Seidrik reached for the child and whimpered as they lay it on his chest for a singular moment. Before he could sit up, the child was taken away, its small mouth open and whimpering in little sobs.
Stamel took the child for a moment, his voice cracking as he said something, and Virion pulled away, presumably taking the child with him. Seidrik reached for them through the haze and cried out as his belly continued to squeeze.
Jori ordered him to push, to continue on the journey.
“My baby…” Seidrik obeyed, though, despite being so confused. His body distracted him as he pushed again. But what moved within him felt larger than afterbirth.
“Keep pushing!” Jori grabbed his knee and wrenched it to the side, and Seidrik struggled, crying out after every breath.
“My baby. What—what’s wrong? Please, tell me.” The urge to push had Seidrik screaming again, and hisbody convulsed. Stamel pinned his shoulders, voice urgent and whispering and maybe Seidrik thought he’d not birthed the child yet, that he’d imagined it, because he stretched open and burned, the pain familiar but different.
“Breech.” Jori’s voice cut through the frantic surroundings. The voices echoed, the trickle of the font drowned out by urgent voices until something tugged at his body, wrenching his insides until the pressure abruptly stopped, the pain ebbing to throbbing pulses. Cries, beautiful and shallow, rose amid the silence. And the babe that they lay across his chest contorted and whimpered, fingers clawing at the air. And instead of the red he recalled, the child had a shock of white hair, as pearlescent and pale as any prince of the Liaberos line.
“I thought…he had red hair?” Seidrik held the child to his chest and breathed shallowly, panting as Jori pressed in his belly.
“He doesn’t,” Stamel said, his voice a nervous chuckle.
“But he does,” Virion laughed as he stepped closer, in his arms a small bundled babe, as red of hair as Stamel. Their cries synched, little soft whimpers, those of a newborn filling Seidrik’s ears with joy. “Twins.”
“Two?”
“Astra.” Seidrik smiled at the little red-haired one.
“And for him?” Stamel gestured toward the babe on his chest. “Our gift from the sun.”
“Solas.” Seidrik sat up with the aid of Jori and took the other child into his arms. They were so small. Smaller than Ahran had been or even Lyrica. “The sun and stars. Astra and Solas.”
Stamel stared at the children in awe, hands going from one head to the next to brush through their wispy hair. “So small…”
“They didn’t feel it.” Seidrik huffed.
“And this is why you need regular checkups! Nilla did her best, and I applaud her, but if we’d caught this early, it’d have been a lot less stressful.” Jori busied himself between Seidrik’s legs doing something that involved a needle and thread. He barely felt it, but with each stitch, the burn and ache grew less and less.
From there, Jori cleansed him and had Stamel carry him through the catacombs and up into the main castle where the family waited. Jori and Virion followed, each with a babe in arm.
Nemiah, Saria, Pallosar, Ingred, Tyran, Askara, and Kershai glanced up from where they sat, confusion in their gazes as they glanced from one babe to the next.
Lumic returned a moment later, holding two babies, both with fresh swaddlings. With wide eyes, he glanced from Jori to Virion and to the proud parents. “By the law…”
“Let it be known. You’ve had one set of twins, and it’s a good chance you’ll have another set. Unless you’re ready for twins again, stay on the nightflower and honeythistlereligiously.” Jori glanced to Seidrik for a moment. “Perhaps more than religiously, in your case.”
Seidrik sighed. “I plan to.”
Stamel gave him a lingering stare that made his cheeks burn.
Jori elbowed him and glared. “No babies for at least a year or two. Healing needs to happen.”
“Speaking of healing.” Askara approached Seidrik with a vial in hand, extending it to him. “A gift from the goddesses. You are permitted to take.”
Having birthed in the font’s chamber, vitalis was one with him already. He graciously opened and drank the salusis, letting his first taste flood his body with the moon’s gift.
Stamel knew what to do, pushing forward with him to the window as everyone passed and held the newborns. Together, they stood on the balcony and looked up at the moon.
“Auntie goddess, moon above—” Stamel started.
Let me see them.
Before Stamel could turn, Virion and Nemiah strode out with the little ones, holding them up to the moon. “Astra and Solas.”
