Tales of Alavern 03 (Non-Canon)

"Wait, the pool worked?! With my blood?!" he shouted, eyes wide as he grabbed Megara's arms in a slight panic.

"Indeed it did. A child was born of the pool for the first time in quite a while." she replied, her voice trying to calm him. "Your child, my king. A young male child, the first ever born on Alavern since the liberation of our foremothers. Which reminds me, what do you call a male parent? I'm assuming mother isn't correct, by the standards of most of the world..."

"A kid?!" Cyrus shouted, his eyes achieving the impossible by somehow going wider. "My kid?! But...but I...I don't..." He floundered around, desperate to get his raging thoughts and feelings back under control but they simply refused to come to order. "Isn't the pool only supposed to work for the island's people?"

"Absolutely true." Megara replied, a small smile forming on her face. "Which means that you truly are one of our people now, male or no." She continued smiling at him, a proud look on her face that only made him somehow feel more horrible. The Verni had already hated him to the point of wanting to kill him. How the hell would they react when he had achieved something that others had been trying for years with no success?

"Probably violently..." he thought out loud. He took a deep breath and let out a long, loud sigh before finally turning back to Megara. Her smile had faded completely into a look of concern, but she was apparently going to wait for him to say something first. "Is...is my son okay?" he finally said after a long moment of mulling over what exactly to say.

"Son?" she asked, confusion evident on her face. It lasted only a moment though before she lit up with that excited expression she always had whenever she learned something new from him. "Oh, a son! That's what you call a male child! How fascinating. I wonder what other different words..."

"Megara!" Cyrus shouted, interrupting her before she could go off on another one of her string of endless questions. "Is he okay, or did the women who attacked him hurt him? Or wait...is it a him? I know we established that the pool creates clones, but..."

"Oh yes, he is quite fine. Very healthy and already sleeping." she replied, waving off his concerns. "And yes, your child is male like you. So now we know that the Mother's Pool is capable of creating sons as well as daughters!" Megara just looked beyond pleased with her grasp of the new word, and Cyrus was surprised she wasn't clapping like an overexcited little girl.

"I suppose we do..." Cyrus responded softly, getting himself onto his feet and looking around the room. "So where is he? Is he safe, or...?"

"Oh yes, as safe as can be. Asleep, last I saw him. Naomi and Brianna left together to look for a crib to tuck him into. Things like that tend to get passed from parent to child so the crib Naomi slept in as a baby is still very likely to around here somewhere." she said, placing a hand onto his shoulder to reassure him. "I'm sure we can go find the both of them if you'd like to see your...you are sure the term is son, correct?"

"Yeah, you call your male kids sons." he replied almost automatically, used to answering Megara's questions without thinking much about it by now. A knot formed in his stomach, though at this point he wasn't sure if it was from worry or the poison he'd been subjected to. He sucked in a big breath, hoping the extra oxygen would help strengthen him for the walk yet to come. "So...how do you think everyone will react to this?"

"To be completely honest, I'm not sure." Megara said, her face scrunching up in thought as she lead Cyrus out of the room by his arm. "As you've experienced, the hatred and fear of men in our culture runs deep and yet...I'm not sure how precisely that hatred would apply to a child or even if it would. Especially considering how long it has been since Alavern has been gifted with the cries of a newborn, he might be seen as a blessing that the Mother has heard our pleas for children."

"I see..." Cyrus replies, his eyes burning with thought. "Then we'll have to make sure that they place more importance on the baby part than the male part. Just need to figure out how..."

Epilogue

The Great Mother's jaw was fixed firmly in the open position as she had watched events unfold. A son of Alavern, born from the pool she was so certain had broken somehow! It was too much to believe and even she couldn't help the questions from flooding her mind. Was it because she already came to consider Cyrus her son, or would any man be capable of using it in this fashion? If other men could use the pool, was it even necessary to dive back into the Source of All to pluck another man from Cyrus's world or should she consider just getting blood from the men of her own world?

There were obstacles and issues to consider, certainly, but if Cyrus could convince the Verni of men's potential for goodness then the possibilities for her daughters would be truly endless. Doors had opened, and it would take time to thoroughly explore them all. Her plans would have to be put on hold for now. If Cyrus had created a better path than the one she was walking, she would be a fool not to see where that path could lead.

She forced herself to tear her eyes away from the newborn baby boy that had just been put to bed by Naomi and Brianna and back out towards the vast cosmos that her and her fellow gods called home. The situation on the Alavern isles would need to develop before she decided on which path to take moving forward. She knew that she would need to seek counsel from someone who had not sequestered themselves away as she had. Perhaps it was time to seek out Ulfric the Wild and mend the bridge between them...