Ravencroft Manor, Morriston, Sagania
Christian Raffaele Somers, ISA Duke of War, Sagania�s Duke of Morriston, House Eternae�s Baron Law, Nagano�s Lord Justice, and a double dozen other titles and knighthoods, couldn�t sleep. He tried just about everything he could think of, but sleep eluded him. With a sigh, he went into his office. Something was preying on his mind, and maybe getting everything down will relax him. Not that he needed a lot of sleep, but, dammit, he had been up for over 50 hours, and his schedule was clear for the night.
Settling into his office chair, he reached for the microphone for his voicetyper. Being over 300 years old, he had a preference for archaic means in his office, like actual paper sheets. (Okay, the paper actually used in the office is actually a thin plastic composite, easily recycled, but it served the same purpose.) Turning the equipment on, he leaned back to think, clipping the mike to the lapel of his burgundy-colored silk pajamas.
�All right, I have been thinking a lot about my family, specifically, my kids. ALL of them. Those here and those that are gone. Some old, some young, some away, and some I see every day. I feel I should go over them all, find out what they are up to, before I get to the mob.
�Let me start with the ones I have with Raven. There�s quite a few of them, scattered over the last two centuries. Let�s start at the beginning. Sophia Marie.
�Sophie was born in 2090, and the only one to escape the curse of RMS. Sometimes blessing, sometimes curse, that is. She�s a vampire, a born vampire.� Chris chuckled a little. �This was before vampires had the population boom. She has had, jeeez, twenty-eight kids by Evan? Quite a few. Not all of them are vampires, and, all but three are boys.
�She�s the holder of a knighthood and two noble titles, one from Sagania, one from the Haliwellians. She�s Chief Inspector for the Sagania Space Authority, which Evan has been running for about 150 years. She helps out with the mob, as well as tending her own daughter.
�As for her, she�s taller than me by a good 20 centimeters and outweighs me by 15 kilos. Good fighter, and still active with VS, but I know more tricks than she does! Maybe I can dance with her sometime.�
Chris paused a while, thinking, before speaking again. �Next is Christopher Robin, the oldest boy. The first of the pure born, with control over the flow of time. A politician as good as me, and almost as reluctant. Deputy Prime Minister of Sagania from 2114 to 2150, First Speaker of the old ISU for two terms, Chancellor of the ISA, HIGH Chancellor for a time, he went places. Married with five kids, sticking to one wife the whole time.�
Chris took a deep breath. �When Jana died, Robin stepped down from the High Chancellor post. He lived long enough to see his youngest, Alexander, go to law school before the pain became too much for him, and he took a ship out. And vanished.
�We searched for months, back then in 2245, but all we found was Terraverde, which is now the Nocturne and Damphyr homeworld, as well as being the native homeworld of the Nagano and Naganino. His parting gift to us, I bet.
�I know he�s happy at the Guild. Some times, I can use him here.�
Chris shut off the mike and headed for the kitchen for a sandwich, trying to clear the fog from his thoughts. But, his disquiet remained. So, after finishing the roast beef sandwich, liberally coated with hot mustard, he went back to his desk. After glancing at the voicetyper screen, he reclipped the mike to his pajamas and started again.
�Next is Naya, the family magician. She�s working with Mother, handling magic in the multiverse. She drops in sometimes to see how we�re doing. Haven�t seen her since the Great Library was built. I know she�s had a few kids, but haven�t seen much of them.
�Then comes Harry, the solar scientist. He and his family have a thriving business, making rounds for the sun guns. Concentrated sunlight, in liquid or pill form. He can be anywhere, supervising solar collection. Some of his kids are also collecting and concentrating darkness. Effective weapon. Saw him recently when he dropped by.
�Allison is the next, also born in 2114. Three kids in the same year. Must have been busy. She is a geneticist, physician, Baroness of House Psion, executive director of Cheshire Labs, author of �The Care and Feeding of a Vampire�, busy mother, busy doctor for the family. Is tall, well-padded, charming, and totally devoted to her husband. Just don�t anger her, or else she�ll melt your brain. This reminds me, physical next week�� Chris grimaced at the thought of Allison giving him a complete physical exam. Maybe he would go to Lord Harris, instead�
�Her granddaughter, Rei, is a fine doctor on her own, specializing in vampire obstetrics. We needed her when Charis was born!�
�Next in line is Jade. Another vampire. She works on Camelot now, after being both Gold and Black roses in the VS after Raven and I stepped down to handle first the ISU, then the ISA. She by turns teaches combat skills at the academy, freelances for the High Guard, and takes on jobs for the IBI. Lately, she�s been here, helping care for her little sister. Her 200th birthday party was one wild affair!�
�Next are the identical twins, Quinn and Aaron. They are Sagania�s reps to the Kitsune. They also are fine businessmen, running the Donati�s chain with minimal oversight from me. All I see are the deposit slips and annual reports. Never know when they are going to teleport in and pay us a visit. Their capability of teleporting over interstellar distances led to the creation of the gates that are sometimes used for interstellar transportation. They get a royalty.
�Then comes Jorden, the musician. Her talent for music is matched only by her ability to manipulate viruses, especially the Sagan virus. She can take on just about any Sagan power with but a moment�s thought. Her wedding to Henry Peace, a composer, sure is stable. She should be going on a music tour next year. Have to remember to attend a concert.
�After her is Mercedes. I�m not totally certain exactly how she was produced, but she is a vampire, the genetic offspring of Raven and my former alter ego, Martouf. She�s now the wife of Emperor Ramon Trujillo, vampiric leader of the New Inca Empire. She�s also Lady Protector of the Quetzalcoatl branch of dragon kind. She has a way with them.
�Then, a gap of some years before Efram Julian arrived. He runs the IBI (Interstellar Bureau of Investigation) on Camelot. Lord Julian likes getting involved at times, because he feels wasted behind a desk. Besides, how can he give orders if he can�t do the work himself?� Christian laughed a little. �Must have got that from me!�
�After Julian are the identical twin pure born girls, Phoebe and Serenity. After they grew up, they took off on their own. They don�t come back often.
�One time they came back when Raven was hurt bad while she was pregnant. The girls became host-mothers for Lyle and Lya, more of which later.�
Chris shut off the voicetyper and got out of his chair to walk around some and visit the bathroom, then the kitchen. Getting himself a mug of his �rotgut�, as he calls his extra-strong raktajino, he settled back into his chair.
�Next, the quads, Charles, Jamie, Kailea and Emily. Two sets of identical twins at once. That was a fun time with all four growing up!
�The quads are like Julian, a �perfected� form of humanity, stronger, faster, and smarter than the average. Each of them has a specific area where they have specialized.
�Emily is a financial wizardess, working her way up to a directorship in the Interstellar Bank. Kailea is politically-minded, getting to a high position in the bureaucracy of the ISA without being tied to one party or another. Charles went spiritual, writing the Combined Book of Faith, combining the faiths of many species. He is also the main point of contact with the Symbs, a species that can live in symbiosis with just about any species, or come out and live in a sporulated or crystallized form, for long-term waiting. We don�t really know HOW old the Symbs are. Jamie got my military talent, being a senior officer in the ISA Navy. He commands an exploration cruiser, the Hastoren. He designed this one, and is doing well with it, with several species discoveries to his credit.
�Antonia came next. I named her after Tony Marconi, who died a few years before she was born. She has a talent for inventing, also merging magic and technology. She founded House Talos about a century ago, and as Baroness, is a factor to be reckoned with. With any luck, Talos 2 will be completely terraformed in another decade or two.
�After a very long gap, we produced Dylan. Another �perfected� human, Dylan is also much stronger than usual. He�s built like a bodybuilder, able to stun a raging bull with one blow. However, he�s pacifistic and mild, rather shy, and a talented artist. He works at Miracle Builders, as a designer and architect.
�I made him my assistant here in the duchy, running things when I have to be away. He fought being named Baron Smallwood, but he�s grown into it. Married now, with two fine children.
�Then, after 15 years, the mismatched pureborn twins, Lyanna Minerva and Lyle Maxwell. I say mismatched because Lya is big, strong, bullish and driven, while Lyle is rather fey, a very skilled cook and designer, and loves children.
�Both of them work now with the Velvet Shadows, both as Blood Roses. What surprised me is that Lyle got his Blood Rose before Lya did! That boy is in high demand as a chef, King Carson 2 hiring him to cater his affairs at the palace. His preferred style of killing is by poisons, which he is immune to. He does swing a rather potent silver hammer, which does strange things to time when it hits.
�Lya uses silver whips which has similar effects. She produced a son shortly after arriving at VS, Leo, who is a skilled gymnast and sports figure. Leo�s also a Blood Rose. A good one, too, his sports appearances being a good cover.�
Chris paused for a moment before speaking again. �Austin arrived seven years after the twins, in 2300. He�s different, being a seeming cross-breed with a species newly-discovered at the time, the Acuna. He proved to be a perfect bridge between humanity and the Acuna, being part of the Acuna group subconscious, yet growing up human. His efforts have brought the Acuna into perfect acceptance with the ISA, by quietly filling middle management positions with extreme skill. What bothers me is that he shares the Acuna near-passionlessness. While he has emotions, they are not strong. He�s more Acuna than human, in my opinion, both in body and mind.
�He lives on Camelot, working at the Acuna embassy. I really should speak with him more.�
After a pause, Chris spoke again. �The latest addition is Charis. She�s a lamia, which is a form of mega-vampire. The problem with lamias is that they seldom survive childhood, being rather frail and sickly. If we can get Charis to survive to adulthood, she will be all right. Another year or more to go. So far, only six lamias have lived to adulthood, all females. We�re NOT going to lose her!� he said forcefully. �Not with the mob backing us!�
His forceful words changed to a laugh. �Ahh, yes, the mob. One of Nature�s practical jokes on us. Let me explain.
�Seems like, a few years back, a man was born with strong telepathic talents. He is also a member of House Saud, one of the Islamic houses. Being a fervent believer, he soon came to the conclusion that vampires were evil and needed to be wiped off the face of the universe. He needed an army, so, he moved to Hiddukel and started to breed one.
�Over the next 17 years, he fathered over 70 children. 50 of them were telepathic like he was, not so much powerful as finely controlled. He brainwashed the telepaths to grow up hating vampires and to torment them before killing.
�Last year, one was sent to Earth. He went into the vampire homeland (the former empire of Shumer) and kidnapped five tourists, with the aid of agents of House Saud. Raven picked up on it and went to stop the killing. She saved three, found the teenager, and made a discovery. The boy is a reincarnation of one of the children Raven had to leave behind while on missions at the guild. As Raven removed the brainwashing from the boy, he looked at her and said �Mama�. Needless to say, that freaked her out. She brought the boy home. I adopted him.
�But wait, there�s more!� Chris laughed. �Yussuf, or Joe as I call him, wanted to free the rest of his sibs. Raven went and did just that, rescuing them all and bringing them here.
�We put them up in the Hidden City, an underground complex we have here under the manor. It was originally just a warren of rooms for vampires, but while Raven was recovering from Negron�s 13-year-long torment a few years ago, the warren was remade, under the guidance of Stephen�s wife Lola and Remmy�s wife Alice.
�But here�s the kicker. As they were brought here, all 50 of the children underwent a group Sagan manifestation. They are now, genetically, mine and Raven�s children! Ranging in age from 4 to 16, they are all the reincarnations of children both Raven and I had left behind. Even Debbie and Riley, who passed away about 40 years ago.
�You know, spending time with the mob, as we call them, is a joy. All the kids are growing at a normal rate, and they are all telepaths. They are all linked with each other. Some are showing some talents of their own, like Fatima�s gift for speaking with shapeshifters, Omid�s skills in cooking, and Mustapha�s mechanical skills, to name a few.
�They�re all my kids now, blood-born or not, and I love them all. I just wish I can figure out a way to express it properly to them. Somehow, I�m sure I will find a way.�
Chris shut off the voicetyper and looked at the sheets printed. Content that he had finally removed a big load off his mind, he put the sheets away in a drawer on his desk and headed for the lift, going down to the pit, to Raven and some sleep.
As the lift doors closed, Joe and Ibrahim came out from their hiding places. �Think Dad will get some rest now?� Joe thought at his older-by-a-year brother.
�I know he will. He needed to get matters out of his subconscious. Nice compulsion you put on him.�
�Wasn�t easy. Dad�s mind is hard to penetrate, for a non-telepath. I had to be extra cautious.�
�It worked. That�s all that matters. Did Ethan bring in some smoked boar?�
�He did! Race you!� the two teens sprinted for the pantry, and smoked boar sandwiches.