Close Your Eyes and Think of Ivalice
The man sent to Ruvelia is selected on the basis of his resemblance to the king. He is far healthier of course, taller, stronger, to give Ruvelia a strong son (it would not do after all this to have a boy sickly as the father-that-was-meant-to-be), but his facial features are about right, his hair the same shade of blond. She learns that a not-quite-joke in his family is that they are descended from an Atkascha byblow.
Her dead boys were healthy enough, she thinks, her two true princes. They cried and laughed equally loudly. But each time she let one out of her sight, or she closed her eyes to sleep, and the next time she saw them they were in caskets. She'd meant to do it the right way, the proper way. She had. She'd gone to Omdolia assiduously, coaxing him into it night after night, reasoning that it had to happen given enough chances. And it had happened. Happened twice, but of course they would not concede. Over the last year Omdolia has deteriorated precipitously, too far for her coaxing, which of course is what they want.
Omdolia's deterioration proves an advantage in this new method of hers. He is so delirious and drowsy with various potions at the time Ruvelia chooses for her rendezvous that he cannot contradict her when she claims that her coaxing worked one night. Meanwhile, she goes about securing a new nursery staff, new physicians, all her brother's people.
She asks Omdolia for a name when the time comes. He named his true sons, her dead sons, and she thinks he should name the one who will live.
"Orinas," he says after some contemplation.
"Yes," she says. "Yes, a lovely name."
She rocks Orinas herself that night, and reminds herself it's not his fault but it's not hers either. Her sons were murdered and he can't very well help being ill as he is. If she cannot say it is for Ivalice she can say it is for justice, for Ruvelia Larg, Ruvelia Atkascha, queen of Ivalice and should she not have what a queen deserves? She thinks that if those scheming old men are going to kill the king's true heirs, they only have themselves to blame when she produces a substitute.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Drawn from a piece in original translation (haven't gotten that far in War of the Lions) wherein it was mentioned that Queen Ruvelia's first two sons were assassinated by Goltana's supporters and there was doubt that Prince Orinas was legitimate. Other canon indicates that Ruvelia was not a nice sort, but the death of children remains an unsettling thing, at least for Yours Truly. Hence the fic.