Chương 1008: Day One Thousand And Six

Dear Diary, I'm really not sure what to think about Canta at this point. I mean, yeah, he's basically my father-in-law for all intents and purposes, what with Siobhan not being super close to her family. Wait. Shit. No, I don't think I've ever asked her about her family. I dunno if she's from, like, a huge family and joined the Academy to stop being lost in the crowd, or if she's an only child and her parents are wondering where she is, or...

Wait, fuck, no, she's been able to Translocate for a while now, so if she's got family she's close to, she should have been able to go visit them. Unless she thinks I don't want her to. Which my initial reaction is 'why would she think that', but everybody fuckin' clocks me as Bag, and even if between the Bag Imperator and Bag Heir Consort Lancaster, the racism here and now is dying a long overdue death, she might think that I've got something against Dan.

Which, to be clear, the only thing I have against Dan is 'my body parts as often as I can get them', specifically with Siobhan, Lachlan, and Karen, in that order. Okay, some of my Worshippers might be Dan, I haven't paid a whole lot of attention. Not like there's a whole lot of 'Dan Supremacy' or anything like that happening. At least not anywhere I can see it, I guess.

Shit, if that whole 'high profile wedding' thing averted the worst of the dumb Jim Crow shit by making it very clear that Lord Lenny Lancaster approved of his Heir baking his grand-Heir in a Bag bun oven, I will be fuckin' thrilled. Still, I gotta get better at connecting with my partners.

I get that Tallulah doesn't have much in the way of living relatives, and the only one of note older than her is currently sliding ever further down my tentacle, but I still ought to ask if she's got, I dunno, cousins or some shit. I only found out about Marie's background because of Grandma. Which I wish I had a way to thank her for, but she literally did that right before checking out. Honestly, old bat probably did that on purpose. Can't say I blame her or I'm really upset about it, either.

So yesterday after getting the worst well intentioned reassurance ever, Canta told me he'd think about my offer, then asked Marie to step him home. I think he's kinda scared of me or something. No idea why. Maybe he's Ace or something and thinks if he's alone with me I'll leave him as fully deflowered as I did Siobhan. Which I totally wouldn't do. Okay, if Siobhan wanted him in the Pantheon and that was his price, I guess I would.

Okay, if he wanted to experience the joy of buttsex, I might ask Saffron or Marie for backup, because that's still sixth, and I don't have any piercings to go fifth. Yeah, if Kitten pierced me then fornicated with the piercings, I'd probably let her, because, y'know, Saffron. Always Saffron. Shit, knowing her I'd wind up having some kind of transcendental experience with her balls deep or something. Not sure what I'd do if one of my Worshippers needed that. Guess I'll burn that bridge when I come to it.

Once Canta left, we all nommed some snacks. Okay, it was the stuff Siobhan could handle early on in her morning sickness, which also meant stuff the kids could make. Jerky and hard tack. Some sliced cheese and water as well. Food nominally consumed, we hit the Bath, and at Siobhan's insistence stayed there overnight. Spent the day teaching Math to kids at the Temple. Kinda weird, what with there being a different class every day.

Okay, the weirdest part is that my brain isn't storing their names, not really, not the way I normally would. I remember all kinds of shit about them, especially shit about what they know as regards numbers and how to manipulate them, but also things like what food they like, whether they like colored chalk or white, stupid little shit like that, but names... I kinda cheat. Somehow when I'm there, in the moment, their names just come to me, but when I'm outside the classroom, they're just gone.

I can still remember their faces and everything, but the names disappear. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. Weird, like I said. I just hope that they're not leaking out along with overwhelming emotions, and if they are, that'll stop when I'm fully healed up. Speaking of healing up, at the end of the day I came home fully intending to spend some time brushing up on my Siobhan lore, but wound up with all my ladies ganging up on me.

"No, Tabitha, you mustn't skip your Revels. They're important for your healing." I chuckled at Siobhan's maternal tone. Okay, it might have been a kind of nurse tone. One of those.

"You make it sound like it's proper nutrition..." I stopped with my mouth hanging open, realizing what I'd just said, as my ladies tried, I know they did, I could feel them trying, but tried and failed to not lose themselves laughing. Not in any kind of mean way, and a moment later I joined them.

"Okay, ladies. Okay. I'll go eat all my vegetables." At that point Saffron laughed even louder. Before I could even ask her why, she thought, Karen? Could you come collect her, please? Then my Highest Priestess was there, her fingers interlacing with mine.

"Of course, Saffron." She stepped us both... Somewhere. I mean, a Temple. Very clearly a Temple, what with there being an Altar and everything. My Altar, even, although again I'm not sure exactly how I knew. It didn't look a whole lot like the others, even if it did have a certain bed-ness to it. Not the luxury bed-ness of most of my Altars, this one had more of a straw and grass woven motif. Of course, the complete lack of anything else I normally associated with my Temples, things like 'walls' and 'roof' and...

No, I guess the Altar itself sat on a kind of mound in the middle of a broad clear space. While registering the Temple as a Temple was mostly a thing of gut instinct, I realized immediately the nature of the Worshippers here. It had been a while since I felt that rigidly structured subservience, that feeling that there was in fact a pyramid, and the Worshippers surrounding me wanted me to take my rightful place atop it.

"Goddess, I present to you the latest petitioner to complete your Trials, Priestess Furtim Cauda."

That's when I realized that I hadn't been right about the lack of walls or roof, I'd just completely underestimated the size of the building, because other than a single square opening way above us, the Temple had no windows, no lights, which left me seeing the She-Troll Furtim stepping into my line of sight, the Yandere Shobitch Wedding Gown somehow tailored to match her, to look right on her, thick tail, scales, and everything.

"Legate," Furtim knelt before me. I reached out, lifted her to her feet with hand and tentacle, Mimicking her Size as I did to let her lips meet mine.

"High Priestess. Congratulations." So. Did you want... Yeah, kinda weird, Trolls don't have so much in the way of 'deep, secret desires'. Desires, yes. Secret hidden ones, not so much. Not only that, but they're way more communal than I'd thought.

Like, not actually connected, not the way my High Clergy and I am, but I felt echoes of all of them through her, felt their deep and abiding need for me to show them that I was their Legate, that I accepted Furtim as my second in command for their Legion, that they were, in every important sense, mine. I realized right then that the Mother of Water Panthers might not have eaten every single lizard person in one of those empires she'd consumed.

Because that first word I'd screamed out after eating her echoed through me as I Shapeshifted and set upon Furtim. Yeah, Trolls are kinda, uh, combative when it comes to sexy times. Okay, not exactly combative, I got very little sense that she wanted to be hurt, or that she wanted to hurt me, but it was definitely a wrestling match. Tails were involved, which was the second most surprising part of the required Shapeshifting.

The most surprising part was the part that had dear old Dad laughing in my head for half the night. The second half, because as one might imagine from regenerating lizards, Furtim had her some Endurance. The laughter wasn't the worst part, though. That would be word he kept repeating, interspersed into giggles that I could tell he'd somehow hidden from the rest of my Clergy. Yeah, I might have been less than gentle with my Newark Cadets today.

Mostly because the laughter and repetition kept going through the day, and I heard the echoes of Sigyn's chuckle behind it as well. Ducks!