Amber— recently former Fall Maiden

Amber was tired.

She lay on the side of a nameless dirt road, battered and bruised, but that was nothing compared to the feeling of having her soul partially ripped out. The sound of combat filled the air, weapons clashing, Aura and armor blocking hits, guns firing and flames washing over swathes of undergrowth — narrowly missing the spot where Amber lay.

There was nothing physically stopping her from standing up and hobbling to safety. Her bones were unbroken and she hadn't bled that much, the arrow in her back had barely scraped her spine! It was the wound to her soul that left her gasping. It felt like her will was bleeding out of a ragged hole in her chest, leaving her mentally weak and disoriented.

She would just have to trust that Qrow, the bodyguard Headmaster Ozpin had sent to escort Amber to Beacon, could handle three skilled opponents at once.

Amber was tired. Had been tired for three years, ever since her grandmother had died and passed the power of the Fall Maiden, and guardianship of their village, to her. Along with literal millennia of responsibilities and expectations. And—

A bolt of flame shrieked as it passed over her head to shatter a tree trunk a dozen yards away.

— ancient enemies that would try to kill Amber for the power her family has safeguarded for generations.

Amber was tired. She was not even twenty years old and was going to die in a stupid way in a stupid place for a stupid reason. She'd had to drop out of school and abandon all her plans when her grandmother died— she was never supposed to be chosen as the Maiden, or at least not this soon. I haven't even done more than kiss a boy...

Her eyelids were growing heavy, and her frantic breaths were slowing until they were almost unnoticeable. Amber's eyes nearly closed forever, before a glint of gold caught her attention.

A scant two feet from where Amber had collapsed, sat a golden lamp in vacuo style. It shimmered in a way that called to her, even seemed to soothe the ache in her soul. Designs whirled and spun on its surface, almost like writing, but nothing she had ever seen before.

It was beautiful.

Without really making a decision about it, Amber put her hand on the Lamp and tried to pull it closer, her weak fingers slipping, rubbing against the smooth metal.

Her eyes closed and her mind slipped away as mist poured from the Lamp's spout...