The Aeterna Empire

Chapter 16 - Allowance of Time

Slavian ran out of the room, grabbing Nel'Andra on the way, and disappeared. Adam jumped to his feet but made no motion to follow, nor did a sound leave his lips. His brows scrunched together and hesitation stilled him. Izthark gave chase, but Jyesthra grabbed his wrist and stopped him in his tracks.

Picking up a phrase from their father figure, she yelled, "Enough!" She turned burning eyes on the man on the other side of the table. Adam's glossy look disappeared. He turned his gaze and opened his mouth to address her, but she snapped, drowning out the Emperor's rebuke, "You cannot treat him this way! He is your son!"

Adam said nothing at first, allowing the room to settle into an awkward silence as he latched onto the woman's gaze, and measured her. She had her outbursts, but the strength and anger with which she stood at her full height was neither hysterical nor spontaneous despite the sudden intensity of it. She was almost twice his height, he noted.

She did not blink nor cower. He accepted the challenge. The Aeterna said, "As prince to an empire, he will have to learn; and he is old enough to bypass maieutic methods. As my son he will obey me."

"You cannot treat him as you have for the rest of us! He isn't a crippled criminal given a second chance! He isn't a condemned child inheriting a parent's sins! He isn't a war orphan uplifted from a grave! The rest of us, we owe you our lives, but he isn't your adopted, he is your son! He didn't ask to be born to you, nor had the chance to turn you down!" With one final outburst, she yelled, "He doesn't owe you anything!!"

She gasped for breath, her words spent. With her words in the air and her energy used, she remembered herself and bowed her head and brought her hands together. Izthark stared at them both with wide eyes, stock still with his arm still in the air, afraid to make the slightest move. The source of both of their fear was the wide eye'd ferocity their father penetrated her with, for a moment the oldest Adam flared his nose, but he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The Emperor settled the monster down and turned his attention to the other.

Today was a trying day, he recognized. It had been many years since First Adam had woken like today.

"Izthark." He said.

"Master!" Izthark snapped to attention.

"What do you make of her stance?" Adam asked. "Is there truth to it?"

"Well," Izthark hesitated, but collected himself and went for it. "Yes. Your son is the prince of Dyson and the Empire, and he is your blood, which by right makes him heir to you in a way we have no right to. Slavian is, simply, above us. So I think he should be respected and honored above us."

"Special treatment, even from me?"

"Especially by you." Izthark replied. "Because if you don't, no one else will."

For a long moment the Emperor stared at them, thinking. "Two against one, huh?" He muttered. "Hmph. Very well. Your reasoning is sound. I have never had a child of my own, though I have observed that father-son relations is typically less bitter. So I will accept and test this for a generation to see how he responds to it. Well done, both of you."

His words surprised them. Adam walked around the table and approached Jyesthra. She whispered, "So I'm not-"

"Punished?" Adam guessed. "No. That would defeat the purpose."

"Purpose, master?" She asked.

"As to why you are here."

They stared at him, confused. He continued, "Have you never considered why I took the two most difficult of my Numerenai to be my closest?" They shook their heads. He chuckled, "For the same reason I allow the most persistent Kes-Blood I have ever met to wrestle against me freely: You all test me. When I am right, then I have truth, but when I am wrong, then I can come closer to it."