Broken Wings
N.W. 2606
A Rose By Any Other Name
The baby was early.
That was the first thought to enter Lloyd's mind as he ran through Doromir, dodging everyone who happened to be in his way and trying to get to the medical clinic.
The house had been empty, save for Darbe, who'd been there for the sole purpose of telling him to get his ass to the doctors.
He reached the clinic and managed to get the door open without breaking anything. Harold and Elysia were at the desk, the healer looking tired and harried, and both turned when he ran in.
"Cora?!"
"She and the baby are fine, but Doc Alyss isn't letting anyone in right now. She even kicked me out," Elysia said. "And I've been the main healer to see to your family since I moved to Doromir."
"Is he the father?"
Speaking of the doctor...
"I am," Lloyd replied.
Alyss frowned at him, then nodded decisively. "You seem to have some kind of mana control. Get in there—your daughter's mana core won't stabilize and Corellia's mana isn't a good enough match. Yours should be."
Lloyd grimaced, and was in the room she'd indicated as quickly as he could move without risking doing damage to the building.
They'd been worried about this when Corellia had started having dizzy spells whenever she used the slightest bit of mana, and now it looked like they'd been correct. Their little girl—a girl! He'd had so many sons over the years, all adoptive save for his and Cora's firstborn, but never a daughter—had a very different mana signature from her mother.
Corellia was exhausted. That much was obvious from the moment Lloyd stepped into the room. Dark circles around her eyes, pale face... Green eyes rose from the bundle in her arms, hope lighting up within them as Lloyd closed the distance between them in seconds.
The moment the little girl was in his arms, he could feel her. Her mana, so similar to a feel he'd only just begun to notice when he'd been forced to send Kratos away...
There was none of the earth-and-fire feel to her mana that he felt in his son's. No dwarven mana to temper the elven... and... angelic.
Lloyd rocked her unconsciously, unable to look away from the precious little girl's face as she slept, her breathing deepening and heart beat strengthening as her magical core did.
She had angelic mana.
It was impossible not to recognize it, not after so long bearing it within himself, feeling it in Colette and Zelos and... once upon a time... Yuan and Kratos.
He knew the feel of it, but he didn't have a clue what it meant for his little girl.
"Zelda."
He frowned as Corellia's somewhat breathless voice broke through his thoughts, and he glanced over at her in confusion.
She offered up a weak smile. "Zelda Aurion... Her hair's red... 'm not sure how..."
Zelda.
Zelos.
He whispered her full name, smiling softly as he carefully adjusted the little hat on the baby's head.
Indeed, little tufts of dark red hair already adorned the little girl's crown, and he chuckled to himself. "My dad had red hair," he added.
Corellia giggled a bit. "I'm glad you made it back... I was starting to worry..."
"I'm sorry. I hadn't even thought about it... Alyss and Elysia did point out that the dizzy spells were worse when I was away," he said softly. "And... Cora... she's got angelic mana. It's hers, it's not residual from me, she's producing and I don't know why—"
"Shh..."
Deep breath. In, two, three, four, hold, two, three, out...
"Sorry."
His wife giggled again, and put a hand on his arm. "We'll figure it out, love. I promise. And in the meantime, I think you need to introduce our darling little girl to the crowd that's no doubt gathering in the lobby."
Lloyd gave her a sheepish grin. "You don't mind..."
"Go, silly... I got to hold her for hours before you got here."
He chuckled and stood up, walking over to the door with a lightness in his step that he hadn't felt capable of a moment ago.
The moment he slipped through the door, he heard a gasp. "Corden! Look!"
Lloyd turned around with a grin on his face, even as his son came running over as quickly as his little legs would carry him.
"Is that...?!"
"Shh... You don't want to wake your little sister, do you?" Lloyd scolded the three-year-old gently as he knelt.
Corden's grin was just as wide as his was, the wide-eyed wonder on his face a memory that Lloyd vowed he'd never forget. "She's so tiny!"
"Haha, you were tiny, too, when your parents brought you out of the birthing rooms to meet all of us," Lizbeth said, the aging woman hobbling over from the bench she'd been sitting on.
"Did you and Corellia decide on a name?" Harold asked.
Lloyd smiled, letting Corden into his lap so the boy could hold his baby sister, and she still remain close to her father. "Zelda. Zelda Kritya Aurion."