CHAPTER EIGHT - CAVED.

“Whatever it is that you are planning on doing, don’t!” 

Asiya’s small frame sat on a log, with the soft breeze and rain running through her head and down her braids. She looked almost stern. She gave Uloma a searching look, her eyes staying on Uloma’s. 

“The last time you made a rash decision, you went to a human to be born as her child. Ignoring how weird you are for doing it, look how well that turned out.” 

Uloma watched the breeze play with her sister’s braids, her mind completely detached from what she was looking at. All she could think about was that her Oge was in danger, and it might all be because of her. She had to do something. She had to warn her somehow. 

“And what would going back to the human world to tell them that they may all be in danger of extermination solve?” 

Asiya asked as if reading her sister’s thoughts. 

“So, what am I supposed to then? Just sit hand crossed and watch them die?” 

Ulo spat, her words dripping with anger and her feeling of helplessness. She had never felt so utterly helpless. What was she to do? Asiya was right. How much could warning them do? What chance did humans have against those things? Asiya was talking again after a pause. 

“Don’t raise your voice at me, please. I am not the problem here. Only trying to help.” 

She muttered the last part of her sentence under her breath, eyeing Uloma. She rolled her eyes and patted down her purple wrapper. A gesture that did nothing because she was soaking from the constant drizzle. 

“Look, the helplessness that you are probably feeling is what is compelling a large number of people to sign up for training. Our realm is feeling it too. Our realm wants to do something. They don’t want to sit around and wait for those things to decide it's our turn for their visit.” 

She cleared her throat and looked at Uloma accusingly. 

“You have been walking around here, since the assembly and Emenike’s announcement, resenting everyone ready to be trained for war, but they are eager because they have people they love and people they want to protect. So, you, what are you willing to do to protect the ones you love? However, you can also continue to feel sorry for yourself. I am sure it solves everything.” 

Asiya shrugged. She stretched her legs and then planted her feet on the wet ground. She stretched again, standing, her body making cracking noises as if the strain of being there for her sister was causing her muscles to stiffen. 

“I wish I could see them at least.” 

Uloma told her sister. Aiya scoffed. 

“That is your business. Deal with it.” 

She replied and vanished. Uloma watched where her sister had stood seconds before. The rain was coming down unnaturally heavy now, as if compelled by Asiya’s departure.  

She was lost, she realised, nothing felt straightforward, nothing felt right, she had secrets from her friends, and all those deaths, but what exactly could she do other than feel sorry for everyone and herself? A small voice in her head replayed Asiya’s words. She could fight and train with the Dragons of the sky to enhance her ability. But even that thought did not bring the comfort she wanted. She had opposed Emenike’s announcement when he gathered the school at the Assembly to announce that the elders had made arrangements for training with the realm of the Dragons. They were forming an army with young cosmics. Every realm for themselves, though, even now, when everything they knew was being threatened, they were still choosing to protect themselves and theirs, rather than come together to fight. Because who exactly claims the victory in a war of alliance? When it comes to it, glory for the realm is everything. 

Uloma paced the field where Asiya had brought her. It was a place of chaos like Asi, debris and logs littered the place, threatening to trip you at every turn, but a Cosmic could navigate chaos, blindfolded. There was an irony there, juxtaposed against their current reality. Was this a chaos that would defeat the cosmics? What if her friends lost their lives trying to fight these things? 

“There you are.” 

She heard Ekama in her head. She had not intended to block them out, but being buried under all those emotions must have hidden her away from them. Emotions weren’t a strong suit of cosmics after all. 

“We have been trying to locate you.” 

Ekama was still talking in Uloma’s head. 

“Stay there, don’t move, we are coming.” 

She commanded, and they were there, standing before her. Before Uloma could protest, not that she wanted to. She wanted her friends. Needed their reassurance and their warmth, as much warmth as Cosmics can give, her brain whispered, but she ignored it and gave her friends a tight smile. 

“You idiot, I was so worried.” 

Ekama rushed over to her, taking Uloma in her arms and ignoring the fact that Uloma was soaking wet. The rain was not letting up. It came in torrents now. 

“You rushed off, and Asiya after you. We could not locate you. We almost considered reaching out for Asiya’s mind.” 

Uloma pulled away from her friend's embrace, her eyes huge with shock. 

“You did?” 

“Yes.” 

Ekama replied, nodding. A grin spread across her face. 

“Remembering that we would never recover from Asiya’s wrath kept us in check, though.” 

Abali joined in. He was standing beside her now, without seeming to have moved from where he was standing when he first appeared. 

“You show wisdom now and then.” 

Uloma told him. She was smiling genuinely. Just the thought of what lengths Asiya had gone to in the past to enact revenge was enough to bring her out of her dark place temporarily. 

“Remember the time she poisoned Mali? She slipped it into his bark whenever she brushed past him. His leaves withered, and he was turning brown, but nobody could tell why, because she had cursed him as well, blinding every third eye from truly seeing him.” 

Ekama was grinning even wider as she recalled the torment of poor Mali. Asiya always hit where it hurt the most. Mali had been very vainly invested in his luscious green looks. 

“What had Mali even done to her, I don’t remember.” 

Abali said, wrinkling his forehead and rubbing it with his thumb as if the answer was there. 

“Me neither. It had to have been something very small and petty, but our Asiya goes big.” 

Uloma answered him. A thought nagged at her. 

“Or when she tripped me when I was human, and now, I have this scar that would never go away for some reason.” 

She watched the faces of her friends as she spoke. Gone was the amusement and the grin that was on their faces. Just a second before, they were avoiding her gaze. 

“We never actually told me what that was about. Remember, we went to Umaji to ask her, but instead she talked about the prophecy.” 

She had no idea why she was bringing this up, but maybe she had had enough of being kept in the dark. The rain pelted her, but she stood her ground. Her friends still avoided her gaze. 

“Why did she push me? I would think because she was being vengeful. But we know my sister hits you where it hurts, and she is being nice to me. Which means even she knows she had gone overboard. Asiya, my sister, might be feeling remorseful?” 

The realisation hit Uloma like a rock to the stomach. Saying it out loud made the nagging suspicion she had every time her sister was kind to her real. It was not just kindness; it was remorse. Over what? Just tripping and injuring her? 

“I am tired of secrets, please.” 

She begged, her words forcing their eyes on her. They both looked at each other. Ulo could tell when they came to an agreement. Ekama turned again from Abali to her. 

“We should go inside, away from the downpour.” 

She said, reaching out to take Uloma’s hand. Ulo angled away, shaking her head. 

“Tell me here.” 

She insisted. 

“Please.” 

Her voice was small even to her ears, against the howling wind and the angry downpour. It was barely a whisper, so she swiped at her face to clear the water pouring down it. 

“We heard about your bargain with Nne-Nne. Not very much stays secret in our realm.” 

Uloma was breathing through her mouth. The rain barely touched Ekama. It fell around her, as if with a mind of its own. Its effect on Abali was even stranger; it looked like rain on shadows. He was just darkness existing with the rain. She nodded. She had not intended for everyone to find out, but she was also not surprised. This was the only reason she had kept her mother’s secret. The shadows had ears, and they revelled in gossip. But what did it have to do with Asiya tripping her? 

“Ulo, we forget sometimes that you are not omniscient. If Asiya tripped you, knowing that you had been born to your human mother as a child that returns, rather than as a Cosmic shedding her Cosmic form, why do you think she did it?” 

Abali asked her. Uloma shook her head. Was this a riddle? Why would he not just give her a straightforward answer? Her friends exchanged a look again. Was the truth so bad that they could not tell her? She was fulfilling prophecy. Could anything be worse than that for a Cosmic?  

“Ulo, when human children that return are marked...” 

Abali started. His eyes were brown. They seemed to be drowning in sorrow for her. 

“Ulo, you cannot return to the human world in your natural likeness. You gave it to Nne-Nne as the price for letting her send you into the human realm as a human. As a child who returns, you will only be able to return to the one mother.” 

Uloma felt the spark and crackle of electricity from her friend before she saw it, she nodded to let her know she wanted her to continue talking, they were stalling, she knew all of the things they were telling her already, but whatever connection it had with Asiya was something she was beginning to suspect she might not want to know, still she nodded stiffly, no more secrets, she had to know. 

“Uloma, you have a mark, a child that returns once marked... Uloma, we are trying to say that if ever you return to Oge again and you die, you will cease to exist.” 

Ekama blurted. 

“In every form.” 

Abali added in a voice so small that she would not have heard him if she had not been standing so close. In the distance, thunder crackled, heralded by lightning zigzagging across the sky. Inside Uloma, something caved.