The revelation appalled him, and he didn’t know how to explain it. But he could not disbelieve what he had seen.

Those key rememberers from long ago had not died of any disease. There had never been a firefever. Instead, the rememberers—the keepers of accurate Ildiran history—had been silenced. Murdered.

The lost section of the Saga of Seven Suns was not an unavoidable tragedy, but an appalling cover-up!

53: PRIME DESIGNATE JORA’H

53PRIME DESIGNATE JORA’H

In his spherical contemplation chamber within the Prism Palace, Prime Designate Jora’h studied the records of his children with pride. As was his duty, the handsome and virile prince took many lovers from among the various Ildiran kiths, siring as many offspring as possible.

The eldest son of the Mage-Imperator, Jora’h had always known that the position would be his one day, after a century or more of his father’s rule. He did not long for the day when he would sit in the chrysalis chair. That would be as much an ending of his life’s pleasures as it would be a beginning of power. After the ritual castration ceremony to make him the next Mage-Imperator, Jora’h would control all the thism. But not now.

He liked to be with his people, regardless of their kiths: swimmers and scalies, workers, bodyguards, or soldiers. They were all Ildirans, and they all knew their places. His duty was to be loved by all the population—perhaps literally, if he did his job properly—and to foster his numerous offspring. Jora’h smiled at the thought of all the sons and daughters, noble-born scholars or half-breed workers, the fruits of his brief encounters with those lovers he selected from among the countless females who had petitioned him.

Despite their briefness, though, these sexual encounters meant a great deal to him. Each child he sired with a member of the noble kith gave him another descendant, another eventual Designate under his rule. Jora’h showered each of his sons and daughters with gifts, even if they were of mixed kiths. He sent them messages, wrote them poems. He did not want them to forget who their father was.

The sheer numbers of his offspring were daunting, though, and he needed time alone in his contemplation chamber simply to assess them all, to put their names in order and keep track of their birth anniversaries.

According to Palace records, Jora’h’s own father, Cyroc’h, hadn’t been so devoted to his offspring. Yes, the Mage-Imperator had paid attention to his eldest son, purebred and born of a noble concubine. The great leader had sired dozens of other sons by noble women, all of whom became Designates on various colony worlds: Dobro, Hyrillka, Crenna, Comptor, Alturas, and many others. The secondary sons remained connected to their father through the thism and thus were capable of ruling splinter colony worlds with the Mage-Imperator’s thoughts and decisions.