Chương 334: 6.1

Jewel was thankful that birth remained a far easier affair for wyrm than man or beasts. But three eggs still felt incredibly unfair! She'd been prepared for two, it seemed undeniable with how swollen she had gotten, but three?! And of course it wasn't entirely the same as with Gem. For two of the eggs there was the expected sensitivity. The absolutely overwhelming sensation at any contact that Jewel was now able to understand as the sensation of her new selves in the egg. Freshly born but not yet hatched.

It made Jewel loath to leave either of them, just as she had with Gem. The need to protect the eggs from unwelcome touches and lack of wyrmflame demanded she stay close. Something Paul said made her resemble a brooding messenger dove. But then there was the third egg, which Jewel felt nothing from. No, she felt less than nothing from it, and delicate tests against its shell had proved it as sure as anyone in Valasect could say. Jewel had laid her first 'true wyrm egg'. And she had no idea what to do with it!

It was like Gem's egg but so much worse, for this time she did not even have Tsulogothulan's curiosity to distract or offer counsel. The Weird had come that very evening, looked Jewel and her trio of eggs over with that one overlarge eye then uttered in a plain and simple fact." I've served my seventeen years, as a friend I will keep in touch and if you need me you know how to call. But the Uloghai Bog has long felt my absence and needs my touch. I'll be at least a decade I think to set it all right.

See you after that, Lady Jewel." And then they were gone! Jewel had spoken to enough weirds to understand they could be flighty and strange. She even could appreciate the idea in principle. Being away from Valasect for even a year felt like far too long! But the abrupt departure of her friend right when Jewel had an entirely new wyrmish mystery to deal with?! It was so incredibly inconvenient! You would think maybe curiosity would have delayed her Tsulogothulan longer!

But no, as soon as the Weird felt that the promised years of service were spent? Gone into a dampness in the floor and then however far away their Bog was. Which was something Jewel had never learned even the direction of, and it made it all the more frustrating. Yes, Jewel could send out a call to Tsulogothulan (or in theory any wizard in their 'circle'). But without a sworn boon or another deal there would be a cost to any aide she called on now.

It probably wouldn't be a difficult cost to provide, Jewel could probably find another river that needed slowing somewhere in Viznove. But her friend had spent so long away from home and obviously missed it! So there was no Wizardly aide available. Which left Jewel and her court baffled and ostensibly alone on the matter of what to even do with her 'proper wyrm egg'. It was by any reasonable interpretation of law and conduct, her child.

Possibly it might even be considered more of her line then Gem or the two newly laid spawn. But every record, story, legend or rumor she could find suggested that the egg itself was very likely decades or centuries away from hatching! Possibly even longer! Jewel huffed and glared at the figuratively (and literally) impenetrable shell of the thing. It didn't look any different from the other two, which filled her head with a cacophony of sensation if she even brushed the shells slightly too roughly.

But by all tests she had been initially willing to risk you could probably have thrown it from either pillar of the Ridgetail vault and the shell would be completely unmarked. Impervious to any act of sorcery or arms that Jewel had access too. Until just the last century, impervious to any known act of men or gods entirely.

Which was its own complication she did not want to consider, Old Cantor was willing to pay obscene amounts for True Wyrm Eggs; but even beyond that Jewel was even more baffled at the sensation of the thing itself. To sight, sound, scent, touch and taste the egg might as well have been a particularly smooth stone. Honestly she wondered how anyone could mistake this for anything but it was. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

But beyond that to her wyrmish senses it was a shocking and absolute void. A place that no sense of flame, no hint of meaning, no sign of the existence of the world itself seemed to penetrate. Everything seemed to almost bend around the shell itself when she got close. An Impenetrable mystery Jewel had carried to term inside her own body and only realized it's unfathomable nature after it had slid out of her!

And apparently despite this it was not a sufficient mystery that her friend and wizard who had been studying Jewel most of her life stayed for even one extra year to help her puzzle over it! The whole thing was just infuriating! The dead thing practically seemed to mock her with the way it dragged on her senses. Before she knew what she was doing Jewel kicked the offending thing and watched it tumble out of the nest she had made of her bedding.

It's not like it needed the protection for the other far more fragile and sensitive eggs. She immediately regretted her ire for the sound of the egg cracking the stone when it collided and then spun ricocheting off the wall of her bedroom! The sound made her flinch hard. Echoing out into the hallways. The wobbling buzzing sound of its shell rattling as it spun along her floor almost worse. Dragging on her senses (both shelled and not) before finally settling to rest amidst some pillows.

She glared at the unmarked surface of the shell, then turned to look at the fresh crack she'd dented out of her poor wall! The awful thing seemed almost smug in the damage it had done! She opened her mouth to utter something, anything! But as happened more often, Jewel found not a single proper word to say. Paul joked with her but the sheer absence of anything to blame for the trials of her life. But she was feeling that absence now! Men and women did not know how blessed they were to be able to curse the stars."

You confounding thing! Why now?!" Gem was out in the manor house, possibly also attending to any immediate problems in Valasect. Her smaller self would do what she thought best. Jewel would remember it when she was both of her selves again. But until then, the fragility of two of her eggs and the coldness of their memories when not suffused with wyrmflame trapped her. Even an hour without either of her selves to provide a current of flame left for very bleak memories indeed upon the return of her largest self.

Which added at least one answer of a sort to her endless list of questions about being a Wyrm. The oneness of Jewel with her spawn seemed to be something only her wyrmself could enact. The presence of Gem while able to bring comfort through warmth, touch and her share of the flowing current of wyrm flame did not come with a sharing of experience and memories. Not even the muffled ones each egg currently had. Jewel sighed heavily. Brooding over the two eggs which she could feel needed her contact.

Cycling flame strong and true in and out of them in the way that felt right. At least she could manage the brooding for half a day with Gem if needed. Although it strained her spawn's stores of fire to do so. It let Jewel have the freedom to fly every day. Ah! there was Smithson and Paul coming with her mid day meal! They gently knocked upon the heavy axebreaker wood door of her bedroom for permission.

"Enter, you both are welcome." And in came two of the most trusted men in Jewel's life. Straining under the load of one of Dariusz' wonderful stews! The strain of muscle in each of them and slight sheen of fresh sweat on both adding a nice variance to the otherwise stuffiness of her bedroom. The saturating smell of imminent storm and fresh rain having utterly filled the space from Jewel's constant churning of her inner flame.

"How's my dear brooding wife?" Smithson just laughed and then with a gentle care they set the heavy clay pot down on the floor. Jewel happily tucked into the stew, It was an indulgent portion, far greater than her usual but it's not like over-eating seemed liable to risk her having another clutch. She was almost certain of that. Hopefully. Smithson laughed as Jewel swallowed the just off boiling stew directly from the pot.

"Well! I guess when they hatch that's one for each of us, Eh Lord Count?" Jewel could practically feel how Paul probably eyed the pair of eggs kept protectively close to her coils. His tone is a little less carefree than her Knight.

"It surely won't be that much trouble? Gem has always been a dear." Smithson laughed and she could just about hear how he was shaking his head.

"Not always, you married Jewel after the roughest patch... They might be one together, but when they were apart in the early years? Gem was a bit of a terror, so fussy and prone to crying!" Paul groaned. Jewel cringed inside, but pretended the stew was absorbing the entirety of her attention so she didn't have to comment. The level was already half what it had started and she was having to dip her face further into the pot. The sharp memories of being an infant spawn bubbling to the fore.

When her memory was too fuzzy and muddled to keep straight who she even was. Maybe this time it wouldn't be so bad? Maybe her experience could reassure her latest selves somehow? Hopefully enough to avoid embarrassing herself. The way Smithson was chuckling though? It made her doubt that this third (fourth?) time around with being an infant would be without shame. Why was this her life?! Being a child more than once was already so unfair!