Chương 1020: Day One Thousand And Eighteen

Dear Diary, I gotta wonder, at what point does prejudice turn into racism. No, seriously, I gotta wonder about that shit, because while I'll readily admit that the Bag, the Trolls, and so many others have gotten the shit end of the stick while some non-Deific groups like the Dan, the Aesir, and the Sidhe have basically wound up oppressing people, flipping the positions seems like a shitty thing to do.

Especially if there's been at least a generation since any systemic oppression has been going on, because 'sins of the fathers' is absolutely the biggest crock of shit I've ever heard. I mean yeah, somebody who was actively oppressing people ought to be put to work fixing the lives they fucked up. That's a no brainer. Actor who took action, meet consequence, it's here to bite you in the ass.

Maybe that's all the Jarls in Norfolk having to basically study at the school of Olga and Big Willy or lose all their shit, maybe it's Lenny having to do his damndest to protect a nation founded on the idea of 'everybody's equal', at least in the vaguest of senses, or maybe it's Saffron's plan to have any Spartan Heroes we capture dismantle the rape and murder machine that is Spartan Heroic Culture.

Okay, yeah, she wants to tear down the whole City, and the Vengeance in me is definitely right there with her on that, even if the Bloodlust and Justified Homicide are hoping that on random days at random times I'll be allowed to join Murder Mittens in some tag team murder of a random Spartan Hero. Or even Heroes, just to mix things up a little. But I gotta be honest, all of them are slowly getting shoved aside by the single Domain I've never been embarrassed by. There are Children in Sparta.

Children who don't deserve to be homeless just because generations of assholes who came before them have chosen to embrace the worst parts of themselves. Embracing the worst parts of myself because it's Justified to do so might not be completely unethical, or immoral, but it feels like taking a squat on Shit Pyramid. Fuck, maybe I can convince her to have them build a brand fuckin' new City using the repurposed bricks of the old one.

Like, one building at a time, while we host the women, kids, and ex-slaves from that building until their new digs are done. Because making those assholes face consequences for their actions I can fully support, but making other people who had no real agency face consequences I don't think I can. So, y'know, Spartan Heroes can get fucked, but 'Spartans', especially if we're talking about kids, are just as much victims of those assholes as everyone else is.

If nothing else, they have to live with those assholes twenty-four seven. At any rate, I kinda have a lowkey ongoing worry about that with Tallulah, but from what I've seen she's taken my whole 'Egalitarian' thing absolutely fuckin' seriously. Yeah, she's a despot, but every decision I've seen her make while sitting there contemplating her knees seemed pretty well thought out and even handed. Shit, I know she even sent some people away while she thought about permanent solutions, and she also put...

Fuck, I don't remember the legal term for it, because it's not used in Phileo or Norfolk, but basically she put the whole fuckin' situation on hold.

Like some Fae dipshit, I think she was a Sidhe, wanted to evict some folks who were living in a building she owned, but the folks living there had paid their rent and shit on the regular for, like, literal generations, and only missed the last couple because some bitch damaged their boat, and they couldn't afford to fix it, and the chica wanted to confiscate the boat for back rent.

Yeah, uh, the Alliance wound up buying a boat, paying for rent, and hiring the crew to work aboard the Training, but that was after Tallulah looked into things and realized that some boats got damaged when the Black Dragon erased the Morrigan's little fleet. Thing is, while the Sidhe was an asshole of the first water, she wasn't factually incorrect about the contract or anything. Thing is, a lot of the Sidhe are like that, even Tallulah herself.

They take laws and contracts really seriously, but some of the older ones aren't really in tune with the reality of living in the Mortal Realm, where you can't just grab some Mana and create shit. Okay, most Mortals couldn't do that even in M-Space, but I'm pretty sure a lot of older Sidhe could. But back to my point, we're teaching Ria better than that. Tallulah is learning better than that, and pushing those changes to her City, just like Larry is doing in Lancaster.

Somebody blaming Ria for her mom's less enlightened decisions, or especially for any of the ones The Morrigan forced on her, is gonna get my foot up their ass just as fast as somebody blaming Lucas for shit Lenny did. Thing is, apparently part of what offended Tallulah wasn't the conflation of Sidhe and Elves. When I got home from teaching Math yesterday, she and I talked about it. No, we didn't talk about it yesterday. She, uh, reacted to the 'our children' comment.

Anybody who thinks that Sidhe don't have emotions is not paying fuckin' attention. Yeah, they're set off by different things, maybe expressed different ways, but they absolutely have them. Fuck, some of them might be less about 'being Sidhe' and more about 'being millennia old', because some of that shit reminds me of Marie. At any rate, I left one of me at the Homestead helping Marie with dinner. Specifically doing the fried rice, eggy grilled cheese, and salads. Weirdest thing, Garde seems to like salads now.

No idea why, but she does. Kinda amusing watching her shred greens with those obligate carnivore teeth, but she likes it, and it doesn't make her sick, so I'm not gonna complain. After dinner, after a good long soak in the Bath, Tallulah stopped me with a light touch on the arm. I turned and pulled her into my arms, looking up at her.

"More to talk about?"

"Indeed." I heard Saffron's mental chuckle, but she didn't say anything, so I just stepped the two of us over to the Bedroom. I might have used my office, but given her reaction yesterday and Menace now having to go through my office to get to her Temple, I didn't want to risk being walked in on. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. I settled us both down on the Bed, propped up in sitting positions by bolsters and pillows.

"So. What did you want to talk about?" She took a deep breath, and I realized that she felt some kinda guilty about what she needed to say. I just waited until she said, "the depictions of the Elves in those books are much closer to Sidhe than Elves." I nodded. If I remembered right, Weyson was an Elf, and anybody mistaking him for a Sidhe was kinda bonkers.

I mean, they both looked vaguely north Europan, sorta, although Tallulah was clearly some kind of modern Celt, like Irish or Scottish, where Weyson looked like a stereotypical Scandinavian. Okay, other than the pointed ears, but those were fuckin' ubiquitous among the Human Adjacent. So maybe Africans might mistake them for one another, or Asians, but anybody from Europa ought to be able to tell them apart without any serious problem.

"Okay, so are you telling me the story is scapegoating your people?" She rocked her head back and forth.

"Perhaps?"

"Like, do the Elves do that stuff? Come in and take over and steal shit?" She shook her head.

"No, but neither do my people." I tilted my head, thinking about some of the cases I'd heard her arbitrate and rule on in her Court.

"Really? Because I seem to recall some of those Sidhe who bend the knee to you thinking that the Humans and other Fae were their property." She shook her head again.

"No. No Sidhe would want to own a Human. Their lives are so fleeting, there would be no point. They're simply indentured." I blinked.

"So they're, what, indentured for life? How is that different from slavery?" She shrugged.

"Not for life. Until their debt is paid, and should they die, which often happens, the debt and indenture is inherited by their heirs. If the debt is paid, they are under no further obligation." I sighed, counting to ten real slow and quiet like, but before I could respond she added, "as for the Less..." She froze, almost like something had gone down the wrong pipe. It took me a second to realize, during which she closed her eyes and took a long, slow breath through her nose.

"You were about to say 'Lesser Fae', weren't you?" She nodded.

"Realized how I felt about that?" With her eyes still closed, she nodded.

"I'm glad you didn't, but... You realized. You've had millennia to build up habits. Ones I really don't like. But you're trying, right?"

"Yes." She sounded like she had to force the word out.

"You know I'm proud of you for trying, but you also know I'm not gonna disavow you for making mistakes." She opened one eye and raised an eyebrow.

"Redemption, remember?" She took a deep breath, nodded, and said, "first commandment."

"Do as you will?" She nodded.

"How does that apply?" What came out next was whispered, almost breathed out, like she didn't want to hear herself saying it.

"I want to live up to the ideals of the woman who pulled my daughter... Our daughter, but my daughter then, from the clutches of Balor himself." Her eyes flashed as she suddenly glared at me.

"What I will is to be better. Better than the Greatdaughter of a Goddess, cat's paw of that Goddess, a Goddess who would slay a child for their tangential part in offending her. Inconveniencing her." She took a deep breath, and I realized that if Tallulah had her way... I stepped to M-Space, near my blinged out tentacle, and leaned in close to one distorted ear.

"If I ever think you're trying to escape, or engineer harm to another, I will give Tallulah control of this tentacle, and tell her so, and not feel guilty in the slightest as I listen to the music of your screams." I collapsed to myself, still listening to Tallulah speak.

"Better than the woman I was, better than the Goddess I Worshipped." She paused.

"I want to be as brave as the woman, as the Goddess who allowed herself to remain cursed rather than see a single child harmed. Who reminded me that as an immortal, I have all the time in the world to seek out better ways."

"Not everybody has that kind of time." She nodded.

"That is part of being better. Remembering that. Taking it into account when passing judgement. Ensuring that my judgements go beyond being just, go beyond being 'legal', and become 'equitable'." I smiled at her.

"I'm not sure I'd call them 'Just' if they're not 'Equitable', but yeah, I can and will totally support you if that's who you're tryna be." She looked at her hands.

"Would you support me if I was not?" I shrugged.

"I mean, you've always been tryna do the best you can for your people, right?" She nodded.

"You've always considered everybody, Sidhe, Fae, Human, Human Adjacent, all of them 'your people', right?" She sighed, shoulders slumping.

"Explain?"

"You... Your people. Humans. Some Fae. Even more of the Bag. You... You're so fleeting. Generations can pass without me noticing, and they don't always present their young ones to me, in my court. Some leave. Some come back, but some come to the Port and never come to properly acknowledge me as Overlord." She paused, then looked up at me, beseeching.

"How? How can you claim them as yours?" I shot her a twisted smile.

"Fuck, I dunno, Tallulah. I just do. If they're kids? Mine. If they're living in the Alliance? Mine. If they Worship me, wherever they are? Mine." I chuckled.

"And Saffron thinks she's the greedy one." I am. I chuckled at that.

"Impatient for the show to start?" Patiently watching and waiting, love. She needs this, does she not? Tallulah half sobbed.

"I do." I nodded.

"Okay then. You want to do right by the people of Rich Man's Port, right?" She nodded.

"You have problems doing that for ones who haven't personally connected to you somehow?" She tilted her head, then nodded again.

"Okay, so let folks know."

"They, I mean specifically those who are not Fae, they fear the Keep, and come there only when they are summoned to Court."

"Yeah, folks are gonna be a little leery if you summon them to Court and tell them to bring their newborns, aren't they?" She nodded.

"Folks with outstanding warrants aren't gonna be too eager to show either, are they?" She shook her head. I thought about it. Thought about her utter mishmash of an 'official court garb' outfit, then smiled.

"You just have to meet them in person, right?" She frowned.

"Yes?"

"So do it at the Temple." Her jaw dropped open.

"No, seriously, it's open to everyone, right?" She nodded.

"Got a school there and everything?" She nodded again.

"So do it there. Safe haven for everybody." She frowned a little harder.

"Even the criminals?"

"If they're one of your people, are you gonna punish them any less severely for whatever crime they've committed?"

"I think not." I smiled at her.

"But are you gonna maybe go a little harder when making sure they're actually guilty? Because if I'm gonna be annoyed if some guilty asshole walks, I am gonna be livid if some innocent bastard gets punished." Her frown melted into a crooked grin.

"As my Goddess wishes."

"Okay, yeah, but first commandment still applies. What do you want?" She tilted her head, leaning forward.

"Many things, but in this? To be that better woman, that better Overlord of my people. Is that what my Goddess wishes?" I smiled, head bunting her and running my fingers through her hair. So fine, just as fine as Siobhan's, yet still wavy, even curly.

"Yes, Tallulah. I want you to be the best woman you can be, the best Overlord you can be. I'm just glad we see eye to eye on what that means."

"As am I."

"So... What else did you want?" She leaned over and breathed into my ear, "to dream of my Mistresses' appreciative applause."