Salem was enraged, her posture was enough to easily understand that. Hunched forward with her shoulders and arms rolled to the sides like how a Beowulf stands right before it would lunge.

The stance was intimidating as it had never been before, a Beowulf in the same posture was dead and it didn't even know it, even a novice Huntsman knew that in seconds the beast would leap from the ground and be unable to correct its trajectory and unless other unknown factors weren't present the beast's neck would be separated or its skull pierced by bullet or crushed under some heavy blow.

With Salem however the beast in question could use who knew how many abilities to alter her path or simply use her curse to eat the strike, both options would be leaving him in a worse situation than he already was and he knew it.

A noise from behind him made him flinch as a crashing sound of a bush being torn to shreds and a low guttural roar that could belong to any number of Grimm. Heavy erratic footfalls gave away a Beringal though as Jaune forced his attention away from the stationary and looming Salem to contend with the Grimm. He did wait to what felt like the last moment, the off-rhythm footfalls of the Beringal making it difficult to time but he turned eventually with Corcea Mors immediately finding the exposed underside of the Grimms neck on a downward path.

The blow was lucky, to the extreme, the creature's own weight and momentum driving his blade deeper than he could have on his own and killing it in seconds.

Seconds that he didn't have as he felt the cold chill of an alien hand grasp the back of his neck. His feet left the ground and his skull found it as the hand on his neck forced him forward to quickly to react, his aura not even coming up in time as the rough ground dug into his face before he found himself airborne for a second and the grip on his neck vanishing only for his body to roll and the weight of the hand reappear in the center of his chest.

His mind reeled at the quick and abrupt attacks, his aura playing triage now rather than preventative actions as he swelled what little he still could to brace his back and neck, protecting his spine from a potential life-threatening break as the hand on his chest shoved downward with unmatched strength.

His final action saved his life, he collided with the ground the blow softened by the last vestiges of Aura before he felt it shatter around him as the wind was driven from his lungs and on reflex he gasped for air, his body struggling vainly, trying to remember how to breathe.

The hand never left his chest, enough weight was placed on it that even when he managed to find a gasp of air only the faintest traces seemed to fill his lungs but it was enough for his mind to calm it from the panic of asphyxiation.

A hand tore at his left arm, his heavy armguard being jerked hard before being torn from its strappings. He gritted his teeth in pain as both his elbow and shoulder felt like they were being ripped apart.

He brought up his sword arm aiming blindly but also where a human target should have been and imagined his blade piercing soft flesh, sadly his imagination didn't meet reality as his fist did raise and strike true his hand was empty, his mind to scattered and concussed he did not realize the blade had slipped from his grip sometime during the fight.

"Still some fight in you?" The voice that could only be Salem's seemed surprised.

Talking was good, it meant she wasn't simply going to kill him, he hoped anyway. He parted his lips to try and say something but all that came forth was a long long groan, interspaced with some gentle coughing that told him he probably had a couple of broken ribs.

"You are quite young, though not young enough to be Ozma's future host." Salem must be speaking to herself, trying to figure out his connection to Ozma. "You are quite skilled, trained, and fit enough that had Ozma passed a few years ago you would no doubt have been a prime candidate for his soul, lucky you."

He couldn't help himself, a chuckle of amusement escaped his lips before it turned into, thankfully, a softer cough and then another groan of pain as he finally opened his eye's, or eye he guessed, the socket didn't feel empty but only his right eye would open. "Ozma would have been hard-pressed to find a like mind within my soul."

"Amusing, you know of his curse and came to his rescue and you think your soul would have been spared from his possession, naive barely touches upon your mind." Jaune watched as Salem smiled at her own words, confident that she was correct.

"Heh, I suppose if one lived as long as the two of you each would assume their assumptions were always the correct ones, and personally I can't fault you for that mindset, it's intoxicating when you are right so terribly often." Speaking so much hurt, but his words were his only weapon left to him and he had to use them as best he could.

"I do not care for those who lie, even bluffing in the face of death to simply be contrarian is unbecoming of any creature and strips them of their usefulness." Salem's face flinched slightly and the hand on his chest exerted more pressure.

A pained gasp was swallowed as his open eye peered up at Salem as his mind formed and discarded options available to him, with a grit of his teeth he knew that his only option was the Relic. Through gritted teeth, as the pressure grew greater he uttered a few simple words. "I know the password." The pressure didn't stop but the slow increase that was killing him ceased. "Release me, allow me a question, and the password is yours!"

Salem hoove into view in front of his one open eye, peering into it looking for deception, the fear of death making him think of any way to plead for a few more terrible seconds of life.

He did not waver, he kept his eye locked on Salem's, even as she tested him with a sudden application of pressure he refused to flinch, to close his eye or look away, doing so meant almost certain death.

"Simply sparing your life should suffice." Her eye's never left his.

"My life and one question, though you can ask the question for me." His eye never wavered and his jaw clenched. "That is my only offer!"

A pregnant pause filled the space, two eyes locked on one, he could see the mind behind it working over some problem before gradually, without breaking eye contact there was the faintest nod of her head.

"Fine, what is one life and a question, deal. Now, what is the password?"

"Place your hand on the ring on the Relic." The relic appeared from behind her hips, and swung into view, it was tempting to shift his attention to it but he kept his eye firmly on Salem as her's hand never left his. "My question is this. 'Is this all that was necessary for him to do?'" He could read through her expression that his question confused her but she nodded. His arm reached up, slowly as to not look like he was attempting something, his fingertips nearly brushing the ring before he uttered the name. "Jinn" before quickly squeezing his fist closed before the name was repeated by Salem.

/~~~~~~/

The pain that had been coursing through his form halted all at once as a trail of blue vaporous smoke billowed forth from the Relic of Knowledge, his sole eye tracking the leading edge of the trail as while the pain vanished the damage to his body didn't and his other eye remained swollen shut as well as his left arm hanging limp at his side.

Gradually the vapor coalesced into the form he recognized as Jinn, no change to her appearance, no two beings staring at each other awkwardly simply a single unmarred Jinn.

"So, Salem has finally wrested me away from her husband," Jinn spoke as she floated toward him, or not as with a passing glance she veered slightly to float only inches away from the figure at his side. "You know, having all the knowledge of everything that has occurred doesn't quite do justice to your appearance Salem, I expected something a bit more regal and overbearing, not mud strewn and covered in rags." A barely visible smirk traced her lips.

If the slight jib on Salem's behalf affected her it was impossible to tell as her appearance remained the same, though her expression did not as a black hand wrenched the lamp from his hand as another came around grasping for his neck. Claw-like nails outstretched violently attempting to end his life. The attack would have been a success as well, he had nothing left to stop the strike and if he was being honest he was caught off guard at the moment.

The blow as quick and violent as it was never landed as the hand was stopped by another, Jinn's blue hand wrapped around Salem's wrist and effortlessly stopped it. "None of that now Salem." Jinn's eye's glinted as they narrowed at Salem. "Even if you had not struck a deal just moments before summoning me I don't allow for killing in my space."

Angry and accusing eyes bore into him, Salem's expression speaking for itself that he knew this would happen and had played her. Of course, that was entirely untrue as he had no idea of either such rule but she wouldn't know that and she was too angry to accept any such truth that didn't align with her current state of mind.

Simply ignoring Salem was in his best interests as he stepped away from her, far enough that while he couldn't say he was safe he at least had some breathing room.

Once he stopped Jinn let free Salem's arm and leaned back into a floating sitting position, relaxed and uncaring. "Now as for your question Jaune, I won't bother making Salem ask per your arrangement, as I know she will be stubborn about it and try to game the conditions." A smile crossed her lips. "Asking his question a hundred years from now to fulfill the conditions after his natural death is in poor taste and unbecoming of a Queen, wouldn't you say."

The question hung in the air, Jaune felt like either he of Salem could have answered but neither of them seemed sure and choose to remain silent.

A chuckle escaped Jinn as she rolled in the air, bringing both palm's beneath her chin and floating toward Jaune. "As for your question Jaune, the answer is simply yes, it is really that simple."

Before Jaune could react he felt the pain return as he gasped for air. Beside him stood Salem, frozen in place and staring off mindlessly. "Well, that answers my question on how the hell I'm supposed to survive this." He had no idea how much time Jinn was going to give him but considering her domain is Knowledge and she knew everything that happens as it's happening he figured he would be safe for as much time as he needed.

He spent a few moments searching for Crocea Mors, strapping it to his hip as best he could and the same with the remains of his armguard and scabbard, as mangled as they both were they were still decades more advanced than anything right now and he refused to leave them behind if he could help it even in their destroyed states.

Finally ready to leave he took a stick and in the dirt before Salem he leaned down and wrote out a string of words, hopefully, she would read them and hopefully remember them.

With one last look, he turned and pushed into the underbrush, heading north away from Haven and Mistral and deeper into the wilderness.

/~~~~~~~/

Hour's later an arm lashed through the air on reflex, Salem expecting the limb to feel the warm blood of her victim to be dripping from it. There was no warm blood though, only the cool air to greet her.

An angry snarl curled on her lips for a moment, the robbery of a death angered her but only for a moment, she still had in her possession the Relic of Knowledge and that at least for the moment allowed her to alter her temperament.

The Relic had used its power to allow the man to escape, making an agreement while present with the Relic appears to come with a certain amount of protection, a clever ploy, or sheer luck, either way, the man had no doubt used the time given by Jinn to make his escape.

The roar of an engine far overhead drew her mind from its musings and her eye's toward its destination. A mountain engulfed in flames and with her magic enhancing her senses she could pick out sounds of fighting even at a distance, Ozma's Huntsmen still fought her Grimm in a desperate battle to save one of his Academies.

She turned away from the flames and combat, she had no interest in finishing the fight, she had already secured her objective and had one of her questions answered, the destruction of one academy and maybe the potential death of Ozma's current host, today was a win. Heading east she moved toward the nearest coast that would take her back to her Grimmlands and allow her time to ponder her next two questions.

As she moved her mind remembered the word's roughly etched in the ground and while her anger towards the writer still being present she couldn't not smile thinking about the short message.

/~~~~~~~~/

Time after the fall of Haven passed rapidly with day flowing into weeks and then months, three to be exact as Jaune flipped through articles on his Scroll.

A new one was bought with his private funds after needing to discard his Beacon-issued one. Flipping through his Scroll he read all manner of headlines, there was still strong discussions pertaining to Haven, the Academies fall to flames being slowly reframed from a successful Grimm attack to weaken humanity to instead being the fire was an accident that once discovered caused panic that then called forth the Grimm.

Jaune had to admit it was a clever method of rewriting the events of that day, the fire being an accident reduced a great deal of fear from the general populace of not only the Mistralian people but of all the kingdoms. Ozpin having the school cleared of almost all staff and students ahead of time added credence that the fire could have been caused by something as simple as an electrical fire in one of the dorms. Some of the civilian staff panics, the fire grows, panic increases and it just spirals in size and scope, Grimm comes making dealing with the fire harder that grows out of control more Grimm come until eventually, it looks like the School was destroyed by the Grimm.

After three months the new official story is accepted as the truth and while the Haven academy is gone the staff and students were not and already after the remains of the School are being cleared away the news sites of the world were discussing the rebuilding of the academy with new construction methods and materials to hopefully never repeat such an embarrassing incident again.

Jaune smiled at the less prominent headlines of both Shade and Beacon being looked at and brought up to building code as well as both Schools date back quite some time as well while the Atlas Academy so far has avoided such scrutiny as that Academy was State of the art and barely a decade old after its most recent remodel.

After that there were articles regarding the memorial for the deceased Theodore Lionheart of Haven, his body couldn't be found but it had been three months and the Kingdom of Mistral wanted to honor the man. Jaune personally doubted the man's death, with Cinder and Tyrian being out of the picture and the success of what happened at Haven he expected the cowardly man to be alive and with Salem, though what role he might fill for her organization he had no real idea.

Once past the top articles the news divested into more local topics that held little interest to Jaune so he set aside the Scroll and picked up a small trigger mechanism and a tiny pair of needlenose pliers and refocused his attention on his armguard, taking several painstaking minutes to place and align the trigger properly before carefully bolting it in place and sautering together the electrical connections.

The work was tiresome but the three months of work was almost complete as his armguard sat before him on the workbench finally fully restored and his scabbard likewise restored some days beforehand, all that's missing is Celica Mors.

More minutes were spent reassembling his armguard and putting his outfit together before leaving his hotel room in Argus.

Looking toward his Scroll he looked at the most recent messages two from Roman and one from Yang.

Roman 1:

No word from any of my connections in Mistral about the Branwen Tribe, they haven't hit any village in the past two months.

That message was a month old now and gave him little to go on, however, there was a newer message, only a day old now.

Roman 2:

Some chatter from the Spiders, more than a few men are known to be affiliated with the Branwen Tribe has moved into Mistral proper and set up shop, the word is the boss lady has been missing for close to three months and also a week ago their camp was attacked by Grimm, big ones, barely anyone get out.

The second message had been somewhat helpful, he knew Raven didn't go back to the tribe and that Salem decided to punish Raven from finally choosing a Side, still it did little to inform him on what his next move should be, so he decided to forward what little information he received from Roman to Yang, to at least get a fresh mind on the subject.

Yang had been helpful, the fellow Blonde understood where Jaune was and why he couldn't come back, easily keeping his secret and feeding him information from Beacon, sadly most of it being nonsense about teams and how his own was in rough shape. He had sent Yang replies to those to try and keep his time functioning in his absence for Weiss and Sun's sake but it did seem like without him present things weren't going well, it was a shame but there was little he could do.

As he silently lamented about abandoning his team he reread Yang's last response.

Yang 1:

Tai has been suspicious recently, not only has he kept Ruby and Me from visiting Patch when time would allow, something that he would normally never do, I would bet my right arm Raven's on Patch.

It meant a long journey and being dangerously close to Ozpin now that the man would be frighteningly paranoid about who he was but he had little choice, he was set on a path, though Yang still has not given him an answer he was now forced to collect the Relic's now simply to preserve a peaceful life, and for that, he needed to find some allies.

So whether he thought this was a good idea or not, he was headed to Patch.

A/N: I'm alive and doing fine-ish. Health wise I'm the honest to goodness best I've been in close to a decade. The problem I posted about oh so long ago in my last update sort of kick started my mind into taking better care of myself.

I've dropped a considerable amount of weight- well not really, I'm still almost exactly the same weight but I have dropped 5 belt loops and and starting to show some actual muscle definition.

But now that the good news is out of the way it's time for some honesty, I am struggling to find time to actually sit down and write, though that's probably pretty obvious with the MASSIVE spans of time between updates. So yeah, sorry about that.

I honestly do love to write and I do find myself thinking of the four stories I have here fairly frequently, so please don't think they are forgotten just bear with me as I try to find time to invest in these stories and write them to the calibre I want.

Oh, and before I forget, as always, lemme know what you think, even if its to tell me my grammar sucks.