Page 75 of Dark Awakening: New World

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.

49

ELL-ROM

Ell-rom didn't like the sound of that.

"How do you propose to fake our deaths?" he asked.

Kian shifted in his chair. "I'm not sure yet. We had several ideas floating around, each with its drawbacks. But we are waiting for you to look like your fellow pod mates, so you don't look like you entered stasis unaided and survived. Bridget saved the uniforms that she cut off you, but fixing them so they look like new will not be easy, especially given Anumati tech, which will discover every imperfection no matter how small."

Ell-rom had another question. "How is the Eternal King going to discover that we were found?"

Once again, Kian looked uncomfortable. "Aru and his teammates were sent to Earth to look for the missing pods. Thankfully, they are part of the resistance, so they are as eager as we are to hide the fact that you were found. Their commander on the patrol ship is also a member of the resistance, but they all have to keep up the pretense that they are doing their job. If the Eternal King suspects that they are not, another ship will be deployed to this sector, and everyone serving on Aru's ship will be declared a traitor. We don't want that."

"No, we do not." Ell-rom rubbed a hand over his face. "I do not want anyone dying to protect me and my sister. Isn't it better to pretend that we were never found than to try a deception that might backfire? You all keep talking about how advanced Anumati is and what amazing technology they have. They might be able to see through anything you try."

"Ell-rom's right," Jasmine said. "Do they need to send a DNA sample to their commander?"

"I don't know," Kian said. "Aru didn't mention that."

Jasmine crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm sure it will be required. DNA testing can even be done on burnt remains. It can be extracted from remaining bone fragments." When everyone looked at her with curiosity in their eyes, she shrugged. "I read about it in a detective novel, and it sounded so out there that I checked, and it's true. They really can do that."

What Ell-rom wanted to know was how it was connected to his and Morelle's faked deaths.

Kian reached for one of the packaged desserts that Anandur had brought and tore open the container. "I can check with Aru, but since it is premature to discuss this, it can wait. We are here to talk about more pleasant topics like the clan's history and how my mother created it."

Ell-rom decided that he needed to talk with Aru himself. Arranging a meeting wouldn't be a problem since he was joining Jasmine in the penthouse tomorrow, and Aru lived there as well.

"Actually, I've been curious about something Jasmine mentioned," he said. "I was hoping to learn more details about the Dormants. In particular, I'm interested in finding out who can become a Dormant and how they are discovered."

Kian snorted. "We have been trying to solve that mystery for a long time. I mean the one about finding Dormants. We know how they come to be."

So that was why they weren't sure that Jasmine was one. They had no way to test for it. Earth seemed to be much less technologically advanced than Anumati.

Ell-rom nodded. "Then I would love to hear how Dormants are created."

"That is part of what I planned to tell you today," Annani said. "It all started when our father allowed the gods to take human partners and the first immortals were born. After that, some of these immortals also took human partners, but to their great dismay, their children were born human. After further examination, it was discovered that the children of female immortals carried the godly genes, but the children of male immortals did not. Those who possessed the genes could be activated."

"I know that part," Ell-rom said quickly, to stop Annani from explaining it again. "Julian told me how it's done."