Destiny No More

Chapter 37

Ironwood stared at his scroll in disbelief. The fact that he was getting a message from Taiyang was shocking enough, the two hadn't spoken in years, and it was a surprise to see that the Veteran Huntsman had retained his contact information. The subject of the message however, was a major cause for concern.

Tyrian Callows... here? According to everything that they had been able to dig up, he was supposed to be in Vacuo, hiding out somewhere in the desert where no one could find him. He had tasked an entire team of Specialists to hunt him down, only to now find out it was a complete waste of time.

James' first instinct was to not believe him, as much as he loathed how his response was to doubt an ally, the finest intelligence operatives in Atlas had assured him that Callows was in Vacuo. The pictures that Taiyang sent removed his doubts however, along with his faith in his own information network. There was no doubt that the man in the pictures was Callows, and the fact that he was here, chasing down Qrow and Winter, finally confirmed their fears that he was working for Salem. While they had always known Callows was unstable, that fact had also made him unpredictable and they weren't willing to risk assuming his motives.

James swore internally, stashing his Scroll away and setting a course back for his ship. He'd been in the process of speaking with the various professors and staff that worked there, subtly questioning them on their thoughts about the Headmaster and the school. Some had nothing but praise, others voiced their own petty grudges about the man, but a few of the older professors had quite worrisome things to say.

The Huntsmen of the last generation were more perceptive, they had noticed the growing shortage of Huntsmen, even if they hadn't pieced together that fact yet. They had also noticed the concerning tendencies of their coworkers and fellow colleagues; bribes, poor etiquette, questionable after hour activities. While none of it was grounds for termination, it was something that he never would have allowed in Atlas and something that, up until recently, he would have expected Lionheart to have dealt with.

The things that the older Huntsmen said about the Headmaster worried him more however, the generous ones described him as tired while the more honest ones described him as incompetent; they didn't out right say it, but their lack of faith was clear from the way they differed to each other rather than him. Haven was less a school run by a Headmaster, and more a school ran by consensus. It was likely that fact alone that had allowed Haven to still produce competent Huntsmen at all, though he was seriously questioning the quality of those still remaining in the Kingdom if Haven was the best they had to offer.

It was clear to him that Lionheart was not the right choice for Headmaster of Haven academy, not that Ozpin would ever agree with him. Maybe the man had once been the brave and strong Huntsmen his friend claimed him to be, but there was no sign of that man now. Whether he had been turned or not was yet to be revealed, but the fact remained that he had allowed all of this to happen and hadn't asked a single one of them for help. James would have sent an entire army to aid him had he asked, Ozpin would have sent his best agents as well. Hell, even Theodore would have done something to help their comrade, but the fact remained that he had not asked, nor had he warned them of his precarious situation.

Incompetence, complacency, or perhaps just fear of what they might say or do had kept him from reaching out; that was if James was being blind to the revelations Pyrrha had brought to light. Cinder had used Haven to infiltrate Beacon, that was something beyond just sheer incompetence, and James couldn't believe it had been unintentional, he refused to.

He hadn't seen anyone matching Cinder's description when walking the school grounds, although he very much doubted that she would allow herself to be seen by him. From how Pyrrha described the woman, she was far too intelligent to risk such an action for little gain. She would likely be staying as far away from him as possible, a rather unfortunate fact considering how he wished to confirm her presence at the school. It seemed that they would have to rely on Pyrrha's word alone, and while James trusted the girl, his trust was stretching thin.