Bloodsword: War of the Leaf

Prologue: Drawing the Sword of Blood

Quickly Lachem waved over an assistant who held a black coat in her hands.  Exchanging his white one for the black one, he hastily buttoned it up before stepping back to the table.  There he dipped his hands into a bowl of  hot water proffered by yet another assistant to clean them.  Drying them on a towel draped over the assistant's shoulder he then stepped to the foot of the table.  Once there he carefully ran his hands over the woman's quivering belly as Asorn drew even further back in distaste, frowning at the discharge seeping from between the woman's legs.

"Ah!  Looks as if her water has finally broken."  Lachem announced brightly before catching sight over his shoulder of the carefully retreating Mardish lord.  Turning back to the woman with a half smile on his long face, the tall doctor spoke.

"That's right, Lord Asorn.  Best draw yourself out of the theater of operation.  We wouldn't want that expensive coat soiled now, would we?"  Lachem finished perfunctorily as he drew the woman's legs apart with careful hands before reaching in to examine her expanding birth canal.

"There is much work to be done!"    

By the time Lachem finally drew back covered in the woman's fluids and life's blood some time later a smile of triumph on his face, the sun outside had sunk just below the horizon in the west.  And the multitude of candles that now lit Lachem's operating room were burnt down to flickering nubs.

"It's a boy!"  Lachem announced proudly, holding up a bloodied mass in his hands.

The guardsman smiled as Asorn started from where he was sitting in a chair in the corner nearest to the door, dozing.

"Eh?  What's this?  A boy??  How can you tell?"   He managed to stammer as he staggered to his feet over to Lachem and the child, who was now squalling lustily thanks to a sharp smack on the bottom. 

"Simplicity, Lord Asorn. Thread."  He commanded and an assistant quickly tied a simple knot around the infant's umbilical cord with a length of black thread.  Satisfied the knot was tied properly, Lachem took a knife offered by another assistant and neatly cut the cord in two, releasing a small spurt of blood. 

"Human males have the same parts as elven males."  Lachem explained as he handed the child to a female assistant.  She carefully wiped the child with a rough towel as he washed his hands in a bowl of clean water offered by his second assistant.  After drying his hands Lachem turned back to Asorn as an assistant helped him to pull off the soiled black coat and replace it with a white one. 

"I see."  Asorn answered with a frown as he stepped closer to take a look at the infant as the assistant passed him back to Lachem.  The tall Solavar doctor easily cradled the infant in one long arm.  Using his free hand he drew draw back the towel the child had been swaddled in to get a better look at the new human, smiling as he did. 

"And so we have the Maker's newest addition to Quelaezaun." 

"So we do."  Asorn said, smiling faintly as he took a good look at the baby.  Then his eyes caught sight of something that made him frown.   "What's this?  A mark?  Is this child flawed??"  He demanded sharply, pointing with a quivering finger at a reddish mark almost like a weal that ran down the baby's left breast. 

Lachem frowned as he looked closer.  Yes, there definitely was a mark there shaped like a sword with point down. 

"Well, the child does seem to have a birthmark of some kind."  He admitted carefully. 

But the slender Mardish lord didn't let him finish, exploding wildly into voice even as the mother groaned around the gag in her mouth as she delivered the afterbirth.