Void’s nails were leaving deep rents in the cobblestone road as I dragged her down the street to the doctor’s appointment. The sound of keratin screeching upon igneous rock shattered eardrums of Leoren residents and glass panes alike. Pet dogs howled, black Pegasi fell from the skies and the Grand Creator peeked through the clouds just to tell us to keep the noise down. It was pandemonium of such magnitude it was told for thousands of years to come.

  Of course, I’m mildly exaggerating, but Void really didn’t want to go to see Doctor Payan this morning.

  It all started when we awoke bright and early at 630 Mor. Void initially argued we couldn’t go because Lia was still asleep between us. After I gently peeled myself away without waking Lia, Void pivoted to claiming she wasn’t feeling good and should take the day off.

  I wasn’t having it and pointed out that’s why we were going to the doctor in the first place. She then claimed she was healed by divine intervention and didn’t need to go anymore. That was instantly debunked when she rushed to take one of her anti-nausea pills.

  The various excuses continued until I threatened to throw her over my shoulder and carry her to the doctor’s. Thankfully, Void relented and we left. Thankfully because I didn’t want to throw my back out doing it; Void’s the one at Advancement 2, not me.

  Admittedly, I was a little tired and wanted to sleep in. Lia had a couple of night terrors which Void and I had to calm which cut into our rest. Since we were popping over for a doctor’s visit, it didn’t make sense to wake her or Tizek up to come along. Mira and Doun were also sleeping in after their night of fun.

  The doctor’s office was in the middle-class part of town about a 30 minute walk from The Gnashing Teeth. It was in a nice tree building similar to a weeping redbud from back home. I heard they were rather gorgeous in mid-spring. Currently, the vine-like leaves were dark reddish-green in response to the cooling temperatures.

  Overhead, I could see dark clouds rolling in. After three months of dry skies, I’d be experiencing the first rain in centuries that wasn’t dropping on my head in a water dungeon. I’m glad I bought the hat, which I made note to buy on my next loop. I think it would go really well with my booty shorts and unbuttoned shirt. And I’m not cold, I’ll still wear my favorite outfit when I got it back again.

  We stepped into the doctor’s office 30 minutes ahead of Void’s 8 Mor appointment. There were already a pair of patients in the waiting room and a bored receptionist, a fox-clan woman, was idly flipping through a morning newspaper.

  “Sign in,” the woman said with a bored tone of voice without looking up at us. One of the other patients in the room discretely coughed to try and get the receptionist’s attention.

  Void signed in and the woman, once more without looking up from her paper, pointed into the waiting room. “Wait there. Doctor Payan will see you soon.”

  The other two patients – a wolf-clan man and a raccoon-clan woman – had looks of concern on their faces. I deduced they were worried the receptionist just insulted a noble by not letting me cut the line. I shrugged at them. “No worries.”

  That seemed to calm them down.

  Void, on the other hand, was even more nervous. She was trying to make herself as small as possible in her chair and she kept glancing at the door to the back office.

  “It’s not that bad,” I said.

  Her head slowly turned to me. “You don’t know the horror.”

  I raised an eyebrow. Instead of responding to that bit of hyperbole, I picked up one of the magazines on an end table next to my chair.

  Like any good doctor’s office, the magazine had a torn, stained cover and was a bit out-of-date. It was currently the year 1203 After-Catastrophe, or AC. How long ago the mythical catastrophe actually happened is unknown and scholars just based it on the earliest re-emergence of writing. It was good enough for coordinating things.

  The magazine in my hand was printed in 1197 AC and it was a children’s nature magazine. Even in an alternate reality, medical offices really liked their educational nature periodicals.

  I was flipping through the magazine and I saw a section on rabbits. I nudged Void. “Want to read it?”

  She glanced at the page. “That’s for kids.” I could tell she didn’t want to be seen holding a children’s article in public.

  I shrugged and read the magazine with the pages wide open on my lap where she could see the pages just fine. I whispered into her ear, “Just poke me when you want me to turn the page.”

  Void’s lips briefly raised up in a smile before her low-level nervous expression returned. Her eyes glanced down while she kept her face facing forward and I felt a tap on my side after a few minutes. I doubt anyone would have noticed her reading the rabbit article since the two patients were staring at me while the receptionist never looked up.

  Eventually, the door to the back opened and a deer-clan woman stepped out, probably a nurse or something. “Samanth—”

  The nurse paused when her eyes locked on mine. She gasped, rushed over to the receptionist and whispered something. The receptionist looked annoyed to be interrupted, at least until she followed the nurse’s pointing finger to me.

  The receptionist looked through some papers on her desk, shook her head at the nurse who then approached me. “Baron? Do you wish to be seen? We don’t have an appointment for you and we can get you in immediately.”

  “I’m fine. We already signed Void in,” I replied.

  The nurse looked at her sheet again then to one of the patients, the raccoon-clan woman. “Samantha? Do you mind waiting a little longer so we can get the Baron in?”

  “You don’t have to—” I started.

  “Please,” Samantha replied. She seemed oddly relieved to hear her appointment would be delayed. Void, on the other hand, whimpered. Once more, I was annoyed at my new title since it drew, well, extra attention on me. I’d rather people look at me because I’m wearing a purple and gold shirt with a feathered broad-rim hat.

  “This way, then,” the nurse replied and ushered us back.

  “I’ll see you in a bit,” I said and looked for another ancient magazine to flip through.

  “Can he come with me?” Void asked the nurse.

  The nurse nodded. I rolled my eyes and stood to join Void. She was acting way too childish for seeing a doctor.

  The nurse took a few height and weight measurement for Void, which I’ll refrain from telling you, my dear audience, because a lady has her secrets, then left us in an exam room.

  The room was pleasant enough. It had the usual wood walls with a vine drop ceiling typical inside buildings. The floor, though, was polished marble and Void sat on a polished marble examination table. They were marble for the ease of cleaning afterward.

  To one side was a desk with various flasks, chemicals, those sticks they shove in your throat when the doctor says “aah” and a jar of lollipops. I was eyeing those lollipops, particularly the red one. Red is my favorite flavor, just after purple, which were absent.

  The walls had the usual posters. A cat hanging from a cliffside with “Hang In There” written on it, a few anti-drug messages and an anatomy poster.

  The anatomy poster was interesting since there was a rack just below it with see-through film. On each film was an outline of a different clan. The internal anatomy was identical no matter the clan – which was also identical to humans – but for purposes of comfort, the anatomy chart had options to swap out the outline to suit the viewer. I went up to switch it to wolf-clan.

  Void was even more nervous than before. I tried to talk to her, but all she could do was stare at the door.

  Then the door handle clicked and Void’s posture stiffened in fear. I watched the door to see what was causing Void to freeze-up with terror.

  Entering the room was…a white bear-clan woman in her 70s. The woman was wearing a doctor’s overcoat and had a woven tube attached to a polished red mana crystal disk looped around her neck. She had a pair of thin wooden spectacles perched on her nose and was staring at a clipboard.

  Everything about this woman reminded me of Mrs. Santa Claus. Her gaze, her little grin, all of it screamed disarming and kind. I had no idea why Void was terrified of this woman.

  “Oh,” the woman said. “I didn’t know the new Baron would be joining. I’m Dr. Payan. What brings you in here with Void?”

  “She’s my fiancé,” I replied. “She asked me to accompany her in here.”

  “Congratulations to the new Baroninne,” Dr. Payan replied with a gentle tone. “She’s always been a bit of a worrier. I had no idea she was still asking to have someone come in here during appointments.”

  Dr. Payan walked to the counter and retrieved one of the tongue depressors from the jar. She then walked up to Void, who had the whites of her eyes showing. Once more, I had no idea why Void was terrified of this woman.

  Then I found out when Dr. Payan approached Void. Instead of asking Void to open up to check the throat, Dr. Payan raised the tongue depressor and smacked Void across the nose with it. “Young lady! Where have you been?”

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  “I—” Void started.

  “I will not have my patients getting sick on me!” Dr. Payan continued with another whack across Void’s nose. “I haven’t seen you in ten years! You need to take more care of your health.”

  “But—” Void tried to speak again.

  “I was the first person to hold you in this world,” Dr. Payan scolded with a third smack of the tongue depressor. “What would I tell your mother, who I also delivered into this world, if you died from the plague? Hmm?”

  “I was on the night shift!” Void complained. “I couldn’t get in.”

  Another smack. I was starting to feel my nose hurt second-hand. “No excuses! Were you sleeping in instead of taking care of your health?”

  I held back a smirk. That’s exactly what Void was doing.

  Before Void could answer, Dr. Payan got down to business. “Why are you here today? Check-up?”

  “I’ve been feeling sick the last few days. I’d like to check if I have a miasma,” Void said. This world didn’t know about microorganisms and I didn’t want to end up on the receiving end of the tongue depressor for lecturing a doctor.

  The doctor hummed and pulled a vial and a wooden needle out of her cabinet. She then waved a hand over the vial and water began pouring out of her fingertip.

  Oh? You thought she’d be Light attuned, dear reader? Those are healers. Dr. Payan is a general practitioner and they focus on alchemical diagnostics. Those ones are water attuned. Surgeons tend to be Air attuned since they can create fine air sheaths over blades for incisions since metal instruments don’t last long here.

  Void closed her eyes and winced when Dr. Payan pricked her finger. I’ve seen Void take full stabs to the shoulder and barely grunt, yet a little wooden needle sent her over the edge.

  To be fair, I got chomped by a gator in my thigh and my reaction was to wrap it with duct tape after poking the gator in the eyes to get it off me. Yet when I went to get a blood test, I passed right out and was wondering why a physician’s assistant was prodding me in bed. I had fallen on the office floor.

  Dr. Payan dropped the needle into the vial and cast another spell. She looked at it for a while and nothing happened. “What are your symptoms?”

  “A wave of nausea hits me now and again,” Void explained. “It was bad this morning and when I smelled the roasted chestnuts we got yesterday. It passed quickly, though, and this citrus decoction I got from the alchemist is helping.”

  Dr. Payan nodded. “I need to run one more test.”

  Once more, Void winced as she was poked. This time, the needle went into a longer tube with a stopper. Dr. Payan cast a different spell, I could tell by how she subtly moved her body, and swirled the liquid with the needle.

  Then it started to change color. First, it turned deep blue and, within, two swirls – one yellow and one green – formed. The swirls lazily orbited each other inside like a barber pole. It was an interesting effect which mesmerized me. Maybe I’ll see if I can use this effect to create lava lamps.

  “I have good news and good news, which do you want first?” Dr. Payan asked.

  Void and I looked at each other before she spoke. “Good news?”

  Dr. Payan harrumphed. “I would have picked good news first, but if you want good news, I’ll give it to you. You don’t have miasma. I also didn’t detect any toxins, poisons, venoms or fungus.”

  “And the good news?” I asked, perplexed by the doctor’s attempt at a joke.

  “I already told you that,” Dr. Payan retorted. “I shall give you the good news instead. Congratulations to the new parents, unless the Baron is not the father. Then, congratulations on your future breakup.”

  More jokes and…wait a minute. What did she say?

  I must have said that last bit out loud because Dr. Payan replied. “New parents, they’re twins.” She tapped the vial. “See? Green for boy and yellow for girl.”

  Tunnel vision took over my sight and I flopped down against the wall and to the floor. Remember that Natty Light I told you about earlier this morning a few loops back? Someone just cracked open a can and set it right in front of me.

  “You don’t want them?” I heard a voice call out. I returned to the room and I saw Void staring at me with a mixture of hurt and fear.

  Shit, she misinterpreted my expression. “No, that’s not it.”

  “Then why are you looking like that?” Void asked. “You’re not going to leave, are you?”

  “Where did you get that—” I shook my head. “Alright, bear with me for a moment. This is something I need to say about my philosophy in life. It’ll sound a little off at first, but stick it out. I don’t want kids or a wife.”

  Void’s eyes widened and I could see some tears starting to form.

  “What I want is to be a father and a husband,” I quickly continued.

  Void’s expression instantly changed to puzzled. “What does that mean? Is there a difference?”

  I took a deep breath. “Huge. Saying I want kids and a wife? That’s a bad outlook on life, like you exist to satisfy me. Like you’re my property. But you and those two are your own people. What I strive to be is someone you can be proud of, someone who can support you and raise them.”

  I felt a grin creep onto my face. “I’m happy I’ve been given the opportunity. Back home? I was never given a second look. I was too strange for academic types and just a little too brainy for everyone else. I never quite fit in and always had to repress part of me everywhere I went. I think people could tell I was doing it and it pushed them away. I could never just be me.”

  “Before you, I never even had a date,” I continued and pushed myself back to my feet. “Then I ended up getting summoned here out of nowhere and, what do I find? Someone who thinks I’m her perfect man. What else can I say but I’m beyond overjoyed about this.”

  Dr. Payan had a warm smile on her face. She approached me and…whacked me right across the nose with the tongue depressor. “Ow,” I replied with a nasally voice because I was holding my schnoz.

  “Nice sentiment, but you could have phrased it better,” Dr. Payan scolded me.

  “Fair,” I replied as I rubbed my bruised beak.

  I didn’t have much time to collect my thoughts when Void jumped off the exam table and wrapped me in an embrace. I could see her tail wagging vigorously behind her as I returned her hug.

  After we parted, Dr. Payan held out the vial. “Here, for you.”

  “I can’t wait to show mom and dad,” Void bounced excitedly. People here used those vials in the same way as at-home tests. Instead of two lines, it was a green or yellow swirl. In our case, one of each.

  Then her mood instantly evaporated. “Oh no, we’re not married yet. Dad’s going to be mad.”

  Dr. Payan snorted. “If he does, I’ll have a talking to him. He and Mira weren’t married when you were conceived.”

  I’m not sure which I feared worse – hearing it from Doun or what Dr. Payan would do to him if he did get on us for this.

  “Go, head home. I have more patients to see,” Dr. Payan huffed. She picked up her lollipop jar and held it to Void. “Here, for not crying when I took the blood.”

  Void blanched. She already didn’t like sugar much and now she had a pair of little ones throwing her body chemistry off. “No thanks.”

  I must have been making a sad face because Dr. Payan rolled her eyes and held the jar out to me. “For the esteemed Baron.”

  I grinned and grabbed a red one. “Thank you! Red is my favorite.”

  We started to head out of the office when Void stopped abruptly. “Doctor? I have a question.”

  “Hmm? What is it?” Dr. Payan replied.

  “Uh…will it hurt the babies if we…you know,” Void trailed off.

  “He your first, eh?” Dr. Payan dryly said. “Addict. It should be fine. You have good muscles to protect them. Just be gentle. Don’t forget to set up a follow-up in a month. We need to check their growth regularly.”

  We left the office and stopped by the reception desk. The receptionist did the usual staring at me thing when I tried to pay. Dr. Payan rolled her eyes and put her hand out. “One silver coin.”

  I appreciated Dr. Payan not caring about my status. I opened my pouch and a proverbial moth flew out. I did have a Silver Sovereign, but apart from five copper coins, that was it. I gave it to the doctor and we left the office.

  Outside, the weather had turned and was severely mismatched with our mood. The grey cloud had come in and the rain was coming down. I felt bad for Void and put my hat on her head. “Here, for the new mom.”

  “What about you?” Void asked as the water drained off the wide brim. The feather, though, looked sad drooping in the rain.

  I stared up at the sky and let the cold rain wash over my face as we walked down the street. People were taking it in stride and letting their fur soak. The beaver and otter-clan people were happy since the water just flowed off their hides. “This is nothing. I can still see a meter in front of me.”

  Void cocked her head to the side. I found it cute. “How bad was the rain where you’re from?”

  “A good Florida afternoon meant, sometimes, waiting on the side of the road for a bit to let it pass. Otherwise, it was too risky to travel,” I replied. I didn’t go into the details of being in a car while doing it.

  She shuddered. “That sounds awful. I also noticed something, your head and face fur has gotten longer. Is it your winter coat?”

  I reached up and grabbed my beard. It was getting a bit ratty and so was the top of my head. I hadn’t shaved or had a haircut in centuries. This world didn’t have barbers since fur grew to a set length fast and stopped. They did have groomers who would help with undercoat maintenance and matted fur.

  “This is called hair. It can grow fairly long, usually hitting its maximum length in about two years before the follicle cycles,” I explained. “We usually cut and shave, but you don’t have those functions here.”

  A grin came to my face when I thought of an appropriate hairstyle. “Don’t worry, I can handle that on my own. I’m looking forward to having the business in the front and party in the back.”

  Void’s brow furrowed and her head cocked to the other side. “What’s that mean?”

  “Oh, you’ll find out,” I replied. “It’s the ultimate in versatility.”

  Void shrugged. We walked on for a few minutes making light conversation when Void asked me something heavy. “What were you really thinking when Dr. Payan said I’m pregnant?”

  I looked around the street at the people moving around and inhaled the cool scent of freshly fallen rain. I found it peaceful. “I was thinking about how none of this makes any sense. I don’t know how you could be pregnant.”

  Void chuckled. “I thought you were smart. You don’t know where babies come from?”

  I snorted and playfully slapped Void’s shoulder. “No, not that. I mean it shouldn’t work. I’m from an entirely different plane of existence. It’s already stretching the bounds of logic to have compatible genitals, let alone entirely compatible genetics. Heck, your existence doesn’t make much sense.”

  “I…” Void trailed off. “I don’t know what to think of that. You think I shouldn’t exist?”

  “Don’t take that wrong. I’m happy you exist,” I quickly said. “No, I mean the fact that your mom is wolf-clan and dad is badger-clan is illogical.”

  “I still don’t understand,” Void said.

  I sighed. “I haven’t gone over this with you, well, this version of you. Where I come from? We are substantially more advanced than this world. Sure, magic here can do a lot of things we can and, in some cases, better. Like how clean it is in a city this size.”

  I looked around at the myriad of people walking the streets. “What we excel at is delving into the deep mechanics of how the universe works. I’ve worked with units of energy so small and fast you can’t comprehend them. One of the things we understand is a thing called genetics.”

  I looked at Void to make sure I wasn’t boring her. She looked interested so I continued. “All living things are made up of little instructions we call deoxyribonucleic acid. The acronym won’t make sense here since it’s built for my writing system and the world won’t translate it. Let’s just call it Life Instructions.”

  “These Life Instructions govern everything about you. Your height, muscle structure, fur color and more. Half of these are from your dad and the other half from your mom. It’s in these random mixtures that make siblings different. Being too similar is why the people in Daulien have problems,” I said.

  “Over time,” I continued, “These instructions become incompatible. It’s why a pig and a bison can’t procreate. They’re incompatible. Yet, for some reason, all of the intelligent people can interbreed. There are 16 native clans in Vialina plus 2 more refugee clans. Then there’s Tizek from the Scalelands where 21 different clans exist. Daulien has 13 native there. Out in the world are even more.”

  I stopped to look at Void once more as we turned down Fire Alley. She was still with me.

  “These forms came from hundreds of thousands of years of drift to create them,” I said. “Yet, for some reason, the instructions never became incompatible. There is an entire clan of Badger people and an entire clan of Wolf people yet they can produce something beautiful, you.”

  Void snorted. “That makes no sense. Everyone knows the Grand Creator made us like this and blessed the land with diversity.”

  Void was very religious and the Temple of the Grand Creator had a hard-creation myth. I wasn’t going to argue it. “Still, the fact I’m compatible is strange.”

  “Divine magic makes us so,” Void confidently said.

  I snapped my finger and pointed at her. “Exactly! Magic is something different between our worlds. Well, maybe, since the six of us summoned here have mana pools even if they were inert. This world is heavily influenced by magic. This explains how I, a different species from a different plane of reality, can have kids with you.”

  Void started to rub her temples. “That makes sense, but how is this relevant right now?”

  “Well,” I said, “This is a working hypothesis—”

  “What’s a high-poe-thee-sis?” Void asked.

  “A sort of guess developed from a lot of observations,” I said. “Anyway, magic is a huge part of how this world works. There was a catastrophe way in the past that changed how magic works. What if something is broken? Maybe that can explain why He Who is Eternal’s ugly servant is able to break through.”

  Void paused and pulled me under an awning of a wood shaper shop. “What do you mean? How do you know?”

  “I don’t know. It’s just a guess from little things. Remember Carolina?”

  Void nodded. “One of the summoned heroes.”

  “Correct,” I replied. “You see, where we come from, she’s attracted to women. Sexually.”

  Void looked severely confused by that statement. “Are two women able to have babies?”

  I shook my head. “No.”

  “That doesn’t make sense then,” Void replied.

  “To you, yes,” I said. “It doesn’t exist here. This is just a guess, but I think that’s a sign something is broken with the magic here.”

  “Why is that?” Void asked. “Maybe it’s just a difference between our worlds.”

  “Yet whatever magic works here didn’t change that like it made us able to have kids,” I replied. “There was something a biologist colleague told me. He was working on a study on the subject. You see, a lot of animals in our world have members attracted only to the same-sex. He thought it had something to do with species survival. A portion, around 2 or 3% of the population, would find their own gender attractive. In species where there is bi-parental care, it’s observed the same-sex couples would adopt orphans.”

  Void patiently listened while I spoke. She looked out over the population with a look of contemplation on her face.

  “I’m just throwing darts here, but I think whatever this catastrophe did also broke that part of the world. There should be people here like Carolina, but there aren’t,” I explained. “Maybe other things are broken, like whatever mechanism is keeping the invader out. If your reality were fragile enough to allow people like me to come in and for others to call in invaders, it would have been wiped out a long time ago.”

  “I’m not entirely sure. This is new to me,” Void replied.

  “I know,” I said. “Mainly because no one here has a comparison point. It just is.”

  “If you’re right, then what?” Void asked.

  “I don’t even know I’m right,” I replied. “But, I think the idea of getting into the Mage’s College has now become our top priority. If anyone knows about the deeper mechanics of magic, it’ll be them. Then I can leverage the good, old Scientific Method and crack this mystery and break the loop for good.”

  “I have no idea what sai-ant-ific is, but it like it,” Void said, clearly latching onto the part about breaking the loop. “Come on, I don’t think you’ll find the answer here in the rain.”

  “Right you are, my gorgeous fiancé,” I grinned. “Let’s get home and tell everyone the good news.

  As we walked, the crowd began to grow. It was unusual for this many people to be out at this time of day. It was Danesday, so everyone would normally be at work somewhere, not on our sleepy street. There was also a strange tension in the air as people whispered to one another. Void and I also got glances, which I felt were not the usual “oh, look, there’s the Baron” I had gotten yesterday.

  “Oliver!” Void exclaimed as we got closer to The Gnashing Teeth. “The Royal Guard is blocking the pub! We need to hurry, something bad happened!”

  I began pushing through the crowd with Void. My musings were forgotten as we made our way to the pub and the squad of Royal Guards and a pair of prison wagons were menacingly blocking the crowd from the building.

  My worry spiked badly as we ran. I made sure my Heartstop dagger was ready in case I had to force a loop. Whatever happened was this morning and, after I figured out what it was, I was going to break my rule on not forcing a loop to fix it.