Jonni felt even worse being stuck in a place she had no control over with Lucius's innocent son, who was even worse off than her. It also occurred to her: the old man had turned his own son into a mute servant girl. She, Jonni, was carrying his child. Would he mistreat his child by Jon as badly as he'd mistreated his older child? But there was nothing she could do... about any of it.
But she could indeed, do nothing. The wishes cut off any true chance of escape and she could only wait in dread for more of Lucius's plans. Every night she slept with her new husband--how strange it was to even have a husband, as she still thought of herself as Jon most of the time.
And in the meantime her belly kept expanding. The baby growing older. Until at one point Lucius interrupted her in her quarters--reading a book, since she still had no contact with the outside world--and told her "It's time for your exam at the obstetrician."
"I don't see what this is for," she told Lucius.
"Oh, my dear, don't tell me you don't know what an obstetrician is."
She hesitated, still afraid of angering the man, but he said "Do speak."
Relaxing very slightly she said what was on her mind. "You have magic. You don't need to take me to a doctor, you just need to wish my baby's okay. You don't need to do a lot of things that you do. You don't even need to leave me pregnant--one wish and it would all be over with."
He didn't get angry, or hid it well, but neither did he answer. "Come, the doctor awaits." he said. Obviously he was going to keep up the pretense of this being a normal marriage, by his standards.
There was only Lucius and the doctor, thus time--no burly nurses or guards--but then Lucius had already wished she couldn't hurt him, nor could she escape without returning to his bed somehow. The embarrassment came from having Lucius watching and the fact that she had such an exam at all.
"Will I have a son?" asked Lucius after the doctor had finished with his ultrasound machine? "And is he healthy?"
"Healthy, yes," said the doctor. "But how long ago did she become pregnant? You said 8 months ago. That's not possible."
"Has something happened to my wife?" asked Lucius. "Are there problems? Deformities?" He said it very casually, no doubt partly because he had a stone that could instantly wish away any such problems.
"We'll have to wait for all the tests to be sure, but there seems to be no problems. Your wife is expecting healthy twin girls. She's not at 8 months; it just seemed that way because of the extra weight."
Jonni was surprised, but after all, twins did run in her family.
"The wish..." said Lucius. "If you became instantly pregnant I had no way to know how far along you were. And 'same as Nora' could mean 'as pregnant as', not 'as many months as'."
The obstetrician looked at Lucius with confusion.
"It is nothing," he told the doctor. "You needn't let it cause you trouble."
The doctor, like all those working for Lucius, was obedient enough not to question any further. "You'll receive a full report on your children as soon as it's available," he said.
The tests came back fine, needless to say. Lucius presented them to Jonni, made some comment about alleviating her worries as a mother, and left. Meanwhile, she was wondering how it would affect Lucius. Not particularly out of concern, but because she didn't know what he would do about a sudden upset in his plans. He didn't say that having a male baby was a requirement, but she had gotten that impression, if only because she didn't think a man who thought of women like Lucius did would want a girl as an heir, let alone as a god (and weren't female gods called goddesses anyway?) Jonni kept getting bigger and bigger until the actual birth date approached, with nothing more said by Lucius about the subject, but she was sure it would come.
Then, finally, it was time. The labor pains started and she was taken off to the doctor. At least giving birth to twins would cancel out one wish. If that counted as giving birth twice, anyway.
