Inyanga's Star and Other Constellations

If Inyanga Gets In - Flash Back in Time Part 2

Four hundred years earlier. — 1220 S.E.

Amandla remembered a different shame.

Kyuma never even knew Amandla went to magicians college. It wasn't part of the family mythology. No one knew. Now, Inyanga being the first to go was family myth.

Amandla remembered a different shame. She could hear it in Doctor Natsu's voice. "How could a woman be so foolish?" Actually, Natsu didn't say that, but that's what it sounded like when she asked, "Do you understand what will happen if we don't get the child an animus of her own before she's born?"

Amandla's belly was just beginning to grow round with Kyuma. A bulbous protrusion of the greedy infant who was making more room for herself like Amandla's body wasn't enough, she needed to build her own addition.

And while she was at it, she would sap Amandla's energy, steal some of umama's nutrition, disrupt her sleep, and as if all that wasn't enough, she would drain umama's immortal soul a little at a time until she, the mother, returned to the mortal cycle of life and death, and would grow old and die.

Only eighteen years old, if Amandla didn't buy the fetus an immortal animus of her own, she — the mother — would die a crone by nineteen, and the child would live forever. Until she got knocked up and repeated the cycle or maybe died in a bus crash.

How could a woman be so foolish? It would cost her life if it didn't cost every solidae she had ever earned.

The doctor's chair below her bottom was surprisingly hard. It was as if the doctor made her sit up there to humiliate her. The way her feet dangled, the way she had needed to hop up as if getting out of a pool backward, thrusting the big belly forward with an inelegant movement that made her feel like a whale. The way her marsupium pouch addition was on display from the seated position while Doctor Natsu said things like "First week of the third trimester is the safest time for animus implantation, so you need to pay by then," and "they should really teach immortal reproduction and animae 101 in first semester," and "we can help you set up a payment plan."

A payment plan so she wouldn't die and they would get her solidae.

Amandla had her own questions. "What if there are no immortal animae available?"

"Kill an immortal?" Doctor Natsu joked. She clutched her own belly, flat and barren, and chuckled. "Just kidding. There hasn't been a shortage in years, don't worry. The price is high due to limited supply, but there are animae available."

Next question. "Can't the company pay for the animus of the child of a future employee?"

"The company doesn't pay for the animae of the children of its current employees."

"So. When your company invented immortal life, drawing lines out of the stores and around the block with customers who wanted it, you had no idea what impact it would have on the reproduction of Soliari women and what cost would extend over generation after generation?"

"No one could have predicted—"

"You did not run tests?"

"On human test subjects?"

"Yes, on human test subjects."

"No. No one ran tests on pregnant women. No one tested the impact of immortality on reproduction. No one put an immortal animus into a pregnant woman to see what would happen to her or her baby after she gave birth." Natsu stopped, shook her head, and amended. "Wait, I can't talk about this. I'm not at liberty to answer these questions. Please forget what I just said."