Thankfully, it didn't take too long for the person to pick up. "Yo, Auria, was it? Nice ta meetcha. I'm Coco Adel, Winter's best friend."

That made her freeze. "Wait… Winter told you?!" She didn't think Winter would so carelessly tell people! Ironwood was already onto her so she wouldn't be surprised there. She doubted anybody else would be on her case. But still… Winter had told her?! Why?! Hopefully, this wouldn't become common knowledge. She really could not afford for the existence of the fae realm to get out. It had to stay in their little circle.

"Nope; you did. Remember when you removed the glamor? I was the one that instructed Willow to put in those cameras." That made Auria settle a little. At least Weiss' room had a camera in it. She wasn't sure if Whitley's did or not since she hadn't really been paying attention. She'd put all of her focus on him, not any potential hidden security. It did make sense for there to be a camera in his room if there was one in Weiss'.

But wait…

"Why would you tell Willow to put cameras in the rooms?" That was confusing. Just who was Coco? She really didn't understand. Winter's friend, sure, but how was she so involved with all of this?

"I'm a hacker. I've had the manor's security system under my thumb for years. I had those extra cameras installed so I could gather clear evidence of the abuses in the manor. Winter was planning to take the SDC down next yer with Weiss in Beacon. But there were a few wrenches thrown into that plan…" Auria nodded at Coco's words. Yeah, that did make sense. First Weiss' betrothal, then her getting whisked to the fae realm. All of this was honestly risky and impulsive, but there was no other choice. Either Weiss stayed betrothed and got broken or she got take to the fae realm and replaced with a fae. There was no in between. And Blake's heart was so big she wouldn't have resigned Weiss to her fate on Serlia.

"So I see. Are you going to use the footage of my glamor against me? What exactly do you want of me?" She was trying to not panic but it was hard. Coco had definitive footage of her. She could easily out the whole family and fae realm without too much trouble.

"Nah, I already got rid of it. You don't have to worry about me outing you. Do you realise how much disaster could be wrought if Atlas knew about magic?"

"Yes. I'm two hundred so it wasn't too hard to guess the potential risks." It really wasn't too hard to guess. She may not know Atlas' systems as intimately as others, but she knew enough through Weiss. Atlas would want to harness the magic for military might. There were no ifs, ands, or buts about it. They absolutely could not learn about the fae realm. She wasn't sure if she could trust Coco's words, though. All she could do was have faith Winter's friend had their best interests at heart. "So what did you want to talk about?"

"I mostly wanted ot say that I can help you with computer stuff. I'll go get you a laptop for while you're in Vale. But I'm gonna guess you don't have such devices in your world. You're still pretty awkward with Weiss' scroll."

Auria nodded. "We do use some human technologies, but you are right. The most complex things we use are cameras and those…digital clocks." She pulled the word from Weiss' memory. They called them human clocks since they were from the human realm. They really didn't have the split between digital and…analogue.

"Well, tell ya what. I can look up the things you need for Whitley inside an hour if you can give me an idea of what topics you have in mind. Once you get here to Vale, I can teach you all you need to know about researching online. Sound like a deal?"

"Sounds reasonable." She would be flying blind. She would need reputable resources to sway Whitley. If they weren't top notch, he would reject them most likely. So she listed off ideas of what she thought she needed. Hopefully it would be enough. Or Coco would be able to build off of them… She still wasn't familiar enough with this world to fully understand what she'd need. The worlds had similarities but the differences were vast. "If you have any other ideas, please feel free to toss them in. I still have a lot to learn about this world."

"Already on it. I think I have a real easy way of changing his opinion on Faunus once you get to Vale. If you can hold out a couple days, I know someone that'll rock his world. But, for now, I'll get a list of Faunus inventors and inventions to start to crack his foundation." That would be a good start, at least. She doubted it would fully break his racism, but if they could start poking holes in it…

"Thanks, Coco."

"Oh, and I'll send it all as PDFs to your scroll. You'll be able to print it from there. Anyway, talk to ya later, Auria." The call clicked off and Auria let out a sigh of relief. Though she remained a little trepidatious.

She couldn't help but text Winter. Can I trust this Coco person that says she's your friend? She didn't want to seem paranoid, but the more people that knew her secret, the more trouble they were in.

Yes. I trust Coco with everything that I am. She does know your secret, but she'll keep her mouth shut. I can promise you that. Don't worry about anything.

Well, that was a relief. She knew she could trust Winter without fail thanks to Weiss. She might not have the same relationship the two sisters had, but they could at least trust each other. She wanted to splay out on the bed, but she had one thing she needed.

Could you help me hook up my scroll to the printer? Even Weiss wouldn't have known how to do that. All of this wireless shit was beyond her if it wasn't a basic call. Pearls only did calls and nothing else. It wasn't like she personally used cameras so she didn't know how any of this worked. There was going to be quite the high learning curve for this world…

ƒ

For the night, dinner was served in their rooms. Normally they ate meals together, but with Gelé gone, that rule was being tossed out the window.

She didn't entirely mind, though. Coco had come through and delivered the documents as promised. She was currently shuffling through them to figure out the best arrangement. Coco had given her more than enough information to work with. She wasn't entirely sure if they were from reputable sources or not, though. It was hard for her to know what was considered reputable in this world and what wasn't. All she could do was trust in Coco and that she wouldn't lead her astray.

But she was getting a bit tired of digging through the numbers after several hours of it. Tomorrow was going to be eye opening for Whitley if he could believe her. Hopefully he would. He did seem to be responding well to her gentleness which he clearly hadn't known for any of his life. Sometimes, all somebody needed was a little bit of kindness and this kid was so clearly one of them.

She pushed away from the desk and summoned a small, shell-shaped device. She called on her sister's soul and it dialed. "Auria? What is it? Is something wrong?" Turi always had been a worrywort after returning home from the human realm… She really didn't need to be fussed over by her younger sister.

"Yes, yes. I'm fine, Turi; I just need you to run some stuff over here for me if you can." She listed off the toiletries she needed. SHe'd been here for a little while now and had yet to shower. All the synthetic materials in Weiss' shampoos and such would probably not agree with her skin. The chefs had at least remembered the vegetarian thing thus far… She would be so sick if she ate any sort of meat…

"Are you sure that's all you need? What about blankets or clothes or—"

"Turi, I'm fine. I can't have the synthetic materials in Weiss' stuff is all." There was no end to how much Turi could freak out. She stressed over all the small details. "You will need to bring me refills every so often, though. Do you think you can manage that?" That didn't feel like too much of an ask. Although…

"Could you maybe bring me a few fruits too? The food in this place is so woefully droll." She missed having access to the constant fresh fruit. She wanted to go back home so badly. As long as sh ekpet things up for a little while, she'd be fine. She needed to guide Whitley, but he'd be functional eventually. Her presence wouldn't be needed for too long. Of course, he no doubt had damage from Gelé's treatment of him, but that wasn't her place. That was for this world's doctors to sort out.

"Yeah, sure. What do you want?" Auria kept her request small. They'd be leaving the day after next so she didn't need a whole ton. Would Vale also be better in food selection? She missed being able to snack on whatever she wanted whenever she wanted. The kitchens weren't off limits to her like they had been for Weiss and Whitley. She missed the fruits, but the multiple types of always fresh bread… Gods, that was always a nice treat whenever she went to grab something to snack on. And she wasn't even sure that the grains between the worlds were the same either…

"I'll go grab what you need. I'll be over there in about twenty minutes."

"Oh, also, I'll be moving about four hours back in a couple of days, so keep that in mind too." The summer court was the equivalent of Atlas' timezone. Koiria did have its own timezone system, so it'd be interesting to see where things ended up as the court moved around. Very, very interesting.

"All right; see you then." Auria hung up and tapped her chin. Should she go grab Whitley? It might be nice for Turi to meet her descendants, but by the same token, Whitley did have a lot of baggage. She wasn't sure what would be best… She knew Turi loved her family and would do anything for them… Although that kindness might also be good for Whitley…

She made her way to the boy's room and knocked on his door. He was in his pajamas, hair askew a bit. "Can I do something for you?" He tilted his head to the side. He really was quite adorable. He was so sweet and innocent despite the abuse he'd been put through.

"Would you mind coming back to my room with me?" She couldn't say why when somebody passing by might overhear. Damn this having to dodge around everything…

Whitley frowned. "But I'm not dressed…"

"I don't care. We don't have a lot of time." She grabbed his hand and started dragging him. She felt him stumble from the suddenness, but he didn't protest. She could definitely feel the confusion bleeding out of him though she unfortunately couldn't explain anything. She needed to keep all the fae stuff under warps as much as possible.

They got back to Weiss' room and Whitley looked around. "I've never been in here before…" She could feel his bemusement. Well, considering the siblings were rarely ever unattended and hated each other, it did make sense. Weiss had never seen Whitley's room either. "So why are we here?"

"Now that we don't have prying eyes and ears around, I want you to meet my sister. She's the fae that integrated into the Schnee line. Remember Grandma Turi from Nicholas' journals? That's who it is."

Whitley's eyes widened at that. "That was so long ago! How is she still alive?" Sweet, innocent, naive child. He really didn't know the first thing about fairytales and mythology, did he?

"I'm two hundred and I'm still considered young. I think I'd be the equivalent of an eighteen to twenty year old for you. I still have decades of education before I can start my own practice." She'd been learning for the past fifty years and it still wasn't considered enough education for her field. Unfortunately, if she did opt to stay here for the duration of a natural human lifespan, it meant she would be several decades behind in her learning. All of her classmates would've moved on by time she returned.

"My parents are three thousand and twenty-five hundred years old. It's not unheard of for fae to live to be over ten thousand. Most tend to die between about seventeen thousand and twenty thousand, though." It was more than possible to outlast those numbers, but that was the usual lifespan of a fae. Casting magic could be quite strenuous on the body if overused. Plus, magic was finite. It was how their immortality functioned; the more magic someone had, the longer they lived.

Misum tended to die younger than Lider, though. Their magic tended to be more potent which could lead to accidents. It wasn't uncommon for somebody to do something then cause themselves to die due to unintended side effects. It really did bring their life expectancy down quite a bit…

"Wow… I can't imagine being that old…" Whitley did blink. "How much fae blood do we have?" That was the million-gold question, wasn't it? She at least knew where Turi factored into the family now. She could probably make a family tree.

She sat at the desk and quickly drew up what she knew of the family. A few calculations later and she nodded. "Three percent fae blood and some change, but the exact amount isn't a worry." So that meant that Weiss would be able to do magic in the fae realm… If she did pursue it, she would outlive her siblings. Interesting… Blake didn't know any of this quite yet, but she'd inform Turi. Then she could give the news to Blake.

"What exactly does that mean?"

"In the scale of the human world, nothing. But if you went to the fae realm and lived there, then you could perform magic and live for a few centuries." Auria shrugged. He'd never go to the fae realm, let alone live there, so it didn't matter. He would live here and die here. Part of her did wonder if he might do better in the Lider court than stay here in the human realm… But finding a Misum to take his place would be a pain in the ass and then finding a Lider family to take him in… None of it would be ideal and take time.

Time she really didn't have to spare especially once they got to Vale.

"Oh." Whitley's shoulders slumped. "Will you remember me when I'm dead?" Auria couldn't help but blink at that. It was incredibly sudden and she didn't know where that had come from. But there was a lingering sense of something on his soul. Loneliness that ran deep. He felt like he'd been completely forgotten… The only person he'd had was Gelé pretty much his whole life…

She got up and wrapped her arms around him. "I won't. And we'll each each other again eventually. The afterlife is real and people can see each other. Fae and humans usually stay apart from my understanding, but there's nothing actually stopping us from seeing each other." Of course, it would be quite the distance in time before they saw each other again. She was only two hundred and from a powerful family. She would probably live to between twenty-five and thirty thousand years old. This chapter of her life would be nothing but a small blip in the grand scheme of things. But still… She wouldn't forget it.

"It is? How can you be so sure?" She pursed her lips at the question. He probably didn't even known about polytheism being a thing. How would he react to knowing his entire religious belief was wrong? The specter of death was only seen as a negative presence to be feared. Melanthios wasn't a bad guy. She hadn't met him, but everyone in Koiria knew that he was a pretty amicable guy.

As long as the person wasn't a complete monster.

"We're much more in tune with the esoteric side of things. We can't communicate with the dead, but some people do become ghosts. It's pretty concrete proof of the afterlife." It wasn't a lie at least. Souls being disembodied were pretty good proof of the afterlife. They could still interact and talk just like any other person. Most fae couldn't talk to Melanthios, but a few that had passed into extreme age could. He was very strict on who he could talk to and who couldn't.

"That doesn't sound possible." Whitley frowned. "Ghosts are completely illogical." She internally sighed. This would be an uphill battle the whole way. She would need scientific proof of everything and she had nothing. It seemed like the esoteric side of life had been completely forgotten about here on Serlia. How could she prove these things to him when it seemed like there was no concrete proof from it? At least scientifically speaking…

However, they were interrupted by Turi stepping out of seemingly nowhere. "Oh, oh my. Am I interrupting something?"

"No sis. I was reassuring Whitley of something." She stepped away and hugged her sister. It was a one-armed hug since Turi had several bottles in her right arm. "How are things going without me around?" She was al ittle worried. Her parents loved her so much and to have her gone for possibly several decades…

"Mother and Father are missing you greatly. Mother is beside herself." Auria frowned at that. She really should have spoken to her family more. Her mother had worked so hard to conceive her. It must have been awful to lose her first daughter. It was only for a few decades, though.

"I'll see if I can sneak away here and there. The Schnee family is basically idle rich and we won't be doing much once we get to Vale, I think." It wouldn't be the same as her being home all the time, but she at least wouldn't be away the whole time. Winter had excused her from lessons, so it really didn't leave her with much to do. SHe really wasn't sure what all she'd do once she got to Vale… For now, all she could do was study the journals and pull out lessons for Whitley. Hopefully he wouldn't be averse to talking to her like that.

"I know Mother and Father would appreciate seeing you when and where possible. Even if it's just a few minutes, it would do a lot to soothe especially Mother." Turi offered a smile and Auria nodded. Probably not anywhere in the next couple of days, but within a week most likely. She would easily be able to sneak away. It wasn't like Winter was keeping constant eyes on her like Gelé would've. If anything, it seemed like she'd encourage her to stand on her own. She'd wanted Weiss to go to Beacon to spread her wings…

"By the way, Turi, this is Whitley, your great-great grandson." Auria smiled and motioned to the boy. He shifted uncomfortably. Yeah, she couldn't blame him. It wasn't everyday one got to meet someone who, by his experience, should've been long dead.

"H-Hello," he mumbled.

Turi handed Auria the bottles then embraced him. "Hello, Whitley. It's very nice to meet you. I'm Turi Digeneres. My, you're quite handsome." She smiled and kissed his forehead. "You have such a gentle soul too. You have a great capacity for good if you grow the right way."

Whitley looked at Auria, obviously freaked out. "Thank you?" Auria did agree: Whitley would have a great capacity for good if he grew the right way. She would have to guide him, though. He was little better than a child when it came to knowing right from wrong. Her gentleness would be the biggest factor in helping him understand many things.

"I'm glad to see Nicholas' kindness continued on into his grandchildren. The future looks bright for you and your sister if you continue on the right path. Anyway, I should let you go since it's late in the day." With that, Turi disappeared, leaving a very confused Whitley staring at where she'd been.

"W-Wha…?" He looked at Auria who shrugged.

"My sister loves people. She's also a fortuneteller, so she can see through people without too much trouble. Even shielding rings have no effect on her. The soul is an open book to her and she read yours like she would anybody else's." Turi could definitely be quite a whirlwind. Fortunetellers were quite the unique breed, that was for sure. They could read the movements of the stars and the flickering of candle flames like nothing else. All types of -mancy were valid in Koiria. They could all foretell something about a person, though astrology was the most popular type of fortunetelling. The stars stuck in the dome and made it so easy to tell where they would be and following them was simple. At least if what one knew what they were doing.

"I-I see…" Whitley clearly didn't. Turi was an oddball, that much was for sure. But that was just kind of fortunetellers in a nutshell. They were so much more in tune with the esoteric side of life than most. About the only people more in tune with them were clergy, be they Misum or Lider. Both parties fully embraced the soul and could often read souls despite the best blocking. Honestly, how did humans even function? They had their souls hanging out in the open… Anybody could read them regardless of if they were active users or not!

"Anyway, why I don't I take you back to your room for the night?" The boy had been pushed far enough that day. And tomorrow wouldn't be that much better… He was going to have a rather nasty day tomorrow. Hopefully he wouldn't be too upset with her and he'd come around to seeing the truth that people weren't so different.

"Okay." Whitley nodded and Auria kissed his head. He really was a sweet boy.