When Daniel's father came home something was different, everything was the same on the outside but those who Alexandre knew that something was different.
Eve came out of the back and looked at her husband she knew it too; Daniel could see it in a way that she went very still for a moment.
Finally, Alexandre smiled while looking at both of them. It was a genuine smile, and he looked at her first and Eve reacted in silence as she put her hands over her mouth.
She let out little squint of excitement, and that was what established the truth. She ran straight to him as he stretched out his arm embracing her as she ran into them.
''Come here,'' his father said while looking over her shoulder.
Daniel smiled Was there any doubt that he would, do it? he thought as he approached his mother and father smiling at him.
The appointment was at the Dome Council's inner advisory chamber.
While standing in the kitchen Alexandre explained everything to them and Daniel understood everything. He knew that this rank is what his father was working for most of his life and he couldn't help but be proud of what he saw in his father.
He was always going to end here, wasn't he? Daniel thought and felt the truth of it settle into him with a completeness that surprised him. It's like he was born to be in this position.
The three of them had a small celebration that evening with Eve cooking something special for them, like she usually did when it was a special occasion.
The entire house felt warm and everything felt right for Daniel as he sat across his father at the table. He tried staying composed about his father's accomplishment by keeping his mind at ease, but it wasn't something he was naturally used to.
With the fact that his father was genuinely happy, and he expressed it a lot that night. By reaching for Eve's hand without looking and having a genuine smile across his face as if it was his first time accomplishing something in his life.
Daniel watched him and felt both the pride and something that wasn't necessarily envy but the understanding that they exist on a scale he's not sure that he'll ever reach in his life time.
For someone that came from nothing it's incredible to see what he has achieved Daniel thought as he watched his father, even if I reach the levels, he touched it would feel as if I cheated because everything I know was thought by him.
Across every dome on earth Alexandre Ceaser III was known by a name that was slowly accumulated. It was accreted through years of decisions that had turned out to be correct, through policy frameworks that had become foundational, through the particular quality he had of being right about things before the room caught up to him, and that name was not something anyone had given him or that he had sought.
Alexander the Great
Daniel grew up under the shadow of that fact, and he had never once decided how to feel about it because it had always simply been true the way the dome being round was true.
Daniel had never had the knowledge of his father's failure; this includes the entire world. His father was the perfect man that had accomplished everything that he had set his mind to.
Daniel even believes that his father had planned him before he was even an idea so that he could carry the name of Ceaser for the following generations.
Because that was how Alexander lived his life, as planned.
Daniel knew that for as long as he lived, he would never accomplish anything that his father hasn't already accomplished before.
And I'm okay with that, he told himself as he reached for his water, that's just how it is and he's who he is, where as I am who I am and those aren't the same things.
''Daniel...'' his father said and Daniel looked at him, with an expression that was direct and warm.
''Everything I've built has been for this family.'' He said quietly, ''And when everything goes right for you in the future, remember that it's because you had the right people that are around you.''
Eve didn't say anything and just looked down at the table and then back up.
Daniel held onto the sentence and didn't say anything because there wasn't anything to say to that. It was something that only required you take in and his father also nodded to him exchanging the knowledge that the message was received.
After dinner two of Alexander's colleagues arrived and Daniel didn't know they were, and his father didn't mention it to them either.
They were pleasant as they stood at the door before Alexander finally let them in and they introduced to both Eve and Daniel.
Daniel shook both of their hands and acknowledged their names, and they joined the family around the dinner table.
They were Syndicate man who were in the senior grade, and they spoke about Alexander's new positions.
They spoke about it with warmth in their voices and they were genuinely happy for their partner. There was laughter between everyone.
Daniel noticed something about the men that no one usually noticed, and although there was a lot of engagement in the room and he didn't partake in it and just observed as usual.
They're measuring something, he thought looking at his water because if he looked at them while he was thinking would've been too direct, it would've felt like he knew something they didn't. Sure, they're happy for him but they didn't come here to congratulate and celebrate him, they came here to measure something.
He couldn't locate what it was exactly, and he couldn't put a name to it exactly. For Daniel something felt a little off about the two men, and he couldn't put a finger to it.
He decided to push the thought away because he couldn't find an explanation for what was wrong. He felt as if he was reading things he that weren't there and he also didn't have a reason to trust an instinct he couldn't articulate over straightforward evidence.
Just calm down and eat your dinner Daniel, he told himself, and stop making something out of nothing.
After an hour the two men finally decided to leave and it was easy goodbyes. His father closed the door behind and turned around.
His rearranged his expression for a moment into something that Daniel was used to seeing in the study during the night they talked about the old world.
Daniel sat in the main room alone for a moment after they left and looked at the closed door and thought about the feeling of earlier, as it felt like something was fractionally worse.
But he then thought of his father's expression afterwards and thought, I'm probably just overreacting, I should be getting some rest.
He stood up and told himself, stop thinking about it, nothing's probably wrong.
He let it go and went to bed and lay in the dark and listened to his parents talking quietly in the next room. He finally fell asleep with that worry slowly disappearing.