Present Day - 2020 A.D. (0 A.R.) - February
I would’ve put all the money I never had that I would never be in this situation. I’m not a doctor. I’m a goddamn sorcerer! Yet here I am in a very nice longhouse complete with comfortable, living adirondack furniture capable of adjusting itself like an old school recliner. As befitting a place to comfort pregnant women, there were nice glass dishes and very nice stone tables and several vases full of recently picked flowers. And I stood there . . . with six pregnant women staring at me with very high expectations.
All of them were in varying states of pregnancy, two of them in that glorious glowing phase in the second trimester, two that looked like their babies were about to kick the door down, and the last two were fighting the queasiness of the first few months. So I took this challenge on like a man! I manhandled it. Or I would have, if I didn’t have six male Aelven husbands also looking at me with great expectations.
I didn’t really know what to make of the Aelven men. They seemed pretty normal, generally what you’d expect from a civilized elf if you’d never met one before. They wore nice, long robes the color of golden desert sand and all of them had blonde hair. There were few differences, their choice of weaponry, eye color and different hairstyles. These good lookin’ bastards coulda been sextuplets for all I knew. Barring the obvious, they could easily pass for each other. But despite how strange it was, it didn’t stop me from noticing that they came from wealth or had a rich benefactor.
To start, their bows were finely lacquered works of art but their blades said more about them. Three of the Aelven men had long curved daggers as long as my forearm, perfect for slitting throats in the quiet of the night. Each dagger boasted beautifully shaped emeralds in the pommel. One Aelf boasted a fantastic hand and a half sword clearly marking him as someone who didn’t mind being your face getting some bloody business done. He leaned possessively over Lovera, clearly marking his territory but I was more concerned with how obviously sharp and overly enchanted that sword was. It glowed to my senses. The others stayed close at hand but were on the more relaxed side. The last two wore a brace of throwing blades across their chests and a fancier version of a machete at their waists. Black silver marked the edges of their blades, making me think they were meant for killing creatures of a more supernatural nature. Those men didn’t care how they killed you, they only cared about getting the job done as efficiently as possible.
I took this all in in a few seconds, refusing to wilt under the pressure of expectant feminine energy bursting with curiosity. Kraken whispered in my mind, echoing my own thoughts. [Control your will, control the room. Be the rock because you are the rock!]
[Damn right!] I replied. [I am the fucking rock.]
“So? Can you check?”
“Huh?”
“The babies!”
“Oh, right!” I sputtered, taking a deep breath. “Well, uh, this is way different than fixing wounds and regrowing limbs but I’m always up to try something cool.”
Every Aelven men glared at me. I gave a pitiful laugh. “Only because there isn’t a doctor around here, sheesh, cut me some slack.” The glares did not go away. “Fine, I’m a sorcerer of Flesh, able to heal and manipulate the body in any way I choose, so these fine ladies are in good care.”
I noted the varying states of discomfort, from the squirming second trimester ladies to the queasy first trimester two who were even more concerned than the two ready to pop.
“Okay, first and foremost ladies, have we used the flesh golem at all for any aches and pains? Have you done or tested any of its scanning functionality on yourselves?”
Lovera tentatively raised her hand. “Good! Good!” I said. “So, I’m going to check you last.” Her man’s glare intensified.
I wrinkled my nose at him. “Tone it down you tall, skinny desert skunk. You look like you couldn’t handle half a kid’s barbecue sandwich from Parkers.” I snorted. “What are you afraid of? Dessert? I know dog’s thicker than you.”
Lovera smacked me on the arm. “Don’t antagonize our guests. They’re good men. Aelven men can’t get fat, it’s not for lack of trying, they eat everything we feed them.”
Chewing on the inside of my cheek, exasperation drove me forward. “Fine, fine. Ladies, just give me your hands, that’s all I need to examine if everything is ok.”
None of the babies were normal. They were all fine, all completely healthy, wiggling children in varying states of gestation but that doesn’t mean a damn thing. They weren’t normal. Each baby had some measure of magic, either a core of mana pulsing like a second heart or an aura overlaying their body like a second soul that was just a bit too big. And I didn’t know how to talk about it or let them. I didn’t really know what I was looking for other than the fact that it wasn’t technically normal. Mundane humans don’t have brightly shining cores of mana behind their sternums or behind their diaphragm. And they certainly don’t have a soul that can radiate a second shell of that soul. Either their babies were clearly displaying signs of future magical potential or there was some crazy gestation process I wasn’t aware of that did this funky stuff.
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And there’s no way of approaching this gently with the women. So I did my best.
Coughing awkwardly, I met each of their eyes, slowly working from left to right. “All of your babies are healthy and happy and growing well.” The room filled with sighs of relief. “There’s more-” The entire room started to talk. Holding up both hands like a conductor, I raised my voice. “HEY! Let me finish. First! Sit down.” I lowered my hands slowly, their own bodies betraying them due to years of social conditioning.
“Again, ladies, Aelven men I’ve never met, all of your babies, every single one of them, they are all healthy. Each baby has the right number of fingers, toes, eyes, organs, all that good stuff. What I want to let you know is that none of your babies are magic-less. None of them are mundane.”
All of the Sun Aelves nodded sagely before big smiles broke their stoic countenance. “And I’m guessing you already knew that or expected something along these lines.” I said, to which I got more nods. Looking at Lovera who herself had a smile brighter than the sun, I asked, “Do they not talk? Is it a racial thing? What’s up with them?”
Uneasy looks were exchanged back and forth. Luckily, Lovera stepped in. “Okay, ladies, let’s make some introductions here. I’ll start.” Looking up over her shoulder from where she sat, the Aelven man with the hand and a half sword spoke up. His voice was soft but unmistakably masculine and deep.
“Great sorcerer. My name is Elgar, first of my name and second in command of our ambassadorial entourage here in the reborn Terra.” He inclined his head. “Well wishes be unto you.”
I nodded back, more ‘bro’ than formal but close enough for me. I was never for the high-life society, the gilded upturned noses that never learned how to play in the dirt. But these struck me more foreigners trying to make a good impression rather than lord their superiority over us. “Nice to meetcha’. I’m Benjamin but you can call me Ben. I helped this town find its feet and I’ll go scorched earth if anyone decides that its theirs for the taking.”
Rolling her eyes but angling her face so that her man couldn’t see it, Lovera continued. “And from the left, it's Stephanie with husband Toseen, Raquel and Arnskuur, Mikhaila with Aellurian, Martina with Umale, me and my husband Elgar, and Mai Lin with Kalderan.”
Mentally taking notes so I wouldn’t forget names or faces, I nodded along. “Okay, so it’s cool and all that we have babies on the way and more men to even out the unbalanced female to male ratio, but where exactly did y’all come from and why are you here?”
Elgar stood up straighter. Reaching into his robes, he pulled out a scroll and handed it to me. “I have here a writ of communion, a treaty of matrimony if you will. The Sun Aelves have established a small commune west of here. The valley is split by a river that feeds the Dunavant Reservoir. We wish to open our arms for humans seeking refuge as well as allow all Aelves governed by the Golden Queen access to these lands and those closer to your settlement.”
I didn’t like where this was going. Keeping my thoughts to myself, I took the scroll and scanned it magically. Not detecting any traps, I had Kraken verify my test. With his assent, I handed the scroll back to Elgar. “Read it to me, or just tell me what it says. Gimme the gist of it. Better not be some ‘stand down’ order or a ‘submit to my rule’ decree.” I joked.
Each Aelven man stilled, hands slowly making sure that they knew where their weapons were as they looked at each other. I kept my hand on Gungnir, leaning forward, fountains of mana locked away within my weapon humming within reach. “That was a joke but I see I touched a nerve.”
Lovera stood up slowly and motioned for the men to calm down. “Ben, I should have mentioned this first, but the Sun Aelves are a deeply matriarchal society. Just imagine England a hundred years ago but everybody loved their queen and would die for her the same way the Japanese did kamikaze raids for their emperor in World War II. Pretty close to the same idea here. No disrespecting the queen.”
Gungnir’s crystal blade glowed a soft purple as the speartip lengthened. I almost found myself licking my lips, hungrily anticipating violence before I stomped down the instincts of my dragon-enhanced body. “Didn’t mean to step on toes,” I muttered. “Let’s back up a bit here. Just tell me what the letter says.”
Elgar lowered his glare, his face draining of emotion as he unrolled the scroll and read it a few times before speaking. “This . . . this . . . I can’t believe it.” Lovera snatched it out of his trembling hand.
She read it twice before looking at me with disbelief. “It’s a marriage proposal!”
I joined in on the snatching, grabbing the scroll to read it. “This ain’t English! How the fuck are you reading it?”
The women rolled their eyes at me. The youngest one, Mai-Lin spoke up, “We’ve been learning their trade language for some time now. Also, the Flesh Golem is capable of incredible things, one of which is renewing the plasticity of the human mind making learning and data retention far easier than ever before. It’s as if our minds regained the ability to be knowledge sponges in the same way we talk about children picking up anything and everything!”
Damnit. It both really pisses me off AND amazes me when people think of cool ways to use my own powers in ways that I haven’t even thought of yet.