Chương 811: Day Eight Hundred And Nine

Dear Diary, So as of yesterday, Boltophsberg has a constitution. Like, I can't tell if they're a constitutional monarchy, or a democratic republic, or what, but they've got a whole assed constitution with laws for everything that everybody involved seems to think is okay. I'm not sure I followed all the details, because my big contribution was punching Perun in the taint until he stopped trying to derail shit and got with the program.

Eventually had to pull him aside and figure out what his major malfunction was, to get him inside the tent pissing out instead out outside pissing in. Total coincidence that three days later they've completed the fuckin' thing and signed off on it. Entirely not a coincidence that I've got a stunningly incomplete understanding of their new government. Long story short, much like Phileo City, the churches and guilds have a lot of influence. Not quite the same, and Vyenemoinen is...

Not 'monarch for life', because the word wasn't quite 'monarch', but still, he's the official Head of State. Also, he's a fuckin' Deity, so the whole 'for life' thing doesn't apply. Lest it be misconstrued, I'm not super copacetic about the whole 'Immortal Ruler of a Mortal Population'. On the other hand, Tallulah. Who is now more immortal than just Sidhe, but is clearly the Overlord of Rich Man's Port.

Of course, some of the population of Rich Man's Port are also Sidhe, and I'm pretty sure some of the other Fae are age optional beings, which means at least part of the population isn't Mortal. Well, no more Mortal than she was prior to becoming hooked into the Global System. I'm not entirely sure why Saffron did that, but I am almost certain it wasn't entirely to make sure I had at least two partners who wouldn't age out on me or otherwise wind up dead when I needed someone there to support me.

Yeah, dunno why, just feeling kinda depressed for no good goddamned reason today. Maybe it's the crash after being on for so long dealing with Boltophsberg, but somehow I doubt it. Seriously, I stayed vigilant way longer during the Siege of Calverton, and didn't crash this hard afterward. Then again, long before I hit the point I would have crashed, Ria threw her Blessing on me. So maybe I would have crashed, super hard even, but it got short circuited. Fuck if I know.

All I know for sure is that Boltophsberg now has a government, we're officially Not At War with them, and Ophelia and Lenny are sticking around there to work out a preliminary treaty to that effect. A long term mutual defense pact as well, what with our whole reason for giving a shit about them being that they're a port Sparta could land troops at. I mean, our reason for giving a shit about their government.

I give a shit about the kids there, because kids, and I'm pretty sure a lot of the folks in the Alliance give a shit about them for completely selfish reasons, and maybe even a few of them give a shit for altruistic reasons too. But I guess maybe I've grown up enough to realize that governments do shit for pragmatic, practical reasons aligned with self-interest, and the difference between what I think of as a 'good' government and a 'bad' government is who is included in that 'self'.

The broader that 'self' is, the better I think it is, to be clear. So two days ago Saffron and Tallulah rewrote a major portion of the magical infrastructure of the planet. I'm pretty sure it's the whole planet, because secret reasons, but to be clear I haven't checked the Eastern Hemisphere yet.

At any rate, yesterday we finished up helping Boltophsberg get their shit straightened out, which meant the Black Dragon and the Tentacles could start offloading Boltophsberg citizens who had taken refuge when shit went down. Yeah, one of the hard lines we drew was a complete lack of any kind of retaliation against folks aboard those ships, since they pretty clearly just wanted to get the fuck away from the fighting.

Yeah, Ivan's kinda a weird example of that, but still, I believe Ilya, that he didn't even try to defend himself. Haven't had a chance to talk to him since, really, even though he showed up for the whole constitutional convention, but I stand by my analysis. He knew the most he could do is justify his own death, so he went the other direction just to screw with Casimir. Would not have been my choice, but mad respect for having the stones to do that.

So yesterday Saffron suggested we hit Loki's place so she could show me how to use Secret Technique: Blend Burn Status. Not what it's called. Yeah, but it's pretty baller, amirite? That got me nothing but the deep sigh it deserved. So last night dinner was mostly what I think of as 'fill in the gaps' food like soup, fried rice, and bread, plus the ubiquitous meat mush for the kits, even though they'd started stealing donated bites from their sisters' plates.

Afterward, we all rolled up to the Bath and wonder of wonders Siobhan carried Hailee over to play with the kids. Okay, it was a very gentle type of play; I think they were playing something like 'house', although I quickly lost track of it as I went to work on Kitten's back while Marie did the same for Tallulah.

"Can't believe how stressed you two are. I mean, you were..." I stopped myself, thought about what they'd been doing, and more importantly the stupid stubborn level of pushback they'd gotten on some really stupidly basic stuff like 'Universal Human Adjacent Rights'. Seriously, I do not get why anybody who thinks in a long enough time frame would be against that.

If you've got those, even if you take a tumble from the pinnacle of rulership down to near dead in a ditch, you can be sure you'll have at least those baseline things. Which, if you include housing and medical care, means you won't actually die in a ditch. Meanwhile if you don't have those, you're just building a whole class of people who hate you. People who can live on the street eating garbage and surviving whatever biochemical and meteorological warfare mother nature chooses to throw at them.

That's the self-defeating part about shit pyramid, the part that now, when I'm thinking about it, makes me think it takes a special type of stupid to build one if you're not within a few years of dying anyhow. The foundation is inherently unstable, and eventually as you try to make the top go higher without reinforcing the bottom, the whole thing falls down. Might not happen in a day. Might not happen in a year, or a decade, or even a millennium.

But, and I hadn't thought about this until recently, Phileo City was here before I came along. Yeah, they had their own pyramid, but the base of that pyramid had maybe a few grass mats and shit like that. The revolution, no matter how overdue and slow, had started. At any rate, even I'm not stupid enough to think that politicking isn't work, or that being diplomatic isn't even harder. So I finished my sentence, after a pause, with, "so calm and cool and collected out there. Both of you."

"Nice save, Goof."

"Thank you."

"Not nice enough for me to not see if I can't ride your face hard enough to break the Bed. I am in desperate need of tension relief." I redoubled my efforts on her tense muscles, bringing in a few tentacles to help.

"Kinda feel bad for Lenny and... holy shit I almost said I feel bad for Ophelia."

"Don't." Saffron seemed like she was going to say more, but I found one of those really bad knots and worked it away with my thumbs. She let out a long, low groan as she first tensed, then melted right there. When she got her voice back, she muttered out, "I think she achieves orgasm by, oh don't stop that whatever noises I make, rubbing people's noses in it when she outwits them."

"How would you know that?" I asked over her ongoing relaxation noises. When she could speak again, she managed to say, "Cailyn. Also McCann. Oh, and Weyson." I glanced at where Tallulah floated silently, visibly relaxing at the application of Murder Mittens' murder mittens.

"Cailyn?"

"She's young. Also possibly too kindhearted for politics." That made sense. Then I thought about who else was on the Grand Council. Mama Driver was far less of a pushover than somebody seeing her Kawai Overload Berserker Mode in action, but even in the middle of that she still wasn't somebody I'd even think about pissing off lightly, since she gave every indication she could butcher large herd animals the way really poor housewives butcher chickens, by just grabbing their neck and snapping.

Then I remembered the final Grand Council member.

"What about George?" I watched a satisfied smile stretch Tallulah's lips.

"Cailyn's kindheartedness only goes so far, and I am glad to know that it does not extend to those who would attempt to harm her loved ones in any way."

"Really?" She just nodded and let out the tiniest groan while I kept Saffron entirely nonverbal.

"Good for them." At the end of bath time, Marie and I carried our diplomats to bed, while the kids and kits moved in a kind of cloud around Siobhan as she followed us down. As I settled us both into bed, Saffron murmured into my brain. I'm surprised you didn't stop that rubdown entirely, Goof. Why would I do that? So I would ride your face hard enough to break the Bed? I kissed her eyelids, then snuggled in around her. I wouldn't leave you hurting for that.

Also, you can still do that, just without pain being the reason. What if I want it that way? I chuckled as she slurred her words a little. That can be arranged. I still have that flogger. Mmm... Saturday. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. My ladies took turns rubbing each other down, using the big screen like a kind of instructional video. I thought about snatching a few of them down into the depths, but decided to be lazy and let them sink as they relaxed.

Got up, got the kids ready, including a change of clothes and some sleeping gear like pillows and blankets, because as Saffron noted, time flows oddly in Dad's cave, and we might well wind up staying for a night or two. The kids startled the kits a bit by cheering for that, so Marie and I nursed them all for a bit while the kids packed. Once everybody was ready to go, we all picked up a kid or a kit or two or three and stepped to Loki's place.

Where I immediately realized that some prearrangement had been done, since there were piles of pillows and blankets there already. I looked around, feeling like something was missing, until I realized who'd been left behind.

"Ah, shit, we left Mister Slither at the Homestead." Loki waved me over, saying, "all is well, Daughter. I think he might have been cold in this cave anyhow. He seems to be taking to life at your Homestead quite well."

"You sure?"

"I'm sure." With that settled, the kids all exchanged welcoming hugs with grandma and grandpa, after which Sigyn gathered everybody except Saffron, Loki and I so the kids and kits could update her on their various goings on. Meanwhile the three of us went over to the head of Loki's bed, where Saffron began explaining how to activate the secret Status switch to burn through Blend.

"While I am not incredibly pleased that you've created something to overcome the defenses against detection provided by Blend, I'm both impressed by your work and grateful that you've kept that part of your new creation secret." Saffron nodded.

"Blend's ability to avoid detection was already imperfect, in case Tabitha's struggles with the Undead didn't make that clear to you. In any case, I suspect eventually some may learn the secret, but there is still another limiter to that aspect of the Spell, one which you ought know about."

"Go on?" Saffron made sure I was listening, then quietly explained, "along with an additional portion to the Shape, bypassing Blend requires substantial amounts of Mana."

"How substantial?" asked Loki. Saffron smiled.

"As with all Shaping and Spells, the greater the Skill, the less Mana it takes, but at baseline it requires an amount proportional to the inherent Mana of the target, increased by the target's Blend Skill."

"Whoa. Getting through your Blend is gonna be a bit of a challenge, huh?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I mean you handled all that Mana for the Status Spell, I'm pretty sure you could have handled the System Spell if you wanted to, and you have enough Blend that I don't even know how much Blend you have." Saffron just stared at me, face blank, until she snickered, snorted, and barked out a laugh. Turning to Loki, she said, "she's adorable, isn't she?" My sort of outraged, "what?" only got a similar reaction from Loki.

"No, seriously, what?" Loki leaned over.

"I don't think she used her inherent Mana for that, Daughter mine... Goddess of Saffron Aetos-Diaz, Priestess Most High Above All Others of Mimic." Yeah, my face warmed at that.

"Oh. Oh, yeah." Saffron smiled, reached out to take my hand, then took a deep breath.

"However, that does present one of the potential dangers inherent to this use of my new Status." At my focused nod, I felt multiple layers of Blend quietly go up between us and the rest of the fam. I added my own, and Saffron continued.

"As I discovered, Status is essentially reading the Aura of the one Shaping the Spell, and Inspect is using divinations to read the Status of an Aura other than the Spell Caster."

"Go on?" She nodded.

"Blend wraps around and through Auras. Auras of people, of course, but also it can be used to obscure all or part of the Aura of a place, as we're all doing now."

"Okay, so..."

"Part of what's being done is essentially temporarily burning that Blend out of existence. Like forcing an opponent's guard down by main strength." I frowned.

"That sounds... dangerous." She nodded.

"It can be. Worse, doing it gradually would likely do more damage than doing so all at once. Which, unfortunately, means that building up the Mana charge and releasing it is ironically safer for the target than building it up gradually." I still didn't like where it was going, but waved for her to continue.

"As I can tell you intuit from the look on your face, too large a charge could damage someone's Blend Skill."

"Permanently?" She shrugged.

"Possibly. If the Mana charge is great enough? Definitely. If they try to hold their Blend up instead of allowing it to go down? Almost assuredly. If you deliberately push even more Mana into the Spell? Certainly."

"Whoa. Shit. Uh, I'm suddenly not super copacetic about using this on you, Kitten."

"You will though." That got her a frown.

"Why?"

"Because I am absolutely uncertain I can apply enough Mana to successfully Inspect our daughter, Goof." I froze for a bit at that, then slumped.

"Fuck."

"That's not the worst part." At my horrified look, she continued.

"If you put even more Mana in? You could damage their Aura."

"What... what would that do?" Loki sounded a little shook, but he explained it by saying, "A person's Aura is the interface between their Soul and the world around them, up to and including their body. Skills are part of that." I shook my head.

"Aren't Skills like, part of somebody's subconscious?" He nodded.

"Isn't that part of their mind? Or Soul?"

"The mind is a facet of the Soul. Skills are part of the mind." I felt my face go still, my whole body going loose like I'd spotted something dangerous. In a way I had.

"Are you telling me I could erase somebody's Skills?" Saffron took my hand.

"Not just you, but yes. Someone with a great enough Mana disparity could erase their Skills. Their Mind. Could even scour their Aura clean."

"What the fuck would that even do?" She shrugged.

"It likely wouldn't kill them. New Souls are created all the time, and they are tabula rasa. Blank slates, clean of anything. So... If you were to accidentally throw far, far too much Mana into this version of the Spell, you could reduce someone to a newborn. Worse, really, since even newborns have Souls that are at least... Well, I suppose Marie's kits were a few months old." I took a deep breath.

"Holy shit, Kitten. Maybe Dad should handle doing this with Isnomi." He smiled and ruffled my hair. Nice having a Dad who's still Dad sized with me full grown.

"I'm sorry, Daughter, but even though I am honored by your trust, i am entirely uncertain I am strong enough."

"Shit. Uh, tell me there's some kind of way to tell?" Saffron smiled and nodded.

"Yes love. Although it's imperfect, and will require you to pay attention to feedback as you Shape, I've included indicators for each danger level. Green means that the Mana currently in the Spell will do no more than overwhelm the target's Blend. If they're actively struggling against you, possibly for a long time, but no more than that. Yellow means that the Spell contains enough Mana that the target is likely to take permanent damage, but likely only to their Blend or perhaps related Skills.

Red means the target will suffer some loss to their Aura."

"What kind of loss?"

"Blend, at a minimum. Probably other Skills. Possibly memories associated with those Skills."

"Okay then..."

"I wasn't finished. Beyond Red the color will gradually shade through Purple into Blue."

"Which means?" She took a deep breath.

"At Blue? By my best estimate, you will erase every bit of Aura the Soul has ever generated, erasing them down to their core, leaving them the mental equivalent of a newborn babe."

"Uh... is there a way to not Cast the Spell at that point?" Saffron smiled.

"Yes, love. I anticipated you might want to do that. You can either target it at some inanimate object, which might possibly have some extremely energetic side effects, or pull the Mana back into yourself, which is unpleasant, but not harmful. Well, not if you do it slowly enough."

"If I don't?"

"Then it is extremely unpleasant, and possibly harmful in the same ways as the new Status can be. Although it's unlikely to do more than temporarily incapacitate your ability to use the Spell." I frowned.

"Or I might wind up having to re learn it?" She nodded.

"Or that, I suppose. But part of doing more than that, part of erasing someone's Aura, is pouring in so much Mana that the Mana in the Spell totally overwhelms the Mana in the target's Aura." I realized her point immediately, "which is kinda rough to do to yourself. Got it."

"Exactly. Now, since I want you to be in full possession of your wits, I'll light up the Mana flows. Watch carefully." Bet that I watched every single flow like a hawk. The basic shape of Status and Identify remained the same, the triple circle, with the direction swapped followed by a lens spin for Identify. But after that spin, Saffron held off on releasing the Spell, weaving a complicated cat's cradle of mana around the inside of the lens, leaving the center clear.

Then, not unlike Stabilize, she put Mana into that gap in the center. Only a little though, before she stopped and released it pointing at me.

"Look out, Kitten," I chuckled.

"duBois gonna get you for Identifying without Consent."

"Didn't you Consent to anything and everything I wanted to do to you at some point in the past?" I shrugged and laughed.

"Mostly joking, Kitten. I mean, Consent retraction is a thing, not that I have. But yeah, did it work?" She just stared at me.

"What?" She shot Loki a look and waved one hand at me. He laughed and said, "you wanted her. As I believe I heard one of my granddaughters say, 'no takesie backsies'." Both of them laughed at that. It took me a bit to figure out why.

"I could drop my Blend or something." She rolled her eyes.

"That would rather invalidate the experiment, love. Now, did you get it?"

"Can you repeat it a few more times for me?" At her raised eyebrow, I said, "I really don't want to fuck this up." She smiled, and showed me again. Time moves oddly in Loki's cave, and today was no exception. I watched her go through the motions of the Spell over and over again. Then, since he'd seen her do it enough to kick it off, I had Loki do the same.

I really didn't know what to think that neither of them really needed to worry about pointing the Spell at me, since as they both confirmed, the indicator never even turned green with me. Like, apparently it just stays clear until it's gonna go through the Blend. Handy indicator, that. But it definitely weirded me out that Dad, despite being almost four times my height, which some rough math told me would be sixty four times my mass, couldn't even get to the point of going through my normal walking around Blend.

But after watching them each go through endless repetitions, eventually with Loki pointing it at Saffron to see that green light up, even if he released it at me the first several times, I finally got up the nerve to start trying. I started with Loki, and got really weirded out when I put what I thought of as a 'solid chunk of Mana' into the Spell to have it immediately turn yellow.

Sucking that Mana back in, because I didn't want to, as Saffron put it, 'convince an object that it wasn't', which sounded an awful lot like some kind of explosive disintegration beam, turned out to suck. Like, not painful, but deeply unpleasant, like trying to swallow when I'd almost vomited, or tryna convince the turtle to go back in the cave. I'd say something like 'snorting an extra long booger back in', but I think that would be pleasant by comparison.

After I got to the point I could reliably hit green with a trickled buildup into the Spell, I practiced until I could hit green nine times out of ten with a lump sum of Mana. All pointed at Dad, of course. I switched to Saffron at that point. Definitely blessed my lack of ability to excrete when my first attempt, which I gave about half of Loki's 'green', gave me an immediate blue response.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of trial and error and practice, I managed to get to that same point with my Kitten, where I could reliably lump sum green, and even more reliably shade up to that.

"Ready for me to learn all your secrets, Kitten?" She Grinned at me and shook her head. Then she sashayed up to me, Grinning the whole time.

"Oh, I have been ready for quite some time for you to plumb my innermost depths, for you to tear away all my defenses and gaze upon all that I hide, all I hold dear, all that I am. For you to see me not just nude, but in all my naked Glory. But..." I reached some tentacles around her and grabbed her ass as she slipped her mouth to my ear.

"Butt?"

"You'd best be getting on to your Revel now, love." A Goddess' work is never done.