“How convenient.”
“Many didn’t believe him, but what could they do? He controlled the Prime Council and the Omni Prime was no longer a threat.”
“What happened to Esmah’s child? Did she have a son or daughter?”
“A daughter, and she was defined with a single animal nature by one of Herbert’s servants. Then the Prime Council passed new laws designed to ‘protect’ Therian females.”
“Oh my gods, are you about to say what I think you’re about to say? Did they insist that females choose their animal nature by the time they’re twenty-one and choose their mate by twenty-five?”
“The ages have been adjusted, down through the years, as sensibilities evolved. According to the original statute, a female had to choose her animal nature one month after her first show of blood and name her mate within the following year.”
“I had no idea that ridiculous law had anything to do with the Omni Prime.”
“It was designed to curtail female power across the board, not just prevent the Omni Prime from resurfacing.”
“Then how did Maggie end up with all her powers?” Devon had been raised on stories of Maggie, the modern Omni Prime. Had there been no one else between Esmah and Maggie?
He sighed and drained his beer. “There is so much to tell. Decades, no, centuries, of struggle.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
He nodded, his expression growing distant again. “I was devastated after Esmah’s death. As long as she was alive there was hope, but my failure was cemented with her death. If it weren’t for Daralis I’m not sure I would have found the strength to go on.”
“Who was Daralis?” She stroked his hand as the flares of emotion began again.
“Your ancestor. She was Historian at the time and we were both tortured by guilt. But she was able to see beyond the pain and realize it was our responsibility to protect the legend until the reality could resurface.”
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
“Herbert saw Daralis as the threat she was and put a hefty price on her head. I had failed to protect the Omni Prime, but I refused to fail Daralis. We gathered the sacred artifacts and journals and disappeared. Herbert was too powerful to take on directly, so we worked in secret. We trained teachers who made sure Therian history included the Omni Prime. The harder he tried to eradicate all memory of the Omni Prime, the harder we worked to preserve those memories.”
“It’s so strange to think of you in a medieval setting. You said this was late in the eleventh century?”
“It was about 1110 by the time Herbert was in control. He searched obsessively for Daralis, but we’d developed allies by then, people who hid us and gave us supplies.”
“Why didn’t you go all dragon on this bastard and reclaim Esmah’s child?”
He laughed and the tension across his shoulders eased. “You know me too well. I’d had enough of hiding and decided to attack, but Herbert was smarter than his father. He anticipated my move and that’s when he had his servant define the girl. Then he hid her with a family who had no idea what she was. Of course I learned all this months after it happened. Sacking a castle is time-consuming even with a dragon on your side.”
“So Esmah’s daughter was raised believing she was an ordinary Therian.”
“Yes.”
“And none of her daughters or their daughters were extraordinary?”
“We all thought Herbert had won. The power of the Omni Prime was suppressed until Maggie came along.”
“How did Maggie realize she was an Omni Prime?”
“She didn’t. Not really. Everyone presumed Maggie’s power came from her unusual definition.”
Devon chuckled. “Even among Therians having three mates is unusual.”
“It was not just that she had three mates. All three of her mates participated in her definition. She instinctively reenacted the Omni Prime ritual without realizing what she was doing.”
“She also caused a lot of confusion,” Devon mused. “People began to associate definition with the mating bond and they are two separate things.”
“Very true.”
“Who first suspected that Maggie was an Omni Prime?”
“Your grandmother. Though the Omni Prime was lost back in the dark ages, the Historian’s line remained unbroken. She had studied the journals and recognized the signs.”
“She only had access to the journals because you protected the legend of the Omni Prime.”
“Too little, too late, but I suppose you’re right.”
She touched his face, drawing his gaze to hers. “And now the story has come full circle. If I’m not mistaken you participated in the definition of our new Omni Prime.”