CHAPTER 12: DOTS

PRESENT

"So, what did learn Azura," she asked calmly. I jerk up again hoping to attack her but something prevents me from doing so.

"I suspected you were going to react this way, so I decided to take some precautions" I paused and looked closely, I could see the faint blue shimmer surrounding the circle that I have been placed in.

"The first smart decision you have made since I met you," I said with a frustrated chuckle. Of course, she decided to get smart in the span of time I have been unconscious. Speaking of which, how long have I been unconscious? It could have been days or weeks or months.

"You have only been unconscious for a day" she replied. So not only did she get smarter, and now she also knows how to read minds.

"I do not know how to read minds." She said with a tiny smile. "I just expected that you would be curious. Being in the place you were cause a person to lose track of time and all sense of existence. Had you spent any more time in there, I would have had to draw your spirit back to earth, or else you would have been doomed to roam."

"Well, all things considered, I do not think that would have been such a bad idea." As I scanned the circle, looking for a way out of this trap.

"Well, I would not want that on my conscience."

"You talk about having a conscience after you drugged me?"

"Are we forgetting the part in which I saved you?"

"Which you have offered no proper explanation with regard to how and why."

"That is not relevant, now tell me what you have learned so that we can continue. We do not have much time left; your journey took longer than expected." She said with her arms crossed.

"Why should I tell you? You have done nothing to gain my trust." I replied with my arms crossed.

"Neither have you. Every time you get an opportunity, you try to kill me." She replied, "We could go back and forth, or you could tell me what you've learned, and I can help shed more light on this. There is much that you do not know, and not knowing will be your downfall. I have nothing to lose Azura, I can learn to live with your death on my conscience."

Do I trust her and tell her everything I have seen, or do I just lie and leave? I do not exactly trust her, but there is so much I do not understand; like why was I taken to those particular memories and not to talk of those markings or the fact that both Zizire and his father are after me.

"Okay, I will tell you everything. But you need to let me out of this circle"

"I will, but when I feel safe enough that you will not attack me"

"Hmm, so much for trust. But I would do the same if I were you, so, I will not hold it against you."

"Good."

So, I told her everything; starting from the scene with my mother at her final moment and seeing Zizire's father to Zizire's death and resurrection down to the last scene I saw where the chief priest threw something akin to ash like me.

"Well, that was quite a trip" she replied with a chuckle once I was done with my story. "Let us start from the first memory, I suggest you sit down and get comfortable."

I begrudgingly sat down on the floor as I had nowhere to go or a chair to sit on seeing as I am still trapped in the circle.

"I am listening."

"Sometime after you were born, the chief priest consulted the gods, and he was given a vague description of you, he was told that the only way to reset the world and appease them was to kill you. Until you are dead, they will turn a blind eye to the land of the mortals and their sufferings."

"I already know this, no groundbreaking revelation in that aspect," I replied in a snarky tone.

"Patience Azura, patience. I am only at the beginning of the story."

"I am sorry, continue."

"Thank you. So, as I was saying, after the chief priest revealed the message to the people, which was received with mixed reactions which I am sure you already knew about, but have you ever stopped to wonder how you knew these things? Almost like you were still in the village? Like you and your mother never left"

"I have always chalked this down to the nature of my existence."

"True, but the reason why you could was because of your mother. When she became a diviner, her soul and very being was tethered to the village and the chief priest, but the deal she made with the underworld weakened the bond. That was how she knew about the chief priest's plan, and also part of the reason she pushed you so hard. She knew that at some point they would come after you people. She knew when they set off, and she knew that her death would finally unlock you and start your journey of reaching your full potential. After her death, whatever connection you had to that land was severed."

"Well, I guess I was right in a way. I always suspected that my mother was the reason."

"There is more. The chief priest sent a team of five men each skilled in hunting and some other essential skills such as; camouflage, healing, tracking, navigation, and knowledge of edible foods in the forest. Their purpose was to find you and capture you, or at the very least gather information about you. Killing your mother was purely unintentional, they were supposed to bring her back and her fate would have been decided by the gods. Killing your mother only caused more problems."

"What do you mean, and why were they not allowed to kill me?"

"Like I said earlier, Azura, patience." She grabbed a gourd and drank water from it. Seeing her drink water made me suddenly overcome with thirst. It only just occurred to me how dry my throat was.

"I would offer you some, but I do not want to undo my circle just yet." She said in an apologetic tone. "Anyway, let me continue. So, as you have probably figured out by now, Zizire's father was part of the team, and he was among the two men that survived the encounter. He reported back to the chief priest, and the chief priest told everyone almost everything Zizire's father told him in his report. He also sent this information to the villages of the other four men, and soon stories about you spread like wildfire. After being told so many times with different alterations and over-exaggeration, people stopped believing them and just saw the stories as fables. The chief priest had another vision, and that was where it was revealed that Zizire was the one appointed by the gods to hunt you down and kill you. A couple of years after hearing this news, Zizire was told the truth about you and trained non-stop in preparation for the showdown between both of you, but what they had failed to realize was that no mere mortal can kill you. After you beheaded him, he appeared before the gods, and they gave powers before resurrecting him; that is how he came back to life and why his markings look so similar to the chief priest as well as the turtle shell necklace he was wearing. All these are tell-tale signs that he is now in the service of the gods, his marks are embedded in his skin and not drawn because it was given to him at the point of his rebirth just like yours was given to you at the point of your conception. He is the one destined to kill you, Azura. No matter how many times you kill him, he will keep coming back. His is destined to roam around, never finding peace until he kills you or until you die."

"So, the gods are so desperate to see me dead that they basically cursed someone just to ensure that I will die. Ha! If anything, this has given me even more motivation to live and force Zizire to live his cursed existence. I feel bad for him, but it is either him or me, and I choose myself."

"If you do want to stop him, you need to find his pot and break it. That is the only way to make sure that the next time you kill him, he never comes back."

"Where can I find his pot?"

"Take a wild guess," she said with her smirk back on her face. Of course, it is going to be located in the one place that truly believes that I exist.

"It is buried in the fifth palm tree in the chief priest's compound. Stab the tree when the moon is at its brightest and when you glow your brightest."

"I am not even surprised at its location. I mean, it is only fitting that the only way to kill him could also end in my death. This is just wonderful." I say with frustration and anger coloring my words.

"That is not all Azura, like I said, your mother was not supposed to be killed. When she died, I am sure you saw that the ground opened up and swallowed her"

"How can I forget?" I replied in a monotone.

"Well, your mother might not be in this mortal realm, but she is not exactly dead either." She says whilst getting up and approaching with her palms clenched.

"What do you mean?" I say as I jump to my feet. I saw my mother get killed before my very eyes, what sort of sick joke is this?

"Exactly what I said" then she blows a handful of a mysterious brown powder in my face. I instantly drop to the floor and pass out. What is it with people and throwing random powders in my face?