Jeffery started to pass inside his own bedroom. What was he supposed to do, he needed to produce a child. It was sweet of Andera to give him the option to donate his seed, but still. Did he want to have children, after what his blood family had done to him? Would he be a good father? Because if he was going to put a child on this world he wanted to be there for it. Maybe he should talk with somebody about this, but who? He could turn to Nora and Eviar, but those two had a similar talk of their own. He could talk to Eviar's mother, but he didn't know how. How was he going to talk to a woman who already ventured out to have children, not once but twice. Jeffery's head landed in his hands and he sat down on the bed. With pale blue covers, and the smell of freshly washed linen. Normally the smell would have calmed him, but today was not one of those days. It was only yesterday that Andera told him that this was one of his tasks, he had trained with Nora and Eviar. But his head was not there, maybe Nora and Eviar had noticed it. But they didn't say anything about it. A knock landed on his door.
"Jeffery, are you ready?" It was the voice of Eviar's mother. Was he ready? He didn't even know that. He opened the door and the woman gasped. No he was not ready. "O, Jeffery. You are still thinking about..." She didn't need to finish her sentence, because Jeffery started to nod. "Do you want to talk about it? I will promise you that I will not judge you." Jeffery sighed and motioned that she could enter his room. Jeffery started to tell about his family, how they cast him out because of his sexuality. He told her about how his father tried to pay off his guilt by sending Jeffery to Master Goodwing's mansion. How his own mother started to steal from him, because of the fear that his father would punish little Michell. "Well that is not nothing." Eviar's mother said. "I understand were you are coming from. But the fact that you want to be in your child's life, well that means that you will be a great father. And it is natural to have doubts. I had my doubts when I ventured out for the first time. Until I met Master Goodwing. It was easier with Katia's father, he is a member of the male version of our Coven. What I am saying is that you are wise not to jump in this blindly." Jeffery sighed, and here he was thinking that he was overthinking it. "But now you need to comb your hair and put on some suitable clothing. Because you can not go in front of the Dragon King in only your boxer short." Jeffery looked down.
"Unicorn Crap." He cursed, he was really only wearing his boxer shorts. How in the nine kingdoms could he think that he was ready to see the Dragon King like this. Or maybe it is the fact that he was not thinking about that at all. "I am so sorry." He said and jumped off the bed. He almost tripped over his own two feet to get to the cabinet.
"I will leave you to it." Eviar's mother said and she left the room. Jeffery quickly pulled out a dark blue bottom up shirt out of the cabinet, together with a pantalone and a clean boxer short. Because he was not sure if the one he was currently wearing was a clean one or not. He almost jumped into the clothing, and did his best to comb his hair. It was really time for him to see a barber. His hair was longer than normal, and it made him feel uneasy. He sighed, he was now dressed to see the Dragon King of this kingdom.
******
Nora and Eviar were waiting, at the bottom of the stairs.
"I am sorry." Jeffery said quickly. "I just had a lot on my mind." He added and Eviar's hand landed on his shoulder.
"Do not worry about it. It is not nothing the Mistress has asked of you." Eviar said, and Jeffery nodded with a thin smile on his face.
"I know. But still." Jeffery said. "Thinking that it was alright to see the Dragon King in only my boxer shorts, that is a bridge too far." He said, Eviar looked at him with wide eyes.
"You mean to say, that you opened the door in only your boxer shorts." Eviar said, a ring of disbelieve was clearly audible in his voice. Jeffery nodded. "Well you have nothing my mother has not seen before." Eviar said and Nora started to laugh. Only Jeffery didn't join her.
"I just had a lot on my mind, I didn't even know that I was only wearing my boxer shorts. I will apologize to your mother, when I see here." Jeffery said.
"Apology excepted." Eviar's mother stepped out of the kitchen. "And now off with you. I can not clean this house with the three of you here."
"Mother, I already told you. You don't have to clean the house. We can do that ourselves." Eviar said, but his mother motioned with her hand. Clearly she wanted them out of the house. "Alright we are going. But this conversation is not over." Eviar remarked the last part and the three of them stepped out of the house. Outside there was a vehicle waiting for them, but Jeffery never had seen such a thing. It looked a lot like a scooter, but with space for all three of them in the back. There was a piece of canvas installed above the passengers seats. For what that was Jeffery didn't know, they were underground. The rain and snow wouldn't reach them here. Would it? He didn't want to linger on it too much. The stepped in and the driver drove away. The vehicle stopped on the edge of the underground city. A large tube was build inside the wall of rock. Andera and two young children were standing in front of it. Andera nodded in greeting when she saw them.
"Well I see that you made it just in time. And the three of you look good." Andera said. Jeffery jumped out of the car, and wanted to say that it was his fault they were late. But Andera shook her head. "There is no need for an explanation. Jeffery Night. Mother Martha has already called me, to tell me that you were having trouble to concentrate. And I agree with her, on the note that you are wise to not jump into this blindly." Andera motioned to the two children. "These are mine, Luna and Dustin." The children nodded, when they heard their names. "I am just like you Jeffery, I am gay, and I am not ashamed to admit it. But I knew that I had a duty to my Coven to have some offspring of my own. I created them with my partner, who is a woman." Jeffery frowned.
"How?" He asked.
"With magic. We created them with magic, I carried them until they were born. And I love them with all my heart. So please do know, that I understand you completely." Andera said, with her hands placed on her children's shoulders. Jeffery nodded and sighed.
"Thank you for telling me this, Mistress." Jeffery said, and in some way it putted his mind at ease. Andera nodded and motioned with her head to the tube that was placed on the wall.
"This here is called an elevator. It goes straight up to the palace and is normally for me alone. But today I am going to take you with me." Andera said, Jeffery only now noticed that the tube had two doors. Luna pushed an unseen button and the doors slide open, without making any noise. They entered the tight space and the doors closed. The other sides of the doors were shimmering like mirrors and Jeffery took notice of what everybody else was wearing. Nora was wearing a dark green dress. That reminded him a lot of the dress she wore when he first saw her, during that fun dinner at Master Goodwing's mansion. Master Goodwing wanted to see how powerful Nora was, so he had orchestrated a diner were they needed to cook their own meals with the help of their magic. It was fun and showed every one how powerful Nora was. Only back then she was wearing a light green dress with a cherry print. Now there were no cherries on it, and the skirt was a bit longer. Eviar was wearing a button-up shirt, just like Jeffery only his was dark green. To match Nora's dress. Luna's dress was a dark purple and Dustin's shirt was Bordeaux red. All with all he was glad that he had dressed up after all, otherwise he would be the odd one. The doors of the elevator slide open once again, only this time it didn't open up inside the underground city. It opened up in a large hallway, completely covered with light gray stone, a man stood in front of the doors. A man with very long black hair and amber eyes. The man nodded towards Jeffery and his heart stopped beating.
