Liberty and Death, Chapter 48
Their little tete-a-tete ended up being less plotting and more just kind of bro-ing down, which Cora had really needed. While she was beginning to consider some of these people friends, especially her party members, most of them had added complexities on those relationships that didn’t exactly make them relaxing.
Talking with Fern in front of the fire had felt like sharing a drink with a friend in the living room back home, complete with a warm cat on her lap. Granted, the cat was a shattered girl named Tania, but they ended up serving roughly the same function, and seemed to get roughly the same enjoyment out of it. Up to and including nipping at Cora’s fingers when Tania had decided she’d had enough of Cora stroking her hair, then scurrying off someplace else without so much as a word.
They did talk a little business. Fern was alllll in on the killing Slavers and Nobles aspect of things, and made it clear she expected to be out on the streets taking names instead of inside the walls washing clothes. That was fine by Cora. She didn’t have any big moves planned tonight, just another harvesting run to shore up supplies to bring to Berg tomorrow, so, as they parted, she told Fern to spend the day brushing up on Assault Rifles and her preferred melee weapon, then meet the combat crew in the courtyard at 10.
Honestly, Cora was gonna join her to shoot off some rounds, but Mike was storming into the office just as they were strolling out.
“Cora!” He shouted, and Cora was beginning to suspect Mike was a man who was always in a state of emergency. Fair play, she probably shouldn't ever be exiting that state right now herself, but that’s just not who she was. “The money is gone!”
‘I’m sorry, Cora, I thought you must have sent someone to withdraw it!’ Lux said plaintively.
“Yeah, guys, I know, don’t worry,” Cora said, though her words had a visibly opposite effect on Mike, whose eyes were ready to pop out of his skull like a cartoon.
“Wh-why are you not more worried!?” He asked.
“Did Jocasta catch you up on all the stuff we bagged last night? That alone will be damn near enough to cover the losses,” she said, leading Mike back to the desk and putting on Boss Lady.
“Maybe, provided you are successful in resale, and it doesn’t mean you can just brush off 80,000P in theft Cora!” Mike protested, plopping heavily down into the chair across from her.
“Oh, I’m not fucking ignoring it, I’m just betting I know what happened. Eldridge both underestimated how much I know about the household finances, and showed too much of his hand,” Cora said, letting a slow, scheming smile split her face. Mike scowled at it.
“He showed up here right after that zeroed out. No fuckin’ waaaaaay that’s a coincidence. Then he said the uptown assholes think I’m dead. Who could have possibly started that rumor? Might have even thought it was true himself, if he’s getting fed info from The Chains. I mean, would you have expected me to survive the appearances of the last few days?” Cora asked, raising one arch eyebrow.
Mike’s mouth worked uselessly beneath his moustache for a moment before resolving into a guilty smile.
“Well, no, frankly I would have been shocked that you were still alive even if you’d just stayed indoors, much less getting in shootouts with gangsters and skirmishes with monsters,” he admitted.
“Right!” Cora said, snapping her fingers in victory. “So, chances are that no one else who knew Linnea thought she had long left anyway. If people have been hearing about what I’ve been up to, me getting slimed during some of that would probably sound all but guaranteed.”
“Slimed?”
“Sorry, dumb word, just catching on back home. Killed.”
“Ah, yes, a fair enough assumption, agreed. Slimed, you say?”
“Drop it. So, point being, I’m guessing if we go to that bank, we’ll find out Eldridge was clearing out accounts in his dearly departed half-siblings' names. If it weren’t for superpowers, I wouldn’t even know about the money, so he probably still doesn’t know I know. And I’m very familiar with how easy it is to bully a financial institution with a little bit of your own money and clout, especially if you can spout enough legalese to make it seem like the law is on your side. Shit, maybe the law is on his side, you and Lux weren’t sure, right?” Cora asked.
“No, wait, how–”
“Slavery takes a lot of forms, Mike, non-consensual findom is one of them,” Cora said, hoping that was a deep enough cut from her own world Mike would drop the line of questioning.
“Point being,” she continued, “I’m of a mind to have him keep underestimating me. Let him think I don’t notice the money’s gone. All the while making bank beating ass on Slavers, yeah?”
“I… I mean, yeah, actually, its a good plan, Cora,” Mike said, wheels already visibly turning in his head. “I’ll start running some expected profit numbers on the materials you’ve been collecting, get a bit of a suggested menu for Berg, oh, and see if….”
God, ten of you could run a country, Cora grinned watching Mike’s fine logistical mind get to work. She appreciated the immediate buy-in too. She hadn’t even had to give instructions, Mike was way ahead of her now.
“Thanks buddy,” she said during a lull in his muttering, “Jocasta at the Grove?”
“Hmm? Oh, how the hell should I know!? Ask the house!”
The downside to a man like Mike was that once he got into his work, he was loath to be roused from it. Though that could reasonably be called an upside as well.
Cora patted him on the back as she passed, and spoke into the air; “Jocasata, Lux?”
‘Mmmmmmmm she’s wwaaaaaaterring me Misstressssss,’ Lux all but moaned. Which was a little uncomfortable, actually, but told Cora all she needed to know.
She found the Grovetender sitting next to her namesake in a lawn chair, thumb head over the end of a hose to spray a gentle trickle over this section of the out-of-place verdant space. She also had what really looked like a glass of iced Sangria in the other hand, and Cora nearly had to take a step back in face of the sheer Retired aura.
Which was good, because Aura, in a more literal sense, was exactly what Cora was here to talk to her about.
“So, you’ve been doing the whole System thing for awhile, right?” Cora asked, popping a squat on the lush grass beside her.
“Aye, I have,” she said, taking a sip on her Sangria. Cora could see a bunch of fresh fruit floating in it, and put finding her own cup on the to-do list right after she figured out how to use her new superpower. “Been growing right along with the trees, and about as fast.”
“Know what this is?” Cora asked, pulling out the weird Shimcore they’d pulled out of the Matriarch.
“Mmmm….” Jocasta hummed. “I”m not sure, but Lux has spoken of something called an Aspectation before. This seems to fit the bill.”
“Yeah? Any idea what they do, Lux?” Cora asked the air.
‘Generally! Its in the name. They add powerful aspects to [System Integrated] things. Skills, items, even people sometimes, or [Households], if you’re feeling generous!”
“Heh,” Cora chuckled, “I’m not sure I want a [Household] that feels the way this thing does, Lux, but I’ll keep that in mind if we find more.”
She popped the Aspectation back into her pocket, and moved on to what she’d primarily approached Jocasta for.
“Any insight you’ve gleaned into ‘Aura’?” Cora asked. “I got what’s called an ‘Aura skill’ that should allow me to control mine, and use it to make my team stronger, but, I mean, just trying on my own? No luck at all.”
“Oh, I know, Dearie,” she cackled to herself, gently somehow. “Can feel you all around Luxholme now. Took away the last doubts I had, it did, though you could stand to tone it down a bit.”
“What?” Cora asked, hairs standing up on the back of her neck, “tone down what?”
“Mixin’ with Lux, your aura is, all around us, makin’ us stronger. Imagine you can’t feel it yourself because you’re, well, you,” Jocasta halfway explained.
“I… definitely didn’t realize it’d be something people can feel, beyond just the extra stats,” Cora admitted. “What does it feel like?”
“Hmmmmmmmm…” Jocasta said, taking her time, as was her custom. “Have ye ever had a dog, a big dog, one that was sweet to you but perhaps a tad overprotective? Got between ye and anyone else, barked and nipped if people got too close?”
“No, but I’ve had a Hawk,” Cora countered.
“Hah! Not a bad comparison. It feels a bit like that. I think most people will be attributing it to Lux herself, but I know the difference,” Jocasta explained.
“So how do I change it?” Cora asked, though honestly, overprotective dog wasn’t the worst vibe in the world. It might be annoying, but in a city like Tryinno? It had to feel safer.
“It all begins inside of you, honey,” Jocasta said. “It’s actually the basis of my own skills {Secretive Nature} and {Verdant Heart}. That first one allows me to hide my aura and that of those around me, making us invisible to System inquiry.”
“It DOES!?” Cora gasped, “Is that why Eldridge didn’t say anything about the fact I’m basically a superhero now, stats and skills wise?”
“It is indeed!” Jocasta admitted with no small smugness. “Thought I’d let ye sweat it out a bit first, maybe teach ye a lesson about learning the actual skills at work in your [Household].”
Cora scowled at her, but couldn’t be that mad. She’d been worried Eldridge might have noticed something was up since he’d left.
“Okay, yeah, point taken. Explain how it works though?”
“Stay sitting where ye are, dear, but lean back. Back into the grass.”
Cora did, and as the verdant cushion caught her shoulder blades, she wondered if she’d ever felt something cradle her quite so gently.
“Keep leaning back. Not your body, Cora, deeper than that. Let yourself fall.”
She didn’t really want to fall past the grass. The grass was warm and comfortable. But it was warm and comfortable for her body, and what needed working on was her soul. She let the grass take custody of her body for now, and fell.
Cora had always thought of getting into character as ‘falling into a role’. That was more or less what she did now, but with one key difference; falling into a role involved a handoff, from Cora Casanova to whatever character needed to get onto the silver screen. Cora’s… real? Primary? Self would catch on whatever plane of her mind those characters awaited on, ready to take back control when it was time for the character to return to the world of imagination. No such catch this time.
She fell, back, deeper and deeper, faster and faster into herself, far more than she’d ever been able to do before, despite meditation guides with hourly rates in the five figures. Just when it felt she might lose herself entirely she… well, she didn’t land, but she stopped, face to face with herself. All of herself.
She saw Cadey Carmicheal, Lacey Fortune, Jane Thick, everyone she’d ever been, layered on top of who she was. Without really knowing why, she opened ethereal arms and embraced the wholeness of her being, and the wholeness of her falsehood. As Cora’s soul embraced her back, she returned to herself, laying in the comfortable grass, Jocasta letting just a bit of her makeshift sprinkler spray onto Cora’s face.
What the fuck… that felt more like a shrooms trip then awakening a new superpower, she thought, but as she raised her hand to her face, more hands followed it, just out of phase. Minutes ago, that would have concerned her, but as they caught but up, layering once more underneath the hand occupying this reality, she recognized the last to go. Jane’s hand, with the star shaped scar on the pad of her palm.
Cora breathed in, then she let them out. Jane, Cadey, Lacey, Angela and Lysander, her most iconic roles, raced out from her, forming a pentagon around her. She could feel its borders, more than she could see them. In fact, the more she looked, the less she could see it at all. Jane’s deadpan grin, topped with eyes that glittered despite it all, watched her, as they faded back out of existence. Still, Cora could feel that border. Could push and pull its points. It wasn’t precise, and it wasn’t as easy as breathing, but it was control. Cora Casanova had found her aura.