A Jaded Life

Chapter 1356

When I stepped out of the shadows in the Nexus Tower, I only heard the familiar, and by now rather comforting, sound of wind swirling around the tower. But then, I hadn’t expected anything else, not when I appeared next to my throne on the highest floor. While I loved my tower, and knew full well why I had built it the way I did, the thing was a little too large for three people; hel, it was too large for thirty people, especially when taking the underground areas into account.

Yawning, I started to make my way down the long flights of stairs, electing to stay out of the shadows as I had no idea where Luna would be. Well, she wasn’t outside, of that I was certain. The connection between me and the tower was good enough to give me a sense of its boundaries, including the large gate at its base, and through it I could feel the snow pressing against the tower. I had no idea how it had happened, but the tower’s base was buried in almost three metres of snow, sealing the main gate shut and even closing the smaller, supposedly concealed and covered, door on the opposite side. I had thought building the smaller door into a covered alcove would keep the snow from burying it, but it felt as if the entire alcove had filled up, making it impossible to leave that way.

Eventually, after climbing down far too many stairs, I heard a soft, quite amused and innocent giggle. It brought a grin to my face, as I knew that this was Luna’s happy noise, the noise she made when she encountered something adorable, or had some other, completely innocent and wholesome experience. Though it did make me curious just what she had here that made her giggle like this.

“Good afternoon, dear,” I called out after entering her laboratory, only to be immediately confused. Instead of answering me, one of her hands had come up in a rather harsh gesture, making it obvious that I was supposed to be silent. Curious, I remained near the door and simply observed, watching as Luna gently moved something wrapped in a soft white towel, occasionally giggling softly. I wasn’t sure what she was holding, but I could see the towel move a little, as if something were squirming inside.

After a minute or two, she put the towel and whatever was wrapped in it sideways into a box, moving with extreme care the entire time. Then, after partially closing the box, she made her way over to me, moving with impressive stealth. I wasn’t sure I had ever seen her move this quietly, though a part of me was quite happy that she had obviously listened to my lessons on stealth. She didn’t even need magic to move silently; she just had to take a lot of care.

Given the look on her face and the earlier gesture, I didn’t even try to talk to her as she walked past me to the door. Instead, I followed after her, reigning in my curiosity, though it was difficult. Only knowing I would get answers in a moment made me hold my tongue; otherwise, I probably would have already started asking questions.

“Now we can talk. Hello, Mother,” Luna greeted me once we had put a flight of stairs between us and her laboratory.

“Excellent. Hello Luna,” I grinned, repeating my earlier greeting. “Should I start asking questions, or are you going to explain what’s going on?”

“I’ve done it,” she returned my grin with one of her own, though hers had a certain teasing element to it, making it obvious that she wanted to say as little as possible, likely to rile me up a little.

“Well, congratulations. I hope it was great, highly pleasant and all that. Who was your partner?” I asked, keeping my expression entirely placid while deliberately misunderstanding her.

“Huh?” The confusion on her face was quite precious, especially when realisation hit a moment later, and her face flushed an impressive crimson, something I could never manage thanks to my pale, blue skin. I would just look purple if I flushed like this.

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“Your first time, right? I’m honestly not sure what I’m supposed to say there, other than I hope you were safe and that I’m a little confused about your partner, but I just don’t know the correct procedure here,” I admitted, still playing my part completely straight, causing her to be the one riled up.

She let out an annoyed, but incredibly adorable, growl, glaring at me for all she was worth. “No!” she snarled, making me adopt a look of wide-eyed innocence, despite the laughter that tried to bubble forth.

“No?” I asked, blinking in feigned confusion, “What have you done then, that makes you so excited?”

“I’ve made a rabbit,” she replied, and now I was actually blinking in surprise. Of the things I had expected, that wasn’t quite what I had expected.

“You made a rabbit?” I asked, trying to ascertain just what she meant, even if the parts I already knew were forming a rather obvious, if slightly unbelievable, picture.

“Yes, I made a baby rabbit. Still needs quite a bit of care, but it appears to be viable, and looks quite adorable at that, all tiny and naked,” she grinned, her answer confirming my thoughts and driving away the disbelief.

“That’s quite impressive,” I admitted, feeling deeply impressed by her feat. To create life like that, not quite from scratch but without any of the usual biological processes, was an incredible feat. “What can I do to assist with your work?” I asked next, knowing that these were necessary steps to gain mastery over Life, as Lady Hecate had put it all these months ago.

“Well, I’m now trying to let the bunny I made grow up normally, you know, just to make sure there aren’t any complications,” she explained, making me nod in understanding. “Then, I’ll probably have to repeat the experiment, just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke,” I nodded again.

“Afterwards, I’ll have to decide whether to try to make a human baby, or if I should try to get to the point where the creature I create comes out of the process as an adult, instead of a baby. Otherwise, you’d have to wait for some twenty years for Sigmir’s body to mature. And the body might gain a mind of its own, and a soul could emerge from that.” She shrugged, making it obvious that she had no idea how that particular mechanism worked. Though, to be fair, I didn’t have a real clue either. This wasn’t something I had experience with, so I couldn’t even guess at the point at which, and by what mechanism, the emergence of Mind and Soul occurred.

“I’m guessing the human baby wouldn’t have a father or mother, correct? Just some genetic donors, providing you the biological base material you need for your magic? Or are you going to turn Mother, oh Maiden?” I asked, thinking of the earlier conversation, only to get a huff and rolled eyes in response.

“Obviously. I’ll leave the normal part of Motherhood to you, oh divine Mother. How many pregnancies have you caused again?” she grinned evilly, “Though, given that you don’t acknowledge any of them, wouldn’t that make you the divine Deadbeat, instead of the divine Mother?” she snarked, making me laugh helplessly.

“Hey, I’m trying,” I retorted, despite knowing how ridiculous the situation was, “How many parents can claim that they built an entire hospital, just to make sure their child has one to be born in?”

“How many women can claim to have caused some six hundred pregnancies in a single night? Hel, how many people can claim that?” she asked, still sounding quite amused.

“Likely more than you’d expect,” I laughed in response, “Just think of how many couples used music to get in the mood before the change. Then take some of the classical love songs that have been around for decades or maybe even one of the large concerts, Burning Man or something like that. With tens of thousands of people attending and a good number of them having fun afterwards, I’m fairly confident that a good number ended up in the expected circumstances.”

For a second, she looked at me in confusion, making me realise that her knowledge of things from before the Change was severely limited by the fact that she had only been a child when it had happened. And Lady Hecate, who had helped her get some measure of mental maturity and common sense, would obviously not focus on that particular topic.

So, I started explaining, taking my time to make sure she had a fair idea of what I was talking about, even if it made me feel a little weird. After all, who needed to explain a joke in that much detail for it to be funny?

Afterwards, our conversation focused on ways to accelerate growth, rather than on what to do with the human babies once her experiments were complete. That would be a discussion for a different day, and not one I was looking forward to.