Liberty and Death, Chapter 80
Chapter 80
Luxholme was packed.
Cora hadn’t really had a good idea of how many people they’d taken out of the Chains’ cages, but in the courtyard, it looked like it was nearly a hundred.
‘Mistress Light! Welcome home!’ Lux said, with the air of a mother during a christmas dinner with a few too many unexpected guests. Cora wondered how she could be shrill, she didn’t have vocal chords.
“How can I help, Lux?” Cora asked, surveying the milling crowd. Unlike their initial rescues, about 13 or so, this wasn’t an amount that could relatively seamlessly integrate into the household.
‘Um… I think this may call for an influx of resources, Mistress,’ the house admitted. Damn. Lux actually asking for something? Things were rough.
Hawk waded through the press, entire chest above anyone’s head.
She waved at Cora, pushing past people like wheat.
“Hey!” She greeted with a big grin, totally ignoring the glares, “what the hell was that I felt earlier? You got a way about you, I’d know it anywhere.”
She punctuated it by grabbing Cora’s entire waist in one hand, pulling her close. Cora uselessly pounded on her chest, but damn if her warmth and strength didn’t feel nice.
“Ugh,” Cora said, giving up and pressing her cheek beneath Hawk’s boobs. “Yeah, that was me. New superpowers. You’re one crazy bitch, you know that? Whup–”
Hawk’s other hand wrapped around her waist as well, lifting her off the ground to look her in the eye.
“I mean, yeah, but what?”
Cora wiggled uselessly, then realized this was a good chance to demonstrate.
She reached out in her aura, Hawk’s proximity making it even easier to copy her strength.
All the sudden, it was easy to separate her arms from her sides, falling to the ground as she broke Hawk’s grip.
“Whoa,” Hawk said, looking at her hands like they’d betrayed her, “that’s not what toys usually do.”
“Fuck you,” Cora laughed. “Thanks for making me swole, though.”
Cora let {Double Act} drop, already feeling the rage and heat scratching at the back of her mind.
She reached out, placing a hand on Hawk’s stomach.
“How do you do it?” She asked.
“What?”
“Feel like that all the time,” Cora asked.
Hawk’s grin fell, and she seemed to shrink a little. Her lips worked at the air, saying nothing, then she spun on her heel and walked away.
“Probably too much to expect, yeah?” Kyra said quietly behind her. “She’s not used to anyone giving a shit what she feels like.”
“Mm,” Cora agreed, pushing it to the back of her consciousness. Actual problems now.
“Lux, where’s Mike?” Cora asked.
‘The office, Cora. I’m afraid he may be panicking a bit.’
“Ah, he’s fine,” Cora said, hoping, mostly, “tell him I’m on my way.”
“Cora!” Mike exclaimed, hands making the tell-tale motions of someone fiddling with a System menu. Cora pushed her vision through into it and joined him. “Thank the gods, these upgrades are too expensive for me to approve.”
“Really? Fuck, I wonder if I can screw with the =Majordomo= settings, I thought the whole point was to have someone who didn’t have limits,” Cora said, looking over the upgrades for Luxholme Mike had pulled up.
There were a few options.
One was room additions, which, as far as Cora could tell, would defy conservation of mass to immediately excavate and finish rooms branching off of the barracks below. 30k each for a room that would comfortably sleep 4, uncomfortably…? More than that. But still, with a hundred people? Cora figured she’d need at least 10, and maybe if she hadn’t just splurged on Cyberware she could afford it, but right now her funds ticker read 127,632P. Not even half of what it would cost for the bare minimum.
Another was expansion above ground, but that was even more expensive, so was an immediate write off.
The third option probably wouldn’t have been viable either, if Linnaeus hadn’t been such a high tier asshole and the worst neighbor imaginable.
[Household Exophagy]: incorporate an existing unclaimed or personally owned structure into your household. Structure must be within 10 yeards of your Household’s perimeter.
Cora wasn’t certain, but she’d bet anything the grid System of Tyrinno’s streets accounted for almost exactly 30 feet.
Hawk might have demolished the rowhomes in front of Luxholme, but the back and sides? They were still standing, and as far as Cora knew, unoccupied.
She hissed in a breath at the price. 100k per structure (it had a size limit but it was enormous), would put her back to within bankruptcy range come payday, but…
Well, she’d yoinked a lot of Matriarch bits, and Berg hadn’t even sold a third of their haul from the Chains attack yet, so her impoverishment would be temporary.
“We’re doing this one,” Cora said, pointing at [Household Exophagy]. “Start thinking about how to organize the newcomers, we’re moving them to the building in the back.”
The upgrade cost 10 whole Shimcores as well, but those at least were something they were no longer at a shortage of. Between nightly monster raids and yoinking a bunch off of dead Chained after the attack, they’d finally gotten all of the OGs integrated and all the rescues that wanted to be. Still had about 20 on hand after all that, too.
Given the value of the shining orbs, Cora had asked Reine to remodel a section of the Armory for storage.
Seeing as it made her workspace look absolutely sick due to a bank of shimmering globes of light reflecting off walls of guns, their [Tinkerer] had been happy to comply.
Reine was not happy right now.
“God damn Cora!” The big woman scolded as Cora slipped through the door, shutting it behind her quickly. “You brought home half the fucking city!”
“I mean, yeah?” Cora answered, walking past her to pop some Shimcores into her inventory space. “They were in pretty much the same predicament your batch was, we weren’t gonna just leave them.”
Reine glared at her, but just for a moment, before her face softened.
“Yeah… yeah I suppose that would be pretty fucked up to expect. But shit, Cora, the rest of us just got comfortable here, and it's still tight.”
“Yep, believe me, I’m aware, its a fucking madhouse out there. Got a plan though,” Cora said, brandishing a Shimcore at Reine. “That’s what these are for!”
Not explaining further since Reine would (hopefully) have everything made clear shortly, Cora marched back out into the Courtyard.
A woman somehow managing to look equal parts steadfast and gracious, waited just outside the vault door.
“Ma’am?” The woman said, and Cora sighed. Maybe best to just get an explanation over with.
“Yes?”
“You were pointed out to us as the head of this house, and… well, first, thank you,” the woman said, but pushed forward before Cora could respond, “but none of us are really sure what happens now. Can we leave? Do we have to leave?”
She grimaced, forcing out the next words; “are we… under new ownership?”
“Yes, no, and no, in that order,” Cora answered, watching the pair relax as she hit them with a 98 [Cha] smile. “You’re free, so far as you can be without knowing where the hell your contracts are. You can leave, but I’m working on getting a place nearby where you can stay, if you want to. I’m… not sure what we’ll do with you if you all do, but we’ve got a number of blossoming enterprises set up here, and I think you’ll be able to find your own way. If you choose not to stay, just tell one of the gate guards, that’s Dip or Jonesy, and they'll let you out, no questions asked.”
Cora realized that the entire Courtyard had gone still, and was now staring at her.
The woman in front of her stopped looking stressed and gave Cora a smirk she recognized.
She’d worn it often enough.
The illusion fell away to reveal Lysander’s fine features, and Lux’s breeze flowed around Cora’s waist.
‘That was a good plan, Cora!’ Lux gushed, ‘I repeated it to everyone, just like you asked!’
Cora scowled at Lysander.
“How did you trick the fucking house?”
The lights in Lysander’s eyes followed their roll.
“I’m a sorceress, dear, and Lux is deliciously gullible. Now, thank me for making you do what needed doing and move along,” she said.
“... yeah, thanks,” Cora sighed. “Lux, broadcast this too.”
She could feel that the house knew she had been hoodwinked, and further feel that she was eager to make up for it.
“Okay, so, you’re all up to speed on the basic situation. As you’ve probably gathered by now, this house is a special place. I can guarantee it is the safest place in Light’s Fall. Soon, I’l be extending that safety to one of the surrounding buildings, where you all will be welcome to stay. I don’t know how you all ended up in the situation we found you in, but you will have protection here. We have bitches tougher than anything the Chains can throw at us, and 24/7 security. I can’t guarantee we won’t be attacked, but I can guarantee we won’t be defenseless. If you don’t believe me, I think I can convince you.”
She reached for Hawk with {Double Act}, and the woman tried to push her away. She couldn’t and Cora borrowed her strength for a single leap over the crowd, landing in the boughs of the Grove’s Heartfruit tree.
The shouts of awe were gratifying, and exactly what she was hoping for.
Cora selected [Household Autophagy] in the upgrade list, and then followed Lux’s winds.
They guided her hands, placing Shimcores like fruit among the branches of the tree. When she’d placed all ten, the Heartfruit tree burst into light.
The Shimcores shone like stars amongst a glowing nebula, but dimmed as their light was torn from them, swirling to feed the tree, Lux’s, own light.
Cora’s vision went black for a moment, before a diagram of Luxholme and the buildings around them. Those out the front gate were greyed out, likely due to Hawk’s indelicate attentions, but the rest were all gre–
No, wait. The one to the west was red. Was it claimed? Something to look into.
Cora selected the rowhomes to the South, out the back gate, and her vision cleared.
The light gathering in the Heartfruit tree split, rushing South, and Cora felt part of herself go with it. It was a stretch, but a good one.
Growing pains.
She felt the home, felt herself suffuse the cold stone of the building across the street, and with that, Luxholme had expanded.