Life in the castle proceeded like normal; everything was fine except for the few maids panicking outside of Arad’s room, running all around to prepare for the evening.
The news didn’t even get out of the hallway, let alone out of the private quarter. At this mont, not all of Arad’s wives knew what was coming soon.
But what could the maids do? None of them knew Linda, let alone had any idea about how they could help a drakaina. They were pretty sure that human won aren’t supposed to get pregnant and give birth within a day.
They tried asking her, but the aloof Linda ignored them imdiately, saying that she was busy. Saying that, she was only sitting on the bed, looking at the mirror in front of her, without doing anything. It took a lot of effort from the maids to bathe and dress her.
The other drakainas and Arad had already taken a bath and left for their busy lives, leaving the maids here to deal with Linda. The poor maids hoped that at least one of the drakaina would remain here to give advice, but they were out of luck.
One of them even tracked Gamond away to ask directly for assistance, but the answer she got was more terrifying than helpful.
Gamond told them Linda would be fine on her own. For elders, popping an egg should be as easy as a chicken laying an egg. Linda should just push it out when the ti cos.
The maids, of course, couldn’t accept that.
"Lady Linda, are you sure you’ll be fine. Complications are always a possibility." One of the maids, the one who Isdis just assigned for Linda, asked with a worried face.
Linda looked at her, "You can’t help, the ones who could are ti dragons. Besides, complications already happened fifty years ago." For so reason, the maid felt a cold shiver run down her spine. Hearing Linda’s words poked sothing deep at the back of her head, bringing an image of death and the oppression of ti into her mind. She could imagine herself growing old and dying just by looking at Linda’s eyes.
"What kind of complications are you talking about?" The maid asked with a shaky voice, but Linda just turned to look at the mirror.
"Ti dragons’ pregnancy takes a hundred years. Since yesterday, over fifty years have passed. The first complication happened just eight months in, when the oppression of ti took hold on the poor little one."
The maids understood nothing of what she was saying. The very concept of fifty years passing by since yesterday made no sense; that was just half a day, not half a century.
"So? What should we do?" One of the maids stood in front of her and asked with a stern face.
"Don’t touch , because I’ll have to slow ti. Don’t let Luminous in the room because she’ll blind . Find a decent crib and several sheets and clothes, simple ones." She looked at one of the maids, lifted her hand, and a crystal quartz the size of an apple appeared.
"Find Arad and get a piece of obsidian from him. Then take both to a skilled jeweler. I can sll the Kobolds beneath the castle working their days away. Get them to make jewelry from them; earrings, necklaces, bracelets, and anklets."
She threw the massive crystal of quartz at one of those maids. The maid barely managed to catch it, so she looked back at Linda. "We’re expecting a girl?"
"That I don’t know." Linda shook her head.
The maids looked at each other, then took the quartz crystal away. The maid who carried it ran across the hallways, with each step, she felt stranger and stranger.
She had back pain in the past two days, but that has already faded away since she started running. Her body felt lighter, and her blood flew hotter. She didn’t even climb the stairs down one by one, and instead jumped over them three at a ti.
When the maid arrived at the door of the private quarter and tried to get out, the ard vampire paladin there stared at her for a second. "You... Yeah. You’re getting out?"
"Yes, got an urgent matter. Open the door."
The paladin shrugged and opened the door, "Just calm down a bit. You look a bit too excited."
"Thank you!" The maid jumped out and bolted, running like an arrow. The paladin, on the other hand, sighed and looked at her, "Was she always like that?"
When the maid arrived at the basent and t the Kobold’s elder to give him the crystal, he almost called the guards on her. He looked both scared and confused by her presence, but quickly recognized her as this wasn’t her first ti down there.
"Put that thing on the table and take a rest, you look... thin." He pointed at a mirror and threw her a towel before going in to bring his tools to appraise the quartz crystal.
As he was inside, he heard the maid screaming at the top of her lungs. "WHO!"
He rushed out, only to find her staring at the mirror with a terrified face, patting her face, chest, and back. No one could tell; they could only sense that sothing was off, but she could tell the mont she saw her face reflected in the old dusty window.
She had beco younger, from twenty-six years old to what looked like twenty or nineteen. She had only held the crystal for six minutes, and that was enough to drop her six years.
"Calm down! What’s going on? You lost weight, that’s a good thing, unless you’re sick." He tried to talk to her, but she kept screaming, "NO! I... I beca younger!"
"Younger?" The old Kobold turned back to the crystal and looked closer at it, his eyes opening wide. "By the gods! Where did you find this thing?"
She looked back at him, "Queen Linda, a drakaina, one of the Emperor’s new wives. She is giving birth soon and wanted you to make jewelry for the child from that crystal, and from an obsidian that the Emperor would provide soon."
The old Kobold shook his head, "Is he picking them from trees? But... I won’t bla him for this one." He used two sticks to pick the crystal and push it back. "That thing is full to the brim with ti magic, touch it and it’ll make you younger."
The maid took a few steps back, "Wait! If I held it for any longer, what would’ve happened?"
The elderly Kobold looked at her with glowing eyes, "Worst case, it’ll send right back to your father’s balls. This isn’t sothing mortal should hold or see, a crystal of raw power that even the gods should fear. Just what kind of horror had the Emperor touched?"
"From what I heard, she is a shadow ti drakaina that surpassed twilight like Gamond did."
The Kobold looked back at the crystal, seeing a fly land on it. The mont the fly touched the crystal, it evaporated into absolute nothing.
At that mont, another maid rushed in, this one carrying a black shard of dark glass. "The Emperor gave this."
She put the obsidian shard on the table and looked at the maid who ca before her, "You...Lia? No..."
Lia nodded, "It’s ... That crystal there made younger." She pointed at the quartz crystal with a shaking finger.
"What?" The other maid, nad Polly, gasped and looked at the quartz, "Wait! Really, I knew the Emperor and his wives were powerful... but were they hiding this gem?" She reached and touched the crystal with her finger, hoping to get younger. She was just twenty-three years old, but she didn’t mind turning back to twenty.
At that mont, Polly walked through the door with a black shard of dark glass. "The Emperor gave this."
She put the obsidian shard on the table and looked at the maid... at Lia, "Wait, what am I doing?"
The Kobold walked between the two maids. "Don’t touch them again. They are dangerous."
While the first maid, Lia, got younger upon touching the quartz crystal, the other maid, Polly, got rewinded in ti. This ans the effect differs from one person to another, which at least makes the quartz crystal a deadly item.
He rolled his sleeves and shooed the maids away, "Now, leave! I need to concentrate." He looked at the two quartz and obsidian with gleaming eyes.
As he kicked the maids out, the elderly Koblod craftsman giggled, his crocodile jawline clicked, and his scales rustled. "In the end, it was all worth it."
He walked past the table and punched a brick that was sticking out of the wall, pushing it back and activating a massive chanism. A gate opened in the wall, leading deeper underground to where the Kobolds lived, the burning and living mine of his people.
He reached back and grabbed the two gems, feeling a rush of power jolting his mind. "It’s ti to pour all of my life into sothing."
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