Chương 1113: Day One Thousand One Hundred And Eleven

Dear Diary, Yeah, after finding out the English Pirates have dental care written into their contracts, I am not entirely copacetic with anything. Seriously, how the fuck? Where, why, when, did dudes known for the shittiest of prosthetics wind up in possession of better luxury bone protections than I had living in the twenty-first century U. S. A.? Actually, that's got me wondering what, if any, acronym the Alliance will wind up with. The full name is the Inter-City Alliance of Atlantis, at least I think it is.

Might be Atlantean Inter-City Alliance. While those two sound the same, I'm pretty sure that my Blend translation may be missing some nuance in an effort to get me the meaning somebody's intending when they say shit. I also know that Bismarck and Wilhelm had knock down, drag out fights over shit that seemingly trivial, 'German Emperor' or 'Emperor of Germany'. Yeah, I think when I'm bored my brain starts free associating.

It's weird, too, because somehow even though Saffron, Redbeard, and even Anne are objectively hot, and they're sort of nerding out over the details of their Articles of Agreement, I can't even dissociate and fantasize about a foursome. That really ought to tell you something about my aversion to this kind of thing. So of course I felt guilty about dropping everybody off at the Homestead and heading to my Revel this week. I think Saffron picked up on it, because she called me over.

"Love? Is something wrong?" I shrugged.

"I feel some kinda way about being eager to hit the Revel tonight." She shot me a lopsided grin.

"Really? Whyever for?" I took a deep breath, let it out, put on my metaphoric big girl panties in the absence of any actual ones, and said, "I've been bored to tears for the past couple days, and the Revel feels like some kind of release." She shook her head.

"So you think you ought to feel guilty for doing something you enjoy rather than something that bores you?"

"Yeah." After she just looked at me for a moment with the look that presaged a statement like 'so Goof', I smiled and said, "yeah, I'm a piece of work. Neopuritans fucked me up but good." She just waved me in for a hug. Before it got much further than her arms around me, Siobhan embraced me from behind. Then Marie sandwiched Darling between us, Tallulah did the same with Saffron, and finally a veritable wave of kids surrounded us in one big glomp.

I plucked Aisling from my hip, where she'd been clinging most of the past couple days, and looked her in the eye.

"I'm going to do something that's not really appropriate for little girls. So I'm going to leave you here with Marie, and Menace, and Hailee, and everyone else to watch over you and keep you company overnight. Will you be okay?" She got the tiniest pout, followed by a heartbreaking resigned look, then nodded.

"... k." I handed her to Marie, who rubbed her face against Aisling's, which replaced resignation with confusion. Which was improvement, I guess. Saffron smiled up at me, gave me a quick kiss, and thought, go, love. Go, commune with your Worshippers, and return to us refreshed and ready to dive once more into the arcane arts of contract law. So, with a laugh rather than a sob, I stepped to my Altar. I wound up a little, I dunno, not shook, but surprised in a weird way when I landed on my altar in Newark.

I hadn't even really realized I had an Altar in Newark, but seeing a couple of my Newark Cadets in the congregation clued me to the location. I really did not expect the dude standing there by the Altar, either. Almost didn't recognize him out of his uniform. Instead he wore the version of Glowing Midnight I'd seen some dudes in. More of a robe than a dress, although from the ones I'd seen dropping the robes, most of them still had some nice lingerie on underneath.

I cannot emphasize how much of a loss the lack of lingerie for dudes was back in the day. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

"Hey, Fred! How's it goin'?" He smiled, reached up and rubbed at his hair, which he'd grown out a bit.

"I guess it's going well, since I've been promoted to Hero and," he shrugged.

"I'm your head Priest in residence here."

"Doesn't that usually come with a white outfit?" He chuckled and shook his head.

"Nah. Not High Priest. Just, y'know, Clergy. Practically Lay Clergy." I leered at him a little, and he laughed.

"Yeah, kinda why I didn't say that before. I'm sort of like Dana over in New Amsterdam." I nodded, then settled onto the Altar. I held out my arms, but he sat next to me instead of in my lap. He didn't flinch or avoid things when I gave him a one armed side hug though.

"So who's my High Priestess here again then?" He shook his head.

"Technically we don't have one. I think Karen has someone planned for this Temple, but she's still taking her Trials."

"Oh? Who?" His headshake this time was just a jerk back and forth.

"Nope. Not only am I not technically in the loop on that, it's kinda rude to speculate or talk about somebody taking the Trials. It makes it that much worse if they fail." I nodded.

"Okay, yeah, I get that. So how'd you wind up chief Priest here then?"

"Well, I'm a Hero, for one thing, which the folks in Newark are still getting used to having. So people kinda defer to me without thinking about it. I heard about the construction, came over to help out, and wound up basically organizing things. The folks around here," he sighed.

"They're really good at doing things once somebody tells them to do stuff. Hell, half the time all I'm doing is really giving them permission to do what they wanted to do anyway. But they... They don't..."

"They've had the initiative beaten out of them." He sighed.

"Yeah."

"So who's up here first?" He blushed.

"Me. I tried to make a couple of the folks who did most of the work on the place go first, but they all insisted." I just smiled and hugged him again.

"Yeah, well. Looks like you've landed on your feet then." I paused, then asked, "any reason you're not taking the Trials yourself?" He blinked, laughed, and said, "I'm not that, uh..."

"Go on, I'm not gonna take offense."

"Wanton?" I chuckled.

"Fair. I told Karen while she was taking her Trials that it would take some doing to reconcile any kind of Ace with being my High Clergy. No shade to you, man. So why are you the chief Priest again? Like, not how did you wind up that way, but what made you decide to... I am your Patron, right?" He nodded, smiling.

"Yeah. When I was helping out, I read through the Doctrine. Talked with Highest Priestess Smith about what you were trying to do. I'm not sure I'm really the best person to do the whole Ecstasy thing. Or even any of the rest of the Domains. But... The schools? The orphanages? The... The community building. Yeah, all that makes too much sense, makes me wonder why nobody's done it before." Yeah, that got me.

"Would... Yeah, that means a lot to me, to hear somebody say they joined up for that. Would you mind if I hugged you?" He chuckled.

"Most Deities wouldn't ask."

"Yeah, well. Am I most Deities now?" He put his arms around me and murmured.

"I guess not."

"So, what did you want to do?" He shrugged, looked into that quiet, dark, secret place and smiled. It took me a little bit to sort my Blend out right, but it was kind of a treat just sitting there talking with him in English. Talking about his dreams, his goals, singing dumb old songs from his childhood with him, which I very carefully didn't let on that I was pulling them straight from that secret place in his head. I even sang a few songs from back in the day.

Oldies from the early teens, like Dev and Far East Movement. He had no idea what a G six was, but he still laughed. Midway through the night, as he relaxed enough to go to sleep, Karen showed up.

"Goddess?"

"S'up?" I handed Fred over.

"Could you perhaps calm Cherry? He's seeming a bit panicked."

"Anything wrong?" She smiled.

"Not that I can tell. Just first pregnancy jitters?" I laughed, gave everyone in the congregation a quick tentacle hug, and called out, "see you guys next Revel!" Yeah, by the concerned looks and the cheer, I think they knew who Cherry was. So weird, knowing that not only did I know a famous here and now porn star, but functionally, he worked for me.

I showed up on the Altar in Phileo to find Cherry and Giselle there, the former clutching at his belly, the latter holding Cherry and Tabson, crooning a lullaby to both of them.

"What's up, Cherry?"

"Goddess! I... I'm..." He looked down at his belly, which was clearly third trimester distended.

"Really pregnant? Gonna be a dad soon?" Cherry slumped, and I sat down next to him, putting my arms around him.

"Or a mom?" He smiled and shook his head.

"No, I'm going to be a dad. I think I'll leave the mothering to Giselle." She just smiled and nodded, never stopping that lullaby.

"So I heard you're worried about something?" He nodded.

"I'm starting to bloat up, and I know there are men who are paying premiums for time with me, but I... I..." I pulled him into my lap, maybe Shapeshifting bigger to pull Giselle in a little as well.

"You're not up for it any more?" He shook his head.

"Not... I still want to, just... Not right now?"

"Then you don't have to."

"But... But what am I worth if I don't?" I turned him to face me.

"Cherry?"

"Yes, Goddess?"

"Your worth does not come from how much you do for the Temple. Your worth is inherent to you. As a person."

"Truly?"

"Of course." He maybe broke down a little then. So I held him, talked to him, confirmed that whether he continued taking clients, took a break from whoring, or decided to change his career path entirely, I would love and cherish him just as much.