บท 166: Too Late...
Dante stared at the banged up scepter that his father had just handed him. What did Father want him to do with this thing? Fix it?
All around him, the turkeys continued to rabble about what the Emperor had just commanded them to do.
This was preposterous! How in the world were they supposed to do something so unreasonable? Whoever heard of three Crown Princes?
Dante ignored all the noise that was rumbling among the old Legislators. It was not his problem to make it happen. He honestly did not care about the Crown Prince position except when it involved his wife.
Now that the Avgo had done that strange fractured split, he had to sit down and have a talk with everyone about what exactly that meant.
Meanwhile, there was this banged up piece of shit. What was he supposed to do with this gold thing?
Dante reached out with an unenthused finger and shot some magic into the round gold ball.
It began to pop back into its metallic spherical shape as his magic fixed the bangs and dents the Emperor had inflicted on its poor surface.
Just for laughs, he tapped it with a polishing finish so that it gleamed with a bright glow that it never had even when it was brand new.
He looked at it, for a moment, hefted it in his hand to test the weight, and shook his head.
There was not nearly enough gold in this thing. It was a hollow thing, most likely because the Emperor didn't like to have to hold heavy decorative things in his hands just to look authoritative.
Dante, however felt differently.
It wasn't the lavishness or the ostentatiousness that he was after. It was the heft.
Throwing a light object around didn't satisfy his need for anger management.
He looked around the Legislative Hall.
On a console table next to the long meeting table was a vase made of solid gold that held some fresh flowers.
He reached out and grabbed the vase.
With a quick flick, he dumped all the fresh flowers and its accompanying water on the floor. Then he set it back on the console table.
Hefting the scepter, Dante struck the hollow gold ball directly onto the vase.
At the moment of contact, he released a bonding magic from his fingertip and the vase bonded to the ball.
For a moment, it looked like a strange mangled gold thing he held in his hand. In seconds, the gold from the vase had melted into the sphere, turning it into a solid ball.
He touched the ball with his index finger, pulling out half a dozen spikes radiating in perfect symmetry around the sphere.
Hefting it again, he rebalanced the gold load so that it was comfortable for him to wield, and then he raised it up at eye level.
"Dante." Byron chuckled. "Did you just turn Father's treasured ancient Monarch Scepter into a war mace?"
Dante held it in his hand, admiring his handiwork.
"If he treasured it so much, he wouldn't have banged it up so badly and thrown it at me."
Lucas laughed. "With you in charge, it won't be a light hollow touch, that's for sure."
Dante grinned as he swung the mace around.
Things were about to change around here.
Massively.
================
Slate stepped out of the shower and threw on his Prime Warrior outfit.
As he shoved the earpiece in, he could tell from all the pings that the war room was already lit up and on fire about something.
He went into the bedroom where Candace was lying, still sleeping.
Poor baby.
He smiled as he sat down next to her and looked down at her sleeping face. He had really exhausted her, and yet he was so fired up and full of energy, it was crazy.
As he listened in on all the war reports, another alert sounded. His brothers were calling.
Slate rose from the bed, moved into the adjoining office, and closed the door.
"I'm here."
"Hang on Slate," Byron called out. "We're waiting for the twins."
"We're here." A set of voices came through.
Slate waved a hand and six images popped up onto a virtual monitor. All the brothers were in varying degrees of working on something.
"Listen, I know we all have a lot of work to do, but I need to get us all on the same page about something so we're all clear." Byron began talking.
It was mostly out of habit. He'd been the eldest and the driver in so many brotherly meetings that he simply did what he was used to doing.
"Since Father has put the three of us into this situation, we're kind of stuck with convention at this time."
Dante slouched back onto his seat, listening without saying much. In times such as these, it was actually a good thing.
"Wait. Sorry. I'm lost. What are you talking about?" Slate asked.
Lucas sighed and began relating the events that had just transpired, causing for the Emperor to appoint three co-Crown Princes to take up the previous individual position.
Slate listened without saying a word. He was the baby brother. It didn't really matter to him who the Crown Prince was because it was never going to be him.
"…so it looks as if Candace is going to end up marrying all three of us."
"Say what?" Jason spoke up. "What about the rest of us?"
"Yeah. We all have a fragment of that Avgo too." Leonardo spoke up.
"Dante. What are you thinking right now?"
Dante shot a hard glance at Slate.
"I'm thinking I was the one who asked her to marry me."
"So did I." Leonardo said.
"I asked her in front of all you guys." Byron sighed.
"But she said 'yes' to only me." Dante pointed out.
"That was because at that time, you were Crown Prince and she knew she was going to marry you anyway. Things have changed drastically since then." Lucas rubbed his forehead.
Byron raised a hand. "That's why I called this meeting. We need to all figure out what it means for all of us to have an Avgo fragment, but only three of us will be married to her."
Byron heaved a heavy sigh.
"I want to know how that is going to affect Candace."
Jared clicked his tongue. "Tch. Isn't it obvious?"
"No." Lucas shook his head. He wasn't going to pretend to be all smart about something this important. He needed clarity, especially about Candace.
"Each of us own a shard of the Avgo. Since we know the Avgo is an egg, it will gift us with a child." Jared responded.
Jason nodded. "Since the egg has already chosen its mother, all we need to do is impregnate the mother and we each have a child."
"Each?" Leonard asked. "Or do the pieces have to come together to create a single child?"
Byron rubbed his chin.
"Perhaps we can test it out. If one of us tries to impregnate her and it doesn't work because we each only have a shard, then…"
"Then we try individually to impregnate her and see how the Avgo shard responds." Leonardo suggested.
"How would we know if it doesn't work for one of us?" Lucas asked.
Leonardo shrugged. "Just do a bio scan on her. If she's pregnant, we will know within a week of impregnation."
Byron sighed. "I wish we knew exactly what it is the Avgo wants us to do. It's not like we can ask it. Can we?"
"Hey Avgo," Jason called out. "Come on out, we need to talk to you."
…
Nothing was happening.
"Avgo, do we get one child or seven?" Jared asked.
…
Again, nothing.
Lucas smirked. "Of course we don't get an answer. That would be too easy. It answers its mom, but not its dad. How fair is that?"
The men all laughed.
"Well, whatever we do, let's not jump the gun. We need to talk to Candace first and see what she thinks before we attempt to test one of us—"
"Too late." Slate muttered.
"What???" Dante turned to him with fierce eyes.
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