#v:Used to Know

[skidqrow]

"Life never turns out the way you think it will." (<- from raven?)

Qrow raised a glass to that. "Damn straight, Rae." The tanned liquid in his glass swirled, clinking the ice against the edges of its confines. "Life is a roller coaster we never agreed to get on."

Perhaps she would know better than anyone how cruelly unfair life was. Being born Branwen tended to make cynics and brigands in equal measures. They were both left with broken families regardless of which side they were on.

He spun around in his barstool, leaning his back against the counter as he locked eyes with his twin. His smile was sardonic as he gave his question away. "And you? Are you satisfied with how things turned out?" Qrow had no intention at the moment to judge Raven for her actions. Right now, he was checking in on his sister. Whatever differences they had, they were family.

[skidqrow]

Qrow wasn't sure what to say at that. It's fine wasn't the truth. Summer leaving as she did, straight out of the blue...it had broken him. He couldn't recall all the times he tried to force his kidneys into shutdown, the missions he'd agreed to take on with little chance of returning alive. If it hadn't been for the handful of people he cared for, he likely would have put himself in an early grave.

He patted her shoulder once more, neither condemning or forgiving her. She didn't need that, didn't need him. "See you around, Bright-Eyes."

He took a few steps back, eyes locked onto Summer before turning on his heel and taking off. Black corvid wings flapped in the dark sky and left only a few spare feathers in their wake at the sign of Qrow's parting.

“…Thanks,” she said, a little dry. What she’d done had felt less like choosing a different path than leaping blind from a tightrope strung over an abyss, and then rising anew out of the dark. But the sentiment, Summer supposed, was the same either way.

She smiled, slight but genuine. “For… whatever it’s worth, I am sorry for all the… collateral damage. Leaving the way I did.”

Whenever she looked back, all she could see staring back at her was the desperate need to get away, and the hand Salem held out to catch her. Summer didn’t know if she could have done anything differently than she did, and she’d made her peace with it long since; but she still regretted the pain she left behind.

And the war, although she was with Salem in that count. None of the hopeful new possibilities opening up now would have happened otherwise.

[skidqrow]

🐦‍⬛Gonna divide this between a few categories for ease!

Angst

Finding Qrow drunk at the bar, either brooding or partying to ignore his darker thoughts.

Coming to comfort Qrow after Summer's funeral.

Qrow and Ruby discussing what to do next after discovering Summer's allegiance to Salem. (v:Used To Know)

Qrow and Ruby grieving over Summer's disappearance. (v:Nesting Qrow)

Bonding

Qrow's surrogate kid calling him 'dad', either accidentally or for the first time. (v:I Want To Break Free or v:Broken Home)

Sparring practice with Qrow.

Soft Rose-Branwen family vibes. (Hummingbird; v:Happily Ever After)

Helping Qrow make a meal after watching him fail consistently due to his Semblance.

Single-dad vibes as Qrow attempts to raise Ruby on his own. (v:Nesting Qrow)

Slice-of-life antics as co-actors bond. Perhaps in interviews or off-screen? (v:Crows Don't Dance)

Confrontation

Ruby confronting Qrow due to his raising of another kid, yet not raising her. (v:I Want To Break Free or v:Broken Home)

Confronting Qrow about his alcoholism.

Romance/Shipping

Qrow & Summer realizing they have feelings for each other. (Hummingbird)

Catching feelings for Qrow before he's healed from Summer leaving. Probs lead to angst and confrontation from the one-sided love.

Qrow's first romance after Summer. (timeline:After the Fall, v:Last Day of Summer or v:Nesting Qrow)

reblog this post and put your current plot ideas/dynamic wishlist in the tags to let your mutuals know what you're looking to write!

any interested mutuals might reach out to plot that idea with you!

[skidqrow]

He rolled his eyes. Ozpin had more grace and patience for people than anyone Qrow had ever met. If Raven came back, Qrow was certain Oz would be glad to have a returned ally. "I don't care if you worked for Oz or not. I'm talking about your real family. Not those cutthroats dad has roaming the countryside in Mistral." There were still many bitter feelings about the Branwen tribe within Qrow.

"You remember how they treated me," he remarked. "You didn't have to worry about that. You were dad's favorite. You always thrived in that environment and didn't have to worry about the beatings he dished out to people who 'didn't cut it'."

Their father, Jackdaw Branwen, was a vile bastard. Qrow wasn't sure if Jack ever laid hands on their mother the same way he did on Qrow, but he was certain she'd been welcomed back into the fold like a prodigal daughter if she didn't challenge him for ruler's right via lethal combat. "And wasn't just him. I got cursed and left for dead more times than I could count. They abandoned me way before I left."

This was a horrible reunion. He'd simply wanted to check in on his sister, enjoy his drink, then get back to work. But now it was a pissing contest to see which of them could get under the other's skin first.

"Mom knew it was a shit place to be, too." Dauria had vanished without a word one night, leaving them in the hands of their father. Qrow's thoughts occasionally drifted to where she'd ended up. But she'd never reached out, so must not have cared...or died. Either way, she wasn't in his life anymore.

Raven bit back a scoff with heroic effort; of course Qrow wouldn’t listen. Why did she even bother–?

…because even after all this, he was still her brother. Because she could see the black thunderheads piling up on the horizon, and it burned in her chest to leap right to Summer Rose and ask what the fuck she was thinking, going along with Salem’s madness even now that their daughters were attending Ozpin’s school—and she couldn’t do that, so here she was instead trying the next best thing.

“I’m not on Ozpin’s side.” She ground the words out through clenched teeth. He’s no better than Salem is. Monsters, both of them. Sourly, “And you know he wouldn’t trust me if I did come crawling back. That ship sailed when we lost track of Spring.”

Her gaze flickered in the direction of Qrow’s little assignment, pointed. Spring had been her responsibility—and when Raven saw the girl beginning to crack under pressure, she’d done what she had to do. Even if it meant burning her bridges when Ozpin told her to bring their runaway maiden back and Raven lied through her teeth about the girl’s semblance interfering with her own. Can’t find her. Sorry.

No one ever fucking believed her, but by then she was already halfway out the door.

But even if she wanted to come back now, she’d have to explain what happened to the last spring maiden after Raven helped her escape.

Lips thinning, she added, “Besides, I can’t just abandon the tribe.”

[skidqrow]

So it was a poor circumstance of environment and raising. That was something Qrow could relate to. Being stuck in a place like that was easily damaging to anyone and was a quick way to absolve a sense of self.

He nodded, placing a hand on her shoulder. "That sucks, Summer. Sorry you went through that." He didn't let his hand linger long before parting from her. "Still, never late to realize you can choose a different path if you want." Whether that was her shift over to Salem's side or her growth as a person, he was glad that Summer was able to change and heal.

Her shoulders tightened. On paper, she’d become a ward of the state after Visage fell, but in practice there wasn’t much of a state. Just a haphazard bunch of huntsmen who didn’t know what to do with a child except make her a soldier. And in Vacuo, if you couldn’t survive, you didn’t belong.

Summer grimaced. “I mean, I learnt pretty fast not to whine. Or make excuses.” It wasn’t like she’d never complained, when it started. Maybe if she’d stubbornly kept trying it would have changed anything, eventually. Sil had listened to her a decade ago; if she’d confided in him at Oscuro…

But she didn’t think it was her fault she’d been trained not to. “I just—wasn’t allowed,” she said curtly.

[skidqrow]

So not perfect but...a show? A warrior show? Or maybe a destined warrior? "Did you ever ask for anything different?" he inquired. Like he told Ozpin, Glynda, and the others: communication was a two-way street. "Or say that you wanted a different path?"

Qrow's eyes searched Summer's, trying to understand her better than he had before. Though, given what she said earlier, Summer might not have realized she could have asked back then. He sighed. "All these years later, and I still can't figure you out completely."

“Not perfect, exactly.” The smile on her lips felt pained; sometimes she thought straightforward perfection would have been an easier burden to shoulder. “Um—more like…”

Summer trailed off, making another wandering gesture. “Remember what Oz said when he first started easing us into his conspiracy?” Normally the explanation started with the maidens, but for Team STRQ, Ozpin had lead with their leader’s special eyes. Live demonstrations did make the magic-is-real pull easier to swallow. She’d felt like a circus performer. “‘Those born with silver eyes are destined to lead the life of a warrior.’” Bitterly, “Just fight grimm ’til we die. Um.”

It wasn’t like she didn’t believe in the ideals huntsmen and huntresses were meant to uphold: to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves, to act with compassion, to stand tall against injustice. That had been why she stayed with Salem, in the end.

“I was eight,” she offered, “when my eyes… the first time. No one ever really gave me a choice after that.”

[skidqrow]

"Thinking you're perfect." Qrow couldn't understand what that felt like. Qrow was born flawed and despised. Perhaps his mother loved him from birth, but not enough to stay. Raven...he wasn't sure where he stood with his twin presently. Part of him was glad he hadn't made Summer feel that way.

"You're smart and good, but you're not perfect." Not the most romantic comment, but he didn't think Summer minded the honesty. "You forget who watched you back in Beacon?" He winked to her. "I knew your weak spots back then." Both because Qrow knew if he had went through with his father's plans, Summer would have been among the first on his kill list; and then later because they were partners. "I'll remind you whenever you want, Bright-Eyes."

Still, that old life had put Summer so high onto a pedestal that she'd felt isolated. Qrow stopped on their trek, turning his full attention to Summer. His smile was almost playful. "Whatever it's worth, I don't think Salem could trick you after being near her so long. And you're too damn stubborn to be blackmailed."

Maybe Salem had rubbed off on her a bit, Summer thought ruefully, gotten her used to conversing in corkscrews. Her lips twitched. “It wasn’t you,” she said, “but the Tai thing—well, it’s… relevant. Kind of?”

In a roundabout way. Summer interlaces her hands behind her neck, lets out a deep sigh. “I mean, you know how he gets; like he can’t… like he doesn’t let himself see past the surface of things?” She glanced sideways at Qrow, feeling awkward. “Um, he sorta—he never came out and said it, but I could tell—he thought Salem was like,” a vague gesture, “just coercing me somehow. He didn’t really ask.”

Just assumed that Summer Rose would never, never do anything bad. Mouth pulling into a grimace, she said, “That’s—I think, in the end, that was what… Happened. My whole life.”

[skidqrow]

The smallest flicker of anger passed through Qrow at that information. Taiyang had known Summer was alive all this time? Beacon's fall had been months ago. "No, he didn't say anything to me."

He refocused. Tai wasn't a part of this conversation. "But never mind Tai. C'mon, tell me what's on your mind." He didn't mention it might be their last chance to talk things over. Whatever closure Summer needed, she should say it now. "This right now is about us, right? I don't think you would've agreed to tag along just now unless you had something to get off your chest."

Qrow froze for a moment. "...Hey, was I the problem?" He might have made a realization. Forcing Summer outside her comfort zone like he just did...was that the reason she never felt comfortable enough to share those darker feelings.

“Sure.”

Hands slipping into skirt-pockets, Summer offered him a hesitant smile as she began to sidle toward the edge of the ruins. Graceful exits had never been her strongest suit. Surprise reunions, as it turned out, weren’t really either.

If he didn’t have questions, she wasn’t sure she knew what to say. Everything she could think of sounded self-pitying, or accusatory somehow. Dry grass crunched underfoot. She gnawed on the tip of her tongue for a moment, staring ahead at the trees.

“D’you know—” Gods, she regretted it the second it started coming out of her mouth, but Summer still finished the thought with a wince: “–um. I… ran into Taiyang, not too long after Beacon fell.”

[skidqrow]

To Qrow, his questions had been answered. Not thoroughly, but he thought he understood enough to let go of their shared past. In his eyes, Summer had been hurting and fractured for longer than anyone had realized, and Salem had given her the tools to repair those injuries. But now she was hesitating. Did she not want him to leave just yet? Or was there more to be said? She might want her own closure.

He was once again analyzing Summer's words. She definitely didn't sound done to Qrow. He rolled his shoulder in a gesture, inviting her onward. "C'mon. I can at least walk with you to where I landed. We can talk on the way."

Their business concluded, it'd make for more personal conversation. Pleasant? Unlikely. But she'd done enough for him that it seemed only fair to offer this to her before he left.

Summer hid a wry smile at the politely blank look Salem gave him when Qrow called her a dark horse—until his question for her captured her full attention. She blinked, feeling unexpectedly stung. They’d scratched the surface, sure, but…

It wasn’t that she wanted him back. Oh, there were still crumbs of old feeling scattered to the corners of her mind, and she’d missed him plenty these fourteen years, but the vortex of everything she’d run away from had eaten away at any desire she might have had to return. For his sake, she hoped he’d moved on too.

But if it were her, she thought she’d want to know more, know why. She couldn’t imagine feeling satisfied with I wanted to die as if that were a complete answer.

“Just–”

She broke off. Something in her tone, or maybe the fracture itself, had Salem gliding away to become studiously interested in the reliefs carved into the walls, and Summer wasn’t sure if she appreciated it or felt panicked at being left in the deep end by herself. Both maybe.

“I don’t know,” she said at last, weakly. “Tell the girls I’m sorry. And Raven too, for—everything.”

[skidqrow]

Qrow lowered his hand. "Thanks for the warning." Sparing him from pain when she didn't need to? "You're a dark horse, Salem. Our meeting was better than I expected."

As Summer stood, that hand went back into his pocket. "Flew in." Qrow's preferred method of solo-travel was to fly as a crow. Animals didn't draw the same attention from Grimm as humans did. "I think most of my questions have been answered. Do you still have something to get off your chest?"

He was taking one last look at Summer. After he left, there might not be another chance to take her in. This could be the very last chance they'd have to see one another face-to-face.

The outstretched hand made her tense, every muscle locking to resist the instinct to shy away. Distantly, she registered Summer shifting at her side; the awkward weight of her own silence, and the need to say or do something besides stare down at Qrow’s open palm. Behind her back, her grip on her own elbows clamped tight enough to ache.

“If–” Salem cleared her throat, a faint dusty sound. “If your aura is engaged, touching me will—hurt.” Her eyes flicked up to meet his gaze; she managed a very wan smile. “But I do… appreciate the sentiment.”

True enough, if only a convenient explanation to hide the deeper truth that she did not much like to be touched by anyone, not least without having adequate time to prepare herself.

Summer rescued her from the situation at last by saying breezily, “Sorta like a static shock that keeps going. Grimm thing, don’t worry about it. Uhm. I could walk you back to your… however you got here? Since you wanted to talk. After.”

[skidqrow]

Qrow sighed, a hand raising to itch the back of his head. "Hard to tell what's what with you." Summer wasn't joking about how difficult Salem was to read. But her intentions seemed real enough by the simple merit that she was allowing him to walk away. Oscar hadn't been that fortunate, but perhaps that was because he was tied to Oz.

"I'll share your intentions, and I hope we'll avoid further bloodshed. But it's not my call." Whatever Ruby decided, the rest would rally behind her. Even the adults had now come to respect Ruby as the leader of their front against Salem.

Qrow offered his hand to Salem, a sign of good faith between the two. He still wasn't sure about Salem, but he was glad she wasn't after the ultimate destruction and death of Remnant.

“It was,” Salem said irately, “an offer of armistice. Not a threat.” Her original plan to hold those thousands hostage until the Vacuan coalition grew desperate enough to resort to the sword to rescue them notwithstanding: one moved with the times. She eyed Qrow for a long moment before adding, “I assumed, from the lack of any attempt to save them, that your coalition did not know they were there.”

Her brows rose a fraction. “So you may return to your allies with the news that tens of thousands of people thought dead are still alive. If that does not inspire hope I think you are in greater trouble than you realize.”

“We’ve been keeping the grimm off of ’em,” Summer interjected, kicking up from the toppled pillar to amble over to Salem’s side. “They’ve got safe corridors running into what’s left of the city to gather supplies. All the farms and stuff in the northeast quadrant are okay, too.”

Salem inclined her head Summer’s direction. “I don’t expect capitulation. You… know my intentions. If the answer is no, then so be it, but you are the one who questioned the necessity of war. I would like nothing better than to be proven wrong.”

[skidqrow]

Qrow's expression flatlined at the threat. "I don't think that threat is as powerful as you think it is." He shook his head and looked overhead. "Have you considered that each time you push, you're pushing humanity closer and closer together?" Like carbon being compressed into a diamond. "Even if I deliver your message to Vacuo, we all know they won't go along with it."

The small amount of compassion and empathy he had for Salem was quickly falling. "If they don't stage a desperate rescue, it'll stoke the Lancer's nest and get them even angrier at you. Each time you do something like this, humanity rallies together more and more."

He gave one more look to Summer, a faint glimmer of longing escaping that he soon smothered and looked to Salem. "For all you've done for Summer, I'll deliver your message. I don't promise anything more than that."

The wave of distress from Summer at that was so acute that Salem nearly heard her aura breaking like surf upon the stones; she glanced over, and found the old familiar pain staring back at her. It should not be Ruby’s side. To delegate the burden of war to a child…

She couldn’t fathom. Cinder had been around Ruby’s age now, when she found her way to Evernight, and although Salem had been ready by then, she could not—in hindsight that had been her first error, the first hairline fracture in all her careful plans, but she would do it again. Battlefields were no place for children.

“Those left behind by the evacuation from Vale have taken refuge in the caverns below Mountain Glenn,” she said, her tone clinical. She hadn’t meant to use them as a bargaining chip in quite this way, but it did fall in her favor now. “I am willing to negotiate their liberation in return for the sword so long as Ozma is not… leading the discussion.” Her expression pinched. “Or given the last word.”

[skidqrow]

"Troubled??" Qrow grit his teeth and clenched his fist. That maniac had almost killed him once before, then killed Clover with Qrow's own weapon. If he ever saw Tyrian again, Qrow was going to repay him in full. He growled, but left it at that. "Whatever. Not the reason I'm here."

His arms crossed over his chest. "I'm not against your idea, but I've got more than just me to look after." Ruby was counting on him now to be the dad he'd never been. Yang was stepping into adulthood, but her dad was gone and Raven...someone needed to mediate between those two if their family was going to move forward and heal.

"I'm not Oz's spy anymore. Whatever I do, I do for the people who rely on me. I'll tell them what you've shared with me, but I'm ultimately on Ruby's side."

It was.

Salem stopped again, rooted to the foundations by an overpowering weariness. She knew it with the same searing conviction that she knew the Brothers were monsters: not a happy truth, but after all the injustices, after all the evil she had seen in this world and the last, Salem could not blind herself to the facts of reality, no matter how painful or unfair.

“…You asked Jinn what Ozpin was hiding,” she murmured, staring past him. “His… secret.”

Not for the truth—there was a sliver of hope in knowing that they had not asked for the truth—and so her answer would have elided what they already knew. Centuries, centuries of inescapable war. Ozma had driven her to the edge of the world, and broken countless lives to enforce her exile. Her gaze drifted bleakly from Qrow to Summer, silver eyes polished and bright with understanding, and Salem took a deep breath.

“I know that he told you he has long been at war with me,” she said slowly, “and that I prefer to… remain hidden. Manipulate others without revealing myself to the world. It is not strictly a lie. Ozma knows they cannot kill me, but those who consort with me…”

She lapsed, shoulders curling, into silence. If people did not die by her hand, they were killed in her name. Every world turned in pain.

Her brow furrowed as she turned back to Qrow. “My associates are not monsters.”

“Tyrian,” Summer deadpanned.

“Tyrian is… troubled,” Salem said delicately. “But even he has his reasons.”

[skidqrow]

"Oh." The full realization of what she had planned dawned upon Qrow. It was a clever trap, one worthy of Salem's previous machinations. If she could make the god manifest in what the two called 'the River', it would be a quick way to dispatch the god without lifting much more than a finger.

Even as Summer relaxed in a seat, Qrow couldn't get himself to that level of ease. Whatever the case might be, Oz wasn't a cold-blooded killer. If Salem had presented this idea to him, Qrow was certain that Oz would have shut it down.

"...You and me have that in common," Qrow admitted, returning his hands to his pockets. His biggest concern addressed, he could move forward to the smaller concerns. "So...why ask people like Tyrian, Cinder, and Watts to help? Was all this death and destruction necessary?"

She relaxed enough for a tiny smile to lift the corners of her mouth, however fleetingly. “Not to Remnant,” Salem sighed, and then, her voice turning very dry: “I have no aspiration to survive a second apocalypse.”

“To the place under Remnant,” Summer said, as she ambled over to sit on a collapsed pillar sheltered from the wind by what was left of the old wall. “…What Salem called the River.”

“It has no true name.” The faint smile lingered in her tone, if not on her lips, traces of past frustration long since weathered smooth into fondness: before she explained all of this to Summer, Salem had never called the place anything but what is, as the Artisan did. On the rare occasion she had reason to speak of it before then, it had always been with those of a more esoteric persuasion; she hadn’t anticipated how confounding the phrase would be to one without the requisite expertise. “It is.”

Again, she reached the midpoint of the circle, and again she turned. “I have been there,” she added softly, “four times. I never–” Salem halted, her jaw clenching, and closed her eyes. “—told… Ozma; at… the time, I didn’t…” It hadn’t seemed important, and she had been half-certain she only dreamt it. Releasing her breath sharply, Salem lurched into motion again. Flatly, “I prefer to err on the side of doubt, when I am… uncertain of the truth.”

[skidqrow]

He left out the fact that he'd never used the Staff personally, nor met Ambrosius. But if from what Ruby and the others said, the spirit of the Staff was very finicky about exact details. It stood to reason that Light would be the same. In fact, he'd already been a stickler for rules when Salem made her initial request.

Qrow's hand scratched at his chin, making a bit more sense over what Salem was saying. It was up to interpretation, but it was enough to sound logical. He fought through the fog he used to hide those memories of their odyssey across Anima, trying to remember exactly what the Brother of Light told Ozma. He implied that they, the Brothers, would be the arbiters of judgement, but never explicitly said who would be the judge.

All this heavy thinking gave Qrow a slight headache. He was an instinctual person, not an intellectual. "Okay, I think I'm starting to follow you." He at least figured out that Salem planned to unite the relics and summon the Brothers. "So you gather up the relics and Light returns to Remnant without his brother," Qrow summated, trying to keep track of the plan. "What happens after that?"

A spirited debate over the bylaws of Light's promise didn't sound like it would go that well, but Qrow was continuing to be surprised today. Perhaps that would continue as he learned more.

“I did not say that,” Salem said, glancing at Summer with faint alarm; misapprehension already did not, she felt, bode well, but Summer just gave her a sympathetic glance and an encouraging gesture. She folded her arms behind herself and resumed her pacing. “You’ve used the lamp, the staff; you know the precepts that bind the spirits Light chained within. They must follow instructions, to the exact word.”

There were loopholes, true, and the spirits so bound did not obey their master’s strictures gladly, which made it all the easier to find them. Light may have claimed dominion over creation, but he lacked his brother’s creativity. Salem exhaled, eyes half-closed.

“Light,” she said, “is strict, and thus also brittle. He promised—Ozma—to return with his brother, and that mankind will be judged, not that the Brothers would adjudicate. It is his intention to be the final word, but that is not what he said.”

Her pacing brought her to the halfway point, and Salem wheeled to prowl in the other direction. “Darkness will never again be what he was before, and he cannot return; the River flows, always, to the sea. Light is, by his own word, forbidden to judge alone. He will try to invent some justification, if he can, but he will keep his promise.” Bitterly, “He always does. It will be his undoing, this time.”

[skidqrow]

Summer hadn't suggested anything different from what Salem now spoke, but Qrow had hoped, perhaps even foolishly, that Salem merely planned to keep the relics or destroy them. Flinging them out beyond the stars seemed as good an idea as any.

Of course, he already promised Summer to behave. Thus, he kept his pointed questions and accusations to himself.

"You've seen that?" How could she know so certainly that immortal things died in such conditions? He eyed Summer skeptically, wishing she might clarify some of Salem's wording. Was she saying the dark brother had opted to destroy himself in some sort of messed-up reincarnation? And might force light to do the same? His initial thoughts of her malice started to creepingly return.

Fighting any god wasn't high on Qrow's itenerary. Even if it was the more reasonable of the two Brothers, it seemed suicidal. "Why choose to fight them again? You don't gotta live in peace with them or forgive what happened, but can't there be another solution for the future?"

Of all things for him to say, gratitude of any kind defied her expectations; Salem frowned, looking askance at Summer, and received naught but an innocent blink. Unnerved, Salem turned away from the pair to pace slowly along the arc of plinths opposite.

(From his tone, from the thanks Qrow gave her, she could only presume that he intended a friend like you as a positive description, but everything within her shrank from the idea. She was too jaded, and too cruel, and selfish, and Summer had sacrificed everything to stay with her. Who would ever name that love?)

But the relics—the relics were an easier question. Salem inhaled, but before she could ask, Summer cut in blandly, “They asked what Ozpin was hiding from them.”

“I… see.”

Troubled, Salem lifted her gaze to the wind-torn clouds. She could imagine quite well how Ozpin would have told the story, had he chosen for once in his life to stop lying.

Clicking her tongue, she said, “There is a place beneath this world where even the deathless must end and begin anew. Darkness crossed that threshold long ago and is no more; his brother remains, and remains…” Her mouth pressed into a hard line. “Malignant. But if Light cannot be made to bend, I will break him.”