Scarlet edged forward a little more until he could see the woman who was speaking. She was sitting in a large seat carved out of the rock wall, and she was hard to miss because a rainbow of colors swirled and shifted around her.

“What is that?” Scarlet sent. “That woman—Gillian. She’s glowing.”

“Aura,” Fox sent.

“Why can I see it?” Scarlet said.

“It’s the strongest, brightest Aura I’ve ever sensed.”

The woman, Gillian, had fair skin and black hair braided into two loops on either side. She wore a long dress with many sheer layers of blue, white, green, and purple that resembled running water. A silver chain was wrapped around her waist, matching the slim silver diadem that gleamed on her head.

“She’s wearing a crown,” Scarlet sent. “I’ve seen her picture on the Weeping Wall, too.”

Rosa stood on Gillian’s right, tapping away at a Scroll. “This is going to take too long,” she said.

Gillian glared at her. “Don’t use that in front of me.”

“Like it or not, it’s hard to get by without Scrolls these days. We need some tech to coordinate with Jax and his team,” Rosa said.

Gillian stood up from her throne and walked down the stone steps. She stepped to the left and Scarlet craned his neck to see where she had gone. He covered a gasp as he saw what was in the rest of the room.

Rows of beds, filled with sleeping people. Gillian walked to one of the beds and put her hand on an unconscious man’s shoulder. The Aura around her flared more brightly.

Fox appeared at Scarlet’s side. Coco and the others joined them.

“Whoa,” Fox said. “Her Aura is so strong because it doesn’t belong to her. She’s draining it from other people.”

“How can she do that?” Coco asked.

“If that’s her Semblance, then I don’t know how we can ever stop her,” Octavia sent, discouraged.

“There have to be at least fifty people in there,” Scarlet sent. “It’s the people who’ve gone missing. The Crown wasn’t just kidnapping people with powerful Semblances … they were kidnapping regular people, too … for their Aura.”

- RWBY: Before the Dawn, Chapter 13