63. Queen Ani
When Annani had spoken about her sister, Ani had listened to her words with a sense of detachment. She didn”t really care about Areana, who had mated the enemy of her sister. She must be weak of character in addition to being weak in power to mate a despicable male like this.
But then Ani was mated to a no less despicable male who was not even her fated mate, and she was still married to him because it was a position of power that allowed her to mitigate El”s schemes to some degree and slow down his plans.
She found it hard to believe that, at one time, she had convinced herself that she loved El. He had not always been a monster, had not always been the cruel and tyrannical ruler he had become. Once, a long time ago, he had been a visionary, a leader who had united their people and brought peace and prosperity to a fractured and war-torn world. But power had corrupted him, twisting his mind and his soul until there was nothing left but greed, paranoia, and an insatiable hunger for control. And now, after millennia of his iron-fisted rule, there was no hope of redemption or change.
Ani despised him with every fiber of her being but continued playing the role of the dutiful wife and queen, all the while working in secret to undermine him and to build a resistance that would one day overthrow him and restore freedom and justice to their world.
It was not all that different from what Annani was doing on Earth; except Annani did not have to pretend to care for Navuh.
As her granddaughter shifted the narrative to the Kra-ell royal twins, though, Ani”s interest was suddenly piqued.
She had heard the rumors about Ahn”s supposed affair with the Kra-ell princess, his counterpart in the rebellion, but she had never believed them.
To her, the Kra-ell were barbarians, only one degree above the animals they hunted for blood, and to copulate with one was just disgusting. Still, it was possible that El believed that Ahn had fathered the twins because he had despised his son and his progressive ideas.
The royal twins had always been a mystery, consecrated to the priesthood and shrouded in secrecy. Their faces had been hidden behind veils their entire lives, and there had been rumors of deformity and abnormality, but Ani had never been one to put much stock in rumors.
Now, however, she was forced to confront the possibility that there might have been some truth to those rumors after all. If the twins were indeed the product of a forbidden union between a god and a Kra-ell, not necessarily Ahn but some other god, then it was no wonder that their mother had kept them hidden and their features obscured.
Perhaps Ekin had been the father?
He had shared Ahn”s ideology, and he had always been sexually adventurous. If anyone was capable of coupling with a Kra-ell savage female, it was him.
Ekin was not her son, and Ani abhorred El”s hordes of concubines, including Ekin”s mother, but she had always been fond of Ekin despite his unconventional beliefs that had been even more radical than Ahn”s.
Ahn had always been more reserved than Ekin, more refined, and she found it hard to believe that he had violated the taboo on copulating with lesser species and fathered children with the Kra-ell princess, who had later become the queen.
When Aria was done relaying Annani”s story, Ani chose her response carefully. ”I always assumed that the rumors about the twins were baseless—malicious propaganda spread by the Eternal King. But if what you say is true, if they are indeed the children of Ahn and the Kra-ell queen, then they might be just as dangerous as the Eternal King thinks they are, and they should be approached with extreme caution.”
”I am not sure that they are dangerous,” Aria gave voice to Annani”s response. ”I think that the Kra-ell queen sent them to Earth not to undermine Ahn and take over. I think she sent them to their father because she feared for their lives. If anyone had discovered that they were half god, half Kra-ell, they would not have lasted more than a day. Their own people would have slaughtered them along with the queen who had committed the greatest transgression. The only place they could be safe was on Earth among the rebels who believed in equality and were led by their father. If they were as powerful as the king believed them to be, their mother wouldn”t have been so worried for their safety.”
It was a smart observation, and the queen was proud of her granddaughter”s deductive ability, but it was very possible that Annani was wrong. She was a little soft-hearted, and she believed in people”s good intentions.
It was naive.
”The twins are a wild card,” Ani said. ”And depending on the power they can actually wield, they can be a variable that could tip the balance of power in either direction. You must ensure that it tips in your favor.” Ani paused for a moment, thinking about the role of the human Syssi had seen in her vision assisting the team of gods. ”The human needs to be watched carefully. The Fates work in mysterious ways, and the role they gave that woman might not be as straightforward as your daughter-in-law”s vision suggests.”