Plans

Mother smiled and handed my girl back to Bella. A sudden realization struck me, as she moved it was something I had seen before and I spoke before thinking, "The pups, they are all yours."

The mother frowned at me in confusion but my wives were smiling. "Not all her's the first that died was not but the other two in that line up were -," Bella paused a corrected the word she had used "are her second daughters. The second line up has twins that are hers. It is amazing what you seem to be able to choose not to see."

I shook my head and looked down at the little girl watching me from her mother's arms. Her grey eyes seemed to alert for something that young. Her skin was as white as mine, and made her look rare and beautiful to me, but I could see my father's belief that I might have been abandoned over it. On one that young that color looked like she could die any second, but her breathing was strong and even as she watched me. "What do you think of Diamond?"

Bella tilted her head in thought, "That doesn't sound like a girl's name, but I like it. Strong." Isa nodded looking at the little girl in the arms of her mother. The house mother didn't say anything but I felt her amusement, she was used to me being strange, after all. Bella smiled at Isa and nodded herself, she then lifted the baby to kiss her forehead, "Good morning, little Diamond."

The house mother looked up at me with a slightly sad smile, "Welcome to the family, little Diamond."

"Thank you, mother." I waited for the house mother to relax just a little before speaking again, "You should really start bringing your second to these meetings."

The house mother was watching Diamond again, "I don't see why, in about 20 years your own children will start taking over this branch making it a main again."

I frowned at the matriarch, "She will never be a threat to you or your daughters."

The matriarch frowned back, "Of course she will be."

"No, she will never be able to have enough kids to qualify for the position. No girl of mine will be. I don't think you are so foolish as to not work closely with them but they will never be able to run a house. Our lord would never want to lose control of my blood line, if there is a chance of magic reappearing if there is a chance one is born without it. I also didn't think you would want to give away Estro's power."

"Our lord would never lose control of your blood line, but there is nothing I can do after the next generation I will have to trade your sons."

"Why?"

The matriarch gave me a look like I was crazy, which considering that I have always shown more awareness of the laws then I should have, wasn't that surprising, "Men cannot have sex with their sisters, of course."

"Blood sisters."

"Well, yes, but -" the matriarch cut off as she thought about how I had refused my sisters. She looked at my wives.

I couldn't see their faces from where I stood but I could feel their smugness, "My daughters will know who their blood brothers are, and they will be raised to keep the law. Their children will know their blood brothers, and their children will know thiers, as long as they hold the way. So there is no reason to trade and you can prove the law is kept. The house of Estro will never have to share, and my daughters won't be a danger to my sisters that built the house."

The matriarch's eyes moved as she thought about what that could mean. Trading men was how a house got in new blood and prevented inbreeding which would immediately bring down the priesthood on them. "You are not making my job easier. You do know I haven't been able to schedule a match since you took up that last match. We have many matches scheduled out so it isn't a problem yet but it will be."

"Oh, that is good, faster than I thought."

The matriarch's eyes almost popped out of her head when I said that, "Explain how that is a good thing, you have 5 brothers that turn 16 in the next three months and I cannot find a fair fight for any of them. Hell I cannot find a trade for any of them either."

"If them being around their blood is a problem, send them here. At least we know none of these women can really be their sisters. The house will just have to cover their debt until a match is made, which it can afford to do at the moment."

"For now but you also have the deal with the farmers you made that will come due soon and we cannot afford to buy it all even if the other houses would let us."

"Sure we can, at a fair market price, all of it. It should be a good time to find out who our real enemies are."

"How!?"

I leaned down and ran a finger over Diamond's nose watching her blink at me. I kept one eye on the matriarch while I played with my daughter, "We sell it as a future. Really we sell more then we think the fields could ever bring in."

"To whom, the houses won't deal with us already and none of them would pay for something they know the priests will give them if they wait."

"The houses are not the only ones with things we need, mother. They are just the only ones with blood. Also they might find they cannot afford to wait as long as they thought."

"What could you sell the food for if not blood?" The eldest bit her lip and growled at me just a bit. I didn't blame her, I was teasing her and she didn't have the background to come up with what I was planning, "You will have to spell this one out for me."