The Castellan was becoming accustomed to the shifts in time around her. Some days it seemed that everything was rushed, while others she could feel the moment stall. The most recent tampering had been while she was practicing a local instrument that was similar to a fiddle she'd indulged in as a child. Cason had been working at the easel he'd asked for and requested her to hold still for a moment.
Time had jerked to a halt so fast it was a wonder no one tripped over it. Her fingers tightened on the bow of her violin but before she could muster the will to move, progress reasserted itself and Cason had turned back to the painting. The desire to play left her and she decided to work on the routines she planned on using over the next few nights at work.
"Hm, well, I think I'm about halfway done with this, Cason said after an hour. He stepped back from the canvas to study it. "Do you think it's coming along okay?"
The Castellan put the microphone back to view his progress and her breath caught. The technigue, using oils and canvas was primitive, but the results... even only half done... "It's a Moment in Time," she said softly. Somehow, in that split moment time had halted around them, Cason had managed to capture it on the canvas. It was a type of art that the Time Lords had perfected, and to see a facsimile of it again...
"Do you like it?" Cason asked, a little worriedly when her silence stretched on. "You don't like it do you? I can scrap it..."
"Don't." The Castellan said, reaching for him. "Don't you dare. It's wonderful." She kissed him fervently.
"Oh take it upstairs you two," Terri said good naturedly from where she was tending the small garden. The Castellan laughed and Cason blushed, but the pair went inside, fingers entwined and already kissing again before the door shut behind them. "Newlyweds."
Terri laid out a cutting from one of the trees from Sylvan and picked up the odd little knife the castellan had given her. "It's sonic," she'd told Terri. "When you graft in the cuttings, use this to make the incisions in the bark and then after it's in, give the handle a twist to make it seal back up again."
The Castellan liked her funny toys, Terri mused, but it was a very handy little knife. The grafting went smoothly and she twisted the handle and heard the low sub-sonic pitch of the knife change and when she pressed it to the tree, the whole plant shivered.
And then it *glowed*.
"Well, I'll be..." Terri grinned. She reached out and gave the tree a pat and she could see the new graft merging into the tree completely and new blossoms were forming. "The Gardening Club will be jealous for weeks."
The Castellan was thrilled as well the next day when she came down for breakfast. "It's a perfect match, Terri." She told the gardener as she passed her screwdriver over the leaves. "Once the orchid plant is ready, we can splice it with the fruit of the dead and the result will be a grave bloom."
"Fruit of the dead?" Terri asked, arching a brow at the Castellan.
"Oh... uh... I think the local term is pomegranate? But the fruit is heavily connected to the mythos of Hades and the turning of the seasons."
"Ah, well, we don't have seasons anymore." Terri pointed out logically.
"Right." the Castellan conceded the point and then placed her hand over her stomach and winced a bit. She was feeling a little off today, perhaps she needed to increase her intake of purely Gallifreyan foods. She harvested the small berry bush that Terri had cultivated for her. A few of these should help settle her for the day's work.
When the unease failed to dissipate after a few days of eating solely from the plants salvaged from Sylvan, the Castellan reconfigured her screwdriver to a medical setting and passed it over herself.
The readings were very specific.
"Oh." She let out a shaky breath. This was while not an unplanned for event, she had thought to wait longer before conceiving. There was still a considerable amount of work to be done before she could pass over to her regeneration the bulk of her essence as a Time Lord. Briefly she considered letting this life stay as a half-breed and wait for a second pregnancy... no. She had managed to store up a considerable amount of artron energy already. The timing may not be ideal, but it was possible.
She waited only until the evening to head into her TARDIS. She worked for hours, setting up the growing shard from the TARDIS's core and then laid her hands upon it, opening herself up to the Time Vortex, slowly, gently, irrevocably changing the burgeoning life inside her. By the time she was done, she was starving, exhausted and soaked in sweat. But it was done, and a small shard of violet split off from the crystal. This would be her regeneration's link to both the Castellan and the TARDIS, enabling the young Time Lord to slowly absorb her "mother's" collected knowledge while developing a personality of her own like a true regeneration would have.
And when the time came, her regeneration would do the same, on and on, until enough of them were present to tip the scales and finish healing the TARDIS.
The months went by quickly. Cason was thrilled by the idea of becoming a father and even if genetically he no longer was, the Castellan felt that father was as good a term as anything, after all, his assistance had been vital. Terri was excited at a new splicing of plants, the pomegranates had borne fruit and the new green shoots of what might prove to be a successful grave bloom splice was poking up from the dirt.
"So you'll mix this in with the angel fish in a recipe?"
The Castellan nodded. "With a few other ingredients, yes. Once I've passed over my regeneration energy, I'll need the infusion on a regular basis to stay alive." She smiled a little sadly. "Technically, this is an illegal substance by my people, it was developed by Time Lords that had run out of regenerations and were cheating death. But it's not like there's a government for me to answer to anymore."
"Indeed, I imagine you could charge a lot for eternal youth."
"Oh, well, it doesn't do that. It's not even eternal life. Just.. a brief reset, and unless you can manipulate artron energy *and* don't have any regenerations left, it's just a very funny tasting dish."
"Perfectly useless then?" Terri asked.
"Well, yes."
Terri laughed. "Well, it's still been an interesting challenge, I'd say. And a nice legacy for me, the grower of the grave bloom!"
The Castellan reached over and hugged the woman. "If I haven't said thank you today, then thank you. If I have, well, thank you again, Terri."
The older woman patted the Castellan on the back, "Oh, go on with you, you're making me all teary and you should be off your feet anyways with the little one getting bigger every day."
The day the grave bloom flowered was a busy day. The Castellan came home from work early, clutching at the small of her back and grumbling about how the baby was kicking fiercely and it was hard to keep the jokes rolling when her spleen was under assault. J had rolled his eyes at her and pointed to the door.
"We can cover you with the band for the rest of the night," he said. "The way you're grimacing you're probably close to due. Take your family leave and come back after the baby's born."
The Castellan was loath to leave, but J had a point. She paced around the kitchen and snacked on a few more berries. Cason kept offering pillows and foot rubs, normally two things she appreciated but...
"Oh. ew." The Castellan paused and looked down at the floor. "Right, Cason, I think it's time for me to head to the medical center. And uh, we might need to mop that up first."
"Mop up?" Cason peered around the corner and went a spectacular shade of squeamish green. "Ew is right that's water.. your water.. .the birth water... the *baby*! We need the bag!" Cason promptly began to panic. Terri came out of her room as Cason thundered up the stairs.
"You all right?"
"Yes," grunted the Castellan. "I just need to go to the medical center, the equipment there is better than trying to have it at home." Cason came crashing back down the stairs with a zipped bag over one shoulder.
"Well off you go then, dear. I'll stay home and have the basinet ready for you."
The Castellan tried not to regret that the TARDIS was still unable to take her to a nice 51st century hospital complex. That time had been a pillar of medical technology and a childbirth was simple and safe there, no matter your species. Still, as clunky and overcomplicated the medical machines were here, the birth went surprisingly well and in no time at all the birth was over and the machine was lasering her incisions closed.
"Congratulations, you have a beautiful, healthy daughter," the doctor working the machine said. “Do you have a name picked out?”
“Yes,” the Castellan replied, picking the little girl up and giving Cason a smile from where he was standing. “Ensillhyakorboraapar. The Second.”
“That’s uh... quite a name.”
“Yes,” said the First. “She has a lot to live up to.”
Back at the house, Terri sat back on her heels and looked as the grave bloom slowly opened its petals.
“Well, isn’t that just the thing,” the woman said softly. “Got to see it just in time too.” She looked down at her phone and at the second notice from the Reaper. She put the phone away and smiled. Just in time indeed.
Maybe one more evening of cloud watching was in order. Things were going to be busy once the baby came home.
