50. Annani

50

ANNANI

A nnani smiled. "Yes. This is a very good way to describe them. They were created, not born, so some think they are not people, but I disagree. They are just a different kind."

Ell-rom frowned. "What do you mean by created, not born?"

"The Odus were built with both mechanical and biological components and provided with an artificial intelligence. But since they can learn over time, and they interact with people, they mimic like children do, and they learn about emotions." She turned to Okidu and motioned for him to come closer.

When he did, she took his hand in hers. "Okidu and his brothers were sent to Earth when their kind was outlawed on Anumati. They are the last seven of their kind, and they were given to me by my Khiann as an engagement present. I am sure he did not foresee what an enormous part they would play in my life, but I am not sure I would have survived without them." She gave Okidu's hand a light squeeze before letting go of it.

Jasmine looked shell-shocked, but she did not say anything. Instead, she gaped at Okidu as if she was seeing him for the first time.

"When my children were born," Annani continued. "I entrusted each baby to the care of one of the Odus. Four are currently accompanying my four surviving children, and three are still with me. Okidu is Kian's companion."

Ell-rom leaned forward. "Why were the Odus outlawed on Anumati?"

Annani smiled sadly. "They were originally built to be house servants, but when the riots started, the Eternal King ordered their reprogramming. They were turned into soldiers and used to fight the Kra-ell and the rebel gods. The king must have realized that they posed a danger to his rule, so he came out with a propaganda piece, claiming that he was eliminating them in the name of the peace agreement with the Kra-ell queen."

Ell-rom shook his head. "I am afraid that all of this political maneuvering is difficult for me to understand."

Annani sincerely doubted that her brother struggled to understand anything she told him. He seemed exceedingly bright, but he was also soft of heart, and he did not like to talk about upsetting subjects. That was why he had not asked how the Odus were eliminated. He must have guessed the sad truth.

"You have plenty of time to learn about the intricacies of politics, and especially the complicated Anumatian society. The truth is that what I know I have learned from Jade and Aru. Until we saved Jade from Igor, we did not know much about the Kra-ell or the gods, and we did not know anything about their planet. The rebel gods never shared information about their past with their offspring, the gods who were born on Earth. We did not know that our parents were rebels and exiles." Annani paused to take another sip from her coffee.

"Where did you think they came from?" Ell-rom asked.

She shrugged. "A different place in the universe was one of the possibilities I entertained. Another one was that they were the lone survivors of an ancient Earth civilization that was wiped out by some cataclysm. Before meeting my Khiann, I was more inclined to believe the second hypothesis. The marvelous devices the gods possessed, like flying aircraft and tablets that stored information, were few and falling apart without the ability to fix anything because there were no spare parts. We also did not have the materials and machines required to make them, so I reasoned that the knowledge had been lost. Later, when I started seeing Khiann, he told me what his father had told him, which was a little bit more than what I knew, but it still did not make sense to me that people who belonged to an advanced civilization across the stars had lost contact with their home world and could not get replacement parts for their equipment. That was why I had a hard time accepting the alien origins hypothesis."

Next to her, Kian chuckled. "I've always wondered whether you really did not know where the gods came from or were hiding it from us to enhance your allure or something of that nature. Now I finally realize that you were conflicted on the subject, and that is why you never talked about it."

"That was part of the reason," Annani said. "The other part was what you have suspected all along. Shrouding my origins in mystery worked better than admitting how little I knew." She turned to Ell-rom. "We keep veering off the subject because there is so much to talk about, but let us get back to how I created my clan and why most of my clan members cannot mate amongst themselves."

Annani adjusted the folds of her gown. "After I found out that my people were gone, I spent several more years in mourning, but then I realized that I was the only one left to carry on their legacy. I could not do that alone, so I decided to have children. I took many human lovers, but it took a long time until I became pregnant with my first daughter, Alena. After her I had Kian, Lilen, Sari, and Amanda. They alone were not enough, but Alena was a miracle of fertility for a goddess, and through her, most of the clan came to be. Her daughters took human lovers and had more children, and their daughters continued to do the same, and so on. But since everyone was my descendant, they were forbidden to each other even when generations removed. I did not know why the taboo existed, but if the gods forbade unions between matrilineal descendants, I knew that they must have had good reasons for that."

"We spent centuries searching for Dormants," Kian said. "Relationships with humans could only be fleeting, and we all longed for life-long companions."

"How did you end up finding them?" Jasmine asked.

"The Fates," Annani said. "They are trickling them our way. The first one was Syssi, Kian's mate. She came to work for Amanda, and Amanda immediately realized that there was something very special about her and tried to convince Kian to woo her."

The glow in Ell-rom's eyes flared bright. "Are we going to hear how you met your lovely mate and fell in love?"

Annani's heart swelled with joy. Her brother was a romantic like she was.

Kian sighed dramatically, but his lips quirked up in a smile. "I didn't want to hear about it, and flat out refused to meet her, but when the Fates decide to match you with your one and only, they don't give up. The net they weave is so intricate it sometimes takes many different threads to intersect to bring truelove mates together."