Chapter 24 - The first scion
Damian shrugged, his arms still wrapped around Luna's waist as she leaned against his chest. "It seems like it… My mother sequenced my genes, and she couldn't find any of the typical Eldkin awakening markers in it, besides those of a Bloodkin."
Frowning slightly, he continued. "Basically, my mixed bloodline likely wouldn't have interfered in my awakening. She was still worried about possible negative reactions, which is why she wasn't sure if she wanted to awaken me anymore, but if the awakening went off without a hitch, she was pretty sure I would have simply become a Bloodkin."
Luna raised an eyebrow and rapped her fingers on Damian's arms in thought. "So… according to your mother, you were created to circumvent the Eldkin's reliance on catalysts, and we can assume she wouldn't lie to you… again."
"Obviously," Damian immediately agreed, fully trusting his mother despite her less-than-perfect track record at this point.
Luna nodded and went along with it, knowing now wasn't the time to play devil's advocate. "But my father somehow found out that 1) you weren't born naturally, and not actually Lavinia's son, and 2) somehow got it into his head that you were created to make a new primogenitor. But, without his interference, you likely would have just become a Bloodkin."
"That about sums it up," Damian nodded wryly. "He also seemed to think that I was still a part of this experiment, rather than having already been discarded as a failure."
Worry flashed through Luna's eyes. She started sitting up as her lips parted to say something, but Damian chuckled confidently and pulled her back. "Calm down, I'm not so fragile, but there's no point in not calling it what it is, you know?"
Despite seemingly a little unsure, Luna still decided to let herself be pulled back. "F— Fine… But you're not a failure…"
"I know, I know. Thank you," Damian grinned and kissed the top of her head.
"Right… Anyway," Luna coughed and finished her thoughts. "So that means that either your mother was lied to, or my father was. But whatever the original purpose of this experiment was, it seems reasonable to assume that someone told him all this to manipulate him into trying to awaken you… perhaps in an attempt to create this exact scenario… with you becoming a new primogenitor."
"Those were our thoughts as well," Damian agreed, pulling Luna a little closer, and resting his chin on her shoulder again. "So, now I've become a new type of Eldkin, with my own quirks… like not wanting to sleep with anyone blood-related, as crazy as that sounds."
Luna snorted with a hint of amusement and rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah, totally insane. Just imagine not wanting to sleep with your relatives!" Surprisingly, she seemed to start finding some humour in the ridiculousness of this situation. "Freakin Bloodkin quirks…" she muttered under her breath.
"Hehehe," Damian chuckled softly, not minding her attitude. It felt a little weird to suddenly feel so differently about things he's always been certain about, but… he didn't feel bad about it. It just felt normal to him now.
Ignoring him, Luna sighed and leaned her head back against him. "Well… it certainly seems like a reaction my father might have. He's always hated Bloodkin passionately for some reason."
She shrugged calmly. "I mean, most Moonkin feel contempt and revulsion for Bloodkin, but my father went a step further than that. That's why I never told him about you. The idea that a Bloodkin might have risen to primogenitor status would have definitely driven him to do some crazy things."
"Contempt and revulsion, huh?" Damian grinned as he buried his nose in her hair. "You hide it well, Lunes…"
"Ugh, shut up," she growled, sending a flying elbow at the man behind her. "You know how I feel about most of your Bloodkin culture… I just… try to see beyond it… at least with you."
"And I appreciate it," he chuckled in response.
When his last words fell, a somewhat tense silence descended on them for a while. Both of them were lost in thoughts, and their hands slowly travelled back to Luna's stomach in an absentminded manner.
Finally, Luna parted her lips again, her tone a little woried. "So… what about our child?"
"There's no way to know for sure…" Damian answered, his tone lighter. "Not without my mother doing some tests, but… No matter what, I should be able to awaken them into my own kintype. Our child will be fine, Luna. I promise."
Finding some comfort in his words, Luna nodded and leaned back against him, a little more relaxed. "That's good… Have you… thought about a name yet?"
A deep, thoughtful frown appeared on Damian's brow as he made a humming sound. "Hmm. Well… if it's a boy, then—"
"N— No!" Luna quickly interrupted him, shaking her head, a blush on her cheeks. "I— T— That's too early… I— I meant your kintype."
Damian smirked and raised an eyebrow. She seemed to like the fact he assumed it was about their child.
Regardless, he shook his head. "I have not. I mean, I haven't even seen my incarnate form yet, partial or otherwise!"
An Eldkin couldn't immediately access their incarnate forms from the moment they awakened. In fact, it usually took quite a while. Right now, Lavinia was the only Moroi who could activate her full incarnate form, while everyone else only had access to partial transformations.
"Why? Do you have any ideas?" Damian asked, curiously. He hadn't really thought much about this yet. To be honest, thinking of a name for whatever he'd become wasn't very high on his priority list.
"No, I— I just…" Luna muttered, clearly unsure how to say what she wanted to say. Or, perhaps, simply being unsure about it still.
Damian didn't hurry her, though. He continued hugging her from behind while she organized her thoughts.
After a few seconds, she continued. "I— My eighteenth birthday is coming up in a few months, but… I can't exactly go back to my father for an awakening. I can't awaken as a Bloodkin either, and I don't really want to, anyway."
Damian was getting an idea of what she wanted to say, but he let her get to it on her own time. He was certainly interested and, in fact, had intended to propose it himself, so this was actually quite a relief to him.
"We could just find another Moonkin to do the awakening, but my father has the most powerful bloodlines in the city under close watch," she continued wryly. "As for other, non-Bloodkin kintypes that I could awaken into, I wouldn't trust the other family heads to not use me to their advantage after I fall under their influence."
Damian nodded slowly. The fact a progenitor would have some influence over their scion for a few years was an important consideration for anyone when their awakening loomed.
Strangely, Damian didn't have that problem, as Lavinia had no influence on him at all. Likely, it was due to the fact he wasn't actually a Bloodkin anymore. It was good news, though. He wouldn't really care if Lavinia had some influence over him for a while, but this also meant the same was true for Elias.
Furthermore, there was also a difference between bloodlines, even within the kintypes. These bloodlines could add powerful effects to a kintype's inherent abilities.
For example, the Lykos bloodline would include the power of lightning, and the Moroi bloodline included the power of shadow. These would go on top of the powers of Moonlight and Blood that were inherent in Moon- and Bloodkin, respectively.
Yet, if Luna was awakened by a non-Lykos Moonkin, it would override her lightning powers… which she really didn't want, as the Lykos lightning was extremely powerful among Moonkin bloodlines.
Hesitantly, Luna looked up at him. "At the same time, I don't want to stay unawakened, so… perhaps I could be your first scion?"