Chapter 349
It had been a few days since the meeting with the council when I felt a sharp sense of panic spread through the connected network of succubi. I sat up with a start and traced my way through the bond for its source. Panic like this was a rare emotion, especially in the city, so it must have been something unusual for it to travel so far through the bond. While the range of the bond extended with each succubi, the 'signal' degraded through the lower-leveled ones. Only high-leveled succubi could anchor our bonded network and carry emotions and messages long distances, but even the weaker succubi could repeat important messages they were hearing.
("The first succubus child!")
("Quick, call the midwife!")
("Bella is giving birth!")
I nearly dropped my drafting tools on my desk when I jumped up from my seat. It was time! I hesitated, considering just leaving my tools spread out, but no. I wasn't in that much of a rush. I couldn't just leave everything out if I wanted to stay with Bella as long as it took to meet our daughter. I quickly put away my tools and locked up for the day. I was chomping at the bit to rush over, but I held myself back until I stepped out of the council building.
There was an air of excitement through the town as I rushed home. While not everyone were succubi, there were enough spread throughout the city that word was spreading like wildfire. Everyone knew that Bella was going into labor right now. Despite the excitement and elation, there was also an undercurrent of worry, for Bella, for the child. Healers and midwives mitigated a lot of the risks of labor, but those risks weren't gone entirely. Even a powerful healer like Bella could run into issues. I tried to put those thoughts out of my mind while I rushed over, though. I was determined to make this a good day, and I would do everything I could to assist and make sure everything went smoothly.
By the time I reached the house, all of my lovers were arriving or already waiting outside. I wasn't the only one who had dropped everything they were doing to rush over and help support Bella while she gave birth. There were also other succubi nearby, adventurers and guards that felt duty-bound to protect us right now. I didn't know all of them by name, but I felt a lump in my throat form as I realized that they were here to help protect their family, as if Bella were a cousin that they didn't know very well, but still wanted to help in her time of need.
The looks on my lovers' and friends' faces ran the gamut from worried to excited. Even Torien, who would normally be on a scouting assignment today, had made it back to watch and wait. The crowd quickly parted as a feline demi-beastkin rushed over. Healer Melanie was the primary midwife and healer who would be attending Bella through her birth, and her assistants trailed behind her. One of her assistants, a succubus I had transformed right before System's End, gave me a reassuring smile as the group entered the house.
Most of the crowd waited outside, but my immediate family entered the house after the midwife's group so that we could help however we could. None of us were sure what to expect exactly from this ordeal, so we would be standing by to do whatever was needed.
"Who was with Bella today?" Torien asked.
"It was Mimi's turn," I replied as we followed our way up to our bedroom, where Bella was giving birth.
All of us could feel Bella's painful contractions rippling through the bond. We were forced to close the bond off as much as possible, but the pain of her birth still affected all of the nearby succubi. We had eventually discovered that this was one of the biggest drawbacks of the bond. We could only close the bond so much, so especially intense emotions and pain would pierce through any protections we could put up. It left us vulnerable to simultaneous attacks or the potential of an entire party shutting down in grief after a death. And there wasn't much more painful than giving birth.
Despite the pain that all of us were sharing, we were still able to focus through it and help where we could. When I entered our bedroom, Bella looked up at me with a pained smile between breaths. She looked huge, overly large for a typical pregnant woman. Considering Bella's large body was scaled up in her true form, that meant that the baby she was giving birth to would be a giant too.
Bella's labor went on for sixteen hours, which I was told was fairly typical for a first birth by the midwife. It was good that we specifically chose a midwife who wasn't a succubus for this birth, because near the end, the pain that all of us were sharing with Bella was immense, and it left all of us nearly useless to help in the final stages. Healer Melanie's succubus assistant had helped her with births before, but since it was Bella this time, one of the most powerful succubi behind myself, she was rendered nearly useless as well.
"She's crowning," Melanie said. "Keep pushing! Oh, she's a big one. You're nearly there, keep going!"
All I could do for the final half bell was watch since I was mirroring Bella's phantom pain. The only upside was that it didn't echo back and forth through the bond the way that orgasms sometimes did. It would have been horrifying for this crippling pain to be intensified when it was already this bad. It felt like Bella's entire pelvis was rearranging, opening far wider than a normal woman's would because of her body's natural elasticity and shapeshifting ability. The baby was gigantic by human standards, but her body was managing it.
Bella squeezed my hand with a strength that would have crushed a normal person in my old world. My strength and vitality were significantly higher than Bella's though, so I was able to withstand it without any trouble. Anything that made things easier for her was good, and considering I was sharing some of her pain, I couldn't do much else right now either. I looked over at Mimi on the other side. She was holding Bella's other hand. Her eyes were crinkled in the same pain that I was feeling, but she was smiling warmly down at Bella as she went through the final stages of birth.
With a splash of fluid and blood, Healer Melanie pulled the baby from Bella and moved to cut the umbilical cord. As expected, our daughter was large. Her body looked a lot more developed than was typical for a human baby, and was already covered in fur and short hair. The midwife cleared the baby's lungs of the residual amniotic fluid before handing the toddler-sized infant off to be cleaned while she cleaned up Bella and gave her some final healing to recover from the painful ordeal.
A few minutes later, one of Healer Melanie's assistants handed Bella the cleaned-up baby. She was beautiful. She looked like a deer beastkin with a long spade-tipped tail, bright pink eyes like her mother, and tiny horns in the same place mine grew from. Our daughter latched onto Bella's nipple and began to drink while Bella cradled her with a relieved smile on her face. The baby stared up at her mother as she drank her milk with curious and intelligent eyes. Her long tail curled around Bella's wrist, and her hands awkwardly opened and closed.
I teared up as I watched our baby nurse from her mother. The sight of my first lover and our child was something I would remember for the rest of my life. I have always been on the fence about having children, but seeing the two of them together warmed my heart in a way that I can't explain. I'm so happy.
"Did you decide a name for her, yet?" Melanie asked warmly.
Bella ran her fingers through the baby girl's short hair with a wide tired smile on her face. "We've decided to name her Ashe, to symbolize protection and healing."
Melanie nodded. "A beautiful name for a beautiful girl."
While the midwife and her assistants packed everything and cleaned themselves up, Bella began to doze off after the long birth. It had been around three in the afternoon when Bella went into labor, and after sixteen hours, the baby was born at around seven am. Everyone felt fatigued by the birth, since a lot of the pain and stress of the situation bled into us. Not that it stopped everyone from wanting to take turns holding baby Ashe once she had finished her first feeding.
When the baby finally lost interest in Bella's nipple, I picked up my daughter and held her against me. Ashe looked up at me with her pretty pink eyes and smiled at me. I trailed a finger across one of her rounded stubby horns, happy that it hadn't caused an issue during the birth. Teasing the little horn made my little girl laugh, and her small hands tried to grab my horns. I chuckled and let her touch them. The curious baby seemed fascinated by their unique texture. When she got bored of grabbing my horn, I gave her a little kiss on the forehead before handing the baby to Mimi, who looked like she was going to explode if she didn't get to hold the baby next. My heart felt like it would burst from the emotions all of us were sharing. Pure love. A rare form of mana began to glow around us that I've only seen a few times before, one that I've begun to associate with affection, or maybe love magic, as corny as the idea felt.
Mimi looked a lot like Ashe since her humanoid form had been modeled on a mixture of all of us, and it was clear that the baby was just as interested in her. She ran her fingers through Mimi's soft golden fur and reached up to touch Mimi's thinner horns and long cat ears. Despite being poked and prodded, Mimi looked happy to let the baby explore, and didn't even flinch when the baby poked her in the eye. The audience, including myself, winced when it happened though, even if Mimi hadn't been bothered by it.
After a few minutes, Mimi reluctantly handed the baby to Morrigan next, who looked excited to hold her too. While Morrigan was playing with the baby, Nelly pulled me aside.
"What's wrong?" I asked, worriedly.
Nelly shook her head, but kept her voice somewhat low. "Nothing's wrong, but since you asked me earlier, I used some of my magic to examine the baby. I don't think she's a succubus."
I furrowed my brows. "What do you mean?"
Scratching her head awkwardly, she continued, "She's not connected to the bond, and she isn't absorbing magic the same way that we do. Her body is absorbing some of the magic from Bella's breastmilk, but watch, she's not absorbing the ambient mana that we're giving off from our emotions."
I turned to look after shifting my eyes to true succubus eyes, and sure enough, she wasn't absorbing or sharing any of the nearby mana that we were creating.
"But she looks like a succubus..." I said.
"She does. But we were wondering what would happen to a baby succubus if they weren't sexually mature enough to gather lust mana. You said that it would be strange and perverse for a baby succubus to have to depend on sex, and I think this is the answer to that. She doesn't seem to absorb any mana ambiently the way that we do. Maybe she'll change into a true succubus when she gets older, but I don't think she is one now, not in the usual sense," Nelly said.
I nodded. "Right. Okay, that's good then. For now, we'll call our children Lilim to differentiate them from succubi, and we'll watch her as she grows up to see if she becomes a succubus naturally, or if our children are different from us."
"Why Lilim?" Nelly asked.
I hesitated. "It's something from my old world. Lilim were the mythological daughters of the mythological Lilith, the original succubus."
Nelly nodded. "That makes sense. I'll stay here today and continue watching over Bella and the baby. It's almost the first bell. Is everyone going to go to work today?"
I glanced at my friends, still fussing over the new baby. "I don't think anyone will be able to focus today, and I think I'd rather just spend time with Bella, Ashe, and everyone else right now."
"I would be happy to babysit the new baby whenever you need it. Bella will probably be focused on the new baby for a while before she goes back to work, but I am more than happy to help out if she needs to get out of the house," Nelly offered.
I smiled. "I'll keep that in mind. Thanks, Nelly."
"You're welcome, of course. It wouldn't be the first time I've helped take care of a baby, but this time I'm doing it by choice," she said with a warm smile.
After that, the two of us drifted back to the group and continued playing with the new baby until she got tired. After our sheets were changed, all of us got undressed so we could slip into the bed together. I gently placed Ashe back into Bella's arms before cuddling in next to her. Bella had been in and out of consciousness as she recovered from the exhausting labor, but she was more than happy to dote on little Ashe each time she was awake again. She smiled down at Ashe as the baby suckled at her breast and dozed off again as the hungry baby continued to drink.
I was a mother now. Or a father? Well... a mother now, either way. It all felt surreal. I traced my fingers through the fur of my sleeping daughter. The first of at least four children I would have with Bella. Likely the first of many children I would have with my growing family, based on the way that the others were looking at little Ashe. I felt so warm inside. The strong emotions were flooding all of us with a protective love I had never experienced before. I loved all of them so much. I love my baby Ashe so much.
I will do anything to protect my family.