by Lucia Ashta
“There you go,” Tanus said to Yudelle. “You owe him explanations too, and everyone here can hear what you have to say. They all stand with me.”
Kai nodded enthusiastically, which was no surprise. He idolized Dolpheus and Tanus. But Lila surprised me by nodding too. Somewhere along the line, she’d stopped seeing herself as the victim of kidnapping and misfortune, and as a part of something bigger—even if that something bigger was riddled with problems and complications, she was now a part of it.
Dolpheus didn’t do anything in particular to show his alliance with Tanus, but his body language screamed it. He sat on Tanus’ other side, a big wall of muscle, at the ready to defend his friend.
I almost laughed when he stirred honey into his tea with a tiny spoon that was a fraction of the size of his pinky. Even his pinky finger looked muscular somehow. But I knew he wouldn’t appreciate me laughing at him, and I was grateful for finding restraint, not common for me.
Yudelle said, “Fine, if you insist.” Although I didn’t believe for a second that she’d really do anything she didn’t have reason to. I doubted she’d ever really taken orders from the King, or maybe that was just because I’d never met the King, and now I never would.
“The King bedded me because I was a fine-looking woman, beautiful even. When compared to this woman,” she gestured toward me with her chin, “I might not have been much to look at, but compared to this woman, not many are.”
Lila sank into her chair and scowled, and I internally swore at Yudelle for making Lila feel bad when she shouldn’t.
“In my day, I turned heads, so the King wanted me. It’s as simple as that.”
“There’s no way in hell it’s as simple as that.”
Tanus and his mother had a staredown. Tanus won. Ferocity lit a fire in his green eyes. “What were you even doing at court?”
She relented. I watched as her shoulders lowered a fraction of an inch and she accepted that she’d have to tell the tale. “This was long before you were born, when Oderon, Brachius, and Aletox were all friends.”
“And you were friends with all of them?”
“I was.”
So the Princess wasn’t the only one to spread herself around court. Was the Royal Court just some big orgy? I wondered.
“Go on.”
“I met them all when Brachius and Aletox were in Oderon’s armies, when they were all still young. Brachius and Aletox rose to be captains, even though the bulk of the fighting was over. The Harals had long been defeated by then, but there were always rebellions that needed to be quashed, and Brachius and Aletox were good at putting down the rebels.”
“By putting down, you mean killing.”
“Yes.”
“Brachius and Aletox were actually friends with the King?”
“Oh yes. At that time, Oderon often went out to the Koal Desert and the great Wilds to take part in the fighting. I think he felt that he had something to prove. His ancestors had defeated the Harals, after all. He didn’t have a mighty enemy to wipe out in the same way.”
“So he killed his own people.”
“Only those who rebelled.”
“Only those that wouldn’t submit to his rule, you mean. The rebels have done nothing but want to lead their lives independent of the Crown’s interference.”
“However you see it, Oderon wanted to prove himself capable in the eyes of his people. He wanted to be revered and feared.”
“I think he’s managed that pretty well,” Dolpheus interjected.
“Aye,” Tanus said. “There isn’t a single person on O who isn’t obligated to do his bidding one way or the other—even his daughter. So, what happened to the friends? Because it doesn’t look like any of them are friends any longer. Was it because of you?”
For the first time, Yudelle’s voice betrayed sadness and regret. “No, it wasn’t because of me. It was because of that damn splicing.”
“See! I told you it was evil,” Lila piped up.
Yudelle’s assessing eyes landed on her. “It is evil, but not many people see it that way.”
“I know it is, and I’ve been trying to convince these guys to put an end to it.”
Yudelle shifted back to Tanus. “You think you could put an end to splicing?”
“With Dolpheus’ help, aye, maybe.”
Kai said, “Of course they could. Tanus and Dolpheus’ skill in battle, and their ability to keep their heads, is legendary. You have no idea what these two have done—”
“No, she wouldn’t,” Tanus interrupted.
Yudelle turned back to Lila, to avoid Tanus’ accusation, I thought. “And how do you know that splicing is evil? Brachius is good at hiding what he’s thinking, unless the splicing has changed him much more since I’ve been gone.”
“The splicing has definitely changed him, I’m sure, but I’ve only been working at the lab for a few years. But I work there, with Brachius and Aletox, and I manage the splicing clients. I see a lot of what goes on.”
“But let me guess, not all of it?”
“No, not all of it, not what happens with the splices of the eternalities.”
“So you don’t know either?”
“Now I think I do. We have a theory at least, that Aletox all but confirmed.”
“But Aletox doesn’t know.”
Tanus said, “You haven’t seen Aletox in more than four centuries. The man you say you knew isn’t one I ever met. He knows, he probably knew all along.”
“No, he didn’t, I’m sure of it.”
“How sure?”
“Sure enough.”
“Sure enough to leave your son to him?”
“Yes.”
Tanus didn’t follow up.
Yudelle asked, “So what does Brachius do with the spliced eternalities?”
Lila said, “We haven’t exactly figured that part out, but he does something with them that he doesn’t want anyone else to know. He keeps them for himself, he doesn’t use them with his clients at all.”
“You’re saying that he splices his clients’ eternalities, but then doesn’t reinsert them into their copies when they’re activated?”
“Yes. We just don’t know what he’s doing with the eternality splices he’s keeping for himself.”
“I do.”
“You do?” Lila asked. “How? You haven’t even been there.”
“I might not know the details of what he’s doing, but I can see the big picture. I know Brachius better than any of you, even if I haven’t seen him in ages. I saw how splicing started to change him, and not for the better. I know what he’s doing with the eternality pieces, because I understand how he thinks.”
“So what’s he doing with them?” Kai asked.
“He’s somehow inserting the spliced eternality pieces he takes from others into himself.”
“But that’s not possible!” Lila said.
“But taking a splice from someone’s eternality is? Don’t be naïve, Lila, is it?”
“Obviously,” Lila said, showing her displeasure at being called naïve.
“He’s found the way to benefit from the life force of other people’s eternalities. He must’ve been doing that even when I was still there. That must be what was causing his personality to change. Aletox and I couldn’t figure out what about the splicing process was causing him to change, but that’s it, it has to be. When he takes on the eternality splice of someone else, he takes on a part of them. And beyond that, there must be some kind of accounting that contributes to the effect of making Brachius evil.”
“It’s not just Lord Brachius,” Lila said. “I see the change in the splicing clients too. With each time they splice themselves, they grow crueler, less caring, and most of them are uncaring fucktards to begin with. What would cause that? They’re not getting inserted with any splice of an eternality, not even their own.”
“I’m not sure. I’ll have to think about it. Maybe it’s just their accounting for wanting to extend their lives when they’r
e not meant to. When Aletox wakes up, I’ll ask him. He’s always been astute at seeing what’s really happening in a situation. That’s why he never spliced himself.”
Dolpheus said, “Is that what disintegrated the merry friendship? Splicing?”
“Basically. At first, Aletox worked with Brachius to discover the possibility of splicing. They kept Oderon informed, but Oderon was more hands-off, as he had a kingdom to run. Brachius started experimenting on himself to start, because he said he didn’t want to risk anyone else with his science. That’s the kind of man he used to be, a good man. Aletox offered to do it, but Brachius wouldn’t hear of it, and Oderon couldn’t risk it with his responsibilities to the kingdom. Once Brachius started splicing, it became apparent pretty quickly that it was changing him. But when Aletox told him, it had already affected him so much he didn’t want to listen.”
“What about the King?” Dolpheus asked. “Couldn’t he have intervened?”
“Probably, but you have to realize, Aletox was loyal to Brachius. To a fault, really.”
“He still is.”
“I’m not surprised. When Aletox saw the changes in Brachius, he didn’t want Oderon to know. Because even though Oderon was their friend, he was still their king, and if Oderon believed Brachius had become a threat, he’d have no problem wiping him out. Oderon was a lot of things, many of them good, but at the end of it, he was ruthless.”
“And he still is.”
“As Brachius changed, Aletox began to isolate him from Oderon. It was easy enough to do without rousing Oderon’s suspicions. Even though Oderon is sharp as a hawk, he was distracted. The rebellions were growing. He was expending more time and resources in crushing them. It ended up happening almost naturally. As Oderon’s attention was required elsewhere, distance grew between the friends. And that’s when I fell in love with Aletox.”
“Was this before you married Brachius or after?” Tanus asked.
“Regrettably, it was after. Brachius was a good man, a kind one, and he and I fell in love almost as soon as we met. But as he changed, I changed too, and well...” She shrugged. “Brachius became a different man, one I couldn’t love anymore.”
“So you turned to the next man in line.”
“That’s not fair, Tanus.”
“Isn’t it?”
“No, it isn’t. Aletox is a good man too.”
“Not that I’ve ever seen.”
“He’s your father.”
“In name only.”
“You owe him more than that, Tanus.”
“I owe him nothing, do you hear me? Nothing at all. He didn’t lift a finger or do shit to help me. Ever. The only time he ever helped me was when I was about to be executed and he broke me out of my cell, only to leave me in the palace with an execution warrant on my head and every single guard chasing after me. That’s how much my father cared. He left me there to be executed. I don’t even know why he bothered acting like he was going to break me out in the first place. Maybe it was some kind of joke to him.”
“You make it sound as if he’s cruel, and that’s not true.”
“You have your truth, and I have mine, based on my experiences, ones you have no idea about. Aletox is a cruel, cold fuck, who never gave a shit what happened to me.”
“You will mind your language, son.”
“I will do no such thing, woman. Just be grateful I’m not letting you know how I really feel about you. Aletox is cruel, at least he always was to me. And he didn’t tell me he was my father until a few days ago. What kind of father does that?”
“Take his word for it, Yudelle,” Dolpheus said. “Aletox is cruel, cold, and calculating, and he did no more to help Tanus than Brachius did, although at least Brachius housed him.”
Tanus said, “But let’s come back to this fun family talk later, because you’re not getting out of explaining how you bedded all three of these men.”
“Aletox and I fell in love. An earlier Brachius would’ve understood. He’d loved us both at one time, he might’ve even stepped aside to let us be happy. But this Brachius was different. We had to hide our love from him. He would’ve killed me if he found out, that’s how much he’d changed.”
“So you decided to bed the King too? Just to make things more interesting?” Tanus’ voice was void of sympathy.
“I bedded Oderon because Aletox asked me to.”
“Aletox? The man you supposedly loved.”
“Yes, Tanus, the man I loved and who loved me asked me to bed another man. We didn’t have the luxury of following our hearts all the time. These were matters of life and death. Especially once I got pregnant with you, then Aletox and I really had to hide our affair. If the changed Brachius were even to suspect that the child wasn’t his, he’d kill Aletox, the infant, and me.”
“So you bedded the king. Why?”
“Because despite all of Brachius’ faults, he didn’t used to be that way. Aletox and I knew what Brachius was really like, the kind, generous man we still remembered. Aletox was worried about Oderon discovering what was happening and coming after Brachius.”
“So you were a birdie?”
“Yes, I was a spy of sorts. Aletox asked me to make myself... available to Oderon, to endear myself to him and feel out the situation.”
“I thought the King was in love with his queen,” Tanus said. “Isn’t anyone loyal to the one they love?” Suddenly, he was angry, and I realized he wasn’t just talking about his mother having sex with a king.
“Oderon did love the queen, I believe. But Oderon was, well, he was Oderon. Whatever the king wanted, the king got. It had always been that way. A parade of women passed through his chambers.”
“And the queen did nothing about it?” Dolpheus asked.
“What could she do? She married into the Andaron line. Her bloodline was deemed pure enough to marry into the Andaron Dynasty, but she was no Andaron. Oderon wouldn’t put up with her complaints, I’m sure of it. So she did her own thing.”
“Her own thing?”
“Aye, she had a parade of men coming through her chambers, although she did so in secret. Even if the king was doing the same, he would’ve objected to the queen doing it too.”
“Of course he would,” I said, enough sarcasm dripping from my voice to register my complaint for women universally.
Yudelle ignored me. “Oderon already knew me as his friend, so it didn’t take much to endear myself to him enough for him to share some of his private thoughts with me. He never learned that Aletox and I were together, and he took no issue with my stepping out on Brachius.” Again, she shrugged. “I learned enough to reassure Aletox that Oderon wasn’t monitoring what was happening with Brachius’ splicing experiments.
“The years passed and Oderon was too busy with his own life in the court to care about the friends of his youth. He didn’t involve himself with Brachius at all, not even with Aletox or me. Tanus, you’d been born by then, and I was forced to raise you with Brachius, to avoid his revenge falling on you.”
“For your transgressions, you mean.”
“When Aletox left me with child again, we knew I had to leave. You see, Brachius was no longer interested in me that way. When I conceived you, I made sure to bed Brachius so he would believe you were his son. But when Narcisse came along, it had been far too long since Brachius touched me to convince him that Narcisse was his. By then, Brachius had changed even more. Aletox and I realized I had to flee or Brachius would kill us all.”
“So you left your little boy alone with a crazed man, who was losing it, more each day, to protect yourself and your affair, I get it.”
“I did it to protect Narcisse.”
“I see that. You put one of us before the other.”
“Tanus, what choice did I have? Truly, what would you have done?” Her voice had real anguish in it.
“I certainly wouldn’t have done what you did, that I know.” Tanus glowered, his face set in hard lines. “Did it even occur to you to take me with you,
instead of leaving me with a dangerous man, to deal with the rage he experienced from your leaving him?”
“I left you with your true father looking out for you. Aletox and I thought it would be best not to upset the life you already had by taking you on a dangerous journey across space. We had no idea what would happen to me or our infant in off planet travel and then trying to find a way to survive on an alien world. I couldn’t do that to you.”
“But you could leave me and never see me again. Because your plan, from what you’ve said, was to have Aletox follow you once I reached adulthood. But your plan never included seeing me, your son, again, did it?”
Yudelle’s eyes glittered with the answer. A distant bell rang somewhere in the house. As bizarre, crazy, and infuriating as the day had been so far, it was only going to get worse.
I took a sip of tea to prepare for it, but all it did was soothe my throat. Nothing could prepare me for what lay on the other side of that door.
8
Everyone, even Yudelle, froze at the sound of the old-timey bell. I assumed it meant the Princess had returned—too soon. I returned my cup of tea to its porcelain saucer.
Narcisse said, “I’ll get it.”
We waited in silence, as if steeling ourselves for whatever this encounter would bring. But I should have known no amount of resolve would prepare any of us for the twists and turns life seemed intent on delivering. Hadn’t we had enough of them to last us several lifetimes, even across holographic manifestations of the same individual? Certainly we’d had our fair share by now. There couldn’t be many—if any—people in the universe who were undergoing the shocking discoveries we were. I didn’t even think my body capable of responding to shock anymore.
But of course, I was wrong.
“Holy... wow,” a voice came from the direction in which Narcisse disappeared. The shock in it was loud enough to traverse hallways and reach the patio, where we sat shaded from the beaming sun.
Although I’d been avoiding looking at Tanus as much as possible, my head snapped up to see his reaction. He was already sharing a significant look with Dolpheus, but turned my way when he felt me watching.