by Eric Vall
“So, Grandfather, since you haven’t asked, I need to tell you why we’re here,” Nike announced.
It seemed the noble and I were on the same wavelength.
“Oh, right, your mission,” Calvin replied with a dismissive wave of his hand. “What do you need? Gold? Soldiers?”
“Not at all,” I answered, though the gold was rather tempting, and my inner dragon was extremely disappointed I’d turned it down. “We need to know more about your family.”
“Nikolaus should be able to tell you about our family,” the old man chuckled. “What do you need me for?”
“I don’t know nearly enough to help with our problem,” Nike countered with a frown. “Do you know if my father carries the Noble Spirit bloodline?”
“I should think not,” Calvin muttered. “The sword never chose him, you know that.”
“I wondered as much,” Nike agreed as he tapped his fingers on the table in thought. “Then I need to know if you have any other children besides him, especially female children.”
“Children?” his grandfather repeated, and his eyes darted over toward the women at his side. “Ah, I suppose it’s possible.”
“What do you mean?” I pressed. “You don’t know if any of your lovers had your children?”
“Well, they were free to come and go as they pleased,” he explained with a shrug. “I’ve never held my women to any standard of devotion to me. These women you see here may choose to leave tomorrow.”
“You don’t care about them at all?” I was shocked at his insinuation that he was pouring his seed into a variety of women without a care in the world.
“Of course, I care,” Calvin insisted with another glance at his lovers. “I, ah, just don’t force them to care about me. My love is so fleeting, and there are so many beautiful women to catch my fancy, and when they become pregnant I do find my attention wavering toward the next delicious morsel. It is better if they can leave on their own. You have a harem, so you understand.”
“No, I do not understand,” I scoffed. “I love my women, and they love me. I would never knock one of them up and let her walk off with my kid. That’s insane.”
“You would force them to stay?” He pressed a dramatic hand to his chest. “That seems rather brutal, my lord.”
“Force us?” Trina gasped.
“Lord Evan would never do anything to us!” Marina added with a furrowed brow.
“But he just said he wouldn’t let one of you walk away if you were pregnant,” Calvin pointed out. “That sounds like force to me.”
“I don’t have to force anyone,” I replied through gritted teeth. “They know I love them, so they don’t want to go anywhere. And it would bother me if they did. You don’t seem to give a damn if one of your women stays or goes, even if she has your child.”
“I suppose that’s where we differ, Lord Evan,” Calvin sighed. “I have never asked my lovers to be anything more than bedroom companions, nor have any of them wanted to be more. If one or more of them had a child once they left here, I cannot speak to it.”
“So, you have no idea if you impregnated one of them?” I dug my claws into the table as I tried to rein in my frustration. “You could have a dozen kids running around the city and not even know it!”
“Well, I know I have at least one,” he laughed. “He’s a hard one to forget.”
I took a shaky breath and tried to calm down. Lord Calvin had been reckless and didn’t even seem to care. Though my offspring had yet to hatch-- or be born, in the case of the centauress-- I still felt an overwhelming sense of paternal instinct to protect them both from harm. I couldn’t imagine having a child somewhere in the world without being a part of his or her life. It was sickening.
“Grandfather, how could you be so foolish?” Nike finally asked with wide eyes. “You know respecting the bloodline is sacred. You took no precautions?”
“The bloodline,” Calvin spat out with obvious disdain. “I had a child with the perfect bloodline, and he still wasn’t good enough for the Noble Sword. Why worry about that anymore?”
“What about the council?” Nike insisted. “You said they never make a mistake. And I was able to earn the sword, so my father must have passed something onto me.”
“I did!” a loud voice slurred from the entry.
All the heads in the room whirled to see a man in the doorway. His salt-and-pepper hair was unkempt and plastered to the sweat on his forehead, and his silver eyes were bloodshot. On each of his arms was a scantily clad woman, and they were dressed more like they were going to be in a rap video than dinner at the castle.
“Father,” Nike murmured as he rose from his seat. “What are you doing?”
“Coming to my son’s celebration dinner!” Niall answered with a sloppy grin. “Why else would I come to the one place in this city where I’m the most hated?”
“Oh, stop with the drunken dramatics,” Calvin scoffed. “No one here hates you, Niall.”
“Really?” Nike’s father laughed and nearly fell. “When’s the last time you had one of your people tell me to avoid the hall this evening, Father? That’s how I knew something big was going on.”
“I invite you all the time,” Calvin insisted. “You never respond.”
“Sure, Your Grace,” Niall said in a tone that dripped with sarcasm before he turned to Nike with an attempt at a sober smile. “It’s good to see you, son.”
“Please, sit down.” Nike strode closer and grabbed his arm. “Before you fall and make an even bigger fool of yourself.”
“I only see one fool in this room,” Niall snorted as he let Nike guide him to a seat. “And he’s at the other end of the table droning on about how I failed him as a son. Right, Father?”
Calvin narrowed his eyes on his son, but he refrained from smarting off. The two stared intensely at each other for almost a full minute before I cleared my throat.
“Okay, listen,” I started. “I get there’s some family drama going on here, but we all have that, so I need you two to get your shit together and help us figure out what we need to do next. The situation we’re dealing with is a lot bigger than whatever started this, and the fate of the entire country-- no, the entire world-- depends on it. So, we’re going to figure that problem out now. Your other stuff can wait.”
“What do our possible children have to do with your problem?” Calvin finally asked.
“I need to perform a ceremony with whoever has had a kid with the Noble Spirit bloodline,” I explained in as little detail as possible.
“Oh, gods,” Niall groaned. “Kids? I only have Nikolaus. I didn’t want more than that. He was enough for me.”
“More than enough, I should think,” Nike grumbled.
“I did my best,” his father huffed. “You were… a lot to handle.”
My eyes swiveled back and forth between the father and son as they glared at each other, and I wondered if finding my own deadbeat dad was really that great of an idea after all. This was not the family reunion I would hope for.
“You act like I terrorized you,” Nike said in an icy voice. “I simply wanted to impress you all the time. I was a child, for the gods’ sake.”
“A child who quickly took over my duties!” Niall retorted. “A child that made his father look like a useless dolt!”
“Okay, okay.” I stood up and held my hands up to silence everyone. “I think that’s enough reminiscing. We only came here to find the descendant of the Noble Spirit, and then we’ll be on our way and out of your hair. So, Baron Niall, do you carry the bloodline or not?”
“I’m sure I do,” he replied with his chin jutted out. “I was able to wield the Noble Sword, but she chose Nikolaus over me when he was a boy. He wouldn’t have had the bloodline if it wasn’t for me.”
“You weren’t able to wield it!” Calvin rolled his eyes. “Picking up a blade is not the same as wielding it. You never did listen.”
“Enough!” I thundered and slammed my fist down on the table.
“I need to know if it’s possible. That’s it!”
“It’s possible,” Calvin grumbled as he sat back and crossed his arms over his chest like a petulant teenager.
“Then I need to know if it’s also possible that there are more of your children in existence,” I continued and stared into Niall’s wavering gaze. “Have you taken more lovers since Nikolaus was born?”
“Of course, I have,” Niall scoffed as he motioned to the two women at his sides. “Many people desire me, even if my own family wishes I would disappear.”
“Great,” I muttered as I sat down and looked at Alyona. “How many women are we going to have to chase to find the bloodline?”
Chapter 7
The rest of dinner was almost silent, and I could feel Miraya’s anxiety levels rise within my spiritual sea.
Hey, you should come out here and eat, I suggested. It might help you relax.
I suppose I could try, she agreed.
I started to warn the rest of the room, but Miraya appeared in a flash of blinding white light. She stood next to my chair in her ethereal beauty with her white hair brushing the tops of her sandaled feet, and her pale-blue eyes looked over the table while Calvin, Niall, and their women stared at her in complete amazement.
“This is Miraya, the spirit of the Sword of Healing,” I announced. “She’ll be joining us now.”
Calvin and Niall were stunned as Miraya made her way to the seat next to Naomi. I relaxed a little bit when she finally started to eat, and then another flash of light filled the room.
“Aine!” Miraya gasped and nearly leaped out of her chair.
The woman who appeared next to Nike was nearly as gorgeous as Miraya, though her hair was a light shade of red. She wore similar white robes, and her eyes were the same pale blue. She looked at Nike, and he nodded back. Then she scurried around the table and met Miraya with a hug. The sisters embraced each other tightly for several minutes, and I looked over to see Margaret staring at Aine with an odd expression.
“I’m so happy to see you, dear sister,” Aine sighed. “It has been too long.”
“It has!” Miraya agreed with a wide smile.
The pair linked arms, and my women made room for Aine to sit next to her sister at the table. They chatted quietly together as they ate, but my attention was drawn back to the sour-faced Margaret. She leaned over to say something to Nike, and I kicked myself as I tuned in my dragon hearing to listen.
“That is the spirit of the sword you carry?” she whispered.
“Yes,” Nike confirmed without turning toward her.
“You did not mention her beauty,” Margaret huffed under her breath.
“She can take many forms,” he replied as he finally looked at her. “Why are you upset?”
“I’m not.” His betrothed pouted and took another swig of her wine. “I merely observed something you’d failed to mention, my lord.”
“I didn’t find it important,” Nike explained with a shrug. “She’s my friend, and she helps me in battle.”
“Yet, your friend seems rather attached to the dragon’s spirit,” Margaret retorted.
Oh, great. She was only boring in public. She was a lunatic in private. I had to get Nike out of this situation before he was completely stuck.
“Okay, I think it’s about time to get some rest,” I declared. “Lord Calvin, do you have somewhere for us to stay?”
“My palace is expansive, Lord Evan,” he chuckled. “I’m sure we have room for you and your entourage.”
“Great,” I replied. “Let’s do that.”
Twenty minutes later, Alyona and I laid in a small bed curled up together, partly because we liked to touch but mostly because there wasn’t any room on the bed that seemed just big enough for a single adult.
“You seem stressed,” Alyona observed as she rubbed the arm I had draped over her side. “Do you want to talk?”
“Leyte isn’t exactly what I expected,” I replied with a frown. “I know Nike was worried about us coming here, but I didn’t realize his dad was a drunken man-whore, and his grandpa was just the sober version. Neither of them gives a shit about possibly having kids with these women, and they just left them to fend for themselves.”
“Not everyone cares as deeply about family as you do,” my wife pointed out in a gentle voice. “Most harems exist because the man wants to spice things up, not because he truly has feelings for many women. It almost seems silly to call us a harem since we’re more like family.”
“We are family,” I corrected her. “And I’d never do that to any of you.”
“We all know that,” she assured me, and I could hear the smile in her voice. “Tomorrow, we’ll find out how many women we need to talk to, and we’ll just have to work things out from there. For now, you need some sleep.”
“You’re probably right,” I sighed. “And it’s probably good practice. I’m sure these won’t be the only nobles we come across with harems and multiple baby mamas.”
“Exactly,” Alyona giggled. “Do you want me to be your baby mama?”
“You’re my wife,” I scoffed. “On Earth, baby mama is a bit of a slang term and means something completely different, but I’d never do that to someone.”
“I know,” she murmured and snuggled closer. “I love you.”
“Love you, too,” I replied with a yawn.
Within a few minutes, we were both sleeping soundly, though my mind still raced with thoughts of noble bloodline kids and the bonding ceremony. The thoughts turned into vivid dreams, and I chased around these faceless children with the ceremonial dagger while I tried to bond with the right one.
When I awoke, I was still exhausted, as though I’d been running in real life, too, but something else surged underneath the surface. I couldn’t quite pinpoint it, and I nearly fell off the bed as I tried to get up without waking Alyona, but she rolled over and blinked her big amethyst eyes when she felt my movement.
“Good morning,” she murmured.
My breath caught in my throat as I looked over her smooth skin with the colorful designs from the stained-glass window above us.
“Good morning, indeed,” I growled as I climbed on top of her.
About an hour later, and after several rounds of lovemaking that filled her accepting womb with my dragon-seed, we got dressed and met the rest of my lovers in the hallway.
“Was your bed stupid small?” Aaliyah grunted as she pulled the door shut behind her. “My bed was stupid small. I don’t know how anyone could sleep on that thing.”
“Mine, too,” Ravi agreed as she tugged her flaming hair back into a braid. “I have slept in some uncomfortable places growing up in the desert, but that bed is certainly high on my list of the worst ones.”
“That’s pretty bad,” I chuckled.
“It wasn’t as awful with someone to cuddle,” Polina chirped.
“Unless you were the one in the middle,” Marina argued and pursed her lips at her sister.
“Then one of you can come cuddle with me next time,” Rebecca decided. “I would try anything to make that bed better.”
My blood rushed south at the thought of my women cuddling together, and I had to tame the urge to mark them all right here as Nike strode down the hall toward us.
“Sorry about the beds,” he began with a grimace. “I know they’re terrible. I think they’re for any of the harem women who don’t want to sleep in my grandfather’s room for a night.”
“Ah, so they don’t want to sleep there again,” I chuckled. “Clever.”
“But he doesn’t force anyone to be with him, remember?” Laika said with obvious sarcasm.
“Alright, before we go downstairs, we need to figure a few things out,” I said before everyone got worked up. “Is Miraya awake yet?”
“I’m here!” the spirit chirped as she and Aine walked out of another room. “We were just catching up. We didn’t sleep at all!”
“I’m glad you got to hang out.” I smiled at Miraya and Aine
, who held hands like schoolgirls as they walked over to join the group. “Now, since Calvin and Niall don’t know if they’ve gotten anyone pregnant, we’ll have to go talk to their previous lovers ourselves. How will we know if their children carry the bloodline?”
“That’s a good question,” Miraya mused. “But I think it’s actually going to be fairly easy to discern who has it. You and I should be able to feel the connection, but the real test will be Lord Nikolaus.”
“Why me?” Nike asked and cocked his head to the side.
“You will share the power in your blood,” the spirit explained, and her sister nodded in agreement. “Much like I can sense when one of my sisters is near, you will be able to sense a kinship with someone who carries the bloodline power.”
“Do I have to try to feel it?” he wondered. “Or will I just know?”
“You should just know, my lord,” Aine answered. “It isn’t a special ability like a magical power, it’s more like two magnets with a gentle pull.”
“Would he be able to tell if they’re related even if they don’t have the bloodline power?” I pressed.
“That’s more difficult to determine,” Miraya replied and tapped her finger on her lips. “I can’t say for certain, but it’s possible.”
“I just figured even if they aren’t who we need for the ceremony, maybe we can still find other family members,” I told Nike. “I mean, I’d want to know if I had brothers or uncles or whatever out there.”
“I would be curious as well,” he agreed. “So, where do we begin?”
“We have to round up all the possible candidates.” I grimaced as I remembered Calvin and Niall’s careless attitudes about their lovers. “And that alone might take a while, I think.”
“Unfortunately, it seems you’re right on that,” Nike grumbled. “Let’s go talk to my foolish family.”
He turned on his heels and headed for the stairs to bring us back to the great hall where Calvin lounged on one of the sofas while a human woman fanned him and a tiger Demi-Human fed him fruit from a basket. Both women wore minimal clothing, and I felt a little uncomfortable when I caught a glimpse of the tigress’ bare ass when she bent over to pop a slice of apple in Calvin’s mouth.
