A Conjuror's journey

"I told you to use a fucking spoon, you retard." The wolf faunus, Asena, growled at one of her sons when he tried to drink his cereal.

Paty wanted to speak up in the four year old's defense, but couldn't muster the courage. Asena was intimidating enough when she was just what seemed to be her normal grumpy self, she didn't want to actually anger the woman. At least the kid seemed happy enough to do as told, right? The other boy was cheerfully munching on some toast while reaching her faunus ears.

That was one thing that had been surprising, the children of a White Fang lieutenant being human. Oh sure, they were technically half faunus... as much as such a thing really existed. Ordinarily the child of a faunus and a human would be faunus, not that it was completely unheard of for it to be the other way around. It was unusual though and the resulting offspring tended not to show signs of being anything other than another human, so half faunus was more of a courtesy term.

Judging by the fact that Paty had woken up next to their anti-human mother and there was no sign of their father, she could easily guess what had happened. That knowledge certainly didn't make it any less awkward to be eating breakfast with the small family.

"Didn't take you for the wild type." Asena spoke suddenly, crumpling up one of the dozen news papers on the messy table and pegging the touchy boy between the eyes with it. "What's a frightened little lamb like you doing breaking into a 'terrorist' base?"

"I did what?!"

Laughing far too loudly for something so serious, the mother explained, "Relax, I'm the only one that saw you... somehow. Anyways, last thing I expected while drowning myself in liqueur was for the cause of my problems to come barging into the officer's lounge and start popping corks."

Gods, why did I go there of all places? How did I even find the place?!

"Tried to catch you." Asena continued around a mouthful of food. "I was pretty wasted though... So were you if you really can't remember the shit we did." Paty buried her burning cheeks in her hands, so she shrugged. "Whatever, can't say I'm too mad at you anymore. It's your friend that's the real reason I got in trouble with Sienna. The bitch why you were drinking too? Upset at being left behind?"

"No... yes... kinda of?"

"Yeah, that's not confusing as shit or anything."

Glaring at the woman, Paty demanded, "Do you have to use that kind of language in front of your own kids?" When the wolf faunus just stared back, she shrunk in her seat. "Sorry... I... How did you know she left me behind?"

"You mean besides the fact you're here with me instead of her?" Asena asked rhetorically. "Jup saw her nearly die killing a giant Karkinos yesterday, about an eight hour hike from here. Didn't feel safe following her into the wastes, even with his Semblance, so he came to let us know she was telling the truth about not being an Ursa. Not that it makes much of a difference since she's gonna get herself killed out there."

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A little after noon, Cattleya decided to take a break.

It wasn't that she was tired, but if this desert was as dangerous as Kali made it out to be, she could stand to be more prepared. While she could make her golem bigger like when she'd run into those magic worshiping cultists near ruined Boston, she didn't want to tire herself out and be forced to postpone the rest of her journey. Alchemy being something she had far more practice with, turning the basalt colossus into steel was a much easier solution and far less taxing on her reserves.

Earth magic to turn the stone to iron, Flame magic to make the metal willing to breathe in the Wind that came next until it became steel. The whole process was rather quick, just a twelve word chant to bring the triangle spell into being and a flourish of her wand to put it into action. The elderly Doctor Shen had at first insisted that there must be a flaw with the resulting metal when she used the spell to make steel for him, something about it having more mass than it started with or being too fast to occur. In the end he'd accepted it and moved on after a few tests, but it was still odd that he'd had doubts about something so simple when he hadn't taken issue with Cynric's summonings.

Shaking off the ponderings, the pinkette remounted her golem and made to journey inward from the coast, the mountains no longer an obstacle.

Status: Healthy
Magicka: (1900/3000)

Last Minute Preparations:
[] Just get it over with and adapt as needed.

[] Switch to Cynric POV and let her figure it out!

[] Write in.

"Not gonna lie, I'm actually feeling a little insecure here." The yellow and brown one, Yang, complained. "I mean, come on! Weiss is a famous musician and heiress of the biggest company in the world, Louise is a magical duchess or something, both my baby sister and my ghost of a mom have super-powered eyeballs, Vicky was literally a super hero before coming here, Hinata's a ninja princess, Jaune's part of a family of historical heroes of Vale, and Pyrrha is a world class prize fighter... even if she is a nutjob. Now you're a princess too?! That's not even fair. All I've got is my hotness and amazing personality!"

The Skein spider listened in wonder at its new understanding and followed its charge through the mortal-made tunnels. Since being blessed with the Spinner's full presence in it's vessel, it had been gifted with much insight. The noises that the mortals always make started to have meaning, their odd creations such as the book started to have clear purpose, and the sound it had associated with commands had been revealed for what it truly was.

A name.

'Tsun' was its name, not a title or call for its attention, but a unique word of identity granted to it by the Spinner.

Blake, the feline it had been protecting for the Spinner, exhaled deeply. "I'm not a princess, Yang. Just the Chieftain's daughter. It's really not as big of a deal as you think it is."

"Not a big deal?! Blakey, I thought you were the last ordinary one in the group besides me, but nooo~. How could you do this to me?"

"Stop being such a melodramatic child." The colorless one, Weiss, said before rounding on Blake. "And you, didn't we just have a discussion on how lying is harmful to the group?"

"It's not like I was hiding it from you guys, it just never came up. Ghira Belladonna being Chieftain of Menagerie is pretty common knowledge. If I was trying to keep it a secret, wouldn't I at least use a fake name?"

"I suppose you have a point."

Rolling her eyes, Blake continued, "Besides, shouldn't you of all people have had some idea who I was? At least after finding out that I'm a faunus?"

"Belladonna could be a common name, I didn't want to assume just because you're both cats."

"Just because I have cat ears, that doesn't make me a cat!"

While it understood the meaning of about half of their words, Tsun was lost as to the context or meaning of the full conversation. What it did know was that Blake was getting agitated and the last utterance from the colorless one made her ears flatten backwards. Luckily, it knew what to do in such situations thanks to its Goddess' previous instruction.

Reaching out out, Tsun gently placed a hand on her head and rubbed at the spot between her ears. The female's head pressed back for a brief moment before she pulled away and blood rushed to her face.

"What the heck was that?" Ruby asked, petrifying gaze locked on Blake and Tsun.

Not giving Blake time to answer, Yang stepped closer to the two. "Not a cat, huh? Don't worry, I'll take her place next time you wanna do some petting, Tsun."

"Ugh, you shameless harlot."

Yes, the Skein spider known as Tsun had no idea what was going on or why the yellow and brown female was clinging to its vessel once more, but it was sure things had improved.

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A/N: Don't have time for a chapter tonight, so have this thing.

Crossing into the desert wasn't an immediate thing. There was no line or clear border, the brush and basalt simply faded into baked earth the further inland she went.

Cattleya had never been to a desert before, but she was quickly learning to hate it. Oh sure, it wasn't too bad at first, just a little too warm for comfort. The wind picked up during her second hour in and brought cutting razors instead of cool relief. Even leisurely riding on her golem felt like too much effort and the metal was starting to grow hot. By hour three she was out of water and her sweat was evaporating within moments. She'd also been forced off of her golem because it had started to burn her skin.

It at least served as a good shade to keep the sun off of her as well as blocking the sporadic blasts of glass laden wind.

As for the glass, that was everywhere around her. Large shards like shattered window panes rose from the ground at random intervals like transparent pikes to impale the careless wanderer. She had already seen several desiccated corpses to confirm their lethality. Even though her golem made short work of what was in the path, it made for unsteady footing.

Refilling her canteen and dousing herself in cold water with a spell, the pinkette was considering transmuting some dirt into a crude sled when the ground underneath her shook. It was subtle at first, only the humming of glassen blades vibrating in the air, but it rapidly grew to an easily felt rumble and she leapt into the air in time to avoid a golden stinger punching up from underground.

Faster than she would imagine, the tail retracted before a scorpion as big as a horse clawed its way to the surface. She didn't hesitate to have her golem stomp on it, but six more emerged in the time it took for the first to be squished. Ten smaller scorpions followed, ranging in size from barely smaller than her hand to a golden retriever.

Status: Healthy
Magicka: (1880/3000)

Choose:
[] Stay in the air and-

[] Blast the Golem with Water Wall to cool it down enough to mount, then seal yourself inside.

[] Land and fight-

[] Write in.