Slave Girl 2: Chapter 109 (Patreon)

Nothing could have prepared me for what happened next.  In the span of one split second everything changes.  Everything.  Everything!  Everything that I was, that I am, and that I would become.  Everything around me and within me.  Everything in this world and the realms beyond.  Every action, every hour, every word spoken, every coin earned and spent, every relationship I had or would ever have again.  Everything.  There was not one thread of this tapestry called life that was not touched by this news.  In one reality shattering instant every single facet of my life had been transformed indelibly.  There was no person, no monster, no magic spell, not even a god or goddess that could have preformed the miracle cast on me by my unborn baby.  I was going to be a dad!  I WAS GOING TO BE A DAD!!!

In one great surge I am filled with a dozen different emotions at once.  Confusion, disbelief, fear, worry, and most of all…JOY!  The joy of falling in love all over again.  Could you love a person that you’d never even met?  The answer in my heart was an unequivocal YES.  I don’t even try to stem the tears that begin to well.  I couldn’t have stopped them if I wanted to.

“Oh!”  I gasp when I was able to form words again.  “A baby!  Our baby!”

Misreading the tears that flowed freely down my cheeks Rosa’s already forlorn expression falls even further into despair.  “I’m sorry.”  She whispers.  “I am so sorry Quin.”

Sorry?  Sorry!  She was apologizing to me for life’s greatest blessing.  It wounded me not to see the same happiness that was brimming over in my soul in hers.  Rosa was scared.  Terrified actually.  But not in the same way she was of monsters or even like she had been when struck by blindness.  This fear struck far deeper.  Added to this was a sense of having failed me and betrayed herself.  Holding my beloved close I lead her back to the base of the cypress.  Sitting with my back against its trunk I pull Rosa down onto my lap.  Curling up small she clings to my big body and finds a measure of comfort in my strong arms around her.  Her worried fox friend sits close to my hip.

“There are…w-ways to fix this.”  Rosa’s face is hidden in my chest as she whispers.  “Potions that could…end this.”  A tremble runs through her body.  “But I don’t know if I…c-can be that strong Quin.”

Wrapping myself around her I hold her close and kiss her soft hair.  “This is the happiest day of my life.”

“What?”  She looks up and starts to feel around my face, this time feeling not just the tears but the huge smile behind them.  “Quin.  You don’t understand.”

“I understand all that I need to understand.”  I say as I brush aside a stray lock that had spilled across her face.  “I understand that we’ve been blessed with the greatest gift the gods could offer.”

“Quinnn.”  She moans and slumps back against me.  “It’s not that simple.”

“It’s the simplest thing in the world.”  I say.  “And the best.”  Cupping her cheek I gently tilt her head to face me once more.  “Rosa.  You’re going to be a mother.”

For one uplifting instant the dark clouds of fear break to allow me a glimpse of the light that shone in my heart shining back from hers.  But those clouds of worry roll back in quickly.

“No.  No Quin.”  She says.  “This can’t happen.”

“It’s too late for can’t.”  I say.  “It’s here.”

“No!”  She says, frustration rising.

“I do understand.”  I kiss her near horn, which was now over five inches long.  “It’s your Amazon blood.”

“And the slavery that comes with it.”

“Rosa…that won’t happen.  Not to our child.”

“Quin.  You are an incredible man.  But even you cannot protect her from a whole empire.”  She takes a deep breath and slowly lets it out.  "Mama.  Myself.  Danae.  This needs to end.  This chain must be broken.  For myself I made an exception.  Because of you.  I thought I would be the last link.”  A noble strength rises in her voice and demeanor.  “But I cannot, I will not, allow my daughter to be someone’s…possession.”  She lays a hand over my cheek and says oh so quietly.  “Not even yours.”

“I would not treat her as such.  She would be my treasure.”

“Does it matter?  How would you feel if you knew that your parents owned you?  Under the law.  And that you had no hope of release.”  A queasy feeling rises as I imagine that life.  No matter how much they I loved them, no matter how much they cared for me, the thought of being their property leaves me ill.  “And what if something happens to us?  Cassie is a fine woman and I love her, but…”  She leaves the rest unspoken.  She didn’t need to say it.  “And what of when we grow old?  Who owns her then?  A brother?  A sister?  A friend of the family?”

“No!”  

“And what if she shows potential in my father’s craft?  Do we deny her that?  Does she live half a life?  A life denied of her full potential?”  She says.  “She cannot start a business or speak in her own defense or even marry should she find that special one.  And if she has children, if we are blessed with grandchildren, will they be just more links in the chain?  Do we let her bloom or wither?”

“Bloom.  Of course we do.”  I lay my hand over hers and hold it firmly.  “It could be a boy.  They won’t even know it’s Amazon.”

“I cannot bear a boy child Quin.”

“You are only half Amazon.”

“And I am not the first.  This path has been traveled by others.”  She says.  “It takes a couple of generations before anything else is possible.  No my love.”  She brings my hand back down to her tummy where we both lay a hand across it.  “Your child will be an Amazon girl.”

“A daughter.”  I smile.  “A beautiful baby girl.  Oh Rosa!”

“Your child will be a slave.”

“No.  No!  She will not.  Not my daughter.”

“We will not have a choice.”  She says.  My joy, while still there, was now tempered by these hard realities.  “This wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“But it did.”

“I thought for a moment we might pass it off as Cassie’s.  But my demon blood makes that impossible.”  She sighs.  “Had I known that I was speaking for more than myself I never would have told anyone my true heritage.”

“You shouldn’t have to hide who you are.”

“No.”

“We…We will find a way.  We have friends.  Friends who can help us.”

“Or betray us.”  She lays her head on my shoulder and slips her hand beneath mine.  Across its back I feel the scarring from the symbol that branded her as mine.  A brand we would be legally required to sear on our daughter’s flesh.  My ears ring with the memory of Rosa’s screams back at the slave market where it was done.  “Your training.  The enemies you’ve made in town.  My outlawed use of magic.  The crime I ran from.  A careless word from Colly or Aristocles.  There are so many ways things could turn against us.”  She takes another slow, deep breath.  “It was different before.”

Her words struck true.  Before now all of the risks we took, and there were many, were Rosa and I’s to bear.  But now…now we had an innocent to consider.  An innocent whose fate was tied to ours.  Above all else we had a sacred duty to see our child survive and flourish.

“There is the potion.”  She says.  “I know where one finds such things.  I saw another of the meretrix in Alexandria take it.  She suffered, but only for a few days.  Physically at least.  It would solve our little…problem.”

“Our child is a problem.”  I squeeze her hand tight.  “She lives.”

“Good.”  Rosa whispers.  “Then we take the second way.”

“The second way?”

She looks up at me, almost seeming to see me through her wide green tinged pupils.  “I will go.”

“What?”

“I will run.  Like I did before.  This time with Silvanus to watch over me.”

“Rosa…”

“Quin.”  She smiles.  “This land.  This place.  This work.  This life.  This is your dream.  You belong here.”  Her smile grows.  “I will write when I can.  Perhaps you might visit.”

“What!?”

“Stay my boy.  Marry that girl.  Build this dream Quin.  Have kids.  So many kids.”  Her eyes cast about as if watching them at play.  “Let their laughter fill these woods.  Get rich.  Grow soft.  Be happy.”

Again, she was right.  This place had it all.  Everything I had ever wanted and so much more.  In my time here I had made friends, built contacts, bore responsibilities, fallen in love, had amazing sex, worked Ceres’ fields and I even got to play hero once or twice.  All of it while living in a palace.  A palace!  It was all of my desires come true.  Just as the soothsayer predicted that first morning here.

I begin to laugh.  “You cruel old bastard.”

“Excuse me?”

“Mercury!  Are you enjoying the show?”  I look up into the green boughs above.  “Have I played my part well?  You tricky son of an ass!”

“Careful!  He and Jupiter may be listening.”  She says.  “Why are you laughing?”

I shake my head.  “Rosa.  Do you honestly think I’m about let you go out there on your own?  To raise our child, OUR child, by yourself?  Is that who you think I am?”

“No.”  She says.  “But…you have so much here to…”  She stutters.  “Your house…your work…this life…”

“Just more chains.”  I say.  “More chains for the curse to bind me.  I may enjoy bondage you old fool.  But you are not my Lady!”  I look back to Rosa.  “We break the chains.  Every last one of them.  I don’t know how, I don’t know where, but we WILL be free Rosa.”  I gently push my hand into her belly.  “All of us.”

“No!  This place is everything you always wanted.  Don’t throw it away.”

“It’s not about me Rosa.”  I say, tears once more blurring my vision.  “To get what I want, what I really want, it is not my dream I have to chase.  It’s ours.  It’s hers.”  Looking out through the woods and holding my Lady close I call out.  “I understand Dad.  I get it now.  I know why you had to leave.”  A loud sob breaks through.  “I love you!”

“Oh Quin!”  She hugs me back as I squeeze her close.  “Thank you!”  Love and relief pour out of her.  Despite the brave sacrifice she’d been willing to make for me she cannot hide the joy of our continued bond.  Our child would have her father and she would have her man.  “I love you!”

Chapter 110