A/N: Alright I've been working on this in the background for some time now, realistically I should probably not be posting it now, since chapter 2 isn't done yet but oh well. I finally thought of a name I liked so I'm posting it.

Fair warning this will likely take a long time to update (just like everything else I write)

In service of the Queen

Chapter 1: The Draught of Life

Vale.

Vale was… different than most of the other kingdoms, firstly by the simple fact it wasn't really a kingdom, as it wasn't presided over by a 'King' or a 'Queen' for that matter. The city-state of Vale was presided over by a merchant council with the head of the council being the only permanent member of the council. That is permanent by the way, the same man has sat at the head of the council chamber for over 400 years, the patriarch of the Schnee house of vampires. Alcranz Schnee heads the council; he decides which merchants oversee which aspects of running the city and the small surrounding farmland. The Schnee house has dozens of members although most are brought into the family one way or another the only members of the Schnee bloodline in Vale are Alcranz himself, his wife Wenze, then their three daughters, the eldest Valen, the middle Weiss, and the youngest Winter. Besides that there are many "relatives" that have joined the family through the bonds of vampirisim, as well as a large staff of servants, some enthralled by vampiric bites and some not.

The city itself is located at the northern end of a large valley on the shore of a large inland sea, the mountains surrounding the valley being the limit of the small city-state domain. The valley is filled mostly with expansive fields of golden wheat to make bread for the city's inhabitants, although at the mouth of the valley there are large plots of land for domestic animals like cattle and sheep that provide meat, milk, and other assorted goods, while land near the sloping mountainsides is either terraced for rice or covered in olive orchards or vineyards. The mouth of the valley has the only road connecting the city to the rest of the world and is constantly bustling with merchants heading to the city's large trade port to sell or ship their goods. The road is guarded at the mountain pass by a large stone fortress carved out of the dark stone of the mountain itself, this fortress controls the gate and acts as the habitation for the vast majority of the city's military. Vale again is surrounded on the landward sides by tall well maintained stone walls with large round turrets spaced along it, the top of each adorned by large ballistae or trebuchet. The bay that makes up Vale's prosperous merchant port is flanked on either side by dozens of towers and alcoves carved into the faces of the mountains on either side of the mouth of the bay again adorned with siege weapons to deter any would be invaders. The city proper surrounds the Schnee castle built atop a small hill snuggled against the mountainside with the vast majority of its rooms hewn out of the mountain it rests against. Surrounding the castle is another short wall giving the castle a modest courtyard for the purpose of maintaining a stable and a smithy. Beyond the walls of the castle makes up the merchant district, thus called because the modest stone houses are inhabited primarily by the small intermediate merchants of Vale, beyond that in the center of the valley's dip is the large district commonly referred to as 'Trough' because of its location at the low dip of the valley center. This district is filled with tightly packed wood houses; it is inhabited by the lower end of the cities inhabitants meager merchants, fishermen, low craftsmen and the like. The area surrounding the harbor is known as 'Bilge' it is the city's poor district inhabited by dock workers, sailors, and other common laborers as well as the poor and homeless. Finally the far end of the city is known as DawnGate because the mountain side is bathed with the morning light while the keep is shadowed beneath the opposite mountain, here live the city's great merchants in extravagant manses and villas. And here is where the hopes of one young lady lie.

It is not uncommon for young women seeking to gain employment as servants to mill about in the markets of DawnGate looking for merchants in need of maids or cooks. One girl in particular, dressed in red and black with a sturdy red cloak about her shoulders, made her way through the crowd trying to find one of the city's merchants.

"I've got all day to find a job before Yang gets home, today I'll find someone and I'll be able to help Yang pay the bills." Ruby thought to herself as she pushed her way through the crowd.

Ruby and her sister lived in a small house in Bilge, their father was gone for most of the year working as a sailor on the merchant vessels leaving early in the spring and not returning until the beginning of winter when the seasonal trade routes were completed, their Uncle Qrow watched over them most of the time, he was an officer for the city watch as a drill instructor, and often helped support the girls. Yang worked as an apprentice to a blacksmith in Trough and from that they were able to scrape by, Yang had insisted that Ruby not get a job especially as a servant because of how maids were treated by some of the merchant houses, but Ruby was old enough to see the strain Yang's work put on her. Not only her work but also the lost sleep doing extra work, and the meager rations she thought Ruby didn't notice so that she could have enough to eat.

Honestly Ruby was sick of being babied, she was old enough to help, and so for the past week Ruby had left for the markets after yang had gone to work trying to find employment in one of the merchant houses.

She pushed her way through the crowd, her short stature limiting her vision to her direct surroundings, when suddenly there weren't people in front of her. Startled, she tripped falling into the clear area she had stumbled into. Picking herself up and dusting herself off she looked around, standing there not ten feet from her was Weiss Schnee and a pair of house guards. Ruby had accidentally stumbled into their path.

Weiss was dressed in a beautiful and simultaneously practical dress, the top was a coat almost looking like a military uniform jacket while a skirt billowed down from the silver embroidered white leather belt around her waist that had her rapier hung from it. Her hair was tied up into a single asymmetrical ponytail held in place by a small tiara, letting her alabaster hair flow down to her waist.

"You there Mo-" One of the guards began to shout and Ruby realized she had taken at least several seconds to just stare, but Weiss stopped him with a raised hand.

"I-I'm terribly sorry, I just tripped, I'll get out of your." Ruby began blabbering as she tried to back into the crowd to no avail.

"Don't. Come here." Weiss' voice was even and full of command.

Ruby shrank before the powerful vampire but obeyed stepping before the white haired girl, who examined her with crystal clear blue eyes, slit pupils scanning her carefully.

"Are you seeking employ as a maid?" Weiss asked after a moment.

"Y-yes." Ruby stuttered out, her head down focusing on her boots.

"I am in need of a personal attendant."

Ruby snapped her head up, was Weiss Schnee really offering her this? "Yang will certainly kill me if I take this job she's never liked the vampires, and the castle could be dangerous…" Ruby looked to the heiress' face where two sharp fangs poked from beneath her upper lip. "It's not unheard off for a vampire to drink someone to death… but it's the only job offer I've gotten in a week…"

"A-are you offering t-to hire me?" Ruby tried to look the heiress in the face but the best she could manage was staring intently at her stomach.

"Yes, you seem perfectly capable for what I require." The heiress responded. "It pays well I assure you."

Ruby gulped, the vampires have been known to occasionally hire maids merely to drink of them, and while usually not to a point of lethality, one could also be enthralled, bent to the vampire's will through a magic infused bite and would then be compelled to obey their every whim until released from the spell. Many of the castles servants were enthralled for simplicity, and for the most part lived normally but it could just as easily become a life of serving her mistresses desires.

She took a deep breath and bowed her head. "G-gladly m-mistress."

Weiss smiled slightly. "Good that brings my visit to the market to a thankfully quick close, come now what is your name?"

Ruby fell into step just behind Weiss as they turned around facing the keep in the distance. "Ruby, Ruby Rose."

Weiss nodded. "Very good, now then you're going to be my personal attendant, I'm tired of having to go searching for servants just because I need a message run across the castle, or something stupid like that. Your job will be to wait around in case I need something."

Ruby nodded and waited for further instructions but she was silent. "Is… is that it?"

Weiss continued walking and replied evenly. "Yes, I merely require someone to do the odd bit of legwork I need done, I expect the majority of your duties will be fetching me drinks from the castle cellar." Weiss paused for a moment glancing back over her shoulder. "Why? Were you expecting something else?"

Ruby quickly looked away blushing lightly. "I… I guess I didn't know what to expect."

Weiss held her gaze on Ruby for a few moments longer before turning back. "We just need to see Glynda now to get you officially on the staff roster.

Ruby sat in a padded chair in front of a large dark wood desk, behind which sat Glynda Goodwitch, a vampire under the employ of the Schnee family for secretarial work. Her small office was filled with hundreds of small drawers, sheaves of documents piled precariously high in some places, and a glass front cabinet filled with quills and bottles of ink.

"So you understand the contract?" Glynda asked referring to the document Ruby had been reading for a few minutes.

"Yes, I just need to sign?" Ruby asked looking up from the document.

Glynda nodded opening a drawer behind her desk and pulling out a special quill, feathered in black with a gleaming silver tip. "It is traditional to sign in blood."

Ruby took the quill noting that its point was indeed sharp and clean, she nodded and pressed the sharpened quill into her palm until a drop of crimson blood welled up around it. She then signed her name across the bottom of the contract, doing her best to keep it neat.

Glynda took the quill and the contract stowing away both before nodding to Weiss who had been standing to the side of the room waiting. Ruby stood and faced her briefly glancing down at her still bleeding palm.

Weiss noticed and pushed herself away from the wall. "Give me your hand."

Ruby nodded holding out her injured hand palm up, Weiss took it in her own and Ruby didn't fail to notice how smooth but strong that hand was. Weiss bent and pulled Ruby's hand towards her, Ruby's heart thumped with a sudden thrumming excitement as Weiss ran her tongue over the bead of blood on her hand.

Ruby's palm was smooth and soft but Weiss could feel the muscles beneath the skin as well, she ran her tongue over the small drop of blood hardly even thinking of it, but the taste exploded across her tongue and a blossoming warmth spread through her. The taste was like nothing she had ever experienced before and the strange warmth it elicited excited her, she was filled with a powerful urge to bend Ruby over the desk and sink her fangs into her right there, and then maybe something more…

"Miss Weiss?" Glynda's voice broke through the fog that had filled her mind, if only briefly.

Weiss looked up to Glynda and it took all of her considerable composure to reply quickly. "Is… Velvet here like I asked?"

Ruby let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding, the look in Weiss' eyes had bored straight down to her core, it had paralyzed her but she couldn't quite say if it was from fear or… excitement. There had been a primeval rush in that look, something that sparked a deeply primal urge within her, but whether the urge was to run for her life or throw off her clothes she couldn't decide. She wanted to believe that it had been fear, vampires were powerful, dangerous, and mysterious, she should be afraid, but then why could she not convince herself it had been fear?

"Yes, she should be waiting for you in the hall." Glynda replied.

"Thank you Glynda." Weiss replied stepping out of the small cluttered office followed quickly by Ruby.

Another servant was standing in the hall, a rabbit Faunus girl dressed in maids attire. "Velvet." Weiss addressed her simply.

"Yes Miss Schnee?" Velvet replied stepping closer.

"This is Ruby, she's my new personal attendant, I'd like you to show her the important parts of the castle, I will be in my study, bring her there when you're done." With that Weiss walked off down the hallway.

Velvet nodded turning to Ruby with a smile. "Follow me. I'll be showing you the most important parts of the castle for servants like us."

Ruby nodded and followed after, glancing back over her shoulder at the retreating form of Weiss.

The castle truly was beautiful, the large hallways were lit from hundreds of small arrow slit windows located high on the walls, the floor had thick padded carpets stretched down their center, and the walls were decorated with various objects from weapons and armor on plaques to portraits and banners.

Ruby followed Velvet out of a pair of thick oak doors into the castle's modest courtyard, mostly consisting of wear-worn dirt but a few patches of green grass sprouted up where people rarely tread.

"On the right there are the stables, Yatsuhashi is the stable-master talk to him if Miss Schnee sends you to ready her horse." The stables consisted of a long low building made of wood built directly against the keep's walls, to the right of the long row of stalls was a small cobblestone building with a slate roof that Ruby assumed was where Yatsuhashi lived.

"On the left there is the blacksmith." Velvet motioned to a large open air workplace filled with tools, workbenches and anvils, the back of which was dominated by a large stone forge. Again this was built right against the keep walls with its roof slanting away from the walls to keep the smithy dry, and was again accompanied by a small cobblestone building. "We currently don't have a blacksmith as the last one retired, Miss Schnee is actually in the process of finding a new smith, so you probably won't need to be sent here for a little while at least."

Heading back into the castle they passed a pair of large double doors that were left open. "This is the main dining room, Master Schnee also meets his council here, and you'll probably attend dinner with Miss Schnee to serve her."

Ruby noted the location in her mind and continued building a map of the castle in her mind; it was not somewhere she wanted to get lost in.

Next they came to a pair of simple wooden doors recessed back into a small alcove to hide them from immediate view. "On the left are the kitchens the chefs there will give you anything Miss Schnee sends you for, on the right is a staircase leading down to the wine cellar, Ren tends the cellars and will retrieve anything you are sent for."

A few short minutes later they arrived before a large pair of dark oak doors emblazoned with the Schnee snowflake crest, this one slightly different than the others sharper and surrounded by small triangles, Weiss' personal emblem.

"This is Miss Weiss' study, her bedroom is attached." With a bright smile Velvet left walking down the hallway.

Ruby watched her go before opening the heavy door, closing it behind her she looked around. The room wasn't exceptionally large but the high vaulted ceiling made it feel larger than it was, the walls were covered with towering bookshelves, and another set of shelves were spaced away from the walls creating two hallways along the side of the room that Ruby couldn't see into. At the opposite end of the room there was a massive three sided desk sitting in front of a large cathedral-like window that looked out into the valley along the mountainside. The desk was covered with relatively neat sheaves of paper, ink, quills, and other assorted clerical supplies; next to the desk was a case with several swords emerging from it. Finally, Weiss was leaned against the front of the desk looking out the window.

Weiss looked back over her shoulder at Ruby, her face cast in shadow against the light of the window behind her only led to enhance the vampiric glow of her eyes, a piercing ice blue with a crimson red rimming her slit pupils.

"Come here." Weiss spoke with a commanding voice, quiet and calm but controlled.

Ruby moved almost without thinking, obeying the commanding tone, walking across the plush dark green carpeting until she came around the desk. Weiss looked sidelong at her before moving in a blur, pinning Ruby to the desk, the vampires' body pressed against her holding her there while one hand rested at her waist the other gently cupping her cheek. Ruby only had time to suck in a short breath as Weiss' eyes locked with her own.

"Why does your blood excite me like this?" Weiss asked as she gently traced her fingers along the red girls jaw. "One little drop and all I can think of is sinking my fangs into you." Weiss' hand moved along her jaw to cup the back of her head, delicate fingers twining into her dark hair as Weiss' eyes bored into her own, her face close enough for Ruby to feel her breath ghost across her skin. Ruby's heart thumped and she barely dared to breathe.

"Are you afraid?" The vampire asked her feeling the pulse quicken beneath her fingers.

"No." It was almost a whisper as it passed her lips, but truth.

Emotions roiled within her; surely this vampire was going to bite her, to drink from her, why then was she not afraid but instead… excited, flushed with warmth as this beautiful vampire pressed against her.

Weiss pulled her head slightly to the side better exposing her neck as the vampire lowered her mouth towards the soft flesh; placing a gentle kiss on the warm skin before opening her mouth wide and finally sinking her fangs in with one smooth motion.

Ruby gasped as her vision went white, four sharp pinpricks of pain quickly melted into a spreading heat that rippled over her skin from the warm lips pressed against her. Her hands wrapped around the white girls back holding her close as she drank, too focused on the strange sensation she lost her balance and they both fell back onto the desk.

After a few more thick swallows Weiss' fangs parted and Ruby could feel her tongue running greedily over the small punctures for every last trace of the crimson elixir she sought. Ruby panted, she was warm and a few beads of sweat clung to her as Weiss moved away from her neck looking back into her eyes as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

They stayed like that for a while, before Weiss blinked finally breaking the eye contact, a calm returning to her person, she helped Ruby off the desk.

"Thank you Ruby." Weiss said simply.

Ruby could only blush and look away with a slight hum acknowledging the gratitude.

Weiss walked over to the large window looking out as the sky began changing from a bright blue to hues of orange as the sun began setting. She lifted one arm above her head grabbing her elbow with her other arm she arched her back stretching before letting out a contented sigh, turning back to Ruby with a slight smile on her face.

"Thank you Ruby, that's all for today, I'll see you tomorrow." Weiss said the slight smile still on her face.

Ruby bowed slightly before making her exit leaving Weiss alone with her thoughts.

Weiss felt good, a comfortable fatigue rested on her as she moved into her bedroom and began preparing for bed. She would usually get in bed feeling tired, worn out from the day's activities, but today a comfortable sleepiness weighed on her eyelids.

She slept better than she had in a long while.

A/N: Well there we go, I'd love to hear what you think of it thus far. I've paid careful attention to including a lot of detail, this is kind of a practice in it and I hope of done a decent job of it.

Until next chapter.