by Andur
I reach up and wipe my forehead with the back of my hand. Her waters broke. Yes. That's a good reason to call for help. “I'll go immediately. Don't stand up! Don't go anywhere!”
“I don't intend to.”
72. ~New.~
“I love you. You’re mine. I’ll kill any bastard who tries to take you from me.”
The Journey to the Afterlife
Kingdom Newerth, Capital City
Seria
I am done! Never again! Gasping, I hold the little bundle in my arms, pressing her to my chest. “Hereby I swear. That's the first and only child I have in this lifetime!” The whole sped up pregnancy made me forget about the final stage of having a child. I was so happy about the fact that I would be able to avoid nine months of feeling like a whale, that I forgot that actually giving birth is the real nastiness of having a child.
“You can't! I want at least one son!” Marcus complains to my astonishment. “Which doesn't mean that I am not happy about a daughter!” He quickly corrects himself, saving his neck. “And it doesn't have to be immediately. A break of a few years is okay.”
I sizzle and pop his bubble with a smile. “More like a few hundred years. I've to forget about the pain.”
Mom approaches me with a scanner and inspects her first grandchild with a bright smile. That’s the least of what has to be expected. This is the result of her machinations after all. “I am on Marcus's side. More children count for more fun. Besides, I am glad that you finally graduated to motherhood. It's an important stage in life and helps to steel your character.” She takes the readings from her instrument and nods. Everything seems to be okay.
I was brought to Mom's laboratory when my waters broke. She is adamant about using her own equipment when treating someone. Public clinics are horrifying to her. She always keeps complaining about the poor hygiene with so many people in one place. Having a lot of sick people in one place is a sign of bad medical support in her opinion.
I suppose she has a point, taking her knowledge into account. Someone has to be in a pretty bad shape, combined with a really exotic illness to stay under Mom's care for an extended amount of time. Otherwise the patient is fixed up and sent on his way within hours. Then there is also the little detail that our bodies are very resilient and not prone to illness.
“That's it. I've healed everything. You are as good as new.” Her eyes twinkle at a sudden thought. “And if you two go at it right away, I could help with the next one. Seria, give me the little one, so that you and Marcus can-”
“Nanana! Don't wanna know!” I interrupt her quickly and hurry to get out of the bed, protecting Illia in my arms. I certainly won't do it in front of my mother. There is a line that’s not to be crossed. Then I stroll towards to the door, thanking the gods that Illia seems to be a silent child. There are still a lot of things to do for her sake, like organizing the attack on our enemies. And to show off my daughter in front of everyone.
“W- Wait! Shouldn't we name her!?” Marcus stops me by clinging onto my arm. “And what did your mother mean by helping?”
I turn towards him. “What are you talking about? Her name is Illia.”
Marcus raises and eyebrow. “You chose without me?” The corners of his lips curl downwards in displeasure and I anticipate a fight, but he backtracks just in time. “Fine. As long as I get to name the boy, we can go with Illia.”
We’ll see about that when we get there. I tried to involve him in finding a name, but his suggestions weren’t acceptable.
Mom interrupts, “I meant that I could help with the next child by artificial means. You could choose gender, height, looks... anything. As long as I get to work with the raw materials, there should be no limits. If you give me some time, we could include some more interesting features. Shade would surely be more interested in his grandchildren if we add a cat-tail.”
Surely enough, my daughter starts crying. On some deep level she must have understood her fate with grandparents like that. I pat Illia's head and look away. “I think we can do without such things. This world's biology is fucked up enough without you adding to it.”
“Aw...” Mom deflates a little, but isn't beaten. “But choosing the gender is fine, isn't it?”
To my horror, Marcus seems to be taken by the idea. He scratches his cheek. “I admit that the possibility always intrigued me. At least it solves all the insecurities about becoming a parent.”
I tug at his arm and hiss. “Come, let's get out of here. You have no idea what you are dealing with! Giving her free reign over your DNA is like sealing a contract in blood with the devil! Not to mention her preferred way to acquire the mentioned raw materials.”
He grunts. “Oh, at least I know now why you and your siblings look so perfect. I've always wondered why you are such a strange hybrid. I've invested a lot of time into researching the various spirit forms. From what I gathered, children either inherit one of their parents' spirit forms, or they get one that at least shows up somewhere in their line of ancestors. Your form isn't documented.”
“...”
Marcus waves his hand in front of me. “Seria? Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” Realizing that I must have frozen up, I slowly angle my head to look at my mother. I've never actually thought about my monstrous spirit form, which always divided me from the other children. My mother isn't someone who has qualms about in vitro fertilization. I know that.
Admittedly, I happen to know that my being here was a sort of an accident. But my mother has the skill to manipulate an embryo. It would be child’s play for her to experiment on me while I was still in her womb. And she is inventive when it comes to such things. She surely needs no hi-tech lab to achieve some awe inspiring results.
She whistles and looks away. “Dedessia was a harsh world back then and we couldn't be sure that we will always be there for you. So I... made sure that you have the strengths of both of your parents. Biologically speaking at least. Just let me clean up my equipment. The others are surely waiting desperately to see the little Illia.” Then she hurries to collect her instruments.
Shaking my head, I turn away and head through the door. If I allow this to rattle my brain, then I'll be trying to strangle her without second thoughts. “Mom is just... Mom. There is no point in being angry at the weather. Is there?
Feeling a little better, I greet the people who are waiting on the other side of the door. Quite a crowd had gathered and now that I get to see them all in one place... I have a really big family. Clarity is the first to swoop in and somehow, without me even realizing how she did it, she has Illia out of my arms and is swooning over her. “That's my little granddaughter.”
She even manages to cause Illia to giggle, which makes my daughter’s betrayal perfect. I force my expression into a tight smile and decide to play for time. At some point Illia will get hungry and then it's my moment to shine as the mother... or milk machine. However someone decides to look at it. There is no way that some shrivelled, old hag can take my daughter's love from me.
“Mom, why don't you give Illia back? I've a feeling that we might have to deal with some unforeseen reincarnations if Seria has to share our daughter with you,” Marcus whispers to his mother. That causes Clarity to look up and cringe at my glare. She hands Illia back as if the baby is a bomb that's about to off with the slightest mistake in handling it. Once she is back in my arms I certainly feel better.
Was my expression really that dangerous? I won't complain about getting my daughter back. “Thank you.”
In the course of introducing Illia to everyone I still have to endure handing her over to one person after another. At first I thought that showing her off would be cool, but now I realize that I really don't want to have someone else holding her. What a bummer. I can’t be. Am I an overprotective mother?
When the introduction to the family is finished, I decide to entertain my brain with more earnest matters. There is still a danger to Illia out there in the multiverse. “So, have you guys alr
eady thought about a plan on how deal with that enemy base? Shouldn't our scouts have returned by now?”
73. ~D.ad.~
“A baby is God's opinion that life should go on.”
The Journey to the Afterlife
Kingdom Newerth, Capital City
Marcus
“I want to hold her too!”
“No!” Seria turns away, shielding Illia with her body. “You suggested to call her Ingrid. She isn't some fair maiden from Norse mythology. She is directly related to some of the most infamous beings in the multiverse. There is no way that we can give her such a mundane name. She has to become fierce and carve out a legend of her own.”
That woman will be the death of me! “She'll be afraid of me if I am not even allowed to bond with her as a father. And you'll have to let go of her once our forces are ready to attack.” Our family won’t take forever to plan the attack.
Seria furrows her forehead in silent contemplation. “Why do I have to let go of her when we attack?”
Sensing a way to win the argument, I quickly shift my angle of attack. “Oh! Of course. I am sorry. I simply assumed that you want to be at everyone's side when we face the mystery man. Of course you can stay behind and look after our daughter. To be honest, now that I know about your intentions, I am really glad that you decided to stay out of harm's way to be with Illia.”
Seria pastes a paltry smile onto her face. “Nonono. Of course I'll join the attack. You have no idea of all the things that could go wrong! Mother and I have to be there! In the worst case scenario, both of us will be needed to stop father.”
Why would we have to stop Shade? Let him rain Armageddon on our enemies for all I care. Doing my best to project a calm and icy aura, I nail the coffin shut. “So you really intend to bring Illia along into a war-zone?”
Seria works with her beautiful lips, an inner conflict apparent on her face. She sniffs. “Fine. We'll hand her over to my younger brothers. They have to protect her with their lives while staying at the palace's safest room. If someone of questionable character comes even near her...”
The one with the most questionable character is you...
“Did you say something?”
“No.” Damn the marriage bond! I really have to learn to control that ability.
“Good! So take her while I go and get my brothers. It will be bothersome and will take a while. They have some kind of warning system. Once I catch the first one, the others go into hiding. It’s like being around is no good to them, yet they always tried to shoo away my potential partners.” She hands Illia over to me and hurries out of our private quarters.
Now I am not really sure if I should be grateful to her brothers. The three younger ones are idiots though. And I’ve yet to meet the eldest one, but he makes a point of not being around.
Then I suddenly realize that I’ve won! Sighing contentedly about my victory, I cuddle Illia, coaxing some happy baby sounds out of her. It feels so good to hold her for the first time. Seria didn't want to let go of Illia after the family disbanded yesterday. I had to go a whole night without so much as even having held my daughter in my arms. Holding her now feels like a big victory in my relationship with Seria.
Could it be that I'm slowly getting the hang of winning arguments against her? I certainly did well in convincing Seria to hand Illia over. She is surely irrational when it comes to our daughter. Hopefully that goes away with time. I am not sure on how to deal with such behaviour.
I bend over to kiss Illia on the forehead, smelling that she is in a little predicament. Oh, the joy of being a parent. I almost forgot about it.
My victory suddenly doesn't feel like a victory at all. Seria just didn't want to clean Illia up, so she handed her over. I sigh and walk to a shelf with a lot of books. I am quite sure that Seria organized some books with convenient spells to take care of babies. “Don't worry. Dad will relearn all the cleaning spells there are. You will be the cleanest child in the world... and not smelly at all.”
With a flick of my wrist, I open the windows and turn to the shelf, wondering if Seria has an index for her books. Maybe cleaning Illia under the shower is faster than searching the whole shelf? There are well over a hundred books. Only one thought comes to mind.
I've been had!
An hour later Illia is clean and pleasant-smelling. I am just about to sit down to watch a movie when Seria returns with her three youngest brothers in tow. She gestures them into the room and they file in as if they are conscripted soldiers. “Don't worry. You can join the fight the next time when the multiverse is in dire danger of ending. For now you can take care of the second most important matter.”
So babysitting Illia is the second most important matter in the multiverse? Interesting, though I suppose that it's true for the three of them. Seria will have their heads if they fail their task. Not wholly convinced that this is a good idea, I hand Illia over to Erez, the youngest brother. “Necessary baby stuff is in the bathroom. You might want to get acquainted with it.”
The young man snorts. “My body might look young, but I've regained enough memories to be confident about my abilities. I can take care of one, little baby.”
Seria glares at him.
“... of course we'll check if we need anything else. Illia won't lack anything!” He nods at the oldest brother and he heads towards the bathroom.
“We'll be going then. Thanks for babysitting!” I hurry to nudge Seria to the door and close it just as her brother enters the bathroom. The muffled scream of disgust is abruptly cut off. Hm, her quarters have good sound isolation. I suppose that it shouldn't surprise me if I take her old hobby of going on man-hunts into account.
“Why are you in a hurry? I couldn't say goodbye to Illia. We were parted for more than an hour.” Seria complains.
Yeah, well. The bathroom was a mess after I abandoned the idea of using a spell. The damned poop-monster fought with all her might against being cleaned. I've to summon a tsunami and flush the bathroom out once I get the opportunity. “She was sleeping anyway. The little rascal was tired after we fought our epic battle against the shadow king.”
Seria pulls her eyebrows together and regards me with a stern expression. “Are you riling her up to dislike my father?”
Oh! Damn! I suppose it could be interpreted that way. “O- Of course not! We just have a really tiring playing session behind us.” Training session, to be precise. Or should I call it indoctrination? The earlier you start, the more results you get.
“I've a strange feeling that I shouldn't leave you alone with Illia,” Seria mumbles and tilts her head, looking at me.
“You are being overprotective!” I smile and take her into my arms.
To distract her, I dig my fingers into her softness and hold her in a tight embrace. “Now, how about visiting the others? We don't want to miss the attack, don't we?”
She harrumphs and replies by embracing me herself. “Let us end the problem once and for all.”
I don't waste any time and teleport us to the now repaired citadel. Shade was adamant about using her as his flagship. I think that I've never before met a guy who is that enthusiastic about big, flying vessels with a lot of tonnage and doomsday weapons on board.
74. ~Stolen.~
“Adapt and conquer.”
The Journey to the Afterlife
Kingdom Newerth, Capital City
Seria
We are on the citadel's command bridge, which looks quite different from the last time we were here. My father held his promise to remodel the ship's inner design. There is no trace left of the old bridge. Dad is walking back and forth in front of a huge screen, which is the only item in the room. Ok, he kept that one, but even the chairs are gone. No consoles, no crew-members, everything automatized. I harbour the suspicion that he decided against using real people to control the ship because of the last battle. It had to be a shock when someone spoke up to him and told him what to do.
But I have to admit that I also think of
the old bridge-design as quite inefficient.
The screen shows a large, red spot with a cloud of smaller dots around it. Exactly like our first combat scenario. Our enemies clearly have one blueprint which they use for all their bases.
Further inspection of the map reveals our dilemma. At first I assumed that the citadel's computer simplified the tactical map by grouping all the spirits together and painted the dangerous area red. Turns out that isn't true. There are simply so many dots that the map is overloaded. We are badly outnumbered, which leads us to the question of how to come out of this alive. There are two acceptable ways to win a fight. Either by overpowering the enemy with brute force, or by being sneaky. We definitely have to depend on the latter solution.
When our scouts returned, they brought a lot of information with them. This made one thing very sure. We would never be able to fight our way through the enemy ranks. Going in with weapons blazing and with a war-cry on our lips will only get us killed. There are simply too many of them. Even Shade voiced his doubts about the fact that utilizing Lidith as our hidden weapon will be enough. Then he promptly suggested to throw Adea into the mix.
I vehemently fought against using Adea as a weapon. The poor girl had gone through enough in her current life. Of course, there are people who had to endure a far worse fate, so she has no reason to complain. But I kind of took responsibility for her, so there is no way that I can allow my parents to use her as their play-toy. They have their network and more than enough of enemies in their dungeons. No human experimentation on our friends.
“I don't understand, Seria. You were modified too and you are fine,” Mom pouts from her position at Shade's side. Normally she is the reasonable one, but somehow I got to be the voice of reason this time. I simply couldn't allow them to mistreat our newly found... refound?... friends!
“Well, then how do you suggest that we get near that fortification? I suggest that we use Adea and Lidith, a.k.a. Beth, to bore a hole through the enemy army. Once we get to their installation, it will be a repeat of our last battle. We can even put down some beacons to summon help from the other realms,” Shade explains.