Moriana laughed. It was a laugh that, if asked, she would have described as a giggle. It was a sound of fun and freedom, of happiness and joy. From experience, however, she knew that most people considered it more a cackle. More than a few people had told her that, when she laughed like that, it was downright frightening. It didnât even seem to matter if it were someone who knew her alter speakingâbecause in no world could she ever be
frightening
when she had the monster that was the Shadow of Jinkai living inside her. Her laugh was, apparently, a source of fear and apprehension.
Thankfully, most people she knew and loved just went along with it. Some of them would just shoot her dubious looks and run off, more in jest than actual concern. A few made a point of asking what was so funny. Her favourite reactions, however, were from those of her friends who would join her in her joy and laughter, some adding their own giggles to the mix, others playing it up to
cackle
alongside her.
Helix was one of those people who would add his own cackle to her giggle, purposefully pitching his voice higher, his head thrown back before he let his abilities run wild, the Shadow of Jinkaiâs own abilities rising up to keep Moriana safeânot that Helix would ever hurt her! His abilities were just so dangerous, especially if Simeon wasnât aroundâalthough, Moriana had seen a few other people stop Helix. The most dramatic had been during the war, when Ri had needed to knock Helix out with a chokehold. What a disaster that had been.
As it always did, Morianaâs heart clenched with thoughts of Ri. Out of all the members of their unit, Moriana was perhaps the only one who could try and see himâshe and the Shadow of Jinkai, after all, werenât the sort of beings who could be stopped by the technology that made sparking in Falrion impossible. They had, most rudely, been forbidden from doing so, however. It wasnât that she didnât understand the reality that even if one of them managed to get into the nation, they would still need to find Ri, and what if something went wrong? The aethernet was disabled in Falrion, the xphern transmission network blocked in a way that even Meeho hadnât figured out how to get through, and none of her friends were willing to send anyone in, seeking to find out if p.xl or any of their other alternative communication methods worked. So, if they and their alter were allowed to enter Falrion and then found themselves in need of extraction, no one would be able to spark in to get them, and really, the chances of anyone even
knowing
something had gone wrong was unlikely.
âUhm⊠thank you?â a voice asked, unsure and nervous, and Moriana wasnât sure if she and her cackling giggle or the invader was the cause of the womanâs uneven thanks.
Bouncing on her toes, Moriana examined the woman, as well as the man who had sparked in beside her a few seconds too late to have had any hope of saving her from the invader. âYou shouldnât spark if the call will be that close, Sterling. The amount of aether being used by the raid system interferes with the skillâit has to hook into the system and make sure nothing will interfere with the spark, so, there's a delay.â
Moriana was nearly positive the man was named Sterling, the Shadow of Jinkai having run into him a handful of times over the years. Truly, the man was almost as terrible as Emilia at wandering into situations where her alter might find itself, all bloody vengeance and righteous fury. Of course, Emilia could handle herselfâor, she once had been able to. It was rather unclear whether she could do so anymore, as the last time they had met in such questionable circumstances, Emilia had definitely killed all the people in the room, yet, she had been unable to save their friend, unable to spark out of there once every life had been snuffed out. Instead, she had sat in all that blood and gore, waiting for someone to find her and the cooling body of someone they all loved and had been unable to save.
This man⊠Moriana couldnât always get more than glimpses of what her alter said and did, but she had a feeling Sterling was somewhere in the middle of the pack when it came to his competency and ability to not accidentally get himself killed. Hence! Giving him a little advice! If he were on the more competent side of things, he would be able to adjust his fighting strategy quickly and not try to spark again!
Said man blinked at her, his soft grey eyes wild and confused. âHave we met?â and oh good, his name actually was Sterling! It would have been terribly embarrassing if sheâd gotten it wrong.
âIn a way, but you wouldnât remember me,â Moriana replied, eyes darting to where Emiliaâs embarrassment of an ex had stepped in beside his⊠siblings? She hadnât seen it before, but there was a little bit of something thereâsome slight resemblance that, were they not standing side by side, each of them clearly upset by the woman nearly being taken out by the first invader who came across them, it wouldnât have been obvious.
The three were standing side by side, however, Emiliaâs ex reaching out towards the woman and asking if she was alright, so it really was quite obvious, especially when one knew he had several siblings. Interesting, this instinctual reach and accidental reveal of their familiarity with one anotherâa response to the stress of the moment? As she spent so much of her time in Norvel, Moriana ran into Emilia relatively often when she visited. Emilia spent most of her time visiting with a single person who was not Moriana, however. Emilia also visited Harlow, she supposed, even if her friend and alter both tried to keep that quiet. Moriana had seen Emilia slipping into the dungeons to visit Harlow too many times to count, though, the Shadow of Jinkai forcing her own mind so small all she knew was her alter sometimes slipped down with Emilia but that
she
wasnât allowed, and really, only an idiot would think that the reasons behind their teammateâs imprisonment were a simple as many of their members seemed to think it was.
Still, Emilia primarily visited one person in Norvel, so none of them saw her in more than passing, but all of them who called Norvel home shared their stories with one another. From that sharing, Moriana knew that Emiliaâs ex had never talked about his family with her. So many of the people who called Norvel home had little to no connection with their blood relatives; as a result, many were obsessed with knowing about other peopleâs families. Codeth had explained once that, even before the war, Baalphorians had often tried to live the first years of their adulthood outside of their familyâs shadow, so not sharing details about relatives wasnât exactly uncommon.
If anything, from all Moriana had heard, for children of affluent Baalphorians, sharing that they had connections to the rich and the powerful could be looked down upon by peers. It didnât stop young Baalphorians from doing so, nor would it necessarily be a mark against them in and of itself; rather, it seemed more like⊠if the person weren't worthy of the power their family had, throwing the relation around could have a negative effect on how their peers viewed them?
It was all very complicated, from what she could tell. In some places, power structures were much more clear-cut. There might be a complete reliance on familial lines, or on the other end of the spectrum, every drop of power had to be earned through hard work. Baalphoria seemed to be some strange mix, and it just made everything messy.
Still, the thing that was nearly universal? That drama and scandal reverberated through families, and while Emiliaâs ex had never spoken to her of his family or the politics his mother and sister were involved in, she had a still known who his family were. Gossip bubbled and Moriana knew it as well, as did every member of their unit⊠mostly because she had made sure to tell them. Olivier had confirmed for them that there were no laws forcing them to keep it secretâEmiliaâs ex was well over thirty and while he could choose to keep his family private, he had no way of keeping other people from spreading it about.
Perhaps, if they hadnât received a message from The Black Knot just before the raid fell with a warning that the manâs mother, Samantha Richmond, was trying to leverage her political power to have the triplets punished for bringing her son in, they might not have been so cruel as to tell the world about his connection to the woman.
Now, however, that woman was threatening their friends. Moriana had no doubt that bruise beginning to spread over Emiliaâs exâs jaw was the result of his visit with the triplets, but they had all seen the videos: the one of him yelling at Emilia for daring to make use of their open relationship; the one of him standing by as his roommate locked her in and then spoke to her
like that
; the one of him chasing Emilia down, begging to chat and claiming his roommate was just joking, before he was brought to his knees by a Free Colonier who looked oddly familiar and yet not; this pathetic boy, saying nothing when his roommate insulted Emiliaâs friend;
Elijah Richmond,
panicking and swearing when The Black Knot swiped up the roommate.
This waste of space, claiming his roommate hadnât meant any harm over, and over, and over again.
To the girl his roommate had tried to assault.
To the triplets.
To other clones.
To everyoneâhe had even claimed his and his friendâs innocence on the local raiding relays and MemoryBoards, after those first videos spread like fire, before he was dragged off to Emiliaâs friendâs dorm room by his roommateâs parents. Thank the aether Samina had been there with them, an army of clones already lingering in her relays and ready to spark in whenever she needed them.
Moriana should check in with Saminaâsee how the beginning of their trip was going. Theyâd started a big group relay, once theyâd found out what was happening. Currently, it was filled with demands for vacation photos, and while it had originally been aimed at Saminaâand hopefully Emiliaâit had since been extended to everyone who was on vacation⊠which, at this point, was almost all of them!
Well, that was a lie. Some of them were effectively
always
on vacation, while enough of them enjoyed their jobs enough that they viewed life as a perpetual vacation. Still, there were so many of them who were on more purposeful vacations that their vacation-photos-and-stories relay would soon be filled with so much stuff! Hopefully it would all be good stuff⊠which had awkwardly led to the decision to keep a few people out of it, in order to keep their negativity from seeping in.
Leerin, unsurprisingly, was at the top of the list the people who had organized the relay had chosen to excludeâand who even had arranged the relay? It didnât really matter, but Moriana was curious as to how theyâd decided to exclude others. Nettie, she could understandâany time Emilia came up in conversation, the other silverstrain was critical of her decisions, and of all the people whose voice could chase Emilia away yet again, Nettie was pretty high up there. Other peopleâŠ
No, some of the other people, Moriana had no idea why theyâd been excluded. So, thing for later: track down who had started the vacation relay and get answers!
For the moment, she was stuck in this raidâwhich thank the stars was turning into
one of those
raids, the total number of invaders rising higher and higher as the system attempted to account for the number of Division 30 members within the raid. It didnât matter that several of them never raidedâthere was even a chance this was Meerikâzaâs first raid! The system knew they were unstoppable.
Always unstoppable.
Through death and destruction, through love and hatred and picking up more and more problem children along the way than was reasonableâMoriana being one of those problem childrenâthey were unstoppable.
Tilting her head, her red hair splaying over the ground, Moriana examined the three siblings, waiting until several other heroes were close enough to speak again, her smile more than a little derangedâone didnât live a life such as hers without learning to lean into their insanity. âNone of you look much like your parents, do you? A little bit around the eyesâand your sisterâs hair, of course! That colour of brown is all Samantha Richmond, and none of her husband! Ah⊠what was his name?â
Annoyingly, the aethernet wouldnât let her look it up, but it didnât matter: her job was done. The colour drained from Emiliaâs exâs faceâa little bit from his sisterâs as well. Sterling seemed less effectedâunsurprising, as from what her passing knowledge of the man suggested, he spent little time in Baalphoria.
âWait⊠Eli, your mom is Samantha Richmond? Isnât she, like, an up-and-coming politician?â someone asked, another confirming that there were rumours she might one day want to run for president, although President Daymark had held the position for decades and showed no sign of stepping away from politics anytime soon.
âYeah, your eyes
are
a little like hers, arenât they?â someone else asked Emiliaâs ex, the man in questionâs eyes all narrow slits as they bored into Moriana.
That was good.
That
was part of the plan because as much as they could stay in Piketown and make the rest of the RaidSeason chaos for residents of the city, eventually, there would be little keeping Emiliaâs ex from leavingâfrom seeking out somewhere else to raid. So, they needed him to stayâneeded to give him another reason to stay, and they all knew enough about Emiliaâs original, antagonistic relationship with the man to know he wasnât the sort to let grudges lie.
All of them were more than happy to make themselves a grudge or ten with the man.