Chapter Seventy-Three - Tucked In

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

"This is silly," Twenty-Six said.

Ivil grinned. "Did you want me to 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 want me to treat you this way?" Ivil asked. "No tucking 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 need it."

"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 pack any pyjamas."

"Heh. I bet you have really nice ones. 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 changed 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 comfortable enough to do so was quite nice as well.

"How is it going?" Ivil asked.

Aurora was laying across one of the couches. It was one of those couches with the uncomfortable inserts for a person's legs, designed to hold one in place in the room's lacking 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 experience on Mars and half as much as they'd feel on Earth. It was healthier than experiencing a full gravity when they weren't used to it.

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

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

"I'm a politician, 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 can, if I want to," Ivil said. She moved to the far end of the couch and 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 can keep that going while sleeping," Ivil dismissed.

Aurora blinked. "Most people can'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 manipulation core of some sort. Shield cores. Now self-management cores. Not to mention at least one weapons 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-classer originally. It explained Panderghast's respect for you, even though she's clearly at least a C-classer herself."

Ivil nodded. "She is, yes."

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

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

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"It's common knowledge that cores change a person. That only makes sense. They're physical objects. They need a place to be. Mine show up on scans as thin strips here and there in my body. As a person accumulates more, the cores take up more space. They add limbs and new organs that allow them to function. Some people die from taking on too many of the wrong kind of core."

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

"Not anemia?" Aurora asked.

"Anemia is specific to red blood cells. Which does mean that it's part of hypovolemia, but it's more complex 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, back to my point. People with ten or more cores are C-classers. 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-classer, is he not?"

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

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

"He was rather unattractive."

"And yet 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. "And yet you have so many abilities, which naturally means that you have a lot of cores to empower them."

Ivil nodded. "I never claimed otherwise."

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

"In the entire 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-classers."

"You can keep calling me beautiful, if you want. I find it rather flattering," 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-classer is the pinnacle of our modern world. You're the equivalent of a pre-core-era billionaire. I can't imagine it being hard to find someone attractive to woo in that kind of situation, especially since you're charismatic enough."

"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 wanted the same, once," she said at last. "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 bend reality to my will."

Aurora laughed. "Confident, 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 connection. A spark. Or maybe that's just inexperience and wishful thinking."

There was a knock at the door and Ivil turned a glare 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.

***