A Family Conference Call

He turned his focus onto Slate.

"As for you. I haven't had the chance to discuss with you about your mother's traitorous unfaithful acts. She is now getting ready to marry another man, not two weeks after she ran off."

Slate stared back at his father with cold glittering blue eyes.

"This is between you and Mother. Don't involve me in your decisions."

"Son, you made it your business when you helped her to run away from home."

"Father, she is not a child. If she wants to live elsewhere, she has the right to do so."

"I want to talk to her." The Emperor cut to the chase. "You know where she is. Tell her to call me."

"What is there left to say, Father?"

"She's still my wife. We may not be physically in the same world, but until we have legally separated, she is still part of this royal family."

That was true. Whatever Mother decided, she still needed to legally separate from the Emperor before she could be with someone else.

"There is also the matter of my daughter."

"Lyra made a decision to go with her mother." Slate informed him.

"She is my daughter too. Her mother cannot just take her away from me just because she has an issue with me. It has nothing to do with me and my daughter."

Slate narrowed his eyes. His father had a point. Lyra was still underage and in this regard, his father still had half power over where she lived.

"I will talk to Mother regarding Lyra. The two of you can discuss what to do in regards to Lyra."

The Emperor nodded. His face still showing a calm demeanor. He turned to his oldest son. There was still one more important matter to discuss.

"We need to plan the wedding between the Avgo winner and the three of you crown boys. Get Byron and Lucas on this call and let's talk about what needs to happen."

Dante pressed his lips together and muted the Emperor. He had to alert Byron and Lucas that their father wanted a quick chat.

Byron came online almost immediately, his rugged regal face looking stoic and resigned as he stood in front of the grand palace that had been created for him, as High Prince of the Avians.

It took a few more minutes before Lucas popped on. His hair was wet and wild and he was leaning on a colorful surfboard propped up against a palm tree.

"Wow, life is hard over there, Little Brother." Byron cracked a smile at Lucas.

"There's not much to do here but surf," Lucas said ruefully as he shook the sand from his scruffy blond hair.

Dante nodded. "Just keep doing what you're doing. I don't want you starting any new movie projects. We have something coming up soon that will need your presence."

"Guys. Father wants to speak to all of us. He's royally pissed, so prepare yourselves."

With a quick flourish of Dante's hand, all six princes appeared in front of the Emperor.

"Hello Father," Byron and Lucas both chimed in.

"Boys." The Emperor's deceptively angelic kindly face smiled at them. "There's only six of you. Where's Leo?"

Dante shook his head. "Leo is in the surgery ward. I'll make a copy of this call and send it to him later."

The Emperor nodded. "I'm glad you boys could be on this call. We need to talk about the upcoming wedding.

"Now. Since Candace Farrah is already your legal wife, this will just be a formality, but formalities still need to be addressed properly. She is the next Empress and she must legitimize all three of you as the true Emperors."

Lucas scratched his neck.

The salt was starting to bake into his body and he was starting to get itchy. He wanted to get back inside and wash off the salt, but he couldn't until this talk was done and Father answered some of his questions.

"Father," Lucas raised up a hand. "What are you talking about 'legitimizing all three of us'? That doesn't make any sense at all."

The Emperor looked at his golden-haired son with fondness. Lucas was his gentle soft child, the one who was afraid of his own shadows, and yet, he often asked the most difficult questions.

"As you boys know, it's the job of the Primary Avgo Female to choose the next Emperor…"

"What???" All the princes stared at their father.

"Yes. That is why it's written into the rules that the winner of the Avgo event is automatically the wife of the Crown Prince. We've taken the choice from her."

"Can you imagine what would happen if Candace chose a human male as Emperor? Why—Earth would rule the galaxy and the ensuing chaos would be tremendous!"

He shook his head. "For the good of the galaxy, we of the royal lineage of Blood Bats have secured the Avgo Contest so that the Primary Avgo Female has no choice but to choose the Crown Prince of Erenveil."

"We cannot have a bird or an insect, or heavens forbid, a dragon to be chosen as the Emperor of this galaxy." He sniffed. "The Emperor of this galaxy MUST continue to be an Erenveilian bat."

The Princes all stared at their father with mixed emotions.

It all made sense in a macabre fashion now that the Emperor had stated it out in a flat and detached manner. In fact, it was such a captain obvious moment that they had no words to respond to him.

Although they were happy that she belonged to all of them and they all belonged to her, it was also true that Candace never really had a choice at all. Even the Avgo, by splintering itself into seven parts, had taken the choice away from her.

"You three boys are going to have to figure out a way to present yourselves to the galaxy. I am expecting a bit of a pushback that there will be only one Empress and three Emperors on the throne once I retire."

"But Father," Slate gave a wry grin. "There is only one of you and you currently have three wives."

"That's different. I'm a man."

"Times change, Father." Dante intoned. "We are no longer living in the dark ancient past. Women are powerful beings too."

The Emperor snapped his jaw. Impudent brat.

But this impudent brat was the son of his most beloved wife, Anastasia. To this impudent brat, he would do almost anything for.

"Since you are so well-versed with the new and changing times, then I guess you will have no issues figuring out how to handle announcing the news that you three boys will be married to the same woman."

Byron smiled. "We're going to be Emperors. Who's going to say anything against us?"

He had seen how his father worked through protests and opposition from all those who sought to go against the Emperor's various decrees in the past.

In the same way that men had pushed throughout the ages to be able to have multiple wives, this was going to be pushed through so that women could have multiple husbands.

Like it or not, this was happening.