Ravensdagger_Princess

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Velvet realised that this was probably a bad idea about two minutes into the flight. In fact, she had a suspicion that it was a bad idea before she even boarded the bullhead next to Akelarre and started the take off procedures.But it was too late for her to turn around and fly back, they were already out of Vale and crossing the ocean between Vale and the Lands of Darkness to the East. There was a huge expanse of open ocean and churning waters all around them and absolutely nothing else.Well, other than the swarm of Grimmsects following their lone Bullhead.The flight was mostly quiet, and even her uncertainty about her flying skills melted away as they shot across the ocean on a direct course for one of the most foreboding places on the planet.“Oh look, a school of Leviathans,” Akelarre said as she leaned forward to look out the window. “I don’t like those. Something about them rubs me the wrong way.”Velvet glanced down and saw the huge forms moving just under the turbulent waters. “We should pull up,” she said while putting actions to words and pulling back on the yoke. “I heard they can jump out of the water and catch low flying ships.”Akelarre shrugged. “If the ship crashes we’ll probably be okay. And then we can ask the Leviathans to bring us to shore.”Velvet levelled off their flight a moment later and said exactly nothing. She knew that Akelarre was weird, that she was a little different, but sometimes that difference in perspective was incredibly sharp. It was hard to remember that the Grimm, the monsters that everyone else in the world had to work around and against, were more likely to help Akelarre than harm her.The flight was filled with a deep, gaping silence, one that Velvet wished she could fill, but the words to do so just weren’t coming, and Akelarre looked just as confused and awkward as she felt.Then Akelarre rang.Blinking, the Grimm girl pulled a scroll from her pocket and thumbed the call accept before pressing on speakerphone to be heard over the low whine of the engines. “Hello?”“Akelarre?” A familiar, young voice said over the line. “It’s Ruby.”“Ruby! How are you?” Akelarre asked, her mood shifting from awkward boredom to the kind of giddiness that Velvet was used to seeing in Coco when there was good gossip going around.“I’m... okay,” Ruby lied.“What’s wrong, Ruby?” Akelarre leaned back into the copilot’s seat, phone resting on an open palm as she listened.There was a long suffering sigh. “It’s my team. They’re being very... meh. Blake is afraid that you’ll come after her, even if I told her you wouldn’t, Weiss decided that you don’t exist and she’s been screaming at Yang all day as if it’s her fault that she has a hangover, and Yang is all pouty because we saw her at work. I think she’s just embarrassed but is taking it out on us.”“That sounds awful,” Akelarre said. “I think you should get them all together, sit them down, and have a nice chat. You know, air everything out into the open? Even if you don’t all agree in the end at least you’ll know where you stand. And as for Weiss and Blake, I can probably visit you guys again and promise not to hurt them, if that makes them feel any better.”“Urg,” Ruby said. Velvet had the impression that the young girl had just flopped backwards onto a bed. “I know, thanks. It’s just so much trouble. I kinda wish that I wasn’t team leader. It’s too much responsibility. But if it wasn’t me, then who else would try to take care of my team.”“It sounds like you need a hug,” Akelarre said with genuine amusement. “Do you want one?”Ruby paused. “Right now?”“Yeah,” Akelarre said.There was another pause, a longer one this time. “Did you hide a hug bug in my room?”Akelarre giggled. “No, no, I don’t have hug bugs... yet. And I didn’t hide any Grimm in or around your room. Do you still want that hug?”“I... how?”“I was thinking I could describe it,” Akelarre said."...You know what? Go ahead."“Okay, okay,” Akelarre said. “So, uh, I’d have to be close to you, because you can’t give hugs from far away.”“Unless it’s over the Scroll,” Ruby said.Velvet held back a snort at the look of consternation that crossed Akelarre face. “Yeah, obviously. Anyway, so I’d have to be close. And it needs to be a real hug, not one of those with your butt sticking way out.”Ruby giggled over the line. “That’s how Yang hugs Uncle Qrow.”“We don’t want that. So, I think you’re still a bit shorter than me, so you would be the one who gets to tuck her head in, and I would put my chin on your head so that I can give you a chin noogie.”“No!” Ruby gasped.“Uh huh,” Akelarre said with a nod. “It’s only proper. But before that I’d have to wrap you up as hard as I can and pull you into my chest.”“What chest?” Ruby asked with faux innocence.“... You know, I can reconsider that whole ‘bugs in your room thing’ at any moment.”“You wouldn’t!” Ruby said, and in the background there was a fump-fump sound like feet kicking against the surface of a bed.“I totally would,” Akelarre said. “As soon as I get back, I’m sending a swarm of hug bugs to invade your dorm. Anyway, we both have cloaks, so any hugging would be very coccony. And that just makes them even better, right?”“Right.”“Now, if I was a pervert like Neo, I’d probably end the hug by pinching your bum.”“Akelarre!” Ruby shouted, all indignity and embarrassment. Even Velvet in the pilot’s seat felt her face warming up.Akelarre giggled into her closed fist as Ruby went on a rant about how her Uncle and Dad were totally against any sort of bum pinching.“So, are you feeling better?” Akelarre asked.“Hmpf,” was Ruby’s reply. “Well, yeah, I guess.”“Good. So it was a successful hug.”Ruby laughed. “The best hug I got all day.”“I see, and have you been getting a lot of other hugs? Maybe from cute Beacon students?” Akelarre asked.“Don— be sill-” Ruby said.“Oh no, you’re breaking up,” Akelarre said. “Ruby, I have to let you go, but I’ll call you when we’re close enough to Vale to get reception, okay?”“-Kay. Bye, Ake-are.” the line turned into a garbled hiss then cut off with a pop.Akelarre sighed as she put away her phone. “Poor Ruby.”Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.“You sound like you’re close to her,” Velvet said.The Grimm princess next to her shrugged. “Sorta. She’s a real sweetheart, and I’m sure she’ll grow up to be a great woman. She just has a sort of enthusiasm that I like.”“That’s cute,” Velvet said. She wasn’t about to pry. Velvet wondered how the half-plus-seven rule worked when one party was thousands of years old.“That’s the Spire,” Akelarre said, bouncing in her seat as she pointed towards the horizon.They were skimming over land now, rocky growths covered in crystals that caught the sunlight speeding by under them as they rushed towards the gigantic building in the distance.Velvet focused on the flight while doing her best to ignore the flocks of Nevermore circling around the tower of the veritable cloud of Lancers that rose out from crevices in the ground and started fling in twisting spirals around the Bullhead like fireworks heralding the arrival of a champion.Akelarre directed her towards a small building not too far from the tower where a landing pad’s yellow lights stood out from the purple and black of the world around them.The Bullhead landed with a small lurch and a hiss from its landing gear, but nothing broke, and if she was a little off-centre of the landing pad, Akelarre didn’t comment.“Welcome to the Grimmlands,” Akelarre said as she undid her buckles in a hurry and jumped out of her seat. “C’mon!”Swallowing, Velvet turned off the Bullhead and got out of her own seat, feeling rather awkward as she followed Akelarre to the back and watched the Grimm girl opening the side door.A hoard of Grimm awaited them, millions of red eyes affixed to insectile heads. Here and there, alpha Beowolves and Ursas and other Grimm that she didn’t recognize bumped into each other as if trying to get closer.Not one of them paid her any mind.“T-that’s a lot of Grimm,” Velvet said.“Is it?” Akelarre asked. “Well, I guess, if you’re from the city and all.” She frowned at the crowd, then made a shooing gesture. “Go, go, you have things to do and you’re all in my way. Get going.”The Grimm, with some reluctance, moved away, clearing a path along well-trod stones towards the tower proper.It was only now that Velvet was standing in the Spire’s shadow that she really got a sense of its scale. The building had looked tall, but rather squat from the air. On the ground it was clear that it was bigger around than all of Beacon, courtyards and all. Stones the size of houses stacked atop each other made up parts of it, but the majority was a pure black rock that almost glowed a faint purple.She swallowed. “M-maybe I should stay in the Bullhead?” she said.Akelarre snorted. “And spend the night in the cold? No, none of that. You’re a guest here. Don’t worry. I won’t let anything eat you without permission.”Akelarre looked like she was about to go on when she paused, head whipping around towards the entrance of the tower.“Mom!” she shouted, and it was as if a few years had faded away and Akelarre was a girl much younger than she appeared. She rushed towards the Spire, long legs carrying her towards the person standing by the door.Velvet took one look at the woman and paused.Coco had once talked to her about how presentation and appearance were important, about how fashion could dictate how someone decided to treat you. How certain people just had a presence to them.She had always thought it was more of Coco’s hot air. A bit of exaggeration to explain why some people were just more charismatic than others.The woman moving out of the arch of the Spire had presence.The air felt thicker because she was there, colder and with a tang of ozone as though lightning were about to be called down upon Velvet’s head. The Grimm moved back, heads lowering in respect and deference and the very skies seemed to darken as she moved into what should have been the light of day. It was as if the sun was afraid on inconveniencing her.She was tall, that much was immediately obvious, but she wore her height the way some might wear armour. It was there to tell you that this person was grander than you, and that she would not bow.Red eyes flicked to Velvet for just a fraction of a second and that was enough that Velvet wasn’t sure if her heart would be able to keep beating. Then the woman’s attention was all for Akelarre and a small smile, like a crack running across a thousand year old glacier, appeared across her fine lips. “Daughter,” she said a moment before Akelarre crashed into her. It was like a train running into a fortress with walls of pure titanium.“I missed you,” Akelarre declared.The woman placed a hand on Akelarre’s head, smoothly moving some hair out of the girl’s face. “And I you. It has been far too quiet. Though Tyrian and Hazel have tried to keep me company these last few days.”“Oh, I haven’t met Tyrian yet. Is he the one with the tail? He’s looking at my bugs right now.”The woman nodded once, a noise coming out of her that Velvet couldn’t place but that brought a smile to Akelarre’s face. “That’s him. Now, tell me, who is our guest?”Akelarre finally let go and turned to face Velvet. “That’s Velvet Scarlatina. She’s a friend.”“A friend.” The word was repeated without the slightest hint of emotion.“Velvet, this is mom. But, uh, you should probably call her Salem. Or Your Majesty .”If Velvet had ever thought Akelarre’s gaze was scary, she now knew better. Salem looked at her, really looked, and Velvet felt as though she was naked in front of an entire mob who was out for her blood.She almost peed herself.“Well met, Velvet. I do hope you will come to enjoy the hospitality of our little home.”“Mom, stop it, you’re scaring her,” Akelarre said. “Look, she almost shivering.”“I, I’m okay,” Velvet said.Salem’s smile carried very little humour. “Of course. Akelarre, dear, how about you go unpack all your things. I have a few things to speak to our guest about.”Akelarre didn’t seem sure. “You won’t hurt her?”Salem raised one delicate eyebrow. “You know me better than that.”With a shrug, Akelarre acquiesced. “Alright. Velvet, just find a Grimmsect when you’re done, I’ll have it lead you to your rooms.”And with that, Velvet was suddenly alone with the most terrifying being on Remnant.“Come,” she said.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Velvet likened it, at least in the privacy of her own mind, to walking to class before a big test. Mounting nerves, a coiling snake of anxiety in her tummy, sweaty palms and an urge to call in sick.Then Salem, queen of the Grimm and scariest mom ever, opened the door to a room and ushered her in first.Part of her expected a torture chamber, but she was instead greeted by a ncie little louging area, with padded seats and a little coffee table on which a nice crystal sat in a vase. Of course, it was then that she noticed the tentacle Grimm floating in one corner, its eye fixed on her and its many, far too many, limbs twitching.“Don’t worry about the Seer,” Salem said with a gesture towards the tentacle monster. “We won’t be doing anything with that for a few minutes yet. Sit.”Velvet sat.The Seer hovered.Salem smiled.Velvet regretted every minute spent watching that sort of Mistrailian cartoon. “W-why did you want to see me, ma’am?”Salem turned the act of sitting down into a display of grace in action, long legs bending just so before she crossed them one over the other and leaned her head to one side, chin resting on a closed fist.“I have questions,” she said. “Before we move on to dinner.”“Oh. Okay.” Velvet studied the floor and placed both hands on her knees to keep them from shaking.“You’re a friend of that... Coco girl, yes?”“Yes. Are, are you going to hurt Coco?” Velvet asked.Salem hummed. “I haven’t decided yet. One the one hand, it taught my dear Akelarre a valuable lesson. On the other hand, Akelarre was hurt. It’s only fair that I return the pain in kind.”“P-pain?” Velvet whispered.Salem made a gesture with her free hand, dismissive. “I misspoke. Pain is too simple a word. I would take her from everything she loves, then ensure through my arts and magic that she lives to the fullest potential of her natural life. And in those many, many decades I will show her a whole new dimension of suffering unlike anything her feeble little mind could even begin to imagine.” All that was said with the same tone Velvet might have used to tell someone she was going to go get milk, or if they would pass the butter. No grandstanding, just an outright statement of what she planned to do with Coco for the rest of Coco’s life.“I, I can’t,” Velvet said. There was a spark of something in her chest, bravery, maybe. It grew like a blazing fire in the hearth of her soul. “I can’t let you.”“Can’t let me what?” Salem asked. She took that fire, the hearth, and the house it was in and tossed them all into the deep abyss of space.“N-nevermind,” Velvet said.“Hrm, well, nothing is written in stone. I could yet change my mind. And Akelarre is so much the forgiving sort. That’s not why I brought you here,” Salem said.The Queen gestured and the tentacle beast in the corner chortled as it floated closer. Velvet tensed, legs locking with thighs together and arms crossing her chest. Even her ears drooped as it came near.“Show us,” Salem demanded.The Seer bobbed once, then its pitch black eye whirled and twisted before taking the shape of an image, a moving image. It was Akelarre, Akelarre in a white robe, her hair stuck up in eight pigtails, though no two were of the same length and they looked quite frankly ridiculous.“That’s when Akelarre tried to imitate my hairstyle. I would usually change modes every so often, but her attempt that one time has encouraged me to keep this style for now.” Salem gestured again. “The next one.”Velvet wasn’t sure what was happening, but this was better than what her imagination had conjured.The next image was no image at all, but a slightly blurry... video, of sorts. Akelarre giggling as she tickled a huge wall of a man, her black arm deformed into a myriad of little tentacles that targeted the man’s armpits and tummy. He was obviously working hard not to laugh, but then a chortle escaped him and they both broke out into peels of laughter.“That’s Akelarre, playing with her new arm, the one that I made her,” Salem said with the same tone she’d just used to threaten Coco. “I do like hearing her laugh.”“She, um, she has a nice laugh,” Velvet ventured.“Yes. She does. The next one.”This time the image in the Seer was of Akelarre guiding a swarm of what looked like Grimm bumblebees, but instead of flying in formations like the other bugs around them, they bumped into each other, the other Grimmsects, the walls, the ceiling and once off of a crystalline vase, sending it crashing with a clatter. The pout Akelarre was wearing was downright dangerous it was so cute.“Oh no,” Velvet said, hands clasping over her mouth as one bumblegrimm thumped Akelarre behind the head and sent her sprawling.Salem made a sound, though what it could mean, Velvet had no clue. “Indeed,” she said.The door burst open and a panting Akelarre, hair dishevelled and eyes wide, stood in the frame. “Mom!” the single word was filled with more embarrassment than Velvet had heard since the time Coco brought her shopping for underwear, then told her to put on a show for the boys.“Yes, Daughter?” Salem asked. “I was just about to move onto the next image.”Velvet watched, fascinated, as the Seer projected an image of Akelarre moving in a way that might have been dancing. Maybe. There was certainly rhythmic motion and she was holding onto a rather large praying mantis and smiling, but she looked as graceful as a drunken raccoon.“No!” Akelarre said. Then there were bugs.Velvet squeaked as a swarm battered into the Seer and sent it tumbling across the room to disappear in a wash of black smoke.“That was a somewhat extreme reaction,” Salem said. “You merely had to ask me to stop.”“Yes, well,” Akelarre said, face rather red. “Dinner’s ready. C’mon Velvet.”Velvet looked to Salem, but the woman just shooed her off. “We can talk at the dinner table,” she said as she started to climb back to her feet. “In the meantime, do ask Akelarre to show you to your rooms. I’m certain she knows which ones already.”“Yes ma’am. Thank you ma’am.”Akelarre wrapped a hand around Velvet’s, surprisingly calloused skin tight around Velvet’s hand as she pulled her out of the room and back down the corridor. “I’m so sorry about that,” she said as the hint of pink on Akelarre’s cheek began to fade.“It’s okay?” Velvet said. She wasn’t sure how she was supposed to feel about the whole ordeal. “She seems to really care about you. It’s kind of cute.”The pink on Akelarre’s cheeks returned with a vengeance. “Yeah, well, uh, I’m sure your parents are the same.”Velvet had a flash of her mother sitting Akelarre down to show off images of a baby Velvet when her ears were still mostly fluff and she was too young to know better than to be on the other side of the camera. “Ah, yeah,” she said.“Maybe I can meet your parents one day,” Akelarre said.Velvet looked down at where their hands were joined, did some very quick mental math, and felt all the blood rushing to her cheeks. “Ah.”Akelarre led her up a winding staircase, a few Beowolves moving out of her path the same way someone would move out of Glynda’s way in Beacon. Velvet watched them as they walked past, some small part of her still finding everything surreal. “This is where my bedroom is,” Akellare said as she pointed to a closed door. “And you can stay here, if you want.” She gestured at the door across the hall, and then pushed it open with a shoulder.Velvet had never really been to a fancy hotel. She wasn’t the sort, and she couldn’t afford it besides. The cost for a few nights at the fanciest place in Vale would probably cover a tenth of the downpayment on a new lens for her camera. But she imagined that even the most luxurious place in Vale wouldn’t mind having a room like the one she was in as their penthouse.Tall statues made of carved dust crystals stood in nooks and corners, a plush couch took up a quarter of a sitting area. She could see the actual bedroom off to one side behind an opened door, a four poster bed piled high with sheets just waiting for someone to bounce on it.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.“It’s very pretty,” she said.Akelarre looked around the room too. “I guess it is.”“Did you, um, want to show me your room?” she asked. It was the sort of thing she would do if she brought a friend over, and it would occupy their time. Also, it might make Akelarre let go of her hand.“Sure,” Akelarre said with a shrug.Back down the other side of the corridor, they reached Akelarre’s room, the door opening on its own as they approached.It was a mess.Velvet’s eyes boggled as she tried to take in all the workbenches, tables and drawing boards pushed up against every wall, the disassembled weapons with parts all over, the huge cobwebs stuck to one wall and the chair piled high with clean clothes that took centre stage of a pile of not so clean clothes mounted around it.Her feet sank into a thick carpet, enough that a few nearby discarded crayons rolled over and tapped against her foot. She opened her mouth, then closed it with a click.Then she heard the buzzing and looked up. The ceiling was a hive. Huge beehives stuck to the rafters and partially hidden in the shadows, flashes of yellow flitting from one hive to the next before darting out of an open window at the back.“Uh,” Velvet said as her attention was dragged away from the living ceiling and to a wall covered in crayon drawings that were very... enthusiastic. “Uh.”“I really should have cleaned up before you arrived,” Akelarre whispered to herself.Velvet took a moment to stare at Akelarre’s bed, because it was something that deserved to be stared at. A huge round thing that was as tall as her hips and looked so plush that she was afraid someone might drown in it. Gauzy curtains surrounded it on all sides and it was covered in satin sheets. Frankly, it looked like it belonged in a brothel.“Oh yeah, I found that in the dungeons,” Akelarre said. “It’s weird looking, but so comfy. Did you want to test it out?”“Haaa,” was Velvet’s response as Akelarre finally let go of her hand and started taking off her cloak. She tossed the piece of clothing onto a rack, then stretched a little.“We can play after dinner, it looks like it’s almost ready."Play.Play after dinner.Was she going to have babies? Would her mom be happy or angry if they were part Grimm? Was mom going to have to fight with Salem to be allowed to play with her grandbabies?“Velvet, are you okay?” Akelarre asked.“Aaaaa,” was Velvet’s low keen of a reply.“If you don’t want to play cards or play with my bugs we can do other things,” Akelarre said, sounding rather shy.“Cards. Cards are good,” Velvet snapped out of her fugue. “Cards are great.”Akelarre’s smile was a little confused, but it was certainly nicer than any of the thoughts going through Velvet’s head. “Sure, but after dinner. Come on.”Grabbing her hand again, Akelarre pulled her out of the disaster zone that was her bedroom and back out into the corridor. “You, um, have a very nice room,” Velvet said. It certainly was unique.“Thanks,” Akelarre said. “So, dinner is, a bit of a thing,” she started. “The food is fine, by the way. We have it all imported from Mistral and Vale and Vacuo. Sometimes from Atlas. Sometimes we get fresh stuff from the Grimm worshipping cults.”She probably should have been surprised that there were Grimm worshippers out there, but after all the other things she saw that day, Velvet wasn’t even phased. “Okay.”“You don’t need to bother with the whole seven spoons, eighteen forks thing. I never did. Salem, mom, is the only one that actually cares.”“O-okay.”“Just be polite and everything will be fine. I know you’re a little nervous, but I’ll keep you safe, okay?” Akelarre looked over her shoulder and there was a warmth in her expression, even under the red of her eyes and the black, crack-like veins running along the edges of her face.Velvet nodded, finding new determination swelling within her. “Okay.”The dining room, or maybe it was hall, was a cavernous room that reminded her a little of Beacon’s cafeteria. At least, the dimensions did. The cafeteria didn’t have a cathedral ceiling or stained glass murals that cast colourful light onto a lone table that was longer than the average bus and surrounded by high-backed chairs.Salem was, somehow, already at the head of the table, a tiny pair of glasses hanging off the tip of her nose as she read over a book that could only be described as a tome. To her left sat a man with an almost rictus grin plastered to his face.“Come on,” Akelarre said as she moved to the far end of the table. For a moment, Velvet was pleased to see that they were going to have a dozen meters between them and Salem, but Akelarre took the two place settings at the other end and carried them all the way over to Salem’s right.A flash of a smile touched the Queen’s lips for just a moment, not that she ever looked away from her book.Akelarre gave the seat next to her a pat, and Velvet reluctantly took her place. She wasn't sure where to look, but the grin from the man sitting across from her caught her attention and his smile widened when he saw her looking his way. “You’re a faunus!” he said.“Um,” was Velvet’s reply. She couldn’t exactly hide her ears.“Me too!” With that, the man waved a barb-tipped tail around, the head of it whipping around his head. “I’m Tyrian. I live to serve my lady goddess. Are you the same for my goddess’ sweet child?”Hearing someone call Salem the immortal Queen of the Grimm a goddess didn’t even rank in the top ten weirdest things she had heard that day.“Wait,” Akelarre said, raising a hand to pause the man. He immediately shut up, all of his attention falling onto Akelarre with the kind of awe and wonder in his eyes that Velvet had never seen before. “Are you an arthropod faunus?”“I am, I am!” Tyrian said. “I’m a scorpion faunus.” He brought his tail around and started petting it. “Did you want to touch?”“I believe,” Salem said as she closed her book. “That we can save the touching for after dinner.” A dozen of the floating tentacle Grimm slid into the room, humming as they moved towards the dinner table with trays held in their tentacled grasps. “I would rather not allow our meal to grow cold.”Velvet wasn’t sure what to expect from Grimm food, but it certainly wasn’t a steak with vegetables to the side covered with a fine sauce and sprinkled with spices. The portions were divided and placed like something in the really expensive restaurants Coco was always wishing she could visit.Salem carefully picked a knife and fork from the selection laid out around her and started cutting into her steak. Tyrian just grabbed his with one hand and bit into it and Akelarre hummed as a praying mantis the size of a cat climbed onto the table and started chopping her steak into bite-sized pieces.Velvet hesitated a little before she picked the same knife and fork as Salem and cut into her meal. She figured that it was probably safe to eat. And the steak was too big to be human meat. She hoped.The tentacle Grimm started pouring wine into goblets before Salem and Tyrian, but they only had water for Akelarre and Velvet. “My daughter tells me you attend Beacon,” Salem said.Velvet didn’t know if it was a question or not. “Um, yes. I’m in my second year.” She would have mentioned her team, but the more separation between her and Coco the better.“So, you go to Ozma’s little academy. You know, this isn’t the first time he has pushed for more education for his so-called Huntsmen. Though I don’t recall him ever acting as the headmaster in person.”“Ozma?” Velvet asked.Salem nodded before taking a sip of wine. “Yes. I do believe he calls himself Ozpin now. He changes faces as often as I change clothes.”“But you’ve been wearing the same dress since I met you,” Akelarre said.Salem looked down at her fine black dress and languidly shrugged one shoulder. “Yes.”“You know Headmaster Ozpin?” Velvet asked.Maybe she had fought him before. He was a very brave and well-known huntsman, one of the best. All the history books talked about him and his Huntsman Cards were worth a lot.“We were married for a century or two.”“Oh.”