Dear Diary,

Why is it that my most off-the-wall, out-of-nowhere suggestions get taken up and treated like some kind of divine directives?

Oh. Right.

So slept through the night last night. Same dream, lying along the lakeshore, spread out and vibing like I used to do when the gym coaches used to make us walk the track as many times as we could. That kind of 'little bit winded, little bit achy, little bit tired, might have hurt myself, but here and now I'm just gonna vibe'. Given my condition when I fell asleep, totally understandable. Some of the new psychedelic tadpoles sputtered out a bit, but there were still plenty of them wandering around. Looking for the lake, I guess. I squirmed around a little, but couldn't really lay eyes on any of them. One or two of the ones in the water glowed a little.

Woke up to warm bodies snuggled all around me. Arms and legs intertwined, the menace squished in between Saffron and I, purring gently as she slept. I lay there just soaking in the happy brain chemicals from being surrounded by loved ones. It didn't even bother me that Isnomi had gone furry. Not like anyone could just barge in here and see her under the blankets. Okay, if anyone barged in here and ripped the blankets off of us, they were gonna have way bigger problems than realizing that Isnomi was fuzzy.

Of course, somebody chose that exact moment to knock on the door.

"The fuck?" I muttered.

Before I could move, Marie got out from under the blankets and stepped to the door. Leaning around it so whoever stood outside could only see her face, she opened the door and said, "What?"

I heard a woman speaking outside the room, but between being half awake and surrounded by purring family, I couldn't quite recognize it or make out what she said. Marie closed the door to only a crack, looked at me and said, "Siobhan."

I groaned, spent half a moment thinking about just having Marie tell her to fuck off, but so far she'd been nothing but helpful to me. Hell, if my suspicion about Mimic worshippers making me heal faster was in any way true, I really ought to do what I could to foster that. I sighed, Translocated to the middle of the room, landed on my feet, and did the auto-clothing thing to get my uniform on. I couldn't see Sister Siobhan coming to me before breakfast unless there was an emergency. I stepped up to the door, nodding to let Marie know she could go back to bed, opened the door and slipped out.

"What is it?"

My whole front tingled as she looked up into my eyes and said, "Cadet Lancaster. He's injured himself beyond my capacity to Heal, and Doctor DeLeon says that if he doesn't receive Healing, the wounds he's caused will kill him."

I heaved a big sigh, took her hand, and stepped to the Men's Infirmary. That stung a little, but nothing so bad as I experienced hauling Oliver and Octavio back to the command tent. Then again, Translocation was easier than Co-Location, so maybe that's why it hurt less. Doctor DeLeon looked up at our arrival. "Thank you for coming so quickly." He stepped back from the bed he'd been standing beside. Lancaster lay on the cot, a line of blood leaking from his mouth, a smear near his nose showing he'd done so from there before someone wiped it away.

"What the fuck happened to him?"

"Per my orders, he'd been resting on the cot, but after a bit when I went to check on another Cadet, he got out of bed and was trying to dress himself. He collapsed, coughing. He kept coughing until he nearly suffocated. Both the Sister and I used Heal Injury, but both were insufficient to treat the injuries to his lungs. Every time he heals enough, he starts coughing again."

Memories of my past life came rushing back. "Oh. Shit." I turned to Sister Siobhan. "Do you have any Spells to cure diseases?"

She nodded. I looked at Doctor DeLeon and said, "please look away until I tell you?"

"Whatever you're doing, do it fast."

I nodded, then when he turned around, took Sister Siobhan by her shoulders.

I pushed my focus into MIMIC (Skill), then checked my Status. This time I'd gotten lucky.

NAME

Tabitha Diaz

RACE

Hybrid

HYBRID

Bag (31.25%) / Dan (25%) / Human (37.5%) / Vanir (6.25%)

AGE

Juvenile ()

ATTRIBUTES

STRENGTH

4

AGILITY

4

ENDURANCE

9

REASON

3

MEMORY

2

PERSONALITY

5

AFFINITIES

Water (18.75%), Air (9.375%)

PATRON

Loki

SKILLS

CQC

8

MANA SHAPING

6

HEAL INJURY

8

HEALING COMA

8

REVIVE

2

CURE DISEASE

4

RACIAL SKILLS

None

She just stared up at me, her eyes fluttering closed. I sighed. "Sister Siobhan?"

"Yes, Tabitha?" she replied breathlessly.

"Is Cure Disease anything like Heal Injury? Does the amount of Mana you pour into it matter?"

She blinked, then said, "in theory, yes, but the base cost of casting it is so high that I've only a small amount left to add."

I turned to Doc DeLeon. "What about you?"

He turned back to face us, slight amusement coloring his features when he saw my hands on Sister Siobhan's shoulders. As I dropped them he said, "I've got somewhat more Mana than the Sister. Mostly due to being older and having a wider selection of Spells and Skills that require it, including a few that don't require someone to be injured or ill to use." After Sister Siobhan shrugged, he said, "But I can, at best, double the base amount required."

I sighed. "Do either of you know what a face mask looks like? Something you'd put over your mouth and nose to avoid breathing in smoke or something?"

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Sister Siobhan looked at me with complete incomprehension, but Doc DeLeon shrugged, "I've seen men use those when fighting a fire."

"Get the Maids to sew up a bunch of them. Anybody who comes in here for any reason needs to wear one, and keep wearing it once they're out of the Infirmary."

Sister Siobhan said, "of course, Tabitha," and headed for the door. I grabbed her arm. "Wait just a bit."

Doc DeLeon looked at me and said, "why?"

I replied, "I've seen a disease like this before. It spreads to those around when an infected person coughs. It takes weeks for them to feel really sick, and long before they feel bad, they're already coughing out, uh, 'bad air' that will contaminate others."

Sister Siobhan clapped her hands over her mouth, and I sighed. "Wait here." I stepped over to Lancaster's bed, popped out an opaque Mana Ward, then, much like I'd done with Angel and Bill, drew Mana. Drawing as much as I had before hurt, but I didn't have time for that right now. I poured it into the Shape, laid my hand on Lancaster, and released it into him. Almost immediately he started coughing, and I rolled him over so his head hung over the edge of the bed and shoved the pillow under his hips. He coughed harder, and phlegm poured out of his mouth. He coughed, and coughed, and coughed, and the phlegm turned pink. I dropped a normal Heal Injury into him. He kept coughing, the phlegm back to normal.

"Tabitha? Is everything okay?"

"As good as it can be. Please don't go anywhere."

Twice more he coughed so hard I heard something crack and the phlegm pouring out of him turned pink. Each time I dropped a Treat Injury into him and it cleared. Finally he stopped coughing, just breathing kind of hoarsely. I rolled him back over onto the bed, yanked up one of the sheets, and covered the phlegm with it. I didn't know if it was infectious or not, but I wasn't taking any chances.

I dropped the Mana Ward and saw Sister Siobhan and Doc DeLeon both shaping; I recognized it as the same Spell I'd just Cured Lancaster with. Doc DeLeon half turned his head to me and said, "I wouldn't have thought to check either of us. Both of us were infected." After releasing Cure Disease into Sister Siobhan, he popped off an Assess Health, and then let out a relieved sigh. "No longer 'diseased'. He turned to me, holding his hands in the starting position for Assess Health. "Do you mind?"

I shook my head and he Assessed me, then frowned. "Some of this looks odd, but you are diseased as well. May I?" He held up his hands in the start position for Cure Disease just as Sister Siobhan released hers on him.

I said, "hit me with your best shot."

He smiled, Shaped the spell again, and let me have it. It felt kind of like eucalyptus smells, and afterward when he put out an Assess Health, he sighed. "It looks like we've managed to head this plague off at the source."

I shook my head. "Hopefully, yeah, but anybody who's come in contact with Lancaster over the past couple weeks ought to be checked. In the meanwhile, cloth breathing masks. They don't protect the person wearing them much, but the filter out the bad air someone infected breathes out." They both nodded. I really hoped they'd take me seriously. "I'm going to go get breakfast." When they nodded again, I stepped back to our room and, without further ado, dropped a mega-boosted Cure Disease on each of my family.

"What's that for?" asked Saffron, who'd woken to nurse Isnomi while I was out.

"Apparently Lancaster had some kind of plague. I was infected and didn't know it. Better safe than sorry."

Saffron whipped her hands through Assess Health, pointed first at Isnomi, then another at Marie, then finally at herself. She let out a relieved sigh much like Doc DeLeon's. "Well, if we were, we're not any longer."

"Good. Who's up for breakfast?"

Saffron handed me Isnomi, who grumbled a little but let Marie and I dress her while Saffron got dressed. Once we'd all gotten ourselves together, I looked at Marie. "After Breakfast?"

She nodded and said, "Yes."

I took Saffron's hand and we strolled down to breakfast together, taking our time with it. She groused about the Army rations while we walked. I just enjoyed letting her voice flow over me, Isnomi a comforting weight sleeping on my arms. When we got to the Dining Hall, the smell of food roused her, and both she and Saffron rivaled my apocalyptic nomming. I had a disadvantage, since Isnomi chose to sit in my lap to eat, which meant that I had to reach around her to get to the food, and half of the time she lunged up to bite the food out of my hands before it could get to my mouth. Guess I really did love the little menace, since I let her eat my food despite being hungry my own self.

The rest of the ROTC table plied her with questions and welcomed her back, but she just shook her head and, between sausages, said, "We've got to head back as soon as we're done eating. But it looks like the fighting is over."

It took me until the end of breakfast to realize, but while they both chatted with Saffron about what deployed life was like, neither of them said anything to me. Angel even tried not to look at me, her gaze snapping directly from Bill to Saffron and back. On one hand, that kinda hurt. On the other hand, they'd seen the edges of what I'd done to the 'Damn army.

As we got up to go, Raven asked, "what are you guys doing for Yule?"

I blinked. "is it that time already?"

She laughed, as did Saffron. "It's tomorrow, Goof."

A thought came to me, and before it could get away, I asked Saffron, "do you want to do something with just family tomorrow?"

She smiled and nodded. "Sure! But we'll have to finish our part up today."

"Don't you think they'll all take a break for Yule?"

She nodded again. "You're right, they might. We ought to get going now, though." She pointed over my shoulder; when I turned, Marie had wheeled her cart right up behind me. I handed her the menace, who grabbed two fistfuls of sausage as a parting gift, then stood up for hugs and kisses. Saffron came around the table and did the same, then took my hand and stepped to Lancaster's big pavilion with me.

Lancaster, duBois, Potami and Castro already stood around the strategy table, which was covered with sheets of paper; a stack of blanks, a stack of torn sheets with scribbles on them, and one sheet lying between them, with Lancaster leaning over it like he'd been writing. "Reporting as ordered, Sirs."

"Excellent. Now perhaps we can get something done." Lancaster turned to us, and with that I saw the pair on the chairs beyond them; Octavio and Oliver seated and more or less tied in place. The latter stared daggers at me; someone had Healed his eyes. Neither of them looked happy to see me.

"So you've chosen to intimidate us into accepting whatever terms you dictate?" Oliver sounded way less frightened than he did on the day of the battle. Then again, I wasn't covered in blood with Mana Blades spouting everywhere.

"I asked them to be here because not only are they the two who secured victory over your army, they also represent two Gods not otherwise represented here."

"What Gods would those be, who lay my City so low?"

I smiled my friendliest smile, gave him a jaunty salute, and said, "Champion and High Priestess of Loki. Octavio Orange, I presume?"

He nodded, and Saffron stepped forward, frowning at Oliver as she said, "High Priestess of Mimic."

Castro's head spun at that, first to Saffron, then to duBois. He shrugged and shook his head minutely.

"So, what seems to be the holdup? They lost, we won, war's over, right?"

Lancaster shook his head as Octavio spluttered and Oliver grunted something incomprehensible. "I keep forgetting how young you are. We're in a position to dictate terms, yes, but should we push too hard, we're just setting up another war for our sons to fight. I for one would prefer not to do that."

Octavio finally found his voice. "Well said, Lancaster. The people of New Amsterdam will not tolerate being a client state. Not for long, anyhow. We refuse to wind up like Newark."

I shrugged and said, "Okay."

Everyone in the room turned to look at me. No idea why, but I followed up with, "let's face it, guys. Camden Yards is practically part of Phileo at this point, but there's still a lot of resentment, some of it justified. I'm sure Newark pretty much feels the same way."

Oliver grunted a bunch at that, glaring murder at me. Octavio said, "the citizens of Newark appreciate our defense of their inferior City!"

I just gave the rest the look I'd seen so often, as if to say, 'really?', then pointed at Octavio. "That pretty much tells a story right there, doesn't it."

"Then what would you propose?"

"You mean you're really asking me?"

Lancaster shrugged. "You have the power to enforce your will on them, as you've shown. Any suggestion coming from you is likely to have a touch more weight than any of us."

Octavio just grunted agreement, while I think Oliver was almost ready to foam at the mouth. I said, "Okay, gimme a minute to think." They all stared at me as I desperately cudgeled my brain to come up with some kind of solution that would, I dunno, piss everyone off equally. With that, the answer came to me, at least in terms of broad strokes.

"Okay. Octavio, your problem is that New Amsterdam doesn't want to be a client state any more than Newark or Camden Yards." At his grunted, grudging agreement, I turned to the General, "and our problem is that we don't want to wind up fighting another war however many years down the road."

The Marshall answered, "that's just about the size of it."

My best con-man patter voice on, I said, "okay, so we need something where nobody resents it enough to decide to build up an army. At the same time, I'm guessing that our neighbors won't be real sanguine about four Cities with some kind of lasting peace agreement, so we're gonna all four still need an army then, right?"

Lancaster rolled his eyes and drolly said, "had I not just said most of that, and spoken to you a few weeks ago about our other potential enemies, I would say you were a political genius. As it is, I can't say I disagree with my own points, can I?"

I grinned at him, "I'm sure you could spin it. You might be Phileo's best General, but I kinda think you're a better politician than General."

He nodded acceptance of the compliment. "Thank you, but were you going somewhere with this?"

I shrugged. "Yeah. The cities around Reme have some kind of informal union going on, right?" Lancaster frowned, but I could tell he was already catching up with my idea. "So we do something like that, just a little more formalized. Treaties and everything. One army for all four Cities. A Council with one representative from each City. Since there are four Cities and we don't want things coming to a deadlock, one," I cudgeled my brain to get it to spit out the word I was looking for, "Imperator to break any ties and to be the military leader of the alliance."

"You would have us suborn ourselves after such a stunning victory?" Lancaster didn't sound as mad as his words made it seem, but he wasn't the sort to let power slip away from him.

I shook my head. "Nobody's subordinate to anybody else. Hell, it doesn't even rock the boat all that much. I mean, yeah, Camden Yards and Newark are gonna get a say in things, but let's be honest. Why was your army twice the size you expected it to be, General?"

Lancaster just shook his head and stared at me as if I'd suddenly spouted gibberish. Or, really, like my normal stream of consciousness had suddenly started making sense. "Because you recruited from Camden Yards."

I shrugged again. "Not just me. She did plenty," I nodded toward Saffron. "The other Camden Yards Cadets did a bunch too. It was, and let me be clear, this is what I'm talking about, a team effort. None of us tried to outdo the others, we all pitched in and got shit done. Camden Yards and Phileo working together put out an army which, and I know you know the truth of it, Octavio, would have kicked your ass thoroughly in any kind of field engagement, which is why you tried for the siege and sneak attack. Am I right?"

"Had you not been here, my son's plan would have worked perfectly!"

"Whatever. With or without me, the Grand Army would have beat you unless you got really clever. Which I'll admit, you kind of did, but let's not get too wrapped up in might-have-beens. Can you field anything like those armies you put out again any time soon?"

"No." Octavio spat out.

"So with this? All four Cities have a bigger army defending them than any of us could manage on our own. More importantly," I raked my gaze across the General, the Marshall, and the Heroes, "nobody has to worry about a nearby neighbor going to war with them."

They all thought about that for a bit. I let them stew, one hand reaching out to interlace my fingers with Saffron's.

That's a brilliant bit of political engineering, Goof.

Yeah, I was cribbing a shit ton of it. I shot her an image of the 'United States of America' map, some shots of Congress I'd seen on CNN, and another map with a sort of recognizable picture of Phileo and Camden Yards highlighted on the USA Map.

Just because you got the idea from elsewhere doesn't make it any less brilliant. Goof.

Lancaster looked at me. "I'm assuming you want to represent Camden Yards?"

I shook my head. "Nope. I'm thinking Mr. or Mrs. Driver. Everybody there knows and respects them. We can have some kind of formal election later, but they're probably a shoe in anyway."

He nodded, getting a faraway look for a moment. "Excellent suggestion. For Phileo then?"

"I figured you'd want that for yourself."

When I said that, the Marshall barked out, "hey! I thought you'd prefer me?"

I smiled at him. "Yeah, but I think Leonard here would win any Council vote on it. Besides, do you want more politics in your job? I'm sure within days you'd be buried to the neck in paperwork."

He choked down a laugh. "Okay, yeah, you're right, Leonard would be way better at that than me."

Before anybody else could say anything, I turned to the Oranges. "For purposes of today's meeting, I'm guessing you'd be best to represent New Amsterdam, Octavio?"

He frowned at me. "As I am now? Hardly. My daughter Ophelia can fill the role though. You put paid to my last remaining son representing us."

"Consider that your penalty for being an asshole and throwing rocks when you live in a smashable house."

He winced, then asked, "what of Newark?"

"Are any of your Heroes originally from Newark? Or have you got any Newark citizens who have enough influence with their peers, like the Drivers?"

He rocked his head back and forth, the closest he could come to shrugging with what remained of his shoulders. "I sincerely doubt any of our remaining Heroes are from Newark, or are even qualified to sit on this Council you're proposing."

"Fuck it then." I turned to the rest of the Phileo contingent, "can we send somebody into Newark and just, I dunno, call for a volunteer? They can elect somebody for permanent later, but for right now, I think it's a better idea to get some random from Newark than anybody from Phileo, or New Amsterdam, or even Camden Yards. Hell, maybe the Drivers can coach them a little. Newark and Camden Yards have a lot in common."

Hero Potami gave me a tight lipped smile, nodded, and said, "I'll be back."

The Marshall looked at Hero Castro and said, "pull together an escort, take Octavio with you, and retrieve his daughter."

Hero Castro nodded, "on it sir." She headed out of the tent as well.

Lancaster looked at me, his look a little sour. "So I'm assuming you intend to fulfill the role of 'Imperator'?"

Despite the sudden fluttering in my nethers, I stayed strong and shook my head. "Nope." I tossed my head sideways. "That's her job."

I swear, all the pain, the blood, the tears, and the stress?

Totally worth it for the look on Saffron's face.