I smiled, satisfied. My theory was quickly coming together. At that point, I would have bet money that Eterna was no elder because her mother was one, an original.
It was me who found her upon the charts at last, though I almost scrolled straight past her in my hurry. Eterna. I had adjusted my focus a little as my theory developed; I expected to find Eterna a generation or two farther down, but probably only one. So it proved. Both her parents were recorded: Astrand, a female, and Tynval, a male. Neither had progenitors listed.
‘Astrand!’ I shouted, forgetting caution in my exultation. ‘That’s it. All three are first generation. What’s the betting that the rest are, too?’
Ori adopted the idea at once, which pleased me greatly, for he is so much more analytical than me and consequently m
