Chương 498: Day Four Hundred And Ninety-Six

Dear Diary,"If you need to use Bloodlust, To overcome fear of death, Be sure that your cause is just." Doctrine of Tabitha, Book of Bloodlust Yeah, I know what I wrote yesterday about needing to overcome fear of death to be able to do what you need to do on a battlefield. Or in an emergency. Or any time your life is threatened but you have to act anyway. But at the same time I gotta make sure I'm not empowering a whole generation of Leeroy Jenkins either.

Nothing worse than a recruiting a shit ton of people, getting a plan in place that'll get the job done with minimal risk of casualties, then have some bozo or bozos rushing in all fired up with their brains shut down and fucking things up worse than they started. So I've already talked about Justified Homicide and Vengeance, and spent a lot of time talking about what makes something righteous as opposed to petty.

Trust me, I can be a petty bitch when the situation calls for it, but frankly most of those situations are not actually life or death. Oh, sure, I'll make sure whoever I'm dealing with knows that painful death is in fact an available option if I think they're the sort who needs to know that.

But there's a big difference between explaining to somebody what's likely to happen if they keep walking down the path of being killed painfully and not just killing someone, but treating someone's painful death as a one use sex toy. Of course, you gotta be prepared to pull on your big girl panties and do unto others if somebody really does go the route of 'yes please, Tabitha, ram my eyeballs up my own asshole without disconnecting the optic nerve'.

Some motherfuckers just need to die, and some other motherfuckers will in fact straighten up and fly right if they realize that their former boss can no longer see them, not because he's dead, but because he can't see anything but his own rectum. Speaking of threatening people with fates worse than death, at sunset yesterday I kinda did that to the mom of the kid I'd been trying to save.

Then again, said mom was tryna kill her, although to be fair regarding her motives she had confirmed that if she took the Fae whammy off me we, meaning the Alliance, which also pretty much low key meant me, would protect her City and what remained of her family. So, like, not something I was gonna let happen, but also not something I could call her an awful person for. Just another fucked up bitch tryna protect what she could in this crapsack world.

Still straining against me, she whispered, "you would go to war to save a single child?"

"Might want to ask Diana that question." Oddly, that got, like, zero response.

"Y'know, for somebody who seems to move in tune with the Moon, you seem pretty out of touch when it comes to your Moon Goddess news." Lady Crow, Overlord of Rich Man's Port, and most importantly to me right at the moment Ria Crow's mom and would be murderess, continued to say nothing. I sighed.

"Yes, I would absolutely start a war to save a single child. Do I have to?"

"You have attacked me in my own home. Is this not an Act of War by the Alliance?" I turned her around so she could see my face. She pushed back the entire time. Not that it mattered, what with a tentacle on each limb, and more backing me up as needed.

"Lady? When I go to war, you will know it. If the Alliance goes to war against you, you won't know it unless you're very, very lucky and very, very cautious, because people who've been killed to death rarely know anything." She just half knelt there, staring at me. For what it's worth she wasn't really glaring.

Maybe a little bit of a mad on because I'd manhandled her, a tiny bit of confusion, a delicious undercurrent of terror whenever one of my tentacles twitched against her limbs, but mostly just that same impassive stare I'd come to know and lowkey not like very much. Right then Ria whispered, "Tabitha? Please don't hurt my Mother." I sighed, my shoulders slumping a little.

"I don't want to, but I will not let her hurt you."

"But... I've... I'm the one who hurt you?" I shook my head.

"Nah, kid. You tried to help me, fu... messed it up just the tiniest bit because I'm apparently the dumbest bi... bimbo on the continent, and while I think I'd really like to have the side effects Karen mentioned gone? It was a gift, and some parts of it," my eyes watered as I thought about how I saw Sigyn.

"Some parts of it are absolutely perfect."

"Oh." She slumped a little bit. At which point her mom cut in.

"So... My daughter? Will you continue to defend her? Or is she doomed to perish by the hand of another?"

I blinked, looking over to confirm that not only was Karen still standing there with the wedding dress preferred by nine out of ten wanton sluts, Mana Blades still out and ready to defend Ria against her mom and anybody else who came at her, Marie had also moved into position where anybody coming at Karen from the flank or rear would wind up getting a face full of Marie, briefly, until she turned their rear into flank steaks. I shook my head and looked back at Lady Crow.

"Uh, the fuck you talkin' about?"

"We cannot remove my daughter's Blessing. We cannot earn the support of the Alliance. With that support removed, and my House's defenses breached, she is in mortal danger." Ria's hand shifted toward the stick she carried across her back, and Tallulah tried to shake her head.

"No, daughter. Your study is admirable, but you are not, in fact, strong enough to do more than perhaps mark your killer as such." As Ria pouted, before she opened her mouth and made things possibly worse, I said, "Okay, look, I'm not the best at diplomacy, but if I'm here, I don't see a reason we can't bring in somebody who is. No offense Karen."

"None taken."

"So, Tallulah. Lady Crow. Overlord. May the Imperator join us?" Tallulah barked out something like a laugh.

"You ask now? With my Home invaded and my Threshold shattered?"

"Oh, shit. Is that what that was? Sorry about that. Anyhow, yeah, when nobody's threatening a kid, or one of my family, or one of my people? I am a fu... a blessed ray of sunshine, a joy to be around." She raised an eyebrow.

"Seriously. Stop tryna kill your kid and I'll stop pretending you're a posable life sized Overlord action figure."

"You keep calling me that." This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"What?"

"Overlord. As if you have not defeated me." I leaned in close to her ear again, because I didn't want Ria to really grok what I was saying.

"Lady, if I defeat you and you're alive to tell the tale, you won't have time or attention to spare to things like 'not screaming in pain'. Now, may the Imperator join us?"

"If I say no?" I shrugged.

"Then you gotta deal with my clumsy ass interrupting Karen tryna be an actual diplomat, and we'll wind up going in circles all night long as you try to trick or trap or pull some kinda bullsh... trickery out of your ah... Yeah, I'm probably gonna wind up getting pissed and doing something like asking Ria to go find more cups of chocolate so I can talk to you without censoring myself all the time, which will leave you nobody to talk to but me.

Which, I'll remind you, if you stop tryna off your own kid, would at worst wind up with us both drunk with embarrassing new stories to tell. So since I don't think any of us want that..."

"Watch." Marie interrupted me, half glaring, half smiling at Lady Crow.

"Okay, nobody but my Murder Mittens and probably my other partners want that, because they think it's funny watching me pitch amateur rizz and still somehow not striking out, I ask for a third time. May I please bring the Imperator here to speak with you?" Her jaw dropped a little.

"You would plead with me?"

"Will it get you to say yes?" I think I might have knocked her train off thought off the rails just a little. She said, "yes?" like she'd forgotten the meaning of the word or something. Saffron, resplendent in her black dress with the boots and the lingerie and the everything that had a little drool forming in my mouth just looking at it, stood in front of the two of us. And curtsied.

"Overlord." Tallulah barked out another laugh.

"You mock me as well then?" Without a trace of humor in her voice or body language, Saffron said, "I, Archmage Saffron Aetos-Diaz, Imperator of the Inter-City Alliance, recognize you, Tallulah Crow, Lady Crow of House Crow, as Overlord of Rich Man's Port." Lady Crow stiffened.

"I regret the necessity of damaging your home, but our Champion saw no other way to prevent an avoidable tragedy, one which is anathema to her as a Deity of Children." Tallulah opened her mouth to speak, but Saffron drove over her, and ain't nobody who interrupts my Kitten when she's on a roll like that.

"Both due to your daughter's generous use of her Blessing to please our Champion, as well as your own offer to sacrifice your own cherished daughter to correct what you saw as an affront to the Alliance, both she and I look favorably upon you and your House. So long as you do not betray our trust, the Alliance will defend your family, your people, and your City against foreign aggressors for as long as it takes to discover an alternate means to alleviate the unfortunate side effects of your daughter's Blessing."

Lady Crow's mouth worked, but no sound came out at first. We all stood, staring, until she whispered out, "but... there is no other way to remove a Blessing." Saffron leaned forward conspiratorially, "and your objection to retaining our support until I find one is?" Tallulah's tension... changed. She didn't strain against me quite so much.

"You would give me such a gift, even with my daughter's slight against your Alliance unresolved?" Saffron tilted her head.

"Gift? What gift? I choose to recognize you as Overlord of Rich Man's Port, because you have shown yourself to be a trustworthy neighbor. The Alliance will of course defend you and yours, as retaining a trustworthy neighbor is to the benefit of the Alliance." She paused.

"So. Will you put your Blade away?" The Overlord relaxed, or at least stopped trying to lunge toward her daughter entirely. Her Blade remained in her hand, though.

"I do fear for the safety of my daughter, still. One Maenad and one High Priestess, no matter how doughty, might not be enough to keep her safe."

"You sent her to Calverton for her safety, yes?"

"Yes. But with Calverton's defenses less than they once were, assassins need only travel down the river and up the bay to reach her." Saffron nodded.

"What of your other children?" Tallulah shrugged.

"They are grown. I would that they not come to harm, but if they cannot fend for themselves..."

"You do have bodyguards, do you not?"

"They are stretched thin, guarding three children and myself. Especially after our recent losses." Saffron pursed her lips.

"Should you only have one child to guard, would that ease your burden?" Lady Crow nodded.

"Then I propose two compacts, one between Rich Man's Port and the Alliance, the other between House Crow and House Aetos-Diaz. For the former, send one of your elder children to Newark as Ambassador to the Alliance. As hosts, the Alliance will provide security for whomever you send. As to the latter," she turned to Ria.

"My fiancé Marie and I have six children, some around your... size." She turned back to Tallulah.

"Foster her with us. We will care for her as one of our own, as you've done with our Ambassador, Tabitha's High Priestess. We will guard her as one of our own as well, of course. This will not only lower the load on your bodyguard, but free your hand to further secure your position here in Rich Man's Port."

"I..." She took a deep breath, then said, "I mean no offense, but what guards will you place on my daughter? Daughters?" Saffron nodded.

"Cailyn, if you choose her as ambassador, will be housed in the Grand Council building, which is also the military headquarters of the Alliance, and as such is surrounded by troops and Heroes at all times. They will guard her as well as they guard our own Grand Councilors, you have my word." She paused, then smiled.

"As for your other daughter, until our Homestead finishes construction, we are staying at Lancaster House; Heir Lancaster is Tabitha's Champion, and would take it amiss should any guest of his House be targeted, let alone harmed. Beyond that, the suite in which she would stay currently houses those who will move with us when our Homestead is complete. Roughly a dozen High Priestesses, three of whom are Tabitha's High Priestesses.

an equal number of Maenads, who are no more likely to allow a child under their protection to come to harm than Tabitha herself. Our Concubine Sister Siobhan Darling, Healer of Phileo City Heroic Academy, who you can be sure will attend to any injuries promptly. Our fiancé, Marie, Maid of Phileo City Heroic Academy, Maenad Champion of Dionysus, will personally care for your daughter alongside her own collection of scamps."

"Yes." Saffron smiled at Marie's interruption, then continued.

"Finally, my Wife, mother of my child, Tabitha Diaz herself... well, you have seen for yourself her response to your child being threatened." My Kitten leaned forward again.

"Just between you and me, I suspect you owe your continued respiration, not to mention still retaining your full complement of limbs, to the fact that she didn't want to harm you in front of your little girl."

"You will protect them?" Saffron nodded.

"And my City?" Another nod.

"And my people?" A third nod.

"From whatever or whomever endangers them?" Saffron nodded again, smiling.

"What must I do for my part of this compact?"

"Agree to allowing us to Foster your daughter Ria. Agree to abide by any treaties your daughter Cailyn signs with the Alliance," the Imperator held up a hand, "we will, of course, provide transport for her to return here to confer with you should she need it. Agree to remain neutral in any wars the Alliance finds itself embroiled in, if you cannot assist us." I loosened my grip on Lady Crow, and she stood.

"I admit to surprise that you have not demanded Rich Man's Port become part of your Alliance." Saffron shrugged, smiled, and leaned in conspiratorially once more.

"That's the trick, you see. The hidden hook. Once you have come to enjoy some of the benefits of the Alliance, once your people come to do so as well, when your daughters see what life is like within our borders? We won't need to demand. Simply await your offer to join us, and joyously accept when you do."

"Joyously?"

"Joyously." The Overlord opened her hand, her Blade falling to dust before it hit the floor. I released her, and she held out a hand.

"I Accept." The Imperator clasped the Overlord's outstretched hand, and both women nodded. A moment later a little redheaded missile arrowed toward us. Saffron must have heard her, or seen her through my eyes, because she stepped to the side. Completely took me by surprise when Tallulah did too, and I suddenly found myself glomped by a cheering little Fae.