Elina was about to argue when the dimensional rift opened in their dining room right outside of Rena's house in the village. The mouths of the members of Lith's family fell to the ground for the surprise.
When less than a minute later the Gate reopened, they were still awestruck and so was Rena. Lith had to princess carry her through the Warp Steps. They could hear many scared murmurs coming from the village.
"Ah! Suck it, you bastards!" The voice of Zekell, Rena's father-in-law roared.
"I'm the only one with a god in the family!"
"What a classy, humble man." Lith sneered as soon as the Gate closed behind him.
After much stuttering and many questions about Warp Steps, Lith finally brought Rena up to speed. She was overjoyed by so many good news and so was the rest of the family.
Again. Lith couldn't understand why they were so excited about something they already knew.
"It's incredible! Mom, this means you can visit me whenever you want, even during winter!" Rena's words left Lith speechless.
"Indeed. Now we can go to the village regardless of the weather. Oh, gods. Freshly baked bread during winter is a dream come true!"
Suddenly the conversation degenerated into how to better exploit Lith's new ability. More than once he wanted to point out that he wasn't a cab, but there was no such word on Mogar.
After everyone had decided what they wanted to use Lith's powers for during the winter, Tista pulled Elina aside. They whispered among them for a while and even with his enhanced hearing, Lith was unable to understand what they were saying.
Rena was bombarding him with questions about the places he had access to, how many people he could move at once.
When they returned, she wasn't done yet.
"Big sis, come here please." Tista pulled Rena aside, pushing the index finger against her own lips.
"Lith, dear, please have a seat."
Elina had a serious expression, making him inwardly fear to be about to get scolded again.
'I told them so little and I am already getting my a*s kicked. I was right working on a "need to know" basis with them.' He thought.
"Would you like to have another sibling?"
Her words made Lith's brain freeze. His hands clenched the armrests so hard that only the fear to reveal his strength too made him snap out of it when the wood started cracking ominously.
'Is this a trick question?' He thought. 'After Orpal and Trion, I don't feel safe rolling the dice again. Sadly, it's not something up for me to decide. Damn if I hate rhetorical questions.'
"Sure, mom." He actually replied while hoping that his face matched his happy tone.
"Are you pregnant already or is it something you are planning ahead?"
His words made the mood in the room turn heavy. Everyone was looking at the floor with a sad expression. Elina was squeezing her own hands, taking deep breaths to calm down.
"Have you ever wondered why we didn't have any more children?" Raaz said while hugging his wife from behind to comfort her.
"Yes. I thought that since we had so many problems with food and money already, you used some spell to prevent further…" Lith was about to say "issues", but managed to stop in time.
They were speaking about having another baby, so they didn't share his lack of love for small, smelly, noisy humans.
"…another pregnancy."
"Well, yes and no." Elina explained.
"Sure, after you were born, we couldn't afford to have more children, even though we love each other so much." She caressed Raaz hands, kissing his forearm.
"That's why we were actually happy when the Great Mother took the choice out of our hands."
"The Great Mother? Aren't you using a darkness magic spell?" During all his life on Mogar, Lith had yet to find a single church or temple. Religions were almost non existent, gods were relegated in the roles of swear words or synonyms for destiny.
"We know the spell, but it requires a magico level of power to be viable. Otherwise repeated uses can cause permanent sterility."
Raaz's words were like a punch in Lith's stomach.
"Do you mean that…"
"Yes." Elina nodded. "The labor was long and complicated. I don't know exactly what happened. Nana tried to explain it to me, but I couldn't and didn't want to understand.
"The only thing that mattered to me was that something inside of my body broke that night, making me unable to bear children anymore."
Everything made sense. Lith had wondered from time to time why even after Orpal had been disowned, after Tista had been healed, and the financial situation of the household had improved so much thanks to his jobs, his parents had stopped having children.
His mother was still young, yet nothing had happened. He had always shrugged it off, thinking they wanted to sit back and enjoy their new wealth. Yet now he couldn't help but feel guilty.
Guilty for having always ignored their distress simply because it suited him, but mostly because he was the real root of that situation. They were his parents, but Lith wasn't really their son.
'Calm down, you idiot. No need for guilt trips. I didn't choose Elina, I didn't kill the real Lith. He was already dead, so nothing that happened that night was my fault.' Lith was aware of how his birth was considered a miracle by his family.
"I pray the Great Mother every day to thank her for her gift." Elina took the word out of his mind.
"When Nana told me about my condition, I felt desperate, but as soon as I held you in my arms, it didn't matter anymore. I was already too scared after almost losing you. At that moment, you gave me a reason to live." Elina looked at him with deep affection.
Those words soothed Lith's uneasiness, but his stomach was still tied in a knot.
"Tista says that you can cure everything. Is it true?" Her eyes were full of expectancy.
"Yes."
"Do you think you can help me?"
"Absolutely." Lith lied with confidence.
The reproductive apparatus was one of his weakest spots since he never experimented with pregnant women. There was nothing in the textbooks to help him understand the difference between a functioning yet defective organ and a mint one.
He remembered how during the treatments he had found lots of impurities in Elina's womb, but even removing them and bringing her to full health for years didn't seem to have worked out.