Chapter 75: Blake
Blake woke up to the sound of screaming.
She sat bolt upright, cold sweat running down her back. She had been having a nightmare, a terrible one, about the White Fang rebellion. Jaune had been in it, and he had died. Yang had been in it, and she had died. And all the while, Adam had been by her side. You'd have to run, far and fast, for me to ever let you go.
In her dream, the screaming had come from all around, as the royal family and her fellow contestants were being massacred left and right, but now that it was morning, the shrieks came from outside.
Blake pulled back her blankets, checked herself in the mirror to make sure her bow hid her ears, and then flung her door open.
Outside, in the white-carpeted hallway of the ladies' quarters, Ruby, Yang, and Nora were playing an absurd game of dodgeball. They were throwing white spherical objects at each other, not on any particular teams but seemingly in a free-for-all of chaos and attack. And they were shrieking loud enough to wake the entire palace.
"Blake!" Yang cried, waving at her.
Blake stared at the golden-haired girl in sleepy disbelief. Her white nightgown was soaked in yellow and orange.
"Hide me!" Ruby screamed, sliding behind Blake to avoid Nora's throw. Unfortunately, Nora did not seem to care that Ruby had thrown herself behind a human shield, and instead pelted Blake with the white balls.
Blake flinched back, expecting the balls to bounce off of her. Instead, they cracked on the front of her dress, leaking yellow and sliding to the floor.
"Are these… eggs?" Blake asked in disbelief.
"Got you!" Nora cried, throwing an egg over Blake's shoulder so that it hit Ruby in the face.
"Yep," Yang grinned. "We stole them from the royal kitchen."
Blake raised an eyebrow, craning over the screeching Ruby and Nora to make eye contact with Yang. "And your first thought was to throw them at each other?"
"Not initially," Ruby explained, getting one good hit on Nora and then turning to Blake. "But then I accidentally dropped one on Nora, and then she threw one at me, but it missed and hit Yang, and then it was all over." She shrieked then as Nora tackled her, cackling and cracking eggs in her hair.
"Unhand my sister!" Yang shouted, pelted Nora with eggs from behind.
Blake shook her head, rolling her eyes and fighting back a smile. She slid down the hallway, avoiding the eggs, and walked down to the laundry.
The royal laundry was on the bottom floor of the palace, connected to the servant's quarters. Professor Goodwitch had told the girls about it when they'd first arrived, explaining that they could always leave their clothes in laundry baskets and servants would pick it up, but if they needed anything urgently done, they could go down to the laundry and ask for it themselves.
"There should always be," Professor Goodwitch had explained, "at least one laundress in the room who can get you what you need."
When Blake opened the door, however, it was not merely one laundress inside, but over fifteen servants. They were standing in a small circle, and they looked up, startled, when Blake entered, and in their midst was Ilia.
"Ilia," Blake said, surprised. She looked around the circle. The servants who stood around were a diverse bunch: some had antlers, others had tails, others had fins or scales or animal ears, but they all had one thing in common, they were all Faunus.
"Blake," Ilia replied. She smiled thinly at the circle of Faunus servants around her. "Blake and I are associates. We're both working for liberation." Ilia turned back to Blake. "New recruits," she explained.
"Ah." Blake found that she had little to say in response to that. New recruits? To the White Fang? Just how many Faunus did they need for their attack? Her eyes caught on one Faunus, a freckled girl with deer antlers who came up to half of Blake's height. "How old is she?" she whispered to Ilia, and when Ilia did not respond, she asked the girl, "how old are you?"
"Nine," the girl responded. She gave a toothy grin, her dark eyes shining. "And I want to fight, just like you two."
Blake's lips pressed into a hard line. Seven… She swallowed. "Can I speak with you outside, Ilia?"
"Of course." Ilia turned to her newfound recruits. "Probably best if you scatter. We don't want to be seen together. But remember your places for the fifth week."
The Faunus all agreed, and Blake and Ilia stepped outside.
"What's going on?" Ilia asked.
Blake chewed on her words, unsure where to start.
"What's that on your shirt?"
"Raw egg, but Ilia–"
"Raw egg?" Ilia's eyes flashed. "Did someone egg you? Did someone find out? If they are bullying you, Blake, so help me–"
"No, it's not that," Blake said quickly. "Some girls were throwing eggs at each other, and I got caught in the crossfire, but–"
"Throwing eggs?" Ilia repeated.
"Yes, but listen–"
"Despicable." Ilia huffed a sigh. "Our people are starving in Mantle, and here they waste food for entertainment–"
"Ilia listen to me!" Blake insisted. Ilia turned to her, and, for a moment, looked taken aback. Blake was aware of how desperate she must look. She tried to swallow her fear and put steel into her spine. "What was that about?"
"New members." Ilia lowered her voice. "Interested in helping our cause. Our leader told me we'd need more people on the inside, when it happens, you know."
They were climbing the stairs now, and while there was no one around, neither girl trusted the palace halls enough to speak freely.
"But kids?" Blake asked. "This could get bloody, Ilia. It could get violent. I'd hate to think that we put a child in a war."
"This is a war for our freedom."
"Yes, but children shouldn't have to be exposed to that."
"They already are." The look in Ilia's eyes was hard. "Oppression doesn't have an age limit. I was twelve when my parents were killed in a mine explosion and I was kicked out of school for being Faunus. Adam was seven when he was sold to the SDC and ten when he was branded for trying to escape. Either we let these kids have the agency to fight for their own freedom, or we condemn them to the same childhoods we and countless other Faunus have lived."
Blake chewed on her lip. "But to be radicalized so young."
"Weren't you?"
She met Ilia's eyes and saw her own past reflected in them: listening in on White Fang meetings around her family's dinner table, sneaking off to follow her parents on missions. She had met Adam in her parents' house. When her parents had left the White Fang, she had chosen him and her mission over them. A part of her had been proud, was still proud, that she had had the courage to stand up for her people's freedom, even when her parents had pulled out of the fight. Another part of her, however, had been tired and scared and afraid after leaving, and had regretted it ever since.