The scream was impressive, or so THE KING thought with a smile. "They will be strong sons, if they are giving THE QUEEN this much of a fight," he chuckled to his chancellor.
"I have never been comfortable with the birthing process your majesty. If you please, may we complete the reports so I may retire from this place?", the chancellor stated from behind his scented hanky.
The maternity ward was adjacent to the main infirmary of Castle XXX. It was located 3 levels below the main court yard for added security, but this adds to the dreariness. While cleaned with a zeal that bordered on mania, the darkness and damp walls were depressing on those recovering from their battle wounds. It was the queen herself who brought the idea to the king to relocate the ward so near the fighting men. The reaction from the soldiers was immediate and was amazing. New life so close to near death reaffirmed and for many revitalized.
"Continue then", THE KING commanded.
"The WITCHES continue to cause much damage among the villages and the farms not within the protection of your majesty's family. Your generals are in agreement that if our forces were spread so thin this exercise by the enemy would have been over weeks ago."
"Your tone, you believe my generals are making excuses?" the king quipped. "I agree with you", he continued. "The royal family is a potent weapon against these magic users, since those powers affect us not. But we have other weapons and these must be better utilized."
"Yes your majesty, however there is no doubt that you are missed on the front. You nullify their powers for hundreds of yards, and the queen almost as much." With a sigh the king acknowledged the truth of this. THE KING and THE QUEEN were the two strongest bloodlines on the continent and the bane to THE WITCHES.
A quiet voice called, "Its time sire." The king eagerly rose and stalked into the ward with a huge grin greeting his worn wife. "My lady how fair you?" he asks taking a damp rag to her forehead. "Let me take this bottom lip and pull it back to your ass and you would know, you beast!!" Her tone was harsh but she matched his smile, even if a bit strained. The midwives where gathered round and the head nurse stated the baby was crowning. It appeared that THE QUEEN was about to comment, mayhap to comment on the future heir already crowned when a great scream rent the hospital.
At the same moment a huge flash of energy that the king vaguely recognized as magic knocked the occupants of the room flat, including, to his immense surprise, the king.
Moments ago and far closer than imagination could grasp, in another hospital...
THE MAGE leapt from his horse before it had completely stopped. He disappeared into the maternity ward while the grooms were still trying to calm the foaming beast. "My Lady! I am here just as I promised." Calmly THE WITCH looked up from the bed. Her eyes the only indication of the energies she was expending to block the labor pains, she indicated he should sit beside her.
"These beasts must breed like rabbits. No matter how many we kill they come back with more and more. And their weapons and tactics improve every year." He lay his head on her chest and she stroked his hair, still jet black tied back in a long tail. "We hold the forest with will alone; I do hope you will be able to aid in the defenses after the twins are here. Your power is sorely missed"
"I will do what I can of course my love, with the boys in my arms if need be." She looked at his profile seeing both the boy she fell in love with so long ago and the reluctant ruler who was starting to show the strain of both the crown and the war.
"What?" he asked noting her stare. "My love for you is as strong as the earth and as deep as the sea, you have made me the happiest..."
Her cry shocked all in the room, there was no pain among the TALENTED during childbirth, not when the will alone could vaporize a castle wall. All the nurses and the even the guards were blood relatives, all magic users, and all were about to experience something never before recorded in their history.
Spontaneously a visible surge of magical energy was pulled from everyone within 20 paces of the suddenly shrieking mother to be. The nimbus clouds of power flew toward the bed and struck THE WITCH. She immediately arched off the bed and stopped her crying. Collapsing she gasped," The children!?"
The crone who had birthed both the woman lying before her and her mother before that, stared in disbelief.
And across a chasm too narrow to measure yet impossible to bridge, both parents were faced with the same impossibility, they were parents of one healthy boy. Of the twin there was no sign.
And so two brothers were born.
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