Trouble With Horns

Kimberly hung out with us all day, until finally at nearly midnight she left for her new apartment. She might be shy, confused, and traumatized, but the girl could get shit done, that was for sure. She’d managed to find a place to live that wouldn’t ask questions and wouldn’t rat her out to either the cops or the church.

I had to admit that I was more than a little worried for her. Sketchy accommodation didn’t seem like the best place to be hopping into a pod, but she assured me it would be safe. Her plan for disappearing involved that, actually, jumping into a pod and out of a reality where her family might have spies or whatever. We didn’t get many details from her, so it was all a little murky and shit. So long as she was safe, I guess.

With that in mind, we decided that it was finally time to log back into CORA again the next day. Both Dawn and I were simultaneously excited and reluctant to dive back into the game, because we still wanted time alone together.

It had only been about two weeks since we’d agreed to officially date, and a huge portion of that had been stuck in the company of others and dealing with a little dragon brat. That just wasn’t enough time to get to know each other again, and to get to know how our relationship would work.

Sure, we had been childhood friends and we’d known each other our whole lives, but there’s a pretty massive difference between being friends with someone and dating them. It was a similar but different type of relationship. More intimate, more… gah. It was just different, and I didn’t want to let anyone else in yet. Not even Kimberly.

Unfortunately, the world didn’t wait for lovers to get comfortable in their relationship. Not even virtual ones. We had shit to do, and I had a desire to punch things. Only one of those two things would be fulfilled when we logged in.

Because when we got into the game, we were immediately greeted by our servants.

“Lady Tamipesagniyah, Lady Aurora!” the young maid squeaked as our bodies coalesced inside our bedroom.

The room was ancient, with age darkened wooden panels going halfway up the walls before transitioning to cloth wallpaper. The panels themselves were skirted with carved knotwork that had been worn down by generations of inhabitants. The roof was white plaster decorated with flowers and other plant life, the paint peeling and in dire need of a touchup.

The furniture was all new though, done in the latest fashions, which were simple shapes built out of the darkest wood I’d ever seen. Tiny threads of gold and silver inlay had been worked through to accent the dark and allow the precious metals to pop. It was actually kind of pretty.

“You don’t have to say the whole thing,” I told the maid with a smile. She’d stumbled over it just as much as everyone else. “Just Tami is fine.”

“A-ah, okay!” she squeaked, staring at us with wide eyes. “I-I was just cleaning the room. We’ve been trying our best to keep it from getting too dusty, my lady.”

“Thanks for the hard work then, cleaning can be a bitch,” I grinned, walking over to pat her shoulder before I turned to Dawn.

“Can you tell us where the steward is?” I asked, smiling down at the young girl.

“Oh she’s probably in his office. I can take you there, if you’d like,” she said quickly, staring up at me with wide, unblinking awe.

Dawn answered with a slight nod. “That would be great.”

The maid replied with a quick curtsy and dropped her feather duster, making for the door. Outside our room, the walls lacked any of the decorative carvings that the paneling had inside. It all still reeked of age and old money, as though it might sniff and look down its nose at us if we touched the ancient wood without gloves on.

Signs of the servant’s losing battle with time were evident in everything. From the light coating of dust on everything above head height, to the ever so slightly warped wooden floorboards. It was a little depressing to see, honestly, because they had clearly tried to keep everything nice and clean. That kind of effort deserved success, damn it.

The steward’s office was down a floor and out into a newer wing of the manor, where the floorboards were somewhat even and there wasn’t quite such a thick coating of dust. The office itself was cramped but clean, with neat shelves full of books along one wall, while wooden filing cabinets were arranged along the other side.

The steward turned out to be a stewardess, and a surprisingly non-human one at that. Surprising because this was a human dominated region, so NPC non-humans were sort of rare, especially the kind that looked like they were descended from birds.

She wore a tailored men’s suit that looked like it followed last season’s fashions, meaning a wide collar with silver lacing and no tails. Tails were apparently back in those days, although they split down the middle to make them seem a little like tassets from a suit of armour.

The sleeves of her suit sported an artfully incorporated button up slit that allowed for her arm feathers to fan out. Yup, feathers, and they were the colour of dark, thick oil. In contrast to the way she dressed and her dark, brooding raven-like appearance, her face was pleasantly pretty. Her smile when we entered the room was tired but attentive, and she motioned that we should take a seat.

“Ah, my ladies, welcome, you are finished with your spiritual rest?” she asked politely, although I could see a wariness in her dark eyes. We’d only briefly met before we had logged out, so this was going to be the first time we properly spoke.

“Leila, thanks for seeing us on such short notice,” I agreed with a smile I hoped would put her at ease. “Yeah we have. Took us a bit longer than expected, but we’re here now.”

“I can’t imagine having to disappear for over a week every so often,” she replied, shaking her head. “Even the Blessed have limits, eh?”

“Uh, I guess?” Dawn replied, glancing sideways at me. I met her eyes and nodded ever so slightly. I felt it too, babe.

“Ah, my apologies,” Leila murmured. “That was very rude of me.”

“Nah, it’s no problem,” I said, getting comfortable in my chair. “Is there some reason that everyone is looking at us like we’re going to either cut their throats or give them tons of money?”

Dawn and I both watched as the stewardess opened and closed her mouth fractionally, obviously trying to find a diplomatic way to tell us what she thought.

“You can speak candidly, we’re adults, we can handle it,” Dawn told her.

Reaching out, I took my girlfriend’s hand and threaded our fingers together. Not because she looked upset or anything. I just wanted to hold her hand.

“Blessed are notoriously erratic in their behaviour,” Leila said at last. “That is why one might look at you with fear. As for adoration, hope, awe? That is easier to define. The both of you in particular were born into species that are all but myth. Elementals such as you, Lady Aurora, are very rare. Lady Tami, you are quite literally unique, if I am not mistaken. People look at you like that because in a great many ways, you are demi-gods.”

“Well, that’s an ego boost,” I laughed. “We aren’t that powerful though, trust me.”

She gave me a cagey, disbelieving stare.

“What? We aren’t!” I said, still smiling with amusement. “Demi-gods don’t stub their toes getting out of bed or forget to put the fire out and almost burn their house down.”

That got a laugh out of her, and she shrugged, her demeanour losing some of its guardedness. “Okay, point taken. You are still members of the new and unknown noble family that I serve, however.”

Dawn was the one to field that remark. “Don’t treat us too much like nobility. You’ll poison us with an overinflated sense of importance. We should get down to business, though. Can you tell us about the state of our accounts?”

“The state of the accounts,” she repeated with a grimace. “The accounts, they are in a state. Most of the Bativaraosa lands are currently in enemy hands, so the safe income of your mines, farms, and taxes are sadly out of reach. Thankfully, your predecessors, may they have found comfort in the arms of Ruin, were prudent. You have stakes in various companies that are keeping the manor afloat for the time being.”

“I’m guessing that hiring more staff is going to be an issue, then?” I asked, throwing a thumb towards the door to indicate the state of the manor.

Another wince from our steward. “Yes, we are only barely treading water here, I am afraid.”

“How much would it take to hire more?” I asked, turning my eyes to Dawn’s and finding her smiling knowingly at me. We had finished our big dungeon run with a whole bunch of interesting loot, and we could always go out and slaughter more unsuspecting monsters to get more.

Leila’s expression was full of suspicion as she said, “It depends, but I’m sure I could make inquiries, depending on your preferences. We need a great many tradesmen to look at the degraded state of the house, but that is something my previous masters were not interested in. As for simple cleaning staff, that is more within the realm of possibility, once the title lands have been restored. I had to let a great many good servants go, because of the lack of funding.”

“Okay,” I said, leaning forward to give her a frank and open smile. “I’m going to be really honest here. Neither me nor Aurora here have much of an idea about running an estate like this. But, we can definitely get you money. We have an awful lot of stuff to pawn off as it is. If you can see about doing that, we can put some of that money towards getting one or two more staff members. Then we can head out and start punching shit until it drops money.”

The steward stared at us both with growing incredulity, until finally she dropped her head into her hands and laughed. “Ah, I forget how the Blessed operate, sometimes. That will be an excellent short term measure, my ladies. Long term, we will need a more stable source of income.”

“Sure, makes sense,” Dawn nodded beside me, her pale face shining with a gorgeous smile. 

She didn’t even realise how pretty she was, and I wasn’t talking about surface beauty. Outside the game, she was a tall, curvy but well built woman with dark skin, dark eyes and brightly dyed hair. Within the game, she was a slim, almost petite woman with pale grey skin, fiery orange hair, and eyes the colour of glowing coals. It was the way she moved within either of those bodies that I was talking about. Her impish and cocky little smile, the way she rolled her hips as she walked, the spark of thoughtful intelligence in her eyes. That’s what I loved.

“We can use the less reliable income from our adventures to do one-time purchase stuff. Paying tradesmen to look at the floorboards, that kind of thing,” my beautiful girlfriend was saying, unaware of the way she made my heart pound in my chest.

“That is…” Leila said, tapping her chin thoughtfully. “Yes, that would be very effective I should think. If you get me coin or items of value, we can make that work. Thank you, both of you. This is going to make my life a good deal easier.”

“Happy to help,” I said, throwing her a wink. “We aren’t your regular snotty nobility, don’t worry.”

“I am beginning to realise that, yes,” she said wryly. “I’ll work on hiring an etiquette tutor.”

Dawn and I both burst out laughing. I kinda liked this raven chick. She was cool. Nice, even.