Four months later, I was pregnant again, and the visions stopped. They did not abate, but simply and abruptly ceased. I had completed everything I was driven to do, and was allowed to know no more. I returned to Stratholme in the beginning, but as the time to welcome Baudoin's son into the world drew near, I yearned for a home to call my own, and asked to be sent home to Brill. As Brill was close to Lordaeron, and considered safe, Uther agreed readily. Of course, history would tell a reader that Brill was not the safest place to be that season…but I was blind to that.
I birthed my second, and last, at my family's estates near Brill. Bayard was, as foreseen, as dark as Anelas was fair, a sturdy, heavy baby. He had his father's brandy hazel eyes and my hair. He was so beautiful…and his father radiated joy. There were no terms, no documents, and no confrontations. It was so simple, no politics, no other woman. No king came after his birth, only Uther with a wide smile. Again, a glorious time, if fleeting. When my mother heard I had taken up residence at the estates again, she returned, and I felt for her. The estates were in immaculate order, of course, under Uther's handling, but I was hardly in immaculate order myself. I'd born two children in just over a year….married neither of their fathers. Baudoin was in Lordaeron, close but not with me, and he would not be worthy in her eyes anyway. Anelas sat on the rug next to me, amusing himself by trying to stack colorful blocks while I nursed his new brother. There was so much of Baudoin in this one, exactly as there was so much of Arthas in Anelas… My sons were reflections of their fathers…
"Clarimonde."
"My mother." Bayard opened his eyes at my voice, and Anelas glanced over his shoulder at the newcomer, while I steeled myself for the inevitable confrontation.
"I heard…that you are in residence."
"For now." I smoothed the baby's dark hair, and his eyes fell closed again. So beautiful… "I will return to Stratholme in due time."
"Have you lost your mind?" She demanded, and I almost laughed. She sounded so much like Uther had when I told him I was expecting Anelas… and that was a laughable correlation. Uther and my mother….
"How so?" Bayard had fed enough, and was well on his way to sleep, a heavy limp weight on my chest.
"You have children…but no husband. Now, none will marry you."
I shrugged. I had everything I needed, Uther, Arthas, Baudoin, my children, my Order. There was no need to marry. Anelas was Arthas's heir, and Bayard mine. "No need for it." I stated. "My sons, my heirs. Kieran and Bayard De Nemesio."
She shrank visibly. "You have sons." She murmured, shaking her head. "Kieran…. Why?"
At the sound of the only name he'd ever heard used as his own, Anelas stared at her. When she proved to be no more interesting than calling his name, he returned to stacking. "Your father will kill you." She stated, regaining some strength.
"My father is in jail." I pointed out the obvious, and she shrugged, coming into the light. Lordaeron, or perhaps, freedom from my father, had been kind to her. She looked younger, less pained than I was accustomed to, I could see a shadow of myself in her now. "And I'd like to see him try." I might not be a paragon, such as Uther, Baudoin, or Arthas, but I was still a paladin. More than competent and I had few doubts I could take my father in fair combat, or knowing him, foul combat.
"He'll be paroled eventually. The King will not hold him forever."
That was a truth, and more of a truth with Anelas's birth. Those debts had been forgiven, and Terenas would not turn my father's incarceration into a death sentence. "So?" I asked. "The lands remain mine no matter what."
