Salomeid/3

1.XV.1664 - Inner Curtain Wall, Raynor's Keep

Ayreon IV ran, maintaining a proper athletic form. His path took him all the way around the parapet atop the Inner Curtain Wall. Pairs of Sentinels, patrolling the wall, cleared the for the Kaiser, saluting as he passed. Through one doorway into the Library Tower and out the other end, between the crenelations on the left and the Banquet Hall on the right, then through the Dowager's Tower, and on.

The sunlight raked the Inner Keep at a particularly low angle, with the Sun itself glowing red orange, and the ground level within the Keep's inner walls was still bathed in shadow.

Every morning that he woke in Raynor's Keep, he ran his winding path, having come to know it well enough to run with his eyes closed. He ought to have by now; he had run this path since he was six years old. Today, he had made it back to his bedchamber in the Keep Proper filled with an abundance of vigor. A Sentinel saluted and silently opened the door, and Ayreon came to a stop just within the door.

The morning light cut across the room from the relatively-narrow window, slicing his bedchamber in half with a golden blade. On the far side, near the window, a small figure was sitting at his desk, filling out some paperwork.

"Good morning, Your Imperial Magnificence." Isidora said, calmly and quietly. Her warm eyes lifted away from her work at towards him.

"You don't need to call me that when we're alone, Izzy." Ayreon began to cross the room. He took a glance at his bed, which was still an unmade, shapeless tangle of blankets.

"Yes, Your Imperial Magnificence." Isidora said with a husky voice.

Ayreon picked a pillow off the floor and tossed it at her. "Knock it off."

Isidora's hand lifted from her lap and deflected the pillow. "I'm glad that you've finally made it back here. We have our morning duties to attend to. You ran a few more laps than you usually do, and now we're behind."

"Yes yes... I was just so full of energy." Ayreon eased into a nearby chair and began to undo his PT gear. He glanced back at the bed. "Is, umm..."

"First--" Isidora's sharp word regained Ayreon's attention quickly. "The two weeks are up and the blood test came back positive."

"Positive. Does that mean?" His eyes went down to her abdomen.

"It does." Isidora said. She scribbled a note on the piece of paper in front of her, barely suppressing the beginnings of a grin. "The next three months should hopefully go smoothly. I'll be adding doctor visits to the schedule so that I can be monitored regularly. The first trimester is the most... uncertain. I hope you don't mind coming with me to those. It is... important for you."

Ayreon's eyes widened as the thought sunk further into him. He continued to stare at her abdomen. A part of him wanted to touch it, but he knew there would be nothing to feel at such an early point in the pregnancy. Even so, doing so would make it all the more real. "Yes, very important. I'm so glad that you've been so willing to do this for me. It means so much to me..."

Isidora's ears began to redden as Ayreon continued to speak.

"...you're quite dear to me, Izzy. Like the closest of sisters."

Isidora's gaze quickly returned back to the work in front of her. She continued skimming the contents without looking up. "Adding to that, this means that I-- you-- you won't need to continue the current nighttime arrangements. There isn't much good collecting more at this time. You'll be making plenty more for years to come."

Ayreon nodded, but frowned at the vagueness of the statement. His eyes glanced back at the bed, then to Isidora. "So... that means..."

Isidora looked him in the eyes. They seemed colder now, as she normally looked at him when business was on her mind. "That means that there is no more need for the condoms to collect your sperm, nor the need to summon pages to assist in producing it."

Ayreon felt the end of that question burn into him with her stare. "No, you're correct. No purpose."

Ayreon looked back at the bed, then to her.

Isidora sighed briefly. "You should get washed up and dressed for the day. State correspondence should be arriving shortly. I'll have breakfast brought so we can kill two birds with one stone."

Isidora closed her portfolio and made her way for the door in a brisk fashion. She usually stuck around while he went to wash, getting things ready for when he returned. It was unusual for her to do otherwise.

"Isidora?"

"Yes, Ayreon?" She said, turning towards him from the doorway.

"Where's Jaap gone?" He pointed to the bed and its lack of Ayreon's 'bedwarmer' of the past month.

"Van Pijpervale? He should be back to the Dirâsat-an-Nûr. He has his regular duties to attend to at the school, as you know."

As soon as Ayreon could nod in understanding, she had given him a light bow of the head and disappeared into the corridor.

14.VII.1665 - Medical Ward, Inner Barracks, Raynor's Keep

Ayreon leaned against the wall of the examination room, his arms crossed, his eyes wandering every which way. The mounting for the curtain, which was bunched up to the side rather than spread out to conceal the exam table. The sign above the sink, which provided Effective Hand Washing directions. A file holder mounted to the door. Ayreon's eyes crossed from the far right to the far left, catching a blur of flesh before settling on a wall-mounted diagram of human organs. His eyes traced the lobes of the lungs, then the diaphragm, then the coiled intestinal trac--

"Could you give me a hand?"

Ayreon's attention was brought back to the middle of his field of view, to Isidora, half hanging out of a hospital gown and with plenty to be seen. He stepped closer and knotted together the ties at the neck. She thanked him, then folded her clothes into a neat pile for him to put on one of the chairs he had been standing next to. She then asked Ayreon to help her onto the examination table. Once on, Isidora let out a deep sigh.

"I can think of a few changes they need to make if they insist on continuing prenatal care here."

Doctor Qimeneq, the physician who had been assigned by the Imperial Chamberlain to supervise Isidora's pregnancy, performed a thorough physical examination, feeling at her belly, her joints, pelvis, and so forth. Everything was right on target.

"Any other changes since our last checkup?"

"Well, for the past several days, I've noticed it become easier to breathe again. Not all the way, but I can breathe more deeply than last time."

"Good, good. The child is repositioning in preparation for the birthing. Weekly checkups from this point onwards. Anything else to bring to my attention?"

Isidora shook her head.

"Excellent. I think we all await your child imminent arrival, then." Doctor Qimeneq added one last scribble to the notes, then bowed to Isidora, bowed again more deeply to the Kaiser, and stepped out into the hallway. At the last moment, the doctor turned to say, "Before you go... please provide a urine sample. Good day!"

"Oh, that won't be a problem." Isidora muttered to herself. She waved for one of the nurses to hand her a specimen cup, then reached out and grabbed Ayreon's hand to hoist herself up. Standing up on her tip toes as far as she could, Isidora gave Ayreon a kiss on the cheek, then waddled through the door to the bathroom as quickly as her feet let her.

The two slowly walked along the paved surface of the Inner Ward, from the Barracks across to the Keep Proper. Isidora, back in regular wear, a simple grey dress, clung affectionately to Ayreon's hand and leaned her head against his shoulder.

"You have no idea how strange it is, this." Isidora mused. "No one in the House of Octavius has carried a child in over a hundred years. Even Aunt Soraya doesn't seem to know what to do with me."

"Do with you?" Ayreon asked. He gave Isidora his left hand to hold, so that his right would be free to drape over her shoulder and hug her closer. He had his own confusion of what to 'do with' Isidora, but was certain this meant something significantly different when it came to her family.

"Oh you know. Like I'm strange. Unfamiliar. In a way, I suppose I am."

The two reached the base of the Keep and took each step up the staircase carefully. Part of the way up, she stop and clutched her belly. After a moment, she turned to Ayreon and smiled.

"She's awake."

Isidora took Ayreon's hand and slid it through a gap between the buttons that ran down the front of her dress. Her skin was warm to the touch. Ayreon seemed surprised at how soft it felt. Isidora held his hand there for a time, and then, he felt it. A sudden movement that pressed against his hand from beneath her skin. Once it stopped, Isidora's let go of Ayreon's wrist, but he kept his hand there, waiting for it to happen again.

"I can't wait to meet her." He said, his eyes staring blankly as he concentrated on his sense of touch. Ayreon pushed his hand further, his touch searching for another place on her belly to feel for movement.

Isidora allowed him to do this until she made eye contact with one of the Sentinels on guard at the top of the staircase, then pulled his hand out from her dress. The morning air was suddenly cold on his hand. Playfully, she said, "Let's go inside before the guards start thinking you've finally found in interest in women."

17.VII.1665 - The Kaiser's Bedchamber, Raynor's Keep

The predawn had begun to transform the sky from its nighttime black, the cool blue light filtering through the window into the room.

Ayreon had been thoroughly surprised by the gift that Isidora had left for him when he went to bed last night. Jaap van Pijpervale wasn't much of an early riser, though, so the fun they had had throughout the night wouldn't be starting up again for several hours from now. Ayreon looked across the room to his desk, where he had artfully tossed the ribbon that had wrapped his gift, as well as the accompanying note. He tipped his head sideways to read the hand-written words.

Enjoy your weekend!

Love,

Isidora

Ayreon smiled and turned to the lightly snoring body next to him. His finger traced Jaap's spine, from the back of the neck all the way down. No, Jaap was definitely not going to be waking any time soon. Ayreon was too full of energy, more than he had for months now. Full of vigor but nothing to do about it. So he dressed to run.

Ayreon descended the nearest stairwell in his usual PT gear, stretching and warming up as he crossed the entrance hall of the Keep Proper, and weaved through to a doorway that would lead him out to the Inner Curtain Wall. He could hear a growing commotion taking place a floor or two above him. One of the other corner towers, perhaps. Hushed voices and walking, then someone running. More voices, fast walking. Something out of the ordinary was indeed taking place.

The locus of the commotion had turned out to be the bedchamber for Ayreon's private secretary, who also happened to be his concubine, who also happened to be carrying his first child. Pages of the household staff were going this way and that, until one of them caught sight of the approaching Kaiser.

"Your Imperial Magnificence," one of them began, bowing heavily and touching the floor with his hand, "Lady... uh... your... ummm..."

The lad was overtaken with nervousness, so Ayreon rested a hand on his shoulder and gently pushed him aside. Before he could make it to the door of the bedchamber, a wheelchair came out, carrying Isidora, who was sweating profusely, her hand resting on her belly. She looked up at him and her weary face turned happy. She began to speak, but the page behind her continued to push her the other way, towards the corner tower with the elevator.

Ayreon began to follow, but a hand reached out to hold him back. Soraya stood in the doorway, still wrapped up in her bed clothes.

"Isidora's water broke during the night." She said. "They're taking her to the Medical Ward now. You might want to change into something else."

Ayreon had become better acquainted with women's physiology in the last several hours than he had in all his life, and, in the end, one of the nurses brought to him a surprisingly small body wrapped up in a great deal of towel. The hair was a brownish blonde, matted with an off-white waxy material. Her eyes stared out at him, and Ayreon stared back.

"Welcome to the world," he whispered to her.

Doctor Qimeneq continued busying around the delivery bed. From where he stood, he could still make out Isidora's long black hair, which hung off the side of the bed in a tangle. After a few minutes, the nurse took the child back, cleaned her a little more, then, unwrapping her, laid her onto Isidora's chest so that they could be skin to skin. Activity after that calmed down, and eventually, once the bed had been remade, the afterbirth cleaned up, and the mother set up for postpartum recovery, it was just the three of them in the room. Isidora made some demands on Ayreon for additional blankets and warmth, the room having become much colder for her liking.

The child would alternate between staring and sleeping, resting with Isidora on the bed, which had been adjusted to a comfortable angle. Eventually, the child turned her head and latched onto Isidora to feed.

"Do you remember those nights at Montran? In the early years?" Isidora asked. Her face was paler than usual. Her eyes strained to stay open, watching the new life in her arms.

"Sometimes, you insisted on sharing beds." Ayreon said, feeling Isidora's forehead. It was cool and clammy. "You didn't like sleeping alone."

"I liked sleeping with you."

Isidora lifted her eyes to meet Ayreon's and smiled weakly, then returned to their child.

"I miss those nights."

Eventually, the child drifted back into sleep, and Isidora joined her.