“Probably yes. Each surge of her brain is way beyond what even the most focussed human has managed to produce, that we know of. In reality, we are surprised that she can do it once let alone five times a day, every day and still seem fine. If she did more, would she hurt herself, we have no idea.”
“What happens to the brains that surge after Tia's?” Sharon asked.
“They calm down when hers does, never to surge again, I'm afraid.”
“What happens next?” Roni asked.
“I think you have already organized to have your candidates meet here at lunchtime, so I would assume you do your normal treatment protocol. Afterwards, hopefully, you will allow us to attach a lot of wires to Tia's head and take some readings, then an MRI session. By four pm we will be finished with our data collection. I will publish my results as soon as possible, but it will still take me some time to put it together. What you decide to do is up to you.”
Chapter 16
Professor Baldwin left, leaving us to discuss our next moves. Today was easy enough. We knew what we were going to do today, we also knew our long term plan. The real question was what were we going to do tomorrow?
“Roni, is the house Simone has organized ready to move into?” Vee asked.
“Yes, we can move in today or tomorrow morning. It is a bit sparse in terms of furniture, but that can be sorted quickly.”
“So we temporarily move our treatment to there. Meanwhile, we research where else we can go while getting the Fiji island ready,” Vee stated.
“Sounds like a plan. Davina, security is our most important factor for our next location. I have to say I am a bit disappointed, I was hoping this research would help me work out my limits.”
Vee held my hand. “There may be another way. He said it was like a psychic ability. It sounds logical that if you use a psychic talent, you make it stronger. Myra seems to be your channel and she was also the one who told you that two transformations in one game day was a strain. Maybe we should ask her.”
“That is a very good idea. Andi tells me I am ready for my next familiar and I don't know how much that will affect things. Also, we can't bring more people into the game with me unless we stop going in for seven-day stretches and start going for a day at a time.”
“That is doable, but today we are set up for our usual seven-day immersion, but we could fit an extra person if Katie didn't go,” Roni said.
Katie looked distraught. Far more than I think she should be. I needed to get her alone and see what is up. Right now, there were no cameras present so it might be a good time. “We haven't organized anyone else and there is not a lot of time. Let's keep it the same for today and I will talk to mum and see if she thinks we can do more, then we can experiment when we are doing the transformations at the house. Katie can you stay behind when everyone else leaves.”
“Sure.”
Everybody except Vee took that as time to leave and left so it was just Katie, Vee and me. I waited until we were sure it was just the three of us and no one listening in. I checked mentally with Andi and she reported no listening devices.
“Katie, if you were struggling with something, you know you can talk to us, right? Tonight we are going to dinner with Vee's parents and both you and Roni are invited. You are invited because I think of you like you are my sister, and my sister seems to be hurting.”
I stood up and went to her chair and just held my arms open. Katie got up and hugged me, then Vee was there and we had a threeway hug. Katie is so big and strong now that it was almost like she was hugging us rather than the other way around, still, the emotions were right.
Tears were in her eyes, so we just held her and hoped that she would break the silence. “You are going to think I am crazy or silly,” she said.
“Maybe. Until you tell us I have no idea how I am going to react, you would still be my sister though. Even if it was a crazy silly one,” I said with a smile.
“I know logically that when we enter VDR together we are interacting with characters that you have essentially made up. But they are so believable, so real.”
I was still clueless, but Vee gave an 'Oh' as she worked something out. “What's her name?” Vee asked.
“Ash, she is with us during Taigoa practice and then I practice weapons with her and Holly.”
“Have you slept with her?” Vee asked. Finally, the penny dropped for me, but I left Vee to continue the conversation.
“No. I'm worried that if I did, I would no longer see her again and I couldn't take that.”
“And if you did and found out that you were bonded, how would that work out? What a mess. They do say that it is better to love and lose than to never love at all,” Vee stated.
“You think I should give it a go?”
It was my turn. “If you find out you are bonded, I can insist that you are always connected whenever I go in. I am spending seven days in Lagbit's world for every day here. Sometimes it feels more normal there than here. All I can say is I don't think you are happy with how things are now. If you sleep with her and it works out, you can spend seven out of every eight days with her. Not a conventional relationship I will grant you, but I think it can work.”
“But what if it doesn't?” Katie asked.
“Then you need to know that. I don't know whether we will live a normal human span of years or an elf span, but I believe there is someone out there for everyone. A soul mate, bonded, whatever you want to call it, if it is not Ash, there will be someone else, eventually.”
“But she is just a made up character from your mind.”
“We don't really know how my 'psychic ability' works. Maybe I am tapping into real people in an alternate universe. Myra or mum as I like to call her feels so much more real than my real mother. In the end, I decided that I had to treat her as real. When you are with Ash, do you treat her as a real person or as an imaginary figure? Follow your heart. We all have doubts, but our heart never leads us astray.”
“Alright. I'm going to do it. I am not a coward and I feel like I have been behaving like one. It is time to woman up.” Katie's face took on a resolute expression.
“Whatever happens, we will be there for you. To celebrate hopefully, please make sure to include us,” Vee asked.
We had lunch with a very thoughtful Katie and set up for the last time in the Imperial College laboratory. We had got it down to a routine now, so I had confirmation that everyone was connected and hit resume. My headset had been repaired by one of our staff so that Andi could keep the resume point saved to multiple locations.
I woke up in bed with Vee and the maids around us. After our Taigoa practice, both Vee and I wished Katie good luck and sat at the bench to talk to mum. I looked at Vee with a question in my eyes and she knew what I meant and gave a subtle nod.
“Mum I have some questions for you, but I also have some good news, which would you like first?”
“Let's go with the questions.”
“OK. There are a lot more people who would like to be transformed than we will ever possibly transform. I was wondering, are you finding it an easier process than it was originally and could you perhaps transform more than we are managing at the moment.”
“You are right, I am finding it easier. I was wondering if I could transform more than one per day. I will try that today and see how it goes. Alternatively, I could do one session and have another priestess do a second one, later. Now, how about the good news.”
“Well, we took your advice about err.... new positions and after two weeks I bled, but Vee didn't.” I looked at her waiting for the penny to drop.
“Do you mean?” Her breathing changed and my normally calm and serene mother was beginning to become agitated.
“We don't know for certain, but it looks like, maybe, Vee is pregnant.”
She jumped up and hugged us both. “That is wonderful news. Do you mind if I check?”
“Of course not,” Vee replied.
Mum put her hand over Vee's belly and
started chanting. She stopped chanting, smiling hugely. “I'm going to be a grandmother.”
“There may be some complications,” I said cautiously.
Her smile turned into a frown. “What complications?”
“Because we travel between worlds and time passes differently in the other world, the pregnancy
may last a lot longer than usual.”
“That will be as Lagbit wills it. It won't affect the baby will it?”
“I don't think so, but I think the baby will be born in the other world and I am not sure how to bring the baby here until she is sixteen.”
“To an elf, sixteen years is nothing, but I really wanted to hold a baby in my arms,” Mum said a bit plaintively.
“Err.. sixteen of our years would be equivalent to one hundred and twelve years here, but Andi, my familiar, has told me there might be a solution. Also, we are basing our calculations on our knowledge of human pregnancy and development, so back to the awkward questions. How long does an Elven pregnancy last?” I asked.
“I believe it is the same as for humans, nine months and before you ask, although we live longer and don't really consider our children as adults until they reach about seventy years, they develop at the same rate as humans, becoming full size by eighteen years,” Myra answered cautiously, optimistically.
“And the childbirth, is it as traumatic here as it is in our world?” Vee asked worriedly.
“I think every mother-to-be worries about that, but with our use of healing magic and our ability to scan as often as we like, complications are rare. I also think our stronger muscles and better endurance help.” Then she winked at Vee, “I also know some special healing techniques that reduce the pain. I presume you realise that you can both breastfeed.”
That made me smile. “I didn't know that. That is great news.”
“To be honest, there is a very simple spell that will allow any woman to start producing milk. If you were here we would normally have your maids act as additional nursemaids.” She blushed. “If there was ever to be a baby here, I would be thrilled if you would consider me as a possible nursemaid.” She then took a deep breath. “So how would this solution work?” Mum asked a bit anxiously.
“Well, we have explained to Geri about our travelling here and he has examined us all and come to some conclusions. It appears that I am somehow bound to both worlds with a body in each so my conscious mind is the only thing that travels. The people I bring with me, she believes I form using magic based on their existing bodies in our world. When my conscious mind shifts, their bodies that were linked to their minds are released and they disappear. Andi, my electrical familiar is present in my mind and shifts with me. Based on her experiences and what Geri has said we have a hypothesis of what happens and what will happen with Vee's pregnancy. We think it would be very different if I became pregnant. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. In Vee's case, we believe that every time I bring her here I will be magicking a new body based on the one in my world.”
“I think this world is as much your world as the other one,” Mum admonished.
“Sorry, based on her Earth body. What this means practically is that she will only look as pregnant as her Earth body. Since we spend seven days here for every one day on Earth, her pregnancy will appear to last seven times as long,” I explained.
“And what if you become pregnant?” Mum asked.
“Again this is just theory until it happens, but we think it will depend on where I get pregnant. If I get pregnant here, I will show here in the normal way, giving birth here and if I get pregnant on Earth, I will not show here at all, having a normal Earth pregnancy. Now in Vee's case, she will have a normal Earth pregnancy and give birth on Earth. Andi's thought was if we bring Vee here either when she is due or at the very first sign of labour, I will be magicking Vee with a complete baby inside her. If she gives birth here, Andi believes that baby will not disappear when Vee returns as it will be separate from her, with a different mind, one started here, that would stay here. The reasons why Vee is understandably concerned about labour is because if we did this, she would return to Earth having just given birth to a pregnant body that will have to give birth again.”
Mum sighed, disappointed. “As much as I would love to have a grandchild to hold in my arms, I can't ask her to do that.”
“No you can't and neither can Tia, but I can choose to because I love you like a second mum,” Vee said crying.
I hugged her and Mum hugged her crying as well. I waited until our emotions were back under control before I continued. “There is another issue if we go this route and it may get more complicated still.”
“What issue?” Mum asked.
“It is about proper care for our child. She would be here permanently so someone would have to take care of her at night. Whenever my mind travels back to Earth, Vee will disappear and I will be unresponsive.”
“So I would have to be her mother at night?” Mum asked with a voice full of wonder and imagining.
“It doesn't have to be you.” She gave me such a look. “But it would be wonderful if it could be.” I continued quickly.
“So I would be breastfeeding her during the night? It would be almost like having my own daughter. How did you know it was a girl, I didn't say anything.”
“Vee is convinced that we are having a girl.”
“She is right. You are making me so happy.” She had tears in her eyes. We held each other tight.
“What are the complications you mentioned?” Mum asked when she was a bit more settled.
“If everything goes to plan then we will have two identical babies growing up in each world, but at different rates. After one hundred and twelve years, I can bring our daughter from Earth with me. There will be two identical versions with a different history, one sixteen years old and one over a hundred.”
“We don't think it is a problem. On Earth, there are many incidences of identical twins and we think it will be like that. The weirdness will come from their different ages. We figured we would name them differently and treat them as individuals. Tia did come up with another idea though which would have more complications,” Vee explained.
Mum looked at me curiously.
“Well, I am committed to doing everything I can to save the Elves both here and on Earth. Because I am magicking the bodies and when I return the bodies go too, we are not really increasing the number of female Elves here. However, there are billions of humans, millions of which would very much like to become Elves, so over time, we should be able to increase the population of Elves on Earth, although it will take a long time. As the Elven population on Earth increases, the number of bondings should increase as should the number of pregnancies. Although it is a lot to ask any woman to go through two labours for every childbirth, it would mean over time we would be able to increase the population here, slowly but surely. Unfortunately, any children that are born here will need adoptive parents which is the complication I was worried about.”
“That will never be a problem. Children are a blessing that any Elf would wish for, bonded or not. How will you convince them to make a sacrifice like Vee is willing to do?”
“That is easy. We will make it a condition for their transformation. No one is going to be put off by a condition that will only come into effect if they live long enough to fall in love and get pregnant. They won't even mourn the child as we can remove their memory of having given birth here.”
Mum went quiet, then smiled brightly at us both. “That sounds well thought out and amazingly wonderful. I had noted that the female Elves didn't stay long and only returned when you wanted them to.”
“When do we tell Mary and Kayla?” I asked.
“Can you wait until dinner? If I do a double transformation, I am not sure I will be able to make lunch and I want to be there.” She said that loudly. Elves have great hearing and I suspect that the whole palace will know shortly, but Mary and Kayla would probably be kept out of the loop so th
at we could surprise them tonight.
We separated to get on with our tasks. My routine was a little different today since Leaf was going to be directing my meditation for my next familiar. When it came time for my druid training, Leaf led me back to the glade we had been in before and I went through the same process. This time when I opened my eyes a feather glowing white was hovering above my forehead. To accept my new familiar all I had to do was bring my head forward to touch the feather. I felt like a gust of wind went right through me, so I knew I now had a wind familiar. My following druid sessions would be trying to start and then improve my communications with my new familiar.
Chapter 17
That dinner we made the announcement to Mary and Kayla. We got lots of hugs and kisses with our congratulations. They announced another Royal celebration to be held in three days time. No horse-drawn parade this time, but similar to a ball. There would be an evening of food, drink and dancing. At least this time I felt more confident that we could do some of the more formal dances.
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