The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2 novel Chapter 19

Part 4

Talia’s pregnancy seemed to accelerate after that. On the morning she began her labor she had only been pregnant for eight months and one week. She looked massively pregnant; her belly hugely distended, her breasts painfully swollen.

When she felt the first contraction she was cleaning and folding clothing, doing the work entirely by Movement since ordinary movement was now so uncomfortable.

Mark knew immediately through their Link, though he was a kilometer and a half away in a fishing canoe at the time.

In the determined near-panic that only a new father knows, he immediately informed Hilsith and Yzell of the contraction with a simple Speaking, even as he Translocated home, abandoning his canoe and three fat fish to the wind and waves. He appeared in their bedroom and hurriedly arranged the pillows against the headboard for Talia to lean back against, then Translocated across the house to the laundry room, gently picked his wife up, Translocated back to the bedroom, and lay her gently on the bed. He Summoned pitchers of clean water and fruit juices from the kitchen, and stacks of towels from the linen closet, before casting a determined Healers’ cleaning spell on everything in the room.

He knelt beside the bed and took Talia’s hand with a giddy grin, then joined her in Linking deeply with the babies to calm and reassure them about their coming birth. Alilia came in from the garden and hugged them both, smiling warmly and giving them all of her love.

Hilsith and Yzell were there a moment later, briskly taking charge and shooing Mark and Alilia out of the room. “Nothing will happen for hours yet, go out and see to your guests; family and friends will be arriving soon.” Hilsith told them with a reassuring smile. And so they did.

Four hours later they were called back in, and they abandoned their guests to be part of the birthing, but it became a long and difficult labor. Almost fourteen hours after her labor began, and after much struggle and effort, Talia gave birth to her daughter. While Hilsith checked and cleaned the babe, Yzell spoke to the young parents with a warm intensity, raising her voice a bit over Helemia’s healthy cries.

“Your daughter is healthy, but Talia, you are almost out of resources. Furthermore, while your daughter is only one and and two-thirds kilograms, your son will be more than four. A natural birth is always best if possible, but at this point I think it would be wiser if we brought your son out by Translocation.”

“Yes! Please!” Talia gasped.

Hilsith placed Helemia at Talia’s breast, wrapped in a soft blanket, then she and Yzell cast the spell together. An instant later Reggie appeared in their hands and immediately began crying even more loudly than his sister. He too was checked, washed, wrapped, and placed at his mother’s breast, while Hilsith performed the after-birthing care for Talia.

Talia and Mark gently caressed their new children and each other while beaming with proud and joyous smiles, and murmuring soft words of greeting, love, and endearment. Alilia just cuddled with them and grinned.

But Talia and her babies were exhausted, and all three were soon asleep, despite the sounds of joyous celebration coming from the living room. Their visitors had heard the babies’ healthy cries, and needed no one to tell them the results.

Soon Mark and Alilia came out and joined them, and Mark accepted their congratulations with a face-aching grin, and their toasts with a glass of sparkling wine. By that time however, it was almost three hours past midnight. By the time another hour had passed, everyone had either left or bedded down in a guest room, and Mark went to bed with his family.

“Father.”

Mark was deeply asleep, but something was waking him up.

“FATHER!!!”

Mark sat bolt upright in bed, still mostly asleep. “Wha… What?” he stammered as he shook his head, then rubbed his eyes and looked around. He could see that dawn was just breaking through the window. He had been on his side near the edge of the bed, Talia had been spooned against his front on her side, and Alilia was on her side facing them. Between the two elven women, who were still deeply asleep, his children lay wide awake, watching him with incredibly bright eyes. Helemia’s were a deep dark violet, and her hair was as black as Mark’s, while Reggie’s were the lightest clear blue eyes he had ever seen, and his hair was the same honey blond as his mother’s. As Yzell had predicted, they looked like they were months older than they were; their hair was thick and over five centimeters long, their gaze clear and focused. Reggie was almost three times the size of his tiny sister. Surprisingly considering that, her ears were almost entirely human looking and were barely pointed at the tops, while Reggie’s ears were even more long and slimly pointed than those of the elven babies he’d seen, and were almost as long as a Sylvan infant’s.