Chương 751: Day Seven Hundred And Forty-Nine

Dear Diary,"Agency violation, Justifies a Homicide, If there's naught else to stop it." - Tabitha Diaz, Doctrine of Tabitha, Book of Justified Homicide In this verse our Goddess once again reminds us of two things. First, that the core Justification for Homicide is the violation of Agency. Whether that is Murder, or Rape, or Slavery, if Agency can be protected or restored via Homicide, it is Justified. But she also reminds us that we ought not jump directly to Homicide.

That if we can stop the violation of Agency without Homicide, we ought do so, because Justified or not, Homicide itself reduces the Agency in the world, removes all Agency from the one killed. If they have misused their Agency perniciously, and cannot be stopped by other means, of course that is the price that must be paid, but even our Goddess herself has offered up an olive branch to those who would do her loved ones harm, if only they turn from their course.

Those who took that branch in good faith have prospered. Those who did not, died, or worse. - Priestess Most High Above All Others, Archmage Imperator Saffron Aetos-Diaz, Commentary on the Doctrine of Tabitha Yeah, I'm not sure I agree with Saffron on that last one, but given that she's so much smarter than me, she's probably right.

Still, my thought process is that while somebody's alive, and I know this is weird but 'afterlife' is almost as good for this, given what Grandma Aetos said, there's a chance they could turn things around. Seriously, if The Morrigan were to send me some kind of note saying that she's seen the error of her ways and wants to turn over a new leaf and will be a much nicer Evil Queen of the Fae than she was before... I mean, I know it would be a trap, but fuck it.

Lenny's on board with the Alliance, and if the sphincter that crushes diamonds into new and interesting states of matter can learn, I'm sure The Morrigan can too. Shit, I'm half tempted to do what I did with Lenny and sic Saffron on her. Figure by like week three she'd be coming to me all weepy and shit, asking me how to get the Cold Iron butt plug removed without it doing permanent rectal damage.

Which, lets face it, that ship has not only sailed, it has been launched into orbit and is most of the way to Alpha Centauri by now. So I want it known that while I may be a continent spanning mass of tentacles that can dead lift Florida and spot weld it back in place with nothing but the power of my enormous ass, I am still just one not particularly bright human bean, and that is my excuse for why I forgot I could Co-Locate for the past week or so since the arrival of the kittens.

I spent most of yesterday lying in bed nursing a big tray of crepes and an alternating selection of kittens. Another of me planted my ass on the divan and enjoyed the Return of Marie. When they finished up, which didn't happen until after lunch, I waved them all over and pulled them into a hug.

"Thanks, guys. I think we all kinda needed that after everything that's gone on over the past few months." They got a little sheepish over that, but Lachlan managed to mumbled out, "it was nothing, Commander." I don't know why, but that struck me as hilarious. I yoinked the two of them over to the Bath, shoving them each under a shower and Co-Locating to wash them both down, because after like eighteen hours of straight fuckin', they reeked.

Which, to be clear, I kinda liked, but not everyone has my refined olfactory palette. Some light shenanigans might have ensued, after which I delivered clean towel clad himbos to the kitchen to do cargo hauling duty before collapsing back to myself.

"Hey, Marie?"

"Yes, Vlickies?"

"D'you mind awfully if I nap until dinner and, uh, get some sleep tonight? Just swap the kittens out as needed." She reached over and caressed the side of my face.

"Sleep, Vlickies." I dropped off, no Magic or Mana or Shaping required. She woke me for dinner, which was honey braised bear steaks and bread. The bread wasn't honey braised, although I think it might have had some honey somewhere in it. Tasted good, at any rate, and I scarfed down a whole platter of that stuff. Okay, a platter of bear steak. I didn't keep track of how many loaves of bread I ate. The girls made a game out of it, loading more onto my tray when I wasn't looking. Siobhan was feeling...

not good, but compared to her long running misery, she seemed almost chipper as she focused, popped out a little Mana Blade, and made insta-toast which she buttered and fed to me. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

"Good to see you feeling better, Ice Pop." She shook her head, smiling.

"I'm not, really. But... seeing you with your babies, seeing Marie back to normal..." She trailed off, staring at the ten of us lying there on the bed, Marie and me and all our kittens. When I opened my mouth to prompt her, ask her what she was gonna say, she stuffed a half-loaf of buttered bread into my mouth. The smile on her face made the sticky chin totally worth it.

"It reminded me that this too shall pass," she laid a hand on her belly, which might maybe have just started to be not flat.

"And at the end of it? I have this kind of joy to look forward to." I chuckled around my toast loaf. As much exhaustion as joy at the moment. She smiled at me and buttered the other half of the loaf.

"Yes, well. That too is part of life. Do you regret it? Having them? Nursing them?"

"Fuck no." She nodded as if that proved her point. I guess maybe it did. Later, once all the food was gone and everybody but Marie and I and our kittens had gone up to the Bath, I fell right the fuck to sleep. Dreamt of the super chibi chefs leaping into my Maw in an endless line carrying beans and shrimp. My ladies showed up a little later, all dancing with shadowy little, I dunno, kitten ghosts? Something like that anyhow. A Great Kraken even showed up, swimming through the sea of tentacles to get to my Maw.

I'm not a hundred percent certain, but I think it might have been the Keeper. Tasted like a big old salty sour gummy worm. Something vaguely odd poked at my consciousness right near the end of the dream, but I couldn't remember what when the dream ended. Woke up feeling mostly refreshed. Like, two days after working to collapse refreshed, which I figured was the best I was gonna get what with at least one of me being a fuckin' milk production plant.

As Marie and I ate breakfast in bed, I looked at her and said, "you ready for me to get back to work?" She just looked at Anise and Calliope, who were my current occupants, and I chuckled and said, "yeah, not exactly intellectually stimulating. I'm pretty sure I can keep one of me here doing this while I get back to, y'know, doing shit." She reached out, and next thing I knew she Co-Located a pair of us to the Academy Kitchen. Then a half dozen more pairs, each of her kissing each of me.

Kinda overwhelming, especially when she spun me around, slapped me on my maid-uniform-covered ass, and said, "Get Moving." So I did. Only needed half as many of me at the Academy, what with Marie back in action. Technically I suppose I didn't need to be in the Grand Council chambers, what with Marie being there as well, back to her bodyguarding duties, but how else was I supposed to get her to sit on my lap on top of Treachery Rock, with both of us wearing The Dress of a High Priestess of Loki?

You realize that she is not, in fact, my High Priestess. Yeah, well. She's already got two Deities in her brain, why not make it three? I... Is that a threat? That sounded suspiciously like a threat. I grinned into Marie's mouth where I was kissing her and thought back, I love Mom to pieces, but when it comes to torture she's definitely an amateur compared to my Murder Mittens. Dad took so long to reply that I almost thought he'd gone away. She can wear the dress. Just don't let her talk to your mother about that.

No promises. Because you're the best. He sighed back, I know. One of me went out riding with Larry, Lachlan, Linus and the girls. Okay, the girls and Larry rode. Lachlan and Carruthers both decided to jog alongside, because none of the girls were really up to galloping yet. and we only had the one spare Nightmare. Baby isn't saddle broken yet. Dunno if Dragons can be. Fuck, that little bastard's still half feral. Think maybe I need to sit down with him and Isnomi and have a talk about shit at some point.

I realized what those little flashes of dream kitten had been when our party was attacked by the Dumbest Griffon In Atlantis™. I'm not sure what I noticed, but I snagged the idiot bird with a tentacle when it was like five feet from Alex. I think it tried to make some kind of avian screech of anger or something, which is when I gave it a harsh squeeze and a rap on the nose.

"BAD KITTY!" When I grabbed the scruff of its neck and squeezed hard enough I worried about maybe cutting off the blood flow to its supposed brain, it sagged just like a cat. At that point I caught the edges of something very like Worship from Lindsey, Daya, and David. Not, like, the mass applause I got from my congregations, and definitely not the kind of concentrated high proof stuff I got from my ladies, but it was still there.

That's when I remembered a quote from this classic movie from the late nineteen hundreds and figured it out.

'Mother is the name for God on the lips and hearts of all children'. Made me realize I'd never seen my other girls there. Which, honestly? I'm glad for. If the two big ones wind up there at some point, once they're grown assed adults, I will absolutely be honored, but right now, I'm just glad my girls see me as a Hero. And, y'know, as Mom. Although maybe I'm repeating myself.