Vara Sol was startled when Theodore Rhodes appeared outside her door without any kind of warning.

"Theo? What is it?" she hissed.

Theo came in and shut the door right away, looking out the peephole.

"Bad news," he said. "She made contact again."

Vara frowned, and her voice became tense. "What did she say?" 

"As usual, nothing that specific," Theo said. "That madman said some things about that little girl who gave them the slip in Atlas. Sustrai."

Vara rubbed her head. "Does he want revenge?" she asked.

"He might," Theo said, distantly.

"I know you didn't come here to tell me that," Vara said.

Theo drew a deep breath. "They told me something. Raven Branwen, Qrow's sister...they said she's here."

Vara was silent.

"No reaction?" Theo said.

"So why is that such a problem for them?" Vara said.

"Apparently, she's important," Theo said. "They didn't say why...but they did drop that her camp has been destroyed... I got the message. They want her dead or alive."

"The Bandit Camp?" Vara said. "Destroyed?... But who would have pulled that off so easily? Not that bug-eyed freak."

"Salem herself," Theo said.

"Salem is...moving herself now?" Vara said.

"Yeah." Theo paced around. "She's getting impatient. She must want to flush Raven out... It can only be because she used to run errands for Ozpin."

"I'm sure it can't just be that," Vara said.

"Do you know something I don't?" Theo said.

Vara tapped the back of a chair. "I've seen Raven in person before," she said. "Way back at the Vytal Festival. She's dangerous in a fight, but she's clever too. They wouldn't suddenly just hunt her down after all this time if she hadn't made a move."

"I'm sure Qrow has been tailing me around," Theo said. "At least I thought it was Qrow..."

"And he never saw you come here?" Vara said.

"Not close to here," Theo said. "I made sure of it... But what I'm saying is--"

"So you think it could have been Raven instead," Vara said. "And that changes things."

"Qrow's not made it any secret that his sister ditched everyone," Theo said. "If she's back with them, in secret, you can be sure it's important. Ozpin is planning some move...something they haven't let me in on. I'm sure they don't trust me."

"Theo, would you trust you?" Vara said. "After the way you've treated them, it screams disloyalty. Your eccentric personality can't cover everything." She folded her arms. "Why not just come clean? Maybe if you let them know you're being coerced, they'd understand. Maybe we can work out a plan together."

"No, if we blow our cover, Salem will not hesitate to torch this place."

"Maybe they never have to know if we did. They might play along with your plan."

"They won't. Once they know I sold them out, it's all over. We're on our own, Vara."

Vara tapped her chin. "We cannot survive on our own forever."

Theo sighed. "What happened to you?" 

He sank into a chair. "Once, you'd have been all for it. Remember that? The girl who wouldn't take anyone's s---."

"That was before I had a target painted on my back," Vara said.

She looked fierce. "I mean it, Theo, I'm fed up. I've half a mind to just go up there and find them myself. You said we could at least fill them in on me."

"And have you asked what will happen when Qrow asks how the h--- you're the Summer Maiden?" Theo asked. "You want to tell him that story?"

Vara paused. "He should probably know the truth," she said. "Don't you think he'd want to?"

"I think he might try to kill you," Theo said.

Her eyes gleamed. "I think I could handle myself. I handled you, didn't I?"

"Oh, yeah..." Theo looked at the ceiling. "But it's more personal for Qrow."

Vara sighed. "You're so sure he won't forgive you."

"I wouldn't forgive me," Theo said. "Not if I were him."

"It's not your fault," Vara said.

"What about the selling them out part?" Theo said.

Vara shook her head. "Well, I share some of the blame for that... So they want you to give them Raven, is that it?"

"For all I know she could have been to the school and back by now," Theo said. "I've avoided being seen by them, but now that I know she's probably here...she'd snoop around and try not to get caught, if I know her. She was always a pain in the a--."

"Could I take her?" Vara made a fist.

"I mean, in skill...maybe," Theo said. "But she's tricky. She won't fight fair. If she and Qrow are teamed up again, I don't think we have much of a chance, not in a direct confrontation. We're going to need a backup plan. I wish I had one."

"There must be something," Vara said. "Though I still think if we just came clean, it might work."

"Vic might be close to a breakthrough," Theo said.

"Oh, sure, if she used human test subjects." Vara made a face. "I thought we were done talking about that."

"I'm just saying we're running out of time."

"Theo, tell me you wouldn't do that," Vara said, fiercely.

Theo frowned, then said, "Yeah, yeah, but I just don't know what else to do. We can't stall them. We'd better get Raven, at least, as some consolation prize...but how do we lure her out?"

"Does she have any weak points?" Vara asked.

"Well...her daughter is here," Theo said. "I'm not sure if family is really Raven's weak point... Still, without her tribe, what else does she have left? I wouldn't think she'd bail Qrow's sorry butt out, but maybe her daughter she would."

"Don't hurt the d--- kid, Theo."

"I won't hurt anyone," Theo said. "We just need a good scare maybe, then we find Raven, and I guess we point Salem in the right direction..."

"No, that's basically letting her be killed," Vara objected.

"They'll expect us to do it ourselves if we don't," Theo said. "Raven's a big girl. Let her take care of herself. Maybe she'll be long gone... Could work to our advantage if she gets the h--- out of Vacuo and leads them farther away. Maybe it's not such a bad plan. Anyway, don't tell me you really feel sorry for that piece of s--- Bandit. She's a traitor and a murderer."

"I...well...yeah," Vara admitted. "I guess if it's between her and Qrow, I'd pick Raven, but it's still... She used to be one of us. I thought we didn't do that to each other in this kingdom."

"She's given up any claim to being one of us ages ago," Theo said. "She'd sell us out in a heartbeat, believe it. I got the idea from Haven that she already did. Don't feel sorry for her."

Vara looked angry. "If that's true, I don't feel sorry for her at all," she said in a different tone. "That b----!"

"That about sums it up," Theo muttered.

* * *

Oscar tried to enjoy being away from the school for a while, with the team, but even after they got past the Emerald scare--and Mercury didn't seem eager to fight them--he still felt a little exposed, being outside like this.

Maybe he couldn't rest easy after the kidnapping, though team RWBY watched him more closely than before, and Ren and Nora checked to make sure he was still there often.

They passed through one of the market places, and at least there was a lot of people--though Oscar was still kind of homeschooled about that; the noise made him nervous.

One vendor's stall caught his eye. They were selling...journals?

Oscar paused. Some nice leather bound stuff... Come to think of it, Shine had that notebook with her at all times when she had her book. Maybe taking some notes on all this wouldn't be a bad idea...to keep the facts straight.

He picked up one leather bound one. It seemed sturdy. As he as putting out some of the remaining lien he had to pay for it, Ozpin said, "I turned to writing also...as a way to keep the stories straight."

Oz, I really don't need to be reminded of being like you, Oscar said.

But then he felt a little bad. I mean...I guess a lot of people write, though.

"It's not just me," Ozpin huffed. "I just meant it's useful. You like reading also--why not writing?"

Yeah, Oscar said. It could be good to have a hobby.

Ozpin's mind stirred a little, and suddenly Oscar's mind's eye opened in another vision.

* * *

"Hmm..." Alicia was looking over one of Ozma's notebooks he carried around with him. "This...isn't bad, Oz."

She turned the page. "You've gotten skilled at telling stories over the centuries, I can tell."

Ozma nodded with a faint smile. "It's one thing I ought to get good at--I live through so many of them."

"One plus to being immortal," Alicia said, "you'd never stop having adventures."

She closed the notebook. "Back at home, I have an author friend who likes to tell children's stories. He thinks that the afterlife will be one big adventure forever...but with none of the nasty parts to mar it."

"I've seen the afterlife," Ozma said. "It was...quieter than that."

"Oh, Oz." Alicia shook her head. "You've never really seen it. One of my inspirations, another writer--come to think of it that's how me and my friend met to begin with. We were in this book shop both looking for a piece of literature by this fellow, and we got to talking when we couldn't find it. Next thing you know we're having tea at a station and swapping telephones--"

"Alicia," Ozma interrupted. "You were saying something about the afterlife."

"Oh, goodness me, I was," Alicia chuckled. "Sorry about that, old chap... Right. Well, this author, he thinks that when we nearly die, we see sort of a picture of the afterlife, but not quite all of it. Now, you came back, meaning that you didn't fully sink into it, so to speak. You must have been only at the doorstep. Your petty gods probably pulled you back by their meager authority...but only by tying you to someone else. They can do that much. It's rather easy to bring people back to life, from all I hear. But to show you the real afterlife...it couldn't be, not yet. Once you see that, you'd never want to come back, ever."

Ozma considered that.

"Maybe that's true," he said. "Well, I suppose I have something to look forward to, then...if I ever die."

"I think it's sad that you'd want to die," Alicia mused, more soberly. "I mean, I want to go there myself, but I'm happy being alive also. Like ole Saint Paul said, it's good to be here, and it's good to move on. But it's better for the others if we are here, to help, as long as we can."

"I think I'm long past the point of thinking the world is better off with me here," Ozma said sadly. "I just want this to be over."

Alicia sat up and put a hand on his gently. "Come now, Oz," she said, "all joking aside, you've still done the world a lot of good...giving them a heads up in developing defenses against the Grimm. Even if that was all you ever did, it would have given them a better fighting chance. And there's more than that. That's nothing to be ashamed of. I mean, you've a curse, but you've made the most of it. If you could just..."

But she stopped.

This was a few weeks in, and she'd already learned that saying to not focus on Salem only led to a heated debate...and she had yet to get so frustrated with it that she didn't care anymore, as she had later.

Ozma ignored her slip up.

"You're fortunate to be so sure," he said, "that you are here for a purpose and that someone is directing your steps."

Alicia shrugged. "There're stories about people like me through all worlds..." she said. "Odd that there's none here... You might be the closest thing they've got to one, actually. In a way, you came from another world by coming back to life."

"However did you start? I mean, where do you...World Walkers come from?" Ozma asked, leaning on one hand.

"Oh, that..." Alicia looked up at the sky.

"Well, not everyone agrees. But one version I've been partial to is a bit old fashioned, but after all, old fashioned things are all the better. It goes that one day the Son said to His followers who were scattered through the worlds, like so much fine grain, that no longer would they be separated, but that He would send His ambassadors, from each world into another, so that they might finally be united for His sake. And then He called the chosen from each world, in their own fashion." She held up her hand grandly. "And He says, 'You will go as I went and walk as I walked, and you will say what I said, and you will suffer as I suffered. And they will mock you and accuse you, as they did me. And you will perform the signs I performed, and you will be as they are, in the world, but not of their world. And you will live out my walk on earth. And then in time, your work will be done'."

"That sounds something like some of your book," Ozma said.

"Well, perhaps it is," Alicia said. "After all, this is retelling of a story that's been told so many times. Perhaps we've been paraphrasing, but I'm sure at least that these principles were the ones in place, because it is what we do. Each in our own way. Each with our own talents. And we're World Walkers because we walk the worlds in an imitation of how He, our first one, walked the world and was a man...but not just a man. We're little copies of it--well, that's what we were meant to be. I think it's very fitting... All of us really are strangers in our own world anyway, parts of the beyond, the afterlife as you call it. But us Walkers just demonstrate that the most literally... That's why it's a difficult calling, because you have to be constantly a stranger, and, unlike you natives, not even ones who can pretend to be like everyone else. We cannot hide." She smiled. "But it's an opportunity also, isn't it? It's hard to argue that we're a little different--people are bound to wonder why."

"You don't look so different," Ozma said.

"Eh, you just got lucky," Alicia said. "Some of us don't look human at all. I suspect I was supposed blend in, as it were...at least a bit. Though it seems if I had dog ears even it wouldn't be that amiss here."

"The Faunus are a strange development," Ozma said. "But they seem to be human in every other regard. I'm not sure why people feel the need to mistreat them."

"We look at anyone we can to get people to look away from ourselves," Alicia mused. "Sad but true. Old as time, saying the others are worse than us so we don't have to change. Don't let's do that, Oz... We should always own up to our own mistakes. Agreed?"

"Agreed," Ozma said. "But...so the story is a good idea?"

"Well, you might need to work at it a bit so it's not obvious it's autobiographical," Alicia mused. "Better not to make it too plain with stories. Don't want people to discover things they shouldn't know that they might try to misuse... A few details here and there changed, the names changed...but other than that, I'd read it. What are you going to call it?"

"I had thought I might call this one The Struggle of Souls," Ozma said.

Alicia frowned. "A bit pretentious, isn't it? Are your struggles encompassing everyone else's? A story should tell you about someone else's life and let you find yourself in it if you can. Otherwise it's useless."

"I did wonder if it might be too violent," Ozma mused. "Hmm...but something about souls would be good."

"Maybe you're overthinking it," Alicia said. "Why not just call it what it is?"

"The man with two souls?" Ozma suggested.

"There, that's direct," Alicia said. "Just like I'm the girl who fell through the world. Or the girl who walked worlds... No, that might be too big of a clue."

"The first one wasn't bad," Ozma said. "But I'm not sure I could write any story that would do you justice."

"Ah, that's sweet," Alicia said. "I'll make believe that you don't just mean I'm too eccentric to capture."

She pulled a biscuit out of her pocket and started nibbling it.

"Yes, that would be difficult..." Ozma said.

[half alive--creature]

https://youtu.be/UsP1mMdgUQ4

* * *

"Oscar!" Ruby put her hand on his shoulder.

Oscar jumped and realized he'd been staring into space for a while...to the bewilderment of the vendor, who muttered about kids being way too flighty these days.

Oscar turned away from the stall with a strange look.

"Are you all right?" Ruby asked.

Little peeped out from under her hood at him oddly.

"Yeah, I'm all right," Oscar said. "I just...was lost in thought... I was remembering something."

"Again?" Emerald heard him. "Weird."

"What do you mean again?" Blake asked. "What's going on?"

"Just some old memories of things," Oscar said. "I don't think it was...anything big, just...part of the two souls thing probably."

"Does he just say that casually like that?" Mercury made a face. "Ugh."

Emerald elbowed him. "What else is he supposed to do? Shut up."

Mercury rubbed his side and looked miffed.

"I'm still surprised he came with us so easily," Ozpin said. "Even with Miss Nikos. After all, he can't be sure her return is not a problem in the long run, without knowing about the new god."

Hey, he's giving Emerald a chance to explain, Oscar hissed at him. That's a good thing. She's sure he'll come around. I say we give him a fair shot.

"Just don't give him a free shot, Oscar. I wouldn't be left alone with him if I were you, not till we're sure he's convinced," Ozpin said.

Nevermind him, Oz--why do I keep seeing those flashes? Oscar said.

"I'm not sure," Ozpin said.

You're not sure!? Oscar said.

"The truth is, Oscar, I'm remembering them, but I'm not trying to show them to you. It's like you're entering my memory without my volition," Ozpin said. "But it's not exactly as if it's becoming your memory. You still process it as something you're seeing for the first time, it feels like."

Yeah, it feels like that to me, Oscar said. If it's like I'm seeing your past, not like I'm part of it, like with the other memories we've started sharing--what is up with that?

"I can't explain it," Ozpin said. "It's as if finally telling the truth about it has made all of this come loose after I hid it for so long. But now that you are seeing it, how does it strike you?"

I... Oscar paused. She...she was really nice, I think...odd, but nice. I just don't see why you...ever turned on her.

"If you see any more glimpses of her temper, you might understand..." Ozpin sounded rueful even in his thoughts. "Things weren't that simple, Oscar. Yes, Alicia was...charming. When we were in agreement...but I was a troubled man in that life, as you can see...in every life, perhaps, but that one especially... Things were not going well. I was trying to come up with a new plan... Finally the idea for the kingdoms really came to me...but it didn't become reality until long after she was gone. I think she helped me think of it, in fact...and the idea of writing down my stories, as you saw, helped me begin to make sense of it after all that time... It helped, in a way, for me to feel I could connect with people, if only in their imaginations. I suppose that is why I wrote the stories...but it also reminds me of my guilt. I accepted both. Are you starting to see yet why it wasn't easy to tell the full story?"

I don't know. Oscar was very serious. I think...I see why it would be hard to put it into words... It's...almost like when you've lived as long as you, and seen that many people, even trying to sum it all up in a way that could make people get it, it's...almost impossible... I mean, I already feel like that with what's happened to me, and it's been a few months. So I see why you struggle with that part. But why did you get angry at Alicia over it?

"It is hard to explain that," Ozpin said. "But if I could, I would say...perhaps it was that she was so very sure of who she was--and why she was. And, while I admired it, I also envied it... I had lost sight of what it was really about...and when we would argue, it would only reinforce that. I blamed her for making me feel helpless...but in reality, I see, looking back, that I just felt that way because I had been here too long and failed too often. That is why, Oscar, you must not discount the little victories you have along the way. They add up in the end, from lifetime to lifetime. You come to see what really mattered to people is the good you did that lasted a while, not always stopping evil alone."

Is that why you wrote the stories and made the schools? Oscar asked. To help people do good even if it wasn't winning?

"I came to see that personal things like art, knowledge, and heroism were important," Ozpin said. "Because those things inspire people going forward, and in that way we're all connected. I suppose, like Alicia's idea of worlds being connected through stories and emissaries...if the gods were not here, at least there would be memories of them, and that was something. If we turn our backs on all that we think matters except survival, we are hardly humans anymore. That is what I thought...but everything did become selfish in it's way. Hazel is right about me, I think...the curse touches everything I do...but it's not true that I never had the aspiration to be more than a cursed soul...only after all this time...I have no choice...what more can be done?"

"I'm sorry Oz," Oscar said slowly. "I mean it...I didn't understand that part. I...I mean, you're right, you've made more mistakes than anyone, but it's...not like you wanted us all to suffer, you're stuck this way."

He put a hand to his chest slowly. "I don't like how you do a lot of things, but I know why you do them. I think you are selfish, but I think you're not always completely wrong, and that we have to acknowledge that, if we're going to be fair...that's why I think, the DJs still want to help you break the curse...and I want to also." He looked more distant. "I promise, I'm going to do all I can to free us both, not just me."

Pause.

"Thank you, Oscar," Ozpin said quietly. "I mean it...but...don't..."

"Don't what?" Oscar said more sharply.

"I..." Ozpin stopped. "Well, perhaps its best if I don't try to caution you further...you know the risks however. But this is your decision. I certainly could not ask you to do it for me, I've never done a thing for you."

"I don't know about that," Oscar said. "Maybe not for me directly, but if you hadn't put the schools in place, I never would have met these people. Could have been stuck with totally different people, or maybe none, maybe the idea wasn't as bad as we thought. I mean, its good and bad, I guess it depends on how we use it. The past is what you make of it, isn't that a saying."

"Well anything is what you make of it," Ozpin said.

They turned at some point back towards the school.

Wally was back by then, and trying to re-hydrate, while Shine was telling him about her little talk with the prisoners.

Little eagerly went looking for food, Ruby shuffled her way to the kitchen to help her.

"Did you guys have fun?" Wally asked. "Oh gosh, I sound like a grandpa."

"You're turning grey," Shine joked.

"Oh, real funny," Wally felt his hair anyway.

"Speaking of grey, look," Pyrrha pointed at Mercury.

Emerald had brought him in, though he looked edgy about it.

"You'll never believe how I finally found him," she said.

"You found me? I think it was the other way around," Mercury looked down at Shine and Wally with distaste. "These are the people who were so important? They don't look like much to me."

"Just once, it'd be cool if someone was nice to us the first time we met them," Wally said. "Other than Oscar and Pyrrha that is."

Pyrrha waved humorously.

"Welcome," Shine said to Mercury. "Any friend of Emerald's is a friend of ours, as far as I'm concerned."

"I think friend is putting it a little strongly," Mercury said. "Coworkers at best, and I just came here to see for myself...I'm supposed to believe that you're behind this?" He pointed at Pyrrha. "No way. I could snap you in half."

"Hmm," Shine said. "And both halves would still love you."

"What?" Mercury stepped back.

"Something that David Wilkerson said, sort of, when someone threatened him," Shine said. "Classic, isn't it?"

"No, it's creepy," Mercury said. "Gross, these are the type of people you're around?"

"She's just messing with you," Emerald gave Shine a look like "stop embarrassing me".

"So what happened?" Wally asked. "I hope the scorpion dude wasn't around."

"No," Jaune said. "But...uh, we might kind of have a problem with Emerald getting attacked by students from Shade."

"People have changed," Pyrrha said soberly. "They're angrier than they used to be. They're...hard, and bitter."

"It's nothing," Mercury said. "Can't really blame them for trying to off someone who they see as a threat. It happens." He frowned.

He was worse than Emerald at making himself seem trustworthy.

Yang shot him a dirty look.

"So you still think he should join us?" she said to Shine.

"I think that sealed it," Shine said. "He certainly needs a change of scenery. I'm sure looking at Tyrian's face every day would twist anyone. But if you're not sold on this Mercury, stick around for a bit, maybe you'll see something that'll change your mind."

Oscar was beginning to see her wry way of speaking in a new light after spending more time with Emerald himself. It might annoy all of them, but it seemed to put these shadier people more at ease if she was less emotional and more dryly confident. They seemed to like it to be more businesslike, perhaps they were wary of anything else. Somehow she managed to sound welcoming without sounding overly eager, and that had to be just what they wanted to hear, because anything else would have been off putting.

But with him, she never spoke that way, and that made sense too.

Overall, he was realizing just that Shine adjusted her approach to everyone based on their personality and background, and that was why she was hard to beat. But being able to imitate that was still out of his reach...only that in Hazel's case, it had been simpler, lucky for him.

Wally lacked Shine's keen insights into people, but he was just too easygoing to really raise any alarm bells in most of them. He just said "The question is where is he going to sleep?"

"We'd better rearrange rooms anyway," Shine said. "After the nasty incident of the other day, Emerald is not safe alone. Em, you should move to Pyrrha and I's room. I was going to say it before but I forgot because I was in such a hurry to leave for Vale."

"Vale?" Mercury said oddly.

Shine ignored it. "But you have to move. Anyone could sneak in there in the night."

"Uh...well the thing is..." Emerald really didn't want them know how often she was having nightmares...but then again she didn't want to die in her sleep either. "It might be...better to still have some kind of...you know, privacy set-up."

"Since when do you care about that?" Mercury said.

She kicked him...not that he felt it.

"We can work with it," Pyrrha said. "But I think Shine is right, you shouldn't be alone. Oscar, you shouldn't either, whose idea was that?"

"I think Theo assigned the rooms--" Oscar stopped.

"Let's just not tell him then," Shine said. "That works.  Wally, are you and Qrow sharing this time?"

"I mean, Qrow's hardly ever there, but yeah," Wally said. "I mean, it's kind of weird so we have this dividing curtain thing."

"Most teams never use them," Jaune said. "We're comfortable with each other. But just when we have to change clothes or something and the bathroom is full, sometimes...I guess I didn't need to mention that part."

Some of them laughed weakly.

"At least there's some decency in place," Shine said. "Well Oscar you should move into that room...Mercury I suppose you could also if you decide to stick around."

"If by some stretch that happens, I don't plan on being in the same general area as that drunken buffoon," Mercury said.

"Don't talk about my Uncle like that!" Yang's eyes turned red.

"I'm with Yang for once, don't make remarks like that about our team," Shine warned. "If you have a problem with that..." she let that hang.

"Maybe he's right though," Wally said. "Hey, why not put him with Hazel, that guy is tough."

"Yeah, that's better," Shine agreed.

"Though the whole sharing a room thing always makes me feel like I'm in the hospital," Wally said.

"Babe, in the wars, men would have to share a lot more than that," Shine said. "It's macho enough, isn't it?"

"But like, there were bugs and rats and stuff," Wally said.

"There are bugs and rats here too," Ruby said helpfully. "And Little...but she doesn't count as a pest."

"I don't know about that, she's kind of annoying," Yang said.

"Yang, shhhh, she'll hear you." Ruby said.

"Oh, wow, the mouse will hear you," Mercury said. "You people are unbelievable."

"Why?" Little asked.

Mercury jumped at least 6 inches in the air and backed up, putting his hands up defensively.

Which made half the girls start laughing, while Ren and Jaune just shook their heads.

"Takes a while to get used to it," Blake said dryly.

"The...thing...just...talked," Mercury sputtered. "The h--- is that?"

"It's from another world," Emerald said. "The one they fell into." She pointed at the girls and Jaune and Pyrrha. "When Cinder tried to kill them."

"I thought it was Neo." Mercury said.

"Oh gosh, is that what she told her?" Shine laughed. "Nice cover, Cinder."

"She's zero for two on me," Pyrrha said. "But I don't want to compete in that. Ruby?"

"Oh no, I'm good," Ruby said. "Once is enough. Still I got a new friend out of it."

Little nodded. "What's a Cinder?" 

"Pain in the a--" Mercury said. "Glad I don't work for her anymore. By the way, did you know Watts died? The idiot got lost in Atlas somehow."

"Oh, is that what she said?" Wally imitated Shine's tone. "That tracks."

"She killed him too." Mercury wasn't stupid--at least not that stupid.

"Well, she thought she did," Shine said meaningfully. 

That little tidbit would interest Salem.

"The best part," Emerald said, "is...well, when are they coming back?"

"If you mean those two," Shine said, "any minute. Winter and Qrow are not back either, but they said they would be soon enough. I'll fill you in on how it went once they do, but we're going to need to act fast. Apparently, they may have a lead on our mystery woman."

"Nice," Jaune said. "Hey, things are finally looking up."

Mercury frowned and looked at the floor moodily like he doubted this.