you did it, you let him die at my hand." The girl clenched her fists and looked down at that statement, because it was true. All that the silver eyes of the Noldor saw before him was nothing more than a coward, willing to change sides and abandon her allies when the tides turned against her.
"I know I haven't made the best decisions, but Ozpin gave me a chance!, one to make amends for all the damage I did, to make a real difference, without violence." Was she crying? Adorable. He closed the distance between them at a slow pace as she continued speaking.
"I just want to make things better, without bloodshed, without hatred, I know that–" Daegred interrupted her with his left hand squeezing that thin neck and rising until their gazes were at the same height. She struggled, clawed, and even kicked trying to free herself and breathe, but he wouldn't let her go. not yet.
"I am not going to pretend to know all of the Director's intentions, but I also have an agreement with him and I am not going to break it. Listen carefully with those ears under your bun, Blake Belladona." His prosthesis moved quickly and he removed that annoying black cloth from the girl's head, revealing her cat ears that were shaking due to the chaotic mix of emotions. Tears fell like salty waterfalls from those eyes at such a violation of her person.
"Doubt for a moment, take a step back, dare to run away, make just one mistake." Silver eyes shone like the metal of a sword, his gaze showing nothing but predatory fury. She was just a cat caught in the paws of a hungry bear.
"And I will paint my fangs with your blood."
Mae Govannen Eruhini~✨
Salutations!~✨
Maedhros's hypocrisy comes to light once again. I think I did a good job of portraying both ends of his character in this chapter. He has a genuine bonding moment with Ruby and then is a complete jerk to Blake. In the next we will see some interactions with Weiss and finally we would get to the initiation in the Emerald Forest. I'm interested in knowing what your theories are for the teams. By the way, do you think I should make the chapters longer?. Did you catch the references to the Hobbit?.
All reviews and criticisms are welcome.
Namárië!~✨