Reproduction

CHAPTER 9 – I

1917

(Glendan)
How has this gone on for over three years already?!
So much death and sorrow and tragedy
And as the bodies continue to pile up in the streets
Fundamentally it’s still just Geryman, Urissa, Carenf, and me

It had been just about nine months since the Battle of Ballard. To the greater community, nothing much has changed – the acts of violence continued to seem random, the agony remained intense, and the terror ever-present. But for the war’s principals, much had changed.

Geryman’s powers were growing/fine-tuning by the day. Even with the loss of his most powerful allies, his opposition force only grew stronger.

Tayli’s injuries from the battle left her unable to walk and she refused any kind of supernatural help from Carenf. She had dropped out of communication. As had Janifer. After witnessing all that Urissa had been through, she no longer wanted to risk her life in this war. Speaking of Urissa…

…She was barely animate for the past three quarters of a year. In a state of shell shock, she moved in with Glendan and Carenf. Nine months ago in Ballard she had lost consciousness on the dock and then awoke in an alley in an unfamiliar part of town, having no memory of how she arrived there. Eventually she made it safely to her favored brother, where she collapsed once again. Since that day she would spend the days simply laying, groaning, and growing. Her fetus was full-term.

Carenf’s powers seemed to be manifesting at a similar pace to Geryman’s. It seemed there was no ceiling to her potential. The limits of her abdominal skin elasticity seemed maximized, however, as life stirred inside of her whom as well. She had married Glendan in an unofficial ceremony in the woods. Despite the destruction all around them, they wanted to bring their child into as loving a world as they could provide.

A flash of light
Brings about night
Constricted lungs tighten
Constructed rungs to fight in
The Other now in sight
Scowl can’t mask the fright
Bring together the titans
For the ending they will write

Carenf shouted herself awake with a pain she has never known before. The sheets were saturated. In the neighboring room, Urissa began to roar in agony.

The Moon, my companion
Wax with me on my rise
Wane when you must
I accept inevitable demise