41. Annani

Annani had often entertained the same doubts about Mortdhs intentions that fateful day, but if not him, then who could have destroyed the assembly hall along with all the gods inside of it?

The truth was that no one knew for a fact that it had been a bomb. The particulars of the devastation suggested a nuclear weapon, but it could have been some other alien technology that had similar cataclysmic results.

The narrative she had clung to, the one that had painted Mortdh as the ultimate villain in their tragic tale, had been unraveling ever since Jades account of Anumatis history and then Igors, but there had been too many pieces of the puzzle missing to solve the mystery.

If it was not Mortdh, then who was the real perpetrator? Annani asked.

I have no definite proof, Aru translated the queens words. But there is plenty of circumstantial evidence. Shortly before the catastrophe, an Anumatian patrol ship passed near Earth, and a team of scouts was deployed. By then, communications with Earth had been severed. The king blamed the destruction of the communication satellites on Ahn, the rebel who didnt want to face the accusations of war crimes that his father had trumped up against him. The truth was that the king had ordered the satellites destroyed.

Sometime later, the Eternal King announced in a public address that the heir, along with his half-brother and sister and all the other gods who had been exiled to Earth, had perished.

Since there was supposedly no communication with Earth, the king claimed that a seer told him of the demise of all of the gods on Earth, but it was not my friend, and when she checked with the other oracles, none of them admitted to delivering the news to the king. Still, that does not mean that the king had not had a seer in his employ who had just not reported the truth to my friend. Ahns father pretended to be devastated by the loss and announced a day of mourning to show that he was a good father who loved his children even though they had betrayed him.

I asked the Supreme Oracle to try to see what had really happened to them, but for some reason, Earth was hidden from her view. All she could do was confirm what the king said. The Supreme Oracle and I suspect that the Fates were shielding you and the two other surviving gods from the Eternal Kings seers. If the Supreme Oracle couldnt see Earth, none of the lesser ones could either. Therefore, the only way the king could have known about the fate of the Earthbound gods was because he had a hand in their demise.

It was not news to Annani that her grandfather was a terrible god. She had heard the tale from Jades perspective, but it was not the same as hearing from her grandmother how the Eternal King had spun his deceitful narrative to consolidate his power and eliminate any threats to his rule, even those from his own flesh and blood. It made her heart heavy. The public mourning and the feigned benevolence were all a calculated act to cloak his tyrannical reign in a veneer of paternal sorrow and righteousness.

The greatest revelation so far was that Earth was obscured from the Supreme Oracles vision, and therefore shielded from the prying eyes of the kings seers.

Its a relief knowing that we are obscured, Kian said.

Aru opened his eyes and looked at him. Do you want me to translate that for the queen?

Kian shook his head. Im just an observer. Only translate my mothers words.

Nodding, Aru turned to Annani. Anything Your Highness would like to say to Her Majesty?

I am grateful to the merciful Fates for shielding me, my sister, and my cousin from the machinations of the Eternal King.

So am I, Aru translated the queens words after a moment.

The realization that her grandfather had ordered the bombing to ensure his dominion filled her with revulsion. Mortdh had become a scapegoat in the Eternal Kings scheme, but she felt no pity for him. He might not have been responsible for the bombing, but his cold-blooded murder of Khiann was indisputable.

She had heard the witnesses account with her own two ears, and their words still reverberated in her mind five thousand years later, bringing bile to her throat and an unbearable ache to her chest.

Mortdh was a tyrant and a murderer, but it seems that he was not the architect of our peoples destruction, Annani said. He was caught in a web much larger than his own making, perhaps even unknowingly used by my grandfather.

A few moments passed before Aru conveyed the queens response. Our time today draws to an end. We will have to continue our talk on the morrow, my dear Annani.

Thank you, Grandmother. I shall await our next conversation.

The understanding that she had escaped not just Mortdhs ambitions but the far reach of the Eternal King, made Annani feel blessed and a little humbler than she had been before the start of the conversation with her grandmother. She was alive, not by chance, not by her own decisiveness and clear vision, but by the Fates design.