RWBY: Beacon
Day Six
Glynda lay on the same bed that Raven had occupied a little less than two days earlier. Instead of just the bare mattress, there was a plain white sheet under her like you might find in the hospital wing. There were three of us in the room like there had been last time, but instead of Zatanna, the third person was Ozpin, his hands folded together on top of his cane as he silently watched the proceedings.
“Are you ready?” I asked.
Glynda nodded, her lips pursed and her muscles tensed.
I jabbed her belly with my wand and her aura flared. It was like poking a brick wall. If I hadn’t started learning how to reinforce my wand with my aura, I might have even scuffed the wood. “Relax,” I ordered. “Control your aura and yourself. I can’t work if you’re going to fight me the whole way.”
Glynda did not relax. If anything, her back stiffened and her grip on her riding crop tightened until her already pale knuckles turned white.
I turned towards Ozpin and shrugged helplessly. The man rose slowly to his feet and walked over to where I was sitting beside the huntress, his cane tapping against the ground with every step.
“Glynda, my dear, there is nothing to be worried about. I’ve already seen Hydrys work and the enhancement is quite harmless. I’d take it myself, but I’m afraid that what he is offering does not seem to be compatible with my own wizardry.”
My lips curled into a small frown. And hadn’t that been an annoying thing to discover. I could neither create a Blueprint, nor enhance the ancient wizard. The Brothers’ magic inside him resisted my magic and my spark with frightening intensity and neither of us felt comfortable trying to push through that resistance.
Ozpin continued. “I will be right here the entire time and make sure that nothing goes wrong. It is important for all of us who fight for the light to seize whatever advantages we can.”
Glynda sighed. “Yes, Ozpin. I understand.”
It took another few minutes for her to properly relax, but eventually I felt her aura withdraw somewhat so I could begin. From there, the process took a little under a quarter of an hour. First, Glynda’s Blueprint appeared within my Spark. It was another five-mana Blueprint that used a color I did not have any lands for, but thankfully that wasn’t going to be an issue now that I’d bonded with Beacon. Then I used four lands to empower the huntress, leaving me with just Shadowcrest to draw on.
I withdrew my wand and hand and stepped away. Glynda sat up slowly, flexing her fingers. “That was a thoroughly odd experience,” she announced. “But I do feel somewhat different now.”
“Raven reported a roughly ten-percent improvement to her physical strength when not using her aura to empower her body.”
Glynda balled her hand into a fist. “I think it feels like more than that. It's hard to say for sure.”
Ozpin laughed. “That’s what testing is for, Glynda. We don’t make our students do it for nothing, after all.”
Glynda grumbled something under her breath as Ozpin turned to me. “I’ve arranged things for later this afternoon. Will you be available around two?”
I felt for my land bonds, trying to get a general sense for how long it would take them to refresh. It was hard, but my senses––and prior experience––told me it would be about two or three hours. Since it was currently some time before noon, that was more than enough time. I nodded. “That should be good.”
“Excellent, excellent. Will either of your companions be joining us?”
“I think Zatanna told me she was going to be spending some more time with team RWBY this afternoon, but Kent will probably come for at least the first part. Observing an aura activation might help him with his work.”
“Very good. Let me know if he needs anything else. Amber’s health is one of my top priorities.”
“Will do. Till this afternoon, then, Ozpin.”
He nodded sharply. “Till this afternoon, Hydrys.” He helped Glynda to her feet and the two left without any further fanfare.
The next few hours passed quickly and busily. I checked in with Kent and spent about half an hour conversing with the elderly Order wizard. Amber’s hospital room had been completely transformed in the thirty-six hours since I’d summoned him. The beds and much of the equipment had been pushed up against the walls or removed entirely and Amber’s pod now stood at the center of a large, complex runic circle whose purpose and methodologies I could only roughly parse.
Kent was in an excellent mood. He looked carefree and joyful in a way I’d never seen the original look and was rushing around the room adjusting parts of the circle and casting complex analysis spells. According to him, everything was progressing smoothly and he had high hopes of successfully healing the Maiden or at least significantly improving the condition of her soul.
Eventually I passed along the time that Ozpin had given me, wished him farewell, and continued on my way. At some point in the future I would need to see if my summoned version of the man was willing to teach me any skills that the original was holding back, but that could wait for another time.
Next I headed up to Ozpin’s office. The man was absent, but I left a list of materials that Kent was asking for on his desk. Either he’d see them the next time he came up, or I’d pass along the details when we met up later in the afternoon.
I also returned a pair of thin, hand-written books that I’d borrowed. Near as I could tell, they’d originally been prepared as guides for some of his earliest Maidens and contained instructions on how to practice and develop their magical abilities. They were both (formerly) one-of-a-kind books and Ozpin had asked me to return them when I was finished with them, something I was happy to do. After all, I had brand new copies in my bag that I could peruse at my leisure.
Nothing in the books was particularly revolutionary, but it was interesting stuff nonetheless. The local magic seemed to come in one of two varieties––simple and direct or fiendishly complicated and versatile––with nothing really in between to bridge the gap.
The two books, as well as some of the other materials I’d borrowed from Ozpin and duplicated, mostly covered the former. The local magic was well suited towards combat, favoring elemental manipulations and powerful projections of force and magic that could be cast rapidly to devastating effect.
I wasn’t very good at it yet, but I’d picked up the basics quickly enough. Speed and power would come with practice. I could even levitate now without the need for my wand. It wasn’t flight yet, but it was one step closer than I’d been before.
The latter was something I’d been learning from Ozpin directly. Annoyingly enough, it wasn’t anything he’d ever bothered writing down. The magic he’d imbued into his Maidens was too crude to duplicate such delicate, intricate magics and they were the only other wizards on Remnant outside of his mysterious adversary.
Still, despite that setback, it was still some fascinating stuff. Pocket dimensions, powerful blessings, wards, precise scrying, and more were all possible if you had the skill, knowledge, and patience to accomplish it. I didn’t––not yet, and likely not for some time––but Ozpin had promised to write up a few short guides for me that I could bring along with me when I left Remnant behind.
I was particularly interested in how Ozpin had created his Maidens. Ozpin had given muggles––well, muggle-like humans––access to magic. Real, versatile magic, not just the aura that was available to all the living creatures of this Plane. It was both heresy and one of the most incredible magical achievements I’d ever heard of. So far Ozpin’s explanations of how he’d done it had been vague and often went over my head, but someday I was certain I’d be able to duplicate the feat.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
After that brief stop, I headed down to the cafeteria where I met up with Zatanna and the members of teams RWBY and JNPR for lunch. I ate quickly and left soon after, not seeing much reason in hanging around. Zatanna had made fast friends with members of both teams and seemed to be enjoying herself, but I had more important things to be doing today.
My next destination was the library. I returned the books I’d borrowed the day before, collected about a dozen new tomes that looked promising or had been recommended to me, and headed back to my room to read and duplicate my new acquisitions. My bag was rapidly starting to fill up with books, something that pleased me to no end. The library of my home would someday rival and surpass the greatest repositories of knowledge known to wizard-kind. Books, scrolls, and tablets gathered from countless planes collected under my roof; the mere thought of it made me giddy.
Soon however, it was time to go. I reluctantly closed the latest text that had caught my interest––a treatise on aura-plating written by a long-dead soldier––and headed to the room that Ozpin had selected for us.
I was not the first to arrive, but neither was I the last. Ozpin was already there, as was an uncomfortable-looking teenage boy with orange hair wearing a crisp white shirt and pants. He was fiddling with his collar and constantly looking around the room, his foot tapping out a frantic rhythm against the floor.
Kent arrived scarcely a minute after I did. A glowing ankh appeared by the door and he stepped out of it, nearly making the boy fall as he stumbled backwards in surprise. Ozpin’s cane shot up and tapped the boy’s back, stopping him before he could crack his skull open on the hardwood floor.
Glynda was the last to arrive, bringing with her the other volunteer that Ozpin had selected. To my surprise, that volunteer turned out to be Blake, who looked equally surprised to see me sitting beside Ozpin quietly discussing the finer points of his method of spatial manipulation.
“Hydrys? What are you doing here?” Blake asked. She turned to Glynda, “I thought I was supposed to meet with some kind of special consultant.”
“Indeed, that would be him,” Glynda confirmed.
Ozpin smiled. “I thought you might be more comfortable working with someone familiar, and a first-year student will give us an excellent baseline to work from.”
I shrugged. “I’m fine with it. As long as you’re happy to use up one of your three slots.” After Raven had confirmed that the process worked, I’d agreed to enhance four more huntsmen of Ozpin’s choice. I simply didn’t have enough time or mana for more than that. Collecting more Blueprints would have been nice, but four skilled huntsmen and huntresses was already a good number. One of those had been Glynda. Ozpin had intended for himself to be another, but that didn’t work out.
“I am.” He pitched his voice so it would carry across the room. “Miss Belladonna has so far proven herself to be a skilled and trustworthy student. I have high hopes of working with her more closely in the future.”
Blake didn’t audibly react to the Headmaster’s words, but I could see that she’d heard them nonetheless. Her back straightened slightly and a new note of confidence entered her stride.
“Fair enough. Well, I think this is everyone. Let’s get started?”
“Indeed. I would like to get back to work as soon as possible,” Kent added.
“Of course. Then let's begin with Mr. Magin here so he and you can both be on your way.”
Ozpin directed the boy to stand near the center of the room and Kent and I both swiftly cast a number of perception and analysis spells on ourselves. Once we were both ready, Ozpin set a hand on the boy’s head and took a deep breath.
The man’s aura flared, green light flowing around him and slowly expanding from his body. His voice was firm and dripped with emotion and power. “For it is in determination that we achieve success. Through this, we become a paragon of light and humanity to rise above her. Infinite in death and unbound by time, I release your soul, and by my power, condemn thee.”
I watched with keen interest as Ozpin’s aura reached out towards and flowed into the boy. It filled his body, thin tendrils brushing against the barely visible wisps that made up the core of his very being.
Then there was a shift and what had just moments before been a silvery wisp became a shining furnace. Ozpin’s aura vanished in an instant, pushed out of the boy’s body as sunset-orange aura flared to life and rushed like floodwaters from his soul to fill the space that Ozpin’s aura had opened up.
Kent hummed thoughtfully. “Fascinating.”
I nodded in agreement. “That’s not quite how Glynda did it to me. She wasn’t as thorough. Ozpin’s method is better, I think. I bet the boy will have an easier time picking up the basics than most people.”
Kent clicked his tongue. “As interesting as this was, I’m afraid it wasn’t quite as helpful as I’d hoped. I must return to my work.”
And just like that, he was gone through another ankh. I didn’t even have a chance to say goodbye. When Kent got invested in a project, he really knew how to focus on it to the exclusion of everything else.
I took a few more minutes to examine the boy’s newly awakened aura, and then he was sent on his way and it was time for the second part of today’s demonstrations. For that however, we needed to relocate. This training room was considered state of the art, but I was interested in seeing how huntsmen operated and for that we needed slightly less controlled conditions.
Thus, the four of us left Beacon and headed down into the vast forest that surrounded the plateau on which the Academy had been built. Along the way, Glynda explained to Blake what would be happening while Ozpin and I continued our conversation from before.
The plan was simple. We were going to find some Grimm. If they were a species I’d yet to obtain a blueprint for, we would subdue it and I’d take care of that. Otherwise, Blake would be given the opportunity to show off her huntress skills in front of her combat teacher and Headmaster.
After Blake had fought a few Grimm, we’d pause, I would collect a Blueprint, empower her using the Memorial, and then we’d find some more Grimm for her to fight to see how much she’d improved.
The Emerald forest was home to plenty of Grimm, so finding them shouldn’t be an issue. However, the more dangerous Grimm were frequently culled by upperclassmen and professors, so with Glynda and Ozpin there none of us would ever be in any real danger.
Everything went off without a hitch. The first Grimm we encountered was a Boarbatusk, a boar-like Grimm that was common in the forest. I’d already obtained such a blueprint, so we let Blake kill it and moved on. Two Nevermore, a Beowolf, and another Boarbatusk were likewise taken care of in short order.
Watching Blake fight was an interesting experience. Her weapon was an odd mix of a sword, gun, and scythe on a chain. It seemed like an impractical combination, but she made it work, fluidly changing between forms and attacking the Grimm from angles that they clearly did not expect.
What stood out to me however was her semblance. Blake could create fragile copies of herself that emerged from her body and propelled her in various directions, granting her an impressive level of mobility beyond that of an ordinary huntress of her strength and speed. The copies could also take or land at least one hit and she dispatched both Nevermores with precise strikes from the copies’ weapons.
It was a very interesting ability, one that Blake clearly had years of experience utilizing. She and her copies moved together seamlessly and her trick of creating them mid-air to change directions was very clever. It wasn’t flight, but she’d manage to launch herself quite high up into the air when necessary without the typical loss of control that occurred when a combatant’s limbs all left the ground.
Eventually, we found a small clearing and Glynda used her semblance to create a small raised table for Blake to lie down on. Like Glynda, it took her several minutes to get comfortable enough to lower her aura and relax, something that was no doubt helped by the way her teacher simply swatted a pair of Ursa that wandered too close to us. She flicked her riding crop and the two Grimm burst into smoke in an instant. Boy was I happy to have a Blueprint of her and Raven.
This time, the process took significantly less time than it had with Raven and Glynda. Collecting Blake’s Blueprint took a mere handful of minutes, and augmenting her was another one or two on top of that.
After that, we gave her a few minutes to adjust while I studied the Blueprint I’d collected. I’d known that the bow in her hair seemed off. She was a Faunus, not a human. No wonder she’d been so invested in her people’s rights. It was a surprisingly effective disguise, though perhaps I simply had no reason to wonder why she might be concealing her identity. It was hard to say one way or another.
The next half hour passed quickly. We once again did not encounter any new Grimm, not that I’d really expected that we would. Blake was clearly faster and stronger than she’d been before, and not by an insignificant margin. It was taking her some time to adjust to that increase of strength, but she was clearly enjoying its effects.
It was towards the end of our excursion that something interesting happened. The goal of watching Blake butcher Grimm had been for me to see how huntsmen of a more comparable skill-level to me used their aura in combat. It was certainly educational, but I’d grown rather distracted by watching Blake’s semblance instead. Something about it seemed very interesting and resonated with me. It was not an ability I could replicate with wand magic, nor any of the other disciplines I’d learned. Perhaps it was possible to do something similar with Order magic? I would have to speak with Kent on the matter.
And then, as I continued to watch her fight with a particularly large Ursa, it happened. Something clicked and my Spark pulsed as a new Blueprint slotted into place. My eyes widened even as Blake dispatched the Ursa with a sweep of her sword.
I’d just gotten a Blueprint from Blake’s semblance. Something I hadn’t even realized was possible. This…this had possibilities.