Maids scurried across the room, back and forth, trying to aid their screaming Mistress while she writhed on the bed, sweat soaking her brow. Lena sat up with a pained expression, oblivious to all those around her. The child within her was quelling an excruciating ache that shot through all of her body causing her to howl. The physician stood aside, analyzing her while the maids prepared her for a cesarean. She grasped the wrinkles of the fitted sheet under her with her sweaty palms and gazed at her benefactor. Darken Rahl, ruler of D'Hara, stood beside the doctor, twisting the ring around his finger and listening to their hypothesis on why the young woman was trembling with pain more than she could bare a contraction. He knew why, of course. She was bearing him an heir, one with power that could send all of his land to their knees.
"Just retrieve the child from her womb. I can't afford it's death because of her insolence,"Rahl said, pacing back and forth across the chamber that he provided. The physician gave a nod and set his burlap bag full of the necessary tools to do the procedure on the bed side table. Lena whimpered, backing up to the headboard while gently hugging her stomach.
"No, my lord. I beg you. I can deliver him,"she said, choking back more tears that seemed to pour out without her consent.
"Well we aren't going to get anything done with your incompetence, are we? Proceed,"he snarled,"Tie her up if you have to."
The maids whispered their apologies, taking her wrists and ankles and binding them to the bed. Lena continued to pour tears, praying to Spirit for her life. She was what most would call a whore and Rahl considered her life meaningless, easy to discard.
"Don't worry, my dear. The boy won't know of his mother being a harlot,"he said, pacing to the other side of the bed, stroking her cheek with the back of his palm with a vacant gaze upon her worried hues. He couldn't help, but smile. Some how, her pain amused him. The mother of his child's pain satisfied him. Lena sobbed, turning her head away from his discomforting digits. This was most likely the end for her and some where beneath, down in the hell pit called the Underworld, was an anxious Keeper waiting to contain her soul.
The Physician sliced along her abdomen, underneath her bulging stomach without care of the girl's cries or pleas. Lena panted and gripped her manacles, pulling at them to ignore the agony that bothered her. Her vision blurred and she whimpered, watching the child being pulled from her womb and passing out.
Darken Rahl stared down at her then glanced up at the child being laid in the crib. He pushed up his sleeves and paced over to the manger, furling the cloth back to have a look at the gender of it. He pursed his lips and glanced at the unconscious whore upon the bed, turning away from it and storming over to her, backhanding her.
"My Lord," the healer said, rising from his position after sewing up the woman's stomach while watching his leader straddle her.
"You gave me a daughter! A daughter!"he growled, continuing to slap her. Lena ceased to stir and Rahl quit after he had noticed no sign of movement. He put two fingers to her throat to feel for a pulse and swallowed once he found out there was none.
"Send for my sorcerors,"he said to General Egremont, one of his best advisors who bowed in response, dismounting the woman and turning to the physician, "She's dead." The man frowned and glanced at the woman while Rahl crossed the room to the crib. He took her into his arms and stroked his daughter's cheek before drawing his hand back once a harrowing energy shot through his fingers to the length of his arm. He smirked and held her close, waving the tingling feeling from his hand and pacing out of the room to his chambers.
"I shall call you Agia,"he said softly, glancing at the candles that extinguished themselves upon approach and grasping the door handle, turning it to open it. He paced to the cot for his daughter and laid her in it after asking for a wet nurse to feed her. He sat down on his bed, stroking his index finger along his jawline and thinking about what was to become of the young girl. He glanced up at the door after he had heard a light knock from the other side.
"You may enter,"he mumbled, remaining still and continuing to contemplate his new born daughter's future. The two allied sorcerers followed by the wet nurse entered the room and Rahl rose to his feet, nodding his head in acknowledgement. He moved over to the two, placing both of his hands on the biceps that now sandwiched him and lead them out of the privacy of his chambers.
"I trust Egremont informed you of why you are here,"he said, pulling the door to behind him, staring down the dark wizards in front of him, each of them taller than himself with robes suspending down to their ankles.
"Yes, my Lord-and we are aware of the prophecy,"said one who's name was Orion. His unimaginable visage resembling that of an iguana's with his brow furrowed in depth and his eyes squinting out beneath him.
"Good,"Rahl said simply, walking ahead of them and beckoning them to follow him to the throne room with a wave of his hand. There was much to discuss between the three of them. If what he was told was true, the girl would endure the same hurt she would cause to that of her victim. He continued down the length of the corridor, hearing the cries of the maid that fed his daughter, believing it to be true.
"Agia, I have named her, will stomach an explicable amount of pain that she will cause her victim. She, herself, will feel what the sufferer feels and I need you..,"he paused,rubbing the bridge of his nose," to relieve the worry that pains me. I don't want her to feel it. She is my own flesh and blood." He couldn't believe the words spilling out of his mouth that raised even the sorcerer's brows.
"My Lord, have you grown a heart?"Tuomas said, resting his ankle on the brink of his knees and leaning back into the chair that he occupied. Darken Rahl scowled, sitting down in his throne and leaning himself on the weight of his left elbow on the arm of his seat.
"Of course not. If anything were to happen to her..,"he trailed off and pushed himself up, pacing to the hearth and gazing into it's flames. "I need to harness her power, but I don't know what. It will take years to do so, yes?"
"Well, of course,"Orion replied, nodding his head while calculating the number of years on both of his hands, "Ten years to be specific."
Rahl nodded and turned to them. "And what will be the necessary tools to harness? Will she be able to keep some of her power? Will it still hurt her?"
"Only time will tell, my Lord."