The sage said nothing as Kai was lead back down into the ship with both Alicia and Arnella in tow.

  Kai, a man who had once been thirty-seven years old, felt like a child in trouble with the headmaster of his school for the very first time.

  He tried giving the two women the obligatory questioning look to find out if he was in trouble.

  But both of them, reading the look correctly, just shrugged. Neither of them showed any concern at all.

  Unfortunately Kai lacked both the cultural experience and knowledge of the man's temperament to make a judgement call on whether or not he had actually fucked up.

  His only indication that he might have done something he shouldn’t was the mix of panic and concern he observed on the face of the experienced silver-ranked adventurer while he had been toying with a significant mass of attack magic just above the ship's deck.

  The silence stretched on uncomfortably as they passed through the oddly quiet ship, Thanric's chosen route somehow completely avoiding the crew .

  Reaching the sages deck, Thanric turned and addressed them with a frustratingly placid face that made it impossible for Kai to read into the man's state of mind.

  “Alicia, go get yourself cleaned up, then please, for the love of the spirits, get some rest. In your rush to get the task I gave you completed, you clearly neglected to take care of yourself. Not something I would expect of my apprentice, especially after such a long dungeon run.“

  Alicia nodded, cast a quick glance at Kai, and then headed off towards her quarters.

  “Arnella, please make it clear to the crew that if anything even remotely resembling what Lady Syl discovered this morning is uncovered again, I will personally ensure that those responsible will regret their lapse in judgement for no less than the next century. Am I understood?”

  “Loud and clear, Sage.” Arnella said, “Everyone we found is already on pot duty for the next year.”

  “Good. Now, go make sure Bardrick’s betting pools don’t get out of hand. Unless…” The sage gave Kai a serious look. “You want us to shut it down?”

  Kai immediately felt on the spot, the two of them looking at him for an answer despite all the previous casualness.

  “As long as no one is trying to sleep with me for financial gain, I guess I’m fine with the crew entertaining themselves.” Saying that had a stray thought about the other ways the crew might like to entertain themselves, “Actually, I’ve got enough going on; could you make sure the crew knew I wasn’t interested in anything casual?”

  “You know, wording it like that still opens you up for anyone who takes a serious interest.” The sage said. “Your idea of casual and serious might not match Alean concepts of either.”

  “I’m going to be onboard for less than what, a month? How is anything serious possibly going to start when I have Syl and Alicia?”

  Thanric sighed, “Arnella, keep Bardrick on a short leash. I want an accurate copy of his books; give him a paired journal to transfer everything into. And make sure he knows both he and his team will be off the ship the moment he tries any of his usual tricks. We have hundreds of applications; he is not irreplaceable.”

  Arnella nodded her understanding.

  “Now make sure we’re not disturbed, and inform the chef I would like a meal for myself, Alicia, Kai and Syl, ready at the usual time. Tell him I want a variety of Alean cuisine… Actually add yourself to that meal while you are at it. That should be all; you’re dismissed.”

  Arnella hesitated just for a moment, “What if the captain…”

  “No, not today. Tell her there may be private matters discussed and that there will be plenty of time over the next few days for her to meet our guests.”

  She saluted and disappeared without another word.

  She didn’t even look back once as she made her way down to where the corridor split and left him alone with the sage.

  The moment she was gone Thanric turned to him sharply. He had a wicked grin writ large on his face, all past austere seriousness varnished.

  “Now if I’m not mistaken, you won’t need any time to be excused to change out of that armour.”

  Kai was taken aback by the ageless, white-haired el’viairen man's sudden change.

  “I- er, that’s true… But I could still use the chance to get myself cleaned up. Nobody told me where the bathing or shower facilities are onboard. I actually meant to ask Arnella, but something else always comes up.” Kai said as he dismissed his armour, the clothing he had on underneath adjusting and falling free into their intended form of address.

  Thanric watched the transformation curiously; the moment he was done, he waved his hand as he returned his attention to Kai, “You won’t find any facilities like that onboard. Water is precious, and we don’t always know when the ship’s tanks can be refilled. Funnily enough, I think we're on course to a freshwater source right now. The stores have got quite low with spending so long outside the dungeon. Of course it wouldn't be an issue if I could get my hands on a water stone, but those are precious and reserved for population centres whenever they are discovered.”

  Kai’s clothes had already cleaned themselves and any part of his body they had been touching; unfortunately, his face and hair weren’t in contact with any part of his raiment, and he still felt slick with sweat.

  “So, what am I supposed to do?”

  Thanric let out a breath, “It must have slipped Arnella’s mind, but there’s a cleansing stone in your quarters. Come with me; there is a lot we need to get through. You can use the cleanse stone that’s kept in the lab.”

  “Lab?” Kai asked, wondering why, of all places, the sage wanted to go through some stuff in a lab of all places.

  Thanric unfortunately didn’t answer, as he just turned and made his way to a sturdy-looking door that didn’t quite match any of the other doors in the corridor despite the clear attempts to get it to blend in.

  The man put his hand on the door's handle and just stood there for a moment. He saw Kai's confusion and chuckled. “Security enchantment; it’s quite old, starting to take a little-“ The door clicked and opened slightly. “-A little longer than I like. Keep forgetting to get it reworked whenever we're in port.”

  “Come in, and don’t touch anything, especially if it looks interesting. Or touchable. I have a lot of experiments in progress, some of them years old. I’d rather not have to start them over.

  Thanric led him into the room, pointing to the only clear high table there was near the centre of the room, just a few oddly familiar notebooks littering the surface. He gestured for Kai to take a seat as he walked over to retrieve a stone that was sitting on its own little shelf by a door on the far right wall.

  Kai was immediately reminded of the labs back in his old high school, the sturdy high tables with thick wooden tops, all filled with one thing or another. Vials, test tubes and other glass contraptions bubbled, popped and quietly hissed under vents that seemed to be selectively extracting any fumes that resulted. Stones were stacked here and there in different arrangements, strange glowing lines connecting the formations. And anywhere there wasn’t some kind of experiment, there were stacks of paper and books.

  “Sorry about the mess; I haven’t had my apprentice to help keep things somewhat organised,” Thanrics said as he came back to Kai to pass him a stone before taking a seat opposite.

  Kai looked at the stone in confusion. He was obviously the cleansing stone that they had just been talking about, but he didn’t know how to use it. The easiest thing to do would be to channel some mana into it, but what if that was wrong? What if that could break the stone?

  Seeing his hesitation, Thanric asked, “Did Alicia not show you how to use her cleansing stone in the dungeon?”

  “No… I was told it had limited uses, and I didn’t want to take liberties. I gave myself a sponge bath every time I needed a wash. She did clean my gear for me…” Kai said as he remembered it coming out that they had, in fact, been using the cleansing stone to clean his stuff, which raised the question: why make him sponge bath himself?

  Recalling Syl was devious; he let the thought go.

  “Strange…” Thanric said as he seemed to go through his own thoughts on the matter, “Just use a little mana; the stone will do the rest of the work; they're designed to be safe for everyone, even infants. Reverse engineered from something found in a dungeon.”

  Kai shrugged, and as soon as he added a little mana to the stone, he could feel a tingling on the hand he held the stone in as the grime from training vanished. Rubbing his hands together, he was pleasantly surprised to find it felt like he had washed his hands using a good piece of soap, but without all the hassle of getting his hands wet then drying them again.

  Realising the stone was a magical bar of soap, he took a moment and worked the stone around anywhere he felt remotely dirty.

  Impressed with how easy it was, he thanked Thanric and put the stone on the table.

  Soap companies will probably try to bury these if they were ever discovered back on earth.

  Though you couldn’t beat a good long soak or a hot shower, so there might not actually be a problem. He wondered how good they were at removing germs… how different the pandemic might have been with a little magic.

  “That one's a bit limited,” Thanric said, snapping him from his wandering thoughts. “It is so you can't put too much mana into it and accidentally cleanse the lab and all its experiments. But the one in the empress suite is much better; you should keep it.”

  Kai smiled, “I’ll make sure Arnella helps me find it.”

  “Good. Now, Kai, I asked you here so we could go through some touch on some things. Things that will be important in the days to come.”

  “I’m not in trouble for what I did up on the deck?”

  “No, not really.” Thanric chuckled, ”It was quite impressive. And I will advise caution in the future. There was a very real possibility of your mana having a bad interaction with some of the ship's arcane systems. That and if you had lost control, a chain reaction of that size could remove a sizeable chunk of the deck and part of the ship. However, you seemed to have an adeptus' level of control, which was surprising for someone who I believe had not used any mana until they entered the dungeon.”

  That was mostly true; he had practice conjuring weapons in the domain while passing through the void, and that had similarities to using mana.

  Thanric waved a hand dismissively. “Besides, I was there, ready to step in if you let anything slip. So yes, while you are in no trouble, your display was one of the reasons I have decided to bring our planned meeting forward. You see, with that amount of condensed mana, your natural aspect should have caused some interference with the emergency barrier systems or even the ship's arcane airframe. But there was nothing, at least nothing I could detect. So with your permission I would like to investigate the nature or aspect of your mana. As well as tackle some other formalities.”

  Kai nodded as he absorbed the potential problems he could have caused.

  “Great, now this won't take too long, but do you have any questions before I get started?”

  “I actually have a question that has been bugging me for a long time; I mean, I’ve come to terms with it as I have learnt more and more about how mana affects people, mainly ageing…” Kai trailed off, as he wasn’t quite sure how to ask this.

  “Go ahead. Ask me anything.”

  Kai swallowed as he tried his best to form his question. “Just after the system event, when you explained the contract I had made with Alicia… how it meant we were married or engaged. You said something about her being too young, that she was just a child.”

  “Yes, I remember; you shut down quite fast; the information was too much of a shock for you with everything that was going on. I didn’t get a chance to explain, did I?”

  Kai nodded as the sage picked up where he was going effortlessly.

  “I was saying she was too young, that the contract would only be considered an engagement for the time being. At least until her mother, Sietra, has ratified the arrangement... I had my own thoughts on the matter as her master… things have clearly evolved.”

  Kai coughed, “We’re taking things slow… I know what she wants. At least I think I know; it was vague, but I think things are going well.”

  “I know.” Thanric said as he pointed at the notebooks on the table, “Alicia was quite thorough in her reports. Cautiously Enthusiastic.”

  “She wrote about it? And she is okay with you reading those?”

  “She was vague, but it’s all there in the subtext. I don’t think she realises just how much of her inner thoughts come through in her notes. But you said you had a question?” Thanric said, expertly moving things along.

  “I just wanted to know if- I wanted to know- well, now it’s more of a need for you to confirm I’m not mixed up in some social taboo, making a contract like that with someone who was culturally a child…” Kai trailed off again, hoping the sage was indeed sagely and would pick up what he was getting at.

  The sage looked at him for a moment, taking time to process what Kai was trying to clarify.

  Something broke within the sage as the man burst into barely controlled laughter.

  It took the ancient man a good five minutes before he regained control.

  “Has that been on your mind this entire time?” He held up a hand and rubbed a tear from his eye with the other. “Wait, is that why you kept Alicia at a distance despite her own willingness?”

  Alicia had been willing? How willing? Kai tried to recall all the time they spent in the dungeon together, and despite a few very obvious instances instigated by Syl, he didn’t think there had been anything significant.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  He looked up to see the sage giving a somewhat pitying look. “She was right; you really are clueless.”

  Kai couldn’t help but flinch at the accuracy of the statement. “You don’t need to remind me; I have the trait for that… And it’s not just that…” Kai then went on to explain how monogamy was the commonly accepted relationship back on Earth, going on further to explain a polygamous relationship was something he never thought he would find himself mixed up in and that he was taking time to adjust.

  Thanric listened intently, getting up partway through what Kai was saying to open some cupboards to retrieve a collection of items, which he put on the table between them.

  When Kai was finished, Thanric gave him a knowing smile.

  “Firstly, you’re both children in my eyes; almost everyone is at this point. I mean, you’re both also old enough to explore intimate relationships. But most don’t get, as you put it, serious until they are nearing a century. Starting a family before that, while not taboo, is considered irresponsible, at least for the mother. And as far as your age gap might be considered, it's negligible for your age range. It will be less and less of an issue as the two of you get older. Besides, you know she’s a princess; she faced political arrangements far worse than a mere decade. I’ve already dealt with one repugnant man for his obsession with my d- my apprentice, Alicia.”

  Kai visibly relaxed at the confirmation he wasn’t up to anything untoward, but a seed of weariness had just been planted at the casual mention of the sage dealing with someone. He wondered if he was referring to the older man Alicia had mentioned was trying to claim her.

  Thanric started working with the stuff he had just put between the, “Now it’s actually interesting you brought this up.”

  “It is?”

  “I originally wanted to see you today to test some things. One is your genetic compatibility with Alicia. As you’re from a different world, it should just be a formality. However, as we may not want people knowing you’re not actually Alean, going through the process should provide some cover. I have already secured your means of legal identification as a citizen of the twilight empire.”

  That was interesting; he hadn’t thought about needing a valid form of identification. He might have been in some real trouble if he had just appeared somewhere and told them he was an illegal immigrant, illegal alien?

  He didn’t know enough to know how much of an issue it might have been.

  But something else caught his attention, and he asked, “You know about genetics?”

  “Why wouldn’t I know about genetics?”

  “Sorry, misconception; I thought magic might preclude science.”

  Thanric sighed, “Kai, you’re on the T.S.S. Spirit of Exploration; the T.S.S. stands for twilight science ship. The ship's main purpose is scientific exploration.”

  “Wait, Arnella told me the T.S.S. stood for the sages ship.”

  “Shit”, Thanric hissed, “is that going about again? Took me a good decade to stamp it out the last time it happened.”

  Seeing the sage's frustration, Kai chuckled, “Arnella seemed quite proud of the fact she served on board the sage's ship.”

  “No, this isn’t my ship; it’s a science ship of the Twilight Empire. We study territorial shifts, dungeons and rifts of interest, other magical anomalies, new experimental ship systems and anything else I find interesting… I mean sure, I’ve directed things for what, the last three centuries? But the ship’s not mine.”

  Kai looked around. “This is the sage’s private lab? which is on the sage’s private floor? I’ve only been onboard for a day, and even I think you might be deceiving yourself.”

  Thanric just levelled a long, pained look on Kai.

  He didn’t back down.

  Thanric sighed, “You know, if you went back roughly four thousand years, the gender distribution on Alea was roughly equal. Monogamy was the norm back then too.” He said getting their conversation back on track.

  Kai had been curious about this and chose not to let the sage get to his point before he would interrupt the man with any more asinine questions he might have.

  “At least that is so far as we can tell. Records that old are up for debate. However, when the taint ravaged the world's population, things changed. They had to. Over the space of a generation, Alea’s population collapsed, civilisation crumbled, and men became assets.”

  Kai couldn’t help himself. ”Just how many times has Alea’s civilisation collapsed?”

  Thanric shrugged. “How many civilisations collapsed back on your home world? Keep in mind a collapse can just be a significant change when viewed through the lens of history.”

  Thanric had a point; Kai knew for certain there were civilisations long forgotten in Earth's ancient past; it just wasn’t an area of interest for him. Though as a guy, he was supposed to think about the Roman Empire a lot.

  “You see, the taint made it nearly impossible for male children to come to term, and the men that were left became second-class citizens, traded like livestock, coveted and locked away. Inbreeding was rampant, especially in the higher classes. It was unsustainable, and to this day, thousands of years later, the population is still a fraction of what it once was.”

  “Sounds like The Handmaid's Tale.”

  Thanric gave him a questioning look.

  “Sorry, it’s a book. I never read it, but the premise is similar: fertile women are forced into slavery… Syl might have read it. The thing I don’t understand is the taint you mentioned. This is the first time I’m hearing about it.”

  “The taint, as we call it, affects every living humanoid on Alea. It is a genetic alteration caused by a grand ritual, designed, so far as we can tell, to eliminate men.”

  “A Y bomb?” Kai asked.

  Thanric gave him another long questioning.

  “A bomb that targets the Y chromosome… to eliminate men and leave women unaffected.” Kai tried to explain.

  Thanric's questioning look somehow became even more quizzical.

  “You said you already knew about genetics…”

  Thanric nodded, “It’s one of my specialities.”

  Realising that the word chromosome hadn’t actually translated for Thanric, Kai spent an awkward thirty minutes explaining his layman's knowledge of human reproduction on a basic genetic level.

  Thanric had at some point pulled a fresh notebook from somewhere and was vigorously taking notes, reminding Kai strongly of Alicia.

  Kai was just happy he had taken biology in college… He didn’t complete the first year, but this was also high school science… or at least he thought it was. He was going back two decades at this point, so it was a little muddled. So as he worked through his understanding of sex cells, he kept clarifying that it was just what he remembered.

  “And you say all this was discovered through the scientific process, no magic involved. Your world must have been quite a place.”

  “It had its problems, our understanding changing all the time as things were discovered. Many things were outright ignored because it hindered their worldview.”

  “Alea has similar problems… But you have given me something to look into. It’s a shame the plan is for you to depart. I wonder what nuggets of information you don’t even know you’re hiding away in that alien mind of yours.”

  He wasn’t sure about his mind being called alien, but when he thought about it, the definition of alien certainly fit.

  “But yes,” Thanric continued, “a Y bomb would be an apt comparison to what happened. The historical records show one in three men dropped dead within a week of the ritual activating, and then after that, it was noticed that birth rates dropped significantly, with only one surviving child in ten being male.”

  “You said it was a ritual; what was the goal? Who did it?”

  Thanric shrugged, “As near as we can tell, it was a coven of misguided women who felt oppressed. Their goal was to either topple men from their positions of power or, as some involved thought, wipe out every man on the planet. The problem is this happened far in the past; time has a way of erasing things. So despite all attempts to uncover the truth and possibly reverse what was done, Alea remains tainted.”

  “So that’s why the crew gets away with- with its open promiscuity.”

  Thanric grimaced, “Yes, and no. There are limitations and restrictions in place. The main thing I am trying to get at is our culture is the way it is because of necessity, not some total shift in culture from what you experienced on your world.”

  Kai thought about it, and while he didn’t see himself in a full-blown harem, he could adapt. The hardest part would be meeting everyone's needs, keeping them both happy.

  “The tragic part is that the taint does not make female children more likely, as most choose to believe; it is that it makes male children very rarely come to term.” Thanric said sadly. “Two to seven weeks, and the foetus fails. A lot of mothers don’t even know they were with child.”

  Kai fidgeted uncomfortably as he realised the implications. On alea, around one in two pregnancies was almost guaranteed to fail. No wonder men were encouraged to go out and have all the children they could.

  Seeing that Kai felt the gravity of what he was saying, Thanric let out a long, pained breath.

  “What this all means is Alea had to adapt; wars were fought, men were liberated and monogamy became second to polyamory out of necessity. Even then, civilisation never quite recovered, but things had at least found stability, a golden age of peace and discovery. At least until the system came and shook everything up again.”

  “So what's expected of me?” Kai asked.

  “At one time it was lots of children... But now, nothing is expected of you. As a man, you are protected by ancient laws baked into every nation. You have the right to choose. But at the same time, that won’t stop women from approaching you…”

  “Which, if I remembered correctly what the girls said, was one of the benefits of being with Alicia; her status should help deter, if not eliminate, unwanted interest.” Kai said working through the past reasoning for accepting the contract.

  Thanric grunted, giving Kai a slightly annoyed look. “Now, one of the issues, as I’m sure you can imagine, is inbreeding. I actually developed this test to confirm genetic compatibility. The truth is it looks for genetic similarities to determine matched ancestry in situations where lineage isn't exactly clear.”

  He pointed to a vial in front of him. “This vial contains Alicia’s sample,” he pointed to another, “this contains my own.”

  Thanric then poured half of each into a third vial; the solution that formed turned cloudy, turning a thick red that was impossible to see through.

  Thanric clicked his tongue as he gave the deep red solution a serious look. “A result like this shows that I am very closely related to Alicia.”

  “You are? Just how closely related?”

  “If you will, Kai, can I please borrow a drop of blood?” Thanric asked, ignoring Kais’s question.

  Kai obliged, holding his hand out for the sage to prick his finger and collect the crimson drop of blood that formed in the moment before his regeneration kicked in and healed the prick.

  Thanric mixed the drop of blood into a vial he had prepared; when the solution was clear, he again mixed half the sample with what remained of Alicia's own.

  They waited; there was no change, their mixed samples showing no reaction at all.

  “Just as predicted,” Thanric said as he took a drop from the solution and let it drop onto a document he had at the ready. “This is a record that confirms that the two of you have no past relation and are a suitable breeding pair.”

  Kai looked at the clear solution and then at the thick red one; the difference was clear. “Wait, Thanric, don’t ignore my question. Just how closely related to Alicia are you?”

  Thanric held up a hand and pushed a card across the table.

  On the card was a chart that showed a gradient.

  On one side of the scale, there was a clear solution with the words no relation next to it; then, working from one side to the other, there were images of solutions that got progressively more opaque. The range starts at third cousin and works down to the point where the solution turns pink for siblings and then to red for parent and child.

  “Alicia doesn't know, and I trust you will not tell her.” Thanric said clearly as he saw Kai come to the obvious conclusion.

  “You’re Alicia’s father.” Kai said as he felt a slight pressure from the sage press down on him.

  “The truth was revealed to me by Atheos, and I find myself in a position where I cannot tell her until I have at least confronted her mother. You see, I was not informed she was mine, nor was there a contract in place between myself and the empress. Alicia is technically illicit. So again, I trust you not to tell her…” Thanric levelled a pair of brown eyes on him.

  But seeing the man up close, Kai realised in a moment of clarity those eyes were not actually brown but actually a dark aged gold, akin to Alicia's much brighter tone of gold.

  Thanric leaned over the table, the pressure he was emitting growing stronger as he said in a steady voice that made Kai shiver, ”The only reason I tell you, Kai, is because if I ever hear you talk about my daughter or anyone else for that matter as a tool you can use. I will destroy you… I have plans for you, and I will not waste them on someone who lacks character.”

  Kai swallowed as the sage sank back in his seat, the pressure he felt retracting with the man.

  But as he thought about it, he didn’t like the man's implication that he would willingly use anyone like that, never mind Alicia.

  “Don’t mistake me.” Kai said angrily as he took his own turn to lean in, “I unknowingly had this situation thrust upon me. Up until recently I have resisted the affair. I have talked with Alicia, and I know her intentions. I just want her to be happy, and I am doing my best to do what I can in the situation we both find ourselves in. I’m trying to adjust, to understand. The last thing I want to do to her is use her…”

  He thought about the golden-eyed, platinum-haired el’vei girl and all the times her ears had twitched.

  “I have spent the better part of a month living with her, cooking with her, eating with her, talking with her. Fighting side by side with her…”

  He thought about her constant attempts to be useful and fit in.

  Her consistent curiosity.

  The way she chewed her lip when she was deep in thought.

  The way her butt wriggled in the lingerie that one time.

  Smiling at the memories, he fought to remain serious in front of the man who was giving him a very serious look.

  “While I will not throw the word ‘love around callously, I know this for certain: she is special to me in ways I’m still learning to comprehend.” Kai said honestly as he came to the certainty he had two women in his life he needed to figure out. Two women he had no reason to be shy about.

  Thanric's serious expression softened as Kai sat back.

  The man chose not to say anything as he moved the vials about again. Placing the two half-remaining samples of himself and Kai between them, sprinkling some neon blue glowing grit into the both of them.

  “This test should, in theory, detect the taint. As every humanoid on Alea has the trait, it is a little hard to know if this test actually works. In the past the only way we have had a negative on the test is by performing it on an animal that the taint does not affect.”

  Kai looked at the vials as the grit sank to the bottom of both then back to the sage.

  “That's it! Alicia is my daughter; don’t use her. Then you move on?”

  Thanric smiled, “Hardly; you stood up for yourself and your combined situation. Things were always going to be political for her. Even if she established herself as an accredited and valuable adventurer, indispensable to our society. She would have faced an arrangement where one party was using the other. For now I feel I have done my part as her father by warning you I’m watching. Though in the future I am hoping to do more…”

  Kai blinked.

  “Kai… I have hundreds of children, thousands of grandchildren, and even more great-grandchildren. All the legal agreements involved… The ramifications boggle even me. Too many of them I cannot even acknowledge as my own… Though I obviously don’t speak for every man, as a father I find it painful. So much so that I decided I had done my part long ago. Of course I visit those I can when I can, but they are all very much independent now. And the feeling of being greeted as an honoured guest and not that of a father…” He shook his head.

  One of the solutions suddenly flashed and turned black. The other remained clear; the grit completely dissolved.

  Kai ignored the sudden change and asked, “Alicia wasn't planned, was she?”

  “She was not, and just as you are coming to terms with your situation, I am coming to terms with mine. Kai, would you believe I am frightened?” Thanric said as he picked up the clear solution to look at it before adding more of the magical grit.

  That confused Kai; the man had just admitted to having hundreds of children. Why would one more frighten him? He couldn’t help but pry, and he asked, “Why?”

  Thanric held his tongue for a moment, as Kai could see him actually deliberate what to say.

  A long moment stretched between them before Thanric spoke. Choosing his words carefully, he explained, “Because you’re not the only one who thinks with his heart and not his groin. because this is the first time I've had a child with the woman I truly love.”

  He put the sample down and looked at Kai. “Sietra, the empress of twilight… Our relationship is complicated. Our lineage is complicated.”

  Kai looked at him. “Please tell me it’s not incest.” Kai said, hoping to lighten the mood… and praying it wasn’t actually incest.

  Thanric scoffed, “Oh spirits, no! What would make you think that?”

  Kai pointed at the genetic test still on the table.

  “I see your point… And no, it’s not that. The short explanation is her family rose to power after the system came to Alea. I am what remains of the family that held power before the system… There are treaties in place that technically forbid our union. As I said, Alicia is illicit; she cannot know until the politics involved are sorted out.”

  “Are you telling me you are a real-life Romeo and Juliet?”

  Thanric rolled his eyes, “You know Alicia wrote about you doing that in her notes. It both infuriates and fascinates her.”

  Kai shrugged, “I’m doing my best. But you have my word, on the system, I will not inform Alicia unless I deem it essential to the situation.”

  Thanric waved a hand dismissively, “A suitably vague system vow if I ever heard one.”

  “I can’t speak for Syl, though. Odds are she has been listening in.”

  “Oh, Syl already knows. We had a long conversation last night after you fell asleep. That one is quite observant.”

  That caught him unawares. Sure, he had checked on the dragon eggs, then gone to relax with Syl, then fallen asleep before he realised he was even nodding off; the dungeon wore him out more than he knew, but he didn’t know Syl had gone to visit anyone other than Alicia.

  “Now”, Thanric held up the clear solution. “Do you know what this means?”

  “Not exactly.” His guess would be a negative test result for the taint they had been talking about. “A negative result, but I don’t know what that means.”

  Thanric smiled enthusiastically, “It means I should be encouraging you to sleep with as many of the crew as I possibly can. Set up a schedule where you are fucking all day and all night.”

  Kai’s jaw fell open.

  “But as your unofficial father-in-law, I will settle for lots of grandchildren and a happy daughter.” He winked.

  Kai’s eyes went wide.

  “A few childbearing contracts on the side, with both Syl and Alicia’s explicit agreement, would be good… Remove the burden from your immediate line of descent.” Thanric mused to himself quietly. "That is going to be important."

  Just like the time he was first informed he was engaged to Alicia, Kai felt the blood drain.

  “Congratulations, Kai, you are the first humanoid on Alea in four thousand years not to carry the taint. We just need to hope the taint is recessive. That having one parent without it will result in offspring that also lack the taint. In a few generations, the taint should be minimal or outright gone from the populace.”

  Kai was barely following along at this point.

  Thanric chewed his lip. “I might be able to use your clean genetic information and isolate the taint itself, find a way to eliminate it through other means. I’m going to need a lot of samples while you are on board. Move some projects around.”

  This was insane; they had just finished talking about how Kai had no obligations. How Thanric would protect his daughter. And now the same man was telling him he practically had a duty to spread his seed far and wide.

  “I’ll let you tell Alicia and Syl the good news. The three of you should decide what approach to take. For now we should move on to finding out how your mana is aspected.” He looked at Kai and realised he might have lost him again. “Or would you like a minute? We could go get lunch, give you some time to process. This definitely calls for some tea.”