The days blended into each other. How was one to tell the time in a dark room with no windows? Perhaps with the only things that changed in the room. Change candle o’clock. Dress wounds pm. Quarter past the three meals and half past the daily bath.

Was this depression? Is this how it felt like to succumb completely to despair? She expected to feel like this after leaving her father’s house but instead she feels this way after her mission is complete. Another sick joke of the gods. They were good at that.

She stared at the roof so long that she could draw it from memory years into the future. It’s inclined shape as it stretched to meet the apex was cut off from the mortar, in the attempt to create a roof that was not several meters long. Its golden color accentuated by the candle was a constant in her life and that was enough to give her comfort. The smells were of spices, spices and blood and fire and the occasional meat. They were strong and gave her stimulation when she could not see in the dark. They reminded her that she was alive and not dead, the way she wished she was constantly but was too tired to do anything about. The unfamiliar scent that her brain could not make up let her know that she had not succumbed into the good night. The sheets were stiff but gentle on her skin, the wood felt familiar, firm and steady under her destroyed palms. The fire did not destroy her nerves as it devoured Ayinbila but seemed to heighten the feeling in them. She seemed to feel every ridge, every bump and her favorite part of the best was the nail that rose suddenly from the surface of the wood at the side of the bed. She liked to explore that centimeter for hours, never getting tired of the cold wood.

She was otherwise occupied and in addition to the torment of her brain that replayed the past scenes of her last hours in Ghana, you could say she was very busy.

However, a quarter to breakfast, something different happened. She saw red.

There was no hurricane or earthquake, no message, no extraordinary display of power. Just 5 seconds of potential to do all and then nothing.

Silence.

Her companion for God knows how long.

She sat up; the sensation so familiar that it dragged her by the teeth out of her stupor. She touched her head, expecting to feel skin accentuated by the stubble of hair that had begun to grow from her recent hair cut but felt the wool feel of her hair. She stretched it and compressed it wondering how long it must’ve taken to grow her hair this long. She looked at her hands, they looked like hardened pink tar that had dried over her hands. They were ugly, but she did not mind, she never saw herself as beautiful anyway, except with…

The sound of the door opening startled her and she quickly swung her legs to the side. Miriam walked in with hot food.

“Oh Ra!” Miriam cried, not expecting to see her sitting up “You’re awake”

Of course she was awake, she has been awake this entire time. Miriam quickly set the food down and then knelt in front of her, holding her face in her hands.

“I thought you would never wake”

“I…” her voice felt creaky from lack of use. She tried to clear them, causing discomfort to her throat.

“No need to talk” Miriam swiftly got up and brought her the broth with freshly baked bread “eat”

Dzidzor shoke her head. She did not want to eat.

“I beg you hmm?” Miriam implored but Dzidzor shoke her head again, trying to get up. She was suddenly suffocating in the room, the room that provided comfort not too many minutes ago. The walls loomed over her, threatening to crush her. “This will give you strength, then I will take you wherever in the world you want to go”

Hastily, she grabbed the bowl and tried to down it in a gulp but instead got her tongue scalded. Miriam simply frowned her face.

“This is not your first kiss with fire” Dzidzor felt the heat against her palm. Miriam took the bowl gently “I am not feeding you because you are weak. I am feeding you because you are strong. You are too strong Dzidzor, you do not know your power yet although I have a feeling you have used them a lot in your past. You have to learn to let people help you, if you do everything yourself, you will burn”. Dzidzor stared at Miriam’s milky face and curly silky hair, still getting used to being in close proximity with someone so different. Dzidzor nodded her head in defeat and let this strange woman feed her.

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After the meal, she was led to the outside of the pyramid, but they did not stay at the base. They walked away from the pyramids and watched the sun rise into the sky. Miriam whispered under her breath, chanting a spell and their footprints left nothing in the sand.

The sun rays soaked into Dzidzor’s skin, and her skin lapped it, like a sponge that has been left dry for too long. Her entire body shoke in pleasure and she let out a sigh of relief. When she turned Miriam was staring at her, her olive-colored skin gleaming with oil and her dark hair bellowing with the breeze.

“I was awake the entire time” Dzidzor said hoarsely, attempting to say what she could not say earlier.

“But were you?”

“The wood, I felt the wood and the nail” she was sure she did not make sense to Miriam but she kept on anyways “and the smell was so strong I had to be alive”

“No darling” Miriam said, getting unto her tip toes to touch Dzidzor’s face. It had the same effect as the sun and Dzidzor sighed “you never opened your eyes these 6 months”

So that was where time went.

“You closed your eyes and slept for 6 months, my dear and you woke up just now.”

“What does it mean?” Shen bent her tall frame down to make it easier for Miriam to hold her.

“It means it is time” Miriam smiled a sweet encompassing smile that swallowed everything else. It even obscured the archeologists that worked unknowing around their invisible frames “it is time for your healing”

Dzidzor simply nodded.

For the next 2 years Miriam took Dzidzor under her wing and taught her everything Asaase Yaa instructed her to teach her. Later and much to Dzidzor’s surprise, Miriam was a high priestess of the order of Ra, the last worshippers of Lord Ra.

“My love Dzidzor,” Miriam whispered when they lay naked under the stars, engulfed in Dzidzor’s arms “gods are men blessed with gifts. From Ra to Lisa, all human. Selected by the Mother to be the keepers of a specific human settlement. They are blessed with immortality because this is their job, so devote their whole existence to humankind. They represent the Mother here on earth and she represent the All-Father, whom you call Nana Buruku”

“So the gods are humans?”

“Yes, and you my dear are a god, who represents Lisa here on Earth”

“Where is Lisa?”

“Banished to the plane between the physical and spiritual. He needs to be saved”

“How do I save him?”

“You cannot. Not now. You will get help”

“Why did he make me do all the things I did then?”

“To pave the way for those who will come before you. You are the pace setter, everything that happens will come from you”

“I don’t trust him”

“Do not trust him then. Trust yourself, you have everything you need. Remember you are a god”

“Will I be immortal?”

“Only if Lisa sees fit”

“How do I overcome Lisa?”

“I do not know, I am just a messenger” Miriam laughed good-naturedly at the frequency of Dzidzor’s questions. The desert wind bellowed gently over their skin and the moon shone gaily over them, leaving Dzidzor heart greatly full and content.

“I don’t want to ever leave here” Mariam frowned against the chocolate of Dzidzor’s skin, knowing that their time together was not meant to be forever.

“You must go Dzidzor, the fate of the world depends on you”

“When do I leave?”

Miriam got up and began putting on her clothes and then Dzidzor followed suit, wondering why they were doing this. Normally they would stay till the sun rose.

“Right now”

Dzidzor was stunned. She was beginning to have an awkward relationship with time. Where had all the 2 years gone?

“Close your eyes…”

“Wait wait!” Dzidzor said walking closer to Miriam, her vision getting blurry with tears “I…”

Miriam drew herself up and kissed Dzidzor on the lips. It felt like home and tasted like the spices from the soup she had that morning.

“I will always be with you.” Miriam whispered “The people you meet and love never go away, they remain in your heart, forever”

“I don’t want to go” Dzidzor let on her tear falling. Miriam promptly cleaned them.

“You have to. Egypt is not your home, neither is it where you need to be any longer. I have taught you all the charms I know, go and do what you’ve been instructed and for our sake, save the world. There is nothing to say” the priestess said when Dzidzor tried to talk “Close your eyes”

Dzidzor kept her eyes stubbornly open for several minutes and then she obliged, her chest heavy with sadness.

“Think about Ghana, and go back. Do what you have to do and wait”

Dzidzor thought of red clay and green grass wet with the dew of the morning. She thought of tall lush trees and forests brimming with life. She thought of the ash and despair she left with the full moon rising behind it.

And then the strong spices left her nose and was replaced with the smell of rain and wet grass.

Then she knew she was finally home.