[LEGACY VERSION] The Emperor of Time (Book 1 - The Kaireyeh Chronicles)

Chapter 13.5 - Damon

Damon drew a shaky breath and glanced around the table. The stares had never been more intense. They wouldn't stop, would they, until he'd done this?

Damon bared his teeth and gripped his arm. The gold swirls etched down his fingers and wrist, spiraling inward to draw the outer circle of the Caelian crest, then the three interlocking circles and field of stars around them. Around the border of the crest, letters formed in Miravec script: Damon Barenin Alyras Kynaston. They were bracketed by symbols he'd seen going through old records for his master. A double outward arrow on either side of the name was the symbol for royalty. A curve around the arrow was the symbol for imperial royalty.

Damon let go as if burned. The crest faded, and he stared at the after image.

"That's settled," Elise said. "Campa confirmed she saw a strong match for Landon Kynaston's DNA in her preliminary scans at the base, as well as evidence of a deteriorating encryption. All evidence shows he was encrypted at birth or as a young child, without the second treatment necessary to carry that encryption into adulthood. Campa didn't have time to search for the more elusive Alyras markers, but when our medics have enough free time, I am sure we will find them. In light of this evidence, I deem Damon's claim as the child of Landon Kynaston and Coreen Alyras legitimate. Are we agreed?"

"Agreed," echoed around the table, though it wasn't a happy consent.

Chairs creaked, people leaning back, shifting past the first dilemma.

Damon sat numb, clenching and unclenching his hand beneath the table. Alexi had said a genetic crest couldn't lie. That had to be wrong. The crest on his hand had to be a fake.

"So," Seamus said, "do you want us to start a war for you, win back the Imperium?"

"How were you captured?" Oji asked. "Was it the deteriorating encryption?"

"Maybe this proof isn't enough," Yvgenny said. "I mean, all of us here have some Kynaston or Alyras DNA, it's spread all around the nobility. Does a genetic name of 'Alyras Kynaston' have to be with those two particular sources? Even with the Imperial brackets. Could he still be a bastard to one line or the other?"

"He showed strongly for Landon's DNA," Elise said.

"But the Alyras markers," Yvgenny insisted. "They might be from another Alyras--maybe a cousin to the family or a secondary familial branch. Landon certainly was around enough of the Alyras line. We won't know for sure until we find the Alyras markers and analyze them. That should be a priority: determine for sure the source of Alyras DNA."

"Damned Alyras," Seamus muttered. "Always had to one-up the Kynastons."

Damon glanced at Alexi, who said quickly, "The Kynastons modified their markers to shout their presence in anyone who has Kynaston DNA. The Alyras did the opposite. Alyras markers aren't easy to find."

Alexi looked up. "Damon's not a bastard, and I know that for fact."

Heads turned.

"How?" Armena asked. "We all know Coreen couldn't carry a child to term, not even the last. She and Landon refused all reproductive help--"

"And rightly so," Seamus said. "That would have compromised the purity of the heir."

"Voidshit," Oji spat. "Their children would have lived if they hadn't insisted on following those ridiculous old rules and all of you hadn't been poking in their faces telling them they should. By the gods, a spliced or a surrogate child isn't any less a child of its parents."

"He was born the night of the Last Stand," Alexi said, his voice sharp and tight. "Coreen faked her last miscarriage. They feared at that point poison might have been involved, an abortive drug or some other means. Some attempt by the Miravec to keep Coreen from having an heir. I don't know if that's true. But she carried the child for eight and a half months and was induced before the Fall so she would not have to give birth after. Labor went long."