Chapter 1e- The Inquisitor's Daughter
May 1, 1979 - Midgard Time
30 years after Summerset and Glenna marry-
11 years before Viridian is born-
"Rrrrrraaaaaagggggghhhhh, Godddddeeessssss!" Maroelynd screamed, growled, and yelled all at the same time. Anthiehl was right beside her as she gripped his hand like she was going to rip it off!
Crys was on Maroelynd's other side, holding her other hand and was rubbing Maroelynd's gravid belly as she encouraged, "Just one more push..."
"Goddddeeeessssss!" She shrieked as she bore down...
"Oh! Here it comes!" Glenna purred, as she held her hands out as the tiny, pink, long eared, infant squeezed out of Maroelynd. Only once she had the whole child in her hands did she hold it up and announce, "Congratulations Lord Anthiehl, Lady Lupinglade, it's a girl!"
Ana stepped up beside Glenna and with cauterizing shears and cut the umbilical cord, and then Glenna handed the babe to Anthiehl.
"It's... another beautiful girl my dear," Anthiehl said with a smile as he counted toes and fingers, and yet his tone revealed his disappointment in her not being a son.
It was enough to set Maroelynd off. Of all times to be disappointed, this was not it.
"Yes, husband!" Maroelynd growled as she reached for her daughter, "Without females the species dies out just like if there are no males!"
"I know," He sighed apologetically and handed the infant over, "It's just..."
"Just nothing!" Maroelynd interrupted as she looked at her new child and smiled before putting her on a swollen breast already leaking milk, "I have given you six sons! Six! And, I will not stop until I am too old to give you any more heirs!"
Glenna looked up her black orbs startled and began to shake her head, "My Lady Maroelynd..."
"I know, I know," She interrupted with a smirk.
"My Lady," Glenna continued anyway, so that Anthiehl could hear and hopefully get involved somehow, "This is highly irregular. I have never known any woman, muchless Alfari women, that have had children sooner than ten years apart! And you, you have been having offspring every two years, with the exception of the four year break after the twins. I don't think your body can handle much more of this. You must rest!"
"I know I know," Maroelynd answered again as she smiled down into her daughter's beautiful violet eyes. When she looked up she held out a hand for Glenna to take, and once Glenna did she continued, "I will rest now, I promise. With this child I am caught up. With her arrival, I have at last given my Lord all of the heirs I have been aching to produce for him for the last two-hundred years. Thank you Glenna. Thank you Yul'Anahaen. And, thank you Cryst'veyhl! With your help I have conceived and carried thirteen heirs for my Lord over these past thirty years. You have my deepest... unreserved... unmeasurable... gratitude! You have no idea how I longed for this!"
"I... can imagine," Glenna mumbled as Maroelynd pulled her in for a kiss and hug. It was true. For thirty years she had been trying to conceive Summerset's heir, but hadn't. There was never even a single pregnancy for there to be miscarriages. What was wrong with her? Whereas her mother, Yul'Anahaen, who insisted on being called Ana now since they were sister-wives instead of mother and daughter, got pregnant on their marriage night! Since then Ana had conceived and given birth twice more, giving Summerset two daughters and a son while she had, to date, produced nothing for him...
"Don't worry Glenna," Maroelynd whispered into her ear, "You will figure this out, or it is the will of the goddesses. Maybe Seline is making you wait for a reason?"
"I will just have to trust in her wisdom then," Glenna whispered just before giving Maroelynd another kiss on the cheek, "And, thank you for the encouragement. I needed to hear it..."
"Now," She purred as she pulled away, "Let me finish or you will be stuck here all day with an umbilical cord hanging out of you!"
----(!)----
After supervising Maroelynd's afterbirth, Cryst'veyhl and Ana performed a reading of it and pronounced the child's health good with good omens. Maroelynd smiled and sighed in relief, then named the child Talanis Lupinglade, Anthiehl Vale's sixth daughter. The nurses were then brought in to dispose of the placenta and change the sheets and towels.
Glenna found herself meandering as she walked the halls of her childhood home. Nostalgia filled up her senses with familiar sounds and scents as she stepped out into the grass of Gnaema's Garden. She followed the cobblestone path through the park and picked herbs along the way and chewed them raw and swallowed. Everything that was grown was either an aphrodisiac or a fertility enhancer. Eventually she found herself standing in front of the moonpool.
She wore almost nothing these days. As her husband's wife, and especially as an Apostle of Seline, she must present her body as the living image of her goddess. Therefore, today she wore a simple silver underwire that followed the curves of her breasts, and a silver hipwire that curved over her hips and followed the curves of where her thick buttocks met the small of her back. Fastened to the underwire by hoops and hooks were two shear pieces of gauze that clipped behind her neck in a transparent bra, and from the hipwire hung the same gauze skirt that was completely open in the front but circled around and fell to drag on the ground for four feet behind her. Aside from that she wore only the Moon Tiara of her station as a priestess, ear rings and a necklace that Summerset had gifted her for their anniversary, and a marriage ring on her left hand made of silver and gold with a large sapphire set in it.
Unhooking the fabric that made up her bra and skirt, she set it on the altar to Seline then pulled off her jewelry. The underwire and hipwire were the last to be set on top of the gauze, and then she stepped down into the cold water. Kneeling down she started cleansing herself with the water as she looked up at the moon in the day's sky and prayed, "Goddess, I beseech thee, hear the crying of my heart. I, an Apostle to you Seline, am barren! For thirty years I have lain only with my husband, and for thirty years I have failed to conceive. I, a living image of you. I, a symbol of your fertility, am sterile! Please, listen to my wailing, and grant me a fertile belly with which to conceive my Lord's heir!"
"No doubt if there is indeed a goddess that hears you, she would surely grant your petition..."
Glenna jumped in fright and spun around to face a Nottalfar man. His head was shaved, his moonlight white skin was dim just as hers was, and he had an eye patch where he was missing his right eye. As for clothing, he stood there in a cleric's robe of silver and moonsilk but beneath she could hear the chink of plate schynbalds and chainmail, and over the it all he wore a tunic. Perfectly white with a black crescent moon and a sword pointed straight down.
He was a cleric of the Crescent Moon Inquisition!
Glenna felt shock blushing her cheeks, but gathering herself she stood up and replied, "Doubting Seline's existence is sedition and sacrilege for one of your kind is it not?"