The Aspect of Essence (The Aelfyn Archives, #1)

by Samantha Amstutz

It was his. Is this…my human line? Jassyn swallowed a disgusted feeling, jerking his attention away from the scores of names below his, written in a different hand. He’d never attempted to discover the offspring he sired even though he assumed a few were at Centarya. Why would an elf trace my mortal lineage? How had Fynlas tracked it? His ancestral tree covered thirty-two generations, spanning all the way back to the apparent arrival of the Aelfyn, judging from the years. Jassyn studied the chart, thoughts wavering like a mirage. What does it mean? Frantic, he dashed to the other easels in the room and scrutinized the genealogies, paying attention to the names close to the bottom of the sheets. He recognized more than half. The circled names belonged to those forced into servitude to the realm, bound with breeding contracts like him. He struggled to grasp why these specific human families had been traced throughout the years. His mother’s line was why the elves wanted him, not his mortal sire’s. Jassyn wobbled on his feet, the blood draining from his head. Was I produced…intentionally? Along with these other people?