Zorroku and Peaches

The Battle For Motherhood

Part 15

You watched as Zorroku got all the kids ready for bed. But Zorroku was otherwise rather quiet towards you once everyone left to go home. But to hear the kids ask him how many he had faced off against in battle, you could tell that they were looking for a reason to have hope and faith that he would win when he was already facing odds against him. But Zorroku, if anything, was honest about the matter and admitted he was nervous about it. But that it was something he felt he should do and needed to be done, for honor and dignity, if not for himself, but for them and the family you all were now.

But you knew the kids would not need to ask you such questions. Because they already knew about the spite blessings, so you knew that they had confidence and faith in you at least. But at the prospect of them being the children of the house, they could now move into any number of rooms they wanted. As each one was happy that they got a huge room, all to themselves while the cubs and pups were happy to wander from room to room to be with the kids. You were grateful there were several spaces, specifically meant to mimic a small garden like meadow, where the cubs and pups could go to the bathroom and not make messy piles anywhere. You had already said your goodnights and even prayed with them before it was time to put yourself and Ori to bed while Zorroku got ready for bed himself.

You finally slipped into bed and nursed Ori again to go to sleep but sleep eluded you as your fears grew like weeds among wheat of whether the choice to answer the challenge was the right decision and the right path you should take. And to feel the bed dip, you wondered if the kids were going to sleep with you again, but you were pleasantly surprised to see just Zorroku get into bed on the other side as you were relieved he decided to stay so close.

"So I take it you'll be taking defensive tactics tomorrow?" Zorroku finally ventured as he settled in and got comfortable.

"Yeah." You murmured quietly before he turned to look at you before he reached out to caress your cheek with his palm before you turned your head and kissed his calloused palm.

"Worried?" He asked.

"Not about the things I should probably be worried about though." You answered.

"So what are you worried about?" He asked.

"Of the spite blessings I have, only one is only ever "on" or "awake" and working all the time. All the others are asleep and locked into a part of myself that I specifically had to have the mages and magic practicing people put into myself to keep them safely there and subdued. Once I awake them, I'm afraid of what else I'll do while they are fully awake and active, using myself as a vessel. One of them, the strongest of them, is particularly bloodthirsty. And the more blood I spill, the stronger it becomes and the more active it becomes. All it takes is for me to kill one, then it wants to kill two more, then four more, then eight more, then 16 more and it builds until those numbers are astronomical and it's not satisfied until itself and the vessel it inhabits, myself, is the only thing left alive. I'm terrified that it will look at this great city and want to swallow it whole and that once it kills once, it won't stop until it kills all. And I really do not want that particular spirit to look at you or the kids and want their blood more than it wants to protect them. So you will have to be particularly careful tomorrow while you're in that arena with me. I will try to stay in control of myself but because I may have to unlock and wake up more than one, I will be the minority, and only a vessel for the others."

"How do I subdue it?" Zorroku asked.

"I will do all I can to keep that particular one asleep. The others, will be awakened with an incantation and, coincidentally, go back to sleep if either successful or I repeat the incantation to do so. But that is only if I have my senses to do so. So listen tomorrow to everything I say before the battle. And if you see I'm not myself and no longer in control of my being- say what you heard me say. But you have to make sure I'm not touching the ground or anyone else, because many of the spite blessings pull their own power from the very ground and others. It's like I can leech their life force from them if I touch them. That's why I wanted to use the sling with the weights, to keep me at a distance from my targets. Even though I will be most lethal with hand to hand combat. It won't matter what weapons they try to use against me, they will fail unless I disarm them and use their own weapons against them, the moment the weapon is in my hands, it becomes whatever I need or want it to be and is how I can draw their very life from them, is through the contact of their own weapons with them." You explained.