*** Alzi (Second Body Beginning of the Day) ***

Kou just had to send Lensa here. Sure, it was funny seeing Lensa's reaction to being told she's a terrible mother and can learn from me, but I don't want to deal with her. She'll try to get Azula's collar off or something. Then I have to worry about her not caring about the kids because none of them have the right eye color or something.

Just trust that she really wants me to help her give birth. Why her healer can't handle it, I don't know, but it should keep her from doing anything crazy. Could scam her into getting pregnant again as payment for my help in this pregnancy. Just keep doing it over and over. It would be kind of funny to see if she walks into that trick.

Of course, that would mean having sex with her, which I would rather not do. I have plenty of women I can boat up, like Zarzi. Just not a hundred again. I think that may cause some problems for the family.

Faster than I'd like, the peace of the nursery is broken. Not really, babies are kind of loud when they aren't sleeping, and Shimmer loves to sit in here with our kid. But Lensa is a change. Shimmer will let me sit with her, or take our child from her hands if I ask, but Lensa, who knows. I think Geta is the only one around that is strong enough, actually, to threaten her, and I need her to follow my main body. Hopefully, Lensa just isn't interested in doing anything. Right now, she's just staring at all the kids.

"What a mess," Lensa says. "Seriously. I've never seen anything like this. All related to you, and this isn't even all of them. How many women have you filled like me?"

"A few," I say.

"Two bodies even. Ah, there she is," Lensa says, heading off towards Tirlo. It's going to be hard to balance the kids who have a parent they don't share with any other kids. Mai's good about playing with all the kids, but I know it has to be hard, and she does have a focus on our little kitty. Fluvis has sixteen kids to look after. We just can't give them all the same focus. Especially not me. I have too many kids to provide them with special time once this group starts to group up.

Lensa picks Tirlo up gently and starts to rock her. "You're the only one I have a connection to, little one," Lensa says. "Glad our bloodline came out. Yes, yes, siblings are cramped in my womb. They said I wasn't a good mother. Yes, I know I'm fine. You're so cute. Your mommy doesn't understand how our people work."

"Sure, Azula isn't the worst woman in the world," I say. "But she could've done better."

"She's a fine woman. She didn't treat a slave perfectly. Come on, there is no need to have her wear a slave collar. That's just to make you feel better about yourself. If you need to punish her, just slap her around a bit or something. Why the embarrassment? What does that do for you? Crazy."

"Just like you kicking out a good daughter. Why do that? I don't want to worry about their doing something against me. She already told me about thinking about overthrowing the old Queen. If she had just done that, you wouldn't have to worry about anything."

"Of course," Lensa says. "Just make it seem like I wanted to throw her out. That was the decision I wanted to make. Our realm isn't as bountiful as the other realms. We can't risk anything affecting our crops, and in the past, there have been some issues with poisons and fire. The list has grown, and we have worried about our purity in mana before. If the royal family weakens too much, the realm will be uninhabitable. We have to do everything we can to keep our food and protect ourselves from the cold. So, by law, Azula was sent away. I cried and I said I loved her, but the Queen has to think about her people."

"Your daughter is included in your people."

"Just one versus the hundred thousand? It doesn't work like that. If any kids I raise have a banned affinity, I'll send them to you, and I'll be happy to visit. You can come by sometime and see what we are dealing with. We don't make this chose lightly. We aren't that callous."

"She expected you to come and save her," I say. "You came just for power. You carry those kids to have more control, not to remove her collar. So don't be surprised, I don't believe you. Before she had her affinity, you thought she would be useful, and after her affinity, you threw the trash away. That's all that happened. You have your reasons and played it up maybe, but you didn't care enough to make sure she was ok."

"Why do you think I made it at all? Think I'm just spying on you all and teleported down here? That I have magic that will tell me when I'm about to lose my line in the lower realm? Think about it, Alzi," Lensa says. "She had a way to contact me. That was the first time she used it."

"Of course, it was the first time she used it. You threw her out. This time, she had nowhere else to turn to. You were supposed to come down and fight to free her; instead, you tried to save some bitch's head. Don't avoid that issue. She believed in you, and you failed her. My Mother never did that. She always does her best to help me. I expect that from you. I expect that for all my kids. They are what is important now. Your realm should freeze over if that is what is needed for you to help your kids. Let someone else fix it."

"Alzi, things aren't simple like that, you know it. You're running around crazy, doing things. You're doing things you hate..."

"Yes, but it is what helps my kids. Protects them and lets me raise them."

"Azula De Vil is a grown fucking woman," Lensa says. "I kicked out a full-grown woman. I should've kicked her out when she was seventeen, but I waited. If you hate that, then fine, you don't understand our conditions. My daughter didn't tell me she was a slave when telling me to come down here. She didn't ask me to help her. She told me about the Queen, so that is what I did."

"Could've changed once you saw the collar."

"It never ends with you."

"The excuses never end with the nobles. It's fine to use her like a plank of wood; she's just a slave. Why should I care about her? That's why it was fine for her to abuse me. You all found plenty wrong with what I did and punished me for it. Now I get to do that back. Don't like it? I don't care. Things work differently here. You just can't understand. I expect you to be a mother. One that cares about her kids enough to do something about them being slaves."

"Are you sure that is what you want?" Lensa says. A shiver runs down my back as I see my breath. Ice starts to crawl over the cribs, just avoiding my babies. "You understand..."

"Stop," Nanoka says. "Stop it. Lensa, you know what Alzi meant. Don't cause problems, Geta isn't that far away when Space's Champion is around. You know what she actual wants. It isn't that hard to figure out, be mature about it. You're old enough to know how to behave, and you don't have your people around."

"Old bitch," Lensa says. Victoria comes strolling in, her nipples poking through her shirt. "Fine. I'm sorry I didn't try to free Azula over helping my interests in Edeozia Queendom. You find out these things aren't as easy as you think, especially when you have this many kids. They're going to want different things. Things that will force you to take one side or the other. Things aren't as easy as you think they are."

"Fuck is it's cold in here," Victoria says. "Are we fighting?"

"No," I say. "Just settling a disagreement."

"Well, I'm fucking here," Victoria says. She at least puts her sword away before picking up a kid. I can't be too mad about the help, just wish it didn't come with the cursing.

"It was an easy thing to figure out," I say. "Any daughter that thinks it is ok not even to figure out why her sister is a slave is in the wrong and needs to be corrected."

"Have fun with your simple view of the world. It'll come crashing down a second time for you," Lensa says. "My daughter is a grown-up; she can make decisions for herself."

"Your Highness," A maid says. "Sorry to intrude, but Esiyae is in labor. Been in labor really, but um, a few kids have come out, but there is a lot of blood."

"I'm not able to heal her, and won't be anyway," I say. "But I can make sure the kids get out safely, even if it means cutting her up. Victoria, watch that tongue of yours, and Lensa, be kind to them all. If I get good reports, I'll think about freeing your daughter."

"Good luck," Victoria says. Lensa just ignores me, but Tirlo is giggling, so I'll let it go.

Time to see how the bitch is doing.

They moved her just a few doors down to make it easier to keep her organs from killing her. Kelly has been very inventive in how to keep her and the kids alive these past few days. The last organ to burst was her stomach yesterday. How she managed to get a few kids out of her belly, I don't know, but I know I'll be cutting most of them out soon.

Inside the room is Talindra and Mommy are helping the bloated woman. She's too weak to even scream during the painful contraction.

"Well, about time," I say. "How many so far?"

"Just three," Mommy says.

"That's impressive," I say. "Kelly was insistent that we would have to cut them all out."

"That's maybe where we are at now," Mommy says. "Her contractions aren't as strong now."

"Help," Esiyea squeaks out. "Please."

"No," I say. "I'm sorry. But no. You had your chance. I was ready to show you mercy, but you threw it in my face. I wanted to help you. To let you be a mother by my side. But it wasn't meant to be; you're too far gone. I'm sorry. I'm friends with the Goddess of Death, Esiyea. I'll pray to her and ask that she show your soul mercy. That's the most I can do for you now. This body can't use mana to save your life even if I wanted to. All this one can do is watch after my kids." I give her stretched belly a soft rub. I'm sure it feels like a slap, but she'll live. Well, no, she won't, but there isn't anything she can do about it.

"I'm sorry," Esiyea manages. Talindra is shaking on the other side of Esiyae's body, holding her hated wife's hand.

"You may be sorry, but I can't help you. I can just promise I'll love our children and I'll let them know you love them as well. That is all you will get from me. I'm going to cut you open and pull them out. The worst will be over soon," I say. "Be kind in the afterlife and you'll have your mercy." I don't know if that is true, but I can give her some comfort after my belly rub.

Space gives me a scalpel, and I start my cut. I don't have to be too careful; Esiyae won't be getting stitched back together. I just can't kill the kids, so I make nice, long cuts through her muscle. Opening up her womb completely. Slowly, I start to extract the kids, Esiyea's pulse weakening with every second. I pull out just a single kid when she finally passes. I cut her up a bit more to make it a bit easier to reach in and get to work. The most update n0vels are published on novèlfire.net