Chapter 006

“Do we tell anyone?” Sulia asked as she finally looked up to see Ivaryn’s reaction.

For his part, Ivaryn looked calm, but she knew him. His calm demeanour was only there to cover the shock that was on the inside. She was sure that his mind was running at least as fast as hers was right now.

“I honestly don’t know,” Ivaryn replied, half shaking he head.

Sulia gave the barest of nods to that, appreciating the honesty.

She had no idea if there was a precedent for having an unborn baby giving off mental strength, no matter how faint. As far as she knew, mental strength had to be cultivated and studied like the tiers of magic.

Did either of their families have an ancestor that had reached incredible heights in mental strength? Could it be possible that their son had inherited something of that ancestor’s bloodline, their talent?

She was fully aware of the many examples of a distant descendant inheriting the talent of a distant ancestor who had reached legendary heights in their achievements in magic or cultivation. But those exceedingly rare cases usually occurred when the child was entering puberty. Not while still in the womb.

Ivaryn shook his head, spotted the tray of food, and picked it up.

“Well, best to think on a full stomach,” he said as he arranged the tray beside her as her belly wasn’t conducive to the easy eating one would normally enjoy while using a lap-tray.

But she just shook her head. “I’m surprisingly good.”

“Good? In what way?” He asked, eyebrow quirked.

“I’m not actually hungry,” she replied with a shake of her head. “It isn’t that I’m not feeling well and don’t have an appetite. Nor am I nauseated. I’m just not hungry. Which is weird when you’re recovering from a serious wound.”

Ivaryn nodded, a concerned look on his face.

“That’s not normal,” he agreed. “Should we get the healer back here for an exam?”

“He has a name you know,” Sulia said with a mock-stern tone.

Ivaryn grinned. “Yes, but he’s got such an ego that I’d rather not remember his name.”

Sulia rolled her eyes at that but didn’t argue the point. Being a Healer was an auspicious profession, as not many people were gifted in both that school of magic and in alchemy. It took many years of studying both fields to get to the point where you were able to be licensed to treat even the most minor of wounds.

Well, anyone could treat a wound, but a Healer could charge for it and expect to get paid handsomely for their work. Theirs was a profession that guaranteed results for any work they did.

Key word: did. If they didn’t think they could help, they’d usually refuse to treat a patient.

“I’m sure that he wasn’t best pleased when he couldn’t explain why I had suddenly gotten better,” Sulia inquired with a grin.

“I have never seen him look so pale,” Ivaryn answered with a smile of his own. “He looked like a ghost when he left. Probably worrying about what he’d say to the Matriarch.”

Sulia smiled and nodded at that. She didn’t envy Healer Reursa his role at this time. Matriarch Tatia was infamous for not accepting half-assed answers to any of her questions. Especially when it came to family.

“You don’t suppose she’ll ask the Guild to send another healer, do you?”

Ivaryn just shook his head. “It takes longer than I care to think about to get proper clearance to come here,” he said. “I’m sure it’ll be fine, though. You’re OK, our baby is OK, and you don’t even have a scar to remember the occasion with.”

He was doing so well up until that last bit, which earned him a punch in the arm.

“What? You want your beautiful wife to have a scarred face?” She asked, more than mildly outraged at the thought.

You could say many things about Ivaryn Kellam, but none of them was “idiot”.

“Of course not, my love,” he said. “But having a slight reminder to be ever vigilant never goes amiss.”

Sulia gave him a flat look as she absently nibbled on a slice of fruit at the end of a thin fork.

They sat in silence for another few minutes before Ivaryn couldn’t handle it anymore.

“So, what do we do?” He asked, giving her belly a significant look.

“Well,” she started, then swallowed her fruit. “Why don’t we get a charm that masks mental strength? That way we won’t have to worry about any of the clan sensing anything.”

He nodded, still looking at her belly. “Then we should probably spend some time in the Library researching this… phenomenon.”

She gave him a cool look for that last bit. “I’m sure we’ll have enough time. The Matriarch won’t send me on another mission this close to our due date, and I’ll have lots of time afterwards to do research.”

“Careful, our son might become a bookworm if you keep him in the Library all the time,” Ivaryn said with a stupid grin.

Sulia just gave him a cheeky smile in return.

Coming from outside of the Clan, he just didn’t understand. The whole purpose of her clan was to find and preserve knowledge. That bred research fanatics, bookworms, and academics. Each and every one of them loved reading.

As much as she loved Ivaryn, she had to admit that he was more of a warrior than a scholar. Sure, he was talented in magic, but he wasn’t one of the few who researched new magic, new arrays and formations, new ways to use and harness mana.

His clan was as close to being Cultivators as anyone ever got on the Waeryn Continent. Academically, she understood the ancient grudge between her homeland and the Zhizun Zhanshi Continent. On a personal note, she really didn’t care. They had their own Way, her home had theirs.

What did it matter, that they called the same thing by different names? Though, if she were to say that out loud while in the wrong company, she’d surely land in hot water.

Maybe it was the perspective of someone who spent their entire life researching and gathering the hidden knowledge of the world. She just wished that her perspective wasn’t such a minority. Even with Ivaryn.

“I’m sure he’ll be the most well-respected scholar of our time,” Sulia replied with a beautiful smile.

Ivaryn groaned. “I’ll make sure that he’s the most talented fighter in the realm!”

Sulia reached out and pinched him, which prompted him to grab her ticklish knee and give it a squeeze. After that, it degenerated into a tickling match, Sulia barely waving the serving tray away in time to save it from getting knocked over.

As it slowly floated to a side table, the young couple got busy.

* * *

Joram paused his conversation with Avi a moment as he sensed his mother’s heartrate increasing. After a moment of listening and paying attention to their link, he blushed furiously and dove right back into conversation with Avi.

He now very much appreciated the fact that people didn’t remember anything from when they were infants…

“So, do you think that we can somehow slip some of the monster meat into her stomach?’ Joram asked Avi, trying very hard to ignore the sensory inputs from his body. Ah, how glad was he that Altaea had trained his ability to concentrate to ridiculous levels?

Extremely glad.

‘Well, there is the possibility of teleporting small amounts of meat directly into her stomach, but that is all sorts of tricky. Also, she’d likely notice,’ Avi replied in a dry tone.

‘Gee, thanks.’

‘You’re welcome,” Avi sent back, a smile on her holographic face.

Over the last half-hour or so, they’d managed to figure out a way for Joram to take direct control of the psicrystal, while Avi walked around as a “person”. It was a weird reversal to how they normally interacted, but it worked. It just took a bit of adjusting to. Eight legs weren’t very intuitive for him.

‘So, got any ideas on how I can start cultivating my body?’

‘Not really,’ she said. ‘Well, not while you’re in the womb anyways. I would guess that you’d have to at least be able to digest solids before we could get started.’

‘Great, at least six months…’ he grumbled. And that was if this society was as anxious to get the baby off the boob as it was on Earth. Well, North America anyways.

Avi just nodded along at that. She wasn’t in too much of a hurry. She had, after all, waited a thousand years for him. What was a few extra months?

‘What we’re really lacking is information,’ Joram grumbled. He really didn’t like being in the dark, not to mention physically unable to go and study something. He wondered how fast he could get walking. Would it be weird if he began to start walking at five or six months? What was the norm here anyways?

Bah!

How inconvenient was it being a baby?!

* * *

The next day found Ivaryn coming back from the market with the requested charm. It was a cute star silver ring with a beautiful cushion-cut moonstone as the centrepiece. It was reported to be able to block the senses of anyone of Tier 5 or lower. And seeing as how even the Matriarch was a Tier 5 Mage, well, he was confident that it would do the trick.

Now, as he got closer to his rooms, he noticed more and more servants quickly dodging around corners or being very studious about cleaning.

With a sinking feeling, he quickened his pace.

* * *

Sulia wasn’t in a great mood.

It had been a few years since she’d last gotten along well with her grandmother, namely after she’d chosen to marry Ivaryn.

When you were the only girl in the family, with three older brothers, you were paid attention to. Overly much.

Since young, she’d felt stifled with the expectations of the older generation. Because her Aneath Clan was a matriarchy, those expectations fell on her, the only daughter of her mother who was the only daughter of the Matriarch. Oh, how she had envied her brothers growing up, not having to worry about the fate of the clan. More-or-less having the freedom to choose who they’d marry.

It was frustrating for a young girl, and even more so when she had become a young woman.

She’d qualified to go on low-level gathering missions when she’d turned sixteen, having proven not only her academic achievements but also her magical prowess.

She had soon proved her worth in the field by being able to retrieve every requested piece of information that she had been assigned to.

That was probably her biggest mistake. In trying to prove how valuable she was to the clan outside of being the Matriarch’s heir, she had cemented her worth to the clan as the ideal future Matriarch.

Now she sat in her bed, her grandmother sitting in Ivaryn’s chair.

Was it going to be a scolding about being careless? Or about the package nearly being lost? Perhaps words about how she should have come home sooner so that the baby wasn’t in danger?

“How are you feeling Sulia?” Her grandmother asked, throwing her for a loop.

“I am well,” she replied, not sure where this was going.

“Healer Reursa reported that you had been healed.” It was not a question.

“Yes…?”

Matriarch Tatia Aneath gave her The Look, the one where it said that she knew her granddaughter was hedging.

“Did Healer Reursa give me a Tier 6 healing pill?” Sulia asked, trying hard to keep the slightly puzzled expression on her face.

“No, he did not,” her grandmother replied. “And that is part of what concerns both Healer Reursa and I.”

Sulia nodded, absently touching her head where she’d been struck.

“Do you have any idea how it happened?” Her grandmother came right out and asked.

Sulia suppressed a wince, then chose her words carefully.

“Ivaryn and I have been discussing this and came to the only logical conclusion: that the most likely source of my good fortune was some hidden Immortal interested in keeping my alive.”

She really didn’t know how close to the answer she and Ivaryn had gotten with that one.

Matriarch Tatia Aneath slowly nodded, mulling it over as she scanned her granddaughter’s face.

Sulia could only lower her head and clasp her hands around her belly.

At length, Tatia leaned back and nodded. “I really am glad that you are well, my granddaughter,” Tatia said with a smile that melted the stern mask that she normally wore, her emerald eyes sparkling.

For a moment, Sulia was brought back to her early years, where her grandmother had had more time to be with her, to spend time with her not as Matriarch and Heir, but more as an actual family.

Sulia took in the sight, noticing just how much she resembled her grandmother. It was almost uncanny. Sure, she looked like her mother, Bezia, but as one would expect a mother and daughter to look alike. Her grandmother, on the other hand, looked like she could be her older sister. Or an older version of herself.

Sure, Tatia was a Tier 5 Mage and as such had a much longer lifespan than she, herself, did as a Tier 3 Mage. But they would both age much more slowly as they gained in power, so the likelihood that people would mistake her grandmother as her sister would just keep getting higher.

If you were being pessimistic, you’d say her grandmother looked about thirty years old. Realistically, she looked a few years younger than that.

Sulia, herself, only looked about twenty years old - if you were also being pessimistic - so it was well within the realm of possibility that people would mistake them as sisters because higher tier mages often had children decades apart.

“I’m getting a little tired grandmother, but would it be OK to have you visit again tomorrow?”

Tatia smiled at her, genuine warmth in the expression. “I’ll see what I can do.” With that said, she stood up gave Sulia a nod then turned and went to the door where she paused in opening it.

“I am very much looking forward to playing with my new grandchild,” she said over her shoulder, then left, closing the door behind her.

Sulia waited ten breaths of time, then let out a long sigh.

She really didn’t like deceiving her grandmother like that, but she was afraid of what might happen if anyone found out that her baby was quite possibly the source of her miraculous healing.

Just as she was about to lay back into her stacked pillows the door opened once again, giving her a minor heart attack before she saw that it was only Ivaryn. Then she fell back onto her pillows and let out another, long, breath.

“My love,” she said, eyes closed. “Please knock.”

He quirked an eyebrow that she didn’t see, but just softly closed the door and made his way to her bedside and sat down in his chair.

Sulia opened her eyes when she felt her husband’s hand on hers.

“Did it go well?”

Ivaryn’s reply was in the form of taking the hand he was holing and sliding a ring onto her third finger, all the while smiling like it was going out of style.

Sulia’s eyes sparkled as she regarded her beloved. He may be a relatively simple man, but he was surely the most genuine that she’d ever met.

* * *

Joram looked up, well towards his mother’s belly button anyway, as he sensed a new magical aura. He extended his senses ever-so-slightly, trying to see what was going on.

After a few moments he determined that it was a simple aura shroud.

Why would she need that? He wondered as he shifted a bit, trying to get a bit more comfortable and found a nice pillow-like area near his elbow.

Ah, much better.

* * *

Sulia’s eyes suddenly widened, her face going a little pale.

“I’ll be right back,” she said as she made a few gestures with her hands, then literally flew out of the room.

“Huh.” Ivaryn shrugged. It was well known that pregnant women had weak bladders, so why was she so weird about it?

That said, what would they do when their son was born? He was sure that there’d be people there after the birth to test his aptitude and bloodline.

No, not to test if he was the father, but to see if he’d inherited anything from their ancestors.

Not that either family had any notable ancestors recorded in their family histories. But it was the traditional thing to do. Who knew when a lingering remnant of a bloodline would activate?

That said, both he and Sulia had much work to do. He knew that they could not seek help from the clan in searching the vast archives of the Library, so the task was simply daunting.

Every day more information came in, and every day hundreds of scribes were tasked to transcribe the data, sort and collate it, then to properly file it away. The data ranged from new cooking techniques and recipes to the birth records and bloodline tests of notable houses and clans. There were also the archives that stored the histories, spells ancient and new, and even the various cultivation techniques of the Zhizun Zhanshi Continent.

Those last ones were the hardest to get. The various clans, sects, and orders over there hoarded them like dragons hoarded, and guarded, their treasures. Those various techniques and skills were so valuable that the Clear Knowledge Clan didn’t trust in their secret teleportation network with them. Instead, each agent had to return in person to deliver their invaluable cargo.

Maybe the Zhizun Zhanshi section was the one they’d need to focus on. Even though the two great continents focussed on completely different methods of harnessing mana, it wasn’t unheard of to find someone on either continent that was more proficient in the others’ way of cultivation.

Not that someone being strong in mental strength was unusual on their Waeryn Continent, it was actually a fairly even distribution amongst all their peoples; it was just rare.

Rare to the point that anyone proficient in mental strength was heavily nurtured and educated.

Not just for the rare ability in and of itself, but because Alchemists needed mental strength to perform their craft. Not only them but also, to a certain extent, artifact refiners, array and formation specialists, and puppet refiners (which included dolls and golems). Sure, the others didn’t rely on mental strength as heavily as alchemists, but if they had a decent level of mental strength, their accomplishments were always higher than their counterparts without mental strength.

All-in-all if their son was gifted in mental strength then their clan’s reputation would soar.

Then a thought occurred to him, and his face fell, shoulders slumping.

Well, their fame would increase if they were a normal clan.

He leaned back in his chair and stared up at the ceiling, running a hand through his black hair.

The Clear Knowledge Clan was a hidden clan. One that operated in the shadows of society. If someone became famous, they were doing something wrong.

He sighed.

Well, at least they had a few alchemists that could at least get their son started in alchemy.

He was then lost in wild fantasies of the future accomplishments of their son, to the point that he just about jumped out of his skin when a finger from behind poked him in the forehead.

“What are you doing?” Sulia asked, a bemused expression on her face.

*Cough*

“Well, I was thinking that if our son was naturally talented in mental strength he might become an amazing alchemist,” he said with a big grin as he watched Sulia carefully arrange herself in bed, lending a hand when needed.

She thought about this for a moment, then shook her head a bit. “I don’t disagree, but I think we’ll have to pass this ring,” she motioned to the one he’d just given her, “to our son when he’s born.”

Ivaryn nodded slowly. “That makes sense, especially if he winds up being the first recorded child to show signs of mental strength while still in the womb.”

From there, they went on to planning which sections of the archives they’d each search. Their planning went long into the night.

* * *

Joram face-palmed.

Was his infant body affecting him somehow?

He’d absorbed a ring of sustenance early on in his training with Altaea, so he’d wasted his mental energy when manifesting [Sustenance] on himself.

This might get to be a problem if his immature body affected his consciousness overly much…

He sighed, then promptly began to hiccup.

Damn. He hated hiccups.

To distract himself from the uncomfortable occurrence he sent his consciousness into his psicrystal, Avi’s body, and had a look around.

Avi then appeared beside him in her slightly translucent form, ready to escort him around.

“Avi,” Joram turned his little body to face her. “Do you know of any other ways to create more psicrystals?”

She pondered a moment before answering. “No, not really. You could get a second one through significant hard work, but no more than that.”

“Do you think I could make a sort of pseudo-psicrystal? Use a bit of the code Altaea used to create your system? Ones that I could add to the network. But I don’t really want to make independent, intelligent, magic items you see.”

Another pause, this time accompanied by a slightly concerned look.

“Yes, that might be possible…” she said at length.

Joram blinked. Had he implied that he would replace Avi there? Had he somehow put his metaphorical foot in his mouth? So, he concentrated for a moment to split his mind using [Schism], then concentrated to manifest a [Holographic Projection] of himself. One part of his mind maintained the image, while the other spoke.

“Avi,” he began. “There is no replacing you,” he said while his holographic self took Avi by the shoulder and then gave her a careful hug.

Now, you’d think that giving a hug was a simple enough thing, but no. Joram developed an even greater appreciation for game developers who had to worry about weird spacing when two rendered characters “touched” each other. He could feel the strain on his second mind as it tried to keep up with preventing two holograms from overlapping each other. Because that would be just plain awkward.

Avi’s face twitched a bit.

“Joram?”

“Yes?”

“If your now-human brain isn’t up to the task, then having even those simplified versions of psicrystals running around would give you a cascading aneurism.”

Blink-blink.

Oh. Well, damn.

*Cough*

Joram dismissed his other mind, causing his holographic self to dissipate then turned the psicrystal – Avi’s body – away slightly in embarrassment.

“That’s good to know,” he said after a rather awkward pause. “I’ll, ah, go check on… things.”

With that said, he cut the connection and looked up at the reddish light and sighed.

*Hiccup*

All gods damn-it!

He missed Avi’s pleased smile.

-

Joram spent a bit more time, mentally, in the womb over the next several days.

He was just too damned embarrassed to more than chat briefly with Avi here and there. Well, “now and then” would be more accurate. He was stuck in a womb after all…

But he did notice something.

It was good that he noticed it, but it wasn’t good news.

He had been right in thinking that his infant body was affecting his conscious self.

Now, most people would say that that was pure logic right there, and in most cases they’d be right. But Joram was a bit different from most cases.

When Altaea had performed the… procedure, he’d changed in more ways than anyone could even guess.

One was that his consciousness was tied to his soul, not his physical brain. But his thoughts weren’t unaffected by his physical body.

For example. Before he’d gotten his class ability to be immune to annoying things like the various poisons in the world, mundane and magical, he could have gotten drunk. That there would affect his consciousness. Simple.

His soul was also what kept track of, and expressed, his gestalt class abilities that he’d been training with Altaea. What did that mean?

Well, there were attributes inherent to the physical body he inhabited, like his elemental resistances when in his planar form. Others, like his class abilities, were useable in his High Elan form or his planar form, affecting both physical bodies equally. Like manifesting or being able to punch through a brick wall and not hurt yourself.

Ah, the joys of having the “shapechanger” sub-type (it was hard not to think in things in a “meta” sense; he was still on the fence about the whole coma-dream theory).

If someone used something like a [True Seeing] spell on him, you’d see both of his forms at the same time, superimposed on each other. Why? Because each form was technically his “true form”.

Yeah, it was weird.

So, back to his developing body. He was noticing that he was having trouble focussing on something, or even thinking of something as simple as not needing to manifest [Sustenance] on himself as he’d long since absorbed a ring of sustenance.

What did this mean?

He really hoped that it wouldn’t get worse… because if it did, he was in trouble. Not just him though, possibly everyone around him.

Having an infant with a psyche as powerful as his was equivalent of giving a toddler a laser pointed to play with the cats with. But that laser pointed was a “painter” for an aerial strike waiting to hit.

*Sig-

NOPE!

He mentally shook his head, not wanting to disturb his mother with actually shaking his physical head, then smiled.

Joram could feel the warmth, love, and protectiveness flowing through their connection. He could vaguely hear his father’s voice as he spoke with his mother. Or would it be more accurate to use “wife” there?

Bah!

It was going to be all sorts of weird when he got out of there- here.

He wondered if the humans here were like the humans back home. Did babies here also have that terrible vison for the first couple months after being born? Vision developed slowly in youth, only developing fully around three to five years of age. Or was their vision better here? Would he have to rely on [Touchsight] to accurately “see” things? Would he need to make a pair of “glasses” enchanted with [Touchsight], then assimilate it?

Well, he’d actually been meaning to do that last one for a while now. Hmmm, maybe he should get on that before the due date…

The Due Date.

He didn’t know why, but the thought of being born still weirded him out. Not the fact that people were born. No.

He was… hesitant because he would remember it.

All. Of. It.

Were people really meant to remember the journey through the birth canal, the crazy pressure, the feeling of your body deforming as it was pushed out?

He was tempted to drop his mother from his network before it happened because of the empathic connection that flowed between them. Did he really want to feel every emotion his mother experienced while giving birth? Did he want her to experience what he was feeling while being born?

This was hell for an introvert.

He couldn’t just keep his consciousness in Avi’s psicrystal while being born because if a baby came out and didn’t make a sound, people panicked… hard.

He was still feeling awkward around Avi, so that also contributed to the uncomfortable feeling.

He felt like doing that Jackie Chan wtf gif. But: no appreciable hair on his little head.

Why was he feeling so weird around Avi anyway? She as a V.I., not an artificial intelligence… Or was she? She’d spent a thousand years by herself, making her own decisions and developing his realm while he was… indisposed.

Had Altaea written a little something into Avi’s code that allowed for that kind of growth/development? Was Avi now fully self-aware? Was she a slave to his whims?

Was he a slave-owner?

All gods damn-it!!

* * *

Sulia gave a start and looked down at her belly with such a look that Ivaryn’s heart nearly skipped a beat.

“Is everything OK?” He asked, getting to his feet beside their bed and then glancing at the door.

“I just don’t know what our boy is thinking,” Sulia replied. “Do babies think in the womb?”

Ivaryn just blinked at her.

Sulia smiled, but still had a furrowed brow. “I just got a series of strong emotions from him, going from embarrassment to extreme discomfort to what felt like… self-loathing.”

Ivaryn looked from his wife to her belly and back. “Should we call the healer?”

Sulia rolled her eyes at her husband’s insistence on “forgetting” Healer Reursa’s name.

“No. He’ll wonder why I’m wearing an aura shroud, then insist on removing it to properly examine the baby,” she explained with a slight shake of her head that caused a small lock of hair to fall out from behind her ear.

Ivaryn hesitated for a moment before sitting down again.

“I’m really not good with all this,” he motioned towards her belly with his hand, “yet.”

Sulia grinned ruefully. “Dear,” she said. “Do you think I’m better off?”

Ivaryn blinked at her, then gave her his cockiest grin. “Of course! You’re the clan’s Little Miss, you can do anything!”

She threw a pillow at him.

* * *

‘Avi?’

‘Yes Joram?’

‘Would you be able to go to one of the Dust Condensers and pick up some of the Dust there?’

Avi regarded “him” for a moment before nodding. ‘I was thinking that I could also use some more resources here,’ she sent. ‘I can also make stops to collect some of the resources you marked for later acquisition.’

‘That would be wonderful Avi, thank you,’ Joram replied, sending a warm smile along with his response.

‘But you’ll also be “stuck” in your body for the time being,’ Avi said. ‘Unless you feel like “coming” along for some fresh air.’

That was true. He wouldn’t be able to hang out in his personal realm while she was gone. On the upside, he’d be able to see the mountains again.

He nearly groaned. To him, it only felt like a couple of days since he’d seen the mountains. For Avi, it had been a thousand years. Had she been able to leave while he was… indisposed? How cooped-up was she? Could she even get cooped-up?

Ah, the existential questions that plagued him these days…

‘That would me most welcome, thank you,’ Joram replied, sending another image of a smile to her.

‘Then I’ll first head to the Dust Condensers,’ Avi sent with a smile.

Ah, that warmed his heart.

He knew that she wasn’t Altaea, but he couldn’t help but smile at the sight of that smiling face.

Avi planeshifted away, then he felt as though he’d walked face-first into a wall and fell back… into his body.

What-the-what?!

Joram looked about, only seeing his red surroundings.

‘Avi? What happened?’

A pause.

‘I do not know,’ she replied at last.

He thought about it for a second, then wanted to face-palm again.

‘Do you suppose that the aura shroud my mother is using affected it somehow?’

‘That could very well be. I am not familiar with the uses of magic in this realm, so anything is possible.’

He had the absurd thought that his mother had just prevented his first “date”.

This time he really did face-palm, nearly poking himself in the eye. He really needed to work on his hand-eye coordination.

‘I’m sorry Avi, I don’t think I’ll be able to go with you until after I’m born,’ he sent with a mental pout.

He got the distinct impression that Avi smiled when she received that.

* * *

Avi was understandably disappointed that Joram couldn’t tag along for the trip but was pleased that he had at least wanted to go out with her. She knew Joram pretty well, not just from her own experiences with him, but also from what Altaea had left with her.

He was an introvert. Sure, she had enjoyed watching him playing around in the mountains, but she also knew that he was just as likely, if not more so, to want to sit down and get lost in a book.

‘Don’t worry, I won’t be long,’ Avi sent with an imager of her smile.

She felt the warmth flow through the network and smiled again. Well, she mentally smiled. Maybe she would ask Joram to hurry along with creating a body for her after all.

Back to work!

She looked around the peak of the mountain she found herself on and then formed the image of where the first condenser was and used [Greater Teleport].

She arrived on the windy peak, the sun shining down to refract through her body, casting glittering light about the area.

Yes, this is the place, she thought as she scuttled towards a giant boulder.

Once there, she simply walked through the “boulder” that hid the first Dust Condenser.

If she had had eyes, she would have blinked.

The depression in the mountain that Altaea had made to house the condensing unit was about ten metres across and about five metres deep. That wasn’t what caused her to pause.

The entire bowl was filled to overflowing with Dust Crystals. Yes, crystals, not just Dust.

The units had been designed to automatically condense any Dust present into crystal once it had reached a certain volume, then continue to create crystals instead of Dust until the unit was cleaned out.

Well, a thousand years of accumulated crystals was sure a sight to behold.

Maybe she wouldn’t have to worry about sharing resources with Joram after all?

* * *

Joram was bored.

He realized that any clairsentient power he wanted to use outside the limits of her body was blocked by the aura shroud that his mother had equipped.

Yes, equipped. He got the distinct feeling that the source of the shroud came from a magic item.

Was his mother worried about being scried upon? Was there some secret that she needed to keep? Or were they in some sort of danger?

This is too frustrating! Joram silently raged.

He knew that he had sent Avi to get resources for them, and that it wasn’t her fault that he couldn’t go along for the ride, but he still felt trapped.

Sure, he was used to staying in one place for extended periods of time, but at least he’d been able to walk around!

Even the first few days here weren’t so bad as he could just switch his perception to that of Avi’s and pretend that he was somewhere else. He could even “walk” there.

*Deep br-

Nope!

He settled on meditation. Nice, calm, relaxing. No deep breaths, but calm. He concentrated a moment then manifested [Adapt Body], hoping that it would do the trick.

Immediately, he felt less constricted, though his environs hadn’t actually changed.

He smiled.

Time to test it.

He took a deep breath, then let it out.

Waited.

Waited some more.

No hiccups!!

Yes, this was going to be a staple until he was born!

Oooh!! Maybe this would make the whole birthing process easier on them both?!

He did a little jig.

* * *

Sulia paused in her reading, a look of confuzzlement on her face.

“Is something the matter, love?” Ivaryn asked, setting his book aside.

Sulia didn’t respond right away, instead she went to poke her belly but suddenly jerked back, shock painted on her face.

Ivaryn didn’t seem to know what to do beyond scooting closer to her, his anxiety plain to see.

“The pressure on my belly suddenly eased, to the point where I was wondering if he had vanished,” Sulia started. “But then he decided to dance on my ribs.”

Ivaryn blinked.

“Ahhh…”

Sulia took his hand in hers and gave it a squeeze.

“We’ve got quite the puzzle on our hands,” she said as she shook her head. “I don’t know what happened, but I felt a bit of mental strength before the pressure eased, and a very pleased feeling from our baby.”

Ivaryn blinked again.

“More reading?” He asked, not looking very hopeful.

“Yes, dear.”

Ivaryn sighed.

* * *

Avi seemed to have found something, as Joram could feel things entering his realm.

A quick mental check later and Joram was almost as happy with what Avi had found as he had been to discover that [Adapt Body] had such an amazing fringe-benefit.

Dust Crystals. Piles, and piles of them.

He wiggled a bit, slipping the umbilical cord away from his head, then smiled as he sensed another pile appear, then a third one.

Oh, this was probably the best thing that had happened since… well, since he hadn’t died-died.

He didn’t know what he’d do with so many Dust Crystals, but he did know that he’d surely need them for future projects. Possibly for use with his future cultivation, but he still needed to research that.

Over the next several hours, Avi deposited more and more raw materials, those weird mana crystals, and magical plants in his realm, surprising him at how fast she was with her errand.

-

Joram passed the next couple of weeks helping Avi organize what she brought back; even going so fast as to add a special storage warehouse to the estates.

Special how?

He’d taken the time to enchant the building with a variation of [Gentle Repose] that kept various ingredients fresh; be they stacks of meat or various herbs, plants, and fruits that he had stored in jade containers.

The overall effect heightened the preservation effects of the jade containers, bottles, and boxes to the point where he figured that the ingredients would stay fresh for thousands of years, if not indefinitely.

Why take the effort to do that? Because he wanted to clear out his storage areas in preparation of being born, and thus being able to explore again… in a few months.

He sighed.

He was aware that a few months, or even a year, wasn’t that long at all. But he was anxious to take up his search for Altaea, learn of this world, and to possibly try to get back to Earth.

Well, Earth was on the low-end of the priority list. He really didn’t know what he’d do once he returned, nevermind the fact that he’d been gone so long… Did time flow differently here? Would he return home to find that it was already the 31st century? Or was it similar to a Narnia experience where it would translate to a few days?

Would his understanding of creation and space help him to navigate the threshold between the universes and, possibly, the space/time continuum?

There was a thought. Would his understanding of space lead to an understanding of time? If so, what would that do for him? Would he be able to create a wormhole that not only joined this universe to his own, but also allowed him to drop the other end to a specific point in space/time?

Bah!

He didn’t know how long he had to figure that out, so he just shoved it aside for now as there was a more pressing issue at hand.

Namely, the womb.

If his mother had needed an aura shroud for some reason, then he should probably do the same. He didn’t know why she had done so, but he trusted that it was probably important in some way.

So he concentrated for a moment…

* * *

Sulia groaned a bit, her hands going to her belly.

Ivaryn dropped his book and leapt to the bed, putting a hand on her forehead. “Is he coming?”

She took a deep breath, then another. “I think so,” she said. “The contractions have been coming closer together… and getting stronger.”

“I’ll get the healer!” Ivaryn practically jumped up again before Sulia grabbed his hand in a death-grip and hauled him back.

“You’re forgetting the bell,” she said in that sweet tone that implied you’d die if you made another mistake.

Ivaryn breathed through the pain of a nearly crushed hand, reached over with his free one, and rang the bell at the bedside that they hadn’t used in recent memory.

Within moments, a servant entered and bowed.

Ivaryn cleared this throat, then spoke. “Please bring the healer; I believe the baby is coming forthwith.”

The woman’s eyes shone for a moment before she bowed again and practically teleported out of the room in her haste.

* * *

“Reporting to Matriarch,” the servant woman said as she ran into the Matriarch’s personal study and bowed while skidding to a stop.

Matriarch Tatia looked up and waved her hand impatiently.

“The Young Mistress is in labour.”

Tatia’s eyes shone as she smiled. “Have you informed Healer Reursa and the Midwife?”

“I sent servants to inform them while on the way to you.”

“Well done,” Matriarch Tatia said with a nod as she stood up and strode to the door. “Be sure to arrange for extra seating and some food.”

With that said, Matriarch Tatia Aneath of Clan Clear Knowledge blew past the servant fast enough to set her robes fluttering.

* * *

“Maybe now I’ll get to the bottom of this,” Healer Marowz Reursa murmured to himself as he strode down the halls leading to their rooms.

He had been hounded this past month to get to the bottom of the mystery of Sulia Aneath’s mysterious recovery.

Not only had she stabilized shortly after arriving at the Clan Home, but she had recovered perfectly. He had been sure that she’d lose the baby given her extensive head injury, nevermind the shock to her system.

But not only had the baby survived, but it had thrived.

He was surely glad that the baby had lived. But it was an enigma wrapped in mystery. Everything that he’d been taught and everything that he’d learned through long experience told him that this was no mere miracle. There was someone behind the recovery and he was dying to know who.

From what he knew of medicinal pills, it would take at least a Tier 5, high-grade medicinal pill to let her recover so well, as save the baby. In all likelihood it had been a Tier 6 medicinal pill that had done the work, as she had recovered without the faintest trace of a scar.

The most unusual part was that he’d felt the faintest whisps of mental strength coming from her while she was recovering.

From what he knew, she wasn’t gifted with mental strength, nor was that annoying husband of hers.

So, what had caused it?

By the time he’d come back to try and figure it out, the young Mistress had acquired an aura shroud, preventing him from using his mental strength from investigating the issue further. No amount of persuasion on his part had convinced the stubborn young woman to remove the aura shroud while he did his check-ups.

With a nod and a grin, he stopped in front of their door and knocked.

Well, at least he’d get a chance to at least investigate the baby when it arrived.

* * *

It was definitely getting tight in there.

Joram squirmed a bit, though he was doing relatively OK with [Adapt Body] going. He was glad that he’d used [Barred Mind] as well, as that would help keep him looking “normal”. He’d worked on an augment for it that allowed for him to just seem like an ordinary person. It didn’t automatically cause divinations to fail; they would just come back with the parameters that he had set.

In this case: mundane baby.

He listened as more voices outside of his little home started talking. He heard the Matriarch, as well as the healer guy that liked to poke and prod at him. He was also pretty sure that the midwife was there too. She was much gentler than that healer guy when she did her thing.

He gazed up at the red dome of light that was his mother’s belly and wondered how long it would take.

He’d heard that some people took a couple of days to birth, while others only took a matter of hours.

Then it stuck him: he was “star gazing”.

Oh, shit.

He then began to wiggle.

* * *

“Young Mistress,” the midwife began. “Do you know if the baby has managed to roll over yet?”

Sulia paused in thought. It wasn’t easy, as the contractions were getting intense. “I don’t know. He hasn’t moved much in the past few days.”

Midwife Ulanan nodded, a serious look on her face. “I will have to try to roll the baby over before you can progress further.”

Sulia nodded, the Matriarch nodded, and even Healer Reursa nodded. It was well known that babies who stared at the sky, as it were, made childbirth difficult to the point where it wasn’t unusual to lose not only the baby, but the mother as well.

Sulia watched as Midwife Ulanan began to massage her belly between contractions. She was glad that Healer Reursa was assigned a corner of the room, away from direct view. The female servants were, more-or-less, standing in his line of sight anyway, doing their part to protect the modesty of the Young Mistress.

Only Matriarch Tatia and Midwife Ulanan were by her bed, Ivaryn having been banished once the Matriarch had arrived.

For some reason that had bothered her a bit. He was, after all, the father of their child. But millennia-old traditions demanded that none save women and healers be present during childbirth.

But there was a silly tradition in her clan that stated that it was unlucky for a man to be present during labour and childbirth. She guessed that it originated with the desire for female progeny and having a “yang” influence there was considered “unlucky”.

She sighed, then her breath caught as another contraction started; this one more powerful than the last ones.

“Breath, let your body do the work. Don’t force it,” Midwife Ulanan said in a soothing voice. “I feel the baby turning. You’ve got this.”

Sulia smiled.

* * *

His body might be able to adapt to the changing pressure of the contractions, but it was still wildly uncomfortable.

Then there were the prodding hands. Based on the size of the hands, and how adept they were, he was pretty sure that it was the midwife. It was actually a relief to get help rolling over as he could then concentrate on keeping the umbilical cord away from his neck.

Problem two with stargazers. If they rolled over as they were being born, there was a good chance that the umbilical cord could wrap around the baby in an unfortunate way.

Had he spent the last month in the womb to just get lynched on the way out? Nope.

He took a moment to activate [Touchsight] again so that he could “see” who was around when he came out.

He did, after all, want to be able to get a good look at his family.

Was Avi not back yet?

* * *

- Seven hours later -

Sulia was exhausted. She was tempted to take an energy-renewing medicinal pill but was fairly sure that she’d not be able to keep it down. Even the small sips of water the midwife had been giving her were hard to swallow.

She had transitioned to laying on her side while the contractions came and went. She was very glad for the extra pillows that she could grab and squeeze as she rode out the pain.

She really missed Ivaryn right then, and just about burst into tears.

Sulia squeezed her eyes closed and cleared her mind. She needed to focus.

* * *

Avi looked at the spent seam of that ruby-coloured magical crystal and felt a sense of accomplishment. It had taken her a few days to excavate the entire seam but had also provided several tonnes of the stuff.

She knew that both Joram and Altaea had been wary of the stuff, but she felt that it would be a tremendous source of energy for future endeavours and projects.

She had watched as Joram had worked on his pseudo-psicrystals and was glad that their enchantments didn’t need an external power source to function. But what about her future body?

She didn’t want to be the size of a psicrystal, nor only three apples tall, or even the size of a cat. No, she wanted to be like Altaea; tall, majestic, heroic looking.

Did that seem unreasonable? A bit. She knew that it would take him years of experimentation and work to get even a reasonable body working for her.

From what information Altaea had left her, Joram had only made the most basic of golems in the past. He hadn’t even kept them around, instead choosing to recycle them and then work on a new version.

She let out a mental sigh, then remembered that his due date was coming up.

Avi looked around one last time the [Planeshift]ed back to his realm.

* * *

‘Avi!” Joram sent as he sensed her return.

‘Is it time?’ Avi inquired in her usual tone: calm.

‘Yes, it’s been hours! I’m getting exhausted here,’ he sent back tiredly. ‘I may need to you manifest [Touchsight] on me before I am out of the womb. It’s just getting too tiring keeping it up.’

He felt a mental affirmation and sighed in relief. She was back.

* * *

- Thirteen hours -

Matriarch Tatia Aneath sat in her chair beside the bed as she watched the midwife help Sulia walk around a bit to help her from cramping up on the bed.

She was disappointed that her daughter, Sulia’s mother, wasn’t able to be there as well. But duty was important, and her mission was more important than most. If what they’d found was what they thought it was, then it would be the find of the century.

No, it would be the crowning achievement of their Clan.

She prayed that Bezia and her team would come out of it safely.

* * *

‘OK, it feels like she’s laying down again.’

‘Are you sure about this?’ Avi asked, her holographic eyebrows raised.

‘Well, I’m fairly sure,’ he sent. “Sixty percent sure,’ he amended.

It wasn’t the most ridiculous thought he’d ever had. And based on his knowledge of biology, physics, and the power he was thinking about using… Well, he was pretty sure it’d be OK.

Avi just looked at him. They both knew that he could heal Sulia through the network if anything went horribly wrong… But who wanted to risk it? Not that it was a risk, per se, by who knew how things really worked in this universe?

‘OK, only if I sense that she’d too tired to go on,’ Joram conceded.

‘Yes.’

* * *

Avi wasn’t sure what to think of his proposition.

She had Altaea’s vast wealth of knowledge and information as well as many personal experiences that she thought might come in handy for Joram while they were separated.

One of them had been her own childbirth experiences.

Altaea was over a thousand years old by the time she had met Joram. She’d been married early on in life and had had her own family and had watched them grow and have families of their own. So on and so forth.

What had given Avi pause was that Altaea hadn’t ever bothered with any form of pain medication, claiming that having limbs torn off and such was much more painful than childbirth.

Avi thought that it was just good childbearing hips that had made it easier for her, as even her first birth had only taken a few hours from start to finish.

Not once had Altaea thought of doing what Joram had thought of.

Was it just that Altaea was tougher than hell, or that it was simply the difference in thinking between a woman and a man?

She really didn’t know.

Sure, she’d been programmed by a woman, but she was still just a construct without a biological body. How would she know what was best, even with the massive banks of knowledge passed on to her?

From their conversations, Joram had let her know that many women from his home opted to take extreme pain medication to get through the birthing process. Some even chose to go through major surgery to avoid any complications or pain down there.

That had been an eye-opener. Learning about cesarian sections had really brought home to her how hard life without magic must have been for his people. Every injury having to, more-or-less, heal naturally. Having to develop surgical techniques and advanced medicines to help keep people alive, where a simple potion would have done the same for someone from Altaea’s world.

Even here, it seemed as though the people had access to at least some healing magics.

She just hoped that they wouldn’t be necessary.

* * *

- Seventeen hours -

Matriarch Tatia Aneath watched as Midwife Ulanan gave Sulia a tincture to help her relax, then another to ease the contractions.

It had been a long day, the moons were out and shining, and Sulia needed to rest up before she would start again later next the morning.

Midwife Ulanan came over and motioned for all of them to leave, except for one servant who would be able to let anyone know if something came up in the night.

As they exited the room, Ivaryn stood up from where he’d been sitting across the hall and hurried over.

“What new?!” He asked, voice low so as not to disturb Sulia, just in case.

“She needs rest right now,” Midwife Ulanan said. “I have given her something to ease her contractions to allow her to sleep for a time.”

“Can I see her?” He asked, his face a mask of calm, but his voice ever-so-slightly betraying his anxiety.

“No,” the Matriarch of the Clear Knowledge Clan spoke. “Go sleep in a guest room so you can be ready to help Sulia after the baby comes,” she finished, not unkindly.

Ivaryn nodded, then followed a servant to the room that had been prepared for him just in case of such an eventuality.

Midwife Ulanan then turned to Matriarch Aneath and gave a significant glance at the blue-gemmed bracelet she wore.

With a nod, the Matriarch stepped across the hall to where Ivaryn had been sitting and motioned the Midwife to sit with her. It was only then that she touched the blue gems that created a shimmering bubble of silence around them.

“Shael,” Tatia spoke. “Be honest.”

Shael Ulanan did not hesitate. “This is the oddest birth I have ever attended.”

Tatia nodded. “I, too, have been wondering about it.”

“She is just too… calm,” Shael started. “There is normally at least some anxiety with one’s first labour, not to mention the other stressed on the body.”

Tatia nodded along. She well remembered her several birth experiences, and Sulia’s seemed… easy, by comparison.

“I have been checking her heartrate and blood pressure, but aside from a minor increase that one would expect in someone taking an easy stroll, they haven’t changed much.”

Tatia blinked. If she remembered correctly, her own heart had felt like it would burst through her chest as she gave birth.

“I this some auspicious sign?”

Shael shook her head. “I just know babies and birth. But I do know that, aside from the contractions, she is likely having the most pleasant time I’ve seen anyone have going through labour.”

Tatia looked back to the bedroom door and sighed.

Some people just had all the luck.

* * *

‘I’ve decided,’ Joram sent.

‘When will you do it?’

‘When the medicine wears off and the contractions start again,’ he sent back, nodding to himself.

It hadn’t been easy on his mother, and he’d been sending little bits of healing her way to keep her healthy and good, and all that.

But he too was tired and needed a rest. Even with his body adapting to the changes in the womb, he felt wrung-out. He needed to rest and restore his psychic reserves.

‘Rest well, then,” Avi sent with a mental smile.

‘Thank you.’

‘You’re welcome.’

‘… And Avi?’

‘Yes, Joram?’

‘Thanks for being here.’

* * *

- Twenty-two hours –

“Gah,” Sulia uttered as she was rudely awoken by the renewed contractions.

Sulia looked around after, what felt like, as short nap. But if the sun coming through the window wasn’t lying, then she’d been asleep for at least a few hours.

Then she blinked. She felt like she’d had a full-nights’ rest. Her head was clear, her body aches weren’t there. The only thing that told her that he was still in labour was the rather insistent contractions that had started up again.

She noticed a servant slip out the door for before another one came in, looking fresh. She wondered what she looked like at this point?

Not that it really mattered. Ivaryn wouldn’t be allowed in until after Joram was-

What?

Sulia paused, a little bit stunned.

She and Ivaryn had spoken of names for the baby but hadn’t decided on one yet. And none of them had included that name.

They both knew that they had a good hundred days before the naming ceremony, so they hadn’t really rushed to choose a name just yet.

But where had that name come from?

It didn’t really sound like something they’d pick; so why had it come to mind?

Her thoughts were interrupted by another, insistent, contraction.

A moment later, the door opened once again, admitting the midwife and healer, as well as another several servants who caried in fresh blankets, robes, and towels. A moment later, several more came in with a tub and an artifact in the shape of a teakettle, steam rising from its mouth.

Well, looks like they think Joram will arrive shortly, she thought as she watched the servant fill the tub with the seemingly bottomless teakettle.

She wasn’t disappointed.

The next contraction came as Healer Reursa got to his corner and Midwife Ulanan shifted the sheets aside to check her dilation again.

Then the next contraction came and next thing she knew, Midwife Ulanan was catching a baby as it flew into her arms.

Everyone blinked. Then blinked again as they heard a baby wailing.