Soon enough RWBY and Qrow settled into the places at the table set for them, from the entering perspective of left to right in the order of Blake, Ruby, Weiss, Yang, and Qrow. As they sat, Memnol ordered the invisible servants to push their chairs in for them, which took a good few servants per person.

"Pardon the number of them needed, an individual one can only manage thirty pounds at the most. This way should be best for the drinks to get to everyone, at least without disrupting the team," Memnol said.

At least, that was his external reason he gave that he was certain Yang and Ruby at least, hopefully Blake and Weiss as well, would buy. This way Ruby and Yang would be separated physically, which should exacerbate their apparent mental split based on their previous actions as well as what may happen if his current plan went off correctly. Blake was at the edge with plenty of room, where she could easily get up and would likely not feel any sense of being trapped or cornered, likely putting them at ease, and with Qrow's position, it'd be rather implicit that he was to play the part of restraint against Yang when, not if, she ended up drinking too much and becoming oh so predictably drunk if she was going to try and rush this dinner like he thought she would.

As for Weiss's position directly across from him, Memnol thought, "Her nervousness and, currently rather mild, fear is palpable to me. I'd say it's even her first time being part of a real match in The Game, and she either doesn't even know it, or at least doesn't know there are any players besides us two, or is perhaps thinking it's something as laughable as a 'practice' match. As if there were ever such a thing. Perhaps it's not fully hospitable, but I want a front seat to see this rookie try so hard, it's rather- oh what's the best word? Amusing? Perhaps adorable, given her stature, to be honest. She even called me 'sir', what a respectful young lady. I suppose in the name of hospitality I'll do what I can to leave her be today."

Memnol continued speaking as the first course was set down, "Today's dinner will begin with a selection of salmon roe as a side to a leafy salad, followed by a tomato-lobster bisque with ground Maztican chili pepper. After this will be the main course of twice Galum-glazed and roasted swan with a mint garnish, a dessert of litchi rice candies, and finishing with a palate cleanser of chilled grapes and Elturian Gray cheese. Would anyone like to make any additions or redactions from this outline?"

Nobody made any complaints, or really any sounds, after that, especially since the servants already seemed to be glazing the swan in the background by the fire, as another few were heating some bottles of cider. The table was soon covered with the first course and everyone began to eat.

Blake broke the silence by saying, "So, what's this mission you've been assigned?" She took a sip of the cider once it had arrived in a porcelain mug, with a cinnamon stick and cloves, "-Ah!"

Memnol said, "Do be careful, though Vilhon is best hot. I'm just being sent to reinforce some second years in Patch."

Ruby said, her mouth still partially stuffed since she had dug in, "Thash vhere Ihm Fhom!", She had the decency to go partially red at a glance from Qrow and repeated, more clearly, "Sorry. That's where I'm from!"

Memnol said, "Really? What was it like over there, if I may ask?"

The rest of the drinks arrived and while Yang seemed happy with the dark color and froth of her flagon for a moment, the rest of the table was rather shocked that Yang would be trusted with that much beer at once. Weiss complimented the wine's quality and fruity overtone, which to Memnol easily cemented her as an absolute novice to The Game. Qrow said, "Hey, no offense, but this is purple."

Memnol said, "Yes, I assure you it's supposed to be. The only harm there is that it's known for its kick, but I believe you're a man who'd appreciate that in your rum, but there's no way to be certain until you try it."

Qrow said, "Eh, fine, I'll take a sip. Just put your dagger away somewhere other than your sleeve, first."

Ruby whirled and said, "Uncle Qrow!"

Memnol said, internally leaping that these Remnans didn't seem to have a concept of subtlety so far, "No, no, I fully understand. One moment for me to pass it over, feel free to take a look yourself for a moment too, but I'd feel best if Ruby were to hold onto it in the meantime."

He reached into his sleeve and, in one motion that Qrow and Blake could tell was well-practiced from repetition, took out his dagger and handed it over to Qrow by the hilt. Qrow observed it over the first course, noticing much of what Ruby did. When he did try the rum he said, "Woah, yeah, I see what you meant by kick, nice,"

After the main dish was set a little while later, he passed it to Yang and said, "It's a pretty good weapon, make it yourself?"

Memnol nodded before taking a sip of his drink, only about a fifth below its starting point.

Yang handled it very brazenly, and handed it over partway into the main course, and suddenly to Weiss, before going back to eating, already done with her first flagon of the heavy beer, seeming quite focused on the dinner itself.

Weiss hastily put down the half-drank crystal-cut wine glass to receive the dagger and observed it far more carefully, her eyes growing just slightly wider and glancing quickly at Memnol when she felt her aura drain from one errant turn, which Memnol quite noticed.

Weiss said as she passed it over to Ruby, "If I may ask, what kind of material is that?"

Ruby added as she passed it straight to Blake, "Oh yeah, you forgot to say last time, what is it?"

Memnol said to Ruby, "I suppose I possibly did forget, didn't I? My mistake," Yang's grip on her spoon got slightly tighter, "It's an exceptionally rare metal, and equally exceptionally sturdy, called Adamantine. As a material it's quite potent, it can effectively tear through any lesser metal or material with ease," He smiled internally as Yang was halfway through her second flagon, "I do remember that I still owe you for your help, and moreso for your further help after that, so I'd be willing to provide you with some for your own weapon if you'd like."

At this, before Ruby could say anything, Yang burst out yelling, "NO! You can't just- can't just do that! You can't just be a complete ass for an entire day, only to just turn around out of nowhere! You can't just admit to being a damn assassin only for everyone to just ignore that!"

At this Memnol's visible look fell to a shocked look, though internally he thought "That was slightly faster than I'd planned, even better."

Ruby said, "Yang! He's just-"

"NO!" Yang interrupted, her face had gone fully red, throwing her chair back as she got up and went over to Ruby before Qrow would stop her, "I'm not going to just let some assassin close enough to hurt, to poison, my baby sister! It's a miracle that he didn't get any of us the first night!"

Yang grabbed Ruby by the arm and tried to pull her up, but Ruby soon shook out of it and said, "Yang! He's trying to do something good now, don't you see-"

Memnol said, in a tired voice with a falsely tired face, "I'm sorry to interrupt you Ruby, but no, please, don't say that."

Ruby looked at Memnol with confusion and a little bit of hurt, as did everyone else confusedly, and especially Yang who mixed it with her anger. Memnol continued, "I don't know if I myself would really describe it as 'good', really, being a Hunter who focuses on bounties, on hunting people," Memnol gave a mirthless, dry (faked) laugh and took a shot at what he thought might appeal to one more member of the 'audience' when he said, "I should have known that I couldn't leave behind my past." The moment he saw that look on Blake, for just a moment, he thought "Gotcha." "It was stupid of me to think I'd get a clean slate after," A drawn-out sigh, where he let himself sink over, "After what I've done. All because- because I was off guard and disoriented for a day. It took me until I got into combat, to fighting someone, to be aware of myself again," He deliberately paused. As he did so he thought, "Now this, this is perfect. All of this is just so perfectly, technically, true and speaking honestly to your guests is a sign of hospitality after all."

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

After a moment Memnol said, "No, I had done many things I shouldn't have in that brief time. My mistakes are my own and I will admit," He looked the now slightly more wavering Yang in the eye, as something else came into his voice that he didn't recognize himself, "Your care for your family is something that I truly respect, and to some degree envy, Yang Xiao Long. I can tell that you and your family, at least from what I've met, are Good people, and that they did what they could to give you a Good childhood."

Yang slipped up and shouted, her voice showing some uncertainty, "Oh yeah, and who are you to Judge my family, Huh?! Who are you to judge my childhood!-", and Yang slapped her hands over her own mouth in horror, as she and the rest of RWBY remembered exactly what Memnol wanted them to remember.

Memnol said with, 'fake' he would tell himself, resignation while looking at his wine, "You're right, Ms. Xiao Long. I suppose I wouldn't really have a say there, would I?"

Yang said, "No- Wait, That's not what I meant!" She turned to Ruby, "You know I didn't mean that- I just-"

"Ms. Xiao Long." Memnol's voice cut through and everyone's attention returned to him, "I do not hold that against you, nor the rest of what you've said before this very moment," He looked around the room, "I would also rather appreciate it if nobody else here were to hold it against you, nor anything else for the rest of the night I suspect. Bitter Black is a very strong beer, and while I do not mean to insult your ability to handle your alcohol in the least, I think you might have had it too quickly at once. I know it may be rude to ask, but would I be right in suggesting that you were hoping to get over with this dinner more quickly?"

Yang just nodded, shamefaced.

Memnol said, "There is no need to be ashamed, Ms. Xiao Long, as I've already told you."

Then, to some surprise, Memnol got up, walked over with his walking stick to where the chair had fallen and put it upright, and pushed it closer to the table.

He looked at Ruby and Weiss and asked, "Pardon me, but would you two be willing to trade seats with each other?" And in a moment the two understood and started switching over, with the servants moving the food over.

Memnol still held the once overturned seat and said, "Please, Ms. Xiao Long, could you sit down?"

Yang nodded and sat down, and Memnol pushed the chair in, and Yang said, louder than she intended, "Thank you."

Memnol said, "No, I haven't done anything worth being thanked over for you Ms. Xiao Long. I've just failed more times than I likely remember."

Memnol walked over to his seat, but before sitting down he looked at it for a long few seconds and said, "I think you would all be better eating without me, at least for tonight," and before anyone could interject he shouted to the servants, "Obey the commands of Team RWBY and Mr. Branwen while this mansion is still up!"

He turned to RWBY+Q and said, "Please, while this Mansion lasts, consider it yours as well. I had made a pair of guest bedrooms on either side of the hall, behind the doors in front of the staircases, in case any of you wished to stay over for the night. If I'm needed, I'll be eating in my room upstairs, or I'll be in the study or workshop attached to that room. If knocking fails, feel free to send a servant to get my attention. In the event that we don't speak beyond this, have a good evening, all of you."

Memnol bowed slightly and started slowly walking up the stairs.

Ruby had said, remembering her own childhood and hoping to cheer him up, "Wait! I- Your parents were there for you too! I mean, even if your dad did that thing, he had to have done it hoping for the best, and I'm sure your mom did everything she could too! Right!?"

Memnol halted in place with an expression that nobody could see, and his grip tightened on his walking stick.

He said, his voice low and exhausted, "I was Awakened when I was two days old, and you have my full permission to explain that to Mr. Branwen. However, when I asked my father about my mother, he told me he had gotten rid of her once I was born."

Ruby let out a horribly sad, strangled noise as Memnol kept walking up the stairs in silence. What parts of his voice were true exhaustion, or not, was unknown to Memnol at that moment.

Barely a few moments later, just before he stepped into his room, Memnol said, expression still hidden, "Do not dare to pity me. I am a powerful man, and entirely capable in my own rights, It would be an entirely purposeless and ridiculous thing. Good evening, Ms. Rose."

A servant closed the door behind him and after a period of silence, dinner began again at the signal of a number of servants moving Memnol's dinner up to him, including the unopened bottle of Særloonian Topaz. The first one to break the silence was Yang, quietly asking the servants for water instead of beer.

To go over each internally, in order, we must begin with Ruby. Ruby was sad, just plain and out sad, would be the way she'd put it, and she just didn't know what to do at all regarding Memnol, so she just stuck by Yang's side, to cheer them both up, which was something she knew what she could do about.

Yang was, while not sober yet at all, much more morose in her drunkenness now. She just slowly ate the dinner, and whenever she tried to enjoy it, that only made her feel bad again. She didn't risk looking farther than Ruby or Qrow, and whenever she remembered that he helped with that, the feeling got worse again.

Qrow sat there, trying to console both his nieces. While such a massive part of him screamed to be furious with Memnol, and he was definitely displeased, he knew that while some of that could've been faked in some ways, he was confident that on some level it was all true. More than that though, he knew that while you could fake the kind of tiredness he'd shown for a while, you just couldn't fake it that far, and that certainly even some of the smartest people in the world could have an unlucky turn, and he cursed his Semblance one more time.

Blake was mulling over it, and she found that it at times felt wrong to relate to him. Not because she couldn't, but because she could. She had done things she'd regretted and she'd come here for a clean slate and all that stood between that was one slip-up and she'd been insensitive once as she remembered the time when she was four and her mother took her shopping in the marketplace in Kuo Kuana where she asked the first human she ever remembered meeting where her other ears were. Then Blake justified it saying she didn't know, she'd never seen a human before, but that only made the connection stronger and so much of how she felt towards him before and now just felt wrong right now.

Weiss felt like she was falling in a spiral, wondering how he could possibly seem to embody the powerful feeling of silent threat and wealth that whispered "I have what you want, but what could you possibly offer me" from her father and the presence of stability and reliability from her grandfather and the tiredness and exhaustion from her mother and the adherence to and aura of Order from her sister, or how it could all possibly be bundled up in one person whose name sounded nothing like Schnee. But more than that, Weiss almost felt, hope, a weird melancholic sort of hope, the kind where you think that maybe, finally, someone might be able to really understand, when she recognized her own sort of loneliness in experience in him. Except it seemed just different enough that maybe she hadn't found someone that would understand and that maybe she was just being ridiculous and hopeful thinking any of that, and if she took that risk and tried to talk to him it'd only make it all worse.

What about Memnol? What about the man who is provably Evil, and so comfortable with it that he wears a black Robe of the Archmagi in public?

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

Once Memnol was behind the door, he halted, and his mind whirled in a maelstrom to rival Limbo for exactly one full minute. He stopped once the door started to open again, moving so the servants could bring in the food and so he couldn't be seen. He took a long draught, emptying what was left of his wine glass and walked into his study to re-research Demand through the night, and the other spells he initially noted if research went quickly as he suspected it might. He'd let himself sleep on the bullhead flight over to Patch, and make the Thought Bottles while he was there, or if research was quick he could get started on the first Thought Bottle here and finish it there.

With that, he took out a quill, dipped it into his fine spell-ink, and busied himself with writing out a diagram of overlapping and intersecting shapes and forms into his spellbook, the first step of few to translating the perfection of Ambition over the mediocrity of Reality.

After all, if one could choose to not be bound by concepts so petty as Death, to be able to follow through on any Wish they so pleased, then nothing but themselves could hold back a true Wizard.