Send Renee to talk to Sir Karnton

It would be suspicious if you approached each of the knights one by one. But thanks to the transcript you know that Marina will talk. It's easy to arrange for her to bump into Renee, who is considered one of the foremost experts on pregnancy and babies thanks to her quintuplets and the fact she was the second catgirl you 'saved'. Like Doe she's welcomed every new girl, so they look up to her.

Renee's bouncing by the time you finish telling her what you need. "Yes, it's going to be so much better for everyone. Sir Karnton and his wife deserve a happy ending!" is what she says before wrapping her arms around you and giving you a big kiss. She waits and waits, then goes to the nursery just after Bethany saw Marina head in.

Late that afternoon...

Considering the tools available to the inquisition you don't dare use a scrying spell to watch, so you while away your time taking care of other issues, waiting for the signal. In time an excited Helena comes and gets you. "They're talking in the observatory."

Just as planned. Renee was to take the knight up to the observatory and talk to him quietly there. In the middle of the afternoon there's no reason to go there, so it's perfect. You take up position close by so you can get involved quickly. It only takes another quarter hour or so before Sandra comes and finds you. "It's time, hook, line and sinker."

"Renee called down and asked you to come and find me?"

"Yes, at Sir Karnton's request."

You smile and give her a quick tail rub, which makes her grin like the devil. Then you head up the stairs.

At the top you find the observatory, with Renee sitting close to Sir Karnton. Two of her babies are suckling and the other three are sleeping soundly in Sir Karnton's arms.

"Ah, Lord John," he says, sounding nicely out of his depth. "A number of things have... come up. I was wondering, er," he looks over at Renee, who just manages to lazily raise her eyelids. Realizing that she won't be much help in explaining things he presses on. "Thanks to one of your lovely catgirls it has come to my attention that you are able to cast certain spells. Ahem, one spell which allows a woman to carry a child for a second woman and one which allows a catgirl to carry a human child. What exactly are the -ah- limitations of those spells?"

"That's quite the interesting topic." You pour yourself a glass of a heavy dessert wine that you keep up here and offer the knight a glass which he gladly accepts. "I'm not surprised that you would hear about it from Renee. With five babies she has, of necessity, become quite the expert on pregnancy and child rearing."

"Necessity is the mother of invention," Renee mumbles to herself.

You sip some of the wine and tell him "Those are two quite different spells. The 'Tiochien's Transference' is the spell which would allow a woman to carry the child of another woman. It's a reasonably old spell, though it was banned for a time. The effects are well known. It's almost always used to allow a younger and fitter woman to carry a child for an older woman, a barren woman or one who has had many issues with pregnancies in the past."

"The second spell is the result of the nature of humans and catgirls. A catgirl cannot naturally carry the child of a human man, nor can a human woman bear the child of a catboy. But a very simple spell, also seemingly quite old, allows for a mage to choose how the beginnings of that potential child will continue. They can equally become a human or a catfolk child, but one path or the other must be chosen relatively early. Within the first week of the pregnancy, preferably within the first few days."

Sir Karnton takes a long sip of his wine and thinks. Then he says "Last night I said too much to one of your catgirls. Marina is very sweet and she reminds me quite a bit of my wife, Amira. I didn't think to tell her to keep what I said in confidence, but I realize now that not all catgirls recognize when a subject is a delicate one."

"Ahhhh," you say, pretending to see the pieces fall into place.

"Don't worry," says Renee, patting your arm. "I talked to Marina, she told me... I told her not to spread it around and she's sorry she messed things up."

"Even more like Amira," says Sir Karnton, a crooked smile on his face. "The transference, would you be willing to help my wife and I?"

"I'm certainly willing to help. I imagine finding a mage who could use the transference was never the issue."

"No. It was that Amira and I, we didn't want to put some poor peasant girl through that. Carrying another couple's child. It wouldn't be so bad in itself, but how could we find a girl we knew was not being taken advantage of? What married woman would do it? If we found a servant, how could we treat them better than other servants, yet at the same time how could we not? What would happen to a widow or an unmarried woman after we used her to carry our child?"

"But now you've seen a whole manor of catgirls, all single, unmarried or widowed, many with children of their own. Many more quite interested in babies, almost itching for a chance to carry a new life inside them thanks to role models like Renee here." You give her an ear rub and Renee smiles broadly.

"It's really not that hard," she says. "You just feel a bit tired sometimes. You eat a bit more. You put on some extra weight and your breasts get bigger. Then one day out they come and you have these cute little bundles of joy."

"Not many women I know would describe it like that," says Sir Karnton, chuckling.

"It's a bit easier for catgirls because on average they have more babies but each is smaller," you say. "Actually, I'm pretty sure that a catgirl could carry a set of human twins as comfortably as a set of catgirl quadruplets."

"Mmmm, well since I did just fine with quintuplets I'm sure there wouldn't be any trouble with twins. Or a single? Singleton? Is that what you call carrying one baby?"

"Usually we just say 'pregnant' since most human women only ever have one child at a time," you tell her.

"Must get boring. No excitement if you're always having just one," Renee says, playing with the ears of one of her daughters who's finally done with her meal.

"Well, Sir Karnton," you say while he's trying to come up with something to respond to Renee, "I think it sounds like a match made in heaven. You find a few catgirls who are either eager for their first baby or interested in carrying another child. Take them home, tell your wife and convince her to come back with you."

"Catgirls? How many babies do you think I want?"

"Oh no, what I meant was that it will be a lot easier on the catgirls if they're among friends. Just one catgirl on her own is an oddity, especially if she starts gaining weight. But if a few catgirls showed up, good friends with each other, perhaps one of them visibly pregnant on arrival..."

"Yes... yes that's a very good idea. I would want them to be happy."

"Also, I should warn you that catgirls in general haven't really mastered the matters of etiquette. The girls I invited to dinner are some of the better behaved ones. What I'm getting at is that they've been without a man since they arrived here. So you can expect at least a few misadventures. Hopefully you can straighten them out, but I won't be surprised if they latch onto some men at your home or in the town."

"Really, that's a small price to pay. And if things work out and they find a good man I would be happy to see to them. They all seem so lively," he says, looking over at Renee, who's draped over her chair, acting more like a liquid than a catgirl.

"At times, yes," you reply, grinning. "But as to how many babies you want - I just caution you to chose carefully. For once your problem is going to be too many girls eager to help you and your wife, not too few. Given the opportunity the catgirls you pick might talk you into giving more than one of them a baby."

"One seems the most reasonable."

"Baby crazy catgirls can't be counted on to be reasonable." You turn to Renee and ask "If you had the chance for another litter, how many would you like?"

Renee smiles out of the corner of her mouth, her canine tooth becoming nice and visible. "Oh, I could settle for just one. After five and all that. But I would happily carry two or three more if I had the chance."

"After quintuplets?" asks Sir Karnton.

"Mmmm. And I don't really get to choose, do I? I mean if there was a catboy around who could give me babies it would be just a roll of the dice. Could be five again."

"And that wouldn't give you pause?" he asks, flabbergasted.

"Pause? Yes. But would it stop me? From making more of these wonderful little boys and girls?" She just smiles and rubs her daughter's nose, getting a thrilled little squeal from Kyrine, who's tiny tail starts flicking back and forth.