Carry You

Auria looked at herself in the mirror. It was…strange to not see her own face looking back at her. Honestly, she had been avoiding it because it was so offputting. It was definitely causing some level of dysphoria. She did look similar enough to Weiss, but the contours of the face were not what she was used to. She wished she could drop the glamor when in Weiss’ room but she couldn't. Weiss’ clothe wouldn’t fit her due to the height difference. Maybe once they got to Vale they could get some loose-fitting clothes that fit. The weirdest part of all of this to her, though, was the clothing. She felt practically naked due to how few layers there were between her and the world. Even the formal gown she was in was only a couple of layers. How did humans wear so little clothing yet remain warm in Atlas? There was heat, at least, but even so… Layers helped protect the skin from the elements. A knock came on the door and Auria sighed. “Time to get this show on the road, I guess.” She was looking forward to messing with the awful upper class to some degree, but she wanted to be in Vale already. She felt like she was dying here in Atlas. It was more suffocating than even Lider society. How had Weiss survived for so long in the awful place? She answered the door and saw Winter in a full suit. Auria raised an eyebrow. “Shouldn’t be in something a little more appropriate?” In general, only men wore trousers in Koiria. Women did while riding horses or pegasi, but that was about it. Well, and if they were falconers in the field. It did feel strange to see a woman in pants outside of those particular circumstances. Winter shrugged. “It’s now my event. Mister Gelé might have set it up, but it belongs to menow. And anybody that tries to control me can be damned.” Auria shrugged. “Fair enough.” This was a different world with different rules. Auria had no stock in the SDC so who was she to try to control what she wore? Live and let live was kind of a Misum thing to some degree… As long as people weren’t hurting others and following manners, they cold generally do what they wanted. Winter offered Auria her arm in the way a man would. That was definitely odd, but she wrapped her arms around her ‘sister’s.’ “So why exactly are you doing this?” Hopefully it felt like a fair question. There was still a lot that Auria didn’t know about the human world. She’d never seen a woman escort another woman in Atlas as far as Weiss’ memories went. “Would you rather be escorted by your dead fiance’s little brother?” Auria made a face. “Please don’t tell me I have to remarry like that.I know marriage contacts are a thing but…” “The family is pushing for it unfortunately. But I’m not accepting offers for any sort of contract for you. I can’t imagine you’d be happy trapped in a marriage to some asshole that wouldn’t listen to her.” Auria shook her head. “That sort of thing is illegal where I’m from.” She could honestly have Winter prosecuted under fae law if she tried to force a marriage contract on her. There were some pretty famous court cases of human of humans being taken from Serlia to Koiria for prosecution. Though those were the days when the two realms engaged in trade on the regular and both races could travel pretty openly. Not that she wantedto prosecute Winter. And she knew the woman wouldn’t put her into an arranged marriage. Winter clearly wanted nothing to do with marriage herself, so why would she force a relative stranger into one? She did get into her small clutch and pulled out a pearl, then pressed it into Winter’s hand. “Here… This will let you talk to her. I dropped by Blake’s and she gave this to me.” She kept her tone hushed and low. Servants would be able to overhear and she knew they liked to gossip. She had to be careful when out in public like this. “I’ll teach you how to use it later.” She felt Winter’s soul tighten and she gave a small nod, then slipped the pearl into her pocket. “Thank you.” How much relief but it have been to be able to contact with her little sister now? She couldn’t imagine… She’d never lost contact with Turi even when she’d been in Mantle… “No problem.” She had to drop by Blake’s to give them Weiss’ planner. With everything so topsy turvy, she wouldn’t be needing it. She would have virtually nothing to learn form the teachers. She was so much older than any of them and had invested so much time and effort into her chosen field. With all of the broken lines of knowledge on Remnant, they had absolutely nothing on fae science. It was to the point they could fully balance neurotransmitters with magic and could almost completely bypass medications. “By the way, Winter, I hope you don’t mind me causing a bit of a ruckus.” Auria smiled. Weiss was known as a pretty little doll wby the upper class, but she wouldn’t allow them to push her around. Considering she was once again an eligible bachelorette, the guy would try to get close to her. She knew it. People like Atlassians could be way too predictable and would do anything they could to move up in ranks. A lot of the lower nobility tried to marry up so she could see this coming a mile away. “Have fun.” “You won’t try to stop me?” Auria looked up at Winter. This might be considered dangerous or reckless, two things Winter had always warned Weiss against. Yet she was willing to let Auria potentially turn a big chunk of the upper class against them? She felt Winter shrug. “I hate everything these leeches stand for. I’ll be making enemies of most of them soon enough anyway, so go have some fun.” Auria’s eyes glinted. “Oh, I will.” Would she ever. She would leave Atlas with quite the bang before they left for Vale tomorrow. These suckers wouldn’t even know what they were in for. They would be expecting sweet, demure little Weiss. In reality, they were poking a sleeping dragon. Oh, this would be fun. Eventually, they arrived at the grand ballroom and the herald announced their arrival. Geeze, some things apparently changed just as much as they didn’t. Wasn’t the nobility supposed to have been abolished along with the monarchy? This was literally no different than the events her family hosted. Weiss was basically a dutchess in terms of wealth and power. At least Winter would be putting that power to gooduse for the less fortunate people… Auria wished she could get her fellow nobles to see serfs as people, but there was no point… She doubted she could get these Atlassian assholes to see the lower classes as people… People high in power only cared about themselves and protecting their asses and power. She did know a pretty major way to shake this party up, though… She slipped to the women’s side of the hall, mingling and engaging with the usual smalltalk. She knew enough based on Weiss’ memories to keep up with it. It was incredibly mind numbing though. Mostly talk of needlework, sometimes art or music, maybe children if a woman wasn’t completely broken. But she could see and sense a fair few women on the outside of the little bubble whose souls had basically retreated. Poor things. They were almost entirely broken thanks to the abuse from their husbands—mental, emotional, physical, and sexual. She wished she could prosecute them for these heinous crimes. As the opening conversation dwindled into dance, Auria looked at one of the other women. Weiss didn’t have friends but she at least knew a lot of them by name and face. This would be a bold move as far as Atlas was concerned, but it wasn’t like it was uncommon in Koiria. “Hey, Mylene, would you like to dance?” The girl blinked, purple eyes confused. “Why are you asking me? I know your fiance passed away, but shouldn’t you be asking his brother? This is really inappropriate…” Auria smiled. “Actually, I read today that in Vale, two women can dance together. I thought I’d give it a try.” This was the easiest way to get Atlas shocked to its core before going fully throttle. Of course, this was pretty shocking for any ‘proper’ Atlassian… “That…sounds really inappropriate. I don’t think we should let Valen influence what we do. It’s a really corrupt country…” Like Atlas wasn’t? Keeping kids locked insidetheir rooms so they couldn’t move around was pretty fucked up. Thankfully, the lock had really been no match for her magic. Most locks would be useless here on Serlia since there were no protections against magic… “I think it sounds fun.” A girl with blue hair and pink eyes walked over, a warm smile on her face. “Oh, Anika, butt out! Nobody invited you!” Mylene glared at the girl who looked down. “It’ sno worry. Would you like to dance?” Auria walked over to Anika who perked up. From Weiss’ memories, Anika was about a year younger than Weiss herself. She wasn’t engaged yet, but it probably wouldn’t be long until she got paired with a man… Girls were reallyencouraged to be wed and have their first children by nineteen.. Anika smiled and nodded. “Like I said, it sounds fun!” She extended a hand and Auria took it. She smiled to herself. Hopefully she wouldn’t totally wreck this girl’s reputation. Weiss didn’t know the home situations of any of these girls, so Auria could only guess. But her soul wasn’t too scarred unlike many of the others she could sense. Maybe she actually had a good home life unlike most of these girls. “All right; let’s go!” She led Anika to the dance floor. She could feel almost all eyes on them and heard the inaudible gasp go through the crowd. Good, good. This was the sort of reaction she was hoping for. Anika seemed completely oblivious to the reactions, though. She felt like a sweet, innocent child. In some ways, it was a bit of a pity that she wouldn’t be able to interact with Anika after this. She might very well get her to change her views on things if she was so open to same-sex dances in a heternormative, homophobic society. How anybodylived with such closed minds was beyond her. “You’re a good dancer, Weiss.” Anika smiled at her and Auria returned it. “I always thought your steps seemed really smooth but this just proves it.” “Thanks! I worked hard to get here.” In reality, the steps were completely foreign to her and this was her first time doing this. But she could use her magic to integrate Weiss’ muscle memory into her own. It was pretty difficult, but it was a s kill she had eventually learned. It was definitely a majorlife saver here. She would have been outed had she not picked up the skill. She really had been the best choice for this. Blake had made a great decision…even if Auria was suffering because of it. “You’re a lot better than most of the guys here. I didn’t think most of them tak dancing as seriously as girls do.” “That’s probably true.” She could recall a lot of bad dancers via Weiss. So many had their weight improperly distributed, they couldn’t remember the order of the steps, and so many other things. At least sixty percent of Weiss’ dance partners obviously hadn’t taken the art seriously at all. Women were held to muchhigher standards than the men. It was so frustrating that girls were held down so much while the guys could fuck off and not take anything remotely seriously. It was disgusting. “Is it true you’ll be marrying Hilmar?” Well, that wasn’t an unexpected question but it was unwanted. With Weiss’ fiance dead, it was only to be expected she would still marry into the family. Auria shook her head. “Winter said she wouldn’t be accepting any other marriage contracts.” It really wasn’t a lie in the slightest. “Eh? But what about damages to the SDC because of not marrying into the family? And they could sue for backing out of the contract…” Auria shrugged. “I don’t know. I wasn’t part of those talks.” Again, not a lie. Auria herself hadn’t sat through any meetings and neither had Weiss. All Weiss knew was that she was supposed to move in with the other family following the marriage and produce heirs. She couldn’t find anything in Weiss’ memories other than she was supposed to be a good wife and nothing more. She was never meant to take over the SDC like she had thought… “I really can’t believe you and Winter are turning down the chance to marry into the Janson family, though! I’d kill to marry Hilmar!” Anika smiled blissfully, completely unaware of what marrying trulymeant for an Atlassian woman. “What about the future? Will she accept contracts then?” Auria shook her head. “No. We’ll be moving operations to Vale. I’ve read marriage contracts aren’t really a thing there.” She’d spent most of the day cuddled up to Whitley and exploring Valian culture through Weiss’ scroll. She was soglad to see that it aligned a fair bit more with fae culture. Weiss really didn’t know anything about Valian culture. Coco had helped direct her toward good resources so she felt had a decent grasp on what she was walking into. Anika’s eyes widened. “Wait, really? I hadn’t ever heard that before! How does society survive if people’s parents don’t choose their partners for them?” Poor, naive fool. These girls didn’t really didn’t know the first thing about freedom. They had almost no concept of what real choice was. They thought it meant being able to wear what they wanted to and that was about it. If only she could get in and educate these poor fools. But she would’ve been tossed out of Atlas sofast if she did… Not that she ever wanted to return here after she left. “People can choose their own partners. They’re also free to simply live together and never get married if they want to. Women can also initiate divorce if they want to.” About the only thing that had surprised her so far was the first fact. Fae society (at least the the nobility) still placed great importance on bloodlines. Divorce could and did happen at sometimes, but bloodlines needed to remain cohesive, so they didn’t usually tend to divorce. Thankfully, most fae made the decision after decadesof courting, so people usually stuck together for the duration of their long lifetimes. Akina’s eyes remained wide. “But what about inheritance through bloodlines? If children aren’t born in wedlock, then…!” Yeah, bad things did often happen even in fae society. Bastards were a pretty big deal. They occupied a very awkward space since they wouldlive a long time and have a lot to deal with…. Auria shrugged. “I’m not too sure.” Yeah, that was true. She wasn’t too sure what bastards meant for Vale. Maybe a lot, maybe nothing. She wasn’t too interested in the topic, so she hadn’t looked too deeply into it. Fae would treat it as a big deal, but this wasn’t Koiria. Each country had a unique culture so she would try to respect it. Unless it was Atlas. Atlas deservedto burn for how it treated minorities. There were implications there for Serlia too, but she wouldn’t dwell on it. Anika opened her mouth to speak again but a guy butted in and rudely pulled them off the dance floor. He looked a lot like Gisbert, so this had to be Hilmar. “Ladies, why are you dancing together? Shouldn’t you be looking for men to dance with?” He put his hand on Auria’s shoulder and gripped it tightly. “Plus, Weiss, shouldn’t you be dancing with me?”His tone went from pleasant to mildly confrontational. His grip on her tightened as well, making her flinch. How did Atlassian women put up with this on a daily basis? She didn’t understand how a whole culture could be conditioned to accept such abuse. However, she grabbed his hand with a fair bit of force. “I did not give you permission to touch me! What makes you think you have any right to touch a woman in such a way?!” She purposely raised her voice. She was going to make a scene. She would notstand by and be some pretty little doll like Weiss had been and like they were expecting. Hilmar dropped his voice to a whisper. “Weiss, why are you making a scene? You’re contracted to marry into my family. Be quiet and let’s dance!” “Oh, I’m sorry. Did you say you ownme?” She continued to raise her voice, now loud enough to draw attention from quite a few dancers and even people off the floor. “Stop making a scene and dance with me. This is completely inappropriate.” “What’s inappropriate is your sense of entitlement toward me! Winter already said there won’t be any marriage contract so unhand me!” More and more people were looking over the louder she raised her voice. She wasn’t going to let him get away from this unscathed. He was going to be the topic of gossip for yearsto come if he kept this up. His grip tightened. “Ow! Let go! You’re hurting me!” It was legitimately uncomfortable and, unlike Weiss and Winter, she didn’t have her soul activated. Fae had no real need for the soul as humans did due to having naturally inborne magic. They could use their magic to replicate the sort of things humans could do with their souls. “Well, if you would dance—” Some other guy came over and rammed his shoulder into Hilmar’s. “Off the lady!” Auria blinked, not having been expecting this. Maybe there would a few diamonds in the rough here in Atlas. An entire populace couldn’t he entirely devoid of empathy, right? It was starting to feel that way, though… “Wha— Claus? What are you—” “Back off, Hilmar. Weiss had made her thoughts perfectly clear. Do you really want me to beat you down?” She could feel his soul boiling were entirely sincere. She could truly not sense anyulterior motives in him. Hilmar straightened his suit and tie. “You’ll be hearing from my family! Yours too, Weiss!” He stormed off into the crowd of people watching as he did so. It wasn’t hard for her to sense the gossip already starting up. It took every bit of self-control Auria had to not smirk. Her plan had worked to a fair degree. That would likely be gossip for quite a while. A member of the Schnee family being accosted in public. She could only imagine what this would do to Hilmar’s reputation, at least for a while… She had notlet him off easily. A movement caught her attention and she saw Claus offer his arm. He nodded up toward the observation area. She wrapped her arms around his and they headed up to the viewing area. “Are you okay, Miss Schnee?” Auria moved her jacket off as well as the sleeve. “Just some bruising… It should clear up in a few days.” Well, she could easily have cleared it up in a couple minutes, but that would give her away. She would heal it after the event was over with. It was demoralising to be treated as only an object though… How Winter maintained her spirit through all of this was beyond her. Winter was incredibly strong. “I’m so sorry. Nobodydeserves to be treated this way…” Claus sighed and leaned against the banister. “Atlas is so ugly and disgusting.” She probed his soul and saw no signs of ulterior motives. He was entirely genuine about this. She tried to give people the benefit of the doubt, but she could see Weiss’ memories. Every man she’d come across once she’d been attend events had been creepy or disgusting in some fashion. This…was entirely new. “Ain’t that the truth.” She also leaned against the banister and blew at her bangs. She was really glad she would be moving to Vale soon. If she wouldn’t have put up with this,it would be worth it. “I’ve never seen anybody make a scene like that. You have some spunk.” Auria chuckled. “It’s thanks to Winter. I was never able to act as I truly am due to Mister Gelé’s influence.” It was a pretty good cover. She had to be quiet and demure to keep the abusive man happy. WEiss probably would’ve been sold off much sooner if she hadn’t been so doll like. Auria was not willing to act like Weiss had. It was fartoo infuriating. “It’s quite refreshing to see, that’s for sure. Too many of the girls here are docile dolls that don’t know right from wrong. What happens to them isn’t right.” She nodded in agreement. It wasn’t right. If anyfae man tried to treat a fae woman like Atlassian men treated their women, they would be put through a roof. She only had to endure a little so she would make a scene as much as possible. “You’ve got that right.” She paused. “What makes you say all of this?” It was suspect but she could tell he was truthful. She sensed no deception in his soul. If anything, it shone brightly with how he felt. She was really curious. She had never seen this man before in Weiss’ memories. Who exactly was he? Yet Hilmar had recognised him… “I spent eight years in Vale at university. It opened my eyes to a lot of the world. I’m still Atlas born and bred as you are—” She wanted to snort but didn’t. “—and would come back every so often for events. I was never at any with you, though.” Ah, that did explain it. He looked a fair bit older too. If he’d left so long ago, he was at least ten years Weiss’ senior. Thankfully, it seemed like he wouldn’t try anything on her with his differing views. “I’ll be moving to Vale soon, but I learned a lot through accessing the CCTS on my scroll. I got it thanks to Winter and have slowly been learning about the world outside of Atlas since.” She really did hate lying like this, but she couldn’t be honest. Fae could be tricky at times, but they did value honesty. It really was killing her to not be honest. This was one reason changelings were taken as babies, not done later in life. Lying about everything was hard of a reasonable age like herself… “I’m glad. You won’t have to deal with this hellhole much longer.” He hesitated and she felt the discomfort in his soul. He really did not want to say whatever was about to come out of his mouth. “If that weren’t the case, I would offer a marriage contract to protect you from those other pigs.” He shifted his weight and she internally clinched. She would notmarry a human if she could avoid it. It would only be a few decades of her life when she had many thousands more ahead of her. Changelings were encouraged to seek like so a fae didn’t spend centuries mourning the loss of a mayfly companion. “I doubt Winter would have taken it. She made it pretty clear she wouldn’t let me marry anybody I don’t want to.” She really didn’t want a human to be her partner. How Turi managed, she didn’t really understand. Turi had lost somebody she loved dearly before she was even into her triple digits. How she could deal with having children when she had still been a child herself. Auria wasn’t even thinking of courtshipyet… “So I see. Well, hopefully you’ll find somebody in Vale when the time comes. But if you’d like, I could stay with you until the end of the night.” Auria pursed her lips together. That was… Hm. After that incident, she didn’t particularly feel like dealing with the Atlassian men. She wanted to cause a ruckus and drive Atlas crazy. Messing with humans was part of Misum culture. But… She was too used to being respected. She was too used to having her autonomy to herself. The men here would simply abuse her for their own personal gain. She might run out of patience before the night was through and out herself to the entire upper class and that wasn’t something she could risk. Only gods knew what would happen if magic and fae got outed to Atlasof all places. It would be a nightmare scenario that might never be recovered from. She offered a curtsy and dipped her head. “I’ll take your offer, Claus.” It was a little annoying she couldn’t completely fend for herself here. Atlas was an absolute hellhole of dystopian proportions. How the Grimm hadn’t taken the entire kingdom down was beyond her. Suffering and misery permeated the entire kingdom, especially Mantle. Coco had helped show her resources all day about cultures outside of the upper class and it was absolutely horrendous… Claus held his arm out for her and they headed back downstairs. The rest of the evening passed quickly and relatively quietly for her. After that scene, Claus had made it clear he wouldn’t let anybody else near her. A few men did try, but Claus was always there to push them away. When he back was turned, Auria stuck her tongue out at the offenders. As the people began to leave, Winter escorted Auria back to Weiss’ room. “Have fun?” “I kinda wish I could’ve caused more of a rucks, but I wouldn’t have had the patience to deal with those pigs for too long.” She almost definitely would’ve outed herself. She could probably replicate Weiss’ Semblance but her preferred magic was basic water magic. It wasn’t hard to drown people or cause serious bodily harm to people. All life form were mostlywater so controlling them wasn’t hard if one knew what to do. The artform was looked down on, but she had learned it simply because she could. Outside of her teacher, she had never used it on anybody, but she might have tonight had she been pushed too far. “Fair enough. Though the choice of a same-sex dance was…bold. I didn’t learn about that until I went to Vale for the first time at nineteen.” Auria shrugged. “It’s common enough.” She’d leave it there so the staff didn’t ask questions. Winter nodded and fell silent after that. Gods, she wanted to be honest and open but it was hard with as many gossipy hens were around. After she got back to Weiss’ room, she changed into one of the nightgowns and curled up in bed. What a long night…