Duality

Up to chapter 15 posted on Patreon at the $3 tier.

Merla was still asleep when Lyra reappeared back at home, her belly slightly swollen, and tears in her eyes. Not long after she came back, Merla opened her eyes.

"Momma?" Merla asked, and her eyes widened as she looked at Lyra's belly. "Momma pregnant?"

"Our Mother Queen laid an egg inside me, baby. Now, I can get pregnant. Tonight, I'll absorb the egg and make it mine." Merla tilted her small head. She looked down at Lyra's belly again, and reached down. Her small hand lightly caressed her belly, and she started to smile.

"Merla want meet little sister." She smacked her lips. "Momma, Merla hungry." Taen smiled.

"She has a healthy appetite. I was worried." Taen said and lightly rubbed Merla's cheek. The girl immediately captured her hand with her smaller hands and rubbed her cheek on the rougher palm.

"Mother said you'll be stationed inside the city from now on." Lyra said, and watched her lover's eyes. Taen nodded.

"A good thing. I would have requested it to ensure you didn't worry." She smiled at Merla. "I couldn't leave our daughter to grow up with only a cranky mother who complains about the size of her belly over the next cycle." Lyra growled.

"Cycle?" Merla asked. "Not fast like human?" She asked. Apparently little Merla already forgot about the ten year cycle of an orc's pregnancy, even though she was just told this morning.

"No, little one. I don't know what the humans taught you, but orcs carry their babies for ten human years. It allows them to grow stronger inside their mom's belly. When they are born, they are almost as big as you are now." Lyra said. Merla's eyes popped wide.

"Belly big!" She said. Lyra smiled.

"Yes, a big belly. But our babies have a strong attachment to their moms, so we have fewer problems with our babies. Orc children learn from their moms right in the belly. We teach them half way through the cycle, and help them to learn our ways." Lyra said and watched Merla's eyes. Merla pouted.

"Don't remember belly. Shadows. Pain. Death." Merla trembled. "Not like shadows. Bad people. Bad things in shadows." Merla put her hand on Lyra's belly again. "Merla protect little sister. Grow up, teach sister magic." Lyra smiled, but saw Merla's eyes begin to glow.

"Guud Vahfor."

* * *

"What happened?" Lady Lixiss said as she entered the house. She saw Merla on the couch, her eyes closed, and her skin even more pale than normal. Lyra was crying.

"She made a unique magical expression." Lyra said sadly. Lixiss stopped.

"What expression?"

"Guud Vahfor." Lyra said, and watched as Lady Lixiss quickly scanned her.

"Not possible." She scanned again. "How is that possible?"  Taen looked at her sister.

"What's wrong with little Merla?" Taen asked, her emotions in turmoil.

"Her manna veins are even thicker, and their core has started to crystallize." Lixiss said quietly. She looked at Lyra. "She blessed your future daughter with the favor of the goddesses. If you do not assimilate that egg, the goddesses will be most upset." Lyra sniffed.

"Will she be okay?" Lyra asked.

"Yes. She's just tired from the strain. Unlike other children her age, her manna veins develop the more she uses them, but it does drain her mentally. Absorb the egg, then feed her. It will help her to recover." Lixiss rolled her eyes. "Teach her, Lyra. You may not have had a chance, but when she wakes up, teach her or you'll see this a lot."

Lixiss turned, and sat on a chair. Lyra frowned, but Lixiss raised an eyebrow and gestured to her.

"I am not leaving until you absorb that egg. If you lose that egg due to your own stupidity, do you think little Merla will forgive you for losing her baby sister?" Lixiss said, which made Lyra shrink up.

Lixiss watched as Lyra closed her eyes, and turned her consciousness inward.  She stuck around for a specific reason. Taen was her sister, and Lyra was not known for being reliable, or making good decisions.  Lyra felt Taen's hand on her shoulder, which calmed her nerves. She needed that support, as her belly now flattened out.

"Good." Lixiss stood up. "When you take little Merla to bed tonight, Taen, you know what to do. I will be back in the morning to verify it." Lyra growled.

"Are you going to check up on me like I'm a child?" She asked. Lixiss grinned.

"I'm just checking up on my sister, and my niece." Lixiss walked up to her, and gripped her by the chin. Lyra may be a speaker of magical expressions, but Lady Lixiss was not only a master, she was also their spiritual guide.

"You were chosen by little Merla to care for her. Mother would be upset to know how you are still affected, little Lyrie." Lixiss said softly. "You are my sister's wife, and my sister through Mother Queen.  I've been concerned over your loss of heart for the last two cycles. Please don't lay down in the forest so early in life." Lixiss walked out of the house, while Lyra was left dumbfounded.

"She thought I would lay in the forest?" Lyra asked.  Taen sighed a bit.

"We all did, my darling. Especially myself."

* * *

Merla looked up at her as she had her breast put in her mouth. Though weak, she was still able to feed, and her normal color slowly returned.

"Little Merla, you must not make magical expressions without telling me, okay?" Lyra said. "It doesn't hurt you, but some take more energy to make than others." She felt her hands push on her breast, so she lifted up.

"Make Merla tired?"

"Yes, my little darling." Merla smiled and pulled her breast back to her mouth. "I am such a blessed mother to have you as a daughter, and your little sister will be blessed by our goddesses thanks to your expression. But that cost you a lot of energy. Your manna veins are large, little Merla, but your body isn't strong enough to handle the energy transfer." She watched her face grimace a little.

"Merla." Her eyes shifted to Taen. "What your mother means is that magical expressions require energy to speak. Your manna veins are the ones that draw that energy, and your core is what focuses it. Yours are large, but still undeveloped. Instead of drawing it from the air like ours do, it draws the manna required from your body. In children, that damages their veins, and core. In you, it makes them larger, which can handle more, which is the problem."

"Problem?"

"Yes.  Because you can do more, those expressions will be successful, even when they shouldn't be.  So every day, Lyra will help and guide you. You are not to use any magical expression unless she agrees, or it's an emergency. Understand?" Lyra smiled gently down at Merla as she nodded with her mouth full.

"You scare us every time you fall asleep because you use too much energy, little Merla." Lyra said with misty eyes. "I don't want to lose you like I lost your other sister." Her small hand reached up and caressed Lyra's cheek.

Merla wanted to say she loved her momma, but she couldn't with her mouth full, nor did she need to. Lyra could read that love in her eyes, and it made her quite happy to see.

* * *

"Quietly, Taen. I don't want to wake little Merla up." Lyra said as they laid in the bed, and her mate came up behind her.

"Orcs have loved each other in the presence of their children for thousands of years, Lyra. Little Merla will need to get used to our love for each other." As her mate entered her, Lyra could now remember the reason the Mother Queen's member was so large.

The goddesses designed their race with certain things in mind. Tuskers fertilized the eggs the Queen laid within her daughters. This allowed the Queen, the prime and most pure example of an orc, to spread her perfect genes to the tribe. Her large ovi-positor opened them up, while the tuskers were almost as large, and made the experience quite pleasurable for their mates.

The egg had already been absorbed and reformed inside her womb. It was currently held in the middle of her womb by webs of soft fleshy threads. This connected the egg to the mother, and her body nourished it until it was fertilized. Once her womb was flooded by her mate, her belly swelled outward once again.

The egg absorbed up the entire load deposited within her, and spread outward in the womb. Once she pulled out of her mate's cervix, the cervix sealed itself closed. The egg formed the barrier from the world, and connected the newly fertilized nucleus to the mother. Over the next year, this nucleus would expand and form a fetus.

Over the first five years of pregnancy, the fetus would grow much slower than a human baby, and only be as large as a human's ninth month pregnancy. Over the following five years, the baby would grow twice as fast, and develop enough cognitive abilities for the mother to teach her the things she needed to know.

She would learn how to talk, understand the orc language, and grow more connected with her mothers over this period. When she was born, there would be a celebration where all the tribe was invited, and most were able to attend.

The child would meet all her sister aunts, and from that point onward, the entire tribe would take it upon themselves to help the couple raise their daughter.

It took three orcs to birth a child, but the entire tribe to raise her properly.