Let us examine a few excerpts from The Silent Invader.  I plan to allow the main characters, beginning with Prince Richard Tyberius, explain the matter discussed.

The following is his concise modern history of the three houses:

What I know of history explains that not long after our people began to travel in space again, about nineteen hundred years ago, two families settled Thorvus-Maxia, the Thorvian and Maxian families. As if you could not figure this out. What you may not be aware of is the fact about eighteen hundred years ago, we started a war with them for a reason that is lost to time, and we fought for three hundred years … Without need of saying, peace finally came about fourteen hundred years ago, but three hundred years proved to be long enough to develop and harbor animosity. And this animosity, though not as serious, continues down to this day.

The houses of Thorvus and Maxia, along with the house of Tyberius are the three houses mentioned in the book.  Each of these houses represents a party to an event even further back in their history.  One that the father (and current king on Alexandria) of Richard informs him of:

… at this time another family was trying to come to power.” He looks up to Richard, pausing. “No, they were seeking to return to power. They were headed by the grandson of the infamous Phalanx Thorvus. He sought to rule this new world, since his family lost control of Alexandria nearly two thousand years ago today in the fall of the Thorvus Dominion. He likely thought to put a rift between the two most powerful families on Alexandria, to accomplish his goal.

While an in-depth explanation could ensue on the particulars of that skirmish, what you will need to take note of is the desire for one house “to return to power.”  As you will see in the novel, the house of Thorvus is not the leading house.  In fact, by the king stating that the house of Thorvus “thought to put a rift between the two most powerful families on Alexandria,” it implies the other two houses exerted more influence.

Do not assume the house of Thorvus was harmless.  The king makes clear that they did accomplish their goal centuries earlier:

My research into the matter reveal the lineage of many of the historians of the day were predominantly of Thorvian descent and, thus, shifted the blame far away from their family … it was they who started the war that lasted for nearly three hundred years.

When this war was started, it caused serious divisions not only between the three houses but between a husband and wife:

Within fifty years of discovering the new world, the queen moved to the other planet as well, with the rest of her family.

According to Tyberian history (each house has a record of events, you will learn) the queen, a noble of Thorvian descent, sided with her family in the conflict when she departed for the new planet. This planet was later called Thorvus-Maxia.  The planet became the home to two of the three houses, though after the peace accord, Alexandria remained the ‘capital’ of their worlds.

For these worlds, their peace comes from the absence of contact.  The three houses, as you will learn, have limited contact, and this affects what even Richard can learn about his prospective mate, a Maxian princess:

Then there is, of course, the rumors she is disturbingly hideous, which I do not believe. Well, not really.

For the three houses, avoiding war appears to be the aim of their actions, since Richard acknowledges an ‘animosity’ being present between them.  But,  simply maintaining the peace is no longer enough to avoid conflict.  There was more that needed to happen for their peace to continue.  The king relates a very simple statement made by the mediator of their peace, who is referred to as the Maelstrom:

… the Maelstrom said in order for the peace to be complete and to last, our families must unite.

This is the reason for the first point of contention for Richard: Marriage to the Maxian princess.  In his words, what he did know about the princess “is not at all appealing.”

While the tension between the three houses tests their efforts to be peaceful, it actually isn’t their source of danger. The wedding between Richard and the Maxian princess is to avoid that danger:

When they saw we were still separated and animosity had built up between us, they warned us of the doom we faced by not respecting their wishes. They said that within twelve hundred years’ time, our worlds would be destroyed because of this.

That seems still a long time, until you realize, as the king did:

The Maelstrom said this 1198 years ago as of tomorrow.

In the years leading up to that point, their arranged marriage was planned to prevent the danger ahead.  Now, this may seem a brief synopsis of the three houses, but that is not just by design; this book doesn’t go into the history of the three houses very much, simply because it only serves to establish the hierarchy of the houses, along with likely concerns for each house.  I will show later how this history influences affairs between the houses, but in this book, the doom they face is the more immediate concern to the three houses, rather than how we got here.  Does it matter what people did 1200 years ago if the threat to your life could arrive tomorrow?

Before we go into that danger, let’s learn more about our Prince and Princess.  Next time, we will start with Prince Richard Tyberius, crown prince of the house of Tyberius.

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