Episode 235: Neils’s Sons (Talise)

It happened in the early hours of the morning. Transition hit and Talise’s entire body went into panic. She didn’t want to be in labor anymore. She wasn’t ready for babies, tiny newborn babies.

Talise wasn’t ready for spells or attacks or anything that was coming.

It happened anyway, with Niels’s hand holding hers tight, with his eyes focused on everything at once. He chanted her on. “Focus. Then the badass part of your life can finally start. Where you get to have my amazing kids.”

She still wasn’t ready, but he motivated her. She had Spence’s twins, and she loved them. She was about to magically have a ton of twins, and she bet she’d love them too, but these were Niels’s.

They were special about having kids with the love of your life. It was special in a way she didn’t want to admit. Not more than her other kids, but something. Something Niels. Something forever.

Despite being not ready (who ever was?), in the dark of the early morning, it happened anyway: Alde and Caspian were born.

Niels held Caspian in his arms, while Zero set Alde up. “How is he breathing?”

“Deep breaths,” Niels replied. “Is that okay?”

“For now, yes.”

“I’m watching him,” Niels promised Talise.

She pressed her head back against the white pillow. She was tired. She was too tired to be of any use, even though she needed to be.

Talise watched Caspian breathe. His head was only a few inches across. “He’s so small.”

Niels handed her Caspian. He kissed her forehead before letting him lie bare against her chest. “You survived.”

“They survived.” She looked down at Caspian, her first born son of Niels. He had curly hair, chestnut brown like Niels’s mom in the summer. “We have sons.”

She was tired, but her soul was ablaze.

Niels held Alde, a tube stretched across his face. It gave him oxygen, since he was born so early.

Caspian would need one too, but Alde was smaller. It wasn’t life or death, Zero explained, it was to help them rest. To make life easier.

“They’re perfect,” Niels said.

Niels’s familiar came over, her neck bobbing as she walked. She peered her large eyes down at Caspian.

Talise uncovered Caspian’s face more. “Here’s your little ward, Aud. Like him?”

Audrey fluffed her feathers and sat, her head raised up so she could watch the babies.

As she watched, Zero hooked Caspian up too. Once the air was flowing his chest stopped pitching so high and he settled to sleep.

It sucked. She was overwhelmed and tense. The babies needed help to be healthy.

It was still the best choice, and she knew it.

“Where’s Julius?” Niels asked. He sat beside her, Alde in his arms still, his shirt off so the warmth of his skin could help Alde balance his temperature.

Julius crawled from under her pillow, and peered over Talise’s arm. His fluffy red and white chin brushed against Caspian, whose arms flailed in response.

Talise laughed, and made a barrier between the two. “He’s here.”

“Someday, for fun, we should trade familiars and then be tragically separated. Or we could write a song about it.”

Niels wrote songs about everything. He was going to anyway, so she encouraged him. “A song is a good idea.”

She loved his music, that his soul spoke it and his mind more or less thought it.

“We should write a song to announce them,” Talise suggested. She had just found out she was pregnant, another small belly pregnancy with no symptoms. She never even got to the point that anyone said anything. Her leggings and tunic combo, plus having a kid in arms during most public encounters, kept them hidden.

Niels ran his hand across Caspian’s curls, then through Alde’s dark straight hair that peppered his head. He started humming, and built into a tune about Aldine and Caspietta.

“Niels!” she groaned. She had tried to forget his joke during labor, Zero’s joke.

“Caspian and Alde,” she corrected. She loved their names.

Niels laughed and sang one more verse, then relaxed into his chair. She grinned at his grin. She felt love filling her more and more as she relaxed.

“If the song does well,” Talise mused. “I bet we can make a million blankets and stuffed animals on the profits.”

They’d be able to help more people, and bring more smiles to the world.

“Good idea,” Niels replied. He pushed his blue hair fluff back and kissed her. As his lips dipped to hers, his hair fell back over his brow. Neither of them cared. She felt his warmth, his love, his not (too) grossed out by what had just happened.

“All better?” Niels asked. “Do you want food? I heard Nell had snow cones…”

“Yes. To both. I want like…” She tried to put a name to the taste.

Niels cut her off before she could finish. “You want enchiladas.”

“No!” she did now, but it didn’t deter her from her true desire. She wanted meat with something a little bitter almost. She thought for a second, and it came to her. “I want steak with blue cheese,” she declared. A ton of steak. And mashed potatoes and cornbread and macaroni with jalapenos and cheese. She loved Niels food. The stuff he brought from New York.

Niels kissed her. “Yes’m.”

He set Caspian down in a bassinet and gave her Alde. They both watched as Caspian’s eyes fell, heavy in the dim lit room.

“I’ll be back in five,” Niels promised.

Talise kissed him. They’d done it. They had sons, their own sons.

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