Chương 975: Day Nine Hundred And Seventy-Three

Dear Diary, Having spent the better part of twenty-four hours with the victims of the Spartans currently infesting our forests, I think I can say without fear of contradiction that they deserve whatever the fuck I wind up doing to them when I catch them. I'm currently tryna make that work with my sure knowledge that every time I do over the top violent torturous shit to people, it winds up leaving me with trauma.

I'm not even trying to make it seem like I'm the victim there, either, just noting that doing crazy fucked up shit to people winds up messing with my head. Shit, I'm pretty sure it messes with anybody's head unless they're already so fucked up that it seems normal to them. Y'know, that might be the biggest reason I worry about that shit.

Okay, not the biggest, but yet another reason in a long list of reasons why I'm doing my best to avoid torturing people or desecrating their bodies while they're still technically alive. If I keep doing that shit, I'll wind up normalizing it to myself. Once that happens, I'm gonna have that much less resistance to doing shit like I did to Tallulah when she was bribing me to let the ladies back in my Maw at nights. Yes, I'm aware she walked away from that just fine.

Okay, she didn't even walk, she just eventually rolled over into bed, more or less. But long term she wound up with no more lasting side effects than I do from trimming my nails. Which I need to do more often, I think. Gotta ask Marie how she does hers, because I ought to keep mine trimmed up if they're gonna wind up in use during penetrative fun time. Yeah, I think I need more sleep, because I'm digressing again.

Then again, I didn't do that nearly as much during the Spartan pursuit, so maybe me digressing is just a sign that I'm healthy and rested. I think at some point in the near future I really ought to start those therapy sessions again. I know they're kinda jank, because from what I recently remembered the therapist isn't supposed to be involved with her patients, and I'm involved with everybody I'd want at one of those sessions, but I think I improved a lot when I was doing those.

I mean shit, it worked for Tom Ellis, so it'll work for me, right? Anyway, yesterday at the end of the day a team of Heroes and Troops delivered the two kids I'd rescued from the Spartans. I worried a little bit about them being marched from wherever that Farmstead was to the Homestead, but then I twigged to the fact that both of them got carried in by Heroes, who set them down in the Dining Room, saluted me, then headed off to North House to bunk down for the night.

Okay, I think some of the Troops went to South House, but then neither of our 'bunkhouses' are really anything like full as of yet. They're set up a little differently, with suites rather than single rooms, and no big 'master' bedroom or Dining Room. At any rate, after making sure I had the kids, they fucked off to rest up, because best I could tell they'd carried the kids the entire way. Maze, who'd been playing chess with me in the Dining Room, followed me over to the kids.

"Who are they?" I shrugged.

"I don't actually know their names. They were prisoners of the Spartans I fought against the other day." Maze is a good kid. She reached out, took them each by a hand, and said, "I'm so sorry. C'mon, let's get some food." They didn't react, but they followed her when she tugged on their hands. I followed as she led them into the kitchen, where she said, "Mama Marie? Can you make them something? They've been on the road for days getting here." Yeah, kinda weird watching somebody not react to Marie.

Seriously, whether it's heebie jeebies at Wet Cat Marie, apex predator bladder control loss at Tigress Marie, entirely different southern dampness from Reveling Marie, or alternate wholesome melting at Mom-mode Marie, people react to her. These two, not so much. They just stared as Maze kinda chattered at them, with increasing awkwardness, until she sighed, held their hands up, and said, "Mama, can you stay with them? I need to go do something."

"Sure, Pony Girl." She grinned at my nickname for her, then pranced off. The kids tensed as she handed them off to me, but they didn't run, didn't really cower even. By the time Marie had some early dinner ready for them, some simple bowls of dumplings and gravy, Maze came back into the kitchen towing Davey.

"Mama! You didn't tell me we were gonna have guests!" If the kids winced a little at Davey's enthusiasm, I wasn't gonna say anything. She took the boy's other hand as Maze took the girl's, towing us all into the Dining Room as I said, "yeah, I didn't really know when they'd be getting here, or even if they were headed this way."

"C'mon, you wanna eat these while they're warm. They're still okay cold, but they're better warm." Davey kept up a stream of almost non-stop welcoming chatter while she and Maze fed our two guests. Shit, I wasn't sure if they were gonna wind up guests or new additions to the household.

They followed whatever instructions they were given, though, and when they'd each gotten their first dumpling eaten, which got the closest thing to a reaction out of them when they opened their mouths without being told to eat more, Davey waved me down.

"Can you go get Hailee and, uh, Daya and Lindsey? Oh, and Isadora, please?" I nodded, slipped my hands out of the two new kids', and went looking. It didn't take long, because what with dinner coming up most of the household was headed for the Dining Room anyhow, but I stepped them all down to beat the rest of the family to the room. Hailee took one look at the pair and blanched.

While Isadora and Lindsey moved over to take over food spooning duties, not to mention gently guiding the two new kids into chairs, I leaned down and said, "what's wrong?" This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"They are." I winced a little, but the kids didn't seem to react to Hailee's pronouncement.

"They got fed a bunch of Cold Iron by the Spartans." I dropped my voice and added, "I think the Spartans hurt them, too. Is that what you're seeing, maybe?" She tilted her head, squinting.

"They're... They're dead. But not." That clenched my sphincter something fierce.

"Undead?" I really wasn't sure how the fuck I'd stop a Smite-Proof Undead. Thankfully, she shook her head.

"No. No, not Undead. I don't think they could be Undead like that. They're just... Their Mana is all gone." I thought about that. Thought about the first time I'd seen Lachlan doing a Mineral Bond, when he drained himself entirely.

"How are they even still standing?" She shrugged.

"Like I said, wrong." I sighed and asked, "are they gonna hurt anybody just by, y'know, being here?" She shrugged.

"Ask Mom, maybe? Or Sister Siobhan."

"Okay. Can you keep an eye on them? Just to let us know if anything changes?"

"Sure, Mama." At that point Maze waved Daya over to take over feeding the girl. When she walked over to me, she pulled me down to whisper at me.

"Mama?" I'd rarely heard Maze whine before.

"What's wrong, sweetie?"

"Heal me, please?" At that point she held out her hands. Both of them, but especially the one she'd held the girl's hand with, looked like she'd played patty cake with a hot grill. I dropped a Heal into them while thinking, Siobhan? The moment the redness receded, I asked, "was it doing that the whole time?" She nodded. I felt Siobhan Shaping my Mana through me, a different weave of magic settling into Maze's hands, reducing the swelling as my little pony girl sighed with relief.

"Yeah. But... She trusted me. I couldn't just drop her hand and make her think... Think I..." I hugged her as she trailed off.

"You did good, kid. Uh, tell Ria, just in case?" She smiled up at me.

"Okay, Mama." She scampered off to talk quietly with her Sidhe sister while Marie brought dinner out. Dinner almost wound up being a tragedy, but thankfully, Siobhan and Hailee intervened when the kids went to feed our guests second bowls of dumplings.

"I know Marie's dumplings are lovely, children, but these two don't look like they've eaten a lot lately."

"Das why we godda feed dem!" Menace piped up. Siobhan sighed and looked at me. I blushed, picked Menace up, and said, "yeah, no, when somebody's gone too long without enough food, you can hurt them if you try to feed them everything they've missed out on all at once." She got a booger look and said, "really?" I nodded.

"Really, really. And before you try to fix them other ways?" The look she gave me told me she'd been trying to figure out how to do exactly that.

"What the Spartans did to them means that if someone Shapes too much Mana on them, and using Divine power counts," I lowered my voice and whispered so the two wouldn't hear me. I wasn't sure they'd react in any case, but still.

"They'll burn. Maybe explode. It'll definitely hurt them, and maybe everyone else, too." Her booger look got so much worse when I told her that. Like she wanted to look all 'righteous rage', but, y'know, got tripped up by the whole 'being three' thing.

"Thpartanth awe thicken poopth."

"Y'know, I'm almost willing to give you that one." She raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, torturing and poisoning a couple kids? Pretty chicken shit thing to do."

"I wanna..." She just growled with completely understandable frustrated rage.

"Yeah. Me too, kiddo." I picked her up and hugged her.

"But you are not yet a big enough Menace for that particular hunt." She opened her mouth to argue, and I cut her off.

"Not a discussion, kiddo. Remember The Morrigan? Ria?" Yeah, she got real quiet real fast at that reminder.

"Wanna."

"Yeah. Yeah, I know kiddo. When you're big enough." She sighed.

"Thirdeen?" I smiled and ruffled her hair.

"Maybe before then. We'll see. But yeah, if there are still Spartans when you're thirteen, I'll definitely take you along to correct that." After dinner we all trooped up the Bore to the Bath. I noticed that Isadora and Lindsey had taken it upon themselves to walk beside the two new kids, specifically putting themselves between them and the railing. Which, to be clear, both kids looked way too interested in.

When we got them to the Bath, I kinda figured it would be a struggle to get them out of the shapeless sacks they'd had draped over them, but they didn't put up the slightest struggle. At most, they looked sort of resigned. I watched as Davey and Isadora bathed each other, then the boy, while Daya and Lindsey did the same with the girl. When they led them toward the bath, I got a sudden rush of brains to the head, stepping over to gently pull them to a stop with a hand on Isadora and Lindsey's elbows.

"Remember, girls, these two aren't... They can drown if you don't keep their heads above the water." They all looked a little shocked, but nodded and herded the pair into the shallow parts of the bath where the quieter kids normally sat and soaked. Meanwhile I heard the weirdest growl coming from Maze. When I looked at her, all she said was, "not on my watch."

"Be careful. They'll still burn you when you touch them, even if they don't mean to." She sighed, then looked up at me.

"You can Heal me." I might have teared up a little bit at that. I definitely swept her into a hug and carried her into the Bath.

"So proud of you, my little Pony Girl." After the Bath, after everybody'd been toweled dry and even the two new kids were yawning and stumbling, we all walked down to the bedroom, where our girls insisted on the two new ones get in the very middle of the bed, next to Siobhan, surrounded by layers of ever larger girls. When Marie snuggled in next to me, I thought, didn't you have nefarious plans for us tonight? At her quiet reply of, Truly, Vlickies? I shook my head.

"Nah. Just didn't want to disappoint you," I whispered. She snuggled me to her, purring quietly.

"You Haven't." Dreamt of my ladies quietly floating around the edge of my Maw, circling widdershins as they waved their hands over the surface. If something came of it, I couldn't tell. Spent the day Co-Located, despite my potential need for more sleep. One of me followed along with the boy and girl as Davey led them around, showing them the house, Lindsey, Isadora, and Daya helping her.

In the afternoon our little musical quartet played and sang for them, and I think the boy even had an expression for part of it, maybe. The other of me was pouring every bit of rage at the fucking Spartans into maintaining eight separate Scrying pools. Well, mirrors. Something about being easier to step through. Fortunately Saffron had sent extra scouts. Yeah, I might do some Bad Things when I catch these fuckers. Might traumatize myself further doing so. Worth.