Dear Diary,

"Passion is what inspires us, Passion is a fire that warms, Passion is an urge that drives." - Tabitha Diaz, Doctrine of Tabitha, Book of Passion

Here in the third Verse of the Book of Passion, Tabitha reminds us that despite the weekly Revels at her Temples, Passion is not, at its core, about sex or even physical intimacy. She gives of herself to all of us at those Revels. For many she does not even deliver physical intimacy, although she offers that freely to any who give of themselves to those who come to her Temples seeking succor or support. But to all she offers her warmth, physical and emotional alike. For some she even acts as that fire, that burning desire that drives them to escape the depths of despair, to find their path in life. - Priestess Most High Above All Others, Archmage Imperator Saffron Aetos-Diaz, Commentary on the Doctrine of Tabitha

Yeah, I definitely remember spending way more time than I thought I would tryna make sure that my Worshippers would do more than hear 'Passion' and holler 'woo, orgasms' before diving face first into somebody else's crotch. I mean, if that's what they're passionate about, more power to them. Can't get me enough of rubbing my ladies' good bits all over me until I reek of them. But sex is not the only thing I'm Passionate about, and I think it's even a little sad that somebody might think that sex is the only thing that it's possible to be Passionate about.

Shit, as I think I remember saying back when I wrote this, I'm Passionate about Passion itself. Seriously, seeing Madeline in her Holy Garb lights a fire in me, and it's not even a 'must rub naughty bits now' fire. Okay, there's that too. It is a dress custom crafted to turn her into Tabitha-nip, after all. But the look on her face when she's doing the High Priestess thing is... It's just beautiful. I think if I weren't physically attracted to her, I'd be just sitting there with my ass on my Altar staring at her, entirely to soak up the Passionate Passion vibes I get from her then.

I mean yeah, I feel a little weird being somebody's reason for being, their warm fire, their burning Passion, but fuck it. When I met her she'd given up hope. Just wanted one final dive into my Maw. Which, now that I've had a taste of her late at night in Mimic Dreams, that buttery savor would be something else to experience. Yeah, I really need to take several seats. All the seats, given my enormous M-Space ass. I'm not even sure any non-Archmage or non-Hero could survive the orgasmic taste-splosion my Kitten pulled off on my birthday, and I know that Madeline would absolutely try if I even hinted I wanted her to.

I'm not sure exactly how bad a person it makes me that I would savor every bit of her if she did.

So yesterday after both my Highest Priestess and Boltophsberg's Senior Courtesan both mocked my diplomatic disability as diplomatically as possible given the circumstances, Danica and I had a nice conversation about the Courtesan's Guild itself. I know I'd gotten both the Marshall's in person precis and his written report about it, but there's something about hearing an organization described and explained by somebody on the inside that just hits different. I'm sure I'd get an even different take on things if I spoke with a new hire, or with somebody who'd drifted around the edges or outskirts of the Guild for most of a long career, but getting that kind of perspective might have to wait. I sure as shit didn't want to go rushing around Blended abducting Courtesans off the street and shit. Not yet, anyhow.

So it turns out that in any kind of modern parlance, the Courtesan's Guild is made up of what I think of as 'service industry' jobs. If a person doesn't harvest something, make something, or run shit, in Boltophsberg they're probably in the Courtesan's Guild. Yeah, the hookers are all Courtesans, but so are the hairdressers. Masseuses and maids, butlers and bootblacks, street sweepers and sitters. Because even though back in the day 'women in the workplace' was still a fuckin' thing even though it dated back to Reagan, for the bottom end of the economy, which is where most of the Brown people like me were, we'd been working the whole time. When the women are all sweeping floors or cooking meals for rich folks, somebody's gotta watch the kids, and the old women whose families all passed or got locked up because 'oops all boys' need to pay rent too.

Here in Boltophsberg there were some weird ethnic prejudices going on. Weirder than normal, what with all of them being actual ethnicities, like 'what region their people came from' rather than 'which Human Adjacent species showed up on Inspect'. Like, all the 'old money' was loosely associated with either the Shipwrights or the Sailors, and each of those families traced their lineage back to 'Jutland'. I think that's, like, northeast Eurpoean, or that's where it was back in the day, but I got no fuckin clue. They're the ones who owned the ships everybody came across the Atlantic in, and they'd never let anyone forget it. Danica said she and her son 'looked Jutlander', and I kept my mouth shut about how they struck me as skinny Aesir.

Okay, she wasn't skinny. But she had the 'I've had three kids and a posh life' curves, not 'my curves made girl kissers beg for buttermilk before I spawned' curves like my Kitten. Her son, on the other hand, had what I thought of as Scandinavian coloration, but was more 'wiry with some muscle layered atop' than 'built to wrestle trolls' like Odin and, honestly, Loki.

I'm closer to the trolls the Aesir wrestled, but your description of their general build isn't inaccurate.

Any Aesir tryna wrestle with you in an unpleasant way is gonna take a very special seat near The Morrigan. Just sayin'.

How would one wrestle in a pleasant way?

Ask Mom. When you're old enough she'll tell you.

Left Dad spluttering at that as the sun lowered toward the horizon. "Where has the time gone?"

I smiled at Danica's question. "Good conversation. Then again, that's what Courtesans are good at, right?" She got a little bit of a look, and I smiled and laughed. "No, seriously. Like, not even taking about prostitutes here. But Courtesans, the real deal, the ones who, uh... Geisha?"

"I'm not familiar with the term?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Japanese. General purpose entertainers. Generally women entertaining men, but with, like, music and actual dancing and maybe conversation, not, y'know, getting them off."

She sighed. "I'm afraid at least some of a Courtesan's duties lean that way at times."

I chuckled. "Yeah, what with the complete lack of mention of a Mister Novak, and three kids, I figured as much." Before she could feel some kinda way, I added, "that's kinda how I got my first. Sorta. Saffron's kid by some rando, mine by marriage."

She smiled at me. "Not by conquest?"

I leaned in and whispered, "how am I takin' her kid when she's the one who conquested me?" She tilted her head, eyes wide. I nodded my reply. Then I sighed. "Look, I'd love to sit and talk more, but I've got someplace to be tonight."

"So the tales of you being in more than one place at a time?"

I smiled. "Totally true, but when I Revel with my Worshippers, I... I don't." Her brow furrowed in confusion. "When I'm with one of them, I focus entirely on them. One at a time, unless what they want is something with, like, somebody they're close to. But for that time, whether it's a few minutes or a few hours, I'm all about them."

She took a deep breath, let it out. "Careful. I'd hate to think you were trying to steal me away from Lemonkyenin."

I shook my head, my smile widening. "Nope. I don't steal. I share."

She opened her mouth to retort, thought better of it, and shook her head. "So it seems."

That's when I had a thought. Maybe a bad one, but fuck it. "You wanna see?"

"How do you mean?"

"Well, I'm due in Calverton in a few minutes, and I'm not sure how full service that Temple is yet, what with them still rebuilding everything, but the Temple of Love in Phileo is a good example of what I try to be. What I try to have my Temples be. The, uh, services I want them to provide."

She smirked. "Are you sure I can afford a visit to your Temple?"

"I'm sure we can comp you." She blinked. "Uh, it's on the house?" More confusion. "Professional courtesy?"

Her smirk came back. "Well, it would be the height of impoliteness to refuse an invitation to a Temple made by the Goddess of that Temple. I accept." She stood, half turning to Dimir. "Let the Guild know, sweetie."

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He rolled his eyes the very tiniest amount the moment she couldn't see, mostly at being a grown assed man being referred to like a pre-teen, which I kinda got. "Your other guy coming with us?"

"Is he invited?"

"Be rude not to invite him, and I don't want anybody thinking we spirited you away and replaced you with Folger's crystals."

She just took that particular scoop of wacky bullshit in stride and waved her other bodyguard forward. "Alex, with me."

Karen? Prep a nice seat in the restaurant with a view of the Altar, please. At her wordless confirmation, I took one of Danica's hands in my left, then reached out and shook Alex's hand with my right. "Alex, huh? I've got a daughter named Alex. Wants to be a Hero, totally into fitness and fighting. Nice to meet you!"

With that I stepped them to the restaurant in the Phileo Temple of Love, where Karen stood waiting in her Holy Garb. "Senior Courtesan Danica. Courtesan Alex. Right this way, please."

My diplomatic duties discharged and the diplomats in good hands, I dropped my Blend and stepped down to the Temple in Calverton. Madeline stood there looking radiant, not to mention disturbingly edible. "Goddess!"

I might not be entirely copacetic about my desire to nom my Priestesses, but I sure as shit could offer up an exchange of tasting. I held out my arms, and she bounced into them, lips seeking mine for a welcoming kiss. "So, what am I doing tonight?"

She looked almost crestfallen. I'm sorry, my Goddess, but... just the normal Revel, not unlike Orla arranged on the night we met?

I sent back warmth, appreciation, comfort, and genuine gratitude. Nothing to be sorry for, Madeline. High Priestess mine. I realized that whatever else they'd not finished quite yet here in Calverton, they didn't have anything approaching the Academy or Temple's level of climate control. I felt the humidity in my fur already. Make sure you're here at the Altar at dawn though, okay?

As my Goddess wishes. She nodded, moved back, and waved the first Worshipper forward.

Noelle came first, and did so again and again while I sang to her, played her like I'd played Marie. Okay, no stupidly expensive toys involved, but tentacles, I has them. Also, I apparently have the range and ability to be my own backup singers. Amused the hell out of me when I realized that, did it, and that tipped Noelle over the edge into unconsciousness.

Mordecai was back, although tonight he wanted rest. Needed it, and couldn't bring himself to let go. So I forced the issue, in the most me way possible, cradling him in my arms and singing seven syllable nonsense while staring into his eyes each and every time he came for me. 'Sweat soaked' described him, me, and the altar by the time I laid him down on it, but that's just how things go sometimes.

Lacey. Oh, my Lacey. Last time she'd wanted to start feather light, and worked her way to some very heavy petting before popping off for her final time of the night. Tonight when I looked in that deep, secret place inside her I realized she wanted to start where she'd left off the first time. When I finally handed her over to Madeline, I whispered, "see that she gets Healing for any of those marks she doesn't want to keep."

She smirked at me. "So... no healing for Lacey. Understood." Before I could even correct her, I heard, I understand, Goddess. But I would keep each and every one.

No you wouldn't. When she turned to face me, denial on her lips, I caught her gaze with my own and sang, I know something you don't know.

Lance. Hoo boy, Lance. I know I'd mentioned he had one, and playing 'hide Lance's lance' was a challenge I accepted with maybe a little trepidation. Midway through the first time, I realized that part of what he wanted was to hear the reactions I normally might hide. The ones that lie right on that razor thin line between pleasure and pain. Every Worshipper in the Temple gasped when I let those out, and it felt like thunderous applause to both of us. I made sure he understood how proud of him that made me before his consciousness slipped away.

At that point the sun was nearly up. Madeline reached for Lance, but I snagged her arm and pulled her to me, one arm going around her waist. "Now. Have you done this before?"

"But Goddess... Norfolk?"

I chuckled, held the sun back just long enough to say, "no, I meant this."

The sun crested the horizon, and I slipped my mind into hers as my power lifted us both from the ground, her back arching in zealous Ecstasy, in her Passion found and given form. The tiniest unspoken thought that Lance would think it part of his very best dream should she do as I'd done had her voicing that Ecstasy to Goddess and Congregation, light expanding to encompass us all.

When we stood there after, pristine and refreshed, I head bunted her. "So...?"

A tiny grin slipped across her lips. "May I... Will you stay after Revels? For that much, at least? From now on."

I brushed my lips across hers, smiling. "Of course, Mads. I do gotta go now, though."

She grabbed me, kissed me far more thoroughly, then stepped back, suddenly bashful. "I'll see you tomorrow night, Goddess?"

I nodded, and as I stepped to the Homestead to collect the kids for their day at school, thought, of course. And the night after that I'm gonna hold you under and savor you all night long.

Worth it entirely for the sudden overwhelming rush of anticipation.

When I got back to the Temple of Love in Phileo, Karen met me in the sanctuary, greeting the girls as they each towed a few of D and Diana's kids to meet their school friends. Before I even asked, she said, "she's asleep in one of the private rooms."

"She's not putting anybody out, is she?"

Karen smiled, shaking her head. "We've got plenty of capacity. Some of the folks who came for shelter are doubled up where she's not, but that's true most every night."

I sighed. "Okay. Um, her bodyguard?" She smirked. I caught on a second later. "I thought you liked hairy guys?"

She rolled her eyes. "I can't expand my horizons now and then? For diplomacy even?"

I laughed and pulled her into a hug, then went about my day of teaching math. Around noon, I noticed Danica watching from the hallway and Co-Located beside her. "Hey Danica. Have a nice night?"

She jumped a little when I spoke, but covered it well. "Not only do you have an entire Courtesan's Guild here in one building, but you're a Scribe as well. Training up an entire generation of scribes." She shook her head. "You've got this many children of Heroes?"

I shrugged. "Not sure about that. Just... kids. Doesn't much matter to me whose they are. They come here, we teach them."

Weirdest thing. That hit her harder than anything else had. Translocating around, speaking with a Goddess, Revels, all that good shit, and public pre-K through twelve was her bridge too far. "Could... could you take me home, please?"

I nodded, held out my hand. She took it, I laid a hand on bodyguard Alex's shoulder, and stepped us all back to the Questing Tentacle. "You okay?"

She nodded. "It's just... It's a lot to take in." She smirked at me. "You're a lot to take in."

I snorted. "Shapeshifter, remember? Sized for your convenience. Or not, if that's what you're into."

She laughed, the sound brittle as she shook her head. "Oh, no. I didn't... Of course you're joking."

"Unless you don't want me to be." I shrugged. "I'm kinda shit at this diplomacy gig, but my wives and concubines haven't complained. And I can literally see inside their head, so I know they're not faking that shit. If I gotta take one for the team..." I eyed her up and down. "Yeah, fuck, that wouldn't even be a sacrifice."

She smirked. "Oh, thanks." Then she sighed. "No, Champion. Goddess. You're... From the tales of the Battle of the Walls and the Healing of New Amsterdam, you're a Hero. From what I saw in that classroom, a Scribe. From what you just said, from your High Priestess, from your Temple, a Courtesan." She barked out a laugh. "Please tell me you're not a Sailor."

I laughed. "Nah. My title of 'Captain' is purely honorary, 'cause I'm the one who summoned up and Shaped the Black Dragon." She mouthed the words 'Black Dragon', and I couldn't help it. I'm proud of my big steel girl. "Wanna see?" She nodded. I held out my hand. She reached out, touched my fingers, and I winked at her bodyguard. "Be right back."

A moment later the two of us stood atop the mast of the Black Dragon, the ship spread out around us in all her glory. As she stood there slowly going limp, one of the sailors below called out, "Captain on deck!"

They all spun and saluted. I tried to return it, but it came out a little sloppy as I had to catch a fainting Danica.

Stepped her back to the Questing Tentacle, told bodyguard Alex, "no worries. She just fainted. My Black Dragon is a little bit overwhelming." He didn't look convinced, but also didn't look like he wanted to throw down with me holding his protectee in my arms. "She's not afraid of heights, is she?" He shook his head, still not talking. "Just a second." I slipped a surreptitious Stabilize into her, and she shook her head as she came to.

"Is... is that ship as big as she seems?"

I shrugged. "Probably bigger. She's, uh," I racked my brain for trivia memorized at the museum, almost laughing at myself as I remembered. "Eight hundred eighty eight feet long. Just short of that, really, but at that length, who's counting a couple inches."

"What kind of wood is she made of?"

"The deck is teak. The hull is steel laced with Cold Iron."

She snorted. "Now I know you're bragging. A ship made of steel?" I just smiled at her. "I don't know... You..." She shook her head as she stood there. Her next words were breathed out, almost like she didn't want to say them out loud, or didn't realize she was doing so. "A polymath, like Vyenemoinen, in the flesh."

I gently set her on her feet, and equally gently propelled her toward Alex, who held an arm out for her to cling to. "You gonna be okay?"

She nodded. "I... Thank you, Champion. This has been quite informative."

"Productive diplomatic meeting, then?" She laughed and nodded. "Okay then. Put a good word in for me with the other folks here in Boltophsberg?"

She paused, thinking. Eventually she nodded. "For what it's worth, the Courtesan's Guild will be actively supporting peaceful relations with the Alliance going forward."

I smiled. "Best we can hope for at the moment, right?"

"Perhaps." With that she nodded, then headed out. I escorted her to the boarding ramp in silence. Before she left she turned to me and did that 'air kiss on each cheek' thing before heading off.

Once I saw her on the dock, with Dimir striding up to join Alex, I collapsed back to the me teaching math. Which hadn't been easy while holding a conversation with Danica, but luckily the kids were down to show off doing math problems on their little slates.

The rest of the day went pretty well. Right up until the end. As I prepped to step back down to Calverton, a thundering boom echoed through the Temple of Love. Scooping all the kids into the center of the room with my tentacles, Co-Locating to stand on my Altar, I stood, looking around at my Worshippers, who'd all frozen at the huge sound. Still, while the sound was huge, nothing seemed damaged.

Then it came again, and I saw the glassware on the tables shaking. I snagged one tumbler that took a tumble with a tentacle, then stepped to the front doors of the Temple.

A redheaded dude who looked like he belonged on the front of a romance novel cover stood there, holding one door partially closed. I stared at him as he raised one fist and rapped once on the door, sending another of those echoing booms through the Temple.

In the sudden silence afterward, he shot me a pouty frown. "All those scars, and still stealing my Danica away from me?"

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