201, 202, 203.
Morgan peered into each room and we moved in silence, the only witness of our violence was the dust we had on our shoes.
He bid me forward and I saw a woman chained to a bed. She was pregnant and by my calculations, about to explode. Her legs quivered periodically, moving the chains on her ankles.
The senior Warden made quick hand orders, the cops creating a perimeter on the hall.
I reached the bed and inspected the chained soul. I took out the printing of the missing people list, she matched Laura Collins alright. I patted her cheek to wake her up and she refused to awake. She was running a fever and the situation made me apprehensive. I sucked in air and uncovered the blankets. Runes were seared in her flesh. A quick ThirdEye peek was in order.
And I voided my stomach. No retching sound, courtesy of Morgan's spell.
Few times have I seen fouler magic, vessel.
Did ya saw her legs? The runes will activate when she pushes the babe.
Slash her belly!
She is running high on fever, too weak. If we try a cesarean cut, her life is forfeit.
She is already dead, vessel. Her crown chakra has no light.
My fists shook with fury, and I let out a string of silent curses.
Monsters! The lot of them!
I approached Morgan and took out pen & paper. I relayed the situation as best as my shaking hands could.
Senior Warden Morgan touched my grey cloak and then wrote a single word.
Duty.
Then he turned back, continuing the vigilance over the hall.
The lump on my throat took a few tries to go away.
Vessel, there is a cub who needs you now.
My sight rested again on the comatose form. Only the limbic system keep her going. My hand rested upon her belly.
Her legs spasmed with another contraction and her water broke. The glass vase by her side shook.
The room was bathed in sickly green light coming from the runes on her flesh. The smell of burnt flesh filled the air.
NOW!
My index finger sprouted a claw and I slashed her belly, no time for a slow incision.
Another contraction. The blood reached the runes and they started to hum, the foul sorcery overpowering Morgan's silence.
I used my other hand to pull hard against her skin, tearing the wound open.
The energies of the foul ritual started to shake the windowpanes, glass vase exploding.
With both hands now, I dug her bulging uterus, slashing madly any connection between the cursed mother and the child.
My hands were burning with the taint that I could see seeping from the mother's flesh into the child.
The last slash and the blackened flesh parted. I ignited my left and cauterized the umbilical cord.
It wasn't breathing.
I peeled my sight, full-blown. No light, no nothing….
Gift him a piece of your life.
I charged my right hand with a spark of Soulfire and pressed it against that tiny solar plexus. My hand burnt, set ablaze in the greatest purest fire. I went insane from the pain and struggled to hold the babe.
After an eternity, I could breathe again. In my shaking hands, I had a little sun, shining white, blue, and gold. I wept in silence, marveled by the greatest miracle of the world.