Chương 796: Day Seven Hundred And Ninety-Four

Dear Diary,"Do not fear having Children, Feed, Protect, and Educate, Your best is all you can do." - Tabitha Diaz, Doctrine of Tabitha, Book of Children In this Verse of the Book of Children our Goddess makes it clear that she understands the challenges of raising Children, especially raising them while respecting their Agency, yet still keeping them safe from not only the world around them, but from the seeming inherent self-destructive nature of Children themselves.

Those raised in an appropriately child safe environment know nothing of real danger, and in testing their boundaries may find boundaries not imposed by parental preferences or even social or moral limitations, but by the normally immutable laws of nature. Tabitha knows this, as parent of our children, and the one who spends perhaps more time with them than any other single one of us. She Glories in their discoveries, their joy, their growth.

She finds her own joy in their essential nature, but she understands their nature as well.

So in this Verse she tells us that so long as we do all that we can to Nurture our Children, providing them with what they need to grow, whether they like it or not, Defend them from all that might seek to do them harm, which includes themselves often as not, and Teach them as much as quickly as they can learn it, so they might grow into mature, healthy adults who use their Agency Mindfully, she will not hold our failures against us.

As I have heard her say, all we can do is all we can do, and when we fall down, we just have to get back up and try again. - Priestess Most High Above All Others, Archmage Imperator Saffron Aetos-Diaz, Commentary on the Doctrine of Tabitha Yeah, I know I say 'wow' a lot when I read my Kitten's Commentary on the Doctrine, but, I mean, look at it!

Seriously, she takes stuff that's mid at best, written to try and get people thinking about how to be better people while simultaneously pressing my joy buzzer, and turns it into actual Life Coaching. Sometimes I think the Commentary is a better Doctrine than the Doctrine.

Then I realize that whole deal about the culture here and now, and how it will change, and how hopefully, years, decades, or even centuries in the future people will look at this like Gen Z looking at things saying 'don't open strange links' and say 'duh'. Not only did she absolutely nail my point about kids, where the responsibility of their parents is to make sure they've got what they need to grow, including a safe place to do so, but she also nailed the whole part about me knowing that shit ain't easy.

Seriously, the kits have been noodling around doing that kitten 'I can walk, really' around the bedroom over the past couple days, and I've been distracted and tearing my hair out as I try to kit proof the room. Which, to be fair, is pretty kit proofed as it is. Not perfectly by any means, but the rugs on the floor are soft and thick, the mattress is a mattress, and not to put too fine a point on it, I'm pretty sure their little kitten skulls are harder than the wood that most of the curved walls are made of.

Then after nailing her interpretation of the Verse, she adds in that bit at the end. All you can do is all you can do, and then the Aliyah quote that I don't remember telling her, but I probably did at one point over the past couple years. I really hope people reading that will take it to heart. Hell, I suspect for at least the current adult generation, a lot of them will wind up having it read to them.

I never really got the whole 'pastor up front reading from the book while we read along in our seats' bit of church. Seriously, I can read so much faster than that, and the 'insights' coming from the pulpit were, at best, superficial. At worst they wound up being utter bullshit takes based on what turned out to be mistranslations. But I guess in a society where plenty of the folks in the cheap seats can't actually read, having parable time with Priestess Cherry might make some kind of sense. Shit.

I don't know if Cherry can read and write. I mean, I'm pretty sure he can, but 'pretty sure' is not enough to justify putting him on the altar with the Commentary on his adorable little lap and having him read to the congregation. Yet another one of those things I really hope I've got time for. Another thing I wish we could get our shit straight, so I can take care of little shit like that. Not unimportant shit.

Just little shit that won't destroy the fabric of society or reality if I don't fix it, but fuck if I could just make each and every one of those little things like that right, maybe both of those fabrics would be cleaner, sturdier, less likely to tear themselves apart into little awful pieces. So yesterday after giving Karen and Marshall duBois the quick and dirty Rules of Engagement if shit went sideways in Boltophsberg, I took both of them to visit Swanson on the Black Dragon to coordinate things.

Mostly because if shit did go sideways, I was pretty certain I'd wind up right in the thick of that shit, in no shape to be the bitch in charge. Karen left one of her behind on the Questing Tentacle, because Murphy and his hotboxing harem the Fates would love to start shit in Boltophsberg the moment we don't have some kind of general command authority in communication range. I thought about that after stepping the Marshall back to the QT and hopping home.

While part of me is absolutely uncertain about the ethics of my High Priestesses being what amounts to General Officers in the Alliance Military by default, the fact is that they're the only ones with instantaneous communication with the Imperator. I'm not exactly a military genius... Fuck, I'm barely a trained military officer... Fuck. I just realized.

I keep thinking I'm utterly unqualified for some of the shoes I fill, for some of the hats I wear, but at the end of the week, after I spend a night letting people bare their Souls to me and doing whatever it takes to bring their neurotransmitter levels to a healthier balance, which usually means injecting some dopamine and oxytocin, I spend the next day teaching math. Because my shitty High School education back in the day taught me shit that is cutting edge here and now.

My ROTC class may not have been fuckin' West Point, but I did pass, and learned a bunch of mostly random shit culled from the United States Army's institutional knowledge. Fuck. On toast. Because eventually, at some point, I am going to realize that for all intents and purposes, I have completed all the course work to graduate from the Phileo City Heroic Academy. And that is not 'Academy' in the sense of fancy High School.

That's Academy in the sense of West Point, or Annapolis, or whatever the fuckin' Air Force Academy is called. Now I'm wondering whether the Coast Guard had an Academy, and what it was called. Also kinda wondering if the Space Force ever got its shit in gear, or if it's still a bit of a paper tiger. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. At any rate, saying that I'm not a trained military officer is absolutely false.

I may not be very good at some parts of it, but I've had training. The training might be sorta weird, based more on military tradition than military science, but I still finished it. So I guess me saying that 'communication is key to theater wide coordination' is the opinion of a trained military officer. Also, it just makes fuckin' sense, since if you can't see somebody to coordinate with them without talking, you gotta communicate with them somehow.

Tradition and common training only goes so far, and it usually also winds up with all follow on forces getting cornholed when they do the exact same thing as the group that got there first. At any rate, felt some kinda way when I got home, but spent some time feeding the kits meat mush improved my outlook on everything anyhow.

Funny thing, we now have to have the doors to the dining room shut during dinner, because not only are the kits stumbling around on all fours like kittens do, a certain kitten who will not be named but looks a lot like my daughter Anise kept making mad dashes for freedom, followed by her partner in crime Felicia. When I got up to the Bath with my ladies around me, I murmured, "sitrep on the north in the Bedroom, ladies?" A few moments later three of us lay on the Bed.

Before I could flop backward my Kitten had a pillow and bolster behind me. A moment later she and Tallulah snuggled in on either side of me.

"Uh, little snug for a briefing?"

"Hush, you. We don't get nearly enough time like this." I realized right then that in the Bath I had Siobhan and Marie to my sides, leaving me in the same position in both places. I chuckled.

"Why me in the middle though?"

"Goddess," whispered Marie, and I shut my mouth about that.

"Okay then. Settle in, this might take a bit." I pushed my Blend up around the Bedroom, then spent the next while reviewing everything I'd learned from Baba Yaga, with bits and pieces from Danica, duBois, and even Ivan where something they'd said contrasted somehow. I'm not sure how coherent I was, because by halfway through it felt more like a gossip session than a proper briefing. Then again, that's absolutely how Baba had relayed the information to me.

At that point first Saffron, then Tallulah started asking questions. Clarifications. Some of them, even most of them, I had the deets on, but even where I didn't, they seemed to get something from that, too. Eventually I kind of petered out.

"You're sure that's everything?"

"Oh, hell no, Kitten. I'm still me." The two of them sighed in unison, looked at each other, and shared a laugh.

"Yes, Tabitha. You are in fact still you." Any kinda way I might have felt about that got squashed by her leaning in and kissing me until all thought of feeling that kinda way went away. When she pulled away, she and Saffron shared another look. After a bit, Saffron nodded to Tallulah.

"You first."

"Why?"

"Because technically I still outrank you, and I don't want you telling me what you think I want to hear?" Tallulah nodded like that made perfect sense. Which I guess it did.

"Fair. Someone is fomenting unrest."

"We knew that already," Saffron said, but she didn't sound put out.

"Yes, but this is someone we've yet to place."

"How so?" Tallulah shook her head.

"I've spent thousands of years maneuvering in Fae Courts. I couldn't tell you exactly why, and it's possible I'm mistaken, as Boltophsberg is both Not Fae and also Not Alliance, but there are patterns." I snorted.

"Pattern recognition machines." When the two of them looked at me, I said, "Human, Human Adjacent, we're all just pattern recognition machines."

"Fair. At any rate, the patterns here indicate that Vyenemoinen is attempting to initiate a governmental changeover, likely with a change of Pantheon, as that is his typical procedure. His wives are each attempting to stabilize things, but they are amateurs next to him, and they're not trying to maneuver to a stable state, simply one where their faction has enough power to impose their will on the City."

"Okay, I didn't see that, but okay. Kitten?"

"I agree so far. Go on, Tallulah." T nodded.

"As you wish. The Mortals in the situation appear to be cat's paws, although they are each putting their own spin on things. Danica, for instance, is attempting to defuse hostilities, while her Patron is acting to undermine her efforts, or even force them to backfire."

"Should have hit him harder."

"Indeed. Go on, Tallulah." My Fae lady nodded, then said, "all that comes directly from what you've said, but there is... Something. Many of the small provocations aren't connected to any of them. Worse, the provocations in question..." She trailed off. At that point Saffron nodded.

"Vyenemoinen, and through him Lemonkyenin, are attempting to foment a rebellion that will burn itself out quickly, with little longstanding rancor after the fact. Whoever is adding these apparently small, but extremely polarizing provocations into the mix wants more than that."

"You think they're tryna overthrow Vyenemoinen?" She shrugged, frowning.

"Possibly. But then they would be working to build up whatever power base they had, and that's... Not happening."

"Think it's maybe the Spartans or something?"

"Possibly. Possibly. But..." I almost asked, but Tallulah cut in.

"Spartans tend not to be subtle. They'll lie, but it's usually a direct lie, or perhaps a creative interpretation of facts, like Garland claiming Phileo caused the Plague, or Oliver Orange claiming Phileo worshipped Mimic."

"Uh. They kinda do, now?"

"Yes, but they didn't then." I sighed.

"So I gotta go looking for whoever's tryna turn the quick and dirty exchange of power into a bloodbath." Both of my ladies nodded, and I collapsed us back to the Bath.

"Fuck it. I'm gonna, but I need a day to think. To breathe. To play with the girls and the kits." I looked at them, first one, then the other.

"Do I have that much?" They all smiled at me, and Siobhan said, "I'm sure these two will find a way to keep things together if not." Dreamt of all my ladies having a conference about Boltophsberg while floating in my Maw. Naked. Which left me utterly clueless with whatever they decided, but fuck it. I wasn't kidding that I needed a day, because if I went in as tense as I had been, I'd just make whatever bloodbath somebody had planned worse. So today I took the kits out in the Courtyard. The girls came with me.

Alex, Lindsey, Maze, and Ria played chase and pounce with Borysthenis, Calliope, Erato, and Garde. Marie did the same, only with maybe a little more skill on the pouncing, with Anise and Felicia. Meanwhile David, Daya, and Isnomi all encouraged Isadora to get up and trundle around. They even tried getting her to walk on two feet, to moderate success.

By late in the afternoon, with David holding one hand and Daya holding the other, Isadora, who had to be nearly as tall as her two older sisters already, toddled after Menace as she backed her way to me. Of course, my little Hailee sat with me most of the day. I started out trying to get her to walk to me on all fours, and she did, but she got the saddest eyes when I backed up, so I let her come to me.

I took her hands in mine and helped her take a few very unsteady steps before she did the same, and I just picked her up, set her in my lap, and played color commentator on everything her sisters were doing. She wasn't getting chonk, she didn't seem like she couldn't walk on four legs or two, she just desperately wanted to be held close to me, to sit in my lap.

Then, right at the end of the day, as Menace led Isadora, arms stretched out, toward me escorted by David and Daya but not holding their hands, Isnomi shouted out, "Mama! Mama! Look! Ithadowa's Walking!" That kinda floored me, but not nearly as much as the tiny voice from the kitten in my lap saying, "Mama? Mama."