Chapter 253 A New Birth

"No, no no no no no!" repeated Aella, jumping to her feet and having to fly up to catch herself from falling. Her balance was off with the additional weight in front.

"Aella! Take a breath!" cried Precious, flying to her before she teleported away.

Aella appeared in the throne room, looking for Frederik. He wasn't there, so she teleported to his room. She was just about to teleport away to see if he was in the dining room when he opened the door.

"I'll see you in the morning, Varnin. We can speak more on that, then."

"Of course, Your Majesty."

He turned to look into the room and Aella all but snatched him into the room, shutting the door and sealing it with her earth, without even thinking about it.

"You did this!" she hissed in his face.

"What? Aella! Oh! I was so worried about you!" he cried, grabbing her shoulders and pulling her into a hug.

Aella was so stunned, her mind went blank. He was supposed to be upset, too. Angry even, but not happy!

"You just disappeared for months again, and then word got around that you had taken the Water Hero's powers and I figured you were off stopping some flood or another… wait, are you alright? You look kind of pale," he said, stepping back and holding her at arm's length while he studied her face.

"Pale?" she said slowly, then her mind snapped back into focus. "This is all your fault!" she hissed again.

"What's my fault?" he asked, confusion clear on his face.

"This!" she snapped, motioning to her belly.

Frederik's eyes widened and then the widest grin he had ever had in all the time she had known him appeared on his face.

"This is fantastic! Wow! I'm going to be a father! We're going to have a baby! Wow! I need a nursery! Maybe a wet nurse or two, since you're going to be busy all the time…" he started listing off things he needed to do to get ready for the new baby, pacing back and forth with excitement and joy.

"Frederik, I am not raising a kid," she growled, so low he almost didn't hear her.

"Aella, I know that," he said, turning to her.

"Wait, what?" She blinked a couple of times, shaking her head as if she had misheard him.

"Aella, you are a very busy person. There was never a doubt you wouldn't be the one raising the kids. I always knew I would be the one to raise them."

She didn't know what to say to that.

"So, what? I just pop babies out for you?" she snarled.

"Why are you so upset about this? I don't understand," he shook his head and came to stand before her. "Was that time with me… was it not good?"

She looked at the hurt look in his eyes and stepped back. When had this been about him? She was the one who was pregnant!

"I'm supposed to be sterile! I'm not supposed to have kids!"

He hung his head and was silent for a while.

"Does that mean, you're going to kill this one? If we do that math, counting back, it should be about ready to be born. If you would just let it, I will take it and you don't ever have to see it again," he said in a soft voice, not looking at her.

Aella opened her mouth in shock. She had killed a lot of kids in her life, and she had hated every moment of it. Not once had she ever wanted to have kids, because she didn't think it would be right. When the realm tried to force her to have kids, she almost destroyed the realm, and now, here she was, about to have a kid!

"Were you in on this with the realm?" she asked, gritting her teeth. They must have conspired against her!

"What are you talking about?" he asked, looking up at her with blue rimmed eyes.

She looked at his eyes and knew that he couldn't possibly be making this up. Stepping back, she started to pace. It was getting easier to move, as she adjusted to the new weight, but she wasn't happy as she realized it.

"The realm was trying to get me pregnant, which is why my pheromones were so strong. I almost killed everything when I found out, because I was done being controlled. The realm relented, and took away my pheromones and supposedly the ability to have kids. I thought when you… when that night happened, that the time of the full moon was over and it was a real thing, instead of just a hormone reaction," she tried to explain.

"Aella, it wasn't during the full moon. If the realm took away your chance of having kids, then why are you pregnant now? Have you asked the realm? There weren't any pheromones influencing me that night. I really do love you. I've loved you every since you didn't kill me in the pits. The reason I reacted so strongly to your pheromones was because it enhanced my feelings for you."

She stopped pacing. He made a good point, why hadn't she asked the realm?

"Realm, what the hell is going on?"

There was no response. Her frown deepened.

"Realm!"

Still nothing.

"Frederik, I'll be right back," she said, turning to teleport, and he jumped at her, grabbing her shoulder, so she took him along with her.

His eyes traveled up the tree, stunned at the size of the world tree, as Aella connected with it to see what was going on.

"Aella, something is wrong. I can't seem to figure out what though," the tree told her as soon as she arrived. "The realm is stable, but it's not responding to anything I try to do, to communicate with it."

"What do I do?" asked Aella with a frown, forgetting she was pregnant and focusing on the problem of the realm.

"I'm worried there might be a problem. I've not had contact with the realm since you came back from the land of the dead," said the tree.

"How do I fix something if I don't know what the problem is?" asked Aella, frustrated.

"If the realm is compromised, to the point it can't function, someone else will need to step up to do it," said the tree carefully.

"That would be my job," said Aella exasperatedly, "but how do I do that?"

The world tree was silent for a moment, and Frederik stepped up next to her, laying his arm on her shoulders.

"Aella, I need you to look at me, please," he said, turning her to face him.

"Frederik, I don't have time to deal with you right now, the realm is in trouble."

"I know Aella, but this is important to me," he said.

With a sigh, Aella turned to him, to argue, and saw actual tears falling down his face.

"What's wrong with you? I'm not going to kill the kid if you're willing to take it."

"Aella, if you do this, stepping up to run the realm, you might lose the baby," he said softly.

"What?" she turned to the tree.

"It's true. I just asked him if he was willing to raise the child if it were born now, so you could do this," said the tree.

"Wait, what am I doing, exactly!" she demanded.

"Aella, the realm is defenseless at the moment. Something happened when you killed off and sent away both of the demons who were trying to corrupt it, and now it's not responding to either of us. I can feel that it shouldn't be having issues, because of all of the new gargoyles we introduced, but… The only way to save the realm is if someone is willing to replace the last entity."

Aella was silent. She finally understood what the tree was saying. She would become the realm itself, instead of just the King of the Realm.

"I was just supposed to be the Demon King to survive and get out of the pits," she said softly.

"The child you carry is old enough to survive outside your womb," said the tree. "Are you willing to run this realm? If not, I need to find someone who can. I need to make sure the realm I am in is secure."

Aella looked back at Frederik. This was not what she was thinking, when she started on this path. How had things gotten so bad, so fast?

"I will do it," said Precious, jumping at the tree and clinging to the bark with his claws. "I understand what is needed and am willing to go."

"But you wanted to get a chance to have babies with that behemoth of Stella's," said Aella, trying to get her mind to work.

"Maybe this will impress her," he said with a smirk, and then he was gone.

A massive cramp hit her, and Aella grabbed her belly. Frederik grabbed her arm, and the tree shot out a root, wrapping it around her and ripping her from Frederik's grasp. Aella barely had time to cry out before she was completely engulfed by the tree.