Enigma of Sin

With Kayn's coming of age celebration officially over and the gifts all handed out, the family moved on to focusing on the future birth of its new member.

Ezekiel was busy preparing one of the spare rooms for his new daughter including building or purchasing all of the furniture necessary for the room. As it had been 16 years since their last child, they hadn't kept most of the furniture that was in Kayn's room.

Clementine was focused on keeping the garden and hedges in organized shape. She also performed the house chores that Zerana normally would take care of.

Kayn prepared the birthing room and read through any knowledge he had about delivering kids in this world. All of his knowledge came from the books Lydia left him, but that was plenty enough to be able to perform what he needed to. Fortunately, he had also witnessed births while following around doctors during his time on Earth. All he had to do was what he always had, mixing Earth and Talgonoth's understandings of birth and forming a more perfect technique.

Kayn also offered to prepare all of the meals for the family. His cooking skills had become greatly improved over the years and even his mother was impressed with the dishes he prepared. As Clementine was in charge of collecting all of the ingredients, Kayn would give her a list to purchase every couple of days.

A couple of weeks flew by and the day that Zerana's water broke came. The whole family was already prepared and they moved quickly. Zerana moved to the room prepared by Kayn for giving birth and changed her clothing to an odd gown she had never seen before.

As she raised her feet to what Kayn called stirrups, even she started to feel slightly embarrassed. She was the one who asked Kayn to help with the process and help her birth the child, but this position was new and odd to her. With Clementine and Kayn, she was simply laying in a bed with her legs spread. Now, her legs were up and spread apart while hanging off the bed Kayn made.

Kayn knew that upright positions were supposed to be better for birthing, and that's how Zerana previously gave birth, but this world had mana! Kayn would be able to use mana to make up for several shortcomings of back laying birth, while also negating the shortcomings of upright standing birth!

Kayn was wearing a newly prepared robe and gloves. He had instructed Zerana on a breathing technique beforehand which she quickly followed. Her pain tolerance was through the roof and this wasn't anything new to her, so luckily Kayn didn't need to worry about this aspect of the birthing process.

Fortunately for Kayn, nothing about the birth went wrong. Everything came out as it was supposed to and there were no problems with the umbilical cord, which he clamped with earth magic and then sliced with wind magic, even though there were some studies he read about leaving the placenta attached, his mother didn't want that.

Kayn had learned on Earth that it was better to wait to bathe the child for about 24 hours, so he just wrapped her in a cloth and handed her to his mother. Kayn quickly used darkness and water magic to clean up his mother, the table, and ground before gathering with the rest of his family by the head of the bed.

Ezekiel reached out his hands and Zerana gently placed the still crying newborn into his arms. "As we agreed beforehand, her name will start with an L to honor Lydia and all she has done for this family. It is disappointing that she wasn't able to join us for this joyous occasion though. So, in honor of Lydia, this child's name will be Lara."

Handing Lara back to Zerana, Ezekiel leaned in and gave her a soft hug. "Wonderful job my love. Thank you for providing us with another miracle."

…

The following days were filled with joy filled smiles and heartwarming experiences. The family was always crowding around the little Lara and would often fight for the opportunity to hold her. Kayn was able to win his sibling the second most compared to Zerana with the excuse of checking her condition.

What made Kayn laugh the most was that whenever Lara was being held by Clementine, she would start to cry if she was awake or woke up after being passed over while asleep. Kayn would often poke fun at her for being disliked by their new sister.

Clementine would pout, but after she learned to make funny faces at Lara, Lara would show interest and make silly faces back causing Clementine to smile and laugh as she played.

As the weeks passed, Clementine had to go back to the academy to finish out her last year there before graduation. Ezekiel was also called back to the battlefront to resume his duties as a General.

It was just Kayn, Zerana, and little Lara in the house now. As Kayn and Zerana had both tried calling Lydia multiple times during these weeks, Ezekiel was convinced to put some of his resources into trying to figure out where she was and to see if she was okay.

Unfortunately, with both his father and sister leaving, this left Kayn with less time to himself as he was on Lara duty whenever his mother needed rest or had chores to do. He had wanted to start reading and researching the book and artifact his mother had given him, but he just didn't have the opportunity.

The most he was able to do during these months was his normal routine. Practicing martial forms, practice sword swings, and training in the Void Star. His progress within stage 3 was slow, he was disappointed with this, but it couldn't be helped. His achievements were already unheard of, having a stage 3 core before 16 years of age was never seen before. At least in the history books he and his parents had access which were a variety of records from a few different realms.

Lara was a wonderful child who picked up regular sleeping habits very quickly. She was easy to entertain and would promptly fall asleep after being fed by Zerana. The part Kayn hated the most was changing out the cloth diaper, as the smell was atrocious. He wondered how such an awful stench could come out of such a cute child.

Zerana had initially shown Kayn how to properly change a diaper and clean everything before putting a fresh one on, but quickly assigned Kayn to permanent diaper change duty. This was because Kayn started using darkness and water magic to eliminate the smell and clean everything because he hated the smell. Everything became much quicker and simpler after he discovered this use for his magic.

…

Five months flew by in a flash. Clementine was only two weeks away from graduating and leaving the academy, and this meant Kayn would have a chance to leave the house for a few weeks as his mother would have her to help with the house chores and Lara.

He couldn't wait, so he began preparing his new bag for his travels. He placed the money he had accumulated up to that point into a small pouch and put it in a side pocket as well as the mask he received from Rowen. He also kept the box his mother gave him inside of it to look into it after he was alone. Otherwise only his personal grimoires were placed inside it. He hadn't put the new armor that was made from the Rocky Hide Hippopotamus or his swords in as he was planning on wearing the armor and equipping his swords before leaving.

However, things never worked out how they were supposed to. A week before Clementine was set to return, Zerana received a call from Ezekiel.

"Zerana, collect Kayn and Lara and prepare to leave home now! I don't care what you grab, just get the essentials and be prepared to leave as soon as I get there." Ezekiel's hurried voice came through the communication crystal.

"Wait-wait. Ez what are you saying? What's going on?" Zerana was flustered as she replied back to him. Kayn was currently holding the sleeping Lara, but she woke up hearing the loud shouting voices and began to cry.

"I don't have time to explain, but to simplify it all, Lydia is dead. I investigated too deeply and uncovered something that I shouldn't know about. I've been classified as a traitor to the Empire. I've already taken Clementine from the academy and we are on our way to meet up with you. We should be there within an hour as we have to avoid the main roads. They would catch us quicker if I were to fly. Just get ready and sta-"

The call cut off at that point. Aside from Lara's crying sounds, silence dominated the room. Kayn's eyes were wide open and his body was slightly shaking. Zerana on the other hand had tears coming out of eyes, but quickly collected herself to give instructions to Kayn.

"Kayn, believe in your father. Go collect your bag and meet me back here in the living room. We will leave in an hour regardless of if your father and sister are here or not. Your father and I have a meeting place already prepared in case of emergencies."

Zerana grabbed Lara from Kayn and ran straight to her and Ezekiel's room to grab a bag that was always kept at the ready. Kayn himself grabbed his own bag and decided to throw in the book he received from his mother a few years ago as well.

Kayn grabbed his new armor and equipped it for the first time. A light leather jerkin with a black shirt underneath, light leather pants, and a pair of gloves. He grabbed one of his three swords and placed it at his waist before running back to the living room.

By the time both Kayn and Zerana had gathered and everything was prepared, only 15 minutes had passed. The two of them sat in silence as they waited for their father and husband respectively to arrive.

Zerana was now decked out in a dark leather armor with some type of fist weapon wrapped around both knuckles. Clearly, she was a fist fighter rather than a user of weapons. Lara was then given back to Kayn who placed her in a sash that was strapped to his chest.

Zerana didn't want to worry Kayn more than he already was, but internally she was going crazy. Due to her and Ezekiel having set up alarm formations all around the estate, she knew they had been infiltrated. The perpetrators were just waiting for something. One of the alarms even deactivated, indicating that a barrier they could not escape from was put up.

Kayn and Zerana stood in silence only hoping that Ezekiel would show up soon. It was only after another 20 minutes that Zerana made a startling move.