“I’m fine, I’m fine, I just fell. No big deal...why are you covered in dust?”

“Oh? I just…I found my parents' treasure,” Abeni stared at her, dismay filling her mind again as she assessed the situation. The female ẹda, in her normal form, was sitting on one of the three bare chairs made of wood in the front room-kitchen with a pained expression on her face.

Abeni reached out with a frown. “Are you sure you’re fine?”

“Really? You foun—” The female ẹda coughed, weakly smiling. Very clearly ignoring her question. “You finally found their stuff?”

“Yeah…” Abeni nodded, hesitant to change the topic but she didn’t want to make the female ẹda angry at her again. She didn’t want the other being to leave her for the maze because she was too pushy, “I…found it. Under some weakened floor.”

“Oh! Sh—” The female ẹda let out a low grunt, wobbling as if she might collapse. Abeni stepped forward instinctually to catch her but the female ẹda put her arm up to keep the small distance between them. “Show me!”

So, albeit hesitant, the white-haired girl lowered her arms and they headed to the bedroom, where the bed was still on the other side of the room, to look through it all together.

Right there, still partially covered dust, were two metal short swords with gold-white handles that looked practically unused without a scratch to their shiny metal. A lofty wooden arrow with no bow, bandages, a paper map and a list of techniques for both sand activation and cell acceleration. Abeni already knew about bows and arrows from the board games sold at a shop she and Baba used to frequent, but the content on the map and techniques were all new to her.

How intriguing!

Let’s see...well, the short swords seemed to be the length of her forearm and were notably heavier than the kitchen knife. Abeni tested carrying one and both around, swinging them, assessing how heavy they were. How tricky they were to handle and found that despite how unfamiliar it felt, she wanted to try using them.

The lone wooden arrow on the other hand seemed useless. Compared to the swords, stabbing someone with a bow was probably not the right way to use it. Her ideas were affirmed by the female ẹda who claimed to have seen it in action. With...you know, a bow.

Then, the papers. Abeni took a deep breath as she blew on them. Dust stubbornly clouded their faces for a short time before dissipating.

The list of techniques and explanations were what Abeni saw first, and while they were interesting to read through, as she had neither a matter or body manipulation ability, this didn’t help her much. So, the white-haired girl passed it to the female ẹda and turned to the map.

This was her first time seeing a map drawn on paper like this. Iya and Baba used to always brush off any questions Abeni had about outside the village, saying that she wasn’t old enough to know. And seeing as they used to accompany her whenever she went out of the hut, it wasn’t out of the ordinary for them to say things like that. Being the good child she was, she never ran off or disobeyed them. So now that she was looking at this map, Abeni felt...guilty for a beat.

But they were not here anymore. And she had to know what was out there. For herself and...for the female ẹda.

“Woah...” The other being mumbled, clearly more interested in the drawing than her mother’s notes. And Abeni could relate to that feeling.

With Aajiz Village in the centre, on the near right, there was a careful yet simplistic drawing of Pessimum Path leading to the ẹda maze and other paths that led to ponds, graveyards, empty caves and farms like the one they sparred in with notes about how safe they were. Then beneath Aajiz Village was ‘Saʽid Village’, a village that was drawn much smaller than their one and the word ‘friend’ underneath the title.

“Is Aajiz Village on the bigger end or is that place just small...?” Abeni wondered, but the female ẹda didn’t know either.

“They found another one! I didn’t know there was another one,” The female ẹda exclaimed, pointing past a few even smaller ‘friend’ villages and far to the top left of the map where it said ‘Ẹda Maze?’ with a question mark under it. As if they were unsure.

Wow… “You didn’t know there was another one?” That was bad. Abeni had just thought there was only one. That meant there were way more ẹda than she previously assumed in the area if there were two mazes in such close proximity.

“No, I didn’t. Maybe my mother’s there. Us ẹda don’t have mind reading powers…hey, do you think you have mind reading powers?”

Abeni raised an eyebrow at her. “What? No.”

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“Ugh. Boring,” the female ẹda sighed, then forgot all about it and became excited again. “What else is there?”

Not much. Beside the other maze was ‘The Mafia’ on the left of the map. Probably the same mafia that the old man spoke about given that it had the word ‘foe’ under its title, drawn smaller than Aajiz village. And all the way to the bottom right was a drawing of a place called ‘The Settlement Of Traders’ and the word ‘foe’ crossed off and replaced by the word ‘neutral’. The place where she guessed the wandering merchants that the tanned merchant told her about a week ago, came from. There were also names and related notes about people Abeni didn’t know. But, of course, there was not much she could do with that as of now.

Abeni grinned. Either way, this was good. This was really good. This information and equipment, this...gift from her parents was important and she’d make sure to memorise it. Now that she knew what Uncle Ibrahim, the chief and even the tanned merchant wanted from her and what she had to bargain with or even use to better herself and help them adjust to living in this place. Things were looking up for them both!

That was what Abeni thought, but as the following days passed, no different from before except the addition of memorising the words and making theories and memorising some more to her daily routine, the female ẹda just…kept…getting…worse. She was even more snappy now and vomited her food up half the time. And while she continued to reassure the white-haired girl, boasting that her body was far stronger than anything Abeni could ever imagine, her concern never went away.

Of course, Abeni still had to go to work when the time came. This time though, instead of trying to get information about the hunters and how they operate to determine how she should live in this city, she was distracted. Hoping that things would just go back to normal just as the female ẹda had said they would.

This only worked to her detriment because soon Yousef started to get suspicious that she wouldn’t ever tell him anything and threatened to end their contract. Abeni just barely escaped his questioning about whether her parents were actually hunters and had any treasure by saying that she had just started looking for it and just needed some more time to find it. When truthfully, she had already started practising with the short swords.

Slowly but surely, the female ẹda’s resolve to keep quiet broke down until the next Monday morning, roughly four weeks since Abeni returned. And she started audibly complaining.

“Abeeeni!” The female ẹda swallowed her mediocre breakfast down so she could speak clearer. It wasn’t often that Abeni made anything but an early dinner and snacks as she was an OK chef at best, but today she just wanted to take a breather from the even more stressful weekend she had. And what better way than making some bean soup that she had gotten alright at making with the minimal ingredients sold at the main marketplace?

“What’s wrong?”

“Ugh, I just...”

“Yes?” Abeni tried to coax an answer out of her for the fiftieth time as she sipped some more soup. She felt the urge to simply let it be as it was highly probable that the female ẹda wouldn’t say anything else, and start practice after two days of rest.

“It’s just. I’m done.”

But, this time, Abeni could tell that if she just kept pushing...“With?”

The female ẹda rolled her eyes, but it was clearly taking some effort to be honest for once. “I’m done with the pain. It sucks!” She complained as the white-haired girl slowly ate, refusing to meet Abeni’s eyes. “It just kept getting worse.”

Finally.

Finally!

The white-haired girl perked up at that, abruptly standing up, placing her half-full bowl of morning bean soup onto the ground by the table out of the way and raised her voice in frustration. Momentarily losing her cool. “What does! Are you finally going to tell me?”

But the female ẹda bit her tongue, slithering away with an empty bowl in her hand. “I…it’s just.”

She couldn’t take the waiting anymore as she felt her heart drop. Not again, please, “Just what? You said not to worry, but here you are—!”

A voice as sharp as a short sword cut through her complaints. “I know, OK! I know! It’s just that it’s my problem! You’re a little eniyan child, alright? You have to train just so that you won’t get taken advantage of if anything happens and so that you don’t have to expose your abilities straight away if you ever need to protect yourself. I get it…so that’s why I know…you can’t handle this, OK? You can’t. So, leave it alone.”

It’s as she thought then. The female ẹda didn’t trust her enough. The lines in Abeni’s young face creased as she lowered herself back to the ground beside her bowl, glancing directly at the eniyan-sized being in built-up anguish, “But I’m training routinely to change that. I’m trying to become stronger…I need to become stronger than I am. Especially physically. I want to be able to help myself. And you. You’ve helped me out so much…more than you know. I…” Abeni’s voice cracked as she felt tears pool in her tear ducts. “I can’t lose someone else…please, just…don’t tell me to go...”

“Run, my child!”

Even with misty eyes, Abeni could hear the anxiety growing in the female ẹda’s voice at her tears. “I’m not telling you to go. This is your place. No, don’t cry…this isn’t what I wanted...”

So, Abeni quickly wiped the wetness away from her eyes, trying to rid herself of this feeling. This recent deep fear of abandonment was rearing its ugly head. She had to get to the bottom of this no matter what the others thought.

“Then, just. Tell me,” She prompted with a shaky voice. Because Abeni thought they could do this. They worked together to solve the cancelling commands problem back near the groundwater pond, fought against the guard by the graveyard, tried their best to understand each other over these past few weeks despite their differences.

Despite everything.

Abeni believed this time wouldn’t be the exception.

“You…Abe…”

That was until the female ẹda’s eyes decided that now was the time to roll back into her petal head and she collapsed with a soft thud, passing out. Bean soup colouring the grey stone floor brown. Too quick for Abeni to even catch her and cushion her head. Shaking the white-haired girl to her very core.

Abeni felt the curse abruptly overwhelm her as she stared at the lifeless-looking body, veins standing on edge as her nerves turned alight. This! This! This! She gritted her teeth as the tears flowed freely once more as if they had never stopped. Reached up to tug at her own hair to settle the sudden urge to run away or kill the female ẹda herself.

This must be why!

This was why she ‘couldn’t handle it’!

Why the female ẹda refused to tell her.

Abeni ground her teeth together, willing herself to breathe...but it wasn’t working. She must have been in denial this whole time. Must have told herself to observe and wait as an excuse. A dumb, simple-minded excuse to hesitate and not take action. To focus on her own life, her job, her practice, her finances, her map. When she should’ve been searching for some kind of cure or making one if she had to!

This was all Abeni’s fault. But why couldn’t the other being have just told her? Why? Why? Why?

Why was this happening to her again?

The female ẹda…she was dying, wasn’t she?

[Current Total Beings In ‘Abeni’s Army’ – 1]