Chương 895: Day Eight Hundred And Ninety-Three

Dear Diary, I've been thinking about what Saffron told me. The bit about there being two things on my Status that she thinks will fuck with my mental state enough that she wants the entire Alliance ready to go on lockdown before I look at them. Because that's basically what she's said, when it comes down to it. Seriously, she wants the line of defensive watchtowers done, and she wants Yule started. At our current pace, we should have the first one done by Yule.

That first day we only got like two hundred fifty miles of coastline done, but not only are we now hitting towers that have been under construction longer, some of which basically just need me to stop, light the Hearth fire, and move on, but the further south we go the less awful the weather is. I figure by the time we get to Muscogee, it'll basically be the equivalent of autumn weather at the Homestead.

I'll still be lighting their Hearth fires, 'cause I figure a genuine High Priestess of Loki, God of Hearth and Home, lighting them up will make them that much less likely to go out. Then again, most folks seem to let their Hearth fires go out and then relight them on Yule. Which seems weird to me, but what do I know?

That is a tradition, Daughter, although most who do so without a Priestess of Hearth and Home attending their Yule ceremony have ways of storing the last embers of the previous Hearth fire, and use that to light the new one. Oh. Kinda worried about our boys up along Boltophsberg's coast, then. Never fear, Daughter. You are not wrong about Hearth fires personally kindled by my High Clergy.

They will not go out by misadventure, their coals will not dull during Yule, and they will rekindle so long as the Hearth is fed before the end of the Solstice. That takes a load off my mind. Thanks, Dad. You're the best. I know. By the end of the day on the Winter Solstice, the entire Alliance is gonna be defended from shit coming across the Atlantic, and pretty much everybody will be indoors, safe, and warm. That 'pretty much put another worry in my head. Mads? Goddess? I thought for a second.

Can you make sure everybody in Norfolk has someplace warm to sleep for Yule? Kinda worried with the open air plan of their Academy. I got the mental impression of a frown. I will speak with the Queen. The only buildings large enough for the Jotnar are the Jarls' halls and some of the new buildings in the encampment on the east bank of the Chesapeake. The one with the Trolls? The one with your Trolls, yes. Trolls, Jotnar, and a few former Karls from Norfolk. That was news to me. Dafuq?

The Imperator and Marylin Calvert offered Calverton citizenship to former Thralls. Some of the Karls decided to try their luck elsewhere as well, but didn't want to live with the former Thralls. I sighed. I'd say 'racists gonna racist', but it's not really a racist thing, exactly, is it? Not really, Goddess. More a mix of those who fear retribution for actions taken by other Karls, those who fear they cannot compete on a level playing field outside of wartime, and perhaps a few who find the... Social atmosphere?

Of the new town the Trolls built more to their liking. A whole assed town, huh? What's it called? Madeline sent a mental shrug. No idea. The Trolls named it, and not too many speak Troll. They object strenuously when anyone tries to call it anything but their name for it. Fuck it. They named the place, if the Imperator doesn't have a problem with it, I'm okay with it. Right then I had a realization, or more I realized there was something I didn't know. Is that new town part of Calverton or part of Norfolk.

I should have guessed at the response before I heard it. The east coast of the Chesapeake is disputed territory. Norfolk claims the entire peninsula, while Calverton claims the Bay and all its coastline. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Lemme guess, they're not paying taxes to either one. Madeline chuckled into my brain, and just hearing that sound from her made something inside me warm, that she could find humor even in stupid shit like this again.

And for whatever reason, neither Marylin nor Olga feel the need to send tax collectors to visit a town composed of Jotnar and Trolls. Eh. Fuck it again. If they're not asking for anything from either City government, I really don't see where they need to be paying taxes to them. What of the Alliance, though. I sighed. Nothing's ever simple. I guess Saffron and I will pay them a visit, see how they want to handle that.

Even if they're not properly part of Calverton or Norfolk, they're definitely part of the Alliance. Still, please make sure everybody there has shelter by Yule, though. Let it be so. So by Yule everybody will be buttoned down, so if I cast Status and immediately lose my shit, we ought to at least have the length of Yule for me to find it and collect it all again. So all I gotta do is make sure the towers are built. And steal the rest of my Yule gifts for the fam.

Speaking of Yule gifts, I've figured out what to get for Tallulah and Ria both. While Fae really don't like Cold Iron, I've also noticed Ria's a little hesitant with Iron in general. I asked Tallulah about it during bath time tonight, and it turns out that while Cold Iron is actively harmful and painful to them, regular Iron isn't great either.

Like, they can wear it, but it's like one of those mildly poisonous metals, where if it gets under their skin it festers and won't heal, and if it just lays against their skin it'll eventually give them a rash or some shit. She can use metal weapons with wooden hilts, or even use shit like iron skillets wearing simple oven mitts, which are just a good idea anyhow. Kinda makes her preference for spears and her mom's preference for Mana Blades make a little more sense.

Of course, that leaves them a little bit fragile in any serious fight, because they're not super eager to wear full body coverage if it's iron. It also means that Tallulah's not super fond of wearing her Glowing Midnight corsetry, which is sad, because it sets off her freckles really nicely. So I'm getting both of them titanium chain armor. For Ria I'm just getting a kid sized set of chain mail, which by the time she's full grown should be just about the same size as one of our Academy Jackets.

Worst case I have Marie and Conrad work it into an Academy Jacket for her at that point. For Tallulah, who is a whole assed adult and in that same age bracket of 'older than most Europan Cities in Atlantis' that Marie is, and therefore not likely to grow any more, I'm getting a full chain hauberk and a chain shirt both. The one for if she knows she's going into a serious fight, the other for, y'know, wearing in less dangerous situations. I'm also gonna get her a corset with titanium boning.

Won't be as nice as the one Conrad made for Glowing Midnight, but it'll keep her silhouette right without, y'know, coating her in shit she's allergic to. So that leaves me with Conrad, who is one of those people who if he wants something, he's just gonna make it, so I gotta think of something he'd like that he wouldn't think to get for himself, Alex, who I just got a gift for, and Garde, who...

Fuck, look, each of my kits is a whole assed person with their own inner world and shit, and with most of them I've kind of grokked some bit of what they enjoy or at least do a lot, but Garde is a bit of an enigma to me. I really don't want to just ask her, but I also don't want to cheap out and get her something so generic it doesn't feel like 'her'. Fuck it for the third time today, I'm getting Alex some nice weighted foam rubber boffo weapons.

The kind of thing that is more or less weighted and shaped like the real thing, but made of foam rubber so she and whichever of her sisters she convinces to spar with her can whomp each other and not do anything permanent. Tonight after a nice long soak in the Bath, which I kinda needed after multiple days working construction all day long, Marie snagged me and dragged me to the Bedroom. I'd been sort of waiting for her, because I am not capable of doing anything without eventually needing to turn it up to eleven.

"Hey Mittens? You sure you want what the others got?" She frowned as she looked at me.

"Why Not?" I grinned from where I sat on the end of the bed, pulled my legs up into a tailor's seat, and whispered, "psaltery?" I've told myself time and again that I'm not going to be the Bad Guy, that no matter how many dark impulses Her Dark Fatass pumps into my hindbrain and nethers, I'm not gonna go down that path, but the look on Marie's face, that deep, almost painful anguish at having to choose between the two was almost too much for me to bear.

In a 'almost came right then and there' sense, not in any kind of 'oh, I'd better stop' sense. Yeah, at that point 'fuck it' had become my Word of the Day, and I reached out and pulled her whining, vibrating self close until our foreheads touched. Then, staring into her eyes, put just a touch of Saffron's original mocking singsong into it when I sang, "why don't we try for both, then?" Yeah, Marie be quick.

She shoved me back onto the bed, and before I could right myself, she had the saddle out, herself mounted on it and laid back across my lap, the remote held up in front of me.

"Please, Vlickies?" I frowned.

"This is gonna take some doing. Y'know, keeping it going all night long, while also keeping a tune going. You sure you want this and not one or the other?" She whimpered, "Please Try?" I chuckled as I thumbed the remote, playing with it until the vibration coming through to my thigh felt right. Then I realized why and how I knew it felt right, and leaned on that part of me I'd swallowed with Apollo that wasn't the Sun or Archery.

"I've got just the song." Turns out I can in fact play with time and tune simultaneously in M-Space, although I wound up maybe needing another bath by morning. Marie's volume gets pretty loud right in that specific moment, which meant I might have been a little deaf, what with her hitting 'full Tiger roar' volumes and the Bedroom being a stone box. Also, just to be clear, Hallelujah sounds even better than I thought it would on the Maenad Psaltery.