FOUR MONTHS LATER
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaarrgh!!!!!," The scream of Queen elowen Nightvale tore through the walls of the castle.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!!!!!!!!!," Her screams echoed again with more intensity as she was going into labour.
Pain really treats every creatures the same way.
"My Queen, please, you must breathe," one of the midwives urged, her voice trembling despite her effort to remain composed.
Elowen turned her head sharply, her pale face slick with sweat, dark strands of hair clinging stubbornly to her skin but before she could respond, another contraction seized her body tightening around her like an invisible vice, pulling, pressing, demanding more than she felt she had left to give.
Her fingers curled into the sheets beneath her, gripping tightly.
"I have been breathing," she snapped, though the words fractured into uneven gasps before they could fully carry her irritation, "for twenty-one months."
"You need to breath and push, your majesty. It is needed for the baby to come out," another midwife said.
"I'm tired.... I'm tired." Queen Elowen muttered as the labour pains were taking much toll on her.
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Vampire pregnancies were not gentle. They followed patterns, rhythms, expectations that had been observed and recorded over centuries.
Vampire pregnancies took only fifteen months, but queen Elowen has been pregnant for twenty one months which signifies that something is wrong.
Outside the delivery room, King Alaric Nightvale stood like a storm held in human form, his presence dominating the space even in stillness. His hands were clasped tightly behind his back, the tension in his posture betraying the restraint he forced upon himself, his silence far sharper than any shouted command.
"How much longer?" he demanded, his voice low but cutting cleanly .
No one answered immediately. "How much longer is my wife going to keep up with that excruciating pains?" he shouted.
No one answered as everyone feared the wrath of the vampire king that would come to them if they answered wrongly.
It was only king Alaric's personal servant that mustered up courage to respond to king's Alaric because he feared that the anger of the king might escalate as since the king has not gotten any response.
"Your....your.....your highness, the midwives are trying their best. They say the child will be a great one." he said trying to pacify the vampire's king anger.
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In the delivery room
Three midwives continued preaching the sermons of breathing during contractions and the value of continous pushing to queen Elowen as they were doing everything for queen Elowen to have a fast and safe delivery.
"Continue pushing, my queen," one midwife said.
"Keep breathing," another one uttered.
"Breath in a steady pace, my queen, it will help a lot"
Vida, the oldest midwife who had brought many children into the world, stood and stepped forward from where she sat observing everything and taking notes as she was instructed, her movements slow but deliberate, her age evident in the slight curve of her spine but not in the clarity of her gaze.
"The child… resists. It is not giving in" she said carefully.
Elowen let out a strained, humorless laugh that dissolved almost instantly into a cry of pain as another contraction surged through her, stronger than the last, forcing her body to arch against the bed as though pulled by unseen hands.
"Resists?" she echoed, breath uneven. "It has no right to resist me or not give in. I am the one doing all the work."
Vida did not smile. Instead she said,"checking the amount of energy surrounding the child, I sense that the child is very strange and would probably linger before it gives in,"
"I do not need lingering," Elowen hissed, her voice tightening with both pain and irritation. "I need this child out now."
Another contraction hit before anyone could respond. It was deeper and deeper.
It began as a tightening, a slow coiling sensation low in her body that built steadily, relentlessly, until it demanded everything from her, leaving no room for thought, no room for control, only the instinct to endure.
Her breathing weaken and she clenched her harder.
Her entire body responded, muscles tightening, pulling, pushing in ways she could not fully control.
"My Queen—breathe through it," another midwife urged, placing a steadying hand against her arm.
"I am breathing," Elowen snapped, though her breath came unevenly, sharp and shallow.
The pressure intensified in her womb with force.
Something inside her pushing downward, demanding release, stretching her body beyond what felt possible, beyond what felt survivable.
And then, the candles started flickering gently and violently as though something unseen was going through the room.
Vida noticed the candles flickering and the sudden change in the atmosphere immediately.
Her gaze lifted, scanned the room with a sudden sharpness, her expression tightened just slightly before she forced her attention back to the Queen.
"Push," she said firmly. Queen Elowen glared at her
"Fuck, this is to much. This child will kill me. ," she muttered, her voice uneven but edged and exhausted.
Another contraction surged through her.
It stole the air from her lungs, forced her body forward, demanded everything she had left and then more, leaving her trembling in its wake. The pressure built again, heavier now, more insistent
Her body responded instinctively, pushing, straining, fighting through the pain in a way that felt both entirely natural and entirely unbearable.
"Aaaaaaaaaaargh," Queen Elowen screams tore through the room again indicating the amount of pains she was facing.
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Outside the delivery room
Hearing his wife cries from pains, King Alaric, unable to take the cries of his wife anymore, began shouting commands at the guards standing at the doors of the delivery room to let him in, his composure cracking just enough to reveal the urgency beneath.
The guards standing at the doors of the delivery room did not move an inch to obey his command despite him being king, because they had earlier received orders from the midwives and queen not to allow any man into the room including the king himself.
Hearing the commotions and orders, Vida rushed outside and saw the king forcing himself into the room.
"Please, let me see my wife," King Alaric pleaded.
"I cannot bear hearing her cries while I move about comfortably. Please, let me see if she if she is okay," he said pleading to the Vida again.
But Vida raised her hand.
"Your Majesty, the queen is doing well and fine, but the commotion you caused is disrupting the process ," she said, her tone respectful but unyielding, "so, you must leave."
The room stilled.
Alaric stared at her, disbelief flickering across his features. "I am not leaving my queen."
"She is losing too much blood and we need disractions right now," the Vida responded.
That stopped him.
His gaze shifted back to the doors of the delivery room, and for a brief moment, fear surfaced in his expression.
His jaw tightened.
"If anything happens to her"
"Nothing will happen to her," Vida said with utmost certainty in her voice.
Reluctantly, with visible tension in every movement, king Alaric stepped back and left.
The doors closed behind him with a heavy thud.
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Elowen's breathing grew uneven, her strength wavering as the strain of the prolonged labor began to take its toll. Blood stained the sheets beneath her, dark against the fabric, a quiet but undeniable sign of how much her body had already endured.
"This is not right. She is losing so much blood" one of the human midwives whispered, her voice barely audible.
"Silence," Vida snapped, sharper now.
Her eyes were fixed on the Queen, but her thoughts were racing, moving through fragments of memory and knowledge she had once dismissed as myth.
"Push," she said again.
Elowen pushed again with Vida's command.
And this time, her efforts were fruitful.
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The air became immediately tensed. The candles flared and flickered through the room.
The pressure inside Elowen surged, overwhelming, consuming, demanding everything she had left.
And then, a cry split the room. The baby was born.
A sudden, overwhelming absence of pressure that left Elowen's body trembling in its wake, her breath uneven, her strength slipping through her fingers. She felt slightly relieved as her pains began to subside.
"It is a boy, your majesty. It is a boy" one of the midwives said, her voice trembling with exhaustion and relief.
Congratulations, my queen," the midwives all said in unison except Vida. She was staring and inspecting the child for any deformities.
Then her eyes caught something. She trembled slightly as she lifted the child into the light.
Her breath caught. "No…"
Queen Elowen forced her eyes open, her voice weak but sharp with demand. "What is it?"
She got no response, so she looked towards the Vida's direction and she saw why Vida reacted like that.
The child's eyes were dark blue. Vampires never had that eye colour. They only carried the traits for crimson, gold and black eye colour not dark blue.
His eyes were impossibly deep blue like the night sky. Elowen's breaths stilled and slowed .
"No." she muttered to herself.
Vampires never had that eye colour. They only carried the traits for crimson, gold and black eye colour not dark blue.
The old midwife swallowed. "I have heard about this before." All eyes in the room turned towards her.
"My grandmother gave me a book before she died," she said slowly. "A record of the species that existed before the Great Dystopia… and those that survived after."
No one interrupted.
"There was a species believed extinct," she continued. "The Blue Weavers."
The name settled heavily in the air. "They could manipulate unseen threads of existence itself. They are also necromancers"
Elowen's voice dropped. "They were slaughtered."
"Yes." Vida answered.
"By my ancestors." Elowen continued.
"Yes." Vida said.
"I thought the tales of those species is false." queen Elowen mumured to herself as she herself had once heard the tales of the blueweavers.
After Vida's explanation of the extinct species, the room plunged into silence as they were all wondering how the child's birth is possible.
Then, the child's eyes glowed.
Looking at the child's eye again, queen Elowen's expression hardened.
"This is a curse." she said loudly to the midwives.
"No," the human midwife said quickly. "It could be a gift—perhaps from the Oracle—"
"I did not ask for a gift." queen Elowen replied coldly.
Her gaze dropped to the child again. Fear filled her eyes for a moment then was immediately replaced by calculation.
"Bring me a black lens," she said.
The midwives froze suprised by the queen's decision.
"Now." queen Elowen commanded with a clear voice.