Alanna had felt this coming for months. She was happy that the mage had not detected it, since she was not sure how he would have reacted. It had all happened so fast, the assassination, the war, everything had come to this moment.

Slowly she sat, waiting for Jon to join.

"Alanna?"

"What's wrong?"

"I wanted to talk." She smiled weakly.

"All right." Jon sat opposite from her.

Alanna sighed, suddenly tired, "I have a confession to make."

"What?"

"In Tusaine, I got injured…badly. Duke Baird had to assess me and see if I would be able to fight. I noticed something on his face, and I realized something that no one else knows."

Jon calmly asked, "Alanna?"

"I'm getting there…I lied to you and said it was something weakening my system, it's..."

"What?"

"Jon…my charm…I lost it months ago."

Jon's face stayed blank for a moment, until that sunk in.

"You…what? The charm…?"

"Eleni had given it to me. You remember?"

"I thought…" He sputtered, sitting back in his chair.

"Jon?" Alanna felt panic rise. She didn't expect Jon to react like this.

Jon took a breath in, "What you're trying to say is that…"

"…I'm with child."

Jon weakly smiled, "That's great…we're going to…" he laughed, "We'll…" He started to grin, then he calmly took Alanna and put her on his lap, firmly kissing her.

"You're happy?"

"I am…" he smiled.

"Good." She smiled, letting him kiss her again, "But if you keep holding me like that, you're not going to have baby..." He let her shift into a more comfortable position.

"How are we going to tell everyone?"

Alanna's eyes were wide, "No one will know until I start to show."

"Why?"

She rolled her eyes slightly, "Jon, people are going to think I've gone soft..." She looked at him for a second.

"Fine, but we will tell them eventually, and they won't find out on their own..."

Alanna nodded, hoping he wouldn't notice that she crossed her fingers behind her back.

Myles called her aside for a second. Jon came along, which everyone thought normal, Alanna knew why.

"Well…" Myles smiled.

"What Myles?" Alanna asked innocently.

"How long?"

Alanna gave him a puzzled look.

"Alanna I need to know so that I can cancel classes, I wouldn't want it to happen without me being there."

Alanna frowned, looking at Jon. "Did you…How did…?"

"Jon did not tell me, however I would like to hear it from you."

Alanna blushed, and admitted it to her father, telling him she had 6-8 months left.

"Well, I won't tell anyone, however the rumors are swirling, so I'd start if I were you." With that he dismissed both of them.

When the returned to their room, Jon let out a sigh.

"That wasn't frightening." Jon smiled at her.

Alanna looked at him, "Why did you think it would be frightening?"

"I married his only daughter, and then now I…"

"Gave her a child?"

"Exactly, you've seen how Myles can be, I was afraid that he'd go ballistic and threaten to impale me or..."

Alanna laughed, resting her head on Jon's shoulder.

"Jon, I love you…"

He was silent.

"Jon?"

"That's good…"

"I'm sorry?"

"That's good to finally hear it. I thought I'd have to wait forever." He smiled and kissed her again.