Dear Diary,

I'm really hoping the war ends soon, because if I have to keep working and training with Lancaster, we might not remain utter nemeses. There's a shudderific thought if ever I had one.

So nothing of note overnight, other than me lying there spooked for longer than I'd like to admit after Saffron just up and disappeared. I get that it just means she fell asleep, either next to me or in the camp, but it's still not something designed to make me feel secure and unabandoned. Still, I sucked it up and lay there still and quiet until I eventually drifted off to sleep.

Same dream as always, no changes that I can tell.

Woke up to Isnomi squirming her way under my covers. On one hand, I think she's almost getting to the point where we want to wean her off breastfeeding. On the other, we can do that once the war's over and Saffron's back with us. For now, when she started nosing at the boobs, I Mimicked Saffron and settled down to feed her. We lay there like that, both of us half asleep, until Marie got up to get ready for the day.

"Okay, Menace. Time to get up and face the day."

She unlatched just long enough to say "No," then went back to suckling.

"Aaand that's reason enough to stop this, if you won't let go when I tell you it's time." I switched back to being me and yoinked her off my tit, despite her scrambling to get back on. Once Marie had herself dressed, I held Isnomi out to her. She collected the menace and dressed her while I got dressed. A bit more farewell hugs and kisses for the day than normal, what with me still being not quite over Saffron's abrupt departure last night.

Before I headed to the Dining Hall, I slipped my fur coat on, then Translocated up to the storage room for all our practice weapons, picked out a couple swords and a couple daggers, then Translocated down to the Dining Hall. Apparently I'd gotten in before the Maids officially opened up, because they shot me really creepy scary looks as they finished setting up the room. I set my coat and training weapons down where Saffron normally sat, then sat down across from them and tried my best to be not-there. It worked, which I really shouldn't have been surprised by, what with that being my whole schtick, in some ways.

I didn't touch the food until a pair of maids opened the doors, at which point I went ham on everything except the spicy eggs. Only one tray again today, and I waited until most of the ROTC crew got seated before I snagged my share, then passed them around. Plenty of sausage, and surprisingly quite a bit of jalapeno scrapple, too, so by the ninety minute mark when Lancaster stood up and started for the door, I'd gotten a reasonable amount of food for the day.

I grabbed up the stuff that I'd left on Saffron's seat, then jogged over to join Lancaster as he made it to the Dining Hall doors. "Hey, Larry. I got us our practice gear already. You good to head out?"

He shot me a look, then shook his head. "Just when I think I have you figured out. I suppose I'm as ready to go as I'm going to be." With that he headed for the Entrance, leaving me to carry all the gear. As usual, we stopped at Drivers' for our prepackaged meals for the day before heading to the wall and eating second breakfast. As I wolfed mine down, Lancaster got a weird look on his face and said, "I do not understand how you manage to pack all that food away. I understand even less how you manage to do it at every meal without getting as round as Cadet Driver."

In between bites, I defended the ROTC table's honor by saying, "Bill's gotten a lot less round over the past five months, in case you hadn't noticed. I mean, yeah, he's still heavy, but given that his Mom isn't exactly a lightweight and his Dad is a three hundred cubic foot cube of muscle, I don't think he's ever going to fit into haute couture fashion, you know what I'm saying?"

"You've met his parents?"

I didn't facepalm, but only because I had my hands full of Papa Driver's cooking and that would be a waste. "In all likelihood, he cooked what you're eating now."

Another weird look out of Lancaster, followed by, "strange, I never made the connection. I suppose it makes sense, though. The Drivers' are one of the more socially influential families in Camden Yards."

"And they run Drivers' diner, which is probably how they got so influential."

His mouth just worked a bit, like he was arguing with himself. Then he took another big bite out of today's breakfast, which seemed like nothing so much as a breakfast burrito made with pita bread rather than a tortilla. Still too fuckin' good to let get cold, though, so I just kept eating while he pondered.

"I'd never really thought about how much influence can be had by supplying something needed to the community." Before I could respond, he held up a hand, "I suppose I've just never abstracted it that way. Lancasters are all Heroes, but even there, out to the west where all the ranches are, Heroes are absolutely needed. Our lands cover a thick edge of an entire quadrant of the area claimed by Phileo and Camden. With all the wildlife that comes from the mountain peaks to the west, Heroes are in high demand. I suppose that's why the Rider and Rosen families each contribute a child or two every generation, even though they're mostly ranchers."

"So, like, everyone in your family is a Hero? Even the women?"

He shot me a look, like I'd said something offensive without realizing it. He finished off his pita-burrito and pushed himself to his feet. "You brought the weapons?" I gulped down the last couple bites of my own second breakfast, then jumped to my feet and held out the practice swords I'd brought. He frowned at them, but took one. The nicer one, of course. "You know, we should probably start practicing with live steel at some point soon."

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"Is it really that different?"

He sighed. "The fact that you have to ask means you need it more than I thought."

I nodded. "If you don't mind, I'm going to switch to daggers, and practice some of the things my Patron taught me while you were laid up."

"Your Patron." I nodded. "Taught you." I nodded again. "Directly?"

"Yep."

He closed his eyes, sighed, then opened them again. "From what I gather from father's private complaints, your Patron is Loki, yes?"

I just nodded.

"So over the course of the past week, Loki himself showed up here, in person, despite being chained to a stone slab under the mountains in the lands of the Aesir?"

"Hey, the Vanir live there too."

He almost made a throwing away gesture, then stopped himself. "I was about to say something regarding them not being war gods, but then I remembered our earlier conversation about the Drivers."

Holy shit, he can learn? I carefully avoided saying anything like that, though, and just nodded again.

"Still, how did he get around the whole 'chained up' thing to teach you? And what did he teach you?"

I couldn't pass up a setup line like that. I Co-Located to right behind him. I reached out to tap him on the shoulder, but before I made contact he spun, his sword coming around in a horizontal slice as he did. I was way too close to jump away, and his sudden reaction surprised me too much to Translocate, so I did the only thing left and stepped into him. His arms crashed into my side, but as I've noted he's not noticeably bigger than me, so between the fur coat and my jacket, it was really more of a rough shove, and I grabbed at him to keep my balance. That left us standing there, his arms pressed between us, me clutching at his shoulders, about an inch between our faces.

He twisted his head around, and I waved at him from where I was still standing. He looked back and forth between me now behind him and me dangling from him a couple times, then said, "where did you get pie?"

I rolled my eyes and stepped backwards and back to myself. "That's what Loki taught me while you were on sick leave." I had the unenviable experience of the Least Lancaster looking me up and down like a piece of meat while visions of two-person threesomes danced very clearly in his head. As his mouth opened, before he could say anything to make me lose my breakfast, I snapped my fingers in front of his face. "Focus, Larry. Focus. I'm gonna be training that today, you good with that?"

Apparently that wasn't enough to clear visions of debauchery from his head, so I reached up and flicked him right in the center of his forehead. He blinked, then said, "wait, what?"

Slowly and carefully I repeated, "I'd like to practice my Translocation and Co-Location Combat today, and I wanted to be sure you were okay with that."

To his credit, now that I'd interrupted the no doubt NC-17 visions dancing in his noggin, he paused and said, "in the afternoon. For the morning, sword practice."

I thought about that for a second. "Okay. Switch over at lunch?"

He nodded, then said, "begin!" and came at me.

We went back and forth all morning; he was still better with a sword than me, but he had nowhere near the edge he had when we'd begun practicing. Hell, if he'd improved at all, I might even be better than he was when we started. Kinda weird, but Blend can speed up learning, so maybe that's why I picked it up so fast? That, or nature hating the vacuum that is my clue-free skull.

At noon, Saffron pinged me. You there, Goof?

I nommed my lunch sandwich and thought, Yep. Just eating lunch. What's up, Kitten?

She snorted, somehow getting that sound through our link, then said, do you know your mental voice sounds like your mouth is full?

Really?

Yep.

Sorry. Drivers', though, so I'm not gonna stop eating.

Completely logical choice, that. On slightly more pressing matters, though. Can you do anything about that big black fuzzy fog or whatever it is covering up everything in local Metaphoric Space?

A little taken aback, I swallowed and thought, why would I be able to do anything about it?

Do me a little favor?

Sure, what do you need?

Walk like thirty feet away from where you are now.

Bemused, I stood, took another bite, and walked about ten paces down the wall. Lancaster gave me a look, but I waved him back down. I watched as the unit Hero Velazquez dispatched left through the gate and headed for the woods. Okay, thirty feet walked.

Now walk back.

I complied, then thought, what is this all about?

Whatever it is? Is centered on you, love.

You think it might be Mimic related?

Something like that.

Why don't you ask our son? He seems to be an expert on 'Metaphoric Space', as you call it.

True. That's his term, after all. I'll see you tonight. Love you, Goof.

Love you too, Kitten.

Then she was gone, and I'd finished my lunch, so I stripped off my coat, piled it with my practice sword, and pulled out the pair of practice daggers.

Lancaster looked at me like I'd gone insane. "So you're just going to ignore the fact that I wound up getting ill from the cold?"

"Hey, I didn't tell you to take yours off." I shrugged. "Another gift of Loki; it's not pleasant, but I don't freeze."

He just shook his head and said, "when you're ready."

I nodded, said, "begin," and Translocated to his right side. He'd already begun the same kind of spin he'd done in the morning, assuming I'd go for his rear, and I poked him in the ribs with one of the wooden daggers; not hard enough to injure, but hard enough to let him know I'd tagged him. I jumped back before his counter swing passed through where I'd been standing.

"This is going to be a long day," he sighed. "Still, I'm sure the Marshall would call this Good Training."

"You know it."

For the rest of the afternoon we sparred, and by the end of the day most of my moves were coming without thought, both for Translocation and Co-Location. While Co-Locating too close still got me some weird feedback, I'd learned to tolerate it and tune it out enough it didn't slow me down. For his part, Lancaster was beginning to predict and react to my moves before I made them. I realized I'd been telegraphing, but hadn't worked out how not to yet.

"You okay to make it back alone?" I asked. He nodded, but he looked a little pale. I sighed and held out a hand. "Do you trust me?"

He stared at my hand like a viper for about ten seconds before saying, "surprisingly, yes?" and putting his hand in mine.

I Translocated us to the front door of the Academy, because no way was I letting him anywhere inside the Ladies' Dormitory. "See you tomorrow."

He just stood there looking a little poleaxed, but still awake and aware, so I left him there and walked back to my cell. Just like yesterday, Saffron showed up right as I was climbing into bed. As we snuggled together, I asked, "could you do me a favor and stay awake until I fall asleep?"

She smiled at me, "as you wish, love."

I put my arms around her, pillowed my head on her chest, and slowly, quietly fell asleep.

I woke up when my head thumped to the mattress, and she was gone.