Through Victory My Chains are Broken Interlude 2

I'll be posting this publicly elsewhere in a few days. In the meantime, this has been a much belated post. Enjoy. :D

- - ----====| | |====---- - -

“You disappoint me.”

The words stung.

It had been the second time she had failed her mistress, the second time that she had drawn the pale woman’s ire. And Maiden or not, there would likely not be a third time.

“Well, do you have an explanation?”

“I…” Cinder trailed off. She kept seeing that fight, with the so-called Red Blade. She had thrown everything she had into it, called upon every bit of the portion of the Fall Maiden’s powers she held, and it still had not been enough. The nightmare had casually defeated her, and would have slain her had Emerald had not thrown herself at it, giving time for Cinder and Mercury to escape.

Mercury. He too had died that night. Cinder had always liked him more than his ‘partner.’ Emerald had had a soft side, a vulnerable side. One she clung to, despite her own best efforts to grind it out of the girl as it had once been beaten out of her. Amusing, that Emerald’s softness had been what saved Cinder in the end.

“It had to be another of the Maidens,” Cinder answered.

A brief moment passed in silence. “Perhaps. But that still doesn’t explain your… abject failure. You were already capable of defeating a Maiden, something you have proven with your dispatching of your predecessor.” The voice of the woman, her mistress, took on an icy tone. “So, my dear Cinder, even with a portion of a Maiden’s power, why were you incapable of stopping one?”

“I…” she trailed off again. She didn’t have an answer. Not one she felt comfortable speaking to.

“Well?” her mistress said. “Go on, then.”

“My lady-” Cinder began to speak, but in a flash, a tentacle from the Seer lashed out at her, wrapping around her neck and squeezing and lifting her into the air. She began to choke, suddenly unable to breathe.

“Understand me well, Cinder,” Salem, her mistress, hissed. “You failed because you had grown overconfident, drunk, on what little power I allowed you to gain for yourself. You thought yourself infallible, invincible when you haven't even begun to hop out of your well.” Her face grew close to the Seer on the far end of the link, filling the surface of the Seer on this side. “Did I make a mistake, choosing you to carry their powers?”

Stars began to dance in her field of vision, darkness creeping into the edges as the Grimm strangled her. Cinder shook her head as best as she could, the only thing she could do.

“I would hope not, my dear,” Salem drawled. “For your sake.” The tentacle released its grasp, and Cinder dropped to the floor in a heap. She lay there, coughing and gasping for breath.

“You will not fail me again, Cinder,” Her mistress instructed her. “Go now, and reflect on this failure of yours. And inform Arthur and Hazel that I would speak with them.”

“Yes, my mistress.” Cinder rose without another word, turning and leaving the room. Just outside were the two that her mistress had mentioned, and she didn’t need to inform them of anything as they went in right after. Cinder ignored their glares and sneers leveled at her, instead focusing on trying to find something to eat in this hovel that Arthur repurposed for a new hideout.

No matter what her mistress said, if it was the last thing she did she would kill that bitch.

- - ----====| | |====---- - -

“Ruby?”

At first, Pyrrha wasn't sure if the other girl had even heard her call out to her. She opened her mouth to say her name, but abruptly Ruby looked up, her silver eyes boring into her own.

“Pyrrha?” She replied, setting aside the thick tome she had been reading. “Hey there! What’re you doing in the library? I wasn’t expecting anyone to interrupt my studying, and I haven’t seen any of your team here.” The girl was smiling, beaming almost. “I kinda need to keep reading though.”

“You,” she said. “I wanted to talk to you.”

“Oh?” Ruby said, smiling.

“Well, more ask you some questions.”

A beat passed in silence, and the girl’s expression shifted, warmed almost. “I see. Please,” she gestured to a nearby empty chair. “Take a seat and we will talk.”

Pyrrha blinked at the sudden tone in Ruby’s voice, the sudden maturity catching her by surprise. But still she obliged, sitting down in the offered chair. It took her a moment to compose herself enough to ask the question she wanted to open with.

“I take it that this is about Jaune?” Ruby beat her to it.

“Y- yes,” she replied, surprise evident on her face. “It is about him.”

“Well, you should say yes,” Ruby smiled.

“What?”

“To the date,” she smiled. “I know that there is a school dance coming up, so I take it that this is what that is about?”

“What? No, not that,” Pyrrha shook her head. “It’s about, well…”

“Oh, his lack of experience regarding being a Huntsman?”

Pyrrha blinked. “Yes.”

“I see.” Ruby was quiet for a moment. “You came to me because you thought I might help in providing some advice, because of my age and therefore relative inexperience?”

Pyrha found herself wringing her hands. “Was I that transparent?”

Ruby shrugged, nodding her head. “You kinda were, to be honest.”

Pyrrha felt her face flush with heat, just thinking about the boy that was her team leader. “I’m… In a hard place to be.”

“I see. A part of you were expecting to be the leader of whatever team you would become a part of, and not stuck in a subordinate role. Let alone seconded to someone as, well, naive, as Jaune is.” Ruby smiled.

“Yeah.” Ruby had seen right through her, had described her feelings exactly. It was almost disorienting, being described that way. If a prodigy from Signal could dissect her feelings so thoroughly and so well, then what did that mean for her?

“You know, Weiss felt the same way, about me being assigned the leadership role,” Ruby said. “She too had been anticipating being the leader, due to her own personal and individual merits. You two have a lot in common in that way.”

“You mentioned being a prodigy,” Pyrrha asked the other girl. “Does that explain the early admission from Signal to Beacon?”

“It does,” Ruby smiled. “And you know, I am relieved that the students and faculty here are willing to treat me as an equal. Well, barring a handful of… exceptions.”

Pyrrha could hear the emphasis on the last word, and she didn’t need to ask for an example, as the members of Team CRDL provided such. “Yeah. And you certainly act as mature as the rest of us.” And speak as well, but Pyrrha left that last part unspoken.

Ruby raised an eyebrow. “Who says this is an act?”

“Oh?”

“Well, I do have my moments of childishness,” Ruby explained. “Moments that I allow myself.”

“Why wouldn’t you?”

For a long moment, Ruby said nothing. Her gaze unfocused, as if she were staring off into the distance, toward some past memory. “Pyrrha,” she spoke eventually, “Have you ever killed anyone?”

“What do you mean?”

Her head pivoted, her silver eyes boring into hers. “You know what I mean.”

For Pyrrha, the answer was readily a firm ‘no.’ In the tournaments she had fought in prior to attending Beacon, the combatants fought until their Aura was depleted. The worst anyone had ever suffered were bruises and the occasional bone fracture. The closest she’d ever thought she had come had been during one of her more recent fights, when she thought she had grievously injured an opponent - but the man had stood back up from the small crater his impact had left in the floor, much to her quiet relief.

“No, of course not, “She answered. “Ruby, the way you asked that, I have to ask-”

“Yes.”

The answer shocked her.

Ruby Rose, a killer?

“Before you jump to any conclusions, he had it coming,” Ruby said. “That man had killed a lot of people. Some bad, but many good. I did the ga- the world a favor.”

“I didn’t know.”

“No one does. Not my sister, not my team.” She seemed to unfocus again, once more staring off into the distance. “I… may have just made a mistake telling you this.”

“I won’t tell anyone, if you don’t want me to,” Pyrrha spoke. “You have my word.”

“Thank you.”

Pyrrha thought about the girl before her, the young team leader of RWBY. The thought that the weapon the young team leader loved to fawn over and tinker with had drawn blood, taken a life? That the woman who wielded it had taken a life? It was hard to grasp.

“I… Do you want to talk about it Ruby?” she asked the other girl. “About it?”

Ruby just shook her head. “I talked about it enough a long time ago, and it does not hold me back anymore. I doubted myself for a while, that I could… come back, from it, what I did. Speaking of that, I want to say that you are doubting Jaune, and my answer to that is, well, don’t.”

Pyrrha opened her mouth to speak, but Ruby raised a hand to cut her off. “Allow me to finish, Miss Nikos. Your partner and team leader has potential. I saw that in him when I first met him, before I even arrived in Beacon. He has drive and commitment as well, and from experience neither of those are easy to teach. If you and your other teammates help him in his deficiencies, you all will go far.”

“So, what would you suggest I do?”

Ruby smiled. “As I understand it, there simply is no alternative for focused and continuous training. So train. Train for the basics, then the intermediate skills and then the advanced. These things you should already be acquainted with, I am sure. But not only that. Train for the unexpected. Train against human opponents, against people who want to harm you and kill you, not just Grimm. As dangerous as the Grimm may be, people are a far, far bigger threat than they ever could hope to be.”

“Okay,” Pyrrha replied. “But Ruby, the way you’re talking…”

Ruby smiled, nodded. “Yes, to both of the questions you are thinking of.”

Pyrrha’s lips drew thin. To think Ruby, the crowning jewel of her team had such experience? The trail of thought died in her mind.

“How far along is Jaune, anyway?” Ruby asked. “In your opinion. I know he has gotten the basics down, but I would like to hear it from you.”

“He… is coming along.”

“You do not sound so confident in your statement.”

“He makes mistakes, has some slip-ups,” Pyrrha continued. “But you’re right, he’s driven. He… he’s willing to learn, and…” A tear began to form in the corner of her eye. He’s Jaune.”

“No, he is the first person to ever see you as a fellow person, and not the ‘Pride of Mistral.’”

Ruby understood. She understood, somehow. How was she so wise?

“Jaune, he… Yeah,” Pyrrha said, wiping the tear from her eye. He’s so oblivious to it too.”

Ruby chuckled. “You have fallen for him.”

Pyrrha smiled.

“It is not a question you need to answer here,” Ruby explained.

“Yeah.” Pyrrha stood, turning to walk away. “Thank you, Ruby,” she said over her shoulder.

“Of course,” she smiled. An innocent smile, one that hid and disguised someone powerful and dangerous.

“And Pyrrha?” Ruby called out to her. “There is one thing you can learn from Jaune.”

She turned back to look at Ruby. “What is that?”

“Proper protective gear,” Ruby told her. “A choker and corset do not make for effective protection when facing an opponent willing to exploit any they can find or see. There is a little clothing boutique near a bookstore that I have gone to in the past in Vale. I am sure the owner can help you find what you need.”

“And does that ‘combat skirt’ count?”

“No, no it does not,” Ruby replied with a soft chuckle. “I need to start practicing what I preach.”

“I’ll think about it Ruby, and about all of this. And thank you.”

“Of course. Take care of yourself, Miss Nikos.”

As Pyrrha departed the library, she thought about Ruby’s words, her advice. The way she described things made her sound… old. For most of that conversation, she had sounded like her own mother. It was hard to reconcile the image of the bubbly teenager squeezing her scythe to her chest that her first impression of her was with the wise-beyond-her-years, almost ruthless young woman sitting in the chair. As Pyrrha went off in search of her team, her thoughts drifted away from the strange conversation, but she still dwelled on some of the answers she had given her.

- - ----====| | |====---- - -​

“Well, this sucks,” Qrow muttered.

It was a sentiment that everyone in the room could agree with, some more than others. They had gathered in one of the meeting rooms inside the Atlas embassy. Most of them sat on the couches in the center of the room, nursing bruises and just as bruised egos. Qrow reflected on the past couple of hours, the trap and the fight that had followed. And then the aftermath, and what had brought his little troop to this room.

“Considering the absence of your target, I’m going to assume you were unable to bring Red Blade in,” General James Ironwood said. “So I’ll just ask, what happened?”

Silence grew as none of the others in the room said anything. James sighed. “Winter, I’ll start by asking you.”

The woman was sitting across from Qrow, her arms crossed head down. She was brooding, which was understandable as she’d probably gotten the worst of it. She looked up, facing the General. “That evil b-”

“Winter.”

“That… woman,” she ground out, “beat us. And then she tried to drown me, and then she stole my sword.” Unlike most of the rest of them, the woman was now wearing a simple outfit, trousers and a shirt. She had had to change, after her regular outfit had been so thoroughly ruined during the fight.

“She… stole your weapon?”

“Yes,” Winter spoke, fists clenched. “She knocked it right out of my hand.”

Ironwood sighed. “You had her outnumbered four to one.”

“It wasn’t just her though,” Qrow continued. “She… had people, James.”

“People?”

“Accomplices, three of them,” Winter explained. “They… just came out of nowhere.”

Ironwood considered the new information. “Were they human, or Faunus?”

“I’m…” Qrow grew silent, rubbing the bridge of his nose with a hand. “I just don’t even know. I’m not even sure who was real and what was fake during that whole fight if I’m being honest with myself.”

“I agree with that,” Taiyang spoke up.

“Mr. Xiao Long?”

“With the idea that some of them were illusions. Or even all of them at one point. It wouldn’t have surprised me the least that this Red Blade was playing with smoke and mirrors. If I’d had an illusion-based Semblance like hers, I’d do the same to be honest.” He shrugged. “But with that said, she was real toward the end.”

“How do you know Tai?” Qrow asked the man sitting next to him.

“I’ve met and fought people with illusion Semblances, and I’ve never heard of an illusion that can shoulder check someone through a freight container.”

“Yeah,” Qrow agreed, recalling the last moments of the battle. “But before, it was like-”

“She was toying with us,” Goodwitch finished. “By using those apparitions.” The woman seemed different somehow, since the battle. Withdrawn, even skittish almost. She wore something similar to Winter, as she had also had to change after Winter had, well, leaked onto her normally pristine outfit. “At any moment, she could have ended the fight. I daresay she could have killed us all and made it look easy.”

“Four of the best huntsmen and huntress in the world are sitting in this room, and one of them is telling me that they were hopelessly outclassed by someone none of us have heard of before last week?” Ironwood looked genuinely surprised. “Am I hearing that right?”

“Yes sir,” Winter said. “And I agree with her.” Qrow noticed that she did a poor job of hiding the blush as she glanced over to the woman sitting next to her. Then again, waking up in the bosom of someone as well endowed as the Deputy Headmistress was probably the dream of many a person. It might have even been his, once upon a time if he was honest with himself.

Ironwood seemed frustrated, defeated almost. “Winter, note by note, just tell me what happened? And the rest of you can fill in if you can or want.”

Winter nodded, and began to explain the events of a few hours ago. Their initial contact with the Red Blade, her apparently arrogant speech. How she had refused to come with them, and then the fights that had followed. How she had tried to kill Red Blade by destroying the crane and crushing her, and then how she had seemingly survived that. Qrow still felt disgusted at her betrayal, of her going behind his back even if it was on orders.

The rest of them had filled in details as well. Taiyang had described his fight with a six-armed Faunus, while Goodwitch had described her own bout. Qrow did as well, describing the battle with the silent, crazed, spinning energy sword wielding woman that may or may not have been real. And then the last battle, if it could have even been called as much. To them it had felt like a massacre, a slaughter where the only things that had perished were their confidence in their ability as Huntsmen.

“Apparitions, Illusions,” spoke the sixth and final person in the room.

“Ozpin?”

The man himself sat off to the side, at a table at the edge of the room. He set his mug down on the table before him. “The more I hear about this Red Blade, the more she concerns me.”

“Do you know… what she is then?”  The general asked.

The man’s elbows rested on the table, his fingers laced together. His face and expression darkened, and Qrow knew that look, when the man became lost in serious thought. “No, I don’t.”

“You don’t?”

“A day ago, I might have had an idea of what Red Blade is. But after tonight, that notion is no longer valid.”

“Humor me?”

Ozpin rose from his seat, fetching his mug of cocoa. “I had thought that she might have been something like me,” he spoke, walking over to the broad window that dominated one end of the room.

“Like you?”

“Yes. I speculated that she might have been like myself and Salem, a… holdover from another era. But now I doubt that.”

“Salem,” Taiyang said. "That’s the second time I’ve heard that name tonight. I feel like I’ve been left out of the loop on something important here.”

Ozpin sighed. “You are, Mr. Xiao Long. Later tonight, I will sit down and explain things to you. It’s the least I can do, especially after risking yourself.”

“Please do.”

“But,” and the Headmaster continued, “I simply no longer have any idea what the Red Blade is.”

“Is she one of the Maidens?” Ironwood asked. “I know that Spring is still unaccounted for-”

“No,” Ozpin cut him off. “I can say for certainty that this Red Blade is not one of the Maidens.”

“And how do you know this, Ozpin?”

“A combination of gut instinct and intuition,” the Headmaster answered. “Let’s just put it that way. And from their descriptions of the battle, nothing suggests such.”

Ironwood sighed. “All right, I’ll take your word on that.”

“So where does that leave us?” Qrow asked the Headmaster.

“On the back foot, regrettably.”

“Well, she did say she would meet with you on her terms,” Qrow explained. “She called you the ‘old man in the tower.’”

For a moment, Ozpin seemed to freeze. “She said that?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

“Ozpin, what is it?” Ironwood asked.

“I…” he trailed off. “I don’t even know anymore.” The man suddenly looked weary, withdrawn as he found a seat along the side of the room and dropped into it. “Whatever we’re suddenly faced with, It is not something I have ever seen before. I doubt it’s something even she has dealt with either. I feel that we’ve made a terrible mistake, in making Red Blade an enemy.”

“But she’s been killing people, Headmaster,” Winter said. “Sending the city of Vale into a panic. Your own students have been injured out there fighting the Grimm, as a result of her actions.”

“You don’t understand, Specialist Schnee,” Ozpin said. “The Red Blade was fighting her.”

“Oh.”

A beat passed in silence. “She doesn’t know, General?”

“I know better than to ask about things above my pay grade.”

The General glanced at the woman. “She doesn’t.”

“I see. Well, that’s two I will need to explain things to.”

“I understand,” the General sighed. “Specialist Schnee is trustworthy.”

“Okay,” Ozpin sighed heavily. “But as bad as she may be, I fear that we have made an enemy that we can ill afford to have.”

- - ----====| | |====---- - -​

It was a pleasant memory, a memory that Emerald cherished. The first time she had met Cinder, the moment she had ceased being a vagrant, a common thief, and had finally become something more.

She remembered that dingy alleyway that Cinder had cornered her in, her first meeting with her there. Emerald remembered how the other woman had seemingly known her so well. She remembered her confident demeanor, despite her relaxed stance. After she had met Mercury, and together they had gone far.

“Who are you?” She had asked the woman.

Cinder stood there and smirked-

And a crimson beam of light burst through her chest.

Cinder's face contorted in shock, before the beam was jerked up to the right and then down to the left, bisecting her in two. Both parts fell to the ground, dead before they even reached it. And as both halves fell, Emerald balked in horror and terror at her.

Gray and black attire, a combat facemask concealing her lower face. And a gleaming silver hilt emitting a hellish red beam of light. The woman clad in black. The one that had… Had…

“Well,” the woman muttered, “at least I can kill her in a dream.” She looked up at Emerald, who had backed against the wall of the alleyway. “Well now, It is finally time that you and I properly meet, and I think it is time we sat down and had a talk, would you not say?” She smiled, and Emerald could tell she was, despite her face being concealed. “My name is Silba, and I feel that this little chat was a long time coming.”

Emerald looked down at what was left of Cinder, then back up at the monster that had slain her. “You,” she hissed, “You-”

“Me, me, me?” The woman, Silba, gestured down at the bisected woman. “Oh no, this here? This is a figment of your imagination. The real Cinder is no doubt alive and well, for however long that will last. This? A cluster of synapses, firing randomly within your dying brain as it struggles to cling to life.”

Dying? “What? No I can’t…” Emerald trailed off, shaking her head. “I’m not dying.”

“Ah. Well, you might be a little addled, in regards to your current predicament,” Silba explained to her, “So I don’t blame you for your confusion. And as I recall, your lungs were more than a little messed up, at least according to your medical chart. And as a result, your brain probably is not getting as much air as it should be.” Silba gestured towards Emerald, holding out a gloved hand. “Here, how about you let me show you?”

Their surroundings shifted, changed, the walls of the alleyway replaced in the blink of an eye by the walls of a sterile hospital room. Emerald was briefly disoriented by the change, but recovered quick enough to get a grasp on her surroundings. Despite the clean and sterile nature of the room, it had cozy elements to it. A plush chair, a plant by the window. A small bookcase filled with titles she didn’t recognize. Not a hospital, but something styled as such?

The woman in black was still there, standing next to a hospital bed. A hospital bed that Emerald realized was occupied by a bandage-swathed figure, hooked up to a dizzying array of machines. There was a green tuft of hair sticking out from the bandages, and a visible patch of dusky skin. For Emerald, it was all she needed to figure out who it was.

Herself.

“This is just a parlor trick,” Silba explained. “Just a recollection of what I observed earlier today. But I think it drives the point home, regarding your current state of affairs, does it not?”

How could she… Oh.

Oh. She was starting to remember. Glimpses of fire, of death and destruction, of White Fang being cut down in mass. Of the woman before her, with that glowing sword of hers and yellow eyes filled with raw, incalculable hate. She remembered how she had tried to fight her, only… Only to be cut down, despite her best effort. She had made Emerald look like a first year Huntress and had even seen through her Semblance. She’d been handled like a complete amateur, and the stranger had cut her down all the same.

Had… Had Cinder gotten away? Had Mercury?

“Yes and no to those questions, in that order sadly.”

“What?”

“Unfortunately, your comrade died that night,” The woman in black said. “Sacrificed by your dear Cinder. You both were, like the pawns she considered you to be.”

Dead, Mercury? “No, he… he can’t be. I don’t believe you!” Emerald shouted, shaking her head. It was impossible, Cinder wouldn’t have abandoned her, she couldn’t.

Could she? “Cinder wouldn’t have just… just left me there! She wouldn’t… have…”

“And yet she did,” Silba stated. “If she had not left you two to die, you would not be in this little predicament right now, would you?”

“No…”

“And you suddenly do not sound so sure, about what you’re saying you believe.” Silba walked away from Emerald, from where she was laying in the bed swathed in bandages. “Suddenly not so sure about your faith in her, are we?”

Emerald shook her head, the only thing she could do. “She… she wouldn’t.”

“How about you let me show you the truth then?” Silba asked her. “From my perspective.”

“What?” Once more their surroundings shifted, and once more Emerald was suddenly disoriented. Now, the two of them were standing in the ruins of that warehouse, the night they had fought. She looked around her, at the carnage and broken bodies of the White Fang, of those that Silba had cut down. Emerald grimaced as she saw herself there, a blackened hole through her midsection.

She looked up and away from the grisly sight to look through broken and warped doors. There outside, she saw Cinder and Mercury standing off and facing Silba. They were at the edge of the wharf where they had landed, the Bullhead they had arrived in nearby. Emerald saw Cinder look past Mercury, past the woman in black as she strode toward the two of them. She looked at Emerald in the eye, and then looked away without a second glance.

And it was all Emerald could do, to stare in shock at what Cinder did next.

She watched as Cinder nocked an arrow and let it fly, aimed at the Dust stockpile in the warehouse. She had turned and was already fleeing when it impacted the dust and exploded, even as Mercury turned in shock and surprise away from the blast, in a futile attempt to shield himself. Emerald knew Cinder would have survived that, but not Mercury.

Cinder hadn’t spared Mercury or even Silba a second glance as she turned to flee.

She hadn’t even spared her one.

Emerald collapsed to her knees, as the warehouse exploded around her and everything turned to white.

She remained there for what felt like an eternity. “She abandoned me. She abandoned me. Why would she do that?”

“Because you were nothing but a pawn to her.”

Emerald looked up, and the woman in black’s appearance had drastically changed. Gone was the black cloak in favor of red, black trousers and blouse had changed to a tasteful skirt and corset. Her mask was gone, and the countenance that scrutinized her was warm and welcoming. Yellow, hate-filled eyes were replaced by inviting, friendly silver. The difference was so jarring that it took Emerald a long moment to realize that the woman in black and the teenager now stood before her were one and the same.

“Wha…”

“I do not blame you for failing to realize the truth,” the teen spoke. “When one is blinded by their own adoration, their desire to please a superior, they often fail to realize the truth of their situation.” The teenager walked past Emerald, before turning around to sit down next to her. It took Emerald a second to realize where they were. In a field, surrounded by green grass and red trees. “I cannot say that I was ever in your specific predicament, but I can say with honesty that I do understand it.” A moment passed in silence. “I looked into your memories and your past, Emerald. I saw how she treated you, even if you did not see them yourself.”

“What?” Abruptly, Emerald began to recall moments from the past couple of years, flashes from her past. How Cinder had so often chastised her over miniscule things, had even slapped her on a couple of occasions, only to profusely apologize afterward. How the woman had seemingly manipulated conversations with Emerald, manipulated her. Interactions that had once felt positive were suddenly cast in a terrible, crystal clear light, the acuity of which burned. How Cinder promised her that she would treat her so much better if she only tried harder, did her bidding and will. Hurt the people that Cinder wanted hurt, and kill those she wanted dead.

Emerald had once thought so highly of Cinder, held her up on a pedestal. And now, now she saw the truth, the manipulation for what it really and truly was.

The pedestal made of lies, upon which sat the awful, wishful thinking that Cinder was her friend.

Emerald was silent as the revelation fell upon her, as tears streamed down her face. “Who are you?”

Silba smiled. “‘Who are you’ is just a different way of asking ‘what are you.’ And what I am?” She chuckled, “Isn’t that a story for the ages. But here and now, I am in a position to help you, despite earlier misgivings.”

“What do you-”

“Mean by that? Well, I initially wanted to do one thing, go about this problem one way. But my aforementioned friend suggested an alternative. You see, she too was recently involved in a sort of… abusive relationship. Not as one-sided as the one between you and Cinder, but abusive all the same. Understandably, and after she too glimpsed your past experiences, she was taken with sympathy. Normally I would have sought to dissuade her from such notions of trying to befriend a mortal enemy when they are down, but…” It was Silba’s turn to fall quiet. “Well, I will just say that killing you in your own hospital bed would have been the exact sort of ruthless thing a fair few of my predecessors would have stooped to do.”

“I… don’t follow.”

Silba smiled. “A part of me has always sought to do things differently from them, when given the chance. And I am willing to make you an offer, Miss Sustrai, if you are willing to adapt and change, and most importantly embrace.”

Emerald opened her mouth to answer, but she didn’t know what to say. It took her a minute to find something. “I don’t know what you can… do for me, if I’m half dead already.”

“Oh, there is much,” Silba spoke. “Starting with your current predicament.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I can heal your injuries, despite their severity. Or to be more accurate, help you heal your injuries.”

Emerald thought quietly for a spell. “Why?”

“Why?”

“Why give me a chance?” Emerald demanded. “If that’s really what that is. From where I’m standing, it sounds like you’re trying to recruit me.”

“It does, doesn’t it?” Silba chuckled, turning to face Emerald. For a moment, she became lost in those silver eyes of hers. “But no, I’m not. I see genuine potential in you, something Cinder failed to see due to her arrogance and ruthlessness. I’m not giving you another chance, Emerald,” she smiled. “I am asking if you want to give yourself one of those.”

Emerald thought about it, as she stared into those mirror-like eyes.

She made her choice.