45. Kian

45

KIAN

T he mood in Kian's old office was a mixed bag of anticipation, excitement, worry, and even introspection.

The last one seemed to afflict his mother and Jade, but his mother was more excited than contemplative, while Jade was the other way around.

Kian knew what was going through his mother's head, but he wasn't sure about Jade. For her, the prince was a reminder of the life she'd left behind on Anumati. It had been a different world when she and the other settlers had been put in stasis chambers inside the escape pods that had comprised the bulk of the interstellar ship. Seven thousand years had passed, give or take a few decades, but that wasn't how Jade felt it. The thousands of years spent in stasis had passed without any awareness, so for Jade, time had resumed only after her stasis chamber had opened, which had happened not so long ago.

Next to him, Syssi thrummed with pure excitement, seemingly not worried at all that the prince might have nefarious intentions, and Aru was on the other side of the spectrum, mainly looking worried.

"How is your Kra-ell?" Kian asked him.

"It's good."

Jade snorted. "The Kra-ell the prince and I speak is an ancient dialect compared to yours."

"You can still understand me, and I can understand you," the god said. "That's all that matters."

Her shrug indicated that she had nothing further to say on the subject.

"We need to decide how much to tell the prince," Kian said. "We don't know the queen's plan and how much of it she'd shared with her children. They might have been sent to do damage, or they might have been sent to their father for protection. Those are two opposite ends of the spectrum. Right now, the prince does not even remember his name, so perhaps it's better to keep him in the dark and wait for his memory to start returning so we can evaluate the kind of person he is and his intentions."

His mother shook her head. "That will only create mistrust. He will remember eventually, so there is no point trying to keep him in the dark until he does. It is better that he regains those memories sooner rather than later, so we know what we are dealing with while he is still vulnerable."

Kian groaned. "The guy has just woken up after seven thousand years of stasis. We can't dump on him the entire history of Anumati, the conflict between the gods and the Kra-ell, the gods with the resistance, and what happened on Earth. There is only so much he can absorb. What I'm trying to figure out is what to tell him today."

Annani nodded. "You are right, my son. We should give him a few tidbits of knowledge and see how he reacts." She lifted the translating pendant. "I am glad to have this gadget and to be able to communicate with my brother. It would have been impossible without it."

Jade dipped her head at his mother. "With all due respect, Clan Mother, I think that I should be the one to talk to him. Even if he does not remember anything, he will instinctively feel more comfortable with a Kra-ell female that will remind him of his mother and the head priestess who de facto raised him and his sister."

Annani did not look convinced, but she gave Jade a nod. "We will play it by ear."

Jade tilted her head. "What does that mean?"

Syssi smiled. "It means that we will decide who will tell the prince what depending on the situation, and how receptive he seems to you or the Clan Mother. Who knows? Maybe he would prefer to hear it from Aru?"

"I doubt it," Aru said. "He will be more receptive to females, but I don't think he will have a preference for Jade. Given what Bridget and Julian reported, the prince doesn't know what species he belongs to. It's a miracle that he has even retained his language."

"That is interesting," Annani said. "Wonder, my dear childhood friend who spent five thousand years in stasis, woke up with similar amnesia. She knew she was an immortal female and remembered her language, but she did not know which people she belonged to and where she came from."

"How long did it take her to regain her memory?" Aru asked.

"Months," Kian said. "I hope it won't take the prince that long."

Syssi sighed. "The princess is probably going to be in an even worse state. I hope she didn't sustain brain damage."

"The prince's amnesia presents both an opportunity and a challenge." Kian drummed his fingers on the polished surface of the conference table. "On the one hand, it gives us a chance to shape his understanding of the world and his place in it. On the other hand, there is a chance that he's immensely powerful and not aware of it yet, and we will have an unpredictable wildcard on our hands that can turn into an ally or an enemy, depending on how we handle the situation. That's why we need to tread carefully and take it slow."

He turned to Jade. "You can start by introducing yourself as you would if you were still on Anumati. I'm curious to see his reaction to you. If he asks you questions, answer them, but try not to overwhelm him with too much information at once. Don't mention anything about who his father was and his relationship to Annani."

As Jade inclined her head in acknowledgment, his mother turned to him. "How long do you want me to hide from my brother that I am his sister?"

"Not long. I just don't want you to tell him right away. I want to see if he knows anything about Ahn, and that means waiting for him to remember and not feeding him information that might skew his responses. You should also tamp down your glow."

His mother grimaced. "Only until I reveal who I am."

Kian nodded.

"What about Jasmine?" Syssi asked. "She sits by his side day and night." She looked at Kian. "Are you okay with her meeting the Clan Mother?"

He winced. "Not yet. We will have to get her out of there."

"I'll do that," Jade offered.

Syssi arched a brow.

"What are you going to tell her?"

"I don't need to give her a reason. I'll instruct her to wait in the penthouse or the kitchen until I tell her it's okay to return." Jade smiled coldly. "People usually don't argue with me."