Chapter 19
Bastian stood off to the side and waited for his Aunt Bella to finish gushing over the success of the first day of the banquets. Liri kept looking at him, her expression reflecting what he was feeling. He did love his aunt but remembered her being more fun before Liri was born. Having a female child bumped her social status and she went from fun aunt to socialite and hadn’t looked back since. This day had been mind-numbing and many hours too long.
“Are you coming, Aliria?”
Bastian blinked out of his vegetative state.
“I want to hear everything about that man you were with most of the day. You were laughing.”
Liri’s eyes widened. Bastian stumbled from where he’d been leaning against the wall. “Uh, we actually need to borrow my cousin to discuss her political liaison this past week.” He didn’t miss the raised eyebrow from his father.
“We’ll try not to keep her too long, Bell,” his mother said without missing a beat.
“Yes, of course. I understand, Amadine. I’ll see you in the morning.”
The room was silent until the door closed.
“Political liaison?” His father got up and went over to the cylindrical cupboard on the wall. Taking out the two olive-colored vials, he came back over to his wife.
“Yeah.” Bastian looked over at Trendan. “That’s tied in with what we need to discuss with you.”
“We’ve already heard through other channels that the insane mage was caught. What else do we need to know? What’s going on that you involved your cousin?”
Trendan loosened his tie and sat down.
Bastian glanced over at Tor and Ulric. “Could you check on the chef?” Tor nodded and they both turned and bowed their heads to his parents, then left the room.
“Sit down, Osbert, I have a feeling this will take a few minutes for the boys to explain.”
Bastian smirked at his mother, then sobering quickly, glanced back to his father. “I have a good opener to start this discussion.” He sat on the arm of the chair across from his mother.
Liri kicked off her shoes and sat beside Trendan.
“Very well.” His father drank the elixir and set the empty vial on the table and came back over to sit with his mother.
Bastian glanced at Trendan to see that his expression told him he knew what he was going to say. “Did you know we can procreate with others outside this realm?” He watched his parent’s reactions much like you would a child to see if there were any telltale signs of a lie.
His father smirked. “You’re joking, right?” His gaze flicked from Bastian to Trendan, then back.
“I’ve never been more serious in my life.” It was probably true. He hated being all stoic and severe.
“I think we would know…”
He interrupted his father, which normally was something he feared doing. “I have proof. A lot of proof.”
His mother looked at Trendan, who only nodded his head.
“One of the Alterealm Princesses has half Solrelm DNA, Uncle Os,” Liri said quietly. “I’ve met her.”
“Who are her parents?” his father demanded.
Bastian inhaled a deep breath and then exhaled. “Her mother was from Alterealm, her father is Aldis Hayden and...” He watched his mother for a moment wondering if he should be stressing her out like this in her condition. “And, he was found with her mother in the human realm, dragged back here, and his mind, or at least his knowledge of ever going there has been wiped.”
“There’s a lot of them like that, Dad.” Trendan’s tone was soft and somber.
Their mother put her hand over her mouth and looked at their father. He took her other hand and held it in his. “Who is doing this?”
“We don’t know—yet.” Trendan looked back over to Bastian.
Their father looked from one to the other. “There are records, through the link bracelet of who goes over…”
“A lot of records have been erased or altered,” Trendan informed them.
“There are children.” His mother looked at him for a moment. “Female children born with others from our realm?”
Bastian nodded. “We’re searching for them, it’s tedious without all the information.”
“Have you reported this to the court?”
Trendan cleared his throat. “We can’t until we know who is behind it.”
“True.” Their father stood up and paced to the other side of the room and stared at a painting of his great-grandfather. How the canvas hadn’t decayed and crumbled apart, Bastian could never figure out.
“We think the lawless are somehow involved.” Trendan leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. “Or they’re behind it. We have two of them in the Alterealm prison for safekeeping.”
“In Alterealm?” He turned around and looked at him.
“We didn’t know who to trust here.” Trendan got up and went over to the bar.
“It’s good you didn’t take a chance.” Their father was studying the floor.
“I can’t believe it,” his mother whispered. “How?” She looked at his father, then back to him. “For us not to know, it’s been going on for a very long time.”
“The mate to the Alterealm Justice is looking through their archives on Solrelm to see if we can pinpoint when the lies started,” he offered, not liking that he was upsetting his mother.
His mother glanced to Liri. “The birth crisis of so few females being born began in my grandmother’s time.”
“Well, someone is still aware of the truth,” Trendan leaned against the bar, “the chef we sent our guards to check on was brought back, his mind wiped, not even a decade ago.”
“Can it be reversed?” His father’s attention was back on them now.
“That’s what we’re waiting to find out. Princess Aireese is with him now.”
“You believe magic was involved?” His father’s brow was creased now, as the information started to register.
Bastian looked at his mother. “With members from every realm working with that maniac mage for more centuries than we know—it could be tied to that, but magic had to be used.”
“Where are you holding him?”
“In Solrelm,” Bastian supplied, “we didn’t have time to usher him off anywhere when we borrowed him from the environmental research compound.” He took another deep breath. “Which brings me to the lands dying off, that could be caused by that Arwan mage, but we haven’t confirmed it yet.”
“This is all...” His mother got up and went over to the bar and got a bottle of water out of the fridge. “I don’t even have the words.”
“What do you need from me to unravel all of this?” His father gave him a steady look.
Bastian glanced at Trendan.
“We need you to stay out of it, completely.” Trendan walked back over. “We don’t know who is involved and can’t risk setting off any warnings to whoever is.”
Bastian watched the indecision on his father’s face. He understood it was a lot to ask the leaders of the realm to step back and stay clear from all of it. “No one else can know.” He motioned to his brother and cousin. “Our guards know. No one else in Solrelm does.”
“Elyas?” his mother asked.
Bastian shook his head. “He’s too rule-abiding, and we’re breaking rules to find out things.” Bastian rubbed his hand over his head. “When Sigor is back, we’ll tell him. There’s no way he knows about all of the lies.” Everyone in the room nodded. Sigor had been like family for as long as he could remember, and Bastian knew he would never break the laws or ways of their people, like kidnapping and brainwashing men.
“Should Aliria be involved?” His mother’s face was filled with concern.
“She’s safe. We took her to Alterealm to help the princesses look for mothers and children that were left behind when the dads were abducted and brought back to Solrelm.
“Are you finding many?” His mother looked at Liri, concern clear on her face.
Liri clasped her hands in her lap and held her look. “It’s not an easy process, but we believe we’re very close to five.”
Bastian hadn’t even realized the number.
“In the human world, they’d only live a normal life span…”
Bastian shrugged and looked at his mother. “If they were just human, that’s true.”
“What do you mean just human?” His father sat down and leaned on his knees.
“We aren’t the only realm with rendezvous over there.” His father quirked an eyebrow at him. “There are a lot of mixed DNA people in the human space.”
“So it may not be that we can have children with the humans,” Trendan mused.
“If they were gradually introduced to the elixir, it would slow…”
Bastian jumped up and looked at his father, with his mouth hanging open. He spun to look at his brother. “The elixir.” Closing his eyes, he put his hands on his head. “How didn’t I think of this until now?” Opening his eyes, he looked at Trendan again. “It’s connected. It has to be.”
Trendan gave him a blank look. “What is?”
“Arwan, they cut off his connection to the wastelands in Alterealm, but he’s not dying. He’s aged a bit, but should have withered away by now. He’s older than anyone can remember.” Pulling his phone out of his suit coat, he tapped the screen. “He’s been given the elixir.” Hovering his finger over King Troy’s number, he looked at his father. “How do we test for traces of the elixir? How long does it last?”
His father shook his head. “That depends on how much he’s had and for how long.”
“There’s a blood test that can detect how much, Bastian.” His mother nodded.
Bastian pointed at her. “Yes. Good. Okay.” He went to tap the screen and then stopped. “Why would the lawless be interested in obtaining a human, alive?
His parents exchanged a look. “I have no idea,” his father answered.
“Right. Well, I had hoped for a better answer, but a few pieces to this never-ending puzzle is better than none.” He tapped King Troy’s number and held up his finger to his family. He couldn’t sit on this long enough to finish the discussion. Arwan had someone in the main hubs of Solrelm. A rat that was betraying his, or her—he wasn’t sexist, people and the very reason they existed in the first place.
This had been a very enlightening day after all. He’d confirmed his parents were not involved in any way, there had been a fraction of a minute in his mind that he’d doubted them—but his faith was now restored on that front. They knew there was a rat in Solrelm, likely a whole nest of them. He glanced at his mother, and he was going to be a big brother. He looked from one parent to the other, nope, still couldn’t go there completely without feeling nauseated.
“Bastian?”
He grinned. “Troy, I know why Arwan isn’t aging.”