A Jaded Life

Chapter 1319

“My, how daring you are, Mother.” A teasing voice pulled me from my perfectly restful slumber, causing my eyes to blink open groggily. For a second, maybe two, I was barely aware of my own identity, let alone my location or why I was being teased; the previous day’s magical work had been that intense. But then, things came back to me, including the fact that the person standing above me was my older daughter, which explained the address she used. The other part of her comment was made obvious when I shifted my body a little and felt the two heavy lumps that used me as pillows, namely, my other daughter and Jess.

“Meh,” I just grumbled softly, “I claim medical necessity, or something along those lines.”

“Oh?” I could almost feel Lia’s curiosity in the air, “And what necessity would that be? Terminal loneliness, or is there an actual problem?”

“Actual problem,” I replied, wondering if we were about to wake up Luna and Jess, “Let me get out, then we can talk for a bit. Maybe you have some idea about the best way to proceed.”

With that said, I briefly considered how to best extricate myself from pillow duty without waking the two sleeping girls, and decided that pushing them together would probably work best. So, I gently nudged them while they were still atop of me, then I slipped backwards, into the shadows. Doing so caused them to sink against each other, and I heard soft grumbles when I left the shadows and stood next to Lia, but I could see that the pair had started to cuddle instead of using me as a pillow. Apparently, this worked quite well. Now, I just had to figure out what was going on with Lia.

“Come on,” I gestured, and we walked out into the cold night, briefly looking around to check if anyone was patrolling or something like that. No need to make the locals nervous or annoy them by causing a guard to sound the alarm.

“So, what’s wrong? What brings you here?” I asked, once we were in a somewhat quiet corner of Maggie’s little town, where nobody would be disturbed by our conversation. Amusingly, she didn’t answer immediately; instead, she blushed furiously, her eyes suddenly darting back and forth as if she wasn’t willing to look at me. Then, I could see her rally herself and focus, though I had a feeling the focus wasn’t on the thing she had been contemplating.

“I’ve been stalking those who didn’t refute the giant lightbulb,” she began, her voice controlled and without the embarrassment I had seen just before, making me think that this wasn’t the primary reason. “Or, well, those who didn’t come here from the Blessed City. A good chunk of those who left don’t care about the shining one; they just wanted to get away from the place and the horrors they faced there. No surprise, really,” she explained, and I nodded in response. No, it wasn’t a surprise that people wanted to get away from the place where they had been mentally violated to such a degree. I certainly wouldn’t want to stick around. Unless I stuck around to destroy the place, but that was an entirely different topic.

“If those who left don’t care, that strongly implies that some still care, and that they didn’t leave,” I prodded, getting a nod in response.

“Yeah, Lorgar and his buddies are still there, though it looked like they were merely picking up as much as they could before moving on. They have a fairly large group with them, easily two-hundred people, but that’s about it. Too many for me to attack, even if I wanted to face Lorgar and his buddies alone. So, that’s pretty much that, unless we want to do something else?” she asked, her voice becoming a bit of a mumble at the end, as if she wasn’t quite sure how to proceed.

“No, I don’t think so,” I shook my head, unwilling to cause a massacre amongst those left under Sunna’s banner. Mainly because it would be a massive hassle, but also because it gave the Goddess something to focus on, something that wasn’t revenge. I wasn’t sure if she had limited resources to spend on Terra, but if those resources were focused on protecting that massively diminished community and rebuilding it into something worthwhile, it was good for us. Given the damage we had done to them, their physical presence and, more importantly, their reputation, it greatly reduced the resources that might be brought to bear against us.

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“So, you still didn’t answer my earlier question,” Lia began, interrupting my contemplation of potential divine assets. “Who was that in bed with you?”

“You mean Luna? Have you forgotten your sister already?” I teased back, a small grin on my face.

“The other one. Though quite daring of you to bed your daughter, and a threesome at that,” she snarked, making me cringe back in horror.

“Yeah, no, just, hel, no,” I shook my head, shuddering in disgust at the mere idea. “Don’t even suggest that, Luna’s my daughter, just like you are!”

“And yet, there were times in which you made me kneel before you submissively, had me call you Mistress and subjugate myself completely, just so I could drink a drop from you,” she did her best to look all vulnerable and dejected, though I knew my daughter well enough to see she was merely acting.

“You can be quite the brat, you know that, Missy?” I asked, shaking my head in hopes of avoiding the headache I was getting from her antics.

“Are you going to spank me?” she returned, making me groan.

“The person in bed with us is called Jess. She’s one of the many people who had trouble with the aftereffects of Sunna’s mind control, and the horrible things they have seen or done while under the influence. We’ve been using some Mind Magic, mainly before she’s put to bed, in an attempt to help her overcome that trauma,” I explained, doing my best to keep things as superficial as possible. Jess’ secrets weren’t mine to share.

“Ah,” Lia looked almost disappointed at the explanation, or maybe she had just hoped to continue teasing me. “That makes sense,” she paused for a moment before shrugging.

“Another thing,” she continued, “Have you noticed that all the women of the Blessed City seem to be pregnant?” she asked, her voice curious.

“Yes,” I sighed in response, realising that obviously those who hadn’t come here were likely just as affected as the rest, “How many did you check? And how did you notice in the first place? I doubt that Lorgar and his bunch would have let you close enough to use your Blood magic on them.” I asked, now quite curious if there was something I had missed.

“I can smell it,” she shrugged, making me blink for a moment, uncertain if I would be able to do the same. I should have the ability; my Intuition was good enough, but maybe I had never really noticed or tried.

“Do you know why?” she asked, now obviously curious.

“I have some hypotheses,” I admitted, unwilling to explain that I believed it to be largely my fault, that the divine domain of the Mother had somehow been invoked when I unleashed the second part of her drug, or maybe even before that. Somehow, my involvement had turned something mundane into something much bigger. And I had no idea how, why or if I could control it, the combination scaring me quite a bit.

“Must be something fascinating if you look like this,” Lia shrugged, noticing my reluctance to say more. Then she paused awkwardly, her stance making it clear there was more, but she was unwilling to speak.

“Somehow, I believe there’s more to your visit. Unless you were lonely, with just Silva to keep you company in the tower, but I don’t think it’s that, is it?” I prodded, now quite curious what was going on. When she blushed furiously in response, I was even more interested, wondering if something had happened with the other Sam.

“You know you can tell me anything and I won’t judge you for it? I promise, I’ll listen,” I told her, all mirth and teasing gone from my voice. This wasn’t something I was willing to joke about.

“It’s not that,” she shook her head, though the blush didn’t fade. “It’s just,” she paused awkwardly again, eyes downcast, “It’s just, I’m hungry,” she admitted, and it took all of my self-control not to chuckle at that.

“Well, earlier, you teased me about feeding you. And yet, here you are, desperately hungry and eager to feed from your Mom,” I returned her earlier teasing, before getting serious, “Of course I’ll feed you. Never fear to ask me about that; I won’t turn you away if you need my help. No matter what,” I promised, getting a smile in return. Then, I cut open my arm and let my dear daughter drink deeply, infusing my blood with Astral Power as she sucked on the wound.