Silver Rose

Chapter XXXII - Where Champions Gather

Lilly hung her head in shame as she approached her mother. Weiss would not have any of it, though, and she firmly held her daughter by the shoulders.

"You're not allowed to hang your head like that," Weiss said.

"But, I lost," Lilly said, her voice tiny.

"Lost? Lost what?"

"The match."

Weiss chuckled sardonically. "Lilly, look at me."

She looked up into her mother's pale blue eyes.

"Do I look like I'm disappointed in you right now?"

"Are you?"

"Never!" She held her daughter close, cradling her head in her hand. "I could never be disappointed in you!"

"Mom..."

"That's enough berating yourself. You're just like..." Weiss's heart skipped a beat as her eyes rapidly filled with tears.

Lilly pulled away, looking up into her mother's face. She had her eyes closed, squeezing out tears as she gritted her teeth. Lilly opened her mouth to speak, but she stopped herself. It had been a long time since the last time she had seen her like this and she knew that only time would heal her heart.

"I'm sorry, Lilly," Weiss said.

It was Lilly's turn to hold her closely. "I love you, mom," she said.

"I love you, too, my dearest."

After spending several moments in each other's arms in total silence, they pulled away from one another.

"I told you once before, Lilly," Weiss began, "I am so proud of you. First of all, you made it to the tournament. You were selected to represent Beacon on the world stage. That alone is an enormous honor."

Lilly smiled.

"Even more than that, you took on the best team Atlas has ever raised and you countered every single thing Ivory had to throw at you. And your new power—"

"Yeah, I wanted to talk to you about that," she said.

"What about it?"

"I don't have our family's Semblance, but yet, I can do this." She held out a hand, forming a Wind Rune over her palm before allowing it to vanish.

Weiss was powerless to stop the smile from forming on her face.

"Mom, you know where I get it from, don't you?"

"Of course I do." She held out her hand and summoned a glyph. "The rest of us are capable of doing this, but you seem to have taken the family Semblance and modified it to suit you personally."

"But, where does it come from? From what I can tell, it's almost—"

"Magic?"

"Y-Yeah."

Weiss turned her hand around before calling on a more powerful variant of the Water Rune, a Tsunami Rune. The rune appeared on the back of her hand, glowing with intense power. Lilly's eyes were open wide.

"You can do it, too?" she said.

"Not the way you can," Weiss said. "You've taken two elements and combined them to form something new. But I think yours is more powerful."

"Huh?"

"Even with this rune on my hand, I still need to concentrate to cast one of the spells." She held her hand out at a nearby rock. "Frostatem."