Book1-Carlisle-ch.5
Carlisle POV:
Benjamin and Tia's eggs were implanted into a pair of North African Classic children named Kadia and Kenwei. They were both girls from a small village in the Libyan desert and had been brought to us by the Nigerians after their village had been infected with New Ebola. They were not sisters, but they were first cousins and looked enough alike to pass for sisters. Having two children with the same background being adopted together made the transition easier.
Kadia was eleven when she came to live with us and Kenwei was nine, so they were still young enough to overlook many of our peculiarities. Developmentally, they were of a similar age to our boys, but we did not want the two to mix any more than absolutely necessary, because if they did, the humans would eventually notice that our boys do not age. As it was we told the girls that our boys, like many Classic children, were the product of genetic engineering designed to extend their lifespans.
The Classics were always trying to increase their lifespans by altering the genes involved in human aging and this type of experimentation often had unexpected consequences. So we told the hosts that our children's slow growth rate was the result of a genetic modification gone wrong and that they were aging more slowly, as desired, but they were also growing up incredibly slowly. No one wanted to spend decades changing diapers, so the experiment had been labeled a failure and no one would again attempt to modify the same gene.
And since the hosts would only be under our roof for a decade before they mature and move out, we were hoping that they would never notice just how slowly the children were aging or that they happened to drink blood. We would have to minimize the contact between our boys and the hosts, to minimize the possibility of the hosts noticing anything strange. And that would be a big inconvenience, but we had an extended family to help and I was sure we would manage.
We arranged for our boys to hang out with friends after school until the humans went to sleep and set up separate schooling for the hosts. The Canadian government offered free computer-based homeschooling, a fact we took advantage of with our girls, because it meant that Esme only had to monitor them, not teach them. Typically she set the girls up on their laptops in her office while she worked on her various construction projects, although occasionally she set them up in a spare room in the children's hospital while she tended to her duties at the egg implantation center.
Caring for Kenwei and Kadia kept Esme busy, but she still made time to tend to her other responsibilities, such as caring for our two sons, managing all of our construction projects, and supervising the egg implantation center. We had a steady stream of guests with fresh eggs who journeyed to our island. There were not many, but at least a couple or two came every year and someone had to show them around, assign them hosts from our children's hospital, supervise the implantation, and ensure that the new parents knew how to care for human hosts, and all of those jobs fell to my wife.
I was so busy with matters of State, such as settling disputes among covens and making sure every vampire towed the line and kept the secret, that I normally let Esme do her thing with the new parents. I would introduce myself, congratulate them on becoming parents, and wish them the best, and it was only rarely that I took an interest in a particular pair of parents to be. But when Lefu and Nombeko of the Antarctic coven arrived with a pair of freshly disgorged eggs, I was very interested.
The Antarctic coven had a pair of immortal children and I hoped that once they had pureblood children, they would decide on their own to destroy the monsters. Immortal children cannot grow, mature, or learn to control themselves like pureblood children, but they were incredibly cute and filled the void created by the absence of pureblood children. Once that void is filled, ideally the parents would see fit to destroy the substitutes and the immortal child controversy would end.
So when Lefu and his mate Nombeko showed up, I let Esme do her thing, but kept tabs on them, seeing if I could discern any changing feelings regarding their immortal children that had been left back home with their other coven members. From what I gathered, their coven was determined to keep the immortals and raise purebloods in a mixed family of sorts. And it was not until Scryan saw their future for them that they changed their mind.
Every new parent wanted to know if their eggs were boys or girls and many also wanted to know what they would look like, so it became a tradition for Alice or Scryan to scry the hatchlings for the new parents before they left the island. Sometimes Alice would even draw a sketch of the children, but she had her hands full with her other duties, so when she was busy, Scryan would fill in.
When Scryan came back from his vision of the future, he told Nombeko and Lefu, "I'm sorry, but I can't see your eggs."
Scryan had never failed to see a pair of hatchlings before, so Esme and I exchanged confused glances before he continued. "I see that you'll take your hosts with you back to Antarctica and your coven. But then I see your immortal children drinking your hosts, because they're too wild to control themselves, even when the smell is revolting. You can't control them or teach them not to harm the hosts, so unless you decide not to rejoin your coven, your eggs won't survive and I won't be able to scry them."
The Antartician were both surprised and devastated by this news. At first they lashed out at me, because it was a member of my coven who had delivered the bad news and they thought it was just a ploy to make them destroy their immortal children. That was indeed exactly what I wanted, but I was not about to manipulate the situation to get my way and I would never risk the lives of hatchlings to do so, because that would make me no better than Aro. No, this administration would be incorruptible and honest and I told Nombeko and Lefu as much. I had agreed to let the immortal children live and I stood by my word; it would be on them to destroy their children when they were ready. I just had to wait and wish that they would be ready soon.
The argument which ensued got rather heated before Scryan interrupted. "Why don't you decide to separate from your coven and keep the hosts away from the immortal children until your eggs hatch?" Scryan asked. "I can't see the eggs, because of the immortal children, but if you decide to keep them separated, maybe I could see."
The Antartician must have listened, because Scryan went off into a vision right away. When he returned to us he grabbed a piece of paper and sketched two adorable children who looked very similar to Lefu and Nombeko. It was not as good as Alice's, but it was good enough to make the new parents fall in love. He handed the sketch over and said, "There, it's two girls. Now stop arguing and start figuring out where you're going to move to."
Scryan left after that and Nombeko and Lefu had a lot of thinking to do, so Esme and I left them alone for a while. After a few days, they left our island with their hosts and relocated to Australia. They sent word to their coven members that they could not return and the remaining members agreed to watch the immortal children until the emergence, but that plan only lasted until the remaining two members disgorged eggs of their own.
With both couples in the coven with eggs, there was no one left to care for the immortal children, so it was unanimously decided to destroy them. I was saddened by their deaths, but it was necessary to ensure all of our safety. Word of the burning spread quickly along with the warning that hosts are not safe around immortal children, giving vampires one more reason not to make such abominations in the future. I can only hope that these two will be the last immortal children in our history.
And so one of the toughest dilemmas I had faced as a ruler, a problem so great I had worried it would tear our society apart before it was even fully formed, resolved itself peacefully and on its own. It gave me new hope that I was doing the right thing and everything was going so well that I was caught off guard when Jasper came to me and said, "Listen Carlisle, we need to move."
I had thought everything was going fine and that our island was the perfect capital for our new government. We had been living here for over a thousand years without issues and we already had many structures built. It was secluded, so that humans would not notice our strange activities. Sure it was small, but so far it was large enough for us. I definitely had not expected Jasper to tell me we needed to leave.
"Why?" I asked, really not wanting to move.
"The biggest reason is that we can't keep your hosts isolated on our island forever. They need human contact and they need to go to regular school. We need to do everything right to set a proper example, but the example we're currently setting is that it's okay to lock your hosts up and imprison them for their own safety," he answered and he had a point. "Everyone else with hosts is setting a better example than us, because even Peter and Charlotte have their hosts in human school."
The last thing I wanted to do was violate human rights, especially the rights of Kadia and Kenwei, so I nodded and he continued.
"Also, we need to be closer to the center of our population, so that we're not a seat of power isolated from our people. We need to turn this into a real democracy, which means a proper capital and elected officials outside of our family. Right now all we have is an empire with a pleasant kind absolute ruler, but what we need is a congress or parliament with representatives from all of the covens and from the nomads. We need to organize a meeting where vampires can come and give their opinions on how this country should be formed. We need everyone to help draft our constitution," he said, making perfect sense.
I had thought that I was the obvious leader in Aiden's absence, but now I realized that it was Jasper who knew the most about politics and leadership.
"I don't want to take over. I'm more than happy with my job with the children. I'm just trying to help," Jasper placated me. He must have thought I thought that he was butting in.
"No, it's not that. I was just thinking that I ought to have you as my advisor. Maybe even my vice president."
"And about that: you aren't the president because no one has voted for you. Right now you are our emperor, king, monarch, pharaoh, or whatever else you want to call yourself. Once we have a constitution and a congress we can hold proper elections," he replied.
"Oh, I never thought about that. Your twins said Aiden would be president and I just assumed…" I trailed off. I did not know what I assumed, but I clearly had been of the mind to repeat what the Volturi had done without implementing any real change. The last thing I wanted was another absolute ruler. "You're right: we'll need elections."
"No matter what happens, as leader of the largest coven, you'll always have a place in congress."
"As long as you'll continue to advise me, I'll do it."
"There's nothing special about me other than a degree in history and a familiarity with politics. After a few decades, you'll know the ropes and won't need me. Besides, I really would like to keep my role with the children. And I'm in para now, so I don't want to take on any additional stress that might harm my eggs," he said placing his hand over his egg-pouch.
"Oh, I didn't realize…" I said realizing now that the passing of a year meant a parity for him. His twins were to be conceived on the one year anniversary of the helicopter battle and that date had passed without me thinking of anything other than the fact that the date was the one year anniversary of Carl and Rosita's deaths. "Did you and Alice?"
"Yes."
"Congratulations. They seem like great kids and they really helped us out of a tough spot," I said and he nodded.
"Thank you. But if we could get back to discussing the move?"
"Yes, of course," I replied and Jasper proceeded to tell me of his plans for our new democratic government.
He wanted to get a congress together to approve a final constitution, but he already had a rough draft and a list of new vampire laws for us to start with. His constitution outlined what seemed to be a fair and impartial system for electing a congress and a president, which was similar to many successful human democratic systems, but because of expanded lifetimes, the number of years in a term was correspondingly increased.
He thought one hundred years for us to every one human year was a good standard to go by, so he proposed that congressmen would be elected every two hundred years and the president every four hundred. I thought that this seemed a bit too long and was leaning towards half of that, but we agreed that it was a matter for the congress to decide. Either way, our system would turn over far slower than the human equivalent, but the people would still be free to control and change it as they saw fit.
His list of new laws all concerned eggs, hosts, and children and most of them were common sense, like, "The drinking of another vampire's host shall be punished by death." But, a few of them were things I had not considered, such as, "Primary physical and legal custody of an egg and all decisions regarding said egg shall be awarded to the egg-bearer, with secondary custody going to the mate of the egg-bearer." I had never considered what would happen to the eggs if a set of parents were not in agreement, but we already had one single father out there, a nomad named Randall, so it seemed a good idea to have laws established in case the other parent ever came forward. And Randall was not the only one to have a romantic encounter with someone who was not his sole-mate, so in all likelihood this would become a more serious problem in the future.
There was even a law I was guilty of violating: "A host shall not be kept away from the corresponding egg-bearer; this act shall be considered egg-knapping, and is punishable with a penalty of death." I had kept Emmett and Esme away from Violet and Adriel's hosts, before we knew that it was important for the egg-bearer to smell the pheromones released by the hosts. I did it to minimize our interaction with the humans, not to be malicious, and I righted the situation as soon as I was aware of the problem, but it seemed Jasper thought poorly of it all and wanted to make it illegal for anyone to do so in the future. I agreed the in hindsight it was a cruel thing to do and so added it to the laws we would vote upon just as soon as we can elect a body of officials to do said voting.
Author's Note: And so Jasper has set the stage for moving the family south, to Canada. It will be many years yet before they go, but I think it's time to jump ahead to Masen's story and the year they start school. Is anyone looking forward to seeing more of the kids?
This story has been nominated for multiple iSparkle Awards! Check it out at theisparkleawards (dot) moonfruit (dot) com (slash) # (slash) nominees (slash) 4562312492
And The Gall Stone of Doom was nominated for an Eclipse award for Best Vampire! Vote for me at twilighteclipseawards (dot) blogspot (dot) com
The iSparkle awards start and end first, so check them out in that order. Thank you so much to anyone who is kind enough to vote for me and whoever nominated me. It means so much to me that you readers value my story enough to take the time out to nominate me!