Well… hello again. Thank you very much for my only review… eheheh :) I do hope this peace is not too boring, and get a little more reviews in the future. Although I admit that not posting any introduction for the 1st chapter was slightly rude. So I corrected that now.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the following, and keep reviewing :)

Chapter 2. The long labour

Then the long wait and labour began. At first, it was long and boring, painful, but not too much. The priests were only monitoring her, not casting spells or doing anything else than mopping her forehead with a cool wet cloth. It lasted a few hours. Then things started to slowly change and pain came in full power and all she could do was to fight against that pain to keep consciousness. She resolved not to cry, not to scream, and clenched her teeth and squeezed Keldorn's hand and kept waiting for Anomen to just come into that damned door, and give her some comfort by his presence.

Contractions were faster, stronger, more painful, and she heard, at some moment, with her elven ears, a careless priest say:

"There isn't even a hint of a head yet; is she going to survive?"

Her head snapped in his direction and he knew, instantly, that she had heard him. The chief priest, whose name was David, was with him and also knew she heard. He gave a rather angry look at his acolyte, and came to her. With very careful and well-chosen words, words that would have convinced her had she not been in such pain, he told her that she was going to be alright, that her birth promised to be long, but nothing was wrong or seemed dangerous for her or her babies yet.

The pain was overwhelming. It seemed her whole body was just one huge sensory receptor for pain. Even her face hurt, from all the teeth clenching. She could see her belly move with the contractions, waves of the pain reflected with waves in her flesh, and everything in her ached.

She had had a good practice at not screaming with Irenicus, but even Irenicus had not driven her on a torture bed for so long. The mage, apparently, couldn't keep the necessary concentration to conduct his experiments for more then six hours or so, whether he used knives or spells, and after that she was left near dead but alone in her cell. But she had no respite right now. She watched the sun come down in the window of the room; the sun gradually came nearer the opening, then crossed it, colouring the opposite wall with red and pink and orange. Then the sun disappeared behind the temple of Talos a little further to the right, and the light began to fade.

She knew night would delay Anomen's arrival. Still silent, she watched the sun come down. Then there was one more degree of pain, suddenly, and she couldn't help but moan. Keldorn flinched by her side, and she tried to keep quiet, but she couldn't stop. The priests came in with some spells that helped, but didn't make the pain go away completely; it gave her a respite, though, which she took to breathe deeply, more easily. Sarevok and Imoen were allowed in for a short period at that moment. Brother and sister patted Amousca's hand and just had time to wish her luck before they were pushed out of the room by David. By then, Amousca was too deep within herself to notice the gravity of her situation, if the priests wouldn't even allow her brother and sister so stay by her side.

A few hours of the night went by; she didn't notice when the priests lighted the candles, but there they were, alight. There were all the candles blessed for a particular prayer on the little table next to her, where was this basin with cool water. The moans had come back, not eased now even by the priests small enchantments against pain; there were no strong enchantments against pain, because it would make her fall into unconsciousness, and would not help her to give birth to her children.

It was unbearable. Writhing, or staying still, or biting her lip, or clenching her hands in fists, or moaning, nothing helped. She couldn't lay still and was rocking and writhing slightly, trying not to be driven insane by all this suffering. She thought she had to pass out, but she didn't; apparently, the common saying that too intense pain brought unconsciousness was inaccurate.

A few hours more and she was thinking she was dying, she was tired, fatigued, exhausted, and then she couldn't help but scream. Keldorn jumped to his feet and tried to calm her, but she could not resist her own screams. David said there was progress, that she was very courageous and that all was good. Priests came with healing and restoration spells, and she thought her heart was sinking. Not many women needed restoration spells when they were giving birth.

She didn't scream all the time, but each time she couldn't stifle it, she could see everyone wince. It didn't take long before the divination priest came back into the room and cast a little cantrip, a silence cantrip, to keep the sounds from reaching beyond the walls.

She thought her forces would be abandoning her soon, but she still fought the pain, and tried to keep in focus who she was and what was happening to her. It was deep night now.

Anomen came in just in time for the worst of her screaming. It was after she lost the will and the strength to resist it, but before she lost the force to actually wail. When he burst in, dust-covered, tired, sore from the rush of horseback riding, he was struck, almost stunned and immobilized into place by the force and the pain in the scream of the woman he loved. For a moment he wondered if it was not more than half a Banshee wail. Then his eyes opened and he saw blood all over the floor, a quantity that was terrifying. The worry was written all over everybody's posture and it took him just one look to embrace the gravity of the situation.

Keldorn stood respectfully when Anomen came in. He wasn't noticed by the priests right away, busy as they were with their arguments about whether to use spells or not, letting do nature or trying to help her to the risk of making matters worse. When David saw that the husband was finally there, he politely urged Keldorn to get out and let them work.

Keldorn bowed his head, patted Anomen's armoured shoulder, and got out. When he opened the door, Amousca's screams echoed all through the corridor, making some children cry in terror down the hall. Sarevok and Imoen came running to him, asking for news.

"Things are not good," the paladin answered honestly. "She has lost a lot of blood, already received two restorations and one greater, and two Cure critical wounds spells. She is to give birth to more then one child and there isn't even one out yet, and she is beginning to lose courage and strength. I hope Anomen's presence and spells will give her a new lease of life."

"Oh ! …Oh," Imoen exclaimed, but she could not finish.

She hid her face in her hands, and Sarevok patted her shoulder with one hand, his arms around her.

"Come on, Immy," he said, "we know she's stronger than that."

Imoen slowly nodded her head in agreement and wiped her nose. Keldorn was feeling rather dismayed himself, and yet Amousca was not to him what she was to Imoen. He couldn't help but feel protective towards the two young women. There was a cold with Sarevok; he knew the warrior had changed, but still he could not quite forget the attitude of the other at the beginning of their trip together. He had much better preferred Mazzy at his left side. But he knew Sarevok truly cared about Amousca, he recognized that, so he squeezed the other man's shoulder.

"She helped me change," Sarevok confessed. "I'm damned if I know what's going to happen to me if she dies so unfairly."

"Don't say that!", Imoen yelled, almost hysterical.

"You will honour her memory, I trust," Keldorn cut short.

He defied the other one with his gaze and Sarevok, after a moment of glaring at him, lowered his head in obedience. Keldorn knew that he could probably not defeat this man in a one-on-one combat; he was older, not as strong, much less fast and a little weaker than was Sarevok. Even with Keldorn wearing the girdle of Frost giant strength, Sarevok had such an incredible mastery over his sword that the inquisitor knew he could not have Sarevok respect his sister's memory by force. But the warrior bent to his wisdom for the moment, and he hoped it would stay that way.