Dear Diary,

"Whenever you seek Vengeance, Do not target innocents, That is not Righteous Vengeance." -Tabitha Diaz, Doctrine of Tabitha, Book of Vengeance

Again in this, the penultimate Verse of the Book of the Book of Vengeance, our Goddess cautions against allowing our thirst for Vengeance to distract us from Vengeance itself. If a being of great power murders our families in their quest for power, they are unlikely to feel the same pain we did if we kill theirs; instead that will simply continue the cycle of destruction. We must focus our wrath on the being of power responsible. It matters not whether their power stems from wealth, political connections, personal power, or even Divinity itself. If we but remain focused, and call upon her, she will support our Vengeance even unto Deicide. For Tabitha sees Vengeance directed upon the architect of our pain as Righteous, Homicide of our victimizers Justified, violence focused upon those who arrogated or destroyed our Agency Holy. - Priestess Most High Above All Others, Archmage Imperator Saffron Aetos-Diaz, Commentary on the Doctrine of Tabitha

Hoo boy. That's a special kind of scary, and I'm not sure if it's hot or not. Okay, I gotta be honest with myself if I'm gonna learn and grow and become a better person. When Saffron starts talking about mass Deicide and emasculating every Spartan Hero before chaining them and working them to death, I get tinglies in my lady bits. Like, not the subtle quiet ones I get when I watch her cleaning our kids or playing with them in the Bath. Not even the loud and clear ones I get when she flashes me in public or straight up strips down to strategically designed lingerie in private, either. This is some... yeah, the side of me that puts the blood in Bloodlust gets all its neurons activated.

I'm not sure whether to be happy or not that she's found a way that I won't feel guilty if she does it, either. Okay, I'll feel hornier than I am guilty, and by the time the horny wears off, we all know I'll forget to feel guilty about it until way past any reasonable deadlilne. But seriously, 'killing the ones ultimately responsible for your pain and loss' is about as clear cut as Vengeance can get. I know, intellectually, that it's always gonna be messy. But the parts of me that she's bribing don't consider that a negative.

Speaking of messy, I think Olga and Svart are gonna need to redo part of my Temple in Norfolk. Yeah, as a couple they've found ways to get their groove on, and I'm kinda proud to have them as followers, what with having that kind of dedication to doing the deed with their choice of partners. Seriously, when I'm pretty sure her clitorus mons is bigger than his forearm, they've got to be doing some wild ass shit to get their groove on, but they have, and in case anyone has doubts, once I knew what to look for Jarl 'Big William' Johnson definitely looks like his dad, and he popped out of Olga's hoo hah, so yeah, they've definitely done the deed previously.

But never like that, and it showed. Both in the sense that they were both a little clumsy getting it on with someone their own size, and in the absolute unquenchable passionate intensity they had for it. Okay, not 'unquenchable' in the literal sense. Even I might get a little quenched after a couple days, and I don't think either of them have my Endurance, and I'm sure neither of them are backed up by a mass of tentacles the size of the semi-habitable areas of Australia. So when, not long before sunrise, my man Svart got super lightheaded after finishing, I held both of them down and kissed them until they fell asleep. Didn't take long, less than sixty seconds. Felt good to leave him lying there in her cleavage, both of them grinning like the best kind of idiot.

Spent most of yesterday focused on teaching Math. I'm not really teaching anything advanced, at least nothing I think of as advanced. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division. Long versions of both. Okay, with a surprising number of the kids I'm teaching them Arabic numerals, because while I know it's possible to do math with a different 'base', I have no fuckin' clue how to do it. Maybe I could figure it out. I'm sure Saffron can translate between different base numbering systems in her head on the fly, but I'm the one teaching this shit, so I've got to understand it well enough to teach it.

So, Arabic numerals and long arithmetic. The kids are picking up the math faster than the numbers, really. I tried to teach 'proper' digits, but let's face it, my handwriting in English or with the Phoenician alphabet isn't anything to write home about. One is just a fuckin' line. Most of the kids drop the line off the top of their fives, and the eights are snowmen. All of that is just... me. My Arabic digit handwriting is becoming the default, and I don't know whether to be jazzed or horrified at that.

Got home with All The Pizza, not to mention some strombolis, calzones, and especially panzerottis. Honestly I wasn't sure if they were really panzerottis or just fucked up pseudo-Italian-Atlantean pastellilios, but holy shit they turned out good.

After dinner we washed the kittens and took them into the Bath again. Most of them are playing with their big sisters in the tub now, and said sisters are claiming them from us as we wash them. At first I was a little worried, but they move slow and help the kittens waddle to the tub, which I guess will help them get the idea of going upright more than quadrupedal. Dunno what I'd do if all eight of our kittens decided to just say 'fuck bipedalism, quadruped gang for life' or some shit.

After we got them all in bed, before I could fall asleep, Saffron rolled the two of us to the Bedroom. I grinned at her and said, "so, want to recreate last night in our own personal scale?"

She smiled at me, but shook her head. "No, love. But this is the most secure place in your demesnes."

Yeah, I felt some kinda way, but I'm still tryna be a better me, so I just nodded, scooped her up against me, and said, "make me wise in the ways of Boltophsberg, Imperator mine."

She giggled a little at that, but nodded and started. "First, Boltophsberg's government is an interesting combination of stagnant and chaotic. Or, as they would probably put it, stable and dynamic."

"How'd they pull that off?"

"The primary reason is that the City has been ruled since its founding centuries ago by a Demigod named Vyenemoinen."

That last word was definitely a name, but I got the feeling that like Marie's nicknames and some really weird words I wasn't quite hearing what Saffron was saying. Like, she was pronouncing it right, but I wasn't hearing it right. I set that aside and asked, "how many centuries?"

"Little hard to say, because multiple times the records have been destroyed, and the City is older than Phileo." I nodded, because that made a sort of sense. "At any rate, while he is functionally a despot, he has experimented with at least half a dozen different governments since Phileo was founded, and there's no sign he's going to stop doing so any time soon."

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"Like, maybe he'll find one he likes?"

She shook her head. "Based on my read of the situation, he doesn't change the government because he doesn't like the government. He changes the government because the Pantheon changes. Or possibly he changes the government to change the Pantheon. As you might guess from the 'destroys records', it's a little hard to do accurate local historical research."

I shook my head. "Can we get back to the 'changing Pantheon' bit? How is a Demigod doing that? Why is a Demigod doing that?"

She smiled. "Perhaps because he's never had the utter, unqualified support of a Primordial who can be bribed with uninhibited unhinged carnal delights."

"You have my complete attention."

She giggled, we necked, things were put on hold in a way that left her with my continued undivided attention. "Boltophsberg was founded when Ymir fell. Or when Ymir conquered the lands occupied by several peoples, all of whom had different Pantheons. Or possibly when those things were foretold, which gave Vyenemoinen the clout to gather the people and materials to found the City, along with the support of all the Gods of all those Pantheons. Even Deities whose very existence is at odds with some of the others who supported him."

"That does not sound like a recipe for stability."

"It's not. Within a generation, there were five Gods in an artificial Pantheon more or less in charge of the City."

I nodded. "Which five?"

She grimaced. "That depends on who you ask."

I thought about that for a bit while idly tracing circles on her back. "Lemme guess, each time the City changes governments, Pantheons, whatever, it's a different five?"

She rocked her head back and forth. "Don't stop. But not quite. The number varies as well."

"Well. Shit. Wait... He's in charge because the Gods back him, right?"

She shook her head back and forth. "Not exactly. The people of Boltophsberg are varying degrees of fanatically devoted to him as well."

I blinked. "If he's got that much Worship, how's he still a Demigod?"

She shrugged. "No idea. It's possible he's more than that. It's also possible he's always been more than that."

"Wait, revolutions always wind up with body counts. How does he wind up..." I went quiet as she smiled at me. "Wait, he backs the revolutions?"

She nodded. "The City doesn't have much in the way of a military, and the Heroes know not to go against him, so when it's time for a change, a bunch of the wealthy and powerful from the old order are dragged out of their houses, and from what Phileo has managed to learn, old scores are settled and such, but it's not so much a 'revolution' as..." She paused, searching for a word."

"A purge?" She blinked. "Old movie, about twenty four hours of lawlessness as population control." Yeah, I loved that whole 'describe a movie badly' thing back in the day.

She mouthed the word, then nodded. "The elements he wants replaced are purged, as well as anyone unpopular enough to earn the wrath of enough of their neighbors."

"But never him?" She shook her head. "Okay, I'm not even gonna try to go up against him in any kind of skullduggery. Bitch has four centuries of doing this shit. But if he tries to put any of ours up as purge bait, I'mma eat him."

"Tough but fair." Saffron grinned at me. That woman is the bloodthirstiest person I've ever met, and I am married to a literal tigress built to murderfuck. "So, while there aren't enough iterations to be absolutely certain, with six revolutions in just over three hundred years, that means each," she searched for a word for a moment, "religious and governmental paradigm is purged every fifty years."

"When was the last one?"

She nodded. "Two hundred ninety-seven AFP."

I did a little mental math. "Forty four years?"

"More or less."

"So it might be time?" She nodded. "Okay, who's there currently?"

She nodded again, took a breath, and I settled in to listen and try to parse. "At present the elders of the Pantheon are Perun and Mokosh. Their daughters Ilmatar and Pyevatar are, in a very technical sense, 'married' to Vyenemoinen, but it's a political thing; they neither live with him nor does each techincally acknowledge the other as his wife."

"Oh, that sounds like fun at family dinners."

She snorted. "Which would be why they don't have any. At any rate, the... I'm not sure whether to call him a rival, a sidekick, an opponent, or a foil for Vyenemoinen is Lemonkyenin."

"Lemonkyenin."

She smiled at me. "Such a cute accent. Yes, who is the lover of Vyenemoinen's wives."

"Wow. Both of them?" She nodded. "At the same time?"

She shrugged. "Not that I've heard of. But as you can see, it makes for tumultuous ecclesiatical debates." I snickered at that. "Finally, there are two other major figures currently in the city. One is... not exactly a Deity, that I'm aware of, but then she's older than the City itself, and has never been caught up in its purges. Baba Yaga."

I blinked. "Wait. Old witch?" She nodded. "Lives in a shack that walks around on chicken legs?"

She waggled her head back and forth. "I wouldn't call it a shack, but mostly because she might take offense and you're trying to watch your figure."

"Yeah, no, I do not want to fuck with Baba Yaga if it's at all avoidable, thank you very much. They tell stories about her back where I'm from. Scary bitch."

"Says my own personal scary bitch."

I nodded. "Yeah, see? Professional scary bitch courtesy. You totally ought to tell her that if she tries anything with you."

"What, that you don't want to eat her?"

I shook my head. "Nah, that she ought to let you walk due to professional scary bitch courtesy."

That got her giggling. "Okay, okay. One more, a Deity who has never been officially part of the Pantheon on Boltophsberg, but who always seems to want to be; Lowey."

The way she said it reminded me of something. "She's not related to Loki or Laufey, is she?"

She wrinkled up her nose. "Not that I'm aware of."

She is and is not, Daughter.

Dafuq?

The Deity currently attempting to inveigle themselves with Boltophsberg is not Laufey or Lowey, who is another aspect of the same Primordial force as Laufey, but the... There isn't a proper Mortal word. The closest would be sister-daughter-reincarnation-clone of Lowey. Its something that can happen when an Avatar is formed with no connection to their Deity, or the connection is broken. At any rate, the Deity your lovely wife is speaking of does sometimes pass herself off as Lowey, but her proper moniker is Loviatar.

That rang unpleasant bells, but I couldn't bring any specific ideas to mind. Okay. Thanks for the info, Dad. You're the best.

I know.

Saffron nodded. "That is good to know. At any rate, she's tried to gain a foothold in Boltophsberg many times, but never succeeded."

"Okay then. Anything else I need to know?"

She Grinned at me. "Oh, yes. Your accent is lovely. Just intoxicating."

I rolled my eyes. "I meant anything, y'know, important or urgent I need to know."

"Oh, yes." She reached up and started pushing my head down. "I need to feel that accent reverberating through my belly and thighs."

"Briefing's ov..." Yeah, couldn't finish the word. Insistent Kitten is insistent. Yeah, not complaining. Eventually drifted off using her belly as a pillow, and dreamt of my ladies floating around the Maw eating popcorn while watching me nap on Saffron's belly on a drive in movie screen. Yeah, sense making isn't required in the land of dreams.

Realized something about the kittens and bath time. I think it's helping them get exercise and get some body awareness going. Either that or they'e on track to mature even faster than Isnomi. Only, y'know, without being itty bitty. Seriously, Isadora is bigger than minimum size Isnomi now. Not sure, she might be the size of maximum sized Menace. Fortunately, she seems to definitely have that 'I am large, I give no fucks about anything save getting my nom and nap on' going on.

Anise and Felicia tested that today when they started a stumbling chase and wrassle across the bed, and proceeded to bonk Isadora off Marie's teat. Our big girl just heaved herself around, which sort of incidentally sumo-tackled Anise and Felicia underneath her, latched on to my free tit, and started suckle-snoozing while her sisters wriggled and bitched.

Fuck it, they could breathe, and they started it. Never to young to start learning FAFO.

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