The Saga of House Corsai

[Kira Corsai]

There was silence save for the sound of Denida weeping, her husband sitting dumbstruck in his seat. The arbiter left the records on the desk before she took her leave. It was only when the sound of the front door closing echoed through the house that Kira bothered to speak again.

"I suppose mother's had the last laugh after all."

She stood up, heading straight for the liquor cabinet, and pouring herself at least four fingers into a cut crystal highball glass. She took a rather large gulp of it, completely unladylike and winced at the harsh edge to the dark amber. Brandy. It would have to do.

"So now what?"

She faced them all, her back leaned on the sideboard and the glass in her hand.

 

[Gaisa Theron]

"What do you mean, now what?"

Gaisa sat staring at the floor, unable to parse what she was looking at, barely even aware that Aurora was holding her hand so tightly.

She was a clone? Of Kira? A flood of angry thoughts and feelings swept over her, and tears burst forth. There had been hardships after Cyrus had been taken from her but she felt his loss acutely in this moment. She needed his shoulder, his strength, and his tenderness.

"Everything was a lie. All of it."

 

[Dru]

"How do we get in front of this?"

Dru had broken away from her chair to escape the wailing of Denida, and rummaged until she found something stronger in the bowels of the manor's liquor cabinet. She poured a full glass of whiskey, something old and dusty from a distillery that didn't exist anymore and sipped it as she looked to Kira, who was strangely too calm at the moment.

"How do we spin it?"

She glanced to Torin. He didn't look well, the color had left his face.

 

[Kira Corsai]

"I don't believe we can spin it any better than the truth."

She was rather matter of fact as she sipped the brandy and winced at the taste.

"What the arbiter said was true. This was all mother's doing, she lied to the Council and now we are the unfortunate benefactors of her duplicity."

Kira wasn't thrilled by the prospect of the scandal, but as was stated, she was a foreign agent and did not make Kuat her home. She never used her title off Kuat and barely ever referenced it. To her, it simply didn't matter whether the family was titled or not so long as the business continued to grow.

 

[Gaisa Theron]

Gaisa looked up at her with disdain but she had to admit that her womb mate was correct.

"Forgive me for being a little more devastated that I'm your clone. This might not change anything for you, but for some of us, it wrecks our entire life."

Aurora squeezed her hand and Gaisa looked over to her daughter, and felt her stomach twist into knots thinking of Cyrus. A moment ago she had longed for his support but the cold hand of doubt gripped her and she wondered now if he would reject her were he alive to hear these developments. Did being the child of a clone carry any legal consequences for Aurora and the Violet Glade?

Gaisa blanched, feeling suddenly ill.