"Sorry for the interruption." the healer appeared. "But I need to check you one more time, Sascha."
"Good." She nodded, leaning against her back. Sheamus walked away, taking up his previous place.
The healer produced a scanner. A magical device specialized in the internal analysis of the body. A sigil of light, air, and vision was carved into the device's crystal surface, with an artificial magic core serving as the mana power source. The scanner flickered on and the healer passed it over his outstretched body, carefully analyzing the information thrown by the device. Five minutes later he nodded satisfied and turned off the device.
"All in order. You took high-gradient elixirs after the attack, right? "
No, a monster healed me with magic, real magic, and not tools with stealth magic on them. But since he couldn't tell the truth, he just said.
"Yes, I do."
"I commend your quick reaction." The healer smiled at him. "Thanks to that your babies are safe and sound."
Time stopped and an eerie and utter silence fell inside the cubicle. An expression of stunned dismay tightened Sascha and Sheamus's features.
"What?" They both screamed in unison and perfect coordination.
The healer looked at them in confusion before facing her. "You are pregnant, didn't you know?"
Stunned, Sascha could only stare at the healer. Her mind stuck on that one word. Pregnant. Her thoughts revolved around it, repeating it endlessly in the privacy of her psyche.
"Are you sure, Stephan?" She heard her teacher's voice in the distance.
"Of course. I am a licensed healer from the Royal Academy of Galen," he replied without looking insulted.
"I suffer from SIM." Sascha finally found her voice. "The former healer said it would be impossible for me to get pregnant."
"SIM? Well, it is indeed difficult for women with Manic Incompatibility Syndrome to stay in tape, but it is not impossible. Not if they use the proper treatment. "
"You mean Sascha wasn't infertile?" Was that hope that made her old master's eyes shine?
"Infertile? Is that what they told you? " Sascha and Sheamus nodded.
For the first time, an annoyed expression strained the healer's features.
"Mediocre." Sascha suspected the Healer attempted to curse. "No, women with SIM are not infertile, only that the manic flow of their bodies is not compatible with that of their partners, either because it was higher or lower than that of the other." He looked at her seriously. "If a Mana Suppressor had been prescribed for you, your power levels would have dropped to levels more comparable to your partner's, and conception would have been possible."
"Then..."
"The second difficult part of the pregnancy would be directly related to the fetus." The healer cut him gently.
"Explain yourself," Sheamus asked the healer.
"It is simple." The sigh. "If your mana is higher than that of the unborn fetus, you would end up aborting, your mana would disturb the flow of mana from the baby, killing it in the process." Horror tightened his chest, but the healer was not finished. "Similarly, if the baby's manic flow were stronger than yours, it would end up killing you and him in the process. However, you don't have to be scared. I examined both of them a little while ago and their mana levels are fair. "
Why the hell didn't you say that from the start? He had a mad urge to throw something at the healer.
"Did you have to scare us like that?" the old man complained.
"It was not my intention." He smiled at them with a benign expression, which made Sascha suspicious. "But it is important that they understand the risks."
Sascha's heart finally caught up with events and she chose that moment to beat like crazy. Effervescent happiness burned into her bloodstream, emotion streaming along her nerve synapses. His eyes stung and he barely contained the paroxysm of tears. A drunken feeling clouded his thoughts. He rested his hand protectively on his still flat belly.
I'm going to be a mom. I'm going to be a mom.
"Wait a minute, did you say babies? How in a plural plan? " Sheamus intervened and Sascha descended from the cloud of happiness he was in.
"Yes." The healer smiled at him. "Congratulations, you are pregnant with twins."
Seriously? Sascha couldn't believe it, after all this time yearning for children and now she would have two. That easy?
"Show me." He tugged at the healer's robe anxiously, what if it was all a mistake? a joke? She couldn't bear it. "Please."
The man nodded. "Good."
The healer scanned his body again. He placed the scanner above his belly and with a skill born from a life filled with systematic practice, he operated the scanner with dexterous fingers. A holographic image was projected above her and the interior of his body was revealed to the scrutinizing gaze of Sascha and his master. The healer injected his fingertips with mana and manipulated the image until he found what he was looking for. He pinched and spread his fingers over the three-dimensional image and the image was enlarged.
Sacha blinked and gasped in a daze.
Two fetuses in the early stages of her formation appeared before her eyes.
"By my calculations, you should be six to seven weeks."
Sacha did not respond, her expression was that of someone who had been hit with a mallet on the head. Six or seven weeks? The last time she was intimate after months of abstinence was three days ago and she was not with a human. Sascha giggled half-hysterical, after all the monster had left him a magical bug. Well, two magic bugs.
"Sascha? are you okay?"
She blinked, realizing they were alone again.
"Yes. I am." She finally accepted. Monster or not. Magical bugs or not. She was still pregnant. How ironic that it took a monster to make her greatest wish come true for her.
Will he know? And if he doesn't know, should he tell you?
"Are you going to tell the bastard?"
Bastard? He was a monster, but she didn't consider him a bastard.
"Hey?"
"To James, are you going to tell him about the babies?" the old man repeated patiently.
"Why the hell would I have to tell him?" she blinked, what was her teacher thinking?
Sheamus raised his eyebrows. "Well, he is the father, even if he is a bastard he has a right to know." He paused and looked at her with narrowed eyes "Why are you laughing?"
"Do you remember what I said to Brigette? James is not the father. "
"Was he serious?" he raised his eyebrows, she shrugged her shoulders and nodded "who is it then?"
"I can not tell you." she sighed, her hand tracing unconscious caresses over her flat stomach. "You'll get into trouble knowing."
"Problems don't bother me." She insisted.
Even knowing that she shouldn't, that he was safer for her elder master to be unaware. Sascha couldn't handle the temptation.
"Good." she gave up. "Do you have your acoustic breaker?"
Sheamus nodded, raised eyebrows, and pulled a small top out of a bun. He fed the device with his mana and spun it. Sascha felt a moment of deafness as the outside sounds disappeared and then her ears adjusted.
"A monster, the father of my children is a monster, so what?"
The old man looked at her blankly for a second, then grunted. "Explain everything to me from the beginning and Sascha? Don't leave anything out. "
Sascha explained everything to him from the beginning, starting from the moment he left the apothecary, ending with her waking up on the edge of the Forest. When he finished, the old man was clenching his molars so much that veins stood out on his neck and temples.
"I'm going to hit him."
Sascha shrugged, thankfully. It was impossible that the ways of the monster and his master would ever collide. And if it did, he would make sure he was covered.
The old man cursed and cursed for almost thirty minutes and only stopped when she began to yawn.
"With all the more reason you have to go, Sascha." Sheamus shook his head sadly. "Here you will not be safe, neither you nor the babies and more when the bastard finds out that you were unfaithful to him."
"I know." He accepted with a sigh. "I will go." he rubbed her belly. "We'll go."
"I will communicate with Melida." The old man picked up and turned off the acoustic switch and the outside sounds returned.
"Where does she live?" She asked herself, an afterthought as the old man walked away from her.
The old man looked at her for a second with a penetrating gaze.
"At the outer edge of the Forest." He answered and walked away.
Sascha blinked and sighed. She rubbed her eyes. She was doomed to the Forest no matter what she did.