Shine reviewed some verses with her core group of students while they waited for Ozpin... Oscar was at the forefront for a short time while Ozpin was sulking.
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." [Hebrews 11:1]
"For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." [ 2 Timothy 1:7]
"For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, 'Abba, Father.'" [Romans 8:15]
"'Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.' 27 Now this, 'Yet once more,' indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. 29 For our God is a consuming fire". [Hebrews 12]
"Can I ask what that 'consuming fire' part means?" Emerald raised her hand.
Shine looked up from writing something in her notebook. "God is not tame," she shrugged. "He is good, but He's not safe. He will have all of us or none of us at all. He is a jealous God."
"I thought that was a bad thing," Jaune said.
"No, in its proper place, it's not," Shine said. "Jealousy is a reasonable reaction to someone threatening to steal away your beloved, to take what should be yours. But not if they take what shouldn't be yours. Often we're jealous over the wrong things in life. But jealousy itself is not a sin. It's not like envy. You envy whatever you don't have--you are jealous to protect what you do have. I suppose it's not used that way much anymore."
"Where did you learn this stuff?" Yang was listening in on this one, oddly enough. "Is there some school for it in your world?"
"There is, but I never went to it," Shine said. "Just to church... Oh, church is what we call buildings and groups of people who meet to talk about this stuff. I grew up going to it. But most of what I know really is from books and teachers outside the churches we went to. They usually aren't as exact as I want."
"Imagine growing up being taught these things." Pyrrha leaned on the book. "Even being taught anything. We know so little of our own gods, lacking as they are... It would be so reassuring to have something to believe in other than our own opinions."
"It would shock you how few people think so," Shine said.
"No," Jaune said, "it wouldn't. But how many people really want to think they're wrong?"
"I don't spend that much time thinking I'm right about stuff," Sun commented from where he was sitting.
"Anything yet?" Ruby asked Oscar.
He shook his head and rubbed his temples. "It's just giving me a headache. I know he's stewing over it... I mean... we're asking him to do something he's tried to avoid... and I'm not crazy about it either. Salem was pretty scary to deal with before. Though I agree with Shine--somehow she wasn't quite like what I thought. She creeped me out, but something about it was so familiar. I guess because of Ozpin. It wasn't the same as the Grimm."
"Isn't she worse, though?" Emerald shuddered.
"Oh, she's not so tough," Mercury declared. "She just wants you to think she is. I totally realized that while she was torturing me."
"How is that a thing you just said?" Yang said.
"Sometimes you realize stuff about people while they're beating the s--- out of you," Mercury said. "Like my old man. In the end, they're just more afraid of you than you are of them. I never thought Salem would remind me of that, but she did. I guess one thing I know how to read is psychos who are beating me up."
"That is so sad," Weiss said.
"But useful," Shine said.
"How can you say that about him being tortured?" Emerald said.
"Who am I to say what may or may not be used for good?" Shine said. "If he doesn't want my pity, why should I extend it? There are worse things that suffering because you chose to for someone else. It's an honor, is it not?"
They all stared at her like she was crazy, except Mercury, who smiled.
"Pity can be worse than the lack of it," Raven noted, folding her arms. "If Ozpin doesn't do this, what will you do next?"
"I don't know," Shine shrugged.
"Well, this is awkward," Roman said.
Oscar sighed.
Ozpin suddenly reimposed himself.
Somehow most of them knew it even before he spoke. They just knew the difference of expression by now.
"You do realize what I will do if I do this?" he said flatly.
"I do," Shine said.
"And you don't care?" Ozpin said.
"I know only that I can't avoid it," Shine said. "The chips will have to fall where they may."
Ozpin sighed. "I see that we will get nowhere until I do. I can handle Salem--it's not that... but I'm almost sorry. I supposed you would not be so quick to give up after all this, Miss Likstar."
Shine almost choked on the water she was drinking, but somehow she maintained her composure.
"I don't really wish to disparage you all," Ozpin said. "But my mind is still unchanged."
He stood up.
What was odd was that right then a Seer came over the edge of camp.
Everyone went to their weapons, but Salem just appeared in smoke out of it anyway.
"Where are they?" she said haughtily.
Shine and Wally stood up.
"Hi," Shine said.
Salem glanced at her. "Well?" she said impatiently.
"Your timing was so impeccable I'd believe you were either spying or you have a 6th sense," Shine said, gesturing at Ozpin. "Go on."
Ozpin stepped a little forward, though as if he had weights on.
"Salem," he said.
"Ozpin." Salem's tone was both coy and cold. "It's about time. I really thought you were never going to greet me after having the audacity to come this close to my house. Well, what do you have to say for it?"
"I am not in the mood for this tete-a-tete," Ozpin said. "You will have your way, and apparently no one can do anything about it. If you want my opinion, I will give it to you, but don't expect it to change anything."
Salem smirked uncannily. "We'll see. Well, you know where to find me. Don't be late."
She vanished.
"Was that last part really necessary?" Qrow asked aloud.
Winter almost laughed.
Meridian did actually laugh, but then he said, "I didn't quite like how she said that."
"It's always her way," Ozpin said. "I assure you most of it is for show. She'd just like to kill me slowly if she could."
"You know, hatred and love are from the same source, usually," Shine said. "When the value of something goes from pleasing you to tormenting you, it becomes hatred. And sometimes when the value is gone, the torment remains." [And that's why breakups suck so much.]
"I don't want to hear your philosophy," Ozpin said. "You've never had to do a thing like this before."
"That is not true." Shine was unmoved. "I don't really like this either, you know. But it must be done."
"Then let's go and get it over with," Hazel said firmly.
"Someone else should go with them," Winter said.
"It can't be one of the Maidens," Theo said.
"I can go," Qrow said.
They all looked at him.
"It's my job," he shrugged.
"I can go also," Glynda spoke up. "It's as much my job as yours."
"Then all of us should," Theo said. "All the remaining guardians, it's kind of poetic. And Hazel, who's just an angry wall."
Hazel took no notice of that remark.
"That's begging her to kill you all," Raven said.
"On the other hand, it'll be much more imposing with them there," Shine said. "I'm okay with it, but all of you must promise not to start a fight. Salem will probably not start one if you don't, now at least. If there is trouble, Raven perhaps can take in help if Qrow is there. We can keep watch... the Seer."
She pointed to it.
It was still standing there.
"I told Salem I would have to get to watch," she said. "I don't like using that thing, but I suppose we've nothing else to use."
"I don't want to do this," Ozpin muttered.
"Remember your Semblance, Oscar," Shine advised him in a low voice. "Might need it."
Oscar sighed.
* * *
Salem was waiting for them at the door this time.
"This is quite a company," she said.
"Surprise," Theo said. "You tried to destroy my school."
Salem raised an eyebrow at him.
"She did that to everyone," Glynda said.
"I know, but... still," Theo said.
"Shut up!" Qrow hissed at him. "Shine said not to take any bait--throwing it out there is not any better. Just let Oz do his thing and then we're outta here, hopefully."
"With our luck?" Theo said. "I'd be amazed if she let us go as far as the door."
They walked inside.
Hazel was the only one not creeped out even looking at the castle.
Glynda had never met Salem before, and, for that matter, Theo and Qrow never had in person.
She was oddly smaller in person than they thought but still frightening.
The look Salem gave Hazel when she saw him was chilling.
"I see the prodigal returns," she said mockingly. "And now as Ozpin's watchdog. Things really do have a way of turning out the opposite of what's expected."
Hazel wasn't going to be baited by her. He made no answer.
Salem was displeased with the result of her jab and ignored him.
She took them to her throne room--because of course she wouldn't receive them like a council.
Ozpin felt all the pomp of it and sighed.
Oscar, from inside his mind, thought Salem was acting much like before, and he hoped that didn't mean she'd be frying them with magic soon. He felt only slightly better than the adults there.
Salem took a seat on her throne and motioned a Seer over. It crackled and displayed a very small image of the other group.
"I trust this will suffice, Likstar?" she said, as haughty and cold as possible.
"If nothing else is available." Shine sounded nonplussed.
Oscar felt better with her watching at least.
But then Salem waved a hand.
"Well, I said they could watch and listen but not speak," she said. "No more interruptions from them."
Oh... crap.
"Now, I know you don't like to waste time, as you have so little of it." Salem looked at Ozpin with amusement and menace at the same time. "So let's get right to business. You're aware of the proposition that Miss Likstar has made me."
"Only too much," Ozpin said stiffly, wishing he was anywhere but here.
"And do you support it?" Salem asked, outright. "What has she promised you? An end to your endless cycle? No more need to follow this quest of yours that you were never going to be able to complete? To steal more lives?"
"She's accusing him of--" Theo began, and Qrow hit him to make him shut up.
[Now that we know this song is basically from Salem to Ozpin, I thought this AMV would fit. Still think the chorus is from someone else's perspective--any of the heroes, really, or even Oscar's at this point. AMV by MurderOfBirds. They do other RWBY vids too.]
Ozpin gritted his teeth.
"I didn't accept their offer," he said slowly.
"Why not?" Salem actually looked surprised, though still catty. "Isn't it what you've always wanted?"
"Not like this," Ozpin said. "I wanted to finish my mission. Something you can't understand."
"Oh, I know." Salem suddenly looked hard. "You have to do as those two demanded of you. All this time and you still think it matters in the least? You will never succeed."
"I know I will never succeed as long as you are here," Ozpin said.
Salem stood up. Boy, they had been right about her losing her control around Ozpin.
"Then why didn't you just take their offer?" she said loudly, coming down the steps towards him very aggressively.
Hazel made a fist, but Salem didn't attack--yet.
Qrow tensed, and Glynda looked like she was trying not to scream just being this close.
"They want me out of the way." Salem looked Ozpin right in the eye. "That's what you've always wanted. And yet you turned them down? If that can be believed."
Ozpin didn't flinch. He must have been used to her mood swings after all this time.
"There are some things too strange to accept," he said. "They want to take on gods, not just you. I think we've all seen what happens to people who take on the gods."
Salem raised her hand like she'd smack him across the face, and perhaps into oblivion, and Hazel said, "Watch it."
"Silence!" she snapped at him.
But then she turned and seemed to collect herself for a moment.
Turning back, she spoke more calmly. "Perhaps they're right. It was all a charade."
"We both know you don't believe that," Ozpin said. "Or you would have agreed to it already. I know you." He frowned. "You would never give up your chance to get revenge on me or anyone else just over the chance that it might work. You will just learn all you can from them and then kill them later. And they don't see it. Seems they think that you can be reached. At least I gave that up a long time ago."
If Qrow hadn't known better, he'd have said Salem almost looked hurt by that remark, but it was covered in anger so fast he wasn't sure he'd seen it.
"Well, you would know all about that," she said loftily. "Your mind has been utterly unchangeable."
"Not for lack of wishing," Ozpin said. "The difference is, if you changed yours, you'd put an end to your suffering. Mine would only prolong it. But you couldn't bear to let anyone win but yourself. I only regret my part in this catastrophe in ever coming back to you."
Salem's eyes flashed red.
"Stop! stop!" Oscar suddenly came forward, surprising everyone, even Salem.
"I'm sure he didn't mean that..." Oscar realized that he was speaking aloud. "Oh..."
"How nice of you to join us," Salem said, evilly. "But I was not finished speaking to Ozpin."
The way she said that gave them chills.
How did Shine talk to this woman like she was normal?
Oscar tried to breathe. Try to think of her as a human, he told himself. Maybe she isn't so scary then...
He looked at his hands, and then they gleamed with Aura for a moment, surprising Salem again.
She frowned like she thought it was an attack and held up a hand.
"I'm not attacking you." Oscar held up his meekly. "Sorry... I can't control it... yet... I didn't mean to interrupt, but Ozpin is... uh... a little worked up right now. Can he have a second?"
Salem gave him a look like she'd have been drumming her fingers on the table or looking at a watch right now if she had either of those two items.
"Oh, I have all the time in the world," she said, pacing as if from boredom. "But you don't... What's happened to you anyway, boy? If you're going to be here you might as well serve some purpose. Something about you isn't quite right. Imbalanced... I know Ozma by now. He should be more in control of you. But it's as if he's simply suppressed you entirely till now. Your Aura isn't the same either."
Qrow glanced at Glynda and Theo like, "Why is she interested in this?"
They shook their heads uncertainly.
Hazel just frowned and watched closely.
Oscar swallowed.
Well, no sense lying to her.
"I've been working on breaking the curse," he said.
Salem stopped abruptly in front of her throne. Then she cast a look at him warily. "But no host can do that."
"I guess I'm the first?" Oscar said sheepishly.
Salem suddenly flew at him like she was in a rage and grabbed his face.
"Hey!" Qrow said.
Salem ignored him.
She stared at Oscar like she was trying to detect any dishonesty in him, and, finding none... she didn't let go. "And how is this possible?" she said in a deadly voice.
Oscar spoke with great difficulty. "Something other than magic... I received it... months ago... been learning to use it. It's... separated me from Ozpin. We're sharing the same body, but our souls aren't..."
"They aren't merging?" Salem spoke as if she couldn't believe it herself. "No..." She looked him up and down. "Somehow there are two separate souls bound together just by a shred of magic... why, it could snap at any moment."
She let go of him so that he fell to the floor, and she took no more notice of it than if he was a rock she'd dropped. It was clear that his pain didn't register with her as any kind of reality.
Instead she stared at the far wall for a moment, still muttering to herself. "Of course, then what would happen to Ozma? One of them must either die or be absorbed. No body could hold two souls forever..."
Gynda started at that and then looked at Qrow, who had no answer for her.
Oscar sat up.
"Wait," he said, coughing, and then looked up at Salem for a moment without fear. "Do you mean it's almost over? That one of us is going to die?"
Salem glanced at him like he was a parrot who was speaking enough words to be basically understandable.
"That is the appearance of it," she said coolly, but far more civilly than before, like it was a medical diagnosis. "But such a thing has never been with Ozma before."
Oscar glanced at his hands. "They were right, then," he said. "I thought so... I can't hold on forever... The spasms." He looked up in amazement. "They weren't the curse just fighting back to make me stop... they were it trying to keep one of us from being expelled from my body... It's the curse unbinding from us, isn't it? But one of us would die... and... it's probably going to be me." He realized this last part slowly. "Because Ozpin's spirit is so much older and has so many others in it--and the power of the gods--and... unless I push him out now... but then I'd kill him... or send him... so the same problem as before, but I didn't realize that I could be the one who died instead."
He stood up shakily.
"What is this nonsense?" Salem said. "How could you expel Ozma?"
"I can," Oscar said, sounding faint. "But I didn't. I want him to... well, to not go into anyone else, and I wanted him to be... you know, happy, before it happened. It seemed like the right thing to do after all these centuries of suffering... but they warned me... How much time do I have left before it's too much?"
"Kid, you've been feeling worse every day." Qrow forgot that he wasn't supposed to be talking. "It wasn't just the Relics, was it?"
Oscar shook his head.
Salem frowned at them all. "Do you mean to tell me that this has been going on for weeks and this is the first I've heard of it? What good are spies?!"
Actually it had been mentioned to her at one point, but she'd dismissed it as impossible.
"You're saying that? I want to know why I wasn't let in on this," Theo said. "I mean, I knew he was going through it, but not that bad."
"Ozpin could die?" Glynda said. "For real? Or is it Mr. Pine...? I'm confused."
"Try to keep up, Glynda. Ozpin's cursed. He's not going to die," Theo said. "Just might not use this form anymore."
"I thought that was impossible unless he was killed," Glynda said.
"Focus," Hazel addressed them all. "We are wasting time. We knew this already, and I don't see how it's any of her business, if you'll forgive me for saying so, ma'am."
The ma'am was pretty sarcastic for him.
Salem frowned at him but was far too focused on the current situation to have time to punish him for it.
"Well, I can see why Ozma doesn't want it to come to this," she said. "He couldn't bear dying without finishing his quest... and of course the world is not united." She smiled as if she was proud of this. "But I see no reason why that makes it a poor decision for me. Unless you know something I don't."
Oscar seemed to collect himself.
"Salem..." he said slowly, "Oz will have more to say to you about that, but... on the record, I'm okay with it. The gods... they don't deserve to judge this world."
Salem wouldn't have believed any host of Ozpin's would say such a thing.
And it did more to convince her that he was not merged with him, even, than seeing it for herself in his magic had.
"Do you know what you're saying, boy?" she said suspiciously.
"I think I do." Oscar picked up his staff again. He'd dropped it before. "But I'm trying to do the right thing. For everyone. Even you."
Salem became angry again without any warning at all.
She picked him up by his shirt.
"Do you expect me to believe that?" she said, infuriated. "I thought I taught you better than to lie to me last time, boy."
Oscar leaned away from her, and Qrow began to move, but Hazel grabbed him. He wasn't sure Salem was going to hurt Oscar... He waited.
"I'm serious," Oscar said, shakily, but not as if he were lying. "I-I know you don't believe me... I guess I wouldn't if I were you, probably, but I really just want the best for everyone. All of us who were cursed specifically... I know we're not the same, but I still feel as if... all this time I was stuck in this when I didn't want to be and I didn't ask for it, and I saw what the gods did... and I thought maybe you didn't ask for it either."
Salem's eyes gleamed red like she'd crush him with her bare hands.
"I just think all of us together could stop it..." Oscar felt he was going to get killed here. "That's--ah!"
Of course all this arguing with what Ozpin wanted would have set off the spasms... and Salem wasn't helping.
Salem was so caught off guard by him doing so that she dropped him.
Oscar started to have one of his fits, gasping.
Qrow suddenly fell to the floor also.
Glynda began to try to help him, but of course she could do nothing.
"What is this?" Salem demanded.
But of course she could sense the magic pulsing, and then she went quiet.
"Come on, Oz, snap out of it." Theo shook Oscar. "Let the poor kid go."
"I can't control it," Ozpin's voice answered him. "It's becoming more and more beyond my reach. I do fear..." He hissed.
This lasted for several minutes, which Salem watched with neither pity nor enjoyment, and the guardians felt like it dragged on for hours.
But finally it stopped.
Oscar felt relief finally, but Ozpin was back in control anyway.
He sat up.
"Well, I didn't want that to happen here," he muttered. "But of course it did anyway... Oscar, you should learn to stop saying such things."
"How long has this been happening?" Salem asked. "Months, you say?"
"Well, this part didn't start happening till a couple weeks ago." Qrow stood up, rubbing his head. "But the curse was weakening before that. We thought this meant it was getting stronger again, but turns out it wasn't--it was just its dying gasps... I wonder what happens to the rest of us when it dies. Do we die too, or does it end?"
"I hope we don't find out," Glynda said. "Is that what's been going on? How did it come to this?"
"And all this started when they arrived?" Salem said incredulously. "All this..." She suddenly put a hand to her side, though none of them knew why.
After a long silence, she said, "And you still don't want their help?"
"You see what it's done so far?" Ozpin said. "Would you? No, don't answer that. You would do anything to get what you want."
Salem suddenly got another look in her eye--kind of a sly one.
"I would," she said.
Ozpin stared at her.
"I think that will be all." Salem waved dismissively. "Send Miss Likstar and that idiotic partner of hers in. No, I suppose they heard me. You may leave."
"May?" Theo repeated. "Hey, I thought you wanted Ozpin's take on this."
"I have all of the information that I need to know," Salem said. "I'm well versed with Ozma's unceasing quest to please those buffoons. Now I suggest you go before I change my mind about letting you all go unscathed."
"You're letting us go unscathed?" Theo said before they could stop him.
Salem frowned at him. "I'm in rather a hurry, but if you want to stand around and waste my time--"
"No, he doesn't." Glynda glared at him. "You fool! Go!"
Then a red portal door opened, and they rushed through it.
* * *
On the other side they found the team had heard the entire thing.
"What was that?" Yang asked. "Did she just change her mind?"
"Did you ruin everything?" Ruby asked Ozpin. "I thought she was listening up till you said that last part."
"Well, I warned you what I would do," Ozpin said distastefully.
"Where's Vara?" Theo asked. "Did that hurt her too much?"
They looked at him warily.
"What?" he said.
Jaune sighed. "Vara is... well..."
He pointed.
Theo ran up to her. She was lying on one of the blankets, out cold.
He felt her pulse. "She's alive," he said, relieved.
"Alive, but we've tried everything to wake her and nothing worked," Weiss said. "She seemed really deeply asleep... Well, we were afraid it might be a coma."
"That'll be all of us soon enough," Raven muttered.
"What about Likstar or West? Did they know?" Qrow said.
"They're gone already," Raven said. "As soon as Salem said it, they dashed off. Why did you think I brought you here?"
Everyone turned to the Seer.
* * *
Salem, only waiting about 6 seconds for their arrival, was still walking when they did come in.
"Whoa... this room is like freaking Maleficent's." Wally looked around.
Shine brushed herself off. "You called?"
"Why did you not tell me about Ozma before?" Salem demanded.
"Would you have believed me?" Shine replied, while Wally was confused about what she meant.
"Does she mean the curse?" he said.
"Quiet, you imbecile!" Salem said.
"Hey, do not talk to him that way!" Shine took Wally's arm. "We're a team. If you disrespect him, you disrespect me also."
"You're playing some kind of trick!" Salem was nearly in a frenzy. "Aren't you? With that sword mark also..."
"Sword mark?" Wally said.
Shine was puzzled till she remembered. "Oh... right, I said that before... Did you check?"
Salem, if she could have looked embarrassed, might have. "Of course not," she said coolly.
"Show me now then," Shine said. "I'd like to know."
"I will do no such thing," Salem said.
"Well, then it must be there, or you would prove to me that it wasn't. You stabbed yourself in front of a whole court before from what I heard," Shine declared.
Salem stared at her furiously... then the dress parted just enough for Shine to see.
Wally was freaked out by this till he realized it was just a small slit. Then he was puzzled. "What is that...? Wait, is that where you ran her through?"
Shine nodded wordlessly.
"Whoa..." Wally said. "Something... actually hurt her."
"Silence," Salem said to him angrily.
But Wally was no longer afraid of her. This sealed it.
"So all that stuff you said is true," he said. "We're anti magic, and so we can hurt her... Well, that's good to know... but we can't kill her."
"Probably could maim, but we must do this the right way. I felt that that would be killing her in a sense, and that's not what we do." Shine shrugged.
Salem listened to this with growing irritation. "Stop talking about me as if I'm not here," she said. "What do you mean by all this? I should kill you both."
"Why would you do that when we just proved this is legit?" Wally asked blankly. "That makes no sense."
"He's right, you know." Shine folded her arms. She was even less afraid of Salem when she had Wally with her. "I think we've reached a crossroads here. Either you believe us or you don't."
Salem frowned.
"Well, there's one point you still haven't verified," she said, sinking back into her throne more calmly. "That is the matter of the people you claim to have resurrected. Are they both here now?"
"They are," Shine said evenly. "Do you want to meet them?"
"Meet? No. But I want to see it for myself," Salem said.
"Very well. Babe, if you would," Shine said.
Wally gave her a guns up👉and then disappeared.
Pyrrha and Torchwick, who were listening, knew he'd appear in a few seconds, and so he did.
"Are you guys cool with this?" he asked.
"I'm willing to meet her if it would help," Pyrrha said. "I expected this after the other day."
"Well, if I can take my cane..." Torchwick said. "I suppose for the good of the world... I'm just thinking of it as performance."
"For you it is one," Raven sniffed.
"Why, thank you." He bowed.
She rolled her eyes.
"This is all happening way too fast," Yang said.
"Salem doesn't like to wait," Hazel said. "And it's usually unwise to keep her waiting. Better to go before she changes her mind."
"She can hear that, you know." Neptune glanced at the Seer nervously.
Wally took Pyrrha and Roman together and ran.
Shine had just waited in silence with Salem till then.
They appeared.
Salem looked at them.
"They seem ordinary enough," she said.
She got up and walked down and stepped much closer to them than Roman at least wanted.
Pyrrha, finally meeting Salem in person, found it almost too bizarre of a situation to feel real. She felt no fear, however. She supposed after dying herself, even Salem was small compared to that.
Salem looked over Roman... She did sort of remember him, the way someone might remember a passing mannequin in a store window.
He leaned away from her, but she didn't take any notice of it.
"He seems real," she said. Then she gripped his throat.
Roman looked panicked.
"What are you doing?" Shine sounded like a mom watching a kid try to steal cookies instead of watching an attempted murder.
But Salem let go quickly.
"I wanted to see if he felt pain," she said. "A clone wouldn't have."
"I see," Shine said. "You could have done less than that. I won't have you torment them."
"Oh, don't be so sensitive," Salem brushed off her concern. "That was nothing. I would know... And you..." She turned to Pyrrha. "Well, you didn't get eaten, not by Grimm anyway... I remember Cinder talked about killing you... I never saw you myself, but you match the description."
Pyrrha said nothing to that.
"What? Do you not speak anymore?" Salem said.
Pyrrha shrugged. "Did I need to?"
"A human who doesn't feel the need to speak unless asked?" Salem said. "What a novelty." She lifted Pyrrha's hair the way someone would lift a rug they were inspecting. "Seems real... Still..."
"I can prove it more if you like." Pyrrha had prepared for this mentally.
Salem raised an eyebrow at her.
Pyrrha turned away from Roman and pulled down her top just enough to show the scar.
Salem stared at it a long moment, then she touched it, to Pyrrha's chagrin.
"Hey!" She backed up.
Salem rubbed her fingers together. "It's real," she muttered to herself.
"There's one on my ankle too... if you care," Pyrrha said, readjusting her shirt and looking a little salty.
Salem's expression began to change slowly, as if the realization was breaking over her in small intervals.
But she looked from them, to Pyrrha, to herself.
"And are you immortal now?" she said aloud.
Shine pulled Pyrrha behind her.
"No," she said. "We resurrect people back to their bodies as they were before they died--no more, no less. It's as if they were asleep and they wake up."
"Which is all I remember," Pyrrha confirmed. "Roman also... Nothing but a blank dream. I do remember being killed, though. It was deeply unpleasant... but I feel it is what I missed that was the worst. Not the dying itself."
Salem stared at her.
It had been a long time since any human being had gotten this much interest from Salem.
She looked angry, too.
"Believe us?" Wally said to break the awkward silence.
Salem frowned at him.
"Jinn, by the way," Shine spoke.
"What?" Salem looked at her.
"The password for one of the Relics," Shine said. "The name of the Lamp is Jinn... I keep my word."
Salem stared at her a long moment.
Then she straightened as high as she possibly could.
"We will discuss this further tomorrow," she said.
"Is that like... you'll kill us before then? Or... you just want to think?" Wally asked.
Salem just gave him a look of derision but didn't bother to speak as she sat back in her throne.
"Very well," Shine said. "We'll go. One final word to you, though: be wary. The gods' power in you is no different than Ozpin's. They don't want you to escape. It may sound like reason, but think about it. In all the doubts you have about if we're able to do these things and if we do do them to you, has it ever once been about what it would be like if we succeeded? The hardest thing to do is to think outside the box you've been shoved into."
She took Pyrrha and Roman and led them out, and Wally followed them with a nod at Salem.
He thought Salem, leaning with her face on her hand, looked more human than she ever had.
[Interesting.]