48 New life at the end?
Crap. How long has she been in that room? Did giving birth always take that long? They told me that she went into labour ehm.. one? two? hours ago?
Shouldn't it be done already? What's taking so long to press a lump of meat out of your body? Maybe I should go and take a look? Nono. I have bad memories about this.
Better to stay in my office and pretend to be hard at work. There are some of the best healers at her side, no need for me.
The door gets slammed open. "Found you!" Ireth gives me an unhappy glare and switches on the light. "How can you hide here while your wife is giving birth!"
"I don't know what I could do to help. And I didn't really hide...." Damn who would have thought that she would search in my dark office at three in the night!
"Come! A husband should be at the side of his wife at a time like this." I get dragged in front of the bedroom where almost everyone is waiting.
Inside a healer is taking care of Celes while Katrine is holding her hand. "You have to press!"
Ireth shoves me me into a chair to the other side of Celes. "Good to see you husband. I thought you were hiding somewhere like you always did." Celes gives me a forced smile.
"Me? Hiding from the birth of my child? Pah! Never!" I would never do something like that. What are you thinking of me.
"Then hold my hand." I reluctantly give her my hand. "Press now my lady, I think it turned into the right position." The healer calls out.
"Hnngh." *Crack**Crack**Crack*
OWW! I knew it! It hurts! You are the one supposed to suffer!
I don't know how long it took. But some time later everyone is in the room to take a look at the baby in Celes's arms, while the healer is trying to sort the bones in my right hand.
"Hmmm. This is a really complicated puzzle!" He murmurs to himself.
"Can you fix it or not!" I am getting nervous here.
"Not so hasty. Ah I think I have it, that bone belongs into the other finger! HEAL!" By all the gods, who employed that guy?
I take a look at the child while the healer is still trying to fix my hand. It smiles into my face. "Hehe. You look like an old man with all those wrinkles Aphrodium."
"He is NOT Aphrodium! His name is Aengus of Tirna to continue the tradition. A member of the royal line needs a strong name!" Ireth puffs her cheeks at me. She took the naming matter into her own hands when she heard of our little problem.
"Let me hold him." I take the child out of Celes's arms and smile at the wrinkled smiling face. Then I press a thumb at his forehead and search his mind and soul.
But all I find is the dim and weak flame of a newborn. "What are you doing?" Celes gives me a concerned look.
"Hahaha. Nothing I just took a look at his soul. The last thing I would have needed is that Seria played another joke on us and gave us someone who remembered his past life. I would find it creepy to educate someone who is already an adult person." Everyone gives me a concerned look.
"No problem really, he is just a normal dumb child, here look." I make a stupid face at him and he laughs. "Papa will have to teach you everything the good old way."
All family members let out a sigh of relieve. "I had feared my grandson wouldn't be a normal child either." Arthur hugs his wife.
"Was it really that bad with Celes?" I ask him. "You have no idea how creepy it is when your baby daughter suddenly explains to you that you made a mistake with the taxes." Arthur answers.
I look at Celes. "I think I was two. And he forgot a whole city in the annual tally!" Hrm, I tried at least to pretend to be a normal child.
*Boom*
The room shakes.
*Boom*
The palace shakes again a little. Crap, what's going on? Explosions? I take a look out of the window and can see a ball of light arching through the sky, coming down at the palace.
But a second before it impacts, it hits an invisible wall and disperses.
*Boom*
The palace shakes another time. Seems like the automatic defence against long range weaponry works.
The door opens and Drem enters the room. "Your majesties! You have to evacuate! An army suddenly appeared in the city and started to employ long range weaponry. The palace's shield isn't able to stop that for very long."
"How many?" -Me
"At least ten thousand my king! They are marching in this direction. Our army is completely out of place. We can't stop them before they take the palace down." Drem says with an urgent voice.
"Leave the palace with everyone you can find and retreat to safety. I will teleport my family out of here and join you later." -Me
Drem nods and runs out of the room. "I will go too. I need my generals." Arthur turns to leave.
"Stop! Are they inside the palace?" I stop him.
"No? It's late they are at their homes for sure. We didn't expect this at all." -Arthur
I give the baby to Celes and heave her out of the bed.
"Then it's better if you leave with us. It would be stupid to collect at a point where the enemy already has a strong foothold. We give them the palace, it's just a stupid building."
Another explosion shakes the palace and a little dust is coming from the ceiling. It's time to get out of here!
I teleport Celes and the healer, just to immediately return. Next are Ireth and Katrine. On my third trip I take Rose and Arthur.
When I reappear for the third time to get Nicosar, I am in the air..... falling! "Stone Skin!" I experience a second of weightlessness and impact on the ground. "Ouf!"
I get to my knees and see that everything is in ruins. Apparently the shield was broken and the private part of the palace was targeted first! "Nicosar!"
No answer! I turn around and can see a hand under the rubble. A swipe of my hand frees the geezer, who is already half healed up again, while the mist is reforming his body.
I grab him at the neck and teleport just a moment before another white ball curves down on our position.
When I reappear, I drop Nicosar to the ground. "Where are we?" I hear Arthur's voice. "It's dark, I can't see!" -Ireth
"Light!" I speak the command and the room is bathed in light. "You are in my research lab. It's the safest place I could think of."
"Safe? Wouldn't they attack the vital installations first?" Arthur is shocked. I run up to a console and hit a button.
The face of a technician appears on the screen. "Your majesty! We already wanted to contact you, but the communication line into the city was cut. A few people tried to gain access to the facility. The guards dealt with them. We didn't leave our posts because we feared to leave the installation understaffed."
"Good work. Man the control room. Power up all systems. The City is under attack." I cut the line before he can answer.
"I need to get to our military." Arthur stops me. "If you can tell me where they are likely to gather, I'll teleport you there. Otherwise you stay put." My answer baffles him and I walk past him and out of the room.
The whole facility starts to wake up and people run past me along the hallway. I walk about twenty meters and enter another room with a big door. Inside are already a few workers at their consoles.
A big screen is on the opposite side of the room.
Some are clearly controlling drones, while others are supervising my energy plant. On the screen is already a pretty good tactical map of the city.
"How is the situation?" I ask one of the officers, who are studying the big screen.
"It seems like they managed to teleport a big army right into the city's central park. Afterwards they set up heavy air defence and artillery. The palace is bombed to rubble and the little military we had in the city took a heavy blow. They knew exactly where they had to aim their first shots. Caserns, power and communication lines where taken out with the first volley." The man answers.
"This looks bad." Arthur says from behind and I turn around to see that Arthur, Celes and Katrine followed me. It seems like Ireth and the healer stayed with Nicosar.
I turn to take a look at the screen where a big red dot is spreading out into smaller dots while covering my city.
"No.... They sure have bad timing to do this on my son's birthday." I say with a grim expression on my face.
