When a young blue horn woman suddenly breached the boarder crossing into Aldenburg her haggard appearance shocked the soldiers that apprehended her, and perhaps, what earned them their honest pity was the fact she was visibly carrying a child far along.
Instead of the cruelty and mockery she normally expected from the long-eared elves, they cleaned up Amara and took her in. They even had a physician carefully look over her and make sure her baby was developing properly.
Since her situation technically meant she was a renegade or "spare" in Mycean, it was decided that she would be placed in the monastery until she gave birth, during her stay she became friends with the other deva girls living there, including Nafula.
The two were closer in age compared to the much younger Am-nars that ran cheerfully through the abbey everyday, so they socialized more often than anyone else; the women would share all sorts of romantic stories, including Nafula's crush on a young lord who rescued her in the desert.
Amara was also stunned to observe how the young deva girls were treated like nobility, she assumed the elves were gonna raise them for immoral reasons or use them as slaves, but they were receiving an education and were being taught basic necessities in addition to luxurious meals and being doted regularly on by the nuns who acted as their parents.
Her horns were particularly powerful in deciphering emotions, and everything she saw was genuine, no lies, no deceit, just a loving family they were refused in Mycean.
Among the children was Calista, a rather frail looking deva of less than century, yet she possesses prodigy level abilities when strumming a harp! Amara actually got to observe one of her performances! She was angelically beautiful as her fingers magically graced every string ever so slightly as her white dress glowed with her silver hair in the rays of the sunlight. Oddly, the runaway priestess did notice that Calista always wraps her hair around her horns, keeping their blue shimmer obscured for some reason.
As she carried the baby to term surrounded by the support of warm environment, Amara finally found a sense of security that she thought was lost after her lover, Xavier, confronted their pursuers to allow for more time for Amara to escape, so that that their child might have a future! The heartbroken priestess has not heard from her lover since, and she knows she cannot do anything that means risking recapture, as they would force her to lose the child by poisoning her womb with abyssal tea, doing so also either kills or renders a woman as sterile.
At one time abyssal tea was a common practice amongst all devas societies, as females who cannot secure a mate by the time they reach sexual maturity ended up dying from heat spells of unfulfilled needs. Solutions were discovered, one was for deva woman to simply live away from men in monasteries as nuns, the second was to forsake motherhood entirely and consume the abyssal tea made from the toxic, void root. Its main purpose is to cause a woman to lose her uterus, but sometimes they bled to death just as painfully. Eventually the practice was deemed too unethical by many in modern times, but its still secretly kept as a form of capital punishment towards women in Mycean.
Amara did what she could to bury her memories, including those of her beloved, she couldn't do nothing for him anymore, she must give all her love to her child so that they may survive.
Eventually the day finally came, the girls were huddled outside the hallway, the nuns were taking turns messaging Amara's arms as she lay submerged, albeit comfortably, in a shallow warm bath as her contractions grew stronger. Nafula acted as the midwife as she was ready to reach for the baby in the warm pool as Amara gave one last push, as soon as she felt the little body come out she grabbed the baby and pulled it from the water!
The elven nuns and the young deva girls at the abbey were all stunned when they saw a child with bright red hair emerge from the water, oddly she was not crying like a normal newborn, but rather the infant was giggling and smiling.
Carefully they handed the clean, baby to her mother as she cradled her daughter tenderly as she continued to make adorable noises.
"You resemble your father little one." Amara revealed with tears in her eyes.
Elsewhere, news of the child's birth reached the ears of the most powerful elite in all of Aldenburg, Archduke Cyrus Sunstriker who became interested in the situation.
The day after the baby girl's birth, the Archduke decided to grace the monastery with his presence, along with many gifts for the girls living there, much to their delight, but Nafula was skeptical about the situation.
Carefully, he requested an audience with the renegade Amara and carefully spoke of her unique situation.
Since she had no family to help her raise the girl, Cyrus suggested living at the monastery and they would provide Amara with all she needed to live a comfortable life, however, she refused the offer.
The old duke recollected himself after her swift refusal, but he instead had another offer, "Perhaps my intentions come off the wrong way, I believe your little, red peony would become a splendid betrothal for my toddler son! I do not mean to actually take your daughter from you, but perhaps we can arrange something where you may raise her in peace! Yes?"
As the young mother held her daughter closely, she painfully understood that if she wanted to raise her child in harmony, she might have strike a deal with this old elf.