Inside Mandy’s apartment, Wolf paced outside her bedroom. He yearned to enter, but Mandy wouldn’t allow it. Even the midwife respectfully suggested child labor was a feminine affair in which men shouldn’t take part.

Wolf disagreed. What if his baby had pointy ears? What if they realize we have elven blood? They can’t stop me from leaving, but fighting my way through with a newborn is a different matter…

To be on the safe side, Wolf prepared two Reforge Minds. In preparation, he surprised everyone by choosing the best midwife, with no magical capability and no assistants. He argued that in case of emergency, he was ready, right outside the door, and that he could outperform most Priests.

Wealthy people paid Priests to be present when their first child was born while Marquesses summoned abbots. For Wolf, that would prove troublesome. He wasn’t positive he could rewrite abbot Soriana’s memories. He didn’t even wish to chance it with regular Priests.

While he paced, Anna observed from the side. She said nothing, but deep inside she burned with jealousy, believing Wolf worried about Mandy. Wolf didn’t worry about Mandy. She was a Seventh Order Sword-Sage. Unless someone stabbed her through the head and blocked him for a breath, he could bring her back from the brink of death.

“Wah Wah!”

A newborn’s cry entered Wolf’s ears. Before the baby wailed the second time, Wolf ripped off the door and stored it in his Ring of Holding.

He rushed to the bed in long strides while time crawled around him. Mandy turned to look towards the door, her legs still spread. Fortunately, a sheet covered them. Wolf examined her with a glance, confirming her vitals were in order, more or less.

He didn’t examine her first because he worried about her more, but because the middle-aged midwife blocked the line of sight to his child. The woman slowly turned, her eyes wide with shock. Even though Wolf refrained from smashing the door against random furniture and acted as gently as possible, ripping it out of the frame still caused a significant disturbance.

“Wah!”

Human ears! The rock pressing against Wolf’s chest disappeared. Then he saw the impressively long thing dangling between the baby’s legs. He grinned even wider. It’s a boy! “It’s a boy!”

The midwife almost suffered a heart attack when the giant roared three paces away from her.

“Quiet,” she hissed. “You’ll scare the baby.”

Then, after seeing Wolf shy back, the woman continued with more confidence. “And that’s the umbilical cord. Congratulations, Lord Marquess, you are now a proud father of a perfectly healthy girl.”

“Wah Wah!”

“Now, I need space to clean her. She’s hungry, and she needs her mother. Lord Marquess,” the midwife added as an afterthought, and Wolf obediently moved away.

He grinned, watching like a hawk while the nurse cleaned his daughter. Wolf’s heart shook, and his throat clenched.

“I’m glad you’re happy.” Mandy laughed and wiped her sweat when she saw Wolf’s tears of joy.

Wolf went mad with delight. He sobbed. Unable to touch his baby, he hugged and kissed Mandy.

“Lord!” the midwife hissed yet again. “Madam has just gone through labor!”

Oh, fuck off. Wolf backed away from Mandy, focusing on the room. It overflowed with green specks, the baby gushed life into its surroundings like a geyser. The verdant color of grass crashed about in thick waves. I can’t use my True Name. What if I take our baby’s life-force by accident?

Instead, Wolf cast Regeneration, healing Mandy completely. He was about to hug and kiss her again, but his baby cut in line and latched onto Mandy’s nipple.

Wolf was stumped. He couldn’t hug the baby, nor Mandy.

“We’re naming her Sky, right? Sky Hillman?” he asked Mandy with an almost cute and fearful face.

“Yes. We agreed you get to name the baby.” Mandy usually agreed to anything to make Wolf happy. “It’s a nice name. Unusual.”

“Yeah,” Wolf said with a stupid expression, then recalled the midwife existed. He turned towards her.

“Thank you, madam.” He moved to shake her hand, but the woman was washing them in a basin of warm water. “If there’s anything I can ever help you with, please let me know.”

Given the circumstances, anyone could assist Mandy’s labor. Given the circumstances, Wolf couldn’t realize something as basic.

“Thank you, my Lord.” The midwife curtsied, thrilled. Having a True-Namer Marquess say he would do her a favor was a blessing.

“My Lord, you may leave. There’s nothing you can do here.”

“Yes. Yes, you are right.” Wolf nodded, still shifting from one foot to another.

He looked at the energetic little thing, sucking on Mandy’s breast and grinned, thinking how he’s going to watch over her always. Right then, inside Wolf’s Mind Palace, a closed door opened. The third Mental Aspect walked out of Wolf’s third Mind Hall. He had something he would protect with his life. He understood his father’s feelings, and why Archibald did all the stupid things he did.

Wolf dashed out of the room, ran past Anna, whom he didn’t notice, and dashed into the Mage academy’s main square.

“I have a daughter!” He howled, infusing his voice with Internal Energy and Soul Force.

People around Wolf fainted dead away, while his cry rattled the minds of those standing further.

Headmaster Smith measured the power of that shout in an instant. His soul’s more powerful than mine? He just turned nineteen… In ten years he will grow stronger than that withered mummy they keep alive in Highseat.

As the sound wave spread, Soul Force infused into it dissipated, only allowing it to carry further. Within moments, the entire Silver City knew that Lord of Death had a daughter.

***

“A gu gu gu.” Wolf wiggled his calloused index finger before Sky’s face. The baby girl stared at the huge object shoved in front of her nose, then whacked it.

“A gu gu gu.” Wolf never grew tired of it. Two weeks have passed since he last slept. He spent twenty hours every day watching Sky and waiting for her to either grasp his finger, which made him happy, or shove it to the side, which saddened him, but it was still cute.

While his index finger fished for attention, Wolf’s second Mental Aspect sat on the throne of bones, thinking, while the third one carved the column.

“For now, everything is fine. Even though she’s a girl, there won’t be any immediate problems. But how do I stop those rumors from reaching her? I have enemies, and they will try to hurt me through her, just like they did through Anna and Mandy.” Wolf’s Mental Aspect scratched his head, then rubbed his nose.

He was frustrated. After racking his brains for days, trying to solve an unsolvable problem, he failed to advance a step.

“If I could comprehend the True Name of Mind, or Memory, or Soul… Something that would allow me to rewrite history in others’ minds. Argh!” Wolf shouted in frustration, but Silver couldn’t hear him, as long as he sat on the throne.

“Wait…” Wolf’s Mental Aspect paused in the middle of scratching his hair. He observed the third Mental Aspect calmly carve the column, sending fine chips of wood flying, before they dissipated midair.

“I am angry. He is calm, and that one,” Wolf’s Mental Aspect glanced at the third clone’s frozen form. “He’s happy. We definitely share the same thoughts and the conclusions we make. If we’re really the same person… Hmmm…”

Wolf’s second Mental Aspect stood and descended the stairs. “I wonder, if we’re the same and we share our thoughts, how are our emotions—”

At that moment, Sky launched a geyser of half-digested milk straight into Wolf’s face, and his second Mental Aspect nodded. He returned to the seat and rubbed his chin again.

“I figured something like that would happen. That would’ve drawn my attention if I had a single Mental Aspect.” While the second Mental Aspect tapped his finger against the throne’s armrest, his body panicked, then laughed with slight disgust, wiping his face with a cloth.

“So, there are some discrepancies between Mental Aspects. It makes sense. Kind of. Since I can freely move them, that should mean they have a certain level of autonomy while simultaneously forming a whole. I am aware of what happened to the body, and if I focus, I can perceive I’m refining the column.” As he started going down this rabbit hole unobstructed, Wolf realized something else.

“What exactly happens when I refine the columns?” Wolf scrutinized his third Mental Aspect at work, but he saw nothing out of the ordinary. “Everything appears normal. I’m carving wood into Mandy’s likeness and she’s holding her abdomen.”

Wolf couldn’t solve the mystery. He was refining immutable, eternal columns, molding what was unchangeable to his needs. However, he had no way of noticing the oddity. He started infusing himself into his temple ever since he was born, ever since his primal fear caught South’s attention.