Page 70 of Dark Witch: Twin Destinies

As she had expected, Syssi blushed, flustered by the compliment. "I have the best equipment money can buy. That's why they come out so good."

Annani waved a dismissive hand. "Having the right equipment is just half of the story. Knowing what to do with it is the other half." She winked, making Syssi blush crimson.

"Mother." Kian shook his head. "Sometimes you are worse than Amanda."

Annani laughed but then affected an innocent expression. "Am I wrong? A good storyteller can use a great typewriter to write her story faster. Still, it will not inspire her or make her a better writer unless she writes commentary about typewriters."

"No one uses typewriters anymore." Kian walked over to the kitchen, where Ogidu and Oridu had joined Okidu. "Would you like some chocolate cake with your coffee?"

"I would love some." Annani smiled at Okidu, who bowed deeply. "There is nothing better than chocolate to celebrate a joyous occasion." She shifted her gaze to Kian. "Did you share the good news with your sisters?"

"Not yet." Kian returned to the living room and sat on one of the armchairs. "I wanted you to be the first to hear about it."

"Then we should call them and invite them to celebrate with us," she said. "Would it be alright if I invite Amanda and Alena over? We can call Sari and have her join via a tele-call."

"Of course," Kian said. "Provided they are not in bed yet and wish to come."

"I'm sure they are not sleeping yet." Syssi put a cup of cappuccino in front of Annani and another in front of Kian. "I just don't know if they will be as excited about this as you are. We don't know anything about the twins, and they might not be good people." She cast Annani a soft smile. "We want to believe that they are and that the Fates sent them our way to benefit us, but we should be prepared for the possibility that they are not a force for good."

Kian nodded. "We are exercising precaution. Everyone on the team was instructed to use their compulsion-filtering earpieces around the twins. I hope they are following protocol."

That dampened Annani's exuberance, but it did not eradicate it. "The Fates used extraordinary measures to point us in the twins' direction, so I have to believe it was for a good reason and not to wipe us out. If they wanted that, they would not have saved me five thousand years ago from the fate that befell my family and the other gods on Earth."

53

JASMINE

Curious, Jasmine approached the remaining stasis chamber and peered in, straining to make out the figure's details. The curved dome that covered the pod was semi-transparent, the glass-like material transitioning from a deep, opaque brown at the base to a lighter, more translucent shade at the top.

She leaned forward, intent on pressing her face against the cool surface to get a better look, but Aru's hand on her shoulder stopped her short.

"Don't look," he said. "It's not a pretty sight."

Jasmine hesitated momentarily, a flicker of disappointment passing through her, but she knew Aru was right.

"I know." She took a step back from the chamber. "I heard Julian saying that he's almost a skeleton."

The words felt strange on her tongue, the pronoun slipping out before she could stop it. Somehow, though, she knew that it was true. The chamber's occupant was male, the brother of the female twin who had been taken away first.

Jasmine frowned. "How did the twins survive while everyone else in their pod died?"

Aru regarded her with a thoughtful expression. "Didn't Edgar tell you about the twins being different from the other occupants of the pod?"

"They were royal, a prince and a princess, and the others were either their guards or servants, meaning not royal."

He smiled. "Well, yes, I assume that's true, but that's not the only way these two are different. The Kra-ell are a long-lived species compared to humans, but they are not immortal and cannot enter stasis without a stasis chamber. The twins, on the other hand, are only half Kra-ell. The other half of their genetic makeup was contributed by their father, who was a god, and unlike the Kra-ell, gods are immortal. They can enter stasis unaided and remain in that state almost indefinitely. When the pod malfunctioned, and the stasis chambers stopped providing life-support, the pureblooded Kra-ell died, while the hybrids survived."

"What does it mean to enter stasis? Is it like hibernation?"

Aru nodded. "In a way, stasis is an extreme form of hibernation. Hibernation is a complex, adaptive strategy crucial for survival in extreme conditions. The metabolic rate slows to conserve energy. Body temperature, heart rate, and breathing rate all decrease to minimal levels." He gestured to the chamber behind them, his eyes tracing the sleek lines of the alien device. "Stasis chambers are designed to keep their occupants alive and in suspended animation for extended periods. Gods use them on long interstellar flights to preserve their bodies and arrive at their destinations in good shape, not looking like these two."

Jasmine shuddered as her mind conjured up images of countless horror movies she had seen. Zombies, reanimated corpses, and the living dead seemed to blur together in her imagination. Why had she even watched those nightmarish landscapes of decay and despair?

It had been a phase, a time in her life when she'd believed it was crucial to get exposed to as many genres as possible and learn what she could from them.

She'd once auditioned for a role in a low-budget horror film and had been relieved when she hadn't gotten the part. She'd found the prospect of spending hours in the makeup chair unappealing, and the thought of having her face caked with prosthetics and fake blood wasn't pleasant either. Even worse was the idea of being surrounded by other actors in similar makeup. It had just made her skin crawl.

Shaking her head, she took another step away from the stasis chamber. "I thought that the royals were Kra-ell. Oddly, none of you mentioned that they were half-gods."

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