Matters of Conception
Erdania watched as the two fertility experts looked at her screens. The silence stretched out, but she kept her eyes on them looking for any reactions. Yuron was good at hiding his, his assistant not so much. Still, it didn’t take long for Yuron to stop what he was doing and speak.
“Alannah,” he spoke to his security. “I’m going to need for you to step outside for this.”
“Sir I—”
“It’s fine Alannah. There isn’t much that you or I could do if the Eternal Masters wished us harm. And there is no need for you to take the oath contract as well.”
The woman glanced at the three of them sitting across from her charge, her eyes searching, measuring. Erdania’s Aura Domain was spread through the floor, through the solid Essences of the room. It didn’t give her a lot of information about the woman, but she could still feel a bit. Though, Ryun had his aura spread as well, and his sense of the woman was much clearer.
She was strong, close or perhaps even at the peak of Class. In any other room, with any other people, she would’ve been one of the strongest around. It wasn’t her fault that the three of them were monsters.
The woman nodded and promptly left the room, leaving Yuron and his assistant alone with the three of them.
He narrowed his eyes at them, he opened his eyes as if to say something, but then seemingly thought better of it. He cleared his throat, then spoke.
“May I see the rest of your screens?” He asked, and both Ryun and Selia provided theirs.
For the next hour he and his assistant went over their screens. Yuron kept his composure, while his assistant kept throwing glances at the three of them and trying to hide his trembling hands.
Finally, they seemed to finish and Yuron turned his attention to them.
“Well, the three of you are most certainly the most powerful people that have asked for my help in conceiving. I do have some questions before we start in truth.”
“Of course, ask away,” Selia said.
Yuron pulled out a jade tablet out of his storage, but kept it in his lap while his eyes looked over the three of them.
“I see that none of you made your Bloodline perk yet, why?”
“We wished to wait until we could consult with you. We didn’t know how or if it would affect anything. We didn’t want for our choices to make it harder for us to have children.”
Yuron’s mandibles twitched in what she recognized as a smile. “That was a smart decision, I applaud your foresight. Power makes things hard already. Cultivators Bloodlines are an additional difficulty.”
Erdania raised her eyebrow. “How so?”
The man turned to look at her as he answered. “I’ve only ever helped one Eternal Realm Cultivator. He had a Bloodline, and was having difficulties having children. None of his partners were capable of conceiving. The issue that I discovered was that none of the women he tried to have a child with were strong enough to bear children with his Bloodline.”
Erdania blinked. “So, if we had made our Bloodlines, we would’ve made it harder for us?”
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“Potentially,” Yuron answered. “You are all fairly strong, perhaps you wouldn’t have had any issues. But it is a factor to consider. Especially since the child born with a Bloodline is… hm… I cannot speak too much about it, I am under contract still. I can only speak in general terms in relation to my craft and your request.”
“What can you tell us?” Selia asked.
“What do you know about Bloodlines?” Yuron asked instead.
The three of them looked at each other for a moment, then Ryun responded. “Almost nothing aside from what the Framework tells us. We’ve tried to look for information but found nothing.”
Yuron inclined his head. “Eternal Realm Cultivators are rare, those who have or had children are rarer still. And that is only those who are known.”
“Can you tell us anything about him?” Selia asked as she leaned forward.
“As far as personal information goes, no. I can tell you the results of what my work achieved, and also that he neither he nor his child is alive anymore,” he raised his hand before Selia could ask anything. “Their deaths were not related to my work, it was a result of war.”
Erdania felt the spike of anxiety that flowed from Selia, and then the drop as the man continued speaking.
“So, Bloodlines?” Ryun asked.
Yuron’s mandibles chattered. “Right,” he said. “A child born with a Bloodline will not have its full power available to it at birth, though it will have aspects of it. I have limited experience, so I do not know exactly how unlocking a Bloodline works, though what I do know is that a Bloodline influences the child significantly in regards to their paths and affinities. To a degree that it is almost limiting. Meaning that their available choices are much narrower in result.”
That made all three of them pensive. They didn’t speak, but their emotions flowed freely over their bond.
“Do you know how two Bloodlines would interact with each other?” Ryun asked.
“Sadly, I do not. This is why I am here in the first place. A chance to see how such a joining would react is invaluable.”
“So, any advice as to how we should make our Bloodlines?”
“It is a choice that you must make on your own. I would not dare offer advice. Though, my experience would suggest that being clear in what you wish your offspring to benefit from would be preferable. But before all of that, perhaps we should discuss what it is that you want? So that I might offer better advice and tell you what the process will look like. Which one of you will carry the child? Will any? Which will be the parents?”
Erdania exchanged looks with them, her hand playing with the hem of her dress nervously. They were so close. It was going to happen. It was almost too much for her, but then Selia’s and Ryun’s reassurance flowed through their bond and she managed to relax.
Selia spoke out, helping to mask her inner turmoil. “I will carry the children. We had hoped that you would be able to help us have a child with each of us as a parent, or three with every combination. We’ve heard that different genders are not a requirement for you.”
Yuron didn’t respond immediately. Instead, he seemed to be thinking. When he opened his mouth, his tone was certain. “I have attempted to make a child with Essence from more than two sources. The resulting pregnancies and offspring were not… there were issues. And those were with subjects that were far less powerful than you three are.”
He took a deep breath, then continued. “What you wish is doable, though, there is an issue. I can help you conceive three children, but not in the manner that you wish. You, like humans, have two eggs that can be fertilized. I can take Essence from each of your partners,” he pointed at Ryun and Erdania. “Then fertilize one of them with each. For the third, I would need to extract an egg from your partner and implant in you, making you a surrogate. That child will be female, they always are in cases like these. Or that particular egg can be fertilized and brought to term outside of the body, I have the means, array devices that can simulate a woman’s body and provide a gestational environment.”
Erdania blinked, she hadn’t heard about anything like that before.
Selia glanced at Erdania, then back at Yuron. “No, I would like to carry them all.”
The man nodded, one of his arms rose to scratch just below his right mandible. “Usually, I would worry if your body would be able to handle such a strain. But… something tells me that it won’t be much of an issue for you. Still, I cannot say for certain until you’ve made your Bloodlines, they will be an additional factor that I will have to take into consideration. We should adjourn until you have done so, though don’t rush on my account. I fully expect to be here for the foreseeable future and see my work through.”
“Well then,” Ryun said as he stood up. “Thank you for coming, and for being so understanding with us.”
“Of course,” Yuron’s mandibles twitched into a smile. “This is my life’s work. Here,” he offered them a small jade tablet, a recoding array. “This is a primer I give out to clients to give them a general idea of what they can expect and what I can do. It isn’t everything, and a lot of it won’t apply to your case, but you should read it nevertheless.”
With that, they stood and bowed before leaving the room.