Page 64 of Dark Chains: First Link
"We do." Kian adjusted the stroller's sunshade as they entered the open square.
"How is Tim doing, by the way? Have you heard anything through the gossip grapevine?"
"He's doing well. He looks much better since the transition. Younger, healthier, with a full head of hair. He's still sarcastic, but not as mean as he used to be. Hildegard is a good influence even though she likes dark humor as much as he does."
"That's why they get along so well."
Tim had quit his government job and started offering his services online through video calls, and as it had turned out, he was just as good remotely as he was in person, and he was making considerably more money now.
24
SYSSI
Kian parked the stroller near a bench at the edge of the playground and unbuckled Allegra.
"Playground!" She hit the ground running and made a beeline for the climbing structure, where three Kra-ell children were playing.
The Kra-ell kids were a little older than Allegra and significantly more agile, their movements quick and precise in a way that reflected their physical gifts. One of them was hanging upside down from a bar, and another was scaling the outside of the structure in a way that would have given a human parent a heart attack.
Undeterred by the athletic superiority of her playmates, Allegra grabbed the lowest rung of the ladder and began climbing.
Syssi sat on the bench, and Kian settled beside her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and stretching out his long legs.
"I haven't been able to stop thinking about Eluheed and the very likely possibility that he's my great-grandfather," Syssi said quietly enough that the Kra-ell mothers sitting on the otherbench wouldn't hear her. "I thought that all those years I felt different were because I was a dormant carrier of godly genes. That was a nicely packaged explanation for why I never fit in and for my prophetic visions." She chuckled. "Turned out that I've always felt like an alien because I actually might be part extraterrestrial."
Kian's mouth curved. "We are all part extraterrestrials, including the human residents of this planet. We are all children of the gods, with some of us just carrying more of their genes than others. Even if Eluheed is your great-grandfather, his DNA is close enough to human that the differences are minimal. We share the same genetic foundation."
"But he's different than other immortals. He has no fangs, no venom, and he can't induce anyone's transition. We don't even know how he became immortal. My precognition ability is unique among immortals and even gods, but it is similar enough to Eluheed's."
Kian still didn't look concerned or troubled by the possibility of her extraterrestrial origins. In fact, he looked amused. "You know, all those times I thought about how lucky I was because I'd found a rare diamond unlike anyone else on Earth, I was apparently right. Eluheed's genes might have given you the seer ability that led you to Amanda's lab, which led you to me, which means that I might owe the man a debt of gratitude. I might have no choice but to finance his expedition to Mount Ararat and the excavation of his precious charges."
She laughed. "Am I worth that much?"
"You are worth much more."
Syssi's smile faded as another thought surfaced. "If it's true that he's my forefather, then Allegra is part alien too."
They knew she was special in more ways than one, and now they knew why.
They both looked at the playground, where their daughter was attempting to swing the way the Kra-ell child was doing, with predictably less graceful results.
"The whole thing needs to be confirmed first," Kian said. "Your great-grandmother might have miscarried Eluheed's baby. Boris Dorjinsky could have been your grandmother's father. Or the second husband, after Boris died."
She sighed. "I need to call my mother."
Kian raised an eyebrow. "You can't tell her about Eluheed."
"I'm not going to. I will just ask her what she knows about her grandmother. My mother might know whether Rosa had her mother right as she got to America or much later. Perhaps she even knows about Rosa getting pregnant out of wedlock and marrying the first guy she could find to legitimize her baby."
"It was a long time ago, and families bury their embarrassments."
"Someone always knows." Syssi watched Allegra negotiate a truce with the Kra-ell boy over whose turn it was on the slide. "My mother was forty-two when she had me. Her mother was also older when she had her. There are big gaps between the generations, which makes the chain shorter and the memories longer. If my grandmother ever talked about her own mother's past, my mom would remember."
"Then call her," Kian said. "But be careful about how you frame the questions. You can't tell her about Eluheed without him giving you permission to do it. We both swore to him that his secret was safe with us."
"You don't have to remind me." She cast him an offended look. "I'll never betray a secret I'm entrusted with. I'll tell my mother that I'm doing genealogy research. She'll love that. She's been talking about compiling a family tree, but she's never had time to actually do it. When I told her about what Gilbert had uncovered regarding our shared ancestry, she said that we should do what he had done."
"That's good. That way, she won't get suspicious about your sudden interest. Your mother is a smart lady, so tread carefully."
