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“Well, this puts a different color on things, doesn’t it?” Áda noted, sounding almost frustrated.
“Indeed,” Velerè agreed. “So much for leaving Mother’s mortals to our youngest.”
I looked around, a little confused. Huh? Wait, was that what they got out of it? That she was telling them to protect the mortals of Pendor?
Given their tears, probably not. Mother tailored her parting gift to deliver many messages, and I’m certain each of us received messages for themselves alone. But, Do not neglect your and your sisters’ descendants, the people of Pendor, for they are also my children was a message for all of us. My sisters seemed to have heard it louder than I did.
Velerè pursed her lips when she noticed my bemused reaction. “We won’t replace you, Child. Mother told us long ago that you would be Duchess when she moved on from the Lady Sasara identity. But we will certainly aid in their protection.”
I twisted my lip. “Even after… I mean, you all know now that I’m not the same Tiana.”
“Certainly,” she replied, then she twisted and leaned in slightly, to place her hand on my tummy. “And, of course, Grandfather told us about your babies. We’ve explained it to the rest. One is Mother, and the other is twice our little sister, first as Tiana and then as Mona.”
I tipped my head. “Mona?”
Like the barony?
Or rather, in Ancient Fairy, it would be ‘Great Treasure’. Doubling down on the ‘treasure’ bit, I guess. I’m ‘Charming Treasure’.
By the way, I refuse to tease her about it, but Amana is ‘bosom treasure’, which could be translated, ‘busty treasure’. That’s fairy naming sense for you.
Velerè patted my tummy once more, then sat back up.”That’s what she was planning to name the new baby. Will you use it?”
“And how about ‘Sasara’ for Mother’s new life?” Amana piped up.
“It… I’ll need to discuss it with my husband.”
“Do you already have names in mind?” she wondered.
With a slight tinge of shame, I admitted, “We actually haven’t spoken about it, yet. I guess we need to start, right?”
“I should say so!” Mitozin retorted. “You don’t have that much time left! It’s already the Month of Gathering Fruits!”
I tipped my head. “That still gives me more than three months.”
She shook her head with a smile. “Not anymore, child. Haven’t you noticed yet how well your babies have grown?”
My hand went straight to them, and my eyes grew as I realized it wasn’t just my imagination… My tummy was huge?
“The Great Ancestor had to intervene to protect you and the babies. She caused this little world of yours to slip free of our local time by about six weeks in the process. I can’t pretend to understand how or why, though.”
“Great Ancestor?”
“Of course, she’s referring to me, Child,” came a familiar voice from behind me.
I clumsily turned to face Immortal Mother. She was sitting comfortably among a pile of bodies… or rather, sleeping women, being the various mortals and others who had been nearby when Mother’s spell started up.
The only other conscious members of the group were Kanon, dressed in her characteristic Elder Age gown, and Fan Li, dressed in her simple Huajie court costume. They sat to either side of Immortal Mother, while around them lay everyone else, including Ceria, Chiara, Melione, and even Serera.
The sight of Fan Li caught me a bit by surprise, since I thought Immortal Mother was ‘suppressing’ the other personas again. At least, I hadn’t heard or felt a peep from any of them. But Fan Li is always different, so I guess I should not have been surprised
Noticing my concern for the many unconscious ones, Immortal Mother stated, “They are well, so do not fret. Your fairy mother’s technique disallowed conscious viewing by outsiders, so they slept and saw only dreams inspired by the display.”
She rested her hand on Serera’s head and smiled gently. “Children like this cannot defend themselves against such near-immortal strength techniques. But they should recover in under an hour.”
After smoothing out the fairy knight’s hair, she returned to the subject.
“You’re currently two hundred forty days into your term,” she informed me. “You have forty three days to go.”
Some clumsy mental math told me I was the equivalent of eight Earthly months pregnant, or close to it.
“I… Mother, that makes it like I was…” I was too flustered to work it out.
But of course she read my mind. “You are pretending a human pregnancy term anyhow.”
“But even as a human, when I married, I now would have been…”
She saved me from further struggle by promptly answering . “Roughly ten weeks pregnant when you married, yes.”
I dropped my shoulders and sighed.
In response, Velerè snorted. “Humans who suddenly marry young are always blessed with unusually short first pregnancies.”
She turned to Immortal Mother and requested, “Great Ancestor, perhaps you could explain to our youngest why she suddenly has only six weeks to go?”
“Well, put simply, Child, the backlash from your disrupted proxy harmed your soul. In order to protect your babies, I had to heal it using a higher substantiality than even this world can provide. I untied this world from Huade so I could connect it more firmly to a more Spiritual universe. The only way to safely do so without losing the connection between your two worlds was to absolutely halt the passage of time in one of them. Thus the beginning and end of the six weeks had to be the same moment on Huade.”
I… think I understood? This was different from the ‘compression’ and ‘dilation’ that Little Jia uses, which simply vary the relative time flow between this world and Huade.
Immortal Mother added. “Just like before, I occupied your body for the last six weeks so that your soul could rest. Your body did not require convalescence, you see. I mostly fed, exercised and cultivated it while becoming acquainted with my descendants and seeing to the treatment of your soul.”
My anxieties finally reached saturation. Where to even begin? It was a relief that, in the point of view of everyone on Huade, I had only been absent for hours at most, but everything else had become overwhelming. Never mind how to explain the sudden advancement in my pregnancy term! If I couldn’t use the [Blood Effigy] without risking my babies, I could do nothing from here about the dragon threatening my duchy, nor could I support Diurhimath or my army or anyone else in the wars against the rebels or the demons, nor could I protect my husband or Mireia.
Fan Li, who had remained respectfully silent until now, told me, “Immortal Mother has made a few modifications to the [Blood Effigy] technique, to better protect the main body. You will be able to use it somewhat.”
To which, Immortal mother added, with a dark look toward my other Incarnation, “I forbid using the higher cultivation effigies until your babies are born, Child. No matter what, they expose my grandchildren to too much risk. You use the lower grade ones only.”
Fan Li dropped her head. “My apologies, Immortal Mother.”
It was odd, seeing Fan Li act like a chastised child. I guess the ancient immortal had been pretty upset with her.
“I was ‘alarmed’, not ‘upset'” she answered my thought, then turned to Velerè and instructed, “Child, show me that stone.”
Amana stood and went to the center, where she collected the stone which fell after the spell finished, to bring it to Velerè, who was climbing to her feet in the meantime. Velerè was in full Huldra form, with cow’s hooves instead of human feet, which turns out to be a bit of a hindrance when getting up from the ground.
Immortal Mother accepted the stone and turned it over in her fingers, then stated, “A remnant of the spell remains within, likely because your mother expected one additional sister to view it. I’ll have Kanon create a reproduction which may be viewed again.”
“Thank you, Great Ancestor,” Velerè replied humbly, her usually moving tail flicking only slightly.
Completely disrupting the solemn atmosphere, Moira and Mitozin suddenly caught my arms from behind. “Come on! We’re drying out! Let’s go back in!”
A nereid and a naiad could certainly dry out even in that short time, especially if Mother’s ‘message’ had lasted as long as it seemed, but I didn’t know why they thought I already needed to go in, too. At least, I didn’t understand until I was back to my feet and awkwardly following them back to the water. Pregnancy is a lot easier in the water, after all.
They hauled me in, dismissing their raiments and growing their flukes, which for both were more elaborate than mine. Of course, they made me do the same.
Soon Amana dragged Áda in as well. Amana has no aquatic form, but it turns out she has worked out a way to use her wings in water, like a penguin, even though that’s a weird way to use butterfly wings. I could hear her constantly urging her older sister to try to ‘feel her transformation’ too.
Áda is a Fairborn on the verge of becoming a Lesser Fairy. Possibly, she won’t transform until she reaches full fairyhood, but there’s also a chance she will transform now and be stuck that way until she develops more.
Although it sounds bad, that’s actually a good thing. In transformed form she would develop far faster. The less mortal and more Fae she becomes, the better, so of course Amana was hoping for it. I wondered if it would be wings, or a pelagic transform if she succeeded, or perhaps a terrestrial transform like the lesser fairies who become the deer equivalent of centauresses. That last possibility is rare, although true nymphs are often known to fully transform into deer.
Another rare one is those who do a more aggressive cat or dog girl form. As future Cait Sìth and Cù Sìth, nymphs who fully transform into leopard-sized cats and horse-sized dogs, the lesser fairy part-animal types are easily the least common fae beings out there. I’ve only read about them in books. The lesser fairy versions have human torsos, thighs and upper arms and animal shapes for all the rest. Although their skulls are more human-shaped to accommodate more human-shaped brains, despite animal faces.
Moira grabbed my hand and began dragging me through the water. <What are you spacing out for, Little Tiana? Swim! Swim!>
It evolved into a game of tag, and then into a game of who could catch the most fish, which made me remember Grandmother.
Everyone was awake by the time we returned to the shore. Naturally, a now visibly-pregnant Ceria came to glomp me, which is a bit more awkward for both of us and she was somewhat less energetic for the safety of the babies. She was followed by Melione and then Chiara, who was less frosty than before. I actually got a hug and a kiss on the cheek from her, to my surprise.
Answering my bemused smile, she told me, “These two have been lecturing me about becoming nicer to you.”
I shook my head. “You don’t have to force yourself.”
I forced her into Servanthood, after all.
“They’ve… both been reminding me that I owe you my life, Your Grace. If you hadn’t made me your Servant, the king would have beheaded me for treason by now. Both you and Her Highness gave me a chance to atone by serving you instead.”
She bent in to give me a brief peck on the lips, then leaned back and smiled ruefully. “It’s time for me to accept that, Your Grace. I promise I won’t forget anymore.”
Serera and her nieces Alore and Diddere appeared with an ancient man and a few lesser fairies, all of them a little apprehensive. Serera introduced him to me as Áda’s twin, my brother Álon, and the other three as his wife, a lesser fairy named Dore, and her daughters Nenin and Nere.
We all gathered in the little pool fed by the hot spring and the maids prepared a feast from the fish we caught. During the meal, the subject of protecting Pendor came up again, with Serera, Amana, Dilorè and myself bringing everyone up to speed.
But as the meal progressed, I noticed my sisters seducing the maids and thought to say something, then realized I was probably about six weeks too late. Also too late to say anything about Dilorè’s blatant PDA with Amelia.
I decided it was all inevitable and gave up, letting go of my anxieties as well. I just relaxed with my three Servants as couples variously disappeared into the woods and other natural spaces with their chosen partners.
Six maids do not divide evenly into seven fairy sisters, but it looked like Alore and Diddere would share Pirkitta. As for their Aunt Serera, last I saw, she was with Kanon, although I learned later they headed to the Training Hall, not a tryst. Unless it was for both.
Intimidated for now, Álon and family simply stayed together beside the pool, but I have faith in Mother’s libertine spirit. They’ll fit in soon enough.
As the evening progressed into warm summer night, Little Jia and a few of her spirit beast underlings appeared with bedding for those who remained, being myself, my three, Álon’s family, and themselves. Jia turned pooch and curled herself up against me while the other spirit beasts went back to cat form and joined Álon’s family. Then Kiki and her granddaughters also appeared as cats and wedged themselves in between me and the doggo.
It didn’t occur to me until morning, but I hadn’t felt this much at peace in ages.
