Amethyst (A new Kingdom)

Part 14

Faith was standing in her doorway, smirking. She dismissed the maids, moved her in when she saw me coming, and reached for my arm. 

"I have got her from here, Nema. Perhaps you could get her suit ready so she doesn't have to worry about anything" it was a subtle way for Faith to ask Nema to leave. After the door was shut, she turned to me, "you are a mess." 

"I know, and it is just going to get worse," I responded, resting on her bed. "I have been a mess on those hormones, and now that I am pregnant, it will get worse. 

"well, can we at least make you healthy because you look like a ghost" 

"magic can not heal self-inflicted injury" was a rule of magic. If you did it to yourself, you had to live with the consequences. 

"right, that isn't good." there was a knock at the door, and Faith rose to answer it while talking, "then we will just have to keep a closer eye on you" Helena and Pricilla walked in. 

"you look like you are near death," Pricilla dead paned while Hellena ran over to me. 

"darling thing, you need to take care of yourself," Helena said

"you need to get that guilt out of your mind" Pricilla came over and gave me a stern look, "Never feel guilty about doing what it takes to survive." 

faith shivered at Pricilla's words and tone, I knew she was a survivor, but I did not know the details of what she survived. 

"the real question is, did you mean what you said to Cora? Do you love the prince because he will ask as soon as you are alone" Faith's question got three pairs of eyes staring me down. 

"I love him, but I don't think it is romantically; he is kind to me. He and I could be friends very easily, I love him as the doting father of my child, but I would not say I am in love with him." 

"that is going to be difficult to explain after your outburst," Pricilla scoffed 

"well, we should do some fetal spells and rituals to protect the baby and heal it from any damage your... um... episode might have caused" Hellena suggested 

we pulled out our trunk of supplies that Faith had already hidden and charmed in this room, she was always thinking that sister of mine. She made a circle and lit candles for the growth and health rituals. 

"what is this" Pricilla hesitantly touched the necklace that the prince gave me "this is a good heirloom; I can hear it calling out to me. Someone already started a ritual on this without even realizing" 

"the prince said it was a family heirloom," I responded, handing the necklace to her. 

"blood has been spilled on this, and two people have died wearing it. Their souls are partially connected to this, meaning it has a protective nature for the wearer. I think I can add a few protection charms to make it stronger, and I can finish the ritual that was unintentionally started." 

"what will that do?" Faith asked 

"Well, it will protect the wearer and imbue a bit of the wearer's soul on the gem for each person it is passed to. It may not do much now, but this could be a powerful artifact in the future. It would work best as healing, keeping the wearer healthy, but it could also be used to keep someone like me out of their minds," Pricilla explained. 

"so the wearer would be immune to your mind reading?" I asked, not interested in keeping Pricilla out, but if others were not as friendly, that would be a great tool. 

"not for many generations, but yes, eventually, it would protect the wearer from mind reading" She took the necklace to a table in the light and started her work. 

"doesn't much help, you know, but it will help your descendant one day," Hellena said. 

They started the rituals that were the normal pregnancy ones that you do throughout, but they put more emphasis on the growth and good health ones like they said they would. We did rituals to ward off fairies and hipixix demons to protect the baby from coming out too early. And when we were done, I was exhausted.