Jaune slept. As dawn broke over the dense, endless forest, he continued to sleep the sleep of one without worries, stirred only slightly by a brief chill in his shoulder. Curling deeper into the covers of his warm, soft bed, he was roused a little more when the chill returned. He was about to drift fully back into the night's dreams when his peaceful rest was shattered by an unearthly screech a few inches away from his ear.

Picking himself up from the spot on the floor where his panicked thrashing had thrown him, Jaune shot an irritated glare into the eyes of the ghostly woman standing on the other side of the bed.

"That was completely uncalled for."

The ghost raised her severed head to chest level, eyes narrowed slightly in a combination of exasperation and amusement. Jaune felt, more than heard, her speak, a slight scratching sensation at the base of his skull and just behind his ears. His mother had told the servants to let him sleep in a bit, but his presence was still expected at the breakfast table. At his leisure.

Which really meant right now, barring hygiene. Still, letting him sleep in was a bit unusual. Probably thanks to his birthday yesterday, but appreciated none the less.

"Right, I'll be down in a bit."

The spirit inclined her head in acknowledgement and backed out the door as Jaune stepped over to the open wardrobe. He peeled off his pajamas (the one-piece was surprisingly comfortable, despite its appearance) and donned a well-cut black shirt and a pair of loose brown pants. He gave himself a quick once-over in the mirror across the room. Tall, slightly lanky, and topped off by an unruly mop of blonde hair that was still in open revolt from being woken up. A few strokes of a brush quelled the worst of the riot and he exited the room looking much more human than he had on waking.

Not for the first time, he cursed whichever of his ancestors had made the castle so damnably inconvenient to navigate (Albert the second if he remembered right). True, the place had originally been built by some long-forgotten kingdom to defend a now-irrelevant trade route, but did that really mean the main dining hall and kitchen had to be clear across the castle from their rooms? The mental assault on his ancestor's character redoubled as he opened a door and stepped out onto the battlements.

Giving a brief nod to the gargoyles on watch, he not-quite ran to the next tower, opening another door and descending the stairs down into one of the castle's smaller libraries. Kicking the door shut behind him, he caught sight of two of the castles few living, and still human, inhabitants. One was a small hunched-back old woman by the name of Friede who looked to be unsuccessfully trying to get his younger sister, Cerise, to read the thick tome in front of her. Cerise, for her part, seemed far more interested in the mug of hot coffee gripped tightly between her hands.

"'Morning" he grunted, more than said.

"Ah, good morning master Jaune!" Friede replied, looking up with a small wave and slight possibly-smile-maybe-grimace.

His sister merely grunted at him in a somewhat friendly, mostly asleep manner. She was never one for mornings.

Flipping a switch dropped a ladder, leading to another door into another corridor. He side-stepped a few more ghostly servants, and stood aside to let a few of the flea-like creatures his family used to tend the gardens pass by, nodding to them as they went. Another switch summoned an elevator, which opened into the courtyard proper, and a brief sprint through the biting cold brought him into the castle foyer, where a quick climb up some stairs delivered him into the castle dining room. His other siblings had already eaten, apparently, and their dishes had been cleared away along with much of what was left of breakfast.

At the head of one of the tables sat his mother, apparently still whittling away at a small portion of eggs and sipping at half-drained glass of a red drink, as she looked over some papers. As he sat at one of the places that hadn't been cleared out, his mother shifted her gaze from the stack to him, her eyes hidden by her mask, but an amused smile still visible where the lower half of it had been torn away.

"Didst thou have a pleasant slumber?" she asked as one of the servants piled some bacon and toast on to Jaune's plate. He grunted an affirmative back to her as he ate.

"And the gift we have imparted to you? Doth it mean thine expectations?"

Jaune nodded. "It is a good blade, though a little awkward to use. The shield throws me off balance, actually, but the blade cuts pretty goo-well." If his mother noticed his slip, she didn't show it.

"It is a different style from the reiterpallasch, but the master of arms assures us it will suit you better. If you wish, your training will be-" WHAM.

Jaune started as the door slammed open, letting in a biting gust of the outside air, and whipped his head around to look at the intruder, his hand darting for a blade that wasn't there. He relaxed somewhat when he saw it was his older sister, Argent, apparently back from whatever hunt their mother had sent her on. He started to call to her, than gaped at her when he realized her normally grey-and-red coat had been splattered in far, far more blood than could conceivably be healthy.

His mother proved far less surprised by the sudden interruption "Argent. You are late."

Argent shrugged, moseying over to the breakfast table and waving one of the servants over "Yeah, well, that little job you gave me took a bit longer than I'd have liked. Those grimm can be-"

"You are also bleeding on our furniture"

Argent blinked. Once. Twice. "Huh? Oh, don't worry it's not mine."

"It is still on our floor. And our chairs."

"Right, right, I'll get changed right after-" Argent froze as the temperature of the room dropped. Jaune did too, for that matter. They couldn't see their mother's face, but some deep instinct told them that their mother was not happy with this turn of events.

"You will return to thine room. Then thou shalt don proper dress, and THEN thou willst return for thine breakfast."

Meekly, Argent bowed and left the room, a good deal more quietly then she had entered. A few awkward minutes passed, Annalise continuing to look over her stack of papers and Jaune poking at the remains of his breakfast, before Argent returned, now dressed in clothes similar to Jaune's-though a keen eye could see where armor and padding had been sewn into them.

"So, uh, what happened?" Jaune asked her as she sat beside him.

"Yeah, so you remember that grimm horde mom got concerned about a few weeks back?" She asked, as she started piling her plate with food.

Jaune nodded. "Yeah, kind of weird they got so close to the castle. Mom-er Mother said you were going to, uh, drive them off?"

Argent nodded, downing a mouthful of wine "Right, so it turns out that grimm are sneaky. Like, weirdly sneaky. Took a few gargoyles, couple of lickers, but by the time we got there they had already cleared out."

She paused to shovel more food into her mouth, ignoring their mother's slight tisking at her table manners "Now, we can't have them thinking they can get so close to the walls and make it out. The older ones, the smarter ones, might figure they could actually do some damage. So-" another swig of diluted wine "We start off after them. Not really that difficult to track since, you know.." she made a sort of waving motion with her hand "Grimm. So we're tracking them for a few days, and it turns out they had doubled back and were heading for the castle again. You know that little pond outside? Bit of a walk from the southern bridge?"

Jaune nodded, "Yeah, where Sam and… uh… that hunter guy she was dating-"

"Yeah, that's the spot. We ran into them there. There was a fight, i mean, but you know how that whole song and dance goes."

Jaune suppressed a sigh. For all that his sister was a good hunter, she always glossed over the interesting parts of her stories.

"And what caused thee to track blood on our seats?" their mother asked from the head of the table.

"Oh that, uh…" Argent rubbed the back of her head, having the good grace to at least appear somewhat sheepish. Not that would help when their mother couldn't exactly see to begin with. "One of the lickers got ambushed by a 'stalker. Literally torn apart and, uh, I was standing next to it. And I was kind of hungry by the time I got back so… my bad?"

Annalise quietly brought her cup to her lips and drank, still radiating disapproval, but slightly less so now. "I see. And the other matter?"

"What other-Oh yeah that. I'm still good for it. We can do it right after this", Argent replied, shoveling the few remains of her breakfast into her mouth and ignoring another tisk from her mother.

Jaune glanced between them, slightly confused "I'm sorry, uh, what other thing?"

Argent looked to her mother for approval. Getting a small nod, she continued "Well, you're seventeen now, you got your first real weapon, but it's still suicide to try hunting without an aura. So, we're going to fix that. Right about now, actually. Grab your coat and follow me."

Jaune did not leap out of his chair in excitement. That would have required both feet to leave the ground. Instead, he briskly got to his feet, calmly and efficiently collected his sword and shield, Crocea Mons, and donned his coat. That he had to wait for his sister to catch up was just a sign of how tired she was from her hunt. The wry smile on his mother's chin was clearly just a sign of pride at his efficiency and was not, in fact, hiding an undignified giggle at her son's enthusiasm. Obviously.

They started off down another series of winding corridors, and, though annoying, they were failing to put any sort of damper on Jaune's mood. A few rooms, a pair of elevators and a flight of stairs later, the three stepped out into one of the castle's subterranean training rooms, a large circular chamber, 20 meters across and carved wholesale from the surrounding rock. As Juane and Argent made their way to the center of the chamber, their mother broke off to sit on one of the low stone benches around the chamber's perimeter.

"So" Argent began, "This is gonna feel a bit weird, since we're not just activating your aura. Our family is a little bit weird, by the standards of the rest of the world, and our rituals work a bit different. Short version is our semblance-"

"Not a lot of aura, we can beat people-or grimm- up to recharge our aura, drink blood for rapid healing, I HAVE been doing my homework, sister," Jaune interrupted.

Argent gave him sheepish smile, a genuine one this time "Just the tradition, you know how it is. Anyways, you'll need to run this over your palm. It'll sting a bit, but we'll fix it right after" she said, pulling the long, thin dirk from its sheath on her hip and handing it to him.

Taking it, he drew a thin, shallow cut across his right palm. Handing it back to his sister, has as somewhat surprised when she did the same.

Argent winced as she drew the blade across her palm. It didn't especially hurt, at least compared to some of the other injuries she'd sustained over her career, but suppressing her aura enough to bleed was still damned uncomfortable. Returning the blade to its sheath, she clasped the hand her brother had cut in her own and grabbed his shoulder with her other hand.

"We were the first and we shall be the last," she began, gathering her aura in both hands.

"For immortality may only be won from blood shed in past." This part was tricky. First she pushed the aura from her left hand into her brother's shoulder.

"Those that once followed may now hold sway," Her eyes narrowed slightly, feeling more than seeing the aura she had released start to shift and change. She had to time this just right.

"but as for us-" Right about...now. She pushed the aura in her right hand out, forcing it from the cut on her hand and into Jaune's.

"-the good blood shall guide our way." Jaune glowed as his body took in the foreign energy, slowly settling, reshaping, and converting it to match his own. As his body slowly acclimatized to its new found power, the glow shifted from a gleaming white light to a pale red glow.

Argent released her grip and brought one hand up to massage her temples. Awakening someone else's aura wasn't difficult, but it was draining and a little disorienting. Her aura tended to get a bit rowdy afterwards, and calming it took a bit of effort and concentration.

"Right, we've gotten the tricky bit out of the way. Let your aura settle a little, and I'll give it a once over to make sure nothing went wrong."

"Do things, uh, go wrong very often?" Jaune asked, still somewhat overawed by the new-found sense of energy coursing through him, though he could tell it was starting to fade even now.

"Not really, and since you're not, you know, screaming, exploding, or writhing on the ground in agony it's probably fine. Better to check either way," She laid her hand on his shoulder again, sending out a brief-and much less potent- pulse of aura. She'd get a return pulse, and that would tell her how large his… Damn. That couldn't be right. Frowning slightly, she waited for the echo to fade and sent another pulse. Apparently that was right. Shit, that was a lot.

After a solid minute of silence, Jaune spoke up "Uh, sis? something wrong?"

"Huh? Oh, no, no not really" she said, withdrawing her hand just a touch too quickly. If Jaune noticed, he didn't react. "You've got some pretty big aura reserves there, actually. Like, even for a normal hunter those are pretty good reserves."

"And that's a good thing… right?" Jaune asked nervously, a look of slight apprehension writ across his feature.

"Yeah, yeah it is." Argent replied, managing to recompose herself "Heck, with that much aura you probably won't even need to worry about leeching it in a fight. Okay, draw your sword, take up a guard position. Right, angle the shield a little bit more. Sword and Board is gonna be a little bit different from what you're used to. You'll have to play things a bit more conservatively.."

Annalise watched as her eldest daughter started to run her only son through the basics of using Crocea Mons. She had been right, the more conservative fighting style suited him, even with his freshly augmented abilities. Those aura levels though…

The Cainhurst bloodline was a potent one, though what those who knew considered to be its main drawback, a miniscule amount of aura relative to any other hunter, was in truth a significant strength. While the rest of the world considered such things as magic or sorcery to be mere legends or tall tales, the Cainhurst hunters made use of a wide variety of charms, trinkets, and weapons that could be considered such, and whose operation were universally impaired by having too much aura.

Her frown deepened. It was such a shame too. Aura, when properly harnessed and trained, could be just as potent of a tool, but since all of her children were more typical of their bloodline there was no one that could train him to use his aura in such a way. Her frown relaxed somewhat. There was no one in Cainhurst that could teach him… but outside the castle, and beyond the lands it guarded?

Cainhurst, and by extension its inhabitants and subjects, was isolated, true, but that didn't mean she was without contacts in the outside world. Several of those contacts were highly placed, influential even. A letter would take time to reach them, true, and while it was unusual for a Cainhurst to train at one of the academies it wasn't unprecedented. True, she would likely need to trade some of her favors, and possibly part with some artefacts, but that was what they were there for. Either way, a polite request would cost her nothing.

/\/\/\/\

Ozpin sat at his desk, ignoring the veritable mountain of paperwork Glynda had piled atop it. It needed doing for the upcoming semester, but the letter that had arrived in his personal correspondence, on parchment paper no less, held his interest more. Idly, he thumbed the wax seal in the bottom corner, lost in thought. He'd made more mistakes in his life than he could count, but to this day he could never decide if letting that forsaken castle stand was one of them. Or if it was an investment that just hadn't paid off yet.

The request was intriguing, of course. Cainhurst was something of a rarity in the wilds of remnant, an isolated border outpost that nevertheless managed to produce hunters worthy of the title, but they were also notoriously close-lipped about their methods and techniques and rarely communicated with the outside world. To send any of their line out to study at an actual academy was unusual. He doubted it was truly unprecedented, but he couldn't remember the last time it had happened.

She wasn't asking him to accept her son out of the goodness of his heart, either. Cutting out the fluff, and reading between the lines showed she was willing to offer a fairly hefty not-quite-a-bribe. While he was sure Doctor Oobleck would be more than happy to examine the "curiosities" she'd mentioned, her other offer seemed more enticing, if risky.

Under normal circumstances, he would have simply waved off her concerns about security. Beacon was a hunter's academy after all, and only a fool would try anything untoward, but this last year had been troubling. Something was on the move, in the wild and untamed parts of remnant, and while he had his suspicions to the cause he had little ability to directly counter their maneuvers.

His thoughts drifted to the young girl, locked in a stasis case beneath the tower. That situation could be resolved, one way or another, within the year, but the truth was the only real security they had regarding the maiden was secrecy. If James' suspicions about the halves of that power attracting one another were correct, what little security that provided was severely compromised.

Coming to a decision, he dialed Glynda's scroll. She picked up after only a few rings.

"Headmaster?"

"Glynda, regarding this year's admissions, I'm going to need 3 more students."

"Three more?" her confusion was palpable for a few seconds "Please don't tell me-"

"Circumstances require me to accept one more. Teams must consist of four students, so unless you'd like to retract another student's acceptance…"

"No, no." Her sigh was a mixture of frustration and exasperation.

"I can approve one more, maybe two in good conscience, but there's a reason we reject the bulk-" She paused, Ozpin could hear the light pops of gunfire through the speaker. "I may need to call you back."

"Glynda?"

"There's a fight going on a few blocks from here, looks like a robbery"

"Where?"

"The Store is called 'Dust till Dawn', It looks like a student is trying to fight them off. I'll call you back" the connection closed with a light click.

Ozpin leaned back in his seat. As much as he hated to admit it, Glynda was right. Most of the candidates that were rejected were so for good reason. Of course, there were always the borderline cases, but they were remarkably few this year. He wasn't about to turn the young man away, but if Glynda could only get two…

He paused, turned to his computer, and called up a map. Dust till Dawn, that was near signal wasn't it? Qrow's niece was a student there if he recalled, and Glynda had mentioned a student fighting… The odds of it were unlikely, but if the apple hadn't fallen far from the tree, she would be an exceptionally skilled fighter.

Still, there was no way Glynda would let him get away with it.