Suddenly, a bright light pierced through the room. The darkness of was immediately dispelled by the overwhelming light. The night howler that once was an imposing threat to Qrow now was a pile of ash on the ground in the newly illuminated room. But then, the light began to die down, it rescinded across the room until it almost completely dissipated other than the glow of light coming from the door. Looking through the door, Qrow couldn't see the face of the person who cast the spell, but could see their silhouette; and it wasn't who he expected. The man was small, shorter than any normal human and had especially shorter than the two elvish individuals and obviously more he Goliath. The had a stocky build with muscles that were plain to see even with the absence of light. He held a hammer in his hand. The hammer glowed with a yellowish white heat.
"Are you going to come out of that room now?" The man asked. He had a deep gravelly voice that sounded familiar. The three men frozen. They were thankful for the assistance but they also were supposed to be in this room; they had been caught in all the commotion. Qrow looked to see what Rijin and Fuju would do, he thought there might be a new fight so he readied his dagger for the attack but to his surprise the stood down. Rijin made his trident dissapear, Fuju put away his wand. With the power on display Qrow had a feeling this wasn't a fight worth taking so he followed suit and sheathed his dagger. The group of them walked out of the room into the hallway. As Qrow exited the room he finally was able to get a good look at the man, to his surprise it was Daedalus; the dwarven blacksmith.
"What the hell were the three of you doing in there?" Daedalus asked. The three of them stood quietly, feeling the shame of being caught.
"We are sorry, we didn't mean to cause such a commotion," Fuju said timidly.
"I bet you didn't. What happened exactly?" Daedalus asked. What happened? What were we doing in there? These didn't feel like the punishing words of someone who had caught them, it was legitimate inquiries. Qrow tried not to smile but the entire conversation had shifted for him. He knew what to do.
"We apologize," Qrow said, "Prometheus tasked us with repairing some of the enchantments that had been placed on the door. You see they had been tampered with and he knew that Fuju was a wizard so he thought maybe Fuju could help."
Rijin and Fuju looked at Qrow in disbelief, the were stunned by the boldness of the lie, but Qrow knew it was the only way out.
"Then why are the two of you here?" Daedalus asked looking at Rijin and Qrow.
"Well that was less of Prometheus's inquiry and more of Fuju's. He is an archmage but admitted that he is not to good at spells that involve dark runes or holy incantations; so we tagged along to help with the process," Qrow said.
"Yes," Fuju said speaking up. He had caught on to the plan, "the door opened as we tried to fix the spells and well there must have been an activation issue."
"Some spells we didn't intend to activate…activated," Qrow said.
"I see…and so why did you go into the room?" Daedalus asked. Fuju began to open his mouth but Qrow spoke first. This conversation was going the way they wanted but even he could sense that Daedalus was stupid. They had to give him something.
"Curiosity. I know it was wrong but we just wanted to know what was in the room. We only intended to get a quick peek and look around but then we got attacked by the night howler and well you know the rest," Qrow said.
Daedalus rubbed his head. Qrow could tell it was working, there just needed to be one final piece to cement it, "by the way, what can you tell us about this?" Qrow asked. He held up the strange bag that he had taken from the room. Fuju and Rijin looked at him in disbelief. It was a gamble to be sure, admitting that you took something from in the room, but it was their only chance of coming out of this unscathed. Admitting they took something is one thing, making it look coincidental is another.
Daedalus grabbed the bag and looked it over, "you should t have taken this," he said.
"Again I apologize, my curiosity got the better of me, " Qrow said.
Daedalus gave him a look then took the bag and walked back into the room. He placed the bag back at the table it was at a before turning around.
"It's an experiment. Whether or not you believe it, Prometheus is more caring than you may think. He wouldn't want me telling you this, he is very sentimental, but he has been working on transmuting materials into malleable parts to create fabrics," Daedalus said.
"Fabrics?" Qrow asked. He was confused and surprised by the apparentness at the same time.
"He is trying to create light clothing that each of you can wear that allow for multiple enchantments without destroying the material," Daedalus said, "basically, he is trying to make arcane armor that works as clothing."
"Incredible. No wonder he is so secretive," Fuju said. It was incredible. The only know reports of arcane armor were large bulky things that were difficult to maneuver. If a form of arcane armor could be as simple as a tunic that would be an unbelievable.
"For each of us to wear…he is making it for us…" Rijin said thinking.
Daedalus nodded, "we have been working on this for quite some time. Who better to wear it than Prometheus's new brothers in arms."
These words struck a chord with the group. A sense of shame and wrong doing came over them. Qrow felt what he could only describe as conviction, a new feeling for him. "Well I'm sorry we disturbed," Qrow said, this time without any veiled truths. For the first time, he truly meant it.
Daedalus sighed, "I'll inform Prometheus of the incident," He said.
"Let us handle it," Fuju quickly interjected, "its only right given our mistake."
Daedalus nodded, "alright, after that ordeal you should get some rest. It's late and that had to shake you up quite a bit," he said.
"Yes, a quick nightcap and then off to bed," Qrow replied. Daedalus headed into the room and snapped his fingers. As he did some lights flickered on across the room and the door shut behind him. The trio headed up the stairs.
"Why did you give him the bag?" Rijin asked, "it was a major risk to give it to him."
Qrow shrugged, "it was either that or him find out the bag was gone and know something was wrong. I have been in these situations enough to know that the only way out was weirdly enough the truth…or at least a kernel of the truth. That being that we had taken the bag."
Rijin humphed but didn't give any words in argument. The two began to walk away like the conversation was done but Qrow was unsatisfied.
"What did you take?" Qrow asked.
"What do you mean?" Rijin said.
Qrow rolled his eyes, "don't play dumb. You clearly took something from the room. What was it?"
The two looked at each other and Qrow expected aggression but surprisingly they seemed to give up on it. Fuju reached into a pouch on his belt and pulled out a square piece of metal etched with runes and a gemstone in the middle. He touched the gemstone and it illuminated for a moment before transforming into a ring within Fuju's hand.
"It's a complex magical device called a conduit. Basically it can manipulate arcane energy. I had detected that Prometheus had one so Rijin and I wanted to take it for the betterment of the group," Fuju said.
"For the betterment of the group? How is stealing that for the betterment of the group?" Qrow asked.
Rijin remained silent. Qrow could tell he knew something but wasn't inclined to say exactly what it was. There was still much distrust between them.
"Let me ask you this," Rijin said, "don't you feel like all the information we got was a little bit to easy?"
Qrow was taken aback. What did he mean by that? Yes they had gained a good amount of information in the day they had been in the Blessing of Love but it was due to a team effort. It wasn't…
But then Qrow began to think. He had been told what was going on by Lisandra. They had been told by Telluides. The only information that had gathered that wasn't explicitly given to them was Rijin and Garus finding the reaver. It was almost as if that wasn't the information they were supposed to have…
Qrow had gotten so lost in thought that he didn't even notice that the other two had left. He looked around and decided to leave it there for the night, if he was right in this thinking; and on what he thought Rijin was implying, then trust was not something that could be easily given. Qrow pulled out his flask and tried to take a swig, to calm the nerves, but found it to be empty. He took a step towards going to Thalassa's beard, to get a refill, but then stopped and turned the other way; choosing to head towards the stables instead. He walked across the ship until he came to the room where stables were. He passed by many stalls of different horses and some livestock, before coming to the end of the row and smiling, his faithful friend and companion Tenatus laid in the hay, content and asleep. Qrow opened the door to the stall and walked inside, plopping down beside the beast. He began to stroke his mane tenderly and Tenatus opened an eye for a moment. Upon noticing Qrow, he rolled over a bit to be more in Qrow's lap and purred softly. Qrow smiled, a smile reminiscent of his brother's smile.
"Thank you for saving me all those years ago Tenatus," Qrow said. Tenatus continued to purr. Qrow reached into his pocket and pulled out some folded up pieces of paper. He opened the pages which he had stolen from Prometheus's laboratory.
"Let's do some light reading," Qrow said to his friend. And began to study the first of the pages while laying against his companion.