Chapter 12
November 5, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Blake rolled over when she heard a knock on the door again and yawned, rubbing her eyes. time to get ready for the day already? It hadn't felt like she'd been asleep very long. Well, it wasn't like she could stay asleep forever though. She wished she could just skip the day to go out tomorrow... She'd get to spend the whole day with Weiss. Which made her face heat up quite a bit. She had never really been alone with anybody of any gender like this before that wasn't family. She always had her interactions closely supervised. Interacting with anybody outside of the family was always done at parties and she was never allowed to be alone with them. This was definitely going to be a rather different experience.
She got dressed and headed up to the second floor of the front house where the girls were talking and obviously excited about talking. They tried to pull her into the conversation several times, but her mind was not on them at all. She ignored them and ate at an unladylike pace, obviously hinting something was up. She absolutely could not believe that she was going to be alone all day with somebody like that.
The work day passed by agonisingly slow and the girls still tried to pull her into the conversation but she outright ignored them. She wasn't trying to be rude. She just could not get the following day out of her mind. She was really out of her depth here. She had no idea how to be alone with somebody that wasn't family. Even at parties and dances, the most 'alone' she'd be with somebody was the upper observation area. But there were still other people up there, usually within earshot. She was entirely too flustered about all of this.
She was thankful when Ninlil released her for the day and she took Kalena out. However, the eagle tilted her head several times as she looked at Blake."You seem distracted, Blake. You're not responding to my signals."
"Huh? Oh. Sorry." She rubbed the back of her neck with her free hand. This was so embarrassing. Even her bird was calling her out. She really wasn't trying to do anything out of the ordinary. It was just hard to focus when she had something so big on her mind. "I'm going to be spending the whole day with Weiss tomorrow." There was no point in hiding anything from Kalena. The bird knew her too well by this point.
"That definitely explains why you're so distracted. Do you want to not go out today? You can maybe spend more time with Weiss."
Blake shook her head. "No. She's busy. I think it's fine to take a little while to talk to her at dinner, but I'd just be in the way at her job unless I sat in her tent. Which I don't particularly want to do." She sighed, her ears flattening. She really didn't want to bother Weiss or get in her way. It was so hard to deal with anything like this. She was so out of her depth here. She just didn't really understand how to interact with people that weren't close with her in some shape, way, and form. She really would like to spend the whole day with Weiss but...
Kalena let out a sigh and nodded."Well, get your food for the day, then we can go out."Blake nodded and went to the restaurant, getting the orders they had then went out into the field with Kalena for a few hours. They did manage to scare up some jackrabbits, but Kalena didn't go after them. Blake still needed some time to get used to killing animals. They would have plenty of time to hunt tomorrow as long as they were back by nightfall.
The next few hours passed quietly, Blake sending Kalena back to Ninlil after she made the decision to go visit Weiss. She pulled Weiss up on her teibas. "I have food tonight. Are you free to have dinner with me?"
Weiss nodded. "Yeah. That's fine. Today's been pretty hard and I'm honestly fairly famished. Also sorry. I forgot to give you my list of things I needed last night. I got so busy after you left I really didn't have time for it." She rubbed the back of her neck. Blake blinked. Oh right... SHe'd completely forgotten about that.
She shrugged. "Things happen." SHe couldn't count the number of times she'd forgotten something. Weiss had gotten busy. How could she really blame her for forgetting things when she was busy? Still... She felt bad. Weiss was having to suffer without food. Blake was looking forward to when she could get all of the calories she needed and not be slightly starving each day. Dinner was the only meal that made her feel remotely full. But compounded by two smaller meals that didn't meet her needs... Well. It sucked. She was slowly starving herself without intending to.
"We can stop by a shop tomorrow if that's okay."
Blake nodded. "I don't see why we couldn't." They were going several towns over so they would need provisions for the short journey. They needed to go to the store regardless. Weiss could just get what she needed then.
"All right. Anyway, see you in a bit?" Blake nodded and the call clicked off. She nudged her horse into a canter and found herself in Weiss' tent again. Well. Tomorrow wouldn't be the first time she found herself alone with somebody outside of the family that wasn't some sort of authority figure... She could feel her blush creep into her cheeks again and hoped Weiss wouldn't sense it or ask about it.
"So you said you were busy last night and today? What was it all about?" She hoped Weiss wasn't under any sort of agreement so she couldn't talk about her work. She hadn't said much about it, but part of that was probably the fact that Blake simply didn't understand archeology. Then again, with how Queen Maryam was, she wouldn't put it past the queen to make Weiss unable to discuss it with somebody outside of the immediate camp.
Weiss sighed, resting her cheek in her hand. "We've found ins into the spells to a small degree, so there was a major excitement through camp and we had to call in mages to see if they could start undoing the spells. However, the spells are incredibly complex and it seems like it's going to be next to impossible to penetrate them. The mages found some major triggers. Someone with a specific sort of magical signature is required to open the vault. We're not sure what that signature is though. We've been trying to find ways to break through those seals, but this magic is beyond even the most expensive Chaos magic we've ever seen."
"That does sound like a lot." Finding a way in at first, but then running into a roadblock... She could only imagine how it felt. The excitement, then the disappointment. But who could have made these vaults? If it was beyond even the most impressive Chaos magic... "Could there possibly be some other sort of magic that we don't know about? Like silver eyes seem to break the rules to some degree... It's a hereditary magic when no other magic we know of is hereditary. Sure, certain lines using magic long enough strengthens that specific ability, but it's far from hereditary." It wasn't passed along like silver eyes were. She still didn't understand how that worked. It was weird that a physical feature dictated how magic functioned. If a human and a Donati were to have a child together, the child would still have strong weather abilities if they got that magic. It wasn't influenced by being Faunus or Human or half of each.
"It's such a complex mystery. I really have no idea what's going on with this vault, but it still feels...familiar somehow." Weiss shook her head. This did sound like a mess. They couldn't explain their connection together or anything like that. And the fact things felt familiar... She was really uncertain about any of this. All of it made so little sense. She tried to understand it, but it was as if they were trying to hold onto water. Maybe if they could spend longer together, they could figure it out, but with things the way they were, she just had no idea. She wished she could figure out what Weiss actually meant to her.
Blake tapped her chin. "Do you think I could get access to the vault? Maybe I could help. I know a lot about magic." She had studied Chaos and Order magic in great depth. She didn't have magic (yet) but she knew enough about how both operated to maybe be of use. Then again, if older mages were of no use, would she be of any...? She had no idea. But it couldn't hurt, right?
Weiss bit her lip. "Nobody's supposed to go down there unless they have direct clearance from Queen Maryam. And itwouldget back to her if I took you down there. I don't think anybody's going to report you for coming into camp especially since you're part of the royal family too. But letting someone without clearance down there..." She shook her head. Yeah. Blake could understand that. It wouldn't be good to let her down there then.
Weiss went over to the bookshelf and pulled off a book. "This is the best I can do." She placed it in Blake's lap. Thankfully, she was done eating. Blake flipped the book open and meandered through the pages. Everything was in rich, vivid color. She frowned. Something about the vault did feel familiar. She felt like she had seen it before but she couldn't figure anything out about it. Something came to the surface of her mind, but it felt like trying to hold onto smoke. She sighed. Damn it all, this was so annoying... So many things in her life, so familiar, yet no explanation for them.
"It does look and feel familiar but I can't place it." She wished she could go down there and see for herself. She could feel the massive swell of magic below the ground but that was it. She really had no idea how to handle any of it. Maybe one day those ephemeral feelings would come to an end. All she wanted was to be able to understand what was going on with her mind and why so many things felt familiar when they shouldn't have.
"Right?" Weiss looked at her. "That's the same way I feel. I know I've seen it before somewhere, but it's like grasping water or smoke..." She sighed. "I wonder if Celaecyal will be able to answer any of it. I doubt it, but maybe it's worth a shot." She shrugged. Blake wished she could have an answer for Weiss. If anybody was going to know, it would be either Melanthios or Celaecyal. They were the two gods that were known for sure to still inhabit Tumia. But contacting either was such an ordeal...
"It's the same for me... I've had so many things that are like trying to grasp water or smoke... I've known things I shouldn't. I can almost feel like there's a...cap preventing me from getting at something. What about you?" Blake looked at Weiss, her ears twitching slightly. She was trying to understand Weiss better. It would be odd if they shared the same experience. Then again, they both did have at least the one errant soul bond with each other that had no real explanation. So maybe they were bound closer together than they thought.
Weiss nodded. "Yeah... I feel like there's something that I'm missing too. I don't know what it's related to, but I definitely feel like I'm missingsomethingthat's buried beneath the surface." She sighed and shook her head. "But there's no way to prove any of it..." She paused for a moment. "I'm curious... Do you have a second errant soul bond? One that moves around a lot."Thatwas more than enough to make Blake's ears stand up at attention. Her eyebrows shot up as well.l
Blake nodded slowly. "Yeah... I've never been able to explain it. It's not too far from here right now..." She wanted to know exactly what that errant soul bond was. It didn't feel like it was too far away from them right now. But she had a feeling she wouldn't be able to track down whoever it belonged to or at least not very easily. They moved around a lot. Trying to track down somebody that moved a lot and knew the lay of the land would be next to impossible especially if they were on horseback... If they were aware of an errant bond, the other person probably would be too. So they'd be able to sense her and Weiss coming from a long way away. She hated it, but there wasn't much she could do about it.
"How odd... None of this adds up. But I feel like both of us having the same experience backs it up and confirms what we've been through. What's the skill that came to you most easily that feels unexplainable?" Blake tilted her head a bit as she rested a gloved hand over her mouth. Good question. She had a lot of skills that came naturally and easily without needing much if any practice.
"Well, anything to do with the soul is suspiciously easy for me and understanding both corvid and eagle body language as well. I didn't need much if any instructions on either of those. Even the upper levels of the Seraphic were easy enough for me to do without much if any guidance... What about you?" She hoped it wasn't bad to turn the question around to Weiss. It seemed like they were both trying to get to the bottom of the strange bond they shared. Would Weiss have any time to look into it? Blake certainly didn't. She wished she could just have the time to do whatever she wanted on her Peregrination, but that just wasn't in the cards for her.
"Same. I was suspiciously good with the eagles when I went and visited the eagle-flying nomads in the tribal territories as well as not struggling up to a certain point with the Seraphic. After a certain point, though, I did need guidance and support but it all came to be pretty easily regardless. It's strange... So we both have the same skills that don't seem difficult. Anything else?"
"Sewing by hand. I'd never done it a day in my life before coming here but Ninlil was impressed by my stitches and how easily I handled things. The treadle machine was a disaster, but sewing by hand? That was so second nature." She shook her head. It was odd. How did they have skills in things they'd never done before? Lure work had come so easily to her when learning to do it. She needed to get Kalena out and do some lure work with her first and foremost so she could keep her fitness up. A big bird like that was going to quickly get out of shape if she didn't get fitness training in. Flying wasn't good enough exercise...
"I learned to do that so young that I can't remember if it came to me easily or not. I was like, three, four? So I can't corroborate that or not." Weiss shook her head and sighed. Well, that sucked, but there was definitely a lot of overlap between them regardless. It was so incredibly strange they had that much overlap between them. She was trying to understand what was going on but there just wasn't anything that could point out what was going on. Weiss was silent for a few more minutes before speaking again. "Have you had any strange, recurring dreams of people that you've never met before, yet you know their names?" Once again, that made Blake blink and she nodded.
"A strange blonde human woman with purple eyes, a darker-skinned human guy, a brunette human with incredibly short hair, and some other people... I do know there's a Rose among them. Short but incredibly fiery. Black hair that turns red at the tips. Long bangs but short around the back. Wears a white cloak with a red inside."
Weiss was silent for several minutes and she nodded. "Yeah... All of those people and more... A Faunus woman with short brown hair, cat ears of some type, and tattoo stripes along her arms is another pronounced one." Blake nodded. She recognised that woman from her dreams as well. They were clearly connected somehow. She didn't understand it though. How could they dream of the same people when they'd never met them before? If anything was a tip off, then it wasthis.They couldn't just imagine the same people, especially not the striped tattoos. That detail was far,fartoo specific to not be notable. How many people would actively get tattoos striped on them? Then again, things were generally forbidden by a lot of sects in Sodocroa. Not all, but many. Plus, almost everyone in Sodocroa stayed covered up aside from neck and face. Not everyone, but almost every sect followed the belief of veiling as well as wearing gloves. Weiss wore no veil nor gloves, so it was definitely a sign she wasn't a native.
"Well, I don't have any explanation for any of this, so I suppose we'll just have to ask Celaecayal tomorrow." Weiss sighed. She was done eating. "I should probably let you get back before it gets dark."
"Probably a good idea. See you tomorrow about what time?"
"I can get there about sunrise so we can head off as soon as possible."
"Sounds good." Blake smiled and excused herself. She grabbed herself a meal when she got back to town, then headed to sleep. What a long day and what a weird discussion with Weiss... She wondered what all they'd learn tomorrow, assuming Celaecyal told them the answers they wanted...
