Forged Destiny [Book 6: Ch. 8]

A cloying feeling washed over me. It was like a sudden punch in the gut to me – one that filled me with nausea and made me want to be sick. I staggered and only just managed to catch myself on the wall.

Blake paused. "Jaune? What's wrong?"

"C-Can't you feel that?" I rasped, fighting past the bile in my throat. "I-It's so heavy…"

"I don't feel anything," she replied. Blake looked back, but the others shook their heads, some more impatiently than others. "Are you sure you don't just have cold feet? We need to keep goin-" She was cut off as I wretched and threw up on the floor. Blake hopped back in alarm. "Jaune!"

The amulet on my chest was burning. It was burning cold, threatening to cut a hole in me with its icy grip. Another wave of nausea hit me, and I stared ahead, wide eyed.

"She's here."

"What?"

"Salem," I rasped, recognising the feeling. "She's here."

"Shit," Yang cursed.

Ruby grabbed my arm. "Can you move?"

"Y-Yes." It was hard at first, but I managed to get the feeling under control. It was like the first time we'd been faced with Salem in Atlas, and again I felt the urge to curl up into a ball and not move. I wasn't sure why I felt it so early, however, or why no one else did. "I'll be okay," I said, forcing myself through it. "I… I'll be fine."

"Jaune, your eyes…"

My…? I clapped a hand to my face. Though it didn't let me see my own head, I could see the pale blue reflection on the palm of my hand. My eyes were glowing. Again. I still didn't know why. I ignored it either way and staggered up with Ruby's aid, waving a hand weakly for the others.

"Keep going. I'll be okay."

[...]

Salem.

Everyone gasped as her presence hit them, causing them to trip and stagger for a moment, Ruby even falling to hands and knees before she tried to move, barely able to force herself up onto one knee. Blake was the best of them, high enough level to have some defence, though even then she moved with incredible difficulty, twin daggers pointed to the floor like they weighed a tonne or more each.

I was fine. I'd weathered the storm in the corridor before, and though the sight of Salem sent a thrill of fear through me, it did not weigh me down. I stared up at her defiantly, and scowled when she met my eyes, an amused tint in them.

[...]

The monster chuckled in honest amusement. "And the first in which one has ever dared speak to me in such a fashion. You do so amuse me, Deceiver. Tell me, how is it you stand before me when all else kneel?"

I was about to ask what she meant when the clatter of Blake's weapons striking the ground echoed through the hall. She was on her knees, hands flat on the ground beside her. The Assassin's eyes burned with anger as she glared at Salem. Behind her, Ruby had lost the battle too and was on hands and knees, fighting not to lay flat on the ground.

—Forged Destiny [Book 6: Ch. 8]