Kyou Kara Maou : The Trouble With Trolls
Summary: Wolfram's attempt to bypass Maou Wedding Curse with a small family ceremony, backfires when an uninvited relative arrives - the Troll Mother.
Disclaimer: I have no rights to Kyou Kara Maou, of course.
Chapter 12 : Sprouts
There was a knock at the door of Aldrich's office a few days later, where he took a few minutes respite from his endless procession of conference meetings to attend to his domain correspondence. "Lord Bielenfeld? Might I have a few minutes of your time?"
"Yes, please come in, Lord… Manfred," Aldrich replied on automatic, only looking up and registering who it was at the last. Manfred, dressed formally, closed the door behind him and took a seat before Aldrich's desk. Since he was being so formal, a clueless Aldrich followed suit. "How can I help you, Lord Manfred?"
"My liege, I beg the favor of the annulment of my marriage to Lady Cecilie von Spitzweg," replied Manfred. "I have a letter from her requesting the same." He handed this over to Aldrich to read.
Aldrich, dazed, took a moment to switch gears and place his attention on the letter.
Dearest Manfred,
Your Uncle Friedrich tells me, that although we cannot divorce, it is possible to annul our marriage, to simply declare that it never happened. At my insistence, he also finally told me why he opposed our marriage. He said that he remembered how Lord Walde and I had brought out the very finest in each other. Dan Hiri Weller and I as well. And that you and Aldrich bring out the greatest in each other. But that you and I… bring out the worst in each other.
This is what you've been saying, isn't it? Though you use gentler words. That you need to go back to your work. That you're too young to retire. That you wish to make a greater contribution to the world. It's not just about Aldrich, is it? Though, also about Aldrich. And the sprouts. I am so sorry, Manfred. I never meant to make you less than you are.
It was such a relief to reconcile after all those years. But I believe we overreacted by marrying. I shall always be eager to play with you. But you are so much more, which Aldrich saw, and I did not. Please be the best man you can be, Manfred, for you have grown into a fine one. And I am long overdue to find another line of work.
I believe annulment to be the best course, for all our sakes. Will you agree?
Love, Cecilie von Spitzweg
Aldrich put the page down, not meeting Manfred's eye. He murmured, "I'll need the request in writing from you as well, Lord Manfred – just a sentence or two stating what and why." He waved to pen and paper, and rose to pull a couple binders from his shelves – Bielenfeld Marriage Law, and Manfred vB labeled their spines. He opened them on his desk to the annulment law, and the marriage record. When Manfred was done writing, he read the sterile two liner, still not meeting Manfred's eye. He asked Manfred five questions, running his finger down a checklist from the law book.
"The answer is yes, Lord Manfred. I can grant an annulment." Finally he met Manfred's eye. "Are you… sure?"
Manfred met his gaze and nodded, face a little sad, but resolved. "Yes. I'm sure. Is this… going to take a lot of red tape?"
"Almost done," said Aldrich. He got out some red ink, and wrote 'Annulment granted, Aldrich von Bielenfeld' and the date, on marriage record and both letters. He placed Manfred's letter in his personal file, and closed the books. "I will return Lady von Spitzweg's letter to her. This is… overly personal. Your letter and the annulled marriage record are all that remain. Other than that, your marriage never happened."
"Thank you, my liege."
"Is there… anything further, Lord Manfred?" Aldrich asked, still not quite sure what to make of Manfred's sudden and formal approach. Not since the night Aldrich restored his arm, when Manfred said that he and Cecilie had decided not to talk about divorce or make any sudden moves, had Manfred mentioned anything about a resolution to living with Aldrich, while remaining married to Cecilie.
Manfred gave him a level green gaze, then rose and came around the desk, to perch on it next to Aldrich. "Enough with the formalities. Yes, several more things. First, why didn't you tell me, that it was this easy? Why through Friedrich?"
Aldrich answered point-blank. "You didn't tell me that you wanted to end your marriage. Chichi acted on his own. This is the first I've heard of it."
Manfred searched his eyes, and read truth there, and a little pain. "Aldrich… I thought you said that because we had no contract, there was no way to put the marriage aside. That's the only reason I didn't discuss it further. Please be a little more… straightforward with me?" Aldrich looked down and nodded.
"Next," Manfred continued. "My son Efram and I would like to return to Castle Bielenfeld as our primary residence. By your leave."
Aldrich waved a hand. "This is your home. If you wish another room …?"
Manfred snorted and reached over to carress Aldrich's face. "No, our present rooms are perfect." He had shared Aldrich's room ever since they returned home for the conference, and Efram was next door to Dietrich, all three bedrooms opening into Aldrich's personal family parlor. "The point is that we choose to stay, regardless of your answer to the next question. Aldrich … will you marry me?"
Aldrich pulled Manfred into his lap and arms, and pressed his face into his hair, before murmuring. "Yes. Absolutely. Thank you…"
"Now," said Manfred. "Let's get married this weekend."
Startled, Aldrich laughed. "What? Why?"
Manfred shrugged and pulled back to place nose to nose. "I was thinking a small family affair, within the greater… madhouse. Maybe we could hide the ceremony in your garden. Look, your mother and my father are in town, and so is everyone else we'd absolutely want to come. Let's just… do it. OK?"
"OK. This weekend."
They shared a long, deep kiss. Manfred pulled back a little and stuck his thumb into Aldrich's mouth, and pushed on his back teeth a little. "I love that quirk of yours. Next question."
Aldrich moaned a little. "Manfwed, how many questons are vare?"
"One more for now. Can we have a child together? I'm not marrying you in order to have a child. And I expect to still be married to you when the children are off making grandchildren, or crying in your arms if we cannot have a child, or lose one. But I would… like to have a child with you. You still haven't told us, you and Wolfram, me and Yuuri. Can we?"
Aldrich reluctantly pulled Manfred's thumb out of his mouth and kissed it. "Wolfram and I agreed to tell you both together. Neither of us are married, and we both… hope to be. And I can't tell my lover without telling his father, or he tell his lover without telling my liege lord. So… does it need to be before the wedding?"
"No," Manfred said and kissed him. "Just… please trust me soon, love. I can't keep pretending I don't already know most of it. You'll feel better about us, when you tell me everything. I'll still love you, Aldrich von Trondheim von Bielenfeld. Even more."
oOo
"Mother!" exclaimed Aldrich in surprise. He and Manfred had just taken Dietrich and Efram onto his big bed and told them about the annulment and marriage, while they were all back in their suite dressing for dinner, to the boys' whole-hearted approval. They'd invited Wolfram's family and elder brothers to dinner, and Erick and Ted von Trondheim and the von Gratzes as well, in order to make the wedding announcement. But Aldrich hadn't expected Alana von Trondheim. Judging from the tension level in the room, perhaps no one else had invited her, either.
"Ah… it's so nice to see you at table." Aldrich kissed his mother's cheek. He continued down the table to return Cecilie's letter to her quietly, with a brief squeeze of her shoulder. They both murmured 'thank you' to each other.
"Well, Aldrich, I saw someone," Alana said, looking daggers at Cecilie, "making advances on my husband," she looked pointedly at Friedrich. "I understand you have needs, dear, but I expect more discretion while I'm visiting."
A deeply amused Friedrich replied, "A simple misunderstanding, Alana. Cecilie is rather, ah, affectionate in manner. Have you met her husband yet, Lord Manfred? And his second son, Lord Efram?"
"I've met Manfred and Efram, of course," she rose – and rose – and greeted the pair, who'd accompanied Aldrich on more than one trip to Trond Hall. Alana was about six and a half feet tall, tiny for a half troll, but wore five-inch stiletto heels. She also wore a strapless evening gown to rival Cecilie's – in assertively gold-trimmed Bielenfeld Blue, this evening, which complemented her royal blue hair and eyes. Her figure rivaled Cecilie's as well, though on a grander scale, and considerably better toned. Alana was an avid skiier.
"Actually –" Alana and Manfred said it at the same time. Alana sunk back into her seat and waved for him to go first.
"Actually, we had a couple announcements to make to the family this evening. The first is that Cecilie and I are no longer married. Our marriage has been annulled." He bowed graciously to Cecilie, who returned this with a gracious nod of her head. Yuuri hugged Wolfram, who looked a little saddened by the news. Conrad and Gwendal were openly delighted. Annissina eyed Friedrich, and Alana eyed Cecilie, with new calculation.
"The second," said Aldrich, coming to put his arm around Manfred, "is that Manfred and I are getting married. We realize this is kind of a rush, but… Mother and Tariel and Garena, and all of you, are a little hard to convene. So… you are all invited to the wedding in the garden, this Sunday at 2 p.m. The wedding will be a small family affair, so please don't discuss it too much with the… other guests." He waved a hand to indicate the several hundred oddball conference attendees crowding his castle and overflowing into all the nearby inns. Then he and Manfred squared off and slapped each other – more like a gentle loving tap – across the face. And fell into an embrace.
The hubbub of congratulations and hugs all around died back eventually, and everyone sat down to eat. Wolfram gave in to his impatience before Alana could bring up her topic again. "So, Chichiue? How is it that you and Aldrich can get a contract together and get married in just a few days?" When I couldn't!
Manfred shot him a deep green evil demon smile. "The foremost authority on aristocratic marriage contracts is writing ours," he said, pointing to Aldrich.
Aldrich smiled at Wolfram and shrugged. "I already threw a draft together, and handed it off to our advocates, Lord Wincott and Lord Krist, before supper. We just need to sit down with them for an hour or two tomorrow to go over it, and hash out the heirs and properties."
"Krist?" exclaimed Brendan in disbelief.
Manfred shrugged. "I think it's high time Lord Krist returns to the coalition fold, and this seemed an opportunity to ease him in. I get along quite well with him. He's acting as my advocate, Lord Wincott as Aldrich's."
"You're using your wedding to serve political goals?" said Brendan.
Manfred snorted. "How not? Marrying Aldrich."
Conrad leaned forward to add, "The dragons aren't leaving until we can enforce the peace, Brendan. That means Krist and Trondheim need to pacify that border. If ever a problem cried out for an autonomist solution, this is it. I agree with Manfred, this is a golden opportunity to give Lord Krist face and get him back in the game. Thank you, Manfred."
Though some of the strife along that frontier was instigated by Trondheims, the guilt overwhelmingly fell on the Krist side. The coalition had gone from fearing they'd lose von Krist, to thanking Shinou they'd lost von Krist. His domain, and he as their representative, grew unpopular indeed as the bloodshed continued.
Alana and Erick both nodded thoughtfully. Erick said, "At this point, it seems inevitable that we'll need to continue martial law there for a year or two. The sooner that's in Trondheim and Krist hands, instead of Kristbane's dragon claws, the better. So it's high time we started hammering that out. What do you think, Sire?"
Yuuri nodded. "We'll come up with a federal proposal of course. Just to keep the 'loyal opposition' on its toes." He and Aldrich exchanged a smile. "But any real solution lies in the hearts and hands of the people who live along the frontier. I'm eager to see your proposals about winning the peace, there." Gwendal and Wolfram nodded agreement.
When this topic died back into general chewing, Alana finally got a word in edgewise. "So Lord Manfred, I trust this means you'll take back the chair of healing at the Majutsu Institute?"
"I'll return to the faculty full time, yes. But Uncle Friedrich has the chair."
Alana dismissed this with a wave. "A position entirely beneath his talents. My husband was chair of healing for centuries, and that was centuries ago. That's like assigning Aldrich to cater children's birthday parties. No offense, I hope, Lord Manfred. My husband has ten times your adult experience."
"No offense taken, Lady Alana," replied Manfred. Truth be told, chair of healing was an illustrious accomplishment for someone as young as Manfred. It rather chafed to lose it to the more accomplished Friedrich.
"Mother, Chichi is retired," said Aldrich, uneasily. "He's given centuries of devoted service to Bielenfeld and Shin Makoku. He's earned a chance to kick back. Chair of healing is a retirement project." But in truth, Aldrich had nearly given up his shot at ruling Bielenfeld in favor of his father. Friedrich's age was remarkable even by Mazoku standards. He'd long since outlived his friends from his previous tenure at the Institute. Aldrich feared that without worthy life's work, his father might decide he'd lived long enough. But he wasn't at all sure that Friedrich had found work of that caliber, and with Manfred helping Aldrich with Dietrich, he feared his father might decide his family didn't need him, either.
"Nonsense," said Alana. "Friedrich will just get old if he retires. Shin Makoku needs his talents and experience too much to let him just squander himself fiddling with his paint pots and vapid students. Friedrich, dear, I'd like you to come home with me to Trond Hall. We have a job that will really put your skills to use. And who knows? It's not too late to give Aldrich a little sister, hm?"
Friedrich blanched. "I think I'm too old to start that again, dear…"
"I'm old enough to be a little sister's grandfather, Mother," said Aldrich. "And I think you're being rather a bully."
"Mind your manners, Aldrich!" retorted Alana.
"Please mind yours, Lady Alana," he returned evenly. "This is my domain, my castle, my vassal, my father. Who has served long and well, and is now free to do as he pleases, and doesn't deserve abuse at table."
"Much as I appreciate the sentiment, Son," Friedrich cut in, "I believe I can defend myself against my wife. Thank you."
"You gave him our castle?" asked Alana. "Hmph. I was going to ask where you'd put my bed. They said they didn't have a bed big enough. They put me in a tent."
"Your bed's in my room, of course, dear," replied Friedrich. "We'll straighten that out directly after dinner. You said you had a job for me? What on earth would inspire me to move to Trond Hall?"
"Ah! We have a serious subproblem to solve. Quarter trolls – or usually anyone less than half troll, like poor Franklin – tend not to survive 'going to the trolls' –"
"What's 'going to the trolls'?" asked Dietrich.
"It's about sex, Diet," Efram answered.
"Oh, yuck, gross!" the boy cried and put hands over his ears. Trenton echoed him. Little Frieda and Bertram put their hands over their ears and squealed, too, because it looked like fun.
"Lord Efram," said Aldrich in warning. "Mother, pray continue."
Alana looked at Dietrich and smiled. "It's alright, Dietrich. We won't be talking about that subject anymore." She quirked one lip up, in just the mannerism Aldrich had inherited from her, and gleamed an evil grin of challenge at Efram. Efram gulped and looked at Aldrich, who quirked the same grin. Efram nodded.
"As I was saying, dear," she continued to Friedrich, "it is now murder to breed uptroll unless some way can be found to ensure survivability. Simply calling it murder, without solving the demand side of the equation, is to invite… a drastic increase in pregnant capital criminals and orphans. Societal disaster. What I want first, is a credible promise of a solution forthcoming. Something Erick can take and convince the public that waiting is the right thing to do – to wait is to survive and to provide for the offspring. To act prematurely is criminal and irresponsible – a cop-out. But of course, I also want to deliver on that promise – to prove them right to have waited.
"Now, I've tried to review the research on this problem. Friedrich, I'm sure I'm not really qualified to judge, but it seems to me a hodgepodge of religious theory centered on males developing the spiritual trollishness to survive breeding. In short, I think the researchers were… quacks. So. We don't even know why they die."
"Excuse me, Alana," interrupted Manfred. "Friedrich, I believe it's a pheromone-induced catastrophic endorphine cascade."
"Mm, what a way to go," commented Friedrich. "You observed this in Aldrich? Ah, translation, Alana: yes, your religious shamans are barking up the wrong tree."
Alana smiled at Manfred, then Friedrich. "Then you can solve it."
"I should think so," said Friedrich, "though not immediately."
"Excellent! Hm, well, maybe I shouldn't bother with what I was going to suggest. Except, if possible, Friedrich, I'd prefer this solved from the female rather than the male side. If the female is to be called the murderer, yet all the means to ensure survival are in male hands, then… You see the problem."
"Indeed, that's bad law," said Friedrich. "But non-negotiable. Therefore it must be rendered feasible. Certainly, Alana, I'll come take a look. Though actually pushing through to a solution, could be a long and expensive process."
"Exactly, funding is the second problem. But I thought to alloy it with a third problem, and thereby… widen the group of interested parties. Perhaps even to federal scale." She looked at Yuuri and smiled. "All of the diminishing races, and also the Aristocrats, suffer from inbreeding and cross-racial breeding. Inbreeding tends to increase certain medical problems." She paused and glanced gently at Dietrich to hint at his mother's mental illness without saying anything the boy might decipher. "But wouldn't outbreeding then cancel it out?"
"That's true," said Yuuri, emphatically. "The inherited illnesses from inbreeding cannot propagate through outbreeding."
Conrad added, "In Yuuri's other world, empiricists and potionists aren't a small family hobby. They have millions of people engaged in it every day."
"'Millions'?" repeated Alana quellingly, disapproving of such exaggeration.
Yuuri nodded. "Literally millions, Lady Alana. The population of my birth world is in the billions. Lord Friedrich, my own science education is pretty basic, but I can sketch the theory for you in an hour or so."
"I'd like to be included in that conversation, Yuuri," said Manfred.
"And I," said Aldrich. Thinking of Franklin's last letter to him, he added, "And I'll fund the research. Personally if I have to." He looked at his father appraisingly and smiled. "So, Mother, you baited your hook well. I seem to have lost my most talented vassal to you."
Alana and son shared a quirked smile of understanding. Friedrich looked fairly pleased to be won – it was a most interesting problem, with research, healing, empirical, social, and political aspects, and best of all, mortal stakes. It was his kind of problem.
"I don't understand, Chichiue," complained Dietrich to his father. "Are you going to explain for Lord's Lesson tonight?"
Aldrich gave him a hug. "No, Diet. Efram's going to explain it all to you, while we have a grown-up Lord's Lesson with Yuuri Maou."
"I'll help," said Wolfram, handing Bertram to Yuuri. Just to make sure Efram doesn't accidentally tell Dietrich any of the truth, thought Wolfram. Dietrich was too fragile yet to hear about quarter-trolls like his adored father and Brendan dying of sex, or his mother being mentally ill because her parents were close relatives – not nearly as close as Aldrich and Manfred. No, the truth wouldn't do for brilliant and fearful Dietrich. Aldrich and Manfred clasped his hand in thanks on his way out.
Cecilie looked inspired and thoughtful. Friedrich was nearly twice her age. If he could find a new career and fresh challenges befitting his age and wisdom, well then, maybe so could she.
oOo
Aldrich laid a hand high on the bole of a beautiful maple tree, and looked up. The day after the wedding, he and Wolfram rode out with Manfred and Yuuri, to this lovely mixed stand of trees, on the last hill on the road to the Institute.
"Friend of yours? Or… a relative?" asked Manfred softly.
"Son... and daughter. Most trees are 'both'. I imagine 'both' was the norm for wood nymphs, male or female the exception."
Wolfram asked, "Is he… happy? To be a tree? Never awoken to be a person?" He gulped. That… he found the hardest of all. That he might plant a seed of his and Yuuri's, and it grow into a child was bizarre enough. That they might only grow to be trees, never to awaken as people… set something within him crying.
Aldrich understood Wolfram's anguish, but as a plant-lover, didn't share his animal-centric bias. "He's a happy tree, Wolfram. It's not like you regret your lost life as a daffodil."
Wolfram chuckled, surprised. "Point taken. Though… I have suffered dragon envy…"
Aldrich grinned lopsidedly. "And I admire trees. This one… is a few years older than you, Manfred. What Tariel said, about the wood nymph in our bodies having its own agenda, that our minds know little about… really hit home. Wolfred and I were fooling around, denying to ourselves what we were doing between nephew and uncle… And a few days later I sneezed seeds out of my sinuses." He pulled out a handkerchief and unwrapped it. They were shaped like pumpkin seeds, of assorted mottled colors. Wolfram hesitantly unwrapped a similar packet. He shyly showed four seeds to Yuuri. Aldrich's were half again the size. But then, so was Aldrich.
"Does it hurt?" said Yuuri, running a finger alongside Wolfram's nose. "Sneezing them out?"
Wolfram shook his head. "Just a very hard sneeze. Kind of a relief, like any time your sinuses have been stuffed up."
"So does this maple tree… no, it has normal seeds," Manfred said, spotting the distinctive maple propellers.
"It lives a normal maple tree life," Aldrich agreed. "That maple was its sapling. This one's life maryoku is strong, but that one's just a healthy tree. The oak," he pointed, "was from the same group of seeds. I told Wolfred. But we agreed not to tell anyone else. I sort of told myself it wasn't real. Yet I kept the seeds in my pocket for a week, looking for a nice place to plant them. This hill was an eyesore, crowned with bracken. And I just thought… it could look so pretty. So I planted the seeds here. They grew, and their maryoku took over, and turned it into this beautiful spot. Wolfred disappeared for a few years into the Fens, and came back with you, Manfred. You look like Chichi's son, not mine. I was only sixty, and I… didn't want to know. Besides, the seeds grew trees, not children. So, I denied it ever happened. Even when… it kept happening. That willow… is one of ours, Manfred. I'm so sorry I lied to you, love, but… it was really myself I was lying to."
Manfred embraced and gentled him, and murmured, "I understand," in his ear.
Yuuri held Wolfram's seeds and looked at the trees. "So how do they turn into children? Ah, people-shaped children. Like Manfred."
"Most can't," said Wolfram, sadly. "Before Tariel corrected our maryoku, none could. It's our fire, not just the lovemaking, that creates the seeds. Even now, most are just tree seeds. Only a few have… possible babies inside."
"A seed is a lot like a womb, like an egg except dormant," explained Aldrich. "There's a tree embryo waiting inside each one, for the right conditions. If you simply plant it and walk away, it will only turn into a tree. But if one has… that extra spark… I can grow it, nurture it, feed it on parental love and maryoku until it reaches a certain size. Then, try to awaken a baby to emerge from it. Then… Garena could continue to go back and forth between being a person and being a tree. Manfred, and Chichi and Emeraude, couldn't. Once they were drawn into baby demon form, they stayed demons."
"Aldrich has the maryoku to nurture and draw out a baby," said Wolfram. "And Tariel and Garena. But I don't, and neither did Wolfred. We can't create babies without their help."
"Why only three?" said Manfred. "Why did Tariel stop at three? Or didn't he?"
"Tariel's a tree, not a person," answered Aldrich. "Our physical form is real. His is just a projection. He and grandfather Theophilus tried for half a century, and eventually managed to create only five seeds. Of those, he could summon forth three, but the other two…
"I brought Tariel out here. I'm sorry, Wolfram, but you said you'd never created seeds. I wanted to talk to Tariel alone about my… guilt. Over what I'd done. Tariel's other two weren't like this one," he stroked his hand up the maple's trunk. "Mine are true trees plus life maryoku. Those other two, Chichi's brothers, were true wood nymphs, struck dumb, forever silenced. Like all the rest. Tariel's grief was overwhelming. None of his children could bring back the wood nymph race. He gave Chichi and Emeraude to grandfather to raise, and refused to try anymore. If he didn't have Garena to care for, I don't know what he would have done."
"Like all the rest?" asked Yuuri. "What happened to the wood nymphs, Aldrich?"
"The same magic, the resonance Shinou used to kill the troll armies of the Enemy, struck the wood nymphs as well. They turned comatose, all except Tariel, who was shielded in hiding with Troll Mother. It happened that way with many of the dwindling races, many vanished altogether, some had more survivors. Troll Mother was pregnant, had a baby to raise, was determined to do whatever it took, to bring her people back. Tariel… was destroyed. He went insane for thousands of years, going from dumb tree to dumb tree all over the world, searching. His people hadn't died, they stood all around him, unreachable, unwakeable. Though by now, even those have died, as well as... our uncles. Chichi and Garena's brothers, the sleeping wood nymphs."
They stood silent for a time, in respect for the enormity of a grief like that. Eventually Yuuri asked, "Can you tell, which seeds have a chance of being people?"
"I can't," said Wolfram, and held out his seeds to Aldrich. "These are from midsummer. You said they might be… stronger."
"Yes, they are, and so are mine," said Aldrich, tenderly touching each one in turn. He touched a smaller, wizened seed, a less attractive thing mottled grey and pink. "This one. This one could draw a Mazoku soul. Can you feel it?" He offered out his seeds again and pointed out two for comparison. There was no visible pattern to this. One of Aldrich's was a plump lime green thing, the other a slender dark brown with blue streaks.
Wolfram touched the three briefly, then turned and put his hand to his mouth and sobbed. Yuuri hastily pulled him into his arms and held him while he cried. "Until this… we didn't know, Yuuri… All the other parents were part wood nymph, we didn't know whether you and I could…" Yuuri held him tight, murmuring to him.
Manfred and Aldrich drew away to give them a little privacy. "How many of ours? Might be Mazoku?" Manfred asked.
"Only these two, ever, I think," replied Aldrich. He put the seeds away for the moment. "But I… really like trees, Manfred. Would you mind? If I plant them all? They… transform the places I plant them. They're everywhere I've been by now. Is that… OK? With you?" In the end, Wolfram regained his composure before Aldrich, who had a lot more weight on his conscience.
When he could ask again, Yuuri asked, "So, it's only you two, of all the descendants of Tariel, who are 'both'? Who have the… anatomy to create seeds?"
"Not quite," Manfred surprised them by answering. "The plant ovaries are in all of us. I told you it was getting hard for me to pretend I didn't know," he said to Aldrich, stroking the small of his back. "That much, I could piece together myself. That strange thickening and fine tubes at the bottom of the sinuses, we all have. But we don't have the green fire Aldrich and Wolfram have, the life maryoku. And none of Emeraude's children carried the fire healing maryoku it can emerge in. The fire healing gift only passes from father to son. Is that right, Aldrich?"
He nodded. "Although… we don't know yet, about Dietrich and Efram and Bertram. It may emerge in them when they're older. Garena may have other offspring. And Chichi… I find it a little hard to believe he's had only two children in nearly 800 years. There are quite a few fire healers who aren't named von Bielenfeld, all descended from various whomever's illegitimate children. So, there may be others."
Aldrich took out the seeds again, his own and Wolfram's. "Would you like me to keep this one for you? While you think about it? The magic of midsummer was powerful. There might never be another like this. If you decide you want to, I could plant it in the spring. I won't have enough time to spend with them until the leaves fall, according to Tariel's dragon forecast. The others… you can plant whenever you want. They grow into magnificent trees, of many kinds."
"I'll keep it," said Wolfram. "Unless you think… would he be safer with you?"
Aldrich met his eye kindly. "I don't know. I would love him for you, I can tell you that. Keep him in a warm, dark, dry place, touch him every day, as my own. Can you feel his maryoku?"
"Yes, a little, I think," said Wolfram, scared.
"I can feel it," said Yuuri confidently, and took the seed. "If he weakens in any way, we can bring him back to Aldrich for safe-keeping. In the meantime, let's try bathing him in our own love, Wolfram." He hugged a grateful Wolfram, who stayed in his embrace and lay his head on Yuuri's shoulder, reassured. "I'd never thought to be able to have a child with Wolfram. Thank you, Aldrich, for the chance."
Aldrich nodded. "My pleasure. Literally. The hard part would be tearing myself away from my garden enough to run my domain. I might sleep in the tool shed… And it… takes very little difference in effort between nurturing one seed… and three?"
"Absolutely," said Manfred. "However. Keeping Cecilie out of your garden might prove a challenge. Perhaps she could take the night shift in the shed. She might not have green fire in her wind maryoku, Aldrich, but she's a demon for plants and kids, every bit as much as you."
Aldrich laughed. "Well, she's welcome to visit. But my garden is my sanctuary, she can't move in."
Wolfram laughed. "We'll see about that."
"You said 'he'," said Yuuri, struck by a thought. "Is it? A little boy?"
"I can't tell," said Aldrich. "Can you, Manfred?"
Manfred shook his head. "Even on a demon baby, I simply observe the sex organs after they've formed inside the mother. If I understand the process, there won'tbe any to observe until the child is materialized out of the sapling. Is that right, Aldrich?" Aldrich nodded. "How long does that take, anyway?"
"Before the leaves fall," said Aldrich. "Next autumn."
Before they left, the two couples split off and planted the other seeds – the tree seeds – amidst the nurturing life maryoku of their relatives on the hill. Then Aldrich and Manfred rode down into town, to honeymoon another night at Manfred's cottage at the Institute. They would return the next day for a reception banquet at the Castle, and resume their work at the conference. A real honeymoon could wait until after the peace was won and the dragons departed.
Yuuri and Wolfram stayed among the trees until the stars came out. Aldrich and Manfred would visit with these trees often, on the road to the Institute and beyond that, the Aldrich von Bielenfeld plantation, which Dietrich stood to inherit someday. But Yuuri and Wolfram wouldn't often pass this way. They found it hard to let go, touching the trees, talking. At last, under the stars, they rode back to Castletown, eager to hug their other children, and share their hopes and dreams with them.
- oOo -
The End.
Not.
- oOo -
Strangely enough, the next story in chronological order is Epilogue. But you probably already saw that – Wolfram and Yuuri's wedding. After a while they take a honeymoon – family vacation – in The Ghosts of Trondheim. Wherein Shinou and Daikenja's biggest mistake comes home to roost.
-oOo-
Check out my published fiction: End Game. Set in Connecticut, this near-term SF adventure is pre-apocalyptic, where ordinary people choose extraordinary ways to face a climate and world gone haywire.
And my non-fiction: Indoor Salad: How to Grow Vegetables Indoors, E-Cigarettes 101: How to Start Vaping, a smoker-friendly guide, and E-Cigarettes 102: DIY E-Liquid, how to mix your own. Available in softcover and ebook at Amazon.