“Kamisdel is asking for you to look into brokering a deal with Sayen over land rights,” Al said, summarizing the letter.

“Mmm,” Caudin responded, biting his nail while his leg bounced.

“Essentially, he was wondering if he could create posts for ore production and a supply chain and what the cost would be.”

“Mmm.”

Al put that missive onto the top of the very tall “unanswered” pile for the day. “Duke Agrieson sends his regards and wants to point out that Breaverie continues to test Arvonne’s eastern borders in skirmishes.”

“Mmm.”

“He requests the addition of-”

“I can’t,” Caudin said, standing and walking out of the room.

“Sire!” Al said, scrambling to catch up to him. “You asked me to keep you occupied!”

“I know and I thank you, but I can’t do this anymore.”

“You can’t go in there! Men aren’t allowed!”

He stopped. “I know. I’m going to be in the way. It’s gory. Women don’t want men to be involved, and I respect that. But, we’ve been there for each other through everything. It feels wrong to abandon her now, especially since she’s early and their may be complications.”

Caudin continued walking towards the royal apartments. Al couldn’t find an argument. While he’d fight with most men in this situation, he recognized that they were a bit special, all of them. “I’m sure she already has a soft wizard helping her, so I won’t interrupt that. Besides, Teleure suggested that I not help women in labor. Our level might actually harm the process. But, I can help afterwards. And I’ll stay next to you, unless Anla says ‘no’.”

“Thank you, Wizard.”

Al heard the crying moans far before Caudin did, but he also heard the soft, encouraging commands and knew she was doing well. “Things are progressing as they should,” he told his king.

“Good,” he said, relaxing.

They stood in the doorway and Caudin waited until he could catch the eye of Alistad. She carefully cleaned her hands and walked over to him. “The baby isn’t here yet, Sire,” she said, curtseying.

“I know, but I can’t stay away any longer. Tell the women I’m going to sit by my wife.”

Alistad frowned, but said, “Yes, Sire.”

They watched as she relayed the command to the midwife, who shook her head vehemently. “What?” Anla asked. “What’s going on?”

“The Emperor would like-” the midwife began Anla interrupted her.

“Is he here? Bring him here, please.”

Caudin ran in and took the soft wizard’s chair. He kissed her forehead and smoothed back her hair before grabbing her hand.

“This hurts,” she said and he laughed when she smiled.

“I’ve heard as much.”

“I thought you were doing important paperwork.”

He waited until the contraction had passed until he said, “It’s not that important. Al did his best to distract me, but I didn’t want to be there.”

For the next few hours, he encouraged her and spoke to her as she gritted her teeth every few minutes and groaned through the pain. Finally, the midwife encouraged her to push. She almost crushed Caudin’s hand when she did so. He wisely said nothing, waiting until finally the midwife, the attendants, and Alistad all cried softly. A few moments later the babe sucked in a lungful and cried.

“Congratulations, Your Esteemed Radiances. It’s a boy,” Alistad said, holding the baby for them to look.

“Hey,” Caudin said softly, rubbing a knuckle on his son’s cheek. He looked at Anla with a huge grin on his face. “I think he looks more like you than…what’s wrong?”

Her face was still contorted in pain. “It’s not stopping.”

“Alistad, what’s wrong?”

She quickly brought the baby to an attendant and grabbed the midwife. She quickly looked at the situation and exclaimed, “Oh!” before sitting at the stool at the foot of the bed again. “Just push, Your Radiance.”

“Push?”

“Yes, push.”

The bells from the nearest temple of Beliforn rang out and they could hear the cheers from the people near the palace.

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“What passes?” Caudin asked, holding on to Anla’s hand again.

“Nothing to worry about, Sire,” the midwife said, turning her attentions to Anla. “Yes, he’s crowning. Good. One big push…breathe…once more, Your Radiance…and there.”

She held up the second child, another boy, and he cried almost as loudly as his brother. Caudin blinked for several moments before turning to his wife. “You didn’t tell me you were having twins.”

“I didn’t know!” she said. “No one said anything!”

“I’m sorry, Your Esteemed Radiances,” Alistad said, not looking terribly sorry. “I suspected when you were early and how you were carrying, but there’s no way of knowing until the moment.”

“Oh,” Caudin said.

Al slowly crept into the room and stood next to them while they held their sons. “Congratulations,” he said. “I, uh, heard it was traditional to get a stuffed animal as a gift for a new child. I’m going to have to get another one.”

“Thank you, Wizard. Do you want to hold one of the babies?”

“Sure!” He took the boy from Caudin’s arms and sat on the bed next to Anla. “Which one is this? Aubin or Caudin?”

The bells of the temple rang again. This time the crowd paused, then cheered even more loudly once they had figured out what the additional sound meant. “This is the first born,” he finally answered, “but he won’t be an Aubin.”

At that moment Telbarisk chose to enter, bringing two carvings he had made of the large squirrel-like creatures from Ervaskin called titaskrees. “You knew?” Al asked.

“You didn’t know?” he asked stopping short. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know that you didn’t know.” He placed the figurines on the side table and took the baby Anla was holding.

“Telbarisk could almost fit him into one hand,” Al joked.

“They are small babes. I think they look like their mother, though. Their ears point a little bit in a strong way, not like mine did when I was a newborn.”

“Your ears pointed?” Caudin asked, breaking momentarily from his examination of his son.

“Yes, but that might be because I’m part elf.”

The quartet laughed at his joke. “The tallest of my brothers,” Anla said.

“What was that about him not being called Aubin?” Al asked.

“For some time we’ve felt the hands of higher beings meddling in our lives. I suddenly don’t feel it’s a coincidence that a god who is a twin helps bring us together to save a country, then we have twins to rule each of our holdings.” Caudin took his son back from Al. “This one will be called ‘Magrithin’ and his brother will be called ‘Kabidin’.”

“Oh, I don’t think they’ll like that, Sire,” Al said.

“It doesn’t really matter,” he said, smirking. “When I asked them to accept me as their king, I made it very clear that I was going to value being a husband and a father over being a leader. And as a father, I will name them whatever I please, so long as my wife agrees.”

She smiled. “I think they’re very lovely names indeed. But, I get to choose their middle names.”

“Agreed,” he said, kissing her.

* * *

Ten Years Later

“Are there bears? Mommy? Are there bears? Are there bears?”

“No, pawl,” Anla said. “No bears.”

“Are there bears?”

Caudin grabbed his son around his waist and pulled him onto his lap. “No bears,” he said when he turned around to look at his father. “But, there might be hungry lions!”

The carriage was filled with shrieks and laughter as the Emperor of the Northern Midlands tickled his third son, Prince Caudin. It might be undignified if anyone had witnessed it or he had been older than two, but since it was neither, it was just a wonderful, family moment.

“So, will you tell me now where we’re going?” Anla asked. “It’s some place not terribly far from Eri Ranvel. Some place near water. I can hear waves lapping against the shore and gulls.”

“Shall we tell Mummy?” Caudin asked his son. “Tell her…” He whispered in his ear.

“Yashka!” their son said proudly.

“Yashka?”

“No, it’s Biashka,” Caudin corrected.

“Oh, the perfume place? Well, this has been a long time coming.”

“It has. I thought we might actually want to go to the place I’ve been talking about visiting for the better part of a decade. I loved it here as a child.”

She looked out the window. “Is Biashka on the coast? We couldn’t have traveled that far…”

“No. Biashka sits on a large inland sea called Meritraume. Some of the beaches have black sand.”

“Like Genale,” she said.

“Yes, and a few other places I’ve been to over the years.”

“I can see a beach from here.” She turned, excited. “Let’s stop here.”

Caudin opened his mouth for a moment, then closed it. They’d had a Talk a few weeks prior about what was okay for her to shirk decorum on and what wasn’t. She had pointed out that some things were too stifling and that he should really pick his battles. She would be more vigilant if he would relax. And so, he didn’t think the family heading to the beach for an hour or so would ruin plans for today by that much.

The carriage stopped and the three of them stepped out, followed by the four other children in the other two carriages. The twins immediately ran to the sand and began exploring. Little Caudin, still unsure on his feet, had to stumble his way over pebbles, rocks, and holes to get to his older brothers, who grumbled at his appearance.

Ebridet and Petulet stepped out more daintily, holding their skirts up and standing next to their mother. “The beach?” Ebridet said. “It smells.”

“You know Auntie loves the beach,” Caudin said. “We used to come here when we were little.”

“Oh,” she said, brightening. “If Auntie likes it, then I should learn to like it, too.”

“Auntie should also like asparagus,” Anla whispered to Caudin.

“That can be arranged.”

It took a little while for the girls, but after fifteen minutes all five children had warmed to the beach. Anla and Caudin stood and watched their children play. Her hand crept into his and he turned to see her eyebrows knotted. “What’s on your mind, ainle?”

“I was just wishing that there was some way to freeze this moment. There is a lot of love here.” She turned to face him. “Soon enough Kabidin will have to train to take Sayen, and Ebridet will go to Kinto. I don’t want them to leave. I want this.”

“It was always going to be our trade. We can be rich, rule the country, and be together, but our children will have to rule other places far from us.”

“Saying it aloud doesn’t make it easier.”

He stood behind her and slid his arms around her waist. “I’ll make sure we return here as often as we can for as long as possible. But, someday all we’ll have are memories about beaches, just as you and I had when we were younger.”

“Mmm, that does put things in perspective. If nothing else our children will have happier childhoods than we did.”

“Though likely less interesting adulthoods. At the very least, their courtships will be absolutely dull next to ours.”

She smiled, but said, “It was complicated. I don’t think anyone would envy that part. But, once we finally admitted we loved each other, it was wonderful. Even through the terrible things that happened, we still loved each other deeply and we fought with everything we had for each other.”

“You’re right. I wish them to know that. Maybe less of the other stuff, but I hope they can have what we have.”