Lucas found himself back in his soul space without any conscious thought between his last moment and this one. He recalled his most recent foray into the material plane. Life as a warg had been different, if not exactly the life of learning and leisure that he wanted. He had gained several nice skills, but he was starting to worry. This would be his fifteenth reincarnation since completing his great quest.

I hope I don’t have too many lifetimes without access to the system, he thought to himself. If the memories from multiple lifetimes built up on his soul without being properly processed, it could cause issues. He also needed to acknowledge all of the notifications that he had gained from just before his last death as a human to now. Lucas disliked having those messages pending for too long as they increased the load on the spell that quite literally held his soul together.

No reason to fret. If this one isn’t enough to get me access to the system as a sentient then I’ll force the next one. No matter how much we progress, there will always be murderers and rapists that I can possess, Lucas thought to himself.

Lucas didn’t have time to ponder too deeply on the effects of the notifications on his soul or the relative morality of possessing a criminal. One moment he was in his soul space and the next he was descending through the clouds to a small homestead. There was a main house made from rough cut lumber, an outbuilding that Lucas assumed was a small barn, and a well maintained little garden.

This looked like the perfect setup for his next life. Lucas drifted down through the ceiling to see a human woman of about sixteen years laying on a straw mattress, legs splayed, with an older woman at the foot of the bed. The amount of blood covering the sheets was excessive. Lucas had “participated in” a significant number of births and he knew that something was not going well here. The young woman giving birth had crimson red hair and extremely pail skin. Her eyes were squeezed shut in pain. Her jaw was clenched. But there didn’t seem to be much life left to her. Any midwife had the [Relieve Pain] spell long before she was allowed to attend a birth on her own. The only time the spell was withheld was in times of significant distress where the unborn child could die if the mother wasn’t able to follow commands or keep breathing regularly.

Looks like I’ll be human this time, Lucas thought to himself. He had no worries about the woman who was likely to be his mother. The spell that kept him going throughout eternity would stabilize the woman and provide some his essence to keep her alive until she was stable. An unfortunate number of lives as an orphan had required that particular modification. As he felt his soul spin out a tether to the child and mother he began to prioritize skills and spells that he may need. Even after all this time and with the upgrades made throughout the millennia, the process required all of his effort. The soul just wasn’t meant to house so much.

I’ll finally have a life of peace. No great quest. No paladins and inquisitors destroying my childhood. No stupid cuckoo birds killing me as soon as I was born. Maybe this time I can just enjoy growing up, Lucas thought. He quickly selected a dozen skills that would give him an advantage and began to focus on ensuring those were in the appropriate locations. No point handicapping myself, he thought as he focused on the section of his soul where the skills [Quick Learner] and [Precocious] were housed. Working by memory and through an intense knowledge of his soul he was able to ensure those skills were on the first layer. Maybe I’ll finally give myself some sort of system interface for the next time, he thought. Making the process more streamlined was something that he had always intended to do but had never been able to devote the time to.

As his soul began to compress itself like the most complex origami sculpture in the universe, Lucas heard the midwife shout out, “That’s it lass, one more push and we’ll have you a healthy baby boy. Don’t give up, just puuush!”

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Lucas’ consciousness faded to black and the young woman on the bed let out one last incoherent yell. Into the world for the first time in almost eight hundred years the [Soul Strider] was reborn.

+ + + + +

The woman lying on the bed finally relaxed. She didn’t know where that final miraculous boost of energy had come from, but she knew that without it she would not have survived this. She was only holding on by a thread and had fought to try to ensure her baby would survive, but she was on the verge of giving up. Maybe the midwife had done something. Gerta was incredibly knowledgeable and had birthed every member of the village for the past three generations at Emmit’s Lake.

The woman heard a sharp slap and a wail as her baby boy let the world know that he was here. She heard the floorboards creak as Gerta brought the child up to her the head of the bed and placed a teat in the baby’s mouth, allowing it to suckle. As the weight of her child settled on her chest, the young redhead received a prompt.

Congratulations!

You have given birth to a child.

Racial Experience gained: 1000.

What would you like to name your child?

She thought for a moment. She knew that Stan had his heart set on Stan Jr., but she felt an overwhelming desire to name the child something different. She recalled the story of the Hero of Red Pass. How he had fought against an entire army from the Church of Eros and held them for thirty days in the pass while outnumbered one hundred to one. Her baby boy was like that, fighting against the odds to survive.

“Lucas,” she said. “I’ll name you Lucas.”

You have chosen the name Lucas for your child.

This name is permanent once set. Are you sure you would like to name your child Lucas?

[Yes]

[No]

The woman selected yes and closed her eyes. She knew that Stan would agree that Lucas was a wonderful name for their child. At least, he would once he got done sulking. He could always pick the dedication name. With a gentle smile on her lips, the woman went to sleep with her child on her chest.

+ + + + + +

Gerta left the woman with her child and stepped out of the bedroom into the living room of the small home. She wasn’t sure what turned it around. Near the end she thought that she was going to have to cut the child out after the mother died, but something else happened. In front of her eyes, the mother’s skin became warm and flushed again. Her breathing became even and unlabored. Even the child came out breathing calmly with eyes opened. She only slapped him because she didn’t really know what to do.

The father, Stan, was standing next to the fireplace. There was a kettle of boiling water secured over the roaring flames. Stan’s worry as he turned to Gerta was obvious. Not too many roaring fires in the springtime, and nobody had actually asked Stan to boil water.

“So, how are they?” He asked.

“It was a difficult birth, but your wife and son will be fine,” stated Gerta.

Stan immediately stepped in and crushed Gerta in a massive hug. “Thank you,” he said with tears running down his cheeks. “Thank you so much.”

Gerta allowed the hug to go on for a few seconds longer and then placed a bony elbow directly into Stan’s sternum. “Alright, alright,” she said, “that’s enough of that. I need you to start cooking a meal. Your wife is going to need a broth or soup when she wakes up with a small beer. If she tolerates that then she can start eating solid foods. She lost a lot of blood. For the next few days make sure she is constantly drinking fresh water and has red meat with at least one meal. If you can get your hands on a beef liver, it’ll speed up her recovery and prevent an expensive visit to the healer. You’ll also want to prepare new sheets or maybe even replace the mattress,” she said. “Like I said, there was a lot of blood.”

Stan stood looking at her blankly for a moment then immediately rushed into the kitchen where he was likely going to destroy his poor wife’s pantry. Gerta shrugged and headed out the door and back towards her cottage on the other side of the village. She had just enough time to swing by the inn and have one or two glasses of wine before it got too late in the day. She deserved it after that birth. She wasn’t going to question where the magic that saved mother and child came from.