He Who Wields the Dagger (New)
He Who Wields the Dagger
Skystar was sitting on the park bench alone when Sunset came across her.
Sunset was, herself, alone, having gone into Vale to… well, just for a bit of a wander really. There was nothing in the city that she wanted, nothing that she had set out to buy or eat or do; she had just wanted to get out of Beacon for a little bit, get away from the temporary memorial to Sky that Lyra and Bon Bon had set up outside the huntsman statue like an ad hoc These Are My Jewels, get away from everything.
And so, she had gone, alone, and let her legs carry her whither they would, and they had brought her first to Winchester Park, close by the skydock, where she found Skystar Aris, sitting on a bench, seeming to stare without really seeing.
She had changed her outfit in concession to approaching fall, donning a parka that covered up whatever she might be wearing underneath, as well as a pair of ocean-blue jeans. Her hands were clasped together between her knees. Her back was bent a little, and her head was bowed.
Sunset stopped. “Skystar?”
Skystar looked up, a small gasp escaping from between her lips. “Sunset,” she said. “Sorry, I didn’t notice you there. I was-”
“Preoccupied?” Sunset guessed.
Skystar nodded. “I guess you could say that.”
Sunset’s brow furrowed for a moment. “Do you mind if I sit?” she asked, gesturing to the bench on which Skystar was already sitting.
Skystar looked at the empty space beside her. “No, go ahead. Be my guest,” she said.
Sunset sat down beside her, one arm resting upon the wooden back of the bench. “So,” she said, “what’s up?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Skystar said quickly. “I’m sure you’ve got a lot of your own stuff going on without wanting to listen to me go on.”
“Try me,” Sunset said softly.
Skystar glanced at her. “Why? I mean, why do you care?”
“Well…” Sunset looked away for a moment. “If I was going to give you an honest answer, it would probably involve the word ‘guilt.’”
“'Guilt'?” Skystar repeated. “You mean, because of Cardin?”
“In some ways, it feels like a million years ago,” Sunset said softly, looking up at the sky and the myriad Atlesian warships that filled said sky with all their might. “But at the same time, it wasn’t, and I still owe you for it.”
Skystar smiled, if only faintly. “I told you, Sunset; I’m glad that you did what you did. I… I’m only a little upset that you didn’t tell me earlier. I’d rather know the truth than keep living a lie.”
“Really?” Sunset asked. “Even if the truth is more painful than the lie?”
“The truth gets more painful the longer the lie goes on,” Skystar replied, which ignored the fact that some lies were the only things holding relationships together; those relationships would be destroyed by the truth, like Skystar and Cardin’s had been, like Sunset’s relationship with Ruby would be if she ever found out what Sunset had done down there in the tunnel. The truth might get more painful the longer the lie went on, but only assuming the lie stopped.
Skystar asked, “Were you all laughing at me?”
“What?” Sunset asked. “No!”
“Really? Even though you knew that I was dating a guy who was incredibly racist without any idea at all, and you didn’t find it at all funny?”
“No!” Sunset repeated vehemently. “I didn’t laugh at you, and I don’t know anyone who did; we just… didn’t see it as our place to interfere in your relationship.”
“Even though you knew that he wasn’t what I thought he was?”
“Why should you have believed us over your boyfriend?” Sunset responded. “Although… I should probably admit the main reason that I didn’t tell you is that I liked the idea of making Cardin jump with the fact that I could tell you. I’m sorry for that too; it’s another reason I owe you.”
“No,” Skystar insisted. “You don’t.”
“That’s debatable,” Sunset murmured. “But if I’m prying, then… you don’t have to tell me. I can’t force you, and I wouldn’t if I could. I just… if you want to talk to someone, then I’m right here.”
Skystar smiled at her. “Thank you,” she whispered. “That’s really nice of you, Sunset, but like I said, I’m sure you have your own stuff going on.”
“Everyone has their own stuff going on,” Sunset said. “It doesn’t mean that we can’t help each other out, still less just listen to one another.”
“You’ll think it’s selfish,” Skystar warned.
“I have no problem whatsoever with selfishness,” Sunset replied. “It’s selflessness that gets to me, honestly.”
Skystar sighed. “It sounds… this is going to sound really petty with everything going on, but… it’s just that, with everything going on, it’s as though nobody cares about the Vytal Festival anymore.”
“I thought one of the first things that your mother announced was that it would still be continuing, and held in Vale, no matter what the Mistralians said?” Sunset asked. “And General Ironwood was appointed head of security not too long ago.”
“I know that it’s still happening,” Skystar explained. “But… nobody cares. Yes, it’s still being held, and Mom talks about how we’re going to make a success of it, but… will anybody come? To the coliseum, or to Vale? Is anybody interested any more?” She paused for a moment. “I get why people have other things on their minds, and I understand what they have on their minds… a grimm attack on the city will do that. We had to cancel our production of A Midwinter’s Tale.”
Sunset thought for a moment. “That… that’s the one where the courtier gets chased offstage and eaten by an ursa, isn’t it?”
Skystar nodded. “It was decided that it wasn’t very appropriate in the circumstances.”
“I can see why,” Sunset murmured.
“This probably all sounds like such a pity party,” Skystar groaned. “People are dead, and here I am, complaining that people aren’t in the mood for a festival. And it’s not because I’m the Amity Princess, it… you probably think that I only got the job because my Mom is the First Councillor… and you would be right, but the reason I wanted the job, the reason that I begged my Mom to give me the job is that… this means a lot to me. And not in the stage scripted ‘I love world peace’ way for the cameras, but…” She hesitated.
“Go on,” Sunset urged. “I’m right here.”
Skystar nodded. “My Dad… he used to really love the Vytal Festival,” she explained. “He was so curious; he loved trying new things, going to new places, meeting new people. He’d try anything, meet anyone, and the Vytal Festival had so much stuff for him to try and so many people for him to meet all in one place. My Mom… her work doesn’t give her time to take vacations. It’s the same for my uncle Sky Beak. And so, every couple of years, Dad and Aunt Ocean Flow would take me and Silverstream for a fall vacation to Atlas or Mistral or even Vacuo. We’d watch the tournament, go around the fairgrounds, explore the city, see everything that they were laying on. It was the thing we looked forward to the most out of… everything.”
She paused.
“And then Dad got sick,” she said softly. “Mom… Mom was desperate to find a cure, a treatment, anything that might help, but Dad… I think Dad knew… after a certain point…” She wiped at her eyes with one hand. “Dad accepted how it was going to end much sooner than Mom did. And the main thing that he wanted was to make sure that we had some great memories to… to remember him by. And so, he made Mom take a vacation, and we went to Mistral the year that Shining Armor won the Vytal Crown for Atlas. And I don’t think I’ll forget anything about that fall because… because it was our last fall, but also because we had so much fun there, That… that’s what I remember. Not how he looked in the hospital, but how he looked after the final match when we all watched the closing fireworks from our hotel balcony. The way the light shone in his face. I… I hope that I never forget it. And that’s why I wanted to be this year’s Amity Princess. I wanted to help everyone have as much fun here as I had over the years.” She sighed. “So much for that, I guess.” She paused. “You… you were there, weren’t you?”
Sunset’s mouth tightened for a moment. “At the Breach? Yeah, I was there.”
“What… what was it like?” Skystar asked.
“I… I’d rather not talk about it,” Sunset murmured. “It was what it was, and what it was was a fight. I don’t really feel like describing what it’s like to fight the grimm.”
“That’s not what I wanted to know anyway,” Skystar murmured. “I… were you scared?”
“Why?”
“Because I was scared,” Skystar admitted. “First, my Mom calls and tells me to get Silverstream and Terramar and get them to the Palace, and then the next thing, people are running around saying that the grimm have broken through the defences, and I… I was terrified. I guess I was wondering if that goes away as part of your huntress training.”
“No,” Sunset said. “No, that part never goes away. They can teach you how to overcome your fear, and some things can take the edge off it, like remembering your training or having the support of capable people around you, but… no, you can’t learn how not to be scared.” She paused. “But I… I’m a little surprised that you were scared.”
“Really?” Skystar asked in disbelief. “The grimm were inside the city! I know that you were fighting there to protect all of us – and thank you, by the way, thank you so much, the city owes you a debt of gratitude-”
“Let’s not go nuts,” Sunset said quickly, feeling a little sick in the stomach at Skystar’s praise of her heroism when it was her fault that the city had been put in danger in the first place. “General Ironwood and his soldiers deserve the praise, not me.”
“You all deserve the praise,” Skystar insisted. “You all… you’re all the reason there is a Vale left. If the grimm had broken through… it really felt as though we could die: me, Mom, Silverstream, Terramar, Aunt Ocean Flow. But we didn’t, because of you, and I know that it wasn’t just you, but you’re the one here in front of me right now so: thank you, Sunset Shimmer.”
Sunset had to look away. Her stomach felt as though it was going to empty one way or the other, and when she swallowed, her throat was dry and brackish. If this kept up, she was going to have to make her excuses and get out of here, to find somewhere where someone wasn’t trying to praise her for heroism to which she had no right.
“You’re welcome,” she grunted.
Skystar either didn’t notice the discourtesy or was simply too courteous to let on that she had noticed. “Hey, Sunset?”
“Yeah?” Sunset asked softly.
“Cardin… Cardin was there too, wasn’t he?” Skystar asked softly.
Sunset nodded. “Yeah, he was there.”
Skystar looked down at her hands. “Does it… does it sound really weird if I say that I was worried about him?”
Sunset let out a sharp laugh. “No. No, it doesn’t sound weird at all. Not to me, anyway. And not to anyone who has been where we are, I’ll bet.”
“It feels weird to me,” Skystar said. “He lied to me, he betrayed me, I dumped him and for good reason, so why-?”
“Because you still have feelings for him,” Sunset said bluntly. “It’s as simple as that. The heart… it doesn’t care whether we have good reasons for a break up. Well, not all the time, anyway. We still pine, we still get jealous, and yes, we still worry about them.”
Skystar didn’t reply to that for a while. “So… what should I do?”
“Get back together with him?” Sunset suggested. “I think he would, if you asked.”
“No,” Skystar said firmly. “No, I couldn’t do that, not after what he did.”
“Even if he was sorry?”
“'Sorry' doesn’t make up for what he thought about my family,” Skystar declared. “Just because I feel… doesn’t mean that I should.”
“Maybe not,” Sunset admitted. “But it means you’ll be feeling that way for some time to come, I fear. It… moving on can take a while, from my personal experience.” She smiled. “Good thing that you’ll have something else to occupy your mind.”
“Huh?”
Sunset drummed her fingers on the back of the bench. “You know, for all that you’ve said, it strikes me that a time like this is when people need the Vytal Festival the most.”
Skystar looked at her. “You think so?”
“I do,” Sunset affirmed. “You told me so yourself: the most memorable fall with your father was… also the last fall. Because the darkest of times are when we need hope the most.”
Skystar hesitated. “But… nobody cares anymore.”
“Then give them a reason to care,” Sunset insisted. “Show them why the Vytal Festival exists in the first place. I mean, the whole point is to celebrate that humanity came out the other side through the Great War alive, right? So why not celebrate the fact that we came through the Breach?”
Skystar frowned. “Are you sure? What about the people who didn’t?”
Sunset hesitated for a moment. “I… I don’t know what to say about them, but I will say that Vale needs this. Vale has been hurt, but it needs something to give it a reason to smile again. Something… something so that this year isn’t just about the Breach, but about how Vale came back from the Breach and showed that it wasn’t going to be afraid. Because… keep this to yourself, but the grimm won’t stay gone forever. A lot of them died, and that will make things easier for a little bit, but if everyone in this kingdom keeps walking around under a cloud, then they’ll be back. If you can chase the clouds away, then you’ll be doing as much for Vale as any huntsman or huntress, and maybe more.”
Skystar scoffed. “Now you’re just trying to make me feel useful.”
“I’m being serious,” Sunset insisted. “If negative emotions draw the grimm, then it stands to reason that we need good vibes. We need this. And not just the people of Vale either; I think that all of us at Beacon need it too. We… we’ve fought a fight that we shouldn’t have had to at our age, and we deserve a chance to fight in a tournament with rules instead of against monsters. We deserve a chance to stand in that coliseum with a vast crowd cheering our names. We deserve to be the centre of attention for once, before we die like Sky, our names forgotten. Pyrrha deserves to lift the laurel crown above her head and have all of Remnant gaze on her in admiration.” Sunset grinned. “She’ll hate that, of course, but she deserves it all the same, and it will please her mother no end.”
Skystar giggled. “So the fact that she doesn’t want it doesn’t bother you at all?”
“I’m Pyrrha’s team leader and her best friend; I’m allowed to know what’s best for her from time to time,” Sunset declared. “Which is the point: just because people right now don’t think they want the Vytal Festival doesn’t mean that they don’t need it or deserve it. So get up, go out there, and you give us all a festival to remember. Just like the ones you had with your father.”
Skystar looked at her, still and silent, then she gave a firm emphatic nod, “I… I will! Just you watch!”
First Councillor Novo Aris looked down at the note – handwritten, unusually, although with first rate calligraphy nevertheless – resting on top of her desk.
She had read it twice, but she read it a third time just in case this was all a bad dream.
She would have given a great deal for recent events to have turned out to be all a bad dream, but unfortunately, she hadn’t woken up yet.
Novo looked up from the letter and into the face of General Seaspray, commanding officer – for now – of the Valish Defence Force.
The General stood to attention before her desk, wearing his dress uniform of forest green with loops of gold brocade stretching across his chest and brass buttons polished to a shine. His cap was tucked under his arm, and he wore a ceremonial sword upon his right hip.
It was an impressive sight, or it would have been in more congenial circumstances. At present, however, Novo could not help but find it a little ostentatious.
“General,” she said, keeping her voice calm and quiet, “would you care to explain this?” She nudged the letter towards him slightly.
General Seaspray did not look at her. Rather, he kept his gaze a few inches over the top of Novo’s head. “I believe that the contents speak for themselves, Madam Councillor.”
“Humour me,” Novo urged.
General Seaspray cleared his throat. “It’s my resignation, Madam Councillor, with immediate effect.”
“Your resignation,” Novo repeated, her voice sharpening.
Still General Seaspray did not look at her. “It has been my honour and privilege-”
“General,” Novo interrupted him before he could repeat the platitudes from his letter. “Do you really believe that this is the time for you to depart?”
General Seaspray did not reply for a moment. “While it is not the time that I would have chosen to resign, the fact of the matter is that this is the only time when I can depart from my post, at this point. I must say, Madam Councillor, I’m a little surprised that you disagree. Vale suffered an attack which could have been catastrophic, a catastrophe from which we were only delivered by the support of General Ironwood and his Atlesian troops-”
“I don’t hold you responsible for the Breach,” Novo assured him. “Nor does anyone else with any sense in Vale, I assure you.”
“Nevertheless, it happened on my watch,” General Seaspray reminded her. “Vale has been assaulted, violated, and my army – the army that is pledged to the defence of Vale – was missing in action when the call came out. Someone must pay the price for our inability to defend ourselves, and as the commanding officer, the responsibility – and the duty to pay that price – rests with me. The Defence Force needs a new commanding officer to restore both the honour of the army and public confidence in our troops. Only a new man can draw a line underneath this and move forward with a clean slate. Quite frankly, Madam Councillor, if I did not resign, then my failure to do so would, itself, be a resigning matter.”
“This is not your fault,” Novo said softly.
“Nevertheless, Madam Councillor,” General Seaspray said. He ventured to smile. “I was not aware that in politics one suffered blame and consequence only for one’s own faults.”
Novo was not amused, not least because the words struck rather close to home. Her poll ratings – her personal ratings and those of her party – had not so much fell since the Breach as they had collapsed, the humiliation of the Breach itself being compounded by a daily diet of questions in the press about defence spending, as journalists and her political opponents alike both managed to simultaneously suggest that not enough money had been spent on defence and that the money that had been spent had been wasted.
General Seaspray spoke of drawing a line underneath this incident. That was something that Novo herself would have done very eagerly.
She did not think that the resignation of the commanding officer would bring the matter to a close.
“Suppose the crisis is not over yet,” she suggested.
“With the White Fang in Vale destroyed and the grimm decimated, I’m not sure how the crisis could be said to be continuing,” General Seaspray said.
“The insurrectionist Cinder Fall remains at large and may strike again,” Novo replied. “Do you not think it is your duty to remain in post until everything has been dealt with and Vale’s safety guaranteed?”
“With respect, Madam Councillor, that is the reverse of sense; if you truly believe that Vale remains in danger, then it is all the more urgent that the Defence Force be led by someone who can command the confidence of the public.”
“And what of my confidence?” Novo asked. “You still enjoy my confidence.”
“For which I thank you,” General Seaspray said, bowing his head, “but I assure you, ma’am, that there are plenty of capable officers who could succeed me in my post, and they will win your confidence just as easily as I have done. If you request it, I will, of course, give you my recommendation on who my successor should be, but the choice will be yours.” He paused. “May I speak freely, Madam Councillor?”
“You may,” Novo said.
“Why don’t you want me to go, ma’am?”
Novo snorted. “Perhaps it’s because you’re from Mount Aris like me.”
General Seaspray did not react.
“Or perhaps it’s because it offends my sense of decency that you are resigning while Professor Ozpin sits smug in his tower, convinced I cannot touch him,” Novo declared. “Does it not stick in your craw, General? Do you not think that Professor Ozpin’s refusal to resign is, itself, a resigning matter?”
“Professor Ozpin’s students did brave work at the Breach,” General Seaspray pointed out mildly.
“For which they would be praised and honoured, if Professor Ozpin would let me near them,” Novo growled.
A statement from even one of the young huntsmen and huntresses who had fought to save Vale would have been a great fillip to her in this difficult time; it would have secured her standing immediately if one of the heroes of the hour had come out and said that she – and the government – had done nothing wrong. But Professor Ozpin refused to even broach the subject with any of them, still less to let her come up to Beacon herself to speak to them about it.
She had a feeling that General Ironwood might have been more obliging, but an endorsement from Atlas students would have been less than useless to her.
Novo wondered if the time had come to approach young Cardin Winchester, who would surely oblige her… but that would mean ignoring the way in which he had deceived her – and deceived Skystar, what was more – and held onto his ghastly views about her brother-in-law, her niece and nephew.
She was not ready to forgive him for that, or pretend that it was of no matter to her, not for a boost in the polls.
No, she would wait it out. There was still time before the election. The news cycle would move on, public sympathy for the fallen would fade, and people would come to appreciate the Breach as the near miss that it was. In time, this, like all things, would pass.
It was a pity that General Seaspray couldn’t see that.
She pushed back her chair and climbed to her feet. “Is there nothing at all that I can say that will convince you to remain in your post?”
“I’m afraid not, Madam Councillor.”
Novo took a deep breath, and then forced herself to smile a little as she held out her hand. “Then I wish you good luck, General, in all of your future endeavours.”
General Seaspray took her head. “And I wish you the very best of fortune, ma’am, as you continue to lead this kingdom into better days.”
The door into the First Councillor’s office flew open so hard that it slammed into the wall. Aspen strode in, his footsteps thumping even through the carpet. “General,” he acknowledged General Seaspray with a curt nod, before directing all of his attention to Novo. “Leo’s giving a press conference.”
“He’s what?” Novo demanded. “That’s not on the grid!”
“That isn’t stopping him,” Aspen replied. “I went to school with the political editor of the Daily Herald – we were the only scholarship boys in our year – apparently, Leo’s telling everyone that he’s got a bombshell to drop.”
“Try and find another word; we’ve had enough bombs already,” Novo muttered. “Did your friend in the press tell you why Leo’s holding a press conference?”
“He doesn’t know.”
“Would he tell you if he did?” Novo asked.
“That would depend on whether he got a juicier story out of a pre-emptive reaction or letting things play out,” Aspen muttered. “We’re friends of sorts, but-”
“His job comes first,” Novo finished for him.
“As this appears to be a political matter, I should withdraw,” General Seaspray said tactfully.
“Yes, thank you, General,” Novo murmured. She looked at him. “I do mean that. Thank you for your service.”
Aspen blinked. “Are you going somewhere, General?”
“To spend more time with my family, Councillor,” General Seaspray replied.
“I see,” Aspen said softly. “Best of luck then, General.”
“Thank you, Councillor,” General Seaspray said, before he turned and left the office, closing the door that Aspen had thrown open so violently.
“Does it not revolt you that a blameless man feels the need to resign from his post while Professor Ozpin appears oblivious to the need to do the decent thing and make way?” Novo asked.
“Professor Ozpin is a lot harder to fire than General Seaspray,” Aspen observed.
“But not impossible,” Novo said.
“Theoretically, no,” Aspen conceded. “But you’d need all three other headmasters to agree to his dismissal, and he has Ironwood on his side.”
“Then I’ll get rid of both of them, though it costs me every scrap of influence this kingdom has in Atlas,” Novo declared. “They knew. Both of them, they knew what was coming, and they sat on it until the last minute. I may be forced to appoint General Ironwood as head of security, but that does not mean I have forgotten or forgiven. His day will come, as surely as that of Professor Ozpin.”
“Revenge is rarely healthy in any walk of life, Novo,” Aspen said warily, “but it’s terrible politics.”
Novo snorted. “And here I thought you didn’t like the Atlesians.”
“I didn’t want them here,” Aspen conceded. “But I was wrong about that, and while you’re right to be pissed off at the way that the two of them handled this… burning the political capital of the kingdom on a grudge is not what I got into politics for, and as for Ozpin… yes, the man deserves to be conveyed to the Bastion by the river, but the public won’t want to see their Council devoting all of their energies to persecuting the headmaster of Beacon at a time like this-”
“Don’t preach reticence to me,” Novo said. “All year, I have suffered his incompetence-”
“But the public mood is for unity,” Aspen insisted. “The people want to see their leaders come together in the wake of this catastrophe, rebuild, shore up the defences. And for better or worse, they trust Professor Ozpin; the only credit gained for Vale in this whole miserable saga has been from the bravery of his students.”
“If people found out-”
“This is the worst time to pick a fight with the headmaster of Beacon,” Aspen told her. “It’s the worst time to pick a fight with anyone, but especially with the headmaster of Beacon.” He paused. “And besides, I’m more worried about Leo right now.”
“Leo, yes,” Novo murmured. “Leo and his press conference. Have you tried calling him?”
“I have; he’s not answering,” Aspen replied.
“I’ll try,” Novo said, picking up her scroll. She found Leo’s number and dialled. There was no response. The scroll rang and rang, but no one answered. She frowned. “Have you tried his Private Secretary?”
“They don’t know.”
“What do you mean ‘they don’t know’?!” Novo squawked. “It’s their job to know what he’s doing!”
“Not if it’s party business,” Aspen muttered. His scroll beeped. He took the device out of his breast pocket and snapped it open. He scowled. “It’s starting now,” he said. He pushed a button and put down the scroll on top of Novo’s desk.
The light on the right-hand side of the scroll flashed as a hologram appeared above the desk: a hologram of Leo Aquas, standing in front of their front door, with the lens of a camera just visible poking into view.
“What are you doing, Leo?” Novo asked.
“Thank you all for coming,” Leo began. He looked pale, but not nervous. His voice did not tremble as he spoke. “I speak to you under the lingering shadow of a terrible tragedy. Vale has been attacked. Vale has been wounded. Vale… has showed itself to be vulnerable. As you know, as everyone is painfully aware, were it not for the presence of the Atlesian forces, Vale would have been overrun by the creatures of grimm. Serious questions have been asked about the state of our Kingdom’s defences, and I am afraid that those questions are justified.”
“What?” Novo asked as a murmur of surprise arose from the unseen reporters who must surely be gathered outside Leo’s door. “Did he… is he agreeing with the opposition?”
“Events have made it undeniably clear that the Council, of which I have been a part, has failed to maintain adequate defences or security measures,” Leo went on. “The dust robberies, which the Department of the Interior failed to stop-”
“Little bastard,” Aspen growled.
“The White Fang’s reign of terror, which, likewise, the police were powerless to prevent,” Leo went on. “And finally, this attack, this near-fatal assault on Vale in which our military were found so desperately wanting and our dependence upon our allies was so brutally exposed.
“I have, for some time, argued the case for greater defence spending and greater funding of the police,” Leo declared.
“No, you did not, you lying-”
“But my voice was overruled, and bound by the dictates of collective responsibility, I had no choice but to acquiesce in the will of the majority,” Leo said, “but in the wake of this tragedy, I find that I must ask myself where my loyalties truly lie: to my Council colleagues or to the Kingdom of Vale itself? Can I, in good conscience, remain a member of a Council that has so badly let down the people that I was elected to serve? Do I believe that it is possible for these concerns to be resolved from within the present administration? Sadly, I fear that the answer to those questions is 'no.' And so, following the dictates of my conscience, I am resigning as Chancellor with immediate effect. In doing so, I do what I believe to be right, for my party and for my kingdom.” He looked directly into the camera. “I believe that the time has come for others to consider their own responses to the conflict of loyalties with which I myself have wrestled for perhaps too long. Thank you; I will not be taking any questions at this time.”
He turned away. The hologram displayed him walking back inside his house, shutting the door in the faces of all those reporters whose shouted questions went unanswered.
Novo stared ahead of her. Even when Aspen turned off the hologram, she stared ahead of her, barely able to comprehend it.
“'Loyalty'?” Aspen snapped. “He has the nerve to talk about loyalty after pulling a stunt like that? He might as well have-”
“Called for my head on a plate?” Novo asked softly.
Aspen winced. “Nobody will be taken in by his crocodile tears,” he insisted. “People will see it for what it is.”
I hope you’re right, but fear you’re wrong. Novo took a deep breath. “You’re right, of course,” she said, a strained smile appearing on her face. “This is… ambition, nothing more, and everyone will see it. We will continue on, with a new Chancellor and a new commanding general, and we will put this crisis behind us and lead Vale… lead Vale into better days.”
Yet, as she said them, General Seaspray’s words seemed to Novo Aris like a particularly bitter jest.
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The very role that Councilor Novo Aris' character plays in this story is to indirectly endanger Vale and to bring harm to its defenders. To Beacon, Atlas, and all the Academy's students.
From the very beginning, she has been pulling Huntsmen and Huntresses away from Vale's outlying settlements. She talks about necessary expenses, but in a world filled with Grimm, willing and able protectors are as vital to life as air and water. Later, she encouraged Cardin Winchester to act against the protagonist Blake Belladonna if he felt she was dangerous, and we all know how Cardin took that into his own hands and could have seriously brought harm to Blake's vital role in bringing down the White Fang. And during the incident with the Grimm lures, Councilor Novo infamously denied support and reinforcements to contain the Grimm and rescue the students; unmoved by how many students and protectors her decision would get killed.
And even now, after finally seeing the danger of the Grimm and just how close they can get to you and your people, the role of Novo's character still works to bring endanger everyone by desiring to push away Atlas support and see Ozpin removed. She comes to accept the resignation of a General who (sadly) was hardly able to contribute to the defense of Vale and decided to walk away from the fight, while she covets the removal of those who are far more willing and able.
Novo's character is without a doubt a massive detriment both to Vale and the main characters. The only difference between her and Lionheart is that she is blissfully unaware of the harm she causes to her kingdom.
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I think you are being unfair to Novo in some respects. While the throne seems omnipotent from afar, be it Dictatorship, Monarchy or Democracy a leader must balance a great many factors and no decision can be made in a vacuum. Novo looks like a 'bad' leader solely because we haven't really seen the political side of Vale in regards to her opponents who have only been briefly mentioned in earlier chapters; At least one is an outright bigot against the Faunus and they would introduce policies to reflect that while the other I believe was highly corrupt and basically a fascist by nature (I might be wrong there). There are also those in her own political party that want to out her and replace her as leader, which former Chancellor Leo is a key example of.
With this in mind, these various groups actively want to undermine Novo and convince enough of the Key Supporters of Vale to abandon her and support them and they will take whatever excuse they can to make that happen. Depending on how amoral some of these people might be, it's fully possible that part of the reason that Vale's authorities had such difficulties with stopping the Dust Robberies and the White Fang was because these powerful people were quietly using their influence to undermine these efforts; Nothing overt, but something as simple as keeping funding for law enforcement low means that officers are more prone to corruption in order to improve their paycheck, which is what gives Roman such strong inroads there.
Looking at decisions through and what she's done:
Pulling Huntsmen away from the outlying settlements in order to protect Vale itself. We're seeing this from the eyes of Yang and her father who are from one of those outlying settlements so clearly it is going to be viewed in a negative light, but as you said yourself willing and able protectors are vital to society on Remnant. Part of the reason that the police force isn't equipped to handle the Dust Robberies is because the city had a surplus of huntsmen to call on and since they are largely independents the city didn't need to spend as much money on them as a larger, standing police force. Due to the large number of Grimm that Salem intentionally stationed near the outlying settlements (so many that to ignore them would be gross negligence) those huntsmen had to be moved to those settlements, leaving Vale exposed.
Encouraging Cardin to act against Blake if he believed she was a threat to her daughter. Novo doesn't know Blake personally and honestly likely still doesn't. All she knew about Blake was that the cover story of her being an Atlas undercover agent was complete bullshit and that Blake was a White Fang member (and a fairly high ranked one at that) who, according to her word, deserted. The idea that Blake was merely pretending to have cut ties with the White Fang in order to be an undercover agent/assassin for them is a reasonable one to entertain... even more so when you're a political leader and the kidnapping or death of yourself or your family is fully possible. She also didn't know that Cardin was, at the time, generally racist against Faunus and thus didn't know that his judgement might have been somewhat compromised.
The Grimm Lures... this one kind of comes across as a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. If she gave the go ahead for the Atlas ships to engage this would have certainly helped improve the situation of our heroes in the short term, but it would have likely been used as ammo against her politically to try and weaken her already somewhat shaky position. Not saying that what she did was the right call, but it wasn't just her being an asshole for the sake of it.
The weakness of Vale's military and its lack of presence in the Breach was less to do with the quality of General Seaspray as it was to do with the simple fact that they developed their original battle plan with the White Fang in mind and the cold hard fact was that Vale's military wasn't experienced or trained to deal with insurgency. They are trained to fight Grimm, not humans/faunus... even more so faunus that they might personally know because the bulk of the White Fang army Adam gathered likely got most of its recruits from Vale. That takes a toil on solders and might cause them to hesitate when they can't afford too; There was also the concern that the panic of the White Fang attack would cause a Grimm invasion of the outer defenses, which is a big threat and one which the Vale solders are better equipped to handle. By the time the true nature of the enemy coming out of the tunnels was known, moving the Vale solders back from the outer defenses would simply take too long... plus the threat of a second Grimm front assaulting the walls was a real possibility.
As for her conflict with Ozpin and Ironwood... they have largely kept her out of the loop as far as information and the situation with the White Fang (and outright keep the greater shadow war secret from her). They have in their way defied her authority and thus undermined her a number of times. Yes, it was done with good intentions and saved the day several times, but when you've got assholes who use those incidents to try and convince people you need to be fired it's easy to see why it would be viewed in a less then positive light. Also keep in mind that they only let her know about the scale of the White Fang threat and the information they had discovered literally just before the Breach happened; It kind of sucks when other powers are making decisions about your Kingdom and you're only being informed about some of the details moments before shit hits the fan when the options are either let them do what they were going to anyway or let disaster happen.
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Novo is a great example of how ignorance can cause as much damage as malice, while being far more common.
She did the cardinal sin of politics, inability to take a loss. You have to learn to roll with the punches and pick your battles when you are a politician, where optics are so important, yet Novo is unable to let go of a position, both in her personal and professional life. She swore that Vale was in perfect condition, no danger here, and anything that contradicts that view must be squashed, no matter the consequences.
That said, it's not only on Novo's head. She is in her position because the people of Vale has the same mentality and their current rage has more to do with being able to see the cracks that there being cracks at all.
What Novo should have done was to take the loss, accept Seaspray resignation and proclaim to the 4 winds that, given the sorry state of their defenses, they would roll out a heavy restructuring and expansion of their defensive capabilities. She still would have lost the next election, but at least she would have left the seeds to take power back the next round. Anything else is just a timebomb that will blow in her face.
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Oh, I agree completely. I know that things for Novo's position and her decisions are not so black-and-white, things in politics rarely ever are. I am still sympathetic to Novo in a number of regards, and even more so to General Seaspray; I do not condemn or accuse the latter of incompetence, merely pity his own force's bad luck at not being fully battle-ready for the Breach, especially with most of their ships unavailable for action.
The only point I must disagree with is about Ozpin and Ironwood seeming to deliberately keep Novo out of the loop when it came to the White Fang and defying her authority. It was an ongoing investigation with no clear conclusions; no sabotage, neglect, or disrespect to the Council was ever involved. Especially when both of them were legally doing their assigned duties of office. Their only sources of information about Mt. Glenn came from Roman Torchwick and Cinder Fall, both highly dubious sources. This could easily have been misdirection or even a trap. Ozpin and Ironwood did the right thing in merely sending a few scouts to verify if there even was a White Fang base, and then to report on its strength and level as a threat. Neither of them had any advanced knowledge of the White Fang's full strength or their exact plan of attack, even with Blake's outdated intel. Ozpin himself says in canon during this very situation that you send in the scouts before the flag-bearers. Furthermore, he sent Professor Goodwitch with them, the combat instructor at Beacon and one of the best Huntresses in the world. And knowing the Council, they would have vetoed any idea of sending out the Atlas fleet without undeniable evidence, and even then they would have been reluctant. And ultimately, by the time the scouts had positively identified that there was a base, the attack was already underway, especially since there was a comms jammer preventing any reports until that point. At that moment, it was no longer a mere scouting mission and had shifted to a do-or-die situation, and they were the only assets in the vicinity to act. And the Council was alerted immediately after Ozpin and Ironwood found out themselves.
This is why Novo and the others especially have no true moral high ground to hold contempt for Ozpin or Ironwood about 'sitting on the information' and smugly sitting far away from the battle.
But back to my original point. Ultimately, I am merely making an observation of the role that Novo's character is meant to play in the narrative setting, by looking at the story from a more fundamental perspective. No matter what story, every character is conceived and carried out for a specific role. I agree with nearly every point about why Novo made the decisions she has. That being said, more often than not, circumstances that arise in a story are meant to shape and progress the character's said role, how a narrated situation compels them to act and make decisions as their original role is meant for. Much like the rest of her colleagues, Novo seems to represent the canon Vale Council's generally poor decisions in reaction to events, as well as their contempt for Ozpin. None of her decisions have truly improved Vale, and she is paying for all of her claims otherwise. And in this same sense, Leo appears to represent the foreshadowing for the darker times coming to Vale after the Fall of Beacon. And Novo's decisions only either accelerate or delay its coming.
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Resource allocation is debatable, there are benefits and detriments to any decision and both of her policies (concentrating on economy and recalling huntsmen to the capital) have some valid points.
That said, her response has been lacking. She was never going to be able to resolve the more recent Vale issues since the die were cast a long time ago, you can't just reinvigorate your entire police and military force in a month, but she still could have given a response that addressed the issue, instead of her current "nothing is wrong, everything is under control" presentation that isn't really convincing anyone.
Her response to Ozpin and Ironwood is inexcusable though. She put under risk the future defense of her kingdom for an absolutely irrelevant attempt to save face, that would have gone bad anyway if the kids had gotten killed during the training. And now she is blaming them for doing their job, just because she is seeing that the paint of her handcrafted illusion is starting to peel off. They are the only reason she is still in power, given how lacking Vale defenses are, and is planning now to burn her political favors for revenge of her ego.
I understand why she takes such decisions, she clearly has issues accepting things that go against her plans, but that doesn't change the fact that those decisions are really bad for her own goals.
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Precisely! Thank you, I sometimes tend to over-elaborate my own points.
Sunnykins...please stop trying to force relationships. You of all people should know how that ends. This approach is not going to work, and you are way too smart to have not seen it by this point. Other than that a nice little subtle nod here involving our favorite unicorn.
I could give my piece on Novo, but Kiue summed it up very nicely already, so I will not repeat most of it here. Her main problem is that she is too controlled by emotions and takes everything personally, which makes her shortsighted.
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I'm also interested in what Sunset's reaction will be. Even though Cinder would have detonated the explosives either way, Sunset is going through a terrible and delicate stage of (not unearned) guilt and depression. She is blaming herself for it all. In some cases, that can have interesting reactions. I wonder what Sunset would think of how Novo and others like her are throwing accusations of blame around since she feels that no one else deserves to be burned for it. She may not trust Ozpin at this point, but I bet that Novo's contempt for him and Ironwood would make Sunset very... upset. With lots of fierce words.
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Oh definitely. Sunset is really self-centered, all the glory and all the blame. She tends to see herself as the centerpiece of everything, and so she would be quite angry that someone else is being blamed from her actions.
That actually may be one of the things that end up getting Sunset and Ozpin closer in the rewrite. Ozpin also has the tendency of feeling that he is to blame for everything, with a bit more justification in his case considering his curse and that his ex-wife was involved in the extermination of the first humanity and is attempting to cause the second one.
I mean, Sunset current devotion to Ozpin in the new chapters has to come from somewhere, and self-blame seems like a great conversation starter.
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He too mourns the lives of oh so many. Always, always cursed to fight an endless war. Whether from old age or Salem’s claws, everyone he knows eventually passes while he alone remains. And he absolutely does not feel he deserves to keep living while all others die. He tries not to let anyone in, but even he still ends up making friends that he cherishes. And he did recently urge both Sunset and RD to cherish every golden moment, and to never let go of the ones who mean the most to them.
And he knows, from far too great experience, that there is nothing he could say in lecture to Sunset over what she did that she has not already told herself.
He wouldn’t even need to tell Sunset about his immortality as the Infinite Man. The clear experience that he has watched all his friends and loved ones die while he alone survives… that is a fate that secretly terrifies Sunset all too well.
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I've said this before in relation to Sunset and her guilt, but if she intends to stay in this fight she is going to have to tell her team the truth of what she did... or believes she did. Because if she doesn't, Cinder will... and having dropped in the middle of a life and death battle is not ideal.
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Glad I could help make your points for you.
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Yeah. And for whatever reason ScipioSmith decided to use "i fear my friends dying" as a reason to outright mutilate MLP logic and steal Sunset's immortality (No, Scipio, your argument contradicts itself as Sunset, Cadence and Flurry had their artifacts during ascension)... In crossover with MLP, where there are shareable immortality methods not designed by cruel gods exist and immortals are in plenitude.
You know, i know she feels guilty, but on this specifically, i couldn’t possibly agree less. Like, no, it is such bad advice. I could allow talking it out, finding closure, but to hook back up? Sunset, honey, no!