Mike’s POV

We packed everything that we could and waited for the salon car to arrive. I was particularly happy to leave, I loved the books and all but I was meant to be beside Nikki.

I should have never left her, that I know.

Ifa paid me one of his rare visits.

“The sands of time have shifted,” he stated dryly “unbeknownst to me, things have been set in motion that I had no control over. You must go to Wagadu, you must go to your sister”

“Which things?” I asked, hoping that this time he would not be cryptic.

“You have seen it in the place where grass is not to grow and have seen the windless lands feel a breeze”

Okay so he meant the sprit realm.

“What does it mean?”

“A preparation. A party. A welcoming. Of water, of sun and moon, of lightning and thunder, of war and iron. It is a paved way with messengers, of knowledge and of love”

“You know I don’t know what that means”

“All you need is within you”

“It will take ages! If it’s that important, why not tell me upfront instead of being all cryptic! What if I figure it out too late!”

“Then all of man is doomed”

I hate Ifa with all my heart.

Kafui was putting the finishing touches to the illusion agreement on the house to make it completely invisible. I noticed he was stalling, he did that a lot ever since we agreed we had to go to Wagadu. Stalled in contacting the Wagadu taxi to take us there, as one cannot simply walk, or drive into Wagadu. Stalled in packing his things. What exactly was going on with him? What was in Wagadu that he was so afraid to be there?

“Have you called the car to take us?” he facepalmed exclaiming how he had forgotten. He tried to make me understand the amount of stress he was under and the number of things he had to do. “What things?” I exclaimed. I was getting very tired of the grownups around me, the things they did and the excuses they gave “I literally did everything else! Took care of the farm, put the house in order and all you had to do was pack your things and arrange for us to get to Wagadu!” I saw him look away guiltily. If this were another day, I would have just kept quiet but today I was up to my wits end. “Don’t let me force my way to find out”. I promised myself I would use my mind reading for only emergencies and in times of great need and I thought this passed the interview. What if he forgot something vital that is needed to save the world from what is coming? What would we do then?

“I promised someone a long time ago that I would be with them, at Wagadu and I broke that promise.” He relented sadly “All because of Ifa. I cannot go there or even think of there without feeling guilt”

He was right, his aura at the time was tainted with brown.

“Why didn’t you just tell me?” I asked quietly. For someone who tells me the schedule for his bowel movements and how much he needs a woman for untold purposes, it was interesting how he could not tell me something like this.

“I did not want to disappoint you. You look up to me so much, I did not want you to think I was weak” For a man of his great age, that sounded pretty childish. Is that really how he thought I thought about him? He is great to me not because of his lack of mistakes, but because of his unquenchable zeal for knowledge. Is that how shallow he thought I was? And so, I told him, adding a few untasteful words.

I saw him move his lips to speak but I cut him off, telling him to just get the car. The sooner we got started on this mystery with the gods, the better.

I walked away from him to think for a while and also to figure out this gnawing feeling in my chest. It came in the moment I told Kafui about the spirit realm and got worse after Ifa told me to go to Nikki. It was like having an itch that I couldn’t reach to even scratch. Thinking about it wasn’t helping, so I picked up a book and began to read.

Kafui shoke me awake to get into the car. I was so tired I didn’t even notice that I had fallen asleep. I checked my phone and noticed it took about 2 hours for the car to get here.

“I’m sorry” Kafui said before I could get up. I wiped my face and held out a hand. He took it and helped me up. He nodded and smiled and I did same.

That was my way of saying I forgave him.

I took another 4 hours for us to reach Wagadu. The greeting I got was my head pointing to a particular direction no matter how hard I corrected the posture and my neck was getting sore for its troubles. When the car passed the place with the grandest fountain, I felt a sharp pain stabbing my head.

“What is it?” Kafui asked.

“I don’t know” But I was determined to find out, I knew it had something to do with something that happened here. I opened the door and despite the driver’s protests walked out. I saw the clay was arranged in a circular manner. No more like blown away, some sort of strong wind. I could only see a few people walking about and they avoided the center like a plague.

What screamed “Nikki” all over this was them red aura that still hung over the place like a cloud. She must’ve been in a completely spiritual state that bled to the physical for her aura to still remain like this. She was in danger, but was it from something else, or from herself. Either way I had to find out. My compass in my head knew the way.

“Mike, we have to see Nkosi before anything else” Kafui admonished, remaining in the car and looking confused.

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“Go ahead and find me later” I said, walking away before he could stop me.

I ‘felt’ myself getting closer to the ‘signal’. If she was like this then it meant it would be easy for anyone or anything to get to her. She was easy prey like this. I wonder what caused this, I knew it had something to do with Mawu yes, but I felt there was more. My head led me to a three storied building that looked like lodgings for students. The entire place was bathing in the red glow that came from within. It looked like the blood moon had risen, but not hanging on top of the building but as though the moon was within it. I hoped how no one else saw this.

I found the door and knocked.

I was answered by a tall older kid, with a big afro that had green highlights. I pushed past him, ignoring his protests. The light was so bright it hurt my eyes; I held one hand up in a futile attempt to shield my offended eyes. I was not surprised to see Neil protectively hovering over my sleeping sister.

“Mike…” Neil said in disbelief, he did not expect to see me again after the conversation we had on my birthday.

“You were supposed to protect her” I said, a little angry with myself. Even as I directed my anger on Neil, I knew should have been here with her, not Neil.

“I thought the tradition won’t do anything” He sounded genuinely wounded.

“Well, it did” I gasped in pain. My head and eyes began to act up, in reaction to my sister. I took the pain to look at her; I couldn’t see any other colors, just a red angry outline shining forcefully and bathing everything in red. Then I saw Mawu behind her, holding her waist protectively.

“Let her go” I screamed with as much power as I could muster. She just stared at me, but did nothing else. Neil thought I meant him and stepped away from her. “If you care about her the way you claim you do you will let her go. She is a beacon right now; she can be seen my anyone who wants to hurt her” I said a bit more quietly this time. She seemed to see reason in my words and faded away, along with the red aura until everything had its color again and I saw Nikki. For a moment I thought I had lost her, but then she began snoring and that made me smile a bit.

Before I could process everything that was going on, Neil asked if she was okay.

“She’s fine”. I sat beside her on the bed and held the part I saw Mawu hold and it felt hot, like someone had ironed her clothes. I smiled sadly when I saw my suit hanging over the chair. “Who is he?” I pointed at the afro guy. Before Neil could speak, the afro guy spoke over him.

“I’m Shango,” his voice sounded too deep to belong to a teenager “This is my place I brought her here.” I expected more aggression than the eagerness to help he portrayed as I forced my way in here. I suppose it was not a coincidence that he was named after the god of thunder and lighting.

“You are an initiate” he nodded in a knowing way while Neil stood to the side, surprised as to how I knew. “Could you see her?” the look of confusion on his face told me I knew a bit more than he did, which is very little. I looked to Neil to address my next question “What happened?”

“I wasn’t there” I felt anger rising in my chest. Did he not promise me he would take care of her? But I suppose there was little he could do against a god. That was why I hated promises, they are seldom kept but I hold people up to them.

“I was” Shango pipped up. “We start the ceremony with masks and drums, but we didn’t call any spirits, it was banned after students kept getting hurt. You know how spirits can be unpredictable” he seemed to expect some form of reaction, I gave none and waited for him to continue “Then she just got up and began dancing. No one has ever done that and I doubt anyone ever will. But the way she danced, it was the most beautiful most powerful but yet most vulnerable dance I have ever seen in my life. I have seen many dances, you see my parents are in the council so I go to a lot of places. It looked forbidden, like the dance only powerful priests dance along to. I’ve never seen a child dance it, more so a female at that. But this dance wasn’t that, it was like… it was like she was a god. You could feel the raw power coming out from her. For a while I couldn’t move, but then she fell and that was when I was able to move. It was like Shango did not dare move in her presence, like he was truly frightened of her.” He looked at her the entire time, not turning to look at us and I noticed Neil noticing this and the frown that was already on his face deepened. “Who is her god?” he turned to look at me.

“Mawu”

“Wow” was all he could say.

“Will she be okay?” Neil asked. I smiled and nodded when I noticed his guilt and shame.

“Nothing could’ve stopped this from happening.” I said walking towards him. “Can I speak to you alone outside?”

“What about her?” I could tell he did not want to leave her with Shango. I sensed deep hatred there, that had nothing to do with their mutual affection for my sister.

“She’ll be fine” And she would. Shango would never lay a hand on her with malice. Whether it was out of admiration, love or fear I did not know.

“When did you get here?” he said, hugging me as soon as we got outside. I hugged him back, genuinely happy to see him, despite the circumstances.

“Like 30 minutes ago. I came with Kafui, he’s gone to see Nkosi”

“How come you’re here? I thought Ifa said it was best if you two were separated”

“Yes, but something happened. No, somethings began to happen, something even the gods had no control over. I should have never left”

“Woah, what happened?”

“There is a garden in the spirit realm”

“You’re lying” but his expression showed that he just didn’t want to believe it.

“Nope, and now the gods are scared. Ifa was so scared he spoke to me, just to warn me. It was cryptic and so I didn’t understand. Mawu acted out by coming to the physical just to hold Nikki, refusing to let her go. Have you seen anything weird about Shango?”

“No”

“Why do you hate him?”

“What are you talking about?” I narrowed my eyes as though to tell him “You know you can’t lie to me. Let’s skip to the part where you tell me what I need to know”.

“He thinks he’s better than everyone, just because he’s the youngest in Level 5”

“Nikki is the youngest in Level 5…”

“Yes, but the council won’t allow her to be, for whatever reason I do not know. He keeps getting involved with things about me. Taking my projects, my assignments, my girl. I almost did not get the assignment to bring you guys here” I saw his frustration and despair as he said the last part. He could deal with him taking his assignments, but I saw his girlfriend being taken away bothered him.

“Nikki is not that shallow”

“No, but she’s not stupid either” his voice started getting louder “She’s not going to wait for me to say yes if I keep saying no” his tone sounded accusing.

“I’m just trying to help my sister, okay?”

“I didn’t blame you, did I?” but he did.

“Maybe you could let this sister take care of herself” we gasped and turned to see Nikki, in her full glory outside the door. Then I remembered not closing it properly and cursed loudly. Shango was not far, he stood awkwardly beside her as she gripped his shoulder to support her weight. “Hello Mike, how nice to see you” the venom dripping from her voice surprised me. Why was she hostile? What had I done?

“Nikki? What?”

“What what?”

“What have I done?”

“You don’t know?”

“Nikki I’m here, I should have never left”

“You really don’t know do you?” I said nothing, because there was nothing to say “You abandoned me. On our birthday. I know you are busy, but at least leave something for me, a bloody note! Something at least that says, ‘hey Nikki, I haven’t completely abandoned you’” I looked to the ground in shame. At the time the trill of the chase for knowledge occupied me so much that I did not think to reach out “And now I find out that the reason Neil dumped me was because of you. He dumped me on my fucking birthday!”

“Nikki I…” Neil began but was cut off by Nikki.

“Oh, shut up Neil. You are a coward,” she turned to look at me “You are an asshole. And now that we are thoroughly introduced, can we get inside now? I am tired of standing.”

All things considered; I think she is taking this pretty well. Our heads are still on our shoulders, that must be a good sign.