Dear Diary,

"If only Vengeance remains,

Focus all of your efforts,

On those most responsible."

Doctrine of Tabitha, Book of Vengeance

Yeah, I think that's pretty clear. I hope. Shit, I can't even start to ask myself 'can that be misinterpreted', because you can't make shit foolproof. The universe will take that as an excuse to make a bigger fool. Sure, I guess I can go around stomping assholes who misinterpret my Holy Text, but that kinda misses the point. My whole purpose here in writing this shit is to maybe encourage people to make the world a better place.

That's a little rough to do when on the topic of 'Vengeance', but I'm still gonna fuckin' try. Just because the difficulty level is stupid high isn't a reason to throw the controller and punch a wall. That shit's just proof positive of a skill issue. So I just gotta buckle down and try to make it clear that as a Deity of Vengeance, I'm not gonna be supporting assholes who think loss of privilege deserves Vengeance, and try and get the folks who really are in situations where Vengeance is justified to focus their efforts on taking out the dipshits who are sure as shit gonna put other people in that position.

So I spent a bunch of time talking about Vengeance being all about punching up, now I gotta make sure folks understand that spraying hate every fucking direction isn't Vengeance, that's just a goddamned tantrum. Maybe if I can get folks thinking that way, instead of every goon stepping in front of the John Wicks of the world, they'll all recognize that Vengeance flag and step aside, recognizing that their boss crossed a line. I mean, shit, yeah, some of them will be hired specifically to protect them against that, but that's where maybe I ought to step in. Like, 'yeah, if Vengeance is Justified to my satisfaction, I'll be there to help you out'. Which means the price for an entitled asshole to protect themselves from righteous retribution is gonna skyrocket pretty quick up to 'more than anybody has'.

Yeah, I know. That requires people to think consequences could happen to them, and requires entitled assholes to learn. Neither one of those is super common, but a girl can dream, can't she?

So yesterday we put in another hard day's work at the Homestead. I added another two stories to the tower after a morning cutting caves and forming stone. I guess they're not really 'caves', they're 'rooms' in our new place. Still think it's cool that heating up the top of the tower pulls cool air through the whole fuckin' structure. Like, I doubt anybody's gonna be putting out the kind of heat I am on a regular basis, because we don't want the top of the tower actually melting, but even if we just keep, like, a signal fire up at the top or something, it ought to be able to pull some air up the tower, and that's gotta come from somewhere, right?

Which... now makes me realize that most of our underground construction isn't just watertight at this point. It's airtight. I'm really wondering if I need to make sure Kitten puts ventilation shafts in or something. Then again, she's the smart one, and I think she deliberately engineered it this way. So I'm sure she's thought of it, right?

Got home, got everybody through the bath, and while drying Devorah she leaned in and said, "I found some honey today, Champion."

"Isn't it too cold for you to disturb the bees?"

She shrugged. "Something had already raided the hive and driven the bees off. All that remained was some comb with a few lone bees trying to scavenge it. I brought them back with the comb, but they flew off after I put the comb in a box."

Something about that did not sit right with me, but I couldn't think why. So instead of mentioning it I just asked, "so. When's that mead gonna be ready?"

She just giggled. "I don't think a few glasses will be enough to slake your thirst, let alone get you drunk enough to succumb to me."

At that point, with her wrapped up to keep her hands from wandering, I spun her around, mentally poked the other three to get them to look our way, and whispered, "I dunno. Ask them, I'm really thirsty most of the time, but it's still pretty easy to get me to come to them."

I counted it as a complete win when Marie, Saffron, and Siobhan all grinned at the two of us, and Devorah squeaked like I'd goosed her. Which I hadn't. But I absolutely know that's how she squeaks when she's goosed, because I kinda did exactly that when I gave her a shove on the butt to send her toward Marie. Look, I'm tryna be a good wife and partner, but she's been flirting with me since the first day I met her, and my wife and partners have done nothing but encourage me. Okay, there's that whole 'after' dealio, but that's just timing. Also, given the grins, I'm pretty sure I earned some Happy Partner Points with my Devorah demonstration.

Don't know whether I earned more or turned those in when we got to bed and Saffron rearranged us, snuggling her butt into me, lying face to face with Siobhan, with Marie on the far side from her. "May I, love?"

I had no idea what she meant, but she's my Kitten. What else was I gonna say but, "sure."

I felt her slip into my head, and then my teeth and jaw kinda writhed. Not exactly painfully, but definitely a weird sensation while it lasted, and at the end of it, when I ran my suddenly larger feeling tongue across my teeth, they were all a lot pointier than I remembered, especially two fangs on each side, right where my canines would be. She slipped back out of my head, and in front of me she leaned her head to the side, baring her neck to me. I sat there staring, maybe even drooling a little bit as I tried to reconcile 'love my little Kitten' and 'so want to mark her' and 'take a bite, she's full of soup'. At some point those dreams are definitely gonna get me in trouble. Finally she said, "Goof? I'm waiting. Go ahead."

I decided right there on 'mark', because I couldn't keep myself to 'nothing', and 'soup' didn't seem like a healthy option. "Marie? Little help?"

Marie held up one outrageously manicured nail, snugged a grinning Siobhan to her front, closed her eyes, and leaned her head down to clamp her mouth around those four distinctive circle shaped scars the three of us all shared. A moment after both of them went still, she slipped into my mind and leaned me forward, carefully setting my jaws, my fangs, against Saffron's neck before slowly pushing them in. I tasted more blood than I remembered from the night before. Oh, shit.

Saffron joined us in my head. Be at peace, love. Your mouth is a little smaller than hers. She's feeling things out.

I don't want to hurt you!

You don't want to mark me like this? To leave very distinctive, private scars that anyone intimate with me will see, from now to the day I pass from this world, letting them know I am yours, just like the scar on your shoulder shows anyone I share you with that you are mine?

The what on my what now? Wait, never mind, I don't want you bleeding out in my mouth.

Then why are you licking me?

I froze as her laugher rang in my head, and her purr vibrated my teeth where they rested against her clavicle. Fuck.

Not now, unless you really need that. I want this tonight, if my Goddess will allow it?

Shit, if I didn't want it, I wouldn't be licking you. But like I said, I don't want you bleeding out. Dead Mom in the morning is not what I want for our kids, y'know?

She reached down and lay one hand on my thigh. I'm tougher than Siobhan, love. I am a Hero of Phileo. So long as you don't decide to savage me, to feast your fill on my flesh, these wounds will close long before I'm in any danger.

I tried to ignore how the taste of blood made those words seem less horrifying. I definitely tried to pretend I wasn't salivating, even as I had to swallow to keep from drooling. And if I do? I whispered, even inside the privacy of my own head.

Then Siobhan will just have to Revive me before you move your mouth.

Wouldn't it hurt though?

Oh, it definitely would. I'd really rather you didn't. But at the same time? It would be so incredibly titillating. In fact, if you absolutely cannot help yourself? Please take us to our private room before you do, and take me as you do. I'd hate to think I'd give up the Imperator's seat without at least a pleasant memory to show for it.

Fuck. Dark much, Kitten?

Her grin stretched the skin of her neck against my lips. As dark as you'll allow me to be, love.

Yeah, the darkest I let her get was bleeding a bit more than she absolutely had to, because I couldn't entirely resist licking her neck. She purred harder every time I did it. Eventually we both fell asleep like that.

Dreamt... yeah, shit got weirder than usual. I have no idea where Saffron got a bungee cord to bounce her way in and out of my maw, dissolving and reforming each time. Marie dipping Siobhan in and pulling her out was equally disturbing and appetizing, but Siobhan doing the same in turn to Marie made no fuckin' sense. Of course, Karen throwing water balloons full of tabasco at everybody fucking around in my mouth was absolutely freaky, since I don't even really like tabasco. I'm more of a sriracha girl at heart.

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Woke in the morning to a still purring, still sleeping Saffron nestled into me, her forehead pressed against Siobhan's until their lips nearly touched, which left Marie's forehead pressed to mine. You awake?

Yes. Count on Marie to be awake before all of us.

Is it better to let go fast or slow?

That got an audible growling purr of a laugh from her; her reply came a second later. Slow is stealthy. Fast is shocking.

Will it hurt her? She shook her head the tiniest bit, prompting Siobhan to whine and blush without waking. I grinned in reply. Advice?

Close, then open, then pull. Watch them.

On three? A nod even tinier than her headshake got another whimper and the tiniest bit of squirming. One, two, three.

As one we bore down just a tiny bit, then opened our jaws wide before pulling away, all in one smooth, fast motion. Saffron's quiet groan as I closed my jaws got eclipsed by her gasp as I yanked my fangs free, and I realized the wisdom of pulling away as she bolted upright, blinking and squeaking in unison with Siobhan.

After a solid ten count of her blinking, cross eyed, trying to orient herself, she hissed out, "Tabitha! What the fuck?"

I couldn't help it, I snickered, then as her lips drew down, I swallowed, savoring the taste of her, then said, "her idea!" Then, guiltily, I slurred out, "totally my decision though." I undid whatever she'd done to my mouth and asked, "I didn't hurt you, did I?"

She opened her mouth to snap a reply, then paused, one hand going to her neck. "No. No, you didn't, but... it felt almost like you'd slid an icicle into each of those punctures. Not easy to describe, and definitely not something I want to repeat as a wake up."

I grinned at her, guilty but enjoying her general sudden perkiness way too much to be as guilty as I ought to be. "What about what we were talking about last night?"

She glowered at me, but even I could tell it wasn't entirely real. "Mentioning that is going on the ledger."

"But what about doing it though?"

She grinned at me, then leaned over to kiss me, her tongue darting in as she evidently wanted to taste herself in my mouth. Oh, it's going on the ledger whether you do that or not.

So I might as well?

She grinned against my lips. Oh, it will go on the ledger if you do that.

So I shouldn't?

Her grin got wider Oh, failing to do that will definitely go on the ledger. With prejudice.

My grin spread to match hers even as our tongues tangoed. Sounds like I'm fucked no matter what I do.

Yes, exactly! Literally, in case you hadn't realized.

I smirked into her grin. I can't tell if I should be turned on or terrified.

Yes, exactly!

My smirk melted. I love you, Kitten.

Yes, exactly! I laughed, totally losing focus on the kiss. Saffron pulled away just far enough to whisper, "and I love you, Goof."

We sat there, just leaning against one another, while everybody else got ready. Insta-dressing Mana hijinks for the win. Breakfast was endless waffles, with little cornbread discs on the side. With everybody doing a lot of hard manual labor working at turning the Homestead into something that could, conceivably, be lived in, everybody was burning a lot of calories on the daily, so everybody going along was definitely loading up on carbs. The little ones whined about wanting to join us, but I put my foot down, and both Saffron and Marie backed me. We did not need kids running around what was still a heavy construction zone. We mollified them by telling them that once we had the big construction done, basically all the rooms cut out and the walls in place, they come help us build furniture and make carpets and, y'know, turn our four big buildings into actual houses and homes.

With that in mind, Saffron had us focus, for the moment, on the 'Main House'. The one at the eastern end of the valley, opposite the tower, which stuck out the furthest from the natural wall of the valley. It also had what felt like the biggest 'rooms', not to mention being a story taller than either of the others. Hell, with how that end of the valley was higher than the other by a bit, I think the top floor was nearly as tall as the tower we'd been building. Of course, that was before we added another two stories to the tower today.

While most of the Maenads focused on moving and placing stone, and most of the women had started felling trees and pulling logs up to the buildings, Devorah headed out exploring again. Mittens, can you make sure one of your sisters stays with her?

Marie shrugged, walked over to one of her sisters, and after a moment that Maenad loped off after Devorah.

I spent the rest of the day cutting and melting. Slabs and tower walls. Even, at one point, a kind of oddly shaped basement for the tower itself. Not oddly shaped in the sense of not being round, but oddly shaped in the sense of the floor being the not at all level rock underlying the soil of the valley. That one took it out of me, and I didn't realize why until I twigged to the fact that Saffron had plugged the Filtration Wards holding the molten rock in place into my Mana, and those same Filtration Wards were, in fact, holding up the tower until the thick foundation ring cooled.

As I sat on the hill catching my breath, Saffron walked over, sat down next to me, and said, "sorry about that, love. When we dug the initial pit, I didn't realize how close to bedrock we'd come, or I would have had you do that first."

I shrugged, then quietly muttered, "no worries. Kinda wish I could get one of my big tentacles in here to hold the tower up while it cools though."

"It shouldn't really be any easier that what you're doing now. Also, I'm not sure the tower will hold up to being pulled upward."

"Well. Fuck. No worries, Kitten. Just a bit of an oof."

She tilted her head. "Have you tried Co-Locating to M-Space and tapping into your Mana there? It's helped before."

I shrugged and tried it. Felt a little weird, channeling Mana from myself to myself, then handing it off to myself sitting on the hill, but she was right, it took the effort from being exhausting to just... heavy. "Thanks, Kitten."

Then, faint with distance, I heard a scream. Then the unmistakable sound of a big cat's roar. I leapt to my feet, and the scream cut off with terrifying suddenness. I didn't think, I leapt toward the ongoing roar. On my fourth Translocating leap, the roar cut off with a squeal of pain, then cut back in, but ragged. I leapt again, and landed looking over a low ridge into another valley. A few small trees had been knocked over, clearly by the biggest fuckin' bear I'd ever seen, like, city bus big, which stood on its hindpaws looming over a bloodied Maenad.

I leapt, Translocating and screaming as Mana Blades slid out of my wrists. I scissored them into the back of the thing's neck. I growled when they didn't so much decapitate it as dig four-inch-deep furrows into each side of its neck. As it let out a grunting roar and its paws reached back for me, I Co-Located next to the Maenad, grabbed her, and Translocated away from the thing while the me on its back slid down its spine. When I hit that sweet spot where you could stick a post-it on a bodybuilder and they weren't getting it off without phoning a friend, I Mimicked Murder Mittens' maw and sank my fangs in. With that holding me in place, I shortened and narrowed my Mana Blades just a bit and went to town stabbing the big fucker.

Meanwhile the Maenad I'd rescued grabbed me, shoved me toward the devastated trees, and pointed. I Translocated and almost vomited when I saw Devorah. Her eyes staring vacantly. Her head and limbs barely connected to her torso. Blood splattered everywhere. She'd been swatted like a bug.

I almost vomited. Instead the me on Big Bear's back Co-Located. Then both of them did it again. And again. Each time I grabbed on in another spot and started stabbing. It hooked one of me with a paw, brought me around to its mouth. I leapt through its gaping fangs, landing with my belly on the things tongue and continued stab-a-thon whatever fuckin' year this was. It closed its mouth, tongue trying to work me between its molars, and I got a bright idea. Mana Blades erupted from every inch of me, then started extending and retracting at random across my whole fuckin' surface.

Meanwhile the me standing over Devorah thought, Siobhan.

She caught my urgency in despite my efforts to keep it from my thoughts. Coming!

NO! I felt her trying to move to me. I had no idea how I did it, but I stopped her, Co-Locating, catching her mid-Translocation, and carrying her to that endless field of undulating tentacles.

"It's not safe there. I need you to use me to Revive someone."

I have no idea why my partners trust me so much. Especially Siobhan. She didn't ask. She just slipped into my mind, wincing and even clenching her jaw and keening as Big Bear managed to fling one of me off and skewer me on a tree branch. She looked down at Devorah, quickly pulled a few foreign objects I hadn't even noticed out of her, then Shaped. I concentrated on her as she pulled maybe more fuckin' Mana than I was using to hold up our house's fuckin' tower. Then she lay her hand on Devorah's temple and whispered, "Revive."

Mana wrapped around the corpse, sealed its cuts, made its wounds whole, then reached out to elsewhere, to M-Space, and dragged something back. Back to the valley where I still fought the bear.

Back away from the Maw it had inevitably slid toward.

Devorah sat up, gasping and screaming. I grabbed her shoulder and Translocated us both back to the Homestead. "Marie!" I shoved Devorah toward Saffron, grabbed Marie by the hand and pulled her out of the line of Maenads surrounding both openings into our little valley, and leapt back to the fight with the bear. Moments later the bloody Maenad was gone, and a dozen Maries tore at the thing not unlike I'd been doing.

Love, are any of you on it's head?

Little busy, Kitten. One of me in it's mouth, one right between it's ears?

Ah. Move those two elsewhere, please?

I didn't ask. My ladies trusted me, I trusted them. The me unsuccessfully attempting to stab it in the brain and the me cosplaying as a lightsaber flavored throat lozenge both leapt away from the bear in opposite directions, trying to get a good look at the thing. Smoking holes covered it everywhere, but my Mana Blades cauterized well enough that it wasn't really bleeding. Bald patches covered everything from the hips down, and as I watched a Marie leapt up, sank her nails into its fur, into its flesh, and straight up ripped a sweater sized hunk of skin and fur off of the thing. A little blood leaked, but not nearly enough to put the fucker down in anything like a reasonable amount of time.

A sudden blue flash lit the evening sky, and Big Bear's head wasn't. Straight up gone. I screamed out, "TIMBER!" as I collapsed all of me back into the mes watching, and all but one Marie leapt away. That one leapt straight up to grab at Kaiju Smokey's gaping neck hole and scream into it as she rode it into the ground. I stepped to her as the bear's impact with the ground sent her tumbling away. "Feel better?"

"Yes."

A moment later Saffron stood there, a crossbow with beautiful deep blue enamel in her hands. I have no idea why I thought the crossbow looked smug. Inanimate objects shouldn't be able to look any kind of way, let alone smug. "Is anyone injured?"

I collapsed back into one of me, felt Marie doing the same. "I'll live," I groaned out. "Fuckin' ow."

Saffron hopped up to plant a quick kiss on my lips, then dropped back. "Marie, you really need to convince her to duck now and then."

"Worried I'm gonna get too scarred up for you to get it on with?"

She snorted. "Of course not. Worried you'll feel 'some kind of way' when you get a goofy looking scar in a prominent place and I can't stop laughing while we're having sex." While I decided whether I hurt too much to laugh at that, she turned to Marie. "Butcher this, please. Bones and hide to the Homestead, meat to Lancaster House. Oh, deliver a few prime cuts to Karen; they'll make good gifts to the Overlord, I think."

I flopped over to lie on the ground as Marie multiplied and started in on the thing with her claws. "Bear meat any good?"

Saffron shrugged. "I've never tried it. But I'm sure Marie knows how best to prepare it. Besides, there's the best spice of all already added to it."

"What's that?"

"We're the ones eating it."