Interlude VII

Family Lineages

Hellena Cerusian sat in her throne room surrounded by her panel of advisers and clingers-on. Before her was a product of modern engineering, one that came from the Sidherthan Kingdom but had yet to be replicated elsewhere in the world. These were of course the memory transmission crystals, where synchronized messages could be saved up and sent to a mirrored crystal at the other end. The image before them was an operative sent to get deep into the heart of Sidherthan military but had recently been re-allocated to the RDT division.

Before them was the image of a woman of unremarkable build, average height, average proportions, dark hair and piercing blue eyes. Essentially, she was the epitome of what a typical Cerusian would look like. Fortunately for everyone in attendance such features were common throughout the continent, so the fact that a few were rumored to have allegiances to a supposed murder cult bent on taking down the aristocracy didn’t really cross anyone’s mind. Besides the tales of Cerusians where what was used to get bad mages to go to bed early, lest they be deemed a danger and be met with death by a Cerusian in the night.

When Hellena was in her place she gave a crisp nod, the signal that she was ready to hear the missive. Seeing the nod, Trenton activated the receiving crystal to play the message.

“Your honor. I regret to inform you of two minor problems. The first is as we were all aware, my role as an official soldier for the Sidherthan Military has come to tragic end.” She said while holding up her right hand with a red ‘X’ glowing brightly for all to see. “I have been found guilty of dereliction of duty and abandoning my post in pursuit of the quarry.”

There was a pause as a look of discomfort crossed her face. “I also regret to inform you that I have lost the target. I like everyone else was unprepared for his manner of escape. No doubt you have already heard by now, but during the coronation, despite being crippled magically, he managed to not only enact the third old-world law. But he also managed to make his escape with the trophy wife.” The last part of her report was said with disdain. All who heard also involuntarily let out a low growl, or close facsimile thereof. There was no love lost between the Cerusians and the Azani. In fact, part of how the Cerusians got their great name of terror was by striking down many would be Azani tyrants.

Hellena stopped herself from shouting out a question before she realized that such a gesture would be futile. The best she could do now was to listen to the rest of the crystal and try to send a reply message.

“I tracked the couple to the end of the city limits, and even found evidence the following day that they had gone north. My guess is they have decided to go north through the great jungle basin. I do not know their path or purpose for why, but they seem to be on a direct course to the center. Just like…” She trailed off as the length of time for the message had ended. While her words were caught off mid speech her thought for whom she was making a comparison was obvious.

Hearing that everyone in the room fell quiet, as they all knew what she meant. The great jungle basin was where the founder Lincon Cerusian first found his power to defeat the tyrants. It was from that power that every one of his progenies retained some traces of his power.

Pondering what to do, a memory flashed of an earlier message that was sent.

“Play the Eighty-third message received.” Hellena demanded.

There was a pause, but soon people began to move. “One second your eminence.” Trenton declared before going leaving the room, no doubt to go to the storage room where the old messages were stored and kept.

While he was gone Hellena used the pause to compose her thoughts. The similarities were there, but they were just too wild to be true. Or perhaps they were just right.

So many jumbled thoughts roamed through her mind that she could barely contain her composure before everyone.

Before she could stew for too long in her own thoughts Trenton returned with a memory crystal that had been transferred to a storage crystal.

“Play it.” Hellena demanded, a softer tone taking away the normal harsh resonance she exudes.

Trenton not needing to be told twice continued his walk straight for the playing array and inserted the new crystal. Instantly power began flowing through the crystals and an image of their operative once again appeared. This time she was wearing her Sidherthan Military RDT uniform.

“I have managed to contact the subject and been placed on his team. After his battle there was a lot of blood. Fortunately, I was one of the first on the scene.” The operative said, holding up a white cloth with a giant red stain on it.

“I performed a genetic test on the sample. Unfortunately, most of the blood cells were destroyed, but I was able to make positive confirmation on the mitochondria.”

That was the great thing about mitochondria, it always lasted the test of time. While the rest of the red blood cells would disintegrate over time, the mitochondria would stand strong. The only problem was that mitochondria was only passed on from mother to their children.

“I have some good news.” The operative said, suddenly excited as if what they were about to say was something both great and groundbreaking. “I was able to match the mitochondria to your eminence. It is confirmed, both by science and symbolic linking magic, the subject is in fact not only a Cerusian, but directly related to you, your eminence.”

“Stop.” Hellena said holding up her hand. Hearing the words again from one of her most trusted agents made her heart pound wildly. It was all Hellena could do to take in a deep breath and try to regain her composure. After a second of clarity, she asked the important question. “Have we gotten the test results back and the sample?”

That was part of a later message, that the two independent results, and a last test sample with the subject’s blood on it were being sent to their base for secondary analysis.

“We have gotten it your eminence. We have confirmed the traces of Cerusian heritage. Though the fact that he was able to still empower runes without access to mana all but proved that anyways.” Trenton explained.

With his words a certain level of clarity was understood. There was never any doubt that the subject was a Cerusian, the dark black hair and pale skin were almost a dead giveaway. Other than his abnormal height and now glowing golden eyes, something that apparently only happened after he spent time with the high wood elves, he was a typical Cerusian.

But there were under current not being said. Statements that Hellena herself was too afraid to even whisper, for fear that she might give hope where none needed to be given.

“Bring the sample, let’s do the comparisons here.” Hellena said.

What happened next was a lot of magic and science. Two labs were set up. One where Hellena was asked to donate her blood twice, once she placed on a small glass slide that was set under a crystal matrix-microscope. One that both enhanced the images found and could compare them to a second sample.

The second was through a process of sympathetic magic, a minor cantrip from the old days. One that didn’t require mana and had therefore been mostly lost to time. Until the Cerusian order brought back such archaic practices, as no Cerusian could use mana. At least that was the general belief, until…

POOF!

The first test was completed. With minor shock the two samples that had been separated by six feet were now overlapping each other perfectly, a sign that they were exact matches. The cantrip of sympathetic magic was a simple one, Like Calls to Like. With the cantrip two things that are believed to be similar are placed on two different parts of the same plate. The idea being the more resonance the two items being tested had, the closer they would be pulled together. The only outliers being items that were the same. The only time this occurred was when an exact match was found. During such times the plates would stack on top of each other, to show an exact copy.

While everyone was busy seeing the correlations of the cantrip. The scientist in charge of comparing the two blood samples via microscope had managed to not only find two mitochondria but align them up perfectly for comparison. At first the two samples were separated by two different backgrounds one blue and one red. Then through the manipulation of a few nobs the two images were pushed together until they too identically overlapped. In both cases the evidence was concrete proof that the operative had conducted her work correctly and come to the correct conclusion.

“There is a less than 0.001% chance that the subject is not a direct line member of your family.” Trenton confirmed after reviewing the readings from both the scientific and magical comparisons.

Hearing those words something broke in Hellena’s chest as her heart suddenly ached with pain.

It had taken months for the materials to get to her. Months of slowly searching drop sites after drop sites, until finally trusted merchants were able to carry the supplies to her. Now that they were all here, they all said the same thing.

“Lykan Vov’Vita is your grandson.” Trenton exclaimed.

There was so much to unpack in that statement. First the last name had changed, and it took a second for her to realize that he, unlike her operative had been relieved of duty with a valorous achievement. There was also one final thing that came to mind.

“Find Lykan’s father, I need to know what happened to my daughter.” Hellena demanded.

At that, Trenton looked slightly flustered. Seeing the look of apprehension on Trenton’s otherwise stoic face, Hellena paused. “What is it?”

“Well, you see, the Azani have apparently used this time to sail around the great forest and have begun the invasion of the eastern empires, one of which being Tython.” Trenton began.

“Go on?”

“Well as would be expected, normal communications have become scarce, and we have lost track of the father as well.”

“Let me get this straight, you have lost track of not only my grandson, but also my good for nothing son-in-law?” She spat angrily.

Hearing the words Trenton trembled slightly, before mustering a response.