Dear Diary,

"The strong do not need Vengeance,

Because they can get Justice,

Vengeance is all the weak get."

Doctrine of Tabitha, Book of Vengeance

Yeah, maybe that'll convince some less capable than my Kitten dictator in the future to avoid taking the existence of his micropenis out on people who didn't give him extra sauce packs at the local fast food joint. Probably not, what with them probably not reading my Holy Book in the first place, but I am apparently a Goddess of Vengeance, so anybody doing a Vengeance ought to at least read the instruction manual first, right?

Yeah, fuck off, it makes me feel better to do my due diligence. That way when somebody inevitably comes at me all 'omigod, Fuckface McGee killed my whole family screaming "Vengeance for my cow", how could you let him do that', I can remind them that I'm not really omnipotent in a mid-range granularity, I'm sure as fuck not omniscient, and I've put down in writing my thoughts on when Vengeance is appropriate and when it's not. I mean, look, if Karen Leatherface the Vengeance Victim's family all participated in the murder and subsequent consumption of Bullguy Notaminotaurthatsracist's wife, fuck it, I think I'm on his side. But otherwise, the family killer clearly didn't follow the instructions I put down in black and white, so even if it turns out he was absolutely justified in coming at Karen, the worst I'm gonna do is Revive her family, off her, and ask Hades to toss her and the dipshit who didn't pay attention into the same cell in Tartarus for a few centuries.

Because seriously, there are times when I think Vengeance is justified, and most of them deserve at least a short stay in super max security. Like, somebody who legitimately hurt somebody else by accident probably doesn't deserve it. Unless they've got a pattern of doing shit carelessly and having it hurt people, in which case it's not so much 'accident' as 'depraved indifference' or maybe 'criminal negligence'. Which brings us right back to 'you done fucked up, Ay-Ay-Ron' territory. While I totally get that someone doing the kind of shit that will throw a body into 'Vengeance or death' mode is gonna fuck with their ability to strike with any kind of surgical precision, that doesn't excuse hurting nominally innocent people just because they happen to live near some asshole who deserves it.

So after two days of straight relaxation, albeit with a quick break for station identification for our two members with functioning bladders and colons, my ladies and I had a half dozen squealing kids dropped on us. Unfortunately, they belonged to us, so we couldn't really protest. Seriously, though, it surprised me how much I'd missed seeing them. You'd think thirty six odd hours wasn't that long, and frankly during that time my ladies and I kept ourselves so thoroughly distracted that even if we hadn't been in a state of zero thought for most of it, we might not have noticed. I mean, eventually, sure, but distractions are distracting. But the moment a half dozen Lokis yeeted our horde of kids atop us, I just could not get enough of them snuggling in around us. Luckily the bed at Lancaster House is big, and Saffron and Siobhan are both little. Like, I think Maze might have had another bit of a growth spurt, because I'm pretty sure if we put the boots from Saffron's dress on her, she'd be taller than Saffron in stocking feet.

That... got to me a little. If we managed to get shit straightened out, then I, and I mean this me, would never get to see them grow up. That would all be Future Me. Definitely made me feel some kinda way. But I'm pretty sure that when it comes down to it, she's a better mom than me. I mean, I'm doing the best that I can, but she's spent more time with them, lived through things with them, lived through shit I didn't even without them. She's got to be more mature than me by now, and that's what being a mom is about. Yeah, I can play with them and shit, but at the end of the day I'm just a big little kid. Also, not to put too fine a point on it, this world doesn't seem exactly safe, and while I think I've gotten myself back to the point where I can throw down if I have to, I'm at the point of 'make someone regret hurting my kids' dangerous, not 'make someone shit themselves twice then commit seppuku by suggesting they might have inadvertently threatened my kids' dangerous. 'Win a fight against a world class badass' level badass, not 'make a City surrender rather than fight me' badass.

I've got this really awful premonition that one or more of my kids is gonna need that level of badass at some point in the near future.

But for right now, all I can do is spend as much time with them as I can. So the ten of us engaged in much tickling and raspberries and other shit I remember making me feel all warm and fuzzy when my mom did it with me. Even Siobhan joined in, although I think that happened as much because Maze and Menace refused to let her not join in than anything else. As the women trickled in before bath time, I leaned over to Saffron and said, "our bed in the new place is gonna be this big, right?"

"Of course not," she replied, frowning. Before I could say anything about that, she continued with, "much larger. After all, it's become clear that we'll wind up with far more than these six, and I doubt they'll want to sleep on their own until they're old enough to want some privacy." Then she made me grin and Siobhan blush when she thought, and when we decide we've had enough for the time being, and they're all in their own space, and we have privacy, I intend us to engage in the kind of intimate acrobatics our boudoir is far too small to contain.

The images she sent along with that left Marie and I grinning and Siobhan blushing all the way through bath time. The kids were a little rammy going in, but after a warm bath and bellies full of warm bisque, they were all ready to snuggle in around us when we got back to our rooms. Of course Marie and three of the other Maenads kinda dismantled the bed, carrying the frame into a corner, then putting the mattress right in the middle of the room. I think Siobhan felt a little bit overwhelmed when everybody including her tried to make Saffron and I the middle of the pile of sleepy bodies, and I plonked her down between Saffron and I instead.

Of course Saffron grinned at me from behind Siobhan's head and thought, letting your Concubine come between us already?

I snorted quietly. Oh, please. There are kids in the room, ain't nobody coming tonight. What I'm doing is sharing my favorite body pillow with you. Every part of her is always the cool side!

As we snuggled around her while she squeaked and blushed, I whispered, "and putting our precious fragile little Ice Pop safe in the middle where she belongs."

Of course right about then Marie draped an arm over all of us, her fingernails dangling against my back. At which point Saffron thought, wait. Why am I in the middle as well?

Because you're little and precious and adorable and I don't want anything ever hurting you or leaving you all scarred up like me.

I felt her about to reply, but Marie shut us both down by saying, "More."

Saffron, being the bright one of any group she's in, got it first. Can you sleep while making sure they don't fade, lovely Marie?

Whether she could or not, I watched her clamp her mouth down around the juncture between Saffron's neck and shoulder, covering up the four circular scars as she did. Saffron shuddered before a look of sublime bliss spread across her face. Then she started snoring.

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"Forgive me," whispered Siobhan.

"Why?" I murmured back.

"A good Concubine ought not be envious of her sister, or especially of her Mistress."

"Damn. Now I wish I had a set of teeth like Marie to indulge you."

Marie chuckle-purred and thought, Mimic.

I wasn't quite sure what she meant, but some instinct guided me, I focused on her arm laying across me and... Mimicked Marie. Totally fuckin' weird how everything shifted. Everybody got littler, and the weird black and white wireframe of the world suddenly had color, the people in the room glowing in the darkness. Body heat, at a guess, since Siobhan glowed a little less than everybody else. Siobhan?

She opened her eyes, which got really wide. Goddess? Tabitha?

I grinned down at her, and looked at the smooth, unmarked skin at the juncture of her neck and shoulder. Because she was lying face to face with Saffron, and Marie apparently liked one side over the other. You mind me putting a matching set on your unmarked side?

Her breath got the tiniest bit ragged. She pulled a corner of a blanket to her face and gripped it with her teeth. Please?

I'm... I don't want to hurt you.

She whined into the blanket. Please, Tabitha. She paused, as if she wanted to say something else, but just repeated her quiet whine and, please.

Okay. Marie? Little help?

My marvelous Maenad knew exactly what I wanted. She slipped into me, lowering my mouth into position and sliding my fangs into Siobhan's shoulder. A moment of tension, the tiniest whine, and her mouth slipped open, drooling just a little onto the blanket as her eyes fluttered closed. Luckily she definitely fell firmly into the 'it's okay to drool if you're hot enough' category. Marie slipped out of my brain, at least as much as my ladies ever did, and we lay there, locked to our tiny partners, until we too drifted off.

Dreamt of the ladies all doing the backstroke through my maw. Melting endlessly, leaving me hoping that I was at least as hot as Siobhan, because I was absolutely drooling over that. Again, weird as fuck, but not bad, because all of them made happy content noises all night long.

Woke to Saffron's voice in my brain. You will, of course, be doing that to me tonight, you realize.

Kinda wish I could get this dentition as, y'know, me. At her questioning look, I thought, it's weird, but I can sorta feel fur in between Siobhan and I. I grinned with my eyes. I don't want anything between us when I'm... claiming you.

I'll show you how to do that, shot into my head all as one word. A moment later, Saffron sighed and quietly said, "ladies? Children? It's time to get up and be about our day."

I decided it was a better idea to disengage before de-Marie-ing myself. It took me a moment to unlock my jaw, and when I did it came free of her with a sort of pop. Siobhan's eyes shot open and she let out a strangled kind of squeal, quickly silenced, before she whispered, "sorry!"

"Hey, no worries. I'm a little clumsy with these. Speaking of," I undid whatever I'd done to Mimic Marie, and kissed her on the forehead. "Make sure you take care of that. I could Heal it for you?"

"No!" she squealed, hunching her shoulders and burrowing into me. "I'm sorry. It's not that. Just... after, ah, wallowing in terror all night, it was... sudden."

I blinked at that. "Oh, shit. You... do you have the same kinds of dreams I do too?"

"We all do, love." A moment later Saffron hissed as Marie slipped her mouth away, then ran her tongue over the punctured scars. "All your Clergy are honored to commune with you as we sleep."

"All?"

She nodded. "Even our sisters and brothers who are not High Clergy may do so, should they be sufficiently devout. I'm sure you've seen others in those dreams at times?"

That rang a bell, but I couldn't think of a particular instance. "Uh. But what about Siobhan being scared?"

Ice Pop herself blushed fiercely, but didn't say anything. Saffron just chuckled, nuzzled her a little, and said, "oh, she loves it."

I opened my mouth to argue, but Siobhan nodded her head against my chest. "Really?"

Maybe a little too much for, ah, outside the Bed room.

"Really?" I sounded like an idiot asking again, but she just grinned into my chest and nodded again. I shrugged. "Okay, I guess. No kink shaming here."

"Of course not. However, it is time for us to get up."

Can't, thought Siobhan, sounding incredibly self-satisfied, probably because reasons.

"And why can't you?" asked Saffron, one eyebrow arching.

Mistresses have me pinned. Can't move. So sad. Imprisoned forever by my mistresses' bountiful bosoms. Woe is me. Mourn poor Siobhan, doomed to never move again. I'd never heard anyone say those words with that little actual woe in their voice before. I'd also never heard anyone squeak quite like that when hugged before either, which Siobhan did when Saffron reached to put her arms around me and hugged me with Siobhan in between us. Beloved Mistresses, should you hold me like this much longer, my Soul will await you in your boudoir.

Saffron laughed, let go of me, then slapped Siobhan on the ass as she rolled to her feet. "You, little Concubine, are getting very mouthy."

"Hey!" Siobhan laughed as she rolled away from me and pushed herself to sit up. "Little? I'm taller than you."

Saffron gave her an arch look and said, "only without my boots. And before you go on about how you have a pair, which you will absolutely be wearing later while making better use of that wonderfully mouthy mouth of yours, I meant 'little' as in 'little concubine' to distinguish you from the big one."

Marie cocked her head, arms akimbo, and said, "Fiancé?"

To which Saffron replied by folding her arms under her breasts, closing her eyes and tilting her head back before saying, "only half. You haven't asked me yet."

Marie disappeared, her voice in our heads asking, Mad?

A little, yes.

Sad?

I... am I weak because I am?

Marie knelt before Saffron, set of fingernails holding Kitten's left hand. "No." Saffron blinked, clearly not expecting Marie's voice to come from below her, and when she looked down her hands dropped. Marie caught one, held a platinum ring decorated with onyx and opal just beyond the tip of Saffron's ring finger. I swear I saw every muscle on Saffron's body flex through her adorable coating of squish, trying to push her finger into that ring. Marie's grin got wider by the second, and her tongue might have lolled out just the tiniest bit when Saffron grabbed Marie's hand holding the ring with her right and tried to force it to move.

Finally she sagged, her right hand dropped away. "Do you intend to tease me, big Concubine?"

"No." Then she brushed her lips across Saffron's left hand, where a blood red band already held a ruby surrounded by onyx and diamonds. When she looked up into Saffron's eyes, her own sparkled. "Betroth?"

Saffron's grin might have matched Marie's for sheer toothiness at that point. "I could complain that Tabitha had to chase me down, but you thought about that already, didn't you?"

"Yes."

Saffron smirked. "Yes."

"Yes?"

Saffron's smirk melted back into that radiant grin. "Yes."

"Yes!" Marie growled out, sliding the ring inexorably onto Saffron's quivering finger. The moment the new ring touched the one already on her finger, the two seemed to intertwine, locking into place on her finger. Then my view got obscured by Marie's admittedly perfectly ogleable ass as she lunged upward to scoop Saffron up and kiss her. The room filled with quiet sounds of glee from the kids and women surrounding us. Okay, maybe a few disgusted little kid sounds from Alex.

Siobhan sighed as she flopped back over to pillow her head on my belly. "So I guess I'm the only Concubine now?"

"I mean, if you want somebody to call you 'little Concubine', technically I haven't put a ring on Marie yet."

Siobhan snickered, snorted, then started laughing. "What?" A few moments later, Saffron and Marie started chuckling too much to maintain their liplock. "What? Seriously, what?"

Marie and Saffron twirled around and knelt, scooping Siobhan and I up into a hug that felt too nice for me to stay annoyed. "Oh, love. You've mocked me playfully for rushing, and I must admit, it is my nature, when I see something I want that I think I will be allowed to have, to keep? To leap for it with both hands. But you?" She broke into giggles again, and Siobhan started laughing along with her.

Before I could complain, Marie said, "Slow."

A little worried, I asked, "I'm not... I'm not too slow, am I? I'm not hurting you?"

"Agonizing." declared Marie.

This time Siobhan interrupted my response. "And we wouldn't have it any other way."