//------------------------------//
// Vale (New) 
// Story: SAPR 
// by Scipio Smith 
//------------------------------//


Vale


Jaune slashed and hacked and stabbed on the rooftop. 
He’d known that he was a way behind Ruby and Pyrrha, but what he hadn’t known until this afternoon was just how far ahead of him Sunset was as well. God! The things that she was doing with her semblance – as Pyrrha had called it – had been incredible. And Pyrrha had seemed all the more incredible for being able to win the fight in spite of Sunset’s power. 
He had known that Sunset, like his other two teammates, was stronger than he was, but Jaune hadn’t understood the extent of that strength differential until now. He had thought that Sunset was the second weakest of their team, second only to him. Now it felt as though the three girls were roughly level with one another at the top of the mountain, while he was somewhere down at the bottom looking up at them.
They seemed very small from down there. 
Which was why he had to keep on climbing. 
In an effort to help him get stronger faster, Jaune had ventured into the library very briefly after Sunset and Pyrrha’s duel, and come across a book called The True Principles of the Art of Fencing, which, a brief glance at the introduction had told him, was an old Valish fencing manual. Jaune had checked out the book, and now it sat propped up against the wall by the door leading down from the rooftop, so that he could see the pictures and try to mimic what they were doing. 
It was a little harder than it had seemed at first; not all of these stances were very comfortable, and they didn’t seem to flow together all that well. But it was in a book, so it had to work somehow, right? He just wasn’t doing it properly, or he was missing the nuances maybe.
Perhaps he should stop to actually read the thing. 
Jaune shook his head. He didn’t have time for that. If he sat down to read a book from start to finish, then he’d just fall even further behind his teammates as they strode on ahead of him. 
He just had to push through and keep going. If nothing else, swinging his sword around enough should make him physically stronger, shouldn’t it?
Jaune jerked from stance to stance, huffing and puffing as he fought with shadows. 



Her morning jog with Jaune had become a part of Pyrrha’s morning routine over these first couple of weeks at Beacon. It made sense, since he was apparently as used to getting up early as she was, that they would use the time before breakfast to get some early exercise. 
It was something she found that she quite looked forward to. 
She tried to set a reasonable pace, in order to enable Jaune to keep up with her; he seemed, to put it politely, a little less experienced than she was. Nevertheless, as she was beginning to make a circuit of the central courtyard, Pyrrha noticed that Jaune had fallen behind her. She stopped, turning around to see that Jaune had not just fallen behind; he had almost fallen. He was leaning upon one of the tall stone columns that encircled the courtyard, doubled over.
“Jaune!” Pyrrha cried, dashing back towards him. “Jaune, what’s wrong?”
Jaune let out a groan. “Uh… nothing… I just… uh…”
Since it didn’t seem that he was capable of standing up, Pyrrha knelt down so that she could get a better look at his face. There were dark bags underneath his blue eyes, blue eyes that were a little less vibrant today than normal. “Jaune, you look exhausted! How do you feel?”
“… Exhausted,” Jaune admitted.
“I’m sorry,” Pyrrha apologised, cursing herself for not seeing this coming. Jaune was out every night doing who knew what; he didn’t get back until every other member of Team SAPR had turned in. Even Sunset, who was otherwise a bit of a night owl herself and didn’t seem to feel like doing her homework until the sun had, well, set, got to bed much earlier than Jaune. Sometimes, Pyrrha wasn’t even awake to hear him come in. “This was a mistake; I shouldn’t have pushed you. Let’s go back to the dorm room.”
Jaune shook his head. “I… I’m  fine,” he panted. “Just give me-”
“You are not fine,” Pyrrha insisted. 
She hesitated. Ruby knew what Jaune was doing night after night, and she seemed to think that it was doing Jaune no harm; Pyrrha trusted Ruby, or at least she trusted Ruby’s good intentions, but it was clear that Jaune’s nocturnal activities were doing him some harm, if only by sheer attrition. She didn’t think that she could turn a blind eye to this any longer. 
“Jaune,” she said, keeping her voice soft and gentle. She didn’t want him to think that she was scolding. “I don’t know what it is that you’re doing every night, but I think you need to reconsider. You can’t keep rising early and getting to bed late indefinitely.” 
He was barely able to do it now. Nevertheless, she decided not to ask what he was doing at night; she didn’t want to be seen to pry. 
Jaune shook his head. “I have to,” he said. “It’s the only way.”
“The only way to what?” Pyrrha asked. “What are you doing every night, Jaune?”
Jaune didn’t reply.
Pyrrha frowned. “I’m your partner,” she reminded him. “Whatever is going on, you can trust me.”
Jaune closed his eyes. “I do trust you,” he said, “but I need you to feel like you can trust me.”
“I…” Pyrrha stopped, her words trailing off. Because of course, if she trusted him, then she would let this go and, well, trust him to do the right thing. Put like that, how could she refuse? “Very well,” she said. “Will you at least let me help you back to the dorm?”
Jaune straightened up, or tried to. “I can keep go-ah!” he staggered forwards and might have fallen on his face save that Pyrrha was there to ensure that he only fell into her arms. 
“Come on, we’re going back,” Pyrrha said, as she pulled one of his arms over her shoulders and started back towards the dorm rooms. She smiled at him. “It’s alright, Jaune. I’ve got you.”
That didn’t seem to have been the right thing to say, judging by the dejected look that came across Jaune’s face. He didn’t reply. He just looked so… so disappointed that Pyrrha didn’t know what to say, much as she wished she did.
It honestly felt like a little bit of a relief when he fell asleep on the way back; Pyrrha hardly noticed the difference between dragging him and helping him. She held him a little tighter and lifted him up a bit so that his feet didn’t scrape along the ground. 
Of course, it was difficult to get her scroll out holding him like this, so when she did get back to the SAPR dorm room, she knocked fumblingly upon the door to get the attention of her teammates still inside. 
The door was opened by Ruby, still wearing her pyjamas, whose silver eyes widened at the sight of them. “Jaune!? Is he okay?”
“He’s just tired,” Pyrrha reassured her as she carried Jaune inside, Ruby making way for the two of them. 
Sunset was standing by her bed; she was also still in her pyjamas. She folded her arms as a smirk crossed her lips. “What did you do to him?”
“I didn’t do anything,” Pyrrha replied, a note of reproach in her voice as she laid Jaune down upon his bed. “He’s exhausted.”
“All that sleeping in class isn’t cutting it, huh?”
“Sunset,” Pyrrha said, with more than a mere note of reproach in her voice now. She glanced at Ruby. “Ruby, I won’t ask you what Jaune is doing each night because he asked me to trust him, and I respect his wishes, but as the only person who knows… can’t you persuade him to stop? I’m afraid it’s hurting him more than it’s helping.”
Ruby frowned. “I’ll try,” she agreed, “but I’m not sure that he’ll listen.”
“What is he doing?” Sunset demanded.
Ruby looked at Sunset. “He doesn’t want anyone to know.”
“Tough. Spill it.”
“Sunset,” reprimanded Ruby.
“I have a right to know,” Sunset declared. “We all have a right to know, but me as his team leader especially. Especially as his team leader, who is currently doing all of this lazy bum’s homework. All of our successes depend in part on him. My success depends in part on him. If he’s going clubbing in Vale every night-”
“It isn’t like that,” Ruby assured her.
“Then what is it?”
“Sunset, please,” Pyrrha urged. “Please, let it lie.”
Sunset huffed. She pressed her lips together in a pout. Her tone was a little less angry when she spoke again. “It may not have occurred to you that there is only so long that I can keep this up,” she said. “If I have to keep doing the work of two students, I’m going to be the one falling asleep in class. I’ll give him until half term to pull his ho- pull his finger out and show some improvement, then I won’t let it go any more.” She sat down on her bed. “What am I going to do with you?”
Since the question was meant for Jaune, Pyrrha did not reply. She walked around Jaune’s bed, towards her own. “Ruby, if you want to get in the shower first, I won’t stop you.”
“Sunset?” Ruby asked.
“Go ahead,” Sunset said softly.
As Ruby went into the shower, Pyrrha sat down on her own bed, on the opposite side of Jaune to Sunset. She looked down at him, at his face; it was handsome in repose, marred only by the dark circles of exhaustion around his eyes. The way that his hair fell across his forehead, she almost wanted to reach out and-
“You realise some people would say that’s a little creepy,” Sunset observed.
Pyrrha’s head snapped up. She could feel her face starting to redden. “I, uh, I don’t know what you mean?”
Sunset had a very knowing look upon her face. “I used to watch Flash sleep sometimes, when we were going out. Of course, we were going out at the time, so it wasn’t weird.”
“It doesn’t mean anything,” Pyrrha said unconvincingly.
“Doesn’t it?” Sunset replied, with a healthy dollop of scepticism in her voice. “Do you like him?”
“Excuse me?”
“It’s a simple question,” Sunset insisted. “Although if the answer is yes, then my next question will be ‘why?’”
Because… because… Pyrrha felt embarrassed to realise that she was struggling to answer that question. She felt even more embarrassed to realise that she didn’t really know Jaune very well. She had known him for two weeks, she had seen him perform an act of kindness towards Ruby, she knew that he came from a family of huntsmen, and from that… from that, she had spun a fairytale for herself, dreams of marriage and romance. 
She realised with an abrupt feeling like a slap in the face that she had behaved exactly like all the people who presumed to know Pyrrha Nikos because they had seen the Invincible Girl on television a few times. She had presumed to know Jaune Arc, when all she was doing was projecting her own desires onto him. 
It made her a bad partner, and she suspected a rather bad friend as well. 
I’m sorry, Jaune. I will do better in future.
I will get to know you, all of you, if you will let me. I will get to know you and let you know me, and I will wish you every happiness with Weiss Schnee.
“Thank you, Sunset,” Pyrrha murmured.
Sunset frowned. “For what?”
Pyrrha smiled, appreciating that Sunset was sparing her dignity by not belabouring exactly what it was that Pyrrha had to thank Sunset for. 
She looked away from Jaune, and was about to open a book while she waited for Ruby to be done in the shower when she heard Sunset grunt. Pyrrha looked over to see Sunset rooting around underneath Jaune’s bed. She pulled out a book, a new edition of an antique fencing manual by the look of it. 
“Look what I found; it’s from the library,” Sunset announced.
“I see,” Pyrrha replied quietly. “Jaune had it.”
“Yeah.”
“Then you should put it back,” Pyrrha said.
“Aren’t you interested in why he’s got it?” Sunset asked. “Do you think that he’s trying to learn how to use a sword? A little late, don’t you think?”
“Please, Sunset, put it back,” Pyrrha urged.
Sunset dropped the book onto her bed. “You’re not in the least bit interested in how he managed to pass the Combat School equivalency exam without knowing what aura was or being able to use his weapons effectively?”
“He can learn how to fight,” Pyrrha said.
“He ought to have learnt already.”
“But he hasn’t,” Pyrrha reminded her. “But that doesn’t mean that he can’t learn. He has a good heart.”
“That won’t save him from the grimm.”
“Won’t it?” Pyrrha asked. “Why not? The grimm are darkness, and we are the light. They are evil incarnate, beings of pure destruction, driven by their base instincts to kill and devour. We oppose them with weapons, yes, but should we not oppose these creatures of darkness with shining virtues also? I would rather fight alongside a good man than a mighty warrior with the heart of Cardin Winchester.”
“Or me,” Sunset said sharply.
“You are better than you give yourself credit for,” Pyrrha replied. “Please, Sunset, put the book away.”
Sunset looked a little reluctant, but she did as Pyrrha asked and slid the book back down beneath Jaune’s bed.
At that moment, Jaune’s eyes flickered, and he stirred to wakefulness once more. “Hey,” he murmured.
“Hello again,” Pyrrha said, softly but kindly. “How do you feel?”
Jaune yawned, which was as good a way as answering as any other, Pyrrha supposed. “What… did I fall asleep?”
“For a little while, yes,” Pyrrha answered. “You don’t need to get up. You can go back to sleep, if you want to.”
“No, I’ll get up,” Jaune said, shaking his head as he sat up. He yawned again. “Although, I could maybe use some coffee.”
“I’ll get it,” Pyrrha assured him, getting to her feet and crossing the dorm room quickly. Her boots clicked upon the corridor floor as she made her way to the galley kitchen that the students could use to make themselves snacks, or light meals if they did not care for any of the available options in the dining hall. It had a sideboard on either side of the sink, a microwave, a hot plate, a toaster, a cheap kettle, and plentiful cupboards above and below the work surface. In one of the top cupboards, Pyrrha found a jar of coffee, albeit there wasn’t much left inside. 
“I think they left some for us to get started, but we have to replenish it ourselves.”
Pyrrha looked around. Flash Sentry stood in the doorway, his hands in his pockets. 
“Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to disturb you.”
“I see,” Pyrrha said evenly.
Flash winced. “Please, don’t… I know that some of my teammates can be a little… I’m not like Cardin or Russell.”
Pyrrha hesitated, her back to him as she pulled the mostly-empty coffee jar down out of the cupboard. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t have prejudged you.”
“It’s okay,” Flash said. “I suppose Sunset’s told you some horror stories about me.”
“Actually, she doesn’t mention you all that often,” Pyrrha replied. She paused. “Although… she mentioned just now that… she used to watch you sleep.”
Flash snorted. “I think I woke up to that a couple of times.”
“Did you find it… odd?” Pyrrha asked.
Flash smiled as he walked into the kitchen. “No,” he replied. “I thought it was sweet.”
And yet you broke up with her and hurt her so badly. “I see,” Pyrrha said softly. 
She got a mug for Jaune, one of the plain mugs that were in the cupboard already. They should probably buy their own. 
“That was a great fight you two had,” Flash said, as he waited for Pyrrha to finish. “I’d rate it one of your personal best.”
“You’ve seen me fight?” Pyrrha asked. She looked at him over her shoulder. “Am I in your way?”
“No,” Flash said. “I can wait. And yes, I’ve seen you fight. I saw you fight Shining Armour in an exhibition match.”
“Ah, yes, the charity fight for the Asclepius Institute,” Pyrrha replied. “Yes, I recall. He was a skilled opponent.”
“Sunset was better, yesterday,” Flash said. “She actually managed to land a hit on you.”
“She is very skilled.”
“I had no idea,” Flash said earnestly.
“She kept her strength from you?”
“From everyone, until now,” Flash confirmed.
“Then I am honoured that she chose to reveal herself in battle against me,” Pyrrha declared.
“Honoured?” Flash repeated. “I’m not sure I’ll ever understand Mistralians. How is she?”
“Sunset?”
“Yeah,” Flash murmured.
“She is… as well as can be expected, I suppose,” Pyrrha replied.
“Right,” Flash replied, his tone concealing his thoughts upon the subject. “I see.”
Pyrrha finished making Jaune his coffee and carried the steaming mug back to the dorm room. By the time she returned, Ruby was out of the shower. 
“Pyrrha,” Ruby said, as the latter walked in. “I was just saying, we should all go into Vale today, and I can show you around. Like we didn’t end up getting around to last week.”
“That sounds like it could be very pleasant,” Pyrrha replied, as she carried Jaune his coffee and handed it to him. He drank greedily, in spite of the heat, only to burn his tongue a little in the process. “I’m sorry,” Pyrrha said. “Is it too hot?”
“No,” Jaune assured her. “I just wasn’t thinking straight.”
To Ruby – and to everyone, really – Pyrrha said, “We could also use some groceries for the kitchen, and some of our own kitchenware, perhaps.”
“I suppose it would be good having someone to show us around,” Sunset conceded.
Jaune sipped some more coffee. “Sounds good,” he agreed.
“That’s that, then,” Sunset said. “We’ll get ready and head out after breakfast.”



Sunset was the next one to go into the shower, so while she was doing that, Ruby fastened her cape around her shoulders and asked Jaune and Pyrrha, “So, have either of you ever been to Vale before?”
“No,” Jaune said. “My… we never had any reason to, before now.”
“I spent the night before heading to Beacon,” Pyrrha said, “but I spent most of that at my hotel, I went to the theatre but I got a cab there and back.”
“Okay,” Ruby said. “I mean, it’s not like I’m an expert or anything,” she said quickly, in case their expectations were too high, “but I’ve been a few times, even on my own. That’s how I met Sunset and how I got into Beacon.”
“I don’t think I’ve heard this story,” Jaune said.
“Nor I,” Pyrrha agreed. “I knew that there must be a reason you were admitted early – and your skills demonstrate the reason admirably – but at the same time, I’m curious as to what specifically happened.”
Ruby was beginning to wish that she hadn’t brought it up. “Well, it’s nothing special, really,” she said. “I was in a dust shop – and so was Sunset, although I didn’t realise it – when all of these bad guys came in led by this guy Roman Torchwick, and they were there to rob the place, and they started collecting all the dust-”
“The dust?” Pyrrha repeated. “They weren’t just there to steal the takings, then?”
“Surely, it would be easier to just take the cash,” Jaune theorized.
“Yeah, but dust is valuable,” Ruby replied. “I mean, look at Weiss. Maybe he was going to sell it on to someone else?”
“Perhaps,” Pyrrha agreed. “In any case, Ruby, please continue.”
“Well, it’s pretty straightforward really,” Ruby said. “This guy came into the back – I had my headphones on, so I couldn’t actually hear the robbery – and he was like ‘put ‘em up, kid,’ but then I threw him across the store and kicked a second guy through the window. And then Sunset was like ‘laser beams!’ and then I was outside the store fighting Torchwick’s guys ‘wham! Bam!’ And then they were all down, and there was only Torchwick left… until this girl showed up, and then all of a sudden, they both just… disappeared. Until we saw the Bullhead take off, at least. He got away.”
“But you stopped the robbery,” Pyrrha reminded her. She had a fond smile upon your face. “And the amusing style of your delivery can’t disguise the fact that you put yourself in danger facing hardened criminals.”
“You would have done the same,” Ruby assured her. “I think we all would have.”
“Perhaps,” Pyrrha allowed. “But you did it.”
“I guess,” Ruby murmured. “So, anyway, where do you guys want to go in Vale?”
“I have no idea,” Pyrrha admitted. “We are entirely in your hands, Ruby.”
“Apart from the stuff you suggested we get,” Jaune added, “which is probably a good idea, it doesn’t look as if the school is going to replace any of that stuff. But yeah, other than that… why don’t you surprise us?”
“Uh… sure,” Ruby muttered, and hoped that whatever she came up with didn’t disappoint. 



When the team was all ready, Sunset found that in appearance, it had divided pretty much in half. Ruby was wearing her huntress outfit, the black ensemble with her red cape, to the extent where it looked a little odd to see her without her weapon. Sunset was in much the same boat, but had made a concession to the casual circumstances by forgoing the jeans she usually wore under her skirt. Jaune and Pyrrha, on the other hand, were both wearing something new, which Sunset supposed was especially understandable in Pyrrha’s case, considering what her battle gear looked like; she probably didn’t want to wander around Vale armoured for a fight. 
Jaune was wearing a different hoodie, this one with white stripes running horizontally across the arms and chest, with a white shirt underneath, while his pants were black like his hoodie. Pyrrha, meanwhile, wore a black halter-top with a red skirt and a touch of bare midriff visible in between the two. A red purse hung by a strap from her shoulder as they made their way down to breakfast. 
The dining hall was less crowded for breakfast on a Sunday than it was on any other day of the week as a consequence of students not feeling the need to get up. Case in point: Ren and Dove were there when Team SAPR arrived, but without any sign of Yang or Nora. 
“Hey guys,” Ruby said, as Team SAPR sat down opposite the two representative of YRDN. “Yang and Nora decided to sleep in, huh?”
“I apologise that your sister is picking up Nora’s habits,” Ren said.
Sunset smirked. “You wouldn’t dare say that if she were here, would you?”
“If she were here right now, there would be no need to say it,” Ren replied.
The smirk didn’t waver off Sunset’s face. “It would be hilarious if she were behind you right now. Hilarious for me, anyway.”
“So,” Ruby said, changing the subject, “what have you guys got planned for today?”
“Training,” Dove said. “I said I’d help Lyra with some of her sword technique.”
“You spend a great deal of time with Lyra and Bon Bon,” Pyrrha observed.
“Especially when you’ve already got two-“ Jaune’s words came to a clattering halt as his sleep deprived brain caught up what he’d been about to say. It was too late, however, to avoid the looks that Ren and Ruby were giving him.
Sunset grinned at his discomfiture. “Go on, Jaune, you had a sentence to finish.”
Jaune made a strangled choking noise. “I just meant that… you hang out a lot with two girls who aren’t on your team.”
Dove shrugged. “I like them,” he said. “They’re nice.”
“Yang’s nice too,” Ruby informed him.
Now it was Dove’s turn to look uncomfortable. “I… haven’t said or heard anyone else say otherwise, about Yang or Nora,” he added, jerking his head a little towards Ren. “It’s just that Lyra and Bon Bon are more…” He cleared his throat. “So anyway, what are you up to today?”
“Ruby is going to show us around Vale,” Pyrrha replied.
“A good idea,” Ren said. “Perhaps we should ask Yang to do the same for us, once she wakes up.”
“You could always come with us?” Ruby suggested.
“Thank you, but Nora wouldn’t appreciate it if I saw the sights without her,” Ren said. “Do you have anything particular in mind?”
“Not really,” Ruby admitted. “But I know a couple of good bookshops.”
“I didn’t know you read,” Dove said. “What are you into?”
Ruby smiled shyly. “Stories about heroes,” she admitted, as though it were something that she had to "admit" as opposed to simply stating it. “Stories… stories about the kind of people whom we’re training to become: brave people who fight the monsters without a trace of fear.”
Dove nodded and looked thoughtful, although what he was thinking about, Sunset couldn’t say. Nor did she particularly care. 
There were three ways of getting down into Vale from Beacon: if you had a vehicle in the garage, you could drive it down, or you could walk, or you could get the airbus that landed on the docking pad every hour on a Sunday to collect anyone from the school wishing to head down into the city. As it happened, Sunset did have a vehicle, her beloved bike, the Sunset Special, but it wasn’t exactly the sort of thing that she could fit the entire team on, and nobody felt like walking into the city today. So they caught the ten o’clock airbus, which set them down in the midst of Vale twenty minutes later, and they were free to start exploring the city. 
The civilian skydock was located not far away from a large public park, the unfortunately named Winchester Park, which, in spite of its name, nevertheless looked a pleasant enough sort of place, if one enjoyed wasting one’s time in public parks where there wasn’t much to do except look at flower beds. Nevertheless, Pyrrha seemed enthusiastic about taking a look around, and so they all trooped in through one of the gates set in the iron railings that fenced off the park from the rest of the city. There was already a fair crowd there already, people milling in a leisurely fashion up and down the paths or across the grass, while bees buzzed through the flowerbeds and birds sang in the trees that lined the pathways. 
Not far from the entrance they had come in, Sunset’s attention was drawn to an incredibly saccharine memorial: a wall of white stone, on which was carved a frieze depicting mules, horses, camels, and elephants marching along in a column, all of them burdened with something upon their backs. Upon the wall was also carved the inscription Animals In War in heavy, block letters, and underneath the words They Had No Choice. Sunset glanced around and saw that the wall was surrounded by bronze sculptures of animals: plodding, broken-down pack horses, a noble war horse, and a dog, which looked somewhat incongruous until Sunset thought about Applejack and that trained dog she always had running by her side. 
All the same, in spite of the fact that she was a pony herself, Sunset could not help but find the whole thing a little ridiculous. Of all the things – all the people – they could erect a monument to, and this was what they chose to remember: the animals.
Pyrrha saw what Sunset was looking at and strolled over to join her in front of the absurd memorial. She spent a moment taking it in. “In Mistral,” she said, “we have nothing like this.”
“You mean in Mistral, you have sense?” Sunset suggested.
“I don’t see that there’s any need to be unkind,” Pyrrha said mildly. “The Great War must have been the death of thousands – tens of thousands – of these poor creatures. And it is quite right to point out that they didn’t have a choice.”
“That doesn’t mean they deserve to be remembered,” Sunset replied. “Or at least, not that they deserve to be remembered more than, oh, I don’t know, people.”
“I am sure that there must be such monuments,” Pyrrha said. “We simply have not come across them yet.”
“I hope so,” Sunset muttered. “Or Vale has its priorities seriously out of whack.”
“Hey, guys,” Jaune said, as he and Ruby joined the other two. “What are you looking at?”
“It’s a memorial to the animals who perished in Vale’s wars,” Pyrrha explained.
Ruby gasped. “I’ve been to this park a few times, but I never noticed this was here before.”
“Lucky you,” griped Sunset.
“Sunset doesn’t appreciate it,” Pyrrha explained, with a slight trace of a sigh in her voice.
Sunset glanced at Pyrrha. “Do you really think that this is a good thing?”
“In Mistral,” Pyrrha began, “we honour the generals and the kings who led the wars. Perhaps remembering the innocents dragged along in the wake of their ambitions is… more compassionate.”
“I don’t know. I like the Mistralian way better,” Sunset replied.
“How is it in Atlas?” Pyrrha asked.
“In Atlas,” Sunset said, “they honour the sacrifices made on behalf of the state. The individuals don’t matter as long as the kingdom they died for endured.”
“I like that,” Ruby said. “I mean, I don’t like that they died, but… we’ve got a statue of the king who won the war… somewhere, I don’t know if I could show it to you, but anyway… putting up statues to kings and generals, I don’t know. Surely, what’s important, what really matters, is that the day was saved, and all the people too.”
“You don’t want any recognition at all?” Jaune asked, surprised.
“No,” Ruby said, as though it were obvious. “So long as we complete the mission, that’s all right with me.”
“What about the heroes in the books?” Sunset said.
Ruby smiled. “They’re not heroes because they ended up in books, Sunset; they ended up in books because they were heroes.”
Pyrrha chuckled. “There are many amongst my people who would find such an attitude very strange, and yet, I find it very noble.”
“It would be nice to get a ‘well done’ every so often,” Jaune muttered.
“If you earn it, sure,” Sunset said, with just a touch of sharpness in her voice.
They got hot drinks – more coffee for Jaune, tea for Sunset and Pyrrha, hot chocolate for Ruby – and raisin flapjacks in plastic wrappers from a little wooden hut selling refreshments a little further down the path. While they were drinking, they were drawn further into the park by the sounds of music and cheering and some heavy thuds that they could not identify. 
They reached the far end of the park to find a rally in progress, a great crowd assembled across the green, blocking out the grass beneath their feet with the density of the people packed in so tight. Music such as one might find at a circus was playing, as robot animals – elephants, lions, giraffes, horses, camels – marched up and down with heavy treads, lifting their heads up and down, rearing, bowing, turning in place for the delight and amusement of the crowd. 
In between the robot animals and the crowd had been erected a stage, with a banner raised above it urging the readers to re-elect Novo Aris as First Councillor. 
Up on the stage stood a tall older woman, with a majestic mane of purple hair tinged with pink at the roots, wearing a vivid pink trousersuit that matched the roots of her hair. 
“Ruby,” Sunset hissed. “Is that the First Councillor?”
“I… think so,” Ruby said.
“Shouldn’t you know?” Sunset demanded.
“I’ve only seen her on TV,” Ruby replied, a little defensively, “and Dad turns the TV off whenever she comes on.”
“Why?” Pyrrha asked.
“He doesn’t like her,” Ruby replied, stating the obvious.
Sunset didn’t ask why Ruby’s father didn’t like the head of Vale’s government; rather, she watched as the First Councillor turned away from the robotic animals that she had been observing and, with a bright smile upon her face, approached the podium set in the centre of the stage. The slogan Morning in Vale was picked out in yellow letters on a sky blue background on the front of the podium. 
“They’re amazing, aren’t they?” Novo asked the crowd. “And these majestic creatures are just some of the amazing creations being developed by Starhead Industrial at their base of operations right here in Vale.
“There was a time not very long ago when things like this were only developed and manufactured in Atlas. There was a time when goods flowed south out of Atlas, and only our lien flowed the other way. There was a time when we looked north with envy, but not any more!” Novo paused to allow the crowd to cheer for a moment, as an army of enthusiastic volunteers at the front waved "Novo" placards. “Since I became First Councillor, I have presided over a transformation of this Kingdom. Since I became First Councillor, we have achieved full employment. Since I became First Councillor, in-work poverty has declined to record lows. Since I became First Councillor, our gallant huntsmen and huntresses have been so effective that the threat of the grimm has never seemed so insignificant. And since I became First Councillor, I have overseen the rebalancing of our economy on a scale unseen since the end of the Great War, as with the help of our friends in Starhead Industrial, Mendelson Robotics, and Accuretta Systems, we begin to manufacture goods that can compete with anything being developed in Atlas. And if you re-elect me as your First Councillor, I promise to continue that success and lead our kingdom to even greater heights. It’s morning in Vale! Let’s keep the sun shining!”
“Why doesn’t your dad like her?” Jaune asked. “She seems nice enough.”
“She’s a politician; of course, she’s going to seem nice,” Sunset said.
“True, but as politicians go, nothing that she said seemed particularly unreasonable,” Pyrrha murmured.
Ruby’s brow furrowed a little. “It’s all about Vale with her.”
Sunset frowned. “Well… that is where she lives.”
“But what about Patch?” Ruby demanded. “What about the villages beyond the city limits? Novo only cares about the City of Vale and other large towns on the coast; she keeps all the huntsmen back to defend them and hardly sends any out to defend the smaller places.”
“Like your home,” Pyrrha murmured.
“Patch is lucky,” Ruby replied. “The teachers from Signal are always willing to help out, but I can’t help thinking that there must be other places that aren’t so lucky, and I think Dad thinks so too. That’s why he turns off the TV.”
Pyrrha pursed her lips disapprovingly. “That puts rather a different colour upon all of this boasting. The first duty of a lord is to protect their people, and if she has been neglecting it, then…”
“Didn’t she just say that grimm attacks were down?” Jaune pointed out.
“For the cities, they probably are,” Pyrrha said.
Ruby nodded. “There hasn’t been a major grimm attack on Vale since Mountain Glenn. But outside the cities, things are just as dangerous as ever; people just don’t see it.”
Sunset and Pyrrha both moved to put a hand on Ruby’s shoulder, and each looked surprised that the other hand done so. 
“That is why we’re training,” Pyrrha said, giving Ruby’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “So that we may go where others cannot and do the things which they will not.”
“I know,” Ruby said. She looked at both of them gratefully. “Can we go somewhere else now?”
Sunset shrugged. “You’re our guide; guide us somewhere.”
“Hang on a second, guys,” Jaune said, as the rally began to disperse in front of them. “Is that Cardin?”
Sunset looked. She stared. It was Cardin, wearing a suit, and hanging off his arm was a pretty girl with long, blue flowing hair, looking up at him with adoration. She giggled at something that Cardin said.
“Seriously?” Jaune exclaimed. “His girlfriend was real this whole time?  He wasn’t making her up? That guy has an actual girlfriend? That guy?”
“If it’s any consolation, she’s probably as obnoxious as he is,” Sunset observed. “Like Weiss. Regardless, happy couples make me nauseous, especially when one of the two is someone I dislike, so if we could move this along a little bit, Ruby?”
“Sure, right,” Ruby said. “Uh… this way.”
Ruby led them through the streets immediately around the park, high-end residences of the well-heeled, although, as Ruby explained, the really rich and the old nobility tended to live further north, on the coast, furthest away from most grimm. Nevertheless, there were some nice houses in this part of town, nice enough that they had security cameras and the police seemed to patrol the area pretty regularly. 
They passed through that part of Vale quickly and entered a commercial district where Mom and Pop stores were fighting a rearguard against the encroachment of big chains taking up the spots on the street. Along the way, they passed one of the memorials to kings that Ruby had mentioned with a touch of disdain: an equestrian statue of the Last King of Vale, who had won the Great War and humbled Mantle and Mistral both. It was… not a particularly good statue, Sunset had to say; the tail of the horse looked as though it was about to fall off, and the king’s sword, raised above his head, looked as if it had holes in the metal. Someone had spray-painted a White Fang symbol on the stone plinth. Ruby stopped but shuffled impatiently as the rest of them looked at it, so that they felt obliged to move on swiftly afterwards. Jaune gave the statue one last lingering look as they moved on. 
The commercial streets were reasonably busy, about as much as one could probably expect on a Sunday, but several dust shops that they passed were boarded up, as if they had recently gone out of business. Sunset would have suspected the SDC and their relentless drive to monopolise every aspect of the dust trade, but one of the boarded up stores had the remains of some decaying yellow police tape stuck to it.
“Another robbery?” Ruby asked, pausing in front of the crime scene. She looked at Sunset. “Do you think it was that guy Torchwick?”
“Could be,” Sunset agreed. “They never caught him, did they?”
“I guess not,” Ruby said. Her eyes began to gleam worryingly.
"No," Sunset interrupted.
Ruby gasped. "You don't even know what I was going to say!"
"You were about to suggest that we hunt down Torchwick, weren't you?" Sunset informed her.
"Well, yeah,” Ruby admitted, “but you didn't know that!"
"We're not doing it,” Sunset declared.
"Why not?" Ruby demanded.
"Because I don't see the point," Sunset said. He’s only a petty thief, after all; where’s the incentive to risk our lives over something like that?
"But somebody has to stop him!"
"Someone doesn't have to mean us,” Sunset replied. “Let the police earn all of those tax lien, or some professional huntsmen can take care of it.”
“The police and the professional huntsmen can’t stop him,” Ruby insisted.
“Whereas we, with our two whole weeks of schooling, will succeed where they failed miserably,” Sunset said, not bothering to hide the sarcasm.
“We almost got him before.”
“Almost 
"Pyrrha-"
"This team is not a democracy," Sunset declared magisterially. "It is a dictatorship, and the tyrant is me."
Ruby looked a little unhappy with Sunset over that, but she didn’t press the issue, and thankfully, neither Jaune nor Pyrrha looked keen to raise it either. 
While they were walking, Pyrrha caught sight of a hair stylist, one with a reasonably upmarket-looking set of premises, and the rest of them waited outside while Pyrrha went in and spoke to the woman inside. As far as Sunset could tell looking through the glass, booking an appointment took Pyrrha twice as long as it needed to because the girl behind the counter wouldn’t stop fawning all over her.
Small wonder that Pyrrha was looking a little red-faced when she came out.
“Sorry if I kept you all waiting,” she apologised.
“It’s fine,” Jaune said. “It’s worth it to keep your hair looking that way, right?”
“Really? Do you like it?” Pyrrha asked eagerly. “I mean, ahem, thank you, Jaune; it’s very kind of you to be so patient and understanding.” She gave him a shy smile as they continued on.
A few people took pictures of Pyrrha as she walked down the street, but fortunately, nobody approached them. Pyrrha didn’t look happy about it, but Sunset thought it could have been a lot more irritating.
Ruby ended up leading them to the dust shop where she and Sunset had fought Torchwick and his men. 
“I didn’t mean to lead us here,” Ruby assured them. “I just… kind of did. Maybe because it’s the last place I went when I was in Vale last?”
“I think I spotted a bookshop not too far away,” Pyrrha said. “Do you know it?”
“No,” Ruby admitted. “Do you want to check it out?”
The shop went by the name of Tukson’s Book Trade, and when Sunset pushed open the door and led the way inside, she found that another student had already beaten them too it: Blake Belladonna, leader of Team BLBL, was standing at the counter talking with a tall, broad-shouldered man with dark hair.
They both fell silent as Sunset led Team SAPR inside. 
“Well, pardon us,” Sunset said, as Blake looked at her as though she had a bad smell. “For some reason, I thought this was a store open for business.”
“It is!” the man behind the counter declared. “Welcome to Tukson’s Book Trade, home of every book under the sun.”
“Not quite every book,” Blake remarked. “I had to place an item on order, and it still hasn’t arrived yet.” She glanced at the man sharply.
The man behind the counter – Tukson, presumably – laughed nervously. “Okay, so the reality doesn’t one hundred percent match the marketing. Still, there are plenty of books on the shelves, so feel free to look around.”
“Thank you, sir,” Pyrrha said, bowing her head.
“How did you find out about this place, Blake?” Ruby asked. “Are you from Vale?”
That’s right. I don’t know where you’re from, Sunset thought. Although most students from outside Vale wore it on their sleeve in some way, be it the consistent underlying patriotism of the Atlesians or the cultural distinctiveness of the Mistralians or the… they didn’t have any students from Vacuo in the freshman class, but if they did, Sunset was sure she would have noticed something distinct about them, too.
“Uh, no,” Blake said. “Not exactly. I grew up outside the kingdoms, but I’ve made a few visits to Vale before coming to Beacon, and I came across Tukson’s store. He’s usually very good at getting me what I want.”
“Some books are rarer than others, Blake; these things take time,” Tukson reminded her.
“I know,” Blake said. “I’m just… eager to start reading. Goodbye.” She started for the door.
“Is there anything you’d recommend?” Ruby asked.
Blake paused, her arm still as she reached for the door handle. “I don’t know what you’ve read, but there is a good section on fairy tales.”
While Ruby headed there, Sunset drifted over to the nearby, but separate, mythology and legend section, which sat sandwiched between Fairy Tales, where Ruby was browsing, and history, where Pyrrha was examining the selection. Jaune was looking at… how to guides?
Sunset shrugged. At least he was trying to learn something. She turned her attention to the mythology, her eyes passing over some retellings of the ancient myths – where did the line between fairytale and myth fall, she wondered – as she looked for a copy of the Mistraliad. She had become a little curious about it since Pyrrha had brought it up, and she thought that for the sake of her reputation as a cultured gentlemare, she should probably read the original, even if only in translation. And besides, she might actually enjoy it. 
She saw the title on the otherwise black spine of a book, a book which, when Sunset pulled it out, billed itself as a new prose translation. A quick flick through the pages confirmed that it was, indeed, prose, and quite comprehensible prose at that.
“Oh, no, Sunset, you don’t want that,” Pyrrha said from over Sunset’s shoulder as she plucked the book from out of Sunset’s hands and put it back on the shelf. “That translation is… without wishing to be rude, not very good. To be frank, I feel as though many prose translations lose a great deal of the impact of the work. Excuse me, Mister Tukson?” she said, turning around.
“Yes, Miss?”
“Do you have a copy of Corona Sparkle’s translation of the Mistraliad?”
Tukson smiled. “I suppose if you know Blake, then you’re probably the sort of upstanding young huntsmen in training that I can trust not to rob the store while I check in the back.” He disappeared into the recesses of his business, leaving Ruby and Jaune to continue browsing while Sunset and Pyrrha, waiting, edged closer to the counter. 
Tukson emerged again with a thick leatherbound volume in one meaty hand. “Here you go, one Sparkle translation.”
Sunset’s eyebrows rose. “Um, how much did you say-”
“Don’t worry, Sunset; this is my treat,” Pyrrha said. “I can… well, I can hardly insist on the more expensive copy otherwise, can I?”
“I, uh… thanks,” Sunset murmured. A part of her felt as though she ought to refuse charity, but, well, what would be the point of that? And Pyrrha might even be right and it would turn out to be much better in poetry. 
For herself, Pyrrha brought a political history of Vale. “Things don’t work quite the same here as in Mistral, and I think the differences might turn out to be important in Doctor Oobleck’s class,” she explained. 
Ruby didn’t find anything she wanted, or at least nothing that she wanted badly enough to pay for, while Jaune wasn’t quite done choosing yet.
“Uh, you guys wait outside,” he said. “I’ll be out in a minute.”
Sunset wanted to know why they couldn’t wait for him inside the store, but Pyrrha and Ruby seemed to want to oblige Jaune, and so, Sunset had little choice but to follow them outside. 
“What’s he being so secretive about?” Sunset demanded. “Why does he need to hide what he’s buying in a bookshop?” There was one obvious answer, but she sort of hoped that it wasn’t that. 
“If Jaune doesn’t want us to know, then we should respect that,” Pyrrha declared.
“Really?” Sunset asked, as Jaune left the shop carrying a paper bag. “So, what did you get?”
“Huh?” Jaune said. “Oh, just… a book.”
“Obviously,” Sunset replied. “What book?”
Jaune squirmed. “Well, uh…”
“You don’t have to tell,” Pyrrha informed him.
“Yes, he does,” Sunset insisted.
“The, uh, I got, uh… “ Jaune reached into his bag and pulled out… a comic book. “The latest X-ray and Vav.”
Sunset rolled her eyes. “Of course you did.”
They found a convenience store to pick up their groceries – coffee, tea, chocolate, milk, snacks, that kind of thing for the kitchen – and then caught a airbus back to Beacon. 
Sunset was surprised to see Dove waiting for them outside their dorm room when they returned.
“Hey, Dove,” Ruby said. “How did the training with Lyra go?”
“Very well, thanks,” Dove said. He had his hands clasped behind his back. “I think she’s improving. Not that I’m a great swordsman myself; I only know a few tricks my grandfather taught me. What about you? Did you find any good books?”
“No,” Ruby admitted. “But Sunset, Pyrrha, and Jaune all got something.”
“Ah, I’m sorry to hear that,” Dove said. “I mean that there wasn’t anything you wanted.” He hesitated. “Ruby… I want to say again how sorry I am for spilling your confidences when you came to talk to Yang, I had no right to do that.”
“It’s okay,” Ruby said. “It all worked out in the end, right?”
“That’s very kind of you, but it’s not good enough,” Dove said. “To make it up to you, I wanted to give you this.” From behind him, he produced an old, rather dog-eared looking book, its leather cover fraying and coming apart, the pages looking rough-cut, almost jagged in places. The golden lettering that had once adorned the front was almost completely faded, and Sunset could barely make out the title. 
Ruby, however, seemed to recognise it well enough. She gasped in awe and delight. “Dove… is that a copy of The Song of Olivia?”
“Yes,” Dove said. “It belonged to my grandfather, he… he gave it to me when I left for Beacon.”
Ruby’s eyes were wide as saucers. “Dove… I can’t take this.”
“I’ve read it so many times I probably know the whole thing by heart. Have you read it?”
“No,” Ruby said. “I’ve heard of it, but… it’s been out of print for years; you can’t get hold of it for love or lien.”
“Unless you happen to have an old copy,” Dove said. “Please, take it.”
“It’s too much,” Ruby insisted.
Dove said, “Yang says that you will be the Olivia of our times, I’m not sure if she means it as a compliment or not. In any case… I think that of everyone in this school, you deserve to have this and will get the most out of it.” He pressed the book into Ruby’s hands. Ruby’s fingers closed gently around the tome, as if she were afraid that it would crumble into dust. Given the state of it, it just might.
“Thank you,” Ruby said, in a voice that was soft and slightly squeaky. She stepped forward and wrapped one arm around Dove’s chest. “Thanks, Dove.”
Dove patted her on the head. “You’re welcome,” he said, before disentangling herself from her embrace and heading back to the YRDN dorm room. 
Ruby had a great big smile on her face as she led Team SAPR back into their dorm room. 
“So, what’s so special about this book, anyway?” Sunset asked as she followed Ruby inside. “Aside from the fact that it’s old and rare.”
“It’s the Song of Olivia!” Ruby cried, as though that ought to have been obvious. “One of the oldest chivalric stories in Vale. It’s the tale of Olivia, a young girl who dreams of becoming a knight in the king’s court. It tells the story of how she travels from her home village to the court and befriends Prince Edward, the heir to the throne. They grow up together, and she is knighted, and he becomes king. They fall in love, but they realise that their duty to Vale, her vows as a knight and his responsibilities as king, mean that they can never be together. The story follows Olivia on her many quests, slaying monsters and vanquishing villains, fighting for her king in battles to create the Kingdom  of Vale as we know it. And it ends with her final stand alongside the Twelve Paladins of Vale at Stallion Pass. King Edward had led an army over the mountains to claim the lands to the east, but as they were marching back again through the mountain pass, an enormous horde of grimm attacked the rearguard under Olivia’s command. Her best friend, Roland, urges her to blow her horn and summon the rest of the army back to aid her, but Olivia is too proud to send for help and refuses. She and her companions stand fast against the grimm, but one by one, they are brought down until only Olivia remains. Only when she is mortally wounded does Olivia blow her horn, and help rushes to her side in time to save the bodies of the fallen heroes from being devoured by the grimm.”
“So… she dies because of her pride?” Jaune asked, as if he couldn’t believe it.
“Pride is what we have left when we have nothing else,” Sunset informed him. “But, all the same…” That doesn’t make it any less stupid to hear about somebody else doing it. Now I understand why Dove said that Yang’s words might not be a compliment. Now Sunset understood, too, what Yang meant when she had said that Ruby needed someone to take care of her. If I’d been Roland, I wouldn’t have taken no for an answer.
“A sad story,” Pyrrha said. “But a very generous gift.”
“I know,” Ruby said. “It’s a story… I guess it isn’t a story that people want to hear anymore. We… we’ve kind of forgotten our history that way.”
Perhaps that’s for the best, Sunset thought.
“It was nice of him to give it to you,” Jaune said. “Just… don’t get any funny ideas from it, okay?” he laughed nervously.
Ruby chuckled. “I won’t.”
As they all put their stuff away, Sunset watched Jaune out of the corner of her eye. He thought that he was being very discreet and that everyone else was distracted, but Sunset noticed that he took another book of his paper bag, and slid it under his bed.
It was called ‘Swordfighting for Beginners’.
Who are you, really? Sunset thought. He was lacking in even the basics, no doubt about that, but how had he gotten through combat school in this state?
And why do you need a primer when you sleep next to one of the most gifted sword-fighters of her generation?