"Fuck you, Kal! I hope your fucking dick falls off! You are never, ever touching me again! Get the fuck away from me!" Perra screamed in the mage's face.
Kal was so shocked by the outburst he stood up from his place next to the large tub and turned towards the door, his expression blank as he automatically followed the laboring woman's orders.
"No, no, no, no," Elta said, jumping up and gently steering him by the shoulders back to the water-filled basin Perra was sitting in. "Any other time she tells you to go away, you do it. But not now, your place is here." The cleric put her hands on his shoulders and pushed, directing him to kneel and resume his position by the tub.
"Slow your breathing, girl, before you pass out," said Lulen. "You can't push when you're asleep." The old midwife had a hand on Perra's belly and was pressing in various places to be sure that the baby was aligned properly. "Boy," she commanded holding out a hand towards Kal. Taking it, he channeled some magic into her while she peered intently at the pregnant woman. Nodding at what she saw, she let go. "A few more contractions and she should be ready."
Elta was still amazed at the old woman's ability to see into the bodies of those she touched. It had been a bit of a shock the first time she helped Lulen, the midwife reaching out and demanding magic from her. The cleric didn't have the same kind of control as Kal and it took a few frustrating failures before Elta discovered that attempting to cast a healing spell where the central glyph was disrupted by the old woman's body had roughly the effect they needed. She sent news of her discovery back to the church in the capital not long after she arrived but the luke-warm response they sent back led her to believe that they hadn't taken her seriously.
In return, Lulen had been amazed by the large metal washtub that arrived strapped to the top of the cleric's carriage once Elta explained what it was for. The blacksmith had also taken a keen interest in it since the metal was so thin but quickly lost interest when the cleric explained that she had no idea how it was manufactured other than it was something that stemmed from a recently discovered way of making tough but light armor.
A new method of giving birth cropped up in the last couple of years where deliveries were happening in a pond, stream, or bath instead of a bed. The added buoyancy from the water seemed to make the process much easier on both mother and child and new mothers were quickly singing its praises. Unfortunately, it was discovered that doing this in a tub, where the dirty water couldn't circulate out, could lead to infections. Those that gave birth in a body of water didn't seem to have these issues, given that the water was clean to begin with. Since it was difficult to keep the water both warm and circulating in the average city home, the method was nearly abandoned until a few priests began purifying the water immediately after the woman delivered, even before the child was lifted out of the water. Seeing the clergy's relative success, washing the child and mother after a water birth became required, regardless of how clear the water was once finished. It was still recommended to have a cleric available as the spell purified any dirtied water that may have gotten into the baby's eyes, ears, and nose as well as anything that might have flowed back up into the mother. The purification spell was also far simpler than a healing spell and therefore cost much less than having a cleric come back a few days later to heal any infections that occurred.
All these things combined made the method accessible to the majority of the urban populace and quickly replaced delivering in bed or on a birthing stool.
Elta hated the idea of charging for bringing a child into the world. Unfortunately, the high priests and priestesses disagreed and expected reports of services rendered to the townsfolk and what she charged them. They weren't particularly callous about it in person but were very firm that it took gold to run an organization as large as the church and that they couldn't give away their time and abilities.
On paper, Telsin was filled with hardy folk who rarely got injured. The cleric took payment from the wealthier families for purifying the water in the tub after a delivery, but never made any mention of the extra healing she often supplied. Master Ellis stepped up if the family was unable to pay for her services, saying that Elta's new methods saved him a ton of time and effort washing the linens he continued to supply and claiming that he was just giving her that savings. She saw it for the lie it was but thanked him profusely for not having to explain to her superiors why the town's birth rate seemed unusually low.
With Kal there, Elta didn't need to worry about supplying the old midwife with the magic for her unusual ability, which allowed her to focus on the woman in the tub.
Perra visibly relaxed as the latest contraction began to ease up, but they all knew that it wouldn't be long before the next. She flashed a slightly apologetic smile at Kal as she realized what she had said.
"What's your problem, boy. You've helped me enough times this should be old hat. Yet, you're more nervous than with the barmaid's sister," grumped Lulen
Kal's face was still mostly blank as he gave her a weak smile, "Those ones weren't mine."
The look Perra gave him made her thoughts clear even without the bond: this wasn't his first child so why was he acting so odd?
He really didn't have an answer other than it was his first child with this kind of delivery. Aradelle giving birth to Eludora had been as anticlimactic as he believed bringing a child into the world could be. The alarune just leaned back and a moment later his first daughter's seed slid out of the plant girl, the simplicity of the process made more sense later when he found out she could change the shape of her avatar. Bea hadn't made a big deal of the delivery of her egg, not even informing him until after the fact. She was far more excited later when Adalena hatched.
Kal still occasionally had a difficult time wrapping his head around his first two daughters sprouting and hatching instead of being born. It made the fact that he was a father seem very surreal at times. In contrast, there was no strangeness in Perra's labor. Her ordeal was starkly human, which seemed appropriate as it would result in his first human child.
It frustrated him that this was his third time becoming a father, fourth if he believed what Ikuno said about Silma. Yet, in many ways, it felt like his first. He didn't like the idea that this child was somehow more important than the others.
'It is,' came the thought from Aradelle with a faint affirming echo from Bea. 'This is your first human baby, Kal. The first that will grow up to look just like you do and the first where there's the chance of having a son. You love Eludora and Adalena, we know you do. But Perra's baby is special and it's okay to see it that way.'
'It feels like I'm cheating my daughters,' he replied.
'Attention is divisible, love is not. Now focus on Perra,' sent back the alarune.
'You're sounding like Ikuno.'
He only received a laugh in response,
"Yeah, focus," Perra grumbled out loud, having 'heard' Kal and Aradelle's conversation. He had forgotten that she didn't need her necklace to hear them, though her ability to form a bond with him had been dependent on it.
