Dear Diary,

Weird how even outside of Loki's cave, time seems to fly sometimes and drag on at others. You'd think a minute is a minute, but sometimes it's a minute instead, and it takes a minute to tell the difference.

Yeah, I've spent how long talking and you still expect me to make sense?

So after laughing his ass off at how incompatible with the idea of authority I am, Loki was as good as his word, and we alternated between me doing slow Translocates or simple Co-Locations and him calling me over, laying his hands around me, and pushing. I still can't see it for shit, but I felt when he pushed Mana onto me; not into me, not really, but holding it right up against my surface and using it to massage my own Mana back into however it was supposed to be.

Important note regarding that; if deep tissue massage while trying to recover from an injury is bad? Deep Mana massage while trying to recover from a soul injury is worse. So. Much. Worse.

Thankfully, whatever subconscious part of me would lash out at him for hurting me trusts him, knows that he's doing it for my own good. Or maybe that somehow I deserve it. Which, now that I think about it, would probably have gotten me another thwap to the back of the head, so I'm glad I didn't say it out loud.

Before I realized it, Saffron showed up. I heard her before I saw her, when she called out, "I assume this is some kind of training?"

My head spun around to track on her, my current position and the weird partial wireframe world giving me a little vertigo before I focused on her. Loki had my ankles between the fingers of his right hand, and his left wrapped around my waist. Up until a moment before, he'd been stretching me out, and when I whipped my head around, something in my back went 'pop', which preceded a wave of visual static and another horrendous bout of vertigo. "In the sense that an athlete's 'trainer' is often their physical therapist, yes," Loki replied while my head still spun. "Of course, it would help if she held still when I tell her to, but I suppose I shouldn't expect miracles."

I couldn't help it, the sheer incongruity of his statement when we had at least three Deities in the room, four if I counted, which I'm now not sure if I do or not, just struck me as ludicrous. It started as a giggle, then devolved into snorting, and finally, as he lay me gently on the table, I curled up and laughed my scantily clad and insufficiently padded ass off. Saffron walked over as I did, laying a hand gently on my shoulder while she waited for the laughter to die down. "How is she?" she asked, obviously talking to Loki.

"She wasn't as good as I'd hoped, but far better than I'd feared. Also, she seems to be responding well to treatment, so overall the prognosis is good."

"Give it to me straight, doc. Will I ever play the violin again?"

Loki just shot me a 'Really, Diaz?' look. "That joke was old when I wasn't."

I put on my best confused, shocked face. "They had violins then?"

Saffron laughed at that, and eventually Loki joined in. "Touché."

Loki gave me one more once over, finishing with a twist of my head between his Mana-infused palms that made something go pop loud enough for Isnomi to squeak out a concerned, "Mama?"

Stolen novel; please report.

I stumbled a little, because whatever he'd done left me staring down a long, staticky corridor and loose enough to stumble a bit. I grabbed at something, anything, and my hand found something warm and soft. Saffron chuckled and said, "really, dear? Right in front of the little one?" before slipping my arm over her shoulder. "Is she okay to go home?"

Loki nodded and said, "she might feel a little under the weather tomorrow. It's completely natural, although if it doesn't improve by Freyday she should... could you bring her to me if she's not improving by Freyday?"

Saffron replied with a simple, "of course, Lord," then turned and hollered at Isnomi, "tell Sigyn and Mister Slither good night, it's time to head home, my girl."

She came with surprisingly little pushback. None, really, unless you counted extended good bye hugs from Sigyn and the snake to be 'pushback', which I for one didn't. Once she had one arm holding Isnomi and the other around my shoulders to hold me up, she nodded to Sigyn and Loki, said, "farewell," and stepped us back home.

To be honest? I'm kinda glad the menace came home with us. I'd hate to think we passed up an opportunity because I was too beat to do anything. Saffron helped me get my boots off, which I appreciated, then helped me get The Dress off, which drove home exactly how much I'd been put through the wringer. At the same time, I didn't have any new bruises or scars, and other than a general achiness and enormous weariness, I didn't feel too bad. I hit the bed and was asleep before I even got to kiss the menace good night.

In the morning, I found out why people bitch about the morning after. My everything ached. Again, no 'you've been stabbed in a place that doesn't precisely exist', but definitely achy. I groaned, forced my eyes open, and wound up with a face full of Isnomi, Saffron's arm dangled over my shoulder, and Marie's arm dangled over that. I tried rolling over, and my body told me on no uncertain terms that it might consider rolling over if I had some assistance and a complete lack of resistance, but under the current conditions, if I tried to roll over it would beat me unconscious with my own tits. Instead I puckered up and blew a stream of air in Isnomi's face.

She cracked one eye open, looking more than a little disgruntled, and said, "Mama?"

"Good Morning, Menace. Could you maybe wake up Saffron and Marie for me?"

She got a mischief face on and, before I could say anything to stop her, pounced straight over me. Both arms slithered off of me, and I heard thumps and squeals coming from behind me as she somehow managed to knock two grown women, one of them Siberian tiger-sized, straight off the bed onto the floor. When Marie growled, Isnomi said, "Mama!"

That got me a concerned Marie and a sleepily concerned Saffron rolling me onto my back as I groaned. "Love?"

"Yeah, Kitten. Nothing wants to go." I lifted a hand and waved it. "Not paralyzed, just... ow."

"I suspected as much." She pointed one finger at me and, doing a pretty good finger-gun for somebody who'd never seen a gun, popped my civvies onto me. "Marie, when you're dressed, could you please take her to the Infirmary?"

Marie stopped play fighting with Isnomi to stand up and start dressing even as she said, "Yes."

Sadly, Saffron was still feeding Isnomi by the time Marie was ready to go. On the other hand, Saffron nursed Isomi the entire time Marie was getting ready to go, so, win?"

When I got to the Infirmary, princess carried all the way by Marie, Sister Siobhan sprang to her feet. My whole body tingled, but it felt like a good kind of tingle. "Tabitha! Are you okay?"

I shook my head just enough to show her I could. "Not great. Spent my Devotional Day with Loki realigning my chakras or some shit. I'd sprained my Mana, so he manhandled my magic muscles back into something approaching normal. Which apparently aches like fuck the day after."

She let out a relieved sigh. "I'll let everyone know you're on sick call for the day. Marie, if you could put her down?" Siobhan waved to a bed, the same one I'd woken up in on my first day here.

Not terribly interested in that particular blast from the past, I said, "no, I can work, I just need..."

Marie put my head on the pillow, drowsiness washed over me, and Sister Siobhan lay a hand on my forehead and finished my sentence with, "rest."