Page 92 of Dark Witch: Entangled Fates

Jasmine's heart stuttered in her chest, a creeping sense of dread washing over her. "What task?" she asked.

Amanda just smiled, her eyes sparkling with a strange inner light. "You are about to fall down the mother of all rabbit holes, so brace yourself." She snorted. "Except in your case, you won't find a queen, but you might discover a prince."

68

AMANDA

Amanda moved from the couch to a nearby armchair and settled in so she could fix her eyes on Jasmine's face as the other woman sat perched on the edge of the sofa, anxious and a little frightened.

She felt a smidgen of sympathy for her, but not more than that. Jasmine was about to be given a precious gift—access to the best-guarded secret on Earth, a chance of gaining immortality, and maybe even a prince. The truths Amanda was about to reveal would shake the very foundation of Jasmine's world and challenge everything she thought she knew about herself and her place in the grand tapestry of the Fates.

Jasmine was incredibly lucky. She just didn't know that yet.

Crossing her legs and steepling her fingers, Amanda assumed her teacher's voice. "What I'm about to tell you is going to sound incredible, but I need you to keep an open mind. Listen to what I have to say and try to keep your questions until after I'm done."

Edgar cleared his throat. "Excuse my interruption, but if what you are about to reveal is what I think it is, then isn't that the job of the partner to tell it to the Dormant?"

Amanda shook her head. "Not this time. I'm sorry to rob you of the privilege, but Jasmine's case is more complicated than the usual potential Dormant's. That's why I have to do it."

"What's a Dormant?" Jasmine asked.

Amanda lifted a hand. "I'll get to that in a few minutes. First, you need some background. The history of the world you are familiar with is not only inaccurate, but it is intentionally misleading."

She paused, letting her words sink in for a moment before continuing. "Have you ever noticed how similar the mythological pantheons of gods are across different cultures? How do the same twelve main gods seem to appear time and again, just under different names?"

Jasmine frowned, her brow furrowing in thought. "I guess so. I've always assumed that ancient civilizations just copied from one another, borrowed and adapted each other's deities to fit their own needs and beliefs."

Amanda smiled. "That's what most people think, and there is truth to it, but it's not the entire truth, and as you know, half-truths are often worse than lies, but I digress."

She leaned back. "The truth is that the gods were real people, and the impact they left on humanity was so great that stories about them were told all over the ancient world. They were a small group of exiles from a place light years away from Earth who called themselves gods, which in their language meant creators."

In her mind, Amanda had adapted the old, familiar story about their ancestors to include the new information that they had recently learned from Jade, Aru, and what her mother had told her about what she'd learned from the queen of Anumati.

"The gods were physically perfect, and their bodies were immune to disease and healed so fast that they were nearly impossible to kill. They also possessed incredible mind control powers over humans."

It had been done by genetic design so humans would be easy to control, but that was beyond the scope of what Jasmine needed to know at the moment.

Jasmine's eyes widened, but she remained silent, her gaze fixed on Amanda's face as she hung on every word.

"I got a little ahead of the story." Amanda lifted her coffee cup and took a sip to wet her throat. "I need to backpedal a little. These powerful aliens called themselves gods because they were masters of genetic manipulation, and they created numerous new species on the planets throughout the galaxy that they colonized with the intent of these species to serve them. On Earth, they used their own genetic material and combined it with that of an early hominid species, creating a new hybrid that would come to be known as Adam, the first human. At first, the new class of servants they created was made one at a time, but since it was inefficient, they were given the ability to procreate. What the gods didn't anticipate was just how fertile this new species would be and how quickly it would multiply."

"Is that the origin of the Adam and Eve story?" Jasmine asked. "The Bible talks about them being created by God or gods, and given the ability to procreate and fill the world with their offspring."

Jasmine should have waited with her questions until after Amanda was done, but it was a good question, so Amanda nodded. "Bingo. The story of Adam and Eve is a retelling of that original act of creation, a metaphor for the gods granting humans the ability to reproduce and thrive. But as their numbers grew and they evolved, the gods began to realize the potential threat that their creation posed and decided to cull the human population."

"The flood?" Jasmine asked.

"The flood came after they exhausted other methods. They used their mind control to create incredible myths and stories to make themselves appear even more fantastic than they were. And they used theology to shape human beliefs and behaviors and bring them closer to the state of the enlightened civilization they envisioned."

Jasmine snorted. "That must have been a big failure. Humans are still not civilized or enlightened. Well, most are not."

Amanda was surprised that Jasmine was not trying to refute what she was being told. There was none of the usual disbelief that most Dormants exhibited when first told the truth about their origins.

"I agree." Amanda sighed. "Too many are still barbarians, and regrettably, they have greater ability than ever to cause pain and destruction in their need to intimidate and dominate. But that's a discussion for another time. We are still in the distant past. Once contact with their home world was severed, the exiled gods realized that their limited numbers were not sufficient for genetic diversity and thus not viable for the continuation of their species, not to mention their urgent need to boost their numbers so they were less threatened by the exploding human populace." She leaned forward, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "And that's another story that the Bible copied. The gods took human lovers and procreated with the very beings they had created to give rise to a new breed—the immortals."

Jasmine frowned. "The Bible said that those unions resulted in giants, not immortals."

Amanda was impressed. "You must have been raised religious to know those stories so well."

---