Trail

The Games We Play

Trail

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We flew home in the airship, though I meditated most of the way. Tied to my Wisdom, the skill had improved sharply since I'd last used it—or perhaps the shift was a result of my new skill, Harmony. Whatever the case, I felt the world around me in more…color, was the only way I could think to describe it. The patterns I'd seen before, the enormous flows of energy…they were written across the heavens in new shades now, as different from what I'd seen before as the midday sky was from the sunset.

It was beautiful and…different, in ways I wasn't entirely sure I understood. Sadly, I was also too busy to experiment on that front at the moment, so I instead focused on hastening the return of my strength so that we wouldn't have to waste any time. As I relaxed into the routine, however, I had a moment to think calmly and organize my thoughts—and by the time I felt us begin to land, a few things felt a bit more clear.

"I need to do something quickly," I said, rising as I drew myself quickly from my meditative state. "I'll meet you in the dining hall, Grandmother?"

She frowned at me for a moment before comprehension dawned and she nodded.

"Don't take too long," She said.

"I won't," I replied without looking back, hopping out of the ship the moment it settled on the ground and opened its doors. True to my word, I sped through the house, and with my senses guiding me, it wasn't hard to find them.

I crouched as Gou came prancing across the sitting room, panting happily at the sight of me. I noticed that Autumn had wrapped herself around his neck in a collar of flowers, her petals bright against the puppy's fur.

"Hey, boy," I said with a smile, scratching his ears. "Thanks for taking care of Autumn while I was away, Gou. I appreciate it."

Gou's tongue lolled out of the side of his mouth in doggy pride, head rising against my hand as I pet him. My smile lingered for a moment at the sight before fading a bit as my hand went to his throat. A quick technique was all I needed to feel the connection solidify.

"Sorry, Autumn," I said to her. "I keep leaving you alone, huh? Things are getting a little hectic again, I'm afraid. I didn't mean to leave you holed up in here so often, but what I'm doing now…it could get dangerous and the way I'm dressed…well, you wouldn't want to be seen with your dumb old man. Still, hopefully things will quiet down soon and everything will go back to normal."

The flowers around Gou's neck twitched and shifted, rising slightly at the words. Beyond that, I could feel her reply, a gentle curling of energy akin to a child holding onto their parent's finger.

"Pinkie swear," I said seriously, though I knew she didn't know what that meant. "But for now, maybe there's one thing I can do…"

I gently brushed at her petals once more before resting my hand upon Gou's head. There was a tiny shift in sensation as I did, something I felt when I touched Gou but not Autumn. It was… emptiness wasn't the right word, but perhaps as if I was holding a magnet. There was a tiny pull when I touched Gou, just enough to alert me to the possibility.

I took it, closing my eyes. My Aura rose around us as if I were going to awaken his Aura a second time, but there was no need for words in something like this. I reached out to him, beyond flesh and bone, and there was a reaction. It was like the mixing of paint, colors blending to create something new, and I was abruptly aware of Gou in a way beyond the soft touch of fur or even my myriad sight. When I looked at him, he tilted his head up at me and I understood the unspoken question behind the gesture.

"Don't worry about it," I said, petting his head. "Just a gift of sorts, to make you stronger—a step closer to your namesake, eh? But I need you to do something for me, okay? I'm gonna need you to watch over Autumn for a while longer."

Gou barked, doggy face set in a seriousness I'd only seen from him when it came to spots of light and feeding time. I ruffled his ears in gratitude.

"I'll leave it to you then," I said. "And here, this should help."

I activated Floral Communion on Gou, who perked up suddenly as Autumn shifted. Normally a self-targeted skill, with him as my Familiar now, something like this was simple. I was grateful for it, truly. While not as ideal as being able to make Autumn my Familiar and grant her my Clairvoyance or something, if it was like this, she should at least have someone to talk to. I wasn't sure how much Gou would be able to say, granted, but as long as I sustained the skill, they should be able to communicate in at least a basic manner. It was like…well, like I'd given a lonely girl a puppy.

"You're my Familiar now, Gou," I said, still scratching his ears as another hand rose to inform Autumn of what was going on. "If it's like this, I can give you strength and protect you—both of you. I'll be able to reach out to you however far apart we are and…well, I don't know what the range for it is, but the profile said my intentions could be freely conveyed. If I can do that even while we're apart…I'll try to stay in touch with you both, okay? And when we have a chance, I'll take you hunting, Gou."

Gou gave me a drawn out puppy howl that sounded ridiculous, but I appreciated the sentiment.

"Thanks, Gou," I said. "I'm sorry our vacation's turning out like this, guys. Stay safe while I'm away—and remember to be careful with the thorns, Autumn."

I took a deep breath and rose, sighing it out. I was…well, I was worried, but if it was like this it should be okay? Autumn was powerful in her own way, if untested in battle and not very mobile. That's why she was attached to Gou, though, who was strong for a puppy and who'd be far stronger as soon as I got a chance to work with him. Here in my grandmother's house, with the ability to speak to her activated…this was the best choice I had. I was nervous over what could happen while I was away, but Raven shouldn't have any reason to attack my dog and my flower, much less anyone else.

Still…I couldn't help but remember my grandmother's words, about the woman who'd been on a team with Raven years ago. Summer Rose, she said, while my daughter's tag said Autumn Rose. It was too much to be a coincidence, but as far as I could tell it was. And yet…

I shook my head and kissed two fingers, pressing them gently against Autumn's petals before I turned to go. It'd need further investigation—god, but wasn't that this whole damn trip in a nutshell?—but it would have to wait. I left my dog and daughter and headed for the dining room.

"Did you finish your business?" Grandmother asked, eying me knowingly.

"More or less," I said. "It'll keep. You?"

"It'll be some time before I can gather all the needed materials," She said. "There are plenty of copies but the library…well, you can imagine how busy it gets this time of year. For many people, it's the first time they've ever seen such a thing—and could well be the only time, until the international database is in order. I could put it on rush order, but there's a chance such a sudden interest could draw undue attention. It's waited however many thousand years; it'll wait a day or two more. We can afford to handle this quietly."

Despite her words, there was a tightness to her grip on her chair, a near-twitch in her free hand that made me think we was keeping herself from drumming her fingers. Nonetheless, I nodded.

"Sounds good," I said. "Shall we focus on the here and now, then?"

"Your Pathfinder ability," Cynosarges grunted, apparently having been filled in on everything he might have missed. "How does it work?"

"Haven't gotten a chance to test it much, yet, but it seems to work like…well, exactly like it does in games. I can bring up a window that lists my unfinished quests and underneath each is a list of completed objectives and a line telling me what to do next." I said, bring up said window. "For example…"

Underneath the Grimm quest was a list of the major Grimm I'd slain and a depressingly large number that were outstanding. When I'd clicked it to test, my map had popped up with a huge number of Grimm markers, scattered across Remnant's land and sea. I assumed those were common locations for the different species? I'd have to check, but if so even just that could be invaluable information.

Below my other quest, however…

"The quest I got from the White Fang says I need to get into the good graces of Mistral's heads," I said, looking at the two with symbols floating about them. "Any idea how I could do that?"

Cynosarges snorted, but rubbed his chin contemplatively.

"What's this quest for exactly?" He asked.

"Building the power of the White Fang in Mistral, it seems," I said. "And building my power in the White Fang, too, I guess. It's a bit weird, but…"

The two Hunters shared a glance, something passing between them quickly. This wasn't new information to my grandmother, but she seemed contemplative now.

"I think this could be an opportunity," She said, more to him than me. "Despite the risk of…Raven, this has the potential to profit us greatly. While we've never supported the White Fang directly—and doing so officially would be unwise—the situation has undeniably changed. With the role you have within the White Fang and the power you could obtain…it's dangerous, certainly, but the opportunity is great. If we had that much control, a powerful voice within the organization…I'd suddenly be a bit more interested in supporting the White Fang. What about you, Cynosarges?"

"Lots of ifs," He grunted. "If what you said is true, he's basically bluffed his way into being a member of the organization to begin with. The more power he seizes, the more nervous the people in power are gonna get. Isn't that the cause of this situation?"

"Things are different now," She said.

"Naraka," I guessed. "Raven's a huge threat herself, but our biggest concern was that she might just assassinate us—but I might, maybe even should, be safe from her portals inside of Naraka's dimension. And if something happens, I can shift over, change out of my disguise, and then cross back over in a safe place to lay low as, well, me. Now that we have a few options now, she doesn't quite have a gun to our heads anymore, either, so we actually have a choice—and if you're thinking of sort of supporting the White Fang anyway, there really shouldn't be too much risk to either of you."

"Assuming she doesn't already know who you are," He pointed out.

"Assuming that," I agreed. "But I'm pretty sure she doesn't; the pieces don't quite fit together if she already knew all my dirty secrets. If she did, then she'd have had a lot of leverage over me, but she didn't use any of it when we faced each other. I think…I'm pretty sure now that she was as worried about me as I was of her and that she wanted me scared. As is, there shouldn't be any way to link Jian Bing to Jaune Arc if I'm careful, though, so it should be…not safe, but that specific thing shouldn't be a major concern."

He frowned for a moment but then nodded slowly.

"Of course, we still don't know what the White Fang's really up to," He said, leaning back. "I never expected Raven Branwen to be with them…that's a lot more fire power then I expected them to have. The White Fang has always been dangerous, but no more so then a million other things on this godforsaken planet; it was always assumed that if they got too bad, Hunters would get involved and deal with them easily. If they've been sitting on their big guns all this time, though…and if Raven's not alone…"

"And they're working with someone," I reminded. "No idea who, but there's someone else involved. Any idea who?"

"Too many possibilities and not enough information," Cynosarges answered, shaking his head. "You've probably noticed already, but Mistral is a pit of snakes. If you're just looking for suspicious people, you'll have a hard time sorting out anything useful."

I exhaled slowly but conceded that point.

"Probably why they're doing this here in the first place," My grandmother mused. "That and the festival. Keeping track of suspicious activity this time of year and whose responsible for what…As is, you would probably have the easiest time figuring it out. With your senses, you might even be able to see them, at which point their levels or titles should tell you something of value."

Though she addressed me, I was pretty sure the words were directed at Cynosarges, who considered them and nodded.

"I suppose so," He said. "It's obvious there's too much going on to ignore, regardless. I'll support you boy. We'll arrange things on this end in light of…what? A deal made with Jian Bing? Are you assisting us with something? Actually, I guess you are with this mess and the Babel shit, but…oh, whatever; we'll make up something before we contact the White Fang's representatives."

The box beside my quest marker was checked and it went vague, a new command appearing right below it.

I had to stare at it for a moment, surprised.

"Um," I said. "We might have a problem."

'Attend the Mistral Regional Tournament tomorrow.'

Those were the words it said, plain and simple and unchanging under my steady gaze. A short sentence giving simply directions, but the implications of it…

"The next step of the White Fang's quest involves the tournament, somehow." I told them even as my mind raced. "I don't know how and I don't know why, but it says to 'Attend the Mistral Regional Tournament tomorrow.'"

Both of the older Hunters frowned, brows furrowing as they grasped what that could mean. There were many options, countless possibilities, and yet the one that jumped out to us all was an attack of some kind—the White Fang doing something during the tournament.

If that was the case, I couldn't say I would be surprised by the revelation, not truly—I'd been suspicious of the timing of everything that was happening from the very beginning. Really, I would have been more suspicious if it turned out this whole mess didn't have anything to do with the tournament, but…having it confirmed was still somewhat worrying. The tournament was going to be big, both in that it would be full of people and broadcast around the world. If my quest was taking me there, I couldn't see many ways it could end up going well.

There were only a few real possibilities, if each with a few thousand potential answers concerning the specifics. It could be that the White Fang was planning something and would enact their strategy there tomorrow—which might have been in the works all along or could mean that I'd accomplished most of the quest and by securing the support of two of Mistral's heads, I'd established the White Fang's power enough to convince them to act.

Alternatively, I hadn't completed this aspect of the mission yet and the quest wanted me to do something there. That was a somewhat less worrying possibility, since if that happened, I'd just walk away after confirming it—which was why it seemed rather unlikely. I mean, Pathfinder's directions were vague enough that it could have been either one, but the former seemed vastly more likely than the latter.

Although I suppose there was the ever present third option—I'd overlooked something important and it was going to stab me in the back for the offense. There was always that lingering unknown party no doubt waiting to ruin everything, or perhaps the Goliath's plan somehow coming to fruition in a way I couldn't foresee.

There were so many things that could be behind this, so many possible explanations, that I…I had to…

I blew out a short breath, shaking my head slightly.

Well, for one thing, I had to think.

"That could mean a lot of things," Cynosarges said after giving the matter several seconds of thought. "Were those its exact words? It doesn't want you to do anything specific like participate in the tournament?"

"It just says 'attend,'" I repeated. "Not to compete, not to win, not even to do anything—just…attend."

"Informative and yet unhelpful," He mused. "Could mean a lot of stuff, in that case. Could want you to get into position for an attack, could just be a meeting with someone to earn the White Fang more clout. Does it want you to go anywhere specific? And what do you feel is the exact probability that the next step is going to be to run some errand to earn favor? Like getting someone some nachos. Or getting me some nachos. In fact, where the hell are my nachos, Jaune?"

I checked my map and frowned, shaking my head as I ignored that last part.

"The Coliseum is marked," I said. "But I can't tell if it's marking the Coliseum as a whole or some specific place inside it; it would probably look the same either way from the perspective of the city map. I'll have to go there in person to check and see. If it is positioned somewhere specific, that might yield some information; beyond that, though, there's no way to know."

"Whatever it is, its presence in your….quest line means you must have some kind of role in it," My grandmother said before her frown deepened. "That tells us a few things, given who you pretend to be. But there's no way to know if the White Fang as a whole will even be present."

"I'm not certain, no, but I'm pretty sure. I mean, I really have no idea how Pathfinder works, but after everything that's happened lately…the timing is just too convenient. There's a lot of reasons why they'd be here in Mistral—like how you mentioned it covered their tracks—but I'd be really surprised if the festival had nothing to do with it. Even if it's not the tournament, something is probably going to happen."

She pursued her lips.

"Fair enough," She said at last, nodding. "As Cynosarges said, though, it could be anything. Giving us a location tells us a great deal, but there are still too many possibilities. But it's your 'game,' Jaune. What do you think is likely to happen?"

I hesitated for a moment, unsure, but…

"When quests just tell you to go somewhere, it usually leads into something cinematic happening—like a cut scene, I mean; you're there to see the story advance somehow. How that applies to real life, though…I'm not entirely sure, to be honest. But at a guess, it probably means that something is going to happen there that opens up the next stage of the quest; probably something big."

"Oh?" Cynosarges grunted, glancing at me. The sound wasn't one of disagreement, but there was an urging quality to it.

"The tournament is going to be high profile," I mused to myself, sounding out the thought I was so sure of. "If it was just to set up a meeting or something, there's no point in hosting it there instead of any of a hundred more convenient places; this is something else. If something does happen, though…it'll be quick. After that one asshole stole the White Whale, I imagine the security of such a major event must be a pretty high priority—and it draws in a lot of the Hunter crowd, besides. If they try something drawn out, there will be a fight and...well, Raven and the strongest members aside, I don't think most of the White Fang would be able to last in such a battle. No, even beyond that, if Raven's hid her face for over a decade and a half, she won't want to reveal herself publicly, so she may try to avoid getting involved in the first place."

"And if she does," My grandmother added. "Then it'll mean this is something huge."

"There's also our unknown faction, who may or may not be involved with anything." I added, frowning a bit at the thought. So many people who may or may not be doing stuff and who my quest may or may not want me to work for. But in this case… "But the point remains; whatever's happening, it'll happen fast. Given what we know—and, more tellingly, how much we don't know—I doubt any of the people pulling the strings are going to want to stick around and have a stand up fight. Given that, I'm kind of worried about the possibility of a bomb…but that wouldn't explain why I was there, nor does it really fit the goal of the quest…"

"Perhaps an assassination, instead," Cynosarges said. "Someone vocally opposed to them, suddenly gone. However high the security may be for the event itself, keeping track of every single person for a prolonged length of time is unfeasible; the right set up and all it'd take was a good enough shot."

"Why bother when they have Raven's power?" My grandmother asked.

"I don't see how that would increase the White Fang's power, either," I murmured before tilting my head to the side. "Though I suppose it could depend on who gets assassinated and how public it needs to be…still, if that was what they were after, they have plenty of ways to do it a lot more effectively. It doesn't make sense for them to bother."

Assuming I wasn't completely wrong about things already, which was worryingly possible. There were so many parties involved, so many people keeping secrets, that I just…I had no idea. For all my concerns, it was possible, if not likely, that the White Fang wasn't even involved. If this was just me, then I could always back out of the quest. But…for that same reason, would my power chose the Coliseum if that was the case? Did it take my mindset into account when it did its thing?

There was a part of me that hoped this quest was just me…and a larger part that was all but sure it wasn't. No, it wouldn't be that simple; there would be something going wrong, I was sure of it. Honestly, I just pretty much accepted that as a given at this point. The only real question was how badly.

And yet, what worried me the most was a simple, lingering thought.

What if this was because of me? It could have just been me blaming myself for things beyond my control, but thinking about it…was it that hard to believe? The precedent I'd set with my theft of the White Whale and my invasion of Atlas, the scale I'd taken the White Fang to…was it really so unlikely that I'd given the White Fang the push they needed to act? Or perhaps even forced them to act, to prolong the five minutes of fame I'd captured for them and add fuel to the flames? What Jian Bing had done had been so high profile, so unbelievable, that…

I told myself there was no point thinking like that about something that hadn't even happened yet, but that sadly never seemed to be enough to make such thoughts go away. Maybe that's why the decision came so easily.

"I'll go," I said. "One way or another, we're not going to figure anything out if we just stay here and worry about it. If something happens, I'll be there."

Cynosarges grunted as my grandmother frowned, the large man looking at my contemplatively, nodding slightly.

"Do you intend to go as a fighter in the tournament or to watch from the crowds?" He asked. "It might not make much difference, since I imagine most of your opponents will forfeit before they even get in the ring with you after that show you put on with my goddaughter, but there are pros and cons to each. Depending on what happens, it might matter."

It was easy enough to understand his meaning—whether they were targeting the tournament as a whole or someone specific, the participants were up there as far as likely targets went. Of course, that went double for the three-time champion. I didn't think that was very likely, in truth; I couldn't see the White Fang attacking their allies goddaughter, even ignoring Cynosarges's personal power. Still, I could understand his concerns. But…

"I need to be somewhere that lets me see the whole Coliseum. No offense, but if anything happens, I'll probably be the first to notice and I'll probably need to react fast." I said before hesitating. "Worst case scenario, if there is a bomb or something horrible like that, I have the best chance of saving everyone if I notice in time. I really, really, really don't want to shove a stadium full of people into Naraka for…pretty obvious reasons, but I'll do it if I have to. There's no way of knowing how much warning I'll have before things go to hell, but at the very least I should be able to sense the danger. For what it's worth, I doubt Pyrrha's the target—but I'll keep an eye on her, just in case."

The older man grunted at me but then shrugged a shoulder. My grandmother had finally begun to drum her fingers, but after a moment she nodded slowly.

"Very well; it's probably for the best regardless. Still…" She replied. "We'll need a plan. First of all…"

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