"These have been sent by Baron Lionel." Clara brought forward a bunch of strange cherries decorated on a silver platter. Baron Lionel was the nobility her cousin, Elias, wed as the first wife.

  Since they were from the Frozenlake village and shared a common lineage, they ought to look after each other. Ever since Grace wrote to Elias that she was with child, a son, gifts would be received from the Baron's estate at intervals. In the future, having an ally in the Viscount estate would serve Baron Lionel.

  "They said the fruits are picked from the distant Southern region. They are said to be very good for nurturing the fetus."

  Grace glanced at the platter. Upon hearing that they were good for her child, she closed the book and picked up one cherry. Inspecting it with her fingers, she casually asked.

  "Straight from the Baron estate?"

  "Yes, My Lady. They arrived just this morning. There is no chance of tempering." Clara couldn't be more careful. She wasn't cautious at first. But after the incident that happened last time, she had become even more paranoid than Grace.

  Upon reassurance, Grace gave in and bit the cherry.

  The bitter taste erupted within her mouth.

  "My Lady, are you alright?" Clara patted her back as Grace gagged.

  "Take them away. Are they even edible?" Her face twisted, and she pushed away the tray.

  While she was recovering from the horrendous taste, Dyrian was beside himself upon discovering something.

  Now that he could sense the environment, he could explicitly sense those berries. They were luminous, blue in colour, and it seemed they carried something strange within them.

  The bite his mother had taken had entered her body. He could sense its movement from her gut to her bloodstream, and finally, it passed the placenta and reached the amniotic fluid. Since it was diluted, the amount was very insignificant.

  He was curious, but he was cautious.

  As he focused on the blue luminosity, he found out it was made up of very small blue coloured particles.

  When he focused further, those particles responded to him.

  'This is strange.'

  'It is some form of Qi.'

  'Some elemental form, I presume.'

  Suddenly, he was struck with an idea. He tried to manipulate and concentrate those particles. It was a tedious task, and he dozed off countless times, but eventually he managed to concentrate all the particles within his mother's body into the amniotic cavity.

  It was just the size of a bite.

  Next, he willed them to wrap against the corrosive green liquid particles. He managed to imprison the green liquid and keep it from harming his forming body. He was beside himself with happiness.

  However, he was soon stuck with a new problem.

  'It is too little, I need more.'

  He could kick and make a fuss, but he couldn't force his mother eat those berries.

  'I'm too limited and too weak.'

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  He needed to influence her thoughts.

  It was then that he was reminded of the connection he had felt to his mother through the link of flesh they were connected.

  'Let's give it a try.'

  He let go of the blue particles holding the green liquid hostage. He guided them towards the placenta, crossing them over to his mother's bloodstream. From there, he guided them to cross the blood-brain barrier and into her mother's cerebrospinal fluid, the fluid that surrounds the brain.

  From here, he guided them to her amygdala and willed them to create the desired effect.

  Grace was busy with her needlework when all of a sudden, she felt a strange craving.

  "My lady, why did you stop? Do you require anything?"

  "Those berries?"

  "What about them?"

  "Where are they?"

  "I asked a maid to throw them away. Why would you ask about them?" Clara was surprised that she would ask about them. She herself tried one out of curiosity. The horrendous taste validated Grace's dislike.

  Grace was silent for a while. "I want to eat them. Bring them here."

  Although Clara couldn't make sense of this sudden change of heart, she attributed it to the pregnancy mood swings. She sent a maid to bring those cherries back. To Clara's surprise, Grace endured the bitter taste and devoured them. She devoured them all.

  "Grace, are you okay?"

  "Yeah, I'm fine," Grace tapped her lips with a handkerchief. "Ask the store if they have more of these berries... or anything edible Lord Lionel sent."

  Clara appeared bewildered but acquiesced. Soon, all the fruits sent by the Lord Lionel estate gathered in the Viscount's second wife's room. No one wanted those bitter-tasting berries anyway. She seemed to have grown an extra belly as she devoured them all.

  Inside the womb, there was a flush of blue particles. Dyrian was beside himself with happiness. He decided to have a party with them and willed them all until he finally concentrated it into the amniotic cavity.

  Since the concentration was much higher than before, the whole cavity glowed with a faint blue. If it were nighttime, Grace's belly would have been giving off a faint light.

  Luckily, it was not.

  And he didn't want to alert anyone.

  So he immediately started manipulating the Qi particles to entrap the luminous green. Days melted into weeks, and weeks melted into a month. It was a tedious task. The fetus was weak, and he had to exert himself to the last extent.

  'And that's the last of the poison.' Dyrian happily trapped all the poison, the size of an apple at one corner of the womb.

  He breathed in the fluid and breathed it out.

  It was a clear liquid.

  'Well, well. We can always make it better. There's still Qi to spare.'

  Using his knowledge from the past lifetime, he was aware of the normal impurities besides the poison that ailed the womb. He went one step further and removed the normal impurities from the nurturing liquid. It didn't take as much as it did for the poison because there were fewer.

  'And we are done with it.'

  Now he could confidently say that he was being nurtured in one of the purest and safest wombs. He was proud of himself, and he took a moment to appreciate his work.

  'But what should I do about the damage that's already done?'

  'Right now, I can only use the moment of the particles to physically block the poison.'

  'Qi should have a regenerative power, no matter how elemental. However, I don't seem to have the ability to utilise it or convert it'

  'I wonder if these blue particles are actually Qi?'

  In the following days, he used the surplus Qi to make her mother crave Southern fruits. Meanwhile, he continued to entrap impurities and let nature take its course. A fetus would heal on its own when appropriate conditions surfaced.

  Whilst things were gradually improving for Grace and her unborn child, they were rapidly declining for someone.

  ...

  "How the heck did things manage to get to this point?" Elinora's expression turned ugly upon hearing the new physician's report. "Does she have some inside help?"

  "My Lady, that's not been the case. We have kept a close watch. And other than the estate physician, the Viscount's second wife didn't receive counsel or supplements from any other physician."

  "Then you must have made a mistake."

  "The fetus had been gradually worsening as a result of poisoning. Then, around two weeks ago, I noticed a stop in the decline. Then, a week ago, the fetus had improved in its condition. Then just now, I found out it's doing better than a normal fetus at its age."

  Grace had been very happy and welcoming of the physician, assuming he was being arranged by the Viscount. Little did she know that the reins were in the Viscountess's hands.

  That's why the fetus's declining health had never been reported. And Grace continued her days without any concern, unprompted to take any action.

  And nothing was done to undo it.

  "I need to know. What strange things happened in the last month?"

  The man in the shadow emerged. "We'll get you everything My lady." He placed his hand against his chest and bowed slightly as a gesture of respect and disappeared through the window.

  "As for you," Elinora turned her head towards the physician. "If things keep improving as they are, we need to prepare a special medicinal soup for the Viscount's little wife."