Page 85 of Dark Witch: Entangled Fates

"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.

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.

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