to treasure a thousand words, a thousand years

Blake arrived at the dig site and moved past the guard easily and without hassle. By this point, they were used to her coming here and not fighting her. She went to Weiss’ tent and went inside. Weiss sat at her desk, her head laying on it. Blake’s ears went down. “Weiss…?” Weiss didn’t even have her guard up which was very unusual. She could feel anxiety and frustration rolling off her in waves. What had happened that day to cause such a reaction…? Today must have been bad for Weiss to feel like this. “Are you hungry?” Weiss sat up and her defenses snapped into place. She rubbed her head, the white hair making Blake’s cheeks heat up a little bit. It wassounusual to see anybody’s hair like this. Even in their little home in the castle, everyone wore a veil. The only time veils weren’t worn was if one was in their own, private room. Weiss not wearing a veil was flagrantly flouting the lack of cohesion with Sodocroan customs. She didn’t wear gloves, either, though it seemed like nobody else on the digsite was wearing them either, from what little Blake had seen. Most Sodocroans wore gloves, but when doing manual labor, they would just get dirty, so most opted not to wear them. Or if doing delicate work like with the sort of jewelry like Blake was now doing during the day. But outside of that… It wasextremelypolite and even scandalous to not wear gloves. “Hey, Blake… Sorry you had to see that.” Weiss rubbed the back of her neck, then tilted her head. “You okay?” “Um… It’s just unusual to see anybody without a veil.” She went over to the chair she normally sat in, then got in her bag and took out their meals. Weiss took it, obviously very glad to get the food. “So seeing someone’s hair is…unusual. I don’t even know my mother or father’s hair color. So seeing yours is white is weird.” “Oh, right, that. Yeah. I don’t want tolieand make it seem like I believe in your guys’ religion. I’m…irreverent towards religion in general, even Whela’s.” She opened the box and took a bite. “Thanks… I really appreciate the food. These field rations are miserable and I’m getting nowherenearenough food.” She sighed. “But yeah, it just feels like it’d be…misleading if I wore a veil. I wore one in the castle because it’s required, but outside, I don’t see any reason to wear one outside of it.” She shrugged. “I’m damned if I do, damned if I don’t.” “I guess that is fair.” She hadn’t thought about it that way before. She wasn’t sure how the human minority in Sodocroa lived or what they believed, really. A lot of chapels didn’t allow humans and a lot of mystery cults, like her own, didn’t either. Weiss had an accent while speaking, so it was pretty clear she was a foreigner. Plus, the flagrant dressing as a man as well… Granted, there were men with breasts and such, so it didn’t make much of a difference, but the fact she used feminine pronouns did speak volumes about how she identified, though it would be confusing to anybody native. “But you don’t care about religion…?” That was definitely a shock to her. Weiss shook her head. “A lot of Welsh and Vobrese peoplearereligious, but not all are. It’s perfectly acceptable to be irreverent. As long as you aren’t being blasphemous is the thing.” “I can’t imagine being blasphemous.” Blake shook her head. Everyone around her was incredibly devout as far as she was aware. Then again, to not be devout in the castle was to be an outcast. Nobody would admit if they were irreverent, let alone blasphemous. It was crazy to think that people couldnotbe religious, especially in Sodocroa… It was one thing if they were foreign, like Weiss, but it was another if they were born and bred there. She really had no idea what all to expect when it came to foreigners… Weiss was throwing her forso many loopsthat it was dizzying. The world was so much wider and more expansive than she’d thought… People were more varied than she had believed. It really was odd to see just how different people from outside of Sodocroa were. Weiss was averystrong personality and it showed. “Yeah, I’m not going to go blaspheming the gods even if I don’t really believe in them.Thatwould get me in a lot of trouble.” Weiss took a bite of her food again, obviously enjoying it. “Also…do you want me to pay you back for the food? You’re getting it and I didn’t evenaskif you wanted repayment. Sorry.” She gave a bashful smile. Blake shook her head and smiled. “No, it’s all right. I have plenty of savings. Even if I eat out everyday, it’s not going to drain my savings. I have plenty of it.” She didn’t mind. Weiss clearly needed it, and she had plenty of money. She still had to be smart with it, but as long as she wasn’t going overboard, it would last the entirety of her Peregrination. Plus, shewasgetting paid as an apprentice in the jewelry shop. It wasn’t much, being that she was just starting out, but it was better than the rate that Ninlil would’ve paid her for being in the tailor’s shop. She could see what the girls meant by magic jobs paid better than more menial ones… She was getting paid three times the rate at the jewelry shopjustfor being an apprentice than what Ninlil was paying her for being a seamstress. She was honestly glad to be earning so much more. Weiss nodded. “All right then. Plus, I didn’t really have any time to get my money converted to Sodocroan when I came here, and I haven’t really been off the digsite too much since coming here.” She sighed. “I wish I could get three meals a day like this. The field rations barely sate my hunger. This is my biggest meal of the day.” Blake frowned. “I’m sorry… If I weren’t expected to work, I’d bring meals out to you.” She was still shocked she had known how to cook so well, considering she had never set foot in the kitchen before her mandatory meal duty. She blinked. “Oh, right, sorry for the change in topic, but there’s a harvest festival tomorrow.” Weiss nodded. “I know. Everyone’s off for it.” “Will you be coming?” Weiss sighed. “I don’t know… But I probably won’t get anything to eat unless Ido.But do you want to be seen in public with a human that’s clearly not native and and clearly doesn’t believe?” Blake stopped eating and bit her lip. “That’s…a good question.” She knew nobody would know she was a Donati, aside from the Busto women, but still. She would have to be on her best behavior around other people. People would recognise her as someone who wasn’t local due to her behavior and lack of familiarity with the traditions of the harvest festival. Blake’s cult had its own harvest festival traditions that she participated in, so she had no idea what this would look like. She followed the Dark Father himself, while she wasn’t sure what this town’s would look like. Would it be a meshing of ideas and thoughts from different sects or would it be a unique tradition that existed only in this town? She had no idea. “I know how important it is for you to maintain your image, even if you’re not acting as royalty right now. You’re still living among other Faunus.” “It was mentioned there are other humans in the town.” “Do you know if they cross the race barrier?” Blake shook her head. “No, I don’t.” That was another consideration… Human/Faunus relationships weren’t banned in Sodocroa despite everything. But they weren’t popular as far as she was aware. Humans were a minority in the nation and she wasn’t sure how common they’d be. And if they spent all day together… Well, it would look like they were together. Weiss was really going out of her way to try to make sure Blake was on top of everything… Honestly, it was nice to have someone look out for her so much, despite how opposite they were. It was almost enough to forget about Weiss’ human supremacy leanings. “It’s really up to you, Blake. I won’t be wearing a veil, though I will at least wear gloves. I know most Sodocroans won’t want to associate with me in the first place, but they definitely won’t want to get too near me if I don’t have gloves on. I might be irreverent, but I’m notevil.I understand the cultural connotations that comes with bare hands.” Blake breathed a sigh of relief. “That…is good. I’m not sure if there will be dancing or what all tomorrow. And if there is dancing, then you definitely don’t want to not have gloves on…” That would be a nightmare. Few people would want to dance with a human, but nobody would want to dance with a human that didn’t have gloves on. Holding hands bare was seen as a very,veryintimate thing for Sodocroans. She’d heard that most societies didn’t see it the same way and that holding hands was seen as very tame and even children could do it. But Sodocroans did see it asincrediblyintimate and close due to their founding myths… It just wasn’t something that was socially acceptable to do in most settings unless there was protection between the two hands. Weiss nodded. “I know that much at least… Although I lose so much dexterity in my hands while wearing gloves…” She sighed and looked down at her hands. “I’m not used to wearing gloves like you Sodocroans are.” “That’s entirely fair. There are plenty of professions that allow you to take gloves off due to that very reason or liability. Like you wouldn’t want to be reaching into a forge with gloves on. That would endverybadly.” It could easily cause somebody to catch on fire and possiblydiedue to the intensity of the flame. Granted, she didn’t know much about forging, but that was the sense she got from it. But nobody also wanted to deal with somebody that wore messy, smudged gloves, so laborers tended to not wear them in the field. Blake was allowed to not wear them while doing work with the jewelry. But that was only in the back room. Out in the front room when dealing with customers, shehadto wear them. Too many people would shy away from her if she wasn’t wearing gloves to help with customers. “Everyone here is going, so I’m just not really sure what to do…” Weiss sighed. “I don’t want to be here alone, but I also don’t want to go.” There was something there that Weiss wasn’t saying. Blake had to wonder what it was, but she knew better than to press Weiss right now. She had no idea what to do about Weiss being alone… She’d already missed a holiday for her sect which was beyond frustrating. In the tide of everything happening, it’d just slipped her mind… All she wanted was to stay on track, though she couldn’t celebrate with people that understood… “I’d say we could use it to spend more time together, but I don’t really want us seen together in public. Nobody knows about my royal affiliations, but the girls and women aresupergossipy…” Blake shook her head. They had already asked if they were dating which… She was only allowed tocourt,notdate.She was just getting to know Weiss in these meetings. She wouldn’t call that dating byanystretch of the imagination. Just deciding if she wanted somebody in her life… That wasn’t dating. That was just getting to know them. “That’s fair…but it would be another whole day together.” Blake sighed, her ears going back. “Thatisvery tempting. But I don’t need the other women gossiping either.” She was torn, really. It was hard to choose one way or the other. Really, all she wantedwasto get to know Weiss despite her human supremacy viewpoints. The errant soul bond had been bothering her foryears.Now that they were able to get to know each other, she didn’t want to squander this opportunity. It was hard when humans were just so awful in general. They were capable of so much hatred and anger. Faunus werenothinglike that… She just… Why did the errant soul bond have to be ahuman?All she wanted was to have someone she could love and care for and that would do the same for her for the rest of their lives. Ugh. “I can understand that… I’ve spent enough time around court to understand how people can gossip. When you’re more worried about survival, though, you don’t have a lot of time for gossip. You gotta hunt, fish, and everything else.” Weiss clearly spoke from a place of experience. Blake wouldn’t know; she’d had literally everything provided to her for her whole life. Evenworkinghad been a foreign concept to her until this day. She studied but she hadn’t had to work for a living like she was now. At least she had plenty of savings to carry her through her Peregrination. Even eating out every night wouldn’t put too much of a dent into her savings. It wouldn’t last her forever, but it would last her through her Peregrination. She just had to hold onto her salary to put it back into savings… “I have no frame of reference. Even falconry is sport for me.” Weiss nodded. “I’ve grown up on the Vobron frontier. Survival is the prime thing for us… Figuring out what’s edible, what’s poisonous, what can hurt you… I will say, that we joke pretty much everything in Vobron wants to kill you.” She chuckled a bit, but it was dry. Apparently it wasn’t too far off the truth in some respect. Weiss didn’t seem the type to really joke around too much. “I’m guessing that’s somewhat the truth?” Weiss nodded, tucking her hair behind her ear. “Yeah, it’s really not. A lot of the wildlife is quite venomous. One thing you have to look out for are small, unassuming spiders. We call them redbacks, probably for obvious reasons. They look a lot like black widows. They may be related.” “That’s definitely a lot to take in.” “We have some pretty big spiders too. Some the size of dinner plates, but often, it’s the smaller ones you have to worry about. And it’s warm all year ‘round.” “That doesn’t sound very appealing.” Blake leaned back in her chair a bit. “Do you like that?” “I mean it’s what I grew up in. I honestly don’t like the cold at all.” Weiss shook her head. “The next few months are gonna be annoying for me since I don’t like it. It’s already fall and winter will be here soon enough… The only reason I know about winter in the first place is because I traveled with my parents so much. My brother doesn’t believe me that snow exists.” She chuckled again. “Or that the temperature can dip below what it gets in Vobron. Not to mention it’s also pretty humid. So that makes it feel even warmer than it already is.” Blake shook her head, her ears going down. “Ireallydon’t like the sound of that.At all.Do youlikeit?” “I definitely prefer it to being cold. I’ve been up to the northern kingdoms before and those areeven colderthan here in Sodocroa. It’s crazy how cold it gets up there. I don’t think it gets above sixty even in the dead of summer! I can’t imagine growing up in that! The sun sets super late in the summer and super early in the summer. I know you see it here, but it’s pretty extreme. The entire day is almost light or night, depending on season.” “That sounds like a sailor’s story.” She had heard of sailors exaggerating tales of foreign langs to make their lives seem like they were more exciting than they actually were. Men on the water had a tendency to exaggerate big time. “If I hadn’t experienced it myself, I wouldn’t either. But itisreal. And if you getreallyclose to the north pole, it’s either complete day during the summer or complete night during the winter. I promise you it’s real.” “That’s really crazy.” Weiss nodded. “It is, but it’s reality. I’m so glad Vobron isn’t as cold as the northern kingdoms. Sodocroa is cold enough for my liking.” “Honestly, I welcome the colder seasons. It means the year is slowing down and I can go on falconry hunts. We don’t hunt while our birds are molting and during the warmer months.” Blake paused. “You said you hunted with eagle hunters before. Did they follow those sorts of principles?” She couldn’t help but be curious. Something like a goshawk would befarbetter for survival than an eagle. But it sounded like these people used eagles forsurvival,not just sport like the royal family did. “They do keep the birds with them all year despite being nomads. Yeah, breaking feathers during the molt is bad, but taking down prey like deer, foxes, and even wolves are important for them having enough to eat. Although something interesting they do is release their best-performing birds. They use captured birds and not aura breeds like I’m assuming the royal family does.” Blake blinked. “Why would they dothat?It seems counterintuitive.” “Because of strong genes. They want animals that can take a lot of prey to propagate their bloodlines in the wild for the longevity of the species and the tribe itself. They’ll keep a bird like that for a few seasons then release them to go further their bloodlines. Does that make sense?” Blake nodded. “It actually does. It isn’t like captive breeding where you can easily select for certain traits, be it personality, speed, size, or anything like that. We’ve been selectively breeding our eagles for a good five hundred or so years. Our females aremuchlarger than wild golden eagles, so they have an easier time with wolves and foxes. We also select for temperament. If a bird has a sour temperament, we don’t breed it. Granted, I don’t know all the ins and outs of our selective breeding efforts.” She shrugged. She just knew how to hunt and that was about it. She wasn’t a royal falconer, so she had no reason to learn how the birds were bred. She knew a few details, but not the full process. Weiss nodded. “Yeah, captive-bred Sanctified animals are far different than wild ones. I’ve flown Sanctified eagles elsewhere in the world and then lived with the tribe for a while, so I’ve seen the differences. Normal animals and Sanctified areworldsapart. They do run on the same instincts, but their behaviors, mannerisms, quirks, and such are often very different. Plus…Sanctified animals can tell you if something’s wrong whereas, with normal animals, you have to relysolelyon behavior. I’m glad Lilas and Avram are Sanctified because it’d be a mess to try to deal with them otherwise.” She sighed. Whatever the birds had been up to, it was clear Weiss wasn’t the happiest about it… “I can’t imagine flying a non-Sanctified eagle… How hard was it?” Blake’s ears pricked a bit. She was admittedlyveryinterested. Sometimes the royal falconer would go and capture a wild bird to help diversify the bloodlines, but she didn’t know much about it. She had no idea what flying a normal eagle would be like. Sanctified eagles had a fair few challenges, though by the time the royal was fully allowed to fly them, they had bonded deeply with their handler and absorbed some of their personality. What must it be like to fly an animal that operated on pure instinct? “Honestly, pretty challenging. Eagles arenotfor the faint of heart, Sanctified or not. It was my first falconry experience and I was dealing with having to speak through another language as well. So that made it harder than it probably was even normally. Eagles are complex animals and intelligent, though not as intelligent as a Sanctified one. Not beginner’s birds byanymeans… What I wouldn’t have done to fly amucheasier bird in my native languagefirst.Granted, falconry isn’t really athingin Vobron.” Weiss sighed heavily. “I miss it, but I have parrots. Mixing a raptor with parrots isn’t a good idea. And with as often as I travel, I can’t really keep up with the hunting a raptor needs. At least with Lilias and Avram, they don’trequirehunting. They’re social and I’m their flock. So I have to bring them with me wherever I go.” Blake nodded. “Yeah… That has to be tough.” “You really havenoidea.” Weiss shook her head. “I really do love falconry, but it’s not something I can participate in very easily. Even just leaving Lilias and Avram for a few hours is gonna be tough. Well, more Avram than Lilias… She’s more chill than he is. She can be left alone without screaming her head off within a few hours.” She winced. “And trust me…youdo notwant to hear a cockatoo screaming its head off.” Blake blinked. “Why?” “It’s one of the loudest things you’lleverhear. Thankfully Lilias isn’t too much of a screamer, but Avramdefinitelyis. Leave him alone for four hours and he’ll start screaming bloody murder. Hecan’tbe separated from me for too long unless he’s in bed. I can’t even think of anything to compare a cockatoo’s screamstoin order to give you an idea of how loud it is. But if it makes evenmyears bleed, you can only imagine what it’d do toyoursensitive Faunus hearing.” Blake glanced up at her ears which twitched slightly. Yeah, if it made Weiss’ ears hurt, she could only imagine what it’d do to her own hearing. That didn’t sound pleasantwhatsoever.She just… What a mess. “Can you get away to help me with falconry for a bit?” “For a bit. He gives me four hours before he starts alarm calling, then nobody will have peace. I mean, thankfully, this tent is sound proofed.” Weiss looked around at the tent which was only made of thin fabric. But it definitely explained why Weiss wasn’t afraid to talk about things out loud. Blake…honestly hadn’t thought about that until now and she was glad. Then again, only a member of the royal family could actually get onto the digsite unless they were approved. It had probably already gotten around camp that a member of the Donati family was showing up on pretty much a daily basis… She sighed, her ears going down. She hadn’t thought about that but…what was done was done. “I see… Well, I’ll only need you long enough to help me get a kill and show me how to take down prey.” “You should know getting a kill isn’t guaranteed,” Weiss said. “It could take multiple sessions to find even one piece of prey.” Blake nodded, her ears drooping over. “That…is fair.” She really did need to learn how to dispatch prey on her own… Maybe she ought to just go for it instead of relying on Weiss. That would probably be better. Weiss had shown her how to do it on a lure, but doing it on a dying animal would be another thing entirely. “Should I just go for it on my own?” Weiss shook her head. “I don’t think so. If you do it wrong, you’ll prolong the animal’s suffering. And animal life is held quite sacred here in Sodocroa. You don’t want an animal to suffer because you couldn’t properly dispatch it, do you?” Blake shook her head. No, she didn’t want that at all. Most Sodocroans didn’t eat animals because their lives were held as so sacred. She was still surprised Weiss ate meat, but she was from another culture entirely, so it did make some level of sense, she supposed. Blake just had no idea how to handle most of this. They finished up eating and Weiss handed her box back to Blake. “Well, you should head back. I’m done eating and need to get back to the dig.” Blake nodded. “Well, I’ll see you either tomorrow or the day after.” She still wasn’t sure what Weiss’ plans for tomorrow were. Weiss nodded and headed out of the tent. Thoroughly dismissed, Blake headed back to the Busto household, got ready for bed, then curled up and fell asleep.