Dear Diary,

I don't know exactly what's motivating the 'Damn leadership, but my gut tells me that it's nothing good for yours truly. Hoping I can figure it out before shit goes to hell.

So eight to twelve hours of working my ass off practicing Combat Translocation leaves me sweaty and exhausted, but at least I'm too tired to get stupid melancholy. Slept well last night. Same dream as always, no change from last night, really.

Woke up alone in bed sometime before Marie woke up. Stole the blankets off the bed and joined her on the floor. Part of me wishes we had a bed big enough to fit her comfortably, but another part of me enjoys joining her on the floor. Slept through the rest of the night snuggled up to her. Woke up to her stirring as the menace crawled under the covers and started rooting around for breakfast. I Mimicked Saffron and let her nurse while I stayed half-asleep. Guess it makes me feel some kinda way that it doesn't weird me out anymore, but I suppose if you do anything often enough it loses its weirdness factor.

I hope that's not true for intimacy. I'd hate to think that things between Saffron and I or Marie and I would get boring. I mean, I certainly don't think they will, but I'm an idiot. Ask anybody who knows me.

So eventually Marie did more than stir. Before she got up, she held us both for a little bit, purring the whole time. Then she wriggled out of our little nest, somehow managing to avoid a huge gust of cold air as she did. I guess being centuries old you learn to do stuff that seems like magic to anybody who hasn't had centuries of practice. That got me wondering whether her Stitch Witchery and Laundry Legerdemain were legit Skills, or some kind of Mana Shaping, or just the result of, y'know, doing something over and over for hundreds of years. I would have asked her, but I couldn't bring myself to do anything what with the warmth of our little nest.

Once Marie was dressed, she held out her hands. I detached the menace and handed her up. She, of course, made her annoyance at leaving the warm blanket nest very clear, squawking and squirming, trying to get back under the covers with me. I sighed and sat up, then grabbed the blankets and stood up, tossing them onto the bed in a heap. I got a glare from a grumbling Isnomi for that, probably because I'd put the inner blankets of the nest on top where they'd cool off quicker.

I got myself dressed, then collected Isnomi. "Pick her up after breakfast?"

Marie nodded and said, "Yes," then headed out the door. I snuggled Isnomi inside my fur coat, which managed to silence most of her grumbling.

"You're such a Big Girl, getting up when you're supposed to and sitting in for Mom at breakfast."

She nodded and replied, "Anhama Big Gil."

"Sounds like your teeth are almost there, Menace. No biting friends, got it?"

"Na ba fren." She gave me an itty bitty thumbs up, and I snuggled her as we walked down the hall. She yawned hugely as we walked into the Dining Hall, but once she had food in front of her at Saffron's seat, she lost all hints of tiredness and started putting down food even faster than I normally did. Of course, I nommed hard myself, what with keeping myself from freezing and practicing all day.

Speaking of, you good to join me today, Boss?

Of course, Tabitha.

A sudden thought struck me. Want me to pick up extra from Drivers' for Sigyn?

A warm chuckle answered me. Do you think I've been keeping your culinary offerings to myself?

Fair point. What does she think?

Were she not worried about breaking the Pact, she'd likely visit Drivers' in person.

Nice. See you at the wall in about two hours?

Until then, my devotee.

So I kept packing away the food until it stopped coming; Marie brought the final trays, and collected a squirming Isnomi, who grabbed two handfuls of sausage before settling in on top of Marie's cart. By the time they hit the exit, she'd made those disappear and curled up atop the cart. Growth spurt indeed.

"Any of you guys seen anything weird on your sections of the wall?"

Angel replied, "not sure how weird it was, but I saw smoke, like from a campfire, somewhere in the direction of the shore."

Bill nodded, "we reported it to Hero Velazquez. He's currently in charge of new Volunteers, he's working out of the Guard office here at the Academy."

"I wonder why they're not having us train them?" I asked.

Bonita of all people answered me. "At a guess, I'd say that they think even us Freshmen Cadets can hold long enough for the real Heroes to get to the wall with new Volunteers in tow. Guards, especially half trained new ones? Not so much."

Half a second thinking about that and I got a sudden rush of brains to the head. "Hey, if any of you guys actually see any 'Damn soldiers, you remember that Message spell we learned?" When they all nodded, I said, "throw one of those at max volume both directions down the wall, and pass it on when you do. If it gets to me I can get back here fast."

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Fred said, "that kinda makes sense; you can sprint longer than any of us. I'd really hate having to defend the wall without you, though."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Nobody who saw you at the Court Martial would think otherwise."

I smiled at him. "Thanks. I think I can make it back to the wall before they get to it though." I Translocated to Saffron's normal seat, and the rest of the table just kinda gawked. I mean, I'd done it before, but never quite so blatantly.

"How the hell do you do that?" asked Bill.

I shrugged. "High Priestess of Loki. I learned it from him." A bit of a fib, but not entirely wrong.

Angel shot me a crooked grin. "Loki's looking better and better as a Patron."

I smiled back at her, "just lemme know, I'll hook you up."

At that point, the table had emptied entirely of food, and the Maids were giving us impatient looks, so I Translocated to Drivers' and picked up breakfast, lunch, and dinner, because I knew I'd be too exhausted to hit the Dining Hall again tonight. After sharing breakfast with Loki and, apparently, Sigyn, Loki and I got back to it, with one of me standing at either end of my section of the wall. I'd got to the point I could do most of the things he'd taught me, but they weren't zero-thought second nature yet, so practice, practice, practice, all day long.

Well, except lunch, since neither of us would skip Drivers' lunchtime meatloaf sandwiches. Good stuff.

About halfway through, Saffron pinged me. You'll want to see this.

I looked through her eyes and saw a pavilion, one of those big tents with a pole at each of the four corners, and another two along each side. The sides had been pinned to the ground, but the front and back flaps were rolled all the way up. Beyond the far flap I saw a few people approaching the tent from the other side. Saffron glanced around quickly; Marshall duBois, General Lancaster, and Hero Potami stood nearby. Four 'Damn officers, with more fancy embroidery and medals on their chests, entered the far side of the pavilion at the same time as our four. One of the four enemy officers wore a breastplate and Bronze Age helmet along with his blue and orange outfit. I couldn't really call it a 'uniform', since no two were quite alike.

That struck me as kind of weird; all of their troops had identical tabards clearly identifying them as 'Damn troops, but other than their color scheme, no two 'Damn Heroes dressed quite the same. Meanwhile the only unifying feature of our troops was their hard leather armor, and even that was a little non-uniform, like they'd been made in big batches by different makers. Our Heroes, on the other hand, all wore the same Uniform; black slacks, black boots, white ruffled blouse, red jacket, and shiny metal helmet. The only differences were General Lancaster, who had his dress on under his uniform jacket but above his blouse and slacks, and the Marshall, whose jacket and blouse looked just slightly different. It reminded me a little of Hero MacCrae's uniform, and it was still really clearly the same basic thing.

The guy in the armor said, "You called this parley, Lancaster."

The General replied, "I did. You moved troops past no-man's-land first. Why?"

Armored dude replied, "you act like you don't know already."

Whatever his flaws, General Lancaster had sneering down pat. "If I knew, I wouldn't be asking. So tell me, why?"

"You wear the dress of a High Priest of Odin, and expect us to believe he hasn't told you?"

Lancaster shook his head, "believe what you like, but the truth remains that he hasn't. Perhaps he has chosen to remain neutral in this conflict. Or perhaps he thought I had no need to know."

Armored dude spat, "ask him."

Lancaster closed his eyes, and his lips twitched. A few moments later he opened them and said, "he tells me it is not his place to say."

"A likely story." His body language made me think he wanted to come over the lack-of-table at Lancaster. As he took half a step forward, the guy with the biggest number of medals lay a hand on his arm.

"Forgive my son's impatience, Leonard. He longs to come to grips with the enemy."

The General nodded, "not surprising, Octavio. You'll forgive my not wanting to give him the opportunity?"

Octavio smiled and nodded, "of course. None of us want a war, let alone this one. As we speak ships that ought be plying the waters for trade needs must take up guard and harassment duties."

"So. Why did you send troops our way?"

Octavio nodded again. I'd known guys like him, always agreeing with whatever anybody else said. Most of them were just yes men, but now and again there'd be a guy who did that just to get everyone to let their guard down. Since he seemed like the dude in charge, I assumed he was one of the latter group. "My priests tell me that since the Equinox, when the Champion of Loki bested and maimed Diana in her own temple, a great darkness hangs over the City of Phileo."

Lancaster scoffed. "So you've hauled us all out in to freeze our asses off because some priests say Diana has been maimed and made some vague proclamations of 'darkness'?"

Nodding as he spoke, Octavio said, "Not 'some', Leonard. 'All'. Every High Priest in New Amsterdam, and all those we know of in Newark as well. They tell me the darkness hangs over Phileo, and its growing."

"So we cannot settle this peacefully?"

Octavio nodded again, "I didn't say that. If you find the source of this darkness and rid yourself of it, we'll gladly sign any reasonable treaty to prevent future hostilities from breaking out."

"What if we find this darkness is related to those worshipped in Phileo?"

The armored dude shrugged off Octavio's hand and said, "then purge them!"

For the first time in the conversation, duBois spoke. "You know we're not going to do that, Oliver. So long as they break no laws, they're protected. If we 'purge' them, or hand them over, or exile them, who's next? The Maenads?"

"So you are fine with your City being in the thrall of this darkness?" said the armored dude, whose name apparently was Oliver.

"I didn't say that. This is the first we've heard of this 'great darkness' of yours. Give us a few days to commune with our Deities, to see if we can get rid of this darkness, or at least determine what it is?" General Lancaster moved as if to say something, but the Marshall brushed his arm with a hand, and he remained silent.

"How long are we to give you? A day? A week? A month? A year, with the darkness growing all the while?" I really did not like this Oliver dude.

The Marshall looked at Lancaster, who held up four fingers behind his thigh. "Give us until Moonday next?"

Octavio looked to Oliver, who gave a curt nod. "Shall we meet here next Moonday then?"

The Marshall nodded. "Until next Moonday, then."

With that, both sides turned and walked back to their respective lines. Through Saffron's eyes I saw that no soldiers could be seen from outside the woods. When they got into cover, the Marshall asked, "you're sure you can be ready to breach their walls in four days?"

General Lancaster looked pointedly at Saffron, then behind her, where I could feel Vulcan's case against her back. "If we're not ready in four days, we won't be ready ever."

Holy shit, Kitten. He's gambling this whole thing on you and Vulcan being able to breach New Amsterdam's walls?

It looks that way, Goof.

I never thought that having a Lancaster giving us a vote of confidence would scare me so much I wanted to piss myself, but holy fucksticks, this did not make me feel copacetic about the situation.