There were a few other teens coming in that day, and each time I found their legal guardian. Some got the same treatment Song and Chen did, others were given the choice of termination. Nearly all took it, admitting that they just couldn’t deal with raising a child. We had options, and I gave them out, but I was personally grateful that I had abortatives that worked a couple of weeks after fertilization without being dangerously toxic to a non-cultivator.
Past that, it was pretty much the point of no return for us. Best I could do was a surgical removal of the embryo, and the trauma and damage of that tended to be immense. Plus there was the very high chance of qi haemorrhaging, with was guaranteed fatal. Not risking it, thank you.
The Vermilion Palace refugees were all in good condition, though none of them had the benefits of cultivation. I force-fed each of them my little nutrient potion, then gave each of them a comprehensive lesson on mating, birth control, and the importance of consent. I wasn’t surprised that the lot of them were utterly ignorant on what we taught our children before they reached puberty. Beyond the usual human hangups, the Vermilion Queen liked to keep her people ignorant about baby-making, simply forbidding the act unless she personally allowed it.
Often while she got to watch.
Guiying did, in fact, scream in delight that her oldest (human) sister was having a baby, and the whole village smiled a little when they heard, even if a few shook their heads at the impropriety of it all. I didn’t care, they were my daughters and I loved them both for who they were. The young soldier… ultimately decided to move to Rivermill for a few years. He wasn’t running away, he assured both Li and myself, he just wanted some time to work out how he felt… and to give the girls some time to grow up properly. He wasn’t sure he could keep his hands off them otherwise.
I respected that, and we let him vanish without the village knowing his whereabouts. Chen and Song were heartbroken, but I assured them that he was just out on assignment, and we didn’t want the two following him while he worked on making a decision.
They were still heartbroken, but they accepted. And life went on with them as it does for any expecting mother, no matter how old or young.
The villages of the north were rebuilt, some of them becoming towns or even cities as people flocked to new lands where they could work, eat, and have enough breathing room to live. Xiangli Village collapsed a little, but we shrugged it off, moved away from each other a little, and tore down the buildings we didn’t need so their wood could be used on other projects. Those who stayed were generally the sort who preferred quiet village life anyway.
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Kaoru and I were among them, along with our families… and surprisingly, all of the Vermilion Queen’s ladies. I expected the traumatized ones to stay behind, noise and crowds would only make them edgy, but even the pampered ones did. After they’d gotten past the fact that life was never going to be an opulent and lazy existence for them again, they seemed to find some satisfaction in various tasks around the village. One took up spinning and weaving, becoming the best seamstress in the entire village and coming up with all sorts of new fashions. Another took to cooking, making wonderful new dishes all the time and finding joy in the simpler ingredients we had available.
One, the most spoiled of the bunch that I’d had to manhandle, forcibly strip, and publicly bathe like a child, took to breeding rabbits for their meat and fur. As a way of getting back at me, I’m sure, but I don’t mind. Came to terms with the whole “you come from a species everyone eats” a long time ago, and told her as much. Even pointed out to the cooking lady that my only real line was cannibalism, so nothing anyone in my family ate could have rabbit in it. She got it, and made sure any meals we received followed that dietary limitation.
“Mom… how many am I carrying?”
Chen was waddling a bit, despite being only four months along. Partly from still only being a little under 5’ tall, I’ll admit, but…
“Triplets. Surprise!”
She groaned, and flopped indignantly onto the clinic bench. “Tell me Song’s in the same boat.”
“She is, but you don’t get to tell her. She has to ask her mother or myself. Honestly surprised me in her case, though not so much yours. Comes from being a half-bun, we tend toward having multiples already.” I rubbed my own extra-heavy belly.
“You never go above two, though.”
“I am this time, though admittedly on purpose. Little trick I figured out, and I won’t be teaching anyone how to do it so don’t even ask. Better yet, don’t ever admit you know the trick exists, especially around Kaoru. Her current three are pushing her system to the limit.”
Chen nodded, solemnly. Kaoru had needed one of my booster potions every month since she’d conceived, and would be needing them every week soon enough.
I just hoped she wouldn’t be needing them daily by the end. I didn’t want to lose her, especially to something as stupid as having too many children.