Memnol looked over his opponent and began to collect his mind after his banishment with the threat of combat for what felt like the first time in the past day or so. Memnol thought, "Combat. Not life or death, only sparring. Sparring Guidelines then, No death, no permanent injury, accept a loss if it hides important information. Wait, hides information? Oh, Damn it to the Abyss! What was I thinking yesterday?! Wait, Pro: I was correct in making certain I had a cover to wield magic. I do need to properly repay Ozpin for that. Con: I gave away far too much! I should've redirected them to Ozpin once they got too curious, he'd know better in that regard, being a native. I can barely call myself the right hand of Asmodeus after that failure, I'm almost certain he's laughing at me now and I full well deserve it."

He glanced between the crowd, his foe, and his belongings.

"First thing's first, complete this spar. Strategies, 1. Polymorph into a Dragon? No. Too obvious, and Dragons may not exist here. Oh, note to self: After this spar, stop trying to recall Shapechange, Zodars may not exist here anyway, too much of a chance to spend that time if they don't. 2. Use up one of my two daily uses of Shades? No. Overkill, and I could use that for… Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion. That's two major mistakes I've made already in that one day. No, wait, The dagger. That's three. Speaking of, 3. Distract Assailant and bash him over the head four times? Yes, perfect."

His plan was set in stone in the span of a few seconds, just in time for Glynda to pull up each fighter's aura's and photos onto the large screen by the arena, and to shout. "Begin!"

Memnol took a quick step directly backwards and stood there, gesturing for Cardin to come at him, hoping to goad him to the caltrops. Cardin, not being one to turn down a blatant challenge but definitely one to misinterpret it, grabbed his mace with both hands and pointed the head at Memnol. Memnol was particularly confused at this, before you could practically see the lightbulb above his head as he asked, "Wait, is that mace also-"

An explosive shot barreled out from the mace, causing Memnol to raise an arm in defense, his bracers more than pulling their weight as the briefest and smallest flicker just slightly off of his arm intercepted and redirected the bullet. This flicker was only caught by the cameras of the school and the trained huntswoman in the room Glynda.

"-A gun." Memnol finished saying. Memnol, realizing Cardin wouldn't fall for the trap and close the distance as he began taking more shots at him, reached for one of his belt pockets, only to find that where there should have been a good few Flame Shurikens, there were none. "That also reminds me, I need to do a full check on what I have and don't have." Memnol thought.

Memnol rushed forward, weaving diagonally between his caltrops trap, rushing towards Cardin, just before he was in reach Cardin began reaching back for a swing to meet his approach and Memnol cast Distract Assailant. During that brief moment that Cardin was distracted by the buzzing noise only he could hear, Memnol struck rapidly with the sap in a matter of seconds. One hit to the neck; Cardin's Aura drops by around 45%, Second hit to the temple: Cardin's aura drops by another 45%, Third-

"Stop," Glynda said loudly and clearly. Memnol halted in place, mid-way in swinging towards the back of the head, "The Winner of the match is Memnol Elodyr, Cardin Winchester, return to your seat, Memnol, please pick up those caltrops and know for the future that trapping the arena before a match is not permitted."

Glynda turned to the class, well most as Memnol was picking up, and said, "Who can tell me why the match went the way it did? You are here to learn just as much from the matches of others, and I expect that you will be paying attention to every match." She began playing the rather quick fight on the screen behind her.

"Memnol was strong enough to wipe out Cardin in a few hits," Yang said, admittedly impressed at that, though internally even more wary of him than before.

Memnol thought, "That was painfully incorrect, perfect."

Glynda said, "Possibly, anybody else?"

Cardin yelled out, though there wasn't any particular malice in his voice, "He knew right where to hit me! I'm still sore!" He leaned slightly to direct the end towards Memnol directly.

Memnol replied, "Don't get hit next time then." His tone was also in jest, facing Cardin, they shared a quick laugh. He was finally back in his swing, mildly pleasant and just approachable to maybe ask for something. One small favor to start, to ask for one in return, and slowly escalate.

After a few moments of the class whispering among each other Ren suggested "Precision."

Glynda said, "That was one part of it." She looked back, "Memnol, your explanation?"

Memnol got up after getting the last caltrop and said, "I had everything I needed. Prep time and a plan."

Glynda looked back to the class as Memnol walked back to his seat, "Correct! Memnol knew what he was doing! That was the difference, Memnol created a trap that would have left Cardin distracted for just long enough to strike, and when that did not work he created another situation to strike! He planned, acted, and adapted! Remember that!"

She looked down at her scroll and, seeing the time, said, "Class dismissed."

As the class shuffled out, Memnol took an inventory of himself, looking through his many pockets and his bag, and thought to himself as he examined whether the magic each item he took in and out was there at all.

"Let's see now, this cube was an Instant Fortress, not any more. The Blindfold of True Darkness is still working, the Dreaming one isn't. Glyph Seals, 7 lesser and 5 greater, all working. A pair of Instant Tents, working. 2 Vials Terinav Root, 3 Black Lotus Extract. Fishing net, Flint and Steel, Crowbar, Spyglass, Bedroll, Winter Blanket, check. The Monocle of Perusal is working fine, and Two scrolls, blank now- Wait a moment!"

Team RWBY had already moved on but JNPR had been taking more than a moment longer to continue, and they with Glynda saw Memnol's face suddenly turn to one of open panic for a moment before he reigned himself in. He reached towards a hidden inner pouch of his belt and pulled out a single thin sheet of gold, holding it in front of him and visibly deflating in relief.

Nora, having sat still too long for her liking and being energetic, skipped forward, plucked the sheet from Memnol's hands and said, "Ooh! It's shiny, What is it? Is it a recipe for something?"

Memnol, recovering after the half-second it took for Nora to do that, silently ordered his pair of IA's to cover the exits and said, his voice iced over, "It is very, very, very important Ms. Valkyrie. I would quite like to have it back."

Jaune froze in place and Pyrrha just looked back and forth between Nora who was now dancing with it and Memnol who was trying very, very hard not to snap and use a Dominate Person on her. Ren, on the other hand, stepped forward and said with weight behind his voice, "Nora. Give it back to him. Carefully."

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Nora, hearing Ren, visibly lost her energy and after seeing the look on Ren's face and really looking at the strain on Memnol said, "Okay, here you go," walking over to Memnol, and added, "Sorry about that. Didn't know it was important."

Memnol lost some of the tension in him and said, "Don't try that again, ever. I assure you you were rather lucky this wasn't one of the many things I have that could, well, hmm. I think I can illustrate it decently actually if you have a moment and I'm correct in an assumption." The Wizard in him flared up, as he felt that urge to experiment. He pulled out his dagger, offered the hilt, and said, "Would one of you, aside from Ms. Valkyrie, care to come over and hold my dagger?"

Slightly confused, Pyrrha stepped up and grabbed it, looking at it closely, noticing what Ruby noticed before.

"Now tell me, how do you feel at the moment, compared to before you held it?" Memnol asked,

"About the same, sorry," Pyrrha said.

"That's what I was looking for to establish a baseline. Now, could you hand it to Ms. Valkyrie?"

Pyrrha did so, but Nora only held it for a second before dropping it, "Aie!"

Ren asked Nora, "What happened?"

Nora said, "I felt, drained, when I held it. Like I just ate way too many pancakes again! But without the nice parts of feeling full at all!"

Memnol picked up the Dagger and put it back into place as he said, "Yes, I have encountered and made a number of Art-based objects that are directly harmful to certain kinds of people. In this case, it's likely because Nora is chaotic by nature that she felt drained holding an Axiomatic weapon."

Jaune looked at Nora and said, "Yeah, that's accurate."

"Yes, I warn you of this because that effect, on this dagger and other things like it, is not proportional, many would-be thieves have died merely from attempting to hold my dagger, and it's one of the least severe of the items that do that."

At that, Nora's energy went down by a lot. "You mean, I might've, and you asked me to-"

"No. That was not at all within my intent," Memnol cut her off, "I was more than confident that you would survive, I'm mildly confident most people capable of entering this academy could, but I figured someone like you would understand best by handling."

Nora said, "Oh, thanks, kind of."

Memnol said, "I figured it would be best if I got out that kind of warning earlier rather than later. If any of you would, do tell Team RWBY as well please," Jaune nodded and Memnol continued, "Thank you Mr. Arc. If I am sent for, I will be in the Library for the foreseeable future. A pleasant day to you all."

Team JNPR looked at each other after Memnol left and all came to an agreement which Jaune soon voiced, "Leave him be if we can?". He was met with nods all around.

----------------------------------------

"Come on, he's not that mean." Ruby said during dinner when she heard their plan,

"He intimidated a second year for basically no reason Ruby," Blake said, still unhappy that he hadn't lost.

"Okay, but, he used his sorta-semblance-but-maybe-not Art to give her a good hair year to make up for it. That has to count for something, right? Pyrrha?" Ruby tried.

"Well, he has been kind of upfront so far. He even let Nora and I hold his weapon, though that was more to make a point." Pyrrha said.

"What point could he have possibly been trying to make?" Weiss asked.

"Oh yeah, He wanted us to tell you guys too; apparently just holding some of his stuff can kill you, so, uh, don't do that," Jaune said, causing Yang to choke for a second on what she was eating as she gave a sharp look at Ruby, who looked away.

"Wait, what use is a weapon that kills its wielder before use?" Weiss asked.

"It wasn't quite like that," Pyrrha said, "I felt just fine when I held it, but Nora dropped it almost immediately."

Nora stopped trying to mimic a squirrel with her food and said, "Yeah, when I held it, it felt like, well. Hmm." She looked up in thought, "It felt the way a wilting flower looks, like I was less than me for a moment."

After about a second of silence Pyrrha said, "That was, more poetic than the way you put it earlier."

"Thanks!" Nora said, now trying to balance her spoon vertically.

"Okay, that's also dangerous, but it's not exactly his fault. I mean, maybe he's been through something and he's just snapped back into place. We saw how much he changed before and after the fight, he was joking around and being friendly with Cardin." Ruby said.

"I actually find it kinda eerie, how he just switched between serious and friendly like that," Jaune said,

"I don't know if that unnerves me more or less than the fact that he doesn't leave footprints," Ren said before Ruby could interject again.

"Come on, I think he's just having a hard time adjust-" Ruby stopped as she processed, "He doesn't leave footprints?"

The rest of the table looked at Ren and he said, "On the way back when we met him, not a single track."

"That's, not good. I gotta agree with them, you should leave him alone Ruby," Yang said.

"Yang! Aren't you the one who said I needed to make new friends?" Ruby said,

"And you've got us all right here," Yang said.

"Come on Yang, I asked you to give him a chance after-" Ruby stopped talking then and there.

The rest of the table was silent as well for a moment until Nora asked, "After what?"

Yang said, "We think he's an… assassin."

"Ex-Assassin," Ruby said.

"I mean he's a bit mean, and pretty intense at times, and nearly split Cardin's aura in half in one hit, and keeps a dagger up his sleeve almost all the time, and- Yeah, I agree, never mind," Jaune said.

"I mean, that's all, circumstantial." Pyrrha said, "It's not like he poisons his weapons," She let out a weak laugh, which Jaune joined in on, until they saw the looks on team RWBY's faces.

"He does, doesn't he?" Pyrrha said.

After being met with nods from WBY, she said, "I'll just.. I'll be quiet now. Sorry."

Yang said, "So, one of our classmates is an-" A cough from Ruby, "Ex-Assassin anti-Jaune, who poisons a dagger he always has up his sleeve, which can itself kill someone from holding it and at the least has a disintegration ray. That about sums up what we know?"

After some nods, Ruby said, "He's also working with us to be a hunter!"

Yang said, looking embarrassed, "That's also, right. I actually forgot that, too."

Meanwhile, in the library during this time.

"You mean, I can just read any of these, at any time, for free?" Memnol asked,

"Well, yes, that is how a library works, you just need to check them back in if they're removed from the library." The Librarian said, who was an older fish faunus with large eyes that never blinked, one of which was scarred over and grey like his hair.

"The long-distance communication is free as well?" Memnol asked.

"Yes, that too." The Librarian said.

"That and the numbers on those books, is the library organized?" Memnol said, feeling amazed, and personally further indebted to Ozpin for just, letting him near all this.

The Librarian gave a slight laugh and said, "An answer for an answer, you're not from the cities, are you?"

Memnol said, "Fair terms. No, I'm not."

The Librarian said, "Go on your scroll or one of those terminals and look up the 'Dan Decimal System'."

Memnol went to one of the many tables between the shelves and sat down, pulled out his scroll, and after reading what it was, smiled a great, lawful smile.

He went back to the Librarian and said, "If someone seeks me out, could you tell them to send me a message on my scroll?"

The Librarian said, without looking away from his book, "In exchange for another answer."

Memnol said, "Possibly, your question?"

The Librarian said, extending a pale hand, "Your name, young man?"

Two spindly hands met and shook, surprising the librarian, and Memnol said, "Apologies, I'm Memnol Elodyr, you?"

The Librarian said, "Howard L. Phillips. Pre-War name, ninety-seven, and because of my semblance, to answer the questions you were about to ask,"

With that Memnol went towards the back of the Nonfiction, and used a Shades to duplicate a Magnificent Mansion, causing Memnol to note, "There is some kind of plane of shadow here, or at least a way to draw the shadow material needed to replicate a spell. Good to note. After I make that item to test if I still can, I need to start checking the cosmology's planar situation. I suppose I'll need to research Astral Projection again, after Demand and nesting some thought bottles and a few more as backups. So much to do, so much to test."

----------------------------------------

Ozpin reviewed various security footage, silently thinking as he replayed and focused on the ever-so-brief flickers that deflected Cardin's shots, or the shimmering that Memnol walked into in the library before it disappeared entirely. He reached for his scroll and started creating a simple assignment for a not-so-simple student, depending on if his studies went the way he thought they would.