Chương 166: Day One Hundred And Sixty Five

Dear Diary, Happy Yule! Nobody around here celebrates Christmas, at least not that I've seen, but everybody seems to get into the whole 'Yule' thing. It's a little weird how many of the decorations I think of as 'Christmas decorations', y'know, aren't. Yesterday after throwing Saffron under the political bus, things got really boring really fast, so I snagged Marshall duBois, said, "Can I ask you something outside, in private-ish?" Then I thought, call me if you need me; this is getting way too stuffy for my brain.

She smiled at me and replied, okay, Goof, but remember the rules if you Just Happen to him. I made a face. Ew, no, he's way too old. She stifled a laugh and said, but he won't be when he's years older? Exactly! She just shook her head infinitesimally and thought, Such a Goof thing to say. Okay, I'll call you if I need you. Have fun taking Marshall duBois for walkies. By that point the Marshall and I were outside the tent.

Outside I saw the tent had been pitched right next to that huge chunk of rock they'd flung at us. Sort of a reminder about who had been the one to fuck around, just in case someone got pissy about the lot of them finding out. I headed toward the tree line with the Marshall walking next to me.

"What did you want to ask me about?" I'd almost forgotten my excuse for rescuing him from the meeting.

"Eh, I mostly thought you were looking a little overwhelmed, so I decided to rescue you. I did want to ask you about Yule, though." He got a thoughtful look.

"Thanks for the rescue then. I can do politics when I have to, or I wouldn't be Marshall, but I'm not at all fond of it. You're right, we ought to set something up for the troops."

"Like, what kind of something were you thinking?" He shrugged.

"Presents are a bit hard to come by on a battlefield, festive ones, at least. I'm sure we could cut down a tree and set it in front of the command tent. Might not have a whole lot to decorate it with, but it's the spirit of the thing. We've got plenty of supplies, more than I'd really want to carry back, in any case. But some liquor and something that isn't dried into hard tack would improve that a lot. I guess we could commandeer some stuff from the locals.

From what I saw Leonard has been really careful about paying for anything he takes, but that goodwill might have gone away what with you executing so many of them." I shook my head, "that doesn't mean we should stop that." He nodded.

"You're right." He turned to look at me, as we'd just gotten under the pines.

"Can you really Translocate from here to Phileo?" I shrugged, "I can get from here to wherever Loki's cave is, and I'm guessing that's further." He just stared at me for a little bit. His mouth going but nothing coming out.

"Well. That does explain things. Can I get you to do something for me, then?"

"Sure."

"In the bottom drawer of my desk in my office there's a big heavy sack. Can you bring that back here for me?"

"Be right back." I stepped to his office; something twinged like it did not like that, but I slid the Marshall's drawer open, having to really tug at it to make that happen, then pulled the big sack that filled most of the drawer out. It clinked as I shifted it, and I wouldn't have been able to carry it if I hadn't spent the last four months training. I stepped back to the Marshall, and the part of me that had bitched before insisted to speak to the manager, but I ignored it and held out the sack.

The Marshall took it with a low whistle.

"I believed you, but it's something else to see you do that so effortlessly." I stretched a little, rubbed my hands on my jacket sleeves. It was still fuckin cold as a witches tit, although the trees did cut the wind quite a bit.

"Not quite effortlessly. Think I pushed past what I should have yesterday."

"Lass, I can maintain two of me, three if it's for a really short time and one of them doesn't need to do much. I can Translocate a mile at best, and I'll probably need a sit down soon after. You've got a gift for it." I shrugged.

"Maybe my Patron is helping me out?" Only by showing you how to do it right, Tabitha Diaz. Really? Really.

"Could be. Still hard to fathom anything short of Loki himself hopping from here to Europa and back." We came across a tree whose branches started maybe six feet up, but above that it had an almost perfect Christmas tree shape. The Marshall ducked a little, walked over to it, and thumped it. Snow cascaded down around him, and he shook himself to clear off the stuff that had landed on him.

"This is where we both say 'oops, we forgot to bring an axe'." I grinned at him, waved him aside, popped out a Mana Blade and sliced a wedge out of the far side of the tree from us, right down near the base. It popped and crackled as I did, the sap boiling away where the Mana Blade touched it. A good swift side kick as high as I could reach, and it slowly toppled over in the direction of the cut I'd made.

"There you go. One tree, felled and ready to come back to camp."

"Nice. I figure we can use the bottom few feet as a Yule log, too. Did you bring something to carry it with?" I rolled my eyes at him, he laughed, crouched down, and lifted the end of the log.

"Well, c'mon, let's get this back to camp." He did that with his big money bag hung over the very end of the tree, too. I'd call him a showoff, but I'd just cut down a fully grown pine tree in like ten seconds, without a chainsaw. It took us like half an hour of hauling to get it to the tree line, but once we did some soldiers saw us and ran over. By the time we hit the cleared area in front of the command tent, several squads had joined in, and it was almost a parade that eventually arrived.

About half of the soldiers who came to us asked for and received permission to go bring back firewood and trees from the forest. I lopped off the bottom four feet or so of the tree, then helped with digging out a hole to put the base of the tree in.

Anybody coming out of the command tent, like Lancaster did to see what the commotion was, had to take a sharp right or left to avoid walking into it, but there was enough clearance to do just that, so I figured it was a good counterbalance to the whole 'big treachery rock' in terms of imagery for the negotiators to remember. As soon as it was set up, the Marshall nabbed a full unit of Volunteers to head into the city and, at a guess, buy beer and feasting food.

I slipped back into the tent, where things were kind of wrapping up for the day. Saffron looked around the table and said, "if no one has anything urgent to add, I suggest we stop here for the day. We'll reconvene the day after Yule; I'll have everything we've discussed written up by then." Lancaster said, "I second that. Once we see it all written down together, anything that needs to be fixed should stand out more." Ophelia Orange tapped her teeth with a forefinger for a long moment before saying, "I agree.

I still see... imperfections, but I can't think of better solutions. A day of rest would help us all see things more clearly." Mr. and Mrs. Driver, who had both come with Saffron to be at the meeting, both nodded agreement. Mrs. Driver squeaked a bit and said, "we've got to get back to prepare Drivers' for Yule!"

The last member of the council, one George Papadopoulos, who had been the first one to not run when a squad came through asking for someone to speak for Newark, looked a little out of his depth, but asked, "so we meet back here the day after Yule?" Everyone nodded, so he shook hands with the Drivers, then more hesitantly held out a hand to General Lancaster, who shook it solemnly. He looked absolutely terrified holding his hand out to Saffron, but she took it and shook it gently.

He snatched it away after like he thought she might tear it off and eat it. Apparently he hadn't run because he'd more or less been wandering around in shock, as one of the pieces of wall that Saffron kicked out had nearly landed on him. I kinda grokked that feeling, having had one not miss. Finally, he held his hand out to Ophelia, who looked at it like he'd just dropped a turd in his hand and was holding it out for inspection.

Eventually, as everyone else stared at her, she reached out and, with forefinger and thumb, took his fingertips in hers and shook. Weird thing, he looked like that was some kind of big concession on her part. He was the first to leave, followed by Ophelia Orange, who had a unit of Phileo Volunteers to escort her back to her house. They surrounded the chair she'd arrived in, which was carried by two bearers.

It told me a lot that those two guys, who were clearly heavily muscled enough to do some damage on a battlefield, hadn't been taken as levies. Saffron took the Drivers' hands and all three disappeared. While I waited for her return, Lancaster looked at me and said, "Odin tells me you've saved yet another of my sons, this one from death rather than embarrassment. You have my thanks." I shrugged.

"He's still got a lot of recovery ahead of him. There's only so much I could magic away."

"Still, this means my duty is to find him tutors and perhaps a valet, rather than pall bearers and a coffin. Had I not spoken with you on multiple occasions, I would think you sought to keep me perpetually in your debt." I smiled up at him.

"Yeah, but we both know I don't have enough going on up here," I tapped at my temple, "to do anything like that. That would require planning, and discipline, and any kind of thinking about consequences." He shook his head, quietly muttering, "another one," but he nodded and smiled. Better politician than general indeed. At that point Saffron returned, held out a hand, and said, "ready to go, love?"

"Just waiting on you, Kitten." I'll do the first step, k? She reached out and took my hand, and I stepped to the forest, where I'd seen another tree not too different from the one the Marshall and I had cut down, although quite a bit smaller. I stepped over to it, lopped it off at the base with a Mana Blade, then tipped it to fall away from us. Once I hefted one end of it up I reached out a hand to Saffron. She looked me in the eye and said, "don't you think that's a little big for our room?"

"Not too big for the cave, though." She nodded, understanding.

"I look forward with both anticipation and dread at the thought of Grandma meeting Sigyn."

"You got anybody else who ought to be invited?" She shook her head, "no. My surviving cousins all have their own households to celebrate with. Quite a few will be down at the Big Seven. Which, at some point, I think I should approach, now that I think about it." Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"So weird." She smiled.

"I know, right?" Then she stepped us both to the Practice Yard of the school. I leaned the tree against one of the sheds and Mineral Bonded the base to the floor. We walked back to our room, where Marie waited for us with the menace. I didn't know about Marie and Isnomi, but Saffron and I were both still exhausted, so after stripping off our clothes, we just flopped down on the floor and let Marie yank the blankets off the bed for us.

The menace actually crawled around the outside adjusting them until nobody had anything sticking out into the cold. Once we were all settled in, I said, "You good with spending tomorrow with us, Marie?"

"Yes." Her reply was simple, but I heard the emotion in it. More vibing on the lakeshore overnight. Woke up a little disoriented and tired, like I'd slept too long or something. I heard the others murmuring before I opened my eyes. When I did, they all turned to look at me and said, "Happy Yule!" The two older ones followed that up with possibly slightly not quite PG-13 kisses, taking turns distracting the menace so she didn't get too put out by only getting kisses on the cheeks and forehead.

"So, what have you got planned today, Goof?"

"I think we're gonna have to build a hearth and chimney for someone. Some food might be nice, too." I looked to Marie.

"Any chance you could score us all something to feast on?"

"Yes!" She slipped out of the blankets, somehow avoiding sending any gusts of cold wind under the blankets as she did so.

"You know, normally I enjoy the whole watching you get dressed, helping each other get dressed thing, but today I'm just way too fuckin' tired and cold." Saffron rolled over onto me, displacing Isnomi, who cranked about it, mostly playfully.

"So what are you suggesting? Skyclad Solstice? I've sometimes thought about doing that for the Summer Solstice, but in Winter?" She shivered melodramatically.

"Yeah, no. That would turn my nips harder than diamonds in point two seconds. Then they'd fall off or some shit. I was thinking more," I did Loki's clothing trick to put The Dress on, "like that." She laughed, "so that's going to keep you warm? Brilliant choice." Of course, a moment later she had the dress of Glowing Midnight on. The whole thing, thankfully, because I wasn't really wanting to go through the whole day with that image eating at my patience.

"What about Isnomi?" The menace crowed out, "DA-DAH!" and held up her hands to show her fully dressed in her little uniform. Of course, pushing the blankets up like that sucked in a huge waft of freezing air.

"Gah!" Yeah, I'm really articulate when my nethers feel like they've been rubbed with dry ice. I grabbed the blankets and burritoed us all in them.

"Love, I'm not sure I can quite Translocate like this."

"Yeah, I think you're right. It needs at least a little motion, doesn't it?"

"Mmrphh!" Isnomi'd got bundled up with us, but apparently didn't like the snug bindings as much as Saffron or I. I put my arms around Saffron and rolled away from Isnomi, the blanket burrito unrolling as I did. The shock of the cold air woke me up completely.

"Time to start the day, I guess. Can you collect our sons and make sure they'll be on their best behavior?"

"And what will you be doing while I do all that?"

"Letting him know we'll be showing up with guests." Saffron looked at me a moment, then said, "can you collect Grandma while you're at it?"

"Sure." I gave her a quick kiss, scooped up Isnomi, because I saw no reason to handicap Saffron while dealing with The Smith, and headed out the door. On the way to the Infirmary, I thought, hey Boss, you okay with us bringing the whole family over for Yule? It might have been me imagining it, but he sounded tentative, almost frightened. I expect you'll show up anyway if I say no? Hey, Boss, you know I wouldn't do that to you. But... I sighed. Look, I haven't had a family to celebrate with since I was a little kid.

It would mean a lot to me if my whole family could get together today. And that includes me? And Sigyn. Hell, even Mister Slither. I suppose your daughter does dote on him. So, can we come over? How soon? Probably a few minutes; as soon as we've got everyone together. I'd best let Sigyn know then. See you soon, Boss! When I got to the Infirmary, Grandma and Siobhan were both there.

"Happy Yule, Sister! Happy Yule, Grandma Aetos!"

"You need me to watch her?" asked Grandma.

"Nope. We're getting the whole family together for Yule. C'mon!" I reached out a hand to her, and after a moment staring at me, she took it and let me lead her out of the room.

"Happy Yule, Tabitha!" called Sister Siobhan as we left. Back at the room, Saffron had Vulcan slung over her back, and The Smith stood behind her, one hand at his side, the other holding Saffron's right, like a kid being towed along by his mother.

"Happy Yule, Ma!" She half turned to The Smith and said, "Grandmother, this is my son, Conrad. Conrad, this is my Maternal Grandmother."

"So nice to meet you, Grandmother Aetos." I had to remind myself that sociopaths are really good at looking like normal people when they wanted to. Or they'd been forced to in order to get what they wanted. Behind Grandma's back, I mouthed the word, 'Conrad?' to Saffron, who shrugged and smiled.

"So now as soon as Marie gets back with the food..." No sooner were the words out of my mouth than I heard the distinctive squeak of Marie's cart coming down the hallway. I turned to Saffron.

"Can you do the honors?" She looked a little skittish, but nodded. When Marie rolled her cart into the room, she said, "Everyone, please join hands?" I held out a hand to Marie, whose other hand held her cart. Grandma took Saffron's free hand. A moment later, we stood in Loki's cave. He sat at one end of his big stone bed, his legs stretched out in front of him, a blanket covering him from his waist to his knees. Sigyn stood beside him, a hand on his shoulder. He opened his arms, as if to welcome us, then froze.

What is he doing here? I called out, "Happy Yule, Loki! Happy Yule, Sigyn!" I turned to catch Saffron, who stumbled, a little sweat beading on her forehead.

"You okay, love?'

"A bit more draining than I'd thought. I might want to take folks back over multiple trips." I nodded, then continued what I'd intended before.

"Loki, Sigyn, of course you know Saffron and Isnomi and Marie. This," I motioned to Grandma Aetos, "is Saffron's Maternal Grandmother," I had no idea why she'd introduced her like that, but it seemed to work, "and this is Saffron and my adopted son, Conrad. Grandma Aetos, this is my Patron Loki and his wife, Sigyn. Conrad, this is my Patron Loki, who has been like a father to me, and his wife Sigyn, who watches Isnomi almost as much as Saffron's grandmother."

I paused, then lifted my hands not unlike Isnomi crowing out 'ta dah!' and said, "it's so nice to have everybody in the family here. Isn't it?" I shot The Smith, whose name was apparently now 'Conrad' a meaningful glance. He smiled, nodded his head, and said, "it is, indeed." Do you know who that is? I mean, who he really is? Yes, Boss. And he is sworn not to hurt family, as a condition of his adoption. If Loki's smile looked a little bit brittle, it was still a smile.

He held his arms out and said, "welcome, family, to our humble home. I'm afraid it's not exactly the most comfortable of places, but what we have, we gladly share." I looked around and realized that other than Loki's bed and a few pillows, rugs, and blankets I'd procured for them, the place was still fairly barren. I looked at Saffron and said, "Can you get some chairs if I get the Tree?" Before she could answer, 'Conrad' said, "please, Mother, allow me."

Over the course of the next four seconds, he disappeared and reappeared as many times, each time arriving with a chair under each of his hands. No two alike, each one perfectly sized to one of us. One final time he hopped back and forth, arriving with one hand on the tree, which leaned against the wall. I stepped over, sliced most of the base off of it, then asked, "son, could you set that up, please?"

"Certainly, Mother." He proceeded to eye the tree, then slice another wafer thin wedge off of it. When he pushed the tree upright, it stood on its own. He then reached into a pocket and pulled out a wad of tinsel, of all things, and began artfully hanging it from the branches. You've tamed him. Tricked him into submission. My Champion, I have no idea what to say. Honestly, he did most of it himself. I think he really wanted to be my son for some reason.

But he's stuck to his promise of being a dutiful son and not harming family since. Which leaves me slightly less sanguine, but nonetheless impressed. I stepped over to the wall nearest Loki's bed, then popped out a big honkin' Mana Blade.

"Back up, this might get a little energetic." I then carved out a nook, a couple feet deep, a couple feet tall, and maybe four feet wide. I made the top as conical as I could, given that I really didn't want to touch any of the still-glowing rock, then put my hand just under the center of the cone and extended my Mana Blade as far upward as I could. When I felt air start moving towards it, I stopped, grabbed up the log I'd hacked off, and shoved it into the makeshift fireplace.

When I turned around, Loki and Sigyn were staring at me. I swear he was a little teary eyed when he said, "you've brought me... us... a hearth, and a Yule log for it?"

"I mean, this is your home. Home without hearth just doesn't sound the same, right?" He reached out with one hand, placed it on my shoulder, and gently pulled me into an embrace.

"Thank you. I suppose it doesn't help my image as the vile backstabber and Trickster, but... thank you."

"No problem, Boss. You've always had my back. This," I waved my hands around, taking in the chairs, the tree, the fireplace, and our not-so-little makeshift family, "this is the least I could do." At some point while I'd been busy with the fireplace, someone had brought in a table. At a guess, 'Conrad', because somehow every chair had just long enough legs that the person sitting in it could easily reach the table.

Even Loki, which meant that his basically had no legs, and Sigyn had to help him slide it atop the end of his bed, as I'd never fixed the stalagmite that bound his feet. Marie unloaded her cart, which had been packed to overflowing with pie, bread, more pie, a huge tureen of stew, even more pie, a ham, a chocolate cake, a whole fuckin roast turkey, and yet more pie. Saffron's eyes got huge when she saw the cake, and I couldn't really bring myself to stop her from starting there.

Before anyone started, though, I held up my hands. Amazingly, everyone stopped reaching for the feast. Kitten? I'm going to tell them. Are you sure? They deserve to know. Everyone in this room deserves to know or already does. I don't give a rat's ass what anyone outside this room thinks. Saffron cleared her throat and said, "Lord, could you please ensure the privacy of the home? I believe Tabitha has something she wants to share." I felt the faintest flicker of something, then Loki nodded.

"None save those here shall be privy to our Tabitha's words." I opened my mouth, and nothing came out. I tried again, and managed to say, "Boss. Sigyn. Grandma. I think everyone else here knows this, but you're family. You should know too. I should have told you," here I nodded to Loki and Sigyn, who'd pulled her chair over until it touched against Loki's.

"I should have told you a while back. But... I'm a coward. I didn't want the family I'd found to be broken apart. I didn't want to lose what I'd gained. I didn't..." I paused, started over.

"Some of you here already know this, but I wasn't born in this world. I was born in a world where there are no Gods, no Magic, no people but Humans. Billions of us. I grew up there. Died there. Woke up here, on the day the Camden Yards Aquarium was attacked." Sigyn looked concerned. Grandma just nodded, as if she'd half expected something like this. Conrad... The Smith just smiled at me, like he'd known every detail long since. I took another deep breath.

"That's not what I wanted to tell you, though. But it's important, because when I woke up here, I wasn't exactly who you see in front of you. I mean, I was me, inside my head, but..." I sighed. I couldn't think of the words. My brilliant snappy patter failed me. So instead? I dropped my Blend. All of it. I looked down to see a fine coating of fur over the back of my hand.

"This. This is me." I kept staring at my hands, waiting for someone to say something. Saffron reached over and took one of my hands, lacing her fingers through it. Grandma Aetos was the first to speak.

"Didn't know you liked them furry."

"MA!" squawked Saffron.

"Dearest Mother, your appearance has never been what endears you to us." Gotta hand it to Conrad, he said it like he meant it. I mean, he did mean it, but he didn't say it like a madman on a quest for infinite power or shit like that. Then, because of course she did, Isnomi, who'd been sitting on a high chair with Mister Slither coiled around it so she could pet his head, crowed out, "TA DA!" and turned just as fuzzy as me, but as always in a deep charcoal rather than flat black.

I glanced up at Loki, who for the first time since I'd met him, seemed at a total loss for words. Well, for a moment or two anyhow. Sigyn tensed, like she was about to spring out of her chair, but he laid a hand over hers. She looked at him, a little wild-eyed, but eased back into her seat. Not relaxed by any means, but not ready to throw down, either. Loki looked at me and said, "this is you. And you would have us as family?" I tilted my head, trying to figure out how he meant his question.

After a moment I decided to just go with it.

"Yeah. You're good people. Some of the best I've met here and now. So yeah, if you'll have me. Us. Me." I shrugged and kinda flapped my free hand around, trying to figure out how to explain. Loki frowned, then smiled, then sighed, then looked to the floor and chuckled.

"Since you declared me your Patron, and I declared you my Highest Priestess and Champion, I have worried about my one Hero falling too much under my shadow. Without some power of their own, some way to win renown without their Patron's intervention, that has happened far too often. If I were as I was before my imprisonment, I would have taken overshadowing you as a given, and would have been furious at the thought that you might overshadow me." He paused, and looked me in the eyes.

"And yet, here I sit, seeing your shadow in all its dark glory, knowing that at best I might be a footnote in your history, and I am not upset in the slightest. I am not even afraid." I heard the wonder in his voice at that, and he reached out one hand to me. I took his hand in mine, and he said, "no matter how frightening your shadow, I do not fear it, for I have seen who you are, Tabitha Diaz, and I trust you. Trust you even enough to dare be unafraid in the presence of Mimic's shadow."

I think I teared up at that point. Things got a little blurry anyhow. Must be the onions in the stew. Then Sigyn let out a half-hysterical laugh and said, "quite a shadow, though." When I looked at her, questioning, she pointed behind me. I glanced over my shoulder; behind me stretched an area of flat black, fuzzy darkness extending to the wall. At a guess, extending all the way back to Phileo.

"Why didn't somebody tell me my ass was so fat?"