“Let her breathe, dear.” Bytra chuckled, dragging the Eldritch-troll hybrid away to watch over the kids. “Sorry, Kami. You know how overprotective Zor is.”
The Raiju said while taking a cart full of snacks of all kinds and a recliner from her dimensional amulet, proving that despite her words she was no different from her spouse.
As for Kamila, she was still speechless. The eight gap of over half a meter (2′), among other things, made her feel like a child.
‘By the Great Mother, if her breasts were hollow, they could store mine and still have plenty of space left.’ Actually, her thoughts and Orion’s weren’t so different.
Ryla had a sweet expression filled with genuine enthusiasm as she looked around at everything and everyone that made her lovely. Now that she had folded her wings behind her back, the only signs of her inhuman nature were her pale blue skin and six eyes.
Yet the color of her skin made her exotic rather than freaky and for someone used to Lith, the six eyes were far from upsetting. To make matters worse, the Fomor kept only two of them open to better fit in with her hosts so the extra eyes were reduced to thin black lines resembling tribal tattoos.
“Ryla, this is my wife Kami, I mean, Kamila.” If Lith had noticed her distress, he hid it as well as Jirni. “Kami, this is Ryla. She’ll be our guest until Faluel can find a permanent accommodation for her.”
‘At this point, I should be used to meeting drop-dead gorgeous women.’ She thought while her lizard brain screamed in panic despite logic dictated otherwise. ‘Yet between the wings, the eyes, and those weapons of mass distraction I can’t help but feel threatened.
‘She has more things in common with Lith than I ever will and size isn’t an issue since he can grow much, much taller.’
“Nice to meet you.” Kamila actually said while extending her hand. “If there’s anything you need, feel free to ask. You and Garrik are welcome to stay here for as long as you need.”
“The pleasure is all mine.” Ryla took the hand with both her own, giving Kamila a deep bow yet her head was still high enough to look down on the human woman. “I’d like to introduce my son to our benefactor, but it’s his first time meeting other children. I hope you won’t mind.”
Both women turned around to see Garrik and the others play together in a weird game of tag that involved a leather ball and plenty of chore magic.
“Not at all.” Kamila shrugged. “I’m just surprised he isn’t scared of open spaces after living underground for so long.”
“That’s because each room of our prison was spacious and we even had an inner garden.” Ryla replied. “Glemos didn’t make us miss anything, aside from freedom and happiness, of course. We- Great Mother almighty, congratulations!”
The Fomor brought Kamila’s hand to her lips and kissed it.
“I beg your pardon?”
“For the baby, I mean. When is it due?”
“How do you know about that?” Kamila instinctively looked down at her still-flat belly. “I thought that Fomors were evolved humans and that your senses were similar to our own.”
“They are.” Ryla nodded, conjuring an ice mirror in front of Kamila’s face.
Her skin was full of small black cracks where it had split into small scales and her eyes had now a vertical pupil. Elemental energy painted her eyes with different colors as they cycled between them.
‘This is not that kind of threat, little one! Calm down.’ Kamila blushed in embarrassment, taking deep breaths to slow down her heart and reassure Elysia.
“I’m sorry, pregnancy hormones drive me crazy from time to time.” She lied through her teeth, drawing an approval nod from Jirni. “It’s a girl and she should be born around the end of next winter.”
“A bit less than five months, then.” Ryla nodded. “If you ever need a babysitter, I’ll be glad to help.”
“Thanks, but at least that part is plenty covered.” Kamila pointed at Solus, Bytra, Zoreth, and over her shoulder, where Tyris stood guard, invisible. “Follow me, please, I’ll give you a tour of the house and show you your accommodations.”
***
A month passed, and many things happened during that time.
The Awakened Council kept its word, providing the citizens of Zelex with plenty of food and enough time to let the monsters say their goodbyes before starting to move them to Jiera.
The famine affected the Awakened no less than the rest of the population of the Garlen continent, but due to their long life and plenty of dimensional amulets, they had more than enough to spare for a single city for much longer than a month.
A single Emperor Beast ate in one day as much as dozens of monsters so with hundreds of them sharing the burden, they could have covered for Zelex’s provisions until the harvest if needed.
Syrah was true to his word, allowing Morok to travel freely to and from Zelex, recovering the priceless tomes that the Tyrant bloodline had accumulated over the millennia.
The Hati Queen still hated his guts, but with each visit her glare waned from “I won’t rest until I’ve wiped out your bloodline from the face of Mogar” to “Say one word and I’ll shove my hand up your ass, and use your corpse like a puppet.”
With no more food rationing or culls, and with Xagra slowly recovering from his father’s death, she couldn’t help but soften up. Her boy was still a boy instead of an adult like it would have been if he had been sent to the Gardens of Time.
For the first time in her son’s life, Syrah could afford to let him stop training like a warrior and live like a child. They could spend as much time with each other as they wanted with no rush or fear of tomorrow.
The members of the senate didn’t like to be poked and prodded by their Awakened cousins, but now whenever a woman became pregnant the event was celebrated instead of dreaded.
The Council was more than happy to provide the extra rations in exchange for the opportunity to study the development of the child’s life force from conception.
Aalejah Eventide spent a lot of time with her lost brethren, trying to learn from them the secrets of the crystals in exchange for lending her Yggdrasill staff. The presence of the artifact alone helped the members of the Council to study the Harmonizers and the Svartalf to recover more of their ancestral memories.
Aalejah used holograms to show them how elves lived within the Fringe hosting the World Tree and how Mogar had progressed since the Svartalf’s fall. She also shared with them everything she could remember about their race and its traditions.
Back when she was still an apprentice Chronicler of the World Tree, she had access to historical records dating up to the first Yggdrasil. Only knowledge deemed as precious had been forbidden to her and luckily for the orcs, they had been classified as a cautionary tale together with the rest of the fallen races.
