to treasure a thousand words, a thousand years

As sunset approached, Weiss excused herself from the worksite to put her birds away. Lilias stepped up without trouble but Avram refused. “Come on, Avram. It’s bed time. You know you have to sleep.” This was so asinine. He knew their routine. Why was he being so difficult? He huffed.“It’s only five. We shouldn’t have to go to bed yet!”He let out an ear-piercing shriek that made Weiss cringe. She could only imagine how painful it was to the Faunus around her especially those with animal ears. Cockatoo screams were so ear-shatteringly loud. “Too bad; you need to sleep! Plus, I’ll be awake at dawn!” The bird fluffed up his feathers and cocked his head back. Hewouldbite her if she attempted to come close. She wasn’t going to risk a broken finger or even a severed finger. Parrot bite forces were nothing to sneer at, so awakened parrots could do far more damage. She was at an impasse. She didn’t know what to do. Thankfully, Lilas started talking to him and, over the course of about five minutes, Avram relaxed. His feathers flattened against his body and he hopped up onto Weiss’ hand. She was infinitely grateful for Lilas. Somehow, she knew just what to say to him at times like this. She always could handle him when Weiss couldn’t. She went into her tent and put them into their dark boxes. What a mess. She wanted to curl up and sleep, but she couldn’t. The day was at least winding down, so she would go meet up with Blake. She called Blake and figured out where to meet up with her. She was looking forward to a hot meal and some hot tea. It was only about int he 50s right now which was too cold for her. She bundled up in a heavier coat and hat, tucking her hair up underneath. She knew she ought to be wearing a hair covering like most others, but she simply didn’t want to. It marked her as other, but it didn’t matter. She human in a Faunus-majority country. She was already marked out as different. No point in hiding who she was behind a piece of cloth. After that, she mounted her borrowed horse and headed into the waning day. Thankfully, this horse knew the area so all she had to do was tell it where to go.

φ

Weiss arrived at the Brass Eagles about half an hour later. The man at the front counter glanced at her. “Do you have a reservation? If not, I’m afraid—” “Blake should’ve checked in about half an hour ago.” She didn’t want to deal with racists. Then again, this place served mahloa. She wasn’t wearing a head covering, so it was probably religious discrimination. She was already so tired of all of this. She was overseer of the job site, but plenty treated her like trash. It was absolutely infuriating, but she had no way to combat it. She really loathed being in this nation, but it was too good of pay to pass up. The man led Weiss to a table in the back where Blake sat. A small plate of food sat in front of her while a mug and tray of tea lay out. A pot of water also sat there. Weiss settled down and sighed. So much discrimination in this country. How did humans that grew up here deal with it? She didn’t understand. No wonder so many people avoided Sodocroa. It was one of the most discriminatory places on the planet. “Good evening,” Blake said after Weiss sat down. Weiss poured some boiling water over the tea leaves and waited for it to steep. “Hey.” She kind of had limited patience at the moment. Avram’s little temperament hadn’t been fun. She normally put them to bed about eight, so five was really early. But with her meeting Blake, she couldn’t risk it. So it was best to put them to bed early. She didn’t want to potentially not have them in bed at nine or ten. She wasn’t sure how late she’d be. “I’m not too late, am I?” She had said about half an hour. Blake had clearly already eaten something. Blake shook her head. “You’re not unreasonably late or anything. You said about half an hour. But I am pretty hungry. I had a couple appetizers but I haven’t ordered my main meal yet.” Weiss blinked.That…was kind. Blake could’ve eaten and simply waited for her, then they could talk while Weiss ate. But she’d refused to ahve the main course. That was sweet. Blake offered Weiss the menu and she started looking through it. “So what exactly are you investigating?” Weiss blinked and looked up at the question. She hadn’t been expecting anything so soon. But she supposed it made sense. Blake hadn’t really experienced the outside world to her knowledge. Plus, this dig was pretty guarded. Weiss got into her bag and pulled out a file. She opened to the photos she’d taken of the vault. “A very peculiar magical vault deep underground. It could have only been created by a Chaos user.” It was insane. The amount of magic it must have taken was immense. Not even the great Order immortals could match it. Blake took the file and started to inspect it while Weiss looked over the menu. The waiter came over, looking a bit shifty. “Can I take your orders? And will you bee on the same check or—” “Different,” Weiss said. She placed her order and Blake did as well. Weiss handed the menu back to the man and he scurried off, leaving them alone. Honestly, Weiss wasn’t sure what to say. She was used to being around other humans mostly and she was already incredibly tired of Sodocroa’s discrimination problems. It was so hard to be here because of it. But she would bear with it until this mystery was solved. “So you’ve done eagle falconry before?” Blake looked up from the file and handed it back to Weiss. Weiss put it back in her bag. Well, at least that was a safe topic to approach. It was one thing she could talk about for hours. She wasn’t a falconer by nature, but she enjoyed it. It wasn’t banned in Vobron; she simply didn't have the time time to practice. Her schedule was so inconsistent. Weiss nodded. “There’ s a tribe of eagle hunters in the tribal territories of Helena. They’ve lived there for hundreds of years and still live a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Most people see them as savages, but they have their own language, culture, and history like any other people. I was really the first person they let inside.” That had been one of her first major jobs by herself. She had thought she’d dedicate herself to studying those tribes, but she got too homesick after about a year. She was better suited for short-term jobs that would let her return home. “Interesting. Is eagle falconry common outside of Sodocora?” She supposed it was a fair question. Blake really didn’t know of life outside of Sodocroa. It made sense she’d want to learn about things similar to what she knew. Weiss shook her head. “Eagles of all types are complex birds to fly. A lot of people favor accipiters like goshawks because it’s not sport; it’ssurvival.”She had never flown an accipiter herself before, but she talked people in Whela who did. They practiced falconry in a more traditional sense. They would trap passage birds for the cold seasons then release it once nesting season started. From there, there was no point in keeping a bird around when it was useless. Best to just start the cycle anew every season. “Interesting. I never knew it was used for survival instead of sport. It’s purely sport for us.” Well, Weiss knew that much. The world was shifting away from everyone having to do everything themselves. Sodocroa was being left behind though… There were no factories or anything like that in the nation. They would lose a lot of power in the coming years if they didn’t adapt to the rapid way the world was changing. But it wasn’t Weiss’ place to say anything. “The eagle tribe flies them for survival. They can take the smaller end of large game though they also fly beautifully on small game too.” She’d eaten fox, wolf, rabbit, and deer that the eagle tribe had caught. It was a rough lifestyle, but she had enjoyed her time with them. It had really opened her eyes to the unique lifestyles some people could have. She felt bad for the relocated tribes that had lost their ancestral lands… “I see. That’s interesting. We mostly fly our eagles on wolves and foxes. But I’ll be flying Kalena on jackrabbits when you come with me. Have you done that before?” Weiss took a sip of her tea and shook her head. “Jackrabbits aren’t native to the eagle tribe.” Couldn’t fly an eagle on an animal that wasn’t native to the eagle. Unfortunately, she hadn’t been able to go hawking since then. Though she did have to consider her time with Avram. He would start screaming if she was a way for more than four hours. He’d screamed himself hoarse and nearly starved dehydrated himself the first time she’d left him at home. That had been thelasttime she’d left him home. She took him with her everywhere now. “By the way, do you observer mahloa, Blake? If so, I can take your jackrabbits.” Blake’s ears twitched. “My family does but I’m not super strict about it. I’m not sure about Ninlil’s family though. But it would be useful. Do you have anywhere to store them?” Weiss nodded. “I have a portable magic icebox. I haven’t pulled it out yet, but I bring it with me everywhere just in case.” She never knew what she might encounter. She sometime she had to hunt, so being able to store meat was important. Plus, she needed to keep the birds’ food cold so it didn’t go bad. Seeds werenotan adequate diet for cockatoos. She’d seen too many captive birds on all-seed diets. She had observed wild cockatoos and made food for her birds based off that. She wasn’t going to let her birds suffer. And she knew equivalents in major nations even if she didn’t visit them. She would need to make the chop yet, but she would do that tomorrow. She at least had other food for them until then. “All right. You can take whatever we catch and whatever Kalena doesn’t eat them.” Blake paused and Weiss could practically see ellipsis floating over Blake’s head. She’d clearly forgotten something in her haste to get down here. Blake’s soul was too well guarded for Weiss to read, but it wasn’t hard to read her face here. “I forgot to bring my pointer. That’s going to make hunting a lot harder.” “I’d offer my birds, but they’re parrots. Not exactly sighthounds or anything.” Weiss hadn’t used dogs when hunting with the eagle tribe. They had relied on sight and even using the birds. There was no question in Weiss’ mind that eagles saw far better than humans even most Faunus. They had detected foxes and wolves at distances Weiss couldn’t register. It was an impressive sight to see. Blake sighed, her ears drooping. “I mostly rely on dogs and the royal falconer to pick up on signs of prey. It’s not like I’ve had extensive training in wildlife tracking or even wilderness survival.” She looked up at Weiss. “Do you know anything about any of that?” Wow, Blake really had no skills, huh? She’d been locked up in that castle her whole life and had learned nothing useful apparently. Weiss, on the other hand… She nodded. “I’m good at tracking and hunting. I hunt on nearly the daily basis at home. It’s all I can do because we have to provide for ourselves. I’ve never tracked jackrabbits before, but it shouldn’t be too hard.” She could track through the dense tropical forests of Vobron, so going after jackrabbits in scrubland and shouldn’t be too hard. She was fairly confident in her abilities. No pointer our sighthound, but she’d honed her abilities most of her life. Blake smiled and put her hands together. “Could you teach me? I want to go out by myself at some point. Though you will need to teach me how to properly dispatch prey too.” Blake grimaced at that. Weiss was personally unfazed by it. She’d been tracking, hunting, and cleaning animals her entire life. This pampered princess had no idea what she was getting into. Well, at least Weiss could make some money on the pelts… She wasn’t hurting for money, but making something on the side couldn’t hurt. “I can. It’s not hard once you know what to do. It’sdoingit that might be the hard part for you. What Escheleon are you?” Blake was high enough to be able to guard herself pretty well and had sensed her through the wall. She wasn’t exactly sure where that put the princess, though. That would be the hard part. This was such a careful dance of hiding yet being honest… “Eleven.” Weiss winced at that. “Yeah, that might be hard for you then. You’ll feel life force drain from it. I’ve been killing things since I was a young child, so it didn’t bother me too much even as I was able to feel the Seraphic draining.” She saw Blake’s face pale. Yeah, this was probably going to be hard on her. She felt pity for the princess. Killing wasn’t easy business at the best of times, so to do it so late in life… She would struggle. “I’ll have to do it, though. I can’t leave Kalena to lose her shape and grow fat for two seasons.” Blake paused again. “Do you know how to train a bird before a season starts?” Blake really was helpless when it came to most things. How she would survive the next year and a half was beyond Weiss. Weiss probably wouldn’t be there into the next year, though… Her contract was three months. “I probably won’t be here next season. My contract is only for three months. You won’t be able to rely on me for getting your eagle up to snuff next year.” She wasn’t trying to be rude, but Blake would have to handle things herself. “You might be best off returning her before next season, then retrieving her when she’s in shape.” She had no desire to be in Sodocroa unnecessarily. They only had three months to figure out if this was what they wanted. And with both of them working, that wasn’t much time. Blake sighed and she saw her ears fall. “Oh. Okay.” Weiss did pity her but that was as far as it went. Pity. Weiss was technically pretty wealthy but she didn’t have the same sort of soft, privileged upbringing Blake had had. She couldn’t empathise with people that were so unnecessarily racist toward others. Blake saw her as some sort of evil spawn simply for being born human. She wasn’t seeming a bad sort personally, but that sort of mindset turned Weiss off horribly. “Aside from eagle falconry, do you have anything else you like to do?” Keep things moving. She didn’t want Blake to start a scene in public. If a human made a Faunus crying publicly in Sodocora, she would be in for a world of hurt. Especially if it got back to the queen it was one of her descendants. Blake’s ears perked up a bit and she looked at Weiss. “Um. I like to horseback ride and read mainly. Most of my days are filled with lessons, but when I do have free time… I love romances, magic, and history most of all.” That actually got a small smile from Weiss. History, huh? Well, Weiss had a treasure trove of history books on her. And she was a historian by trade. She would be able to talk Blake’s ears off for days in that case. “I mostly read nonfiction myself because I need it for my job. Other than that, I mostly read mystery with speculative fiction and science fiction. It’s interesting to see what people think the future will be like. But if you like history, I can talk your ear off. Itismy job, after all.” Yeah, she could easily talk to Blake about all the things she’d seen. Speculative history was also an interesting genre that often overlapped with speculative future stuff. Taking what they had learned about the past eras and transforming it into workable stories… Interesting stuff. “I’ve never delved into those genres before. Would you have any recommendations?” With that, Weiss started talking about some of her favorite books and series. She pulled some out of her bag, but they weren’t written in Sodocroan. Blake would have to try to find copies, assuming they’d been translated at all… Sodocroa was incredibly xenophobic, so there was a high chance they hadn’t been. Weiss spoke over a dozen languages, so she had access to a wealth of books and other knowledge. “Unfortunately, they might not be available in Sodocroan. Maybe you could ask your mother to check with the librarian?” If anywhere would know if those books had been translated, it was probably the royal library. A smaller bookstore probably wouldn’t know. Weiss would look if she could but…she was busy most hours of the day. Blake nodded. “I’ll call and see at some point. Those titles sounded interesting!” She got a legitimate smile from the princess. Somehow, things hadn’t gone up in flames yet. Underneath the racism and prejudice, she seemed to be a legitimately kind person. But people could maks as she too well knew… Their meals came and Weiss sighed a bit. Seafood, eggs, and milk were about as far as animal products went in Sodocroa. She was glad to at least have seafood though. Vobron was on the sea, so she’d grown up eating all sorts of fish and sch. Land-dwelling creatures were off-limits for those that strictly followed mahloa. And with most people following that teaching despite being parts of different sects, it was going to be a while until Weiss could consistently eat meat again. Much to her chagrin. “So where exactly are you from?” Blake asked. Oh. Weiss wasn’t expecting more questions. But she pulled her atlas out of her bag and pointed to the mostly uncharted continent far in the southeast. “I’m from Vobron. We don’t have all of it mapped yet, though. It’s almost entirely desert from what we can tell. It’s inhospitable outside of the small trip of tropical rainforest on the western part of the continent.” Yeah, the eastern part of the continent was incredibly difficult to live on. She wouldn’t be surprised if there were immortals living there or elsewhere in the forests. There was only one settlement on the entire continent. With the wildlife there. Whela didn’t want to risk it being destroyed by the other countries. Blake nodded. “Interesting. I never much looked at world maps, so I wouldn’t have known.” She really was pampered. Never having really looked at world maps? How privileged. But there was nothing Weiss could do a bit. Maybe she could open Blake’s mind up to being able to accept outside ideas. Then again, changing people wasn’t exactly viable. People could only change if they themselves wanted to. “Well if you’re interested in history, you need to look at maps, or is it only SOdocroan history you’re interested in?” Honestly, she should’ve asked that before. History covered a wide range of topics: familial, local, country, or world history… People could be interested in one or all of them. It was hard to know where Blake’s interests lie on face value. Hopefully it wasn’t limited to one of the smaller scales. “Well, I mostly study Sodocroan history. If I need to take over, it’s important I know our nation’s history. I have read some other nations’ histories, but it hasn’t been a focus for me.” Weiss supposed that made sense. With as xenophobic and isolationist as Sodocroca was. Blake wouldn’t need to know much about other nations. But if she was to take over someday, understanding international politics would be important. ANd knowing how current policies came into being would be incredibly important. “Well, if you want, I might be able to suggest some titles from surrounding nations. Once again, no guarantees they’ll have been translated but…” Blake at least had an interest in how other countries had formed to some degree. Weiss knew so many different languages so she hoped Blake could find those titles in Sodocroan. Weiss tore a page out of notebook and wrote down the titles she recommended, both fiction and non. “Thanks.” Blake smiled warmly and put the paper in her vest pocket. Weiss could see she really didn’t seem to be a bad person. She seemed to have an even keel and was pretty warm. This really was nothing like their first meeting. With that, they fell silent and finished eating. They paid for their meals and waited for their plates to be picked up. Blake hesitated before saying something. “You know, I thought all humans were terrible. I’d never met one before you. Tonight was nice. When do you think you’ll be able to meet up with me again?” Ah, a back-handed insult that was supposed to be a compliment. It was hard to not be prickly but she didn’t show it. She didn’t want to rain Blake’s perception of her. “I can meet up with you for dinner most nights. I’ll still need to continue working once I get back, though.” She was no stranger to late nights and early mornings which this job more or less required. Especially with her meeting up with Blake on the side. But she was as long as she got her work for the day done. She was going to have an interesting time balancing these two lives… “Okay. That sounds good then.” Blake smiled and offered a bow. “Tomorrow about the same time then?” Weiss nodded. “Sounds good.” With that, they left the restaurant and mounted their hoses. With that, they parted ways. Weiss wrapped her coat around herself and headed into the darkness, the shattered moon hanging overhead.