For the first two weeks after Dante left, Zoe rode aimlessly around Cria, camping by Bogolt Lake for the better part of it. She needed time to herself right now. Being around Dante's family only made things more painful. She would have spent more time in the wilderness, except that she realized an awful fact during the second week. She had not been getting her menstrual cycle for the past two months. A trip to a healer confirmed what Zoe had dreaded. She was approximately a month and a half pregnant, with Dante's child. Not knowing where else to turn, she went to Karana. She rapped on the door urgently that afternoon, an unrational panic filling her.
"Unless this is the Black God himself, I am going to kill whoever is pounding on my door!" Zoe heard Karana holler, and she withdrew her shaking hand. The door opened, and Karana's face softened completely.
"Zoe..Zoe..come in, my darling. What's wrong?" She asked, noticing the lack of colour in the younger woman's face and her shaking hands.
"Karana.. oh, gods, Karana.. I'm pregnant. With your son's child." She said in a trembling voice. The news was met by a strong, motherly hug.
"Oh, my darling.. it will be okay." She rocked her gently. When she opened her arms, Zoe went and sat down on the couch, wringing her hands.
"What am I going to do, Karana? I'm pregnant.. I'm not even 16 yet.. Dante's gone. I can't raise a child on my own, I'm still a child myself. I don't know anything about being a mother. I can't *do* this!" Her voice rose to a shrieking pitch, and then cracked as she began to sob. Karana sat down next to her son's lover, putting a strong arm around her shoulders and pulling Zoe close again.
"I will help you, our entire family will. I will help you find a sufficient place to live, and teach you how to be a mother. It will work out, my darling. It will." Karana said firmly, stroking Zoe's hair. Zoe turned and cried into Karana's shoulder.
"W-Will you really help me? I'm not going to have to face this alone?" She asked finally, looking up at Dante's mother with reddened eyes. Karana patted her cheek gently.
"I promise, I will be by your side every step of the way." Zoe smiled her first true smile in weeks, and embraced Karana tightly.
"Thank you."
Karana kept her promise. Over the next nine months, she helped Zoe find another apartment, nicer than her last one, and closer to the Kedar household. The entire Kedar family helped Zoe decorate it in light, airy colors and clothes. Together, Karana and Zoe created a nursery stocked with everything the child would need for the first few years of her life. Zoe's pregnancy was an easy one. Karana made sure she got the right foods in the right amounts, and the fact she was also young and generally healthy helped greatly. She decided to name the child Dante Ashlar if it were a boy, and Salem Karana if it was a girl. The family approved strongly of both choices.
There was not a single day that went by that Zoe did not think of Dante. She wished desperately to one night see his steed come galloping back up the road, him looking as dark and mysterious and beautiful as ever. Or that he would send for her, telling her about his incredible bravery and skill that had brought peace to Carthak City. But nothing came, and eventually Zoe drifted into accepting life without him.
Then, on one particularly bitter January evening exactly three months after Zoe's 16th birthday, while Karana and Zoe were having tea after dinner, Zoe felt a small pain.
"Ow.." She said curiously, looking down and placing a hand over her bulging abdomen. Karana raised an eyebrow.
"Is something wrong?" She questioned, but Zoe shook her head.
"No, I think the baby just kicked..really hard." She replied with a laugh. A few minutes passed, when she experienced another pain. Another couple minutes after that one came another, this one slightly stronger than the other two. "I think," she said to Karana after the third pain, "that I'm going into labour."
That single sentence set the entire family into action. Ashlar helped Zoe into the birthing room. Karana sent Esperanza to fetch a healer, while she collected towels and boiled water. The healer came quickly and ushered everyone out of the room. For the next eight hours, Karana stood outside the door with her arms crossed. Her fingers tapped against her arm nervously. Ashlar paced slightly, stopping every so often to put his ear to the door and listen. Esperanza stayed with her parents until almost 1am, when sleep overtook her and she went to bed, demanding she be woken up when the baby was born. At 3:04am, on January 20th, in the year 657, Zoe of Conte gave birth to her first child. It was a healthy baby girl with dark hair and pale eyes, whom she named Salem Karana. Zoe held the red-faced baby close, her natural mothering instincts taking over, while Karana fussed over the condition of her blankets, and if she was too hot or cold. Zoe could only smile, and say in a distracted tone.
"I'm absolutely perfect, Karana. We both are." Ashlar grinned and allowed Salem to suckle his finger until Zoe realized that was a sign of hunger and began to breastfeed her.
"What is her name?" Karana asked softly, a broad smile on her face.
"Salem Karana.. Zoesri.." She said, the surname coming in a softer tone than the beginning.
"Nonsense." Karana said firmly, making Zoe look up, confused.
"Nonsense? You don't approve of her name?" Karana laughed, ruffling Zoe's hair.
"No, my darling, it's a beautiful name! My comment was directed to her surname. She is a Kedar. Salem Karana Kedar shall be her name." Zoe reported this to the healer, and then grinned down at her baby.
"Hello, Salem Karana Kedar. Welcome to the world." Salem gurgled slightly and closed her eyes, content to sleep.
