Dene woke up to the sounds of a loud argument. Her whole body was weak and she could barely lift her arms. It was like there were weights strapped to her body.

She knew it was an aftereffect of the blood magic, but she didn't expect that it would make her feel so… vulnerable. Even more so when she had previously been slaughtering opponents much stronger than her.

Her weakened body would recover with time, albeit slowly. But after the hit to her lifespan, she would never be able to cultivate again, remaining forever stuck at her current power. Not a great thought to wake up to.

She lied in a soft mattress covered in white sheets. Too soft for her taste, but she couldn’t complain given the circumstances. The room was small, fitting only the single-bed she was in and a nightstand.

A single lightstone was placed in the center of each of the cut stone walls, save for the one to her right where a solid wood door was located. The argument was coming from the other side.

“How can you of all people suggest this?” She immediately recognized the voice as belonging to Jonathan.

“It’s for her own good.” The other man spoke. It sounded familiar, but she couldn't determine who did it belonged to.

“Williard said he was acting for my own good when he tried to kill her, and now you want to kill our baby.”

This brought up a series of questions to her mind. Jonathan knew she was pregnant? And this other man wanted to kill the baby? And how could such a thing be for her own good?

“Jonathan, I’m just stating the facts. Given time to grow, it could very well kill her, and if you keep waiting for her to wake up, then it might be too late.”

There was a moment of silence before Jonathan spoke, “we’ll talk about this later.”

The door then opened and in came Jonathan, dark circles under his eyes while both his hair and beard were an unruly mess. Under an arm, he had a rolled-up towel, while the other carried a water bucket.

He barely took a step before laying his eyes on Dene. Frozen for a second, Jonathan’s next moves were to drop everything and practically jump at her.

Neither one spoke, rather choosing to enjoy the silence and the warmth of one another.

“You’re awake, good,” the silence didn’t last long. Following behind Jonathan came in a middle-aged man dressed in the traditional white robes of the Holy Flame. Father Anderson. “We need to talk.”

“She’s been in a coma for a week.”

“I know, but time won’t wait.”

He was about to argue back when Dene brought a hand to his shoulder, “I’m fine.”

“Good. Now, do you want to say it or should I?”

Jonathan took a deep breath before asking, “why didn’t you tell me you were pregnant?”

Anderson shook his head in frustration as if wanting him to hurry.

“I figured we had more immediate things to worry about. I was going to tell you, I swear.”

Jonathan just nodded. Father Anderson cleared his throat and Jonathan glared at him. Regardless, he asked, “How did you manage to cast so many powerful spells so quickly?”

‘Is that what it was about?’ Dene thought. It made sense that he would have questions after witnessing what she did, but what did this have to do with their baby?

“It was a technique, blood magic,” she decided to be completely honest. “I learned it inside the Secret Realm. Rather than mana, it works by burning the caster’s lifespan.” Jonathan had a somber look but didn’t seem surprised about the last part. “You already knew.”

He nodded.

“What’s going on?”

Father Anderson was the one to answer. “When Jonathan brought you here I checked your body for injuries. That’s how we found about your pregnancy, and also the consequences of this blood magic. Your body has aged by almost a hundred years.”

Dene raised an eyebrow. That was more than she expected. As a Crusader, she could have lived to around 200 years old and now this number had been cut in half. Having it put into perspective was a bit startling.

Regardless, she would still do it again. Losing half her lifespan was better than losing all of it.

“Well, the important thing is that we’re safe now.” She tried to look on the bright side.

“That’s not all. What you did hasn’t affected your body only,” he let the full weight of his words sink in. “It… it has also affected the fetus.”

Dene trembled. Was she no longer pregnant? No, just now they had been arguing about aborting her pregnancy. “What happened?”

“Just as this blood magic has drained your life, the fetus is now doing the same, but at a slower pace. Regardless, if allowed to continue it could kill you.”

“You don’t know that,” Jonathan argued in. “It could slow down, you said it yourself.”

“And I also said that it could as well speed up. We don’t know what we’re dealing with here.”

“Well, now we can find out.” Taking hold of her hand, Jonathan asked, “Dene, how does it work?”

The question didn’t register in her mind. The baby was killing her? Why? How?

“Dene… Dene!” Jonathan called out, bringing her back from her questions. “We need to know, how does blood magic work?”

“I… don’t know.” In the inner grounds of the Secret Realm, one could learn various spells as well as techniques. Anyone could learn the spells depending on their affinities. But the techniques were different.

Rather than learning blood magic, it was like Dene always knew how to do it, but only then did she realize it. Expecting her to know how it worked because she could do it, was like expecting her to know how her eyes worked because she could see, and she told them so.

Jonathan hanged his head in defeat. “So, what now?”

“Now it’s time for you to make a decision,” Anderson answered.

“No,” Dene spoke immediately. “This is mine and Jonathan’s child, and I’m keeping it.”

“I understand this is a hard thing to consider, but you should at least think about it.”

“There’s nothing to think about. Will I be able to have another child after this one?” It was a rhetorical question. He said it himself, her body had aged by almost a hundred years, too old to have another child as a Crusader.

Maybe if she could become a Paladin, but again, her body was too old for that.

No matter how much he tried, her decision was taken. As such, he decided to leave and let the two have some time alone.

Jonathan recounted what happened after she blacked out. Back in the castle he immediately carried her to the gale eagle’s back. No one tried to stop him after the mayhem she caused.

The hard part was controlling the magical beast, so agitated that it was. It flew aimlessly for a quarter of an hour until it finally started listening. Dene was glad she was unconscious for that part. Flying was already taxing enough. Flying on an agitated beast while pregnant would be hell.

Riding the gale eagle, he could quickly have taken them both to the Highlands. But he was too worried about her, so he chose to go to the only person who would certainly help. And that’s how they ended up here.

Unfortunately, keeping such a beast hidden would be close to impossible. So he abandoned it one league to the south and… appropriated a horse for the rest of the travel. Which also meant they were back at square one.

The next day she could already stand up and walk. Soon they would be able to get back on the road.

“We won’t,” Jonathan spoke after she informed him that. “I’ve been thinking… Williard was right. As long as we’re together, my father will never stop hunting us. If I had listened before, maybe you wouldn’t have needed to sacrifice yourself.”

“You couldn’t have known that.”

“But I do now,” he was trying hard to hold back his tears. “I’ll go back to my parents.”

“So you’re leaving me?”

“I can’t let you go through this anymore, and now we’re gonna have a child. I spoke to Father Anderson and he agreed to take care of you both for now.”

Dene felt a pain in her heart. Just when she thought things couldn’t get any worse. “So this is it?”

Jonathan shook his head, “there’s one more thing.” He gently took her in his arms and carried her through the door. The room was in the basement of the temple Father Anderson was in charge of.

He carried her up the stairs towards the central part of the building, where the Flame was located.

The temple able to house two hundred people was empty, save for Father Anderson standing at the altar with a book in hand. The doors were all shut while the afternoon sun shone through the stained glass windows.

Two steps from the priest, Jonathan finally stopped and settled her down. Looking deep in her eyes he spoke, “Dene, you’re the best thing that has ever happened to me. No matter how far we are from one another, I want you to know that I’ll always love you. Dene, will you marry me?”

She didn’t know what to say. No, she knew but was too elated to speak. Nodding and in tears, she finally managed to release a, “yes.”

Father Anderson went over the formalities.

She didn’t follow the Holy Flame, so the brief ceremony held no meaning to her. But it did for Jonathan, and having him confirm how much she meant to him made it special. She just wished it could have happened under better circumstances.

In the end, the priest opened the book, revealing it to be a registry with the names of all the brides and grooms who had been married there. The page was filled, save for an empty line by the end.

Father Anderson handed her a quill so she could sign her name followed by Jonathan. He then closed the book and declared, “you now may kiss.”

They enjoyed the rest of the day together, knowing it would soon be over.

The following day, the three talked about what would happen next. They all agreed that even after Jonathan handed himself, she would still be in danger after what happened in Grenfell. As long as she remained in the Great Plains she would be discovered sooner or later.

Going to the Highlands now was out of the question, which meant that Somerford was the only option left. And there may be someone there who could help.

Back in Alistown, before leaving they had met with Jonathan’s friends Hagen and Athalia.

Hagen’s father was an Earl, and after he died twelve years ago the title passed to him. Or it would have if he weren’t a minor at the time. Therefore his uncle became his regent which would last until the day he graduated from Phoenix academy this year.

Jonathan handed Dene the pouch with all of their coins along with a sealed letter addressed to Hagen. She already knew its contents, where he asked Hagen to take care of her and their child as a personal favor to the next duke Olsen.

He would be graduating after the next King’s tourney this summer. When that happened, Father Anderson agreed to escort her to Rochdale, where Hagen’s House was located.

And so, a day after marrying, they parted.

A week later the news reached Father Anderson. After almost three months on the run, Jonathan had finally been found.

Dene tried to keep her mind on her recovery. Everyday Father Anderson would check on the fetus, that had been gradually slowing down in its draining. At this rate, he believed she would still have thirty to forty years left.

After a month, she was back in fighting shape and after the tourney would leave to Rochdale. Or at least that was Jonathan’s plan.

----------

“You see, after what happened in Grenfell, I didn’t want to risk putting myself at another noble’s mercy.” His mother changed the candles for the second time since she began telling her story. Lightstones were too expensive for them.

When done she sat back in her chair facing him. “So instead, once I was well enough to travel, I grabbed my things and slipped away in the dead of night. As when I was on the run with your father, I kept to the countryside, avoiding any major roads. It was no longer winter, which made it much easier to travel. After six weeks, I was close to Rochdale.

“I didn’t want to go there, but I also didn’t want to be far, in case I had no other option. So, I looked for the smallest, most backwards place I could around it, and that’s how I ended up in Greenflower.”

Dene finally concluded her story. It had felt like forever when in reality had just been a few hours.

His mother had gone through so much, each new happening made him want to know more.

You were a princess? What is the Secret Realm? Was my father really so famous?

All those questions lost importance in the face of the last one, “you’re going to die?”

“We’re all going to die, my time is just coming sooner than expected.”

“But-,” he wanted to argue but she cut him off.

“Look, I know you’ve got a lot of questions, and I promise to answer them another day. But that was not why I told you this story. I did it so you could realize one thing: the world is a harsh place. Some have it better than others. That’s not the case for us. Both our social class and our skin color puts us in a disadvantage.”

She cupped his cheeks in her hands, “that’s why I’m so harsh with your training. We need to be capable of standing up for ourselves. Understand?”

John nodded.

“Good,” she showed a rare, gentle smile and kissed his forehead. “Now get some sleep. If you do well tomorrow then I’ll tell you more.” With that she stood up, blew all of the candles save for one, and left, bringing the chair along.

Left alone in the room, John’s mind was going at a hundred per hour. He had realized it from the first moment how medieval this new world was, but only after her story did the meaning of it truly sink in.

Under the shirt, he rubbed his shoulder where Tom’s knife had pierced him. Only a scar remained there. Would the man have tried that if he was as strong as his mother? Of course not. Strength is always the greatest of the deterrents.

She is and isn’t his mother, but it doesn’t matter. John swore to himself he would give all of himself to cultivate. Taking care of Dene was his end, and getting stronger was the means.