Dear Diary,

So I went into yesterday kinda tired. I'd had some sleep, had some Worship, but not nearly enough of either to make too much of a difference. Okay, that's not entirely true. I wasn't quite sleepwalking through the day, which is what I'd have done without the sleep I got. But I was tired enough that I had to keep moving, had to keep pacing, or I would have fallen asleep standing up. Honestly I'm pretty sure that's why Marie nabbed me at lunch, so I wouldn't faceplant in my food. She's much softer and my food won't wake me up when it's time for afternoon class.

When I finished up class, I snagged Marie and Siobhan for the trip back home.

Home. That's a hell of a loaded word, isn't it? Because holy fucking shitballs did I just get a rush of warm and fuzzy thinking of it that way. We went home. Home where I could sit and quietly feed Siobhan while Marie did the same with Saffron, I think because that intersection between 'gifts' and 'acts of service' is right in the middle of both of our love languages. Or, as Saffron put it, 'nurturing according to our nature'. We traded at dessert, because it had been way too long since I got to feed Saffron sweets and watch her glow.

As we did, I had a thought. "Hey, sweetie?" I asked quietly.

"Yes, love?" Saffron murmured after swallowing.

"The other Houses have kitchens, right?"

She smiled. "They do. But until every House is so full we needn't use them. I think one or two of the women use them now and again if they want something other than what Marie's been making."

"Does not compute." She nudged me, laughing, and I filled her mouth with pie again. "Oh, hey, did the Cadets get home?"

She nodded, savored her pie, and swallowed. "Cadets O'Brien and Aetos stayed an extra day and night. Chloe and a few other women asked them to help with... chores."

I snerked. "Okay, yeah, I'm sure they had lots of ashes to haul, pipes to clear... uh..."

"Holes to fill," she muttered before I stuffed her mouth with pie again. Both of us snickered until the pie was gone. Especially what with Chloe and a few of the other women gossiping together, making some really obvious gestures as they did.

When the pie was gone, my lovely ladies helped me up to the Bath, then scrubbed me down. Both of them absolutely got themselves covered in my body odor before they did. Saffron muttered something about pie, but Siobhan just smiled and said, "I love the way you smell, my Hero."

They shooed me off to the Bath once they had me clean, and I slipped in and soaked. I definitely fell asleep in the Bath again. Woke up there this time too, with partners and kids floating all around me, hair billowed out around heads. Freaked me out a little because apparently the whole 'not breathing' thing winds up with people being absolutely still when they're floating there sleeping. Okay, after I watched for at least a few minutes I saw Alex roll themselves around and snuggle up to Daya, who wriggled a little bit, but didn't seem to mind enough to wander off.

Still got a dose of what the Headmaster had referred to as 'suddenly Marie' when I turned to look at her, watching her fur float so it looked like she'd been blessed with the mother of all static charges, and her eyes popped open as she lunged forward to kiss me. Morning, Vlickies.

Good morning to you too, Mittens. I think I'm gonna be lazy today. Hang around the house, play with the kids, maybe go visit Conrad in the afternoon. Wanna join me?

She pouted at me for a second. Work.

She almost got me. Aww... it's okay. It'll just make you coming home that much more special.

Then two more of her popped up, one grabbing each of my hands. All three of them chorused, Why? into my brain.

So I spent the morning playing in the leftover snow with the kids. They came in during the afternoon, because it warmed up enough that some of the snow started melting a little, and according to Marie, that's what got kids sickest; that cold humidity when stuff started melting. On the one hand, three of us in the house can Mass Cure, and that whole 'cold makes you sick' doesn't jive with germ theory that I know of. On the other hand, she's got three thousand years of experience, three hundred plus of them wrangling Cadets, who are just slightly more self-destructive kids if my time teaching was anything to go by.

So after lunch I dropped in on Conrad, stepping right into his lab. "Son?"

He popped up directly behind my Maries and I, as was his wont. "Yes, Mother Dear? Oh! You've brought Marie today!"

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

"Yeah, I wanted to know if you had time to go visit the stables down in Rich Man's Port today. Y'know, make sure you've got the measurements right and everything."

He pursed his lips. "I suppose I could. Before that, while we're speaking of measurements, if my Stepmother-to-be would please?" He waved to his measuring stand. Marie looked at me, I shrugged, and one of her let go of my arm and stepped over to the measuring stand.

He waved at the casual skirt and blouse she'd worn for me today. "Off with that, please? You can put them on again after," he looked at me, "if you like." She shrugged and gracefully slipped out of her clothes. He waved at her underthings. "Those too, please." Then he turned to me. "Close your eyes, please?"

"Sure." I closed my eyes. As I stood there, Marie on one arm, I realized exactly how much I'd become accustomed to my scarier than thou son's creepy nature. I didn't even tense up with my eyes closed, listening to the clink of metal and the faint crunch and squeak of new leather. I smelled it as well, that viscerally erotic smell. I... felt something.

"I'm done. You can look, mother."

I opened my eyes to see my beautiful snow white, platinum blonde Maenad absolutely showcased and set off by thin lines of black leather. Nothing concealed in the slightest. Lift and separate indeed. "Mother. Stepmother-to-be. Do you like it?"

She looked at herself and got the tiniest little moue. Then I reached through that feeling I'd had and every so gently squeezed. Her eyes shot open and her head started bobbing. "YES."

I smiled. "I think she likes it."

He tilted his head. "But do you?"

"Son, if I liked it even slightly more I'd be asking you if you minded me making a mess of your Workshop."

He smiled and turned to leather harness clad Marie. "Would you like to put it back in its case to..." Before he half finished his sentence, she had her blouse and skirt back on. No idea what she'd done with her underthings. Eaten them, possibly. I might have been understandably distracted. "Well then, let's go. Stepmother-to-be, could you return these to the Homestead? All except the bottom box?" He waved to a stack of five boxes, the top one standing open.

"Why five?"

"For your five High Priestesses, of course. I'll confirm the Lady Crow's measurements when she comes in to be fit for her Holy Garb."

I couldn't think of a damn thing to say that wouldn't make the situation worse in some way, so I somehow managed to do the impossible and keep my damn mouth shut except to say, "to the Overlord's Keep, then!"

I stepped the three of us down there, the unharnessed Marie taking the boxes back to the Homestead and collect Ria and Isnomi for us. We arrived in the Court Chamber, and Tallulah looked up from her current supplicant. "Goddess. After the briefest of pauses, she said, "have I displeased you?"

I didn't even stop to think. "No, of course not."

"Have any of my Court done so?"

I shrugged. "Not that I've heard of."

"Then with all due respect," oddly enough she sounded like she absolutely meant that, "why have you brought him?"

"Oh! I've brought my son to measure his sisters' Steeds for proper tack."

When she said 'Goddess', every eye in the room had turned toward me. Then slowly, inexorably slid sideways to the creepy little bastard standing next to me, his posture as he faced Tallulah the absolute perfect posture of 'deference due a peer in her throne room'. Which, to be honest, was really overdoing the politeness, but I wasn't about to quibble with him being too polite. When I mentioned 'his sisters' and 'proper tack', a collective shudder rolled through the room.

Conrad just smiled and quietly said, "proper Mortal worship might not have quite the power to which I am accustomed, but it is decidedly refreshing." Then he nodded as Marie appeared with Ria and Isnomi. He held out his hands to them and said, "will you show me your Steeds, sisters?"

They took his hands and Ria led us out to the stables. I'd say you could hear a pin drop as we left, but Tallulah was already calling her court back to order. I had the feeling that anyone who had planned to perhaps give her even the slightest measure of shit today decided to do otherwise.

The Steeds certainly decided that Conrad was also Not Someone To Fuck With, because despite him getting all up around them measuring them for tack, none of them moved in the slightest unless he asked them to. Then they did precisely what he said, nothing more, nothing less. In fact, when he moved on from the first one, Ria stepped over and quietly asked, "may I stroke your face?" I saw it glance at Conrad, then Menace, then the other Steeds. I saw the exact moment when it thought, 'fuck it' and lowered it's fuckin' face to let her gently, carefully run her hand down it. I'm not sure if it closed it's eyes in shame, resignation, or pleasure, but it gave not the slightest hint that it was going to do anything else but stand there and be petted.

Not sure whether I was more amused by literal Nightmares being terrified of my kids, or them more or less ignoring me. Downsides of Blend, I guess.

When we returned him to his Workshop, Conrad had one more package for me. A box, just about the size you'd expect to contain a sword. "Is that?" He nodded. I smiled, thinking of my Kitten and her requests. "Thanks, son."

"You're not going to look at it?"

I shrugged. "She might be watching, I want it to be a surprise."

When we got home and Saffron arrived from work, I waved her over to sit in my lap for dinner. The moment she did, I Co-Located us to the Bedroom. "Oh, my. So forward."

I smiled at her. "Got something for you." I banished Glowing Midnight and opened up the box with her harness in, pulling it out and showing it to her. Her lips pursed, like she wasn't sure what to think of it. Mittens? Could you?

Marie arrived a second later, and when she saw what I was holding, her uniform vanished, revealing her own identical outfit underneath. I gave her a quick harness based squeeze, and her tongue lolled out of an open mouthed grin. "Nice."

The moment I did that, Saffron blinked, then said, "lovely Marie, could you assist me?"

Mittens had that leather on her faster than I thought possible, in place and snugged down. She looked at me, smiling yet somehow vaguely disappointed. I grinned at her and said, "I'm too tired for proper Penance tonight, Kitten."

"But I..."

I squeezed just the tiniest bit, and her words cut off with a gasp. "So it'll have to wait until after you and I play hooky tomorrow."