She looked at Thia. “I didn’t realize that was his lineage.” Because of the legend of the Thirteen War Hauks, Hauk was the most common surname on Andaria – taken to honor the family that had given so much to protect their freedom and planet, and to remind their people that it only took a handful of brave Andarions willing to fight and die for their brethren to hold back a superior army.

Thia nodded. “Dancer is the name of that first War Hauk who founded their lineage. His brother Fain is named for the War Hauks’ father and the eldest brother, who was the first to die in action while protecting his father’s back. Uncle Hauk and Darice are the last two members of that most prestigious bloodline, and are the only two in all of Andaria who can legally be styled as the Warring Blood Clan of Hauk. If Dariana releases Uncle Hauk from his pledge —”

“Another female could tie into his lineage.”

Thia nodded. “One with a higher-caste bloodline than hers. Should Uncle Hauk do that, Darice would no longer be styled as Darice of the Warring Blood Clan of Hauk – only the children of the two strongest unified lineages can use that title. Darice would be downgraded to Darice of the War Hauk Blood Clan. And Dariana would fall back a level in the Andarion caste system. Forever.”

But there was one thing that still didn’t make sense to Sumi. “Then why not marry Hauk and breed children with him herself? Would that not ensure her lineage and theirs?”

The darkness returned to Thia’s gaze at that question. “To begin with, that would still downgrade Darice’s title. Unless she’s willing to allow Uncle Hauk to be listed as his father and remove Keris from Darice’s lineage – something she has said repeatedly that she would never do… as I said, she hates Uncle Hauk and really doesn’t believe he’s worthy of her bloodline. So much so, that to preserve her right to keep Keris’s lineage as her own and to block Uncle Hauk from his, she had Darice more than a decade after his father’s death.”

Sumi gaped at something she should have figured out by their ages. But honestly, it hadn’t dawned on her. “How did she do that?”

Had she exhumed his body for DNA?

Ew!

Thia raked her hand through Illyse’s coat. “Whenever the males of prestigious bloodlines enter their obligatory military service, their sperm is taken and frozen so that if they die before they procreate, a female who has a legitimate claim to that bloodline, such as a pledged or married female, can be artificially inseminated with it.”

To carry on their lineage and DNA. Man, Andarions were weird.

Sumi was still aghast at their customs. “Pardon the pun, but that is so cold.”