Akashic

Chapter 121 - The Garden

"Nine minutes and fifty six seconds… you're getting slower" Jacques said the moment Weiss entered his study, Arthur having taken a seat on one of the various chairs placed within the overly large hallways of the manor.

"I apologize, father" Weiss bowed her head to her father, uncomfortable that Arthur isn't near her her hands twitch as she played with her fingers.

"You seem nervous" Jacques voice was uncaring only doing the least possible to seem like he cared for her.

"I apologize, father" She said, taking small nervous steps towards Jacques desk as he swirl a glass of whisky on the rocks, the sound of the ice and Weiss's heels tapping on the ground.

"Do explain why you are wearing you're nightgown" Jacques took a sip from his glass.

"I apologize, father, I didn't have enough time to put on a proper dress and I did not want to leave you waiting" She explained

"Hmm…" Jacques seemed unconvinced, "Nevermind that" he said as he move onto the main topic of why he wanted to speak with Weiss. "You are still to perform during the ball" he said, uncaring to the horrors Weiss had gone through not even two days ago.

Weiss froze, her nervousness having disappeared as she heard her father's words, "What?"

"You heard me Weiss, I will not repeat myself" His words irritated by Weiss's shock.

"You can't be serious!" She shouted, "I just went through hell! I watched people die! I was nearly r.a.p.ed! And you want me to perform not even three days from now!?" She slammed her hands down onto his desk, staring directly into Jacques uncaring eyes.

"Yes, you are the Heiress, and you cancelling would just drag the Schnee name through the mud. But you showing up on stage singing would show you're confidence, you're strength, and most importantly that not even something as petty as r_pe can affect a Schnee" He 'reasoned', whilst being completely unreasonable

"You! YOU!" Weiss began to scream her voice raising yet unable to finish what she wanted to say as she grit her teeth, her nails digging into her palms as she clenched her fist's tight.

"That is all, you may leave" Jacques didn't care to her her confirmation as he pulled out a holoscreen and activated it, opening it up onto a screen with four smaller black screens on it each with 'no signal' in the centre of them. Looking back to Weiss Jacques disregarded her anger, "Did you not hear me? Leave" he growled.

"Fine… I'll do it…" She forced her words through her teeth quickly turning around and quickly walking towards the door, not wanting to remain near this man any longer.

"Oh, and Weiss" She froze just as her hand touched the handle, "That boy, Arthur, be very careful around him, I have gotten reports of the vile ways he has murdered those people, he is a dangerous man" that was the most fatherly thing she had ever heard come out of the man behind her, didn't help that it was a lie, Arthur would never willingly harm Weiss, and she knew that.

Weiss didn't respond as she pushed the door open and slowly closed it behind her, knowing that if she slammed it, it would only anger Jacques.

"Weiss?" Arthur's voice was worried for Weiss, he had heard her screaming, even if it was only just for a second. Arthur immediately getting up and quickly following behind her as she walked away when he saw tears streaming down her cheeks once again.

"Please… Please just… just take me to my room" her voice sounding more like whimpers as she cried.

"Okay Weiss, I'm here for you" he said and quickly arrived at her side, holding his hand out to her, hoping she would take it just to feel he was still there.

Weiss froze for a second before continuing to walk, her hand raising to grasp Arthur's hand, hopping that it would also help calm her, though as she kept walking she just couldn't calm down, as they arrived at her room Weiss opened the door and quickly released Arthur's hand as she ran to her bed and fell over it, crying into her arms.

Her room was large, much larger than anything at beacon, with two large windows one at the back of the room and another to the right of the door, next to a indent in the floor where two chairs sat next to a fireplace which had a silver and gold mirror hanging above it.

At the back of the room there were also two large bookshelves and a white wood desk under one of them where Weiss could read or work.

Her bed was also large, slightly bigger than even Arthur's it was a princess bed in design with sheer white fabric making the curtains. Next to the bed a vanity which also had her case for Myrtenastr atop it, it having been returned to Weiss after Winter had found it during their search of the compound.

Arthur quickly followed behind Weiss, taking a seat on her bed next to her, his hand gently stroking her back as she lay there crying, letting her get it out of her system. Slowly her crying began to slow and come to a stop as she rested her head on her arms.

"You want to talk about it?" he gently asked her, helping her sit up.

"He… he still wants me to perform during the ball" She softly said, "He doesn't even care that I was nearly r.a.p.ed, he wants to use the horrors I went through as a publicity stunt for the family name" her voice filled with sorrow and anger.

"He didn't even bother to ask how I was or even if I needed anything, the first thing he says…" tears continued to trickle down her cheeks as she stuttered, "The first thing he say to me when I enter his study is, 'you're getting slower'. He even asked me why I was wearing my nightgown. I barely got any time to put on this, let alone a dress"

"He even called me nearly getting r.a.p.ed, petty, r_pe is petty to him!" she screamed, Arthur quickly grabbing the back of her head letting her cry into his shoulder, giving the side of her head a kiss as he gently rocked her.

"You don't have to do this Weiss, you don't have to listen to him" Arthur whispered to her.

Weiss, gripped onto his shirt, "No…" she whimpered, "I do, he's right, the family name is too important… I, I can't just drag it through the mud because I am scared" she said her voice weak as she began to feel the exhaustion that hadn't left her after the last two days hit her like a freight train.

"You're wrong Weiss, this name is the least important thing about you" Arthur muttered, his words going unheard by Weiss as she began to slowly snore on his shoulder.

Arthur weakly smiled and gently laid Weiss down on the bed, placing her on the opposite side so he could pull the blanket up and place her under it. His tome appearing next to him from which he pulled out a incense stick one of his four calming incense stick that he has, having only used it in the past when Yang went on her rampage in an attempt to kill him after Ruby became his Sperata.

Only to realize he had no way of lighting it, sighing Arthur stood up, giving Weiss one last look before turning away and leaving her room. "Ah, sir Arthur, may I ask how the madam is doing? She looked to have been crying when I saw you two pass by earlier" Klein asked walking up to him, worry evident in his expression.

"She's sleeping, Jacques is making her do something unreasonable…" He explained, "You wouldn't happen to have a lighter on you, would you?" he asked.

"Ah, I do indeed" Klein pulled out a small blue mechanicle lighter from his b.r.e.a.s.t pocket, "I always carry one in case a guest requires, I never took you for the smoking type, sir" he added.

"I'm don't, it's for an incense stick, it helps to calm the nerves, I want Weiss to at least have a good sleep after what happened, and this should help her sleep peacefully" he said raising the purple incense stick infront of himself as Klein gave him a nod and smile as he lit the tip of it.

"Thanks" Arthur quickly returned to the room and placed the stick into the ashes that were in the fireplace, before walking to Weiss and stroking a strand of hair over her ear, "You're okay, Weiss, Jacques time is coming, I will make sure of it" his hair and eyes flashed to black and remained like that even as he left the room.

"Sir?" Klein asked, curious at Arthur's sudden change in appearance and demeanour.

"Klein, is there anywhere quite here? I really don't feel like being disturbed for awhile" he requested.

Klein was concerned but opted to not ask, "You may try the garden, the gardener is currently busy with his wife's pregnancy and is away, the only other person there is the mistress… but she will not bother you" His voice saddening as he spoke of Weiss's mother.

"Can you take me there?"

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The garden was large and overlooked the floating city of Atlas, pathways running through the many different bushes and flower fields, each individual plant cared for meticulously and all strangely in bloom, even in this frigid weather. Even some rose bushes which he had never expected to still be capable of blooming in this weather.

But, Arthur had no interest in appreciating the various flowers as he walked through the garden, looking for somewhere to clear his mind and calm himself, eventually coming across a small grove of various trees, through which a path entered into the grove the trees all overhanging it letting the sun shine through the leafs creating quite a beautiful sight.

Walking down this path Arthur could hear the sound of the wind creating waves through the leaves causing snow to fall from the leaves creating a rain of glistening snow making the sight even more magical.

He soon came across a circular area where there were no more trees left creating a semi circular section as the grove ended at the edge of the mesa, at the centre of this small section a single large willow tree stood except it had an unusual silvery white colouration to it's leaves, or what remained of them as they were sparsely packed on tree looking sickly and on the verge of dying in a few more years of months.

A small pathway created a circle around the tree leading to another circular section behind it, but Arthur didn't care as he stepped off the pathway and walked to the sorrow full tree, his hand raising and gently stroking it's rough bark as he stared up into its dying limbs.

"Poor thing" Arthur muttered, his hair and eyes having remained black the entire time he wandered though the garden. As he was listening to the sound of the Willow's scarce leaves rustling in the wind he heard another sound, a 'Pop!' like that of opening a new bottle of wine, soon followed by the gluging of the wine entering a glass.

Walking around the tree Arthur kept his hand on it's trunk as he skirted around it, stopping when he saw the origin of the sounds, that being a woman, with white hair tied in a bun with two thin locks of hair on either side of her face, her eyes a deep, sad blue, her skin as pale as Weiss's was, under her eyes were wrinkles making her look tired.

Her expression that of unending sadness. She wore a white blouse like that Winter wore that revealed the outside part of her arms, up to her elbows. On top of this she wore a dark blue vest with s sturdy collar and small silver buttons running up either side of the centre of the vest, separating midway up her bust as the vest opened up revealing a red brooch on top of her blouse. And on her lower body she wore long dark blue pants. And dark grey mid-high heels.

Her expression didn't seem to change when she saw Arthur, instead her hand freezing before she put the glass of wine to her lips. Slowly returning the glass to the table next to her she pulled another from the case next to her which was next to a cooler filled with various alcoholic beverages being cooled as well as another box filled with the drinks that didn't need to be cooled.

Placing the glass on the table she picked up the opened wine bottle and poured in the scarlet red wine into it, filling it halfway up the glass before returning the bottle to the cooler and picking up her glass and taking a sip from the glass, returning to silently watching the willow tree.

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Alternate Chapter names: [A father's uncaring] [Willow]

Words: 2,408

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Polls

Next World (Runs until the end of the RWBY storyline)

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New Harem Poll as of chapter 121, the previous one is finished.

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If you do not see the character you would like please check out Akashic: the Tome chapter 2, it is linked in the synapsis on both and Royalroad.

If the character you would like is not on this list, and the poll, please comment it.

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