A Jaded Life

Chapter 1347

“Mom, can you take me to the Nexus Tower?” Luna asked me one evening in mid-March, looking inordinately pleased with herself.

“Sure, why?” I asked in return, curious what she was up to. The look on her face spoke of progress and determination, but I knew her well enough that it could easily hide plans for mischief and mayhem.

“I’ve got a few ideas, things I want to test, and I managed to scrounge up enough biomass to experiment a little,” she explained, looking quite gleeful. That explained quite a bit, especially if she had new ideas. Back in October, we had moved back here, to the south, when the area around the Nexus Tower had been buried in ice, snow and near-endless night, making experiments rather difficult.

Now, that was changing, spring was coming, and the days were getting decidedly longer day after day, to the point that one didn’t need watches to notice.

“What do you have cooked up? And do you think the people here will need more help from you?” I prodded, curious what she had in mind. And how far she had taken her agricultural efforts, she had worked quite hard to open up new fields and fertilise them, but I hadn’t kept track of her progress.

“It’s a surprise,” she grinned, “And I’m pretty sure Maggie and her people will be able to bring in the first grain harvest in a week or two, long before schedule. That should tide them over until their regular harvest can be brought in, giving them more than enough time to prepare their stores for the coming winter and the baby-tsunami,” she added, the grin on her face turning decidedly wicked at the end.

“Yeah, that’s going to be a mess,” I shuddered in response, “Still not sure what to do about that, whether I will help or whether I’ll set up shop somewhere else. Maybe on another continent or something, far away enough so I won’t get roped in.”

“So the divine mother is playing the deadbeat dad?” she laughed, making me glare at her.

“I’d love to know how that mess came about,” I grumbled. While I was fairly confident that my divine domain had caused the mass pregnancies, I had no idea if it was due to some specific action I had taken or whether there were some other factors I just didn’t know about.

“Why, want to go and impregnate a few more communities? Puts an entirely new spin on the continuation of the human race, doing it one orgy at a time,” she teased, her tone a mix of mocking and joking.

“So I can make sure I never do it again,” I replied, my voice still grumpy, despite a bit of amusement creeping in due to the exaggerated expression on her face. “It’s a big-enough mess here, I don’t think an event like that would go over well elsewhere.”

“Yeah, calling it a mess is quite fitting,” she nodded, her expression still far too amused for my tastes, “You know, it might be a good thing that you were mainly at your tower to teach, and whatever else you were doing. The mornings here were quite the mess, you know, literally.”

“What happened?” I couldn’t help but ask, despite knowing that the answer wouldn’t be pleasant, not with the way Luna was smirking.

“You’ve heard of morning sickness?” she asked, making me nod in response. “Did you also know that it seems to be as contagious as yawning? Just a lot messier?”

“No, I did not know that?” I admitted, feeling a little sick just from the image. There were things I never knew, and I wouldn’t have been bothered to keep things that way. And, amusingly, this was just driving home something I had known for quite some time. Namely, that I might be the divine mother, that I would happily create life magically or twist already existing life into something new and exciting, but I had no interest, nor plans, nor a desire to bear my own children, ever. Just the idea made my gut twist into knots, though that might have been due to the image Luna just put into my mind.

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“Let’s talk about something else,” I told Luna, “Anything else, really,” I added, causing my daughter to laugh brightly, amusement dancing in her eyes.

“You know, that’s one of those times I’m happy to be associated with the Maiden,” she grinned, “I’ll always stay somewhat childish, young and happy, leaving the messy biology to you older people.”

“There might be something to that,” I grumbled, realising that Luna hadn’t really changed over the last few months. Maybe even for an entire year. Originally, when Silva, Lia and I had adopted her, she had matured and grown rapidly, seemingly ageing years in a few months, until she reached a young-adult or mature-teenager state. But that was it, after she had reached that state, she hadn’t changed all that much. Her hair had grown a little, she had gained some muscles, but that was it. Her maturity hadn’t advanced any further. Maybe it had simply slowed down, or maybe her body was catching up in some way. It was difficult to say, so who knew? Maybe she’d stay as she was now for the next decade, until her chronological age caught up with her apparent age. Or it would be as she suggested, she’d stay forever young, a Maiden in appearance, maturity and outlook.

It was a question I pondered while pulling Luna through the shadows and into the Nexus Tower. Not that the question was all that important. I had little doubt about my ability to magically maintain my own body, keeping it young and fresh for decades, maybe even for centuries. My Blood Magic was already advanced enough to manage, so I didn’t care all that much if Luna was forever young, as long as she didn’t mind.

Similarly, Lia’s body was unaging. As long as she could sustain herself with Blood and magic, she’d remain in her current state. In other words, none of us would be threatened by time; we could remain young and ageless as long as we wanted. Not immortal, but close enough, at least as long as we remained on the top of the totem pole, strong enough to ward off anyone who might want to threaten us.

“You know, you never said what you had in mind,” I reminded Luna, as we were walking downwards through the tower, towards the laboratory I had set up for her. I was reasonably certain it was still in good condition, but I was going with her to make sure.

“No, I never said, imagine that,” she giggled softly, “But I guess I can tell you, who knows what you might do otherwise,” she paused for a second, letting some dramatic tension build. To make matters worse, she even slowed her steps a little and made sure to step down hard, creating an audible rhythm which she let mount for a few seconds, until I gave her a small glare, getting a little annoyed at her antics.

“Fine, fine, be a spoilsport,” she laughed, “Think about it, what have I been doing these last few weeks? Day after day, while you were off, teaching those four guys and whatever else you were doing. Where was I stuck?”

“At Maggie’s place?” I asked, until realisation hit me, just before my own palm slapped my forehead as it dawned on me.

“You were working the fields. Using your magic to decompose plants, which is likely accomplished via boosting the microorganisms responsible, and you were seeding the fields, allowing them to grow far faster than normal without sacrificing any stability, at least from what I could tell,” I filled in the blank, getting her to grin and nod.

“Exactly,” she exclaimed, “Day after day, I’ve been preparing the fields and making stuff grow. Tons of plant matter are turned into fertiliser and worked into the fields, so new crops can sprout without issue. Not really easy, let me tell you that,” she paused.

“But it gave me a lot of time to think and consider, while having all the biomass for one small experiment. Or for a hundred, each coming at the issue from a slightly different angle, each pushing things in a slightly different direction, until I was as confident as I could be that it would work,” she proudly declared.

“Now, I’ve just got to make sure it works on mammals and generally on complexer animals before I start working on the giants. You know, start crafting the body for your project, so you can know what your beloved will look like, once we are done with this.”

I didn’t even realise that I had stopped in my tracks until Luna turned around, looking at me with a raised eyebrow. Maybe it was because it seemed that one of the three challenges might just be completed if Luna could accomplish what she bragged about.

“I’ll make you a statue, so you can match it as much as possible,” I managed to croak out, my voice unwilling to work correctly. I would have to accelerate my own projects.