Dear Diary,

Y'know, back in the day I'd be all kinds of worried about today. Oh, no, the Devil's number! The Mark of the Beast! Evil given form walks the Earth, and none are safe!

But here and now, in a world that seems to work a little more along traditional, I dunno, Pagan lines, where Magic feels like it uses Celtic runes and Hermetic diagrams rather than Kabballah numerology and Solomon's diagrams, I just can't get myself all worked up about it. Okay, maybe I'm wrong and somewhere over in the eastern Med, dude is all crawling out of Abaddon and getting ready to throw down. If that's the case, I guess whenever dude gets here I'll have to deal with it. But until he shows, I'm not borrowing trouble.

Of course, I guess it's equally possible some Tom Ellis looking motherfucker will show up and be all 'I am Lucifer!' I'm not calling him a motherfucker in any kind of bitchy way, by the way. Dude looking like Tom Ellis and I practically guarantee you there are three mothers who are gonna be getting their fuck on. Seriously, look at the man. I mean, he's not Keanu, but the two of them and boy mode Saffron in a room and I'm gonna be all whining about a lack of orifices.

'Oh, but he's evil and the Bad Guy and...' Look, have you paid attention to my press releases lately? Like, seriously, if the Bad Guys from various pantheons show up and wind up being vaguely polite, I'm gonna have some serious doubts of what I was told back in the day. Then again, if dude is anything like Tom Ellis portrayed, he's pretty much doing the same job as Hades and my sister. I'm aware that's not his original descriptor from yon book, but then that shit's undergone so many revisions and retranslations that I am not sanguine about its provenance, if you see what I'm sayin'.

At any rate, I've got other Divine Adjacent beings to deal with today.

So yesterday I had the Cadets practicing their bow work again. Each of them got to shoot at least one batch of bolts from a Crossbow, with the rest of the time spent practicing with Longbows and Short Bows. I got a bright idea and made each of them wind and shoot one of the 'personal ballistae' before the end of the day too. Wonder of wonders, not a single Cadet thought those pieces of shit were other than pieces of shit. Citron's still trying to decide between Longbow and Short Bow, Hildegarde is a Crossbow Girl, and Vickerson actually asked me if she'd be allowed to carry a Bow and a Crossbow. Told her I didn't see a problem with it, but she'd have to be carrying twice the ammunition.

Brought home pizza for dinner. Like, a whole fuckin' stack of them, although without cardboard boxes I had to put them on trays, and that meant the tables wound up greasy. Live and learn.

Took an extra long soak in the tub with the ladies, my arms around Marie so I could feel her kittens wiggling. Meant I had to dangle underneath her, completely submerged, but fuck it, not like I need to breathe anyhow. Heh, pretty sure back in the day I'd have made some crack about lack of oxygen only mattering if you're not already brain dead, and everybody knew I was too stupid to have a functioning brain. Like, I can still go there, but maybe some tiny part of me thinks I don't deserve that?

Nah. Reality's just caught up with my level of stupid or some shit like that.

Dreamt of My Maenad and her kittens floating around my Maw. Dissolving no faster than I would. Jumping out to pounce on my tentacles when I dangled them.

Should have terrified me, but somehow I woke up smiling, with my head burrowed against Marie's belly.

Got a brilliant idea watching Ria nom spicy eggs at breakfast, and when I brought home all the girls' favorite grilled sandwiches for lunch, I made some extra eggy grilled cheeses and Co-Located one of me over to Grandmother's Village. Stepped to M-Space immediately, then walked into the center of the village. "Rabbit? Lily? You guys around? I brought lunch!"

Announcement made, I sat down, popped the top on the tray I'd brought, and plucked out an eggy grilled cheese to eat. I took my time, savoring it, realizing that my little Sidhe girl definitely had the right of grilled cheese. After a few minutes, I saw tiny hands slipping a sandwich off the tray.

"Hey Rabbit."

"Hello, Tabitha. Or should I call you Mimic?"

I shrugged. "I prefer Tabitha, but whichever makes you happy."

She snorted. "I'd settle for safe."

I smiled sadly. "I know. Lot of people settling for safe. I want better than that for them."

She sniffed the sandwich, took a little nibble. Then sniffed it again and took a bigger bite, her eyes widening with surprise as the cheese stretched. After nomming that bite she whispered out, "this is good!"

I laughed. "Yeah, I made it myself!" She looked at me, one eyebrow going up. "No, really. Marie showed me how last week, but I made these myself. Ria loves them."

"Your Sidhe daughter."

I nodded. Something moved behind me. "C'mon out, Lily. There's enough for everybody."

She tiptoed closer, leaned over so her shadow stretched across the tray of sandwiches. "I like..."

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

I rolled my eyes. "Men. I know."

She picked up a sandwich. "I was going to say cheese."

I couldn't help it, I laughed too hard to eat for a bit. That seemed to disperse a little of the tension, and we all settled in to eat. Rabbit only had the one sandwich, although she picked up another one and disappeared it somewhere. Lily lived up to her declaration, eating three and a half of the sandwiches before sitting there, half sandwich in hand, looking like she'd barf if she took one more bite, and was trying to decide if it was worth it.

"I can bring more next time I visit."

She pouted at me. "But when will that be?" I opened my mouth to reply, and she cut me off with, "next time you need something from us?"

I rolled my eyes. "I was here with the kids on Maze's birthday."

"But you do need something from us," Rabbit said quietly.

I sighed. "The invitation for you two to come visit is still open. Show up, give me half an hour maybe, and I'll have some sandwiches for you. Show up at mealtime and you don't even have to wait for the noms. Show up after dinner and you can take a soak with us." I grinned at where Lily perched on one of the bench seats, taking tiny nibbles of crusty bread. "Show up after the kids are asleep and you can show me how much you like men again." Rabbit snerked, and I Mimicked Siobhan, looked her right in the eye, and said, "or maybe I can get a taste of some Rabbit?"

She shook her head. "You are very... confusing at times."

I laughed, shifting back to myself. "Ain't I just. Invitation's open, though."

"For which part?"

"All of it, plus playing with my kids if they're home. Or visiting with anybody else at the Homestead."

Rabbit maybe blushed a little bit, then shook her head. "But you did need something from us?"

I sighed. "Yeah. Couple things. Just information, though. Couple questions answered."

She nodded. "Ask."

"First thing, my girl Lindsey wants to go fishing. Maybe hunting. I'm thinking of inviting Panther over, maybe Silk and Closer if they want to come along, maybe anybody else who wants. But I'm worried."

"About?" Before I could answer, she said, "you've let Silk play with your girls before."

I snorted. "Yeah, no, not worried about that. Maybe in ten years. But right now I'm worried that the recent rash of Dire Bears has wiped out too much of the wildlife; we don't need to hunt to get our protein, what with all the Dire Bear meat. So if us doing some hunting might fuck stuff up, I'm not gonna. I'll find something else to do with her. I'll explain why, I think she's old enough to understand waiting a few years before that trip."

Rabbit had gotten real quiet while I talked. I very carefully didn't jump when Lily whispered from close enough that given her tongue, she could have licked my left ear from where she whispered into my right. "You really care about such things?"

"I try not to fuck over other people when I can avoid it. That includes people after me as much as it does people next to me."

She tilted her head. "I will find out."

At that point she turned to Rabbit, who nodded. I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding, then said, "yeah, the other thing is, uh, less personal. Do either of you guys have any connections down in Muscogee City?"

Rabbit just looked at me, shrugging. Lily, on the other hand, started shifting from foot to foot, eyes looking everywhere but me. "No... No one I could be certain of?"

I shook my head. "Yeah, look, guys, my girl Karen is down there, just tryna talk to somebody in charge. Same deal as Compton, really. We're just tryna make sure that if somebody comes from Europa looking to throw down with us, nobody else gets caught in the crossfire, or winds up with their City getting conquered as a staging base for some Spartan rapists and murderers."

Lily hissed out, "oh, but your rapists and murderers are fine?"

I took a deep breath. "Lily?"

"Yes?"

"If you know that one of my people has done a rape? Or a murder? Please tell me."

She frowned. "Why?"

"Because I do not tolerate that shit. I will make sure they don't do it again, one way or another."

"What way is there other than death?" She spat.

I shrugged. "I mean, for a murder? Maybe dude was scared. Maybe they were stupid. Lots of dumb reasons for that shit. If they convince you and me and Rabbit or a jury of their peers that they aren't gonna do it again, and they're willing to make it right for the folks they hurt? Maybe they can learn better." She frowned. "I'm a Goddess of Redemption, Lily. Second chances. So if somebody deserves one, I'm gonna give it to them."

"And if they do not?"

I felt my face harden. "Then they don't get one. They go to the afterlife. Or maybe in my Maw. I dunno. But they go someplace they can't hurt people again."

Something about her softened, then hardened again. "What of those who rape?"

I sighed. "Yeah. That's nastier. That's a harder sell on redemption." My shoulders slumped. "I can't think of what would make me change my mind on sending somebody like that straight to Tartarus, or Niflhel. But..." I shrugged. "I'm not gonna judge in advance. That shit's gotten me in trouble before. So until I hear the situation, I'm not gonna judge." I looked up at her. "But the same shit applies to them. If they don't deserve Redemption, or they're just gonna go out and do it again? Yeah. They're done."

She didn't look pleased, but she looked... less displeased, maybe. She huffed off, stalking around the seats, licking at her remaining sandwich.

I turned to Rabbit. "So... Muscogee?"

Rabbit didn't look happy. "I cannot betray the confidence placed in me."

I shook my head. "I'm not asking you to. I'm just asking you to maybe give me the deets on who Karen needs to talk to? Who she should talk to? How to express the truth, that we're literally just there to help, to make sure that if our shit floats their way, we've got somebody on hand to corral that shit before they have to?"

She sighed, then very pointedly, very deadpan, said, "I cannot betray the confidence placed in me."

I stopped. "Can you take a message?" She shrugged. "Seriously, can you take a message for me?" She pondered a moment, then nodded. "Okay then. Can you let whoever might freak out about me being down there that I'm thinking of coming down for a visit. Nothing violent, I'm not invading, I'm not gonna wreck shit. I'm just maybe gonna talk to whoever looks to be in charge. Probably gonna get lunch." I snorted, laughed a little, and glanced at Lily out of the side of my eye, making sure Rabbit saw me do it. "If there's a Silk or Lachlan equivalent down there, I might Just Happen to them. Same idea, just taking in the local sights, sounds, tastes, smells. All that good stuff."

"I would ask you not to invade."

I shook my head. "Not gonna... no, I've got no intention to invade. I'm just going down as a tourist." I glanced at Lily again. "Y'know, like Linguine did."

That got both of them. First Rabbit started laughing, then Lily realized I'd mentioned her, and she got that look people get when they're trying to remember what was just said, shit they heard but weren't paying attention to. Then she stamped her foot, made a face, and said exactly what I thought she would.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.