An Absence in the Soul

[Ruby Rose]

Weiss's hand went cold.  Very cold.  Ice cold.  As cold as cold can get.  With wide eyes I spun on the heels of my boots to peer at my partner - or what was left of her.  Her body was slowly disintegrating, coiling into Omnillium in the air, like a cloud of rainbow essence. "Weiss!!" I squealed with a frightened redness crossing my cheeks as my only remnant of my old world left me before my eyes. "Where are you going?! Don't leave me!!" I screamed, throwing my arms around her body as her shoulders began to unravel into the fabric of the Omniverse, but the sudden force only accelerated the process; the upper half of her torso shattered into extravagantly colored shards of glass, disappearing into the world like the rest of her. "Stop! Give Weiss back!" I cried, tears streaming down my cheeks like waterfalls, mixing in with the ether Weiss's body was becoming - or had become. Before I could even register it, nothing was left of the ivory huntress. Nothing but a silver, crown-shaped hair pin.

"DAMN IT! DAMN IT ALL!!" I screamed, uncaring for the terrified onlookers, gazing at me with incredulous, pitiful and exasperated expressions.

"Who is that weird girl?"


"Aww, poor dear..."

"Someone's got 'er knickers in a knot..."

Clenching a fist around the hair pin and wiping my cascading tears on my ebony sleeve, I dashed from the restaurant, the spiked object drawing crimson liquid from my palm, flowing across the glassy surface. "Weiss... Weiss... Weiss..." I continued to sob her name as I ran from the building, the soft earth shifting beneath my feet with each panicked step until-

Thud

"Woah kid, what's the rush?"

I crashed into a solid body and was sent skittering onto my backside from the recoil, looking up through watery eyes at a head of greenish-gold hair, hanging down in heavy, neat locks. I wiped my eyes once more and gawked at the person who had interrupted me; it was a woman, likely no more than thirty, one hand on her hip and the other reaching out to help me up. "Got ants in your pants or somethin'?" She asked as I tightly gripped her delicate hand and let her haul me to my feet.

"My friend... she's gone..." I sobbed, looking down into the snow, clenching the pin tight. "What? Gone? You mean dead?" The woman asked, tilting her head in a confused manner. I shook my head in a fashion that meant neither yes or no. "I don't know... I don't know!!" I cried and crouched suddenly, crying wildly once more with my head between my knees.

I squeaked as I felt a pair of arms lift me from the ground, one under my knees, the other behind my head. "Shushushush... I'll help you. Just calm down, let me take you home." She whispered soothingly, and I dug my face into her black trench coat, tears soaking into the midnight material. "Can you tell me your name?" She asked sweetly.


"R-Ruby..."

"How old are you?"

That question took me a moment to answer. How long had I been in the Omniverse? I was fifteen before I came here, and my birthday hadn't been very far away, so...

"Sixteen... I think..." I sighed into the woman's coat, feeling my tears starting to fade. "Good girl." She crooned, gently stroking the back of my head. "My name's Wynrel. Pleasure to meet you Ruby." She whispered, and I nodded weakly into her chest.

[Ruby Rose]

I squeaked and yawned as my eyes peeled open to a flickering orange light; candelight sprayed across the rugged walls around me, and I rolled around in the hard yet somewhat comfortable bed I had been laid in. Where was I? What happened? I rolled back over and looked up at the ceiling above me; it was rocky and ramshackle, with wooden squares patching some sections of the roof. My mind wandered to the events that I could recall from before I blacked out... Weiss disappearing, me running away from the restaurant... Wynrel.

"Wynrel!" I squeaked and swung my legs out of bed, attempting to get up, when all of a sudden something hard and pointy pressed against my forehead and pushed me straight back down to the bed. "Morning kiddo." A female voice greeted me, and I craned my neck upwards to see the woman from before, still in her sleeveless black coat, now opened to reveal thin plated body armour. Her pointy ears twitched as she smiled at me and tilted her head in an adoring manner. "Sleep well? You were out for just over half a day. Your friend's givin' you a lot of trouble, hey?" She asked and I puffed out my cheeks and nodded; such a long sleep had really cleared my mind. I was still upset and very angry with this stupid world... but at least I had the state of mind to think about my current situation and about finding Weiss.

"Get your little butt back in bed, I'll bring you some breakfast." She ordered and I nodded, crawling back under the covers.  It was then that I realized it wasn't the bed that was comfortable; the blanket was so snuggly, I hardly noticed the rock hard mattress underneath me.  I dove under the covers up to my nose, peering anxiously at the door as I waited for Wynrel to return.

The woman returned with a large, circular tray in hand laden with a pair of steaming mugs and a bowl from which a fruity scent wafted down to my exposed nose, and I pushed the covers down excitedly and sat back up, slinging my legs over the edge of the bed, watching Wynrel set the tray on the stone table beside the head of my bed.  She picked up one of the mugs with the wispy whiteness flickering out of the top and shoved it into my tiny waiting palms. "Try it." She told me with a soft smile and seated herself with a stool beneath my bed.

My silver eyes flicked down to the purple-hued liquid sloshing inside the rough-edged cup. Refraining from grimacing at the uneasy feeling that sank to my gut from the strangely-coloured beverage, I cautiously brought the mug to my lips and sipped. My eyes went wide. It was comfortably warm, not hot like the steam would suggest, and carried the smoothness of cream. It had a strong, watermelon-like taste, and left a lingering milky flavour. "Woah... what is this?" I asked in a minuscule, awed tone.

"I call it Starlight. The recipe's my own little secret, but I might share it with you if I'm feeling generous." Wynrel explained with a wink and began to sip on her own. "It's amazing..." I mused to no one in particular before knocking back a whole mouthful and, before long, the entire cup. With a toothy, amused grin Wynrel handed me the bowl and a spoon; it was piled with an assortment of what seemed like berries in a range of curious colours. Who had ever seen green or yellow berries before? A syrup of some kind coated the berries, carrying a minty smell, and I dug in, piling a few different berries onto the spoon and into my mouth.

The berries held flavours I couldn't begin to explain. A lemony tang, but pasty and mild like butter, a kick of what tasted like cinnamon but trailed off into a strawberry tang, and the simple minty taste of the syrup meandering between the flavours. I didn't make a single sound as I devoured the contents of the bowl, and eventually sat staring at a clean stone dish. "Good huh? A salad made from a collection of berries in these parts of the Deeps." She explained once more, and I nodded. "Feeling better?"


I had to think about that for a moment. The lingering guilt and pain of losing Weiss still sat like a cold stone in my stomach... but the 'breakfast' Wynrel had brought me lifted the pain from within me and put it in the back of my mind. "The minty syrup I used in the Starlight and the berry salad has calming and cleansing properties." She told me, and I looked up with an incredulous expression. "Now," Wynrel took my bowl and set it back on the tray with our mugs, "tell me about what happened. No more tears this time, let's talk about it like adults."

[Ruby Rose]

"So, your friend all of a sudden disappeared into Omnillium and was whisked off to Omni-knows-where while you were effectively on a date?" Wynrel asked me and a crimson blush spread from the corners of my lips all the way to my ears. "Y-yeah." Was my only response. I couldn't lie; it was a date, we both knew it, but it wasn't exactly something I was... comfortable having others know, at least not yet. "Mm, that is a problem... I understand your pain. I lost someone to the Omniverse. Long ago." Wynrel added sympathetically, turning her head to glance at the cracked glass of a picture frame containing a picture of a young boy with blond hair and long ears, much like Wynrel. "My brother. I haven't stopped looking for him since; this is only one of many makeshift homes I have built among the Verses... I'm starting to think he's really gone though..." She trailed off and I reached out to grab her hand firmly, smiling hopefully up at her. "Don't give up hope, Wynrel. He's gotta be around, I know it! We can't die, right? So..." I began to reassure her, but with a simper Wynrel took her hand back and shook her head.

"Ruby... we're not all immortal here. Some of us are created my Primes like yourself, those who are immortal and have control over Omnillium... we are called Secondaries." Wynrel began to explained, her glazed eyes locking onto mine. "We don't have the same power that you all do. Not the Omnillium, not the immortality... none of that. We're just like you would be back in your world." She breathed out, her voice cracking a little. "My mother was a Secondary, created long, long ago, and gave birth to us two. A bandit in the Steppes took her from us, and I've been on the run protecting my brother ever since... and now he's been taken from me too." She half-stated, half-sobbed, small tears beginning to form in the corners of her eyes.

"Oh..." I sighed, looking down at my tiny little fists in my lap. I didn't know that was a part of the Omniverse... that there were actually beings that could die. I just assumed everything lived forever, even the things we created... like Zwei. "Oh!" I cried, before jumping off the bed, dropping to my knees on the dusty, cold rock floor. "Hm? What is it Ruby?" Wynrel asked, wiping her sleeve across her eyes to dry them, and I shut my eyes, extending my hands forward and focusing everything on the rainbow essence that made up my body. I imagined the aqueous substance flowing from my finger tips, weaving into the shape of a dog... it came easier this time, since I'd already done it once. The flashes of light pierced my eyelids, every different color visible to me even as I scrunched my eyes shut in concentration.

And the lights stopped.

My eyes flicked open, not a moment before my face was attacked by the wet tongue of a small animal, and I fell on my back, coughing and spluttering from the dog's continued his lingual onslaught. "Blaghhhhh, Zweiiii! Stahp it!" I squealed and rolled the corgi off my body, grasping my cloak from behind me and wiping the slobber off my face with it. "Hahaha, who's this?" Wynrel asked, giggling uncontrollably. Having cleaned my skin of doggy germs, I picked Zwei up and held him for Wynrel to pet him. "This is my dog, Zwei!! He's from home, but I summoned him to help track someone in Camelot, then Weiss and I kinda disappeared because some spirit needed help and I forgot about him after I died and came back-" I started rambling on, before Wynrel held a finger to my lips to shut me up. "Hold your horses, you died?" She asked, and I nodded slowly as if it was something offensive. "Wow. You've seen some real shit." She told me blankly, blinking with an incredulous expression. I giggled and nodded again. "I've been through a lot in my time here..." I responded.

Scratching Zwei around the neck, Wynrel laughed lightly and looked to me. "So you're a fighter?" She asked, and I nodded frantically, holding Zwei up for her to take him. "Huh. Mind showing me a few things? You've piqued my curiosity." She asked of me and I thought for a moment. "If you answer one question." I compromised and she nodded slowly. "Of course, Ruby. What is it?"


"Are you an elf?"

Wynrel snorted and nodded, breaking into a laughing fit. "Yes, Ruby, I am."

[Ruby Rose]

I whirled Crescent Rose swiftly, flicking the weapon's release as I did so, the compact rifle folding out into a large red and black scythe almost twice the size of me and dug the tip into the soft sand below. Wynrel strode up to the weapon and inspected it like a detective at a crime scene. "What... is this?" she asked me, tilting her head in mild confusion. "It's my baby, Crescent Rose. She's a High-Caliber Sniper-Scythe," I explained, but Wynrel only seemed so be in more shock than she was before. "A whatawhatawhat?" she quipped, and I snorted loudly. "Do you know what a gun is?" I asked her just to make sure, and she immediately averted her gaze.

"Isn't it, uh... like some kind of crossbow... but it uses little rocks... or something?" she replied with uncertainty, and I snorted for the second time. "Uhm, kind of. Crescent Rose is a scythe and a gun in one, but this gun fires something called Dust, which is what basically powers my entire world back home, and it can use different types of Dust," I explained like a total nerd. I extended my fingers to the ground, letting the Omnillium that built my body unravel into a box-shape under my hand. After a moment or two had passed, I lifted my hand to reveal the orange clip of Dust ammunition I had crafted, before reaching underneath Crescent Rose, knocking out the old clip and jamming in the new one. "Different Dust types do different things, like this." I raised Crescent Rose and took aim at a far away bush, my silver eye scouting it through the scope. I pulled back the bolt on Crescent Rose with a satisfying hammer-like sound, before pulling hard on the trigger, an orange streak soaring through the air towards the bush.

The Dust bullet struck the foliage and exploded, covering the bush in roaring flames, the orange glow swiftly engulfing it like some hungry beast, leaving it in ashes. "It's like magic..." Wynrel blinked, looking between me and the bush. "It... kind of is, hey?" I agreed and giggled, swinging Crescent Rose around a second time, her frame collapsing back into a rifle, before closing completely into her compact form which I hooked onto the back of my belt. "How about you, Wynrel? What do you have?" I asked the elf, and she giggled quietly.

"Nothing as impressive as yours, that's for sure," she explained and reached down to her boots, grasping the handles of a pair of daggers and yanking them out with a reverberating shink sound. They were thin and long with a slight curve to them. The grips had the diamond pattern of snake skin, and the metal glinted with a slight red tinge. "Wow, they're beautiful!" I squealed as I eyed them off. "I made them myself with my mentor's instruction," Wynrel nodded in agreement and sighed. "But that's not all," she warned and flicked some kind of catch at the back of each dagger. Without warning, they extended to twice their size, becoming a pair of swords. "W-woah!" I squeaked again, impressed by the mechanisms of what seemed to be an archaic weapon.

"And one more thing," Wynrel continued and I gasped in surprise. There was more?! Wynrel raised the swords and slammed the pommels of them together, where they seemed to magnetize to each other. The blades curved back slightly more, and some thin line was pulled taut between the tips of the blades. "It's... a bow?" I asked and titled my head. "But where are the arrows?" I couldn't see any arrows on her person at all... unless they were under her coat?

Wynrel reached into her coat with her right hand and retrieved a short, metal cylinder and clicked a button on the side of it. The cylinder extended out to around two feet, a set of steel feathers emerging from one end and a sharp, three-pronged head on the other. Before I could utter another word, Wynrel strung the arrow on the bow and spun around, taking aim and loosing the steel arrow at a tree for what seemed to be no apparent reason. But as the arrowhead lodged itself into the tree with a loud thunk, it was accompanied by a crunch. Stunned into silence, I approached the tree to look at the arrow... which had happened to skewer some beetle against the trunk.

"W-what?!" I squealed and covered my mouth. "You hit a tiny target... and hardly looked a it..." I mused quietly and spun around to face Wynrel, who was smiling like a Cheshire. "It's called a hunter's intuition. You learn where everything is, will be and has never been," she informed me knowledgeably, and I giggled. "You might have to teach me," I suggested and she nodded while chuckling in amusement. "I can do that," she agreed, and I jumped for joy giddily.