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She was wearing the ceremonial
garment that she wore when she was first
presented to
Talpa. This time, Cale did not walk with her and Anubis down
that aisle.
When those
doors opened, she and Anubis, each with a child, walked down side
by side.
It's been a couple of days since
the birth of their twins. Both of them were
pretty
exhausted by the whole ordeal in one way or another. Anubis did
explain as
much as he
could on what happened to him but Mia was just happy that he was
there. She
did,
however, had to explain the meaning behind the names of the kids.
"Kiefer was my grandfather's
name on my dad's side," she explained to him.
"Kieran was
my grandfather's name on my mom's side."
Anubis didn't argue with her.
Couldn't really since she fell asleep shortly
after that. All
three slept comfortably together so he was forced to sit on a
chair next to
the bed. He
just stayed up all that night watching all of them.
Now, both of them walked down
the aisle to present their children. Everybody
had
already acknowledged that Anubis was the acting father with all
the time he
spent with
her. They still did not suspect that he was the real father.
"Your child is already
born?" Talpa asked as they stopped just in front of
him. "Has it
been that long? And two of them nonetheless!"
Mia only nodded and amused Talpa
more. She was going to be defiant till the
end. He
rose from his seat and walked towards her. Anubis almost stood
between them
but
stopped himself.
"Show him to me."
She held out Kiefer to him.
Talpa didn't need to look deep into the child to
know just
how powerful he would be. He then turned to Anubis who in turn
held out
Kieran to
him. Both children gave off equal presence and even he could
not tell which
would be a
better match.
"Both are rather powerful. I cannot decide on which one to keep."
"Can't you keep both of them?" Mia asked. He turned to her, amusement rising.
"And what would I have use for two new Warlords?"
"Since they look enough
alike, wouldn't it be logical to have them? They
could keep
anybody unbalanced on their appearance alone. They wouldn't know
which would
be the
real thing or just a trick on their mind."
Talpa thought for a second and
looked at both children. She had presented a
very valid
proposition. Besides, it was early. There was time to test the
children.
"You have made your point.
I will keep both of them for now. They are still
of no use to
me. You can do whatever you wish with them but keep in mind that
I am their
master.
That is all."
Mia and Anubis bowed low to
him and left the room. The presence of the
children was
still in the air and hung there after they were long gone.
***
"What right does he have
to choose which of my babies survive?" Mia asked as
they
came back to their room. "Did he give birth to them?!"
"Mia calm down," Anubis
told her as he placed Kieran in his crib. "He was
generous
enough to agree with you and keep them a while longer."
"Generous?!" She
placed Kiefer in his crib and stalked to the dresser and
started to take
off her headdress. "What he's done is going to give me a
headache. Now he
wants us to
make sure that the boys will be equal. He knows that I'm not
parting with
either one of
them."
"And neither will I."
He came up behind her and helped with undoing her
hair. "I think
it's good that he's letting us do that. That way, when the kids
are older,
it will be harder
for him to choose which one he wants."
"You think so?" She looked at him from the mirror.
"If he didn't want both
of them in the first place, he should have eliminated
one of the
boys already."
"True. Umm...what are
you doing?" His hands were helping with getting her
out of the
thick kimono but his lips nuzzled her neck.
"I think I've stayed away
from you long enough," he whispered to her ear,
tickling her.
He made a trail of kisses from her jaw down to her shoulder.
"Anubis...not here."
She tried to pull away but he held her close to him.
"The kids..."
"Are going to be fine.
They're asleep." He turned her around and kissed her
deeply.
Outside, Dais heard their little
plan. He smirked as another piece of his
plan was coming
to pass. He didn't even have to do anything since everything
was being done
for him. He
walked away from the door, caring very little for the two's pleasure.