The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2

Chapter 4

Part 1

Chapter 4

The other gods there declined. Then Falgaroth and Visinniria were the first to take their leave, and the

rest quickly departed, most to prepare for their extended absence from the rest of the world.

Soon Mark and Talia were alone. Mark sat on the sand and leaned back on a sitting log, and Talia

curled up in his lap.

“So, what are your thoughts on the raising of children, my love?” Talia asked as she kissed him under

his chin.

“I’m not sure.” Mark replied as he absent-mindedly caressed her. “On the one hand, I’d like to raise

them as much like I was raised as we can. But on the other hand, I won’t lie to them, so they’re gonna

know about our regular life here, even if they’re not living it at the time. Knowing that they’re really

wealthy princes and princesses might make them less appreciative of a basic life than I was.”

“True. I also want to raise them much as I was raised, including as much training in wizardry and

magecraft as they’ll accept. They’ll have an idyllic twenty-four years with us in the time-bubble, I hope,

but after that, they’ll be out in the world with us during the war with the demons. I hope very much to

keep them out of combat completely, but in case we can’t and they have to fight, I want them as

prepared as we can possibly make them.”

“That’s some serious truth.” he nodded.

“So.” she said as she turned to face him, then caressed his chest. “How many shall we have?”

“Well, I’d like to have at least one boy and one girl. And I’d have been satisfied with having sixteen

years to raise them. I think I’m proof that we can raise kids to be fully mature and self-sufficient adults

by the time they’re sixteen. So that gives us at least eight tries to have a boy and a girl. If we get a boy

and a girl on the first two tries, we can wait a couple of years and see how it goes with them before we novelbin

decide if we’ll have any more.”

“That sounds good. Except that I don’t want to have more than four young children at once, and then

only if we can devote ourselves to parenting full-time. If I had to work at a full time occupation, I would

not want to have more than two young children at once. Don’t misunderstand; I plan to have dozens of

children with you over the centuries, but the first few years of a child’s life are so critical, and there are

only so many hours in a day. I once wondered how humans who have large families avoid attention-

starvation and neglect in their youngest, so I researched it. And the answer is; when a couple have

more than five children, the oldest ones do much of the child-rearing work with the younger ones.

Which I think is unfair to both groups, and less healthy for them as well.

“Almost all elven children are the only child in their household when they’re growing up. Elven couples

will usually wait until a child is completely grown and has left their parental home before they decide to

have another one. At least one parent is available to every child at every minute of the day or night,

always. When Dalia and I were born, Mother and Father gave up or delegated every duty but raising us

until we were fourteen, and only then did they gradually begin to add other responsibilities to their

schedules.

“As long as both of us devote ourselves to parenting as our only occupation, I’m fine with having four

young children at once. If they’re all boys or all girls, we’ll just have to try again after the nexus. Or

perhaps we’ll have time for another score of years in another time-bubble before then.”

“Okay, I’m fine with that.” Mark grinned and gave her a kiss. “And since much of our raising of children

will involve the teaching of magic, and the Alliance wants us to get better at that, everyone should be

fine with giving us another two months off in the real world over the next year. Particularly if our kids

turn out to be exceptionally capable.”

“Mmhm.” she agreed as she returned his kiss, kneeling up on his thighs for comfortable positioning.

She drew back a little and grinned.

“I'm going to be pregnant in less than three minutes from now.” she announced, and Translocated their

clothes two meters in the air and two meters to her right, where they flopped and fluttered to the ground

as she reached down to adjust him.

“Oh, I think it’ll take at least fifteen minutes longer than that!” he chuckled.

“It will not. I’ve learned your responses well enough to assure it, if I so choose. We can play some more

after I’m pregnant, to celebrate the occasion.”

As it turned out, she was right.