"Not necessarily," says Maz. "He could hand things over to an Imperial aunt, one of his mother's kin, as an interim move."
There is a knock, which proves to herald tea and wine and petits fours (one sort of which turns out to be Maz's favorite).
Ivan takes some wine, swallows a mouthful, and says, "Do the haut-lords marry, then? One of these genetic contracts must be the equivalent of a marriage, right?"
"Well . . . no." Maz eats a second petit four and then a third, then drinks about half a cupful of tea. "There are several kinds of contracts. The simplest is for a sort of one-time usage of one's genome. A single child is created, who becomes the... I hesitate to use the term property... who is registered with the constellation of the male parent, and is raised in his constellation's crèche. You understand, these decisions are not made by the principals — in fact, the two parents may never even meet each other. These contracts are chosen at the most senior level of the constellation, by the oldest and presumably wisest heads, with an eye to either capturing a favored genetic line, or setting up for a desirable cross in the ensuing generation.
"At the other extreme," she goes on, "is a lifetime monopoly — or longer, in the case of Imperial crosses. When a haut-woman is chosen to be the mother of a potential heir, the contract is absolutely exclusive — she must never have contracted her genome previously, and can never do so again, unless the emperor chooses to have more than one child by her. She goes to live in the Celestial Garden, in her own pavilion, for the rest of her life."
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2014-07-10 11:41 pm (UTC)There is a knock, which proves to herald tea and wine and petits fours (one sort of which turns out to be Maz's favorite).
Ivan takes some wine, swallows a mouthful, and says, "Do the haut-lords marry, then? One of these genetic contracts must be the equivalent of a marriage, right?"
"Well . . . no." Maz eats a second petit four and then a third, then drinks about half a cupful of tea. "There are several kinds of contracts. The simplest is for a sort of one-time usage of one's genome. A single child is created, who becomes the... I hesitate to use the term property... who is registered with the constellation of the male parent, and is raised in his constellation's crèche. You understand, these decisions are not made by the principals — in fact, the two parents may never even meet each other. These contracts are chosen at the most senior level of the constellation, by the oldest and presumably wisest heads, with an eye to either capturing a favored genetic line, or setting up for a desirable cross in the ensuing generation.
"At the other extreme," she goes on, "is a lifetime monopoly — or longer, in the case of Imperial crosses. When a haut-woman is chosen to be the mother of a potential heir, the contract is absolutely exclusive — she must never have contracted her genome previously, and can never do so again, unless the emperor chooses to have more than one child by her. She goes to live in the Celestial Garden, in her own pavilion, for the rest of her life."