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“But doesn’t it get stuck in doors?” The caped girl asked curiously, flickering out of view as soon as Weiss opened her mouth to answer. She whisked around, following the flicker of red on the edge of her vision. Each time the younger (or so Weiss mentally insisted) girl disappeared Weiss would normally find her a minute or two later entranced by graffiti or a cat walking along a fence. Nothing harmful, at least-but Yang had phrased this favour as just a short, fifteen minute walk and it had taken nearly double that already.
A favour for Yang, because they’d apparently reached the stage in their friendship where the blonde was alright asking Weiss to look after her sister. The same respect evidently didn’t extend to Blake though. Yang had stated pretty clearly that she’d prefer the Fae cat didn’t interact with her sister when she wasn’t there to oversee. It didn’t exactly make Weiss happy to have to leave her Familiar behind, even for just half an hour or so, but this was without doubt the biggest extension of trust that Yang had extended yet and-well, Weiss respected that even this had been hard for her.
Just pick Ruby up from her last night class, and keep her company on the walk home. Ruby knew the route like the back of her hand already, so it should have been a walk in the park, but Ruby, Weiss had decided, was testing her. The little Reaper wouldn’t stay in sight no matter how sternly she tried to speak, and finding her each time wasn’t exactly fast. Weiss was still leaning heavily on her staff, after all.
On the last search Weiss had been beginning to think the little terror had gone on without her until a polite cough from overhead made her pause. Sure enough, Ruby was sitting on the lamppost, kicking her legs amusedly as she watched Weiss scurry around below. Once she’d convinced her to come down, the Heiress had taken Ruby’s hand and wasn’t letting go until they arrived and she could go back to her bed, where she should have been at this time in the night. Unfortunately, when Ruby was physically restrained from shooting off, she appeared to more than make up for it with questions.
“What?” Weiss asked irritably, glancing back at the curious eyes of her charge. Ruby nodded at the staff again, expression politely amused.
“Your staff! You’ve brought it everywhere the last few weeks and fiddle constantly with it, even when you’re not looking. Doesn’t it get caught on doors though?”
Weiss huffed, instinctively pulling the tool against her before realising Ruby might have a point. She huffed, twirling it lazily, but noting with satisfaction the impressed noise it brought.
“This is the second staff I’ve made, and it holds some of my strongest magic. Its designed to channel rituals that would have taken time and effort to set up instantaneously, unlike anything regular magic can achieve.”
Ruby nodded as if that was all obvious with an expectant expression. Weiss’s shoulders sagged slightly, pointedly looking back at the road.
“But yes, it gets caught on doors occasionally. I hide it in a tree outside the manor when I’m at home, but apart from that, its important to keep it with me at all times.”
“Oh.” Weiss was pretty sure they were getting close to where she’d dropped Yang off that first time, but she was striding ahead rather than wait around for Ruby to show the way. That meant that the heavy thunk from behind caught her by surprise, and she was jerked backwards as she tried to tug on an arm that was suddenly very firmly placed. When she looked incredulously back Ruby was looking fondly at a massive silver scythe she was holding in one hand, blade buried in the cobbles. Weiss carefully closed her mouth before Ruby looked back at her.
“Because my staff is even bigger and cooler but I can put it away when I’m not using it, so I was wondering why you didn’t do that.” She twirled it in demonstration, casually plucking it out of the concrete and twirling the massive blade overhead. Satisfied that she has the shaman’s attention, Ruby then did something that made Weiss go cross-eyed and the instrument was gone.
Weiss could only stare and try not to gape.
“That…that wasn’t just a staff, Ruby, that was a scythe,” she insisted, the other girl’s accepting nod not quite carrying the significance she felt it should. She knew that Ruby’s mother was apparently a reaper from Yang-which had explained why sunlight made her look like a skeleton, at least-but she’d met a Greek-descended river guide and they hadn’t had a massive spectral weapon. Weiss found herself wondering if Blake had really made the best decision linking her to this family before quickly catching herself.
“Mine doesn’t do that,” she explained weakly, looking at the half-carved length of rowan with a bit less pride than before. “I guess they don’t work quite the same. Ruby…why do you have a massive scythe, invisible or not?” She caught the infinitesimal moment where Ruby froze, expression guilty, before she carefully smoothed her expression down. Weiss grinned for the first time that night, realising she’d just stumbled upon a secret. “Ruby, have you been doing things Yang doesn’t know about?”
Ruby went bright red and stared at the pavement, and when it became clear she was in no hurry to speak Weiss decided to focus on just finishing this cursed errand and thinking twice before doing a favour for Yang again.
“M-maybe?” Came an unexpected squeak from behind, and Weiss stopped to glance back. Ruby suddenly looked very uncomfortable indeed, dragging one edge of her cloak across her front and trying to bury her face in the edge. Weiss paused, expression softening as she realised whatever this was, it mattered a lot to Ruby at least.
“Please don’t tell?” Ruby begged, eyes fearful. Weiss frowned with confusion, realising the other girl had assumed she knew a lot more than she did.
“Well,” Weiss dragged out, trying not to sound too mean. “If you’ve been doing something that would make her worry, I can’t promise I won’t tell her. But…if you explain it to me a little more, I promise I won’t be angry at you for it, okay?”
There was a faint sniff and what could have been a tiny nod, but nothing else. When it became apparent that was all she was getting, Weiss decided to try and forge on on her own.
“It happens when Yang thinks you’re asleep, right?” Weiss pried, smiling at the small shake that might have been another nod. “Thought so. Growing girl or not, eighteen hours a day is a lot of sleep, right? There’s too much to do.”
At first she thought that was going to be it, when a faint mumble came from under the cowl followed by a weak chuckle. “Don’t think anyone sleeps as much as my sister thinks I should.”
Weiss stepped back to stand beside her, letting go of her hand to put an arm around her shoulders instead. “Well, Blake does when I let her.” That got a small giggle and she nudged the other girl familiarly. “She doesn’t seem to mind it. Lots of sleep, lots of tuna, lots of stroking. Who wouldn’t like that?” That didn’t get a response and she sighed, turning Ruby’s head to gently face her.
“What have you been doing when your sister thinks you’re asleep, Ruby?”
She looked for a moment like she was going to flee, eyes flicking from side to side and lingering longingly on a dark alley.
“There are bad things. Out in the city, that people don’t see. They look like people, or things, but there’s no…good-light inside them. They try and hurt people, so…I kinda kill them.”
Weiss stared until Ruby glanced up expectantly, and Weiss quickly coughed, controlling herself. What she was describing were dark spirits. Demons, ghosts, spirits of corruption. Weiss recognised the phrasing because she’d started to be able to see that light too, aided by the staff she now held. Blake had phrased it as part of her mission, to settle or purify these dangerous spirits-eventually. She certainly didn’t go hunting them out where they nested.
Not like Ruby apparently did.
Weiss sighed, pressing a palm against her scar as it twinged in what was probably the start of a headache. This had been supposed to be a quick, simple delivery, Yang had sworn.
“The fact you don’t want to tell your sister means you know it’s dangerous,” Weiss said tiredly. “Haven’t any ever caught or hurt you? How long has this been going on?”
Ruby shrugged, a little confidence seeping back into her expression. “Since before we moved here.” A giggle. “And they’re way too slow to catch me.”
Weiss groaned and turned away, promising herself she’d decide what she was even meant to do about this in the morning. They were only a street or two away from the sisters’ house, after all.
When her heel hit the tarmac every streetlight in view went out in a spray of sparks.
For all the trouble and difficulty in the lessons and teachings Blake had for Weiss, since the attack, some things she’d made herself learn beyond doubt. Never again, she’d promised herself, would she be caught like that again. She’d practised until the simplest spell rolled off her tongue like manners. Then she’d moved onto the next spell. It had been long and hard.
It had been worth it.
Before the sparks faded from view her staff had already slammed into the ground, a wave of burning aurora washing out in a tide from a painfully bright point nestled inside the tip of the wood. A dozen mutilated faces came into view at once, their owners already screeching and recoiling as Weiss whirled around to count. Ruby was gone, disappeared hopefully to safety, and the corpses-walking corpses, eyes dull or missing- milled uncertainly about her as she considered her options.
“So what’s the plan?” Came an upbeat voice behind her and Weiss yelped, nearly braining her friend with the staff as she whirled around. The little Reaper had her staff out and was actually grinning, nodding at the crowd as if-well, Weiss supposed, she really did do this every day.
“You going to show me some of these super-powerful spells you’ve got in there? These guys are babies, right?” Ruby asked excitedly, and Weiss couldn’t help flushing as she whirled away and tried to look dignified.
“Most powerful…I have right now. I may have…exaggerated just a little.” She didn’t have to look behind her to know Ruby’s expression. “It’s a new staff, alright?”
Ruby chuckled, and Weiss had to duck as that massive blade was casually looped through the air.
“Well then, watch and learn.”
Ruby blurred and the walking corpses went flying, crying out in dusty cries as limbs were severed and old skulls turned to powder. One shambled desperately into the dome of light and Weiss threw her desperation into a response, a shaft of light that scattered the shadows hiding inside the corpse. It was turning back into dust before it hit the tarmac.
In the shadows, a foul presence watched with disapproval. Its mission had been clear, and presented as easy. She was not prepared for this. With a twitch of a talon she pulled a larger spirit from the miasma that soaked and bubbled in her every wound and crevice, flicking it towards the dome of light. As it moved it grew, shadows being pulled up and drawn with it, until a towering Greater Shade sped down the darkened street.
Ruby skidded to a halt as the last walking corpse, desperately dragging itself on its remaining stumps, exploded into particles. Weiss leant on her staff heavily as the younger girl beamed.
“See what I mean, Weiss? It isn’t so dangerous after-”
A massive claw hit her like an 18-wheeler and the reaper was catapulted aside, hitting the wall hard enough for it to crumple and collapse around her. Weiss felt her staff drop from limp fingers as the massive, seething pillar of shadow oozed forwards, flicking a desperate glance at her friend, but besides a weak whimper the pile lay silently. Weiss stepped away from the abomination, kept backing up as the thing stalked forwards, letting out some coughing rattle that made her bones crawl and that she strongly suspected was a laugh. She stopped as the ring of aurora ran out, just outside of the light, and the spirit rose to its full height. The staff-light sputtered, flickered, and the idea hit Weiss like a freight train.
The spirit swung its massive limb down as Weiss dropped to her knees, slamming her palms against where the circle of light ended. The claw began its arc…and smashed against a barrier of soft golden light, bouncing the force back on it and making it flail. Weiss staggered back, calling the staff to her with a simple matter of will, but the binding circle remained. Ruby slowly pulled herself free from the rubble, to Weiss’s immense relief, and beyond being winded and a little dazed she somehow didn’t even seem badly hurt. The spirit kept wailing on the barrier as Weiss made absolutely certain Ruby was okay, and the smaller girl gave it a cautious look over her friend’s shoulder.
“And you’re certain it can’t get out?” She asked again, and Weiss pulled her into a tight hug until she started to relax. Only then did Weiss let her go.
“It’s a binding circle, the simplest piece of magic out there. The basis of half the magic I know, in fact. You or I could step through it easily, but to spirits-even strong ones like whatever this is- nothing could ever break it.” It roared in response, and Ruby buried a shiver.
“Well, what are you going to do with it? We can’t just leave it here!”
Weiss glared at it for a moment before setting off again, tugging Ruby after her.
“Sunrise is coming in a few hours and that circle will last for days. It’ll get what it deserves.”
~
Somewhere else in the city, striding away as fast as her little legs would carry her, Emerald was furious. The Reaper and the shaman were weak, small fry at most. Even if they got lucky with the Shade, it was one of the least powerful things she could call up, to say nothing of how easy it would have been to step in and splatter them both across the walls herself.
But she had been promised the shaman’s soul to herself-weak, but defenceless. And so she thought she’d found-but when she’d looked closely, that scar. The soul was already marked, claimed. Whatever owned that mark had already drained the shaman nearly dry, and even if her power was returning, Emerald would not sate herself on sloppy seconds. Her master would…well, all thoughts of anger disappeared when she thought of Cinder, but maybe she’d be able to beg a little kiss in return. That would almost make this waste of a night worth it.
“Hey, err…how much? How much?” Emerald blinked back to the present, looking up at the grinning man rooting through his wallet. She didn’t bother to question a gift when she was in this kind of mood: She summarily kicked one of his knees in to fold backwards, grabbed him by the ear as he dropped like a stone, and sank her teeth into his throat before he hit the pavement. Some poor human with not an inkling of magic in him-but good enough for a snack.
Not a completely wasted evening, at least.