Fiona slowly turned, her eyes so fidget and dark. She swallowed hard, the nurse began making sense. Her idea was not bad. She could put him up for adoption, return to the Coven and tell everyone the baby died in childbirth.
"Look here a lot of girls who cannot afford to raise a child go for adoption…," the nurse explained but before she could begin explaining the procedure, her pager ran, requesting her back to the pediatric section, there was an emergency.
"Ooh sorry, I am needed, I will be right back, just hold him for seconds," she requested.
The infant was in Fiona's hands before Fiona could argue, and he stopped crying immediately.
The nurse smiled and ran out of the room, thanking her.
"No no wait…!" Fiona yelled for her, however, she was already out of the door.
Fiona was afraid to glance at the baby as the room fell silent. She'd heard stories about witches cursed to give birth to sons centuries ago, and the horrors that followed. Some of the witches were said to have gone insane, turned to stone, or become blind. Giving birth to a son was every child giver's worst dread.
Even though she was looking away, she could feel little eyes glancing up at her. However, she maintained her eyes glued at the door, waiting for the door to open and the nurse walking back in. Seconds turned into minutes and it became too quiet without the baby-making any sound.
Curious, Fiona began debating within herself, it was only a baby. What would a baby do to her, she thought to herself. The stories were probably just myths and if they were true, running mad or turning to stone was not a bad easy way out of her predicament.
She wiped her tears and slowly turned to face the baby while holding her breath in. Big gray eyes and the cutest smile she had ever seen stared right back at her.
She chuckled and breathed out loud, not knowing how to react. Her baby was so beautiful, the nurse was right, he looked like a girl. He kept smiling at her like he knew the trouble she was in and was trying to comfort her.
At least she debunked the myths and was still in one piece. She wondered how many lies Ezeldah had infused in their heads.
How could such a cute thing be an abomination, she thought to herself as she traced her hands on his little cute face. He was so beautiful, she could not stop staring at him, her heart was filled with a feeling that she could not explain.
"Igram, your name is Igram, meaning my ending," she whispered to him as she placed a kiss on his forehead and held onto him tightly, and began crying. She had no idea how she came up with the name but it just popped in her head.
She was confused, a minute ago she was sure she was going to put him up for adoption but his smile changed everything. He was hers, even if he was male and no one was going to separate him from her.
"Are...you...hungry!" She asked him.
She was not the type that believed in love at first sight but what she was experiencing was indeed love at first. She quickly began breastfeeding him, as she began thinking of a way forward. What she was doing was going against everything she was ever taught.
The Coven was probably looking for her and staying any longer at the hospital was a danger for her son and herself.
She quickly got up and breathed in hard, she had zero plans that involved keeping her baby but she needed to go to a place where she could not be detected and she knew exactly where to go. She raised her hand and chanted a spell, a spell only she knew because she created it.
It opened a portal to a secret realm and she jumped in. No one knew she was capable of creating her own spells because they assigned her the wrong division. The baby-making division which she despised with all her might.
By the time the nurse returned to the room, Fiona was long gone. The nurse searched for her, everywhere, but they could not find her.
She was long gone, in her realm, trying to think of a way to get herself out of the situation she did not ask for.
At the coven, the high priestess, Ezeldah was aware of her disappearance, and the portal she had used to get to the hospital. She had sent a convey to get her back, however by the time they got to the hospital she was gone.
The convoy of Finders walked into her chambers and reported back to the furious Priestess. She immediately sent them away, it was the second time her magic was failing her. For a week she had failed to foresee what was in Fiona's womb and now she was unable to locate Fiona. The situation was driving her crazy, something was not right, something more powerful than her was blocking her and it scared the life out of her.
Did she make a mistake after centuries and assigned Fiona the wrong Division? She kept thinking to herself.
The question kept eating her up, the shame that hovered over her was immense. A little girl was right, and if she was, it would make her a very powerful sorcerer, a threat to her position and whatever was in her womb was powerful enough to block her.
Ezeldah quickly got up and teleported to her shrine, pissed. She had ruled over the Santris coven for centuries, and for the first time she had made a mistake, a mistake she knew would one day cost her.
In the realm, Fiona was running out of time, she could feel Ezeldah trying to penetrate her spell but was still without a solution. Running away was not an option, they would find her and desertion was punishable by death. Confessing she gave birth to a son, was the end of her son and if she was lucky they would send her to the pits of hell, the lowest division as a soul gatherer.
She spat out angry, only if Ezeldah had listened to her. She hated the old hag, it was her fault that she was in that predicament. And instead of the Coven punishing the priestess, they were going to punish her and her son.
She looked at her baby who was fast asleep, "Mommy is going to protect you, no witch will ever lay their hands on you!" She spat out and got up.
She strolled around for some minutes then an idea popped up, the "Illusion of deception" she had been practicing and creating a lot of illusion spells over the past years. Spells that she could not share with anyone because she was in the Child Giver's division. A division where they were only allowed to learn the art of seducing men in the human world and raising babies.
Practicing magic that was not intended on childbearing was frowned upon but not for Fiona. Ever since she was sure she belonged in the Sorceress Division, she secretly practiced and taught herself all sorts of spells, even forbidden spells.
She quickly got the baby and began chanting; "Siu Siu siu, you are what I want you to be and not what you are."
The baby woke up and erupted into crying
"Vialoya manis, sentalo Siu siu siu, you are what I want you to be and not what you are," she kept chanting. "Vaio sun bysiu, blood, besio Iowa uwia uia suit," she kept chanting as she Pierced her finger and wiped the baby's face with some blood.
The baby kept crying as fog began encircling it. Fiona kept chanting and chanting until the baby turned into a girl.
"From today my son you can shape fit into whatever you want your enemy to see," she stated.
And in order to seal the spell, she teleported with the baby to another Coven, up north of theirs.
Only magic from another Coven could deceive Ezeldah. She knew it was a dangerous move, if caught she could die but she had read extensively on other Covens and how they operated. She was versed in mixing magic from other realms and Covens, a practice that was banned and punishable by death.
The other Coven was not different from theirs, the watchwomen were in charge of guarding but were not as powerful as sorcerers equipped with spells and portals that were at Fiona's disposal. Without them noticing she bathed her baby in their shrine and was out of the place by the time they discovered an intruder was there without leaving a trace.
She opened another portal and landed in the grave forest, preparing potions to cover her son from the other witches. The spells she was using were too powerful, not even an adult would survive but her baby was still breathing, though he was exhausted.
"Hold on son, you can do this," she whispered to him.
It was very dark in the graveyard and she could barely see a thing. She quickly located a grave of the greatest shape-shifting sorcerer that ever lived and placed her baby in his tomb.
"I'm sorry Igram, you have to sleep in there alone for a night," she said as she laid him on top of the bones and began forming a cocoon around both the bones and baby. She chanted a spell and the bones disintegrated into the baby.
Her spell was done, all she had to do was wait for morning to see if it worked.
She was so tired and collapsed to the ground as she wrapped up the spell. She could only hope the baby was going to survive. " Be strong, Igram for mommy's sake," she whispered as she closed her eyes.
Morning came, Fiona slowly opened her eyes and found Ezelda standing over her, staring with so much venom in her eyes.
Fiona quickly remembered her baby and her heart began beating very fast.