Chương 1003: Day One Thousand And One

Dear Diary, I think this may be one of the hardest things about growing up. I'm pissed. Furious. Raging. But I can't let it out. So many reasons why. Some of them, a lot of them, have to do with not wanting to cop a squat on the very tippy top of Shit Pyramid. Yeah, I know, but I can't help but think at least some of the fuckers on the pyramid have positioned themselves for what they thought of as good reasons at the time.

Maybe even more got a spot because in a moment of rage they managed to scare enough people into shoving them up the pyramid in hopes of not being at a level with their fists. Yeah, in the moment, when dealing with the motherfucker who violated my Darling and killed her fuckin' baby with enough Cold Iron that I had to put that fuckin' baby's Soul back together piece by piece, I broke him and handed him over to the living incarnation of Fates Worse Than Death.

But what I do in a moment of near incoherent, fully justified rage... That is not who I want to be when I have the time, the space, the ability to be more than that. To do better than that. I could scour Sparta down to bedrock. I could sail over with the Black Dragon, I could go orbital with Vulcan, I could sear the ground with Mana Blades.

Fuck, I think if I managed to scare enough people over there, I might be able to claim some tentacle terrain in M-Space, and then it'd be all over but the wailing and gnashing of teeth. I could. But back when we studied the 'Great Cities of Europa', which pretty much meant the northeastern Mediterranean, we looked at the numbers. New Amsterdam, which is like half of the population of the Alliance as a whole, is the only City on a scale with those 'Great Cities'.

Which means there are at least a million people in Sparta. Human people, because based on what I know of Spartans, the only way they're keeping Human-Adjacent folks around is if they fill some kind of niche slave role that Humans can't. Like if you told me they had Selkies or Merfolk imprisoned in the sewers to keep the shit flowing, I would not be surprised. Disgusted and enraged, but both of those are filling and spilling in me right now, and most of it is pointed at Sparta.

To be specific, which is important, at Spartan Heroes. From those numbers I remember, there are between one and three thousand of them at any given time. Which means if I just take Vulcan into low orbit and get off on glassing the fuckin' City, because my ballistic Primordial of Calamity son has never failed to play that particular prank, I will wind up killing just shy of one million non-Hero Spartans.

To clarify for the hard of thinking, because I need to make this clear to myself, and when I'm this pissed off thinking is not my strong suit, one million Spartan slaves. One million victims of the most horrific regime on the planet. To be clear, if they were actually preparing some kind of military action against the Alliance that we couldn't stop any other way, I might do it anyway. Thing is, my Kitten has not failed in her mission, the one she gave herself when I told her to do as she will.

The Alliance has a secure coastline, the most advanced Navy in the world, and even if the Spartans somehow managed to teleport every fuckin' Hero in their City to the Alliance, all three thousand of them... We'd outnumber the motherfuckers. Yeah, our Heroes are mostly brand new, maybe with some experience in military actions like Calverton, maybe some fighting Monsters or keeping the peace, but we don't train shitty Heroes.

But when Sparta has three thousand, that usually means two thirds of them are also a new Cohort. And while the five hundred Hero limit per City means we'd only have thirty-five hundred Heroes inclusive of our Naval Officers, we also have an Army. Volunteers. Levies. Soldiers. Warrior Karls. Trolls. Jarls. Jotnar. I don't remember who said it, but one of the quotes from ROTC was 'quantity has a quality all its own'.

If the Alliance had a Sudden Spartan Invasion, not only are at least like six thousand of those assorted folks ready to rock and roll right away, I'm pretty sure if we saw them coming we could have another sixty thousand under arms before they got to the shore. Assuming any of them did get to the shore, what with Norfolk's longboats being typical naval technology for the Med, Spartans inclusive. So yeah, I'm not gonna flatten Sparta, because most of them don't deserve it and it's not...

It's not an emergency, no matter how much rage is currently leaking out of me. There's also the fact that they have other hostages, and they don't deserve to be nuked before we can rescue them. Which Saffron has already told me is in the works, like in the 'at some random point in the near future she will show up and say 'Attack Dog, Fetch', and I will go fetch Marie's captive sisters. I'm pissed off at Ares, too, because apparently he's been whispering to the King of Sparta about me.

If I knew where the fucker was, I would tattoo 'keep my name out your fuckin' mouth' inside his rectum before shoving his jawless head into it. Preferably without removing said head from his shoulders, because I'm pretty fuckin' sure I could snap his spine backwards for the rectal cranium insertion. Jawless because I don't think the fucker can read, let alone follow simple instructions, and I don't want my name in his mouth, which wouldn't be possible if I remove his jaw.

But as noted, I don't know where the fucker is. Twice now I've vandalized Olympus, and I wasn't super subtle either time, which means if I show up, I've got to figure out some way to bait him out.

Fuck, if I care about the slaves in Sparta, I really ought to care at least a little about the rest of Greece, and if fighting a bunch of Kaiju in the middle of the Atlantic was enough to fuck with the coast of Atlantis for months, I'm pretty sure fighting Ares on Olympus would fuck over everyone in Greece for the foreseeable, especially if his sister and dad decided to join in. Fuck, they might even drag folks like Hestia and Demeter into the mix, and I don't have beef with them, even indirectly.

Which, like I said, would kill millions of Greeks. Probably some Persians and Remans, too. Including god knows how many kids. Likely half of any given death count. They're the least able to survive catastrophe, after all. Thanks for the info, Dad. I tell you this because I'm proud of your restraint, Daughter. So proud. Thanks, Dad. You really are the best. Kinda shocked me when he replied, no, Daughter. That would be you. And I could not be prouder. So yeah, not gonna wipe Sparta off the map.

Not gonna go Ares hunting. Not gonna lash out at anyone less connected than that, because that would absolutely be Shit Pyramid behavior. Not doing anything else of that nature, either. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Because right now my family needs me. After I dropped that asshole off with Conrad, I stepped back to the Homestead. Saffron knelt with Siobhan's head in her lap. Hailee lay atop Siobhan, her head against Darling's baby belly.

Two of Marie prowled the edges of the roof. I'd never seen her puffed out like that before. Funny time to realize I'd never seen Marie physically scared, to realize that no threat to her could do that, but a threat to Siobhan had. I scooped them all up and hugged them to me. Marie stiffened a little, then burrowed into the tentacles that held her.

"Siobhan?" Saffron took a deep breath.

"She's resting. Sleeping."

"Spell?" She nodded. I didn't want to ask. Just thinking it terrified me.

"Her... Your..." Hailee answered.

"The baby is alive." I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding. Then went tense again when she said, "Changed, but alive."

"Changed how?" Saffron asked before I could. Hailee shrugged.

"I cannot precisely say. Because," she worked her mouth almost like tasting the words she wanted to say.

"I cannot foretell the specific consequences of the Changes I can see." Saffron took a deep breath, then forced herself to relax as she let it out. I did the same, and Marie collapsed into one of her and did as well a moment later.

"Can you describe the Changes you see?" Hailee nodded, then paused in thought. We waited while she thought. It took a while, with her shifting around, staring intently at Siobhan's belly. I felt Karen bringing the rest of the kids home beneath us. Keep them downstairs for now, please? Yes, Goddess. I intend to rush them through dinner and Bath, if you do not object? Why? I would like to get them between the vault doors into your family's private quarters as soon as possible. Yeah. Make it so. We'll be there ASAP.

While I'd given Karen her marching orders as regards the kids, Hailee finished looking over Siobhan.

"Mama put her body back together quickly." She looked up at me, as if daring me to deny her next word.

"Sloppily." I closed my eyes, realizing that my kit thought I might take my anger out on her.

"Fuck. Shit. Dammit. I'm so fuckin' sorry, Kitten." Saffron's hand squeezed mine.

"Don't be. If our daughter has scars from this, I would rather a scarred live daughter than another grave marker."

"But I..."

"Saved our daughter." She turned to Hailee.

"Would she have died without that Healing?" Hailee nodded.

"Would her Soul have remained had Tabitha not Healed her so quickly?" Hailee's mouth worked, but nothing came out. Saffron stiffened, then forced herself to relax again.

"Tell us. You are not responsible for what happened, my girl." Hailee blinked a little at that.

"But..." I got a sense she changed what she was gonna say.

"But I was here."

"When did you realize the Spartan was here?"

"When his shadow fell over us, as he leapt from above," she nodded up the mountain. Fucker had come in the hard way, I guess.

"And what did you do when you realized?"

"I... I covered Siobhan's belly."

"With what?"

"With me." Saffron pulled Hailee to her, and my arms went around both of hem.

"You did fine, kiddo. You did everything you could."

"It wasn't enough. It wasn't anything." Saffron clucked her tongue.

"We don't know that. If that spear hadn't gone through you first, it might well have done irreparable harm to your sister." Before either of us could say anything, she spoke over both of us.

"Your Mama repaired it. Ergo it was not irreparable."

"It should have been," Hailee whispered.

"It..."

"It what?"

"It shattered her Soul." Before Saffron could respond to that, Hailee looked up at me, and I realized that some of that fear she'd had wasn't about my still simmering anger. It was because she'd had the results of my power shoved in her face. Knowing Mama is a monster is one thing, seeing it in action maybe another.

"Mama put it back together again. I think."

"You think?" Hailee nodded.

"The spear went through me. It went through Siobhan and my sister, and I saw, I heard her Soul shatter." She paused, took a breath.

"Then Mama was here. Then the spear was gone, and I wasn't hurt, and Siobhan was Healed, and my sister had a Soul again." I heard what she'd said. What she'd very carefully said.

"A Soul." She nodded. Saffron's smarter than me.

"The same Soul?" Hailee shrugged.

"Made of the same pieces. But it's different." I froze, but Saffron asked, "will she be healthy?" Hailee shrugged.

"Her body is maybe hurt a little, but she'll live. Her Soul isn't less healthy." Yeah, Saffron and I were both right at our raggedy edge, and I totally understood why she'd sedated Siobhan.

"Answer me one question then, Hailee Aetos-Diaz. Will your sister," she lay a hand on Siobhan's belly, "live to see her birthday?" Hailee looked like she'd been force fed a bug. After a hot minute, she swallowed and said, "so long as naught else interferes, she ought to." Saffron nodded.

"Good enough." Then she slumped.

"Love, please take us inside?" I stepped us all down to the dining room, where Karen had everyone eating what looked like a mix of Academy and Temple food. The kids realized something was wrong, something had happened. I didn't want to talk any more, but I didn't want to hide anything from them. So when Isnomi hopped up like she was gonna do her sniff and greet thing with Siobhan, I caught her and stepped us both to the middle of the Dining room.

"Okay, kids. Mom's got Siobhan sleeping, because she got hurt earlier. But she needs to rest." That got a round of concerned noises, and Maze spoke for them all when she asked, "will she be all right? Will...?" I nodded.

"Siobhan should be fine, her baby should be fine, but stress isn't good for pregnant women or babies. Hence, the sleeping." Alex chimed in with, "what happened?" This was the rough part, the bit where I didn't want to scare them, but hiding everything would just scare them and leave them ignorant.

"A Spartan attacked her and Hailee up on the roof." The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as the Menace in my arms growled.

"Weyah id he." I might have growled back a bit my own self when I replied, "I gave what's left of him to your brother Conrad." Her growl changed pitch, then cut off with a snarled, "good."

"Okay, kids. I'm gonna ask you to play inside until we make sure there aren't any more Spartans hiding in the woods." I looked over at the two new kids, who'd gone stiff and still the moment I first mentioned Spartans.

"They won't be getting away this time." I'm not sure what they saw in my eyes, but their tension changed. Like they realized that if the King of Sparta himself dropped into the room, he would not be the most dangerous being in the room. Then Menace growled, and I realized that I'd been kind of doing so the entire time. Then Marie joined in, and some part of me warmed when not only did the two new kids subtly sidle toward the three of us, but our girls surrounded and supported them as they did.

Might have been realizing that if the King of Sparta did show up, he wouldn't be on the podium of the Olympic Asskicking Event with Marie, Menace, and I in the room. Karen stayed through dinner and helped the kids rush through the bath. When she didn't leave after all the kids were in bed, but stayed upright and, oddly, in her Academy uniform, I stepped over and quietly asked, "what's up?"

"The Imperator has called for volunteer Heroes to scour the woods around the Homestead. And to stand watch."

"I'm here." I left that hanging. She smiled sadly.

"I know. Please, let me stay, give me the honor of guarding the Children of my Goddess and my Imperator? At least until we know the Homestead and surrounding area are clear?" I nodded.

"Thanks, Karen."

"De nada." Dreamt of my ladies girding for war as my Maw seethed with rage. Today was supposed to be my 'day of rest'. I guess it kind of was; I stayed with Siobhan, now awake and curled up around her belly in the middle of the bed. She and Hailee talked about what Hailee had seen. The girls played in their rooms. Karen helped Marie with breakfast and lunch, which we had in our rooms, delivered via Translocation.

Because I found grim humor in the idea of fuckin' Spartans trying to face me without Cold Iron, and even more at the idea of them trying to Translocate carrying it. Around the end of the day, Siobhan turned to me.

"Goddess?"

"Why so formal, Ice Pop?" She smiled, a thin, wan thing, but still a smile.

"Tabitha." She took a deep breath.

"May I ask Canta to visit? To help..."

"To see if you three can figure out what's going on with the bean? Make sure I didn't fuck things up too badly?"

"You didn't..."

"I maybe did." I shook my head.

"I did the best I could with what I had. But I am the first one to say I'm not perfect. That I can fuck things up, even doing my best. Especially with fiddly bits. And one thing I know is that the sooner you figure out what a problem is, the more likely it's gonna be fixable." I paused, thinking.

"So yeah. Tell Canta to come on over."