This is a story that I wasn't going to write- I remember writing that I was giving up on RWBY and closing down all forms of written document pertaining to RWBY.

Then a user by the name of C4msy decided to be my saving grace and restore my faith in RWBY by giving me an idea.

This.

WARNING: there will be futa and various kinks; incest, forced sex, manipulation, impregnation, womb-bulge, the ability to cum literal gallons and a dick the size of a horse's cock. I may add something like barbs- like a cat penis- to Ruby's dick to further help with the 'forced sex' aspect.

Harem/unlucky women:

Raven

Neo

Emerald

Cinder (the incest)

Goodwitch

Weiss

Salem

I may or may not add more, depending on what you guys suggest in the comments.

Each chapter pertaining to each woman will be in chronological order. Each chapter will have a warning of what is in each lemon.

WARNING: Impregnation talk, semi-fellatio, womb expansion, horse cock, willing impregnation, gallons of cum.

This is my first time writing a smutty story so…I apologise if it isn't the best.

(^^^^^^)

"There are heroes in Evil as well as in Good."

-Francois De La Rochefoucauld-

(^^^^^^)

Cinder Fall was a woman of stature, of strength and virtue as well as conviction. She believed that strength lies in competency and, the more competent you were, the more powerful you were. The more powerful you were, the more competent you could become- therefore, the more powerful you could become. Her strength was in itself nothing more than a simple drop in the ocean compared to her leader.

Yes, compared to Salem none were more competent, convicted or powerful- a reason for her loyalty that bordered fanaticism. But that was also a reason her disloyalty was earned- the woman couldn't create limits for herself or exceed the powers she had. Salem had no more conviction to gain power because she saw herself as the absolute. The only one capable of defeating her was herself. Believing oneself unbeatable was a foolish notion and something Cinder could never imagine herself doing- no matter how powerful you became or how strong you got, there was someone out there stronger than you.

Sitting at the table that held itself within Salem's own lair- deep within the Grimm Wilds, a land of festering pools of dark, spawns for the Grimm- Cinder steepled her fingers beneath her chin. Next to her, a nervous and shaking Emerald- understandable, she'd just promised her that she'd never go hungry again and immediately dragged her out to…to…

'what would sister dearest say? The butt-fuck of nowhere?' While not one for crass words, her sister was, and so she felt the situation appropriate. 'Yes, that sounds about right.'

"U-Uh, Miss Cinder?" When Cinder's gaze drifted from the table's dark wooden surface to Emerald's nervous form, the girl shivered- those eyes would never be the soothing things that Cinder's words were. "You-You said…that something 'sounded right'?"

Before Cinder could answer, the door to the room opened and Tyrian walked in. his gaze was…unsteady, to say the least- insane would be a generous word to use for the man that practically worshipped Salem's shadow, let alone the woman herself. While Cinder never really did hold Faunus in high regard she didn't hate them- being wary was as far as she'd get of their race, though she'd never turn down a free handout from one. Tyrian, while unstable, was competent, which as why she stopped her sister from tearing him apart every single time she saw him.

They'd had a…well, an odd first meeting was an apt description, yet could do the event no justice- then again Tyrian was the instigator and, despite his attempts at fixing their 'relationship' as co-workers, Cinder's odd family member never let it go. The girl could hold grudges, and that was reinforced by her distrust of the Faunus species as a whole. The Fall family used to have Faunus as a part of their blood, in fact; she remembers a cousin, the name lost to memory, that had deer antlers atop her head and spoke in soft, dulcet tones that lulled her to sleep…shortly before the White Fang tracked them down and set their home alight.

Cinder was wary of Faunus, but not distrustful since the attack- she could see where they were coming from, after all. A Fall family member, her father's brother Ashen if she remembers, had decided that 'filthy lower life-forms should be used as the sport they were intended for' and proceeded to 'cull the masses', as he'd said. He did turn up a few days later, his decapitated head in a box. His once black hair matted, drenched, in blood of his own with his amber eyes wide in fear and agony. It was clear the man was tortured before his death- the Fall family weren't hit too hard, though, so nothing really bothered them about his death aside from the fact that he died from the very thing he hated.

In any Fall's eyes, he was denounced immediately; an unacceptable death to them was to die via something one's hatred festered for. A slight dislike or a sense of duty were acceptable- otherwise an entire branch of Fall members, mostly huntsmen, would be denounced and cut off as soon as they joined their profession.

The man, Tyrian, was of odd stature- his back in a constant hunch with his arms- their wrist-mounted blades doing nothing to hinder his movements- crossed behind his back. His tail, hair…thing, was slowly shifting from side to side as though a breeze was blowing it. To her it looked like a tree's leaves when caught in a gentle summer breeze- to her sister it would undoubtedly look like something more clinical, more…surgical in nature. A reminder of Newton Ball Pendulums perhaps, or a swaying of a body when their throat is cut and they swing, the balls of their feet the only thing keeping them upright.

'Yes,' Cinder grimaced slightly. While she loved her only remaining family member, she was slightly unnerved by the clinical detachment she showed people that…annoyed her, or somehow ended up on her bad side. 'That would be the description; a body teetering, whereas mine is a tree's leaves- and I'm the unstable of us two?'

Don't get her wrong, Cinder adored her sibling of four years her junior. She loved her and…attempted to dote on her- the first time the scalpel was pressed to her throat she stopped trying to get closer to her. Yet, the girl's obsession with surgery, scalpels and the pained screams of her torture victims was a really offsetting thing about her that pushed Cinder away. But the thing is, her sister never actually did get pleasure from their screams of pain- when asked she'd replied she was "performing her duty and preparing herself for what's to come"; whatever that meant it made Cinder wary of her sister. Did she know something that Salem's own trusted General did not? She did not like the idea being out of the loop, but then again her sibling was full of eccentricities that Cinder just shrugged off. She was also a lusty powerhouse that was most likely thinking of eight different ways to bed every woman she came across, but Cinder had gotten used to that, too.

Tyrian spotted her immediately, his hunched gait pepping up from the slightly melancholic air he emitted to a more friendly- if insanity-ridden- atmosphere. To enemies he was, to put simply, barbaric; but he was kind to his co-workers, in an odd sort of way. To tell the truth the only reason she didn't feel downright nervous around the man was for the simple fact that he believed in 'an eye for an eye'. The idea that if he was wronged, or if his allies were injured, he would take it upon himself to dole out equal punishment- equal treatment to that which they/him suffered- and then the slate would be wiped clean. In Cinder's case, it meant that his odd sense of honour would not allow him to attack her unprovoked without a clear understanding that he was not to fight back when she inevitably came charging in to enact vengeance. It would go against everything he held in high regard- Salem notwithstanding.

He took a seat directly across from her and propped himself in the chair using that completely bizarre way of sitting that he prefers to the norm- one knee propped up to that his chin rested on it, while his other leg hung over the arms of the wooden seat, his head tilted sideways in an almost puppy-like expression. She was under no delusions that this man was of any puppy-like behaviour, and neither was her newly-acquired apprentice, if the girl's stiffening of the shoulders and narrowed eyes spoke of anything.

"Smart girl. Can see there's something more to him, eh?" The voice that sounded from the doorway to the almost hall-like room sounded equal parts curious and intrigued, with a hint of amusement. Yet it sounded so young, and to Emerald's ears barely above the age of ten. Then again, she'd never been near children younger than her so it was all speculation. "You chose well in an apprentice, sister."

Cinder's gaze twitched minutely from Tyrian's own grinning one to that of her sister's gaze- or, form, seeing as the girl had an obsession with keeping her face hidden.

A small body, looking to be thirteen years old, was hidden behind a large red cloak that covered the front and back of the shoulders, dropping down the child's back to scrape along the floor. Where the cloak opened at the front, billowing to the sides slightly, was how the occupants of the room could see the legs of the child were covered in nothing but bandages- in fact, the entirety of the body was covered in bandages, no hint of clothing on top or underneath the white wrappings. Which were skin-tight- which gave the occupants a view of a naked child who wasn't naked but hidden beneath a swathe of bandages from neck to toe and made Tyrian always feel uncomfortable whenever he saw her. Covering her head was the red hood that came with the cloak, draping the upper part of her face in shadow, while everything below the eyes was covered in a thin cloth mask.

The bandaged child walked to a chair next to Tyrian, the girl sitting in a way that reminded Emerald of how Cinder sat- if only less refined than her new 'associate', and she guessed that was only because her small stature and young age. Alas, she was not told by her leader to sit, so she stayed standing while others she'd never seen before strolled in. each one that entered looked for all the world at ease with the bandaged child and, in the case of the man she knew was the Headmaster of Haven Academy, began chatting with her about things the thief couldn't understand. Something to do with 'how nice the weather was' and 'trips to Menagerie'.

Blinking, the red-eyed apprentice took a glance out of the gothic windows the room was fitted with to stare at the sky- black with a few stars dotting it, the crushed and broken moon hovering in languid tranquillity yet- in her opinion- with a tragic isolation from the rest of its body. She shook her head; she never was one to think this deep, and a glance to Cinder told her that her slip hadn't become noticed- the woman was chipping in here and there with the Headmaster's conversation with the bandaged girl.

She needed to know her name, but outright asking wasn't in her nature- she'd seek it out or go about it in a roundabout and complex way. She was Emerald Sustrai after all, she could steal anything she wanted to with a few illusions. What was a name to her?

A question died on her lips, a way to slip subtle suggestions and the like into her mind so Emerald could extract the girl's name, when the large doors to the room opened up and Salem strolled in- it was the first time Emerald had felt such…such power radiate from another being. She would have said from another 'human' being, or Faunus, but the woman walking in with the gait of wisdom and the power to do as she wished was neither in her eyes.

Yes, anyone with hair as white as virgin snow and eyes as red as hers could not be called either race; the woman's skin was a deathly pale, too, her new master's almost- but not quite- the same complexion. The black veins that were easily visible, able to accentuate the eyes that were sure to give the green-haired thief nightmares for at least a week. While the woman…thing…walked past her, the dress she wore brought her attention to it. It flowed, dragging along the ground behind her as though she were of royal blood; yet the sleeves she wore did not cover the entirety of her arms, forearms as white as the rest of her with black veins protruding.

Salem sat down at the head of the table and it was as if her very presence demanded silence- the bandaged girl the only one to ignore that- Emerald could hear a feint humming from her, yet the tune seemed as though the girl had made it up right there and then. It was of no tune she knew, at least, and until the actual song of which it stemmed could be listened to the thief was willing to write it up. That didn't necessarily mean the tune annoyed her- no, it served to soothe her, her shoulders slumping and muscles relaxing.

Salem began to speak, as though the small girl now sitting on top of the table's surface and swinging her legs as a child would while humming a tune was a normal occurrence; Emerald would have called it odd, but she had her own quirks and oddities about her- the small bandaged girl acting like a four-year-old was hardly shocking. "Thank you all for joining me tonight; while not a mandatory meeting I find your devotion relieving."

The headmaster- his name still eludes her- spoke up, zeal and a weighty sum of near-religious fanaticism present in his voice. "Of course! You are our Mistress Salem, we follow wherever you go."

Tyrian nodded his head and spoke erratically, eyes widened in madness and with the look of a man speaking to his goddess. For all Emerald knew the man very well may have been feeling like that. "yes, yes, yes, we'd never miss this!" his eyes them travelled to Emerald, his insane smile becoming a near-thoughtful frown. "Should we allow Cinder's new…protege in here though?"

The headmaster replied with a tone of agreement. "True, why is she here?" He turned his head to Salem as Tyrian and Cinder both eyed her curiously. "Miss? Why did you allow her to-"

Before she could blink, the bandaged girl had somehow stopped swinging her feet and stopped sitting on the table; instead she practically disappeared and reappeared in front of Emerald. Her red eyes widened and she took an unconscious step back. No one could move that fast without a semblance, and if her semblance was speed…well, Emerald was thankful the girl was apparently on her side. If she ever had to go against someone with a speed semblance then…well, she'd never win.

"You…" The girl's silver eyes- for that was all she could see beneath the hood and around the bandages when she was this close- glowed with some sort of ethereal light for a second, before dimming once more. "I…I see…" Turning to Cinder the girl spoke loud enough for the occupants of the hall to hear. "You chose stupidly, Cinder; the girl is a thief, not a fighter; though, perhaps, she could be used as such."

Cinder chuckled slightly; a natural seduction in it that made Emerald blush slightly. "Yes…yes I thought you might see that." She coughed. "I chose her specifically for the role of it. I'm tracking down my second…apprentice…if you will."

"Whereas Tyrian has yet to find one and I have already gotten two." Ignoring the man's cries of 'not needing anyone but his Lady Salem', The girl continued. "this child you mean to recruit next; he is a Black?"

"Yes, though if you want him…" Cinder left the question hanging in the air, and the girl hummed before shaking her head slightly, the hood that covered it ruffling in the action but not necessarily coming off.

Eventually the silence dragged on and the girl spoke once more. "No. I have Raven and Neo; I need no more for now; a thief and an assassin are all I need anyway."

Cinder's eyes narrowed. "And we all know what you do to those two thieves under your belt. One, a baby-making machine and the other? Nothing but a glorified cumdump, dearest sister."

Salem had long ignored the two, instead summoning a black creature that could only be described as a tentacle that floated. She seemed to converse with it, her lips moving and a feint whispering noise flowing from them but no audible noise from the tentacle…thing. She promptly ignored the two bickering sisters and chose to converse with the headmaster- whom she'd learn is later called 'Lionheart' and Tyrian, the man that looked like he both wanted to kill her and cuddle her.

"Yes; I will not deny that one is used as a 'baby-making machine' and the other a 'cumdump', but they feel no objections towards my rather…intriguing form of anatomy." Ignoring her sister's slightly red face and balled hands, the girl stared her right in the eye. "if you wish I can add such an appendage to you, Cinder. You could turn little Emerald into a sire for your children as Raven will be for mine. Or pleasure her as I do with Neo."

The girl leaned in and Cinder could feel the grin in her voice. "Or…you could take up my previous offer."

It took five minutes of silence and a quick glance at Emerald's body, then Ruby's crotch, to answer.

"Maybe, Ruby, maybe."

"To which offer?"

"Both."

(^^^^^^)

There is no sudden change to scenery, for Ruby sped into her room from Salem's dining hall with the grace of someone who'd trained their speed semblance their entire life. One minute she was talking to Cinder about an extra 'appendage', the next se was sat on her bed, waiting for either Neo or Raven to appear.

Raven was the first.

As was customary for Ruby's lovers whenever they entered the same room as her, Raven stripped her clothing down to nothing- while doing so Ruby had noted that the rather large breasted woman hadn't been wearing any underwear, nor had she been wearing much of anything save for her mask and coat.

The woman, Raven, still amazed her whenever Ruby saw her; the largest pair of tits to grace a female's body with light pink nipples that peaked about an inch from the flesh of the borderline D-Cup globes. Moving her eyes down her lover's body she spotted the shaved area she'd be pounding into for the remainder of her time here- that is, a full seven hours of sex.

Moving her eyes upwards from the woman's shaved vagina, Ruby's silver eyes landed themselves on the navel area- the area known to shield the womb. Ruby had been holding back in fertilising the baby-incubator, but now she felt she'd been holding off too much. Her balls were feeling backed up and even though Neo was heaven to fuck, Raven was on a whole other level. Perhaps because she was an older woman, or perhaps because she just managed to do it for her, but Ruby always found her self-control slipping slightly whenever the black-haired walking sex object entered her vision.

Even if Neo or Raven weren't expecting sex, they still got naked- Ruby liked to see their bodies as they were and not clothed like the common rabble tended to do. It was one of the reasons she only wore bandages and nought else. As was customary to the lovers of Ruby Fall, Raven bowed at the waste, her generous breasts only slightly dipping due to gravity's interference.

"Mistress." The red-eyed Raven spotted her mistress already removing the bandages covering her lower crotch, but unlike usual it was with a fervour that she'd usually not shown in teir previous…endeavours. "Is everything okay?"

Ruby paused in the unwrapping of her bandages, her naval exposed but nothing below- yet. "Why do you ask?"

"Your hands are shaking, Miss."

Ruby hummed, before promptly ignoring the rather obvious statement. Of course, her hands were shaking, and her entire form was thrumming in excitement- she'd be smashing into the woman in front of her with the fervour of a man who's never seen a woman in his life. She'd be cumming potent sperm directly into the womb of this woman, fertilising it with her seed, almost guaranteeing an heir- or heiress, she wasn't picky. After about a full minute of undressing, Ruby dropped the bandages from her crotch and watched as her lover eyed her rather large dick hungrily. Heck, if Ruby wasn't the one that had genetically modified it, she'd be gaping too, in both shock and awe.

The dick was about the size of her entire arm, shoulder to fingertip, with a girth that rivalled that of her forearm. Veins dotted it here and there, but it held itself with an unnatural whiteness that spoke of it being man-made. The shaft was topped with a large mushroom-shaped head that was already dribbling copious amounts of pre-cum on the ground. Raven's red eyes trailed the impossibly long shaft- that immediately stood hard at attention- to the swollen tennis ball-sized testicles. If she squinted her eyes she could practically see the thick sperm with a consistency of porridge ready to invade her insides.

She needed no further prompting when her mistress waved her over, simultaneously siting down on the bed's edge; to further increase incentive, Ruby spread her legs and squeezed the tip of the horse-sized dick in her hands, enough so that a steady flow of pre-cum dribbled down the shaft. Immediately Raven knelt down and placed both hands on either side of the shaft, them both together barely encompassing the entirety of the girth. Of course, she'd danced this dance plenty of times, leading to her being somewhat experienced in the ways of speeding up the foreplay and leading to the main event.

Her mouth wetted itself with her tongue before she immediately began running the muscle from head to balls, agonisingly slow for Ruby, along the shaft with the intent to lick up any pre-cum that had dribbled out. Raven's tongue began fondling the tennis ball sized testicles that rested beneath the shaft of the monster cock, and while vigorously massaging them with her tongue she could feel the active and potent sperm inside them- it made her wet and hot just thinking about it all going inside her. Of course, Ruby liked to unload in her often, but Raven was no fool; she could tell her mistress had been holding back, keeping her womb barren of sperm.

She had the feeling that today that would end.

Ruby grunted, the feeling of an orgasm coming on already. She'd usually be able to last much longer than this, but Raven had been her slave for over a year now- she knew exactly how to get her close. Raven, hearing the grunt, decided to speed up the process even more, her mouth trailing kisses all the way from the balls to the head of the monstrous thing and without further reproach widened her mouth around the mushroom.

As soon as Ruby felt her dick's head reach the warm cavern of Raven's wet mouth she knew she was getting closer and closer. She'd last another minute before cumming, that much she was aware of- but Raven seemed to think that she could speed her way to the main course without the appetiser that she had planned? No, no, no, it doesn't work like that.

Reaching her hands down, Ruby stopped Raven's head from descending her shaft, and locked her silver eyes with Raven's crimson. "Now, now, Raven, needy for my sperm already, are we?"

The woman was allowed to remove her mouth from Ruby's lower head- much to Ruby's displeasure- and nodded furiously. "Yes miss! I can tell what's going to happen tonight and I want it so badly!" she sounded wanton, needy, as though the cum about to erupt from Ruby's massive horse cock was all that kept her going; with the amount the woman drank daily that's not really surprising. Gallons upon gallons every single day of genetically enhanced and modified sperm would have…side effects. Who's to say that a thirst for the cum she'd been drinking for every single day of her tenure as Ruby's sex slave wasn't one of them? It made sense.

Ruby hummed, obviously to tease the woman; but more of to find out how she'd figured out her plans for her. "So, tell me Raven; how did you figure out what I wish for your body to be?"

The woman replied instantly. "Oh mistress, you've always wanted to fill my lovely, flat, barren womb with your sticky, thick baby-batter!" Raven was speaking like this to deliberately get her closer and by god was it working. "To give me a child, you a successor."

Ignoring the dirty talk, Raven had her pegged to a 'T'.

Smirking, Ruby used her speed semblance to pin the woman to the floor of her room, the carpet a shade of red, soon to be stained white. "I say we skip the foreplay and move on to the main event, don't you agree?"

Raven's eyes had clouded with lust and she nodded her head with before unseen vigour. Ruby wasted no time after that; she lined her massive horse-dick's head with Raven's extremely tight pussy and, with a lusty smile from the woman who was about to become the mother of her child, she thrust. Raven's entire body arched; Ruby had gone straight to the womb with a single thrust! She'd never done that before! It was always measured ad controlled, but right now it seems as though Ruby truly did wish to impregnate her…and Raven, as her mistress's cumdump, was all too thrilled to be one of the women being allowed the privilege to carry her child.

To further enhance the effect, Ruby looked down and felt her balls tighten when she saw her dick's outlie completely visible on Raven's skin- a quick thrust made a small bulge poke out from the skin where she knew Raven's womb was, before she pulled back and the bulge went down. Both curious to see if Raven could handle her entire dick when only half of it was sheathed in her womb, and already about to cum, Ruby pulled out nearly all the way.

Raven whined a needy whine and the silver-eyed girl smiled victoriously; she reached down and spun Raven, the tip of her dick still inside the woman, so she was face down on the ground. Phase one completed, she enacted phase two of her 'knock this bitch up' plan- she leaned down and roughly grabbed Raven's arms, pulling them back and using them as leverage as she prepared her final thrust- this would test her cumdump's limits.

Raven felt nothing at first; her eyes opened when se felt her arms being pulled back and suddenly she was extremely nervous- she's seen the size of that monster, felt it in her even, but never has she had the entire length before. Raven, however, steeled her nerves, and screamed at the top of her lungs just as Ruby thrust the entire length in. she could feel her womb stretching to accomdate the massive dick, the skin around her naval area distended greatly to allow the dick room while also not ripping her in half- a quick look down towards her stomach showed the entire length was inside her.

Without warning to the woman below her Ruby pulled out, before thrusting back in with even greater intensity- if she ever had any misgivings about not being fully inside Raven, they were dashed quickly as she felt her balls smack the underside of Raven's womb. She was close and her sperm would be all but secured to impregnate the woman below her- but Ruby's job needed to be finished. She needed to cum. Badly. Her balls were swollen from how much she'd been holding back.

So, with that thought, she reached down and grasped a hold of Raven's two large tits; it soon became a race between the two- to see who would be forced to cum first. Of course, Ruby never lost anything, at all, so to ensure her victory she shifted her grip from encompassing the breasts her hands had been occupied with, and instead pinched the woman's peaked nipples.

The reply from Raven's body was instantaneous.

Raven's entire body seized up as her pussy clamped down on the invader inside it, her orgasm washing through. Using whatever levels of self-consciousness she contained, Raven further enhanced the effect by manually controlling her vaginal muscles to loosen then, all at once, tighten. Ruby literally couldn't stop herself anymore after that. She thrust in as far as she could and felt her balls churning out sperm to be lifted up the shaft and into the womb, her testicles practically vibrating in excitement.

There was silence before Raven and Ruby both began moaning in unforeseen amounts of pleasure. Her balls contracted painfully, before a literal gieaser of cum erupted from her dick. She could be compared to a broken faucet, the white, thick, porridge-like baby batter being pumped out in a seemingly endless rate. Her womb reached capacity all too soon, her stomach ballooning and expanding as she struggled to contain it all. Raven looked down as she felt her stomach distend even more than it already was; she already looked nine-months pregnant and her mistress wasn't even done cumming!

"Mistress! Miss, please, stop!" she attempted to turn her head, but instead felt her entire body being turned- most-likely so that her stomach wouldn't press on the ground and force out any of her cum.

Ruby simply ignored her slave's pleas to stop, reaching down and rubbing her balls as if to coax the cum out; it worked, seemingly, as Raven's stomach seemed to expand even further than that- she looked as though she had a five-year-old child in her womb, it had grown that much! Looking into Raven's eyes she could see the lust and adoration, and Ruby herself lifted a hand and rubbed it over the expanded womb that would soon house her child.

She pulled out of her slave, a few drops of cum leaking out of Raven's stretched vagina- but Ruby sorted that out with an application of freeze Dust. The entrance to Raven's womb was frozen shut and Raven would look like this until Ruby deemed otherwise. Pumping a hand over her large dick to coax out the last of her cum- excess waste that was better put to use outside than inside the womb- Raven soon found her entire body coated in a thick layer of cum.

She would have complained that it had gotten in her hair, but she succumbed to unconsciousness, her hands slowly stroking her expanded stomach.

Ruby just showered, wiped herself off, went to her bed to sleep- leaving Raven on the floor, in a puddle of cum and a womb filled with potent semen.

(^^^^^^)

Cinder removed her eye from the crack in the door- Ruby hadn't closed the door when she began fucking Raven, and Cinder had been passing by the room when she heard the things said. So, feeling curious she watched as her sister filled Raven beyond physical possibilities, undoubtedly impregnating her.

For a brief second, Cinder swapped Raven with herself. Then she shrugged it off, Ruby's offer from a month ago coming to the forefront of her mind as she stalked down the hallway to her own room.

'perhaps, Ruby, you will have an answer sooner than either of us thought'.