A Jaded Life

Chapter 1317

Once the initial interviews Jess and I had held were done, I briefly checked whether the other women who had spoken with Jess were pregnant, too. It didn’t take too long; by now, I had more than enough experience in detecting this particular condition, and I soon received the rather troublesome confirmation. Maggie’s community would greatly expand, even with this fairly limited sample, come fall.

By now, this wasn’t just a medical issue; this would probably turn into something much bigger. My best estimate, mostly based on construction needs, was that the group who had come over from the Blessed City was roughly sixty per cent women, maybe sixty-five. Given that the group was about a thousand strong and assuming the people who had approached Jess were representative, that meant about seven hundred babies born in nine months, since at least one of those I had examined was carrying twins. It was likely that there were others. There was no easy way to deal with that; it required serious preparation.

After sending the males off, promising to contact them once I had a proper plan for their mental treatments, I gathered the remaining females around me. By now, they had obviously realised that something was going on, though, judging their looks, they had no idea what.

“So, I’m afraid I’ll have to talk to all of you and give you some news,” I began, noticing that the glances they exchanged were getting a little concerned.

“Shouldn’t that be private?” one of them asked, a frown on her face. “You promised to keep information private; this should count,” she added, her voice insistent.

“If you prefer, I can talk to each of you privately, but I believe you should try to lean on one another, for reasons I apparently shouldn’t disclose,” I replied with a shrug, not really caring about the interjection. It truly didn’t matter. Once rumours about the state all the women of the Blessed City were in, everyone would know anyway; it would, at best, give them a few weeks of privacy, if that.

“That sounds ominous,” another woman snarked, her voice filled with worry and concern.

“Is it an STD? Did we all catch some form of divine syphilis, or some crud like that? Was that the reason Lorgar and his buddies were so into the whole chastity-thing?” a third asked, and, by now, the entire group was getting agitated, their anger feeding off each other.

“It’s not divine syphilis, though some might consider it an STD,” I shrugged, unwilling to go through the whole song-and-dance with each of them individually, not for something they all shared. “A trained medical professional would undoubtedly have a better way to deliver this, but I’m just a Sorceress with a remarkably broad magical ability, so there’s that. To put it simply, each and every one of you is pregnant,” I paused for a minute or five, waiting out the screeching and crying, just giving the women time to vent a little before I continued.

“Five of you appear to carry twins, though I’m honestly not sure if the separation into fraternal twins could still occur at this stage; most of you aren’t that far along. As far as I can tell, this happened during the longest night, but I doubt it was entirely natural. I mean, I can imagine that you all had intercourse that night. I’ve heard it was rather wild, but to get a conception rate of a hundred per cent? That stretches what I’m willing to take as a natural occurrence,” I shrugged, looking at the group once more.

“That’s impossible!” one of them, a woman appearing to be in her late forties, insisted. “I’m too old, and I’ve had my tubes tied over a decade ago. That part of my life is over!”

Stepping towards her, I took her hand again, without saying a single word. I just let my senses sweep down her body, take in the state of it all, until I stepped back with a shrug.

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“Apologies, but there’s no doubt, you are pregnant. Your tubes appear, as far as I can tell, just as healthy as those of everyone else, so who knows at what point those were restored?” I gave her an apologetic smile, unable to add anything of additional value.

“Get rid of it!” that same woman demanded, but the moment I even considered agreeing to that demand, I felt a surge of revulsion flow through me, causing me to stagger.

“Fascinating,” I couldn’t help but mutter, my eyes closing as I investigated this sudden surge. While it didn’t come from within me, as I conceptualised the union of my Mind, Body and Soul, it also didn’t come from beyond that; it came from an oddly obscured area of myself that I couldn’t grasp. Without the surge, I wouldn’t even know where to start looking, other than deep within me, beyond the union that I had always considered as my being. I would have to investigate that particular area of myself again, but later. For now, I had a woman who was glaring at me with serious anger in her eyes.

“That could be problematic,” I shook my head, trying to get rid of the emotions foisted upon me just moments before. “Or rather, I can’t. It’s…” I paused, trying to find the right words to express my inability to fulfil her request. As things were, I wasn’t even sure how to explain it to myself, beyond calling it the interference of a divine domain I belonged to. Some of the women started to get angry again, but none was as angry as the one who had made that demand, and now, she was still demanding things, in this case, answers and explanations. Neither of which I really had, so I spoke up and just tried my best.

“Let’s go with ‘It’s complicated’, and leave it at that. However, the complication doesn’t lie with the procedure itself; it originates beyond it, and I’m honestly uncertain how to explain. Just, I can’t help you there, it’s impossible,” I shook my head, knowing that any assistance I provided to terminate the unborn life would come back to haunt me. It wasn’t fair, and the women here let me hear that loud and clear. However, life just wasn’t fair. This was just one part of it.

The divine domain of the Mother, at least the aspect of it that I belonged to, didn’t seem to care for the prospective mother’s willingness. It merely sought to create mothers, as strange as that seemed.

Which tracked with some of my earlier experiments; I had never felt such twinges or distaste when working with Luna to create new life-forms, even if that occasionally involved messing with life already in the womb. As long as the life created was viable, my domain’s purpose was fulfilled, which was a bit of a mess. Or rather, it was a massive mess and would remain one unless I had a brilliant idea.

By now, the women had split into two distinct groups: one that remained angry and vented, and the other that seemed more in shock and uncertain. It was that second group I stepped towards, using a bit of Wind Magic to muffle the anger of the other group. If they didn’t want to work with me, so be it, but I wasn’t about to let myself get abused for no reason. Or without gaining substantial benefits from taking their abuse, neither of which seemed to be the case here. With the muffling magic in place, I was finally able to hear myself think again, and the nervous group seemed to be rather pleased with the silence, too.

“Are you certain that we are all pregnant?” one of the quiet women asked, her voice desperate.

“As I’ve said, yes,” I nodded, gently touching her hand to check, while considering if I had a way to share the impressions my magic gave me.

“What are we going to do now?” Jess asked, looking at me with uncertain eyes, “I mean, you said all of us, so…?”

“Yes, you, too. Though you appear to have already been pregnant during the longest night. By about two, maybe three weeks,” I added, noticing how her eyes widened for a moment, before they turned shiny with unshed tears.

“As for what to do now? I suggest we approach Maggie and, through her, the rest of this community. Then we ascertain whether my assumption that every woman who has come over from the Blessed City is pregnant is true. Once that is done, we can start planning for the future, or maybe someone else has ideas that I cannot be part of,” I shrugged once more. “That part is a magic thing; I won’t be able to assist regarding that in any way, or bad things will happen.”

My words were enough to jolt the uncertain group into action, though none of them was particularly energetic about it. Now I only had to deal with that other group and hope they would be rational. However, my hopes weren’t all that high.