Born of Defiance

Saren nodded. “Knowing that we could be invaded again, at any time, we held our first plenum shortly thereafter.”


“He means bloodbath,” Talyn said with a bitter note in his voice. “Not the council meetings they hold today, where the first families pitch the laws that govern us all to our tadara.”

Morra screwed her face up as she tried to follow. “Bloodbath, how?”

Talyn glanced to Felicia’s father before he explained. “It was a melee where the strongest of each clan fought to see who deserved to be our leaders. There were twenty-four survivors of that match, who then drew lots to see who would become a politician and who would create our military. The caste order of bloodlines and families was then determined by where their ancestor had finished in the match.”

Lorens nodded. “Until they got to Dancer Hauk, who had won every match. He drew a politician’s lot and refused it. He ended up trading his lot with the first Anatole, who had drawn a military slot… Anatole had finished second in the battle.”

Her father sighed heavily. “And that began the feud between the first family of the aristocracy and the first family of the military that lasts to this day.”

Morra’s scowl deepened. “Why?”

Talyn clenched his teeth as age-old bitterness choked him. “Because every Andarion knows that Dancer Hauk and his descendants are the ones who should have been our ruling family. And the Anatoles have spent the last four thousand years waiting for one of the Hauks to rise up and throw them out, and take the throne they’re technically entitled to.”

“But they haven’t.”

“No, but they, alone, could, and the Anatoles know that. Most of them fear it.”

Morra glanced at Saren. “So where does your family fall in this mess?”

“My lineage is the third of the noble clans. Anatole is first, Nykyrian, then Terronova.”

She looked at Talyn. “Yours?”

“We’re military. The Baturs are ranked second only to the Hauks.”

“So technically the Terronovas are the biggest threat to the queen?”

Lorens shook his head. “No. Because Andarions are warriors, the direct descendants of the Hauks and even the eldest Batur socially outrank the noble bloodlines, except for the ruling family of Sovereign Anatoles.”

Morra pressed her hands to her temples as if fighting a headache. “It’s like playing shuffle cards.”

Felicia laughed. “To you, maybe. Since this is our heritage, we know it intimately. And now you understand why the tadara and Chrisen are so hot for my bottom. My paka is the eldest child of the third noble family. My mother is second-born of the ezul Nykyrian lineage and it was her cousin who married the tadara and fathered Cairistiona and Tylie. So I’m a paternal cousin to the tizarahie, while Chrisen and Merrell are nephews of the tadara herself. With me involved with a Batur… For them, it’s a social nightmare waiting to happen. And because I’m of the Nykyrian and Terronova lineages, if Talyn and I had a legally sanctioned union, our children would be in line for the throne over even Chrisen and Merrell.”

Talyn met his mother’s gaze and smirked. Until now, he hadn’t known the lineage of Felicia’s mother. Given her birth caste, if he could claim his father’s bloodline, their children would be higher than anyone’s, other than the royal heirs. They would even have been styled as honorable tizirans and tizirahs.

“Nykyrian, huh?” There was a strange note in Morra’s voice.

“Yeah, why?” Lorens asked.

“Nothing. Just weird… we have a Nykyrian who works for The Sentella. He’s the only one I’ve ever known who had that name.”

Felicia arched a brow at that. It made sense. Nykyrian wasn’t a common name, even on Andaria. “Really?”

“Yeah, but it’s his first name. And he’s part human.”

Galene paled. “Come again?”

“What?” Morra blinked innocently.

Her jaw slack, Galene met Saren’s puzzled gaze. “What are the odds of there being two human-Andarion hybrids named Nykyrian?”

Saren sat down slowly as the news sank in.

“What?” Morra repeated.

Saren shook his head. “It’s not possible… Is it?”

Morra looked back and forth between them. “Andarions, really. Could you catch the off-worlders up?”

Galene let out a nervous breath. “Cairistiona had a son who supposedly died in a fire when he was a boy. She swears that he lived, and that he’ll return one day to claim the throne. He was a hybrid – half human, half Andarion – named Nykyrian.”

Morra exchanged an exaggerated drop-jaw expression with Qorach, who gestured at her. “Good question. Who was Nykyrian’s father?”

“Emperor Aros of the Triosan Empire.”

Morra typed it into her link, then let out a nervous laugh. She handed it to Qorach. “It’s him… I mean, the emperor’s older, but that’s our Nykyrian. Same facial structure. Same blond hair. I’d bet my life on it.”