Carry You

The sun started to creep through the window and Auria rubbed her eyes. Night always felt far too short when one slept well. Granted, if one didn’t sleep too well either, it felt too long. There was no real winning here. She always wanted to sleep more, but if she slept too long, she would miss her lessons and such. However, a thrill went through her as she realised what was happening today. She was getting animals! Starlings, cats, a dog,anda parrot. She missed having her menagerie that she did at home, so she absolutely wasn’t going to be overwhelmed by having this many animals. The kittens could keep each other busy most of the time, though she wasn’t looking forward to potty training a puppy. She would’ve preferred to have an adult animal and she knew rescues existed, but she wanted an awakened animal—aura breed,she had to remind herself—specifically because they were easier to deal with than a normal animal. She had only ever had aura breeds during her lifetime; she didn’t know how to cope with or teach a non-sapient animal. It would’ve taken a lot of research and she didn’t want to spend her time researching training methods… She really just wanted to have an animal that she could talk to and play with immediately without having to spend too much time training it. She got ready for the day, showering and getting dressed. She still couldn’t believe just howlongWeiss’ hair was. Granted, it was only a glamor, so it wasn’t like she had to deal with the extra lengthphysically. That did raise a problem, though… If she wanted to get a haircut and make herself look less like Weiss… The glamor wouldn’t allow for it. It was basically a hologram. It was anillusion.The hair wasn’t physical. She personally only had shoulder-length hair… Ugh. She knewexactlyhow she needed to deal with it and she wasn’t happy about it. With a sigh, she forced her hair to grow to Weiss’ length. At least it had been dry when she’d done this… She would have to get aphysicalhaircut. She’d probably have to ask Yang to take her to a salon and hairdresser before they did anything else for the day. Having to play the part of a humanreallysucked. The people here in Vale at least didn’t know how Weiss acted unless they were SDC investors or something and had met Weiss. It was definitely a blessing to have moved here since she didn’t have to play the part of a docile little doll like Weiss was. She still had to be restrained, but not as restrained as she would if she were in Atlas. Yang hadn’t picked up on any strangeness in how Auria acted, so she was thankful for that. Yang didn’t know Weiss which was definitely good… If she had, then the plan would be in shambles. After dressing, she used a spell to pull her hair up into a braid that went down her back. How did Weiss have suchlong hairand deal with it day to day? She had no idea. Although, there was another problem… She had no idea what sort of products a salon here would use on her hair. It could almost definitely cause some sort of irritation to her scalp if someone used a low-end, modern shampoo. Then again, maybe they wouldn’t be offended if she brought some of her. That was probably the best recourse. So she grabbed a small shampoo bottle and filled it with some of hers as well as conditioner. With how long her hair now was, they’d probably go through the entire bottle. Ugh. She was a future dutchess, but that still didn’t mean her stuff wascheap.She’d have to ask Turi to buy her some more. She left her sister a message about it before heading off downstairs to the dining room. Whitley was already there and picking at his food. He sat alone. Auria’s heart went out to the boy, and she sat next to him. “Hey, Whitley.” He looked up. “Oh, hey…” He seemed completely dispirited. She could hardly blame him. His life had beencompletelyupended in the past several days. She was the cause of it mostly, so she did feel some responsibility to try to help him cope with things. He wasn’t too bad a kid, really; he’d just been abused and pretty much brainwashed by Gelé as well as Atlas. It wasn’t reallyhis faultthat he acted like he did. Now that his structure had been ripped away, he hadnothingand was clinging as best he could to what little he had. Poor kid. “I’m going out into town today. Do you think you’d want to come with?” He blinked. “You’re leaving? Why?” “I’m picking up some animals. Two kittens, a puppy, some starlings, and a parrot.” “Whywould you want stupid animals?” Auria sighed internally. Even though she felt bad for him, it was hard to be patient at times. She did understand why he acted the way he did, but it didn’t mean he couldn’t be frustrating at times. She really hoped he’d warm up to the animals as well… He’d never had any pets before. Animals could be sweet and agreatcomfort to people that were suffering. Depending on what happened, her animals may very well take to him and be a comfort. She really hoped that’d be the case. She wanted him to feel better and more comfortable after what had happened. She just… There was no real way to make him feel better after he’d had everything he’d known ripped away from under him in just a couple of days. “They’re not stupid, Whitley; they’re aura breeds. Do you know what those are?” He shook his head and she explained. He frowned. “But animals can’t bethatsmart…” “Just wait. I promise you they are.” It was then that a servant came out and asked what Auria wanted. She wasn’t entirely certain what dishes existed here, so she told him to cook something without meat. Eggs, butter, cheese, and milk were fine, but she just didn’t want to eat meat. The man nodded and retreated to the kitchen. It was so weird to have tospecifyshe didn’t want to eat meat. It was just thestandardfor Koiria. Few fae ate meat. Some did, but they were atinyminority of the population… It was usually falconers that did that, but even then, it wasn’t a guarantee that they’d eat what their birds caught. She wouldn’t force her animals to eat meat-free diets, though; cats were obligate carnivores andneededmeat. She wouldn’t starve them of what they needed for vital nutrients in their diet. That was just straight-upabuse.She would probably have the dogs and cats have prepared meals by the staff. “Why don’t you want meat but you’re okay with dairy products?” “It’s just how fae culture is. We respect the life that comes from animals. To us, all life is sacred. Plants can usually be replanted pretty easily and regrow, unless it’s certain types of trees and flowers. But food plants are usually pretty easy to regrow. Animal life is fairly sacred to us, so we don’t want to take it unless necessary. The one exception is generally falconry.” “What’s falconry?” “Hunting with a bird of prey like an eagle, hawk, or falcon. We do it for sport, though I was never interested in it personally. We have day and night crews comprised of different types of birds, but those lives are seen as necessary.” She explained about day and night crew and how they were usually ravens, caracaras, and large owls. They were also obligate carnivores and needed whole prey in order to really thrive. They needed bones, fur, and flesh, though the fur and bones often got hacked up as a pellet. It depended on the bird, of course. She hadn’t spent much time around the day and night crew or her family’s falconer. She didn’t know too much about it other than some stuff. She knew they ate quail and that was about it. However, she stopped herself when she sensed somebody approaching. It was Yang. The young girl came in and then sat down at the table. “Yo, Weiss. Sup?” It was weird to see someone so casual. It was one thing to be casual with friends and family, but with somebody she barely knew… It was odd. Thankfully, she had already told Yang she was awkward with people which…was the truth. She didn’t really know how to handle human culture and Vale’s complete difference from Misum culture. Lider culture was more casual from what she knew of it due to Blake talking to her, but she really hadn’t experienced it too much herself… She was definitely in some form of culture shock, but it was probablya lotworse for Weiss than it was for her. “Not much, waiting for breakfast.” She paused. “Did you want to go out today or would you rather have someone else help me pick up the animals?” She wasn’t exactly sure how Yang wanted to handle that… She really just wanted to pick up her animals as soon as reasonably possible. She’d have to call the breeders, of course, but she hoped they’d be able to pick up her animals quickly. Although…she did need that haircut first. Ugh. Why did Weiss have suchstupidlylong hair? Shehatedit. Even though it hadn’t been that long since she’d grown her hair out, she hated how much it weighed. Some fae did grow their hair out that long, but it wasn’t the standard… She’d seen a lot of the girls at the dance had pretty long hair, but not as long as Weiss’. Again, Gelé was a man of extremes… He only wanted his girls to have exceptionally long hair to show them off as if they were animals for the show ring. “Although I do need a haircut first…” “Eh? You wanna get your hair cut?” Whitley asked. Auria nodded. “Yeah… Just want a new beginning, y’know?” In this case, it was a major lie. She hated lying, but she was with humans, not other fae. She would’ve been punishedseverelyfor lying in the company of other Misum especially when it was so obvious. But she needed to protect herself too. If she didn’t, then only gods knewwhatwould happen should Remnant find out about the existence of Koiria. Atlas would no doubt want to weaponise fae magic. It might even lead to the rediscovery of Chaos and Order magic which…wouldn’t be good either. Sometimes, lying was acceptable even if her instincts screamed at her that it wasn’t. The fate oftwoworlds hung in the balance here and she was at the crux of it all. “Oh, I see…” “Honestly, we might wanna get someone to take us. I know Vale pretty well, but with as many animals as you’re getting, it’s probably best to just have someone else drive us,” Yang said. Auria nodded. “All right then.” “That’s a lot of animals, though… Do you think you can take care of all of them?” Yang asked. “I think I can.” Auria smiled. “Right now, I really have nothing better to do than take care of animals.” She hated being idle rich, as so many noble fae families were. She wanted to do something constructive with her time, but she wasn’t really sure what to do in this world. She had no real desire to have to relearn everything she had already learned in Koiria. She didn’t want to sit through horribly outdated psychology and psychiatry. She would be here for close to a century, depending on when and how she wanted to fake her death… She already felt so trapped and hoped that she could do it within the next four to five decades. It definitely put a damper on her lessons for magic-related psychology, but catching up wouldn’t be a huge deal in the end… She just didn’t want to spend longer than necessary here. “I mean, I guess you do have plenty of time to figure out what you want to do. You’re only sixteen, right?” Auria nodded, twirling her hair between her fingers. “Yep.” Another lie. She had to build her house of lies very carefully to still be consistent with Weiss’ history. She was just following what Weiss had in her memories. It was definitely hard to not be able to do what she wanted to, but if she strayed too terribly far, people would get suspicious. She felt like she had her hands tied behind her back and that she couldn’t do a damn thing about it. She had to remain as consistent with Weiss as she could and not be her usual hellion self… Honestly, she might ‘die’ in her thirties and take her parrot with her back to Koiria. That was only about a decade and a half away, so it wouldn’t be too long. She would probably have to ‘die’ by suicide, but it was whatever. Even the seemingly happiest people could have suicide seemingly crop of up out of nowhere. She really doubted she’d fall in love with any humans here. They were all but mayflies compared to a fae. She didn’t understand how or why Turi had fallen in love with humans and decided to come to Serlia… It just made no sense to her at all. It would beeonsuntil they saw each other again and, if a fae fell in love with another fae after having been in love with a human, it would definitely make the afterlife awkward… “Yeah that’s plenty of time. Plus, you have basically unlimited resources to do whatever you want to. Isn’t dust your thing, though?” “I’ve definitely studied it a lot, but I’ve also not had a lot of chances to study much outside of it. I was only allowed to study what President Jacques deemed I was allowed.” That was how Weiss thought of him… President Jacques. Not even ‘Father’; just ‘President.’ There was no connection there whatsoever aside from disdain and fear. Of course, Weiss had desperately wanted his approval, but that didn’t mean she evergotit. Gelé had constantly moved the goalposts for his approval and she would never get it… Well, he was dead now, so she would never have to worry about that. The Belladonnas would treat Weissexceptionallywell which she was glad for. It’d probably just take time for Weiss’ barriers to come down and for her to not be soparanoidaround them. “I really want to try things outside ofjustdust.” “That does make sense. You have freedom here in Vale.” Yang grinned. “After we eat, let’s head out.” Auria nodded. “Sounds good!” Despite her awkwardness, Yang was pretty easy to get along with which she was glad for. Auria didn’t always get along with people right off the bat. “Did you want to see the city with us, Whitley?” He pouted. “I should be in lessons.” “There are a lot of lessons that only life can teach you,” Yang said. “Academic learning only gets ya so far.” “Books have everything you need to know,” Whitley said. Yang shook her head. “No, they don’t. I promise you that there are a lot of things you can learn only through experience. Like driving a car or a motorcycle. You can study all the road manuals you want, but until you can get behind the wheel, you won’t know what it’s like to handle a machine. Animals and people too. Read all the behavioral and psychological manuals you want, but it’s no substitute for actuallyinteractingwith them. Plus, videos can teach you a lot that videos can’t.” Whitley frowned. “Why would I want to watch videos? Books are fine on their own…” Yang shook her head. “Yeesh, you guys are living in the stone age… Videos show you things in realtime and you don’t have to imagine them versus having to try to figure it all out yourself.” “I still don’t get the point.” Yang sighed and shot a glance at Auria. Yang wasverysorry to Auria for having to deal with this. Even without soul reading, it was obvious what Yang was thinking. “Our worlds are just small,” Auria said. “You seem to be handling things a lot better than he is,” Yang pointed out. “I mean I have had unfettered access to a scroll for years while he hasn’t.” That wasn’t a lie in the slightest. Well, at least when it came to Weiss. She was lying about howmuchWeiss had used it to look stuff up. But it was a good enough reason for her to not be quite as shocked about stuff as Whitley was. Having access to information really changed people’s opinions on the world especially when theysought it out.Weiss was a knowledge seeker, that much was apparent. However, she hadn’t really sought much outside of what was within her restricted little bubble. But it wasn’t like Yang knew that. She felt bad for lying to Yang’s face, but there wasn’t much she could do about it. She might eventually be able to trust Yang, but for now, it was better to let her believe she was talking to Weiss than to a fae. Yang didn’t seem the type to tell people secrets, but she didn’t know that for sure… She just had to keep things as low as possible. Yang nodded. “Yeah, that does make sense… Having access to information does change people and their opinions on stuff.” She looked at Whitley. “Would you like any pets? Since Weiss is getting a bunch of them.” He blinked rapidly and moved his head back and forth in short bursts. “What? Why would I want to take care of anything? I’d probably justkillit.” “I think you’d be fine to get something too. Maybe we could stop at a pet store or something and see if anything clicks with him.” Yang grinned. Auria smiled back. “That’s not a terrible idea.” “Uh… I really think I’d just kill something…” Whitley said. “I think it would be good for you.” A voice came from the doorway and Auria looked over. Winter stood there, hands clasped behind her back and hair up in her perfect bun. Not a hair out of place. “I think a pet or two may do you good, Whitley.” Whitley frowned. “But I haven’t done any research on anything! Isn’t it a bad idea to get something on impulse?” Well, at least he recognised that animals were living things to some degree. He was right; getting an animal on impulse was a very bad idea. Still… He had never known the connection that could exist between person and animal. She wasn’t sure he’d even ridden a horse… She felt bad that she’d had to leave her horse behind in Atlas, but import laws were pretty strict and he needed to go through a bunch of health exams and quarantine before he could be imported to Vale. It was frustrating, but she had to abide by the laws. She could easily go get him, but it’d raise a lot of questions from those outside of the small circle that knew who she truly was. A horse just appearing overnight… She couldn’t afford that. “That is fair, but…” Winter got into the bag on her shoulder and pulled out a thick folder, then put it on the table. “Here. There are care guides for various animals in there. From snakes to tarantulas to dogs to cats to different types of birds… I think a pet would be good for you. And I’ll be purchasing some aura breed horses as soon as is reasonable as well. Weiss, I’m working on importing Neige, but it will take some time. Whitley, did you have a horse?” “Um, I only rode one a couple of times… Lessons weren’t a constant thing for me,” he said. “So even if you do have a specific horse, you aren’t attached to one… Good to know. I’ll see about tracking down some aura breeds. Miss Xiao Long, would you be interested in horseback lessons?” Yang blinked. “Uh, I never thought about it… But I mean I’m super kinesthetic, so I’d probably enjoy it.” Winter nodded. “Very well. I’ll get one for you and your sister as well. I hope you have a good time while you’re out today. Was there anything you needed aside from picking the animals up?” Auria told Winter about wanting a haircut and Winter nodded. “Very well. I’ll have a driver go to a salon with you. I’ve already looked up various salons and I think I found a good one.” Auria smiled. “Thank you, Winter.” Really, she was glad. She had no real idea how to look up salons or anything like that. Koiria simply didn’t have that sort of technology like this world did. They had long-range communication devices and types of film on magical mediums, but nothing like the CCTS, scrolls, and such where one could simply view what other people said. It was very strange to think that they could find stuff from halfway across the planet with a simple click… It really was mindboggling to Auria. “It’s no trouble, Weiss.” With that done, they fell silent as they ate. When done, Auria smiled at Yang and Whitley. “Let’s go!” She raced out toward the garage, excited to expand her little family and bring some familiarity back to the house.