62. Annani
Annani suspected that Aru had communicated to his sister every important tidbit of information he had learned about her and the clan.
She would not have been concerned, but there was always the possibility that the queen”s part in the resistance would be discovered, and she would be tortured for information.
There was not much she could do about it at this point, though. Her resemblance to her grandmother had given her away, and the moment Aru had informed the queen about her, the cat was out of the bag, so to speak, and there was no way to put it back in.
If the Eternal King discovered Annani”s existence, he would not hesitate to destroy Earth just to get rid of her, and since there was no communication with Anumati, and no one was officially allowed anywhere near it, the king could annihilate the entire planet without worrying about his reputation.
Annani sighed.
It was not easy to live with a tangible and ever-present existential threat, but it was nothing new for her. Annani”s life had prepared her well to not only handle and cope but to thrive under adverse situations. She would find a way to weather this storm as well.
”The queen is ready to begin,” Aru said.
Annani nodded. ”So am I.”
Beside her, Syssi reached for the yellow notepad and pen and got ready to transcribe the conversation.
Once the initial greetings and pleasantries were out of the way, Annani humbly requested to take the first turn and tell the queen about her family.
”But of course,” Aru said for the queen. ”I am very curious to hear about you and your family.”
”I would like to begin with my half-sister Areana.” It would be a good way to ease the queen into a conversation about the royal twins. ”I mentioned her before. She was the one who volunteered to take my place as Mortdh”s bride, and that was how she was spared. Areana was on her way to Mortdh”s stronghold when the assembly was bombed, but I did not know that she had survived until very recently. To my great surprise, Areana had mated Mortdh”s son Navuh, and he has been keeping her hidden in his harem for thousands of years.”
Aru looked at her with shock in his eyes. ”He kept a goddess in a harem with human females?”
Annani nodded. ”Immortal females mostly, and some human, but it is a sham. As shocking as it seems, Navuh and Areana are fated mates, and he does not grace the beds of any of the others. He is devoted to Areana. But since he does not want his army of goons to know that his mate is a goddess who outranks him in status, he keeps her locked in his harem, and none of them know that he has a goddess in there.”
Aru”s eyes looked like they were about to pop out of their sockets. ”Why does she allow it?”
Annani sighed. ”She loves him. Areana is a sweet and gentle soul, but she is a weak goddess. Navuh might be only an immortal, but he is more powerful than she is, and with his strong compulsion ability, he is also more powerful than many of the gods on Anumati.” She smiled. ”After all, he is the Eternal King”s descendant.”
So was Areana, but somehow, she had not inherited any of their grandfather”s power. Her mother”s genes must be dominant in her genetic composition.
Aru shook his head. ”It will take me a few minutes to explain all of this to my sister.”
”Take your time.” Annani lifted her teacup for Ojidu to refill.
The queen”s response came several moments later. ”It is a disgrace that a daughter of Ahn, even one who is the product of an unofficial relationship, is kept as a sex slave by the hybrid son of Ahn”s nephew. I find this appalling.”
Annani winced. ”Something must have been lost in translation. Areana is not a sex slave. She lives in a harem, but she is surrounded by luxury and treated with love and respect by her mate. I cringe at saying anything positive about Navuh, but that is the truth. I do not wish to go into a lengthy explanation, but we were able to plant a spy in the harem and establish a mode of communication with my sister. The spy confirmed what my sister had told me. Areana is the undisputed queen of that harem.”
Aru dipped his head. ”My apologies, Clan Mother. There is no word in Anumatian for a harem, so my translation was inaccurate.”
”I see.” Annani tried to think of a way to explain it better. ”What do the Kra-ell females call the males in their extended family unit?”
”It is a word that is similar to a tribe,” Aru said.
”You can tell your sister that Areana is part of such a tribe, but instead of one female with several males, this tribe consists of one male and several females. She is Navuh”s favorite, and he does not engage with any of the other females. He lets others impregnate them and claims their children as his own.”
Aru looked like he had bitten on a lemon, but he nodded. ”I will try my best to convey this to the queen.”
Annani waited patiently for the response, sipping on her tea and thinking of how she was going to move to the subject of the twins.
”The queen says that Areana is unimportant in the grand scheme of things,” Aru said. ”She is a weak goddess, the result of a dalliance, and she is not in the line of succession. Queen Ani wants to know more about Navuh.”
Annani felt a flare of anger at the queen”s casual disregard for Areana, at the way she seemed to brush her aside simply because she did not fit into the neat, tidy line of royal succession. But then, as quickly as it had come, the anger faded, replaced by a flicker of understanding.
The queen seemed to assume that Areana was the daughter of a concubine whom Ahn had kept in addition to his official wife, and Ani might have felt disappointed that her son conducted himself in the same shameless way as his father did.
”Areana was born long before Ahn met Nei, my mother,” Annani explained. ”Since the moment my father met my mother, he did not look at another female.”
Aru took a moment to convey the queen”s words. ”The queen is still not interested in Areana. She wants to hear more about Mortdh”s son.”
The queen was right. Areana was important to Annani because she loved her and appreciated her, but regrettably, her role in history was not nearly as important as her despicable mate”s.
”Navuh is my sworn enemy, and he seeks to destroy me, my clan, and all that I stand for. While my clan and I strive to improve human society to promote progress, peace, and prosperity, Navuh wants to enslave humans and control them. I do not wish to go into a lengthy explanation, but Navuh managed to create an immortal army that is many thousands strong. They are brainwashed and compelled daily to hate, destroy, and kill indiscriminately. Human lives mean nothing to them. They are barbarians who thrive on cruelty as a way to intimidate and control, and there is absolutely no chance of peaceful coexistence with them or even some sort of compromise. It is either us or them.” She sighed. ”It pains me to even say that. I do not wish to destroy what is left of our people, but the longer this conflict lasts, the more I realize that there is no other option.”
Come to think of it, the queen probably did not hold human lives in high regard either. If she did not deem her own granddaughter important only because she was a weak goddess and not in the line of succession, she certainly did not deem humans as having any value whatsoever.
”Navuh is a threat to your safety,” the queen replied through Aru. ”How are you protecting yourself?”
As Annani had expected, the queen had not reacted to Navuh”s disregard for human lives, but at least she was concerned with Annani and her clan”s safety. On second thought, she was only concerned with Annani, the heir to the throne.
”I assure you that I am more than capable of handling Navuh and his forces. I have done so for thousands of years. He may have a large army of immortal warriors at his command, but we have always been several steps ahead of him thanks to our superior technology and knowledge.”
Annani went on to explain the role of Ekin”s tablet that she had ”borrowed,” a treasure trove of knowledge that had allowed her clan to stay ahead of Navuh”s powerful immortal army and the humans under his poisonous control.
”We did not decipher all of the science that is contained in that tablet, and I understand only a small fraction of it,” Annani admitted. ”One of my great-grandchildren, who is much cleverer than I, was far more adept at deciphering the complex equations and formulas that Ekin had inscribed upon its surface.”
A long moment passed until Aru relayed the queen”s answer. ”Did your father or Ekin find the Odus I sent to Earth with the information of how to build more of them? They were meant to arrive before the Kra-ell settler ship and its cargo of assassins so Ekin could build an army of them to protect Ahn and the others.”
Annani glanced at Kian. ”We have guessed correctly. The queen was the one who sent them.” She was sure that Aru had told Aria about the Odus, so the queen knew that they had found them. Her grandmother”s question was about the blueprints that she had hidden inside their brains and whether they had found them.
Annani was not sure that she wanted to reveal that highly confidential information in front of Aru.
After the Odus had been used for warfare, the technology for building robotic servants was banned on Anumati. Aru was a rebel, so he did not care about the ban, but he was not fond of Odus. He had grown up on horror stories that the official propaganda had spread about the Odus so people would be terrified of them, and no one would dare to build them again.
”You might as well tell her,” Kian said.
”We found them,” Annani told Aru. ”But the information about how to build them was only recently discovered following an accidental reboot of one of the Odus. We are still trying to figure out what he wrote down. The biotechnology on Earth is not anywhere near as advanced as what you had on Anumati all those thousands of years ago, and we will probably be able to develop only a much less life-like product.”
”The queen says that it is a shame the Odus were not as useful as she hoped,” Aru said. ”She took a great risk by sending these seven to Earth. But now that you and your clan finally have access to the information stored in them, you can build your own army and protect yourself from Navuh”s immortals. The queen wants to hear more about the conflict and why Navuh is so determined to destroy you.”
Annani explained the long and bitter history of the conflict between her clan and Navuh”s forces. She spoke of the way they had fought by proxy, using their influence and their knowledge to shape the course of human history, to guide and protect the mortals who looked to them for guidance and support.
”Navuh helps the humans he controls and uses them against the people we are assisting with our technological and ideological knowhow. And we do the same, using the humans we helped to elevate and advance to counter his moves.”
It was a never-ending game played out across the millennia, and through it all, Annani and her clan had endured. But now, the royal twins might affect the balance of power and change the game.
The question was how.