Side Story: Esmeralda

*** Esmeralda ***

"You're doing well, Quintella," I say. I'm happy she went into labor between the wars. Not all my wives are great for fighting, but all of them can fight, so she would've just had Lorelei to help her through this. And that would not be a great situation. Lorelei can be nice, but she struggles with empathy. I should've let a different wife get pregnant by Alzi. That was not a good first impression of me using our deal. And then Alzi went and got the maid pregnant, too, really making us look bad. She's too kind to others.

I hate that we're stronger at night. It's so hard to be there for others when most of my Skills require the sun to be down. Though I think it would've been better for me to just volunteer some wives to be dedicated to her defense if that was all Elora was going to give her. My wives could've stopped that pathetic kidnapping, even on the summer solstice at noon.

"Dear? Baby?" Quintella begs.

"Sorry," I say. "You're close; a few more pushes should do it. We'll have to find time to get to Alzi. This upcoming war is going to make things strange, but let's get the baby out and then worry about all this later. I'm going to be a mother. My wives are having kids. Sorry. This isn't helpful. Push."

"Aaaah!" Quintella shouts.

"I have her," I say. "I have her. She's so pretty. She has our eyes. I- Is she? Here, see if she wants your nipple. You're lactating, right?"

"Yes, I took the potion," Quintella says. "I didn't know they would work."

"I know," I say. "I'm so nervous. I've wanted this for so long. Thank you. I know how scary this has been for you. Thank you. I love you, dear."

"I love you too," Quintella says. Carefully, she takes the baby and offers her a nipple. I know babies don't always... There's more that needs to come out. Shit. I'm too nervous. Maybe it would've been better for it to just be Lorelei here. She wouldn't be getting distracted.

"There's so much to do," I say.

...

A bit embarrassing, but we have everything figured out now. The baby accepts milk, even happily drinks it, but offer her a neck and she'll try to clamp down. She doesn't have the teeth needed to break the skin, but she'll happily suck my finger if I cut it for her.

A vampire that was born naturally.

Now, how do we test if sunlight is fine for her without hurting her? We need to know, but there isn't a good way to test it.

"Sunlight," I say. This baby has made me stupid!

"We can wait," Quintella says. "We just have to have Alzi here, and we have the rune to transfer pain. Alzi can heal our kid, and I'll take the pain. Our kid won't know that anything happened. Just a small spot through all the filters we have, and just for a second. That's all we need. We should repeat the test with the others to make sure that it's the same for all our kids."

"Yes, I suppose that is all we can do," I say. First, we figure that out, and then we can figure out how to get Alzi some time with her. Maybe we can be an example for others to also give Alzi time with the other kids she's graciously, no, been forced to give out. And then I just have to be careful to get a few of my wives pregnant every couple of years so we can all be happy. "You've made a beautiful child. Just as expected from my wives."

"Dear, we both know Alzi did that," Quintella says. "I'm tired."

"Of course," I say. "I'll watch over you. Relax. You've earned it."