"Brother?"
The question emerged from Dante and Seraphina almost in unison, their synchronized reaction highlighting how profoundly this revetion affected even the highest levels of vampire governance. Unlike the court officials who remained fixated on the food consumption, the Archdukes immediately grasped the more profound political implications of Valerian's casual reference.
A brief gnce passed between Lucius and Valerian—a silent communication born of millennia of shared secrecy, requiring no words to convey complete understanding.
Lucius nodded confirmation while continuing his meal with unhurried composure. "We've been brothers for over 2000 years," he stated calmly, as if discussing the weather rather than revealing information that rewrote vampire history. After a moment, he added with deliberate precision: "Born from the same mother."
This casual delivery of an earth-shattering revetion stunned everyone present. The explicit crification—born from the same mother—eliminated any possibility of metaphorical brotherhood or symbolic alliance. This was true biological retion, something almost unheard of among vampire leadership.
The implications were staggering, reshaping understanding of vampire politics for the past two millennia. Countless historical decisions that had previously seemed unconnected suddenly aligned into clear patterns—territorial arrangements, military deployments, policy developments that had puzzled observers for centuries.
Dante and Seraphina visibly struggled to recalibrate their understanding. Their faces showed the mental recalcution occurring as they reviewed every interaction they'd ever had with either brother, every Council meeting, every territorial negotiation, every policy discussion—all now requiring complete reinterpretation.
"Two thousand years," Dante finally managed, his scientific mind focusing on the timeline rather than the retionship itself. "You've maintained this secret since the Evolution?"
"Since before," Valerian corrected, still holding Lord Darius with casual strength. "We were brothers when we were human. We remained brothers after transformation."
This additional revetion—that they remembered their human origins clearly enough to confirm their retionship predated vampirism—added yet another yer of shock. Most vampires deliberately forgot their human lives, considering those memories irrelevant to their immortal existence. The implication that Lucius and Valerian not only remembered but valued their human connection challenged vampire society's deliberate amnesia about human origins.
Seraphina's gaze shifted between the brothers, her analytical mind reassessing centuries of careful observations. "The private meetings," she said quietly. "The monthly communications scheduled at precisely the same time in both territories. The uncanny coordination between your domains even when supposedly acting independently."
Lucius offered a slight smile as he took another bite of food. "Governance becomes considerably more efficient when one can speak freely with one's closest ally," he acknowledged, the understated response masking two millennia of brotherhood hidden behind carefully maintained political facades.
"But why keep it secret?" Dante asked, still struggling to understand the purpose behind such extended deception.
The look that passed between the brothers contained volumes of shared history, decisions made during the chaos of the Evolution and maintained across millennia of careful pnning
