Chương 545: Day Five Hundred And Forty-Three

Dear Diary, So yesterday was pretty chill, discussions about weddings notwithstanding. Like, we didn't really spend much time discussing them after dinner. I had shit I had to get done, but I didn't wanna, so I procrastinated half the day until I didn't have time, so I wound up goofing around all day, just helping my ladies out with their actual real jobs. I think it's because of the whole 'wedding' thing.

I remember when Saffron asked me, and how I'd told her that I had an allergy to formality, and if we put it off I'd probably keep putting it off. So instead of getting engaged and planning a real wedding, we basically eloped without the whole running away to another state part. If you can't make it to Vegas for your wedding ceremony, bring the important part of Vegas to your wedding. In this case, the absolute bare minimum of formal ceremony. But... I'd performed multiple wedding ceremonies since then.

I'm not sure how Andre and his bride are doing, but Bonnie and Larry seem to be doing just fine, so if me fucking up the wedding ceremony fucked up the marriage, I'd know it by now. Also, I'm not just some kind of bad luck for weddings in general, since my own marriage seems to be going okay. Weird as fuck compared to the one standard issue male husband and two kids I expected to wind up with at some point, but honestly I think I like this more.

Seriously, the worst thing I could say is that my partners seem to have an inexplicable desire to let every person in the Alliance down bad for a slice of Tabitha's pie indulge themselves. Which, as noted, weird, but not bad weird. Just not what I expected weird. But now I've got to plan out at least part of my wedding. Our wedding, and if again I'm a little weirded out by that being a set of three rather than two, I'm again in the position of saying it's not bad weird, just unexpected weird.

Shit, that goes for a lot of my life in the here and now. Marriage. Partners. Love life. Kids. Oh, shit, the kids. Isnomi wanted to be Flower Girl again, but I'd have to see what the other kids wanted. Like, Ria, Maze, Alex and Lindsey were all just barely tall enough to be bridesmaids, and only because Saffron lowered the bar for that. Daya and David, on the other hand, were too little even for that. Like, maybe David could be the ring bearer?

Wait, no, we'd have two sets of rings, so we needed two ring bearers, right? So David and Daya could be ring bearers. Okay, kids officially placed. Assuming they actually wanted to. Shit. I think at this point that if I can't convince six kids to play dress up and play parts in our wedding, I ought to officially resign my title as a Trickster Goddess. So last night during dinner I pulled my ladies into the Bedroom, then had to hold them off from pouncing on me right there.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, I needed to ask you all for a favor tonight?"

"So why exactly are you denying us your favors then, love?" Saffron looked at the other two, and I saw plans forming in their eyes. My libido wanted to smash my tongue with a hammer, but I forced out, "wait, please. I'm gonna go do something tonight, and I think I might need some extra oomph, but I won't be asleep. I'm not sure how to handle that, but... Worship?" Marie looked at Saffron, who shared a quick glance with Siobhan. The two little ones nodded to each other, then Siobhan turned to me.

"Beloved Goddess, Worship can take many forms. Trust that before we sleep, and even as we lie sleeping, we will direct our wills and Mana to fortifying you, despite your physical absence. But for now?" I rolled my eyes.

"Shut up and let you all Worship as you will?" I couldn't help but chuckle at my own obstinance as they drifted toward me, shedding clothes as they closed.

"Oh, no, Goddess," said Siobhan.

"We hardly expect you, love, to be..."

"Quiet." Marie ended anything resembling coherent speech with that one word. Plenty of incoherent speech after that, but then, my ladies seemed to enjoy that. I think they've set up some kind of contest to see which of them can make me say the weirdest shit. As we lay there in the Bath afterward, Saffron drifted over to nestle under my shoulder.

"Weirdest wasn't really a category before tonight, love. Although we've of course added that, to be sure."

"Category?"

"Oh, yes.

'Most bloodcurdling threat', 'longest string of incomprehensible syllables', 'longest string of phatic syllables', 'most profanity without a single pause', and of course 'loudest'. Although there's an ongoing debate whether we ought include 'least comprehensible otherworldly reference'." I couldn't tell if I blushed at that or not. Like, the frank discussion of my mouth going on autopilot when my body went ping in just the right way, which all of them had kept increasing their proficiency at doing.

Like, I guess I'd done the same? I hoped I'd done the same? But holy shit they all absolutely had. At any rate, I couldn't stifle my curiosity, despite the overall heat of the Bath keeping blushes from being noticeable.

"What's got the lead in that one?" Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

"The one about Black, Gold, Retrieving, Tennis, and Balls. What is 'Tennis', and is the 'Sasha' woman you referenced a former lover?"

"Oh, I wish. Uh. Not, like, actual wish. Just. Yeah. Bit of a youthful crush. Anyway. I really do need to get going soon." So we put the kids to bed, my three ladies each kissed me farewell, and I stepped away to Hel. Helheim, I guess, although even here it had been sort of abbreviated. I strode through the cold, dark ashes of a bonfire, straight up to the front gates of the keep I'd landed in front of. The moment I got there, Hel pushed the door open.

"Good Night to you, Tabitha Diaz." I stepped in and held my arms up for a hug.

"Happy Yule, sister?" She just blinked at me, and I dropped my arms.

"Look, I meant to stop by earlier, but tonight's the last day of Yule proper, and I kinda wanted to give you and the 'rents my gift before it ended." She sucked her teeth a little bit.

"Are you here to remodel my ceiling again?"

"Does it need it?" She shrugged.

"Now that it's winter the sun is shining in again, but on the Solstice all we got were reflections and shadows." I slumped.

"Ah, fuck. Sorry, sis. I thought it was wide enough. Um... I could work on fixing that while... Um... Look, when's the last time you visited our parents?"

"You mean my Father and Sigyn?"

"Yeah, yeah, I get that she's Stepmom to you, but she makes him happy. Does Angrboda come visit you a lot?" She sucked on her teeth.

"Suffice to say you've visited twice more than her. Still, I cannot leave my realm."

"Odin's bullshit again?" She nodded, and I held out a hand. She slipped her hand into mine, reaching for comfort, I guessed, and I Mimicked her.

"Fuck that guy. Like, in the 'he can go get fucked if he thinks he can tell my Sister she can't visit her Dad on Yule. I'll watch the place and work on the remodel while you're out." She tilted her head as she stared at me, then looked me up and down. I gotta say, standing there in The Dress with half of me being animate bone was kinda weird.

"I think you'd best change, then." I copied her whole robe and cloak thing she had going on, then pulled her in for a hug.

"Have fun, sis." A moment later she rose into the air, leaving me as Hel for a night. I reached for it and felt Worship flowing into me. I also felt my Murder Mittens arrowing in from multiple directions, not to mention heading back outward equally quickly. Never thought about her actually doing the Psychopomp job before, but I guess it just made sense. Weirded me out a little that I had enough Worshippers now that at any given moment she had to have more than one of her carrying them to their final resting place.

After woolgathering and Mitten watching for a bit, I cracked my neck, my shoulders, and my back, then looked up at the ceiling. Focusing a bit told me which direction the sun would move, and thinking just a little bit about a map told me which side of the gap was south. I reached out with my longest tentacles, because the rest just plain wouldn't reach, no matter how I stretched them.

I rose into the sky as I did, just to get a better look, and once I had enough tentacles in place, started slowly, carefully, gently eroding the south edge of that gap. By the time I felt Hel return, I'd widened it to maybe triple its original width, at least on the western end where I could apply more tentacular mass. After making sure my work wouldn't result in cave ins, I withdrew my tentacles and descended to the courtyard, reveling in the thin morning light.

"Hey, sis. Have fun with the 'rents?" She smiled, rolling her eyes.

"Despite you being adopted, I still see you in him."

"Oh, hey, no, that would be incest."

"And yet again you prove my point." I laughed as I stopped Mimicking her and reached my arms out again. She might have rolled her eyes and shook her head just a little, but she stepped into the hug. Kinda reminded me of the time Saffron shapeshifted me to be littler than her. Hel's tit had to be bigger than my head. Then again, she's taller than Sigyn. Not surprising, what with Giants on both sides for parents. If anything, it's surprising she's so short.

Then again, maybe she inherited his shapeshifting and went around closer to human sized to make everybody in Hel feel better, like the person watching over them was more Human than the Gods who had exiled her and them here. She got into the hug enough to let me know that she definitely had her parents Giant strength. Not sure if her mom was a Jotnar here and now or not, but I'm pretty sure she was still a giant. At any rate, headed home for breakfast at that point.

No shot glass of flour for Tabitha, but Marie did very pointedly set a waffle in front of me and insist I eat the whole thing. By the end of it, I wasn't sure if it was just general happiness at my awesome life or Fae Grain, but I wound up being in a great mood when I picked up Larry and Bonnie. Stepped them both to class, then hit Basic Heroics Two, only to find Hero Castro behind the desk. I nodded hello to her, then sat down in my desk and waited for everybody to get there.

When they did, she stood and said, "good morning, Class. I'm Hero Castro, and I'll be filling in for Marshall duBois, who has other duties today. As this is the second week of Basic Heroic Skills Two, I assume you're all still working on Lullaby?" When we all nodded, she said, "excellent. I'll demonstrate for you; sometimes seeing a different person Shape Mana can help you understand how the Mana's supposed to be Shaped." Three things of note.

First, I paired up with Sarah when nobody else seemed really confident enough to do so. Second, watching someone Shape Mana was still the coolest thing that I'd had happen in a while. Third was less good. Least good. Not good at all. Because despite my recent amnesia and my shitty memory in general, I still remembered the last time the Marshall wound up having someone else teach his class for him.