Chương 116: Day One Hundred Fifteen?

Dear Diary, Life is just not fair. If I stumble into my room and pass out for twenty-four hours, I ought to have some good stories to go with it. A fight. A feast. Some booze. Shit, Just Happening to somebody for the previous twenty-four. Something. So the last thing I remember? Collapsing into bed. Nothing I could call a proper 'dream' last night, either. A few really vague images. Darkness. Crowds of people screaming, some in fear, others in angry defiance of fear.

The only thing I really remember, the only one that hit me on an emotional level? A single brief scene of Marshall duBois and Hero Castro standing back to back, surrounded by a crowd of sword wielding guys in fancy orange and blue outfits, with guys in plain orange outfits with blue crosses across them backing them up with long spears. That kinda pissed me off a little. Maybe a lot. The scene went black except for Castro and duBois, who just spun in place, back to back.

I woke buried in a pile of aggressively purring bodies.

"Hey guys," I wriggled my arms, because I said buried and I meant buried. Isnomi lay atop my chest, curled up like a kitten. Saffron curled around my left side, her arms pressing the side of my head to her breasts, her head against the top of my own. Every remaining part of me except my mouth? Covered in Marie.

"Guys? Not that I mind, but what's with the cuddle-fest?" Isnomi rolled to all fours, stretched like a cat, then crawled up to put her hands on my cheeks.

"Mama!" She batted at Saffron's arm.

"Ma! Ma! Ma! MA!" Saffron stirred, and Isnomi announced, "Mama ba!" Saffron pulled away just far enough to see me, her eyes all red and puffy. Before I could ask, she clamped me into a desperate lip lock, like she needed to lick my tonsils clean or something. Not that I object, mind you, but between the puffy eyes and desperation I had a vague thought I might be missing something important, like a limb. I wiggled everything, and everything responded.

I would have put my arms around Saffron to hold her, but she had my left pinned to my side, and Marie did the same on my right. Right about then Marie entered into our little necking session by licking me from the base of my neck to just above my ear, over and over. When Saffron finally came up for air, she pulled back just far enough to stare deep into my eyes.

"Tabitha?"

"That's me. Did something happen? Did that son of a bitch do something? Are you okay?"

"Am I okay? Am I okay?" She pulled back, spluttering, then punched me square in the shoulder before turning around, arms folded, in a huff. In her absence, Marie moved over me and kissed me just as thoroughly as Saffron had. Weird experience. Her tongue was absolutely as scratchy as you'd think, and it's just plain bigger than you'd expect, even from someone of her size, and her size... I've never had somebody kiss me and make me feel more petite than Saffron before. That's an item off my bucket list now.

Again with the weird, she tasted like fish. Not, like, cooked fish, but like raw fish smells. Again, not rotten fish, but fresh fish. Really weird. Not sure how I felt about it. Saffron had no such indecision. When Marie pulled away from me, finally freeing my arms so I could sit up, Saffron glowered at her.

"That is entirely inappropriate and excessively intimate behavior for a Concubine, Marie." When Marie cast her eyes down, before I could intervene, a tiny smile crossed Saffron's lips and she continued, "if anyone objects, gut them." She leaned in and gave a startled Marie a quick kiss on the lips, then turned back to me with a deep, relieved sigh.

"I'm fine. As far as I know, all three of us are fine. Marie?" Marie nodded.

"Fine." I looked down at Isnomi, who'd clung to my belly like a limpet through all of the assorted tongue twisting going on in my mouth region. She looked up from attempted nomming of the lactose free tits.

"Ah fa." At my raised eyebrow, she just shrugged and pointed at my eye. I extruded an Assess Health at her. A whole faceful of gibberish popped up in front of me, the only semi-coherent thing being 'Isnomi Aetos-Diaz: Health? Health!'

"What the fuck?" Saffron looked from Isnomi to me, a 'what the fuck, Diaz' look on her face, which dropped off immediately in favor of looking a little sheepish.

"Oh, that's me. I've been tinkering with a version of Assess Health that accounts for our daughter's Divine nature. It's not going as quickly as I'd hoped." I snorted, "You don't say? Don't you think someone might notice?" She shrugged, "If I got the localization wrong, they would have, but no one's said anything. I could temporarily disable it and restore the normal version, but then the feedback circuit breaker wouldn't be in place, and with you asleep I wasn't sanguine about that."

"Okay. You appear to be speaking about Mana Shaping of some kind. Other than that you totally lost me." She poked me in the ribs.

"You're smarter than that."

"Eh. I'm not quite utterly clueless, but I'm not exactly a Mana geek. Why did you need a circuit breaker?"

"Oh. Siobhan knocked herself out trying to use a regular Assess Health on you yesterday. I still have no idea what she saw. I'm not sure I want to know, but I'm certain we'll need to deal with whatever she saw sooner rather than later." I shook my head a little, curling an arm around her and pulling her to me, doing the same with Marie on the other side. I thought of something, glanced to Marie, and asked, "do you have to get ready for work?" She gave me a really weird look, sighed a little, and said, "Night."

"It's not morning yet?"

"It's Wednesday night, just after sunset, or thereabouts. You... Slept? You collapsed at the close of Monday and slept the clock round." My asshole puckered up at that, lemme tell you.

"Why the scare quotes around slept?"

"You weren't breathing. I couldn't feel your pulse. The only reason I knew you lived was the heat radiating off of you. Even that..." She shuddered, then looked pensive, then broke down laughing, just shy of hysteria. I shook her gently.

"Saff?" Her laughter cut off with a growl.

"You will enjoy paying for that when the little one sleeps. Sorry, love. I just realized that I was thinking of the heat coming off of you as 'unnatural'. As if anything about you has ever been natural in the slightest."

"I dunno, you were just suggesting some really natural activities there a second ago."

"That was demanding, not suggesting, sweet heart. And if we've done nothing unnatural yet, my imagination must be failing me." That got me, I chuckled and pulled her in for another kiss. Isnomi complained midway through, nipping at my nip painfully. I scooped my hand under her butt and pulled her up between Saffron and I.

"Oi! Mini-bitch! That hurts!" The menace let out an absolutely spot on Muttley snicker, then burrowed her face into my hair. Saffron stared at the back of her head for a second, then shook her head.

"Useless. My version says she's healthy, but everything beyond that is an absolute loss. The normal version is using some skewed amalgam baseline that makes no sense." She let out a tiny sigh accompanied by a tiny headshake.

"I suppose I'll just..." She went silent, staring at the back of Isnomi's head until her gaze swiveled over to meet mine.

"I cannot absolve you of this, but I will not accuse you of it either."

"Huh?" Soul of eloquence, thy name is Tabitha Diaz.

"Inspect our daughter." I yoinked the Menace out of my hair, extruded an Inspect, and just stared for a little bit. NAME Isnomi Aetos RACE Hybrid HYBRID Bag (18. 275%) / Human (35%) / Jotnar (1%) / Maenad (7%) / Mor (32%) / Olympian (6. 725%) AGE Child ATTRIBUTES STRENGTH 0 AGILITY 0 ENDURANCE 2 REASON 4 MEMORY 3 PERSONALITY 4 AFFINITIES Air (6. 25%) / Earth (19. 75%) / Water (35. 125%) PATRON Undeclared SKILLS None RACIAL SKILLS None BALANCE 1 (- _ -) BLEND 1(-▼ω▼-) SCENT 1(-^ܠ^-) PREDATE 1(-X o X-) This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

"What the fuck? How the fuck? Menace? What have you been doing?" She just repeated her Muttley snicker, then let out a smug, "dahda!" A sudden horrifying thought hit me.

"Marie, have you been nursing Isnomi?" She gave me a confused look.

"Yes?"

"Why?" She got a look of utter confusion, with maybe a little underlying hurt.

"Maenad?" Saffron facepalmed.

"You're fine, Marie." She turned to me.

"The Maenads are, among many other things, Dionysus' nursemaids."

"Uh... didn't he create them?"

"Yes, yes he did."

"Precocious tyke, was he?" That got a laugh out of her.

"His relationship with them is complicated. They were created by him, they are his daughters. They accompany him, they are his sisters. They protect and nurture him, especially when he returns from the underworld as a child, they are his mothers. They..."

"They what?" She got a little pink, "they lay with him as women, they are his lovers." I shuddered, totally getting her shudder.

"Guh. Incest much?" Then I turned to Marie, my face heating.

"Shit, I didn't mean... Wait, does he, like, force you guys?" She just shrugged.

"Maybe?"

"It's more complex than that, love. They are individuals, they are people, but they are also his Sacred Beasts. In proximity to him, they embody his Portfolio. Revel. Gluttony. Lust. Madness. They," she turned to Marie, "am I explaining this correctly?"

"Yes." She nodded and turned to me.

"So, you recall a few nights ago we spent the entire day in anticipation, then lost track of time and had to wait for the next evening?"

"Yeah, not likely to forget that any time soon. Isnomi? Go to sleep." I got the raspberry I deserved for that, and Saffron giggled a little before saying, "around him, they feel like that all the time. Right, Marie?" She shrugged, and I gave her a little disbelieving side eye.

"You seemed pretty okay with not taking him on the spot right there on South Street. What up with that?" She rolled over, scooping Isnomi off of me, depositing her on Saffron, and lay there with her chin on my belly, staring at me from between my own tits. She growl-purred, and I had a moment of desperately needing Isnomi to get the fuck to sleep right the fuck then. A moment later, Marie's clue managed to drill itself through my skull.

"Oh. Isn't Dionysus, y'know, jealous about that?" Marie shrugged. Saffron translated.

"If either of us were men, there's a slim chance he might be. More likely, he'd expect us to eventually, naturally, in our own time, return with her to him." I shuddered.

"Yeah, I'm not eager to wind up splattered across the landscape, no matter how good the nookie." Marie snorted, almost a laugh.

"That good?" Purr.

"Really?" Purring intensified.

"You want that to happen to me? To us?" She shrugged, and I turned to Saffron with a bit of despair, only to be met by another shrug.

"Those who kept a Maenad from him by her own choice are reborn as Maenads. Those who kept her from him by force aren't. Not my personal preference, but you've been pathologically insistent on Marie doing everything by her own choice, so we'd both be certain as to our fate, should that happen to us." She shrugged again.

"Reborn as an immortal fucking killing machine is far from the worst fate visited on mortals by the Gods."

"I don't recall Dionysus being quite so picky about Consent?"

"One of his earliest Maenads was quite adamant about it. Also quite passionately convincing. The stories tell of her exhausting him. Repeatedly. Until he agreed." I looked down at Marie, unwanted comprehension dawning.

"Holy shit. You guys are a fucking sex cult. A murderfuck coven. A literal sisterhood of fucking killing." She grinned up at me, and I ruined the sheets as she growl-purred again.

"Duh." I threw my hands above my head, flopping back to the bed as I did so.

"Well. Fuck. Not like I've got any moral high ground to be giving him any side eye." Saffron tumbled Isnomi to the bed near my arms as she collapsed, laughing at me. It went on a little long, the way it will when somebody's been under too much tension for too long, so I just let it flow until Isnomi started nomming my hair.

"Shit, what do we do about our little miscreant here?" Saffron shook her head.

"Until I can complete my improved Assess Health, there is absolutely no way it will be able to deal with that tangle of," she waved her hand at Isnomi, who'd gone fuzzy and rolled herself up in my hair, still alternating between giggles and snickers.

"Anything I can help with? Maybe we could ask Doc Roberts?" She sighed.

"Who do you think I asked first, love? At this point, I'd ask The Dagda, or Ogma, but I suspect either might object to my newly found religion." I froze, memory of my recent acquisition of ersatz offspring swamping me for a moment.

"Uh..." She snorted, then chuckled, then broke down laughing, all while I stared at her and waited for her to let it out.

"Who. Who did. Who." Eventually she gave up and just blurted out, "just happened?" I shuddered, involuntarily curling around my crotch.

"Nope. NOPE. All of the nope. Hell to the naw. Begone from my vagina, centipede of evil!" Saffron, still chuckling, pulled me up to a more-or less sitting position, her arms around me as we both sat on the edge of the bed. The Menace squealed as she clung to my hair, and Marie just curled herself up behind us.

"So, does this have anything to do with your bout of pretending to be a piece of immobile landscape?"

"Honestly? I have no fucking clue. My gut says no, but then I'm not sure I trust it."

"Why not?"

"I'm not really hungry at the moment." She pulled back.

"Who are you and what have you done with Tabitha?"

"You say that like I've ever been in possession of a clue for measurable increments of time."

"Fair point. I'd say we're wasting daylight, but it's night time. In your own time, then." I said, "yeah, night time doesn't seem like such a..." I trailed off as I remembered the end of the night. Gently disconnecting myself from my little family, even forcing a pouting Isnomi to return to Saffron's arms, I crept over to the armoire and opened it. There, behind the clothes, I found the faintest outline of a door; even the suggestion of a small depression right where a handle might be.

I closed the door and returned to the bed.

"Shit. No time like the present. Not even gonna ask about good news, bad news. Our little family got a little bigger." Saffron heaved a sigh.

"Who did you just happen to that the thought of just happening to scares you to... This wasn't an indiscretion of that sort, was it?"

"Nope. We... Ah... Have a new son." She blinked owlishly.

"How did you give birth without any indiscretions? Wait, what am I doing asking. Did this child erupt from your forehead? Thighs? Breasts?"

"Adopted. Jeez, you'd think I do nothing but fuck around." She almost didn't laugh as she said, "I can't believe you can say that with your own mouth and not burst out laughing." That got me. I laughed with just as much near hysteria as Saffron had earlier. She waited as patiently as I did until she said, "who." I took a deep breath, braced myself. Nope.

"You're gonna be pissed." Suddenly serious, she said, "I ask you once again, Tabitha Diaz, did you do this with the intent to hurt me?" I shook my head, "hell no. Really? I agreed mostly because he agreed not to hurt you if I did."

"Someone threatened me to get you to adopt... Him?" I thought about it, holding up a hand asking for patience, "Uh, I don't think he did specifically. Honestly? I don't think he'd really thought about you before I mentioned you. But he would have. Fuck, he probably did, but then made me think he hadn't. By, like, normal verbal chicanery, no Divine woo involved." She sat up a little straighter.

"Divine... Tabitha Diaz, if you do not stop delaying and tell me now, I will get mad at you regardless. Out with it."

"The Smith." Isnomi clinging to her like a little monkey and squealing the whole way, Saffron froze, tipped over, and rolled off the edge of the bed onto the floor.

"Oh, shit. I think I broke her."

"Duh." I shot Marie a look, walked over to Saffron and scooped her up. She wrapped herself around me, burying her face in my hair, Isnomi clambering onto my shoulders as I carried Saffron to the bed and sat, holding her across my lap. Eventually she whispered into my hair.

"Why did you look in the closet?" I opened my mouth to reply, but Isnomi interrupted.

"Tikibada!"

"You know who's beyond the," I paused, "no, of course you do. Somehow. Look, you precocious Menace, your new brother has sworn to protect you, but he is dangerous."

"Tikibada na poo."

"Tikki badda?" I asked.

"Poo." I couldn't help it. More laughter bubbled.

"Holy shit, Menace. I can't see how you've learned to walk with balls bigger than you are, including those huge balls." That Muttley snicker finally hit the right way, and I laughed along with her. Saffron pulled away from me.

"If you two are quite done mocking me and laughing at me..." I cut her off.

"No, no, no! Not you. Him." Her mouth dropped open, and she turned to look at at Isnomi. Who grinned up at her, then let out a belch that echoed off the ceiling.

"Ah, shit. Did you eat him?"

"Na ah."

"Why don't I believe you?" I stood up, walked over to the armoire with Saffron in my arms, Isnomi clinging to my hair, and Marie padding along behind. I pulled open the front, then nudged Marie to point her at the depression. She reached over and slid the door in the back of the armoire aside. Saffron tensed, but didn't react other than that.

"Son?" I called out.

"Yes Mother?" he called from somewhere in the workshop beyond the door.

"Just checking to be sure you're okay." He stood just beyond the clothes, eyes wide.

"You do care." A moment later, his normal demeanor returned, although his too-wide smile never quite left.

"I am well, Mother. Few have bested me in my own Workshop." I smiled at him, pulling out my best Nurturing Mom voice.

"Son, you should be proud of being able to defend yourself. And your family. I think you meant 'none', didn't you?" He smiled back, looking me in the eye as he mouthed the word, 'one', but nothing came out. He glanced just away from my face, a childish pout replacing his smile.

"Two." Fuck me, but the same kind of deep, abiding rage that kindled when I thought of somebody hurting Isnomi lit itself in my gut.

"Who hurt you." His smile returned, eyes wide again, before the pout returned.

"Nothing has been harmed save my pride and my gift to you. She spoilt it."

"Who." His gaze flickered to my hair again, and that Muttley snicker sounded next to my ear.

"Menace, have you been bullying your brother?" She blew a raspberry in my ear.

"Menace, I'm serious. Don't bully your brother. Brothers and Sisters look out for each other." A sudden bout of honesty seized me.

"Bickering we can tolerate if you keep it to a dull roar. But no bullying." She wiggled.

"Ah ka. Sawa Tikibada." He closed his eyes and sighed, then forced words out.

"Apology accepted, Sister Menace." I closed my own eyes.

"Why are you... Never mind. Your mother needs to speak with you." He went to one knee, reaching one hand through the armoire. Saffron slipped from my arms and, moving like an automaton, took his hand.

"Other Mother, it is an honor to finally meet Mother's beloved wife. How may I assist you?"

"The honor is mine, son." That last word sounded pretty fuckin' forced, but she got it out.

"I'm uncertain; Tabitha is the one who thought you could help me?" I nodded to The Smith, turning up the Proud Mom, "if there's something to be known about Magic, our son knows it." A detail of the day before sprang to my mind.

"I even saw him create a moving Ward." Automaton Saffron disappeared, her tension transmuting instantly to the curiosity I'd seen when I described the crossbow to her.

"Really, son? If you're not busy, there are some questions I'd love to hear you answer."

"Of course, Other Mother!" He stepped aside, keeping one hand out to brace her as she stepped through the doorway. She hesitated, "I do not wish to offend by coming skyclad to your Workshop, Son." He nodded, the soul of understanding. Pretty fuckin' good acting, if you ask me.

"Of course, Other Mother." He glanced across the clothes hanging from our rack, disdain clear.

"None of these shall do for you, though. I should take no offense at your nudity should you simply allow me to create clothing worthy of you."

"I would be honored, and 'Mom' is fine."

"Mom." He swirled the word around his mouth, as if tasting it, then nodded with only the slightest of frowns, as if accepting something that barely passed his minimum standard.

"Mom it shall be." I remembered last week and cut in before Saffron stepped through, "Oh, Son, I had a favor to ask?" He bowed his head.

"Anything for you, Mother."

"I told Sigyn I would get you to make her a pair of boots. Ones like the ones you made for The Dress are fine." He winced.

"If I must. She has offered you victory in return?" I shook my head.

"She's family, Son. You do for family. You don't charge them."

"Oh. One small request of you, then?" I pulled back slightly, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes?"

"I shall make her boots, but might I make them not a copy of those I made for you?"

"Why?" He smirked at me.

"It pains my very Soul to copy something, save as an experiment or to learn something from it." I paused, thinking about it. Hell, it didn't seem like all that wild of a request. I know I'd hate being some kind of mystic short order boot cook.

"Okay, but I did sorta promise her something sexier than mine."

"Really, Mother?"

"Have you seen that ass? You can't tell me it's not sexier than mine. I've got this serious terminal case of flat ass, but her? That ass was made for those boots." If he winced, he hid most of it pretty well, although by the end of my ode to Sigyn's ass he got a faraway look in his eyes.

"I shall endeavor to earn your praise with my creation, Mother. When shall I have them ready?"

"Can you do them right by end of day Sunday?" He paused an instant, then nodded.

"I shall be sure to tell you if anything might delay me." Then he turned back to Saffron.

"Mom, may we proceed?" She nodded, and they walked into the Workshop. I left the door open, watching for a bit as he led her over to the dais I'd posed on the other day, then started taking measurements. I pulled Isnomi off my shoulder and held her out in front of me as I walked back to the bed.

"You managed to get into the Workshop while I was asleep?" She grinned a big old grin, so proud of herself she couldn't contain it.

"Ya!" I snuggled her.

"That's my girl!"

"Ahnama Bi Ga!"

"Such a very Big Girl! Yes you are!" I held her inches away from my face and turned around.

"Ready to fly?" Her eyes got huge and she nodded.

"Marie! Heads up!" I tossed the menace to Marie where she'd been leaning against the door of the armoire, staring into the Workshop. She spun and caught Isnomi, juggled the joyously shrieking menace a bit, then yeeted her back to me. We spent, I dunno, a couple hours just fucking around playing toddler games. Yeet the baby. Pounce.

Hide and seek, which shouldn't really be a thing in a cell the size of ours, but Marie is stupid stealthy, and the menace is, apparently, capable of playing full-on Predator invisibility cloaking tricks and shit. We even got into a pillow fight at one point. Okay, not so much 'pillow fight' as 'Tabitha and Marie use pillows to Yeet the baby while Isnomi shrieks with joy and wallops us with pillows as she flies by'.

We did that for I don't know how long, until I heard Saffron call out from the Workshop side of the doorway, "thank you so much for sharing your expertise with me, Son. Would you prefer I leave this open?" From deeper within the Workshop The Smith called out, "I've no preference either way, but I've some noisy tasks to complete, so...?"

"I'll close it then." I heard the door slide shut, and Saffron stepped back into the room as I bonked a gleefully shrieking Isnomi back to Marie. I assume Marie caught her, or she ate her way through the wall, or something. No 'Isnomi pain noises' registered, at least, and damn if anything else would have. Saffron's black, full length dress shimmered, every color of the rainbow glimmering from it while it somehow, defying everything I knew about color, remained a deep, flat black.

The ankle length skirt had slits up to mid-thigh, and I caught glimpses of black leather beneath. Above the waist the fabric lay almost like our uniform blouses, but without any ruffles. The sleeves poofed just a bit at the shoulder, and as I watched she pulled off one of the long, black, above-the-elbow gloves.

"Saffron."

"Yes, Tabitha?" she called out as she pulled off her other glove.

"That's your Holy Garb right there." She smiled and shot me a sultry look over her shoulder.

"Are you sure?"

"Uh huh."

"With or without the gloves?"

"With. Definitely with."

"Oh. Oh, well, then. As my Goddess wishes." She turned, sashayed across the floor, and pulled my face up into a kiss before turning and swaying back to the armoire. I caught a glimpse of positively outrageous stiletto heels with more than a little elevation on the toe as well, and then she turned to face the armoire.

"I'm glad, really. I worried you'd have me wearing this," she pulled the dress off, "outside". I had no clue what she did with it. Didn't fucking matter. Tabitha. exe had encountered a fatal error. Those fucking painted on leather boots went higher than any stockings I'd ever seen, and just above the absolute territory the corsetry started. Matte black leather. Lace. Just enough exposure. A shrieking menace glomped my face and knocked me over backward onto the bed.

Muttley snickers filled the room as I pulled her off, handed her to Marie, and said, "Marie? Could you take her for a couple laps around the halls?"

"Work?"

"You've got work to do? Wait, fuck, you just spent a whole day babysitting my ass, of course you do. Can she come with you?" In that 'use small words to accommodate the slow kid' voice, she answered, "Yes."

"Please?" I had the unenviable experience of a full body blush as Marie and Isnomi snickered in harmony, but Marie used her Maid Witchery to get her and the menace dressed in sixty seconds or less, and Isnomi rolled out of the room on the cart doing a passable 'Nick Cage driving a stolen supercar' impersonation. I turned to Saffron only to see her black clad belly filling my view from inches away.

"So. You wanted something?" I gulped.

"Uh. Yeah. Could you just walk to the armoire and back?" She chuckled, a sultry fuzzy thing, as she sashayed away and back. Curvy. Sway. Fatal exception in Tabitha. exe.

"You like?"

"Yeah," I growled.

"Could you maybe do that until my brain shuts down completely? Then just, I dunno, do whatever comes naturally." She laughed as she walked away again, husky and full of desire.

"How many licks does it take..." the rest of the Tootsie Pop commercial fucked off out of my brain as she turned around, The Grin of Panty Obliteration in full effect and utterly erasing my brain in lieu of any panties to destroy.

"Let's find out."