Skel held the babies up for the men to see, one in either ebony arm, the sheer blankets that Lianna had crocheted draping past her knees. The mage woman wore a simple linen dress under an apron tinged in red, comfortable and moving slightly in a breeze. Twine held her smooth black hair back in a thick braid.
"This one belongs to you," Skel handed Navieve to Canúden, "and this one to you." She handed Chadwick to Emick, whose heart beamed like the sunlight streaming through the sitting room's open window. A breeze fluttered in, bringing with it the fresh smell of forest and summer flowers to replace the dank smell of birth. It had been a simple labor with two talented mages assisting, but as Arie said, Labor is by nature laborious and we need to let dear Ophy rest.
Little Chadwick had a perfect little wrinkly face, a fuzz of dark brown hair on his head, fuzzy dark eyes, little blue fists gripping his blanket---
And then Emick's face tensed. "But he's... blue! Why is my son blue? He's... breathing all right, isn't he? Don't some babies come out blue because they don't breathe properly?"
"You heard his cry, yes?" said Skel, with her lilting, staccato accent. "This blue, it is a genetic characteristic. You have not any blue in your family, I take it?"
"Well, of course not! People aren't blue!" said Emick.
Canúden laughed, then touched his nose to his daughter's. Navieve squinted her black eyes at him.
"Gungalis from Turbia and Galia are not blue, you should say," Skel said with a chuckle. "That does not mean that people from other places follow your expectations."
"Well, all right then," said Emick. He peered at his son's wrinkled, purple-blue face. "But that witch wasn't blue either, so where did he get it?"
"Gizelle was blue," said Canúden, even as he stroked Navieve's red cheek.
"Who?"said Emick.
"An old lady friend of mine when I was a boy," said Canúden. "She grew up with Minara, they came from the same village. Cousins, even. I imagine someone as vain as Minara might want to get rid of anything connecting her to her past. Gizelle told me the village was pretty small and secluded. She must have found a way to change her skin color."
Emick clutched Chadwick to his chest, and his face reddened. "She was an awful person. I'm finding I know so little about her."
"All you need to know about her is wrapped up in our little man here. "Lianna strode in from the birth chamber, which was the spare room in Ophia and Canúden's home. She took Chadwick from his arms and pressed her cheek against the baby's. Chadwick gurgled, his arms and legs moved stiffly.
Skel smiled warmly, then folded her arms. "Lianna, I am so glad to hear you say that. Now, what are your plans for feeding this little gentleman? You are not relishing the idea of a royal wet nurse."
Lianna shrugged. "Ophia? She has already agreed. I'd trust her with my life."
"She is leaving very soon," said Skel. "You cannot ask her to postpone her journey for this, as much as she truly loves you. You must not ask your brother to stay, his presence here dangers the life of your yuki. If you love Galia, you must let Canúden go."
"Love Galia?" Lianna lowered Chadwick from her face and stared at Skel. "What do you mean?"
Skel straightened her back and clasped her hands together. She closed her eyes, opened them, and said, "There are currents flowing in Galia among the people. The new Kel has not yet proven himself and the people resent him for the lies and destruction of his former mistress. They will resent him for his firstborn and will seek another heir. Yours." She stared at Canúden and he gasped. Emick didn't wonder why, Skel's eyes seemed a bit intense, pools of midnight. "There are others who will seek their claim to the Robes. Canúden, if you choose to accept your place as Gallel's Heir and Kel of Galia, you will die and Galia will crumble. The world will be lost, for Hallel needs you. Far away from here." Skel shook her head, slowly. "Bah, such incomplete a prophecy."
Canúden shook his head with a scowl. "How did I get so blasted important? Of course I don't want my Navieve to be the next San of Galia, she would hate it as much as I would to be Kel. But aren't there about a thousand other lowly villagers around the world, like maybe closer to where Hallel actually lives, that would be better at helping him?"
"I do not yet know why it must be you, Canúden," said Skel."However, your potential is as plain to me as the flow of your wari and your bond with my friend, Ophia. You have never been a mere lowly villager."
"Well,"said Canúden, "Gizelle seemed to think I had something important to do, but she died before she could explain it to me." He waved the thought away. "Anyway, I don't want to stay here any longer than I need to, but why the rush? Ophia has already agreed to nurse Chadwick, at least for a few months. Stupid Tutang is finally dead, so we don't have him to worry about." Lianna glared at him sorrowfully. "Sorry, Lianna, but we could stay here a few months, plan our trip, gather maps, whatever. Nathan has only just gone east to buy a ship. We don't expect him for another week, at least."
Skelshook her head. "No. Emick's life is at stake. Certain people will kill him in order to ensure you wear the Kel's robes."
Lianna grasped Emick's hand and held Chadwick closer to her breast. "No! People will love him, once they know him."
"They will." Skel smiled warmly. "His potential is great as well, and he and you will save Galia from those who wish it to crumble."
"What then?" said Lianna. "My baby can't go hungry. Goat milk wouldn't be acceptable for a royal, I pretty much have to choose another wet nurse. No, I don't care about snobby expectations, I'll use a goat."
Skel's grin turned to just one side of her mouth. "No need to procure a goat. I will make your milk flow."
"That's possible?" said Lianna. "Why don't more people do that? So much easier than bothering with a wetnurse."
"It is rare to find a mage skilled to do this," said Skel. "It requires an understanding of the way things could be in a body untouched by motherhood. A skill of the highest order, for a mage of the highest order. I am a time mage, I see what could be. Sit. Take my hand. Chadwick hungers."
Chadwick's nose wrinkled as it rooted around Lianna's bodice, and the scowl on his mouth spoke the truth of his hunger.
Placing Chadwick back in Emick's arms, Lianna sat with Emick on the sofa, then offered her hand, which looked pale next to Skel's long ebony fingers. The mage's narrow face relaxed, her eyes closed, and Emick almost felt the colors of the music which emanated from Skel's chest as she sang. Lianna's eyes closed also, and she rested her head against Emick's chest. Chadwick stared dully at the pale blue fabric of Lianna's shoulder.
Lianna convulsed, and she yelped. Emick snatched the baby before Lianna accidentally pushed him to the floor. He felt muscle spasm in her gut through the bond; her very fingers ached.
Skel dropped her hand and her song ended abruptly. She opened her eyes."Contraction. It signals the body that it is time to produce milk."
Panting, Lianna looked at her with one eye. "Ancestors, a little warning please."
"It is not usually so painful. The pain will ease." Skel took Chadwick in her arms again. "Now, let me hold your little man again."
"What's wrong?" said Lianna, straightening.
"I did not say there was anything wrong," said Skel.
"No, but your look makes it obvious," said Lianna. "I don't need to be a mind mage to see it."
"Ah, that you can tell indicates you have the potential to become one, if you wish."
"Wait, what!" said Lianna. "Mama tested me, many times. She never found any sense in me. I mean, no wari sense."
"She was not a time mage, and so could not teach you to feel wari's flow."
"Well, anyway," Lianna waved both hands in front of her face, "what is wrong with my son? And I don't mean that he's blue. That's only a little more unique than that you are black."
Skel sighed. "I think he was perfectly healthy in that witch's belly..."
Emick's chest turned cold, and Lianna said, "Our taking him out didn't hurt him, did it!"
"No, no, that saved him," said Skel. "Minara attempted to steal little Chadwick's body and his wari and give it to another entity. Chadwick fought back, bravely I'm sure for a dweller of the womb. But his brain burned. If we do not help him, he will never rise above infancy."
"He'll die?" Emick clutched his son to his chest.
"No,"said Skel, "but his fate will perhaps be worse, as his mind will never expand in development. You will learn to tolerate diapering an infant for a few years, and feed him and clothe him. But he will never learn to do these things on his own. He is your heir, but he could never wear the robes as such."
"My daughter is not going to be San, regardless," said Canúden.
"No, that is not her fate," said Skel.
Lianna's lips quivered. "Won't he have something to add to the world, anyway? I mean, there are no useless people, what is his fate?"
Skel's head tilted, and she said slowly, "I do not see his fate at this time, other than to know we can help to heal his mind a little. Only a little."
"What, so he eventually learns to not shit himself?" said Emick. To find that Minara's son was a fool --- Emick was the fool to ever have touched that witch. "I can't be a father to him. An infantile fool with no potential. A blue one, no less."
Lianna scooted away from him and took the baby to her chest. "Everyone has potential. So he won't wear the Robes, so what. Skel said she didn't see his full future, so you can't reject him. No."
"I never said he had no potential," said Skel, gently. "Let us see what we can do for him." She knelt before Lianna and took the baby. "Touch him, all."
"But we're not mages!" said Emick.
"You could be, each one of you. I can use your energy to fuel my wari. Only touch."
"What about Ophia?" said Lianna. "She would want to be part of this."
"She is not currently strong. Let her feed her own child and rest." Skel gestured to Canúden to return his daughter to Ophia; nodding, he returned to the birthing chamber. She continued, "This amount of damage will take more than one touching, anyway. Let us explore his mind and his soul's throne."
Handing his son to Lianna, Emick placed his finger in Chadwick's hand; Canúden returned and grabbed one of his feet; Lianna clutched him to her chest with her neck cradling his head. Skel covered his head wither hand, then closed her eyes. Emick's skin tingled, his blood cooled pleasantly and he sensed an energy from his son. Lianna's eyes widened, as she felt the same energy.
"Now," said Skel, eyes closed and fluttering in concentration. "The base of his brain, near his neck, is undamaged. This is the same brain that all vertebrates share. It guides the beating of the heart, the constant expansion and retraction of the lungs, vision, as well as the twisting of digestion. The throne of his soul lies in the top of his brain. I see scars there. The part of him which remembers curiosity is blocked. Without this curiosity, he will never learn."
"'Remembers curiosity'?" said Lianna.
"Curiosity sets humans apart from all other creatures." Skel opened her eyes briefly to look at Lianna with her liquid black eyes. "It drives us to look at the stars and wonder how they came to be. It also drives us to learn and grow from an infant to a wise old time mage."
"But animals learn and grow," said Emick. "They learn to not...poop... into their food and to otherwise be adults."
"This they do much by instinct," said Skel. "Not thought. Briannel takes care of her pets."
"Who?" said Emick.
"I forget," said Skel, "the stories have been much forgotten by the Gungali people. You might think of her as Nature. She is the Mother of our souls and the substance of the universe. Her yuki, Yellel, is Time, which carries us forward through our lives." She closed her eyes again. "Do you feel his brain? Is his throne not blocked by char and twisted nerves?"
"I don't know what his throne is," said Lianna. "I guess I can feel that your wari flow seems to stop around the top left of his head."
"I am tracing his nerves, like little branches on a great shrub. Where there is damage, I straighten the branch and clear the block so his own energy may flow. So many damaged branches. I cannot accomplish this all today. It is good we sit, for we soon collapse from fatigue."
"We can go longer," said Lianna. "Please, we have got to heal him."
Skel smiled. "A little longer today."