Alliance

Chapter 27- Per Aspera Ad Astra

Per Aspera Ad Astra

Latin

To The Stars, Through Difficulty

-

the stars that round the Queen of Night

like maids attend her hide

as in veils of mist

their light when she,

in full-orbed glory bright.

o'er all the earth shines from her height

a silver splendour.

-

Most thankfully (and surprisingly), Sanya's mother had actually respected her daughter's wishes and not come running to Cair Paravel.

All she got was a very hastily written letter, telling her that pregnancy was a natural thing and nothing to be afraid of or panicked about, that Edmund would probably look at everything logically and thus be happy about having another heir, that every woman goes through pregnancy and if they could handle it, then so could she- and, that if she truly did not want to go through with the pregnancy, there were always other options, that she would help her with. And cooing. There was a lot of cooing sentences, and happiness over being a grandmother by birth- whatever that meant- and many promises that they would be visiting as soon as the news was announced (or at least as soon as she told Edmund).

Granted, if Sanya had her way, she wouldn't ever be telling her husband the news. He'd find out whenever her bump grew large enough that even a bat or a bull (both with eyesight much worse than hers) wouldn't be able to miss it.

Then again, she couldn't help the hot guilt she felt every day, as she pretended to be a non-pregnant woman (well, not that she was acting actively non-pregnant, she was just acting like her past normal self- the self which had been thankfully non-pregnant). She hadn't told a single soul- she hadn't told Lucy or Jem or Susan, she hadn't even ranted about it to Moonlight (who probably knew, and thus was still being extraordinarily affectionate with her, and had been nuzzling her stomach ever since the tiniest swelling indicator of the baby had sprouted up)!

It was a little astonishing how no one had realised- what with her throwing up every day (Dr. Asherii called it morning sickness, and Sanya had not been pleased to know that it was not limited to only mornings) and with the increasingly odd food items she had been craving.

She'd honestly thought Edmund and Peter would cry when she had eaten beef steak with curd, rice pudding and prawn curry- or would demand what in the blazes was wrong with her. Thankfully, they didn't say a word (Lucy had told her that it was because Ed was just happy she was eating heartily again, and he'd stamped on his brother's foot to keep his mouth shut- but Sanya thought it might be because her husband might be wary and possibly even scared of her temper tantrums).

And she did have temper tantrums, much to her own annoyance. Dr. Asherii called them mood swings, but she herself felt like her outbursts were likened more to the epic childish tantrums which were a big part of Jem's terrible two's. But thankfully, these changes in her mood weren't very enormous, she was just more emotional than usual and quicker in flying into a hot temper.

She didn't think that there was much change bodily- apart from the miniscule baby bump and that her skin had more oil than acne now. Her hips hadn't widened even further, her breasts hadn't grown larger (though the healer assured her that it would happen) and nor had she grown any fatter.