Chương 624: Day Six Hundred And Twenty-Two

Dear Diary, Y'know, I'm not sure if I'm happy about mentoring Vickerson or not. I mean, she's definitely one of the most talented Cadets in her class, especially when it comes to paying attention to big picture stuff and getting people working as teams and units rather than collections of individuals. Shit, she managed to get Citron and Hildegarde acting more or less in concert, and those two hated each other.

They might even still hate each other, I'm not sure, but, and this is the important part, even if they do still hate each other, they like her more than they hate each other. As a second string for that bow, and I hope I'm not messing that phrase up, and this might actually be part of that big picture thing, she's got tremendous situational awareness, at least in terms of combat.

Really, it goes beyond combat and covers 'conflict', because when Lenny sat her down and taught her to play chess yesterday, she knew when she was screwed. Like, not just 'oh, I'm facing the great General Leonard Lancaster in a strategy game', either. Seriously, she got herself some brain food in the form of waffles, then Leonard suggested retiring to what he referred to as the 'Lord's floor', the big old boy's club on the top floor of the House.

Although I think I remember hearing at some point that it's not actually the top floor of the deeper parts of the House; there's an attic where they store shit like furniture and weapons that don't need much maintenance. At any rate, he sat down and, when she said she didn't know the game, he reviewed how each piece moved, then just started playing against her. Like half a dozen moves in, she shook her head and said, "can we start over?" He slow blinked, then said, "why?"

She looked down at her pieces, very much not willing to meet his gaze, and said, "I... I'm not sure how I messed up, but I'm pretty sure I've lost." At that point I'd been kinda sitting with Larry and Bonnie and Lachlan. I was keeping half an eye on my protégé, which still feels weird to say, Larry was watching quietly along with me, and Lachlan and Bonnie were gossiping about what was going on in the Ladies' Quarters.

Like, Lachlan filling Bonnie in, because apparently while he sat around waiting for somebody in the Quarters to need the town bike, his brain soaked up social information like a sponge. Even moreso when Carruthers wasn't with him, and according to their conversation Linus had returned to Phileo for the next Season's classes. I'd been getting a little bored watching, but when she said that, I swear my asshole puckered as Lenny actually smiled.

"Can you tell me how you're going to lose?" She grimaced and shook her head.

"I... Every move I can see to make either loses more pieces than I can take, or sets up a situation where the same thing happens." Lenny nodded.

"You're not incorrect. Do you really wish to start over?" She pursed her lips, opened her mouth, then shut it again. I nudged her, and when she looked at me, I said, "go on. I can't pretend to like Lenny, but he's a pretty fuckin' good instructor. He might already know what you're gonna say, but can't neither of us be sure unless you say it." She gave me a tight lipped smile, nodded, then turned back to Lenny, who also nodded.

"Tabby's right. At least that I cannot actually read minds. What were you going to say?"

"Before we start over, could you show me two things?" He waved a hand and nodded.

"Show me where I messed up, and how I'm going to lose?" At that point I knew the world was ending, that my Walking Ragnarok energy had straight up thrown us into an entirely different timeline, because Lenny Lancaster not only smiled again, he turned to me and said, "well done, Tabby. Bringing me this one. You seem to have a knack for finding worthy students." Before I could say reply or acknowledge the compliment, he muttered, "now if only you could stop sleeping with them."

Vickerson blushed, and he looked askance at me.

"Really, Diaz?" I dropped a shoulder in a shrug.

"Spur of the moment one time thing in the middle of last summer." He closed his eyes, sighed, and said, "of course it was." Then he turned back to Vickerson.

"I cannot tell you precisely where you 'messed up', because it wasn't one particular move. You're reacting to what I'm doing, mirroring me without true understanding, Which isn't terrible, in general, except once I realized you were doing it, I used that to guide your moves to your own disadvantage. So your mistake, such as it was, was a perhaps excusable one, being tentative and reactive rather than looking ahead from the very beginning, and acting rather than reacting." She nodded.

"Thank you, Sir. How were you going to beat me?" He nodded.

"Each of those troublesome situations you saw would have resulted in a check mate within six moves. I could play one out for you?" She nodded, so he proceeded to play both sides, talking through each move. Shit like, "your pawn takes my knight, my bishop takes your pawn, your queen takes my bishop, my knight takes your queen and you're in check, You move your king out of check, and I move my queen to place him in check mate."

Then he reset the board to the point where she forfeit and ran through a different set of moves. Then he did it again. After like the fifth set, with her following along each time, she said, "is there any way I could retrieve this?" He smirked at her.

"To beat me from that situation would require a far better player than I. I'm almost certain William couldn't do so. The Imperator? Perhaps. But then, she would never have been in such a position in the first place." She sighed.

"I'm sorry I'm not very good at this."

"Nonsense. You've never played before, have you?" She shook her head.

"Yet here we are, halfway through the game, and you're already looking two or three moves ahead to see that your situation is untenable. On a battlefield, that would be a sign that you must retreat, surrender, or change the battle in some way, like deciding that your goal is no longer forcing the enemy off the field, but damaging their army to such a degree that it is no longer capable of projecting force, even if yours is destroyed in the process."

He reset the board like some kind of fuckin' machine, slid his king's pawn forward, and said, "now. Look forward. See what I've done, attempt to counter it, certainly, but plan out your next moves as well." He nodded, and she... mirrored his pawn move. Like, slid her king's pawn right up so he could take it. So he did. She slid her queen's pawn forward the same way, and he took it again.

"Are you certain you're taking this seriously, Cadet?" She nodded and slid her bishop forward to the middle of the board.

"Check. Sir." He frowned, looked at her, and said, "are you sure you've never played before?"

"Yes, sir." He nodded, then smiled again.

"Well done." She smiled and shook her head.

"I'm sure you just let me do that to take the sting out of my last loss." He shook his head.

"I would never. No, Cadet, I fell prey to that most pernicious of flaws for those of us with talent." When she tilted her head, he said, "arrogance. Now. Are you ready to continue?"

"Yes, sir." He proceeded to play a lot more cautiously, and beat her like an hour later, while I tried real hard to look like I was paying attention, while actually sneakily Co-Locating to the kitchens to steal more waffles. When she nodded after he said, "check mate," he said, "excellent. Are you up for another game?"

"Could you point out any particular mistakes I made in that one first, sir?" I was never really a sports fan. Like, okay, I'd drool at tight ends and cheerleaders alike, but the game itself kinda bored me. Listening to commentators never made it better; instead of action I didn't understand, I was stuck watching talking heads talking about action I didn't understand. This was like that, only without the action.

I nodded, leaned on my fist, and settled in to a day of one of me keeping a serious face and watching while the other one of me wandered around Lancaster House being an absolute little chaos goblin. I stole waffles, I ate a jar of honey, I used the insta-undressing trick to steal a few pairs of underwear and slip them into the light fixtures. I stole a goat. I mean, I didn't 'steal it' steal it. Okay, I totally stole it and added it to Menace's inexplicable goat collection.

I stole a bunch of odd socks and swapped them for other odd socks in different armoires. I Blended and snuck in to watch Raven paint, and immediately had to swear myself to secrecy about what she was painting. By the end of the day I'm sure I'd driven Oscar nuts with the ongoing reports of minor mischief. Eventually Lenny said, "well. This has been entertaining for me and instructional for you, I hope."

"I... I think I see how this could be applied in the field, sir." He gave her a flat look and said, "I hope you don't expect people to take turns on a battlefield." She shook her head.

"Oh, no, sir. But the idea of concentration of forces, planning responses to enemy actions, then manipulating them to take the actions you're prepared to respond to..." she trailed off. He just nodded.

"Just so. When next we meet, I'll be prepared to begin your actual instruction."

"Thank you, sir." He stood, shook hands with her, then nodded to me.

"Tabby." I stood, collapsed into myself, and smiled real big as I stuck out a hand to shake.

"Thanks, Lenny!" He shook my hand then headed for Lachlan's bedroom. Well, I guess his bedroom, since Lachlan had been using the Lord's suite last time I was here. I turned to Vickerson and said, "Time to get you back home. Maybe even in time to get a nap in before Cadet Brat gets home and starts keeping you up all night." She looked at me.

"Cadet Brat, Ma'am?"

"Your roommate?" She blushed a little and chuckled at me as she took my hand.

"Oh, she's not that bad most of the time. Six days out of the week, she's a model Cadet. A full Cadet, and she's only been here three Seasons. It's just... she's very devout." I gave her a little bit of a hairy eyeball as I stepped her back to her dorm room.

"She follows you specifically in your aspects of Passion and Ecstasy, Ma'am." I took a deep breath, wondering how to respond to that, and got hit with a lungful of leftover Brat funk.

"Oh, man, haven't the Maids been in here?" Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

"It's her laundry, Ma'am." When I looked askance at that, she explained.

"She volunteered at the Temple most of the week. She wore that same uniform all week," she nodded to the pile that most of the reek came from.

"And stopped in just long enough to switch into a... I'd say scandalous outfit, but..."

"Yeah, New Years at the Temple of Love is kinda clothing optional, so skimpy isn't really gonna stand out." She nodded.

"Yes, Ma'am." She paused, obviously a little conflicted, then said, "at any rate, the Maids can't come in during our Devotional Day, and she dropped that off not long before then." I shook my head.

"Like I said. Brat." She chuckled.

"I guess. Maybe a little."

"So. What aspect do you Worship me in? Or did you just pick me to get rested up on Fridays before PT and CT on Saturday and Sunday?"

"I..." She kinda froze up, trying to speak but unable to. Almost so quietly I couldn't hear it, a whisper of, you, Ma'am, in the back of my head.

"Kinda thought you'd be all about Agency, or maybe Justified Homicide or something, what with the ripped up armor there on your altar."

"You did that, Ma'am," she whispered. When I blinked at her, before I could ask what she was talking about, she said, "my issue Cold Iron chain shirt. It... bothered you."

"Oh! Uh. Yeah. I was really in a mood that day." I chuckled, trying to make light of it.

"Sorry about that?"

"About what?"

"Y'know. Didn't give you much of a choice there. Kinda forceful." She shook her head.

"Ma'am, you were beyond words, and yet you brought the Imperator herself to make sure I... I consented. I wanted." Want. I snorted, put a hand on her shoulder, and said, "Hey. Don't get all hung up on that. She's my wife. She's my better half. I bring her in a lot when I'm not sure what I'm doing is, y'know, okay or horrifying. I'm just glad you enjoyed it." I shot her a lopsided smile.

"Hope you're enjoying your current situation at least that much." When she gabbled wordlessly, I said, "hey, like I said, nothing wrong with it. I heartily approve. Also, if you ever need any advice, remember." I jerked a thumb at myself.

"Mentor. Who has done the deed with more than one person at a time a time or three."

"I... I... I..."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just leaving the offer open. I'll see you next week?"

"Yes, Ma'am!" With that I stepped home. Dinner was some good bear steaks. I realized that unlike this time last year, we wouldn't be eating nothing but re-worked leftovers until first harvest. Lots of bear, but not much in the way of leftovers. In the Bath, Saffron floated over, her eyes closed as she bumped into me.

"Love?" I slipped an arm around her, sank a bit, and pulled her over me, sliding my other arm around to lay both of my forearms on her belly.

"S'up, Kitten?"

"Do you intend to continue attending services at your Temple?" That kinda floored me.

"Do you mean, like, as an observer, or like we did on New Years?" I felt her grin even without looking.

"I mean like you did, Goof."

"You mean showing up as Mimic?"

"In part. But also giving of yourself to your Worshippers." I lay there, enjoying the feel of her against me.

"I'm past feeling guilty about it, but... it's still so weird."

"Which part? That your Worshippers feel no fear when you reveal that you are Mimic Incarnate, because you have shown them that even if you are a monster, you are their monster, the one that protects them from all the lesser fiends of the world? Or the part where earlier in the day they'd seen you put another before you, gave her the spotlight that was your due, all to see her smile?" I snickered a little.

"Think she did a little more than smile." Saffron shook her head, and I loved the feel of her hair gently swishing against me.

"For most of the evening you had her facing the congregation, love. For a time I watched through Karen's eyes..."

"Hey, weren't you putting on a show for me right then?" Again my Kitten's smile lit up the Bath.

"Why bother with some fantasy to spur me to ever greater performance for you when what Karen watched was as erotic a show as I'd ever imagined?" She rolled over, looked me in the eyes as her magnificent mammaries made it hard to focus.

"Did my performance in any way disappoint you, love?"

"Not in the slightest. Point taken." She nodded.

"Your Worshippers saw a Goddess whose entire focus was not on her own enjoyment, but on suffusing a Mortal, her Concubine, one whose position under Aphrodite would have been little more than a toy, with as much pleasure as she could possibly survive. Using nothing but that, you pushed her beyond even what she thought she could do, and it was Glorious, love. Then, when she finally slipped and failed, rather than tossing her aside, you gently swept her up and took her home."

"Not right away."

"Love, her whispered words at the end did not pass Karen's notice or mine.

'Please, Goddess, do not allow me to disappoint you'. Enthusiastic Consent to being used if I've ever heard it." I opened my mouth, although I'm not sure what I was gonna say, because then she whispered, "It was intended as such when I whispered it after you finished with Karen later. And when she screamed it with her last conscious breath shortly before."

"Uh..." She smiled at me softly.

"Oh, by then I knew you would likely erase my consciousness by suffusing me with more Ecstasy than I could contain, but I meant what I said. As did Karen. As did Siobhan. As did, I'm guessing, Tallulah and the Priestesses who came after her." She shook her head, obviously affectionately amused.

"There was a line of supplicants watching what you did to the ones who came before, desperately hoping they'd get their turn before the Revel was done." That... I dunno, something about that hit home when the rest hadn't.

"They were waiting in line?" She smiled.

"Well, not so much standing in a line. But they were seated in the closest seats, watched over by your one High Priestess who chose not to participate. Very politely, but very eagerly." She kissed me, long and slow, and when she pulled away, said, "they'd all seen what you gave your partners. They'd seen you shift for Karen, embodying precisely what she desired. They watched you do the same for me."

"Hey, I just dropped the boy mode when you asked."

"Did I ask, though?"

"I mean, no, but you were, y'know, looking like you wanted tits for a headrest."

"I did. You did. You were perfect, love. I'm still not certain if it was just you being you, or you being you empowered by the faith and Worship of your congregation. But I have no doubt that if we asked Tallulah, you were as perfect for her as you were for me. The other Priestesses would likely say the same. Those that are capable of more than nodding and drooling as of yet, at any rate."

"Make me sound like some kind of drug." She brought her mouth to my ear and breathed out, "the very best, holiest kind, my love." I sighed, then chuckled a little at myself for sighing about, y'know, the situation I found myself in.

"So my reward for all that work is..." My Kitten nodded, chuckling.

"Ever more work, yes." She sighed, absolutely a put on.

"I suppose I shall have to resign myself to waiting at home and watching."

"What if I want you along?" She shook her head.

"Oh, no. Sadly, my training and Titles mean it takes far too long for you to do unto me as you did unto us all the other night. It would be patently unfair of me to yet again leave so many unblessed by your touch at the end of the Revel for lack of time." I scrunched up my face at that.

"I could Co-Locate?" She shook her head.

"Oh, no. Not for that." She blinked, then giggled.

"So you, to not understand what made things, made you, so perfect. You. One of you. Absolutely focused on the Worshipper in front of you, pouring every ounce of Worship you received from them and everyone watching into making their experience as blissful, as Divine as possible. No, love. If you choose to attend, to give of yourself like that? One of you, focused on whichever of them is with you in that moment." I sighed. Set my shoulders.

Tried really hard not to laugh at how I was looking at this as, y'know, Serious Business and work to be done.

"Um, how often are we talking?" She nodded, understanding.

"There are of course impromptu Revels, but as for things that are scheduled, that would be every Freyday evening for a weekly Revel, plus the nights of the New and Full Moons." At my questioning look, she explained, "Karen started doing it as a sort of respectful thank you to Diana's Clergy for assisting with the Temple reconstruction, and it sort of stuck. I think some of your faithful lack the ability to make it to the Freyday Revels, so having two others in any given month is convenient for them."

"Okay. Cool. Um... so that's six nights a month?" She nodded.

"Plus of course the Solstices and Equinoxes. Although you need not be there for the entire day long Revel. Except it would likely be for the best if, barring some reason why not, you were there for the entire New Years Revel on the Spring Equinox." I pouted a little.

"Siobhan's birthday is New Years."

"Oh, no. She will have to accept the gift of bliss beyond Mortal comprehension and Endurance." I snerked.

"Every year." I tried to say something, and she Grinned and glanced over at where Siobhan just floated, serene smile undisturbed as Saffron plotted out her every birthday for the foreseeable future.

"Until the year her body inevitably finally fails, and forevermore she is bound to your Bedroom, where bounds of Mortality can no longer limit her Ecstasy." I snorted, vaguely annoyed, but mostly still amused.

"Okay, I am not going to murderfuck Darling now or in the foreseeable." Without moving Siobhan murmured, "but if I Consent, and my body simply cannot survive what I so dearly desire, how is that murder? You are even a Psychopomp. My Soul would go from Ecstasy in life to Ecstasy in the afterlife, with hardly a pause in between. I would rejoice eternally if that were my fate." I shook my head, reminding myself that 'death by dysentery' wasn't just an Oregon Trail thing here and now.

Dying mid-fuck really didn't sound so bad compared to that, especially when, as she said, she was absolutely certain that said fuck would, in fact, be continued the moment she got to her eternal rest. Which would just so happen to be in my Bedroom.

"Still boggles my mind that somebody as sweet and kind as you would be so stuck on somebody as, y'know, rough and tumble as me."

"I think it's your purity, Tabitha."

"Whut?" Saffron nodded.

"It's true. So much of what you do, almost all of it, really, you're so in the moment. You're then, and there, not anywhere else."

"Yeah. Hyperfocus is a thing. Guess it's... Whoa. Never actually thought about the conjunction of 'hyperfocus' and 'ringing somebody's downstairs doorbell' before." I paused while they both chuckled quietly.

"I, uh, guess that maybe... Lines?" They both nodded.

"Some people didn't get a turn?" They both shook their heads.

"Okay then. I, uh... Can somebody else manage the lines? I don't think I could be impartial." Both of them laughed. Marie chuckled in the back of my head. Fuck, Karen and Tallulah did too. Saffron just smiled and said, "as our Goddess wishes, so let it be." Let it be so, all of them chorused in my brain.

"So, uh... Six or seven nights a month?" Saffron nodded, using my breasts as pillows as she smiled.

"You sure you're not gonna be jealous?" My knees bent, my feet dropping to the floor of the Bedroom where they dangled over the end of the bed.

"Why would I be jealous?" She rooched around until she lay with her back to me, then sat up, pulling me along with her.

"Why would any of us be, when after all we have you to ourselves the other twenty days?" I looked over her head and got a look at the two of us in the mirror. Yeah, that... wow. Hell of a view.

"Now?"

"Please?" Right about then Siobhan settled onto the Divan.

"Me next!"

"Are you certain you don't want to go first again?" Saffron asked. Siobhan shook her head, droplets of water spraying around the room from her still sopping hair.

"I never did get to watch."

"Such a forward, demanding Concubine." Siobhan blushed a little, opened her mouth, and Saffron cut her off.

"Perfect. Absolutely perfect. Good Girl." Siobhan blepped. I guess partners do pick stuff up from one another.

"Oh, hey, ladies?" I did a little subtle shuffling in my brain.

"Is Marie busy?"

"She's putting the children to bed. Should we invite her? Just to watch, since she's abstaining until our wedding night?"

"Not quite yet. Before she gets here, time to brainstorm." The two of them looked the same question at me.

"Oh, c'mon. The woman has multiple thousand years on all of us put together. We absolutely need to plan this shit out and team up on her to blow her big old tigress brain."

"Hmm..." Saffron pondered while she slowly shifted us around for maximum viewing distraction.

"You do. We'll brainstorm." What else could I say? They're the smart ones, after all.

"Yes, dear." Y'know, I haven't gotten a lot of sleep since that fuckin' Dragon died, but I'm not missing it like I did before then. Might be some of that Dragon Power. Might also be that being Worshipped while I bang my Worshippers brains out isn't quite as stressful as fighting ever larger Dire Bears and running cross country. Realized I didn't have any classes to teach when I got to the Academy. At that point my newest Nefarious Gremlin Plan took shape.

Now and then I'd followed a Marie around as she did her Maid thing at the Academy, but today... Today I followed all of her around. Each and every Marie, everywhere she was. Transporting Alliance dignitaries. Bodyguarding Saffron in the Grand Council Chamber. Ferrying Jotnar to Mega Bear's carcass to begin breaking it down. Watching and playing with our kids. Prepping meals at the Homestead. Doing the same at the Academy. Multiples of her doing that alongside at least a dozen of her sisters. Gathering laundry.

Cleaning rooms. Washing laundry. Coordinating the Maids and Smiths and Orderlies and even the Faculty, because at the end of the day it was, after all, her Academy more than any other single person in the whole fuckin' Alliance. At the end of the day, when she collapsed down to a handful of her, I tugged at her sleeve.

"Mittens?"

"Vlickies?"

"Are you doing anything you couldn't set aside until tomorrow?" She tilted her head.

"I... I want you all to us tonight. And, y'know, on our wedding day? Just one of you. All of you. Right there at the altar with us." A grin slowly stretched its way across her face.

"After?" I wrapped my hands around her arms and pulled her down, face to face with me.

"One of you. One of you, and the three of us totally focused on making that one of you the most utterly blissful bride in the history of brides." That earthshaking rumble of a purr shook the room.

"okay"