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Sunana had been through a lot of pain in her life. Being an adventurer she’d dealt with cuts and bruises and aetherial corrupting making her puke light but it was still really bloody difficult to deal with the pain of childbirth. It certainly would have been more painful if she wasn’t as strong as she was, but gods contractions were painful as all hells. It was a blessing that she had her very breathable Ala Mhigan gown and a short skirt, she’d definitely be overheating from exertion in anything else.
It took approximately 5 hours of active labor, 5 grueling hours of pain in the middle of the day trying to push out the child she’d carried through her months of trying anything to be less bored and if she knew anything about babies she probably would be less bored now.
She hadn’t been alone in this endeavor, though she wasn’t sure that was a good thing. For the most part they were sympathetic to her pain, but many times she simply wondered if they were trying to annoy her.
“This is your bloody fault!” she’d said to Pipin, to which he had replied teasingly, “‘Tis no more my fault than yours.”
“You told me swearing isn’t very polite,” Isenaji had complained to her, which she gave him a very aggressive pout for as stated bluntly, “I am not attempting to be polite, I am in much too much pain to be worrying about godsdamn politeness! Out, both of you!!!”
“But-”
“But-”
“OUT!”
-
“My lady says you may come in now.”
Leilu, Sunana’s personal healer turned midwife had always sounded absolutely nothing but polite, though in her honored opinion Leilu being her son’s almost constant babysitter had really added some authority to her tone. It was truly the voice of someone that gave warm commands to a child that could be intensely stubborn. And that stubborn child was the first to march in, running right up to her bed as he demanded, “Is it over? Are you okay now? What’s the baby look like???”
“Aren’t you an eager one,” Sunana had replied teasingly, and her husband came up behind their incredibly excited son as he said, “You look well, all things considered. But it is you, so I am not at all surprised. You could walk through the seventh hell and return looking no less gorgeous than you always are.”
“Oh stop, I hardly need more flattery in my life. Now come and see the beautiful baby that caused me such pain.” Her voice was quite teasing, though she did lean into the kiss her beloved pressed against her cheek. Unfortunately he didn’t see the baby first, their son immediately pushed himself onto the bed to get a close look. Which effectively completely blocked the view as her son was practically right above the newest edition to the family. So Sunana humorously turned her new child to him and said warmly, “Excited to see your new sister?”
“It’s a GIRL??? She’s so SQUISHY!” Her son practically shouted, and she gave him some well deserved shushing as their daughter began to cry. He mumbled a little “Sorry”, and moved over towards the end of the bed so Pipin could finally take a look at their incredibly loud daughter.
When Sunana looked from her daughter to her son, despite the lack of biological blood, they looked strikingly similar. Granted her daughter’s skin was a little closer to her tone than Pipin’s, but she had his eyes, just like their son. And she had the same black hair, it was as if they came from the same template. Honestly she was happy, black hair goes so wonderfully with dark eyes, and the only reason she had golden eyes was the blessings of Nald and Azyema. A shame the Twelve were no longer here to bless her children with gifts, perhaps she…
Well, that was a thought for a different moment. At this moment she was happy to hear that her love agreed with her that she was indeed beautiful and Leilu interrupted to ask politely, “You must officially grant her a name, are you still set upon the name you discussed?”
She looked to Pipin. And he looked to her. She was the one that insisted that as Isenaji had her father’s last name, it was fitting that their daughter have her mother’s last name. But he was the one that filled in the blank. So they both nodded, and after Pipin affirmed that they were, Sunana cuddled her little baby close and said, “Welcome to our loving family-”
“Meimimi Mimi.”
-
“Good gods this is truly horrible timing.”
Sunana let out a deep sigh as she watched her darling daughter giggling and smiling at her while she quickly beat the crap out of the bowl of eggs she was holding. Pipin was sitting beside her snacking on bread as he checked some papers, so it was a moment before he asked, “And what would make you say that, my goddess?”
That nickname always made her blush, but the way she flicked her whisk to the side was very annoyed as she complained, “New developments are coming with the former Scions traveling shards to save the universe again, I doubt I’ll even still be on this plane by her first birthday. She is yet only 3 months old, and it is highly probable I would need to leave in half a year.”
“That is most inconvenient, your role as savior of our kind can separate us for such long periods, and I miss you more each day you are away from me.” She sensed a bit of melancholy in his gaze, and of course the Echo’s ability for her to feel the emotions of others very quickly assaulting her with the sadness in his heart. She put the bowl down to hurry over to her love, gently taking his hand as she said, “I miss you as well, but I will do my best to ensure that I have a way to frequently visit during my journey as I do not wish to be away too often. Well, I should say we do not wish to stay away too long.”
“We-are you taking Ise with you!?” She had truly shocked him with that, causing a few of the papers to fall, and she dexterously folded over to pick them up from the ground as she stated, “Well, it would seem this time I should presumably have a way to bring my former Scions with me, so I see no reason I could not also bring my son along. You know how he reacts to being separated from me.”
“Would that not be incredibly dangerous for a boy 8 summers old?” Pipin asked with a raised eyebrow, and Sunana slid her arm over his shoulders and smoothly handed his papers back as she said factually, “The New World was as well and he accompanied me through it. He is an adventurer just as I am, you know he would be intensely disappointed were he left behind.”
“Yeah I would!” Isenaji suddenly chimed in from the doorway as he practically bolted into the kitchen and Sunana gave him a measured frown as she said, “Ise dear I know we are often running about as we adventure but you must slow down inside the house.”
“He truly is just like you,” Pipin muttered humorously, which was even more muffled by the cup of coffee he lifted to his lips. Sunana gave him a slightly dirty look for that before motioning her excitable son to his seat at the table and continued her previous task of whisking her eggs into submission. Though it was only a moment before she mused, “As our son is much like me, I do pray that perhaps our daughter could be very similar to you. Perhaps one day she could even take up the mantle of General, as you did for Raubahn.”
“Hmm, I would not wish her to feel that her path in life is predecided. However, she is bound to be quite powerful with the influence of two very powerful adults.” Pipin replied thoughtfully, and Sunana acquiesced to that before she tapped her toe on the ground and asked nervously, “Would you perhaps humor me with something?”
He gave her a questioning look before he rose, sweeping over to her as he replied smoothly, “Of course, I wouldn’t deny my beautiful wife anything.” And after receiving a very loving kiss on the cheek she whined about it being sappy before returning the gesture and putting forth, “I wish to give divine gifts to our children. Both of them.”
“Divine gifts…with the aid of Pyra?” Pipin asked curiously, and Sunana nodded as she stated, “You are well aware of its ability to transform me into the divine, and in the absence of the Twelve I should have enough influence to grant a gift. Pyra has only become stronger, and as our dear daughter has reached the age in which I received Pyra, I think it fitting.”
“Well from your father’s stories of how difficult you were to handle at that age I am not sure I wish to repeat that experience with our own daughter.” Pipin gave her a very obvious unimpressed look, and Sunana intentionally closed the distance between them and went on the offensive by saying, “But it is so fitting, and having my guidance it should not be so difficult to learn control. Is that not a sufficient argument daaaarlin’?”
He always blushed when she used that nickname, and she didn’t give him time to argue before she threw her arms around his neck and fell into a deep kiss. A kiss that turned into many, until she heard the sounds of her son gagging over this blatant romance.
It seemed to take a second for Pipin to regain his senses but he did eventually give a deep sigh as he teased, “You make it so difficult to argue with you when you truly want something.”
“Well I adore having things always go my way~” She practically sang, and Pipin gave another sigh before taking her hands and placing a kiss on the back as he asked, “Well how can I say no to someone so beautiful? I simply pray you do not leave me to handle the challenges of raising a child with divine familiars alone.”
“Of course not, love. Now let us feast so we may have the strength for such an interesting day.”
-
Well, the reason she had chosen Isenaji first was not because he was older, though it was a factor. She wanted to ensure that she had the most energy for him as she knew that his magical mastery was not incredibly good. It was the reason she chose Archery and later Machinistry for him rather than a form of magic. His control of aether was not nearly as good as hers, it would be difficult for him to deal with the kind of drain that she did. Her familiar was incredibly powerful and required quite a lot of aether, she would need to ensure that the gift she gave to him was not as demanding as hers was.
She also deemed it best not to bless him with fire. He always preferred sapphire tones, and she would prefer that he have something as nurturing and protective as water rather than fierce and antagonistic as fire.
It would be easiest to do this in an environment absolutely rich with water aspected aether. So she chose the Agelyss River and gently asked her son to step into the water as she focused on commanding Pyra to transform her into a god. Something it did quite happily, filling her with power and gracing her form with that short golden dress with pitch black sashes that always accompanied the golden jewelry and the crown draped with the same phoenix feathers as the cape flowing out of the back of her dress.
Pyra never let her feet touch the ground when she was a goddess, she floated among a cloud of phoenix feathers. The same feathers that flew off of the head of her staff, which was now centered by a golden halo. And she let her staff leave her hands, floating in front of her as she concentrated.
She was pulling water aether into it, letting ribbons of water fly from the river to circle around her staff. She focused magic into it first, then brought her power to its height so she could infuse it with godly power. She knew she had succeeded when she could feel that the aetherial signature was an exact match to Pyra’s, and with this little ball in her hands she pushed her staff to the side and floated down a little to offer her hands to her beloved son. He stared into the vortex of water before him, mesmerizing in its serenity and beauty, as Sunana told him gracefully, “As my fire protects me, so shall this water protect you. It is named Syracuse, take it in your hands.”
He nodded and took it into his hands, and the brief contact with her once again dressed him in the clothes of a god. His clothes warped into a short chitin of pure black topped with a golden shawl, a circlet of richest gold blessing his black locks. But he didn’t have time to comment on it as Sunana quickly told him, “You must focus on it. And only when you feel you could concentrate on nothing else will you slowly bring it into your chest.”
He stared at it with more concentration than she had ever seen from him, the furrow of his brow was so deep it nearly eclipsed his eyes. But eventually he deemed himself ready, and with a surprising level of serenity he slowly and carefully folded his hands over his heart. The ball infused into him, nestling into his aether, and with strands of water surrounding him his mother turned a tender smile to him and spoke, “As my fire goes on the offensive, your water shall go on the defensive. Should you come into danger, you shall always have a shield. Should you need to move, you shall have a river to guide you. As you grow and experience hardship, your water shall grow along with you.”
This excited him quite a bit, causing more water to surround him, and she felt it was a good time to bring up, “As I said before, I can help you learn to control it. Should you ever need it to stop and listen to you, you need only say its name. Do you remember it?”
Isenaji nodded, closing his eyes as he said peacefully, “Syracuse,” and the water immediately calmed.
“See, you are a natural,” Sunana praised with a genuine smile, then floated a little closer and she took his head in her hands as she told him, “I know you are already strong of your own right, but I would like to grant you two blessings.”
“Strength,” she said before kissing his right cheek, and as he was trying to whine about it she turned his face and added, “and Accuracy,” as she planted a kiss on his other cheek.
“That was GROSS!” he whined, and she laughed before pushing back as if she were on the edge of a swimming pool. She dragged him along with her, temporarily granting flight to lift him out of the water and onto the bank. Then she turned to her beloved Pipin, a spectator to her blessings, and she said charmingly, “Could I switch children with you? I think it wise for our son to rest as his body grows accustomed to the new familiar. So take him home for a nap while I bless our daughter.”
“As you wish, my most beloved goddess,” Pipin replied, gracing her divine hand with a kiss before passing their infant daughter to her. Several new flurries of phoenix feathers fell off her but she attempted to play off the embarrassment in favor of pushing their still floating son into the arms of his father. Usually Isenaji would complain more about being sent home, but it seemed his body becoming accustomed to the aether drain was actually making him rather sleepy so he couldn’t complain because he was asleep.
Pipin did ask where she was going, and Sunana was happy to tell him. “Gyr Abania.”
-
She decided to take her baby up into the mountains, and she would need to be quick before her transformation became too taxing on the environment. Now that she was in an environment ambivalent with earth aspected aether, it was time to get started.
To start with, she gently laid her very tiny baby in the dirt. Then she came to sit beside her, trying to ignore the dirt turning to gold beneath her knees. She needed her child to be anchored to the earth, so though it would be very difficult she tried to ensure that her child’s feet were firmly touching the ground as she concentrated on the earth aspected aether around her. Her staff floated above her, drawing the aether in, and after she successfully infused it with divinity she brought the ball down and carefully took control of her daughter’s hands to hold the ball between them. The swirling earth and stone seemed hypnotizing to the infant, and as she stared at it curiously Sunana told her, “You do not understand my words yet, but you will eventually. As my fire shapes my world, so shall your earth. It is named Aria.”
The hypnotizing orb seemed fitting to capture the attention of a baby, so she thought that was good enough concentration and gently guided her hands to wrap around the earthy light and slowly bring it into her chest. Her little hands folded over her heart, and Sunana could tell that the infusement was successful. And the close contact with the divine dressed her daughter in loose fabrics of silky black and gold with a simple shimmery gold circlet around her tiny head. It was the same color as the gold dust under her mother’s knees, and the goddess gave an explanation of the power she had granted to a child who would not understand her words. “The ground shall rise under your control. Should you need a shield to protect yourself and others, you shall have one. Should you need to see from higher ground, so you shall. Should you need a path or a stepping stool, you shall have it. As you grow and travel through life, so too shall it. And should you need it to listen to you, you need only say its name, Aria.”
The incantation provided more power to it, and it was time to give the divine gifts. So she lifted her baby up onto her knees a little so she could comfortably take her tiny head in her hands and grant blessings that she saw very strongly in her husband.
“Courage,” she stated with a cheek kiss, and a separate, “Intelligence,” with her next kiss.
Well, that was all she needed to do. So it was time for her to remove her divinity.
She floated up again, keeping her daughter in the crook of her left elbow as she took her staff in her hand and felt herself slowly floating down as she ceremoniously passed her staff in front of her. Every aspect of the transformation was sucked into the head of her staff, and she gently flicked her staff down, touching it to the ground as she returned the aether she used. And now she was dressed as she always was with a sleepy baby tucked in her arm, and she gave the little one a smile. You and him, my daughter and son…I don’t need to worry so much for you now. Now you can make others worry.
-
Every time there was a high society party, Isenaji immediately went looking for Roseta. He was always worried about her, and it seemed he had a right to as he found her on the balcony surrounded by boys trying to reach her behind the journal she put up to shield herself.
The moment he saw her he muttered, “Syracuse!” and immediately his water leapt out to make a barrier around her. That surprised everyone besides Isenaji, and the boys were staring at him completely flabbergasted while he yelled at them, “Quit being mean to her! If she doesn’t wanna talk to you don’t make her! Now go away!”
He certainly could have cussed at them but this was supposed to be a high society party. And he didn’t have to, they immediately scrambled past him back to the ballroom. So he again said, “Syracuse” and the water retreated back to his chest.
So now Roseta was looking at him in utter awe, standing with her wide ruby eyes almost hidden behind the journal as she tried to process what happened. Then she slowly lowered the journal, pointed at his chest and tilted her head with confusion written all over her face. She only seemed to be confused and not terrified, so Isenaji jumped into an explanation that, “My mama gave me and my sister divine blessings, an orb like her fire so it can protect me and those around me!”
Roseta still seemed a little confused but gave him a grateful nod for saving her. But then they were both jarred by a sudden tremor, and Isenaji immediately flipped toward the entrance and shouted, “Mei!” as he ran into the room.
-
Sunana and Pipin had been talking to Nanamo when the floor shook, only slightly and it seemed to only affect a few spots, not the whole floor. But that it had even happened made the couple look to each other with worried frowns.
Suddenly Leilu teleported in, carrying their crying baby that kept setting off tremors. A baby she presented to them as she breathlessly claimed, “She won’t calm down, do something about it please.”
Sunana lurched for a second from a sudden shake before she took her daughter into her arms with Pipin standing opposite her, leaning over their baby giving her soothing shushes. Sunana moved her to one elbow so she could snap her fingers in front of her daughter, producing a heart shaped flame a few inches from her. Their daughter started to calm, staring at the fire and reaching out while Sunana kept it just out of reach but drawing Pyra’s mimicry ability to change the color of the flame in a cycle.
Their now very distracted and happily giggling daughter was no longer setting off tremors, and seeing her baby so calmly reach for something that many would be scared of made her turn to her husband with a proud smile as she said, “She’s so fearless, just like her father.”
They laughed together, then suddenly transferred their attention as they heard an incredibly loud shout of, “Coming through!”
It was Isenaji, sliding on his stomach down a road of water until it eventually splashed onto the ground, making him unflatteringly sprawl across the floor as the water returned to his chest. Sunana gently transferred her daughter to the arms of her husband so she could lift Isenaji off the ground, wrapping her arms under his and swiftly bringing him to his feet as she asked, “Still cannot stick a landing?”
He looked up at her with an indignant pout, so before he could get truly upset she gave him a sympathetic pat as she complimented, “You will learn, it is already impressive that you have so much control over it so early.”
He smiled brightly at that, and she scooped him into a hug before she suddenly heard Lolorito being absolutely aghast as he asked, “Did you give your children powers over elements as well!?”
“Indeed I did.” She replied smugly, then explained, “I did not give them my fire, it felt unfitting. To Isenaji I gave water to protect him, considering that he insists on following me into danger.”
As she spoke she swayed her son back and forth, until he told her to quit it. Then she put him down and looked back at her daughter as she said, “I do not wish to push expectations on my children, but I hope she may someday take up Pipin’s mantle, and imagine!”
She turned to Nanamo, eyes shining bright as she continued excitedly, “A military leader that can shake the ground, cushion falls, create steps or raise a wall of earth to protect her comrades!”
Nanamo did seem to contemplate it, but Lolorito simply shook his head and muttered, “Of course you created more dangerous children such as you.”
Sunana laughed the way she always did in fearful company, open and maniacal before she stated, “Of course I did, how could I not?”
“I will admit though,” she added a little more calmly, “Pipin was a bit skeptical, as he remembered my father speaking of how difficult I was to control. But he didn’t have a teacher!”
Her end statement was very matter of fact, and she was not done speaking as she added, “I know how to control my fire, thus I can feasibly teach them to control their gifts as well.”
She ended her monologue with a simple smug shrug, just seconds before Isenaji’s water tripped him and he went to the ground. Of course he immediately whined, “Syracuse!” and Sunana helped him up as she explained, “It’s particularly playful at this stage, worry not.”
He was still pouting, so Sunana put her hands under his arms and lifted him to throw him up in the air. He fell on her laughing like he always did, though it was ruined when someone stated that he was too old for that. To which she leaned toward him smugly as she said, “You’re just jealous your parents weren’t strong enough to throw you in the air when you were 8.”
She swiftly threw him into the air again, and when he fell on her laughing she noticed her daughter reaching for her. It gave her an idea, and she told Pipin, “You should throw her above you. But be careful of your strength, she is very light.”
He nodded to her and noted teasingly, “You hardly needed to tell me,” before moving his hands under their daughter’s arms and carefully lifted her up. His strength was very clearly controlled as he threw her into the air and caught her.
Their daughter was giggling very happily, and Sunana leaned over as she said, “She truly is fearless, like her father.”
With Sunana squeezing her son while resting close to her daughter it was very clear to all that she truly loved them, and both she and Pipin were very proud of them.