Umærium: A Parallel World | ✔

Chapter Three

Joy - PARTYNEXTDOOR

~Asaíra~

I felt sticky and immensely dirty, yet at the same time, I felt numb to the touch. But I didn't care. That horrible experience was over. A series of flashbacks to the graphic scene of blood everywhere and the excruciating pain from my spine. How do women do this? I thought with my eyes squeezed shut. My eyes fluttered open. 

That all ended when I heard her sweet cries. It turned into the best experience yet. But I was exhausted. The nurse had injected me with some liquid unknown to me, almost draining my stamina. I still had enough strength to turn my head to the right and look out into the wide balcony from where I laid.

I watched as the great ball of fire rose in the sky. It breathed light into our world. Umærium held a ceremony for it twice a revolution to thank it for the energy it provided our systems with. They called it the great Asar. Most of our modern structures were Asar-powered, which meant things went faster during the day than the night. The people believed the night was sacred and that physical energy was not to be wasted at that time. The three moons didn't provide as much power as Asar. I shook my head. This wasn't what I wanted to think about.

I was longing to hold her, and nothing else. 

The soft thuds of bare feet patting against the marble floors brought my attention back to the present room. I stared Läera down intensely as she approached me. Her face broke into smiles as she very carefully sat close to where my head laid on the bed.

"Where is she?" I asked once she remained silent. I remembered her cries when she was born that filled the whole room. And I remembered tears of joy that rolled down to my cheeks. 

Läera kept her silence and began stroking my hair. I frowned at her behaviour and immediately tensed once I assumed what was about to follow. "She didn't make it, did she?" Läera's eyes snapped from my hair to my face immediately with a wild expression.

"Asaíra." She grimaced. "She's fine. Why would you think that?" I licked my lips nervously and turned my head back to the balcony. Whatever procedures the servants used on me still had its effect. Every little movement I tried to accomplish left me gasping, or extremely tired. I couldn't even get off the bed. At least the pain was over. Läera resumed stroking my hair.  

"Your mom said you named her Sabaire." I smiled to myself. "After your grandmother." A wondrous grandmother, I thought. Someone I'd want her to look up to. Someone I'd want her to meet someday. "But she doesn't have our eyes."

I whipped my head to face Läera. Her face was placid, and her violet eyes seemed all too dark.

"What?" I gasped. I dreaded something like this would happen, knowing it would give her a hard life in Umærium. My parents could have forced me to put her up for adoption. Right then and there, I felt hopeless. I didn't know what Sabaire's fate was at this point.

"She doesn't have his eyes either," she smiled weakly. I raised a brow. Something was off about the way Läera was acting. She seemed to almost be in a trance. "It's some colour we've never seen before, at least not in a long time." She turned to pick up a brush from the table near the bed and proceeded to slowly pass the bristles through my straight, platinum hair. This was usually soothing but I began to grow restless.

"Can I see her?" I asked hopefully. It was becoming clear that getting to meet Sabaire might take a while.

"No. Not yet. The Supreme Leaders have to bless her." I looked up sullenly. By that, she meant the King and Queen. What were they to think of the child? I was supposed to marry their son after all.