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As soon as she heard it, the Princess jumped to her feet and charged the door. Genette was handling some matters, so an ordinary maid was on standby there. Her panic was plain in her eyes as the Princess marched her direction.
– Ease yer mainsheets, woman! Where you goin’ in such a hurry?
As she charged out the office door, she shot back at me, Obviously to get my armor!
If I’da had a palm to press against my face, I woulda. Just the previous night, the Princess heard a lecture on maternity safety from that goddess while she waited in her Illusory Reality for the other goddess to escort Fairy Mother and Little Sister into embryo-hood.
I’m not tryin’ to diminish the Princess’s current anxieties about her sister and the rest of the recovery mission. I had them too. But as a woman o’ more experience, I needed to give my junior in the art o’ Motherhood the benefit o’ my wisdom, such as it was.
– So you’re ignorin’ what Rhea said?
I’m not ignoring it!
I wasn’t aware during that visit, so I don’t know if I qualified as present, but I had all the Princess’s memories of it. And I actually learned a lot. It seems that physical trauma ain’t really a danger to early pregnancy, unless it’s severe. In my time, we thought it was the most dangerous time for the mother to be active or take a fall. I remember my captain forcin’ me to stay in my bunk far too often and far too much.
But turns out, the worries about too much work or sex causing problems and miscarriages was apparently a lot of bilge. The real causes are medical problems with the pregnancy or the embryo that have nothing to do with what the mother was been doing. It was all just a guilt-inducin’ way to explain the unexplained by blaming it on the victim.
She made it clear that the real time this was a problem was later in pregnancy. She knew fairy knights had a tendency to continue flying and fighting well into it, and she made it clear that trauma and stress do create risk for pregnancy in the second half of the term. We had to absolutely knock it off before then.
When talkin’ about the first months, the goddess lectured instead about alcohol and nutrition, and our need to expose our babies to regular baths of mana, since we don’t live in a high mana environment. And she spent time tryin’ to persuade the Princess to move close to a strong mana spring, such as the Fairy King’s Grove or Grandmother’s pond. It seems Fairy Mother spent time in both places while she was pregnant. But, Rhea admitted that it wasn’t necessary for us. As long as we can circulate all mana types, we can maintain a healthy environment for the girls.
But she’d said somethin’ very important about our first week in this condition. Somethin’ the Princess was ignorin’ at the moment.
– Princess, you ain’t pretendin’ you forgot what she said about the first week, are you? You and I both know better.
It seemed that the goddesses still needed to work another week or so to keep everything right about our pregnancy, due to its artificial nature. Only certain parts of our womb, and none of the rest of our body, had been through the first month of pregnancy, placing the womb into the state just after menses, then accelerating it through the process of preparation, up to the point of attachment. The rest of our body was still catchin’ up. Them hormone things were only now beginnin’ to circulate and put the rest in order. So we did have to take it easy for now.
She had no response, so I continued.
– You know what it means! We can’t go out lookin’ for trouble just yet!
The Princess charged into her room, then pulled up short and frowned. The manekin-like stand where her armor should have stood ready was gone.
I felt her anger flarin’ and mine did too, just a little bit. Obviously they had hid her armor on her, which I was pretty unamused by, as well. These people really needed to start treatin’ her like the boss instead of the ‘young mistress’ or whatever.
A chamber maid paled and stood at attention when the Princess glared in her direction. “Where is it?!”
“M-m-m-my lady?” the poor girl squeaked.
– Turn it down, woman!
She heard me, thank the gods. I felt her composing herself as she pressed her eyes closed and pulled in a steadying breath. She opened them again and asked less forcefully, “Where is my armor?”
“Ah… um, th-they said the Royal Prince had them move it, My Lady. I don’t know where.”
Since the Princess already half-expected that answer, given nobody else currently in Narses Castle outranked her, she didn’t lose her temper. She just spun on a heel and marched back out into the corridor without a word.
Turnin’ up her spiritual vessel full-blast for just a moment in order to put maximum wind behind her fairy sense, she briefly blanketed the whole castle and spotted his location in the ‘war room’ at the other end of this floor.
As she marched that way, double-time, I considered how to reason with her again. But you see, she had all her reasons in mind, and I could see them clearly.
Áne of the Green Tower, even though the Princess had managed to cow her during their last meeting, was a dangerous and unpredictable fairy of extremely ancient age. Based upon what the Princess learned in Tëan Tïr, she was nearly as old as Oberon. Born in the Ancient Fairy age to one of the first Dryads, fathered by Erebos, a surviving crippled Elder who had cultivated himself into something half-way between Elderhood and Fairyhood, she had both age and ancestry on her side against random trespassers.
But complicating that fact, the party had not been trespassing! Áne had, for some reason, pulled them in while they were deliberately avoiding her neighborhood. Diloré didn’t seem to know why.
But Serera had yet to resolve the situation, and nobody else stood a chance of taking on a foe as ancient as this. But the Princess had beaten her before, twice, and now saw herself as the only available countermeasure to Áne of the Green Tower.
How exactly was I supposed to argue with her about it? I could see her point. Those people were in frightful danger and she couldn’t stand it.
The Prince was studyin’ somethin’ on a writin’ case as we entered. He immediately handed it to an aide when he saw us and began circlin’ the table to meet us.
He is a smart man. He already knew what she had come for, before she said a word.
Holding his hands up in a calming gesture, he said, “I’ll have them return it as soon as we finish talking, Ti.”
“You had no right to touch my armor!” she grated under her breath, not hiding her anger about it at all as he drew her off to a private corner of the room.
I didn’t say a thing, ‘cuz I didn’t blame her. She was right.
He nodded. Also keeping his voice down, he replied, “In retrospect, I agree. I won’t do it again.”
“Where is it?!”
– Woman, you coulda found it with your fairy sense, when you looked for yer hubby instead.
She shot back, What happened to calling me ‘Princess’?
– Act like one, and I’ll do it. Reef yer sails already.
Sure I was grumblin’ now, but she needed to cool down, double-time.
The Prince was of the same opinion. He kept a calming tone as he answered, “I have no objection to you performing techniques like what you did yesterday, but do not leave the castle, Ti. You absolutely cannot go there in person.”
– Listen to the man!!
I could feel the annoyance, the anxiety and the black anger at the world threatenin’ to boil over all at once. And the tears of sheer frustration wellin’ up in her eyes. But I wasn’t gonna back down.
– Look at his eyes, woman. He’s terrified you aren’t gonna listen. And he’s right to be.
She hung her head instead, unable to do it.
We have a limit to how long per day we can keep the spiritual vessel expanded beyond the level prescribed by Immortal Mother. So, unless she wanted to accept a time limit of two hours or so, she would have to manage the [Blood Effigy] without Fan Li’s help. And stayin’ active here at the Castle instead of takin’ a nap like she did the previous day would require she maintain a second incarnation in addition to the [Blood Effigy] technique.
Hearing the thought, she answered, I don’t know how much I can accomplish, going out there in [Blood Effigy] form.
– That doesn’t mean you can’t accomplish anythin’. It only means you don’t know.
“Ti, look at me,” Rod requested, his voice still gentle. At some point, he had taken the Princess’s hand, and now he gave it a light squeeze.
She raised her head and looked at him, still with some resentment.
“I honestly apologize about telling them to move your armor. But when Dilorè reported the full situation to me this morning, I couldn’t think of a better way to keep you from flying off without telling anyone.”
– Now see, you done that to him before, you know?
She wasn’t having any of it. “You should have just told me!”
His brow bunched up. “I was… okay, yes, I should have.”
With a glare, she demanded, “Is that your tactic for getting out of trouble? Just immediately admit you were wrong?”
He was caught without a reply for a couple seconds, then he gave a wry smile. “No. Not exactly. But I couldn’t find any right way, so whatever I did was going to be wrong. I just went with the wrong way that gave you the most time to calm down.”
Havin’ no other recourse, the Princess went with the facepalm.
Then she frowned. “What do you mean, when she reported this morning? They got into this situation yesterday!”
“And Dilorè was too cagey about it yesterday. She made it sound like a minor delay they ran into, without clarifying what sort of entity they were dealing with, and didn’t explain that some of our people were apparently captive. I didn’t catch on how serious the situation was until this morning, at which time I began demanding clearer details. That’s when I had her put Lady Serera on, so I could learn more about this enemy.”
“She’s … not necessarily an enemy, Your Highness. She’s actually closer to an ally. In the greater scheme of things at least.”
He frowned, his eyes narrowing. “What greater scheme of things?”
“In the fight against the Demon King and evil in general, she’s on our side. We can’t be treating her as an enemy.”
His mouth quirked sideways, then he admitted, “Lady Serera said the same thing. Now, please tell me that you won’t go carrying our children into danger. You’ll stay put and do what you can from here?”
I said my piece as well.
– Listen to him, Princess
Plainly feelin’ outnumbered, she pressed her lips together and stared back at him, still frustrated. Well, it was understandable.
