Worry

  Selia enjoyed being pregnant. She hadn’t been sure she would. She had lived for a long time, had seen many people in her surrounding carry a child. She had seen the struggle and the tiredness, the pain at times. But always, when asked, the women would say that they loved being with a child, that it was a gift. She never really understood that before.

  She did now. Perhaps it was her unique circumstances. She had advanced far beyond anyone she had ever known who was pregnant. Her constitution was much greater than most everybody else. She didn’t have the issues that probably everyone else dealt with. But she did have other ones. Her issues and fears came from not knowing. People on the peak of power were few, and those like them rarely had children.

  Her children had parents that each had a bloodline. They would inherit them for certain; in what capacity and manner, was still unclear. Which was one of the worries she had: the uncertainty.

  It was funny; she was conflicted in many different ways. A part of her wished that she was out on the front with Ryun and Erdania. She actually had little fear of combat, she was certain in herself and the power she wielded enough that she doubted there was anyone out there who could seriously put her or the children at risk.

  Ryun and Erdania were more worried about her fighting than she was. Part of the reason why she had remained back was to not give them more things to worry about while they were fighting. She didn’t need them distracted.

  The other part were her worries about how the children were developing. No one like them had ever had children before, and while she would like to fight, she needed to be watched carefully.

  “How are we looking?” Selia asked, trying very hard not to show any worry on her face.

  The kreacean sitting in front of her leaned back and looked up. “There are no changes, everything is looking good,” Tarsh Yuron answered her question.

  She sighed in relief.

  “Tell me again, what did you notice?” Yuron asked.

  “I don’t know how to describe it, it is more of a sensation,” Selia said slowly.

  Yuron didn’t comment, instead he kept waiting patiently for her to work out her answer.

  One of the things the two of them had quickly realized was that she was very different from his usual clients. She had advanced so far that her perceptions were incredibly high, and that she could feel Souls directly. He didn’t know the truth of it, not fully anyway, like her being an Axiom.

  “It’s… I guess the meaning of the Soul. For a split moment, I felt like I sensed something like that from the babes.”

  Yuron’s mandibles twitched. “I cannot speak on whether what you’ve felt is true or not. You are far beyond me in those areas. However, I’ve spoken to you before about how a Bloodline could be limiting to a child, yes?”

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  It took Selia only a moment to remember one of their first conversations on the topic. “I… yes,” she nodded.

  “I will need to do some more tests, and perhaps a prolonged continuous observation, to confirm. But it is my belief that this is related to that. You children might be setting into their affinities.”

  Selia’s brow furrowed. She had known that this was most likely going to be the case, but she didn’t really give it much thought beyond that. She couldn’t imagine that at all. She never had a constraint on what she could practice, what kind of an Aspect she could take. True, she was shaped by her family, but she always had a choice to pick any Path from within the Sect.

  Having her children be somewhat robbed of choice made her feel sad. They wouldn't be able to get anything other than the Aspects related to their Bloodlines. She knew that it was foolish to think about, especially since they would be born with advantages that no one else would. Not only the Bloodlines, but their parents too, Selia knew that they would be able to provide an education that very few in the world would be capable of even coming close to.

  “It’s not going to hurt them, is it?” Selia asked, letting her worries out. She rarely did so outside of her family, but Yuron had quickly become very close. Sometimes she did consider him part of her family; he had a big part in making her pregnancy possible. It seemed fitting.

  “There are no indications of anything like that,” Yuron’s mandibles curled upward in a smile. “Don’t worry, I’m keeping an eye on everything.”

  Selia sighed and nodded. “Thank you for putting up with my worries.”

  A chattering laugh escaped his mouth. “You are one of the easiest clients I’ve ever had, don’t concern yourself with such things. We are here so that you can speak openly about any concerns or fears you have. And it is my job to alleviate them.”

  “Of course,” Selia mirrored his smile. She was just about to ask him another question when the door to her inner chambers slammed open and one of her home guards entered.

  “Eternal Master!” The young human yelled, his eyes wide and expression uncertain. “A message just arrived from the Warden. An enemy force is on its way from the Ethereal Realm.”

  Selia took a deep breath and squashed any and all worries. Then she stood; it looked like she was going to see some combat after all.

  In the Ethereal, an army of Shades, Spirits, and armored cthul, waited as devices were placed and then activated. Energy built up in preparation of punching through the barriers between the planes, to open a portal to the Real Realm.

  For their services the Shades and Spirits had been paid in a myriad of things, some wanted power. Spirits wanted simple things, places to call their domain, hoards of Aspect Crystals, and the like. All of them now possessed physical bodies, skreen drones that had been changed by their possession.

  Shades wanted an increase in their power. Items that could help them overcome the limits of their nature. A Shade’s power only rose in strength, it never grew beyond the tier it was at the moment of their death. Every ring in their eyes designated a century of time spent in the Ethereal, an increase in their power.

  The cthul served as the commanders, as handlers. Most of the Shades and Spirits were willing to follow. Their wants and needs were basic, they wanted to cause mayhem. But not all, some had a more direct desire.

  One such Shade stood among the ranks of the army. A tall demasi Shade, with two broken horns on top of his head and many ringed eyes staring straight ahead at the devices thrumming with power in preparation for opening the portal

  The Shade was one of the oldest present, he had survived the Ethereal Realm for hundreds of years, thousands perhaps. He didn’t know. He had lost track long, long ago. His memory was a scrambled thing, but still, through all of it he remembered what was most important to him.

  Who was most important to him.

  The devices activated fully, the arcs of lightning curved from the two towers, meeting in the middle and crackling with sound, blazing with light. A rift tore wide in the fabric of the world, and a portal to the Real Realm was open.

  Terland straightened, then marched through, following the river of Shades and Spirits around him.