The cognate Empress

Chapter 7. A second chrysalis

Fearing for the empress's life, the doctor called his teacher on the spot, he did not even have the patience to go to another room.

Receiving this bewildering call from his pupil, the elder was stunned to know of the new much awaited cognate empress, but unfortunately, this happiness was dampened by the revelation of her highness's entering a second pupa state.

Knowing that no time could be wasted, the teacher did not inquire about the circumstances, only asking a bit about her appearance. The spaceship's doctor immediately explained the intermittent patches of scales, and his assumptions about her health, giving the old man a rough sketch about her state.

"There have been two cases before, when the cognate empress entered a second pupa state. The first time it happened, the problem was that the cognate empress was born in a set of twins, so when the calling was performed, somehow both girls underwent the pupa state.

Perhaps, because they were identical twins, the weaker of the two also inherited a fraction of the empress's DNA, so unwittingly underwent the pupa state. But obviously since the will of the cognate blood was much less than it should have been normally in the weaker twin, the second empress also had patches like patterns, instead of a complete envelopment of scales.

Thus this anomaly only resulted in the death of the younger sister after a second pupa state, in which most likely the will of the empress had futilely tried to fix the imperfections." Quickly explained the doctor, as he was searching through his memory for details.

This time there existed only one cognate empress. At that time, there had been two candidates, and the girl who underwent only the first pupa state was in fact the true ruler. So in effect no damage had been done to the overall situation, thus it was not investigated further, to try and help the younger twin. Moreover, the weaker twin also had no viable chances at exiting the second pupa intact, because of the lacking cognate DNA.

But now, it was not the same... now there was only one ruler. Her death would mean the end of the imperial bloodline.

Hearing the first part of the explanation, as the web slowly enveloped his body along with the empress's, Aleph's heart tightened in his chest, at the mention of the final possible outcome, death. But he still did not react, did not move away at all. Nova was unconscious, but if she were to wake up, she would surely continue to suffer the most gruesome of pains, if he were to move away.

"And the second case?" The doctor asked anxious, but feeling as though he was losing even the smallest of hopes he had left.

"The second case would be the last empress. Her highness had also underwent a second pupa state. Fortunately, the consequence was only the change of color, as the white empress became a grey one." The old man explained, trying to remember how she successfully exited her pupa.

He did not have time to even notice, that he had referred to the change of color as a trivial thing, although it was certainly not. The color of the empress determined her strength. The rare white color for light powers and benevolent gentle character, was exchanged for the grey color.

Although, one could argue that grey meant the combination of two colors, black and white, and considering that black was also amongst the rarest and strongest of colors, it was in fact a weak color. Two strong colors would nullify each other, rather than complement each other.

A grey color meant a weaker empress who had no positive attributes and powers other than holding the cognate blood, and passing it to the next generation, hoping for a better color for the next time.

Could this be the problem? This was the question in both doctors' minds. The last empress was grey, they had hoped that the next one would be a different color considering the skipping of many generations, but was her blood still weak?