Sachihiro
I exit the chamber through the strange door as it closes with a hiss behind me. I'm as naked as my blade as I walk out surveying all my surroundings with my awareness ready for anything. As I suspected I'm greeted by the sight of the sidhe fae, 4 of them standing not far from the door watching me curiously. I study them in turn before sheathing my sword and walk closer towards Carmella.
"Would you happen to have any clothes?" I ask her coolly as they study my naked body. I've spent over a month inside that chamber Awakening and the entire time I neither drank, ate nor clothed myself.
My Awakening mana is almost all but depleted now though and I still have a lot of time I need to spend with my children. I pay attention to one of the sidhe in particular, Vevina I think she is called. Her hair is always shades of pink, she stands at about 1.7m tall with delicate dusk skin and very small horns sticking out of her hair from her forehead.
A servent walks down the stairs with a kilt, and a jar of water. I put the kilt on and notice its very well made and fits me like it was tailored for me. I put the jar to my lips and have a good drink of the amazing life giving water. Water imported in from Hiltown I realize as it energizes me.
"We will negotiate now," Carmella says looking at me, I nod and pay attention to every word.
My heart is aflatter in my chest as I spend time with my children, how is it even possible to love living beings to the extent that the very rhythm of my heart has changed in their presence as I hang on their every word. Dishna is a chatter box of thoughts and new ideas as she asks question after question from her perch across my shoulders.
Saya running around us but coming back now and again to pass me small coloured pebbles and interesting flowers. I hang on their every word and presence as we walk through the hills and the little forested area only recently planted some 7 years back. I can't believe the trees are already this big as Saya leads us to a little stream we follow to a pond.
"The water is coming up from a spring in the ground." She explains to me pointing everything out, proud to be the one to point out such things to her lout of a male father.
"How do you know all these things?" I ask her with an encouraging smile and she beams back at me with that radiant smile of hers.
"We all go to school for 2 hours everyday of course, what do you think we learn there? I know a lot of things and all the teachers say I'm very clever for my age, mama even says so." She says as we gaze upon the pond.
I reach out my hand towards hers and my heart practically melts as she takes it. I'm a warm radiance of joy and I'm grinning ear to ear as my girl holds my hand as another pulls my hair and beard from across my shoulders. We enjoy each other and get to know each other again as I spend the day with them.
I teach them both to skip stones across the pond, then we have a little picnic were we eat little sandwiches Mira has made for us. I didn't even know she could make edible food in any form but she can and she does for her girls. Taught from stretch by Kuyoki and ma when she came to the Tundra from the Valleys.
We chase each other around the stream bed and slash each other with water across the now smooth rocks that line the banks. We exhaust ourselves with play or at least I exhaust the 9 year old and 5 year old, almost 6 if you let her remind you. Its a good day, and one who's entirety I spend with my 2 children as I leave the women to sort themselves out.
The day turns to dusk and dusk to night and we don't return to Paradisum but instead hike deeper into the Tundra as I tell them stories of the land and how the tribes used to live divided. We stalk grass hares with little makeshift spears I fashioned for them and even come close to catching one at some point.
Predictors that come our way we face down with spears held at the ready and attitudes of confidence, but we use our heads not our strength I emphasize to them. We in our family fight smart more than we fight hard and so we always have imaginary plans of how we will handle the predictors if they attack. They never do though.
We travel through the hills and bushes on my homeland in the depths of the night until they can take no more and we set up a camp for them to sleep. I keep watch and as I do I meditate on my meridians, something I've only since Awakening have been able to do.
I consolidate the still fluctuating mana within me through meditation and visualization training. The raw mana within me is very volatile and a lot of the time painful for me to even touch in any way but it is also a torrent of power the likes of which I have never before imagined within myself.
And so I meditate and visualize it's path throughout my body, seeing it in my minds eye mixing with my invisible spirit energy and providing a lot more than it otherwise would have. I spent a long time in that time chamber Awakening and consolidating the mana that filled me but it was also about so much more than just mana.
A long time by my perspective at least, in reality I only spent 3 days away from home. Had I known I was in a time dilation chamber I would have stayed longer, but at least now I know how it feels being inside one and will never mistake it for anything else.
Awakening is more than I imagined it being, it's as though the universe has a chance to know you as one of its children as I am getting to know my two girls. And after it has shaped you as it wishes it plays with you the games that you yourself invent so that the rest of the Awakening is influenced by your curiosity and personality. But this stage only after it has itself made sure you have what it considers the essentials for your growth.
This mana for instance I never would have even thought of Awakening to, I admire mages and their power but had I been leading my Awakening from the start I never would have done it. Had I had the reigns on the direction my full Awakening took I would probably have focused on the body, the mind, the spirit and aura.
But here I am a confusing mix of vecetility that not even the sidhe have ever come across before. My Awakening is such a unique thing that Carmella called in the other 8 sidhe to witness it and catalogue it apparently. I should have known that she had a way of viewing me whilest in her domain but at the time it never even occurred to me that I was being watched.
I should have known though, ma wouldn't have allowed me in the creatures clutches had she no way of occasionally checking up on me to ensure my safety. But Awakening is about Awakening and almost everything else falls away. I breath as I patiently work on myself from within.
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I still don't have the slightest idea what type of mage I will end up being but I've noticed Zhen hanging around the house more I think in hopes I allow him to be my magic instructor. So far I've been taking advice and direction when confused from Mira and from books but I can also tell that Carmella is itching to get a chance to study me further. Why the sidhe find me so fascinating I cannot say but I also find one of their number truly captivating so I do enjoy the attention she gives me these days.
I sigh as I think of my women again and am thankful for all their understanding, at least Kuyoki's understanding. Had I had a different mate Ingwe's transition into the family may have been so much more turbulent and I wouldn't be able to take this trip with my babies without worry or a constant need to referee between them.
But Aurora is healthy and Ingwe seems to be adjusting well enough that she is comfortable alone with the two women. The best way to get to know Mira is to spar with her and from the girl Asriel and I travelled to the Hidden Valleys with she is practically a different person. She is now a battle maniac of the highest order and I can't wait to spar with her on equal footing now that she has fully recovered and Awakened.
Saya's head shoots up as she looks around, its almost pitch dark tonight with cloud cover and no moons but her uncanny eyes zero in on me before she gets up and tells me she needs to poo. I wake the little one as well and I show them how to dig a temporary lentrine pit for them to do their business.
Even that turns into an adventure for spoilt children that defecate indoors and by the time they are done and covering up their pits all sleep has gone from their eyes. We light a small fire and I tell them stories of the tribes and what I know of their origin. I don't neglect to tell them stories about what I know of their mom's origins, stories I know Mira will not have shared about herself.
It's a ten-day journey across the tundra with my girls and we eventually end up where my village used to be. I show them the crumbling ruins of what used to be my home just 10 years ago and that's when it hits me, I'm actually 30 years of today. And so we celebrate my birthday with a little hare that they eventually managed to kill with my help.
I'm so glad I now have access to the space in my spacial ring of storage and I use it shamelessly throughout the trip. I try to teach my girls some grappling and hand to hand and we all end up laughing as they climb all over me on the grass.
My worries about their future fighting prowess are allayed though as they tell me that school does include fighting classes and that they have extra classes with my Uncle Brian who took it upon himself to train all the family children after school and further lessons with Mira twice every ten-day. After they demonstrate some of their moves I'm satisfied and we continue our aimless journey across the tundra.
It's eventually a month by the time we see Paradisum in the distance again and both my girls are happy to be back home but worried they won't get to spend as much time with me anymore. I can particularly see that worry all over Saya's body language but her growing pride won't let her say anything.
I smile despite myself as I ruffle her red silk hair and point at the three figures I see standing in the distance. "There are your mothers." I say to them and I see the excitement and eager anticipation in their eyes.
They look up at me expectantly and I give them the nod that it's safe to run ahead and they are both of like cloud hares towards their two mothers and the third person I hope they one day consider a mother. We had a long talk about that and they understand the dynamic as well as I can hope to make it understood since I hardly know it myself.
Kuyoki is off almost as soon as they are and it's not even 30 seconds before she enfolds both of them in her arms holding them tightly to her bosom before Mira is there to add her own arms to the huddle. All the girls laugh and cry and giggle and its only now that I'm seeing their reactions that I realize that they have never been apart more than a day before.
Since birth both girls have been under the watchful eye of two mothers and that isn't something I could possibly understand. Ingwe covers the distance more sedately with a sleeping Aurora in her arms, she smiles at the sigh of the display and at the sight of me but goes to greet the girls as well before greeting me.
The girls all separate and start chatting incessantly with laughs in between and I realise they are somehow all understanding each other. Ingwe speaks to them in passable Sandersonian and they treat her politely before going all gaga over Aurora again.
Kuyoki then separates and in a rare display of public affects vaults herself into my arms with that fluid grace and I find my hands around her waist and our lips hungrily kissing at each other. I moan into the kiss as the passion and taste has an immediate effect on my state of arousal, losing myself into the kiss.
Its only when I notice the giggling of the girls that I pull away slightly and give her a questioning eyebrow before I notice the change in her aura. I frown as she grins and use examine on her and she let's me.
"You're pregnant," I say the obvious but I'm so surprised I'm not sure what else I could have said.
"You're very observant Sachihiro," Mira says succintically with a snort and a little smile for me.
"Congratulations though, I know you've always wanted a big family." She says and siddles between Kuyoki and I giving me a warm heartfelt hug before quickly siddling back out.
I'm also grinning ear to ear like a mad man as I hold Kuyoki's hand tightly, my heart swelling to different proportions in my chest. I take a step through the cluster of girls playing with Aurora and looking on curiously at our displays.
"Hey you," I say to Ingwe as I pull her to my as well and kiss her gently on the lips. She smiles and nods in acknowledgement before quickly looking away from my eyes with a blush.
Being kissed this way in public by a man and being included in the aura of affection I'm giving off coupled with the direct eye contact being a bit much for her Alderman ways. I grin at her reaction and Mira just laughs a full open-mouthed laugh. I haven't heard that sound coming out of her in a long time, I didn't even realize I had missed it.
"We are going to need to build a bigger home," I say suddenly to everyone present.
Mira is already shaking her head in the negative. "There is no space in Paradisum for new homes Sachi." She says and I love that she is secure in the knowledge that she is part of my family. We may not be mated but she is the mother of my children as well and one of my most trusted friends, we've been through shit together.
"It doesn't have to be in Paradisum exactly, maybe a day's travel or more from the city. Someplace private and safe, some place we can spot an attacker coming a mile away, someplace big enough to accommodate all of us and space for each of you to have at least 5 more children." I say in my excitement.
"All of us?" Mira asks with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.
"All of you." I say as I look at all their faces, none of them seem to have a problem with what I'm saying or the inclusion of Mira in having another baby. At least no ones aura of happiness is changing nor is there even a look of surprise on Kuyoki's still radiantly smiling face.
Mira just snorts and looks away playing with the hilt of her katana and drawing circles on the floor with her foot. "We'll have to negotiate." She says not looking at any of us trying to hide her happiness.
"I'm not some kept woman that stays home and takes care of the children you know, and I have appetites. You know this about me, you probably know this best." She says, now worry coming into her voice as she sobers from the high of joy we've all been experiencing.
All the reasons she thought she would never mate coming to the forefront of her mind again, they really did a number on her during her time in slavery. But before she can protest further she finds herself enveloped in a hug by Saya, Didi and Aurora in Saya's arms. She relaxes almost immediately and looks up again with a smile.
"We'll see." Is all she manages to say after that and we all walk in an awkward clump back to the city.