Chloe glanced both ways, then slipped into the building. Two hours had passed since she’d split company and she’d disguised herself as a pregnant elf. If felt weird, she’d used more complex illusions than a mere trick of the light. Unlike light magic, illusions created with dark magic had physical substance. It had to do with the nature of the elements, but that did mean dark magic had certain advantages. Namely they held up better to physical inspection. Yet light did have advantages that might have helped down in the nest.
Now, however, dark would serve her well. The locals wouldn’t spare a pregnant elf more than a glance, if that. Not being pregnant would draw more attention and she didn’t want anyone to come looking for her, if things went south. With her skill in flesh shaping she could change her appearance more permanently but there was no need to do that when an illusion would do.
So far the illusions seemed to be working. Chloe had managed to enter the upper quarter without incident. Outsiders were not particularly welcome to the upper quarter, so she found only locals. Oddly, she’d noted more children in this area and fewer adults. Not only that, but what kids she did see were also younger on average. There were more than a few parks where said kids were allowed to play without any supervision at all. The result of that was predictable enough. Plenty of injuries from childish mistakes, rambunctious play and even petty bullying. What she’d seen in the nest itself was far worse, but the amount of injuries did seem a little excessive. With all the injured children, the upper quarter had more than a few clinics for treating those injuries. Typically operated by the few male adults around, as the females all seemed to be busy doing other tasks.
At the moment, she’d found her way to a large building near the center of the upper quarter. Fancy architecture, tall spires and a courtyard with a large passage heading down, were notable features. Overheard conversations in the area, and what she’d seen on a town map led her to believe this was the Governess’s manor. Chloe had learned this governess was in charge of running the city, likely at the behest of her child-eating masters.
Looking around the hall she had entered, she spotted four young women in the corridor. They were busy cleaning and paid her no attention as she walked past. Chloe peered into various rooms nearby but found them to be servants' quarters. Definitely not the section to be finding any kind of records. Chloe considered asking but that didn’t seem likely to garner answers, only trouble. Instead she started looking around.
The next area she found was a hive of activity. Dozens of girls, some more pregnant than others, and dressed in what seemed to be some kind of uniform for the building, were shuffling papers around. With the place so busy, she had no trouble sneaking into the various offices and perusing the files. The guards didn’t even pay her more than a glance, especially after she’d adjusted her illusion to match the uniforms they were wearing. Better to blend in, but it did attract some attention... she ended up with papers thrust into her arms and tasked to put them in the public records room.
That led her up the stairs to the second level, where she found said records room. Chances she’d find the critical real records in the public one seemed unlikely, but she knew those records would need to be referenced. They wouldn’t have them too far from the public one they published for even outsiders to peruse. With that in mind once she completed that task, she started looking around the upper level.
A couple of hours passed and she almost missed it. A hidden door behind some shelves on the side of the records room closest to the governess’s office. The mechanism was magical in nature, and rather well concealed. If she’d not been looking for just such a thing even her senses wouldn’t have revealed it, but she’d expected the room to be hidden. Opening it proved simple and revealed a stone stairwell heading down. A frown touched her face, but she proceeded down the stairs regardless. They were worn with use, lit by old lamps that flickered slightly as she passed. The passage ended soon enough and she stepped out to find herself at the top of a massive library. Chloe blinked, “This might take a while.”
Realizing that she went to work. While with half a mind, she looked in on the... ovary harvesting. Their false copies, it seemed, had passed initial muster and they’d been escorted to private rooms for what seemed to be extra brainwashing on top of the ovary harvesting. They’d definitely drawn some attention. She was quite glad she side-stepped the possible trap. Not that Chloe planned to let these child eaters have any more eggs from her friends. They’d be avoiding any future invitations in the same way over the remaining nine days of their stay.
Chloe scanned the latest record. She’d searched the library and recently found something much more interesting than some of the other records down here. Particularly a census, updated on a weekly basis that kept track of every birth, the number of children per birth, distribution of males to females born during any given period. Along with vital statistics like death rates among the children, right down to what age they died. This latest book detailed the average number of deaths by age group over the last five years and was part of a set.
The records in the room seemed to date back as far back as roughly 80 years ago. Using population numbers, she noted a stark rise in child deaths about 72 years ago. By the following year, there were no living children under eight and figures showed no babies survived more than six months for the following three years. Clear signs of the nest being established.
Around 69 years ago, she noted that only female babies survived longer than six months. Yet even among them the death rate according to this stayed fairly high. Less than one in a hundred of those female babies born 69 years ago actually survived to have babies of their own. Population figures around this time also trended highly negative, due to the lack of surviving babies, high rate of child death in general and the fact that the elderly were also dying off quickly. It wasn’t until about sixty years ago that any positive growth was seen. Notably the records showed a large spike in female babies surviving, while male babies tended to die before age six.
The population seemed to stabilize roughly 45 years ago, and since that time the city has seen near-zero population growth. Some years it would go negative, usually for four or five years in a row before a brief positive spike would bring it back to previous levels. Chloe noted the per age records, showed that for decades, death rates among children were particularly high between the ages of four and six. With females, roughly sixty out of every hundred babies born would die in that age range. With about ten dying before, and about five out of a hundred dying after age six. The remaining children would survive to childbearing age and have lots of babies, most of which would die. Male births were notably rarer, and death rates even higher among them.
Much of this was in line with nest behavior. The population’s breeding rate was being regulated and the number of babies surviving to give birth was just enough to maintain the population. If too many survived in one year, there would be a spike in deaths the next to compensate and nullify positive growth. Aside from a modest spike in the female population every seven years, the town had stayed at near-zero population growth.
Yet something very much out of line showed up in records of the last year. Death rates among children older than six had dropped to zero for this year. That wasn’t all, kids in the highly dangerous four to six years old range had seen their death rate fall by half. Furthermore the birth rate in town had changed with the average number of babies born per birth increasing by a factor of three. Females born in this year had gone way up, males only slightly, death rate among them had also eased a little. All of this told her that the town was getting ready for a very large population boom, but there was no sign that the residents were preparing additional housing or increasing food production to accommodate it.
None of this was in line with usual nest behavior. Why the sudden increase in breeding? The drop in child death rates was also interesting. Chloe was well aware of the Lizarna life cycle, she’d captured, interrogated and personally eliminated the mad mage who created them in the first place. As was often the case with mad mages out of control, the damn creature had been meant as a weapon but it was one they could never control. She sighed as she closed the book, her mind doing math.
The modest increase in the female population every seven years likely lined up with the hatching cycle of young serpents. Offset just slightly so they’d be giving birth to just enough children at the right time for those serpents to consume and keep the population stable. Using that as a base, she compared the current boom in growth with past cycles and once again hit a discrepancy. The heavy growth in the last year didn’t line up with that cycle at all. Chloe frowned, her mind flashing to the corrupted tag. Perhaps that was a more recent phenomenon? If so, what exactly did this change in behavior mean?
She might be able to ask the governess, but who is to say that she’d give answers? A sudden noise drew her attention and she reflexively cast a veil around herself. Just then she spotted three ladies walking past her nook and she followed them to a small side room with a few sofas set around a table.
Her eyes fell upon the most prominent of the three ladies she’d noticed. The woman in question was smaller than the other two, yet she carried herself with pride. Her very posture conveyed power and confidence. Long red hair flowed gently down her back, ending just past her butt. She wore detached elbow length sleeves, trimmed with black ribbon. A band of black ribbon ran above the top of her swollen stomach and between each of her four pairs of breasts. The largest of which sat at the top of her chest, and swelled with milk, adding to its size. The nipples gapped slightly as they beaded with milk. Two fluffy tails, coated in red fur swung lazily behind her. She regarded the other two with dull ruby red eyes, as she settled into the central sofa. Chloe noticed that instead of a skirt, she wore a belt with two panels of black and white silk on either side, leaving her bare swollen and gaping sex exposed for the world to see... Well when it wasn’t hidden by the bulk of her pregnant belly that was. On her legs she wore a pair of detached leggings that ran from the midpoint of her thighs all the way down to her ankles. She wore no shoes or foot covering at all.
The woman shifted until she was comfortable and then spoke, “Ishi, you said something about another shipment of hatchlings?”
One of the other two nodded, “Yes Governess. The Schwæri have sent us four new shipments of hatchlings to be raised here in the upper quarter. I’ve had them placed in the upper nursery as we did before.”
The governess sighed, “More hatchling girls. Wonderful,” she sighed again. “How many in each shipment?”
“First three shipments are the usual sixty girls each between six and thirteen months. The final shipment is older 35 hatchling girls between four and seven years of age, trained as helpers. They were sent to help look after the first three shipments.”
“I see. Assign a couple more guards to the nurseries. Tell them to keep an eye out on the hatchlings. We all know they are more likely to be bullied than natural born girls and won’t fight back either.”
“Usual guidelines?”
“Yes the usual guidelines,” replied the governess, “now lets move onto another topic. I heard some outsiders wandered into the nest. What’s the damage?”
“They managed to get out of the nest, but thankfully we were able to lure them back in with an invitation. All five are receiving extra brainwashing to forget they saw the nest.”
The governess seemed to relax, “Good the Mistress would have been most displeased if anyone learned of her nest.” Then she gasped, “Oh? Already?”
The other two girls blinken then rushed to help her up, “Come on, lets get you to the birthing room.”
Chloe watched them go, and then turned on her heel. This had been a very interesting diversion. Very interesting indeed. Now she had to get back to the inn, and consult with the others. They’d need to know some of this as much as she did. The fact the town was receiving girls from the nest was very very interesting to her. Yet she still didn’t know what the nest was up to. At least now she had a general idea of the nest’s size. That would be quite useful for Furea’s church. They’d need it for the raid. She sighed, "Although finding enough high level champions to lead it would be interesting.”