48. Kian

48

KIAN

A lesser male would have crumpled under Annani's hard gaze, but Kian was used to it, and she was used to him being vigilant about her safety. They just played their respective parts.

As his mother turned to her brother, her scowl turned to a smile. "How are you feeling? Did any more memories return?"

He shook his head. "Regrettably, I have nothing significant to report. I was hoping that today you would tell me more about what you know of my past."

"I do not know what your past is, but I can tell you what I know about our father's rebellion, what led to it, what happened after it was quashed, and continue from there to the events that happened on Earth. I covered some of it in our previous talk, but I can fill in the gaps and go on from where I ended the story."

"I wish I could write it down." Ell-rom sighed. "I don't trust my memory."

"Do you remember how to write?" Jasmine asked.

"I'm not sure."

"Let's test it." Kian rose to his feet.

He walked over to his old desk, and when he opened the drawer in which he used to keep his writing pads, he wasn't surprised to find a new stack that was dust-free. He had no idea when Okidu had the time to do that. He hadn't done it today because he hadn't brought a stack of yellow pads with him.

He pulled out one, found a pen, and brought it over to Ell-rom. "Give it a try. Writing is a muscle memory."

On second thought, Kian didn't know if they wrote by hand on Anumati. A civilization so advanced must have mastered voice-to-text eons ago, or they might have found another way to keep records.

Ell-rom took the pen, and by the way he held it, it was obvious that he had used writing instruments before. What he didn't know was how to release the ink and he looked the pen over with obvious confusion.

"Press the little lever on the side," Kian said. "That's how the cartridge containing the ink is released."

"Thank you." Ell-rom cast him an embarrassed smile and did as Kian had instructed. He began to write on the page. "I don't know if I'm inventing a new script or if I am actually writing in the Kra-ell language."

"Easy to find out." Kian pulled out his phone, snapped a picture of what Ell-rom had written, and was about to send it to Jade when it occurred to him that Ell-rom might have written something private. "Is it okay if I send it to Jade?" he asked.

"Yes, please. I am very interested in finding out whether I remember how to write."

Kian typed up his question and sent the text, and the response came just as Anandur entered the office with everything he'd gotten from the vending machines.

"She says that you have lousy handwriting, but she forgives you given your injury. She asks if I require a translation."

The smile on Ell-rom's face could illuminate the room, at least to the extent that the glow from his eyes did. "I wish to learn more about my past. That was what I wrote."

"Let's check." Kian answered Jade's text with a thank you and a yes.

Her reply came back right away, confirming what Ell-rom had said.

"You were correct." Kian put his phone on the table. "Congratulations on another victory. You remember how to write."

"It is quite remarkable," Annani said. "Although I should not be surprised. The gods of my time used to write with a stylus on a tablet. But given the advances in human technology, I would have expected an advanced civilization like the Anumatians to come up with a better way to record things."

Suddenly, Kian remembered Syssi's visions about Aria scribing by hand for the Supreme Oracle. "Maybe it's a religious thing," he said. "Syssi had a vision about the Anumati's head oracle, and she saw another goddess writing her predictions by hand. It's possible that temples are the only places where things are still recorded manually."

"I would like to visit Anumati and see all of its wonders." His mother smiled at Ell-rom. "But only if I could do so while invisible. I do not wish to be detained by our grandfather."

Ell-rom nodded. "From what you told me about him, none of us want to be discovered by him, and especially not my sister and me."

"About that," Kian said. "At some point, we will need to fake your death so the Eternal King will stop looking for you. The less he's interested in Earth, the better, and right now, you are the only reason he keeps sending patrol ships to the region."

The prince and his sister still had a long way to go before they would appear to be in the same state as the Kra-ell, who had perished in their stasis chambers, but it was better for Ell-rom to start thinking about this now than to spring it on him when the time came.