Abyssal (ManxMan)

Breeding Program

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Breeding Program

You have quite the imagination, my Prince.

"Well, I live a very fantastical life, so do forgive my overactive imagination. Now answer the question. What do you mean you bred me, my father and my ancestors? How did you breed us exactly?"

He was going to regret asking, he knew, but he needed to know all the same.

Please, God, don't let it be what I think it is.

I can read your mind. The Spirit reminded him, sounding a bit wounded.

I don't care. Now answer the damn question.

In much the same way that humanity has bred and domesticated equines, I, too, have spent eons upon eons creating the perfect specimen of merman. The One.

Relief flooded Kai. For a few terrible moments, he was starting to worry that he would now have to call the Spirit 'granddaddy'. He'd willingly step off the cliff this time.

Although the Spirit's explanation didn't exactly comfort him. "Elaborate," he demanded. Something told him to close his eyes and he did.

He was back in the black lake again, standing on top of the water, never sinking into it. The water was now perfectly still and undisturbed. Those who had disturbed it were far, far away after all.

The golden merman appeared from the middle of the lake, rising slowly without ever disturbing the still water. There were no resulting ripples, and he emerged completely dry, as if he hadn't just been submerged.

It had been a while since Kai laid eyes on the golden creature that inhabited his mind, yet he hadn't forgotten its enthralling beauty in the slightest. It never failed to amaze him how golden he was, glowing ethereally, if he'd been carved out of pure gold. The rest of him -his long golden tail- remained in the water so that only his chiseled torso was put on display. And what a gleaming display it was.

Gold eyes fastened on him like two hot iron pokers. Kai's skin grew a rash of pimply goosebumps in an instant.

I indulged in a little, what do you humans call it? Oh, yes, 'match-making'. The Spirit's velvety voice echoed in the wet space they both occupied now, sweeping over him like a silk sash gliding over his bare, pimpled skin.

"I... I don't understand what you're getting at." Then again, when did Kai ever understand what the fickle Spirit was going on about, actually? They wouldn't be having this rather disturbing conversation if he did.

I introduced your ancestor, the first Astrian King, to the most perfect mermaid I could find, and they gave birth to an excellent specimen of merman. The resulting offspring was a much stronger and sharper vessel, his magic much brighter than his father. Then I did the same for him, introducing him to a female whose existence I'd also contributed to through careful selection and breeding. For generations, I continued to carefully select candidates, creating the perfect gene pool that resulted in the perfect vessel, until your father. Without ever opening his mouth, the Spirit proudly explained.

My jaw dropped. While gaping at the Spirit, the word 'perfection' sprang to Kai's mind.

Perhaps it was no wonder, then, that a powerful, immortal creature so utterly perfect would attempt to create something equally perfect in design.

Still, wow.

So, Kai, his father, his grandfather and all his ancestors before him were all the direct result of a meddlesome creature's interference. And it was all so he could make the perfect vessel to hold his awesome strength within, then evacuate once the next 'improved version' was born.

"So, we're nothing but things to be made, used and then discarded by you?" Kai couldn't keep the bitter anger from his voice even if he tried. Every little discovery and revelation Kai made about the Spirit put him in an even darker light. There were little redeemable qualities about the Spirit so far.

He was turning out to be worse than Marius.

Of course not. The Spirit's voice boomed like thunder, and Kai nearly clapped his hands on his ears. The lake's water finally rippled, once. Then, in a much softer voice, the Spirit said, Of course not.

"What is it, then?" Kai needed to know.

You humans do the same.

"We most certainly do not."

How am I so different from a computer developer who seeks to create and use the most perfect laptop he can make, producing improved laptop after laptop every year? You even call it 'the next generation'.

"You know what a computer and app are? And that's different! Laptops don't have souls, so they can't be manipulated!."

I have lived inside you from the moment you were born. You are my companion, as I am yours. For better or for worse. Liquid warmth filled Kai's chest, but he suspected it wasn't his doing.

"It's like we're married."

The Spirit laughed softly and fairy bells jingled in the distance.

And I never manipulated your ancestors in the wicked sense you're thinking about, Kai. I lived inside each of them, inside their heads and hearts, so I knew what type of mate every one of them needed and would love. Sometimes, I knew what was good for them even before they did. Yes, I introduced their mates to them, but the decision to take them as wives was always entirely theirs. And they always did; after all, they were created for each other. And I am scarcely wrong.

Kai didn't know whether to believe the Spirit or not. He did say he'd indulged in a bit of match-making. If his ancestors had taken their mates willingly and happily, then who was Kai to protest? In fact, he ought to be happy he was born.

Kai swallowed a deep breath, cooling his nerves.

"There's something you said," Kai began, wanting to pry as much information out of the Spirit as possible now that he was in a giving mood.

Yes?

"You said 'I continued to carefully select candidates, creating the perfect gene pool that resulted in the perfect vessel, until your father'. What happened with my father?"

Kai hadn't caught it in the beginning, his anger momentarily distracting him, but he'd just revised the tape in his head and that stood out as an oddity.

Your human mother happened. 

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

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