“Ouch!”

I started swearing, loudly and with a great deal of variety.

“That’s no way to speak to your children, Chen.”

“Then they shouldn’t kick like they’re aiming to break out!”

Mom just smiled, shook her head, and got back to work. She’d told me it was normal enough the first time I’d complained, and that Chang and I had been about as lively. Of course, I caught her wincing every now and again, but she was apparently fairly used to it.

Couldn’t even imagine how much experience she had, since she didn’t exactly keep track of her pregnancies before awakening. Rabbits were notoriously prolific, and mom had lived to middle-age as one. Weirded me out sometimes, thinking what the hunters brought in might be a distant relative, but mom assured me that her descendants had pretty much been wiped in the area.

Though I rather agreed with her ban on rabbit meat at our table. Even the thought that it was my best friend’s personal favorite made me a little uncomfortable… though I didn’t mind if she… no, working. Plus she’s stuck meditating and resting in the pottery kiln with her mother these days. I can only be grateful they won’t suffocate in there.

I was kinda scared that day I’d dropped by, finding Song unconscious in the fireplace. According to Chiaki, she’d gone in about breakfastime, and passed out about five minutes before.

It hadn’t even been noon, and she’d been suffering from qi deprivation. I had her at the kiln before I was thinking again, and hadn’t even realized my clothes and hair were smoldering. Mom was there in an instant with her nutrient potions, gave Song two (which seriously scared me, I’ve made them and just one contains more qi and concentrated nutrition than most people need in a year), and had her in a special bed by her mother, tended to by the fire cultivators who ran the kiln.

I thought about how much time and fuel they were using up on this, and how they would have to wait half a year for the next firing of the big kiln. Never again. I’d personally make sure Song didn’t do this if I had to.

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I finished blending the herbs, and tossed them into the pot to steep. Twenty minutes at a full boil, while concentrating as much qi into the blend as you can. One of the main reasons they tasted so nasty, everything was over-extracted and concentrated for maximum effect. The other reason was so no one would voluntarily drink the stuff, I knew. Mom intentionally made medicines taste nasty for just that reason, even the ones that didn’t have to.

The kids thumped me again, but I paid them no mind. I was surrounded by wood qi, the very essence of life, and spent all my time in the clinic now, specifically to keep myself from ending up like Song or her mom. The energy around me suffused my body and swirled around all eight people in the room, while the two making potions directed more into the teapots we used for this stage.

Finally, I felt the shift, and poured the syrupy glop into the bottle. Song’s daily dose, fresh and hot. I panted for a few moments, handed off the finished medicine to a waiting Chiaki while mom handed her Auntie Kaoru’s dose. Then, almost in sync, we stretched and moved to the covered platter of food Chiaki had handed us in return. Mmm… pork.

“I’d really hoped I wouldn’t have to go this far,” mom said, worry in her tone as she prepared her portion. I’d already stuffed my face, so I simply nodded.

“I’m glad you’re holding up so well. I knew this would be a high-risk pregnancy for you two, but…”

I shook my head, and swallowed. “You were angry, and already worried about Auntie Kaoru. Hopefully they’ll be fine, and the time spent bedridden will motivate them to watch their health more carefully.”

Mom nodded, and got to the noodle soup she liked. Neither of us was going to dwell on worst-case scenarios, losing someone we loved so deeply.

“So, I have a letter from your boyfriend.”

My ears perked. Not as literally as others, I’m fully human in most respects, but…

“He’s worried too, and has been given special dispensation to visit for the next two months.” Mom smiled, in that knowing way. “I think he might actually love you.”

Huh. Why was I crying? Thinking back on that night, when Song and I… well, we hadn’t exactly been fair in our approach or methods, and we’d both known how to circulate our qi in a way that prevented the issue we now had…

I just leaned into mom as she hugged me. I didn’t know what to feel, or how to act right now. The past eight months had been a mess, and the past month a serious mess as things got so bad.

I just wanted to know we’d all be happy in the end.