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The Golden Coronets: The Brothers Ekhorin

In an Empire stricken by an insidious Soul-drought, where the birth of one living child is a triumph, and Souless births outnumber enSouled ones, the birth of living twins to Her Imperial Majesty, Karrena Marya Tsernavin, was hailed as nothing short of a miracle of the Saints. Marya had been wed to her Consort, Cezarek Ekhorin, for a little over five years. In that time, the Karrena bore one living son and endured the termination of four Souless pregnancies. In Ninthmonth of DATE, the Consort died. A masquerade on the Chain Bridge, a closed affair for the city’s gilded nobility. The details are murky. Some claim Ekhorin simply slipped. Others recall a quarrel. Still, all witnesses agreed the Consort had climbed the balustrade for a dare, masked, drunk and laughing. One moment, he was there: a riotous and bold figure, invincible and magnetic. In the next, he was gone. It seemed like an eternity before the guests heard the sound of something heavy hitting the frozen river below. By the time Ekhorin’s body could be dredged from the River Irriley, some five months later, Marya’s belly was swelling. Mercifully, the babe growing within the grieving Karrena seemed hale and hearty, not like the motionless husks of its siblings that had grown within her previously. In late Sixthmonth DATE, Marya went into early labour. To the amazement and disbelief of the attendants, on the morning of 27th, the Karrena was delivered of two, living sons. While the tiny, golden-haired boys shared a close resemblance to their late father, the twins were clearly non-identical. The birth of Cezary and Ethanael Ekhorin was not merely viewed as a spectacular triumph for the Imperial throne. Marya now had her heir, four-year-old Karrovich Sebastin, and two spares, which in itself was a cause for celebration across the Saeric League. In the wake of the Great Confiscation and the Sorrow of Souls, it is almost unheard of for the pregnancies of multiples to result in live births. That both infants survived, let alone possessed viable Souls, was hailed as an act of Saintly intervention. Though the Imperial Court quickly nicknamed the boys ‘the Golden Coronets’, a strange mythology grew up around them. A saying started to be whispered in the halls of the court: the Phoenix could not rise on one wing alone. The Karrena had started to be viewed as a promise of hope in these turbulent, spiritual times. With Sebastin as the Phoenix’s heart and the twins, Cezary and Ethanael, as its wings, the three brothers are seen as an omen that the Phoenix would rise again in this generation. Why else would the Karrena have been blessed with three strong sons to champion the cause of the Saeric League and bring about the end of the Raven's rule.

Cover image: Sorrow of Souls Header by Cait Brinsmead via BING AI

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