RWBY: Forever Fall

Day One

I didn’t particularly want to kill the sphinx. If it was some mage’s experiment, that would be very rude, and it wasn’t like it was too dangerous to leave alive either. It was smart for an animal, like a post owl or a kneazle, but unfortunately I was pretty sure that if it did get free, it would try to attack Zatanna and I instead of running away.

Since I wasn’t sure how long our ropes would last without our presence, we needed to do something else to keep it contained while we explored deeper into the caves and tunnels. After a few minutes of discussion and planning, we opted for one of the simplest options. I transfigured a hole large enough to fit the creature into water, then levitated it in and canceled my transfiguration, leaving the Sphinx buried except for the head so that it could breathe. I wasn’t actually sure it needed to breathe, but better safe than sorry.

The splashing and displaced water resulted in some weirdly placed mounds of dirt, but we could deal with that when we came back this way later. The earth around the sphinx wasn’t too solid and I was pretty sure that even if we ended up just apparating away, it would eventually be able to dig itself out. As far as I could tell from the Blueprint, the creature didn’t need to eat or drink, so it wouldn’t just die if we left it for a while.

Once that was taken care of, Zatanna and I began to discuss what we wanted to do next. There were seven tunnels leading into the cave; the one we’d come from and six we had yet to explore. One was barely big enough to crawl through, so we decided to discount it for now. Another of those tunnels was where the sphinx had come from, and we definitely wanted to explore that way.

We decided to start with the entrance the sphinx had used. I unlocked and opened the door I’d transfigured, then closed it behind us and I put a Caterwauling charm on it to warn us if someone––or something––came at us from that direction.

That ended up being mostly a waste of time. The ‘tunnel’ was more just a hallway between two rooms. We walked for perhaps ten seconds and emerged into what was clearly the sphinx’s lair. It was a large room with a depression at the center surrounded by claw marks where the sphinx probably spent most of its time sleeping. Some bones––very possibly human from the look of them––were scattered around the room, most of them cracked and broken in multiple places.

There were some other things scattered among the remains as well. Scraps of torn cloth, bits of blackened wood, and, most interestingly, the remnants of some sort of metal weapon, or perhaps a tool. It was badly rusted and torn to pieces, but that was no barrier to a trained wizard. By hand, it would have been all but impossible to piece it all together. With magic though?

“Reparo,” I enunciated clearly, moving my wand through the motions I had rarely bothered with since I’d first managed the spell without them during my third year. Casting a spell nonverbally or without the wand motions was typically only a tiny fraction weaker than using them, but I wanted to ensure I properly fixed whatever it was I was casting on and the object was clearly missing a lot of bits and pieces.

Bits of metal rose into the air and Zatanna oooo’d as my spell figuratively turned back the clock, transforming junk fit only for the trash or recycling into what it had once been. Rust vanished, metal unbent, and new bits and pieces appeared from thin air before melting into one another and smoothing out into a single piece.

After nearly thirty seconds, we were left with an interesting pair of items. Outwardly, they looked like just a sword and round shield, something I’d seen many times on the suits of armor all around Hogwarts and hanging in various castles and estates. However, I’d just watched them assemble out of gears, wires, and small interlocking metal plates that told me there was more to the weapons than met the eye.

Zatanna picked them up and waved the sword around for a few seconds, before setting it down to fiddle with something on the shield’s handle. She nearly dropped it when the shield came alive, metal plates whirring and twisting as it transformed into a…staff? No, not a staff, a glaive. Zatanna picked up the sword and it slotted neatly into the end of the shield, transforming the two pieces into a single larger weapon.

I came over to join her and we spent a few more minutes fiddling with the curious weapons. It seemed the shield could also transform into a sheath, as well as a larger rectangular shield. Meanwhile the sword’s blade seemed to be a single piece of metal, but the hilt could go from one handed to two handed and there were several different handguards it could shift into as well.

There were also several slots on both the shield and in the hilt where it looked like you could insert something, though I really wasn’t sure what thumb-sized object you’d want to slip into the hilt or handle of the shield. Perhaps some sort of small, interchangeable ward stone? Or maybe some other magical or mundane item I’d never encountered outside of this plane.

It was a curious creation, but ultimately not particularly interesting. The materials were purely mundane as far as I could tell, though constructed to an impressive level of precision that spoke well of whatever people lived on this Plane. Hopefully their enchanting was just as refined as their metallurgy and artifice.

I stored the weapons away in my expanded bag, then Zatanna and I headed back to the cave where we’d left the sphinx. I left a mark on the door, relocked it, and then we headed off through the one on its left.

Immediately, this tunnel seemed far more interesting. It was much more narrow than before, too narrow for the sphinx to fit through, and led deeper into the earth. We descended cautiously, Zatanna taking the lead with her ball of light and me following a few steps behind her with my wand raised and a shield maintained constantly around me.

After about five minutes, the tunnel turned and emerged into a completely different structure. In front of us was a shattered wall made from the same white stone as everything else, the wall looking like it had been blasted inward by some great force. There was a small drop and Zatanna carefully slipped through the opening and hopped down about two feet onto a smooth, relatively well-preserved stone floor.

She summoned two more balls of light, illuminating a small but highly decorated room. The chamber was perhaps ten feet wide, ten feet long, and eight feet high, the stone walls covered with patterns of black and gold. There was a sealed door in the center of the wall on our left and a dozen suits of gold-trimmed armor stood at regular intervals around the perimeter of the room, their weapons looking more decorational than functional. At each corner of the room was a pedestal, each one holding a different item that looked like it had been cast from solid gold. A crown, a sword, a staff, and a fancy-looking lamp.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

At the center of the room was a raised platform on which lay a long rectangular box that I instantly recognized as a coffin. It was made of pure black stone and was unadorned except for a two-handed sword made from white stone placed on top of the lid.

I may have never been to Egypt, but I was British enough to recognize a tomb when I saw one. Zatanna’s footsteps echoed loudly as she stepped fully into the room, her head swiveling from side to side as she took everything in.

“Whoa,” she whispered softly, the stone walls magnifying her voice. “Hydrys, is this…”

“Probably.” So it had probably been a temple, then. Not too many reasons to bury someone under a bank. Or build a bank to honor the place where someone had been buried.

I dropped down into the room, making sure to keep my wand raised the entire time. “Keep your eyes peeled. For some reason, people love putting booby traps in rooms like this.”

“Should we really be here?” Zatanna asked cautiously.

I shrugged. “I don’t see why not. Doesn’t look like anyone else has been down here in a long, long time. With how overgrown it is outside, I doubt anyone even remembers who is buried here. Some king or prince, probably, or maybe a high priest. Or maybe they have their own word for whatever he was.”

“Or she,” Zatanna corrected.

“Or she,” I agreed easily.

I decided to ignore the coffin for now, instead moving towards the nearest pedestal. A few quick spells told me that it was just a big hunk of rock with no spells or mechanical triggers on it that I could detect. I carefully picked up the staff, finding it to be incredibly heavy. I could barely even lift it. Was this thing actually made from solid gold? That was a lot of gold.

The staff was quite neat-looking, with spots on the top and bottom that looked like housing for some kind of gemstones. It was utterly impractical as a weapon or walking stick, but perhaps it was some sort of mark of office or served a ceremonial function? This might also just be a replica of a far more practical wooden staff, or perhaps even a proper focus. It had been many years since my people had used staves to cast spells, but the practice had been popular for millennia before wands eventually became the preferred focus.

Zatanna cried out and I spun around, dropping the staff back down onto the pedestal with a thunderous clatter. The point of a sword skittered off my shield spell and I found myself face to face with the suit of armor that had been standing nearest to the pedestal, its blade extended towards me.

My eyes widened as I saw Zatanna scrambling away from two other suits of armor that were advancing towards her with their blades drawn, while the others were slowly closing in around us from their spots around the room.

My frown turned into a scowl when I saw the bloody gash on Zatanna’s arm and the blood on one of the suit’s blades.She’d avoided getting skewered, but hadn’t escaped the surprise attack unscathed. She might not be the real Zatanna, but she was still my Zatanna.

I ignored the suit hacking at my shield charm and raised my wand. “Bombarda!” I barked, and the one that had hurt Zatanna was blasted backwards, its chestplate shattering under the force of my spell and sending it sprawling.

Zatanna immediately used the time I’d bought her. She pressed her back against a wall and cried out, “Dleihs!” causing a dome of solid light to spring up around her.

Unfortunately, my spell seemed to signal for the rest of our foes to stop taking their time. All eleven of the remaining suits charged towards us, seven at me and four at Zatanna. They moved very quickly, crossing the space between us in a matter of moments and soon I was quickly surrounded, my shield charm taking a beating from powerful, hammer-like swings of the armor’s swords.

I smiled fiercely and brandished my wand. Ideally I’d once again like to preserve one of these armors for study, but this was just the perfect opportunity to use a spell I’d never cast outside of practice before. “Protego Diabolica!”

Black flames poured from the tip of my wand, rapidly filling the bounds of my shield charm and then flooding through it. They tickled my skin and parted around the gentle sweeps of my wand, but wherever they touched the armors they left horrible, molten rends that glowed and crackled.

One of the armors tried to lunge at me again, but a wave of flames rose in front of me and caught the strike before it could land. The blade was thrown aside covered in glowing black and blue cracks and the armor was utterly consumed until nothing but shimmering ash remained.

I took a step forward and the flames followed me, slowly moving to surround me in a circle of black fire. Three more of the animated suits of armor tried their luck attacking me and three more were destroyed in moments as the flames pounced on them and consumed both the metal and whatever magic was animating it.

Two more steps and I was finally close enough to Zatanna to include her in the circle. I knew it was possible to maintain a massive area protected by the spell, but I was simply not proficient enough with it to surround more than a few feet of space.

The flames parted effortlessly around her, my will informing the spell that she was allowed to pass, pushing back or destroying the foes that had been battering her shield with their blades. Zatanna quickly moved over to stand beside me, her eyes shining as the flames of my spell cast flickering shadows across her skin.

The few armors that remained began to back away, but there simply was not enough room in this crypt for them to escape. I flicked my wand and a fiery snake lunged from my shield and wrapped around one of them, the magical fire burning the construct from the outside in. A second flick and this time a unicorn charged forth, trampling another suit beneath its flaming hooves and goring it with its horn.

Then there was only one left, standing in the far corner of the room with its sword raised in front of it. “Zatanna,” I said softly, most of my focus consumed by keeping control of the spell.

It wasn’t nearly as unruly or chaotic as fiendfyre, but it was clear that the shield variant had been greatly influenced by the peak of pyromantic magic my people had achieved. There was little risk of the spell escaping my grasp and spiraling out of control like there was with fiendfyre––it wouldn’t be a particularly good shield if it had a good chance of burning the caster to a crisp––but it could easily destabilize and go out if I got distracted.

Zatanna got the message. ““Dnib!” she called out for the second time today, and once again ropes sprang into existence around her target. The armor managed to cut one rope out of the air, but the others quickly closed in around it, binding its arms and legs together and then pulling it into what was essentially a hogtie. The armor dropped its sword, sending it clattering across the floor, and then collapsed onto the ground as well.

I lowered my wand and allowed the flames around us to gutter out. Just as I’d hoped, the fire had left everything fully intact, only burning what it perceived as an enemy and leaving the rest of the crypt untouched. The room looked almost exactly like it had minutes before, except without the suits of armor around the walls.

“Good work,” I told Zatanna. Then I looked down at the single remaining suit that was struggling against the ropes binding its arms and legs. “Now then, let’s see what makes this thing tick. This trip is getting better and better!”