Liberty and Death: Chapter 29
Chapter 29
Cora was left in the courtyard, staring at an offal field with Hawk, Kyra, and Tinny. Jocasta and a few other former maids busied themselves near the Grove, pointedly ignoring the corpse party next to them.
Cora dejectedly kicked at the twisted foot of one of the Shimmer addicts, shuddering as the motion sent an unnatural jiggle throughout its entire body.
“What the fuck are these things?” She asked. “When Iain was talking about Shimmer Addicts I expected skinny tweakers with itch sores not…. these.”
“These,” Kyra said, giving the thing the same kick, but with a perverse sort of glee written on her pretty features at its jiggle, “are the reason there aren’t more runaway slaves. Kind of. If I’m believing you, you haven’t been here for a night yet. Nights are different here. The streets fill with Shimmer. Doesn’t do anything, for awhile, but if you’re out in it night after night, and survive the monsters it brings, then….”
She gave the thing another kick.
Cora eyed the sun, beginning to pain the sky in watercolors as it dipped beneath Luxholme’s walls.
“Monsters?” Cora asked. “With these things out there, and actual monsters, how the hell does everyone without armed guards live in this city?”
Even with armed guards, she thought. Not like Dip and Jonesy could even reasonably take one of these things alone.
“Beasties don’t come inside,” Hawk said with a shrug, same way you’d talk about the rain not coming through a roof. “Nobody knows why.”
Cora thought of the odd lines of circuitry inlaid to all of the weird eclectic architecture in Tyrinno. Even going to the Bazaar, in the most deserted and run down areas of Light’s fall they passed, each building had the faint glimmer of golden metal in its walls.
That you?
YEP! KIND OF, I GUESS. THE SYSTEM AS A WHOLE. BIGGER THAN ME. THAN I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE. HOW ALLLLL OF THIS WORKS REALLY.
Okay, we’ll unpack that a bit, but good enough for now.
“Well, small miracles I guess,” Cora sighed, squatting down to take a better look at the Shimmer Addicts. The twisted people had largely avoided the disrespect the more human corpses had undergone, because none of them were really sure where or how to look for anything valuable in them. “So, we got a lot of Shimmer out of these, but is there anything else valuable?”
“Nooooo fuckin’ idea,” Hawk said, “this is the first time I’ve ever been near a corpse. Ran into one or two during night raids, but you avoid ‘em, or if you fight ‘em, you ain’t stickin’ around to grab the body.”
“I’ve never even seen one,” Kyra said, once more staring at the body, “just heard the howls at night.”
IF I MAY MAKE ANOTHER SUGGESTION
Could I stop you?
NOPE!
[{Harvester I}] appeared in a blue box in front of Cora’s eyes.
[{Harvester I}- allows the user to locate valuable monster parts, and provides a bonus to harvesting. Further levels of this skill impart ability to identify parts, tell rarity and quality of parts, as well as identify potential uses.]
You ever gonna let me just pick a skill?
YOU CAN ALWAYS PICK YOUR OWN! BUT HONESTLY, UNTIL YOU HIT LEVEL 5 AND GET YOUR CLASS, MOST OF THEM ARE JUST PIDDLY SHIT. JUUUUUST TRYING TO BE HELPFUL BASED ON THE MURDER AND BODY PART-CENTRIC INCOME STREAM YOU SEEM TO BE SET ON.
….. You know what? I appreciate it, thanks.
She selected {Harvester I} and turned her eyes on the Shimmies (Shimmer Addicts was just too many syllables). Within the torso of each, a red glow bloomed from beneath the stretched and warped skin. Sighing, Cora yanked her knife back out of its sheath on her plate carrier, and got to work.
These things were, if anything, weirder on the inside than the outside. Their flesh was too…. Deep. Not just thick, it was like most of them was just skin, or sort of undifferentiated biological matter. Definitely not the dense musculature Cora would expect from something that could 1 v 1 Hawk.
Still, when they were dead, it cut easy enough. After work that was a little less bloody than expected, Cora reached a hand in and pulled out a softly glowing red gem. Shimmer spun gently inside of it, swirling down to a center point, creating an effect like a galactic plane.
Behind her, Hawk whistled low.
“That’s where Shimcores come from!?” The giantess exclaimed. “Mind they were so expensive. Hard as fuck to get.”
“What do they do?” Cora, glad it was Hawk that had spoken. It was hard to pull her eyes from the beautiful orb, but easier with Hawk. She found her very nearly as entrancing. Monster or not, when she looked up to find Hawk’s animal eyes glued on her, rather than the jewel, it warmed someplace deep.
“Honestly? Not 100% sure,” Hawk responded. “Had a guy in the Wolves that kept a few on him, once I saw him crush one and go apeshit on some fools, but it fucked him up. His face started to twist like one of these guys. That said, he did rip 3 dudes apart with his bare hands, so wasn’t for nothin’.”
“Some of your wealthier cousins wear them as jewelery,” Kyra volunteered. “Never knew what they were, but I recognize them now. I wonder if they only come from Shimmer Addicts, or Monsters too.”
“Good news about the cousins, eh?” Cora said, grinning up at Kyra. She frowned back, clearly not following. “Means we get a payday when we kill em too, instead of just satisfaction.”
Kyra tried not to show Cora her genuine smile, but damn it if the thought of noble executions didn’t drag it out of her.
“You’re really all in on this, aren’t you?” She half whispered, staring at Cora in awe. For once, she didn’t try to look away from her face.
“Hell yeah,” Cora said. “We had these things back home called Billionaires. More or less our version of nobility. Always disagreed with their right to life, and you know what? Now I’m in a place to do something about it.”
Kyra laughed, and caught the Shimcore when Cora tossed it up.
“Go show that to Jocasta, see if she knows anything about it,” Cora suggested. “Don’t know about you guys, but I expect that woman has the knowin’ of many things.”
Kyra nodded, raised the core like a goblet in toast, and Hawk followed her off towards the Grove.
Cora was alone now, save for Tinny, and, she realized, Tania.
The girl had an absolutely uncanny ability for moving without being seen, or maybe just not beiing noticed. She’d been nowhere to be found, but all the sudden was helping Tinny pull a mutilated corpse to a growing pile against the wall.
Hey, Cora thought, just assuming at this point [Big Sys] knew when she was talking to it, any insight on those cores?
While [Big Sys] explained, Cora followed {Harvester I} to extract 3 more from the Shimmies.
OH YEAH
YOU PLAY DARK SOULS?
RIGHT, NOT A NERD, UGH, WOULD BE EASIER IF YOU WERE
THESE ARE LIKE…. EXP SEEDS, KIND OF
THEY’LL HELP YOU LEVEL UP
BUT THEY CAN ALSO DO A BUNCH OF OTHER STUFF WITH [System Integrated] PARAPHANALIA
Yeah? What was Hawk talking about then?
RIGHT
TO NON-[System Integrated] BEINGS, IT WOULD GIVE A HUGE BURST OF POWER THAT THEIR BODIES AREN’T EQUIPPED TO USE
YOU EXPERIENCED THAT A BIT YOURSELF
Those crazy bursts during the fight?
YEP! BECAUSE YOU HAVE ME, YOU WERE ABLE TO DIRECT IT USEFULLY, WITHOUT DAMAGING YOURSELF. OR RATHER, I WAS, BUT YOU WILL BE ABLE TOO. IF YOU DIDN’T, IT’D BE LIKE DOING 20 CYCLES OF STEROIDS AT ONCE
Wouldn’t that kill you?
IT’S NOT AN EXACT METAPHOR
POINT BEING, IT’D FUCK YOU UP, LIKE HAWK’S MANIAC FRIEND. SORT OF SPEEDRUNNING TURNING YOURSELF INTO A SHIMMIE.
Ayyyyy, you picked it up!
ITS A LOT BETTER THAN SHIMMER ADDICT, AND SHIMMER IS A LOT BETTER THAN [Imperial Anima] WHICH IS WHAT THIS STUFF IS CALLED IN MY DATABANKS.
So these can do different stuff with System equipment, huh? Like what?
From behind Cora, there was a flash bright enough to blind her from the back, followed by a lot of exclamations of amazement from the Grove.
“Yoooooooooo Cora!” Hawk’s voice yelled, “you gotta see this!!!!”
Cora, obviously, was already on her way.
The Heartfruit tree was bursting with light. The tiny, inlaid circuits in its bark pulsed with the faint glow of shimmer, refracted a thousand times through its glass-like leaves. It was, without question, the most beautiful thing Cora had ever seen.
“What happened?” She breathed, barely able to speak for the sight. Hawk pulled her close to her side as she approached, and honestly, it just felt right to be held while looking at something like this.
“Not clear on the specifics, but I think the tree ate the Shimcore,” Hawk said, rough fingers stroking absently at Cora’s hair.
Cora pulled back.
Don’tlet yourself be a fucking pet again, idiot, she scolded herself.
Hawk looked at her confused, like a hurt dog, but also angry, which was exactly why Cora was worried.
She wasn’t really sure how to handle that, so she moved onto the matter at hand.
“The tree ate it?” She asked, as the tree apparently entered a new phase of its awakening. The light dimmed, but took on a steady, pulsing glow, little pricks of brightness racing down those circuits to the ground. Slowly, very slowly, that glow was beginning to spread, inundating nearly invisible channels in the ground. Eventually, Cora expected, the walls would glow as well.
“Yeah,” Kyra interjected, inadvertently rescuing Cora. “I handed it to Jocasta, and while she was looking at it, it just kind of… dissolved? It turned into a bunch of light that swirled into the tree.”
Cora looked at Jocasta, who watched the tree with an expression of near-religious joy. Her eyes very literally glowed as she noticed Cora looking at her, and met her gaze. She reached out a hand for her, and Cora took a cautious step forward, accepting it.
Immediately, her vision filled with a stat readout.
[Jocasta Addams][Level 5 Grovetender]
[Str:3]
[Dex6]
[End:8]
[Vit:19]
[Agi:2]
[Int:7]
[Will:21]
[Cha:4]
[Class Actives:{Verdant Heart}]
[Class Passives:{Secretive Nature}]
[Skills: {Garden Mastery III}, {Cooking Mastery I}, {Pain Tolerance II}, {Child Rearing I}]
[Relationship Stats]
[Anger: 0/20]
[Devotion: 48/60]
[Affection: Proud]
“What the hell!?” Cora blinked away the block after reading it, gazing into Jocasta’s softly lambent eyes. “You’re level 5? You have a Class!?”
The cackle Jocasta let out was comically at odds with the beatifically peaceful look on her face, though her eyes did twinkle with mischief, even through their glow.
“Oh yes! Don’t beat yourself up for not noticing. Its right there in my skills.”
“{Secretive Nature}?” Cora guessed. Even focusing on the skill, she was unable to expand it into a description.
“Yes indeed!” Jocasta cackled again, gesturing broadly to the Grove. “Near my Grove, you see, I can hide whatsoever I wish. Even this! Look hard, girl.”
She indicated the tree itself, which, in Cora’s natural vision, still just looked like a gorgeous, albeit glowing, tree. She was, however, getting used to looking at things through the eyes of [Big Sys], for lack of a better term. She pressed into that vision, and smiled.
[Household Node: <Luxholme> Level 0]
[Status: Hibernation (cycling up)
[Entering Status: Active in 3…. 2…. 1….]
[Scanning for Heritage]
[Genetic Identification Complete]
With a voice like a warm hug, the very air within the house spoke to Cora.
‘Welcome home, Linnea Light!’