Chương 1145: Day One Thousand One Hundred And Forty-Three

Dear Diary, Yeah, I'm just discovering all kinds of stuff about myself this Season. Like the fact that I've definitely gone native enough to think of things in terms of 'seasons' rather than Months or Years. Kinda weird, and it took me a little to really internalize it, but while folks fully understand the calendar and the importance thereof for any kind of long range planning of anything more complicated than crops, folks here and now don't really think in terms of Months. They think in terms of Seasons.

Don't get me wrong, life on the Homestead has shown me that despite what my old Environmental Science teacher taught us about urban gardening, farming is not for the soft of brain. No, he never said or implied anything of the sort, but he had us all out on the school grounds digging up the ornamental shrubs that probably died when my mom was attending Eastside, replacing them with fruit trees, sunflowers, corn, and beans. He was pretty into the whole 'community gardening' thing. Sometimes I wonder how he's doing.

I still wonder if people remember me. What they think of when they do. Whether they'd be surprised or proud or feel some kinda way if they could see me now. But yeah, farmers generally need to know more about the turn of the seasons and upcoming weather than they need to know about the specific date. Yeah, the Cities run on calendar time, but the farmsteads don't, and I'm pretty sure everybody here and now is way closer to agrarian than folks were back in the day.

Besides that, though, I guess I'm learning that despite how much I love turning my brain off and letting my sadistic little kitten use me to get us both off, and how good I am at mindless violence, I am equally good at not only mindful violence, but entirely nonviolent uses of my brain meats. Like, okay, I still am not really what I'd call a builder. My inherent inclination is, as indicated by my Domains, tearing shit down. Deconstruction.

But I've begun to realize that natural inclination or not, here and now I might be as smart as I always thought I was back in the day. Yeah, I was an arrogant little shit, but then, I think that's inherent to a certain level of maturity. I'm hoping I can guide my own kids through that with a minimum of pain and agony, but I fully expect that Menace will pull some shit that has half the macho Deities in the world clutching at their crotches as their balls hide behind their kidneys in terror.

Maze will probably be right there beside her, taunting the fuck out of whatever the fuck Menace is Predating. Ria... Okay, Ria is the Voice of Reason in that particular trio. And, since Maze listens to her, it'll probably be Anise and Felicia sidekicking around with Menace when she pulls her stupid arrogant shit. At any rate, I'm apparently one of the leading Mathematical minds in Atlantis here and now.

Since Phileo's Universities are not only doing their best to compete with Athens, Corinth, and even Venice, since Venice seems to the be the Mediterranean City of Lawyers, that means I'm apparently one of the leading Mathematicians in the world. Okay, I'm not sure about here and now Mexico, or India, or China. I know all of those places had Math guys. But I'm vaguely on Saffron's level, and she's clearly hit a point where she's able to do that massive complex Global Spell Shaping.

Yeah, Tallulah Shaped the System Spell, but I think everyone involved knows that Saffron was the brains behind it. Not that Tallulah's stupid, but she's not the one who did the research and came up with the plan. That would be my Kitten, who is, as noted, a Legendary Archmage. Yet another thing she did that Franklin never could. I remember worrying that Saffron would get bored of me, but I guess maybe not.

Status and Reason aside, I might not be the smarter of the two of us, but I can at least be the Doctor Watson to her Sherlock Holmes. Or hell, maybe even the Sherlock to her Mycroft. Although that would get us back to incest, and Vulcan aside I do try to avoid that. I'd ask Conrad to maybe convince Vulcan to stop doing that, except I'm pretty sure he'd help him do it more and tell me nothing can be done. Which means if I ever really, really need him to stop, I know exactly what to do. Sic Menace on him.

Got home yesterday still reeling a little bit. Probably why I didn't realize my ladies were quiet. Too quiet. I should have realized they were plotting something. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Up in the Bath after dinner Saffron subtly encouraged me to go play Kaiju Mama with the kids. I realized at that point that all four of them were watching me, kinda staring, but didn't really think much of it.

I mostly focused on playing with the kids, because some things are important. Did not dream at all last night. Dreaming requires sleep. My ladies did not let me do that, and my Endurance is now high enough that they cannot knock me out that way. They can leave me utterly incapable of doing anything but spewing word salad any time my mouth was free, but they can't knock me out. I'm really not sure whether that was their goal, or they were doing some kind of Kitten engineered stress testing of my pleasure centers.

Okay, I wasn't sure until morning, when said Kitten silenced me with a kiss that lasted until the aftershocks faded away, then pulled me close, her lips next to my ear.

"Do you know why?"

"Nuh uh." Yeah, I wasn't really at my intellectual peak at that moment.

"A reward for your intellectual accomplishment, my Hero. That you might be encouraged to do more of those." I snickered.

"Yeah, okay, what's the next thing that's stumped you?" She rubbed me back and forth across her front, short circuiting my brain as she chuckled and said, "I'll be sure to let you know." That got me to snort, but oddly enough straightened my brain out enough to ask, "hey, you think you could teach me Mor-Mimic Calculations?" She just blinked at me.

"You mean you figured that out without knowing them?" I shrugged.

"I mean, i was recreating something I sorta remembered from back in the day. I never actually passed Calculus," at Tallulah's questioning look, I explained, "back in the day term for that branch of Mathematics. At any rate, I never learned enough of it to reliably recreate it. I don't think. I mean, maybe I could? My Domain would probably help, I think?"

"Oh, absolutely. I developed it independently myself, but I leaned hard on the Domain of my Goddess to do so."

"Heh. I'd better learn it from you and credit you then. Don't need to be your Leibniz and having you sticking daggers in me and shit." Kitten just Grinned at me.

"Oh, I fully intend to stick things in you no matter what."

"Eep."

"I need to practice my acupuncture, after all." I shook my head in pretend disappointment.

"Oh, is that all?"

"You don't enjoy it?" I shrugged.

"I mean, it is really nice on my scars and all the aches, but, y'know..."

"I'll also have to do so to get you pregnant." Y'know, every time she talks about that, it lights shit up in my brain and my belly. I looked her straight in the eye and, trying not to radiate too much eager puppy energy, said, "now?" She laughed.

"Down, girl. We've yet to free your family." I raised an eyebrow.

"So," I pulled her hand around to rest against my belly.

"Dad goes free, you put a baby in here?" She shook her head.

"So eager."

"Uh huh!" She kissed my forehead.

"We'll need to make sure there are no loose ends, and that everything is ready for both of us to take an extended leave of absence. Just in case pregnancy takes us as it did Siobhan." Darling groaned out, "don't remind me."

"Wait, both of us?" Saffron nodded.

"You don't think I'll be waiting any longer than you are, do you?" That rendered me just a little nonverbal. While I tried to make with the words, Tallulah asked, "will I also be sharing your maternity leave carrying Tabitha's child?" My Kitten arched an eyebrow.

"What if I want to get you pregnant, Elle?" My long tall Sidhe lady blew air out her nose.

"No. Well, not before Tabitha. Life is uncertain, and I would like to make sure I have my Heir in place first." Saffron sucked her teeth.

"I thought you said I'm too short."

"You are. Which is why Tabitha will get me with child first." Saffron went tense.

"Elle?"

"Yes, Saffron?"

"I think at some point I am going to fuck you to death. Just for calling me short." Tallulah absolutely won deadpan response of the year when she replied.

"Oh, no. Not that." Then she paused.

"Well, I'd prefer you do it before Tabitha gets me with child. I'm quite uncertain how that would impact a pregnancy." Saffron's laughter was absolutely an auditory assault of the sexy kind as she crawled over, straddled Tallulah, and kissed her.

"So practical. So pragmatic. So hot." At which point Tallulah nodded and said, "so we'd best get going so we can get the Contracts signed today." Yeah, we skipped breakfast instead.

Today was a fun combination of teaching basic Math to the kids, learning the basics of Mor-Mimic Calculations from Saffron, cooking up some pies both savory and sweet for dinner, watching over the Grand Council Chamber, the Overlord's Court, and the Ladies' Infirmary, and hopping the Captains around to their ships to have their crews sign off on the Contracts.

'Ratify' was the technical term they used, although apparently with Red and John it was more of not failing a confidence vote or something like that. But by late afternoon we had them all ratified, and the Captains back aboard the Black Dragon for a formal signing of really fancy copies the print shop on the Black Dragon had run off, not to mention a nice celebratory dinner with drinks. We were just sitting down to that when one of Swanson's runners came into the room, walked over to him, and murmured into his ear.

He sighed, and my shoulders slumped.

"What is it?" Shaking his head, he confirmed my suspicions.

"The lookouts report there's a small fleet of ships coming up from the east. The hulls look English""Any chance they're friendly?"

"They look to be trying to sneak up on us; if we weren't so tall, they'd be coming into sight at dusk."

"Fuck." It took me kinda by surprise when Red stood up.

"Well. Time to go to work, I guess."