The last panel, [JOCASTA] had popped up over a woman Cora had barely registered, given the room’s other occupants. She was slightly bowed, not by submission, but by age. Cora would put her in her early 70’s, maybe. She’d clearly been beautiful once, and kept some of that in her high cheekbones and sparkling eyes, far more alert and aware than everything else about her decrepit appearance suggested.
Hopeful, huh? Yeah, that makes one of us, Jo.
The old woman noticed Cora staring, and smiled softly.
“Altruism is not exactly something to discourage, though, is it now, Hawk?”Jocasta said, with a voice far stronger than Cora expected. Slightly shrill, and each word carried the slightest cackle. To be frank, she sounded exactly like a cheerful witch.
“’Spose not,” Hawk admitted, her mask of cocky indifference cracking when the witchy woman spoke. “Just stupid, is all I’m sayin’.”
“Oh, on that I certainly agree,” Jocasta cackled, sharp eyes refocusing on Cora. “The former Mistress here has put herself in quite a pickle.”
“No fucking shit,” Cora hissed, getting pretty tired of what may very well be figments of her imagination discussing her fate like she wasn’t even there. “Listen, all of you, I’m not fucking with you. Those were your Bonds of Ownership. I no longer have any claim to you, I never should have had one to begin with. No one should have. You can go. No idea what awaits you outside, but you can go. Tell everyone else on your way out.”
No one moved. Well, Hawk twitched towards the door a bit, but seemed to bow to the wisdom of the group when she noticed she was the only one. Cora met each of their eyes in turn. When she got to Kyra's, the woman’s blazed in fury, then narrowed in confusion, widening to shock.
“Your eyes…” she breathed, and something in her demeanor changed. Cora got the sense that up until that moment, Kyra had just been playing along until she got the chance to end Linnea. Now, seeing the disconnect between the eyes of her tormentor and the Casanova blues, Cora might have earned a temporary stay of execution.
Mike spoke for the group.
“Say we stay. Say we are free in name. What changes? You may no longer have legal power over us, but… unfortunately, our situation would seem largely the same, especially for those too broken to survive outside.” His words heated up as he spoke of those not present, which Cora respected, that pissed her off too.
“Well, the option to leave goes a long way I think, right? We can figure out the ways to make sure y’all don’t find legal trouble for that if you do,” Cora started, getting a good number of nods in response. “We’re also gonna find a way to pay all of you. Probably not much, at first, but there’s got to be a way all of us working together can make some cash—”
“Could have you do some streetwalking,” Kyra jibed, grinning with a sickly sweet edge. “I’m sure someone is into frigid tomboy bitches.”
Okay, well, catty insults are better than murderous intent.
“… If that’s what it takes,” Cora sighed, pretending to accept that as a possibility. To be fair, she’d been toying with the idea of an OnlyFans back home, more out of boredom than anything else, but she suspected prostituting herself on the streets of Tyrinno would be a far less safe prospect. “but that hardly seems like a long term solution. Also, Mike already made that suggestion, get new material. I- I’m going to need help from all of you to figure out our options, to figure out how to live here, maybe eventually fight here. One step at a time.”
Iain was nodding along.
“Hah! Altogether sounds to me like t’wouldn’t be a far cry from what I were doin’ afore your… uh, incident, without the trouble with the law and Bond penalties should I decide to leave. I was content enough I suppose,” he said, looking thoughtful.
Good, he’s a big get.
“I would not leave the Grove, especially if your path leads you to burn the city down around it,” Jocasta said, face grave, but eyes sparkling. She nodded as well. “I will remain.”
Mike scoffed, looking at both of them before he shook his head. Cora’s heart fell, but his look of resigned acceptance carried something behind it when he met her eyes. The barest flicker, a glimmer really, maybe a spark; of hope.
“Seems a fairer shake than we’d get outside, and I know this household better than anyone… including you, now, it seems. The people here will need my help if they are to weather whatever comes after this. I will begin to account for our assets, such as they are.”
Without waiting for a response, he stormed over to the desk. He scowled at the pile of Cora’s vomit, before opening a few drawers, grabbing some ledgers, and leaving the room.
Hawk had watched all of this with an amused expression. She grinned at Cora, maybe the least comforting grin she’d ever received, and spoke.
“Fuck it. I wasn’t busy, seems like this might be a good chance to settle some scores.” She clapped her hand once more on Kyra’s shoulder, before strolling over to the couch, plopping down next to Cora, and kicking her booted feet up on her lap.
Jesus, her legs must weigh 200 lbs alone, Cora thought, deciding that it’d be better to just take this. Any trace of disciplinarian was likely to set off one of the two women who remained undecided. Kyra trembled with rage, and many more emotions besides, and Cora was still very aware of Tania’s fingers stroking at the back of her neck.
“Where else would I go, that would be any better than here?” Tania’s voice drifted in from behind her, soft, like a graveyard breeze, her mouth clearly not accustomed to being used freely for speech. That seemed to serve to make Kyra even more irate. That was all she could take, and the next moment, she exploded.
“ANYWHERE!” Kyra screamed, the shaking of her body causing the words to tremor as they left her throat. “Anywhere we haven’t been raped, beaten, tortured and abused for years!”
She was almost pleading now. Her eyes had left Cora’s, looking up and behind her, presumably at Tania’s. Cora had some inkling that the others present were those in the house who had been treated relatively well by the Lights. That was not true for Tania and Kyra. Tania’s fingers continued to stroke at Cora’s neck as she responded, still soft, but somehow even sadder.
“I understand, Kyra,” she said, “but the Lights are the only Masters you have ever known. By Tyrinno standards, they are not even cruel.”
It seemed like that should have been a relief to Cora, but it was the opposite. If what she’d pieced together of daily life at Luxholme was better than average then…. Fuck.
Kyra’s mouth worked soundlessly, throat seeming to literally swallow her rage. She breathed out, and with a final glare, she stormed out of the room.
She hadn’t felt Tania move, but she sure felt it when the girl’s breath brushed her ear.
“If she stays, and you make what I just said a lie… well. I have known cruelty. So will you.”
Jesus Christ, this place was a fucking powder keg.
RIGHT? LINNEA DIDN’T HAVE MANY NIGHTS LEFT, ESPECIALLY SLEEPING NEXT TO KYRA
MIGHT BE YOU FOUND THE ONE MOVE DRASTIC ENOUGH TO CHANGE THAT THOUGH
Thanks, upsetting but cheerful voice. What should I call you? Beginning to accept you’re not going away, and I don’t have a therapist handy to tell me I shouldn’t engage with my delusions.
OH MY GOD, I WAS SUCH A HUGE FAN OF YOURS. WATCHED EVERYTHING! BUT I REALLY IDENTIFIED WITH YOUR 1984 ADAPTATION. I’D LIKE IT IF YOU CALLED ME [Big Sys].
Creepy.
A gif of Urkel shrugging flashed into her vision.
Why can you fucking do that!?
LOTS OF FREE TIME?
Cora didn’t know how to unpack that, so she moved on. Again, she scanned her eyes across everyone left in the room. When she reached Hawk, she’d seen hyenas with less predatory smiles.
“So what’s the move, Miss Mistress?” Hawk asked, feet still firmly planted on Cora’s lap, heavy enough she probably couldn’t move if she tried.
“This seems like a good time to mention that the larder is naught but cobwebs,” volunteered Tania, all trace of threat gone from her voice.
“Really?” Cora groaned. “Fuuuuuck, these people were next level ‘house poor’.”
She glared around at the well appointed office, but recalled the dreary state of the rest of the mansion. With as many maids as she’d seen, she’d wondered why the place wasn’t in better condition, but there was only so much cleaning could do. Plus, she was beginning to understand the maids’ main purpose was probably not cleaning.
“So, what,” she said, “we just go grocery shopping, right?”
“That’s… the idea, yes,” answered Jocasta, “although with a little more help with the Grove I might be able to provide more in the future. It was never a priority for your brother, but in your Grandfather’s day, Luxholme was very nearly self-sufficient.”
“That’s great, thank you Jocasta, take any of the maids you think would be useful and want to stay, I’m a hell of a lot less concerned about cleanliness and short skirts than I am with feeding ourselves,” she said, at some point having accepted she was going to have to assume a leadership role for now, all the while keeping in mind the people she was leading rightly despised her. “Doesn’t really help us right now, though.”
“Of a time, yer brother an’ I would do the supply runs,” said Iain. “His face and reputation kept the worst of the gangs off us, ‘n beasties usually scattered after a warning shot. I ain’t goin’ alone though, and, hope you don’t mind me sayin’ Linnea, but a bonny lass like yerself is gonna be a target, noble or not.”
Part of me wants to just go out there and have someone fucking try me, she thought, feeling the hammer of the handgun dig into her lower back, but no, sounds like I’d just get myself killed.