Father blinked rapidly. He slowly turned to me and then looked at Saha. Suddenly one of his fingers shot up and pointed at us both accusingly. “You both have not had sex yet,” Father stated in a surprised shout.

  “Larden!” Yavana Sareen the elf queen hissed at father.

  “Yavana, I literally programmed them to rip each other’s clothes off at first sight. How is this possible?” Father complained.

  “People are complicated, Larden.” The elf queen turned to her right and looked at the Southern Star. “Savera, tell him.”

  The brown skinned woman gave the elf queen a disappointed look. “Why are you stopping this? This was just getting to be interesting, Yavana.”

  Father gave an annoyed look to his two favorites and then turned back to me.

  “Voss, do you understand the complexities I had to dive into to create you? The scent that you give off is created to be irresistible. That thing between your legs is a marvel of mana engineering. You can use it to literally repopulate the land with the mana blessed.”

  Sage groaned. “Father, now you are making us sound like breeding stock.”

  Father waved his hand dismissively. “That was something I had worked on earlier. To help…” The emperor gave the Southern Star a naughty look.

  “You stay away from me, you lecherous old man,” Savera responded flatly.

  Savana snapped her fingers, and all sound vanished. In the silence she gave her partners an annoyed look. She finally tuned to us.

  “Sage. Voss. If you have not noticed, your father is a bit of a mana nerd. And when he was young, he did not have much of an opportunity to get laid. He did not want his children to suffer through the same loneliness he suffered through and took some liberties in your creation. But he did not tell us that he gave you an increased libido and the drive to repopulate the lands.”

  The elf queen gave her mate an annoyed look.

  Father rolled his eyes. “No. Not that. They can do it. If they… Listen. I do not want them to rut with everything they see. I just want them to be happy.”

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Sage looked at me with a horrified look and said, “Well, brother. I think we should leave, do not you think?”

  “Wait!” Father straightened and now the Emperor was standing in front of us. Mana all around us stopped and a stifling presence blanketed everything.

  “Voss Truechild. This goes beyond family affairs. The Voss mountains must be subdued. I have tied you to the lands with Saha Voss. Is that not enough?” The emperor asked.

  I looked at Saha. Saha looked back at me with flushed cheeks. She was embarrassed. But she wanted an answer too. What could I say? That I wanted to take her into my room and not come out for weeks? Even now my body wanted to rip itself out of the chair and start discovering each and every inch of her. But how could I put into words that what scared me was what would happen next? If I felt this way about her now, what would happen when I grew to love her?

  I stood up and looked at the emperor. “Father.” My voice came out in an airy whisper. I cleared my throat and started again. “Father, she is… beautiful. I…” I could feel my cheeks warming too, and I looked away.

  The emperor threw up his hands in exasperation. “By mana and wonders. I have a son who is shy.”

  Father began to chuckle and then laughed. I hung my head.

  “Very well. I suggest you spend some time together. Get to know each other. Actually, go to your lands. Handle the beast wave there. Try out those needles in a real life setting. Lady Voss will also show you around your domain. Take you to some balls. Help you get acquainted with the nobility there.”

  The emperor turned to Sage. “Sage, you and Ilya will go with him there. Ilya needs to regain her magical strength, but she is also well acquainted with the empire’s laws. She will find out why the nobility is sitting still on their behinds when the empire’s citizens are fighting. You, need to go and heal those who have been injured. But keep an eye on Ilya. Stop her if she pushes her magic too far.”

  The emperor turned to the elf queen. “Yavana Sareen. One of my Truechilds has been corrupted. Will you help me find out how and trace the corruption back to its source?”

  “You do not even have to ask. They might have your flesh, blood, and bone, but they are as much our children as they are yours.” The elf queen answered and then raised a finger. “But that repopulating the lands. We need to talk about that, Larden.”

  “It is a contingency for a very specific case. Normally, it will just make their partners happy.” The emperor sort of explained and turned to the General sitting beside me. “General Lloyd. The Voss mountains have a lot of wood elves.”

  General Lloyd bowed from the waist. “Yes, your majesty.”

  “Can you work with them?”

  General Lloyd smiled. “Your majesty, I have worked with mushrooms. Thinking, breathing, spear men and archers? It will be a vacation.”

  Father chuckled. “Then I entrust you to keep my children safe.”

  The emperor’s jaw tightened. “Meanwhile, I will figure out who corrupted the imprints on one of my Truechilds. And how they did it.”

  I could tell him how they did it.

  But even though I loved the man, my duty to order compelled me to keep silent.