I spent the better part of the morning on bed. When my brain caught up that I have been using Shoes as a pillow, I asked mommy dearest.
-"Shoes was supposed to be guarding Betty. Does Ron know that she was with you?"

Mai fanned herself over breakfast.
-"I left Kai with them. When you are not around, he can be quite convincing."

Understatement. Few entities in creation could make a Foo Dog, or for Westerners, Temple Dogs, recoil. And Kai was the biggest and baddest from the litter.
For shame that he refuses to challenge us.
Well, there was this reincarnating kitten spirit….

When I left the bed for lunch, my calendar marked two days ahead.
-"Did I sleep two days straight?"

Shoes was hounding the kitchen for some bacon. Her cholesterol will kill her one of these days.

Mai answered from the couch, where she was weaving some runes on a piece of cloth.
-"Your phone has been on fire for the last days. Charity and Michael were concerned about your wellbeing. Ron was elated that you now are, and I quote, a brother in donuts."

A smile gained traction on my lips and pulled them upwards.
You bastard.
I saw my Warden's cloak hanging on the wall and it felt unreal.
Me, a warlock wannabe. Life sometimes loves irony.

The doorbell rang and I got the door.
Ron was helping Karrin. She was using a walking stick.
But it was her smile that got me.
She beamed like a sun cresting over a mountain, absent and then inundating all the land with that warmth.

I opened my arms to hug and-
-"YEEEOUCH!"

With a gust of wind, Ancient Mai moved with a speed that belied her age. One instant she was on the couch and the next, she is by the door, holding hostage my ear in a vice-grip.
-"You had relations out of wedlock? You bring shame to our family."

Ron Carmichael, beady-eyed Ron, mean spirited Ron. His wicked smile could have put to shame Hollywood's best.
-"The cougar attacks! Meeoww!"
He completed it pawing at the air.

Karrin was silent. She eyed me. She eyed my tormentor.

Mai was on a tirade.
-" ...how my honour has been laid low if you got a woman pregnant out of wedlock. I raised you better than that..."

Karring coughed into her fist. Not sure if it was to draw attention or to stifle some laughs.
-"Why do you assume that I'm pregnant? I know I gained some weight while in the wheelchair but that's going too far."

Ron was biting his fist as tears soaked his face. His shoulders hitched with hiccups while he supported himself against the doorframe.

Ancient Mai was many things. Ancient for starters. Also incredibly knowledgeable over hundreds of disciplines, from pottery to Tai Chi. But no one accused her of beating around the bush.
-"You are pregnant. Your aura reeks of my son's touch."

I opened my third eye and saw it. Below her navel, there was a tiny spot of light.
-"How? We didn't ….we...only...how?"

From the floor, Ron struggled to say, while holding his ribs.
-"...The bees…..the birddss...the beeesss…"

Mai said.
-"I was through in my teaching of the bodily functions. If he was blinded by lust, I offer my apologies, my daughter."
She bowed low, maintaining my poor abused ear in her unforgiving grasp.

Karrin's head canted to the side.
-"How can it be? I'm telling you, much to my despair, your son wouldn't put a single finger on me."

Mai eyed me and released my flesh.
-"Did you...-" She caught the hand that I was rubbing my poor ear with. "- you used Soulfire, did you not? Did you explain to her what happens when the soul of a man meets the soul of a woman?"

My jaw dropped.
-"I...oopsie?"

Karin leveled me a glare that would have scorched steel.
It helped to ignore the gasping laughter of Ron rolling on the floor.