Chương 1070: Day One Thousand And Sixty-Eight

Dear Diary, I really hope what I'm doing today is the right thing. I'm not sure if it's gonna come back to bite me in the ass or not. I'd like to think I've done my due diligence regarding that. Thing is, one too many times in the past I've wound up realizing, getting shown, or otherwise discovering after the fact that there was some stupidly obvious precaution I could have taken. Okay, stupidly obvious in hindsight. Some of those things...

I'm not the kind of idiot who leaves grease soaked rags leaning against my heater. That is a special kind of stupid. I didn't know, on the other hand, that letting the air filters on the heater build up a coating of dust thicker than the air filter itself would do anything but make my dust allergies worse. Yeah, in retrospect it's pretty clear that putting something that acts as kindling near a heat source with an open flame is stupid, but I didn't think of it. Even if looking back I thought I should.

Then, as an example of something that takes some degree of chemistry knowledge to figure out without being told, mixing cleaning chemicals ought to just make them better at cleaning. Which, I guess, if you include 'killing everyone in the house with poison gas' to be cleaning, they are. I think the only reason I survived that was my general aversion to cleaning, which led me to leaving the house to hit the bodega to fix my hunger headache not long after starting.

On the plus side, I didn't have any rodent problems after that. So at any rate, I'm worried about my plan being less than thorough, but in some ways I'm not just helping somebody get away from their abusive partner the only way I can figure out to do it, I'm also basically about to go head to head with a God of War.

Yeah, from what I've seen he's not exactly von Clausewitz, let alone Bonaparte or God forbid somebody like Rommel or Boyd, but conflict of any kind has to come under the umbrella of his Domain, whereas I am, at best, a Trickster Goddess. Hopefully tricky enough. For what it is worth, this old Trickster thinks you are. Thanks, Dad. You're the best. I know. So I spent the day yesterday teaching Math.

Distracted, for most of it, by the knowledge of my proximity to the woman I was planning on functionally murdering some time after sunset. I knew it wasn't murder, not really. Whether it counted as an execution or an assisted suicide, she'd Consented to the whole thing. You can't Consent to murder. Not really. I guess maybe this fell under Justified Homicide and Vengeance. So I had that going for me as well when it came to any confrontations with Ares. I brought the kids home in a pensive mood.

I think they picked up on it, because I got a few more hugs than normal, not to mention way less general horseplay as everybody joined hands, then broke up on arrival. I Co-Located one of me to the top of the West Tower, Blended, and began pulling Mana, pouring it into a Shape as I did. Meanwhile down in the Dining Room I walked over to my chair and sat, because I needed some prep time, not to mention wanting to ground myself with normal family routine.

I wasn't going to head to the Bath tonight, because that might actually put me in a mood to sleep or do something intimate, and I couldn't really bring myself to do that on a night that I knew I'd be ending somebody. Saffron noticed, because of course she did.

"Obol for your thoughts, love?" I glanced around to make sure all the kids were involved with their siblings or the other ladies, then turned back to her. Held out my arms, and she hopped into my lap.

"Yeah. Little distracted. I'm... Dealing with Aphrodite tonight." Her smile in response looked almost predatory.

"So I suspected. Know that I support whatever you have chosen." I smiled and tried to joke.

"You just want to find out what I'm like after I eat a Sex Goddess." Yeah, I couldn't even nail the delivery, but she just smiled mischievously at me.

"But I've already done that." I blinked.

"So have you, if Marie counts."

"Well, yeah, but I meant other than Marie, and in the digested sense." She smiled, sighed, shook her head, and head bunted me.

"I meant you, Goof."

"Oh, well... Wait..." I couldn't facepalm, because I had my hands full of holding my Kitten, but I rolled my eyes.

"I'm an idiot."

"No, just preternaturally bad at self-assessment." I sighed.

"You'd think with all the practice I get I'd be better at it." She shrugged.

"I cannot be as spontaneous as you. I try, but I cannot. Siobhan cannot be as ruthless. Tallulah... Is even worse at being spontaneous than I am. We all have our strengths and weaknesses. I find it endlessly admirable that when you find a weakness and feel it is also a problem, or could cause problems, you seek to remedy that weakness through nigh endless practice." I leaned into her.

"Thanks, Kitten." After sitting like that a moment I sighed.

"I wish I could... I'm worried."

"About?"

"I'm gonna piss Ares off."

"And?" I shrugged.

"I'm not so much worried about myself, but that's practically a truism by this point. But I'm definitely gonna be confronting him, maybe pushing his teeth into his esophagus a little, and I'm worried about collateral or reprisals." She took a moment digesting that; I recognized the look in her eyes as she raced through all the implications of what I'd said.

"If you would mind a suggestion?" I shook my head and shrugged.

"Whatever you're doing, do it at sunrise."

"What? Why?"

"While your Mother's Domain of Darkness would favor you at night, he is a Fire God, which might counter that to some degree. The same goes for your Domain of the Sun. However, Dusk and Dawn?"

"Are times of Change." Her smile in response to me finishing her thought definitely made me regret my resolution to avoid hanky and panky until after everything with Aphrodite was done. But I did have a problem still.

"I've kinda got what amounts to a multi-stage plan, and he could try to interfere at any point of it." She shrugged.

"So dawn might take more than a few moments this morning."

"Told Pyevatar I wouldn't be doing that shit any more though." She shook her head.

"No, love. Barring some conversation I'm unaware of, you told her you would refrain except for emergencies. Which have happened. Besides, it's after sunset."

"So?" She chuckled at me, pure velvety affection in sonic form.

"She's in Boltophsberg at the moment. Go warn her, get her permission." I laughed in response.

"Yeah, I may not be Actually Stupid™, but I'm certainly less smart than you, Kitten."

"But if so, only just, which is exactly what, as my Goddess would say, grinds my gears." I moved to stand up, but she interrupted me.

"Could you perhaps stay until Dinner is done?"

"Okay, Kitten." Which is how I wound up with Saffron in my lap feeding me bits of steak until the kids decided it was time to head for the Bath. I gave them all hugs and kisses, letting them know I had Goddessing work to do. Alex and Lindsey both shot Isnomi a look, but the Menace herself just took it in stride, as did the rest of the kids. A few moments later, maybe an hour before midnight, I stood on the docks at Boltophsberg. Not more than a minute after, Lemonkyenin walked up to me.

"Tabitha Diaz! What brings you?" I held out a hand, and he pulled me into as back slapping a bro hug as Lachlan or Linus ever had. When we broke far enough to stand with hands on one another's shoulders, I said, "hey, Lemmy. Sorry I haven't been for many social visits, but things got a little crazy at Yule and haven't really settled since." He shook his head.

"Think nothing of it, my friend. Boltophsberg was spared yet another revolution, and we seem to have entered into a new era of prosperity." I nodded over to the Tentacle at the dock, then shot some side eye at the remarkably similar brand spanking new ship a few docks over.

"So I see." He laughed.

"Yes, well. We've learned the important lesson of learning lessons from our neighbors without having either of our heads cracked open first." We both chuckled at that, then he sobered.

"But you wouldn't come at this hour without need. What brings you?" I nodded.

"Yeah, I need to talk to Pyevatar."

"Is it a matter of urgency?" I rocked my head side to side, then pushed my Blend around us enough that anybody Scrying on us would blink and miss it.

"I'm doing something at dawn, and I've got more prep work between now and then. I kinda wanted to give her the heads up." He sighed.

"If you'd wait here?" I nodded.

"Sure." I wound up waiting a while. More than a few minutes, less than an hour. No clocks and ADHD will screw with your sense of time something fierce. At any rate, he returned escorting Pyevatar, who wore a frown, a dressing gown, and not much else. She did not look happy to see me. Okay, no, that's not quite right. She did not look happy to have whatever she'd been doing interrupted.

"Tabitha Diaz. What are you planning now." I pushed my Blend again.

"Can't exactly say, but I can say that tomorrow's Dawn might wind up being extended a bit." She frowned.

"Can you tell me nothing of why?" I shrugged, pushed my blend a little higher, then said, "I need every edge I can get against Ares." There must have been some bad blood between her and the God of War, because her lips curved into a grin not unlike the predatory one Saffron had worn.

"Say no more. I only demand that you return here once all is said and done, that you might regale me with tales of the Warbringer's debasement."

"Hey, I'm down for spilling tea on him afterward. Although... You sure you don't want to come visit the Homestead? Siobhan decanted, and Aoibh is cute as a button."

"How old is she?"

"Couple weeks now." She wrinkled her nose.

"Lemonkyenin ought escort my sister down to see her then. Forgive me, newborns do not agree with me." I shrugged and laughed.

"Yeah, they give me shit all the time, but it's grown on me. So we're good for tomorrow?" She nodded.

"Certainly. Oh, when you come visit I should like you to bring some of those pastries your Wife makes?"

"Could bring the woman herself if you like?" She rocked her head side to side.

"I'd thought we could visit the Baba, and she has only the three chairs."

"She could sit in my lap?" Pyevatar got the weirdest look, somewhere between eager and scandalized.

"Oh, please do. In the morning then?" At my nod, she turned to Lemmy, held an arm out, and said, "return me to Vyenemoinen's embrace." Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. I was especially proud of myself as I stepped away, because I didn't ask them if they had a special chair for Lemmy in the bedroom. I kinda regretted that a moment later, because I needed more positive vibes before landing at the entrance to the oubliette. Karen?

"I am here, Goddess," she said as she arrived a moment later.

"Be ready." I knocked on the door once, then opened the trapdoor and dropped in a few moments later. I'd been kind of worried that I'd catch the pair of them in the middle of something, but instead I found Aphrodite with Alexandra cradled in her arms, the High Priestess fast asleep. She looked up.

"Is it time?" I nodded, and she turned her face to Alexandra.

"Forgive me." I felt her shifting the tiniest bit of herself into Alexandra, who stood, awake, and faced Aphrodite squarely, then said, "I deny you, I deny you, thrice and done I deny you." The contact of her hand to Aphrodite's face had more in common with a pat than a slap, but I thought I felt something subtle shift a moment before Alexandra staggered. Aphrodite's hands had never left her High Priestess' waist, so she was still standing a few woozy minutes later when her eyes cleared up and she said, "what...

What happened?"

"Naught, as of yet, but it's time and past time for this. Alexandra, High Priestess, child of my heart, beloved intimate, I disavow you."

"What?"

"Though I hate to do so, I disavow you."

"No!"

"Know that I love you, Alexandra. I disavow you." I felt the connection between them thin, then snap. Alexandra dropped to her knees, sobbing. Aphrodite laid a hand on Alexandra's head, a final benediction, before standing and turning to me.

"I am ready."

"Not..." Alexandra interrupted me, erupting from the floor and flailing at me. Hitting me with less force than I'd expect from Daya or Davey, really, but screaming all the while.

"You will not take her! Not while I draw breath! You will not harm my Lady!" As Aphrodite closed her eyes, tears streaming from them, I gently wrapped tentacles around Alexandra's torso, then her limbs, holding her still. Eventually I slipped a single tentacle into her mouth to stop her screaming. She bit me. Fortunately, with less power than I'd expect from a normal sized kitten. I sighed, turned to Aphrodite, and said, "I'll be right back."

I pulled Alexandra into my arms, leaving her still wrapped in my tentacles, and hopped out of the oubliette. Karen nodded toward Alexandra.

"May I?" At my nod, she... She slipped into a part of me that wasn't me. Like Saffron had done before, taking over a part of my body, although with me giving Consent it seemed way less stressful for me and way easier for Karen. She lifted Alexandra free of my arms using my tentacles. I nodded to her, then dropped back into the oubliette and raised my Blend around the two of us.

"Okay, Phro. Last bit of the plan here. I really don't want this starting a war between the Alliance and Olympus." She snorted and tilted her head.

"Like my husband will do aught else." I shook my head at her.

"Nope. I don't intend to leave him in any condition to prosecute a war, but even if he manages to slip free, I want any retaliation to be just him. Not all of Olympus, not all of Greece. Just him." Now her head tilt gained some curiosity.

"How do you intend to do that?"

"I'm not. You are." She blinked.

"I'm going to take you to Olympus. Won't take but a second or two between leaving the oubliette and getting there. I want you to make a simple PSA."

"A what?" I shook my head.

"Public Service Announcement. Doesn't matter. An announcement. I want you to tell all Olympus that you've Consented to what I'm about to do." Sudden enlightenment entered her eyes, along with maybe the slightest gleam of long denied Vengeance.

"I see. So be it. The moment I see Olympus before my eyes, I will begin speaking. But..."

"But?"

"I know not how long I will have before he can overwhelm me." I nodded.

"Just... Say it fast. Even if it takes the rest of them a while to figure it out, some of them are fast. Some of them are smart. They'll get it." The light in her eyes faded, and she looked at my feet.

"I hope for the sake of you and yours that they do." At that point, I realized we still had about an hour before dawn.

"Okay. Any last requests?" She smirked at me.

"Would it be too much to ask for one mutually willing rendezvous with a peer before I end?" I sighed.

"Yeah, I feel really shitty saying this, but... No. I've struggled with that. Bloodlust. Literally getting off on ending people. I think that might be a step too far." I stepped past her, sat down on the edge of the bed, and held out my arms.

"But if you wanted to be held?" She almost collapsed into my arms, then knelt there, head on my shoulder, for the next hour. I got the definite impression that she'd never had this. Never had someone who could take her, use her, instead just offer her comfort. And not 'comfort'. Weird thing, even with me awake and in the oubliette, once both Aphrodite and I went still, I still somehow knew my ladies were doing their choreography practice in my Maw. When the sun neared the horizon, I took a deep breath.

"It's time." I dunno what came over me at that point, but the music started up without any conscious thoughts from me. A single female vocalist, drifting into a techno beat. Still without thinking about it, I slipped the light down to its lowest setting; not pitch darkness, but putting the whole room into shadows. As I took her into my arms, a guitar riff sounded, and the vocals began." From the Shadows..." I wasn't singing.

The words that should have been just shy of a piercing scream susurrated around us as I hopped out of the oubliette, still somehow sounding like a battle cry. The moment we cleared the oubliette, I Translocated us to Olympus, above the tiny volcano I'd created. I realized right then that this far from the rest of me, I didn't exactly have the best of leverage; I'd have trouble keeping myself airborne in the Mortal Realm this far out.

I didn't have to prompt Aphrodite; as we arrived, as the sun crested the horizon, she spoke, something like a Message Spell blasting her words out to echo from the mountain itself.

"Hear me, Olympus! What Tabitha Diaz does, she does at my request! She does this to free me from my rapist, my abuser, my husband, Ares! Ares! If you are listening, I deny you! I disavow you! I di... Di... Diiii..." She turned to look at me, a cruel grin painting her features.

"Did you think it would be that easy, little Demigoddess? This traitorous sow is mine! I'll use her to kill you, then rape your fucking corpse while she watches for daring to try and take something of mine! You are nothing but a worthless, pathetic, putrid, stupid, jumped-up Mortal with delusions of grandeur! I will..." I smiled at him.

"Don't be so dramatic." The look of pure hatred on poor Aphrodite's face as I interrupted him was priceless as Ares spluttered through her lips. I stepped us to a spot above the open sea, above the former location of Tartarus. Apollo's stolen sense of timing served me well, as the last line of that song finally rang out into the substantially slowed dawn.

"We'll Rise!" I collapsed the one of me who'd been pulling Mana and pouring it into a Shape all night back into the one of me holding the Ares-possessed Aphrodite. Then I burned one of my carefully hoarded uses of the Unbending Blade of Phileo's best trick.

"Divine Smite." And, staring through the brightest blue Status I'd seen since Saffron showed me her new Blend-piercing version, cast Blend-Piercing Status on the poor Goddess of Love, erasing her down to a blank, unblemished Soul. Unfortunately, Ares is a fuckin' God of War, and this definitely counted as Conflict. Even as my Blend-Piercing Status scoured everything away from Aphrodite, I felt the connection between the two of them snap.

Standing what had to be at least a hundred miles from Olympus, I heard him scream out in pain and fear, both of which instantly transmuted to rage. I felt him coming, but couldn't safely stop or even move very much until the Status finished. Fortunately, while Aphrodite might be old, she wasn't as powerful as her uncles, or obviously even as powerful as her husband.

Inspection Target: <Unnamed> Target Type Humanoid Divine Biped (<Unknown>) Titles None Patriarch None Attributes: Strength: 6(T2), Agility: 7(T3), Endurance: 5(T3), Reason: 0(T0), Memory: 0(T0), Personality: 0(T0) Skills None I banished the Status screen as I felt Ares come to a stop about halfway to me. His scream cut off like a switch, and a moment later a flickering blob of nothing soared up from the ground toward me. I may not be a God of War, but my reaction times aren't slow, nor am I stupid.

I'd only seen one other example of that kind of flickering in M-Space: the Black Dragon. I did not want to find out what happened to someone in M-Space when a hunk of Cold Iron passed through the spot I was in, but I still wasn't quite done here in the general Greece area yet. I leapt as far to the east as I could see, and I have no idea how he did it, but that fuckin' blob of nothing turned in midair and tracked me.

I leapt again and again, juking side to side, and it kept coming, even as Ares' swearing returned, then faded in the distance as I got further away. I don't know how the fucker managed to do it, but the thing seemed to get faster when I jumped further. Out of fancy tricks, I decided to get unfancy; I spun to face the thing and dropped back to the Mortal Realm.

I wrapped my legs around the staring, silent body I'd been carrying, then set myself as I slowly dropped out of the air despite my best efforts to remain airborne. Leverage is a bitch, and I was a tiny weight out at the ass end of a long, long lever. Carrying an eight foot newborn wasn't helping matters, either. I saw the thing coming, the tip glowing as it approached.

I wasn't sure if it would denature from that heat, but I hadn't realized before I dropped back, and didn't want to risk trying to catch nothing at all. I was super proud of myself when I managed to get both hands around the shaft before the head got to me. I slid backwards, gripping the haft tight until I could slow spear, body, and I to a stop not far above the waves. Weirdest thing, the heat from the head of the spear didn't seem to be coming from the Cold Iron spearhead itself, but from the air around it.

Also from the haft, which sizzled in my palms. Okay, the sizzling came from my hands, and some words that bore some relation to 'pigshitting fuckstick analpolyp' might have come from my mouth. I realized that the haft of the spear wasn't Cold Iron, nor was it really great steel, with all the fancy scrollwork, so I got a super bright idea, pulled my hands together right behind the tip, squeezed and twisted.

Terrible hand job technique, I know, because the head popped right off, at which point it dropped into the ocean below us, narrowly missing the former Aphrodite. I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding, then relaxed. At which point the fuckin' haft of the spear jerked out of my hands and stabbed me. It hurt like a bitch, and every part of me spasmed.

Every one of my senses was reminded of the Death Curse The Morrigan borrowed from my asshole brother Balor, and I cursed as I heard a splash from a dozen feet below me; what remained of Aphrodite hitting the waves. I Blended. Blended hard, and leapt to the volcano on Olympus. Dropping that Blend, I screamed out, "Ares, you useless fucking cunt, here's what I think of your fuckin' big manly spear!" Then I shoved it into the bubbling lava.

I realized right then that no matter my resistance to heat and pain, I shouldn't be hovering so close to an active volcano that I could physically poke a six foot pole five feet into molten rock. Fortunately, that just pissed me off more, which gave me an idea. I screamed out, "Divine Smite!" while staring at the remains of the spear. It stopped struggling and dropped fully into the volcano.

"Oh, look at me, I'm Ares, I'm such a fuckstick that my wife thinks death is better than living with me, and I can't even put my spear in a strong woman's hole until she threatens me!" I heard his furious scream coming from wherever he'd thrown that fuckin' spear. Honestly, in the Mortal Realm I probably wouldn't have, but it seemed sound in M-Space travelled at the speed of intent rather than anything like Mach, and intent always preceded punching.

I turned to face him, flipped him off, and last instant before he hit me, threw my Blend to maximum and stepped back to that spot in the Mortal Realm where I'd dropped Aphrodite. She was nowhere to be found. I flattened a section of water, Scried on her, but had absolutely no joy. Not surprising, since I was basically Scrying on someone who had no connections to anyone whatsoever.

Fortunately, apparently my enhanced Memory lets me remember shit I read back at Eastside now and then, and that included a particular rock. Specifically, 'Aphrodite's Rock', right on the coast of Cyprus. I scried on it, which took a shit ton of Mana, but fuck not spending Mana on important shit, and stepped there the moment I got an image. Just in time to see, perfectly lit by the rising sun, Aphrodite rise from the waves and roll onto the shore. Yeah.

Folks tend to forget she's a Sea Goddess, and those don't drown easy. I picked her up, covering her with my Blend, and stepped back to the Temple of Love, right above the oubliette. Down in the room below, Karen sat on the bed, cradling a sobbing Alexandra. I hopped down.

"Alexandra?" Her head shot up.

"What..." I pressed a single tentacle over her lips.

"Would you be Aphrodite's High Priestess?" I moved my tentacle.

"YES! Of course I would! Why..." I silenced her once more, then looked down at the eight foot tall newborn adult in my arms.

"Forgive me." I flexed my Will, did whatever it was I did that created someone as High Clergy, then rode that connection into her as gently as I could. I realized right then that despite her being completely blank and so much less powerful than me, her Mind was... Bigger than mine, somehow. Like wearing my mom's clothing as a toddler. Trying to ignore that sensation, still working as carefully as I could, I flexed her will, crafting that same connection to Alexandra.

The moment I felt it take hold I backed my Mind out of both of them, then flexed that same part of my Will to sever the connection between Aphrodite and I. I nodded to Karen, who let go of Alexandra. Aphrodite's lone High Priestess stood, open mouthed.

"What have you done?"

"I lifted her from the seafoam on the coast of Cyprus a minute ago, Alexandra." She blinked.

"You know what that means?"

"She is... New?"

"As innocent as a newborn baby." I frowned.

"She trusted you. Now she's got no choice. Can you handle that?" The weight of what I'd said hit her, and she sank to her knees. I felt the Worship she pointed at the innocent in my arms as she whispered, "I must, therefore I can." I took another deep breath, then said, "do you want help?"

"From you?" I nodded, then shrugged.

"From me. From my family. We've got a couple Goddesses, not to mention a shit ton of High Priestesses. Also another reborn Deity, and plenty of spare rooms."

"I do not... I don't know..." Then she stopped talking, pushed herself to her feet, laid a single hand in Aphrodite's broad palm, and nodded. I smiled as Aphrodite, without thinking, laced her fingers through Alexandra's. Then I stepped us all home.