Chapter 19: Gifts

~~ June - Weeks 26 ~~

Later the next day, Lee went into the forest to talk to the wives.

“Greeting Ladies, is it possible to have a meeting with you?” she asked.

The faerie wives had been working hard. They were pleased with their progress. They wondered what the wizards needed. Ida hit the button Sean had installed to let the ladder down. Lee climbed up and took her seat on the cushions they had provided for her to visit. The wives gathered around to find out what she wanted.

“I have a problem,” she told them. “Ida, please touch my stomach.”

Ida complied and then beamed at her. “T’is a wondrous thing,” she said. “We not only do we have a Lady High Wizard, but she carries another. Our clan is truly blessed to be associated with Queen Sparky’s family.”

“Queen?” Lee queried, momentarily distracted from her own problems.

“Yes, Sparky’s family is a very old family. She is the last of her direct line. Ross was a prince of the neighbouring clan but a second son. It was an honour for our old clan for him to have been chosen for Sparky by her mother. When we found out her family had died, we expected her to claim Caiseal, Ross’ older brother.”

“But she said she would only honour the original contract. When Ross asked us to come with him, we were very pleased. We do not like his brother and to be first families of a new clan is very prestigious,” she finished wondering why she had said so much. Faeries did not normally share clan issues with big people.

Lee knew from what she had read that the faeries were very status-conscious, and their contracts were their word. “Thank you, Ide and ladies, all you tell me will be treated with respect. I have no wish to bring harm to my faerie family,” Lee bowed her head with respect.

Ide felt better, this wizard understood their ways, and it was a good thing.

“Now to my problem. Sean is a very traditional man. Where we come from, many people still prefer to be married before any children are bought into the family. This can have political consequences in our culture,” Lee told them.

The ladies nodded; this was true for them as well.

“So, he wishes for us to marry next Sunday. In my culture, weddings have some traditions, which are generally followed. One is that the couple has special clothes to wear for the wedding.”

She no sooner finished, and she was surrounded by dancing faeries. “Oh yes, yes,” was chorused around her as they clapped their hands in delight.

Lee liked to have her facts straight. She asked, “So you will help me make a dress?”

The faeries started settling down, nodding happily at Lee. Sparky and Ross had turned up, so they had to be told why Lee was there. Sparky also had to touch her stomach.

Lee looked at the ladies in wonderment. “Is there one of you that is not pregnant?” she asked. They all giggled and confirmed that they all were except for Ciar. They had even held a small wedding ceremony for Daigh and Searc.

Lee looked at Sparky and grinned. “I’m sure Sean will be pleased to find he is soon to be a grandfather as well as a father again,” she told her. Everyone giggled as they all knew how protective of Sparky, Sean was.

“The strange thing is that I can’t tell what sex they are or how many babies. I can only sense that you are pregnant,” Lee told the faeries.

The talk got back to wedding dresses, and Lee told the ladies she didn’t want anything two complicated as long as it was pretty. She was happy to extend the other contract for the lingerie due to the urgency of this request.

The ladies all agreed that this was a fair deal. They then got the details of when the wedding was to be and what was involved in a human wedding. Lee had to admit she hadn’t got that far. She only knew Sean expected her to look nice, but she suspected it would be later in the week probably Sunday. She would get back to them.

Lee heard the transporter arrive and explained she had to go. She had to go to the big ship to do some work and talk to the Captain of the big ship. Lee had been going up to the starship every three to four days as she still had a commitment as the supervisor of the engineering crew.

The ladies asked her to look at the parcels of lingerie they had completed and to take any that were for the people still on board. Lee was amazed to see how many sets they had already completed. She gathered up the parcels and headed for the transporter.

The first thing she did was hunt down the owners of the parcels and handed them out. She couldn’t believe how happy they all were to get the lingerie. Even the guys ‘cooed’ over the boxers. She found the Captain and handed him his pair as well. Much to his amazement and amusement, they were black and blue stripes with pink stars. Even Lee had to laugh at the sight of them.

“Damn, those faeries are inventive. I told them you guys liked bright patterns and they have been having fun coming up with unique patterns.”

The Captain had to agree with her. He also knew he was going to wear them. He thought Sung might like them. He was also looking forward to seeing the lingerie, Sung got.

Lee had told the ship’s crew previously that they were ‘payment’ from the faeries for their new homes. They could give her the orders for more. She had even worked out a system with the Captain that the crew could deduct payment from the crew’s wages.

She would issue the equivalent in gold to the faeries from their supplies. Since the crew had nowhere to spend their wages and the cost was considered more than reasonable, in fact, it was downright cheap, they also agreed this was an excellent system.

“Captain, I have a problem,” she told him.

The Captain always took her problems seriously, “How can I help Lee?”

“Hmm, well, I’m pregnant,” she said as she looked into the shocked face of the Captain.

“Good grief, don’t tell me the tags aren’t working here?”

“Hmm, I don’t think the tag was the problem. You remember the sealed boxes, Kyle found?”

“Yes,” he answered.

“Well as we suspected, they had belonged to three of the dead wizards. Two of the boxes opened for Kyle and I, and well, we are now wizards,” she told her bling to become visible to the Captain’s amazement.

To him, Lee glowed very brightly, and he had blinked several times until she turned the items invisible again. She explained that so far, they had found they had different abilities but were still learning. Would he mind keeping it to himself for now? He agreed.

“I think Sean’s desire to be a father and mine to accommodate him also had something to do with it,” she concluded.

“What about Debora?” he asked.

Surprised, Lee hadn’t given her a thought. “I’ll have to check when I get back,” she answered thoughtfully.

“So, is that the only problem?” the Captain asked as if that wasn’t bad enough. What the hell would he do with kids and wizards on the ship? Whatever being a wizard entailed.

“Well, Sean is insisting he wants us to get married. So, we need someone to officiate. We are planning the wedding for next weekend since the domes are now complete. We though a holiday may be in order, what do you think?”

“I fully expected I would be performing the duty, with so many single people and two years away. I even became certified as a marriage celebrant before we left. So, there were no legal ramifications of me only being a ship’s Captain so that part is easy,” he said and then looked thoughtful.