The Spirus

by JB Trepagnier

  She had to ask what the new smell was and what was going on with her. Not one of those boys wanted to meet her eyes and were concentrating on their fruit. Terros finally spoke.

  “She’s going through her Senso. One of you needs to put their child in her now while she can. I don’t know if she can outside of it since her mother did.”

  “I know that, Father, but it’s complicated.”

  “What’s complicated about it? You’ve been doing it every night since you wed.”

  Oris pushed his chair back and stalked back to her chambers. The other two didn’t seem to want to tell anyone what was going on and disappeared as well. Terros got angry when they left and asked the table how long she intended to wait. Volaris corrected him, as he usually did, and said she would start when she was ready and she was still young.

  Esylle didn’t know what to say and she didn’t know what to say to Lisana to make it better.

  Lisana

  Lisana paced her chambers. She had forgotten how bad this feeling felt. She knew what she had to do to make it go away. After spending so much time with her siblings, she was ready to have a child, but she had no idea how to pick who she would have her first child with and not hurt someone. She knew the first child would stay here and rule and not leave to rule one of the tribes and when she did need to mate with just one of them for that child, how she would go about picking which order?

  She hadn’t told any of them she was ready now because she didn’t want them to fight. Oris came in first, a few minutes after she had, and told her he knew what she was going through and asked why she hadn’t asked them to make it stop before breakfast. She didn’t know how to tell him when both Sono and Neptis came in and asked the same thing. When she finally admitted she was ready, they all started laughing and jumping up and down before she could tell them they weren’t thinking about this and it would be just one of them instead of all four of them together like it always was.

  When she admitted choosing one of them to go first was part of why she kept putting this off, they didn’t get angry like she thought they would. Sono spoke first and said since her first child would stay here, it didn’t matter who it was and it could be like it always was with them. They didn’t need to know which one of them was the father because the child would rule because it was hers. When it came to having other children, Sono said he had no problem waiting if the others wanted to go first and thought it should be Oris first since his father was so upset.

  Oris asked if he was sure about waiting and Neptis said he didn’t mind waiting either and thought Oris should be first because of his father. He said he and Sono could come up with a solution over who goes next. She was surprised when Neptis said he liked the idea of all of them creating the next heir to the throne and Oris agreed.

  She wasn’t expecting it to be this easy, but she was also nervous and didn’t initiate anything like she normally did. They could feel her and all walked over to her slowly. Sono was behind her and swept her hair away and started kissing the back of her neck with his arms around her waist. Oris was nibbling on her ear and Neptis had become bolder. He was in front of her kissing her mouth and tugging on her robes.

  They moved to the bed and she had laid with all three of them in turn. Leodos and her mother didn’t understand why she was always late for breakfast. When she was with one of them, the other two were next to her kissing her neck or breasts. The entire deed was more intense than anything she had experienced before and she wanted to do it every night. None of them complained about her wants and seemed to enjoy it too.

  They all laid in bed exhausted. She didn’t see why Leodos and her mother didn’t understand why she was late for breakfast every morning when they could feel each other now like she could with these three. She didn’t understand why they weren’t also late. She knew it was different for her because if she was with one of them, the other two were touching her or kissing her and it was almost too intense the first night they were together. Leodos had asked her if she would ever get used to what she felt and start sleeping like a normal person and eating with them again.

  She never commented when he asked because he wouldn’t like what they were doing, but she didn’t think she would ever get used to how it felt. She knew she would have to stop when she was with child and was surprised they all had a solution to her worries. They had been married nearly a year and they never fought like she thought they would when the chair told her this had to happen. She had been so sure this would cause their first one.

  She was lying in bed naked, intertwined with Sono and Oris while they played with her hair and stroked her back. Oris asked her what finally changed her mind after so long. Sono chimed in and asked if it was because she was worried about fighting. Sono always seemed to know what she was thinking. She admitted she didn’t want their first fight to be about this.

  Oris started nibbling on her ear and asked why she didn’t just talk to them instead of just telling them no, even when they were upset with her. When she said she didn’t know how he started kissing her again. She knew what he wanted and stopped him and told him it was too intense this time. She would need to leave to go to her art lesson soon and they all wanted her to stay, but her tutor had her working on a painting she wanted to continue.

  As much as she didn’t want to get out of bed, she got up, washed, and left for her lesson. She had never painted before because Belisarus wouldn’t buy her paints and didn’t like her drawing in the first place. She thought it strange at first that Esylle got her a teacher, but now she was enjoying the lessons. She was wrapped up in her painting and she thought it was her tutor over her shoulder, but then she smelled jasmine and turned to see Esylle.

  “You’re getting quite good and seem less upset than this morning. Terros told me what you were going through.”

  She focused on her painting and hoped Esylle wouldn’t ask any more questions. She didn’t bring anything up from this morning, but Esylle asked her if she would paint portraits of she and Leodos. She didn’t think she was good enough and tried to decline, saying she hadn’t learned how to paint people yet. Esylle didn’t push and told her Leo was being fussy and asked if she would come to her chambers later to play with him.

  She loved her siblings now that she had them. They weren’t connected to her and she knew she wouldn’t, but she liked the way it felt when she fell asleep holding one of them during their naps. She knew she would go, but she had a feeling Esylle wanted to talk about things that would make both of them uncomfortable.

  She was cleaning her brushes in the turpentine when Leodos also came in. She had a feeling he wanted to talk about this morning too, but he also asked about her coming and calming Leo. She thought they would both be better at it than she would since they were his parents, but she agreed when she was done with her brushes.

  She didn’t tell anyone she agreed to stop taking the herbs when they mated. Only Oris, Neptis, and Sono knew and she asked them not to talk about it. Esylle and Leodos wanted her in their chambers to be with Liana and Leo more. She didn’t know how she would know when she was with child. She knew she should ask her mother, but she didn’t know how. Leodos was always with them in her chambers when they asked her to be there and she didn’t think she should ask in front of him.

  She was surprised one day when she was sitting again holding Leo while he fell asleep and Esylle was pacing in front of her like she was about to burst. Leodos was also looking at her like he wanted to say something to her. She thought they were going to tell her they were with child again, but Esylle surprised her.

  “Did you agree to be with child and not tell us?” she asked, looking like she was about to burst from excitement.

  Lisana was shocked and didn’t know what to say. There was no way she could have known. Esylle saw the bewildered look on her face.

  “You can’t hide it now,” she said, laughing. She still didn’t know what she was talking about and Esylle finally blurted out she was with child now. She aske
d her how she could possibly know that. “You can’t hide the changes in your body now. Your face is fuller and so is your body. Why didn’t you tell us you decided you were finally ready?”

  “I was going to ask you how to know when it happened, but Leodos is always around. You keep asking me to be here with Leo and Liana.”

  “We were hoping the more you were around them, it would make you change your mind. Then I saw your body changing the more you stayed with us and kept wondering when you would tell me.”

  “You know I don’t look at my reflection,” she said. She never did growing up and she didn’t start when she got here, even though everyone seemed to like the way she looked. If her body was changing, why hadn’t Sono, Neptis, or Oris said anything?

  “You still don’t?” Esylle asked. “Even after everyone has told you how beautiful you are? Those boys don’t tell you every day?”

  “Looking at your reflection all the time seems silly. If you could tell, why couldn’t the others?”

  “I’ve been watching you longer. I know I made you uncomfortable, but I kept studying your face because it looks like me and Rivannus. It’s only a little rounder now, so I’m probably the only one who has noticed. I couldn’t help but tell Leodos.”

  “Are you sure?” she asked, the news finally sinking in. “I could just look differently because I’ve been eating more than usual because I’ve been hungry.”

  Esylle laughed at her and Leodos gave her a gentle smile. “It’s the child inside you making you hungry. I’ve also been watching you devour your meals. Were you going to wait until your belly was sticking out to ask me?”

  “I don’t feel any differently besides being hungry.”

  “Trust me, you will. Now, that you know, can I tell the others? They keep asking me because they don’t want to ask you.”

  “Can you wait until dinner so I can tell Sono, Neptis, and Oris?”

  “I think I can wait that long,” she said, getting up to hug her.

  Sono

  Sono had suspected she might be with child when she finally came back to their chambers and announced it. He never said anything to her or the others and knew she would tell them when she was ready. When they went to dinner that night and Esylle announced it, Terros demanded to know if it was Oris’ child and a new Theran queen or king. He watched Lisana blush and Oris would only tell his father that this child was hers and would rule after her. After this child, they would have a child for the Theran. Sono saw his father shoot him a look, but it was just to check to see if Sono was right with this. He nodded to his father and he didn’t comment for the rest of the night.

  The bigger she got, the more she slept and seemed to be in a bad mood. Sono, Neptis, and Oris all took turns rubbing her feet and back and were trying anything to improve her mood. She even snapped at her mother when she would try to ask her how she was feeling. She had to stop her art and dance lessons and didn’t seem to want to play with them anymore. There was a human, a Farkhi, a Tark, and a Theran midwife all attending to her since they didn’t know what kind of child she would have. They all told her she shouldn’t transform anymore now that she was getting bigger. That seemed to make her mood worse. She couldn’t fly off or run anymore when she wanted to leave them and had to stay and talk it out.

  Esylle dismissed her from council meetings, but made the three of them go without her. She yelled at them constantly for not paying attention and learning, but none of them wanted to be away from her. Esylle was in just as bad a mood as she was and neither of them wanted to talk about it. Every time they ate, there was an awkward silence. When they asked her what was wrong when they would go back to their chambers, she always said her skin felt too tight, like when she was becoming the serpent.

  She was big enough to burst and terser with them than usual one afternoon. They wouldn’t leave her and kept asking her what was wrong. Sono thought it was time and she finally confirmed her stomach had been cramping. All three of them ran out to get their midwives and her mother.

  Esylle ran straight in and when they went to follow Leodos blocked the door and asked what they were thinking. They were confused why he was stopping them and all started arguing at once. Apparently, human men didn’t stay with their women during childbirth and didn’t think it was proper. When they all told him their tribes stayed, Leodos blocked the door for a moment like he wouldn’t let them inside, then moved aside. They all rushed in and Esylle was surprised to see them too. She opened her mouth like she was going to ask them to leave, but then Lisana let out a large cry and they all descended on her bed.

  Esylle held one hand and tried to talk her through it and they took turns holding the other. Sono wanted all of the midwives to leave except the Farkhi woman because the four of them kept arguing about what to do with her. Sono didn’t ask her why, but he never felt the light come to refresh her. She was sweating and crying out in pain for what seemed like hours. He could feel how tired she was and she had never been tired this long before since she sat in that chair.

  All four of the midwives were pushing each other at her feet and told her she would need to start pushing now. Esylle was trying to soothe her and tell her it would be over soon. All three of them were trying to tell her to push. His stomach had been cramping all night because hers was, but he knew it was nowhere near what she was feeling. She clamped down on his hand with hers and it was hurting him, but he squeezed back and tried to give her encouragement.

  All four midwives were screaming that the baby was coming and she needed one last big push, but Sono had no idea which one would catch the baby. All four of them seemed like they wanted to be the one to do it and were still pushing each other a little. It wound up being the Theran woman who pulled the screaming child out. They were all pushing to get a look at it while the Theran woman took it to a bin of water and kept exclaiming how hot the child was to touch.

  She drew back when the water in the tub started to boil the louder the child cried and she threw away the towel she was holding when it went up in flames. Esylle finally took over because she was the only one who could be close to the child. Now that it was over, the light finally came to refresh her. He wanted to see the child, but he went over to check on her. She was still sweating and pale, but she wasn’t as tired anymore.

  Esylle was wrapping the child in a blanket now that she had calmed it. It didn’t seem like she wanted to bring it over to Lisana as she looked down at the child’s face. She finally smiled at her and told her it was a boy. She handed the child to her and they all crowded into bed with her to lay next to her while she fed him.

  Esylle managed to squeeze on one end of the bed. “He looks exactly like you when you were born.”

  “You said that about my sister,” she said, smiling. Her bad mood appeared to be gone.

  “When I look at her, I imagine that’s what you might have looked like if you had stayed.”

  “She has a little more Leodos in her than I do. Not as much as Leo.”

  They had all discussed names together and agreed on Divos if it was a boy. It was not a name used by any of the tribes and she had found it in one of the books Frog had taken from Inanos. That was what they called her magic before. Frog kept his old name, but had wed one of the Theran girls. She didn’t know this and Belisarus made him not tell her, but he did try to teach him when she wasn’t paying attention. He was now keeping their history and was always buried in books when he wasn’t wrapped around his Theran wife.

  She still refused to talk about Belisarus, even though Esylle had read his diary and tried to tell her what was in it. Esylle had given up trying to talk to her about it. Sono never brought it up to her, but he thought she needed to hear it. He thought she may want to talk about it when she was ready, but they had lived in the palace together almost two years and she was still refusing.

  He knew Esylle had read all of the books Frog had brought back and understood the name they chose right away. They all knew she was worried this child would take too ma
ny of her gifts and have to do some of the things she had to do. He knew that was part of the reason she had put this off for so long. They had all been talking her for the past nine months that if their children had her gifts, it wouldn’t be like how she grew up and they would all teach them to use them. She didn’t seem to be worried about that now and the look on her face as she stared down at this child was similar to the one she had when she made the heart flower.

  Esylle

  Esylle thought she would refuse to have more children when Divos started crawling and scraped his hand and it healed right in front of them. Esylle saw her bite back tears, but she didn’t run away. She scooped him up and held him while he fell asleep for his nap. She never said which one of them was the father of this child and Esylle couldn’t tell looking at him. This child was all Lisana.

  When Divos reached his second name day, he was a small, flame-haired version of his mother with all of her gifts. Esylle never asked her if she was refusing to have any more children and was surprised at dinner when Oris beamed at his father and told him she was carrying the next Theran king or queen. Lisana had a small smile on her face when Terros got up and clapped his son on the back. He ordered a huge feast the next day.

  Esylle was surprised when her child with Oris did not come out with red hair like hers. Grav had blonde hair like the Theran, but her violet eyes. Grav has just as much fire as Divos when he was born and Esylle wound up being the one who cleaned him off. As he grew, he resembled the Theran the most, but he had her nose and mouth in addition to her eyes.

  It went this way with the rest of her children. When Sono and Neptis announced she was carrying their child, Volaris jumped from the table to embrace Sono and ordered a feast. Fluvis was more reserved and stayed in his seat and told Neptis he did well.