Chương 1119: Day One Thousand One Hundred And Seventeen

Dear Diary, There are days when I'm very thankful that I trust my ladies implicitly, not to mention explicitly and completely. No, seriously, I've got a shit ton of trauma responses that I'm still ferreting out, but other than those sometimes giving me a jump scare from suddenly Marie or Saffron at her darkest, I do trust my ladies. With my schedule, with my life, with my Soul. With my kids. Probably says something about me what with that list being in order of importance from least to most.

At any rate, I'm thankful for that at the moment because my ladies have definitely been giving me sneaky plotting vibes. Nothing outright threatening, but when my ladies range from Absolute Cinnamon Roll to Queen of the Murderfuck Cult, any kind of secret plan I'm not involved in can pucker my sphincter even as it's stiffening my nips. I mean, when I think about it, I do trust them.

Seriously, if the time comes when I'm more monster than mother, when I need to be taken down a peg, put in time out for a while, or taken off the board entirely, I trust them to take care of it. Anything less than those is just, I dunno, window dressing or something. Trivial, at the end of the day.

Of course, now that I'm thinking about it, the last time I remember my ladies plotting it involved Siobhan, Saffron, and Marie plotting to rob me of consciousness after we completed scouring any physical innocence from our Darling. That was the end of that day, and while it was not trivial except in perhaps the grand scheme of things where no given sexual encounter is likely to be intense enough to directly impact events, it was not something I fear happening again.

Especially now that there's a fourth partner in the Mom Collective, not to mention four High Priestesses who might or might not show up if one of those first four called them in to eradicate anything approaching lack of sexual satiation on my part.

I mean, they could also call them in for all of those Tabitha chastisements, but in the first place as noted I trust them, and in the second place that hasn't happened yet, whereas plugging my brain into the rest of the Collective as they pop off as one has, so my only complaint is that I'm gonna need new panties if I think about this too long. Oh. Wait. Anyway, after the conversation about potential pregnancies yesterday, dreamt of my ladies doing some plotting stuff.

Slept well despite that, woke up to Saffron sort of rushing us over to the Black Dragon to continue the negotiations. I mean, so far there hadn't really been 'negotiations' in the typical sense. Then again, we'd basically brought them at the table at gunpoint, but we kept them fed and watered as long as they kept talking. At any rate, she stepped them through the remainder of the amendments to the Alliance Constitution. Which, honestly, had started as a Treaty, but was doing the job of a Constitution pretty well.

Well enough that with the 'reworked every ten years' provision I felt it would last as long as it was needed or useful. We finished up around noonish, at which point Saffron stood, and if she didn't slap her hands on her thighs, I definitely got that 'time to go' vibe when she said, "Captains," then handed over three big rolled up scrolls.

"I've brought you each a copy of the Alliance Treaty, so now that we've gone over it, I suspect you'd like to return to your ships, your officers, and even your crews to discuss that with them, get their feedback, and perhaps come up with more questions you hadn't thought of." Redbeard smirked.

"Not to mention discuss it away from prying ears in the walls?" Saffron just smiled beneficently.

"There have been no such ears here, gentlemen, but I fully understand and support your need for privacy in this discussion." John frowned, standing up in response to Saffron's clear dismissal, but not moving to leave yet.

"What is your goal in all this?"

"Since you and your crews might tailor your questions to that purpose, I've debated with myself being more explicit, but I think my earlier statements and implications still stand and are fairly accurate. Just in case you don't remember, the Alliance wishes to employ your fleet."

"For?" Saffron smiled.

"Multiple purposes. Obviously harassing the shipping of those hostile to the Alliance, which would mean additional bounties to be distributed to your crews on each and every such voyage. Perhaps less obviously, protecting our own shipping, and perhaps that of Cities and other factions friendly to the Alliance. At the very least, not harassing them, which would ease the burden of our escorts, if not as much as employing your hulls for that purpose. Finally?

As Imperator I believe that your people and ours would be best served by a formalized, long term understanding, which would require us to meet with your fellows in your ports along the Thames. Which, given your people's history with the House of Orange, would best be achieved by some of you with solid reputations with your fellows to make introductions." Anne snorted as she stood and held out her hand to Saffron.

"Don't think small, do you?" Praise to my Kitten, Imperator Sexypaws, first of her name, for not rising to that bait. Instead she reached out and shook Anne's hand firmly.

"I do not." Redbeard didn't shake Saffon's hand, but he did at least nod before turning to follow Anne out of the conference room. Meanwhile John shook Saffron's hand, then Swanson's, then very obviously steeled himself and reached out to me. As we shook, he looked like he'd had a thought.

"We might need more copies of this," he waved his copy of the Treaty.

"The crew always go through a couple dozen copies of the Articles when we're hashing them out." Saffron smiled at him.

"We'll see how quickly that can be done; I presume you'd prefer hand copied rather than magically reproduced?" He grunted like he hadn't thought of that, then nodded.

"A few of each crew usually have the sight, and seeing residues of Shaping would probably rub them wrong." Saffron nodded, sighing and smiling.

"I thought as much. Thank you, Captain. I'll let you know how things have progressed in the morning." With that he left, she took my hand, and stepped us back to the Bedroom.

"I'm sorry to have interrupted your schedule for so long, love." I scooped her up, knelt her on the end of the Bed, which put our heights much closer to even, then spent a bit kissing her. When I'd bled off enough of the boredom tension, I pulled back, smiled at her, and said, "hey, the Norns started it. Not entirely your fault, and..." I shrugged.

"Shit happens." She raised an eyebrow.

"It does? It Just Happens?" Yeah, even I can take a hint like that. Bells rung. Toys played with, even. At one point we sat there picking random books off the shelf, paging through until the first spicy scene, then recreating it. Good clean fun, even if we both kinda needed a shower after.

At a couple points some of my High Clergy stopped by to check in with Saffron about stuff, although honestly between boredom overload, their questions sounding more like really boring infrastructure details, and Saffron distracting me with her rounder bits, I have no idea what they wanted. I think I pulled a couple of them into the shenanigans for a round or two. Siobhan definitely. Possibly Karen as Siobhan once, or vice versa.

Seriously, Shapeshifting plus a wide partner selection plus spicy romance cosplay made for a fun afternoon. Marie tried out some new stuff at dinner. Okay, not super new, and not massively experimental, but somehow she'd managed to make fried fish where the crunchy outer shell wound up being at least as thick as the fish itself. Crunch explosion delightfulness in full effect. We even had tartar sauce, which I think I'd missed without realizing I missed it. Dreamt of my ladies definitely doing some shady shit.

Or maybe pretending to, as I kept tryna figure out what they were doing, at which point one of them would distract me, wind up plunged into my Maw after a bit, then rejoin the others while another one distracted me. Discovered that Furtim Cauda is made of... Okay, I was gonna say 'bacon', but this was, like, the essence of perfect bacon. Like, I'm not sure Marie has ever made bacon this perfect, and she hits bacon perfection on the regular. Cruncy, savory, smoky, with those crispy bits drenched in rendered fat.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. When we got back to the conference room after eating breakfast in the officer's mess on the Black Dragon, we found the three Captains waiting for us. When we all sat, John spoke first, sighing as he did.

"I'm afraid we may be asking a great deal at this point, but our crews are intrigued by your Treaty." Saffron head tilted. With my ongoing connection to the back of her brain, I felt a complete lack of confusion, but she acted it well as she asked, "why would that prove problematic?" John hesitated, and Anne rescued him.

"We've around six hundred crew members, and each would like a copy." Saffron just nodded, smiling like she knew a happy secret.

"Six hundred manual copies of the Treaty. That may take a day or two, but I'll meet with the head of the Phileo Scribe's Guild and arrange something." Anne blinked.

"A day or two?" Saffron nodded.

"Mostly because even if I make this a priority request from the Alliance, Vincent Aetos, head of the Scribe's Guild, will still need to arrange things, especially for copies created without magical assistance." Redbeard broke out laughing, and while John hushed him, Anne rolled her eyes and said, "I half expected you to turn us down, and the other half expected you to counter with a lower number, or a longer time." Saffron nodded.

"Out of curiosity, every member of your crews can read?" Redbeard snapped, "of course they can!" Immediately after that John, whose hand had remained on Red's shoulder, said, "all of them to some degree, although most of them aren't as well versed in contract law as they think. Not that any of them would let the rest know that they're deficient in either area." I saw how he squeezed Red's shoulder as he said that, and Red settled down as Saffron calmly said, "apologies for any unintended offense.

While we've recently implemented basic education as universal as can be managed for all Children in the Alliance, previous generations haven't in many cases have not had that advantage." Her smile would have spontaneously melted butter and turned it into ghee with its warmth as she followed that with, "it is good to know that our potential new... Allies? Value education as much as Tabitha and I." At that point a steward came in carrying a big metal pitcher, followed by another with six cups and saucers on a tray.

When each of us had a cup, Saffron stood and poured herself a cup of cocoa. Okay, Rich Man's Port hot chocolate, which as I've mentioned has more in common with chocolate syrup or the middle of a chocolate lava cake than the cocoa I remembered from back in the day. Then she poured for me, then looked at Swanson, who nodded.

"What is... Oh, that smells heavenly," said Anne.

"Hot chocolate. From Compton. Well, the beans are from there, the recipe is the Overlord's." The three of them looked at each other, then back to her. Anne nodded, followed by John and Red, then spoke as Saffron poured.

"Friendly with the Overlord, are you?" Saffron nodded as she finished pouring, then set the pitcher down and sat. After taking a sip of her own cocoa, she turned to the stewards.

"Hal. Rick. Thank you, you may go."

"Ma'am," they chorused, then saluted and left. When Anne saw Saffron savoring the chocolate, she lifted her cup, sniffed at it, then took a sip herself. Just as she did, Saffron let out a sigh of contentment, then said, "intimately so, what with her being our foster daughter's mother, not to mention our," she nodded toward me, "Concubine." Yeah, I think Anne had all she could do to keep from doing a spit take at that. She definitely seemed like some chocolate had gone down the wrong pipe for a second.

I followed my Kitten's lead and just savored the hot chocolate. Not really my nostalgia, but, I mean, warm chocolate syrup is warm chocolate syrup. Before Anne could recover, John came to her rescue.

"Pardon, but I thought I heard you say Concubine?"

"I did."

"The Overlord of Rich Man's Port is your Concubine?" Saffron shrugged.

"I suppose if one wants to split hairs, she chose to become Tabitha's Concubine, but since as spouses we share everything, yes, she is our Concubine. Archmage Tallulah Crow, head of House Crow, great-daughter of The Morrigan, Overlord of Rich Man's Port, just to avoid any potential confusion or misunderstanding." I did not exactly like the look in Red's eyes when he said, "you conquered that Sidhe bitch and her nest of sycophants?"

Yeah, John and Anne both showed me exactly how good their situational awareness was when leaned away from Redbeard. For my part, I think I exhibited exceptional restraint. I set my chocolate cup down gently, then looked Red in the eye and kept my voice level as I said, "T is my lover, mother of my daughter Ria, and my High Priestess. I get that there's some bad blood there, but I'm willing to set it aside rather than spilling it. But not if people keep bad mouthing someone I care about."

Then I picked up my chocolate and took another sip. Red just stared at me. Glared, to begin with. He looked almost like somebody psyching themselves up to throw a punch, or a dagger, or a Spell. Somehow me just sitting there, calmly sipping chocolate like his actions did not matter, wound up doing what usually took threats of mind breaking violence. He froze. Anne came to his rescue, her chuckle brittle as she said, "High Priestess?" I nodded, savored, swallowed, and said, "she is.

I haven't been broadcasting this to her, or asking for her advice, because I figure she has beef with you guys and I didn't want to come into this prejudiced. But I could have been. I chose not to, because I have some amount of class, apparently." I turned to Saffron, ignoring Red.

"Yeah, surprise to me too!" Anne shook her head once, trying to dispel my bullshit, I guess, and asked, "what does her great-mother think of that?" I shrugged.

"I didn't ask. Not that her opinion mattered." That got the three of them looking a weird combination of scared and eager, like they did not like The Morrigan at all, but seemed worried that the bitch in question was gonna jump out from behind the bulkhead or something.

"Ah... She...?" John seemed like he couldn't figure out what he wanted to ask.

"I mean, I could ask her if you guys are really curious. Tryna convince you to accept our offer, after all, and it's not a real big effort for me. But mostly the only answer I get from her when I ask her things are incoherent noises. I'm guessing they mostly translate to 'get this tentacle out of me'. Hard to talk with a tentacle filling your mouth." All three of them got various flavors of grin on their faces, and Red asked, "you choked her with a tentacle?" I shrugged.

"Not really. Shoved one up her ass." They winced.

"Until it came out her mouth." Another wince, this one more pronounced, from John and Anne. Red looked a little disturbed.

"Kept pulling on her ankles until she slid down the thing." I squinted, pretended I was trying to remember.

"I think she was like a third of the way down last time I looked."

"How far would that be?" I smiled at Anne.

"Oh, maybe two miles. Three more to go before she hits ground level." Yeah, she looked a little nauseated, absently sipped her chocolate, then winced again as I said, "it's about twenty feet across at that point. She's basically a tube at this point. Face all spread out like a flounder. Y'know, those flat bottom feeder fish?" Anne swallowed her chocolate, then whispered, "why not just kill her and be done with it."

"She killed my daughter. Out of spite." I realized I'd hissed all that out with way more venom than I'd intended. I took a deep breath, a big swallow of chocolate, then reached a tentacle over to refill my cup as I said, "sorry. You guys weren't responsible for any of that. I don't like it when kids get hurt." I took another sip, nodded, then said, "I maybe get a little bit enraged when mine do." Red looked really conflicted as he whispered out, "why do you even need us?"

Saffron set her cup down with a click that got all three of them focused on her.

"Because my Goddess, my Tabitha, my Goof, does not want slaves. She does not want to conquer. Frankly, she doesn't even want to spend her time defending or avenging Children." That got confused looks from all three of them.

"She would much rather teach them. Feed them." Her smile got wide and warm as she finished with, "Play with them, even as one of them at times." At Red's muttered, "how?" I Mimicked Maze, which had them all blinking and frowning a little, then Ria, which made the frowns get a little deeper, then Alex, which for whatever reason reduced the frowns, and finally Lindsey, which removed them entirely. As myself, I said, "yeah.

I didn't want to lean on this, because we're tryna make a deal here, and I'm honestly tryna make an honest deal where we're dealing in good faith, but I'm a Trickster Goddess, daughter of another Trickster Goddess. I Shapeshift as needed." I kind of expected Anne to say something, but John was the one who snorted and said, "I pity the poor fools who try to harm the Children under your care." I shrugged.

"A hundred fifty Spartans tried that earlier this year." They all looked... Concerned.

"We killed a seventy-five in the field. Fifty attacked the kids at our New Year's festival, and I Amputated them."

"Amputated what?" asked John.

"Everything that stuck off their torsos. Heads included." He looked a little green, and Red asked, "what of the other twenty-five?"

"Jack Frost, who happens to be my son-in-law, froze them solid. Then my Wife Marie took our kids down to shatter them as... Target practice, I guess. Lika a momma cat letting kittens kill broke-winged birds and shit." The three of them stared at me for a little bit. I went back to sipping chocolate. Saffron reached one hand under the table and gently squeezed my thigh. Not flirting, not warning, just... Supporting me, because she realized that talking through all that had maybe left me a little drained.

They looked at each other, looked back to Saffron, and Anne said, "I think we three ought discuss things." Saffron nodded.

"Here or aboard your own ships? We can give you the room if you like." After another long glance, Anne said, "aboard one of our own ships, if you don't mind. Redbeard's, for preference." Saffron smiled.

"Of course. Although I do hope you'll be able to return in time for dinner? We'll be having it early today, and I believe our Wife Marie has decided to cook for the officer's mess this evening."

"We'll... Be sure to return for that, then." When they left, I turned to Saffron.

"Bringing out the big diplomatic guns, huh?" She smiled at me. No, she Grinned at me.

"I did no such thing." She banished her dress, then squeezed her arms together until those lovely mountains of girl popped out the top of her corsetry.

"I've kept them in reserve the whole time." Yeah, I'm pretty sure she was distracting me from something. Plans, schemes, plots. I mean, it worked. I'm still me, after all.