A Song of Ice and Fire Cut Short by Dust (RWBY in Westeros)

[ATP]

Thanks for chapter !
Marwyn is here,and with his help they would get list of places with magic in Essoss.Problem is - nobody there supposed to have magic capable of sending people to other worlds.
With possible exception of Yeen,but people in those ruins simply vanish after living there longer then few weeks - which mean,that ruins could simply somehow eat them.

Or send to place which eat them.Or ,at best,to random place,not RWBY world.
Problem is - nor RWBY,not anybody in Essoss had that kind of knowledge.

Melee - good fight for 20.000 dragons - excellent idea.

 

[eager slacker]

Marwyn wouldn't really be disappointed to hear that the team doesn't know of magic because what's natural and normal to them is basically magic to Westeros. Trains being run by ore or fuel might as well be magic to Westeros and until the technological innovations get made whatever is given might as well be magic. Hell if anyone sees them fighting "for real" the only logical explanation is that they are magic or blessed which is just magic but with god being your backer.

 

[Ultimasaurus Imperatrix]

Someone over an alternate history brought up the fact that we haven't gotten to see the girls react to the dragon skulls, and the red keep.

 

[Starfox5]

Chapter 13: The Hand's Tourney

'I've mentioned before how much esteem knights held in this era - the chivalric ideals were, if seldom upheld when it might have been inconvenient for the various nobles, almost always paid lip service to. And tournaments both benefited from this reverence of knightly valour as well as reinforced the myth of the knight as a noble defender of all that was just and holy. That aside, tournaments also were the highlights of most people's lives. Even the small, regular events were likely to be the most important festivals in a year - or even a season. The grander affairs, such as the Tourney at Harrenhal, also known as Lord Whent's Great Tournament, were talked about amongst both smallfolk and nobility for years afterwards - and not merely amongst those who had to pay for them. In fact, that tournament would have left its mark at least in contemporary history even without the crucial events that took place there and resulted in Robert's Rebellion. So, it should not be a surprise that the Hand's Tourney was bound to draw the attention of the entire realm even before the news of the Ruby Order's arrival spread. Of course, it should go without saying that many expected the Order to participate - an expectation founded, like so many theses today, on a misunderstanding of the situation due to a lack of information, although, in light of the views and society at the time, a quite understandable misunderstanding.'

• A Treatise On The Ruby Order, by Maester Kennet Bracken

*****​

Outside King's Landing, Crownlands, Westeros, 298 AC

Brienne Tarth kept her head high and her eyes looking ahead as she walked through the tent city that had sprung up around the site of the Hand's Tourney outside King's Landing. She wanted to let her eyes roam, take in the sight of so many people from all over the Seven Kingdoms, look at all the banners flapping in the soft breeze, but if she did that, she'd also see the people staring at her.

Stare and whisper behind her back - or, if they were particularly cruel or bold, call out to her with a sneer or jeer. She had heard it all before. None of those who mocked her were as witty as they thought they were. And none of them would face her, should she demand satisfaction.

Not that she would. A knight was to be just and brave, to defend the young and innocent. And all women. They were not supposed to fight for petty reasons or out of spite.

Her fingers tightened around the grip of her sword. She was no knight, and would never be, being a woman, but you did not have to be knighted to follow the oaths of chivalry. She would…

"Hey, look at that beauty!"

She tensed, clenching her teeth and kept staring ahead. Brienne the Beauty, they called her when they wanted to be particularly cruel and were too cowardly to show their scorn openly. As if anyone would think they were honest when calling her a beauty - she knew she was ugly, with her broken nose, coarse face and crooked teeth, and her body was strong but not graceful - or womanly. But…

"Come on, girl! I've got money."

Brienne gasped and whirled around. Call her a whore? That was too far! She wouldn't stand for that slander, and…

She froze when she realised that the drunk man - a knight from the Riverlands, though she could not quite remember which house - had not been calling out to her but to a girl with a wild mane of blonde hair who had just turned and was now approaching him.

"Did you just call me a whore?"

The girl's tone left no doubt that she had taken offence at the insinuation.

"I called you what you are!" The knight laughed, put down the wineskin he had been drinking from, and reached out to grab her.

Brienne quickened her steps and opened her mouth to call out the lout before he forced himself on the girl. "Hold, Ser! You…"

She trailed off, gaping, when she saw the girl slap the knight's grasping hands away and grab him by his neck and belt, then lift him over her head as if he weighed nothing.

A moment later, the man flew through the air, hitting the packed dirt several paces away with enough force to bounce once before coming to a stop with a pained groan.

"Watch your tongue, asshole!" the girl spat, dusting off her hands. "Next time, you'll lose your balls!"

"You! I'll…" The knight tried to stand but bent over with a groan instead - and then vomited on the ground.

The girl snorted, then turned to glare at the knight's companions. "Anyone else volunteering to help me improve my YangTime?"

Her what? Brienne blinked, feeling as confused as the men looked. Though the threat was clear enough, and they cowered under the girl's gaze.

"Thought so." She scoffed again and turned away.

And Brienne realised who she was. "Lady Yang Xiao Long!"

The girl - the noblewoman, looked at her. "That's me!"

Brienne smiled and bowed her head. "Brienne Tarth." She should have recognised the woman at once - she looked exactly like Lord Renly had described her.

"Ah, Lord Renly's friend, right?"

Lord Renly had mentioned her to Team Ruby, as their group was called? Was that why he had sent Brienne a letter telling her to attend the tourney? "I would not presume to call myself his friend; he is my liege," she replied.

"Right." Lady Yang nodded.

Brienne couldn't help looking at her clothes. Lord Renly had not embellished her garb either - exotic was an understatement. The woman wore what looked like her smallclothes under a half-skirt, and her leggings didn't reach above her thighs. Though her gauntlets were of the finest quality - much better than Brienne's slightly dented steel armour.

She tore her gaze away. "Did… Did Lord Renly mention me to you?" she asked without thinking - the woman had already said so.

"Oh, yes. You're one of the few women who can fight in Westeros," Lady Yang replied. "Arya - Lady Arya Stark - pestered him all evening about you when she heard that."

"Oh." Brienne blushed. "I did train with the sword, yes," she said. A knight was supposed to be humble.

"Nice!" Lady Yang grinned. "Are you gonna fight in the tourney?"

"I am considering it," Brienne replied. "Are you going to take part?"

"In a special competition." Lady Yang chuckled. "Wouldn't be quite fair otherwise, because…"

"You whore! Die!"

Brienne drew her sword and whirled, but before she could step into the charging Riverlander's path, Lady Yang had already moved.

The knight was flying upwards and back in the blink of an eye - propelled into the air by a kick from Lady Yang. A kick that, as Brienne realised, had hit the man between his legs with enough force to send him flipping head over heels through the air twice before coming down.

"Now, that's a good YangTime!"

So, that was what it meant. Brienne made a note to remember it.

"So, where are you headed?" Lady Yang asked as if she hadn't demonstrated strength beyond anyone except, perhaps, the Mountain.

"Ah, I was about to look for Lord Renly. I was told he was at the training yard set up here," Brienne replied.

"Ah? Come on, it's this way! Let's see if we can catch a few good knights training."

Before she realised it, Brienne was walking through the camp at the side of Lady Yang, who was chatting with her as if they were friends.

*****​

"...and have you met the King, by the way? He's great! He created a whole event for us since it'd be unfair if we fought in the grand melee, and none of us can ride well enough to joust. Oh! Are you hungry? Let me fetch some flatbread! Be right back!"

Brienne blinked when Lady Yang grinned and headed over to a food stall. "You mentioned before that it would be unfair if you took part in the melee," she said when she joined the noblewoman.

"Yeah. We - Team Ruby - would decide the winner amongst ourselves if we took part." Lady Yang nodded, then smiled at the vendor. "Two flatbreads with beef, please! Ah… this one and that one!" She pointed at two seemingly at random on the grill. As soon as the vendor handed them over, she passed one to Brienne. "Just what you need after a light workout!"

"Thank you, my lady," Brienne replied, eyeing the bread a moment before taking a bite. It tasted like any other she had had before.

They walked on, Lady Yang quickly devouring the bread. The vendor hadn't asked for payment, Brienne realised. Of course, a woman so close to the King might have taken it as an insult, but… She glanced around. The smallfolk were staring at them - at Lady Yang. Some with what looked like awe, others with fear.

"You are well-known," she said between two bites.

Lady Yang nodded, then swallowed. "Yep! We made an impression when we helped out with construction." She grinned widely, but Brienne didn't get whatever joke she had made. It didn't seem to be aimed at her, though.

"You helped with construction?" she asked.

"Yep. It was a decent workout."

"So, is it true that no blade can hurt you?" She had heard the rumours, but they had seemed far too wild to be trusted,

"Want to take a swing and find out?"

Brienne narrowed her eyes. "Do you wish to spar?"

"Yes, but that wasn't the question." Lady Yang chuckled. "But you're right. If it's my head against a sword, my head will win!"

Before Brienne could think of a polite way to challenge that boast, the noblewoman turned and pointed ahead. "And here we are! You were right, Lord Renly's here. Ser Loras is training."

Oh. Brienne straightened and looked around. Being taller than all but a handful of men, she easily spotted Lord Renly in the training area, watching Ser Loras spar with a burly Stormlander knight she dimly remembered having met a few years before.

Lady Yang was headed straight for him, and Brienne took a deep breath as they approached, trying to word a proper greeting that wouldn't result in her making a fool out of her in front of her liege.

"Lord Renly! I brought Lady Brienne!" Yang called out.

And he turned, a smile lighting up his handsome face. "Lady Yang!" Then he saw Brienne, and her heart felt as if it skipped a beat when he smiled at her. "Lady Brienne! You came!"

"You called for me, my lord," Brienne replied, bowing her head to hide her slight blush. Lord Renly was just… He was so handsome, so gallant - and he treated her like she was… He treated her with respect and kindness.

"Indeed."

"Oh, you're Lady Brienne Tarth?"

Brienne looked up - then down. A young girl was beaming at her. And next to her… How had she missed the wolf? She tensed, clenching her teeth when the wolf approached her, sniffing at her calves.

"Nymeria! Heel!"

The wolf chuffed once, cocked its head to the side, then returned to the girl's flank.

"Lady Brienne, this is Lady Arya Stark. Arya, yes, this is Lady Brienne," Lord Renly said. "She's been looking forward to meeting you, Lady Brienne,"

"Yes! I'm going to become a lady knight as well!"

"Girls can't become knights, Arya!" a boy - her slightly younger brother, Brienne realised; he had very similar looks, and they both wore garments with the Stark's direwolf sigil. And he was in the company of another wolf.

Arya huffed. "If the strongest warriors can't be knights just because they're girls that will make a mockery of knighthood!"

"There's more to being a knight than being strong!" Bran shot back.

"Arya! Bran!" Another Stark boy - although older, almost a man grown - said, taking a step forward while a white wolf slunk around behind him. "Behave!"

The two children sulked, but Lord Renly laughed. "They're very passionate about knights. Although Lady Arya is correct - I doubt King Robert would refuse to knight a woman merely because she's no man. Not after getting to know Team Ruby."

"He better not!" Lady Yang said with a grin as she smashed her gauntlets together.

Brienne didn't say anything - what could she say, in this company? Lord Renly was the King's brother and her liege lord. Those were the children of the King's Hand, the lord paramount of the North. And it was obvious that Lady Yang was held in the highest esteem by the King and his family. But she couldn't help smiling at the thought that, maybe, her dream of being a knight might not be as impossible as she had been taught and told all her life.

*****​

The Red Keep, King's Landing, Crownlands, Westeros, 298 AC

"The Royal Library has been tended to by a man of the Faith since its founding!"

"Tended, not controlled. By what right do you dare to block us from using the library?"

Ruby Rose tried not to wince while Archmaester Marwyn and Septon Hernis argued. This was getting embarrassing!

"I do not block you from using the library, Maester…"

"Archmaester!"

"...but that refers to reading books, not treating the library as your own! I am responsible for taking care of the priceless tomes held here, and I will not neglect my duty and let outsiders mishandle them!"

"A likely excuse! You wish to control what information we can access!"

"I would never! I know the library like the back of my hand! It would be pointless to let you waste hours searching a book when I could find it in a heartbeat!"

"And how are we supposed to know which books we need without studying them?"

Ruby bit her lower lip. They just needed a few books, not the whole library! Did it matter who fetched the books they needed?

"As an Archmaester, wouldn't you already know which books you need? The Citadel's library is famous, after all."

Ruby cleared her throat. "What if we don't touch the books and just look at them? You can tell us what each book is about, and we can decide if we need to read it, right?"

Now both men were frowning at her.

"I wouldn't trust this man to tell me the truth about a book containing knowledge about magic!"

"I have many duties; do you expect me to wait hand and foot on you?"

"Yes! What else are you good for as a librarian?"

"This is not how we handle things at court!"

"Well, how about Lady Ruby goes and asks the King about that?" Marwyn bared his teeth at the other man.

Ruby cringed. To go complain to the King? Like… like going to tattle to the teacher? But… "The King has told us that we could use the library."

"That implies that you would use it with my help, my lady."

"Your 'help' is more hindrance! Just stay out of the way!"

"How dare you!"

Ruby shook her head. "We really don't want…"

"We need those books you're trying to hide!"

"I am not hiding any books - I am protecting them from being mishandled! Those books are centuries old!"

"How dare you insult me by claiming I would mishandle books! I've handled more and older books than you ever did!"

"Enough!" Ruby snapped, slamming Crescent Rose's butt into the ground before she realised that she had unfolded her scythe. She felt her cheeks heat up when the men turned to look at her again but straightened and raised her chin. "The King's given us permission to search his library. Archmaester Marwyn has offered us his help, and we're grateful for that. If you want to help us as well, we would also be grateful - and we would be done with it sooner and out of your hair. But letting you do all the work and picking which books we can read won't work." Really, this was getting ridiculous! They just wanted to use the library!

To her surprise, the Septon didn't protest, and Marwyn didn't gloat. Both men were staring at her.

"What?" She asked, wishing she had a mirror. Was there something on her face?

Then she realised that she had cracked the stone beneath her feet with her scythe.

"Oh. Sorry!" She smiled weakly at the two men. "I didn't mean to do that."

Fortunately, neither man called her out on her embarrassing mistake.

*****​

The Red Keep, King's Landing, Crownlands, Westeros, 298 AC

"Your Grace."

"Stannis! Finally decided to stop sulking on Dragonstone and return to court in time for the greatest tourney the realm has ever seen?" The King chuckled and, without letting his younger brother say anything in return, turned to Ruby and her friends. "Ladies! This is my second brother, Stannis! Master of Ships - he commands the Royal Fleet when he's around. Stannis, these are Lady Ruby Rose, her sister, Lady Yang Xiao Long, Lady Weiss Schnee and Lady Blake Belladonna! They're the strongest women you've ever met!"

Ruby eyed the man - Lord Stannis, who was frowning at the King (who had been a bit rude, in her opinion). He looked very serious. And annoyed. He reminded her a bit of Professor Goodwitch - she didn't seem to smile a lot either. He looked similar to the King, though he wasn't fat and he had much less hair, both on his head (he was nearly bald) and on his face.

Then he turned to look at Ruby and her friends, and she smiled at him. "Hello, my lord!"

As her friends greeted him, Lord Stannis bowed his head in return, though he still didn't smile. He seemed to be one of the most gruff men she had met so far. Even worse than that shopkeeper back in Patch who was only happy when he made a sale.

"Don't let their looks fool you, Stannis! Each of the ladies could throw you across the throne room, as Lady Yang recently demonstrated on a man who insulted her!"

"Hey! I didn't throw the knight that far!" Yang protested, though she was grinning.

Ruby frowned at being reminded of that incident. The knight had done more than insulting Yang - he had attacked her! With a weapon! How stupid could you be? She hoped he was an exception and that there wouldn't be more such men. That would really suck.

"So I've been told," Lord Stannis said with a curt nod.

"Do you need a demonstration?" The King laughed and, once again, turned and spoke without giving his brother time to answer. "Lady Ruby, if you were so kind to give us a small demonstration…?"

Oh. Ruby straightened. If the King asked, she better do it. "Of course, Your Grace." She looked around for a suitable target - she wouldn't lift Lord Stannis; that would embarrass them both and probably hurt his honour or something. She could lift a table, but that would annoy everyone currently eating, and that wouldn't be nice. But lifting the side table wouldn't be really impressive - and risk ruining the cakes placed on it. So… Ah!

She activated her Semblance and disappeared, popping up between Weiss and Yang, then grabbed both their chairs and lifted.

"Hey!"

"Ruby!"

"Sorry!" Ruby held them both above her head and smiled at Lord Stannis. Her friends were the best choice for a demonstration - they wouldn't be annoyed or insulted!

"Let us down, you dolt!" Well, except for Weiss…

She set them down again and glanced at Lord Stannis. He didn't seem very impressed. He was staring at them, but he looked more gruff and glaring than surprised.

"I see."

The King laughed. "Bah, you're no fun, Stannis! I expected you to tell me how this is obviously a trick. Did you actually believe my letter?"

"I would never presume that Your Grace would lie to me," Stannis replied, looking offended. Well, more offended.

"Hah!" The King laughed again. "Now come on, take a seat - Boy! More wine! And some for Stannis!"

But instead of joining his brother, Lord Stannis turned around to look at the door behind him. "I have brought a visitor as well."

As if this had been a cue - it probably had been, Ruby realised - a woman appeared in the entrance and slowly walked toward Lord Stannis. A tall woman, though not as tall as Lady Brienne, with long, red - coppery - hair, and pale skin, wearing a bright red dress and a matching choker with a ruby set in it. And a red cloak!

Ruby beamed - the woman obviously had great taste! And red eyes, she realised. She was very beautiful, too.

"Your Grace, this is Melisandre, a red priestess of R'hllor. She hails from Asshai."

Melisandre bowed. "Your Grace." She had a deep and melodic voice. Exotic, Ruby decided.

"Ah!" The King smiled at her. "Welcome at my court, woman. Are you here to spread your faith, like Thoros?"

Melisandre bowed her head. "R'hllor sent me a vision, Your Grace." She turned to look at Ruby and her friends. "A red comet striking a glacier and melting it down to a wave that swept across the land."

Ruby felt a shiver run down her spine when the woman met her eyes and smiled. Those red eyes… She expected the woman to say something, but Melisandre only smiled and then bowed again and sat with Lord Stannis.

But for the entire rest of the meal, Melisandre kept glancing at Ruby and her friends. She didn't say anything, just… sneaked glances. It was a bit unnerving.

*****​

"That woman was a bit weird, wasn't she?" Ruby blurted out as soon as they were back in their room. She didn't even wait for Blake to check for spies. "She kept glancing at us but didn't say anything." Granted, she had been seated a bit too far to make conversation, but still!

Weiss, of course, waited for Blake to check the secret passage and give the all-clear before answering: "She seemed rather interested in us, though that is not entirely uncommon; it's actually surprising that Lord Stannis didn't seem to be as interested as his brothers."

"She's a priestess of that fire god," Yang said.

"R'hllor," Weiss added.

"Yeah, that one. And she has visions from her god that led her here." Yang shrugged. "A comet melting a glacier - I don't think she's talking about Ruby thawing our ice queen."

"What?" Ruby stared at her sister.

"Pardon?" Weiss jumped up. "What are you insinuating?"

Yang grinned. "I'm just saying you've mellowed out a lot since Ruby became your partner."

Oh, right. Ruby nodded. "Yes, that's right!"

Weiss narrowed her eyes at her and at Yang for a moment, then nodded as well. Good!

"You think that this prophecy refers to us fighting the Others," Blake said.

"It would fit, wouldn't it?" Yang shrugged. "We arrived, we kicked their butts."

"We didn't strike like a comet, and they didn't melt," Ruby pointed out.

"Prophecies are usually metaphorical," Blake told her. "It's not a literal comet strike. But if the glacier melting were the Others, then I wonder what the wave sweeping across the land is."

"It sounds far-fetched," Weiss said.

"But she is from Asshai - Marwyn said they have witches there who can work magic." Yang sat down on her bed. "So, she might be able to help us get home."

Ruby nodded - and the woman had style! - but Weiss looked a little doubtful. "Weiss?"

"She said she received visions from her god," Weiss said.

"Yes?" Ruby cocked her head sideways.

Weiss frowned. "I am not certain what could be more problematic: that she is using magic and following the orders of an imaginary god or that she is receiving visions from an actual god that involve us."

Oh. Right, neither sounded like a good thing for Team RWBY.

*****​

The Red Keep, King's Landing, Crownlands, Westeros, 298 AC

"Lady Weiss! We still haven't decided when we'll hold the Battle of the Maidens. Would you mind to opinion on it?"

"Your Grace?" Weiss Schnee smiled widely. It was the least she could do for King, whose library they were still perusing in the hope of finding a way home, and who would be granting a fortune by any measure to her team. And it also granted her an excuse to be late to today's sewing circle with the Queen and her handmaidens as well as whoever amongst the ladies of the court was the unfortunate recipient of a royal invitation. Maybe she should stop for a snack in the great hall more often. "You are debating whether to hold it before or after the joust, I assume."

"Yes, my lady." Lord Tyrion, whose inclusion in the discussion was probably related to him drinking with the King, nodded. "It's mostly a question of how and when we insult the flower of the realm's chivalry."

The King guffawed, and Lord Eddard sighed and said: "While I would not put it so frivolously as Lord Tyrion, I do have to agree that we are faced with a problem. If we hold your contest before the joust, it will overshadow the lists. If we hold it afterwards, some of the more prickly knights might feel that it is considered the main event of the tourney."

"It is the main event!" The King cut in. "A battle the likes of which none have ever seen - and none will see for a long time after!"

Weiss couldn't help reconsidering the team's decision to participate in the battle. Certainly, the gold they would receive - no matter who won, the gold would go to the team - would grant them the financial independence they needed. That was more obvious with every day they spent at court. But she was more than a little concerned about showing off in front of so many people. Even without using more of their already low Dust supply, going all-out, as the King expected, would mean using their Semblances. With the exception of Ruby, they had kept those a secret so far. But the team - Ruby and Yang - had argued that it wouldn't be honourable to take so much gold without fighting to the best of their abilities. Weiss, with Blake's support, had only been able to successfully argue that they might need Dust to return home. Really, Ruby and Yang might be spending a bit too much time with the Stark children, in Weiss's opinion.

But the men at the table expected an answer. "I believe it would be better to hold the battle at the end of the tourney. Some might feel insulted, but others might dismiss us as an afterthought, and it should make the other events run more smoothly."

"Well said, Lady Weiss!" the Prince smiled at her. "It's what I argued."

The King laughed. "Yes, and Ned can't argue that it's dishonourable - we do reserve the place of honour for the main event; if some knights are too stupid to understand it, that's on them!"

Lord Eddard sighed again. "It does seem that there is no solution that will not result in problems."

"Welcome to ruling the realm, Ned!"

"As long as we pick the least bad solution, that's not a problem, right, Father?"

"Yes, Boy."

The trick was finding the least bad solution, of course. But Weiss didn't see any need to argue that.

"I am looking very much forward to seeing you battling without holding back, Lady Weiss," the Prince addressed her. "As impressive as your training sessions are, nothing compares to a real battle."

His smile was a bit too eager for Weiss's taste. But he was a boy who had never fought in a real battle. He didn't really understand what it entailed. "We will fight without holding back, but we will still stop before people get hurt."

He frowned briefly at that. "But how do you determine who has won then?"

"We will yield when we know we're beaten, of course," she replied. "Like in the melee, I believe."

"Few knights yield while they can still fight," he retorted with a pout.

"That is their prerogative," she said. "But we're used to fighting like that. It will be an impressive display, I promise you that." They would need quite a large safety zone. "But the risks of not stopping when the fight is decided are too great given our power."

"Even though you can quickly recover from wounds that would kill anyone else?"

Apparently, one of the others had let slip something again, and the Prince had picked it up. Weiss nodded. "We are very hard to hurt, but we are not invulnerable. And," she added with a smile, "we're friends. We don't like to hurt each other."

"Yes!" The King laughed at that and slapped Lord Eddard on the shoulder. "Friends don't fight friends - but they do knock them around in the training yard, right, Ned?"

The Prince nodded, although Weiss felt it was a bit reluctantly. He really was naive with regard to fighting. She hoped he would never have to find out what it was like. Then again, a future King who knew nothing about the cost of battles might not be a good thing either… But that was a topic for another day; she had a sewing circle to attend.

*****​

"Lady Weiss. Late again," the Queen greeted her with her usual scowl as Weiss entered her quarters.

"I am terribly sorry, Your Grace," Weiss lied with a smile. "I was asked to help plan the tournament by your husband the King." She didn't have to add 'and he outranks you'; the Queen heard it anyway.

But next to the ladies-in-waiting of the Queen already familiar to Weiss, another noblewoman - or a girl; she was very beautiful, but not even her expert makeup and perfectly styled dress could hide that she looked about as old as Ruby - was sitting, apparently with her own lady-in-waiting next to her.

The Queen waited a moment longer than would have been polite before introducing her. "Lady Margaery, this is Lady Weiss. Lady Weiss, Lady Margaery Tyrell."

"Ah, we finally meet, Lady Weiss!" the girl said as Weiss curtsied. "Although I hoped to meet your friends as well."

"Lady Ruby, Lady Yang and Lady Blake are, unfortunately, kept away by their various duties," Weiss replied as she took a seat of her own.

The Queen scoffed rather audibly, which caused Lady Margaery to raise her eyebrows in apparent if brief confusion, though everyone else knew better than to comment on the fact that the Queen had stopped inviting Ruby and the others. Weiss still wasn't quite certain why she had not been treated the same - she certainly hadn't kept her own opinion of the Queen a secret, although she had kept a polite facade for appearance's sake.

"You're Ser Loras's sister, right?" Weiss said. "He mentioned you were travelling here for the tourney." And she had expected the knight to introduce them.

"Yes." Lady Margaery smiled earnestly. "I am looking forward to seeing him in the joust. He is the best rider I know, and I hope he will be the tourney's champion."

"I wouldn't know; I hardly know anything about riding or jousting," Weiss replied. "Although he does cut a very dashing figure when he trains." Lady Sansa liked to go off about it, too, but Weiss knew better than to mention that - there would be rumours started within the hour about Lady Sansa cheating on her fiancé.

"As his sister, I am obviously biased, but I agree." Lady Margaery giggled softly. "Whoever he ends up marrying will be very happy, I believe."

Weiss nodded, her smile growing a slightly bit more polite. "I have no doubt of that."

"Of course, so would any man you'd marry, my lady."

"You flatter me," Weiss replied. That again. Was every noble she met trying to propose a betrothal to her? Lady Maegary was more subtle about it than most, but Weiss could see the signs.

"Unlike whoever ends up marrying Lady Brienne," another lady-in-waiting cut in with a slight sneer.

"Really?" Weiss frowned at the woman. "Why would you say that?" She was grateful for the interruption, but she wouldn't let that stop her from telling the woman just what she thought about her odious barb. Lady Brienne might not be a model, but she was an earnest young woman who would make whoever was not as superficial as to care only about appearances very happy. Besides, she was plain, but a bit of advice and some makeup, and maybe some styling help, could go a long way.

"Ah… have you seen her?"

"I consider her a friend, my lady." Weiss bared her teeth. "And so does Lord Renly."

Yes, maybe she should ask Lady Brienne if she wanted some advice about cosmetics.

*****​

Outside King's Landing, Crownlands, Westeros, 298 AC

This was very good fried fish! Blake Belladonna took another bite from the snack she had bought from the vendor Bran had recommended and savoured the taste. Indeed, this more than justified the detour she had taken on the way back to the city from the tourney's training area. She should have bought two, actually.

She stopped, taking another bite, and looked over her shoulder. If she turned around and headed back, she would probably finish her snack just before reaching the vendor. It would delay her return to the keep even more, but… It was really good fried fish. The best she had eaten in the city so far. "Worth it," she mumbled past the next bite and turned around.

She took a different route back, though. There had been another row of tents raised today, more people arriving to either compete in the tourney or hawk their wares - and services - to the knights and spectators, and she could take a look at the new lane formed.

She didn't recognise the sigils on the various banners planted next to the entrances, but she tried to remember them anyway, just in case - you never knew when even seemingly unimportant information could come in handy. Her time in the White Fang had taught her that.

So… She frowned. She did recognise that sigil. Three dogs - brrr!. That was the sigil of House Clegane; the Prince had shown it to them once, even though his sworn sword never wore it.

Which meant the large tent with the two guards in front who were giving her the evil eye must belong to another Clegane - and she only knew about one, the Hound's brother. Ser Gregor Clegane, The Mountain That Rides.

She had heard a lot about the man, mainly because everyone seemed to compare Team RWBY's strength to his, whether they had met the man in question or not. And she hadn't heard many good things about him, not even from Lord Tyrion, whose father was the knight's liege. Then again, she knew how someone's reputation could be deceptive, both for good or ill, and she was aware she shouldn't judge people based on rumours.

Still, the way those guards were sneering at her wasn't making her think that the knight's bad reputation was undeserved; you could tell a lot about someone by checking what kind of people they employed.

Although she would have expected the guards to have done something else than glaring at her by now - and why were they glaring at her, anyway? She had never met them or their lord before. Of course, the Hound didn't like her or her team, but she knew he positively loathed his brother. Would he still complain to him about her? She didn't think so.

So why were they glaring at her? If her partner had been here, then she would have sauntered over to the tent's entrance to ask them what their problem was - and likely start a fight in the process - but Blake wasn't Yang.

Instead, she continued walking, slowly, and focused on what she could hear from the tent's interior. The whole camp was a cacophony of noise, which made it hard to listen in to any conversation at a distance. Hard but not impossible.

But she only heard some… groaning?

She stopped and cocked her head. It sounded as if someone was in pain. And given the man's reputation… She clenched her teeth. Time to act like her partner, then.

She quickly swallowed the rest of her snack and walked over to the tent. Both men tensed when they saw her approach, another bad sign. "You seem to have a problem with me," she told them without greeting them.

They glanced at each other, then at the flap hiding the tent's interior from view, before looking back at her. "No," the one on the right said. "We don't have a problem, my lady."

The groaning had stopped. But Blake was committed now. "You were glaring at me as if you wanted to attack me," she said.

"We mistook you for someone else," the other guard said. "My lady," he added belatedly.

"Oh? There's someone else who looks like me?" Blake channelled a bit more of her partner as she flashed a smile at them. "Who is it? I think I want to meet that person."

"Ah…" Again, the two glanced at each other, though this time, they were glaring.

And Blake picked up heavy footsteps from the tent. A moment later, the flap was pushed to the side, and a huge man appeared in the entrance. He almost filled the entire space - he was bigger than Adam's Lieutenant.

Not big enough to hide the empty tent behind him, though. So, he had been the one who had been groaning. And she caught some white film on his lips - he had just drunk some… Not milk, something else. She sniffed the air but couldn't place the smell.

"Who're you?" the giant asked.

"She's Lady Blake, Ser," the guard said. "The one…" He cringed and stopped when Clegane growled at him and balled his hands into fists.

Blake had been about to blame the guards for her presence, but this changed things. "I was curious," she said. "I've met your brother and recognised the sigil."

He sneered, baring yellowish teeth. "You're the witch who claims to be stronger than I am."

She frowned in return. "I am no witch."

"Ser!" the guard tried again. "Lord Tyrion said…"

The giant backhanded the man without looking, catching him in the face and sending him to the ground in a boneless heap with teeth and blood splattering against the tent behind him.

"Are you crazy?" she gasped, taking a step back and reaching for Gambol Shroud's hilt.

He chuckled, his mouth opening into a smile. Definitely crazy.

The other guard had moved behind Clegane's back to reach his fallen partner. "Joff!" He grabbed the man's head, and Blake was bout to call out not to move the man, in case he had spinal injuries, when she caught a glimpse of the man's eyes.

They were staring at nothing, and his expression was frozen. Dead.

"Joff!"

"You killed him," she whispered. The rumours had been correct - Clegane was a monster!

Clegane chuckled again - and started laughing at her.

"Joff!"

They had drawn a crowd, though everyone kept their distance, Blake realised.

"He's dead," she said, loud enough to carry to the crowd. "Ser Gregor murdered him."

The giant stopped laughing and glared at her, breathing heavily - she wrinkled her nose at the stench of his breath. "He disobeyed me."

"That's no reason to murder a man!" she spat. Not even Adam would have done that.

He scoffed.

She glanced at the crowd. None of them looked like they were about to step in. Very well. "Call the gold cloaks!" she yelled. "There has been a murder!"

For a moment, no one reacted. Then she saw someone turning away and calling out for guards.

And Clegane roared and charged her.

He was fast, very fast, for someone his size, but not fast enough. Not nearly fast enough. She ducked beneath his swing and slid between legs as thick as her torso, drawing Gambol Shroud as she jumped to her feet behind him. "Surrender!" she called out.

He whirled, lashing out with a kick as he turned, and she jumped over his leg, then twisted in the air, flipping over to drive her heels into his face.

Blood flew as he stumbled back, seemingly shocked, and she landed nimbly on her feet. "Surrender!" she repeated herself, pointing her blade at him. "You are unarmed and unarmoured!"

He grabbed the sword of the fallen guard and charged her again.

Enough was enough. She met his blade with Gambol Shroud, twisting her weapon to parry his swing in that seemingly effortless way Ser Barristan had taught them, then stepped into his reach and kicked him in the stomach.

He stumbled back, then bent over, spitting white vomit and bile on the ground, and Blake clenched her teeth in disgust when the sour smell reached her nostrils. "Whore!" he snarled, looking at her with rolling eyes above his bleeding, broken nose and split lips.

What was it with those insults? Blake scoffed and lunged. It was time to end this before someone else got hurt.

He tried to hit her, but she dodged his first swing by sidestepping it, then jumped over his backswing and hit him in the face with Gambol Shroud's sheath, hard enough to stagger a beowulf.

He was no beowulf - he was already falling when she landed on his back and drove him into the ground, face first.

For a moment, the crowd was silent, staring at her as if she was the monster. Then the yelling started and didn't stop even after the gold cloaks finally arrived to take Clegane into custody.

*****​

Outside King's Landing, Crownlands, Westeros, 298 AC

"Whoo! Go, Jon! Show them how to fight!" Yang Xiao Long cheered loudly and waved when she spotted Jon in his armour - with a new breastplate wrought by Mott's apprentice - standing at the edge of the battleground, between two knights in slightly rusted armour. He saluted her with his sword.

Then she waved at the armoured figure standing a dozen knights apart from Jon, easy to spot since she towered over almost everyone. "Smash them into the ground, Brienne!" Brienne saluted her as well.

"You're making a spectacle," Weiss commented from her left side.

"So? A tourney is meant to be a spectacle!" Yang replied. The people here certainly needed it, what with having no scrolls, no TV, not even ancient radio.

"Just an observation." Weiss didn't really sound annoyed, even though the row of noblewomen behind them were tittering. Well, except for Lady Margaery and her friends.

"Whoo! Go, Jon! Go, Brienne!" Ruby, standing on Weiss's other side, was also going all-out, as expected. Weiss didn't say anything to her, though - as Ruby's partner, she would know it wouldn't do anything. She beamed at Weiss and Yang. "This is so exciting!"

Yang nodded. Everyone was fired up. Most of the audience was cheering their hearts out. Not the nobles, though. "Certainly more exciting than the archery contest."

"The archers have shown impressive skills," Weiss said.

"Yeah, but, you know, bows and arrows just lack a gun's yang." Yang grinned when Weiss rolled her eyes, and Ruby giggled.

She glanced to her right side. Blake had been quiet so far. Probably trying not to draw any more attention - the court had made a big fuss about her knocking out that Mountain creep. Some of the nobles seemed to think that Blake arresting the guy was worse than the guy murdering one of his own guards.

Well, the King would hold a trial after the tourney, and the creep would be locked up in the dungeons until then, so Yang wasn't really worried. Their upcoming team battle would make a much bigger splash, anyway.

A trumpet sounded - the signal to begin!

In the battleground, the participants turned on their neighbours at once. Jon had to fend off two knights ganging up on him, and only quick footwork saved him from getting brained as he circled around one while giving ground to the other so they would hinder each other.

Brienne was under attack by three - no, two; she had just smashed one down with a quick combination that left the guy unmoving on the ground.

"Cowards!" Yang yelled. "Ganging up on our friends?"

"I believe that is the reason they are ganging up on Jon and Brienne," Weiss commented.

"What?" Yang didn't spare her a glance; she was focused on Jon disarming his first opponent - he had watched Ser Barristan as well - but getting hit in the back and sent stumbling. "Coward!" But Jon's new chestplate held. And might have saved him from a broken back.

"It's allowed in melee," Blake said. "But I think Weiss is right - they are going after our friends. Either to get at us or because they think they are a bigger threat than they are because of us."

"Oh." That made sense. And Jon recovered. He whirled, deflected another attack with his shield and lunged, striking at the other knight's shin. His opponent snapped his shield down, and Jon hit him in the face with his shield.

Yang cheered - she had shown him that move!

"Go, Brienne!" Ruby yelled. "Go, Jon!"

"The ranks are thinning," Weiss commented. "The easy opponents are already down."

Jon was facing a knight in fancy armour now. Rich - and experienced. Not as experienced as a Kingsguard, though. And… No, not as talented as Jon. Jon quickly started to drive the man back with a series of sharp, quick blows that had him struggling to cope. His footwork was suffering as well, and… there was an opening! And Jon used it! His sword struck the man's helmet, and he went down.

Jon placed the tip of his training sword at the man's gorget, then retreated.

"He yielded," Blake stated the obvious.

"Good. Even if Jon is eliminated now, that knight's ransom should be enough to pay his own armour's ransom and leave a profit," Weiss added.

Yang snorted.

Brienne, meanwhile, had smashed two more knights down, but now three were ganging up on her again. And those were more skilled than the ones at the start. And they were working together as if they had done that before.

Yang narrowed her eyes. That was… "That's cheating!" she spat. "They must have planned that!"

Brienne was surrounded and no matter who she faced, she'd leave an opening. Her armour was sporting new dents, and Yang winced - those would be nasty bruises. She couldn't keep this up for long.

Brienne had realised that as well. She suddenly charged ahead and tackled the one in front of her. He was smashed into the ground, with her on top. Brienne used the opportunity to land two quick blows with her gauntlets on his head - like Yang would have done! - before rolling off him and to the side. That meant a blow aimed at her back landed on the unconscious knight's chest, and Brienne reached out and grabbed the blade with her fist before he could draw back.

A quick tug of war later, the man had lost his sword, and Brienne advanced on him. A few blows left his shield battered and out of position, followed by a body blow that sent him staggering back a few steps before he fell to his knees, raising his hands in defeat.

But the attack had left Brienne too open, and the third knight struck her in the legs from behind, and she collapsed. She managed to roll around and avoid another strike, but when she tried to get up, her leg gave out. She managed to parry two more blows, but it was obvious… Oh! Another knight stepped in to face the coward and made short work of him. Yang cheered.

But Brienne was still unable to stand, and her saviour turned to face her, pointing his sword at her. She yielded and Yang booed. "No, Brienne!"

"No, Jon!" Ruby yelled, followed by Arya and Bran, and Yang turned to watch,

Jon was in a bad situation. He had lost his shield and was barely fending off the blows of a taller knight in heavy armour who slowly but surely was pushing him back. Yang looked around, but there were too few knights left and none of them were about to intervene.

Jon was good, but his opponent was better, and Yang winced when he caught a blow to the side that sent him stumbling, then another on the shoulder that made him drop his sword and yield.

"He gave a good showing," Weiss said. "He was amongst the last ten to stand. Better than expected. Brienne as well."

"And both will be lucky to stand tomorrow, with all the bruises they collected," Blake said.

Yang nodded and watched the last four - three - knights standing as they faced each other.

"Vacuan standoff," Ruby commented. "Whoever attacks first is likely to get ganged up on."

"Only if they're not good enough to pull a surprise attack off," Yang disagreed.

And as if they had heard her, one of the knights dashed forward, striking at one of his opponents, then whirling and catching the second right when that one tried to flank him, landing a hammer blow on the man's sword arm.

But his first opponent was fast enough to attack before the knight could turn and struck with a combination of blows that smashed his shield to the side and left him open for a blow to the head. The knight didn't recover from that and went down after a few more blows to the body, and the audience - including the nobles - cheered as he fell down and yielded.

Yang cheered as well. It wasn't as exciting or fast as a sparring match at Beacon, but it had been a sight. "Let's go check on our friends," she said.

"Yes!" Ruby turned. "Are you coming as well?" she asked Bran and Arya.

"With Lord Eddard's permission," Weiss commented with a frown that had all three blush a little and made Yang snicker.

But Lord Eddard nodded, and so all of them were off to congratulate their friends. And to console them if needed - Jon probably was brooding already, thinking he had disappointed his family and friends even though he had been doing very well, especially for a boy his age.

*****​

 

[Starfox5]

So they knew that despite how strong team RWBY claimed themselves to be, they can be defeated.

Click to shrink...

Kind of.

Yes, odd that Yang has the name but not the appearance of a Yi Ti suggesting her origins lies elsewhere.

Click to shrink...

Or that they don't know enough about Yi Ti.

Oh Baelish is far more dangerous than anyone realize. In fact none of the characters in canon truly appreciate how dangerous people like him is because they work in the shadows until it was made clear to them.

Click to shrink...

Baelish is dangerous, but he is not as dangerous (or smart) as he thinks he is.

Now we're talking! Technically Yang is the strongest but Ruby is a prodigy and Weiss is the most adaptable. Blake is likely to be the weakest because her skills rely on deception, assassinations - not quite useful in a direct combat. But maybe one can make the argument she's more agile and flexible than the rest of her team.

Personally, I like Weiss to win. She rarely gets a W in canon so perhaps the extra lessons with Barristan will be enough for her to win.

Click to shrink...

Ah, there are a few variables in play here to determine the outcome. It's not always the strongest who wins.

 

[Mike9650]

This story is getting really good. I love it!

 

[ATP]

Well,good chapter,and girls finally meet bad witch of Asshai.Pity,that she do not knew how to change dimensions,too....

 

[0SoutherPot760]

This is interesting. The openings are fantastic!! Big fan of the historical perspective POV

 

[Starfox5]

Chapter 14: The Battle of the Maidens

'Some scholars try to cite the fact that the Ruby Order took part in the Hand's Tourney in the Battle of the Maidens, a special competition limited to the four of them, as proof that the tourney was restricted to men. This could not be further from the truth, as it overlooks or straight ignores the participation of Lady Brienne Tarth in the melee, which multiple sources confirm, both sympathetic and hostile to the lady in question or the Ruby Order. It is also clear, mostly thanks to sources from Storm's End's archives, that Lady Brienne was already a trained fighter when she took part in the contest, so the claim that she met the Ruby Order in King's Landing and, inspired by their skill, asked to be trained as a knight by them so she could take part in the tourney, can be dismissed as a factually wrong later addition to the myths surrounding the Order. But if Lady Brienne could fight in the melee - officially, and not disguised as a man, as some of the more fanciful tales add - then why didn't the Four Maidens themselves take part? Some sources claim that they were bribed with a contest of their own, and a sizable fortune, to keep them from humiliating the flower of Westeros's chivalry, preventing unrest amongst the nobility in a time of instability. That theory ignores that while the roots of the Succession were already laid during King Robert's reign, it is generally agreed that his reign was stable, especially after he had crushed the Greyjoy rebellion. Equally unfounded is the theory that King Robert didn't want to risk the Four Maidens' beauty since they were known to fight without armour, relying on skill at arms to avoid being hurt. The claim that they fought without armour has long since been contested by every serious military scholar of the time and is likely an addition based on tales from a later era when armour started to fade from military use following the proliferation of firearms and colourful uniforms became common. Nevertheless, while there is no irrefutable proof, the most likely explanation lies in political struggles following the arrest of the Mountain that resulted in a compromise to satisfy everyone's honour, though we cannot say for sure who the involved parties were. This is based on several comments in surviving letters of the time that lauded King Robert's cunning in arranging what we would today call an exhibition match.'

• A Treatise On The Ruby Order, by Maester Kennet Bracken

*****​

Outside King's Landing, Crownlands, Westeros, 298 AC

Margaery Tyrell held her breath when the signal sounded and her brother pushed his horse forward. Loras looked splendid in his shiny new armour, and his form was perfect as he rode down the lane, lance lowered already, aimed at his opponent. Still, she couldn't help worrying - jousting, even with tourney lances, was dangerous.

And Loras's opponent was Ser Jaime Lannister, one of the most famous, and infamous, knights of the realm. He had far more experience than her brother. In a joust, his age - he was more than double Loras's age - wouldn't be much, if any, hindrance. And he cut a dashing, dangerous figure with his white cloak trailing behind, wearing the best armour Lannister gold could buy. He had murdered the last king - and she wouldn't put it beyond him to kill Loras if given the chance to make it look like an accident.

No, she had to have faith in Loras! He was one of the best knights in Westeros! He wouldn't give the Kingslayer such a chance. He would…

She forced herself to watch as the two knights clashed while the spectators yelled, both lances hitting the other's shield and breaking on impact. Loras was leaning to the side as the two passed each other, but quickly straightened, while Ser Jaime appeared unmoved.

Both saluted each other as they returned to their squires to replace their lances for the next pass.

"Loras almost had him, Margaery!" Angia said next to her.

Margaery smiled at her and nodded, though both of them knew it wasn't true. Loras had been closer to being unhorsed than Ser Jaime.

People cheered as the two lined up again, and Margaery glanced around, unwilling to stare at her brother. The King was laughing, pointing with his free hand while his goblet was being refilled by his page. No surprise there - King Robert was known to love tourneys. He wouldn't have spent a fortune of gold on this otherwise. Lannister gold, mainly, if Grandmother's sources could be trusted.

The Queen, of course, was cheering for her brother, but Margaery couldn't help thinking it felt put on, almost fake - no, not fake; she wanted her brother to win, but there was more to it. Maybe she wanted Loras to lose even more than she wanted her brother to win? It was something to investigate.

"Go, Ser Loras! Go, Ser Jaime!" Lady Yang yelled, with both hands cupped around her mouth to let her voice carry better across the field. If Margaery had done this, made such a spectacle, Grandmother would have words with her.

The Queen openly scowled at her, even though 'Team Ruby' clearly had no favourite in this tourney. Was she jealous of Lady Yang? The woman was far younger than the Queen, and - in Margaery's honest opinion - far more beautiful as well. Her temper was also far more agreeable, and it was obvious that the King was very fond of her and her friends - though they were not sleeping together; Margaery could tell.

"They're starting again!" Angia told her, and Margaery whipped her head around in time to catch Loras spurring his horse onward once more.

And once more, she held her breath, struggling not to close her eyes as the two knights clashed, and once again, neither knight fell as both lances were reduced to firewood. This time, Loras didn't even sway, and Margaery sighed with relief when both started to return to their squires for the next pass.

"Woohoo!" Lady Yang cheered again, as did her sister and leader of their group, Lady Ruby - the two were the most excited of her friends. Lady Weiss and Lady Blake were more restrained.

They were a conundrum, Margaery had to admit. Probably beyond even Grandmother's ability to unravel. They had the King's favour - at the cost of having the Queen's open disfavour - and they were friendly not only with Lord Renly but also with the King's Hand; spending a lot of time with three of his children. And Margaery had no doubt that Lady Blake causing the Mountain to be arrested for murder would be looked on with favour and interest by the Martells. And, according to Grandmother's sources, all four were far stronger than they appeared, although Margaery didn't know just how strong they were. Rumours claimed Lady Blake had easily beaten the Mountain, though she had heard that he had not been wearing armour and had drunk so much milk of the poppy that a lesser man would have died on the spot.

Nevertheless, the four foreign noblewomen were currently the most influential faction at the court by themselves, so why weren't they trying to solidify their position? Margaery had subtly touched on the subject of a betrothal when she had met Lady Weiss, but the noblewoman had deflected her proposal, and Margaery wasn't aware of any betrothals or proposals currently being considered by any of the girls. Apparently, they had turned down proposals by Lord Robb Stark, the heir to the North, and by Prince Joffrey himself! Margaery knew no family who would not have accepted either betrothal at once - well, except for the Martells who hated the Lannisters and Baratheons, and she would still give better than even odds of them accepting anyway.

It made no sense - Margaery couldn't fathom what game Team Ruby was playing. And that…

The trumpet starting the third pass interrupted her thoughts. She drew a deep breath through her suddenly clenched teeth and stared as Loras rode on. Was he faster than before? Yes, he was - Margaery rode her own prized mare often enough to tell. What was he planning?

The two knights bore down on each other, and Margaery tensed even more. Loras's lance wavered! Was he tired from the other passes? Why would…?

Loras whipped up his lance at the last moment before the two clashed, and it struck his opponent's shield at the perfect angle before breaking.

Margaery gasped as Ser Jaime was lifted from his saddle and slid to the side, one foot splitting out of the stirrup. Was he…? Yes! Ser Jaime fell off his horse! Loras was the victor! Loras had won the Hand's Tourney!

She cheered as loudly as Lady Yang and Lady Ruby.

*****​

Red Keep, King's Landing, Crownlands, Westeros, 298 AC

Margaery had to resist touching the crown on her head as she took another sip from the excellent wine - the best and most expensive arbor gold; she recognised the vintage - at the feast. Loras had crowned her Queen of love and beauty! Oh, how the Queen had glared. Granted, Loras was her brother and knew better than to crown anyone else, but Margaery didn't think she didn't deserve the honour. Not even when comparing herself to Team Ruby. The Four Maidens were exotic and very beautiful, but there was more to a woman's beauty than mere appearance. Poise, grace and wit were as crucial as looks, and, of course, without perfect manners, not even the greatest beauty could truly shine.

"Congratulations, Lady Margaery!"

"Why, thank you, Lady Yang." Margaery dipped her head with a friendly smile. Case in point.

"Yes, congratulations! You deserve the honour!" Lady Ruby added.

"Indeed. Ser Loras may be your brother, but he clearly followed the chivalric ideal to be honest and true." Lady Weiss nodded at her as well.

"I concur." Lady Blake was as taciturn as Lady Margaery had heard, but her smile seemed as genuine as her friends'.

Team Ruby was either honest about Loras's choice or they were the best liars Margaery had ever met. She wasn't quite certain which was correct, but manners dictated her response. "Thank you!"

Lady Yang turned her head, looking over her shoulder, then frowned.

"Is something wrong, my lady?" Margaery asked.

"Nothing. Well, one of our friends is still brooding, and Lady Brienne has yet to arrive."

"Ah." They were talking about Stark's bastard son, then. The boy had fought well at the melee, or so Margaery had been told by Loras - she was no expert - so something must have happened if he wasn't celebrating his success. Had the ransom of those he had defeated been underwhelming? Or had he hoped to win the melee? He was a boy, and he might have overestimated his own prowess. Or… Had he hoped to win the heart of one of the Four Maidens? The boy spent a lot of time in their company, as Margaery had heard, and they were very attractive - and dressed so scandalously, even old men might be driven to foolish expectations. The boy might have deluded himself into thinking that if he won the tourney, it might overshadow the fact that he was a bastard. Or he had hoped to be legitimised as a reward. "Lady Brienne is well, I hope? She was struck hard in the melee - I feared for her health," Margaery said.

"Oh, she's fine. Bruised as hell, but she's tough." Lady Yang grinned. "Won't let that keep her down."

And arbor gold would dull the pain, Margaery thought. At least, the bruises wouldn't harm her appearance - there was not much to be harmed. She harboured no ill will against Lady Brienne, but the kindest one could say about her looks was that she was plain. The worst… well, some of the Queen's ladies-in-waiting had complained about milk curdling in her presence. They were creatures of the Queen, and Lady Brienne was, by association with Team Ruby, placed firmly amongst those the Queen did not favour, but if Margaery was brutally honest, they were not that far off the mark.

Lady Weiss frowned. "Maybe I should check on her before she misses the first course."

That was interesting. Team Ruby might hold Lady Brienne in higher regard than Margaery had expected if she was willing to fetch her in person. Although it did fit the tales of the Four Maidens' kindness that Margaery's servants had passed on to her. Or they had a weakness for unfortunate people - Stark's bastard would certainly fit the description as well. Maybe..

"There she is!" Lady Ruby announced. "Oh, she looks nice!"

Margaery turned, a polite smile on her face, and found herself blinking. Lady Brienne had entered the great hall but she wasn't wearing an ill-fitting dress nor enough face paint or powder to weigh down a mule in a desperate attempt to pass as a beautiful woman.

No, Lady Brienne was wearing men's clothing - a very fine doublet and hose, with a touch of Braavos' style; Margaery could tell - and tailored to fit her body much better than her usual clothes. She would have to inquire which tailor had managed that.

"Lady Brienne! Nice threads!" Lady Yang said as the other woman approached their group.

Lady Brienne looked confused for a moment before she nodded. "Thank you, my lady."

She was wearing face paint, Margaery realised - though much less, or much more subtly applied than most women at court would choose. It didn't turn her into a striking beauty, but it did hide the bruise on her face and the other blemishes of her skin. It couldn't do anything about her broken nose, of course, or her teeth, but it did help. "Indeed," Margaery said with a smile. She almost added a comment about how daring it was, though Lady Brienne would probably mistake the compliment for a jest - Margaery had heard how some men mockingly called her 'Brienne the beauty'.

"Thank you, my lady." Lady Brienne bowed her head.

"Lady Brienne! You look very dashing today!" Lord Renly and Loras joined them.

"Thank you, my lord." Lady Brienne blushed. "You are too kind."

Margaery knew that Lord Renly was merely honest, of course, and the reasons why. But that was not something she could or wanted to discuss in public. Or with anyone except for her close family.

Instead she made polite conversation and tried to figure out if anyone from Team Ruby harboured similar interests. If they were not receptive to offers of marriage, then maybe there were other ways to forge closer ties with them.

*****​

Red Keep, King's Landing, Crownlands, Westeros, 298 AC

Weiss had done good work! Ruby Rose beamed at Lady Brienne. Her partner was the best when it came to makeup and fashion. Well, except for Coco Adel, but she was an upper year Huntress. Weiss was Ruby's partner! And you could barely see where Lady Brienne's bruises were while the hose and the shirt - the doublet, she reminded herself - suited her perfectly. If only she were wearing her sword and shield as well! Maybe Ruby could design a collapsible shield for her that also served as a sheath for her sword… No, they lacked all the materials such a design would need. Although maybe a simpler version, a shield with an integrated sheath? Hmmm… That might work.

Her design work was interrupted by a not-so-soft elbow in her side and a whispered "Ruby!" from her partner.

"Sorry!" she mouthed, smiling embarrassedly. "So! That was a nice tourney, wasn't it?" she added a bit more loudly.

"It's not yet over," Lord Renly said. "Tomorrow, we will be treated to your fight - the Battle of the Maidens."

"Right!" Ruby nodded and tried not to wince at the name - 'Maidens' sounded so pretentious! (And it was probably incorrect, not that she would ever ask her friends about that!) "But the joust is the main event, right?"

"Normally, yes," he replied. "Although I would wager that this time, things might turn out differently if my brother the King is to be believed."

Yang laughed. "Oh, we'll do our best to put on a good show! Just don't complain if we wreck the ring."

"Yes!" Ruby nodded. They wouldn't be able to easily repair whatever they broke in the match like Professor Goodwitch could thanks to her Semblance.

"Really?" Lady Margaery looked a bit doubtful, though she was polite about it. Unlike a certain Queen.

"You have never seen them spar with the Kingsguard, sister," Ser Loras said. "I have, and I am looking forward to seeing them fight in their melee."

"You're not the only one!" Yang smashed her fist in her palm. "Watching all those contests makes me want to cut loose as well! I've got some pent-up energy to work off, and those twenty thousand gold dragons are calling for me!"

The others - those from Westeros - looked a bit confused but nodded anyway. Well, Yang's sentiments were clear. She had commented several times how she was looking forward to showing off.

Ruby snorted. Yang might be confident to win, but Ruby wouldn't hold back either.

"Don't bet on winning," Weiss cut in with a toothy smile. "It's been quite a while since we gave our all in a sparring match."

"Exactly! You must have grown rusty!" Yang replied with a matching smile.

Weiss scoffed in return. "We'll see tomorrow who has grown rusty."

Ruby looked from her sister to her partner. Sure, she wanted to win as well, but they seemed to take this a bit too seriously. It wasn't as if they wouldn't share the money, anyway.

She glanced at Blake, who hadn't said anything yet. Blake was smiling subtly, but her eyes almost seemed to glint as she said: "Tomorrow should be interesting."

"So, you have been holding back!" Lord Renly nodded. "My brother was right. And now I am even more curious to find out what you've been holding back. Lady Ruby isn't shy about demonstrating her own talents, so it's something different, right?"

"You will have to wait for our match," Weiss told him. "I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise."

"It'll be a blast!" Yang announced with a chuckle.

Ruby giggled at the comment, but Weiss rolled her eyes. "Not if I eliminate you before!" she said.

"I'd like to see you try!"

Ruby was wondering if she should step in - she was team leader, after all - but she noticed the Prince walking toward them. Well, she noticed Clegane, Sandor Clegane, approaching, the man was even taller than Lady Brienne and was the Prince's bodyguard, so the Prince should be with him. Or he with the Prince, whatever. And there was the Prince!

"Good evening, my prince!" she greeted him.

"Good evening, Lady Ruby." He nodded at her, then at the others. "Uncle Renly. Lady Weiss. Lady Blake. Lady Yang. Lady Margaery. Lady Brienne. Ser Loras. Good evening."

"Joffrey." Lord Renly smiled at his nephew, but he looked more… polite than warm. Not for the first time, Ruby remembered - they were family, but they weren't close. Then again, Lord Stannis and the King didn't seem very close either. Nor Lord Renly and Lord Stannis. She felt bad for the Baratheons. You should cherish your family - you never knew when you might lose someone.

"Congratulations for your victory, Ser Loras. It was a close bout, and very tense," the Prince went on.

"Thank you, my prince." Ser Loras bowed in that graceful manner of his.

The Prince turned to smile at her. "I wanted to wish all of you luck for tomorrow. I am eagerly looking forward to seeing you demonstrate your true power."

Ruby tried not to wince - they would still hold back some; they didn't have enough Dust left to waste any of it on a sparring match. So, she felt a bit bad about nodding. "Yes. We usually don't go all out when sparring."

"It can be a bit hard on the training area," Yang added with a fierce grin.

"More destructive than your usual sparring?" Lord Renly raised his eyebrows.

"Oh, yes!" Yang grinned.

"Some people sometimes forget to control themselves," Weiss said with a glance at Yang, whose grin widened. "Also, we rarely have a training area large enough for a sparring match where we don't hold back."

The Prince tilted his head slightly to the side. "Lady Ruby doesn't seem to have trouble controlling her magical speed when she's training in the yard."

"I don't," Ruby agreed. She had trained to fight even in enclosed spaces - you never knew when you had to hunt Grimm in a cave or so. "But with more space to use, I can use my Semblance better as well." She couldn't really use it to create a whirlwind if others were too close - well, she could, but that would be bad for the audience.

"Usually, the wider the area, the more options you have," Blake added.

Yang shrugged. "It's all the same for me. I hit things."

Ruby frowned at her. With none of them using ammo in the fight, Yang couldn't use her shotguns to boost her speed, but she wouldn't have to worry about Ruby sniping her from afar, or Weiss using exotic Dust-enhanced glyphs. That meant she had an advantage.

But Ruby had a plan for that. She just needed to settle some details.

"Do you require any special preparations?" the Prince went on. "We'll provide you with anything you might need."

"Oh, no - we can activate our Semblances as we want," Ruby said. "We don't need anything special."

"Not even Dust?"

"Dust can enhance a Semblance - or any weapon," Ruby replied. "But it's not needed."

"And will you be using Dust tomorrow? I remember hearing about Fire Dust," the Prince said.

"We have to conserve our Dust charges in case we need them to get home," Ruby explained. Or in an emergency. Even though she couldn't think of an emergency they couldn't handle without Dust. But Marwyn had told them that Dust might be the key to getting them home. Though he also thought Dust was magical, and it wasn't - Weiss had explained that thoroughly.

"Ah, that's too bad. I would have loved seeing you wield weapons enhanced with Dust. Though I assume you'd have to do that before the fight starts."

"You can do it in the middle of the fight as well," Ruby told him. "If you know how."

"Dust is very versatile," Weiss added. "Though you need to know how to use it or you'd risk hurting yourself, or worse, if you manipulate it."

"Ah, yes - I sneezed when I met Weiss and almost blew us up with some loose Dust!" Ruby giggled at the memory.

"You left a crater in the ground," Weiss said, rolling her eyes. But she was smiling fondly, so that was OK.

The Prince looked disappointed, but that couldn't be helped - they really couldn't waste Dust on a show. "You'll be amazed at what we can do," she told him, which made him smile.

Success!

*****​

Weiss Schnee wanted to sigh - the Prince's attempts to find out more information about them were almost painfully transparent - but that would have been rude. And the Prince was a child; it wouldn't be nice at all to make fun of him for being curious about them just because he was a bit more obvious about it than the rest. More persistent, too. Still, he would have to wait until tomorrow to learn about their Semblances, like everyone else. They hadn't shown them to anyone, after all.

And she was relieved she had managed to shut down requests to use Dust. They had to conserve their reserves for emergencies. She didn't think Dust would be useful for getting home - it wasn't magical, despite Marwyn's opinion - but she couldn't completely dismiss the possibility that Dust might be needed in some way. Magic might have unique effects on Dust, after all - in fact, as Weiss had theorised with the Archmaester, interaction between Dust and magic might have been the reason for them being transported to this world.

"Ah, you know how to play the game!" Lord Renly said with a smile. "You're a tease, Lady Ruby."

Weiss pressed her lips together when Ruby blushed. Her partner and team leader shouldn't be so easily flustered by the simplest flirting. Still, she was two years younger. More innocent as well, at least in this area.

So Weiss nodded and took a small step forward, drawing the group's attention. "Pageantry is important - especially in a tournament."

Lady Margaery smiled. "You just caused our expectations to rise even higher."

"Yes, we did," Weiss said with a smile. She was well aware of that.

"And you won't be disappointed!" Yang chuckled again.

Weiss was about to comment again when she noticed Blake turning away from the group. What was she looking at? Ah. Lord Baelish was headed their way. Once again, he was dressed in the finest clothes, albeit a little understated compared to Lord Renly's attire. Since he had only a small fief, his wealth was all thanks to his position as Master of Coin, and Weiss was pretty certain that he was skimming off the top, so to speak. But that was expected, as she understood the situation, as long as you didn't take too much.

He greeted all of them with the utmost politeness and a warm smile, though Lord Renly, once again, was polite at best, and the Prince looked bored - maybe even annoyed for a moment. Neither fact seemed to faze Lord Baelish. "As others have doubtless done so, I offer my congratulations to your victory, Ser Loras."

"Thank you, my lord."

"Oh!" Lord Baelish nodded at Lord Renly. "Since you're here. I have a question about our most infamous prisoner that you as Master of Laws would undoubtedly be able to answer."

"Yes?" Now Lord Renly sounded wary. And the Hound was tense and looked as if he was about to growl.

Undeterred by either, Lord Baelish continued. "Will you be putting Ser Gregor on trial for his many, many past crimes as well? You might have to delay his trial even longer if you do, of course, since the Princes Martell will want to attend the trial in that case, to see the rapist and murderer of their sister and her children being brought to justice."

Weiss's eyes widened, and she heard Ruby gasp. Clegane had murdered - and raped - a noblewoman and her children? A princess, at that? And he had not been put on trial for that? That was shameful indeed!

Blake and Yang looked angry.

"The only crime he has been accused of so far is the killing of his guard," Lord Renly replied. "No other charges have been brought forward yet."

Were those just rumours then? They would have to look into this. Lord Eddard would likely know, wouldn't he?

Lord Baelish shrugged. "They have not yet sent a raven with any demands? Curious. I would have expected them to rush to King's Landing to see justice - if late and only indirectly - be granted to their kin."

Ruby nodded firmly. "Yes! People need such trials to get closure!"

That was correct. Weiss knew that from losing family and friends in a White Fang attack.

"They haven't brought forth any charges so far," Lord Renly repeated himself. "Should they do, we'll have to consider that."

Ser Loras shrugged. "As long as Clegane is put to death, who cares about the exact crime that sees him executed?"

"The Martells, I would think," Lord Baelish said. "And the kin of all his other victims - provided they are still alive and will hear about this trial in time to attend." He took a sip of wine from the cup he held in his left hand. "Of course, there's also the question of who will be willing to face the Mountain in his trial by combat."

"I would!" Sandor Clegane spat through clenched teeth. "The cunt burnt my face and killed my sister when we were children."

Weiss froze for a moment. She had known about the origin of the facial scars, and had been appalled that such a crime had never been punished, but she hadn't been aware of such details - nor that Ser Gregor had murdered his own sister as well.

"Oh, no!" Ruby blurted out, looking at Clegane with pity in her eyes.

That would make the man even angrier, Weiss suspected.

"You are his brother, Clegane," Lord Renly said. "No trial will see a champion turned kinslayer! The very notion would have the Septons protest!"

"Bah!" Clegane growled. "That monster is no kin of mine!"

"I am afraid that the law and the faith disagree," Lord Renly said.

"But then, who will face Ser Gregor?" Lord Baelish asked again. "Even a Kingsguard might not fare well."

"Any of us can face him!" Ruby said with a scowl.

"That would certainly ensure that Ser Gregor will not escape justice merely because he is the strongest knight in all of Westeros," Lord Baelish said. "And it will prevent him from murdering someone else in the process."

That was undoubtedly true - Blake hadn't had any trouble subduing the man. And none of Team RWBY would want others to be killed in such trial by combat.

But if one of them fought for the court in such a - barbaric - trial by combat, they would do so knowing that if they won, their opponent would be executed. Who amongst them could face and bear that kind of weight?

Not Ruby, Weiss decided. She wouldn't let her partner shoulder that burden.

*****​

Blake Belladonna didn't regret taking down Ser Gregor. The man had killed his own guard without care and was, by all accounts, a serial rapist and murderer. But she did regret confronting him so openly. If she had realised the attention knocking him out would bring to her and her team, she would have opted for a more subtle course of action. Maybe sneak into his tent, render him unconscious and make it appear as if he had drunk himself into a stupor. On the other hand, that might not have led to his arrest - Ser Gregor's reputation certainly seemed to indicate that he could literally get away with murder. Multiple times.

Part of the reason was the protection by Lord Tywin Lannister, the Warden of the West and the King's father-in-law. But she was sure that the fact that as a noble, he was entitled to a trial by combat where his sheer size and strength would grant him a decisive advantage also played a role.

And, speaking of that… "If there is a trial by combat, I should be facing him - I saw the murder happen, I subdued him and I will testify against him." This started because of her actions, and so it was her responsibility.

Clegane growled, but she ignored him.

"There might be concerns that as someone who defeated him once already, you becoming the court's champion would mean the outcome of the trial was already determined," Lord Baelish pointed out.

"That's not actually true," Lord Renly retorted. "I recall a number of trials where this was the case - one in particular where two feuding knights faced off after one had defeated the other in a tourney. If Lady Blake volunteers for this duty, I doubt she will be refused."

"I don't doubt you, my lord, but I fear that not everyone will agree. And it doesn't take too much gold to influence opinions even when the truth of the matter is clear as day," Lord Baelish said.

Yang snorted. "That sounds familiar."

Blake nodded. It did. Corruption and rumour mongering were the same in Westeros as in Remnant, with just the details differing. "That won't change anything. My offer stands."

"I salute your bravery, my lady," Lord Baelish said. "Not many would dare to risk earning House Lannister's ire. Lord Tywin is known for paying back any perceived insults with interest. 'A Lannister always pays his debts', as the saying goes."

"We're Huntresses. We are trained to brave even worse danger to do what's right," Ruby said in a firm tone.

Blake nodded again. She didn't think backing off now would change anything if what she had heard about the head of House Lannister was correct; he was said to be proud even for a Westerosi nobleman. If her team backed down, they would be seen as weak, and Gregor Clegane would come after her anyway - she doubted that he would be able to bear being defeated by her; he had seemed far too proud, and far too violent, for that. And it would be better to deal with him in a trial than in the shadows - everyone would suspect her anyway, should anything happen to the man.

Although there were good odds that after tomorrow's 'Battle of the Maidens' - a ridiculous name, especially for herself - several people would have to reconsider whatever they thought about Team RWBY. "This is my responsibility," she said - mostly to make sure Ruby wouldn't believe it fell to her as their team leader to step into the ring.

"I don't believe Lord Tywin will care that much if Ser Gregor is brought to justice," Lord Renly said with a frown. "The Ser Gregor is one of his bannermen, but he has distanced himself from the Mountain in the past over his crimes."

Well, that was what 'rogue agents' and 'plausible deniability' were for. Another thing that was the same in Westeros.

The Prince chuckled. "If Ser Gregor is found guilty, it would only be fitting if you brought him down, Lady Blake."

She nodded at him with a polite smile. The boy was a bit too eager to see a man executed, but Ser Gregor had murdered a Queen and her little children once already, according to several sources, so the Prince might feel that an example had to be made in order to discourage everyone from repeating such a vile deed.

"We shouldn't be talking about such dreadful things," Lady Margaery spoke up. "My dear brother just won the joust, and Lady Brienne gave a good showing in the melee. And we're about to watch a great event on the morrow. We should be celebrating!"

"Yes! We should enjoy all the food!" Ruby exclaimed.

And Blake should be checking the food for poison. "Indeed," she said. "I'll be grabbing a bite to eat."

"I'm feeling a bit hungry as well," Yang said and fell in next to her as Blake turned away from the group.

Blake snorted softly. "I don't think anyone is going to attack me in the middle of the feast," she whispered. And if they did, she could deal with them.

Yang flashed a grin at her in response. "Just because it's unlikely doesn't mean it's impossible. And I won't leave my partner alone here with all those nobles."

Blake could handle those as well. She wasn't the naive girl anymore who had fallen for that bastard. But she appreciated Yang's support anyway and smiled at her partner. "Thanks."

"Anytime."

Blake was about to reply again when her nostrils widened. She knew that whiff of perfume! The spy master behind those child agents was in this room - and she had his scent. Now she just had to narrow it down - and hope that no one else wore the same perfume, though since she hadn't smelt it before, neither at the tourney or here at the feast, she gave herself good odds of finding the man.

"What's wrong?" Yang asked in a low voice.

Blake wrinkled her nose. "Just a stench."

Her partner's eyes widened for a moment when she realised what Blake meant, followed by a firm nod. "Let's take the scenic route."

"Yes." Blake hooked her arm into Yang's as she had seen noblewomen do when walking together and started to steer them through the crowd, keeping track of the scent. Following it like a dog - ugh - would have been a stupid mistake; people noticed that. But aimlessly walking through the crowd, noting where the scent grew stronger and where it faded? That would take longer, but was far more subtle.

Soon, she had narrowed down the location to a spot near but not in a corner, where…

…Varys, the official spy master of the realm, was talking to a nobleman.

Blake felt really stupid. Of course, the most obvious suspect for running spies on the Red Keep was the King's own Master of Whispers. How could she have missed that possible suspect?

She chuckled a little and started to steer Yang towards the tables with the food. The others would find that gaffe very amusing, she had no doubt, once she could tell them about it.

Of course, they would still have to do something about the spying - and, perhaps, ask a few pointed questions about why the King's spy master was using little children as agents.

*****​

Outside King's Landing, Crownlands, Westeros, 298 AC

This was it! The big event! The Battle of the Maidens! Yang Xiao Long smiled widely as she took in the field - not that she wasn't already familiar with it; she and the others had helped set it up after the melee. They knew best how wide and sturdy it had to be for a real fight amongst Team RWBY, after all.

And it was wide - they had enlarged the area where the melee had been fought. And limited the spectators to one, slightly narrow part of the circle. It had taken a bit of an effort to get more stands built next to the one for the nobles so the smallfolk could safely watch, but if the alternative was RWBY holding back so the audience wouldn't be in danger, and the King wanted to have his all-out battle…? You built more stands. And the workers had finished setting up the walls as well, scattered in the centre of the area like some unfinished maze. They were made of brick, small and not very high, and wouldn't stand up to a glancing blow from a Huntress, but they could hide you for a moment, and that could be crucial.

She smashed her gauntlets together. "So… may the best Yang win!"

"You wish!" Weiss replied at once from her left.

"You won't have an easy victory!" Ruby declared.

She needed to work on her trash talk, Yang found.

Blake merely snorted, softly, and Yang didn't have to glance at her partner to know she'd be smiling slyly. She did it anyway, of course, and flashed her a grin.

Sure, all members of Team RWBY were great Huntresses-in-training, but when it came to fighting other people, Yang had the advantage - her Semblance assured it. And she wasn't quite as handicapped as the others by the lack of Dust. She couldn't use her shotguns, but none of the others could use Dust either. That meant Yang didn't have to worry about Ruby sniping her or Weiss using Dust-enhanced Glyphs to take her out from outside her range. Or Blake using her pistol, though that pea-shooter would only serve to fuel Yang's Semblance.

Sure, Yang couldn't quite pull off her best moves without the recoil from Ember Celica, which cut down on her mobility some, but it wasn't that hard to compensate for.

"They're waiting for us to enter," Blake commented.

"Right!" Ruby nodded. "Let's not leave the King waiting. And the others."

Yang nodded firmly as they started walking across the field to stand in front of the King and the other nobles.

"Team Ruby!" The King stood up and waved at them.

"Your Grace!" Ruby replied, and all of the team bowed.

"Are you ready to do battle?" the King bellowed.

Next to him, Lord Eddard looked as stony as ever, but the Prince leaned forward with an eager expression. Without TV and games, this was probably the best entertainment he'd ever see. The Queen, though, scowled. Yang wondered why she had attended at all - but she probably felt she would appear weak or something if she stayed home.

"Yes!" Ruby nodded and unfolded Crescent Rose, then swung it around so the scythe rested against her shoulder - and made the crowd gasp at the same time with their first glimpse at a mechashift weapon.

Weiss drew Myrtenaster with a flourish and saluted with her blade. "We are."

"Yes." Blake drew Gambol Shroud's blade, leaving the sheath on her back.

Yang smashed her gauntlets together. "Yes!"

The King turned to address the crowd. "This will be the final event of the Hand's Tourney! The Battle of the Maidens! You're about to see the strongest people in the world fight it out - a display of skill and power you've never seen before!"

The crowd - mostly the smallfolk - roared and cheered. The nobles, as usual, were a bit more restrained, especially those close to the Queen, with some exceptions like the Stark children, Lord Renly, Ser Loras and Lady Margaery. Not Lord Baelish, though, she noted. Or Varys. He was acting as if he wasn't interested in the event at all - which wasn't very convincing for someone who sent children to spy on them. Lord Stannis and Melisandre were silent as well, but that was probably normal for the King's brother, and the priestess was staring at Team RWBY as if her life depended on it. As was Marwyn, actually - for once, the Archmaester had forsaken his research in the library and had come to attend the tourney. Well, he'd love the display!

"Alright! Let's get ready!" Ruby announced, and Team RWBY split up, spreading out until they formed a rough square outside the walled section, with plenty of space between them - and between them and the audience.

"Good luck everyone!" Ruby yelled. "May the best Huntress win!"

"Thank you, sis!"

"I didn't mean it that way!"

Yang grinned and took up a stance - mostly for show. The others followed suit.

And then the trumpets sounded, and the fight was on!

Yang dashed forward, straight at Ruby, one fist drawn back for a punch, crashing through a wall in the way and sending bricks and dust flying.

As expected, her sister activated her Semblance and vanished - or almost vanished. Yang threw herself to the side when she caught a few petals in the corner of her eye, then to the ground when Ruby reappeared, swinging her scythe in a diagonal slash that missed her by a foot and cut another wall in half before ripping up the ground.

Yang kept rolling while the crowd cheered and came up in a crouch, blocking another attack from Ruby before countering with a kick that caught her sister in the chest and sent her back - just in time to block an attack from Weiss, who had managed to get close.

Blake tried to use the opportunity to strike at Weiss from behind but her blow was stopped by a Glyph.

"As if I had not expected this!" Weiss gloated - though she gasped when she had to hide behind another Glyph to stop a swipe from Crescent Rose.

The crowd roared.

"Time to get serious!" Yang yelled and charged forward. Weiss threw a third Glyph her way, but Yang slid around it, twisting into a spinning kick as she did which…

…missed Weiss as she dodged by taking a step back.

Yang kept turning around herself and dropped into a crouch that turned the kick into a sweep when Blake tried to stab her in the side, but her partner jumped over Yang's leg and Gambol Shroud's edge slid along Yang's ribs.

"First Blood!" Blake said with a smile - which shattered when Weiss lunged with her own blade.

Yang twisted, catching Blake as she repositioned herself, but her fist only struck another clone while Blake's own attack struck her other side.

Before Yang could follow her, she caught a glimpse of red and darted to the side just in time to dodge Ruby appearing in the middle of them and swinging Crescent Rose around in a wide arc that cut just below Weiss's glyph.

Once again, the girl managed to evade the blow, though, and Blake used a clone to jump back just out of the scythe's arc, which ended carving up a part of the ground and leaving a long, shallow trench.

Yang took a few steps back, frowning as she blocked another attack by Ruby, and then had to avoid a couple of Glyphs that tried to box her in with a few acrobatic moves that had the crowd roaring again.

Both Weiss and Blake were good, but those attacks should have clipped them at least. Had they been holding back? Or… ah! Yang chuckled - her friends had been training for quite some time without using their Semblances and had had to dodge the hard way. That was like training with a handicap! Of course they would be better at dodging!

But it also meant they hadn't been using their Semblances except for the few times they had gone and trained in isolation. So, they weren't quite as good with them as they could be.

On the other hand, Yang had been training hard and her Semblance didn't really affect her moves. Grinning, she dashed forward, headed for Weiss.

Weiss saw her coming as she parried a series of attacks from Blake, who was using both Gambol Shroud's blade and her sheath now, and threw another Glyph in front of Yang before creating a series of them to quickly climb into the air, jump by jump.

Yang knew better than to follow her - she'd end up jumping onto a Glyph just as it disappeared - and changed course to go for Blake. She jumped over the crack someone's attack had left in the ground and kicked a few loose bricks into dust to hide her position from the left side. Ruby dashed past them from the right, though, Crescent Rose flashing, and Yang took a glancing blow in exchange to catching Blake just when her partner used a clone to jump back.

This time, Yang's fist connected, and Blake ploughed a furrow in the ground as she was sent back a few yards.

"First real strike!" Yang grinned, then stepped to the side when she saw Weiss diving at her, Myrtenaster aimed straight down.

As expected, Weiss used a Glyph to change course, and so was too slow to create another one to stop Yang or evade when Yang jumped straight up, deflected Myrtenaster and grappled her. "Gotcha!"

Weiss hit her in the face with surprising speed - another trick she had picked up from Ser Barristan - but Yang could take dozens of such hits without flinching and paid her back with interest, landing half a dozen punches on Weiss's head and upper body before they crashed in the ground and Yang had to roll to the side, out of the shallow crater, to…

…roll directly into Blake's next attack. She managed to deflect the blade stabbing at her face, but the sheath caught her in the hip. And Weiss would have recovered by now and… Where was Ruby? Yang kicked Blake, catching a clone, then smashed her fist in the ground, sending up a cloud of rocks and dirt to make Blake's next attack miss, and glanced around.

She couldn't see Ruby. No petals, not sneaky little sister dropping from the sky - and she couldn't bury through the ground, could she? There! At the edge of the area!

Before Yang could figure out why Ruby had withdrawn so far from the centre of the area, Weiss and Blake were both coming for her - maybe she should have cut down on the trash-talk before the match - and Yang was forced to summersault back to avoid both blades and the cleaver, then block the follow-up attacks.

She caught a few more blows - her Semblance was filling up - and got both back with a few strikes and one kick herself, when she saw Ruby vanishing in a red streak. A red streak that came at them in a wide curve, circling them.

Shit.

Before Yang could disengage from Weiss's next Glyph-boosted attack, Ruby had closed in and Yang and the other found themselves inside a hurricane. Yang hit the earth, burying both her fists in the ground, but she felt the force of the wind pulling at her - that wouldn't hold her.

Blake had lashed Gambol Shroud's ribbon to a wrecked but still standing wall, but she was flung around as if she was a tethered ragdoll instead, and Weiss…

…hadn't even tried to stand her ground? Yang saw that the other Huntress was flying through the air a moment before she herself was ripped off the ground and thrown in the air.

My Semblance can take it! she told herself as she was spun around. Maybe.

Though before she was dragged up too high, the hurricane suddenly weakened - and then collapsed.

Yang twisted in the air - she wasn't part cat like her partner, but Dad had taught her and Ruby how to fall right after he caught them on the roof for the first time - and managed to land pretty well. What had happened?

Then she saw Ruby slowly getting up from the ground, looking a bit dizzy. "Ow! I'm out. Good move, Weiss!"

She was standing at the end of a row of slightly off-set Glyphs circling them like dominoes. Weiss, who was landing gracefully at the other end, must have been creating dozens of those in Ruby's path, spaced out so she couldn't evade and smashed straight into - and through - them. Smart.

But Weiss couldn't quite hide how much that had taken out of her, and Yang grinned while she charged, zig-zagging, across the torn ground towards her. "You took out my sister! Prepare to die!"

Weiss whirled, Myrtenaster flashing, but Yang had her number now. She dropped under the blade's point and slid over the ground, legs spreading. Weiss tried to jump up, but Yang twisted and pushed herself up with her arms. Her legs closed around Weiss, and Yang twisted again, slamming her into the ground.

When she managed to grab Weiss's left hand holding her blade, it was over: Yang hit her in the face once, twice, three times, until Weiss yielded.

Two down! That left…

Blake caught Yang straight in the back when she pulled away from Weiss, and Yang was thrown forward, barely missing Weiss, while she tore up the ground with her limbs.

That was it! Yang jumped to her feet and activated her Semblance.

The crowd gasped again, yelling when her Aura lit up. "Blake!" she roared as she dashed toward Blake. Her Aura was almost depleted, but her Semblance was up. She was on fire!

Blake fell back, trying to dodge by leaving clones in her wake, but Yang knew her. Better than most. She waved around the clones, the draft from her passing disrupting them, passed straight through some of them, as she closed in, fist cocked back for a strike with all her stored power.

Blake tried to fool her with another clone, but Yang crashed through it without releasing her stored power - and then braked, boots tearing up two more furrows in the ground, when Blake whipped to the side, before pouncing at her partner.

"YOU. ARE…"

She had her. Too close for any more tricks - no matter where Blake jumped after releasing her next clone, Yang would have her. Blake tried to whip up dust and dirt with a kick to conceal herself, but Yang was too close! Too fast!

"GOING…"

She dashed through the thin cloud. And there was the clone! Yang charged in with her shoulder, brushing the clone aside with her shoulder as she hit the retreating real Blake behind her with her fist, releasing her stored power. "DOWN!"

Blake disintegrated in front of her, and Yang's heart skipped a beat. Had she just killed…?

Something hit her from behind, slashing against her back. Yang whirled and caught another slash in the side - from yards away! Aura Slash! She raised her arms to block the next but was a bit too slow, too spent, and Blake's slash hit her right in the chest. Yang stumbled back a step, then raised her hand in defeat.

She panted as she let her arms fall at her side, her Aura nearly broken. "Damn! You used the cover from he dust to create a clone out of my sight and then posed as a clone!" She had played Yang perfectly!

Blake nodded with that faint, proud smile Yang knew so well, then turned to face the stands, raising her blade above her head.

After a moment of silence, the crowd roared.

*****​

 

[Starfox5]

This story is getting really good. I love it!

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I'm happy to hear that!

Well,good chapter,and girls finally meet bad witch of Asshai.Pity,that she do not knew how to change dimensions,too....

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Well, she might not be trustworthy either way.

This is interesting. The openings are fantastic!! Big fan of the historical perspective POV

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Thanks! I like writing the excerpts

 

[eager slacker]

Well every damn knight that seen that fight is gonna release their inner chuuni. It makes sense that Kennet thinks that RWBY are merely really talented brilliant ladies because of the sheer headache and cringe of seeing some grown ass knights unsheathe their swords and pretending they shot out a energy projectile for the seventeenth time. Also a ton of men and women are gonna really hope that RWBY teaches them their totally not magic ways to them.

 

[Starfox5]

Well every damn knight that seen that fight is gonna release their inner chuuni. It makes sense that Kennet thinks that RWBY are merely really talented brilliant ladies because of the sheer headache and cringe of seeing some grown ass knights unsheathe their swords and pretending they shot out a energy projectile for the seventeenth time. Also a ton of men and women are gonna really hope that RWBY teaches them their totally not magic ways to them.

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And those in the know will be afraid of that.

 

[ATP]

I'm happy to hear that!



Well, she might not be trustworthy either way.



Thanks! I like writing the excerpts

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She is from Asshai.Of course,that nobody normal should trust her.

 

[Renko]

Covers Always Lie: The official cover art by Eru-Shi depicts the TV version of the Iron Throne outside the Red Keep with Ruby in her V4 attire walking up its steps. The story itself is rooted primarily in the books, including the gargantuan, twisted amalgamation that is its Iron Throne, and Team RWBY are dressed in their V2 attire. Word of God confirms that these were stylistic choices Eru-Shi decided to go with.

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@Starfox5

Is this true? And by volume 2, does it mean their hunter outfits?

Spoiler: Volume 2

source: rwby reddit

 

[Starfox5]

Chapter 15: Interludes I

'No serious treatise on the Four Maidens could skip the Battle of the Maidens even though not many scholars have actually braved the challenge of going through all the different reports and sort out which were trustworthy eye witnesses and which were blatant exaggerations added after the fact, often years afterwards, when facts had long given way to myths, and political - and sometimes religious reasons - dictated how the accounts were written or 'corrected'. And, indeed, when we dismiss the obvious religious iconography of the Maidens ascending to Heaven on holy symbols, walking through wildfire unscathed, conjuring whirlwinds out of thin air and appearing in multiple places at the same time, and also dismiss the claim that they used magic - all modern scholars of the field agree on that; and until today, none of the practitioners of magic in the world have managed to duplicate the feats described - what is left is still a display of not only fighting skills without peer, but a fighting style so advanced and acrobatic, it left most of the audience shocked, performed amongst obstacles erected for this battle so they could show off their feats under the best conditions - not unlike some of the shows acrobats perform today, if with a far more martial bent. One has to keep in mind that unlike today, many among the audience were experienced knights and would have been able to judge the Maidens' skills objectively. For them to be as impressed as to consider the displayed martial abilities supernatural means that they were truly in a class of their own.
Though what the Ruby Order did is not nearly as important as its reception by the populace, smallfolk and nobles alike. Whether one calls a particular event a riot or a brawl largely depends on semantics, but back then, the answer depended on which part of the various factions at court one belonged to - those who downplayed the scope of the incident to halt criticism of the gold cloaks, and those who wished to exaggerate the impact for their own purposes. Even amongst the smallfolk, however, the impact of the Battle of the Maidens was sometimes divisive, though overall, their display was received favourably by the population of King's Landing.'

• A Treatise On The Ruby Order, by Maester Kennet Bracken

*****​

Outside King's Landing, Crownlands, Westeros, 298 AC

"And you claim that wasn't magic? Would you care to revise your opinion now?"

Grand Maester Pycelle ignored Marwyn's puerile gloating. It wasn't important. Not in the face of what he had just seen before him. He had known that Team Ruby was holding back - they had said so themselves, confirming his own sources who had observed their training - but he had never imagined to what extent they had been hiding their power. They hadn't merely been holding back their strength, although they had done so as well, as the torn up landscape gave testimony to, but they had been hiding powers that could only be called magical.

Lady Weiss had been creating glowing sigils out of thin air that could carry a grown person through the air - or stop a charge from a mounted knight, no, from one of those war beasts used in the East! And she had done so effortlessly, lining up dozens of them to both corral her opponents and take to the sky herself.

Lady Ruby had run so fast, she had created a whirlwind that had picked up her friends and thrown them through the air! A whirlwind that Pycelle had felt all the way back on the stands!

Lady Yang had been on fire - literally. She had fought while burning! A living blaze!

And Lady Blake had… multiplied. She had split in two, forming a duplicate of herself, and had repeated that feat several times in close succession. Copies that were, for all purposes alive but, when struck, dissolved into shadows. An army of herself. No wonder she had won that battle.

Pycelle had been aware before the tourney that those four maidens could lay waste to any army Westeros could field. Blades and other weapons bounced off their bodies while they could strike with enough force to easily break stone and metal. No men-at-arms or sellswords, much less peasant levies, would stand long against such foes before breaking. Knights might last a little longer, driven by their pride, but the number of knights who would throw away their lives fighting an invulnerable foe merely because their honour demanded it was far too small to keep even knights from being routed.

But now? Now he knew that things were even worse than he had thought. The four commanded magic of the sort not seen since the Age of Heroes - or not at all. The Rhoynar had been said to control water, and even brought down dragons with it. The Valyrians had sacrificed countless slaves to fuel their dark blood magic rituals. But not even in their prime had they commanded magic as effortlessly as those four girls had done. Pycelle was not as well-versed about magic as Marwyn, but he knew enough - and would have realised so even if he had not merely by observing Marwyn's reaction to the battle - that what he had seen was beyond even the practitioners in Asshai and Qohor.

One of them could wreck King's Landing by herself without trying. Together, they could easily lay waste to the countryside. And judging by what Pycelle had seen, he doubted that even dragons could faze those girls. Lady Yang certainly didn't have to fear dragonfire, and, judging by the lack of concern from the others, neither did they. And between magical sigils that floated in the air, whirlwinds that tore people apart, and the strength to jump over buildings, not even flight would keep a dragon safe.

"Have you been shocked out of your wits, Pycelle?"

Now that was uncalled for! Pycelle glared at Marwyn. "I was merely contemplating what we just saw."

"Magic. We saw magic. Magic more powerful than anything known to man!" Marwyn's wide smile looked more than a little mad.

But that didn't mean he was wrong. Pycelle nodded. "Yes." Then he took a deep breath, doing his best to avoid showing how shaken he still was. "We'll have to report this, of course. With as much detail as we can."

Marwyn nodded with a very smug expression. "I am looking forward to being vindicated."

Pycelle snorted. "We're facing a threat unlike anything - at least equal to Aegon's conquest, if not even greater - and you care about being proven right?"

Marwyn chuckled. "If you were an Archamaester, you'd not even bother to ask."

Pycelle clenched his teeth. He was the Grand Maester. His counsel could decide the fate of the realm. Someone who spent their entire life in the pursuit of knowledge for knowledge's sake had no right to look down on him.

But settling that could wait until they had written their reports. For the Order, since there was no way Pycelle would let Marwyn be the only one reporting this. And for Lord Tywin, of course - the Warden of the West needed to know about this so he could plot his course with the necessary information lest he ran afoul of Team Ruby.

And, Pycelle added with a sinking feeling, so Lord Tywin could move to rein in his daughter the Queen if she persisted in antagonising the Four Maidens. Though after this display, not even the famously stubborn and prideful Queen would continue with her attempts to snub and annoy Team Ruby.

At least he hoped so.

"So, I will head over to offer my congratulations," Marwyn said as he got up. "I'll head over once I have finished my report and it's ready to be sent."

Right. The Archmaester was on friendly terms with those… those immensely powerful maidens, Pycelle reminded himself. Marwyn had pledged, or so the story went, to help them find their way home to their world - and Pycelle no longer doubted that they came from another world. Not at all. Such power was not native to this world.

He had to consider this as well - and report it. To both the Citadel and Lord Tywin. If Marwyn succeeded in sending them home… That would undoubtedly be the best possible, and least dangerous, solution to the problem they presented.

Provided Marwyn was prevented from duplicating their powers, of course.

*****​

Outside King's Landing, Crownlands, Westeros, 298 AC

Tyrion Lannister kept clapping and smiling while Lady Ruby and her friends walked up to the King even though he wasn't sure if he should flee instead. He had known that the four girls were holding back - Jaime had confirmed it, and even the King had noticed it - but Tyrion had not expected just how much they had been hiding. Not merely their power, though seeing them run through brick walls without noticing would have been bad enough for his peace of mind.

No, they had revealed new abilities, each of them more terrifying than the other. Lady Ruby could run faster than the wind - she could literally create a storm in her wake to send people flying.

But that paled in comparison to Lady Weiss creating magical discs as easily, and as quickly, as waving her hand - and by the dozens. Tyrion had not studied magic in any depth, but what he had read had been clear about the fact that magic took effort and time - and a sacrifice. Fortunately, he had had the presence of mind to glance at the red priestess Stannis had brought to court when Lady Weiss had first started using her power, and he had caught the sheer shock and terror on the woman's face, before a smile had replaced it.

And Lady Yang! She had been literally on fire, with flames covering her entire body. And it hadn't been a trick of the mind - he had spotted the trampled grass catching fire near her. And yet, she had not burnt - she had used the blaze to fight, daring people to strike her and be consumed by her flames.

But Lady Blake had not been fazed. And why would she have been fazed when she could not only use her blade to strike from afar, sending magic… not arrows, nor bolts, more like slashes given form, in a way, at her opponent, but could split herself in two - or more parts - to fight.

Beware the quiet ones, he thought as Lady Blake stepped up to the cheering King. The other members of her group were more boisterous or more outgoing, but Lady Blake was the most dangerous.

And Tyrion's dear, demented sister had spent the last few months doing everything she could think of to antagonise Team Ruby. He could only hope that she would finally realise how outclassed she was, and stop. She had seemed shocked enough during the battle for such a realisation.

But would it last? Or would she manage to convince herself that fighting those girls wouldn't lead to her ruin as soon as she managed to annoy them enough? He had to talk to Jaime; the last thing his family - or the realm - needed was Cersei doing something stupid out of wounded pride. She was like Father in that regard, although while she had inherited all of Father's pride, most of his intelligence had skipped her.

The smallfolk broke out in loud cheering again when the King declared Lady Blake the champion of the tourney and handed over a golden crown. Lady Blake stared at it for a moment, suddenly looking confused, before she bent her neck and let the King crown her.

The smallfolk cheered their hearts and lungs out. Well, for them, there probably wasn't much of a difference between being at the mercy of their lords and being at the mercy of Team Ruby. But the nobles… Many of them who didn't know Team Ruby as well as Tyrion did just had a rude awakening.

Unfortunately, Tyrion thought as he glanced at his scowling sister, Cersei is obviously not amongst them.

He would have to speak to Jaime and tell him to rein in their sister. And send another letter to Father about this threat to their family. Before things escalated past the point where amends could be made. The girls were far more patient than any other noble he knew, especially given their horrifying power - albeit that might be why they were so patient; no one in Westeros could threaten them - but everyone's patience had limits, and some, such as Clegane, had already found out where some of those limits lay for Team Ruby.

If only Ser Gregor had listened to his order to avoid the four girls. But he hadn't, and Father would blame Tyrion for it, as he usually did, as if it was his fault that the Mountain had thrown a fit and not only killed a guard but then attacked a friend of the King. Tyrion wasn't the one who had kept that monster around to unleash on their enemies, should the occasion arise. Nor was he the one who had sent it to rape and kill Targaryen royalty.

Maybe he could use the fact that Lady Yang had crushed a knight's balls beyond any hope of recovery and the Maesters were still not sure if he would survive, maybe crippled, to his advantage? No, making a fuss about that would be pointless. Whether the knight lived or died - and many in his place would probably prefer death over living with their manhood crushed - didn't matter. He had insulted Lady Yang, and then, when she had thrown him to the ground in a - especially in hindsight - remarkable show of mercy and restraint, had attacked her with a sword. The fault was all his. Not that Lady Yang would have been brought to trial even if things had been different; Not only was she a favourite of the King, although not in the usual meaning of the word, but no one with even half their wits would try to bring any of the Four Maidens to justice. Well, except for Lord Stannis, of course.

Between the mess with the Mountain - Tyrion hadn't missed how Team Ruby had reacted to the tale of poor Princess Elia and her children, and everyone knew Father had given the orders to murder them - and Cersei determined to throw her life away for her pride, Tyrion had his work cut out for him if he wanted to save his family from destruction much less establish an alliance with the girls.

Preferably before Father arrived in King's Landing. Tyrion had no illusions how Father's usual manner and methods would be received by Lady Ruby and her friends. And how Father would react to their usual manners. Or lack thereof.

He kept smiling and clapping with the rest of the crowd - including the nobles - in between emptying the wineskin he had brought with him. If he was to survive this, he needed a drink.

*****​

The Red Keep, King's Landing, Crownlands, Westeros, 298 AC

Sitting in his office as Master of Coin, Lord Petyr Baelish took a deep breath. And then again. And once more. He had to stay calm. As he had on the way back from the tourney site. Not unfazed, he was not keeping up an appearance like a knight; that would have made people wary of him, but calm and controlled.

No matter that he had just seen four little girls demonstrating power beyond his wildest expectations. Enough power to tear down any enemy - power to reshape the land itself. Literally.

This didn't truly change anything, he reminded himself. He had known before that those four could lay waste to an army. It didn't matter that they could lay waste to two, or ten armies. That kind of power didn't matter since he wasn't going to fight them, anyway.

He was going to use them.

Yes.

He closed his eyes and let his breath out, then drank a glass of wine - arbor gold.

Yes, he was going to use them. They were more powerful than anyone else - more powerful than even the Targaryens when they still rode dragons.

But they were little girls. Inexperienced. Naive. Ignorant, And gullible. He had talked to them often enough to have their measure. They were as easy to manipulate as the King was - no, even more so; the King occasionally displayed cunning and insight. Petyr had experience with getting girls to work for him in his ventures.

Those girls? They knew nothing about Westeros. Not surprisingly, since they had arrived in the frozen North and befriended the Starks, and Lord Eddard was the single most naive lord in all of Westeros. He had filled their heads with silly notions about honour so they knew nothing about how the realm was actually ruled. In a manner, Petyr was thankful to Lord Eddard - any other Lord of his rank would have already bound the girls to himself one way or the other.

But as things were, the girls were not a threat - not to Petyr - but an opportunity. For all their power, they were weak where it counted. They cared far too much about the smallfolk, even the scum from the slums - Petyr's spies had told him about their encounters with beggars, thieves and their ilk. They spent their time with Stark's children and had a soft spot for street urchins, always willing to hand out coin to beggars. And since they were girls, they also cared far too much about men accosting women.

The only time they had truly used their power, had hurt anyone, was when faced with men trying to assault them. Two knights had done so, used to taking women when they could, and two knights had suffered grievously for it. But thieves? Those had been let go without even a lashing.

Their reaction to Petyr's story about the fate of Lady Elia and her children further proved it. They had no idea about how Westeros worked. About how power was to be used.

Petyr nodded firmly. Yes, he could use them for his own goals.

He would use them.

He just needed to present things just right to have them deal with his enemies and obstacles and create more opportunities for him. And he knew how to do that - Lord Eddard was already fooled, and the girls would follow.

Oh, yes. Those girls would work for him. And once they were under his control… Well, they were exotic beauties.

*****​

The Red Keep, King's Landing, Crownlands, Westeros, 298 AC

"The dust. It all comes down to the magic dust." Prince Joffrey Barathen nodded firmly as he paced in his quarters. The dog didn't answer, but he hadn't expected him to - he was Joffrey's sworn sword, a brute, not a mind to be picked when planning how to achieve the power of gods.

"Even when fighting each other, they kept the dust a secret. Even when that would, as they said themselves, handicap some of them more than others. The magic must be in the dust."

Joffrey knew that - he had eliminated all other possible explanations. If training hard would grant you such powers, the Kingsguard would be the equal to Team Ruby. And it wasn't the blood - he had overheard enough of Team Ruby's talk to deduce that while everyone in their world had the potential to be as strong as they were, they had weak peasants as well. They had to 'activate' their powers.

And that, unfortunately, this 'activation' didn't require a sacrifice like the Valyrian blood magic the Maester had mentioned, or the old magic of the North that Father's friend had attributed to those 'Children of the Forest' and their holy trees. Lady Ruby and her group's shocked reaction had clearly shown that they were not sacrificing people to fuel whatever ritual they used; Joffrey knew they were not faking that.

If only it were not so - there were more than enough people Joffrey could sacrifice for such a ritual. Thieves, murderers and other criminals, for one. Like the Mountain. Cutting the throat of the strongest knight in Westeros - or gutting him and watching him slowly die, writhing helplessly while his blood fed a ritual - would certainly have granted Joffrey great powers! He licked his lips at the - sadly not real - thought of flexing his new power while the light left the Mountain's eyes. Ah…

But it had to be the dust from their world. It could be used to enhance their power - they had admitted that - and if it could enhance their powers, it could grant them as well. At the very least, it should make you as strong and tough as Team Ruby. It was unknown in Westeros, and they had little of it left, but still enough to work magic - they had said so themselves when they had told Father that they wouldn't use it in their battle.

And what a battle it had been! "Have you ever imagined the likes of Team Ruby, Hound?" he asked. "That much power!"

The dog grunted something, and Joffrey frowned. The dog wasn't even paying attention, just staring at his cup - and why was he drinking so much when the feast was mere hours away? "Hound?"

That made the man look at him, and Joffrey drew a sharp breath at the sight of the man's expression. The dog's eyes were wide and he was almost snarling! What would…? Oh! Joffrey smirked. "They're terrifying, aren't they? Especially Lady Yang."

Another muttered curse followed, but Joffrey paid more attention to the dog's body - he was trembling. Despite his strength, he was terrified by the power Team Ruby had revealed. Weak.

Joffrey was not as weak, though. He wasn't afraid of power - it was his birthright. He couldn't wait to wield that power himself. Father and mother would be so proud - and once Team Ruby left, no one would be able to contest his power! People would bow to him as they did to Team Ruby. People would respect and fear him. And with good cause - he wasn't squeamish like Lady Ruby and her friends. He would crush any threat to the realm. He would make examples of his enemies until everyone bowed to him,

He would be the most powerful King of Westeros, ever!

He only needed the magic dust - and the knowledge of how to use it. Team Ruby guarded that knowledge, but Joffrey was smart. He could read between the lines and figure out how to use dust. He just needed to know a bit more.

*****​

The Red Keep, King's Landing, Crownlands, Westeros, 298 AC

Melisandre had practised her craft, had been blessed by R'hllor, for countless years. She had been raised in Asshai, had seen the worst and best Shadowbinders could do. She had touched the R'hllor's might herself, had seen visions in the fire that would have driven lesser minds mad.

And yet, she had never seen the like of what she had observed today. The powers Team Ruby had displayed were beyond what magic could accomplish. Not in scope - she was aware, had even seen, in visions and with her own eyes once, what the Valyrians had managed to achieve with blood magic, and what the girls had done would have paled in comparison. But that had taken a ritual, and countless slaves' lives bled dry to fuel it.

No, it was the speed and ease of use that stood out. None of the magic she was familiar with, neither the might of the Shadowbinders nor the deeds of the most experienced fleshcrafters, came as easily or quickly as the four women's use of their power - or as cheaply.

That was what would have proven, if she had ever doubted her visions, that those four were from another world: Magic always demanded a price. The stronger the power it granted you, the higher the price the caster or their sacrifice paid. And yet, 'Team Ruby' - and wasn't that a fateful name? - had worked magic without paying any price. A power truly beyond this world.

"What do you make of them?"

She turned to look at Lord Stannis. He didn't want her to recount what she had seen; he had watched the same fight she had. "They are genuine, my lord. They are from another world. As my vision told."

He nodded. "So, are the Others dead then? You've found your Azor Ahai?"

He seemed remarkably calm about this, for all that had happened. Melisandre had never outright stated that he was the prince who was promised - certainly not when she had still been searching to confirm her visions' information - but she had dropped hints about her suspicion. Not merely to flatter him and make him more receptive to her counsel either; he had fit the visions she'd had. Dragonstone, his home, undoubtedly was a place of salt and fire. And yet, the Others had been killed already; R'hllor had shown her that every time she had sought an answer. The lands of eternal winter covered in snow but not frozen under ice, devoid of all life. The Wall standing tall, not broken. The Wildlings fighting and raiding each other, not uniting in a desperate army to flee southward.

The great threat she had been working to stop all her life, for which she had been seeking Azor Ahai on the Red God's orders, had been dealt with.

She nodded. "They have died at the hands of Lady Ruby and her friends, my lord."

"Good." He nodded, and she caught a faint smile flickering over his face. Otherwise, he didn't show any reaction. She suppressed a snort. Of course, he would not be fazed - he was not the kind of man who desired anything more than what he thought was his due. If he wasn't Azor Ahai, then he wasn't. And if the threat to the world had been defeated, then he would not feel slighted or lessened by the fact that it hadn't been he who had struck the decisive blow. He did his duty, nothing more - but nothing less, either. "And will Team Ruby return to their world, as they claim is their goal?"

Now, that was the question. "I do not know yet, my lord," she replied - honestly. "The ice has melted, yet the flood has not yet swept through the land."

He scoffed. "Let's hope you will make sense of your vision before we all are buried under water."

She didn't bother explaining that it wasn't a literal vision; he knew that as well. "I will look into the fire as many times as I need to determine what R'hllor is telling me, my lord."

"Do that." He nodded curtly and, always the dutiful, returned to read through a stack of missives the Onion Knight had brought from Dragonstone.

Despite his gruff dismissal, she wasn't worried that he'd send her away; his wife was one of the faithful, and Melisandre had proven her visions' worth. And Lord Stannis was perfectly aware that he needed her help to ensure that the comet that had melted the ice wouldn't melt the Iron Throne.

What she had seen today certainly confirmed that the four maidens had the power to do that - both literally and metaphorically. And Meslisandre had yet to figure out their goals. And whether R'hllor wanted her to help them - or to stop them.

*****​

The Red Keep, King's Landing, Crownlands, Westeros, 298 AC

Varys kept his pleasant smile and demeanour up all the way from the tourney's field until he reached his private quarters. Only when he had closed the door behind him, locked it, and checked the secret passage behind the wall in the back for eavesdroppers, did he allow himself to shudder and collapse into his softest chair with his eyes squeezed shut.

Magic! Foul magic, the likes of it he had never seen, had been demonstrated, and the ignorant masses and the simpleminded fools who fancied themselves nobles had cheered at the display! They didn't know what Varys knew! They didn't know what those women had brazenly revealed today!

He had known they were powerful, but not how powerful they were - and how foul. He should have realised, of course - but he had clung to the hope that they were merely born powerful, like others were born smart. That their strength was due to a legacy thought lost in the Age of Heroes. Or maybe a blessing from one of the gods.

But the fight today - undoubtedly staged to further their goals, though Varys had yet to find out which those goals were; they were apt at misdirection and hiding their thoughts behind a facade of youthful innocence as false as a traitor's promises. If Varys didn't know better, even he might have believed their claims as the Fat King had.

But knowing what he did, he could only guess how many lives they had taken, how many people they had mutilated and sacrificed to gain such powers and strength - and such apparent youth - but it had to have been hundreds, maybe thousands, each, who had been drained of their life, maybe their very souls, for this.

Those four women were, without a doubt, the most vile persons he had ever seen - and the most dangerous. Their mere presence could ruin every one of his plans and schemes. One of them could stop all the sellswords he and his allies might hire in Essos. The Golden Company would not last an hour against what he had seen today. Even the Dothraki Hordes, united, wouldn't be able to defeat them. He had to adjust all his plans and contingencies.

But, most importantly, he had to find out what their goals were. They could have conquered the entire realm, more easily than Aegon the Conqueror had. So, why hadn't they taken the throne for themselves? Why bother with putting up their innocent act? Why did they cater to the fat King's whims? To get access to his library? To get money? Resources? They could take all of that; they had the power. It made no sense!

What were they planning? They were good at hiding their true nature, their real goals. His little birds had been stymied at every occasion - on the streets and in the castle. He didn't dare send them after those monsters any more; magic could make anyone talk, even those whose tongue had been cut. And he couldn't move against them until he knew what they wanted.

Or could he?

They were untouchable on the battlefield, but even the mightiest men - or beasts - could be felled with the right poison. And Varys knew how to administer such a tool without revealing his involvement; he was familiar with everyone and every procedure in the Keep's kitchen.

And if that failed, there were always the Faceless Men. They would demand a high price, but nothing he couldn't afford. And it was delightfully elegant to set magic-using assassins against those foul witches. The Faceless Men might even consider the apparent immortality of those four abominations an insult against their god…

And it wasn't as if the witches were invulnerable. They had a weakness - themselves. They put up a united front, but people using foul magic were not the trustworthy or loyal sort. And they had not spared each other today; the four witches had fought with all their might and had hurt each other in their desire to win. They had their pride as well - Varys had paid attention to how they talked amongst themselves.

Varys slowly nodded. He would have to delay his plans in Essos a little longer - he couldn't risk any of his pawns there against the four witches - but his situation wasn't hopeless. He had to be very, very cautious, but he had played this game for a long time. He had survived the Mad King; he could do this.

One way or another, those witches would be removed from the game.

*****​

The Great Sept of Baelor, King's Landing, Crownlands, Westeros, 298 AC

Garys trembled as he stepped into the sept proper. What he had seen today… Oh, he had heard the stories, but he would have never imagined this! To see four maidens blessed by the Seven demonstrate their divine power! To bear witness as deeds foretold in the Seven-Pointed Star took place in this day and age! It felt as if he himself had been touched by the Seven, graced with a faint echo of the blessings bestowed upon the Four Maidens.

He took a deep shivering breath and looked around. Didn't the statues of the Seven look more imposing today? Had they, too, been affected by this? He hastened to the bench directly in front of the Maiden to pray; fortunately, there was still a spot free amongst the others fervently praying. "Oh, blessed Maiden, I thank you for…" he blinked as he heard the prayers from the man next to him.

"...and deliver us from this evil! Banish those witches to the darkness from which they have come! Smite them down before their magic ensnares and corrupts the unwary!"

He gasped. Blasphemy! "How dare you besmirch the Four Maidens' reputation! They are blessed by the Seven-Who-Are-One!"

"What?" the man - Rufus, a fellow Septon! - snarled at him. "They are witches! Have you not seen their foul, unnatural magics? How their shadows came alive, how they conjured whirlwinds to devastate the country? Their heathen symbols lit up the sky as they burned with unholy fire!"

"Were you blind?" Garys clenched his teeth. "The whirlwind didn't hurt anyone! The fire - the purifying flames - didn't burn them because they are pure! Those were not shadows come alive, but manifestations of their souls! And those symbols allowed them to ascend to the sky, to watch over us! Cease your blasphemic rants!"

"'Blasphemic rants'? How dare you speak in the Seven's name when you slander their faithful like this!" Rufus bared his teeth at him like an animal.

"Such deeds were foretold! Have you never read the Seven-Pointed Star?" Garys shot back.

"Do not insult the Four Maidens or the Seven will strike you down!" Someone yelled behind him.

"They are the instruments of the Seven, here to protect us!"

Garys nodded. The faithful knew the truth. They would…"

"Do not let witches lure you astray! They will twist and fool you! Stay true to your faith! Follow the Seven, not the four!"

"The Seven protect us! Protect us from the witches and their helpers!"

That… Garys stood. "Silence! This is a sept, a holy place! Not a location to slander those blessed by the gods!"

"If they were blessed by the gods, why haven't they ever set foot in a sept?" Rufus yelled. "They cannot enter because the gods would smite them down!"

"Blasphemy! They do not need to enter since they are blessed by the Seven - they are always walking in their presence!" Garys shouted back.

"Lies!" Rufus grabbed Garys's robes, and Gary's fist lashed out in response, hitting him on his ugly nose.

Rufus stumbled back, letting go of Garys, but before Garys could say anything, another man grabbed him, and then everyone, faithful and blasphemers alike, was fighting.

*****​

Street of Steel, King's Landing, Crownlands, Westeros, 298 AC

Gendry grimaced when he saw the gold cloaks arrive at the foot of the steps leading up to the Great Sept. "The watch is here, Master!" he called out.

"They're late!" Master Mott grunted without looking up from his papers.

Gendry wasn't fooled by his seeming lack of reaction - when the fighting had spilt out of the Great Sept, Master Mott had hurried to close and bar the door, and had sent him to fill as many buckets with water that Gendry could manage, in case this became a riot.

Though dozens of howling men, and some women, and a great number of septons, all brawling in public was a riot in his opinion - apparently, Mott's standards were higher based upon his experiences in Qohor.

Well, Gendry had been born here, not in Qohor. He winced when he saw the gold cloaks starting to break up the brawl - by hitting everyone near them until people stopped fighting and started fleeing. He saw a few people not get up after the gold cloaks passed over them.

"Are they winning? The gold cloaks?" Master Mott asked.

"Yes," Gendry replied.

"Good. Can't have such disorder in a city."

"But… that started in the sept." Gendry wasn't an expert - he could read and do his numbers, but he had not really cared about the law except how it applied to smithing - but gold cloaks attacking Septons was not done, was it? The Faith would not stand for that - they were the voice of the Seven. And yet… "Septons were fighting each other!" Shouldn't the Seven have prevented that?

Motto huffed. "Fools don't become smart just because they pray." He shuffled his papers. "Forget them. The Fat Septon will settle things and explain that the King's will is the will of the Seven. And since the King likes Lady Ruby and her friends, the Seven approve of them as well."

Gendry frowned. Sure, everyone knew that the High Septon was the King's man - or the Queen's, Gendry hadn't quite sorted out the difference - but… surely he'd not follow the King's wishes against the will of the Seven? That would be blasphemy! But… "Do you think they're witches, master?" Lady Yang couldn't be a witch! She was far too nice and honest for that - she was a great smith! And her sister, Lady Ruby, was a smith as well! "Surely, they are blessed by the Seven!"

Mott made another scoffing noise. "Witches or blessed by the gods, no power like that comes without a price."

"What price, Master?"

"Nothing good. But let's not talk about that. We have our own troubles to worry about, boy."

Gendry frowned. They had troubles? Business was great! The news that the Four Maidens frequented the smithy and taught them their skills had brought plenty of people into the shop. Sure, it was a bit generous to claim that they were taught their secrets, but only a bit. The maidens had shown them their weapons and told them about techniques, only they were too advanced for even Master Mott to copy. "You've raised the prices and yet people buy even more than before." Where was the problem?

"People associate us with the Lady Ruby and her friends," Mott said. "For good or ill."

"Oh. That was why you told me to be careful around the Lannisters, right?" It was an open secret that the Queen disliked the Four Maidens.

"Mhhh." Master Mott nodded.

"But the King likes them." And King Robert was far more powerful than the Queen, everyone knew that. Women had to obey their husbands as maidens had to obey their fathers.

"And let's hope that stays so," Master Mott said.

Why wouldn't it stay? Who - except for the Queen, and probably other noblewomen who were jealous of the Maiden's power and beauty and grace - wouldn't like them? They were friendly, kind even to smallfolk bastards like Gendry, who didn't know their father, and they were blessed by the Seven.

And they could destroy an army as easily as they had destroyed the fighting ring. Gendry didn't know much, but he knew how strong you had to be to smash bricks like that - or to carve the ground with your blade as if it were a plough.

"So, be on your guard, boy. Don't trust anyone. And if things ever change for the worse, be ready to leave the city."

Gendry nodded, but he felt his Master was overly worried. Both Lord Stark and the King's brother frequented the smithy, in addition to Lady Yang and the others. And they were well-known for their honour. Neither Lord Stannis nor Lord Stark would let the Queen hurt people out of petty jealousy.

And why would anyone want to hurt him, anyway? He was just an apprentice smith.

*****​

The Red keep, King's Landing, Crownlands, Westeros, 298 AC

"Beware! You are facing Lady Ruby, the Whirlwind of Death! You will die for defying her!"

"And Yang the Burning… uh… Bust?"

"You can't call her Burning Bust, Bran!"

"Well, it has to fit 'burning'. Oh! The Firey Fist!"

"That's… not good either."

Eddard Stark was reconsidering his decision to keep his children inside the Tower of the Hand today. Hearing them innocently trying to figure out new titles for Lady Ruby's group was more than a bit unnerving after what he had seen yesterday. But with the Septons seemingly going mad and attacking each other, and whipping up the smallfolk to follow them, it just wasn't safe. Especially around Team Ruby. Gods, the things they had done!

Despite knowing them longer than anyone else at court, he had still underestimated them. Robert had been right; they had been holding back far more than Ned had thought possible. To think that they had been hiding this kind of power! Ned had thanked the Old Gods with all his heart that Lady Ruby and her friends were as merciful as they were powerful. If Lady Yang had taken offence at being mistaken for a bastard… Ned had heard what she had done to a knight who had called her a whore. The man's groin had been crushed despite the armor he had been wearing. He was lingering on but not expected to survive despite the Maester's treatment. And Lady Blake had taken down the Mountain almost effortlessly.

The girls - the Maidens - were kind and merciful, but they had limits, and any man crossed them at his peril. To know that a single misstep could mean your doom… Ned snorted, once. Some of the people at court probably deserved such worries, if only to realise that no matter how powerful you were, there was always someone more powerful. That's why honour was so important. Otherwise, people were at the mercy of the most powerful.

It was also a good thing that Robert was so close to them. If what Ned had stumbled upon when he had been looking into Jon Arryn's affairs was true, then they would need the help of Lady Ruby and her friends to prevent a catastrophe. Ned couldn't think of anyone else who might be able to hold Robert back, should his friend fly into a rage. Literally, in this case.

But whether it was true or not remained to be found. So far, Ned had seen no proof, only clues. But every clue he had found had pointed in the same direction…

He sighed. Compared to this, organising the trial of the Mountain was almost relaxing, even though he disliked how people tried to influence justice for politics. At least Lord Stannis stood firm against that kind of nonsense.

"Lady Blake, the… Flying Blade? She could throw out a magic blade with a cut of her sword."

"Then it should be 'Magic Blade'. And it's called Aura Slash, Bran."

"Magic Blade sounds stupid."

"You don't have a better idea either!"

Yes, listening to his children quarrelling was relaxing compared to his other tasks. If only he had stayed in the North. But Robert had needed him, and Ned was not the kind of man to neglect a friend. Doubly so if his friend was also his King.

*****​

Haunted Forest, The North, Westeros, 298 AC

"It makes no sense," Brynden muttered. No matter where and how he looked, he couldn't make sense of it.

"We know," Leaf replied. "The Others have fallen, but we don't know why."

"We know why," Brynden said. "Because four girls killed them all." It had taken him embarrassingly long to figure out that they had told the truth to the Night's Watch. So much time wasted…

Leaf frowned at him, her wide eyes narrowing. "We don't know why they appeared and did it. But we know they aren't from this world. The place where they appeared showed us that."

Brynden had to take her word for it. He had vast powers - for which he had paid a terrible price - but the Children of the Forest knew and sensed things not even he could perceive. "Four girls, from another world, let loose on this one… How do we save the world from a danger that easily defeated the Others?"

"We don't know if they are a danger," Leaf stubbornly replied.

Even if they really only wished to return to their world, they were a danger. Brynden knew what desperation could drive men to do - he knew that from personal experience. The plans he had made, the things he had been ready to do to stop the Long Night… But that was the past. "They are too powerful." And he couldn't yet decide what was more dangerous - if they had secret plans to use their power for their own goals, or if they were truly as naive as they presented themselves. Because then they would be used by people who couldn't be trusted with this power.

Leaf nodded. "We cannot help you in the South."

He knew that. The Children of the Forest, as few as were left, had been driven out of the South a long time ago. It fell to him to use his powers to find out the truth.

And then to devise a way to get rid of that danger.

*****​

The Red keep, King's Landing, Crownlands, Westeros, 298 AC

Queen Cersei Lannister paced in her quarters. She wanted to scream so much, she bit her lower lip to stop herself. The pain was nothing compared to the loss of her dignity. A Queen, a Lannister, didn't show such weakness! Not even in the face of the most heinous threat!

A threat in the form of four girls - not maidens! They might fool the imbeciles surrounding her family, but Cersei could see through their act; they were wanton women using their wiles to lead the men by their cocks! Men such as the bastard following them like a beaten dog begging for scraps, men such as Stark, who had ordered his lady wife to stay behind in the North while he moved to King's Landing in the company of four shameless girls. He even brought his bastard with him as if he wished to advertise his plans to the entire kingdom!

And men such as Robert. As if anyone with even just a passing acquaintance would believe that he wasn't bedding the lot of 'Team Ruby' - even Stark had admitted that Robert knew them better than he did. No, Robert was flaunting his affairs, humiliating her in front of everyone! Cersei knew how people were whispering, mocking her, when they thought she wasn't paying attention. That was all Robert's fault - and the girls'! Without them, without their unnatural tricks, he would not be able to fool her spies and hide the evidence of his affairs!

Evidence that humiliated her - and would not be tolerated!

Because those whores were plotting against her. They were all but shouting in Cersei's ear that they were working with Stark, Stannis and Renly. She saw them plotting in the open at the feasts. And the whole city knew that they met at that foreigner's smithy - where one of Robert's bastards worked. That beast had been hiding him under Cersei's nose!

Even if no one else could see it, Cersei could - they were plotting her downfall. First, they seduced Lord Stark, the Warden of the North. But then they set their sights on the King. And once they had seduced Robert, they started working on the last obstacle between them and the throne; Cersei. She could see the signs, the clues left all over the place. The veiled insults dropped under a pretense of naivety. The barbed remarks by that Valyrian whore - at least her scar ensured she wouldn't be the one who was more beautiful than Cersei. And the blatant move against her family by that near-mute menace when she ambushed the Mountain, the strongest bannerman of her family, to deprive Cersei of him.

And then, with that out of the way and Cersei humiliated every day, they were now moving to get rid of her. That display at the tourney had not been a fight, no real contest - no, it had been a planned performance to awe the foolish and cow those with the brains to realise the danger. They would not hesitate to move even more blatantly against her, Cersei knew. Even her own ladies-in-waiting were getting scared, suddenly finding excuses to leave to visit their families - they feared that those girls would make examples out of them, to isolate Cersei even further.

They would probably try to turn her children, her own flesh and blood, against her as well - and then kill them once they were no longer useful. As the final step before removing Cersei.

As she had heard foretold, years ago when she had been but a child, from the lips of that accursed wood witch. She would be queen, but she would see her children die and would be ruined and replaced by a younger and more beautiful queen.

But she wouldn't let them! She was a Lannister! She was too proud, too smart, to succumb to them. They thought her beaten, humiliated, forced to wait helplessly while they played with her like a cat played with a mouse?

She was not a mouse! She was a lioness! She would show them! They and their allies would rue the day they moved against Cersei! She would triumph in the end.

A Lannister always paid her debts!

*****​

 

[Starfox5]

She is from Asshai.Of course,that nobody normal should trust her.

Click to shrink...

Yeah.

@Starfox5

Is this true? And by volume 2, does it mean their hunter outfits?

Spoiler: Volume 2

source: rwby reddit

Click to shrink...

Ah, the story diverges after Volume 2 Episode 4, "Painting the Town", and in Episode 5 they're wearing the Volume 1 outfits, so I went with those.

 

[eager slacker]

Mott exudes the I'm too old for this grandpa energy. Out of the whole lot he's the most grounded and nonchalant and I love it. Also it's gonna be hilarious to see all these schemes crash up against each other.

 

[Renko]

the Volume 1 outfits, so I went with those.

Click to shrink...

Just for the sake of clarification and to finally set things straight, Team RWBY in this story are wearing their volume one outfits?

Spoiler: Yes?

source: reddit

 

[Starfox5]

Just for the sake of clarification and to finally set things straight, Team RWBY in this story are wearing their volume one outfits?

Spoiler: Yes?

source: reddit

Click to shrink...

Yes.

 

[Mike9650]

Loving the reactions. It's so juicy!

 

[Renko]

Yes.

Click to shrink...

Thank you! Finally, I can put this personal issue to rest.

Spoiler: On another note, if it were up to me...

I'll have Ruby wear her volume 4 outfit with the color scheme of her outfit from volume 1.

Same thing with Weiss, in her volume 4 outfit with color of her first.

Blake in her volume 4 but without the white jacket.

And Yang in her volume 1. But she's wearing an open vest instead of the semi-closed puffy short-sleeved jacket.

My reason? The choice of clothes further emphasize the "liberal and revealing" nature of RWBY's clothing as compared to the ones Westorosi women wear, both commoner and noble!

Ruby basically got the mini skirt and thigh highs combo, Zettai Ryōiki style!

Weiss got the whole mini skirt and bare legs angle along with a slight reveal around her neck and chest.

Blake, when you remove the jacket, got bare arms and a revealing midriff.

And I find Yang's short shorts and chest size gets a lot of attention!

So, what do you guys think?

 

[ATP]

Yes.

Click to shrink...

Well, i could undarstand why somebody like Mountain could think that fighting Blake is good idea.He is probably too stupid to recognize danger if it look like young girl in strange clothes.


Thanks for chapter - and now we have:
1.Bealish plotting to control RWBY ,and seduce them.Maybe even using them in his brothel.
2.Joeffrey planning to get their Dust and become superman
3.Varys planning to murder them
4.Cersei planning the same
5.Tyrion drinking himself to death before his family stupidity kill him
6.Marwyn happy becouse other Archemages must say that he was right now.
7.Brynden thinking about either helping them or killing.

But,we have one good information -
Leaf frowned at him, her wide eyes narrowing. "We don't know why they appeared and did it. But we know they aren't from this world. The place where they appeared showed us that."

I think it could mean,that children MAYBE could help them go home.

Did i miss something?

 

[Starfox5]

Chapter 16: Consequences

'It goes without saying that the reports according to which the Four Maidens had an affair with Prince Oberyn Nymeros Martell and his paramour Ellaria Sand are baseless inventions of those who wanted to invent closer ties between the Order of the Ruby and Dorne, either to hurt the Four Maidens' reputation or to enhance Dorne's reputation depending on if the respective authors were biased for or against Dorne's culture. If the Four Maidens had actually engaged in such activities with Prince Oberyn and his lover, they could not have kept it secret, and, given the reputation of Dorne and the Martells' relationship toward the various other realms and noble houses of Westeros at the time, it certainly would have been reported by almost everyone. And yet, we have only unsubstantiated rumours, often spread years after the events, and no confirmed information. As with the various other claims of affairs or even betrothals - often rather pathetic attempts to add importance and legitimacy to the author's ancestry - it is, therefore, clear that they never took place.'

• A Treatise On The Ruby Order, by Maester Kennet Bracken

*****​

The Red keep, King's Landing, Crownlands, Westeros, 298 AC

Stannis Baratheon ground his teeth. His brother the King was late again for the meeting of the Small Council. And his fellow members of the council, even Lord Eddard, who, as both the King's Hand and his best friend, was poised best to set Robert straight, didn't seem to take offence at this - as if this wasn't wasting their time as much as it was wasting his. Stannis had work to do! Unlike some of the members, he didn't neglect his duty!

"Well, we can lay the rumour that Robert has taken up training in the morning with the Four Maidens in order to gain their powers to rest, I think," Renly, never serious, and not quite as witty as he thought himself to be, commented.

Baelish, the sycophant, chuckled in response. However, to Stannis's surprise, Varys didn't make a bland comment in his usual tittering tone. The Master of Whispers merely nodded. And the Grand Maester, who oversaw the Ravens of the Red Keep and would be privy to all messages before even the King, looked a little off as well…

Was that a portent of grave news? They had heard about the betrothal between Princess Daenerys and that Dothraki Khal, Drogo, but nothing new since. If anything changed… Stannis needed to know if he had to order the Royal Fleet to sea to intercept an invasion fleet. The best way to fight those Barbarians was when they were confined to ships - they couldn't use their horses at sea, and Stannis was sure he could sink enough of the ships carrying them for the survivors to be easily dealt with by the banners of whatever part of Westeros they landed.

Lord Eddard might be afraid of the Horde's skill at arms and their vaunted light cavalry tactics, but Stannis put his trust in his sailors; they would not let him or the realm down - he had trained them for over a decade.

But only if they could put to sea in time to do their duty.

Just when he was about to ask the Master of Whispers, the door opened and the King and Ser Barristan entered. Stannis saw at once that Robert was in a good mood - his brother smiled widely. "I see everyone survived the feast! Not that everyone was in danger of drinking too much, of course!" he joked, clapping Stannis on the back as he passed his seat. "Though some certainly could have done with a little indulging!"

Stannis ground his teeth again. Robert's jests were as annoying as Renly's, if in a different way, making light of those who actually worked hard for the betterment of the realm, instead of indulging in their whims!

Robert eased himself into his seat - though Stannis noted that he didn't quite fill it as much as he used to before Stannis withdrew to his seat following Lord Jon's suspicious death - and grabbed a cup of wine. He took a deep swallow. "Ah… I needed that! So…" He looked at Lord Eddard, of course. "What do you have for me, Ned? I'll sign it and then get out of your hair."

"Your Grace, there are a few urgent and important matters you need to know and which require a decision," Lord Eddard replied. "First, the matter of the… brawl in the Great Sept," he said with a glance at Renly.

"My gold cloaks handled it," Renly said with a shrug. "It was hardly a major affair. We've had drunken brawls that were larger."

"I don't think Septons fighting each other in public - and inside the Great Sept - is something to be taken lightly," Baelish said. "There might not have been much rioting, but they could easily have set the sept ablaze in their fervour over whether the Four Maidens are blessed by the gods or sold their souls for their powers."

Stannis scoffed, both at the attempt to criticise Renly - his brother wouldn't care about Baelish's opinion - and the implication that this was a huge problem. "It is up to the High Septon to keep his house in order," he said. "As long as it doesn't endanger the city, let the Septons quarrel as much as they want inside the sept."

"Stannis advocating a hands-off approach?" Renly gasped theatrically. "Did you truly have a revelation and join the flock of the Red God, as some wagging tongues claim?"

Stannis hadn't. His wife, however, had. But neither was of any importance here. "Religious questions are only the business of the King when they threaten the stability of the realm," he said.

"I would think that if some fanatics consider four close friends of the King as witches, it does concern the stability of the realm," Varys spoke up. "Imagine if this would spread and more smallfolk came to share this opinion! If they thought that those girls controlled the King through witchcraft!" He shook his head. "The days of the Faith Militant might be past, but even so, there could be great unrest if this is not addressed."

"If anyone is as stupid as to accuse the four girls as witches, they have only themselves to blame for what befalls them," Robert spat. "Besmirching the honour of the four most powerful warriors anyone has ever seen? Hah! I would crush them myself, if not for the fact that Lady Ruby wouldn't want me to."

Stannis nodded. The Four Maidens might be able to crush any army any realm in the world might be able to field, but they did not abuse their power. And they were friendly with Robert - Stannis's brother had a way with making friends which was a boon to the realm.

"I fear that poor knight who mistook Lady Yang for a woman with more questionable morals would disagree with that assessment - if he were still able to voice his thoughts," Varys said. "I have heard he is not expected to survive the next night."

Pycelle winced and Lord Eddard frowned, but Robert snorted. "Serves him right! You don't insult and then attack those who can crush you like a bug!"

Stannis nodded again. If you were attacked, you defended yourself. While he hadn't bothered to investigate - he wasn't the Master of Law - what he had heard was quite clear: The knight had insulted Lady Yang, and, when she had chastised him, had proceeded to attack her. Whether he had drawn steel was not quite as clear, but that didn't matter for the law.

"Well, no one is asking to put Lady Yang to trial for that," Renly said.

"And if they did dare, I'd deal with them!" Robert growled. "And, speaking of trials…"

"Can we settle the matter of the Great Sept first?" Lord Eddard spoke up. "So, do we leave that to the High Septon?"

"It's his sept," Renly said. "And he is responsible for religious matters."

Robert scoffed, "Just have the fool invite Lady Ruby and her friends into the Great Sept. If their gods disapprove of them, they can do something about it then."

"That would be an elegant way for the High Septon to avoid taking a stance," Renly said. "I am sure if someone suggested it to him, he would see the wisdom in it."

Stannis rolled his eyes. They should let the High Septon handle this himself. But it was none of his business.

Lord Eddard nodded. "As long as it's not an order."

"Perish the thought!" Renly chuckled. "I wouldn't dare to try and order the High Septon around."

Stannis didn't believe him, but that wasn't his business either.

"With that settled, there's the matter of Ser Gregor Clegane's trial," Lord Eddard said. "We should set a date."

Varys cleared his throat. "House Martell will want to attend. I fear they would be offended if the murderer of their kin were tried without them."

Stannis frowned. "Ser Gregor won't be tried for the death of Princess Elia but for the murder of his guard. The Martells have no stake in this case, and there is no reason to delay justice." Politics should never influence justice.

Renly chuckled, once. "I think they would disagree, brother. And even if they agreed, they still would want to see Clegane's head roll."

"If it comes to that," Baelish said.

"Do you doubt that he will be found guilty?" Renly raised his eyebrows. "Or do you think he'll win the trial by combat that he will certainly demand?"

"No. But whoever of the Four Maidens will end up facing him might just crush him like a bug." Baelish laughed at his feeble - and gauche - jest. Really, quoting the King's own words was a pathetic display of empty flattery!

Stannis frowned even more deeply, but Robert spoke up before he could tell the Master of Coins that you didn't joke about justice: "We can delay the trial until the Martells arrive - I assume they already know about it?" he looked at Pycelle.

"Yes, Your Grace," the spineless Grand Maester replied. "I expect a raven from Sunspear any day to announce that they are already on the way to King's Landing. If the weather remains favourable, they could be here in less than ten days."

That was about right for the trip at sea, Stannis knew.

"Good. We'll delay the trial then. Maybe seeing the Mountain die will make them happier with us." Robert snorted. "At the very least, seeing one of the Four Maidens fight will give them pause."

Renly nodded. "We can say that the Mountain needs more time to recover so he can stand and fight in the trial."

"Good idea, Renly. That should stop any complaints."

Stannis ground his teeth again. This was… It wasn't injustice, but it threw a shade on the trial. At least the Dornish ships were fast, so it shouldn't delay the trial overly much.

"And what about Lord Tywin?" Pycelle asked.

"What about him?" Robert asked gruffly.

"Ser Gregor is his bannerman," the Grand Maester went on, leaving no doubt whose coin he took. "If the trial is delayed for the Martells, shouldn't Lord Tywin also have the opportunity to attend?"

Renly laughed. "I doubt he wants to be reminded of that."

"He's in the Rock, isn't he?" Robert didn't wait for an answer from Pycelle. "It would take him over a month to travel to King's Landing. We won't wait for him. There are already far too many Lannisters in the city, anyway. If House Lannister wants to attend the trial, Tywin can pick anyone he wants."

Stannis agreed with that. Even though if what Lord Eddard and he were investigating was true - and he had no doubt at this point - then Lord Tywin being in King's Landing, far from his home, would certainly help with containing the consequences, justice shouldn't be delayed because of politics.

*****​

The Red keep, King's Landing, Crownlands, Westeros, 298 AC

"They want us to visit their Great Sept?" Ruby Rose peered at the message on the table in their room and frowned. "I thought only those who believed in the Seven Gods were allowed to enter it." And she didn't believe in them.

"According to the gossip I overheard, they want to see if we will be struck down by the Seven if we set foot into the sept," Blake explained from her usual spot at the wall next to the window.

"Ah." Ruby nodded.

Weiss scoffed. "A clever way to settle their religious dispute. It seems their High Septon is not as stupid as the Queen claims."

Yang, lying on the bed next to the window, hands folded behind her head, snorted. "If Cersei says one thing, assume the opposite."

"It's not quite as bad," Weiss said, "but I can't deny it's a good rule of thumb. Although we haven't met since the tourney ended, so she might have reconsidered her attitude."

That would be a good thing. Ruby was tired of the… bitching from the Queen. They had never done anything to her, so why was she so angry at them?

Yang laughed. "Do you honestly think that will happen?"

"No, I don't," Weiss admitted with a wry smile.

"Whatever!" Ruby spoke up. "We'll have to visit - you've heard about the riots. If this will stop the fighting, then we have to do it." So far, no one had died, but people had gotten hurt - a lot of them. They had a duty to stop that, if they could.

"What if this is a trap?" Yang asked. "Let us enter and drop some of that 'Wildfire' stuff on us, and then claim it was their gods?"

"We should be fine," Weiss said. "Our Auras should be able to withstand such fire even if we shouldn't spot the trap in advance."

"That's a lot more 'should' than I feel comfortable with," Yang replied.

"And I have heard it's not normal fire, but something really nasty," Ruby said. Lord Renly had explained that when he had told them what the last king had done. Burning people alive… She shuddered.

Weiss sniffed. "They think we're blessed by their gods, too. They don't have high standards."

"Just saying," Yang rolled her shoulders as she sat up. "As you'd say, it isn't good optics if we end up fighting the septons in their most holy sept."

"If we refused their invitation, it would be even worse," Weiss shot back. "Rumours about us being evil, unnatural witches would be all over the place."

Blake nodded in agreement.

"We will do it," Ruby repeated herself. "But we look out for ambushes and traps."

"Of course!" Yang grinned at Blake. "Our champion will root out any nefarious ploy they might have!"

Blake snorted in return, but she also nodded at Yang. "We'll do our best."

"Hell yeah, we will!"

Weiss sighed. "Let's hope they aren't as foolish as to try such a ploy. Judging by what I heard, the High Septon wouldn't dream of going after the King's wishes, but we might have shocked a lot of people with our fight."

Yang's grin grew wider, but Blake nodded. "Yes. We scared a lot of people."

Ruby winced. Blake would know - she had been listening to the people in the Red Keep all morning. In hindsight, that should have been obvious - most of the people watching the fight had never seen them before. They didn't know Team RWBY, and so it was only logical that they would be scared. And scared people weren't rational. "So, we really need to show them that we're not some… evil witches." It felt really weird to say that. But they were in another world, and Marvyn insisted that magic was real, and he should know. Though he also thought Aura and Semblances were magical, so… She shook her head. That didn't really matter in this case.

"Yep. Shouldn't take long - we go in, we go out, we're done in a minute," Yang said. "And then we can go to Mott's and check how he's doing with the tools."

Weiss, of course, looked annoyed. "We can't just rush this! This is an important event - a ceremony of great religious significance. If we appear not to take it seriously, the locals will not trust their test."

"Well, I don't take it seriously," Yang said. "But, fine, let's stay a bit longer."

"It won't hurt us to do this right," Ruby said. If any visitor left her home after a minute, she would feel hurt and wonder what she had done wrong.

*****​

Great Sept of Bealor, King's Landing, Crownlands, Westeros, 298 AC

An hour later, when she saw the crowd gathered at the entrance of the Great Sept of Baelor, Ruby had to suppress a wince. The streets - even the pretty wide (for King's Landing, at least) Street of Steel - were packed!

"Wow! Looks like half the city's here!" Yang whistled behind her.

"If half the city were here, the crowd would fill a much larger area," Weiss said. "But I have to admit that this is a bigger crowd than I expected. I think I underestimated how much the locals value their faith."

Ruby nodded and tried not to fidget. They could do this, anyway. Provided they could reach the entrance - the crowd was pretty packed. Although… "Weiss! Create a path of your glyphs in the air so we can walk to the entrance!"

"That's… actually a good idea," Weiss agreed. She raised Myrtenaster, and a series of glyphs hovering in the air appeared, forming a line of stepping stones that led from them to the entrance of the sept.

"Thanks! Come on, team! Let's go!" Ruby jumped on the closest glyph and started hopping from one glyph to the next.

The crowd gasped and pointed, but Ruby managed to ignore them by focusing on the jumps she had to make - it would be very embarrassing if she mistimed her jump and fell on someone below.

But she didn't, and she made a perfect landing at the top of the stairs leading to the sept. "Hello!" she greeted the guards and Septons standing there. "We're here to meet the High Septon! He invited us," she added after a moment.

Half of them stared at her and her friends with open mouths - hadn't they paid attention at the tourney? - but others nodded and ran off. And not a minute later, the High Septon arrived. Well, Ruby assumed he was the High Septon since he wore a different robe and was as fat or fatter than the King, and Blake had found out that he was also called the Fat Septon (though that didn't sound very nice).

"Lady Ruby!" He seemed a bit out of breath. Had he run to the door? "Lady Weiss. Lady Blake. Lady Yang. Welcome to the Great Sept of Baelor. We are honoured that you deigned to visit us!" He bowed his head. "I am the High Septon."

"He's laying it on pretty thick, huh?" Yang whispered behind her. Ruby hoped the man didn't hear her - Weiss was already glaring at her sister.

"Thank you, High Septon," Ruby replied, bowing her head, as Weiss had told her to when they had been preparing. "We are honoured by your invitation."

"Be welcome in our sept, then!"

Ruby glanced at Blake, who gave her a tiny nod, before nodding more emphatically herself and following the High Septon inside.

She knew that she wouldn't burt into flames or get struck by lightning - though if she were, her Aura could take it, probably - but she still felt a bit relieved when she walked inside without anything weird happening (except for many people gasping and muttering - the inside was packed except for the middle lane leading to the altair).

Yang, of course, smiled widely and struck a quick pose when she stopped next to Ruby, which caused even more whispering.

The High Septon, though, beamed at them. "You walk with the blessings of the Seven, my ladies!" he said in a loud voice, and the crowd muttered and whispered even more.

"Please, have a seat; we shall pray to the Seven so they will bless us all!" He slowly moved his arm to point at the first bench, where four spots had been left clear.

Ruby kept smiling though she was starting to wonder how long this would take.

An hour later, her smile felt as if it had been frozen to her face. The Fat Septon was still praying - he had praised the Father, Mother and Warrior and was now praising the Smith - and loud enough to wake the dead. At least, that kept Yang from dozing off.

Ruby hoped that this was worth it. She glanced at the statue representing the Smith. He was supposed to fix things, if she understood the Fat Septon correctly, but things hadn't been fixed yet, as far as she could tell.

*****​

The Red Keep, King's Landing, Crownlands, Westeros, 298 AC

As she walked through the Red Keep's yard, Weiss Schnee was reconsidering her opinion about yesterday's visit to the Great Sept of Baelor. While it had, according to what Blake had overheard, convinced a significant number of people who had been hostile to her team that Team RWBY weren't witches, it had also, apparently, had an effect on those who had already considered them blessed by the gods. Weiss wasn't, despite her friends' biased opinions, an expert on Westerosi politics and customs, but she knew enough to know that if the Castle staff showed more respect and awe toward them than toward the royal family, then that wasn't an entirely good thing.

The King wouldn't mind - probably, at least - but the Queen would be seething, Weiss was certain. Even more than she usually did, at the very least. It remained to be seen how the Prince would react.

She descended the serpentine stairs to the training area, once again feeling annoyance at the design well up inside her. The lack of a sewer system - at least, anything that would deserve the name - remained the worst architectural and urban planning deficiency in Westeros's capital, but the fact that they had had centuries to fix those stairs and had not done it, despite the fact that, as they had heard and confirmed in the castle's library, people had fallen down and hurt themselves - fatally, in some cases was in some ways even worse. Creating a sewer system in an existing city would require a massive financial and political effort. Even more so when they lacked the technology to dig the tunnels without risking cave-ins of houses, perhaps even entire streets, and so would have to displace thousands, maybe tens of thousands of people. But replacing this deathtrap of stairs, in the seat of the realm's monarch? That shouldn't have taken long or required a lot of effort.

Maybe she should write a text about it. A huntress had no trouble with the stairs, of course - they were trained to fight on much worse ground - but the average person here? Or, worse, the young or elderly? Or, probably more likely, those nobles who had drunk too much at one of the feasts? It wouldn't end up saving more people than installing a proper sewer system would, but it was a lower-hanging fruit, all things considered.

She reached the bottom of the stairs and proceeded to the training area. Ser Barristan and Ser Jaime were already there, together with Ser Arys Oakheart.

Ser Jaime's lips twisted into a grin as he saluted her with his sword. "Hail the Blessed Maiden!"

"Good morning, Sers." Weiss remained polite despite the hint of a mocking undertone - Ser Jaime had taken to such blatant greetings after the Battle of the Maidens, and she hadn't yet figured out why exactly. Although she was leaning towards the idea that he was compensating for a bruised ego; the Battle of the Maidens had overshadowed the rest of the tourney and his own admittedly impressive showing.

"Good morning, my lady." Ser Barristan, at least, had not changed how he talked and treated her.

Ser Arys, on the other hand, beamed at her before bowing deeply. "My lady!"

"Have you come to spar, my lady?" Ser Jaime asked, cocking his head to the side.

"Yes." Did he expect her to stop? Her skill with Myrtenaster had noticeably improved thanks to the training with the Kingsguard. Her friends had improved as well. And speaking of them… "The rest of my team should arrive shortly." They better do, she added in her mind. If Weiss could arrive early despite having had to speak with the Master of Coin so they could store the majority of the tourney prize Blake had won in the King's vault, then her friends had no excuse at all to be late!

As if her partner had read her mind, a red streak turned into Ruby next to her, materialising in a cloud made up of sand kicked up by her braking and red petals from her Semblance. "Made it!" She beamed at them.

An impressive entrance, Weiss had to admit. But the fact that Ruby was carrying half a bread roll in her left hand, which she proceeded to stuff into her mouth, ruined it.

By the time Yang and Blake arrived, Ruby was still chewing.

Fortunately, none of the knights seemed to have taken offence, and the rest of the Kingsguard had been a little late to join the training as well, so there was no grounds for anyone to feel offended.

Not that that stopped Ser Mandon Moore from looking like he was offended but hiding it, although he always looked like that. It was almost comforting that he hadn't changed his attitude towards them either - unlike Ser Preston Greenfield, Ser Meryn Trant and Ser Boros Blount, who, all of them, were far more friendly and respectful than before.

They were overdoing it, in Weiss's opinion. But the training was effective - she managed to improve her parrying a bit more. Now, if her stamina would improve at the same rate…

*****​

"And here's the vault! As you can see, Lady Weiss, your friend's money will be perfectly safe here!"

Weiss's polite smile didn't waver even though she didn't believe Lord Baelish. Any of her friends could kick open this door, of course, but she didn't trust the locks to keep out thieves for too long either - if they had enough time, they could chisel away the wood and then file down the hinges. What were a few bribes to patrolling guards - or the captain of the guard who set the shifts - when you could loot the King's treasure chamber?

Of course, she didn't say that out loud. Instead, she smiled. "Thank you, Lord Petyr. This is a great relief for us."

"Oh, I can imagine! Even for someone as strong as you are, carrying around such a fortune must be a bother," Lord Petyr said while he made a show out of opening the door. "Only I have access to the key, and I only hand it out to people I trust with my life!"

She couldn't resist. "So, if someone stole our money, it could only have been you or your closest friends?" She said, raising her eyebrows.

He laughed. "You could say so, I guess - but I can assure you: No thief will ever enter this chamber!"

Unless they had the key - through theft, or by having it handed to them. Weiss was sure that Lord Baelish was skimming from the top; it was an open secret that he had grown rich in King's Landing since he had been granted the position of Master of Coin. But that was expected in Westeros - another sign of how uncivilised the locals were. Corruption was poison for any government. Unchecked, it could ruin a kingdom's economy faster than almost anything else. The question was merely how much he was skimming off the top. Judging by his clothes, he either was sticking to the expected level - or smart enough not to flaunt his ill-gotten wealth. Weiss didn't know.

"And here we go!" Lord Baelish announced as he pulled the door open.

The interior wasn't very impressive. Not for a Schnee, at least. A lot of chests of various sizes, but arranged somewhat haphazardly - and that in a kingdom without electronic banking where bills and goods had to be paid in hard currency. She took care to look impressed, though.

"Now… let's see where we can put your chest!" Lord Baelish stepped past the largest chest. "I think behind this one would be best."

"As long as no one takes it by mistake, any spot is fine," she said - and looked around, taking a quick count of the chests. None were labelled, and so she didn't know what was inside them, nor how full they were.

Westeros really needed modern banking and bookkeeping. This was no way to run a kingdom.

"Oh, I assure you that none of my clerks would ever make such a mistake, my lady."

"Good." She smiled. "I wouldn't want to have people killed by our counter-measures for an honest mistake on their part."

"Counter-measures?" He looked confused.

"To protect our money. I know this is the safest spot in the entire kingdom, but it won't hurt anyone if we add another layer of security. Except for any thieves, of course." Weiss put the chest down and straightened.

She wasn't even lying; Ruby had been busy with another trap. Not a lethal one, of course - at least not directly. Weiss had no doubt that anyone caught stealing in the kingdom's treasure chamber would be put to death no matter if they had stolen from the King or from Team RWBY.

"Ah, of course. I've heard about your devices."

Of course he had. But if he had, why hadn't he asked for their help protecting the King's money? That was an interesting question, actually. Was he so confident in his security that he saw no need to increase it - or did he not want additional security?

But why? If a burglar managed to break into the treasure chamber, he would be held accountable, whether or not it was his fault - at least according to her experience with the resident judicial system, or what the locals mistook for it. Was he intimidated by their display at the tourney and didn't dare to ask for their help? Or was he too proud to ask them? Even if he had a perfect excuse, now that their money was held there as well? She had told him they had counter-measures that could deal with thieves, and he was certainly more than smart enough, and experienced at court politics, to recognise the implied offer.

It made no sense. Was he preparing to steal everything and then run? That would see him pursued to the ends of the world, Weiss thought. The King certainly would consider it an unforgivable slight, and if his Master of Whispers couldn't find the fugitive he likely would find his head on the chopping block.

She didn't have an answer, and with their new fortune depending on the security of this sorry excuse for a vault, maybe she and her friend had to take a look at this.

It wasn't as if they had more pressing issues to deal with - Archmaester Marvyn was still going through the books in the royal library and would take quite a while longer.

*****​

Street of Silk, King's Landing, Crownlands, Westeros, 298 AC

Blake Belladonna, hidden in the shadows cast by an oversized chimney - apparently built by a baker who believed in planning for expansion from the start - watched the street below with narrowed eyes that had no trouble with the darkness following the sun setting earlier. Compared to Remnant, where even the villages were quite well-lit in the evenings - and not just the walls where guards kept an eye out for Grimm - King's Landing was pitch-black at night, the few lights visible from above belonging to the scarce people and patrols carrying lanterns.

It was perfect for a Faunus who wanted to observe her target without being spotted - there were no other Faunus or guards with low-light vision goggles to worry about. Just regular humans struggling with seeing enough at night not to stumble every second step because they only had primitive lanterns - she had seen one carrying a torch, even! - and no Dust.

Though she was still torn about whether or not this trip was a waste of time. Weiss wanted the Master of Coin shadowed not because she suspected him of embezzlement and corruption - anyone who wasn't naive knew that he was guilty of both, even Ruby had been convinced after about ten minutes of an increasingly pointed rant by Weiss - but whether or not they could trust him with their money.

Blake didn't think the man had the guts to steal from them. He seemed to be too cowardly to risk the dire consequences he'd suffer if he were caught. He certainly had mentioned often enough how he had 'learned his lesson' after challenging Lord Eddard's older brother to a duel over Lady Catelyn, which had been his childhood friend and Lord Brandon's betrothed at the time. On the other hand, cultivating a reputation for eschewing violence - or for cowardice, as the locals here would call it - would be a good way to make most of the King's court underestimate you…

And the way Lord Baelish was walking through the dark alleys of King's Landing at night, often avoiding the main streets for back alleys and side alleys, and more as detours instead of shortcuts, didn't really fit with a coward - or someone afraid of being attacked by robbers or other criminals.

Maybe Weiss was on to something - it certainly looked to Blake like some skullduggery was afoot.

She jumped over the next alley, easily and silently landing on the roof of the neighbouring building, and followed Lord Baelish as he made his way through another seedy back alley before stopping in front of a solid-looking door.

Her ears twitched as she heard him knock twice, then once more after a short pause, and then didn't hear a sound as the door was opened - those were some well-oiled hinges. She didn't hear a greeting either, but whoever had opened the door certainly had recognised Lord Baelish since he entered without a moment's hesitation.

Frowning at the question why a member of the King's Small Council would sneak into a building through the backdoor, she quickly moved over the slanted roof to take a look at the building's front door.

Oh. She felt her cheeks blush for a moment when she realised what the sign and the decorations showed - it was a brothel. That would explain why the Master of Coin didn't want to be seen entering it, of course - and yet, was he such a frequent customer that the brothel's staff recognised him by the way he knocked? Just how much money did he spend here?

She bit her lower lip, pondering whether she should violate the man's privacy by investigating further. Then she nodded firmly. Yes, she should - while she hadn't been involved in those operations, she had heard other White Fang members who had been talk about what went on in such venues, and how the most honourable of Remnant's society might show their true - and often terrible - character when visiting.

She checked for any witnesses - jumping and being spotted because you were silhouetted against the moon was a rookie mistake - then leapt over the narrow gap between the brothel and the building on which she was perched, once more landing on the shingles with nary a noise. With a bit of luck, she should be able to find her target by peering through the windows or catching the sound of his voice. If that didn't work… Well, even if she were dressed in a way that would let her pass as a customer, and if the brothel allowed female customers, she wouldn't be able to search for another customer while posing as one, despite what some of her books said, so it had better work.

She moved to the edge of the roof and lowered herself down until she could peer through the window below.

Oh. That wasn't Lord Baelish. Definitely not.

He wasn't in the next room she checked, either. Or the one after that. Or the last room on this side.

And her cheeks felt so warm, even the oldest Atlas guard robot would be able to spot her with their heat sensors. The people of Westeros might not be as technologically advanced as the people on Remnant, but they most certainly were creative. Maybe…

Her ears twitched under her bow. That was Lord Baelish's voice! She cocked her head to the side, then quickly followed the sound of him talking about…

… the profits from his business? She blinked, then carefully lowered herself down over the edge of the roof once more to peer through the window below.

Yes. Lord Baelish was not engaged in carnal activities. This wasn't a bedroom or boudoir, either, but an office in which he was looking over ledgers and telling a man standing in front of his desk to improve profits. Profits from this brothel.

Lord Baelish was a… a pimp.

*****​

The Red Keep, King's Landing, Crownlands, Westeros, 298 AC

"Here comes the Prince and his lover," Blake whispered when she spotted Prince Oberyn headed towards her, a slightly drunk courtier almost stumbling as he gave way. The Prince was tall and slender and moved with the kind of grace that marked him as an experienced fighter. He was also handsome, she noted - in short, he matched the descriptions she had heard. Whether he also lived up to his reputation she couldn't say yet.

"Ah! You must be the famous Team Ruby!" He beamed at them, and the woman on his arm smiled, bowing her head. "I am Prince Oberyn Martell and this is my paramour, Ellaria Sands."

"Hi!" Ruby smiled widely at the two. "You're right, we're Team RWBY - and we're kinda famous, now, yes. I'm Ruby Rose, this is my partner, Weiss Schnee, this is my sister Yang Xiao Long, and her partner, Blake Belladonna. And this is Lady Brienne Tarth and this Jon Snow! Pleased to meetcha!"

Blake bowed her head together with her friends.

"I've heard a lot about you, but the tales do not do your beauty justice, my ladies," Oberyn went on. "I've travelled far and cannot recall many who would be your match."

Blake glanced at his lover; it was very forward for the prince to flirt like that, with her holding his arm, but she didn't seem to be angry at him, so maybe that was just the Dornish way of being friendly?

"Indeed," Ellaria said and made a point of slowly looking them over with a sly smile.

Maybe that wasn't just Dornish politeness, Blake amended her thoughts - it could just be confidence that Oberyn wouldn't cheat on her, but she had seen that look on many nobles here, aimed at her and her friends. Ellaria was attractive, although it was a subtle thing, not some blinding beauty - there was a sensual vibe to her, a confidence like… Coco Adel's.

Ruby blushed. "Oh, uh… thanks? I mean, thanks! You're very attractive as well, I mean, both of you - although I mean that in a purely aesthetic sense, you know? It's not like I - or anyone of my friends, well, of Team RWBY, at least - are looking for, you know…"

Weiss took a step forward and half a step to the side, towards Ruby. She wasn't quite blocking her, but the gesture was clear. "We're flattered, Prince Oberyn," she said with a curt nod. "Although, as you have undoubtedly heard, we're from another world, with different customs."

Prince Oberyn didn't seem to be offended - he laughed. "Oh, I am not looking for a betrothal. I leave such proposals to my brother, the Prince of Dorne." He wrapped his arm around Ellaria's waist and pulled her closer. "But if you feel daring and wish to experience Dornish hospitality abroad…" His smile and wink left no doubt what he was suggesting.

Blake saw Weiss's cheeks flush a little, but her friend held her composure. Unlike Ruby, whose face turned red like the setting sun while she opened and closed her mouth without saying anything - though Blake's ears caught her swallowing.

Lady Brienne and Jon were obviously shocked by the blatant offer, but Blake had expected that.

"Oh, you sound like you know how to party!" Yang grinned in return.

Blake suppressed a frown; she had expected that reaction as well. She kept a polite smile on her face herself; it never paid to insult nobility. Though Yang should know better than to flirt back, she thought with a frown - people in Westeros, especially nobles, got ideas in situations like this.

Oberyn's grin widened. "We do - and I am always ready to prove that I have honestly earned my reputation."

"As a womaniser?" Jon blurted out. "My prince," he added a bit too late to be properly respectful.

Lady Brienne was tense, but Blake couldn't tell if she was outraged or embarrassed - or a bit of both.

"As a lover," Oberyn replied with a smile. "A lover with an open mind, goodman," he added with a wink.

Oh! Did Oberyn just flirt with Jon as well? Blake felt her cheeks flush at the thought. That was like in one of her favourite Ninja books!

"Indeed," Ellaria breathed more than said, winking at Yang, who blinked in response.

Blake wanted to roll her eyes at her partner, who was, not for the first time, realising a bit too late that she might have bitten off more than she could chew. Perhaps it was time to change the subject. "We've been told you are here to attend the trial of Ser Gregor Clegane, my prince."

Oberyn's smile faded instantly, replaced by a more serious expression. "Correct. As soon as we heard that our sister's murderer was facing a trial, I set sail. Doran would also have come, but he caught a sudden illness that prevented him from travelling."

"Oh!" Ruby frowned. "Can you pass on our wishes for a speedy recovery to him?"

"I will, though I would bet that knowing that the monster who raped and murdered our kin will finally be brought to justice will help him more than anything else."

That was a very dark outlook.

"We've heard you not only brought him down so he could be arrested, but you will also face him again, should he demand trial by combat, Lady Blake," Ellaria said.

Blake nodded. She wouldn't let any of her friends do this; it was her responsibility.

Ellaria glanced at Oberyn, who frowned slightly at her while she smiled.

Blake wondered what that was about. But before she could think of how to find out, Oberyn spoke up again: "I must confess, when I heard that a woman had brought low the Mountain and is expected to fight him in the upcoming trial, I would never have guessed it were you, Lady Blake. You look far too beautiful to match the brute's strength in open combat."

Blake narrowed her eyes, both at the insult to Lady Brienne and the implied doubt about her skills. His slightly patronising tone wasn't welcome either. "You would not think that if you had seen our fight at the tourney, my prince. Or sparred with us."

"Yeah!" Yang grinned and smashed her fist into the palm of her hand.

"The 'Battle of the Maidens' is the talk of the city," Oberyn said, still smiling a little arrogantly. "Although it seems everyone in the audience saw a different fight, judging by their descriptions."

"Well, when we go all out, we tend to be a bit too fast to follow for most people," Yang said with a chuckle. "Though some of our moves should have been seen by everyone."

Blake nodded. Such as Weiss's glyphs, or Ruby's whirlwind attack. Or her clones. Oberyn probably simply didn't trust the accounts he'd heard.

Ellaria nodded. "Most people agreed on those parts, yes." Once again, she raised her eyebrows at Oberyn, who frowned for a moment.

Blake looked straight at him. "Appearances can be deceiving. Every member of Team RWBY is not only far stronger than Ser Clegane, but quicker and tougher as well." The entire city was aware of that by now. Or should be.

"I'd demonstrate, but I don't want to smash the floor - it's hard on the repair crew."

"It was an accident, Yang!" Ruby complained with a pout. "I didn't mean to smash a hole into the floor!"

Yang laughed, but Oberyn still looked doubtful.

Blake was about to tell him to spar with them if he doubted them, but she caught Sandor walking in their direction - and since he had taken to avoiding Team RWBY after the tourney had ended, that meant Prince Joffrey was headed their way and his sworn sword had to follow or break his oath.

He wasn't coming alone, she realised a moment later - he was walking next to Lord Baelish the pimp.

She suppressed a shudder. To think the realm's Master of Coin ran brothels like some criminals - as a criminal, probably; she was aware of how brothels were run from her time in the White Fang when they had had to make some examples out of those who exploited Faunus girls with few or no options left.

But she couldn't dwell on that. Not right now. Blake wasn't an expert on the politics of Westeros; Weiss knew much more about that. But Blake knew that calling the relationship between the royal family and the Martells 'strained' would be an understatement.

This wasn't good. Not at all. At least, they were under guest rights, so it couldn't be too bad.

*****​

"You doubt Lady Blake's power? She arrested the Mountain herself!"

Yang Xiao Long almost chuckled at Prince Joffrey's obviously fake surprise.

"So I've heard," Prince Oberyn replied. He looked far less jovial when talking to either Prince Joffrey or Lord Baelish, Yang noted. Well, they weren't pretty girls. On the other hand, Oberyn had flirted with Jon as well, or tried to - Jon must have been spooked by the first comment since he had been quite silent for most of the talk. As had Brienne, actually, Yang realised. "But it wouldn't be the first time, not by far, that a story grew in the telling."

"Well, not this one, I can assure you, Prince Oberyn!" Baelish cut in with a wide smile.


Yang clenched her teeth for a moment, her smile straining a little. Sure, Weiss and Blake had been quite convincing when they had told her that they shouldn't act rashly without knowing the full picture and especially any other shady business that might be run by the creep, but it was hard not to rip into him and tell him exactly what she thought about his known business.

"Team Ruby demonstrated their powers quite convincingly. In fact, I think some might take issue with Lady Blake fighting as the court's champion in a possible trial by combat since the outcome would be obvious from the start," the creep went on. "Then again, some might also consider her decision to volunteer all the proof needed to condemn the man - I heard some people, Septons even, consider them not merely blessed by the Seven, but their messengers."

Yang snorted. "Well, we're not messengers from any god," she said. "We'd know otherwise."

Prince Joffrey nodded. "Their impressive powers aren't the result of a blessing by the gods - they're from another world."

Yang could tell at once that Oberyn didn't believe that. As much as she liked showing off, she was getting sick of having to demonstrate that they weren't lying to everyone they met.

"Yes!" Ruby nodded. "We were transported to this world by accident and we're looking for a way back. But so far, they haven't found anything helpful in the palace library." She pouted, then smiled. "But they're still going through the books - it's quite a big library."

"For Westeros, maybe," Yang heard Blake whisper and grinned. Her partner was a bit of a snob when it came to books. It was a cute trait, actually - she was so practical in most areas otherwise.

"Anyway, we're not giving up!" Ruby nodded firmly.

"A laudable stance," Oberyn said. "And seeing how much of an impression you've made at court, I will have to adjust my opinion, I think."

So, he could learn! Yang grinned again. "Being flexible is a good thing!"

Oberyn's eyebrows rose and his smile twisted a little. "I heartily agree with that," he said, winking at her.

She matched his smile - she hadn't intended to use a double-entendre, but like Hell she was admitting that, or backing down.

"And we're always looking forward to demonstrating it," Ellaria added.

Whoa, she was laying it on a bit thick. Both of them were, actually - Oberyn really lived up to his womanising reputation, and Ellaria was the most forward woman Yang had met yet in Westeros. And she would be in the top five even if Yang included Remnant. It was getting a bit warm in here, too.

"So, you won't object to me fighting for the court, Prince Oberyn?" Blake spoke up, saving Yang from having to answer straight away.

Oberyn smiled at her. "I would like to see you spar before making a final judgement. Or another opportunity to verify your physical superiority."

Sheesh, he switched from Yang to Blake in a heartbeat.

"I'd suggest sparring," Lord Baelish said.

"Yes!" Ruby nodded. "You're using a spear, right? So I've been told. That would be interesting; I use a scythe. Not quite the same, but still similar in some ways. We should spar! And you don't have to worry about getting hurt - we're good at holding back."

"Oh, yes." Prince Joffrey spoke up, smiling widely. "If Lady Blake had wanted to, she would have killed the Mountain on the spot. Or she could have left him broken, dying in agony, as Lady Yang did when a knight attacked her."

Yang froze. "What? What do you mean?"

The Prince looked confused, but he was still smiling. "The knight who insulted and attacked you, Lady Yang. You crushed his manhood and broke his hips with a single kick. He finally died yesterday, a fitting punishment for his offence."

Yang blinked. She had killed that fool? And he had 'died in agony' as the Prince had just said? But… Oh, no!

"Yang?"

That was Ruby's voice. Yang glanced around. Everyone was staring at her. Ruby, Weiss and Blake with concern and growing horror, Prince Joffrey with open confusion, Brienne and Jon with shock, Oberyn and Ellaria with surprise…

"My lady?"

This was… She couldn't… She shook her head and turned away, quickly heading for the exit.

"Yang!" Ruby appeared in front of her.

Yang clenched her teeth and drew a sharp breath. Keep calm! "Not here. Later. I need some fresh air."

"But…"

"Later!" she hissed and pushed past Ruby.

She could handle her sister right now. She couldn't handle anything right now.

She made her way to the door, barely noticing how the people gave way, and left the hall.

Outside, she took a few deep breaths in the cool - but not very fresh - air.

Fuck! She had killed that fool! She hadn't meant to… She hadn't known… Damn! She should have known. She had kicked him with far too much force, and he hadn't even been a threat!

Shaking her head and cursing herself, she walked away, barely managing not to run. She needed space!

*****​

A few minutes later, Yang was on top of the wall, facing the sea. She took a deep breath. The air was fresh and cool here, she could feel a light breeze on her skin as she closed her eyes and blinked away the tears.

Fuck.

She'd fucked up. Killed a man. Accidentally. By mistake. Without being threatened in any form.

Because she had been stupid and angry, and had lost control.

She clenched her teeth. Hard. She was an idiot! A killer! A…

She heard a step behind her and whirled, eyes open. Oh.

Blake was there, about two yards away, leaning against the battlement and looking at her.

Yang pressed her lips together. She wanted to tell her partner to get lost, but… Blake had deliberately taken that last step without her usual grace and announced her presence.

Blake stepped up to her, then turned to face the sea as well, her arms on the top of the battlement next to Yang. "Ruby's concerned."

Yang felt even more guilt. She'd killed a man and hurt her sister. She snorted without humour at the sheer weirdness of her thought, then rubbed her eyes as she turned toward the sea again, leaning against the stone. "I'm an idiot."

Blake made a sceptic noise. "If you're an idiot, I'm worse."

"I killed a man - left him to die in agony - because I didn't think. Didn't control myself."

"That was one mistake. I was in the White Fang, fighting for them, for years without realising what was happening. What I was doing," Blake said.

"You didn't know better. I did," Yang told her.

"I should have known better. All the facts were known to me."

Yang clenched her teeth again. "It's not the same."

"Yeah. You hit a wannabe-rapist harder when he attacked you after you already had smacked him down. I attacked humans to make them fear Faunus."

Yang glared at her. "It's not a competition! I fucked up!"

Her partner shrugged. "Everyone fucked up. I did. You did. Weiss did. I'm sure Ruby did as well."

"That doesn't make it better." Yang had killed a guy.

"No, but we can try to be better."

As Blake had done since she left the White Fang. But… "You didn't kill anyone," Yang said.

"I don't think so. But I don't know. I didn't pull my punches." Blake shrugged.

"You fought people with Aura," Yang pointed out.

"I fought people who should have had Aura. But they weren't really trained that well." Blake turned to face her. "I won't tell you that the guy probably would have raped another woman if she had been in your place. Or that he probably had raped women before."

You just did, Yang thought. And it wasn't an excuse.

"But he did attack you. Even after you had demonstrated that you were much stronger," Blake went on. "He could have fled. Or just stayed down. Or just not attacked you. But he decided to attack you instead, because his pride was hurt."

That wasn't an excuse either! But… "You know a lot about this," Yang said, narrowing her eyes.

"Prince Joffrey explained what had happened. He seemed well-informed."

"If he were older, he'd probably stalk us," Yang joked, then frowned when she saw Blake flinch a little. Hit another sore spot? She really was on a roll here.

"Yes," Blake said, turning her head to meet Yang's eyes. "Anyway, you made a mistake. But you didn't want to kill that man."

"I did it, though." The man had died, slowly, painfully, and she hadn't even known. Because she hadn't thought. Because she was stupid.

"And you won't make the same mistake again, will you?"

"Of course not!" Yang blurted out. She was stupid, but not braindead.

Blake smiled softly. "Good."

Nothing was good. Yang had killed someone.

But… she didn't feel like smashing her head against the next wall in frustration and guilt any more. She scoffed and stared out at the dark sea again.

Blake did the same, and neither said anything for a while.

*****​

 

[Starfox5]

Loving the reactions. It's so juicy!

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Thank you! Finally, I can put this personal issue to rest.

Spoiler: On another note, if it were up to me...

I'll have Ruby wear her volume 4 outfit with the color scheme of her outfit from volume 1.

Same thing with Weiss, in her volume 4 outfit with color of her first.

Blake in her volume 4 but without the white jacket.

And Yang in her volume 1. But she's wearing an open vest instead of the semi-closed puffy short-sleeved jacket.

My reason? The choice of clothes further emphasize the "liberal and revealing" nature of RWBY's clothing as compared to the ones Westorosi women wear, both commoner and noble!

Ruby basically got the mini skirt and thigh highs combo, Zettai Ryōiki style!

Weiss got the whole mini skirt and bare legs angle along with a slight reveal around her neck and chest.

Blake, when you remove the jacket, got bare arms and a revealing midriff.

And I find Yang's short shorts and chest size gets a lot of attention!

Sonwhat do you guys think?

Click to shrink...

I think the first season/second season outfit works well enough. For Westeros, it's already beyond the pale.

Well, i could undarstand why somebody like Mountain could think that fighting Blake is good idea.He is probably too stupid to recognize danger if it look like young girl in strange clothes.


Thanks for chapter - and now we have:
1.Bealish plotting to control RWBY ,and seduce them.Maybe even using them in his brothel.
2.Joeffrey planning to get their Dust and become superman
3.Varys planning to murder them
4.Cersei planning the same
5.Tyrion drinking himself to death before his family stupidity kill him
6.Marwyn happy becouse other Archemages must say that he was right now.
7.Brynden thinking about either helping them or killing.

But,we have one good information -
Leaf frowned at him, her wide eyes narrowing. "We don't know why they appeared and did it. But we know they aren't from this world. The place where they appeared showed us that."

I think it could mean,that children MAYBE could help them go home.

Did i miss something?

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Pycelle thinking that the best course of action for Tywin is to help the girls get home asap.

 

[Renko]

I think the first season/second season outfit works well enough. For Westeros, it's already beyond the pale.

Click to shrink...

Oh! I was not asking for the outfits to be changed into the ones from my post.

This is your story after all and I'm nothing more but a mere reader.

I just want to show folks why I think the clothes that I mentioned can further hammer home the differences in "clothing sensibilities" between RWBY and Westeros!

 

[eager slacker]

Another good chapter.

Also Little Finger getting nervous that the girl's password isn't the Westeros equivalent of 1234.

 

[Mike9650]

Wait, the man Yang killed, was he a confirmed rapist or was Blake just guessing because it would then be convenient to justify Yang killing him?

I'm pretty sure all we know of the guy was that he didn't respect Yang and attack her. Maybe a bit crass but nothing too rapey.

Still, now Westeros knows one crucial information: them RWBY doesn't kill people on purpose. That could mean that they are more innocent than people think but that could also mean that they could hesitate in a life or death battle. In open combat, the willingness to kill can overcome the wall of skill, knowledge and ability should an opportune moment present itself. Fighters had been known to die or injured by neophytes because they held back when they shouldn't.

 

[eager slacker]

Wait, the man Yang killed, was he a confirmed rapist or was Blake just guessing because it would then be convenient to justify Yang killing him?

I'm pretty sure all we know of the guy was that he didn't respect Yang and attack her. Maybe a bit crass but nothing too rapey.

Still, now Westeros knows one crucial information: them RWBY doesn't kill people on purpose. That could mean that they are more innocent than people think but that could also mean that they could hesitate in a life or death battle. In open combat, the willingness to kill can overcome the wall of skill, knowledge and ability should an opportune moment present itself. Fighters had been known to die or injured by neophytes because they held back when they shouldn't.

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The man is as far as they know is a faceless dumbass aggressive knight that bit off more than he could chew. The issue that Yang has was that she only meant to give him a painful love tap instead of a painful death because he was stupidly and rudely attacking her. Chances are that he was the kind of guy that would beat women from the actions he took in the scene we saw him but there's not enough to say if he was horribly drunk and trying to save his reputation or something else in that situation. We will never know because he's dead but that news is impetus for Yang to really think about what she does and to be careful about what will happen. If that guy was aiming to slash at some random prostitute Yang wouldn't be impacted as hard because she would taking someone out in a life or death situation instead of a easily avoidable accident.

Westeros only has the rumor mill and can only take them at their word that they are totally not willing to kill people *wink wink nudge nudge*. They currently are judging RWBY by Westeros standards because that's the only frame of reference they have so the shitty nobles of the land think they are playing a convoluted game of politics and/or are blessed by the Seven Gods. The people that do know them know that they are genuinely merciful but it's kind of hard to take advantage of that in a fight because it's like saying Superman wouldn't kill a hostage so you'll take the moment of his hesitation to shoot him with a regular 9mm bullet. They could literally kill knights by running through them quickly. How do you even create an answer for people that can accidentally kill you if they don't notice you?

 

[ATP]

Pycelle thinking that the best course of action for Tywin is to help the girls get home asap.

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Thanks !
And i agree with him here.It would be better for everybody there to send girls back home.
Problem is - as far as we knew,nobody knew how to do so...
Well,i hope that children really knew something!

 

[Spartan303]

Wait. Has anyone explained to the girls how Trial by Combat works? If not, she's about to be in the same boat as Yang, only this time its deliberate. Or does Blake already know and accept it? I could be wrong, but it looks like she does but the others don't. Am I reading too much into this?