Cordelia, a noble in only memory, with hair as red as an apple, eyes like emeralds, and a modest height of five feet. She was around two months pregnant and bored watching her husband work on their farm.

Due to an incident involving the rotting of their entire crop, she had been banned from touching the merchandise.

Bill was anything but lazy when it came to farming. When it came to training, he was adamant about doing things slowly. This is why he was still a practitioner after thirty or so years. Bill brought his gardening hoe down on a field and plowed it all in a matter of seconds before repeating the process with a bundle of seeds.

The couple’s two youngest daughters were playing in the dirt. Both were toddlers, at the ages of two and three. Both looked nearly identical, and both had their clothes caked in mud. Their red hair was almost brown.

Cordelia stood up to reprimand the toddlers when her head started hurting, and she felt a surge from deep within her body. She could feel the world around her on a scale beyond what she knew. Her body began to fade from Imala. She knew instinctively that if she went now. The child would die. And her plans for vengeance along with it. So she rejected the influx of power and fell to the ground, blood running from her eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

The girls looked up and ran to their mother. Quite worried about the incident that had occurred. Of course, the two started crying.

Bill turned from his work and looked at his daughters before following their gaze to his wife. He immediately ran to her side and cautiously carried her to their room so she could rest.

“Where are the older ones when I need them?” Bill muttered.

“Mama sick?” Asked the three-year-old.

“She just needs some rest. Stay here while I go look for the village doctor.” Bill turned around and was ready to run when a strong grip grabbed his wrist.

Turning around, he noticed Cordelia’s eyes were half-open. “Send for my father, tell him everything and I’m sure he can find someone more suitable. No offense but the village doctor is a quack.”

“Your father…You know he doesn’t like me.” Bill stated.

“Then take the children with you. He’ll dote on them more than he’ll despise you.” Cordelia told him.

“You’ll be alone for three days, and that’s me sprinting.” Bill stated.

“I won’t be. Jr is returning today after all.” She said with a gone expression.

Bill’s face twisted with grief. “The Reaper of Denvall is said to have murdered everyone in that Kingdom. Man, woman, and child there is no way that Jr got out of something like that.”

“Oh ye of little faith.” Cordelia

He washed his two daughters before putting on a toddler harness capable of carrying both of them. He usually used it when he took them on walks. It was so convenient for when his daughters got tired and refused to walk.

“Dad?” Asked the three-year-old.

“Yes, Dwen?” Bill replied.

“I’m Thalia!”

“Oh, sorry. Are you sure?” The three-year-old shrugged.

“Yes, Thalia.” Bill corrected, shaking his head.

“Are you leaving mom on the grass?” Thalia asked.

Bill stood there, his expression blank as his underused brain began to roar into motion. He placed the girls back on the ground.

“Daddy going fast?” Thalia asked.

“Back in a moment.” In around two minutes, Bill had managed to carry his wife into their bedroom and procured a glass of water for her when she woke up.

He returned, leaving a trail of dust in his wake. “Now we go.”

“Fast! Fast !” Replied the two-year-old. She seemed to like that word.

“Yes I will. Go to the bathroom now I won’t be making any stops.” Bill watched as his two daughters disappeared for a few minutes and returned.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

He strapped them safely in the harness, did some stretches, and jogged two the capital city. A trip that would typically take a month in a caravan. At the pace, he was going. However, he’d be there that night. Sadly children don’t care much for pace.

Ten minutes after leaving, he had his first request. “Daddy, I gotta go!”

Bill’s face looked resigned. Slowing his jog but not stopping. “Didn’t you go ten minuets ago?”

“I didn’t have to then.” Thalia answered proudly.

After a sigh, he made a quick stop near an orange tree. Picking a few as he waited for the three-year-old to finish.

After another ten minutes of running, he felt both his daughters fall asleep and slowed to a stop. Pulling out his trusty hoe, he planted it into the ground and stood on the blade’s upper part, propelling them forward with earth mana.

Cordelia awoke to a loud knock on the door. Climbing out of her bed, she made her way towards the sound. While a bit slow, she was steadily making her way there. The world seemed to be spinning ever so slightly.

The person knocked again, harder and louder this time.

Cordelia was ten feet away from the door but decided to take her time in answering since the person at the door seemed to enjoy beating on it.

The person knocked a third time before Cordella managed to pull the door open.

The man at the door was over six feet tall, with a tattered straw hat on his head. His short red hair was ragged, and his green eyes seemed haunted. Across his body was a beaten black cloak covering a suite of heavily damaged banded mail armor. They told the story of a man who survived a battle no sane mortal would have been a part of.

“So. I was right about you being the reaper.” Cordelia stated.

“That place was messed up well before I got there,just cleaned it up. Long time no see mother.

Mind if I lay low here for a while?” He cracked a weary smile that did not reach his eyes.

“I’ll need your help with a few things. Other than that I’m sure everyone will be happy to see you.” She let her wayward son in.

After a brief embrace Jr let go in shock. “Mother, your ice cold. Are you ok?”

“Not sure I resisted the call. I’m pregnant again, and would hate to lose him if I don’t have to.”

“Again mother…” Jr sighed

“Isn’t much else to do here in the sticks. You and your sister left years ago. Can’t leave the country, can’t cause a scene. Well I could do those things but it’d end the ceasefire early.” Cordelia crossed her arms.

“Empty nest syndrome.” Jr sighed.

“Possibly. We’re sending for a doctor since things aren’t right.” Cordelia sat down on a wooden chair.

“I see. I’ll help where I can.” Jr said resolutely.

The quack doctor from the village arrived, did a cursory checkup, and diagnosed the woman with an extreme case of morning sickness before giving her some tea said to help ease the symptoms.

“Told you not to bring him.” Cordelia looked up from her bed.

“He seemed like a better doctor when I was a kid.” Jr eyed the quack as he left.

“He is only skilled in natural sicknesses and the like. This is anything but natural.”

“What do you mean?” Jr asked.

“I didn’t progress on purpose. Something must have pushed me over the edge for me to hear the call at a time like that. Pushing all my mana into that quality. Yet it locked me out of incarnation as well, since I didn’t Immediately leave.” Cordelia sat up and scratched her chin.

“Sabotage.” Fury seemed to grow in his eyes.

“Someone who knows that I escaped execution. Or someone who knew I was pregnant.”

“Execution? No, probably not. Why would you say that?” Jr asked.

“Don’t worry about it. My father, your father and the Kind of this Kingdom are the only ones who were involved in that. Which leaves the pregnancy, that was something only Bill was aware of.

He wouldn’t do anything like this.” Cordelia began racking her brain.

“So he hasn’t been born yet.” Jr’s face contorted into a grimace.

“How do you know it’s a him?” Cordellia squinted, preparing to draw a blade should he be an imposter.

“Intuition? Stuff, I can’t say or Imala herself will send me packing.” Jr said.

“Stuff you can’t say because you passed that line already and something happened?” Cordelia.

“I can neither confirm nor Deny.”

“What can you say?”

“You are die in Denvall eighteen years from now. Well you would have.” Jr scratched his head.

“So someone went and fucked with time.”

Lightning struck a tree outside the house. Causing it to burn blue flame.

“Mother.” Bill protested.

“That goddess is watching now. I know, she hates profanity. But she’s supposed to leave people alone when in houses.” Cordelia said more towards the burning tree.

“Maybe she doesn’t want you corrupting the unborn.”

“Then maybe she shouldn’t have let this much happen on her world. If she’s going to send her chosen at me for this much then she’ll have my wrath.” Cordelia’s eyes began to shift from green to solid black.

“Uh huh. Seeing it first hand makes more sense now.”

“Seeing what?” She seethed.

“Your wrath. The one in there seems to have inherited it. Didn’t you all do so in one way or another?”

“No. If I’m being honest he may actually have turned out worse. Hailed as a god of madness and death.”

“Madness?”

“When do jokes stop being funny?”

“When people get seriously hurt.” Cordelia sighed.

“When one who takes pride in cruel jokes goes on a rampage. What would you call them.”

“That’s bad huh? I planned on raising him personally. Guess I’ll let Bill train then.”

“I mean why not. If the people after my brother won’t play fair, why should I?” Bill Jr. answered.

“I see. Do you know who is after this little one?” Cordelia motioned towards her stomach.

“The one who drove him to madness in the first place. Can’t say who can’t say where. Still don’t quite know how they did this.” Jr noticed his mother getting a little faint and decided to help her to her bed.

Jr. felt one of his fingers break as the woman tried to hold on to his hand. He didn’t wince, not sure if it was an accident, and led her back towards her room.

“Do you know who else would have memories?” She asked as her son lifted her.

“Possibly grandfather. He was the one who leveled Denvall last time, and he incarnated soon after. Charles does as well, though he’s still with my cousin.” Bill Jr. placed his mother in the bed and tucked her in.

“Hasn’t our family done enough harm?” Cordelia soon passed out.

“A good lil trickster. That does sound nice.” Jr sighed.

He spent ten minutes waiting in there before heading out to case the perimeter.