Work Text:
1.
The plan is simple.
Only three people know that Kareen is expecting twins. The first is the midwife. The second is the midwife's assistant. And the third is the one who will take one of the twins for her own.
Kareen's midwife came with her when she was married. So many people forget their proper loyalties when loyalty to the Emperor tugs in the other direction, but childbirth is the domain of women and Ezar is a man. It's Kareen's responsibility to safeguard the Vor. Mrs. Laroche had been willing to be convinced.
Ezar knows what Serg is like. Kareen had been able to convince him to let her contrive to accidentally give birth in Vorinnis House, far away from her husband. But Vorinnis House is full of secrets. Alys would be able to slip in and out of the room Kareen has selected. Alys would be able to take one of the twins.
If it's two boys, Alys would take the younger. If it's two girls, she would take the quieter. If it's a girl and a boy, she would take Kareen's daughter. But she would take one child.
It has to be Alys. She's so young, but that works in their favor as well. And she and Kareen look so much alike. Even if the twins are identical, it would be simple to pass it off as mothers who resembled each other, giving birth to children by the same man. No one would doubt that Serg had taken a liking to Alys. He's taken a liking to so many, after all. And Uncle Eugene is kind to his daughters. If Alys had a bastard, he wouldn't throw her out. He would help hide her secret.
If it's the worst, if it's twin girls, at least one would be safe from the Vorbarras. If it's a boy and a girl, Kareen would have saved her daughter from this life. And if it's two boys, then both children would benefit. The heir wouldn't have a spare around to endanger his position. And the spare wouldn't be disposable. If it were two boys, Kareen could save them both equally.
It's risky these days, not to know. They have so much technology now and Kareen has eschewed all of it. Technology, after all, can't be convinced to keep her secret. Technology would tell Ezar there will be two children. And so technology is anathema. Kareen has created family traditions out of whole cloth, inventing as many superstitions as possible to keep her pregnancy as far away from any men as possible. Childbirth is Kareen's work to do and she won't brook any interference. Machines make mutations, she had declared. None of that will come near her or her child.
Ezar has humored her. Kareen wonders what his reaction would be if he knew how she was fooling him.
But he hasn't protected her from Serg. She has no illusions that he will ever protect her if she doesn't provide him with a grandson first. Kareen has to protect herself. Kareen has to protect her children. No one else will. She may not be able to save one of them, but she can save the other. She will save the other.
In the end, all Kareen has time to do is kiss the forehead of her second son, whisper "be safe, Ivan" against his skin, and then shove Alys out of the room with all her remaining strength. It's a close-run thing, but it works. It works. It works.
Ivan will be safe.
And Gregor-- Gregor will be the Crown Prince's sole heir.
2.
The first time Gregor and Ivan meet, Serg has been dead for three days. The planet is in mourning for Serg and for the dead of the Escobaran invasion and Kareen is numb with shock. She lets everyone think it's over losing her husband. Better that than to think her in shock over how her world has changed so much, so quickly. After Gregor was born, Ezar had promised her that he would protect her. It took him nearly five years, but his protection has materialized. And Kareen--
Kareen had been planning for a coup she must now never allow to happen. Ezar is dying quickly. Vordarian would have been needed to overthrow Serg. But now the Emperor that would be overthrown is Kareen's son and she can't allow that.
It's a relief when Alys visits, bringing Ivan with her. For a moment, Kareen's breath is caught to see both her sons together. She scans Ivan's face with equal eagerness and dread. She's seen pictures. Alys has assured her that the boys aren't identical. It would be safe for them to be seen together; they wouldn't need to keep Ivan far away forever lest it be noticed. The boys look alike but it's nothing that can't be excused away. And the boys themselves notice nothing amiss.
The twins take barely any time to warm to each other and soon they are playing happily with Steggie and the assorted toy soldiers that spawn around Gregor like unfortunate reminders. Alys watches them just long enough to make sure that the peace between them will hold, then she says to Kareen, "Padma Vorpatril wants to marry me and adopt Ivan."
Kareen inhales sharply and her fingers clench, all ease forgotten. Does Vorpatril know? He can't know. Alys wouldn't tell him. Kareen can't even think that Alys would. The secret is safe. But otherwise, why would someone like Vorpatril offer to adopt a bastard? Is it that Vorpatril thinks Ivan is Serg's bastard? Is this a play for power? Vorpatril has never impressed Kareen very much. She knows that he's lost his head over Alys, which shows good taste, but he also hasn't distinguished himself in any way at all. If he had, he would have been Kareen's choice instead of Vordarian. But Vorpatril is a nobody. He has nothing but his grandfather's legacy around him. And that legacy is murdering an Emperor. That might have been handy if the Emperor were Serg, but it's a legacy that has no business being around either of Kareen's sons.
"Why?" Kareen asks. It's rude, but she doesn't need to fear rudeness with Alys. Alys has seen her at her worst. Alys has seen her having to say goodbye to Ivan.
"The marriage? Because he loves me. The adoption? Because he wants to marry me. He says he's charmed by Ivan, but he knows that I wouldn't allow him to treat Ivan badly or put any of our children ahead of Ivan. If he's going to get me to marry him, he's going to have to treat my son like his own. He's wanted to marry me for years now, you know that."
Kareen does know that. "And he thinks now is a good time?"
"Now is the first time he could," Alys says. "He asked me less than an hour after we heard. He wouldn't risk Serg's attention before. And it'll stop people from suggesting that he's going to marry you."
Marrying Kareen would be anyone's prime opportunity; it's what she's been prodding Vordarian toward, after all. Kareen supposes she thinks better of Vorpatril for knowing it would be a path to power and then discarding it. But there's still Ivan to consider. Ivan would also be a path to power.
"Has he asked you about Ivan's father?" Kareen asks.
"Not directly," Alys says. "I let him think what he wants to think, like everyone else."
Everyone else thinks it's Serg. Kareen is very practiced at turning away the barbs. Everyone thinks her husband slept with her favorite cousin. No one knows that's Kareen victory and no one ever will.
Kareen never knew what Serg thought of the rumors that he'd fathered Alys's child. Had he laughed it off? Had he been insulted? Serg would know he'd never touched Alys. Did he think Alys was trying to use him as a cover? Did he even care? Alys had only met Serg twice and once was on Kareen's wedding day. Maybe Serg had thought the rumors beneath his notice. But he'd never denied them. Kareen would have heard if he had. Kareen has always been so careful to pay attention to anything that has to do with Ivan.
Maybe Serg had been waiting for the worst moment to deny it publicly. Maybe Serg had been waiting for the perfect opportunity to humiliate Kareen's cousin. It would be so like him. And now he never could. Now he is dead and gone and he can't hurt any of them anymore. No matter how the possibilities stretch out now in front of them, no matter what plots they will have to survive, they have been spared having to live another moment under the threat of Serg Vorbarra.
"I had also wondered," Alys says lightly, watching Ivan give Gregor more blocks and unsuccessfully try to balance them on Steggie's tail, "if, because the situation has changed so much, you might ask to have Ivan back."
Kareen wishes she could. She wishes she could always have this, her two boys together. But she knows she can't. If anything, the circumstances are even worse for Ivan now. A Crown Prince's second son would be a pawn. An Emperor's younger brother is an opportunity. Too many would use him. Too many would pit the twins against each other. Kareen can't let that happen. It's too precarious now, and if she doesn't do it at the moment Ezar dies, she knows she never can. She'll always have to answer questions she can't answer. She'll always be the mother who threw away a prince. It can't be fixed. She can have Ivan as he is now, as an occasional visitor. She can't have him any other way. She made the decision and she can't go back.
She doesn't regret doing it. Time has borne out its necessity. No matter what happens to Gregor, Alys will keep Ivan safe. Padma Vorpatril is a complication to this that Kareen doesn't like, but she can't ignore that he would be a powerful protector for Ivan, if he could be convinced to be that for him. And if Vorpatril ever needs to be one, Kareen is confident that Alys can convince her husband to save the son Alys has claimed as her own. And Alys herself would never set the twins against each other. If Alys ever needs to use Vorpatril to save Ivan, it will be because Kareen and Gregor are both dead. Kareen will rest easier in any grave she's given, knowing that she has done the impossible for her younger son, what she could never do for his older brother.
A child Emperor's safety is so tenuous. But Ivan's relies on Alys. Kareen can always rely on Alys.
It was the right decision.
"It was too late for that the moment I handed him to you," Kareen says. She pretends not to see Alys's relief. "If you want Vorpatril, you can have him, but I'm concerned about the political situation," she adds, because she can always be honest with Alys. Alys holds her deepest secrets. She can also hold her fears. "Would you and Lord Vorpatril agree to a long engagement? I want to plan you a suitable wedding, and we're mourning Serg and then we'll be mourning Ezar. Prince Xav's grandson shouldn't get married in a rush. Can you two stand to wait a year to be married?"
"I can," Alys says. "And Padma will, once I tell him we're going to wait."
A year should be long enough. In a year, they'll know one way or another. The worst will be the months immediately after Ezar's death. If they can survive that, they can manage any other crisis. But they aren't there yet.
"Are you ever going to tell them?" Alys asks.
"When they turn twenty. Gregor can recognize his brother then if he wants to," Kareen says. They'll both be so angry at her. Gregor is so like her at times and she knows how she would react. She can't imagine Gregor or Ivan would be any different. Her boys won't forgive her for what she's done, but oh, to live to see the day they won't forgive her. Kareen had barely hoped to see Serg's death. She might still yet live to the end of the year. To live to Gregor's twentieth seems an impossible dream. But they both might make it there now. There's a chance now. Let them be as angry with her as they like, just let them survive.
"Ivan's birthday is three days after Gregor's," Alys says. What? Kareen glances at her and Alys shrugs. "I had to come up with something when I was inventing a story to tell my parents. I thought keeping his birthday the same as Gregor's would be suspicious. I panicked."
The boys were born barely ten minutes apart and even that was nearly too long. Gregor was crying and they couldn't risk anyone hearing two babies. It was very close to being a disaster. That they managed to steal him away is still a miracle that wakes Kareen in the middle of the night, her heart pounding from the fear of being discovered.
They've robbed Ivan of so much. To rob him of even his own birthday seems a step too far. But it's too late to fix any of this. They merely have to keep going.
"Has anyone ever--," Kareen starts, but Alys puts her hand on Kareen's.
"No one," she confirms. "Everyone knows what Serg was like. I barely had to say anything. No one would ever think we did what we did. It's too impossible. Even seeing them together and knowing, it isn't as obvious as I'd worried it would be. It's easier to think Serg wandered than to dream up what we did."
Serg wandered so much. Kareen had never minded it; any night he was spending with someone else was a night he wasn't spending with her. She'd give up a lot worse than other women's honors to keep her husband from looking at her too deeply. Her marriage did not make her a sacrifice to save every other woman from her husband's appetites. Leashing Serg was beyond her abilities. Ezar didn't even manage it.
Then again, she's not sure Ezar ever tried. She'd certainly never seen any sign of it.
If there is one chance she will take, after Serg's death, once Ezar is gone, too, and if she can get rid of Vordarian, and if she can survive-- if life grants her a victory, she's going to raise a better man than the ones she's been surrounded by. Her son won't be like his father. Her son won't be like either of his grandfathers. Her son will be a proper Vor lord out of the ballads, not out of reality.
And he'll love his brother. Please, let him love his brother.
Gregor takes that moment to push more blocks at Ivan and point at the castle they're building like a fort around Steggie.
It's already a good start. They just have to keep going.
They just have to survive.
3.
Growing up as the Emperor's bastard half-brother isn't too bad. Ivan gets shunned by a lot of people, but his mama and papa tell him to ignore them. It'd be worse if Aunt Kareen weren't always so nice to him or if officially-his-cousin Gregor weren't always so happy to see him when Mama brings him to visit. Ivan thinks it'd be really awkward if the Emperor didn't like that Ivan was his brother. But the Emperor doesn't seem to mind, so the fact that Ivan had to kick Ruslan Vorlakial in the balls for saying something about his mother isn't all that important.
It can even be funny sometimes. Ivan ends up as the Emperor's roommate at school and the first night there, they both look at each other and Ivan starts snickering and Gregor puts a hand over his mouth to stop himself from laughing, too.
"We really do look alike," Gregor admits. With both of them in new haircuts and new uniforms, they could almost pass as twins. It's really funny.
"The Vorbarra genes are pretty strong, I guess," Ivan says.
Gregor looks surprised. "Your mother told you for sure that we have the same father? My mother won't."
"No, mine's the same. She only told me that you're not an appropriate target for exploration. That's either because you're the Emperor or my half-brother. Plausible deniability, Miles calls it. Mama says she'll tell me when I'm twenty, if I still want to know then." Ivan can't imagine not wanting to know then. He wants to know now. He's never been good at being patient. He doesn't know why his mother is insisting on it. Maybe it's a lesson. Maybe Ivan is supposed to learn something from this. He probably is.
"Does your step-father mind?" Gregor asks. "About whoever your father was?"
Ivan shrugs. "He says I'm my mother's son and that's what's important to him." Until Ivan was six, he wasn't actually his mother's son; he'd been her ward. Mama had had to tell everyone some story about where Ivan had come from, so even though everyone knew Mama was Ivan's mother, she had to pretend she wasn't until she married Ivan's new father, and only then was it all right for her to be Ivan's mother. "Do you mind, that we're probably brothers?"
Gregor shakes his head. "I always wanted a brother. And then there you were. I wished you could visit more than only once a month. I wished you were there all the time."
Every time they go to visit Aunt Kareen and Gregor, Mama fusses over Ivan more than she does any other time they go see someone, even Ivan's grandparents. Everything has to be perfect. And then Ivan inevitably spills something on his clothes within five minutes of being around Gregor, but Gregor never seems to mind that Ivan isn't being a proper Vor around his liegelord. Gregor's always treated Ivan like a favorite cousin. Or like a potential brother. Ivan's always liked that. He's got three younger sisters, but they're so much younger than him that they're boring. And then there's Miles, but Ivan always has to be careful with Miles. It'd be too easy to hurt him. Ivan doesn't want to hurt anyone. Well, he doesn't want to hurt anyone who isn't saying bad words about his mother. That's different. That's honor. Ivan's got to defend his family's honor.
"Everyone says that you're my brother, but when I tried, I was told that I wasn't allowed to call you that," Gregor continues. "My mama always used to remind me that whatever happened when you were born wasn't your fault and I shouldn't hold it against you, no matter what the truth was, but I never thought the whispers were bad. They say you're my brother and I'd be happy to have you as one. As a real brother."
"Me, too," Ivan says. "Having a brother would be great." He's got cousins but that's not the same thing. And Gregor's technically a cousin, but it's not the same thing, in the other way. Gregor's always been different. Maybe it's Gregor wanting a brother and Ivan being there. And Ivan wanting a brother and Gregor being there. But it's not all the time. It'd be great to have a brother all the time and not just when Ivan's visiting. But now they're at school, so maybe they could try that now? There's no one to say that Ivan visits too much when Ivan's supposed to be here.
Gregor sighs theatrically and nudges the desk with his foot. "I wish our mothers would tell us what really happened. I know my mama knows. But she also says it has to wait until I'm old enough to know. I don't understand why, it should be a simple question. Isn't it?"
"The details are probably really bad," Ivan guesses. He's always thought so; it's only gotten less abstract since he's gotten older and learned more about how these things happen. There's a lot of knowledge he shies away from. Mama's always told him to let things roll off him and Ivan tries. But it's hard when it's his mother and it's Gregor's father. "Maybe they don't want to talk about it and hope we'll lose interest. But I'm not interested in what happened, I just want to know if you're my brother. That shouldn't be so hard to say, right?" But it's political. That's what Ivan's mother always says when Ivan asks why. It's political. And Ivan can't get tangled up in anything political. It'd be bad for his life expectancy. He always has to be really careful about that, Mama says, because of his position. But she won't tell him what his position is. But Ivan isn't an idiot. He can figure it out. Everyone thinks he's Serg's bastard. And Mama not saying who Ivan's father really was only makes it seem even more like it was Prince Serg.
It's all too complicated. Ivan hates it. It'd be so simple if his mother would just tell him. But she won't tell him. That must mean it's really bad. That must mean it's worse.
What's worse than being the Crown Prince's bastard son?
"How about we decide it between ourselves?" Gregor asks. "You're my brother. I'm your brother."
Ivan opens his mouth to immediately accept, then frowns. He likes the idea a lot, he really does, but he's pretty sure that's one of the political things his mother would warn him away from. "Being the Emperor's brother..."
Gregor seems to understand what Ivan can't really articulate, that there's a difference between being Gregor's brother and being Gregor's brother. His face falls. "You're right. If I acknowledge you, that makes things complicated."
"What if," Ivan sounds out, working through the idea, "what if we were brothers and we just didn't tell anyone? Then it's not political. So we agree that we're brothers, but if anyone asks, we're just cousins. Because we're cousins anyway. But we'll be brothers, too."
"Being secret brothers?" Gregor asks. Ivan nods decisively and Gregor smiles slowly. "Okay. Secret brothers."
Ivan offers up his hands for an oath. Gregor hugs him instead.
4.
Gregor turns twenty. Regent Vorkosigan kneels to be relieved of his oath and Gregor finds out he has a twin brother.
For the longest moment, all Gregor can hear is a lifetime of whispers and insinuations. All he can see is Ivan's brave face when someone insults him, his enraged face when someone insults his mother-- insults Aunt Alys. All he can feel are his fingers curled into a fist, digging into his skin, grounding him in the moment. There's nothing in Gregor but a whirlwind of emotions.
And then, ruthlessly, he forces it down. Haven't all his mother's lessons been for this? Gregor is the Emperor. He can't lose control. He can't be governed like his father was. He is the Emperor, not some useless Vor scion. No. That's the fate their mother decided for his brother instead.
What could have made her do it? Gregor knows his mother. He can't imagine her ever doing that. Not to Ivan. She likes Ivan-- of course she likes Ivan. Of course she invites Aunt Alys and Ivan to everything. Ivan's her son-- his brother-- and his mother knew the whole time. Aunt Alys knew the whole time. Why? Why would she do it? Was his father really that bad? And even if he was, his father's been dead for sixteen years. Why not take Ivan back as soon as their father was gone? Why not fix this in the time since then?
There has to be a reason. His mother isn't cruel. She wouldn't hurt Ivan like this for no reason. But Gregor had never thought she could ever do anything like this, no matter the reason.
And now, his mother tells him, he gets to decide what to do. He is the Emperor. He is the head of House Vorbarra. He is one of the separated twins. He is twenty years old and a twin. He gets to decide what to do now. He gets to decide how to fix this.
He has to fix this. He can't leave Ivan-- he can't keep going with what his mother and Aunt Alys did, can he? He can't. He needs to make this right for Ivan. He needs to make this right for himself. He'd had a twin all this time. He'd had a brother all this time. He wants his brother back. He wants to rush back downstairs to his birthday ball and announce to everyone that Ivan Vorpatril is his brother.
But he can't do that. He is the Emperor. He cannot act rashly. And he can't-- he won't act without seeing what Ivan thinks first. Ivan's been the pawn in all of this, moved around the board, discarded. Gregor won't do that to him, too. He can't fix this by making it worse for Ivan, he won't.
He doesn't want to think that maybe this is something that can't be fixed. Even with anger churning through him, when Gregor thinks of publicly bringing Ivan back into the family, his mind shies away from the consequences. The court would tear his mother limb from limb over it. No one would care why she did it, only that she did. Princess Kareen stole a son from the Vorbarras. As angry as Gregor is with his mother, he could never hurt her.
He can't bring his brother back without destroying his mother. Even if Ivan wants to be brought back, Gregor can't do it. He can't do that to his mother. Not even for Ivan. Not even for the chance of having a brother. If he has to pick, he has to pick his mother. Ivan has so much to gain, but his mother can only lose. Gregor won't be his father. He will never hurt his mother.
But his fingernails are leaving bloody traces on his palms. He flattens his hands and breathes through the rage. He is the Emperor. He is not his father. He will never hurt his mother. He will never hurt his brother. His mother had hurt his brother, but Gregor won't accomplish anything if he causes more pain by trying to erase what happened.
He can't erase what happened. He has to find some way to find a future he can live with, find some solution to this horrible nightmare his mother has given to him. To think that Ivan has been so close all this time, so close and just his friend. So close and not his brother.
But he remembers what he and Ivan had promised each other. They would consider each other their brother, but not tell anyone. And they have been. And they haven't told anyone. They've been close friends while at school, but they've only been brothers in private. And that's only with the idea that Ivan was Gregor's half-brother. They hadn't known.
Now that they do know, could they bring that relationship into the light? Everyone already knows that Prince Serg was Ivan's father, it's just never been acknowledged. Gregor could push at the edges of that. He could call Ivan his brother. He could confirm that Ivan is Prince Serg's son. He just doesn't need to finish it. He doesn't need to say that Princess Kareen is Ivan's mother.
Would that be enough for Ivan? Would that be too much for his mother? Would that be enough for himself?
It burns deep inside him. He could have had a brother all this time. All this time, he did have a brother. He could have had someone next to him all his life. Instead, he didn't. Instead, his brother got a new family and that family didn't include Gregor. Ivan has sisters; Gregor had no one except cousins and a secret oath made with Ivan. But he could have had a brother. He did have a brother.
But he can never, ever tell anyone Ivan is his twin. Not without consequences thundering down on top of his mother and his brother. And Gregor would have to be the one to do it to them. Gregor is Count Vorbarra. He's the only one who can. He's the one who should. Doesn't family honor demand it? He won't turn his back on Ivan. He can't. But he can't do it to his mother, either. He can't pick between them.
And Ivan may not want him to. Ivan may not want to be Gregor's brother, not if it has to be public. Ivan might decide that keeping the secret is much more important than being Gregor's brother. Ivan's always had to look at things from his perspective as a bastard son. Even if his father wasn't Prince Serg, it was still something shameful, something his mother-- something Aunt Alys couldn't acknowledge. Ivan has lived his entire life under that storm cloud. All because his mother threw away a son.
Threw away Ivan.
Ivan, who has always treated Gregor like he's a friend and not his Emperor. Ivan, who has roomed with him every year at school.
Ivan, who his mother made sure roomed with him every year at school.
Why would his mother do that? Why would she do any of this? And why, having done it, would she turn the decision on to him? It's his decision to make, she had told him. He's old enough now to know he has a brother. He's old enough now to do what he likes about it.
But he can't do what he really wants. He can't go back twenty years and never lose Ivan at all. He can't undo this. He has to live with it. He and Ivan have to live with it.
And Gregor won't make this choice for him. Mama and Aunt Alys already chose for Ivan. They already decided he wouldn't get to be a Vorbarra. Gregor's not going to drag him back into this family unless he wants to come. He won't do that to his brother. Ivan's already had so much done to him. He'll let Ivan decide. Ivan is the one with the most to gain and the most to lose. Ivan would have to give up his family if Gregor told everyone they were twins. But Ivan has a father and a mother. He has three younger sisters. He has a niche he's clawed out for himself while letting no one ever think he has claws. Ivan has a life that isn't one of a Vorbarra prince.
Would Ivan even want to be Gregor's brother, if it means his entire life changing?
What if the answer is no? What if Ivan only ever wants to be Gregor's brother if no one knows about it?
But Gregor can't do nothing about this. He can't.
But if Ivan wants him to do nothing, then... he will. What's all this for, if he forces Ivan to change his family against his will? That's already happened to him once. Gregor won't do it to him again. He won't fix this if he acts the Emperor to Ivan. He can only fix this if he acts the brother.
And so he'll ask Ivan. He'll ask Ivan if he wants to go half-way and then stop. That's the only way to have both his brother and his mother. He can't have Ivan as his twin brother without a nightmare along with it. But he can have Ivan as he is right now, except with the scandal acknowledged. Everyone knows that Ivan is Prince Serg's son. Gregor can just... confirm that. He can have Ivan as his half-brother. And that can't be too much for Ivan, can it? Ivan already lives with that every day. Having it be public won't be any different; it's already public. Everyone already knows. It'd just be bringing the scandal back into House Vorbarra, instead of keeping it on Aunt Alys and Ivan. Gregor would take twice the amount of scandal as a bastard brother to make even half of this right.
Gregor wants Ivan to stand next to him as his twin brother, a proper Vorbarra prince. He can't have that. He knows he can't have that. But he'll take everything else he can get. He's always wanted a brother. And he's had one, all this time. He's going to go as far over the edge as Ivan will let him. He isn't going to let go.
What might his life have been like if he'd always had his brother there? Who would Gregor be if he'd always had Ivan next to him every day of his life?
He doesn't know. He can't know. He can only try to have Ivan with him for every day that is to come, to make up for all the time they've lost. He can only try to build a relationship with his brother with the life that their mother has given them and only now told them.
It won't be enough. It has to be enough.
It is a very long time before Gregor calms down again.
5.
The Emperor does not return to the Imperial Service Academy after the Birthday. Officers won't be commissioned for months yet, but the Emperor hardly needs to wait around for that. The ones who see him after the Birthday say that he's angry. The anger breaks when the Emperor signs a formal acknowledgment that his father, the late lamented Crown Prince Serg, also fathered Cadet Ivan Vorpatril.
After Academy graduation, Ivan Vorpatril reports to the Imperial Residence to serve as the most junior of the Emperor's military secretaries. It's a plum posting, the first step to greatness. The Emperor must want to keep an eye on his bastard brother. No, no, this is Lady Alys's doing, you know how close she is with the Princess. No, this is Padma Vorpatril moving his adopted pawn into place. Why did the Emperor go along with it? Oh, you know the Vorbarras. It's arrogance. It's honor. Weren't they friends at school?
Ensign Vorpatril is a gregarious young man, always friendly and so eager to please. For all that they look so much alike, he's nothing like the Emperor, who is so stern and taciturn. Some note the propensity for the Emperor to meet with his junior secretary alone. A spy? Or something else? It is the Vorbarras.
Vorpatril gets promoted. He stays in the Emperor's orbit.
The Emperor's mother chooses a wife for him. Vorpatril serves as his second.
Vorpatril never marries. The Emperor ordered him not to, they say. It was a condition of being acknowledged, they say.
No one knows that the Emperor asks Vorpatril every year if he's still sure he doesn't want more than this.
No one finds out.