Where Do We Come From?
This is my response to Day 10 of http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/'s 30 Days of Flash Fiction, the list for which can be found at http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/221684.html?view=1245940#t1245940
“I have no idea who your grandfather was, dear.” Sayl was looking across her reading desk at her second daughter and her two eldest girls. “We went into that when you were married. Your grandmother’s died since and we‘ve no other source of information.”
“But how could she not know who your father was, Nonna?” It was the older girl, Agatha, sixteen and desperate to be married. “If we can’t give House Adonius a genealogy then I can’t marry Christos.”
“She was a slave, I was born a slave. There were too many men, all nameless to her.” Seeing the shocked look on the younger Eliana’s face, Sayle added more gently, “It happens under some owners.” Then to Agatha, “The Adonii have been a House for less time than I’ve been married to your grandfather. Tell them to pull their necks in.”
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“Well,” explained Ernst to his fiancée, “My father’s family was ennobled in my grandfather’s time by Prince Karl. We still make most of our money from pigs - our speck is excellent. My mother was born in Constantium, and her family, House Basillus, traces itself back to a mage who married one of his slaves there in the seventh century. My father’s mother thought it must have been a great romance.”
Laksa asked, “How did they meet if he was in Baden?”
“She was travelling to Elst in the Netherlands when her carriage broke down outside our gates.” He smiled. “She finished her business in Elst but never went back to Constantium.”
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“Not necessarily,” said the genealogist after he’d waited for the jet to pass. “She may have known something. In Constantium, back then, slaves could be tortured for evidence against their masters, their shades even summoned from the grave. A wife couldn’t be touched.”
“I have no idea who your grandfather was, dear.” Sayl was looking across her reading desk at her second daughter and her two eldest girls. “We went into that when you were married. Your grandmother’s died since and we‘ve no other source of information.”
“But how could she not know who your father was, Nonna?” It was the older girl, Agatha, sixteen and desperate to be married. “If we can’t give House Adonius a genealogy then I can’t marry Christos.”
“She was a slave, I was born a slave. There were too many men, all nameless to her.” Seeing the shocked look on the younger Eliana’s face, Sayle added more gently, “It happens under some owners.” Then to Agatha, “The Adonii have been a House for less time than I’ve been married to your grandfather. Tell them to pull their necks in.”
*************************
“Well,” explained Ernst to his fiancée, “My father’s family was ennobled in my grandfather’s time by Prince Karl. We still make most of our money from pigs - our speck is excellent. My mother was born in Constantium, and her family, House Basillus, traces itself back to a mage who married one of his slaves there in the seventh century. My father’s mother thought it must have been a great romance.”
Laksa asked, “How did they meet if he was in Baden?”
“She was travelling to Elst in the Netherlands when her carriage broke down outside our gates.” He smiled. “She finished her business in Elst but never went back to Constantium.”
*************************
“Not necessarily,” said the genealogist after he’d waited for the jet to pass. “She may have known something. In Constantium, back then, slaves could be tortured for evidence against their masters, their shades even summoned from the grave. A wife couldn’t be touched.”