Chương 1124: Day One Thousand One Hundred And Twenty-Two

Dear Diary, One of the things I find really weird here and now is how fast some people adapt to living in what amounts to democratic communes. Like, I'm not sure that's what they call them, and I'm not sure that's the exact definition of things from back in the day, but compared to the Camden I grew up in, it really seems like that by comparison. Seriously, from what I can tell Saffron's established the idea that if you're living in the Alliance, and you're injured, somebody's gonna Heal you.

Maybe the Temples, maybe the University Hospitals, maybe somebody from an Academy, whether that's a Hero or one of the Healers manning the Infirmary at the Academy itself. Then again, from what I remember Saffron's got four Heroes stationed at each Academy as full time Healers now. That was the plan, anyhow, and I can't see where it's a bad one. I mean, yeah, maybe that's fourteen Heroes who aren't out doing Hero shit, but 'making sure nobody's horrifically crippled for life' seems like a good use of Heroes to me.

The same thing goes for food. Yeah, I know my Temple takes 'donations' for the really nice stuff from the restaurant and bar, just like they take donations for the services of the Temple Prostitutes. But from what I remember they're not letting anybody walk away starving. Dunno about hungry, because when times are lean everybody's a little hungry.

Thing is, knowing that worst comes to worst, my Temples won't let them starve, or die of healable illness or injury, or fuck, I guess if we've got room we're not gonna let somebody die of exposure either, that's a huge thing. A big part of the 'repetitive stress injury' type psychological trauma I carried over from back in the day was just insecurity, in the 'food, shelter, care' sense. I cannot properly express how that shit ate at me, day after day, year after year.

Yeah, technically I had my mom's insurance money, but the rent kept going up, as did the price of food, and that chunk of money never got any bigger; it just whittled itself away year after year. I really hope my sister got whatever was left of it, and the banks or insurance companies didn't pull some kind of bullshit maneuver like I'm pretty sure they did with my mom.

Like, I don't think they refused her 'life saving care', but they sure as shit didn't keep her alive one heartbeat longer than they had to, and it always seemed like they cut corners with the morphine. Okay, I'm not sure they had her on morphine or some other painkiller, but there's a point where you stop worrying about 'will this leave the patient with an addiction' and focus on 'how can we make her final hours less torturous'. Then again, I was very much a kid back then.

For all I know, the insurance money had run out days, even weeks beforehand and they just let her keep the bed and gave her whatever meds they could sneak out of the dispensary on the down low. Fuck, maybe that's a sign that I'm growing up, that I'm willing to accept that the doctors and nurses had limits to what they could do, and give them the benefit of the doubt that they did what they could. Fuck the insurance companies, though.

Laughing at people dying while they sat in their thousand dollar leather chairs counting their mad stacks. Thing is, when it comes to that free Healing, nobody starves, nobody sleeps rough if they don't want to, I'm honestly not sure if it's even working, if we have enough food or Healing to cover everybody, but... Fuck, maybe that's why people are so thrilled when they see Saffron and I on our birthdays.

Why the few occasions I've been out in public and didn't Blend my presence away, I got hit with all kinds of Worship any time anybody recognized me. Because they know that if everything goes sideways, the Alliance will take care of them. We'll take care of them. Saffron and I. Our ladies, too, although I'm not sure...

Fuck, I think if every Maenad out there gets the kind of Worship that I do, because people can't tell Marie from any of the others, they're definitely gonna wind up well fed, at least in the Worship sense. I know Tallulah's talked about any kid we have being a Fae Goddess, but between being the focal point for the Global System Spell and the ongoing Worship she must get from her less fortunate subjects, I'm not sure she's not headed that way herself. Shit.

I guess 'subjects' means that despite the whole Grand Council thing, we aren't really a democracy. Not really. I mean, Phileo isn't entirely undemocratic, what with the Mayor being elected, and the Phileo Council being at least partly a meritocracy, given that it takes some training and Skill to become a Hero. Shit, if Vincent's Scribes are any indication, the Guild Leaders have to be at least a little Skilled to get their jobs too. So weird, watching shit just... Evolve in real time.

I'm pretty sure Camden Yards is an actual democracy of some kind, and Newark pretty much follows Camden Yards' lead at this point. I think Calverton is closest to whatever England was back in the day. Y'know, having a Monarch, but also having elected people representing the people of Calverton. I think that's what they came up with, at any rate. Entirely not sure.

With no more slaves in Norfolk, while they're still technically a monarchy, Willie Johnson's relative wealth and his mom, AKA Queen Olga the first, basically encouraging Jarls to act like him, they're not a democracy, but they're not exactly what I think of when I think of a monarchy, either. Then again, I might want to encourage her to do the constitution thing, too. They've got written laws now, ever since the Thing, but I'm not sure about something declaring how they change their laws and shit like that.

Because the problem with 'everyone is treated well because the right people are in charge' is what happens when the right person eventually dies, or gets jaded, or corrupt, or ages out of being able to relate to normal people. I know that's a struggle for Tallulah. Shit. I just realized. Most of the folks in Rich Man's Port are pirates, or at least pirate adjacent. At least they used to be. Tallulah? Yes, Tabitha? Do your people...

Like, your ship crews, or anybody else in Rich Man's Port, do they have Articles of Agreement? I definitely got the sense that I'd asked if Sidhe farted, or just dropped deuces in their panties, but her answer was, at worst, a little acerbic. Ships crewed by Humans did. Some Fae Captains, even a few Sidhe, had taken to doing so. I caught that tense, despite her tension. Had? We are no longer pirates.

I suppose some of them who have neither turned to shipping nor joined the Navy may do so in their capacity of privateers. I thought carefully about my reply, right up until I realized she could probably hear me thinking, or at least tell that I was. Have you maybe thought about doing something like that for the Port itself? Like Marylin Calvert did in Calverton? It took a while before she replied. For a bit I almost thought she'd gotten pissed at me, but she sounded more contrite than anything.

I have thought on that. Since our last conversation. I keep circling back to a single question. Which is? She huffed a sigh into my head. Why would I bind myself? Luckily I'd just been thinking about similar shit, so I had an answer. Yourself? Because it's fair to everyone else. Since everyone else who would have to follow those rules. Including all those pain int he ass Sidhe nobles who are constantly bickering and jockeying for position. Including your successor.

You think one of them will eventually outmaneuver me? I sighed, then snorted with something like humor. Maybe. Maybe not. If you put hard and fast rules to the game, I'm not sure if that makes it more or less likely. But even though you don't age, even though you can't really die at this point, even I can't tell what might happen in the future. I paused a moment, realizing something. Shit, you might realize you want to step down and just teach eventually. Who would I abdicate in favor of?

I'd kind of maneuvered her into that question, and felt a little guilty because of it, but I knew my intent wasn't to hurt her. Our daughter? Which one? I laughed. Any of them. Including the one we're gonna make. She paused, and I could tell I had her, even though her next question didn't sound like it. Why would I bind our daughter so? Because if you do, and you do it right, the life and death struggle you've worried about for so long? Where you feared for your daughter's lives at every turn? Becomes a game.

If you lose, instead of you or them dying, all you lose is your fancy house. Her next words had as much humor as I'd ever heard from my long tall Sidhe lady. I do like my fancy house. Well, from what we've agreed to, the moment you've got my bun in your oven, we're married, which gives you a full share in our fancy house. Saffron chose that moment to insert herself, opening with a scoff, followed by, she already has that and you know it, Goof. Elle, in this case I think Tabitha is right.

Also, should you lose your fancy house, you simply have to outplay whoever won it from you to get it back. Tallulah went silent long enough that I thought she'd lost the thread until she asked, Goddess? Imperator? May I join you aboard the Black Dragon? If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. For what purpose, Elle?

I could tell her next words took a lot out of her to say, but I was so proud of her when she said, I need to speak with experts in the are of Articles of Agreement, ones who have no real stake in Rich Man's Port. So yeah, I got a little surprised at the pirate Captains setting in to do clerical work yesterday, and annoyed both that I had to help and that I wound up really good at it, but I couldn't exactly complain about some folks who answered to nobody but their crews just seeing work to be done and doing it.

We got most of the copies after lunch, and I hopped back about halfway to sunset to find Vincent waiting with the rest. He definitely looked a little, I dunno, thirsty when I took them from him.

"There you go, Goddess. The remainder of the six hundred copies." I glanced at his hands, noting the new ink stains. Then looked him right in the eye and said, "really too bad I'm sorta busy. Might be fun getting ink stains off my tits." He choked a little, then maybe dry washed his hands.

"I... Uh..." I laughed.

"Hey, I'm mostly just playing. But come by the Temple on Friday night." At that point I got a sudden inspiration, because I figured he wasn't the only one who'd worked on these. The ones I'd reviewed hadn't all been in the same handwriting, after all. Karen? Yes, Goddess? Out loud I said, "tell the Scribes who worked on this to swing by too." At his boggled stare, I laughed and said, "lots of folks who appreciate all your hard work. The Temple professionals probably will."

As I leaned over and gave the adorkable nerd a quick kiss on the cheek before stepping back to the Black Dragon, Karen thought, as you say, Goddess. She kinda sighed as she thought it. Hey, first one's always free, right? I hadn't been thinking that when I made the offer, but I'd heard that so many times from dudes in Camden that it just sort of came naturally. Not unlike all those dudes, thinking that they were the only dealer I knew. That's... Devious, Goddess. Just don't abuse it.

Try not to let any of them ruin themselves that way, either, k? I got the impression of her literally bowing her head to me. As you have said it, may it be so. Got home in time for dinner. Tonight's was a really wild take on chicken parm. Okay, maybe; I'm not sure if it was parmesan, mozzarella, provolone, or some other cheese.

Definitely some of it with a mild flavor and some serious stretchy pull, and another with that kind of savor that parmesan had, but Marie had even managed an awesome marinara sauce to go with the chicken, which had almost as much crunchy outer layer as my birthday tenders. Weird getting that with some kind of dumplings and a vegetable medley rather than antipasto, but not bad.

Good weird, really, which is the kind where it gently teases you out of your comfort zone and you don't realize how far you've gone until you're spouting word salad with somebody elbow or balls deep in a previously unexplored orifice. Of course I'm gonna make sex reference when describing Marie's cooking. Have you met me? Dreamt of my ladies coating each other with beans and shrimp before dunking one another in my Maw.

Wondered a little about how often and how much my dreams were impacted by the events of the day, even things as simple as dinner. Tallulah spent the night at our place. Which, to be clear, she did most of the time, but today instead of stepping down to Rich Man's Port to hold court or do Naval Academy things, she stood in front of Saffron and I, dithering over her outfit.

Specifically, she kept switching back and forth between Glowing Midnight, the Yandere Shobitch Wedding Gown, her Overlord outfit, and what must have been her Naval Academy uniform, which was similar to the other Academy uniforms, except for the deep blue tricorne hat where the others generally had helmets.

"I find myself uncertain as to what to wear." Saffron nodded like that was a perfectly reasonable thing for Tallulah to stress over.

"While I am fully willing to allow you your Holy Garb, as would Karen, and as Imperator I would equally accept you in your uniform as head of the Naval Academy, I would ask you to remember why you asked to come along." Tallulah sighed and nodded.

"To ask them for assistance with legal documentation. But..." She slumped, something that did not come naturally to my long tall Sidhe lady.

"Rich Man's Port and the pirates of the Thames have a long history of bad blood." She straightened a little, then shrugged, still worried.

"Should I show in the Overlord's regalia, I worry they will see me only as an old enemy." I thought about that for a second, but stifled my initial impulse until Saffron quietly thought at me, go on, love. She will accept it better from you, I think.

"So maybe wear that, but, y'know, bury the hatchet. Swallow your pride a little? Enough to let them know you're willing to be the bigger person and maybe make some concessions to get the peace ball rolling?" She tilted her head, but straightened up otherwise.

"What kinds of concessions?"

"I dunno. Apologize? For shit your people have done to them, for shit your predecessors did. Especially anything that you personally did or ordered."

"It has been some time since I took a crew out and ran across pirates from the Thames. But..." She nodded.

"I see the wisdom in your words." She straightened up completely.

"If you're certain your negotiations will not be disrupted by my presence as the Overlord of Rich Man's Port?" Saffron shook her head, but said, "Should they not be able to make some kind of accommodation, I'm not sure our plan would ever truly work; you are after all likely to be our next flag officer after Swanson and Pesce." Funny, I kinda figured Tallulah would feel that kind of announcement. Then again, maybe she figured it was just her due or something. Not like I had any kind of problem with it.

So we all got breakfast, which had a strong waffle component for both Tallulah and I, then stepped over to the Black Dragon. The Captains rose as we entered the conference room, where they and Swanson had been waiting. Then Tallulah followed us in. Anne's mouth dropped open. John tensed up like he thought he was about to get into a losing fight. Redbeard straight up reached for his weapons, barking out, "you!"

All three of them froze when my long tall Sidhe Lady, without the slightest loss of her aura of dignity, went to one knee and bowed her head.

"Captains of the Thames, I see you. I, Overlord Tallulah Crow of House Crow, wish to tender formal apologies for any untoward harm worked by myself or my people upon you and yours." That straight up shocked Anne to the point where she dropped back into her chair. John's hands dropped to his sides, slack. Red, on the other hand, tensed up, his blades slipping the slightest bit out of their sheathes.

"How can we trust this spawn of the Fae Queen?" Yeah, that got Tallulah's head to snap up, even if she kept one knee on the floor and her hand on her opposite knee.

"I would hesitate to make this a contest of bloodlines, Redbeard." He stepped backwards half a step, pushing his chair away. Anne was still kinda sitting there gobsmacked, and John backed away from the incipient conflict, hands spread open.

"Dafuq that supposed to mean, T?" Without breaking eye contact, she half turned her head to face me.

"Didn't he tell you his father's name?"

"That has nothing do do with this!" One of his daggers slipped the tiniest bit further out of its sheathe, and I decided this had gone far enough towards the violent type of diplomatic incident. I grabbed his wrists, his waist, and his ankles.

"Okay, look Red, I'm not gonna hurt you, but I'm not gonna let you hurt my Concubine, either." He got a bit of a 'WTF' look at that, like he'd forgotten my relationship to Tallulah.

"T? What's' that about his dad?" She just smiled at him.

"His father? Leonidas."

"Uh..."

"The very same." I hadn't shut Red's mouth, but then I didn't want him to shut up, just wanted him to keep from throwing hands. Or blades.

"Leonidas killed my father! And I sank his fleet!" I blinked.

"Uh, echoes of Lucas here aside, I ask again, Dafuq?"

"If I may?" John asked. I nodded to him, and if Red looked even more pissed, he didn't interrupt when John said, "Hayreddin here is in fact the son of Leonidas, King of Sparta, but not the current King Leonidas." At my obviously confused look, he shrugged and said, "it's' a very popular reign name. The current King is neither Hayreddin's father nor the King who deposed and replaced him.

He is in fact the one who killed and deposed his father's killer, specifically after that Leonidas lost the support of his City when Hayreddin engaged and sank the Spartan fleet." I stepped between Tallulah and Red, then let him go.

"Okay. Sinking a Spartan fleet is definitely something I can get behind. Those guys are assholes. Not to make things worse, but were you close to your dad?" He spat on the floor.

"Yeah, I'm guessing no?"

"You guess correctly. But she... She is still The Morrigan's great-daughter!"

"T?"

"I foreswore her when she killed my youngest daughter, and took Tabitha as my Patron Goddess when she Revived my Ria, a thing all knew to be impossible." Yeah, Red looked... Confused.

"You... You denied your greatmother?"

"I did. She is, as Tabitha indicated, a bitch. One who cost me one of my children and almost cost me two. I would have slain her, had I had the might, but..." She shuddered as she trailed off, and I could not for the life of me tell if it was from fear or hunger.

"My Goddess, my Mistress, my beloved Tabitha Diaz chose a different path, one far less merciful." Red looked at me like he hadn't really seen me, like he'd forgotten that yeah, I was the mass of tentacles that had engulfed one of the Tentacles while he stood on the deck.

"What did you do?" I held out a hand to him.

"Wanna see?" He reached out a shaking hand, and I half turned to Tallulah.

"Wanna come along?" She nodded, lifting one hand for me to grasp. I pulled them along with me out of the room, straight to the nearest door out on to the deck. A moment later the three of us stood in M-Space, staring at a band of pale pinkish skin wrapped around one of my tentacles, patches of curly red hair making it possible to guess which wrinkles were eyes, nose, and mouth. Red made a sound like he wanted to hurl, but his blades slipped out of their sheathes. Tallulah's Blade slipped from her hand.

Neither of them was looking at the other. I rippled the tentacles under their feet just enough to interrupt any incipient mayhem.

"No blades! No Blades, either!" When they both turned disbelieving stares on me, I shrugged and said, "I don't want any weak spots that'll rip when I pull her down more." The Morrigan's eyes shot open, and a sound like a growl emerged from her mouth. Tallulah's Blade dropped away, and Red sheathed his weapons. They turned to one another, and Tallulah said, "go on. I have time."

He shook his head and, despite him looking thirty something, or maybe a well preserved forty something to her timeless maybe twenty something, said, "no, no, age before beauty, I insist." And he actually did a little courtly bow to her. At which point she nodded, stepped forward, and straight up punched The Morrigan right in the nose. When she looked like she was about to do it again, maybe a lot, I pulled her back with a tentacle around the waist.

"Point made, T. I don't want to torture a prisoner. Unless you really need to get that off your chest?" Meanwhile Red had seen me pull her back and taken his turn. He didn't punch her. He did some fancy Capoeira shit, spinning and flipping and landing his foot between her nose and mouth hard enough that I felt that shit in the tentacle she was wrapped around. I didn't have to pull him away, but he definitely looked like if I hadn't pulled Tallulah off, he'd have done a lot more than that.

"Got that out of your system, you two?"

"Hardly," said Red. Tallulah just sniffed.

"Enough that you can maybe behave civilly back on the Black Dragon?" He looked at where The Morrigan's immortal yet thin skin had already begun to purple up, then back to Tallulah, then stuck out a hand.

"Truce?" She straightened, nodded regally, and took his hand.

"That is a start, yes. Truce."

"A start?" She shrugged.

"You are the reason our Navy has little to fear from Sparta's. I can appreciate that. My Lady Tabitha would like it if we worked together." He chuckled.

"And you seem to be the reason she brought the Bitch Queen low. There have been less auspicious beginnings, or reasons to ally. Truce it is, then." Then he tugged his jacket straight, turned to me, and said, "shall we return to your Black Dragon?"