“I am ever more curious about what you wish to show us,” I said, less because I was hoping to get information out of Aesa and more because I wanted to disperse the odd mood that now clung to Alys. She wasn’t upset, exactly, but she was a little tense, and she was wearing an expression I didn’t quite like.

  My ruse had the intended effect. Alys suddenly looked up at her grandmother, like she had been startled awake.

  “I’m curious too, I guess,” she said.

  “Well, we are almost there, so you will have your curiosity quenched soon. Worry not. I believe both of you will enjoy what I have to show you, albeit in two very different ways.” Grandmother smirked. “Meanwhile, I have been wanting to ask: how is my great-grandchild doing? Are they still absorbing mana from their father?”

  The question startled me. I had gotten so used to the sensation that I didn’t even notice it anymore. I had adjusted so quickly, in fact, that I wondered if it was part of my fae nature. Grandmother had assured us that the process was perfectly normal for dragons and draconians, but I was woefully uninformed about what was normal with a fae pregnancy. For all I knew, the exact same process applied to fae as well, which was why the siphoning of my mana had been possible in the first place.

  “Hrm? What’s wrong, my child?”

  The worry in Aesa’s tone, and the mildly concerned look on Alys’ face, snapped me back into the present moment.

  “I apologize. I was merely reflecting on the significant deficiency in my knowledge.” Clearing my throat awkwardly, I decided to move on. “And… the pull on my mana is much weaker. I would say that it will be another day, two at the most, before our child stops drawing upon my mana.”

  “Excellent! That aligns with the typical length of the process. Now, you mentioned a deficiency in your learning?”

  Aesa was watching me closely as we walked. I should have known she wouldn’t let the subject drop.

  I understood Grandmother a bit better every day. By that point, I knew for certain that she would seek to correct every vulnerability and potential issue her descendants were facing, with prejudice and without delay.

  I could try to dodge the question or dissuade her, of course, but in this particular case, I saw no reason to do so beyond mild embarrassment.

  “I know next to nothing about the details of a fae pregnancy. I know the basics, obviously.” I glanced at Alys’ stomach, making her blush and Aeasa chuff in amusement. “But I don’t know whether the mana drain is something that I would have experienced with a full-blooded fae child as well.”

  “Hrm… I suppose I cannot blame your parents overmuch.” Grandmother turned to look ahead again, now that she wasn’t staring at me to ferret out any secrets I was potentially trying to hide. “From what I know of your kind, fae do not typically settle down as young as you have. They might get engaged at your age, or even married, but fae do not start bearing children until later in life.”

  That was true. Youthful marriages were not uncommon among fae, due to the formation of alliances. Likewise, fae lived so long that we eventually produced large numbers of children, with the Seasons being the most infamous examples.

  However, fae couples tended to wait a while before having their first child, preferring to ‘live for themselves’ for as long as possible. Even when their children were likely to be foisted off onto servants, most fae were rather allergic to any responsibility that wasn’t absolutely necessary. When I was still stuck with my family, I hadn’t considered children as something I would need to think about until I reached the age of one hundred, at least.

  My parents were a slight oddity, both for rushing into marriage and for having a child so soon afterwards. I simply hadn’t thought I would follow their example quite so thoroughly. Now if only I could pull off their achievements in full, and get approval for my marriage to Alys, that would be splendid!

  Then again, that would invariably come with a chain attached to my neck. One I would have to hand over willingly to Autumn.

  I sighed. “My parents would know about fae pregnancy at a young age. Of course, I do not have the ability to consult with them now.”

  While I tried to keep my voice neutral, it definitely came out more bitter and miserable than I had intended.

  Alys squeezed my hand. When I glanced at her, she offered me a look of such pure compassion and love that almost all the negative feelings were melted right out of my heart.

  Almost.

  A trace of frustration lingered. If our child was endangered in any way, simply because I hadn’t had a chance to learn something about their development, then there was a chance I would get a little… vengeful.

  And at least two individuals currently living in Swiftband had proven I could hang onto grudges just as well as any ‘normal’ fae.

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  “I will need to consult some individuals, and perhaps acquire a few books on the subject,” Grandmother mused. “But from what I do know, I believe fae go through some kind of similar process as dragons do upon the conception of a child. After all, you lot tend to be connected to your Houses and Courts rather tightly.”

  This was one very amusing understatement, yet it could not distract me from the worry that was beginning to gnaw at me. I absolutely loathed not knowing something that could impact our child, and potentially Alys, too.

  But, since I couldn’t do anything about it at the moment, I tried again to change the subject.

  “That is true. However, I was wondering —”

  My voice cut off. I stopped walking, dragging Alys to a halt as well. We had finally drawn close enough to our destination for me to see the clearing.

  The clearing which was filled with manchineel trees, each and every one positively glowing due to the flowers dotted all over it.

  Grandmother had been glancing back at me, so she caught the exact moment when wonder and shock bloomed across my face in equal measure. Alys was confused, if the soft noises that escaped her were any indication, but then she saw what I was staring at and froze.

  If the sight was a shock to me, then Alys must have been experiencing it twice over. After all, she had never visited the mutated manchineel groves in person, let alone seen them in all their newfound glory.

  The patterns the trees had inherited from the flowers blazed. The flowers themselves looked like miniature suns writ large over the entire clearing, adorning every tree in small clusters.

  “How…?” I breathed, unable even to finish my sentence.

  Grandmother looked smug, but a brief flicker of annoyance passed over her expression, too.

  “Not easily, I will tell you that much.” Her grousing was just like Alys’. She even tossed her head in the same way, as if beseeching the heavens for patience when it came to earthly stupidity.

  “But… the flowers were only growing in slowly! And how did you get them onto the other trees?!” I demanded, equal parts fascinated and annoyed that I hadn’t been there when she had managed that.

  Aesa merely smiled and stepped into the clearing. I spotted the instant the flowers’ aura latched onto her own, sending a small tremor through the air as the reaction catalyzed.

  Alys stepped forward also, gazing at the flowers with wide-eyed wonder. I almost wanted to hold her back, but I already knew the effect was in no way harmful. All the tests I had done suggested there was no way the flowers could bring her harm. The bloodline purification and strengthening they imparted would likely be beneficial to our unborn child, too.

  Unfortunately, not even Alys could sense our child’s mana well enough to be able to tell for certain, since it blended so much with her own. But Aesa had not shown any hint of worry, so I could only play along.

  Then something happened that briefly drove all other thoughts from my mind. When Alys dragged me in close enough, I felt the flowers latch onto me, as well.

  I had never experienced the sensation of my bloodline getting strengthened before. The shiver that raced up my spine, and the slight feeling of satisfaction that filled me, were both decidedly pleasant. I also noticed a slight uptick in the amount of mana our unborn child was drawing from me, but only because I was already paying attention to my body so closely.

  ““You told me all about your encounters with the spirits and the flowers’ properties,” Grandmother said, finally answering my question as she watched us explore. “And when I thought about the effects of the flowers, I thought they were odd. After all, why would the flower only draw on one of you, while strengthening the other? If it was, indeed, any sort of gift rather than pure chance?”

  That sent a completely different tingle racing down my spine.

  “So, I decided to test things. I wanted to know what would happen if the flowers were fed something other than poison. To that end, I offered them both my blood and my flames.” The dragoness shot me a toothy grin. “I think you’ll want to offer some of your own blood as well, my child, because the flowers accepted both.”

  “I… can do that,” I rasped.

  I was reeling in shock, on multiple fronts.

  First, because even with everything I had done, I still hadn’t found the perfect way to nurture the flowers. It took Aesa bleeding and breathing fire on them to achieve that, as evidenced by the fact that their effect now extended to me, as well.

  Second, if I had any lingering doubts that the deer had produced the flower with both Alys and me in mind, then those doubts were now thoroughly squashed. This couldn’t have been achieved through anything but purposeful design.

  Which meant the two spirits definitely had some sort of scheme in the works.

  I felt faintly ill that they were anywhere near my pregnant mate, benevolent gift or not.

  With an effort, I kept myself from overreacting in wildly unwise ways. Such as, perhaps, asking Alys and her parents if they really thought it was a horrible idea for all of us to hide in Aesa’s lair.

  Better to focus on the details of what Aesa had done, first.

  “How did you spread them to the other trees?” I asked again. “Surely, they resisted your efforts to uproot them?”

  “I… didn’t do that?” Aesa tilted her head, reminding me forcibly of both Alys and Amara. “I simply fed them copious amounts of my blood and fire. I did the latter very carefully, mind. The flowers are surprisingly resistant to it, though not immune, but the trees are not.”

  I looked towards the first of the trees I had grafted the flowers onto. I noticed a few small scorch marks lingering on the bark. I was willing to bet that even those were a result of Aesa testing things, rather than mistakes, knowing the kind of control Alys had of her own flames.

  I said nothing as I pulled my dragoness over to one of the trees, glaring at it all the while.

  Just like those first few flowers which I hadn’t transplanted myself had done, the plants had pushed their way out of the tree’s poison veins, growing from the inside out. That made sense, since I knew the branching flowers were still connected by their roots to the original plant.

  Yet for them to reach the other mutated manchineel trees made absolutely no sense, unless the trees had changed far more than I thought.

  Hesitating, but feeling the need to know, I reached out and laid a hand on the tree. Ever so slowly, my mana seeped into the plant I had originally brought to life, creeping down its roots. I didn’t let myself go deep enough to encounter that presence again, but even so, I thought I felt a spike of amusement brush against my senses.

  My face scrunched up when the web of roots led me right to the nearby manchineel trees. I felt the urge to curse.

  Somehow, and I knew exactly who was to blame for the change, all of the trees were now merged together through their roots. They supported each other in a tightly interwoven system. Conveniently, removing one from the clearing would now be much, much harder, if not outright impossible.

  I truly despised dealing with ancient, scheming spirits.

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