"Father told her when she was nineteen weeks pregnant with me what he was, and in doing so what I am. He hoped she loved him enough to become his consort and rule by his side over his lands.  She didn't even hold me when I was born, she hated us that much. The way father tells it, she gave him his engagement ring back right along with a newborn son at the hospital." He shrugs, his eyes distant. "Father is strange among our people. He could have taken another consort and produced another heir, but he still loves my mother after all this time."