The Tales of the Crimson Prince of Obelia

Part 17 Grandfather

   Though slightly blurry, Cale stared outside the room through a window behind his father's deck. Claude gave him time to settle down and it had been silent since. While Claude went back to work. Cale glance over at him, the papers and documents Claude was dealing with were unfamiliar. He had seen the same kinds of papers of his other father's deck but the stamps and decoration were all mixed. Same were elegant and beautiful while others were a bit dirty and wrinkly.

While thinking about the past, he remembered what he came here for. His mother. Her Family. He wanted to know it all. So he got himself into shape and cleared his throat.

  "Father, May I ask a question?" Cale asked. This surprised Claude slightly but he regained his composure and nodded. " Do you..know anything about the Thames Family?" Claude froze. He never expected Cale to ask him that question.

He thought for a moment. It wasn't a hard question. Rather, it was a yes or no question. But the silence he was making made Cale nervous. Had he triggered a nerve? Was he too forward with the question? But Cale still wanted to know the answer. So he waited. And waited.

Then, Claude let out a sigh. A deep sigh. Usual for anyone to see. Even Felix rarely seen him sigh. And with that, Claude gave his answer.

The Thames Family was a neutral family to the royal family. The last head of the family, Zachary Gerald Thames was a quiet man. He was wise for his age and had a good heart for his people. He was slightly older than Claude's father, the late emperor. So Claude did look up to him a few times. But Claude, just like how he saw Jour thought he was a bit...off. He wasn't mean or evil. No, Claude knew there was no disagreements between their families. But Claude still wanted to know the details of the Thanes Family. Just to clear his mind.

  The late head of the family had never married before. However, he did have lovers who had his two children, a son and a daughter. The names of the children were unknown. They were never stated in the history of Thames or the family tree. But they existed, however the son was never seen before. They say he was a weak child and was very sickly. However the imperial records say he was taken in by his mother's family. A duke household. Claude wasn't interested in researching much of that however. He left it blank and moved on to the real objective. The Thames family had a history of warriors in their family. They fought for what was right and against all others. However, the details of their lifespan was off. Some of warriors lived till their 40s while others achieved their 80th birthday. It was odd. For other warriors, their lifespan would be around 30 to 50 and they would be gravely ill. It would be because of war that their bodies can't live for too long. So to live that long was suspicious.

  Claude dug deeper. Their history didn't make sense. It was as if magic was placed upon them during war but that wouldn't be possible without magicians. And magicians never interacted with normal humans. So why. But then he found it. Bloodline magic. Rare but it exists in some people. And it was valuable. The price to have a bloodline magic welder could range from 20 to 10 million gold coins depending on their unique ability. And the Thames Family had a very special magic.

"Annual rings of life" and "Change Beyond the Reef"

  Unique and powerful. Many people wanted such abilities. So they tried to take them. And try as they did, they would never succeed. They would always change their fate. If they were going to be kidnapped, they would change it. Going to be killed, change it. They always used this method of defence against abusers of power. But one thing they never expected them to do was take Zachary's son. His son at that point was 12 years old. The same age as Claude. And when they took him. Zachary's daughter, Jour went after them.

  They were badly injured and beaten by the kidnappers. Jour who tried her best to save her brother couldn't hold it any longer and then a knife was thrown at them. And there Zachary laid. He took the knife ahold and collapsed on the floor. The guards that followed him came in to help but it was too late. That day, the last head of the Thames family died in the arms of his two children. All they could do now was listen to their father's last words and cry.

  "Jour and *cough* , take care of yourselves. And whatever you do, Don't use that name. *cough*mes."