RavensDagger

  Chapter Seventy-Three - Tucked In

  "Sleep well," Ivil said as she carefully manoeuvred the b up to Twenty-Six's neck. Twenty-Six was blushing still, but she was also very much gring up at Ivil who was just a little worried that the joke had gooo far.

  "This is silly," Twenty-Six said.

  Ivil grinned. "Did you wao read you a bedtime story? Maybe give you a little kiss before you fall asleep? Or would that make things worse."

  "Urgh," Twenty-Six said. She rolled her eyes, which really didn't do much to help her look any more mature. "I'm not a baby."

  "So you don't wao treat you this way?" Ivil asked. "No tug you in, no carrying you around, no more chaste good-night kisses?"

  Twenty-Six shifted in the bed, very clearly not meeting Ivil's eyes. "I don't mind it. I mean, this doesn't feel like it's moving too fast, so it's mostly okay. But don't do it because you think I ."

  "Okay," Ivil agreed. "I'll do it because I like it instead."

  She wasn't sure if that was the right answer or not, but Twenty-Six didn't protest. "Are you going to bed too?"

  "No, I'll talk to Aurora some more. I don't actually need sleep, not unless I want it," Ivil said. "Besides, I didn't pay pyjamas."

  "Heh. I bet you have really nies. You know, Missy loves those."

  "I heard as much," Ivil said. "But no, I sleep in the nude. Good night, little tug boat."

  Ivil left the room with a genuine smile on her face. Twenty-Six's embarrassed groaning was like a balm on her soul. She found Aurora in the living room still. She'd ged into something less formal, which was a shame, Ivil really didn't mind it when Aurora went around in less. The fact that the noble was fortable enough to do so was quite nice as well.

  "How is it going?" Ivil asked.

  Aurora was ying across one of the couches. It was one of those couches with the unfortable is for a person's legs, desigo hold one in p the room's g gravity. Of course, Ivil was giving everyone in the suit the opportunity to feel half a G of gravity. A little more than what they'd experienars and half as much as they'd feel oh. It was healthier than experieng a full gravity when they weren't used to it.

  "It's going well enough," Aurora said as she gnced up from a tablet. "We'll be leaving soon enough. You should get some sleep."

  "I don't ," Ivil replied. "But you do. Care to follow your own advice?"

  "I'm a politi, Evelyn, you should know that doing what we tell others to do is not in our nature." Aurora looked up for a moment. "You truly don't need sleep?"

  "I , if I want to," Ivil said. She moved to the far end of the coud Aurora tugged her legs back to give her some room to sit. "But I rarely do. Sleep feels like a waste. I'll take a few hours here and there, especially when in transit, but it's more for mental recuperation and to pass the time than because I'm tired."

  "I see. Well, I wouldn't mind a night with this gravity, I suppose," Aurora said.

  "Oh, I keep that going while sleeping," Ivil dismissed.

  Aurora blinked. "Most people 't keep an active ability core like that going while sleeping. Not as far as I know."

  "I'm not most people," Ivil said. "Though really, I just have some cores that assist me with managing my others."

  Aurora stared at her for a long time before speaking up. "Gravity cores. Some sort of teleportation, what I deeply suspect is a time manipution core of some sort. Shield cores. Now self-ma cores. Not to mention at least one ons system that was able to take out that Slob man."

  "Are we listing out my suspected cores now?" Ivil asked.

  "Yes," Aurora said. "At least, those you've shown me. You know, I suspected that you were a D-csser inally. It expined Panderghast's respect for you, even though she's clearly at least a C-csser herself."

  Ivil nodded. "She is, yes."

  "But then you pull out more cores and tricks like a magi tugging scarves out of their sleeves. You're not a C-csser."

  "You sound quite certain," Ivil said. She looked down as Aurora pced her feet on her p. A show of trust? Was she even aware?

  "It's on knowledge that cores ge a person. That only makes sehey're physical objects. They need a pce to be. Mine show up on ss as thin strips here and there in my body. As a person accumutes more, the cores take up more space. They add limbs and new ans that allow them to fun. Some people die from taking on too many of the wrong kind of core."

  "Or not enough of the right kind," Ivil said. "You die from hypovolemia if you take on too many cores that require blood circution to fun."

  "Not anemia?" Aurora asked.

  "Anemia is specific to red blood cells. Whiean that it's part of hypovolemia, but it's more plex than that. If you take on a few cores that give you ten more arms without a core that helps replenish blood, or take necessary medical precautions, you might die of blood loss without the loss."

  "Garish," Aurora said. "But, bay point. People with ten or more cores are C-cssers. Sometimes they're obvious, more often than not it's subtle. More than a hundred and it's hard to hide. A hundred additions to any body is going to be visible. Mister Slob is a B-csser, is he not?"

  "Yes," Ivil said. She had a sense for where this was going.

  "He was quite powerful, but his cores ged him in a very obvious way, did they not? Metal limbs, a... corpulent body. He looks more mae than man, but with all of the worse parts of biology still tacked on."

  "He was rather unattractive."

  "A you are very attractive," Aurora said. She wiggled her toes a little as she said it.

  "Why, thank you."

  "It's a statement of fact," Aurora said with a casual shrug. "You look like you were carved by a great artist. You feel warm, and fleshy, at least in those few times where we've touched." She shifted a foot a little, the heel digging into Ivil's thigh. "A you have so many abilities, whiaturally means that you have a lot of cores to empower them."

  Ivil nodded. "I never cimed otherwise."

  "I noticed. So, on knowledge says that a D-csser be subtle about their cores. A C-csser less so. A B-csser is a monster of flesh and mae. Which leaves... A." She spoke the letter with finality. "How many A-cssers are there?"

  "Iire system? A thousand or so," Ivil said. "But don't make the mistake of thinking they all look like attractive humans. Some decide that they don't mind being monstrous. Some lean into it, even."

  "I've heard that kind of story, yes," Aurora said. "But there are just as many stories about beautiful A-cssers."

  "You keep calling me beautiful, if you want. I find it rather fttering," Ivil said.

  Aurora chuckled. "I'm sure. So, why are you helping us?"

  "Haven't I made that abundantly clear?" Ivil asked.

  "You've given me some reasons, finding love and such, but I have... a hard time believing it. An A-csser is the pinnacle of our modern world. You're the equivalent of a pre-core-era billionaire. I 't imagi being hard to find someoractive to woo in that kind of situation, especially since you're charismatiough."

  "Oh, I'm certain I could sleep with all sorts of people," Ivil replied with a shrug. "But I don't just want sex, or for someone who loves me because of my power. I want real, true love."

  "True love," Aurora repeated.

  She went quiet. It wasn't just for a moment. The quiet stretched and stretched as Aurora stared at nothing and sank deeper into her own thoughts.

  "I think I might have wahe same, once," she said at st. "But I don't know if it's real."

  "I've decided that it is," Ivil said easily. "It wouldn't be the first time that I bey to my will."

  Aurhed. "fident, huh? For some reason it's a lot easier for me to accept that you create gravity from nothing than for me to imagine creating true love from the same."

  "It's not created from nothing," Ivil said. "The love, that is. I think it needs a e. A spark. Or maybe that's just inexperiend wishful thinking."

  There was a knock at the door and Ivil turned a gre at it. Someone was there, one of the delegates that she didn't care to remember the name of.

  And she was having so much fun just moments before.

  ***

  RavensDagger

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