Chương 589: Day Five Hundred And Eighty-Seven

Dear Diary, It's strange. Part of me thinks that Conrad is softening up. Learning. Becoming less 'serial killer' and more 'edge lord'. I'm not sure how much that's me observing changes in him now that he's not allowed to give in to his worst impulses, how much is him using his behavior to manipulate me, and how much is me seeing what I want to see.

I wish I could say exactly how much of each is happening, but short of doing something as heinous as making him one of my High Clergy then forcing him to tell me which it is, I got nothin'. Seriously. I'm not gonna do that. If nothing else, I gotta set a good example for my daughter, who has already nabbed herself two High Priestesses. Marie I could maybe see being voluntary. Maybe even Murder Mittens' idea, since it gives her that much more ability to keep tabs on our little Menace.

Hell, she's Isnomi's Godmother, it just makes sense that she'd accept that kind of thing. At least I hope that's what happened. With Diana, I got no real clue, but I suspect Menace didn't so much 'ask' as 'assume'. At least Diana doesn't seem too put out by it. Maybe at some point in the near future I should check, just to be sure. Hell, Diana's the She-Bear, right? Maybe she'd have some insight into the whole Dire Bear situation we've got going on.

Worst case, I go see her and she says her life is sunshine, roses, and endless orgasms since the Menace anointed her. Even if that last one would be weird. Then she tells me she knows nothing of Dire Bears. Okay, neither of those is terrible, even if one is a weird flavor of squick flavored, which gets even worse when I think about that fact that Menace can look through Marie's eyes if she's really got a bug up her butt about 'silly' things. Shit. I need to talk to her about that. After she fuckin' lands.

Yeah, of course my sociopathic bastard of a son didn't hide the fuckin' glider or anything. He carried it right in to the dining room, at which point Menace seeing it became inevitable. Once she did, she shrieked out, "FYE!" and charged at Conrad, a flying wedge of her sisters spontaneously forming behind her. I think he might have timed it specifically for when Loki and Sigyn arrived, but that might just have been sheer random chance. Really.

Credit where it's due, he held the glider above his head and called out, "only once you're all properly attired." Did that mean blood pressure wound up saved due to lack of flight suits for my girls? Of course not. You must be thinking of some family without Marie attending to its sartorial needs. Conrad handed me Menace's glider and set to helping each of our girls, his sisters, into their own custom sewn padded flight suits. Once they all had their suits on, he nodded to me.

"Well? Lead on, Mother Dearest." When I raised an eyebrow, he explained, "to the roof, of course, high enough for the daring to catch an updraft, low enough for the timid to glide down to the courtyard safely." I sighed and headed for the Bore. Siobhan? Could you maybe be ready in case one of them takes a tumble? Of course. When we got out onto the roof, not only had somebody cleared all the snow off, six more gliders in various glowing hues leaned against the slates.

As Conrad went over how to hook into the gliders, using Ria to demonstrate the process, Sigyn, Loki, Siobhan, Saffron, and I each took another kid to buckle them in. David and Alex both looked a little uncertain, even if Alex tried to hide it. Lindsey and Ria both just followed Conrad's instructions like he was talking about setting up a stereo. Daya was her normal inscrutable self, and Maze definitely won the prize for the best combination of excited and terrified amongst my girls.

At that point Menace walked up and pulled on my elbow. When I looked at her, she asked, "fye ad nide?" When I nodded, she looked around the sky, and I realized who she wanted. I tugged on the emergency coring tentacles, and a moment later she arrived.

"Daughter. Granddaughter."

"GAMAMA!" I guess for a two year old it had been a while. Meanwhile the rest of the kids on the roof, now buckled firmly into their gliders, looked at the ebon figure standing next to their youngest sister, impassively watching as said Menace clung to her thigh like a limpet.

"Gwanmama hep!" Domnu looked at me. I shrugged and said, "she knows how to hook herself in. Conrad, could you help her?" Watching the two of them try to have a pissing contest without upsetting Menace or me had to be the highlight of my evening. But after a few minutes she was bucked in her own self, and I turned to Domnu.

"Okay, Mother. Menace and I would like it if you accompanied her and her sisters on their flights tonight. So please keep your granddaughters safe."

"Granddaughters?" I nodded to the other six, who all looked on with various degrees of bulging eyes. She stared at each of them, muttering things like, "inferior," (at David), "unpleasant," (at Daya), and, "marginally acceptable," when she finished staring at Ria.

"Ma? Could you maybe try not to be quite such an enormous bitch?" She just stared at me, comprehension completely foreign to her.

"Yeah, okay, just keep them all safe, okay?"

"Of course." I guessed that would be the best I'd get. Before Menace got her fly on, I leaned out over the edge of the roof. First I slow rolled a Fire Bolt into the pavers of the courtyard. Not enough to damage them, just enough to warm them up but good. Then I threw the biggest fuckin' Air Shield I could over the whole damn thing. I heard somebody squeak and realized there might have been some pedestrians out for a stroll.

"Sorry!" A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"Nothing harmed but my pride!" a suspiciously Devorah-like voice called out from near the South House. I turned back to my collected daughters.

"Whenever you're ready, Menace."

"FYE!" she screamed before sprinting pell mell for the edge of the roof. As was my wont, I thanked serendipity for my lack of bowel and bladder contents to lose control over as she plummeted a few feet before catching the updraft and soaring into the air. As Domnu rose into the air alongside her, I turned to the rest.

"Okay, girls. Whenever you're ready. And if that's not tonight, it's not tonight. I think Isnomi would like it if you'd all try at least one go, though. Just so you know, the courtyard has an Air Shield. You could jump down from here without a glider and the worst you'd get is some bumps from when you slid off the edge of the Shield. So, anybody..." Alex screamed out something that sounded almost entirely like, "FLY!" Then she sprinted to the edge of the roof.

She missed her jump, but managed to catch a draft before testing that 'plummet to the courtyard and not get hurt' theory. As she ascended, Loki's voice sounded in my brain. I'll help safeguard them, daughter. With that he disappeared, but I heard the flapping of wings as something followed her. Thanks, Dad. You're the best. I know. Over the course of the next few minutes, each of my daughters launched themselves into the sky. Okay, most of them went skyward.

Lindsey didn't actually go up; instead she managed to glide across the courtyard, almost faceplanting into the West Tower before she steered around it, then sailed out into the wider valley beyond. I've got her, love. Thanks, Kitten. The only real crash of the night came from David, who tried to stop right before he went over the edge, only to have the momentum of his glider pull him over. I Translocated down to catch him, forgetting my own fuckin' Air Shield.

By the time the leading edge of his glider bonked into the front wall of the house, I'd managed to scramble to my feet and slide sideways. I reversed course and slid on my knees to scoop him up, glider and all, and carry him to the far side of the house and the edge of the Air Shield.

"You're okay, kiddo. I got you."

"I'm okay."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Just... scary. I'm... I'm 'fraid of heights." I hit the emergency releases and scooped my kid into a hug.

"Oh, sweetie. I'm so sorry. You really didn't have to."

"S'okay," came a quiet mutter from my general chest region.

"Okay like you want to try it again?"

"No thank you." I chuckled a little at that, hugging my girliest girl ever to my chest to let her know she didn't have to.

"Want me to lose your glider? We could tell everybody it got wrecked or something." David froze at that, then shook her head.

"No. No, I might want to try again. Someday."

"Just not tonight?"

"Not tonight."

"Okay then. Let's get you inside and... want to hang it up in your room?"

"Okay." I Translocated us into the hallway, then we carried David's glider into her room and hung it from some hooks that some way more prepared parent than me had already put there. I helped get her flight suit off, then said, "this is kinda sweaty; I'm gonna put it in the laundry." She murmured something, and I just snuggled her to me.

"It's sweat unless you say it's not, kiddo."

"Kay." Everybody okay out there? The children are having a grand time. Our son is taking great delight in adding gray hairs to my head. Our daughters are all well, with Marie and Siobhan standing by to assist with their landings. I'm taking David to the Bath; join us there as you get done? Of course, love. One at a time, as their desire to fly waned, our daughters trickled in to the Bath.

First Lindsey, who'd had enough of a flight with her single long glide, Saffron shepherding her and talking to her about her experience. Then Daya, who seemed a little tired, but none the worse for wear, even if Marie carried her into the room. Maze and Ria came in together, leading Siobhan and chattering to her about Healing magic. Finally Alex followed Isnomi into the room, each of them holding one of Domnu's fingers as they towed her first to the showers, then into the Bath.

Maybe I should have intervened, but honestly, after all the shit she put me through, I couldn't find enough fucks to do so. Loki and Sigyn joined us all in the Bath shortly before Panther and Brown wandered in.

"Hey, guys. Sorry, didn't mean to forget about you." They looked at each other, then broke up laughing.

"Quite all right, Champion. The women of the Homestead have been most accommodating. We just had two questions."

"Shoot."

"Should we head back to Phileo, or wait here for now. Also, were those your daughters in the sky earlier?"

"YETH!" shouted Menace, answering the second question for me, right before all of her sisters, Lindsey and David included, shouted out agreement. Laughing, I shook my head at the antics, then said, "look, you guys are welcome as long as you want to stay. We've got the extra rooms, and if you don't mind bear meat we've got food for a whole fuckin' legion. I dunno if I'm gonna be up for another run next week. So," I shrugged.

"Y'know, do as you will. Just, if you're gonna head back to Phileo? Have one of us Translocate you back, and stay in touch with the Headmaster, just in case."

"What of Silk and I?" I shrugged again.

"Same goes for you guys. Stay as long as you like. If you need an escort back to your village, just let me know, we'll figure something out. Heck, I could Translocate you there myself, I think." He chuckled.

"I think Silk might hurt me if I suggest leaving too soon." I laughed in reply.

"Yeah, I think the women might rebel if I did too. In the meanwhile, c'mon in and soak. Unless you two had somewhere to be?" Turns out they didn't. Also turns out that the Bath is big enough that I'm pretty sure we could fit everybody living in the East House into it. We all soaked and chatted and watched as the girls dropped off to sleep one at a time, at which point we carried them down and went to bed our own selves.

None of my ladies had any problems whatsoever with Grandpa Loki and Grandma Sigyn joining us for the night. The only one who might have complained about a sleepy Isnomi dragging Grandmama Domnu along as well was the Primordial of Night herself, who wisely shut the fuck up and provided extra padding for her Menace of a granddaughter. So we all settled in to sleep. Like half an hour before I had to get up to go teach class. Call me a vindictive bitch, but I decided to start teaching ballroom dancing today.

One guess which pair I had demonstrate every fuckin' thing I remembered duBois teaching us.