Chapter 23:

Megan was with child and not one man existed in the whole of Anglesey that had a cock or balls, certainly not Dylan.  It had been the better part of a year, since he'd lost his.

"How can that be," asked Dylan.

"The God," said Megan, "he is within me."

"You're going to have the God's son?" asked Dylan.

"Not his son," said Megan, "I'm going to have the God.  He is coming into the world through my womb."

"He is coming from the otherworld into ours?" said Dylan.  "He'll exist in our world, but not there?"

"No," said Megan, "he'll exist in both simultaneously.  He'll be here on earth in physical form, where he had only been here before in spirit.  He will be able to act upon this world himself, not just through others such as myself."

"You are to be the mother of God?" asked Dylan.

"He will be a guest in my womb, but I am not his mother.  He has not fertilized one of my eggs, but has invested it with his essence.  None of me is left in that egg.  I will play host to him, but I will not be his mother, no more than if another woman's egg grew within me.  Although I am not a virgin, this will be a virgin birth.  No man is the father of this child."

"So this is how he comes to our world?  Somehow, I thought he would just appear."

"No," said Megan, "this is how he had to do it.  It was the only way he could take physical form in our world." 

Dylan knew that the God had limitations, even though he was a god.  Nysrogh, chaining him, had almost defeated the God.  Dylan and his army had castrated over forty-five thousand males to free the God; but why was he coming now?  Dylan still had a hundred thousand left to castrate before he reached the number the God had told him in his dream.

"Do we still need to castrate the hundred thousand?" asked Dylan.

"Yes," said Megan, "the hundred thousand and more."

"And more?" asked Dylan.  "How many more?"

"I don't know," said Megan, "the God will tell us in due time."

Dylan looked at Megan.  He'd almost forgotten what she looked like as Megan.  As Dylan, he'd scarcely seen her as Megan.  He'd never lain with her as Dylan; now, he couldn't.  He had no cock or balls.  Maybe, since the God had restored Megan, he'd restore Emrys as well.

If Dylan had cock and balls, he wouldn't have wanted to change back to Emrys; at least, the Dylan in him wouldn't.  It was as if they were two different people -- with the same memories -- but two different people.  In some ways, he didn't even like Emrys, a noble through and through.

Dylan loved many of the commoners that served him, especially the former market boys.  He knew Emrys, although he might feel gratitude toward them -- and perhaps even fondness for them -- wouldn't love them.  As a noble, he couldn't.  As the prince, they would be his inferiors.  A noble could love only nobles, never commoners or slaves.

Islwyn and his nobles, even though they had been cut, had always kept apart from the rest.  It was ironic that they had died protecting those they felt to be inferior; but they had done that out of honor -- and because Dylan had ordered it.

Because Dylan was cut, though; because, as Dylan, he would never be whole, he wanted to become Emrys once again.  The God held Emrys's cock and balls in trust.  When he became Emrys once again, he would be whole; and looking at Megan, lying next to him, naked as she was, the outline of her cunt visible beneath her maiden hair, he wanted to be whole once again.

It had been a long time since being a eunuch had bothered him.  He'd been one for almost a year, and no longer feeling the stirring of sex in his groin, he'd almost forgotten what it was like to desire sex.  The presence of Megan incited thoughts of sex, though, not because she caused any stirring in his groin -- that part of him was dead -- but because of the memories she awakened in his head.

He had -- actually Emrys had -- only fucked Megan that one time.  All the other times, she had been Braith.  He could lay with Braith without thinking about what it had been like to fuck.  It was much more difficult to lay with Megan and not to think about it.

Of course, it had been the same with Braith at first, when he'd first cut himself, but that had been months ago.  Now, Braith was more like a brother to him, than a lover.  He had loved him still, but no longer thought about what it would be like to fuck him.

With Megan lying naked next to him, he did.  He recalled that day in the glade, the smell of her, the softness of her, the warmth of her cunt, when he entered her for the first time.

"Can you change me back to Emrys?" he asked.

"No, Dylan," she said, "not until the one hundred forty-four thousand are cut."

Almost one hundred thousand more to go; and they would be much more difficult.  There were no more to cut on Anglesey.  To cut more, they would have to go to the mainland, where they would have to confront Heddwynn and his army of golems.

And how many golems would Heddwynn have now.  If Dylan had cut forty-five thousand, could not Cadell have cut that many as well?  Maybe not.  To make a golem, Cadell had to cut the boy himself. 

Dylan didn't, to attain his tally of cut males.  As long as the cock and balls were dedicated to the God, it mattered not who cut them.  A father could even cut his son, dedicating his cock and balls to the God. 

Actually, many did.  A few were still being cut in Anglesey, children not yet out of the womb when the last male was cut.  When one such was born, either his father or a priest cut him.

When Merfyn had become king, he'd had all the God's priests put to death.  Those priests, all nobly born, had given their cocks and balls to the God. 

Now, the God's priests were commoners.  After the death of Islwyn and his men, Dylan had no more nobles in his army.  There were none in the whole of Anglesey.

After Dylan had freed the noble boys from the dungeon, cutting them afterward, the only nobles left in Gwynedd were those loyal to Merfyn and boys, too young to have their man hair, that hadn't been kept in the dungeon. 

When Dylan -- or Emrys -- defeated Merfyn, he would cut or kill those.  Then he and Megan would be the only nobly born left in the kingdom.  Only their children would be descended from the God.

But now, the God was coming to the world.  Would Emrys still father the new race, or would he.  If it were the God, then the only possible mate for him would be Megan.  Would the God mate with the woman that had born him?  Was that why Dylan was still Dylan and not Emrys?

In six months, Megan, big with child, was the only pregnant woman left in Anglesey.  The last male infant born had been castrated.  There would be no more. 

If the God, once he was born, had cock and balls, he would be the only male left in Anglesey that did.  Dylan wondered if the God had preempted him as the father of the his new species.

Dylan had lied to the commoners, telling them that they would share in the God's kingdom.  They wouldn't, of course.  They were mere humans, after all, not related at all to the God.  Dylan needed them -- the God needed them -- to defeat Nysrogh. 
Once the Dark Lord was defeated, he would have no more need of them.

Then came the night.  A bright star appeared above Llangrifrolis.

After a short labor, attended only by Dylan, Megan gave birth.  The God was born into the world.  He was a large baby, but only could be called he out of convention.  He had no genitals -- no sex, either male or female.  As the God, he needed none.