Page 102 of Dark Gambit Reliance

"I'll help you." Her boyfriend followed her to the kitchen.

Jade shook her head. "After I fulfill my promise, I want to hear how Veskar got to know a god, how he got a god to help him, and how Sofia ended up with an immortal boyfriend."

Yamanu chuckled. "We will be here all day and all night."

"When Igor walks into the trap we set up for him, I'll take a break to fulfill the last part of my revenge. Other than that, I'm at your disposal."

72

TOVEN

"Before I begin," Jade said. "I want to warn you that the history I know is what I was told." She put her coffee cup down on the table. "I suspect that a lot of it is not true. As you know, history is written by the victors, and most of the time, it was the gods." She snorted. "You probably think that humans called you that because they were awed by your powers, but that's the name you gave yourselves. In the gods' language, the name for your people means 'we are gods.' I guess the ability to manipulate genetics and create new species at a whim made you think that you are entitled to that designation."

Toven shrugged. "In a way, it makes sense. We might not be the creators of all life, but we are the creators of some life."

Jade regarded him with an amused smile. "That can also be said about procreation, which would make every living creature a god."

He didn't necessarily disagree with that observation, but it wasn't entirely true, and he didn't want her to think that she had won the argument. "That's multiplying what was already created. It's not creating something new."

"What do you call hybrids, then? They are something new."

Yamanu lifted his hand. "Let's agree to disagree on the definition of creating life. That argument alone will take all day. Please, continue the story."

Jade nodded. "We shall revisit that some other time. Many millions of Earth years ago, before the gods had interstellar travel capability, they mastered genetic manipulation. Their history claims that they had always been the way they were and that they used their superior genetic material to create the Kra-ell. It was supposedly their first attempt at creating intelligent life by enhancing an animal that was already closely related to them genetically. But after my years on Earth, I began to question that story."

"Why?" Sofia asked. "It makes sense. They did the same thing with humans."

"The gods created humans for the same reason they supposedly created the Kra-ell. They needed workers to do all the things that the gods considered beneath them. They didn't want to get their hands dirty."

"What do you believe is the real story?" Toven lifted his coffee cup, but there wasn't much left.

"I'll make more." Sofia rose to her feet.

Jade took a small sip from her coffee and put the cup back down. "I think that the gods were originally like the Kra-ell, or very similar, and that they manipulated their genes to become better." She winced. "Or what they considered superior."

"What makes you think that?" Marcel asked.

"The Kra-ell didn't have written history per se. We had myths and legends, and one of them told a different story, but I thought it was just a myth, our way to aggrandize our kind. The legend was that a long time ago, Jombil, who is like the god Loki of Nordic folklore, offered the same deal to the Kra-ell queen and the gods' king. According to the legend, the king accepted the offer, but our queen rejected it because the price Jombil demanded was too steep. It meant changing our entire way of life and giving up our traditions, and that was an insult to the Mother of All Life who had created us."

"What did Jombil demand?" Toven asked.

"Basically, everything that gave us an advantage over the gods in exchange for every advantage they had over us. We have speed and strength, and we hunt and drink blood. They have eternal life, but what is the point of living forever when they hide like Veskars in underground dwellings and eat like scavengers? I prefer to live out my lifespan serving the Mother, and after I die, spending eternity in the fields of the brave."

Toven wouldn't have traded places with her, but she was right about the myth hinting at a different story than the one recorded by the gods.

"Do the gods and the Kra-ell come from the same planet?" Marcel asked.

Jade nodded. "That was another falsity that the gods propagated. They claimed that the original animal they used to create the Kra-ell came from a neighboring planet. The gods didn't have interstellar travel capabilities back then, but they had already mastered interplanetary travel."

Toven lifted a brow. "Was there an animal like that on the neighboring planet?"

"There was," she admitted. "But that doesn't mean that the gods used it to create us. Both our kinds could have that animal as a distant relative. Anyway, they used the explanation to treat us as a subclass of beings the same way they later did with humans and many other species. They claimed that they created the Kra-ell to be their slaves. The Kra-ell did everything for the gods. They planted and harvested, worked in their factories, cleaned their homes, and did everything else that the gods deemed beneath them."

Toven frowned. "How did the Kra-ell become slaves in the first place? If the gods claim that they created them for that purpose is true, then it's self-explanatory. But if we give credence to your legend, you started out on equal footing with the gods. You had your own queen."

Jade smiled. "The legend says that Jombil was offended by the queen's refusal of his offer, and he punished the Kra-ell. A terrible disease infected all the animals that used to be their source of blood. Most of the animals died, and those that didn’t were too sickly to take blood from. The gods offered their help, but it came with a price. They had the knowhow and the means to manufacture synthetic blood that could sustain us, but we had to pay for our food with labor, and that's how the Kra-ell slavery started."

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