Carry You

Weiss looked up when she saw Blake standing near her. "Oh, hey, Blake. What's up?" She had been hard at work, studying up on the magic manuals to see if she wanted to delve into fae magic at all. It was interesting. So very interesting. It was like an entirely new branch of science but it didn't necessarily follow scientific laws. But it had its own rules to follow and such. She would definitely enjoy studying magic on a theoretical level, but she still wasn't entirely sold on doing it or not. "It's lunch time." Weiss frowned at that. Already? It had barely felt like any time had passed since she'd arrived in the library. But reading did tend to do that... It felt as if no time had passed when, in reality, hours had passed by in a blink. She could recall staying up late to study dust journals only to realise it was two in the morning then she would have to be up a few hours later to start on her school studies. "All right." She tucked a bookmark into the book she'd been reading and started to follow Blake back. "You really are a voracious reader. How many books did you get through in just that couple of hours?" "Two and a half I think? And that was me taking time to include my thoughts." She could get through even the densest of books relatively quickly thanks to her extensive time studying dust journals. Things didn't get any denser than that. So much chemistry and math went into studying dust that it was ridiculous. But she enjoyed the challenge that dust journals offered, so she wouldn't be upset about having to go after them. She had gone from not understanding the first thing about math and science to studying top-tier dust journals in just nine months, all by herself. "That's pretty impressive considering those are still some pretty intense magic manuals. They're geared toward a younger audience, but that doesn't mean they're necessarily easy." No, they hadn't been. There were clearly sections where the reader was clearly supposed to understand implied things. She had had to track down areas in other books to have them cleared up. She supposed they were for kids that had grown up learning about magic even if they hadn't necessarily delved into it. They probably had more knowledge through hearing their parents talk about it than she had had. She was starting literally from scratch. The kids here were clearly at least more informed on some things than she was. "Are you familiar with any sort of chemistry?" She figured she would start there. "A bit, but it's not something I've specialised in. For most fae, chemistry isn't really necessary for anything. There are fae that need to really study it because that's what their magic will focus around. They produce all the materials we use to build and make things. Knowing the chemical makeup of iron, steel, stone, and other materials to make them from scratch takes a lot of knowledge." Huh. So they could make materials from scratch. She supposed that made sense... They didn't like the fact that a lot of things could destroy the environment, so it did make sense they could make things without having to mine deep into the earth to destroy their stores of materials... "Well, I went from understanding nothing about science, math, and chemistry to being able to read high-tier scientific chemistry journals within nine months." She paused. "Are you familiar with dust?" "The concept of it, sure. I know humans and Faunus rely on it and have the past few cycles. Before the past several cycles, though, it was never of much consequence... Though it hasn't always been called 'dust.'" That made sense, she supposed. Different eras would call it different things. That was just the current name for it... She wondered what those past eras had called it. She was really curious. Maybe there were some books on past human eras in the library? She had so much time to read and still not enough of it! "I see. So you don't have it here in Koiria?" That was surprising. Granted...this world was flat while Remnant was a sphere. Well. Not technically a sphere but close enough. Blake shook her head. "No. It's the remains of Celaecyal's body." "What?" Excuse her? What did she mean dust was the remnant of someone's body? Blake tilted her head. "You humans really don't remember much of your histories... Geeze. When the planet was forming, the goddess Celaecyal was pushed by her siblings to make the planet habitable a lot faster. However, she couldn't withstand the sheer strain and her body broke apart to form the veins of dust you find today. Her spirit remains connected to your planet and she's the one that gives magic out to people. Though with the Fountains being sealed off, most people can't access it now..." Blake blinked. "Weiss, are you okay?" "I-I didn't know that was the origin of dust..." She couldn't believe they were mining the remains of somebody's body. Normally she'd have a stronger sense of skepticism, but she was at least starting to get used to the fact that fae remembered a lot more of Remnant's history than humanity did. She probably should've been more skeptical, but she just couldn't bring herself to be so. Something about it just seemed to ring true for her. She was... She couldn't believe they were using a person's remains to power their world. "That's...impressive that you have forgotten so much about your own history. Granted, that was before humanity was created, so I guess it makes sense that you wouldn't know that. But..." Blake frowned. "...at the same time, a religion where only one god is the head of everything? And you being surprised that female divinity was a thing... The amount that humans have forgotten is staggering." Weiss sighed. She couldn't deny it. Humans were apparently a species with amnesia. She couldn't believe that they had forgotten so much about their own history. Nobody even knew about the cycles... "I guess we're a species with amnesia... Only so much can be remembered when you have about eighty to a hundred years..." It was so easy for information transmission to be broken. Honestly, if they had forgotten that much about their distant history, how much had they even forgotten about their recent history? Atlas was known for covering things up to fit their narrative so... She frowned. "There's probably a lot I don't know because of how Atlas is. Are there any people that specialise in the study of humanity's history that you know?" Honestly, her investing some time in studying the history of Remnant would probably be good... She already had a lot of classes lined up but...maybe if Kali and Ghira were okay with it, she could also study Remnant's history. "They're not common, but we do know some people. Do you want to add another class on?" Weiss nodded. "I don't know a lot, but I know that Atlas has its own agenda... Everyone in Atlas' upper class has an agenda of some sort. So is it so hard to believe that Atlas itself would have an agenda?" It might feel like a stretch to some people, but she could puzzle out things on her own. Now that she was away from Atlas, she could speak these things out loud and not get in trouble or be beaten for it. She was still a bit wary about asking questions though. She always got beat whenever she asked them of President Jacques... And her teachers usually scoffed at her even though they were usually good questions. "I can't say I know a lot about modern human politics, but with what you've described of Atlas, that wouldn't surprise me. Few people really care about preserving humanity's history, so finding specialists is rare. Thankfully, we do know some people that would be more than happy to help you learn even if it's just within your own modern era. We enjoy human forms of entertainment, but we don't really like learning about the history... With as riddled with war as your history is, it just doesn't appeal to us very much." "There hasn't been a war for about eighty years now... The Great War was the last major war." She frowned. "It was when we lost our servants though." Faunus had been dependent on humans for protection and shelter before the Great War. They'd rebelled and lost all of that protection during the Great War... They had been so selfish and cruel to the humans that had offered them such gracious amenities. "You say eighty years as if it's a lot. Keep in mind that's kinda just barely out of childhood for fae." Weiss nodded a bit at Blake's words. For a human, eighty years was several generations past. But for fae... Trying to get used to the timescales here was hard. She was trying her absolute best, but shifting her thinking so radically was hard. She couldn't imagine how eighty was just barely out of childhood. Fae lifespans were truly mind bogglingly long for mortals like her. They arrived at the kitchen a few minutes later where Kali and Ghira were sitting at a table, chatting pleasantly. They stopped when they saw Blake and Weiss approach. Kali smiled warmly. "Well good afternoon, Weiss. How has your day been so far?" Weiss sat down, squeezing her hands together. She still wasn't entirely comfortable talking to Kali but she had to get over it. She was living with them now, so she had to get used to talking to her. "Um, good. I'm enjoying being able to read so much." She knew she wouldn't have too much time left to do that. She really wished she could spend the entire rest of her life in that library. Even if they were fae documents, they were fascinating. She could learn an immeasurable amount from those documents and books... Granted, the librarian was someone she wasn't fond of after their first negative encounter. Kali smiled and nodded. "Well, if there are any books you want your own copies of, just let us know and we'll get you some. Until then, though, feel free to keep sticky notes and such in the books to record your thoughts." "That's exactly what I'm doing." She wasn't one to mark up books really. The worst she would do was put a tiny dot on a page to notate where a sticky note would go. If she was rereading the book, she could easily just pick it up then put it back so she could continue reading uninhibited. Books were sacred to her, so she felt so wrong if she marked them up outside of those tiny guiding dots. She listed off the books she wanted so far and Kali nodded. "All right; we can get those for you." The woman smiled at her warmly. Weiss was surprised just how accepting and open Kali seemed to be. She was really surprised... Most fae looked at her as if she were a curiosity. Not so much Kali though... The woman seemed as warm and nice as they came. She would have suspected ulterior motives if not for the fact that she'd seen the proof that fae really didn't have them too often. Every part of her really did want to scream that this was a bad idea. "By the way, I know it won't be extremely useful, but...I would like to have a class on Remnant's history with a specialist if you wouldn't mind asking around." She squeezed her hands together. Somehow, it felt like this was going too far... Kali did blink but nodded. "We do know some people at least... They keep an eye on the current climate of the human world so we can know if it's a good idea to open trade with them again or not. But with as violent as humans are right now, it's not a good idea to open up to them. Even changelings are a bad idea in the current climate." Weiss wanted to feel shamed by that, but she could tell it was merely just an observation Kali's behalf. Yeah, humanity was in a pretty bad place right now... There was plenty of arable land, but the Grimm... The Grimm stopped them from expanding out too much. She wished they could have had more area but no. There were only the four kingdoms, then people who lived outside out of the protection of the kingdoms and tried to make their own ways. It was hard to believe, but plenty of people did look out for themselves... "It would be useful to know what parts of my history have been covered up from me... I know Atlas and I know they control information. I wouldn't be surprised if there was quite a bit I didn't know..." She had no idea how that would manifest, but she would definitely enjoy learning about history if at all possible. She wanted to see what was out there in the wider world. She had so been looking forward to going to Beacon, but that wouldn't happen now. She would have so much to learn if she wanted to go to Beacon. Though...she didn't enjoy fighting. She wouldn't have to fight against people or the Grimm, so she would count that as a win in and of itself. "I'm sure there's a lot that you haven't learned properly. But we'll make an appointment to see if anybody would be willing to teach you. It's not too common for changelings to learn about their home world, mainly because it doesn't impact them in current eras like it did in past eras." That did make some sort of sense, Weiss supposed. The two worlds were entirely cut off from each other. Why bother learning about a place you were cut off from? Through that logic, she should probably just give up on learning about Atlas, but she didn't want to. She wanted to fill in gaps in her knowledge when and where possible... "That makes some level of sense. I probably should just let it go but I would like to maintain some level of connection to home." She hoped that didn't seem demanding or anything. She hated a lot about Atlas but...it was still home for her. She had never known anywhere different. She had never known different. She simply wanted to try to expand her horizons as much as possible. She had always been curious about things and saw herself as a sponge. She learned things so quickly that it was kind of astonishing. She did look at them, though. "You're not gonna force me to continue learning combat, are you?" Kali shook her head. "Not unless you want to continue learning it. Most fae aren't trained in any sort of combat, so it'd be hard to find somebody to teach you in the first place. It's mostly older generations where the Misum and Lider courts were constantly at war. But that hasn't happened in well over fifty thousand years. So trying to track down somebody that could train you would be hard since most of those generations have passed away. And even if they are still alive, most fae at that age don't want to bother with younger fae...let alone humans." Weiss nodded a bit. She really was a minority here, but it didn't seem like she'd be treated too poorly. Kali was allowing her a good education and helping her do what was needed to integrate into fae society. "No, I'm not particularly fond of combat. I was training to go to one of the four Hunter Academies beforehand due to it being able to get me out of Atlas, but fighting was never something I enjoyed. I enjoy playing with my Semblance, but that's far from fighting." She knew summon was part of Schnee abilities, but considering she had never defeated any Grimm yet, she didn't have the capability. She canted her head to the side a bit. "Maybe Blake could take me back to Remnant for a little while and I could defeat some Grimm. That's about the only thing I'd want to fight so I can have access to my full Semblance." "I would have to take you since Blake isn't allowed to leave Koiria for the next year. She broke a lot of laws to bring you here." Kali looked at Blake and Blake's ears flattened against her head as she looked away. "A year? That's... Oh." For fae, that was basically a slap on the wrist. For a human, a year of house arrest like that would be maddening. But it wasn't like she was forbidden from going anywhere in Koiria it sounded like. She just couldn't go to the human world. "She's fine to travel and take me places here, right?" Kali nodded. "She's fine to continue on with life as normal here in Koiria. Considering we are busy a lot of the time, the lawyers decided that it was best for her to take responsibility for you to help you adapt and such." That made sense. Plus, Blake was the only person she had anything resembling trust for. She still couldn't shake the feeling that Kali and Ghira wanted more out of her than they were letting on. But she knew that they couldn't do that... Arranged marriages were forbidden, so it wouldn't be possible to gain anything from her. Plus, it wasn't like they could get anything out of Winter... Though... Weiss frowned. "What will happen if people find out about Auria? My sister knows about the entire arrangement and I suspect it won't take too much for Whitley to figure it out." She wasn't sure what Whitley would do if he found out about Auria. He didn't get along with Weiss in the slightest and she doubted he'd get along with Auria either. He was one of the most stiff people Weiss knew...and she'd met a lot of people that had no momentum or understanding about anything. She hated to use vulgar language, but the only description for Whitley was the fact he had a stick up his ass. He really did. "Well, you trust your sister, right? If so, I doubt she'll out you to wider society. Though there is a lot of risk involved in this... From what little bit I know of Atlas, if it got out magic existed, I can only imagine what they'd do to weaponise it. Not that they'd be able to access fae magic but..." Kali frowned and Weiss nodded, picking at her plate a little bit. Yeah. Atlas would try to weaponise literally anything that they could. Though, from what little she'd heard about Remnant's magic, it didn't sound like they'd be able to weaponise it, what with it being cut off. "I don't trust my brother. Forgive my language, but he has a big stick up his ass. It's literally the only description I have for him. He's terrible and an absolute terror. All we do is fight." He tried to poke and prod and twist her into doing what he wanted her to. It was so frustrating. They were siblings. Why couldn't he be nice to her like Winter was? She didn't understand. They had the same, terrible, abusive father. How could he have ended up so differently? Then again, she hadn't learned about him even existing until after Winter had left. She wasn't sure Winter had known he'd existed before she left either... "Auria's pretty good at seeing things for the way they are. There's probably a lot to the situation between you and your brother even you don't know about, Weiss," Blake put in. "She's a psychologist. She studies the mind and soul on a scientific level. So she can understand things a lot better than most people can. Plus, with her being an outside observer to the situation even though she does have your memories...she might be able to connect with him in a way that you never could." Weiss scoffed and shook her head. "That's impossible. He's a petulant little brat that only has his own best interests at heart. He's no better than a typical Atlassian man." He was a mini-me of President Jacques. There was no difference between the pair of them. Both of them were cold, cruel, calculating, and only cared about money. That was it. There was nothing more to Whitley than that. All that existed was money and the future of the SDC and making sure it stayed on the track that President Jacques had set forth. Weiss wished she could've been the one to set the company straight...but with Aura in Atlas, that would never happen. The three Belladonnas didn't look convinced but they didn't say anything more in regards to it. "Well, Aura is shrewd so I doubt she'll be revealed to too many people. She's a good soul though a little chaotic. But that's just Misum for you. For the most part, at least," Blake said. She looked at her father. Weiss nodded a bit. The Lider court was hard enough to keep track of, so she couldn't imagine how much worse it would be for the Misum court. The Lider at least seemed relatively down to the earth and kind. She wasn't sure about the Misum, though... She had only met Turi and Blake and Blake said she aligned more with her Lider nature. Weiss really didn't want to meet Misum if they were as chaotic as it seemed. Weiss nodded a bit. "I see." She didn't really know what to say. It seemed like the meal was drawing to a close anyway, so she fell silent. They wrapped up eating and Kali and Ghira left the room. It left her with Blake who smiled at her. "Would you like to go on a pegasus-back ride?" Weiss tilted her head. "Sure, I guess." She saw no reason to not. She wanted to spend time in the library, but she knew she couldn't spend her whole life reading (unfortunately). "All right; go get changed then meet me out at the barn!" Blake smiled warmly then headed off. Weiss nodded and headed off to her own room. Well, this was going to be interesting...