Carry You

Auria looked around as she sat up and rubbed her eyes. She'd arrived in Vale yesterday after a whirlwind of travel and packing. The trip had beenexcruciatinglylong for her. She was used to travel being instantaneous, not taking hours and hours. Pack and then just teleport to wherever they wanted to go. Well, at least this house was still comfortable... It was below her normal family standards, but there wasn't much she could do about that. Then again, accumulated fae wealth outstripped even the wealthiest human families. They had been accruing wealth for literally over a hundred thousand years in many cases... Fae society was stratified and had been almost since its inception. She got dressed in Weiss' clothes, still feeling way too exposed. She was used to having five, six layers on. With only the single layer, she still felt incredibly naked. But she had to dress accordingly. And, well, she'd look ridiculous if she attempted to dress in the fae style. She was trying to blend in and not arouse too much suspicion, not draw attention to herself. She knew she was failing to some degree with how different her personality was compared to Weiss' but they were in Vale now, not Atlas. She could act however she wanted to without any repercussions. How nice was that? Oh, she was really looking forward to it. This house wasn't as large as the manor she grew up in, but it was unfamiliar, so she found herself getting lost going down to the dining room in order to eat. It took her nearly twenty minutes to find her way there. By time she arrived, she was duly frustrated. How did they get around without starlings? She didn't understand. They were so integral. She always had one with her just in case. She knew her home manors decently well, but there were still old wings and long disused basement pathways which could easily lead someone astray and lead to their death if they got too lost. "Seriously, how do you guys navigate these large manors without guides? At home, we have starlings to help with that since they're fantastic mimics and speakers. Better than some parrots even!" Blake had that bird of hers and a lot of other fae did as well. They always took good care of the birds, of course, but still. She didn't understand how they managed to find their way around their large manor homes without any sort of guidance. She missed her starling so much. It felt empty to not have her little buddy with her most of the time. Well. As long as she wasn't on the job. "We ask the humans around us for help if we get lost." Winter shrugged. "I was never really left to wander by myself..." Whitley frowned. "I only know a handful of paths through Schnee manor. So having this house open is...odd to me." That had to be odd to him, yeah. She couldn't deny it. She had Weiss' memories. The girl had never not been supervised when out of her room. It was beyond frustrating to Auria since it left her at a disadvantage. She really didn't know Schnee manor, let alone this vacation home. She just couldn't handle being around these houses without guidance. "We could probably get you a starling if you feel the need to have one... Do you know how to care for them?" Winter asked. Auria could smell the meat coming from her plate and saw it also on Whitley's. It made her stomach churn, but she didn't say anything. She just... She wasn't into falconry so she'd never seen fae eat meat before. It was beyond difficult for her to cope with them. But she would have her vegetarian meals, so she couldn't force it on them. She had her own life to live and they would probably hate her if she tried to force her own ideals on them. Winter clearly was the type to rebel if someone tried to force anything on her she didn't like... Whitley had no real sense of self, so he would just accept things quietly, but even so… "Not personally, no. I guess I'll have to research it. We have people to take care of our birds and animals for us. I don't need to do anything if I have a little buddy around. They have their own feeding station in the dining rooms which is how they eat. That and we also have dishes with food for them in our rooms so, if we're at home, they can eat uninhibited. Birds, especially small ones, can starve pretty quickly and easily if they don't have food available all the time." Even the library had a feeding station... The bird specialists made sure to rotate the food everyday so it wouldn't get stale or start to mold. Even fae couldn't fight off food decay. They probably could if they wanted to, but it just hadn't been invested in since most food got eaten relatively quickly. And servants ate the leftovers of the family's meal if there were any. They did have refrigeration and such, but still... Food waste was fairly rare in Koiria. "Well, if you do the research, I'm sure I can find a breeder here in Vale. There are a lot of off-the-wall breeders for animals here. Though the industry especially with aura breeds is highly regulated unlike in Atlas..." Winter shook her head. "Are there any other animals you would be used to having?" "Pegasi, but that would raise some attention here since I can't find any mention of them in Weiss' memories even through education." Winter's eyebrows shot up. "You have Weiss' memories? Did you wipe them or something?" Auria shook her head. "Think of it as a data transfer. You just copy the data then install it somewhere else. She still has her memories; I just made a copy of them and installed them in my own brain. It's definitely pretty complex magic, but since my specialty is anything to do with the mind, I learned how to do it quite a while ago." Winter sighed. "Magic is an unreasonable explanation... But Coco said she saw you actually changeheighton video. I wish I could refuse to believe it existed but... Well. You're proof of that." She shook her head. Auria shrugged. "It's a cornerstone of our world and used to be on here in past eras. I know you guys don't really know about the past eras, but this is something like the fifteenth or sixteenth civlisation since the era of the gods over a hundred fifty thousand years ago. I wasn't too interest in history, so I didn't pay much attention to it." She got some basic education on human history, but since it wasn't her specialty, it wasn't anything she paid too much attention to. She didn't know the exact specifics of human history. Only a handful of fae scholars really paid it any mind. Though fae did enjoy human novels and other forms of entertainment. "What.You're telling me magic exists in this world?" Winter looked ready to snap the mug in her hand. Auria nodded. "Yup. I only know the basics though. There used to be magic given by the goddess Celaecyal but the immortal witch Salem closed off the magic Fountains in the past couple thousand years. The Grimm are a more recent phenomena and are literally sentient blobs of Chaos magic. Magic was formed on the basis of Order and Chaos. Order strips life; Chaos brings it. That's as far as my knowledge goes." Again, not her specialty. Why bother learning anything more in depth for something she hadn't thought would ever impact her life? She hadn't expected to be thrust onto Serlia-- Remnant at any point in her life. Now she had to spend several decades here... How annoying. But she had agreed. They probably could've just framed Weiss' death now that she thought about it, but hindsight, she supposed. It would've been easy from what she had seen of the leadup to Blake dragging Weiss away. Seriously, this entire thing was a massive mess. Well, they were in Vale now, so she could act however she wanted to. Winter shook her head and took a sip of her tea. "Whatever." "How would one go about getting magic?" Whitley asked. "That I wouldn't know. Keep in mind I only learned the basics. Well. I know that you'd need to talk to Celaecyal, but that's about it." She shrugged. Yeah, she just didn't know. "Anyway, do we really need this giant house Winter? I don't want to keep getting lost. I know normal houses aren't manor houses." Yeah. These huge behemoths were unusual even for fae land. "We'll have to find a house to rent or buy in the city of Vale for certain. I could probably push something through quickly thanks to the SDC's money but..." She sighed. "All of this was so short notice that I really didn't have time to look into any of it. Plus, it's not like I understand Valian real estate law. We'll have to look into places available in the city. It would give you two more independence to be in the city rather than having to rely on drivers to take you everywhere. There's public transit that's open. Though, Whitley, you would have to remain with Auria. You can't defend yourself since you don't know how to fight." His cheeks puffed out. "I mean i was never technically taught how to fight, but I do have Weiss' memories and even basic elemental magic would be more than enough to defend against even Hunters in this world to my knowledge. I know all of the elements: water, fire, earth, air, plus other stuff. I can kill people pretty easily if I wanted to." She would be the best bet to keep Whitley safe without needing an entier security detail. The Schnees had madeplentyof enemies of the years, so yeah, Whitley would definitely need some protection. He was basically a sitting duck if he went out on his own. To her knowledge,t he big cities were relatively safe in major areas, but even so... Some people could be extremely brazen and attempt crime in even heavily traveled and populated areas. "Aside from starlings...are there any other animals you want? For us, money really is no object. If you want an animal, we can get it for you." "Well, a cat would be nice... I had one back home that was latched on to me." She did miss her cat. She missed her so badly. But she knew that there might be diseases fae animals that Serlia animals might not have. Anything like that would be difficult to explain and would probably cast suspicion on her if she couldn't explain where the cat or the illness had come from. "I'm also used to having a working dog. Not like a service dog or anything, but a high-energy dog that I can run around with like a collie or something." She did work long hours, true, but she still made time to make sure her dog got exercised. Granted, he was a couple years old now, so he'd calmed down a bit. But she'd probably need to start from a puppy here which... Well, frankly, she had the time to spend with a dog. She wasn't going to Beacon and she had no real idea what she'd be doing in this world. "You'll have to research breeds and see which one you want. I imagine the breeds in your world are much different than the ones here on Remnant," Winter observed. "Though, would a working dog in a city without large swaths of land to run around on really be wise? Atlassian shepherds are used by the Special Operatives and they can take time to calm down..." "I have nothing better to do than train and babysit a puppy unless there's a rescue or something..." A lot of breeders did take dogs back, so that might be an option. "I'll have to look into breeders. A lot of them will necessitate bringing the dog back to the breeder if something changes in life and you can no longer take care of them. And there might be breed-specific rescues in the city or another nearby one. I would rather have an aura breed, though." That was what she was used to. She wanted a high-energy dog that she could spend time with since she was frankly high energy herself. She hated sitting around. Lessons were terrible for her since, yeah, she did have to sit around all day. "Well, if you do the research into breeders of specific breeds, we can look into it. You're not Weiss. You're a fully functional adult within your own society. I see no reason to treat you like the sheltered little girl Weiss is. Though... Do you know how to use the internet?" Winter did look a little disconcerted at that. "Uh, nope. We don't have anything like that in Koiria. But I'm sure I can figure it out. Weiss didn't really get to use it so I really have none of that in my memories." She shrugged. She was smart enough. She knew how to manipulate people's neuroreceptors without breaking their mind and brain. If she could figure that out, then she was certain she could handle doing some basic research on a computer. If anything, she could just search up how to use a search engine... Weiss knew about those in some regards. She didn't fully grasp how to use them, but Auria was a lot more flexible in her thinking than Weiss, so she was sure she could figure out how to use a search engine. "Very well. But if you need any help, you can tell me and I can ask Coco to help you with it. Well. As long as she's not in class. Does that sound like a good compromise?" She nodded. "I can deal with that." She had basically all day to do whatever she wanted, so she'd be fine. She could figure things out in a couple hours at most. She would really have to research breeds first... That was gonna be a pain in the ass since she really didn't know anything about the breeds of this world. There had to be a lot of them with as many more people were in this world compared to Koiria. Way more nations, way more people, way more ethnic groups. Centaurs had a few dog breeds they used in hunting, but it wasn't like dragons kept dogs or anything... She had one of the centaur breeds which were some of the most high-energy dogs on Koiria. "Well, I suppose I can leave you to that for today. I have work to do. Though, my Valian...associate, Qrow Branwen, said that he'd be bringing his nieces over after they got done with school to meet you and Whitley." Auria frowned at that. "Oh." She hoped that nothing would come of that. She knew she needed contacts in this world, but they wereabsolute childrencompared to her. They wouldn't have any real-world experience... Fae did baby their kids until they were well over a hundred, but they did start to let them spread their wings as time went on. Here, it seemed like the kids didn't really get any time to do anything. They were just expected to go to school and do homework… "They may be able to help you understand this world a bit better. His elder niece, Yang, sounds competent in her own right." "I think I can handle figuring out most things on my own." She was used to seeking out information, though, yeah she would definitely be a little lost with technology. She had Weiss' memories but she had never used the technology herself... And it wasn't like she could exactly tell those girls that she was from another world. Though if they could read souls at all...that might be a problem. Fae learned to shield themselves at a relatively young age and she knew that humans could learn to read souls too... Not to the effectiveness of the fae, but if they sensed her shielding herself, that could lead to bad results. It could lead to questions, questions she didn't want and that she couldn't answer. Letting Whiltey and Winter know was one thing... It was another to let somebody outside of that small circle know. "Well, they might still be able to fast track your knowledge especially on something like search engines and how to use technology in general. I know Weiss' knowledge is severely limited but even so..." "I'll stick to asking Coco if I really need help with tech." That would be best. She really didn't want anybody outside of their small circle to know about her being fae. She was trying. She really was. But she hated how droll life here was. She wasn't even an adult by human standards, so she had to be treated like a child until next January when Weiss' birthday rolled around. She was so frustrated... She was a fully functional adult by fae standards, but she wasn't by human standards due to Weiss' age... How fucking frustrating. "All right." With that, Winter fell silent and they finished eating up. Auria went back to Weiss' room (getting lost along the way...again) and started searching up different breeds and their profiles. Yeah, using a search engine wasn't too difficult on a basic level, but she was pretty sure they'd get more complex and deep if she looked into it. And, boy, was she ever correct about there being a lot of breeds... Hundreds of them, each with their own unique profiles and traits. She wasn't sure which one she wanted... All she knew was she wanted a working breed that did something like cattle herding or something else. She didn't want a lazy dog. There were plenty of low-energy breeds that she ran across, but that was what the cat was for. It looked like Ragdoll might be a good breed for that. She wanted a cuddly kitten and the points on the cat looked very sweet. A border collie sounded like it'd be up her alley... An active dog and an intelligent one to boot. In the grand scheme of aura breeds, 20k for a dog wasn't that expensive. Neither was 8k to 20k for a ragdoll cat. Well. At least as far as the SDC was concerned. She sent a message to Winter with the links to the breeds and with breeders she'd found. All provided health tests for their animals. Winter responded with an affirmative though she said Auria might want to call the breeders herself. Well, at least she was used to calling people... It wasn't something that was incredibly foreign to her. She had also found a starling breeder which.. The birds were cheap. About 50 lien apiece. She supposed they weren't very popular which was why they weren't that expensive even for aura breeds. If anything, the breeder was selling at a loss. She called the breeders and asked the dog breeder if she had any adult animals that had been returned instead of puppies. She had one, but it would require work and rehabilitation. The previous owner had abused it which had left it fearful and aggressive. She was working on rehabilitating the animal, but it was going to be hard. She had some twelve-week old puppies that could be picked up though. Yeesh, she wasn't looking forward to the potty training aspect of it, but she could deal. The Ragdoll breeder said he had some twelve-week old kittens. Well. She knew about single kitten syndrome, so that'd be two kittens. Two kittens and a puppy. What a mess. She shot the information to Winter who said the schedule pickup for tomorrow. The starling breeder was in a similar position where he had more than enough birds that could be picked up immediately. She opted to get five since, well, they were flock animals and could be found in murmurations of thousands in the wild. For most people, that would be a ton of money for a puppy, two kittens, and five birds, but it wasn't even a drop in the bucket for the SDC's coffers. She really was looking forward to it though. She missed her animals. They enriched life so much. Plus, the starlings would be of help once they learned the lay of the house. At least until Winter could get them a smaller, non-manor home somewhere in the city. Though going out with the puppy would have to wait until it got all of its vaccines... That would be such a hard waiting game. At least it'd been socialised with its siblings for a decent amount of time before being set home. By time all of that had finished with, she got a message from Winter that Qrow and the girls had arrived. She sighed and got out of bed, once again losing her way down to the main foyer and taking a good twenty minutes to arrive. Winter and Whitley were waiting and she smiled sheepishly. "I still don't know this place very well..." It'd been less than a day. This place was huge. Nobody could expect her to memorise it in such a short amount of time, right? "Yeah, I can't blame ya there. These manor houses are so fuckin' over the top." The black-haired man spoke and put back a drink on his flask. She saw Winter grimace as did Whitley. She supposed it made sense. Willow had drank so they only associated alcohol with trauma. But she was used to drinking herself... It wasn't like she was getting black-out drunk every night or something. A glass of wine here, a bit of cider there... It was infrequent and seasonal for her. She wasn't a big fan of beer, but fruit-based alcohols? She really enjoyed those. But she didn't react which got an eyebrow raise out of the man. "Yeah... This manor house is huge." It had like 30+ rooms when they didn't even reallyneedall of that space. It was just the three of them. The Schnee family had never been particularly large from her understanding... Nicholas, his wife, and Willow... Then Willow and her three kids. She wouldn't consider Jacques a father. He was asire.All he did was beat his kids to try to get them to capitulate and be obedient... No wonder Weiss was scared all the time. "Well, these are my nieces, Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long. I'm Qrow Branwen. You must be Weiss then?" He raised an eyebrow at her and she couldreadthat he was already a little suspicious of something. Damn it. He could read souls. She was supposed to be a sheltered little girl, not someone with a high level of fluency in soul mechanics. He was clearly used to reading other people's souls just from how he reached out and swept around the room. She was a strange obstacle to him... "Yeah, I'm Weiss." She smiled at him, trying to make it clear she hadn't noticed him. He was definitely going to be a risk to her and her stationing here... She was way more experienced than he was when it came to soul shielding and reading... He was the equivalent of a child as far as she was concerned. She could feel him trying to butt up his defenses, but it was as easy to slip past them as a giant hole in a gate. A fox could slip through large gaps in fences... She could definitely slip through his without too much trouble. The blonde one smiled at her. "It's nice to meet you, Weiss. I'm Yang. this is my little sister, Ruby." She could sense the connection between them but... What was the situation with the names? It was unusual for siblings to not share the same last name. She was definitely curious and confused, but now wasn't the time to really be questioning that. She could sense a deep level of loneliness in both of them and Yang's soul was decently scarred from something... She had her guard up a fair bit. Auria could still easily punch through her defenses, but she wasn't going to abuse her soul reading powers to get the upper hand on these girls. "Hi" was Ruby's only response. Oh, she had silver eyes... That was a nasty surprise. It didn't seem like Ruby was aware of her magic though... The power definitely lay dormant and it hadn't been tapped into yet. The weirdest part of all of this, though, was the ghost standing off to the side. Auria glanced at her and instantly felt the air lift in alarm.C-Can you see me?came the feeble words. Yes, I can. But I won't draw attention to you. Nobody else is reacting, so I'm guessing you haven't revealed yourself to anybody yet.Ghosts weren't exactly commonplace on Koiria as far as the Misum court was concerned, but they did pop up occasionally. Most fae didn't have any reason to hang around unlike the short lives of humans so it usually was the humans that hung around. The changelings would stick around for a century or so then go to the afterlife... Yeesh. This was a mess. The woman that looked like Ruby shook her head but didn't respond. She could definitely deal with that later... "Hi." She was normally good with people, but she had never interacted with humans much before... It wasn't like changelings were common nowadays. They had been much more common in eras past, but nowadays? There were maybe a couple thousand across the entirety of Koiria and they were always for affluent families he could afford to take in a child temporarily. Changelings were definitely a bit of a status symbol... She just... Really had no idea of how to interact with people, and Ruby's soul was giving her whiplash. Her mind ransofast that it was difficult to keep up with. Ruby didn't know the first thing about soul shielding so she was just gonna have to deal with it... Annoying as it was. She did see Ruby carrying a relatively large...thing which she assumed was a weapon. "So what do you have there?" It hung off her back and stuck out on either side of her. Wouldn't it be better to have it go along her back vertically rather than horizontally from the small of her back...? Especially when going through a crowd. Some people just had no eye for detail when it came to certain things. "O-Oh! This is Crescent Rose! She's my--" "Don't get her started; she won't shut up until you make her," Yang joked, obviously saving Auria from averylong winded rant. Yang wrapped an arm around Ruby and pulled her in close, giving her a noogie. "Rubes is a bit of a weapons nut. If you have a weapon, she'll want to learn everything she can about it." "Well, I have Myrtenaster since I was supposed to attend Beacon in a couple months, but since I'm free now, I don't really have to attend..." She had no intents on attending. It was a way of saving Weiss and setting things up for whatever plans Winter had for the SDC and to save her sister. Well, Weisswassafe now, just not in the way had hoped for. The Belladonnas would definitely treat her well. She wasn't sure of a nicer family in either of the courts. Granted, it wasn't like she interacted with the Lider court a lot, so there could be nicer families for all she knew. But the Belladonnas were a good family and would treat Weiss right. She had a lot of trauma though... Both Winter and Whitley's hearts were deeply scarred and Weiss' hadn't been any exception for the short duration they'd met. Gele really had done a number on all of his kids. She could sense Whitley's abuse had just been mental and emotional, but that still really hurt a person's heart badly... "Aww, that sucks. Maybe we woulda been on the same team. Who knows?" Yang shrugged. Yeah, Auria had no intents of becoming a Huntress. Violence was really not in her vocabulary. She knew that Hunters could face each other down and she didn't want to potentially kill living beings. The Grimm were one thing, but a human? She couldn't fathom that. She just... She didn't want to do it. "Sorry. It was intended but with me free, I don't see any reason to go." She shrugged. Yeah, she just... She really didn't want to go. If she fought only Grimm, it'd be one thing. It was another if she were squaring up against humans and Faunus... "If ya ain't got the right disposition, being a Huntress will only kill ya inside," Qrow muttered. She saw Winter roll her eyes hard. "Weiss is quite sensitive, so no, I'm not expecting her to attend Beacon now. I believe you and I have things to discuss, Mister Branwen." "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll follow you up to your office, Your Majesty," he replied sarcastically. Winter's eyes narrowed and she held herself more erect, staring at Qrow hard. With that done, Winter turned on her heel and started walking away, leaving the three of them alone. Oh boy... Leaving her alone with children... What fun.