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In Book 7 Ishi tells Minalan there are three of his bastards in the world he's never met. Readers recall the goddesses later cite a higher count — despite Minalan's stated loyalty to Alya after the Isily trauma of Book 7.
In Enchanter, after Isily's second, compelled seduction of Minalan, he reflects bitterly on what Ishi has told him:
She got what she wanted — she's pregnant again — and now I have another illegitimate child out there. According to Ishi, there are three more of my bastards out there in the world, somewhere, too.Minalan, Enchanter
The Book 7 canonical count of Minalan's unknown illegitimate children is therefore three — on top of the two from Isily (Ismina conceived at Timberwatch, and Istman from the Enchanter assault) and his legitimate children by Alya.
From Enchanter forward Minalan is stated to be fully loyal to Alya — the Isily events are treated as an assault rather than infidelity, and no further voluntary liaisons are recounted. Yet readers recall a later goddess-spoken figure (attributed by some to Briga around the time of Footwizard) that raises the unknown-bastard count to five, with no textual reconciliation to explain how the number grew while Minalan remained faithful.
The conflict. If three unknown children existed as of Enchanter and Minalan was loyal thereafter, the count should not rise. Yet the later figure presents as higher.
Possible reconciliations: (1) The three Ishi referenced in Enchanter were conceived during Minalan's warmage days in Farise and before his marriage, so the number is fixed — a later "five" count would have to reflect two earlier liaisons Ishi hadn't yet disclosed. (2) The later goddess is reporting acknowledged children including Ismina and Istman, whose status as "bastards" is ambiguous because Istman is legally Dunselen's. (3) One of the goddesses may simply have different accounting — Ishi counts carnal progeny while Briga counts something else. (4) The later figure is an in-universe continuity slip. The exact later passage should be identified and cited here once located.