Page 37 of Dark Destiny: The Turning Of The Loom

Smiling, Annani leaned over and placed a hand on his knee. "You are so sweet, Khiann. You always hated politics and court intrigue. You felt suffocated in the palace. That was why I eventually capitulated and let you go on that ill-fated caravan journey."

"I am sorry," he said. "If I had known…"

"Oh, well, we are all geniuses in hindsight. Let us go back to Anumati. Earth was one of its many colonies, and they jump-started the thinking human species because they needed workers for the gold mines. Gold is very important for building spaceships and other sophisticated devices." She waved a hand. "Do not ask me how it is used because I do not know, but if you want more details, I can invite William, who will be more than happy to enlighten you."

"I do not need the details. Please, go on."

"Yes. Well, the Eternal King sent his son, Ahn, to establish the colony, and Ahn did so, returning to Anumati once everything was working. He made the trip several times after that, but eventually he was sent to Earth permanently as punishment for his part in the rebellion."

"He tried to kill his father?"

"Not at all. Ahn, some of his half-siblings, and other sons and daughters of the Anumatian aristocracy wanted a reform that would grant more rights to the Kra-ell, who were the other occupants of Anumati and were treated as second-class citizens. The history of how the two peoples diverged is complicated. Supposedly, they started as one and ended as two different species. The Kra-ell live on blood, are long-lived but not immortal, and they look very different from us. Ell-rom and Morelle are half god and half Kra-ell, so they do not look as strange. They are still very tall and slim, though."

She took another sip of her tea.

"Do I need to know the history of Anumati and the Kra-ell feud with the gods to understand why your grandfather wants to kill you?"

"A few basic points will suffice. The gods found a way to remain immortal and embraced technology, while the Kra-ell were naturalists who lived essentially as savages. Their wars were so severe that the birth ratio shifted to compensate for the constant loss of males in the never-ending, bloody tribal wars. Eventually, four males were born for every female. On top of that, the Kra-ell were barred from attending the gods' schools. Without education or the ability to build tools, they were completely dependent on the gods, who took advantage of them. Ahn and his co-conspirators wanted to give them a better future, but El and the establishment were not on board. The rebellion turned bloody."

14

ANNANI

Annani finished the last of the tea in her cup and poured herself another. "Would you like some more coffee?" she asked Khiann.

"Yes, please." He handed her his cup.

She debated whether to mention what happened to the Odus during that rebellion. Eventually, she would have to, and since she could cover it in a few sentences, she decided to get it over with so she could cross it off her list.

After filling Khiann's cup, she put back the carafe.

"The Kra-ell fought alongside the rebel gods. Since Anumati did not have much of an army, and the Kra-ell are exceptionally strong even compared to gods, El issued an order to convert their robotic servants into soldiers."

She looked toward the kitchen, where Ogidu was preparing lunch, or maybe working on what he was going to serve Ell-rom and Morelle later. Thankfully, they both ate regular food and did not have to be served blood. That might have disgusted Khiann.

"Odus?" Khiann asked. "Turned into soldiers?"

"Yes. They were never designed to be soldiers, but they were easily converted. I will return to what happened to them later, but now we are getting to the interesting part about how I have half-Kra-ell siblings."

Khiann smiled. "Finally. I thought we were not going to get there before they arrived."

"That is why I am rushing and giving you the short version. We can return to this story later." She set the cup down on the table. "During the rebellion, Ahn met the Kra-ell crown princess, and they had a very forbidden affair. I say very because it was considered taboo by both the gods and the Kra-ell alike for them to engage in such activities. It still is. But they were rebels with a cause, and they fell in love, or maybe just lust. Ahn did not know she was pregnant when he was exiled to Earth for his role in the rebellion. The princess became queen and gave birth to what both the Kra-ell and the gods considered an abomination."

"You said Morelle and Ell-rom looked more like us than Kra-ell. It must have been very obvious that they were hybrid."

"It was, and they also could not tolerate blood and ate what we consider regular food. Their mother put them in the temple, and they were always veiled like the other acolytes. The head priestess was her sister, and she kept the secret. Eventually the Kra-ell queen negotiated with El to send a large group of Kra-ell settlers to Earth and smuggled the twins aboard the ship. Her plan was to send them to their father, who would keep them safe. If they had been discovered on Anumati, they would have been killed immediately."

"Smart move," Khiann said. "That was the only way to save them."

"Yes, but what she did not know was that El had planted assassins on the ship to kill Ahn and any descendants he might have. The Eternal King also knew that the Kra-ell queen planned to send her children to Ahn, and the assassins were meant to take care of all his unwanted relatives at once."

Annani took a deep breath, collecting her thoughts. "Queen Ani, my grandmother, discovered that El was planning to assassinate Ahn, and she arranged for the spaceship to be sabotaged to protect her son. Instead of arriving on Earth in several hundred years, it took seven thousand years to arrive. It exploded in the atmosphere, but it is unclear whether that was also sabotage, just by a different party, or a malfunction. Fortunately, the stasis chambers were housed inside escape pods and were ejected before the ship exploded. They were scattered over a wide area, and only some of them were found. That is how the Kra-ell came to be on Earth and how we found Ell-rom and Morelle."

For a long moment, Khiann said nothing, and she wondered whether she had dumped too much on him at once.

"So, they were in stasis longer than I was."

"Yes, but they were in special chambers that preserved their bodies. Those chambers malfunctioned after they crashed on Earth, so they spent the last century or so with almost no life support. The Kra-ell who shared my siblings' escape pod all died. Ell-rom lost his memory and recovered only snippets. What he knows of his past, he learned from Morelle. She, on the other hand, did not forget anything. The other Kra-ell we found also did not lose their memories, so I still have hope for you despite the bargain I made with the Fates."