image [https://i.imgur.com/y1XUYA7.png]

18°41'34.2"N 12°55'10.6"E - Bilma, Niger

23.05.2024 – 01:15 UTC +01

“You can leave us.”

I turned around and looked at the gunmen. Now it was my heartbeat that was picking up pace, as the gunmen reluctantly headed to the stairs and elevator. It was no curse. I knew I had done something big, but the Calling in all its wisdom had now subsided. I had to make my own choices from that point onwards.

“You too,” the tall woman – Kabiru had just called her Lioness – commanded the rest around the table. The three men stood up and left. They were dressed impeccably, much like the guests on the lower floor. One of them winked at me as he passed by and headed to the elevator.

It only took five minutes until it was only me and the Lioness in the room. Well, and Kabiru’s body, contorted by the poison.

“Tsk,” the woman said, “poor Kabiru. All he had to do was stay in his lane.” She kneeled and grabbed the bottle with the tampered liquor. She stood up and stared right at me.

“You want some?” She asked. I looked at her perplexed, as she poured some of it into her glass and promptly drank from it. “Ah, it also tastes vile. This would have never worked. Even if it could harm me.”

I tried to piece everything together. I had not dared speak a word, hoping my Calling would soon take over again and get me out of where it had led me.

“I thought you spoke Arabic?” The woman asked me.

“Yes, I can,” I responded “, and I thought this was poison.”

“It is,” she said, pouring it on the floor next to her, “as if I would have drunk something… so sharp at the tongue.”

She walked toward me. Funnily enough, I felt a kinship with this towering woman, her imposing way, long hair, and dark skin. All these men feared her and obeyed her. No, it was not kinship. It was respect.

“Why did he try to do this?”

“Desperation,” she answered, after a moment of thought, “I am sure the others had warned him not to take such a chance. No man can hurt me. I hail from the mountains. And where are you from, fə̀lé?”

“Libya. I am nothing more than a passerby.”

She sneered at my answer.

“Oh, you are definitely more, fə̀lé,” she said, calling me to what I guessed meant flower in her local dialect. “What is your name?”

“Khalida.”

“Hm. Alright fə̀lé, I think that would do. My name is Aisa.”

Even though she shared her name, I somehow felt she was not expecting me to use it.

“What do you want of the lions, fə̀lé?” Aisa picked up a lighter and lit her long cigar again.

“My Curse led me here. I had to stop him. I had to meet you.”

She waved her hands as if she said well here I am.

I decided to choose my words carefully.

“I do not intend to stay long in the city of Bilma. This is but a temporary delay to my plans. I will look for a safe passage to the South. In the meanwhile, I had to reach your side.”

She puffed a long cloud of smoke and sneered again.

“I am not sure what your endgame is little flower, but I have no Curses to offer. No power you do not already wield. I am but a woman too rich and too criminal to be safe company.”

“Nevertheless,” I interrupted her and for the first time during the conversation I took a few steps towards her, “you need me.”

“I do fə̀lé. I need someone of your talent, for my security detail. A witchling like you can see things others cannot. And I have good reason to think some powerful people want me dead.”

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She scoffed at Kabiru’s lifeless body.

“And I do not mean him. But we can’t discuss this more now. I have meetings to attend. Here,” she said and gave me a metal card. There was an address carved on it.

The men that I had previously incapacitated started shuffling around, moaning as their blood pressure was normalizing again.

“What is this?”

“A business proposal. You get to walk free now, me paying you back for getting rid of the weak.” She stepped over Kabiru and headed towards the elevator. “But if I see you again in this club, I will remember what you did to my men, and with my debt paid, I will order them to shoot. So, if you want to reach my side, go to this address. And ask for Yahaya.”

She pointed to the stairs on the side of the elevators.

“The lift is for VIPs honey.”

After Aisa’s men led me to our car, I awkwardly commanded Walid to release the unconscious men from our car. No one dared say anything, probably since Aisa had already informed everyone to let us go. We simply got into the car and left.

Walid circled through Bilma for almost an entire hour to make sure no one was following us. The unnecessarily long drive was unbearable and silent. I could sense the two men wanted to know what happened, but after what they had witnessed me do at will, they were too scared. I could sense their blood curl.

But I was also scared. I flipped the metal card that Aisa had given me and hid it in my purse. I had to straighten my story with our men, Qadir, and then choose if I would give in to my curiosity. The Calling had led me to her for some reason, and I had started doubting this had anything to do with Qadir’s beating. I plucked the Baobab’s flower from my hair.

“I thought I would find the culprit if I gave in, and let it lead me,” I said to Qadir the next morning. The first thing I did when I woke up, was to join him for breakfast in his room.

“And?” he asked.

“I got into a bigger mess. Brother, this Curse. It is too unpredictable. Too powerful. You know, how we usually can feel the Nabd? Put someone to sleep? While I obeyed the Calling, the Curse grew. I held whole rooms’ hearts hostage.”

Qadir put down his spoon slowly. He swallowed the sweet cereal he always had for breakfast.

“Did you say rooms? How many people?” I was not sure if he was excited or scared.

“They were many. Brother, I…” I looked outside the window of the hotel room. The Baobab tree’s branches were sitting still, a light warm breeze going in the room as it passed through its leaves. I wondered why I was blessed with such a Curse.

“It was amazing. So much power… But brother. I do not know why. I thought if I let loose, it would lead me to solve your mystery. Take my anger out on the petty thief that did this to you and walk away.”

“Maybe it did. Maybe to find them, you had to do… what you did.”

“What does it matter? The questions are more than the answers. I do not know why my Calling led me South, and I do not know what it wants me to do here.”

“It wants you to grow strong. You saw it, as you told me. Whole rooms, obeying your curse. What’s next? A town?”

I turned to him. I needed someone to ground me and understand me, but more often than not Qadir failed to do so. His Curse was dormant for most of his life, and he had way weaker control over the Nabd. And more than anything, he did not know what it meant to give in to the Calling. Being terrified of yourself and what it might make me do. So far, it was only things I agreed to, at least partially.

“I think it has other plans. I think I need to let it lead me. Maybe we are meant to stay in Bilma a bit longer.”

“Fine by me,” he said trying to cheer me up. But we both knew better; he had no choice. He knew that if my Calling decided to take me away and head South as initially did in Libya, I would have to leave him here to heal.

In a sense, we were both happy it did not. But I felt something had changed, somehow my Calling’s plans changed. And I was but a pawn.

“Today I will have to go for another field trip. Alone this time. Please rest, okay?” I said and kissed his forehead. He looked at me with wide eyes. He knew he could not change my mind.

“Just, use your phone if you need anything!” He yelled at me as I walked away. “I can send the guys to get you from anywhere.”

A taxi could take me to my destination in ten minutes, but I chose to walk. I held the blooded handkerchief in my pocket, using it, just in case. The pulse of my prey was still audible, as far as always. On the other hand, my Calling was nowhere to be felt. I was alone this morning.

After an hour of walking around and trying to orient myself in this new part of Bilma, I realized the address did not exist. I looked at my phone, contradicting what I saw around me in an alleyway between two buildings covered in vines.

Every time I would go through the alley and into the next street, the location on my phone would flip, as if the location system was previously malfunctioning.

I looked at the metal card again. The letters were clearly the postcode address of a building that my phone indicated to be here, but it did not exist.

A thought crossed my mind. I remembered Aisa’s words from last night.

A witchling like you can see things others cannot.

I took out a book out of my bag. One of the many Fezzan books I carried through our trip, this was the one that I had studied the most. I flipped through its pages.

Protective Wards, Invisibility Wards, Tattoo Wards…

There was information on all kinds of warding Curses.

“Manifold Wards,” I spotted it finally. I read through the passage and walked back into the alley.

According to the book, these wards were hard to find and impressive to witness, but once you knew where to look, it was easy to trespass them. Their whole point was that they were manipulable. A Cursed stronger than the one who set those wards should easily bend them.

I looked right into the vines that covered both buildings, left and right. I reached with my hand into the vine. I felt it there, hidden among the leaves and the asphalt of the building. Another side. I twisted and pulled. I twisted again. It felt as if reality itself unraveled, as I saw the alley bend and break, revealing a new path.