The First Mage

I desperately tried to make sense of what I just heard. My first thought was perhaps a natural one: if Aelene was pregnant, and there had been something between her and Tomar, he might be the father. No matter whether this made sense or not, it was what my mind gravitated towards, but while this thought shot through my mind, I listened with one ear to the three women. Shadi explained to Nym that she was seeing the fetus’ mana, and I regained at least a semblance of clarity.

Wait... Fetus? Think about this logically. Come on! Think!

Aelene and Tomar had literally known each other for a week. Ten days to be exact. Even if they had slept together, and even if the time had been just right, what would the status of that baby be after less than ten days? Would it have mana? Would it even have a heart? No, certainly not. I slowly calmed down as this realization took hold. It couldn’t possibly be Tomar’s. A quiet, relieved sigh escaped my lips.

Not that I wouldn’t take care of your child, Tomar, but this would’ve been a bit much for me right now...

“This almost makes me wish to be like you,” Nym said, chuckling lightly. “Being able to diagnose a pregnancy this easily and quickly is certainly convenient.”

My immediate worries alleviated, I turned my full attention to Aelene and the others.

“It does make it easier I suppose,” Shadi said, “but only because of how far along she is. Otherwise we wouldn’t see much mana yet.”

That’s right. She’s far along already! She— Wait... far along?

“Is that so? Can you tell us something about the baby’s health already?”

“Maybe. Excuse me,” Shadi said, addressing her patient. “I’d like to examine you, could you raise your robe for a moment?”

Aelene looked between the two doctors bearing down on her, both eager to learn more. Clearly overwhelmed as well, she didn’t speak, but simply followed the instructions after a moment. As the hem of the robe rose above her knees, Nym glared back at me with an icy stare, and I quickly averted my eyes.

“Please step out for a moment, Tomar,” she said.

“Wait, could he... stay?” Aelene asked.

“Well, if that’s what you want.”

I stared at the opposite wall and kept thinking.

The prison cell... Tomar hit her. Hard. Even if this didn’t injure her... Would a baby have survived that? And even then, I saw and touched her belly as Lilly. It was perfectly flat.

Admittedly, I was far from an expert on the matter, but if Aelene was supposed to be far along, I figured she would have to show. Maybe not through the wide priest robe she was wearing out of habit, but at the very least under it. She didn’t though. To my dismay, this was soon confirmed by the other two.

“Hm... Are you certain, Shadi?” Nym asked.

“Oh, you... I’m sorry, I didn’t ask your name,” Shadi said.

“I’m Aelene.”

“Aelene. Do you know when this child was conceived by any chance? A rough estimate would be fine.”

“I... I’m not... sure...” Aelene stammered.

“It’s alright to be wrong,” Nym said. “Though you need to be careful about what you tell the patients.”

The moment Aelene lifted her robe, Nym wasn’t so sure about the diagnosis anymore and tried to save the situation. Though Shadi was undeterred.

“No, I’m fairly certain. But something seems odd.”

I couldn’t see what was happening behind me, but I did feel a bit of mana move around the room. Shadi was presumably examining Aelene in some way.

“You are definitely with child. But... It’s a little earlier than I expected, given the amount of mana we’re seeing here. I suppose your child takes after you quite heavily if it produces such an amount already. I would think it might be about...”

Don’t say it...

“One to two weeks old.”

My world came crashing down around me again.

How is that possible!?

As I actually thought about the possibility though, I quickly realized that it wasn’t quite as improbable as it seemed. Time flowed a little differently in this world. Humans were maturing faster, and pregnancies might very well be shorter as well.

When does the heart begin to beat... After a couple of weeks?

The heart was necessary to produce mana in humans. If I assumed that this would start at maybe six weeks after conceivement in earth time, and I halved that to three weeks to account for the time difference, and if the unborn also grew faster, we were reaching a point where my initial thoughts did not seem unreasonable anymore.

It’s...

“That’s... about right,” Aelene said.

The room grew quiet. I didn’t even notice at first, my brain drowned in a whole slew of new doubts and concerns, but after a moment I did start to wonder why nobody was saying anything anymore. Carefully glancing behind myself, my eyes met Aelene’s, boring into mine with uncertainty.

Us sharing this moment seemed to be enough for Nym and Shadi to come to certain conclusions as well, looking between us in surprise.

“Now that explains it,” Shadi said. “Am I right to assume that you’re the father? Two people with so much mana having a child... It’s no surprise the little one is overflowing with it already.”

While Shadi was happy to have found an explanation for her open question, Nym’s expression slowly changed to an angry frown. I was startled slightly when I looked at her and she seemed ready to jump me.

“Are you the father?” she asked.

What’s with her...?

After another look at Aelene, who didn’t make any attempts to deny it and instead nodded at me, I had little choice but to accept the situation. Tomar would’ve become a father.

“Yes,” I said in confirmation.

“And yet you elope with Hayla? Do you have a death wish!?” Nym exploded on me.

Mine and Alene’s eyes widened in surprise, albeit for different reasons. So far I had only thought about the baby as a baby, which can be trouble enough, but I had a contract with Hayla. One that very clearly stated that the partners mustn’t betray each other. Meanwhile, Aelene was hit with the realization that the father of her child was promised to someone else. The situation would’ve been difficult enough after she just broke up with Tomar, but this put it on another level.

“You’re... engaged?” she said, her voice almost a whisper. It didn’t stay that way, however. “You’re engaged!?” she bellowed.

I was being yelled at from two directions, the only neutral person being Shadi, who looked on in curiosity.

“I didn’t think you would be this careless!” Nym said, exasperated. “Please tell me there’s nothing between you and Berla!”

I was surprised at her mentioning Berla, but when I rested here after collapsing, she was here and Nym must’ve noticed something. Frowning, I hung my head and sighed. “It’s a little complicated,” I said.

“Tomar, listen to me,” Nym implored. “This is serious. I’ve tried to treat people who broke these contracts. It never works. Nevermind your personal relations and what you kids do, you must be careful!”

“I know,” I said.

Berla and I had kept our relationship on the downlow the entire time, and especially after I was back in Tomar’s body. Hayla might have suspected something, but there was no evidence, so I was clear on that front for the moment. Aelene would’ve been another problem, but I thought we were good when she distanced herself from Tomar. Obviously, a child complicated the situation ever so slightly.

“I don’t know your situation,” Nym said, “but I must advise you to talk to everybody involved and lay out what’s going on—the sooner the better. You do not want this to blow up unexpectedly.”

“I understand. Thank you for your advice,” I said, before turning to the fuming Aelene. “I know you’re mad right now, but it’s not as it seems. I’m serious when I say that it’s complicated. We’ll talk later, okay?”

Her facial expression relaxed a little, as she nodded at me, though she was still impossibly irritated.

“It’s always quite an affair when you come here,” Nym complained. “Well, let’s continue.”

She gestured for Shadi to carry on with her examination and they quickly came to the conclusion that the fetus seemed healthy as best as they could tell at this stage. Aelene, too, seemed well, both physically and in terms of her mana, as determined by Shadi. They went on to explain the process to her, and that she supposedly wouldn’t have to worry about much for the first three months, but that she should slow down during the final month. The revelation of four month pregnancies wasn’t that much of a shock after theorizing about it already, though it was still somewhat crazy to think about.

After about fifteen minutes in total, Shadi made an appointment with Aelene so she could keep an eye on this mana-laden child, and then we were free to go. A highly awkward silence between us, I opened the door and we stepped out into the hallway, where Bren was waiting for us.

“Hey... could you ask Berla to come to the office?” I asked him. “Just her.”

“Of course,” he said.

After a quick salute he was off, going in a different direction from us, who slowly made our way back to where we had come from. On the way, I glanced at Aelene and the mana around her belly. There were a lot of potential issues I could’ve foresawn, but this was not one of them.