Aniketos could only glance back and forth between the midwife and Rayne, taken completely off guard. Twins. He should have known. He should have checked! He was a twin, after all, and didn't that make the chance of having twins of his own higher? And then that thought brought with it a sudden flash of concern, one brief instance of near panic as the pain pulsed through his body, bringing him rudely out of his shock. Twins. J'aari. Oh Gods...
For one brief, terrifying moment, he actually feared that, maybe, just maybe, J'aari could be passed onto his children, and that thought was enough to freeze the blood in his veins and make his breath catch in his throat. But then he remembered...J'aari only inhabited one set of twins at a time, ever. And as grim as that knowledge was, to know that he and his brother were the lucky twins, it was at the same time a comfort. His children couldn't get it. Ever. Not even if he died and the magic was once again released into the world to wait for its chance to possess its next victims. No, from his own knowledge of it, from the legends told in his village, J'aari could only inhabit twins, and could only enter into them at the moment of conception, before the egg had even split, which was why it was such a rare thing. Aniketos didn't know much about it, and no one really knew why the magic could only possess twins, and not take a single soulâ€"and thus stay whole. He'd heard some guess that that was the doing of the Goddess, that though She couldn't eliminate the vile substance, as it was not Her creation, She could only make slight, subtle alterations to it. She couldn't make it not possess people...but She could specify what people it could possess, since the original creator had left out that detail. And so she chose twins, as they were rarer...and as, if it possessed twins, it would be split, and thus dulled.
It was a plausible explanation. As good as any, Aniketos supposed. In any case, that knowledge eased his concern, and he breathed a deep sigh of relief. As long as they were spared...that was all that mattered.
And now that the initial panic had receded, he could bring his focus back to Rayne.
And she seemed terrified.
And rightly so. He didn't blame her. Gods, but the actual process of childbirth was not a pleasant one, and he knew it; he'd seen it, and he'd delivered children himself when no midwife was available. And it could last for hours. He'd never delivered twins, though, never seen a twin birth, but it seemed this midwife had; and she was far older than him, too, and as she did this for a living, of course she'd delivered twins, what was he thinking?! About the only thing he knew about delivering twins was that they were born smaller than single children were.
Ah! "Y'know, Rayne, it's actually good that yer havin' twins, 'cause twins come out smaller than a single child does," he offered, trying to reassure her. And as soon as he said the words...he realized that he'd probably failed miserably in that department. Come to think of it, he suddenly really doubted she'd care how "small" they were, because they'd still be big enough, and she'd have to do it twice. Um...um...another subject!
"I...I actually think I might have a name if't's a girl...or if one's a girl...or...or, yanno, if there's a girl. I was...I was thinkin' Eolynne, maybe. What do ya think?" he offered up, still keeping his fingers pressed firmly against that vital pressure point. Absently, he used his free hand to brushed some hair back from her face. "Heh, guess we'll haveta think of another name of th' same sex if they're identical. Wouldn't that be funny if they weren't, if there was a girl and a boy instead? Then we'd have th' names down and wouldn't have t' worry about it, and..."
He realized, somewhere in his deluge of words, that he was rambling. But oh man, he was nervous. For Rayne. For the children. For himself. For Nakaris. He didn't think he'd ever been so nervous before. But so much was happening right now all at once at a dizzying pace. Nevermind his own indirect-torture-induced-dizziness!
"Yer doin' just fine, Rayne," he finally finished weakly.
And then Rayne almost floored him when she asked, through it all, if he was okay. And he could only take a deep breath and nod. "As long as y' are," he told her gently.
Unfortunately, he wouldn't be okay for much longer, though for a few blessed moments, Aniketos had actually started to wonder if, maybe, the torture session had ended. Minutes down the line, though, maybe half an hour at the most, and the torturer had returned to Nakaris. Aniketos hadn't been able to feel his emotions, and if he had, he would have had a warning, would have been able to recognize the heightened panic from his brother as a sign that it was to begin again. But this time his only warning was the sudden, vicious lashes that seemed to fall all across his front side, one after the other, in rapid succession.
It took Aniketos completely off guard.
And there was nothing he could do about the splitting pain, the feeling of flesh being torn, of his whole front side being maimed and lashed and skinned brutally.
It probably didn't last all that long, but it felt like hours. Aniketos had no choice but to release his hold on Rayne and collapse on the floor against the bed, each invisible lash bringing with it a violent spasm of pain. He tried not to make a lot of noise, tried desperately not to make a big show of it, for Rayne's sake, and for the sake of the midwifeâ€"Gods, but she'd probably think him insane, and he was in absolutely no condition to explain!â€"but he failed. Utterly and completely. There was just no avoiding it, and all he could do was writhe in complete and total agony from wounds that no one but Nakaris could see, muffling his screams as best as he could behind clenched teeth. He could feel each individual barb...feel the blood gushing freely...the world was swaying, tilting sickeningly...blackness dancing in his vision...
And somewhere during it all, J'aari strained frantically against the temporary tournequet Rayne had placed on it. Pulsed.
And then broke free again as the throes of pain reached their maximum, as the connection and the powerful sensations it delivered raged wildly.
And once again Aniketos was unprotected, completely vulnerable, and flooded with a torrent of fearful, confused, and utterly degraded emotion. And the combination of physical weakness and muddled, powerful emotion was overwhelming...Aniketos could feel himself start to careen toward blackness.
Whoever had done the torturing must have realized he got a bit carried away, because suddenly the pain was gone. Another healing.
Aniketos panted heavily where he lay, his eyes closed to block out the swirling world. But he could still feel it spinning, and it only spun more violently when the feeling of being struck across the face made im gasp. He could actually feel the bruise begin to form, feel a small trickle of blood leaving his lip.
And the emotions...they were the worst...he'd never felt such fear before...such complete and utter panic and despair...
And this whole time, not once did Aniketos find himself fearing for himself. All he could think of was his brother, and of Rayne...
