Winter passed that third day in growing despair.
Theo made no appearance any more than he had any other day, and Qrow vanished also, perhaps to scout, perhaps to waste time.
The Huntresses were quite at the point of exhaustion, and the handful of people who were helping them at different points in the kingdom were also.
Provisions were low--in fact, probably non existent.
And it couldn't be said even the Atlesians' outlook on their "protectors" had improved.
"Off in the school while we're out here," many of them griped. "Who was responsible for this mess to begin with? Them. We should elect a new leader."
The Mantle Dwellers wanted to follow Robyn Hill only, and any attempt for the Ace Ops or Winter to give them directions led to open mockery and refusal to listen.
Winter simply lacked the energy to deal out punishment, and the Ace Ops were scared of them.
On top of that, Harriet got heatstroke that day, being much more adapted to cold than heat, and used to not even needing a jacket in Atlas summers.
Marrow and Elm were not doing much better in the heat, but Faunus tended to adapt slightly faster to weather changes, and Marrow held up more than Elm. Still she was strong as a horse and didn't keel over or anything.
Winter's own case of heat exhaustion didn't improve much that day. She kept it just barely in line by drinking more water and trying to stand in the shade when she could, but she got dizzy often and nearly fainted a few more times. The magical energy boost would last for a short time, but she had no endurance for it yet, and afterward she'd feel sicker than before.
But all this she would not have minded if her heart was not so heavy about Weiss' continued absence, and if there had been any hope of the situation becoming better.
* * *
Over near the school, Qrow tailed Theo as best as he could, but Theo might have been onto their growing irritation. He stayed near his office the whole day, and if he called anyone, they couldn't hear it. Raven had no better luck, though she hardly tried and didn't tell Qrow when she did.
Qrow, giving up on this, flew east to look for Mercury again, but this time he found nothing. They might be laying low on purpose, suspecting that Ozpin's forces would be looking for them.
But at least Salem had not show up in person yet.
"But we really don't know how she will," Oscar pointed out over a hasty lunch with some of the others. "She doesn't seem to have a problem amassing huge Grimm numbers. What's to stop her from attacking Vacuo just like Atlas? I feel like we didn't think this through."
"We were up a creek," Ozpin said. "We had little choice, but the fact remains that she has the advantage in every logistical area. She doesn't need food for her army, she can replenish it without funds, she doesn't need dust, and she has no one to care about except her few minions. And only two or three of those now. The only thing that could stop her is her own love of the dramatic."
"Thanks, Oz." Oscar was cross with him. "So what do we do?"
"I already admitted I really don't know," Ozpin said. "I have no plan, I told you."
"Then what was the point of this?" Oscar said.
Pause.
"Oscar..." Ozpin said slowly, "I can't help but feel you may be purposefully ignoring Miss Likstar's dilemma she put to you yesterday. Perhaps now is not the time, but...you could be free of all this. It doesn't have to be your fight."
"And you'd be all right with that?" Oscar said.
"I am well used to reincarnation," Ozpin said.
"I mean inflicting it on some other poor sod." Oscar was growing more terse the longer he was stressed. "If I step down, someone else has to step up. It won't fix anything."
"No...but still, you wanted a choice," Ozpin said.
"I never even thought about that," Oscar said. "I mean, that I could just be done with this completely. I wanted to be done with this curse, but if I passed it on...I don't know. I remember Pyrrha was so horrified at the idea of doing that." He shivered. "I hate it, but would I be able to live with that?"
"It is up to you," Ozpin said. "As said, I should not influence you...but in all fairness, you should not decide on any consideration for me. I think I have long since forfeited that. Perhaps I never should have agreed to this curse. Had I known how bad it would be for my hosts, I don't think I would have. But the curse has...become more and more corrupt with time. All the gods' spells seem to have unforeseen side effects."
"Which just makes me think they really aren't real." Oscar stared at the book Shine had given him and fingered the edge. "So different from what's in here. It's all about doing the right thing and not doing the selfish thing. Somehow it's not much like the fairy tales though. It's just...what you have to do. There's...not always a magical ending." He shook his head. "A lot of the people die because of what they do. I was reading this section called...Jeremiah...?"
[I doubt Oscar would pronounce that right, personally. But usually we say it Gery-my-ah.]
"I was there," Ozpin said.
"Yeah, remember that part that went 'His word was like a burning fire in my bones' or something?" [He's referring to Jeremiah 20:9.]
"I recall," Ozpin said meekly.
"Kind of reminded me of how I felt about telling everyone the truth," Oscar said. "But the story doesn't end very happy. I read ahead. I'm not really sure what happened. Some note said he just died in captivity."
"Well, the hard truth about life is that doing good is not always rewarded," Ozpin said, "not by this world. I may have made many mistakes, but I can't say that thinking that is one of them. Even in my first life, I died young."
"The thing is you can't count on things to go right for you no matter what you do," Oscar said. "Bad or good. Salem does bad, and she wins over and over again."
"There is some reward for good, perhaps," Ozpin said.
"But what does it mean in the long run?" Oscar asked. "So people think well of you, but you don't always get what you want. You might even die. Get tortured..." He looked at his hands. "And at most you just hope it was for something, anything, substantial. Risks without a lot of reward. Why do we all keep trying? Because people are important to us? But we can't really be sure that we'll save them. Even if we could save them from every monster out there, there's still accidents, illness...starvation... I mean, things aren't exactly better here."
Pause.
"Truly, Oscar, I've been trying to answer that question for thousands of years," Ozpin said. "I did what was right, or tried, simply because I had no other hope. The gods' curse would not allow me to rest. But in a way, for many lifetimes, I came to hate that I was compelled to serve them. And I wondered if even what they wanted was so very preferable. It has seemed to me that we could muddle on well enough without them, if Salem and I were just not here. But I can't leave, and neither can she."
Oscar rubbed his head. "In some way, you and Salem are still kind of tied together," he noticed. "You both can't leave...but if you succeed, she could die too. And if she succeeded, you would die. It's almost like you should want the same thing and to help each other, but she does things you can't agree with, and you both can't win."
"I had wondered if, in some cruel irony, the gods sent me back not to succeed, but to simply keep some kind of balance in place forever, until Salem might change her mind," Ozpin mused. "But it took me a long time to wonder that, I'm afraid. And I have no proof." [Sounds like them, however.]
"Balance doesn't work," Oscar mused. "There's no such thing. One side is always either winning or losing. Even the gods are not equals. The older one was stronger, right? So...it seems like their design would never work."
"Two forces opposed to each other in every way seldom can cooperate," Ozpin said. "I had always thought that the gods must have a way...but I believe that book of yours also says 'what fellowship can light have with darkness?' or 'what do righteousness and wickedness have in common?' Light and darkness do not co-exist naturally, after all. They block each other out. Yet the gods' own roles don't quite fit always. The god of destruction can create, but he creates monsters. The god of light can destroy, but he destroys his own creations, or the Grimm. I do not understand how that is. And I gave up trying. Things are the way they are. If you find the answer, I'd be happy to hear it."
"But what if the answer all along is just that it really is impossible?" Oscar said. "That you really can't make those two things balance? That they have no fellowship... This book says that the One God created light when it was already dark...not that darkness was bad, at first. But it's just...there..."
He opened to the first page of the first book to double check. Sure enough, that was what it said. "So darkness is just...natural?"
"Or it is the absence of light," Ozpin said, "and therefore just the state of emptiness before anything was made, if one wanted to look at it that way."
"But that is true," Oscar said. "I mean, even Atlas had hard light shields... Light fills up some kind of space, right? Darkness just is space...so of course it would be weaker. But then, is that really balance? I mean, there's light even at night."
"And darkness in the day," Ozpin replied. "You won't make it make sense, Oscar."
"Or is that what makes sense?" Oscar rubbed his head. "Not that they work together exactly, like they're equal, but that they can be in the same place and it's not a bad thing, just because it's how it is. But when we start trying to make more of one than we should...I don't know. Balance might be real after all."
"Well, Oscar darkness as the absence of light is just a concept," Ozpin said. "Not the darkness of the soul--that's more like a disease. I suppose there's a difference between breaking a light-bulb and just not having one."
"So it's all right if it's not a choice," Oscar mused. "But if you choose it...that's what you become? Is that it?"
"Perhaps...but what does this have to do with your dilemma?" Ozpin asked.
"I don't know if it has anything to do with it," Oscar said. "But if we've been wrong, I have to know what is right. And this is the only other choice I have. But I feel like I can't just...walk away from this one."
"Miss Likstar wanted to give you a choice," Ozpin said. "That much is clear... Whatever you choose, at least you can know it was your choice this time. I suppose from the start that was their intention. Perhaps, had I listened centuries ago, I need not have stolen so many lives...but that was in the past."
"Oz, I get the feeling you don't want to give up your mission either," Oscar said, "even if you're saying I should... You don't just want a host who would fight you less, do you?"
A pause.
"I feel guilty enough," Ozpin said, "but the fact is, Oscar, if you do not want this, and I have no choice. Yes, it would be easier to have someone who would comply with that more. You cannot keep wavering between two points--do you want my mission, or your own? If not you, then someone else will have to. My goals are affected by waiting for you also. Perhaps I deserve it, and yet, if I live on, I will have lost precious time, and you will be none the better. Forgive me if I am a little impatient."
Oscar frowned. "I've had only a few days to make a decision like this--even only one for part of it. You've had lifetimes! It's not my fault that you have to wait."
"Perhaps not, but you could imagine how trying it is," Ozpin said.
"And I don't even know why I sympathize with you at all sometimes," Oscar said. "I've wondered if Hazel was right about you...but at the same time, I know better than anyone how you feel. I just don't know if what I want is me now, or if it's you."
"It may be both. We are like-minded," Ozpin said.
"Are we that like-minded?" Oscar got up and paced, rather like Ozpin himself, but also more angrily. "Maybe we have some things in common, but I disagree with how you do things. How can I be like-minded?"
"Once, perhaps, I thought the same as you, but life has a way of changing our morals," Ozpin said.
"If they can be changed by life, they can't have been that strong," Oscar argued. "Real morals wouldn't change, would they?"
"And some haven't."
"Or are they just a shell now?" Oscar said. "Do you feel guilty but do whatever you want anyway? You did to Pyrrha, and to Qrow, and even to Raven... Yeah, she was telling the truth, but you just let Yang think she was the bad guy."
"I tried to smooth it over," Ozpin said.
"Not enough," Oscar said. "Driving a wedge between families, over a lie...it's not right either. If I was going to become okay with that, I'd rather not be you, even partially. If I kept doing this, I'd have to be me. I want to do what I think is right...even if I don't know why it's worth it. But I don't want to do what is wrong either. I mean, both of them are meaningless if you look at you and Salem... There has to be something that makes it more than just a matter of preference!! But until I know what that is, I can't just be...both. I still have to be one."
"And you cannot be two people forever," Ozpin said. "Neither can I. Your new friends cannot stay forever."
"I won't tell them to go," Oscar said.
"It's easier than you think to slip into that," Ozpin said. "To begin to see allies as enemies. What if they cross you? Go against what you so deeply feel you must do?"
Oscar swallowed. "Well, they can have their opinion," he said. "We have to...be able to disagree without being enemies."
"Once I said that about Salem," Ozpin said.
"They are not crazy Grimm people!" Oscar said. "And it's not like you tried that hard to talk things out with her after you told her the truth! You could have just not lied to her..."
Silence.
Ozpin seemed to have no wish to argue further. Oscar was left with his own thoughts again, but they kept going around the same well worn pathway.
"There's miles of land in front of us, and we're dying with every step we take. We're dying with every breath we take, and all fall in line...
No one looks up anymore, because you might get a raindrop in your eye, and heaven forbid they see you cry, as we fall in line.
...And walk right off into the sea...then we fall asleep.
...I ask myself the question why I fall in line? Then out of the corner of my eye, I see a spaceship in the sky and hear a voice inside my head: "Follow me instead."
Then the wages of war will start, inside my head with my counterpart. And the emotionless marchers will chant the phrase, "This line's the only way."
Then I start down the sand...but again the voice inside my head says, 'Follow me instead.'
Take me up, seal the door, I don't want to march here anymore. I realize that this line is death, so I'll follow you instead. So then you put me back in my place, so I might start another day. And once again I will be in a march to the sea."
[Sister told me this song fit Oscar perfectly, and I have to agree. A lot of people don't know 21 Pilots is a Christian band, though a weird one. Sort of like if the book of Ecclesiastes had its own musical intermission.]
* * *
"So what is this?" Shine asked Neo, looking at the scroll.
Emerald was silent.
Neo opened a video file, taken from a hiding spot in a street. It didn't have sound, but it showed Headmaster Theodore walking alone and then disappearing into some ancient-looking, old, stone building that must have been leftover from Vacuo's more prosperous days. It was pretty decrepit now.
"I wonder who would live there," Shine joked.
But Neo typed out something in response: Victoria Kanap.
"Who is that?" Emerald looked around Shine's shoulder.
Neo snatched the scroll back and looked at her sourly.
"What is this about?" Shine asked.
Neo signed something to her.
[Video by ASL Princess, each line is CC, all of them are Neo.]
:You wanted me to show I was worried. So I got a lead.
"Lead" she just said as "clue", but Shine assumed it must also mean "lead", at least here.
"That was not what I meant," Shine said. "I didn't require you to be useful."
Neo gave her a look of annoyance.
Shine thought for a moment, then laughed. "But even so, I suppose I have to consider what you are able to understand. What is good faith to you except producing results? I should have seen that one coming."
"What is this about?" Emerald asked.
"Neo has mistook what I told her," Shine said. "But in the spirit that it was meant, I suppose she did well."
Neo was puzzled as to whether this was praise or not.
"But isn't she working with...Cinder?" Emerald said.
"And you were just two days ago," Shine said.
"But she still is," Emerald said.
"Actually, not anymore. Neo apparently quit," Shine said.
Neo signed something to the effect of,
:That b---- tried to kill me I'm done with her. I'd like to stick my umbrella straight up her--
Shine ignored the last part.
"Cinder tried to kill her," she said.
"You too?" Emerald said without thinking.
Neo made a sign that meant "same?" between her and Emerald, with a questioning look.
"Yes, it's been going around." Shine folded her arms. "Me too, if it helps. At least she'd have liked to get so close, if I let her."
Neo smirked then signed: "Want me to kill her for you?"
"What did she say?" Emerald asked Shine.
"She wants to know if I want her to kill Cinder," Shine said.
"What?" Emerald said. "Wait, you think you even could, Pixie Girl? She's a Maiden."
Neo signed, "Even Maidens (she said magic girls) have to sleep," then mimed stabbing her.
Emerald got the idea even without translation.
"Uh, Shine, you're not going to let her do that, right?"
"Cinder does not deserve you," Shine said flatly. "But I am not one to hire assassins, Neo. And it's not a good policy to threaten to kill someone when you want someone else alive. Sort of invites a bad aura into it, don't you think?"
"Boss would agree with me," Neo signed at her.
"I don't care in the least. He's not in charge," Shine said.
Neo tapped her foot. "You told me you would do it," she motioned.
Shine was annoyed for a moment at her persistence, then checked herself. Of course the woman was impatient.
She laughed suddenly. Neo didn't like that and put a hand to her umbrella handle.
"Oh, you want to pick a fight?" Emerald shot a glare at her.
Neo realized the stupidity of that and put her hand down.
"It's not you." Shine didn't even take notice of it. "You just reminded me of a story by my Master. Boss, if you will. Once a woman came to him who was not of His people and asked Him to free her daughter of some evil spirit. Like the Grimm, you might say. And He told her no twice, but she kept on. And then He said, 'Great is your faith' and healed her."
"Well, why say no twice if he was just going to do it?" Emerald asked. "Just to be annoying?"
"Why, Emerald, perhaps you don't know this, but sometimes we need to show we are sincere," Shine said. "You can ask for something that you don't really want or need. And anyone put off that easily by a 'no' didn't want it that much anyway. Her persistence showed her faith. And you know, I think Neo is the same way. I think I should be flattered, though I am not the one who can do this wonder for you, Neo. I can only ask for it."
Neo crossed her arms
"But both my partner and I felt that our Master wanted to grant your request," Shine said. "And we have prayed about it. But if you could wait till he joins us, I believe I prefer to do this as a team."
Neo wasn't to happy to be put off yet again, but her solution was to grab Shine's scroll out of her hand, find Wally's number (as it had his picture now), and send him a message.
Emerald really would have gotten mad over that, but other than some slight annoyance for a moment, Shine seemed to think it was funny.
"She certainly is determined," she said.
"She's a b----," Emerald said.
"Well, same thing to many people," Shine said. "I've been called that before. If you're a woman, you're a b----. If you're a man, you're a pervert. But in our book, persistence is a noble quality. Thank goodness for that."
"Your book is weird," Emerald said. "I didn't get all of that, but what is it that she wanted? Something to do with taking someone alive?"
"Not at all," Shine said.
Emerald thought about the side of it she'd heard, but she was still puzzled. Shine had been vague enough.
"Then what?" she asked.
"Emerald, I really think if you thought about it you'd know," Shine said. "But it's her business."
Neo motioned at Emerald to buzz off... She didn't say it that nicely.
"With that attitude, I'm shocked you'd do her any favors," Emerald said. "You expect her to be grateful?"
"I expect nothing, and that's why I'm rarely disappointed," Shine said. "Not of criminals, anyway. I just assume they will act with no morals at all, and then when they do have some, I'm always so happily surprised that I feel they are quite special. Works like a charm."
Emerald felt too mystified by that remark to answer it, and Neo just looked at Shine like she was mad.
Wally buzzed up not long after, covered in dust.
"Boy, those Grimm just will not leave us alone," he panted. "Still, better than yesterday was... Oh, hello, Tinker Bell."
He meant Neo.
"And Minty, how's it going?" He meant Emerald.
"Never call me that again." Emerald was aghast.
Neo made a fist.
"I'm not sure Tinker Bell is quite to her liking," Shine said.
"But isn't she kind of like Tinker Bell?" Wally asked.
"Actually yes," Shine mused. "Well, there are worse names. Munchkin is worse. Oompa Loompa..."
"Grumpy," Wally listed. "Gimli..."
"Tiny Tim...Minnie Mouse..." Shine added.
"R2D2," Wally suggested.
"No one says that," Shine said.
"Well, they could," Wally said.
"Why is he everyone's favorite when he doesn't even talk?" Shine mused. "Oh, wait that would kind of fit, then."
Neo kicked the ground.
"Well, no one said we were going to call you that," Shine said. "Just that we could. So be glad we didn't."
"But Neo is cool too, like The Matrix," Wally said. "I'm more of a Rocky Road kind of guy though."
"Mmm, Cookie Dough is better," Shine argued.
"How can you say that? It doesn't even have marshmallows," Wally argued.
"I hate marshmallows, that's why."
"Who could hate marshmallows? You're so weird, woman!"
"I don't see why anyone likes them or whipped cream, and I refuse to budge on that," Shine said.
[Give me hate if you want, but I don't like either of those things either.]
"Uh, guys," Emerald gestured. "You had to do a thing...for Mini Maid over here."
Neo kicked her in the shin, making her wince and go for her weapon.
"Don't even think about it," Shine warned her.
"So are we doing the thing?" Wally asked.
"I guess we should," Shine said.
"Okay, but we have to hurry. I've got a crap ton more monsters to fight," Wally said. "And maybe some medical stuff too. I mean, they need all the help they can get."
Shine and him stepped aside to confer for a moment, and then seem to look up and talk also.
Then Shine's eyes flashed for a moment.
She walked back up to Neo.
"Well, it's done," she said.
Neo's eyes widened, and she looked around, then motioned "where?"
"I'm not entirely sure where. Last time it was on our doorstep," Shine said. "I mean, without a grave, you know, it's hard to really lock down a location."
"Without a what?" Emerald said. Then she realized the truth. "Oh wait, you did not..."
Neo ran out of the tent anyway.
"She seems happy," Wally said. "But where is the guy?"
"I don't know," Shine said. "But at least it's done now. And she did us a solid in return. Assuming this lead is good."
She had taken a picture of the picture off Neo's scroll. "This place, some abandoned, old building somewhere in the kingdom. She says someone named Victoria Kanap lives there. I have no idea who that is."
"I don't know anyone here," Wally said. "But you know who would? Qrow. Want me to look for him?"
"Please and thank you." Shine's eyes gleamed. "He's towards the edge of the kingdom now, that way." She pointed. "And do try to make Winter take a break if you see her."
"That's like getting an elephant to waltz," Wally said. "And, uh...what are we going to do about the whole food and water situation?"
"I'm not sure yet," Shine said.
"Well, I'll find him while you work on that." Wally had full confidence in Shine's ability to think of a brilliant solution after the last two weeks.
But before he could find Qrow, in fact, another sandstorm blew up out of nowhere, and not only did it blind him, but it got several of the Huntresses who were outside the kingdom immediately lost and unable to make contact with them.
It was the perfect storm in one way--it was just about enough to push the people and the huntsmen over the edge the rest of the way.
Winter struggled to counter the storm with her powers---and only succeeded in making a small area of calm for a brief time, which she used to herd whoever she could find back towards the shelters...but then she grew weak and dizzy again.
She toppled over into the sand and lay there, unable to get up while sand flew over her head and got everywhere.
[Not many things worse than that. And you can smother in it if it's really bad, though the biggest danger is getting hopelessly lost. Usually with shelter you can survive, but you'll be miserably thirsty afterward.]