Stygian Fortress....
"Mama! Mama! Look what dada gave."
Nemesis excitedly ran into the office where Luciana sat studying the pile of documents on the desk.
He tried to get her to look at the tiny wolf carved of wood.
Mina tried to persuade him to be patient. However his excitement being at its prime made him desperate.
Luciana sighed and finally looked his way and smiled.
"My child, what makes you so excited?" She asked.
He raised his small hands and showed him the carved wolf that was the size of his little palm.
"Dada made it!" He jumped around and wet back to show it off to Mina.
"He made it?" She was surprised by a talent unknown to her.
"It's wonderful." Luciana looked at the small piece of woodwork that had a lot of care put into making it.
"I couldn't agree more milady! You saw the stained glass windows around the fortress right?"
Luciana nodded.
"And the wall paintings hung in master's bedroom. And the sculpture of Leo in the grandhall, they are all made by master."
She bragged about the artworks and smithing that Erebus did in his spare time apart from hunting and resting.
"But ingredients for paints are rare around here. And they are costly when merchants sell them. So he uses whatever is in hand. Brother knows better."
She could imagine Jafar bragging about his talents shamelessly.
"Did you thank your father?"
He nodded obediently and resumed back to his play.
"Be careful not to hurt yourself. And no chewing on your toy."
She warned him and retired to her place.
"Mina can you please ask the chef to make some refreshments?"
"Right away milady!"
She beamed and left quickly.
Luciana watched him play and run around the office while her mind still went over the meeting she had with Lilith.
The day before Lilith talked with Derran and her assumption seemed valid.
"My lady...your case seems a little special." She told her about her pregnancy.
"Special? Is it bad news?" Erebus sat beside Luciana looked both curious and concerned.
"I am not sure about your ladyship's condition. And I can't guarantee that I can say anything from my past experiences as a midwife." She hesitantly spoke up and took a brief glance at Erebus.
" It's alright. Please tell me about it."
Lilith sighed and slowly began to relay her information on her past experiences.
"So a child born between a human and a demon is naturally weak?"
"Under certain occasions the child can be healthy. Since both of you are demons, I see no problem to it. But my lord you are half demon so the fate of the child can't be decided beforehand."
"Are you implying that it's uncertain whether the child is born weak or healthy?"
He raised a question fearing that they wouldn't get an answer they are looking for.
"Unfortunately, I apologize for lack of knowledge. A human female originally starts feeling sickness in her third month. For demons it differs. However in her ladyship's case she started to feel it right after one week. Which isn't normal. I hope you understand that you will need to be prepared for any kind of circumstances to occur."
The conversation didn't go well. She could only pray for the child's safe birth. Lilith didn't know that she was an Amanécerian.
Erebus had been trying to look for a better expert but he had no luck.
She also recalled what Jafar told about his sickly nephew and his disease.
The cure was hard to find.
"Is there no book that has knowledge about medicines and plants?"
She pondered over various ways knowing that the child had part demon blood.
"A book on plants." She got up from the chair and realized that the room had become silent.
Nemesis was fast asleep on the couch near the hearth. She picked up the fur blanket and covered him up to keep him warm.
She strode to the bookshelf that reached the ceiling.
She was frustrated that this place had no library.
The books were hardly in good condition. Most shelves were occupied with old documents bound together and scrolls made of papyrus and leather.
She picked a book with old brown leather cover that was faded away.
The letters engraved said, "Easy ways to learn ancient Wahrheiti symbols."
She opened the book with nearly half the pages falling apart.
She saw ink blots and words and symbols circled and scribbled.
She wondered who could have studied so much that made the book into such poor state.
She recollected the pages and put it on the desk.
She looked for other books. Some were about politics and history. Some about war tactics of ancient Wahrheit. A few that looked in more prim condition than the others had green cover that read culture of Wahrheit and geography.
She even searched up the bonded pages for any clue on medicine.
There was no hope.
"I'm sure the basement had more books than here." She muttered tired of her failed scavenge attempts.
She suddenly remembered the diary she saw in the basement.
Her mother had left it with Erebus a token for his help to her.
She hurried out of the office and nearly crashed into Erebus who instinctively caught her preventing her accident.
"What made you run in such a hurry?"
"Oh! It's just I was looking for some medical records. So I rushed out to ask someone to bring down the documents since there is no ladder."
"Medical records?"
"Just in case. Lilith told us to be prepared for anything. And I want to study about it. It could be beneficial for the domain."
He thought for a moment and entered his office. He suddenly came out with look devastated.
Luciana became more conscious over his behavior.
"I-is something wrong?" She asked.
"My workplace....its been moved away!" He exclaimed.
"Moved?" Luciana joined him to look if there was something out of ordinary.
"Where did the pile of papers go?"
"They are still there." She realized that the prim and properly organized office was too much for him to handle.
She sighed and explained him that Mina along with some other maids had cleaned the study.
"I took in charge of organizing the books and documents with Mina. It will be easier to find them if they are properly organized and categorized based on the subject of focus."
He felt like the earth would split beneath him that instant.
"But i didn't get to organize the top shelves. I can't reach them. And Mina insisted that I should refrain from overworking my body."
She smiled and suddenly recalled that she had to get the diary from the bedchambers.
She left him gawking at the clean and we'll organized room.
Mina suddenly appeared with a tray of refreshments and asked what he was doing.
Nemesis suddenly woke up and looked around and found that Luciana was nowhere around. His sudden wailing startled them both as they tried to quiet him down.