Chương 199: Day One Hundred And Ninety-Seven

Dear Diary, Weird how quickly you can come to call someplace home. Then again, maybe it's not the place so much as the company. So the family spent the night again. Woke up with Isnomi, who crawled in with us again, lying across Saffron and I. So weird that she's big enough to do that now; I remember her being like, the size of a football. No changes on the dream front; if Mimic ate a bug before, she didn't seem to find another.

In the morning Marie woke the three of us; somehow she'd managed to sneak out of bed without waking any of us. Fully dressed in her Maid uniform, she leaned over us and gently shook Saffron and I awake. As Saffron lay there blinking herself awake, Marie looked at us and said, "Breakfast." That got everybody out of bed pretty quick; Saffron and I helped each other get dressed while Marie got the menace into her uniform.

As I helped Saffron with the garters on the backs of her legs I asked, "Hey Kitten, why is it you're wearing your dress instead of a uniform?"

"Complaints?"

"Oh, hell to the no. Just wondering." She chuckled at that as she sat on the stool and let me help her put her boots on.

"A couple reasons. Most importantly, I think, is because if I showed up in uniform, General Lancaster might be thinking of me as a Cadet and expect me to follow his lead on things. Which I don't mind doing as a rule, but I need to make sure he doesn't expect it."

"Huh. Good point." I smiled as I picked up her other boot.

"I guess uniforms might be good for something other than intimate dress-up." She leaned down and ruffled my hair.

"Goof. The other big reason is that it's my Holy Raiment. Even if they don't know quite who I'm High Priestess of, everyone I'm Curing and helping knows I'm a High Priestess, and in turn their gratitude is directed at you." I might have blushed a little at that.

"I dunno. Seems unfair for me to get all the credit for shit you're doing."

"And for that reason, along with all the others, you are more deserving of it than any other Deity I've heard of." That kinda shut me up, so I helped her down and buttoned up the back of Glowing Midnight, then let her sort my collar and the back of my shirt and jacket. When we got down to breakfast, I knew right away that Marie had a hand in making it. Whoever had been cooking wasn't bad, but Marie had literally hundreds of years of experience at a minimum, and it showed.

Since I didn't recognize it, I asked, "hey Marie? What kind of meat is this?" As I heard the weirdest sound, Lancaster chuckling without sounding like an asshole, Marie replied, "Mutton." When I looked at Lancaster, he said, "apologies, commander. Lancaster House sends beef to Phileo, and the Rosens and Riders deliver plenty of pork, but sheep provide most of the clothing in Phileo's western territories; most of the farmsteads eat mutton, but it's a little bit uncommon even at Lancaster House.

I've been told it's a little trickier to cook, as well, but whoever cooked this seems to know the trick to it." I treasured the vaguely disturbed look on his face when Marie, who'd been moving around the table doing waiter shit like topping off drinks and whisking away empty serving plates to replace them with new ones full of food, said, "Yes," from directly behind him.

"How's the gear coming?" I nearly dropped my spoon in surprise when he turned to Bonnie and nodded. She set down her spoon and said, "it's taken a bit of doing, mostly because of the freezing temperatures outside, but it turns out the farmstead had the right materials on hand to quickly tan the Dragon hide. With everyone helping, I think we'll be done some time tomorrow. Everyone will have a new shield and new armor, including the ten of us."

"Fantastic!" I meant it, I'd been a little worried about how long we'd been staying here.

"So... we should be ready to move out at first light on Wednesday?"

"That's correct, commander," Lancaster replied.

"The two survivors of the farmstead are recovering well; I think they wanted to talk to you today, if you can spare the time."

"Will do." I very carefully avoided saying how much I'd felt like a completely unneeded figurehead for the past two days. When we finished eating, the rest of the Cadets went out to keep our resupply running, and I gathered up Saffron, Marie, and Isnomi for a long group hug, followed by kissing them all goodbye for the day. Saffron picked up Isnomi, and I realized she had to lean a little to the side just to keep her balance, because the menace had gotten almost half as tall as her mother by this point.

Then she took Marie's hand, and they were gone. I wandered up the opposite stairs to the only door that remained closed, because I kinda figured that's where I'd find the survivors. Right before I pushed the door open, I remembered what passed for my manners and knocked. I snickered a little as I heard a woman, sounding just a little out of breath, call out, "just a moment!" Over the next minute or so I listened to the sound of two people getting dressed as quickly as possible.

I'd never actually listened to it from the far side of a door before, but given how often Saffron, Marie, and I wound up having to rush dressing because we'd spent dressing time canoodling, I knew those sounds pretty well. After a minute or so, the door opened to reveal a blonde woman, twenty something at a guess, in a nice blue dress. Behind her and to one side stood a Black guy who looked to be the same age.

That surprised me a little; while there were plenty of swarthy people in Phileo, and even more in Camden Yards, people with Africa-dark skin were pretty thin on the ground. Back in my old Camden, this dude would have been referred to as 'dark skinned'; he had that deep black kind of skin with almost purplish undertones to it. The woman curtsied to me and said, "Commander Diaz, I presume?" I smiled at the formality and said, "yep, that's me.

My Cadets told me they found you two in one of the barns, but didn't tell me your names?" At the mention of the barn, the woman blushed, the red standing out against her fair skin.

"Yes, ma'am," she stuttered.

"Andre and I had gone out to the barn to... check on something, and we'd kind of expected someone to come get us when they saw we weren't there for dinner. No one ever did, and then I got sick, and when Andre came back to the house to find someone to help, he found everyone else dead or dying." She paused, shook her head, and continued.

"I'm sorry, I'm Azalea Lands." If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. I stuck out a hand for her to shake, saying, "good to finally meet you, Ms. Lands. I'm sorry for your losses, but everyone in the house had already died from the Plague before we arrived. Worse tidings for you, I'm afraid, is that we'll be commandeering your livestock to provision us for the rest of our trip to Lancaster House."

She'd reached out gingerly to shake my hand, but when I said, 'your livestock', her eyes got a little wide and she said, "my livestock? Are my uncles and cousins all dead then?" That brought me up short.

"If they lived here on this farmstead, then I'm afraid so." She shook her head again, "no, no, they're from nearby farmsteads, but obviously I'm not in line to inherit the farm." I looked her up and down, but couldn't see any obvious signs of handicap.

"Why not?" She just stared at me like she couldn't quite understand what I was saying. Finally she blurted out, "because I'm a woman?" I snorted.

"Yeah, I noticed. That matters why?" She just worked her mouth without speaking, like somebody trying to find a way to explain something that they understood with such certainty that they'd never really thought about it. After maybe ten seconds of that I interrupted her, saying, "if you're worried about having somebody to do the heavy lifting, your... friend? Andre seems to be in good shape now that he's Plague-free.

If it's a whole 'women can't inherit' thing, which I for one think is stupid enough that I'm not going to listen to it, he seems to be of the male persuasion." Sounding completely lost, she said, "but he can't inherit either." I lifted an eyebrow.

"Why not?"

"Because he's Bag." I took a deep breath, swallowing my impulse to grab her by the hair and dangle her over the balcony.

"That matters why?" Again with the wordless gabbling. This time, though, tears started leaking out of her eyes, so slowly I wasn't sure she realized. Finally she lowered her head to stare at the floor, then whispered.

"Andre and I were in the barn because we planned on eloping to Camden Yards. Then the snow hit, then the plague. I wanted to. We wanted to..." She trailed off, openly weeping now. Andre held himself stiff as a board, like he wanted to move to her, but couldn't.

"Ah, shit. Is this a 'can't marry a commoner' or 'can't marry a Bag' thing?" Andre replied, his voice deeper than I expected.

"Both." That, as you might imagine, put a goliath beetle directly up my ass. Without me even thinking about it, The Dress replaced my uniform. I lifted her chin up as she gawked a little.

"Do you want him as your husband? For better, for worse, all that shit?" She nodded, then whispered out, "yes." I turned to Andre, stepped forward, grabbed him by the hand and pulled him up next to her.

"What about you? You want to marry her? Better or worse, sickness and health, all that jazz?" He nodded as well, his voice even deeper when he said, "yes." I remembered something, and thought, Boss? Can you and Sigyn do me a solid? He sounded a little distracted, but replied, what did you need? Could the two of you come here for like, thirty seconds, tops? I need two witnesses.

After he didn't reply for about ten seconds, I got a little worried, but then I heard the quiet sounds of two sets of feet hitting the floor of the balcony behind me. Azalea and Andre looked kinda shocked speechless, and when I glanced over my shoulder I saw Loki standing there in his Lyman guise, and Sigyn in her skimpy skirt and thigh high boots. She had a blouse on, but I had enough class I didn't mention it looked kinda inside out and backwards.

"Thanks, Boss. You're the best."

"I know." I turned back to the still-shocked couple.

"Both of you still want to be married? For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and health, 'til death do you part?" When they still stood there looking stunned by the sudden appearance of two strangers on their balcony, I leaned to put myself between their line of sight and the divine couple behind me.

"Last chance to back out." That got them. Azalea stumbled over her words.

"No, I mean, no, I'm not backing out, yes, I want to marry Andre." She glanced shyly at him.

"If he'll have me?" A big old smile stretching across his face, he replied, "Absolutely." I put their hands together and said, "then by the power vested in me by Loki and the Cities of Phileo, Camden Yards, New Amsterdam, and Newark, I pronounce you man and wife." When they stood there looking a little shocked again, I said, "it's pretty customary to kiss your bride at this point," and winked at Andre.

Still grinning, he turned, put his arms around her, and kissed her as solidly as I ever had kissed Saffron or Marie. While they snogged, I turned to Loki and Sigyn.

"Thanks, Boss. Thanks, Sigyn." At her arch expectant look, I huffed out a sigh and said, "thanks, Mom." With a silvery little laugh, she stepped forward, kissed my forehead, then stepped back to take Loki's hand.

"We couldn't leave our favorite daughter wanting." I smiled and said, "aren't I your only daughter?" They both laughed at that, and I turned to Loki and said, "did you need me for anything today, Boss?" He shook his head, grinning from ear to ear.

"This is the first wedding the two of us have been invited to, and the first performed by one of my Clergy in..." he trailed off, thinking, then finished with, "centuries, at least. Consider your Devotional duties for today done, with style and panache."

"I'd offer you breakfast or something, but the Cadets and Volunteers are all working to get us ready to march to Lancaster House, and you really don't want to eat my cooking."

"Quite all right, Tabitha." He stepped forward, gave me a quick hug, and then he and Sigyn disappeared. I turned back to the newlyweds, only to find them staring at me like I'd grown another head or something.

"What?" Azalea found her voice first.

"Who was that?" I shrugged.

"You might need to tell people who witnessed things, I guess. Loki and Sigyn." Her eyelids fluttered, but before she could faint I barked out, "Oi! I figured you two would need some witnesses that nobody would argue with." With a thought, I changed back into my uniform, then said, "follow me." I led them back to what I'd realized was the master suite of the house, then rifled the desk for pen and paper. They stood there watching while I wrote up a really abbreviated contract, then signed the bottom.

"Okay, so as commander of the expedition from Phileo to Lancaster House, I've commandeered this farm and everything on it. Since we can't exactly carry buildings and shit with us, I'm giving you two all of that stuff as a wedding gift." I sanded the contract I'd just written up and nodded to it.

"That's an I owe you for the materials we've commandeered. You'll have to travel to Phileo to cash it in, I guess, but maybe you can trade it to the Lancasters or something for shit you need to get yourselves started." They both stood there looking a little stunned. Eventually Azalea whispered, "really?"

"Yep. Now, the expedition is pulling out Wednesday morning, and we'll be taking all the food we can carry, and that includes the livestock. You two are going to be coming with us, because I don't want you starving or dying because there's only two of you at this point. If we have any livestock or supplies left when we get to Lancaster House, we'll send them back here with you." I thought about it a second.

"Probably escort you back here as well, come to think about it." Andre actually knelt head down before me, where I sat in the first comfy chair I'd sat in for months.

"Thank you."

"Ah, get up. Can't offer the two of you much of a romantic honeymoon." At that, Azalea laughed, the first normal sound I'd heard out of her for a bit. She knelt next to Andre, but looked up at me when she said, "that, Commander Diaz, has to be the silliest thing I've heard someone apologize for, ever. Thank you." I stood, reached down, and when they took my hands hefted them to their feet.

"I've got to go play cheerleader for the expedition. If you two know anything about tanning or woodworking, your help would be appreciated, but I completely understand if you'd rather stay in the house to," I shot them a lopsided grin, "rest up, until we leave." With that I turned and left them, heading to, as I said, play cheerleader. Y'know, it was really kind of nice using my elevated status for something happy for a change.