The Concerns of Lady Nikos
Sunset panted as she got up off the mat. She and Pyrrha had been sparring down in the Nikos’ dojo for some time now, beginning before the sun rose and continuing as it began to cast its light in through the high windows.
Actually, no, that was not entirely accurate. To call it sparring would imply some measure of equality between them. It would be more accurate to say that Pyrrha had been kicking Sunset’s ass for some time now.
Hand to hand combat, it seemed, was not her thing.
That’s exactly why I need this. I can’t be caught helpless again like I was by Adam.
Pyrrha looked barely ruffled by the exertion. “How’s your aura?”
Sunset raised her hands in a guard. “I could do this all day.”
Pyrrha didn’t look impressed by Sunset’s bluster. “How’s your aura?” she repeated.
Sunset huffed and held out one hand. Her scroll, summoned by a small amount of telekinesis, flew into it. She checked her aura level. “I’m in the yellow.”
“We’ll take a break,” Pyrrha said.
“I can keep going for a little longer.”
“There’s no need to push yourself so hard, Sunset-”
“If I don’t push myself, who will push me?” Sunset demanded.
Pyrrha was unfazed by Sunset’s snapped response. She looked so untroubled that Sunset could have been whispering as softly as a dove. “You can’t rush this. And I know that you know that.”
Sunset sniffed. “You sound like my old teacher.” You cannot rush this, Sunset Shimmer. The study of magic is the work of years; for some, it is the work of a lifetime. Even you, as powerful and talented as you are, will not master everything you wish to overnight. That was what Celestia had told her after she had found Sunset passed out on the floor of the library, having exhausted herself practicing spells from the books. She had been only a little filly then, but in a way, it gladdened Sunset to know that a part of her was that filly still: impatient, yes, but also eager and… good. Less corrupted by the spirit of the world.
“I’m sure that she was right,” Pyrrha said. “How long did it take you to master your semblance?”
“Years,” Sunset admitted.
“Exactly.”
“I haven’t got years for this.”
Pyrrha looked apologetically. “You realise that you will never be a master with your fists or your feet, nor with a sword.”
“I don’t need to be able to beat you. I just need to be able to hold my own against a reasonably competent opponent,” Sunset said. “I need… I don’t want Ruby to have to put herself in that position for me again.”
Pyrrha was silent for a moment. “I understand, but I do think that you’ve done enough for now. And remember that you’re not my only student.”
“Yeah, right,” Sunset murmured. She didn’t really want Jaune to see this, at least not until Sunset was a little better at this than she was right now. “I, um, I’ll give you a second to catch your breath before he arrives.” Pyrrha didn’t look as though she needed that, but she was kind enough not to point out the fact as Sunset walked over to a bench that sat against the white dojo wall and took a drink of water from the bottle resting there.
She looked round the room. All of the dummies and targets had been placed against the walls, jostling for room with rows of swords hanging from wooden racks. The floor was cleared for sparring upon reed mats, already stained by Sunset’s sweat and jostled where Pyrrha had knocked her to the ground. Even holding back as she was, the youngest scion of the Nikos line packed quite a punch.
Sunset took another drink and let the cool water trickle down her parched throat.
The door into the dojo slid open, and Sunset expected Jaune to walk in – she straightened up expectantly and tried to look less beaten than she was – but instead, it was one of the Nikos family servants, who nodded respectfully to Pyrrha before turning her attention to Sunset.
“Pardon me, Miss Shimmer, but my lady requests your presence in her study.”
Sunset glanced at Pyrrha, who looked apologetic but said nothing. Sunset took a couple of steps across the reed mats. “May I wash and change first, or does Lady Nikos require me immediately?”
“At once, Miss Shimmer.”
I see. It was possible that Lady Nikos didn’t know that Sunset had worked up a sweat, but it was equally possible that she was making Sunset call upon her lathered with sweat to establish some form of dominance over Sunset.
If so, there was nothing Sunset could do about it; her presence having been demanded – to all intents and purposes – to refuse her host would have been an act of gross rudeness. So she nodded her head and said, “Very well, please lead the way.”
And so, Sunset was brought to Lady Nikos' study, smelling a little of sweat, with her hair askew and her face glowing with exertion. Lady Nikos, by contrast, looked composed; she was dressed - draped might be a more apposite description - in a loose-fitting gown of subdued grey, while her greying hair was bound up tightly in a bun at the nape of her neck. She sat behind an antique ebony desk which managed to be covered in things – an ebony statuette of a warrior with spear and shield; two framed photographs with their backs to Sunset, their contents hidden from her; a sword with a silver hilt in a crimson scabbard, resting upon a wooden stand - without seeming cluttered. Sunset had the impression that everything was in its proper place, exactly where it was meant to be. The room itself was a little stuffy, enclosed; one wall was lined with old, leather-bound books, the other with framed pictures and newspaper cuttings which distance and time did not permit Sunset to study as she would have needed to for a sense of their contents.
Sunset bowed her head. "You wished to see me, my lady?"
Lady Nikos nodded and gestured to a seat across the desk from her. "Please take a seat, Miss Shimmer."
Sunset sat down, clasping her hands together and resting them upon her knee.
Lady Nikos pushed a bowl of fruit across the desk. "You must be hungry after your exertions."
Sunset blinked. "Does my lady have hidden cameras in the dojo?"
"When I was told that my daughter and one of her guests had risen before daybreak," Lady Nikos said, "my first thought was that Pyrrha had been led into vice during her time at Beacon."
"I'm sure your ladyship was glad to find out that we weren't sneaking out to smoke weed behind the stable," Sunset replied dryly. "Pyrrha is not the sort of girl who could be so easily led into, as you put it, vices." It was true that Pyrrha was more a follower than a leader in many respects, but she was not without a strong sense of right: stronger, indeed, than Sunset's own. She wasn't the kind of person to do things just because all the cool kids were doing it. She was, as the saying went, the knight without peer and beyond reproach, although Sunset did not say that out loud, lest Lady Nikos think her a brown-nosing sycophant.
"A fact for which I am as glad as you say," Lady Nikos said. "Although the truth behind your early rising does not make my heart rejoice."
Sunset had an inkling of where this might be going but was in no great hurry to arrive there. So she said nothing and sat in her chair and waited.
"I hope you can understand my bemusement, Miss Shimmer, at the leader receiving instruction from the subordinate. What should I think of that?"
"You could think it a testament to Pyrrha's skill that I chose to seek assistance from her, my lady."
"Testaments to my daughter's skill, I have in great number," Lady Nikos replied. She glanced momentarily towards the wall with all of its framed pictures and articles. Sunset's eyes followed them there, and with the closer distance, even a swift glance told her that they all concerned the reported deeds and exploits of Pyrrha.
"Tell me, Miss Shimmer," she continued, "why should my daughter - a champion of the blood royal of Mistral - follow you?"
"A faunus?" Sunset asked, unable to keep a touch of pique out of her tone.
"I did not say so, nor will I," Lady Nikos said without displaying any anger at the accusation. "My issue is with your inferior skill, not with your race."
Sunset held the older woman's gaze for a moment before she bowed her head. "I apologise, my lady. I had no right to accuse you thus in your own home. I cry your pardon and your understanding."
"You have them," Lady Nikos said. "With the world as it is, your assumption is not without grounds."
Sunset said nothing more to that; rather she said, "As to your true complaint with regards to my worth, my lady, it is true that I cannot throw a punch so well as Pyrrha can, but I am not without talents of my own. They simply lie in other areas."
"Such as?"
"I am a good shot, my lady," Sunset said, "but principally I would base my claims on talent in my wit and in my semblance." She spread her arms out on either side of her and closed her eyes as she called upon her magic. What she was attempting now was complex, not so much for the amount of raw power involved as for the fact that she was trying to do three different things at once. She drew in the ambient magic of the world around her to somewhat replenish her own reserves, even as she spent those same reserves more swiftly. With one hand, she conjured a dozen magical arrows, green darts rising from her open palm to form a kind of deadly halo above her head. With the other hand, she conjured up two shields of shimmering, translucent magic around the sword and statuette that sat on Lady Nikos’ desk. And lastly, something new, something that she had been working on after her experience down at the docks: a suit of armour, resembling the all-embracing steel plates of a knight but forged entirely out of magic, enfolding her form more snugly and securely than any shield spell ever would.
She hoped that all of this was as impressive as she hoped because it was already starting to give Sunset a headache. Performing multiple spells at once like this was one of the few aspects of magic that was easier in this world than Equestria - consequence of the lack of a horn through which all magic had to travel - but that didn't make it easy by any means. It was like trying to focus your attention on three things, not just split it, but give each one a hundred percent of your attention. Sunset wasn't sure how long she could hold it. She blinked rapidly as her head began to rattle like a snare drum.
Fortunately, Lady Nikos seemed at least a little impressed by what she was seeing. Her eyebrows rose. "I take it these are not illusions?"
"Touch the shield, my lady, and you will find out."
Tentatively, Lady Nikos reached for the shield enfolding her sword. She pushed against it, and Sunset could see that she had met resistance. Her whole body glowed as she activated her aura, and she struck the shield with a single fist.
Sunset's shield did not falter.
Again, and again after that, Lady Nikos struck the shield around her blade, and only on the fifth strike did it begin to crack.
Sunset released all her magic, arrows and shield and armour all fading into empty air. She attempted to conceal the immediate weight that settled on her eyelids. "Not invulnerable, my lady," she said, "but durable in defence and powerful in the attack."
"If you can hit your opponent, I assume."
"Is that not the case with all forms of offence?"
Lady Nikos was silent for a moment. "I must concede the versatility of your semblance, although I must also question your use of it."
Now it was Sunset's turn to raise her eyebrows. You think you know how to use magic better than I do? "What does my lady mean?"
"Your semblance armour was fine looking, but I cannot see what advantages it offers over mere aura," Lady Nikos said.
Ah, of course. Semblance consumes aura. "It supplements my aura, my lady."
"But does not drain it."
"Not greatly, my lady."
"Have you considered that real armour might serve you better, if you feel the need for additional protection?"
Sunset was silent for a moment. "There are many things that might serve me well, my lady, including better armour than the modest breastplate I possess, but my resources are constrained."
"I see," Lady Nikos murmured softly. "May I ask, Miss Shimmer, why a huntress in possession of such a semblance requires instruction in the basics of close combat?"
"I have been shown the need for it, my lady, as a last resort."
"A result of your battle with the White Fang, I suppose."
Sunset nodded. "Yes, my lady."
Lady Nikos' face hardened, if only for a moment. "I did not like the news of that, for reasons that I am sure I do not have to elaborate upon. White Fang activity here in Mistral is practically unheard of at the present time, yet in Vale, it seems to be becoming endemic."
Sunset frowned. "You wish to pull Pyrrha out of Beacon."
“It is a possibility I am considering.”
Sunset hesitated for a moment. “The rules of Beacon-“
“This is Mistral, Miss Shimmer,” Lady Nikos reminded her, “and Pyrrha is my daughter, no matter what the rules of Beacon may have to say upon the subject.”
“I see,” Sunset murmured. “Is there aught that I might say or do to change my lady’s mind?”
Lady Nikos was silent for a moment. She pushed back her chair and got to her feet. "Pyrrha has no need of instruction, at Beacon or at any other academy. I highly doubt that her skills in combat have improved one jot over the course of the semester. And yet, Pyrrha is only young, and I considered the possibility that she might benefit from the mentoring of an experienced huntsman, skilled and seasoned. So you see it was no mere maternal indulgence on my part that led me to accede for my daughter’s preference for Beacon."
Sunset kept her opinion - that she doubted Lady Nikos had ever demonstrated any maternal indulgence towards Pyrrha in her life - to herself. Lady Nikos walked over to the wall, with all its hagiographic praise of Pyrrha and her accomplishments: tournaments and trophies, public appearances flawlessly executed, speculation on her future.
"Professor Lionheart is a small man, utterly unworthy of the great charge that the Council has bestowed upon him; the decline of Haven under his mismanagement has been disheartening to witness. I told myself that my daughter would do better under the guidance of Professor Ozpin, whose skill and wisdom are beyond doubt."
"I cannot speak for Professor Lionheart's faults, my lady, but Professor Ozpin's virtues are as beyond doubt now as they were when your decision was made."
Lady Nikos turned away from her wall to look once more at Sunset. "My daughter has the potential to be the greatest fighter of this age," she declared. "There is no one she cannot defeat, no tournament crown she could not claim if only she possessed the will to reach for it. Yet even the mightiest warrior may be slain by a single arrow. Years of training at vast expense can fall to a ten lien pistol. I do not wish to see my daughter's potential brought to nought by the blade of a White Fang thug."
"No more do I, my lady," Sunset said. She, too, got to her feet. "My lady does not know me, and you do not know my team, but I assure you with all due modesty that Pyrrha could find no better comrades to fight beside than we. Perhaps it is true that Pyrrha could drag two sacks of flour and a rock to victory in the Vytal festival, but with us by her side, she will not have to. I have run Pyrrha closer in combat than any other opponent by her own account; Ruby is a prodigy in her own right and only fifteen - when she is seventeen who knows what a monster she will be? - the potential of Jaune's semblance is yet unbounded. Together, we will not only triumph but bring such glory to our names that the world will resound to the sound of them, and the talk of the world will be how brilliantly we fought. And we will protect each other, and thus as we survived the White Fang, so will we survive all other darkness besides together. I am a stranger to my lady, true, but on my pride and on my dear ambition, dear as life itself, I swear to you: I have Pyrrha's back, and we have both her flanks besides."
Lady Nikos stared into Sunset's eyes. "It is true, I know you not, Miss Shimmer. And yet, I would like to know you better. There is a part of me that wishes my daughter would speak thus of ambition. With respect, how does a faunus whose resources are by your own admission strained learn to speak thus?"
"I was not always that which I am now, my lady," Sunset said. "As I told you at dinner, I came from beyond the kingdoms by way of Atlas only. I was not born a faunus of the slums but in a proud and sovereign place."
"Menagerie? That would explain your manners; high as they are, they are not of the kingdoms," Lady Nikos replied. "I will make no decision yet regarding my daughter's future. I do not know you, Miss Rose, or Mister Arc, but I have time to come to know all three of you. When the end of this vacation draws near, you will know my thoughts."
Sunset bowed. "I understand, my lady, and I thank you."
"You thank me for telling you that I wish to take your team’s star fighter away?”
“I thank you for giving me fair warning, my lady,” Sunset replied. “Now allow me to give you warning in turn: you may test me as you wish, you may test my team as you wish, but in the end, we will surpass your expectations, and you will confess that Pyrrha belongs with us. I do not intend to give her up without a fight.”
Lady Nikos stared at Sunset for a moment. A smile creased her lips. “With an attitude like that, Miss Shimmer, you might actually deserve her.”