Atticus was sitting upright, lifting baby blue in the air affectionately.
Did she walk into the future?
Or– did somebody slow down the hands of time while she went in for the drugs?
The sound of the drugs falling had caught his attention. His hands had come to a pause but baby blue was still in the air.
"Att—Atticus?" Xylia stammered, her lids blinking rapidly.
A smile spreads across Atticus's face. "Xylia, you did not bring home a bundle of joy. You brought home an angel."
An angel?
Xylia cupped her face, her cheeks hot with sentiment. She took unsure steps toward her husband and Baby Blue. "How are you able to move with ease? Atticus you— the paleness on your face is gone. You look so— so healthy."
"However I look right now Xylia, I promise you I feel a hundredfolds better." He chuckled, baby blue was on his lap now.
How on earth could that be possible?
Atticus is healed of his bond disease? "I guess the heavens have answered our prayers and Prince Adramelech is healed now." she let out the only possible reason for her husband's sudden cure.
"No Xylia. It's not prince Adramelech." Atticus shook his head. "It is her. She is a descendant of the heavens." he returned his gaze to baby blue who was happily cooing in his lap.
That could not possibly be true, it didn't make sense, could it?
Wait!
Oh dear heavens!
When she first lay her eyes on baby blue, the baby was glowing. Dear heavens, the light was so bright it got too intense for her eyes. She had thought it was from a car's headlight until she saw that it came from beside the bin where she discovered the baby!
The excitement she felt at discovering the baby was so overwhelming that she forgot that one significant fact.
As if Atticus read her mind, "It's the baby Xylia, she glowed when I touched her hair. I was mesmerized at her beauty and my hands unconsciously went to her hair but when I touched it, it glowed and I immediately felt better." he was laughing with bliss now.
Baby blue saved Atticus. She saved her sick and almost-dying, husband.
She couldn't help but to laugh too. A laughter that came with tears as they streamed down her face. "Do you see Atticus? This is nobody's baby, it's ours. The heavens sent her to us after hearing and finally answering all our cries." her voice was breaking as she sobbed.
"Yes Xylia, she's ours. Sent to us by the heavens." Atticus affirmed with so much affection dancing around his erratic voice.
Joy and fulfillment were pouring through Xylia. Never in her life had she felt this happy. She rushed to sit beside her husband and new baby, her new daughter.
The warmth from the embrace was everything she needed. It was all the assurance she needed to toss aside the possible consequences she feared and Atticus had mentioned.
"Xylia?" she heard his voice call her.
"Yes, honey?"
"Will this incident not have effects on prince Adramelech? Will he not be healed? I mean, for me to be okay now definitely, the prince has been healed first."
Just when something good happens, it comes bearing an expensive price.
Well this price, it was what a nobody like them could pay.
Raising her head from his chest and pulling away from the embrace, an hiccup escaped her mouth. "Oh, by the holy priestesses, there is the issue about the blood chain! Of course, prince Adramelech is healed for you to be healed. The bond disease permits for its hosts to heal after the prince heals."
"What do you think will happen now?" Atticus's formerly calm voice was getting tensed.
Could she not be spared for once at least? Xylia's face was starting to get watery with tears. "They will come for us Atticus. I heard prince Adramelech's sickness is a serious one and might reoccur. Don't forget the rumors about how the princes of the seven lines have been desperately searching for a cure that can end their occasional illnesses."
"Yes, Xylia. I know it all."
Xylia took the baby from his hand. "It wouldn't take them past morning to locate the cause of the cure to us. I mean, with the help of divine priestesses, they would locate us without breaking a sweat!" she cried.
"Do we have to give the baby up then?" Atticus sighed sadly.
With widened eyes, "Give it the baby up? No, never! This is Heaven's gift to me. She's the cure to all of our troubles. Look, she healed you." Xylia snapped, her senses evading her.
"But we will have no choice but to give her up. Prepare yourself for that Xylia. Prepare yourself for the punishment we would receive for bringing a baby that isn't ours home when the divine precinct is there."
How could Atticus be this ungrateful?!
Give the baby up? She would give up her life before giving baby blue up!
"That won't happen if we run Atticus. Let's leave this God forsaken line right now!" She was shivering, her legs wobbling in fright.
Atticus stood up from the bed in a rush. "Are you out of your mind Xylia? Leave here and go where?!" he roared.
Baby Blue as if sensing the argument and danger in the air, burst into yet another loud cry.
"Oh, even Baby Blue wants us to go." Xylia shook her body which vibrated baby blue who was in her hands.
It was a motion to rock the baby and reduce or perhaps stop the cry.
"Where do we go, Xylia? We know nowhere else except for this line. We could barely survive in our line, life would be harder for us in the other lines!" Atticus was beginning to get softened and see her point.
Softer now, she strode closer to him. "Remember the sand line? How prince Cargan has managed the line well and it is one of the most prosperous lines? Let's go there. We will survive one way, we always do!"
Atticus was about to protest when she hushed him with her index finger placed on his lips. "No Atticus, if nothing at all, for the sake of blue. I do not trust the priestesses or even prince Adramelech. What do you think they will do with her when they lay their hands on her?" she said.
"Alright, but I doubt the interline trains would not be fully booked by this hour." he turned his eyes to baby blue. "But she's worth all the troubles and many more."
"Oh, thank you, Atticus. Thank you." she smiled with joy and cupped her husband's face with a hand.
He smiled in return but removed her hand from his face. " Place baby blue on the bed. Wait, is that what we are going to name her? Baby blue?"
"Of course not!" She chuckled. "Don't be ridiculous. Let's call her Afina." She said.
"Does that not mean a young female deer in Hebrew?"
"Yes, but in Romanian, it says blueberry."
"Blueberry?"
"Let's just pack Atticus, time is not on our side."
"Right, pack only the valuable things. We cannot travel with heavy belongings with a baby too." Atticus instructed and so, they packed right in the middle of the night, they left the line.
It was all in a bid to save blue and shield her from the platter of the princes and priestesses.
.
They struggled in their first years of being in the sandline but eventually, they survived. Just like Xylia had said, they always do.