Chapter 241: Chapter 221 – A Visit Bearing Gifts

"In most traditions, both local and foreign, it was considered bad luck to celebrate a child's birth before the child reached at least six months of age.

 

So when the emperor celebrated his *daughter's* birth before and right after she was born, many brows were scrunched at the break from tradition.

 

To be fair, with probably the most experienced healer in the world present during the birth, nothing could have even tried to go wrong to begin with.

 

Either way, when I laid eyes onto my newborn great-granddaughter's shining, bright eyes for the first time, I was immediately converted to his opinions. A child this precious, ought to be celebrated even more." - Halmout Mansoor, Prime Minister of the Al-Shan Empire, circa 677 FP.

After two days of rest and relaxation in her family's house, Cal departed once more, this time to Al-Shan. When Xain and Layla visited last winter, Layla was in the last trimester of her pregnancy, so by now the baby should already be six months old or thereabouts.

 

She had naturally asked Aideen about them when they met just yesterday, since she remembered that Aideen had promised to be present during the birth in case she was needed. From the unliving woman, Cal received the news that Layla gave birth to a healthy baby girl in the second month of spring, and that at the time, both mother and child were in excellent health.

 

Even so Cal couldn't help but feel some nervousness as she walked through the gate and came out in the pagoda set in the center of Al-Shan. That nervousness only increased as she headed towards the imperial castle and made her way in without issue.

 

A couple ministers identifiable from their dress as part of the traditionalist faction frowned when they saw her, but she paid them no heed and just walked further into the palace, headed towards the wing where she knew was the residence of the imperial couple.

 

She saw a couple familiar faces as she walked there, a couple of the imperial guards being youngsters she had once fought with during the civil war. They let her pass without issue, and showed her the way towards a foyer where the Empress was.

 

Cal saw Layla lounged on a divan in the open, bright foyer, as she held her baby daughter, who busily suckled on her one exposed breast. She noticed Cal right away, but made a gesture to ask her to be quiet, and Cal obliged as she quietly walked towards where the young Empress lounged.

 

The baby girl must have noticed her presence as the child stopped suckling at her mother's breast and turned around, looking at Cal who had just knelt by the divan with her shining, bright innocent eyes. She cooed happily, her innocent smile so bright, as she reached towards Cal's face with one pudgy hand.

 

Cal allowed the child's soft hand to mess about her face and hair as she smiled back at the baby girl, who laughed happily at the sight. The sight of such a bright, happy, innocent child naturally brought back some… less pleasant memories to her mind, yet the child's innocent laughter seemed to drive them away.

 

"Oh my, that's a rarity," said Layla tenderly as she watched her baby daughter mess Cal's hair excitedly. Motherhood had apparently suited the young Empress well, given her lively expression, and even now, a mere six or so months after the birth of her child, she already regained her slender form. "She likes you, Cal. Farah's usually very shy with most everyone not me or Xain."

 

"You named her Farah, huh?" said Cal as she in turn teased the baby girl carefully with one finger, which the girl promptly caught with both hands and tried to suckle on. "After the two I'm thinking of, I assume?"

 

"Indeed, we named her after her grandfather and grandmother," replied Layla with a smile on her face. The grandfather in question was Layla's father, who died during the civil war when she was young, named Farouq, while the grandmother in question was the late princess Dinah, Xain's mother. "Want to hold her?"

 

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Since Layla was already holding the child towards Cal with both hands, Cal gingerly accepted. She supported the baby's warm, soft form with the crook of one arm, while her other hand teased the active child, who just smiled and laughed all the more at the teasing.

 

Xain arrived not ten minutes later, Cal's arrival to the palace clearly reported to him right away. He refrained from an embrace when he saw that Cal cradled his giggling little daughter, though. Little Farah saw her father, and squirmed in Cal's hands as she turned to face him.

 

"Congratulations, Xain," said Cal as she affectionately nuzzled Xain's hair. He had already changed out of his formal outfit and wasn't wearing his turban, so Cal made an outright mess out of his nearly combed hair. "You have a child of your own to look after now… do well by her, and make her proud to have you as a father."

 

"Oh, right," Cal said as she suddenly recalled one of the purposes she came for. With one hand still carefully cradling the baby, she brought out many items from her pendant with her other hand and piled them right there on the floor. "Think of these as gifts for Farah."

 

Xain's eyes boggled somewhat when he took a closer look at what Cal had gifted them. The gifts looked simple, six downy pillows, and what looked like a dozen or so rolls of silken cloth.

 

One touch on the pillows made him realize that there was something different about them, and as he brought them closer, he could smell a light fragrance emanating from them.

 

Similarly, it was only after he touched the silken cloth did he realize their true identity. While Xain was used of Cal bringing gifts that would be considered rare and expensive each time she came by, this was a whole order of magnitude more than what she usually brought.

 

"Cal… did you really just give enough Padma Silk to buy a mansion for my baby daughter?" He asked with some incredulity. The silk was an extremely rare product, extracted from the stems of some indigenous water plants native to the Elmaiyan jungles, ridiculously labor-intensive to produce.

 

It was also extremely smooth to the touch, cool when it was hot outside, warm when it was cold. Its resilience was no less than the sea spider silk favored by Al-Shan nobility. To say it was a valuable gift, would have been an understatement.

 

The pillows were made with that exact silk as their outer layer, and was filled with pure down from a tribe of avian therians from the western isles. They were renowned to produce down that had a pleasant, relaxing fragrance on top of being extremely soft. It was a vaunted luxury even in Elmaiya.

 

"Chill, kid. I made a killing over at Sabaya's tournament, so I figured I'd splurge a bit for your kid," replied Cal nonchalantly, still with a gentle smile on her face as she coaxed Farah in her arms. "Make her some clothes out of it and keep a couple rolls for when she's grown up, I'd say. Though it's up to you how you'd deal with it."

 

"That's mighty generous of you regardless, Cal," replied Layla as she tucked her breast back under her clothes. They chatted happily for a while more until Layla noticed Cal's expression taking a turn for the strange. "Uhh… Cal? What's wrong?"

 

"Do you use nurses to handle stuff like these or do you do it yourself?" Cal asked in return, as she felt the warmth spreading down from her arm towards her abdomen. "Because I think Farah just peed on me."

 

 

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