Chương 1095: Day One Thousand And Ninety-Three

Dear Diary, I'm still reeling a little from yesterday. Not in any kind of bad way, either. I don't think so, anyhow. No, this is more like when you pull a bandage off a healed cut, and that motherfucker itches so much that you can't do anything but sit there and rub at it, trying not to reopen that delicate skin where the cut used to be. Maybe that's not quite right either, though. Because if anything, at least for me, yesterday was more like pulling the scab off a wound that's gotten a little red around the edges.

Yeah, it hurts while you're doing it, yeah, it stings like a bitch when you clean it out, and yeah, you've got an open wound after, but it's an open wound with all the nasty pus removed, that can maybe start healing normally now. Damn, I think it's been like three years since I had something like that happen to me. Oh. Oh, shit. It's been almost exactly three years.

Because my brain, which has been practicing its basic Arithmetic a lot lately, just did the math and realized that in two days, I'll have been here for three years. Which means that Saffron's birthday is in two days. On the one hand, I am glad I remembered now instead of three days from now. On the other hand, I've got two days to arrange some kind of birthday party. Of course, I could just ask our wifiest of wifes what her plan for that day is, since I cannot think that she hasn't got one in place already.

I also remember her saying something about wanting to maybe tone down the personal celebrations a little. Like, she's still the Imperator, and I think folks would feel some kinda way if she didn't show up and wave and let them scream 'happy birthday' at her, but doing the whole huge party thing for the rest of the day is something we could dial back. Also, I think she'd like to have it at the Homestead, which doesn't really have a Dining Hall like Lancaster House.

Yeah, our Dining Room is pretty fuckin' massive, but it's 'massive for a single family dining room', not 'hotel event hall' massive the way Lancaster House's Dining Hall is. Then again, I've just been seized with a brilliant inspiration regarding that, one which will require the weather to stop doing the torrential downpour like it has for the past couple.

Okay, it's not exactly torrential, nothing flooded, but I'm glad the kids were distracted with school and the group therapy session, because otherwise I've got this suspicion they'd have tried to leverage Maze and Isnomi's influence over all things aquatic and predatory to take Baby and her playmate out into the Courtyard. Which we really ought to do, since right now they're mostly lazing about in their habitats.

I'd say they need 'enrichment' beyond the more Deific girls going in there and playing with them, but 'enrichment' for Dragons usually winds up being unhealthy for anyone else in the area. Fortunately, I happen to know a Deity of Storms who maybe owes me a favor. Or at least thinks of me favorably, since I helped him out of being my daughter's bling and my mom's undergarments.

Shit, I'm not sure he remembers that, because if she wasn't my mom and I was into ladies, I would not actively want to be removed from a 'forever embracing her lower half' situatiion. Back to last night, not everybody felt comfortable enough to share. Boy and Girl didn't, but I saw them wince in sympathy when Siobhan and Hailee talked about that final Spartan bastard who skewered them and Aoibh. Shit, I'm not sure if Aoibh will remember that. I'd say no, but then, Isnomi.

At any rate, at the end of the day yesterday, everybody wound up absolutely exhausted. Emotionally and mentally drained. Shit, even a bit physically drained, in the way that wave after wave of strong emotions can do. We stumbled home, and would have wound up going to bed hungry had not the Wifiest Wife ever to be Wifed made us all bisque. Like, half a dozen big cauldrons of bisque. I realized right then that she hadn't spoken during that big sharing session.

She'd been there, holding whoever needed it, a warm, comforting, fuzzy presence, but... I knew she'd had some serious trauma in the past, but she hadn't said a single word about it. After getting everybody fed and to bed, I Co-Located the pair of us up to the Bedroom. Whereupon she started an old school assault on my tonsils. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. Wait.

With no comment other than a single raised eyebrow, she pulled back and let me know she wasn't really in a pulling back mood.

"You didn't say anything today." She shook her head.

"I know sometimes it's hard for you to share, but I want you to know I'm holding space for you." She just smiled, that uniquely Marie combination of love, desire, and impending violent action.

"No Need." I blinked at that.

"You sure? I know you've been through... Fuck, a shit ton of trauma." She just smiled wider.

"Dealt With." That I had not expected.

"How? Have you been doing therapy when I wasn't there to see it?" She shook her head, pressing her nose into mine, staring into my eyes so deep I was sure I could see her Soul.

"You." Her lips tickled at mine, and she growled out, "Vengeance." Okay, yeah, that might not have been the final word on the subject, but it was the final word last night. Different people heal differently. For a Spartan Princess turned Maenad Champion of the Heir to Olympus, maybe Vengeance worked better than hugs and tears. Then again, she'd had those, surrounded by her sisters and I. She'd also gotten her sisters back from Sparta, so there was that.

Slept well, dreamt of my ladies cheering the instant replay on the big screen. In the morning, I made sure the Docs were still good to hang around the Homestead. Doc Z summed up their opinion on matters when he said, "frankly, your Homestead 'guess rooms' are just as nice as our bedroom at home, and thanks to your wife Marie, we're able to visit our patients, not to mention dining better than we would at home." He turned to Doc Glass and, not very much apology in his tone at all, said, "sorry, Steve, but she's..."

"On another level. You need not apologize, Joe. I enjoy cooking, but I've a few decades of experience to her centuries." I stepped away to them sneaking in a little snogging before doing whatever they had to do for the day. I took Aisling with me to class.

I gave her a spare ink pen and some paper to doodle with so she wouldn't get bored, and she spent most of the day alternating between practicing her numbers and basic Arithmetic and copying the words I was writing as I translated my paper from last week from English to Celtic. I definitely think I'm getting a deeper understanding about Mana and Shaping from doing that translation, by the way. I also think I need to talk to Doc Glass about it maybe.

I've got an idea of what I want to do, but it's going to sort of piggyback off of Saffron's System and Status Spells, plus maybe Assess Health, and a few other bits and pieces. Those bits and pieces are the things I want to talk with Doc Glass about, because they have to do with Souls and Trauma. Speaking of, after I gave Aisling her writing materials, I Co-Located a Blended me over behind Doc Roberts, dropped it just enough for him to feel my tap on his elbow, and whispered, "hallway."

Once I had him out there, he looked at me curiously.

"What's going on, Champion?"

"Aw, c'mon, Doc. Not you too. I'm still Tabitha. Your Remedial Mana Shaping student. Remember?" He chuckled a little.

"I'd worry about lese majeste, but I don't think you'd care about that. Tabitha it is. What did you need?"

"The little girl sitting next to me?" He nodded.

"She's... She's got some issues. PTSD stuff."

"PTSD?"

"Post traumatic stress disorder. I think I heard the Marshall call it spell shock."

"Oh, gods. What happened to her?" I shrugged.

"She got injured and lost her parents during the Spartan New Year's attack, but from what we can tell that was just the final straw." He nodded, still looking a little green around the gills. Great guy, but not the best when it came to violence.

"I'd ask if there is anything I can do, but I suspect Doctor DeLeon would be a better choice. Or Archmage Darling." I shook my head.

"Nah. Nothing like that. I mean, I appreciate the offer, but the Mom Collective and Doctors Glass and Zeccardi are on the case." He nodded; I think he'd met the Docs when they fixed my lung piercing.

"So what did you need of me?" I took a deep breath, then quietly said, "this isn't public knowledge, but she has fits when something triggers her memory of her parents or that day." He nodded, opened his mouth, then closed it again.

"Like, almost Bane Sidhe screaming level fits." He paled.

"What would you have me do?" I nodded.

"Don't need you to do much, but if you hear something like that? Throw the strongest Filtration Ward against sound you can Shape around me and her, then evacuate the room? I'll take care of things from there." He chewed air for a second, then nodded.

"I'd ask why you're bringing her to class with you, but I suspect there aren't many at your Homestead who could deal with something like that, are there?"

"Oddly enough, two of them, but since the older one is three, and the younger one turns one in a couple weeks, I'd rather not leave it to them if I can avoid it." He still looked a little green, but I'd given him something he could do if shit went sideways.

"I totally understand, Tabitha. Should something go wrong, I'll do my best to do as you've said."

"Thanks, Doc." With that I gave him a hug, then collapsed back to myself. Finished my translation with barely enough time to do any actual research, but that's still cool. Like I said, reading something in another language, even something I wrote myself, puts it in a whole new light.