For a week, I didn't leave the room at all.
And during this week, I remembered very well why I don't like children.
Swaddling cloths. These endless swaddling cloths that need to be washed of their shit every time.
Alright, we are still lucky—we are mages. For me, it takes a second. But how ordinary people deal with this, to be honest, I don't want to understand.
Alastia fed them time and time again. Then they cried again. Then she fed them again. Then someone cried again.
And at night... How can she even sleep?
I couldn't close my eyes at all at night. I constantly checked if they were breathing. Sometimes they breathed so quietly that it seemed to me they were going to die right then.
And Alastia seemed not to care. Actually, no. She did care. She was just probably too exhausted.
By the way, their eyes are also green.
All this week we couldn't come up with names for them.
"Oh, I know," Alastia said abruptly.
I immediately looked at her.
"Let's do Garo and Ada."
I stayed silent for a moment.
"Uuuuh..."
She grimaced herself.
"Yeah, you're right. Not really."
Then I decided to offer mine:
"Aka and Gana..."
Alastia looked at me.
"That doesn't sound right."
I sighed heavily.
"Why are names so complicated anyway?"
"Because they have to live with them later."
"You can live without names too."
"No, you can't."
"Why?"
"Because I'm not going to call them 'hey you' and 'the second one' for the rest of my life."
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I looked at the children. Then at her.
"What about 'little brother' and 'little sister'?"
"No."
"Why? It's convenient for me."
"Zenkhald."
"What?"
"No."
I sighed even heavier and looked at both of them.
Lying there. Silent. Small. Green-haired. And not helping at all.
"If only they came up with names for themselves," I muttered.
Alastia chuckled quietly.
"Excellent idea. We'll wait about five years. Maybe by then they will choose."
"And until then?"
"Until then, think."
"I am already thinking."
"You're thinking poorly."
She only shook her head, and I looked at the children again.
No. We definitely still had to struggle with the names.
On the second week, Mira came.
She walked into the room, and as soon as she saw the children, some fanatical fire ignited in her eyes.
"My little niece and nephew..." she said quietly.
And immediately took both of them in her arms.
I was already expecting one of them to start crying right now, but no. They didn't cry at all.
Mira examined them with such a look as if she had found two extremely rare artifacts.
"I see, I see," she began. Then she looked at the girl. "You, girl, are incredibly talented. And received a gift. The gift to see the truth. Takes right after me."
I almost died laughing right on the spot.
True, Alastia wasn't laughing at all at this moment. On the contrary, she tensed up very much.
Mira shifted her gaze to the boy and smiled differently now.
"And you, kid... I see. Ordinary."
After that, using levitation magic, she sent them both up, almost to the ceiling.
Alastia immediately jumped up to catch them.
"I know," Mira said.
She poked her finger at the boy.
"Your name is Art. Arty."
Then she pointed at the girl.
"And you are Naya. Nayechka."
"Umm... Mira," I began. "Actually, here—"
She turned to me.
"You two will take an eternity to pick names here. You'll thank me later."
I fell silent.
Actually... Yes. Looks like they really got names now.
Art and Naya.
POV: Mira and Aurora's Conversation
"When are you going to visit them?" Mira asked.
Aurora didn't even immediately understand who she was talking about.
"Why would I visit them right now? Do I have nothing better to do or what?"
Mira looked at her a little longer than usual.
"Is something bothering you?" Aurora asked.
"Yes," Mira answered calmly. "I just can't understand why the children were even born."
Aurora became interested.
"Were they not supposed to be?"
"They were not supposed to be."
"Why?"
Mira fell silent for a short while.
"Alastia is cursed," she said. "Her curse kills every living thing she touches. And Zenkhald is cursed himself."
"But he doesn't die."
"Because his curse is much higher."
Aurora cast a sidelong glance at her.
"What does 'higher' mean?"
Mira slowly exhaled.
"You can believe it or not, but a curse was placed on him either by a god, or something so powerful that there is almost no difference. His curse is unlike anything I have ever seen."
Aurora remained silent.
Mira continued:
"Because of it, he doesn't age. He cannot die. You cannot make a blood or soul contract with him. Neither he with someone, nor someone with him."
Mira continued. "His memory gets wiped every 15 years. The memories. But for some reason, the knowledge remains. Languages. Numbers. Methods. Formulas. Techniques. Especially muscle memory. He might forget who he is, but his body will still know how to move, how to kill, how to cook, how to write, how to hold a weapon."
Mira shifted her gaze to the side.
"And that's not all. If he is cursed with something else, poisoned, injured—after the reset, it is removed. I have never seen his curse being passed down through inheritance. It cannot be passed on. Cannot be replaced. Cannot be shifted. It cannot even be properly replicated. It is too..."
"Then why are the children alive?"
Mira chuckled weakly.
"If I knew for sure, I would have already said it. There are many theories. I won't be able to verify a single one of them."
Only one question wouldn't leave Aurora's head. Why is she telling me all this? She knows my intentions.