The Wizard

Heir

The conversation on the ride back to the lighthouse was anything but casual. Octavius took the lead and the bodyguards brought up the rear, leaving Mevner and Clotilde space to talk and trot side by side. Before they'd even left the city center, the Duchess leaned over to her childhood friend and whispered into his ear.

"You have to impregnate me." 

Mevner's mind was derailed from its course of compiling a list of reasons why the Duchess shouldn't go on this adventure with them. 

"What?!" As if he didn't hear her correctly or as if his mind wasn't suddenly calculating something more controlled by hormones. 

"The Duke is dead, the nobility is scrambling for power, and the General has assumed control. It is only my lie that I am pregnant with the Duke's child that is keeping me from being hurled into the sea."

"Again, what?" 

"Octavius has no intention of joining you either. He is here to be convinced by you that I am carrying a son. I also promised that you could see into my belly and confirm the truth." 

A third 'what?' was hanging on Mevner's lips. His hand unconsciously fiddled with the Knowing Diamond deep in his coat pocket. In his mind, he asked if she was pregnant. The gem went cold. He asked if he could give her a son and it became warm. He pulled the diamond out of his pocket and held his palm open toward the Duchess. The diamond was a rainbow of colors.

At the same moment, a gathering of Verina Luki survivors let out a cheer for the heroes that would bring justice to the dragon and the evil sorcerer who destroyed their city. 

"Three cheers for the wizard!"

" ...Huzzah! ...Huzzah! ...Huzzah! " shouted the crowd whose cheers and clapping ushered them out of town. 

Clotilde looked at the diamond with a sense of joy and a grin that amplified it. Octavius had also looked back at that very moment. 

"That does seem to be a good sign for the city of Luki!" He was born and raised to defend the nobility and the Duke was like a second father to him; her son would be like a little brother.

"I'll have to do more tests tonight to look into the Duke's future. As I said before, no one's fate is manifest, but the diamond doesn't lie." This pleased the General's son to no end and he joined the townsfolk in their cheers.

When they reached the lighthouse, Øregård and Mr. Grimble were hammering away at some project in a makeshift forge in the basement and yelled from below that they would be ready come morning. Heat rose up through the tower causing a comfortable sleep-inducing vibe as the guests sat down to dinner. 

Mevner's gestured Sleep spell sent Octavious off to Melock's room and Bill passed out right at the table, face down and snoring. It took a sleeping potion and a second bottle of wine to knock out Pathos de Martín. She proved to be rather resistant to magic, but soon excused herself and dozed off in Mevner's bed. 

Mevner and Clotilde adjourned to the laboratory. Mevner lit candles, cleared the table, and covered it with a large woolen blanket. Then he piled on books and began reading. 

"I guess I should have expected this." Clotilde took off her clothes and climbed up on the table. "I can show you what to do."

She looked at him like a woman far more mature than he. Her body was no longer the skinny boyish figure of Mevner's childhood experience. She was as curved and fertile as any Venus of Willendorf imaginable. 

He looked up momentarily from the heavy volume he was studying. 

"While this isn't my first experience, this is my first time with the intent to mate. Considering the stakes are high and we only have until the morning, I want to get it right." He returned to reading. 

"Ok, now this is exactly what I expected from you." 

She patiently waited for him to read three whole books and when he looked up and smiled, she made her move. 

Throughout the night Mevner channeled his newfound anatomy skills in combination with True Vision and Telekinesis to move three different eggs from two different ovaries down her fallopian tubes to await his genetic material in the womb. Their first two attempts failed to convince the Knowing Diamond but the third time was the charm. 

All the while he focused his mind, body, and soul (or you might say astral projection) on the XY chromosome combination. It was a level beyond his vision and would require Melock's more otherworldly machinery to control. This time, however, they got lucky.

The sounds of dull hammering filled the tower throughout the night. 

When the light of dawn crept down the stairs, an exhausted Mevner awoke to Clotilde's charming smile. Her orange curls caste a radiant halo about her and she held the soft blue glowing diamond next to her chest. 

The gem was shown to Octavius.

"I will defend the Duke's heir with my life, Duchess. Now, let us return and trumpet the news that the line of Luki will live on. The city will be reborn!" 

It didn't take a truth serum to know he meant it. 

Clotilde's parting gift to Mevner was the service of her two bodyguards. The Duchess and the Wizard would keep the secret of their son and take it to their graves.