Nikki’s POV

Getting to school was bittersweet, just as expected. I missed Mike dearly but I was completely blown away by the place and out of my depth but in a good way.

Wagadu looked like the spirit realm, I wondered if that was intentional. It was as brown as the spirit realm, and if it weren’t for the building and people, it would be close to impossible to distinguish the two.

“Great huh?” Neil said with a smirk.

“Yeah” I breathed “Did you know this place looks exactly like the spirit realm?” Neil looked around him, as if he hadn’t been here before.

“I’ve actually not been to the spirit realm” I froze, dazzled by his answer, Before I could probe him further, he said,

“Let’s get you checked in”

I was taken to a place called the Red Hut which was quite ironic because I had seen huts and this wasn’t one. Neil told me that it was 100 floors tall! A hundred! I was taken to the second floor, via an elevator. I don’t know why but I didn’t expect there to be technology. I just thought we would sit around camp fires and sing native songs and then go for training in forests.

We reached the front of a door and Neil opened it. The door was made from a dark wood I could not recognize, or would never recognize since I don’t know the different kinds of wood. It was taller and wider than normal doors and had carvings of strange animals and plants.

The interior was wonderful, there were paintings and sculptures that were completely Afrocentric and the windows were more circular than rectangular. In fact, the entire decor of the places consisted of mostly sculptures. I recognized the library that was located at the side of the room and it had the tallest bookcase I had ever seen. Each of the books looked so magnificent and looked like it would tell a magical story that would blow my mind. I longed to go to the library, but there was a desk in front of it, and in the desk, there was a man.

Seeing him did something to me I did not understand. It made me lighter but heavier, I felt claustrophobic but at the same time I felt like at the moment, I was free. He had long gray beautiful locs and kind eyes. He wore smock and slacks with sandals. His face was wrinkled due to age but his face looked youthful as well, and the way he made me feel! He made me feel like dancing.

And then I saw his aura. His entire body was singing in indigo and his eyes were just purple voids.

“Here she is sir”

Was he expecting me? Of course he was expecting me.

“Take a seat” His rich baritone voice said while looked straight at me. I did not want this to be weird but I could not keep my eyes off him, even if I wanted to. He lit up the entire room with his indigo aura that was had to not stare at. He turned away from me and I felt something snap within me, like a rope that tied the two of us together.

“Neil, welcome home”

“Thank you, sir,” Neil sounded breathless, happy to see this aged man again.

“You did your job well, congratulations”

I revered the man, in fact I felt like falling to my feet and kissing his feet but I let out a scoff. He brought his eye back to look at me and raised a salt and pepper eye brow. The moment we made contact, I could not stop staring back. What I wanted to say, no not say scream out from the top of my lungs till I was breathless was, Neil did a good job by almost killing me, or bringing me here? But I was mute, I couldn’t speak.

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“What Nikita Asante was trying to say was,” Neil cut in, sounding overly cheerful and turning towards me “Our first encounter was not conducive. I almost ended her life because she was performing a transmutation spell…”

“Agreement”

“Yes, sir agreement. She was performing it in public in the presence of Anfas and although she did not know what she was doing, I had to follow protocol”

I was able to look away from the man and towards Neil.

Where protocol was what? Ending my life?

“But I didn’t have to as you can see”

“Thank you, Neil,” He nodded politely and sat back in his seat. He aged man looked at me.

“Do you know why you are here?”

I was about to say learn magic when I felt something insanely hot within me. I felt it rising from my core to my shoulders.

I knew what this was or rather who it was.

Mawu.

“Greetings Fiifa Nkosi” My mouth was opening and closing but I could not see anything, I could not control the words coming from my mouth or my mannerisms. I was possessed by her, again and I hated it. “This will be the end of your reign. You and your brothers and sisters. And she is the sign. The Godhead is rising and you cannot stop us. Think clearly on what you do, for it is the determinant of whether you are wheat or chaff.”

And just as she appeared, she disappeared, leaving me with the scared face of Neil and the furious one of Nkosi.

“Yes, I hate it when she arises too” I said to my boots.

“Do you know…”

“Yeah, I know a lot. Things I probably shouldn’t, things I definitely, shouldn’t”

“You’re part of the Godhead?” Neil blurted.

“You didn’t know?” He must be pulling my legs, of course he knew. If he didn’t, then what have he and Mike been talking about all this time?

“No, I didn’t…”

Nkosi frowned deeply which deepened his wrinkles. He sat in silent reminiscing for a while and then shot up in a burst of energy I did not deem possible for a man of his age. He pulled a book from the shelves and leafed through them. He sat back down, laying the giant leather book before him. I saw legion of words arranged in columns. The length of the words looked like names and occasionally I saw headings that said ‘Level’ followed by a particular number. I remembered dad and Kafui talking about this at home.

“Why do I like you but Mawu hates you?” I blurted. I was on a rush today; it was like when I should talk and couldn’t and when I should really shut up that’s all I wanted to do.

“You like me?” Nkosi asked in disbelief, still leafing through the book.

“When I saw you, I felt like somehow like I knew you but I didn’t at the same time. It was a strange feeling, a feeling of knowing” It was only then that he looked up at me, his face a blank slate, but that didn’t matter, I was still going to talk anyway “I thought that it was Mawu, like reflecting her feelings through me but it wasn’t. It is something else” I closed my eyes and tried to do what Mike would do “Like I was meant to know you”

Nkosi looked at me for a second and then looked down at the book he had opened before him. He smiled a little and then as though his smile was a mistake, he gained composure quickly. He turned the book to face us and the leaned forward.

“Neil, can you read this?”

“Anyone enrolled here cannot read this. Only specialists in magical law can, a specialist like you. To me it’s just a blank page”

That didn’t make any sense, I could read it. And I haven’t yet been enrolled here, and I sure as hell was not a magical law specialist. It was a list of names on one side of the page in one neat column and then on the middle column there were random words, like “Excellent”, “Eager”, “No drive”, “Curious”, “Nothing here”. And I jumped when I saw Neil’s name. The word next to it was “Promise” and in the third column was a single symbol that looked like a cross between a bear and a lion.

When I looked up Nkosi was looking straight at me and by unspoken agreement, he knew I was able to read it.

“Look for your name” he said quietly.

“She can’t read it” Neil offered, then there was a pause before “Can she?”

I skimmed through the column names and then turned a few pages until I saw my name. It was my name, Nikita Asante, but it still felt like it wasn’t mine.

“What does it say?” Nkosi probed.

“It’s not possible…” I stuttered “It can’t be…”

Nkosi turned the book towards himself and then read for a few minutes.

“Well Miss. Nikita, according to this you’re in Level 5”

If it wasn’t such a dire situation, I would’ve laughed at how Neil’s face looked like.