The building they lead us to looks quite different from other residential houses. This isn't a remodelled office building but a proper apartment complex and luxurious on top. I bet that only the most prominent Divementis officials live here. We enter the elevator and our escort takes us to the highest floors.
"Welcome," my father is waiting for us already at the entrance. He also changed his robe to a more informal one. "Please, follow me."
We try not to stare, but it's impossible. While the furniture is mostly human, there are many distinctly alien things all around from technology to art. In the case of some objects, I can't even begin to speculate about their purpose.
The dining room is quite normal, though. I guess there's nothing a humanoid race would change about a table and chairs. I'm relieved to see that three chairs are Celestial-friendly. Nyx is waiting for us and there are two Divementis I haven't seen before nervously standing next to her.
I realise that I can recognise a certain unmistakable resemblance. Those two do look similar to Nyx and are much younger so she must be their mother. I also realise that I can easily tell their genders. It's very subtle, but they are a boy and a girl. I wonder how old they are. Maybe the same age as me?
I give them an inquisitive look and I suddenly feel them panicking and hastily fortifying their minds. Why are they so anxious? It should be us feeling nervous. We might have six guards with us, but we are at the mercy of the Divementis here.
"Son, what did I tell you about your telepathic pressure?" my father raises his eyebrow.
"I didn't do anything," I oppose.
"You send out your mind on reflex," he sighs. "That habit will be difficult to break."
"Not now, Althorion," Nyx coughs to change the subject. "Your Majesty, this is my daughter Nala and my son Advin. I was told that you know already that I'm actually your aunt. That makes my children your cousins."
"Hello," I try to smile amicably at Nala and Advin, but they are still looking at me as if I'm going to invade their minds. I feel like I haven't made the best first impression.
"Let's sit," my father says and sits down first. Nyx sits right next to him and her children take the sides.
We don't have much choice about the seating order because there's only one non-Celestial chair at our side of the table and that's reserved for Erik. Erik ends up sitting to my right, Gotrid to my left and Liana next to Erik. It seems my father wanted to make sure that I sat right in front of him.
"I don't know how the Divementis address their aunts," I start politely. "Also, can you please stop using honorifics with me?"
"We use the word atea," Nyx smiles, "but you can keep calling me Nyx. As for dropping honorifics, I'm afraid that I can't do that. Only most direct relatives or spouses can call the members of the Royal bloodline informally. Besides, Your Majesty is also the Celestial Emperor."
"So, you can address my father by his name, but not me—his son?" I can't believe my ears. What kind of messed up hierarchy is that?
"If I'm not mistaken about how it works among Celestials, only your Consorts are allowed to be on a first-name basis with Your Majesty," she answers patiently. "That's not any different from our tradition."
"But you're my aunt, it's weird," I say desperately.
"Ehm, love?" Gotrid pulls my sleeve and I feel that both of my partners and Liana panicked for a second. "You didn't say that last sentence in English."
"What?" I look at him, confused. "What do you mean?"
"You used our language just now," my father explains sharply and there's a hint of satisfaction in his voice. "I guess your brain is trying to subconsciously wire itself towards us."
I chew my lip. I hope that I won't do that again during the evening. I felt how it startled my beloved just now. Fortunately, I'm saved by the first course being served. I pay attention to the plate in front of me and notice that there's nothing even remotely Divementis about the dishes or the utensils.
"What are you surprised about, son?" my father tilts his head. "Did you expect something more alien? There's no reason to forcefully change something that works perfectly as it is. Yes, the Divementis eating etiquette used to be a bit different, but we escaped Draconia two hundred years ago. We adopted many parts of the human culture."
"Maybe too many," Nyx sight and looks at her children. They look as Divementis as it gets, but I notice that the air around them is somehow different.
"Were they born here?" I ask openly.
"Yes, they are only a few years older than you, Your Majesty," Nyx nods. "I hope that you will want to get to know them better."
"Of course," I say enthusiastically. I'm still coming to terms with the fact that I have two cousins, but I like it. I wonder if we can get closer or if the bridge between us is too wide to cross since I'm only half-Divementis.
I finish my starter, it's a really good mushroom stick with some special sauce. I notice that Erik got pieces of smoked salmon and so did the Divementis. Oh, so they can eat meat just as I could when I was still half-human.
"Your eating preferences are Celestial, but it seems you inherited our rather small stomach," my father comments. I don't think he heard my thoughts just now, but he could tell from the way I'm analysing our plates. "It's okay, you just have to eat more often. I bet you're the type who doesn't like snacking between meals, but as I've already told your Earthborn doctor, you should."
I don't like him giving me a lecture, but when I automatically get a smaller portion of soup than my partners and Erik—the same portion as my Divementis relatives—I honestly feel relieved. I hate feeling overstuffed after a meal. I simply can't stomach Celestial portion sizes.
The soup is the same for everyone, my favourite asparagus. I wonder if it took the Divementis a lot of time to get used to human cooking and ingredients from Earth. There are so many things that interest me. Will I ever have time to ask about everything?
"Is this your apartment, father?" I ask to break the momentary silence.
"No, it belongs to Nyx and her family," he shakes his head. "Mine is more frugal, I don't need a huge dining room and I prefer to eat with my sister anyway."
Right, I kind of guessed that my father doesn't have a partner so it means that he lives alone if I don't count his servants and guards.
"Ask away," he sighs. "Since you started to guard your mind, I can't read you easily, but I can tell when you have a million questions going through your head. Don't ask me about the game or the invasion, though. Now it's finally time to ask about your family."
"Why didn't you find a new partner?" I blurt out. I know that it's very insensitive of me, but I have to know.
"I've never found another person I'd love as much as I loved Amelia," he answers and his voice is a bit cracked. "Love doesn't come easily to the Divementis, son. We were shocked when we first came here and discovered that humans practised arranged marriages. The Divementis can't bond to people they don't truly love."
"Can't? Really?!" Gotrid widens his eyes and I have no idea why he's so taken aback by that information. No, he's not just taken aback—he's ecstatic about the revelation for some reason.
"We're physiologically and mentally incapable of it," my father confirms.
"But our cousin is clearly different," Nala frowns and it's the first time she finds the courage to speak up. Her expression even shows slight defiance. "He has two partners! We can't bond to more partners at the same time."
"Nala," Nyx hisses and nudges her. "Use proper honorifics, His Majesty is your Prince."
"True, my son is peculiar in that aspect," my father admits. "It must be because of his Celestial half because Celestial Emperors were known to be polyamorous. Still, he can't bond with people he doesn't love."
Again, Gotrid's emotional state reacts wildly, but I don't have space to ask him about it. Besides, my father would hear it.
"So... they didn't force you to take another partner even though you lack an heir," I summarise to make things clear.
"They couldn't, it doesn't work that way with us," he sighs. "The best they could do is to arrange a date with every unbonded Divementis woman in our community. I didn't fall in love with any of them, unfortunately, so my subjects ran out of options. Frankly, the Divementis were slowly coming to terms with the Royal bloodline ending with me, but then we learned about your existence."
"The thing is," Nyx adds because she can feel the next question coming, "we can't produce offspring with a person we don't love. We can have sex, sure, but our reproductive system doesn't react unless we release special love hormones. As for artificial reproduction... well, that never resulted in producing a child with Royal genes. Trust me, we tried many times."
"Then the Royal bloodline ends with me," I say darkly. "I'm not pure Divementis anyway and since I can't bond to a person I don't love, I will never bond to a woman since I'm gay."
"I have two hundred years to live, I'm still in my prime," my father snorts and it's the first time I see him annoyed. There are lots of first times ever since we came here.
"Even if we win this, I can't promise that I will take over," I say strongly so that there's no misunderstanding. "Besides, two hundred years... gosh, I can't even imagine living for that long. How long do Celestials live anyway?"
"They were the most long-lived Draconian race," my father reveals. "They could live up to six hundred on average, depending on how well they were able to control mana in their bodies that was rejuvenating their cells. Naturally, their emperor was immortal unless killed because the embodiment of magic was one with mana."
Liana coughs and spits out the soup she is sipping, Erik drops his spoon, Gotrid's wings twitch and I just stare at my father, dumbfounded. Is he implying that I might be...? No, that's impossible!