Adina was sitting around and reading a book while Harlan continued to replace each and every part of the home Marigold had given to him as a project. It was a waste of time, it should’ve been torn down and a copy put up, but that wasted time was exactly what he wanted right now.

“We didn’t do anything for your birthday.”

“I know.”

“Should we do something? If we want much longer we’ll be closer to your fake birthday than your real one.”

Harlan ruffled his hair, sending sawdust to the ground.

“It doesn’t matter much, it’s just another year, and I’m exactly a ticking clock.”

“Just because you’re going to have a lot more birthdays than most doesn’t mean you shouldn’t care about the ones you have. And when are we getting a bed in there? Besides, 18 is a landmark for both of us. There are no more age restrictions anymore.”

“Not like there were many in the first place. I should push Rosewell on that drinking age, I never cared for seeing a bunch of 14 year olds stumbling drunk in the streets. Anyway, I’ve got the cellar replaced, but I doubt you want to sleep in there.”

“I’ll put up air freshening and heat spells. Or we could just go back home.”

“I’ll get the bed in just a little bit then.”

“You can’t avoid them forever.”

“Not forever, just until it stops feeling like I’m back at the funeral every single day.”

“Your mom could probably use you there.”

“I can’t just turn my empathy off, everyone puts off too strong a feeling to ignore.”

“You can go grab that bed right now then, I’ll decide where I want it. And bring carpets as well.”

“Alright.”

Harlan gated to the swamp base where he still had stolen items stashed and came back with a few large rugs and a queen sized bed.

As soon as he had it down Adina jumped in bed and lifted the covers, inviting him inside.

“I should keep working on the house.”

“But I’m cold.”

He began casting arrays to bring up the temperature, but then he saw her shifting clothes move from her body.

“Oh.”

“Should we consummate this marriage?”

Harlan couldn’t help but laugh.

“Shut up, I read it in one of my books. I thought it would be romantic.”

“Romance stories don’t often have a basis in reality. Especially the ones Yara likes.”

“Really? Because a white knight showed up out of nowhere to save me from some dastardly fellows and despite his prickly exterior I peeled back his layers and found a wonderful man.”

“I don’t have a basis in reality either.”

Harlan slipped into bed and our of his clothes.

“And for the record, I’m a black knight.”

Despite what he read stories just the same as Yara, it wasn’t a beautiful fireworks display or passion, it was more Harlan being terrified of hurting her and both sides being very awkward and uncomfortable.

And despite what they read in the anatomy books, they fumbled around like they had never seen another living person before in their lives.

Both of them stared at the ceiling and cuddled after they were finished.

“I don’t know what to do now.”

“In the books they always smoke.”

“I don’t even own a pipe or anything to smoke in it.”

Adina rubbed his beard.

“I like this thing. You have a scary face, it hides that.”

“Thanks?”

“I think it looks fatherly.”

“Are we trying for a child yet?”

“Are we not?”

“The civil war is still happening, even if it is cold.”

“You blew up a mountain the other day, I wouldn’t call that cold.”

“But we aren’t fielding troops. Both sides are just hiding out and hitting small targets that they can reach.”

She ran her finger down his chest. It wasn’t often that she really saw him without his clothes, and he didn’t wear them tight enough to show off his muscles.

“You used to be so lean.”

“My mind is still racing too fast to get into Fomorian physiology.”

“Want to enhance my body now?”

“Shit, we really never did that yet?”

“Nope. But I don’t mind taking a week off of my classes at the academy right now.”

She crawled on top of him, laying her head on his chest.

“I’ll also need you to stay with me, no fighting, no research, I need you here. And we should have the wedding eventually, it might help everyone get out of this grief.”

“I’m guessing you already have plans.”

“I’ve been fantasizing about this for a little bit, just a little.”

“Then I’ll get everything you’ve ever wanted.”

Harlan began tearing up.

“I’m just so happy.”

“Oh, so you’re that kind of man after sex.”

Harlan had set up some gym equipment in the cellar to help Adina with the extra energy she had with her new body, yet for the most part it went unused.

After a few hours she fell asleep and he put up a veil so she could rest while he slipped out of the bed he needed to reinforce after the first night where she broke it pushing her new body to its limits.

He barely got an hour into his work cutting and sanding boards before he stained them for the living room when she called him down again.

It had been two weeks, so he couldn’t blame it on her enhancement hormones anymore, she was just incorrigible.

He liked it, but he also actually enjoyed getting work done, and it was just something he liked, but wasn’t enthralled with like she was.

He put on a happy face as he walked down the stairs and slipped his clothes off, but she wasn’t in bed.

“I’m pregnant.”

Harlan thought he had misheard her at first, just staring at her in silence.

“I’m pregnant.”

His vision began to spin and he had to lean on the doorframe to stay upright.

He fell back and passed out on the stairs.

She slapped him awake and he walked over to the middle of the room.

“I thought you’d be a little happier. I mean, we talked about-”

“No, we didn’t. You said you were trying and I said that I was worried since the war was going on.”

“Are you upset? I just thought that-”

“I’m going to be a father.”

He laid on the bed and then immediately jumped up.

“I’m going to be a father.”

He began skipping around the room too quickly for Adina to keep track of him.

A few times she could even see more than one of him as he became temporally displaced with worry.

Then he stopped.

“We aren’t telling anyone anything yet.”

“Why not?”

“I need to check our defenses. You are more of a target than ever.”

He moved around at normal speeds, but was leaving afterimages.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Adina slapped him hard enough that he staggered back.

“Hey, no, we are not doing that, you are not losing your mind over this.”

“I’m terrified. Shit shit shit, what am I going to do?”

He curled into a ball.

“I’m the one with new life in my womb and I’ve got to push it out in nine months, I’m the one who should be scared.”

Harlan crawled over to her on all fours, placing his hands over her stomach and viewed the soul that had broken off of her’s and was now siphoning energy to grow itself.

“It’s so small.”

He slipped his hands around her back and into a hug, press his cheek onto her stomach.

“Do you want to tell your family one by one or call everyone together for dinner?”

“We can call them all together. Tomorrow we can have dinner with everyone, but I’ve got to make some preparations first.”

“Just so long as it doesn’t involve you raising an army or making some new device.”

“Nope, no weapons or army of the dead.”

“I didn’t say something specific, I kept it vague for a reason.”

“I won’t make any creatures or any new item.”

“Good, now, drop me off for my classes. I’ll pick up my materials and get back here later to catch up on everything.”

“But you need to take a bath first.”

She lowered her hands and got on her knees to kiss him.

“We need to take a bath.”

“You’re going to be late for classes.”

“And?”

While Adina was at the academy, Harlan contacted Hellon.

She wasn’t holding any classes until a little later, so she came for a short visit.

“This place is a dump.”

“Well I’m happy to see you as well.”

“What do you need? It sounded urgent on the communicator.”

“Really? I thought I kept an even tone.”

“You still sound panicked.”

“Huh. Anyway, you’ve delivered babies, right?”

“Is there someone hidden here ready to burst?”

“No. I just need to know, is there anything I need to watch out for in the early days of pregnancy?”

“Ah, Adina then?”

“How did you know? Fuck, am I that easy to read? How am I going to…”

She waited for him to calm down before she started talking again.

“Don’t let her drink or smoke, avoid blows to the stomach, make sure she is eating enough. And pick up supplemental tonics to make absolutely sure she isn’t being malnourished by mistake even if she is eating enough.”

“Anything specific that I wouldn’t already know from the classes?”

“Not really. But I could get you into a real childbirth, since I assume you’ll want to deliver it yourself.”

“I would like you to be there as well.”

“Not Sepul?”

“There are some… things between us. I’d rather have someone more normal, just in case.”

“My rate is-”

“Your youth. The cat is out of the bag, people know I can do it, so I’ll get you back your youth, make you stronger as well if that is what you desire.”

“Youth is enough. What is recovery like?”

Harlan explained the temporary side effects and she cackled like mad when he explained the desire that came with the changes, joking that it was no wonder Adina was pregnant.

She agreed that he would enhance her once the students were off for the summer.

Hellon liked the idea of having a nice body again, but despite her harshness towards them, she didn’t want her students to miss a week of classes.

The time passed quickly, too quickly for his liking, before Adina came back from classes.

“You look awful.”

“I’m sick.”

“Morning sickness? That doesn’t make sense, it’s been two weeks since we started… doing that stuff.”

She laughed at him for having any discomfort about the subject at all.

“And I feel weird, and I’m hungry.”

“Those are the other symptoms. Odd cravings, mood swings, sore nipples.”

“Don’t talk about my nipples.”

“Hey, this is my fault, I need to be realistic, take it from a doctorly perspective.”

“Let’s just get inside. Did you finish the living room?”

“Not exactly.”

“Back to the cellar then, unless you’ve decided that we should go back home.”

“When you give birth, I’m thinking we might want to move out here. It’s safer, smaller, nobody poking around, archmagi acting as protection.”

“We can talk about it downstairs.”

When she entered the cellar it was a mess.

“I have been doing some reading.”

“Where did you even get all these books? And is that a crib?”

“I wanted to try out a few designs, I’m a fan of that one with the triangle on the top, the bar that goes across will let us hang things from it for him to play with.”

“Or her.”

“Whichever it is I don’t care. He or she is going to be beautiful and wonderful and-”

“Are you getting morning sickness along with your mood swings as well? How are your nipples?”

She turned to her left, finding the wall full of scribbles. She didn’t say a word, she just pointed with her thumb as she looked at him.

“Ah, right, yes, I started going down a list of names. These are the top ten.”

“We aren’t naming him Darrath.”

“Alright then, I’ll strike that one down.”

“No H names, no A names, we’ve got enough of those. I don’t want something that starts with an E either.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know, they just don’t seem right for her. I’m leaning on no Ks or Ts either.”

“Tabitha is a good name though, and what about Kathrine, or Kate? Ester isn’t bad.”

“Nope, I’m against E, Tabitha is nice though.”

“Alright then.”

“Eli.”

“No.”

“Now I just want to find an E name that you do like because you don’t want one.”

“Get me tea, I don’t feel good.”

“Alright. Just rest right now. Do you want anything to eat?”

“I want something sweet and salty.”

“Sweet grilled meats. I know a place in the frontier that smokes them with good sauce on them.”

Harlan made his way to the Shaky Leg.

“I hope you haven’t stopped smoking meat.”

“Do I know you?”

“Not really, but I passed through here once, stayed a couple days. How’s Lilly?”

“Now, a man comes through asking a question like that without me knowing them, I’ll need to know who I’m talking to.”

“You would’ve called me Alex at the time. But now you can call me Harlan Fomoria.”

Harlan moved his hand down his face, shifting it as he did, and then he moved it back up, returning to his real face.

“It’s good to see you again, Thomas.”

“That’s just unnatural.”

“I’m an unnatural man.”

“What meats do you want?”

“Something with a sweeter sauce on it.”

“Got chicken and sausages with that right now, gonna be a few hours for the pork to be as soft as I’d like it, but I’d put the sauce on it if you’d like.”

“Let me see how my wife likes the other stuff first.”

“Married? Well congratulations.”

Harlan leaned over the counter.

“Do you have kids?”

“One, but he moved away, looking for a safer life.”

“She’s pregnant, just found out today, any advice?”

“If she says jump, you don’t ask how high, just start jumping. And lie, she’s gonna get fat and gross and bloated and use the bathroom three times a night at least. But just keep telling her how beautiful she is.

Women tell one another that they are glowing, whatever that means, so try that.”

Harlan didn’t necessarily agree with the wording of it, but he kept that information in his mind anyway.

While Thomas went to get the meats, Harlan quickly tracked Lilly down, but generally it was in poor taste to show up to another man's house and start chatting up his wife.

Adina ate nearly as much as Harlan had and then began to cry about how awful she looked.

Harlan lied as a man should at such a time such as this, she had eaten like an animal and made a mess of herself and her hair had fallen onto her plate and got sticky.

“How about this, every morning, I’ll put your hair up in a bun, no holding it back when you start to throw up that way, and you can eat as you like.”

“You mean like a pig.”

“If you eat like a pig then I eat like an orc.”

His words failed to reassure her.

Harlan was agitated, pacing back and forth.

“What has you so anxious?”

“Nothing at all Baldwin.”

“You’re pacing like a man who either cheated on his wife or whose wife is cheating on him.”

“Neither.”

“Well you did something wrong or someone did something-”

“Nobody did anything wrong. Crack the door open so I can get this over with.”

He backed away with his hands up.

Safira stood by Harlan’s side.

“I don’t intend to allow anyone to die because you aren’t focused. So get focused.”

“Ever thought about having kids?”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

Harlan took a deep breath and transformed himself into a bear with a shell like an armadillo, stepping in front of the others as the pointman.

When Baldwin cast his spell, every hallway in the base lit up.

Cracking something such as this vault door, and all of the wards and arrays that came with it was not a small task, it took as much as had been put into setting the defenses.

He not only did he need to crack the defenses, he needed to crack all of the crystals that powered them.

Soulsmithing was Harlan’s greatest achievement, and he had surpassed what the tribal Fomorians could do in many ways, because he wasn’t one of a few hundred groups cut off from the world, he was part of a greater community of mages who were willing to help one another.

And yet he wasn’t sure what exactly the device in front of him was going to do.

It was a long barrel lined with large crystals, Baldwin stood at the back and attached it to the door.

“Sir Baldwin, are you sure this won’t kill the nobles inside?”

“50/50.”

“How did you decide on those odds.”

“They die, or they don’t, 50/50. Now, Sir Fomoria, you are going to want to stay away from the front of the barrel, at least half way back to the rest of us.”

There was not a sound as the weapon powered up entirely, but Harlan could feel a familiar sense of dread.

He saw the fire mana turn pure and the air distorted as the concentrated beam of heat focused on the door and Baldwin pushed it forward along a fixed rail, evaporating the metal rod due to the heat being focused through it.

It took over a minute before the door went red hot and started to melt; arrays had been set up beforehand to push the heat out of venting pipes dug out in the mountain.

Once a good sized hole was made, Safira began the negotiations, since Harlan said there were still living minds inside.

“If you attempt to attack us through that hole, we are going to throw explosives through it. The shrapnel is going to bounce around and kill anyone who doesn’t have their insides turned to liquid by the force of the blast in a confined space. Finally, in a minute’s time, that hole will have cooled enough that Sir Fomoria will slip inside, and he seems quite agitated today.”

“I have somewhere to be which is far more important than this, and I would be quite cross with anyone who needlessly wastes my time.”

The nobles surrendered very quickly, two weeks living on rations was terrible for people like them, and while they were likely to be beheaded, it was certainly better than whatever would happen to someone who angered Harlan Fomoria.