Specialist Rose

18)Truth

I ran away before Yang could bother with excuses. I knew I was going to burst into flames, quite literally. I slammed my bedroom door shut behind me and raced into the bathroom. I didn't want to set off the smoke alarm or burn the house down so instead of setting myself alight I burned my fingerless gloves off and stuck my hands into the bath that I had originally run for Qrow. I could feel the pent up magical energy pouring out of my hands boiling and then evaporating all the water entirely. I was still reeling in anger from what had happened but at least I wasn't going to set fire to the house. I exited the bathroom feeling less angry than before but more heartbroken at what Yang had said. I played it back in my head and the anger dissipated entirely leaving me inconsolable. Fire still burned around my eyes but tears streamed out of them too. I grabbed Marrow's jacket off the doorhandle, put it on and sat down on my bed with my knees scrunched up facing away from the door. I started sobbing again and wrapped the jacket around me a little tighter in hopes that it would help but my sorrow was too strong. I heard my door open and looked up forgetting about my blazing eyes. Marrow's eyes widened and he stumbled back. 
"M-Marrow, please don't go. I can explain it I swear."
"Ruby you are on fire and not in the amazing way, as far as explanations go this will have to be a far-fetched one."
"There is an explanation, although it is about as far-fetched as they come." Marrow came over and sat down on the bed and wrapped his arm around me so at least I knew he wasn't going to run. 
"I know that everything I'm about to say sounds crazy and just unreal but please stay a little calm. I don't know a whole lot about it myself. You know I was off the grid for 2 weeks whilst I was in Vacuo? I didn't exactly do a whole load of travelling. I got into a bad accident and was too hurt to travel-"
"Ruby why didn't you call? We would have come to get you."
"I didn't want to worry anybody. I stayed with the women who nursed me back to health - the village called her Nana. She was an eccentric old woman but she had a special quality to her that just made you feel warm and at home and gave off a unique sense of family. You know what I mean?"
"Yeah, I know exactly what you mean."
"Whilst I healed she took care of me and I honestly don't mind that I didn't get to travel Vacuo those were a great 2 weeks staying with her. But just before the day I was scheduled to leave something happened. I helped nana to bed and locked up the house just like I did every night and now is when the unbelievable part comes in."
"Alright I'm listening."
"Well I woke up in the middle of the right in a lot of pain. Everything burned and I thought my head might explode. I could only hear screaming and all I could see was red glows rushing around. It was so awful I passed out on the floor. I woke up though my body protested a lot to even moving my eyelids. It was my head that was in the most agony though. Everything was really to blurry to see anything but I still felt white hot. I really had no idea of what was going on and I thought the grimm would be coming for me because I was so scared. Once my vision cleared I really wished that my vision was still blurry. At first I thought I had it my head the night before too hard but there was no denying what I saw. My whole hand was engulfed in flame. Both my hands were on fire and my eyes were blazing too, just like you saw."
"W-what was going on? What happened?"
"I didn't know. So I ran into Nana's room to get help but she had died in her sleep."
"Gem, I'm so sorry."
"I knew she was extraordinarily old but I just didn't think that I would find her dead in her bed. I was inconsolable and my entire body set alight. I passed out again but this time came around only a few minutes later. The fire was out but where I had been laying on the floor has charred black. I remembered everything that happened and I puked on the floor. As opposed to how warm it felt earlier I felt like I had been dipped in ice water. It was horrible."
"Hey but that part is over now. It's ok."
I sniffled as I was still crying before continuing to explain myself.
"The funeral director came to collect her body and read the will. Nana had left a latter that you can read if you like. But the main points of her letter was explaining what had happened to me. Have you ever heard the story of the maidens? Well I am now walking proof of the story being true. She told me that I have inherited the power of the fall maiden. There are 3 others like me out there who have real, genuine magic. She told me to keep these powers secret lest I be hunted to the ends of Remnant. There aren't many who know of the maidens but the frightening majority of those people will hunt me to take the magic for themselves and those aren't exactly the type of people one would want to have unimagineable power lost to the ages. She told me 3 more things: don't trust Ozpin, mourn her for 1 day and to keep my boy toy around. So looks like you are stuck with me even if you are scared of me."

"No Ruby. Never. I'm a bit shocked obviously but I'm not scared of you nor am I going to leave you."
"How can you not be scared of me when I'm terrified of myself?"
"Because you don't see what I see when I look at you, alright what happened next?"
"We buried her the same day, I took some cookbooks and a 'beginners guide to being a maiden' that Nana had left me and I set off for Patch the same day."
"It's alright Gem. It's ok. I'm not going to tell anyone and I'm certainly not going to leave you. I assume it is transferred via death?"
"Yes. Even a little bit of it is really tiring, It also responds to my emotions so the stress of being here is probably not the best thing ever. I burned away my gloves and evaporated the contents of the bathtub just to release enough magical energy to make sure I didn't quite literally explode."
I conjured up some embers and shaped them into the outline of me and Marrow when we slow danced at my birthday. 
"Well you stay here and cool off a little more whilst I make everyone dinner. Or will your father kill me for that?" 
"He is probably in no shape to do so if anything it is a point in your favour."
"Well then I shall return with some beef and lentil soup and a coffee with appalling amounts of cream and sugar."
I am lucky to have him in my life. Who else would stand by me through such trauma? I could honestly say that I would marry him. I pulled the jacket around me tighter and fell asleep on our bed.

Not as bad as the last chapter but at least Ruby will have Marrow to help her survive the rest of the 2 weeks.
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See you later, love Lizzi