Theanore ran as fast as her little legs allowed. She needed to tell Marinus they had a baby. He would be so happy. She found him arm wrestling with Cassius. She was sure it was over something silly.

“Mari, you are a father now!” Said Theanore and both boys fell off the stumps they used as chairs.

“What? I am not.” Said Marinus. He looked over Theanore and found her stomach was just as flat as ever. What was the meaning of this? The few pregnant mermaids he had seen had always had big bellies.

“I planted a tree and Mary was born. She has your red hair and freckles. She is your daughter, Mari.” Said Theanore. She didn’t understand why Marinus was not happy now.

“Oh.” Said both boys at the same time. Then Cassius spoke.

“How do you know she is Marinus’ daughter? She could be mine.” He said hopefully. Some children didn’t look like their fathers. And he and Theanore had been married. Married couples had children frequently.

“She looks like Mari, so she is Mari’s daughter. And she is as big as me and very nice. She can’t grow immediately because she has only 1 mana, but when she will be able to absorb wealth, I will give her so much she will be able to have a sapling.” Said Theanore. She was determined to be a good mother. Perhaps she should knit Mary something? Her scarfs had fewer holes in them as of late.

“Yes, Cassius. I have a daughter, not you. Thea, can we go see Mary now?” Said Marinus. Now that he had someone tying him to Theanore, he was certain that the marriage was not far off.

“She is asleep now. She needs a lot of nap times. Her being a newborn.” Said Theanore. From the book she read because of Archibald, she knew these things. Then, she got a message from Tania.

Thea, Archie, woke up. He is calling for you.

“Archie woke up. I need to go to him and feed him.” Said Theanore, and she ran towards Crassus’ house. The two boys followed her.

“Well, if Mary is Marinus’, then Archie is mine. He looks like me.” Said Cassius, desperate to have a link to Theanore.

“Archie’s parents are dead. You are not his father.” Said Marinus smugly. He didn’t mind calling Archie son. Now that he was sure that Archibald saw Theanore as a sister or a mother, he was more than happy to have a big family.

They entered the house and found Archibald sitting in his bed with a little ghostly red-haired girl, and they were both staring at each other.

“Pretty.” Archibald, just like Theanore, couldn’t pronounce the r’s, so it the r came out as an l.

“Mary, what are you doing here, dear?” Asked Theanore. Mary pointed at Archibald and giggled.

“Little brother.” She said, and Archibald pouted.

“I am bigger than you! And not see through.” Said Archibald, and it was Mary’s turn to pout.

“Archie, don’t be mean to Mary. She is a newborn. Mary, Archibald is bigger than you. You are his niece.” Said Theanore. She saw Archibald as a little brother, and he kept calling her big sister.

“I have a family?” Said Archibald, tearing up. Theanore hugged him and nuzzled his hair.

“You have me, Mary, Mari, Cassy, mommy Esmer and father Crassus. We have one big family, Archie.” Said Theanore, and the boy willed his tears back.

They spend the afternoon entertaining the two babies and then when night came, Mary disappeared to go back to her seed and Archibald went to sleep in Theanore’s arms.

The next morning, the worker elves told Theanore they had run out of flour. Theanore spend all her mana to get more wheat, but making it into flour was the ant's work, and it took some time.

Thus, breakfast was delayed. The children of the grotto ate dried fruit to tie them over, but Theanore wanted to find out why they were running out of food. Now that she was a subject of the Dawn Empire again, the food deliveries were the responsibility of the state again.

She asked Darion, and he told her it was because the road leading to the grotto was under construction. Theanore remembered having asked the ants to make her a better, stone, road and blushed.

The little nymph had not expected to have food problems because of the road. When she asked Darion when they were going to get more food, he told her it would take the road a month to be completed in the current weather conditions.

The mud made the work slower as the ants’ legs sank. The stone was hard to come by as only a small part of the road was close to the cliffs and the rest of the stone had to be carried in large distances.

Still, Theanore was reluctant to give up her projects. Between her and Marinus, they had two million mana. Plenty to feed everyone at the grotto. Besides, the lake was rich in fish and the sea was one tunnel away. They could make it.

But just to be safe, Darion proclaimed a rationing of the food of the grotto. No longer was anyone allowed seconds during meal times and there were no deserts as the sugar was kept for sugar syrup for the ants.

Seeing as the road was under construction, there won’t be any traders coming to take the silk from the silk spiders away. That was a major problem as it was a high-quality good, and it needed to be stored.

Seeing as no one lived in Elmar’s house by the lake, Theanore turned it in a temporary storage. She was sure it would soon be overflowing with silk, and so she had the worker elves make countless clothes from the silk and give them for enchanting.

Theanore and Marinus placed fire and lightness enchantments on them and gifted them to the children of the grotto. They had been wearing silk clothes for quite some time now, as the spiders produced too much to trade, but now their wardrobes were overflowing with enchanted clothes.

With no other choice, Theanore had the builder ants construct warehouses around the lake. Hopefully, it would be enough.