Under the Light of the World at War: Early Chapter 55

“-orah, Dorah wake up.”

“Wha-?” I blinked staring up at the ceiling and at Mama hovering over me. Papa was there too hovering, looking a bit shell shocked. “Mama-Baby!” I gasped, adrenaline flooded me as I jerked up scrambled to my feet, nearly bonking my head on one of the workbenches in the workshop before managing to get fully upright and looking at Mama as she rose back up from her knees.

“Yes Dorah. You’re going to be an older sister.” Mama said, gently hands out like she was worried I was going to fall or something, that’s silly I didn’t fall, I was strong and cool.

Reaching up and wincing at the feel of the back of my head aside. 

Papa was there coming up and pulling me into his side, which satisfied Mama as she leaned in, and suddenly I was being hugged.

Papa was holding Mama gently, but I was suddenly wrapped in hugs… And the thought struck me that I was getting almost as tall as Mama. 

She’d always seemed larger than life, but I was nearly looking her in the eyes with only a small upraising of my eyes.

And of course the realization of what was going on hit me.

Mama was Pregnant.

I was going to be an older sister. 

An older sister to a High Elf, that would live in Quel’Thalas, and thus be in danger.

Mama and Papa pulled apart a little, but Papa reached down, and Mama grabbed his hand and brought it down to her stomach letting him feel the bump.

He looked a little pale as he processed what he was feeling.

“I… A second child?”

“I guess we’re pretty compatible. I always wanted more, but I wasn’t expecting it to happen this soon.” Mama added a bit dryly, and Papa just gave a funny little laugh that seemed more like he wasn’t sure what else to do.

I just stood there, and then I realized.

I was going to be an older sister. And there were things out there, Trolls, Undead, Kobolds, Murlocks! Hell, Old Gods! 

Things that could threaten my little sibling…

“Dorah? That’s a scary face.” Mama whispered looking at me, and I looked into her eyes. “What’s that face for?”

“I have to kill some Gods.” I said simply, and that was a statement that made Mama look at me funny, but it was still true.

Nothing could be allowed to touch the little baby in Mama’s tummy. 

I’d have to murder everything that could ever be a threat to them. It was the only way to protect them.

“Silly girl.” Mama said half laughing as she reached out and cupped my cheek. “You’re being silly. Come on, let’s go have a meal with all of us, I want to hear everything that’s happened since I’ve been gone.”

“Yeah.” I whispered, unable to resist her pulling me along. I could feel my face relaxing, my shoulders untensing. 

But it was still there, the absolute decision that I was going to have to do some insane things eventually. 

Everything precious in my life lived on this world, and I would protect it.

—--

“So there I was holding my bow, and staring down at my stomach, and Talanas was looking at me like I’m an idiot. I’m just lucky it wasn’t the King…” Mama said then burst out laughing at herself.

She hadn’t realized and it took the Ranger General himself asking if she was getting fat or something for her to realize.

“You should have been taking better care of yourself.” I told her pouting at her, and she raised her hands in surrender.

“I was busy!”

“If you didn’t notice a pregnancy you weren’t taking care of yourself!” I grumbled at her. “Did you get magical healing?”

“All the time.”

“Good… Good.” I grumbled, still half glaring at her. 

“Sorry, Dorah, I’ll take better care of myself, okay?” Mama asked, holding back in her laughter and I grumbled, but nodded. 

Papa I noticed was still at Mama’s side sort of hovering not sure what to do as his eyes kept shooting down to the bump and then seemingly jolting…

Poor Papa.

He was definitely freaking out a bit.

“I can’t believe you didn’t notice.”

“I was wearing armor all the time! It’s not like I was stopping to take baths or something. A bit of cleaning magic and we were off again.” Mama defended herself, and I scoffed at her.

“Sounds like you need a bath.”

“Heh! Does my lovely daughter want to draw up a bath for her tired old Mama?”

“I can.” I said sniffing seriously. Then I realized that Mama wasn’t just asking cause she wanted one.

Ah, she wanted a moment with Papa.

I nodded and rose up.

“We’ll talk more soon.” I decided and rushed off to her room. She had a rather large bathtub in there, and it would take a bit to fill it up and then heat it.

A baby.

A little sibling.

I couldn’t be an older sibling! They had to be reliable and cool, and I was… Me!

Shaking that thought off I started conjuring water and dumping it into the bathtub. That was just the terror of messing up in my head. I could do this. While I was here anyways… I’d always planned on leaving. Exploring the world. Could I do that now? Leave behind a little sibling?

I shook it off, no point in dreading the future, it would happen or not, when it was time and who knows what would happen. Besides, I couldn’t exactly go exploring with the Trolls still a problem. That needed to be solved first, and it could be years.

I would have to do something to make sure it didn’t last that long. I decided I needed to be stronger, and stronger. The Light abilities were helping, but I needed more, and I needed to focus even more time on grinding spells. Even if I was doing it practically throughout the entire day, if I focused solely on it for even longer I could get more spells leveled and ready!

Then I sighed, and slumped. I really don’t know if I could. I was already dedicating a lot of time to training spells, and after a while I still got tired, both physically and mentally. I needed the times to go play with Kimi, or visit Chocobo Too to relax.

A hand suddenly dropped on my head. 

“Lost in your thoughts?” Mama said, smiling at me, and I relaxed. 

“A little.”

“Oh looks like you almost got it done.”

“Just need a little more, and then I can heat it.”

“Want to help me wash my hair?” Mama asked, and I nodded, as she smiled brightly. 

Soon enough I heated the water and Mama slipped into the bath with a groan. And I worked over her hair. Relaxing a bit as I washed and combed the luscious golden locks.

“So the Trolls try to lay traps. Show a few at once, have the rest hiding, or in a position behind them. They try to draw the rangers out, but other than numbers, the Trolls don’t quite have the same skills. Every once in a while we run into an elite, but there are so many Trolls Dorah. They’re constantly moving around, constantly pushing and repositioning.”

“Target rich environment.” I said a bit darkly, and Mama laughed. 

“That’s a good one! Unfortunately, only partially. There are so many that unless you manage the kill in the first volley, the Trolls just charge forward, and the injured Troll is pulled away. Their regeneration has been absurd… I’ve seen one lose an arm, and have it start regrowing right there.”

I didn’t respond, as I just grumbled. Stupid Trolls.

Cheating with Loa. Only Elves should cheat with magic!

“We’re going to lose the second Elf Gate soon.” Mama revealed, and I hesitated a moment in washing her hair.

“We’ll be okay. They can’t break the Ban’dinoriel.”

“No they can’t. But it’s going to be hard for a while.”

I didn’t have the heart to tell her, things had already changed in Silvermoon. Instead I just continued to work over her hair. She had lots of split ends and things from her long adventures fighting the Trolls.

“I’ve been getting stronger.”

“That I have no doubt.” Mama said joking. “Tell me what you’ve learned?”

“I figured out some Light Stuff. A lot of Light stuff actually. I created an Aura that gives armor to those under it.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, here.” I closed my eyes and looked to the sigil that existed within me, and instead of empowering it with Mana, as it already was. The sigil was connected into the flow of Mana inside me, more like an enchantment than a spell. 

I simply tapped it, and it turned on. The flare of Light around me as it activated faded quickly, and I could feel Mama stiffen slightly under my hands.

“Huh. That’s weird.” She mutters, looking at her arms for a bit as I went back to brushing out her hair. 

“Yeah. Right now it’s like having some extra leather armor over you. But I just learned it. Eventually it’ll be like having platemail.”

“My daughter is doing amazing things!” Mama cooed, reaching up and grabbing both my cheeks.

“Mamaaa!” I whined she was all wet and just splashed water all over my face!

“Hehehe! That’s amazing, Dorah, I’m very proud, it sounds like an amazing spell. Tell me everything?”

“Okay well… I figured out how to solidify Light into spells… Of a sort, I call them Seals, the first one I’ve made so far lets my attacks strike with Holy Light when I hit something.”

“Huh. Is that going to do anything? That won’t just heal the person you strike right?”

“Just because all we really use the Light for is healing doesn’t mean that’s all it can do. Trust me, it can break rocks and things with the strike. It’s serious.”

Mama turned a bit in the tub to look at me.

“Sounds amazing Dorah. You’ll have to show me later.” She said seriously, and I flushed a bit feeling my face warm in delight at her words. “Does it work on arrows?”

“No.” I said instantly, and she started pouting!

She’d been excited because of archery!

I grumbled as I went back to scrubbing her hair and she laughed as I tugged her back into place. 

“Have you practiced your archery?”

“Not really. I’ve been busy with the Blacksmithing, and Enchanting, and training.”

“How is your blacksmithing going? Having fun?” She asked, but a bit awkwardly. Mama still thought my interest with that was a bit weird.

“Yeah. I’ve been helping Master Illianar, we’ve been getting a lot of requests for Armor and weapons. So I’m not just making arrow heads anymore.”

“Heh, making real armor?”

“Sometimes. Mostly just assisting. I do a lot of polishing, but I do form the plates, and I’ve sharpened swords, and a bunch extra. Anytime a project comes in that Master Illianar needs to work on, but he was already doing something else. I take over the previous project. He doesn’t complain about my work anymore.”

“That sounds like you’ve done a great job.”

“Yeah.” I said happily, glancing at my character sheet. 

[Blacksmithing Lv 32 164/320] [Expert]

-[Apprentice Blacksmithing: Increased speed of smithing]

-[Journeyman Blacksmithing: Improved quality of Work]

-[Expert Blacksmithing: Improved awareness of Damage]

I’d become an expert a while ago, but it still took a long time to level. Blacksmith wasn’t like Enchanting as a profession.

A single sword could take a long time to make, although with magic it took far less time than it did back on earth, but I still needed to complete something.

And not doing the entire thing seemed to give me less experience. 

I’d sometimes finish a sword for Master Illianar and not get an update, but complete the finish on a metal plate and get one later. 

So it was less that I needed to complete something, and more that I needed to do enough to get the upgrade. 

Either way it took time, but that’s okay. Even already I had gotten a lot of value out of it. If any armor I was wearing ever got damaged I could fix it. That alone was incredibly valuable for an explorer!

“Oh! I figured out how to make myself stronger with Light Magic too.” I added, as I kept brushing. Mama’s hair was starting to almost glow with how much attention I was giving to it. 

“Oh?” Mama said shifting around. “Is that so? Go get that stool.” Mama demanded, and I looked at the stool she had told me to grab and then her.

“Really Mama?”

“Come one! I want to see.” She ordered shifting happily and I sighed. Grabbing the stool and setting it down and then putting my elbow on the stool just as she did.

“On three.” She ordered and we locked our hands and then. “Three.” She said suddenly pulling and I squawked. 

“Cheater!” I grunted, but I fought back. I had a better position as she was still in the tub, even if she had cheated!

Then my muscles really flexed, and I did stop her from pushing me further down.

I wavered, struggling, she had more weight to put into it, and she was still really strong, I could feel her suddenly push herself a bit more!

She was using Strength Surge too! Little cheat!

I did the same, and fought back and the two of us practically growled at the other as we both fought until slowly I couldn’t quite overcome. 

But it was close. The gap between our strength was narrow. 

And then my fist hit the stool and she crowed out.

“The winner and continued champion!”

“And cheater!” I called out adding to her self proclaimed title. She just laughed at me as I reached up and tried to dunk her into the tub.

—--

“What happened?”

“Nothing.” I grumbled, squelching a bit as I hurried out of the room to get some dry clothes. Lesson learned. 

Dunking someone already in the tub wasn’t that hard, but escaping without ending up soaked yourself made it not worth it.

—--

“Well that is interesting.” El’Tela spoke. It was the next morning and we’d spent basically the entire afternoon ignoring work in the shop. Poor Nata’liore and Tira’nore had to deal with everything, but it was family time.

It was nice. I’d missed Mama a lot, and having her back brought a certain energy into the place that definitely had been missing.

Mostly cause Papa and I were both good at getting lost in our hobbies. Mama was needed to drag us out of it.

“I hope we have your blessing?” Mama said, half joking and El’Tela sent her a look.

“Don’t be a fool. As if you need my blessing.”

We never did get one for Dorah.”

“That is because of your own choices… Fine, fool girl you have my blessing. Pleased?”

“Inordinately.” Mama replied back just as snarkily. But she also looked happy as she looked at her tummy for a moment before continuing her meal. 

“I wonder if the child will be like its older Sister.” El’Tela asked, and Mama just laughed. 

“I hope he or she will be special in their own way. Just as much as Dorah.”

“Perhaps.” El’Tela said, but she didn’t sound very convinced. “Regardless, it is… Pleasant to hear. Congratulations.” She offered, and I smiled at her, because that was probably as nice as she could get anymore.

“Thank you Grandmother.” Papa said, happily, and then he looked at Mama and then down at her belly, and the color slowly left him.

Poor Papa, he was definitely still freaking out. 

“Do you think it’s a boy or a girl?” I asked, and Mama perked up. 

“I wouldn’t mind a son this time.” She said happily, and Papa looked a bit startled. 

“A little brother could be nice, or a little sister. I don’t care.” I offered, and Mama seemed happy at that. 

“How is the Gate?” El’Tela asked as she quietly cut her pastry into pieces.

“Not good.” Mama said simply, a damning statement as well, and El’Tela nodded as if she expected that. 

And that was that.

—--

[Divine Strength Lv 7 9/70]

I was currently getting 10 strength from the skill, but as Mama had proved, just because I felt strong didn’t mean I was compared to someone that actually fought. 

So I decided to try and make it a bit stronger. 

Mama was sort of settling back into living with us, and I could tell it was a relief to her, to come home and have everyone happy and safe. 

It reminded me that a war was going on, and that it was soon going to come to the gates of the city.

I closed my eyes, gathering a spark of Light, which I noticed was easier today. Whether because I’d gathered enough Light already to start drawing in more, or maybe the resolve to protect my coming sibling.

Either way I gathered it up, and dumped my Mana into it, exploding the spark into an inferno and settling it into me.

[Divine Strength Lv 7 10/70]

I exhaled, feeling empty even as the glow settled under my skin.

I grabbed a Mana gem, and a bit of water, taking both filling myself up slowly, which was perfect, as I needed to spend a bit of time finding another Spark.

Once more I repeated the process.

[Divine Strength Lv 7 11/70]

And once more it went up. I activated Evocation this time feeling the mana suck into me. And then I sat back breathing a bit heavily. I was getting better at Evocation that was true, but it felt slow. The cool down time meant I couldn’t just instantly hammer it again.

Either way. I had grown. 

[Evocation Lv 24 48/240] [Journeyman Mastery] [Mastery Benefit +10 Spirit]

Even Spell Refining Evocation at this point didn’t properly fix the issue. I’d tried a few changes including one that simply lowered the regeneration rate to far slower levels to try and mitigate the strain to see if I could just grind the spell over and over.

It hadn’t really worked. The strain still existed unless I made the spell completely useless, which meant it still took minutes to regain my Mana anyways. Might as well, deal with the cooldown and just grind it as much as I could. 

I sat back and drank some water, knowing I had to let my body rest before casting the spell again. 

I still had a few Mana gems, but I preferred to spread those out a bit more. Might be time to do another Mana Gem Grind. Sha’Narin still had some for the reagents, but he was probably running low.

“Dorah?”

“Mama?” I called out looking up. I’d been sitting on the bench on the roof, and I was a bit surprised to see her. She’d been spending time with Papa.

“What are you doing?” She asked, and I just smiled.

“Growing stronger.” I decided was the most accurate thing to say and Mama laughed. 

“Of course, my daughter is always too active.” She chuckled as she came over and took a seat, looking over my pile of water and the gems I had laid out for the Grind.

“I don’t know how you drink that.”

“My water doesn’t taste that bad. I’ve been getting better. Want to try?”

“No thank you. I’m tired of conjured food right now.” She said and I believed her. “I wanted to check in with you… You know, with a sibling on the way things are going to change.”

“Yeah.” I said, quietly, things would change. Some for the worst. Because not all changes was good. 

“So I just wanted to say now, before all the changes happen… I’ll always love you, and your Papa will too. We might be a bit distracted in a few months, but that doesn’t mean we love you any less.”

“You’re speaking from experience.”

“Well… My parents… When my little sister was born, a lot of things changed for me. I was already on the outs with my family. I was stubborn, and Father… Well, he and I never quite agreed on things.”

“Mama?”

“Right, sorry what I mean is… I don’t want you to think you aren’t our special Dorah, now and forever.”

“I know.” I said confidently, and leaned into her. 

It would be a bit sad not to be the sole focus of my parents anymore, but that was okay. I loved them, and they loved me.

I was growing up… It was a bit of a scary thought.