#anyways Mhoirbheinn's relationship with the twins as they're growing up is....certainly....something

[arcxnumvitae]

In the future as talks of Balmoral's kingship continue, there comes with it talks of his legacy. Balmoral's goal and plan had always been to establish a meritocracy-- he had no interest in handing off his crown to a possibly completely inept heir just because they were related by blood. However, the Unseelie are unused to change in their own ways, and the nation had gone through its own bit of instability the past few regime changes that had ultimately ended with Balmoral forcibly taking the throne. Because of this, it was soon understood that it would be best for Balmoral to first at least have an heir to stabilize his reign...then implement his meritocracy.

So Balmoral needed to get a kid or two.

A fairly simple endeavor, except for a few caveats. First, Balmoral would have no interest in having children with any other than his partner, Mhoirbheinn. Of note, their relationship even in the present time is something that is really just between them. They're not I.nstragram official, so to speak, for privacy reasons, professional reasons, and so on. Anyways, secondly, Mhoirbheinn also didn't like the thought of Bal having a child with anyone else. Balmoral taking over lovers was fine, so long at it was Mhoirbheinn he returned to at the end of the day, but a child was a physical tie and a mingling of Balmoral's bloodline with another's. Yeah, Mhoirbheinn wouldn't be jazzed at that thought.

The third thing though, and the biggest wrench-- Mhoirbheinn didn't want to be a parent. He had no interest in it, for usual and also personal reasons.

So the two of them came to an agreement. Mhoirbheinn would help father the heir, but he would not be their parent. The truth of their other parent would be kept secret from all and from the children as well (for safety reasons too, since it'd just increase the target on the kid if Mhoirbheinn being the parent as well was known). For all extents and purposes, Bal would just pop in out of nowhere with the heir (since they would also keep it a secret that Balmoral was the one who birthed them (Harbinger physiology stuff, I'll let Kirei explain it if she wants to but basically what you need to known is that Bal could make it so he was able to be the birther), to help further hide who the other parent was).

So, the heir that turned out to be heirs were born and were simply told that Balmoral was their single parent father, and that the dour-looking guy beside him was his lover. Since the fae get their kids whichever ways they can, no one really batted an eye at the unmentioned presumably mother of the twins.

Some of the Generals suspect or have figured out in some way the truth, but no one's snitching and causing trouble.