Vera Vance

Vera has always had this sort of unabashed womanly charm, and that has not changed as a single mother in her late 40's. She is a passionate, but no-nonsense sort of woman who works as a very competent and well-paid attorney. She tends to match the noir aesthetic to some extent, with her pale skin contrasting dark eyes and hair, further accentuated by the tendency to wear somewhat revealing, dark, professional clothes, and deep red lipstick. She holds herself with a somewhat suave, almost sexy confidence, and tends to appear professional and polished even under stress, but she would do anything to protect her daughter, no matter the cost to herself.

Vera's youth was not very eventful. Her family was never wealthy, but they just barely got by, and Vera worked her way through both college and law school without complaint, even after her parents died while she was in law school. After getting her degree, she spent a few years mostly making a lot of money in family law, which was where she met Mel Vladis. Mel was about 5 years older than Vera, and getting a divorce after ten years from a certain Caroline that Vera was actually quite well acquainted with, and disliked with a fiery passion. Not long after settling the divorce, Vera and Mel started dating. They dated on and off for several years, then got married. Their relationship lasted less than a year, before they also amicably divorced, realizing that neither of them were really good for each other, both strongly independent and willful people.

The event barely made a dent in Vera's life, as she lost touch with Mel, but then one day, 8 years later, she ran into Stephie. Stephie was... politely speaking, not terribly smart. By complete coincidence, Vera learned that Stephie was getting a divorce... from Mel. The man did seem to go through marriages, didn't he? That was also when she discovered that the woman was pregnant and didn't even realize it! Somehow feeling unable to leave her alone, Vera helped Stephie through the remainder of her pregnancy and then convinced Stephie to give up full legal custody of the child to her. Since then, Vera has raised Mina as her own for some 15 years. She never lied to Mina about the fact that she was adopted, but has never told anyone who her father was.

Mina, however, has always been a little surrounded by the unusual. I was going to write this up in an organized fashion, but I'M TOO LAZY SO I'MMA COPYPASTE WHAT VERA SAID IN A COUPLE POSTS. In the meantime, for a super short version, Vera and Mina are being chased across the universe now for reasons Vera doesn't quite understand, and the only person she could think to help her was former bounty-hunter, Mel.

---

She heaved a sigh and looked at Mel, launching into her explanation with no further ceremony. "It's the Eahta Cult." Her mouth curved into a slight grimace. She had told Mina already, but just saying it still made her anxious and unhappy. The Eahta Cult were an illusive group of assassins believed to be so high in status they were almost above the law, if the law could catch them at all. Newer members of the Inter-Galactic Agency believed them to be myth, but most acknowledged that they were very real. They were not mercenaries - no one could contract their services; it was more accurate to call them a force of nature. When the Eahta Cult moved, something big was about to change the flow of the universe. She wasn't sure if he was going to believe her, hell she wasn't sure she believed it sometimes when she woke up in the morning, but it was the truth.

"About two months ago, a neighbor's kid comes to me with a story, saying some strange woman had visited his crazy uncle. The woman was wearing a dress that was open at the back, and she had a large red mark in the shape of an hourglass burned on it, with four, strange appendages curling around her body. He didn't hear the whole conversation, but his uncle was scared of out his wits at the end of it, and he said something about Mina. Mina being in danger. Two days letter I get a holomail from a source claiming to be a prestigious boarding school, saying Mina had won a spot. I've lived long enough to know a scam when I see it, and I ignored it. Another one came the next day, this time claiming that she was being sponsored by the Sisterhood of the Widows, Eahta. I know not everyone believes they're real, Mel, but I didn't think a scam was going to use their name. I responded with a polite declination. Yes, I was polite." She stressed, in case he was worried she might have said something to specifically irritate them. "But never received an answer. Next thing I know, one of your old buddies I kept in touch with knocks on my front door and tells me every bounty hunter within two star systems just received the same notice: the Eahta Cult will grant any wish, as long as you bring Mina Vance to them. Alive. I hoped more than believed it was a prank, but less than a week later and I get notice that our home alarm system was activated. I come home and find our TV and some of my jewelry stolen, but also a family photo missing. We left Earth that night and have been going from planet to planet under false ID's hoping they won't catch up to us, but every time, they do, and every bounty hunter seems to know just a little bit more about who we are, what we look like, and where we are going.

"I don't care if you believe in the Eahta Cult or not, Mel. We are being chased. I don't know why, and I don't know why they're not doing it themselves, but I need your help.

---

"I believe I made myself clear. I don't have the smallest clue why the Eahta Cult is after us. The man the woman went to see, though, he's the local nutcase. His name is Doctor Frasier. He was a mid-wife, was there when Mina was born. He's a little strange, but he's never gotten anyone hurt. He mostly just stays at home making dire predictions about the end of the world. He started losing his mind eight or so years ago, getting worse and worse, and saying something about how Mina was the Gift of the Ancients and had the Map of the Glass Heart, things like that. She's my daughter; there was nothing strange during her birth, so naturally, I never paid him any attention, beyond hoping he'd never decide to kidnap her." Vera gave a grimace of a laugh. "When Garrett came to me telling me his uncle was terrified, I assumed it was just more of his ramblings. The woman was the only reason I remembered it at all. Whether that really was related and how she found him or us, I don't know. I don't have any details on that. I assume the bounty hunters are finding out details on their own."

---

She took a breath and began the story. "Before Mina was born, one of my neighbors brought home her brother. I hadn't even known she'd had a brother. She never talked about him, but apparently he used to be an OB-GYN, you know one of those reproductive doctors for women. I found out later that he used to be a certified genius. On top of his medical degree and years doing surgery, he'd gotten two PhD's, one in Organic Chemistry, one in Engineering. When I met him, none of that was apparent. He was nervous, shifty, and treated every casual question about himself like an interrogation."

She shrugged with one of her hands, pouring herself another glass of whiskey, but just morosely observing the amber liquid swirl around her cup. "He seemed a little pathetic, but with his credentials, he at least got a job as a nurse mid-wife in the local hospital. Mina was the first child he delivered, and it must have done him some good to see a child after... whatever he'd been through, because he was different after that, calmer, more coherent. For a time, anyways. Since we were neighbors, and I was on good terms with Carol, his sister, it wasn't uncommon for the family to come see me. I was a single mom unprepared for the strain a child would put on my busy schedule. When Carol died a year later giving birth to her own son, her husband, Doctor Frasier, and I turned raising the children into something of a collaborative effort, so that Mina and Garrett had at least one of us around at all times. Doctor Frasier loved Mina like she was his own daughter, and I got so used to it that it stopped feeling strange after a while.

"And then it started to get odd. It happened so gradually that I didn't realize it at first, but even when the play dates got less frequent, he would come visit us by himself. When I stopped welcoming those visits, I noticed he would follow us. I would open the curtains to find him staring intently through the window of the next house over. Or I'd bump into him every time we left the house to go grocery shopping." She grimaced and took another drink. "It got so freaky, that I told him directly to stop all of that, and I guess he really is a harmless old man, because he backed off of the weird behavior for a while. That was when the ramblings started, though. He lost his job, from what Garrett told me spent most of his time locked in his room, and on the rare occasions I saw him, he would talk to me for as long as he could about... odd things, almost all concerning Mina. The ramblings got worse, sometimes they would turn almost into trances, and he would shake me or shout at me for not listening to him. Naturally, I assumed he was delusional, and possibly even a danger to my child. I looked into his background, asked Garrett's father to get him into therapy, even considered a restraining order. I tried to ignore what he said as much as possible, but there were a couple things he would repeat that I couldn't help but remember. She is the Gift of the Ancients. She holds the Map of the Glass Heart. I couldn't let them find her. They were going to torture him to find out where he'd hidden it. If they found out, they'd kill her for it. Even if they didn't kill her for it, if they found it, they were going to destroy the world." She shivered slightly, trying not to think about his dire predictions. "I never found out what he meant by 'them' or what this 'map' he was talking about was. Nor why he thought Mina had it."

"The woman I met at the door- or, saw, I guess. She didn't look anything like the description Garrett gave me of the woman who had visited his uncle, but some of the things she said..." she pursed her lips, keeping the message she'd received on the holo-em to herself, "she said Mina would prove if she was worthy to gather the shards. She knew my name, and kept saying something about Mina being 'the Next' and eventually joining 'them.' Whatever that means. I think it's the Eahta Cult Doctor Frasier was so scared of. Mina's behavior was so odd. She's not the sort of kid to just... run off like that. I don't really know what happened, but for a few minutes at least, she was stuck in a room and the lady said she couldn't get in or open the door. It would open when Mina was ready. She hasn't talked about what happened up there. It's completely crazy, but I've started to think that Doctor Frasier knew something." She curled the fingers of her left hand into a fist. "I don't know how much of it was delusion, and how much legitimate, but it's like the Cult is manipulating us. Like this whole bounty was just a ploy... but I don't know for what purpose. What it has to do with this Map of Glass. Maybe they're leading us to glass shards to build something, but I don't have any idea what, and it's not like they convinced us to come here. None of it makes any sense." She didn't meet Mel's eyes, opting to stare down at her glass in frustration. Vera stopped herself from voicing the giant string of concerns that had run through her head over and over again in the last couple months like a broken record. She really didn't want to show off just how lost and tired and hunted she felt.