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"Oh no, I didn't mean to kill him!" Astra cried, distraught. "I only
meant to scare him a little, not to really cause him pain. Well maybe a
little pain. But I was so angry that I forgot how fragile he was.
I ought to do a penance. I'd wear sackcloth, but we don't have any."
"I should have thought that being permanently pregnant with quads
would be penance enough," Velus remarked. "Alfred can't reverse his wish
now. By the way, I don't think that those heartbeats are fake. I think
that you really are pregnant, but that now you've reached full
term it's been put on 'hold' because of the wish. Of course I could be
wrong."
Velus buried Alfred, since digging a grave would have been difficult
for
Astra in her current condition, especially given their rudimentary
handmade spade. Astra then said a prayer over his grave.
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Next day, Fred reappears, courtesy of the coconut. If only he had come back a day earlier, Alfred might still have been alive.
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A few months later, Astra and Velus are rescued by a passing ship.
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Another year passes, then two, with nothing much of note having occurred.
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Alfred must have reversed his wish, but silently, just before being killed (which must have been the 'great and powerful misfortune to the granter'). Or perhaps he had just been kidding and Astra was merely a week or two overdue. Anyway, she gives birth.
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Alfred must have reversed his wish, but silently, just before Astra killed him (which must have amounted to the 'great and powerful misfortune to the granter'). Astra's pregnancy suddenly vanishes.
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Alfred must have reversed his wish, but silently, just before Astra killed him (which must have amounted to the 'great and powerful misfortune to the granter'). Astra's pregnancy goes into reverse.
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