When I awoke, Eve was... weird. Not the same kind of weird she had been after Bellerver, but weird. "Eve why are you wrapped in divinity?"
"Because you're an idiot and I think I didn't get pregnant."
"Eve, what makes you say that? I'm not asking as your idiot, I'm asking as your healer."
"There was a bit of blood this morning."
"Ah, well that is probably the first natural thing about the whole scenario... I don't want to get hopes up, so I stayed quiet, I think that you might be pregnant."
"..." I don't know how, but at that moment Eve seemed to make her silence audible. "Why didn't you say." She practically snarled.
"Like I said, I didn't want to get your hopes up. Also none of this has been normal from the start and I didn't want to stress you out... Look, A human ovulates for one day, but I checked the levels of every test and you actively ovulated for at least three. The rest your hormone levels were so high that I don't know what was going on with you."
"So what else makes you think it took?"
"You haven't had a period at all have you? Again that wasn't much of a sign, because we heal so fast blood would struggle to form and I may have done a little test with detached tissue, you won't ever have a normal period again since removed tissue melts to black and is reabsorbed within an hour outside of the body, probably almost instantly in that particular case."
"You really did that, but when?"
"Look I wasn't just doing random training with Fala those times I left Babylon to train. I was preparing you a midwife... She requested the lessons, that's why she spent the whole week... She was helping me run tests so we could work out a game plan."
"But what about the blood?"
"Don't hate me for this, I'm not being weird... Did you clean yourself already?"
"No... I got sad, why?"
"Okay... I need to see the blood and know if you are going to shoot the messenger, I think I can tell you if you're pregnant, but please promise not to hate me if I'm wrong."
"I promise..." She paused and blushed. "I hope you know, how embarrassing this is though, so... please erase the memory after I promise to tell you." I nodded, it was understandably a big ask and one I would have preferred not to have had to.
As she showed me the red spotted underwear, I used my mana search and a series of other sensory skills to examine it. "I am about seventy percent sure you are pregnant. I can detect the dissipation of tissue in two spots that are purely you. There is a third one though that is like a mixture of both of us coming from... well not outside."
"That still seems like not enough to go on, why does it make you seventy percent sure?"
"Well it doesn't alone... what pushes it up to seventy is the inner spiral of your mana vortex. It seems to have branched off and be feeding an almost impossibly small secondary spiral."
"That seems more concrete, spirals don't change, so why not more? Sorry, I want all the facts, I'm not trying to be demanding or pushy for answers."
"First of all, I'm pushing my sensory abilities so much I have had to redirect the entirety of my divinity to reinforce my eyes, brain and everything between. It still feels like they are about to combust. Secondly, I have never observed a pregnant woman''s spiral to any degree and lastly..."
"Lastly?..."
"Lastly, I could just subconsciously be making myself see what I want to see with absolute will."
"Fair points, if I am pregnant, when should we let Cosmael revert?"
"I think After this fight... I'm going to miss her, but I'm also starting to wish she would change her mind so I don't have to go without her... Besides, if she is your first born daughter I don't think that will be so bad... Obviously I'm a man, so nothing I said on the matter has any real validity."
"Adam, don't panic, I'm not mad but we should get the girls over here, Astrael too, so she can say goodbye."
That was what we did. We brought the girls over, we told them what we now both believed.
Cosmael was ecstatic, she gave Astrael two letters, one for her and one for Celesael. They contained all the unspoken words that she held in her heart, ones locked behind her timid and guarded personality.
Astrael remained stoic, wishing to see her sister off with a smile even though it was obvious a piece of her heart was breaking now her sister was actually going, a strange mix of elation and heartbreak that I felt mimicked deep within myself.
Quatal... Quatal was rock solid and almost militarily stoic, not heartbroken by Cosmael going, but overjoyed she would soon be a big sister to maybe two young siblings. Not that that joyousness was enough to stop her casually nodding at Cosmael before saying "Don't worry... I won't let Papa eat you."
With that the mood was euthanized abruptly, Astrael returned home, with orders not to spread the word beyond The Garden. We had decided that we wanted to keep it secret from mortals until we were more certain, we also wanted to be able to study the situation a bit more and make sure there wouldn't be any complications.
We then all headed out for our final battle accompanied by Cosmael.
We made our way through the mountain valley in relative peace. The rocky pathway suddenly giving way to the wastes when we reached the end, revealing an almost prehistoric landscape that was not too dissimilar from The Garden, except for the giant monsters that could be seen everywhere.
Right by the entrance we appeared at were three bear-like creatures, each one with four front limbs and spiky growths protruding from each vertebrae.
"Any ideas about these things?" Eve asked.
"One would make a good rug for the cabin, but I don't think that's what you meant. No, no ideas, but why don't we use them to stretch." Even as I spoke the closest to us, a beast of about two and a half metres on all fours, stood on it's hind-legs and became a four and a half metre tall goliath.
Swiping its right claws at me, it sent me sliding about ten metres, my feet never shifting, leaving a trench where I was pushed. Not to say the beast wasn't strong enough to harm me, my entire left arm was practically powdered and I could feel my ribs dig into my heart as the were broken inward.
Unfortunately for the bear, by the time I had stopped skidding I was already healed and because it was focused on me it never saw my very angry daughter, wielding Caliburn in gauntlet form, jump up to its head.
With all her strength she punched the monster, then its head exploded, showering the other two with strips of flesh, shards of bone and brain matter.
"Quatal, that just ruined all three potential rugs."
"Sorry Papa, I got mad."
"What don't we do when we're mad?"
"Punch stuff we want to keep in one piece..."
"Good girl, now do you want to try keeping the other two in one piece at least? You need practice controlling Caliburn whilst remaining effective still."
Quatal nodded, then proceeded to soundly defeat the other two without much effort. "Is it just me or has she got a lot stronger since we started travelling?"
"She has, she has also grown in other ways, she seems to be thinking more and she has definitiely gotten taller..." As she took down the second after it got a miraculous second wind, I called her over. "Sweetie, can you take your shoes off please."
Her face got scared all of a sudden, but she kicked off her shoes with a fair amount of pain. "Ooooo no, my baby. Why didn't you tell us they were so tight?"
"I wanted to teach myself to get small in human form, it's easy as a snake, but I can only do it in this body when I concentrate really hard."
"Quatal, if you want to practice something like that then ask the adults to help. Why do you want to make yourself smaller?"
"So when I'm bigger the dwarves will let me drink milk still, like they did with sis." She said it as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. Eve and I were so relieved that it wasn't something more damaging or self-perceived insecurities.
"Quatal, when you get big I want you to do something."
"What Mama?"
"Walk up to the bar, order a mug of milk, down it and ask if anyone's brave enough to fight a milk-drinker, then beat anyone who thinks yes back into the stone."
"Okay Mama, but won't that hurt Auntie Mountain?"
"Maybe, but she will blame me, not your mother so that's future Adam's problem."