Chương 1019: Day One Thousand And Seventeen

Dear Diary, Kinda weird, the Pratchett book Maze picked wasn't a Discworld one. Something called ' Nation'. Kinda on the cerebral side, and both of us wound up kind of staring at the wall afterward, thinking about shit. Yeah, it's that kind of book, one that doesn't follow the normal narrative paths. Not really, anyhow. I mean, a lot of STP's books are like that. They start out looking like one thing, but turn into something else.

They're a mystery, or a heist, or a retelling of some old Shakespeare stuff, and then bam, they're a deconstruction of modern life, or a whole assed examination of the human condition, or a critique on government. The only thing they've got in common are that they make you think and laugh. Okay, that's all I saw that they had in common. Well, they had characters in common, I guess. Some of them. Vimes being all British Dirty Harry, Granny Weatherwax being life goals, and Death... Fuck.

Y'know, I know I just said Granny Weatherwax was life goals, but on the one hand Shapeshifting and Mimicry aside, I'm never gonna get old, and I am in fact both a Psychopomp and a Goddess of Death. So maybe Death, and by that I mean Pratchett's recurring character Death, might actually be more achievable and even desirable life goals. Okay, I think I've got more kids than Nanny Ogg at this point, which is pretty fuckin' baller if you ask me.

Of course, one thing I did not expect was getting some weird negative feedback about my man Terry from an unexpected source. After a day of me training Cadets and Maze reading, I stepped home and carried Maze along with me to the Dining Room. Murder Mittens had done paninis, including eggy grilled cheese for Ria, Lindsey, and Maze. I pulled my magnificent Maenad in for a kiss, then murmured, "thanks, Mittens."

"You're Welcome." I smiled at her with our foreheads pressed together.

"You just like saying that, don't you?"

"I do." I chuckled.

"You liked saying that, too." Her eyes crinkled with her smile.

"Very Much!" At that point Ria piped up.

"Thank you, Mother Marie." Marie poked her head around mine, resting her chin on my shoulder to look at our little Sidhe girl.

"You're Welcome." Yeah, that definitely got some choked off noises from Ria, Maze, and above all Tallulah. Our Overlord cleared her throat and said, "I know you've interacted with Fae before, Marie. Even my Greatmother's court has legends of you."

"I Have." Tallulah shook her head.

"And you would still say that to my daughter? A Sidhe noble of House Crow? That she is welcome?" Marie turned to face Tallulah, still in draped over, loose, apex predator mode.

"Our. Daughter." The change in Tallulah wasn't immediate, but it wasn't slow, and it was kinda shocking to watch. Normally she and Mittens both had that almost Lancaster like pole up the ass thing going on, that rigid posture where you knew without a doubt you could put a book on their head and it wouldn't fall off and shit. But right then and there Tallulah kinda... Melted isn't quite the right word. If she'd been a glacier, she'd be calving icebergs. A chunk at a time she kinda slumped into her chair.

When she finally kinda rebooted, she looked up at Marie and said, "is it strange that even after knowing that Tabitha, our Goddess, claims my... Our daughter as her own, with all the fierce maternal protection that implies, I find myself even more relieved that you do so as well?"

"It Isn't." Yeah, I'm blaming Marie for Vulcan's smug nature. I know she wasn't really involved in his creation, but he had to get it from somewhere, and she's as smug as only a big cat can be. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. I chuckled and said, "yeah, she's right, totally not surprising. I love our kids, I love being a mom, but Marie is way more maternal than I'll ever be, I think."

Marie pulled back to look at me, disagreement clear on her face, but before she could process a reply, Ria piped up from behind me.

"I like your eggy grilled cheese better though, Mama." That kinda floored me. I turned around, pulling Marie with me, and said, "you don't have to say that just to make me feel better, Ria." That got me a look.

"I cannot lie any more than any other Sidhe, Mama." Before I could reply, Marie whispered in my ear.

"She Can't." I might have wound up a little misty eyed, although Marie managed to turn any weepies into a choked off laugh when she followed that up with a murmured, "Kitchen Witch." Yeah, I snorted and snickered at that, but remembered that I did in fact have that Skill listed on my Status.

"Wait, did you Inspect me or something?"

"Smelled It."

"Wait, you can do that?" She shrugged.

"Can you smell any other Skills?" She shrugged again, indicating her complete disinterest in the kind of weird ass feats she could pull with her Scent Skill. Because while I didn't remember ever Inspecting her, I knew Scent was a Skill, one I used to have until I gave it back to Diana, one that Menace still had. I kinda assumed Marie had the same thing, what with her being able to track people by scent. Shit, I think she'd smelled Saffron on me after the two of us hooked up that first time, too.

I wound up pondering that all the way up to the Bath, and for most of the time there. Okay, I played some with the kids, although the kits had gotten big enough, especially Isadora, that the Bath was maybe a little small for anything energetic. Shit, for Isadora to have enough room to really get energetic, she'd have to go outside. To really play around in the water she'd need a lake. Or a river. Or maybe we'd need to fill the Practice Yard with water or some shit. My Isadora, she a big girl.

As she got out of the Bath and carefully toweled herself off, I found myself appreciating both her restraint and her influence on the more energetic kits like Anise and Felicia, who definitely would have been shaking themselves dry without Isadora and Menace both pressuring them into something approaching civilized behavior.

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't gonna harsh their joy if they did, although I would make them towel up the water from the floor 'cause that's a tripping hazard, but I was glad I didn't need to do that. When everybody else was more or less out of the Bath room, Tallulah laid a hand on my arm.

"Tabitha?" I turned to her.

"Yeah?" She nodded back toward the Bore, and I caught on immediately.

"Okay." A moment later the two of us stood in the Bedroom.

"So, decided you're ready to try the pregnancy thing again?" My long tall Sidhe lady raised one eyebrow, then looked down at her bare belly.

"Unless you wanted to?" I shrugged, smiling.

"There are like, two reasons why we come here." She nodded, perching on the edge of the bed and facing me.

"I intended the other, unless my Mistress has need of me?" I sat and pulled my legs up tailor fashion so I could look at her. I'd been doing a lot of stretching with the Cadets lately, fortunately, or I might not have been able to. Then I reached out and stroked Tallulah's cheek.

"You know you're more than just a Concubine, right T?" She nodded.

"We are all of us many things. I am Overlord of Rich Man's Port as well as Concubine to the Imperator, her Goddess, and Dionysus' Champion." i rolled my eyes, sighing.

"I meant we all love you, too, T." She kinda blinked at that, like I'd slapped her with a mackerel. After a couple false starts, she said, "I do not know how to take that. But... I listened in to some of the books you've had Maze reading." I nodded.

"Yeah, mostly Pratchett, but she's read some other stuff. Tolkien, I think."

"You love Ria as your daughter?" I nodded.

"And you... Love me? As a Concubine?"

"As a partner, T. You guys are the ones who wanted that Title."

"I shall exchange it for Wife as soon as you get me with child, Tabitha." Yeah, I kinda choked on that. Not that it upset me, but...

"Why you gotta put it right out there like that, T?" After a bit of coughing, I said, "not that I'd say no. You know we're kinda a package deal though, right?" She frowned.

"I'd not considered that. Perhaps..." After a few moments arguing with herself, she shook her head.

"All that aside, why would you have Maze reading books with such offensive content?"

"Uh... What?" She tilted her head.

"Well. I suppose it could be vastly ignorant and only offensive in that it repeats common ignorance."

"Uh... Look, T, you know I'm not from around here, right?" She nodded.

"So, uh, could you tell me what you found offensive?" She took a moment, then said, "the conflation of Elves and Sidhe is offensive."

"Oh. Uh, yeah, the guy writing them kinda thought both of them were fictional. Then again, back then they kinda were. I can ask her not to read those, though, if...?" Tallulah took a breath through her nose.

"No. No, I think it might do Ria some good to understand how we're viewed. Although... I would like to make it clear to the rest of your daughters that Sidhe and Elves are not the same." I leaned forward, my touch on her cheek pulling her to me until our foreheads met.

"Our daughters, T. Our."