Late into the night, the port city of Levarit bustled with activity. Merchants kept their shops open, traders arrived on sails of all sizes, and sea riders skimmed the waves, their needles gleaming in the distance.

Yet, a strange quiet had settled over the city's Korindt, a house of care. Usually bustling with healers, engineers, and Feydaks who would normally be working tirelessly through the night, at this fateful hour, the building stood dark and silent. Only a single light shone from one room.

This large, typically public building was so unremarkable that passersby might easily overlook it.

Which was exactly the point.

Because within that very Korindt, in that lonely room, a woman was giving birth. The significance of the woman made the absence of staff all the more suspicious.

She was The Lady Varessi of House Severidt, a minor house in the edges of the Southern and Western regions that was long past its prime, but that did not make the woman any less extraordinary.

And the child she bore was the offspring of both herself and The Lord Koleson Whytid, the lord of Levarit, the surrounding port cities, and nearly all the Kerrasuk Archipelagos.

Her screams of labor filled the room, though the sound was contained within. A meager coven of Feydaks surrounded her, flanking her sides, while an engineer oversaw the operation from a distance.

Sitting in the corner of the room was the engineer. He expertly manipulated the projections hovering above the surface of his entangled drive, which itself, rested on an elevated platform. Four cables with pins at their ends unspooled from beneath it. His long, silky hair was neatly styled, and his impeccable suit marked him as a Fullbright noble.

With deft hands, he wove and entangled reflections into the emerald tablets before connecting them to each other and arranging them inside the frame of the drive, imbuing it with life and purpose.

Meanwhile, the Feydaks diligently worked to maintain the woman's stability. One placed a hand on her head, another on her chest above her heart, and the second held both hands on her womb. Together, they ensured a steady labor and safeguarded the baby's vitals.

The first Feydak, who placed his hands on the woman's head and chest, had thin needles extending from his palms and piercing her skin. Through these, he regulated her stress and heart rate. He flooded her brain with positive hormones from his own body, counteracting the stress hormones produced by labor.

The other hand, which he had on her heart, expelled hormones to relax the muscles around the region at certain intervals, while at other intervals he would engage the muscles with electric currents to heighten activity in the region by giving it a rush.

The second Feydak, who had both her hands on the woman’s womb, managed the movement of muscles in the region, by also ejecting specific hormones but with electric currents, she forced the womb to contract and constrict in specifically coordinated movements that were supposed to keep the birth steady and the baby safe.

While also feeling for the pulse of the child and relaying it to the engineer.

What might have seemed to be a simple procedure at first glance betrayed the true complexity of the operation.

It wasn't just about flooding the woman's body with calming chemicals and currents. Labor itself was a stressful but necessary process, and they had to delicately manage the woman's biological responses to ensure a safe delivery.

The Feydaks skillfully navigated these minute interactions, mindful of both the natural stress of labor and the potential for complications from their own interventions.

"Aren't you finished yet, Fullbright?" the male Feydak called out to the engineer, sweat beading on his brow. "I'm reaching my limits here, damn you!"

"Gods, this is tough," the other Feydak agreed. "They said it was an emergency birth, but something felt off. I should have known this was a setup."

"How were we supposed to know we'd be delivering Lord Koleson's child?" the engineer retorted, rising from his seat. He grabbed four cables from the ground and strode towards the woman.

"We all thought we were doing charity work. My mentor even said it would count as extra credit towards my classroom application."

Suddenly, the thought of his mentor, a fellow Fullbright, offering a dismissive apology flashed through his mind. A vein pulsed in his forehead. "That son of a bitch knew exactly where he was sending me!"

"High-ranking births are often complex," the Feydak explained. "That's why prominent families have dedicated Korindts with full staffs to handle such situations. A woman's body undergoes incredible changes during childbirth – well, the human body is always a complex system, but labor intensifies it. It's incredibly challenging to manage everything without potential complications."

"That's why we Feydaks focus on manipulating our own biology," another Feydak chimed in. "It's far easier than working with someone else's body."

"Can you all please stop whining and hurry up!" a man hissed from the shadows at the back of the room. He watched the proceedings anxiously.

This was Mascious Gravit, a retainer of House Severidt and servant to the Lady in labor. And judging from the looks that this exhausted birthing party threw his way, was the one who orchestrated this clandestine operation.

"Fine, fine," the engineer grumbled. He hoisted the four cables he'd retrieved, their pins exposed. One by one, he inserted them into the woman: one in her skull, one in her heart, and two in her womb.

Returning to the platform from which the cables had sprung, he pressed a button. A runic circle appeared above the woman's body, and the platform's screen split into multiple displays, detailing her temperature, heart rate, vitals, blood work, and any irregularities detected.

Medicine, shock, relaxants, and solvent herbs were dispensed when needed from the ends of the needles depending on the body's state. Excess fluid was taken out and pumped in when needed, protrusions, aberrations, and mutations were destroyed when detected.

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In essence, the machine, when whirred to life, regulated and stabilized the woman's body.

The Feydaks relaxed into a moment of respite, one of them expressing a newfound appreciation for modern technology replacing their arduous task.

Mascious, a man unfamiliar with such advancements due to his position within a minor noble house on the outskirts of civilization, peered at the screens with a puzzled expression.

He turned to the engineer for clarification. The engineer explained that he had skillfully woven a series of reflections – light, sound, and other waves – into the emerald crystal. This created a feedback loop, collecting data from the woman's body and allowing the platform, an automaton, to administer the necessary medical treatments based on that information.

As the machinations of the drive were explained, it sounded impressive, genius-like to Mascious, but the Engineer sounded off as if it were nothing more than a device made in an inconvenienced time. He was, after all, a medical engineer from the Fullbright family.

Mascious then recalled the engineer's surprising arrival at the hospital just before their emergency. The engineer had explained that his teacher directed him there, unaware of the complications that awaited him.

He assured Mascious that the woman had been placed in a state of semi-sleep to conserve energy for when she awakened.

Just as Mascious was about to express his gratitude, he sensed a disturbance in the entanglements he had woven around the hospital. He swiftly turned towards the window facing the city and saw a figure ripple with incredible speed across the edges of his veil.

"Is something wrong?" the engineer inquired.

"Someone is here," Mascious declared. The mood in the room shifted instantly, growing tense. The engineer muttered a curse, and the Feydaks exchanged worried glances.

"Continue with your work," Mascious commanded. "I'll handle the intruder."

Mascious ascended the steps with blinding speed and reached the roof of the Korindt. There, he found a man standing at the other end, gazing at the shimmering mirage that concealed the building.

A cool voice spoke across the distance between both men.

"An entanglement, subtly crafted to mask sound and light, creating an illusion of normalcy. Shadows moving in the closed windows, whispers from within—simple yet effective weaving. An ordinary person would be deceived,"

Mascious found a man with his hand held behind him looking out to the city. The man turned to Mascious.

He had long gray hair bound by purple rings, signifying his lineage within the Whytid family. He wore the layered Sifik of the Whytid garrison and guards, green trousers ending in thick leather boots, and a fisher’s inventory on his back containing his needle and reel.

"However, Sir Mascious,” he continued, “those seeking you are no ordinary people. You have absconded with one of the consorts of Lord Whytid. Don’t you think that to be rather rude?"

“What I find rude, my loyal guard, is the idea of my lady sitting as one of many consorts. No less than to that serpentine lord of yours," Mascious spat back, bracing for the effects of his words since the man he was speaking to had contorted his face into something serious.

“You would do well to watch your words. I am not your enemy, yet," said the man.

“Neither am I," Mascious said. “Now turn back, and we can yet remain guards and retainers who in common protect the the interests of their lord and lady."

There was a silver lining here, that being that the guard probably did not know that Lady Varessi was giving birth to Lord Koleson’s child. Mascious wanted to bear his fangs immediately, then suddenly, the image of a young Varessi bubbled into his sight.

The girl she was back then, bright like the sun, before she was sent to this place and the gloom took over her. Back then when she scolded him for being surprisingly violent and obtuse. Even though he looked impassive most of the time.

He remembered how she told him then to always try to reason with people. Heading first into violence was always ‘not cool’ she would say. Mascious listened to that little girl, and hoped that perhaps if he were gentle with his words he could turn the man away before he discovers that his Lady is with child.

Because Mascious knew, that no matter how kind this man may be, if he were to discover that Lord koleson has birthed another child, they would be forever chained to the family.

The words of House Whytid are Serpent Bound.

“My lady wants to leave," Mascious told the man. “Is she not granted even that? When she and I first set foot on the pier of the heart city, she was so full of life. But this family, your family, though certainly through no fault of yours, have ruined her."

“My Lady is tired. Please let her rest in her home of birth. Surely Lord Koleson is not wanting of consorts and bed warmers."

“True, my Lord certainly isn’t. But the serpent owns. And no one is to lay claim to any of his possession lest they be challenged to death," the man spoke.

Mascious’s fury was roused. ‘Owns’, ‘possession’, words used to describe his Lady. The woman he swore his life to. The utter disrespect. The brood of serpents that was the Whytid family were truly an incorrigible lot, he thought.

The little girl wavered in his vision, a look of concern gracing her face. Mascious wiped away the image. That girl no longer existed. And it was because of his wavering and weakness.

He won’t waver this time, however. He will kill this man, see to the birth of his Lady’s child and together they would return to their homestead, their manor, and things might just be again, like they were.

“Then let there be a challenge, your life or mine!" He roared.

At this declaration, both drew their weapons from their inventories in a swift motion. The guard pulled his needle from his reel inventory and Mascious pulled out Ivory from his own inventory. A milky white, spear-tip sword with a hilt the color of amber.

The guard flared his soul essence then imbuing his needle with it, enshrouding it in a nearly colorless miasma.

Mascious wove a heat reflection onto his weapon, igniting the white steel causing it go bright red. Then he too flared his essence and imbued the sword with it causing the heat of the area to swell and the bright red hue to evolve into a white glow so bright it pushed away the darkness of the night from the surrounding area. Then he took his stance.

It was then that the man, who Mascious squared against, noticed his stance. It was molded after one of the Solere martial stances. But, what stood out was how, Mascious, who seemed to have been nothing more than a country bumpkin from the fringes of civilization was able to strike that stance with perfection.

Then there was the heat that came from the sword. No normal man could make something of that strength unless he was at least comfortably in the ‘Reaching’ level. Meaning, he was not someone to underestimate.

The guard went into his mind and pulled from it, an Icy wind, merging it with the aura that embodied his needle until the weapon let out Icy gusts. It was fire and heat against Ice and water.

They struck at one another and at the point that their weapons kissed, a small storm belched from the impact. Below the residents in the birthing room looked to the ceiling above them as it trembled.

"Kidnapping one of Lord Koleson's wives is punishable by death, you know that?" the guard taunted. Mascious was acutely aware of this. He was also aware of the fact that the guard was probably stronger on account of him being one of Lord Koleson’s descendants.

But as a weaver, Mascious had tricks up his sleeve. His next move might not save him, but it could take the other man down with him. However, as he began to weave, a movement within the mirage caught his attention.

He scanned the surroundings, but saw nothing. Then his gaze fell upon the guard, who wore a knowing smile.

Mascious's eyes widened in terror as he raced back to the room where his Lady was giving birth. There, he found another guard, dressed in the same Whydit garb. Although the man ought to have given Mascious a cocky look, none of that appeared on his face as he scanned the room before him like he had just seen something profane.

The room fell silent, the Feydaks exchanged worried glances, unsure if they should continue their work. The engineer cursed his luck under his breath.

Mascious raised his hands in supplication and he begged again. "Please let my Lady have her child in peace." He begged.