Chương 156: Day One Hundred and Fifty Five

Dear Diary, You ever hear that bit about 'squeezing a penny so hard Lincoln cries'? Yeah, I'm getting the impression General Lancaster is like that, only with, y'know, everything. Especially troops, which is why I'm really glad he's in charge of the Army. Woke up this morning to find Marie curled around me, and me around Isnomi. Just lay there for a while thinking about last night's dream. Nothing new about it, just kinda weird that the one time I've slept recently where I didn't dream all night?

I didn't wake up rested at all. That seems kinda backwards, but what the hell do I know? So I just lay there, musing, until Marie stirred. Way better than an alarm clock in so many ways. I waited until she started shifting to get out of bed to say, "Marie?"

"Yes?"

"Thanks. For being here." She didn't reply to that, except to snuggle up and purr for a bit. We lay there like that until Isnomi stirred, doing a whole 'stretch and yawn' thing, almost like a cat. Pointy little canines like a cat, too, although her incisors had mostly come in as well. Well, enough to see them through the gums, but not quite enough for her to enunciate everything properly. Before she even opened her eyes she rolled over and rooted around, so I Mimicked Saffron and pulled her to me.

She settled in for breakfast, and after one final hug Marie got up and got ready for her day. When she finished dressing, I handed over a less-than-pleased Isnomi for Marie to dress and got dressed myself.

"Pick her up after breakfast?"

"Yes." I finished dressing, with only minor adjustments by Marie before she handed over Isnomi and headed out with her cart.

"Let's go get some solid breakfast in you why don't we?" She looked upset, which is entirely out of the ordinary for Isnomi confronted with the possibility of food, so I asked, "what's up, Menace?"

"Ah mi Ma." I sighed and snuggled her as I walked.

"I do too, Menace. I do too." We got to breakfast, and she claimed Saffron's seat again. I watched surreptitiously while devastating my own trays of food, just to make sure she hadn't hit hunger-strike levels of depression at missing Saffron. Thankfully she hadn't. I thought about asking Saffron if she could manage a short visit sometime soon. I immediately felt guilty, since the rest of the Grand Army couldn't do anything of the sort, and I'm sure a lot of them had kids who missed them too.

Made me realize how important those phone and video calls home for troops overseas were. Of course, feeling guilty about it wasn't going to stop me from suggesting it. I'd done worse protecting the Menace, and I wasn't about to back down from that any time soon. At the end of breakfast, with Isnomi looking a lot less depressed with a belly full of food, Marie showed up and collected her for a day of carting.

I followed them out into the hall, gave them goodbye hugs and kisses, and stepped over to knock on the Headmaster's door.

"Come." I opened the door and leaned my head in, "Good Morning, Headmaster. Just wanted to check if Lancaster's feeling well enough to join me today?" He nodded, shuffled through some papers, and said, "I'm afraid not, Cadet Diaz. Are you good to cover that entire section of wall by yourself?" I shrugged, "did it yesterday without any problems. Little bit boring, but nothing I can't handle." He smirked at me and said, "You being bored enough to make your own excitement is precisely what worries me."

I laughed at that.

"No, seriously, sir. Worst case I'll chat with my Patron." He nodded, then paused.

"Isn't today your devotional day?"

"Yeppers. I can cover both." He frowned a little, "are you sure? Don't feel like you have to take on more than you're capable of just because your wife left with the Army and you didn't." I shook my head.

"I've got this, sir." He just nodded, decisively.

"Be about it, then."

"Thanks, sir." You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. I closed his door and stepped to Drivers'. When I got to the window, I asked them for something for lunch, and they handed me a wrapped up bundle. I tucked it into an inside pocket of my furry coat and stepped to the wall. I'd gotten a few odd looks when I showed up out of nowhere, and I'm sure just as many when I disappeared, but if the enemy had infiltrated Drivers' clientele?

We were fucked anyway, and our only hope was intimidating them into giving up. Once on the wall I thought, Boss, you there? I am. Any chance you could join me on the wall today? I got the impression of a mental shrug followed by, I can. Do you have a particular reason? The thoughts I'd been pondering before I asked coalesced into a coherent idea at that moment. Yeah, Boss. Lancaster's swordplay lessons have showed me that running on brute force will only work so long. You wish me to teach you swordplay?

I shook my head, not exactly. I want you to teach me how to use Translocation and Co-Location in a fight. Wait, no, not just 'in a fight', but 'as weapons'. Does that make sense? Something thwapped the top of my head.

"It absolutely does." I turned to see Lyman standing there, grinning like the cat that caught the canary.

"Would you believe that you're the first follower I've had who asked me to train them to do things like this?" Another thwap to the back of the head, and I spun to see Lyman standing there, too. I sidestepped and felt as something swished through where I'd just been standing.

"Oh, excellent. You've got a knack for this. Are you sure you want to practice with the coat on?"

"Which would you recommend?" He pondered for a second.

"There's something to be said for training in worse conditions than you intend to fight in, but the coat will inhibit your movements, keep you from learning some moves I consider key to using Translocation and Co-Location optimally while fighting." I nodded, then stepped myself to each end of my section of the wall, then stepped back to him, losing the heavy coat as I did.

"Okay, I've got those two of me keeping watch, is that okay?" He nodded, looking impressed despite himself.

"You can control three of you at once?" I shook my head, "not really? They can do stuff I don't have to think to do. I don't have to think about it to keep my eyes on the tree line and keep looking back and forth."

"So be it. Do you have full range of motion in that jacket?" I hadn't thought about it before, but remembering Marshall duBois' flexibility training, I realized I'd done all of it wearing my uniform jacket. I swung myself through a couple of the flexier moves he'd taught me.

"Yeah, as far as I can tell. Gussets for the win."

"Excellent. Let's begin." I spent the rest of the morning with him showing me how to use my little teleport trick a dozen different ways in a fight. Some of them I'd thought of already, like jumping behind someone, and some were natural extensions of that, like Translocating directly above an opponent and coming down on them feet or knees first. By lunchtime I'd absolutely decided I'd been right to ask, and that fighting someone like Marshall duBois would be an absolute nightmare.

Fighting Loki didn't bear thinking on. I signaled for a break, and hopped to either of my selves that had kept watch, collecting my sandwich from each of them, then stepped back to hand him one.

"How does this work, anyhow?" He nodded and took a bite out of his lunch, his eyes going wide. Copying something that exists with Blend is child's play, really. Creating something that's a copy of something is equally simple, but it requires a fair Mana expenditure. I totally understood not wanting to stop eating the Drivers' food while chatting. Cool; if there's one thing I've got it's plenty of Mana. Not a lot of smart or strong, but plenty of Mana.

He'd frowned a little at my statement, and thought back, Don't sell yourself short, Tabitha. You are neither weak nor stupid, and your potential is greater than you know. I would hardly have gambled all that I am on you if I thought otherwise. I grinned at him as I took another big bite of, I think, meatloaf. So, regretting your bet yet? He returned the grin with interest. Not in the slightest, Tabitha Diaz. Not in the slightest. We sat and ate in companionable silence after that. Saffron tagged me mid-meal.

Hey Goof. How's life on the wall? I carefully avoided shrugging. Same old, same old. Got Lyman teaching me some interesting shit about fucking people up with Translocation and Co-Location. Do tell? Some of them are a little hard to explain. Hell, most of them are. But, like, being able to step behind someone while they can still see you clearly in front of them is about the simplest one. Another is just Translocating elsewhere when somebody has you dead to rights. Her mind-voice went all speculative.

I can see that. Did Loki teach you that thing you did when you stepped across to Metaphoric Space? Who to the what now? Our son's term for the place where places like Underhill, Asgard, Elysium, Hades, Hel, Olympus, and Valhalla exist. Huh. So they're all kinda in the same place? Handy. Indeed. Did Loki teach you how to step to there? No. Just, I dunno, did it. She laughed a little. Marshall duBois claims that's impossible. So once more you have done the impossible because you didn't know it was impossible.

So you, Goof. Yeah, well. Can't wait to teach you some of these moves, what with you being in the very exclusive Translocators club, Kitten. Can't wait to see you again. Can you come visit tonight? Isnomi... we miss you. She sighed. I'm sorry, love. General Lancaster is setting something up. The Grand Army is setting up a battle line, building portable siege engines, and needs every hand here from here on out, I think. I returned her sigh with interest. At least that means this will all be over soon, right?

I hope so. Me too. With that she was gone, and I'd finished eating, so Lyman and I got back to the serious business of training me how to use something that most of the world thought impossible, or at least wildly unlikely. Because I had a sinking suspicion that when I needed it, I would need it bad.