Dear Diary,

Life keeps smacking me over the head with how much having people you can trust to watch out for you makes everything better.

Also, I gotta say the weirdest thing about that is that Larry fuckin' Lancaster is somehow sliding into my 'circle of trust'. I mean, he's still the second biggest asshole I've ever met, eclipsed in goatse prowess only by his father, but he's become kind of a reliable asshole. Like, I know he's going to be a mega-dick about shit to compensate for his micro-penis situation, but he's going to be a dick in reliable, predictable ways, and now that he's apparently decided to stop wearing his ass as a ski mask, he's shown himself to be reasonably competent in the things he's been trained at.

So I woke up indoors, lying on a bed. Not even the pitiful excuse for a mattress I'd come to know and love in my Academy cell, either, but an overstuffed full-sized one, with nice sheets and half a dozen blankets over me. it felt so nice I just lay there luxuriating in the warm softness. I'd become so used to Isnomi snuggling up in bed that her presence didn't really register for a second. When it did, my eyes shot open and I sat bolt upright, looking around the room to figure out where the fuck I was and why my daughter was with me.

The first thing I noticed was Marie, sitting in a big rocking chair that nonetheless looked three sizes too small for her, doing some kind of crochet thing with some yarn. She wasn't even doing it at her normal stitch witchery pace, either, just calmly going through the motions of, I dunno, knit one purl two. I don't know how to sew, let alone knit. I figured if she was calm enough to be doing some random hobby shit, everything was more or less under control.

The rest of the room pretty much matched the bed. At a guess, it was about twice the size of our cell back at the Academy, although it was a little hard to tell, since instead of being two cells connected together the way the Academy's luxury suites were, it was a weird rectangle with both dimensions bigger than the Academy cells. The walls were white, although they looked more 'painted' than 'white rock'. A fireplace took up the wall opposite the bed, and if the single log burning in it didn't give off much light, the pile of coals it lay in warmed the room up really nice. It took my brain a little bit of processing to realize that one of the things it had pegged as 'wrong' was being in a room warm enough that my nips didn't stiffen up enough to cut diamonds. Other than the fireplace, the bed, and the rocking chair, there was another big, sturdy, padded chair sitting in front of a smallish writing desk, with a shelf above that holding half a dozen chunky books. Two walls had closed doors, one in the same wall as the fireplace, right next to the wall with the desk, the other located in the wall across from the desk, near the fireplace wall.

Also, there was a window in the wall with the desk, although it didn't look like the sort you could open. The window frame had to be at least six inches thick. Somebody liked chunky walls, apparently. Outside was dim, but not so dark my wireframe vision kicked in. At a guess, maybe false dawn or dusk. I looked to Marie and asked, "how long was I out for?"

Before Marie could answer, Isnomi popped up and hollered, "momma!" then glomped onto me. After I returned her enthusiastic hug, she pulled back and said, "you swep aww day."

"I slept all night and through the day?"

At that point Marie nodded and said, "Yes."

"Shit. Is everyone else all right?"

Marie shrugged and said, "Mostly."

I took a deep breath, then blew it out. "Right. Ah, where are my clothes?" After a quick glance at the menace, I said, "where are her clothes?"

Marie stood, saying, "Dressroom." and pointing toward the door beside the fireplace. I pushed out of bed, scooping up the menace, and followed her over to the door. The room on the far side was nearly as big as the bedroom, but instead of a bed and a desk, it had one wall covered by a trio of armoires, a sewing table with another padded chair, a few dressing dummies, and a way uncomfortable looking stool. My uniform lay folded up on the sewing table, as did Isnomi's. Okay, our boots sat maybe a foot away from the brick section of the wall, which radiated heat. Made sense, since that was the back of the fireplace in the bedroom.

I set Isnomi on the dressing table, nodded toward her and said, "Marie, if you could, please?" Before she could do anything, the menace jumped over to stand on the stool; it rocked alarmingly, but she managed to right it without crouching or using anything but her feet.

"Tadah!"

I rolled my eyes at her. "Very impressive. Now, if you're done with the acrobatics, can you let Marie dress you please?"

She blew a raspberry at me, but held still long enough for Marie to get her uniform on. While Marie did that, I got myself dressed, although when I finished Isnomi waved me over. When I reached to pick her up she batted my hands away and set about 'fixing' my collar. Okay, she really did fix the back of it. I can never quite get it just right. It's behind my head, after all.

Before anybody says anything about, 'why not Co-Locate and fix your own collar', that seems a little, I dunno, weird. Like next you'd expect me to Co-Locate when I'm horny or something...

Shit. Saffron and I had both done that already. Never mind. I'm just a dumbass sometimes, okay?

Anyway, Isnomi fixed my collar, and Marie fixed the back of my shirt so my shirt was tucked into my slacks and the tails of my jacket weren't. With all of us properly dressed, I asked Marie, "where is everyone else?"

She replied, "Downstairs."

I scooped up Isnomi, but she wiggled until I set her down, at which point she reached up to take my hand. I turned to Marie again, only to see her smiling at Isnomi's antics. I said, "lead on."

She led us back to the bedroom, then out the door to a balcony hallway, with doors on the left and a railing to the right that led into a big room with a big table through the middle of it. My shoulders let go of tension I hadn't realized I had when I saw the rest of the Cadets sitting around the table chowing down. Bill was the first to notice me; he swallowed and hollered, "the slumbering Hero wakes at last!"

Before I could respond, Isnomi dashed forward, yanking me along the balcony to a set of stairs that switched back and ran down to the first floor. I followed, smiling at the urgency with which she towed me along, then pushed me to a big chair at one end of the table. I sat, and as she jumped up to sit on my knee I saw Lancaster had taken the chair at the far end of the table. He nodded, finished chewing whatever he'd been eating, then in a voice that carried over the general merrymaking at the table without being, y'know, a shout, said, "Commander. It's good to see you up and about again."

I'd done a quick headcount on the way down, and all nine of my Cadets were at the table, four to each side and Lancaster, as noted, opposite me. "It's good to be back. Can't think why I slept so long."

I managed not to laugh when he got the same 'rectal kumquat' look his father had gotten when he had to apologize to the High Priestess of Mimic. The rest of the table fell into variations of 'lost their shit laughing', though Lancaster, miracle of miracles, didn't look too put out by it. "Ma'am, you killed a wyvern in single airborne combat, a reasonably impressive accomplishment for a Hero, let alone a Cadet, then you jumped directly from that into melee combat with a full grown Ice Dragon and," his voice went from 'indignant' to 'barely controlled' as he finished, "after it ate you, you walked out of its mouth looking more annoyed than, you know, dead. Needing to sleep the clock 'round to fully recover from what should have killed you several times over? I think that's completely reasonable."

I blinked. "Wait. Was that a compliment?"

He snorted. "Just stating facts, Commander. Take it as you will."

I shook my head and chuckled a little. "I mean, it didn't really eat me. Just chewed on me a little, thanks to..." I trailed off, wincing. "Yeah, I'm sorry, I think I put some really ugly dings in your sword. Hell of a way to thank you for using it to keep me from being swallowed by an overgrown flying lizard."

At that he snorted, then managed to hold his poker face for like two whole seconds before he broke down laughing at least as loud as the rest of the table. One by one the rest of the table fell silent, staring at him, as he kept laughing for a good minute, pounding at the table with the side of his fist. As his laughter finally petered out, he slapped the table with his palm, looked up at me, and said, "Diaz, I actually have to thank you for that. It's a Lancaster tradition to name our blades after our first great victory. Imagine the look on Lachlan's face when he finds out that not only was my sword named first, its name is Dragonslayer."

I smiled tentatively back at him. "Well. Glad to help you out there. So, it's fixable?"

He shrugged. "It needs to see a competent smith. It might even need to be re-forged entirely, I'm not sure. But given that name? I'm sure father won't begrudge me the cost." Weird, seeing a smile on Larry's face that had so little to do with bullying somebody somehow. Okay, maybe he was doing a little sibling rivalry thing with Lachlan, but given that he's basically playing Danny DeVito to Lachlan's Arnie, I wasn't about to begrudge him that.

I took a deep breath, pushed away the spoon Isnomi was trying to feed me with a gentle, "in a minute, Menace, Momma needs to do a little work first." When she set it carefully down on my plate, an actual real plate, mind you, with real-ish silverware besides, I said, "Okay. First things first. Casualties."

Larry's face didn't even get that much grimmer than it had been, which calmed my fears a little before he even spoke. "Thirty two Volunteers with minor injuries from Dragon's breath. None that required healing, even if they would let us." At my quizzical look, he explained, "all they'll carry are minor scars, and they get to tell everyone who will listen that they got them from fighting an actual, full grown Dragon."

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I nodded my understanding. "Good point. Guess our Volunteers are gonna wind up getting laid a lot when we get home."

That got a round of laughs and nods, with Rider and Rosen looking a little sheepish for some reason. Lancaster nodded and continued. "Eight Volunteers and one Cadet with major injuries, as well as three Volunteer fatalities." His eyes might have even got a little wide with wonder when he said, "I have no idea how she managed it, but the Imperator managed to restore all of those save the Cadet, inclusive of the fatalities."

I tilted my head as I remembered and looked at Bonnie, who sat just to Lancaster's left. She raised her left hand and waved, saying "sorry, commander. I..."

Before she said another word, Larry barked out, "stop!" Everybody tensed up at that, even me, but when Bonnie's mouth snapped shut, he closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh before opening them. "I will not have you apologizing in any way for that, Bonita. Ever. Understood?" I had no idea why, but she blushed and nodded to him. "Good." He turned to me and continued. "As I was saying, we could not recover Cadet Obol's forearm. We searched as long as we could, including an hour the morning after the battle, but eventually had to move on to get the expedition to this farmstead in good time."

He paused, took a deep breath, then continued, "I would like you to know, as commander of the expedition, that I am personally indebted to Cadet Obol, and expect you to hold me to that should I... become distracted and forget."

I don't think I'd ever seen that look on a Lancaster's face. Wait, no, it was close kin to the look Lachlan had when he finally got his Mineral Bond to pass muster. I nodded. "Explain."

He took a deep breath and said, "one of the wyvern leapt at me, over the shield line. Had Bonita not stopped it, it would have taken my head instead of her arm."

I tilted my head and looked at her. She shrugged and, with a sheepish little grin on her face, said, "I remember as a kid my mom grabbed a dog's tongue and yanked on it to stop it from biting me. I didn't really stop to think, I just acted."

I snorted. "Well, shit, that's most of what I do all the time, so I can't see where I can fault you for that. Good job, Bonnie." Then, softer, I asked, "Saffron couldn't save your arm? Regrow it or something?"

She shook her head, "she said without the missing arm, Heal Injury couldn't do it. She said she'd check to see if there's another Spell that could, or make one if there isn't. Once she's done her current research?"

I nodded, "yeah, she's been looking for a way to Cure more than one person at a time. Might be useful in New Amsterdam." I paused a moment, looking at Larry before continuing quietly, "or possibly at Lancaster House."

Lancaster didn't reply to me, just looked at Bonnie and said, "the Schuylkill Universities are doing some amazing things with prosthetics now."

She shook her head, almost involuntarily. "Those are so ex..."

"Not. An. Issue. Bonita." Damn, it really weirded me out to see a Lancaster using his rectum pole powers for good. Still, can't say it wasn't a good thing.

I hated to interrupt his personal growth, but I did have an expedition to run. "So, where's the owners of this... farmstead?"

He turned back to me. "Unfortunately, all but two had died before we arrived. Some quite some time ago. Those two are in one of the bedrooms upstairs." He nodded to the far side of the room from where I'd come down, where another set of stairs and balcony mirrored them, with doors along the upper wall and everything. "They've been Cured and Healed, but they're still quite weak. I suspect they may not be the legal owners of the farmstead; we found them both in one of the barns with most of the surviving cattle."

I shook my head, "fuck it, if they want it and nobody else is left to claim it, I say let them have it." I paused, my brain engaging, wonder of wonders. "Are they well enough to manage on their own?"

"No, ma'am. I doubt it."

I sighed. "I guess we take them with us, then. How many dead, here?"

"Twenty-seven."

"Shit." I meant to whisper, but it came out a little louder than I'd have liked. It also felt a little creepy to be having a feast in a dead man's chair. Fuck it, if he felt some kind of way he could come talk to me. "Where are our Volunteers?"

"Most of them are in the bunkhouses the hands slept in; they're packed in pretty tight, but it's better than tents in this weather. The remainder are in one barn we cleared out." He nodded to the table. "We commandeered several sheep and a few head of cattle."

"What about the wolves?"

He shrugged. "The Imperator Healed the pack leader, as well as a few that were in bad shape after the wyverns. They chose to remain with the carcasses after we'd skinned them and rendered out any useful parts from them."

"Useful parts?"

He nodded, for once looking entirely positive about something he had to relay to me. "It took a bit of doing to bring it all along with us, but we have most of the skins, fangs, and tail-barbs of four full grown wyverns, as well as the skin and teeth of a full grown Dragon. We also have the wyvern bones and the scales from the dragon. It took us most of the day after the battle to collect all that and sort it so we could carry it." Finally he frowned, and I relaxed a little, because seeing him near gleeful weirded me out a little. "The bones and internal organs of the Dragon were unrecoverable. The insides of the Dragon were..." he shrugged. "nothing but churned up slurry."

I suddenly got very glad I'd slept through that, as every Cadet at the table save me, Larry, and Bonnie stopped eating, most of them looking a little green. "Yeah. Vulcan can do that. Still, you know what they say about 'overkill'."

Larry looked at me, "I don't, actually?"

"There is no such thing as Overkill. There's only 'open fire' and 'pass the ammunition'."

That got a few chuckles, and Angel even went back to eating. Lancaster even smiled a little, then added, "Equipment wise, we lost a few spears, but nothing we can't replace in short order. Our biggest problem is our shields; they're mostly either completely destroyed or severely damaged. A few dozen sets of armor are in sad shape as well."

I thought about that for a half second, then asked, "if we had materials, do we have any Volunteers," I looked around the table, considering, "or any of us Cadets who know how to make shields? Or armor?"

Larry nodded, "I've overseen the shield making process, although I've never done it myself. I believe Cadet Aetos and Bo... Cadet Obol both are from leatherworking families?" Both of them nodded, and although they shot each other less-than-thrilled looks, neither said anything negative. Larry finished with, "also, with three hundred Volunteers, I find it extremely unlikely that we don't have at least a few with experience in each of those crafts."

I thought for a second, then asked, "what have we done with the bodies from the farmstead?"

"We didn't have time for a proper burial yesterday after arriving, so they're laid out in the yard, under the snow."

"Creepy as fuck, but makes sense. What about the remaining livestock?"

"In the rest of the barns."

I took a deep breath, metaphorically straightened my Commander's hat, and said, "okay, here's what we're gonna do. Starting first light tomorrow, we're going to have the two survivors identify the dead. We're going to Cure them all, then lay them to rest however we can."

At that point Lancaster interrupted with, "Cure them all? They're already dead, Commander."

I nodded and shot him a grim smile. "I'm well aware, but I don't even want the tiniest possibility that come first thaw, someone will find part of the bodies and start this whole plague shit show up again after we've finally got it stopped."

He tilted his head, but said, "yes, ma'am. Can you handle the Cures?"

I smiled at him. "Can and will. Does anyone here know proper burial rites?"

Rosen, Rider, and Carrruthers, of all people, shot their hands up. "Good, you three will handle those; each of you grab a unit to help with the grunt work. While the four of us are doing that, I want Larry, Bonnie, and Raven to find all our folks who have done leatherworking or woodworking and get to replacing our Volunteers' shields, armor, and spears. While they're at it, I think it might be an idea for the ten of us to get some actual armor ourselves. At least leg and head armor. Yeah, I get that it'll slow us down a little, but I'd like something a little more substantial covering my ass next time something tries to bite, burn, or blow it off."

Larry was far less interrupty this time, but still tilted his head when he asked, "with what materials, ma'am? They have a small stockpile of wood, metal, and leather here, but only enough to outfit maybe a dozen Volunteers."

I smiled back at him. "Didn't you just say we had a shit ton of Dragon hide and scales? Not to mention teeth?"

His mouth dropped open and worked for half a second before saying, "Dragonhide shields and armor for Volunteers?"

"And all of us, while you're at it. Don't forget who else was standing between the ten of us and those fuckin' lizards."

He shut his mouth, got a considering look, and said, "yes, ma'am. Will do. Anything else?"

"The rest of us will gather up any Volunteers not on burial or re-equipping duty and get some sleds or sledges ready to drag as much of our usable leftover supplies and material as we can; if we can find harnesses to let the cows drag them, that'd be perfect. We'll also want some kind of leads, so we can keep them all with us. I'm correct that from here on out, we'll be going through farmsteads rather than wilderness?"

Lancaster nodded, "there are woods between the farmsteads, but each might take an hour to traverse normally at most. Nothing that would support things like we've had to face getting to this point."

"Good. We're bringing the livestock and the two survivors with us. If they want to come back here once they're well, they can have whatever livestock are left over when we get to our next resupply point, but for now that livestock is our self-propelled larder." I paused, then said, "am I missing anything?"

That got a round of head shakes, and Lancaster said, "nothing I can think of at the moment, Commander."

"Good. Then, without further ado, let's eat!"

As the rest of the table dug in and the menace started to feed me, grabbing bites for herself between bites for me, I thought, Kitten? Everything okay on your end?

Goof? Thank... you. She giggled a little. It's good to hear your voice.

Right back at you. Why are Marie and Isnomi here?"

Because I thought you'd want to stay with your troops, so they could see you're alive, and I wanted someone to watch over you, and Isnomi wouldn't stay with Grandma.

Isnomi Aetos-Diaz, filler of many hands.

She snorted. Tell me about it.

Do you have time to visit tonight? We're staying at a farmhouse with, get this, an actual bed.

She whimpered a little. Dammit. Wait, where would Isnomi sleep?

There's an adjoining dressing room, we could bring her bed and put it there. No other exits from the dressing room, either, so she'd be safe.

That got even more whimpering. Dammit. Dammit. Dammit. Shit. I'm sorry, love. I desperately want to be there, but I've been Curing people non stop all day, as has Lancaster, and I've got to review everything George and fucking Ophelia did today to make sure he didn't screw something up by accident, nor her by intent.

I thought about it for a second. Tomorrow morning tell Ophelia that if she keeps fucking around with shit, I will personally come to explain to her why that's a bad idea. Loss of body parts might ensue.

Didn't you not want to be a bogeyman?

No, I don't want to be a villain. Totally different. Also, if you don't have to review all their work tomorrow, we're going to be spending tomorrow at this farmstead too.

I swear to you, my Goddess, that I shall put the fear of you into Ophelia bloody Orange.

Nice. See you tomorrow, Kitten?

See you tomorrow, Goof.

That night I managed a Translocate to bring Isnomi's Toddler bed back to the farmstead. When I set it up in the dressing room and showed her, she looked a little doubtful until I said, "you're such a big girl now that since we've got one, you get to have your very own room."

She still wound up crawling into bed with me halfway through the night. Couldn't really complain, since Marie had done the same thing as soon as we heard Isnomi snoring.

All day today I wound up walking around answering questions for people who knew the damn answers better than me. Like somehow if they asked me about what they were going to do, it would magically make it better somehow. No idea why, but if it made everybody feel better about standing still for a day when the very beds we slept in were evidence that the Plague had hit here ahead of us? I guess I gotta put on my big girl panties and play cheerleader.

Dammit. Now I want to see Saffron in a cheerleader outfit.