Dear Diary,

Sometimes I'm an idiot, but other times my intuition is better than I gave it credit for. Okay, mostly I'm just an idiot, but the other does happen now and then.

I woke up covered in a pile of little kids. Absolutely not the way I expected to wake up, but other than the sort of lingering smell of little kid, not an entirely unpleasant way of waking up either.

I slipped my eyes open to take a wireframe look at the bed. Like everything else I'd seen at Lancaster House, it was not only big and aesthetically impressive, but it did it's job really well. Soft, warm, comfortable, just firm enough to give support while soft enough to contour to my body. Of course, that whole 'big' meant that the crowd of kids atop Marie, Saffron and I really deserved the name 'crowd'. From the angle I could get while not jostling them, there were over a dozen, with Isnomi claiming pride of place scooched in between Saffron and I. Of course, plenty of the other kids had followed suit, so there were a couple little ones between our legs, and while Marie had an arm around Saffron, most of the kids I could see were piled up between the two of them, with a couple lying atop a totally motionless Marie.

Her eyes slid open, and I asked, "did you sleep okay?"

"No." Then she smiled. "Worth."

I smiled at that. "Ain't it though?" By the feel of it, I had at least two kids snuggled up behind me, and I think one had wormed their way under the covers with their head pillowed on my ass. Weird choice, but maybe the Academy's indestructible beds were somebody's idea of comfortable.

We lay there for a while, Marie quietly purring under the hill of kids piled around and on top of her, me just vibing. Eventually, though, Marie reached out and pressed one fingertip on Saffron's nose. I couldn't help it, I let out a tiny, "boop", and a moment later her whole boot-up sequence started. Smelling the air, tasting it, then gradually pushing her eyes open. "Good morning, Kitten."

She smiled even before her eyes really focused. "Good morning, Goof. Good morning, Marie. I take it that breakfast is soon?"

"Yes."

I sighed. "I don't really think I can stay for bath time, loves."

Saffron pulled me into a kiss. "Any sadness I feel about that is dispersed fully by hearing you say that."

As I slowly twisted myself around to gently move kids so I could get out of the bed, I asked, "say what?"

Slowly, like she savored the word, she said, "loves. Plural. Without any sense of self-consciousness or self-recrimination. Just a statement of fact as certain as sunrise."

I smiled at her, and at Marie as well, since I could see both of them curled up on the same side to face me. "Huh. I did, didn't I?" Once I got myself fully extricated, and the one kid who'd burrowed under pulled up so their head was on the pillow where mine had been, I leaned over and kissed Saffron, then dropped a quick peck on Isnomi's forehead. While the Menace was still blinking herself awake, I moved around to Marie's side of the bed, popping my uniform on as I did. When I reached Marie, she'd twisted her head around to face me. It struck me right then how much things had changed. Instead of reacting like Marie's face pointing one way while her hips pointed the other was high grade Nightmare Fuel? I just kissed her as thoroughly as I had Saffron. Because it wasn't Nightmare Fuel. Just Marie. My lover, my friend, godmother to my child.

I might have spent a little longer kissing her than was absolutely necessary. Fuck it, this is my reward for doing a Hero's job without even getting a Hero's pay, right?

Funny thing, really. It had been quite a while since I'd thought about how, on graduation and promotion to official Hero-dom, I'd have it made. I mean, that thought still put pleasant butterflies in my stomach, with a few maybe fluttering a little lower like the absolute horndogs that butterflies are, but, completely without meaning to, I'd kind of decided that doing the job was the important part; any wealth and power I got from it? Purely secondary. Frosting on the cake. The cherry on top of the ice cream.

Yeah, jumping straight to food metaphors showed me that despite everything else, I was still me, y'know?

So once I'd given the family good bye kisses, I stepped back down to the farmstead where Linus and Fred were supposed to be. Despite the murky light of false dawn and a trickle of snow still coming down, they already had their Veterans breaking trail, the farmers sorting themselves into a few columns for the march, with the bigger guys and gals on the outside and the smaller ones on the inside, including any of the kids who had to be carried. Every one of them, big or small, carried some kind of big sack or backpack or container. All of them looked pretty exhausted, but their eyes burned with a kind of grim determination. I stepped over to Fred and asked, "everything going okay?"

He paused a moment, then nodded. "Folks are still tired from yesterday, but yeah, they're moving. I'm not sure if we'll be able to keep up the pace for another day after that, though."

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and dug up one of the awfulest phrases I remembered from the ROTC DIs. "You will. They will. Because you have to."

"Yes, ma'am. One way or another, we'll figure something out."

"Good. I'll try to check in on you, and Saffron will be scrying from Lancaster House. You know the deal, get something yellow in the air if you need something, something red if you need an immediate intervention." When he nodded, I said, "okay. Gotta go check on the others, then get my own column moving."

I checked on Bill and Angel, who already had all of their steaders on the march, and were about to set out behind the Volunteers that they'd collected. "You guys okay?"

Bill answered for both of them as Angel kept moving. "Yes, ma'am. No sign of Calverton, and everybody's carrying all the supplies they can."

"Excellent. Keep it up."

I stepped to Larry and Lachlan to find they'd already left. I hopped along the trail, and after two Translocations I caught up to them. They spun, Larry's Blade coming up before they realized it was me. "Jumpy much?"

That's when I noticed a pretty ugly burn across Lachlan's jacket. "Sorry, Commander. A small scouting unit of Calverton heroes caught up with us yesterday."

"Are you both okay?"

Larry shook his head, but Lachlan nodded, saying, "nothing a Heal Injury won't be able to fix once we're back at Lancaster House."

I stepped up to him, dropped a Heal on his chest, and said, "hopefully that'll keep you close enough to tip top shape to deal with anyone else that catches you. You guys should make it to Lancaster House by tonight, right?" They both nodded, and I said, "cool. I've got to get my guys moving, if they haven't already, so..."

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Larry, who'd gotten a speculative look when I Healed Lachlan, quietly asked, "Commander? Is there a reason you haven't just Translocated everyone back to Lancaster House already?"

My mouth dropped open. "Yes. The very worst reason of all, unfortunately." When he just raised an inquisitive eyebrow, I said, "because yours truly is an idiot." When he snorted out a laugh, I followed that up with, "I'm gonna go get my own guys back to Lancaster House first, since they've got the weakest protective detail with me not being there. My upper limit on Translocating at the moment is about a dozen people, so it's gonna take a lot of trips. Not sure how many I've got in me before I tire out, especially since I'll be carrying quite a few people at a time." I took another deep breath and said, "I'll take care of mine, then Fred and Linus' evacuees, then Angel and Bills'."

Larry shot me a crooked grin. "So our reward for being the best escorts is to be last in line for rapid transportation, huh?"

"Afraid so. Also, should I wind up running out of gas before I've moved everybody, you guys have the shortest remaining trip."

He nodded, smiling. "Don't worry, Commander. Not to put too fine a point on it, but other than yourself, Lachlan and I are the best escorts, and we do have the shortest remaining trip. Do what you can, but try not to hurt yourself again. We'll need you when Calverton's troops arrive at Lancaster House."

With that, I stepped back to my group. Or really to the farmstead they'd spent the night at, because they'd already left. I hopped after them, catching up to one of my two Veteran units bringing up the rear after three Translocations. "Good work getting everyone moving, Sergeant."

She nodded. "I set the local Volunteers to breaking trail, and I've got the other Phileo Veterans alongside the middle of the column to slow down anyone who comes at us from the sides long enough for us to get there."

"Good thought, Sergeant. I'm going to be Translocating groups back to Lancaster House. I'm not sure how many I can do before I'm out of steam, but worst case, I'll get the most vulnerable folks there. Best case, we'll all be indoors at Lancaster House tonight."

She smiled at me through the snow. "Packed in like sardines, but that's not a bad thing in this weather."

I nodded, then stepped forward to the middle of the column. I cherry picked all six moms carrying kids, then the six smallest kids, pulling them out of the column to the side. Even each of the little kids had some kind of pack or satchel or bag over their shoulders, and the moms had big packs in addition to their kids. I spaced them out so each kid had an adult to either side of them. "Okay everybody join hands." That wound up requiring some juggling of kids and hands, but once we had a circle, I stepped them all to Lancaster House's Scrying Room.

I sank to my knees, feeling not unlike I'd just tried to lift the fucking House, rather than just carrying twelve people back to it. "This must be what a hernia feels like. Ow." Kitten? A moment later, Saffron was at my side, Glowing Midnight fluttering. Before she said anything, she hit me with a Heal Injury. "What the fuck happened?"

"I was about to ask you the same, but I think I know." She nodded to the group I'd brought. "Your current safe upper limit is around twelve people, yes?"

"Yeah, and?"

"You just Translocated eighteen." As I bonked my head against the floor, I noticed the moms and kids all shucking off packs and satchels. Bonnie and Raven had grabbed up Oscar and some of his minions, some of them guiding the refugees upstairs to get some food, others collecting the satchels full of supplies and taking them to wherever Lancaster House stored that shit. "Not only that, but all of them were laden with packs."

I looked up at her, "why's that matter?"

She shrugged, slipping into lecture mode as I pushed myself back to my feet. "With few exceptions, people do not consider a pack to be part of themselves. This means it's not suffused with their Mana."

"And what, their clothing is?"

She nodded. "Not to put too fine a point on it, but have you seen anyone except Heroes and other wealthy people with more than one set of clothing?"

As she pulled me into a hug, which sorta inexplicably made me feel better, I said, "oof. Yeah, I guess I get that." A thought struck me. "Wait, didn't you pull Marie's cart to Loki's cave?" She just stared at me until comprehension dawned. "That's not just 'one of the carts the maids use', is it?"

"Nope. Marie's cart. I suspect she'd explain things in a pointed manner to any of the other Maenads who tried to use it. 'Wake up tomorrow' pointed. As would they should someone use theirs."

"Huh." I chuckled. "Well, at least we know what accessories her action figure comes with."

She smiled up at me, and the pain I'd felt on arrival receded to the kind of dull ache that doesn't really hurt, just lets you know that renewed pain is definitely an option. "You are so delightfully weird. You'll have to explain that one to me tonight."

"You got it, Kitten." I stretched a bit; nothing physical felt damaged, really. A little achy, but nothing I couldn't work through. "Any way you can tell me how much I can do without straining myself?"

She stepped back about an arm's length and tossed an Assess Health at me. After a few moments of shifting around things I couldn't see, she asked, "you'll be bringing their cargo with them too, won't you?"

I sighed. "I'm guessing everyone else, Volunteers included, are carrying everything they can over a long march already. So yeah. We need the supplies."

Her lips curved into something that might charitably be called a smile. "And you've just discovered why moving cargo via Translocation isn't as useful as one would hope."

I nodded. "Yeah. I could probably get us, what, about fifty pounds per trip safely?"

Her lips drew together into a cute little moue. "I'd guess closer to two hundred if you aren't carrying any passengers, but yes. Enough that if you did nothing else until you exhausted yourself you could probably supply us from Phileo, but..."

"But then I'd be exhausted, which is not the condition I need to be in when Calverton's troops catch us."

She nodded. "Okay. Four per trip. Before you strained yourself I would have said six, perhaps eight if you pushed, but given the number of refugees you're going to be moving, you need to not push on any given trip."

I blew out a lungful of air. "Okay, Kitten. I'm gonna be bouncing in here a lot. Can you guys set up intake here, to get them all patched up from any road related trauma? I'm gonna be bringing the moms with little kids and any self-mobile kids first; we'll see how much gas I've got left in the tank after that."

She nodded, and I stepped back to my column. I stepped over to the Sergeant in the rear first. "Okay, Sergeant. Apparently I'm not quite as fully healed up as I should be, so I don't think I'll be able to take everyone the fast way. But I'm going to get all the kids and moms with little kids to Lancaster House. Sorry, but I'm not sure I'll be able to do more."

The Sergeant shook her head as she let out a sigh of relief. "Don't worry about that, Commander. Just getting the ones who absolutely cannot fight out of the column will take a load off my mind. Off the minds of a lot of the farmhands as well."

"The farmhands can fight?"

She chuckled. "They're not armored, and not really trained in any kind of group tactics, but have you ever been punched by somebody who wrangles livestock for a living? Or somebody who swings a scythe all day? Or a smith? Nah, forget I asked that last, you're still in possession of all your limbs."

I nodded and laughed along with her. "Yeah, I get it. Okay, I'll be moving a lot today, but once I'm done I'll rejoin you guys. If you see someone overtaking you from behind, do your best to keep the distance; if they're friendly, it'll encourage them to put on more speed, if they're not, it'll buy time for me to get done and get back."

"Yes, ma'am. Safe travels."

I nodded, then jumped back to the middle of the column. Four people at a time, I evacuated the moms and kids from my column, then Larry and Lachlan's, then Fred and Linus', and finally Angel and Bill's. Despite Saffron not telling me to push, I still kinda did. I only took four at a time, but I jumped back and forth as fast as I could get groups arranged. By the time I had the last of the kids and non-combatant women in the Scrying Room, sweat dripped off me, and I sank down until my ass rested on my heels. Saffron walked over to me from where she'd been scrying, putting her arms around my head and pulling me into her belly, her breasts resting on my head.

"Yay. Heroine gets rewarded." I didn't have enough go left to put any enthusiasm into it, but she giggled anyway.

"I'd say you smell absolutely edible, but I suspect if you had enough energy to enjoy anything, you'd want to get back to your troops."

I put my arms around her and pulled her to me. "Yeah. But I'm gonna stay here for another minute while I catch my breath." I just knelt there holding her for at least that long, reveling in her scent and softness.

When I let go she helped me back to my feet, a smile on her face. Then her eyes went serious. "Keep them moving. Calverton raiding groups hit all the farmsteads you left behind shortly after you left."

"Dammit. I wish I could wait here and just kick the shit out of them when we spot them."

She shook her head. "No, beloved. We must assume Oliver has told them everything he experienced about you. I have no doubt that each and every sighting we get is a trap set specifically for you."

I laughed. "What are they gonna do?"

She sighed and pulled me to her, pushing the side of her face into me. "That's my worry, love. I have no idea. Which means I have no idea how to keep you safe from it."