CHAPTER SIX - SLEEPWALK

Uloma bolted after the kiss. It was childish, but her brain did not want to process Eligwe or what that kiss meant. Try as she did, her stomach would not stop tingling like a little furry animal was burrowing inside of her, and her chest would not stop feeling like she had air lodged inside it.  

He said he had always wanted to kiss her. What did that even mean? She wondered. She had never been kissed before. Abali, was she betraying him? A month has passed since his breakup with Ekani, but he has not said anything to her. He was not even flirting with her anymore. It was true that they were all stressed and having to deal with the consequences of things that they did not understand, but Eligwe had kissed her, and she had kissed him back. How did she feel about that? Uloma tossed on the woven mat-bed in Ekama’s palace, where she lived now. Ekama’s mother had tried to make it solid enough to accommodate Uloma’s peculiarity, but lying on this bed still felt like sleeping in the air. It was barely there. 

Her mind wandered back to Eligwe, to the moment they locked lips, right up to the second he kissed her. She had not suspected that he liked her like that. That was what the kiss meant, right? That he liked her? Uloma asked herself for the tenth time that night. Did she like him? He made her heart flutter, but she had always found him more annoying than attractive, so why did her stomach tingle? Would she kiss him again if he tried to kiss her? She wondered as she tossed and settled on her side. 

The last thought she had as she drifted off to sleep was that she would kiss him again. That realisation did nothing to settle her stomach. 

~ 

Uloma did not see herself in the dream, but she was aware that she was dreaming. The realm was unfamiliar; the houses were pods suspended in the air. There were no trees, just vines snaking their way up to pod-like houses, and looking like they were trying to pull the houses back to the ground. Even the ground was different, it felt wispy against her naked feet. Rather than earthy brown soil, it was grainy sand. Uloma had never seen grainy sand. She had heard of them, though. They were supposedly found close to or under large bodies of water. The air smelled salty, the breeze rustled the houses, and they shook, but in the way leaves on trees do, in no danger of falling. 

As Uloma walked through the village in this realm, she started to notice that abandonment filled the whole place. She wondered where the people were. 

The further she walked into the village, the more she suspected that something was wrong. If she was dreaming, why could she not see herself? She could feel the soil beneath her feet, and she could smell the breeze. Her instinct told her to stop walking. Her body told her she was truly here, but her brain was unable to make sense of it. A feeling she had been ignoring when she was convinced, she had been walking in a dream, pulled at her attention. Danger, it screamed. 

No, Uloma thought, fear filling her, she had felt this thread twice before, and both times there had been death or extinction. The people of the village, she thought, running, she had to warn them, she had to save them. She ran through streets, navigating hanging branches and low-hanging houses. Her only thought was the safety of the people of the village. She felt them even before she arrived, where they were gathered, all staring in the same direction. Old, small, young, babies in their parents' arms, petrified and unmoving. 

“You cannot do anything for them now.” 

She heard someone say, but she was screaming too loudly to acknowledge the voice. 

“Run, please, run.” 

She screamed in the faces of the frozen people. 

“You have to run.” 

Her voice felt hoarse in her ears, but she would not stop screaming. They were coming, they were coming, she cried. 

“Run, please run.” 

She screamed into the face of a little girl with dark, shiny skin. She held a doll to her chest, and her other hand was stuck tight to that of a boy, a little older than she was. Uloma tried to pull at them, but it felt like pulling on trees. They did not budge, no matter how hard she pulled. The feeling of dread was growing in her. It was almost petrifying to feel, but she kept pulling on the children, screaming in their faces. Someone had to hear her. They could not all go extinct this way. 

“It is too late.” 

The voice said again. She recognised the voice as that of her Emenike. She felt his tug, even as she wanted to hold on to the children, but Emenike’s tug was more powerful; she was inside his Tree. 

“No.” 

She yelled at him. 

“You have to save them. We have to save them. I have to save them.” 

“Uloma, their minds have been bridged and broken. There is nothing we can do for them now. I am sorry.” 

“No! Save them, please.” 

Uloma screamed, her eyes blurry with tears. She saw those children. She knew what would happen to them. The horror she felt gripped her lungs, begging to be let out. Why were they not rushing over there? Why was he not doing something? 

“She is in shock. Put her to sleep.” 

She heard Emenike say to someone, as she shook her head. He could not do this. They had to save all those people, her mind screamed, but her eyes drooped almost at once, and she fell back into familiar arms, Abali’s. 

~ 

When Uloma awoke again, she was lying on a bed of raft, woven into intricate shapes and mathematical designs. She was surrounded by hues of light blue symbols, silently bouncing from wall to wall. She had never been in this room, but she knew where she was. Only Emenikes surrounded themselves with mathematical equations, the way the average Cosmic surrounded themselves with family runes and beads. Groggy from sleep, she rubbed at her eyes. Visions were returning to her. A whole village at the brink of annihilation, Uloma bolted out of bed. 

She ran through the Tree, dodging angry Orlus, who made threats and cursed at her. She badged into Emenike’s office, not waiting to be asked in. 

“We have to do something...” 

She started to say, but stopped in the middle of her sentence. Everyone was here. 

“You are awake.” 

Abali said to her, and another memory washed over her. 

“You.” 

She yelled, her fingers pointing at Abali. 

“You put me to sleep. How could you? Those people needed me.” 

She felt choked from grief, but the occupants of the room were watching her like she was a fragile water pot about to hit the ground. The group was here with a new addition, Umaji. 

“Uloma, there was nothing you could do for them.” 

Emenike told her, his bass voice travelling through the room. 

“Why do you keep saying that?” 

She asked him. 

“We defeated one of those things. I defeated them. Maybe I could have done it again. You don’t know.” 

“But we do know Ulo, they were only a memory.” 

Uloma, ready to pounce, was left speechless at the revelation from Ekama. 

“What?” 

She managed. 

“Umaji came to us this morning, insisting that she had sensed your presence somewhere else again.” 

Ekama explained, Uloma turned her attention to the beautiful, tall glass girl. 

“The last time I sensed you, you were somewhere else I could not reach. I was not outrightly looking out for you, I promise, but I happened to have been thinking about enlisting to join the training, you came to mind. You know, because we’ve heard rumours that you had gone against those things and won.” 

Uloma must have looked confused at this string of explanations because Umaji nodded and said she would get to the point, but Ekama’s impatience won. 

“Ulo, you walked a dream, that is normal, those types of dreams are just memories.” 

“Like I did when Emenike hid me in my memory.” 

Uloma added. 

“Yes, but that was your memory. It made sense that you were able to walk in it. Whose memory did you walk in last night, Ulo?” 

Abali asked. Uloma felt her confusion grow. He did not expect an answer. It was a rhetorical question. They already knew. She realised, looking at all their faces, she still answered anyway. 

“One of the people of the village.” 

“No Ulo, no one of them survived, you cannot walk the memory of the dead or extinct, and also, what connection would you have with them to allow you access to their minds? You had never heard of them until last night.” 

Abali explained. Emenike and Asi were watching her. They were not contributing to the conversation. They were also the only two people in this room who knew about her connection to those things. 

“When Umaji came to tell us, you were also somewhere else, we made her cast a location spell.” 

“Why?” 

Uloma asked the room. 

“Oh, because they suspect that when you defeated that thing and survived, you tapped into their consciousness.” 

Asiya explained. She was wearing her purple again. Uloma searched her face for any signs of fading. A whole village dead was a lot of work for a Death that was only just coming out of training. Asi frowned at her. 

“Worry about yourself, I am not the one my friends suspect shares consciousness with things annihilating realms.” 

“We don’t think it's your fault, I promise, we just wondered when Umaji told us, we think you and your human family could be a target, those things work and think like a hive, and the rudimentary rule of bridging minds dictates that it is a two-way stream, Ulom how long before they find out that you can tap into their mind?” 

Uloma knew half of what Abali had said was true, but she also knew he did not have the whole picture. 

“What has my human parents got to do with those things?” 

Uloma asked after a heartbeat. They were making many conjectures, and she could see that they were grasping for a connection, an explanation. But an explanation they would not get, because her mother, Enwu, was full of secrets; secrets she and her sisters now shared. 

“Ulo, Umaji traced the other you to your humans.” 

Ekama told her, Uloma’s eyes snapped first towards Umaji and then to Asiya. She saw in her sister’s face the same realisation she had come to. 

“I have to go.” 

She said to the room, allowing herself to feel lighter. She reappeared on the path leading to her mother’s shrine. Asiya was already waiting for her. 

“You carry too much baggage to travel fast, you snail.” 

“Mother did not tell us everything.” 

Uloma replied, and Asiya shrugged, showing her hands. 

“Come on, did you truly believe that Death has nothing to hide?” 

“But all her secrets are why we are in this mess in the first place.” 

Asiya nodded to this. 

“Yes, please be sure to tell her that when we summon her.” 

Glaring at her sister, Uloma matched ahead through the herb-smelling passage into the space where her mother’s likeness inhabits, with Asiya on her heels. 

“Mother deserves all of your anger, just promise me you will not forget to express how unforgivably disappointed in her you are.” 

She ignored Asiya’s attempt to annoy her as she walked. They came into their mother’s shrine, but where Death’s likeness should be was their mother. The sun, always lighting up the room, shone against her dark skin. She looked as looming and intimidating as she always did. Uloma reminded herself not to forget her anger because, in the presence of her mother, all she could think about was how small she was. How insignificant everything was. 

“Girls.” 

Her mother’s rich voice said, and they both went on their knees in greeting. 

“Rise, give your mother a hug.” 

She commanded both girls, and they were on their feet and in her arms in a second. Her earthy, herbal scent was comforting, but Uloma shook herself. Mother always did this. She made it impossible to hold her accountable. Uloma removed herself from her mother’s embrace. 

“You are here! We did not summon you.” 

Her suspicion was riddled in her words. 

“This is Mother’s realm. You do not need to summon her. She can go wherever she wants.” 

Mother had her right palm on Asi’s shoulder. To Mother’s domineering frame, Asi looked fragile. 

“Mother, release your hold on Asi.” 

Asi smirked at her. 

“Oh, she is not holding me in any way. I just wanted to see you get in trouble.” 

“Girls.” 

Their mother called, stopping whatever carnage was about to happen. Uloma eyeballed her sister. 

“I saw you walk, Ulo. Who do you think sent Emenike after you? I cannot interfere, so I have awaited your arrival here, where the realms can see that I am not interfering.” 

“I am connected to those things, am I not?” 

She asked her mother. 

“That is why I have always been able to feel when they are close.” 

“Yes. But not in the way I hear your friends speculate that you are.” 

Her mother replied in her rich, calm voice. 

“Mother, I am walking their mind, how can you explain that?” 

Uloma cried. Her mother reached out to her when Uloma would not take her hand. She compelled Uloma closer to herself. 

“Listen to me, you are nothing like those things.” 

Her bottomless eyes stared thoughtfully into Uloma. 

“But they think like a hive. If Uloma is accessing their mind, would that not make her one of them?” 

Death turned her full height on her daughter. 

“Your sister is not one of them. We cannot joke about that. Our enemies will come for our family if even the smallest part of this talk gets out. We have to let them all believe that Uloma somehow absolved their consciousness when she defeated one of those things.” 

“More lies then.” 

Uloma said. What did she expect? For her mother to choose openness over secrecy? 

“We don’t have a choice, Ulom.” 

Her mother’s voice was softer. 

“We have to protect our family.” 

She said, letting her hands roam over the faces of both her daughters. Uloma watched the spiral mark of their family on her mother’s temple. Protect family, she thought. 

“It's not just our family in the spirit realms you are protecting, is it?” 

Uloma asked her mother. 

“My twin is out there, is she not?” 

When her mother did not answer immediately, Uloma pulled away from her again. 

“We have already talked about this.” 

Death told her. Uloma felt like she would explode. An entire village had been killed. Who knew how many more? She was responsible for it. She was made from the same thing as those things, but she was supposed to feel better because it was not exactly her who was doing the killing and annihilating. Now Oge could be in danger. 

“That was what Umaji traced, my twin reborn. She is with Oge. That is why Umaji senses that they are in danger. My twin has been reborn to Oge. Does Oge know?” 

Death shook her head. Of course, Oge did not know. Everyone was a pun in her mother’s world. 

“And we are keeping it that way. Your human, Oge, is happy. She has a daughter, and that is all that matters.” 

“Mother, you are putting Oge and Obuzor in danger. That girl there is only going to cause them trouble. It could lead those things to them.” 

If those things feel her connection to them, they must feel her twin’s connection as well. 

“Do you think I left them without protection? Nobody knows about her, and that is safety.” 

“Mother, like you, protected me? Those things came here, into a realm guarded by Emenikes. They breached our defense and slaughtered our household of servants. I could have been extinct, Mother.” 

“I will sooner break the rules of the universe than watch one of my children die.” 

Uloma could not believe her mother. She and her twin were unprecedented, and her mother had said as much. How could she be so confident about everything? Tired of yelling at her mother, she felt the fight leave her. No matter how she felt about having a twin now born to her, Oge, that girl had no idea what was awaiting her. She had also not asked for any of this. 

“But mother, you could not protect me that time; nobody could. Those things found a way, Mother. Mother Oge is in danger, and so is my twin.”