The Knights of Grimm - Act 2 - Captured

Chapter 19 - President Thaddeus Brimstone

Willow

She stands at the garden outside of the Schnee manor with her hands clutching to a glass of wine. And for the first time in a very long time, the once beautiful taste of red wine has ceased to be delightful to her. The taste has turned to ash, and she throws the red wine into one of the bushes, rolling her large blue eyes, and she storms away from the bush that has been sculpted into the shape of a Beowulf. Her stomps echo through the gardens of the Manor, past the bushes and she pushes past one of the Atlesian Civilians, the same one in fact who was mouthing off about Vale, stating that they deserved what happened at Beacon. Weiss really showed her what happens when one speaks ill of her home like that, because people died. Willow approaches the doors and she pushes them open, like her white dress glistens like the frost on the wintry cobblestone floor that she traversed across. Her small crown around her head seems to glow as the bright sun reflects off it, her breath visible in the icy cold clouds of vapour leaving her lips.

She looks down the hallway and she starts to make her way down towards something. The cell of Ironwood is ahead of her, he is still trapped inside there. He has not been out of there in a couple days now. Everything is so peaceful here at Atlas, so quiet...it is extremely unnerving how the world seems to care little about the place at the moment. It is extremely bizarre how they are not more worried, with the Knights of Grimm gliding through the skies, claiming the lives of whomever their predatory eyes feast on. She sees the two Atlesian Guards stood by his cell and she crosses her arms, very much like her daughters in her expressive nature, and the same sorts of looks that she gives people, of complete and utter disgust most of the time. Just like any Schnee would. "You can leave your posts; I wish to speak to the prisoner alone." Willow demands.

The soldiers stand their grounds, holding the rifles in their hands. "Our apologies, ma'am, but the prisoner is not allowed to be spoken to without the authority of Mr Jacques Schnee." The Soldier speaks to her, remaining in their posts.

"I'm his wife." She says to them, hoping that it could clear anything up, tilting her head at them as she stands there. The soldiers look at her.

"But –"

"What do you think I'm going to do? Open the door without any keys? Let a criminal rampage through my home?" She scoffs, and the Guards look surprised. Either by how she is completely correct in her statements, or that she is sober and not in the garden. It is one of the two possibilities, and they don't seem to bother questioning her logic.

"Yes ma'am." The guards both say, nodding and walking away. She watches them as they leave, and she waits until they have fully turned the corner and left the two of them, divided by a thick metal door that even Ironwood can't break out of. She sighs with relief when the soldiers leave.

"Criminal?" Ironwood scoffs from inside the cell, and Willow looks at the door and she walks towards it, pressing her hand against it.

"You know I didn't mean that, just a show to get the guards to go away." She says gently, and affectionately. Ironwood is sat against the door, his metal arm against his knee; he shuts his eyes and sighs as he sits there.

"Was I really that blind?" Ironwood asks her with amazement in his voice, and his question makes her look at the door, trying to see him in the darkness through the grates in the metal door.

"Blind to what?" She inquires curiously.

"I let that goddamn bastard take over my entire army, feed his own forces inside, and I never noticed – I thought I could trust him." Ironwood sighs. The cold silence in the atmosphere of Atlas makes it feel as if they should be quieter about the things that they are talking about. As if someone could be listening to their every word, the very thin ice that the Remnant Society stands upon is cracking and cracking every day. The Knights will not aid the living for much longer; their quest for planetary extinction will go forward. And it seems that Willow has finally realised this, and has quit her alcohol problems to try and help stop what is coming. Starting with her own power hungry husband.